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Ep. 66 But who will watch after Dale?
161 Plays2 years ago
Combating vines and poisonous spores isn't the dream one imagines when setting out to find their long-lost father. Hoping for a long-awaited reunion.. How did we end up here, mixed up in all this...? And how will we get out?
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Transcript
Gwyn's Disoriented State
00:00:05
Speaker
Meanwhile in Gwyn's mind space. Whoa. What just happened? As I look around I see nothing. Where are my friends? Where is that big plant monster? I swear we're just fighting. Dale? Dale?
00:00:34
Speaker
Del, are you there?
00:00:38
Speaker
I don't see them. Or my friends. Wait. I hear something. I hear them, but I can't see them. Why can't I see them? Did I... Am I unconscious? Did I pass out? Then that means... Oh no. I'm missing the fight. My friends need me. I need to wake up.
Introduction to 'The Hired Swords'
00:01:31
Speaker
Hey, Dale here. You're listening to The Hired Swords. A show about me.
00:01:52
Speaker
Hello, people, and welcome to another episode of The Hired Swords. I am Michael, your dungeon master, and I have with me Blaze playing Krig's Golder. For half a second, I wasn't sure if I was there or not. You're like, blah, blah, blah, Blaze.
00:02:10
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I didn't know what I was going to say. Then Joxer is played by Mikey. Hey, hey, I'm I'm sad to say that I'll be getting getting rid of squeakers, squeaks, squeakums, my chair and by the by our next episode. Sad, sad news. There you go. Can we get one last good real good squeak out of it? Yeah, let's hear it.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah, there she is. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good squeak right there. Good faithful squeeze there. Derek is here. He's Devin. I am and I'm serious and I'm ready to go because we're going to win this fight. Yes, and Ash is here playing Gwendolyn who is not here.
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, and that's because of you. Technically, it's because of me, because I didn't move, but I am still going to blame you. Something keeps hitting me. I might as well stay exactly where I'm not doing anything about it. In case you're crazy, all of us.
00:03:08
Speaker
In case you're crazy, you didn't listen to the last episode before this episode. For some reason, you don't listen to things in consequential order. Consequential order? Chronological order? If you decided not to do that, let me give you a little recap.
Discovery of Sentient Mushrooms
00:03:21
Speaker
So our friends, our heroes, if you will, have made their way through the forest to Lonely Hill, and inside this hill is this
00:03:32
Speaker
small cave that they found a tunnel in that led them down to this crazy mushroom filled forward operating base that seemed to be where elves had in a long time ago come to kind of prepare for launching attacks and things like that further south.
00:03:50
Speaker
Well, in finding this, they found some of these mushrooms who seemed to be sentient. They were speaking to our minds and causing our heroes to kind of see the history of what had happened to these mushroom beings. And in doing that, they decided to help these mushroom beings who said they were being controlled or being harmed in some way by something they just referred to as her or she.
00:04:17
Speaker
They found a stairwell down, made their way downstairs, and got into this fight in this room filled with pools of acid, vines that flail and seemed to be controlled by her. And we had a battle. This battle ensued. Crazy things happened. Boars were summoned.
00:04:33
Speaker
vines lashed out and hurt people very badly. Spores were emitted that created zombie beings to rise up from the ground. More spores were created that caused this creature that caused her to be
00:04:49
Speaker
rejuvenated.
Battle Recap and Gwendolyn's Revival
00:04:50
Speaker
And before we ended the last episode, we had an unconscious Gwendolyn having been smacked around by some of these vines. We had a daven hurt very badly by the same vines. We had Krigsgaulder, who had just recently been knocked, I believe, not unconscious, but he received a
00:05:14
Speaker
He was incapacitated because he's hallucinating from these spores that were emitted around him when he hit the creature last. You forgot about that? Me too. That's why I didn't say it before we started recording. I wanted to get you real reaction because I thought you may have forgot. So he currently is incapacitated and has to make another saving throw when his turn comes around. And Joxer is the only one who is not in dire, really dire straits other than
00:05:40
Speaker
At the very end of our last episode, the very end of the last episode, the creature stirred up more mushrooms that then created these piles of mushrooms in the corner to rise as sentient seeming beings, beasts, if you will, who came out of the piles of mushrooms and started making their way towards our heroes to fight them. So we stand in that situation right now.
00:06:07
Speaker
And we come at the where I think I believe we're at the top of the order. That was like the room, the the the the effect of the in the room in the area. And so we're going to go to Guin's first saving throw. Oh, boy. All right. Do the first thing to happen in this episode. Five minutes in. Here we go. Finally. Net 20. This technically my first roll of that. And it's just a D 20. Correct.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, D20, 10 or above your good, below a 10, you're no good. Okay, here we go. I'm nervous. Oh boy, it's a 20. Is it really? No way. Natural 20. I believe you rise with one hit point on a natural. I'm super into it. I'm super into it. I'm alive. And it's at the beginning of your turn. Yeah, it's at the beginning of your turn. So you just wake up.
00:07:05
Speaker
You're still on the ground, unconscious with one hit point, but you have a full turn. What are you going to do with it? I said fully conscious. I meant to say fully conscious. I'm going to heal myself. Great. I'm so excited. Let's see what I want to do.
00:07:27
Speaker
Do I want to use a spell slot or do I want to use a staff slot? No, this is not what you were expecting. You're like, I'm just going to make death saving throws and lay there. And now you have to make choices. I'm going to lay there playing death. This really changes a lot of plans. It does. It's kind of crazy. You guys had plans? You're welcome. Did your character shield help you? It is. Nice. Nice. Three.
00:07:52
Speaker
Boopadoo 1d8 plus my spell casting modifier. So let's do 1d8 and we'll do a level see what it is. Let's see for spelling so Spelling three spell level. Sorry fourth grade spelling level four. So this 17 very nice plus eight So Gwen is feeling a little bit better was that was an action I take it. Oh, yeah
00:08:22
Speaker
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Fully in action. All right. Do you want to move or anything else? Anything else you're going to do? I am going to move because every time last battle I was like, I should probably move. And then I just stood there like a fool. I haven't died many times. Can you do that after a death save? You have a full turn, but you only have 15 feet of movement because you had to stand up.
00:08:52
Speaker
Okay, that takes half your movement to stand up from prone. That's fine. Okay. I got up and made my way towards Daven. There aren't any vines. What are your total? What is your total hit points? Not hit points. Yeah. Your total hit points you gained just now. 17 plus eight. So 25. Got it. Okay. All right. So that is Gwendolyn's turn. Is that your whole turn? That's all you're going to do.
00:09:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So on this next, she is on her legendary action here. No! Going to, as we start a new round, she gets them back. She's going to, which one? She releases spores all over the room again. All these mushrooms just flush these spores and everyone needs to make a constitution saving throw. You must beat a 16.
00:09:48
Speaker
Why is it so high? Natural 20. She powerful. That is. Wait, I also need to do this? Krigs, you don't, you don't, you automatically fail, but you're already, this effect is already impacting you. You also need to make a constitution saving throw.
00:10:07
Speaker
Okay, so that is a 16. 16 saves. 16 plus four, 20. You guys all save, so you're not stunned for a minute. So the spores come and you cough them out, but you stay focused and ready as we go to Joxer's turn.
