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Ep. 40 The Cursed One
121 Plays3 years ago
In the blink of an eye, life can change. What once was found can be lost again.
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Transcript
Magical Encounter in the Woods
00:00:13
Speaker
previously on the hired swords. Long nights and even longer days spent trotting through these woods. It feels like eyes watching us from behind every tree, leering and snickering as they manipulate our thoughts and dreams from the shadows. Finally, we had caught up with whatever nefarious creature had lured us out here.
00:00:39
Speaker
And just as quickly and easily as we had dispatched of her and her golems, I felt it. I felt the magic from her hands as it wrapped around my chest, ripping me through unopened doors and into otherworldly planes. What is this new hell?
Introduction of the Cast by Dungeon Master
00:01:20
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords. You know, I've heard if you played this song in two times speed, it's actually a super bop.
00:01:42
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Hired Swords. Here with me today is Blaze. As Craig's Derek's here playing Daven. Hi, I'm Daven. Yeah, Joxer's here, that's Mikey. That's me. And Ash is here, she's Gwendolyn. Hello. Yeah, and I'm Mike, I'm your dungeon master and the champion of all things. I don't know, Dungeons and Dragons, whatever. Thank you for listening and
00:02:12
Speaker
Well, I'm excited to be here. It's been a couple of weeks, boys and girls, and I'm pumped. I'm excited. But let's recap without any further ado. You guys ready for recapping? Let's do it. I love a recap. Yeah. Yeah. I like caps. And then when you can cap remembering is awesome. Remembering is awesome.
00:02:33
Speaker
OK, that's copyright. Oops, yep, sorry. We can't buy me that dolphin sounds.
Strange Spells and Krigs' Disappearance
00:02:41
Speaker
No, we're we left off last time after a journey through the woods in which the things things started getting strange. Kriegs started acting even more strange than the woods started looking. And eventually they you guys came to this clearing where you saw a just kind of a dilapidated looking meadow with
00:03:01
Speaker
little kind of dead looking flowers everything was like dull it wasn't as bright and green as as you would think but it looked familiar like a familiar meadow you had seen before and over to the side in this kind of in the center of this meadow was this patch of brightly glowing flowers as you start to head out of the
00:03:22
Speaker
The tree line towards this meadow you are attacked by these moaning creatures that approach you and begin lashing out at you with their giant fists and trying to attack you you also then. Are noticing spells being cast and see this.
00:03:40
Speaker
hag like creature, this woman who is attacking you as well. Krigs goes to to kind of pile drive her and tries to hurt her and in doing so, she kind of gets a grapple. He gets a grapple on her and she's there and comes over back to him after getting slammed to the ground. And she bamps herself and him out of existence.
00:04:05
Speaker
And leaving the three of you, Devin, Gwendolyn, and Joxer standing there looking and seeing that that Krigs is no longer there.
Krigs in the Shadowy Woods
00:04:14
Speaker
And that's where we left off. We'll start with the three of you. What are you doing? Krigs and Joxer is going to look back at the other two and start heading to the direction where he was. You see Gwendolyn just spinning around. What did he go? OK.
00:04:34
Speaker
Daven? Where did she go? They're both gone. Oh, man, this is not good. Make perception checks as you look where they were. All right. Oh, my God. Ooh. I got a 15. Natural one. So 19 plus one. Thank you, Starbuck Die. Nice. Yeah, we got those sick, hired swords dies, don't we? Yeah. I got an eight. All right.
00:05:03
Speaker
Gwendolyn, you are having a hard time noticing like where this where this happened. You don't see you're trying to follow where they're looking but you can't really make out where this happened. Daven, you see this like swirling kind of mist that is evaporating where they kind of were left behind.
