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Ep. 65 The Mother Of Spores image

Ep. 65 The Mother Of Spores

S2 E65 · The Hired Swords
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147 Plays2 years ago

Down in the dark, dank cave of Lonely Hill lives the Mother of Spores. She knows your thoughts. She hears your dreams. 

 

"There must be no more She."

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Transcript

Introduction of the Mysterious Figure

00:00:04
Speaker
previously on the higher swords. So this is who they call she, the one they all seem so ready to free themselves of. Is this why so many have come and died for Lonely Hill? Why were they so interested in this place? They sent so many swords here.

Meet The Hired Swords Cast

00:00:52
Speaker
You are listening to The Hired Swords, a D&D podcast with a frightening shortage in the number of swords.
00:01:13
Speaker
Welcome, everybody, back to another episode of the Hired Swords. My name is Michael. I'm your dungeon master. Blaze is with me. He's Krigs. Yeah. Ash is with me. She's Gwendolyn. Sup. Derek's with me. He's Daven. Hi, Michael. Hi. And Mikey's here. His name's Joxer when we play Dungeons and Dragons. OK. I'm glad everyone's here when we last left off. No dilly-dallying this time.
00:01:42
Speaker
We're all just super excited for this combat. We all left off, baby.

Exploring the Underground Base

00:01:48
Speaker
We spent a little bit of time exploring this kind of underground operating, forward operating base, discovered that some elves were here and they had kind of built this place out a little bit and there were some maps that we were found, a couple scrolls of teleportation that were found.
00:02:03
Speaker
We found a book and some other stuff like that that kind of helped us see. We also got some insight into what the spores, these mushroom creatures upstairs had gone through and had experienced.

Encounter with the Giant Plant Creature

00:02:16
Speaker
And by way of flashbacks or like visions and memories put into the minds of
00:02:22
Speaker
several of our adventuring friends here and they finally after kind of exploring finding these extra large versions of these mushroom creatures they found their way to the stairs came downstairs through this mist that was glowing blue into the opening of this mist to where they now see in the middle of the room this giant plant creature with vines sprouting up from the ground all over the room
00:02:48
Speaker
bubbling acid pits, bubbling up all over the room, vines swirling, other mushrooms swirling, dead bodies of what look like people and adventurers and dead mushroom creatures laying everywhere. And we are now rolling initiative. Do it. It goes, it goes, it goes. Screw it. Let's do this. You know what? I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm hyped. I am. That's neat. I'm always not ready because I rolled an 11.
00:03:17
Speaker
Alright, so who is 20? 15 to 20. 20 down to 15. I got 19. 19, 18. Gwen. Good job, guys. So Gwen. Golf clamp. So Gwen followed by Joxer, followed by Daven with an 11,

Battle with the Spore Attacks

00:03:35
Speaker
followed by Krigs.
00:03:38
Speaker
You know what? I have like a big fat 7.12 because my initiative is like negative and because I have no decks. That's interesting. All right. So we are now in combat. And to start this off at the beginning, these... Well, actually I'm going to roll a d4 to see what happens at the beginning of this here. Well, that's an interesting start.
00:04:02
Speaker
And I'm going to look at my notes. We're in this room now. We've we've seen this this creature explain it again exactly like what I'm seeing. Yeah, you see this plant that it looks like it it doesn't it grows from the ground, but it looks like portions of its roots are sticking out in the form of vines all over this large 50 foot root.
00:04:22
Speaker
a room and they're swirling about you see uh this plant has like this big gaping mouth and these vines and other other kind of things growing from it other plant life looking like it grows from it some of the fungus is growing all around it these mushroom looking fungus and they're glowing and this creature seems to almost like pulsate with this uh like rateless like
00:04:47
Speaker
This pulsate with life inside of it as it kind of flails and it's got this almost like, like I said, like mouth that is facing you now and opening up and these vines are rushing toward you. And as these vines rush toward you, the creature lifts the vines up and you sense spores. You see spores from all over the room just sprout up from all of these
00:05:14
Speaker
mushrooms as the vines scrape across them and they absorb into this creature. And as these things absorb into the creature, it begins to grow more parts of it. More mushrooms kind of sprout out and it raises its vines up again as if it's ready to attack. But it goes to Gwendolyn's turn at this point.
00:05:42
Speaker
Uh, yes. I didn't think it would be something this big, and Gwyndolin's gonna cast out Faerie Fire. Okay, cool. This creature. Cool. Faerie Fire, that's a deck save, no? Correct.
00:05:58
Speaker
Yeah, so you cast Faerie Fire, this big cube. It actually, this creature is larger than this cube of Faerie Fire. I'll make the deck save, but I'll roll it. This thing's planted in the ground and therefore, let's see here. Yeah, does a 10 save? It does not.
00:06:20
Speaker
Yeah, so as it subtracted to get down to a 10, it definitely gets this, what color is the light that surrounds this thing? Oh, I'm going to say blue.
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, this blue light begins to pulsate around this creature, and it doesn't land on anything else because this creature, the 20 foot is, it's only, if it hit this creature in the center, then it doesn't even cover the whole thing, but you definitely have this pulsing light. And so now anybody, it sheds dim light, so any attack rolls against it have advantage if you can see it, which you can. It's the biggest thing in the room.
00:07:03
Speaker
So what's next Gwen? I believe that is it for right now.

