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Ep. 70 Waiting And Watching
186 Plays2 years ago
It's hard to believe there aren't eyes in the darkness. Watching from the Shadows. Waiting for the Hired Swords to let down their guard.. They're not ready. Are you?
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Transcript
Recap of The Hired Swords
00:00:03
Speaker
previously on the hired swords.
Krigs' Mishap and New Destination
00:00:26
Speaker
laughing at Krigs as he gets as much water on his clothes as he does in his mouth. And just a short distance away, there is your destination, it seems. This might be the last lighthearted break along the trail that the hired swords would see for a while. You don't know that yet, but it's looming just a little ways walk away from you.
Introduction to The Hired Swords
00:01:16
Speaker
You are listening to the Hired Swords, a D&D podcast that's apparently out of lighthearted moments.
00:01:37
Speaker
Hello again, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Hired Swords. I am your Dungeon Master, Michael, and joining me today is Blaze. He is suffering in the room. Did you say of again? Hello of again. Also, I'm still sick. I may have. It's the same night. Hi. Same night. Yes. Don't ruin the immersion. He's been sick for a whole week. A whole week. Pray for him. Send his thoughts and prayers.
00:02:03
Speaker
Uh, and, uh, and chicken noodle soup and Starbucks. Uh, Gwen is played by Ash. That is correct. Mike. Yeah. Speaking of Mike, Mikey is here. He is jockser. Hi. Um, I was yelled at for my energy the last round. Not really, but I am bringing a little bit more for my entrance. That was good. That was better. I appreciate it. Next time though, maybe down a little bit. No, I'm just kidding.
00:02:33
Speaker
Derek plays the voice of Davin Meinschreiter. Hi. See, try to match that energy, you jockser. Next time. Try to match Derek. Dang. I've always spot on with my energy. I'm sorry. I just don't get it. He's an actual owner. I don't have that. I don't have it, you know? You know what it is. It's okay. Some people are like the afternoon drive rock and roll radio guy and some people are the like,
00:03:02
Speaker
We're going to talk about houseplants radio guy. Yeah. Delilah. Yeah. You're just the houseplants guy. Oh my gosh. I don't, I don't even think I have a house. Everybody knows Delilah, so it seems to be working. That's okay. Well, you need to listen to some, you need to listen to some more radio buddy. Why, why do you got to lie about that? Why do you got to lie? Seriously? Why do you have to lie to make friends, please?
00:03:28
Speaker
You're going to dedicate this episode to, uh, to who and why, and how much do you love them? Yeah, I dedicate. He's tired and sick. It's almost midnight. All right. So we are, when we left off our last session, you guys kind of came back together after your crazy night of dreams after killing this crazy plant creature in the bottom of this cavern forward operating
Reflections on the Plant Creature Battle
00:03:56
Speaker
base. You then,
00:03:58
Speaker
had your crazy nights of dreams and nightmares. And then you gained a little more power, you feel a little more capable, crawled your way out of the cave and into the forest of the wilds again, where after of course taking a full water skin of the fountain water, the fountain
00:04:22
Speaker
that at least is that of healing. There's assumptions and possibilities that it could do even
Journey Through the Northern Forest
00:04:28
Speaker
more than that. And so nobody's willing to test that part out on their own. So we're going to have to see if that comes up. But you are now walking through the forest, heading north, some very good skill checks to find your way north and to keep going north. And we ended the last session. You guys taking a little lunch break sitting alongside of the road, eating some food that had been conjured up by the wand.
00:04:52
Speaker
of create food and water. David made some fried chicken that jocks are made tastes like berries. And you're just kind of sitting and hanging out and not too far away from you. We just, we kind of learned as we zoomed out from the scene of them sitting around the camp, the campsite, but sitting near the road eating, we zoom out to see that they're not very far from
00:05:19
Speaker
where this mist begins and it seems like that is the only direction. That is where they will end up heading north. So as you sit, how do you wrap up your little lunchtime as the sun is very high in the sky and you do see a bit of cloudiness kind of starting to creep in as you sit
Magical Food Curiosities
00:05:37
Speaker
there. The sun is high, but it is a little chilly as
00:05:41
Speaker
the autumn. It is autumn in this time of the world here in the time of the calendar. So what are you guys doing as you finish up this little lunch break? After Gwendolyn has taken a few bites. Thank you. This does taste like berries, but it still feels wrong.
00:06:06
Speaker
I definitely can't wrap my head around a berry-flavored chicken, but... Well, you can think of it this way. It's not meat. It wasn't anything a second ago. That's fair. We're eating flavored nothing.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's a way to think of it. I guess, and she finishes up her drumstick. I think I'd rather not think about it too much because it's a little weird now. Honestly, I mean, really, every time you use that wand it gets a little weird, doesn't it?
00:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, I would say so, but we got to eat. Last time we had a session where we were blasting it and it got all over the place. Come again? What? Daven was making target practice. Oh, that's okay. Yes, I remember. All right. Should we probably head out then, right?
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I marked this tree right here. So it should be that way. Right. Right. Quigs. Quigs. Quigs, yes. Quigs, please. Quigs, do you know the way? Back on the road we go. On the road again. All right. So you guys continue to head northward. That one's going to confidently lead from the back.
