Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 79 The Tour Of Duty
199 Plays2 years ago
Wandering the Untouched Lands, soldiers of Helm, lost and forgotten.
Recommended
Transcript
The Enigma of Soldiers of Hell
00:00:05
Speaker
previously on the hired swords. The last thing I ever expected to find on these adventures were soldiers of hell. At least apparently ones on active duty. The gods' wars, it feels like, have been resolved for ages, but here they are carrying out orders. I have to get to the bottom of who's running this operation. Why here? And better yet, why now?
Podcast Resumes with New Characters
00:00:59
Speaker
You're listening to the hiatus swords. Er, the hired swords. It, yeah, it's been a long break.
00:01:19
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to yet another episode of The Hired Swords. I'm your dungeon master, and my name's Michael. With me, I have Blaze as Krigsgaldr slash soft friend of the house in Baroque. I also have Derek here. He's Davin. I don't know what house he's from. The Targaryen. That's right.
00:01:43
Speaker
Clan Mindstrainer. Sounds like a demon name to me. Not a demon boy. Hashtag not a demon boy. Hashtag not a demon boy. Gwendolyn is played by Ash. Hi, Ash. Hello. Good to see you. That's all I got. Good to see you, too. And finally finished with his mac and cheese with chicken, we've got Mikey here who plays Joxer. Hi. I am from the house of Eppepepepepepepep.
00:02:09
Speaker
Favorite house I can't do that right now because there's people asleep in my house, but that's okay When we left off happens when you record D&D at 3 a.m.
Alliance with Dwarven Soldiers
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, it does happen to 3 a.m. It also happens at 1054 p.m. Okay. Well ruin the mystique for the audience
00:02:29
Speaker
Sorry, I made a mistake and ruined the mystique. So. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique barbecue so you can have a mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique. Mystique.
00:02:54
Speaker
No. Oh, wait, we did that? We used to do that on the show. I thought this podcast was about teenage culture. I know that's the old one we used to do. On the last episode, all Michaels were wandering through the darkness. I'm 39 now. All of my teenage culture conversation would be like, Oh, that was darn kids. I'm a curmudgeon now.
00:03:21
Speaker
When we did leave off our previous episode of the hired swords, if you're binging, hit 30 seconds. If you're not, this is what we did last time.
00:03:33
Speaker
We're traveling, we had been traveling through the forest after another crazy, just a difficult night of these eyeballs looking at us and weird stuff happening in the woods. The party was traveling through the forest when they heard some voices in the distance, voices speaking dwarven. Come to find out this is a small unit of dwarven soldiers who were on a mission to
00:03:53
Speaker
They said kill some giants or track down some giants that have been attacking some supply routes that were going from an elven town or villages, elven tribes to the west. They were traveling southeast towards the stone mountains in the stone mountain fortress. And so they
00:04:14
Speaker
met up with the group at the party. They had some conversation, a little bit of hilarity ensued some conversation about the Almanora, a clan of elves who live in the West as well as deciding to travel together. So they begin to travel together and that's kind of where we left off. Just walking through the woods together, heading off, I guess, Northwest, the same direction that the
00:04:41
Speaker
this group of Dwarven soldiers headed. And I'm sorry, if you skipped ahead 30 seconds, I'm sorry that that took longer. What are you guys doing now as you begin to march? Carmen's kind of leading the way a little bit, kind of dodging tree to tree, staying where he can hide. This whole party is marching single file. It's kind of as if you would see soldiers with one kind of keeping point and the others a little ways back. Where are you guys? How are you fitting into the mix
Suspicions Arise
00:05:08
Speaker
here? Having
00:05:10
Speaker
having not really been around many of these people in so long, uh, I'm going to be kind of like intermingling. I know they're in a single file line, so I'll be kind of like going forward and then going back and trying to like have conversations and see connections. Like maybe they knew my friend, Bryn Stormheim from, you know, school age era. Who knows? I don't really know what, what they're, all dwarves know each other, right?
00:05:36
Speaker
I don't know if they're from like the the the mountain dwarves hill dwarves I'm just trying to figure out like what's up with these people. It's it's been so long Not necessarily homesick, but it's it's nice to see people that I knew or know how familiarity with so I might be a
00:05:56
Speaker
a little bit telling with how informal this approach is just talking to him but i'm i'm really like just enjoying. Can i getting to know everyone okay. Yeah you're you're approaching these and you're getting a general actually make make insight check is you kind of go person to person and start to chat with.
00:06:19
Speaker
Oh, that's the first Nat 20 of the night for me, my guy. So 25. Great. So you are, as you're traveling or as you're kind of going person to person and you're having conversations, you're getting some interesting things are becoming pretty clear. They're saying things like,
00:06:42
Speaker
you know, back in school or, or they're talking about events that happened in kind of. Dwarven culture in the, cause they're in, in our world, in this world, they're the warbs aren't like all in one part of the world. They kind of spread out over, especially, uh, during just before the war, everybody was kind of spread out and that's part of what brought the war on to begin with. And so, uh, one of them, in fact, um, her name is.
