Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 85 From Tunnels With Love
187 Plays1 year ago
The Swords muster up the courage to delve deep into the burrows below the lost lands. Historically, nothing good came from tunnels in these parts..
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Hired Swords'
00:00:21
Speaker
Your ears do not deceive you. You are listening to the hired swords.
00:00:42
Speaker
Hey, everybody. And welcome. Hi to another episode. Hey, guys, how's it going? Of lay hired swords. I also feel as though I shouldn't interrupt. Oh, I got two shoes, a little diva boy.
Character Introductions
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'm Michael. I'm your dungeon master. And I've got with me here today. Blaze, he is soft for an ember oak. I also have Derek. He's Devin. Ash is Gwendolyn.
00:01:12
Speaker
And Mikey is jockser. And I swear to you there. Oh, hey, hi, hey. Yeah, there's one of them. What's up? And I'm a microphone and I just disconnected for some reason. OK, we started. Yeah, it's true. Everybody yes, and what you've done, what you're mistake. And so there
Exploring the Village and Planning
00:01:31
Speaker
we go. But yeah, when we left off last time, we played a little Dungeons and Dragons, explored a village, found some interesting stuff.
00:01:38
Speaker
including some spices and we figured out what was going on in this village that it had been a place where they grow and harvest spices and then package them and trade them with other villages. We found a map that had these five other villages laid out in a circular pattern around the forest here.
00:01:57
Speaker
The group discussed what to do and maybe finding these villages are kind of trying to figure out what's going on with those that may be their next step and then decided to kind of enjoy the evening lay low a little bit and so in doing that they made some food actually seasoned it a little bit with their new founds.
Investigating Burrowed Holes
00:02:16
Speaker
spices and the salt that had been packaged with those. They also then went ahead and did a little perimeter search. Well, in that perimeter search, Carmen returned telling them that he had noticed a hole, at least one, maybe several that were burrowed, where something seemed to have burrowed into the ground that was very large and possibly very dangerous. And so
00:02:39
Speaker
The group has kind of made it out to that direction, looking at those things, those holes in where the crops had been growing. In the untouched lands, the darkness overhead, the swirling dark fog and the darkness of the ground in front of them, the crops having once been spices growing there, now looking like just charred ashen.
00:03:03
Speaker
remains of plant life. And that's where we left off after kind of discussing, maybe we should go ahead and see, see to these and take care of this and not get surprised in the middle of the night or whatever. And Carmen, I remember the last, one of the last things that happened, Carmen said, I'm going to be up here and scurried up a tree. Other than that, you guys were kind of discussing strategy. All right.
Debating Creature Confrontation
00:03:28
Speaker
So if I were doing this, we ought to make sure we have a plan set, right?
00:03:33
Speaker
Sounds like a solid plan. The plan to have a plan is a solid plan, I find. Are we sure we want to do this? Like I said before, Gwen, if we don't take care of this now, there's a chance that it'll come back on us later. We want to make sure we have the advantage, right? There's no way that that thing is something we want to leave around here. I'm with you on that. It just doesn't seem...
00:04:01
Speaker
beneficial to leave it here. I mean, we don't know how far the tunnels go. I mean, it could go to every one of these areas on the map. We could be just sitting ducks. We could try talking to it. I mean, what if its name is Thomas and he has a bunch of family members who live in the hole with him? And do you remember what happened with the last one?
00:04:29
Speaker
I do, but this place is different.
Formulating a Stealthy Plan
00:04:34
Speaker
I mean, the place that here was different, but now the entire thing is covered with the same darkness. When you say this place is different, in what part of any of it has been better than where we were? I... What was that, Dale?
00:04:53
Speaker
Yeah, I know they're right. You're right, jerk, sir. I just... I'm behind you guys. I trust you. I'm just... slightly worried. I mean, trusting us may not be the best, but... we... I just don't. I just don't agree with leaving it here. Especially if... I don't know. From what we can see, it ruined this village, so... Horric Riggs, so what's her plan? Well...
00:05:24
Speaker
We definitely have the advantage when it comes to height differential. They're going to have to borrow out. They seem to be creatures capable of borrowing great distances, great heights, and as far as I know, faster than any of us can imagine. So luring them out is going to be ideal.
00:05:47
Speaker
But it would behoove us to try and at least get one solid strike in while they unexpected anything from us. Well, if somebody can cut that strike, I can get you out.
00:06:04
Speaker
Well, I have, you know, some ethanol mixture from making brew. So, I mean, it's flammable enough. It wouldn't take much for it to go boom.
00:06:22
Speaker
Correct, Stu. You've gone boom before. I've seen your daughter. I've... I've got a manner of... of... tools at my disposal. I... I mean... Yeah, so... Uh, you've used some fire elements in the past. I feel like it could do the trick, but we... we would need a little bit of stealth and, uh, maybe a way to get it closer to the creature. Well, I'm no stranger to dangerous events if...
00:06:52
Speaker
I need to go down into the borough and Devon can get me out. I'm not against, well, using the utilities I have.
Executing the Ethanol Trap
00:07:01
Speaker
Using your, you said ethanol, was it? We could potentially expand my repertoire by a little bit of an exponential burst with some of that. I can probably get you down there.
00:07:19
Speaker
I read something the other day that might help with some stealth. At least. Some quiet steps. Alright. That's not a bad idea. Uh, Joxer, let me see that little pouch that you have. I wanna get him... Actually, just hold it down and turn it upside down.