00:05:21
Speaker
and jockser you see as the mist is kind of evaporating and leaving it looks like it's starting to form into something again as it kind of starts to spin and rotate and the mist is starting to grow we're going to jump to krigs now. Krigs the last thing you remember you had you had tried to do a nice wrestling move on this hag and
00:05:50
Speaker
then she had grabbed you and kind of chuckled in your ear, just this kind of, and you sensed a kind of like your mind and consciousness left your body for almost an entire second and went back into it. And as it goes back in,
00:06:12
Speaker
You realize you're still in the woods. It looks like you're still in the forest in a similar place, but everything is a little bit inside out, like backwards. And everything's gray, and there's shadow everywhere, turning a forest into a series of silhouettes. And you feel a chill, and it's just this
00:06:38
Speaker
dark chill that goes up your spine, up your neck, making the hair on the back of your neck stand up. And you start to drift out of this existence. Make a perception check. Alrighty. 14. Okay. As you start to drift out of this existence,
00:07:01
Speaker
you're blinking almost in and out. And you see this hag blinking in and out as well. And as she starts to blink back in, you see her face grimacing and her mouth starts to move. But you can't quite make out what she's saying. But you see this look of failure in her eyes. It immediately reminds you of soldiers being
00:07:25
Speaker
being punished for failing to complete tasks that they were asked to complete. And that's this look she has on her face, and you just think back to that. And then suddenly this mist wraps around her, and she's no longer there. And then you blink away, and again, your consciousness seems separated from you. And as it comes back, you hit the ground. Fud!
Krigs' Return and the Hag's Fate
00:07:50
Speaker
And Joxer, Davin, and Gwen
00:07:54
Speaker
there is craig's foot hitting the ground with a black mist evaporating above him so i think i think jocks are just seeing that mist prior to to that would have tried to charge it and like like grapple it as if something might be there um now i don't know if that would have been before and yeah and i might get fallen on or after and i might trip over
00:08:22
Speaker
as you are running towards that because the mist starts to starts to form again and as it forms it forms into the shape of Krigs and as you run towards it you grab hold of Krigs and tackle him like NFL linebacker style and roll across the ground.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. As as I roll down and like, oh, great. And like probably hit my head on something trying to roll over. Yeah. Both of you make acrobatics saving throws or yeah, it would just be dexterity saving throws. Sorry. Not acrobatics dexterity as well. Yeah. So was that my I hit the ground when I hit the ground laying down or he he actually like he hits you on your way down. Yeah. He hits that mist. That mist was you.
00:09:14
Speaker
That's a two. So my 18 plus six, so 24. Oh yeah. So you do the whole thing where you put your shoulders down and you grab him and you slam right into just the top of his shoulders on the side.
00:09:34
Speaker
Krigs, it catches you completely off guard as you're trying to wrap your mind around what's just happened. Then you just roll and tumble while Joxer takes three big running steps past you, never leaving his feet and stops and turns and sees you tumbling across the ground. Found him. Devin will come running up. It's like, what happened? Where'd she go? What's going on?
00:10:02
Speaker
Quindlin would be running. She'd be the last one to notice all this. Krigs, what happened? Am I conscious? Yes, you are conscious. What was that? You tell me. That's what I'd like to know. I was here, then I wasn't here, and then I was... I don't know. I was everywhere.
00:10:29
Speaker
You saw that, right? You saw the forest, the shadows. What happened? Oh, you just disappeared. You're only gone for a second, but you're gone. Devin's going to take a look around and see if he sees any more mist forming in case he's coming back. That felt longer than a second. I came over the moment you disappeared and saw some mist and charged it. And I'm sorry about that.
00:11:00
Speaker
You're fine. Ow. But, you know, better safe than not, I suppose. I was hoping to maybe catch both of you. Where did you see where she went? I didn't. I saw her wherever I was, whatever void that was, the hellscape. I saw her there, but she...
00:11:24
Speaker
She had a look on her face, one that I feel all too familiar with, something that... something had gone wrong. I don't know where she is now. I don't know if she's still in this hellscape or... That... that was not pleasant. I'm glad you made it back. During this time, Gwendolyn is like checking over both Jackson and Krigs just to make sure there's like no cuts, no scars. I'm glad you guys made it out okay.
00:11:54
Speaker
Make a perception check. I thought that the doctor might have killed you. He very well could. That was stout. Thirteen. Okay. They look like they're okay. Yeah, they look like they're probably fine. They don't have any particular wounds or cuts or bruises or anything extra, just a little rattled from the whole experience.