00:07:08
Speaker
I can't remember now. Nancy Wheeler. As you're talking to Nancy Sherfoot, she mentions being from the desert city of Moraphos and how she answered the call to fight just about 20 years ago, answered the call to fight and wanted to be a part of that. And there was nothing really happening war wise for a while. And so they're kind of talking to you. And what you're realizing is that the 25 insight
00:07:34
Speaker
As they talk about their school days, they talk about people that they know and kind of people who are legends or famous in dwarven culture, their timeline doesn't really line up with where you are now. Okay. Okay.
00:07:52
Speaker
As I'm picking that up where it seems kind of vague references and stuff that doesn't necessarily fit, I want to start examining insignias and different things because if they're soldiers and they have insignias and if there have been any changes, I want to look and see, okay, well, this commander, do they have the correct bars? I mean, I'm trying to go back in my depths of militaristic knowledge and try to pick and pinpoint
00:08:22
Speaker
whether or not they are of the appropriate age and era. So you, you continue to, or wait, what was I saying? Sorry, I'm trying to get to the, oh, you're looking at, okay.
00:08:39
Speaker
As you begin looking and trying to kind of piece together there, the rankings and things like this, you definitely notice the rankings, the couple, the three bars that are, that are typical on a lieutenant's armor on Freger, who is a lieutenant and.
00:08:59
Speaker
He would be the ranking, the ranking officer without you being there. And so you, um, you, the other guys, uh, there's a couple of them, the, the ranger looking ones are more just your
Doubts Deepen
00:09:15
Speaker
base. Just like, they seem like just private, private first class kind of first, you know, first, uh, entry level.
00:09:22
Speaker
Not recruits above recruits fully trained, but you know and then the scout Has a sergeant sergeant stripes on there the stripes that they have are they are square on one side and pointed on the other almost like the blade of a sword and there's no hilt or anything on it, but it just looks like a sword blade without a hilt and
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah. And so as you as a master sergeant in the army would have in the, in this, as a soldier here, you would have carried your, if you didn't, if you still had it, you would have carried your master sergeant emblem, probably not with you, not on you because your typical, the typical strategy then would be to take out the highest officer first. You would have not wanted that target.
00:10:12
Speaker
Okay. So it seems legit. It seems, yeah, it seems legit. They all seem like, and even in the positions they're in, like it makes total sense that the scout would outrank everybody else. That's a more specialized ability. And, and the mage doesn't have any markings at all, which is also typical, almost like a consultant situation.
00:10:36
Speaker
I'm gonna, as I've made my way through and I get back to like, was it Traeger? I'm gonna just kind of casually in conversations I'm asking him, you know, like, well, what kind of drew to the army, et cetera, and whatnot. And I'm going to get to the question and having picked up that something doesn't seem right. This is a sketchy question for me, but I'm going to ask him, Traeger, what, uh, what, what was your stance of the, the battle of,
00:11:07
Speaker
Bouldmeyer. I don't know. I wait. Did you say Bouldmeyer? Yeah. Battle of Bouldmeyer. Do you recall, Winnie? I do. The name. I remember there was great, great conversation of battle.
00:11:33
Speaker
As I, as I recall, there was great despair over some of the, I don't know, I guess the, not necessarily the behavior, but the responses of some of the soldiers there to what had happened. It seemed to be a turning point, I think, time.
00:11:54
Speaker
what was happening in the war and with our armies. I know discipline got really heightened after that. I do remember that. I don't remember any details. I'm sure I've heard the story though. Are you familiar with it? I've heard rumors and tales told. I was just making conversation. It's been so long since I've seen others in ranks. I'll tell you, the fight against the orc armies there was probably
00:12:24
Speaker
probably very difficult but I from what I hear these giants I would not want to come across I would rather come across a whole group of orcs than one of these giant creatures I believe you make them sound fairly fierce that's what I'm told and if they are taking out these elven transports then
00:12:46
Speaker
They are pretty powerful because there's the magics and some of this skill of these elven warriors I have heard are legendary. What's everyone else doing right now? What is your position in this group? Who was it that
Unraveling the Mystery
00:13:05
Speaker
said that the elven or a tribe was to the west of us?
00:13:14
Speaker
He did. Oh, no, but he asked someone who was like, it was two days, I'm sorry. Yeah, it was one of the rangers that was nearby, Seb. Is there any ranger nearby? Yes, Seb's just walking along. They're just hanging out with the group. Then I would have probably pulled out some paper and
00:13:39
Speaker
And, uh, jotted kind of a line where I think like the river we crossed was and start kind of asking them, you know, Hey, you know, where whereabouts are we? Where do you think this villages and, you know, not really relating a hundred percent where we came from, but trying to get an understanding of like where we might have gone and China jot down kind of a map. Okay.
