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Ep.59 Picking Up Pieces
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Left in the wake of the argument, Joxxer and Krigs make camp and wait for the hopeful return of their friends. Passing the time is all they can do for now.. Have *You* heard of 52 pickup?
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Transcript
Reflections and Decisions on a Magical Necklace
00:00:03
Speaker
Previously on the Hired Swords. Sometimes I wish I'd never left the farm. It was so simple there with my mother and sisters, tending to grain instead of, well, all of this. I suppose it's easy to look back, though, and imagine how nice it was, but the reality is it is quite so simple. That happy little life I had just, it wouldn't have lasted. Even if I stayed.
00:00:28
Speaker
I couldn't have stayed. They need me out here more than they need me there. God, I've learned so much in such little time since then. But I don't know everything. Maybe Gwen's right about these necklaces. Maybe I should take it back and let her destroy it. Same as she did with the other. I'm not always right. Maybe I'm wrong about this. It's just a necklace. A magical necklace with some black twirling stuff inside that the paladin said was evil. The druid wants to release.
00:00:58
Speaker
Maybe I'll hold onto it for a little bit longer.
Introduction and Humorous Start
00:01:26
Speaker
You're listening to The Hired Swords. Hey, that's my line. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Hired Swords. I am your Dungeon Master, Michael, and with me I have Blaze playing Krigs.
00:01:56
Speaker
It's me. Derek's here. He's Daven. Hey, yo, I'm Daven. Mikey's jockser. Welcome to the show. I recommend sitting back and having some water, maybe some popcorn. Just, just enjoy. Ah, yeah, we will. So you should too. And Ash, she's Gwendolyn and her little buddy Dale. Hi, my party people.
00:02:21
Speaker
I get it because because we're a party. Yeah, let's not pretend we didn't already hear that joke. That's my second time trying to do this joke. And we did it this time. That makes it even better. Yeah. We're the party and there are people.
00:02:36
Speaker
I'm sorry, but the popcorn and water, I'm just picturing them together in a bowl. It's really nice. Popcorn and water is floating there. That's awesome. Well, hey, we're back for another episode and we have had some fun adventuring times up to this point. Let me give you a quick recap because I am very up to speed on everything that has happened recently on our podcast.
00:02:59
Speaker
But the last episode when we left off, Davenhead had some visions of some shadows creeping up on the party during a camping night in the woods. They were all traveling north towards the untouched lands still making that journey.
00:03:17
Speaker
Gwendolyn had had a crazy dream and then the next night Daven saw some stuff in the shadows coming and then we ended up after coming across some bodies burying them and moving forward we came across this conversation started up again about the jewels that the jewels and the
00:03:36
Speaker
the magic that was in them that Tomba had been infected by and the chief had
Travel North and Jewel Conflict
00:03:42
Speaker
been using. So this conversation led to finally Gwendolyn getting hold of one of the jewels and destroying it with a spell that called lightning down. It destroyed the jewel into bits and released a small black piece of mist into the sky above them. This aggravated and angered or scared or something, Daven,
00:04:04
Speaker
And this caused him to be concerned about what would happen to the other necklace that Joxer had. He wouldn't give it up at first. He didn't want to hand it to anybody. He ended up deciding to toss it over to Krigs, but then Daven intercepted it. This made Gwen angry. She wanted them destroyed. They had quite the conversation, kind of our first real kerfuffle in the party.
00:04:29
Speaker
It ended, the kerfuffle ended, with Gwen and Davin both turning into flying creatures and flying in separate directions away from the party. And we start this episode, this session, with Krigs and Joxer standing in the forest, having been left behind by Gwen and Davin.
Forest Discussion and Message Sending
00:04:53
Speaker
What are you guys doing? Well, you would think that Joxer would be very surprised by this.
00:05:01
Speaker
However, this feels like normal. I imagine I'll have my mouth agape and look a lot like that John Travolta meme as I look in one direction and then the other and then to Krigs.
00:05:30
Speaker
Well, here we are. Just like old times, maybe. That was a bit unexpected. I look around, do I see any other forest animals in the general area, preferably winged ones? Make a perception check. 17 plus character sheet, 18.
00:05:57
Speaker
Yeah, there are some birds sitting high on some branches of the trees around you. There's also some flying in the sky above you. Okay. I'm going to whistle up to one and hopefully get the attention of one. And I'm actually going to cast the spell animal messenger.
00:06:16
Speaker
which allows me to use an animal to deliver a message. I can choose a tiny beast I see and they're gonna be looking for a recipient that matches a general description. I'm basically going to say the female half-elf raven just flew from here. And then I'm going to say just a message of
00:06:45
Speaker
Please, just be careful. We'll still be here. And have it fly off and try to track down Gwen, at least, who is now, hopefully, not too far off that it can't not find her. OK. All right.
Camp Stories and Group Dynamics
00:07:05
Speaker
So you look up. Go ahead. Jackson would have heard me talk. It's not like a weird language or nothing.
