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Ep. 51 The Choices That Haunt
135 Plays3 years ago
As the Sun Sets on the Festivities in this Goblin Village, the Swords make sense of the secrets found and the stories told by the Goblin Elders..
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Transcript
Reflections on Fantasy Races and Village Festivities
00:00:13
Speaker
previously on the higher swords. I always find it amusing how much the goblins remind me of my fellow dwarves. Humans and orcs light and dark. The narrative that's been played out by those that would rather control us mortals than let us live in harmony. It pleases me so much to see this village, this little pocket of life, hopefully starting to thrive out from under the thumb of Darnaldi.
00:00:42
Speaker
Time will tell. For now, I just want to enjoy my evening under the stars with such a wonderful evening of dancing and festivities. At least I can do for Giss and the Goblins, a night of rest under our protection.
Introduction to 'The Hired Swords' Podcast
00:01:18
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, a D&D podcast where there's so much to do and so much to see, so what's wrong with taking the back streets?
00:01:39
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Hired Swords. We are here by Mike, your dungeon master. I've got Blaze. Yo, that was me earlier when I said Hired Swords, just so you know. That was totally Blaze. He's Craig's. I got Mikey. Howdy there. Mikey's here. He plays Joxer. Derek is Daven. For this time, I am, at least. Yeah, right now. So far, he's Daven. Also, Gwendolyn plays Ash.
00:02:09
Speaker
Hello. New character who dissed. New character who dissed. Yeah, Gwendolyn is everybody's favorite pet owner. So when we last left off, our friends here had been partying at the tavern in
00:02:26
Speaker
the Goblin Village north of Wild Hill. About a day's travel north, they found a guess and got a little tour of the village, including a house that they found out belongs to Darnaldi Bogueshaw.
Exploring the Goblin Village and Mysterious Discoveries
00:02:38
Speaker
And Daven decided while everyone else was partying after Krigs kind of got some stuff started with some rhythm, a rhythm section and a surprise bard came out. Goblin bard started playing music.
00:02:50
Speaker
Everybody was getting down with it as Daven went through darn all these house and found a few items that he had to kind of unlock a box with some secrets and get in there and once he did though he had some
00:03:06
Speaker
Interesting stuff that he finally took out of that box and everything in back in the cabins it's the hunter's cabins the nice really luxurious cabins i said luxurious weird. What he got some of that stuff out and was looking at it and meanwhile crazy found out that.
00:03:25
Speaker
There was some suspicious activity possibly going on at night that was making Gis's mother feel like she had seen her husband around. And so he decided to kind of hang out outside for the night, even if just to help her feel better and help Gis feel better. Jocks are offered to help. And we ended last week's episode with Davin opening up the box and finding a scroll, a parchment.
Relaxation and Reflections under the Stars
00:03:52
Speaker
and unrolling it and me saying we'll find out what that said on the next episode. So to start off this episode, I want to go to Krigs and Joxer and see what you guys are up to this evening. Krigs, I believe we ended with you heading towards the little neighborhood of Hutts where Gis and his mother were. And Joxer was shortly behind you, I think, to follow you over there. Correct me if I'm wrong. That's what I think was happening last time.
00:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds about right. I was headed that direction from the tavern, Little Goblin Tavern, and Joxer was still there kind of cleaning stuff up. I probably got there a decent amount of time before him. Safe to say the houses that are there kind of have the
00:04:38
Speaker
little like camping area nearby, I would have likely sat near kind of the fire that was posted there and just kind of relaxed and took a bit of the stars in that were overhead while I could. It's not every night you get to kind of see such a clear sky like this.
00:04:58
Speaker
awesome yeah every one of those little huts has a little cooking fire outside that they pretty much try to keep going and at least the embers burning so you're able to kind of stoke that up a little bit hang out by that fire jocks or what are you doing as they close down the tavern veil is still sitting there kind of playing a little bit you've got that kind of lazy violin kind of music going plucking on the strings and Kevin is
00:05:22
Speaker
Kind of sitting up again and eating a little more, feeling a little more like himself. Giss is sitting in there talking to a couple of the other goblins. What are you doing while you're in there? Uh, yeah, I would be, you know, kind of making sure everybody's feeling all right and handing out a couple of, uh, uh, kind of
00:05:39
Speaker
top off drinks of that last casket. You know, being a little bit more sparing because I really want to make sure that Daven tries this one. And then I'll kind of walk out and start heading towards where the little huts are.
00:06:01
Speaker
So you hand those out. Everybody's really grateful. A couple of the goblins have already kind of passed out on the tables there. They, they partied hard. You're not sure if it's the dancing and stuff, just warm out or all they had to drink or what, but they've, they've enjoyed the evening and it's been a while since they've had an evening like this. So they, they enjoyed it to its fullest and now they're all resting.
00:06:19
Speaker
And you walk outside when you do, it's pretty dark. You can kind of hear the animals stirring a little bit over in the pin and you see the small glow of a fire just around the corner and towards the huts over by where, near where Gwendolyn had been talking to that small goblin, but just beyond that a little ways. And so I bet you would assume that's about
Daven's Discovery and Theories about Realms
00:06:43
Speaker
where Krigs is. So you head that way or is there anywhere else you'd like to go?