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah. Why don't you make a survival check as you kind of listen to their explanation. I'm going to make a check for them to a history check to see what they remember about everything. Okay. Oh yeah. No, no, no. So they, they seem to have trouble making a connection with the river. They they're like, ah, yes, the river. Um, that's a very large river. I remember, I can't remember the name of it, but it,
00:14:32
Speaker
as it travels through, they're just trying to piece it together and they're having trouble explaining. But they do their best. There were there were these stones. We didn't actually take the stones across. And yeah, I rolled a three. So OK. Well, you just basically hear jocks are just oh, you just. But maybe, you know, did you notice any and just back and forth just nonstop? So between the two of them, there's complete and utter just
00:15:01
Speaker
comfoolery conversation going on over there. Nothing's getting accomplished as they want. No, no. And then I get like maybe distracted about some more foliage or something. What's going on? Go ahead. Sorry, go for it. What are you doing, Gwen?
00:15:17
Speaker
I'm probably towards the back and I'm looking over at the journal at my father because I've calmed down since last we heard me screaming and I've collected myself but I want to try to see if I can find anything in the book about the plane that we're on or place or whatever because Gwendolyn's like, something's not right.
00:15:42
Speaker
How did he meet these elves? How would he not know the name of the elf when he's literally doing a job for them? And it just kind of bothers her. Davin's probably walking pretty close to Gwen. He's knows she's been acting a little weird. He's not really sure why, but just stick close in case she freaks out for some reason. And a mage, Tate, Stoneborn is standing is kind of walking back in that direction, too. He's got a scroll out and he is
00:16:11
Speaker
kind of etching notes as you guys walk and kind of writing things down as he travels with you.
00:16:20
Speaker
I'm gonna probably kind of fall back as conversation with Traeger fades. Uh, and I'm gonna kind of butt up to Davin and Gwyn as they're back there. And I'm not going to mention it so much to Gwyn because her thoughts are probably very not ready to comprehend any of this. Um, but I'm going to mention to Davin, like some of our suspicions about how strange this, this place is are a little bit founded. Some of the,
00:16:51
Speaker
Some of the things, I know details of this is a lot of storybook information to you three. You're not quite as aged as some of us, but the timelines and the events that some of these dwarves speak of don't add up to my recollection. I mean, Traeger at least seemed to be familiar with
00:17:16
Speaker
the Battle of Bouldmeyer back in my darkest hour, but I don't think he pieced together enough information that he knew what actually happened. Aside from that, everything else was just keynotes, talking points. I could have been in a training lecture is what it sounded like. It was all just basic. I don't know what exactly is happening here, but it's not entirely what I expected.
00:17:44
Speaker
So what are you thinking, that maybe they're lying about who they are, that maybe they weren't actually in the war or something else? I don't doubt that they were a part of the war or a part of, I mean, credentials check out. It just feels like there's gaps in their information. There's pieces of details and
00:18:08
Speaker
I just can't piece it together. The information they've given me doesn't flow. It doesn't fit. There's something suspicious about them. I don't really know. I mean, besides the fact that they're here in a place that so supposedly nobody else has come to. But even beside that, their story, the way they act, something just seems strange to me. The mage, as you're back there where he is, kind of... Oh, what?
00:18:36
Speaker
This place is very strange. Indeed, it's very strange. It goes back to scribbling on parchment. Oh, Tate was it, right? Yes, that's me. Yes. What are you working on there? I'm a bit of a magic user myself. Well, I haven't required any magic in a while, it seems, but I also keep a journal of what's happening on our mission so that we can report back.
00:19:04
Speaker
The lieutenant has asked that I keep tabs of things so that he doesn't forget. That seems like a good idea. It's always good to have a ledger in case we need to go back and find out exactly where he came from or certain information. Yes, exactly. Very, very useful indeed. Devon just gives, away from Tate, but just gives the biggest awkward wink.
00:19:31
Speaker
Okay. Craig's responds with the biggest awkward wink, but Tate may have seen this one. He probably did. He just takes his head and goes back to his dust. Sorry. Don't mind me. I allergies. He seems to be not suspicious at all. He's just kind of either too into what he's doing to care or naive.
00:19:56
Speaker
I look over and I notice Gwendolyn still flipping through her journal, kind of feverishly looking for information. Gwendolyn, what say you? You've been quiet ever since the realization that there are elven clans up here. Do I find anything in my book? Because she's just going to sit there and kind of stutter. Make a history check for me.
Gwendolyn's Inner Struggle
00:20:20
Speaker
How about you make me a history check for me? Okay. I have a plus 35, 17 plus 35. Oh, nice. Sorry. I minimized me. Roll well. 14 plus two, 16. There is talk of tribes of elves to the north and
00:20:48
Speaker
The talk is like what he mentions in there is that that's where that's where he's headed is to go to his people to go find the people that he left behind all those years ago.
