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Ep. 71 The Changing Of The Tide
186 Plays2 years ago
A storm of darkness brews just beyond the horizon. Churning and toiling with evil intent. How often have you felt that bitter cold chill of despair? How many times has it taken your heart and frozen it solid, away from the world? Alone in your own misery.
Unfeeling. Unrelenting emptiness.
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Transcript
A Storm Brews with Evil Intent
00:00:08
Speaker
previously on the hired swords. The storm of darkness brews just beyond the horizon, churning and toiling with evil intent. How often have you felt that bitter cold chill of despair? How many times has it taken your heart and frozen it solid, away from the world, alone in your own misery, unfeeling, unrelenting emptiness?
Introduction and New Episode Setup
00:01:06
Speaker
You're listening to the hired swords. But I feel like you probably already knew that.
00:01:26
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Is everyone ready? We good? Welcome to the Hired Swords. Dungeons and Dragons. Let's start over. Let's start over. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Hired Swords. I'm your Dungeon Master, Michael, and I'm super glad that you're with us. And guys, I'm glad you're with us, too, players. Introduce yourselves.
00:01:54
Speaker
Hello I'm jockser or no I'm Mikey and I play jockser. Hi I'm Gwen and I play Ashley who's also Gwen. Isn't that neat? That's a net. That's a girl Gwen. Bonjourno I'm Derek and I have an accent.
00:02:13
Speaker
Well, hi there. It's me, Blaze. I play creaky gaulters. What is wrong with us? My name is Michael. I'm the dungeon master or game master. So may prefer game master, game running runner. That M is coming through. Game master. I apologize. I don't want to say him something. I'm not. I'm who I am. All right.
Encounter with the Dark Mist
00:02:38
Speaker
When we last left off, we were just as, I don't know what the energy is tonight, that's an interesting energy, but when we last left off, we had been traveling through the wilds, the northern, very northern stretches of the wilds, past Lonely Hill, past anywhere we know any other travelers or hired swords had been. And in doing so, came across
00:03:01
Speaker
the dark fog or mist that has been encroaching upon the wilds as it moved southward from the untouched lands to the north.
00:03:12
Speaker
The party traveled into this mist a little ways and decided to settle down for camp, not really being able to find a real safe place, just having to settle before they get into the big, thickest parts of this mist. They begin to settle in and that mist begins to kind of creep around their camp. Joxer seeing something that startled him and gave him a fright, a little fright. And Gwendolyn experiencing a bit of apathy
00:03:41
Speaker
having a little struggle somehow something affected her in a way where things that were super important to her are no longer as big of a deal and so we sit now as the end of the the end of the night comes
00:03:58
Speaker
The sun starts to come up though it still stays rather dim because it's pretty dark here in this mist-filled, dark mist-filled forest as you begin to awaken. Everyone, what shall you do now? I wake up.
00:04:14
Speaker
Great. This is fine playing. I don't think I ever fell asleep, so true. As it all comes up, I'll probably, you know, place my hand on each, you know, what is it? Head goose goose? No, I'm sorry. Duck duck goose? What? Head goose goose. I put my hand on the head goose. They know.
00:04:39
Speaker
I want to say it's morning. Everybody, please get up. I'm awake. What's going on? It isn't morning. I think so. It feels like it's been about that time. I think it's brighter.
00:05:02
Speaker
It reminds me of this one time we had a fire at the farm and the clouds that were all black and dark all day long. It kind of gives that gloomy look. It reminds me of that. Still looks night to me. Yeah. Do you want to stay here any longer? I'm ready to get out of here.
00:05:21
Speaker
I do. I mean, I'm just so tired. And you can notice Gwendolyn's not really stuttering like she is. I think we can sleep tomorrow.
00:05:36
Speaker
Yeah, maybe we could find a spot where night is night and day is day. It seems to help some people sleep. Jaxar, where are we on the map? You have that map, right? Yeah, let me, I'll roll it out and try to get a gauge of about where I think we are. I don't know if that'll take a
00:05:58
Speaker
Well, for sure pull up my little balls of light and see if I can see where we're at. Make a survival check. You basically have to go by where you remember being the last time and how you think you've been traveling thus far.
Planning the Route to the Black River
00:06:16
Speaker
You don't really have any landmarks. May I help him? May I give him aid? Yes, sure. That's advantage or you both roll. Your choice. I'll let you take advantage. Okay.
00:06:28
Speaker
While they're looking at the map and all this stuff, I'm going to try to do just some basic calisthenics to get the blood pumping because I'm not... I didn't sleep well, so yeah. Kriegs is often doing calisthenics. Yeah, he does a lot of calisthenics. He's an old man, he's got to stay his limbers again. That's true, that's true. 18 plus one.
00:06:50
Speaker
Oh, nice. Yeah, you gather that you've you've traveled almost directly north after exiting Lonely Hill. And if you time it out right, if the kind of spacing and judging on where you were at the hunters camp and how long it took to get to Lonely Hill from there and all that judging from kind of the history of your travels thus far and then looking ahead, it looks like you're about halfway from Lonely Hill to this large stripe on the map called the Black River.
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah, it looks like we're getting close to this black river. I'm not sure, but come here. Look, this looks like where I think we are. Right. I guess we just keep heading toward the river then. I mean, any landmark is better than no landmark, right? That's fair. I mean, water is normally a good sign for life, for better or for worse. Oh, is that what we're looking for? I don't even know.
00:07:51
Speaker
98, 99, 100. There's no way you did a hundred of those things. You liar. You weren't paying very close attention then, were you? I think that's what you're banking on. Okay, maybe, maybe not. Well, have we figured out where we are and where we're headed? Well, yes and no. We were still heading north. I mean, that's the best we can do. That was our initial plan after all. Gwen, you ready to take off or?
00:08:21
Speaker
I guess, but where are we really going? Well, you know, as honestly as good as any of us does, we were headed north because that's where it seemed we were called to by those in Wild Hill that had a little bit more intel than we did as to what's going on in this area, those that had close dealings with Darnaldi and all those.
