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Ep.7 Cooler Heads Must Prevail
186 Plays4 years ago
Surrounded by burrowed holes in the forests of Wildhill, Krigs and Gwendolyn devise a plan to try and rescue Vip. Are our heroes too late? Why were Marias, Edi and Vip sent out into the wilds to almost certain doom? What can be done?
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Transcript
Mysterious Communication Attempt
00:00:02
Speaker
Previously on the hired swords.
Introduction to the Adventure
00:00:18
Speaker
Daven is going to pull out like a little piece of copper and he's going to kind of hold it up to his mouth. He's going to speak to it almost like it's like a little mini telephone. And he says to it, he's like, Vip, Vip, this is Daven. We met at the camp. If you can hear me, please, you can reply to this message, reply back and let me know that you're okay and where you are. You wait and you wait and you don't get any response.
Examining the Mysterious Holes
00:01:03
Speaker
You are listening to the Hired Swords, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast recommended by 11 out of 10 adventurers.
00:01:24
Speaker
What time of day is it? It is. Is it nighttime? It's not quite nighttime yet. It's late afternoon, probably a couple hours till dusk. I imagine it can't be the same hold that this one came out of. I couldn't imagine they share the same tunnels, at least not for burrowing out.
00:01:53
Speaker
I'm just gonna walk over to a hole and peek over the edge straight down through it. Okay, you peek down and these holes are about six foot in diameter.
Clues of a Struggle Uncovered
00:02:05
Speaker
And do you do you have dark vision? I do. Okay, as you stand and look and your eyes slowly adjust, you can see that it goes down a ways, probably a good
00:02:20
Speaker
15 to 20 feet and then starts to level off like it burrows underground parallel with the surface. Wouldn't want to fall down there. Krigs, do you see any ooze or green
00:02:45
Speaker
green or the same kind of blood liquid in any of the holes you're looking at. I kneel down for a closer look, slightly teetering towards the edge. Are you looking at, which one are you looking at? There's, there's one kind of south, uh, south west of the far southwest. So you take a knee and you look there, make an investigation check. Okay.
00:03:13
Speaker
15 plus investigation is zero 15. Okay, yeah, you do see here that there are there are bits of dried blood, red blood for like human look humanoid type blood in the grass here at the foot of this
00:03:43
Speaker
at the edge of this hole, there is also bits of that exoskeleton, like it had been cut off or broken off, and some of that green blood is on it.
Gwyn's Badger Transformation Exploration
00:03:53
Speaker
So this is something here, something happened here between a creature and some sort of human, and it's on that south side of that hole. It definitely appears there may be at least
00:04:07
Speaker
some indication that this would be the direction they may have taken Vip. If you look, there's blood, carapace, red, not just the monsters. This might be where they went. Well, how far down the hole can we see? I mean, can we crawl down there? I can try, and I feel like Gwyn would turn into a badger. Okay. Cool. Because they have darkvision.
00:04:34
Speaker
Gwen turns into a badger and suddenly she just kind of gets shorter, shorter and furry and furry and then falls on both hands and you see this badger. I'm going to pull a rope out of my pack and be like, you might want to bite onto this before you go down. See if you can find your way out. A rope, yeah. How do badgers sound? Make it up.
00:05:11
Speaker
And Mariah and Edie join you guys over there and they see you turn into a badger and Edie just goes, oh useful. Get down there, see if you can find him. She's pretty concerned. To Craig's to have him tied around me.
00:05:30
Speaker
around my waist. I tie it around kind of gingerly harness style, like around right below the upper arms. Okay. Yeah. You ever seen anyone walk a cat with a harness on? Yeah. Yeah. Like that doesn't look like it belongs, but I get it. Like that's what you got going on here with this badger. Yeah. Is it such a steep roll that I'm going to have to like lower her down at this point?
00:05:57
Speaker
The first probably 20 feet, yes. And then it levels off to like surface. So it's like the thing comes straight up out of the ground when they ambush, but they do level off down beneath. I look down at the badger. I look down at the badger and I just say, do you trust me? Rip it. All right. I'm just going to start to lower the badger down. Okay.
00:06:23
Speaker
Badger lowers go ahead. Oh, yeah, I just I just see like the flailing of you know floating four legs just I Start doing the puppy motion over water. I yeah. Yeah.
Discovery of Vip's Tragic Fate
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah Absolutely So the and it's that slow kind of in a beat As I'm lowering as I'm lowering the badger I kind of just down the hole I kind of say
00:06:52
Speaker
Don't worry, Devin, Devin will take care of Dale while you're down there. Devin, who is in the process of casting major arm around himself, just kind of looks up to him like, what? Huh? What are you?
00:07:10
Speaker
What are you committing me to? But I do cast Mage Armor. Okay. Mage Armor on you. Bumps me up to a 15 AC. Dude, you're solid now. Nothing can hit that. You're solid. Like a freaking tank. Now who's the tank? All right. So you lower her down and it only takes 30, 40 seconds and you get where she's got purchase on the ground. And your rope's what, 50 feet long?
00:07:40
Speaker
Uh, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So she's able to go about 25 more feet into the hole before you're at the end, at the end of your rope, so to speak, and literally, and she, as you walk down there, make a perception, no investigation check as the badger. You can make a perception, either one, whichever you prefer.