00:21:06
Speaker
just temporarily just to go help them. And that is his that's kind of what he wrote about. And he and he he didn't write anything about the darkness or the untouched lands or anything like that at this at this point. But that's that's kind of what she got. I. What did you say? And she looks over at Krigs. How are you, Gwen? I.
00:21:33
Speaker
It seems like a lot of information to take in very quickly. How are you holding up? Gwendolyn shuffles through a couple more pages and then finally gently closes the book and puts it back in her bag.
00:21:48
Speaker
I, I might've gotten to work it up a few minutes ago. I just, I had hope and I may have overreacted, but. No, you didn't overreact at all. You, you've spent your life wondering and searching and if you feel you've gotten close, keep that hope. Let that drive you for this. I mean, don't apologize for feeling how you felt.
00:22:18
Speaker
I just... I want to know my kind. I mean, granted, I'm half, but I just... I don't know. I feel like I'm lost. But not with you guys. I just... You don't have to explain it to me. I get it. And hopefully, at the end of this path, we find something for you. Some answers. Or direction, at least.
00:22:47
Speaker
I hope. And she kind of just keeps her head down, but just kind of keeps walking. How far are we planning on going with these guys? Like, if they say we need to go west to catch the elves or something, they're really there. Like, how far northward do we want to go? I'm keen to keep an eye on them. I'm not really sure what's happening, but
00:23:14
Speaker
It may be a key to something that we need to unlock in this area, or at least an understanding of what's happening. I fully think they could reveal a little bit behind the shadows in this area. How many eyes when we see them, first of all, do we still see the eyes? Actually make perception checks. All right. I was on my list to have you do whenever the
00:23:40
Speaker
Roll place. Settled in. 16. That's a 10 total. Hard me wants to metagame here, but I won't. Because I have a suspicion. I rolled a 16. Great. What jocks to roll? 18. Ash. Window land. Perception. Yeah. You didn't roll it. You are not prepared.
00:24:10
Speaker
Kill me. Unmake me. Unmake me. I rolled a 21. Nine plus 12. Good. Worth the wait. So Briggs and Quinn, you noticed that you realize now that you haven't seen one of these sets of eyes
00:24:35
Speaker
in a little while you've been walking several hours and it may have been about an hour since being instead of eyes. So my original question was going to be, um, how many sets of eyes did we ever see at a time when there were sets of eyes? There was a time at the beginning of entering that you, when you first landed on the shore where you, you couldn't look anywhere without seeing, I mean, it was an uncountable, innumerable. Hmm. Okay.
00:25:06
Speaker
But now it's very few. It seems to be very few. Strange dwarves, these.
00:25:21
Speaker
I know you said it was two days west. I was a little confused on what Trigore said. How long is it going to take from here to where we're supposed to find the Giants? Well, we are not. No, you're asking Trigore? I asked Seb since I was joking with him. Well, we are not.
00:25:45
Speaker
Completely sure. We're searching for them. Their tribe is further north, but they're raiding. We were hoping that we would find a raiding party and not have to go. I don't think we, our small party would be able to do much against the whole tribe, but we came upon their raiding party. We're in search of them.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah, but you were hired to protect a supply chain? Yes, the elves have stopped sending the supplies across this from through the forest because they've been getting attacked. So we're trying to help clear that so the fortress can be supplied again.
00:26:24
Speaker
So this isn't actually the direction of the supply chain you're just going to maybe intercept so much we are probably close to where the supply chain goes i believe because. We figure the rating party is near here but no we are following the exact path apply line between the elven villages and the stone fortress up.
00:26:51
Speaker
We, we've varied from it a bit in, in search of where these tribes may be, you know, where their forward operating base may be before they launch an attack on, on these shipments. We were hoping that it hasn't gone away to Greg or said it's possible that they've picking up and left picking up on this conversation that they're having with more details. I'm going to ask again, Oh, trigger, who did you say your commanding officers were?
00:27:18
Speaker
Oh yes. The commanders at the fortress. It is captain. Um, captain, you know, I should, why this place is doing weird things. I believe I I I've been, I've been searching for these giants too long. I seem to not even remember the name of my own captain. That's what's going on. He starts to look a little agitated and bothered.
00:27:48
Speaker
At that moment, Gwendolyn kind of trips on something on the ground and she probably is going to bump into Nancy. Okay. Oh my gosh. And she just bumps and they're probably going to fall down. Okay. Let's see if Nancy can stay up. She is after all named surefoot though. Is this your version of a meet cute? Yeah. Oh yeah. With a four. He stumbles to a knee. I'm sorry. Excuse me.
00:28:17
Speaker
I mean, I've been walking in the same place. Okay. I got to touch her hand to help her out. Okay. Thank you, grabs it and begins to stand. I'm sorry.
