Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to Kalerinden, the hireling chronicles.
Speaker: Kalerinden is an actual play Dungeons and Dragons podcast in which we will actually play Dungeons and Dragons as a podcast. My name is David Case LeClaire and I will be the narrator and game master for these sessions.
Speaker: Kalerinden is a world of magic and adventure, a world of ancient armories, time-worn taverns, and bygone bodegas.
Speaker: It is a world perpetually beset by the forces of chaos. But every time the darkness returns, epic heroes rise to save the realm.
Speaker: But our story is not about the epic heroes, at least not directly. Our story is about three moderately experienced adventurers that have recently left behind all of their baggage, literally.
Speaker: They were brought here specifically to carry that baggage and they just dropped it in the woods. And joining me as the Hardy hirelings, we have Beth Gleason as... Lillia Thomas and...
Speaker: My useless skill is if you give me some string. I can do one of those cat's cradle things, you know, where you fold it in your fingers and eventually it turns up into a thing that doesn't really look like a thing.
Speaker: That does sound useless. And Drew Gleason as... Tharwenius Gorf Nozzlesnot. Snot skill also with string.
Speaker: Okay. Dave Sturgis asks...
Speaker: and dave sturgis as I am playing Fredegar, the plus-sized turnip enthusiast who is both big and tall, and I would say, i don't know if it's useless, but Fred is really good at identifying seeds without a lot of context, and he likes to argue about the weather.
Speaker: I don't know if that's a skill, but he does a lot. Okay. If any of those skills become important this episode, I'll be very surprised.
Speaker: In our last episode, the hardy hirelings joined the epic heroes on an epic quest, traveling to the ruins of Mirfancia to search for the lost signet stone and a fabled magic sword.
Speaker: Having just escaped from Chakral the Withered and a Fulmorian hunting party, they have crossed into the city on the bridge of Galdor's Folly, destroying it behind them.
Speaker: As you leave behind the crumbling bridge and head through the small passageway beneath the wall, you enter the ruins of Mere Fancia. You feel a hush descend upon you.
Speaker: The sky has grown dark with threatening black clouds rumbling above, but no rain. There is a contemplative mood as you pick your way without speaking into the ruins.
Speaker: You feel the weight of ancient tragedy resting heavily upon the scorched stones. Talonvor is leading the way. says, stay close and watch your donkeys.
Speaker: Snot does not like it here. Fred is going to just double check that we only have the one donkey. Yes.
Speaker: Swift Huff is remarkably unfazed by the whole running across the bridge, carrying snot, bridge collapsing thing. She has a lot of equanimity. Swift Huff is epic donkeys.
Speaker: All right, so you move quickly past the walls into the ruins of the city. Tall stone buildings, blackened by grime and crumbling from years of neglect, to loom over the narrow streets as you travel in an uneasy quiet.
Speaker: Talonvor is leading on Freniel behind him with Topaz, and even Sharnanan doesn't seem to be up to too much mischief. They're just looking around nervously and trying to keep up with everyone.
Speaker: Snuts initially like, wow, building big. look, this building big too. But with people being silent and the atmosphere, he trails off.
Speaker: It does just seem to keep going on, doesn't it? Yeah, this is barely even scratched the surface. You could wander for days in here if you don't know where you're going. No, not one to do that.
Speaker: Were you here before Talonbor? No, no, I've never been here.
Speaker: Wow. It's not finally in Big City. Big Ruin City. Seen better days, hasn't it? I'm guessing this is kind of disturbing for Fred, who thought Mud Puddle was a big city and it's all decrepit and abandoned.
Speaker: Yeah, you you've been going for about, oh, say 30 to 40 minutes so far into the city. Covered far more ground than the entirety of Mudbuttle. And no idea how much further it goes.
Speaker: but Are there bodies around or is it just empty structures? Empty structures. Some of them seem intact and could be entered. Others have kind of broken, fallen into tumbled heaps of rock.
Speaker: The streets twist and turn in confusing ways as you move forward. You hear the occasional whisper of wind rushing through the ruins. Ahead of you, you see that the street opens up into a large square dotted with rubble.
Speaker: Many of the buildings around the square appear to have been shops of some kind. Most have been reduced to decrepit walls covered in leafy vines, although a few seem intact.
Speaker: Streets and alleys wander off from this square in all directions. At the entrance, there is a decorative archway across the road. Carved into it are the words, New Market.
Speaker: Talonvor looks around and nods. Yes. Oh. Yes. Well, I'm lost.
Speaker: Fred is sort of looking around in horror at the endless streets. ah did you Did you say that we're we're lost? You're lost? Well, Anferniel, can you guide us to that, the Avenue of the Bright Kings, I think it was called?