Zombie Ambush

00:07:07
Speaker
I want to keep my distance also. Okay, so after you do that this creature is going to take a legendary action.
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah, I love to hear it. You really do. You just here. Oh, legendary action. I'm not scared. And all these mushrooms again begin to release these spores. These spores just emerge. And let me see who's in range of this. Yep. Definitely all of you. Well, no, I think Davin's out of range. Let me see. Let me see. Let me see. Let me see. Let me see. I don't know how I even moved over.
00:07:45
Speaker
Nope, you're still 10 feet. So this whole room fills with this and there's only a few pockets where it's not there, but these spores are there. I need everyone to make a constitution saving throw. Oh, I got this. I got this. He did not have this. Oh no. Narrator. I got a 10.
00:08:11
Speaker
Okay. I got an eight. I have a twelve. Okay. Fifteen. Okay. Even number, even number, even number. God. All of you begin to see things and get confused and just you can't remember what you're here to do and you get confused and you are all
00:08:33
Speaker
Uh, stunned for this round. And so as you are stunned, we go down to the creature's turn. Actually, no, at your turn, you get to make a saving throw. So as I'm stunned, I'm going to think because you can't stop this brain. I'm going to say, guys, this is she. Nobody hears him think that great.
00:08:57
Speaker
By the way, you no longer hear each other's thoughts. Thoughts are done, okay. And Joxer, that was after Gwyn's turn. So Joxer, you are the first one to make another saving throw. Okay, that's a 19 plus four, so 23. You gather yourself, you clear your head, and you remember what you're here to do, but it's taking you that whole turn to do it. So that's the end of, it happens at the end of your turn.
00:09:26
Speaker
Yeah, so that now goes to Davin, you make another saving throw. Sure, I can do that. Uh, that's a natural one. Well, yeah, you're gonna fail and you continue to be stunned as we go to Kriggs, you can make another saving throw. Oh, right. That's a two.
00:09:41
Speaker
Also stunned, dang. You don't add anything to Constitution? I mean, I do, but it's not going to matter. It's like... Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. I get plus three to Khan or something, plus four maybe, but a 10 failed, so I don't hear it. How about... Oh no, that takes us now to her turn. She is going to do a vine attack and flail. All these vines suddenly rise up and just flail around almost without any, almost without any, like,
00:10:11
Speaker
and it looks like Davin and Gwyn are both in range of a set of, oh no, you're all in range of a set of vines as they swing around. The vines attack with an 11, does that hit anybody? No. Hard nobody. So I didn't think so, I didn't think so. Okay. I'm gonna take the advantage of this moment to say a no. And so the second vine attack comes to per turn, per action.
00:10:40
Speaker
And that's a nat one as the vines- So she heard her, she wrapped herself up in vines, right? So the vines, the vines flail around and we win. We did this. So as the vines flail around, yeah, they definitely don't hit anybody. And so you guys are all free from any damage from this attack that she made with these vines. But that takes us to the top of the round and back to a d4 to see what happens next.
00:11:12
Speaker
and nothing happens next. So that takes us to Gwendolyn's

Joxer's Strategic Assault

00:11:17
Speaker
turn. You're able to make another constitution saving throw. Let me get on my page real quick. Cause I know what I'm going to do if I'm not stunned. Well, it's at the end of your turn, so.
00:11:29
Speaker
12 plus 4. That is what you needed, a 16. That is what you needed. So you are now not stunned, but we now go to Joxer's turn and you actually get to use your turn. Oh, that's fun. So I have actions now? Yeah, you get to do stuff. Oh goodness, what do I do with actions?
00:11:50
Speaker
I guess what I was gonna do last round was kind of extend my hand a little bit and and you'll see another hand just kind of pop up and spell slots will appear and He's gonna crawl up and and kind of Hide away in the like on my neck and I have to roll an initiative for him Okay
00:12:12
Speaker
and that is oh does he have we're gonna all right so that's gonna be a 16 for him and then i guess oh man
00:12:28
Speaker
I'm gonna at least try to move I'm gonna try to move away from everybody okay get some distance here I don't know maybe a little to the you know Northwest 20 you know 10 to 20 feet yep so at least I'm not like within tendril range of everybody yep
00:12:50
Speaker
Okay, so you move over to the left about 20 feet from everybody? Yeah, and I think that's about all I can do unless I want to waste something else. And everything that we see that's kind of like on the ground that seems mushroom and plant vegetation, things weren't coming out of that, right? The spores and everything were coming out of all of that, yes. Does it look like I could maybe just punch one of those? I don't know. Why not? If you want to.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah, I'm next to one. I'm gonna attack one and see if it, like, seems to- All right, make an attack roll. Okay, we're doing this. Punching plants. Yeah, I'm just like- There's a clump of them there that look like a larger, like a pretty large clump. And yeah, and it is a... It is a green one.
00:13:45
Speaker
plus seven, plus six. What'd you roll? Thirteen. Yeah, that hits it. All right, so it's gonna get, this one's just a regular, so that's gonna be six magical fist damage.
00:14:06
Speaker
Alright, so you hit it and it just breaks in half and when it does these spores shoot out and you take six poison damage. As these spores, you inhale them. Okay, okay. Guys, you know, try not to disturb things too close. Alright, is that your whole turn? That is my turn.
00:14:26
Speaker
So at the end of your turn, this, the room again pulsates as all these mush, all these vines just slap all the mushrooms and the mushrooms just exude these spores again. And everybody now needs to make another constitution saving throw. Oh boy. This is a fun game. Wow. You have to pause some different dice. 10. Okay. So that is going to be 16. Oh my gosh. Six. Uh, that's going to be a big fat eight.
00:14:56
Speaker
Okay, so, Joxer, you were the only one that rolled a better than a 16? Yeah. I'm gonna lie next time. So, Joxer, you take 5 damage, everyone else takes 10 poison damage, if you can take poison damage.
00:15:12
Speaker
Take half that yeah, you take none because you save no wait. Did you save you did not say so you take you take half the ten? That's right. Sorry. So yeah, this poison the same kind of poison that just got jocks are actually Escapes this these mushrooms and you guys breathe it all in and just feel there's a coughing and you're filled the spores growing in your in your lungs and that is one legendary action and that takes us now to
00:15:41
Speaker
Daven. I think it's spell slots. Make another save. Does he get to go? Oh, spell slots. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I got to write him down. So he's kind of hidden behind me. And since he doesn't breathe, I assume he doesn't have to do a save. Correct. So wrapped on the back of my neck, he's going to cast haste. OK. On me. So I am hasted and that will be his turn. Perfect. Spell slots, Daven and then Krigs.
00:16:11
Speaker
Right. That is correct. Okay. Okay. All right. So yeah. So that takes us to Davin's turn. Then you're, you're making your saving throw. Yes. That is better. 17. Yeah. So you were no longer stunned. That was the end of your turn though. So your next turn you have stuff to do. That takes us now to Krigs. All right. Am I still stunned or am I having to save on that? If you didn't save yet, you have to save. All right.
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, you're saved for sure. For sure. Fantastic. Alright, so now we go back to the top of the round. And again, at the top of the round, we start

