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Ep. 58 The Toll It Takes
97 Plays2 years ago
Long is the road and painful is the journey. There's only so long one can stand before the toll must be paid.
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Transcript
Journey to Wild Hill and Friendships
00:00:05
Speaker
previously on the hired swords. You know, Daly, you were right in making our way to Wild Hill. Otherwise, we wouldn't have found these group of goofy guys that we call friends. And besides you, I've never really had many friends. And it's quite nice, isn't it, to be able to poke fun and have a good laugh and be yourself, mainly. I don't know.
00:00:35
Speaker
It just feels good to feel loved and cherished. We haven't even really gotten into a fight yet. I mean, man, our group is so tough that I bet nothing will get between us. Nothing.
00:01:21
Speaker
The Hired Swords, a D&D podcast where the vibes are just right.
00:01:58
Speaker
Ash, what's your really deep guy voice sound like? I don't want to do it. It's scary. That's why I want to hear it. You don't have to.
00:02:09
Speaker
It's another dongle. All right. We ready? Yes.
Character Introductions
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah. Stop playing with your dongle. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Hired Swords. I'm your dungeon master, Michael. And with me at the virtual tabletop, I have Ash playing Gwendolyn. Say hello, Ash. Hi, Michael. Thanks for having me. Hey.
00:02:37
Speaker
I always have you, I don't have a choice. Derek, ooh! Hi, this is Derek. Long time recorder, first time listener. Derek, it's good to have you. You play Davin, is that correct? That's true, yes. Great, and Blaze. He's here too. Yeah, spinning on the ones and twos, we have DJ Blaze! Awesome, and Mikey. Mikey's here playing Jogzer.
00:03:07
Speaker
Hi everyone, this is, uh, this is Mikey playing Joxer. I'm, uh, I'm glad to be here. How's everybody doing today? You get so close to the mic. How's everybody out there? D&D, TTRPG, Twitter.
00:03:25
Speaker
Good. We're going to roll some dice and take some phone calls. There's no real nice. There's no phone calls. Let's recap last the last episode.
Northward Travel and Mysterious Discoveries
00:03:39
Speaker
Um, let's see if I can remember what we did. It's been golly like 20 minutes. Um, so we are traveling into the untouched lands in the north of the wilds. We have left the,
00:03:53
Speaker
the goblin village and are headed that direction in our journey we have come across a nice little spot to camp and spending cool calm evening and then Gwendolyn had a dream which I guess has finally settled on being having been a dream and from there
00:04:12
Speaker
We woke up, continued our journey north and after just some conversation and some, uh, some conversation about the necklace that, uh, Devin had been wearing him, being able to take it off and put it in a bag. Some of that happened and then they happened upon, we happened upon a couple of dead bodies in the road. We did some investigation. We did some gross, like mortuary style, uh, CSI investigating as well. Yeah.
00:04:40
Speaker
We came to the conclusion that these two people had been killed by some sort of large blade, a weapon of some sort, but then had been just completely mauled by scavengers coming upon them after they had been killed, it seemed. And then we buried those two bodies.
00:04:59
Speaker
And we ended the episode at the end of that burial with the names Candace and, what was it? Byron. Byron, all in the graves. And, uh, there we sit. You guys are standing there. Candace or Byron, you're welcome. You're welcome Candace and Byron. You're in the show. You were dead when we found you, but you're in it for an hour. And then the writing goes away. Sorry for the desecration. And so what are you guys doing now as you stand there?
00:05:29
Speaker
around these graves. It is about mid-afternoon currently, just to make things help you understand that. I personally think that I would be kind of interested in going on because we found nothing in the area that would indicate anything towards their death. It's just the wounds that were found and everything else. So I'm not too interested in hanging around. And honestly, I lost one of my carrots and it smells bad. Can we just call?
00:05:55
Speaker
Yeah, I just don't. Let's move on. I'm still trying to get over Gwen digging through those bodies. Gwen finishes a little elven prayer and lifts her head. What was that? Oh, Gwen, you're not terrifying at all. I mean, we're moving along.
00:06:18
Speaker
Okay, and she starts to turn out. Which way? Should we? We should stay off the road, right? I think the road should be safe enough for now. I'm really more concerned that maybe whoever they were traveling with brought this on them. These bodies have been here long enough that whatever we would potentially be facing is either long gone or well,
00:06:48
Speaker
not interested in us at this point. Did you say they've been here for at least a few days, if not a couple of weeks, right? Yeah. It's been definitely, definitely long enough that they've had enough decay. I don't assume anyone or anything that was taking part in the deaths here is anywhere nearby. I think that Gwen does bring up a good point though, that maybe we should keep an eye on
00:07:12
Speaker
Never know. Maybe it's like a territory of some people and they got attacked for that reason. You guys don't keep an eye out when we're traveling. That's that's rule one when traveling. Keep an eye out. I'm usually making minor illusions or something. I let Deyo keep the lookout. She just stares at him. So yeah, I'm ready to ready to hit the road. All right.
00:07:40
Speaker
Devin will go above and beyond looking all around him constantly as he walks. Nice. Nice. Yeah, no playing with cantrips as you walk this time. It lasts like a mile and then he gets distracted. Okay.
Unsettling Night Watch and Dreams
00:07:56
Speaker
So you continue to walk and you walk and walk into the late afternoon
00:08:05
Speaker
The coolness is starting to come back as you're mostly in shadow of the trees. Now the sun's not set, but the mountains are to your west. And so that you, you spend the last probably four hours of afternoon in shadow, any conversation, anything need to happen as this, the last little bit of traveling happens or we could just move forward. What do you think?
00:08:27
Speaker
I think jocks are the only thing that I'd, that was, you were getting a little distracted, but that was really interesting what you were doing with the dirt back there. Yeah, I've been working that for a little while by playing with dirt. I don't know. There's no things I try and pick up every once in a while. Probably come in use, hopefully not for the same purpose. Never mind. Let's move on.
00:08:53
Speaker
I can also do it. Watch this. And I'm just going to use, um, mold earth just to make the ground underneath Craig's just like really rough terrain just for like fighting. Just like hot foot, hot foot. And as I keep walking, that's, uh, yeah, no, uh, we can do that more often. I think. Yeah, sure. Next time I have food in my hand, you're both getting at launch.