Speaker: Anferniel steps to the center of the square and looks around at the broken stones in the market. She says, long has it been since I have seen these streets.
Speaker: Once the towers of the city rose gleaming white in the noonday sun, eagles circling the highest parapets, now fallen to dusk and shadow.
Speaker: Right. Talonvor looks around. So that's, so is that is that a no then? She always do that? Yeah, it's pretty powerful the course really. scratching his head and looking around, Topaz is like, all right, well, somebody do something.
Speaker: Can Snot clamber into the wreck of one of the shops? Yeah. And start rooting around in there for anything that might be interesting? Yes, make a perception check.
Speaker: Okay. 10. So Snot wanders into One of the decrepit buildings, there's a lot of broken stone. Here, the dripping of water.
Speaker: Are there any signs around? Okay, make a perception check to look for signs. Oh, that's really kind of Fred's department, isn't it?
Speaker: Lily can also do can do signs in addition to other things. Fred is more like just signs. It's exclusively signs.
Speaker: 22. Okay, that's very good. You look around and you notice that there are street signs on some of these. They're they're stone. but You don't recognize any of them. One of them says Gingham Way.
Speaker: Another one says Carriage Lane. Is there, i don't suppose, since we are in a ah big like shopping area, you know, like in the middle of the mall, they have that yeah but sign that says where like Macy's is this way.
Speaker: Yeah, you do with a... 22 is a very good roll. So in the center of the square, you do find near like a little but dry fountain, you find a stone tablet that seems to be a key to the different shops.
Speaker: But it doesn't say anything else about the city or where you go out, how to get out of the market. It just tells you what all the different shops are. There's like a... See, there's a music shop. There's a any armor or potion or weapon or anything like that?
Speaker: Yeah, there is a ah shop on the map that has like symbols that indicate that it's some kind of armory. It's right in this square area, so you could take a look at that if you wanted to.
Speaker: Sure, let's go look. Okay. And this place has been like kind of abandoned and stuck in time for decades, right? Yes. So is there a Suncoast video?
Speaker: So but what is Fred doing while the other two are investigating? Fred is trying to see if there's if anything that he could potentially climb up to get a better view around. That's a great idea, too.
Speaker: You could definitely climb up, but it's going to be a dexterity acrobatics check. Oh, dear. Try and climb up and get a better view.
Speaker: That is a 9, so we're looking at an 11. 11. Okay. That's not so good. So, so far in your attempts to find a way out of the square, you've had one very good success and two failures.
Speaker: I wasn't trying to find a way out. I was just trying to find an object or something of interest. Yeah, I know. Okay. But you still fail.
Speaker: Although you can make another perception check. Okay. Fifteen.
Speaker: Fifteen. Okay. So, Fred, you're trying to climb up on one of the ruined buildings. You you pick one that seems a little easier to climb. Yeah, was trying to get a better vantage point. Okay.
Speaker: Not that he knows what he's looking for or anything, but just figured this might help. Yeah, it's a great idea. But 11 is... You're having trouble climbing up, but you you're starting to get make some progress. You're able to get some good footholds on the rubble, and you're heading up.
Speaker: Meanwhile, the snot. You see anything particularly interesting, but you smell something very interesting. There is a type of delectable mushroom that grows in damp areas called the Frelge sweet blooms.
Speaker: And you can smell them here. They're a delicacy in mossy hollow. And it seems to be coming from the back of the building somewhere. Oh, Snot is just going to scamper off in that direction without informing anyone why he's doing that and follow his it's very good nose to find some of these delectable mushrooms.
Speaker: Yeah, so your nose is twitching and it's getting stronger, the scent, as you get back there. You can definitely see towards the back of the shop, there's kind of a dark corner under some rocks and you can see a bit of water under there and there's definitely some mushrooms under there. You can maybe reach your hand in and get them out.
Speaker: Perfect for mushroom. Yeah, Snot is going to open his pack up next to him, lie in his belly, uh, and, uh, with the, with the open bag and, and start just, just reaching in and grabbing mushrooms to, to shuffle back into the sack.
Speaker: Why don't you make a sleight of hand check to see how many you can grab? This is second nature.
Speaker: Uh, 11. All right. Well, you do grab a handful of them. Now, as you're pulling them out, You bump against the rocks and the pile of rocks tumbles down, trapping your hand under them.
Speaker: um Meanwhile, Lilia, I guess you're going around to that armory. You find it and it's relatively intact. You can go and you can see it's, there used to be a lot of stone counters in there where they might have displayed things.
