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Ep. 96 Strangers In A Strange Land
60 Plays1 month ago
Out of the shadows and into a land unlike anything they've seen before. Who.. or what, may reside here?
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Transcript
Introduction of Characters
00:00:42
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Hired Swords. Season three, episode two. Here we are. I'm your dungeon master, Michael. And with me, I've got Mikey. He's Joxer. What's up, buddy? What's happening? I'm just waving my my hands in the air and like I just don't care. Yeah, you were flailing. Wacky, inflatable arm flailing tube band type action going on. It's real good. I also got Derek here. He's going to be joining us as Davin Meinstrider.
00:01:10
Speaker
Yes, I've been playing him for going on three seasons now, and it's working out wonderfully. It's splendid, isn't it? Ash is here. She's Gwendolyn. howy Howdy, howdy, howdy. Hey there. I'm here. It's good to see you. Er, well, hear your voice at least. Yeah. And Blaze, last but certainly not least, is Safran Imboreauk, formerly known as Krigs Golder. So I'm dancing, but this is an audio format, so like, you're really missing out.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, and it's there I don't even see it on video, so I can't describe it for you. I can't paint a word picture for the people. I'll bet you though, if we just listen to his breathing as he does it, I bet you we can figure out if it's like a hula or like a line dance. That's a good point. I'm gonna describe it for you now. Okay. And it's good. There you go. Oh, it's good dancing. but That's good, because we would we would not allow bad dancing on this podcast. I guess I need to get out of here then.
00:02:08
Speaker
yeah No, your arm flailing was great. Your arm flailing was phenomenal.
Portal Visions and New Forest
00:02:12
Speaker
In the last episode of the Hired Swords, we had it just stepped through a portal and experience each each player, each character experiencing a vision of their own. A vision, some of the past, some of the present, some of other planes and worlds, some confusing, some really maybe eye-opening and helpful. helpful kind of digging deep into each of their psyche a little bit to kind of uncover what's going on, what's driving them, and maybe even a little bit of their past. ah At the end of each of those visions,
00:02:49
Speaker
Every character ended up standing next to each other. Joxer ending up falling into a three point stance like a superhero. Next to the other three characters, Davin Meinstrider, Saffron and Baroque, Gwendolyn and Joxer, all standing there in a forest, but not just any forest. This forest is colorful and vibrant.
00:03:14
Speaker
Plants are unlike anything any of them have ever seen. They shimmer and they glow in the light. Their colors change, seems like, depending on the angle of the sun. Some even seem to move and dance with the wind as if they have a light of their own. The trees are tall and slender, with leaves that range from deep green to bright pink and purple. The forest floor is covered in a thick layer of moss and lichen as small flowers and mushrooms grow in clusters around the base of the trees.
00:03:42
Speaker
The sky above is a mesmerizing pearl color with streaks of pink and purple that seem to dance and swirl in the wind. This is where you're standing. That's what you just went through. What are you going to do now? I immediately start looking at the flowers. I mean, it's an absolute, absolute must. Do you guys smell that? It's like the smell is like almost like the ocean was full of flowers. It's interesting. Beautiful.
00:04:13
Speaker
Where are we? I've never been here before. I just it's so nice. ah Gwendolyn starts to look for Dale. Well, she doesn't want him to miss out. Yeah, you dig through and and Dale is right where you is kind of tucked down in your pouch where you had put him before you guys stepped through the doorway. Dale, do you see this?
00:04:40
Speaker
This is is definitely a polar opposite of where we were. Look at this little thing. It's just twisting. Jokes, sir, we were kind of following that lady through here, right? Where did she go? Who was she, by the way? Could we get a little bu more? I mean, you seemed like you knew her. I i mentioned that I have been following or or was given some power.
00:05:06
Speaker
Um, when I was before I met all of you and she, she's been the one that I've been following who's been, um, uh, she's, she's just been there for me. I don't know how else to explain it. I guess I don't really know her personally.
00:05:26
Speaker
You've had a girlfriend this whole time?
00:05:31
Speaker
well and she And she's not meeting like girlfriend. She's just meeting girl space. Yeah. And and I'm pretty sure that I'll like start like, I mean, and she's, I mean, ah she is a girl. I mean, and I'll like kind of flush, get flushed a little bit. and so I mean, yes, I guess, but not, I mean, I thought I was your only girlfriend.
00:05:55
Speaker
but That's going down just looks sad and inquisitive. i'm ah Yeah. Hey, look, this is a really interesting colored. Anybody? so so I've never what's the color or the name of this flower? The color? What's the name of this color? ah I mean, the color is called purple. Oh, that's a flower. I don't know. That's but that's right. Purple, violet, some something.
00:06:25
Speaker
Anyway, i what she's gone now. Are we supposed to find her? Is that our that what she said? it I can't remember. I was kind of distracted by the whole Gwen not breathing sort of thing. How how are you feeling by the way, Gwen? I feel fine. Why do you ask? I'm just making sure that everything is peachy keen.
00:06:49
Speaker
Oh, okay. Because Gwendolyn, she she remembers something happened, but she doesn't really remember dying. um I would hope not.