00:08:04
Speaker
I think investigation is probably not good for a badger because it's intelligence. Yeah, that would be kind of awkward. Investigation or what was the other one? Perception. Perception. Numbers are fun. I have an advantage on perception. Do it. Yes. Oh, that is not a D20. That was like D12.
00:08:30
Speaker
I have oh hopefully these are okay numbers. I have a 13 and a 7. Okay so you're 13 you're you get down you only like I said you're only like 20 feet deep and then about 25 feet towards the
00:08:46
Speaker
towards the deeper into the hole as it leveled out. And you see that it does burrow pretty much parallel with the surface. It doesn't go down deep, deep, deep, deep. And as you look around, you see to your left about 20, 30 feet ahead of you, you can see some sort of humanoid figure laying in the dirt over there.
00:09:14
Speaker
I just start making yips. I shout, I shout down the hole. I don't got much more rope. I guess tug on the rope if you see him once for yes, twice for no. And she starts like going towards the humanoid like
00:09:32
Speaker
Okay. So you feel that tug on your rope and it just keeps tugging and tugging and tugging. Uh, Devin's got another 50 feet worth of rope, so he's going to pull it out and he's going to start tying it to the end of a Craig scars rope so that you can add an additional 50 feet to it.
00:09:45
Speaker
Okay. So as he ties that together and Craig starts to let the extra rope go down, you, you are kind of pushing against it. Like the old SNL sketch with Mike Myers tied to the, to the playground equipment. You guys ever see that where he's got the, he, the chocolate bar and he running kind of stuck. Well, finally you get unstuck as they release more rope and you just keep, you move a little suddenly you almost stumble over yourself and you make it, you can, you can continue scurrying forward 50 more feet.
00:10:15
Speaker
Yay. I scurry. I go. She scurries. So you're going to scurry up to that figure? Yeah. As I'm going, like, does it smell like Vip? Like, does he smell like Marius, Marius, Mario? As you get closer, make another perception check as you move up closer. It is a five.
00:10:43
Speaker
Did you do it with it? Oh, 14. 13 and 4, sorry. You recognize the smell, you recognize the smell as smelling like just someone you've smelled before. It kind of smells a little bit like the meat you ate for breakfast, the stuff at the camp, the campfire, smoke. It smells like all that. Anything that's the same as what they
00:11:06
Speaker
They were there at that same camp. So it smells like the environment. It doesn't smell like food. No, it smells like the environment you were in. What were they feeding us at the camp? It smells like the environment you were in when you guys were together. That smell of the smoke from the campfire still on their clothes and the smell of the meat being smoked there and cooked there. And as you look, this creature, this figure is
00:11:32
Speaker
pruney like the Ember Hulk was after it was attacked by those orbs. This figure is, it's like face is just the skin pulled down to the skull, the eye, there's no eyeballs, it's just whole empty gaping holes there, like the skin stretched all the way back.
Funeral Pyre Planning
00:11:54
Speaker
And this has been, every bit of life has been sucked out of this body.
00:12:01
Speaker
Oh. Would Jockster have seen the rope stop moving at all? At this point? Make a perception. Or what's your passive perception? It's going to be, that's a great question. It is 11. Yeah, you noticed. OK, so after seeing that, it'd be like,
00:12:27
Speaker
either something's wrong or she's found something. And then I'm basically going to just try to slide down and then fall down the hole at this point because there's or ask Riggs, you know, hold this portion of the
00:12:44
Speaker
rope tight, I'm going to I'm going to just go down there. Okay, so as you using the rope, it for you, it's pretty easy to just kind of slide down and walk down the edge. You don't you don't have to make any checks or anything with with the rope. So you land two feet down. And you look into the darkness ahead of you. Yeah, so I'm just going to kind of grab the rope and like follow it. Okay.
00:13:10
Speaker
All right, you follow that rope for about 45 feet or so until you end up, your hands kind of glide across the rope and you end up touching the back of a small furry creature at the end of that rope. She's got sad yips. Sad yips. Sad yips, yo.
00:13:35
Speaker
So so I'm gonna say I'm gonna ask her are you? Close like are you like really close to the body at this point? Am I gonna be at this point be able to kind of? Adapt to the dark vision and see you know a couple of feet in front of me. Do you have dark vision? No, but just naturally, you know is it because I don't know how dark it is so I
00:13:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's basically like completely pitch black this far in this hole. So if you look towards the opening, you can see a faint hint of light. But in front of you where you are, you see nothing. OK, then I would pull out the small tinderbox and try to try to light like a small. Fire that I would. Like a small sticker like a torch on me. OK.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, so you light up a torch and you get that 30 feet of light glowing there and there you see that body and it's shriveled up like everything's been sucked out of it. Like somebody stuck a hose in reverse and just drained it of everything inside of it and its mouth's wide open. You see like the teeth, like a skull and it's pretty gruesome and you recognize the armor and everything. This is VIP.
00:15:00
Speaker
If, you know, Jox was just gonna sigh and kind of take a deep breath and kind of nod at the sad yip at this point. What do you see down the hole? Without responding yet, he's gonna try to feel if he can pick up the body at all as gingerly.
