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Ep.60 They Came Crawling
101 Plays2 years ago
Hot on the trail of earlier adventurers, Gwen leads the swords to an abandoned camp. Hopefully, the things found here are enough to reveal the truth behind these happenings in the north.
Recommended
Transcript
Reflecting on Loss and Growth
00:00:02
Speaker
previously on the hired swords. It was strange watching Daven and Gwynn fly off like they did. I'd forgotten for just a moment that they weren't actually family. We've been through so much up to this point and it's all happened so fast that I let myself grow so much closer than I ever expected.
00:00:26
Speaker
When you renounce your name and leave who you were to the past, you don't ever anticipate letting anyone get close enough to depend on you again. And I can't help but feel like I've failed again as they flew off. I just hope they've made the right choice for themselves coming back.
Introduction to the Hired Swords Podcast
00:01:11
Speaker
Hi friends, you're listening to the Hired Swords Podcast. Is this the part where I talk about Dale? No, no, no, no, we're good. Okay, I don't mind. Dale could always just pause. That's enough, we're good. Is he here? No, no, no.
Recap and Humorous Interactions
00:01:33
Speaker
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of The Hired Swords. I hope you enjoyed our intro song and joke. Those are always very great. Joining me today, oh, first of all, I'm Michael, your dungeon master. Joining me today is Derek playing Daven. Hey, yo, what's up? Oh, he's feeling groovy. Joxer's here, that's actually Mikey playing Joxer. Bork. Gwendolyn is played by Ash. That's me, I also was going to Bork.
00:02:04
Speaker
He stole your bork opportunity. It's not fair. And then Blaze is here. He's Krigs. Hey, dude.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Wolves make other sounds besides bork sometimes. Speaking of wolves, that's kind of how we left the last episode. We started the last episode with the party kind of split up. Davin and Gwen having flown opposite directions after turning into flying creatures, birds of some sort. And while they were gone, Krigs and Joxer had a little bit of back and forth conversation. Very interesting, very good. Listen to that if you have not
Chasing Through the Woods
00:02:40
Speaker
done that. It was swell. Good job, you guys. Good conversation. Thank you.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, of course. And then shortly, just halfway in between that kind of in the middle of that conversation, Daven comes walking from the forest. They sit they they have they talk a little bit more Daven kind of upset there's a little apology for some of the drama that had happened, causing them to split drama surrounding the gemstones that contains some sort of power that was controlling Tomba and the chief and
00:03:09
Speaker
So after that, the they kind of lightened the mood with some pranks and jokes on each other, including 52 car to pick up and things like that. And then suddenly Gwen showed up startling them all by dropping a dagger from the sky and saying to them, you need to come with me, let's go and turning and taking off into the woods. So they spent the second half of the last episode running through the woods chasing Gwendolyn trying to avoid falling and tripping and running into trees. Finally,
00:03:37
Speaker
Gwendolyn coming back Daven having the idea to turn two of the other the other two guys into dire wolves Daven climbing on their back and them moving back to this camp and cave that Gwendolyn said she had found on her little jaunt into over the over the woods and They follow her scent smelling this this burned wood this wet kind of ashes from the campground she had found and
00:04:04
Speaker
They run several hours into the woods until making it finally to this campground, seeing an abandoned campground that looks like it's been starting to become overgrown a little bit.
Investigating the Campsite
00:04:16
Speaker
And that's where we left off, these three wolves and daven appearing right at the tree line, looking at this camp that is sitting in front of them. What would you like to do?
00:04:26
Speaker
Well, we made it. This this is the camp. I'll drop. Gwendolyn says she borking at us again. She's borking, but she gets out of form and repeats it. This is the camp. I drop Polymorph. I let you guys be humans again. I you'll actually hear kind of a grr from Joxer as he's now a human again. Are you still are you still my backpack?
00:04:56
Speaker
No, I would have hopped down first. Okay. Uh, I'm still just on all fours looking sniffing around. Oh, well, that's embarrassing. Anyway, anyway, Gwen, where are we? What's going on? I don't know. She just looks at it. And that's now still in Wolf, right? You're
00:05:19
Speaker
No, I've I've been okay. I got it. Wait, hold on for a second. Craig's stand up. You already said it's embarrassing. Oh, uh, and I just slowly, sheepishly get up. You get kind of used to it pretty quick. I mean, that was that was fun. OK, I'll say it. That was pretty radical. Yeah. I mean, why why'd you end it or did it just end by itself?
00:05:47
Speaker
I figure we need to have a conversation and you can't really talk when you're a wolf. Sure you can. Well, I can't turn myself into a wolf at the same time and I wouldn't understand your weird, boring sounds. And I'd like to be included too, alright? I guess. Yes. Why did we come here, Gwen? What's this about a knife?
00:06:11
Speaker
I so I was flying
Uncovering the Mystery
00:06:14
Speaker
and I found this dagger and she shows the dagger again and then I soon found this camp and it's it's odd that it's still here and she points out to everything and like Mike said before it seems like everything was just left here and it has been either days or weeks since anything has really been touched
00:06:41
Speaker
What kind of stuff are we looking at here? What has been left behind?
00:06:44
Speaker
Yeah, you see a couple of tents there. You can see that the tent flaps are kind of pulled back, kind of blowing in the wind. And as you look inside, it's kind of dark out. It's quite dark out, but with the moon and everything, you can kind of make out the hint of maybe some sort of small light chest in there and bed rolls on the floor, as well as there are some bed rolls kind of laid out around the campfire as well, seemingly made up like they were somebody meant to return.
00:07:12
Speaker
Why would someone just leave this here? Well, we just left our campsite. But we didn't leave our bedrolls or our tent. That's a good point.
