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Ep. 23 The First Breath
151 Plays4 years ago
With the monster of the mountain managed, the Swords must decide the next steps to ensure Delmar's safe travels home. With many wounds to treat and trust in Delmar still building, we wish to spend our first night on the road far from this prison and far under the stars.
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Transcript
Delmar and Francine's Quest for Happiness
00:00:14
Speaker
This was it. This was the moment we all knew was coming, but weren't sure we were ready for. See, monsters and hidden evils that go bump in the night, we're all too familiar with. But now we have to take Delmar home to Francine. And far too often, the townsfolk and villagers of the world, they can show their true colors.
00:00:41
Speaker
Delmar and Francine deserve a chance for a happy life. We must do all we can to give them that chance.
00:01:12
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords.
Introduction to 'Hired Swords' Podcast
00:01:14
Speaker
Choose your own adventure D&D podcast where we choose your adventure for you.
Battle with the Stone Giant
00:01:33
Speaker
So we are back in the keep at what we are lovingly calling the stone mountain fortress. And at least that's what I call it. And you have defeated the stone giant familiar. By the way, that's what he's called. And he has been crushed mostly by your radiant damage.
00:01:53
Speaker
And after a hard fought battle some flashes of kind of mind altering damaging. Visions I guess you could call them that a few of you had not all of you that made you maybe do some thinking about.
00:02:11
Speaker
your life or whatever, but if nothing else, it did cause some severe pain and some damage. So everybody is, the creature just fell, the rest of you just kind of exhaled of a sigh of relief after defeating this creature.
Post-Battle Recovery
00:02:25
Speaker
You do know that Delmar is currently outside waiting by the gates of this fortress to see if either you return or the steed that was summoned by Krig's vanishes as a sign that you have fallen.
00:02:42
Speaker
you have not fallen except for maybe onto a need to kind of rest a minute because of the exhaustion from your fight but the the creature that you are fighting is dead so what would you like to do now. I don't know that seem to go pretty well I feel I mean it never even came after me so I can't really complain how are you guys feeling.
00:03:04
Speaker
I was feeling great and less great now. And then as I kind of pulled myself a little bit more upright, I'm going to take my rapier and stab it into the large eye just to, just to finish it and then kind of look over at, uh, um, Craig's and I don't know how long
Spiritual Aftermath and Reflection
00:03:26
Speaker
it's been. You might try and pull your steed back. I can, I can send him a message if he's not too far away.
00:03:34
Speaker
I can guarantee he's not too far. I'm going to point out the direction that we last left him and I'm going to use the cantrip message to send him a short message up to 120 feet away. I'll say, I just forgot the guy's name. Delmar. Delmar. He says, I just forgot my name. This is not going well so far.
00:03:55
Speaker
Tell him this is dope. Oh, wait. Okay. I point his direction and I say, don't worry. This is Devin. Uh, good news. It seems like we all made it and he didn't, uh, we'll be heading your way in just a moment. Gwendolyn drops to her knees and just mutters. It's done. And she feels the, the hawk totem spirit just vanishes as she falls. Okay.
00:04:25
Speaker
Joxer, as you stab this thing, you're aiming for that big eye, and it has decreased in size significantly as this creature died, and you can make out a humanoid almost face, very large still, a giant. This thing started as a giant, but you can see that in death this thing has
00:04:49
Speaker
sort of reverted a little bit closer to its original form. It has two normal eyes, but the skin and flesh around it where the big eye was is damaged by what was there. You see that its skin and flesh, it looks like it was once
00:05:11
Speaker
fairly muscular but lean and very tall. The height of it was not caused by whatever caused it to look this way, but the bulk of it was. This thing is very lean while still strong and muscular.
00:05:27
Speaker
and it's it just almost looks pathetic now whereas moments ago it looked like one of the most dangerous things you'd ever fought at this moment it just almost looks pathetic because it it looks like whatever whatever was causing this in death has started has faded some
00:05:46
Speaker
Uh, it, uh, everyone, it, the curse seems to be reversing on this one and in death. So I'd, I'd imagine it can be undone. Hopefully not with just death. Krigs is listening, but he is just going to stand up as I stand up, trying to regather myself, have my hammer in one hand and just my shield falls off my back.
Discussing the Curse and Recovery Plans
00:06:15
Speaker
Clank, clank, clank hits the ground. I'm getting too old for this. Gwendolyn is going to I don't know how to describe it. She's going to crawl over. She's literally right next to the creature. She's going to crawl over and I guess watch his face change if he's reverting back. OK, he looks like whatever change is going to happen has happened.
00:06:41
Speaker
Uh, as over these, over these short seconds after death, but, and its features are very, it looks like this, this creature would have been kind of a monstrosity anyway. It's not like nothing you've never, you've ever seen, but it definitely had been.
00:07:00
Speaker
It was something other than, it was something else after this curse came upon it. And now it's not fully reverted back. There's still a lot of damage that was done with this thing, or to this creature by being what it was. But yeah, it's definitely, you can see signs of what it once was.
00:07:22
Speaker
Um, she's going to take a breath and take mental notes of this creature, just so if she ever runs into it again, uh, she knows what to look for. She's not going to poke it too much, but she's going to, I don't know, feel around at least you can make an investigation check. Okay. Oh my gosh. Um, six plus two eight.