00:07:46
Speaker
Awesome. Confidently. So as you guys head north, I just got that you are again, you're walking with no trail. You're just kind of going through the trees and you're just, you know, we're bobbing and weaving, not a road bobbing, weaving through the trees, stepping over bushes. It travels pretty slow and I need somebody to roll a D 20 for me. All right. Confident leader.
00:08:11
Speaker
I did say it is you. That makes sense to me too, man. I am the king of sixes. Um, plus what is this survival? Uh, no, it's just a straight roll. Oh, then it's just a straight six, a straight six. So you, yeah. So you, um, continue traveling. The clouds start to kind of cover overhead, cover the sun and it's starting to get cool. Very cool.
00:08:39
Speaker
And you kind of feel a shiver and you just continue walking for a couple hours. And after a couple hours have passed, everyone make perception checks. Oh, well, now I got to roll, I guess. Put my dice up. Hey, that's a natty one. That's a 19 plus one. 15 for Devin. You said perception. I did. You like, you like how I ask every time. I do.
00:09:08
Speaker
9 plus 9, 18. Oh, no. But it's plus nine. Perception's good. It is good. Why do you not want? I don't think you have a bad stat, do you? Oh, I do. Oh, OK. It's charisma and strength where you have negative two. Well, that's good to know. So just kidding. It's not. So you know, don't know it. Stop knowing that. So you you notice that it is darker where you're walking.
00:09:36
Speaker
And it's like you realize you're in the fog a little bit. And it's not real thick fog, real dense, I guess, but it's enough and it's dark enough fog that you are
00:09:54
Speaker
The sun is just kind of this like, it's almost like a candle light in the sky. It's, it's there. You can see it, but you could look directly at it.
Fog Intensifies and Decisions
00:10:04
Speaker
There's enough of this fog that it doesn't hurt your eyes to look directly at the sun. It's like you're wearing sunglasses that, you know, very thick ones looking upward at least. And the, the ones with the high rolls blade or be a blaze or Krigs.
00:10:18
Speaker
Uh, especially, no, it wasn't, it was jockser. That's right. You both, so low. I'm not listening to you at this point. Okay. Yeah. You don't even have a, enjoy getting your snack. And so, uh, you can see jockser that there is the swirling above of this darker mist even it's above what you're walking through, but it's there. Does this feel very similar to what I saw with spiders being taken? Make an insight check.
00:10:45
Speaker
Oh, come on. I'm asking you. You don't have to make me roll again. Well, we are rolling. That's what the game's about. The dice, baby. That jumped out of my skull. That's not me. Sometimes I get mad and I jump out of my sky. So twenty three. Twenty three. Sorry. Twenty three. Late night jokes. Late night dad jokes from Michael.
00:11:06
Speaker
Yes, I know you have a skull dice tower and it's incredible, but you've shown it on the discord. Hey, everybody join our discord. And so you, uh, you definitely, definitely get that same feeling in the pit of your stomach, that same gross, just emptiness in the pit of your stomach that you did when you saw that black mist pull that spider away. It seems like you are walking into that right now.
00:11:36
Speaker
Krigs, you remember when I talked about the spider disappearing? I rolled a natural one. I don't remember anything. I'm kidding. Uh, yeah, I remember back at the camp, the camp we found. It's here, not the spider, the darkness. We need, we need to just stay close to each other. What do you want to link arms and keep walking? I mean,
00:12:03
Speaker
You know what? Honestly, it's not a bad idea. I'll just get a little break. Keep an eye out. I'll do my best to keep an eye forward. We have Devin so confidently leading from behind. I think we're fine. Devin not hearing this conversation at all says, Gwen, I'll raise you to that rock up there. Ready? Go. And he goes running forward. Rock.
00:12:30
Speaker
The big one. I was trying to think of daylight savings. I can't think of a joke. Let me start over. I can't even see the rock. Why is he getting so dark out? Devin stops halfway through. Fine. Nevermind. I would have lost anyway.
00:12:59
Speaker
This fog, like, is it like...
00:13:02
Speaker
This is going to sound weird how I'm going to describe it. It's like airy fog. Like I can dip my hand in like around me. It's just dark. You know how like when you're driving in fog or when you're walking somewhere, you don't know you're in the fog. You just see it in the distance, but near you, but like right near you, it's not, it's not like you're in it, you know, but then you look at the distance and it's your, your visibility is very short. You can't see very far. That's so profound.
00:13:30
Speaker
I could see this rock that Devin is running to. Yeah, you could probably see it. You know, I don't I don't remember what your role was. I still don't run to it. It was 18. Oh, yeah, you definitely could see it there. Devin, Devin, stop. Just let's let's all stay together.
00:13:51
Speaker
All right. Frank, I did see that rock and I decided not to run. You're getting quite good at these pranks, Gwen. Thank you. I just love the fact that she's on the prank every time. I know I was going to say pranks. The prank
Joxer's Visions and Fear
00:14:08
Speaker
part of a prank is when you call out. Prank. All right. All right. I'll get back to the back like where I belong, I suppose.
00:14:19
Speaker
How much farther we got to go? What does your map say? I mean, is there anything on the map? Well, you saw the map. There's something on the map. We're not on the map. We're on the world. I mean, we're walking. There's definitely something on the map. We're not just walking to nothing. I mean, come on.
