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Ep. 113 Never Split the Party
51 Plays19 days ago
The swords are deep within the caverns beneath the Temple of Almenora. Something very strange is happening down here, seeming something intended just for each of the members of our party. What could possibly be happening, and is it truly bad luck to ever split the party?
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Transcript
Introduction to The Hired Swords
00:00:20
Speaker
You're listening to The Hired Swords, a Dungeons & Dragons 5e actual play podcast, complete with dungeons
Meet the Characters
00:00:26
Speaker
and dice and dice, dragons, dungeons,
00:00:42
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Hired Swords. I am your Dungeon Master, Michael, and with me, I have Derek playing Davin. What's up, Derek? Hey.
00:00:55
Speaker
It's good to see you, buddy. It's been a minute. Hey, thanks. And you can actually see me. hey I can. you're Yeah, you're on camera. ah Mikey's here. He's Joxer. Hi, guys. This could be my end.
00:01:07
Speaker
Ooh. Yeah, that's true you're in ah You're in a sticky situation. ah And Blaze is here. he is Sofren Imbarok, Kriggs Galder. Why don't I ever go first?
00:01:18
Speaker
I don't know. I just went by the people. I could see their faces first. So there you go. find I see. And then Ash is also here as Gwendolyn. wow, now I'm last.
00:01:31
Speaker
Yeah, is it is a random order and my ADHD brain puts it together in the way it does. There's nothing I can do about it. Um, Yeah, well,
Exploring Almanorah's Underbelly
00:01:40
Speaker
we're back. Here we are ah in the temple beneath the Almanorah. We're actually beneath the temple now um after having made our way through this crazy fae forest land into the vinewalled area into the city or the village really inhabited by the Almanorah, treetop village.
00:02:08
Speaker
the trees having shaped themselves into the buildings necessary to house these people. ah After being put in jail, the team was able to convince the, the really the public opinion that they are, they belong here, especially because of Gwendolyn saying that she asked the wall to let her in and it welcomed her.
00:02:28
Speaker
Then having been released from jail and agreed that they, having the leadership agree to take them to find her father, Carrick the Caring, or they have left They left the jail, went to find out how to get into this temple, this big giant tree trunk of a temple. They found runes there going to Jameson Tolliver's hut. Yes, that Jameson Tolliver. Going to his hut and finding a kind of key to get into this temple.
00:03:02
Speaker
They were able to get in. They found a statue to the elven god of magic. discovered that this was, should have been the radix or the cradle of the arcane, the the birthplace of magic in the land of Glintree where Wild Hill and the Wilds is located.
The Elven God of Magic's Statue
00:03:19
Speaker
And it is now somehow been transported into this space. unknowing if they are in back in their realm or if they are in ah different realm where this stuff has been moved. They carry themselves down deeper into this dungeon, into these tunnels underground underneath the tree where vines are growing and they discover the mist is back. The dark mist is now hovering through these these halls and tunnels.
00:03:46
Speaker
Until they find, they wind their way, curve down over to what looks like a beach. Water flowing as if flowing into a a beach with a, some sort of stone, crafted stone formation out in the middle of the water.
00:04:02
Speaker
Just about 15, 20 feet away. Joxer ties rope around him as Gwendolyn, wild shaped into a black fox, begins to sniff around to figure out what's going on. with You can learn any more.
00:04:14
Speaker
So Joxer swims out And experiences magical darkness where he can't see. He shakes off the whispers in his head, the darkness telling him to back away and quit now.
00:04:24
Speaker
And he hears the voice of the seeker in his mind telling him that she believes in him.
Joxer's Underwater Adventure
00:04:30
Speaker
And then he gains a measure of... vision in this magical darkness. And that is where we left the last session. So Joxer, you're underwater, rope tied against you, stretched out towards Kriggs, who is sitting his butt in the sand, feet dug in, holding onto it so that if necessary, he can begin pulling you out of the water.
00:04:51
Speaker
ah You are... Looking now that you can see, you' so you've swam right up to this stone formation, and you can see in front of you a large 10 foot by 10 foot in circumference, circular column.
00:05:07
Speaker
On the top of this column are are um these formations carved out of stone that are just in different shapes.
00:05:18
Speaker
um Not like runes or language, but just like a dome and then a square and a triangle and just different shapes with like arch, almost like arching across each other. um You see etching in the sides of this as well. It looks like somebody has carved in almost like ah like images, pictures into this.
00:05:41
Speaker
um Go ahead and make an arcana history or ah nature check on all this as you look at it. All righty. And we're back in, everybody. We're back in.
00:05:56
Speaker
All in. First roll. First roll. Closest to my death. Here's... Let me try. Oh, no. I hate that for you. also hate that for me.
00:06:07
Speaker
um That's going to be a three plus ah minus one. So a two. Yeah. In the darkness, to be not being able to see super far, you can't really make out what these things are saying to you.
00:06:21
Speaker
um Go ahead and make a either investigation or perception check as you just look at the general... shape and and what's there on this column. An investigation. It's a nine. i'm i'm I'm struggling out there. It's starting to get a little heebie-jeebies.
00:06:39
Speaker
Well, it is it's pretty it's pretty easy to find that there is a down at the bottom, at the base, um you're First of all, you're starting to run out of breath. Second of all, at the base of this, you can so you can barely see at the very edge of your view what looks to be indentions for like some sort of handle down at the bottom.
00:06:59
Speaker
Does it seem like there is a missing handle? or No, it looks like you could put your fingers in there and grab a piece of the stone, and that piece of the stone is the handle. Okay, I'm going to that.
00:07:12
Speaker
I'm just going to try manhandle it a little bit. Swim down deeper. Do you want to um go just swim straight down or and make a constitution saving throw on your breath breathing?
