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Ep. 91 A Light In The Dark
126 Plays1 year ago
Down into the depths we go. Where we'll end up, nobody knows.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:22
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords. And when you've got swords, you've got everything.
00:00:40
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Higher Swords. I am your dungeon master, Michael. I've got some friends
Character Introductions
00:00:49
Speaker
with me. We're going to play Dungeons and Dragons and let you listen to us. How nice of us to let you do that, right? I've got with me Blaze. He plays Krigs Golder or Saffron Ember Oak. Hi, Blaze. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's him. Ash is here, too. She's Gwendolyn. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
00:01:06
Speaker
Okay, all right. Mikey, he's rockin' and rollin' as Joxer. I just love this attitude. You got something goin' on today, Michael, I like it. I'm excited, I'm pumped. It's been a minute for us to play, I'm excited to play. Derek, you're here too, buddy, and you're Daven. Hi. Yeah, Daven, see ya.
00:01:30
Speaker
Okay, it's really technical difficulties got Derek in the down the down the dumps, you know Poop on everything You can't use poop that's not gonna help anything unfortunately
00:01:51
Speaker
Well, we are back after a while.
Return from Break
00:01:54
Speaker
I hope everybody's been good and and we are for us. Well, I don't guess there's a reason to say it and date ourselves, but I'm doing it anyway. For us, we're just wrapping up the holidays and moving into regular life again, I think so. Thankfully, we get to get back in here and record Dungeons and Dragons. You didn't specify which holiday could have been like Valentine's Day.
00:02:16
Speaker
True. Yeah. That's a good point. It could have been any holiday. Whatever your most recent holiday was when you're listening to this, that's the one we just finished, obviously. So we, like I said, it's been a minute since we got back, but I think we got ourselves caught up in what happened last time. We had been touring. I almost said touring, like we were having a good time on a
00:02:38
Speaker
on a charter bus, driving around and going around with our name badges, finding places to eat buffets and things. But that's all we're doing. We're not touring.
Exploring the Mist and Village
00:02:48
Speaker
Instead, you're exploring, trying to find what the cause of this crazy dark mist is that has been encroaching throughout the land. And as you
00:03:01
Speaker
You experienced a lot of different things. You found this collection of villages and a map that showed where some different villages were. You made your way down to this gemstone village after leaving the one where they were growing spices and things. Making my way to the gems.
00:03:17
Speaker
Yeah, and you you successfully found evaded some myths that had you guys going a little crazy and lost actually a Non-player character companion sword. We lost a sword. You lost a sword you did and there there was a guy attached to that sword who was no longer with you and
00:03:39
Speaker
Whatever that means for him, no one knows. But you then found this gemstone village, and it was built around this pit in the ground. As you looked around, you found many, of course, gemstones. Most of them were very, very colorful, very bright, very nice looking gemstones.
00:04:01
Speaker
They are soft to the touch, however, not like gummy bears soft, but, you know, leave your put your thumbnail in there and there's a little indention that'll stay in in the gym. And that kind of thing is something that was unique to Krigs. He even the dwarf Krigs hadn't seen it. And so you continue to explore.
Discovery of the Temple
00:04:20
Speaker
Then he found a temple that you discovered through some communication to Davin from some strange being.
00:04:28
Speaker
that the god that is worshipped there, the statue of the god is... Look, we all know he's a demon boy. Let's be real. Yeah, that is what I'm... Those are the words I'm trying not to say. The elephant in the room, as it were. But you find out that the god that is being worshipped at this temple, the statue, is the image of Corillon, which is the goddess, the god of the elves, the protector of the elves.
00:04:54
Speaker
and that just kind of you got that information you saw where they worshipped him and a bunch of rugs in a circle around this this emblem with a bunch of etchings and carvings with gemstones on the walls in this circular temple room and then you went back outside where you decided to go ahead and look down in actually looked around in some more rooms finding a warehouse that had some weapons and things jocks are found at bo staff
00:05:18
Speaker
or a quarter staff, I guess it's called.
Transformation and Descent
00:05:21
Speaker
And then you made your way towards the pit in the middle of the village. And as you discussed what to do, how to explore it, how to make your way down, Ash turned into a raven or Gwendolyn turned into a raven and just flew down.
00:05:37
Speaker
See ya!
00:05:54
Speaker
just seeing as you look to your left and right, you're seeing pathways that are kind of carved into the sides of this this hole, keeping the the width or the the diameter about the same all the way down so far. And you're you're just kind of flying downward and downward and as she flies downward, what are you guys doing up at the top?
Navigating Pathways and Mist
00:06:13
Speaker
I balls of light pop out and I cast dancing light and start having hovering around the top and the path that
00:06:21
Speaker
I guess we go. The lights illuminate a pathway that starts downward and as it goes downward it starts to spiral around the edge and you're walking around the outside edge of this big hole in the ground and on your right hand side as you continue to walk in a counterclockwise direction you see that there are every now and then there's little doorways
00:06:47
Speaker
carved into the wall and inside there or carved into the stone walls and inside there are just little places where little chests of gems are put in or tools used for mining or things like that where and then maybe you'll find one that looks like a goes to a tunnel that kind of goes further down into the the ground as they've been kind of strip mining this area working their way downward in a spike almost in a spiral and
00:07:14
Speaker
Ash, you see that as you fly down, but you're going down much faster than they can walk down. And so, guys, as you continue, are all of you, is Davin, Davin, Krigs and Jockster, you're all going to be walking downward? Yeah, I'm for sure walking. All right. So it doesn't take long, Ash, as you fly ahead, I assume you fly pretty far as far ahead of them as you can get, or you just keep going or? Yeah, as I'm going down,
Mist Induced Confusion
00:07:40
Speaker
I want to be listening for sounds.
