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Ep. 21 For Francine
163 Plays4 years ago
With a caged beast, our Swords must try their hardest to remind him what he's fighting for.. And he can remember that.. how will they get him out?
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Transcript
Escape from the Jail Cell
00:00:13
Speaker
Previously on the Hired Swords. So as the door starts to clang shut, the hand comes up and grabs it just before it latches. And Krigs, you get kind of caught in between the door and the wall of the jail cell. And you have to squeeze yourself through. And this monster's grabbing on this gate and pushing against it, trying to get you to get the door to stay open. And he's just...
00:00:43
Speaker
And pushing against this gate, Krigs makes his way out of the gate and you're now free from the gate, but he's still holding that gate open. Help me close this damn thing. I push the door with Daven trying to latch it at this point. Okay, you guys together are able to latch that door. And he just bangs against the bars and just lets out this roar.
00:01:25
Speaker
You're listening to the hired swords. Well, there's only really one sword, I guess. And even then, he usually just punches things. So you're listening to... Well, we're out of time.
Monster Rage in the Jail
00:01:49
Speaker
So you guys have now successfully locked Delmar in full monster rage mode into this jail cell in the torture chamber. Joxer, I believe you and
00:02:04
Speaker
Gwen, I guess, are trying to get the door open. I was just doing it by myself as far as I know. Perfect. You're trying to get the main door open so that you guys can get back out there and try to handle this monster. Krigs and Davin, you just successfully slammed that gate shut on the prison door and this monster just roared as loud as it could.
00:02:30
Speaker
kind of shaking the walls a little bit in this room and Currently Gwen, what are you up to during all this? I am pacing I'm trying to think of a way that we could get Delmore out Feed this animal a creature and Escape with our lives
00:02:54
Speaker
And she soon knows the jocks are trying to open the door. She probably just goes and helps last minute. But most of the time she's trying to think of a plan. Hold on, guys. Hold on. Let's just all freeze for one minute and think. All right. There's probably alerted this monster. It's probably on its way here. We've got two options. We can either fight it or we can hide and escape. I don't know how we do the second. And we don't really know what we're fighting for the first.
00:03:25
Speaker
Kriegs listens and looks into the jail directly at Delmar and... Delmar, I need you to fight it. If we can calm him back down, I can get him out of here. I need you to fight it. Now you want him to fight it? Make up your mind! It just stays in just rage mode. Jocks are pulling off some of the stuff.
00:03:53
Speaker
The previous monster couldn't open the door upstairs. Why would we expect it to be able to open this door?
Calming Delmar's Rage
00:04:04
Speaker
I don't know. We can't stay in here. Clearly. So I'm just going to at least unjam it. So I'm going to continue doing that.
00:04:17
Speaker
I'm going to help him. I can't wreck my brain into how we can even negotiate with this creature. I don't know. I'm just going to help him get the door.
00:04:32
Speaker
Okay, so it doesn't take you long from this side of the door to get that stuff kind of unwetched and get it loose. And now you have a door with a handle, you can pull it open if you'd like. Before I do that, I'm going to return towards Del Mar next.
00:04:53
Speaker
to Krigs and then try to soothe or try to just Delmar. Please come back to us. We need you to calm down so you can see Francine. The creature goes, you want Delmar? He's like interrupting you, and then you say Francine, and he's like, you don't know.
00:05:21
Speaker
don't say that. Yes, Francine. And I'm gonna make a check here. Yeah, and so it just starts shaking its head and you know, the the animal in a cage literally like just you could hang on. I could hang on. It's not that bad. I can just
00:05:51
Speaker
She's not even alive anymore. She's not even real. She's just a dream. She's a dream. She's a dream. She's real. You don't speak to me. He starts breathing. Gwendolyn got tired of it and she just runs up to the cell and shakes the bars. She's real.
00:06:17
Speaker
And she's looking for you. You shake the bars and grabs her shoulder the moment she tries to shake the bars. She turns it off. OK. She starts to shake the bars and gives it a couple little rattles. And she's, I mean, they're big metal bars. And Gwendolyn's, you know, she's not like tearing these bars open or anything. And even really making much of a racket. She's just angrily shaking the bars. But when she says she's looking for you,
00:06:46
Speaker
That's whenever you see a flash in this creature's eyes and in Delmar's eyes, and you see just half a second, his right eye looks at you and just kind of shows this little bit of hope, this little glimpse, and he starts to breathe slowly.
00:07:24
Speaker
She's looking for me. She's looking for me. And it's taking, I mean, it's several seconds and he's going back and forth, but you can see that you can now see Delmar is fighting again. So she's not lying. She is looking for you. She sent us here. We would not be here if it wasn't for your Francine. She is your daughter. And well, hang on.
00:07:54
Speaker
she might be your daughter that that settles it really for Delmar you say she might be she's your you know your daughter and he she is
00:08:14
Speaker
exactly who she is. And everything just relaxes her his shoulders drop. He's sitting on he sits down he was, you know, raging on the floor, but he kind of slowly gets up and sits on the edge of the bed. And he just she is Oh, hello. Hello.
Delmar's Past and Group's Next Move
00:08:39
Speaker
Could you guys hungry? Could I offer you something to eat?
00:08:44
Speaker
No, soldier, that won't be necessary. I can... I have a friend who gave me something. It's actually quite amazing. I always make way more food than I can consume, but with you here, perhaps we could... we could share a meal. I believe... I believe we've met. We've met. Yes, I recognize you all. Yes. Yes. What are you doing here? A tear just rolls down on Gwendolyn's face.
00:09:15
Speaker
She was so built up with anger that he would even think that no one was looking for him. She let's go to the bars. Delma, don't worry. We plan on returning you to where you should be.