00:28:35
Speaker
I'm going to fall back behind everyone and I'm going to cast Detect Good and Evil and see if there's any kind of aura. Specifically, I don't think that they themselves might be evil, but I think that they have spent too long that they may have something happening to them. Okay. I know you've told me every time you cast this, what this makes allows you to see, I need you to remind me.
00:29:00
Speaker
For the duration, you know if there is an aberration, celestial elemental fey fiend, or undead within 30 feet of you, as well as where the creature is located. I can read, I swear. Similarly, you know there is a space or object within 30 feet of you that has been magically consecrated or desecrated. So if they are in some way desecrated, I wouldn't know.
00:29:27
Speaker
Um, so all of these dwarven, you, you, you cast the spell and you have to kind of, you, you stop, like you, you stop walking as this kind of familiar hum begins to echo in your ears. It's hum that reminds you of your hammer when you.
00:29:54
Speaker
We're sleeping in lonely Hill and it's alerting you to something. It's like, it's like Spidey senses tingling, right? And every time you look at one of these dwarves, the hum grows definitely loud. No one else, none of you other hear it anything. Only Craigslist hearing that. And as these are all seemingly apparitions of some sort. Wonderful. All the dwarves.
00:30:24
Speaker
And just then, jumping down from a tree landing right behind you, Carmen says, we need to stop for a second. Speak what you have to say. And I'm just going to let them carry forward what's wrong. There's something up ahead. Something you all need to see.
00:30:50
Speaker
All right. And then I'm going to call out kind of in dwarven like, you know, troops halt. They stop immediately. These dwarves do. I don't know what the rest of you do. I would probably just keep walking. Well, I would have slowed down and turned around. Yeah, I would. I was in the middle of a conversation with Nancy after I fell on her and I walked for a little bit and I'm like, oh,
00:31:14
Speaker
I'm the one kidding with that green light that's just a little too slow. Yeah, if anybody had like crossed my path, I would have like put my hand against their chest or something to stop and hold on. So and then I'm going to kind of head up to the front troops form ranks. They line up one after the other by rank with that confused and tries to squeeze in between the last two say.
00:31:41
Speaker
I'm basically just gonna say like, take arms, form defensive positions, stay here for now. Me and mine, we are going to scout just ahead, stay here. And I'm gonna ask kind of like, Jox or Daven Gwyn and Carmen to follow ahead and kind of see if he can show us what he's got to show. You say that to them in trego order. You heard him stand.
00:32:09
Speaker
Yes. Take positions. And he comes back to you and he says, excuse me. Is there, are you wanting to explain this to me? These are my men after all. Of course.
00:32:21
Speaker
It seems my scout, Carmine here, he's under my rankings and I wink at Carmine. He kind of gives you a face like, really? Seems my scout may have come across something that could require some attention, but there's no sense in bringing full ranks whenever we aren't unaware of exactly what we are dealing with.
00:32:45
Speaker
Keep your troops here. I will inform you. I will send either a scout party back or we will, we'll, we'll, we'll bring you in whenever the time is appropriate. I suppose you're the ranking officer. He says Ash Braid.
00:33:00
Speaker
Noble to YouTube, to the trees and the two Rangers looking once they kind of step behind the line and march up to the trees. There's a scurry up and then just quickly up and they basically disappear up into the leafless branches. And I really hope I'm not giving them advantage if we have to come back and kick their butts. You see Gwendolyn wave at Nancy, like I'll say in a bit. Nancy kind of lifts her hand up and gives you kind of confused, curious look and a wave. OK. No one likes Nancy.
00:33:31
Speaker
See that? To my group, I'm going to basically say like, I'm going to actually to Carmen, I'm going to ask him, like, is this something we all need to be present for? It's I'll tell you from here. And he he kind of side eyes the dwarves like he doesn't trust them. And he says, just follow me. And he says he takes you out of earshot of them. And he just kind of gathers you all around. And he says, there's there's an ambush site.
00:34:00
Speaker
It's very clearly designed for an ambush. And the strange is there's been a battle here already in this place. And well, it looks like it happened a very long time ago. You could see for yourselves, follow me. And he begins walking in that direction. We will walk cautiously, but I don't know that there is any danger now.
The Haunted Battlefield
00:34:23
Speaker
It is just curious and is making me suspicious.
00:34:31
Speaker
It's interesting. I was trying to get an idea of what the surrounding area could be to jot down the map. I don't think they understand this area at all.
00:34:46
Speaker
I'm wondering if they've spent as much time here as they would have had to for us to come across them. This is very strange. I've mentioned to Davin and it's not any surprise. The information that I've done from these troops, these dwarves, it's out of order. It's out of sync. It doesn't add up. So something is definitely wrong either with them or, well, I guess show me what you have to show me.
