Transcript
Speaker: You're listening to The Hired Swords, a Dungeons & Dragons 5e actual play podcast. And yes, I know this episode's late. Get off my back! need to calm down, community.
Speaker: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Hired Swords. I am your host, not host, your dungeon master, Michael. And with me, I have Gwendolyn, played by Ash. Hi, guy Ash.
Speaker: ah Hi, Mr. DM. Nice to meet you. Nice to here. Davin Mindstrider is played by Derek. Hey, Davin, or Derek, or you. Hello.
Speaker: Mikey's here, too. He's Joxer. Hey. Mortail. by the way. And if you didn't know his last name, it's Jockster Mortail. Because he has more tails to tail. Mortail.
Speaker: Also, he's chasing... He's always chasing Mortail. Literally, actually, in combat. ah Chris Galders here, Soffron and Broke, played by Blaze. Sometimes I eat Jell-O.
Speaker: Jell-O there. a sponsor. ah Not at all. ah We don't have a sponsor. We're sponsored by you people who listen to the show and um we're sponsored by our calendars allowing us to get together today. That's exciting.
Speaker: Yes. Actually, they don't sponsor us at all. They just kind use our stuff for free. Yeah. That's for sure. We're sponsored by the goodness of our heart.
Speaker: Yes. Especially yours. You just have such a good heart. Sponsors are the trip you took along the way. Shut your mouth. That tracks. That sounds good. Sure. Hey, just let's just recap real quick. It's been a little bit for us, as we say that often when we ah when we record these, but it's been a little bit for us, so let's recap our our group here. um You've been in a fae kind of forest for some time now, meeting strange people, fighting strange snake-like creatures, meeting another person who was seemingly ah killed by this wall that you found that was this vine wall that allowed you to enter.
Speaker: When you entered, you made your way to this ah to a bridge where you were captured by a bunch of elves who took you into what you've now discovered to be the tree town, the forest town of the Almenorah, which is now the name of these people that live there.
Speaker: ah you were immediately taken to jail. When you were taken to jail, you discovered there was some magic spell keeping you some magic going on keeping you from casting spells. You were able to get through that with clever maneuvers and then meet up, or not meet up, but communicate a little bit with the guy in the the cell next to you.
Speaker: Whenever you did that, you were attacked by some prison guards. You were able to... kind of capture them or keep them from, from harming you. And you were, you found yourselves then getting, talking to this other prisoner who you found out his name is Jameson Tolliver. Uh, and he had left to try find certain place called the, dragon pit.
Speaker: And instead ended up with this group, the Almenorah, um, You then found the tree that this prison was kind of built out of, surrounding you, wrapping you up.
Speaker: daniel like Many of you fell unconscious and had a vision that told the story of the Almanorah leaving their villages, transporting a portion of the wild into this plain that you're in now, and forming the trees of this forest into their own, this their town. I mean, the story continued, at telling of councilmen of Almanorah,
Speaker: or the Council of Almenorra turning on Karthanakt, who was the leader, and listening to a dark elf named Darnaldi. Darnaldi spread fear, convincing the Council that the people needed to stay in this pocket dimension, away from the dangers of the wilds in Greater Glintree.
Speaker: Karthanakt was then locked up shortly thereafter by Darnaldi. Jameson Tolliver was then put in jail because he was trying to rouse support for Karthanakt's release. You guys found yourself then becoming conscious in this courtroom.
Speaker: surrounded by magical boundary that wouldn't let you hear, that would only let you hear and see what was happening outside of the boundary. You could not communicate from within. the part you You all took your turns at the witness stand, defending yourselves against the accusations of destroying the wilds, accusations of trespassing in the forests of Al-Minorah.
Speaker: The crowd began to turn on the judge, elven druid named Eldrin. She noticed the crowd was turning on Eldrin,
Speaker: them as Gwyndolin began to express that she was allowed in by the forest wall. As the judge got uncomfortable, Eldrin then tried to leave, turning into a creature, trying to fly away.
Speaker: You all then trapped her, and eventually, after talking with you, she was convinced that Gwendolyn... She she really looked at and saw who Gwendolyn was and said, It's you.
Speaker: What are you doing here? And... Then Gwendolyn said she's looking for her father. And she said, I can take you to where he is. And that is where we left off. You're standing in the courtroom.
Speaker: The people are a hubbub talking just amongst themselves. There's probably nearly 100 people in this courtroom. The four of you are standing near each other, spread out a little bit across the front of this courtroom, up by the judge's bench as the judge is standing there breathing heavily after trying to escape and being captured.
Speaker: And she motions to the doorway as the guards standing near the door, um as she motions it, they move themselves away from where the door is standing open and stand at the sides of the door.