Speaker: Looks like it's been heavily picked over. lot of adventurers used to come up to these cities. And since this area is near that wall, it seems like there's nothing particularly useful. You can see a few rusty weapons in the back.
Speaker: There's like a mace. There's... Maybe a dwarven war table. A table. Well, there are tables, yes.
Speaker: Yeah. But Fred, as you're climbing up, you start to slip. You feel the rocks crumbling beneath you. Make a dex save. At least this isn't charisma-based or something.
Speaker: All right, that's a eight plus two is 10. You're grabbing out at the stones frantically as you're sliding back. You're not that high, maybe 10 feet, but you lose your balance and you fall back and a tumble of rocks come crashing down. The whole building starts to crack and fall.
Speaker: The whole wall falls inward away from you. There's a massive cloud of dust in the air around you. Talonvor's like, what's going on over there, Fred? Are you all right? i seem to have made a bit of a mess.
Speaker: As the sounds die down from the crumbling building, you hear a distant clattering noise.
Speaker: It's getting louder. The direction is hard to pinpoint as the echoes all around the square. The sounds grow and before you can react, have risen to a horrid crescendo as bones wriggle their way free from every crack and crevice around the square, tumbling down in a cascade and engulfing the area.
Speaker: As the torrent of bones sweeps towards you, they form into horrid skeletal creatures of all kinds, stumbling and clawing their way forward in a moldering flood as they attack.
Speaker: This would be horrifying to Snot if he were looking in that direction and not looking at his arm stuck under a rock. Fred is in the square with four heroes and the donkey.
Speaker: Snot is back in in the back with his arm under some bar rocks, and the skeletal horde has not found Snot. Lily, you're in a building right on the edge of the square, so you can clearly see what's happening out there.
Speaker: Was I too distracted to see Fred tumble down to earth? I think I made a loud noise, so you probably would heard that happen. Probably kind of hard to miss that. Oh, Fred. so I will run out and draw my sword and try to join up with heroes. Epic.
Speaker: Epic heroes. Yeah. So you see that Talonvor, Topaz, and Anferniel have stepped back to back in the center of the square, weapons out.
Speaker: Anferniel didn't have any weapons, but she's carrying a black sword in her hand. smoking. It's made of dark mist. Is that one of the two legendary swords of the Northern Elves?
Speaker: Is that either Humdinger or Gobsmacker? No, but I'm writing those names down. Okay. Okay. I mean, those are the names the orcs gave them. They have different names in Elvish.
Speaker: Where is Fred? Fred is about 20 feet away from them on the corner of the square where the building just collapsed. Talonvor calls out to you guys. He says, protect Swift Hoof. Hey, I'll go to Swift Hoof. Okay.
Speaker: Protect the donkey! Swift Hoof is just standing around in the middle of the square looking around with some trepidation as these skeletal monsters gather and come rushing towards everyone.
Speaker: Is Fred close enough for me to grab him and bring him to me? Fred is probably trying to get up from the stones after you fell. Yeah. So the two of you are within range, maybe 10, 15 feet of Swifthoof, and then Snot is inside a building further away.
Speaker: So we're not going to roll initiative for this. The way it's going to work is at the beginning of each round, the horde will attack everyone in the square, which does not include Snot.
Speaker: Hooray! But does include Swifthoof. Oh. It's going to be up to you guys to protect and Swift Hoof. That's your charge.
Speaker: So, as the skeletal monsters are slashing at people, they will get an attack roll. They rolled 7 plus 4. So, if you have an AC below 11, then you take damage. But I don't think anybody does except Swift Hoof.
Speaker: Swift Hoof takes 8 slashing damage. Oh, no. Which is pretty bad. Does Swift Huff cry out in a donkey-ish fashion? Yeah, it starts braying loudly and appears to be bloodied as the skeletal monsters are tearing at her fur and flesh.
Speaker: So, the heroes are battling the skeletons. Lily and Fred, you're about 15 feet away from Swift Huff. What would you like to do? Alright, assuming Fred has finished getting up we under the rubble...
Speaker: Let's say that you are getting up as this happens, so you are starting out on your feet. Okay. Fred is going to unsling the table and rise up and begin running over towards Swifthoof.
Speaker: Yeah, you can easily get to Swifthoof's side. right. and Actually, maybe I'll get to Swifthoof and then rise up because then I can roll two d six
Speaker: Nice. So that's eight. I'd like to give Swifthoof eight temporary hit points. Okay. I also gain four temporary hit points myself. Was your rising up into your Conan form table out silvery branches and leaves start appearing in your beard and so on and in Swifthoof's fur I guess?