00:07:25
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Go ahead and make that saving throw. Beat a 10 on this first little attempt. Okay. Constitution. I would like to add a pergola to the sandcast line building.
00:07:37
Speaker
Perfect. Make a sleight of hand check on the pergola. Okay. Oh, six plus. What did that come out to? Eight.
Vision of Magic's Origin
00:07:46
Speaker
Unfortunately, you made a gazebo instead.
00:07:48
Speaker
Ooh, yeah. No, i'm I'm not feeling it. I'm going to have to swap to not digital. This is rough. um Okay. Oh, an eight. So unfortunately you start to feel yourself choking and you're unable to swim downwards anymore without you're you're starting to lose like you're, you're, you're fading. It looks like, um, so you find yourself forced to swim up to catch a breath.
00:08:08
Speaker
Am I um feeling him like jerk on whatever I'm holding on to? Yeah. For sure. For sure. you're and I'm pulling full force just like – So you're getting – being down about 15 feet underwater, you're feeling – and having about 10 more feet to swim before you can get to that little handle that you saw, almost 10, like eight, nine feet.
00:08:28
Speaker
You're feeling now that pull of the rope as Kriggs is helping you come up. So you you come up out of the water much more quickly than you would have had you just been swimming and you're able to catch your breath.
00:08:40
Speaker
to there's There's something down, ah having having a little bit of trouble. with i have and i Am still affected, i guess, now that I'm out of the water, do I still have that darkness effect?
00:08:57
Speaker
No, there's no darkness. You can see up here and you feel the waves crashing. You see the vines that were in the water heading your direction as well. Time is limited is what you're experienc what you're feeling. Yeah, yeah. I'm going back under.
00:09:11
Speaker
I need... There's something here that I can i can either turn off or turn on. i I'm going back under. Man, I'm looking for like anything I can do to get you down there faster.
00:09:23
Speaker
Checking your... you have anything you can do to help him with saving throws? ah Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if he's going to be within the, that it's a distance based thing.
00:09:34
Speaker
So like as soon as he gets far enough away, he won't have my aura to help him with saving throws. Cause you know, I just got those vibes. um Right.
00:09:47
Speaker
He's about 20, 25 feet away. and when he, or 20 feet away, when he goes underwater, he'll be like 30 feet away. It's a part of me that's like, I wish my hammer was heavy enough. He could just use it as a weight to get down, but don't know that it's technically heavy enough.
Clearing the Dark Mist
00:10:02
Speaker
I mean, it would probably be, but... I have an idea. Devin yells out. He's like, Jockser! Jockser, you got your ring, right? ah Yeah, yeah.
00:10:13
Speaker
Haste makes you go fast. that's That's fair. ah You see ah spell slots pop up on On my shoulder as i kind of bring him into existence again. and he will cast haste on me.
00:10:30
Speaker
and since he doesn't breathe, he can join me and he has 30 feet of blindsight. Okay, great. So ah suddenly he appears on your shoulder and you if you you cast that on you, you feel that surge of energy rush into you. As you know, you can be faster, swimming, running, any of it.
00:10:48
Speaker
You also... as you kind of transition your, your thoughts into what he is seeing or, or however a hand sees, um, you're, you're experiencing that and the vision around you, opens up where you can see down into the water a little bit along the edge of this column.
00:11:06
Speaker
Uh, so you kind of have a, a better aim at where you're heading to go swim down and less time having to search for it and find it. So even that's going to benefit you in this situation, getting down there quicker. and Okay.
00:11:18
Speaker
So then I will run down that way or swim down that way. Yeah. Great. ah What were you going to say, Ash? I was going to think that Joxer was drowning because I've just been sniffing around and messing up Davin's castle.
00:11:33
Speaker
And um I'm just going to be like, oh, and not waste any time and jump into the water and become a shark. Okay. A shark joins you in the water.
00:11:46
Speaker
Oh, uh, and it, uh, Gwen, this is, this is Gwen, probably Gwen. and i do the line have Now I'm seeing it in blind sight. yeah So I have like the black and white kind of vision. yeah like Oh yeah. Okay. There's, there's.
00:12:00
Speaker
And so I, I guess I'll hold onto you on the way down. Yeah. know Great. I'll go and nudge into him and then just start spreading. torpedoing towards it. Cool. So you guys get down there in a matter of seconds and there sure enough, when you get down there, there is a little section that is carved out of the stone that looks like a handheld lever of some kind there at the bottom of the water that can just be, it looks like grabbed and pulled.
00:12:27
Speaker
Okay, I will do that. and Okay. Are there any fish in here? Sorry. In fact, you see that the water is is dark with that with that dark shadow, and and you just see vines kind of...
00:12:42
Speaker
Okay. Flailing around underwater, some of them heading towards Joxer and you as you go down there. And um the you pull the lever, and when you pull that lever, you hear under this bubbles come up from around you as the the whole column rotates just less than...
Navigating the Tunnels
00:13:04
Speaker
you know, just less than two inches of rotation, just barely rotates just a little bit as you pull that column. And from the middle starts to rise this, this, the center of this column starts to rise up like a platform standing higher above the water.
00:13:22
Speaker
And as it does, I'll say Gwendolyn, you and Joxer both suddenly your vision goes completely white. And when your vision goes white as the bubbles surround you, you find yourself standing yourselves individually. You don't see each other, but you're each standing on an island.
00:13:44
Speaker
As a shark. And no, you're yourself in this vision. You see shark with legs you see Gwendolyn. yeah this is This feels more like a vision, not a teleportation or anything like that. And you see this exact a column just like this.
00:14:01
Speaker
standing on the beach of this island, just a little ways out from the into the water with an image of it on it of a giant sea creature of some kind.
