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Ep.10 Tinkering and Drinkering
182 Plays4 years ago
A day spent around town, forging contingencies and making new "Friends." Krigs, Davon, Joxxer and Gwen form something of a pact bond to see this adventure through. Don't forget Dale though! Looking for information and investigation leads our gang to the bottom of a stein. Or two. Or three..
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Transcript
Episode Introduction
00:00:20
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, a Dungeons and Dragons Podcat. Wait. You record these?
Morning in Wild Hill
00:00:39
Speaker
Well, another night in Wild Hill ended with surprise drinking and everyone went to sleep around the fire there woke up and in the morning
00:00:55
Speaker
it is a cloudy but dry day and the townsfolk are they seem to be a little more into working this morning getting things done um the
00:01:12
Speaker
the camp that you're at there is being kind of put back together. Some more tables and stuff being brought out. It seems like they're expecting more adventurers to return today. And the Krigs finishes his work a little bit before everyone awakens.
Krigs' Morning Actions
00:01:28
Speaker
So, Krigs, we'll start with you. What do you want to do as everyone, as you kind of see the sun starting to, the sky starting to change to a pinkish purple as the sun's beginning to rise? What would you like to do?
00:01:41
Speaker
The shop owner that's there, are they back at the shop? They live in this place? I never really took that into consideration. They live there. Where, are they awake? At this point, it doesn't seem she is, no. Okay. She's not moving about. All right, I'm going to not disturb her, but I'm going to see myself out, but I'm going to leave a little,
00:02:10
Speaker
ball on the counter with a note that has a dwarven inscription that just says home if you were to read it in dwarven this this little ball that i've fashioned is it's got a two holes in it it's not too large but it's if you were to hold it up
00:02:35
Speaker
towards the light and hold it to your eye and peer through, you can see the inside of Stone Mountain, my home. It's a cast of my home. Just a little ball that I'm gifting for the use and then leaving coins stacked for the time that I've been there.
00:03:00
Speaker
And that will be... That's 20 gold, it's cost you. Yeah. I'll leave a stack of 20 gold. Actually 18 now, because you already gave her two. Right. I'll have the stack of 18 gold and this little, this little ornamental ball, um, with the note inscribed home right there. And I'll head back to camp.
Camp Atmosphere
00:03:20
Speaker
Okay. You approach camp as the sun's coming up.
00:03:23
Speaker
Really the only ones up at this point are a couple of, you see a couple of farmers, workers that are heading out towards the farm and they've got their various farming tools and equipment that they're carrying, that direction, shovels and rakes and things.
00:03:43
Speaker
And that's about it. It's pretty clear. It's actually a beautiful morning. It's very, it's cloudy a little bit, but it's very calm and it's cool and nice. And it's a nice walk down the town, not as much hubbub going on. And you make your way back to camp and you get there before people start to really be stirring around the campfire. There seem to have been
00:04:10
Speaker
They seem to be out and you can see the remnants of what they spent the evening doing. You see the various bottles laying here and there and corks out and some spilled over here, spilled over there. You see Dale with his
00:04:26
Speaker
His little head put inside one of the drink, like one of the nozzles of the bottlenecks of the drinks there, like somebody was pretending like he was drinking and everyone's just kind of... I thought we were doing like a Spongebob recreation and he was playing the party, what's her face? Maybe, maybe he was the squirrel, yeah. So they're all just, it seems like it was a silly night. All right, I'm just going to shake my head and have a bit of a laugh.
00:04:55
Speaker
Uh, and then I'm going to walk over to Davin and kinda stir him a little, uh,
Preparing for the Day
00:05:03
Speaker
with my foot. I'm assuming he's not on the ground, but just kinda nudge him. Like, uh, we have, we have, we have business to attend. And as everyone starts to wake up, I need you to make a constitution saving throw for me, Krigs. 18. Okay. You do not suffer exhaustion from staying up all night. 21 is plus three con.
00:05:25
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. You don't suffer exhaustion from staying up all night. So you, you, you made it through the night. So congratulations, turns over and he wrote the sizes. Are you up all night? Yeah, it's, it's been quite the evening. Uh, but I don't know if, thank you. Thank you. I don't know if this is eventful as you all have had, but, uh, see if you can wake the others. We have, we have some business to attend first thing.
00:05:52
Speaker
Okay. I'll do it. So he kind of gets up and he kind of stretches out a little bit and then he goes over and he picks up Dale and he just holds it right up to Joxer's face. He kind of gives him a nudge. Um, Joxer from being in a monastery, he was mostly awake anyway, or at least I'd assume. Okay. Okay.
00:06:16
Speaker
and just doesn't even open his eyes, just tries to do the fake chitter back. They're communicating. I'm just watching this. I'm surrounded by idiots.
00:06:36
Speaker
And then I'm just like, all right, fine. It's like, he said it's time to get up. We've got some conversations to have. And then I'll go over and I'll wake up in a lot more of a calm kind way. Dale. I've got him. He's right here. She grabs him. You need to go to the bathroom. I tried to help him out. Thank you. Carried him to a bush for you. He has a hard time walking. I do appreciate.
00:07:05
Speaker
And, uh, she is hungover. So she is just having those sleepy eyes. Devin probably nursed that one drink all night long. He wasn't really looking to have the same party. So, uh, he had fun with everybody, but he didn't get drunk. Okay. Okay. Designated waker, uh, with everyone.