00:07:47
Speaker
Can can jocks are kinda point out things to to give her advantage like oh hey. See you in real. There's not much on it by way of clothing just enough to cover. It just kinda torn through some of the old clothing that's been tattered and worn away some. Short pants that have been cut you know kinda torn at the legs would you roll on the advantage. Sixteen plus two eighteen.
00:08:11
Speaker
Oh, that's better. As you feel around and look around, you see a there's nothing like in its pockets. It's not it's not like it's carrying anything. You see lots of blood and stuff under its fingernails and in its teeth, like it ate just bloody flesh. You and you can see that the the
00:08:38
Speaker
You can tell by looking at the flesh the way it's broken, it's like whatever happened to it grew from the inside out and broke open the flesh. The flesh looks like it's been burst open and these things that you knocked off of it in battle grew out from inside of it. Whatever's cursed, this thing caused it to grow that way. Almost like a mold or something, but stone hard.
00:09:04
Speaker
Like a fungus that's what i was trying to say not a mold like a fungus but stone hard. Could i this is weird so i have speak to plants could i speak to this like is the fungus dead technically.
00:09:18
Speaker
Uh, I would say that it wouldn't be categorized as a fungus. The way it grew was similar to how a fungus would grow. Does that make sense? You're saying I can't talk to it. It's fine. I'm saying that Gwendolyn wouldn't think, you know, Oh, this is fungal necessarily. This isn't necessarily a plant. It's just, Oh, I've seen fungus take over dead things. The way this, whatever took over this creature took him over.
00:09:44
Speaker
Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to leave this place. It's not the best environment for my taste. Have you procured your rope? Why do we lift up on the roof? Oh, that's right. I suppose we have to go back that way unless you guys want to clear out this opening. I don't think neither of any of us have the energy or the care about clearing that out. Are you guys doing okay?
00:10:13
Speaker
I'm worse for wear, but I'll survive. It's going to be a wonderful sleep tonight. Oh, I might have a brew.
Healing and Regrouping
00:10:26
Speaker
Almost prepared. How's your... How are you holding up there, jockser? Better game. How's your HP? Sir, I'm walking-ish.
00:10:39
Speaker
I'll, uh, I, I could use the rest. Luckily Gwendolyn was so kind to aid me in that battle. I don't know if I'd still be standing with, uh, I don't know how I don't know how it missed you and hit me. Oh God, it was painful. It seemed to have quite a bit of range. That's a big thing.
00:11:02
Speaker
Maybe I was too close. I'm gonna walk over to Jaxer. Jax, well, I'm gonna walk over to Jaxer. Jaxer. I'm gonna walk over to Jaxer and I'm gonna put a hand on his shoulder. And just gonna give you a little bit of lay on hands action. Ooh, that's nice. I have a total of... Who all got hurt? Just us. Well, Gwen, yeah. Everybody but me. I'm gonna put my hand on Jaxer on his shoulder and I'm just gonna be like,
00:11:32
Speaker
See if this helps a little. My hand is gonna glow. You're gonna see a little glow like I'm around the crease between my hand and your shoulder, and I'm gonna give you 15 HP. What? Okay.
00:11:45
Speaker
He accepts. This doesn't solve what's been going on. No, but it's definitely a step in the right direction before we can actually have a sit down with a bit of brew and maybe some tasteless food.
00:12:03
Speaker
I'm going to walk over to Gwendolyn and just kind of put my hand out and see if she'll like, except, except my hand, like in a grass bed. I don't want to just assume. Um, Gwendolyn, after she has looked over the body, um, she is, she was shook. Uh, when she sees Craig's hand, cause it's in her peripheral and she's just like, Oh, and, uh, she immediately grabs it and
00:12:32
Speaker
When she does, um, she has never squeezed so hard. Um, all the anger and frustration she had about this just, she immediately grabs it, squeeze it and hugs Craig and just starts crying with that hug, uh, giving you 15 HP points. Oh, son.
00:12:56
Speaker
You can edit that out, sorry. After after Craig's kind of walks off, Jockster walks over to the portable hole he had put down and picks it up and then starts heading toward the ladder. I think it's time we got back to our friend and see how he's doing after all this. I'm curious to see if there's been any change now that we've
00:13:25
Speaker
Put this to bed. Yes. And she's ready to go. Are we having a relatively easy time climbing out of here? Because we dimensioned door it out last time. It's no problem. It's just a ladder. I mean, you just climb up and open that hatch at the top and you can climb back down with the rope. No, I need everyone to make dexterity checks. I'm just kidding. I'm making my way out of here. There it is.
00:13:54
Speaker
19 plus three he did it Congrats you You climb up skipping every you skipping three rungs at a time of the letter. I just I just hold on to the sides It just jumps straight out Yeah
00:14:12
Speaker
All right, so you guys may get back out of there. And I wasn't going to say it. You get out of there and start climbing down with the rope. And as you climb down, up rides Delmar on this summoned steed. And he says, I can't lie. I didn't go too far. I heard your message, David. So I headed this way, but I am glad to see you all are safe.
00:14:41
Speaker
That was a lot more than I... I guess it was exactly what I anticipated if I'm being honest with myself, but... How are you, Dalmar? How are you feeling?