00:15:28
Speaker
Devin responds, he says, I imagine they're probably seeing a lot of dirt. So as you go to pick up the body, you don't, you're able to gently just kind of grab the body. And, and you feel like you've got a good enough grasp on it to, to move the body if you'd like.
00:15:56
Speaker
Okay. So that's, Jackson's just kind of, you know, coddle it as best he can and just start working his, his way. Yeah. And it's weird. It's weird. Cause the, the body is, is almost petrified solid. Like it's almost, it's brittle, like a cracker, you know, it's, it's not, it's not like the arm wouldn't flop down. Like you would want you, you feel like, man, I got to hold every little piece of this up. Or if I let it, if I let gravity take over at all, it's just going to fall into dust. That's kind of how it feels.
00:16:29
Speaker
Can you put them in your hole? Says the badger. It was getting too sad.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, just, um, it might've crossed, but it's still a 10 foot drop. So we'll, we'll, we'll, uh, so, so basically, uh, at that point, um, you know, we're, we're going to make our, or I'm going to make my way, uh, back to the entrance and, uh, um, it's not, it's not good news. Yep. Yeah.
00:17:12
Speaker
Mariah says, what do you mean? Not good news. Did you find something? What did you find? Um, so I'm still holding the torch at the bottom and holding this, this body gingerly as best I can. Um, um, if, uh, you want to look down the hole, I don't have words to describe. Yeah. Edie and Mariah's both just jumped down the hole and, um, and they, uh,
00:17:43
Speaker
uh, Mariah takes a little tumble. He hits the ground and kind of rolls forward and tumbles forward, but he does the, does the athletic combat tuck and roll stands back up and, and, uh, Edie waves at you to hand down that torch or are you down there or did you climb all the way out?
00:18:03
Speaker
I'm still down there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. She's like, she waves at you to hand her the torch and she looks down to see and they take a knee down there. She's holding the torch right up next to his face and looks down at him and she looks at Mariahs and she's like, how can he? Yesterday.
00:18:25
Speaker
how and she just she doesn't have words Mariah's just stand silently shaking his head and he starts to he starts to to cry a little bit and he's trying to hold it together you know but he you know he this is his brother so he's he's losing it and Edie finally stands up and looks at him and is just like this isn't what this was supposed to be it's not why we were supposed to be here
00:18:52
Speaker
And she turns and starts to storm out and throws the torch on the ground and turns and starts to walk back towards the entrance to the hole here. And Marias just keeps standing there shaking his head. I don't have any proper words to explain how sorry I am. I can assist on getting him back to
00:19:22
Speaker
town if you want, or we can try to find a spot for him out here. I think a fire would probably do just fine once we get him to the surface, Mariah says. He didn't want to be put in the earth. I imagine
00:19:46
Speaker
That being how he passed, I'm sure it would be even worse now to think of him being in the earth after he was taken down there and killed like that. I think we should use a fire and let his spirit rise with the smoke to the sky.
Honoring Vip and Rising Tensions
00:20:03
Speaker
Okay. I can pull out a bed sheet and wrap him.
00:20:14
Speaker
Yeah. As you pull out a bed sheet, he kind of nods and he pulls into his pack and pulls out part of his bed roll as well. And he says, thank you, thank you. I'm not thinking. And he kind of works, looks like he's going to try to work with you to kind of get the, get something under him and on top of him so you guys can kind of carry his body gingerly and safely.
00:20:39
Speaker
And so we'll say for the sake of time and all that, we'll say you guys are able to move his body towards the entrance to the hole. And with the two of you holding as you use the rope to help yourselves climb up, it's not that far. You're both pretty athletic and strong. You're able to make yourselves up pretty easily, even holding on to him. Gwendolyn, you just follow them out or what are you doing as they go? I just have my head hung and I just follow.
00:21:08
Speaker
Okay. Are you still a badger? Yeah. I feel bad about my joke now. I just- Sad badger. It was getting so sad. I pull her out of the hole and she's just kind of like dejected all arms. She's just dangling and kind of spinning. And it's like a half, like a slow turn spin as the road comes up. I give a small pat on the head and I'm like, it's going to be okay, little one.
00:21:37
Speaker
She just does a sad swim now. Yeah. I untie the rope. Edie, as the body comes out, Edie's just sitting on the ground in front of it and she's not crying anymore. She's got a look of disgust and just anger on her face. Marias has kind of got himself put back together, but he's
00:22:04
Speaker
He's kind of looks determined as well, like she does. And they look at you all and they say and Edie says, I don't know about you, but this town's not what I expected it to be. It's definitely not.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yep, yep, nip, nip. Edie and Mariahs are working, they're going to head off and they're heading into the woods a little bit, trying to find branches and sticks and things. They're wanting to make a fire right here and just do a funeral kind of thing right here out in the woods. So they've gone to start looking for firewood and on the way, they're just murmuring to each other.
00:22:50
Speaker
And everyone make perception checks as they are murmuring, walking out in the woods, see if you can hear what they're talking about. Devin got a 15. Okay. I got a 16. I got a 10. That's a nine for jocks or even though the dice looks like it's a 20. That's really interesting. That is weird.
