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Ep. 24 An Unnatural Monstrosity
144 Plays4 years ago
With the stone beast vanquished and Delmar in tow our Swords set out for the long journey back through the wilds. Keeping Delmar reminiscing of better times seems to be keeping his darkness at bay. But for how long? A plan to reunite Delmar and Francine is paramount, but none of that may even matter if we cannot escort him through the Wilds.
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Transcript
Delmar's Journey and Inner Struggles
00:00:12
Speaker
previously on the Hired Swords. With the Beast Vanquish and Delmar in tow, our swords set out for the long journey back through the wilds. Keeping Delmar reminiscing of better times seems to be keeping his darkness at bay. But for how long? A plan to reunite Delmar and Francine is paramount. But none of that may even matter. Can you hear it? In the trees just there.
00:00:43
Speaker
protect Delmar at all costs.
Rescue Mission and Return
00:01:09
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords.
00:01:13
Speaker
That's it. That's the intro. You get what you get.
00:01:30
Speaker
All right, welcome back, everybody, to the Hired Swords. I'm Mike, and I've got with me Mikey, Ash, Blaze, and Derek. And when we left off, you had been traveling back from the stone fortress with Delmar in tow after rescuing him from the stone giant Filmorian who you had fought in the keep of the stone fortress.
Encounter with the Boar and Bear Creatures
00:01:53
Speaker
we are we kind of didn't technically fast travel like in game in canon but i fast rolled all your encounters so we didn't have to go day by day and you did roll an encounter and you have ended up on this the i believe the night the fourth night so that it's almost the fifth day of travel which is your second to last day before you arrive at wild hill
00:02:16
Speaker
We left off last session with Krigs keeping watch and a boar three times larger than the ones you rode into the stone mountains, charging Krigs out of the darkness in the woods and being chased. This boar was being chased by two bear looking creatures, but they looked a little bit taller than bears and a little bit different features there.
00:02:45
Speaker
their faces, their jowls were a little bit tighter, almost like a bear wolf combo kind of looking creature. And as they run in, nipping at the back of this boar, Krigs, you you look and you're starting to starting to react. Did you do anything yet in reaction? Or did we just end with
00:03:08
Speaker
Pretty sure we just ended with like, oh crap. The description. Okay, that's what I thought. There they are. Yeah, so before you can even say anything, this bear creature reaches out to slash the boar. The boar puts on the brakes and lifts its head and swings its tusks around and catches this bear underneath the chin and sticks this tusk that looks to be
00:03:35
Speaker
probably 18 to 20 inches long up through the head of this bear and the bear just roars and gurgles and the boar shakes his head off and you can see as it shakes you see red goo
00:03:53
Speaker
flinging out of its mouth and off of its fur. And at first it looks like blood. Yeah. At first it looks like blood, but it is just, this thing looks coated. It's like oily and coated in some red goo and nastiness. And it's tusks especially. It's like oozing from within its mouth, up around its tusks. Everyone's going to roll initiative now. Oh boy. After my three minute description of what was happening. First roll, nat 20.
00:04:22
Speaker
That makes two of us. No way. They're both liars. Your initiative is probably better than mine because you have like decks. I know. So 23. Yeah. My initiative is just like flat 20. I have no bonus. Derek. Seven. Okay. 11. Okay. Cool. Cool. So we got, so we have Joxer, Krigs, Delmar rolled a 15. Yeah. He and this. And a boy.
00:04:54
Speaker
Okay. Uh, oh, and the bear guy. Hopefully he doesn't get too angry. I don't think we'll like him if he gets angry.
00:05:02
Speaker
It's going to have two club hands. Yeah. Okay. So here we are in our combat. Joxer, you are currently, you are being, you have been awakened by the sound of this, this boar storming towards your camp and this, this one bear getting
00:05:25
Speaker
its head run through by these tusks. One of those werebear things is dead. It has completely been killed. So you were awakened by the sound of all of that happening. But you are laying prone. OK, so like I'll just like sit up super quickly and then kind of griggs what? And then just kind of jump to my feet and try to move.
00:05:53
Speaker
How would I be able to assess that much information that quickly? What is the distance there? That's less than 20 feet, right? They're not far away. Yeah, you're about 15 feet. It's currently running in at you, too. Yeah. I imagine I'm just going to run as close as I can, which I think is right here, just a couple blocks away, and would
00:06:21
Speaker
I don't know if that would be, I'll get here. So you run in and you tuck in underneath the tree right next to this boar as it's storming in, kind of meet it halfway between where you were and where it is. And I'm sure I wouldn't know this, but would I have any clue that this might be advantageous? It is not, that creature on the other side is not an ally. Okay, okay.
00:06:47
Speaker
Nice try though. Gotta get it in there. That distraction. That is not good. I'm a little sluggish with the nine.
00:07:03
Speaker
A nine, yeah, that's not a hit. I fumble with my sword to kind of pull it up. Okay. And then I kind of look over and just yell at Krigs. What? Who got? Hopefully loud enough for everybody else.
00:07:18
Speaker
Okay, perfect. All right, Krigs, if that's your whole turn, Jox, are you got anything else? Oh, you know what? I will just use a bonus action and you will see that aura kind of circle me again. And kind of give an aura protection of sorts. How would you describe it? Brilliant, like kind of swirling energy that kind of, so you'll see kind of like yellows and purples, or I'll say violets, I guess. Yeah, cool. I'm into that. Yeah. Your aura's violet, violet. Yeah.
00:07:46
Speaker
And it just kind of circles within me, uh, 10 feet radius. Perfect. So that'll take us to Kriegs. So I've been watching them like as they ran up. Um, it's not super fresh to me. I'm not just waking up. You said in your description that it isn't like.
00:08:02
Speaker
Blood it looks more like oil It's hard to tell in the dark as it's running towards you But you do know you do notice that there's so much of it that it's it's gonna make sense for it Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and it's not like it's just oozing down the one tusk where he just you know Ran that one thing's head through it's it's all over him. Okay, something else is going on. Oh
00:08:23
Speaker
Very quickly ascertaining that this is not Chad or Thomas Honkus. Todd or... Todd or... Was it Chad? I think so. Check the notes. Chad would be the name. I think we called one of the boars Todd or Tom. He can have whatever name you want. They are actually in your notes. I know. Tom and Chad. Okay, Chad. Well, we called him Todd the first time. Yeah, Todd was the first time. And the second time we couldn't remember.
00:08:53
Speaker
There's Todd Thomas right Todd Thomas. That was his name. He goes by both He's our boy we call what we want Anyways, Chad's name is just Chad Just Chad just Chad just yeah, that's it I'm going to
00:09:12
Speaker
I'm not too far away from the actual like bear, I'm assuming. I'm going to run over to this bear and kind of just bypass the boar. Okay. Just because yeah, I feel, I feel, I feel the bear is a, not a threat having an idea that it's some kind of like where bear situation. So I'm going to run over and in the process of running over.
00:09:35
Speaker
I'm just kind of sounding the alarm of those that might still be asleep, tapping my war hammer into the shield as I warm up. It's on my back, so I have it, like my shield is on my back, so I'm just kind of tapping my hammer one-handed behind my back, making the sound of it. And as I approach the actual werebear, I'm gonna take my other hand, grabbing the butt end
Delmar's Internal Battle
00:10:00
Speaker
of the hammer and two-handed overhead swing down at this werebear.
00:10:06
Speaker
And that is... Wait, you're attacking the werebear or? Not the boar, I'm doing the werebear. That is going to be 16. The 16 will hit the werebear. Nice. And my damage is gonna be two handed.
