The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 23

Summary of The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 23

by The McElroys

1h 6m•April 30, 2026
Listen to Episode

Overview of The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 23

This episode is a hectic, combat-heavy installment of the necromancy trial in The Adventure Zone Royale, with the players fighting through a manor overrun by undead former aspirants while trying to disable the barrier blocking access to the second floor. The biggest beats are Loravith smashing through a corpse mound and discovering the rune that drops the floor barrier, Hellgrammite rescuing Duber from a piano-bound zombie attack, and Rictus attempting to freeze time only to get a startling audience with Death himself, who challenges him on the ethics of necromancy and his family’s legacy.

Major Plot Developments

  • MaxFunDrive pledge drive promo

    • The episode opens and closes with a lengthy pitch to support Maximum Fun at maximumfun.org/join.
    • The McElroys emphasize bonus content, memberships, upgrades, and boosting existing support.

  • The manor is still under siege in the Trial of Necromancy

    • The party is trapped inside a mansion being attacked by a corpse mound made of fallen aspirants.
    • Their immediate goal is to find and destroy the source of the barrier preventing access to the second floor.

Loravith in the library and office

  • Loravith ambushes a corpse mound in the library, body-slams it, and helps weaken it significantly.
  • The mound retaliates and bites him, dealing heavy damage and inflicting a persistent necrotic/poisoning effect.
  • Burger Man, trapped in the office, greases the zombies and escapes out the back.
  • Loravith then:
    • climbs back up using Spider Climb,
    • enters the office,
    • steps into a red magical sigil,
    • and inadvertently deactivates the barrier separating the first and second floors.
  • He also finds and drinks a Potion of Superior Healing, which heals him substantially and manifests a small red “cape” effect, reinforcing his obsession with finally getting the legendary cape.

Hellgrammite rescues Duber

  • On the west side of the house, Hellgrammite follows psychic warnings that Loravith is in danger.
  • He moves into the drawing room and finds:
    • a giant zombie Pip,
    • and Duber trapped inside a piano.
  • Hellgrammite casts Infestation, sending flesh-eating maggots onto Pip.
  • The spell knocks Pip back and out the window, briefly transferring aggro before Pip flees.
  • Hellgrammite frees Duber, and they head upstairs once the barrier is gone.

Rictus, Scorpo, Pranklin, and the corpse mounds

  • Rictus uses Animate Dead on Daze to create a distraction against Haze and Blaze.
  • In the north hallway, the group encounters Hasty Jane, who is brutally attacking Hippocrates with a candlestick.
  • Jane panics and flees up the newly accessible stairs.
  • Hippocrates is badly injured and asks to be moved.

Rictus and Death: the episode’s emotional centerpiece

Failed time stop and supernatural confrontation

  • Rictus tries to cast Time Stop in desperation when a corpse mound closes in on Pranklin.
  • He fails to control the spell and traps himself in a time bubble instead.
  • Inside the frozen space, Death appears and speaks directly to him.
  • Death criticizes Rictus for trying to wield power beyond his control and for following his family’s destructive pattern of clinging to the eternal mind.

Themes of necromancy and legacy

  • Rictus reflects on:
    • hubris,
    • the difference between being a master and being a conduit,
    • and the disrespect of using the dead as tools in a brutal contest.
  • Death demands proof that Rictus is willing to abandon his family’s ways and become his instrument.
  • As part of the bargain, Death pulls at the ghostly figures of Rictus’s ancestors.
  • The ancestors vanish, and Rictus is released from the bubble, but the exchange suggests a major shift in his relationship to death and necromancy.

Notable Character Beats

  • Loravith

    • Continues to be reckless, funny, and weirdly fixated on finally obtaining a cape.
    • His success also opens the manor’s second floor, changing the tactical situation.

  • Hellgrammite

    • Gets one of the episode’s most heroic moments by rescuing Duber and clearing the piano room.
    • His psychic concern for Loravith also reinforces his loyal, protective role.

  • Rictus

    • Has the most serious character development of the episode.
    • The Death scene reframes his necromantic power as something spiritual, moral, and inherited—not just a combat resource.

Episode Outcome

  • The barrier to the second floor is destroyed.
  • The party gains new access routes upstairs.
  • Duber is rescued.
  • Pip is driven off.
  • Rictus’s failed time magic leads to a direct confrontation with Death, leaving the story on a major philosophical and supernatural turning point.

Takeaway

This episode blends chaotic dungeon-crawl combat with a major character reckoning for Rictus. The tactical victory of breaking the manor’s barrier is matched by a deeper thematic confrontation about death, control, and inherited power, making this one of the more consequential chapters of the necromancy trial.