Gwendolyn's Ice Storm Attack

00:16:49
Speaker
with Gwen. I thought the monster would go.
00:16:52
Speaker
Uh, she does. Okay. I was waiting for the monster to go and then I could go. I had to erase all my, I had to erase everything to change the order cause spell slots jumped in and I forgot to add her to the, to the list. She was definitely last. So, uh, so she now does two more vine attacks.
00:17:09
Speaker
The vines that are nearest, the people nearest vines are still are Daven, Krigs, and Gwyn. Joxer, you are not near a vine currently, so you don't have to worry about this, but the attack attacks everybody at the same time. The attack is a 10. Get out of here. The first one, the second one.
00:17:29
Speaker
is another 10, she's rolling very poorly to attack. So the vines are flailing around, not hitting anybody. And you could tell they're very wild in their attack. It's like she senses that somebody's in here and where everybody is, but it's like she doesn't have full control over like pinpoint targeting attacks necessarily. So that is the end of her turn, Gwyndolin, now we're at your turn.
00:17:55
Speaker
I know anything about plants. I'm going to cast Ice Storm and I'm going to center it right on this plant. What's going to happen is a hail of rock hard ice pounds to the ground in a 20 foot radius and 40 foot high cylinder. Each creature, which is going to be her, is going to take some damage. All right. No saving throw. Does not seem like it.
00:18:25
Speaker
on a failed save or half save. Oh, dexterity saving throw. Yeah, I figured, but it's not going to be, I mean, she'll do it. Natural one. Oh, not a natural one. Dirty one. Cause it's a four minus three. Um,
00:18:42
Speaker
so now i'm going to do 2d8 of bludgeoning which is six damage so six bludgeoning damage and then 46 of cold damage which is 10 more damage nice so the total was 16 16 total damage
00:19:07
Speaker
Would that make her dormant? Because this ice storm is, I'm gonna continue to do this. I mean, it doesn't seem to make her dormant, but it definitely, as she takes this damage, it definitely, you see things start to freeze up and just wither and die. And in fact, a couple vines over on the side over here that aren't necessarily near you, they start to wither and die as well as this does have a severe effect on her. Okay, cool.
00:19:34
Speaker
And so she's covered in ices and Yeah, and then after your turn is over these spores release from all over the room and you see suddenly three of these bodies That were on the floor three of these bodies Begin to rise up and stand up as and they have like
00:20:00
Speaker
this plant like mushroom and moss and stuff covering their dead bodies. There's like full one of them has a full gaping hole in the middle of it where something has ripped its insides out. But there's mushroom growing inside and it's they're just walking just towards you super zombie like and making their way towards you. And spooky. Oh, wow.
00:20:24
Speaker
Alright, so that takes us now to Joxer's turn. Okay, so I can see... So the ground that's kind of surrounding the plant monster. Yes. It just looks like a ton of spores and
00:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, surrounded by these mushrooms and spores and stuff, and now these plant zombies are there, too. Would I get the feeling that if I tried to run up there, I'd probably, you know, get hit by 800 billion poisonous, you know, explosions? After punching that one, that's a fair guess you would probably make, yeah.
00:21:01
Speaker
Well, that's exciting. That whole combat. I guess as a bonus action, I'll cast...
00:21:15
Speaker
shoot okay um so i get oh haste is kind of frustrating here i guess i'm gonna uh cast uh chill touch on okay one of those uh one of those uh i guess the one straight in front of the um plant and then
00:21:37
Speaker
or one of these little zombie guys? Yeah, the one that's like directly south of her, kind of closest to us. Shoot, I don't really get, because that's technically in action, I could move. Right now I don't really see any way or path directly to her other than going straight into explosions, right? Or, well, poison.
00:22:05
Speaker
I mean I would let you go there trying to find thin spots and make like a dexterity Saving throw on your way, but it's gonna cost you extra time so okay Okay, so I think for this round. I'm just gonna kind of survey the area maybe move just one or one Yeah, one one square closer or about five feet closer I'll cast
00:22:34
Speaker
Yeah, chill. Chill touch on one. And then for my follow up action, for my haste action, it'll be another chill touch on the probably the one. We'll start with one. So that will be OK. So 13 plus five. So 19. And so like a purple hand will kind of just grapple out of one of those
00:23:00
Speaker
mushrooms that's in the ground and try to grab onto the legs of one of those undead bodies. And it will take necrotic damage. All right. How much did you say it was? Or what was the attack roll? 19. Okay. So 14 plus five. So that's going to be five plus six. So 11.
00:23:27
Speaker
11 necrotic damage and if it attacks me it will have disadvantage until the next turn Okay, and then we'll go for I guess the other one. That's to the left there or her right ish Well that one's only a nine okay, so you
00:23:51
Speaker
So you cast it on the first one and that little hand reaches up and grabs the ankle and this necrotic energy starts to crawl up and you see the plants like on this thing start to die, but it doesn't like wither away the structure of this being as much as you would have hoped it would as the necrotic damage doesn't seem to do as much to this undead creature as it maybe would have a living creature, but it does do half damage. And so they both take some damage from that.
00:24:20
Speaker
Okay, so is that your whole turn? Did a 9 hit for that other one? Yes, it did. Oh, okay, then I didn't have damage for that one, so that is... Oh, sorry. I thought you rolled 9 damage, so I did the... Oh, no, that was a 9 for the hit, so that's... 15... or no, 13 damage for the psycho one. 13 damage? Okay, cool. So, awesome, so a total of 6 damage on it.
00:24:46
Speaker
and then I will just hang out for a minute while I'm just kind of taking a gander. Got it. Okay, and that is your whole turn. That takes us now to spell slots. And spell slots is just going to keep on the defense. Just gonna hang out, holding onto the back of my neck. All right, sounds good.
00:25:15
Speaker
All right, so cool. So that is the end of your turn and spell slots. We're now at Davens turn. All right. I'm going to move forward about 10 feet. Um, okay. And then between a couple of vines, there's an acid pit in front of you with this skeleton kind of barely dilapidated skeleton kind of laying there.