00:14:12
Speaker
You look around, you see the sky is a strange sea green color. You see three suns in the sky shining down. You feel intense heat from these suns as this obviously has a much higher climate in this space that you're standing in.
00:14:28
Speaker
You look around you and you see In the far distance, another mountainous island out somewhere, an island standing here and there as you look around.
00:14:39
Speaker
And then you watch as you're looking around and these people start walking out of the jungles holding... um trays full of vegetation and you hear them begin to start singing and worshiping, it sounds like, this statue. And they begin to two toss the vegetation they had in the tray into the ah the water in front of them, or in front of this statue.
00:15:12
Speaker
And as they do, The water bubbles and boils and it begins to consume this vegetation. And um you notice these are lizard people. They're serpent people.
00:15:28
Speaker
They look like the people you fought in... the forest here, this fey forest. Um, it looks like several of them are dressed a little differently than each other, like like in groups, like tribes, similar to how the Almanora, the obvious way the Almanora look.
00:15:44
Speaker
And, uh, then you see Ash, as you look on the, the, uh, actually Joxer, you can notice this too. As you look on onto the the statue, you see the runes and everything.
00:15:58
Speaker
And the runes are very similar to the runes on the statue of Korion that said Radix of the Arcane, a cradle of magic.
00:16:10
Speaker
um And it becomes very clear to you right away. This was somebody else's birthplace of magic for some other realm. And now it is sitting here, just like the one from the Almenorah or from Glintree.
00:16:24
Speaker
And when you, you come out of your, um, you come out of your vision And Davin, you look up from your sand castle, Joxer, or not Joxer, uh, Kriggs, you look up as you, as this thing's have been rising and you've heard the stone grinding against stone as it rises up and it gets up to this, up to almost the very top of this, ah this, uh, cavern that it's sitting in. And when it does, you see uh,
00:16:53
Speaker
a blue light begins to emanate from it. And as it does, the mist and fog begins to push away and go down the halls into the hallways around, ah out of this space, the vines start to retract and move away. And you, and suddenly this beach area is clean and clear of any of the mist and the fog.
00:17:17
Speaker
And it has been seemingly purged of the darkness that was overtaking it. Do we hear a doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo? Yes. And a little chest appears? Yeah. All of that happens, too.
00:17:32
Speaker
Are the vines still there, or do they just disappear as well? They retracted into the halls. They exist, but not in that space anymore. um I'll, I guess, ah move or press on ah Gwen a little bit to, you know, hey, let's take take us to the top.
00:17:48
Speaker
um Because we we haven't seen that, I guess, technically. Gwendolyn doesn't know she wants to move.
Unveiling the Foggy Room
00:17:55
Speaker
Okay. Because, it I mean, these are also visions from her dream, yeah?
00:18:00
Speaker
You never saw this specifically, no. Okay. You only saw and anything related specifically to the city of and the people of Almenorah. She'll hesitate for a bit and then i start to notice him pushing and then... Okay, so you guys go back up to the surface?
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah. All right. So this space now has been kind of cleared out of any of this darkness. um The waves are still crashing up. It's still there, but it's much less... It's not corrupted like it was, it seems.
00:18:33
Speaker
um Are you guys... Did you say you're going to go all the way up to the top of this... Try to get up all the way to the top of this particular column? Or just up out of the water? ah First out of the water.
00:18:46
Speaker
Well, yeah. Okay. Okay. did Did anything happen up here? Pretty crazy. Oh, we saw some bubbles. um i this This tower looks a little... I guess it's very similar. the that Maybe there's planes that have the same start of magic, like Corellion.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah. ah Does it look like there there would be anything at the top of the pillar or does it go to the very top? Is there any, like, do I get any sense that it would be useful to go check on that pillar?
00:19:23
Speaker
It looks like the, the it rose up ah almost 30 feet high. And you see the images of, some ah images of a sea serpent similar to what you saw ah statue of in the, um,
00:19:41
Speaker
ah in your vision, you see those images etched into the sides of this thing. And, uh, but you can kind of tell by if you back up and look up that the top looks like what the top was when you saw it before it rose up, right?
00:19:55
Speaker
It was already sitting there. It just went up higher. And now you can see the central part of this, this column as it went up. Okay. So this just looks like another, I guess, deity of some sort that, that is being worshiped for the start of magic.
00:20:10
Speaker
Yes. Okay. Okay. Gwendolyn's going to probably circle him around. um Do i smell anything in the waters? ah Make an investigation check with advantage with your shark since since you're into water.
00:20:27
Speaker
Water. I don't know if that's a rule on sharks, but we're going to use it. I'm doing it. Int is one. Int is one. int is right You're the daddy master here. It's your rules.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's how that works. Darn it. Darn it all to heck. Darn all y'all. oh Oh, let's do a dirty 20. Yeah. um No, just a 20. Sorry.
00:20:50
Speaker
Oh, 20. Okay. Yeah, you do smell. um you smell magic Yeah, you get the sense that this magic is not is is different than what you experience, the kind of magic you experience.
00:21:09
Speaker
ah Like it comes from another source than where your magic is is created from. And you can sense and feel that difference as you try to perceive this.
00:21:21
Speaker
And it's it's not... necessarily like a bad thing or dangerous of any, anything like that. It's just foreign to you a little bit.
Discovering Historical Scrolls
00:21:32
Speaker
Okay. I'm just going to continue swimming around. Okay. Yeah. There's nothing else under here that you see. Excuse me. That was all just um the, the, the main kind of, it seems like this whole area is just where they have captured this particular cradle of magic into this space.
00:21:52
Speaker
So I'm going to say to Chris, it seems like whatever they did, it cleared out the the darkness here. Maybe that's all we got to do. We got to clear out all of the darkness. I mean, that would probably be a good place to start.