00:07:36
Speaker
Oh, oh, oh, yeah. And I'll pull out the the pouch that this is the the two pouches, the matching couches. I'm going to pull out mine, too. Then I'm going to hold it upside down. I'm going to hold mine right side up and then also I'm going to take my just my water jug and open it up and pour a little bit in there and see if it comes out the other side. It does it as you pour it in there.
00:08:01
Speaker
you wait half a second and then should start pouring out the other side. Just like the bottle was the, the, the water skin was pouring from that's from over there with jockser instead of the, instead of you. Oh, we shouldn't have kept that about my face. Sorry. I guess I should have warned you. I mean, if we wanted to add the, um, a little bit of ethanol, ethanol, is that the word? Yeah. Fire juice. Yeah. Fire juice. Yeah. I mean, this is one way of doing it.
00:08:31
Speaker
I'm curious. Have we? Have we discovered whether or not living things can can go through that bag we have? I mean, none of us are small enough to fit to it. Oh, I mean, I could be.
00:08:55
Speaker
I will say that when you first found it, you would remember that doctor put his hand in it and it didn't go through it. Like it seemed like organic material didn't, uh, go through the portal or whatever it is. Uh, yeah. I mean, we don't have any being itself that has sat in there, but I have stuffed my hand in it. And then you all gave me a weird look. Oh, I mean, it's not every day you go shove in hand and into things, but
Approaching the Creature
00:09:26
Speaker
All right. So how's this for a plan when you make a stealthy so that way we can go down there and then Craig's and I will sneak down there and we'll pour, we'll hold the bag over him and jocks or you can pour some of your fire juice on him and then we'll light them up with Craig's fireball and then I'll get us out of there. Good plan to me. Anything else we've had?
00:09:52
Speaker
All right. Um, is there anything we're missing? Did I, did I ex last time I did I explain every, like the path to get there? Can't remember. It's been, I've slept since then. I mean, if you could just draw it on the dirt here, that'd be helpful. Yeah. So, so I will do that. Part of me feels like I was supposed to roll for it or something. Well, it w it's not, it wasn't like tunnels with like,
00:10:22
Speaker
multiple corridors. It was just a burrow that was one direction. Like it curved and kind of went down and stuff, but it didn't break off into multiple pathways. So you're going to get there eventually if you go in the hole. You know what I mean? Yeah. So would I, would I know like a basic, like if, you know, I, you know, I was a floating eyeball, but if, if I wanted to walk, could I get like a general idea of how long it would be because pouring
00:10:49
Speaker
You know some things are a bag too early might might not work out too well. Yeah the How fast could you move that eyeball? I want to say it was 30 feet around Yeah, so if you were you would say that the same the same speed of of sneaking you would say it would take about the same amount of time it took you to put the to get that eye down there to where you saw and it was a
00:11:15
Speaker
I believe it was more than five minutes, nearly 10 minutes of searching down in there before you finally got to where that thing was. It was such a deep kind of crevasse. So I won't be able to know when to pour, but once you.
00:11:32
Speaker
Maybe I could time it. I could pour maybe after 10 minutes and you could just hold the bag
Discovery of the Spider-like Creature
00:11:40
Speaker
above it. I'll tell you what, you just keep yours upside down and I'll drop a copper coin through it. When that happens, you know you're ready. That's perfect. Thank you. Genius. Genius, Daven. Thank you. Daven is like real happy and shitting around now.
00:11:58
Speaker
All right. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is we need to be careful walking on that land itself. We don't want to wake it up beforehand. However, we want to handle that. If we want to walk around the outskirts first and maybe try to
00:12:19
Speaker
Just get to it a little slower, but just just take our time otherwise I'm I think I'll just stand stay back and just prepare for it to come up top if If it survives whatever happens Are we kind of near the field now? Yeah, you're you're kind of standing right up against where the field is and you You can see the
00:12:49
Speaker
You can see the hole in the distance a little ways away. And it's pretty easy to see, you know, where it is. It's about a hundred feet to your, the one he went down and saw is about a hundred feet to your Northwest as you look across the field towards the Northwest. I'm going to eyeball a spot like
00:13:15
Speaker
Uh, probably about 30 feet south of where the hole is as where I'm planning on teleporting us to whenever we leave. So I've kind of got a mental image of where we're going to land.
Igniting the Creature
00:13:28
Speaker
Oh, I guess you'll just be prepared for whatever it is you can, you can do. Carmen, you're good. Waiting on something to come out of the hole. I think I overheard that you have a plan to go ahead. I'll be here. We'll flush out.
00:13:45
Speaker
That's what I count on. Whatever comes out of there, it comes, if it's larger than you are, my arrows will fly. Don't worry. We're professionals. That's what concerns me. Famous last words. Okay. Um, and you see her pull out, um, some bird leaves of a tree from back in Wild Hill.
00:14:15
Speaker
and she kind of rubs it in her hand and then in elvish she just says pass and she casts his pass without a trace and it is a concentration spell so i will be concentrating but it lasts up for an hour so everyone within 30 feet of me uh has a plus 10 bonuses dexterity stealth checks and you can't be tracked except by magical means
00:14:46
Speaker
So no footsteps. Does that mean you are coming down with us? Do we have to be within 30 feet at all times? Yeah, I would have to probably inch my way towards you guys or walk with you. It seems like. Oh, you have to be near us the entire time. Well, within 30 feet. All right. Yeah. How far down are they going? We have to get inside of it. Yeah. The whole goes down several hundred feet.