00:23:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's kinda dumb. But yeah, so...
00:23:22
Speaker
Uh, the 15 to 16, which was Devin and Craig's correct. You guys hear, you can hear as they're talking, they're talking about someone and one of them, Mariah says, she told us this would happen. She said it would happen. And Edie goes, you don't believe that stuff. You have to stop it. And they just pretty much get out of the way at that, get too far away to hear him at that point.
00:23:49
Speaker
Uh, Devin kind of looks over at Krigs and says, did you hear what I just heard? I definitely did. I don't know who they're referring to though. Uh, there was no one really back at town that was any kind of power that was female. It was all males. I'm not sure. Yeah. I can't think of any females.
00:24:08
Speaker
I'm going to go take a look at the body. Um, and I just wanted to take a once over and just see if there's anything strange about the way that he had died or if there's anything left on his person that might be, um, of interest to the situation. I'm not trying to like loot him or anything. I understand. You can make a, uh, medicine check as I follow behind and I loot him. I'm just kidding. Yeah. Just a nine on the medicine check.
00:24:35
Speaker
A nine, okay. He definitely was munched to death. You could tell like he has broken bones in his chest and his abdomen's pretty crushed. He doesn't, it's hard to know though beyond that if there's anything weird or nefarious going on because there is so little
00:24:57
Speaker
That's human looking, or elf, I guess, looking of him anymore. He's so pruney and just dried up. It's getting on to dusk at this point, getting late. And you guys are looking over his body. Have we got enough firewood yet? Do we believe I might need to help with that?
00:25:28
Speaker
Not sure how much we're going to need. Is there a tree around? There's trees all over, man. There's trees everywhere. Just smack a tree again. So I'm going to go up to the nearest tree and I'm going to smack it with my war hammer. Okay. Go smack a tree with your war hammer. Make an attack roll. That's a 16. Okay. You hit the tree very hard and it rattles.
00:25:57
Speaker
And let's see. Oh no. Are you kidding me? Okay. So on this random roll, um, a, uh, a snake falls out of the top of this tree and lands on you. I make it extra dirty. Oh my God. I hate life.
00:26:24
Speaker
Someday he's going to learn to leave the trees here. That's a natural 20. Sweater god. I'm not going to question it. So the snake falls down and all the way down you hear it hissing and you step back and it bounces off the ground in front of you and rears up like it's about to strike. But you move your foot back just in time. It strikes its head out and misses you and just scurries off into the woods.
00:26:53
Speaker
It's just this little regular snake. Nice. Yeah. Did I get any wood for my attempt? Yes, you did. Three about dime-sized pieces of bark. Fell off of this side of the tree. It's a hammer, not an axe. What do you think's going to happen? I don't know. I chopped down a tree with a hammer. It took me three weeks. I know.
00:27:23
Speaker
I put the hammer back, sheath it back and then grabbed the bark and I said, oh, it's something, I guess. Yeah. Have the other two returned with any wood yet? Or are they still gone? They're still gone.
00:27:38
Speaker
Um, so, so probably only been 15, 20 minutes. Okay. So, uh, jocksers kind of, kind of go up to, um, Craig's and, and not, he is including whoever's around at that point. Um, I'm, I'm going to go, uh, take a look at my, my brew and, um, and see, uh, just excuse me for a bit. And then I'll keep watch.
00:28:07
Speaker
And then he's gonna lay out his little blanket behind a rock and kinda lay down and do a roll. Okay, go for it. I'm gonna roll for whistling and twiddling thumbs as if nothing is happening. That's an eight. You successfully twiddle your thumbs.
00:28:30
Speaker
You successfully, you actually struggle. Your thumbs keep hitting each other. You're supposed to not make contact. Yeah, but I do whistle. I at least whistle. The whistling happens. Yeah. The whistling is not too bad.
00:28:44
Speaker
Devin's just kind of wandering around a little bit away from this area that we're at. See if we can find a place that we can camp for the night because it's starting to get dark. Something away from all of these burrowed holes. Yeah, make a survival check. Sure. And along the way, if he finds any decent sticks or anything for a fire, he'll pick those up as well. Ooh, four on survival.
00:29:03
Speaker
Okay, you find a everything you die. Goodbye. That snake that you know, it comes it's back new. As you walk around it's every the forest gets pretty thick except for in this area like this is just kind of a place where it thins out here and it's an obvious
00:29:24
Speaker
Obviously, as you're walking, you're finding more of these holes. This seems to be ambushing or hunting grounds for these creatures. If you get the feeling to camp, you're going to need to go a little distance away from this area because you're in a hot zone for these creatures. Yeah. Once he starts seeing those other holes, he's not going to wander off too far because he doesn't want to get out of range of all of his friends. I saw that back. Okay.
00:29:54
Speaker
Hey guys, it's me, Krigs. Just a quick intermission here. I wanted to pop in real quick and say thank you again to all of you for checking out our show. If you haven't already, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at the Hired Swords on both of those. We try to keep active on there to engage with the community.