00:10:27
Speaker
12 for the first attack. 12 damage against Berrymanalo. Yeah. Okay. And I'm going to crank out an extra attack with swinging it back. I swung overhead and then now I'm going to kind of let the weight of the hammer, the momentum, swing it back around and I'm going to like baseball bat style, try to cap it right in the knees. Perfect.
00:10:53
Speaker
That is an 11 plus my typical seven, so 18. It's gonna hit. That'll hit. And that is a nine, eight bludgeoning, so 17. So you swing down once and smack it and then swing across the knees and buckle that thing's leg under and it roars at you and lifts its giant paws ready to go, ready to swing back down at you. What else are you going to do?
00:11:19
Speaker
I'm going to call that it right now. I'm saving. I don't know how I don't know what we're running into with this boar, but I would rather eliminate targets. So we're not dealing with two things. Sure. And so we need to. You said lemonade targets. Just kidding. Lemonade targets. Delicious. Make that an Arnold Palmer. Make mine an Arnold Palmer.
00:11:43
Speaker
All right, so we're going to go... That'll take us to Delmar, who he is awakened. Okay. And he starts to panic and gets in panic mode. And as he does, he stands up and that'll take half his movement to stand up. And he kind of hurls his brow and looks at what's happening and kind of takes in the situation. And then he just goes,
00:12:12
Speaker
Like that, and that's going to be his whole turn this time. Okay, he gets angry. It takes his action to kind of give in to whatever that is inside of him. Gavin's just kind of like laying on his side, Jeff Goldblum style from Jurassic Park, just watching this. Okay. Just curious. Paint me like, okay. So that now takes us to the boar's turn.
00:12:33
Speaker
The boar now, now that Joxer Krigs, you guys are up close, you can see this boar has a collar around its neck and a chain linked to this collar dangling from its neck and it's swinging its head around and it's tusks and this red goo is splattering off of it and it swings its tusks out at you Joxer first. Okay. And it's gonna make two attacks with its tuskses.
00:13:01
Speaker
The first one's a 17. That will hit. Second one's a 14. That will not hit. So the first one, it hits you for some acid damage, or not acid damage, first piercing damage. You take two plus four, so six plus four.
00:13:20
Speaker
Six piercing damage and as it pierces you it starts to sizzle and burn The goo that's on these things tusk starts to sizzle and burn you and you take oh double sixes shoot me 12 acid damage along with the Six so that's 18 total damage
00:13:40
Speaker
And that's reduced by half. The acid one is? Both of them. All damage. I gain resistance to all damage. Oh, your aura? That's awesome. Good for you. Is it just yours or am I close enough? I mean, I'm obviously not currently. It's within 10. If you look at the map on Roll 20, Blaze, you'll see there's an aura around his figure. Oh, I don't see it. I think you put it in the GM side.
00:14:04
Speaker
I actually don't see it at all, but that's fine. I can use the theater of the mind. That doesn't make any sense. It's there. I could see it with my eyes. Is it on the right layer? Can you see it now? Alas. Yes, I drew it. Yeah. All right. Thank you. That perfect circle, too. Good job. Yeah, it looks so good. It looks like a cloud.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, so it says until the end of your next turn, you gain resistance to all damage. Okay, so cool, so it's halved. And if a hostile ends its turn within 10 feet of you, it takes radiant damage equal to your warlock level plus your charisma level. Cool, so that's a total of, that's a total of nine damage that you take then with the halved. And I will. And it missed you with two, and so. It just sounds OP. It's once per rest, so it's not super fair.
00:14:55
Speaker
One round. Yeah. That's pretty cool. But I do like it. Perfect. So that is it for the boars turn. We are now at Daven.
00:15:07
Speaker
I don't think that's true. I had seven. There's no way that I'm next. I thought Gwen rolled a two or something or five. I thought she had 11. I had 11. Oh, one plus one is two. Don't let him stifle your turn. You go ahead. Gwen, you're on my list. You're on my list. You were just on it. I just misheard the numbers. He thought it was a two because he wrote a one and a one.
00:15:30
Speaker
He is going by Roman numerals. Yeah, I thought it was Roman numerals. So I think Gwendolyn would have been asleep just because she's been a little depressed and emotional. And when she hears the clanging that Krigs makes, she just immediately wakes up and goes, damn, no. And
00:15:53
Speaker
She was having a nightmare because she was back in that field and the evil Dale Had armor on this time and claimed his his sword and shield and was coming at her and she immediately woke up One that is just adorable to me. I'm sorry Little fighter Dale, I want to see that art. It's like
00:16:16
Speaker
It's a little scary because of the voice, I think. I super wish I could draw. He does look adorable. So she immediately just sits straight up and tries to find the actual Dale who is just sitting a little toppled over on the grass right next to her.
00:16:36
Speaker
She's relieved because it's the true Dale. But she looks over and she notices all of the commotion going on and she'll immediately release one of her spirit totems. And it is going to be... We're going to do the bear spirit. The bear spirit. So that surrounds you in what size radius?
00:17:05
Speaker
It surrounds me in a I could place it wherever so I'm gonna place it over the boar over the boar over the boar I had to pull this up now What's the radius 30-foot radius
00:17:27
Speaker
I also like the fact that the Dale voice that you do also has just a slight southern accent to it. Oh my gosh. It would cover all of us, right? If it's on the boar, then yeah. Yes. Fair enough. Yeah. All right. We are all covered by the aura. What does it do again?
00:17:44
Speaker
the bear spirit grants you and your allies its might and endurance each creature of your choice in the aura when the spirit appears gains temporary hit points equal to five plus my druid level which is six in addition you and your allies gain advantage on strength checks and saving throws so you'll get 11 hit points temporary that's great i will take it what else will you do
00:18:06
Speaker
I'm all about that. I want to be frantic because I'm already in the ground, in the ground. That sounds like I'm dead. I'm not. Oh, in the ground? I'm just sitting on the ground. She sleeps on it. I want to take my hands and place it in the grass and I am going to speak with plants and I want to try to grapple the hog, the boar, boar hog. Okay.
00:18:32
Speaker
Okay. And I'm going to speak Elvish to them. Can you help me out please? I'm a bit at my wits end. I just woke up and I'm just trying to give them my life story at this point because I'm frantically trying to ask them for help.
00:18:53
Speaker
Okay. So what you can do is turn it into difficult terrain. Okay. Where the boar is standing. That's what your, that's what your plant or your, your spelled speak with plants says you can do there. So, uh, trip it up in some plant roots. I think it's an undergrowth grow underneath there. And cause she still knew she doesn't know what all speak to plants would do. So.
00:19:16
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So the grass and everything underneath and there's some bushes and like little shrubberies and just like extra foliage that grows in the undergrowth here gets just kind of leans in towards this boar and starts getting in its way as it's trying to maneuver around with it being surrounded by this bear, then the krigs now and jocksers all surrounding it. So awesome.
00:19:41
Speaker
Is that all you're going to do for the rest of your turn here? Yes. Okay, then now we go to Daven. Now I shall go. All right, Daven's going to stand up, use half his movement to stand to his feet. Looking at the spore, it's pretty obvious it's not the same as the other ones that we had encountered a week or so ago, right? Correct. It's much larger and it's red gooey. It's very different.
00:20:06
Speaker
All right. So Devin's going to say, I don't think this is going to be the same situation as we had last time. And he's going to snap his fingers and you're going to see a smart spark come from them like a lighter and then two small flames appear in both hands and he claps his hands together. And when he pulls him apart, he like stretches out like a spear of fire and he throws it straight at and cuts firebolt sick. OK. And that fireball a 19 to hit.