00:07:24
Speaker
kind of up now and whatnot. I've gathered, while they were waking up, I kind of just recollected myself and made sure I was put together. It was quite the night. I'm going to kind of huddle them and just walk, just kind of ask them, you know, follow me. We have some business to attend. I'd rather do it out of earshot of anyone that might be present here.
Group Huddle
00:07:51
Speaker
Gwendolyn's probably gonna look around when she goes to the huddle. She wants to make sure Marias is still at the camp before she huddles. She doesn't want to wake him or anything. She just makes sure he there. He is still passed out and Edie is laying the opposite direction as him with her head on his chest and her legs sticking out, you know, the other direction. So yeah, they're both crashed right there.
00:08:15
Speaker
Hey, hey, Craig's, I didn't save much, but there's about a half, half, half of what I've made yesterday. You missed out, it's a good batch. And I just kinda toss a tiny little bottle to him. I'm just gonna put the bottle like, kind of at the top of my satchel area. Just hold on to it. Thanks, Jox. I'm definitely going to need it after the night I've had it. Yeah, you smell like it.
00:08:45
Speaker
It's my favorite smell. That's it. It's always too much for me in the morning. Right. I don't think it's any surprise that things are unique with a unique impasse of circumstances here. Um, I know you, none of you really have much of a reason to trust me at this point, but I need you to do so now.
00:09:13
Speaker
I cannot leave Wild Hill for the time being. Jock, so you told me this was the best place to get your aquatic a fruit and the nearest village that would be viable would likely be out of season before we ever reached it. I have to stay here for now. And we have established things are very wrong here, but I don't, I don't think any of us really know why or how yet, but we have liabilities.
00:09:44
Speaker
Marius, the chief. I needed a contingency plan. That's what I've been doing all evening. These coins, I don't know what's special about them yet. I know that it's some kind of membership or club, but something tells me that I don't want to lose access for now.
Distribution of Coins
00:10:06
Speaker
I've made you all a copy of your coin and I hand out the coins themselves to each of the individuals.
00:10:15
Speaker
And these coins are, I mean, pretty good replicas. It would be very tough to tell them apart. So they're very well done. Could I make some kind of a check between the two coins to see if there's any magic between one versus another? Sure. You can make an arcana check on them if you'd like. Yeah, that'll work. Let me go over here. That is not my best. That is a 15.
00:10:45
Speaker
They both have runes etched into them. Obviously, it's the same etchings on both of them. You don't get really a sense of the runes being different on either one of them, one or the other, just from looking at them. You don't feel any difference. Looks like you had as successful of a night that I did, Kriegs.
00:11:14
Speaker
They're not perfect, but I think they will do in a pinch. I'll accept it. When I have a little bit of extra gold, and I'm going to take another tinier version of the coin, but it's not going to have the runes. It's just going to have kind of etched into it, two little crossed swords. And I'm going to take a.
00:11:37
Speaker
take a little piece of the bandage that is, it's not a bandage, it's a strip of cloth, but that's on my wrist that I cover my hand with. And I'm going to tear a small piece and run it through the little ringlet that I've set on this coin. And I'm going to ask Gwen, please, would you present Sir Dale?
00:12:06
Speaker
I'd love to and she she sets a dale on the table and she takes a little ringlet a necklace type thing and just wraps around Dale's neck and she goes I I welcome you to to to the party and she's smiling I know hungover but she is super smiling I don't think you know it's helped with that fight I don't think he deserves a coin I
00:12:34
Speaker
He might be more valuable than you. Quinn turns around with a shocked face. Devin's just smiling. I definitely remember him lighting the way to us bringing back some lost souls. You're quite right, I'm sorry. He helps out. I put my hand across my chest and I'd give a little nodding bow and I said, sir, Dave.
00:13:06
Speaker
Sir Dale of Wild Hill. Now that I've, I think that's my business for the morning, but, uh, Devin, you mentioned a couple of things that last night that it's kind of been running through my head as I've been working on my contingencies. Uh, what, what, what's happened?
00:13:26
Speaker
Well, first of all, I was a little worried about Marius and I thought maybe if we couldn't keep him under control and he went back to the tower of testing, he could really start something dangerous. So I decided to intercept, so to speak. So I went to the tower myself and I changed my look a little bit to look like the chief, just in case if he came up, I could be in that conversation instead of the real chief.
00:13:50
Speaker
Unfortunately for me, as I was sitting there waiting for you all, Saraya came up to me. We had a bit of a conversation, me trying my best to imitate his voice. And what I found is it seems like the chief
Devin's Encounter at the Tower
00:14:03
Speaker
is working on some sort of a project. I don't really know what it is. I tried to pry a little bit, but I think she started coming on to me. Not coming on to me. She wasn't like attracted to the chief, I don't think. I mean, I think she started to see through my disguise.
00:14:17
Speaker
I did my best I could to get out of there and I think I did fine but after we had come back and we had given those antlers to the chief I was pretty convinced and I'm a pretty insightful guy but I was pretty convinced that he had nothing to do with this that he was just here simply for the fact of he wanted these prizes on his ball but now now I'm not so sure
00:14:41
Speaker
I was wary giving him those emperors. So when I tried to touch them, I tried to dispel them. I don't know if it worked. Let's hope for our sake it did.