00:09:39
Speaker
you'll be able to cook or bring and feed whoever you need to. Just please be patient. Okay, I suppose I'll sit here. I'm feeling a little hungry. I just don't want to make a whole bunch and not have anyone else to share it with and let more go to waste. I'll wait until you guys are ready. What is it that you're headed off to do? Or you have some plans?
00:10:10
Speaker
Do we have a plan? I look over at, uh, Krigs and. Are we, are we battling or are we sneaking? You think you can get them out of here? I know I could get them out of here, but I've got to go with him and he'll leave you guys behind. Leave. Well, then what, how are you going to get out?
00:10:41
Speaker
We'll handle that ourselves, but you get him out of here and you keep him and yourself safe. I don't think that's a good plan. What is your idea? Well, it's not that far. You could just make a run for it. I don't know if we can run this.
00:11:13
Speaker
Tillmar, I am feeling a little peckish. Maybe you'd like to make us a little food before we leave. Well, I'd be pleased to. It takes only a second, and he walks over to the desk and he picks up that wand.
00:11:34
Speaker
And he says, yes, I could do this once every couple days. And he just kind of pointed over to the table to the torture table there. And that table is completely filled all of a sudden with bread and fruit and vegetables and all this food just piles on top of this falling off the edges of this table. And he says real quick and points over to the
00:12:02
Speaker
to the basket and it fills with water to overflowing. That basket that was covered in tar on the inside just fills with water to overflowing. He sets the wand down and he says, Bon Appetit. I listen and
Teleportation Plan for Escape
00:12:18
Speaker
I listen for the creature sound. Probably roll a perception check. Yep, do that.
00:12:27
Speaker
That wasn't me rolling, but I'll take it. It was a 17. It wasn't me rolling, but I'll take it. I just tried to pick up the dice and drop that accidentally. I mean, that's a roll. It's just not intentional. You currently don't hear any boom, boom sounds. Wow. We're going. I look at Davin.
00:12:57
Speaker
and kind of point to my ear and look like nudge my head towards the direction of the door, indicating more or less like I don't hear it at the moment. I think we have enough time for at least a few bites. I'm a little peckish. We can plan a little better. Delmar, you seem to be in pretty high spirits with your food here. Let's take a moment and
00:13:27
Speaker
and just enjoy ourselves before we eat out. Sure. Yes, could you let me out of here so I can eat? Oh, of course. Yes, I assume that things got out of hand. I apologize. I find it difficult to control sometimes. Anyway, I'll take some of this, and he starts grabbing things off the table.
00:13:56
Speaker
Joxer is going to tug at Daven's shoulder and pull him off to the side. The spell that you intended to take Delmar out of here, can you give me any details about that? How long it would take? Is this a quick spell? Because I might have an unusual idea.
00:14:27
Speaker
It's instantaneous. I've done it before. All I'm going to do is teleport himself and myself out of here. Would you might be able to take a magical item with you that might contain some extra dimensional space? So long as it's not too big, I can probably take it with me.
00:14:57
Speaker
Oh, it wouldn't be that large. I mean, I don't intend to leave you guys behind. I could teleport him out into one of the other buildings and make my way back in to the main door. So where I brew everything is essentially a gigantic hole. That's where you threw that rock in, remember? How can I forget? Apparently you don't.
00:15:27
Speaker
We could all fit. You heard you're going to get down in that hole. I have no problem with it. I'll discuss it with the rest. Can you breathe in there? About 10 minutes worth of breath. Well, this will only take a couple of seconds at the most. OK.
00:15:51
Speaker
and then I'll kind of break up, break away and grab food and enjoy until we're ready to make a decision. Yeah, Devin will grab some food too.
00:16:03
Speaker
All right. Yeah. This food tastes like nothing. It's, it's filling like it, it does its job. Like it feels like you're eating and like you, you, it works. You know, it's, it sustains you. Uh, it just tastes bland. There's no nature in it. It's magical food. Very bland. Um, let's see.
00:16:31
Speaker
I can, uh, use prestiditiation to make it taste like something. Okay. Cool. What are you going to make it taste like? Um, I'm going to make everything tastes like, um, like cooked apples. Okay. Delicious. Cinnamon, like some cinnamon. Yeah. Give me some of that. You know, you do notice there is no meat.
00:16:59
Speaker
Nevermind. It is all fruit, vegetables and baked goods. Specifically, he did he intentionally, it seems he did not conjure any meat type products. I can do up to three things at once. So I'll make something taste like cinnamon apples, something tastes like like a bean burrito kind of taste. OK, OK. And then the last one is going to be just plain sugar.
00:17:28
Speaker
Did you say there was water? Yeah, there's a water skin there, but there's also that big waist-high basket that is tar covered on the inside and it's filled with water. Oh, okay.
00:17:42
Speaker
And he, uh, as he starts eating and you start casting prestidigitation on things, he takes a bite of something and he goes, Oh, it's not bad, right? I forgot what the tasting tasted like. He just keeps eating and he's, he's like, I, I believe I don't eat more than I have in a while. We've got to, we've got to travel later.
00:18:08
Speaker
Okay, travel, I can't believe this. How long have I been here? What do you say, a decade? Oh my gosh, I'm going somewhere. And he's eating in his, you notice his left hand is like twitching and not feeding him, he's eating solely with his right hand. While he's distracted, I'm gonna kind of like wave the rest of the group over. Okay.
00:18:39
Speaker
How would you, Krigs and Gwen, like to see my brewing system a little more close? Right now? Not quite right now, but maybe when we wanted to leave. Oh? Well, what's your plan, boy?