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think I would glance over to where Darnaldi's is and then kind of glance over at where we're staying just to kind of get a feel of the area. And then I would just head over to where I think Riggs is. And, you know, I think, you know, by this time he should have probably finished one of, you know, or at least the majority of the drink that I sent him with.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, to the left, there is where Darnaldi's house is. And Darnaldi's house sits dark, still shut up. There's no doors or windows open or anything. It actually looks no different than when you saw it before. But right across the way from Darnaldi's hut, there is the first hut that you guys had been staying in right outside the kind of camp area for
00:07:32
Speaker
hunters and across from the tavern, not a 50 foot walk away across this little camping area or campfire area towards the hut you're staying in. And then if you continue on forward, you'll get
00:07:47
Speaker
around the corner from the animal pen towards where Krigs is. I'll probably giggle and think of Gwen after I pass the animal pen and then think of the slightly tormented goblin from earlier in the day and just, oh Gwen, what are we going to do with you? And then continue on. All right.
00:08:14
Speaker
walk up towards Craig's. He's sitting at a little campfire there. We're going to jump over to Davyn now. Gwen, you're sleeping? Yes. Gwen's sleeping. You're just here in the other room snoring. She's out like light. Yeah, she had quite the evening. Davyn, you're sitting there looking at this rolled up piece of paper. What you have, it looks like it was a
00:08:44
Speaker
small page of a book that has been torn out and notes have been scribbled on it handwritten notes and the page of the book has this little venn diagram looking thing that the center says it's it's this greenery looking something and it's it's like
00:09:06
Speaker
It's it says greater glintry on it and then next to it you see a brighter green to the right that says the wild and the left says shadow wild and it's a dull kind of grayish tint to the same kind of pattern like it looks like it's all supposed to be net natural looking but it is
00:09:30
Speaker
Indeed it is grayer on that left side and brighter green on that right side and I'm going to share this with you right now. So you can see it. We will probably put this on Twitter or something like that for people to see or our website in the future. Once this episode is released.
Night Disturbances and Investigation Preparations
00:09:49
Speaker
but it's got these scribblings all over it. Will you describe that stuff for those listening? Are you able to see it? I can see it. Yes. So it almost looks like a map unfurled a little bit. Like you said, in the center, there's like a big circle and inside it says, the greater Glen tree to the left of it. So shadow wild to the right. It says the wild underneath it says, where does it open? And then there's some more scribblings on the right and left at the bottom. On the left, it says cities with a question mark.
00:10:14
Speaker
And then crossed out, there's four different names. There's Glent, there's Lavrith, there's Moraphos, Moraphos, and Wild Hill. But Wild Hill's not scratched, it has a question mark over it. On the right side, it says where else with a question mark. And it has Stone Mountains, which is crossed out. And it has the Black River, which is crossed out. And it has the Dragon Pit, which is crossed out. And then it says Almanora with a question mark. And then underneath it, it's got underlined pretty intently.
00:10:44
Speaker
All right, so this is what was in that box. And make a history check as you look at this. Ooh, that's a natural 18 and my history is a zero, so it's still 18. Okay, you definitely have seen books like this before.
00:11:09
Speaker
And you can tell where this this page is very worn. It's very worn down and stuff, but you can tell that it's like it.
00:11:16
Speaker
it did originate probably in some sort of collection of scrolls or collection of books. And you know that you've seen things like this in like histories of creation or histories of realms, how the realms came to be. And this, this seems to be like it was, it was that originally, but he's, he's been writing these extra things on there. Somebody has, you can only assume it was Darnaldi. So,
00:11:45
Speaker
Devin is thinking hard about it and he's trying to figure out exactly what it means and what the connection is. And the word, he keeps looking at the word Almanora and he knows that from Gwen. I don't know if there's some sort of connection with her father, but I definitely have to show this to the group. And then I'll just roll up, I'll furl it back up and probably just rest for the night and I'll talk to the group in the morning. Okay.
00:12:15
Speaker
So you roll that back up, you lay down and start to settle in. And we're going to cut back to Krigs. As Joxer is approaching, you're kind of sitting in the evening looking around and you see Joxer coming. I take it you've wrapped up the party then?
00:12:35
Speaker
I think they enjoyed it more than they've enjoyed many things in the last while, so I think so. That's good. It's not every day you get to have a celebration and I feel these people more than most likely deserve one. I absolutely agree. Got to see Gis back there for a little bit.
00:13:00
Speaker
He seemed to be tending to Kevin and a few of the others. I think he was a little surprised at how much
Shadow Creature Attack and Defense
00:13:08
Speaker
everybody partied, I guess. Well, that's good. I'm curious to see Giss's mother has been struggling with her sleeping. She's been having nightmares and she swears they're not nightmares, but Giss is convinced it's nothing more than just
00:13:29
Speaker
just that something bumps in the night and it's confusing an old lady but she I've seen that look in many eyes that look of actual belief convinced that there is something more to these dreams or what she's seeing is actually real so alas here I am I am trying to do a favor for
00:13:56
Speaker
A friendly, a friendly soul that we crossed in our path. Yes, I think, I think I owe gifts a lot more than staying the night out here at minimum. Well, I appreciate the company. I'm glad you're here. I'm, you know, it's been a while since we've sat under the stars together. We haven't had any good drinks and
00:14:25
Speaker
and I'll start pouring a drink. I think we've seen a lot of crazy things ourselves, so I trust the judgment that you have in seeing what his mother, or seeing what is in her eyes whenever she says about it. I just figure what can the harm be, right? A night out under the stars is not too uncommon for us these days, so if I can put to rest,
00:14:54
Speaker
a little bit of a mystery for an old soul and nothing wrong with that either, I guess. I'm going to take the drink from you and just kind of just sip on it. I'm not trying to party at this point, just enjoying the cold little cool breeze come in and the sound of the various bugs and things and the fantasy crickets. Yeah. And you hear, still hear like a slight strumming of this
00:15:22
Speaker
mandolin guitar violin thing that Vale had on his contraption as he's you kind of hear almost like a howling singing as he's just kind of doing his own thing kind of by himself but you can kind of hear it echoing through the village lightly as well as like you said that the wind blowing through it is a cool wind and and the animals are stirring about in the pen you can kind of hear him kind of walking
00:15:51
Speaker
You hear that kind of thuds of their kind of hoof prints here and there. You suddenly hear just a little cough of a small goblin walking back to their hut from the tavern and chit chatting with someone else and seems to be like this is going to be a pretty peaceful night. Are you guys going to try to rest and sleep or are you guys going to
00:16:13
Speaker
I'm going to take a watch, but like I figure for a little while, at least we're still going to be coming down from the party. I'm going to. I'm going to walk over a little bit closer to the pin. It's not too far away, but I'm going to head that direction just a little. I'm going to take my shield and with the pointed end of the bottom of the shield, I'm going to kind of burrow out just a little tiny nook in the ground, kind of like a hole.