00:12:23
Speaker
How is my mental capacity currently? Because last time in the woods, especially up to this point, until like the very end, I was not normal. Yeah, you were actually where I was. How am I? OK, how am I doing? You actually feel very clear. And as you look around or, you know, you kind of notice the woods around you, they are more dull. It's almost like
00:12:48
Speaker
It's halfway between what the forest should be and what you saw just now in that other plane that you were in or whatever it was. It's like a halfway point between the two. This place looks shadowy and kind of almost like a faint grayscale over everything, except for that one bright patch in the middle of the meadow.
Vision of the Great Elk
00:13:10
Speaker
But for the rest of us, it looks all normal. No, it looks pretty great at everybody.
00:13:15
Speaker
Yeah, because it didn't look right. And Kricks was saying like, yeah, it's a beautiful forest. Yeah, I was all about it, but it didn't look great to anyone else. Yeah, I think I had dancing lights still up. If not, I'll bring them over just to bring up some light around us. Yeah, they they definitely glow, but it's like half the range as what they normally would. It's like when your flashlights like half battery. It feels like really, really imposing in this area.
00:13:46
Speaker
Um, that area in the middle, it's significantly brighter in that area. Yeah. Uh, it's, it's hard to actually, you can make an investigation check if you want to get up close or just make a perception check from where you are. I'm going to make a perception check from where I am. I don't know. I don't necessarily feel comfortable going over to it just yet, but I am leaning that direction. That's fair. Oh, 15.
00:14:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's what you needed to know this as you look it you get the feeling that maybe it's not glowing. It's just compared to everything else here. It is it makes it it's it looks like it's glowing just because everything else here is so dull. It's almost like this is this is the only thing that hasn't been touched by whatever is caused this to happen in this area.
00:14:45
Speaker
Okay. I'm going to go over to that area, just straight up. I'm going to go to it and see if I can either feel or sense anything about this area, what makes it different. Okay. Craig, are you sure that's a good idea? No, I'm not, honestly. That's where that woman was, right?
00:15:11
Speaker
really grasping grasping for straws out here honestly it is nothing is right out here we've we've said that this whole whole adventure if we want to call it that at this point nothing has been right but this is different this is menacing this is we are out of our realm of knowledge of what we could possibly understand so no I don't know if this is a good idea but
00:15:41
Speaker
Doing nothing doesn't feel like a very good idea either. Um, Gwendolyn's gonna look over at Joxer and just, well, I'm glad he has his head on his shoulders. It's about time. Yeah. I was getting pretty worried about you. I appreciate the concern.
00:16:02
Speaker
Well, I guess a few boys, excuse me, if you ladies and gentlemen are ready, I'm gonna go figure out what's at this patch. I'll have your back. Yeah, we'll stay close by. Okay, so as you approach, you all are walking towards this patch and
00:16:31
Speaker
you're hearing those same kinds of moans as when you were attacked from far in the distance. There's this distant wailing and moaning just in the distance. And as you get closer, they don't sound closer to you. They just sound more desperate as you get closer to that spot.
00:16:59
Speaker
And do they feel like you can hear a sound and it'll make you feel unsettled. Sure. But like, is it invoking any specific feelings out of me hearing these?
00:17:12
Speaker
I would say it's very it is unsettling it's it's giving you the sense that they don't want you to approach that spot it's like not a warning but a begging please don't it's like when a little kid sees you
00:17:33
Speaker
putting away the snacks. You know, like, no, I want to eat more. No, it's time for bed. And is it the same sound that was coming off the monsters we were fighting? Yeah, it sounds exactly the same, just very, very far off. OK, well, I am knowing that and having that feeling. I am confidently marching to this location. OK, so you approach it standing by. OK, you approach that spot.
00:18:03
Speaker
and you get right up to the edge. And as you step onto that edge, everything feels different.
Krigs' Transformation
00:18:14
Speaker
You feel a breeze blowing, you smell the flowers and the trees, and you see the sky and the sun shining down on you.
00:18:26
Speaker
And it is the most joyful thing. It is just this exciting, joyful moment as you stand there. And as you look to the ground, make an investigation check or perception check, whatever's best for you, as you look at where you're standing. Is it only Krigs there? Did anyone else enter the space with him? I'm standing outside of it.