Speaker: And she just kind of motions towards it after saying, I can take you to where he's at. What would you guys like to do in this moment? Um, Gwendolyn is probably shocked that she just knows where she, where he is. Okay.
Speaker: So she's probably just looking around at her other companions. This doesn't really feel like a me moment. This kind of feels like I'm i'm more following following suit with however Gwendolyn and those that are more like present to the the area kind of feel.
Speaker: So I'm just kind of, i'm I'm basically just sitting here waiting for a lead. okay While everyone seems to be kind of just paused in the moment of kind of surprise and confusion, Davin kind of looks around and he's, Objection!
Speaker: Sorry, is the court part over? I just felt like I was having fun up here.
Speaker: Zaldrin says, ah yeah um i suppose we are done here. if If you'd like, you can follow me and I'll take you to where he's being kept.
Speaker: I think I have two two sides of this, and this is just one part random. Would we have gotten a short rest in the time of being like confined and then doing this whole thing?
Speaker: ah The time that you were confined um in the jail, no, you definitely were – you spent the time from when you were put in jail until you got out and had that encounter with those guards. You spent that whole time trying to figure out, like, how to get out, what to do, how to be able to cast spells.
Speaker: And then when you were wrapped up in this tree, it was everything you could to not pass out and – and become unconscious from the way that these this tree was basically graphing you, almost like graphing you into its trunk as becoming almost part of the tree, feeling like you could have been crushed if that is what whoever made this tree do this wanted for you. So you didn't have a rest. Yeah, absolutely. Just it was a weird, because I knit like warlocks with short rest. I was just curious. Yeah, sure.
Speaker: Yeah, sure. um The closest thing would be the last, like, however long you were sat there waiting while they were talking, but that wasn't an hour, so. Yeah. okay um Okay.
Speaker: I think all we can do is trust them at this point, right? And then I'll take a step forward and extend my hand towards Gwendolyn. ah Shall we? I look up at him and I take his hand.
Speaker: Okay. I reach out my hand for Davin. I give him a good slap on the hand. I say, can we have our stuff back if we're going to be going with you? I sit there dejected.
Speaker: that's ah That's a fair point. can we i feel a little naked without being naked. It's it's it's very unusual. um Yes, this way.
Speaker: And she diverts from walking towards the main door she was going to exit through and steps over to her right. And up against, there's a door there ah in the wall. She walks.
Speaker: puts a key in, kind of rattles through some keys on her on a ring on her hip and puts the key in, turns it, and she You hear her say a little something when she does under her breath, and the these runes around the lock light up. shook, shook, shook, shook.
Speaker: and you hear the bolt unfasten in the middle and then one unfasten at the top of the door and one unfasten at the bottom of the door. And as she pushes it open and there you see sitting in a little trunk that's open,
Speaker: all of your items, all of the things that were in your inventories. It's kind of piled there, including your bag of holding, your holes rolled up down there, all that stuff's there. They've they've taken ah the only thing actually make investigation checks. Let's roll some dice, baby.
Speaker: All right. For the record, Devin, whenever we high fived and you like completely neglected me, I did dump ah about 15 HPs, lay on hands and our little clap of high five there.
Speaker: Oh, you guys are enjoy your head. Thanks. That'll be a 17 minus one, so 16.
Speaker: 16. And then I sadly high-fived my own hand and give myself 15 HP. Nice. Oh, I had advantage turned on. 15. Okay.
Speaker: right, you do notice that the coins, the hired swords coins are are not there. They're gone. What the? That's only thing that's not there.
Speaker: Didn't really want them. Davin's going through dagger. Yes. Dagger. Yes. Crowbar. Yes. Bedrill. Yes. Brueprints for magical elf. Elk helmet. Yes. Oh, yeah. Did you say dagger dagger?
Speaker: Yeah, I've been holding on to these for some reason. You want one? No, no. it just It just reminded me of something. Are we allowed to say that? Wow. Um...
Speaker: wow um um ah Thank you for this. i not Not to be extra but weird about it, but the the the coins that were here, is there a reason they're missing?
Speaker: Did they find a new purpose? um Well, I was just following orders, but... I gave them to him. He, or I at least sent them to him. He asked if anyone were to come with these coins that he should be notified immediately. So him may I inquire?
Speaker: Him being Darnaldi. Yes. You've met. Oh, we've met. We hate some. The time you sent some coins, did you, did they, did he arrive?
Speaker: After, risk did he do anything? What what was what happened the last time if another set of coins were sent? Oh, you're the first swords to come here.
Speaker: um But I can only assume he specifically expected you. Wait a minute. This mesquite had a liquid measure and it's gone.
