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Ep.9 Lingering Liabilities
178 Plays4 years ago
After receiving fortunes from Meredith Toliver, our heroes are greeted with the unwelcome stir of Marias losing his cool. Forced to deal with his temper, plans quickly form to ensure the success of the greater worries of the day. What does the Chief know? What's going on behind the scenes of Wildhill?
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Transcript
Introduction to the Adventure
00:00:19
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, a Dungeons and Dragons podcast where adventure is mandatory. No exceptions. Looking at you, Steve, you know who you are.
Returning to Town and Mourning Vip
00:00:41
Speaker
Welcome back to the hired swords whenever we left off you guys we were you had just walked out of the home of the widow Tolliver after having your cards read and your fortunes told you made it into town only you had just made it into town only to have to head back to the woods and find Vip a friend who they you had discovered had been killed
00:01:01
Speaker
by burrowing creatures. You know Marius is or Marius is very upset because Vip was his twin brother and and their companion Edie was having a hard time keeping him calm. You as I said just finished this session where you all had some interesting revealing or confusing encounters with
00:01:25
Speaker
Meredith Tolliver, this fortune teller, and you walk outside and that's where we are right now as you walk outside.
Commotion and Doubts About Fortune-Telling
00:01:35
Speaker
And as you step out right across the street, or the dirt path there, is a little bit of a commotion going on out in front of the longhouse. Yeah, Jax is just collecting flowers right now. Okay. I was the last one to come out of the room
00:01:55
Speaker
of Toliver. Gwen or Davin, are you drawing any kind of attention to this? I feel like Gwendolyn was thinking for a while, and then she probably hears the noises and looks up, and then just looks at her party peeps. And she's like, what is that? What's going on?
00:02:20
Speaker
We should definitely check on this. I have a bad feeling this might be related to our friend Marias. Let's go. Let's go. Take a look. Uh, Jockster looks up at you speaking Krigs and he's, uh, Krigs are, are you all right? Never better, my boy. Uh, uh, are you as well? Are you okay? I, uh,
00:02:48
Speaker
I... I'm expecting some things and it was confirmed. So... I just wasn't sure I was ready to... Good things? I suppose we'll find out. Daven just kind of shakes his head like, confirmed. You keep saying this like as if she said anything of importance. It's all generic BS. She's just trying to get us up, trying to connect something in our lives to the things that she says. It's all BS. There's nothing about it that's true.
00:03:17
Speaker
Guess I guess we'll we'll see It's true got one week after all. I I definitely can't say I Believe every one week. What are you talking about? I Heard that too. What is what is it? I? Have no idea it's a little troubling but
00:03:45
Speaker
I'm sure I've seen worse in my days. And this is exactly what I'm saying. You see, in one week's time, we're all going to be thinking of this, and something's going to happen, and we're going to relate it to her, but it's going to have nothing to do with that. Aye, that's very well maybe the case, and honestly I sort of prefer it that way, but at the moment, I'm sure we all have plenty of other things that could be taking our concern.
00:04:15
Speaker
Yes, Daven, I agree with you. I don't believe in fate, but I do believe that there are paths in front of us. And we may veer from those, but they may exist. But neither here nor there. I suppose we should go check on Marias if that is the case.
Conflict Arises: Marias' Outburst and Intervention
00:04:34
Speaker
And as if on cue, you hear Marias's voice yelling at the top of his lungs, you don't understand this was done to us on purpose. This is something that has happened. And he's just like screaming at the top of his lungs right outside the longhouse. You can hear him loud and clear at this point. I felt like Gwendolyn would just want to save him from what he is doing. And so she,
00:05:03
Speaker
She'd probably turn into wild shape. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm in charge over there. Which shall you become? I don't know. I just came up with an idea and didn't have my books. I was like, I'm gonna do a thing. Wait a second. I'm gonna be a giant bear. I'm gonna be something. You just wait. While she's looking through that, Joxer is just like trying to shove the last of flowers into like his little sack and then kind of
00:05:31
Speaker
holds himself up and just like, okay. Devin takes off running toward it. Okay, Devin, as you approach, you hear Mariah's, I want answers. Who could give me answers? And you see Edie, you approach and you see her as he is standing outside the door to the longhouse and he's trying to get into the longhouse and Edie is standing in front of him, her little halfling self with her hands up just above his hips.
00:06:01
Speaker
trying to hold him there and keep him from running. And she's using all her strength to keep him from just running into the longhouse and just who knows what as he's yelling and screaming. And so, Craig, what are you doing as they're doing what they'd said?
00:06:19
Speaker
I am obviously a little bit more slight in stature than the others here. I have kind of just made my way to Marias from... He's trying to get into the Long House going towards it, correct? Yeah, he's just yelling into the Long House and Edie is not letting him go in. She's holding him outside the door trying to keep him from running inside.
00:06:42
Speaker
I'm going to grab his arm and spin him around towards me to face away from the longhouse. All right. Let's, uh, let's make contested strength checks here. Can I do something? I'll let him go and then I'll do something while he's doing that. All right, Blaze, you'll have to make a strength check. That is a natural 20.
00:07:05
Speaker
Okay. Nice. All right, so his 10 plus three is a 13, so your 20 whatever will beat his 13. So you successfully grab him by his arm and spin him around. What do you do when you spin him around towards you? I spin him around and I'm grabbing him by both shoulders, just the cloth. I'm not tall enough to like, you know, actually grab his shoulders, but I pull him down towards me and I say, what do you think you're doing, boy? You talked about this.