Strategizing Against the Plant Monster
00:10:26
Speaker
Okay. Um, did I not, do I get stunned or what do I do? Since you're already incapacitated, it has no effect on you. Sick. Okay, go on. Congratulations. You get nothing. Okay. That's the kind of nothing I want though. Yeah, exactly. Um, well, I had a different plan for Gwen, but she's already up. So I'm probably going to pass on that one.
00:10:51
Speaker
Okay, so no healing for you. Yeah. Oh, sharks. All right, so here's the deal. How long has it been since we crossed that little river to now, like the little to get into here? I think it's been that long.
00:11:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's only been like 20, 30 minutes max. You guys spent a lot of time looking around upstairs and stuff. It's been at least an hour. Okay. You guys searched like five rooms upstairs. Okay. Never mind then. Let me, because I was going to double check if tensor's floating disk was still around.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yeah. Well, now I would say that the time you spent crossing and then talking and having those visions and then digging around and looking around a lot and then trying to decide what you're going to do next and all that. There was quite a bit of time spent there. That only lasts an hour, so that would be gone. Okay, so that changes that one.
00:11:51
Speaker
Um, so I believe this is why you don't plan when you play the Indians. Cause sometimes it's going to get messed up immediately. I know. And I'm, I'm so scared to run up there and like, just, I mean, yeah, I know it worked out so well. Um, all right. So as a bonus action, cause I ended the last round, um,
00:12:20
Speaker
throwing my shadow blade. I guess I'm going to recall it as a bonus action. As an action, I'm just going to throw it again. Graham, we'll start with that attack from a distance. You're still hasted, right? Yeah. I technically get three attacks, but
00:12:49
Speaker
only so many are actually useful currently. You do have a big scary mushroom monster standing about 10 feet away from me as well. I will be moving, that is not a question. So that is nine plus eight, so 17. That hits. Okay, so that...
00:13:15
Speaker
is going to be six, five, so 11, and so 16 plus, was that three for my normal attack? No, four. So 20 psychic damage. To the big mother, right? Yeah, to the big mother. Okay, 20? Yeah. And okay, so I have 75 feet of movement.
00:13:45
Speaker
I guess. It gets around. Yeah, yeah. So with hay, so I'm going to make my full round over here to the opposite side of the giant plant.
00:14:01
Speaker
And I am going to try to work my way through the mushrooms that are behind her. Make a dexterity saving throw as you do so. Dexterity? Okay. Do you get advantage with those being hasted? Yes. Yes, I do. Damage on dexterity. That is okay. And that is better. So 22.
00:14:25
Speaker
22 will save you. Don't disturb any enough to cause any kind of spores to come out and give you problems. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm going to take the. I guess the flame rapier that I do have and attack it twice.
00:14:44
Speaker
and disturb things that I don't want to. All right. Two attacks, make those attack rules. And as question, since I am on the opposite direction, am I flanking? You are flanking, for sure. One nat 20. And a 19.
00:15:08
Speaker
All right, so the foreign blade gets 1d8 plus four. I have a random question. He's hasted. It was a spell that I cast into the ring that he put on his familiar that then casted that spell. So who's holding concentration? My creature is the one who casted it. Yeah, I would say that's about that's right. If someone happened to that creature, it would lose it, but that's it. Okay.
00:15:39
Speaker
So which is quite clever, Jackson. Yeah, yeah, I've been, you know, I try. So that's nine, nine, I guess, plus one damage. I don't know if that's magic on plus one. And then that is eight fire damage. And oh, and that's all. Wait, so that's 10, no, 14 damage and then 16 fire damage. 16 fire damage because I created on that one.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. So when you stab it with the rapier, the fire spreads rapidly, just engulfs this thing and you hear this shriek from all over the room and the vines all over the room shoot straight up and you hear this.
00:16:30
Speaker
There's shriek all over the room. And the flames, then the flames shoot up from underground, up onto these vines. And they just burn away these vines with the crackle. The smoke begins to rise up from all these vines and this plant as it burns to basically a husk of black plant matter, as you have just killed this thing with the flame from your rapier.
Victory and Emotional Aftermath
00:16:58
Speaker
Whoa.
00:17:00
Speaker
The zombie creatures and the giant mushroom creature immediately turn to spores and dust and fall to the ground dead. Oh, I'm, I'm my own. Like it might get no longer. Yeah. You start to blink your eyes and everything kind of comes back to you. You're no longer stunned. As I'm watching just all these spores and stuff, I'm getting my grip on things. I am for sure like covering my nose and mouth. Just like, no, no, no, no, no.
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah, well, the spores are everywhere floating and sure, you're covering your mouth and you still get a little cough here and there, but as the dust settles, the smoke starts to rise up from these holes in the ground where these charred ash, where these wooden vines and plant matter was, it starts to, everything starts to settle. You see this room or this basically this kind of,
00:17:57
Speaker
Peninsula, if you will, in the middle of this giant underground lake, there's this room where this creature had grown, it seems like from here. And the spores don't seem to have any kind of impact on you with this creature now dead. So is that OK? Just to be clear, we're out of combat now. Yes, no more initiative. Go ahead, Devon.
00:18:22
Speaker
I'm alright, I'm alright. I'm fine, and I'll go and move closer towards Craig's. Come with me, Daven, and I will cast Mascure Wounds.
00:18:38
Speaker
So just as a curiosity, are all these boars still just hanging out right here? Yeah, they're just a bunch of mushrooms now, Emily. They're just partying with me right now. And it's not even hurting them anymore. They're just enjoying the mushrooms now. That's so fantastic. I feel like Joxer is just kind of standing there in awe after everybody else was kind of super damaged.
00:19:05
Speaker
just unsure about it. And he's just, well, I'm glad everybody's okay.
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah, I'm fine. And you can tell she's just a little shaky because of her mass cure healings. Um, roll that she just did. Cause it's not great. Pretty bad. Uh, it would be eight plus eight. So 16, everyone would get 16. Hey, that quadruples the amount of hit points I had. So I'm taking it. I guess that shakes me up to 75. Um,
00:19:45
Speaker
I'm going to, after just verifying that everyone is okay before moving onward with anything, I am going to take a minute and go around to my team truffles and give each of them a scratch on the top of the head and say thank you as I tell them to go back to the Feywilds and do whatever the spirits do.
00:20:03
Speaker
It's not very often that fae creatures get recognized for the things they do for us. So I just want to let them know that I truly appreciated everything they've done. And to go back to the fae lands. They rub their snouts on you and snuggle up to you as they fade away in gratitude and probably get the vibe of like, just let us know when you need us again.
00:20:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah, for sure. And right when the last one goes, I'm going to I'm going to sneak him like a little little chocolate that I've been I've been holding on to. I mean, like, I don't know if this is good for boys, but don't tell the others and then let it let it float off whenever it fades. But by Gail, she was my favorite. She was a good one. Gail MVP team Truffles.
00:20:58
Speaker
Oh, Dale, is Dale okay? And she goes into her bag. Does she notice anything different about Dale? Like she did? Make an exciting check. Okay. Ooh, buddy. How's the 14? 14's pretty good. Dale doesn't seem to be any different. Your attitude about Dale?
00:21:25
Speaker
When you look at him, you just remember the kind of sass you felt from him lately and his kind of dejection when you brought it up to him and you feel a little guilty for that, makes you feel a little bad. But no, you don't see anything different with him at the moment. You're just kind of getting these feelings like you hurt his feelings and then questioning how that's even possible.
