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Ep. 77 Watching The Watchers
191 Plays2 years ago
Deeper into the unforgiving lands of the north the Swords are seemingly forever faced by sets of eyes watching their every move from around every corner.
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Transcript
A World of Loneliness and Mystery
00:00:04
Speaker
previously on the hired swords. Do you ever call out to someone and you don't hear anything? Like you're yelling as loud as you can but no one responds.
00:00:24
Speaker
It can make a person feel lonely, like no one's there to listen or show them they're there. This place, it doesn't feel right. I don't even know how I can sleep. I mean, there's these creatures that just keep staring at us, but yet won't talk to us. I mean, who are they? What are they?
00:00:54
Speaker
It doesn't matter. I guess that they won't talk. I mean I tried just No response. I tried talking to the plants. There's no wildlife here. I just I Think for the first time I'm I'm scared. I Don't know what to do here. I Just want to help please talk to me I'm here for you
00:01:52
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Sword, the cautionary tale of what happens when a couple of friends play some D&D.
Introduction to 'The Hired Swords'
00:02:11
Speaker
Everybody clap in three, two, one. We tried. We always do. Mine was awesome. I did a good job. Mine was awesome. What a jerk. What a jerk. Here we go.
00:02:31
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Hired Swords. I am your Dungeon Master, Michael. Joining me today is Blaze, playing Krig's Galdor, sovereign Ember Oak, Mushroom Daddy the Third. That's me! Also, Derek's here. He's Daven. Just Daven. I got no extra names.
00:02:50
Speaker
Don't forget Joxer, that's played by Mikey Guy. Yeah, that's me. Did any of you ever own one of those little birds that dips their head in the water? I never did, but I thought they were neat. I don't think anybody's ever actually owned those things. Someone had to. I saw one of the restaurants next to the toothpicks. That's a weird place. Can one actually own one of those, though? Hey, let's not forget Ash. She's Gwendolyn. Hi, Ash. Herody. Herody.
Exploring and Resting in Strange Lands
00:03:21
Speaker
Well, when we last left off, we were in the untouched lands or something that seemed like it could be the untouched lands at least. We touched them though. They're now touched lands. Now that the Fran lands. Yeah, they're in my pocket. Ash took a little bit, or Gwen took a little bit, put it in her pocket. And we walked through there a little bit, kind of keeping our eyes on the eyes that are watching us until we decided we were so exhausted, we needed to take a night to rest. And so they started to, the party started to settle in and rest after a little conversation about
00:03:50
Speaker
how we should treat bugs and weird stuff we did as we were kids and weird things about us now including enjoying the smell of our own flatulence. We then started to rest and Gwendolyn was awakened suddenly by a sudden pain in her gut as something was making a tax upon her.
00:04:08
Speaker
followed by Krig's Galdor experiencing the same feeling. Something unseen is attacking the party.
Ambushed by the Unseen
00:04:14
Speaker
Gwendolyn failed at an attempt to cast a spell that would help them maybe track down what this creature might be. And we find ourselves, after Krig's calling to awaken the rest of the party, we find ourselves with everyone awake. Jocks are currently down inside his brew hole where he's brewing.
00:04:33
Speaker
I'm going to say, what's your passive perception, Joxer? Passive perception is 11. So you above 10 is good. You heard a faint shouting from outside this magical hole that you were able to climb down inside of, something that feels a little urgent. And you rolled the highest on your initiative so you can go ahead and take your turn now as we enter this combat.
00:05:03
Speaker
You know what because I I didn't actually roll initiative for For spell slots who helps me out in the brew hall great to do this just a curiosity Nat 20 straight up Nat 20 nice go spell slots yeah, so I don't know if you want that to be before or after me or Concurrently or whichever
00:05:27
Speaker
Well he'll be before you cuz you're 18 so okay then go and then you go yeah then if he also knew my urgency he would normally do his his little cast on my end where he would give me.
00:05:44
Speaker
one of his, uh, um, spells. So I would be invigorated by haste. Okay. You have haste currently. Right. Which just gives me a little bit of extra oomph here. And then. So that's a solid min max move. It is. It's, it is. It was really the best for what Joxer, it was the best for Joxer. Just Joxer's best.
00:06:08
Speaker
in that moment. Okay, so with a little bit of haste, I will leave spell slots in my brew hole, and I will leap out, or climb out and leap whatever actions ensue there, and I will... You know what? Alright, so once I get out of the hole, what do I see about me?
00:06:40
Speaker
When you get out, you see Kriegsgalder standing there with his hammer, looking for what to attack. After having cast his spell to help Gwyndolin a little bit, you see Gwyndolin, just as his spell dissipates, as she's trying to cast his spell to kind of highlight whatever's attacking them. And she's also looking around. You see Davin starting to kind of rise and trying to find his senses as he's starting to wake up a little bit as he is going to be next. And that's kind of all you see right now.
00:07:10
Speaker
Well, that is super unfortunate. So what I'm going to do, I'll probably run, I guess, a little closer to the group here. So I'm kind of next to Krigs and Gwen.
00:07:30
Speaker
And then I'm just going to disappear for a second. And for an action, I'm going to use Astral Refuge. Great. In which I just poof, go into another dimension for a half second and I will cast some things on myself, which will be Shadow Blade. So I get Shadow Blade and I get Armor of Agathist.
00:07:54
Speaker
Okay. And then I poof back. In that Astral Refuge, did I see anything that might resemble an enemy around Krigs and Gwen?