00:19:09
Speaker
Um, if everybody got in there, then Devin could teleport us out of here. All in one go. There's no walking involved. It's not a terrible plan. How, how would we arrange this though?
Entering Extra-Dimensional Space
00:19:34
Speaker
Us three in the hole?
00:19:36
Speaker
I yes I all of you would just climb down um wait there I'd fold it up you have uh 10 minutes worth of breath give or take three and he says it's instantaneous so at that point if you felt uncomfortable you could make it you could try to break free it's not on
00:20:02
Speaker
incapable of being broken out of, but after being moved from one area to the next, I would open it up and call you out. And you weigh nothing while you're in there. I can attest to its effectiveness, because I have a lot of liquids down there. I've always wondered what you did with those things.
00:20:32
Speaker
All that rainwater is about ready to start the next batches. I ran out after Edie and Marias kind of needed a couple of... You start to hear these stomps.
00:20:50
Speaker
in the distance. The alarm's going off. I can, I can carry about as, uh, I can teleport about as much as I can carry. So I can take one person with me and I could hold your hall. You had to say it that way. I, uh, uh, jocks are be like, uh, just a pat, pat his shoulder. Of course you can. You can, you can definitely carry my hole.
00:21:18
Speaker
I, um, maybe I should teleport you so that you can know how to get them out. How do you get them out?
00:21:26
Speaker
There's a rope system that I have kind of... Well, so it's interesting. And he's going to go on this... So because you can't actually nail into extra dimensional space, he had to build this actual structure around so he can actually put in this rope ladder and no one cares.
00:21:50
Speaker
I don't think this is the right time to be explaining it. Wait till we get back and we can do it over drinks. Of course. Um, essentially I just need to lay it out. Everybody needs to be okay with going in and essentially you take me outside of the building. All right. I consent.
00:22:15
Speaker
Okay. Delmar, how would you feel about taking a trip with- Well, if you said we are going somewhere, I'm pleased to do so, yes. Okay. Well, it's gonna be a little unusual for you, but you will have Gwen and Krigs next to you, so...
00:22:41
Speaker
Just follow along and I'm going to lay out the... Could I just go with her? I'll look over at Craig's and say, would you mind carrying the cloth? I will go in in your stead because you were unwanted. That is perfectly acceptable.
00:23:10
Speaker
You just have to lay it out straight without any wrinkles, and we can get out easily. Otherwise, I will be a little upset having to break out. It's not very comfortable. Understood. Delmore says, I don't mean to cause trouble. I just will be more comfortable. Yes, don't worry, Delmore. I understand completely.
00:23:44
Speaker
Okay. Don't worry. You'll be out of there before you can finish the sentence. What is this place? How did we get in here? Why does it look like this? And what do we do now? That's, I believe that is like four sentences, but okay. It's a run on sentence. I will get into the grammar later. Um, so, uh, at that point, Joxer will lay it, uh, kind of point at the area that he kind of laid this lattice, uh, down and then, uh, start climbing down and, and motion people through.
00:24:06
Speaker
And I glare at Krigs.
00:24:12
Speaker
I grabbed Delmar's hand, his right hand, I think. Yeah. Devin grabs an apple and starts eating it while he watches everyone climb down. Okay. I have Devin or Devin. I have Delmar go first.
00:24:26
Speaker
Delmarche has one moment, one moment and he goes over and he gathers up his papers and he grabs his wand and he puts it in his pocket and he rolls up his stuff and he looks at his bedroll and starts to grab it and kind of goes, it's kind of a piece of it comes off and his hand is so dilapidated and worn. He just kind of throws it down and just follows you and grabs your hand again and goes down there with you. Don't worry, Delmarche, you have a home. We're going to take you there.
00:24:52
Speaker
This sounds wonderful. I never thought that he starts climbing down. I'm going to take a look around and see if there's anything else worth taking out of this area. Okay. Make a investigation check. Investigation is a plus three. So it makes it a 10. Man, that dice is not rolling well. Fire it. Dice jail. Is that the llama die?
00:25:21
Speaker
No, that's not the llama. It's the wood one. I'll switch the llama now. So as you look around, he's taken anything like the water skin, the papers, and that wand he's taken with him. Otherwise, you see there's just a lot of rotten, nasty food.
00:25:43
Speaker
because you saw when you cast that spell how much food showed up. And so it's just kind of all over the place. And you you don't you just don't find anything that that seems to be a value in the rest of the place. I didn't really expect to find much down here. You guys ready?
00:26:05
Speaker
Uh, yeah, once we're in here, you probably can't hear much. So we're, we're, we're not, we're not on this plane the moment we're gone. Yeah. So you're just, you say, are you guys ready? And you turn and look around and there's just freaks standing there looking at you. I just kind of like chuckle. Well, uh, I'm ready when you are. Go ahead and pick up the, the team and let's go. I'm going to grab the, the lattice thing that
00:26:33
Speaker
All right, Joxer, will you please describe to Gwendolyn and Delmar what they see when they're down there? Yeah, yeah. So immediately you have the lattice rope that's kind of nailed into this makeshift wooden. It looks hexagonical, but it's meant to be kind of a circle.
00:26:55
Speaker
It's it's it's kind of tight at this point because it's like a six foot diameter By ten foot deep hole and then you just see like almost like this weird Alchemical setup with with a bunch of like, you know smaller keg Wooden wooden wooden casks and and then you know some a little bit of larger casks and a
00:27:20
Speaker
and tubes that go up and down and a couple of like half circle or semicircle like tables. And I'm kind of trying to like stand on like one of the taller tables and then there's like just enough room for like three people to stand in front. And I'm just kind of looking down. Don't worry, you just take that space right there. We'll be out in a minute. I hope so.