00:07:23
Speaker
Are there? It's a tent and it seems pretty, how large is the actual tent? Is it multiple person or like one or two people max? It looks like probably a couple people could sleep in there, but it's taken up. The space is kind of taken up with a bedroll and then a few other, just a couple other little items like the little chest and something else inside those that it's like somebody was sleeping in there on their own and the other people were sleeping.
00:07:50
Speaker
in the around the fire how many bedrolls total are there there are six well are there is there any signs or insignia or any kind of information that would indicate like they're a company of some kind or
00:08:06
Speaker
Not out where you're just looking around, but if you want to go investigate further, you can go look inside stuff. So where are you going to go? There's two tents. There's a smaller tent. There's a little bit smaller on your left hand side. Both of them look like they could squeeze in two people tightly. But the one on the left is a little smaller. The one on the right is a little bit bigger. And it's still pretty dark, so I'll probably pop dancing lights. So I'll just kind of guide to.
00:08:30
Speaker
Like one above us and then one in each one of the tents. And then we should probably check things out. Devin wants to try and grab one of the lights. What happens? OK, you reach up and try to grab a light. What happens when he tries to grab the light? That's a great question. So making them appear as torches lanterns glowing. Spontaneous combustion.
Strange Encounters at Night
00:08:53
Speaker
Devin turns into a newt. It's either it doesn't really say that
00:09:00
Speaker
It is or isn't physical. So I'm going to I'm going to say that you could you could grab one. Can you cast light on something much like Dale was once a spotlight? That's not my ability, so I can't. Oh, that's like sunlight or whatever. It's just I think it's just called light. There is a cancer called light. I don't have it. OK, I'm just curious. Oh, I think I'm going to go into that small tent.
00:09:31
Speaker
Alright, so you go to the small tent on the left there. And as you approach it with the light kind of hovering outside the the light shining through the tent is is, you know, solid fabric, but the the light shines through there actually pretty nice. It kind of puts a nice hue in there like a lampshade would and you see a a bed roll. And there's a couple small pieces of parchment on the bed roll. There's also a small
00:09:55
Speaker
Chest made from it looks like some sort of light like light wood. It's it's about it's about the size of a shoebox not much bigger than that and there is a there's also a
Battle with Ethereal Spiders
00:10:07
Speaker
an extra blanket rolled up at the foot of that bedroll and That's it in that tent per se or particular Okay, the parchment is there any writing on it? Yes, if you want to go forward and kind of investigate look closely at those things you're able to do so and
00:10:24
Speaker
I'm gonna collect the parchment. I'm not gonna officially read it, but notate that I have them. And probably whenever we all get together, kind of just like observe everything that we found. The chest that's in here, I wanna check and see if it's locked.
00:10:40
Speaker
OK, yeah, it is not locked. In fact, there's no lock on it. It's more of just like it's got small like leather straps buckled on it. And it's just it's like a simple travel chest. It doesn't seem to be a security kind of thing. Even if there was a lock on it, it looks like you could just like put your fingers under the wood and pry it back. It's such a light little thing. So OK. All of this feels really sketchy. So Craig's is going to.
00:11:10
Speaker
Daven, did you have Mage Hand? Of course I do. Daven, could I see you? Could you pop in here real quick? This is really sketchy. Alright, get out of the tent. I'll just open it from here. Yeah, I'll pop out and let him open it. I don't trust that to not be a trap.
00:11:30
Speaker
I'll just flick my fingers and the lid pops up. Okay, so you flip open the little buckles and flip the lid up and it opens, no problem, no issues. I'm gonna skirt back in and kinda like start rummaging through.
00:11:45
Speaker
Yeah, you look inside and there is a small bell inside of there just like that you would like hold a handle and ring a bell beginning and there are three crossbow bolts and a small vial with some sort of thick clear oily liquid in it. I wonder if this is some of that that's stick slippery oil.
00:12:08
Speaker
I would like to, I assume that the bell is just normal. It's not an enchanted bell, but I would like to look and see if there's anything that stands out about the bell or if I have any recognition of what the vial is, if it's medicine, like medicinal or whatever. I just kind of want to observe closer with these items and see if there's anything that stands out. Make investigation checks. An investigation check on the bell and an arcana. You want to see if it was magical or something? Yeah, make an arcana check on the oil. The oil, not oil necessarily, but whatever's in the vial.
00:12:38
Speaker
seeing how he pulled out three crossbow bolts. I'm gonna start looking around and see if there's a crossbow anywhere. I was 18 on my arcana check. Make a investigation check, Devin. 18 on the arcana check, looking at that vial. It looks a little different. It's more clear than the slippery oil and it's a little thinner. It's not quite as thick and it kind of drips down the sides a little faster of that vial.
00:13:04
Speaker
it you feel like you have seen it this is some sort of potion it's hard for you to know you're not really versed on what potions do what based on looking at them but is there anything in the alchemical kit that I collected from the halflings for the halfling that might like I can
Post-Battle Reflections
00:13:24
Speaker
do this later
00:13:25
Speaker
But I wanna take the potion and I'm gonna be studying eventually what it is. I don't wanna take it myself and drink it. And the bell, I guess, for the investigation on that is 13? Okay, yeah, you see initials engraved on the inside of the bell. Okay, what are they? They are in elven and they are just three elven characters, like letter characters.
00:13:53
Speaker
Anything else in this room that stands out worth looking at? I'm not gonna probably dishevel the bedroll. It seems fine, I'm assuming. Yeah, there's just that bedroll and then a rolled up extra blanket sitting at the foot of that bedroll. Okay, I'm gonna pop out. I have that potion pocketed it. I have the notes to read here later whenever we have time as a group.
00:14:14
Speaker
I'm gonna take the bell to Gwen and... Gwen, could you... I... I don't read Elvish. I know that that's hard to believe with how intelligent I am, but... Do you know what this says? Let me see. And she grabs the bell and looks inside it.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah, on the inside, just on the bottom edge of the inside of the bell are the are the are elven initials that you don't know what name necessarily they stand for. But they would if you were to try to spell it out in in common, it would be the letters T, V and B. T, V and B. And it looks like just an engraving. Oh, hmm.