00:09:22
Speaker
A lunch or a launch? Launch! It depends on if we catch it or not, I guess. I guess so. Awesome. So we continue walking and the pathway is getting narrower and narrower as you walk. And there's not a lot of space like between where you're walking in the trees now, as it starts to thicken a little bit.
00:09:48
Speaker
Uh, go ahead and whoever would like to, as it comes time to close to settle in for the night, somebody make a survival check. I don't want to, I think it's one up. I'll do it. I think this is more of a Gwen thing for sure. You said nature check. Yeah. Survival survival. That's definitely not a me thing. Uh, you're not a survivor. Five plus eight 13.
00:10:17
Speaker
13, you rolled a five. I rolled a five, yeah. But you get plus eight to survival. My survival's plus one. Yeah. Wow, that's great. Same here. So you walking through and just kind of keeping your eye out for a place to camp.
00:10:33
Speaker
It's getting dark and you're getting a little further north, a couple days now, travel. And it's just hard to find a good spot. But you think over kind of off the road a little ways, there's a small opening over there. But it looks a little like the tree branches are hanging down too low to do any kind of real good sizable fire for fear of possibly catching trees on fire.
00:11:01
Speaker
Um, so you'll have to not only keep watch on like just for danger, but also somebody's going to have to keep watch on the fire. Make sure it doesn't get out of hand, uh, through the night. You know that as you start to think of this spot might be good. So you can decide to camp out there or see if you can move forward a little bit and find something different.
00:11:25
Speaker
What do you guys think about this? It's a little comfy, so if we had a fire, it would probably catch on the branches. But it does give us some shelter. Well, I think maybe Davin's new trick might be a little bit more helpful. He could dig a fire a little bit lower.
00:11:52
Speaker
Maybe Daven can actually make us little chairs too. Let's not go overboard. Am I just taking a hole for the fire to go in or do you want me to just like excavate the entire area down like five feet? Well, I don't want to ruin the roots on anything.
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just I'd imagine that, you know, a little, little pit for the fire and maybe like a little, a little dirt round around it, you know, a little wall retaining wall. Sure. All right. I'll get you a little waterfall while I'm on a tabletop. That sounds nice. I mean, it's been a while since, uh, Devin's going to use his superior survival skills to find the best place to dig a little hole for the fire. All right. Make a survival check. I had to say the word survival, didn't I? 16.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah, you kind of gauge based on where the trees are and stuff in this opening, which is only about 15 foot diameter, a little space. You figure you can put your fire pit nearly right in the center and you think you might be able to get down three or four feet before you hit any roots or anything that you would damage.
00:13:01
Speaker
Then that's what I'll do. I'll go down three, three to four feet. All right. He did digs it down three or four feet. There's little walls of dirt piled kind of on the sides of it. So it creates about a nearly five foot space for a fire to go in. And you guys have yourself a camp for the night. What's the, uh, the procedure you would like to take as you go into camp, camp mode. I'll take first watch.
00:13:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think jocks will probably try to try to get a little bit more sleep this room. I don't I don't think Kriegs is particularly interested in like too much conversation. So he's likely just buckling down, bed rolling out and kind of sleeping close ish to the fire, but not too bad. Davens fine with that, too. You probably eat some rations and just kind of relax. OK. Great. So kind of relax.
00:13:57
Speaker
After you eat your rations, people start to go to sleep, drift off, settle in, Daven, make perception check as you hang out. All right. 10. All right. I have to do this. Okay. And, uh, roll a d20 for me. All right. 19.
00:14:26
Speaker
All right, so as you are sitting and just kind of keeping watch, keeping the fire going, keeping everything, everybody starts to kind of settle in and rest. And the forest, about an hour, two hours in, the forest starts to get this
00:14:49
Speaker
this fog and it begins to kind of swirl towards you. And this dark mist, this familiar dark mist starts to eek towards you. And as it does, it make a, uh, make a charisma saving throw. All right. Uh, I rolled a two, but I have a eight, so that's a 10 total. Okay. So,
00:15:19
Speaker
as it comes towards you, you're able to kind of shake this initial instinct that tells you to just embrace it and let it kind of overtake you. What do you do? What kind of feeling does this give me?
00:15:35
Speaker
Um, you've got a feeling of like, uh, there's this dread as you see it towards you. Like if it gets to you, uh, there's this, this sense of dread, but then kind of in the back of your mind, there's this, um, this longing almost just to see what it's all about.
00:15:57
Speaker
but you're able to shake that off and the dread is what takes the forefront as you see this inching towards you, this fog creeping out of the darkness of the forest. All right. I look and see Gwen immediately off to my left and I just go and give her a quick shake. Gwen, wake up. What? What is it? I don't know. What is this? There's this black fog. It's making me feel weird. Do I see anything on him?
00:16:26
Speaker
You don't see anything. You don't see any fog anywhere either. What are you talking about? And she's rubbing her eyes. Oh, get that seat out of your eyes. Look at it.
00:16:37
Speaker
There's no, and she goes and she just touches his face. Not me, it's not fair. But I, I don't, and she's just barely just patting his face. There's no, do you want me to take over? Maybe, maybe I just need some sleep. Maybe it's nothing. I do. Here, to take Dale and she just sleepily just passes Dale.
00:17:07
Speaker
All right. Before I go to bed, I have one more team to ask you. It's a little embarrassing, but I figure you're maybe the best one to help me with this. You're not going to make fun of me, I don't think, right? Why would I make fun of you? Just tell me you're not going to make fun of me. No, I won't. I can't get that other piece of carrot out of my nose. Will you just help me?
00:17:34
Speaker
Craig just starts laughing because he's not asleep. I just roll over laughing. Just give me like a big smack on the back of the head. I think it'll work.
00:17:59
Speaker
Gwendolyn tries, but her smacks feel like almost nothing. She does her best. What's going on? I don't know. He still has the carrots stuck in his nose.
00:18:21
Speaker
Don't laugh at him. What's happening? What? Kregs pulls the blanket up a little bit more, tucks himself in, still just chuckling. I tried to blow it out, it's just not working. Let me get it and when the one sticks her finger up your nose, try to get that carrot out. This is totally that total recall scene. Make a slight, make a slight of hand check, Gwendolyn, slight of hand check. Hey. Oh.