00:20:32
Speaker
Okay. I mean, that'll definitely hit. You're hitting the boar. Yes.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yes, that hits the boar for sure. It would have hit the other one, too, but well, he's hitting the boar and it takes eight points of fire damage. OK, so you hit the boar, this fire missile spear of fire, this missiles its way towards and slams into the board, just kind of wrapping itself around it, singeing and the boar snorts it with a with the pain from the from the fire singeing its skin and starts to bring her head back again, ready to make another
00:21:07
Speaker
tusk attack. Is there anything else? I'm going to back up to the very edge of this range. So I'm going to move back about 10 feet just so I'm out of the range. Back up 10 feet, standing in the bushes behind where the campfire was and looking across the campfire area towards the boar there. Perfect.
00:21:24
Speaker
All right, is that everything then? If so, that's the bear's turn. The werebear is going to make two attacks against Joxer, its new enemy. So it's going to swing a claw first.
00:21:41
Speaker
Not Joxer. Krigs. I just said the wrong name. Krigs. That is an 18 plus seven. It's a high roll. So that hits. Yes. Twenty five. And then it's just fun to hear you say that it hits. That's all. You guys hit me all day. The second one is only a nine. So it's not going to hit. So the first hit does 2d8 slashing damage, rolling my new dice because they're fun and they're colors like the hired swords.
00:22:12
Speaker
8, 9, 10, 11, 12 damage. Thanks for the temporary hit points. Yeah, 12 slashing damage as the claws from this thing swipe across your face and just. All right. And you look cool now with a nice bear attack across your face. It makes you look cool. Rad.
00:22:28
Speaker
All right, now we are back up to Joxer. Yeah, okay. So seeing this beast and kind of getting my bearings back, I am going to try to do a stunning strike against it and use a key. And so whenever I hit another... Oh, you're beautiful. Yeah, whenever... Yeah.
00:22:49
Speaker
So whenever you hit another creature with a melee weapon attack, I can spend one key. So I'm just going to try to attack it with my sword, but aim for a place that I can interrupt its key. And that is a plus on that. That is plus.
00:23:06
Speaker
Six. So that is a 16. It hits. Oh, okay. Your target's 14, so you hit. Okay, okay. So that is now damage, which it is this one right here. That is eight plus three, so 11 damage, and I will spend a key, and it is stunned. Okay.
00:23:32
Speaker
Also do me a favor. Oh, it must, it must take a, it must succeed on a constitution saving throw or be stunned. Sorry. Constitution. And I need you to roll D 100 for me. Oh yeah. All right. That sounds exciting.
00:23:46
Speaker
it's always something fun when the hundreds constitution 22 constitution was a 22 oh that's unfortunate i don't like your new dice i know right it's so good just super heavy dice that are really only just slightly heavier than the other they had a minus one on a constitution saving throw too he rolled a 23
00:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. No, that's false. So that rolled a 19 plus three. A 93. 93. All right. So as you swipe out and you stab this creature, you pull the sword back and you see this red goo is sizzling your rapier and
00:24:29
Speaker
As you pull it back, you kind of fling it up, fling it back and the stuff falls off and it doesn't seem to do too much damage to your rapier. But you get the feeling that whatever this chemical is dripping from this creature, it can be damaging to weapons and things. Oh, yeah. Just like the acid burned you, it also burned your sword. Seven percent of your swords. Oh, OK. Oh, awesome. I don't like that.
00:24:56
Speaker
Maybe, maybe, maybe we should have tried to talk to the bear, but it's a little late now. Uh, yeah. So at that point, is there, uh, I'm going to, I guess I can't do that. Can I? No, that's a, wait, no.
00:25:15
Speaker
I'm going to spend another key and just do patient defense as a bonus action. I am just prepared and my aura is now gone. I was about to ask. Perfect. Okay. You've read my mind. All right. So that's your whole turn then. We're at Krigs.
00:25:36
Speaker
Yeah, so where bear got it in front of you. Bear in front of you. Barry did. That's where they did it. I did not hear you say that it stood up after I cracked its knee. I mean, it it was kind of on all fours like a bear. So it yeah, it didn't it didn't have to stand up. It didn't it didn't ever like fall prone.
00:26:02
Speaker
Okay, I was just trying to get advantage where I could get it. Don't come at me. You flavor attacked its knee, okay? Don't come at me with your flavor attack. All right. Flavor, flavor.
00:26:16
Speaker
Take it into flavor attack town, flavor attack town. I'm going to be really boring because I still don't know what's up with this bore boring. I'm going to two hand attack again. Werebear, what? How bad is it looking in this probably looks fine right now, right? Stupid phone. Sorry. It looks like it is everyone falls asleep. It's my.
00:26:42
Speaker
That's my normal bedtime alarm. I'm an old man. Yeah, it's it's it's definitely damaged. When you walked up, it was a little damaged weather. Yeah, at some way. But it's it's not on it's on the on the cusp of death by any means at all. Right. It's not even quite bloodied yet, so to speak to an attack that was a 17 hit. Not great damage, though, Bob. 10 damage on the first attack.
00:27:10
Speaker
Uh, same story as before. I'm going to just take the momentum of the, the hammer as it goes and swing back around 14 hits. Oh, eight plus eight 16 damage on my second.
00:27:30
Speaker
Yeah, you have you have caused quite a bit of damage to this thing this time and and your your hammer just wham wham and the things And it looks up at you and you can see that it it is there's a Bit of realization that this thing is like oh, I'm not gonna win this but it's you know It's uh, it definitely is is hurting pretty bad now Beyond a little bit beyond bloodied for sure anything else
00:28:00
Speaker
Uh, last thing I'm going to do after making the attack, I attacked fairly quickly. I'm just going to shout back to Delmar. Um, Delmar stand down. If you do not think you can handle this fight. Okay. And that'll be my turn. I don't have much more time after that. It is Delmar's turn.
00:28:21
Speaker
Delmar is making a check real quick. Okay. And you see Delmar shaking his head. No! And he lifts that big club hand and he charges the boar.
00:28:38
Speaker
Oh dear. And when he gets to the boar, when he gets to the boar, he swings down with that club hand twice. Wham! Swings down once. Wham! And back up again. Wham! So he makes two attacks. And you can see Joxer and Craig's as he runs towards his eyes are, they are a golden yellow color. They are not, they're
00:29:01
Speaker
glazed over and The first attack is a 15 will hit second attack is worse so that will not hit so he hits once and 3d8 plus six Yeah, he hits hard That was cocked sorry, oh wow counting on my fingers
00:29:26
Speaker
Math, ladies and gentlemen, what you came for. Yeah, he does. Oh, crap, he messed me up. I have to count again. Interruptions, ladies and gentlemen, that's what you came for. He does 24 damage on the hit. Oh, wow. He's a big, beefy boy. And as he pulls his arm back, he roars again as you see a sizzle on that club hand as that acid burns his hand. Oh, buddy.
00:29:56
Speaker
And he takes eight damage from the acid. Maybe it'll heal back regular. And he just roars again as it makes him even matter. Oh great. The pain. Time to get the Hulkbuster.
00:30:14
Speaker
The sun's getting real low. All right, that is all he can do this round. That takes us to the boar, who getting smacked real hard by Delmar, I guess is going to... Yeah, he's going to go ahead and attack Delmar. It's basically the most recent damage threat there. It's just kind of instinct for an animal.
00:30:35
Speaker
So his first tusk hits second tusk. Oh man, that's two hits It's an 18 plus 7 and a 13 plus 7 so on to Del Mar to Del Mar. Yeah So the tusks dang that does 2d8 plus 4
00:30:56
Speaker
So five, so nine, so 18 regular damage, and then the 2d6 acid damage for each. So 18, 23, 30, 30 total damage to Delmar. And this tusk pierces Delmar. Both tusks go inside of Delmar in one swoop and lift him up off the ground. And he just,
00:31:28
Speaker
No, and it sets him back down on the ground and pulls its tusk out of him and you just hear the of the acid burning his skin. And we are at Gwyn's turn now. No. Gwendolyn, I'm shocked as a character and as a human being right now.