00:16:42
Speaker
And I am going to Reach into my pocket and pull out a couple gold coins and I'm gonna play an old dwarven game with joxer where you Toss these coins and you're trying to get an exact number.
Unveiling Shadows and Battle Strategies
00:16:58
Speaker
It's it's strange rules dorvish rules and if I remember correctly you're trying to Get the most in the actual
00:17:06
Speaker
hole but also have a trump like a trump coin that you want to get to right to the edge without it actually dropping in and as soon as you get that whoever has the most coins in the hole itself uh right right on the lip of the the burrow then you you count the coins and win so also i why haven't you brought this game up before this is uh this one's unique
00:17:33
Speaker
This has never really been a night. It's kind of a two-person game anyway. After a while, you start to figure out, you know, whose money really is this, I guess. People, money between friends. Anyway, it's a cool night. It's a quiet game for the most part. I figure we can pass some time before we get too tired.
00:17:51
Speaker
Alright, so I place my coin at the edge here and then we both throw in, is that? What you're gonna do is we'll take turns throwing coins one to one and whoever can actually get a coin right on the lip of the burrowed hole without falling in, that is the ringer. And if you get the ringer, that's whenever coins are then counted. Whoever has the most points wins the round. First of three rounds actually win. What, you've never played coinhole before?
00:18:20
Speaker
just not familiar. My family weren't really into games. Oh, you find a lot of time for things as a dwarf. Big families, lots of needs and wants from the children and whatnot. You find ways to occupy yourself. Yeah, just go back and forth on throwing coins. So you guys sit there flipping coins back and forth and in
00:18:48
Speaker
trying to are you guys wagering your coins to see like or just flipping for games? I think it's just friendly game play while sipping on a drink. Well, as you're playing the game, things start to I don't know, it feels even quieter, like the town's just really starting to settle in for the night. The plucking of strings and singing kind of stops the there's no more stirring about. You don't hear people moving around.
00:19:17
Speaker
You do see the animals here and there. They're just kind of walking back and forth, walking throughout the pin. Every now and then they'll shake, you hear them shaking their heads or stomping their foot, their foot suddenly. But that's about the only stirring about. And the breeze starts to really feel cool. It really gets cold out. And you hear quietly from behind you
00:19:45
Speaker
You hear, oh, yeah, I know, I know, I know. It's funny, but he just sometimes he would do that and we would just laugh and just hear this little voice just kind of talking to be terrified. Yep. That's a natural 20. I'm just kidding. So you hear that voice behind you as you guys are flicking these these coins.
00:20:10
Speaker
Uh, do you hear that, Krigs? Is that? It sounds like Kiss's mother. Uh, she seems to be stirring in her sleep. I don't know who she's talking to though. Yeah. I'd, I'd like to make a, like a perception check, uh, to see if she's out of the house or. Make a perception check as you look back towards the hut. Oh, that's a nat one. Yeah. It is dark and
00:20:40
Speaker
As you look towards the hut, another giggle. I, maybe we should get closer. I think, well, this might be brazen. I think I'm just going to peek my head and
00:20:57
Speaker
But it cannot hurt. I mean, they know I'm staying out here, right? Maybe not you. You're not a part of the equation, but I said I was staying out here. Maybe I'll just take a peek and I'm going to try to crack the door just slightly. Yes, I mean, it's like a not exactly. There's no actual door. There's no actual door. There's no actual door. It's just this archway in the thatch that you can peek
Gwen's Magic and the Ongoing Battle
00:21:20
Speaker
through pretty easily. Yeah, I'm just going to peek in and take a look around.
00:21:25
Speaker
Make a perception check. Okay. 17 plus my perception, which is 118. Yeah, you don't see his mom in there. Oh. But you don't see anything else like crazy either. You see there's this elevated bed that's kind of hanging about, hanging from the sticks that hold the roof up.
00:21:55
Speaker
and Giss is up there, and you hear little snores from him, but the bed that sits on the ground beneath that one, there's nobody in it. Is there an obvious secondary door way that she could have exited through? There is not. Joxer, make a perception check again right now. Are you standing outside still? Yeah, I would have been. Yeah, make a perception check.