00:18:49
Speaker
16 plus two, 18. She's actually able to get in there and get her fingernail in the carrot. And as she pulls the carrot, pulls out of her finger out with her finger and the carrot does come out of your nose. Oh, that is so much better. We got it. I oh, how no. Don't worry about it. Thank you.
00:19:17
Speaker
All right. You're welcome. I'm going to go to sleep. I'm going to take a look around. Do I still see that black fog at all? You do not. All right. I give one more glance around just suspiciously and then I was like, all right, thank you, Glenn. Glenn, I'm going to go to bed. Oh, okay. Good night. I got this. And Glenn starts to wake up more. Okay. Gwendolyn, as you sit and you are
00:19:46
Speaker
keeping watch, make a perception check. Davin, you fall asleep very quickly. And when you fall asleep, you dream of just blackness. You're standing in darkness. You look at your hands to try to see and you can't see them. And you're like existing in this darkness. You're not
00:20:14
Speaker
You don't feel like you can go anywhere. You can't walk, you can't move. You can look at your hands and not see them. You look around you and you see nothing. And you're just in darkness. Gwen, what was your perception? Um, an 11. Okay. So as you look around,
00:20:36
Speaker
the cool wind is blowing, the depth of the fire is keeping it where you have to sit pretty close of it to feel the heat from it as it's kind of a couple feet down. So even with it being a couple feet down, you've kept it kind of low as far as not burning super hot. So you have to sit kind of close. So it's kind of hard. Your eyes can't really adjust to the darkness further out.
00:21:01
Speaker
And so you don't only see anything of interest out there. You definitely hear the sounds of the forest. You hear owl, an owl in the distance. You hear a critters crawling around. It feels like a normal night in the woods to you.
Daven's Concerns About Dreams
00:21:15
Speaker
Davin, you're still just in darkness and you're experiencing every moment of this. It's not like, it's not like you're, you know, montaging, so to speak, through these, this like darkness experience, like you,
00:21:32
Speaker
feel like you laid down and now you're just standing in darkness in every real minute. And every night of every hour of the sleep that you're in right now, you are living in that darkness and make a constitution saving throw. Is he making any movement outside while he's sleeping? Make another perception check. It's a 19 on the consave. Okay.
00:22:01
Speaker
you are finally able to wake up after feeling like you can't move. What did you roll, Gwen? I rolled a 19. Yeah, he is stiff as a board and still, as still as death, until right at morning time. Literally, as soon as you get the sense that the sun is starting to peak up and you think, I should probably start thinking about waking everybody up, Daven wakes up.
00:22:31
Speaker
And Davin, it's like the light from the red sky just blinds you because of the darkness you just spent. Every minute of the last several hours of sleep you got, you existed in that space, in that darkness, and now you're awake. And it is bright and it is,
00:22:59
Speaker
It feels almost hot compared to where you were and you are able to move around a little bit. Do I feel rested? No. Okay. Are you okay? You feel like you technically slept, but you don't feel good. You feel like you need to sleep again. I don't know. I feel like, I feel like I just spent the entire night just in the darkest room I've ever been in, just standing there waiting for the sun to come out.
00:23:30
Speaker
Oh. I feel like I never even slept. It feels miserable. I'm sorry. Did you want to try to get at least maybe a nap while I wake the others? No. I feel kind of freaked out to try and go back to sleep. Here, take Dale back. She grabs him. Oh, OK. I'll go get Craig's. And I walk over.
00:23:59
Speaker
It's, it's time. And then she goes over jocks her enough sleep for you. And she tries to joke, but she doesn't want to do. Thank you. You're welcome. Oh, it just, I just slept great. It was so quiet.
00:24:26
Speaker
Um, I walk back over to Craig's who hasn't, I guess hasn't really gotten up with my morning call and she whispers, I think something happened with the Daven. He didn't get any sleep and he, he heard there was fog, but that's all I know.
00:24:48
Speaker
She's like, get up. You you can't oversleep. She's like kind of screaming it at him. The cover up. He sits up. I'm awake. You you better be. She feels awkward. She doesn't know what to do. Waking up is becoming more troublesome, I think, for Krigs, just because
00:25:17
Speaker
I don't know. He's just tired. He's an old, old dwarf, but not that old. Just tired. So I just put the bedroll up and kind of think about what Gwen said about Daven. Um, still concerned about the necklace situation and thinking it may be taking a toll on him, but also concerned about the area as well. So I'm just going to kind of keep that information to myself.
00:25:44
Speaker
Jokingly, though, I'm going to approach him and be like, did I hear correctly, or was I dreaming that you had a carrot stuck up your nose? Adam's just sitting there and he's rubbing his eyes, and he's using his telekinetic mage hand to roll up his bedroll and clean up his stuff. He looks up, he says, you're dreaming. Weird dreams. I just walk off.
00:26:13
Speaker
A strange night. I'm not hungry. I'm ready to go whenever you guys are. Looks like we have a more grumpy gusses this morning. Is everybody all right? I'm fine. Just travel weariness, I suppose. Kind of longing for home, I don't know.
00:26:42
Speaker
gets a little tiring sleeping on the ground every night. I'm spoiled by those goblin beds. They were nice. I wonder what they're up to right now. You guys actually slept on those beds. Those were basically like air and clouds. I don't know. I couldn't sleep on them. They're the soft butters better than the ground. When you get a chance for luxury, you take it. It's not very often you get such a
00:27:11
Speaker
comfortable bed and warm breakfast. Can we just go? I want to get this over with. Let's get going. Let's move. Do you think Gess is finding some more time with his lady friend? A little sweetie. I bet they're having a grand old time. I gave him a couple pointers. I don't really know.
00:27:34
Speaker
the goblin courting rituals but uh if it's anything like dwarfs i think he's doing fairly well right now he's a bit of a charmer from the impression i got yeah he's uh he's he seemed like a good a good goblin i guess he's uh i'm i'm glad we met i guess you could call him a good blin ah that was bad i liked it i liked it it was good why
00:28:04
Speaker
Why? All right. So you guys start to make your way back or make your way out of the little camp area back to the path and start to head north again. Somebody roll a d20 for me. Yeah, let's see what we got. Oh, that's a 17. Hey.