00:18:50
Speaker
I am standing outside of it. It's probably a good 25 foot circle as it gets dimmer moving out. But the very spot he's in is that bright spot that is about 10 feet diameter. I rolled in 18. Okay. You notice in in the soil, you notice a few like remnants of bone. And
00:19:21
Speaker
As you kind of play with them in your hand, they kind of dissolve into dust, but the dust is this bright green color. And make a history check as you do that. Okay.
00:19:36
Speaker
I am curious with the history check it being soil and stone being a dwarf, I have some advantage to history involving like soil and stone. Yeah, go ahead. The advantage is good. 19. Okay. I needed that. This dust reminds you immediately.
00:20:04
Speaker
of the smoke in the spot where you burnt that elk. You killed your first mission in Wild Hill. And as you kind of look around, the place around you looks nice again, like a regular meadow. And this is the spot. This is where that creature fell. And as you look around ahead of you,
00:20:31
Speaker
You see in your memory, you don't see it, but in your memory, there is Daven, Gwendolyn, Joxer fighting these other elk and this one elk is standing there and lowers its head and you see yourself and your memory taking that last swing. And when that last swing falls on that elk and it is slain,
00:21:00
Speaker
You hear a voice. The voice says, you, you are sovereign and broke. And suddenly in front of you forms a greenish mist, almost like a fog, like haze form of this great elk, the great old one.
00:21:27
Speaker
that you fought in battle, the one that you summoned and rode into the stone mountains. It's standing there in front of you. It lowers its head and looks back to you, turning its head slightly as one of its eyes locks into your eyes and says, you are sovereign, ember oak, the cursed one, a champion of the deity of the light.
00:21:59
Speaker
Is this who you are? That is... That is correct. You are strong in battle, yet soft. Soft in heart. When I fell in battle, I felt your longing. A longing for family.
00:22:29
Speaker
seeking a place to belong. We are all seeking to belong, aren't we? And he looks over and he sees Gwendolyn and he looks at Gwendolyn and Joxer and Davin standing there who are just looking at you, not seeming to notice this creature you're speaking to.
00:23:01
Speaker
Is this what you seek, suffering in Baroque, belonging? I seek home. Your name speaks of fire.
00:23:30
Speaker
of destruction. You bring destruction with your weapon and your arcane cries to your deity. You, Soffron Fimberoke, are chosen, but no longer by the light are you. No, we've...
00:24:01
Speaker
I feel I've been a bit of a disappointment for the light as of late. The light shines on all things but you do not know that light exists until you have encountered darkness. Unfortunately
00:24:34
Speaker
The darkness sometimes overpowers that which is supposed to carry our light. Suffer an ember oak. You are no longer chosen by the light, but perhaps you can be chosen still. Please lay down your weapon.
00:25:06
Speaker
Why me? Your longing. We share the same heart, suffering. You and I. I knew it when I fell to your hammer. It's the longing.
00:25:43
Speaker
Your hammer. I'm. I take the hammer off of my. My back kind of pulling it around the shield and I hold it in front of me. Both hands around the actual hammer itself I. I forged this hammer myself and I look at it. I look at the.
00:26:12
Speaker
the wear marks. I look at the dents and divots after all the years. I look at the acid damage from the blood bore. I look at the weapon that has been with me for forever. It felt like in battle and adventures and
00:26:41
Speaker
Anytime I've needed it, it was there. As silly as it sounds, it's become a part of me. And I sit there and hold it for a moment in hesitation. You are holding on to your memories. To the reminders of who you were, suffering.
00:27:13
Speaker
It's hard to know who you are if you don't know who you were. You may continue to hold on to those memories. They may serve you well. But I'm letting you have a choice between who you were and who you will become.
00:27:39
Speaker
I think in that moment, just as the elk says who you were, Safran's mind goes back to the battlefield and honestly just remembers the sickness in his stomach he felt as he laid there, that final battle, and just heard the cries of basically death all around him. And I take that hammer and I lay it down.