00:22:23
Speaker
Craig, what's your passive perception? So that's a luck die. Okay, that's a 19. 11. You hear Joxer. Craig, you're still looking around trying to make sense of where she could have gone. Joxer, you hear the animals in the pen as they start to stir about a little more aggressively. The shuffling of their hooves in the dirt and they're kind of walking around and
00:22:52
Speaker
that you hear that goes loud, loud bleeding from these big goats and and they're kind of stirring about in this pin where before they had seemed to start kind of being melancholy and melancholy and chill like bedtime, they're starting to stir and move as you and then. Yeah, so what are you going to do there? I'll I'll make a just a loud
00:23:19
Speaker
Whisper. Griggs, get out here. And then I'll start heading over to the pin again. Am I hearing the animals now rustling that I've come out or at least turned back to Joxer and he got my attention? Yeah, if you turn out and head that direction, you can kind of barely make out the silhouettes of these creatures. They're literally like kind of walking in circles in this pin and making kind of causing a little bit of a ruckus.
00:23:49
Speaker
Okay. Is the town, you said it was getting quiet. Is it abnormally quiet? Like, is it unusual feeling? Make another perception check as you kind of observe the area. Sure. 14 plus 115? Yeah, it is darker than it should be. You see no moon. You see no stars.
00:24:14
Speaker
you look around and where you before would see kind of the silhouette of the huts, you just see dark all around you. You can see the pin in the middle and the animals stirring because it's closer to you. But as you look beyond there, it's it's so dark here that you can barely take in that light. Even with dark vision, it's like you can see more than you maybe should in this darkness, but definitely not as much as you're used to at night. Right. Watching
00:24:43
Speaker
jockser head that direction and seeing that it is kind of uh just giving me an uneasy feeling honestly i'm gonna call out jockser come hold on there is a foul feeling in the air tonight uh i'm gonna raise my hand my right hand that has the eye and i'm gonna cast detect good and evil
00:25:08
Speaker
uh you're gonna see kind of a light originally it would always glow but now it's kind of at my own control you're gonna see a light green bluish light kind of come from my hand almost
Shadowy Goblin Leader and Undead Minions
00:25:22
Speaker
almost in a flashlight sense that i can move around and it's got about a 30 foot range from me and if there is anything within a 30 foot radius that is
00:25:33
Speaker
An aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead. I know that it exists, and I know where it is located for the next 10 minutes. Okay, and are you located, did you walk any closer to that pin, or are you still standing right outside? I'm about halfway to it, kind of following where Joxer would have walked that direction. Not all the way. I wanted to whisper to him, so yeah, I took a couple steps that way. Okay, so you moved about 10 feet closer.
00:26:03
Speaker
You suddenly get this outline, this magical green glow, this outline of these creatures. They look like they could be goblins, their size, but they're just like flickering in and out of existence, in and out of being visual as you look
00:26:30
Speaker
in the pin and then you kind of see almost like through the building almost like like infrared you would see the outline of somebody hiding behind a building you see another one to your left beyond one of the huts that that jocks are standing just almost right next to he's standing next to the hut not the creature the creature is about 15 feet away
00:26:53
Speaker
OK. On the other side of that hut. And they are. How many have I located and am I and am I is it obvious that they are evil and not. You have located two. Do you do you get a sense of what kind of creature they are? Is that.
00:27:11
Speaker
let you know that. I believe it lets me know what type it is. If there is an, you know if there is an aberration celestial elemental fafing or undead within 30 feet and I know where the creature is located. Similarly, I know if there's a place or object within 30 feet that has been magically consecrated or desecrated. It can penetrate most barriers. These are huts. It's fine. It doesn't necessarily tell me. I guess it's up to your interpretation.
00:27:40
Speaker
I'm going to tell you you're getting an undead buzz from these things. OK, so I'm going to say probably evil structure. We we are not alone. Can you make it and rise? Try to get Daven and Gwyn up. I don't know if there's going to be a fight, but we are definitely not alone. I think it might be too late for that. We need and then I'll I'll cast dancing lights.
00:28:10
Speaker
as a cantrip and bust out like for kind of try to surround the pin with lights. Okay. As the lights come up, you see these animals stirring about and one of these, one of these boars runs and hits the
Episode Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:28:30
Speaker
fence with its head and it backs up and runs again and hits the fence with his head and it backs up again and it starts ramming the fence.
00:28:41
Speaker
And it breaks through. And when it does, it runs right into a tree intentionally, ramming its head into this tree over and over. Do you do anything? It very much seems like it's trying to probably harm itself. I don't like that. Yeah, that's kind of the vibe you're getting, totally.
00:29:01
Speaker
It hits the tree, it backs up and shakes its head. And it runs back in. Hits that tree again and just backs up and keeps going until finally it hits one time. Collapses on the ground. Its head kind of burst open and this red blood and carnage just kind of seeps out of the top of its skull as it did that. The other ones are starting to run faster and you hear the snorting of these creatures.
00:29:29
Speaker
as they are and the bleeding of these goats as they get more and more agitated in this pin. Joxer, this creature that you don't see, Krigs, you see this creature coming right up to Joxer and it's going to attack Joxer with a with a 18.
00:29:52
Speaker
that will hit. Yeah, an 18 hits jockser. So it hits you. And when it does, you immediately feel this drain like you're like, like your skin and everything starts to dry up. And you take seven necrotic damage. And I need you Oh, and your
00:30:17
Speaker
Suddenly, you just feel your energy deplete and your strength deplete and you lose four strength points from this drain of life as this thing hits you. That's awesome. And now, Krigs, you see that Joxer is mostly enveloped in this creature's existence. It's kind of wrapped itself around him and is now like feeding on his strength.