Reflecting on Portal Decision
00:07:01
Speaker
Um, yeah, I And uh, this is to Michael. I don't remember being told anything specifically from our last episode, right? We, we just went through our kind of events and then we were just here. Correct. Yeah. That's your, to your recollection, to jockser's recollection, you experience what you experienced. It's still very vivid in your memories, that whole vision and all of that.
00:07:25
Speaker
And you weren't really told anything about where you were going other than before you left, you know, the kind of cryptic messages from the seeker led you to believe that what you had been fighting was resolved where you came from in the world you come from, but you had a choice.
00:07:49
Speaker
to end it for good, but it meant stepping through that portal and that's what you guys decided to do. So you know, all of you know in the back of your mind that there was a decision made to continue this fight against whatever darkness was attacking the wilds and wild hill and the untouched lands. And so you walked through this portal to continue this fight. So you do definitely remember that. Now details are very spotty and and and unclear.
00:08:18
Speaker
there may be some hints and secrets and things from your past and things that you've been told that you know you might want to make history checks or something to try to see if you can
Planning Next Move
00:08:28
Speaker
come up with anything. But ah ah front of mind, nothing's there. That's really from the most recent encounter with the seeker. That's any details. Daven, I don't remember being I don't know where she went, but it it's kind of like her to ah appear when she's needed um and just kind of believe when she's not. So right now, I i know that there's something we need to do here, and and that's that's all that we can focus on.
00:09:09
Speaker
maybe Maybe we just pick a path and start following it and see see where we go. Are there any paths around us or structures of any kind that we can see in the distance? Make a survival check. Ooh, I hate to roll a dice. Roll some dice, baby. Um, 18.
00:09:30
Speaker
Not bad. Awesome. You look around and immediately, this is a very wild place. There are no paths. In fact, the way the ground kind of shifts with the plant life, it leads you to believe that maybe a path wouldn't even stay on the ground for very long. But you do notice that the the terrain around you kind of ebbs and flows and shifts it like roll little bit of rolling Hills with this forest on top of it. And there's definitely,
00:09:59
Speaker
pretty high ground to a direction to your left with what direction that is, is very unclear. And do directions work here like they do where you're from? You're not even sure, but you can tell if you go to your left and continue walking, eventually you'll be higher than you are now up onto some sort of high ground. Well, I suppose we can head this direction. It looks like we could maybe get a better view of things from up there.
00:10:28
Speaker
I'm, I'm, I'm, I can, I can go at any time. I'm, I'm ready. gregigs are you right you but i'm quite of quiet You look over at me and I'm just, I'm just standing there looking around, like just blinking my eyes slowly, kind of an amazement of,
00:10:48
Speaker
It all, it feels foreign. So, so just so interesting. And we've been in such a grim everything for so long that this is, um you're looking at someone that's over 130 something years old, just like baffled at new sites. So I am completely clueless to the conversation you've been having at this point.
Gwendolyn's Exploration
00:11:16
Speaker
Does Craig's at least look happy?
00:11:18
Speaker
I don't think I look upset, just kind of happily confused. Slightly less grumpy. ah Basically. Yeah. Kind of like, I feel like I'm in the middle of an interesting trip, you know, let's be honest. Yeah. yeah yeah um But I'm, I'm into it. Maybe, maybe we should share a drink before we move forward.
00:11:48
Speaker
and i I thought I already had it it definitely doesn't it doesn't feel real if we we thought we were dead before I feel like I'm dead again here but it's like we died wait is this death did are we sure we're not hold on i I'm, I'm, I'm just, if I hadn't seen The Seeker, I definitely. Hit me. Yeah. You sure? Right now. Oh, I'm in it. I'm, I just, I just, you get a, you get a good magical punch.
00:12:30
Speaker
You don't even like, I don't dodge it. There's nothing to okay so definitely hit connect strong. Uh, and boy, does it not feel great, but I feel also a little more confident that I'm not dead. So that feels great. Well, you know, one for one, you're welcome to hit me back.
00:12:50
Speaker
I'll save it for later. Craig's actually when he hits you, like you feel the the impact and you've you've been punched. You don't even, you can't even count how many times you've been hit and punched and sliced and stabbed.
00:13:04
Speaker
It would have been ah probably your right shoulder, like yeah right underneath the... So you felt it, but here's the thing, it hurt, like it definitely hurt, but then there's this like tingle or tickle afterwards that that continues to just like almost like hum through your body as it seems like every sense you feel, at least right now, is more heightened.
00:13:31
Speaker
because the pain was, it was pretty intense. Obviously it was magical, but then also it just feels like something about this place just makes things, makes, made that feeling more intense and more. Oh, kind of like my arm was asleep. Yeah. Like a little buzz. And then it goes, then it fades, but it takes longer to fade and the pain even takes a little longer to fade than it normally would have given your strength and experience with fighting.
00:14:01
Speaker
I'm not dead. When you said you wanted somebody to punch you, I looked at my abilities to see what I could do and I saw transfer punch, what is that ability? But it's actually in my inventory, it's the transferring pouch that we have. Oh, so I can't read it. Is it typo or you can't read? Transfer punch. It's a yummy drink that you can have that'll teleport you to some random location. Oh man, that's a new magic item. Transfer punch, that's awesome.