00:15:16
Speaker
Before he came, before he came upon the, the creature, you can go down probably a good 50 feet with us in the hall, just to make sure that safe and then make your way back up. Okay. That's not already guys. Yeah. I welcome the company being the, you know, my footsteps are essentially walking
Creature's Retaliation
00:15:34
Speaker
through a fart pit. I got nothing. I would say we could
00:15:43
Speaker
I would say we could sing a song on the way down, but that might defeat the purpose. I would probably wait till after we kill it to sing. Okay, yeah. And when you return, I mean, your sales will help us tremendously as I look up to Carmen. Just give us a little bit of something.
00:16:04
Speaker
What did you say to Carmen again? I'm sorry that the stealth would think about my far pit. I'm that that got me. I derailed my brain a lot. So it made no sense whatsoever. Yeah, just the past without a trace would be helpful for us up here as well. Oh, yeah. Indeed, it would make me pretty much invisible. Oh, where are you? I can't see. I'm speaking to you. I'm right above you. Oh, there you are.
00:16:33
Speaker
All right. I'm going to start quietly moving toward the hole.
00:16:44
Speaker
All right. So as you guys, you start heading towards the, towards the holes, everybody else following him. I definitely am. I am not. And then yeah. Um, Carmen is going out as far as he can go on the branches of this tree he's in before he starts to hear him kind of creak and he's like, all right, that's far enough. And so he's lying on his feet, but he's not going to push it and go out too far. And then, uh, yeah. So as you guys move forward.
00:17:09
Speaker
Go ahead and make stealth checks as you move forward. You're going to add 10 to them with the pass without a trace going with you. And here's where the whole plan falls apart. Yay, 17. 22. Plus, plus, plus two. I only rolled a six, but I have a plus six plus the 10 is 22 total. Nice. Mine makes it 19.
00:17:37
Speaker
And yours is 22 with the, including the plus 10. Mine's 22. Oh yeah. You think I have pluses to my stuff? I didn't, I did not think that you did. I was just giving you the benefit of the doubt there. I'm walking around in a fart box. Fart pit. All right. So you guys make it about 30 feet towards it and you're just walking across the, walking across the,
00:18:04
Speaker
field there heading out towards where this first hole is.
Creature's Escape and Size Emphasis
00:18:09
Speaker
And you make it to the edge of the hole. The ground gets increasingly more goopy as you walk. And it feels like your feet are almost sinking a little bit. It's not quick sandy. You don't feel like, oh no, this is going to swallow us. It's just like extra gross the closer you get to this hole.
00:18:32
Speaker
And so whoever's going down inside, you're welcome to do so.
00:18:36
Speaker
Gwyndolin is going to be keeping that 30 foot mark away from them. Just so she doesn't get stuck down there. He's got her range finder out there like she's playing golf. Keeping that mark at 30 feet. She's using Dale. I know her. Keep his hands this width above their heads. That's going to be perfect. So you guys start heading down in there with Gwyndolin keeping that distance of 30 feet behind and everyone make another stealth check as you start going in.
00:19:06
Speaker
All right. Oh, fourteen. Twenty four. Thirty one. Jesus Christ, guys. Did Ash was your fourteen, including the plus ten? Yep, I rolled a two. Oh, yikes. Well, goodness. So let me check something.
00:19:28
Speaker
Also I'm three feet away from them so I'm far away. The irony of the person who's keeping us stealthy is the one who's gonna catch us notice. Can we just poop on ourselves? So you start going down into the hole and it's a little steep at first and it's a little it's goopy and it's hard it's it's starting to get a little hard to keep your footing and
00:19:49
Speaker
It stinks it smells rancid in here to the ceiling you can see is of this thing if you can kinda make out the as you kinda get into where you're no longer seeing the sky the ceiling of this is almost. Dripping it's got like the stalactites that are just dripping this group just like one every thirty forty seconds a drip is falling.
00:20:15
Speaker
And it's just increasingly gooey and gross inside this little bored out hole that you've gone into in this field. So more stealth checks as you continue forward. You're currently about 60 feet in to this. So should I be making my way back out?
00:20:38
Speaker
That's your call. I'm not going to tell you what to do. Making her way out. I guess this one last round and then go back, I would say. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
00:21:00
Speaker
keep walking forward another 30 feet 40 feet 50 feet and you you don't even hear each other walking it's not it's like wow we're so stealthy never have we been so stealthy and eventually it gets to the point where
00:21:17
Speaker
At about that 120 foot in mark, it gets to where it's kind of hard to keep your footing and you feel like it's getting increasingly more sticky while slick at the same time. Like the stuff sticking to you make it hard to lift your feet. But then when you put weight on your legs, your feet want to slip out from under you and.
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, so that's kind of what's going on down here. And you've completely left any light that was coming in from the entrance to the hole. It is pitch dark. If you don't have dark vision, it is black, complete blackout in this space.
00:21:55
Speaker
Uh, that's convenient because if you were to look at Craig's face right now, it would be, why did we do this a hundred percent?
Daven's Sunbeam Attack
00:22:02
Speaker
Just like, yeah, I didn't think about the darkness. Um, Gwendolyn is going to, um, now she sees that they've made it down always. She's going to turn into a Raven and fly up to try to like go past the little drops that are coming down.