00:21:56
Speaker
Okay, Gwendolyn will immediately pull out Dale and give him a hug. I'm so glad you're okay. So that was close guys. I didn't know she was going to be like this and you can tell that because of the cure wounds and mass cure wounds, she's a bit energetic because she just went from unconscious to fully alive.
00:22:18
Speaker
It's hopped up on caffeine basically. It's like me after my 2 p.m. cold brew.
00:22:29
Speaker
She's getting high on her own supply. If you're not a mean. Give me them health points. Give me that life, brother. All
Teamwork and Gwendolyn's Motivations
00:22:41
Speaker
right. I think I'm just a little bit more solemn. I'm just quiet about what just happened. I'm going to walk over seeing you more solemn and having my fun interactions with the boars.
00:22:54
Speaker
Well, it would be your back, but it's actually going to be your butt. I'm not that tall. And I'm going to slap you on the butt and say, well, I could have been worse, honestly. We handled that. OK. We did. And you see Joxer just kind of stare at the rapier. Thank you, Edie.
00:23:19
Speaker
You're right, Krigs, it could have been worse. We could have lost Gwen. We need to be more careful. We need to plan better if we're gonna be jumping into places like this. Well, I don't know who was the first to jump, but I don't disagree.
00:23:35
Speaker
I don't remember who came down the stairs first, but it doesn't matter. We all need to be more careful. Yeah. This isn't a time for pointing fingers. I agree. We should be more tactful about this. We had plenty of warning from the mushrooms earlier that this was not a safe place.
00:23:54
Speaker
I think you forget that we're not indestructible people. We've had a lot of good encounters where we've come away easily victorious over things, but goblins and boars are not the most dangerous things out there. We can see that now. We've got this giant plant creature that could have killed us all. We don't know what you're getting into. When kind of hopping down from her life high, she turns the
00:24:20
Speaker
I didn't mean to get us into this if that's what you're referring to. I just... Gwen, not at all, not at all. This is not your fault at all. I was just worried that we'd lose you. I... I just get so gung-ho on just going and...
00:24:38
Speaker
I need to know he's alive. I just need to know my father existed. I just, I need to find Alomora and I thought we were there and then I see people and I, I always stop because my mother told me kindness is the key in life. Not sadness and not evil. Just being nice to someone.
00:25:07
Speaker
It always helps in the long run, and I thought, I seem to always get us into this. To be fair, you're not the only one getting us into these troubles. We were all a little bit guilty for that, but that is kind of what sticking together and being what whatever this team we've created is kind of about, is having each other's back.
00:25:36
Speaker
I hope you know that we'd have yours regardless. What was that, Dale? Do you have the Dales back? Oh, of course. He was, I think, the very first one of you besides, well, Joxer, that I actually truly met. You remember? Shook his hand. See, I told you.
00:26:02
Speaker
He is right. We're all in it together, but we do need to think together, if at all possible. Joxer, I think that you might be the wisest of us when it comes to that. No offense, Kriegs. I know that you had some skill in the war and everything, but Joxer, you're amazing out there. I mean, you killed this thing almost single-handedly.
00:26:25
Speaker
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
00:26:37
Speaker
I definitely don't take any of this credit. Most of this goes to Edie and this rapier. I don't have any native mechanics or abilities that could actually destroy a plant and
00:26:59
Speaker
When we found this, it does have a fire property, so it's companions along the way that's brought us to this point. Gwen goes over and hugs Jackson. I think you're right. Now, what do we do with
00:27:25
Speaker
this. She just kind of points at the creature. She kind of tilts her head and wants to go examine it. Okay. Yeah, I know you mentioned that it like burnt up into ash. How much is left? Is it just a big pile of burnt? Yeah, it's not just ash. I mean, it's like a burnout husk of what was there, you know, the solid bits.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah, the solid fibers that were there are still there. But yeah, like the vines and all that stuff just basically turned to ash, like what would be left after a campfire because those were just sticks basically with leaves. But this one, the main chunk of it is still there in a pile of black fibrous husk of plant.
00:28:15
Speaker
And there was a room that it was kind of like growing out of or like was spouting from, you said? Or did I completely misunderstand that? Yeah, I don't think, I didn't say anything. You're in this, what you thought was a room when you came down. I was just saying this whole room that you're in is now like this, you're realizing it's this island surrounded by water.
00:28:37
Speaker
I'm an idiot! Something kind of, I guess, that I'm interested in, Gwen, is there might be quite a bit of remnants in this plant, whether it be hired swords that got left behind or eaten.
Investigating the Aftermath
00:28:55
Speaker
It might not
00:28:57
Speaker
be bad to try to try to clean the debris. But we may want to check on the mushrooms up. I don't know if they're still still there upstairs that maybe they just went away like the ones here. Look, you guys like to go digging around in corpses and stuff. That's you do you. That's fine. I'm I'm going to skirt on up and see if the mushrooms are still there. I'll go with you, Krigs.
00:29:28
Speaker
This just sounds good. Hello, everyone. It's your Dungeon Master, Michael, just interrupting the show real quick to tell you about a couple quick things. First of all, thank you very much for listening and for following us on Twitter at the Hired Swords and on Facebook as well at the Hired Swords. You can check out our Discord. Just look at the pinned tweet on our Twitter and you can
00:29:57
Speaker
Look at our store. We have a store where there's some pretty fun merch, including a Dale mug, a mug of the month, some t-shirts, something featuring our new amazing artwork. It's at thehired.store. You can check those things out there as well. I also want to talk about a super cool new deal. We're able to give you guys, our listeners, with Zencaster. Zencaster is a software website we've been using to record our podcasts, nearly since the beginning.
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Speaker
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00:31:25
Speaker
Obviously, subscribe to the show, tell your friends about us, leave a review, all that fun stuff. And check out zen.ai slash the hired swords to get your 30% off and to help out our podcast a little bit. Thanks again so much and enjoy the rest of the show. Bye.
00:31:43
Speaker
I'm going to go up and let them gallivant around on a corpse. I'm not about that. Yeah. I'm going to go stick my hands in that husk. Yeah, I'll start tearing out and breaking apart as much as I can so we can get to the center to make sure there's not any remnants of whether it be coins or, you know, or hired sword coins and whichever. How many legs does it take to get up to the center of an evil plant monster?
00:32:09
Speaker
All of the lakes. Make an investigation check. Okay. Craig's and Davin, you're heading upstairs. Yeah.
00:32:18
Speaker
You go upstairs and as you look around, you come up into the hallway and you just see the same overgrown walls and floors with just mossy mildew and bright colored mushrooms. It's a lot dimmer. There's a slight glow, but it's a lot dimmer than it was. And you don't seem to see any life
00:32:42
Speaker
anywhere, other than just plant life. You don't seem to see any sentient life anywhere. And both of you make investigation or perception checks as you're walking up there. Doctor, what'd you roll? 18 minus one. So 17.
00:33:00
Speaker
Yeah, you're digging through that thing. And as you dig through the corpse itself, you're not really finding any bits of person or anything. It doesn't seem like it consumed in that way. You're just finding
00:33:18
Speaker
just more of this fibrous plant matter, right? Just bits and pieces. It's like digging through, it's like peeling celery. It's just like strings of the inside of this plant. And you get down to the bottom, to the roots, and it's just the burnt out, mostly ash of these roots as the moisture and everything had been kind of evaporated and burned away by this flame from this sword.
00:33:48
Speaker
I think that that kind of relieves me a bit. Not not that I realize that around this area, it's probably corpses of some sort that have been kind of absorbed or whether what we had at the beginning. But I feel like that's just something that like. It it resolves something that I was afraid of. Yeah, OK. Would I know what kind of plant this was plant monster?