00:15:00
Speaker
It seems like it's just someone's bell like as if it's their initials. I have I seen this handwriting before or no, it looks like some sort of fancy etching script like like you could go to any any shop in any city and get a get an engraver to engrave something for you. And this is one of the like etching scripts they would use. I ring it.
00:15:28
Speaker
It's like a font, you know? Yeah. You ring the bell and suddenly nothing crazy happens. Suddenly nothing. And suddenly it stops ringing. I had a 21 investigation looking for a crossbow. You see no crossbow anywhere in sight in that room. You, you're looking and looking. Do you kind of ruffle things around and kind of unshake, like take things apart and anything like that?
00:15:54
Speaker
Yeah, like lift up the bedroll and extra blink it out of the way. Yeah, when you move the extra blanket, one blue gem small gemstone falls out of the blanket. Well, it looks like somebody didn't look quite well enough. And I kind of show it to everybody. Oh, have we have we checked the other tent? I haven't had that direction, I suppose.
00:16:20
Speaker
I'm going to make my way over to Daven and kind of see if Gwen is paying attention to the other tent. Just kind of notice the fact that it is a gem. Daven, this isn't a gem as he does air quotes noticing like the necklace. This isn't going to be a problem. It's just a blue gem. Here, take it. I hand it off to him. I cast Call Lightning on it.
00:16:51
Speaker
Here we go again. I don't notice that I'm Watching jocks are good through this tent. Okay I just want to take a quick look at the gym and see if I see that same like darkness inside of it the same one that I saw the other I assume it's just a regular old make an investigation check with advantage I trust nothing at this point and thank you for the advantage because that was a 1 and a 19
00:17:10
Speaker
Yeah,
Resting and Reflecting on the Journey
00:17:11
Speaker
this gemstone is a cut, clean gemstone as if something used for jewelry and currency, not, there doesn't seem to be anything magical about it. And you would guess it's worth, it's pretty rare, the type, so it's worth probably somewhere between 150 to 200 gold pieces. Okay. Depending on where you're selling it, right? I'm gonna pocket it.
00:17:39
Speaker
not like this is mine now but just like seems seems okay but just keep an eye out i don't want to get uh any more any more events much like earlier today understandable
00:17:55
Speaker
over random gyms at this point. It's still a little touchy. I hope it can clear up quickly. What was that? Choking. Come again? What's in there? Have you guys, what do you or Alpha AC? Start looking through. All right.
00:18:11
Speaker
I'll bring in one of the orbs of light and, you know, hold it locked in my hand. Yeah. So in the, in that, in that, uh, tent, uh, you see another bed roll sitting next to the bed roll is an iron pot. Uh, there's also a quiver sitting there empty. It's like a, for arrows, but it's empty, uh, sitting there on the ground and then sitting in the iron pot is a wet stone, something that would like would be used for sharpening blades.
00:18:40
Speaker
There's an iron part in here. And there is also another light chest in that room, just like similar to the other one.
00:18:47
Speaker
OK, probably go look at it, see if it was locked or not. OK, it is not locked. In fact, it also has similar it has one buckle across the middle. It's kind of different made from different wood, but it's a similar like light carrier stuff and protect it while you're traveling, not necessarily trying to be secure with it. But it yeah, it's easily unbuckled and opened if you'd like. Yeah, since I saw it earlier, I'll also use mage hand and flick it open before I walk up.
00:19:17
Speaker
Okay, yeah, so when you open the belt, or unfasten the belt thing and then open it up, inside of there are two sheaths, small sheaths, like they would be for daggers, and a small rolled up piece of parchment. Gwen, can you bring that dagger real quick? Yes, and she runs over and pulls out the dagger. Grab a...
00:19:44
Speaker
one of the sheaths or i'll grab both sheaths and see if do any of these fit i try the first one
00:19:52
Speaker
Yeah, you put the dagger in that first one and it fits. Not only does it fit perfectly, but
Exploring New Discoveries
00:19:58
Speaker
there is a small little strap that can go into one of those finger loops and latch it down. And then you notice there is a piece cut out of the leather of this sheath that reveals that engraving. Even while the sheath is on, you can see that word, the name that is on there. I believe it was Yana.
00:20:20
Speaker
yeah this this is weird because when i found the dagger it was just alone away from the camp why
00:20:31
Speaker
We'll investigate over there too. Let me and I'll just keep that in there and keep that dagger with you. I'll grab that parchment and then just give like a once over. I'll probably snag the quiver. Okay. Just to grab with, you know, just in case. You say the quiver has no arrows in it? Correct. There are no arrows in the quiver.
00:20:56
Speaker
We have a quiver with no arrows. We've had arrows with no crossbow. We've got a dagger that was not at the camp. We've got another sheet without the dagger. I mean, it seems like the weapons are all over the place here. That's not the only thing I found. And she kind of points to the directions that the footsteps are away from the camp. I also found a cave where these tracks lead.
00:21:24
Speaker
a cave whenever you went in I mean was it something deep or I mean when you went in was it the wall short or does it keep going I don't know I took a few steps in but it didn't something didn't feel right all I could hear with the drops of the cold dink water inside was the dogger did you find it on the way to the cave
00:21:49
Speaker
I found it on the way to the camp. And Jockster just found the sheaths, so I don't understand what happened. How far away was the dagger? Was it north of here, or was it where we came from?
00:22:06
Speaker
It was kind of south of the camp, so the way we came... None of this makes sense. We find the two dead bodies, a camp of no one, and a cave that just doesn't feel right.