00:31:50
Speaker
Gwendolyn immediately just goes, no! And she gets up and runs over towards Delmar and she's gonna, I'm gonna make this weird. Would it be an action if I assess his body to see how much damage is done to him? Would that be a turn? Yeah, I would have you make a medicine check and that would take an action.
00:32:12
Speaker
Okay. Um, okay. So I want to do that, but I also want to talk to the boar. I don't want to do animal friendship, but I just want to talk to, okay, cool. Um, so I'll let you do the talking, like you're, you're assessing him while you're like talking to the boar. So I'll, I'll say that all that's your entire turn getting over there and doing both of those things, but you could do it in one turn. Okay. I try to make eye contact with it and, um,
00:32:39
Speaker
It's okay. I see that you're hurt. Just calm down. It's okay.
00:32:50
Speaker
Uh, you, this thing grunts at you and you can't make out any, any sort of normally when a creature, an animal like this starts to, you know, like the other boards were more, more, more. You remember this Creek, there's nothing, there's no communication happening at all. It's eyes are a bright red color. And it's, it's like, this is more, more monster than animal or beast.
00:33:20
Speaker
and make a medicine check, checking out Delmar. Look over his body. 11 plus four, 15. He's not quite bleeding out, but that last hit was... He probably couldn't take another one of those. Okay. I'm going to... His flesh is kind of seared and bubbling and boiling where those tusks went in while he's bleeding.
00:33:48
Speaker
And you do notice that his eyes are back to his normal back to Delmar and he's just kind of kind of in shock murmuring at this point at this moment. She's going to be pressing down to hold the blood in and ripping up part of her skirt dress cape and just it's okay. It's okay. And she's just
00:34:14
Speaker
All right. So you're down there kneeling right by Delmar then. Okay. Yarp. All right. Awesome. So now we're at Daven.
00:34:22
Speaker
Well, I don't like this thing at all. All right. He's going to get a good angle on the big boar that obviously is not friendly to them. And he's going to, you'll see like, like before where it's like flames that turn into ice cubes, ice cubes, but like ice and then turns into like electricity, like flows up through his body and he's going to throw out a chaos bolt from his hands.
00:34:45
Speaker
right at the board. I love those. Oh, natural 20. Cool. Cool. Okay. I need you if you roll the natural 20. Okay. Go ahead and finish this out. Something else is about to happen too. So that's going to be.
00:35:01
Speaker
48 plus... Oh, I didn't say this out loud. In my mind, I did. I was doing it at second level. Is that okay or you want me to do it at first because I didn't say it out loud? No problem. Okay, so it's 48 and 46. That's a lot of damage. Maybe it's a lot of damage. I now have to do a lot of math. It's 31 points of damage.
00:35:23
Speaker
Whoa. Ooh, good, good one. Oh, and I have to. 31 points. 31 points of cold damage by the time it hits him. Keep chilly, boy.
00:35:33
Speaker
Yeah. He's a jelly boy. Nothing like resistance or anything like that. So he takes full at full 31. So that thing, just this chill, this ice kind of forms over his body. And it kind of tenses him up for a moment. And he shakes it off. And the ice kind of crumbles off of him. But you can see where it's kind of cracked open some of his flesh and stuff from getting so cold. And I need you to roll D100 now for me, Devin. Ooh, OK.
00:36:03
Speaker
And that is an 18. Okay. When you cast that spell and everything's focused and you're laser focused in and it's that natural 20, so you are just like spot on with the spell casting. You're the only one that notices, but your spell casting focus glows brighter than it ever has. And it just beams and you can almost hear it. And at the same time you hear
00:36:33
Speaker
No, I'm awakened. But that's all. Nothing happens, but something's something's going on. OK. And that's that. That's that. So I have so many. Nothing to see here is going on. Yeah. Continue with your business. Just kill the boar. OK. Clear the ball. As a bonus action, he's going to hide the pee that's coming out of his pants. OK. OK. Perfect. And is that your whole turn?
00:37:03
Speaker
That's it. Yes, that's all I'm doing. Okay. The werebear. Oh, actually I'm going to, I'm going to move back in right, right behind Gwen. So I'm going to stand like five feet right behind her. Okay. The werebear turns tail and runs. Krigs, are you going to make an attack of opportunity? I am not.
00:37:21
Speaker
So the thing dashes away from you, lowers its head, backs up, and turns, and gives up on this hunt of this boar. It's lost its friend, or whatever it was, and it ran into way more trouble than it expected, and so it's retreat, full retreat. And it just runs off into the woods. The boar doesn't seem to be thinking that way, but it is Joxer's turn.
00:37:44
Speaker
okay uh just quick quick assessment you you mentioned the collar and some chains off of it about how long are the chains and is it just two chains is it one chain there are there's a chain dangling from a metal like uh
00:38:01
Speaker
a metal cuff around one of its hooves and it's only about six inches long but there's one that's several feet, a couple feet long hanging off of its neck. It dangles back, I said a couple feet, it's probably more like four to six feet dangling off of its neck and as it slings its head around it kind of flings back up over its back and hangs over its, you know, behind its tail back there. Can I say that chain dangling sounds like a curse word from Yosemite Sam.
00:38:28
Speaker
Chained angling. Chained angling. What? What? What? Chained angling. Where's that chained angling rabbit?
00:38:38
Speaker
So let's just assume if it were standing in the chain, we're going down, it would at least go to its feet or further to the ground? Yeah, probably further. Okay, so Joxer is going to make a jump and try to grab that so that he can grapple the beast via its change.
00:39:03
Speaker
OK, so go ahead and make a start with the dexterity saving throw to do the whole or check, just a text check to to jump and grasp. OK, that is a 17. OK, you successfully jump and grab that chain. Now is if you're going to try to grapple, you have to make a contested strength check against a level. And I get advantage on that because of the bear.
00:39:31
Speaker
It's totem. You do. That's true. So that right there. Right. It's not just saving throws. Is it checks? Gwen? Strength. Strength. Sorry. Strength checks and saving throws or? Yes. Strength checks and saving throws. OK. Perfect. OK. So that is a 22 or 21. That beats the 12. So I rolled a four. So. Ooh. All right. So it is now grappled.
00:39:56
Speaker
And tell me tell me like how you use
Defeating the Corrupted Boar
00:40:00
Speaker
that chain to grapple it. Just describe that. So I would have had to have like kind of, I guess, jumped up and rolled partially over it to grab the chain that was kind of dangling. And then as I roll off of it, I use my momentum to kind of
00:40:18
Speaker
just start to tug it in my direction. So now it's like kind of across my back and I'm kind of like tugging it in another direction. And I want to try to pull it farther into the trees. I know I only have half movement, so I'd like to pull it up against the trees so I could get closer to wrap that chain around the tree on my next turn, assuming.
00:40:45
Speaker
OK, so you're trying to pull. You've got it grappled, but now you're trying to move it with your OK. Yeah, cool. And is that your whole turn then? Yeah, so I would have pulled it because I can still do that because I haven't used any of my movement, right? Right. Yeah. So I at least pulled it up about five to ten feet kind of diagonally. So it's like up against the trees where I was at.
00:41:09
Speaker
Okay. Let's make another strength check to successfully pull it. Make it force it to move against its will. Okay. I think that's... That one's a 14 and that one is a 16. 23. So you have it, it is grappled, its speed is zero, but you are not able to move it anywhere at this moment. Okay. Roll to 19 plus four.