Speaker: I'm sorry, you're missing something? Well, maybe I had lost it. I could speak to my guards, and and if they took something, they're strictly forbidden from doing that. It's all right. never quote anything anyway. We need to hurry.
Speaker: let Let's go. let's we We don't have much time. I need to see him. This way. She's... After the few minutes it takes you guys to kind of get yourselves put back together, she starts stepping through the door, um walking towards the door, steps out, and as she steps out, ah you follow her through and you see ah the sun is is bright and it's just like...
Speaker: you know, uh, so much, uh, brightness, like you haven't, haven't seen. It's just, it's, it's even brighter than it was in the forest outside of this dome. It feels more like a real sky with a real sun shining in within where you're at right now.
Speaker: And the trees are still colorful and bright and and you have to squint a little. And as the kind of white, like, uh, glare kind of brightness clears up, you begin to see people all over the place like you did when you walked in here. Elves of all kinds, some with tattoo-like markings on their faces, ah hair mostly bald but big tied into big top knots on the top of their head, um but bald all the way around. You see other elves that look more like what you're familiar with, similar to Gwendolyn with long pointy ears, their faces kind of longer and beautiful as they ah stand in their flowing robes and all different manner of elven type of person is here.
Speaker: Um, some smaller, some taller, um, even some with more of a grayish purple, grayish blue tint to their skin. Um, and They seem though to be kind of standing in groups like patterned together. Like they kind of click up even if you may assume it's not necessarily intentional. It just happens.
Speaker: ah then the Then you look beyond wherever the crowd has gathered around the outside of this courtroom and you see the buildings in this kind of downtown square like place here in this forest town and Again, all these buildings look as if they are made from the trees, either opening up their trunks or or growing together or ah situating their branches in such a way to create a shelter or a space for these people to live or do business or do their craft or work.
Speaker: And... You walk and you see ah couple wood carvers that are literally carving branches. You see people cooking big pots of food. You see growers who have hanging gardens hanging from the branches with with a wooden pots filled with different kinds of plants, different plant life.
Speaker: um You see all kinds of different people, as well as behind you, you can see as you kind of look around the big courthouse, all made of wood, but with... the the branches and everything grown into ah ornate shapes and designs. And it's it's an amazing architectural achievement.
Speaker: And even more amazing when you realize the only way this could exist is either to have been carved out of a giant tree itself, or this tree morphed and changed itself into this for these people.
Speaker: And she says this way and continues walking just directly away with from where the courtroom was, the back, yeah the courtroom to your back as you walk that direction.
Speaker: And you walk down the road and it's more of the same everywhere you look. A few pathways. lead off into other corridors or roads, small roads that have what looks more like dwellings that go up two, three, four levels high of people walking across big, thick branches that the branches along them have grown as if to ah be almost like railings to keep them from falling off. And almost like a, almost like a, a Wookiee town or village or something like that, right?
Speaker: um Just without the ocean. ah you're just in the forest or Ewok for that, for that matter. And, um,
Speaker: Finally, you you walk a good 10 minutes and you arrive at a giant tree standing in the middle of this circular opening in the roadway.
Speaker: And all around this, it looks almost like a market all around this giant tree. But there aren't people there selling and buying. It's more of ah just buildings sitting tree-made, you know, tree growth buildings sitting almost seemingly kind of empty. Just they they even seem a little bit, I don't know, dilapid not dilapidated, like worn down, but just empty and forgotten, kind of left behind.
Speaker: And as you approach the giant tree, you can see that um the giant tree has not carvings, but it's like the bar, the pattern of the bark and everything on the trunk is designs and shapes and all of this. And, and some of it looks like runic symbols as well, that you recognize some of the symbols from the floor and the ceiling in the jail cell or,
Speaker: Some of the things you've seen when you were in ah the the untouched lands and the darkness and the shadows, some of those runes that you saw in statues or or carved into gemstones.
Speaker: And she points at this and she says, he's being held in the temple, but we are not allowed in. Why? This is What has he done? Just stand up to Denardly and that's it?
Speaker: And he gets punished? ay rebellion is is often punished severely. You can imagine when your whole society depends on everyone unifying and being on on board with the same ideals, when those ideals begin to be questioned, there must be consequences. i I just fight for my family and those that I love and that they will be able to be safe and
Speaker: When Carthanact was causing all the ah disruption, yeah most of us felt unsafe, and that is why we felt there was justice in what Darnaldi had done. But he's in there somewhere, and I can only assume Darnaldi is as well.