00:25:35
Speaker
Go ahead. Not the best place. We should have stayed at Wild Hill. All right. And he's going to swirl around that magical energy that swirls around his entire body, changing from fire to ice to lightning. And then he's going to use it to cast Chaos Bolt at the big, ugly, plant lady. All right. Make a attack roll on that. I will. And I get advantage, right? Because of Faerie Fire? You do. You do. You do. Yes, you do.
00:26:02
Speaker
It was better the first time, so that is 25 to hit. Oh yeah, definitely hits. Excellent. And that is 15 points of... What kind of damage is that going to be? 15 points of lightning damage.
00:26:21
Speaker
All right. And the lightning damage is also added more lightning damage. Oh, and I get a D6 of lightning damage too, right? That's right. You do. Yeah. So it's double extra lightning damage. Another one. Another one? Yeah. So the total was how much?
00:26:37
Speaker
don't remember what was your first 15 15 plus one so 16 total yeah sorry I got 73 things going on at once here all right so yeah you that lightning just kind of pulsates through and just flickers through and you see some of the the one of the shoots of of like
00:26:54
Speaker
This plant shaft coming off the edge of this creature that's kind of frozen, it actually bursts and the lightning shoots from it as it shoots out of this iced over portion of this plant and takes some damage from that. What is next for you? Is that it? Well, that worked better than I thought. I think that's the end of my turn.
00:27:16
Speaker
Yep. Okay, then that is now going to be possibly another action. What? What about me? From the, I know it's a legendary action. No! It's in between turns. You don't get to go. And another of these zombies rises. One more of these zombies.
00:27:40
Speaker
now rises up, but it looks like it's barely able to stand as it rises. And it is barely hanging on for dear life already, but it is up and headed your way. It takes about 10 feet worth of, that's not what I wanted to grab. It walks about 10 feet towards you as well. So, and then we go to Krieg's turn. All right.
00:28:07
Speaker
See, if you didn't realize Craig's has military experience. Oh, really? Oh, here we go again. Wow. Understands turning the tides of battle and understanding that you need to look at what's around you and understand
00:28:25
Speaker
what disadvantages you have. Right now, we can't really approach this enemy. We're kind of stuck between, well, a fungi and a evil plant place. So Krigs is going to put a shield on his back and leave his hammer on the ground, the head of the hammer just holding it up. It's just standing vertical and he's gonna start rubbing his hands together. And he's gonna smile and he's going to cast Conjure Animals.
00:28:55
Speaker
He is going to cast eight fey boars onto the land, and he's gonna put both his hands out as these eight spectral boars start appearing from behind him, like running from what would be the wilds. And he just says, feast! And they are gonna go around and start eating these mushrooms between us and the big plant. And I'm gonna say, team truffles, roll out!
00:29:24
Speaker
So what I see in my mind is that scene where Aragorn's running forward and all the ghosts come chasing past him, but then they stop and say, ooh, piece of candy. Ooh, piece of candy. Ooh, piece of candy. I'm going to send eight spectral boars into the land and clear a path for us between us and this big plant.
00:29:41
Speaker
Okay, they run ahead and they start gnawing on these mushrooms. As they disturb these mushrooms and start to chew and eat on them, their spores start to come up into the air and everybody make constitution saving throws for me. Well, no, not everybody, just Joxer. He's the only one close to that section. Yeah.
00:30:02
Speaker
He's like, yeah, of course me, of course. All right. You said Constitution? I did. OK, so that is actually another 16. That's 12 plus four. All right. So you save. And so I'm going to need to take a second. Gwen, can you please inform the listeners what you've now named Team Truffles?
00:30:23
Speaker
First up, we got Una, Ted, Ron, Gale, Paul, Nick, Dennis, and Lily. I don't think you guys finished as a description before those names were up there. Could you please make a constitution saving throw for each of your boar crits? Sure. Do you want me to do it in a group or individually? Individually. I want you to make eight of them. Sure. They have a plus one, by the way. They all have individual names. That was 1912.
00:30:50
Speaker
One fail. That's Ted fails. Ron. Sixteen. No. Ron succeeds. Gail. Fourteen. Fails. Gail fail. Eighteen or nineteen with a plus one. Succeed. Ted and Gail have failed. Paul succeeded. Sixteen with a plus one. Nick succeeded.
00:31:11
Speaker
Dennis fails. Of course he would. What a menace. Poor guy. Now I have Lily. Lily's feeling great. So, they all begin to breathe in this stuff as it flails around and they take 3d6 poison damage. What did you roll, Joxer? Uh, 16. Yeah, that's right. You said that. You're going to take half of this. So they take seven damage.
00:31:36
Speaker
By the way, I'm going to super need some fan art of me hanging out with Team Truffles, just like surrounded by my best boars. We need a Team Truffles t-shirt is what we need. Oh, done. Yeah. That was how many of them? One, two, three failures. Yeah, it's only three failures. So only three of your team are failures.
00:31:55
Speaker
Congratulations. Better than I can say for any team I've ever been on. No, that's not true. I'm just kidding. Okay. So sure enough, they are kind of clearing a path. A couple of them come up on one of those zombie guys and he's slapping down at him, but it's not his turn. So he doesn't get to do anything to him at this point. And is that everything, Krigs?
00:32:15
Speaker
Uh, I think since I didn't attack, I can't do a whole lot of stuff. Okay. That's really mostly what I can do. Give me, I think I have a bonus action I can do. One moment. Yeah, I think, I think that's going to be all I'm going to be able to do for now.
00:32:32
Speaker
Uh, I guess, no, you know what? I am going to use my movement on that turn. I'm gonna use my movement on the turn to kind of inch up behind them, staying, uh, staying distant to like the fungal spores that are being popped up, but I'm basically letting them lead me into combat. Okay. Great. Great. That's a great point. Did any of them take damage? Yeah. Three of them did. How much? Seven.
00:32:56
Speaker
That's not enough to kill them. Isn't it half? They did not die yet. Only the only the failures took

