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Ep. 22 The Line In The Sand
168 Plays4 years ago
Freed from the prison of his own making, our heroes must decide what to do with Delmar. Though, they can't just leave such a dangerous monster to run rampant if someone were to explore these ruins. The line in the sand must be drawn. Decisions made.
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Transcript
Delmar's Rescue and Reunion Plans
00:00:12
Speaker
previously on the higher swords. Our heroes, having released Delmar from the prison of his own making, must decide the next steps to reunite this father with his daughter. Is Francine prepared to come to grips with what's become of her father? Can Delmar even contain the beast that toils below his skin?
00:00:36
Speaker
The only thing we do know, we can't leave this hellspawn here to infect anyone else. Or worse.
D&D Session Introduction
00:01:29
Speaker
Hey everybody welcome to the hired swords podcast. I'm your dungeon master Michael
00:01:35
Speaker
I got Blaze, Mikey, Derek and Ash with me and we are going to play another session of Dungeons and Dragons. I think this is our ninth session, isn't it? Yeah.
00:01:44
Speaker
episode whatever episode some hundred and episode a number a number of episodes and when we left off you guys had rescued delmar using some creative spell usage to and and the create a creative use of a portable hole with a brewing kit inside of it you guys
00:02:09
Speaker
were able to get past the monster that seems to have caused Delmar this to be trapped with this fear and terror and something taking over his own mental state over the last decade at least and made your way through you made your way in there learned about him had a little bit of conflict amongst yourselves and then finally decided to just try to get past this creature without having to encounter it and
00:02:38
Speaker
Again, Daven and Joxer came up with a pretty good plan and it worked.
Delmar's Escape and Group Strategy
00:02:42
Speaker
You guys got outside and then you had him in the free and clear and did some talking and some looking around and then Mr. Delmar jumped on top of the horse that Krigs summoned and just bolted. It's been a while since I've been on a horse and he took off.
00:03:00
Speaker
And so this is where we are now. He's taken off through the gates. He's riding away. And you guys are kind of watching, standing there. What are you going to do at this point? Well, I'm not really sure that we didn't. How are we supposed to keep up with him? Didn't didn't I just say we might. I just thought we should stay here a little bit. That's fine. Don't worry, he can't get that far away. Well, tell him to come back.
00:03:31
Speaker
With that, I'm going to telepathically with my horse, my summon. We are linked in that regard. I'm going to kind of inform him, hey, slow down and kind of head back this way. Let him have his fun, but still. Get a couple laps in before we start out.
00:03:52
Speaker
So you're going to tell your tell your horse to come back. Yeah, I'm just going to I'm going to keep him within a distance. The idea is he's slow and I want him mobile. I don't I'm still not feeling where we're at. So. Yeah. OK. Yeah. He's he's on on its back. He's not really paying attention to too much to the where the horse is going.
00:04:15
Speaker
He kind of is starting to realize maybe that he's not in control, but he's just enjoying the experience at this time. So he's riding around. Ooh! Wee-hoo! Yeah! Too much, too much. So tell me if I'm alone in this thinking bot. I feel like
00:04:42
Speaker
We can't just leave this thing here, right? We can't just leave this monster here for somebody else to find or for it to escape. I have no plans. I don't think I'm leaving it here. It's clearly more powerful than any of us actually understand. I just needed... I think we needed to have Delmar, at least, in the clear if we are to engage with this
Delmar's Struggle with the Creature
00:05:04
Speaker
creature. We don't understand how it works just yet, and I fear... I hope...
00:05:11
Speaker
They are not imprinted. Engage with it. We need to leave. I don't know if it's that simple. I can kind of vouch on that and it might be beneficial for Delmar if that thing doesn't exist anymore.
00:05:33
Speaker
It's possible that there's some sort of link between the two of them, and if we kill the creature, maybe it'll free him. Well, you recall in the bunker, the moments I lost control, I had no ability to stop saying things that I had never wished said. There's no reason why, no reason for me to believe that they are not still imprinted in some way. If it's able to get in my head, and I may not be the smartest dwarf around, but
00:06:04
Speaker
It's more powerful than I think we want to give it credit for. But you're also able to stop it and fight through, come back to normal. That was after moments, mere moments. How long has Delmar been here? 10 years minimum. It's insane. My vote is to end this here and now and see if it can improve Delmar's situation. Francine deserves at least that.
00:06:33
Speaker
I don't need a lot of hope personally with it, actually saving that Marney sort of way, but at least we can maybe keep somebody else from getting a imprinted, as you say. I'll take that. The soldiers deserve that. Delmore rides by again. Continue. I feel like we're the parents talking around waiting for the kid to finish playing in the pool.
00:07:02
Speaker
All right, one more lap around the pool, then we're going to dry off and go home. One more lap and it's clobbering time. During this whole time while they're talking, Gwendolyn is just in her head thinking like the plan through. And she looks nervous, almost like, I want to say she's like almost sweating because she just, she doesn't know anything about this. She doesn't agree with the group to a certain extent.
00:07:32
Speaker
What if we go in and we just all die? And then Francine doesn't see her father. I don't know anything about this creature. I can't save you guys. I don't believe that we'd be taking Delmar with us. If nothing else, he'd be free the moment we didn't return. Now him making it in to see
00:08:01
Speaker
Francine might be difficult, so if nothing else, we could have the backup plan of maybe providing a larger cloak or trying to fashion something, I suppose. I believe the bunkers around here do have at least pieces of armor he may be able to
00:08:19
Speaker
at least put together in some fashion. I know he's a little more person than he was before, but there's something I'm sure he can at least get an advantage in the wild. He's a scout after all. It's true, but my fear is entering the town.
Understanding the Creature's Threat
00:08:40
Speaker
There's no reason. None of them would just attack him right off the bat.
00:08:45
Speaker
I mean, you're right. I just... I don't know what to do. What if we attack this creature and the link breaks and Delmar dies? Have we thought about that?
00:09:06
Speaker
think for yourself when would you rather live like that or would you rather be dead i don't think this is a way that delmar wants to live i think the only reason he's alive right now is from hope i'll agree with with that i suppose if if the fear is that if we kill this this beast and and delmar dies with it then then delmar might actually turn into this beast if we
00:09:32
Speaker
if we let him continue on. My fear and why I wanted to stay here, at least tonight, is to see if he improved or potentially got worse. Being further away, I wanted to see if there was any improvement in maybe his physical nature. If this could happen one direction, hopefully it could be reversed in one direction. So you think maybe there's some sort of a mental connection between the beast and him?
00:09:59
Speaker
I, at least as close as he was and as far as he was away from doing anything human, you could see how much he's just mentally improved from having a brew and being on a horse, just potentially being further away from the creature might help reverse some of that.
00:10:28
Speaker
If you think it's proximity-based, if he is learning to be himself again, just breathing the air and being in the sun on his face once more, we could camp one night. I wouldn't say too close to these walls, though.
00:10:46
Speaker
There's plenty of spots near here. These are the stone mountains. They are not too unforgiving. I would be willing to rest, have a camp, and if we do decide to end this monster, do it at first light when we are most prepared, most able. What time is it right now? Yeah, I was about to say you came out of the keep around Sunup. Oh, never mind then.
00:11:15
Speaker
Yes, it is currently like early to mid morning. So Gwendolyn, if your fear is that killing this beast kills Delmar, then my fear would be not killing this beast and letting Delmar spread the same curse.
Battle Preparations and Strategies
00:11:36
Speaker
As he says that, she pulls Dale out of her bag. She kinda looks like a child, almost. I mean, she's a young elf, like around 23, but she's just holding Dale, just looking at him. I guess you're right. I'm sorry, all of this just makes me nervous. The unknown, everything. Jocks are a walk up and just kinda put a hand in a shelter.
00:12:05
Speaker
I don't think either of us are without nerves currently. She shakes her head. Delmore rides back up to you guys and when he gets up.
00:12:17
Speaker
he just kind of settles in and he's kind of breathing heavy every now and then the breath when he breathes out is kind of a growl but it's it's not like it's taking over it's just his physiology has changed enough that that's just part of breathing heavy like that for him and he uh what are we talking about well we've taken a moment in trying to decide
00:12:42
Speaker
whether engaging with this creature and trying to see it find its end, if it'll help you. And honestly, we're not sure if it could get free, what kind of problems others might face. Do you have any thoughts, Delmar?