00:41:37
Speaker
Sounds good. OK, and we are now at Krigs. I will use, or as a bonus action at that point, I'll just use just patient defense while I'm holding this chain with one hand. OK, perfect. So one kilos. Krigs Golder. I'm going to walk back over to Delmar and he's still kind of like, is he on the ground now after being tossed up and brought back down or is he still standing? He's still standing.
00:42:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That's going to do it. I still have the wrap, the binding around my wrist. I don't have it all the way across the hand. So seeing the kind of like glow in his eyes, I'm going to have the light that is actually emitted from the palm of the hand, the actual eye, I'm going to kind of hold it in front of his face.
00:42:30
Speaker
And I'm going to whisper something to him. No one will really be close enough to hear what I say, but you're going to see like a flash of light from the palm of my hand and kind of just go across his face as I cast Shield of Faith on him, giving him an extra plus two bonus to his AC in the event that he gets attacked again. And then for my actual action updated.
00:42:57
Speaker
The actual action, I'm going to you're going to see a second flash and I'm going to put that same hand just directly on his chest and you're going to see like a pulse of light emanate from his chest across the rest of his body and to the sizzling portions. It's going to kind of make it sizzle extra, but more of a radiant, not acidic. And I'm going to cast Lay on Hands on him for 15 HP. OK.
00:43:27
Speaker
Perfect. All right, so that starts to radiate across his body and it's strange because it does heal him and it heals him all the way, but the sight of him that has the growths and all of that, the sight of him with the gross eye winces and twitches with that radiant energy that goes through his body as if it hurts that part of his body to get that radiant energy through him.
00:43:55
Speaker
He is healed. It does the same thing. There's a double effect there that it's like pouring antiseptic on the wound. It stings like it hurts him at the same time. The idea of putting it in front of his face and trying to get his attention with it was just to try to snap whatever non-anger part of Del Mar like, look, it's me. This is what I'm doing. It's going to hurt. Enjoy.
00:44:21
Speaker
Yeah, don't do something stupid and get yourself killed. You need to stay alive. Sure. Okay. Perfect. And the very last thing I have like two seconds. I'm just going to say, remember Francine. Wow. Okay. That'll be the end of my turn. Awesome. Okay. So the end of your turn. It is now Del Mar's turn.
00:44:38
Speaker
Oh man, cool, that's crazy. Okay, so I just gotta say, I've been rolling for Delmar to see if he reverts to the cursed form, right? And I roll a disadvantage when something crazy's happening. Well, you said Francine, so he didn't get disadvantage because you said Francine just now. And so he rolled a natural 20, so it's pretty super amazing. I just love how that happens.
00:45:04
Speaker
I love how that happens. I get all tingly feeling when that crap happens. Anyway, I had to say that because it's so cool. Anyway, I'm growing to love Delmar. He's my favorite. I still haven't said I'm going to kill him or not yet. Okay. Well, now that you know I love him, that may affect your decision.
00:45:26
Speaker
So he kind of snaps. He's already kind of snapped out of it. The pain of that last attack had the opposite effect of before and kind of snapped him into back into Delmar's mind and not the curse for him. And then you mentioned Francine and he kind of looks around and he he is going to he is going to disengage and step away from the beast.
00:45:55
Speaker
So he steps back and just kind of make sure he's safe and backs away from the creature and tries to get himself away and kind of sits on the floor back behind the campfire and curls his knees up and he's like, Francine, Francine, stay, calm down. He's trying to keep himself calm. And the boar now gets a turn. The boar is going to,
00:46:22
Speaker
Just make its two attacks at jockser. It's not going to try to get out because it feels like you could still swing at the guy who's hanging on by a chain. The first attack is an 18. That will hit. The second attack is a 12. OK, hold on. Let me see the dodge action for patient. The second one does not hit. OK.
00:46:44
Speaker
And then I totally forget what the dodge actually does. I think he has disadvantage on his attacks. Oh, yeah. So he would have disadvantage because I did patient defense. Let me just roll two more. Yeah. Yeah. So the first one, I rolled a 17 the second time. So 17 plus seven, and then it's a four. So for the second,
00:47:07
Speaker
So one still hits. Okay. And then I'll roll the damage. So it's two D eight plus four. So it's four, five, nine piercing damage. And then it is.
00:47:22
Speaker
nine acid damage so you take 18 damage as this thing again just just swings its tusks and one of them goes past you and it kind of it kind of goes along your side and the other one goes right into your gut and just and just the flesh around where the tusks inside you just starts to burn and sear away from this acid as it pulls its tusks back out getting ready to try to try to make you
00:47:51
Speaker
Try to attack you again, trying to make you let go of this rope or this chain. Thanks for the bear totem. Yeah, right. So that takes us now to Gwen's turn. I watched Delmar get away and I just look at the boar. What is your problem? And I just yell at it and I'm going to walk over towards Joxer and do cure wounds. OK.
Reflections and Next Steps
00:48:20
Speaker
And let's do it at first level. 1d8. Cool. Five plus seven. Cool. Okay. So 12. 12. Nice. That's pretty close to four. Sick that you got that with a first level. Yeah.
00:48:42
Speaker
That's a good roll. Real nice, real nice. All right, anything else? No. Actually, that should be three less. I'm sorry. So you'd get nine. Oh, no thanks then. Forget it. Sorry. We don't want your HPs. Keep all of it. Just keep all of it. Sorry. I was like, that does sound high. And I'm just going to be angrily looking at this boar. Stop it.
00:49:10
Speaker
Just disappointment. Yeah. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. It's worse. And that's, that's it. Davin. Uh, Davin is going to throw another fire bolt at it. So he does the thing again, snaps his fingers, shoots out a bolt of fire and it hits it for nothing. And I rolled a four. So it's 11 total. Uh, 11 does not hit. So this bolt of fire flies over the top of, of,
00:49:39
Speaker
this werebear and um davens a little a little shaken from the the last attack and and uh just misses high just a little bit he just shakes his head and kind of wipes out his face a little bit and then uh takes a step back okay all right and then that takes us back up to the top which is joxer
00:50:01
Speaker
Okay, so I think I'm gonna just kind of continue my previous plan I'm gonna keep trying to pull it with my movement So do another strength strength contested strength check pulling that thing across the ground Against its will ooh to 20 dirty 20. That was a one. I
00:50:20
Speaker
Okay. Plus... He says so sheepishly. You're successfully irritating the crap out of it. He's real pissed. I am just going to use my actual action just to dodge. I'm just gonna hold myself in here now that I think I've got its attention. Okay, perfect. All right then, Krigs.
00:50:45
Speaker
Well then, more seemingly not like hurt that we can tell you. We've not done enough. It's hard to tell. If it was bleeding, you probably wouldn't know it because it's already covered in this red liquid. However, it does seem to be, you can see places where it does have open wounds and it looks like it's starting to get into pretty bad shape.
00:51:14
Speaker
As much as I don't want to, I might have to, because he is really hurting those around me, and Krigs, as much as he wants to be kind, ain't about that. So, obviously, I have advantage because of reasons, most specifically, he's focused on Joxer.
00:51:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, you can move around to the side there and be flanking it. I'm just going to go straight up to the to the side or kind of guess more closer to the rear, which would either give him.
00:51:50
Speaker
Potential to move forward either giving jocks or the ability to complete his plan or You know do some damage. So I'm gonna roll behind two hand I'm gonna have after having given Delmar his aura and the the health I still have the the war hammer in my left hand, which is not typically my leading hand for striking I'm gonna
00:52:15
Speaker
grab it again with my right hand, and as the right hand grabs it, the light that kind of emitted towards Delmar, you're going to see it sheen kind of over the surface of the hammer as it kind of like reacquaints into that striking position. I'm going to come from behind the boar, just unfortunately quite mad, and I'm going to give a very hard two-handed attack at the hindquarters of the boar.