00:30:13
Speaker
I personally wanted to say thank you all so much to those of you who have shared the show with your friends and continue to do so. If you haven't yet, we would absolutely love it if you did. Word of mouth has been so helpful for us so far to spread the word about what we're doing here on the show, I guess. Well, alright, that's enough out of me. I'll let you get back listening to, well,
00:30:40
Speaker
more of me. Again, thank you so much. Krigs out. Great. Jock, sir, what was your result there, buddy?
00:30:56
Speaker
Fairly well. I came out with two brews that are actually decent bonuses. They're kind of like health potions at this point. So basically, he climbs out of his little hole and holds these two small little kegs and folds up his portable thing and looks over at Krigs and just has a small smirk.
00:31:25
Speaker
Perfect. Awesome. I'm going to ask Joxer just kind of candidly. Any luck on your special brew? We've got a winner, Krigs. For a somber occasion, I'm sure he'd hope everybody could find some happiness. I look forward to at least this.
00:31:57
Speaker
Devin comes back now and he says, well, I don't think we're going to find a good place to camp around here. I think we're going to have to wander out or through the forest a little bit. There's these holes are everywhere. I don't feel safe around this area. I was, I was thinking the same thing. We probably should take it a little bit down the, take his body a little bit further, further down. I, I'm, I definitely don't want to, uh, entice any more of those things to appear.
00:32:26
Speaker
Will it survive the journey? As long as we keep it wrapped, it should.
00:32:34
Speaker
About this time, Edie and Marias, you hear them bickering again, coming back, and, what good will it do to go back? That's insane. You've lost your mind. No, I think it's a good idea. They're just back and forth, and then they get close and see that you guys are standing there talking, and they look up at you all, and, where should we start the fire, Marias says?
00:33:03
Speaker
Marias, should we take it a little bit further out of, you know, towards town? Or, I mean, if we want to watch the burn, or are we just going to burn, or are we just going to burn and walk away? Well, I would like to pay my respects, and then we can go. I would just want to make sure that there's nothing left but ashes. Do you understand?
00:33:25
Speaker
Correct. I feel like it'd be a bit safer to take it away from at least these holes or this vicinity. Yes, I agree. Let's walk a little ways. We don't want to carry this wood too far, but we can go a little ways, find the path at least. Daven will take some of the... He can't carry a whole lot, but he's going to take some of the sticks with him and try and help carry some of the stuff.
00:33:54
Speaker
I'm going to grab as many sticks as I can and
Vip's Pyre and Vows of Vengeance
00:33:58
Speaker
I'm going to carry. Quindling comes from around a tree not in badger form anymore and she sees that Mariah and Edie are back and she goes up to Mariah and is like, do you want to hold Dale? Would that make you feel better? He makes people feel better.
00:34:21
Speaker
He looks at you and his eyes kind of get, he kind of furrows his brow like he's, he's like, what in the world? And Edie elbows him and he's like, yes, yes, thank you. That would be fine. Thank you.
00:34:36
Speaker
I give him Dale and I just grab the side of his arm and start to walk towards where we're going to burn the body. He just reaches out and holds Dale with one hand and his hand stays exactly how he grabbed it. He just freezes in that position walking with Dale, awkwardly not knowing what to do with a stuffed chipmunk that has now been handed to him.
00:35:08
Speaker
Is he coddling it or is he holding it with like two fingers like just like I mean he's got his whole hand kind of wrapped around it but he doesn't know he's definitely not coddling it yeah it's like straight out elbow bent slightly like just walking with it like okay this is supposed to make me feel better okay it's seeing seeing the awkwardness jocks from like
00:35:33
Speaker
Hey, Tevin, you still got that light spell ready? The light spell? Oh, you weren't the one who lit
00:35:52
Speaker
Well, I can set things on fire if that's what you're asking for. Don't you dare. I think considering the situation, maybe we should just leave it alone for now. I suppose.
00:36:16
Speaker
Just shrugs on carrying a bundle of wood twice as fast. So who's helping me with the body? I can carry it, but to be ginger, I imagine maybe Edie would grab the other end of the two blankets. Yeah, she'll grab it. If you're grabbing it and it looks like you need somebody to
00:36:42
Speaker
hold the other side, she'll definitely grab that other side of it. So yes, the halfling. So this thing's at a very definite angle. Yeah. Big strong halfling, but yeah, it's low. Yeah. It's really one of those things like as ginger it is, I really doubt he, at least I doubt it's very heavy, but I don't want to like just grapple it, you know. Right.
00:37:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's way lighter than it should be for sure. And she's carrying a part of it with you as well. And you guys are walking together. You walk probably 20, 30 minutes and it's now full nighttime. And as you make your way, you end up back towards where the trail is, kind of the roadway. And there is a section off
00:37:33
Speaker
off the road a little bit where there is an old circle of stones and some logs sitting about looking like this was where there was a small camp. A temporary one night camp stay over where some of the hunters sometimes stay before they enter the forest proper. You're still a good most of a day's journey from town, but this is that resting point at the end of that journey from town.
00:38:01
Speaker
They head over towards Edie, or well, Mariahs heads over towards that camp area and Edie seems to be heading that way too as she carries the half of the weight of Vip's body. As we're sitting there, it's quiet, no one's really talking. Daven just out of nowhere goes, ah, the light, I know what you're talking about. No, that wasn't me.