00:28:30
Speaker
I went to go add something, but I didn't know what to add. Right. So as you begin to March North, uh, you walk on another nice, pretty nice fall or autumn day, it's cloudy today. Very cool. Again, uh, in the, in the morning, uh, very crisp and cool. You can see your breath this morning.
00:28:54
Speaker
Seems like every day it's starting a little, it's starting to get a little crisper and you do notice, you know, your elevation is getting a little higher. Not by a lot. You're not climbing mountains necessarily, but you're headed to a higher elevation as well as you travel through this part of the forest. And the path is there. It's pretty narrow where you're at, but it is there. And you travel for a good half a day with no real
00:29:23
Speaker
craziness, nothing happens, there's nothing interesting. Throughout this time, I want to with Gwen kind of be going through this herbalist pouch that we both have or have looked at and just kind of take a little sample, like little leaf of this thing here and kind of try to figure out
00:29:47
Speaker
you know, medicinal purposes, what it has written on it and the names of things and try to kind of journaling the experiences with things, have a little sample of a leaf here, sample of a leaf there, sniffing and tasting and just trying to figure out like... Sniffing in a licking in a... Yeah. Sounds good. All the above and kind of just discussing like, hmm, this is an interesting route. You know, I take a little snip of it and...
00:30:15
Speaker
It doesn't taste bad, but it does get the heart going a little bit. Can you feel that as a hand or a little sample of it? Taste it. Great. Oh, and she takes a bite. I see what you mean. And I also pull out my label maker that I have that you're giving me. That's a label maker. A label maker. It's so deep and fancy right now. It's from Office Depot.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah, we stopped there before we left. Goblin, office depot, goblet, office goblet. I go to Staples. Maybe to Gables. Gables. You're riding on pieces of parchment and trying to stick it to stuff to label it. Is that what you're doing? I'm trying, yeah.
00:31:10
Speaker
with what paper I have left. She's licking the back of it and then like wrapping in round stuff. Trying to build some kind of proficiency with this stuff and at least have reference. So if I ever find a true medicine man or someone that has knowledge of these things, I can ask the questions I need to be able to have my proficiency with it.
00:31:31
Speaker
after her first bite of the first herb. I think this actually might be sassafras root and taste it again. Is it known for kind of invigoration or my heart? I definitely feel a little bit more like I feel ready to go, amped or prepared for battle.
00:31:54
Speaker
It does have that kind of kick. My mom used to make the tea out of it, and it would make me pretty hyper. Okay, so I, just sketching in my little book about, like, you see a little dwarven man with flexing his arms. And that's my sign for invigoration. Nice, you just found, like, caffeine? Yeah, basically.
00:32:21
Speaker
Perfect. Yeah. So yeah, you're able to kind of give little samples and some of it, you don't get any real sense of, of what it does right away, but the labeling that was already done helps a little. There's some stuff you can tell is meant to be topical, like rubbed on the flesh just by how it's packaged and some of the labeling that's on it. Kind of figure some of it should be like mixed together and stuff, but yeah, I'm not, I don't have enough of it to want to mess with that just yet, but just some, some testing while we're passing time. Good. Good.
00:32:48
Speaker
Actually, why don't you both make medicine checks as you do that? Why don't you make a medicine check? I have a plus 300, so I get a 330. That's interesting. They can give yourself 300. I had 15. 14 plus one. 11. Okay. So you feel like you're getting some
00:33:14
Speaker
It's really rapid, especially you Craig, you're kind of wrapping your mind around how this kind of works. And it goes from kind of like an interest to some understanding. Like it's not just like, Hey, I'm interested in how this work, but you can go, Hey, so if we get injured in battle, or if we have something that we really have to make sure we're alert for maybe staying up late at night, whatever, we can apply this to that. And you're starting to kind of put together, not just what they do, but like what the practical uses for these things would be.
00:33:42
Speaker
You're starting to kind of make sense of that. Gwen, you're getting there too. Maybe you're just as interested as Craig's is in it, but you're not quite there. So I'm not going to say either one of you have full proficiency in using this yet, but I'm going to say you're getting there. You're getting closer and to the point where you can officially soon be able to officially add that to your character sheet as proficiency in herbalism if you don't already have it.
00:34:10
Speaker
I definitely don't. I think that my understanding probably comes from just a tactical mind frame of thinking of how relations of things can be cause and effect and battlefield readiness and stuff. I am proficient in my herbalism kit.
00:34:32
Speaker
Oh, great. So you very simply are you're already that's why you're like, Oh, this is SESSA, like, you know, some of this stuff already, some of this you haven't seen, but you're starting to wrap your mind around what it does. It's similar enough to other things you've seen and just plants you already know. Okay. So
00:34:46
Speaker
I imagine joxer is kind of that overzealous hiker friend that's like up at the front like come on guys. When
Herb Experiments and Dragon Sighting
00:34:54
Speaker
we. Yeah. For him it's not about the journey it's about the destination. Yeah exactly. Friends we found along the way man. Yeah that's what it's about bro. He's in the back here man. The product bro. Yeah bro.
00:35:17
Speaker
Buh-duh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh! Hey everybody! It's me, the Aldrich being that is Starbuck. We're here to read a couple reviews. I'm here with my senpai. What's up? I guess. You hit me.
00:35:38
Speaker
I guess you are my Senpai in podcasting. I was like, what would you be my Senpai in? Because I don't know if that applies, but we'll go with it. So this week we have two new reviews that we'll be reading. The first one is from... From Greasemonkey88. But it's not spelled like... You would think Greases. It's spelled like...
00:36:04
Speaker
How many E's are in there? Alright, anyway, it's not a Greasy Monkey, it's just a Grease Monkey 88. And Grease Monkey 88 says, if you like D&D, this is a must. Entertaining and endless fun to listen to. Thank you so much, Grease Monkey. I would like some clarification on that if you could just personally DM me.