Speaker: Yep. Yep. Yeah. Swifthoof is getting a glow up whether she wants it or not. Yeah. Okay. Great. That's your bonus action and half of your movement. Yes. And if I can take a big old swing at this horrific necromantic Lego movie that's happening in front of us, I will do that.
Speaker: Sure. All right. That is a 19. Definitely hits. Roll damage. And the table. course, I roll the one, but then I add seven to it. So that's eight points of damage. Table damage.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. Just swing your table in a wide arc. Bones are smashed, flying in all directions, but they're quickly replaced by more creatures as they pull themselves up out of every crack and crevice around you.
Speaker: Okay. Lily, what would you like to do as Fred was rushing over to Swift Hoof? I would also like to rush over to Swift Hoof, and while I'm doing that, i would like to cast Divine Favor.
Speaker: which gives me 1d4 radiant on a hit. It's a bonus action. Okay. And then I will swing my longsword at whatever Skellington is around. Yeah. 14. That hits. so ten So 10, 14.
Speaker: How much of that is radiant? 4. Okay. As you slash at the bones, it seems like your sword is not as effective as you'd like attacking skeletons. So the slashing damage is halved, but the radiant damage, very effective. There's an explosion of golden light, and they take double damage from that.
Speaker: So I think that's going to be 5 plus 8. So 13. Yeah. Okay, so you just rush over next to Fred and Swifthoof. making your own heroic trio and slash with your sword, scattering some bones, but then there's an explosion of golden light and more bones burst out the air, some of them just being completely vaporized.
Speaker: Do you want to anything else? I want to sap if anything is standing. ah Yeah, we'll say you can sap the horde, particularly with the radiant damage.
Speaker: You've intimidated the horde, so it will have disadvantage. I guess I should have asked Fred, did you want to use a weapon mastery?
Speaker: or I'm not sure if it makes a lot of sense to push the horde. I mean, there's just a lot of horde. Well, I'm going to say that using the push weapon mastery, you can knock the skeletons temporarily back from where you are.
Speaker: So you could you could clear them away from one person for the next round. I would love to clear them away from a Swift Huff. Okay. So Swift Huff will be clear. Did you guys have anything else?
Speaker: My vow of enmity, which I can't say that word. Enmity, yeah. Thank you. So I can just do it for a minute and then have advantage?
Speaker: Yeah, but it's channel divinity, which is two per long rest. And you get one back after a short rest. Yeah, I'll do it. Sure, let's do that.
Speaker: Okay. Fun stuff. So how does that look when you declare your your enmity at the horde? She'll kind of raise her sword and her shield and bash her sword against her shield and RAAAAAAAR!
Speaker: That's how you rage, Fred.
Speaker: Meanwhile, we have Snot with his hand trapped trying to get some mushrooms out from under the stones. So Snot, you hear some noise out there, but it's probably not that important. What would you like to do to try and get your hand free?
Speaker: Well, I think Snot is not really going to pay a lot of attention until he hears Swift Huff cry out in pain or Winnie out in pain or whatever. In which case, he's going to look over at the door and would he catch a glimpse of what's going on on the other side of the door Yeah, it looks kind of awful, actually. There's this flood of bones and and skeletal monsters all around rampaging all over everybody.
Speaker: And as you're looking out there, one of the skeleton monsters steps away from the horde and backs into the room that you're in. no It's like backing up, looking around. It hasn't seen you. It's just backing into the room.
Speaker: Snot is going to expend one of his uses of Wild Shape to transform himself into one of his most used forms, a Muskrat. Okay. Great.
Speaker: hoping that shrinking his arm will allow it to slip free. Absolutely. you You pop free. No, that's good. As opposed to like a muskrat 127 hours situation.
Speaker: yes Yeah, that's what I'm seeking to avoid. No. You won't get the Frelgy Sweetblooms, though. Well, but some of them are already in my pack, right? a few Yeah, yeah. You got a few of them out. Okay, and I'm leaving the pack on the ground and it wasn't on his person at the time he transformed, so I'm just lying there.
Speaker: but As soon as Snot is loose, he is going to dart over to the door, possibly go between the feet of the thing that's backing in, if he has to, and see if he can get a look at what is going on outside.
Speaker: Yeah. Bones and bones and bones. Yeah, bones and bones and bones. Make a stealth check. Oh, stealth. Okay. I'm wondering if I have to use the stats of a muskrat. I just use your own stats.
Speaker: The proportional strength and speed of a muskrat. 14. fourteen Yeah, that's good enough. The skeleton actually seems to be trying to get away from the fight.
Speaker: He's like looking around for some place to hide in the in this room. Oh, geez. And he doesn't even notice as this little muskrat, little moderately sized muskrat, goes crawling past him.