00:07:12
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, you look up and as you're looking in the sky, you do identify this brown bird with this golden chest and it starts to fly low enough where it's in range of your spell and so you call it out immediately and it kind of stops and hovers there staring at you as you talk and tell your instructions. And then as soon as you're done,
00:07:36
Speaker
flutters off in the direction that Gwyn, the Raven version of Gwyn flew off into. And so that's gone. You're hoping it will, like you said, be able to find her and give her that message. I know I shouldn't probably worry. She's very likely the strongest of all of us, but
00:07:58
Speaker
I know it's really easy to do rash things, uh, with heightened emotions. So hopefully she and Devin both aren't. Well, that they'll be fine. I, I'll, I'll say that the best thing that we can do is probably set up camp, set up a fire here. Uh, this is still an opening area from what I remember before, right? Like it's not just covered in pretty clear up. Yeah.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah, and just maybe do some gathering and give them a place to return. Sounds good to me. I guess we can prepare. By all means, I'll go ahead and start setting up camp here if you want to break out some of those brews. It's been a minute, and we have nothing but time right now, so why not? Yeah. Show me that good, good, good you've been holding back on.
00:08:55
Speaker
Well, we'll see what I can come up with. And then maybe maybe we can go, you know, search in for a wool project to to bring out for some food. We're going to need dinner after all. Davin has the wand, so we are truly fending for ourselves.
00:09:12
Speaker
I noticed that you're a little bit more familiar with some of the plants around. Maybe you could find something nice for Gwen whenever she returns. I could also potentially find some, you know, we can eat plants. That's a thing people do. It is. Is there another animal around like a squirrel or something in the area?
00:09:40
Speaker
You can kind of hear the rustling of other critters kind of around, but you don't lay your eyes on anything right away, but you can hear kind of where they might be if you want to try to investigate and find them. Okay.
00:09:53
Speaker
I think I'll pass on that. I was gonna have a little squirrel point me to all the good foods around here. But in the meantime, I think I'm just gonna start scouring around and trying to find mushrooms or different things that, you know, are edible that I know and have some kind of familiarity with and try to set camp. I'm gonna put what kind of fallen wood, preferably nothing that's been alive and make a little fire and
00:10:22
Speaker
you know, just have have something set up a little bit of comfort for us while we just wait.
Banter and Camaraderie
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'll I'll pull out spell slots and try to get a sense on if with with its blind sight to maybe get a sense of if if it can sense animals within because I want to go kind of foraging a bit to see if I can find something meat and then maybe
00:10:48
Speaker
plant to gather. If we can start a fire and get something going, maybe we can attract some friends.
00:10:58
Speaker
Okay, so you get a fire going and you sit for a while. And as you sit, you guys, you kind of just take in the forest around you. It's all starting to kind of not, I'm gonna say close in on you, but not really close in, but as you guys are more still,
00:11:20
Speaker
the forest starts to kind of become come more to life and and it's very it's very natural here it feels very normal like a normal force doesn't feel like anything bad or ominous is going on like it has as you travel deep into the wild sometimes here and there uh why just about go ahead sorry i was gonna say it during that time while we are
00:11:44
Speaker
just kind of enjoying the fact that it doesn't feel ominous and whatnot. I am gonna take one of the pack of cards that I have in my survival kit and gonna start trying to show jocks or magic tricks that I once knew.
00:12:01
Speaker
from a time well before, back whenever you'd sit around the camps and stuff during the peace times of battles, we would sit around, drink and whatnot, and there would be little illusions or magic tricks, and it's nothing that's actual magic, but something that might be
00:12:20
Speaker
Interesting for this moment. I'm telling ridiculous stories and laying cards out and trying to pick and draw his card. And I'm pretty sure I got it if I remember the trick right. Shaxxer, is this your card? Yeah. Do they have duplicate cards in that deck? That seems, I mean... Devon's not the only one that can
00:12:46
Speaker
I twiddle my fingers, use magic. Um, you seem a bit more dexterous than I remember. It's well done. That's, that's a, that's a great trick. And I'll kind of pull out and pour out another drink as, as we're sitting there. And yeah, I, you know, sometimes it's actually, it's nice to sit and enjoy a moment without anybody around.
00:13:13
Speaker
It's been a while. It's been, ever since we got to Wild Hill, honestly, it's been nothing but go-go-go and troubles, turmoils, and I... Do you think... Be real, be honest with me. Do you think Daven thought I was threatening him when I made the promise that if the evil in those necklaces threatened him or any of the rest of us that there would be
00:13:41
Speaker
I mean, I would stop at nothing to, I guess, protect you all you've become, you know, chosen family for me. Yeah. I think, I think he understands the meaning that it wasn't directed at him, but the, the safety for the group.
00:13:56
Speaker
I can't imagine him or Gwen holding a grudge on the things discussed there. I can see both sides. I don't want to sacrifice something that might gain us a benefit or maybe even the only path into whatever this mystical shadows is from what we can tell. But I also don't want it to risk the group. I just wanted to talk about it, not just
00:14:27
Speaker
I think we've all made some rash decisions and I can't blame either one of them for their rash choices. I, I definitely have put us in some interesting and precarious situations before cough under my breath and say, uh, a specific for Morian man. Uh, and then
00:14:49
Speaker
We all chose to be there. A decision had to be made. Enough of the sob stories. Have you ever seen a trick, I believe it's called 52 pickup? I would like to maybe make a check to not- Sure, make a history check. Hold on.
