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00:00:01
Ep.5 Welcome Back, Heroes
202 Plays4 years ago
Our gang makes their way to the Tower of Testing to confront the Chief of Wildhill. Tensions rise as the Chief shows some of his true colors. There's no time to deal with the Chief and whatever he might be up to. No, we must find Vip and save him from the claws of some unseen burrowing creature! Quick, we must hurry!
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Transcript
Hunters in Distress
00:00:02
Speaker
previously on the hired swords. As you approach the camp, you see two of the hunters you had met before you left, sitting there looking kind of distressed and disgraced as they sit there with their heads down. And beyond the camp, there is the tower of testing where you know you are to turn in your stuff. Which hunters was it? To Wild Hill. You see Ermarias and Edie sitting there.
00:00:32
Speaker
No, babe. Edie says, any of your help would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if we could handle it on our own, and if there are Albeirs, if they're there and this creature, I don't know that we can handle it, just the two of us. How far out is it from here? Just a day's travel. If you wouldn't mind giving us an hour to finish up here, then maybe we can go out and help you try and find your friend.
00:01:17
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, a Dungeons and Dragons podcast where- Mom, I'm just trying to play with my friends! God!
Approaching the Tower
00:01:37
Speaker
So you walk towards the tower of testing past the statue on your way there. You also pass the nobleman's barracks where you see those who look kind of well to do and kind of rich. I'm going to take a look at the statue as we pass by it. Does it look like anybody we've seen in town by any chance? It does not. The statue is someone with a, they've got a bow strapped to their back. They look like a,
00:02:03
Speaker
a forest dweller kind of warrior, an elf.
00:02:09
Speaker
It's a tall tower, but just judging from the bow and the weapons that it's carrying, this was also a pretty tall elven man, but this is a statue of him. Is there any sort of a plaque or anything on the bottom? There's not, no. The thing looks very old, the statue does. It's very worn and weather worn and stuff.
00:02:42
Speaker
So if you continue to the tower of testing, when you approach the tower, there is a, this small halfling man greets you at the entrance calls, kind of beckons you up the steps and opens the door for you to go inside and waits for you to walk in. Are you all just going to go ahead? So, so I'm going to snark or a starkly kind of, uh, the, these, uh, these won't fit inside.
00:03:12
Speaker
He says, Oh, well, well, okay. Um, and he, uh, opens the other side of the door to where it's like a big double door thing to open. And, uh, he says, try, try, uh, wait, which, who is it? It's the Southland guy. Sorry. My bad. He, he says, uh, Oh, okay. My sorry about that. And he opens the other door to where it's this big double doors open. And he says, and he says, try it now, please. I am just a rush with fantasy. Yeah. Good. Good.
00:03:39
Speaker
I forgot the guy's voice for a second. I forgot who we were talking to. Does it look like the antlers will actually fit through?
00:03:44
Speaker
Yes, the double doors opened, yeah. Okay. I will help them get it inside, very friends getting the couch around the corner of the staircase. David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David Smith! David
00:04:13
Speaker
But we get it inside. All right, so you go in the inner workings of this tower are simpler than you would have thought. There's a wood floor, wooden tables and chairs lining the circular walls to your right. The door to your or to your left is there's a small library, just several bookshelves.
00:04:31
Speaker
with three round tables surrounded by chairs sitting nearby. The tables have several books opened up on them. There's some parchments, ink wells, and pins laying nearby. There's a red rug going through the middle of this round room. And the walls are made of hide with wood beams that go up all the way to the upper floor. There's an upper floor held up by large posts in the center of the room. And there are stairs on the left side behind the bookcases, behind the library.
Inside the Tower of Testing
00:05:01
Speaker
Inside, just beyond the library and the tables to your right, you see the chief and two women standing near him. He's sitting on a throne-like chair on a platform at the back of the room, and he's sipping from a large silver cup. Were you gonna say something, Gwen?
00:05:21
Speaker
uh no i was just surprised by the two women standing next to him okay when you walk in he stands he puts his hands into one of his hands into a fist and he beats his chest three times and he smiles and says welcome hunters i can see that your mission was successful please sit drink and he motions to the tables over to his left and your right there's three tables there with benches
00:05:46
Speaker
One of the women, there's an elven woman to his left, she jumps down off the platform and turns and grabs a large tray with some mugs on it and walks towards you, sets the tray down on a nearby table, pours mead into each mug, and then puts the mead down there for you to sit and enjoy at the table, and turns, walks back to the chief and stands near him.