00:15:00
Speaker
I think, and you might think this led to crazy, I think our best option right now is to take another contract. Whatever's going on is happening between the chief, the members of this town, and whatever out there, and he points out to the forest. He says, and the only way we can be a part of all of this
00:15:16
Speaker
is if we play whatever's going on around here, play their game, take a contract, go out to the forest, find if there's something going on out there and learn the information from ourselves. We don't have to kill it. We can fail on purpose, but we have to find out more information. I'm just going to put my hand on Devon's shoulder and just say, I really like the way you think. Should we tell Marius and Eden
00:15:45
Speaker
Jackson will kind of like, um, I do have, where, where do you think the, the, the chief could have gone for, for anything. This isn't a very large area. Well, I don't think he really needs to go anywhere. He's got people to bring everything he needs to him. Well, but you walked up and they thought he had already left. So it couldn't have been at the tower of testing.
00:16:13
Speaker
Well, they said he was working on a project. It's possible it could have been in someplace up in there that we don't know about. Well, that's my question. We're here. It's fairly small. We've been through about 60, 70% of it. Is there any other place we haven't seen? And I don't disagree. If we want to learn more, we
00:16:39
Speaker
We'll have to follow along with the other ranks, but is there anything or any place he could have gone that we haven't seen, is all I'm asking. Well, we can inspect the town a little bit more. I know those noblemen's barracks up there, where the fancy men stay, maybe there's something about that. But right now, I don't think we can get to the chief. I don't think we're going to get any information from him. But Saraya, she might be one of our ways in.
00:17:08
Speaker
I had a conversation with her. It seemed to go pretty well. Well, not this one. The first one went on her way back. Maybe we can get some more information from her. I wonder if we could see, maybe sneak around and see where the chieftain might actually go. That's not a bad plan.
00:17:30
Speaker
Do you still have anything of scent on you? Maybe I could try to track him. Well, when I change into somebody else, it's just the appearance, the outside appearance. I unfortunately can't change things like my scent or my voice.
00:17:53
Speaker
Well, I think I'll, I'll agree with Davin right now that we should take on another job, but if we can find any scrap or, or, uh, maybe stay up a little later to see if, uh, we can see where the chieftain might head off. Maybe we could ask questions where, where he lives other than the tower of testing. Maybe he just has a home in here. I don't. We can try and find that out.
00:18:20
Speaker
do a little bit of spying, get a little bit closer to these people. I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunity for reconnaissance amidst our jobs. It seems the jobs go fairly hand in hand with the chief and his requests. If
00:18:38
Speaker
If we are dealing with him directly or specifically, we might be able to glean information as to what his projects are or how he's conducting his business in, in the actions of the contracts themselves. I think that is our best plan of action. We might need to seek guidance from maybe Mariah Siniti, let them know our plans and figure out whether or not.
00:19:05
Speaker
they would have any information that could actually lead us in the best course of action. I think that also is probably the best way of getting Marais to calm down. If we can convince him that we are on the case, that we're trying to help to find out exactly what happened to his brother and why what happened to his brother happened. Maybe it'll help us out by calming down a little bit.
Decision to Stay in Wild Hill
00:19:29
Speaker
I hope so.
00:19:32
Speaker
Agreed, and as Greg said, I didn't plan on leaving here for at least some time. Those fruits are something we, or at least I specifically, need. Well, I wasn't planning on going very far either. I was actually trying to find a place to settle down for a little bit. Gwen, I believe you had some other places to go, but do you mind sticking around for a little while?
00:19:59
Speaker
Of course. My own plans will take a while. So I'll stay here. Gwendolyn, could I look at that half map again? Yes, and she pulls it out and she turns to the page where it just shows like a half map.
00:20:28
Speaker
And when Wild Hill's on it, but she can't make it, make out where she needs to go. Okay. So, so, uh, Jox was going to study it a little bit and then, uh, and then kind of close it and hand it back to her. Um, maybe, maybe later I'd like to try to make a copy and see if I could try to.
00:20:52
Speaker
Align it with some of the other features around. Right now it seems very unclear based on the notations on it. That would be wonderful. It will definitely take some time if I can do anything. I'm patient.
00:21:16
Speaker
It might lead me in a direction of my own benefit, so we may have some things aligned. We all seem to be in agreement. I think we should get with our friends and find our next steps. I'm going to go towards back to camp and see if Mariahs and Edie are still there. Dogs are a follow. Yep.
00:21:42
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah, you guys make your way back to camp and after your little powwow and planning meeting, staff meeting, and as you get to camp, they are still laying there. Mariahs and Edie both just crashed out and Edie's kind of tossing and turning a little bit like she might be about to wake up, but Mariahs is still out like a log man. He's done.
00:22:09
Speaker
Nice. I'm going to. Nice. Nice. I'm going to make some some kind of jostling sounds, not anything crazy, just kind of like whatever I can do to potentially see if Edie will wake up without suddenly getting up in the morning and doing like my wife does every morning. She has to go somewhere and I don't. Yeah, definitely, definitely not eating you up.
00:22:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. She, she does, she starts to roll, kind of roll over. She sits up and she just does that, like sit straight up. Legs cross, crisscross applesauce as they tell my kids and looks at you and rubs their eyes. Oh, my head. Seems you had yourself a good night.
00:23:04
Speaker
Well, it was, uh, it was, uh, I don't know if it was needed or it was just best solution in a time like this. It's probably not a good solution, but it's what it is. You're right. Sometimes those are the, the best. Suppose, uh, she elbows Mariah's, he rolls over and she says he may be like that for a bit. Yeah.
00:23:34
Speaker
Uh, I was curious, at first I wanted to say thank you for your efforts and... Oh, I guess wrangling your friend there, for lack of better words.