00:13:01
Speaker
I suppose you're not wrong that anyone else were to happen upon this fort could suffer greatly finding their way into that keep. I definitely understand wanting to remove a danger for others who come along. I don't know that I have any evidence to show that it would help me in any way. Let me ask you this. I don't know much about these creatures.
00:13:27
Speaker
When we first arrived here, just the mere sound of this creature, or whatever it was, I felt it in my own head. Looking at you in no offense, I feel you definitely feel it inside yours as well, or at least did. If you felt it, then it must have had you in its sights. That seems impossible.
00:13:55
Speaker
None of us saw it, one. Well, that's the problem is. Sometimes when it sees you, that's all it takes. I like this less. Delmar, did any of the other soldiers around you meet a similar gaze and have some features change about them that you remember?
00:14:21
Speaker
I seem to remember that they were torn asunder pretty quickly. I feel that using his eye looking at me the way he did
00:14:35
Speaker
It was like his last effort to keep me from escaping and it worked. I don't know if he was saving me for later. I don't know. But everyone else, if they fell to his eye, they fell only to be then ripped apart by him physically as well. It seemed to me he uses it to weaken you so that he can attack, but I was able to keep my wits about me at least enough to get away.
00:15:04
Speaker
Kregs, would you have been to have any way of maybe strengthening our mental fortitude, trying to keep us from falling prey to that if we did go back? Well, at this moment I'm going to look at my right palm and I still haven't rewrapped it and I just see the glow of like dead center in the palm glowing. I think
00:15:31
Speaker
I think there are still those that have my back. I might be able to at least assist. Just stay close. That's the one thing that I think all of you will want to do is stay close to me. I could potentially give a little extra protection to one of you, whoever feels they are the least prepared to take physical attack. But besides that,
00:15:56
Speaker
stay close or at least stay with an eyesight that I can protect you in a manner we might fare better than splitting too far apart. Would any of you have any means of blinding this creature? I might. I have daylight.
00:16:20
Speaker
Can you cast it on like a specific object? Like if you were to see it, could you cast daylight on its eyeball and try to like blind it that way? Ouch. I mean. She's a point. You are holding a one that isn't being worn or carried. Is the eyeball carried? I would say it's being.
00:16:43
Speaker
Are we gonna have a debate about whether or not an eyeball is an accessory? I'm wearing my eyeballs right now, so Eyeballs wearing you and I wear them well I Think
00:17:04
Speaker
I can't make a decision for the group, but I don't feel comfortable leaving this thing down there. It might be dangerous. It might kill us for all I know, but it's either us or everybody. Well, at minimum, we can potentially have Delmar ready to send word to Wildheel of what exactly is here.
00:17:28
Speaker
Um, it's possible they know and they chose not to do anything about it, but let's hope that's not the case. Yeah. Because that is the strange that nobody came back up here. Things about this place that make me wonder a lot, honestly, um, torture and different things were not necessarily something that we did in these armies. I don't know if Delmar can ever test Sunni of this.
00:17:57
Speaker
He was a scout after all, and I'm not going to impose questions upon him such as this at this time. However, he knows these barracks. If we were to fall, maybe he'd have enough time, gather supplies. He can take his wand back for now. If he needs to reach Wild Hill, reach Francine, that's probably the best way. As long as he stays within a certain distance, he still has access to my steed. But once I fall,
00:18:27
Speaker
I can't promise he'll have it much longer. I think it would be him against the wilds for a while. Do you think that this is the creature that Donaldi was talking about in that note? I have no reason to believe it isn't. Well, another thing is we're getting two jobs done with one strike. Potentially, yes. Metagaming here.
00:18:55
Speaker
Okay. I feel like there will be people that we meet here. Um, I don't know why I'm saying this out loud, but I have a feeling like if this was a job, why haven't we seen anyone else? Potentially. Everyone else was very against taking this job back in Wild Hill. Um, and there was a job from Denaldi that we couldn't take in. I don't remember the details of it.
00:19:29
Speaker
suspicious who's all of us whoever wants to see what you remember about that job oh yeah I just want to roll dice well do it I got an 18 what is my history I got history
00:19:42
Speaker
Oh, not today. 18 flat. Yeah. Jackson's not even a look because he was he was he was tipsy at the time. Sure. A little intoxicated. That was a rough round. Oh, I also need I also need Krigs to make a constitution saving throw. OK, it's morning time. Yeah. Would you roll, Gwen low?
00:20:09
Speaker
Uh, the very, the very lowest. Okay. Devin 18. Okay. Uh, my constitution saved me through his eight. Okay. So you fail. I'm about to find out. Secret secrets are no fun.
00:20:27
Speaker
Did you, you got to remind me, did you fail the day before? No. Okay. So you are another day of, you know, you've been up all night. You guys feel, you all feel pretty tired and worn out because you walk through that keep most of the night and you are, uh,
00:20:47
Speaker
You just don't, you feel like you should want to eat something, but you, your, your mind says so, but your, your stomach, every time you think of eating something, your stomach just turns. It just sounds disgusting. You can't imagine eating. So you've lost your appetite again today. Awesome. And you've got this itch in your beard that you can't get rid of. And every time you scratch a little hair comes off your hand on your hands. Great.
00:21:15
Speaker
Can Joxer make a perception check? Yep. You can perceive. All right. So that is my purse is a 16. Okay. Uh, you noticed the hair coming off on his fingers. He just gets a glare from Joxer just double down. And I'll tell you too, that.
00:21:39
Speaker
Since you've been up all night, you guys are all fading a little bit this morning, and you feel like it might be a little tough to stay focused to do anything too taxing today. Like find a giant beast? Because of your exhaustion. Yeah. Well, Delma, is there any reason to believe that this beast would be more strong in the evening?
00:22:10
Speaker
Well, first of all, I don't really like the idea of facing the journey back on my own. Um, I must admit, I don't know how long I can, I don't know. I still hear the voice echoing inside me.
00:22:32
Speaker
I'm afraid I will give into it. Second of all, the creature, I don't know, it's lived in this state of darkness since I have ever seen it. It came out of the, it did come out of the mountains. I think I remember coming out of the mountains during the day fighting, fighting us before we could get it locked in this keep, but it didn't seem to be weakened at all by the daytime. Just the only thing that seemed to bother it was
00:23:03
Speaker
was whenever someone would cast spells that caused lots of commotion and pushed, pushed him away, would destroy stone around him. But besides that, there wasn't much that really seemed to bother him. It's true. Noise seemed to affect you fairly well. And he and I'll look over at Craig's just annoyed. Okay. Salty.
00:23:33
Speaker
I think we need to make a decision. We either fight this thing or we don't. Well, after all that we've already come across, I think we all need a solid rest, but I'm for destroying this beast. Krigs, what are we doing?
00:24:01
Speaker
I say we face it. I know none of us are wanting to do this or feel prepared, but this is the best time we have. It is a long, long trek back. We found things in the wild none of us understood at the time. I believe you can recall a certain set of eyes we never got answers about. It might be now or never. For Delmar's sake, I say we fight this creature.
00:24:29
Speaker
I agree. I suppose we should probably at least have a backup plan with him if, say, your steed disappears. That would be a pretty good sign that... Delma, you know these barracks fairly well. You know the armoury, you know everything that you are equipped with here. If I were to give you your wand and you had access to everything that this barrack could offer,
00:24:55
Speaker
this fortress, could you set out for Wild Hill with the thought of Francine, your daughter, the one that sent us after you, after all these years, she still believed, can you take that hope all the way back to Wild Hill?
00:25:14
Speaker
I would make every effort to. I know you can do it. My concern is finding the way. I once was the best tracker you could find, but perhaps I could retrace your steps if I can keep my senses well enough to track your travels to here. Look for board tracks. Go find Tom and Chad and then we'll hook you up.
00:25:40
Speaker
I don't, I'm not planning on that being an issue. You wait here for us. Hopefully we'll only be 20 minutes. We're going to end this thing and then we're going to come back and go home. We'll take you to Francine.