00:06:11
Speaker
Her and the chief and the other woman standing there, they are standing looking at you and the chief continues and he says, please, please, please tell me of your journey, tell me of your travels and your encounter with this beast.
00:06:28
Speaker
Well, as you can see, we've did what we are asked to do. It took us a couple of days to get there, but we didn't really have any issues for the most part. It's a big thing, a lot bigger than I was expecting it to be. But, you know, here we are now. I'm not sure exactly what exactly you want to hear from us. Well, I'm saying it looks to be quite big based on the rack you've brought. Please, please, bring that forward. Bring it closer so I may see.
00:06:58
Speaker
I quit. Just lost my mind. Sorry. I'm loading. Buffering. Gwen steps a little forward, Shylie. Why did we go on this hunt? What use of these antlers do you need them?
00:07:22
Speaker
Well, take a look at my collection and he motions in up. If you look up a kind of up above near where the second level is of this this place, you it's kind of too high up to just notice as you walk in. But now as he points it out to you, you can see hanging up on the on some like placards and stuff up above on the top level of this of this tower up there. There's there are
00:07:52
Speaker
trophies mounted antlers and heads and things of creatures you see some you see like an elk head you see some of the bear head you see a couple taxidermied creatures it's kind of like bass pro shop stuff going on up there and you can see that and he says he says what I must say first of all the balance of the forest depended on this this elk being
00:08:20
Speaker
being eliminated so that the herd could be thinned out more than it is naturally.
The Chief's Motives Revealed
00:08:26
Speaker
And it's very important for this area that that happens. Secondly, this is going to make a fine trophy, don't you think? Well, my experience when it comes to hunting is you kind of keep the trophies of your own rewards. You didn't really go out and do anything to learn this, you know? Well, you're not wrong. You are
00:08:47
Speaker
a clever one, I can see, but let me tell you, that's what this is for. And he reaches back and the other woman who didn't pour you the glass of the glasses of mead, she grabs a large baggie like sack and tosses it to him and he grabs it. He tosses it on the floor in front of you and it hits the ground with like a like a like a little bit of a coins, you know, shattering on the or splattering on the ground and they
00:09:14
Speaker
several gold coins fall out of the top of it, and they kind of skitter across, and he's like, there you are, your reward, plus a status as hired swords of Wild Hill. That's another great reward that you'll enjoy, but bring them here. Let me look at these antlers and see if they are as fascinating and phenomenal as they are rumored to be. I still have a hold of the rope. I'm going to... Excuse me, sorry for that.
00:09:45
Speaker
I'm going to grab one of the antlers and kind of just toss it onto the table he has. And I assume it's relatively large and I'm strong, so hopefully I can do it. Yeah. But I'm going to just toss it onto the table and be like, there's your prize. The last of its kind. Make a strength check. While this is going on, you guys see like a little magical hand appear out of nowhere and it starts just like shuffling the coins that fell out back into the bag.
00:10:15
Speaker
Nice. And then the bag, it picks up the bag and it brings it over to Davin. Joxer is very specifically looking over at Craig's. OK. All right, so your strength check was a 20. Yeah. Awesome.
00:10:35
Speaker
All right, so you grab it and you toss it up and there's three tables. You're sitting at table two. It lands on table one, which is nearest him and kind of the table kind of creeks under the weight of these things as these are big and heavy antlers. He.
00:10:54
Speaker
just kind of gives you a glance like a like a side eye look like well i i guess that's what i asked kind of and start stepping towards the antlers to inspect them um he looks down at them and and he says he says i'm i'm pleased i'm pleased these are
00:11:13
Speaker
These are fascinating. Look at how pristine and perfect they are. I knew they'd be something, but I never imagined them to be this beautiful. They are going to make a great trophy. I'm going to hang them right behind my chair, right behind my throne back there. That's the question. Sorry. How much gold would I have seen kind of strewn about just as a curiosity? Like how much fell out?
00:11:42
Speaker
Yeah, like if I were to try to guesstimate, how much did they give with that title? Very rut. Well, without just like counting what's the size of the bag and seeing the coins kind of flop out, eight or 10 coins probably flopped out. You're guessing it's about it's probably between three to 500 gold pieces. OK. I am.