00:15:16
Speaker
I grabbed my dice, but it didn't actually make a performance check. Okay. 11. That is a 17 plus whatever I was looking for. A history minus one. So 1612 for my performance. Well, you definitely jocks are you definitely have been fooled by this before.
00:15:40
Speaker
I think you forget that I have family. I'm familiar. If you want to play that game, you're welcome to pick it up yourself.
00:15:50
Speaker
Fine, ruin my fun. Here, have another drink. And for Michael, did we get something to eat? Were we able to find or maybe a survival check of sorts to see what we might have gotten? Yeah, whoever was looking, make a survival check. Was that you, boys? Yeah, I definitely was. Yeah. Yeah, I think I was more on the meat side, and he might have been more on the fur. I got a 16 looking for foraged items.
00:16:18
Speaker
Okay, so survival 17. Yeah, you guys are able to find some things here and there. You don't really come across anything that you could like hunter kill, but like just gathering kind of stuff like you have previously. You find a few berries. You've actually jocks or find a couple edible flowers that can be used to make brews, but also can be just eaten.
00:16:43
Speaker
and they're very nourishing and and kind of give you energy and craigs you find the uh you find the mushrooms that you're good at finding as the mushroom daddy and you find a few a few twigs of berries as well i love that that's canon oh yeah you know it oh have have you ever eaten i guess flowers craigs that's a new one to me but i'm not against it
00:17:13
Speaker
There's a couple here that... They can be a little bitter depending if they're out of season, but they're really good for you. It can't be any worse than the bark that Gwyn had made after Sauron showed us that it was edible. You ate bark. Look, you would have too.
Introspection and Group Choices
00:17:37
Speaker
You know you would have.
00:17:40
Speaker
I mean, she can be a little convincing. I mean, did you at least question? No. Oh, oh, Krigs. Sometimes. Give me that drink. Oh, yes, here. I'll just chug it. All right. I wonder how long we'll be waiting here. Are you good with smoke signals?
00:18:07
Speaker
No, it is not something I am familiar with. Me neither. Just something to maybe attract them. Maybe I don't want to make noises. Maybe try Presta Digitation to start throwing up a couple of
00:18:26
Speaker
symbols as high as it can reach in the air. Little flares. Great. Yeah, yeah. Just up in the air. Davin, as you head back, you see these little bursts of little magical energy about where you were heading and you see them as a signal that you're headed towards the right spot where you had been, where you had left to go do what you did.
00:18:52
Speaker
You're going to continue to fly that direction towards them. I'm actually going to drop it and just go back on foot and I'll casually continue walking back. Yes. OK, so you're firing those little firework things into this into the sky just above the tree line and Davin comes walking out of the forest towards you. Hey, I'm glad to see the OK.
00:19:19
Speaker
You can see he kind of walks towards you guys. He's got his head down and he's kind of got his fingers entwined in front of him. He looks a little sheepish. I'm glad you guys waited for me. There was no other choice for me. I don't know about Krigs here. Krigs isn't not. He's not talking because he does feel kind of ashamed, but he's acknowledging that you're there and he's just it's not like silent treatment. He's just kind of quiet.
00:19:49
Speaker
Um, Gwen, have you seen her? Nothing yet. I said, well, the messenger, I guess, but you're the first one back. Well, like I said, we wait. Well, here's a drink and some food. I couldn't really scrounge up anything.
00:20:15
Speaker
I hand him a plate of mushrooms that I have roasted over the fire in this little like, not really in a cast iron style pan, but it's something similar. It's more flat than that, but I've used it to cook up these mushrooms. They have a really kind of earthy nutty flavor, something you would imagine like a chanterelle would have.
00:20:39
Speaker
Daven takes the plate of mushrooms, but he turns down at the drink. He'll come to you gonna sit and he's gonna sit a little bit further away from the other two. Still around the fire, but they have, but, you know, kind of almost like separating himself. Okay. Are you getting shy? You're welcome to sit closer. I'm still just thinking about some things. Well, well, we're here for you. They'll just quietly sit and eat.
00:21:09
Speaker
There's probably, if the silence continues for three to five minutes, however long it takes Krigs to really muster up whatever courage he has, I just grumble. I'm sorry.
00:21:37
Speaker
You're... you have no reason to be sorry, Krix. You've been consistent the entire time that I've known you, and I appreciate that. It's... the problems that we have right now is between myself and my own feelings, and I think a little bit about Gwen and how we clash. And I hope she comes back so we can talk about it. But as far as you two go, I consider you friends, and there's no reason to forgive anything because there's nothing wrong.
00:22:07
Speaker
Well, you better consider us friends. Of course. I consider you a friend. I'm sorry I took the necklace. You weren't necessarily wrong to, but the moment was so heightened with senses and emotions from all parties.