00:34:16
Speaker
Make a history check or nature check, whichever you prefer. It's probably too late now. I should have probably asked that. You're busy being unconscious.
00:34:28
Speaker
uh 18 plus six 20 something 24 you know of hostile plant life for sure you'd also know that there are kinds that grow naturally not all of it is magic or curses it's just a survival that happens and that's kind of what this feels like as you're digging through the plant like this is something that okay
00:34:52
Speaker
grew here naturally. Maybe it's out of place, maybe it grew, it shouldn't grow here, or maybe it was allowed to be here so long on its own that it just grows, got out of hand. And you're like, hey, maybe some of the plants I have dealt with that are this way, maybe this is what they would happen to them if I didn't, you know, if they weren't kept in check, if things just got overgrown or whatever. But this seems to be something that
00:35:15
Speaker
on its own, its own kind of survival is to start to control everything around it and protect its own survival by pitting what's around it against other things around whatever's attacking it. So that's why it's the vines and the spores and all the other stuff was just existed to hurt anything trying to hurt this plant.
00:35:42
Speaker
As Craig's and I walk up the stairs, I'm going to put my arm around him and say, you know, it wasn't just jocks or that, that finished him off. You, you did a lot too. You did more than enough. Well, I don't always need recognition, but there were two pretty big hammer sized holes in the side of that thing. And he's going to kind of nudge Gavin. Wow. No, not Gavin going to nudge Devin. Wow. I can't say it now that I started joking.
00:36:10
Speaker
Uh, just kind of elbow Daven and the leg and, uh, just kind of say, but thank you. It, you know, it does, it is kind of touchy these, these times. I appreciate the, I appreciate the acknowledgement. Well, and the pores, that was a nice trick. I've never seen you do that before. I didn't know if it was going to work, to be honest. I've, I've had these natured,
00:36:37
Speaker
abilities, powers, I don't really know what I even supposed to call it at this point, but I'm still learning what the Wilds are actually offering me. It's pretty different than what I experienced with Helm. I prefer this, honestly.
00:36:56
Speaker
I was going to say the same thing. I prefer to. And Davenald take his arm off and he'll look at all the spores and dust that are on his arm now from touching Krigs. And he's like, hold on for a second. Step right here. And I'm going to wave my hand in all of the dirt and dust and everything that's piled up on Krigs. Just get squeegeed off. And he's perfectly clean now. That's about it.
00:37:15
Speaker
How sweet. How sweet. That was nice. I do. I do a little like, not a full twirl, but just like, Oh, well, I was, uh, get used to it. Don't, don't get used to it. I guess. But how's it, uh, how's it, how's it suit me being clean for once? Oh, you got a little bit of realness to you. It's kind of nice. We just need to get you a crown now.
00:37:38
Speaker
feeling a little bit more, uh, confident slash proud of himself. I'm going to walk over to the, to the mushrooms with a little bit of a strut, uh, and try my best and, and kind of say out loudly, but kind of quietly like we, we, uh, are you there? Hello. Any,
00:38:00
Speaker
Silence. I don't hear anything. You just hear your voice echoing through the chamber and the sound of the rushing river around the corner of this hallway. And I'm going to think to myself, just thinking, I'm going to say, Daven, you're a stink butt. And I'm going to look at Daven and see if he catches anything. Daven, you didn't hear that. Oh, just still just feeling, you know, appreciation for the,
00:38:28
Speaker
the magics there, that was quite nice. And I'm gonna turn and just kind of lightly pat one of the mushroom caps on the ground there and just say, rest well and rest now, little ones. She should bother you no more. And I guess we should check on them, see if they're done, you know, digging through bodies. I'm confused. Did we do the right thing? Do we ever?
00:39:00
Speaker
I guess all you can do is have intentions. We're out here doing the best we know how to do, but there's no guidebook on this. There's no, no one wrote a book of laws about how to take care of the wilds. We're just trying. And that's, that's all I know how to do is try anymore. It's not commands and orders and battlements and trying to figure out strategies. It's just,
00:39:29
Speaker
existing out here, and I would rather exist out here with the three of you than try to make these decisions on my own. I've proven that I don't always make the right ones. So is this right? Davin, I honestly don't know. But is this wrong? It sure doesn't feel like it.
00:39:54
Speaker
I agree with you. And if I'm ever confused, all I really feel like I have to do is look at Gwen and if she's happy, I think we're doing the right thing.
Questions About the Mission
00:40:04
Speaker
I, you know, I do that too. You know, she's the strongest of us, right? Yeah. At the end of this all, the end of the world, it'll be her who's standing up probably at the end, who's putting us to rest. Well, if that's the ending, I think I'd be a good ending. At least for her. I don't want to die, but
00:40:24
Speaker
Yeah, I don't either. Let's make sure that they haven't died in this timeframe. Good idea. Let's go back down. New cannon for Gwen. Kill everyone. Be the last one remaining. Just became a battle royale. Yeah. Oh, man. That was all so sweet and that's what she got out of it.
00:40:50
Speaker
I know. We head back down, we meet up with the others. Yeah, I imagine... Gwen, it looks like there's nothing in here, thankfully. I'm happy to see that. I agree. Hopefully this creature doesn't come up again. It's interesting, though. I've never really seen something like this.
00:41:14
Speaker
Yeah, this is definitely well beyond my my experience and if you're still lying kind of up I'll help you down and and then I'll have this kind of thought of You know what before? Before we disappoint Devon and then I'll cast press digitization and clean us both up from all the ash and stuff That that way, you know, we're presentable. I
00:41:41
Speaker
Thank you. Can you do Dale too? Oh, yes. And he pulls out Dale and he's got mud all over him. Oh, Dale. Don't know how. Don't know where. Yeah. And then I'll clean, clean Dale up in your bag a little bit and you know, we can start walking back. He says thank you. Devin comes skipping down the stairs and he's like, all right, so here's the question that I have for us as a group now.
00:42:06
Speaker
What was happening here? Like not, I mean, I know what happened here, but the hired swords were coming here for some reason, right? They were hired to come here to do something. And all we learned from the chief is that the thing that he did was out of greed. So there was something in this place that maybe he wanted, right? I can't think of another reason for the swords to be here. There's no nothing here to rescue, or at least not anything that would still be around. And yet they kept sending them in droves.
00:42:36
Speaker
Gwendolyn turns around and looks at the husk. Maybe it was this guy? I don't know. I think it was less of a retrieval mission, more of a eradication.
00:42:51
Speaker
Maybe so. Possibly. You know. Go ahead, Joxer. Yeah. That's terrifying, Krigs, to think, but for a money making business to get rid of, I guess, the most expensive of your group or maybe the ones that might need to disappear because they're asking questions, then this might, that you might be onto something though.
00:43:19
Speaker
You also saw what happened to Marius and Edie. I'm sorry to bring that back up after your more poignant moment, but they, they didn't have to be sent off to disappear if that's, that's what they were looking for. So that might be the case. I don't want to imagine. It seems like a lot of effort to send, send so many people to, to just vanish. Or maybe there's something else here that we haven't found. Daven's going to walk over toward the edge.
Discovery of the Underground Lake
00:43:49
Speaker
You said that there's water around us, right? Yeah, and you're hearing waves lapping up on the edges of this little peninsula, this big 60-foot diameter oval of a peninsula that you're standing in, and you can walk up to the edge.