00:23:45
Speaker
Well, from what I've heard of the Chief, he's not one to be quarreled with. I think he could make quick work of my good friend here. He's good in a fight, but the Chief has stories about him. I wouldn't want to go toe to toe. What do you know about him? Well, they say he lost his eye to a giant.
00:24:09
Speaker
and, uh, took the giant's head. I, uh, never heard of anyone taking a giant one-on-one before. That's, uh, I don't know. Maybe they're just stories, but he looks, looks to me like he's serious business. So I, I was just trying to protect my friend's life more than anything, but you're welcome nonetheless. You've never seen, you've never seen him travel outside the tower of testing, have you?
00:24:37
Speaker
The chief, well, he's wandered around town a little, not too far though. He typically stays in there and I don't know what he does. I mean, we've only been here a few days longer than you have, but we did kind of watch him for a while, for a couple of those days and we didn't know we needed to be that interested at that point.
Devin as the Chief
00:24:58
Speaker
So we moved on. Does he have anybody else close to him, any wife or kids, maybe friends that he keeps close?
00:25:06
Speaker
Well, the story around the camp that first couple of days was that he has three wives in there with him. Um, they all serve their, their own purposes and a part of his own little interesting little family that he has in there. Did you not see the two that, that always hang, hang, like spend time with him down in the throne area? There were two on his shoulders. Yes. Yeah. They they're never very far from him.
00:25:35
Speaker
The other is always doing something, working, serving other things. That's what I hear. I don't know much more. I just know he has a few wives and they all stick with him for their own reasons, I guess. We? I don't know if I would call it devised. We've definitely ascertained that there's
00:25:58
Speaker
unique occurrences happening in this town. Your mission, I sincerely apologize for the outcome, but it didn't seem to be fair. Not fair in the sense that you couldn't handle it, but you were almost set up for defeat. Yeah, well, yes, I mean, the more I think of it,
00:26:28
Speaker
We never saw an albare. Not once. That's what we were out there to get. How far were you from where you're supposed to be going? They told us that it was about a day's travel into the woods and we traveled a slight million more than a day and figured we'd be happening upon them at any time. Instead, there was these holes in the ground and then you saw what caused them. It came up from under there. Do any of the three of you have connections with anyone in this town outside of this group?
00:26:59
Speaker
No, no, we, the three of us, we just came into town looking for work. The noblemen in Glintery got tired of paying people for protection when there was nothing to be protected from. So we had to come somewhere else to make money with our swords. How did you hear of Wild Hill?
00:27:23
Speaker
Oh, there's stories in the taverns of Wild Hill and the, the only place a soldier can go and test himself. Besides the, we, there's also rumors of an arena being built, but, uh, that's on some Island off of the coast here. I don't know. In your time here in Wild Hill, you were given your mission with Bip and Mariah's.
00:27:51
Speaker
Were there any talks about next steps after you came back with a successful mission? Just the commissioning, that's all. We would become hired swords and then get more jobs. That's what we were here to do. Is there anything to eat? Does anyone have any food? I'm starving.
00:28:10
Speaker
Gwen pulls out some berries and nuts, like just in her fist out of a bag and is like, here. She holds her hand out and you put him in her hand and she's like, okay, that's start, I guess, starts eating him. So I'm gonna guess that the gathering for the hunt is like very specific on timing. Are you asking,
00:28:37
Speaker
Yeah, well, I'm asking you, sorry. Michael? Okay.
00:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, the idea is that everyone that comes for that day that you came to that main announcement, the first hunt of the season in the spring. And then from there on, it's like it's hunting season and people do their, you know, they don't accept new hunters except that one first day kind of thing. Okay, so at this point, we would have to fend for ourselves or find a place to go eat or find food one way or another.
00:29:09
Speaker
It seems like you don't see the same kind of attention to serving everyone. It's a town block party anymore. It's more like, hey, welcome to Wild Hill. Now it's just a town. It's just a town for the next several months, it seems like. Well, Jackson will kind of respond. We can definitely make our way to try to find some food, whether
00:29:38
Speaker
At this point, we're welcome at the longhouse, but at this point, we might have to find a different route to find food since we can't get it directly from the farms. We're feeding us out here the first few days, but I guess they don't do that once you're in, right?
00:30:03
Speaker
I don't know what they do to us that haven't made it in if we're, if losing our companion is enough to get us one of those coins or what. I think we can probably get some food from the long house for you. There's some people over there we might want to talk to anyway. Okay. Well, if we can get Mariah up, he could probably use some food too. Well, I'll leave that to you and Devin will just start walking off toward the long house.
00:30:26
Speaker
Edie stands up and full-on kicks Marius in the ribs. And he stands up. He starts to stand up, he gets up on one knee and then he just... And he just vomits over the edge of the log. He's like... When is disgusted?
00:30:52
Speaker
Joxer walks over and just kind of like lightly taps his head. Good, soldier. My stomach is empty. Where can I fill it? As far as we know, it'd be the long house, but you definitely caused a ruckus over there. So I'm not sure your face is going to be very welcome, even with friends.
00:31:18
Speaker
Well, welcome and no, I'm hungry. Let's go. Hey, that rhymed. At that point, I'm going to. So Jackson is going to look at Craig's and and then kind of pull him off to the side a little bit. And I I I doubt it's it's even feasible. But would it would it be worth just handing them these forged coins?