00:22:29
Speaker
I think we all kind of just tried to do what we thought was the right thing in that moment and maybe getting away for a minute was the best solution. It wasn't going anywhere, honestly. But again, we don't really know enough about these necklaces to make any rash decisions or destroy them for that matter. But I understand Gwen's sentiment all the same. I understand her sentiment too. I just don't agree with it.
00:23:00
Speaker
Unfortunately, we're all allowed to have our own opinions. We just need to talk about it before we make those decisions. To ease the mood, because I feel like we've all kind of set our peace. I'm going to get my cards back out. Devin, back in the old days, I'm shuffling and shuffling and shuffling. The soldiers during the war, we would
00:23:28
Speaker
It's hard to fight battles and see such malice in your neighbors and in what you consider to be your enemy. And you very often would find times in the off hours to play games or show little tricks and little, you could call it magic if you want, but more just fast hands and quick wit. Have you ever heard of a game? It's called 52 Pickup.
00:23:57
Speaker
Make a history check. Yeah, 19. I rolled a nat 20. Okay, so you have heard of 52 pickup. You know what you know it is, but there's a bit of the way he's saying it and the way he's kind of, he framed it that makes you think maybe he means something different or that maybe
00:24:25
Speaker
It doesn't matter if you could just use this moment for something to happen lighter. So for whatever reason, it doesn't really feel like something, it doesn't really sound like it's what you thought it was to begin with. I know a game with a similar name, I think, but I don't know. I'm not really too much of a mood for a game, but if it's simple, you can show me. Oh, it's simple enough. My father taught me this one.
00:24:52
Speaker
Balor, I've not told you very much about my father. He was a good, good dwarf, strong dwarf. I have told you that at least. But he was very gifted with the sleight of hand. Well, this is his, his game, and I'm gonna keep shuffling and take him in my hand. I'm gonna rear back really quickly and throw the cards at Daven and say, pick him up! I cast Shield.
00:25:18
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Your extra hit points save you from any damage from the cards. There's no, uh, X-Men, you know, playing card damage. I just roll on the floor. It's the ground or whatever. I just roll around and I'm just laughing and like, it's been tense, but it feels good to just be silly again. And hoping that making a fool of himself is enough to kind of ease what tension existed.
00:25:49
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. David sits there, almost dumbfounded for a second, just like frozen in place. And he looks around and he's like, Oh, I guess it is the same game. I've, uh, I've, I've played that game before. All right. I lose. I'll start picking up the cards.
00:26:10
Speaker
I help. I help pick him up. I don't make him just pick him up. Oh, it looks like you need another hand and I'll send spell slots over there to help pick up.
00:26:21
Speaker
Yeah, you guys are sitting there picking up. I'm going to pick up a card, but we go for the same card, me and Spell Slots, and I just grab the hand, I'm like, blah, blah, blah, and just back up really quickly, because it's just still startling. It's like the horror version of Lady and the Tramp. I start rolling on the floor, dying, just as Spell Slots just looks confused with two hands holding, or two fingers holding a card. I swear to hell, I told you to keep that thing away from me.
00:26:51
Speaker
I'm sorry, you said what now?
Gwen's Return and New Discoveries
00:26:56
Speaker
I just sit there just breathing. Just not angry, but startled. Yeah, and as the tension kind of starts to ease and you're kind of laughing with and at each other, we cut over to a raven flying over the forest. And as this raven is flying headed back towards where Gwendolyn came from,
00:27:22
Speaker
you are met in the air by this brown bird with the orange belly and it flies and kind of starts circling around you tweeting at you and you kind of you it's not saying words it's just you you by instinct understanding the tweeting from this bird you you just hear the message it's basically saying be safe we'll be here we'll be we'll be where you know we're gonna wait for you so
00:28:02
Speaker
Hello, everyone. It's me, Starbuck, here to read your words to you and other people. Thank you. I don't know why I brought this like 2 a.m. love song radio energy with me, but that's that's what we've got. It was either that or spicy.
00:28:25
Speaker
vis-a-vis spice mixes. So I'm here with Blaze, as always. What's up? DJ Blaze, hanging out on the ones and twos. Have you considered that maybe I could hang out with other people during this segment as well? I have. Have you ever thought about Picasso? I think about Picasso all of the time and I have already told you that.
00:28:48
Speaker
Anyway, let's get into some reviews. This first review is from Picasso. Oh no, no, I'm sorry. This first review is from Richard Payne. And I don't believe that that is your God-given name. Well, God didn't give any of his names. I don't think, can I even say this on the show? Isn't the show PG? It is, you cannot say it.
00:29:15
Speaker
Doing this for you, Michael. Doing this for you. Anyway, so Richard Payne, thank you so much, Richard. I appreciate you. New favorite show. I wasn't sure if I wanted to pick up another actual play, but the chemistry of this cast is fantastic. Great story and incredible role play. Thank you, Richard. That is all very, very true. I'm sorry about your pain. Moving on. The next one is from Kspace41.