00:38:27
Speaker
Josh just kind of puts his head down and says, I realized that now. I'll help him start setting up camp and setting up for, do we want to burn the body here and come here? Or do we want to try and do it a little ways away from us? I imagine it's not going to be pleasant. Edie points across the road and she's like, we could
00:38:55
Speaker
There's a small opening there. Let's build a bed of wood there for burning the body, and we can just camp across the road from there, pay our respects, and then settle in for the night. So she and Mariahs head that direction. Mariahs takes the section, he kind of tucks a bunch of the wood up under his arm and takes the other section of Vip's body away from you and starts walking that direction with ED, and they kind of slowly walk across the road.
00:39:25
Speaker
set the body down and start piling that wood to make like a little pedestal of a burnable altar almost or pedestal. Joxer is going to kind of try to get some of the torches that he has. Two of them make like a tiny little cross out of it and then kind of post it into the ground. Okay.
00:39:55
Speaker
and etch vip into with his sword. Okay. Cool. And so you've got a little marker now there, like a highway marker to remember someone and they
00:40:10
Speaker
As you guys are getting camp set and they're getting that set, it takes them, you know, a little while, close to an hour to get all that kind of set up and ready. And they come across the back across the road, leaving all that over there, including the body. And they say, we're going to, we're going to try and start the fire now. Um, if any of you would like to join us, you're welcome, but don't feel obligated.
00:40:36
Speaker
Devin says, uh, I can help with the fire. That's no issue. And he'll start walking across. Thank you. Jackson doesn't really say much. He, he just, uh, follows. He'll head over.
00:40:50
Speaker
Okay, Mariah is back over there pretty quickly and the body is sitting now up on this. They've kind of crossed the largest sections of wood to where they kind of lean up on each other and everything's kind of leaning on each other well enough that it's standing almost like a triangle, like an A-frame fire, but it's long.
00:41:13
Speaker
Vip's body is now no longer wrapped and is gently set in the crossings where that lumber crosses. It's set down inside of there. And there's little smaller bits, including that little bit of bark, Krigs, that you got is sprinkled kind of within there. And that is where, when you guys get across the road there, Edie points down to that and looks at Davin and is like, would you do the honors?
00:41:41
Speaker
Jockster kind of interrupts slightly. Do I see any gold over his eyes or anything? No, he is laying there. It's just his body. Okay. He would walk up and put two coins over his eyes. Okay. You place two coins over his eyes and
00:42:06
Speaker
When you do, Marias takes a couple steps and Edie grabs his arm like he was gonna walk over to you or towards the body and Edie grabs his arm and shakes her head and he just lowers his head and they both look at Daven at this point. He'll cast Firebolt in that spot and trying to gently throw out a little Firebolt so it lights the fire.
Prophecy Debate and Credibility
00:42:33
Speaker
So you cast Firebolt and there's a pretty large kind of flam, but it hits down in there and catches immediately, kind of puffs a puff of smoke out of the backside of this kind of makeshift platform and the flames start to spread quickly.
00:42:52
Speaker
And as the flames spread, the wood pops and crackles as it dries and then starts to catch fire, those larger pieces of wood. And the wood climbs up the sides of this. And as it does, Marius calls out and he just kind of cries out and he says,
00:43:19
Speaker
He says, he just yells out, you will be avenged! And, and Edie.
00:43:27
Speaker
Edie lifts her spear up and lowers her head and he lifts his sword up and lowers his head and they just stand there in that position and the body about that time catches flame and it's like the fuse of a firework. It just immediately, as soon as it gets lit.
00:43:50
Speaker
it's just often burning and it's ashes in a matter of a few minutes. It's now basically just all the wood and that's left to burn. They lower their arms with their weapons and grab their shoulders and move their arms like they held them there a long time. It was tough, but they turn and just slowly start walking back towards camp.
00:44:18
Speaker
I kind of stay in there still at the body, just, just watching while they, while they're walking back. Okay. Devin gives him a pat on the back and then walks around with the rest of them. Okay. Gwen is holding Dale and just staring at the fire.
00:44:37
Speaker
Okay, and the fire is still going pretty good as slowly it starts to rain, and rain starts to just kind of drip, drop here, drop there, and then just a nice steady, not a torrential downpour, but just a steady rain starts to pour.
00:44:58
Speaker
here, and the fire is burning hot enough now that that wood is going to get burned up before this amount of rain puts anything out. You can hear the sizzle of the raindrops hitting in the fire, but it doesn't seem that it's going to be extinguished in any way. Edie and Marias are sitting
00:45:26
Speaker
on one of the logs by the, around the, the stone circle where the, the campfire, that just the small campfire is, and they, they're just kind of talking amongst each other.
00:45:43
Speaker
Devin will pull out some of his rations and start just eating them and he'll look over to Edie and Marias and he'll be like, I don't mean to interrupt or to get into your business or anything, but I overheard you talking about somebody, some woman who said that this would happen. What does that mean?
00:46:04
Speaker
They look at each other and Edie shakes her head and Marias goes, it was the widow in Wild Hill.
00:46:15
Speaker
Um, she, she read the cards for us and they weren't good for VIP. We didn't believe in it. We were having fun. We'd had too much to drink that night. We would just, she came in and shut down the festivities and we had heard someone say she was a soothsayer. So we asked her about it. She read our cards and Edie still says it's nonsense, but they predicted this.