Speaker: So you get into the doorway, and you see Fred is smashing the skeletons away from Swift-Hoof. Lily is also super angry. And epic heroes are in the other side of the square, back-to-back, fighting them off.
Speaker: Ah! Snot is going to make a right-hand turn and run along the whatever's left of the front of the building and go around the corner and look for somewhere he can hide. Asimov's friend.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. Yes, not to hide, Ezra. Okay, so make a check with advantage because of Skulker. 24. Okay, yes.
Speaker: You were able to find a nice little hiding spot beneath some of these fallen stones. It looked like one of these buildings just came down for some reason. So there are a lot of really good hiding spots. You can sneak in there and you see like bones rolling past you.
Speaker: A skeletal mouse runs up to you and looks at you and then runs in the other direction. That's going to go in the missed connections section of the next newsletter. Me, out of place muskrat hiding under building. You, skeletal mouse.
Speaker: Did you have anything else? No, he's just going to watch through horrified little black eyes what is going on out there. Okay, so what's going out there is the horde is making another wave of attacks upon everybody.
Speaker: With disadvantage, they get an 11 again. The only person that they would hit is Swifthoof. Except that Fred knocked him back. They don't have a chance to attack.
Speaker: Talonvor and Topaz are holding up really well in Anfernalia. It seems like Sharnanan, they're just running around and helping. They're not really doing anything themselves.
Speaker: And a bunch of skeletons have jumped on top of Sharnanan and are trying to drag them down. Oh, no. Sharnanan's like, ah, ah, no, no, that's not okay.
Speaker: but Now I know how Snot feels. Okay. So for the three of you, let's do Fred and Lily again, since you're actively doing things to protect Swift-Huff. What would you guys like to do?
Speaker: At the start of each of my turns, while my rage is active, I can choose another creature to get grant temporary hit points to. I think that means I could also give them to Lily.
Speaker: Okay, great. And Swifthoof would still have them. Yeah.
Speaker: So two and four is six. And then Fred is going to keep just swinging that table around like he's trying to advertise for a food cart.
Speaker: Then I'm going to roll a five, which kind of stinks, but I get to add seven to that. That is not going to hit. Yeah. So you swing with table, but the skeletons have learned their lesson and they scatter, moving around you in a tide as you swing at them.
Speaker: Okay, Lily. All right, I will swing at the bone skeletons with advantage.
Speaker: That's an eight. That sucks. That's a 12 plus 4, so 16. That hits.
Speaker: 4. And the radiant, another 4. So 8 total? 8 total. Yeah. So once again, you swing and scatter a few bones with your sword, and then the burst radiant power flows into them and vaporizing some bones.
Speaker: And are you sapping the horde again? Yes. Okay, great. Okay. And do you guys want to do any movement? Just stay by Swifthoof. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker: Just keeping Swifthoof protected as you can. ah So Snot, in your muskrat form, is there anything you'd like to do this round? Seeing Swifthoof bloodied and his friends valiantly fighting to keep the bone things off them, Snot is going to come slightly out of the spot where he's hiding.
Speaker: and revert back to his goblinoid form, crouching down on the ground in a rodenty posture. And he is going to dig into his belt pouch and try to lay a finger on the... Yes, yep, that's that's what he needs. He pulls out a special seed and... Fred could identify that.
Speaker: He could, and if he could, he would know it was a moonseed leaf. which is uh okay misread it leaf is what i meant it's a leaf but it's from the moon seed tree and this leaf which was always what what snot was trying to find in there he rubs the end of his nose on it so the end of his nose is shiny with the moon seed oil and speaks some words in goblinish and unleashes The most powerful evocation he knows. Moonbeam! And a 40-foot-high cylinder ah centered on a point that does not encompass his friends.
Speaker: Okay. But get as many of the skeletons as he can manage.
Speaker: So it's a constitution saving throw for them. On a failed save, they take 2d10 radiant damage. Since it's an area of effect, what's the area?
Speaker: It is a five-foot radius. All right. So I'll say that it's going to double damage against the horde because it's covering a larger area. but Also, it's radiant damage.
Speaker: Right. They failed their con save. So go ahead and roll your 2d10, and we're going to multiply it by four. Wow. Okay. Not the best. Seven. 28.
Speaker: so twenty eight Okay. but Well, why don't you describe it? From the sky or somewhere above, a bright silvery beam comes down almost like a spotlight and lights up a group of the bone creatures as if they were going to do a tap dance routine.
Speaker: But instead, they burst into radiant flame. Yeah. And they collapse to the ground. And you've done huge amount of damage The Horde is wavering but still attacking.