00:29:45
Speaker
Thank you so much, K-Space 41. Two thumbs up. 20 episodes in and loving it. Thank you, K-Space. Thank you for calling our nighttime radio show with your wonderful review. What happens at 20 episodes? 20 episodes in, that is where we do the stuff and the things, typically. Okay. And then we did that one thing. It was pretty great. You know, I was really surprised when that other thing happened.
00:30:15
Speaker
I heard a cat. Yeah, that's my cat. I'm so sorry. Oh, no, it's fine. I love cats. He's gonna start screaming. So that's what we've got today. If you would like me to read my words to you. Oh, no, he's here. He's back.
00:30:31
Speaker
Episode 20 is whenever we go to the fortress and I jump through the wall and I'm stuck in the cage with the guy. I'm like, what up? That's a great episode. That episode was buck wild. It gave me such anxiety. If you would like to hear your review here, please go to Apple Podcasts or Podcatcher
00:30:55
Speaker
and leave a review. You can also tweet at me if you really wanted at Starbuck or at the Hige Swords. I guess that would be more applicable because this is actually their podcast and not mine. I just do the mid-roll here. But if you want people to keep making podcasts, you should tell other people that their podcast exists and they're good and worth listening to. And that way people will listen to the podcast that you also want to listen to because it can't just be for you.
00:31:24
Speaker
Richard Payne. Sorry Richard, this isn't just for you. This is for you. Do you think she's gonna come back?
00:31:53
Speaker
I hope so. I know she'll be back, just like you came back. There's no way any of us are going to break apart without at least having the decency to say so. I'm not sure which of the two of you is the most stubborn, but my money is definitely her. Yeah, I think that's where I'd put my money as well.
00:32:21
Speaker
Are you saying that I'm not stubborn? Out of this group, I'm not stubborn? You're the biggest pushover here. I guess. I guess. Well, it's starting to get dark. Did she say a dragon? She saw something flying in the air. I mean, I've never seen a dragon before. I can't imagine there would be one just randomly here.
00:32:46
Speaker
I've never seen one in my years either, honestly. It's either tale and legend and lore and whatnot, but I've, I've, I don't believe I've ever actually seen one myself. What do you want to? I think I'll be kind of neat about terrifying at the same time. Yeah, no. Yeah. That, that sounds accurate.
00:33:09
Speaker
Yeah, and for something that I really assume is fairly large, for it to just disappear like that, that's even more terrifying if it was the case. She has a habit of seeing things that aren't actually there. Maybe it's just her imagination. Am I the only one that's actually wondered if she hears Dale or not? I hope, at this point, I hope she actually hears Dale. I don't really know how I feel about that.
00:33:38
Speaker
Hell, harmless as it is. It is a bit endearing. I'm not too sure if she has some spirit of some animal in there, but no harm, no fowl. Or I mean, no harm, no chipmunk, I guess. What's your feelings on that? Maybe she does have like some sort of spirit trapped away in that thing.
Wolf Transformation and Mysterious Clues
00:34:01
Speaker
I don't believe that she would necessarily have a spirit trapped in there. I'm not sure if
00:34:06
Speaker
Well, anyone of her disposition would be capable of such necromantic styles of magic, but I think maybe there are things in this world we don't understand, and with her penchant for
00:34:22
Speaker
animals and the forest creatures and just the connection she has with the wilds, it's not too far-fetched to think that if animals have souls or spirits or whatever it may be, that her friend could still be there in some capacity.
00:34:41
Speaker
It also on that end could be a channel of some sort if maybe just a focus where there is some form of communication from even if it's just kind of from the middle of the air, just common words or thoughts of spirits around if you really believe in that sort of thing.
00:35:05
Speaker
I also recall the time fighting the Fomorian in the fortress in the Stone Mountains. I've never had anything impact my brain and my thoughts quite like that had. I don't think she's cursed or the item itself is cursed, but it's maybe possible the voices are real, but they're voices only she hears and
00:35:30
Speaker
quite literally in her head. All of a sudden, a knife drops from the sky. It hits like a piece of wood or a tree, but it falls straight down from the sky.
00:35:42
Speaker
Uh, Craig immediately rolls over and puts a shield over top of them. And I come out of Raven form as soon as I hit the ground. Guys, I, I think I've, I found something and I go over and I pick up the knife this way. She's setting off in the direction of where she was. Okay. Evan has that exact same look at when those cards were thrown at him.
00:36:04
Speaker
He puts up shields. Down two spell slots. Let me put out the fire. You guys go. It's this way and she's going off. Bear fire. Okay. I rush after her. I rush, but I'm looking back at Joxer. What is happening as I'm running away?
00:36:28
Speaker
I look over just as confused and I'm just trying to kick off what I can. Make sure that it's not going to expand as best and then head off. Awesome. All right, Gwendolyn starts to lead you through the forest. The little trail that you had been on, it's not much of a trail. It's pretty narrow, maybe 10 feet wide at the best.