Speaker: ah Can you not ask the tree to just bring him here? It created this large space and was able to move us from location to location. The temple is different look up and she points up and as you look up you can see that the branches of the tree are very normal branch like branches they stand out and they stand big and they're bright green ah leaves growing on them and but you do also notice they do not touch any of the other trees tree tops that are in the top of this forest they come just shy of of having any connection to the rest of this space it seems and
Speaker: And um she says, you see, this tree is built around what remains of our old city of Al-Menorah.
Speaker: It came here with us. It did not originate here. It does not do as we say. It seemed to listen to Carthanact, which now he cannot communicate with it at all, I assume, or... or being inside of the temple there, i don't I don't know, but there, and you look, and from at at immediate glance looking at it, you don't see an entrance or door or anything.
Speaker: It just looks like a tree trunk where the bark and wood grain, there is there seems to be some pattern to the growth, but there is no door or entrance anywhere.
Speaker: um Gwendolyn fills Russell in her bag. And so she looks down and reaches in and there's Dale. And she just kind of looks at him. What do you think?
Speaker: What do you think we should do? Dale jumps out of crawls out of the bag and jumps up to your shoulder and begins sniffing the air, looking around and turns behind you, turns to look behind you and kind of points and you hear a voice in your head and you and it says there has to be a way in there must be boy do i want to hit that tree with a night with a hammer yeah don't do that we like plants full circle
Speaker: he i've been training all those years for this moment yeah this magic moment Any time I want to enter somewhere, I just knock.
Speaker: Should we try knocking? Let's do it. Let's go right through the front. you guys walk up and knock? I'm going to walk up to the tree, and I'm just going to knock on the bark. All right.
Speaker: You knock on the bark, and you Get a little bit of the like grain, wood grain, like little scrapes scrapings off the bark on your knuckles and nothing happens besides that.
Speaker: Your hand's a little dirty. I wipe it off. Well, that's all I had. Anybody else have an idea? ah Gwendolyn goes up and does the same thing. Okay.
Speaker: Oh, if this works, I'm going to be so mad. Leave that tree alone. You reach up to knock and you look back and you wince at Krigs' joke and your you rap on it a couple times and you don't see anything change. Actually, make a make an arcana check.
Speaker: Or you can do nature, whichever is the better way for you to kind of understand this particular situation for you. Whatever you think Gwen would Whatever category you think Gwyn would put it in.
Speaker: This has got to be one of those princess day princess ah bride moments. She puts her head down. Guide me, father. iowa roll a nature or check.
Speaker: Where's my... There it is. Hang on, which one's better? Yeah, that's why I'm giving you a choice.
Speaker: Let's do nature. Okay. No, let's do arcana. Okay. Let's do nature, naturally. Let's do narcana. 19. Oh, great.
Speaker: Yeah, so when you knock, you don't... Nothing happens from your knock, but getting so close to it, you begin to see where the pattern of the runes and everything are laid out in a... Almost like a like ah Not like a puzzle, but like a keypad almost, where if you touch the right ones in the right order, it'll open, possibly.
Speaker: And you realize you need some sort of key. ah Not like a physical key, but like the key to know what to do to get this to open. um I asked to Dale on my shoulder, do you know the way in?
Speaker: Dale climbs down your back and down the back of your leg and... Runs about 15 feet behind you, turns and looks at you and starts squeaking at you. And then turns and starts to take off.
Speaker: I follow. um I kind of miss it when that bugger didn't speak. As you turn to follow, Eldrin... ah Eldren says, oh, um i don't so I don't know where. um Okay.
Speaker: And just kind of follows you as you take off. And people like start to, as the chipmunk starts to head towards the the crowd, there's a group kind of that have kind of gathered to watch what you're going to do here at this temple tree.
Speaker: And they they part so that the chipmunk can come through and you guys can follow. And as you follow the chipmunk through, um it just heads down one of these little side roads towards the dwellings.
Speaker: And, and, you hear Eldrin go, I, I should have thought of this, of course. And kind of picks up the pace to keep up with you guys as she realizes maybe what's happening.
Speaker: And, uh, Dale suddenly comes to a stop, turns and runs up onto the porch of a little hut. that is standing there.
Speaker: And this little hut is, ah it is, it looks like it's grown like these other, like these other buildings grown organically from this forest.
Speaker: Um, it's a dome shape with one archway door going in. There's leaves rustling softly, in the, amidst the, the branches and vines that create,
Speaker: this dome and, the archway is naturally formed by two larger intertwining tree branches. And you see this, uh, this dwelling with on the front, there's a small rug set out. There's plants growing, yeah taller on the sides, almost like they're kind of being cultivated up to about almost knee height, these large leafed, uh, plants.
Speaker: And, um there's a, Looks very welcoming, a little space, and the chipmunk just goes inside. And when he does, Eldren says, this is Jameson's home.