00:14:25
Speaker
and But every time you arrive, when you arrive at the other place, you bust through a wall. Yeah. No, we're not Kool-Aid style. Transfer Podge. This episode is not sponsored by Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid, but please call us. yeah yeah We'll work for pouches of Kool-Aid. Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker
so yeah um the that You feel that that sense kind of overwhelms you and you feel that for sure. and then you um it But it does fade, like I said, and the tingle starts to wear off and you definitely are feeling now the breeze kind of blowing through this place. And even just having experienced that shock of pain and everything after, now you kind of are awakened a little bit to Even more of the the senses you feel where you are, that sweet smell that Daven was talking about, and the feeling of the breeze blowing around, and the little bit of the flickers of light that seemed to just kind of like illuminate and hang in the treetops. Also, I'm hungry, and I don't think the dead get hungry. We kind of just went by that. but Why would you think we're dead? I mean... Why did you think we're dead, Krix? Is it just too good to be true here? Is this just...
00:15:44
Speaker
otherworldliness? Is that what it was? Well, I mean, i I just, I felt like we asked each other if we were dead numerous times in our last, yeah I guess. You kind of just expect death at this point. Oh, I think quite the opposite. I don't think I've ever felt more alive than I have now. Yeah. I mean, this place feels very alive. Um,
00:16:11
Speaker
I know it's gonna look around she can she hear the wildlife like she sees that the plants are beautiful but yeah, you definitely hear birds chirping different sounds of animals that you're not that you don't even recognize you can't even identify the sound and you know normally you could be like oh that's a that's a green-throated wobbler you know whatever but now you you don't have any any sense of what that could be it's a unique sound it almost overwhelmingly so like over stimulating the number of sounds that are above and around you and little skitterings here and there of creatures in the distance as well. There's this super weird moment where ah I'm gonna turn around and like look for the door that we walked through and then realize it's not there and then you someone got left behind. Well, that sword got left behind.
00:17:08
Speaker
that sword get over it already
Living Forest Perception
00:17:10
Speaker
i told you i would make you a damned sword well i don't see it now i don't have a forge now that sword killed me or look joxie there's one on the hill over here let's go get it i got a hammer my hammer can kill you too we can come on get over the sword man i will try but i i want that sword I want fire and ice. That's... never mind. you You wouldn't understand. Which one is it that you have right now? I have fire. I'm start hitting toward the hill to my left. I'm gonna follow but grumpily basically say like... Trying to tell a dwarf he doesn't know about a sword. Wendling gets up some follows. She's been sitting down. Hand over a drink as ah any anybody who wants it.
00:18:05
Speaker
The anger emotion is heightened. Yeah.
00:18:10
Speaker
uh so as you guys walk through the through the trees and you know you it's pretty tight the the trees grow quite close together even though the the trunks are aren't super big around but you're you're kind of having to weave you know through the forest trees to get to to just to get through to get beyond where you're headed and you're going up the hill and and it a few spots you know it gets a little rough the terrain and and you're having to kind of you know, climb up four feet and bank them into a little bit and do a little bit of not quite mountain climbing, but it almost feels like it. But then you get to a nice level that levels out. So it's it's very rough. It's very wild to hear. And everybody make perception checks as you are kind of walking through the forest. Ooh, I got a llama. That's a natural 20. You said perception. Yes, I did. Eighteen. Eighteen.
00:19:10
Speaker
21 total. Uh, 16. Cool. So Krigs, Gwyn, and Joxer, you guys all, you definitely notice as you're walking that The plant life and everything here shifts and changes as you walk. And when you move your feet, you step down to step, it it shifts away to like protect itself almost. And you find yourself stepping on soil safely. Like you're not harming this moss covered ground by walking on it. It's it's keeping itself safe from you.
00:19:47
Speaker
It's definitely not something, it definitely feels real and feels just like, you know, very earthy and, and but you feel more connected to it. Like it's it's ah it's more real than where you've been, you know, almost. Davin, you are hearing flitters and giggles almost.
00:20:06
Speaker
in the trees and it's like whatever creature you're hearing it's flying around it sounds like like almost like an insect but a very large one yeah as far as insects go and almost like humanoid type giggles here and there as you're walking up this hill but as you look around you can't set an eye on anything and I kind of feel like we're being watched a little bit. Or maybe just this place. Well, I... By who? I don't really know. I just hear some... You guys don't hear that? I like that giggling sound. Maybe it's just... Maybe it's just wings. It just sounds weird. I don't know. I'm sorry. It's just... i'm Every... Have you noticed when we walk, everything moves out of the way?
00:20:53
Speaker
It's like a it's really it's like the I don't know. The plants here are more aware. Come on, when can't you like to talk to plants? ah Gwendolyn, when Jock's just talking about how the plants are kind of alive, obviously plants are alive, but these are more alive than normal. Yeah, she she starts kind of like tiptoeing because she doesn't want to put her whole foot down. She's walking around them.