00:36:55
Speaker
Gwen, do you try to stay on that or do you cut through the woods straight shot? How are you heading towards? Straight shot. Okay, because the path kind of goes north, continues north, but where you came from is more northeast. Correct.
00:37:11
Speaker
Okay, so she gets off the little bit of path that's there and just just cut straight northeast through the woods as and as you get through into the tree line or beneath the tree line you get to walking it's starting to get pretty dark as the sun is setting and even and under the trees it's it's pretty thick so it's even darker than it was out on the little opening you were in. Come come on keep up it's only I don't know it's up here.
00:37:39
Speaker
And I'm trying to, I'm still, I'm walking briskly cause I don't Raven fine versus Gwen walking. I don't know what the ratio is to that. Yeah. Does, does, does Ash not know or does Gwen not know? Um, Ash does not know. I feel like Gwen would know, but I do not know how far away I am from it. At least from, um, why I don't want to spoil it.
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah, I imagine Josh will catch up fairly quickly with his 40 speed, so he's going to start dashing and catch up as fast as he can. Yeah. So as the raven flies, so to speak, you're you're going to be a it's going to fly about the same speed as you would walk, except that it's not flying. You're not dodging trees and trying to make your way through. So you're you know that flying took you quite a little while.
00:38:32
Speaker
near an hour to get to where you're flying so you think you're probably at least a Few hours from where you're trying to walk if going through these woods and all that stuff Gwen knows this the rest of the party doesn't know where she's going so they wouldn't know that Get rekt. I Just continue to chase after her
00:38:52
Speaker
I keep running slow down. No time. I'll explain stuff in a minute and just, just, just, just come on. All right. Somebody roll a explain anything. Somebody roll a D 20 for me. I think Gwen should do it since she's the one leading the pack. I agree. Yep. Gwen roll a D 10 or D 20 D 10 cut my chain. No D 20 D 20. I rolled an 18.
00:39:20
Speaker
Okay, so it's dark and it's getting darker, but as you walk, nothing's crazy seems to happen other than as you're going, you're scaring off critters in the woods. There's a pretty dense, thick wood full of life, and you're just kind of like carving this path of leaving silence behind you as things scurry away from you as you just trudge through the woods.
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah, I imagine if it gets dark enough and at whatever point I get close enough, I'll start casting dancing lights and just pushing it 60 feet in front of myself every time I get a chance. OK, so the the lights just keep.
00:40:03
Speaker
like leapfrogging ahead of you, going as as you walk, illuminating, casting shadow all over from the trunks of these trees and the branches of the trees. These shadows are just kind of appearing, making everything feel almost a little bit confusing as you walk through it. It's already kind of hard to navigate. Why don't you make a a survival check for me, Gwen? Oh, no, bud.
00:40:32
Speaker
oh how's an eight plus one that's a nine uh so you start to lose kind of your sense of direction and and maybe some of it's just that everything looks the same you're you're walking through the woods there's no way to look up and see a moon or stars or anything to determine where you are there the trees all look identical to each other
00:40:53
Speaker
There's no way to know you don't feel like there's any way to know where you're going. Plus, you've got the lights kind of shining around and just casting shadow making it a little weird. It's almost like a fun house or Hall of Mirrors kind of feeling in here. And so you don't necessarily I don't you don't know if you're going in the right direction or the wrong direction. You just kind of are trudging along. Do you stop or do you continue?
00:41:16
Speaker
Um, I kind of stop and just go, oh, wait a second. If I came from this way, I. Where are we going? I, I just found something and I. It might explain some things or it's the place that we're looking for. I. I start.
00:41:44
Speaker
I found this and I show him the knife. I don't let him take it, but I'm just showing it to him from afar. Okay, you guys see this dagger. It's fairly clean and new looking. The blade is a normal, you know, steel blade, but the handle is brass and it has four finger holes in it that are pretty small, like for a smaller hand. And there's an engraving on the knife on the blade.
00:42:12
Speaker
Oh, what? Is that an engraving? What does it say? It's halfling. It says Yana. It's usually meant for the strongest member. It means bear. I just... I have a feeling that this knife might have belonged to someone that we've already buried, or those people were part of this possible
00:42:36
Speaker
I found an empty camp as if people vanished from it but there were footprints and it led to this cave and I got scared and I just I have to show you so I'm not crazy.
00:42:57
Speaker
And for listeners and a party, Gwendolyn is one of those girls that doesn't, she will dwell on things on her own time. So the whole breaking the gym, she's not focused on that right now. She has buried that along with her other emotional things she's dealt with in the past. So her mind, she's got goldfish brain. And this is what she's focused on. Wow, that feels too real right now. Yep.
00:43:27
Speaker
Well, I mean, I have no idea where we are, so I can only trust you. Yeah, I mean, if you need help deciding on a direction that we're heading or anything, maybe we can assist in that, but we weren't there, so... I mean, you've turned into things before that help us, like, find things, right? Can you do that again? Yeah, uh...
00:43:52
Speaker
Duh. She puts the knife in her bag and she is going to turn into, is it on here? Because that's what I want to turn into. A coyote is not on here. No. I want to turn into a coyote. I turn into a wolf and I am going to smell my way around.