00:08:44
Speaker
I mean, what if we're just being lied to? Why don't we just go somewhere else? Well, where do you want to go? I mean, we needed a direction and this seemed to be the best option that we had at the time. Do you have something better that you want to be doing? I mean, there's a lot of things I would like to be doing.
00:09:07
Speaker
But who cares? And she just she gets out of her little like bed pile. Bed pile. Kind of like a teenager that doesn't want to go to school or put their clothes on. She kind of just is slinking up from the ground. Well, you have the most money, so I mean, I'll go where you go.
00:09:30
Speaker
And even maps, so... Yeah, I mean, at least where we came from doesn't seem super beneficial. I'd like to see something different than giant dead plants and such.
00:09:47
Speaker
Not sure if this is just a case of adventure fatigue or taking an arrow to the knee. I'm not really sure, but maybe we... maybe we get out of this dense, dreary area and maybe it'll breathe a little bit of life back
Uncovering the Source of Darkness
00:10:01
Speaker
into us. I'm not... I'm ready to get out of this dark, thick fog and everything else that's been around us has not been too great. Maybe there'll be a little bit better, brighter, who knows, up north.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to agree with you, Krigs. Might also be wishful thinking, honestly. You guys just talk too much, my gosh. And she starts walking away and she kind of left Dale on the ground.
00:10:30
Speaker
She has a bag. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bedroom today. I'm going to kind of look back at you guys. I'm not going to say this silently because I'm not trying to keep it quietly, but it's well, I feel like we've had a different event in this darkness where one of our members has been a little off. We might be dealing with something similar to what Krigs went through before.
00:10:57
Speaker
Oh, where's Dale? I gotta go get my guy, I guess. And she just kind of picks up, goes back, picks up Dale, like a disgusting way with just two fingers. And she's just like, just put you in there and throws them in her bag. And she starts taking off in the direction that we were going to go towards the black river. That just looks at the other two, like, do you see this?
00:11:27
Speaker
I'm going to kind of not super out loud, but I'm going to mess it like whisper to Devin. Uh, is it me or does she seem a little entranced to this morning? Something's definitely off. Yeah, something's different for sure.
00:11:43
Speaker
Is there any way to tell if she has anything? I mean, I know whenever I've faced the Fomorian and the barracks and the hags and the wild, something changed in me. Is there any way you and your magics, you can tell whether or not she's being influenced by any outside parties or entities that may have come through the night? There's one thing I could try. And Dev's going to jog up to Gwen, and as he starts heading up there, he says, Gwen, Gwen.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yes. Are you being influenced by any sort of magical thing or something affecting your mood? Krigs just drops his head. Because I feel like you're acting weird and different and it kind of happened to Krigs before too. I'm fine. And he just keeps walking. Because I haven't seen your teeth yet today and usually you're smiling a lot.
00:12:36
Speaker
She turns around and does this, like, forced smile, like, is that better? Instagram smile. Yeah. So it's working her angles. Come on. All right. Come on, guys. Gwen's ready to move. As I start to catch up, I'll just throw in my mage armor and look over at Daven. I have a feeling we might need this.
00:13:06
Speaker
All right, but I'm not doing it because you did it. I'm, I'm more scared of Gwen right now. Uh, having noticed them now, both cast major armor, I'm going to give them the finger guns and say, Hey, Twinkies. What's a Twinkie? Uh, it's an old dwarven adage where you, you dress alike. You're, you know, it's a thing. I don't have time to get into it. Let's get on with the, on the road.
00:13:33
Speaker
I just can't wait for the time when you guys hold hands and cast it at the same time. Are you ready, Joxer? I'm ready, Daven. By our powers combined. You say mage, I'll say armor. Ready? And go. Oh, I love it. Set secret decoder rings. So you guys start to hit the channel with mage armor.
00:13:58
Speaker
Are you guys starting to head north then? Yes. Yeah. Okay. That's the blame. All right. Somebody roll a D 100 for me. I'll do it. Yeah. Good one. She don't care.
00:14:10
Speaker
I don't care anymore. This even feels different. Energy wise. It's a 15. A 15. And of all the numbers, it could have been. It's a 15? Wow. All right. So you guys are just kind of walking and you're walking through the forest. It's still kind of dense.
00:14:29
Speaker
fog, it starts to clear a little bit, though. And as it starts to clear, the sun's shining through a little bit more, and the ground is kind of covered, you notice, with leaves and sticks and stuff like the... Some of these rustled the plant life around here a lot.
00:14:50
Speaker
It reminds you, especially Gwen, of after heavy storms and that sort of thing, how a lot of the dead limbs and leaves and stuff had fallen from the trees. And it just looks like that around here. A lot of brush and stuff everywhere. It spans a large area. It doesn't look unnatural. It just looks like there was a storm here in the last, I don't know, maybe several days. And as you're walking, everybody make perception checks. Okay.
00:15:18
Speaker
Don't mind if I do. Oh, 20. 30, 20. 12. That's a natural. Seven. I rolled a 20. Great. 15. All right, what order are you guys walking in? I probably went first. I probably went second. I'll go third. Sounds good. All right, so as you guys are walking, I need Krigs
Crossing the Treacherous Ravine
00:15:38
Speaker
and Gwendolyn to each make a dexterity saving throw. Okay. Do I care to make this throw? You care. Okay. 15.
00:15:48
Speaker
Great. Sixteen plus two. Eighteen. Eighteen. Great. So as you are walking forward, you barely notice that there is like an indention in the earth in front of you somehow. And the leaves and sticks that have fallen are covering something. And so your foot kind of hits it and knocks a stick down into this pit beneath.
00:16:14
Speaker
or this ravine really beneath. And you can see that you were about to walk right into this. And right then, as you stop, suddenly, boom, boom, you're run into by Joxer and Daven who are right behind you. But you managed to hold yourself and keep from falling in and stop them as you look straight down in these razor sharp looking jagged rocks in this ravine that kind of cuts between the trees and things. And you can see trees are growing at a different angle in and out of here.