00:14:51
Speaker
Well, better now knowing that I don't have to try to trek through the wilds on my own and go into town looking like this. And he does still look the same with his big eye and just nasty boils and growths all over him. And he says, it didn't take you too long. I'm glad that you were able to find it quickly. I suppose, I assume you dispatched of it.
00:15:18
Speaker
It won't be too much of a problem for anyone else at this point, luckily. That's good. That's good. So some of you, he looks around, don't, uh, you don't look too
Delmar's Relief and Health Check
00:15:29
Speaker
good. Uh, perhaps, um, perhaps we should go find somewhere to rest. Was one of these punks yours? These you're a scout. Yes. But is this where you were stationed?
00:15:43
Speaker
Yes, I was here. I stayed in the first barracks over there, and I assume my bed is still there and everything. We could go sleep there, I guess. I already grabbed my other items from where I stayed before this mission, but we could go rest. There's plenty of room in the bunkhouse for all of us. That sounds good to me. What about you, guys?
00:16:09
Speaker
Personally, I mean, like I said, I didn't have a hard time with that fight at all, but the sooner we could get on the road, I think the better. It's still pretty early in the day. I agree with you. I think we can do a small trek and I'm not sure I feel right sleeping in these beds that were for others.
00:16:36
Speaker
Delmar, is there anything... Sorry, Gwendolyn. Delmar, is there anything in your... your bunker, your possession that you might...
00:16:46
Speaker
I don't know, wish to not leave here. Once we're gone, if we leave now, we preferably won't be back. I grabbed the things that I had left behind. I grabbed them this morning earlier when we walked into the officers' quarters, remember? I think I have all I need. My head's a little shaken, though I have to forgive me. The fight took quite a bit out of me. A lot of
00:17:15
Speaker
A lot of memories I don't necessarily care to remember. You'll have to forgive me. We also didn't sleep last night, so that's maybe another reason why we should take a rest. I definitely don't think we should travel a full day, but a little further out of this area might not be bad. And then I'll look over at Delmar and
00:17:38
Speaker
I think a few of us looking at Gwendolyn and Craig's understand a little bit more of what you've been going through. I'm sorry. Oh, you saw it. Are any of you suffering from burning or itching? More than usual.
00:18:01
Speaker
Well yeah, either way you should be looked at. But yes, since... The more you know... I know a good dermatologist if you need one.
00:18:24
Speaker
Does anyone have been gay? You should really get a good text.
00:19:04
Speaker
Now I can't I can't say any more than usual but it's
00:19:12
Speaker
Was that the first symptom that you had? It was like a burning kind of feeling. Yes. It just felt like breaking out on my skin and then it would break open like boils and then these growths would sprout from there and it was pretty miserable. It started just as discomfort, but then it became this where it's not just in my body, but my mind as well.
00:19:41
Speaker
David's gonna walk over to krigs and he's gonna take a look over his body and see if he sees anything weird going on. Make an investigation check.
Journey to Reunite Delmar and Francine
00:19:52
Speaker
It's 21.
00:19:54
Speaker
Um, you look around, I mean, did you not noticing like patches of itchy spots or not itchy, but like red spots or anything on what you can see of his arms and hands. But you do notice that there's several tufts of hair and, and stuff missing from his hair and his beard. Like he's, it's thinning. Hmm. Craig, does your family have any, uh, history of hair loss?
00:20:24
Speaker
That's for another time. I didn't mean to pry. That's her own personal business. I just, making sure it's not related at all. No, it's definitely not. Well, um, I, I think, I think it'd be best just to, to at least get it a little bit of distance from, from, from these, these, these barracks. I just don't, I don't feel well. Feeling uncomfortable from the, the questions from Devin, Craig's interjects very quickly, uh, agreed jokes. Um,
00:20:55
Speaker
Elmar, how would you like to sleep under the stars tonight? It's been a while since you've felt the night air. I would love nothing more, he says. Let's get out of here then. Let's, let's carry on at least good little ways. You can see the mountains again. It's been a while. I can't wait to see the trees. Well, you'll get tired of them by the time we get through them. I don't know. It would take quite a bit for me after these long years. All right though, Devin's just going to start walking.
00:21:25
Speaker
Okay. He, I guess has been sitting on top of this steed this during this conversation. So he rides, rides along with you and he just trots alongside all of you keeping, keeping up, not trying to, you know, take off this time. I think as we're walking, I think Gwendolyn's going to be behind and when they leave, she's going to look back and have Dale in her arms and then go forward.
00:21:53
Speaker
Okay. And she doesn't want to remember this place. Okay. Devin's in surprisingly good spirits. He's kind of almost skipping and whistling as he's going. Okay. Uh, yeah, Josh, Josh is going to be following close behind the steed just because mostly is walk speed.
00:22:10
Speaker
yeah all right okay so you guys make a quick work of the the gatehouse and the the bottleneck there you get through the the front gates and uh back into the the kind of pathway valley way out of this fortress and you begin to walk
00:22:31
Speaker
towards the the crossroads there make you make it all the way that way until you finally turn into the major main kind of thoroughfare down out of back out of the stone mountains back towards the forest you came from and as you walk Delmar is just is just silent taking it all in he's looking at the sky he's looking at every time he sees a bird or something fly
00:23:01
Speaker
He sees it notices and he he may mention look look there and he's kind of like a little kid who hasn't been somewhere before just kind of calling out the things that he's missed and I hadn't thought of birds in a while. There's one look, you know, just that sort of thing and and so you're kind of right your day this second half of your day just kind of goes like that until the Sun starts to set ahead of you as you're heading west down out of the mountains and
00:23:30
Speaker
Uh, did we get to the tree line yet or we're still not yet. You still got, you got about a day's travel after this to get out of the mountains completely. Well, I suppose we need to stop for the night. I don't know what we're going to do for, for a fire, but I do know that Craig's had carried a bunch of sticks after that one successful hit. He wanted to come for later. He's got a bundle of sticks on his back. He does.