00:21:23
Speaker
and she doesn't know how to talk to them or if they would even understand her. Yeah. Well, and as you as you start to put your feet down and in tiptoe, you you do see that they kind of split around your foot, almost like if you were to be stepping in water and the and the water moves away from you when you put your water when you put your foot in. It's like you you you know how you can't really touch water. It it just kind of like,
00:21:53
Speaker
wraps around you, right? And ah that's kind of how it feels like with this as well. these they're They're just, ah you know, molecular at a molecular level, they're avoiding you and keeping from being crushed by you. and And no matter how much of your foot you put down, they seem to be able to do that. ah you Are you tiptoeing? I don't want to hurt them. No, no, but but look, they're they're moving away. You don't theyre they I don't want hurt their feelings. And in Elvish, she just looks and I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Every time she puts her foot down in Elvish, I respond with that. Do you think they speak in Elvin? I mean, is that a plant thing? so What?
00:22:41
Speaker
I don't know. She speaks back. Devin, who does not speak Elvish at all, looks over to Craig and says, look at, they both speak to plants. I didn't know that Jockster could speak to plants. You look at me and I have two different pieces of metal billets in my hand. I'm like, I could forge these together and Damascus blade. Do I want full tang? Just like I'm obsessing about the sword that I'm now going to have to craft.
00:23:05
Speaker
Okay, so now we have two people set with swords. Daven, if you're looking around talking to them, what's your passive perception? It's not great, Bob. It's 11. Okay. All right.
00:23:22
Speaker
ah Okay, so you're you're distracted talking to them, trying to kind of just figure out what each member is doing and keep everyone moving forward. and And yeah, and you guys just continue up the hill, I guess? That's the goal. Yep. Running up the- Making our way. Okay, awesome. So as you continue up the hill,
00:23:48
Speaker
you finally kind of crest the top of this hill and the tree line starts to you you kind of pass the thickest part of the tree line a few minutes ago and you're now up to where they're very a lot more sporadic and definitely smaller trees they're not as tall up here but there's a lot more like lower growth plant life bushes and and higher grass and some things like that the blades of grass dancing in all different directions like each blade is ah own individual just moving in in some sort of pattern but it doesn't but you can't make sense of the pattern and then the you'll feel a slight breeze blow and instead of just like blowing in the direction of the breeze It's almost like each of these blades of grass or leaves in the trees or stems growing from flowers, whatever, they they as the breeze blows through them, it's almost like they each have their own response to the to the breeze and almost shudder in it and then move with it after this little shudder of almost celebration that the breeze is blowing through them.
00:24:57
Speaker
and then you can look and see ah from where you're sitting you can see that you're at the top of one of the top one of the highest points that around you and you can kind of look up around and see the bright colorful tops of trees all around you in this forest And the in in the distance, the you can see the trees get thicker. And and this over over here, further in the distance, you can see almost like a line where there aren't any trees kind of snaking through in the distance. And besides that, if anyone would like to make a perception check as you look out over this this view.
00:25:38
Speaker
I think I do because I am sitting here looking at these pieces of metal billets thinking about the sword and I've realized that the ground is moving away from my feet and I'm starting to feel like I'm being judged by the plants for some reason for like being so obsessed with you know something ah basically unnatural you know the metallic and everything that I got in my hands.
00:25:58
Speaker
So I'm going to kind of just like get slightly paranoid about all the the plants. So I want to definitely do a passive or a perception check. All right. Yeah. And I think I 17 jocks are. Oh, nice. I was going to say jocks are not going to do a perception and check because he's going to start looking at that book from from his previous memory and then start thinking about like. What it means and then how he's going to bring it up.
Joxer's Mysterious Book
00:26:27
Speaker
Gwendolyn is not going to do perception because she's too busy dancing and saying sorry to the plants. I actually really like us explaining why we're not doing something. Yeah. yeah I don't want to play D&D. I want to pretend like- I hate rolling down. I want to pretend like I'm in a really cool garden. I got a 19 on my perception check. 19 for Daven. Who else? So perceptive. I got 17. 17 for Krigs. You're inspecting the grass, right? Like the plants.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah, I'm kind of looking around and like starting to feel paranoid about being judged by all these. Gotcha. natural As you look around, as you look around, Softrin, can I call you Softrin? As you look around, you see the um You can see the plants are, it it it doesn't, it seems, I guess, I don't know how you can say that plants are disregarding you. They're ambivalent to you, but they are just doing their thing, man. It seems like this is what these plants do. I don't know if I should make you make an insight check for these plants, but you don't get as, okay, do it and do an insight check. That'll actually be good. We can make that happen. 25. No, really?
00:27:43
Speaker
I have really high insight. so i Yeah, you do. So you definitely, without a doubt, you look carefully and you get a sense from all of the plant life, including the lichen and the moss at your feet, that they have no agenda. They are just living their best plant life, right?
00:28:03
Speaker
And they're, they just are to be, if that makes any sense. And so you're, yeah, exactly. And, and anything they do is instinctual and survival. They just have a more of a sense. you You sense that they have a sense. They have saying the word sense too much. You get the, the feeling that they have a sense of self. You know, whereas plants, I know. Whereas plants where you're from don't seem to have a sense of self. what They smell like what's their scent.