00:16:41
Speaker
And it's, again, not unnatural. It doesn't look strange to you. It's just, it was, it was crazy. There were so many branches and twigs and things laying across the ground that it was hard to see this until, except you, you managed to just at the last minute. So the branches and twigs and trees and stuff that are on the ground, do they look like they were placed there or does it look like it just, there's a large scattering, make a survival or insight check insight investigation. That is a 11.
00:17:11
Speaker
It seems natural to you. It's not laid in any sort of pattern. Now, again, somebody who really knows what they're doing could maybe make it look natural. You think that, but you don't think, oh, definitely this was laid out to catch somebody off guard. And the ravine definitely looks like,
00:17:30
Speaker
It's just a real ravine and you can see it kind of runs as far as you can see in both directions as just a place where the ground has been split here somehow for some reason. How deep is it and how far across? It's only about 12 to 15 feet across. It looks like probably 30 feet deep. Well, do we want to try and find a way around or try and jump over it?
00:17:57
Speaker
Gwen doesn't say anything. You can jump your strength score in feet. I'm good. So I can only jump backwards.
00:18:07
Speaker
Not your strength, not your strength modifier, your score. Okay, my strength is an eight, so I cannot jump very far. So there's nothing around that we could grapple on or, you said some of the trees everywhere. Hold on, you said I could jump my strength score? I got hops. That's 18 feet, my dude. Yeah, you can run and jump 18 feet.
00:18:33
Speaker
I can do that in real life. It's not a big deal. Yeah, if you get three jumps, you can do it. Whenever you get a running start, isn't like one and a half your strength? Is that what? Oh, yeah, I think so, actually. So yeah, you can really, you got some good, good jumps. Now you'd have to make a deck saving throw because anything like that with heavy armor on you, you'd kind of have a struggle.
00:18:55
Speaker
I don't have heavy armor though. Medium armor, boy. You're a strong, strong man. Dwarf man. I'm a strong dwarf man. Daven, could you use Mage Hand to take one of these ropes and tie it on one of those branches up there? Yeah, sure. I called.
00:19:17
Speaker
I think I think I could help out a little bit. I might be able to maybe lighten us up and and may. Sounds like a great plan. I just start running and I leap over. OK, yeah, Krigs runs. Lands on the other side, turns around. All right. Well, have a good time. You didn't even have to fully jump either. Yeah, you said it was 24 feet ish.
00:19:46
Speaker
said 12 to 15. I totally misheard that altogether. I still think it might be best in this end to have some support.
00:20:01
Speaker
Gwendolyn looks over and just kind of waves at them and she casts a jump on herself, which means that I touch my waist and I just jump. You do it like super saucy, like hands on hip, like woo.
00:20:19
Speaker
Yep. I snap my fingers. Um, and my jump is tripled and I just jump across. Sweet. Welcome. See ya. And she just kind of walks past Craig's just kind of keeps going. You guys better hurry. You know, I'm not a big fan of the way that they just leave us like that. I mean, I'm, I'm just trying to help you right now. Honestly. Oh, you can't get across. I'm just following Gwen.
00:20:48
Speaker
You guys better hurry! I'll just see you over there. How about that? And I'll cast Misty Step and I'll just flash over there. Yeah, nice. And make the jump. So you're all there on the other side. Look on the other side, guys! I just appear right next to you when you see this white mist just kind of go around. There's that stinky mist again. Welcome back. Oh, no, this is different. This isn't Dimension Door. I learned this trick from you. It's Misty Step. Ooh.
00:21:18
Speaker
All right. You're all on the other side now? Yes. Great. All right. Well, you continue walking forward, go halfway through the day. The sun is bright in the sky above you, only slightly tinted by the little bit of dark mist that kind of hovers above you.
Confronting the Black River
00:21:40
Speaker
But as you, about halfway through the afternoon,
00:21:43
Speaker
you begin to hear the loud, I mean, you were in Lonely Hill, you heard this river rushing and it was, it was pretty loud, but the sound now is incredibly loud. And you think for you, about an hour goes by and you're thinking you could come upon this river anytime based on how loud the sound of rushing river is.
00:22:07
Speaker
But then another hour goes by, and you're still not there. And then another hour. And at this time, as you look forward and you start to head that way, it looks like there are storm clouds ahead of you, just billowing black storm clouds swirling in the sky above. And you can see as you walk and kind of the sunshine is now fully on your left side as it's going down behind the trees, you can see that even the darkness of the sky and the shadow
00:22:35
Speaker
is not the shadow, but the night sky and the shadows of the trees and everything is nowhere near as dark as that black clouds you see ahead of you. And then after about right around dusk, the trees clear and you are standing on a large
00:22:55
Speaker
flat dirt, no grass, no plants opening that stretches as far as you can see to the right and to the left. And about 60 feet in front of you, you see a river and the
00:23:10
Speaker
the banks of a river and it is rushing past you and it's loud and it is it is moving at a pace just a rapid fast pace that you've never seen and as the the land that you're standing on kind of declines from left to right the the river flows from left to right in front of you and that black
00:23:33
Speaker
those black clouds are swirling above this river and just throbbing almost and pulsating above this river, and those aren't clouds. That is the black mist that has been creeping. Little bits of it have been creeping towards you, and you've seen it in the wilds. You saw it at the Goblin Village. You saw a little bit of it as you exited and went north from Lonely Hill, and now you're seeing what seems to be possibly
00:24:02
Speaker
the edge of the source of this black mist as it seems to have been reaching from here out everywhere else. And sure enough, as you look down the sides, you can see almost like it's living, just reaching across the river just a little ways or off the river. And there's about, from the water to the bottom of this black mist, there's about 30 feet in that space.