00:27:51
Speaker
just kind of nozzles up next to Gwendolyn kind of stands next to her just okay all right and at that point yeah I'll grab like two drinks and this this will ease the nerves and I'll hand over like to to brew Delmar I think yeah Delmar grabs it and smells it and just
00:28:14
Speaker
That's the stuff. It has been a while and he just starts sipping and he's literally like filling his mouth halfway full and like breathing in air over the top of it and then swishing it around and swallowing it like a sommelier with wine. Like he's just savoring every sip of this.
00:28:35
Speaker
As soon as Glendolin gets it, she's just been so unnerved that she just, in one go, just drinks the whole thing. Yeah. Hands back. Much, much needed. Remember remembering Craig's back back when we were walking back with Marius or Marius and eating.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah, OK, so they're inside there. Krigs, what are you doing? I am collecting the item in question that's been laid out. Yep. I'm going to go back over to Davin, but before getting like within range to do whatever the next step of our plan is, which I'm aware of, but I'm kind of not paying attention to too much. Davin.
00:29:28
Speaker
I have a feeling and there's going to be a lot of explaining I have to do to both Gwen and Joxa. Joxa's a good man, but you might be the only one that can understand there were things we might be dealing with that we can't control. Oh, guaranteed for sure. But I don't know what else to do. This is it. This is the best plan we have.
00:29:57
Speaker
And we'll definitely go through with his plan, but you need to understand, there could come a point. We have to put him down. Well, our last resort, I hope. Indeed. You're ready to go. Let's get out of here.
00:30:21
Speaker
Hey guys, it's your friendly neighborhood Krigs here. It's nice to see you all at the potluck. Didn't expect to see you after the incident last time. Oh well.
00:30:35
Speaker
Anyway, I just wanted to drop in here and just give a big thanks to all you guys that have listened to our story so far. I know the last couple of episodes have been pretty daunting. Have no fear though. I actually have some pretty awesome news. This episode was sponsored by our new friend at Loot Tables.
00:30:58
Speaker
Yeah, right? We weren't expecting such awesome news either. Uh, Michael over at Loot Tables is actually killing it with some of the coolest TTRPG gear we've seen. His website, uh, you can find it at loottables.com. L-O-O-T-T-A-B-L-E-S dot com.
00:31:20
Speaker
It's packed with just so much cool stuff. But honestly, what we are most excited about are the new slim dice faults. He actually has a Kickstarter going for right now. It's live for at least the rest of April.
00:31:36
Speaker
And if you know me, I am a pure blood dice goblin. But I always struggle with having a carrying case or storage container that honestly really suits me. Michael and loot tables, his slim dice vaults have completely solved all those issues for little old me. Look at this. It's a hand-crafted dice vault in 15 unique exotic hardwoods. I'm talking like...
00:32:05
Speaker
a ridiculous amount of choices. They all actually have a borderless full lid that is magnetically secured. And not to like go all ASMR on you or anything, but when that magnet catches, oh chef's kiss, it is so satisfying. And a fun fact about me is I have the incessant need to be unique, so I'm gonna have mine engraved.
00:32:35
Speaker
I believe the engraving options start around $25, which is super choice. I'll definitely be buying one probably for each of my different characters, one for Krigs, because let's face it, I have a different set of dice for each of my characters. They don't intermingle. So what you're going to want to do is go to his Kickstarter at bit.ly slash LT swords.
00:33:04
Speaker
bit.ly slash L-T-S-W-O-R-D-S. So get on that train before it is too late. Ah, all the hype. Not only that, get this, Michael actually set us hired swords up with a discount code you can use at loottables.com for 10% off your purchase. Just use the code swords, S-W-O-R-D-S, at checkout and get so much red gear.
00:33:34
Speaker
All right, I've definitely gone on way too long. Just check out bit.ly slash LT swords, get in on that Kickstarter. You definitely are not going to regret it. And yeah, back to the episode. Bye guys. All right.
00:33:56
Speaker
Um, so I was going to get a little awkward. You got to kind of cuddle up right next to me here. Yeah, I'm going to put my, I'll give him a side eye, but then just go with it. I put my arm around him and he starts whispering some words and you start getting like this weird smell of like brimstone coming up and like little just hints of smoke around you guys. And then it kind of fades away for a second. He thinks to himself, he's like, you know,
00:34:24
Speaker
I've never actually teleported like I did another dimension before. I wonder if that's going to have some bad consequences. Well, I guess we'll find out. It just wraps his arm around him and he's a dimension door. Smelling the brimstone before they teleport, Kriegs just asks, did you fall? And then they teleport. Wow. Did you fall?
00:34:51
Speaker
Uh, and then we teleport 500 feet outside the building. Um, I don't know exactly how far the other buildings, but I'm going to head toward the cap of the officers building outside. And just as far as 500 feet, we'll go to get that direction. Okay. Well, to get out of the building is not quite 200 feet. So you are able to make it, uh, actually, let me look at the, the mappy poo here.
00:35:17
Speaker
You're able to do what? That's basically like outside the whole establishment. You make your way 500 feet. You make your way. If I can get to the captain's building, I'll go inside the captain's building. You're not quite inside the captain's building. You're just behind it between it and one of the barracks. But that sulfur smell and the brimstone smell and then that.
00:35:44
Speaker
and you reappear and suddenly you're standing outside under the stars and the bright moon and you see a hint of sunlight starting to come up in the distance but you've made it out of the building. So Craig's what you feel is it's different than your misty stuff. What you feel is first of all you see my cape just come up and wrap around us like instantly and then in that moment you see just like blackness and these weird bright white
00:36:09
Speaker
and red kind of glowing stars. And it feels like you've been on one of those roller coasters that just take off instantly. It feels like that, but it's also feels like it's going the other direction. Like you're being yanked in two different directions at once, but it's over in a second. And then all you see is just like the smoke kind of like fading away slightly. And then we're there. Oh, I much prefer my misty step. You get used to it after a while. I don't know. I could ever get used to that.