00:22:25
Speaker
Well, it's possible these people are attacked and taken away, maybe through the cave. No, maybe the others were part of their party as well. I think the best thing, maybe we finished looking at this other tent to make sure we're not missing anything and then we go check out the cave. No, I agree. I'll tear up or move things around a little bit just to double check if there was anything else, maybe other clues. Obviously, I'll look at the parchment whenever I get back out.
00:22:50
Speaker
As he's doing that, I'm going to go in and start reading my part. My parchment's just studying. OK. So yeah, you can make a investigation check, continue to look in that tent. OK. And Krigs, the first parchment is very clearly a map and it is marked with a path winding almost exactly the path you took up to the point where you went off the path from Wild Hill.
00:23:16
Speaker
And it goes up to towards the north through the woods and there's it's kind of just simply scrawled on a piece of paper it's not like a proper map it's like it's like somebody drawing you like quick directions on how to get to their house you know for a party or something back when you used to do that and so you.
00:23:36
Speaker
So you notice that they they draw a line kind of up they draw some trees on one side hills on the other and then at one point the road kind of splits off they let the one that goes to the left just kind of they just kind of draw a little line and there's nothing over there and the other one goes up into the right into a spot that they circle and it says lonely hill.
00:23:56
Speaker
The second one, the second parchment is a familiar piece of parchment. You have seen several of these orders for jobs for hired swords before. And it says it's just it's an order to go investigate what happened in Lonely Hill, bring back any evidence of the previous adventurers that have gone there. And in return, you will get 500 gold. What do you find over there?
00:24:27
Speaker
So that was 19 minus one. So as you're looking around, nothing else really stands out to you. The the bedroll is neatly made. Everything's very nicely nicely made and put together. And you do notice that the quiver is dry or the whetstone is dry like it hasn't been used.
00:24:46
Speaker
In a while, normally the oil on those that you try to keep those nice and and damp so that they're easier to use again and that one just has gone dry so it's been a while since it's been used and it's been sitting there so.
Facing New Threats
00:24:58
Speaker
There's the iron pot I mentioned earlier in the wet stones.
00:25:03
Speaker
Not wet at all, so I think it's been a while since anybody's been here. Everything else in here looks a little bit too proper. They left on purpose, it's not disheveled or anything. Kregs, you're reading the paper, what does it say? Well, this is a map to what looks like maybe a town or a place, Lonely Hill, I'm not sure you've ever heard of it.
00:25:31
Speaker
Well this note, it's an order from the hired swords back in Wild Hill to investigate Lonely Hill and what had happened there as well as what may have happened to the previous adventurers sent there by the Wild Hill hired sword committee. The Wild Hillians? Yeas.
00:25:55
Speaker
Oh, I also wonder if I have the same document. There was a parchment in here too, and then I'll open it up and pull it up in front of the group and see if it's similar or something different. This is a spell scroll. It has runes drawn on it and writings of descriptions and explanations in common, and it is a scroll of guidance.
00:26:23
Speaker
Oh, it looks like this might be something that we could, I mean, I could try to write in my book as a ritual unless someone wants to keep it. Instead, it's some kind of spell.
00:26:38
Speaker
Oh, I know the spell and it's, it's Gudens. She has a written, she has a written wrong in her book. Gudens. Gudens. What does Gudens do? It helps you guide in a sense. I don't know why they didn't call it guidance. Seems a bit weird, doesn't it?
00:27:07
Speaker
I always thought the same thing about that spell, Guideberry. Why wouldn't they call it Goodberry if they're gonna make Goodberries out of them?
00:27:14
Speaker
I can't, I can't. Maybe something lost in translation from Spellbearer or, you know, Elvish. I bet it's just bad handwriting. I've seen it before. You've seen it a million times. I have the best handwriting. I'm not talking about you. She just kind of looks at him. Angry eyes.
00:27:43
Speaker
It looks like it might have a smudge here, maybe? I don't know. Gwen, are you capable of casting that spell or are you just aware of it? I can cast it. Give me gudens. I have no need for it. I put my hand on Kriegs and I cast guidance. I mean gudens. It's got to be gudens for now on. You feel really, really good.
00:28:08
Speaker
I feel so good right now. It's as if you can roll a die before or after making any ability check. You add a D4 to any ability check. Sick. That's good. It lasts for one minute. I guess the happiness comes and goes. Quick, do an ability check.
00:28:33
Speaker
I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna see if I don't remember anything about Lonely Hill. Yeah, do it. That's an 11. D4. Plus D4. That's a four. That's 15. Nice, nice. Plus, plus, plus, plus history. That's a zero.
00:28:52
Speaker
Okay, well you do definitely remember you saw a job you actually turned down a job gave it back to Tomba this exact job to go see what's going on in Lonely Hill and then you heard you heard them talking about how
00:29:08
Speaker
you actually Sariah was the one talking about how she was going to be sent to do that and that's what she was arguing with the chief about she's saying I can't believe you sent more more people up there after what's happened to the others and now you want me to go find them that was a whole thing that started her fighting fighting the chief in the first place that started the end of Wild Hill those old this lonely hill is a big piece to that whole that whole drama at the end of Wild Hill there and
00:29:36
Speaker
earlier gwen gwen oh i can feel i can feel the good oh i remember my goodness is working thank good and then i just relay everything you told me okay well that definitely means we're on the right track what on the right track for what though
00:29:59
Speaker
It doesn't seem like Lonely Hill would be a part of any kind of untouched lands. I mean, sure, it's lonely, but people have touched it. This has nothing to do with us. I don't think this was, uh, other hired swords that had gone out and done a job and unfortunately didn't come back. Yeah. And I just mean that it's at least in the direction that Saria and everything seemed to be heading. Lonely Hill joke was really funny and no one laughed. I controlled myself. I was muted.
00:30:27
Speaker
To not say that's what she said and I had to type it in chat. I will say that someone in this group definitely remembers that. That. Hurley told you heading north the lab the furthest anyone's really ever gotten was lonely hill after that it's kind of unknown what's up there because people.