00:25:54
Speaker
20 minutes, around his six seconds. Sorry. I'm playing the find the damn thing. Yeah, it's true. That's, um, no, he, uh, he says, I, I can't imagine going in there after seeing what that thing did to me. You are truly, truly brave ones. You are.
00:26:24
Speaker
The line between bravery and stupidity is pretty thin. Indeed. Very thin. They called me brave. They called me brave for luring the thing back into the keep, and you could see how that turned out. Yes, but think of how many lives you probably saved in doing so. He looks around. I don't know. I don't know who made it out, if anyone. Tama, if you can't stand the presence of this being, and if we fall,
00:26:55
Speaker
Your steed that you are currently riding, it is linked to me. If it fades or if it starts fading, I will hold on for as long as I can if you feel you can get as far as possible to give yourself the best chance to get away from here. I will wait no longer than 20 minutes. Then I will go.
00:27:20
Speaker
For your sake, I suggest waiting outside these walls. We will take care of this beast. Sounds like a plan to me. I just pray Helms blessings on all of you.
00:27:32
Speaker
With that, I take the wand that he originally gave me and I'm going to just place it back in his hand. And I'm placing it specifically back in the deformed hand. And I'm going to like not wince, not anything. I'm placing it like with a grasp, like you are you.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah, okay. He makes eye contact with you when you do that, when you hand it to him. He makes eye contact with you and he kind of scrunches his brow and his nose a little bit in a look of understanding. He gets what you're doing and he just gives you the slightest nod of approval and gratitude.
00:28:12
Speaker
and takes a step backwards and climbs back up on the steed and just looks back down at you and says, 20 minutes then and rides off. Okay. Well, good. Because I left my rope back there and I don't want to lose it. It's my favorite rope. The priorities, man. Rosy the rope. I believe you named it, right? You had it embroidered on a little tag, a little leather, little dongle right on the end of the rope, which is rosy.
00:28:39
Speaker
Roseanne, I mean, it's Rosie is for personal. Okay. It's Roseanne to you. My apologies.
The Battle Against the Creature
00:28:47
Speaker
Um, so I have two small javelins, um, from a previous and, and a scimitar, um, uh, would I have known anything about the scimitar at this point since I've had it for a day?
00:29:02
Speaker
I believe it's just a normal scimitar okay it was it was from it was from the goblin boss so it's it's just a it's just your garden variety okay lay weapon oh rusty boy all right so it's normal it's just it's not damaged it's just yes military issue
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah, something picked up off the ground off of a sharp pointy. Yeah. So at that point, you know, if any of you thought these would be helpful, then by all means, I don't plan on being that close to the thing. I do, unfortunately. The javelins are good for throwing as well. I might take a javelin off your hand. I have one of my own, but
00:29:49
Speaker
In the need in the event that I need to at least get some distance, it will it will help. Well, we have any any plans? Obviously, we can we can get back into the room from above as we did before. Do you want to get back in and see if we can find it or? I don't don't don't leave it to me to just bark orders at you here. You're you're all you have your own agency in the regard.
00:30:19
Speaker
It was already mentioned that it doesn't like noises as well as it's fairly large. So we don't have many rooms that would show its face. I've got plans when it comes to noises. He's just going to tap on a shield a little bit.
00:30:36
Speaker
I feel like noises would draw to us whether we just need to choose what room we want to be if the entrance is definitely, or the entrance that we had seemed large enough. I don't know if we can really over plan this thing. We don't know how we even can draw it out or where it is exactly. I think we just go back in there and stick together. Here's the way I see it. The main hall that we entered the first seemed to be the largest room
00:31:06
Speaker
DM. Was that accurate? Yes. The main hall seemed to be the largest room. He says again with more confidence. The main room. I know for a fact. I feel I can draw it to us. I believe I can draw it to us with enough noise. That seems to be its one weakness, if we can call it that, with enough noise and enough attraction to that area, that would be the largest that we might be able to at least
00:31:36
Speaker
have some breathing room around this creature. Anything else might be too much of a choke point and we can find ourselves finding a very early demise. Well, that's our plan then. I feel, since there is only one entry, then we could try to flank it from the sides and you could draw its attention down the center. We'd have advantage on whatever we needed to. Right. I could go, you know, get behind it.
00:32:04
Speaker
That whole of yours, the, uh, jeez, that whole of yours, you, you were able to, I mean, I have limited experience with it. I basically almost got you stuck. Uh, you're able to enter and egress from that brewery stand you have at any time, I believe. Right. It's true. I, I could have it set up and, and.
00:32:31
Speaker
be out of sight minus a giant black hole. But in the dark, I suppose that wouldn't matter. We might be able to make a bit of an ambush. That's true. My worry is the amount of time it'll take to climb out of that thing. You guys weren't jumping out of it really quickly. It's a ladder. It's about 10 feet. So I think as we're just talking, we've hopefully been walking towards the building and just assessing this situation.
00:32:59
Speaker
Wait up for me. I want to come too. I'm sorry. I just... I want to help. We need your help, Grin. We can't do it without you. You think I'm going in there without you? You're crazy. Yeah. We need everybody on board. Even Grin Dale.
00:33:26
Speaker
Well, you have to think Dale. He talked to me. That's what we needed him for. Good man that Dale. Yeah, a good boy. The best boy. The gossip king. I'm sorry. The gossip king. He's got so many nicknames already.
00:33:50
Speaker
So this building, getting back into it, how do we do it before? Cause it is through like the roof. My rope is tangled from the top. Okay. Yeah. There's like a walkway behind the chimney or whatever. I say, I say we go back in this entry the same way we did before. Any, any, any issues with that? That's the only way I know in. All right. This is the way I see it. This is the main entry hall that we can draw to jocks at that, that,
00:34:20
Speaker
brewery hole of yours, if we were to put it in a location that we would assume behind where the creature is going to come from, if it is not in this main area, which I'm going to assume it is not, hopefully. If we can get you down there, you might be able to spring from behind the creature when it is attention is not on you, Devin. I've seen you twist spells with ease.
00:34:45
Speaker
You can hang up here and see if you can get a vantage point, keeping yourself out of danger, but also having the ability to, well, for lack of better words, if things go south, make sure Delmar makes it back to Wild Hill. And in the best case scenario, if we need you in, you could possibly get to the floor from here, when I've seen you turn into little animals.
00:35:12
Speaker
I think if we could get you either in the room with me or in a corner hiding, we could also give you a position of advantage. I am going to draw the creature in. I will be the main target, the main focus, and you all, you got the rest covered, I believe in you.
00:35:33
Speaker
It'd be a piece of cake. We'd be like fighting another ghost. Choxer just puts his head down. Not like the other ghosts, but we will destroy it. It's true. I don't know if we need to waste any spells or slots for Gwen to turn into an animal. If we go in there in the dock and you cause ruckus, you could be ready.
00:35:59
Speaker
I want to, I mean, if that is, if that's necessary, if she thinks it's the best advantage for her, I trust her. The way I see it, though, I want no one to catch the gaze of this creature before they've had a chance to at least sink their sword once, or in Daven's case, a hefty fireball. I'll at least say that if there's a lot of debris in there, we could hide behind. That might be advantageous.
00:36:28
Speaker
You find the best spot for you that you feel is best to grant you some advantage on this creature, but you stay away from its gaze. Be it your hole, be it these ramparts, be it in the corner as an owl, bat, whatever you want to be. You do not draw its gaze until absolutely no other chance. Understood. Shall we? Jox who just jumps down.
00:37:15
Speaker
It's all been piled up over to one side over there blocking the door. It's like a it's just a blockade against that door and this creature That seems to be wanting to keep this creature in or out or something well, so So the rest of the floor is pretty clear except for blood stains and stuff like that here and there and so currently
00:37:21
Speaker
I'm going to lower myself in.
00:37:39
Speaker
Currently Joxer has made his way in and the rest of you are up top still waiting to jump down inside to be inside the keep. Oh no, Kriegs, you said you're climbing down in, right?
00:37:55
Speaker
Yeah, um, I will probably go in first and well, I mean, jocks are jumped down, but I will go before anyone else and just kind of like make sure I get a quick go ahead and make a perception check. And you two jocks are, I'm assuming you're going to get down there and just case the joint. Yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
That's a no. He said no. That's a, that's a four for perception. Okay. Uh, I got 13. Okay. So you look around and you see what I, what I said before the place is, is dim. You can see the dust floating through these shafts of light that are just kind of like creating almost stripes along the floor and the walls inside of this almost like almost V shaped keep room, uh, pretty large.