Krigs' Spectral Boars

00:33:02
Speaker
damage. Oh no, you're right. It should be half for the saves. Trying to kill your wars. They all took some damage. And now I made you do that individually. So now I have to go through and say individually for each one so I can keep track of who dead and who or who hurt, who not hurt. Thank you for adding more pieces to this battlefield. You're welcome.
00:33:23
Speaker
The DM's favorite. I will also cast Conjure Animals. I love you. I will also cast Conjure Animals. You should twin it. Oh, that'd be so mean. It's all right, man. You do you. It just means we pause more. Okay. Oh, frack. I feel like that was a pretty baller move. Yeah. I was pretty sick. I like it. You're killing a bunch of fables. Okay. Very happy. Hey! Just kidding. They're not real. They're fae.
00:33:53
Speaker
We are now, you are great at names, Gwendolyn. Thank you. All right, so it's the mother's turn. The mother now makes two vine attacks and who gets hit by the vine attacks? The boar are safe, jocks are safe, Daven Gwyn and Krigs are all not safe.
00:34:14
Speaker
We should probably like split up a little bit. So who is the literal vines on the map that didn't. Yes, they are. OK, I'm an idiot. What? I'm probably moved at least to here behind my boar. So am I still in range? Yes, that scared me. All right. That's neat. That was only a 12. I didn't get it.
00:34:35
Speaker
This one, unnatural 20. Finally, finally. So, so it's 17 bludgeoning damage. No, 17 bludgeoning damage. I got to write this down any calculator plus 16 plus 20 to have to take some pain here.
00:35:00
Speaker
So 39 total damage. You take 22 acid damage. Is acid poison? And you take, no, and you take, it's like topical burning, not like ingesting and hurting you. And you take, as these things have been like flailing around in this, these acid pools around here, they're now covered in this acid. So it gets stuck on your body and you take a total of 39 damage, 22 acid, 17 bludgeoning from getting whacked around by these vines.
00:35:32
Speaker
Is that all you've taken? Is that all the damage I've taken? Yeah Well, I guess you guys can keep track if you want to change it on the token. Oh, yeah, you have good
00:35:43
Speaker
Okay, Daven, did you change it on your token on Roll20? Oh, okay, there it is. Yep. All right, I just did. Okay, Daven. I have a weak little boy, okay? Daven's feeling mighty low. All right, so that takes us now to these zombies, which this one's gonna come up here in the middle of these boar, and he's gonna attack one of them, and... He's gonna miss. I won't leave him at suspense. I have 12 hit points left. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my gosh.
00:36:11
Speaker
This other zombie gets down here with Joxer makes an attack roll. And he will have disadvantage. He will because of your what? Chill touch. When he got hit by my chill touch, he gets disadvantage against me. Okay, so he rolled a... Sorry, the zombie didn't have... Okay.
00:36:36
Speaker
It is. Oh, no, it's not. Fourteen doesn't hit you. Is it a 22? I rolled a 14. So it's a... No, no. Yeah, that missed us. A 22 to hit you, huh? Haste plus Mage Armor plus things. Gotcha. That's cool. Great. Good for you. All right. And so now this other zombie that's over here to the far left starts coming down, gets right up next to Krigs, but he's used all of his time. He can't do anything.
00:37:05
Speaker
This other one, same thing, this near Joxer, but he can't do anything to him yet. And so we got one, we got a zombie fighting boars. We got zombies face to face with Krigs and Joxer and one behind Joxer. And yeah, so that is the end of that round. We are now going to see what happens at the top of the round here this time.
00:37:28
Speaker
Oh man, the flailing of the vines kind of picks up again, and some of these spores shoot out of these mushrooms that are floating around the room, or sitting around the room, and the spores, this creature opens its mouth and begins to absorb all these spores that come towards it, and you see this...
00:37:51
Speaker
As it does, these new sprouts start to grow and replace some of the ones that had been blown off with lightning or frozen off with frozen ice. And it starts to kind of regenerate a little bit from the spores that erupted in this room. And that takes us to Gwyn's turn.
00:38:15
Speaker
David, are you okay? I run over and use a charge of my staff, my healing staff, and I cast Cure Wounds at level three. I will gladly take it. All right, Gwen, go ahead and roll the healing for David. Heal me, please.
00:38:46
Speaker
All right. One plus eight plus seven. So 16 plus four. Twenty. Twenty hit points for you. Wait. One of these dice I used, Daven's Thingies. Yeah. Yeah. You had to use his, what was it called? I have empowered healing. I can use one sorcery point to have somebody reroll healing the dice. Boy, that's convenient being the squishy guy. Yeah. All right. So that will
00:39:15
Speaker
That's Gwen, is that your whole turn, healing him? Or is there something else? Yeah, I believe so. That'll be it. All right, so at the end of your turn, we go to Joxerstern. All right, so I am next to two zombies, and you said the majority of those spores came back up already?
00:39:34
Speaker
The majority of what? Spores? The spores that were surrounding her. Oh no, was it just the spores on the onchi? The mushroom, yeah, the ones on her are what kind of started to regrow. Okay, so there's still kind of a path for me to run to? Not quite yet. The boars are working on it, but they got distracted by this poison as they started to munch on these mushrooms.
00:39:58
Speaker
All right, so I will start with, as a bonus action, I'm going to bring out a Shadow Blade, and then I guess I'm going to attack the zombie to my right that tried to attack me already, and I'm going to hit him twice. Let me just roll these two down. So that's a nat one. Would you say it's dim light in here?
00:40:23
Speaker
No, it's better than dim light. With all these glowing creatures and the fairy fire adding more glow to the world. Just make a check. The other one is a 14 plus things. That's for sure. You're going for eight with these zombie guys. Oh, actually. My bonus is a plus eight, so a one plus eight.
00:40:50
Speaker
A natural one in an attack is a crit failure. OK. Just make a trick. Nice try, though. Yeah. So then I'm going to do the shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh
00:41:06
Speaker
And so 7 5 and 5 so 17 plus 4 17 plus 4 is 21 so that'll take 21 damage Shadow or psychic that's that's what it needed so it falls down dead and I had to make a constitution saving throw real quick for it and
00:41:27
Speaker
Oh, and as it starts to fall, it falls down to its knees and kind of slumps over like it's dead and then it rises back up. From that point then, just being slightly annoyed, I'll use a key point and then I'm going to punch it in the face and then probably aim at the next one in the face.
00:41:49
Speaker
All right. Make your attack roll to punch it again. Yeah. So that, okay. So bowl, that's a 16 punch. Yeah. 16 plus seven and a 15 plus seven. So yeah, you hit.
00:42:03
Speaker
You hit it and you're it's at one hit point left. Yeah. So you smack it and you lean back and smack it hard and it flies back into that acid pit that's behind it. It just starts to boil away the whatever was left of it. And then you want to use that second attack on the other one. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Roll your damage on that one. All right. So that's going to be five plus three. So eight.
00:42:28
Speaker
8 unarmed damage, or actually magical, and then I'm not going to move this round. I'll take my second attack round for haste, and then I guess I'll use my Shadow Blade, or no, I'll use my Shadow Blade for 1 attack, and that is a nat 20.
00:42:55
Speaker
that'll do her all right so that'll be where's my D D D D D there's so that's a seven three and five
00:43:08
Speaker
seven three so 15 times so many dice 30 damage uh 30 plus uh four so 34 damage it's got 14 hit points left so you you start to swing at this thing and you just go full on like monk combinations and just
00:43:27
Speaker
and you realize that two of your punches that you lifted up uh literally kept this thing from falling as it was already dead until finally you just give it a big punch in the face collapse its whole face in and it falls backwards on some of those spores poofing up these spores in front of you but not on to you so don't worry about that and so yeah you've killed this other zombie as well and is that your whole turn now so not quite so i'm uh
00:43:56
Speaker
I thought it might not be. So for the second actual attack, I'm just going to take the shadow blade and I'm going to toss it at the big plant. Yeah. Okay. Make a ranged attack roll with that thing. All right. Still fairy fire. So I assume an advantage. Yeah.
00:44:17
Speaker
So that is a not that one. So two is not good. So 10 plus eight to be 18. Yeah, that hits for sure. So the sword pierces this creature. How much damage? 3d8. It's going to be that's really good. So 13 plus.
00:44:38
Speaker
So 18 psychic damage as it just lays in there and then slowly dissipates into psychic damage. So as the thing goes inside of it, it it kind of the thing just kind of vibrates in and pulsates with this this damage that's echoing inside of it and the blade disappears and nice.