00:30:50
Speaker
if they've gone that far, Lonely Hill or higher, they just don't really come back. So this is kind of also you would know kind of a point of no return or the point of, hey, if we don't want to do this untouched lands thing, we got to turn back now from because from this point onward, it's going to get it's going to be something, you know. That was in like the main conversation, like when we were all talking to him, we should all realistically remember that. Yeah, you all know that. Your characters definitely know that. It's been weeks and weeks for you as players, but your characters definitely. It's been months.
00:31:20
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. You know, guys, let's just go be farmers somewhere. You know, this is kind of the time, right? Yeah, I'm done. That's it. Hold on. Thank you, everyone, for listening to the Hired Swords. We're done.
00:31:34
Speaker
Tune in next week for The Hired Farmers. We're gonna do it. That was really bad. That's how you know this is live. I'm not editing that out. Listeners, enjoy the Ooftonium. You've just listened to the most radioactive joke that we've had on the show.
00:31:54
Speaker
Here's the deal. I didn't laugh at your lonely hill joke. I lied about my microphone being muted. So there you go. All right. That's it. Now it's going to be that part. Everybody fly away as a bird. Can I take a look at the map and see like where we are in reference to lonely hill if I can figure out how close we are to actually it? Yeah, sure. Look at that map and make a survival check. You can ask me to hand you the map and I'll give it to you because I currently have it in my position.
00:32:23
Speaker
May I please suit him up? Just throw it up in the air, he'll snatch it from me. Can I give it to you? Oh, you don't even bring that up right now. We don't want to remind Gwen. What is this a roll for? Survival check, looking at a map. Oh, that's 17 total.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yes you you can see where the road splits off. It kind of splits and kind of goes and and there is a point on the map where there's a little small x that is just a little
00:32:54
Speaker
you know, a little bit away from where the circle is that says where this lonely hill is. So it feels like based on where you were traveling, you would have traveled up to up the path, and then the path would have split left or right. And if you had gone right, you would have ended up here. And then eventually, if there's right, if this map is accurate, you would have ended up at lonely hill, just traveling a little ways further from where you're at now. Does that kind of answer what you're asking? Yes.
00:33:21
Speaker
Guys, I figured it out. Look, there's a circle around Lonely Hill, and there was a circle on the other map saying for the Shadow Wilds, that must be the Shadow Wilds, right? That's it. We found it. I guess we can go back to Wild Hill now? Maybe it's not that early, but we could go there and figure out what happened. I mean, we're heading that direction anyway.
00:33:41
Speaker
There's too many too many coincidences for it to not be connected to it in some way. So I think now we at least have some direction in which way we should go. Maybe after we finish investigating the camp, obviously in this cave that has me a little bit concerned. Yes, if I mean, I'm fine, but.
00:34:02
Speaker
I know that you have all used quite a few spells today. Is it worth exploring now or later? Oh yeah, and it is well into late, late night, close to like 1 AM kind of situation. It's pretty late. The bars are closing. I go to bed when I want to go to bed. Hey, I'm just being clear. I'm just setting the ambiance for you.
00:34:30
Speaker
Especially wise, I'm fine. I could continue to cast if I needed to, but if we want to wait till the morning when it's a little bit safer, that's fine too. I mean, there's a comp here. Yeah, and I'll walk over to the damp wood that was in the fire, and then I'll cast Prestidigitation to dry it off, and we could start a little fire and use some of these tents. Okay.
00:34:56
Speaker
Let's just make sure that we keep an eye out because if something was to have come and attacked the people who were here, we don't want to be attacked also. I would like to keep first watch if that's okay. That's fine by me. Yeah, I'm fine. I'll take a second if you don't mind. That's fine. Devon will set up and go to sleep.
00:35:21
Speaker
I'll go inside the big tent since that bed was already set up and just lay back and hang out. You guys take your found campground here and start setting up to rest. Craig, did you say you're going to rest too right away? I'm going to rest for now if I can, if I'm capable of it. Yeah, sure.
00:35:50
Speaker
Hello, my dear sweet macaroons. Are macaroons the cookie? Yeah, it's the really kind of like crispy with the yummy on the inside. My dear sweet macaroons, it is time once again for me to read your words back to you. What do we have today? We only have, do we have one or do we have more than that? We could have more than that, but we have one and it's one really fun one. Okay, do you want to send that to me?
00:36:20
Speaker
Oh, I do have it in front of me. All right. Just going to send it. All right. Let's get to our first review. Our first review is from someone who I can't help but feel did this exclusively as an attack on me because their username is
00:36:46
Speaker
I wanted to say it was Dagnabbit or something, but that percentage, I just can't. All right. So it's D at sign GN percent. So like I could, the first like part portion of that before the percent, I could absolutely make a case for how that like translates to a real world word. But like, what am I supposed to do with that percent? Like the percent doesn't,
00:37:12
Speaker
Maybe there's some secret code that the percentage turns into, much like a hashtag is also a pound sign and whatnot. Right. Well, I thank you for your... Sorry we don't understand your lead speak. We're not lead enough. I don't think we were supposed to. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that we were not supposed to come out of this with any tangible, verbal,
00:37:38
Speaker
construction out of this. But your review is very sweet and I would like to share it. It was five stars. Thank you so much. A must listen for both D&D diehards and those just starting out on their journey into tabletop RPGs. Delightful, funny, and keeps you coming back for more. I highly recommend it. Thank you. That was a very sweet review.
00:37:58
Speaker
Once again, thank you for sharing your reviews with the world. If you have been thinking about leaving a review, you're not sure what you should say because there are so many great reviews already in existence and you like to keep it fresh. Please share with me personally the moment that you knew that Gwen was the most powerful of the entire party.