00:36:29
Speaker
So, Grease Monkey, whoever you are, number one, you're valid. And number two, please DM me and tell me, are there monkeys in Grease? And why are there 88 of them? Why are there strictly only 88 monkeys in Grease? I mean, that's too many monkeys, if you ask me. But, all right, next review is from Holz.
00:36:56
Speaker
And Holz says, underrated. Came from Twitter, will be staying for a long while. I'm so sorry that you came from Twitter and I hope that you can break out of the endless loop. Is that implying that Holz is a part of Twitter? Like a sentient piece of Twitter space? He's the whole of Twitter. Also assuming a gender, we gotta stop this.
00:37:23
Speaker
They are the whole, the holes of Twitter. The Twitter holes. At least, at least they're staying a long time. Get out of that space. Get out into the free world. Be real with us.
00:37:37
Speaker
I really hate to say it, but they've already committed to staying for a long while. So thank you so much to Greasemonkey88 and holes. We really appreciate your reviews. And if you would like to have me read your review back to you and all of the other people of the world, please write a review because if you want people to make podcasts, you have to tell other people that they make podcasts and that their podcasts are good. So other people will listen to them.
00:38:05
Speaker
Thanks again. Bye. Have a bye. So cool. So you continue to travel northward. You get to about midday, about lunchy times, and somebody make another d20 roll for me. Since I started, and we've gone through the whole circle. Sir, that is a 12.
00:38:33
Speaker
So on your 12, as you are walking and enjoying each other's company, talking through your, uh, talking through your, uh, herbalism kit and kind of what you think you could do with it, how it could be useful. A, uh, shadow, not, not like a mist or whatever, but just like a shadow just over all of you above you.
00:39:02
Speaker
And it's like something flew overhead. Everyone make perception checks. So it's not like hovering. It just was like a quick. Yeah, just a quick. Over the top. Oh, that's not good. This really is good. I got a. Four. Twenty eight. Natural twenty plus one is twenty. What? I'm feeling a little bit good. You drooling that twenty? Uh huh. Jeez.
00:39:29
Speaker
Really enjoying my I'm enjoying my sassafresse route a little bit too much. So as a shadow flies over as a shadow kind of covers you briefly, just like passes over, you look up and jocks or krigs in Davin, you don't see anything just 21 something passed by. I know something passed by you. Gwen
00:39:57
Speaker
You barely, just barely. It's so barely that you may not even believe your own eyes. You see a long spiked tail that just kind of billows this mist and fades away as you look and see it. But you're questioning if you even saw it at all.
00:40:27
Speaker
Did I just see a dragon? Actually- I just said what you saw. No. No. Did it blow up? I just said what you think you saw. I- Did it blow up? Did it explode? Yeah, an alien came out of it and said, what's up everybody? It's a friendly alien. Mm-hmm. A frailean. You just hear Gwendolyn under her breath just go, dragon. No stutter, no nothing.
00:40:56
Speaker
No, I'm keeping up. I'm not dragging behind. What are you talking about? Dragon. What? And she's just looking around to see what sky she can see through the trees. You just see gray sky above you. Bright gray sky. I swore. Did you not? Dale, did you see it?
00:41:22
Speaker
No, no one see it. I mean, I saw a shadow. I just figured it's like a big bird or something. I didn't see anything in the sky. Did you say dragon? I swore and maybe it was a bird and cloud.
00:41:45
Speaker
Oh, regardless, if you saw shadow and you saw a dragon, we should at least keep an eye out for some large birds, apparently. But dragons aren't the not real. So I... Right now, real and not real. We've seen some things. Let's just keep an eye out.
00:42:12
Speaker
Oh, okay. And she just, I'm doing it in person, but she's looking up, still amazed. She's only right about them. Yeah. My beloved four roll, I'm just continuing walking. Yeah, I was like, are we still somewhat covered by trees or is it like? There is a brief, just small opening above you just where this kind of path has been worn down enough by
00:42:41
Speaker
animals and the occasional group of people to keep trees from growing here. But it's literally like a four foot wide path that you're walking on and then trees on either side. So there's barely enough up there to see. And so she just barely caught what she thinks looks like the tail of that creature. Let's maybe move a little faster too. We don't want to get caught under the open I guess here.
00:43:12
Speaker
How far do you think we have to go? I mean, we're on our third day of travel here. I figured we got to be close to something, right? Do we even really know where we are going? I'm going to pull out the map and take a look at it. Okay. We have a little map on roll 20. Is that accurate to what we have or is that just for players? The, the one that has the three circle kind of things or well, there's, we have one of greater glintry, the entire continent.
00:43:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The players would be pretty, they will have seen that sort of thing, a map of that sort of thing before. It'd be pretty clear on it. All right, we're heading north through the forest and then above the forest, there's two towns at the very edge of the continent. So how far, I mean, if we go far enough, there's cities and stuff up there, right? Like where is the untouched lands exactly supposed to be? I don't know.
00:44:10
Speaker
Maybe we should have done some more research. Well, I did ask if they had something, but apparently this is super untraveled. So I'm going to guess that we're going in between. We're probably just trying to go through these hills and mountains until we find what we're looking for. I mean, we're just following the road north, but the road north is kind of disappearing almost. It is a bit of a wild boar chase, but
00:44:40
Speaker
I know we go too far north. There are towns that are rumored up there. I've never visited myself. Green Town. It's right along the coast, but untouched lands, stone mountains to our east, and hills and valleys to our north between here and Green Town. I can't imagine that it's too close to Green Town as it has to be established by at least some residents, but
00:45:11
Speaker
Untouched Lands is as good as mine, honestly. I'm going to pull out the other map, the one that shows the circle of greater glintry with the wild and the shadow wild on it. I'm not really sure exactly how to read this as a map. It's just as greater glintry, which is where we are. That's the continent. It's just the wild. That's where we are, right? That's the forest that we're in. And then the shadow wild.
00:45:40
Speaker
I'm not really sure exactly the connection here. May I see that note? Sure, of course. I mean, the only other thing that's not crossed off is our menorah, which we don't know anything about. I'm going to look at the note and I'll be sure to post this for anyone who's interested in when the episode releases. But on the note, there are three circles in the middle is greater Grintry, greater Glintry, which the map it is sort of a
00:46:11
Speaker
circular circular continent or like just land is I guess you could consider that kind of a circle in a way but then there's also the two shadow wild and wild to the sides of it um it's like a venn diagram yeah it does look very much like a venn diagram while holding that I would like to
00:46:36
Speaker
Because it's a fold, we folded it the way that it's been collected.