00:44:06
Speaker
You see mist. There's a lot of mist. You see just a little ways off water just dumping out of the ceiling into the water a little ways ahead of you. And you can see just the water kind of sitting and slightly flowing, but mostly just like a lake. It's a giant underground lake. You can't see the other side of it. I'm going to do something a little off.
00:44:36
Speaker
Not out of the ordinary, but it's all I can really think at the moment. I don't have any objects specifically in mind. I don't have...
00:44:45
Speaker
any idea what I could potentially be searching for, but while we're looking around and not to step over what Davin is doing, I want to cast Detect Evil and Good on myself, which is if there's anything within 30 feet that is tied to an aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead, I will be able to see it.
00:45:09
Speaker
Similarly, if there's a place or object within 30 feet that has been magically consecrated or desecrated, I will see it as well. OK. Is there any kind of save or check or anything that has to be done with that? Or is it just what it is? No, it's just anything. It's my vision. I can be seen for up to 10 minutes and it can be behind one foot of stone or an inch of common metal.
00:45:37
Speaker
or a sheet, thin sheet of lead, or three feet of wood or dirt, and I can still see it. All right. So as you look around, there's a slight hint where this creature has died, but it is like a faint echo.
00:45:55
Speaker
but you see something aglow coming from Joxer and you see a couple things coming from Davin as well. It's hard to make out what it would be. It's just like this hint of like this celestial or fiend possibly, whatever, just like this aura that kind of becomes clear to you as you cast the spell. They both have something in their possession that gives them
00:46:24
Speaker
Is this something that I may have noticed whenever we were in the Goblin Village? Or, because I did cast it, and I did see Joxer, but I don't know if I would have seen Daven. You didn't really see Daven while that was up. He kind of was hiding and then came out of a thing and then you got knocked unconscious and all this crazy stuff. But Joxer would not have had anything like that then. Okay. So no, he did not see it. That's interesting. And this can only be seen through your eyes, correct?
00:46:54
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. I'm sure. Is it like a drop off to the water or is it just like walking straight into it?
Underwater Exploration Transformations
00:47:01
Speaker
It's just walking straight into it. Like the water's lapping up on the edge, like the edge of a beach or a lake shore, more like a lake shore with like small rocks and pebbles everywhere. Um, I'm going to go take a look. I'll be right back. And Daven's going to cast Alt herself.
00:47:18
Speaker
Um, and I'm going to change my appearance or use the aquatic adaptation. So I sprout gills and grow like webbings between my fingers and my toes. Yep. And I can breathe underwater and I gain a swimming speed of 30 feet.
00:47:31
Speaker
Whoa. Um, and so you just see like this weird adaptation where gills come up on his neck and everything and his fingers like start kind of connecting between them and then he's just going to walk into the water. Flop, flop, flop. As he's on his way. Oh no, go for it. I was about to say on his way, Gwendolyn goes to like touch the gills, but he's too, he's already gone. I'm going to look at Glenn as she's doing that and just, did you know he can do that?
00:48:02
Speaker
Gwendolyn just stares in amazement. Can I do fish things? Can I be fish girl also? Turn into a salmon.
00:48:23
Speaker
While she's looking for that, I want to use my vision and focus in on this plant a little bit more and see if the Echo is fading or if there's something that's there still that might dig a little bit deeper, you might find something. All right, make an investigation check. Sure, I could do that. That is a... Use advantage since you're using the spell to enhance what you're looking for. Well, thank you. Needed that.
00:48:50
Speaker
Oh, just a little bit better, 17 plus my investigation on a character sheet that I had pulled up. It's zero. 17. 17. So you look and it just seems like there's this echo of whatever this creature is, was, whatever this plant was, it had an evil origin.
00:49:20
Speaker
And maybe not even like this particular one, but just there's this in the veins of this, deep in the genetics of this type of plant, it seems like it came from something dark that it came from that.
00:49:38
Speaker
It may not be that something evil put this plant in this room. It's so faint that it just gives you that feeling of, like, the ancestry of this plant is from a dark history, you know? Okay. It doesn't seem like there's anything other than just, like, the fibers of it as it's dying. It doesn't seem like there's anything worth digging in there for. You're not convinced you'd come across anything that would be of any use, yeah. Okie dokie.
00:50:08
Speaker
I'm just gonna watch Joxer a little bit closely now, whatever's going on, I'm gonna kinda hang back and see if I can figure out what's going on with this boy. As you look a little closer at Joxer, you're pretty, make an investigation check as you look at him closer, or perception, we'll do perception, because you're just kinda, you're not walking up to like sniffing on him. I mean it might be, you don't know. Do I have advantage? Yeah, yeah, yeah, as you're looking on that. Players never feel like you can't ask your DM if you have advantage.
00:50:38
Speaker
Yeah, man, just ask. The worst thing I could do is say no and they often will. Uh, I got a 16 and a three plus. Well, that's just going to be a big whopping zero. Oh wait, it was investigation or what was it? Uh, investigate or a perception. It sure seems like this should be insight because that's like a plus six for me.
00:50:59
Speaker
I was just going to ask, do you have a plus to anything? It seems like a plus to zero. I don't have great stats, but I got good health and big strong boy. Uh, 17 total.
00:51:11
Speaker
17 is good. You definitely see that on the back of his neck, just under his hood, there's this glow there. There's also this faint glow coming from one of his bags that he's carrying. Huh. Okay. I'm just going to watch him for now. I'm not going to like
00:51:36
Speaker
Point anything out. Go, uh, go fish boy, go. Do I have noticed him like. Eyeing me down. Make an insight check. Cause you're looking or what are you currently doing as he's doing that? Are you preoccupied in any way or.
00:51:50
Speaker
Would I be, I guess I would have watched Davin swim off. Davin's taking his clothes off right now. I might be distracted. That's fine. Okay. Okay. I'm just asking because. Yeah, no, no. I don't know what I'd be doing right now. So it's, you know, I kind of did my, my shtick. So you're kind of, so you're, you're just kind of absorbed with the fact that Davin just turned himself into a gill boy and swam off.
00:52:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that seems fair. OK, before I swim off, I'm taking off my cloak and my backpack and my shoes and then I'll dive into the water. OK, great. And when you dive in the water, remind me, do you have dark vision? I do not. And I don't think this gives me it. Oh, it's something I did mention. This won't really help in that scenario, but I did plan on like throwing my lights out because everybody was staring off in that direction. My dancing lights.
00:52:48
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So you're definitely seeing lights above the water, just kind of hovering like, like, uh, so many street lamps up above the water. Seeing, um, I almost called him Dale, seeing Devin jump in and hearing him call out. She's kind of like, I might give it a try. And she is going to jump in and be a reef shark.
00:53:14
Speaker
Whoa, cool. OK. We. Awesome. So just see your dive and transform into a reef shark and splash around. Davin, I can only go forward. So yeah, it's going to be circles. So the those can go out to 120 feet. So that's that's the range. For the lights, lights got it. OK, cool. So Davin, you start to swim straight down. You can't really see real well once you get down. I guess that doesn't give you dark vision.
00:53:43
Speaker
Nope, I can't see. Okay, so you get down to where it's just pitch blackness around you and you've kind of got this sensory deprivation thing going as you, there's nothing to hear. You can't feel much other than the water on you. And then suddenly the shark swims by you, this huge beast of a fish brushes across your skin and begins to circle you. You can reach out and every now and then feel it go by. And it's this big monster of a fish looking thing, fish feeling thing around you.