00:22:24
Speaker
So she's gonna take her time to go towards Kriegs or Dabin and then just kind of knock on their like little shoulders that don't have like armor or anything. So she probably land on Dabin and then just kind of peck him and then leave. You get a little peck. Little raven peck. In interior darkness.
00:22:44
Speaker
Yeah, that shouldn't scare you at all. Mage armor. Was that was that little was that little pecker Gwen? In Gwen's mind, she's like, Oh, no. I instantly. They got the message. Yeah, I instantly sense. Mage armor, mage armor, mage armor. I think you guys already got it. Yeah, probably.
00:23:09
Speaker
I don't I pretty much always assume you have it now. So the ground is slippery and sticky at the same time. Is that basically what we're walking through now? Yes. Take your sticker. You're you're walking through gap.
00:23:22
Speaker
Pretty much. So I'd like I'd like to interrupt, you know, and say that Spell Slots is,
Gwendolyn's Flame Attack
00:23:28
Speaker
you know, waiting for anything to appear to cast haste. OK. He's holding that cast haste action. Yeah. Yeah. OK. I am. I am holding a spell. He will cast haste post haste. OK.
00:23:44
Speaker
All right, Devin is going to put his hand on Krieg's shoulder and then he's going to get up right next to him. He's going to whisper at him. He's going, I'm calling an audible. All right. We're going guiding backpack. Just trust me and point my hand in the right direction to where we need to move because I can't see anything. And then I'm going to cast telekinesis on Krieg's and then I'm going to hop on his back and see if I can float both of us.
00:24:11
Speaker
Okay. Uh, this very much feels like fizzy lifting juice. I can lift up to a thousand pounds with telekinesis. What are you trying to say? And you can lift, you can lift people. I mean, there's no, nothing that says you can't lift people, right? You can try to move a huge or smaller creature, make an ability to check against, uh, if they're not willing, I'm assuming he'd be willing. If he's willing. I'm always willing.
00:24:31
Speaker
Okay. That's right. You have consent, so cast a spell. Enthusiastic consent. So I can move him in any direction up to 30 feet at a time. So I'm going to point my hand forward and let him direct which direction I'm floating us. Okay. What I'm going to do is I'm going to
00:24:50
Speaker
I'm gonna interlock my fingers and I'm gonna move my hand left or right whenever we need to All right, so I will float us down I've we've got 10 minutes of floating through the air so Silent as we can be all right you direct
00:25:13
Speaker
So you guys are floating down this crevasse as Ash is flying out like a raven, as a raven, kind of swooping in and out away, dodging and diving under these drips of goop that are falling. Not super difficult to do that. It's a slow drip, like I said.
Emergence of Additional Creatures
00:25:35
Speaker
And so Ash, it's not gonna take you long to zoom out of there while these two are going 30 feet.
00:25:41
Speaker
at a time, you guys get about 150 feet in and Krigs, you can see, I assume, yes, you've got Darkvision Dwarf Man. So you're looking ahead and you're seeing the slime kind of goop kind of sliding down the walls as it kind of, it's like whatever
00:26:02
Speaker
whatever grossness is on top of the ground, the liquid of that, it's like it's this similar to how the sky kind of swells and bubbles. This kind of seems to almost be doing the same thing underground here. And as you make your way 150 feet now, hovering and floating, you're now going to
00:26:23
Speaker
the 170 feet mark, no 80 feet mark, I'm doing math in my head, it's not going well. And so as you continue to go a couple hundred, more than over a couple hundred feet, it becomes pretty obvious to you ahead of you, there's this blockage in the pathway. And it's hard to see exactly what's causing this blockage, but it is a dark,
00:26:53
Speaker
black something in the middle of this huge hole that you've entered here. And it seems partially covered in this goo. And you think that it's the end of the line, whether it's a wall or something else, you were told there's a creature down here. So perhaps that's what that is.
00:27:16
Speaker
Alright, with that I'm going to squeeze Daven's hand just ever so slightly. Let it indicate that we've gone as far as we can go. I'll stop and I'll gently float us down to the ground.
00:27:29
Speaker
And then I guess I, being the one that can see the most, would like to approach this, this blackness and try to investigate what it is. Okay. Make a stealth check as you approach. You're, you're still hovering or are you walking now? I said I was setting us down, but if you want to still float. Yeah, I want to float. I'm floating. Screw walking. All right. If he sings vice versa, make a, make a stealth check with advantage.
00:27:59
Speaker
because you still have things that are like hanging from you that can clank and dangle and clank and clang. 19. But you're not walking. So good, a 19. So you pretty easily load up to this thing. And sure enough, it is a humongous creature. It fills the inside of this cavernous burrow that you're inside of this nearly 40 foot diameter
00:28:27
Speaker
thing that you're in, it fills this thing. And it is, it's kind of hairy. And you can see they're closed as this thing seems to be in like a hibernation phase currently. But it has close to 1620 eyes.
00:28:46
Speaker
And it has two giant legs that are crossed in front of it as it's, it's what, like the area of it that you assume is its head is kind of laying down in the, in where these two arms cross, but they look,
Cliffhanger Conclusion
00:29:02
Speaker
they're covered in these like barbs that that point, point up.
00:29:08
Speaker
And the point of there, these, these front legs are look like spears, sharp, like spears and both of these arms. And there are three legs behind on this huge abdomen behind this creature as well. As you look at this, the most enormous, strange, dangerous looking spider creature you've ever seen.