Speaker: You hear Topaz call, Arr, Snort! That's incredible! Why did you do that before? and Snort swings his head over in the direction that came from and the moonbeam starts to slide over following the direction of his nose and then he snaps it back on the spot that he intended.
Speaker: Okay. Top of the round again, the Horde gets an attack with disadvantage. They don't even hit Swift, off they rolled a nine, total nine. The skeletons are so frightened of Lily that they're staying, they're like backing off and they're only tentatively attacking and the horde is easing.
Speaker: Yeah, Shardanon is still having trouble. They've just disappeared under a pile of skeletons. Oh dear. Fred and Lily, what would you like to do? And Stott, since you're in this thing now.
Speaker: Go as you please. Well, I will let the others act first. It is concerning that Sharnanon is under a pile of bones, but I think Fred is probably preoccupied with keeping them away from Swifthoof.
Speaker: So I think he is going to recklessly attack the ones that are closest to Swifthoof. Okay. And that will be... see, that's a two.
Speaker: Go ahead and... My advantage here. Seven, that's a 14 altogether. Yes, that hits. Awesome. All right. And that is a four.
Speaker: So 11 damage. Okay. That is enough. Fred gives such a massive swing with Table that he smashes into the bones and they scatter and tumble back away from you guys. It looks like the Epic Heroes have also done a lot of damage to the horde in their area.
Speaker: Bones are all falling to the ground, pulling back away from you. And for a moment, you think you will have a reprieve. Then, the remaining bones start to form together into a larger creature. Uh-oh.
Speaker: Rise up to eight-foot skeletal monstrosity. There are several of them. The Epicurus are engaging two of them. One of them is coming for Swift Hoof. Uh-oh.
Speaker: It's got four arms, and they have sharpened bones at the end swinging around, and it is running towards you guys. So I'll say it's within melee range now of where you guys are with Swift of, but Snot and Lily, you can still have your turn.
Speaker: Okay. Well, I'll try to hit it. Pretend it's a tree. ah Fifty. Okay, that hits. Okay, that hits. Still the same with a half damage on slashing, but a double on radiant.
Speaker: Slashing was five. So three. And radiant, four. Okay. And I'm going to stab it. All right. So you come in swinging with your sword and you do hit it, but don't seem to do a lot of damage. The radiant hurts it, but not as...
Speaker: all that badly, but you are distracting it and causing it to lose focus on what it's attacking. Snot, what would you like to do? Snot is going to deliberately turn his head, like move his head to align the beam as best he can with this giant new target while he's trying not to sweep it over ah any of his allies in doing this.
Speaker: okay I like to think that it makes kind of a zigzag pattern across the square. Yeah. Like everywhere it goes, like discarded bones, like burst into flame. It's just like this trail of like silver fire as you're like sweeping it around. i was sort of picturing an orbital laser. Yeah. and You direct it onto the skeletal monstrosity.
Speaker: So the Skeleton, since it's not a horde, will only take one damage, but they failed their con save. So they will take full 2d10 Radiant times two. Okay.
Speaker: Better rolls this time. 19 times two is 38. wow Yeah, it does not like this. As you sweep the beam on top of it, its arms burst into silver flames. They're just racing across its body and screaming.
Speaker: It would be bloodied if it had blood. It'd be muddied if it had blood. But it doesn't.
Speaker: So, skeletal monstrosity, it is going to attack Lily with disadvantage. Double fives. That's going to be a 11 to hit.
Speaker: Miss. All right. So as you're distracting it with your sword attacks, even though you didn't damage it that badly, certainly not as badly as Snot, it flails at you with his burning arms and cannot get around your shield.
Speaker: Not even close. It's going to take a second attack at you. Also failed, double twos. So, yeah, it's just scrabbling at your shield, but not making any progress.
Speaker: Is Chardonon still under a pile of bone creatures, or did they get sucked up into one of the big things? No. Chardonon is lying limp now on the ground, but the bones were all pulled up into what one of the monstrosity that Talonvor, Anferniel, and Topaz are fighting.
Speaker: Oh, lazy halfling. And it looks like... Topaz has actually been hit really hard by the monstrosity and knocked backwards a few feet, knocked prone. She seems okay.
Speaker: She's staggering back up to her feet. She's like, hi, give me another one. One other thing, the monstrosity moves out of this the beam so it doesn't take the hit at the end of its turn.
Speaker: So it's just shuffling around to the other side of leap. But I don't think, now that I'm thinking about the square, it can't move without getting an opportunity attack from one of you. So I think it's going to try to move around to the other side of Lily, but that's going to give Fred an opportunity attack on it, if you choose.
Speaker: ah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: That's a one. unless its AC is eight, then I miss. So you've swung at it with table, but it has stepped out of your range.