00:07:42
Speaker
Okay. Great. You definitely, you make a perception check. Actually, let's roll some dice. Okay. Yay. Oh, I moved my dice. She doesn't have any dice. This is so embarrassing. Dice. Yeah. I just want to say it was awesome word play whenever you said the elephant in the room and he's the demon boy. My brain said, belly elephant. I said that wrong. Nice. I'm not an elephant. I mean, I'm not a demon boy.
00:08:12
Speaker
I'm a man. 15 total. Great. So that's, that's great. Good job. Great role. Wonderful. So you, as you fly downward, you hear you guys would be as enthusiastic about my roles. You hear the, their footsteps above you chatting. You just can roll something a minute and I'll get excited. I promise.
00:08:35
Speaker
No matter what, if you roll bad, I'll be like, it's okay, you could do better next time. But yeah, as you fly down, you hear their footsteps, you can tell they've started to follow you down. And you fly down and you've flown a couple hundred feet. This is deep, like how, like they must've been mining this for maybe decades to get it this deep, you know, mining by hand. It's kind of mind blowing to be honest, mind blowing, to be honest. And so,
00:09:04
Speaker
as you're walking around the outside edge of this, or as they're walking around the outside edge above you, you're flying down kind of in the center. Suddenly, you don't realize when it happened, but you're suddenly surrounded by this dark mist. You've flown right into it.
00:09:20
Speaker
And it wasn't like you saw it and decided, I'm going to go in. It was just like almost like it just enveloped around you. And it's not it's you can still look up and kind of see the little bit of light, dull, light glimmering above you from those orbs that that Joxer has released. But.
00:09:42
Speaker
When you look straight down, it's just pitch black and you can't tell how much is how, you know, if there's going to be ground down there soon or if you're about to land, but there's mist and this dark fog that you've been, you know, running through, flying through this whole trip. There it is now just around you. And you just jumped into it. Are you going to continue downward? Yeah. Are you going to continue downward or what would you like to do?
00:10:10
Speaker
I'm going to try to do the best Krig's voice because it's mimic humans. Yeah, cool. Okay. And just say, missed, missed. That sounds so much like me. That's pretty good. Nicely done.
00:10:28
Speaker
I didn't, I didn't say it. Is this a place where there can be echo or no? Yeah. You definitely hear the echo. It echoes through the, you know, and, um, go ahead and make a performance check for me as Ash. Well, whatever's better, the Raven or Ash house, the Ravens charisma.
00:10:48
Speaker
It's better. That's the same way. I didn't know if it would be very good. 17 minus 2, so 15 again. Yeah, so when you call out, it sounds like someone down there is impersonating you. It doesn't sound like you hear your own voice, but somebody's trying.
00:11:11
Speaker
But you definitely hear the word mist, mist come up echo around you up the the tunnel. But it doesn't sound like a raven calling and it doesn't sound like ash. You just hear this dwarven, almost sounding voice, mist, mist. That's a little unsettling.
00:11:32
Speaker
Oh, it's probably nothing. How far are we? We can't see her anymore, right? No, she's too far down.
Creative Descent Techniques
00:11:40
Speaker
It's pitch black down there where she is, except if she wasn't a raven, she'd be having an even harder time. I think we gotta hurry up. I don't want her being down there by herself. If there's something dangerous, I could be really bad. I like it on my walk so fast. What do you mean you could fly? Fair enough. How are you guys gonna make your way down?
00:12:01
Speaker
Uh, nevermind. You're big boys. Uh, I go ahead and say my magic word and summon my wings and like try to maneuver my way down faster. For a second. I thought Derek was just going to chuck you, but then I remembered wings. You can fly. Whew. I just spar to kick him off the edge. I summon my wings and I begin to fly down. I.
00:12:28
Speaker
We'll just use some athletics to start skipping down as fast. I just I don't trust that it's everything. OK, Devin. All right. All right. I guess I'll just see it at the bottom, right? And we see like what do we see when we can't see the bottom? When you look down, it just turns into darkness. So you look down that my my orbs can go 120 feet away from me if I remember correctly. Let me verify before I yeah, 120 feet.
00:12:57
Speaker
How far beyond that like does it does it hit anything they show they got they put light out 30 feet And then No, so sheds a dim light only 10 10 feet Because these are not meant to be super bright. So they're 10 gotcha gotcha Okay, so yeah, you look down in about a hundred and thirty foot down use it just you start to just see darkness again It's it's actually
00:13:26
Speaker
It doesn't consume the light, but they just look like little candle, flames on a candle down there, not doing much to help the darkness around it brighten up at all. So yeah, it just looks like it continues down into darkness. You don't see the raven or anything, and Kriegs is already starting to fly down. You may see him fly through that light, but then he's going to end up in darkness as well.
00:13:55
Speaker
I'm just doing as slow of a hover as I can. Okay. Great. Yeah. So I'll start jumping like edge to edge instead of walking the full round. I'm going to push the boundaries and I'm going to yell out in a door of his voice again, going in, going in. All right. Make another performance check.
00:14:17
Speaker
I'm going to like trust fall off the edge and then twist around and turn into an owl and then kind of just dive down. Yeah. Polymorph. Polymorph. My role was okay. We accept that. Well, I'll accept whatever your modifier does to the role. Yes. Uh, it was eight minus two six.