00:08:09
Speaker
When you go into that astral refuge, no, you don't. And it looks like a completely different space that you're in completely. And the time you spend in there, you don't see the trees and the forest floor and everything.
Combat with Invisible Foes
00:08:25
Speaker
You're almost like in this floating expanse right now at this point. That slight delay in your voice for you don't...
00:08:34
Speaker
See anything. All right then. I guess at this point if I don't if it doesn't seem like they are being consumed in our previous experience then.
00:08:50
Speaker
I don't know, I'll probably blindly swing a blade to a direction away from them. OK. And see if I can hit something. OK. Just knowing that this darkness is trash and I hate it.
00:09:06
Speaker
All right, make an attack roll with disadvantage. Okay. And roll a d4 to see if you'd go north, actually, or d6. So that's a 14 plus something, and that is a 15 plus something. So both of those are plus seven, so 22. Okay. No, 21. And you set a d4? Yeah, we'll do a d4. See which in the cardinal directions you attack.
00:09:33
Speaker
That fell to the floor. Let's see where. Four. All right. So you attack directly like diagonal southeast of where you're standing. And as you swing that attack, you feel like you strike solid and hit nothing. There's nothing there. Unfortunate. That is where I have to end my turn. All right. So that is going to take us now to Davin's turn.
00:10:01
Speaker
Daven's going to jump up. What's going on? What's happening? And not seeing anything, not knowing what's going on. I'm going to cast Mage Hand, though you don't see it. There's my invisible Mage Hand pops up right next to Gwendolyn, just like as an extra little protection for her. And then I'm going to rush toward the group, keeping probably I guess I'm not that far away from everybody. I'm going to rush back kind of like behind Joxer a little bit. OK.
00:10:28
Speaker
Um, just so that we're kind of in a little formation here to ready to attack. Okay. So you, uh, you rush over there and you kind of prepare yourself. And just as you do, um, a, Oh, come on. Uh, nope. That's one.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, so just as you hear over near Carmen, you hear where Carmen was laying. You hear him kind of cry out like a startle almost.
00:11:11
Speaker
He he kind of stands up quickly inside this in just you see his head kind of poke out from behind the bushes and he begins looking around like what was that what's going on and and then just as you experience that you then Does a 16 hit you Devin it does
00:11:32
Speaker
Okay, so a 16 and a 9 is not gonna hit. So you suddenly feel the same cold just come over you and it's like you got hit by this huge gust of wind and it just knocks the breath out of you. You take 10 bludgeoning damage. All right.
00:11:52
Speaker
and you suddenly just get this wind knocked out of you like that. And you feel that same kind of cold that you've heard everybody kind of shivering and you experienced that as well. And then it seems to leave you just as quickly as you felt it. And that takes us to Craig's turn. It was bludgeoning damage, right? Because I'm resistant to cold. Yeah, it was bludgeoning. Got it. All right. I am going to
00:12:19
Speaker
Hmm, I guess I'm going to cast my... Was it a spell or was it a... was it a... was it a... was it a... was it a... there it is. I'm going to cast Divine Sense as an action. I can detect good and evil until the end of the next turn. I can sense anything affected by the hollow spell or know the location of any celestial fiend or undead within 60 feet. It is not behind total cover.
00:12:46
Speaker
Okay, so as you begin to go into this state where you can see these things and experience this, you once again see what you know to be a necklace around Daven's neck and I believe, if I remember correctly, Joxer has the other necklace still, correct?
00:13:09
Speaker
Yes. Or did orange nickels? It was destroyed. One was destroyed, the other one was sent back to Joxer. Yeah, so I have that. So you see that aura still in Joxer's bag.
00:13:25
Speaker
Imagine I still see spell slots. Well, he's in the brew hole, so he's kind of in a pocket dimension right now. You wouldn't see him pocket plane, but you do not see anything else around you. So that makes you feel like these are not, whatever's happening is not undead, fave, fiend, or celestial. And with my last little bit of action, which isn't really an action, I'm going to just kind of call out
00:13:52
Speaker
Anyone see anything at all anywhere? What do we hit? And that'll be my turn. All right, Gwendolyn. Um, when Craig's asked that, Gwendolyn's just kind of in pain. Um, and so she starts to.
00:14:15
Speaker
She starts to think of a spell that she hasn't used in a long time. And she starts saying in Elvish to herself, nature I seek thee find the tree in me and I cast guardian of nature.
00:14:32
Speaker
Okay, let's see what that does. Dixie likes... Volume one. Her skin's coming down with like, it's becoming bark-like and her hair is becoming more like ivy as she turns into this tree, which is the great tree.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yes, queen. Yes. And what is cool about it is I get 10 temporary hit points. Yeah, you do. 10 more. Then I get to make constitution saving throws with advantage, dexterity and wisdom based attack rolls with advantage. And then while I'm on the ground, the ground within 15 feet of me is difficult terrain for my enemies, so not my friends.
00:15:21
Speaker
Okay, so people are I'm able to like move them I would think as my people walk around make sense Cool, that's a neat. Yeah, and that's all in a bonus. I've been waiting to use this. Yeah, that's a bonus action So what are you gonna do with your action? Yes. Yes. Yes It's a level four spell though
00:15:44
Speaker
I am, I want to see if you'll let me do this. I'm going to do talk to plants, to myself, if possible, since I'm a tree. Is that a, is that a, what kind of spell is that?