00:14:41
Speaker
That's all right that's so I saw darkness before we went into the tunnel after we those those spiders that kind of. Flickered the flickering spiders and and one of them I I swear got consumed by darkness I just think that we all need to stay close just okay. We maybe it's just foggy that night I like it is over there.
00:15:10
Speaker
I might point towards the far. Um, Devin, Devin has like one little piece of this drumstick left that he had just been carrying and nibbling on. I'm just going to chuck it into the forest and to the left.
00:15:25
Speaker
So fog hungry. Make us make a strength check. Oh boy, this will be good. Just a regular strength check. See how far you throw it. Please be. I was like, why do you need to make a strength check against fog? He obviously wins. I only rolled a seven. So when I when I add the minus one to it, that's.
00:15:42
Speaker
Six when you add the minus one to it drumstick goes three feet forward and goes behind him You do throw it and when you do it bounces off a tree nearby and lands at your feet in front of you
00:16:00
Speaker
And, uh, you, it doesn't really have any, you don't learn anything from this action. Devin stops and he looks down at it and he looks at the group and he looks down and he says, Frank. I shake my head at him. That's not a prank. He obviously is just bad at throwing. Hey, now we don't want to shame him for his
00:16:29
Speaker
throwing deficiencies. Uh, I'm going to walk over and I'm going to pick up the, I'm going to pick up the chicken bone and I'm going to chunk it. I'm going to chunk that little bone. Well, Kregs is doing that. You just hear Gwen go, ha ha ha. Prank. And she winks at Kregs. I am so confused now. Me too.
00:16:54
Speaker
I'm going to chunk that chicken bone into that fog is what I'm going to do. All right. Your, uh, your strength's pretty high. Like, right. I'm going to assume it's pretty high. Yeah. Uh, I said, what did you say? I'm going to assume it's pretty high. Yeah. Instead of looking at your character sheet. Let's just, let's just roll. Like we're, it's probably pretty high. I imagine. I rolled a dirty 20.
00:17:19
Speaker
Oh yeah. So, uh, yeah, you, you chunk the thing and it flies past. It does bounce off a tree in the distance and into the fog and it, it disappears, but it's small. You threw it a long way and into some fog. There is nothing to tell you that this fog consumed this any more than what you would imagine.
00:17:41
Speaker
any kind of foggy or cloudy substance would obscure your sight of something that you toss that far away. Maybe I put a little bit too much mustard on that. Devin's doing a throwing motion with his hand. I get it. He's like, I don't understand. I was doing the exact same thing as you. How come yours went so much further than mine? It's all in the elbow.
00:18:04
Speaker
I don't know why I just turned into John Marston all of a sudden. I was going to say, when did you become this character? Since when is Kriegs from Texas? Anyway, yeah, I don't assume based on that. It seems pretty much like typical fog. I'm guessing so.
00:18:22
Speaker
Well, the way I see it, we handled the creatures from the darkness before. We handled the creatures from the fog, the spiders. They were, if memory serves, weak as heck. So, let's just stay close together, and as long as we travel lightly, maybe we can find a way through this without too much distress.
00:18:50
Speaker
Yes, that's, that's all I'm saying is just stay close. Don't, don't veer. And if, if anything, I don't know, seems off, we, we need to make sure that we, we talk to each other. It's communication is key here. I appreciate you sharing your feelings. Are we ready to continue?
00:19:12
Speaker
I'm, I wasn't ready to stop. I guess I, I truly, I truly the thing first. Right. Is it, is it getting dark? Dark enough. Like it's not like nighttime.
Darkness and Fear Set In
00:19:23
Speaker
Like you can see where the sun is and it's still, you know, just a couple hours into the afternoon, but it's, but I mean, it is dimmer here. Like it's like a real cloudy day, even though the sun is shining brightly above this fall. Do I feel like we would benefit from having a light source?
00:19:40
Speaker
Uh, it definitely, yeah, you've got limited visibility. So you would probably think maybe the lights would help possibly, um, uh, who, who's, uh, who, who wants to take the lead? I can, I can walk up front, but, um, I feel like, uh, give me a,
00:20:01
Speaker
Give me a sword or your your your hammer for you. And I'll touch it and then a bright light will emanate for 20 feet as light will appear. Something something I picked up. Couldn't have picked a heavier object. That's fine. And I mean, you don't have to hold it in front of you. It's 20 feet. I mean, it's a lot of space. You as long as it's on you.
00:20:27
Speaker
That also would have been nice when we were going underwater, but whatever. You know what? I was reading the book that I had and oddly enough, it was something that was in there. I didn't see it before. Fair. Fair enough. Forward. Forward we go. All right. You continue forward and as such, it does get thicker and this mist gun becomes
00:20:51
Speaker
Uh, extremely noticeable where no check is necessary to realize that you are walking in this thick fog and it gets to the point where you don't see trees until they're
00:21:03
Speaker
You're about to hit him and the light even seems to just be almost like reflecting off the Droplets or whatever of the the of mist the vapor of mist that's around you It's kind of reflecting off almost making it even harder to see like putting a wall of light in front of you where you have now our carry where wherever krigs is walking with that hammer and
00:21:26
Speaker
it's just it's just tough it's slow going you're moving slowly and you're struggling somebody roll a d20 for me uh who wants to be the big bad this time straight d20 i'll do it put present 18
00:21:45
Speaker
All right. So as you continue to walk through this, it is it maintains kind of this level of thickness that it that it's at. And how many C's it's it's actually four Q's T H I Q Q Q. It's thick, thick fog. And so you're so you're going through your thick fog.