00:24:27
Speaker
of just, you know, open expanse and space, but the mist still kind of drops and kind of dives down every now and then you see like cyclones of this black mist swirling down and bringing water up with it and splashing it back down into the river. And this is the Black River. You guys remember how I said earlier, it might be brighter and more exciting up ahead. I was very wrong.
00:24:52
Speaker
Gwendolyn walks towards it. I think I'm going to take a bath. She doesn't care. She's going. I'm using a mage hand and I'm going to push her back towards us five feet. Okay. Stop. I'm just saying it'll be dangerous. What is going on with you? What's going on with you? This is not like you. There's something wrong. No, there's something wrong with you. You guys have been talking all morning. Just let me go do my own thing.
00:25:22
Speaker
I've never met such an emo person in my life. I didn't. What does that even mean? Gwen, Gwen, and I'm going to run up to Gwen and then I'm going to touch her shoulder. Just just calm down and I'm going to cast Remove Curse in hopes. She's going to try to shrug it off.
00:25:41
Speaker
She tries to shrug it off as you cast the spell. And as she shrugs, she... And when she exhales, this black mist comes out of her nose and her mouth and it swirls in front of her and it joins the mist in the sky. And Gwen, you are no longer suffering from the apathy you were suffering from before. I am immediately jumping up and trying to fan it like it's just the worst smelling things. Get out of here.
00:26:10
Speaker
I don't know when that's all that. What's going on? What was that? I don't know why. You're better now. That's what matters. And Krigs, do you remember- It's better now. What was happening? You were super angsty and you were- You were a Spider-Man. You were such a- I like guys.
00:26:38
Speaker
Where's Dale? And she frantically just goes through her bag and tries to find him. He's, of course, at the very bottom. And she grabs him out and just gives him the biggest hug. What were you saying, Draxar? Do you remember when I was telling you about the spider disappearing into the darkness? Yes, I do remember this. This. This is that darkness. Won't like that. Yes, but I fear that we still have to go through it.
00:27:07
Speaker
Well, maybe it'll be fine if we feed her some spiders first. Great idea. I don't want to eat any spiders. No, not us. Nevermind. Are you okay now? You seem like you're better. I feel better. It felt weird. I couldn't control my actions. And her stutter is getting worse and worse because she's panicking. She's never really lost control like that before.
00:27:36
Speaker
The best, honestly, the thing is, you're back now, you're here now. Think back to the time, back in the bunker with the Fomorian, that it's the same concept. You're back now, and that's what matters the most. We're here, we need to figure out
00:27:54
Speaker
What we're going to do about this is I just I look up at the swirling tendrils of all this mist and just terrible looking cloud of vapor.
00:28:07
Speaker
Draxar, you've experienced this before. I mean, more than I have. Well, yes. I mean, whenever I took watch, after we killed those warping white spiders or phasing spiders, one of the ones that we took outside of the perimeter was just taken. It was gone. I just watched it get swallowed up.
00:28:35
Speaker
It was similar to, I don't know, Craig's being taken by the hag. I don't know how to explain it. So is this what we've been looking for this whole time? I think it's the start. I wouldn't. This is definitely the line between dark and light. So do we need to stop this or pass it? I don't understand.
00:29:00
Speaker
I'm gonna do something real stupid. I'm gonna step kind of in front of everyone and just look up to the sky. Hello!
00:29:11
Speaker
see if it responds, because it seems to be somewhat sentient to an extent. I can definitely say that I will look over at him just flabbergasted. You shout hello and you're not sure if it's because it can't understand and it's not sentient and not thoughtful or if you are inconsequential, but there is nothing, there is no response of any kind.
00:29:40
Speaker
Well, it doesn't hurt to try. I look back. Do we notice any change? Is it like creeping at us or does it seem to be doing anything?
00:29:50
Speaker
No, it just seems to be swirling and billowing from- How high does it go? There's no end to it that you can see. It's so dark above it. It's just darkness. There's a 30 foot space you can see out, as far as you can see river, between the river and the bottom of this as it swirls down. But as far as looking up, it just looks like an endless expanse of this darkness.
00:30:19
Speaker
Can we see the embankment on the other side or is it just water? You do not see an embankment on the other side. Um, I just, I have everybody just take, take ahold of this rope. I don't, I don't want us, any of us to get separated. I tie it around my waist. Okay. And we're not in a lawsuit. I don't know if anyone else is seeing the roll 20 chat.
00:30:44
Speaker
Hawaii. I started a countdown. We are down to three from six. What? What? I like that. Now two. Where's this count? Oh, I see the countdown. I mean, does that mean anything to our characters or just to us? Just to you. That's players. OK. He just he just wants a reaction. He's he's dying. I got it. I figured that mode.
00:31:10
Speaker
So everybody basically tied off at least it to an extent. I Don't know what we're supposed to do here. Oh It's easy. I'm gonna cast my I'm gonna cast my divine sense which allows me to detect good or evil within 60 feet. Yeah, uh Dude, like does it tell you if it's good or evil? Yep. I think we've had this conversation before
00:31:36
Speaker
We have. As you would expect, the darkness above you is nothing but evil. It is pure dark, as dark as dark can be. And as you look, you make a perception check with advantage. Okay. Honestly, just
00:31:57
Speaker
That wasn't good. Okay, that was 18 with advantage. Just at the magnitude of the size of it and that sense of evil that I have, I'm very awestruck at this point, besides whatever you're about to tell me. Okay, so what was your role? Say that again? The first one was three, the second one was 18.
00:32:17
Speaker
Yeah, with the 18 you look and you see, you know, first of all, you see that the darkness just swirling above. You see that is full. It is just it's pure shadow. It's like the emptiness, the nothing, the expanse of of.
00:32:34
Speaker
Just bad mood and horrible everything is in this cloud. It's evil. And then you look to your right and you see the river rushing. You look to your left and you see what looks like as the water is rushing before rushing from there. This water, this chunk of water
00:32:52
Speaker
also has this evil aura around it. And you kind of look harder and you can see this thing. There is almost a life sentient type energy to this bunch of water as it is now approaching you. And it is moving now onto the shore a little bit. And as you see it moving to the shore, what are you guys doing?