00:22:03
Speaker
Well, we can check this room off as far as I can tell. Unless I found something else good. I guess that's... Yeah. So you get back at your... Not going to finish this because it's copyrighted.
00:22:17
Speaker
You look back at your at your world map and you see a green checkmark on this section. Nice.
00:22:26
Speaker
Achievement unlocked. Yeah, yeah. Cave undarkened. go back to ah the you know the land, and then I have to retcon a little bit. I realize that I don't have um that spell slot for haste.
00:22:42
Speaker
Okay. Well, thankfully the shark was there. That's fine. It was useless in the end anyway. The shark made it happen. Yeah. I made it useless. Unnecessary. so Yeah. yeah All right.
00:22:53
Speaker
Where are you guys going to go now? You have, again, there's a pathway to the northwest, or you can continue back where you came from. There wasn't a way to go further towards the right, towards the west. Yeah.
00:23:07
Speaker
Oh, I guess that pathway is more north, just straight north. um Or you can go more towards the west where you from where you came out of the space where the statue of Corellion was.
00:23:19
Speaker
Well, it seems like we have a pathway to our northwest. Well, I guess it could be a little bit more north. um Do we feel like going forward or backtracking and seeing if we can clear out some of the areas we've already been?
00:23:35
Speaker
But it's all new to us, right? Might as well to go forward, I say. Gwen chomps the water. That seems like an approving chomp, so northwest to actually maybe north it is.
00:23:49
Speaker
Tally four. ah could we Could we have me jump back into fox form? Since I wasn't shark form that much. Otherwise I'll come back as Gwendolyn. I mean, you can go, I don't know how many wild shapes you have, but... That was my last one.
00:24:05
Speaker
yeah then i mean I think changing from one wild shape to the other means... You're basically in the cradle of magic here. So, fox it up. That's true. I'm going to jump out of the water into a fox if the DM will let me.
00:24:20
Speaker
I'll allow it. Yay! I'm benevolent. I'm going to strike her so that she loses her one hit point. Gotcha. oh I'm going die.
00:24:33
Speaker
ah Where are you guys heading now? well or Northwest. Or north, it is. okay through the to Straight up this or are you guys going to split up? yeah Oh, never split the party. we all go the same way.
00:24:48
Speaker
I would like to, because I can silently cast an invisible mage hand, I would like to do that now. And then just every 15 seconds or so, I just want to tug on the rope that's still around Joxer's waist.
00:25:00
Speaker
Just to make him go, oop. He's got the toddler backpack on. Exactly. that's That's amazing. That's funny. What? Oh, I guess it got stuck on something. What? Huh? I thought you just look at me. My hands are up like, I don't know. All right. So you guys can head up this direction and you can see, you continue down more tunnel and then you see a bunch of vine blocking another pathway.
00:25:25
Speaker
um Or you can just circle around and turn right and head further west from here. Or you can see about doing something about these vines. These vines are, again, they're not as big and dangerous looking, but they are thorny and dark and they look like the same vines, but they're not necessarily, they don't look like the same like attack vines you saw in the water over there. They look more just like intended ten intended to keep you out somehow.
00:25:53
Speaker
um I'm going to sniff around and I'm going to, I'm not going to perceive and I'm going to just keep walking down the clear path. Down the path to towards the right?
00:26:05
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Great. Well, you're able to do that. And it's, of course, going to circle you back around, back towards where you came in earlier. So you can... he but um but but but You're welcome to There is also a little room here you see to your left as you walk down this path towards the southwest a little ways.
00:26:26
Speaker
There's got to be something more to this. and There's no reason why we just go around in a circle. I think we should spend the next hour just checking every little thing in the circle. Um, hold on. I want to, what's under this rock?
00:26:38
Speaker
I want to create bonfire underneath that, uh, um, those plants. Okay. Create bonfire. All right. Um, to tell me what, that just creates a regular, like a large fire. Uh, yeah, just a, so create bonfire on the ground, uh, with,
00:26:53
Speaker
ah that you can see within five or within range until the spell spell ends. The bonfire fills a five foot cube. Any creature in the bonfire space when you cast will need to succeed on a dexterity saving throw or take damage, which right now would be 3d8.
00:27:09
Speaker
So he's creating his bonfire. Did I happen to see any holes in the wall that might look like secret nooks that made ha might have things inside of them? Yeah, if you're walking down this pathway, you do see Yeah, yeah. There's a little entrance where there's two chests sitting in a little nook.
00:27:25
Speaker
Ooh. that I just revealed on our map here. That's where going follow him. Joxer, you begin to cast your bonfire, um it does start to burn away some of these vines. they They burn away and more begin to grow, just like they did in the the entrance room.
00:27:41
Speaker
More begin to grow to replace them. They're burning away a little faster than they're growing, but it would take some real real skillful...
Gwendolyn's Magical Vision
00:27:52
Speaker
acrobatics work to jet through there before you get caught up in more vines as they grow through there but that's up to whoever wants to try to make that transition or catch fire correct that sounds like a job for jocks here what's up with these chests though um you can go look at them if you want yeah i want to do that you want to check out some chests quinn yeah uh
00:28:17
Speaker
There's two of them in this just little 10 foot by 10 foot circular alcove um sitting in here in the just off this hallway. So.
00:28:28
Speaker
Yeah, this feels like a trap, but. You can look in Gwendolyn's looking in the one on the left side, Kregs Galder, and the one on the right. The one on the left controls a bunch of so just contains a bunch of scrolls.