Vine Attacks on the Adventurers

00:45:02
Speaker
So why on earth? There we go. You said it was 18 damage.
00:45:07
Speaker
Yeah, perfect. So yeah, this thing, it doesn't make any noise, any sounds. In fact, it's kind of eerily quiet in here. Other than this, maybe the sounds of these hogs chewing at the mushrooms and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. That's about all you hear in a couple zombies groaning still. So yeah, is that your whole turn, Joxer? That will be my turn.
00:45:35
Speaker
Okay so at the end of your turn another legendary action is taken and it's going to just do two vine attacks this time as it's legendary action and the people in range of the vines are still the same three. They are daven and they are gwen and they are krigs. So first vine attack
00:45:56
Speaker
comes to a 22, a dirty 22 to hit all three of you. Everybody get hit by a 22, I assume. No, it doesn't hit me. The second attack. I'm kidding, it hit me. Is a 16. That doesn't though.
00:46:11
Speaker
I'm gonna cast Shield so that it doesn't hit me as a reaction. All right, so the first one hits all three. Gwen, do you get hit by the second one? Yeah. Okay, so the first one hits all three of you. It does eight bludgeoning and seven acid for a total of
00:46:30
Speaker
15 damage to each of you. The second one does seven bludgeoning and six acid for a total of 13 damage to Gwyndolin. How you doing over at Gwyn? I'm at 10 health. So the Divine's just flail out and
00:46:51
Speaker
Smack everybody the acids, you know flopping over flopping over the splashing on to you off of the off of these vines and That is we are now at Spell slots turn I think he's still just gonna hold that defense. He's just gonna hang out. Okay, and so with spell slots going we're going to go to Davin's turn and
00:47:17
Speaker
That won't hurt. I'll look over to Gwen and I'll see that she's not doing too well right now. And I'll say, it's time to return the favor. And I will reach over and I will touch her on the shoulder and I will cast Cure Wounds, but I'm going to Twin it so that I can also cast it on myself. Which takes, I'm going to do it at fourth level, so that's four Sorcery Points.
00:47:41
Speaker
Ooh, mama. So at fourth level, it's going to be pretty, pretty good. 4D8. If I have 4D8. You can also roll 2D8 twice if you need to. I did. I'm just kidding. Thanks for letting me know. Can I do this thing more than once? Only once a day. My special other thing in power.
00:48:11
Speaker
Doesn't say so I suppose that I can do it anytime I want that there's healing within five feet of me. I Guess so. So I'm gonna spend another sorcery point and reroll two of those and That is much better. So that is going to be 27 healing to you and to me. Oh my gosh Trying to outdo her healing to you aren't you? Yeah, I mean I had to do something we're both really really low
00:48:39
Speaker
That helps me brings me back up. I'm at 44 y'all. I'm basically full 44 of 61 40 61 and Do I have any sort of bonus action or is that all I can do? That is pretty much it. I would recommend moving as a medic gamer. I will
00:48:59
Speaker
I'm not even saying it together too long. I was trying to say near her so that the healing would be extra powered, but at this point it's not really working all that well. I'm going to use a bonus action to convert some spell slots, first level spell slot to two more sorcery points because I'm using the crap out of those already.
00:49:18
Speaker
And then I will move, I'm going to run away from her. I'll say, okay, there you go, goodbye. And then, shoot, if I move to my left, I think no matter where I am, I'm at least within 10 feet of one of these dang things, huh? Yeah, it looks like it. It looks like the,
00:49:39
Speaker
Uh, you're 15 feet from one, but you're 10 feet from one. Yeah. Okay. So as long as I'm not within the range of like all of them, gotcha. So that way we're a little bit better off. Okay. And that would be my turn. All right. So that is going to end Devin's turn. So we are now at Craig's turn.
00:49:57
Speaker
So what are the mushrooms currently look like in the path between me and this big plant creature? How have the boars done? They've done good. They're slowing down. They're questioning after the way the first little bit of eating these things made them feel. But they are still going because they've been given a task. They're conjured and given a task. And they're fake creatures. They're not exactly like super living. They're spirits that
00:50:24
Speaker
So they're not continuing these things. They're continuing to too much, but they're about halfway. OK. I'm going to use a free action, talking free action to Devon and Gwen and just say, get away from those vines and to the boars. I'm going to command make a path for me and I'm going to hold my turn until their turn is done as seeing how far they can possibly get to this thing.
00:50:53
Speaker
OK, cool. So go ahead and make Constitution saving throws again for all eight of these guys. Here we go. I'm going to say right now you need they'll be done at the end of this round if if four of them are still alive after this.
00:51:11
Speaker