00:07:35
Speaker
Okay, before, before he answers, what is Gwen doing? I'm gonna turn into a panther. Oh, snap. I just want to pounce on him. Okay. All right, so he- After Molt Krigs is talking to him. Okay, okay. Nice. All right. Um, why don't you make a
00:07:56
Speaker
as a panther make us a strength check as well see if you can successfully pin him down so you say that and and uh this black is a black panther what's your panther look like uh just a black panther with teal eyes teal eyes cool yeah all right face did you uh roll that strength check did that's a panther it is a 10
00:08:23
Speaker
Okay, so you run up to him and you pounce right on top of him, just as Craig's finished saying, we talked about this, and he says, they have answered. You kind of land on him and he, and he kind of, what is this? And he was in the middle of trying to say something and you've interrupted him now jumping on top of him. What are you going to do, Craig? I'm going to yell on his face and it's going to sound like stop. So I just go stop.
00:08:53
Speaker
You can talk as a panther. I wanna scare him. Well, it comes out as a loud roar, but... Okay. It can stop. Okay. Okay. Just...
00:09:03
Speaker
So he backs up and you didn't like pounce on him and pin him down and knock him over. But you successfully, no role necessary, freaked him out. And so he backs up and he says, what is this? Don't you want answers? Don't you want to know what's going on here? They know something. And Edie's standing in front of the door. Her eyes are just wide watching you guys intervene in this. And so at this point, I guess, Daven and
00:09:30
Speaker
And Jockstar, are you guys seeing all this happen? You're walking up. What are you guys up to? Yeah, I ran up and I just kind of stood to the side as they pounced down on him. Yeah, I just kind of like stepped beside Devin and just stood there. There's nothing I can do at this moment. Okay. I take my paw and I just push it up against his mouth and I just shake my head. No.
00:09:55
Speaker
okay he's he he just gets like flummoxed by this right and so his he kind of shakes his head and he's just kind of like what what just happened like what are you doing and he's like and he's trying to talk still I think I'd listen to the panther boy
00:10:16
Speaker
And he he takes a few deep breaths and Edie walks up and stands at his side and puts a hand up on him kind of as much as close to on his shoulder as she can just kind of pats him in the back and she says, Mariah, it's it's been horrible. I understand. I side I am like, as a panther, if they can side I like, are you gonna stop?
00:10:40
Speaker
He you can you can see like physically see his The inner that that angry energy has kind of released. He's kind of just lowered his lowered his his guard a little bit so to speak and and and Edie's trying to continue to calm down to calm him down and and he's not
00:11:02
Speaker
He's not fully calm. He's still kind of breathing heavy and his face is kind of... But he's, you know, but Edie's trying to help and you guys are trying to all calm him down. And he's starting to, but he's still the Chief. We got to talk to the Chief. Right now we got to talk to him. Right now and he's just like ready to go handle it.
00:11:26
Speaker
Can I take my claws out? Like, I haven't started to take my paw out, but can I intimidate him with my claws out on his face? Yeah, make an intimidation check. I don't want to scratch him, I just want to intimidate him. Yeah, make an intimidation check with the Panthers. It is. Stay out.
Desperate for Answers: Marias' Struggle
00:11:43
Speaker
Charisma, right? It is charisma. It doesn't have a bonus, it should list if it has, like, a special bonus on it. Okay. Then it'll just be the charisma score.
00:11:58
Speaker
Okay. He he looks at the panther deep in the eyes and and he he looks at you and he says he says what do I have to stand here and and live for if I don't have the answers I need anyway do what you must and he tries to shake you guys loose so he can walk start walking down towards the towards the tower. I just is he standing now at this point? Yeah, he's standing there.
00:12:27
Speaker
I'm gonna slap him across his face. Alright, okay. Just a slap, straight up slap across his face. Make an attack roll. I just beat up this poor guy. He's lost his brother, it's fine. He's lost his brother? His twin brother. A 17, but I don't know what to add as a modifier.
00:12:45
Speaker
Um, just your strength. I'll be 21. Okay. So you smack him across the face and he, you know, he looks back up at you and he's got a little bit of blood coming out of the corner of his, of his mouth. And he's, he just furrows his brow and squints his eyes. It takes one big deep breath in size really big. I don't want to hear it. You are becoming a liability to me. That is not going to happen.
00:13:15
Speaker
You make an intimidation check. I need you to calm down now. You make an intimidation check with advantage, because you just, you know what slapped him. While this is going on, Daven just kind of slips away and just disappears. Ooh. Oh. Joxer is probably going to walk up, and I'll let- 22. Okay. And you'll let what, Joxer? I'll let Craig do his thing, but if there's anything more, I have something to say.
00:13:43
Speaker
Okay, so he does let out that big sigh after you say that and he goes, you have to, you have to understand what I'm saying without answers.
00:13:58
Speaker
Why were we out there? What was the point of all this? Do you not think I want answers? Do you not think in my 130 years of life that I have not tried to find answers for myself? Son, there is a time and a place. This is not that time or place. You need to wait and stop being a liability.
00:14:18
Speaker
Gwendolyn backs off, she sits down and she's listening and like shakes her head towards Kriegs. Edie takes a step, kind of steps into him a little more. Go ahead, Jokzer. Yeah, Jokzer would just kind of put his hand on Krieg's shoulder and we helped you get to this point. What more do you need to trust us? I understand.