00:28:08
Speaker
I think at that moment with that thought in my mind. When you lay it down, at first it just kind of just sits there. And Gwen, Joxer and Davin, you do see Krigs. And when you look at Krigs, he's standing in this circle and he looks like he's brightly lit by sunshine, like he's standing in the sun.
00:28:32
Speaker
And you see him speaking, but you can't really hear his words. It's like he's inside a different room, and it's like muffled, like a muffled sound. Like, and he speaks and serves like this. Like you can't quite make out what the words are that he's saying. But none of you, you all feel the urge to just wait and watch. There is an awe.
00:29:02
Speaker
that causes you to just linger. And you see him start to lay down his hammer and you get this, the three of you get this feeling of relief that comes over you. Like him laying down that hammer is a laying down of a burden you were carrying with him. And Krigs, when you lay down that hammer,
00:29:30
Speaker
It lays there for two seconds before it starts to be lifted by the vines and roots that grow from beneath it. They're lifting, they're wrapping themselves around it and they get to the handle and they squeeze.
00:29:50
Speaker
and the handle just immediately bursts into flashes of golden light with green glistening almost like like glitter just glistening through this and it just kind of stays there the head of your hammer is completely surrounded by roots and as the
00:30:14
Speaker
what was left of the handle and the roots that wrapped around the handle, as they kind of linger there, they begin to form and twist and shape themselves into another new handle. And they start at the bottom of the handle and they wrap and twist and turn all the way up to the bottom of the head of your hammer, where then they start to stretch and wrap around this hammer that is still the hammerhead that you created.
00:30:42
Speaker
They wrap around it, wrapping gently, carefully around to where the markings and etchings that you have placed there are still visible. And then everything melds together and the hammer just drops to the ground. Now with this wooden handle.
00:31:03
Speaker
laced with this green sparkling almost like a jade gem going through it that inside of theirs is like a moving rushing water inside of these gemstones with the wooden handle twisting around it. The elk nods its head as if to say, you know, pick it up. I reach for it and
00:31:34
Speaker
hesitate for just a second and then I grab it. You grab it and when you do, you feel this warmth in your hand. You pick up the hammer and it is as if the weightedness and the balance of this weapon never changed. The handle is wooden with seeming like glass inlay, but it feels like solid iron.
00:32:03
Speaker
And it is solid and sturdy and strong. And your hand begins to feel warm and tingly. And it's the hand that has the mark in it. Is it wrapped up currently? It would have been. Yeah, I would have had it wrapped ever since it went dark.
00:32:27
Speaker
So as it's wrapped, you see as it's kind of become loosened from the scuffle, it's not off, but you can see a kind of a dull green glow pulsating from inside that wrapping coming through the different strands of cloth that have wrapped around your hand. There's this green pulse. I'm honestly just kind of taken aback by it.
00:32:57
Speaker
Okay. The warmth that is in your hand begins to crawl up your arm as you hold onto this war
Chosen Protector of the Wilds
00:33:04
Speaker
hammer. It's crawling up your arm and everybody else, the three of you, as you see him, you, you definitely saw his hammer go down looking like it was, but he picked it and you didn't see anything else happen to it except it lifted up in the air and fell again. But when he picked it up, it looked different and
00:33:25
Speaker
Now he's standing, holding the hammer, just kind of looking at himself as this warmth is moving up his arm and through his body. And you hear, sovereign ember oak. Only Krigs hears this. Sufferin ember oak, you are chosen. You are chosen by the great ones of the wilds.
00:33:54
Speaker
to be our champion our protector the great darkness seeping into our woods we are few and cannot protect ourselves we need you now therefore have the power of the wilds
00:34:26
Speaker
and leave the old Krigs behind. And it turns and it gallops off into the woods. And the spot where Krigs is standing, which is, you know, beautiful flowers and he's standing in this spot, it starts to spread.
00:34:50
Speaker
the flowers start to change colors and I mean it's totally like like you'd see in some movie the the grass becomes green and the the the dull hazy grayscale nature of this area shifts and it becomes green and bright with colors yellow flowers white flowers and it moves to the trees and you see the browns and greens start to form and as you look kind of deep into the forest you still see swirls of mist here and there
00:35:20
Speaker
But overall, what has happened to Krigs has changed this place. And Krigs, you kind of snap out of your, snap out of your stupor from this whole experience and kind of come to yourself and go in and jocks her and dab and you're able to see everything that has been going on. And now you see this forest area, this meadow change. And what, what are you going to do or say?