00:29:35
Speaker
In this epic moment, I imagine Gwen flies out of the hole as a raven and scares the bejesus out of Carmen and myself. Go ahead. Oh, natural 20. Carmen is, he's fine. He's not going to shoot a boat, shoot an arrow. Cause he notices what it is. He's like, Oh, that that's not, we have a druid. Okay. Okay. That's, I land on jokes. His arm or his shoulder.
00:30:04
Speaker
Oh, okay. That's, that's just, that's just Gwen. It talks. I guess it could, right? If she's a Raven. Yeah. Okay. That's right. Oh, bag. It's time. All right. So pull out that bag and hold it upside down. I'm going to quietly float us back. So we're 30 feet away from it to the best that I can tell at least.
00:30:33
Speaker
And I'll gently make sure that we're both setting down on the ground. I will drop concentration and I will instead have mage hand out to hold the pouch. Do we need to roll a squish check for putting our feedback into the ground? No, I shouldn't have said this. I don't think I don't. I think he's got enough control over his telekinesis to set you down very gingerly. Yeah, yeah, don't question my spell abilities, OK? I would never.
00:31:03
Speaker
Okay, and then I'm going to kind of gently pat Krigs on the shoulder to say that I'm ready. I'm going to stand into position, shield out, hand out, ready to cast and letting them do their things, their precursors. I pull out a copper coin. I hold it over. Take a deep breath.
00:31:26
Speaker
I drop it in and then let Mage Hand just immediately start floating with it. And then once I know the coin probably went through, I'll turn the bag upside down and have it float right over the creature.
00:31:37
Speaker
coin falls out of the bag. jocks are on your side as your side on your end. And it's almost simultaneous. On your side, Devin, the bags floating near floating towards the creature. And it only takes a matter of seconds and it's it's over there. It's hard to get the bag over the top of the creature because the creature fills this I mean, this this burrow seems to have been made by this creature because it is
00:32:02
Speaker
the circumference of this creature like that's the size of the burrow so yeah it's it's hard to get but you can definitely get like right over the head area and those two big pincers and arms that were in the front of it and kind of then you kind of hit the point where there's no room even for that little bag between the ceiling of this and the creature itself. Okay so I immediately grab like try to catch the coin and put it in my pocket and then like.
00:32:33
Speaker
I'll I'll dig out. Just whisper that into the bag. I'll dig out like a town troubles. Yeah. Yeah, not nothing. Like a cup sized hole and then like bore out a small cup. So I'll stick it in. So it's got like a big tube in it. So that was something that I've been kind of doing in between. So I have like a good funnel.
00:32:59
Speaker
And then, uh, and then I'll try to, you know, hoist it and then start just trying to pour it down the bag. Okay. So you start, you tilt and you start pouring into this bag, awkwardly holding the bag while you hold the canister of stuff to try to make it work. And it's like, yeah. And it's, it's like trying to get spaghetti sauce in a jar after you cook spaghetti and you just want to put it back in the fridge and you're like, I should have put it in a bowl. This is impossible.
00:33:29
Speaker
So some's kind of spilling out around it, but it's, but you're doing it. Like you're getting it, you're getting a bunch in there. And then sure enough, right, right just a couple seconds after the bag gets over top of this creature, the, it starts splashing on top of this creature's head. And the instant, well, the instant that liquid hits the head of this creature, all 20 or so eyes
00:33:58
Speaker
open up and you hear as the thing starts to rise up and realize something's going on. I, I start pulling the bag back. I think rigs are up now, now, now or never. Uh, I, I cast fireball at this creature and strike true. I hope.
00:34:29
Speaker
All right. That's a that is an area of effect. Am I right? Yeah. And the creature has to make a dexterity save. Save 16 plus four. So 30 20. Yeah, it saves. It takes half damage.
00:34:48
Speaker
OK, however, it's there's enough of this liquid having been poured on it that I'm going to give it disadvantage on escaping the fire because it's got this liquid covering it. So I'm going to roll again and see how that goes. Oh, wow. That was a three plus four. So that's only a seven. So full damage, roll the damage on the fireball. All right. And then we're going to go into initiative, which we have rolled already.
00:35:15
Speaker
I rolled 32 damage on my fireball. Ooh. 32 damage. Is the liquid only giving it disadvantage or is it increasing the intensity of the fireball at all? It's increasing the density of the fireball, which is what's giving it disadvantage. How's that for an answer? You said 31 damage? 32. 32. See, I was trying to cheat. You notice?
00:35:39
Speaker
All right. And I sure did. And so this creature has now has now awakened and you see it's starting to rise up on its feet a little bit. And it's kind of it's kind of stuck a little bit into its in its in its in the tunnel. It can't it can get the sense it could probably move here. But this is maybe the end of the line on the tunnel. It's made. But it sure starts to move forward as it is top of the initiative with a 24.
00:36:08
Speaker
We didn't. And so. Oh, no, there was no sneak attack. I guess it wasn't. No, you did the damage. You did the damage like as that was your surprise round. You did the damage to it. So and so it's going to come right out. Cheese this.