00:14:49
Speaker
I just saw them in there celebrating and laughing and carrying on. I couldn't, I couldn't handle it. They're soldiers. They're retired. They are vanquished in their age, soldiers. They have nothing to celebrate except victory. To them, this is their victory. They, they're not going to understand your pain right now.
00:15:16
Speaker
And that's not for them to. You need to take a breath and we'll think about this and approach it from the correct manner. Rash judgment is not going to achieve anything this day. Edie says, Marias, just go back to the camp. I'll get us something so we can drink there. You don't need to drink around all these people. Could you get him back to the camp? She looks at you. Or get us something to drink, whichever.
00:15:45
Speaker
I have a feeling we could do both. Joxer's kind of face livens and he kind of looks down at his little pouch and he's like, if you give me a little bit, I might be able to come up with something special. Gwendolyn does the thing where your animals, they feel sorry after they scratched you. So she just goes up to Marias and puts her head under his hand.
00:16:14
Speaker
It starts purring. It's all right. You do that and he kind of draws his hand back for half a second and then goes ahead and pets you on the head and says, whose companion is this?
00:16:30
Speaker
And I just come out of wild shape. Oh, God. Ta-da. Ta-da. And I just grab my clothes and run around your wall. Just do two little curds here. So that's canon, huh? The clothes just fall when you come out, huh? It has to happen now. Maybe as you level up, you can get better at that. I hope so.
00:16:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. That's fun. So yeah, you run off and he kind of looks at you guys and he actually chuckles a little bit. Maybe I needed that.
Seeking Peace: A Return to Camp
00:17:06
Speaker
He starts walking down the path and Edie's right there with him in stride. I'm assuming Jox is still right there by me. I'm going to turn to him and just basically say,
00:17:19
Speaker
friend, Jockster, whenever Gwen is done arranging herself, would you please see that our friends here make it back to camp? I'm a little worried we may have another problem on our hands. I can't seem to find Daven in the crowd. Jockster looks down a little confused as he's saying, we may have another problem at hand. And then he looks around whenever he says Daven.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'll get everybody back. And then I'll try to prepare some things while you're away. Great. So Joxer and Gwen soon join. They're able to pretty quickly catch up to Edie and Marias and make their way back down south east towards the camp. And Daven, why don't you make a stealth check for me as it seems. Craig, are you going to go look for him?
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna just kind of look in the immediate area and try to find him. Unless... Go ahead. I was gonna say, I'm assuming are you trying to be hidden from him or are you just kind of walking around and... I was trying to sneak off without anybody really noticing. Okay, make a stealth check. Okay, I got an 18. Okay. Dang. What's your passive perception, Krigs? That's not a number. I feel like default's 13.
00:18:48
Speaker
11. I'm not super observant. You didn't notice when he left, so you're at this point wondering where he is. You do notice he's gone, but you have nothing to help you know where to go start looking for him.
00:19:06
Speaker
All right. Um, well, I'm just going to kind of walk around looking for him and he can go to do whatever he's going to do. And if I see him, I see him. Okay. Devin, you have in mind what you're going to go do. Yeah. Um, I, when I sneak off and when I noticed nobody knows me, I was going to try and sneak over toward the tower testing myself. Um, and then on my way over, when I see that nobody's around looking at me, I'm going to use alter self and turn into the chief. Okay.
00:19:30
Speaker
Okay. And then I'm going to just go sit on the steps. It was kind of a backup plan in case they couldn't stop them. I was going to like intersect the whole thing. So I'm going to sit there for a little while, make sure everything's calm. If I don't see they're coming, then I'm just going to, as the chief, kind of start walking back to that direction, kind of heading back to the long house. As the chief? Yes. Okay. So you go and you sit on the steps there at the tower of testing. And a few minutes after you sit there,
00:19:59
Speaker
Actually, when you walk up... What's her name? My brain just went blank.
00:20:07
Speaker
Sariah. Sariah, yeah. Okay, so when you walk around that corner there, you walk, you go towards the tower and there's Sariah, the last person you wild shaped into, or not wild shaped, the last person you disguise self or whatever into. And she's standing there with three of her men standing right outside the, right next to the steps of the tower. You don't see the chief there right now.
00:20:32
Speaker
There are a few noblemen standing kind of nearby, closer to the lamppost stand between there and there, there in the tower. And as you walk up, Sariah kind of looks up at you and kind of looks around at the other three and says, what are you doing out here? You said you were, what are you doing? Um, I heard there was a, sorry, I heard there was a ruckus going on. I woke me up.
00:21:03
Speaker
I just figured somebody was celebrating or something. You know how they get after they've been out fighting. One of the other guys standing there with her, he's a mage looking guy. He's actually bald, completely bald. His head is, and he has half of his face painted blue all the way down his neck. It looks like the paint goes down into his clothes like he's half of his body painted.
00:21:30
Speaker
And he just grins. And when he grins, he's missing several teeth and they're like, the teeth he does have are green, black. And this guy's strange looking. And he just laughs and he just goes,
00:21:45
Speaker
He goes, oh, you like to have a good time? Like that. And Sarai goes, yes, anyway, well, I guess you can get back to your project if you want. I'm surprised you usually don't come out here whenever you're in such a, when you're so busy in those projects of yours, I'm surprised to see you. Anyway, and she just turns around and starts talking to the guys again. Oh, and she turns back, is there anything you need? Anything I can do?
00:22:14
Speaker
Well, I'm curious. How many people have you told about my projects? Oh, we don't. Us leaders know, but obviously we wouldn't tell anyone else. It's none of their business, is it? Good, good, good. I just want to make sure it stays a secret. It's not something for people to know, yes?