00:28:40
Speaker
um A lot of them are are histories, it looks like, just written out histories in multiple languages. Some you can't really make out what it is. Some are in Elven, some are in Common, some in Dwarvish and Gnomish, and nomish and like all different kinds of histories of different civilizations and worlds, even some written on parchment that is different, the unique, like some pink colored parchments, some purple colored, just things that are look like something you've never seen before. Like maybe these particular things,
00:29:08
Speaker
Parchments came from somewhere you're very unfamiliar with, but it is histories and notes and thoughts about news reports, things like that from other it's exciting places. Craig's, you opened yours, and it looks like a travel kit.
00:29:24
Speaker
ah It's got a bag, a small bag of... um Rations, quite a bit of rations. looks like a few weeks worth of rations in there, just like tack and dried meats and things like that.
00:29:37
Speaker
um It's got a couple of healing potions in there. um Pretty high quality ones, it looks like, from the look of them. And an invisibility potion as well. Oh, exciting.
00:29:49
Speaker
And a water canteen. I... pocket the invisibility potion. Okay. And Davin is at the entrance of the little room where the alcove we're in. Yeah, ironically, I didn't see you pocket the invisibility potion.
00:30:06
Speaker
Yeah, you're welcome for that. I toss you one of the healing potions and say, like, it just in ah in a case, in a pinch, i might not be able to be ah around. is superior healing, by the way.
00:30:20
Speaker
i mean i'll I'll take it out and know whose mouth has been on this before. and That just adds flavor. um And then Gwendolyn can't exactly fox hold this, so I'm going to hold the other potion for now.
00:30:36
Speaker
Okay. ah The rations and stuff, I just kind of pocket and take a bite of the meat and hope it doesn't kill me. Yeah, no, it's just like a really, really tough beef jerky kind of flavor.
00:30:48
Speaker
It's a little bit gamey. It's little bit gamey, like maybe it's deer or some sort of waterfowl or something. It's not really the typical. reach into my pouch, pull out a couple peppercorns and grind them in my rock hard dwarven hands and then just shop down that peppercorn.
00:31:04
Speaker
Sounds good. um Joxer, what are you doing with your, ah with your, with those, that fire burning there? Are you going to do anything as they're, while they're looking around Um, does it, so can I at least see somewhat through it? Does it like, can I see, and you know, anything of interest or does it just look like an empty room or.
00:31:24
Speaker
As you look through, yeah, there's a pathway that goes into a room covered with a lot more of the fog that kind of limits your visibility once you see past into their little ways. Okay.
00:31:38
Speaker
Um, It looks like there's and another... it kind of goes downwards towards that, too. There's like a ramp downwards. Gotcha. It looks like there might be another room of darkness this way.
00:31:49
Speaker
i could probably break through, but i'm I'm not sure anybody else would be able to make it through. That's fine. Go on your own. We don't... Love you. I'm kidding. um
00:32:04
Speaker
Gwendolyn's probably going to circle around in the room that they're at and not see anything, and then she's going to start going the opposite direction. She's on her own little smell trail. Yeah, move yourself there where you want to go.
00:32:16
Speaker
I'll reveal of anything of darkness... I'm black and stealthy. So yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. She's going the opposite direction towards the main entrance of the circle that we originally went in for those that are unable to see the map.
00:32:32
Speaker
Yeah. Kind of south. ah Yeah. Southwest towards the main entrance, bypassing the main entrance that would go back to where they came from into another hallway. That was one of their original options to turn right when they first came in, if they had wanted to.
00:32:46
Speaker
So we have here the main entrance started off as like an original Y. and We took the left turn looped all the way around ah the the in end of that loop. There was another path, but ah that's where Joxer's at. And then the other end of that Y at the entrance is now the secret tunnels that Gwendolyn is exploring solo.
00:33:09
Speaker
ye SmapGred looks ah to be about 48 by 48, if I were to guess. And we had two steps.
Kriggs' Shadow Confrontation
00:33:17
Speaker
I see so shades of gray, shades of blue, pretty much darkness cave-like structures. This is like ah it's like whenever you watch audio...
00:33:25
Speaker
audio What is it? that It's beyond subtitles, like for the vision impaired ah when you watch a movie. Woman stands on balcony in red dress with a glass of white Chardonnay.
00:33:38
Speaker
ah Squelching noises. Yes. why yeah You see, Gwen, an entrance to the right that is covered in vines. Look at that. It's like there's a theme here. the There's an entrance over to, ah ahead of you, another...
00:33:51
Speaker
30 feet or 25 feet or so. There's another entrance that goes into a room that you can actually see all the way into this room. And it is glowing a soft pink reddish glow.
00:34:05
Speaker
That sounds comforting. This room is, and you see some sort of stone and metal contraption with red glowing, like lightly glowing orb orbs in there.
00:34:18
Speaker
As a fox that has keen senses, what is the vibe of this room? Do I feel like this contains danger? Yeah, make a vibe check.
00:34:29
Speaker
Make an investigation <unk> check and what you see, or a perception check and what you see looking in there. We'll go from there. Oh, I can show you two. You've gone far enough down that hall now. um Oh my god.
00:34:45
Speaker
Two. Two. The only thing for everyone, that was a nat one. That wasn't a two. That was a nat one. For anything. Well, if I had the fox modifier. For what you can see, look in that direction. Yeah. um The one thing that is very clear, no matter what you roll, is it is, there is swirling black fog and mist all around that area.
00:35:08
Speaker
I go in. Okay. Davin, what does the fox go in there. What are you guys doing? Joxer and Davin and Kriggs? Did you follow her? are you looking further towards where you're headed?
00:35:20
Speaker
Where you were headed? Why not? let's ah I try to jump in. Okay. Make an acrobatics check. This is becoming a problem, Kriggs. You don't know I'm gone.