00:16:00
Speaker
What level? Is that a cantrip? Level three. Oh, you can't cast two spells in one turn. But what if one's bonus action? Only if it's a cantrip and a spell, not two spells. Mike, you're not letting me play the game. Yeah, that one's always a weird one. That rule is so weird to me. Listeners, this is Mike's fault. Just kidding.
00:16:23
Speaker
Clearly. But it kind of is. If you stop listening to this podcast right now, you understand. What happened to Cool? What happened to Cool Mike? Rule was Cool Mike. I think it's cool sometimes to follow the written rules. No. The rules are cool. The rules are cool. The rules are cool. I went out of your mouth. I can taste it myself. That's palpable, palpable bad flavor.
00:16:50
Speaker
I'm going to cast my spirit totem.
00:16:56
Speaker
OK, as well. What's that one? Is that a second ability or it's also a bonus action? No, let's say this. Let's say this. OK, OK. You can you can cast a cantrip or do an a regular like attack action or something like that or move. That's what I want to do. I want to do a regular attack action. OK, so we'll erase everything that came out of my mouth after I became a tree. And then Gwendolyn,
00:17:25
Speaker
Basically like use her tree bark hands that are now like sprouts and branches And tries to swipe at the sky, okay Make an attack rule, okay And what guy do you mean this guy just kidding and the guy where oh the sky? Not this guy you can't take this guy from me Not with 46 of them
00:17:55
Speaker
4d6 That weirdly sounded like oh and You rolled a nine yes Great so your you swipe out with your with your Tree branch hands, I guess tree bark hands. Yes, and just there's just air. There's nothing I
00:18:22
Speaker
I can't see them, what is this? That's it. Okay, and that's gonna take us to Carmen's turn. Carmen Stone, my dear friend, is going to run his little self back into the trees and make a stealth check, try to hide. He rolled a natural one, gosh. That sounds about right.
00:18:50
Speaker
It's a bad choice. So he tries to tuck himself away with a natural one. He gets an 11 stealth, right? No, he gets a 14 with a natural one stealth. So he tries to hide himself over in the trees and he's just looking around and he calls out.
00:19:15
Speaker
Tell me where to throw my dagger. Just tell me where to throw it. As he looks around calling out to you guys to just give him direction on where to throw a dagger and he'll throw his dagger. He's gonna hold. He's gonna hold that dagger throw action. We now come to Joxer again. And the spell slots is doing something from within the hole.
00:19:38
Speaker
So he would be before me and he does not because he is hiding. Well, shoot, this is just unfortunate right now.
00:19:55
Speaker
because I don't know really how else to attack things. So I will probably use an action to actually summon spell slots and then. Probably just spend an action just to see through spell slots and maybe a free action to scream out what direction things are. OK.
Turning the Tide of Battle
00:20:26
Speaker
So hang on, I was reading something real quick. Tell me what you did with spell slots real quick. Again, I apologize. As an action, I think it's a bonus action, dismiss him. Yeah. And as an action, I can summon him. Yep. And you have 300 actions, because you're hasted.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah, so bonus action, dismiss, action, summon, and then I am using an action to actually see through like his blindsight. Okay. So as you go into that blindsight,
00:21:08
Speaker
you suddenly you close your eyes and you just are experiencing what's around you. You're getting this like feeling this sense of like hue and you see your four friends in the in the center of this or just surrounding you. There's three friends surrounding you. You see you feel you sense in the distance Carmen over there you know that's him and then there are these two other
00:21:29
Speaker
beings nearby and and they are they're like uh swirling around like blowing like wind but it's like this wind is swirling within this one five foot space and then you see beyond that the you realize that the creatures that have been surrounding you and watching you and been a part of like constantly with you they are nowhere in sight they're gone
00:21:52
Speaker
And you see now these other two creatures that aren't too far away from you. There's one about 10 feet away from you, kind of diagonal to your southwest, and then one about 25, 20 feet away from you, diagonal to your northeast.
00:22:14
Speaker
as they've been kind of dive bombing through this group and then ending up on the other side of you it seems so you are the only one that sees them currently but you do have a sense of where they are okay so and you can correct me i'm gonna draw something on the map because where i i feel like the brew hole was gonna be would have been yeah pretty close to where i was which was about great um so i i i would pretty much yell just like
00:22:41
Speaker
Can you explain that for the listeners? Yeah. So, so whenever I jumped out of the brew hole, I just, I didn't move very far because it was pretty close. I wanted everybody to be close. And so whenever I jumped out, I probably moved about 12 feet left west ish.
00:22:59
Speaker
Uh, to, to meet up with Craig's and Gwen and blindly swing at nothing. Um, so I'm, I'm, uh, where the brew hole is was fairly close to maybe where one is. And, and I'm basically going to yell out, you know, uh, you know, five feet Northeast of, of where the whole, where, where the brew hole is. Okay. And that is about all I can say for Carmen at that point. Okay.
00:23:27
Speaker
Cool. So it takes us to Daven. You heard him call out, try to help you understand where this thing might be. All right. Let's take a guess then. All right. Um, I'm going to, um,
00:23:45
Speaker
cast Mold Earth, which allows me to excavate up to five feet of dirt and then like toss it basically to the side up to five feet away. So I'm gonna see if I can like basically just scoop up a big thing of dirt and just like kind of throw it that direction and see if maybe it'll catch any physical being that might be invisible.
00:24:06
Speaker
Okay. All right, cool. So, yeah, I mean, you successfully throw dirt in the direction he told you to throw it. And this puff of just like...