00:33:20
Speaker
I'm pointing it out to them because I'm not sure if they've recognized it at this point. I'm just going to basically point at it. I don't have any words because I'm still so pretty awestruck just at the magnitude of everything ahead of us. It's very intense. And you're all tied together now? I was. I'm tied off. I don't know about everybody else. I mean, I didn't say I did, but I would have done the same thing as everyone else.
00:33:46
Speaker
so everyone's tied together yeah and I would have at least after pull seeing that are being pointed out I probably would have at least grabbed my weapon my rapier and if
00:34:01
Speaker
Yeah, so you're so he you point Craig's and when you point everyone sees this
Battle with the Elemental Creature
00:34:09
Speaker
Enormous creature with five heads. It's made it seems to be made from water. It's running on four legs Towards you and this water is swirling and flowing as it moves and these five heads are
00:34:24
Speaker
It's like flowing and flooding towards you. The rear legs are shorter than the front. It gives it like a bulldog type stance. The heads look like water. They've got the black mist swirling inside of the water and it seems to kind of flash and flicker as as it comes towards you. You see
00:34:44
Speaker
you see it kind of flash to, like, a green color, and then you see it flash back to this, like, blue color, and you see what looks like bolts of lightning darting through the inside of this creature. This thing is enormous. It's gargantuan-sized, and it stands the size of, you know, a giant building, like the size of a castle as it comes towards you, all five heads moving towards you, and it...
00:35:13
Speaker
as I roll first a d6
00:35:19
Speaker
And yeah, so as it moves towards you, it launches, and it seems to like spit this big glob towards you, and it looks like water. And as it comes towards you, it freezes like this, and it hits. Everyone make deck saving throws with disadvantage, because you're tied together. Tied together, good idea. Wow. My original was just so you could hold on, but it started with tying.
00:35:49
Speaker
Oh my gosh. I got a 14. I rolled another 20, but my other one... Kregs, don't we get some sort of bonus for being near you for saving throws? You do? You said Dex? Yeah. How's an 11? For me. Okay. Dex saving throw. Eight plus three plus one. So upset. So 12. That's a 12 at disadvantage plus whatever Kregs. You get a plus two bonus to any saving throw if you're within 10 feet of me.
00:36:18
Speaker
Okay, so that gives me 16. Oh plus two. That's nice. So 13. Okay. Joxer? 12. I don't think I get that bonus based on the map. Yeah, you're not close enough. Uh, Krigs? Uh, I rolled a 13 plus two would be... But you get the bonus or just them? I don't know. Uh, it's a deck sort, right?
00:36:39
Speaker
Uh, uh, four decks. That's right. Dex. So you get a 14. Yeah. Okay. So you need, Oh, I get, I get 16. Oh great. So you needed 15. So Joxer and Gwen, you both take, you both take 10 D six. That's a lot of these sixes. I'm going to roll it in. Roll 20.
00:37:05
Speaker
10d6 is yes, ma'am quick math does my that's 33 average So first it is 21
00:37:16
Speaker
Plus... I just rolled five twice. You rolled... so you did d10s just so... Oh, that's my apologies there. Oh, thank God. Yeah, that would be mean. Redo. So a 19 plus 12. So a 31 damage.
00:37:36
Speaker
31 damage this this and it's cold damage as this this glob slams against Craig's first and Like he dodges out of the way and and Daven too and Gwen and jocks are you both take the brunt of this as it just ice shards freeze you and You take the 31 damage now. We're rolling initiative
00:38:01
Speaker
Wow. We're about to die, friends. So Chris and I took nothing. We're good. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Black River Guardian. Ooh, great. Wow.
00:38:11
Speaker
I don't like it. This feels nice. I've been playing a lot of Elden Ring lately, and this honestly feels like I've just come across the actual, like, one of the real bosses. We need some real epic music going on. Set of Dark Souls, it's Hired Souls. A whopping 13 for me. Fighting music going. I rolled a 7. You beat me, I got 4. Maybe not. 15.
00:38:39
Speaker
getting dim roles. All right. So if you got a 20 or a 50 20 down to 15, maybe I got 15. Oh, this pencil doesn't work. Give me a break. How does a pencil not work? The lead is broken. Okay. 15. I'll just, I guess I'll use the best questions I've heard today is just how does a pencil not work? It sounds like the start of a really bad joke. All right. So Gwen and then who, uh, between a 10 and 15,
00:39:10
Speaker
Thirteen for me. Thirteen. All right, between five and ten? I had seven. Four. Woo wee! Be glad you're only fighting one monster. That we know of. That's right. And he rolls, or she or it, or they roll a 14.
00:39:38
Speaker
That's the guardian. 13. Oh, okay. So we get another round here of the nice. All right. Gwen, we start with you. What are you going to do? I don't know. Um, Gwen's probably going to cast fairy fire to start off with. Okay. Fairy fire that gives a little aura, right? A little glow. Yes. Give you some advantage. 10 foot radius around the creature. Okay. What color is your, is your aura of, of fairy fire?
00:40:07
Speaker
It's gonna be violent. You're turning violent. You're turning violent, Violet. Dude, I said it first. I thought it before you guys said it though. That's rude. It has to make a deck saving throw, doesn't it? Correct. To make sure that it goes around it. I was trying to find it. Roll to four. Perfect! It fails. It fails the deck saving throw. Here we go, my big monster's failing everything for a while. This is gonna be fun. So any attack roll against it has advantage.