00:35:15
Speaker
Yes. Yes. This way. And he continues walking and about five minutes later, you guys come up on a, uh, bit of a clearing. There's a lot of very large stones, boulders kind of buried in the ground, partially just, you know, sticking out of the ground. And they are, several of them are damaged and like broken, broken off and parts. It looks like just kind of unnaturally somehow.
00:35:44
Speaker
But there's kind of grass overgrown the dead kind of kind of gross, like the same kind of grayish grass you've seen everywhere is kind of overgrown and, and standing still with no wind or breeze blowing them. The trees have kind of parted into this clearing and around the trees, you can see some of them grow in strange angles. Like, like they were like, you can see where they had been like interrupted in their growth, something
00:36:13
Speaker
damage them to where they had to grow in a strange angle. And it looks like something very violent happened here at some point, but it looks like the land here has been existing since then for quite some time. And you guys are welcome to explore and look around a little bit if you'd like.
00:36:36
Speaker
Gwendolyn kind of looks around, but then she goes, this doesn't look like an ambush site. I mean, just because they're bad at names, it doesn't mean that they're weird. I mean, and she starts to look around at the site. Okay, make investigation check as you look around.
00:37:04
Speaker
Five plus, no, it's not total. Give me a second. Two, seven. Okay, great. Glad I waited for that. Yeah, me too.
00:37:18
Speaker
As you look around, you are kind of caught off guard a little bit by the state of the plant life here. The trees, especially one tree, especially it, it looks like something just took a big chunk out of a large, a large trunk, like midsection of the trunk and it like buckled the tree, but it continued to grow. So it's growing at like this strange 45 degree angle instead of.
00:37:45
Speaker
straight up and down. And so you notice that and it's just weird. It's like something's caused this destruction here, but it kind of went on without it afterwards. I would like to search around to see if I can find any signs of bodies. Yeah. Make a investigation check for that. I want to do the same thing. Anybody who wants to do that can do that. Yeah. Oh, that's the tree. 23 for me. So 21, but sad days.
00:38:16
Speaker
That's a, that's a 15. Okay. If 15 was good, but you just didn't feel so good after the 20 people, right? Yeah. I liked, I liked my nat 20 was still lower than, than Devin's. Well, I rolled a 19. So I didn't roll poorly. So as you guys look around Craig's first of all, you find, you, you find some evidence of,
00:38:44
Speaker
of an actual ambush here, you see actually find a couple of like arrow heads on the ground and the whatever would or whatever that created the shaft of this arrow is dilapidated and worn and gone at this point. And it's just the, the iron
00:39:02
Speaker
Dwarven iron arrowhead that's left behind 100% easy for you to notice jocks are Excuse me. You walk up to one of these large very large stones not the largest there but very large and You notice sticking out from under The stone itself is a small
00:39:30
Speaker
foot, like leg and foot of a corpse with, uh, the, the boot is mostly dilapidated and gone. And the pants leg is mostly torn away and gone. And there are some like corpse, like dilapidated skin rotted off. It's mostly bone, but some skin left there. But there's feet sticking out of the front of this boot where it has been rotted away and
00:39:56
Speaker
there is a big long sword laying and rusted and partially covered with this goo, this black goo that is now on the ground that is laying next to this leg with the hilt of it is broken off by, it looks like by part of this stone and
00:40:18
Speaker
Daven, you are walking in and you're searching real carefully and you're just kind of looking piece by piece and you find first thing you see is a shield with the symbol of Helm on it and you.
00:40:35
Speaker
It's mostly still intact, but it's very dirty and rusted and corroded. You continue to walk and you, you find actually a piece of torn fabric and it's, it's like a piece of a cloak or something completely torn. And, and it looks like it was once white, but is now blood red with this based on the splotches of, of it. It's pretty large piece of fabric. And then you come up on.
00:41:04
Speaker
a full body of a dwarf that is, its face is stretched in a, its head has leaned back and its face is, its mouth is wide open and it is mostly just bone with a little bit of what's left of skin pulled back, but the skull is completely crushed in and destroyed. And there are ribs completely
00:41:32
Speaker
shattered from the inside, like pulled out of it from the inside out. And as you continue to look, you find, you end up finding six bodies of dwarfs, all of them destroyed with violent bludgeoning attacks to where their bones are broken and their bodies are just completely destroyed. Oh, it's pretty obvious at this point, but is any of them wearing any kind of armor?
00:42:02
Speaker
Yeah, the what's left of armor, any metal bits from the armor is kind of left behind and rusted and the chest plate, you see one of them finally leaning up against one of those, one of those large boulders covered mostly with grass as it's leaning kind of slouched over. And you notice as you approach.
00:42:24
Speaker
as it slouched over that it is completely severed in half from in its in its midsection and and not not severed really it's it's bludgeoned in half like whatever hit it busted the spine from around his waist completely and it is it's got this again this skin like flesh pulled tight on the bones and it is
00:42:52
Speaker
It has the breastplate there as well and all the different armor and everything that you've seen. Is it marbled? Yes. Okay. Gwenlyn's been looking at this tree for a while.