Speaker: This is where Jameson stayed. I just go in. Okay. Cool. that's fine. So you walk in, and when you do, Does everybody follow or are you just kind of, what's everybody doing?
Speaker: I'll follow. Okay. I feel like I'm the last one, like kind of just hanging out by the the in entryway. Okay. um So as you go in or just kind of look in, you can see you, first of all, you step in and Gwen Dale turns and runs up your leg and gets back up on your shoulder.
Speaker: And, when you first walk you're in a almost like little kitchen space, a couple of little stools leaned up to up against the, this wall with, or sitting up against this wall with the table in between them.
Speaker: You see ah sections of the wall have kind of been cultivated into where mushrooms are just growing in patches out of the, the,
Speaker: the vine and branches that make up the walls. And you very easily, Krigs, know these are, these are intentionally grown here to eat. They're definitely food. Uh, cause you're mushroom daddy. You would know that.
Speaker: And, Don't you forget that either. Yeah. There's a small, there's a small little cooking stove there with a, with a small, a small kind of charred wooden bowl.
Speaker: And there's jars of prefer, looks like preserved herbs and stuff sitting on a counter there. Um, You look beyond there and you can see what looks like couple cushions set against ah shelves that have been organically kind of grown into the dome-shaped dwelling here. And those those shelves have books on them.
Speaker: with this little, like a little reading nook there, there's a sleeping space near there that has a large, very thick and fluffy, uh, looks like maybe straw or leaf stuffed cot or, or bed roll laying on the ground and, um, boss and leaves and things are even beneath that as if to make it even softer.
Speaker: Um, And then there's ah another alcove sitting, another alcove to the back that kind of juts out a little bit. And in that is a rug. And around that is a solid piece of wood that has carvings in it all the way around.
Speaker: um And this looks familiar to you, Joxer, as a kind of meditation alcove. Just a little space to sit and meditate. And that's basically what the inside of this space looks like. You've got your garden, kitchen, your reading nook, a sleeping space, and this meditation alcove.
Speaker: but no person. And there's no one in there. Um, Gwendolyn's going to immediately go to the bookshelf or where the books are. And ah there's runes on the trees. We, we have to find a code. There has to be a code that we can get into the tree.
Speaker: And so she goes and looks at books, starts handing books to people that are in the house with her. One to jocks her. I'll take one as, uh, I'll also walk over to the meditation room and just kind of take a second to look at, you know, whatever book I've been handed, but also if there's any familiarity with the carvings on the wall.
Speaker: I pick up a book and I flip it open. start reading, quickly realize it's written in Elvish and I just so set it right back down and step away. I thought you were going to open the book and be like, I can't read.
Speaker: i mean, technically that's what happened. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay. so those of you with a book, serious, that are really wanting look at a book, um make an investigation check. And Jockster, yours is going to go for the carvings as well.
Speaker: Okay. So. You said investigation? Yes, I did. Okay. Okay. It's a 13 minus one. Investigation isn't my forte.
Speaker: um So that'll a 12. Okay, 12 and a 10. Okay. ah Yeah, so, Gwen, the first book you pick up and start looking through is a, you notice pretty quickly, is a history book.
Speaker: And the word Almanorah is all through it, capitalized as a city or a town. And this book, if you as you thumb through it quickly with a 10, you thumb through it kind of quickly, what you can make out is that Almanorah was once a city.
Speaker: a legitimate city. You come across a sketch of city gates and elven soldiers standing with giant spears at the city gates. And it flashes in your mind, this image of city gates, just like this in the visions you've had.
Speaker: And, um, the, um, as you continue to kind of look through you come across a section that speaks of something called the radix of the arcane.
Speaker: um And the radix of the arcane, or something similar to like a cradle, ah the beginning beginning, the birthplace of magic.
Speaker: And um you come across something that mentions that that also exists within the same plane as the city of Al-Menorah as it once did.
Speaker: And the last thing you kind of come across with the Cradle of Magic, the city of Al-Menorah, the gates that ring a bell, the last thing you come across is once again... a kind of crediting of this whole thing to an elven god named Corillon.
Speaker: Corillon. Corillon is how you pronounce it. Corillon. Coral. Coral. You can call him Carl for short. That's fine. Or Chloriel.
Speaker: Chlorine. Chlorine man. Pull my in. Isn't it Chloriel? You hate that we rip apart your theory. I am so used to it. it It doesn't even phase me anymore.
Speaker: It did at first. It doesn't anymore. but um And that's not even my name. That's a legit D&D name. So I didn't even it. urge to say the raw dicks of the arcane.