00:12:09
Speaker
Gwendolyn is angered. She is super, super enraged. Okay. She she's gonna go up and because Krigs only threw one antler, right? Yeah, they connected or they're they're they're attached. So like they're just both of them with the big skull plate, keeping them attached to each other. Okay. Yeah, we can make one.
00:12:35
Speaker
Gwenlyn is going to go up and touch the antler and while she's touching it, she's going to use Dispel Magic to
Defiance and Reward
00:12:45
Speaker
see if she could just make them not great anymore. Okay. And she looks him in the eye and says, enjoy your trophy and doesn't even stutter. She's so pissed. She's serious. I'm going to say, I'm going to tell, say, are you just walking up
00:13:03
Speaker
Are you trying to like keep his attention with what you're saying? Or are you like making a making a show of grabbing these antlers? Uh, no, I'm barely touching these antlers. Okay. Okay. So make a sleight of hand check as you go to touch the antlers. Oh, God. Let's see how this goes. Oh, no. Best roll of the night. A four. Dale also touches the antlers.
00:13:31
Speaker
Okay, so four, so he sees you, your hand go down, go towards the antlers and he just kind of, not super aggressively, he reaches down to grab your arm. Do you want to pull away? What do you want to do there? He definitely saw you reaching for the antlers. And he's reaching out to try to grab your arm. You can try to make like a,
00:14:00
Speaker
I guess it would be a dexterity saving throw or something to pull your arm away real quick or you can just continue with your motion to see what he does. I'm gonna continue with my motions. Okay, so he grabs your arm and just holds it just an inch before you touch the antlers and he looks you in the eyes and you say enjoy your trophy and
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah, you don't have to touch it. So he, but he doesn't know what you're doing. So he, uh, he holds onto your wrists and he looks at you and he says, he says, yes, yes, of course. My trophy and kind of places your hand kind of, um,
00:14:44
Speaker
not how do I explain this not like forcefully puts your hand like sets your hand back up against your your own side like sets it there but it's kind of sleazy like you know like a sleazy guy it's uncomfortable and he slides your hand back over to you and if you can do me a favor make an ability check with your spell casting ability for me
00:15:14
Speaker
as you cast the spell magic on this. So you just you just roll and add your spell casting modifier to it. Here it comes.
00:15:34
Speaker
A 12, okay. So you reach down, you cast the spell magic on the antlers, and you are not, you know you cast the spell, but you are not sure if it took effect or not. You don't know right now at this point, but you feel good that you cast it and got away with casting it. She immediately jerks away from him and wants to walk out.
00:16:00
Speaker
And what in, in, let's see that spell just real quick has a verbal component to it. What do you say when you cast the spell? Was it, was it the enjoy your trophy? Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool. All right. Were you going to say something, Devin? Uh, just going to say, Devin kind of knows his detention, the situation, and he wants to try and alleviate says.
00:16:21
Speaker
He's like, well fellas, lady, I believe that we have some other plans coming our way. Mr. Hunt, sir, if there's nothing else that you need from us, we'll be on our way. And he kind of gives like a, like one of those really curtsy kind of bows where it's, he's going a little overboard with it as he starts backing up out of the room. Okay. He says, he says, one moment, one moment. You forgot the most important part. I got the money right here, sir. He jiggles the bag. He snaps.
00:16:46
Speaker
He says, I see and snaps and the the woman who served you your drinks real quick runs over to him and pulls out, pulls out something from a little pouch underside and hands them to him. And he walks up to eat. He actually places a little golden coin into Gwendolyn's hand first. He grabs your hand.
00:17:10
Speaker
again, like real sleazy like and puts a coin in your hand and he walks up and he hands a coin to to Reaches out with a coin to hand to Krigs and to hand to each of you to Davin as well as to joxer and Do you all just take them?
00:17:30
Speaker
Sure. OK, so he he hands you these. I don't know. You guys are a little intense right now. So I don't know what you're going to do when he tries to hand you these things, but still staring at him in the eyes. She hasn't. Yeah. Lost eye contact. Total stank eye going on. That's good. I don't know. He's yeah. Joxer is like it's just laying in his open palm. He's kind of. Yeah. OK. Lately.
00:17:51
Speaker
Perfect. Well, these coins, they have a golden sword emblazoned on them. They're a silver coin with a gold like rim on the outside and a golden sword on the inside of them, on the inside of the coin. And on the backside, the sword has, on one side, there's just a sword. On the backside, there's the sword and it has a hand hanging onto the sword.