00:14:38
Speaker
Okay. So you guys, you do hear that crow mimic voice come up the, come, come up the shoot again. And, uh, it sounds like goldfin goldfin. Uh, with my dwarven past and experience of lots of undergroundness and whatnot. Um, do I have any kind of advantage on maybe echo locating
00:15:09
Speaker
a closer direction as to where she is, even though it seems like that might be the largest area that we're going into, but... I mean, it's pretty vast from... I was gonna tell Jockster this too. It's pretty vast, the opening between the platforms. You can see across the way to the other side, all the way around the circle.
00:15:32
Speaker
But I mean, we're talking like 60, 70 feet from one side to the other. But then so you can make that out pretty well, just looking because you can definitely see see around you that way. But then going looking downward and looking trying to find her makeup, perception check, trying to see if you can find her before she starts to fly down into the mist more. Was that directed to me? Yeah, Krigsies. OK, I got older. Eighteen.
00:16:01
Speaker
Okay, so you peer down as hard as you can, and you do start to see as you're hovering down, you're kind of getting down below where the light is above you. And as you look down, you see the little bit of billowing now that you can see that motion, the billowing of the
00:16:21
Speaker
of the mist and you just make out barely this poof of that mist as if something just was dropped into it or maybe just flew into the mist and continued downward as Gwyndolin, Raven Gwyndolin flies down inside the mist. Okay. I'm going to pick up a little bit of speed, not full nosedive or anything, but I'm going to kind of retract some of my hovering a little and try to catch up.
00:16:50
Speaker
Okay. I dab and you begin to fly downward too. Are you going at a similar speed or I'll just straighten nose dive, trying to catch up to Krigs. Cause I'm sure I can see him. Yeah. Once you, you, you see him until, well, actually you can see him as an owl with allies. You can see him once he's after he's past those lights for little ways. But then you do, you're about halfway to him and you see him start to increase his speed as well.
00:17:15
Speaker
I have to think that I had a torch lit at this point too if I'm going down into a dark tunnel so it's kind of
Reaching the Cavern Floor
00:17:20
Speaker
just like flickering light as well above me.
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah, and as he goes, Krigs, you hit that mist. And as soon as you hit that mist, Daven, the flicker of torchlight immediately is gone. And Krigs, as you go into the mist and follow her in, you also don't even see the light from the torch in your hand at all. You just see what looks like orange flame flickering in your hand with no light coming from it. So I imagine that I'm falling behind.
00:17:54
Speaker
quite a bit here. So I'm going to grab like a item or I think I have a dart of some sort. I'm going to cast light on it and and just toss it towards the center. And if essentially it, you know, I'm going to continue jumping, jumping, jumping. If I see that light hit and like slowly fall, I'm just going to jump into the center. OK.
00:18:19
Speaker
Is you are there is like a dense nest that i remember from the previous fog. Okay yeah so you toss that light and you're jumping go ahead and make a couple acrobatics.
00:18:32
Speaker
checks for me as you're kind of jumping on this side, the wall of this cave, you can't jump all the way to the other side, but you could definitely like drop yourself down and catch and drop yourself down and catch and like way more progress than walking, winding around it, you know, on the pathway. So a dirty 20. Yeah, perfect. So at first you're, you're making great strides. A 10. That one didn't work out too well.
00:18:56
Speaker
Well you're you're doing okay you then you turn around to drop the light and you're watching you slip a little as you do that. Catch yourself look again and the just in time to see that that lit up dark just vanish immediately just gone.
00:19:12
Speaker
I get fell into something that extinguish the light made it invisible. The light invisible to you or it fell into. I don't know maybe it landed in some sand or something so who knows what it was but somehow it was just extinguished. How far do you think I am right now or what I think that I am like you're about even you're about even with your. Gobbles of light now.
00:19:33
Speaker
Okay so hundred and that thing probably well that thing you would estimate that there was another hundred feet or more before that thing vanished. Right at the edge of your ability to see it all right I don't think I can take it you know two hundred plus.
00:19:51
Speaker
foot fall, so I'm just going to continue to be behind everyone. Okay. So you continue to drop yourself down. Daven, your owl flies down. You finally notice that it's this billowing mist that they've gone into. Do you just follow them in? Yeah. Okay. All right. Does this mist, I know you've probably described it before, but is it more like, is it heavy? Breathing in it would cause choking or claustrophobic?
00:20:19
Speaker
No, it's not heavy like smoke would be. Think of like a haser on a stage or something like that, but it's dark black and it's thick billowing like it's left on way too high. And maybe there's too much of the chemical getting mixed in there. It's way too high and billowing really heavily. Is it tasty? Can I eat my way out of this? It's not bubblegum flavor or anything like that, no.
00:20:46
Speaker
It does, it actually is flavorless and odorless, but it is not safe necessarily.
Ominous Mist Exploration
00:20:53
Speaker
So Krigs, Daven and Gwendolyn, make wisdom saving throws, please. That's with a dice, right? If you got any of those, use those. Yeah. Oh, thank God. Uh, 17. Okay. 17 and 18. Um, I got three, but I,
00:21:15
Speaker
Think I can do something about that hold on once per short rest if you fail a saving throw or miss an attack roll you can roll 2d4 and add it to the total possibly changing the outcome 2d4 is that gonna make a difference from three? Let's do it anyways. Let's be safe. I'm gonna roll 2d4
00:21:36
Speaker
Um, so that brings up to seven. I don't think that made a difference, but there you go. But, but you used a thing, you know, it's cool. Yeah. Yeah. As you, as you guys are fall or flying down into that, you don't see each other. You know, Gwen, you don't see anybody.