Connections to Ancient Legends
00:46:40
Speaker
I would like to fold it in half, connecting the two sides of the opposite sides of the Venn diagram, the shadow wild and the wild, and maybe have, it feels like there's something to the fact that they are interloping in each other, but they're not exactly one. Does it make sense what I'm saying? Like, I feel like you're having some kind of epiphanous moment where. Yeah.
00:47:06
Speaker
Uh, so you're holding, you want to just do some, like hold the, try to fold it down to where the. I'm holding it with either hand on either side and I'm kind of folding it in half in such a way that the circle of greater glintry is kind of becoming lost within the fold and the shadow wild and wild are kind of connecting into a circle outside of the Venn diagram. Um.
00:47:34
Speaker
reading on the note, it shouldn't exist. Where does it open? Where else? Everything in the scribbles of what I kind of consider a madman. Am I, I feel like I'm having a weird epiphanous moment about the interloping of the existence of the shadow wild in the wild because I've, I know nothing of the shadow wild. Um, and we're being constantly plagued by shadows that are coming from seemingly nowhere. And there's an untouched land. However, we have,
00:48:04
Speaker
geographical knowledge of the existence of Green Town beyond us to the north. And I'm thinking, well, what could possibly be untouched? We've mapped this. We've documented this. Is it something stranger than that? Cool. So you kind of fold those together and kind of look at them. And when you do, there's this,
00:48:30
Speaker
you can fold it right to where it makes a perfect circle between the wilds and the shadow wilds. Then there's this little bit of the circle of greater glintry still left there in the middle. And that's just interesting to you. You think, hmm, there's just the wilds, the shadow wilds, and then that little sliver that's right there. And make a history check.
00:48:57
Speaker
Okay. I wish this map was made of stone so I can get advantage. We don't have a map of just the wilds at all, right? Correct. Um, I'm feeling super anxious. Possibly you could have bought one, but you never asked anybody. History is plus zero. That's a 15. Okay. Um, here's what you recall.
00:49:21
Speaker
Make a religion check, too. Is that better or not? Or use the same role. What if you added religion to that? Still a zero. Okay. I figured paladin was never a very devout paladin. Okay. More about the slashy slashy than the prayy prayy. If anybody has religion, could they do it? Yeah, allow it. If he's saying some of this stuff out loud. If he's doing this rambling out loud. I would have to think that David and I have enough of a rapport with each other. He's probably picking up what I'm putting down. Yeah.
00:49:50
Speaker
I got no religion though. Anybody? Okay. What you do. It's a stat auction. What you do kind of understand and remember is really the religious side of it. It's based on the legends of the creation of Greater Glintry. And the idea that the belief
00:50:20
Speaker
that there are worlds beyond the one you exist in and that this world exists because of the whim of a single deity that wanted somewhere to create and have relationship away from the other deities in his realms.
00:50:50
Speaker
that you know most people growing up in greater Glentery know that story. If they've gone to any temple services or they've gone to any basic history class, they've learned the lore. Some of them learned it as legend, some of them learned it as religious belief. Either way, everyone knows that. This definitely seems fed by that. These ideas seem fed by that.
00:51:20
Speaker
that legend and if you think if somebody believed strongly enough in these legends they would think this what they see in this paper is a maybe not a map but definitely a a sign that the the legend is true the belief is true if what this looks like is real when you fold that together and you've got this sliver of greater
00:51:48
Speaker
the wilds, the shadow wilds, it's all just kind of interconnected and you unpack it. You unfold it and you see the three kind of Venn diagram looking circles. You get this sense that if they were all separated, the possibility that they fade into each other, if this is real, then that could be real. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. The hag, the witch.
00:52:18
Speaker
Do you remember, Devin, the witch in back where we killed the elk, the witch, whenever we were fighting and I vanished, you remember this? I do. Yes. I was taken somewhere. I don't know where this I don't know if I'm making any sense. I don't know if we can find the untouched lands
00:52:46
Speaker
on this map. Does that, how, I just know she took me somewhere that wasn't here. And she told me, I'm not saying it's not a real place. I'm saying she took me someplace and she told me if I remember correctly, the shadow is coming. If those were her words and I was in a place that was not here in the world, we know,
00:53:16
Speaker
It's possible. The legend, the lore, the creation of Glintry. There could- Do I have concepts of planes of existence?
00:53:28
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I mean, I don't know if those terms would be the ones you would use. You would have to decide really what terms Krigs would have for that. But you, I think you have the context of that. I have to assume like that. Yeah. Cause you did worship. I mean, you, you got power from Helm from something else. Yeah. For being the paladin and understood that he clearly didn't live on our realm necessarily. You'd, you'd also have like the small line of what the brew hole is. Cause that's technically a different plane.
00:53:58
Speaker
True. That's very true. I kind of look around. I show the map and the Venn diagram and kind of how I folded it and hopefully like I'm looking with a little bit of desperation because I can't make sense of my own thoughts and I'm showing everyone like you have to see something. There's something here and I'm looking around.
00:54:20
Speaker
Yes, I mean, it couldn't. I mean, it's not unfounded that there could be a different plane of existence for what we're looking for but the problem...
00:54:35
Speaker
Is that where these shadow creatures are coming, where this fog, where the the ichor, the black ichor that is found its way through the wilds, is it coming to Glintry and is... I'm starting to feel panicked, like I literally feel sort of panicked as I'm piecing these things together, looking at this map.
00:54:55
Speaker
Yeah the problem there is normally there's an entry point or if we're talking about what you. But is that what Darnaldi was looking for? If you look at the scribbles on the map he was looking for the shadow wilds.
00:55:11
Speaker
He was looking and dealing with powers that I don't understand. We don't understand. And if there is a whole nother world beyond our own, what is out there that we are dealing with? That we have no idea. Well, it's quite possible he found it. I mean, it looks like he brought stuff back with him. At least that's what the story kind of made it sound like. He went north. And when he came back, he had some sort of new, for lack of better word, technology that he was able to use. And he didn't carry the smart button, right? He left us at his house. Maybe he didn't need it anymore.