00:28:34
Speaker
Well, you sense the scent. You pay 15 cents to sense the sense of these. She sense sense. Sorry, I'm a jerk. Let's get back to what we were doing. You can sell it. all I like the challenge is funny. it's it's Oh, man. ah No, they smell great. ah But that has to be a kind candle shop, right? Cincy. OK. Yeah, those are the like things that are apparently you burn them in a. Yeah, it's definitely a MLM thing. You burn them in a little melting thing in it with a light bulb and it makes the smell without having open. flame Anyway, you can use them in dorm rooms. You know me. Yeah. Yeah. Not me. So so anyway. However.
00:29:21
Speaker
in your viewing, and then Davin, you see this too much quicker before Krigs and with more detail. You can see what looks like some sort of transparent roof-like structure in the distance, some sort of crafted building, don't ah not a dome, but like a cylindrical roof that looks transparent from where you are, you really can only see the pink light and purple light reflecting off of it. But you can tell just from kind of moving and trying to see through the glare that it's like glass or whatever would be, but it's some sort of roof over in the distance, kind of poking out through the trees with a small clearing to the side of it. It's not a huge, it's not a huge site out there, but there it is nonetheless.
00:30:20
Speaker
I look over to Davin. I bet you dishes tonight, that that's probably where we gotta go. Yeah, i I'm not taking that bet. I believe you. Okay. One of these days. I'm tired of doing dishes. Well, you don't watch you draw the cards at the beginning of the shift. You stick with it. um What is that? It's like it's there, but it's not there. You know what I mean?
00:30:44
Speaker
It's kind of par for the course. I don't know if golf exists in this realm, but... It does now. We invented it. We just invented golf, guys. You just made it happen. Is it is it golf or is it goth? G-O-F. There you go. It doesn't seem natural. and It's too material and also immaterial to be anything. I'm going to have to get a closer look.
00:31:12
Speaker
We made it well, right? I don't see anything else us around here, and really, except for more of the same. It's beautiful. is This is a nice place to like, maybe a comp site, but don't tell anyone else I said this, but yes, it is quite, quite lovely. I said that word. You just hear Gwen. Do all of you know how to sign your name? Uh, I mean, yes. K R I G.
00:31:39
Speaker
Kriggles, but ah but i are you able to write it yourself? Are you implying I can't write? I'm asking. I'm asking. Well, actually, Prue, I need all of you to write your names in here. This isn't like a death note thing. As Prue. Gwendolyn isn't even listening. She's just in the background just in Elvish. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'll pull out a little little little like you know, ethereal pen and pull out the book. ah Show me. I think you it should be Safran. Show me Safran that you can write your name. I just write. I hate you. and I'm kidding. I write my name. OK. What about what about you, Davin? And I flip a page. I'll i'll take it right. Davin W. Meinstrider. Davin W. Meinstrider? What is his middle name? It's William.
00:32:38
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Just kidding. We call him the Willy for short. you will that's get ah flip Flip another page and then I'll hand it over to Gwen. Gwen, I think the plants want you to write your name here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What? Gwen, hey, um you need to ah write and your name for an apology for the plants.
00:33:02
Speaker
do Do you think they'll accept it? that that They haven't really been saying. up Absolutely. They already spoke to me in gnomish. I, uh, I definitely am mummering, mummering. Wow. Muddering under my breath a little bit to dab him that, uh, I assume he owns our souls now. Yeah. Can I do an insight check on Joxer and figure out why they want to please do Joxer. Do you want to do a deception against it? Uh, yeah. Yeah. Are you trying to hide things?
00:33:33
Speaker
I don't, I don't know, but I'm going to roll that deception to see what I get. And then we'll go from there. I love it. Nat 20. He looks like hands are in the air. Oh no way. All right. Mine's only plus two. Mine's only plus six. Oh snap.
00:33:52
Speaker
beat Beat your net 20. I love that. i i think I think at first it feels very devious, right? like that It's clearly something wrong. yeah But when when you see the amount of effort and kind of bewildering manner he is trying to get like Gwen to sign,
00:34:13
Speaker
um It starts to be a lot less less of something that could be sole ownership as much as like he feels like this is the only way man this is he can help you. This is a real quick ticket to like getting beat up. Uh And you can, you can if that if that seems right, Michael, I feel like that's where. Yeah. I mean, you definitely sense a desperation in his eyes that he he wants with everything inside of him for you to just put your name in this book. I'll lean over to c Craig's and say, I think it's just jokes are being jokes are, you know. that That means kind of crazy and and slightly untrustworthy, right? Sure, but also trustworthy at the same time.
00:35:05
Speaker
Untrusting, untrustworthy. Yeah. It's one of those people that you don't want to put your lives in their hands. But if the time came where you had to put the lives in your hands, you're glad it's within his hands. Gwendolyn hops over to Joxer and what is the pin? ah ah Right here. It's a, it's a, it's a little, little kind of more ethereal. It doesn't look like a real pin. Um, she takes it and signs her name and then She has Dale underneath her arm and she pulls Dale out and then like scribbles over his paw and then puts a paw print next to her name. So I make sure that the Dale signed as well. Are you sure they wouldn't forgive me? She just keeps it. Yes, especially Dale. Is that true, Dale? How does. What do I let's survive? I get from dick the vibe you get from Dale.