00:36:40
Speaker
Let's not leave him in there for too long. Do you remember what he said to do to get them out? Oh no.
Delmar's Memories and Hope
00:36:49
Speaker
I wasn't listening. That was you. That was your job. No, do not do this to me. He said something about needing a ladder. I don't have a ladder and a roof.
00:37:03
Speaker
a ladder. Hold on. So hold on. I take the, um, like jockser rolls a natural 20 of strength. That's great. But.
00:37:19
Speaker
It's still, your pack is like still in my bag now. So like. Yeah. It's like pulling up his backpack. Yeah. Well, while we're in the hole, Gwendolyn is just. Can you even hear me like I'm saying this stuff in that hole? I would say no. They're in another plane. Yeah. Cool. So you still, you still have no idea that I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. For them it's been like 30 seconds. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:46
Speaker
I look at Joxer and I'm like, do you think everything is okay? Joxer just kind of like looks up and then looks back at Gwen. It's Krigs.
00:38:07
Speaker
Gwendolyn doesn't laugh, but I cannot help but laugh. Yeah. Well, sorry. So at that point, like in 60 seconds, I'll make sure I get out of here, but I want to make sure that I give him a chance. So Greg's just holding this fabric and he's like flapping it around.
00:38:35
Speaker
I look, I look. Hold on. You're the magic man here. You should know how to do this. Well, you're just laid on the floor, right? It can't be that hard. I lay it on the floor, but it's still kind of bunchy. Uh, and I'm like waving my hands at it. Military, man, you gotta leave it that wrinkled. Come on, man. Don't think you try to make your bed.
00:39:11
Speaker
Uh, a puree McGarry. No, I don't think that jocks are always says it's got to be like this. This is not my best. Or, um, why, why do I have such a bad headache? There was something that jocks are would say at that point. Uh, jocks are is climbing. You lose. Yeah. The whole appears in jocks. His head appears over the top of the jocks. It works great. There are no magic words needed.
00:39:26
Speaker
I pull it nice and firm and taught, and I look back at Davin, put my hands on my hips, and he's like, that better.
00:39:42
Speaker
Gwendolyn set up next. Well, it's nice to know you guys came out in all in one piece. I wasn't really sure exactly how that was going to work. Do we see Del Mariette? I don't like. Yeah. Yeah, I don't either. He he crawls out behind Gwendolyn. OK. And as his head comes out,
00:40:12
Speaker
He looks around and continues to climb up and you see what's left of his hair on the right side of his head starts to blow in the wind and he just breathes it in and looks around and he's that same kind of expression that he had when he took a sip of that drink or when he ate that food with flavor and he just kinda, oh my.
00:40:41
Speaker
I thought I was doomed. I feel more and more like myself every, every minute that I'm with you all. I must say, that was the strangest trip I've ever taken. I'm not sure. Don't worry about the smell, friend. It's apparently normal. Yeah, I've smelled some horrible. I've been in a, you know, after what I've been in,
00:41:12
Speaker
The smell of that rotting fruit, I tended to get used to it, but it's going to take a minute to get used to the smell of fresh air again, too. Wait till you feel the sunlight again. Yeah, I don't know how the other side of me will feel about that. Well, I'm out. Let's only hope it'll melt away. Oh, wouldn't that be nice?
00:41:40
Speaker
If the way you look right now is any indication, I think it'll be okay. Maybe all you needed was to get out of that place. Well, I'm hoping that seeing her will be another huge stride towards everything being okay. Are we to stay here?
00:42:08
Speaker
I think it might be best to give it a night here. It's been a good while. Do you have any belongings left behind in these barracks? You know, I probably do. They would probably be in the officers' quarters. But...
00:42:29
Speaker
I'm not sure which of these buildings is that. Not everything's coming back to me yet. Did we go in the officer's quarters? I can't remember. No, you in the captain's quarters, but not the officer's quarters. So that would be right behind the captain's quarters, you said, I think. Yeah. You guys appeared down there right behind where the
00:42:56
Speaker
Captain's Quarters is. And on our map of the village here, you have yourselves marked. You have the Captain's Quarters marked. Delmar, it's been a decade nearly, I believe. Is there anything behind that you'd even be interested in bringing or you have potentially a new life? You know, I'm not entirely sure what I had left behind. Hopefully a change of clothes.
00:43:24
Speaker
I, I, yes, I, well, I don't suppose anything I have will fit completely, but I, part of me, the good part, hopes that something I find might help me continue to fight off this other, other mind. Well, I'm entirely for that. We can guide you to the officer's quarters. It's not too far from here.
00:43:53
Speaker
sorry right when you said that the yellow square appeared around as craig's points over there this giant yellow box appears oh roll 20 that's funny you're welcome
00:44:16
Speaker
that was you huh yeah yeah i was trying to see who it was looking at the colors of the character i had to change my uh change my color yeah that's pretty great man good job that was just perfect timing though it's right there classic so classic joxie classic joxer so delmar starts to walk
00:44:43
Speaker
follow you towards the officers' quarters or walk in the direction you pointed towards the officers' quarters. And you notice, this is the first time you've seen him take any kinds of strides, and his left side, you notice
00:44:59
Speaker
kind of drags a little bit and his right side walks and then his left side drags and then drags his right, or steps with his right, drags his left and then it kind of stomps and just walks heavy. And he's just looks like he's kind of tiring him out and just walking, but he's, he's doing his best and heading that direction towards the officers quarters.