00:46:46
Speaker
The Widow in Wild Hill. Who is the Widow in Wild Hill? Oh, they call her Widow Tolliver. I don't know. She seems just like some crazy gypsy lady, but she apparently has been there a very long time. Edie says, she is a crazy lady. You should have heard her. She's talking to me about leading vast armies.
00:47:10
Speaker
could have lead any armies. There's no wars to fight. It's nonsense. Marias, you have to stop it. This is just something stupid that happened. And I don't blame fate. I blame this town and whoever's in charge of it. Marias goes, I'm just saying it's crazy that it happened. And she said it would. She said this would happen. Marias says she never said he would get eaten by an insect.
00:47:39
Speaker
No, but she said he wouldn't leave Wild Hill. Devin kind of scratches his head and he says, I don't personally put too much stock into things like that, but I mean, if it makes you comfortable, if it brings you comfort to know that maybe this was fate, I suppose that's fine to think about. But I personally lean more on the side of Edie here. I think that it's just a coincidence more than anything till she can prove more.
00:48:11
Speaker
Mariah says, you didn't hear her. You didn't see the way she spoke. It was... You'd have to talk to her
Return to Town and Seeking Retribution
00:48:24
Speaker
to understand. And Edie goes, it was an act. She is good at it. She earns gold that way. You have to stop it. I'm done talking about this. And she pulls out a ration and kind of scoots away from him on the log and starts eating the ration.
00:48:41
Speaker
All right, if I was to try and find this widow Tolliver, where would I find her? Well, her, her house is across from the long house. That's why she always goes and shuts down the party. It keeps her up at night, she says, but yeah, she's just right across from the long house. She lives over there. That's all I know. I don't know much else about her. I don't want to know anymore. I think now that I'm scared to know what she knows.
00:49:10
Speaker
Oh, sometimes the future is best left farther when it becomes the present. You're probably right. I dab it just goes back to eating his rations. At this point, Jaxer would have probably locked up and pulled up one of the kegs that he had kind of created. And I'm not sure.
00:49:42
Speaker
Maybe we can all share this in respect, and kind of pulls out a couple of little small circular tankard items, and pours a little bit. Is anybody else interested? That Mariah reached out with a hand. Yeah, Mariah does too, and he says, I'll take all you've got.
00:50:10
Speaker
I'll take some there, friend. Me too. Okay, so hand them out. This group's going to drink you dry. Yeah, that's what I'm here for. Keep a small portion for some special lady. Okay.
00:50:32
Speaker
Yeah, so the drinking begins, the eating of rations, dried meats and other rations. Anything else anyone wants to do before you retire for the night? Um, I think Gwendolyn's just thinking to herself, she wants to meet this lady. Cause what if she was true, but she doesn't want to bring it up cause she doesn't want to start an argument, but she's just thinking to herself. Okay, cool.
00:51:00
Speaker
Craig's just gonna find himself a spot nearby the fire I'm gonna lay down and since it's still kind of drizzling I'm assuming I'm gonna take my shield which is pretty close to the size of my body as it is and just kind of lay it on top of me as a block from the the water pelting me
00:51:20
Speaker
Yeah, the rain's coming down pretty good. You're all pretty soaked. It's a warm night though, so I mean there's a little chill from the rain, but nobody's freezing. It's pretty nice to have the shield covering you though, Krigs and Mariahs and Edie don't seem to care at all. You get the sense this isn't the worst night of whether they've had to sleep outside in.
00:51:43
Speaker
And Mariahs actually pretty quickly kind of wanders off by himself after getting as many refills as you'll give him of that drink. And once you have to cut him off, he'll just go kind of lay on his back with his head on a rock and just stare at the sky for a little while. Devin doesn't do much different. He lies down on his back and he just with his hand, he's just kind of picking out raindrops as they come down and changing the color of them before they hit him in the face. Yeah, sweet.
00:52:11
Speaker
Uh, yeah, jocks here, you know, um, at some point probably would have, uh, kind of stood up and offered like a small, uh, um, moment of, you know, to, to, uh, to VIP and to all the adventures we've, we've loved and, and lost. I, uh, I hope all of their souls meet much better, better ends, and then kind of just kind of sits aside and
00:52:42
Speaker
hands out drinks and just drinks themselves full of everything. Edie raises her glass to your toast. Same. All right. So as you guys wrap up the evening, that is a long rest for you all. Good.
00:53:10
Speaker
And you finish a sad, sad night sleeping and everyone make constitution saving throws for me. Uh-oh. Yep. That's an eight for Devin. Mm.
00:53:37
Speaker
18 plus three twenty two twenty one. I'm an idiot. One twenty one. Thirteen. We're jocksy. You said five.
00:53:49
Speaker
That's what you needed. That's funny. Five is what you needed. So everyone, you all sleep okay through the night. Thank God it was low. You all sleep okay through the night. No one has any waking nightmares or anything.
00:54:10
Speaker
When you do awaken, Marias is, is up either still or already. You don't know. And he has put out the fire and he's kind of not kicking Edie as she lays on the ground, but he's like putting his foot up against her and shoving her with her with his foot. Like, get up, get up like that.