00:38:43
Speaker
about 60 feet wide. And from wall to wall, if you were to kind of go across the V shape, the whole thing is probably at least twice that long, 120 to 150 feet long. And you see blood scattered here and there, dried blood spray all over the place, like you saw before. And that door that you went through is at the back of the room from where you came in.
00:39:08
Speaker
And it's it's standing open from your entry down into there earlier that night. But you currently don't see anything that is of of any any evidence of a creature inside this room. I'm going to quietly look to jocks or look up to Daven Gwen. I'm not too sure where she's at right now. When are you? Yes, I'll talk.
00:39:39
Speaker
Okay. Um, I want to make sure that my position up top, I can see both the jockser and Krigs. If one of them goes out of distance of my vision, I want to climb down. Okay. Uh, it looks like jockser is going to bolt over to the other side of the room. I'm going to step forward pretty close to the middle of the room. Okay.
00:40:03
Speaker
I'm going to look back around, give the nod, make sure everyone is ready. Okay. So you, at that point when Krigs moves, Daven, you no longer see him. So I'm going to say you, that's when you would decide to jump down in, right? All right. Before I jump down, I'm going to put a hand on Gwen's shoulder and I'll say, I know that you have reservations about this, but I've got a good feeling we're doing the right thing. I appreciate it. I know you're right. I just, I'm scared.
00:40:31
Speaker
Francine does deserve her father. I can do this. We'll take him back to her. I know it. And then I'm going to climb down. I have a question.
00:40:47
Speaker
Okay. So I want to, I want to do wild shape before I go down and I already know you're probably going to veto this, but I want to try to an octopus and don't say no just yet because they can stay out of water for 20 to 30 minutes. Okay. Tell me why Gwen has seen an octopus. That's a good question. That's the only thing. Hang on. I can make this work. Give me a minute.
00:41:16
Speaker
We believe in you. Yeah, I went to, what was it? La- La- Lavarith? I went to the Aquarium in Lavarith. Went to the Aquarium in Lavarith. The Aquarium in Landlocked Lavarith. Oh my god, everything is in there. I'm going to say you can turn into an octopus. You're a studied individual. There is an ocean right next to us that's next to the wood for it to grow up.
00:41:47
Speaker
So you, you turn into an octopus. Fantastic. I am going to stealthily go down the ladder. Okay. Make a stealth check. Okay. I'm, I'm just going back to, uh, what is it? Finding Dory. Yeah. But also I see, uh, from Emperor's new groove, the stealth mission from, uh,
00:42:15
Speaker
I mean, this campaign is almost identical to that storyline too. Oh yeah. I have llama dice. She don't have a stealth stat line up. Well, it's plus four for stealth. Yeah. Okay. What'd you roll? Two.
00:42:36
Speaker
OK, the six total. The glorious octopus ever. Yeah, jocks or jocks or whenever you said he he had already bolted across the room, I laid out and ducked my head underneath the portable hole. OK, so you climbed down inside there. Yeah, OK. So just just just with my head under so.
00:42:59
Speaker
peeking. I just see this like little hole in the ground with two eyes, two little beady jocks or eyes. Just watching. So we have Chris has gone down to the center of the room. I feel like you're not you're not trying to be stealthy or sneaky at all, are you? Nope. All right. Davin has. Have you have you been sneaky, like trying to stealth back or how have you entered? I roll a stealth throw. Good. Because as far as I'm concerned, you're still up there. I have no idea you're down here yet. I have a.
00:43:28
Speaker
plus five, 13 total. Okay. I might know you're down here. It's possible that I'm aware of it. And then Gwendolyn, where do you head in the room? Davin's hanging back behind Krigs a good probably what, 25, 30 feet? Oh no, about 10 feet behind Krigs. Yeah, actually I'm gonna get sort of right behind him. Gwen, where are you headed?
00:43:47
Speaker
I'm probably headed over in this corner right here where I just drew instead of Yeah along the wall you came in about 20 25 feet from where you draw that inside So I'm probably gonna move to the other side of Krigs so I can stay within range I want to be within 30 feet of him and Joxer
00:44:10
Speaker
All right, Gwen, make a perception check as you head that direction. Alrighty. Looking around in your octopuses. Use the octopus stats, don't forget. Oh my gosh. Yes, I have them. I'm smart now. A dirty 20. Okay, cool. Hey, there they are. So you look over into the pile of rubble stone and as you look over there, suddenly
00:44:39
Speaker
You just feel a shiver up your spine as you look into that rubble. Make a charisma saving throw. No, I just found it. Wrong way. As an octopus. 19.
00:44:55
Speaker
Okay, plus negative three. Plus negative three. So what was it? 1616. That's what you needed. So you Yeah, you you shiver. And you didn't see anything. But you got this, this feeling of extreme discomfort and fear, but you shook it off.
00:45:24
Speaker
Hey guys, it's your friendly neighborhood Krigs here. It's nice to see you all at the potluck. Didn't expect to see you after the incident last time. Oh well.
00:45:37
Speaker
Anyway, I just wanted to drop in here and just give a big thanks to all you guys that have listened to our story so far. I know the last couple of episodes have been pretty daunting. Have no fear though. I actually have some pretty awesome news.
Psychological Warfare and Visions
00:45:53
Speaker
This episode was sponsored by our new friend at Loot Tables. Yeah, right? We weren't expecting such awesome news either.
00:46:04
Speaker
Michael over at Loot Tables is actually killing it with some of the coolest TTRPG gear we've seen. His website, you can find it at loottables.com. L-O-O-T-T-A-B-L-E-S.com. It's packed with just so much cool stuff. But honestly, what we are most excited about are the new slim dice faults.
00:46:32
Speaker
He actually has a Kickstarter going for right now. It's live for at least the rest of April. And if you know me, I am a pure blood dice goblin. But I always struggle with having a carrying case or storage container that honestly really suits me. Michael and loot tables, his slim dice vaults have completely solved all those issues for little old me.
00:46:59
Speaker
Look at this, it's a handcrafted dice vault and 15 unique exotic hardwoods. I'm talking like a ridiculous amount of choices. They all actually have a borderless full lid that is magnetically secured. And not to like go all ASMR on you or anything, but when that magnet catches, oh, chef's kiss, it is so satisfying.
00:47:28
Speaker
And a fun fact about me is, I have the incessant need to be unique, so I'm gonna have mine engraved.
00:47:37
Speaker
I believe the engraving options start around $25, which is super choice. I'll definitely be buying one probably for each of my different characters, one for Krigs, because let's face it, I have a different set of dice for each of my characters. They don't intermingle. So what you're going to want to do is go to his Kickstarter at bit.ly slash ltswords.
00:48:06
Speaker
bit.ly slash L-T-S-W-O-R-D-S. So get on that train before it is too late. Ah, all the hype. Not only that, get this, Michael actually set us hired swords up with a discount code you can use at loottables.com for 10% off your purchase. Just use the code swords, S-W-O-R-D-S, at checkout and get so much red gear.
00:48:36
Speaker
Alright, I've definitely gone on way too long. Just check out bit.ly slash ltswords, get in on that Kickstarter, you definitely are not going to regret it. And yeah, back to the episode. Bye guys. Having reached the center of the room,
00:48:59
Speaker
Am I able to do my stuff? Put your stuff. I'm going to stand there in the center of the room. I'm going to take my hammer and the right hand and my shield and my left, and I'm just going to call out fresh meat. And I'm going to start slamming my hammer into the shield, just bam, bam, bam, just over and over and try to get as much sound as possible.
00:49:24
Speaker
Davin's going to use this reaction to cover his ears because he's so he's like right next to him pretty much. Yeah. OK. Stand right there. Oh, OK. That's what you're doing. All right. So bang, bang, bang. You start making noise and just causing this ruckus and make a person. Everyone make perception checks as you look, except for Jockster. I guess you're are you down in the hole? You're looking up over looking up. He's got them two eyes. Just watch it floor level, right? Yeah. Like Elroy was here, that whole thing. Yeah, yeah. For 17.