00:54:13
Speaker
That was literally too much Chewbacca. That was good. That's just nice and dramatic right there. I feel it. I feel the drama. I don't think sharks make noise.
00:54:24
Speaker
Doo-doo, doo-doo. That's about it. That's what they just do. She's going to go and try to go to the surface and kind of float in a circle and then just stare at him. And then she's going to try to smile. But then she realized she's a shark and she's going to close her mouth really fast and then try to curl her lip. If they could do that, I don't think they can. But that's what I'm going to try to do.
00:54:54
Speaker
And Devin's just gonna try and swim away because he's scared now. I was gonna say, Devin, you look and you see this thing swim, start to swim up towards the lights. You see the silhouette of this monster of a shark swim up towards the lights and swirl around and it turns towards you. And all you see is the silhouette of it as she's trying to smile and grin at you. And it suddenly dives back towards you. So you turn and scurry away as fast as you can. Yes, I will dash to the surface and away from it.
00:55:22
Speaker
All right. You going, are you heading to the surface back towards the land or? Yeah, definitely towards the land. Okay. Um, I want to try to rush and be like, no, no, no. In my mind I'm saying no, no, no, but shark Gwen is just going to rush towards him and try to like,
00:55:40
Speaker
get him on top, I guess, and try to make him go so she can go around. Okay, make a dexterity check as you try with advantage, because you're a shark in water. Davin, are you going to try to not allow this to happen, do you think? What would Davin try and do? I mean, the first thought he would have would be to use Dimension Door, but he took his cape off, so he can't. I rolled a one and a three. So with dexterity, that makes it a three?
00:56:08
Speaker
I, with my mage hand, I can push something away. Um, so I'm going to attempt to push it away if it comes toward me. Yeah. It comes up towards you. You throw your mage hand at it and your mage hand can, it can lift pretty heavy stuff now, right? Uh, yeah. As a, um, bonus action, I can push something up to five feet away from me. She has to make a strength saving throw. All right. Make a strength saving throw as a shark. Hopefully this, this shark is strong.
00:56:37
Speaker
Um, 14 plus two. Yep. She makes it. Okay. So she, you're, she just busts right through that mage hand and the shark suddenly rams you and you, you get hit and you fly up out of the water just a little bit and splash back down towards the land. And at this point you're about 15 feet from the shore as the shark is closing in on you, having bumped you ahead of itself at little ways. I'll just swim back to the shore and I'll just like get right up on the land.
00:57:08
Speaker
All right, go ahead and she, Davin swims away, swims out of the water, gets up and crawls up onto the land and you're left kind of swimming out there. You get, he gets to a point where you can't really get your whole body and keep your body in the water without getting beached because it gets shallower and shallower. So about the point you hit him was about as far as you could go. I just, I kind of try to stop swimming and I'm just floating there and I'll just look up at him from the water.
00:57:37
Speaker
So is he back to where he started? Back up on the water. There's like a shark down there. There's some sort of a monster down there. Try to attack me. Oh no. Where's when, where's Gwen? Um, did, did you see Gwen down there? When Gwen just jumped in saying, let, let me try or something. Probably you're probably thinking of Gwen.
00:58:05
Speaker
or it ate her. There's only one way to be safe. Oh no. I'm going to walk to the edge. So my ankles are in the water. When are you out there? All right. Go right up towards him.
00:58:18
Speaker
Okay. This beast of things head kind of pokes up out of the water, the top of its head, the shiny glistening in the light that's above it from, from Joxer's light. And there's this like scary tooth filled grin of a shark as this nose of the shark pokes up out of the water, 10 feet ahead of you.
00:58:40
Speaker
I do the little, I have little little fins. So I'm trying to splash on the top. Here's the question. I have my canned trip message. Uh, I can send a message to a creature that I can see. It says you point your finger toward a creature within range and whisper message the target and only the target hears the message and can reply in a whisper that only you can hear. So I'm assuming that means she has to actually whisper to reply, right? Yeah. And there's, there's verbal component to that. I was hoping I found a loophole to talk to animals.
00:59:07
Speaker
I turn over and act like I'm playing dead. I just go bleh. And my tummy's up. I'm in service now. I'm floating there. That's either when or the stupidest shark I've ever seen. Yeah, Devin, I think it's safe to say that's Gwen. All right. Gwen, since you're in there, why don't you go see if there's anything in the water? I couldn't see. It's too dark.
00:59:29
Speaker
I kind of tilt my head. Like, are you sure? You're the one that jumped in here. That's what she's trying to convey. A whole sentence with one look. Skills. Not even just a look, a shark look. They have almost all black eyes. Unless somebody can make like light under water, I can't see under there.
00:59:50
Speaker
I mean, I could try to see if we established you could actually touch one of these orbs. I don't know if it can go in water though. I'll try to put one of the dancing lights in water. It can only go as far as I can see, at least from that perspective. Does it go in water? I'm Googling that idea.
01:00:16
Speaker
I did. We're breaking the game here. There's there's mixed concepts. I mean, it's still only like 10, 10 feet of light, but 10 feet of light.
01:00:30
Speaker
How is this not in here anywhere? How has nobody said anything about this on the on-lines? Nobody else has ever tried to put floating lights underwater. They never said it on the Facebook? Is that what you were about to say? I have one person saying that I would have water destroy it, but then one person saying,
01:00:49
Speaker
that water, according to the underwater rules published by WOTC's online enhancement, only blocks line of effect for fire spells, which dancing light is not. Yeah, it makes sense to me that you could put an orb like that underwater. Yeah, as long as I could get it. So I could probably get it probably about 60 feet without super distortion, which is still going to be very little light for him. Yeah, right.
01:01:17
Speaker
So I mean, you could get it out there as far as you could, you know, and then you wouldn't be able to see down into the water as far to get it that deep distance wise. I mean, you could put it out right at the top of the water all the way out, but that's still not going to give him the vision. And I know, you know, in that previous episode, we were like, yeah, no, you can touch it. But I don't I would imagine that we could not put it past. I mean, 120 feet is like the max, but I don't think we could actually take it beyond what I could see anyway. Yeah, right.
Exploring the Underwater Terrain
01:01:48
Speaker
I think that is fair. And that is, that hints, that is my ruling hitherto. When's fourth. Yeah. So you, you might be able to take one of, one of these orbs with you to, to get part of the way, but I don't know how much light you'd get out of, I mean, I could probably see about 60 feet down, but that's, that's probably about as far far as you could get with it. Well, I don't even know how deep this is or we'll find out.
01:02:18
Speaker
All right, so you're going to take one down? Sure, I'll take one down and see what happens. Okay. So Gwen. Gwen pulls up like a taxi service. Yep. It's so good. So Gwen pulls up. Josh, you're in the third cabin. Yeah, you jump on the back of the shark and get carried quickly, rapidly down.
01:02:38
Speaker
It doesn't bother you, your new fishy self. How long does that last, by the way? An hour. I mean, you've got time. I can just reuse it, but it's a one minute duration whenever I cast it, and so I can just kind of keep it going. Okay, the light, good. And then Davin's got an hour, right, to be fishy man. Yep.
01:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, so you guys can just keep going down, down, down, down, down. And as you get down to the, as you get down to the about the 50, 55 foot mark, it starts to flicker in and out. The light does make a perception check as you're swimming down deep.