00:35:58
Speaker
I'm glad you asked. Joke's on jocks and I didn't spell my name right. Oh, and Daven looks like. Jocks are instead. Daven looks like a two-year-old wrote it. And it says Dee Willy. Dee Willy brained Walker.
00:36:15
Speaker
ah So you, for the first time really, I mean, you checked to make sure Dale was okay, but for the first time really, you look deep at Dale with some thought, like trying to assess.
00:36:27
Speaker
where he's at and he doesn't say anything. Like you don't hear his voice or anything, but you get the sense that he's excited, like anticipation. And it makes you feel a little bit excited, like looking at his face. It looks like his face has always looked, ah but you can't explain it, but you've never needed to be able to explain your relationship with Dale. You just feel excited because he's excited and you know it.
00:36:56
Speaker
it It seems like Dale thinks we did the right thing. I'm going to step on your plants and she walks away from Jokzur. Look what you started.
00:37:10
Speaker
um And then I feel like there's a a bit of relief that that can be seen on Jokzur for that moment. And then he swings back and and looks at Safran. And if it is misspelled, I'm like, oh, I guess you can't spell your name. You get the full trophy.
00:37:26
Speaker
The full or full? The dunce thing happens. You say full, like full? I say like full. and I spelled it wrong. Full. Well, then that wouldn't have happened. like In an alternate universe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. it It's ah i ah definitely more, ah it seems like there's a ah bit of a pep from the moment that everybody signed. it's ah So really, really for him for sure. Awesome. Yeah. So Joshua seems like he feels better. Well, we're added actually. I need a piece of each one of your hair. The heck? Demon boy. Hand out vials. Uh, blood, please. We all pull out our ritual knives. Yep.
00:38:18
Speaker
Yeah. Oh no, I, I specifically crafted them all for you. You have an engineered ritual. Nice. Yeah. Just a little bit shorter than usual. Well, I'm not trying to be the leader of this group here all of a sudden, but I feel like we should go down there and check out this, this little building over here. I don't know if you've seen it. Did you notice this over here?
00:38:40
Speaker
Oh. Make a perception check. As the true leader of the group, I can turn. ah so um That is a four. um You see nothing. You see trees, baby. Well, but um I'll walk in any direction. I said um i' I will follow just a What am I looking at again? All of a sudden, you just hear Gwen go, I'm free! And then she turns into a doe and starts running around. Oh, nice. And then I guess notices. I mean, I can do a perception check, but she notices the little house. Yeah, note ah do a perception check. So she's just running around now. As a deer. As a deer, 15.
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, you see the glimmer of it the the roof kind of reflecting the light from the sky, and it makes it pretty clear that's what he was talking about. Just from the the dis the the direction he gestured and all that, you can tell, yeah, that's that's what we're probably going to. Okay, then she's making gleeful deer noises, which I don't know what it sounds like, because I know they can holler real weird.
00:39:56
Speaker
well Yeah, very it's very unsettling. Yeah. The deer is happy, but it makes everyone else uncomfortable. Like a car horn and is starting to die. All of our faces just... All right,
00:40:13
Speaker
exactly I'm going to start moving that way. How long of a journey is it? Like seven, eight days? No, you don't think so those days, those days are over in this podcast. Not in season three. All right. Uh,
Discovery of Stone Dwelling
00:40:29
Speaker
yeah. So you, as you look that direction and you kind of ah make a survival check, I guess. Oh man. I am rolling like a mad man today. Nice. We should get in a fight. You should pick a fight with somebody only roll the two, but I have a plus seven. That's not bad. I got a nine total nine.
00:40:46
Speaker
Uh, it could be anywhere from a couple hours to a day. You're not a hundred percent sure from what, cause you're just, you're, you're kind of unclear without any kind of path or road and, and being uphill, it's hard to kind of gauge your distance.
00:41:03
Speaker
you know like You know how when you look off of a cliff or or a or a hill and you have a stone or something, and you're like, I bet I can throw this to that thing over there. And then it falls in front of you. It looks like it went five feet. And you're like, wait a second. I thought I threw it way further than that. It feels like that. like your The distance is kind of hard to measure from where you are. And so you're not 100% sure, but you get the sense. you You kind of feel like it won't be tomorrow when you get there. it You can't imagine it taking that long.
00:41:32
Speaker
yeah whatever, today, tomorrow, yesterday, who knows how that even works. I was wrong by the way, I only have a plus one, so it was a three total, but I didn't want to interrupt your beautiful descriptions. That's good, but with a three, you don't even know if it will be tomorrow. You have no idea. Is there tomorrow here? I don't even know. Exactly. Are we dead? Can I be dead and in heaven or whatever this would be and still it hurts when when somebody gets punched? I don't know.
00:42:01
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, we have a doe that is running away and to even try to- A female deer. It's a deer that is trying to run away. There's no way we can focus. We are literally just running after Gwen as we normally do. Oh, crap. Such is life. You're following deer Gwen through the trees. She is...