00:18:17
Speaker
And so he He there are there are some runes on the backside as well. Just little etchings, but he after you take the coins he says He says these are your marks of the hired sword this
00:18:35
Speaker
shows that you have done what has been asked of you, and you are now a part of our fine fellowship of warriors. Thank you for coming. Thank you. And please, if you have questions, you may speak here to Tomba. And he points over to the little halfling. He says, Tomba here will be able to help you with anything you need.
00:18:57
Speaker
uh and you may uh you may go now thank you and he turns and walks over towards the back towards the uh the seat and the woman who has been serving everything goes and tries to pull the antlers down off the off the table and he says careful careful like that and uh then Tombo runs up to you guys the the same little old halfling man he grabs a
00:19:22
Speaker
a thing and a goblet, a cup and he pours meat into it and just goes down the whole thing, sets it on the table and he says, follow me, please. And walks out the front door. Joxer is going to take the drink that was poured and he's going to he's going to chug it and probably be a little bit more judging than normal folk would.
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah. OK. It's it's sweet meat. So it's, you know, it's whatever, however you feel about that. And it's better sweet meat than some. But it's not the best you've ever had of anything, any kind of drink. So Devin doesn't drink at all. I don't drink. He he he leaves it on its side. So any dribbling is going to go on the tasty. OK, that's his sign for disapprove. Nice. Yeah.
00:20:15
Speaker
I'm out. I'm gonna approach Daven and just
Plans to Uncover More
00:20:22
Speaker
kind of still looking at this coin. I feel compelled to stick around a little bit longer. Things might be less concrete than they think. You mean stick around town, yeah? Well,
00:20:40
Speaker
Obviously, I want to help out our friends who are in dire need, but there could be some interesting things around here. You seem to be a little bit savvy if you catch what I'm getting at. Well, I'm kind of on the same page as you are. I think maybe sticking around for a few days and see. First of all, I could use the point. Second of all, I think there's a little bit more going on to this town than we even realize. Definitely there could be a bit of a shake up.
00:21:10
Speaker
I'm always a friend of mystery anyways. He's going to put the coin in his pocket. He's like, plus we have somebody here to divvy up, but let's go back to the comp first. I suggest we head back. Great. I'll follow Tomba first and see what Tomba has to say.
00:21:27
Speaker
Okay, so as you follow Tomba out, he's already started explaining and talking to you. And so Tomba, as you kind of catch up to him, you kind of catch him as he's already started his sentence.
00:21:47
Speaker
licensed now to uh to take hunting commissions you're officially accredited by the hired swords league that that means the chief anyone else in town travelers visiting town they can hire you and you could do work for them people don't hire hunters that aren't this work is it always this work is it always extinguishing the flame of the last of its kind i don't know uh um usually it's just
00:22:16
Speaker
Usually it's just killing a creature or finding someone or something in the woods usually, but yeah. Joczer kind of intercedes and he's, he kind of walks up and looks a little annoyed, but he's, is this required work or is it only things that we signed up for? Yeah.
00:22:43
Speaker
I don't I don't know you you sign up but now that now that you've been commissioned you you accept whatever jobs are in town you can see the postings in the cabins the nobleman's cabins you can sorry really poor choices on voices for some of these guys he says you can
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, but you thought that I was dead. He's croaks over. Yeah. And new, new NPC for you to talk to who doesn't sound like that. Okay. No, he says, um,
00:23:22
Speaker
He says, no, you can be hired by anyone in town. It's not like that. Sometimes the chief will have special missions. Those pay the best, but usually most of the newer teams, like yourselves, they just start asking around and getting jobs from whoever's around. I used to work under contracts all the time. This is nothing new for me. I'll explain it to the fellows if they have some confusion. You understand then. Perfect. Yeah, contracts. I think that's a word some people use for it. Yeah, it's good. It's good.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah, so so specifically, we will never be asked to do things that we did not accept. Yeah, for the most part. Yeah, most most people don't. Most people don't turn down the chief. I will say that you usually do what the chief asks. Why? Well, I don't.
00:24:12
Speaker
I don't rightly know. I just never seen anyone turn down what the chief asks. He pays well. He gives the best jobs and usually makes you a powerful in the town here if you do what he asks you to do. You don't say no to power. That's one thing I've learned in life.