00:30:46
Speaker
Oh, delightful. Do you guys even have your weapons and armor? I have. I am fully geared. I got all my kit. I don't know about jocks here, though. I I would have had no reason not to. I don't remember anybody saying they took anything off necessarily. So David did. He changed into his common clothes than before. That's true. You did. I did as well. I laid everything on the bed. But whenever I kind of ascertain this was where I was going to be for the evening, I fully fit back up.
00:31:16
Speaker
How far away are we from where Davin would be sleeping? It's about a 60-foot distance between you and where Davin is. Okay. Well, I don't want to do this, but I feel like it's the only kind of option I have. I don't want to create mass hysteria amongst the goblins. Aye, aye, aye.
00:31:43
Speaker
Okay. I know what I'm going to do. I don't like this, but I'm limited. Um, I'm going to take down my, actually, I don't have to take down the finding good and evil. Uh, I'm going to cast a spell. Uh, I'm going to set out a little whistle, little, and, uh,
00:32:08
Speaker
None of you have seen this yet, but I was told, told by my steed that I could potentially do this, and I wait, I wait, I wait, and about 10, 20 seconds later, this little blue jay from the wilds flies out, similar looking to how my cape is, little blue jay flies up to my shoulder, and I whisper to it, I tell it,
00:32:38
Speaker
A man, a gaudy man, lots of necklaces. And I point at the location where Davin is sleeping and I tell it, Davin, get up. We need you and Gwen out here. We are not alone. And I'm going to cast Animal Messenger as this little blue jay flutters over there in the direction I pointed, looking for the gaudy man with lots of necklaces.
00:33:05
Speaker
All right, in the time that you're doing that, that Blue Jay comes and flies and while it does, you're standing there watching these, these more of these creatures approach you and they're kind of surrounded in this like green aura that is making them visible to you. Joxler, you don't see them. You are feeling something on you. What are you doing while he's doing this? Feeling that you've been attacked by something you don't see?
00:33:31
Speaker
After feeling somewhat drained, I'll kind of grab at myself and then take my hands across my arms and then kind of throw them downwards as you see this kind of purple glimmer cover my body as I cast Mage Armor. Okay. Jox, I don't want to alarm you, but they're on you right now.
00:33:58
Speaker
I, that's, that's fantastic. I appreciate it. And then, you know, then I try to, I, I, I, apparently I can't see anything and then I'll like try to just swing, swing it all around myself with, uh, with the rapier. All right. Make, uh, make an attack. Let's go this die. No, that's everything fell. A rapier tornado, if we will.
00:34:27
Speaker
Yeah, what weapon are you using? So it's a rapier of fire that I got from them earlier and it that was a 13 to well, yeah 13 to hit 13 will hit
00:34:45
Speaker
So roll your damage on that 13 as he swings his his rapier around kind of violently and Krigs you see in in your kind of your kind of magical aura that you're seeing you see this red hue of this this rapier as it slices through this kind of dark green shadow of this creature that is on him.
00:35:08
Speaker
And it does actually go through and dissipate some of it. Roll your damage. What was it? So that's 11 piercing and four fire. All right. So the it gets stabbed and shoved through. And as it does, the it dissipates some of it.
00:35:29
Speaker
You see the fire start to spark, and it's like the fire dies out partially before it fully burns, but it does do a little bit of damage to it. So as it's still there, it's still alive, but it's taken some damage. It looks like it's flickering in and out kind of from that attack. Did he see it, like, have, like, did the fire react to whatever it hit? He could see the blaze, or was it just...
00:35:57
Speaker
His sword is flailing through the air and he's unaware of the fact that he made contact. He could see the effect of the fire on something. He still is not fully aware of this sudden... It just seems a little darker where you are, Joxer. If I saw anything hit from wherever the blade hit, I'd probably use a key point and start trying to attack it with my hands. Okay, go for it.
00:36:22
Speaker
So that will be two attacks. And that is, that's another 13. And then that is another 13. So yeah, two more hits. And then so for my unarmed, it's a six.
00:36:42
Speaker
so five plus three so eight and one plus three so uh eight and four twelve yeah twelve damage yeah all right so those were magical right krigs you watch joxer as he is just like man handling something and he's reaching for any part of him that looks
00:37:04
Speaker
like darkness that is just kind of descended upon him and he rips and pulls and you see him literally like when he pulls the the tattoo looking vines on his arms pulsate with the glow and the glow pulsates out of him as he pulls and kind of punches that stuff and it like dissipates it kind of wraps itself around in the light of that damn of that uh those his hands it just kind of like
00:37:29
Speaker
engulfs the darkness and floods it away to where there's nothing there anymore. And the creature's still barely hanging on. You see little bits of shadow kind of just like flickering all around him as these other creatures are closing in. Daven, you are laying there like trying to go to sleep. And this, this, you hear this, did you close your door when you went to lay down?
00:37:54
Speaker
I don't think so. Yeah. So this bird flies in and lands on your chest as you lay there and just starts tweeting at you. And you hear the tweeting and you don't know what it's saying, but you know your friends need help.
00:38:10
Speaker
It's like the words don't make sense, but what it's trying to say to you completely makes sense. Like the tweeting, you don't understand it like words, but you understand the idea it's trying to tell you. And your friends need help and they're outside right now. They need you and Gwen. All right. I'll jump up and I'll look around. I don't really need anything. I'll make sure I have pants on. I have pants on. We're good to go. So I'll go rushing out to the other door and I'll rush right up to Gwen. I'll just shake her real hard. Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, there's trouble.