00:22:12
Speaker
and carrying this light and everyone roll D 100 for me. Whoa. Oh, come on. That doesn't exist. Oh, yeah. I got to do me like this. Wow. Fun times. Play Dungeons and Dragons. Yay. I have my answer. Eighty eight zero. Forty eight.
00:22:40
Speaker
It's a 26. 52. We rolled even numbers up and down. So, Joxer, you rolled a 36? 26. 26. I need you to make a charisma saving throw. Oh, no. What? Oh, no. Oh, no. Okay, okay, okay.
00:23:06
Speaker
That's not a d20 at all. That's not okay. Roll a d100. Get it. No. That's gone. It's gone. Play where it lies. If you want to wait 20 seconds, I can. No. You got to lift a couch. Oh, hard pass on that. When it lies under the couch. Oh, no. I play the other one. Charisma. I say yes.
00:23:32
Speaker
Uh, so that's a, that's a seven, seven. All right. So if that one with the couch was a hard 20, I'm going to be so mad. I know. Right. I'm curious now. I'm going to look, but I'm not changing my role. That's what I rolled. Go check, go check, go check. Yeah, I'm actually curious. I don't care at all. Well, you know what, Derek? This is a podcast where we check roles. Okay.
00:24:00
Speaker
I work at a casino. I see dice all the time. I don't care about the outcome. Where it lied was a 17 plus two. Oh, that would have been better. That would have been better than seven. Yeah. Would have been 12 better, in fact. So you are walking in this thick.
00:24:26
Speaker
dick fog and you are struggling to see more than as an arms length in front of you, you know, and then suddenly jocks are there is this face.
00:24:40
Speaker
And it stops you in your tracks, right in front of you, glowing golden eyes. It looks like a lion kind of snout. It opens its mouth and it has fangs that just drip. It looks like drip with dark red crimson blood.
00:24:57
Speaker
and it's moving its mouth directly toward your face. It's just going to take a big bite out of your face. You now are incapacitated where you stand. You cannot move and you just begin screaming in fear as you see this creature
00:25:22
Speaker
coming after you. And everyone else, you see Joxer, you realize Joxer stopped and then just starts screaming. And he's just screaming into the fog in front of him and nothing, there is nothing there. And he's just screaming and screaming and screaming. And Joxer make another charisma saving throw after about a good 30 seconds, 40 seconds of this screaming. When he starts screaming like that,
00:25:52
Speaker
When he starts screaming like that, I'm going to cast Mage Armor on myself. Okay. Uh, so that's way better. That'll be a 19. Okay. As he's standing there screaming and screaming, what do you guys do besides cast Mage Armor? I try to find him. I try to turn around. Yeah, you turn around and you could follow the sound and get to him pretty quickly. I was behind him, so I would have rushed up. Yeah.
00:26:16
Speaker
I go up to him and just what's happening and I tried to like grab his shoulders from the sides. I've pulled my hammer and shield off and I'm holding my shield in front of me but also holding my hammer out as it was the source of light and I'm kind of just like
00:26:35
Speaker
I have my back to jocks here, but I'm swinging at my hammer and holding it out and moving it side to side and trying to like illuminate and try to find whatever is out there. Yeah. So, so you're looking back and forth in the light. Like I said earlier, the light just seems to almost cause this obstruction as you hold it in front of you, because it's just reflecting off of so many different bits of this, this wispy fog and mist as the light hits it. And so it's hard to,
00:27:04
Speaker
It's hard to see when you put your shoulders on jocks or jocks or shrugs you off as he as he's just terrified and davin you approach as well you see craig's looking like he's trying to figure out what might be coming what's happening.
00:27:19
Speaker
You do see that it's like beacon in the fog so it's like the fog or the light itself doesn't necessarily help create see but it helps you see where he is. In fact and so but then jocks are just as going finally steps back from you because you're you're shrugging her off.
00:27:37
Speaker
This creature just darts like its faces darts towards yours, and it bites down and nothing happens and you and you snap back to yourself and it's just jocks her again. You're fine. That wasn't real. Nothing happened. Here you are. What just happened? What's the matter? Something's playing tricks on me. I can't. What kind of tricks make you scream like that?
00:28:07
Speaker
I think a beast essentially went to bite off my head a large, I don't know, just a large gaping mouth. What are you talking about? There's nothing here. I realize that now. I move his head sideways so I can look at his neck. There's no bite. You're okay. Yeah. Give me a second. I'm going to pull out.
00:28:36
Speaker
I'm going to pull out spell slots and essentially walk up. Craig's, come here. I approach kind of cautiously. Yeah. I'm going to rely on you. Is that okay?
00:28:55
Speaker
That's fine with me and I'm gonna put my like arm on his shoulder and then I'm gonna try to use spell slots for his his blind site so I'm gonna close my eyes and kind of channel that.