00:24:35
Speaker
Especially around here. I just kind of, I pat Tomba on the back and of course that makes sense. And I just kind of walks, I just kind of walk your head and start toward the camp because I don't care. Gwendolyn follows. She's angry. Yeah. I just want to hear anything about it. Sure. Devin kind of hangs out for a minute, like awkwardly, like, well, um,
00:24:59
Speaker
He was, uh, quit talking to you, sir. Uh, why now? He just walks away. Good day. Comba says, uh, thank you. Come again. He turns and runs off towards the tower. Actually, he kind of gobbles off towards the tower with his, uh, cane. I see him as a scuttler. Yeah. He's got a, he's got a cane. He's real old looking halfling man.
00:25:25
Speaker
As we're walking back, I'm going to open up the pouch and I'm going to take a rough count about how many coins are in there. Okay. There's a rough count. There's about 550 gold in there. Well, if we want to split this up evenly, we're going to have to do a little bit of math. It looks like it's probably about 550 gold split far away. That's not in my territory.
00:25:51
Speaker
You should split it three. I don't want any. It's blood money for sure, but it's cell money and we all need it to live.
00:26:04
Speaker
That's what Google has done. She's just signed. This is like her first like ever job that she's ever done and didn't feel right. None of, they never do. Honestly. First jobs are always the worst jobs. Second jobs, third jobs, just buckle in. Just buckle up. Welcome to adulting.
00:26:28
Speaker
Jotter is just going to kind of go back to and say if, you know, if, if you could just hand me a hundred gold, that'll be for what I handed off to the, the two to repair that gear or replace that gear. And then 50 for whatever ingredients I need for my next batch, you guys can split the rest.
00:26:53
Speaker
Well, I've never seen so many people before who are so immune to the money. It's a little strange, but all right, we'll split it up. But anyway, you guys want to, I'll split it up. And I'll just be like, I see you've never hung around monks before. I'll admit, you're my first. I'm probably the greediest of the monks whenever it comes to that statute.
00:27:20
Speaker
Well, it'll be interesting to meet the rest someday, then maybe. Tell me, do you ever go back your way up to whatever it is you came from? It's a bit of a mixture of a story there. Where I came from is from money, and where I was sent to was from a monastery. So there's a bit of an interesting concept. It kind of makes sense a little bit that you would only take half of it.
00:27:49
Speaker
Jocks are just kind of nods. Um, we go back to the camp and I'm going to take an official count of all of the money and I'll split it up and give, give Jocks or his hundred gold. Um, so it was 550. Yes, it was. Yeah. So you'll have a 450 to split between whatever you want to do. Okay. So I give everyone else 150 each and that's even amount. Yep. Okay.
00:28:18
Speaker
He did math. Awesome. I used a calculator. I tried to make. Yeah. No. Yeah. They, it's called the sun. No, I don't know how that works. That's a clock. All right. So that'd be an interesting math problem. Excuse me, Mr. Sun. Yeah. Yeah. 450 divided by the sun is hot. Um, so you are all headed back to camp now.
00:28:49
Speaker
Uh, yeah, uh, I think so. Headed back to the, sure. Headed back to the adventurous camp. They are, you see, they're still not back yet. Uh, your time with the chief was pretty quick. And, uh, so they're not back yet, but.
Rescue Mission Preparation
00:29:07
Speaker
they're, after just a few minutes of waiting, 10, 15 minutes of waiting and kind of getting your, you know, splitting up your money and whatever, they do start, you do see them kind of in the distance walking down the pathway towards you. And they look a little more put together than they did, less disheveled, a new black breastplate on Edie, she's wearing, and they approach you and they say,
00:29:35
Speaker
They say, so shall we leave immediately? We only have a few hours of daylight left. Gwen's attitude changes and she's like, yes. Yeah, I'm prepared. I have nothing more here that I need. Great. I think we should get you a friend. Great. I think Vip can take care of himself, but every minute wasted his potential of losing him forever.
00:30:03
Speaker
Yeah, so Joxer is only going to make one comment saying that he needs to unload a handle of meat because I don't think it's going to last very long. There's still individuals hanging around the camp, right? Not just the few of us. Correct. There's several townsfolk who are just keeping the fire going and doing the
00:30:29
Speaker
All right, so Joxer is just kind of going to go off into a corner and ask for Krigs and whoever wants to help, but he wants to unload the meat that he has and kind of bring it to the camp and then be ready to head off.