00:21:52
Speaker
Krigs, you know, you followed Gwen in, but you don't see her. Davin, you just followed Krigs in. And so as you are flying, suddenly you get this, you get these whispers in your mind, all of you, and they're, they're unintelligible. There's no, there's no words. It's just.
00:22:14
Speaker
There's whispers in your mind. And Gwendolyn and Krigs, you start to sharpen and focus and look carefully at what you're, where you're going and just trying to think of what direction you're headed and try not to get mixed up or lost in this basically pitch black that you can't see around you. And Daven, you need to make a constitution saving throw for me. Okay, okay.
00:22:43
Speaker
That's better, because I rolled a five. But plus six, so I got an 11. An 11. So you, as you're falling, you suddenly can't think straight. Your mind is completely, completely just confused and out of whack. And you hear these whispers in your mind, and you just feel like everything's
00:23:10
Speaker
Everything's wrong, everything's backwards, and you've got the weird urge that you're falling instead of flying, and you look at your wings in there, your hands, you're no longer an owl, and you're just falling now in this mist, and the whispers are escalating, it's getting louder, and you're just falling and falling and falling, and it's suddenly, it's just terrifying. Joxr, as you are jumping down,
00:23:39
Speaker
Well, I guess I just need you to make two more athletics checks for me. All right. Acrobatics, acrobatics. My apologies. Well, that one is a nad 20 plus seven. So that would be a, let's see, carry the horn. Just kidding. That would be a success. So eight B.
00:23:58
Speaker
18. Yeah. So you succeed both times. So you're falling down. You now are down beneath those globules. That word's a fun word to say. And you you make your way. I'm making my way your way a million times too. You get down beneath beneath that light and you can now get you're close enough to where your feet you can see just at your feet that billowing mist beneath you. And you realize that's what that's what's happening is they've gone in there and they've you know
00:24:28
Speaker
Done that and it's it reminds you actually make a make a history check for me. All right for memories sake That is not as good, but that is a 13
00:24:40
Speaker
Okay, it definitely reminds you of like swimming in under the like when you fell in the water in the river on your way to this area. It gives you those vibes as you're able to kind of stand and look at or sit there and look at it for a moment that billowing dark ink like mist. Davin, as you're falling, I need I need you to roll a roll a d 12 for me. D 12. Yeah.
00:25:08
Speaker
He rolled that. I'm going to pass the Mage Armor if I didn't have it. OK, I rolled the D12. OK, what'd you roll? I don't want to say. No, it's a six. A six? This seemed like it was a bad plan to just go down there now. Excuse me, Gwen? Sorry, wait, no, that was Ash, not Gwen. Yeah, this is Ash, not Gwen. Gwen's sticking to the plan.
00:25:35
Speaker
So as you're falling, suddenly you're falling and falling, and you start to yell, and your yell turns into a roar. And you look at your hands and their paws, and you've turned into a bear. Your polymorph is completely just messed up, and you've turned into a bear as you fall now. And a giant bear is falling through this mist. Do what? At least I'm still a flying creature.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And you're falling, just continuing to fall. Krigs and Gwen, make perception checks for me. Six. Okay. 14 plus three, 17.
00:26:17
Speaker
So, Krigs, you're falling and just heavily focused on making sure you're flying where you want to go, and you're trying really hard not to lose sight of the direction that you're going. Gwen, you're focusing too, but you hear this roar above you. This yell turn into a roar. And as...
00:26:43
Speaker
as Davin above you goes from guy to bear, and as you're flying downward, you hear that above you. Do you do anything? Does it change anything for you? Yes, it would. Give me a second. She cast Lightning Bolt on the bear. All right. Joxer, what are you going to do as you realize this is this mist you're hovering above?
Compulsion and Doorway
00:27:05
Speaker
All right. Sorry, Ash. I figured I'd give you time to... Yeah, so second...
00:27:10
Speaker
in this moment I got I got like a spare sword and a spare rapier like and and some rope so I'm gonna start with just tying rope around the the rapier stab it into like a
00:27:24
Speaker
the rock next to me as best as I can probably not going to be good enough but I'm just give me an extra five foot of not falling damage and then I'm just gonna I'm gonna start like running down the side of the darkness with it so it's like repelling and then and going that way as fast and you've got how much rope
00:27:45
Speaker
It should be 60 feet. OK, so and you stab this rapier in and you realize that this is softer. This is that soft clay like you remember, you know, up higher. So it goes in a lot further than you expected. Actually, maybe being a little sturdier than you had thought as you go downward and you make that actually make a make acrobatics check for me one more time, at least one more time. But this part at least. All right. That's a 15.
00:28:14
Speaker
A 15. It's good enough. As you're running downward, you successfully miss a couple of places where the stone juts out in the clay and would have been a real problem for you. But you quickly realize you don't have much rope in your hand. You're about to hit that 60 foot. And so you pull up just in time to not get completely jolted by the end of that rope coming.
00:28:42
Speaker
But yeah, you've made it down 60 feet. You're in the thick of this stuff now. Make a wisdom saving throw. All right. That will probably change my... Hey, wow! That is a 16. Great. So with a 16, you begin to hear these whispers and these thoughts come to your mind and you find yourself kind of dangling. Your feet are on the side of the cliff wall.