00:22:32
Speaker
Of course not. She looks at the other three and she's like, don't worry about it. And she looks at you and she's like, no, they're clueless. They don't care as long as they get to kill something. Well, that's good. Maybe, have you helped me with anything recently?
00:22:49
Speaker
I can't remember. I'm a little hazy still from sleeping. Make a deception check. Okay. You're wondering how long I was going to let you get by without a roll. Okay. So I'm a plus seven. Okay. So that makes a total of eight. Oh no. She goes, she goes, what kind of question is that? And you were sleeping? It's not what you told me you were going to do in there.
00:23:16
Speaker
Listen, I can do what I want now. She walks away. She walks away from him and she walks up closer to you and she's just starting to get closer. She was about, you know, 20, 25 feet away or so and she's starting to close in now and look at you and almost like she's looking through you and she's like, hmm, you know, hang on a second. I'm still walking around past the tower of testing. See this going on.
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah, you see the chief out there talking to Sariah. Where is Sariah? There she is. I gotta see her stats. Girl, let me see that stat. Girl, let me see them stats. Girl, she is making a, yes, an insight. Where is it? There it is.
00:24:04
Speaker
I am going to, while she's getting up close to me and doing that, I am going to use minor illusion. I can create a sound. Its volume can range from a whisper to a scream, and I'm going to make it sound like there's an explosion going on somewhere down toward the nobleman's barracks. Okay. Make a sleight of hand check. What does that spell require? Is it verbal, semantic? It's just semantic with a material of a bit of fleece, but I have a focus.
00:24:31
Speaker
Right, so you grab, why don't you focus? You know what my focus is. Yeah, okay, okay. That's what I thought. So you start, everybody's like, oh, come on.
00:24:46
Speaker
secret secrets. So you do focus on your focus and suddenly there is this minor explosion sound coming from the nobleman's barracks. It's not like a whole building has erupted. It's more like a large firework or something gone off. Maybe like fireworks in a metal pot, that sort of thing.
00:25:12
Speaker
Yeah. So I'm going to try and subtly do the hand motions. And then when it goes off, I'm going to jump up real fast. Like, what's that? OK. And she stops and she turns and she's still trying to she's looking around. And one of the one of her guys that are with her that was with her there, he just just a warrior looking type. He runs off that direction and she's like, check that out. Yes. Thank you. She turns back to you and she goes.
00:25:41
Speaker
Perhaps you should get back to sleeping or whatever it is you say you're doing. I wouldn't want you to be out here when everyone gets back, you know, not in the state you're in, she says. I'll just kind of look at her, kind of squint my eyes a little bit at her and I'll say, you don't tell me what to do. But then I'll turn around and I'm going to try the door. Is the door open?
00:26:09
Speaker
You're going to go walk up the stairs. Yep. Um, yeah, you walk up the stairs of the tower of testing, looking like the chief. How long does this spell last? One hour. Yeah. Yes. No problem. So you, you walk up and the door is unlocked. Okay. I'm going to open it up and I'm going to kind of glance inside and look back over my shoulder and then walk in and close the door behind me. Okay. One second.
00:26:38
Speaker
All right, so you glance inside and you see.
Deception and Exploration Inside the Tower
00:26:44
Speaker
You see two just ones that you see a human with a bow and a halfling over sitting on the chairs by the library in robes studying the human with the bow is standing on the other side, just kind of keeping an eye on things other than that, this this ground floor chamber here is empty other than those two guys.
00:27:10
Speaker
I'm just kind of give like a deep nod. And is there like stairs or something? Yeah, there are stairs that go behind the bookshelves. There are stairs. So you got to walk about halfway into the room. And then behind the stairs are are behind the bookshelves are those stairs that you can walk walk up to and you can see where they lead. They're upstairs is a it's a loft kind of area up there. And you can see the foot.
00:27:37
Speaker
board of a bed and looks like a couple chests are up there like that's like a living quarters up above the stage area look in place where the throne is that the chief was sitting on. Is there any other separate room besides that I see what would be out of view of these two people.
00:27:56
Speaker
No, in this room, you'd be out of view behind the bookshelves, but no rooms. This building is one tall tower that just stands self-contained. There's two levels of loft above this main floor, but they kind of
00:28:16
Speaker
I mean, if you got up high enough, sure, you'd be out of sight, but they are just railings to the ground floor over the edge of those lofts. And to remind me, because it's been a little bit, was this the same day that we had gotten back from helping Marias and Edie? Yes. Yeah. You're late in that same day. Dang. I really wish I would have shown off and used my stupid cloak to dimension door then. Oh, yeah.
00:28:45
Speaker
Um, I'm going to start walking and, and as I start walking toward the library, I'm going to make a motion. Like I forgot something like, Oh, and then, um, turn back around and see if I can just go right back out the front door. Okay. And, uh, I'm going to slowly walk and see if I can waste enough time to where maybe Soraya moved on.
00:29:05
Speaker
The gnome that is sitting at the table doesn't even look up. He's super into whatever he's doing. The other elf over there, as you walk by, as you turn and go to walk out, he calls out, forget something.
00:29:27
Speaker
Uh-huh. And then that's it. That's all I'm going to say. And I'll open up the door. I'm going to try and open up a little bit and peek out and see if I see anybody before I just come swinging it open. All right. Make a perception check as you open the door. Perception is not my skill. Um, 11 total. Okay.