00:42:29
Speaker
dive, dodge, ducking, and just dipping all through everything, dodging around the trees, almost impossible to follow in this, in your current, just like two legged haunches, just kind of running. Krig's kind of falling behind a little bit, but, you know, clanging with armor and things as he runs.
00:42:51
Speaker
ah But you hear enough, thankfully, the honking sound ahead of you kind of keeps you on task going with the direction you need to go. And you you travel for a good you travel for a good probably hour, more than little more than an hour. And then Gwen, you you feel you realize your deer form is gonna fade, I think, right? You can only be for an hour, is that right?
00:43:21
Speaker
Yes. So you feel like it's going to fade. I know you can do it more than once, but at this point, this version of it is fading. Do you want to drop it or let it drop or are you going to be continue or be something else or what? Uh, I want to let it continue. Okay. I look like, um, I, I have the color of my hair is the color of the deer. So it's like silvery. Yeah. Cool. So if we can see it against the purple flowers.
00:43:47
Speaker
Yeah, so you start to you start to feel like you might catch up and you the the the honking kind of ends as Gwen kind of gets tired and slows down as her body's transferring back to herself, her her her ah elven self. And just as you feel like you might catch up, you hear a renewed kind of reinvigorated oh as she starts running off again, ah ready for her second hour of deerhood, as she runs through the forest and through the woods. ah ah Gwen, why don't you make a perception check as you get to the end of this second hour? Deer perception or me perception? Deer perception, because you have their eyes. Oh my gosh, I rolled a natural 20, so. Whoa!
00:44:37
Speaker
So you as you're running, you start to see the glimmer of what looks to be that transparent glass-like structure in the distance. It looks about another three to five minute walk that way but the the clearing ahead of you opens up before that and so you can see it in the distance and in there's next to it is another small building made from stone and branches of all different colors the roof is kind of thatched with different branches you see a small garden in the front of it and this is looks like someone's dwelling place
00:45:17
Speaker
from where you are. Do you want to continue forward or does this stop slow you down or stop you? It probably slows me down a little bit, but she smells something, something she hasn't smelled before. So it's probably the little hut, the little house, the wood that's made out of or whatever it is.
00:45:37
Speaker
Yeah, you definitely, you smell, and it's a, again, it's like a honey smell. It's almost like a honeysuckle, but it smells a little bit, a little bit peppery at the same time in a really good way, like a sweet, spicy almost smell. And you, as you get to the edge of the tree line, you're probably only about 70 to 80 feet away from this property really, where this,
00:46:03
Speaker
little habitat or in this little dwelling place is sitting, you you can see these white and gold flowers kind of spawning, growing up from the the plant life that creates the roof of this house. Definitely the walls are made of stone with kind of moss in between the edges of where the stone has been attached. The doorway is kind of an arched doorway with ah brand, it looks like,
00:46:33
Speaker
The door itself is made from branches, and the there's a big knot on one of the branches towards the where like a handle would be for the door. The garden is out front, and you see and the in the garden very low kind of vegetables or fruits kind of growing.
00:46:55
Speaker
on the ground in one section of the garden and then you see several rows of like large stalky type plants almost like corn would be but they're they're blue they're not green and the the other vegetables and fruits are kind of there's some that are white like bright white and some that are bright pink and an orange and uh and then that other building that sits nearby is this transparent almost glass-like structure and inside of there you see even more plant life that's even more colorful and bright like more like what you see out in the forest and then in the and then just beyond the building a little bit just beyond the the the house the cabin itself you see the top half
00:47:44
Speaker
of three very tall wooden, it looks like, carvings. These carvings look like giant people like humanoids.
00:47:57
Speaker
where their arms are like made from branches and they're in different positions kind of posing their their bodies are very thin and narrow and tall and coming to a to shoulders and then into like a small ah a thin narrow tall neck that goes into a head that just barely creates a larger circumference than the neck to shape this head it doesn't look like people it just looks like tree or wood in the shape of people there's three of them and their arms are in different configurations one looking like it's reaching its arms out one of them has one arm up and one arm down and the other one has two arms to the side like it's spread its arms out almost like it's ready for a hug
00:48:41
Speaker
And you you see that, but you only see the top half of those as they stand tall above the house itself.
Encounter with Marlow
00:48:48
Speaker
The house looks a normal size, like a person would live there, a normal humanoid sized person. But it is, it it seems, doesn't seem abandoned. It seems kept up. The garden is well, well manicured. The glass structure, greenhouse sort of structure is very nice. and This is kind of the the view you're taking in as your your party members, your friends, kind of arrive coming up into the back of this deer looking out at this view ahead of you. Gwendolyn, she stops at the tree line to take this all in, and she notices the statues and wants to go to them. But the smell of the house caught her attention, so she takes a step forward, and then she gets the scent of that blue, blue corn.
00:49:38
Speaker
and she does yeah And because she hadn't eaten anything real in a long time. Yeah. And the beast dinner kind of ticks over. OK. So you see her it's kind of like what you'd see normally if you live in the Midwest. Yeah. Trying cautiously to walk towards something. Yeah. Yeah. So the deer starts to come out And you guys see Gwen the deer kind of work its way work her way toward that direction. She gets about halfway between where you guys are standing at the tree line and the garden itself. She's about 50 feet ahead of you guys. What are you going to do?