00:35:32
Speaker
They're tired messing about. was going to say, I'm so busy watching Joxer. cluster f his way through these vines that i'm not seeing this this black fox in this cave just trounce off into the distance so i have no idea gwen's even left yeah right but we do see joxer dive in right you do see joxer dive in joxer did you make your uh acrobatics check uh let me check let's see here acrobatics that I look at Davin quickly scoured, like, looking around, realizing Gwyn is completely gone. Mm-hmm.
00:36:09
Speaker
Fifteen. we can We can't take these kids anywhere, can we? What? What happened? i I have no idea where Gwyn's gone. I'm assuming down the the other direction, and, well, Jaxer is Jaxering.
00:36:24
Speaker
ah Unless I want Jaxer.
00:36:28
Speaker
think it's pretty obvious we don't see you down there with him. You'll never know. ah Yes, you make it through a a little bit singed, but no worse for wear. um and try also imagine there's a rope dangling outside. um We're going to pull you through the vines.
00:36:48
Speaker
Oh, yeah, true. There's a rope. So you do see when you go in there, there is broom. broom another room alcove there ah in this cavern and the, the mist is strong and thick in here. But as you look down, you see a fissure across the ground with red pulsating glowing crystals down inside there. You see blue crystals and green crystals kind of situated around this area.
00:37:18
Speaker
The pulsating is very dim and very light. But the, but This space looks like another kind of like out of place in this cavern, but it is a obviously a fissure of of where the ground has been split open and beneath there you see these crystals sticking out.
00:37:38
Speaker
Remind me of the the critical or the crystals from, I guess, the ah the mine area that like the soft crystals and all that stuff. Yeah, um that's exactly right. There were all different colors. Well, at first they were very grayed out from the from the darkness of the fog, but once you once you cleared out the mist and the fog, they got really colorful and bright, and the they almost glowed. So many colors all glowing at once almost made like a bright white light in the space.
00:38:06
Speaker
This is very dulled and dimmed, obviously, by this fog. It's very ah limited, it seems.
Gwendolyn Meets Carthenact
00:38:11
Speaker
There's blue... there's a blue kind of crafted crystal sticking up to the left side and down the middle, you see this fissure in the ground with red gemstone. And towards the right, you see another hole in the ground with more of a greenish color gemstone there.
00:38:29
Speaker
Uh, but the, um, but the fog is, is hindering much of the, the glowing, uh, that you can see. And you do see the beginning, what looks like the beginning of another hallway to your right.
00:38:42
Speaker
But, um, Through all that fog and everything, it's tough to look at, tough to see. i mean i'm i'm goingnna I'm going to take ah spell slots out on my shoulder and then just try to get a little bit of blindsight to see if I can see any crevices or at least mostly be able to not i mean walk through the room yeah without falling blindsight, you can see the the vines are crawling all over this space, and they're kind of like...
00:39:08
Speaker
pulsating and and moving ah almost like serpents, snakes crawling on the ground. And they seem to be feeding off of this, whatever little bit of magic is coming out of this these fissures, these crystals.
00:39:24
Speaker
It's like it's feeding into these vines as they run down into the walls um beneath the the cavern. ah Davin and Kriggs, as he's looking at all that, what are you guys doing?
00:39:36
Speaker
I just walk up to the Ivy and I shout through, you dead old boy. no not yet. It's, it's also foggy in here. That's good to hear. Yeah. Yep. Thanks. Appreciate it.
00:39:49
Speaker
Okay. Thank you.
00:39:52
Speaker
I'm glad you're glad. but Listen, said we don't know where Gwen went. We can't go splitting up even more like trying to hunt her down. I think we got to stick together and hope that she comes back to us. She, you know, you know, it's Gwen. She'll come back.
00:40:03
Speaker
Do we though? what Do we know that about Gwen? We've always followed her. We've never actually let her go on her own before. Yeah, we've always followed. did Did you say Gwen?
00:40:15
Speaker
Nothing. Don't worry about it. What do you see in there? Um, it's, it's like RGB crystal scenario here. Do I know what that is? RGB. I didn't even think of that. You suck.
00:40:30
Speaker
You mix them all together and it's white. Yeah, I know. I got it.
00:40:36
Speaker
That's the colors available on the map maker fool. ah Um, yeah, no, there's a, there's a blue crystal, a red crystal and, um, a green crystal in the the upper right and ah and a bunch of vines ah sucking them dry, apparently.
00:40:52
Speaker
Ooh. And another entrance, maybe two? I can't quite tell. I'm trying to use spell slots. I might have to move a little further in the room to see if I ah see anything.
00:41:04
Speaker
Well, go ahead, I guess. I just look at Davin and shrug. I mean, we can't just stand here and let them do all the fun. and We've got to go one way or the other. ah Well, do you want to stand here with Joxer, or do you want to try to find the frolicking little fox?
00:41:23
Speaker
Is the hole that Joxer had made gone by this point? ah No, it's burned out pretty good. You guys could get through there if you'd like. I'm going to run and leap headfirst through.
00:41:35
Speaker
Make an acrobatics check. Yes! My acrobatics is plus two, and I rolled 16, so that's 18. Yeah, you make it through untouched. You do a little tuck and roll when you get to the other side and pop right back up next to Jockser as he's getting thinking about whether or not he's going to run further into there.
00:41:52
Speaker
Oh, Craig, that's super easy. You can do this. I just walk through because I'm so small. Yeah, you walk through. Make a make a strength check. Okay. Make a badass check.
00:42:07
Speaker
19 plus 6, 25. Yeah. So you walk through and a couple of the vines literally reach out and grab and wrap around you, but they're singed and you just snap them as you walk through.
00:42:19
Speaker
you You guys finish walking through here and as you do and you look ahead, you see these. I did flex my muscles that entire time. In real life. That's great. um You look through and you see these crystals.
00:42:34
Speaker
Krigs and Davin and Joxer, you all... Um, definitely recognize kind of the, the, the way that the mist is diminishing the glow of the crystals, the way the vines there are kind of pulling almost like harvesting the magic from them.