00:49:54
Speaker
Five. Nineteen for Devin. Hey. I'm going to use the other dice now. I'm just going to throw these away. Do the little switcheroo. So so everybody tell me what you rolled again real quick. Seventeen. OK. Fourteen. Jocks are fourteen. Nineteen for Devin and low five. OK. Devin, you're the only one.
00:50:17
Speaker
but you suddenly in the in the rubble you look and suddenly one of the stones you notice has a yellow hue to it and as you as you squint to look more like what make a charisma saving throw and i know the sorcerer making a charisma saving throw um uh actually it's not good oh no
00:50:46
Speaker
Give me a second. Let me, uh, it's a 13, but I think I can do something about this. Okay. How close are you to me? Oh, I am within 10 feet of you. Do I get something? Yeah. Did you cast that spell? I don't have to. Oh, just an aura about him. Wow. Is it something about you? They get a bonus in the saving throw equal to my charisma modifier. So add two.
00:51:18
Speaker
Metagaming I know that's still not enough that are 15. It would be a 15 wait hold on I have a ability to here. Where is it? Favored by the gods if you fail a saving throw or miss with an attack roll you can roll 2d4 and add it to the total so I'm assuming it's a it's a fail, right? So yeah, just for the fun. It's a failure So so I get to add four more to it two ones are gonna do it. So yeah, you succeed So I'll succeed that sucks had to use that right now, but it's okay. I
00:51:46
Speaker
And you see as you shake off this same shiver of fear and discomfort, you see this form take shape in the stone. It's the same, almost the same color of the stones. The muscles and the flesh on this body is rolling in like almost like crumbled stone has been stuck to some sort of creature. And it's face that you see this face where this one eye looks almost humanoid and normal.
00:52:15
Speaker
But the whole rest of the face is pocked with gray and black boils. And the one eye is huge and misshapen. It's not even round like a ball. It's just misshapen. And it's yellow in a dull yellow color. And no matter what, it just seems like you can't stop looking at that eye. And everyone hears this.
00:52:39
Speaker
this just low growl as this eye focuses in and makes eye contact on you, Daven, realizing that you see it. Can I do something? We're going to roll initiative. I mean, I mean, I want to do something with the group. OK, I want everyone of the group to make a perception check. OK, I'm going to do a fun, a fun thing. Yeah. Oh. Five again. Oh, good perception.
00:53:09
Speaker
Oh, three. Wow. Mine's a sixteen. Sixteen. OK, so Jocks is the only one who sees this. It's Daven. Whenever that thing starts to take him over, you see his eyes kind of start to glaze over. He's got like his bright green eyes and then they just flash like this really crystal bright blue. And then it just almost like explodes inside of his own eyes and he just focus comes right back.
00:53:35
Speaker
cool what yeah yeah yeah I wish I would have seen this make plays loves it Craig's didn't see it make everyone roll initiative okay
00:53:53
Speaker
Oh my god. On that 20. 19? That's a terrible time to do this, but okay. Not necessarily. Hold on. Actually, I didn't have my 20. Dirty 20, though. Okay. Do you want me to add my Dex? My initiative? So 23 for Joxer. Yeah. Well, are you still an octopus? Oh yeah. Is it Dex? Then yeah, it's not an octopus because it's a physical trait. It's 11 for Daven. Okay. So we had Krigs and Joxer both roll 20s.
00:54:21
Speaker
He had 23, I had dirty 20. What'd you roll, Gwen? I rolled a four. Oh. All right, so jocks or krigs and you rolled what, Daven? Daven 11. OK.
00:54:44
Speaker
Quick question. What are the ceilings like in this place? Just curious. The ceiling is about 25 feet high and solid stone with a few lighting sconces kind of hanging from the ceiling. A couple of them have been torn down, but a couple of them are still up kind of hanging crookedly. Okay.
00:55:09
Speaker
Oh, jeez, I just saw the monster on the map that you put out there. The thing is gigantic and ugly. It's just growing under its breath with you. Now that you saw it, you've seen it. I've seen it. All right, so Joxer, we are an initiative. This creature has had its, it has revealed itself with its low growl and a little bit of movement. So what are you going to do?
00:55:38
Speaker
I'm in such a terrible spot to do anything right now. I'm way over here. That is well beyond. At this point, since I'm kind of on a new whole of actions.
00:55:54
Speaker
Yeah, but I can't move and hold an action. I can hold an action. So I'm just going to ready a javelin, the little javelin I have, and hold to throw it, maybe. If it seems like I'll have advantage. Otherwise, I don't really want to poke my head out to gain its gaze while I'm still somewhat hidden.
00:56:24
Speaker
Yeah, okay. All right, so you're holding that javelin action, Krigs. How far is this monster from me? Currently, you are about 75, 80 feet away. Oh, 65 feet away. Bad at angles. Big room is what I'm gonna do. I am going to.
00:56:49
Speaker
continue just banging on my shield just like, bang, bang, come and get me big boy. And I'm gonna cast Shield of Faith on Davin who is standing next to me somewhat, giving him two extra AC, cause I know he's not gonna lot. Okay. Squishy boy.
00:57:09
Speaker
All right, so Davin gains a couple AC. Anything else, Krigs? That's it for me. I'm just continually taunting this thing. Yeah. Just come and get it. All right, Davin, what are you going to do with that extra AC? Oh, is it my turn? Yeah, you're next. Can I see Joxer peeking out of the hole? Yeah. Okay, then I'm going to cast Haste. Okay. And then I'm going...
00:57:36
Speaker
And I have, I'm going to use three sorcery points to twin that spell and also cast it on Crakes. So both of them get haste. And I'm just going to look at them and I'm going to say go get them boys. And then I'm going to run backwards.
00:57:52
Speaker
Okay, yeah, all right boys That's sick, especially for the freaking monk dude. Yeah So just as a reminder for everybody on what haste does
00:58:09
Speaker
Until the spell ends, the target speed is doubled. It gains plus two to an AC. It has advantage on dexterity saving throws, and it gains an additional action on its turn, which can be used for one weapon attack, or like dash, disengage, hide, or something like that. Oh, that is incredible. So it's not a full action, it's just one extra attack. Oh, yes. All right. Okay. So is that your whole turn? That's it. Yep, that's me.
00:58:34
Speaker
Okay, so now this creature, it bangs its arms on the floor and just starts running at Gwendolyn because it's just the nearest creature. As it does, it just bears down on you, grilling you with that eyeball, make another charisma saving throw.
00:58:57
Speaker
Oh, my God. Seventeen minus three. Perfect. Oh, man. Fourteen. Fourteen. All right. Anybody else have anything else to do to her? I got nothing. Yeah. OK. So Gwendolyn.
00:59:13
Speaker
You you suddenly black out everything goes black and you the the blackness kind of dissolves and fades into a Beautiful meadow standing in the sunlight you see flowers around you singing with beauty. They're just gorgeous Everything's so beautiful and you feel that familiar zen you felt before when you were on at the foothills before the stone mountains and you just oh
00:59:40
Speaker
And then this familiar little critter scurries up out of the grass up to you and kind of crawls up onto your toes cutely and reaches up with its little arms like a little toddler wanting to be held. You want to pick it up? I do. Yeah. So you reach down and it climbs into your hands. You pick it up and you hold it in front of your face. And this little chipmunk looks directly into your eyes and in this little squeaky sinister voice it says,
01:00:11
Speaker
Your search is in vain. You are lost and you will never be found as is he and as am I. And then the critter bites you and jumps down and scurries off. And your vision comes back to you and you're back in this room with this creature standing in front of you and your brain just aches and hurts and you take 18 psychic damage.
01:00:38
Speaker
You're no longer in octopus. So I would take the remaining 15, yeah? Yes. And then it does a slam attack on you. And so it reaches its big, the big stone looking club of a hand and it swings down at you.
01:01:00
Speaker
I dodge. Natural one. So it swings down and it misjudges the size and the distance and it's just as you're morphing from octopus back into yourself from the pain of that psychic damage and it swings down to hit the octopus and you kind of morph back into yourself and so it hits the ground and then it looks in your face and just
01:01:23
Speaker
And your spittle and gross slime comes out of his mouth onto your new, newly established Gwen face, not octopus face, as you stand there in your undergarments in front of this creature. That is the creature's turn. Gwen, it is your turn now. Oh, she's just so angry now. All this like nervous feeling she's had just turns into rage. She's had it with this guy.