00:29:09
Speaker
that understanding so that I don't need to see anything. I just need to understand what's in the 30-foot vision that's there. And I'm going to basically kind of try to guide us forward knowing that that was something that I could not handle. And if you continue forward, I can make sure that we're not
00:29:36
Speaker
we're not running into anything. And if anybody else sees what I did, just close your eyes. And if I don't say there's something there, then there's nothing there. Okay. That's fine. Just tell me what you need. Continue on and I'll
00:30:04
Speaker
If there's anything that is there that you can't see, I'll tell you. If anybody fears anything, then I'll be able to at least say that nothing is there. Okay. And with that, I will keep walking forward.
00:30:24
Speaker
Okay. Do you guys continue going forward and the distant faded sun begins to set on your west and before, until it is finally, it finally just heads down behind the trees to where you are in the darkest night, the darkest night you can imagine.
00:30:51
Speaker
Craig's you especially, you get a trimmer, a chill as you remember this feeling of the feeling at the goblin village, fighting in this darkness, fighting the shadows in a darkness just like this. The chill that you felt in the air is here again. And it is now full nighttime. Visibility is half of what it was with the fog.
00:31:17
Speaker
You literally can see to your, if you put your hands right in front of you, you could see just past your elbow and it is nothing. You're basically feeling around blindly.
00:31:29
Speaker
except for the blind site that Joxer is able to use to help. So you're literally having to just trust him to help you know where to go. Joxer, make a survival check as you try to navigate in this way. Also, by now I would have definitely taken a rope out of my pouch and
00:31:52
Speaker
basically asked everyone to make a knot hole in it and to not tie themselves off completely. So if they fell or something, it would pull them down. But I want them to to to have that so we know we're all together. OK. I'm going to use a luck die because that wasn't as high as I wanted it. And so that is much better. So that'll be a 17 total.
00:32:18
Speaker
Cool. So you're able to kind of guide the party single file around trees, around thorn bushes, things like that, until it starts to be so dark. I mean, it's like, it is barely able to see your hands in front of your face dark as any inkling of sunshine, sunlight that was in the sky is gone.
00:32:42
Speaker
The moon seems to not exist up there, not that it doesn't exist, but it's just no nowhere in sight right now, at least. And it's full on nighttime. Do you guys want to continue or are you going to consider trying to find a way to settle in in the midst of all this? Is anybody tired? I mean, I'm tired and the fact that we've been walking for a long time. I don't know. It's dark. It's really dark.
00:33:10
Speaker
I feel we should settle down, but I don't know if I want to settle down here among all this darkness. It doesn't feel right. And I don't want Jockster to get fake bit again.
00:33:27
Speaker
I'm not looking at anything. I won't, but I don't know how far this goes, and I don't know if we'd be safe enough to settle down.
Camping Amidst the Fog
00:33:43
Speaker
We're in a difficult situation here then. Krigs, what do you think? I don't like it here, but I don't see too many choices we can camp.
00:33:57
Speaker
stick close, light, kind of a fire that we can, and maybe the fog will clear by morning, but whatever's out there, if it can see us, we definitely can't see it.
00:34:17
Speaker
I mean, I'm not any sort of a specialist on this, but this seems extra dark, extra foggy, like abnormally. So like, I don't think I've ever seen it like this before. It makes me think that maybe there's something more than just have you experienced magical darkness before you. You have a way with the arcane. Is this, are we dealing with something beyond nature? Can I make a check to see if I can figure out if there's any sort of magic involved?
00:34:46
Speaker
Yeah, make an arcana check. This is going to be good. No, it's not nine. All right. It's the weakest. You. What kind of magic man are you? I have not rolled double digits in the past two games. Yikes. You don't know if this is what magical darkness is like. Definitely heard of magical darkness, but you've never experienced it. Or if you have, you don't remember.
00:35:12
Speaker
So here's the thing, like I know magic, but I never really experienced anything outside of my own magic before really meeting you guys. There's very little before that. So I've heard of magical darkness before, but I don't know it anymore than you do. I suppose that's fair. Joxer, you're the only one that's seen anything out here. Do you think we should camp here for the night? I'm going to let, I'm going to leave this call for you.
00:35:42
Speaker
I know that if we camp here, then the spell slots and I can watch over for the night. I haven't felt tired, or I don't understand that feeling. I could wait it out. But I don't think anybody is safer here than moving on. So what's your decision?
00:36:09
Speaker
Do any of you feel tired enough to sleep? I will watch over. If you don't feel tired, I will continue leading us. What are we having to stop for dinner? I think we can stop, we can eat, and we could sleep, and we could try and hope that it's better in the morning.
00:36:28
Speaker
It's fair, and honestly, I might be new to this nature thing, but I do know the sun has a way with fog and cheering through. If this is something that is magical, that may not help, but if this is natural, we might be best hunkering for the night and waiting for the sunlight. Okay, um... I can get us a fire starting. I've been watching D-Davin do it. I learned a new spell.
00:36:57
Speaker
It's not really a spell. Um, I do produce flames in my hands. Look, I call it produce flim. I don't know why not flame, but that's what the books were saying. I get it. That's gotta be one of those weird languages. That's what I figure.
00:37:20
Speaker
It's celestial. She blames it on. Slop. Slop. Slop you guys. Slop. Slop you so much.