00:38:24
Speaker
I don't even know yet. I got episodes on the backlog. Y'all don't even know. Gwen has, from day one, been the powerhouse of the party. Don't at me. Or at me. Like, I will die on this hill. Spoilers. Once again, my lovely listeners, my sweet, sweet macarons that were—weight macarons are different. My sweet, sweet macaroons that were baked perfectly.
00:38:48
Speaker
are crunchy on the outside and soft and supple on the inside. If you would like people to continue to make podcasts, you have to tell other people that their podcasts are good. So more people listen to their podcasts and they'll keep making that podcast because I don't know if you know this, but most podcasters run 100% on validation. So feed that machine, my babies. Play with me. Play with me. Play with me.
00:39:17
Speaker
Seriously, Griffin McElroy, if you want to play D&D, I'm so down. Oh, yeah. OK, bye. OK, bye.
00:39:35
Speaker
So you guys find yourselves, your spots to rest. It's getting cold, it's pretty cold out tonight as you're heading north, it's getting colder and colder, plus it's getting deeper into the fall. And Gwen, as you sit up and kind of look around, go ahead and make a perception check for me as you keep watch. Okay. I pulled Dale out of my bag by this point and set him beside me. And I just start looking at this dagger while keeping watch.
00:40:06
Speaker
12 plus eight. All right. 30, 20. Okay, so as you look around, you are keeping a good eye out. You're very alert and you're just kind of watching what's going on around you. And as you do, you
00:40:28
Speaker
You see something out of the corner of your eye in the distance. What? Kind of bamf into existence, scurry around a couple trees and bamf back out of existence. I kind of, uh, hello? And then you hear behind you this. That's another thing. Bamfs in and out.
00:40:55
Speaker
I put the knife away and I pick up Dale and I am standing up and turning around every time I hear the scurrying. Hello! I'm here to help if you're injured or we found this cat and like she's not yelling but she's trying to do it where she doesn't wake the others up so she's like hey
00:41:21
Speaker
Okay. It's suddenly you're hearing the sound all around you. Just like skittering. And it's it sounds like it sounds like it should be small little skitters, but it's there. They're big. And you hear this bamfing in and out of existence and skittering around. And suddenly make another perception check as you peer into the forest trying to see what you can see.
00:41:52
Speaker
18 plus 8 26. Yeah, you're easily able at this point to catch as one goes back into existence. You see sitting sitting on a on the ground right in front of a tree in front of your in front of your camp.
00:42:14
Speaker
you see this spider, it's blue and white and it is the size of, it's the size of one of these tents that these guys are resting in. And it is sitting there, it is sitting there like kind of gnawing at its pincers and sees you and is starting to look at you and suddenly it bamps away
00:42:40
Speaker
And then... BAMPS right back in front of you. Right there. Roll initiative. Oh my god. Never look at the thing. They will always attack ya. Uh oh. Uh oh! Wow, I rolled an initiative of four. That tracks. You rolled a four. Believe it or not, you get to go before this little spider. What are you gonna do? What?! Roll the nat one.
00:43:05
Speaker
Let me see, what's this? I am. Yeah, it's got a three total. I am going to cast Animal Friendship. Okay. And try to befriend it. And the beast I see in the range is the spooter.
00:43:25
Speaker
Okay, you, let me say this. Gwendolyn would probably know this is no beast. This would be considered a monstrosity. Therefore, you would probably be, this is not the kind of beast that I can be friends with. Okay, I'm still gonna do it anyways. Okay.
00:43:44
Speaker
so hello friend and she's gonna while she's casting animal friendship she's gonna reach out her arm towards this creature as a player i know i'm something's going to happen yeah i love the fact that you're going it's your role playing gwen man she's like hey
00:44:04
Speaker
She's like, hey, friend. That's cool. All right. So you reach your hand out. Cash animal friendship. Reach your hand out. This creature is unfazed by your magic at all, it seems. And it then rares back and just bites down at you. And the bite, it's a 13 to hit. Nope.
00:44:29
Speaker
No. So it reaches down to bite you. You pull your arm back and you lean back away from it. And as it strikes down at you to try to bite you, it catches nothing but air. And and yeah. So at that point when it does, it then goes and vanishes out of existence. What what is this? Guys. And now she's yelling.
00:44:55
Speaker
Okay. She's yelling. Does that wake you guys up? I assume it does. I hope so. Yeah, I'm sure. All right. Everybody roll initiative as she's yelling and hollering at you. That is a nine for Joxer. Thirteen for Daven. Five. So Daven, Joxer, Gwen. All right. And Krigs was a five. So it's Krigs then Gwen. Yeah.
00:45:24
Speaker
Gotcha, gotcha. Gwen's just, there's something here and I, it doesn't like us.
00:45:33
Speaker
As you're speaking, as you're saying that, it appears in between you by the campfire, in between you and Krigs, and another one appears right behind Davin as Davin's laying in the bedroll, opening his eyes, getting ready to do whatever he was going to do. The one that appeared first is going to go ahead and take its turn and strike at Krigs. An attack of 23. That hits. And it hits for,
00:46:02
Speaker
A number of damage that is equal to this D10 plus a number. So five piercing damage plus some poison. Do you get poison? I do not. Are you resistant or immune? I am, I believe, resistant. So you'll have to make a saving throw. You don't take damage. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah, you'll make a saving throw for me.
00:46:28
Speaker
Where is my stuff? Hold on, I'm trying to figure out where it is on the character sheet. Okay, it's 23 poison damage. Good God. That it puts out. You have to make a DC-11 Constitution saving throw. And I believe you take half on a failure and none on a save. All right, it is resistant, so I have to do what saving throw? DC-11. Beat an 11 Constitution, come on.