00:31:49
Speaker
We can certainly try. I don't know how much the master of town here is going to be able to recognize who he's given coins to and who not. That's true. Either that or we need to just put them off to the side while we grab stuff and then bring it back. What do you think? Start with that. We'll see how things play out. All right. Should we have them stay here?
00:32:21
Speaker
They could come along for now. I'm not too concerned about a second scene. Okay. All right. Uh, let's, uh, let's. Okay. Thank you. Let's, uh, let's head with the group.
00:32:33
Speaker
Davin's already like 60 feet ahead of everybody. Okay, so Davin's sprinting to the longhouse. He's the first guy in the Denny's ready to open the door for everybody. Love it. So you guys all make your way that way and Edie and Mariahs follow you.
00:32:56
Speaker
They're pretty silent
Breakfast at the Longhouse
00:32:58
Speaker
as they walk. Marias is kind of leaning on Edie a little bit as he walks that direction. He still doesn't feel a hundred percent and she's just half chuckling at him and half annoyed by how much he let himself go.
00:33:11
Speaker
yesterday and you get up to the longhouse and you can smell before you even approach. You can smell that there is food that is being cooked and you assume served and so are you just going to walk on in? Devin, is that old man still there by any chance?
00:33:34
Speaker
Yeah, there's an old, old man sitting out in the front of the, of the long house still. Since he kind of was the first one there and waiting for everyone else, I'll stop and I'll talk to him. I'll say, Hey, old timer. Oh, how are you doing today? Oh, good morning. Uh, well, I'm about to get started. How about you? All about the same. How long you been in town for? Yeah. Well, let's see. Let me see. Five, six. My whole, about my whole, my whole adult life.
00:34:04
Speaker
Oh, you've probably seen some things around here then, huh? You're telling me. Mostly I see what you can see from right here in front of this here longhouse. But yeah, they take good care of you in there. My girls are good at that. Don't you worry. All right. Well, if you hear of any good stories or something, I always love a good story.
00:34:23
Speaker
No good stories. You should have seen yesterday, this guy was out front of here and he was yelling inside his longhouse and he's hollering and talking about people knowing things and I don't know things and I'm on answers. Some big old cat jumped out of nowhere and just landed on his shoulders, couldn't push him over and he starts going into this story about this confrontation last night.
00:34:48
Speaker
Devin's just awkwardly drawing circles with his foot on the ground. I think I did hear something about that. It's never a dull moment in Wild Hill, I'll tell you right now. When they start pouring the drinks in there, we bring one out here to me, maybe. I'll make sure to bring you a nice one. Yes. You're a nice fellow. It's a story for a drink there. I like it. I like it. That's good. What was your name, by the way? Oh, my name. Hang on a second.
00:35:19
Speaker
as he opens up his book and notes. I love this voice. I've literally been sitting here panicking that you're going to ask for a name and I didn't have those notes pulled up. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Name's Emmett. Emmett, I'm David. It's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Well, what brings you to? What brings you here in the Wild Hill? Oh, the hunts, just like everyone else.
00:35:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's typical. You guys have to swing your swords and your axes and shoot your bows and cast your spells. What, you never did the hunt yourself? Oh, no, no, no. I'm not a hunter. Not me, not me. I'm just a proprietor of this here fine establishment. Oh, this is your place then? In a way, really. Well, I guess it belongs to the town, but I'll make sure things are tip top shape here. You know what I mean? You're doing a good job.
00:36:16
Speaker
Thank you. I'm already started this morning, as you can see. Hard at work. I'm going to get around and just see if my friends are there yet because he's kind of getting old with this conversation. Yeah, they're there. They're coming up behind you. Oh, thank God. Well, I'm going to bring you that drink now. I'll see you when I come back out. Don't forget that drink. Don't forget it.
00:36:47
Speaker
Devin, I see you're ahead of the group. Not anymore. Any news? Are we good to go in? Well, apparently there was an interesting story about some crazy guy out here in a big cut. But I think that we're probably OK. Oh, hearing that, Joxxer kind of like falls back and kind of helps cover up a little bit of between
00:37:16
Speaker
Edie and Mariahs to try to at least kind of make him a little less sensible. Devin now realizes that they came along. He's like, Oh, we have more friends. Great. Okay. Yeah. Um, as you walk forward, walk up and you can, the, the doors or, or the,
00:37:37
Speaker
The hide doors are pulled back and kept open and you can just smell the smell of freshly roasted meat and stuff coming from inside that building. Is there anything besides meat here?
00:37:51
Speaker
If you go in and look, you will see that there's a small selection of different kinds of vegetables and things like that. Some grains and stuff too. There are just a couple common women working. No other hunters or anybody like that are in here right now.
00:38:12
Speaker
The first one's up, I suppose. Well, we can get some breakfast, but I was hoping we could find somebody else to talk to maybe about the contracts and how they work or where else you could possibly get them. But looks like it's just breakfast. Uh, Devin, let's, uh, let's start with breakfast. And then, uh, I, I feel if we want any information about contracts, it's going to be the same tower we started at. I think you're right.
00:38:39
Speaker
as you walk in and you see it, it's kind of buffet style, right? Serve yourself. And the food that's there is, you know, some roasted pork and things and bacon type food and sausages. There's some fish and there are some root vegetables, like I said, and
00:39:00
Speaker
things like that just kind of spread about those long tables. And then the tables that are all put together, there's a row of tables put together stretching from near the door all the way to the back wall and then benches along those tables. And so you can eat. As you look through the tables, one of the commoner, there's the townsfolk women, she says to you,
00:39:24
Speaker
Just, uh, have a seat and, uh, the chief takes care of this meal. So please, uh, please have a, have grabbed what you'd like and have a seat. We'll, we'll bring you something to drink when your cup's empty. I'm going to ask, it's such a, such a lovely day out. Would you have too much a problem if I maybe sat outside for a little while?