01:03:16
Speaker
All right. You're probably about 40 feet deep as you've gone out a ways as well, you know, so to get away from just the shore, what you're seeing. Gwen makes the gravel. Yes, I would assume so. Does the shark have dark vision? He has blind sight. Very nice. Very nice. Okay. Yeah. So basically a monster with blind sight can perceive its surroundings without relying on sight within a specific radius.
01:03:44
Speaker
Yeah, very cool. For people who didn't know. Daven got an 18 on his perception roll. I got an eight. Okay, so Daven, you look around and you just see, you really just see lake bottom. You see some kind of strange, as you get close to the bottom, some strange little like crustacean type animals and creatures.
01:04:10
Speaker
as you're kind of, because what you're kind of doing is cruising the floor of this lake as you get deeper and deeper, following it out. There are no real drop offs. It doesn't seem like at this point. And when you get out about 40 or 45 feet, your light starts to flicker as you're getting close to the 60 foot mark between the distance out and the depth. And so the light kind of starts to flicker like it's about to go out. Gwen, you notice that light flickering. Do you continue swimming or?
01:04:40
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So now, Daven, she continues to swim out and that light completely just vanishes. Like you're not holding it anymore. It's gone. It's not just like dark, it's gone. And you continue to go, do you continue to hang on as she swims deeper and deeper? Yeah, I'll just go with her at this point.
01:05:01
Speaker
All right, so as you continue to go deeper and deeper, Gwendolyn, Davens hanging on to your fin and kind of hanging on for dear life, and make another perception check as you go down, down, down. Okay, I hope it's better than my last one. I'm assuming it's a no for me because it's all dark now.
01:05:19
Speaker
18 plus two, dirty 20. Cool. So as you go down, you get this sense around you and you kind of get this like, it's almost like in your mind, you have the topographical map of this radius that's around you. And it's like it's pinging every now and then.
01:05:38
Speaker
You know, that's kind of how you feel the you feel what's around you more than you see it and You're seeing that kind of dips and valleys little dips and valleys of the stones and things that are underneath here You see a couple things moving here or there and you smell and kind of sense that some of these creatures are edible and kind of feel like they might be tasty and But but you don't really see what any of these things are as it's so dark down there. So
01:06:07
Speaker
But you're sensing all this. Nothing is weird or out of place. It doesn't feel like you're in some strange environment other than you're just deep underwater. Do I know where or can I sense where the water is coming in from or just has this water just always been here?
01:06:31
Speaker
If you get what I'm feeling. Yeah. You don't really get a sense of that. You did see the giant waterfall coming from a, from the ceiling, like a hole in the ceiling ahead of you before you got in the water. You couldn't miss that. There's no way. And that's what all this mist that's surrounding this shoreline is coming from. It's just creating this mist across most of this lake. So no underwater cave? Nothing that you're sensing right now where you're swimming around. No. But there could be.
01:06:58
Speaker
I mean, this is a huge, huge area. You're talking, you're talking as far as you know, this could be the size of the forest all underwater. You don't know. All right. Um, I'd probably make a lap around and come back on the other side. Okay. Before we were. Yeah. As you continue to, as you continue to ping that and kind of keep your 60, 70 foot out from that peninsula.
01:07:23
Speaker
There's a couple places where you do sense like a drop down, but like a drop off and it goes deeper, but it seems to rise up again pretty soon further out. Like just it's a valley like you would, you know, and it just seems like this is just a flooded cave floor, a huge amount of space, but a flooded cave floor nonetheless. Words didn't want to come out. Okay. I bring Devon to the surface.
01:07:50
Speaker
Okay. To our tour ends. Daven, your blind tour of the underwater cave has ended. I hope it was fun for you. That was fun. It was for me. Daven flip flops up onto the, uh, onto the shore with his webbed feet and he gets up there and he plugs his nose and he blows real hard. And you see all this water pop out of his gills and then I'll drop all herself after that.
01:08:13
Speaker
Well, it was dark. I saw nothing. I can't tell you about Gwen. Yeah. I know that if only we had another way to light something down there. I have torches. I don't think that's going to work.
01:08:29
Speaker
Something tells me it won't. I think the only one that might be able to help is over there and I don't think sharks are super helpful on that. I'm sure she'll come back and join us in a minute. I circle around and then I shoot up onto the land as a shark and I soon as I try to like pick myself up you see Gwen morphing back and she's completely wet. Did you see anything? I didn't see anything.
01:08:58
Speaker
No, and she goes to wipe her hair. I didn't really... I sensed some drop-offs, but nothing out of the ordinary.
01:09:07
Speaker
If this is lonely hill, then maybe there is more that we need to find. I don't know if it's in the water or maybe we missed something upstairs. Question, do we know if that running water is from the same water that we had upstairs that I probably should have fallen in?
01:09:30
Speaker
Make a make in straight, just intelligence check or a nature and make a nature check. Whoever would like to consider this question. Sure. I will also consider. All right. That's not. I may as well. Nineteen. I got a ten minus one. So there's a nine. I got a three plus zero.
01:09:53
Speaker
I guess I should check if I have plus nature. Nope, that's a zero. What a surprise. So Krigs, as with your 19, you definitely start to think about the positioning of where you are and you use some of your skills and the navigation skills and all that to try to think of where you are versus where the stairs are, where you came down. You look at where that hole is in the ceiling and it makes complete sense.
01:10:17
Speaker
that that hole in the ceiling would be somewhere downstream from where you cross that river. That's probably what that water is pouring into this lake. Okay. Uh, I don't really super feel the need to like relay that cause I, you know, it seems pretty, you know, obvious. Yeah, that seems obvious to you. You're the only one that realizes it, but it seems obvious to you. If there's something in this lake, I don't know how we would find it. It's too dark. It's too big.
01:10:47
Speaker
Go ahead. And do you have anything that could provide light under? I got an idea. Oh, yeah. The jocks are just looks over can almost disturbed worry. Yeah, I still have. I still have my my vision on me, right? Yeah, you do sick. Well, I can't swim very well, but. I'm how high is the ceiling in here?
01:11:20
Speaker
It's definitely it's very very high you're thinking sick like Probably a hundred more feet. It's very high rad You're just gonna hear me say my magic words. I am member I am oak and I'm gonna pop both my wings out and I'm gonna say the wrong I guess I'll
01:11:41
Speaker
try and see if I could find something. And then I'm gonna do just circles around this lake using my, you know, detect, go to an evil spell and see if something pings underwater that I can see. All right. Krix, can you make the wings sound again?
01:12:08
Speaker
Well done, well done. Make a perception check if you're flying around with that spell up. Sorry. Do I get advantage because I'm using magic? You do. Sir, you should get advantage because I'm laughing so hard. There's a nat 20 and then a 13.
01:12:25
Speaker
Use the 20. Yeah, we'll take the Nat 20. Yeah, that's what I would take if I were you. But you look around and you kind of fly some circles, some really well-patterned circles, like obvious surveying the area. You know what you're freaking doing at this point with this kind of thing. And nothing rings any bells except the two little dudes pinging over on the island. All right. Well, I'm just gonna,
01:12:54
Speaker
land and with no need to have and then pop them back in. No more wings for me. And then, uh, I would say, look, this, I hate to be awkward about this, but I'm not finding any in this cave. None of us seem to be finding anything. Joxer. Can I, can I, can I see something real fast? I've noticed something. I know you have seen me use my mind. Well,
01:13:22
Speaker
One of the blessings we receive as paladins is the ability to detect good and evil. It's a spell. Can I just, would you mind? Would you mind? Would you mind? I don't mind, but can you- Thanks. And I'm going to, as soon as he says that, I'm basically just going to like get a really good look at whatever I see glowing like behind his back or whatever.