00:29:45
Speaker
You do hear Sariah chatting with her men nearby. They sound like they're a little ways off and the sound is getting quieter, like they're walking away. Other than that, you don't see anything other than just normal hubbub, just people coming and going. It's not a bunch of people either. Only you guys and a couple of other parties have made it back. So it's not a big busy town like it was when you first got here. So it's not that busy, but
00:30:14
Speaker
There are people kind of going coming and going here and there. OK, I'm going to step outside the door and I'm going to casually kind of walk toward and around the corner of the house and find either a bush or a tree or anything that I could kind of hide in just to change back. Blaze, you just watched.
00:30:31
Speaker
The Chief have a conversation with Sariah, and you heard an explosion sound over near the nobleman's barracks, just beyond the Tower of Testing and the statue over there. Do you react to that at all? And she sends somebody who just starts running that direction. No, I don't care about that. I'm still just looking for Daven at this point. Okay. The Chief walks inside the tower. What do you do when you see that?
00:31:00
Speaker
I'm still looking for Davin. I'm headed towards probably the west side of town, which is not where the camp is located. The camp is more southeast. So I'm kind of behind the Tower of Testing. Got it. Back there near between the Tower and Little Tolliver's. Lamp Host is a little bit west of...
00:31:21
Speaker
Yeah, cool. Okay, so you've kind of gone back in that area. Where you are is more, these are more just living spaces. These are little houses and huts and hobbles, I guess, for the locals that live here. And so you're just kind of walking through, you see a few children out playing and you hadn't really seen kids here yet, except for at the farm. So, but you do here, you see children playing, you see women kind of, and a couple men kind of managing the house and doing things as they're working.
00:31:50
Speaker
doing just what they do their, their normal daily routine. And they don't think twice seeing you walk through, they see, you know, adventurers in the type walking around you, but you see no sign of jocks or at all, or not jocks or daven anywhere. You don't see jocks or either, but you don't see that. Uh, I guess I'm just going to go.
00:32:13
Speaker
kind of loop back around the tower of testing, kind of going north and to the other side, like just doing a full circle, simply because it's in the area that we were. I don't suspect Daven to have gone too far or necessarily had gone back to camp. That would be the direction I would head after the fact, just because that's kind of like the whole town. If I can't find him, I'm just going to assume he either went back to camp or
00:32:39
Speaker
something. Sounds good, Davin. Why don't you you tuck away and you kind of find another area, an area near between the tower testing lamppost and where before you had changed into Soraya, you're able to change back into yourself. Blaze and Davin, both of you roll a D20 for me.
00:32:59
Speaker
Uh, I got just a natural 11. What'd you get please? 11. Okay. So as Devin walks out from the tree, the trees, and he is now himself again. He, you see Devin, you see Krigs walking away from you back up towards where the long house is behind the tower of testing. How far away is he?
00:33:25
Speaker
he's probably 15 or he's probably 35, 50 feet that away from me. So I'm just going to shout out to him. I'm like, Craig's behind you. Where, where did you go? Well, I, uh, I decided to set up some sort of a backup plan for us and it, it kind of went a weird direction. Everything's fine now though. We're, we're good, right? What, uh, we'll talk about it at camp. How's, um, how's more ice?
00:33:54
Speaker
Marius is fine for now. I did ask Gwyn and Joxa to take him back to camp and make sure he is at least calm for now. I was a little concerned after our time at Talavers, you seemed a little distraught. And with you just taking off, I wasn't necessarily sure you were in a good state of mind.
00:34:16
Speaker
I'll be honest with you, I had a backup plan to go back there as well, but I'm just going to forget about that place for now. There's something about her that I don't feel right about, but I think that's a problem for another day. There's a lot, a lot here that I don't feel right about. When we get back to camp, I'll tell you and the rest of them as well about some other problems we might be facing in the future.
00:34:42
Speaker
I have a bit of a contingency plan of my own, and it may be best we handle it, you and I. Are you willing? Absolutely. I need to find a forge. Do you know if there's a decent shop or blacksmith here?
00:35:03
Speaker
I remember whenever I was near the lamppost in when I first came to town, I could hear the sounds of it sounded like some sort of a armor place, maybe a blacksmith. We could try heading that direction. What do you have in mind? I'm just flipping the coin that was given to us by the chief in in my hand, just kind of like twiddling it with my thumb. And I'm just going to say, Oh, a contingency plan.
00:35:32
Speaker
Okay. Well, let's, uh, see if they're still open. What time of day is it now? It's late in the afternoon. Uh, it's not quite dusk or sundown yet. Okay. So I'll, I'll kind of lead the way, casually head back toward the, um, the lamp post in and beyond it east to see if I can find wherever the, um, wherever the blacksmith would be. Okay.
00:35:57
Speaker
Yeah, you as you walk past the lamp towards the lamp towards the lamp post in you. You walk by and you look to your left towards the nobleman's barracks and you see Sariah and. Her couple of her cronies cronies are they've got somebody sitting on a stool and they're just forcefully asking them questions.
00:36:24
Speaker
And, uh, as you, and he's like, I don't know. I don't know anything about it. What are you even talking about? We all heard it. We don't know what it was. And she's what you better tell me right now, if somebody did something, we need to know about it. The chief will want to know. And he's, you know, they're just kind of, and it's just happening there as you walk past, but then the, the lamppost in, and then the armor bearer is just beyond there. And you can see the sign kind of hanging there, swinging in the wind, little creaking sounds from the chains that it's hanging from. It just says the armor bearer.