00:39:43
Speaker
Of course, take it where you'd like. Some take it back to their rooms and whatever. It doesn't matter. I'm going to walk up to the buffet and just load up a plate full of meat and other things. And, uh, I'm going to just kind of walk outside where I know Marias and Edie are. Okay. So yeah, there's just kind of standing out there and just kind of talking to each other. Marias rubbing his head and see you coming. And he just kind of, ah.
00:40:13
Speaker
He's the guy in the yellow suit behind the tree, rubbing his hands, licking his lips. That meme. He's that guy. I'm just going to walk out, have a couple bites, make sure the old man isn't watching too closely and just be like, just take this with you. Head back to camp. We'll see you there shortly. The old man seems to be watching the door waiting for his drink to come out.
00:40:38
Speaker
After Craig brings that back, Joxer will follow in since he's been kind of trying to keep a little block between anybody seeing Mariahs and just his eyes light up at all the things in front of him as he just kind of stumbles and starts loading him. Yeah, I'm going to walk back in after giving him that food and I'm going to fake a burp. Oh, gosh.
00:41:08
Speaker
Okay, make a performance check. Can't believe I'm still hungry. Make a performance check. Oh, Lord, I got a seven plus. Hold on, what's my modifier? It's unacceptable. Oh, I got nine. Okay. You come in and burp in a fake burp and
00:41:31
Speaker
The common one that one of the towns women looks over to you and says, nice try. She wasn't impressed. I'm just gonna be like, well, better to.
00:41:47
Speaker
I'm not, no. You're not going to lower the standard of quality in this podcast with the weird uncle joke. Uncle Ed says, I'm going to walk back up to the bar and make myself a second plate.
00:42:15
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, you guys are able to make your plates and eat and about the time you finish eating, some hunters do start coming in there and they just kind of walk up to the walk up to the food table and fill their plates and go sit kind of far away from where you guys are sitting, not far away, like intentionally, but they don't crowd you or whatever. They just sit down and start eating and just kind of talking amongst themselves. And it's only,
00:42:43
Speaker
you know, only about three or four, only about three people come in here.
Drinking Contest with Mel
00:42:49
Speaker
And one of them you do notice is that that wizard, Daven, you saw him hanging out with Sariah. It's that mage looking guy with the half of his face is blue, nasty teeth, and he's sitting there and he's just eating. He's just ripping this fish apart with his bare hands and eating it.
00:43:09
Speaker
I think what do you guys think? Should we strike up a conversation? See if we can learn anything from these fellows. How many are there? Three? Hey, hey you.
00:43:28
Speaker
One way of doing it. One of them is this big guy with a big old broad sword on his back. And he looks over, when you say, hey you, he looks and he says, are you talking to us? Yeah, you look strong. Well, you don't. How about we take those drinks to words?
00:43:55
Speaker
You wanna drink with me today? I'll drink you every day. I like you. Sit down, he says. It points to the bench across the table from him. His friend scoots over. So I'm gonna go, and then Joxer walks over. Hello, friend. Hello. What's your name? My name's Joxer. What's your name?
00:44:22
Speaker
My name's, my name is Mel. It's nice to meet you. Daven uses minor illusion to make it look like he's holding a big thing and popcorn. Gwendolyn walks in because she wanted to watch Mariahs go back to the camp. So she walks in to jocks are sitting at this table and like she looks at Daven and she just melts. What is happening? Okay. I just wrote this guy, Mel, he calls out, he yells out to your law.
00:44:52
Speaker
Keep them coming. And the woman behind the place where the drinks are being served, she puts her hands into the handles of six mugs and brings them all over and sets them down in front of you. And he puts his hands over the mugs before you can get to them. And he says, this isn't the sweet stuff, is it, Yarla? And she says, no, it's not, it's not, it's the ale, and turns and walks back over. Johnson literally lights up, thank you.
00:45:19
Speaker
We'll see about that. And he grabs the handle and he says go. And he starts drinking. So chocks are all just grab a handle and start drinking with whatever whatever he has in front of him. Okay. All right, so. So Mel chugs the first one and sets it down and looks at you in the eyes and waits for you to finish yours. Make a just make a straight d20 roll and add your
00:45:46
Speaker
How can we do that? Add your constitution. D20 roll constitution. That is a 16. So it's a, he rolls an 18. So he just chugs it faster than you sets the cup down. And then you set yours down just a couple seconds after he grabs the other one. He says, keep going. Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to take the next one.
00:46:07
Speaker
Okay, make another check. That would be a 16 again. Okay, he rolled a 19. So he he just he rolled 17 plus two so he just hits it down and this time his is he finishes this one and just like three gulps and you finish yours.
00:46:29
Speaker
Without feeling it too bad, but it's pretty rough. He grabs the third one and he says, got at least one more in you. All day. All right, and he starts chugging too.
00:46:41
Speaker
That is a 20, not natural. He rolled a 19, so 17 plus two. So again, so he hits the table with the cup right after you do. And he kind of cocks his head to the side a little bit. And he goes, Yala, more. And she's already almost there. She's been watching. She sets down six more cups. He grabs it. Here we go.