00:38:40
Speaker
Before he walks in, Gwendolyn is having one of those, she's just having a dream, but it's one of those dreams where it's
00:38:49
Speaker
Would it be like sleep paralysis? So, what is it called? Is it sleep paralysis? Where you're in the same- When you're having like a nightmare and you feel awake but you can't move? Yeah, no, it's no fun. She's doing that and she's opened her eyes before Daven comes in or what she thinks she's actually opening her eyes and she sees a little chipmunk just run across her face and she's like, what?
00:39:15
Speaker
Dale and the chipmunk comes over and then takes its little claws and then just starts slapping her cheeks and she can't it's like terrifying because it's not Dale something's not right and
00:39:31
Speaker
She ends up waking up in real life and it's Daven asking her to come. Yes, what's happening? And she's kind of like breathing because she was kind of terrified. I don't know, Gwen. I just know that they're in trouble. We got to go help them. Okay. And she just, her hair is not in any braids. You can tell that she messed up the room.
00:39:58
Speaker
But they're sleeping and rolling around and she is half dressed. She has pants on, but she just has her shirt on and not like her vest or anything. And she runs with Daven. All right, you guys go outside and there you see this darkness. It's darker than
00:40:18
Speaker
Then you would have definitely darker than you would have expected on a light night like this and you you look out over the area and you can you can hear kind of this you definitely hear this shuffling of these animals in the pin and the the bleat of these goats and the snorting of these these hogs there and as you come out to the outside of the cabin and
00:40:44
Speaker
You are, you're unsure completely of where Krigs and Joxer are. You're not able to necessarily see where they are, but you definitely hear that something's happening with these, these creatures, these animals. What are you going to do? So we can't see them at all. We just hear noise. Currently, no, they're behind trees. It's extra dark. They're back behind trees and some huts and stuff. Dancing lights wouldn't be seen at all. I forgot about the dancing lights. That's what those circles are you're drawing on the map.
00:41:14
Speaker
The dancing lights are there. They're lighting things up, but it is half as much as you would have thought. It's it's dim compared to what you are used to you. So there's this these shadows and I mean like this, the extra shadow from these dancing lights everywhere. And go ahead and make a perception check as you look out to see what's going on. We'll give you that to go look for because I forgot about the dancing lights. Perception, I have a seven.
00:41:44
Speaker
9 plus 8, 17. Okay, so Joxa or Daven, you look out and you just see this dust that's swirling up from the craziness happening in this pin. And you don't see anything of interest other than the fact that these animals are going crazy. Gwendolyn, you as you're looking, you see the dust in the pin, you see it swirling around, you see what looks like a dark spot in the middle of this pin, where this kind of
00:42:13
Speaker
the swirling, swirling around him. And you can see the silhouette of Joxer flailing his arms around, trying to fight off whatever is on him from beyond the tree to a little bit to your right as you look towards this pen and towards the huts where these goblins live. It's just to the right of you a little ways. And that's where we are. We're all gonna roll initiative now for the rest of this. All right. All right.
00:42:42
Speaker
That is 18. Devin got a 14. 21 total. 19. 13. I take that back. 18, because I have a negative one initiative. I forgot. I'm not a Dex-y boy. Oh, you're so Dex-y. I mean, you beat both of us.
00:43:09
Speaker
Um, do DEXI for this group. Do DEXI for this. Do DEXI for initiative. Yeah. Uh, Joxer, what's your DEXterity modifier? Uh, three. So what is your score? Uh, DEXterity score. Sixteen. I'm sorry. Sixteen. Sixteen. Okay. All right. And Davin, I forgot. I didn't catch your DEX, your initiative roll. Fourteen. Fourteen.
00:43:40
Speaker
Uh, Blaze, if you want to da-da-da-da-da-da while I write out this initiative real quick. Alright, Jox, are you at the top of the order? We're starting with you. Oh, thank you, because I don't like this thing. Um, as bonus action, I'm just gonna throw out my hand and you see a Shadow Blade pop out as I do Shadow Blade, and would you consider it dim outside?
00:44:05
Speaker
It is. Yes. Yes. Dim and low light. So I get advantage on attacks with that that thing. Good for you. Yeah. So doctor, we'll start with that on that shadow next to it. Advantage was needed. So that's a 15 to hit. Definitely hits. OK, he's 12. So that's a five.
00:44:35
Speaker
One, so that's not super good. So that's 10, 14 damage. All right. 14 damage. You swing that blade around and when you do, it just dissipates the rest of this shadow. And suddenly you feel the light of these, of these, your orbs shining on you again. It's like the shadow, whatever was blocking that light is gone and you don't feel that oppression anymore from that creature. It is, it is gone now. Is that your whole term?
00:45:02
Speaker
Uh, unsure, unsure. Okay, okay, okay. Uh, so that was a bonus action and action, and I don't know where anything else is. I can't see anything dark enough. So, yes, that is the end of my turn. Okay, that's not the only one.
00:45:24
Speaker
I'm I kind of figured Jesus all right so these creatures that one of them comes right up to you Craig you see it you see it coming you know it's there but it comes right up to you and it's gonna make its attack on you now you can try and it rolls a 23 to hit yep and it's only gonna do a couple d6 damage plus two seven damage rude but
00:45:54
Speaker
You feel this drain as it drains your strength by, and this is your total strength score goes down by three. And it should affect all of your attacks and everything if it goes down enough. So make sure to keep that in your thoughts as you're rolling attacks and everything. So that's that first creature. It comes up and handles you that way. This next creature is going to come up and it's going to try to wrap itself around you as well.
00:46:24
Speaker
Krigs and it comes at you with only a 14 to hit. So as it comes towards you, you see it coming because you are standing, I mean you're seeing the aura that glow around it.