00:36:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool and it's going to pick up it's two these two legs that the points of them look razor sharp and they have this jagged these jagged spines going upwards to where it looks like this is its main source of attack and it's going to throw
00:36:45
Speaker
Both of these, one at Krigs and one at Davin is used to stand there next to each other. So the first attack, but the first one is only a 10 against Krigs. The second one, the second one against Davin is a 15 plus seven. So that's going to be a 22 to hit hits. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm just going to throw this out there and you can, you can throw back at me.
00:37:12
Speaker
but would the cave have fallen at all to prevent it from being able to see anything? Also, it sure seems like the fire would give a disadvantage on attacks. I don't know. DM, are you doing your job? Also, I'm just going to give myself a plus three to AC.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yeah, really. So the I don't know the integrity of these holes. I mean, we didn't really check that. This sounds like when I play with my niece and nephew online and they're like, I have a pet gold dragon. I'm like, wow.
00:37:50
Speaker
Okay, so 66 piercing damage as this thing this what's called the impaling leg shoots through and catches you in your midsection right above your left hip doing 23 damage to you as it strikes down through that side of your your body 23 is it and yes and
00:38:17
Speaker
Yeah, 66 piercing damage and then it's other attack missed. So it turns itself and its legs start like skittering across the top of this goo almost like this creature can like dance on top of the goo instead of its legs going down into it like yours do. And it's up to the top and it starts to scurry out of the hole above you.
00:38:48
Speaker
It's backside nearly crashing into you, but thankfully this hole starts to expand a little bit and you guys can kind of get yourselves down out of the way as the flames on top of this things like singe your hairs as it goes above you trying to get away, trying to get out of the hole, sensing that it is in a a disadvantageous location. Funny because I was saying the same thing. When it attacked, what distance was it at?
00:39:18
Speaker
What distance was it at when it attacked Daven? It was about 10 feet away from Daven. How close was it to me? It was right next to you. When it made its attack at Daven, I'm going to... Well, it's 10 feet from you, just like it is from him. Fine, nevermind then. I won't do cool stuff.
00:39:34
Speaker
Cause it's, it's, uh, it's legs have a 10 foot range cause they're so there's long giant spider legs. Fine. I was going to slap his little Pete's, but I can't now. Sorry, but it, so it runs, uh, up the hole and I, and it actually it. So we're using a map here that is not efficient to cover the inside the whole distance. So it's past you guys, but it is no longer nowhere near outside the hole yet. That makes sense.
00:40:02
Speaker
Yes, I would also like to note for our viewers that the the the the enemy is about a quarter of the size of the map. So yeah, it's a very large spooter. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is five squares on the map in which we made good decisions is all insane. That's right. So this thing is now.
00:40:31
Speaker
scurrying as its back is burning across the ceiling of this thing in a quick attack and retreat kind of scenario. Its leg skimming off of Krigs' shield and then burying the other one inside Davin's hip. As Joxer, we come to your turn. Currently, you have a raven on your shoulder.
00:40:54
Speaker
and you're looking at this hole, you didn't even see a flash of light as the bends and twists in this hole don't really allow the light to come out. So you're still not entirely sure what has happened. But we do see a giant booter. You do not. It has not made it out of the hole yet. No. Only Daven and Krigs know exactly what you're fighting. Did we at least hear a sound? We would have heard a sound.
00:41:23
Speaker
You definitely heard that sound billowing from the hole for sure Kind of kind of at the point where I'll probably still hold tight at my distance here still I'm prepping a spell the moment I see I see a giant giant thing or a thing that is not our our allies and
00:41:51
Speaker
At this point, I feel like I'll kind of give that little command to my little friend to, you know, hey, it's about time spell slots to give me some haste, hasters, hasterinos. Okay. All right.
00:42:10
Speaker
You probably hear Gwen just go, ah, just making the noise. Carmen is next and he tucks himself. He hears that too. And he, you hear him kind of gasp a little bit and he ducks, tucks himself back behind a couple of branches going nearly invisible up in the tree next to spell slots.
00:42:34
Speaker
You already had spell slots to do his thing, yes? Yeah, so he would do that, and I am just readying a spell for someone to pop out. Great. So then, go ahead, somebody gonna say something? I'm gonna stay in Raven form, so that way I could be somewhat of a surprise for the spider if it comes out. Okay. Alrighty. Just then,
00:43:02
Speaker
You hear another sound and it's coming from directly south of you from another one of those burrows. As you hear something that direction as well directly south of you, Carmen looks to his left and then Gwen, that takes us to you. Oh no.
00:43:33
Speaker
Gwendolyn's probably sitting there as a raven just kind of like tilting her head, not really understanding. But as Berb, she is going to fly real far. She just abandons us. Yeah, she jumps up. Gwendolyn, Russian Raven, now goodbye. I have Russians to find. She just kind of tilts her head and she's going to probably go over to that sound that was made in the south.
00:44:03
Speaker
and just kind of investigate from a safe distance. And I can go about 50 feet in this movement. Sounds good, sounds good. So Gwyn, Gwyn's raven form flies down south in the towards the
00:44:23
Speaker
hole that seems to have been burrowed down in there where this new screeching sound has come from. And that takes us to Davin. The creature has run past you. It's still visible to you. You can kind of see it's about it's on the ceiling above you. You could see it's the backside of it. Davin reaches Davin. I don't like it in here anymore. We're leaving. We're leaving right now. I'll hold up my right hand and bring the bag back and grab the bag with a bonus action.