00:40:37
Speaker
Great. Just great. Just kidding. And then, that is all I'm going to do right now. Okay. Awesome, awesome. Then I need the creature to make its turn. So, all right. So we're going to, first of all, make a roll here. Okay. Roll a d6. Fail. Okay. So it is going to,
00:41:06
Speaker
move towards you guys i was about to say if jackson moves do we all go with him yeah boom it gets right up there to krigs of
00:41:19
Speaker
I don't think he'd be strong enough to move this this creature as it moves towards you It's like galloping towards you with it's like I said that lower the lower Smaller back legs. It's got this like Bulldog stance as it comes towards you and each of its heads with those five heads filled with water they it begins to shift and it shifts into
00:41:47
Speaker
This, the water shifts into this big, this like clear water instead of this black and black bluish water that it was, it's clear. And you see this, you hear now this reverberate, reverberating from this creature as it reaches out to make an attack on Krigs.
00:42:08
Speaker
And as it goes to try to bite Krigs, it rolls to bite a 19 plus 9. So hits on the first attempt. The second attempt is a dirty 20 with an 11 plus 9. Still hits. And you take a d10 piercing damage from the bite, which is a 5 plus a d6.
00:42:40
Speaker
So ten total damage, a d6 piercing, and... er, five from the piercing damage, and five elemental damage, which is thunder at this point. So I need you also to make a strength saving throw. Yeah, I know, that's gonna be okay for you. Yep. Ooh, that was a 90-20 too! Nice. So...
00:43:00
Speaker
Well, twenty eight with my aura. Right. So that first head bites you and hits you. And as it hits you, the the this thunderous this thunder emanates from it and just jolts you backwards. And the second one bites you and hits you in this. This it doesn't jolt you backwards. It just makes you like lean backwards, but you you solidify yourself and stand strong against it. And then you
00:43:30
Speaker
Then you take another hit from him and this time the damage is eight piercing and three thunder. So 11 more damage and then the third head tries to bite you. Natural 20. So that is 16 plus eight. 24 damage from that one. Fourth head.
00:43:57
Speaker
Rolls a 16. And another 16. So I need you to make three more strength saving throws for those last three heads that hit you the last two miss as you are kind of trying to repel yourself away from these guys. Strength saving number one, 14 plus six plus two. Well, yeah, so 22 saves.
00:44:21
Speaker
17 plus all the numbers. Seven saves. You're beating a 15. Uh, I just rolled a 15. So I rolled really high three times. Great. So you're, this thing is every time in everybody behind Krigs, when these heads bite him, you're hearing this.
00:44:40
Speaker
Every time and he's standing strong, but it is just a reverberating through you almost as this thing is doing this thunder damage. And that is the end of its turn. We are now to jockser.
00:44:53
Speaker
Yeah, it halved me. Oh boy. Okay. Um, since we're all technically tied together still, right? You are. Rope and not something metallic. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to, I'm going to kind of move and weave so that I'm kind of in like the little triangle positions that I can see as much as I can. Yeah. Standing just south of the other three of them, you kind of, your rope kind of.
00:45:19
Speaker
dangles between you as you stay as close as you can without starting to pull them away. Yeah, two attacks against the ropes that are tying Krigs and Davin.
00:45:32
Speaker
that way you're separating us with your attacks i am okay so i'm gonna i'm gonna clear that so that you two are free do i need to make an attack action for that just as a no those are free those are you're using the action but you don't have to roll you can successfully strike them all okay so that's technically right to an ac of 25 um
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, seriously. It's a chain rope. And then I'm going to use something new that I have, and it's Astral Refuge.
00:46:08
Speaker
which I disappear from the world for a brief moment and enter the Astral Plane, which I'm assuming that would drop the rope between me and Gwen. Yeah, yeah, it just falls away. And I can take two actions to cast
00:46:28
Speaker
spells or two actions that can only affect me in that area. Okay. Which I don't think I have. Is that a bonus action to cast that spell? I thought it was. I might be wrong. Hold on. Shoot. Nope. That one is an action. All right. So you use your action to slice the... Okay. Because you had to make two full attacks.
00:46:54
Speaker
What can I do? What can I do? What can I do? Could I use my melee attack or a bonus action to either untie myself or try to punch the rope in half with my magical fists? You could try to remove the rope in whatever way you see fit with your bonus action. That is around you, yes. Okay, then I would remove that bit that
00:47:24
Speaker
ties gwendolyn and i together that's your whole turn though yeah um would i still get any movement because i've only moved like 10 feet you can get 10 more well half movement total okay so yeah that'd be 10 okay um
00:47:41
Speaker
I will separate a little bit out. I'm just saying that time to untie or remove that rope, it was a chunk of time there. Yeah, no, I get it. It makes complete sense. Yeah, that is all I have. Okay, great. So you just moved about 10 feet away from the rest of the group over on the side there, and then away from the monster a little bit, still standing about 10 feet away. That takes us to Krigs' turn. Oh, I'm not feeling very good.
00:48:11
Speaker
Alright, at this point, everyone is behind me, correct? Correct. This is bold considering that I've realized this thing is basically made of water, but since it seems it has some kind of magical properties, and I'm a little bit at my last wit about this, I'm going to...
00:48:33
Speaker
After taking all those hits, I'm I'm a little shaken up. It's kind of an understatement. I'm not necessarily shaken up. I'm faltering just in my stance. But I'm going to brace myself and how you see fighters do before they throw a punch. It looks as if they pull energy from the ground up. I'm going to channel everything that I have in me, all the holy power, everything that I possibly can. And I'm going to throw
00:49:03
Speaker
what looks like a punch, but I'm actually throwing all of the magical energy I can conjure into a fireball. OK. In front of me, ranging out to where it is far enough to not hit me and I'm the furthest most thing forward. So I know as long as it's not hitting me, the the orb of flame or whatever is is in totally caps encapsulating this thing and trying to hit everything in its path.
00:49:34
Speaker
OK, so you can't. So you're cast technically fireball. I'm casting fireball the spell. Got it. OK. And then so it needs to make a dexterity saving throw. Yeah. All right. So that's going to be a teen to say it saves. So it takes half damage. And I believe. Yeah, I cast that at third level. OK.
00:50:05
Speaker
Let's see here, do the damage on this. Rolled a total of 31. Great, okay. So whatever your half damage is on that. Yeah, that'll be 14.