00:45:19
Speaker
I try to help him walk a little. Okay. All right. Gwen, do you have any kind of magic that could possibly help? I mean, this is a curse of some sort. Do you have something that can remove that? I don't know. Now that we're out of that hole, I don't even know if we've introduced ourselves, friend.
00:45:53
Speaker
Well, I'm, I'm Davin. Davin. It's a pleasure. I'm Delmar. That's good. That's good to hear. Let's comfort her. I don't remember my surname, but I can help with that. That's it, isn't it? Einhorn. I remember. Father of Francine Einhorn. Yes.
00:46:24
Speaker
Yes. Yes, I remember. And you know, I remember one time when she was little.
00:46:35
Speaker
I remember she used to run into the woods so fast that I couldn't catch up with her. She would go hide here, hide there into the woods. And we were very careful that she didn't get lost, but I hardly could ever find her as she was hiding. And I would get so worried and so concerned for her. Where are you? Where are you? Finally, I would start to get agitated and get upset.
00:47:03
Speaker
Francine, you get out here this minute and there she would stand behind me. And she would just say, Oh, Father, I'm here right here. And I was so, it was so wonderful. I remember that I haven't, haven't remembered in a very long time. What is what is in this officer's quarters? Let's go. He starts to move as, like as fast as he can, trying to get there, this bit of memory, giving him hope that there are more
00:47:30
Speaker
more to follow as he goes towards where maybe some of his belongings are. So much for introductions and I follow after him. At least he knows who I am, that's all. So pleased to hear him being more normal, that I'm just pleasantries, don't matter. Let's try to get him out of here.
00:48:00
Speaker
It's not too late for fireball. It's always right in the back pocket. All right. So I think we're heading over to the officers quarters. See what's up. Okay.
00:48:12
Speaker
So you head into the Officers' Quarters and inside of there, this is a stone building. It's got a heavy wooden door with a sign on it that reads in Dwarvish Officers' Quarters. As you're looking around this building, make a perception or investigation check, whichever you'd like, as you approach the building. Yeah, whoever wants to try to see what's going on on the outside of this building. Oh, I'm for sure keeping my eye out. Did you say investigation?
00:48:43
Speaker
Either you can do perception or you can look a little closer and spend a little more time and call it investigation. It doesn't matter. Yeah, I will terribly. Yeah. Yeah. Jotzer is looking and thinking, God, those brews are about ready to start making. With five. Arrow, 16 plus seven. I got 19 plus one. 30, 20.
00:49:10
Speaker
Dirty 20. Okay. So you see as you look around, Krigs, that there's a couple of skeletal bodies. Whoops. A couple of skeletal bodies over to just beyond the building. And one of them you see there's a battle axe in one of their arms, but you see the other arm is about 20 feet away from it. Then you
00:49:36
Speaker
Delmar opens this big wooden door, pulls it open and steps in. The entry into this is a great room and it's kind of a sitting room with two round tables and six chairs. There are half-eaten meals left on tables and plates are full of rotten food. Goblets are tipped over. The stone floor is stained with wine that seems to have been spilled ages ago. Then there's a doorway on the right side of the room and a stairway on the left side of the room.
00:50:09
Speaker
That all seemed pretty normal, I guess. Par for the courts at this point. Yeah. At this place, for sure. Just kind of continue on, keeping my eye up. I'll go to the right through the door. Okay. So you go into the door on the right, and when you do, you
00:50:34
Speaker
walk into a kitchen area and there's a small prep table, a little coal burning stove. There's another table on the back of the room that has a few unopened crates in it. You see some pots and pans and various serving utensils and dishes scattered about the room. There's a pot of cold stew of some kind still sitting on this coal burning stove and the inside is still full of stew, something, it seems like a stew of some kind.
00:51:04
Speaker
that is rotted to the point of just kind of looking like green sludge. This smells terrible in here. Yeah, it would. I'll go look through the crates and see if there's anything in those. All right. Make an investigation check in the crates. Sure. Come on, Lama, don't fail me. 14. Okay. One of the crates is filled with
00:51:34
Speaker
rotting root vegetables or some carrots and potatoes in there and some radishes, kumquats, I don't know what kumquats, root vegetables. I don't think I even know what those are. And then there's the other crate is filled with salt. And as you kind of dig your hands down inside of the salt and lift your hands up, green, moldy meat kind of falls off your hand, like almost nearly rotted to dust inside the salt.
00:52:04
Speaker
Um, well, it was once like a site of beef or something. I, uh, I found the kitchen. Don't expect much from it. Where are you guys at? Following Del Mar still, he turned and head upstairs. Um, and he started walking upstairs, kind of turning sideways to get his big left side up this, this narrow stairway. And as he walks up the stairs, he gets up to the top and he kind of looks.
00:52:32
Speaker
And he looks down both this one hallway that goes over the top of this great room that you guys were just standing in towards the kitchen. And he looks around and is like, hmm.
00:52:47
Speaker
I'm not sure I remember which is mine. Perhaps I should check them all and he goes and starts opening doors and looking and you see inside there's each of these rooms is about the same. They each have a bed. There's a chest with personal possessions. Some are open and you can see clothes kind of hanging out of them. They hadn't been put away properly. You see a lantern on a nightstand on the side of a couple of the beds and a couple of the rooms.
00:53:17
Speaker
One room at the very back has a nightstand in it with a couple of drawers, but Delmar stops and he looks in that room, that last room, and he turns to look to the room across the hall, and that's the one that he goes inside and he says, you hear him say, ah, yes. And he starts rummaging through stuff in that room. There's our six rooms, there's three on each side. He's at the far left room, the third room to the left.