00:29:12
Speaker
Just when you realize what's going on your arms are straight out to the sides like you're about to just Make yourself completely fall down this hole, but you gather your thoughts again in this almost like white white light kind of enters your mind and kind of
00:29:29
Speaker
pierces through everything and you blink a couple times and you bring yourself back to yourself and you can't hardly see anything. You can barely see the hands in front of your, your own hands in front of your face as you dangle there by your weight, you know, by this rope, just barely leaning over the edge of this thing. Every muscle in your body tints as you hold yourself, keep yourself from losing the tension you've got to keep you from falling off. Oh, this was a fun game, Gwen. Um,
00:29:59
Speaker
I'll untie myself and at this point I know, and I quote as me, I know that there are three flying creatures below me. And I'm going to pull out the short sword and I'm just going to shove it into the wall and start sliding down.
00:30:23
Speaker
as I fall, and it's probably only gonna last so long, but we will just do it.
00:30:31
Speaker
All right, the short sword goes into the wall easily with all the force you can muster and you release your your feet and you start to just slide down as fast as you can and as you go Yeah, you're every now and then you'll stop because it'll catch something hard and you have to finagle and just try to move it and you're concerned I don't know how long this is gonna tip it how much this is gonna work for how long or whatever. So go ahead and roll a roll a
00:30:57
Speaker
Another athletics check for me as you try to navigate this properly. Gwendolyn, what were you gonna do? Since I can wildshade, well after a long ride, I'm gonna hear the noise and I'm going to turn into a giant eagle. Okay. What's a giant eagle's wingspan? Do you know? It's 20 feet.
00:31:17
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Great. And I am 10 feet tall, so I will get hit with blunt force. Derek is as not Derek, but this bear. This bear lands on a giant eagle. This is really cool. And I'm going to roar.
00:31:32
Speaker
I'm gonna have some oomph when he hits but yeah you see this it's I kind of still stay black so I don't change color because I'm doing this on a whim yeah but I still have the face of a raven but and my feathers are black but I am like I shall fly cool yeah I rolled 17 okay so
00:31:58
Speaker
You're good for now. You keep going downward and you kind of survived this onslaught of whatever these thoughts and stuff were in your mind as you carefully, but as quickly as possible try to navigate your way down. Daven, you thud land on the back of this eagle. Roll another d12 for me. Okay. That's a natural 20. I've been throwing a d12.
00:32:24
Speaker
Oh, you said D12. Yes, I rolled very, very well. I say that's a 12. That is the best roll I've ever heard in my life. That is a nine. Okay. So you're bared, the roar continues, but it changes a little bit as you go to a lion and he turned into a lion. And you're now grabbing onto this eagle as this eagle flies downward.
00:32:50
Speaker
And just after the bear shifts to a lion, you exit this mist. Almost as quickly as you hit it, it's gone. And you see the ground coming up to you quickly. As you are almost, you're about to land, it seems.
Mysterious Figure Appears
00:33:09
Speaker
Krigs, you see the same thing. Suddenly, boom, it goes from darkness to there's the ground beneath you. And as you are kind of going downward as well.
00:33:20
Speaker
Okay, I basically pull the ripcord as hard as I can, quote unquote, try to slow myself down before I actually like hit the ground. Awesome. So yeah, your wings come back and catch as much air as they can and you kind of jerk your head back as you begin to slow your descent. And Ash, what do you do? And Daven, what do you do?
00:33:46
Speaker
I don't know about Davin, but I'm taking my wings and trying to slow my force. Perfect. Do I have the wherewithal of what's happening to me? Do I realize I'm a lion or do I still think I'm an owl? Where am I at?
00:34:01
Speaker
I think you think, I think you know, you're a lion. You have your own, like, it's like you have the same kind of mental state you would if you, you had, when you were in polymorph, like when you had gone into a polymorph, which does that give you the thoughts of the animal or yourself? Yeah. I take on the intelligence of the animal. Okay. Then yeah. You just, you just are suddenly like lion must roar or eat or whatever. So I am going to use my, the, we're coming up on the ground. Yeah.
00:34:31
Speaker
I am going to use my claws and just dig them in to the Eagle and just hold on and make sad cat sounds. Okay. There's some squawking and squawking, uh, Gwendolyn, uh, takes, actually you just roll a, uh, well, what does it tie a lion claw attack? Let me look it up real quick.
00:34:54
Speaker
I got it right here. It's a plus five to hit. That's one D six plus three. All right. So roll your D six. We'll add three to it. Cause I mean, you don't have to hit her. You're literally clawing into her back. So that, um, dice is, it doesn't have a number on it. Oh, it's a six. That's why it's special dice. Okay. So it's nine, nine damage to the Eagle.
00:35:14
Speaker
I was real scared. I was real clawing. Well, I mean, when my cats get scared, they do damage. So that's a real thing. When my son comes and tries to take them from my arms, they claw onto me like I'm the furniture that will keep them there. Well, you betrayed them by allowing some unknown force. That's exactly right. Some loud eight-year-old kid. And this says slashing damage, but I imagine it's piercing damage. At this point, it's piercing, if that matters.
00:35:43
Speaker
I think there's like 15% of the things attacks, less, 5% of the attacks in Dungeons and Dragons, does it matter what kind of damage it is if it's just physical damage? Like how often does it actually matter that it's piercing and not slashing? I don't know.