00:23:56
Speaker
I also have at least, I think, eight more torches so we could probably get a torch fire. Yeah, a little bit of something going.
00:24:08
Speaker
We'll have that spinning top game that we had as a kid. Oh man. And crossfire is such a good, uh, deck building game. Just so you always wanted that. I just never had the money. We never had it, but I was a loner. So I could only play by myself.
Campfire Reflections and Camaraderie
00:24:24
Speaker
I did. I, it was so like, yeah, I still play by myself.
00:24:29
Speaker
And then Wizards of the Coast had to ruin it by making it to Dragonfire. And then, you know. Hey, you know what though? You play with it. Play by yourself. You always win.
00:24:40
Speaker
We'll use some of the, the sticks, the bundles of sticks and the torches, whatever we need to do to get a fire going, at least to cook. Great. Stay a little warm. Okay. So you set up a little camp, find a little nook of off the path a little bit and set up camp in the mountains. And there you sit around a fire. Anybody going to do anything, say anything, anything going on?
00:25:04
Speaker
Um, I'm going to stay quiet. She did smile as we walked as Del Mar was looking at all the nature that did cheer her up, but she feels she just needs to listen to her environment and yeah, look us into the trees.
00:25:22
Speaker
Joxer, after kind of setting down the torches that he has and such, he's going to kind of excuse himself and lay down the portable hole and start looking down to see if he's got anything kind of working out. Okay. All right. Joxer disappears into the hole in the ground that he created.
00:25:47
Speaker
Devin's going to pull off one of his necklaces and it looks like it's some sort of like a gold symbol and he's just kind of kind of play with it in his hands and kind of look it over. Just kind of sit by himself for a little while and he's smiling the whole time.
00:25:58
Speaker
Okay, Craig? I am going to, from my pack, I'm going to pull a little clump of cloth at this point. It's been torn so many times. I'm going to rip another strip of this cloth off and start wrapping my forearm to my wrist and pause a little bit when I get closer to the hand.
00:26:23
Speaker
and just tie it off at the wrist for now, keeping a little bit of extra slack, but they've all kind of seen more, so I'm more accepting to see my group here, but I want to be able to cover my hand if necessary later, so I just kind of bind my wrist back up. Okay.
00:26:44
Speaker
and start with the extra cloth. I'm just going to start polishing my shield a little bit because I dinged it up a little bit with my war hammer and I prefer it to be not dinged. So I'm just going to sit there and focus on polishing it up. OK.
00:27:06
Speaker
Everybody's sitting and just kind of doing their thing. The three of you, Gwendolyn's just kind of sitting, thinking and looking at Dale and Delmar's sitting and you just hear him kind of. And you could tell there's something, he's just kind of stirring and fighting and he said, do we have something to eat?
00:27:30
Speaker
I did give you back your wand, Delmar. I believe Devin might be able to. So you did. And he, let me check here.
00:27:42
Speaker
He hands the wand over to Daven and he says, you could see the apple, it glows a little brighter when there's charges in it that will actually work. It's about half as bright as it can get now and hands it to you. It seems that you could cast this twice from here probably.
00:28:06
Speaker
I think we only need one and I'll, uh, without really knowing what I do and kind of wave it around a little bit and do some magical stuff and, and cast create food and water. Okay. The food, just this, like when you cast this and the, the wand doesn't do anything and you're like, what the heck? But then suddenly the, the wind kind of picks up around where you pointed the wand and the dust kind of forms around it. And it just kind of.
00:28:35
Speaker
dissolve the dust dissolves and when the dust fades you see just this random almost pile of what looks like mushrooms and little chunks of bread, apples, pears, just food kind of sitting here and there and you see a water skin there too full of water
00:29:01
Speaker
That is quite convenient, so I will say that. I'm going to put together a platter of sorts, a cubic foot worth of the food, and then I'll wave my hands over it with Prestidigitation, and I'll flavor it all, just random flavors that I know that I like.
00:29:18
Speaker
Okay, and just so you just so you can understand the amount of food that's here, this spell casts enough food to feed 15 people. Okay, and 30, 30 gallons of water. So and it's bland, but nourishing it spoils within spoils if not eaten in 24 hours. The water doesn't go bad. This water skin is huge. Joxer, we got some more water for you up here. But you got to use it like right away. I don't know if that's a thing.
00:29:50
Speaker
Joxer kind of comes out with a keg. He's like, well, Krigs, this reminds me of the day we met. Don't tell me. We're not going to hear that story again, are we? You did not make more old Dirty Brown Ale, did you? Dods.
00:30:24
Speaker
Trust me, not worth your time. It just starts laughing. She it's just the end of the day. She's laughing. And Delmar says, oh, oh, it can't be that bad, especially for me. Hand it over. So I'll pour some out. I mean, I didn't warn you. I wouldn't call it bad, but I it's it's effective.