00:52:44
Speaker
The weirner. The jocks are special. That's where we're going. The borehole. That is a twenty twenty two. That is a successful smackaroo. Yeah. The board doesn't happen to be an undead or anything like that. It's just straight up beast, right? Correct. Because I'm also going to divine smite it with this attack. So the actual melee damage.
00:53:13
Speaker
is an eight plus eight, 16 plus divine smite, which is, I'm going to do it at first level, uh, 2d8 extra damage is 2d8 for the first level as well. All right, cool. Seven, nine. Oh yeah, it's not a da. What am I doing? That's a really good d8.
00:53:39
Speaker
Oh, that's embarrassing. Where even is my D8? The D8 with the one scratched off. They don't have the D12. They don't get enough attention. Right. Two. Four. So I did four extra damage on that first attack. So it's a total of 20 damage on the first attack. So how much did you say? Twenty. Twenty damage. All right. And then if it's not yet dead, I'm going to. Does that include radiant damage? Yes. OK. All right.
00:54:07
Speaker
So roll a D100. Oh, boy. OK. 91. 91? OK. As you pull the weapon back after hitting, you're getting ready to swing again. You do notice a sizzle coming off of it. And there's just a little bit of corrosion happening from hitting this boar with this war hammer. You can go ahead and do another attack if that's what you're wanting to do.
00:54:38
Speaker
Uh, that's a toughy. So what I'm going to do is.
00:54:49
Speaker
Nothing. That'll be the end of my turn. You're going to stop. Yeah. Honestly, my reaction, if I'm thinking about it, I'm going to swing attack. I had no idea that it sizzled Joxer's weapon. I look at my war hammer and see it just be like, I'm like, ooh. So that's got my focus. I just bypass the rest of my turn because I'm like, what, as a blacksmith, I'm curious, what can do this to my metal?
00:55:15
Speaker
Yep. Okay. All right. So if you're done, then that takes us to Del Mar's turn and he's just sitting there rocking, going, just stay calm, just stay calm.
00:55:27
Speaker
It's okay. He's going to finish it off. Just finish. Stay calm. Stop it. No, stop it. Stop it. And he's trying to keep himself calm. And the boar now is going to strike out at the last person to hit it, which is Krigs. So two attacks at Krigs. Krigs. Krigs. Krigs. Krigs. And... Krigy, I'll do. It doesn't have disadvantage. No, because it was because you were dodging or whatever.
00:55:53
Speaker
That's a natural one. For the first, second one is a natural two. So that's just wonderful. So this bore is every time it tries to swing its tusks at- Spoiler alert, it doesn't hit. Yeah, sure. Every time it tries to swing its tusks at Craig's, that's right when Joxer's pulling the chain. And so it just...
00:56:24
Speaker
And it's just so frustrated and angry and it feels trapped and stuck and mad and it's in total rage mode. And that's the end of its turn because it rolled stinky stinky. So Gwen.
00:56:41
Speaker
Do I? I'm going to be after I touch Joxer's shoulder. I'm still angered at it because I don't know why it's being such a borehole like we're just going to use that term. That's a new is that a new cuss word in our world. Yes.
00:57:02
Speaker
I saw something on Twitter about that today, and I was like, hey, I like that. It's like the Battlestar Galactica frac. You chain dangling borehole. You chain dangling borehole. Oh, that's so good. That's the next t-shirt, baby. Oh, gosh.
00:57:20
Speaker
So do I notice anything? Obviously, I noticed I feel like I would notice the corrosion on jocks here's weapon weapons and on the ground. Do I notice anything unnatural as I'm looking at this boar angrily? Make a perception check. Would that be my whole turn? Probably.
00:57:42
Speaker
10 plus two. Well, it it seems it reminds you. It just seems unnatural, not not not like undead or something, but just it's it maybe once was a bore, but it is no longer just a regular bore. Something's different.
00:58:11
Speaker
It kind of reminds you of how it's like a boar version of what happened to Delmar maybe. Not exactly maybe, but like modification. I've probably said more than a 12 is worth, but there you go. Perfect. Yeah, right. Sure seems like the creature that they may have been talking about a note. Yeah, that's what I had a feeling of.
00:58:38
Speaker
I think Gwendolyn would normally want to be friends with animals, but seeing that this does not seem natural, she's going to produce flame and try to end its misery because she is shaken by the fact that this animal is not well. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. You would feel like it's not well. The poor thing, something's wrong with this. Yeah.
00:59:05
Speaker
Okay. So you can throw it at it. Yep. A flame sheds bright light and a 10 foot radius and dim light for an extra 10 feet. All right. So you make a ranged spell attack.
00:59:18
Speaker
All right. So then if my, does 15 hit? 15 hits. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. So roll your d8. Gwendolyn's not used to just like attack rolls. Yeah, exactly. What is D and D? I rolled a five. Five damage. How to junction and dragage. How to junction dragons.
00:59:40
Speaker
All right, so Gwendolyn, in a rare show of combativeness, produces a flame in her hand that is almost as intense as the fire in her eyes at her disdain for this boar. And she hurls the flame at the boar, causing a searing on the back of it as it burns away a bunch of the
01:00:01
Speaker
flesh and hair and the boar is looking pretty bad. That takes us now, unless there's anything else, did you have bonus action, anything else you wanted to do? Okay. That takes us now to Daven. Daven stands there and he kind of looks hesitant and he looks like he's going to start casting a spell and he kind of stops and pauses and thought for a second. He shakes his head and he rushes back over to the campsite and he picks up his crossbow that he has never used. He loads a bolt in it.
01:00:27
Speaker
He loves the bolt. He's like, I think it goes this direction. Yeah, it seems about right. And he's going to fire bolts at the boar and see how that works. OK. OK. Yeah, you roll the 23. Everybody's branching out today. 23 hits for show. Wow.
01:00:42
Speaker
So that is going to be eight points of damage with the bolt. It kind of fires it off and he's like kind of freaked out by the recoil of the thing. All right, I can do this. Yeah, so he shoots and it sticks inside this bore and you see the bolt sizzling as it go as it is inside the bore and just and there's a little bit of like a steam smoke coming up as the
01:01:10
Speaker
Acid on this boars fur is burning away the material this crossbow bolt is made of anything else That is all he's going to do. Okay, then we are now at joxer again Well after after seeing Gwen actually attack it at this point and seeing that it's a little rough. I'm I'm not
01:01:31
Speaker
I think I'm just going to take some damage because I'm just going to try to punch it a whole lot. Okay. That's the jockser quote I wanted to hear. I'm just going to punch it a whole lot. Yeah, for sure. I'm just going to punch it a whole lot. Jockser 2021.
01:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, so what you know one arm still has that chain I'm just gonna try to like well, actually it's not looking at me. It's looking at Craig's. Yeah. Well, look at that I'm aiming I'm aiming for the hind quarters Let's see here so this is it advantage because I'm flanking right? Yeah
01:02:16
Speaker
Um, that wasn't needed. So that's a 21 to hit hits. All right. So that's a one D six. That is four plus three. So seven first punch. So you punch this thing with that first punch. And when you do acid, just sprays up all over you and you take six points of acid damage. Jesus. God, no.