00:35:59
Speaker
Anyway, sorry. I think that everything that's mean to one is mean to the other. Yeah, I think you're pretty pretty close to right. So anyway, my apologies for that sidebar. So you do land or you do slow yourself down and and you hit the ground slower.
00:36:17
Speaker
slow enough to not cause damage. You, you too, Krigs, but you definitely have to tuck and roll as you hit the ground and just kind of slide across this stone clay stone floor beneath you and slide across there. And Krigs, you too, you just have enough time to kind of ball yourself up and hit the ground as quick as you can. Oh, that, that sounds unpleasant.
00:36:42
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, so let me show you your map of where you are. So are we on a spot where we've went past all the small?
00:36:54
Speaker
correct it is not it is not as foggy down here you definitely see the fog billowing above you it's this this crazy billowing fog and suddenly as you look you're looking around you look to your right and you suddenly see this this jocks are sliding down the wall with his blade in the wall and just as
00:37:14
Speaker
Just as he gets about 50 feet from the ground, the blade just just busts off the the handle. I don't know what you call the hill. Yeah. Yeah. The hilt. It just busts off the hill and and he starts to kind of freefall a little, make an acrobatics saving throw or that's hot. That's hot. That's hot. That's hot.
00:37:37
Speaker
Not acrobatic saving throw, a dexterity saving throw. I haven't D&D'd in a minute. Oh, saving throw? Yes, I will take a saving throw over that. Yeah, you're full on falling now, so how do you land? Yeah, that is a 15. A 15? Okay, so you also have to tuck and roll. You successfully kicked the wall a little bit to change your momentum to a little bit more sideways, so you can successfully tuck and roll a little bit.
00:38:02
Speaker
And you land very hard on the ground there just a ways about 10 feet from the wall you were falling down. And you only take two d6 fall damage instead of five. So a total of nine damage. This was a fun game to date.
00:38:28
Speaker
Can I attempt to drop polymorph? Yes, the lion is pacing around the eagle and that is not some kind of weird prophecy that is just like the actual, what's happening literally right now. The lion paces the eagle. As the lion paces around the eagle. That is just literally not metaphoric at all. Yeah, make another constitution saving throw. Okay, a constitution, I can do that. That is good for me. 22.
00:38:56
Speaker
Yeah, so you finally get your control back of your concentration on that spell, and you can drop it if you'd like to drop it. Yes, I will become a human again. So you're a human on your all fours as you look up at this giant eagle next to you now. And I just go, bah!
00:39:19
Speaker
Awesome. So as you look around, you all see a, you see a cavern floor with stalactite stalagmites all over. You see the clay floor has been kind of carved and padded into like squares, almost like tiles of this clay, but the wall is very rough, but it goes up to
00:39:46
Speaker
where it seems this walkway ends in just a circle around this upper level around the outside wall and you see gemstones raw gem big gems sticking out of the ground protruding like stalactites
00:40:04
Speaker
And, but it's strange because they're all a dull gray. They're kind of see-through and dull gray, not like nice white gems, but like the color has been drained from them somehow. And as you look up the wall above the platform, around you, above you, you see this
00:40:25
Speaker
archway with what looks like some sort of a doorway there and it's in the wall.
Chanting and Gathering Eyes
00:40:32
Speaker
There's more of these gemstones all around and the wall has these kind of like cracks and crevices kind of flowing from where these gemstones are all the way to this like doorway that you see and
00:40:47
Speaker
just above that is where this mist kind of begins as this doorway is huge and this mist begins and you begin to see slowly as you look up into the mist you see these gold eyes
00:41:02
Speaker
start opening all around you in this mist some here some there others here unblinking they just kind of shift and move and look and suddenly this it's like the the sky above you the ceiling of this wall is mist and eyes and they're all looking at you and you can feel them looking at you I need everyone to make another wisdom saving throw
00:41:29
Speaker
That is a nat 20. 19. 14. 11. Derek. Derek's anger is 20-11. 11. I'm rolling great. So, Gwendolyn, as you start to hear these whispers, these creepy whispers in this language you've never heard before,
00:41:54
Speaker
You suddenly lose focus completely and you drop your wild shape and you become just Gwendolyn. Laying on the floor now on your side and looking around and these eyes seem to be growing. It's like the eyeballs themselves are growing and coalescing and coming together.
00:42:12
Speaker
shrinking again back to smaller and it just begins to overwhelm you as you're now just Gwendolyn and you you shake it off but not before you had to lose that wild shape and and it just it started to overwhelm you and give you this this this feeling that this is a something new than what you've experienced in this mist before
00:42:35
Speaker
Gavin, the second time you see these eyes, you look into them, you and Gwendolyn both, you begin to want nothing more than to go to that doorway. That's all you want in life.
00:42:52
Speaker
Davin, Joxer, you've seen everything they've seen except the eyes just look like they're staring down at you unblinking. The sky up there is the billowing mist and you see a small set of stairs etched into the left and right sides of this kind of, towards the pathway leading up from this kind of cave floor that you're standing in.
00:43:18
Speaker
So we got a set of stairs that basically would be back to where we just fell from and then a doorway. Yeah.
00:43:25
Speaker
Well, it steps up into this lower level that you, they go up from the lower level you're in towards this doorway that, uh, that you are, that you can see up on this upper level above you. Now there's like a, it's like a mezzanine almost balcony above the level you're standing in. I think I, I just, I'm, I'm furious right now. I am in no mood to even see a door or stairways. Gwen.