00:42:52
Speaker
Um, it does ring a bell to that cavern you were in before at the end of season two of this podcast. Um, and, uh, yeah, so you've got kind of some stone in and crystal kind of stuff here that maybe to investigate or check out.
00:43:08
Speaker
I'm a dwarf and I know stuff about rock. Do I get any sense that this is just like magical rock of any kind? Like what, what do I get from my vibe check on this um RGB crystal line? I'll say that what I, what I, what I told you is pretty much what you would know without thinking too much into it. However, if you want to go in and double and just really check on it, investigate more closely, of course, then you can make a roll, uh, your, um,
00:43:38
Speaker
You check on that with advantage. Which one would you like? Well, do you want to check the magical properties of it? Do you want to just check it as stone and I want to take a little chunk off, bite it, see if it's actual authentic. No, I don't What am I doing?
00:43:53
Speaker
but I guess I'm just trying to decide if it's more magical based or nature based. That's your call. Arcana or nature? Probably nature first, just from like and it's water van dwarven ah cunning and whatnot.
00:44:07
Speaker
Great. I'm a child of the rock. I rolled an 11 10.
00:44:14
Speaker
Plus anything? No. But I guess, I don't know. i don't like I technically have, I'm trying to find it in my huge character sheet at this point. ah As a dwarf, I do have some nonsense, but I can't remember what it It gives advantage on checks on this stuff, which I gave you already.
00:44:31
Speaker
I'm pretty confident that's all the dwarves get. It's just a racial bonus. Dwarves suck, I guess, then. I'm kidding. oh love dwarves. I will say this. I will say that when you touch it, You're immediately teleported mentally.
00:44:44
Speaker
your so Your vision goes white. You guys, Joxer and Davin, you see as he stands there staring into nothingness suddenly. And Joxer, or no Joxer, Kriggs, you're standing in a room with your mother and your brothers and your father.
00:45:05
Speaker
What? What? why hi And this mist is encircling them all. You see it pouring into and out of their nose, their mouths, their ears, and your mind immediately clicks to the curse.
00:45:23
Speaker
And you remember, they if we're all cursed, we've got this this darkness in us, this danger that we were trying to heal. And you know, your connection,
00:45:38
Speaker
to the seeker in the wilds has kind of cured you from this. But what about them? And this fog starts to swirl and come towards you.
00:45:49
Speaker
And as it does, it shifts and molds. It begins to take shape. I brace myself. pulls itself. It pulls itself out of them pouring from their mouths and their eyes, their ears, pouring from the every orifice that you can see as it forms a shape of a person in front of you.
00:46:12
Speaker
They fall to the ground and collapse, seemingly all the life drained from them. And when they do, your light your your vision flashes white again.
00:46:23
Speaker
And when it does, you're standing in the middle of a barren wasteland in the stone mountains. And in front of you stands person made completely of shadow.
00:46:38
Speaker
They have a shield with the emblem of helm. And a hammer on their back. And you're staring at a shadow version of yourself. Roll initiative.
00:46:49
Speaker
You bastard. oh Gwyn. Right, you now. This is the... but And then Gwyn. Yeah.
00:47:00
Speaker
I'm walking closer to these stones. Uh-huh. Yeah, Gwyn is in a room that looks like it has a two identical-looking contraptions made of stone, and you see that there's metal and gears, and it's like it's supposed to do some sort of like it's like some sort of machinery that yeah isn't necessarily functioning right now, and the orbs on the top of it are seem to be dimmed by this fog and mist that's there.
00:47:31
Speaker
um what are you What would you like to do? um I kind of encircle the room as I'm smelling, ah but I'm going to walk up to the closest one and the entrance.
00:47:43
Speaker
I kind of want to see what happens when I get closer with my nose. I'm cautioning going up to put my nose against the stone. Okay. As you get closer...
00:47:57
Speaker
you don't, um, you don't feel any sense of danger necessarily. Uh, it seems like similar to how Kriegs saw that, like the mist was doing its job and the vines were doing their job.
00:48:12
Speaker
You do see vines sticking out, wrapping around the, the bottom of almost like the legs of this machinery pulsating, like it's pulling the magic out of this as well.
00:48:26
Speaker
And, Uh-huh. Oh, no, you were going to say more. Okay. And then the the mist is obviously diminishing the amount of power this thing has, but those two orbs are pulsating together, but very lightly.
00:48:41
Speaker
And the machinery is not actually functioning and like working. um I'm going to come out of Fox shape. Okay. And back up myself.
00:48:51
Speaker
I lit Dale out of my pocket. Mm-hmm. And let him kind of run around. Okay. um While I try to move these plants.
00:49:04
Speaker
You're going to try to move the vines? Yeah, I'm going to speak to plants. Okay, cool. And in Elvish, I'm just going to say, let me help you.
00:49:16
Speaker
I'm going to touch them. Okay. You touch them and you say, let me help you. In Elvish, I assume. You can hear the kind of chatter of...
00:49:29
Speaker
Dale near you. And as he's walking around, seemingly sniffing around, trying to figure out what's going on. But as you cast this in this spell and you you begin speaking with these plants, you just hear the the vibrations of these plants kind of speak to you in a way that just gives you this sense, this urge to take, to extract.
00:49:59
Speaker
to pull the magic from this. It's like they have their one one task, one track. They've been given an order and they're following it. And it doesn't seem like your help is desired, at least right now in this situation.
00:50:15
Speaker
It's like they're ignoring your request to help them. Some power, something that is, so the power that has a hold of them seems to be very strong in this moment.