00:30:46
Speaker
Okay. So that takes you just a few more minutes. Edie and Mariahs are kind of pacing while you do it. Understandably though, like they're, they're not, they're not being jerks about it. They just, they understand what you're trying to do. It's not going to last two and two or more days of travel. So they're, they're, they're just kind of waiting impatiently, but, but understandably. And then once you're done, they, they're very quick to kind of, okay, just start walking out of, out of the camp towards the path into the forest.
00:31:17
Speaker
Cool. I will follow along. Okay. So they are walking with you down the pathway and you walk for a little while, probably half hour or so. And just like your journey south, as you're walking pretty much directly eastward into the wilds is what this forest is called.
00:31:44
Speaker
You you do see that the trail kind of just ends and it's kind of comes to Just being able to kind of find little animal trails to see whether or not you can kind of stay on path Edie and Mariah's however are seem to be pretty good at this Mariah's especially is pretty good he every now and then he'll take a knee and kind of
00:32:09
Speaker
Look through the you know, look across the brush and stuff and then kind of wave everyone in a direction So are you guys just gonna follow their lead or? Yeah, I am. Okay. Yeah Can can I make like just an insight check just to make sure there's nothing I know it seems out of just just an oddball kind of concept just to make sure there's nothing weird going on and
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Make an insight check on one of them in particular or the two of them as a whole or? Uh, probably the, I'll say Edith. Um, currently she seems to be the most, uh, and then that was a 13. So nothing super insightful. Yeah. Uh, they seem to be genuine, but you get the sense that they're very panicky. Okay.
00:33:04
Speaker
Yeah, very panicky. They're in panic mode. Yeah, no, that makes sense. All right. Yeah, no. So I don't, I just follow along. I'm not trying to, I am here to help.
00:33:15
Speaker
Okay, so they continue walking until it's pretty dark. I mean, we're talking past sundown, they're continuing to go still. It seems as though they don't want to stop, they want to continue in the darkness, trying to track down where they had this encounter, where they lost Vip. Hey Mariah, so about how much longer do you think it's going to be? Do you think we need to set up camp for the night?
00:33:40
Speaker
Well, if we, he stops and looks at you and he says, if we can't for the night, then then we won't be there until it'll take us another half a day. I think, I think if we, if we travel through the night, we'll be there by sunrise. And Edie's like, yes, there's no time to spare. I just, I just don't, I just don't know what we'll, what we'll find.
00:34:05
Speaker
I understand what you're getting at here, but at the same time, we don't want to put ourselves in a situation where we're not going to be at our strongest, if we have to fight this thing as well.
00:34:16
Speaker
I guess, I just, I'm no stranger to, Mariah says, no, I'm just no stranger to marching through the night to battle. You know, I lived that way for so long, but if we need to take a rest, you're probably not wrong. Edie, what do you think? And Edie's like, I don't, I think we need to keep going. We need to keep going. You can make a persuasion check if you'd like.
00:34:38
Speaker
I looked at the rest of the group. I says, what do you guys think? Should we try and keep going? And, uh, Jack's just going to kind of look over and be like, does, does any, uh, uh, uh, do any of you have any, uh, particular abilities of light? If, if anything, at minimum, just finding where we're supposed to be entering a hole or, or finding that the area would, would be nice to do before taking a rest. I mean, I could light a torch.
00:35:09
Speaker
we torches about the best all we have, at least from my perspective, I could possibly help with that. I am I cast daylight on Dale. Okay. Okay. Okay. So now Gwendolyn is holding Gwendolyn is holding this little
00:35:37
Speaker
bright beacon glowing little rodent creature. And she's just holding it out like a flashlight to light your way. This light's coming out of its eyes and mouth just like a flashlight.
00:36:02
Speaker
Could Joxer also use as permission, but potentially use Mage Hand to just kind of hold it out in front of the group? You want to hold Dale? I'm going to use Mage Hand to lift it up. How far away? Mage Hand goes 30 feet, so I'll push it out like 25 feet in front of us.
00:36:28
Speaker
OK, and then see if I can lift it up a little in the air, too. So it's just like basically a little mini sun above us. And when she sees Dale get lifted into the air, she's like, good, good luck, Dale. That's awesome. The downside is I can only do this for about a minute. I can. Jotzer also has mage hands, so he can he can push that along. Oh, by all means, go right ahead.
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah. So, so once your minute is left over, then I suppose that I can, uh, uh, walk down for 60 seconds. Just sits there, just kind of like laughing to himself. I've seen it all now. I think it's like a potato with.