00:36:55
Speaker
I say that, uh, that poor gent back there, that might be my fault. And he kind of has like a, like an apology that kind of look on his face. Like, oops. I just side eye and say, we'll talk about it at camp. At camp. Yes. How about you do the talking here? I don't know what you're planning on. Right. I walk into the armor bear if the door is, it's open. Okay. Yeah. You walk into the armor bear and inside there,
00:37:26
Speaker
joxer has seen this but you haven't yet this is a shop that has armor sitting out it looks more like a goodwill like you've got just stuff like tables and stuff with armor on there most of it none of it looks brand new
00:37:42
Speaker
you see some weapons here and there but but mostly it's armor and you know they've got the leather straps on the breast plates are different colors and the the chain mail on some of it is stretched a little more and worn than it than it should be brand new but it's all usable and doable
00:38:00
Speaker
And the behind a, a small counter at the back of the building, you see a, a dwarven woman and she is standing there and she's got a piece of leather, like twine in her teeth and she's holding down.
00:38:19
Speaker
She's got her mouth pulled back as she's got the twine pulled taut in her teeth and she's like threading it through something that's sitting on that desk that she's sitting behind and she's kind of working. And when you come in, she just goes, hey there, just have a look around, please. Like that. Oh, of course, of course. And it's a nice shop you have here.
00:38:43
Speaker
One moment. And she takes another few seconds and she kind of ties off something on this thread, takes it out of her mouth, and she says, yes, thank you very much. Would you like to see anything in particular? What's it get after today? Oh, just kind of browsing for now, seeing the wares. I've not really been in this town for too long.
00:39:09
Speaker
I'm a bit of an armour worker myself when it comes to metals and whatnot. Do you make these yourself? The armour's in the shop? No, no. I'm not a blacksmith by trade. I got pretty good in my adventuring days, sir.
00:39:26
Speaker
fixing armor when it would go bad. So I did that and cast a little spell, things would get put back together. Sometimes you had to do some elbow grease. So I just, once I stopped adventuring, I kind of put that into use here and someone falls in the forest and their armor comes back here, I can buy it off of you and put it to good use for someone else in the future who wants to go out and make a show of it in the wilds, you know?
00:39:51
Speaker
Look at you, an enterprising dwarf like myself. I respect that. It's not every day you see these silly dwarfs actually doing something worth it anymore. Well, yes, I kind of lost my ability to do what I'm really good at, but this will do for now, I guess. Right. I'm curious in the repair work that you do, do you...
00:40:16
Speaker
happen to forge any of your rivets or anything here? Do you have a foundry forge or any smithing area set up? Yes. Every now and then I have to dig into that back there. It's in the back. When I bought this blacksmith shop from the owner who had it before me, he used to use it all the time. I fire it up every now and then when it's necessary. I just used it probably yesterday or the day before, so it's still burning in there. It wouldn't take much to get it hot again.
00:40:46
Speaker
I'm interested. I do need to make a couple repairs. I'm a bit of a journeyman craftsman myself. Would you be willing to let me use your smithing area of your shop for just a little while? I would pay you, of course. Yes. I mean, I suppose I
00:41:07
Speaker
I haven't done anything like that before. I'd have to think of what to charge you for it, but perhaps you can make me a fair offer. What do you think? Oh, I'm sure I could give you... How about a couple of golds per hour? Okay, that sounds pretty good, I guess. I'll clean up once I'm done, I promise. Okay, one condition though, okay? What's that?
00:41:36
Speaker
Yes, you make anything that you want to sell, you got to give me a cut of it. Of course, absolutely. And if I need it, I get a priority. Of course. Does that make sense to you? Absolutely. Well, that'll be great for me. You're a good businessman. It's nice making a deal with you. Are you wanting to get started back there today? Perhaps maybe a little...
00:42:04
Speaker
Yeah, I would like that if I could. Okay, well come with me. I'll show you around and she takes you through a little door and you walk out behind in the back. The first of all, you walk through her living quarters and you see a bed and a couple small tables and chairs that they have kind of tinkering stuff here and there.
00:42:25
Speaker
But you do see leaning up against the wall in this little kitchen area, you see a stringed instrument like a little guitar right there and a bag sitting next to it with papers kind of overflowing out of it.
00:42:42
Speaker
Then she's got her kitchen there and all that stuff and then there's a door to the right that she as she walks you kind of walks you out of the door and there you see your typical blacksmith foundry that's outside but covered with the chimney going up out of the covered porch roof kind of place.
00:42:58
Speaker
And here's the foundry, there's the furnaces there, there's the buckets of water over there. All the equipment you need maybe over here. If you need any clay, anything like that, there's a few paces that way that can render you some pretty good clay if you need it for your foundry. So anyway, those two gold and then you can have at it. I hand over two gold. I'm going to
00:43:28
Speaker
take off my cloak as it'll get in my way, set it set it aside. I'm going to take my shield off my back at this time. She can kind of see the the tree with leaves of flame and roots of ember and all that on the actual tree itself. I'm going to set it just down against the wall and just tell her you feel free to tell my friend there, Davin, feel free to tell him you can wander back to camp for now. I'm going to be here a little while.
00:44:00
Speaker
Okay, I'll let him know. That shield of yours there... Where'd you get it? Oh, it's... It's one of my first works. Huh. It's unique, I'll tell you. That, for sure. Don't know that I've seen the likes of it before. I doubt you would've. It's... It's just hobbyist work.