Okay. Well, that was a five. So, uh, the first one was the first more first bore is Oona fails fails. Uh, 15, uh, the 15 fails. Rough.
00:51:29
Speaker
So Ted, Ted fails 16 succeeds. That is what you need. So Ron, Ron fails 19 succeeds, which was Gail who succeeds Paul. Uh, 19 again, all succeeds. Nick eight fails. Nick fails. Dennis 18, 18 succeeds. Lily.
00:51:57
Speaker
16, 16 succeeds. So that was it. Una Ted and Nick failed. So three out of eight failed.
00:52:07
Speaker
So that's seven damage to those who failed and three to those who succeeded. So Ted's the only one who completely failed and died. I would like to make it known though that when Ted died, it looked kind of like if you take a drop of colored liquid and dump it, a single drop into water, how that kind of like sploosh out effect
00:52:34
Speaker
uh the body of the boar kind of had that liquid appearance of vapor kind of splooshing out and this little like ethereal spirit thing kind of flew up and then flew out of the room super fast off into the wilds wherever it came from.
00:52:50
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. So these things have made their way around. They actually one of them spears this zombie in the kneecaps and knocks it down. It falls and dies. And they've now cleared a bit of about a five foot wide path for you to walk up. If you'd like. You do have a zombie right there next to you, though. That's fine. I can opportunity attack me. I don't care. OK. I'm going to march directly into striking distance of this big creature.
00:53:18
Speaker
OK, so you walk right up to it and you're able to kind of dodge any any of these mushrooms that are around you, avoiding any kind of disturbance of them. So what do you do now? Oh, and there I am going to make this attack. Yeah, you know, zombie for the zombie. It is a plus three to hit. Yeah, it's a 14. So.
00:53:42
Speaker
Oh, it swipes at you. Hey, hey, hey, DM. Yeah. 14 doesn't hit. It didn't hit. Just so you know. All right. So that is, is that your old turn? What are you, you got to, you got to action. I got actions, buddy. Do it. Uh, I'm going to have my shield just on my back. Like there's no point for me to hold it. And I'm taking my hammer in both hands.
00:54:03
Speaker
I am just wearing back because this thing is this plant is huge. There's not anything specifically that looks like I'm not aiming for anything. It's just this big strike and do as much damage as you possibly can kind of thing.
00:54:19
Speaker
So I'm going to two-handed attack, kind of at a diagonal swing, just taking as much of the plant fiber out as I can. I'm going to swing my first attack at this giant plant. All right, make that attack roll. Wow, so 17 plus... It hits. Six, it definitely hits.
00:54:41
Speaker
Yeah, you're going for 15 here. This thing's big and obvious. It's very easy. You got to just get through the little bit of thick plant flesh. Other than that, it's no big deal. Sick. And that will be a 1D10 plus 8, which I can never find, as our new friend in Discord like to point out.
00:55:01
Speaker
Thank you, Corey, for informing me that I can never find my DTN, which I'm struggling to. I found it. OK. Is it the one with the 10 on it? There's a zero on it, which is confusing. Yeah, that's why it's confusing to me. I'm like, look at a zero dice. Anyway, that's a nine plus eight bludgeoning. So that is 17 damage on that first attack. And buddy, is this thing just straight natural? It's not any kind of demonic or anything.
00:55:29
Speaker
Seems to be very natural as far as you know. I will say though, when you hit it and you do this damage to it, these spores just blast out of the wound. Sick. And you absorb the make a constitution saving throw. All right. Stop breathing. That's an 18.
00:55:49
Speaker
You succeed. You feel it start to make you feel loopy and kind of strange and like you're exhausted and can't move anymore, but you shake it off and you can make your second attack. On that first attack, it was 17 damage. I'm going to cast the Divine Smite into it as well. I'm going to do it at a second level, which will be 3d8. Okay. One second.
00:56:17
Speaker
An extra eight damage, so blanking on math. Oh, 25 total damage in the first attack. Second attack. Nice, real nice.
00:56:30
Speaker
I'm going to kind of hit that X pattern. I'm just trying to get as much, as deep into this plane as I possibly can to expose any kind of weak points. So I'm doing my first one. I came to swing from the like a diagonal top right to bottom left. And now I'm doing the X pattern and I'm doing top left to bottom right. Just doing a full, full swing straight down. Oh, that's a 19 plus. Yeah, that hits. Yeah, that's gonna hit. Yeah, you bet.
00:56:58
Speaker
And then for damage a plus eight 16. I'm going to add smite to that one as well. Great. So 16 and a second level doing some damage trying to do as much as I can, man. Just had to get up to the thing. Uh, 14 added to that. Awesome. So 30 total damage on that.
00:57:21
Speaker
Yeah, so a total of 55 damage on this turn. Well done, my friend. Very well done. I ain't done, buddy. Yeah, thus far then, I guess.
00:57:29
Speaker
I'm going to channel divinity