00:47:09
Speaker
Alright, so now Gavin looks over to what he's like, what time is it anyway? It's like 7am. You're about to be done for the whole day. So he's chugging now. Here's what's going to happen mechanically. Here's what's going to happen.
00:47:28
Speaker
You're both three in now. With everyone you drink, your difficulty is going to go up to keep from just basically losing it and vomiting out whatever you were drinking. Here we go. Previously, you were just seeing who was doing it the fastest. Now that you're three drinks in, you're going to be starting from 12, going incrementally up until you don't beat whatever it is. One of you doesn't beat it.
00:47:56
Speaker
So here we go. Another drink, you grab your drinks and you just start chugging. So let's see, here we go. Beaten a 12.
00:48:04
Speaker
I'm at 13. He's at 12. So you both drink. Wow. And his, it starts to like, it starts to like squirt out of the size of his mouth a little bit while he's drinking it. And he's like, he could tell it's kind of coming back up a little bit. He swallows it down and sets it down. He looks at, he looks or he grabs the other, the second cup and one of his eyes kind of half closes and he looks at you and he's like,
00:48:36
Speaker
Here we go. And he just puts it to his lips and starts. Are you going to do the next one? Absolutely. We're making another check, buddy. Oh, that's a 20. Whoa. So you chugging your... And this one somehow tastes a little better than the other dish. You're able to down it easy. And he goes...
00:49:04
Speaker
And he just spits it all out on the table. He rolled a 10. And he had to get a 14. So he spits it all out on the table, and he slams his hand on the table, and he looks at Yala, and he says, what did you bring me? And then he turns around and just turns and runs outside. Devin stands. Yep. Very nicely done. Very nicely done.
00:49:33
Speaker
Joxer looks over at the bald gentleman that was sitting next to him, right? Yeah. Yeah, the mage. You. You look like you have things that you know.
00:49:51
Speaker
Sorry, that's me laughing. You know words in the main numbers. Maybe letters even. Gwendolyn is concerned, so she just runs over there and puts an arm on Joxer. I see you made a friend. Um. Hot, hello.
00:50:19
Speaker
So this guy just goes, he goes, I know a few things, yes. What brings you here? And his smile's real big and you can still see bits of fish and the gaps in his teeth. And this dude's disgusting looking and he's grins real big and he's like, what do you want? What do you want to know? You look,
00:50:48
Speaker
You look like you're good friends of the chieftain. I don't know him real well, but my... the boss does. The boss? Is that just... Who's the boss? Oh, I serve in Saria's party. She's the boss. She keeps good care of us.
Arena Plans by War Veterans
00:51:14
Speaker
Do you know of an arena?
00:51:19
Speaker
I've heard of it. Supposedly some veterans putting some arena in the hills over on the old port island somewhere. Veterans? Yeah, one of the old veterans from the war. And he grabs a fish and takes another bite of it.
00:51:45
Speaker
Is that all you wanted to know about what some old warriors doing? Oh, I mean, do they ever come here? Is that, is that just, they're just, they're just doing it without anybody around here. They're just doing it by themselves. The, the arena? Yeah. They're building it on the island. I don't know why I assume folks will go there and fight. I don't know. I just heard they're doing it. I don't know anything about it.
00:52:16
Speaker
Do you know of any things that are happening here that seem unusual? Well, I just saw a little man beat Mel in a drinking contest. That was unusual. If you had my drinks, you know it weren't that unusual. Really? Well, I don't drink myself, but...
00:52:39
Speaker
I had to give that up. Jocks are just like his eyes just turn into giant balls. Like what? You had to give it up. Yeah, it's I don't have the Constitution for it. Jocks are at this point kind of looks back at the group and almost hits Gwendolyn because she's still standing there and says, if any of you want to join this table, it's free. And I'm kind of shouting.
00:53:09
Speaker
Uh, I wake up from falling asleep in my plate of food. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Gwendolyn is just like, they're, they're jocks. I'll go get them. She's like, help.
00:53:30
Speaker
Gavin stands up and he walks over toward the table where jocks are in the this other guy is. And he looks like he's going to pull out here and sit down, but instead he just grabs the two drinks that they didn't finish and he just turns around and walks out the door. OK. Oh, man. I just I just lay my head back down and my eggs. I go and get some veggies.
00:53:50
Speaker
Yeah, you find some carrots and mostly root stuff, you know, stuff that'll grow in the shallow dirt. And, uh, yeah. Uh, Jaxu will then look over at the other guy since everybody has now abandoned him, essentially. Um, hello.
00:54:11
Speaker
hang on a second that's it you're talking to you're talking to the other uh the third man yeah okay wow all right he's talking to anybody who wants to do better you just talk to the whole room yeah
00:54:30
Speaker
You talk to one person till they walk away and you don't stop talking. You just start talking to the next person. And in that in the action, he's going to grab at a drink that just got taken. You know, like he's like, wait, there was there was this fifth and sixth drink here and kind of like raise his hand. Yeah, what? Yeah. Yeah. OK. Devon comes back in just like 30 seconds later. He just dropped off one drink. He's got another one that he's sipping on and he goes and he sits down next to drugs.
00:55:00
Speaker
Okay, and it doesn't take too long and and Yarlow's back with another another couple brews sitting there and The guy you say hi he looks up from his food and he goes Hi You seem Confident well confident Good
00:55:27
Speaker
Were these three guys in the group with Sariah whenever they were walking back and I had stopped to talk to them? Yes, these are all three of those guys. So I still recognize them. Yeah, they don't recognize you, but you recognize them.