00:50:22
Speaker
All right, so you hit him or that the flames begin to erupt around and you see much of it as it goes around him. He kind of shakes and his his heads kind of flail up and down and the water around him just kind of seems to like extinguish some of these flames as this fireball burns around him and then
00:50:44
Speaker
is absorbed, and some of him evaporates, for sure, and he, you know, it's as if him taking damage, but much of that didn't do what you had hoped it had done to him. That's fine, and is he directly in front of me? Yes, he is. Just as a last retort, and just to let him know that, like, he's not getting through me to whatever is behind me, I'm going to do a bonus action, I'm going to use my feet, and I'm going to give him a Shieldmaster Shove,
00:51:14
Speaker
uh i can't i didn't do an attack action bomber uh yeah i guess that'll that'll that'll be it for now for old kriegsley okay i'm gonna put still i'm gonna grab my hammer out and and hold my shield in front of me and just brace for whatever onslaught it has as coming great so as uh
00:51:34
Speaker
As those flames kind of absorb into it, you see it, this little light glow in the middle of it, and it begins to swell inside, and suddenly this thing is steaming and just bubbling and boiling, as this thing now, the energy that it holds is now fire. That takes us to Daven. Noticing that it's fire, Craig smiles. Cool. What?
00:52:00
Speaker
Uh, Devan's gonna turn around to Gwen and he's gonna put his hands on his shoulders and he says, this is not the place for us, Gwen. We gotta move. And I'm gonna cast Dimension Door and if she's willing, I'm gonna pull her with me. I go.
00:52:11
Speaker
So what you see is my cape pillow behind us and it's just all black and you see the blackness kind of engulf our entire vision and it's kind of smoky inside and as we like move through it almost like passing through a veil you see beyond it like black and red skies with like lightning made of fire and on the ground it's like pure rock with like bubbling lava coming up and then you see in the far distance this like big city that looks like it's made of brass as we go zooming forward through it
00:52:35
Speaker
And then it just rips away and then you see the land on the other side as we move to the other side. That all happens in an instant. Nice. Where was that? I will explain that later. And then I'm going to use a sorcery point to quicken spell and then I'm going to, now that I see that it's fire, right?
00:52:58
Speaker
Yes. I'm going to cast Frostbite toward it. I hope this works. Okay. Uh, and it has to make a, um, constitution saving throw of 17. All right. Constitution save. That is a 14 plus five. So 19 saves. So nothing happens at all. Okay. So you cast, uh, what was it you cast? Uh, it was, um, frostbite.
00:53:27
Speaker
Frostbite, yeah, so you cast this spell and you see the water begins to look like it might start to harden and ice over, but the flames just burst from it like solar flares coming out of the backside of this creature as you stand behind it now and doesn't allow any of that to happen as this thing stands strong. Is that your whole turn or what you got next? Gwen is standing next to me and I don't really want to be like, are we still tied together or did you cut the rope between us?
00:53:55
Speaker
You two were cut and then I untied Gwen, so everybody should be free of rope. OK, I'm going to kind of pace myself so I'm like 10 feet away from her just so we're not standing immediately next to each other. OK. Oh, why do I smell? You kind of smell like sulfur. You do now. All right. That takes us to Gwen's turn.
00:54:19
Speaker
Um, taking a second and watching what Devin does, she realized that he was trying to freeze it and she is going to cast ice storm at level six. Okay. Very fire. Sorry for all the rules. People out there. I'm never played anything that had very fire. Does it grant disadvantage to saving throws?
00:54:43
Speaker
Just advantage to attacks. OK, thanks for nodding your head in this audio format. Sorry. I was more talking to Derek, but yeah, both of you nodded. That's funny. All right. So you'll need to make a dexterity saving throw as I cast this ice storm. Got it. Saving throw for for me. Natural 20.
00:55:06
Speaker
Oh, why? I know. Well, still, I'm going to cast out a level six Starbucks dice redeeming themselves. So you're going to take half damage. And since I'm doing it at level six, I get to add two day eight since it's a level four spell. All right. So we're going to do 48.
00:55:31
Speaker
And so you get, let me add the other ones, a bludgeoning damage, which comes to a total of eight and then 4d6 of cold damage, which makes it 18. So 18 plus eight and then half that. So nine plus four. Yes. 13. So 13 total damage. And this is, uh, describe how the spell shows up. What happens?
00:55:56
Speaker
Even though the sky is dark because we're at Black River, you start to see these pellets of ice and snow come down and then it gradually gets faster and faster as like a silicone, a cylinder comes down over this creature that's like 40 feet high and has a 20-foot radius basically covering the creature.
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah, so this ice is just shooting down into these flames and half of it seems to almost melt and dissolve before it even gets to the creature, but half of it does pierce through, splashing away some of this flame as you see it sizzle away and doing some damage to the creature. Is that your whole turn? I'm also going to cast my Spirit Totem. Okay.
00:56:43
Speaker
And I'm going to do the unicorn. It's at the very end. And this one's going to add protection to my nearby friends. And whoever's in the circle will get advantage on ability checks made to detect creatures. Where are you putting that circle? I'm putting it in between.
00:57:02
Speaker
All of us. Okay. How big is it? Right here. It is 30 foot radius. Yes. Great. Great news. Okay. Very great. A 30 foot radius of aura of protection.
00:57:18
Speaker
For those audio fiends out there, uh, there's about 30 feet between all of us and you cast it basically on the creature Sony. The proximity is like right there behind the creature. So anything, anyone that's close to it is being protected. Currently Gwen is standing about 30 feet, 35 feet behind the creature. I'm about 20 feet behind the creature. Krigs is right in front of the thing. Yeah.
00:57:40
Speaker
So it gives you... We're hugging. We're old pals. So it gives you ability checks to detect creatures in the spirit's aura, but any spells that's casted in it using that restores his points does more things. It equals my druid level. If that ramble wasn't good enough of an explanation. You said radius, right? Yeah. Radius would be 30 feet from the center. So that's 60 feet across.