00:24:18
Speaker
Beads and like clods of dirt fly up and and it's not dusty because all this this earth here is like almost like It's not quite mud, but it's close and as it Shifts over it then kind of hits this one spot this the spot right around right around where jockser was pointing out and it kind of as it hits it just kind of
00:24:42
Speaker
This guy gets disturbed, its trajectory gets disturbed and it blows around and kind of swirls around and then flies out of this space and lands on the outside of where this creature, I guess, seems to be hovering or standing. Okay, but I saw it. It doesn't stick to it or stay, but you saw where this dirt was disturbed when it hit this spot.
00:25:05
Speaker
Okay, seeing that area where it seemed to like unnaturally move, I'm going to, as a bonus action, I'm going to cast a spell as well. I'm going to use a quickened spell, and so as a bonus action, I'm going to cast Guiding Bolt at, let's do third level, right in that same direction of where I saw that dirt kind of get all displaced. Okay, and that's an attack roll? It is, yes. Okay, that's with disadvantage. No problem.
00:25:34
Speaker
Natural 20 and a 16. Ooh, 16 plus... 16 plus 9, so it's 25 to hit. That hits real nice. So yeah, so what's the guiding bolt do to him? So it's a pretty normal thing that you guys have seen by this point. You see Devin's eyes glow white, and then the white just kind of flows through his body, out his hands, and then he throws it forward, and it does radiant damage, 6d6 radiant damage. Ouchie! 4, 5, 6.
00:26:05
Speaker
and 22 radiant damage. Right. And then whoever attacks it next has advantage. It says before the next turn, on a hit the target takes 46 radiant damage and the next attack roll made against the target before the end of your next turn has advantage thanks to the mystical dim light glittering on the target until then.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah, so you see this glow just emanate from this air, this space, and this glow emanates. And as it does, it starts to fade out. But before it fades out, the next person's turn comes up. Yeah, everybody else's turn will come up. So is that your whole turn, Devin? Yeah, now that I see where it is, I'm also going to move a little bit. So I'm kind of right behind Joxer. I'm going to take another five feet step back just so I'm not right on top of everyone.
00:27:00
Speaker
Okay. All right. And so this thing, as it begins to realize that it's been noticed, it's gonna move itself in.
00:27:15
Speaker
It's in difficult terrain, if that matters. It has no effect on this creature, because it hovers. Oh, good. Yeah. It's going to make its two slam attacks on Joxer, because it is- Oh, I also yell, Carmen, there, throw there. Okay. And it's making these attacks with advantage.
00:27:35
Speaker
as it's invisible. But I can see it. Would that be still at Vantage? Yes, because it's not... Well, I guess to you maybe it wouldn't be. I mean, I rolled two twos, so I mean... Oh, yeah. Just curiosity at that point. Yeah, the second one. I mean, I didn't think about the fact that you could see it. No one else could, but you could. Otherwise, the second roll without advantage is a 19.
00:28:05
Speaker
Does he touch the ground when he slams? He does not. 19 does not hit. Okay. So 19 does not hit. So this wind is just blowing around you and you're sensing it, but you kind of feel it coming and sense it coming and you're able to keep from having that. And you can make an opportunity attack as it's used to people not seeing it as it goes past you to try to get away. So that's going to be 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 more feet there.
00:28:33
Speaker
And yeah, you can make your opportunity to attack against it. It's a 19 plus seven. It hits. Yeah. Why were you disappointed in that? Because it wasn't a 20. 20 or like. Oh darn, I definitely hit for sure. At a 19 shoot. Min max. Shoot. Definitely hit it.
00:28:56
Speaker
So that is the D8 and the D8 and okay. Two, seven and six. So 13, 15 plus what do I get on my, I haven't done this in a while. Weapons, weapons. Where are my weapons? Hopefully in your hands.
00:29:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's a plus four. Alright, so 19 psychic damage. Oof, duh. So that 19 does some damage and so this thing, as it starts to move away from you, you swipe at it with your weapon and it just kind of, it just kind of swirls around and parts of it dissipate as it shuffles back towards, back away to try to
00:29:45
Speaker
get away from you. And then the second one comes up. You see it, Joxer, but Krigs does not as it comes up and makes its two attacks on Krigs. Definitely with advantage because Krigs can't see it. No joke, not gonna lie. I'm taking a picture. I rolled a Nat 20 and a Nat 1.
00:30:07
Speaker
That's so good. I was about to say, he clearly just moved his hands over there and made two Nat 20s, but it's fine. No, no, no. That's super weird. I saw it with just the dice. I don't do those things. I'm a good boy. Good boy.
00:30:24
Speaker
Sorry, I'm sending you this picture right now in the Discord because I've never seen anything like it. So guess which one rolled the Nat 1? Definitely the Hired Sword's Big Fat Honker Dice, and the Nat 20 is my other die. So the Nat 20, because its advantage hits. Oh, there's old Bucky Buck trying to save me.