00:43:06
Speaker
This is not normal. I've read about this once because she hasn't noticed what has happened at all. This is interesting to see. Can you guys do you see this? And as she turns around, she sees everyone just kind of looking at all these bodies. I'm going to approach the marbled armor and look for insignia and ranking of a lieutenant of helm.
00:43:34
Speaker
Okay. Make another investigation check. All right. Who are they? I think it's pretty obvious at this point. 13 obvious. And Gwendolyn probably runs over to look at, see what Joxer is looking at. We've, we've been traveling with, uh, with, with them.
00:44:00
Speaker
no ghosts yes we've been traveling with ghosts no it is right i know there's something strange stated so clearly something just felt wrong right from the beginning i thought that i felt that too i mean go back i was the one that was like hey i felt this thing and you're like yeah okay well no i no they
00:44:25
Speaker
Gwen's having trouble. I bumped into Nancy. Remember? She can't be a ghost. Everything's wrong with this place. Well, Gwen, you also were bumped into by Teld, and I seem to remember him dying as well. Maybe she starts thinking of a whole bunch of things.
00:44:51
Speaker
Okay, okay. Maybe, maybe they need a proper burial.
Revelation and Closure
00:45:01
Speaker
The question is, do we bring them over here? No, she's sure her pitch keeps rising because she doesn't know what to do. I
00:45:14
Speaker
When they seem to respect whatever command I once had, I could give them orders to avoid this location.
00:45:24
Speaker
For how long? If they're souls wandering, if they are... Would I want to endlessly wander the shadow dark of the untouched lands for all my afterlife? Surely as a paladin you probably knew clerics or somebody who knew what to do with situations like this, right, Krigs? Ugh. Uh, kill?
00:45:48
Speaker
It was never really a lot of options. It was mostly very heavy-handed, hammer-first kind of approach. I'm not really too holy of a man. Well, maybe we're wrong. Maybe there's two different sets of six dwarves wandering in the darkness that nobody else has ever been to before. With rather unique armor, I might add. Yeah.
00:46:18
Speaker
You do find as you kind of run your hand over the armor and start to look carefully where there's a part where the armor has been just, just busted in, in the, in the midsection. And as you kind of look up, you can see that it is jarred loose the bars of Lieutenant, but they are hanging kind of loosely off the armor. Well, that's not good. And I kind of just like, I take one finger and kind of.
00:46:49
Speaker
Thump very softly, that barn just like, just kind of like hit it. That's not good. Gwen, I've seen you talk to trees and plants before. Do they talk back when you do? I think they do. Like, do you think that maybe they could tell you what happened here?
00:47:10
Speaker
There is... most of the wildlife here is dead. I tried to talk to it before and it was just murmurs. I think we've proven that things that are dead here aren't always dead. Maybe give it a try.
00:47:27
Speaker
I'm not really sure what we're going to learn. I mean, they're searching for giants. There's obviously a lot of, I mean, that one's underneath the giant boulder. Nothing lifts a boulder up like a giant, right? After a good pump, maybe I could. I think it's like 10 times their size.
00:47:44
Speaker
No, you don't know my strength. I think it's like an 18, right? Just about. That tree that's growing weird, does it seem like it's growing new life or is it not as dead as the rest? It looks just like all the others. It's just the shape and stuff is weird. Like it had some sort of crazy impact that altered its growth pattern. Hang on, let me think.
00:48:11
Speaker
I think, I think we just let them see it. Maybe, maybe they're in denial and that's why they're stuck here. Maybe if they see their own bodies and they accept the future. Wait, Gwen, you said you were able to touch Nancy? Yeah, I literally made her fall over. If they come in here and there are also giant ghosts of some sort,
00:48:39
Speaker
If this is a reliving of the full event, that would mean, granted, I will just, you don't, you haven't found any giant corpses. So that's true. There's just the whole ground is a giant corpse. Oh, bam. That means there's still life probably. What is life? If I was a ghost, I would want to know.
00:49:10
Speaker
I agree. Well, that's two votes. Gwen, what do you say? I don't think they should see them like this. We should lay out their bodies. And Gwendolyn immediately goes and starts digging up these bodies. Okay. From the ground. The more you disturb the ground, first of all, first of all,
00:49:37
Speaker
Yeah. Were you going to say something? I would have. Do you see the state of these bodies? Don't touch them. What are you doing? My hands are in the dirt. Your hands just it's like putting your hands in. It's like putting your hands in pudding. As you begin, you're going to say pudding. I'm so ready for it. Putting your hands in pudding.
00:50:07
Speaker
and you're putting your hands in there. Putting my hands and putting. As you put your hand in and you start to pull it back and it just fills in again with more of the gooey earthy and this rank smell of rot begins to rise up as you dig through and just then you hear from the tree line where you came from.