00:58:07
Speaker
Yeah, a big move kind of like that. Yeah. Okay. So, so yeah, you're surrounded by this hour and it only protects who you want it to. Yes. Yes. Great. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, so that takes, that's your whole turn. Correct. And you see a little unicorn floating up made of like a little glittery stars.
00:58:31
Speaker
Okay. That's lovely. The creature now raises three of its heads up and you see these three globs shoot one each at Gwendolyn, Daven and Joxer. Three attack rolls for the globs of fire this time. It is a plus. Oh no, they shoot towards you. You have to make a dexterity saving throw each of you. Okay. Who was it now?
00:58:57
Speaker
As it explodes in flame around you, Davin, Gwyn, and Joxer. Nobody gained any hit points at all, correct? You just put your aura up, which allows us to do special stuff. Yeah. Okay. It only lets you, like, have advantage on ability checks to detect any other creatures. Okay. But if I cast a spell... 23. 5. 14.
00:59:24
Speaker
All right, so Gwen and Davin, you each take 46. 46. 46 every time.
00:59:37
Speaker
I was playing with the kids the other day and they said 2D something. And I said, did you say 2D? And they thought that was great. I think I've made that joke on this podcast. Probably. So 13 damage from the two of you. And actually, no, that's 13 damage for Gwendolyn. And then 11, 12, 34. 20 damage for Daven. And Joxer takes half damage. This is fire damage, yes. Correct.
01:00:05
Speaker
Whoo! Three sixes. 18. 22 halved to 11 to Joxer. Devil damage. As these flames erupt around you and send your leg hairs off. Yes. I got hit with cold damage. Now you hit me with fire damage, so I should also have half of that. That's Ashley logic. Ashley's making up rules. I'm playing my own D&D. Half of that damage was me saying, thank you, I was cold.
01:00:37
Speaker
All right, and then Krigs, the first roll to hit you is a 27. First off, what it did just there, that was considered an attack, correct? Oh yeah, three attacks, bam, bam, bam. Well, I'm gonna use a reaction, and when a creature within five feet of me makes an attack against the target other than me, I'm gonna use my reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that creature. Cool, cool, do it.
01:01:04
Speaker
So I'm gonna take a one-handed attack, because I'm still holding my shield ahead of me, nervous of whatever it's about to do to me. That, sir, is a 19. 19 will hit. And let me roll my damage on that bad boy. Do it. Now, with that reaction, can I add a divine smite to it?
01:01:28
Speaker
I need to look at Divine Smite, because it may say when you make an attack action, which an attack action is not the same thing as a reaction attack. Well, let's read this. When you make a hit with a weapon melee attack. Oh yeah, that sounds like it works. That's a weapon melee attack as long as you're not leaving out anything.
01:01:48
Speaker
No, so watching this creature lob attacks before without even thinking just instinctively this the protector and Krigs basically says like no not today and he's going to swing his hammer as true as he possibly can and
01:02:06
Speaker
With all the force of all the holy everything inside of him, he is going to do a attack on this creature. And the damage on this is going to be 13, 11 bludgeoning to dueling. And I'm going to add a divine smite to that goodness at level three, adding 26 radiant damage into that attack. So it's a total of 30. What did I say? 39. OK.
01:02:37
Speaker
26 of that being radiant. Yeah, so as you just smash this guy, one of his heads just, the radiant damage shoots out of this thing's neck, water neck, and its head just sprays with this flame and water.
01:02:56
Speaker
and it just gets destroyed from this attack. So now that's why three of the heads shot globs at the other three, and then this one, after getting that one head exploded, he makes that one attack at you with a 27 to hit. That doesn't hit. Oh, wow.
01:03:19
Speaker
You you play you're playing a different game then than I thought So it's a d10 plus 5 piercing damage. Oh Man eight piercing damage and then the fire damage is d6 for fire damage probably halved or something right because you've got stuff against fire and
01:03:42
Speaker
Um, not yet. Oh, okay. And then, um, when you, uh, take this damage, I need you now to make a, uh, we're going to make contested strength checks as it tries to grapple you with its bite.
Cliffhanger Ending with Krigs
01:03:54
Speaker
Sure. Dirty 20. You beat me. I rolled a five plus six. This creature grapples you with one of its heads, bites down and begins to drag you, pulling you towards the water.
01:04:12
Speaker
That doesn't sound very good. Does he get advantage or anything on that roll because of your aura, Ash? Saving throws? No, does not count for saving throws. You are now pulled into, you are in the water just at the edge of the shore where it's about about waist deep for you, Krigs. Knee deep to like Joxer and Davin. And it has its teeth sunk into you. You can't move. If I'm in its mouth and it's made of water, can I breathe?
01:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's not, you're not completely in its mouth. It just, like, bites down and it, it's, these, these flamed teeth pierce your, your shoulder and chest, and it's biting down across the chest from, at an angle, and it starts pulling you down and dragging you into this water as it changes its form. Oh, geez. Uh-oh.
01:05:04
Speaker
At the end of its turn, it changes its form, and it is now... The flames just seem to dissipate, and they're replaced with this green swirl and this sizzly kind of steam, and you now feel this burn of acid as this creature is now flowing acid. Oh my gosh. And that's where we're gonna leave this episode.
01:05:28
Speaker
Bye, Griggs. Wow. It's been nice knowing you. Bye, fam. What's your new character going to be like? Probably a dwarf. A dwarf. A dwarf. A dwarf. A dwarf. A dwarf. A dwarf. A dwarf. A dwarf. A dwarf.
01:05:52
Speaker
The End
01:06:04
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of The Hired Swords. If you liked our show, tell a friend about us. If you really liked our show, do us a favor. Tell the world. 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, Facebook, and Instagram at The Hired Swords. If you want to get yourself some sick loot, you can find our merch shop at thehired.store. And be sure to look at our tweets for an invite to our Discord to hang out with the cast and friends.
01:06:34
Speaker
Again, thank you for listening.