00:54:38
Speaker
Does he see him any kind of distressed or is he just waking her? He's a little aggressive. I feel like I would wake up to this. I would definitely wake up and kind of just sit up and watch what's happening with his kind of aggression. Yeah, if he starts. Yeah, go ahead. Jackson had been like, oh, what's happening?
00:55:01
Speaker
Marias just keeps shoving her with his foot and saying, wake up, get up. And she, what is, what's going on? Please. My whole body hurts. I spent a whole, I spent a whole battle last night yesterday staring at something and it didn't get to do anything. And what I mean, now you're waking and she's just kind of grumbling and he's like, get up. You have to get back to town. I want a word with the chief like that.
00:55:34
Speaker
Marias, we're all heading in the same direction. It won't take long. Just let her get her grips. He looks at you and he says, listen, you've been very helpful and I'm very grateful, but I have business to tend to back in Wild Hill and I tend to get there and handle it.
00:55:56
Speaker
Um, if, if, uh, if you're talking about the same Wild Hill, I am everybody drinks at night and, and the earlier, the less likely you'll see anybody. So just calm down. I just, I want to get there before they start drinking tonight. That's my entire point.
00:56:18
Speaker
I agree, I do not like the Chief. He makes me angry thinking about him, but you have to be cautious.
Approaching the Town Chief Cautiously
00:56:28
Speaker
This is all his fault. Angry or not, this is all his fault. Maybe, but you gotta be smart.
00:56:37
Speaker
And Edie's like, what are you on about now? And he's like, you said it yourself. He sent us out here. He sent us out here knowing that this place is where those creatures come up out of the ground and grab us. That is not.
00:56:56
Speaker
what we came here to do. We had a simple quest, we thought, a simple mission. Edie's like, I don't disagree with you, but I don't see why we can't eat something real quick and prepare ourselves a little bit before we go. I'm going to look at Mariah, and I'm just simply going to say,
00:57:21
Speaker
Friend, you have to understand, I agree inside with you more than you realize. There's definitely something going on in Wild Hill that it's frankly not right. But we need to be tactful about this. I promise you, you have my hammer and my shield at your side, but rushing in there may not be our best choice of action.
00:57:52
Speaker
Well, that's the only way I've ever handled anything in my life. You don't understand. It's all I know how to do. You're right, I don't. In the battlefield, wars are not won with brash action, but tacked. Trust me. You know of the battlefield? More than you want to know.
00:58:18
Speaker
Well, well, you can try to hold me back when we get there, but if that chief doesn't find the end of my longsword, then I have not done what I came back to town to do. Trust me, I may not need to hold you back, but I do think we must be tactful for now. Edie's like, did you sleep?
00:58:44
Speaker
Marias. No, I didn't sleep. All I did all night was think. Edie's like, that's always a problem when you think, kind of chuckles at him. He just kind of shakes his head and wanders off down the road a little ways. He doesn't, he's not leaving you, but he's like down the road a little ways pacing. I just kind of keep an eye on him and don't fall back asleep, but just watch him.
00:59:13
Speaker
Okay. Edie starts kind of getting her stuff together and getting little more rations out. Uh, she, she uses a nearby stick and just kind of stirs the fire out and pours a little bit of her water on it. And as it kind of steams and smokes a little, she just kind of starts closing down camp and finishing up preparing to leave, but she's not, she's doesn't seem in any hurry. She's just doing going, going ahead and getting started with the things you need to do.
00:59:43
Speaker
Davin finally turns over and gives a big stretch and says, are we heading out? Uh, I am going to help Edie kind of put things together, but I'm going to very subtly and under my breath basically say, look, I know your friend was lost and I know you're both very upset.
01:00:12
Speaker
When the time comes, you may have to talk some sense into Mariah. Yes, I am.
01:00:23
Speaker
I think you're right. I also think that in the time it takes to get from here to there, he could change his whole thought process again. He's like this. You see, he gets his mind on something and then it just takes a little while and he moves on again. I think he went from grief to revenge very quickly through the night. Thoughts do that. They fester in a man and they change him.
01:00:52
Speaker
You have, like I said before, my support. But rest assured, this will be done the right way. Would Jockser, is this near where Jockser would have been? I mean, if you're there near the campfire and stuff, then yeah. You have an hour support at minimum. I imagine most of the group.
01:01:26
Speaker
Well, I'm grateful. Gavin kind of gives a stretch like, uh, you got my support served, but what are we doing? I missed this. Edie kind of smirks and, uh, just the two inches. Go ahead. And just Pat jocks around the back. That a boy. Kind of gives us just idiotic smirk. Like why?
01:01:49
Speaker
And Edie looks at Daven at that point with a smirk as well, and just says, well, my companion's a little hot to trot today. We'll settle him down. Sounds good to me. Let's go on the road. I'm tired of sitting here. Let's carry on.
01:02:26
Speaker
Thank you for listening in to The Hired Swords. Be sure to tune in to next episode to listen to our band of rascals try to solve the is Marias going to murder the town chief mystery. In the meantime, shoot us a tweet at The Hired Swords on Twitter or find us on Facebook. We would love to hear from you.