00:30:40
Speaker
Either that's a yes or a poop. I'm not really sure what it is.
00:30:53
Speaker
and I'll hand it over and it is pretty bitter it's uh it's yeah he's he takes a drink and he well I've had worse and just keeps drinking it
00:31:05
Speaker
It definitely has flavor. And then, you know. That is a flavor too. I won't argue. I'll just pour a couple of little flasks and offer it to whoever wants it, and then I'm going to drink. Kevin will take one. Who takes it? Gwendolyn takes one. Craig's isn't he's just going to
00:31:34
Speaker
He's going to really sheepishly take it, dump it out, walk over to the water flask, grab some water and just be like, oh, that's the stuff. Okay. Uh, you start to drink the water. As you drink the water, you drink about half of that cup of water and you can't feel like you can take it. You can drink any more water or anything. You just don't feel like you can put anything in your stomach today.
00:32:00
Speaker
I'm about ready for the night to actually come and I'm beat. Yeah. And, and, uh, yeah, everyone's, I mean, you didn't sleep last night, so you know that feeling. This is not only that, but you just got into one of the hardest battles you fought. So like everyone's very worn out, very exhausted. And, uh, you all do have one point of exhaustion at this point for sure. So I'm fine with going to bed.
00:32:29
Speaker
Devin will put his necklace back on and he'll go and start setting up his bedroll. Okay. Delmar sees you, sees you settling in Devin and he looks around at everyone else. He says, uh, so we, uh, calling it a night then. Uh, I, I believe so. Um, Jockster is going to kind of look over and you can, you can sleep on, on, on my bedroll. Um, I'm used to sleeping on the ground.
00:32:58
Speaker
Okay. He says, and he lays down on, on your bedroll and, uh, kind of struggles to get comfortable and ends up on his non deformed side and, um, closes his eyes and just starts to try to drift off. Uh, and, uh, Gwen, did you go ahead and settle into everybody?
00:33:21
Speaker
Yes.
Delmar's Past and Group Bonding
00:33:23
Speaker
I'll take first watch. Okay. So if Davin takes first watch, everyone else settles in and starts to rest. Davin, why don't you make a perception check first and then we'll talk about the rest. Two, five.
00:33:38
Speaker
Okay, so you are still sitting and just kind of looking around and you're very distracted because Delmar is talking in his sleep and it's not his voice. The voice is very deep and it's not the growly voice either. It's not the deep monster voice. It's also not this nice little creepy high voice either.
00:34:04
Speaker
It's just this low voice. And every now and then he'll just say, I knew it. I told you there's nothing. We're lost. No more. No more. No one to go back to. And then he'll say nothing. And then a few minutes will pass and
00:34:25
Speaker
Go, you must go, you have to go. Go, just go, leave me. He settles back in and this just happens every 15, 20 minutes through the night and he never gets real loud, never gets real boisterous, but he's having a rough night and you can definitely see it until then.
00:34:48
Speaker
but that's all that really happens through your watch that night. Devin will just stare at him the whole time. You know, he's not really paying attention to anything else. It's because he's pretty creeped out by this. Yeah. Okay. And then when he starts to really get tired, he he'll go over and he'll shake Gwen and say, Hey, Gwen, you might take a second watch. I could do some rest. Yeah, I can do that. I can watch.
00:35:11
Speaker
All right, just to give you a heads up, our new friend over there seems to be talking in his sleep, or at least something inside of him is talking in his sleep. It's not the same voice as we heard earlier. She furrows her brows. I can watch him. All right. I don't wake him. I don't know what it means. Go get some sleep. Thank you. All right, Gwen, make a perception check as you lay in watch, sit and watch.
00:35:41
Speaker
11 plus 7, 18. Cool, okay. So as you're looking around,
00:35:48
Speaker
Nothing really around you in the mountains is of any interest. At one point, you see something fly overhead that blots out most of the starry sky. It seems like it's pretty large, whatever it is, but it doesn't seem to care, pay you any mind. It just kind of soars above and there it goes. And you, about halfway through, you hadn't really heard anything from Delmar. And then about halfway through, he sits up and he goes,
00:36:17
Speaker
We have to run. And he lays back down and goes back to sleep. And that's the only thing he does the rest of the night until morning starts to come. The sun begins to rise. She probably jumped when he just shot straight up. Okay.
00:36:41
Speaker
Uh, she, uh, she might be, she might be watching him most of the day, most of this track, I think. All right. The sun is rise has risen. It is a new day. Oh man. Okay. Back to full health. Everybody's had a long rest. I need Krigs to make a constitution saving throw. Oh dear. Okay.
00:37:09
Speaker
That's going to be 13. Okay. You do, uh, feel better and you're, you're famished this morning. Um, you, you have to eat. The first thing you do is go for, you look at the pile of food sitting there from the day before and it still looks good because it does last 24 hours. So this is any of the food that had pressed the, can you, it lasts for an hour. Oh, okay.
00:37:40
Speaker
I'm going to rouse Davin kind of hurriedly. Sorry to wake you to quite like this old boy, but I'm quite hungry. I did not have any last night. Could you do your little tricks you have there and a little bit of this food for me? I'm quite hungry. All right, but don't call me old. You're like a hundred years older than I am. Don't mind me.