00:55:38
Speaker
Okay. I say, um, I said, well, it looks like you guys are taking your time before starting your next hunt. Where do you go to get your next contract? This is our first time. The, the mage speaks up when you say that. And he says, well, the contracts, wait, how did he sound? Sorry. He's like, well, the, the contracts kind of come to us. You see, we don't, we don't go find them. What do you mean they come to you? He's like, I don't have time to sit here and wait for money.
00:56:08
Speaker
Oh, Sariah will let us know when somebody talked to her. She's out probably standing out there waiting on somebody to come up now, either at the inn or the tower. Folks will come from all over and just ask what job you should be doing. Well, my job, you can probably tell, is the leader of this group. So am I supposed to be doing the same thing? Wait, how do we join one of your groups? His face and his palm, and he just kind of goes down.
00:56:36
Speaker
uh he goes the guy goes you know um you just get asked to join well that is a terrible method yeah it's worked so far we all trust each other okay back to you
00:57:00
Speaker
Back to you, Dave. Gavin lifts his head back up and says, as you can see that we're not very good at any of this kind of stuff. Maybe you could try and give us some more suggestions on what we should be doing around town while we wait. Well, if you're gonna be your own group, then you need to probably either
00:57:21
Speaker
Go talk to Tomba, find out what he thinks the chief is wanting folks to do, see if he's got any assignments from
Finding New Contracts
00:57:29
Speaker
the chief. He'll be out in front of the tower before too long today. Otherwise, you can go find out what's posted at the lamppost inn.
00:57:37
Speaker
somebody in the nobleman's barracks, they're looking for somebody, they'll either be walking around asking or they'll be in the inn itself, eating or waiting for somebody, some adventurer type to come in. And if you've got your coin, you can just go show them that and they'll talk to you usually. What about, and he kind of looks around, he leans in close, he says, what about the chief's project? Do you think he needs any more help with that? I'd imagine that pays well. His project, I don't know what you're talking about, his project. I mean,
00:58:06
Speaker
He has several jobs probably put together that wild hill needs done and he gets them done. He gets us to get those done for him, but we're probably looking at one of the richer nobles in town. That's where we, what we do. We split the higher, higher gold that way. Does, does the chief didn't have a home here or does he live in the tower of testing?
00:58:29
Speaker
Oh, that place is real nice up at the top, man. He's got a really nice place up there. Like north of Lancaster? In the tower, the top of the tower. Oh, okay, yeah. It's like a whole, he's got a whole thing going in there. Jarlow, can we get some food, more food for my friend over here? What does he want? What do you want?
00:58:51
Speaker
something that soaks up liquid. Okay. Jiaxu just looks over at Daveney's like, he just winks. And so she eventually brings out some, like a porridge kind of thing.
00:59:11
Speaker
wet grain and like ever had cream of wheat? Yeah. Yeah. Basically that. Back in the day. Yeah, man. Exactly. Seventeen sugar packets. Seventeen jocks here, then like he he he like tries to eat a little bit of it and he's like, Oh, man. And then he looks over and he gets up. He he and then he starts to just leave. OK.
00:59:36
Speaker
Gwendolyn just now shows up with her play to see. Okay. Wait, wait, where's everybody? What? What? What? What? Where is he going? I think we're taking it to go. You just styrofoam box mountain just wakes up. I hope I'm good. It's time to go.
01:00:05
Speaker
Gentlemen, enjoy your breakfast. Can I get it to go, Vox? You put a burlap sack in front of you? I just start shoveling it in. OK. As you guys walk out, you see Mel leaning one hand up against one of the buildings next to the longhouse. And he's holding his stomach. He's not vomiting anymore, but he's just trying to gather himself.
Mel's Recovery
01:00:31
Speaker
Joxer just walks up, taps him on the shoulder. Good game, friend.
01:00:35
Speaker
Hmm. Nice. And, uh, Davin's going to use Prestidigitation to make that smell of, um, of the beard waft wrapped back up into his nose. Oh God. Really are the worst. So he, hang on, hang on, hang on. Oh God. Oh yeah. So he, you do that and he, okay, okay. Okay. Oh no. Oh no. And there he goes again. Right. When he does that Gwendolyn just stepped out and she's like, Oh,
01:01:05
Speaker
I'm just gonna drop my sack of food and start walking away. We all have to make Constitution rules to not throw. You all avert your gaze and try to walk where you guys headed.
01:01:28
Speaker
I'm going first camp. Yeah, just headed back to camp, I guess, till we get some kind of job or Daven seemed to have something in mind. Jocks are like, after hearing that, he just wanted to stand outside the tower of testing and like, look at the tower of testing to take a better understanding of the tower itself.
Inspecting the Tower
01:01:52
Speaker
now that he knows there's like there's like a living quarter somewhere in there that's real nice apparently. Daven will go with him because Daven seen the inside a little bit better than I think at this point and not much of it but also he just want to wait for see if he can get a tome bud to come out.
01:02:23
Speaker
Thank you for listening to The Hired Swords.
Episode Conclusion
01:02:26
Speaker
Be sure to find us on Twitter and Facebook at The Hired Swords to keep up with us and updates about the show. If you enjoy our show, be sure to tell a friend about us. And if you really enjoyed our show, tell the world. Leave a review. We would greatly appreciate it. Again, we appreciate you and your time. From all of us at The Hired Swords, we'll see you in Wild Hills.