00:44:19
Speaker
All right, so the sense going turns into a wolf. Make a perception check with advantage as a wolf. OK. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Pulling up my dice, making noise while I waste some time pulling up my dice. There you go. Oh, cool. Um. Beep, beep, beep. How is the nine?
00:44:48
Speaker
or a 10. You currently your smell, you smell mostly the kind of just general odors of the of the forest. You're the your wolf knows you can kind of smell running water in a distance. What do you see?
00:45:11
Speaker
Yeah, you can kind of smell, you know, maybe some rotting flesh a little ways in the distance. Something is dead over there. But that that's it. I don't smell the. The what? I kind of want to go towards the water. OK. So that direction is you can head that direction towards the this little smell of kind of fresh running water that you smell. OK.
00:45:43
Speaker
I kind of feel like she's lost. I think we're all lost right now. But it's what we have. I'll follow.
00:45:57
Speaker
All right, so you guys follow Gwyn as her wolf form kind of weaves in and out of the trees and dodges through the forest heading in the direction where she smells running water. Go ahead and make another survival slap or perception check, Gwyn. How am I supposed to keep up now? As Krigs grumbles from behind.
00:46:26
Speaker
Oh my god, eight. Did you do perception or did you do survival check? Yeah, I did perception for a wolf. With advantage? Not with advantage. You still have advantage if you're sniffing. Oh, that's good. Because that makes it a 16. Okay, yeah, the smell of running water that you're heading towards suddenly gets
00:46:50
Speaker
over, just gets taken over by this overbearing smell of fungi. You smell this like moss fungi odor, and you also, that's directly, you smell that directly one direction, and then just slightly off of that, you smell the smell of wet, used, like burned up wood ash. Not ash like you, but like ashes. Oh, it was in the Pokemon trainer.
00:47:21
Speaker
I make ways to where I think it's the camp and I go towards the wet wood smell, wet burnt wood. All right. So you haul wolf booty that direction. Everyone make dexterity saving throws as you try to chase this wolf and dodge the trees and the undergrowth and all that stuff. You're welcome everyone else. Shit. Five. Ooh.
00:47:48
Speaker
Classic. So that's not that's a seven. Welcome to my adventure. What does your wolf know? It was also seven. Yeah. You guys are struggling. This is very uneven terrain. You guys are.
00:48:06
Speaker
tripping and falling and just kind of losing ground as she gets further and further ahead of you. You kind of know the direction she's headed, but you currently, as you try to keep up, you kind of feel like you might be losing sight of where she is ahead of you. Gwen, slow down. You definitely hear Daven call out for you to slow down, Gwen. I think she's just, maybe she's taking us to her own death.
00:48:35
Speaker
Is she that mad at me? I've seen her mad. This is very possible. My Shari threw his knife at me. I mean, yeah. Was it you? I gosh. It felt very close to me. It felt very close to me. I bork at Devin. In Gwendolyn's wolf mind, she's saying,
00:49:00
Speaker
Stop complaining you guys just follow me and she's coming out as work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work-work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work- Work
00:49:23
Speaker
All right, you guys are following her through the woods kind of trying to keep your time She's leaving no trace behind as she goes and like scurries ahead her wolf Her wolf abilities and she's so comfortable in that form that there's no trace So you're having to just kind of barely keep an eye Keep up and keep an eye out for make everybody make perception checks to see if you can see where she's headed as she darts ahead of you Yeah
00:49:48
Speaker
I'm doing my best to also like use the dancing lights to like place it to where I think I last saw her. Four. OK, great. 14. So that is 17. I'm aware that we're in the forest. Yeah, you definitely see trees, Krigs. And the other two, you can see, you know, you look up and as you're kind of trying to run and walk fast through the woods and kind of you have to literally turn sideways to get between these two trees, you have to duck under this really low hanging branches on this one tree.
00:50:18
Speaker
This one's got thorns and it gets caught in your robe, Daven, and you have to kind of pull it away and try carefully not to let it tear. But you look up and sure enough, you see the wolf kind of dart behind a tree up there. So, you know, go to that tree at least. And then you get to that one, you look up, you see a dart again, another direction. Krigs, you're just following Daven and Joxer at this point, keeping an eye on them. And you guys go about this for a good, probably,
00:50:45
Speaker
and probably go about this for a good 15, 20, 30 minutes, and you're starting to get a little worn out from this running and climbing through the woods. And so Gwen, you feel like the smell is getting a little stronger, but make a, what check should I have you make for this? Make an intelligence check as Gwendolyn. Okay. Just straight intelligence.
00:51:16
Speaker
So you know that it occurs to you and what you do with this is up to you but it occurs to you that you're hustling fast and you feel fine but these guys behind you you can tell are lagging behind and they're struggling and they're kind of wearing out getting further and further behind you.
00:51:41
Speaker
And if if you want to make it to the camp on your own, you feel like that's no problem, but you feel like you might lose these guys soon. Well, they should just keep up. OK, so we're just going to keep going. OK. Let me think. OK, you can think.