00:53:49
Speaker
Do I notice anything any particularly unusual about these rooms? I mean, they seemed empty and just like barracks and standard quarters from what you described, but anything unique that I could suss out. Make an investigation check as you suss. Red is suss. A sussed 13.
00:54:17
Speaker
The only thing that kind of stands out to you is that these rooms aren't put back together. It seems that military discipline fell apart at some point. You know that you're supposed to make your bed and make everything nice right after you get out of bed in the morning and put everything together. That hasn't happened in here.
00:54:36
Speaker
whether it was one day everybody just had to bail at the end of the day or during the day they had to bail and just not care or over time just military behavior just kind of went out the window. You don't know. Something or other happened to where this just hasn't been kept up like it should be. Right. I'm not going to pry. He's still in good spirits. I don't want to
00:55:06
Speaker
bring up stuff that will take him otherwise. Okay. He comes out after just a few minutes, three, four minutes. He comes out with a small shoulder bag and he says, I have everything I need here.
00:55:27
Speaker
wouldn't you know it my wedding ring was here as well as some of my tools from my my hobby works with jewelry and such but they did they did bring back some of the memories I was hoping especially especially the ring you know I I had almost forgot
00:55:54
Speaker
S so Gwendolyn would have been behind him and watching him go into the room as he leaves. Does she notice anything weird as he exits the room that he was in? Make a perception check. Glances in. Oh no. It's a critical fail. Oh, okay. All right.
00:56:22
Speaker
So you don't notice anything unique about his demeanor other than he seems even a little bit happier than he was before he... I would also like to kind of just... I've noticed obviously that things fell apart, but I'd like to see his room specifically if I notice anything.
00:56:47
Speaker
Okay. You can go look in his room and make a perception check or an investigation, whichever you also would like to do that. Okay. I'm joking. There's not a lot of room in there for both of you, but, uh, 14. Okay. Uh, you look around and you do see, you actually see a quiver of arrows leaning against the wall and a pair of like hunting boots like that go up to just below the knee.
00:57:16
Speaker
and that have been left in there. And you hear from the hallway, I've got everything of importance out of there. I'll be, I'll be heading downstairs now. And he starts to walk downstairs. Uh, Gwen, is she in the room with me? She, I don't know, Gwen, or did you go in the room with him? I didn't go into the room. I've just been outside the door.
00:57:44
Speaker
Okay. If he's out of earshot and looking around, um, I'm basically just going to say, I don't really, I don't really get the impression that these were soldiers at all minus the captain's logs. This is, this is very different than what I'm used to. I mean, probably, I just.
00:58:15
Speaker
I, it doesn't seem like most of these people are soldiers. It seems, it seems like just, just a bunch of normal people. Like I, some, something is odd. I have mixed emotions right now.
00:58:46
Speaker
And after she says that, she just walks away. Greg just looks around, neither here nor there, and follows all along. Okay. Just come down and Delmar is heading out the front door. Yeah, I'll assume Joxer never even made it in the building since he got just a complete distraction.
00:59:16
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So he'll see him on the way out. Yeah. So he's coming out and he says, I found, I found the ring Lynn gave me. How wonderful is that? And he's just holding this little ring, looking at it. Is, is Lynn your wife? She was. Yes. Can you describe her for me? Oh, geez. Uh, red, red hair, I believe.
00:59:45
Speaker
I remember how her skin feels more than how it looks. Do you remember how she made you feel? I remembered it as soon as I saw the ring in my room, yes. I'm holding on to that. I hear the other voices getting quieter and quieter.
01:00:07
Speaker
I know it's fairly early, but with maybe when the rest of the group comes down, I feel like maybe we should stay here at night just to make sure that nothing goes amiss. I would say I'd like to get out of here as quick as we can, but I understand you've been through a lot to find me and I respect that.
01:00:37
Speaker
I also must admit, I feel so far away from where I was, just being up out of that hole.
01:00:45
Speaker
Not your contraption hole. That's not what I meant. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be. Oh, no worries. I meant the chamber I was living in. I'm sorry. I understand completely. You have nothing to explain. I try not to bring many into my hole.
01:01:10
Speaker
It's an unusual experience. It's a special place. Especially when you are, you know, transported so thoroughly without seeing where it is you are going. It's strange. I'm assuming by this point, at least Davin's in earshot of
01:01:34
Speaker
He's leaning in the doorway, smiling at this old conversation. I look over and I was quite happy to see that nothing went wrong. I really wasn't too sure if our two magics would combine. I was kind of worried as well. But I have to admit, that was a brilliant idea. Hi.
01:02:03
Speaker
Very glad it worked. Why do we always know on a pinch where you can get out of that place? Yeah, I don't want to test that too often.
Preparing to Leave the Barracks
01:02:15
Speaker
Understandable. Are you guys leaving? Or are you coming in? He was leaving. I just got lost in thought.
01:02:30
Speaker
At this point, I assume I'm actually out the door now with this whole conversation. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So what are you guys going to do for the, for the day? It's, it's literally almost sunrise. So. Oh, what do you know? Can we hear the, any more like thuds? I'll make perception checks.
01:02:56
Speaker
All right. Preemption. Whoever wants to try to hear that. I'm still... None of your passive hear anything. 14 plus 7. 21. 18 plus... 19. Okay. Anybody else?
01:03:15
Speaker
Nothing worth mentioning. Yeah, I had a 16. That was it. Okay, Gwen and Krigs, you both do here, just light, just faint coming from that direction, just muffled by the building. It's there. It's just
01:03:39
Speaker
You hear it. You don't feel like it's getting louder or closer. It's just a faint moving around in there somewhere. Delmar, you're probably pretty ready to get out of these barracks. Is anyone against trying to set out at least now while the sun is going to be in the air in the sky?