00:50:14
Speaker
I imagine I would have gotten there first since I'm I think my speed's a little above everybody since 40 feet. um And I would immediately like just deadbolt stopped at like the tree line. And then once I saw Gwen and then just kind of put my hands out like we don't want to scare the animal. Yeah. It's just one of those moments just like instant like wait. OK. And then I kind of.
00:50:43
Speaker
Get my head back around that it's not we weren't chasing a doe for two hours we yeah when listen um And everybody arrives and then you right as you process that Davin and Craig show up right there to behind you as well. Oh I'll tell you what I think the errors dinner here. It's a bit harder to breathe You're telling me
00:51:09
Speaker
in in this In that moment, ah i don't I don't know what you're talking about as like there is no breathing or chest movement coming from Joxer in this moment. I thought it's it's been easier here. I think you're right about the being dead thing, Briggs. He might be dead. He might be.
00:51:34
Speaker
It's like I'm like now distracted by like trying to ah feel like I can still breathe, but it's it doesn't seem like it's doing anything for me. So um I spent a time on the farms and stuff like that growing up. I think I would have an idea what a greenhouse would look like. Does this look like a greenhouse to me? One hundred percent. This is a greenhouse. Straight walls on the sides, kind of a domed longer than not round dome, but like a arched, I guess would be the term roof of some sort of glass material. Oh, I haven't seen somebody like this since I was younger. It's like a building for putting plants in, you know, to kind of grow them around. Whoever lives here is just
00:52:21
Speaker
Gardener, I suppose. um And then Jockster looks over. Oh, oh, yeah. i I've definitely seen those. It looks. I don't I don't think I've seen it look quite like that. That's. Is that a material?
00:52:39
Speaker
that I know of? Is that, is that glass? No, that's gotta be different than glass. Yeah, if it is glass, it's, it's like sandblasted or something, which you don't think you, that's not really a thing. So it's weird because no glass where you've seen is very,
00:52:57
Speaker
First of all, you only see it on like temples and government buildings. It's like, it's not, you're not going to find that in most places. Second of all, it's really roughly hewn, right? The edges are sharp. They're very difficult to craft in a nice way. It just breaks. So no matter what you're doing with it, it's very brittle. It's, it's, it's not, this isn't like that. Something's different about this that makes it a lot more delicate and like even the ah greenhouses that you've seen, Daven, the
00:53:29
Speaker
There were, there were more like regular stone or wood structures with big, big rough glass panels on the ceilings and sides of the ceilings, right? To let light in. It wasn't like this built a hundred percent out of this. i This is pretty neat. Yeah. Is that, is that like a, um, a magical spell? Like, is that something you, you can do? and darin I mean, I suppose I could try. I've never talked about doing something like this before. Didn't really have a use for it.
00:54:00
Speaker
i Are you okay, Krix? Are gonna vomit? No. He says about to vomit. I i that look i mean,
00:54:16
Speaker
okay, nevermind. And then I'll look around and and look for Gwen again in the field. okay When you look out, you see Gwen approaching that those corn stalks.
00:54:29
Speaker
And she's getting real close. And as she gets right up to the stalks and Gwen, you smell that sweet, sweet corn smell and you're ready to go at it. And from get that corn girl.
00:54:48
Speaker
um with it Get that corn out of my face. From within the tall, few rows of this tall corn-like plant, a form stands up out of it.
00:55:03
Speaker
And the the form at first just kind of looks like a shadow kind of covered by the the the shadows of these plants. And then it steps out of the the these stalks of corn and it sees you and puts both hands out as if to say, woa whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, calm down. It reaches a hand real slowly.
00:55:31
Speaker
grabs corn off of one of the stalks with a jerk cracking it off of there going on backs up a little bit kind of holds it out to you you're looking at a man who stands probably five foot five five foot six average height he's wearing a He's wearing a bright green tunic with a thick cloth brown belt wrapped around his waist, and he's got pants on that are multicolored, just kind of bright, like they were almost like tie-dye pants, and he's wearing thick-strapped sandals on his feet. He has dark eyes
00:56:20
Speaker
and very dark skin and a white beard that's kind of bushy and scraggly and big white hair that is pulled back on the top and tied into it like a knot or a bun on the back of his head, but he allows the, the, his hair.
00:56:40
Speaker
on the back of his head to fall down along around his shoulders, but it doesn't really fall as much as it kind of just sticks out around his shoulders. And he puts his, his arm short sleeve shirt, his dark arm. You could see his long fingernails, not creepy long, but just like he doesn't have time to mess with that dirt under his fingernails reaches forward. He's got a dirt on his face. He's wearing a bag that has, you can tell it has weeds and things kind of falling out of it. Like he's been working in the garden.
00:57:10
Speaker
He holds the corn out to you and he says, hey there girl, here you go. Take it easy now. Marlow's gotcha. That's where we'll stop the episode. Marlow. I don't know who that is. hello I like him. What the heck?
00:57:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. been fi ah We should offer him the one ring and see if he takes it gleefully. Yeah.