00:37:23
Speaker
Every minute it switches mate hands. Yeah. Keep it aloft. Not to be weird, but you know, a monk can use mate hands sometimes. I didn't know that was something you could do. That's something I didn't know a monk could do mate. That's pretty impressive, really. There's a, there's a couple of stories in my lifetime, I suppose.
00:37:55
Speaker
All right. I guess we continue on. Okay. So as you continue forward, um, we've got this line of adventurers kind of single file going through the forest with a, a beacon of a, is he a gerbil? He's a chip, a chipmunk, a chipmunk beacon glowing in front of you, lighting the way.
00:38:22
Speaker
Edie and Edie and Mariahs are walking along kind of even up there with this chipmunk and keeping an eye out and Behind the me and jocks are so they're going three two one your turn
00:38:39
Speaker
back and forth back and forth and you start to feel the spell start to start to subside and so you have to shift it over. It's a cantrip, right? Yes. So you guys can just do this all night.
Journey Through the Forest
00:38:51
Speaker
Will somebody please roll a d20 for me? Briggs is in much better spirits having seen all of this play out.
00:39:04
Speaker
A lot of his frustration is just kind of like passing and he's kind of just laughing to himself. 11. Okay.
00:39:19
Speaker
You, uh, as you are walking through, through the forest, you all can have a, you all can see pretty good through what through, uh, you know, 40, 60 feet ahead of you in all, in all directions. And you are able to kind of walk through, find the trail pretty easily. And it seems to be the light had basically a 50% chance. You feel like of either.
00:39:47
Speaker
just scaring anything that could be in the woods away from you or attracting something to you. And at this point, it seems like you have done the first thing. You have seemed to scare off anything as you guys walk down the forest with this chipmunk beacon ahead of you.
00:40:07
Speaker
headed towards where this some sort of underground burrowing creature has taken one of your new friends and you're traveling to try to rescue or at least avenge him. We're going to take a break now. Dale might be my hero at this point. Absolutely. Absolutely. Good old Dale.
00:40:34
Speaker
Dale, the non-sentient familiar. Part of me just wants to just look at everyone and be like, that's my best friend. I know him. Hey, guys, it's me, Krigs. Still got more episode for you.
00:41:01
Speaker
I just wanted to pop in here and thank you all so much for listening to our story so far. We actually have a ton of content waiting to release, but for now we're going to keep to a weekly schedule and just for a while see how it feels, see how much of the story we can actually fit into an episode while also giving us time to work on production quality and actually work on the episodes themselves and make sure everything is as best as it can be for you guys.
00:41:28
Speaker
We do super appreciate all that have followed us on Facebook and Twitter at The Hired Swords. If you haven't yet, you can find us on both currently by searching The Hired Swords, or you can find links to both on our website at thehiredswords.com.
00:41:49
Speaker
We are going to start using both platforms to engage with you guys, the audience. Give you guys a chance to help us shape the world a little bit. If you're interested in naming a character, tweet at us at hashtag THSCast or send us a message at the hired swords on Twitter or Facebook with your ideas. Michael, our DM, will be able to fill the world out
00:42:18
Speaker
with cameos with your ideas that'll be pretty rad uh one last thing and then i'll let you get back to the episode i personally wanted to say thank you again for listening if you enjoy what we're doing you know tell a friend about us get the word out the hired swords are coming to town or i mean at least wherever you get your podcasts at for now all right i'll shut up enjoy the rest of the episode
00:42:57
Speaker
As you are walking through the forest with this Dale Beacon, as I've said, you nothing seems to be stalking you or after you. So you walk through the night and as you walk through the night, you are
00:43:18
Speaker
You do make it to about, right about sunrise. There's still a bit of a twilight in the air as the sun's coming up. And you find your way to a open, a place where the trees get more sparse.
Battle with the Giant Insect
00:43:36
Speaker
And there's trees that have fallen down on the ground. There's more kind of stones and rocks and stuff here. And you
00:43:44
Speaker
you find all of those things and or you see all those things here and there are also holes in the ground here and they are big holes like big enough for a couple of you to fit inside of if you were to both go in and as you approach everyone make perception checks as you walk into this area. Oh boy. Let's do perception.