00:37:39
Speaker
Hello, friends. Man, I'm so thankful you guys listen to our podcast. It's so cool to see that you guys are enjoying what we do here because we sure do have a good time.
Community Engagement and Promotions
00:37:49
Speaker
But if you have not decided yet or haven't found us on Twitter or Facebook, I just want to invite you to do that at the Hired Swords. We do things like giveaways, stuff like that. You could ask Oliver the Kid on Twitter. He won our most recent giveaway. He won some super cool dice and a dice vault and some stuff like that.
00:38:07
Speaker
So we do stuff like that on there plus just chat have fun and and you can talk to the people who Like our show and like other kinds of Dungeons and Dragons and TTRPG Things you also if you want to talk with just those that enjoy our show especially you can follow the pinned tweet on Twitter and
00:38:25
Speaker
And that's going to lead you to our discord server where you can join us for all kinds of different conversations. We talk about tubes. We talk about pets. We talk about sports kind of we talk about different all kinds of role playing game things. So yeah, I recommend you check that out as well. You'll love it. It's pretty interesting. Also, I just want to tell you briefly about the
00:38:47
Speaker
software we use to record our podcast is called Zencaster and Zencaster is really awesome. It's been really useful for us and really helpful. What it does is it records professional quality audio and video right into your browser and allows the host to download those files once you finish recording them so that they can edit them together. It records it all in one place.
00:39:10
Speaker
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00:39:35
Speaker
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00:39:55
Speaker
4,000 years after a calamity known as the Big Oops. Planet Arcana's story unfolds. A world of humans and androids. Neon metropolis is sunken cities. Phenomenal parties. Paranormal oddities in a pantheon of Major Arcana.
00:40:11
Speaker
Featuring revolutionary science, spectacular magic, catastrophic world events, internet personal affairs, madness, hedonism, corruption, identity, mystery, history, reunion, rejuvenation, rebirth, a world of intrigue.
00:40:26
Speaker
and crime. A world where no answer is ever straightforward. What really happened at Risco Tech Casino? He's been stealing Android organs and wine. When will my past catch up with me? Planet Arcana. An audio fiction built through a D&D 5e framework, homebrewed by 2DMs and overflowing with original music, retro-futuristic vibes, and three fools on a simple quest to find a key and open a box.
00:40:56
Speaker
Um, dinner's going to be a little better because we used the wand earlier. So I guess it's a trail mix for dinner. That sounds perfect. Honestly, it's something that actually has a natural flavor. I, uh, I welcome it. How far does the light go with, um, when I produce flame in my hand in this so-called a fog? Half of whatever the spell would say it does.
00:41:26
Speaker
So we're looking at five feet instead of 10. There you go. We'll all huddle up. Yeah, I might be able to add a little bit to that. Let me add. I'll use light on something nearby us and kind of put it in the center next to the fire. OK, that's got 10 feet of light then.
00:41:50
Speaker
I try to find some sticks by my feet just to make a little campfire. I'm trying not to harm the grass, but I'm sorry, plant friends, and I light a fire. Can we find enough wood nearby without having to wander off?
00:42:07
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I mean, there's stuff all over. You're, you're kind of, you're kind of surrounded by trees and that sort of thing. So in low hanging trees. Are they, are they kind of dead ish or are they all just kind of thriving trees?
00:42:24
Speaker
They seem to be pretty normal from what you can tell. Again, you can't see up to the leaves of them very well because the mist or the fog just kind of prevents that. So they seem to be actually the trunks of them bigger than what you had been experiencing a little bit. But yeah, besides that, they just seem like normal trees. Great.
00:42:51
Speaker
I get a little kindling going and try to kick more sticks nearby to it while I have these flames in the palms of my hands and I'll just set up camp. Okay. You start to get, get camp going and start getting things set up.
00:43:11
Speaker
It's very difficult. It takes you twice as long to do anything you're trying to do just because it's hard to see. It's hard to move around. You kind of bump into each other on accident, not realizing each other's going to be there. And, uh, it's very, very frustrating and kind of annoying to try to function in this fog. And, uh, yeah, then you're able to kind of settle down. Are you guys just going to, how's that going to look to settling in for the evening?
00:43:37
Speaker
Uh, I would like to take a little time while I eat my trail mix and take out the, um, that emblem that I have that the buckle sized, uh, thing with the lightning
The Mystery of the Magical Emblem
00:43:48
Speaker
shape on it. I just want to kind of study it and see if I can learn anything from it by spending some time with it. Okay. Cool. Uh, so you're looking, have to look real close at it like a guy who forgot his glasses, but you can look at it real close and make, uh, make either a.
00:44:06
Speaker
Let's see, what would this be? Definitely Arcana or religion check. Either one. Okay. We'll make it Arcana because that's way better. Hey, natural 20 plus four. Nice. Well, the, the symbol on it you remember is you, you talked to Krigs and it's to God of lightning and
00:44:32
Speaker
This is the one that has that kind of dirty, you know, marking on it that you couldn't wipe off. I mean, wiped off, but then it would just be there again. And as you kind of look at it and think about it, you
00:44:50
Speaker
You get this hint, this idea or this thought that maybe, you're not sure, but maybe this has some sort of power of some kind, but it has been tarnished in some way. And it being tarnished is diminishing its power. And you don't know for sure how to remove this tarnish because this physically wiping it off just isn't working.