00:43:55
Speaker
OK, when I don't listen to this, this is not what we get. Oh, I grab you. Yeah. I try to get out of the group. All right. Grapple contesting string drinks. I just get up off of all fours, press the digitization myself clean and just start heading toward the opening. So that's going to be a 17. 17. Would you would you roll? Oh, my God, 17.
00:44:23
Speaker
Okay, so you guys are like slap fighting trying to you know, come here. Do you come here? No, I don't want to I don't want to and you're having no success and either one of you you can't get away but you can't get her to like to like listen and focus and come with you like you want and
00:44:39
Speaker
You do notice Daven walking towards those stairs that are, that are set into the, that are kind of carved into this cliff wall to the side over here, heading up towards where this doorway is on the level above you. Uh, Kriegs, you see that as well. Okay. Um, I'm just going to move into a jog. This way, guys, this way, I'm going to sprint. It starts to jog towards it. Okay. And try to, try to grab Holt, try and grab Holt to Daven.
00:45:07
Speaker
Okay. Make a, uh, you sprint up to him. No, not a real problem. Both of you make strength contested, strength checks. I assume Devin, you're trying to get, get away. Uh, yeah, I can do athletics. Can't I? Or acrobatics. What is it? Uh, it's just contested strength checks for grapple. Okay. That's not great for fighting. Plus four.
00:45:29
Speaker
So, okay, 16 and you said a five. All right. Davens just trying to walk towards the steps, but Kriegs has a hold of him by both arms and just not letting him go. And he's, let me go, let me go. And Joxer and Gwendolyn are still fussing with each other. What's going on? What's the big deal? We know where we're going. That's the only way from here, right? We didn't come all the way down here just to like stand around and slap each other, right? This is what we came for. Let's go.
00:45:57
Speaker
when we need to have a discussion before we go anywhere. No time to talk. We have to go there. No, she's struggling. She's trying to get out. I got a good grip of David. I'm going to let I'm going to let Joxer have conversations now. OK, Joxer, you and Gwendolyn both make contested string checks again. 14. 19 minus two 17.
00:46:24
Speaker
All right, so she rolled another 17 so Gwen slips through your your hands as you notice Daven is also acting this way being held by by Krigs and she starts to march towards those stairs and Gwen as you run up the run up the steps and you turn and look you could see this doorway now and
00:46:48
Speaker
It has that's like there's it set into the cave wall. There is this arch doorway and it's it stands about three people high. I mean, it's it's like 18 feet tall in the middle and the but there is it's blocked. The inside of it has a
00:47:10
Speaker
almost like a gemstone almost a wall of its own inside there and it's all gemstone and they are this same gray just gray and some some of its darker gray and some lighter but it looks like this gemstone almost door is here in set into this opening in this cave wall as you just break off away from me do you even care about your friends
00:47:40
Speaker
We've been trying to help you this whole time and you give no care. I don't even know why I'm here right now. Gwendolyn probably doesn't listen cause she's too fascinated with this door and trying to get in. Just trying to think of things of, she's putting her hands on the door. I don't know what the big deal is. I mean, we, we're just all decided we are coming down this hole, right? When did we decide that? Well,
00:48:06
Speaker
Okay. So Gwen sort of decided for us. I guess you're right there, but we're here now. Can you guys help me with this door?
Struggling Against Enchantments
00:48:13
Speaker
I can't get in. Sure. I'll be right there. And, uh, Krigs in your hands, all of a sudden you're just like holding onto just some mist as it falls down from your hands. As I cast missy step and end up right next to. Got him.
00:48:31
Speaker
You two make investigation checks as you try to figure out what's up with this door. Craig's jocks, or what are you guys doing, saying, thinking, praying, whatever. You said the mezzanine had another entrance, a different door. Is that what you were saying? No, there's no door. It's just two steps, two stairways, one on either side of the door. There is a map in Roll20 as well. Oh, OK. I'll reopen that. What do we need to roll? You're rolling investigation.
00:49:19
Speaker
I'm not complaining a lot, don't they? Anyways, I could try. Is something wrong with them? They don't work together like this, do they? I cast Entangle. What'd you guys roll? I rolled a 19th. Daven, what'd you roll? Seven. Seven, okay. What was your Entangle? Explain that.
00:49:22
Speaker
I got a seven.
00:49:37
Speaker
I cast untangle grasping weeds and vine sprout from the ground at a 20 foot square and I cast untangle on both Gwen and Davin and they have to make a saving throw of a strength saving throw. What is wrong with you people? Make a strength saving throw. Does this just hold them in where they can't move from their place?
00:49:59
Speaker
Creature in the area cast must secede a string saving throw be restrained the entangling plants until the spell ends, which is up to a minute. I rolled a nat 20, but it's minus two. That's enough. I rolled an eight, but it's minus one. That's not enough. Okay. All right.
00:50:18
Speaker
So Gwen, these branches and vines start to kind of grow out of the ground and try to wrap around you. And being you and familiar with these sorts of things, you easily kind of step around them and don't allow it to happen.
00:50:35
Speaker
Daven, you are grabbed by these vines. It wraps around your leg, all the way up to your hip and around your waist. And you can't move. You can't go anywhere. You're just stuck there. You can still push at the wall, at the door and look around, but you're stuck in that spot until further notice. I only like barely notice. I kind of look down at the vines and I was like, hmm, maybe we just like some sort of a puzzle. I mean, maybe. And I don't even notice. I'm just still trying to get at the door.