00:46:40
Speaker
and as it comes towards you, you are able to sidestep it and let it kind of zoom past and it just kind of hovers there next to you. And make a perception check just real quick as it comes by you and it gets this close and it's not on you now, it's just kind of like near you. Okay. It's not great, it's a 10. Okay, all right, that's it then. And so it just kind of gets past you and you hear again in the distance this giggle of
00:47:10
Speaker
of Giss's mom as she says, where are you now? How do you do this? And that takes us to your turn, Krigs. Okay, so I still have these two that are directly next to me. And I can see one kind of approaching. It looks like
00:47:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You see one just beyond the tree and the fence approaching you. One of them kind of zoomed past you and it missed and is behind you. The other one is right next to you. It's like on you, kind of raffling you, getting ready to feed again. How far did it go beyond me? Like when it passed me? Just on the other side of you, like five feet. So it's still, I don't get an attack of opportunity on it? No, no, no. It didn't leave your range at all. OK. I'm going to look over at jocks and be like, this.
00:48:01
Speaker
There's one here and I'm going to attack with my hammer, two handed swing at the one just directly next to me. And that is, uh, 13 to hit. It hits. Yeah. You're going for 12. Show damage. Please hold.
00:48:28
Speaker
That is 16 bludgeoning. All right. So you hit this creature with your your hammer and you're just kind of like swinging at what you can see there that glow around it. And does your hammer just do the bludgeoning?
00:48:48
Speaker
It's the hammer that I had with the nature spell that you gave me from the wilds. I think it's a plus one magical hammer. It's magical damage. It just doesn't do any extra form of damage. It just does an extra and it's considered magical. So that's good. Okay.
00:49:05
Speaker
So yeah, you swing through and just kind of distribute a whole bunch of the shadow out into the air, like a mist beyond it, and it dissolves and vanishes as this thing kind of coalesces back together and starts to wrap itself around you. Again, anything else? Another attack? Yeah, I do have a secondary attack, and I'm going to continue my phrase, and right here, and I'm going to swing down at the other one directly next to me, two-handed. Okay.
00:49:34
Speaker
That, sir, is twenty two to hit. Oh, yeah, definitely hits. And rolling damage for that sucker. Eighteen damage. Technically bludgeoning slash magical. I don't know. Yep, it's it's bludgeoning, but it is considered a magical weapon, so that doesn't get halved. So yeah, you swing again and disperse a whole bunch of this thing.
00:50:05
Speaker
And it's weird, because you know you're doing damage, but it feels like you're just swinging through air. But when it comes back together, it's not as opaque. It's like a more transparent darkness in front of you. And you don't hear any shriek, any shrill cries, nothing. But you do see as you look beyond it, and the opaqueness kind of starts to fade away from this damage, you see a little goblin behind it. It's Giss' mom walking towards you, just giggling, where have you gone?
00:50:35
Speaker
Like that. And is that the whole turn? Uh, yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to say finally, like not give them your best shot. That's all I got. Hold on. And then it'll be the end of my turn as I'm still feeling kind of out of it from the, the drain that they have on me. All right, Devin, it's all on you now. All right. Um, where they're fighting, they're kind of between a hut and a tree and they're in the dark and they're surrounded by shadow.
00:51:02
Speaker
And Devin just kind of from like what 50 feet away, 60 feet away, almost just shrugs and says, why does this always have to happen at the night, the night time? Why can't we ever fight during the day? And he's going to trace a circle in front of him and you just see this green energy appear. And then he kind of splits in half, like two bubbles just like for me into like two separate circles and he yanks them forward and they go between one hits Devin. The other one hits Gwen and Gwen, you feel like this, the surge of energy come through you as I cast haste on both of us using sorcery points.
00:51:32
Speaker
Oh, all right. You're hasted. Both of you are hasted. That means speed is doubled. You get extra action. And what else? Plus two to your AC. Plus two to your AC. Yep. Haste is good. It is. Yeah. You're cool now. Congratulations. And Davin's going to say, lead the way. I don't, I don't see anything. And then I'll, I'll, I'll move forward because I can hear the action. I'll move forward 30 feet from where I am. And then that'll be my turn.
00:51:58
Speaker
Oh, yeah. If you're, if I'm swinging at air and hitting the ground, you're definitely hearing the thud. I'm swinging hard, swinging for the fences. Yeah. You're hearing the hammer hit the ground behind you. I mean, you're hearing Craig's say stuff like, Oh, keep going to whatever he's saying. I'm not going to do a Craig's impression. I can't do it. There's too many. I'm surrounded. So is that your whole turn? That's it. That's what I'm doing this turn. All right, then Gwen, we're up to you now.
00:52:25
Speaker
Um, she's gonna feel this energy. What? What is happening? And when she starts to move forward to follow Davin, she, her pace is very quickened. So she immediately is going to follow him. And then, um, she, she has dark visions, but she can't really see them. Like she can make them out and.
00:52:50
Speaker
enough of this and if i can she's gonna raise her hands up and she's gonna cast moonbeam. Okay sure where are you putting it. I would like to put it on this creature that is in the pen still. Okay so still in the pen there's this well. I'm gonna have you make a perception check. Okay. As you're trying to see these creatures because they are real good at blending into this.
00:53:19
Speaker
I'm not going to make you roll at a disadvantage because of the light globules in the sky. My next question is, are they shapeshifters? And you said perception. I did.