00:45:17
Speaker
So but your but you get a sense that this is my have some sort of ability or even if not ability on its own it may give someone an ability if it weren't tarnished.
00:45:30
Speaker
I don't think you guys know how to, this seems dirty and I can't un-dirty it. It's got to be some sort of a weird magic thing or a curse or something. I mean, I can't figure out why otherwise the dirt just comes back on. Does anybody have anything that could help? No one to think about it. I mean, I don't know how to clean it, but if it is cursed, I might be able to do something. You don't have a handkerchief?
00:45:59
Speaker
I've tried. I've even tried using magic just like press the digitization. It doesn't work. So I don't know what it is, but I'm jocks or if you think it'll work, if you don't mind. Not not at all. Let me let me see it. Oh, and I'll use remove cursed fourth level. OK.
00:46:27
Speaker
So yeah, is that a regular spell or a? Yeah, so one action touch, verbal, somatic, instantaneous after a touch occurs. And this isn't the way. Oh, come on. This has disappeared. Everything has gone awry. Spells.
00:46:52
Speaker
Remove curse, touch, affecting one creature or object. All curses affecting one creature or object ends if the object is a curse magic item. Its curse remains, but the spell breaks its owner attunement to the object. OK, so yeah, so the.
00:47:13
Speaker
The object itself, the belt buckle sized little emblem, as he casts Remove Curse, it doesn't seem like anything happens right off the bat. Just the spell was cast. Okay. I appreciate you trying, it doesn't look any different to me though.
00:47:36
Speaker
I guess it wasn't kind of a normal curse. I'm unsure. What do you know about this sort of thing? What do I know about this sort of thing? Make an intelligence check. Just straight intelligence check. Uh, 14 plus two. 16. Wipe it off. Okay.
00:48:04
Speaker
Let me see it. And she takes the item and she takes her cape and she starts wiping at it. Her elbow grease. This black soot comes off on your cape and the thing is just shiny sparkly. And you see this, this faint,
00:48:25
Speaker
glow. The thing is gold but there's this faint pulsing glow of a blue and like a faded pastel pink and a faded kind of purple on the three lightning bolts that are on this emblem. They each are a different color and they're all
00:48:41
Speaker
They're all like three bolts, two diagonally down and one straight up and down in the middle with these three colors on them. And they're just kind of got this slight little pulsing glow to them now. Oh, well, is your cape magical and I didn't know? No, it's just cloth. You really don't know how to clean things, do you?
00:49:08
Speaker
I mean, he just kind of presents himself and he's sparkling clean. He's like, I know how to clean. All right. Without magic. Oh, well, my mom used to make me every Sunday to clean the cottage with her and it had to be sweet and spare. No magic. She said. That just sounds like a waste of time. Either way, I appreciate it. Both of you for trying, I suppose. I guess.
00:49:35
Speaker
Any time, we're here together. May I have it back, please? Do I want to give it back? I mean, yeah, if Gwen wants to. I know I've messed with you guys with this kind of stuff before, so I understand your question. But no, there's nothing that would hinder her from wanting to give it back.
00:49:58
Speaker
Okay. Well, what kind of thing is this anyway? I'm not really sure exactly. It's really pretty. Look at all the colors. And she hands it over to show him. I, uh, I'm not, yeah, it does look really nice now. I'm not really sure exactly what it is. I've got an idea. And he goes and he grabs around in his bag and he pulls out an owl feather and he starts searching around and he's like, you guys don't have a, like a pearl, do you? Like if you had a pearl or it's like say a hundred gold, I might be able to do something with it.
00:50:30
Speaker
I have a hundred gold and she just wins. Just pulls it out. Well, I appreciate that, but I need a Pearl worth a hundred gold, not a hundred gold. I haven't, I haven't found, I don't know if we found many unusual gems on this round. I'm checking my spells. I have Emerald gemstones, but I don't believe that's the same thing. Those are not piles.
00:50:58
Speaker
Of all the necklaces I have, I couldn't have a pearl necklace. I have a blessing to Fedspar. All right. Well, maybe later on I can try and figure out exactly what it is. For now, I think we need some rest. All right. So if you guys are going to rest, how's that going to look? Uh, Jox, are you keeping watch again? Yeah. Um, I, I still don't feel tired. You guys, I'll wake someone up whenever, whenever I, I feel,
00:51:28
Speaker
Like I need some rest. I won't mind if I was that person. I haven't been able to keep watch for a while. Yeah, absolutely. Once I feel like I need to lay down, I'll let you know.
00:51:45
Speaker
Gwendolyn will probably face towards Droxer where she's laying at just because she doesn't feel comfortable going to sleep. She's gonna act like she's asleep but she's going to be watching him. Okay. Droxer, I'll pull out spell slots and kind of do that same stuff because I know I can't see anything within
00:52:10
Speaker
Arrange so I'm just trying to get like a little bit of blind sight and I'm just kind of meditating while Okay, and he gets uh, he gets 30 feet blind sight. Yeah, 30. Okay. All right somebody Actually, I'll roll no, no, no jocks are just roll a d20 straight for me.