Speaker: Got them. They're raw even. ah So that is what you in your book. Joxer, with your role, you are looking at these carvings. And they are in that, that they're in elvish carvings.
Speaker: And they're a little easier to read than some of the older ancient Elvis you had read in the past. Some ah in the recent past, some of those words from those other ancient language, that other ancient language, some of those words are there.
Speaker: ah you You see that it this is like almost like somebody has taken... a prayer or meditation or ah enchantment or something from that old language and has translated words into more modern that could be translated, but had to keep some because some of them we don't, the new Elvish doesn't have words for them, right?
Speaker: So they had to use the old ones. And so you you kind of make that out pretty easily. Basically, it's just a simple meditation. and i am one with...
Speaker: I am one with the land. I am one with the gods. I am one with the, with nature. I am one with this world. You know, it's basically a over and over again, repeating that until it gets inside you as you can close your eyes and like simple meditation.
Speaker: Um, Beneath there, however, there are some small runic symbols that seem to be... you As you look at them, you realize that they're they're in a... They don't seem to be in any specific order, but they're turned at different angles. Some of them are...
Speaker: some of them are the angle that you'd expect them to be, to be read properly. And some of them are turned over, tilted to the right. Some of them are upside down. Some of them are tilted to the left. Some of them are only tilted a little, some of them a lot. They're just kind of like, almost like there's something to that maybe, but with the 13, I don't think you made out exactly what that is.
Speaker: Not if they were like, this is, if I were to do like a clock and I would assume that this would be the first, like one, this was the first one press. The second one be lightly to the right.
Speaker: Further to the right would be the third one, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. Sure. that I mean, that's a theory, a good theory. You you don't see, um you don't you definitely know, you think that way, but you you're like, they're not in that order, like one through 12.
Speaker: And there are, ah you do, as you count, there are 24 of them. twenty four 24. Gotcha. um Gwen, are these the symbols that we're looking for?
Speaker: ah She finishes reading a chapter and then she looks glances over. um are they? They look. ah Actually, make another investigation check or another nature or arcana check.
Speaker: Either way. That's better. yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Speaker: Thirteen. Yeah. You recognize them as the same help with, you know, pointing out the. You do recognize them with the 19 on the previous roll for the at the tree.
Speaker: you you You took you took pretty good mental note of what those look like. And so, yeah, you you recognize that all of these runes here are on the tree. ah She plops her book on Dale for him to finish reading. And then she goes over to Jaxer's book.
Speaker: and okay right Are they in any order ah on the pages or do they just represent what they are? These are actually not on the pages of the book. They're on the the carved wood paneling in front of the meditation area. yeah Oh, okay. Sorry.
Speaker: No, that's okay. It's not okay. I mean, I'm very disappointed, but I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
Speaker: ah She goes and she looks not in a book, but on the wall. Yeah. don't take a book Don't take a look. It's not in a book. It's not reading Rainbow. It's not in book. This is not reading Rainbow. Don't you dare.
Speaker: ah Don't even think about it. It it is correct. You cannot anywhere. yeah
Speaker: You have to stay in this hut. All right. So I look at the runes and do I notice a pattern? You notice the pattern point that Jockster pointed out to you? Yes. The one, two, three, four, kind of 24, almost as if a ah sundial or clock or whatever the similar understanding you would have in this in this world. i I have not fleshed that out in this world. Sorry.
Speaker: Bad DM. I am not Tolkien. Davin, are you good with puzzles? Oh, She catches the wall and just is like... I could try.
Speaker: Riggs, are you good with puzzles? I know you're terrible at catching animals. Okay, that feels harsh, but...
Speaker: Everybody that's looking at it can just make a straight intelligence check if you'd like. I will do this and we'll do this thing. Also, if you have not made an arcana check on it, you can. i will do this thing as well.
Speaker: I will do this thing. Oh, that's better. My intelligence check was a 17 and we won't talk about the Arcana. and Arcana 17 minus 1. 16. Oh my gosh, mine's 16 too. ah Both Arcana intelligence were 16s.
Speaker: Whoa. wow Well, as a party, you guys sit and you have a little powwow as you sit and look at it and you start to kind of talk through. Okay, well, see, this one's angled this way. This one's angled that way.
Speaker: And this one's a little bit like that. And um you you can kind of tell, you come to the thought that maybe if we had a, maybe if we were looking at both at the same time,
Speaker: the tree and these runes and how they're laid out, we might be able to decipher this, but we'd need to look at both at the same time. Otherwise memorize, um, what this looks like and what the order and everything it is.
Speaker: like Does anyone have a camera? No, i think we need to bring the tree to the, to the hut. That's a good idea. How do we dig it out? Has anybody got a paper?