01:01:51
Speaker
She's immediately going to do her spirit totem, which basically just grants bodice actions to people. And I am going to do
01:02:05
Speaker
I'm gonna do the bear spirit. Oh my gosh. The bear spirit totem. Each creature of your choice in the aura, when spirit appears, gains temporary hit points, will defy plus your... In addition, you and your allies gain advantage on strength checks. What's the radius of that aura? It should be... 30 feet. 30 feet round, so it's a circle. And it's a bear?
01:02:34
Speaker
A little bear spirit appears. All right. So this this big just just aura starts emanating from Gwendolyn just around her and. And trying to read the description a little more. Yeah, it says within 60 feet so you can say wherever you want it. I want to say it's going to be based on me, so it's just going to be just like it is around surrounding you. How many?
01:03:04
Speaker
How many? So you get temporary hit points. No one else is in the square, but in the circle, but you. Is in it. Hey, if it's based on a fee. Oh, OK. I was just using the that's my fault. I was just using what the. I wasn't paying attention. How many. Calls 30 feet, but five. So it's five plus your druid level. So you're level six. It should be 11, 11 temporary hit points. That is nice.
01:03:37
Speaker
All right. And then for my action. That was a bonus action. Goodness gracious. I'm going to cast Animal Friendship. Just kidding. I cast Fairy Fire around it. Okay. Fairy Fire. What color is your Fairy Fire? Let's make it purple. Hopefully he's got a really low Dex. So this creature shines with this bright cube of
01:04:07
Speaker
cube of um energy and it's very easy to see now he does have to make a dexterity saving throw oh he rolled a natural 20 so that stupid spell never works every time that's the only time he rolls really well oh i was so excited if it fails nothing happens or succeeds nothing happens yeah if it succeeds yeah nothing happens so
01:04:34
Speaker
Okay, thanks. So you cast Fairy Fire and the creature kind of shuffles it off and it just doesn't bother it at all. It ends up not hitting him. She's blinded by rage. Yeah.
01:04:49
Speaker
Okay, so the blind condition then? No, I'm just kidding. I know what you meant. Yes. Go ahead and add it. Add everything. Go ahead. Just say I'm blind too. Whatever. Joxxer, your turn. With your haste and everything. Okay. Yes. All right. So, Joxxer is- I'm sorry. Gwendolyn, I got to ask you a question.
01:05:08
Speaker
Whenever you do the hit points thing, if somebody gets into that, do they get it or is it just that one pulse and they have that, and then it's gone, that aura? Does it stay up? When they're standing in it, it stays up, yep. Okay, okay, that's all I need to know. Joxer, go ahead.
01:05:22
Speaker
So Joxer is going to try to run behind the beast to kind of get a little out of its attention and then feel this plus 11 aura, assumably. And he is just going to wail on it with his rapier. So he's going to start with one attack.
01:05:52
Speaker
And that is an 18 plus three. So 21 or no, no, plus hits six. Okay. So that's 21 a natural 20. Oh yeah. That'll hit.
01:06:07
Speaker
And then a four, no, 15. It does not hit. Okay, so first, so I'll do those three attacks. That's one D6 ones, or those two attacks. Two hits. Yeah. You run up there with just lightning speed. Can you just swipe at it twice?
01:06:29
Speaker
so yeah so the the first one was a two plus three damage so that's five damage and then the second one is a six times two plus three damage so 12
01:06:42
Speaker
plus three, so 15, so 20 damage total, and then I'm going to use my key to do a furry, a flurry of blows. Furry of blows. And then I'm just gonna like. Give me Dale, it's time for furry of blows.
01:07:01
Speaker
So you just see me try to like swing at it and then and then come back swing. And then I'm just going to start elbowing. It's like the back of its knees. And then those are a natural one. Like a heavy bag. Yeah. OK, that's a miss. And twenty one. So yeah, that's a hit for sure. So that'll be a one. Oh, no, that's a one.
01:07:31
Speaker
That's 8 damage. So 28 damage total. Okay. I wasn't paying attention because I was trying to figure out what I was doing. Did you take your extra attack from haste? I did. I did three full attacks and then my flurry blows and then I am going to cast an aura around me as a bonus action and I get some extra protection and if this beast is still in the aura, it takes damage on its turn.
01:07:57
Speaker
I can link that one, just a shielding aura. Did we get a description of this thing?
01:08:06
Speaker
Yes. It stands about nine feet tall. Its top half is big and heavy. It looks like its body is broken out into these giant welts that look like stones on its back gray and black pock marks. Its face, it has one eye that looks almost humanoid, but the whole rest of its face is just more of these gray, ugly boils and things. And then it's got that one dull green eye or dull yellow eye that
01:08:31
Speaker
that it's using to stare at you every time it gets a chance. And so, so you've got your shielding aura now, is that what you're doing? Yeah. Okay. All right. So your shielding aura gives you, you get resistance to damage. Okay. Yep. And it'll take them. What's the, it's 10 feet. Yeah, 10 feet. So the aura is not too far. Yeah. Okay.
01:09:02
Speaker
Okay, so the joxer gets in there with that rapier and starts swinging and then just uses his other arm and in between rapier hits and swings in a couple punches, and this creature just and kind of takes it but doesn't seem to be affected too much by it. And, and that'll take us to Krigs now.
01:09:23
Speaker
Kregs is going to start walking towards the creature, his hand, right hand still uncovered, he's going to hold it ahead of him. Anyone that is ahead in front of him, which at this point would only believe, I believe be Droxio or Gwen, is going to see the glow in the center of his palm. He's going to utter
01:09:44
Speaker
something quietly which sounds similar to the eyes of Helm. And when he says that, the glow on his hand gets brighter and you see his hand, the center of his hand, slightly open, as if to be an eyelid, but not
01:10:04
Speaker
Uh, and with that, I am channeling divinity, the vow of enmity against this creature, which is a bonus action that will grant me advantage on every attack until it is dead. Okay. For one minute. Okay. So when I finally approach it, after walking towards it and casting my bonus action, I am going to have my
01:10:29
Speaker
Warhammer, and I'm going to swing, swing away. Swing away, Jack. That is, oh, let me do advantage on this. Sorry. Don't you miss 15 plus seven, 22. And that is going to be 1d10 plus eight bludgeoning. Cause I'm attacking dose handed. Okay.
01:10:58
Speaker
That means two, two handed totes. Sorry. I really am the worst at knowing which one is the D 10. For some reason, it's always the D 10. I don't know why you can't find the D 10. Yeah, we can never find them. It's the one that goes up to 10. Yeah. So that attack I do damage.
01:11:21
Speaker
You say 12. Yeah. OK. And then I had with that hammer and thud in a big chunk of his body flies off like like you busted up a rock or something flies off of it. And then I have my bonus attack, which is just a normal thing. Extra attack, not my haste yet. My detail has a llama on it instead of a number.
01:11:47
Speaker
That is 19 plus 7 26 26 hits That is 9 damage plus 8 so 17 damage
01:12:02
Speaker
Okay. And then for haste, I'm going to do another attack. Do I get, I don't get an extra attack like I normally do. It's not an extra round for me. It's just, I get one more. Yeah, one more swing. So going to do another swing with advantage. 16 plus seven is.
01:12:22
Speaker
I can't do math because I'm too excited, 23. That's gonna hit. Yeah, it does. You're rolling like a champ. My damage wasn't as good, that was four plus eight, 12 again.
01:12:37
Speaker
12 again. All right. So you run up to him and you give him these three big hammer strikes and just crunching away pieces of his exterior kind of stone armor almost that he's grown on top of himself.
01:12:55
Speaker
and that last hit you actually slice through and this big bloody gaping wound opens up on his arm and it catches his attention and he uses his legendary action to turn around and do a eye slam attack. So he does both his eye and slam on you at the same time. So I need you to make a charisma saving throw. Okay. His legendary action.
01:13:24
Speaker
Yeah, he's bad. That's not good. Why not? Does a twenty one hit you? Twenty one for sure hits me. I got 18 with my modifier. I know. Yeah, it would just be 20, even with my order of protection. It's just 20. OK, that saves.