Speaker: Okay, but now it is the three of you's turn again. So Sharnanan is lying limp. Topaz has been knocked down. Talon, Voron, Onferennial are fine. The skeleton has moved that's fighting Fred, Lily, and Swifthoof has moved out of the Moonbeam, not very far, and it's still engaging Lily.
Speaker: So Fred, you're now 10 feet away from the monstrosity. All right. Fred is going to move up and maybe make a regular non-reckless attack.
Speaker: Is a six, so it's 13. That hits. Nice. Not hard to hit this thing. It's huge. Yeah.
Speaker: So it's a 14 damage. Oh. It is stumbling very badly as you hit it. Are you doing anything with it? Pushing? I would love to push it away from Swift Hoof if I can.
Speaker: So you hit it. You just walk up behind it, chair to the back.
Speaker: rope. yeah And smash it 10 feet forward. It stumbles away from you, and lot of its bones have fallen to the ground. One of its, I would say three of its arms are now gone, and it's turning back to you with rage.
Speaker: Can I get to it without moonbeaming myself? Yeah, you can move around the moonbeam. It's no trouble. Okay, I will try to hit it.
Speaker: Not like that, I won't. Never mind. So it is not sapped because I did not hit it. All right. So you're still battling with it, but you can't get ah good angle to smack its bones.
Speaker: And Snot, it is now your turn. Snot is going to perhaps overconfidently step forward from where he had tucked around the side of the building when he was hiding. So he's in full view of the square.
Speaker: and continue to try to hold this monstrosity in the light of the moon as it first lunges forward and then is battered backward by Fred's attack.
Speaker: Yeah. Snott's going to continue trying to burn it. ah Okay. so Constitution save... 12.
Speaker: That fails. That does. So, 2d10 times 2. Good this time as well. 15 times 2 is 30. Okay.
Speaker: It just bursts into flame. Bones burning with a silvery fire goes exploding around the square, tumbling to the ground as you have completely destroyed this beast.
Speaker: Snot is jumping from foot to foot and clapping his hands together, which is making the moonbeam kind of wiggle distressingly, but he's very excited about this.
Speaker: Yeah, Swift of his backing away from the the moonbeam a little nervously. On the other side, Topaz has gotten back up. She's charged one of the skeletal monstrosities, has just hurled herself at it, smashed it to the ground.
Speaker: She's just hitting it over and over again with her axe. And some black bones fly off of it. And she's like, that one. I'd take it another one. Oh, I'd take another one. stop hitting yourself. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah.
Speaker: Talonvor and Anferniel have defeated the other one. You see Anferniel drops down to her knees and slashes with the black blade cutting away one of its legs while Talonvor kind of knocks it to the side and then Anferniel swings back with her sword taking off its skeletal head and it crumples to the ground.
Speaker: Talonvor looks at you guys and says, excellent look. Well, Swiftwick doesn't look great. Does anybody have any idea how we can get out of here? Snot is trying to lick away in a controlled fashion to draw the moonbeam away from the group.
Speaker: How long does it last for? and It's concentration up to a minute, but it hasn't kind of clicked for him that he can he can shut it off. So he's just trying to keep it away from friendly people. Yeah. And yeah, that's going to fully occupy him at the moment.
Speaker: Okay. Everybody's regrouping. Topaz has picked up Sharnanan and dusted off their face. It looks like they have a lot of cuts across their face and their clothes look a little ragged, but they're awake oh and and conscious. They're like, oh, ah, it's okay. It's just a flesh wound.
Speaker: And everybody's gathering up around Swift Huff. Talonvor's looking around nervously. What if they come back? We've got to make a move. Snot is backing towards the group now, so that the Moonbeam is, like, away. Okay. He's kind of walking backwards.
Speaker: Then after a moment, he blinks a couple times and it sputters out. ah Talivore pats Snot on the shoulder. like, excellent work, Snot.
Speaker: Really saved Swift with that. Snot is quite the wizard. You see? Snot is shaking his head from side to side. His eyes, which are generally more accustomed to darkness, are very blurry and overwhelmed by the the brightness that they're looking at.
Speaker: oh yeah. Ah, bone guy's dead. I mean, gone, right? For now. We don't know how long we have. Mushrooms!
Speaker: Snot is going to run back to the building where he left his sack and the mushrooms. Yeah, they're they're still there. Okay, he's not going to go after the ones that are probably just underneath rocks now at this point, but he's just going to scoop his his s sack up.
Speaker: Yeah, you've got your Frelgy Sweet Bloom bag, so yes good there. Outside, Topaz has laid hands on the donkey, and she heals it back to full.