Speaker: I've seen this, that that they they do chalk over, over, Over paper to to get the indents. Well, ah surely he's got some paper in here. There's lots of books.
Speaker: Can I look around see I find some blank paper? Sure, yeah. you go You very easily find some some of that kind of stuff at the reading nook. You even find a little journal where he has been... using a little writing coal that's wrapped in cloth so your hand doesn't get dirty. As you're searching for paper and all this stuff, I've literally just taken the back of my shield and a piece of soapstone from my bag and started drawing the things on the back of my shield.
Speaker: Nice. cool. Okay. Make a performance check on drawing that. it's yeah paper look i won I love rolling dice. Yeah, it's fun. right. Whoever's going to etch it.
Speaker: Or sleight of hand, I guess you could do. Okay. I'll do both. Yeah, sure. So you were both 17. Oh, good. Nice. yeah you um Yeah, you just draw the pattern pretty well.
Speaker: Six on the top, six on the bottom. Or no, 12 on the top, 12 on the bottom. You run out of space, so you had to split them into two rows, but you you've got them in the right order. um Well, that looks really good. So I'm not sure I need to do this, but I'll do it just in case, you know, it melts or something.
Speaker: And then I'll try to do the the same thing on the the paper. ah Just make a slight of hand check. It's not a high difficulty, but just in case there's a crazy fail. That's a k nat 20 plus 8. ah they say you You scrape it, and as you're scraping it, you There's actually a few of them get a few of the runes.
Speaker: You notice that they're carved in a little more deeply than the others. You don't notice a lot of them are, but a couple of them are carved in a little more deeply than the others as you're, as you're scraping. And so that's something to maybe take into account as because I'm noticing him, like be surprised that I just wipe off my soapstone drawing with shame.
Speaker: and walk out of the room no no no we need it now we got to do that again oh my gosh it's fine i know i'm just gonna go be bad at catching animals out here you you're the one you're the one who caught it i i missed it apparently it's you you in this special land are better than me i get it Now we can finally agree on something. It turns into a real housewife situation. Because the jocks are like off camera um by himself and he's like, that SOB.
Speaker: yeah He does a talking head sort of thing. I can't believe he did that. It made me so angry. my Camera just pans to me and I look straight at it with that demure look. Very mindful. You know he always does this whenever everybody's around.
Speaker: I just wanted to come in here. i wanted to drink drink my little cocktail and enjoy my little my little ah ah runes. But no, it had to be a big drama. ah Craig's always brings it around.
Speaker: Do you guys want to do anything else Jameson Tolliver's home while you are in here? would like to just do a quick search for anything that would represent...
Speaker: him i guess assuming we go back a token of his affections if you will yes something that we could bring back to the widow tolliver great um make ah a investigation check again y'all this is not my this is not my thing just saying i don't know why keep on doing this
Speaker: That's just a 13 minus one. That's the check you make to look for things. There's nothing that I can do about the D&D rule. can't just perceive it? go with Sure, do perception check. It's only a plus one, but it's a 14 instead of a 12. Okay. I was going to say, if you roll a nat one, I'm going to just laugh at you all day. I'm going to assist but I'm going to just dig really fast i'm go to assist him but i'm going to like just dig really really fast and you know, physically and use athletics.
Speaker: And i got I rolled a 26. just kidding. Yeah, no, no. we Roll an athletics check. Because you got it. I did, 26. Okay. I got plus nine athletics, the one roll that I've never made this entire campaign. I'm like, oh, guys, we really we really got to do this thing where we look for this stuff for – Oh, you already did it, Kriggs. Good job. Thank you. he um he What he does is he starts lifting some of the stuff out of the way to give it give you an easier, picking up multiple things at once to move it so that you can see a little easier what's going on and uses his strength to kind of clear the view for you.
Speaker: And you do come across a a journal, it looks like, And in the journal is a kind of like a soft purple colored laced handkerchief.
Speaker: And um the I immediately sniff it. Not really. Okay. It's marking a page in there, but it's...
Speaker: um but you recognize the color as um seeing there were curtains made of that color in Widow Tolliver's house.
Speaker: This was a great find. um but're We're taking this. I feel it's very personal. Are sure you want to take it? He, and for my memory, he bamfed, right? He just teleported away.
Speaker: He's not in that cell, right? Correct. Yeah. he Yes, I'm, I'm going to take this, Davin. We're going to take it. I'm not going to read it, but we're going take it and we're going to give it to Widow Tolliver so she can find him and do whatever she wants to to track him down. beg your pardon? Oh, okay. All right. Dang.
Speaker: Yeah. Um... So yeah. So as, uh, you guys finish that up, uh, start to head out the doorway.