00:46:55
Speaker
uh that's a 10 and my con is definitely greater than one modifier so yes yes okay so you feel the poison surge inside your body and you've like i always want to say i have an immunity to iacane but we've already used that joke so you uh you're able to poison i hardly know her
00:47:16
Speaker
They're able to push out that that pain and don't you don't feel it But you do take the the piercing damage that you took the five piercing damage and then That is it The other one is going to take us take us a bite at Daven as he's laying there bites down on Daven tries to get Daven shoulder and
00:47:35
Speaker
with an 18 plus seven to hit. So it is going to now roll its d10. It's an 10 damage of piercing damage and then make a constitution saving throw. Constitution saving throw is an 11. That is exactly what you needed. So you take half damage.
00:47:58
Speaker
Why did I just use 4d8? And now the fourth one is nowhere in sight. How does that happen? Magic. How does that freakin happen? Maybe teleported like teleported fighter. Yeah, maybe it did. Good heavens. I have so many dice that I can't find the ones I need. You feel that anybody? All right. There we go. That's impossible.
00:48:19
Speaker
20 damage so saved you take 10 more damage so 20 total damage on that attack from that spider as you feel the poison start to pulse through your veins but you ate your Wheaties this morning that's an old man joke and you feel a little better I feel like you it could have been much worse
00:48:37
Speaker
So that is those guys' turn, and we are now going to go to Davin. It is your turn. It's me, Davin. I'm going to use one sorcery point to quicken spell and cast Mage Armor on myself. Okay. So that takes a bonus action for me to do. So now my AC's back up to 15. Woo, 15. And then I will cast a cantrip. Firebolt sounds good. I will cast Firebolt at the one
00:49:06
Speaker
Not on me because I knew he's right there on top of me. I'm gonna flip my hand backwards and just a flame comes out of my wrist and down my fingers and just throw a spear of fire at the one closer to Kriegs. Okay. Make an attack. I will. I will do it when I want to, okay? Sure, you don't have to. I want to. It's a 12 to hit. A 12 will not hit, so the fire bolt just right past it as it rares up again, ready to bite you again.
00:49:38
Speaker
That's it. That's my turn. That's it. Okay. So that takes us now to Joxer's turn. Okay. So am I the one that's close to Krigs? Is it close enough to attack if I move or am I outside the range?
00:49:56
Speaker
The one that's by Krigs, you can move up and attack, yeah, one square. Well, could I move away from it without getting an opportunity? I can't tell if I'm... Yeah, I can't attack you. It doesn't have that far of a reach. Okay, then I will probably run to the one that is behind Daven and look for that advantage that I always do. Okay. After making that 2025 movement, I think it was,
00:50:24
Speaker
So circle around. And oh, I had plans and I guess I'm gonna cast, I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna cast Shadow Blade as a bonus action and then I'm going to attack twice. So that will be with advantage. So that's a nat 20 for
00:50:54
Speaker
one attack. Okay. And then for the second, that will be a 15 plus eight. So 20 something so 28 and 23. And so one will be the shadow blade one will be the rapier. Great. Yeah, both both definitely hit. All right, obviously. Yeah, I hope so. Okay, so that's five, seven,
00:51:21
Speaker
So 14, 19 plus, what is that? What is my plus for, that is my spells. Four, so 23 psychic damage. And then, three.
00:51:40
Speaker
And then that will be seven rapier, what is that? Piercing damage and then five fire damage.
00:51:54
Speaker
All right, so you give this thing this psychic damage and it rares back and as it does you stab it again and when you do you you slide your sword in and then your hand goes all the way through as it burns away at it from the fire damage and the thing just falls into two separate pieces and in the middle of it burning and charring as this one has been killed.
00:52:19
Speaker
Oh, thanks structure. Yeah, it looks like there we can do this. All right, that takes us to Craig's turn. It's a pretty big spider. I'm assuming quite a bit bigger than me.
00:52:34
Speaker
Definitely yeah, this is this is a considered large size. It's it's very large very very good Well, I woke up the size of a cow I woke up and I was not necessarily ready to fight so I don't have my shield I just have my hammer so my AC is a little bit lower, but I am going to baseball bat M night Shyamalan signs swing away merle What's his name?
00:53:01
Speaker
I think it's Jack, swing away Jack. Somebody, whoever, whatever his name is, I'm gonna swing away. Very similar names, Merle, Jack. Yeah, very. I'm gonna swing away at whatever legs and appendages and anything I can at the spider, just two handed, full force, leaning into it. Awesome, make your attack roll. That's an eight plus eight, 16.
00:53:28
Speaker
That'll hit, you're going for 13. Sick. Then my damage is gonna be 10. I know I got one of these. I know they exist. Here we go. That's max damage. 10 plus eight bludgeoning, 18. And then I'm going to add a level three divine smite on top of that. Awesome. 3d8. Make sure I'm reading that right.
00:53:57
Speaker
Yeah, okay. Is it undead or a fiend by chance? It is not. Okay. It's a large monstrosity. 382, 13 plus 18, 31? Yep.
00:54:12
Speaker
31 total damage. On that one attack, yeah. All right. You strike out at this thing with your hammer, just sending three of its legs clean off of it and crushing one side of its exoskeleton in. And you put this thing barely on its last breaths. If it breathes, it's got just a few left. As it starts to flicker in and out of this ethereal state it was in. OK.
00:54:44
Speaker
then i'm going to this is gonna be super lame i'm gonna walk up and with the little dagger i have as it's kind of staggering i'm gonna from the bottom kind of mercy kill it and push a dagger in through the bottom of it's like what i assume is its head and try to to pierce it and puncture said
00:55:06
Speaker
Yeah, so it's lying there trying to gain whatever it can of traction and get back into existence and you literally as you stab down, you stab into nothing as it turns into its ethereal form and then it comes back into its physical form with your dagger
00:55:27
Speaker
in its head and as it does you pull your dagger back out and the thing collapses in front of you laying there completely dead with the other one on the other side in two pieces and you have vanquished these foes. You unstapped it to death. I look over at the group. I got this one. I immediately run over to the one that is still in one piece.