00:35:46
Speaker
Devin didn't really see exactly what happened. You know, obviously most of it was just for Kriegs, but he felt there was definitely something powerful happening. And he didn't realize till right now, but he's been gripping his necklace this entire time extremely tightly. Yeah. What happened? What did you see? Do any of you recognize this place? Gwendolyn starts to look around. I think we reached our destination.
00:36:15
Speaker
it is it is changed it is so fast it's gone from what was a beautiful meadow to what what we see before us but this is David right over there that is where you almost laid laid dead right there that's where I uh
00:36:37
Speaker
I had to make a decision whether or not you were worth keeping around and I guess, I guess we both can see, see how that decision went. It was a poor decision, right? I mean, I clearly remember that I healed myself, but I know what you're getting out to us. This is where we fought those elves. The second day we were in Wild Hill, we were here together.
00:37:02
Speaker
Everything else that's been since then, this is the path we took. This is where we slayed the great elk, the great old one. Honestly, this was the catalyst to our adventures together, I guess. I can't believe it. Could you believe it? Could you believe it when you saw
00:37:31
Speaker
Saw me speak with the Great Elk, at least. What are you talking about? Just here. I mean, moments ago, we... The Great Elk spoke to us, and it knew my name, much like Salarin said it would. You see this, like, dead face, dead pan, and, like, jocksers just shaking his head. I'm not... I didn't see anything.
00:38:01
Speaker
Would I, kind of out of context, would I have felt something here? Like, I know we felt the change. Because I guess I'm kind of attuned with nature,
Reflection on Transformation and Unity
00:38:15
Speaker
would I? Sure. You definitely felt that feeling of peace. And like I said, that feeling of just awe as if you were in the presence of something greater than yourself, but you
00:38:31
Speaker
And you could probably piece together that you thought it had something to do with if he says that elk was here. That feeling would give you the idea. Maybe that's exactly what that was. Gwendolyn looks at Davin, then Joxer, then back to Kergs. As you said, she was piecing it together.
00:38:53
Speaker
Maybe it was here. Maybe that's what we felt. I felt something watching him. Kriegs, we may not have seen it, but... I'm gonna take my binding off my hand as she's putting together the pieces and telling me that she felt whatever she felt. I'm taking the binding off my hand now.
00:39:20
Speaker
If you said you spoke with the great elk, then I definitely believe you. I'm just saying I didn't see anything. There definitely was something different around there. Can they see the binding off now and anything changed? Yeah, as you begin to take that binding off, that glow is there again. It's very much the same. It's the same symbol in your hand. It's still there, the Eye of Helm.
00:39:48
Speaker
It is it's glowing with a greenish jade glow and and it's not bright. It's not like you know flashlight bright. It's just gives this hue to your hand that is very it's pretty it's pretty obvious and pretty clear.
00:40:03
Speaker
that this is now, I guess the word would be active again, but it is different. I'm gonna look at my hand glowing green and I'm gonna look at Davin and remember the conversation that we had earlier about I got no powers and we discussed strategic minds and all that. I'm gonna look at my hand. I'm going to put my hand on the ground, on the grass,
00:40:29
Speaker
and in the roots of the nearby plants. And I'm going to start chanting a little prayer, praying, dear great old, dear great old ones, hear me now. And you're just going to hear Craig's kind of mumble. And I'm going to attempt to summon steed, much like I did before, and pray to the spirit of the great old one and cast fine steed.
00:40:58
Speaker
Okay. So he puts his hand down on the ground and as he puts his hand on the ground and he, he finds a bush that he could kind of get a, get the roots and some grass and just kind of like as much nature as he could get in one, you know, palm full. And he begins to sing that chant. And when he does, you hear every bird
00:41:22
Speaker
in the place just starts chirping at once every little critter you hear starts yelping and chirping and you hear the squirrels calling out and the chipmunks calling out you hear every little critter every creature the birds up high squawing the big eagles flying above
00:41:40
Speaker
you hear things larger that you didn't know where they are running out in the forest away from you and and the suddenly you hear the of this giant greenish ethereal looking elk.