00:38:04
Speaker
I'll do press the digitization on, uh, enough of the food, mostly meat, if there is any. There's no meat. Oh, so anything that I see with protein then. Okay. There's some quinoa, some bananas, bananas and avocado, avocado from Mexico. Yeah. There's some of that there. I'm just going to enjoy myself and just eat what whatever tastes good out of that pile.
00:38:33
Speaker
Okay yeah you get a hold of some food that you like and tastes like itself you know that you grab an apple that tastes like a radish and you're like what did he do to this one but most of them are pretty good pretty accurate. I'm not perfect alright. It's hard to get a bunch of things all at once. You did your best old boy. Thanks ancient one.
00:38:57
Speaker
I just scoff. All right, guys, time to wake up. Let's get on the road. Yeah. All right. Gwendolyn is talking to Dale.
00:39:13
Speaker
I, I don't know if, if I should tell them, I'll just watch him for a little while. It'll be okay. And she's just staring at Dale as she's putting the bag around her. Dale's just sitting on a rock, just staring at her. Okay. But he's disapproving what she's thinking. Can we hear her addressing the gossip King? Uh, I mean, she's, I don't know. Are you trying to secretly speak to Dale? Yes.
00:39:42
Speaker
Uh, I guess make a perception check and she can make a stealth check if she wants. I'm probably going to do mine a disadvantage cause I am all about this food. Slide of mouth. Disadvantage is a two. I can't hear nothing. I am feasting.
00:39:57
Speaker
All right. Sixteen plus two. Eighteen. Daven doesn't care. Rolling them. Eighteens. Yeah. Nobody. Nobody seems to notice what you're saying. Joxer, what are you doing this morning? I'm I'm just kind of stretching out some of those really sore limbs from being almost smashed into bits. Yeah. And at that point, I'll probably go over. So.
00:40:28
Speaker
Anything eventful happened last night. I, I, I slept straight through everything. Delmar is still sleeping. Literally just song over here likes to sleep in a, uh, talking to sleep, but other than that, it was a pretty peaceful night that I saw when, what about you? How was yours? Your watch. It was, it was fine. Uh, I heard some of the muttering too.
00:40:58
Speaker
Alright, it's probably just nightmares. Knowing that he's still asleep, I'm still a little weary, but we have to keep pressing on, and at minimum I do want to reunite Delmar with Francine. When we start getting closer to town, we might have to worry a little bit about, well, like you guys were saying, how the reaction is going to be to him.
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah, we might, when we get to that point, we might have to split up. Someone go grab Francine and bring her out to where we're at before we actually bring him into town. That's not a bad idea. Yes.
00:41:46
Speaker
Okay. So you guys are going to make your way out of the, uh, out of the, start making way down out of the mountains there. And you rouse Delmar. He wakes up and as he does, he, he just, Oh, sorry. I was, I was back in the back in that chamber again. Oh, I'm glad to be under the sky. I stared at the stars as long as I could. Um,
00:42:16
Speaker
It was, it was lovely to sleep in the fresh air. Did everyone sleep well? Yeah, sure. I did. I'm just still, I'm stuffing some of the, um, pastries or whatever it was there that was obviously not meat into my pouch. Just a couple extra just for the road. I'm not really paying attention to conversation. Get yourself a doggy bag there, Craig. So we got to get going.
00:42:42
Speaker
Okay. All right. So as you head down the mountains, finally, everybody walking, did you, did you say you're going to bring back the steed for Delmar?
00:42:57
Speaker
I never dismissed it. Just hanging out. Just hanging out. Delmar walks up to the steed and looks at you all and looks at Krigs and looks at the steed with this kind of expression. His ugly, deformed side of his face doesn't really change, but his more human-looking side kind of gives a look like, may I? Is it okay?
00:43:20
Speaker
I believe you've become quite acquainted with my friend there. Absolutely. It's going to be an easier ride for you than it would be trying to walk by all means. Okay. About this, we'll make a trade. You can continue to ride my friend here, but you have to give me one story from Francine, something you can remember of your life.
00:43:49
Speaker
Okay, all right. As you guys begin to walk, he begins to speak and he says, well, I missed out on a lot of her life, her early life I remember, but some, but I do remember being gone a lot. See, I fought in the wars and while I felt the need to serve my people and my king,
00:44:17
Speaker
or my governor. I didn't believe it was right for me to be gone as much as I was. So my plan was to go home after the war, but I don't know. It was strange. When I got home, it was like they were so good at living without me, you know? They were used to me not being around. I can relate to that. Yeah, I felt out of place.
00:44:43
Speaker
Luckily for me, I wasn't exactly out of place. I know you had your family, you had Francine, and when you'd come back from your scouting missions, I can imagine it would be very alienating just being the odd man out. For me though, luckily, I wasn't exactly the odd man out in my home, but it definitely still, there were rifts, I can remember, but
00:45:10
Speaker
It's nice to have hope and excitement to go back to your loved one. I'm glad. I appreciate you for sharing at least this. I'll have you tell me more. I'm excited to hear more of your time.