01:02:43
Speaker
and at the same time you hit the creature so hard it just reverberates through its body and the thing goes and just kind of slumps over dead and uh you kill it that's that's that's the job finally
01:03:09
Speaker
Just as the beast falls like jocks are just kind of looks around and just raises his hand one punch man Good job. All right. Well done. The board lays there dead on the floor acid
01:03:30
Speaker
Was this the creature that was on that the note we found that they shouldn't have made? Well, I don't know, but it's it's definitely not normal, right? Far be it from normal. The thing burned by hammer. You don't understand the density in the map. There's no way. Let me see that. What? I'm going to walk over to his hammer. I'm going to take a look at it. I'm going to just hold it out. All right. You're looking at it. I'm going investigation check. Sure.
01:03:59
Speaker
Um, no, that's a natural for just to see how bad it was. Okay. Um, so I can see the corrosion at least, right? Yeah. I mean, you can see where, you know, like the corners like been rounded off on one of the corners from where it hit this creature and it kind of seared it away. It's not continuing to corrode, but yeah, it, it definitely did a little bit. It didn't, it's not affecting the effectiveness, so to speak of the hammer. It doesn't seem like.
01:04:28
Speaker
It wouldn't, but I mean too much of it could have. All right. Devin's going to hold a hand up over it and then he kind of like closes it down into a fist for a second and then pauses again and then he just kind of shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders and he puts his hand back out and he's going to cast mending over it. A spell repairs a single break or Terran object you touch such as a broken chain link to halves of the broken key, a torn cloak, a leaky wine skin. I can do one foot. It takes a minute to do. I don't know if that'll work for this.
01:04:57
Speaker
OK, so you as you cast mending and it starts to glow and the when when the minute is up, you let go and you look at it. And I mean, you kind of think maybe you kind of honed the corner a little bit, but, you know, it didn't it didn't necessarily completely fix the the it's more of a cosmetic kind of thing now at this point, you can tell. But yeah, it's it's it's it's fine. It's just you wouldn't want to.
01:05:26
Speaker
Put it in a bath of that stuff. You're going to have to teach me that one lad. It saved me quite a few hours at the Forge, if I'm being honest. Granted, it still can use a little bit of work, but I'm not exactly kind to it in the first place. Well, I'll be honest. I don't really know how I do it anyway, so it's probably going to be hard to teach. But that's the best I can do for now. I'm certainly going to take it. Thank you.
01:05:48
Speaker
Gwendolyn's going to immediately look at Joxer. Are you okay? Your blade, are you okay? Shh. Go on, sorry. No, that's all I got. Yes, I'm good. I think I pulled the blade out quick enough. It doesn't look like there's much here. I just didn't want to risk any further. But this beast,
01:06:17
Speaker
Yes, I immediately been down To examine the beast I I'm gonna touch it But as soon as she touches the blood she'd probably wince and pull her finger black black back Because she wants to know
01:06:38
Speaker
how this creature was made. She probably can't tell by looking at it or touching it, but she wants to think of ways that this creature was created. Okay. You want to make an arcana check? Yeah, sure. It's not looking good. We're going to do a seven plus five, 12. Okay.
01:07:03
Speaker
you would understand that there are types of magics and chemical alchemical creations that can modify creatures sometimes for a short period of time sometimes for a longer period of time and there's also breeding
01:07:23
Speaker
and mixed breeding that could be done to do that sort of thing. And so you definitely can't zero in on one way this was done, but you're definitely, you know, you're starting to go through a list in your head of, well, they could have done this or this or this, you know, there are different ways, cursed or blessed, or depending on what it is, you know.
01:07:46
Speaker
While I'm still holding my hammer, I want to look over at Delmar and see if he's still on the ground, kind of rocking back and forth. He's stopped rocking. He's still sitting there. He's just kind of watching you guys and looking over at the boar and looking at his club hand where it was harmed. And most of the painful damage and such has been healed on his hand. And he's looking at his stomach wounds.
01:08:13
Speaker
They've been sealed up where he's not bleeding out anymore. But I mean, it's he's still got pain and some some of that. And he's every now and then trying to convince like you can hear him trying to convince himself not to give in and just kind of call himself because the pain and everything is keeping him keeping him having to fight it. I'm going to walk over and I'm pretty short to begin with if I comparison, but I'm going to kind of kneel to one knee and take the club hand in my hands and kind of start examining it.
01:08:40
Speaker
I'm not much of a combat medic, but how did you fare? How are you hanging in there?
01:08:49
Speaker
He says, well, I'll say I still feel like the holes from those tusks are pretty deep inside me. I don't think there's anything bleeding in there anymore, but some damage was done. There's some scar tissue or something. It hurts bad. It's still pretty bad.
01:09:11
Speaker
Well, I mean, look at my face. I'm sure I got a little bit of a story to tell after that. Bear got a good slash and I think we all have our scars to bear, but you're still standing. You're still here and you're maybe a day or two away from Francine. That's got to be definitely something to look forward to. Would you need a secondary heal? I know we could potentially give you at least something left. We're a little bit tired from the fight, but you're one of us now.
01:09:41
Speaker
If there's anything you've got, I don't really feel like I could even really get up and move around right now. The pain is too bad. Would Joxer have been able to overhear what's going on there? Would it be close enough? Sure, definitely. He's only 10 feet or so away from you. So the moment he hears that, there's this light bulb that kind of kicks in his head because he's got a potion on hand. And he also wants to empty a vial. Okay.
01:10:09
Speaker
Two for one. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So Jog said, oh, Delmar, Krigs. And he's going to rush over there and pull out the vial. You're in luck. I can vouch for this one. He's got quite the talent as a brewmaster. Sadly, this is just a potion. So this will be disappointing.
01:10:36
Speaker
He says, he looks at it, he says, I recognize these vials. You should. Yes, I remember when I packed these, did Francine find them and give them to you?
01:10:48
Speaker
Yes, they were in the basement of your home. We did visit her there as we were trying to find clues about your whereabouts. Well, that's very interesting. You can see here, and he points to the top, and you can see that on the cap there is a small tree emblazoned on there. And he says, this was given to me by the same
01:11:16
Speaker
person who gave me that wand that I passed along to you. She was a pretty fascinating person. Now, I'll drink this. It opens it and starts drinking it. So that will be... Seeing that symbol, I'm going to ask Talmar, what was the name again of the woman who gave you the wand in this potion?
01:11:43
Speaker
He says, well, she was a, uh, a druid. We called her Peggy, Peggy, the bark walker. Uh, she marked everything with the tree because she was very, uh, in tune with them. And, uh, she gave me that wand so that we didn't have to waste time foraging. And she also dabbled in alchemical creations like these potions, simple stuff, nothing too crazy, but, uh, she was, she was a good friend.
01:12:13
Speaker
You're remembering more. I like that. I guess they're right. The symbol on this, this violet stirred those memories up. I really like, I really love remembering. It's, it's much more than the, whatever the places I go to and he takes over. I'm curious. For the sake of remembering, uh, what about this, the symbol? And I'm going to just present my open hand.
01:12:40
Speaker
Ah, he says, yes, that's the, that's the symbol of Helm there, isn't it? Yeah, you do remember. Yes, the, my, I once met a cleric who, he was a priest of Helm, a dwarf like yourself. He, he was a fascinating man, pretty brash, liked to joke, but he, I only knew him for several days as he was passing through.
01:13:07
Speaker
our camp. He traveled with the General's party. He was their cleric, their healer. But oh, it would be nice to know him now. I've seen him remove worse curses than what I face before.
01:13:22
Speaker
I definitely think we all could use a few more allies in times like this, but, uh, I am glad to have those I have here now with me and I see you and you are Delmar. And that's, it's pleasing considering we are just a few, few more treks away from, from Francine. I've been thinking about that. Um, I don't know if it's a good idea for me to go into town. Oh, if there are, if there are others there.