00:30:42
Speaker
Yeah, she was. So, 16 damage. That was 8 doubled. 16 damage from that first hit. Second hit with advantage. Second attack with advantage. Don't know if it's a hit. There's a 4 and then a 7 plus 6. 13 is definitely not going to hit you. So, 16 total damage. All right. And then, Joxer, you see the thing back
00:31:11
Speaker
away, quite a ways. And that takes us now to Krig's turn. Well, I feel completely powerless against an enemy like this. I tried my best to see it, to gain some kind of advantage. I have no tactical advantage against a creature I cannot see, especially being so face to face combat, melee oriented. But I also understand in combat
00:31:42
Speaker
Just because I don't have my advantage doesn't mean I'm at a disadvantage. I'm going to think back to training and tactics and I'm going to, I know that I can help everyone else achieve whatever goals they have set in attacking these things. And I'm going to cast
00:32:03
Speaker
a spell. You're gonna see Krigs take his hand, you're gonna see it glowing as he looks at it. You'll see the greenish blue phosphorescent glow on his face. He's gonna raise his hand kind of in a fist, and then he is going to bring the hand down and strike the ground, the earth, with his palm. And I'm gonna cast Aura of Vitality. And with that, four,
00:32:33
Speaker
Up to a minute, healing energy will radiate around me, specifically in an aura in a 30-foot radius. And until that spell ends, that aura moves with me centered around me. And I can use a bonus action to cause a creature, including myself, to regain 2d6 set points. And I am going to...
00:32:53
Speaker
bring my hand back up and I'm going to push it forward and send healing energy towards Gwendolyn in her tree form currently. What is your HP at this moment? Let me look at it. It is 90 out of 104. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and give it to the HP to Gwyn right now and you get healed for
00:33:21
Speaker
I literally rolled two sixes. You get 12 HP. Oh my gosh. Wow. And then I'm going to sit there and just I'm going to bring my shield back up and just wait for the next strike on me and not really sure where it's going to come. I just keep my head on a swivel.
00:33:41
Speaker
Okay. Sounds good. All right. And so Gwen gets a little bit of HP and that takes us now to Gwen's turn. Yay. I get, I'm going to do my spell that you're going to might not let me do. Okay. So I want to do speak to plants, but to myself, since I'm a tree, how do you feel about that? Can I convince you?
00:34:07
Speaker
I mean, yeah. I mean, you're not a tree. You're you with tree skin and hair, but you can- But there's tree parts on me. Sure. I want to know what you're going to do, so of course you could try this. Absolutely. At the end of this whole spiel, Mike will be like, nothing happens.
00:34:25
Speaker
That's okay. Give me the, I want, I'm in it for the spiel. Okay, great. So people know what Speak to Plants is. I'm going to be whispering and elvish to myself, just nonstop little whispers going through it. And the ground beneath us that was, that has like little branches or roots that are sticking up from the ground, I'm going to make them
00:34:53
Speaker
fall back down and I want them to make at least a five foot wall in like a 20 foot radius or a 20 foot like diameter of a circle so smaller than what was before and what's going to happen is I'm going to use these roots as like a barrier and
00:35:16
Speaker
I talk to the ivy that are a part of the roots, so the little saplings that are starting to grow and become alive. When a creature passes through them, I want to have them warn me and wiggle. Like as if there's a wind.
00:35:37
Speaker
Yep. Okay. Okay. Cool. I feel you. So the circle, so the circle will shrink down from 30 diameters to 20 and then there would be a five foot barrier of a wall.
00:35:48
Speaker
So you're, yeah, you're taking the ones from like the outside edges or whatever and bringing them in to raise them up. Yep. Okay. Cool. You're creating yourself like an alarm system around you. There are so many circles on this map now. You're doing the live, laugh, love, mama. You got a VIN diagram on the map almost.
00:36:11
Speaker
Cool. Okay. Yeah, I like that. That's a fun idea. So yeah, so you guys see Gwen just start whispering under her breath and these vines just start to retract and then rise up around her and create this, say, about a five foot wall around you.
00:36:27
Speaker
And so there's this wall, circular wall around all of you now as you're in this terrain, this like roots terrain that hasn't been impeding you, but yeah. And Daven, you're standing right on the outside of this wall currently. All right. And Carmen is as well, it seems. And then, so is that your whole turn, Gwen? Yes. Yep, yep, yep.
00:36:52
Speaker
Okay, then if that's the case, then that's going to be Carmen's turn now. Carmen is going to throw his dagger at the last spot he heard he should throw it. So he hurls a dagger.
00:37:09
Speaker
He throws two actually, and they fly past where you told them to. They go right on target, right to the spot, but they fall harmlessly about 10 feet beyond where he was aiming. And he pulls his hands back and they both appear in his hands again and he says, that's where you said, isn't it? And that's his whole turn as he kind of tucks himself back away hiding. Joxer.
00:37:38
Speaker
or spell slots. Yeah. Nope. Spell slots is, uh, MIA at this point, just, uh, just guiding me and, uh, you'll see the other two, the two monsters though. Yeah. Um, well you're just late and, um, shoot, there's a wall around us now.
00:38:00
Speaker
You're welcome. You can still see or sense where they are, but you don't have eyes on them. How tall is this wall that you created? Yeah, you said five foot. Five foot.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah, Krigs can't see over it. And it's not going to be like... It's not a hedge raise. Yeah, I think more like a loose tree branch fence. A bramble. Yeah, it's just more like ranged attacks or now they're at least half cover. Sure, something like that. It's like flimsy noodles sticking up from the ground. You can walk through them probably. Oh yeah, no, I can just go over there. Ground noodles.
00:38:42
Speaker
You don't eat ground noodles in your spaghet? Spaghet. Spaghet. Okay. Oh, shoot. That changes a couple of things.