01:13:45
Speaker
You got a 20 for your save? I would hope that would save. For your charisma saving throw? Yeah, that saves. Oh, I thought you said I needed to beat a 21 and I was like, oh no. No, no, no. I rolled a 21 to hit you with the slam part of it. Okay. So that hits me for sure. Are you sure? Because you have plus two AC. What's your AC? Uh, that puts me at 20 AC without my shield equipped. Cause I'm attacking two hands for the extra damage.
01:14:12
Speaker
Oh, those 30. Thank you. Plus you had 11 those 10 points. So that was it's once per round legendary action that it's it. You did enough damage that you got its attention in it. Hold on her round.
01:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's how legendary actions work. So it, it turned around and use that on you. Um, and, uh, trying to, trying to respond to your assault on it. Uh, and that now takes us to Davin's turn. I think, right. Is there anything else you want to do? You bonus action, you action, you moved other than cry. No. Okay. Devin.
01:14:55
Speaker
All right. Um, I just saw my friend get clobbered pretty dang hard. And I realized that this is probably not going to be the easiest fight that we have. Um, I'm going to cast spiritual weapon as a bonus action. Okay. Um, and seeing the damage that his ax did, I'm just going to make it look almost identical to Craig's ax, but it's going to be on the opposite side of him. It's a, his is a war hammer. So, okay. Well, I'm going to make it a war hammer with a blade on it. Okay. One side hammer, the other side blade. Yeah. Okay.
01:15:25
Speaker
And that immediately gets an attack, which is going to be a natural 13 plus seven, so 20 total. Hits. It takes eight points of damage. And then for my actual action, I will cast a Firebolt at it. Oof, duh, okay. What kind of damage is that spiritual weapon? It's radiant damage.
01:15:49
Speaker
Okay, so when that hits it, you see some of those stones and things start to almost melt away, and it seems to suffer more from that hit than you would have expected it to. Nice. I just want to double check that and make sure I didn't lie. I'm pretty sure you're right. Yes, it's radiant damage. Yep. So yeah, that happened then. No, never mind. I lied. I lied. It's forced damage. I'm looking at the wrong one.
01:16:19
Speaker
That didn't happen then. You don't know that radiant damage does anything extra. You don't know. Nobody knows that. It doesn't change what I was going to do anyways, which is now a fire bolt, uh, which was a 20 to hit hits. And that is 2d10 damage, which is seven points of damage. Okay.
01:16:40
Speaker
Alright, so he gets the spiritual weapon smack smacks up against him and then this this this fireball launches and just after the the war hammer axe hits him the fireball bursts on his side and he turns and looks so looks over his shoulder and sees Daven back there too and you kind of get an idea that he might feel like he's gotten
01:17:07
Speaker
Fitting off maybe a little more than he can chew, but he once again bears his eyes down on Krigs. Krigs, you've got to make another charisma saving throw. And a 17 is not going to hit you with the attack, right? No. OK. So, uh, about that saving throw. Yeah. I didn't pass it. But you roll. Not good.
01:17:35
Speaker
That's like a kid when they don't pass the test and they go tomorrow. Do you know what you need to roll to pass it? No, but I mean, it's probably safe to say that, like... What was the number? I don't know, like an eight. Okay, yeah, that fails. So... He so didn't want to say the number. Yeah. So, Krigs, he swings his fist at you and you dodge it, but as you do, you notice that you're engaging in eye contact with that yellow, dull eye.
01:18:07
Speaker
Suddenly your vision becomes cloudy and your mind becomes cloudy and suddenly you feel almost like you're intoxicated and you're struggling to think straight and you start blinking hard and your vision starts to cut. You blink and you're open and there you are in this stone chamber with this creature. You blink again. When you open your eyes, you're in a battlefield surrounding by violence, just war, soldiers fighting.
01:18:30
Speaker
You blink again, you're back in this room, you blink again and you're surrounded by war again. And you look to your left and you see this dwarf fighter swinging a greatsword against an orc, slicing it open. You look to your right, you see another dwarf. He's got a battle axe in each hand swinging both of them and slicing right through the midsection of a dark elf who cries out in pain. Your eyes begin to blur and you see the figure of a female elder dwarf riding towards you on a war horse.
01:18:58
Speaker
And you start to blink away the blur, make a constitution saving throw. Okay.
01:19:05
Speaker
Natural 20. Okay. So you fall to your knees and you start blinking again and blinking and you, you struggle to think straight, but then suddenly your vision flashes again. And when it does, you feel this searing pain in your mind and you awaken. Uh, but, uh, but this pain starts to flash in your mind and you take, no,
01:19:30
Speaker
I don't, I don't take. You do take. Oh, really? Yes! Oh, that's better. Oh. I thought I was gonna get lucky. 29 psychic damage. No! 6d8.
01:19:47
Speaker
I rolled a five and two ones and then I rolled two eights and a seven. So for the 68. So yeah, you suddenly just in this headache just burns away. It's searing pain in your mind. And how much was it total again? 27. Okay. All right. And so that is and he missed with that slam attack. And so that's his whole turn Gwendolyn.
01:20:13
Speaker
I am going to snap my fingers and it's going to glitch out. The bear spirit that's above me is going to glitch out into a red hawk. The hawk spirit, basically the part that I'm going to use is when a creature makes an attack roll against a target in the spirit's aura, you can use your reaction to grant advantage to that attack roll.
01:20:38
Speaker
Okay. So that's going to be my bonus action. And for my real action, I am going to use my staff of healing. Okay. Big, big thanks. I super need that. You took a couple big hits, didn't you? I don't think you've ever been this low. No. Makes DM feel real good.
01:21:08
Speaker
Is it? I'm going to do cure wounds, so I want to spin. Three charges. Is it at third level? Do the charges replenish after arrest? OK, the staff regains one B, six plus four expended charges daily at dawn. How many does it hold? Ten. So I'll be down to six charge. Seven, seven charges. I can't math.
01:21:37
Speaker
So how many total healing? It should be 14 plus eight. Sweet. 22. Almost that whole last hit. Dying.
01:21:53
Speaker
That's psychic damage. That's Gwen's turn. Well done, Gwen. Well done. Cool. Big thanks. Big welcome. Joxer, we're back to you, buddy. Joxer's just so mad he can't take this magic weapon and start beating this thing with it.
01:22:10
Speaker
He's he's gonna he's gonna take his Yeah, he just looks at it it's like He's gonna he's gonna take his rapier and just start start wailing at it you're gonna see him take a couple of large jumps as as he tries to just like Try to drag down and he's gonna remember advantage this room
01:22:31
Speaker
Uh, so that's 17 plus six. Nope. That's 19 plus six or nope. That is, that is 11 plus six of 17. That hits. That's one over going for 16. Okay. So easy to find and hit big and slow. All right. So three, three rapier attacks.
01:23:00
Speaker
That will be 5 damage. That is gone. Oh, no. That is 11 damage. And 11 damage again. OK, so 5 plus 22.
01:23:19
Speaker
And, oh, and he also, so yeah, five plus 22, cause the, yeah. Um, so 27, 27 damage. He also takes three damage because of the aura that he's in. So that's 30. And then I'm going to attack with my fists. I'm just going to, uh, take, take my rapier into my left hand and just start nailing it, you know, anything lower that I can find. Got it.
01:23:48
Speaker
All right, so that's 17 again. And that is the natural 20. So yeah, let's see. All right. So that is what. And then for his next 40 attacks.
01:24:04
Speaker
Yeah. I am, I'm just, I'm revved right now. I'm like, I just like have this new, new vigor. Oh, okay. So that's five plus three. So that's eight and then another six times two. So 12, so 15. So, so that's 30 damage. And then that is, uh, nine or no eight plus 15. So 23. So 53 damage.