00:52:07
Speaker
She goes as close as she thinks she is She knows she should go and help her friends catch up because those are the people that she wants to see this not just for herself so she goes back and Can she judge how far away she is from it? Yeah, you feel like you're probably gonna have to run another hour to get there Oh
00:52:32
Speaker
But I know the direction. That's far. Yeah, the smell is strong enough now that your passive perception with your smell is good enough to know where you're headed. Okay. When are we close? If we're close, park once. If we're not close, park twice.
00:52:51
Speaker
I don't know what is close. I don't even know screw us. Let's just get there fast and I'm going to Use for sorcery points this twin spell polymorph intern both of my friends into wolves also. Oh Cool. Okay neat. So we got three wolves in a Daven. Yeah, and I'm going to hop on the I'm gonna make them dire wolf so I can hop on the back of
00:53:14
Speaker
Well, I'll be the backpack this time. Yeah. All right. So Devin hops onto Krigs's direwolf back. And so we've got a regular wolf and two direwolf and a Daven on top cruising through the woods. Now, bork, bork, borkies, bork, bork, bork.
00:53:36
Speaker
But I assume jocks are just kind of like backing up weirdly like what? Yeah, you guys. Yeah, you're suddenly you're on four legs and the smell hits you. Krigs and jocks are the smell that that Gwendolyn has been chasing hits you. It's this combined smell of this like this burned.
00:53:58
Speaker
this burned wet wood as well as like ash and ashes and stuff and then a little further beyond that you get this this whiff of the you can tell it's further but it's this whiff of this fungus mossy kind of dank smell and it's pretty strong and Gwendolyn do you just take take off once they've been changed
00:54:18
Speaker
When they're changed, Gwendolyn does that dog thing where she goes around in a circle, but like hopping. I don't know if that image is good for people. Oh, no, I see it. I see it in my mind. Happy dog. She runs back over and she's wagging her tail like, oh my gosh, you guys are dogs too. She looks jocks her face and then starts taking off towards the camp. Mark. Adorable. Then I'll start hopping in that direction.
00:54:49
Speaker
All right. Hold on tightly. Yeah, so Davin's holding on tight. You guys are weaving in and out of trees. You're dodging. And as you're going, the forest is starting to get tighter and tighter until after running and running for quite a while. And you realize now
00:55:05
Speaker
I guess I guess davin and gwen you guys realize now this is been especially davin this is been a lot longer than you would consider almost there right and uh but but you're going and and you're scaring off less of the wildlife as most of you are actually wildlife yourselves until you come into this small clearing and in this small clearing there is
00:55:29
Speaker
a couple of tents and a burnt out kind of done like expended campfire and a small a little bit of trail it's a just small even smaller than the one you were on there's trail heading from the west into the camp and then from the camp eastward out of the camp and the the tents are standing
00:55:53
Speaker
sturdy and strong like they've been put up by people who know what they're doing there's some stumps and things kind of sitting around near the campfire and inside these tents as you look in you can see there are still people's things in there there are items in there there's small chests and things like that just kind of in there like it has been left but
00:56:13
Speaker
it's pretty obvious that the place has been empty for a while. You see grass has kind of grown up around some of the some of the tents and the tent pegs and the rocks for the for the for the campfire has a kind of plant life growing around it like it's all been sitting there for a while as well and so you you come you come upon this camp realizing it's kind of been left as is but it seems to have been somebody meant to return but never did and that's where I guess we'll leave this episode
00:56:45
Speaker
I forgot my bag. I'll be right back. I'm just going to run back over there.
00:56:56
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of The Hired Sword Season 2. If you enjoyed our episode, tell a print about us, and if you really enjoyed the episode, tell the world and leave a review. If you want to keep up with us on all the behind-the-scenes goofs and gaffs, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at thehiredswords. If you'd like to check out our merch shop, please check thehired.store. Stay tuned for a message from our friends. And again, thank you for listening.
00:57:38
Speaker
Hello! My name is Spets, and I am part of the adventure in a crew that others call the Severed Sons. Everyone in the dale has a tale to tell about distant sightings of the Bear Lady out in the tundra coming in to save the day. Well, to be honest, it seemed like I could help them just as much as they could help me, you know?
00:58:03
Speaker
Well all of the lads are very good at heart. It's an honour to fight alongside them and to be a son myself. Trax has a brilliant mind. The turtle is wise and Donar has a heart of gold. Kai is cunning and Vang is fiercely loyal. Although I don't think I'd much like being stranded on an iceberg with Kai. What's next for Spets?
00:58:30
Speaker
There's a long road ahead of us all, but I know that all of us are going to do everything in our power to defend the dale and end this everlasting rhyme.
00:58:47
Speaker
If you want to find out more about Spets, The Turtle, Fang, Donar, Trax, Kai, and more, listen to Severed Sons, a Frostmaiden actual play D&D podcast, on your favourite podcast app, and follow us on Twitter, at SeveredSunsD&D. Stay frosty!