00:39:00
Speaker
What does this do? I love when you guys mess up each other's plans. It's so funny. We do it a lot. Yeah, you do. All right. So that one I can't do. I guess, I mean, I guess I could try to like lob the shadow blade.
00:39:22
Speaker
up and over, like, towards the wind. Man, I'll allow it. You give it a try. Yeah, yeah. I'll give... Just use Eldritch Blast, dude. God, it's just... I don't have it. I can't do it. I can't do it. Blast through them... Blast through them brambles. Would you say it is dim light? Yeah, that's true. Shadowblade just randomly has advantage for dim light. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Totally min-maxing.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah. Hey. All right. So that was a seven and 14 plus seven. So 21. That'll hit even with a little bit of extra cover. Yeah. Um, all right. So rainbows up over arcs over and yeah. Um, and that will be, this is our new strategy for any fight.
00:40:12
Speaker
Let's just put a wall and just unlock things. It's Gwen's Bunker. Great! We have 6, 11. 19 plus 4, 23 psychic damage. Nice. As that just floats over. Yeah. And I will, as a bonus action, call it back and I guess
00:40:34
Speaker
lop it again. Do it again. As this thing starts to, the wind and everything starts to swirl around even more, you see this like agitation happening in this thing. That is another 14 and a 16, so 20. Two hits. Yeah. Or one hit. Either would have hit, yes. Yeah.
00:41:02
Speaker
That wasn't quite as good. So that's 10 plus for 14 14 psychic damage. All right
00:41:11
Speaker
So once again, you see this. Yeah, they see this sword like arch over and just land in this in this creature and somehow pierce something like what is happening? There's nothing there. And then it vanishes back into Joxer's hand as this as Joxer sees this thing agitation increase even more. And Davin's turn. You're on the outside of the wall, but you're we're still friends, I think. Oh boy, you might have seen that dark blade just lob
00:41:41
Speaker
in that spot twice. Yeah. Devin feels like he would probably just be safer being in the circle with everybody else. Can I fight through the- Yes, you can go through there at half speed for 10 feet of movement, so the 10- I'm like right on the edge, so- Well, five's gonna cost you 10. We'll just call it that. Okay, that's fine. Go right back to where I was last round.
00:42:02
Speaker
Okay. And now that I'm in there, I'm going to start casting a spell and I'm going to just hold a firebolt and I'm going to cast it at the first motion that I see of those brambles moving. Okay, cool. That's what I do. Just kidding. Okay, awesome. Is that everything then?
00:42:21
Speaker
That's it. Yep. That's all my turn. All right then. Well, uh, get your fireball ready. Cause bad guy. Number one is going straight for jockser. He knows where the herd hurt is coming from. So as he hits, sure enough, as this creature hits these, this bramble, you see the leaves and things growing off these roots start to just rattle, just shake in the breeze as he grows through. So you can make your attack with disadvantage. All right.
00:42:49
Speaker
That is you know, I'm going to be safe and make sure that I hit this because I have a feature Called favored by the gods if I miss a saving throw or attack roll Well says once per turn if you fail a saving throw or miss with an attack roll So I guess I have to decide first that it misses know well It says if you miss so you can know what it is. You can know if you miss and then decide. Okay.
Ending the Battle with Strategy
00:43:09
Speaker
Well, I rolled a 15 All right that hits. Okay. Well, then I won't do it, right? I'll just I'll just do the damage and
00:43:16
Speaker
Great. That was with disadvantage. It was, yes. Okay, cool. 3D10 fire damage. Ouch. Yep, which is 15. 15 fire damage.
00:43:28
Speaker
All right, so this fire just like engulfs this thing. And as it does, as it hits the creature, you see kind of the outline of this. And you can see it too, as it burns away and evaporates this air and the fire actually starts to glow a little brighter for just a split second before it goes out completely. And then this thing does make two slam attacks at Joxer.
00:43:59
Speaker
The first one is a 18. Negative. And the second one's a natural one. Negative. Two fails and on that second one, the flames reignite and it swirls around and uses the last of its movement to, excuse me, use the last of its- Before I can, as it made that last attack and missed and I could see the swirling flame
00:44:27
Speaker
Yep. And I got that first glimpse of the enemy in a position close to me that I can do anything. I'm going to use Sentinel attack when a creature within five feet of me makes an attack against the target. Other than me, I'm using my reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that attacking creature. Cool. Do it. That's awesome. I rolled a seven plus. What is my hammers hit?
00:44:57
Speaker
Plus a lot. If only we've been playing this for like more than eight. Seven plus eight. So fifteen. That does it. All right. That's a lot of dice. Yeah. Disregard. I rolled an eight damage plus my improved.
00:45:21
Speaker
What does that do? I've not had it long enough to remember entirely what it does. I think it just does radiant damage even if you don't cast. You don't have to cast divine smite special. It does a portion of the radiant damage automatically. Yeah, I think it's a 1d8 radiant damage. So let me roll a d8. I'll add that. I dare you to. Just try and stop me.
00:45:45
Speaker
One so nine total damage. All right, so This this thing glows quickly with this radiant damage Then it goes out real quick as this thing is it just create jocks or you see it
00:46:00
Speaker
very still, just kind of barely hovering there at this point. Going from complete and utter just chaos as the air swirled and moved around to now just this wisp, slow wisps of air as this thing seems to be on its last legs or breeze, I guess it doesn't have legs.
00:46:20
Speaker
And so this other creature now comes straight down to Kriegs and makes two slam attacks against him with advantage, as you don't see him, a nine and an eight for crying out loud. And then the second one, five and a two, good heavens.