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah, I do remember one time coming home and they didn't know I was going to be there. They didn't know I was coming and when I arrived, she was churning, Francine was, and as she churned, she looked up and saw me and she started running and as she did, the bucket tipped over and everything poured out on the floor and my wife,
00:45:54
Speaker
My wife, she got onto her before she saw me. What did she look like? What? What was her name? Did Francine say her mother's name? Didn't you grab a picture? I have a drawing of Francine, yes. Oh, I apologize. I don't... that's... I don't remember Francine mentioning her mother. Was she not there with her? No. That can only mean the worst.
00:46:24
Speaker
That's we don't know that. Let's let's continue on. You know, your story does recall back the time in my childhood. I, I much like Francine can remember being at home just doing dutiful talk chores. Typically for me, though, in my house, it was learning the ways of the forge. Um,
00:46:43
Speaker
But my mother, my mother came back from her, her regiment earlier than expected from one of her times out there. But I can remember running, running into her arms. I was still quite not young. I am significantly old, but just the feeling of the comfort of a mother being back home. I can imagine I can, I can't wait to see the look on Francine's face whenever we can reunite you two. Your mother was in the war as well.
00:47:11
Speaker
She was, yes. Is that typical for dwarves? I would say it is not uncommon for any dwarf to hold a position in the ranks. My father, he also fought in the war.
00:47:26
Speaker
Many fathers did. Many fathers fell or were lost, including myself, I suppose, till now. I can't believe she looked for me this long. Delma, you would be absolutely impressed with the amount of research she did trying to scout you out. She had books.
00:47:52
Speaker
books upon books of writing and details and just information trying to find her father. And when everyone else told her to give up, she never did. She always kept hope. You can thank Gwendolyn here. You can thank Gwendolyn. We're here, honestly. I didn't exactly want to come back to the Stone Mountains, but
00:48:15
Speaker
Gwendolyn knows a bit of a father's love and looking for lost hope. Don't you, Gwen? Yes. I too don't know where my father is and Francine reminds me of myself. She has hope and
00:48:39
Speaker
I believed her. I mean, here you are. She's very lucky. I believe that I'm very lucky. I could have been there until I either died fighting this monster inside of me or finally gave in and joined the one outside the door. Well, either way I'm grateful. I'm grateful for you all and I hope that
00:49:10
Speaker
Hope that we can compensate you for your efforts in as many ways
Reflective Discussions and Future Hopes
00:49:13
Speaker
as we can. You know, I have, I had amassed a bit of riches before I left. I hope that I'm still able to, I had quite the collection beneath my, beneath my little cabin there. I remember, I don't remember everything that was there, but I remember it was important to me and valuable most of it. I do remember that.
00:49:35
Speaker
Delmar, I mean, as a scout, you traveled. You traveled, I mean, vast areas for the war. I did. Gwen, what was that area that you've been searching for? Maybe Delmar has heard of... Oh, Almanora, have you ever heard of it?
00:50:02
Speaker
Almanora. I mean, yes, it's a fairy tale. Do you know details about this fairy tale? Seems like I did. Not details, maybe, but I feel like we elves, we always wanted to imagine that we're somewhere better than where we were. For some of us, it was Almanora. Oh.
00:50:32
Speaker
So you're saying that it's not a real place. It's just a fantasy land, an escape. I'll tell you that for some it's a religion. I remember belief in that place. For others it's just stories. Were there any areas that might, I don't know, preach such a religion in that aspect?
00:51:01
Speaker
Ah, the, I used to be able to remember geography and my mind was a map of its own. I didn't have to look at maps. If I'd been somewhere, I could take you there a year later. Now I, it's all mixed up. I'm, I feel like sure I have, I'd be known of places where
00:51:22
Speaker
They taught of Almanora as a place to unify elves under the ancestry of the fae, but again, it was mostly people standing in the road, crying out to the crowds passing by. Nobody that anyone took seriously.
00:51:45
Speaker
Sorry, go on. Thank you. I'm not trying to press. I'm sure you'll remember in time more details. I'm happy to. Honestly, I believe it's good for me. The more I talk about it, the more that things become
00:52:05
Speaker
easier to remember. Some things are just still blocked, but I feel the further we get from that place and the more we discuss my past and my life and things I should know, the... I don't know. It can't be bad for me, I suppose. Yeah, I want you to hold on to any of your previous thoughts. I mean, whether it be Francine or the life you lived before being in that cell.
00:52:35
Speaker
Yes, I want the same thing. Gwendolyn, um, when Jarkser had asked the question, if he had ever heard of Al Menorah, um, that whole entire time she, she was listening. She was very like intent on maybe he might know something. And as soon as he said fairy tale, she stopped listening. She just, everyone has told her this and she does not believe it to be true, but she doesn't show it. Yeah, sure.
00:53:02
Speaker
All right, you're walking through the woods and I'm going to say just go ahead and come right out and say it. I've already rolled all your days of random encounters because you've got like five days trek through the woods here and we just did a five day trek through the woods to get back up to the mountains.
00:53:20
Speaker
So, I literally rolled nothing for five days. So, I rolled five above sevens. So, anything on a seven or lower would be a random encounter of some kind. But we rolled, on the way up, I rolled three encounters on the way down, nothing. So. Yeah, get out of those good rolls. Yeah.
00:53:45
Speaker
As far as the daytime goes, we're going to just say you're traveling five days through the wilds and you get through the first day down out of the... Anytime anyone wants to interject anything that you want to do in one of these days based on where you are or anything, please just say so.