00:44:28
Speaker
I'll say that symbol on there. Does that mean something to you? Not anymore. It did, though. It may have had a time and place. OK.
00:44:42
Speaker
Well, I won't pry. I'm not one to pry. I've just, I've been around, you know, I'm not a young dwarf. She just turns and walks off and you say, me neither my friend. And she waves her hand at you and chuckles and goes out and finds Daven and says, your, your friend out there is going to be a little bit. You're welcome to join him and look around, whatever you're interested in. Did he say he needed my help?
00:45:08
Speaker
No, I don't believe so. He said he'd be fine. Just doing, just doing his work. Well, if you ask about me, then I'll head back to the comp. He can find me there and Devin will turn around and start walking toward the door. And then on his way, he'll stop and he kind of looks over his shoulder and he just says, I love curiosity. Was it you used to do before this? She laughs and she, well, uh, I was a travel admiral. You wouldn't believe that, would you? Before my voice was taken. Yeah.
00:45:39
Speaker
I believe it. You've got the charisma. I can tell about you. Well, that's kind of you to say. There was more when I was younger. These whiskers didn't grow so long back then. He smiles at her and he says, it's good to meet you. I'll see you around. Yes. Come back when you need to upgrade your armor there. We'll get you figured out. I just kind of like present myself in these just all cloth robes and everything. I was like, I'm afraid I'm not your main customer.
00:46:15
Speaker
Okay, Krigs. Well, in the meantime, we're gonna come back to you, Krigs. We're having a fun Split the Party session here. Let's go over to Joxer and Gwyn. You've successfully escorted Mariahs and Edie back to camp, and they're just sitting there. Mariahs is, he is sitting, but he's rocking back and forth, and he's kind of gone in the grief stage from
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah, you do look squishy. Yeah, you don't even know.
00:46:41
Speaker
From anger, he's shifting into this disbelief, it seems like, because he's just mumbling to himself and blaming himself, and maybe that wasn't him, you know, that body, maybe that wasn't him. We burnt it, though we'll never know, and he's just kind of, we got to go back out and look again, and Edie's like, no, Marias, you've got to understand, that's not it. We found him. He was wearing his clothes. It was him. You know it was him. He's your brother. You knew it.
00:47:10
Speaker
And so they're just kind of going back and forth. What are you guys doing while they're in their little dilemma? So for Jocks are kind of delivering everybody there, depending on how distraught he probably would have laid down a couple of the drinks that he would have had on him next to them. You two are welcome to this while I I'll be
Calm After the Storm: Planning and Reflection
00:47:37
Speaker
a minute. And then he kind of just walks off
00:47:40
Speaker
behind one of the tents and disappears for a while. Okay. Gwendolyn would look at Mariahus and be like, you should have a drink to calm down. You need it. And she's like rearranging herself. And she's pulling like stuff out of her bag. She pulls out her journal and she puts Dale right next to her because she's sitting down at this point.
00:48:04
Speaker
and um well after she told Mariahs to take a drink she whispers to Dale she's like I know I need to get better at coming out of wild animals but I it's hard to keep my clothes on someday I'll master it okay then she goes back and makes sure she has everything and gets up and
00:48:29
Speaker
goes back to Marias and puts a hand on his shoulder. It's like, we just have to come up with a plan. We know something. 65. I can feel it. My new friends can feel it too. We can't be rash like Craig said. Well.
00:48:52
Speaker
He's trying to down this whole thing as quick as he can, drinking it, and then he gets part of the way through. I just don't want to wait for answers. I want them now. That's fair. But it takes time. If you air crash, it doesn't help anything.
00:49:22
Speaker
I want to find my place. I want to be told the truth, but I have to be patient to find it. He starts looking around for something else to drink and Edie hands him hers, which has only had a few sips taken out of it and he starts to chug it and Edie just says, patience isn't something Mariah is good at. Vip was the patient one.
00:49:53
Speaker
Yeah. And she chuckles at you too. And she goes, what's with your little, your little friend over there? Dale, Dale, he's my, my best friend. He comes to me on all my journeys. He helps me be patient. Maybe Marias needs, needs a deal of his own.
00:50:18
Speaker
Give that thing away from me, he says. And Edie's like, easy, easy, Mariahs. Well, Gwen, your friend was useful traveling in the woods at night. I'll give you that. Joxer just kind of hears that around the corner. He's here.
00:50:38
Speaker
He can really brighten up the day or night. Oh. Yep, yep. Gwen takes a moment like he looks at Joxer and then she finally gets the joke. Like it takes her a minute. He comes out holding about two kegs and about three extra kind of brown
00:51:04
Speaker
uh, ball tankards that he normally carries is, uh, I think, uh, I think I have something that'll at least let you sleep well tonight. Mariah's give it here. He says now don't delay. Uh, no, no worries. Uh, this one might be a little sweeter than the last. And, uh, I'll hand the three out to the, um, yeah, to everybody there.
00:51:34
Speaker
Okay, he takes it and he just immediately just starts drinking it. Does anything happen to him? Yes, something does happen. He's chugging. He didn't even think. He gained seven health. Oh, okay. Like temporary hit points? Yeah, just temporary health. He's feeling invigorated. Yeah, he's drinking it and he just...