01:04:05
Speaker
Um, Craig's I don't mind setting out, but I definitely, I, I feel like we should definitely take it, take it easy. I don't want DelMart or anything to, to, to, to take us by surprise. I agree. That is a great idea. So I, I mean, I know it's early, so we may want to, we may not want to stay here, but I, I'd like to take it slow.
01:04:38
Speaker
Well, I guess we can just head out. I mean, I have some energy, that food kind of helped. Same. And I thank you for that, as well, Delmar, that food. Oh, oh, this, and he pulls out the wand and he says, it's, it's quite wonderful in a pinch, but can I be honest with you? Um, I hope I never have to use it again. Would you like it? I mean,
01:05:07
Speaker
Of course. If you're not interested, it would definitely suit us on our travels. If I never eat another magically conjured piece of food for the rest of my life, it will be too soon. Why don't we do have some trail mix left over? What is that? Give me some, please. I mean, sorry. May I please have a bite of that? And I believe you have the last of it.
01:05:34
Speaker
I do. And she gets excited. And when she sticks her hand in there, she's like, Dale. And she pulls Dale up to Delmar. I didn't get to introduce myself earlier. I'm going and this this is Dale. Dale is a pleasure to meet you. Um, he doesn't talk much, does he?
01:06:02
Speaker
Once you get him going, he can talk your ear off. Let me find the trail next. Delmar looks at you, Joxer. Delmar looks at you, Joxer. The one eye just bulge the ugliness, but the other eye is giving you a look like, is she serious? Joxer's eyebrows kind of lift in almost like a semicircle and a small shrug.
01:06:33
Speaker
I mean, it is whatever.
01:06:35
Speaker
And he takes a handful of that trail mix and puts it in his mouth and just, it almost makes you uncomfortable how much he's enjoying every little thing right now. He's just like, oh, God, yeah, you know. And you're just like, okay, man, I mean, it's just trail mix, but he's really- He's like, what about Bob eating the fried chicken? Yeah, yeah, he's really into it. And as you guys start heading out, you know, he's dragging that foot and you could tell he's traveling about half the speed you guys can travel at.
01:07:06
Speaker
Delma, hold. Oh, you go ahead. I want you to do your thing. I need to apologize for my actions back in your room. I know they don't make a lot of sense, but there were some things I needed to be assured of before we were able to take you back.
01:07:35
Speaker
I want your travels to be a little bit easier. I know it's going to be a long journey. Hold one moment, if you would. He just stands there looking at you like... Krigs is going to cast Find Steed.
01:08:06
Speaker
So Krigs cast a spell. How do you cast a spell? What do you do when you cast a spell? It's going to be very similar to what it was before. You're going to see Krigs take a quick look at his palm. And then he's going to kind of, not necessarily kneel, but
01:08:32
Speaker
go into what looks to be more like a prayer stance, and he's gonna do a soft prayer kind of under his breath. And this time, instead of a elk, which he still has, mind you, he's going to summon a warhorse. It's gonna be full regalia of one of Helm's
01:09:01
Speaker
It's a spectral steed, more or less, like a spirit steed, but it'll be in full Helms army regalia with all of the Fixons of Warhorse from the war. So he, so Krigs says his prayer and you hear this.
01:09:26
Speaker
and comes galloping up out of just seemingly nowhere. This horse that stands about six foot tall at the shoulders. It's broad and strong big strong neck. And it's it's kind of a white with a it's it's a white horse and the whole thing is a shimmering white and you can see that the armor is almost a gray color with the symbols of helm on it, which is a
01:09:51
Speaker
It's a starburst, basically. It's like dots in the shape of a circle starburst that come out. And the saddle on its back is a silver and it kind of shimmers as this horse approaches and it pulls right up next to Krigs and just... Something to ease your travels. I have full honors for your actions. I read your captain's logs.
01:10:20
Speaker
prior to finding you in your cell and what you did deserves so much praise. Hopefully this will at least help you to Francine and you can find some peace in that.
01:10:39
Speaker
He looks at the horse and looks down at his left leg and knowing that you're supposed to mount a horse from the left leg first. He starts to lift it and realizes he can't and he walks around to the other side. As he does, he approaches the side of the horse you're standing on and he puts his hand on your shoulder as his ugly, nasty hand grabs the horn of the saddle. His regular hand puts his hand on your shoulder and he looks at you in the face.
01:11:07
Speaker
And he looks at you with both eyes. And he says, I know you're kind. And there is no apology necessary. Duty and honor is always first. I understand. And besides, it is not easy
01:11:33
Speaker
having to look out for the safety of companions that you care about so much. That's why I did what I did. Let's go with your shoulder. He puts his right foot up into the stirrup of the horse and Grunt says he tries to pull himself up and he's strong enough to pull himself up but he's struggling to get that left leg up over and he finally does and sits and kind of shifts in the saddle.
01:12:00
Speaker
Yes, this, this is something I'm familiar with. And he just, and just kind of flicks the reins and this horse just takes off. And you see this guy riding more skillfully than you would ever have expected somebody of his condition or whatever to ride. But you can see this man is experienced on a horse and he heads out the gate and he calls out behind him. Well, I thought we were leaving.
01:12:33
Speaker
The
01:12:46
Speaker
That's a really bad horse sound. Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of The Hired Swords.
Conclusion and Listener Invitation
01:12:51
Speaker
If you liked our show, tell a friend about us. And if you really liked our show, tell the world and leave a review. If you want to keep up with us and all the behind the scenes goofs and gaffs and maybe do a better horse impression, you can find us on Twitter and Facebook at The Hired Swords. Again, thank you for listening and we'll see you next time, partner.
01:12:59
Speaker
End