00:54:04
Speaker
But you come down out of the woods or out of the mountains back into the foothills and you begin walking through the foothills and the rolling hills and the you begin to get into the areas of grassland that are on these rolling hills and your next night comes and when your next night comes.
00:54:27
Speaker
Delmar has a better night that night and he rests some murmuring, but never any words anyone can make out. You don't see anything in the distance, a few critters here and there that you see. And then the next day comes and you travel for that day. Any conversations you want to have, anything else come to mind? Do I need to make any rolls? Yeah, I need you to roll for today again the next day. Lots of three.
00:54:55
Speaker
Okay. Uh, roll for the next day too. Uh, we'll say it was a five because I have my two, um, it is a nine. We will 11. Okay. So the next day is a 15. Okay. The day after that is a 17. Okay. Uh, and then an 11.
00:55:16
Speaker
Okay, so you you kind of go off and on day after day with just stomach problems. Anytime you are offered in there are days where you can eat and you're fine and you feel like oh gosh, I'm famished. And then there are days where you can't in two of those days, the day that today and tomorrow that the current day and the next day, you
00:55:41
Speaker
end up just feeling drained as heck and you actually have exhaustion you can't you can't focus you can't really pay attention very well you don't really think of anything to bring up you're very quiet that day as you just you feel bad you haven't eaten in two days and anytime jocks or anybody offers you something uh fermented to drink um
00:56:04
Speaker
In fact, one time you take a drink and you immediately vomit, just bile, nothing. You can't hold alcohol at all any of these days regardless of whether you pass a save or not. When you think you're just the worst you can be, you have a day where you feel a little better and you eat like you shouldn't eat after you've had a two-day fast, but you do anyway and you just eat.
00:56:29
Speaker
between the wand causing, you know, causing food and then prestidigitation making it taste better and just that whole routine. That's kind of your, that's kind of your week going through these days of travel. Are there any trees you want to have any encounters with as you travel these days? I'm gonna try once. Okay, okay. I gotta leave room for that. That's a good, that's gotta, something's gotta happen.
00:56:57
Speaker
17. Make a survival check to find the tree first. Don't call me nays. I'll say that's my survival check. Okay. Now make your attack roll to hit the tree. Two handed. Oh. 22.
00:57:16
Speaker
So you kind of walk through as you're walking through the woods, it's not even camp time. You just spot a tree and you go, ah, there it is. And you walk up to it and you, you take two hands and everybody else is kind of still walking till they realize you're not with them and they kind of look back and see, oh, oh, what's he doing? Here we go again.
00:57:38
Speaker
and you grip your hammer as tight as you can and give it a swing and smack and you just crack this tree and it just... all the way through from the side you hit it up a little bit down a little bit towards the roots and then back to the other side and it just sits there and then...
00:58:09
Speaker
falls over and hits the ground and some birds scurry out of it as it starts to fall. And this tree wasn't massive. It was not huge and a third of it was leaves. The rest of it was kind of dry dead branches and some of the trunk
Night Watch and Looming Danger
00:58:28
Speaker
as well. So you spotted one that was kind of a easy prey and sure enough, bam, you knocked it down. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna sit there and be like, oh, oh.
00:58:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And just started dancing a dwarven dance, just like the dumbest, just super into it. Just like, yeah. By hell, he actually did it. I mean, it wasn't exactly a redwood, but it's still pretty impressive. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. Let me have my moment.
00:59:07
Speaker
He's, he's been a little unwell. Just, just let him be okay. Delmar goes, Delmar goes, um, does he do that often? Every day. Well, not knocking down that part's new. Yeah. He just sneers at you. He goes back to dancing. Pulls out his glow sticks. So, uh, that, that night, um, that night you
00:59:37
Speaker
Have plenty of firewood. Dude, you have plenty of firewood. A beautiful fire. And... A very proud smiling Krigs. Who would be taking first watch that night? I would be feeling good enough. I'm taking first watch. And then, uh... So, you're taking first watch. I would like for you to make a perception check for that one night. Best stat. This is night three of your travels. Or four. Night four of your travels, by the way.
01:00:06
Speaker
uh 16 um you hear in the distance headed your way sounds of growling and roaring and a scuffle and it's and it's and you hear this
01:00:26
Speaker
and more growling and roaring and swiping. And these creatures are, you hear something in the distance and it's coming closer and you just, as these like hoof beats come towards you, as well as more just running and roaring and you'll hear a roar. And then a roar.
01:00:47
Speaker
Like that and this suddenly this giant giant wild boar runs out of the woods and Not only is he giant but he's blood red and his tusks are black as night and
01:01:04
Speaker
And behind him, you see two creatures that look like bears, but people. And they're standing chasing this creature with his hands out, with their hands up, a giant claws and big faces. They're running on their hind legs towards this board, just right towards your camp. And that's where we're going to stop for now.
Closing Remarks and Social Media Reminder
01:01:29
Speaker
Dang. Why is it always going to be on my watch?
01:01:33
Speaker
i don't know that the yeah the the ghost was my watch that was the worst
01:01:49
Speaker
One, two, three, go. Thank you for listening to this episode because I'm one of the hired swords. If you like our show, tell a friend about us. And if you really liked our show, tell the world and leave a review. If you want to keep up with all the behind the scenes goofs and gaffs, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook at the Hired Swords. Again, thank you for listening to the Hired Swords. We'll see you next time.