00:53:35
Speaker
I'm counting, 24, 14 plus eight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you do see this. You look around and you see suddenly this movement and it's like a shadow but nothing belongs to the shadow. It's like the shadow's moving independently of a creature or person and it's this small goblin sized shadow and it shifts forward just a little bit and that's when you can cast that moonbeam because you recognize that something seems hostile. So you do see it?
00:54:05
Speaker
And she's raising her hands up and she says moon and elven help thy and a moonbeam pierces down. It's about 40 feet tall. It's a cylinder, five foot radius, and it's going to cast down on the little shadowy figure and hopefully singe it on its turn. That's the hopes. I was also hoping it would maybe cast light.
00:54:34
Speaker
from it, but it doesn't say. Doesn't seem to cast a lot of light. There is light right in its spot. What kind of damage is it? It is radiant damage. And when does it take that damage? On its term, first time it starts its turn, we're going to engulfed in ghostly flames, has to make a constitution saving throw and then takes two D10. Okay.
00:54:56
Speaker
All right, all right, so this beam suddenly just shines down on this creature and you can now see, everybody can very plainly see the silhouette, it's like a little goblin silhouette in this beam of what seems to be moonlight and it is absorbed in this light and so it makes it pretty obvious now that there's something there and that is your whole turn Gwen or?
00:55:26
Speaker
You actually have another action that you can use for attack, a dash, a disengage, hide, or teach an object. Oh, yeah, because you have that haste. Haste it. So you can do another thing. I want to do another thing because I don't want to waste it. You can try to move. You can, yeah, there's, I mean. Pretty much anything but a spell. Yeah, anything but a spell.
00:55:49
Speaker
Can I just copy this, please? Um, I am going to cast not a spell, but I want to cast my spirit totem and we're going to do the unicorn. I just went in and cast the whole thing. You're in our allies gain advantage on ability checks and they should get hit points equal to my druid level. And I want to do the aura around Craig's and jockser. All right. So this, what color is this aura?
00:56:18
Speaker
The unicorn one. We're going to do unicorn colors, so it's going to be little rainbow sprinkles. Yes, it is. So this rainbow sprinkly light, after this moonbeam drops, suddenly this rainbow sprinkly light surrounds Krigs and Joxer and just starts pulsing.
00:56:36
Speaker
And you feel this surge of energy as you get, what, 10 hit points, temporary hit points each. You each get 10 temporary hit points and you now have advantage on all your checks or saving throws. What is that? You just said it, but I- Chucks are worked. On all ability checks. Ability checks, not saving throws. My little bird friend actually woke them up. Or maybe, or who knows if my hammer did it, but nonetheless, that's got to be good.
00:57:04
Speaker
You hear Devin yellow. I was already awake. I'm this is the first time becoming aware that they're actually awake seeing her little like moonbeam and all these unicorn sparkles and like who it's going to only be going. If only Devin would cast haste on me. So you get this you get that moonbeam come in you get that surrounding you this pink or you're looking through this and seeing still these green
00:57:30
Speaker
Like there's like magical aura and light and things all over the place over here. Now you start to see through the distance from the residual light. You start to see little goblin faces all over the place, watching what's happening. Many of them come out, look and go back inside like there are no, and there are no thank you. And then you see this, uh, in the suddenly this, you hear this swing of what sounds like a crossbow and
00:58:00
Speaker
When you hear the slang. Yeah. That's also a good goblin name. Fling. Fling. I dig it. Yes, my name is Flingbolt. 23 to hit Daven. Oh, yeah, for sure. And so Daven, suddenly you get this you take this crossbow bolt to the gut. And you take you take.
00:58:29
Speaker
A D8, which I know I have one. Six piercing damage. Make a saving throw, please. Okay. What kind of saving throw? It is constitution. I also need to roll. A 24. Oh, actually, hang on. So you took 14 damage. Okay. Plus 24 sneak attack damage. Wow, okay.
00:58:58
Speaker
What was your saving throw? It was 24, 24. So yeah, you save you, you feel this sting of like familiar sting of poison and it, you, you, you kind of shove it away and you kind of don't let it bother you. And then another arrow flies in right then. And this one is a 21 to hit. Yeah. And you take
00:59:27
Speaker
eight piercing damage and make another saving throw, you have to beat a 15. Natural 16. I'm good. Yep. So you take another, what was that eight? Yeah. What was your total damage? I don't know the math, but I'm down to 15. Okay. And then suddenly you all see... Is that with Gwen's health?
00:59:48
Speaker
She didn't he didn't get it. It's 30 feet. Then in the middle of this pin, as these creatures have been kind of stirring about this, you see this silhouette standing in the middle of the pin and it's a goblin, but he is dark, complected and his his there is this shadow almost steaming off of him and pouring off of him.
01:00:14
Speaker
and it is like swirling around and he lifts his hands puts his hands forward and he and when he does a shadow kind of comes out of his hands swirls around the ground and forms two more of these shadow creatures that you've been fighting from the ground and you hear him say you cannot kill me
01:00:35
Speaker
a second time. And he raises a short sword and he lifts his crossbow and you see the face of Teld, the goblin you killed in the forest. Oh, I knew it. This time he's dark and his eyes glow this yellow green. And that's where we're going to end the episode. The heck? No. A little bit more trouble than I thought we were going to be.
01:01:14
Speaker
you
01:01:29
Speaker
Thank you for listening to episode four of our second season. If you've enjoyed our show, tell a friend about us. And if you really enjoyed the show, tell us. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at thehiredswords. Go ahead and send us a tweet or message. We'd love to hear that you're enjoying the show. And while you're at it, you can check out our merch shop currently with a sale 15% off with code DALE at thehired.store. And again, thank you for listening.