00:46:37
Speaker
So this one does not hit you and you don't, you don't even know it was attacking you. You feel, well, you feel the cool breeze and you do see, you do see Gwendolyn, this, the breeze blow through these, these,
00:46:53
Speaker
the branches that you have kind of creating this bramble wall as it comes in. Krigs fills the breeze and then you see again flutter again as the thing goes back out of range. And that takes us now to Krigs turn. All right. I am going to. I can't really see much of anything.
00:47:19
Speaker
I'm going to take my bonus action and with my aura of vitality, I'm going to turn my hand away from Gwen as I, uh, my, my palm hand. Uh, I'm going to turn it to David now and give him 2d6 of healing, which got hurt. Didn't you? I did. Yes. Oh, you got 10 HP back. I got two fives. That's exactly what I was missing.
00:47:47
Speaker
Nice. And then topped him off. Beg your pardon. Uh, and then with the remainder of my turn, I'm going to put 20 hit points into myself with lay on hands. Can you just lay on hands on yourself? Yeah, you can. You have to be able to. Only if you can touch yourself. I can do that. When he thinks about you, he touched himself. Okay. That was a song.
00:48:18
Speaker
That's a song. Yeah, that's Madonna. I think it's Madonna. I don't know. It wasn't somebody else. Oh no, it was country. It wasn't country. Move on. All right. Is that your whole turn, Krigs? That's it. All right. That's going to take us to Gwendolyn's turn. After your creative plan went now.
00:48:44
Speaker
bear with me. Um, so part of, part of guardian of nature. Um, while I'm on the ground, the ground within 15 feet of me is difficult terrain. Um, I assume I can move. Yeah. And my hedge garden fence will come with me. I think so. Okay.
00:49:08
Speaker
So I'm going to move where I felt the breeze and I'm going to move to what is my, if I'm back to back with jocks or it's going to be my left at least five feet because I know he was right there.
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, so you take a step forward, a big step forward, and when you do this, kind of right directly northwest of you, on the wall, you see the leaves start to just flicker as this thing seems to be caught in the brambles there. Then as soon as I do, I reach out with one of my bark hands and I'm going to do poison spray, which is one of my cantrips.
00:49:48
Speaker
I love that. Perfect. I love that for you. I love that for you. I believe that's not great for him. Well, it's not the worst, but it could be better. All right. It is a 17 plus two 19. Oh, he passes. Can't roll high on attacks, but okay.
00:50:16
Speaker
Then Gwendolyn's going to just... What's... Oh, he's right there. And she's pointing to where he's at. Great. Okay. Uh, that's Carmen's turn then. Yeah. So Carmen is going to, as he's hidden, he's going to make two returning dagger throws, uh, with disadvantage.
00:50:46
Speaker
The first one is a dirty 20 with rolled an 11 plus 9. Second one is a 12, so the second one misses, but the first one gets sneak attack damage. So he's gonna roll his damage, so it's a d4 plus 5. Nice.
00:51:11
Speaker
I know I have a D4. There it is. And it's a one, unfortunately. So six. Six and then six D6 sneak attack. Four. Six. Thirteen more damage. So a total of
00:51:37
Speaker
19 damage could have been way better, but it's better than nothing as he does hit with that one attack and Then with a bonus action he's going to tuck himself back away as he was as this daggers returned back to his hand And he says thank you as you told him where to throw his dagger now that takes us back to joxer and
00:52:03
Speaker
All right, I have a pretty good idea of where that one is for multiple reasons. Yes, you do. Yeah. But the one next to me is still hanging out? Just barely, but yes. All right, so I think I'll just recall the Shadow Blade and make two regular attacks.
00:52:27
Speaker
That's not super good, that's better. Four and then a 14 and then a six and a four, so a 21 and
Reflections and Future Plans
00:52:39
Speaker
a 14. No, 13. The 21 hits, the 13 does not. Okay. Let's do those. Status.
00:52:49
Speaker
Not as good as I prefer. That is a whopping 11 psychic damage. 11 psychic damage as this thing just and you all feel this like gust of wind on you. Krigs, Joxer and Daven as this thing dissipates completely and is destroyed.
00:53:10
Speaker
returning to its home plane of existence. And then the second attack missed. Yeah, so that works out for me on that end. It didn't really matter. All right, so then for my second actual action.
00:53:25
Speaker
After kind of murmuring, okay, that one's gone. I'm gonna move a little bit around Krigs. So south and to the west of Krigs and aim at that area where I can see that worrying is and then where I can see it through that. And I'm gonna cast a spell and it is going to be
00:53:52
Speaker
We're going to say sickening radiance. OK, what's that do? So a dim greenish light spreads within a 30 foot radius sphere centered on a point you choose. The light spreads around corners and it lasts until the spell ends.
00:54:13
Speaker
So when the creature moves into the spells area or starts its turn there they must succeed on a constitution saving throw or take 4d 10 radiant damage.
00:54:25
Speaker
16 Constitution saving throw. Okay, so they do succeed. This slide is so kind of saving their or take that radiant damage suffer one level. This slide makes it possible for the creature to benefit from
00:54:43
Speaker
This light makes it impossible for the tree the creature to benefit from being invisible the light and All right, so it looks like they do not take Damage, but they are not invisible currently if that was ever truly a thing
00:54:59
Speaker
Yeah, that one was definitely invisible other than just you could see the general area because of the flailing of the branches. So is that your whole turn? Yes. So I will place a 30 foot circle on here and then that would be just the thing. Add another circle to the map, buddy. Always. Make it a green one. All right, Davin, it's your turn now. And I can see this thing now.