00:55:41
Speaker
What about the necklaces? Is that what he came back with? No, it was whatever he used to create the blood boar. I get that, but... The necklaces could be one of the artifacts that he brought back, if that... Is it not the power to control and had power beyond... Honestly, our understanding, it could be an artifact from these worlds, if that's what we're believing they are. And we don't even know if that's...
00:56:11
Speaker
My mind is going a million miles a minute. I'm trying to piece this together. Please be patient with me. I think you're just overthinking it. Maybe the necklaces came from there, but it's not going to be the answer or the key as far as I can tell. David, can I see that necklace? Sure, of course. And he'll grab it and pull his bag and he lifts it up in the air. I put my hand out and I want you to stick it in my hand.
00:56:36
Speaker
Okay. All right. You're able to with no problem. Sure. I just handed him the necklace. Do you think there's something on the necklace that's going to be an answer? I don't know. I feel like I'm losing my mind, but it all makes so much sense at the exact same time. And I'm just going to stare at this necklace for a minute. Make an investigation check.
00:56:59
Speaker
During this time, while Gwen's been observing, she's going to pull out her dad's journal. Natural 20! My first one of the day, my whole night. Nice, nice. But investigation is plus zero. Natural 20. Gwen, before I go deal with that, what are you doing with the journal, Gwen?
00:57:22
Speaker
I'm looking through the journal to see if there's anything that he had wrote or any Clues that might be assistant to this to what because if what he is saying is true She might find Al Menorah Thank you also make an investigation check Craig's You looking at this?
00:57:47
Speaker
My literal heart is beating like 100 miles a minute right now.
Magical Necklace and Dark Mist Release
00:57:51
Speaker
You look and you look really deep into this gem and you see the black shadow mist swirling inside this orange gem and swirling and as you look closely and closer and closer and you see it and it's almost like you are looking at this gem
00:58:11
Speaker
are not looking at the gym anymore. You're just seeing the black mist that's swirling around. And suddenly it like lunges towards you like it's alive. It doesn't get out of it doesn't get out of the of the gym. It doesn't like do anything. It just has this like, like just quick jolt towards you and then continues to swirl as it as you kind of have locked your mind under focusing on this thing.
00:58:42
Speaker
Did it, was it perceivable? Like did the actual necklace come towards me or did it was just all in my head? I felt it reach out at me. You saw, you literally saw the black mist in there lunge at you like a dog on a chain lunging at somebody, but you don't put your dog on chains people, it's not nice. But you, uh,
00:59:06
Speaker
You didn't see the gym itself move or anything crazy like that happen. You just saw the thing inside there lunge towards you. And Gwendolyn, what was your investigation check? Wasn't good. Sorry. Eight. You definitely remember your father, the words of your father in this book being kind of subtle about the journaling about other
00:59:36
Speaker
places that he would go. He never used the words planes of existence or other worlds or anything. He would talk about going somewhere others couldn't go. He would talk about going somewhere that no one he knew had ever been, things like that, but never anything about, never saying specifically planes or other worlds or anything like that.
01:00:05
Speaker
As I'm still staring at this necklace and as I feel it reaching out, I'm going to continue staring at it, but I'm just going to say, Quindlin. Yes. You trusted me back in Wild Hill when I told you these necklaces weren't inherently evil. I don't know if I can still promise that. And I just continue staring into the necklace.
01:00:34
Speaker
I put the journal away and I snatched the necklace out of his hands. Okay. And I'm going to smash it. Okay. How? I am going as quick as I can. Just try to grab it and then I'm going to take it and I'm going to whack it against a tree.
01:01:00
Speaker
And if someone wants to catch me before then try to catch these hands. I'm not keeping her from taking it. I'm holding it. I'm holding it as if I'm holding something that's like smelly. I'm holding it out in front of me. I will say there are no like saves or anything to keep you from trying to save it at this point. So anybody worried about that, don't worry about it. If you want to let her do it, you can let her do it.
01:01:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think after Krigs said what he did, Joxer would be pulling out the one that he had, that he had finally fixed the actual necklace portion. Spell slots helped me as I see her. Okay. All right, Daven, are you going to let her smash, try to smash it? He decides and says, we tried this already, Gwen. It doesn't, you can't just destroy it. And you smack it up against a tree and some bark flies off the tree.
01:01:59
Speaker
And the gemstone is fine. I start stepping on it. Why I, it's pure evil. I knew it. And you lied to me. She just swing this thing around. She's stepping on it. She's throwing a big tantrum. There's a difference between lying and just being unsure.
01:02:27
Speaker
I approach Gwen with both of my hands out and I try to take both of her hands in mine, if possible. Gwen, I am truly sorry. I did not understand at the time the magnitude of what these could potentially hold. There is none of us here with a good heart as yours. I trust you to keep watch of this necklace and if the burden becomes too hard, please tell us. But for now,
01:02:55
Speaker
You're the only one that may be able to keep the evils at bay. You're Frodo. I'm going to destroy it. And she tosses up and I cast Call Lightning. Sick. Okay. So tell me that spell.
01:03:13
Speaker
Okay, there it is. As a question, do those necklaces have like, are they colored colors that? They're both orange. Yeah, they're orange. Orange. Basically, I cast a storm cloud that appears on the cylinder shape and the bolt of lightning is going to flash down from the cloud.
01:03:36
Speaker
I'm gonna back away, I'm gonna let go of both hands, just like as she's doing, just kind of just back away kind of scared, because this is a sight of Gwen I've seen. Yeah, everyone needs to make, everyone needs to make a dexterity saving throw. Do I understand what she's doing? Do I see what's happening? I mean, I don't know if you will know what she's doing. It's a one action casting time. So I mean, it's, it's basically, I rolled a nine.
01:04:05
Speaker
She's she's waving her hands around for about five seconds before it casts. OK, twenty seven. What is this next save? Next save. Eight. With a twenty seven, might I be able to notice, Devin? Yeah, yeah. No, no. What what did I do? Roll 3D 10 lightning damage.