Speaker: And as you walk out another, a large crowd as the same large crowd has followed you there and is gathered outside and they're looking, anticipating like what it is that you found. And there's a few children now standing nearby, watching you guys and, and, uh,
Speaker: with ah with their parents, it looks like. And um as you as you kind of exit the the building, Eldren looks over to you guys and says, think somebody should say something. They're kind of looking to you right now.
Speaker: I don't know. Maybe say something. Can somebody do that? We're going to help. Very inspiring. Good job there, Chuck. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. we We are going to return everything to as normal as we possibly can.
Speaker: We obviously have different motives, but we don't know why you're here. Anybody else have something else to say? I feel like I'm i'm not i'm not on a... ah The core thing really set off. voice from the crowd calls out and says, he says we're safe here.
Speaker: Are we safer here? Yes. And Gwendolyn makes her way to the front. And she holds up Dale. Not too high, but... Yeah.
Speaker: High enough for him to perch and... He stands tall and proud. I came here to find my father and... I found all of you. And hopefully him.
Speaker: But I plan to make things right. We do. You just have to believe. And then she just walks away towards the tree. As you start to walk away... go ahead, were going say something else?
Speaker: I... You... Do you think safety is happiness? Is that... You might be safer here, but that doesn't mean that you're better off here.
Speaker: They start to murmur amongst themselves. And, uh... you can kind of catch that some of them maybe seem to be arguing with the others about, yeah, see, that's kind of what I've been saying. Like we got to find a way out. And some others are saying, I don't know. I just feel like if we go back there, what could it be? The stories, you know, and you hear talk of the legends and the stories and the fear and, and they've been so, you could tell they've been so,
Speaker: convinced that the only way they can survive and thrive is if they stay hiding here. You just gather that fear. You can sense that fearful energy in all of them.
Speaker: And they part as Gwendolyn starts to walk and they start to be quiet. And literally from the moment you leave this hut all the way to the tree,
Speaker: There are people lining the roadway, parting as you approach to let you by, watching what's going to happen next. And you all approach the tree to a almost deafening silence as so you've never seen so many people standing in such a quiet mood, such a quiet feeling, watching in anticipation as you approach the tree and you look down at your
Speaker: etched runes, um somebody can make another Arcana check for me. I'll do it. i'll I'll give a help action by, you know, holding up.
Speaker: I critted! Never mind. critted a nat 20. That's amazing. Wait, 27. So Gwendolyn, um you get a almost like ah boost of inspiration and encouragement from the way the people are standing around you.
Speaker: These are your people. You can feel it. You know it's true. And they're all looking to you. And so your mind has never been more clear.
Speaker: Your thoughts have never been more sure than they are right now. And Dale, you hear a whispered voice in your ear, not even in your mind,
Speaker: And it sounds like,
Speaker: but it translates on the way through to your mind and says, now's the time. It's time. And as that happens, you look down at the etched runes and you see one rune shape that is marked at three o'clock.
Speaker: And you look up and you see it in a different angle on the tree, but you see it several times, and there's only one time it appears at that correct angle.
Speaker: You look at the next one that matches, and it's the six o'clock. You look up, and sure enough, there's only one time it matches that same angle that it's that it's turned at.
Speaker: All the way through, eight of these runes It's like, it's almost like the, the one on the tree that matches is calling to you as you look down and you see one. Nope. There's not one of those on there. Nope. There's not one of those on there. Yep. That one's on there, but it's on there six times. Oh, there it is. That's the one that I'm looking for. And it's like, it's like you had done this before.
Speaker: it feels like you've done this before. You know, you haven't, but it's, it's so simple. Like it's meant to be like, you've done this before and you, walk up to the tree and you touch these runes in the order the three the five the eight and you touch the ones at the right angle and they glow and they stay glowing a green bright glow until finally the bark and the tree starts to twist and bend inward And as it does, it's almost like this hole, this hole in the tree, almost like it's been there already, but you hadn't seen it forms and parts as an entrance.
Speaker: And there's an opening now for you to enter the inside of this temple set into the trunk of this tree. And that's where we're going to leave the episode.
Speaker: Well, while the kind of thing is opening up and everything, i reach out my hand and I grab Craig's by the hand and say, well, buddy, Here's another adventure for us. Now you hold my hand. So good. I love it. i love it.
Speaker: Awesome guys. Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to the hired swords. We're so grateful that you choose to listen to our podcast and join us on this spectacular adventure.
Speaker: Please, if you like our show, tell somebody about it, subscribe to it, share it on your favorite social media platform. There's only a few episodes left before this story concludes. So thanks again. Bye-bye.