00:44:15
Speaker
Davin got 11. He's got 20. Hey, get rolling up in the well, pretty good flowers. All right. So, so it says here to hold a loft is the taxidermy. He's paying attention and holding up. Uh, so Gwendolyn, Deb, David, and
00:44:42
Speaker
No, Gwendolyn, Krigs, and Joxer all see floating above you. At first you think, why is Dale back here? But instead you realize that it's not Dale. You're seeing these random little floating balls of light up in the trees, kind of hovering in and out through the branches. And they seem to be kind of all around you.
00:45:11
Speaker
and closing in on you a little bit. And as they are kind of just kind of around, they're just hovering. They don't seem to be coming down to your level. They're hovering about 25 feet or so up above you.
00:45:33
Speaker
They're definitely seeming to gather in your general area at the moment. Anybody want to do anything in particular? I'll say, I'll kind of go up to Daven and kind of touch his shoulder and kind of try to bring Dale backwards with my mage hand. Okay. So it'll be at our area instead of being ahead of us.
00:46:01
Speaker
I get what he's doing and I help him bring it back down toward Gwen. So your beacon of hope, who is Dale, comes down towards you guys and is there with you all now. And as your light source approaches you, you hear a rumbling sound.
00:46:24
Speaker
in this rumbling sound as a new pile of dirt appears ahead of you and all at this at this sound all these glowing little orbs of light that are up in the trees kind of go up above the tree line a little bit where you can still see them but they're up at the tops of the tree line and then this creature emerges from underground and it is a big giant big giant
00:46:52
Speaker
insect-looking creature with giant mandibles and big arms, and he's got a big, like, spine going down his back on his exoskeleton with big antennae on his head, and he digs his way out of this dirt. The dirt falls off of him and kind of scatters across the ground, and it looks at all of you, and it starts to make a beeline towards the first person ahead of him. What order are you guys standing in? I know we had... I've been in the very back.
00:47:22
Speaker
Yeah, now that I said it, make it a beeline. Oh, I'm at the very back. No, I'm pretty sure so. Jockster and Daven would have probably been in the front, yeah? Because we're trying to hold the... Well, I had already said, though, that Edie and Mariahs were trying to...
00:47:39
Speaker
stay up right with where. Oh yeah, yeah. So at least. So we'd be right behind them. Yeah. Okay. So it's going to make a beeline towards Mariahs and it just and tries to grab Mariahs. I need everyone to make a charisma saving throw. Except, nope, everybody has to make a charisma saving throw. He Eikers.
00:48:01
Speaker
21 for Davena. 24 for Gwen. So 21, 21, 24, and a 4 for Gwen-Dalyn. So, Gwen-Dalyn, you are, this is Charisma Save, you're currently
00:48:20
Speaker
You currently can't take any reactions until the start of your next turn, which you'll have to skip. You can't take reactions until your turn. And then I have to roll to see what you do on this turn. You've fallen victim to this creature's confusing gaze. Nothing about my Nat 20 would help that, yeah? No?
00:48:45
Speaker
No, no. Nat 20's on skill saves or checks or just 20 plus whatever the modifier is. And is Dale over our area or do I have Dale in my hands? He's there. I don't know. Joxer and David, did you give him to Gwyn or did you? I was bringing him back to Gwyn. Yes, that was the intention to bring bring it back to her. So if it made it to her in the time frame, then yes.
00:49:14
Speaker
so i'm holding dale yeah you're holding dale this creature then makes three attacks at
00:49:23
Speaker
makes three attacks at Marias. First one misses. So the first swing, he swings, this creature swings his claws down at Marias. And when he does, Marias throws up his weapon and kind of parries his claw off. But the creature's other claw comes down and strikes Marias and does nine damage to Marias's face. And then it attacks with its mandibles on its front of its face real quick. Next.
00:49:52
Speaker
Oh boy, this guy's got a lot of attack. And this attack, three attacks. This attack, if it hits, a 15 does not hit. So recoiling from this claw attack on Mariahs, he's able to avoid the mandible attack. And that is going to put us in initiative. Oh boy. Oh god. Dun dun dun. It's deuce. Oh.
00:50:24
Speaker
Halt! Who goes there? Just kidding, I knew it was you. Seems our heroes may have bit off way more than they can chew. Can Dale light their way to another victory? Can our heroes get to VIP in time? Well, that's for me to know and for you to find out. Be sure and tune in next week. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook at The Hired Swords, or find links to both at thehiredswords.com. Be sure to tell your friends about the show, and as always, thank you for listening.