01:24:34
Speaker
And then Joxer just takes a breath. So Joxer swings out and just starts just wailing on this thing. And as soon as you stop and you take a breath, make a charisma saving throw. All right. As it uses its legendary action to turn and look at you and just
01:25:01
Speaker
that i like just catches you that is that's 11 plus two with my prediction oh uh so 13 that's not gonna it's that fails yeah so jockser hmm suddenly you start to get dizzy
01:25:21
Speaker
and you get dizzy and you feel, and you actually literally fall down and you hit the ground and as soon as you do, you start to get back up, but you are no longer in this room. You're on a wooden floor in a tavern and inside this tavern, you rise up and you look around and you see that you're standing alone in this tavern. All is silent in here and you see no tables, no chairs, but a bar and behind the bar
01:25:50
Speaker
a wall covered in kegs and casks of ale, wine, bourbon, and mead. Anything you can imagine is just lining this giant wall with spigots ready to take. And in your hand, you already have a cup.
01:26:04
Speaker
And so without a thought, you just like you can't control yourself, you go over and you start filling and pouring mouthfuls worth of these beverages into your cups and taking drink after drink, just testing and testing. And they all taste terrible. They taste like garbage, one right after the other. The next one worse than the last, just, oh, terrible, terrible, terrible.
01:26:28
Speaker
It seems impossible for it to taste worse until you take a drink of another one and oh it's the worst thing you've ever tasted. You look around again as if to see who's responsible for this and as you continue to pour yourself a drink you finally see standing behind you in the room an older man. He's a man that looks a lot like yourself but not you but perhaps a shadow of who you could be.
01:26:50
Speaker
He reaches for you and comes at you faster than you would have expected him to come. And he says, I made these, all of these. Aren't they wonderful? Aren't they wonderful? But why am I alone? Why am I by myself? No one to share them with. No one to share. Boom. You wake back up and you're standing there and you, your brain suddenly just pulses with pain and agony.
01:27:17
Speaker
And you take 10 points of psychic damage as I rolled the lowest psychic damage roll I've ever rolled tonight, but there you go. 10 points of psychic damage for jock there. Oh, can you realize your, your senses and that pain dissolves a little bit and you realize you're still in this battle with this creature and then it makes it slam attack at you and rolls a natural 20. There it is.
Identifying and Defeating the Creature
01:27:40
Speaker
I was about to say the favorite. Well, it was nice knowing you, bud. And the damage on that is D6 plus 5. D6 plus 5. All right. So 10 plus 16. That was all fours.
01:28:02
Speaker
33 points of bludgeoning damage. As this massive stone club of a fist comes down and smashes against you just as you come to your senses and realize where you are again. Slam! And that headache wears off and you're just, ugh. You're in the- The headache wears off? In a bad state. And then a new one arrives immediately. That was its legendary action. We're now to Krigst.
01:28:31
Speaker
Do I have any idea what kind of creature this is, whether or not it's an undead or fiend? Uh, it does not look demonic or necromantic to you. No. Okay. I would say you have an idea that it's not. Sure. Yeah. You're not sure what it is. It just looks like some sort of monstrosity. So I'm going to be dipping into my bag of dice. Hold on one sec. Okay.
01:29:00
Speaker
Okay, this is what Krigs is gonna do. Having had these visions, he is pissed, just livid. He's gonna reel back with his hammer as far back as he can and just swing it straight at this creature with advantage. 19 plus seven, 26.
01:29:30
Speaker
Damage on that, and I'm adding Divine Smite to this at first level. So damage on my first attack is going to be... 8 plus... 8, 16 plus... Divine Smite is... 2d8 for a first level spell slot.
01:30:01
Speaker
Okay. Adding seven damage to that. So what I said, 16 plus seven. 16 plus seven. All right. And that is radiant damage, correct? Yes. And that was the seven. Yeah. Okay. So all right. Okay. And then is that your first attack? First attack, extra attack, reeling back again.
01:30:30
Speaker
hammer just comes down. That is 15 plus seven. That is going to be, we can't do math right now. I'm too excited. 22. Assuming that is going to hit. I did it. That's a good boy. You did it. Damage on that first is going to be not great. 11. Sorry. No, nine damage on the actual attack. Plus I'm adding divine smite on this one as well. Yeah.
01:30:58
Speaker
That is going to be. Seven, so what it doubles, 14, the device might. Yeah, so 14 damage on the device, 14 plus. Was the original hit seven, I believe. Yes. No, the original hit one. Yeah. So you swing down and you got another hit. Yeah, do it. I'll describe it after this one. And with the.
01:31:28
Speaker
that blow brushing off the creature, he's just swinging it back around and he is going straight back over his head and he is bringing it down as hard as he can. Okay, cool. That is 23. Yeah, hits for sure.
01:31:50
Speaker
All right, that is a 10 plus eight, 18 to hit, and I don't have, or not 18 to hit, 18 damage, and I don't have any more divine smites.
01:32:00
Speaker
Okay, so 18 regular damage. So those first two hits, when you swing down or up and then back down again, you crack against it with the hammer and this pulse of radiant energy just enwraps this creature and just pieces of him start to just melt away and fall off, just crumble off of him. And he...
01:32:24
Speaker
and he starts to wheeze and try hard to breathe and you hit him again and it does it again and he more pieces crumble and burst off of him as the light kind of shines from inside breaking open some of his the stone that seems to have covered him and
01:32:40
Speaker
He looks around just like not understanding what's going on and then you hit him again with just that regular hit with your and it's still just smack just cracks against him. And he's looking like he's hurting now, he's really hurting now.
01:32:56
Speaker
uh so if that's your whole turn that's it that's all i got that that's a lot so it's okay it takes us to i think that was another 50 something hit point uh hit so that takes us to davin all right um seeing the kind of situations going on especially with those
01:33:13
Speaker
Uh, I mean, I recognize the radiant energy coming from the, uh, or the war hammer, I'm assuming for sure. For sure. You've seen him do this many times now. Devin's kind of going to nod his head and his eyes are going to just turn pure whites. And then it kind of travels down through into his hands. Uh, and he's going to cast a guiding bolt at a third level. Cool. Okay. And it is a 19 to hit that will hit. I'm going to have to pull out a bunch of D six. Let's give me a second. Four, five, 66.
01:33:45
Speaker
Ooh, that's really good. Um, it was three sixes, two fives and a four, 32 points of radiant damage. Is that, did you double that? No, that's just the single. So it's 64. I rolled it really well.
01:34:05
Speaker
So you fire this bolt at him and it hits him and it's just like a little splash of radiant damage. And then suddenly the beams of radiant light just emerged from him. And it just shoots out and he just.
01:34:23
Speaker
He falls to a knee and slowly stands back up again, just barely holding it together. You now see where his most of the boils that were like stone-like on his body have now just been torn away. And what's left is like his flesh has been torn with it and he's just broken and disheveled and bleeding. And just, I mean, he is wrecked to say the least. Is there anything else you'd like to do? Yeah, as my bonus action, the spiritual weapon will hit it.
01:34:52
Speaker
which is a 19 and hits one D eight plus four, which is six more damage. Okay. So tell me how your spiritual weapon kills this guy. After all that, after I see like he falls down to one knee, like Devin kind of gets real serious and he looks over at the weapon and he says, finish it. And it turns like it kind of grows to double its size. And that blade that's on this hammer for some reason just grows. And it's just going to slice straight down through the head of this thing.
01:35:22
Speaker
Okay, so this spiritual weapon rises up and the blade grows double its size and it just swings down. And it's almost anticlimactic, just the thud sound. And as it hits, you see the one eye that's not distorted. You look up and you see Krigs, you especially, and Gwen, you're on that side of him. You look up and you see relief.
01:35:50
Speaker
as if to say finally and that I finally goes dull with death and it falls over dead. Krigs is can't really hold his hammer drops his hammer and just kind of falls to one knee just breathing heavily. The spiritual weapon just kind of starts melting away and almost just like like white glitter just kind of falls down to the ground.
Episode Conclusion and Call to Action
01:36:18
Speaker
Um, and then I also drop paste. So the two of you guys, um, feel like this wave of lethargy, uh, come over you and for the next six seconds you can't do anything. Okay. Uh, so jocks are at that point. It looked like he was just going to take his rapier and just try to move it to its eye. And then the rapier just kind of acts as a walking stick as he's just like barely holding himself up. Uh, kneeling just kind of like falls back and just, uh,
01:36:53
Speaker
Got monsters in the hill? Who ya gonna call? But... hired... swordbusters. Thank you for listening to this episode of Installment of the Hired Swords. If you liked our show, tell a friend about us, and if you really liked our show, tell the world. Leave a review.
01:37:13
Speaker
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