00:51:04
Speaker
Is she acting like she was before, Triggs? They're both acting a little strange, honestly. I'm gonna walk up and do a remove curse on Gwen. Okay. I believe that's fine. You cast remove curse. Is there anything that has to happen rolling-wise or anything? Do you have to touch me? I do have to touch you. I'm gonna try to resist. We waste all of our spells on each other.
00:51:32
Speaker
But we don't run into anything important down here. When? There's nothing important down here. We're just wobbling. She tries to shrug you off and you reach towards her and cast your spell and you feel like you successfully cast, but it seemed to have no effect on her. I don't want to hug right now. I got to get this door open.
00:51:56
Speaker
So are you all right? You seem to be acting strange. Am I all right? Isn't he? Why? I just scaled 400, 500 feet holding onto a sword. You looked really cool. I have to admit. As I'm probably still holding onto the hilt randomly. You broke your sword. I hope that wasn't one of the important ones, right? I just see Daven just tangled up just talking to
00:52:27
Speaker
I'm basically in a vine. Snuggly rigs, don't want to help the men out of the vines. We need to get in this door. Not a chance. Why do we can climb back up if you'd like to snap to both of you? Take five seconds and just think about what you're doing. What I'm doing is finding this place. Make a perception check. I mean, I'm just, if you look around, you're standing here.
00:52:58
Speaker
All right. Like it's the first one I've had in a long time. As you, you're talking to them and they're, they're arguing and fussing and, and, and Davins being, you know, kind of strange, you know, and, and they're just kind of trying to figure out what to do or whatever. And you notice as you're talking,
00:53:17
Speaker
you being the one furthest back from this doorway, you notice that the eyes in the sky are moving a lot more. And they seem to be kind of coming together in two groups of eyes. One
00:53:36
Speaker
To the right of the this doorway and one to the left of the doorway as they these eyes start to form start to kind of almost like they're shifting inward towards each other to kind of form and Everyone make another wisdom saving throw man. I've never had to be so wise before 18 17 He's glad I
00:54:05
Speaker
I, uh, I crowned this day. It's been- I re-roll. Alright, what did you roll, Gwen? Um, my total is 11. Okay, so Gwen and Davin- No, it's 14. You don't- It's 14. It's 14. 14. I had the lowest pad in 11. Whoo! Okay. What was Davin's? 17. Oh, you're succeeded. Yes. Davin and Krigs. Krigs, you're looking up at those eyes.
00:54:32
Speaker
And as you look, you suddenly hear, or as you look, you see the eyes come together and you start to, your vision starts to blur and you start to, it looks like you're, it looks like everything is just like swirling in front of you as these eyes all start to kind of come together and coalesce. And you think, just for a second, you think, you hear those whispers turn into a voice and say something
00:55:01
Speaker
It's something that means something, but it goes away. Nothing happens. And, um, uh, Jockster, what did you roll? 18. All right. And Ash, you rolled, uh, 14. 14. That's right. Sorry. I'm getting confused.
00:55:17
Speaker
You, as you look around, you begin to hear the same thing that Kriegs was hearing, these whispers, but they coalesce into this voice that says, it's speaking this language you don't understand, it's this guttural, Grandmafton, look up in the well then.
00:55:44
Speaker
It's just this guttural, almost like gurgling words as these eyes begin to come together, Craig, as you see it. You finally hear this chanting.
Giant Humanoid Threat
00:55:55
Speaker
And it's just coming and just growing and growing and getting louder. You hear it as well, Joxer. And as you hear the sound, you look up
00:56:09
Speaker
And when you look up, you see all of the golden eyes in the sky are gone. Except two giant eyes. It's like they've all gathered to make two giant eyes. And as the chanting kind of stops,
00:56:26
Speaker
You see a figure emerge in this swirling shadow and step out of the shadow, the figure of like a humanoid person, except it's gigantic. You can see these giant horns coming off of the front of his face as they come up into the sky and curl backwards. His face is a pale blue, almost purple. His hands
00:56:53
Speaker
are dark, dark black with long nails. He's wearing an armor, some armor on top of his, on the top of his body with a robe underneath that flows into a robe beneath him down to his ankles. He stands probably nine and a half feet tall, and he continues to call out, Grooboth, Grooboth.
00:57:19
Speaker
And you could just hear this gurgle, just guttural words coming out of him, and everyone needs to roll initiative. Oh. When? I don't recognize. What is that? What is that? I brought this to a fight. Man. I got 14. 14 as well. How's a four, my good sir? Better than my two.
00:57:47
Speaker
Craig, it's about time to let me go here. Iris, the vines have already worn off at this point. You're just standing there on your own. Look, I'm like an idiot. I'm holding on to them, like wrapping around, like a blanket around me. Oh, sorry. Before initiative starts, I just throw the hilt of my sword at the thing. No, go away. How would you like to do this? Once again, Joxer, what was your initiative? 14.
00:58:13
Speaker
That's surprising for Joxer. I know. What's spell slots or is it in the hole? Spell slots will be an eight. All right. So with initiative rolled as we go into this combat, we get ready to fight.
Cliffhanger Ending
00:58:30
Speaker
That's where we're going to end the episode. Oh, let me at him. Let me at him. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm not.
00:58:37
Speaker
Can I just beat up Gwen? You can. So saucy. Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of the Hired Swords. If you like what you're hearing, you know, tell a friend. And if you really like it, do us a favor and leave a review.
00:59:00
Speaker
If you want to catch us on socials, you can find us at the Hired Swords and, well, most places. Again, thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you in the wilds.