00:44:50
Speaker
I say, at least he doesn't like fire and I'll grab Krigs around the arm and I'll dimension door. So my cape, you can't really see much in this night, but you do see a little bit of like a red glow come from it before it wraps you up. And then we both go teleporting through some fiery land that you've never seen before, but just gone in an instant. And next thing you know, we are south, uh, on the map to south of where the hole was about 30 feet.
00:45:13
Speaker
And so jocks are you Carmen and Gwen, if she, she probably notices this swirling and then this appearance of Daven and Krigs as they land, they, they, they.
00:45:25
Speaker
make landfall right there. Boom. On the, on the field landing that superhero three point stance as the sulfuric black fog that was transferring them from their location to where they are now dissipates. Uh, and you're still hearing the sound of the screeching, the screeching spooters from these, these holes as they ready themselves as well. You're going to do anything else to happen? Is that your whole term? That's it.
00:45:52
Speaker
Okay. Uh, I'll probably move. I'll move like 15 feet away from Craig just so I'm not standing immediately next to him. Okay. The screech begins again, just rises up again. Sounds like it's all around you. That's so loud and billowing. It seems like these things might be getting closer and Craig's, what are you going to do? Currently you do not see any of these spiders.
00:46:15
Speaker
Um, I am, obviously I'm going to yell out, it's, it's big, it's on its way. Um, this was a bad idea. And I'm going to kind of as, uh, Davin was heading out, I'm going to cast Aura Vitality on myself.
00:46:37
Speaker
Healing energy will radiate around me in an aura from the 30-foot radius until the spell ends, and I can use bonus actions to cause one creature, including myself, to regain 2d6 hit points, and it lasts up to a minute, so I'm going to give Daven the ability to regain 2d6 hit points with my bonus action. You roll those 2d6 for him, and he will regain those hit points. Give it to me.
00:47:05
Speaker
Uh, he gets eight hit points. Hey man, I'll take it. Nice, nice, nice. All right. That'll be my turn. Uh, as I just kind of prepare myself, get my hammer out and re bolster my shield and kind of look around and I'm assuming I hear the second sound now.
00:47:28
Speaker
Um, yes, you're hearing the screeching now sounding like it's kind of coming from everywhere almost. And it's, it's ridiculously loud and, uh, Kind of frightening to be honest, but you don't see them. You just hear the echoing from these holes in the ground. I look at the hole we came from look back and listen at the sound that's approaching. And I just look back at David and I say, well, balls.
00:47:57
Speaker
And I'm I wait. All right. That takes us back up to the top of the round to jockser. I thought the spooter went ahead of my turn. It did. It's still not out of the hole.
00:48:11
Speaker
Oh man, um, man, that sucks. Oh goodness. So I really don't like the spots here. We have boo boo boo boo boo boo boo. I get like, do I want to walk out and see if I can,
00:48:37
Speaker
Prep because it's going to run out and attack something real fast. I guess I'm going to cast.
00:48:54
Speaker
I don't know. It was supposed to appear. I'm sorry. It's it's speed won't get it out of there in those two round or a round and a half really of speed. Oh, it's too it's too much. It's too much for me. I'm going to have a heart attack before it appears. I'm going to. I guess I'm just going to sit here and do a ritual spell while I wait. No, I'm going to. I'm just going to still hold it. Hold the spell. I'm holding a spell for one of her peers. Like that's that's what I'm waiting. But I'm going to as a bonus.
00:49:23
Speaker
I'm going to I'm going to make a. Spell slots kind of, you know, hide in in in somewhere and yell out this. There's multiples, multiple things out there. You shouldn't stay out in the center. Bad idea. Bad idea, bad idea.
00:49:50
Speaker
All right, that takes us to Carmen. He's just gonna stay hidden and he's got an arrow knocked, he's ready to go. And then spell slots is not doing anything, staying hidden.
00:50:05
Speaker
this initiative's next. And then the spider from the south, the sound you heard, the sound of it gets louder as it emerges from this hole right under you, Gwendolyn, as you're the little raven. It doesn't seem to pay you any mind at this point as it uses the remainder of its movement
00:50:26
Speaker
to rush towards the first thing it sees, which is Daven standing over here in the middle of this field. And but it even with a dash to get out of the to get out of the hole and then move a little more. That's all it can do on this turn currently. But Gwen, it's your turn now. It's only one in front of me or a couple. You just see one giant spider. This thing is massive. It's the size of a school bus.
00:50:56
Speaker
or I am bigger. Since I'm kind of above it and it pays no mind, I'm going to swing out to behind it and lower myself to the ground and then come back as Gwen, if I could do that. And then I'm going to produce flame as a cantrip. All right. As I do so, I just rub my hands together and just put them outward and let the flames come out.
00:51:24
Speaker
All right, so you you shoot flame at this thing as it is standing, what, 10 feet ahead away from you? Is that about how close you landed to it? Yeah. And the flames shoot out. And when you do so, make a. Attack. OK. I'm going to see it's a ranged spell attack. I I guess I'll wait till I roll.
00:51:54
Speaker
Oh yeah, it's first. Um, so I rolled a 27 and it hits and I did 10 damage to it. And I hope some of the ground might've caught fire as I hit it. If not, that's okay. I just.
00:52:10
Speaker
It looks like this ground you remember as you cast the flame and you hit this creature and the flames burn off a lot of its hair and it shrieks at you as it as it gets hit with the flame. It looks back towards you and you remember we couldn't light anything on fire in this place. We couldn't even start a campfire as the it basically extinguished by the ground when the flames hit the ground. I want to back up since I'm about 10 feet away. Um.