00:50:26
Speaker
um As I'm still touching them, I'm still going to try to radiate as much um vibration towards them to try to seek my power instead. ok ah Make a yeah gosh I'm going to call this an animal handling check or or wisdom or a wisdom check. You can do just do straight wisdom ah with the proficiency modifier if you'd like because there's no like plants check.
00:50:54
Speaker
You can use your spellcasting modifier. That's probably the best option. Oh my god. Guys, these dice do not love you today. Rules are not happening. 13, as you try to focus more and push for these vines to hear what you're saying above whatever commands they've been given, ah half of them start to...
00:51:22
Speaker
kind of focus more on you and less on their task that they've been given. And when that happens, the light in the orbs starts to get a little brighter, not fully bright, but a little bit brighter.
00:51:39
Speaker
And just as that light brightens, the pinkish red light, you look up and notice, and that light, almost like it shoots at you into your eyes, and you quickly, it's it's like, it's sudden, but it's, but it takes, it's like you're standing in this space for a long amount of time.
00:52:01
Speaker
You're standing in a room with this machine running in full process. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. as it's running and it is, um it is processing and the, the, the orbs on it are glowing brightly.
00:52:17
Speaker
And as they glow, you see a woman standing near it. And she is, um she is taking items and artifacts and she is imbuing them with magic, using the magic coming from this place.
00:52:32
Speaker
device and then it flashes back that that little bit of a glimpse. It's like it it literally took half of a second, but you saw all of that happening within that time. And it's like this piece of machinery is supposed to be somewhere else and this is supposed to be what it's used for, but you now see it here being drained of its magic by these vines.
00:52:56
Speaker
And what do you tell the vines now that you've got half their attention? I'm just going to basically will them to just come to me that they don't need to do this and basically push energy through. and Okay.
00:53:12
Speaker
Make another check with your spellcasting modifier, this time with advantage because you have control of half of them. 18. So this time you get another third of them start focusing towards you.
00:53:26
Speaker
And when they do, they they the thorns, when they start focusing on you and your commands, the thorns start to shift and transition into flowers again, like they did in the previous room where you had done this.
00:53:37
Speaker
The lights, the two orbs begin to pulse even brighter, and the mist begins to, as they pulse, every pulse pushes the mist and the fog a little bit further away from this machine, which then seems to make the...
00:53:51
Speaker
ah the vines get less and less powerful in what they're doing, which then makes the orbs glow a little brighter, which then makes the pulse a little brighter that pushes the mist away. So it seems like you've unlocked something where the power of this this device or this this, whatever this is, is now strong enough to protect itself from this darkness again.
00:54:11
Speaker
And again, that red light encapsulates you and you find yourself standing in a hallway and a battle is raging. And this woman that you saw with these magical weapons being imbued is running. You hear and see battle all around you.
00:54:27
Speaker
And you see her pointing this magical sword that's glowing red with this magical energy at a door as the door bursts open. open She shoots almost like an eldritch blast from this sword, and it it erupts on the first several people running through this doorway.
00:54:44
Speaker
These people running, they have dark mist and darkness shooting off of their their bodies. they When they get hit, they dissolve in the shadow and and evaporate just like... creatures you've destroyed in the past.
00:54:57
Speaker
They run in and begin battling with these other warriors and soldiers that are standing in this room. And just then you, a motion catches your eye and you look to the right. There's a hallway in this corridor running through this hallway. You see somebody familiar to you, Marlo.
00:55:16
Speaker
oh And as he gets right up to the entrance to this space, you see out of ah You see just beyond him mage point his finger and Marlow vanishes.
00:55:29
Speaker
And your vision goes back to this room. And now this space is mostly clear of the fog and the vines. And this thing is fully processing and functioning again with the magic that it has seeming to feed it and protect it from the darkness around it.
00:55:50
Speaker
So you did this room too. but Wild. ah She's probably in shock. Okay. Yeah. And I'm just going to talking to the plants to pull them all off.
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah. And the plants are now listening to you alone. And you see up in the the top there, you see a big growth of vines that look to be blocking another pathway. I'm going to drag my vines to those vines and try to see if I can send the message.
00:56:21
Speaker
Yeah. Easily. Those vines just retract into the wall and grow along the wall, opening up a path. And, and I'll say it even opens up all the way to where this path, um, kind of, kind of opens up. So it's about a 25 foot long hallway,
00:56:42
Speaker
that opens up into a room beyond there. You walk by a space where there's stones that have kind of crumbled down off the wall and into another entrance to a room.
00:56:55
Speaker
And in this room, I'm about to reveal the whole room to you. In this room, well you see ah library, a table, a couch, rug, chair sitting there.
00:57:09
Speaker
You see a stone table with maps. You see another table with, looks like somebody's been eating, can be eating and drinking here. um you You can see, it looks like somebody's been here recently.
00:57:24
Speaker
And in fact, As you look over at the couch, you see laying on that couch with their eyes closed. You see an elven man, dark black hair seeming to get more white as it gets up to his roots, ears long and pointy, kind of short for an elf.
00:57:46
Speaker
He's laying on this couch, papers in his hand. And as you walk in, he sits up and he looks at you and he says, I'm not supposed to have visitors.
00:57:58
Speaker
who Who are you? As you say, who are you? From behind you, Dale runs into the room. He runs past you and he jumps up onto the couch next to where this person is now sitting.
00:58:14
Speaker
As the man looks up and he says, um they call me Carthenact. And that's where we'll leave this episode.
00:58:37
Speaker
Oh, hey, there you are. Good. You made it all the way to the end. Thanks for listening to another episode of The Hired Swords. We're so excited that you're listening and we're super grateful for everybody who has shared with your friends.
00:58:49
Speaker
Go ahead and send people a link to this episode or some of the older episodes. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast listening app and leave us a review. Thanks a lot. Have a good one.