01:13:44
Speaker
You kind of lift up, you look and you see a squirming right under his hood and you see three fingers as spell slots kind of wiggles itself and tucks its fingers back underneath the hood. Oh dear God. Oh, okay. Just spell slots. Okay. What, what, what are you looking for? Like you can see spell slots with your logic eyes.
01:14:10
Speaker
I mean, it's a living creature. It's got some kind of centric goodness or badness, and I like to see it. It's kind of an unliving creature, I guess. Precisely. You said you say good or evil, right? I am able to see from both sides of the spectrum, yes. Which one was it?
01:14:34
Speaker
Well, David's putting his cloak and backpack and stuff back on. Boopy. Did you ask me something? I was typing a secret message to a player. Who was it? Who was it? Should I act on this?
01:14:50
Speaker
What are you saying? On what I sent you?
Mysterious Past and Campfire Search
01:14:54
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Should I act on this message? It's your call, your choice. All right, cool. What you messaged to me has nothing to do with what I just saw, right? Spell slots in his deal? No, Spell slots was hanging out back on his neck. Okay. Well, one more thing, Jonks, if you don't mind.
01:15:15
Speaker
Can I, could you open your, your bag? I'm seeing something else. Don't know what it is. It's the messenger bag that is hanging across your, your hanging across your shoulders and down to your hip, that messenger bag. That's magical. That moves things from one thing to another. Yeah. Yeah. Um, uh, I guess, uh, uh, I kind of hold my hand out. Like, can I, can I see it real quick?
01:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, and I'll hand it over. I'm going to hold this thing out like in front of me like a ways and kind of turn my head and just like lift the latch and like open whatever contraption to like actually see inside. I'm being just real sheepish about this.
01:15:57
Speaker
Okay. So you, you slowly open it and do you, do you, does this spell give you a sense of what it is that is causing this aura? Like what, what type of aura you're seeing? Well, listeners, we're going to take a, uh, an adventure together. The spell specifically says for the duration, you know, if there, you know, if there is an aberration celestial elemental Fay fiend,
01:16:21
Speaker
or undead within 30 feet of you, as well as where the creature is located. Similarly, you know if there is a place or object within 33 feet of you that has been magically consecrated or desecrated. It doesn't say specifically that I would know which. But I assume if you want to read it, rules is written, I guess if you want to read it,
01:16:43
Speaker
It's for the duration you know if there is an aberration. It doesn't say that you specifically know, but it's all an interpretation. Sure. Yeah. Well, you're currently seeing that this bag itself doesn't have a globe, but something inside of it does. You lift the pouch up and there's this like aura and you can almost, it's being, it's so close to you now. You also, you almost hear this like hum from it, from it as you have the spell up.
01:17:09
Speaker
OK, I'm going to kind of peek over the edge of the bag and see what's inside. You look inside and you see a golden chain. And on the end of it is a orange jewel. Oh, it's very familiar. Oh. Wait a minute. Devin sits on the ground. What is happening? When hold on is I hold it up.
01:17:39
Speaker
I, I, I pick up this necklace. Okay. And I hold it up and, uh, kind of look around. Is this Gwen? Devin, is this, is this the necklace? Yeah. J-Juxer was holding it. Because remember Gwen left before. Oh, I'm an idiot. Yeah. That whole thing. No, you're not, Krigs. Um, well... Krigs is not an idiot.
01:18:08
Speaker
Wait. Yeah. The one that you, the one that you had, the one that you destroyed, it was the gem on it was orange, right? That's gone, Craig's. She just destroyed that one. Okay. Then what am I holding, Daven? You're holding the other necklace. That's, yeah. Remember? Cause the jocks are had the other one. Daven, Daven, come here. Hold on. This isn't, can you, if you would, can I see what necklaces you have?
01:18:35
Speaker
Why would Daven have the necklace? Daven's going to tuck his own necklaces into his shirt. Okay. I don't have any other necklace. Okay. Okay. That's not true. You have a lot of necklaces. I have three necklaces and they're mine. That's fair. You have every right to have whatever necklaces you had. I just,
01:19:02
Speaker
Okay. I'm curious as to, to where this jocks or did you have this in your possession? Uh, Gwen is just looking around at all of them. Like what is happening? Apparently it was in my bag. Devin grabs his bag and he reaches inside and he pulls out the other identical pouch. When I left, I decided I need to go somewhere safe. So I put it back where it was found.
01:19:33
Speaker
We put it back where it was found. In Jackson's bag where we first had it. I can tell they're not getting it, so Devin pulls out a copper coin and he drops it into my bag. And then I'll I'll grab the bag and then pull it out of that bag that you were holding, Craig's. That's the necklace I took. I just give it back, just not directly. You took it.
01:20:03
Speaker
I did. While you were gone, it was complicated. Things are complicated. Gwendoline can't even be mad because Drax who's been holding on to it. We've all had a lot of things going on and it's been a long day.
01:20:26
Speaker
I think it might be best if we found a place to, I mean, maybe we can talk about it over a campfire. I'm not sure I want to sit here much longer. As he says that, the green pool nearby of acid bubbles.
Reflections and Realizations
01:20:45
Speaker
What the heck? Oh, this place is terrible. You're right.
01:20:52
Speaker
I'm sorry, Gwen, that this wasn't the Alomora that you were looking for, but honestly, I'm happy that we were able to get rid of this fiend and, I guess, free the indigenous mushrooms. I'm not really sure how to take it, but that's what they were.
01:21:20
Speaker
You just see the math equations, like in the meme, go across Gwen's face as she's talking to Dale. Wait, this isn't right, because if he had it, no, no, no, you're not really listening. Dale, listen. Sorry, and she puts Dale back in her bag gently.
01:21:44
Speaker
I too am glad this fiend is gone, but I- you're right, I wish Alomora was here. But someday I'll find it, and I agree, we should find a place to sleep for tonight, and this place does not seem too inviting.
Final Preparations and Future Plans
01:22:04
Speaker
Maybe we can talk to our friends upstairs.
01:22:07
Speaker
Well, sure, we can head back upstairs and see on them. I'm not too certain they'll have a whole lot to say, but well. Why do you say that? I get the impression that whatever creature was here was maybe enhancing the sentience that the creatures upstairs, the mushrooms, and while our little fungal friends had
01:22:34
Speaker
But by all means, we can go and check on them. I would like to just have one last look around, I guess, before we officially head out and leave Lonely Hill, try to figure out what was so great to send so many swords here to their demise. Well, let's go up and find a place that we can camp for the night and then I guess we can continue more north, right? Sounds good.
01:23:00
Speaker
And we'll find Almonora, and we'll find whatever's corrupting this forest, and we'll maybe hopefully find something to eat, because I'm hungry. Just not any mushrooms, if you don't mind. And that's where we're going to leave the episode.
Listener Engagement and Farewell
01:23:30
Speaker
Hey everyone, Dale again. Thanks for listening to my show. If you liked our show, tell your squirrel friends. If you really liked our show, tell everyone, leave a review. If you want to keep up with us and see what I'm up to, find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, at thehiredswords. Be sure to check out our shop at thehired.store. And yeah, I'll see you around.