Speaker: So Swift Tooth is covered. Sharnanana's like, oh, to me, to me. Is Sharon and On the only one that is also hurt? Yes. Fred is going to look around for a non-collapsed building he could maybe climb up.
Speaker: Okay, yeah, there are plenty of buildings or around. You could maybe try to find that's a little more sturdy. So go ahead and make another dex acrobatics check. If only Fred could climb these in a more athletic way. This would be easier.
Speaker: Ooh, 17, so 19. Okay, yeah, that's actually great. So you climb up the building, and you're able to, you're a little more careful this time, you're able to find good footholds, you climb up to the top. it's It's not really a building, there's no roof, there's just ah a ruined wall, but you can get up on top of the wall, and sort of lever yourself up, and look out across the area.
Speaker: There is like a maze of buildings around you, and roads. But you can see from here, looking way to the south, you can see the what you think is that main road that they talked about, the Avenue of Bright Kings.
Speaker: You can see what general direction it is. looks like there's a massive wilderness area, like a park in between you. But you can see just at least the general direction that you would go in.
Speaker: I suppose if the Foamworks had made it into the city now, and were trying to locate us, we might have just given a very visible signal of our location. You mean the giant spotlight?
Speaker: Yeah, the beam of light coming down from the sky. All right, so Fred, you have a general idea of the direction to go, although you don't wouldn't know the exact street intersections.
Speaker: Yeah, I think Fred, while he is still up there, is going to try to gesture in that general direction. Talonvor is watching, he's like, all right, i think we know the general way. In the square, you hear a clattering sound.
Speaker: Oh no.
Speaker: Aunt Ferene, I was looking around. We have to go now, quickly. Talonvor's like, well, we don't know. Well, Fred's pointed us in the right direction. That's the best we can do. Come on, everybody, let's move.
Speaker: He just randomly starts running towards one of the streets heading in the direction that Fred pointed. Snot runs out of the building to catch up with the others. Fred's going to clamber down and try to keep up.
Speaker: Okay. And Lily, you're moving along as well. I'm moving along as well. Darn it, guy. You see magic? I did. That was that was something. It's not as big as magic.
Speaker: So your your nose does that? ah Secret.
Speaker: So we'll say Swiftoff is with you. You're not fully sprinting, but you're moving at a fast speed through streets. Talonvor seems to be choosing streets relatively randomly, but trying to stay in the same direction that Fred pointed.
Speaker: Ahead of you, the streets twist, turn. They get very narrow, but Talonvor is just like, keep going, keep going. You hear the clattering sound rising behind you.
Speaker: It's growing. It's like um It's like somebody dropped a xylophone in a hailstorm and is... It's very relatable comparison I'm sure we've all encountered. As long as it's not our marimba.
Speaker: Did Snot want to do something? He's just urging Swift to go quickly because of the sound coming from behind. He's kind of pushing on its haunches. and Okay. Go, go, hurry, hurry.
Speaker: You're going through the streets as fast as you can.
Speaker: And behind you, the clattering grows, and you see it's like a tide of bones. This time, instead of attacking as a horde, they form up into creature, but not just a monstrosity like before. They form like a giant. All these bones coming out of all the buildings, pouring out of the windows and the doorways, form up into this huge creature made of bones. It's got like heads all over it and arms sticking out, multiple legs in the wrong places.
Speaker: ah and it's stumbling through the streets behind you shoving buildings aside they're collapsing into dust goodness and it is catching on you talonvor says i think i see something ahead i see something behind us on freniel looks back and she says keep going i will delay talonvor i'll find you when i can She steps back behind you. She holds out her hand, and you see black mist swirling around her hand, forms into the form of a long blade, and she steps forward as Giant rushes at her.
Speaker: Talonvor's saying, no, just keep going. Keep going. Don't look back. It's not, cannot help but look back at this horrifying thing. You see creature has pulled fist down.
Speaker: and swung it down. Aunt Farniel just stands there, and as the fist comes down on her, she steps aside at the last second. The fist smashes into the ground, bricks, stone flying everywhere.
Speaker: She seems relatively unfazed. No. She steps forward and swings at it with her sword three times. Her blade slashes. The giant rears back and raises more hands as if to crush her.
Speaker: And then as you're running, disappear around a corner and you can no longer see what happens behind you. Humdinger sang a battle that day.
Speaker: While behind you, the sound of the combat fades as you keep running, and ahead of you, you see the lane that you're on opens up, and you see the park spreading out before you.
Speaker: And as the party escapes from the skeletal flood and prepares for their next challenge, we bring this episode to a close.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to Calerinden, the hireling chronicles. Please join us for our next exciting episode.
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