01:13:53
Speaker
It's already crossed our minds, Delmar. When we get closer to the outskirts, we'll make a decision and maybe we'll bring Francine to you or maybe we can disguise you in some way.
01:14:07
Speaker
We have some time. Would you mind handing me that empty bottle? Oh, sure. He puts the lid back on it and hands it to you. Thank you so much. And Joxer's going to kind of walk by and go up to the boar in that and see if he can collect some of the acid blood.
01:14:28
Speaker
Oh, OK. Make a slight of hand check while you do that. All right. That is a 16. Where is my slight of hand? That'll be a 15. 15? Yeah, you're able to kind of scrape it around across the fur of this creature, making sure it stays where it's touching the vial and your skin's not touching it. And so, yeah, you're able to get about
01:14:54
Speaker
Three quarters of the vial full of this this creatures excrement. No We just call that poop oh got it You're gathering the you're gathering the the you get a vial full of the like acid so I said that it that it secretes yeah from yeah from its pores and
01:15:19
Speaker
And at that point, I would probably walk up and look at the tusks and see if there's any way I could like, I don't know, clean them off and see if they could come off and I could collect them for. Just taking antlers and tusks wherever you can get them, aren't you? He's a collector. Make a survival check on that part.
01:15:44
Speaker
It's a one 15 again. Look at that. A 15. You, you're able to kind of clean it off pretty good. And it takes you, I mean, it could take, it'll take you a good 15, 20 minutes, but you can cut off one of those tusks with a dagger knife or something, kind of dig it out down to the bone. It's, it kind of takes some breaking and cracking and, and cutting, but you can get it done. Okay.
01:16:08
Speaker
Data would like to go and examine the or specifically like the the collar thing around its neck that you said it had in the chain and see if there's any kind of markings or any idea of where they could have come from. Okay. Make an investigation check. Sure. Let's say 10 plus 3 is 13. The collar is solid iron.
01:16:32
Speaker
as is the chain. And you can see where it's kind of rusted and corroded, but it doesn't seem like the acid on this creature is eating through it. But it is, you know, it's like rusted looking, but there are no markings or anything to identify necessarily where it came from. It's just the collar is like the same kind of cuff on its hoof. It's just large enough to fit around this creature's collar. It's a good probably 18 inches diameter, big old thing.
01:17:01
Speaker
I am curious as exactly what was going on here. It seems to me that those man-bear things that were out here were trying to wrangle it in, like maybe they created it, or at least were holding it captive. Maybe it's part of that letter that we have, maybe it's not, but they might have some answers if we wanted to go try and find out some answers.
01:17:23
Speaker
It's not a terrible idea. I don't know how far that one would have gotten or what kind of tracking abilities we necessarily have from here. I don't know what's up. Kriegs, did you hear it say any word or make any noise that you thought might even be more, you know, closer to common?
01:17:49
Speaker
I heard near grunts and sounds you would expect from a typical animal. I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. Maybe we see a certain look in its eyes that might indicate it was a little bit more sentient than not. It realized, unlike an animal, that it
01:18:10
Speaker
likely wasn't going to be able to survive this day and definitely was able to flee. Maybe we can get some information off of the other body. I would be afraid to take us off this path when Delmar is so close. I'm definitely not going to and I apologize for
01:18:34
Speaker
being so stern in this decision, but I'm not changing course until I reunite Delma with Francine. It's too much of a liability to let him begin to forget again, I say, kind of under my breath. Yeah, no. And I actually grabbed this vial of the blood and the
01:18:54
Speaker
the tusks so that if this does belong to that previous, if it is connected to that letter and maybe that other job, maybe this would be enough proof to show that it's been undertook. We could also ask Denaldi whenever we get back to town, he must know something about this if it was included or part of that letter. Yeah. Go ahead.
01:19:22
Speaker
Gwen, with your connection to the forest, can you tell us whether or not it's still night, but would the corpse here keep any other predators away? Would they be drawn away from the smell? Are you able to tell from the plant life or whatever connection you have, as I've seen you talked with the plants, are we safe here now? Or should we continue on a little bit further and get away from this corpse in the event a predator might come?
01:19:51
Speaker
Gwendolyn just sits there, staring at the boar, and I don't... I'm going to take a bit of fur from each creature, and I might be able to track it later, but I would like to burn the bodies if we could, and leave.
01:20:16
Speaker
This does not seem natural. I cannot rack my brain just like the stone creature. I cannot fathom what is happening. This is unnatural. This beast was literally filled with poison, acid poison. I mean, I don't know anymore, but I would like to burn the bodies and leave.
01:20:45
Speaker
Have we seen anything like normal in this forest so far? I mean, ghosts, acid bears, goblins? It's true. Well, one thing we do have is what we have now, each other, Delmar, and direction. I'm all for burning these bodies and paying our respects. It is quite the large bore, and it will take a while to fully burn as we do not have accelerants or any other materials I might use in forging.
01:21:15
Speaker
I suppose while it burns, we can rest for now, let Delmar regain some of his strength, and we can take off first light. By then, I reckon the corpses will be at least no more enough to carry on. How does that sound to you? That is fine. How is Delmar? She just snaps out of it a little bit and is kind of Gwendolyn again.
01:21:42
Speaker
He's managing, as I would expect anyone in the ranks of Helm. He's doing his best with what he has presented. Oh, good. I'll go check on him.
Prioritizing Delmar and Investigating Remains
01:21:54
Speaker
Maybe Deal can help, and so she goes and sits next to him. Now Delmar is her top priority. Okay.
01:22:03
Speaker
With that, if there's I'm I'm done doing anything except delighting this and getting back to resting. Yeah, I would just look at the severely impaled body to make sure there's nothing of, you know, no letters, no, I don't know, weapons, something. You you didn't find anything. Yeah. On any of them. Yeah. That's just two animal bodies, it looks like. Yeah, then. Yeah. And when the.
01:22:31
Speaker
When the bear creature, when you looked at it closer, you saw it looks more like a bear than it did when it was alive. It looks more bear-like and less like... The features and stuff don't look different, as different as they did when it was alive. Interesting. Then let's get this night over with.
Fire Incident and Aftermath
01:22:54
Speaker
David will go, he'll grab just a torch out of his bag and he'll go light it on the campfire that I'm assuming we still have going and he'll take it over and he'll try and just basically just set it on top of the boar and see if it starts catching anything on fire. Okay. Yeah, it's set on the boar and you start to see smoke start to rise and it's partially from the acid kind of eating away at the wooden torch.
01:23:20
Speaker
And then it's also, though, eventually you get the sense, you get the, you notice that the fire is starting to spread and it's, it's taking some time, but as you guys kind of settle in and start to sit around the campfire, start to rest, you, you do finally see both creatures begin to fully engulf in flames. And in fact, the boar flames start to rise pretty high, kind of lapping at the trees above.
01:23:48
Speaker
above them above it and Maybe make sure a little concerned for a moment and starts to die down as it burns away a little more Well, are you guys gonna do anything else while you're sitting and watching this or waiting resting? Are you gonna full-on go to sleep or uh? I think I would go back on watch if It had not been so long unless Daven when had something he was doing Daven's just ready to go to bed
01:24:13
Speaker
Okay. Same. Alright, so you all take your rest and Kriegs is watching, watching it burn baby burn as you all rest.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:24:33
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of The Hired Swords. Clearly you rolled a natural 20 in your decision-making today. If you liked our show, tell a friend about us, and if you really liked our show, tell the world and leave a review. If you want to keep up with us and all the behind-the-scenes goofs and gaffs, you can find us on Twitter and Facebook at The Hired Swords. Again, thank you for listening.