00:41:58
Speaker
ride out of the forest and the birds are flying above it near it and they they kind of fly up and fly away. These several different species of birds fly away like they were escorting it in and then fly off to go back to where they were coming from and it rides right up to Krig's stops right there, lowering its head and shoulders down as if for him to mount. Oh, what do you know?
00:42:30
Speaker
I'm gonna look over at the party and just kinda smile cheesily. Sure you did, old boy. Gwendolyn Snickers.
00:42:49
Speaker
Joxer just kind of stares. I think he got a little taken aback by the sheer amount of noise that animals made before. Just like, oh, yeah. I can speak telepathically to it being that it's, you know. Right. Fine, Steve, you have the ability to speak telepathically, but I'm going to speak verbally and assume that it can't respond except telepathically. I'm going to speak
00:43:20
Speaker
Great, great old one. I don't really know what to call you. What would you have us do? And I'm going to say that out loud so the party can hear. You hear in your head. I am but an echo. I am here as your steed. And that is all.
00:43:47
Speaker
Devin's going to slowly walk up and he's going to place a hand just on the side of it and see if he can feel it, touch it, make sure that he can touch it if it's real. Yeah, you touch it. It's weird. It's like this weird, like you feel it like you would feel any kind of horse or elk or any kind of creature like that, but it doesn't look like it would feel that way, but it does. You'd think your hand would go through it, but it doesn't.
00:44:11
Speaker
While he's doing that, he's going to place his other hand on Craig's shoulder and then smile at him and then bring him in for a big hug. You're never gone, friend, but I'm glad to have you back. I don't back away from the hug. I think I squeeze a little tighter, just kind of like out of relief. Yeah. Yeah. All right. This isn't going to help people shipping you guys, you know? No, bro. Hug is fine. That's right. That's good.
00:44:43
Speaker
I'm going to sheepishly say that the elk just kind of told me that we know what we need to do. That wasn't really a great answer. Right. There are spells for speaking to your gods and there are spells for summoning steeds. It said what now?
00:45:09
Speaker
It, it, uh, it, you know, it, it said, do the thing, do the thing and do it well. Wow. Very wise. Oh, that's, that's, that's deep. Yeah. That I'm with like eyebrows raised. Okay. I, I'm going to do an insight check. Yeah. Do it. What for wells are deep? He just told you. Yeah, he did. Well, do it well. That's, that's, that's a five.
00:45:40
Speaker
I mean, as far as you know, he was just just like encouraged by some old great old one who sounds like an old guy with no real advice. Yeah, that sounds about right. Was your hand always green? No, it that's brand new. That that is a gift from I guess the wilds.
00:46:07
Speaker
I'm glad to see you of better spirits. A friend, Sauron, sent us out here, and I can only assume that it was the spirit of the great old ones that called. The elk was here speaking to me and knew enough about me that it was a little strange, spoke of
00:46:32
Speaker
wanting the same thing, the longing that we both share and asked, I guess chose me instead to be a defender of the great ones. They say they can't protect themselves. And I think we better than any know that to be the case. They are too few. Whatever's happening here is not helping.
00:47:02
Speaker
I'm definitely ready to do some more protecting than we've been able to do. This whole situation has given me a bad taste in my mouth. So what's our next step then?
Preparing for New Challenges in Wild Hill
00:47:19
Speaker
I'm going to take the hammer off my back that is now different with a new handle, the wooden kind of woven and glass and lead handle and
00:47:33
Speaker
I think I'm just going to smile at the party and basically say, who's ready to get back to Wild Hill? Let's go. After you.
00:48:03
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Hired Swords. Bet you thought I was gonna say episodic installment, ha ha! If you really like the show, tell a friend about us. That'd be awesome. If you really want to help the show, leave a review. If you want to keep up with all the behind the scenes goofs and gaffs and other laughs, find us on Facebook and Twitter at the Hired Swords. Thank you so much for listening.
00:48:31
Speaker
I mean, come on, that's a bop!