01:04:31
Speaker
Oh, you lucky for seven seven. So two threes and a one. This thing flies up in the air as she throws it. And a storm cloud has just appeared above you just just by itself. And a 20 foot diameter storm cloud appears above you and it just
01:04:53
Speaker
You hear this and this lightning shoots down and when it does it hits this orange necklace and it or this orange gem and the gem explodes in a mill in a just tons of pieces. And as the gem explodes you see this black mist that was in the middle of it. Everyone can see this thing in the light of the shadow or the light of the lightning. It's like it.
01:05:17
Speaker
It creates this blank space in the light of that lightning and it shoots up. It kind of flails around and then shoots up into the sky and joins the cloud above it and the whole cloud turns black.
01:05:31
Speaker
and dissipates into nothing. And the spell is supposed to last 10 minutes, but that going up into it has created this spell, or it's completely diminished the spell now. But the necklace is destroyed, and that mist or whatever was in it doesn't seem to be here.
Debate Over Remaining Necklace and Group Divide
01:05:53
Speaker
Gwen, what did you just do? I got rid of it. That's what I did. Give me the other one.
01:06:00
Speaker
Gwen, we don't know what that is. It could have been a prison for whatever that thing is. You could have just released some sort of evil to the world. You don't have evil. It's trapped inside the thing. That's the safest place for it. You just let it loose. For all we know, that could be the... Devon's extremely angry all of a sudden. Give me the other necklace. Give me the necklace. Don't give it to him. Gwen, give me the necklace.
01:06:27
Speaker
I'm just walking away from both of you. Everybody just calm down. Give me the necklace. I want no more evil in this group. Or lies!
01:06:43
Speaker
I feel like Daven has a fair point that you might have added more evil to the group by releasing it but I also you have a fair point that we've been noticing other darkness around everybody just just calm down a little bit let's let's actually talk this out no talking more lightning children children am I gonna have to get out the quiet
01:07:15
Speaker
Listen, we have seen nothing evil come from these necklaces since they've been separated from the chief. All right. You had a hard time separate. You might have given it to him, but now you want this one. I want to keep it safe. I don't want it destroyed. We don't know what you just did. And if it happens again, that could be like, it could be the other half to this evil thing that may just show up out of nowhere. We don't know. We can't take that sort of a chance. Let's see tears fill up Gwendolyn's eyes.
01:07:44
Speaker
I'm with Joxer on this. Let's take a second and think. I don't think it's advantageous to break both of them at this point, but I don't think we need to be wearing them anytime soon. I'm not going to put the tea on. I just don't trust her.
01:08:01
Speaker
like you might look do you both trust me and when I understand you might be feeling a little bit untrusted at the moment with my lack of understanding but do you both trust me right right now the only person I trust is me I'm sorry I can't let you guys have that necklace I didn't do anything to any necklace I'm very confused why there's a
01:08:31
Speaker
I have held onto this thing and nothing has happened. But something could. That's what everybody else is saying. When you've proven you can dispatch of this necklace. You've proven that. I watched it with my own eyes. You cowed down lightning from the heavens yourself. And you dispatched of this necklace with ease. A fury unlike I've seen. You know that you are capable of this.
01:09:01
Speaker
Do you trust Devin? I... Do you trust me? I don't know. And as soon as she said that... You see, like... She feels so overwhelmed. She's never... These are her first friends. And now she doesn't know what to think. And... She just... Turns into a raven. And then just kind of just goes off for a bit.
01:09:34
Speaker
Well, that was unexpected for me. Honestly, I can't exactly say the same. Dan just watches her fly away. She can't destroy it. Look, I know that could have been disastrous. Jox, can I see the necklace, please? If you again, trust me.
01:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, I don't. At this point, I almost feel like it should be destroyed just for the group's sake. And I toss it over to you. The second he throws in the air, I'm going to cast telekinesis and pull it toward me. You will sneak. OK. I don't fight that. I let it happen. And I I kind of reach out as if I was trying to catch it. But yeah, I noticed it to come like, yeah.
01:10:26
Speaker
Gavin, you and I need to have an understanding right now. You've given me no reason to not trust you and I consider you a brother just like I consider the others here part of my family at this point. But if that necklace turns you into something that you cannot control, there is not a power in the verse that will stop me from making sure you and the others in this party are safe at whatever cost.
01:10:52
Speaker
What if there's only one thing to do right now, then? And I'm going to polymorph into a giant eagle and fly away. God dang it. That's my thing. All right. And that's where we're going to leave the episode. Oh my God. All right, you pushed me off the work. A breakup episode.
01:11:12
Speaker
montage of us being sad in our own corners. Yeah. Derek is going to do some angry dancing. Finally, finally. Just Krigs and Jocks are standing there and then. Krigs could get his wings and fly away and just leave Jocks are standing there. Again, literally again. The end of the last one. I'll just, I'll put my tensors. Oh no, I can't be next to my floating disc. Nevermind, can't do anything.
01:11:39
Speaker
yeah just pop into the brew hole like well okay bye yeah
01:11:55
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of our second season. We really appreciate you joining us for this adventure. If you enjoy our show, tell a friend about us. And if you really enjoy it, leave a review. Be sure to check out our shop at thehired.store. And if you want to keep up with us and what we're up to, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at thehiredswords. Again, thank you for listening. Before you go, check out one of our fellow pod friends.
01:12:30
Speaker
Greetings Pod Questers! I am Colt Hawkins, famous bard of the podcast Intelligence Check. Intelligence Check is set in a Tolkien-esque world where our party members are forced by fate down the road of adventure. Literally fate is physically forcing us. We keep trying to walk away, but the damn thing never lets up. Now I know what you're saying.
01:12:48
Speaker
Another D&T podcast? But trust me, I'm worth listening to. I mean, we're worth listening to. And doesn't this accent make you just want to trust me? Intelligence Check celebrates the camaraderie of lifelong friends, joking around a table while remaining true to their characters and story. We bring you short bi-weekly adventures full of action, banter, too many tentacles,
01:13:08
Speaker
and a naked dwarf. Oh dear god, someone please put some clothes on that dwarf. So roll an intelligence check, because the show you're listening to now is awesome, but you'll need something to hold you over while you wait for new episodes. Oh come on, is that really the tagline we're using?