Giant Mushrooms Enter the Fray

00:57:30
Speaker
feral slaughter. Which is that a bonus action or bonus action as a bonus action. I can can channel the rebuking spirits of the wild land to repel trespassers on the bonus action. You can make a melee weapon attack. If you hit, you may make another attack. These attacks must all target the same creature and number of attacks made as a part of the bonus action cannot exceed one. OK, so I am attacking with feral slaughter.
00:57:58
Speaker
And that is a 17 plus my- For sure hits, for sure, for sure, for sure. And then let's just do this. I'm not gonna smite on this one because rough. I'm losing spell slots quick. 16 damage on that one. And since I hit it, the bonus of
00:58:23
Speaker
Yeah, I guess that's it. If you hit, you may make another attack. So yeah, I get to make another four total attacks. It's like you have haste. Feels that way. Uh, that one is a four 13 plus eight hits hits. Hey Ash, how are you enjoying the show? You're watching these guys. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And for my 11th attack,
00:58:50
Speaker
And that's the 14. So my bonus action was 30 extra 30 damage on top of that original. All right. All that damage just slicing through. I need you to make three constitution saving throws. Oh, boy. I think 18 is a spot 13. That's a failure. 18.
00:59:13
Speaker
him and his truffle troopers so you get that last attack in and you suddenly that last attack just spills out all of these all these spores and you inhale them and it gets you to where you're choking and you now are choking and you breathe them in and the choking stops but you look and you see
00:59:33
Speaker
You just see this creature grow and expand and it just envelops you. And it's like you're inside of this creature now. And it's you see these strange colors and weird, weird vines moving in front of your face. You're now hallucinating and incapacitated for a minute. So it cast the 1970s on me. Yeah. At the end of your turn, at the end of your next turn, you get to try again to save.
00:59:57
Speaker
All right, cool. So you are hallucinating. I'm going to make them put a marker on this that you're crazy right now. You're a crazy lady. How many? What was my total damage on that? Seventy five. Did I beat Devon yet? Yeah, for sure. I don't know that one that one fight against the Famerian. It was like 57 or something. Yeah, I basically like had to pull all my stops on that one. This fight I don't like.
01:00:22
Speaker
Okay. And so you, yeah, you're, you're completely incapacitated with this hallucinations for the whole next, for a whole minute, unless you can save at the end of your next turn. And then the creature makes these vine attack again, as it's, as it's a legendary action after your turn. So it's an attack. This one can hit Daven and Gwendolyn again and Craig's, I don't know if you're out of the range of this one or not. Nope. You're in the range. So.
01:00:51
Speaker
What? Everybody except Joxer again. All right. So, boo. I'm going to come take Joxer's butt. He's got the sweet spot. Yeah, yeah. Apparently, I randomly chose just the right spot on the map. First one's a dirty 20. Oh, my God. Total of 21 damage. 11 bludgeoning and 10 acid. That was to who? That is to all three of you.
01:01:17
Speaker
And then a 25 with 18 damage. 11 bludgeoning, seven acid. I am unconscious. Wind is unconscious. The second one was 18. The first one was how much? 21. 11 bludgeoning, 10 acid. Right.
01:01:33
Speaker
So Gwendolyn falls, Gwendolyn falls unconscious. Krigs is wounded severely. Daven is barely hanging on. And as this creature's turn comes, as that was its legendary action, its turn comes. It flails its vines around and more spores come out.
01:01:51
Speaker
And when they do, they all form around two patches of mushrooms that are these big patches ones near you jocks or ones just across the vines from you Gwendolyn. And there where those were, where those patches of vines were two of these gigantic
01:02:11
Speaker
mushroom creatures like you saw upstairs in the storage room rise up and they begin to make a move towards you as if they're going to attack. These giant, these things stand nearly nine feet tall as they stand up above you and they start to make a move towards Gwendolyn. The other one makes a move towards Joxer and that is where we will end this episode. We had trouble guys.
01:02:40
Speaker
I got a small plant but it's not a good one.
01:02:55
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on this episodic installment of The Hired Swords. If you liked our show, do us a favor and tell a friend. If you really liked our show, do us a bigger favor and tell the world. Leave a review. If you want to keep up with us and all the behind the scenes gooks and gaffs, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at The Hired Swords. Be sure to check out our merch store at thehired.store. And again, we thank you for listening.