00:55:26
Speaker
Yeah, you can see this whirling, swirling bit of air just like swirling around and it's causing the branches there on the edge of this wall to flutter as well. What kind of condition does it look like? Does it look like it's injured? Can I tell at all in any sort of way? It's hard to tell for sure. It doesn't look like it's impeded or hindered in any way to you. Yeah. All right.
00:55:55
Speaker
Davin is going to kind of smile and he's going to bring both of his hands forward and you see just like blackness like Form in both of his hands and as he brings them together It's you see this blackness form around the creature and then just just engulf it and it just completely disappears or hopefully because I'm gonna catch banishment
00:56:14
Speaker
Okay. All right. It's a charisma 17. Okay. Charisma plus zero. I rolled a two. Nice. So this exactly like you said, this black just envelops this creature and suddenly it's gone. There's nothing there. And does it cast, is it normally like for a minute? Is that the idea? It lasts for a minute. And if I hold it for the entire time, if it's not from this plane of existence, it stays permanently gone.
00:56:42
Speaker
And if it is from the plane of existence, it comes back after one minute. This thing vanishes. Carmen calls out, where did it go? I was seeing it. It's gone again. Keep your eyes open. Keep your heads on the swivel. I got it. I got it. I sent it away. And as you stand there and everyone waits and the longest minute of your life passes by.
00:57:02
Speaker
Cause I don't know where this thing's from, but it could be coming back in just a couple of seconds or it might be gone forever. I don't know. This light is going to stay for 10 minutes. So if it appears back there, then we'll be fine. All right. It's going to appear back right where it came from. So everyone just kind of surround and get ready to attack.
00:57:20
Speaker
I raise my hammer up, just like fully ready to swing. Gwendolyn stands her ground, she doesn't move. I do one of those superhero Captain America poses, like let's do it. You guys stand, getting ready, preparing. Seconds pass, pass. Nothing. It does not return. Slowly you begin to let your guard down. It doesn't seem like this thing's coming back.
00:57:48
Speaker
I guess it's not from here, whatever it is. Okay, we really need to figure out how to see in this darkness. This isn't working out very well. Yeah, I'm really tired of not being able to see the things that are attacking us. You're telling me! I'm tired of having to look through spell slots. It's really kind of a weird sensation, to be honest.
00:58:13
Speaker
All right. So that brings up some interesting questions. If this thing is not from this world, it's not from this universe that we live in. Where is it from? And how did it get here? I bet it's pretty handy seeing through spells. Sorry, that joke was a little bit, a little late. It has been pretty handy.
00:58:38
Speaker
Thank you. That's terrible. You get used to it hanging out with us. Hang out a little bit longer. I'm sure you'll be popping these jokes, your own self. We try to keep it loose and goosey after these battles. I'm sorry. I just, I felt so useless during that combat. I, I,
00:58:57
Speaker
Hey, don't, I saw you. That dagger thing you do is, how do you, is that an enchanted dagger? Is that a spell? Oh, oh yes. It's, it's enchanted. It's, uh, it was actually my, uh, my down payment for serving Darnaldi. He, I guess he had the, the big orchish creature. Put it together for, put them together for me. But yeah, uh, this was well before you'd be ashamed if I killed you in your sleep for that dagger. But I mean,
00:59:25
Speaker
It's just jokes. These are jokes. You get used to these in this group. It's just jokes. Sure would.
00:59:33
Speaker
As they're talking, the hedge roots, is what I'm gonna call them, on the southeast side start to go back down into the ground. And as I'm walking towards the northwest side, so as it's going down, coming down close to me, a few roots stand up. And as my bark on my skin starts to fade, I try to see if there was any residue left from the creature that was just banished.
01:00:03
Speaker
On the roots? Yeah. No, I mean, there's nothing there that would make you think to even look even closer. It just looks like it was made of mostly air and wind and it's gone now. Okay. Then I touch one of the leaves and then I let the roots dissipate into the ground. Okay. And I'm back to being me.
01:00:27
Speaker
And as you guys just kind of start making your jokes and the kind of talking and Gwendolyn kind of puts away the bark skin and the roots and the vines that had joined her for this battle. And Carmen tucks away his daggers. You begin to notice slowly these figures start to form again in the woods, just kind of watching you. They were gone during that whole battle. They had vanished.
01:00:56
Speaker
almost fled. And now they're back and just kind of watching and...
01:01:02
Speaker
not doing anything, not approaching, not seeming to flicker and kind of come in and out of existence here and there. Like I said, as soon as you kind of settle your eyes on one, it vanishes and you see another one out of the corner of your eye. And just when you go to focus on it, it's gone and another one out of the corner of the other side. And they just seem to be your constant companions lately as you begin to settle in for the rest
Engagement and Call to Action
01:01:26
Speaker
of the night. And that's where we'll leave this episode.
01:01:30
Speaker
I've been watching you Every breath you take
01:01:59
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of The Hired Swords. If you liked our show, tell a friend about us. And if you really liked our show, do us a favor and tell the world. If you want to keep up with us and all the behind the scenes goofs and gaffs, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at The Hired Swords. If you want to get a bit of our merch, you can find our shop at thehired.store. And again, thank you so much for listening.