00:50:37
Speaker
you hear Traeger's voice and he, Halt here men, halt here. And he begins to walk towards you and the rest of the army is about, or the rest of his men are about, you know, about
00:50:53
Speaker
50 feet away at the tree line and he's approaching where you guys are standing and he says, my scout said it was all clear. So what is it that we found here? What is so interesting? And he begins to look around and see passing in passing. About face. About face. I don't know. I don't know.
00:51:18
Speaker
He says, this looks like a type of, this looks like somewhere that could be dangerous for an ambush. You should keep your heads down. Let's look around here. What is, something has already happened here. Look at this. As he sees a corpse on the ground, there's men on me. And they begin to run out, pulling, drawing their weapons. And as they run out, they begin, they line up behind him and he looks at you.
00:51:45
Speaker
He looks at you, Krigs, and he says, your positions, do you have an idea, your strategy? I defer to you. This is a small enough group. I think this is your specialty, sir. I am so sorry, Trigger. And then I just look to the bodies around, specifically the one that has the same armor that he does.
00:52:15
Speaker
You're sorry, but you can't help us. Are you not going to command this? I have given you command of my heart. And he looks where you're looking. Look around, soldier. Men, check it out. And he kind of pushes them all in. Literally, it is a little bit mind blowing to watch as each of them spread out.
00:52:41
Speaker
And it's their instinct to take their position, to prepare for battle, takes them to the location of their corpse. Who's body was I trying to put?
00:52:56
Speaker
take out. You were you were trying to dig up Trigore and he approaches and he stands over it and you're there with your hands in the dirt and you hear one of the other Bren of Bren from the side. He calls out. I don't understand. And as he calls that out, his voice echoes as he finishes what he says and you no longer see him there. I look up to Trigore and
00:53:27
Speaker
A tear comes out. I didn't want you to see this. To see what? Please. And he looks down and he... That... How did... And he turns back and he looks at all of you and he looks at you, Krigs, and... I see, he says. And then he just fades away. And one by one, they fade away.
00:53:53
Speaker
Nancy and Gwendolyn stands up. I would have tried putting my hand on his shoulder like as he faded, I would have been trying to reach out in that moment.
00:54:04
Speaker
As you reach towards him, as he starts to fade, he seems to lift a leg like he's about to step towards you to bridge the gap between the two of you for you to comfort him. And before he gets there, he's gone. You call out for Nancy, Gwendolyn. And when you call out, you look and there she is. And she turns her head back and looks at you. And then she says, what is it? And she looks back down and then,
00:54:31
Speaker
She looks back with a look on her face of realization. And as she does, I wave at her. She also vanishes. I want to try and awkward smile and wave as she vanishes. Can I catch a tape before he has a chance? I will use, um, if I can stop him in time, I will use mage hand because I can shove him back five feet. See if I can stop him from getting there. He begins to walk.
00:55:04
Speaker
just the middle of this field. He's almost right in the center, almost as if he's used to taking a position where he can be protected by everyone around him, and he's already got his scroll parchment put away in his spell book out and open, and he begins to raise his hand, and then your hand pushes him back, and he turns and looks at you, and he says, what is the meaning of this? Why?
00:55:22
Speaker
He's walking and as he approaches the
00:55:33
Speaker
And he just stops in his talking, just looking at you. Please state, let me see your journal first. That's very important. You mean this and he takes it out and goes to hand it to you, reaches it out. I'll go and grab it. And I just want to open it up and just immediately look at the last entry that he put in. Hey, you open it up and when you look down and you read the last entry, it is scribbles. I mean, it's, it's not,
00:56:02
Speaker
anything tangible or meaningful to you. And it's not that it doesn't, it looks like a language you can't read. It looks like whatever he was doing in it was either for show or he really couldn't write. I frantically just start flipping through or however it is flip through and you flip and you flip. And it's, it's like, it's, it's like, this is a,
00:56:33
Speaker
echo or a distant faint last sound you hear of an echo of what Tate Stoneworn wrote in this book. It's like there's almost a pattern like writing, but it's no longer
00:56:50
Speaker
This isn't his journal.
Reflecting on the Hiatus
00:56:53
Speaker
This is a apparition of what his journal was. And as you look up from it, go ahead. Is Tate the last one still? He is. Okay. And as you look up from the book, Tate got his back to you and he's looking on the ground with his hands on his hips. And he's already halfway faded away.
00:57:18
Speaker
And by the time he's gone, you look down at your hands and the book's gone as well. Dad will just clench his fists kind of together, almost frustrated. Adios, soldier. And that's the end of the episode. I was going to tell him that his tour of duty is complete.
00:57:43
Speaker
Thank you guys again so much for joining us in the wilds. I know it's been a minute. The world is sometimes a hard place and burnout is very real, but we're back. So strap in, tell a friend, leave a review, tell the world, you know the whole drill. I'll see you next time in the wilds.
00:58:23
Speaker
So.