00:55:48
Speaker
Okay. And I start, it's gonna sound weird, I'm gonna start feeling its body. Have I seen a creature monster like this before? Make a history check. Okay. Gwen, I swear, if you start digging around and they're getting here, I'll still fall bloody again.
00:56:08
Speaker
don't worry I just I need to remember what you roll I rolled a dirty 20 18 plus 2 awesome so you've you've never heard of spiders like this before you've heard of giant spiders you've heard of giant wolf spiders you've seen some
00:56:26
Speaker
you this whole phasing in and out like into the ethereal youth, it's like they're like ghost spiders, that's kind of the connection you make, but you've never experienced or heard of this before. And this one in particular,
00:56:43
Speaker
Is yes you kind of look at its body you see the black goo that made up its whatever blood or fluids inside of it and the inside of its stomach that is now kind of gaping open after krigs had just hit it so hard that it busted its torso you you see the
00:57:05
Speaker
the remains of several large birds and some deer and things like that and it seems to live in these woods and feast on just creatures out here so it seems normal in that sense but this shifting in and out of existence like that you've you've never seen an a spider or animal like that do that sort of thing
00:57:27
Speaker
I basically repeat what Mike says. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this and it kind of scares her. This is a new creature. I fear that we'll be seeing a lot of this moving forward. What do you think it's just gonna be a bunch of new things we've never seen before? What have we done so far?
00:57:55
Speaker
You look over at Krigs and he's holding two of the spider legs and acting like he's got a whole bunch of extra limbs. It didn't seem all that bad. Yes, there were two of them. It wasn't all bad. But could you imagine if we had like six of these things on us? I get three and you guys get three. Did you see what was in its stomach? It had a whole deer in it.
00:58:20
Speaker
That's the size of you! Well, we've also killed the ear. It doesn't even match as I say it. I mean, I can also teleport. This isn't the first creature that's had this phasing ability.
00:58:40
Speaker
And that same thing happened to you, Krigs, with that witch. I just wish I knew how to recreate it, if this is something that, I don't know, just doesn't, it's not quite teleporting.
00:58:52
Speaker
Well, maybe we'll find some answers in Lonely Hill when we get out that direction. It seems like many have met a match there that they weren't able to come back from, so if these creatures are any indication that we are getting closer, the stranger they become, then you might get your answer, and I hope you're ready for it. Well, I'm ready. I'm ready to go back to bed. Gwen, would you want to continue watching, or do you need some rest now?
00:59:22
Speaker
I don't need to see her just staring at these creatures. She can probably use some sleep. Why don't you get some rest? I take the small tent. I'll keep watch for the rest of the evening.
00:59:39
Speaker
I just, and you see her, she's listening to what you're saying, but she's still talking to herself and she picks up Dale and slowly moves away from the spider carcass and grabs one of the extra rolls, the bed rolls and lays down. That's um, that's good. It away from the comp just so it doesn't attract more things, you know,
01:00:05
Speaker
Yes, I'm actually going to try to, Craig's, I'll be up with you for a minute. I want to maybe examine these a little bit more. I want to, one, take one of the extra vials that I still have and try to get some of the acid and then see if there's anything that might be worth keeping. Sure. Make a sleight of hand check trying to get that acid first.
01:00:32
Speaker
Sounds good. That is okay, but my sleight of hand's fantastic. So a dirty 20, 13 plus seven. Oh yeah, so you're able to extract as many vials as you'd like, depending on how many you have and how many you want of that acid.
01:00:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'll say the two vials on that end because I grabbed that alchemy kit. Great. Then as you kind of harvest, try to see if there's anything to harvest that you want to keep off of it, go ahead and make a medicine check. Okay. Nat 20 plus one.
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, so you feel like the two main fangs might be of some value. And so you're able to remove those without much trouble. And it does have a stinger on the back of it, a very small stinger on the back of it that you can remove if you'd like as well.
01:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'll go for for all the stingers. OK, so you take the fangs and the stinger off the the one that was still mostly intact. The other one, it's too burnt up and there's not much to harvest on it at all. Yeah, it sounds good. And then I'll help moving things out of the area and then go lay down. You look over Craig's and he still has those two legs and he's kind of walking back and forth.
01:01:49
Speaker
The itsy bitsy craggle knocked the spider out. Down came its legs and now I'm extra stout. And just walking back and forth, playing basically with his legs. Devin sitting in his bedroll looks at him and says, is this another one of those things where he's going crazy on us?
01:02:07
Speaker
Honestly, I think I think we're all losing our minds and jocks are as you drag The spider carcass to the edge of the forest You kind of look into the forest and in there you can see the dark dark dark fog to the north in the in the woods and it's it's moving almost as if it's it's swirling like a liquid and
01:02:34
Speaker
It's not coming towards you. It's just moving around in the distance. You drag that carcass, you put it into the forest, and as you back away, you turn and look again, and the darkness eeks forward, absorbs that carcass, and then goes back and retreats back to where it was. That's where we'll leave this episode. That's odd. That's a no thank you. Craig just throws the legs of the darkness. Have him.
01:03:19
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of our second season. We really appreciate you listening for this adventure. If you enjoyed our show, tell a friend about us. And if you really enjoyed our show, tell the world and leave a review. Be sure to check out our shop at thehired.store. And if you want to keep up with us and what we're up to, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at thehiredswords. Stay tuned for a message from our friends. And again, thank you for listening.
01:03:27
Speaker
And Gwen, you're about to dream.
01:03:54
Speaker
Hey, my name's River, and I am one part of the anarchy and sass that comes with Dice Drop Evolution, an actual play Mutants and Masterminds podcast. We have car races, class wars, drinking, bad flirting. What more could you want in your local superheroes? Come and check us out in Eden today. You can also follow us on Twitter at dice underscore drop for all information.
01:04:22
Speaker
Thanks, guys. See you there.