Joxer's Distracting Watch
00:52:30
Speaker
Okay All right
00:52:36
Speaker
All right. That's a 10. Okay. So as you just kind of sit and you concentrate and you begin to meditate, you hear howling in the distance, like the howling of wolves, and they sound fairly close. And unfortunately it's hard because they sound in front of you, but then they also sound like they're behind you in
00:53:06
Speaker
Gwen, you are hearing this too, but it's got this, these howls have this echo to them. It's like the howl is bouncing around in this mist. And it makes it very difficult to direct where these howls are coming from. And it's very confusing and disorienting for you, Joxer. It's actually, make a concentration check. So just, yeah.
00:53:36
Speaker
Roll a d20, I guess. And add your constitution. We'll do that. Oh, that's actually really good. So that is going to be an 18. Okay, so you're able to kind of push away the sound of this howling and continue your meditating and thinking and just trying to stay focused. Gwendolyn, though, you are hearing this and it's very disorienting. I would like you to make a wisdom saving throw.
00:54:06
Speaker
Oh. Yeah, girl. Why? Or things for reasons. Nine plus four, 13. Okay, so you continue to lay down and try to rest, and you hear the howling, and I will say this, Gwendolyn
00:54:25
Speaker
is repulsed. Usually- What? You hear wolves or a creature like that, and your first thought is, I wonder what they've got going on this afternoon. Let's go have a chat, right? That's what Gwen's going to say. But when you hear the sound of these, it is a mind-numbingly disorienting sound. It is empty and a hollow
00:54:52
Speaker
just despair that comes over you as you hear them. There's no escape. They want one thing. It is only blood. It is only death. And you feel that as you hear the howling around you and it makes it tough to sleep. And in fact, uh, your first thought goes to Dale and protecting him.
00:55:21
Speaker
Gwendolyn just sits up and goes straight to her bag and just rummages through her bag. She probably gets up so abruptly it might scare Joxer. I think with that 18 he's able to stay focused still. Okay, that's good. And then, um, Dale, Dale. And, oh. Um, I pull Dale closer to me. Um.
00:55:44
Speaker
I don't think Gwendolyn's going to sleep tonight. Um, so I see exhaustion in her future. Okay. So Gwendolyn continues to hear this howling. It goes on for several hours. Krigs and Daven, you sleep through it, I assume. And, uh, um, with this,
00:56:05
Speaker
Go ahead with Gwendolyn moving since she sat close to me, regardless of what she will do. I'm still not tired, Gwen. I will make sure that nothing enters this area. Are you sure? I don't mind. I just... And she's like shaking.
00:56:32
Speaker
don't mind watching I can I can stay up if you want I just you're you're welcome to watch with me I'm just you can you can lean lean up against me if it makes you feel better um Gwendolyn sits up and
00:56:50
Speaker
She's, she's not, you can tell that she's, she's nervous or anxious, but it's not for herself. And she kind of just, you see her squeezing the ever loving life out of Dale. Um, but she just kind of noses up next to you and just sits there and she's kind of heavily breathing.
00:57:13
Speaker
Yeah, and you can see that like my my eyes have been closed, but i'm just kind of like holding uh holding spell slots kind of in like um Meditative like pose with you know two hands in front of me and he's just kind of sitting there kind of alert um and and I kind of know More of where you're like leaning against me just because I can feel kind of like this kind of
00:57:38
Speaker
I don't know, kind of black and white vision is, is kind of what I imagine of what I can see through, through, through spell slots. Okay. Uh, so Gwen, as you sit there.
00:57:54
Speaker
jocks are just trying to pay attention to what's going on around him. When you sit there and the darkness is just, it's overwhelming. It's claustrophobic to not be able to see anything around you. And the sounds are all around and so difficult to kind of keep, uh, keep your mind just
00:58:19
Speaker
off of this fear and this sound of this howling, I need you to make a charisma saving throw. Uh-oh. Oh, the roll's tonight. I was gonna say, can I assist by talking about breathing techniques of sorts? Oh, I pressed it. I rolled a seven, so seven minus two, which is five. I tried. Roll a D100, please. Mmm. Mmm.
00:58:52
Speaker
49. Okay. So Gwendolyn, you, this is having a profound impact on you and you begin to shut down a little bit in your mind.
00:59:11
Speaker
You begin to kind of push away the fear and
Gwen's Battle with Fear
00:59:15
Speaker
this, this being afraid that something's going to happen to Dale. It's just so overwhelming that the only way you feel like you can survive right now is to bury that as much as you can. And so you bury that and you push it down. And this, this overwhelming sense of apathy comes over you.
00:59:42
Speaker
And you finally start to settle down a little bit and you don't feel so afraid because you barely care anymore what happens around you. You just, however it goes is how it goes. It is what it is. And that's where we're going to leave the episode. Oh my gosh.
01:00:14
Speaker
you
01:00:22
Speaker
All right, speed round, let's do this. Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of The Hired Swords. If you liked our show, tell a friend about us. And if you really liked our show, do us a favor, tell the world. Leave a review. If you want to keep up with us on 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 loot, check out our merch shop at thehired.store. And if you want to join up on our Discord,
01:00:50
Speaker
and chat with the cast, just find our pinned tweet on Twitter. Again, thank you for listening.