00:52:05
Speaker
That's good stuff. Do you? Do you have another? We have we have plenty for the night. No worries. Fill me up. He's he's just basically you get the idea. He's going to just go all night until he passes out. He's that's the only way he's going to rest tonight. Yeah. So so in in in my practice, at least for for in this, if
00:52:32
Speaker
If you exceed your man of health points, you would basically pass out and be gone for at least the evening. Okay. Yeah. So he drinks until he's out and Edie is just kind of sitting there as he's laying. He slides off the log he was sitting on and leans back on it and his head is back on the log and he's just sleeping like that.
00:52:56
Speaker
Edie just kind of looks at him and looks around at you guys. And she says, it's been an exhausting day. And the sun is starting to set now. And we're closing off another day in Wild Hill. Blaze, during all that. Tell me what you were doing at the forge. I have
00:53:21
Speaker
fired it up and have started smelting pieces of gold, gold pieces, coins. And I am sort of meticulously making a cast of the coin that we received. The hired sword coin.
00:53:45
Speaker
And I am doing my best with the sort of rudimentary setup that they have. It's not exactly the forge I'm used to doing my best to make a duplicate coin for each of them. Okay. A forged forgery.
00:54:02
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Why don't you do me a favor and just do one overall role for that. Do you have a tool set for that? I do. I have my own blacksmith's tools. They are my childhood's tools that I've made back in the stone mountain.
00:54:24
Speaker
Correct. Great. And do you just roll a sleight of hand for that and with advantage because you have proficiency in those, is that how that typically would work for that skill? I'm going to say no, because I'm negative one for sleight of hand.
00:54:41
Speaker
So what we're going to do is you're going to roll a D 20 and add your proficiency modifier to make this cast, OK, to make the casting. And because you've done this before, you're proficient in it. But then the the better your role, the better the cast, which means these coins when you make them will look more the more like the actual thing they'll look. Does that make sense? Yeah. So do that and we'll see what you get here. How well with advantage.
00:55:10
Speaker
No, not with advantage because we're adding the proficiency to the roll. Okay. That is 17 plus 320. Sick. So you take the coin that you were given and you cake it up in this, you cake on this clay to it and you pat it all down and get it all nice and solid.
00:55:33
Speaker
and round and you've got a twine kind of thing, like a metal twine that you slide through to create a way to separate it and you bake it for a little bit and you're just working. It's night at this point. The sun is down, but by the light of the furnace, you're just still working.
00:55:49
Speaker
You pour the gold into there that you've melted down and seal it up and when you pull it out after the first one is done and you open up the clay mold you made and you pull it out with your tongs and you put it in the water and it sizzles.
00:56:08
Speaker
You should take it out and look at it. And it's a pretty good, close to identical match with the one that you were given by the chief. So you did a pretty good job on this. And so you can cast some more. So you can make one for each of your party members. If you're gonna make them all now, it takes the whole night. Yeah, I'm making them all now.
00:56:38
Speaker
All right, so you spend the whole night doing that, just sweating at the forge. And Daven, do you just go back to camp or what are you up to? The others are all kind of chilling at camp. Yeah, I'm just going to head straight back to camp.
00:56:49
Speaker
Okay, so we've got three of the party members sleeping with a passed out Mariahs and Edie, just chatting around the campfire until they settle in for the night. And then- As we sit there and sit around the campfire, without looking at the rest of the group, I say, I think we all agree that there's something strange going on around here, right? Devin. Oh yes, there's something definitely strange going on around here.
00:57:17
Speaker
I see you guys have been drinking while I was gone. I throw him one of the little tankers that I normally fill up. I'll shake it around my hand a little bit, uncork it. I say, hey, this is a conversation for tomorrow then. And I'll just take a big jug of it. All right. Yay.
00:57:45
Speaker
Uh, Jockster kind of like, uh, clears his eyes as he looks over at Daven. If, uh, this is something that we need to be straight on, we can go off to the side, but I'm not sure anybody else here handles liquor. It's a fine. Everything will be good. We'll talk in the morning. Uh, okay. Look at him. And Gwendolyn points it out.
00:58:14
Speaker
so cute and dale falls off the log because when she she points at him she knocks him out no the dale jockser jockser uses mage hand to kind of lift it up a little bit from the ground oh thank you
00:58:39
Speaker
Oh, Dale, you you do keep the antics going. And then she just pops on his nose on Dale's nose with chocolate stocking. When she boops him, I'm going to use Prestidigitation to make him turn purple. Oh, what? What? What did you do? She's so concerned. I'll turn him blue.
00:59:07
Speaker
Oh! Gwen is just amazed at this point.
00:59:13
Speaker
It's going to be an interesting night. Meanwhile, back at the foundry, there's just Blaze or Krigs is just working over the the furnace and you guys are just back goofing and turning turning. Working at the furnace. In that moment, Jock series. Have you have you seen Krigs? He was looking for you. Oh, yeah, I saw him about somewhere. I think he's fine. Don't worry about it.
00:59:43
Speaker
I like that Dolph. He's so small. It sounds like Gwendolyn needs to go to sleep. She's just holding Daniel in her hands just looking at him while she's saying it. She's not making eye contact with people. This is the most fun she's had in a long time. Nice.
01:00:13
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this installment of the Hired Swords. Tune in next week to find out what becomes of Marius and Edie. Has Devin compromised the party with his sneaky shenanigans? What is Kriegs possibly hiding from?
01:00:31
Speaker
To find out more from us, you can follow us at the Hired Swords on Twitter and Facebook, or visit thehiredswords.com. If you like what we're doing, be sure to tell a friend, and if you really like it, leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. And again, thank you for listening.