00:52:41
Speaker
OK. And so as you back up, I'm going to as I do so, I'm going to instead of running away, I'm just going to roll away. And my whole process of thinking of doing so is so that I get covered in this dirt mess. OK. And so I basically G.I. Joe myself and make my own camo. I don't know if it's going to work, but we're going to see. OK. All right. Roll a D100.
00:53:10
Speaker
A D 100. How's a 44? You are 44 44% covered in this nastiness. Oh, sick. And as you roll sick, covering you, you're kind of got the predator thing going like you're hiding in the mud, you know, and yeah, super brown. Far away from this thing.
00:53:36
Speaker
You are currently, which one, which thing? That's right. 45 feet. 45 feet is perfect. I am going to, um, Devin's eyes, uh, start to glow white. And so does one of the necklaces around his chest. And as he reaches.
00:53:51
Speaker
His hand just covers it over his chest. Like the light just kind of wraps around his hand and he pulls it into like a ball and he holds out like a bright light in his hand. And I'm going to cast sunbeam. And then I'm going to shoot that forward. It's a beam of brilliant light flashes out of your hand in a five foot wide, 60 foot long line. And each creature in that line must make a constitution saving throw. Constitution saving throw it is.
00:54:20
Speaker
Uh, it's not going to be super 10 eight plus two. Uh, it takes 34 points of radiant damage and it is blinded until the end of my next turn. So you noticed as this sunbeam hits it, this thing jerks like it has been
00:54:44
Speaker
uh it has been harmed in a way it never has before as it jerks up and you see it just bore a hole through the back of this the torso of this creature and it just burns straight through like fire on paper and it does it seems to do twice the amount of damage you expected it to as it
00:55:04
Speaker
singes this creature to no end. Nice. I should also say that the light in my hand doesn't go away. I'm still holding on to it. It spreads 30 foot radius bright light and then another 30 feet dim light beyond that. Awesome. And as I hold it, I'm going to kind of look and I'm going to measure in my mind and I'm going to split the difference between where the hole is that we went down and where he is now. And I'm going to position myself like right in between there.
00:55:35
Speaker
All right, which I'll let you move me because I don't know where the hole is that we came through. So the hole you came through. So you're going to end up right over here as the hole was like over here. I want to be in between the hole and this creature having a hard time finding the inappropriate joke. That's what she said. Was that worth it? Was that worth the editing later? I don't know. I don't know if it was. I mean, it's your, it's your, it's your editing. So it's your life. Yeah. Do you live your life? Is that about what you're thinking?
00:56:03
Speaker
If the hole was over here, yeah, where that red circle is now. Sure. Now every time he says hole. Right there's me. I'm perfect. Okay. Perfect. All right. So you just scoot over about 15 feet between, you got the, the, the.
00:56:18
Speaker
The bro that you came out of us try not to say the word whole again you come from the burrow that you had that you had gone down into that behind you and you're looking at that monster creature you had just damaged severely with your sunbeam and you said you can that thing stays upright and you continue to yeah it's a concentration spell so i have a for a minute.
00:56:39
Speaker
All right, then I'm going to wave it in the air like the flare in, uh, in Jurassic park. Come on, buddy. All right. And that takes us now to. All right. Just then the whole, the, the, the other, the third board board, uh, out hole that you had in the ground now fills with the shape of a spider as well as the third one emerges.
00:57:07
Speaker
down below you. Third one now Gwendolyn having one in front and behind her as this thing, it's, it's hands emerge from the, from the hole and reach, get the side and pull itself out. And it raises its two, it's two, uh, front legs and mimics begins to dash towards Gwendolyn making
00:57:35
Speaker
It's two impaling arm attacks against Gwendolyn. So it's not one and it's not the same creatures from early in the campaign. We've learned much tonight. Yeah. 25 to hit the first time. Oh, two 18s in a row. So two 25s to hit. It doesn't hit.
00:57:55
Speaker
What are you? So the first one, the 66 damage is 24 damage from the first hit. But she gets extra armor because of the mud around her, right? Yeah. I have 44% mud. No, I'm not sure why she did that. And then the, I don't ask questions with Gwen, you know, I just do your thing. She's probably probably the other girl. That's all 14. And then 21 on the second hit.
00:58:22
Speaker
So these two both simultaneously, these two spear-like legs just pierce your one, just under your left shoulder above your rib cage, just pierces through. The other one comes down and catches you right in the thigh and goes through your leg, barely missing your carotid artery as you are impaled by these two impaling legs. And then it rips back out and just
00:58:49
Speaker
Just that's when the pain really sets in as the barbs that are on the leg are facing the opposite direction as it pulls out and just rips itself out of your leg and out of your chest. And you have been, you've been hit really hard by this creature as it raises up its two legs to come in again for another attack. And that is where we're going to leave this episode.
00:59:18
Speaker
Why don't we have a fourth minor I'm really upset right now I like even numbers All of them need to be in front of the Sun beam though my gosh, right we could line up for that would be perfectly fine If I'm right in a row, don't tell me what to do
00:59:44
Speaker
Thank you for joining us with this episode of The Hired Swords. I know it's been a hard minute, but I really appreciate you tuning in and checking up on us. Feel free to follow us on the socials and everything else if you'd like. We're not super active there, but we still like it anyway.