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Ep. 19 Get Out Of My Head
162 Plays4 years ago
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!
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Transcript
Quest in the Fortress
00:00:13
Speaker
previously on the higher swords. In the darkness, in the dank halls of this stone fortress, our heroes bury their fears as they search for any signs of Delmar. Foul air, wreaking rancid rot and decay weigh heavy with each step forward. What abomination caused all of this mayhem?
00:00:41
Speaker
How has no one heard the tale of this beast wandering in the mountains, in these bloodied halls? Listen to the sound of each footstep. It grows nearer still. Stand strong, heroes. I fear we're being watched.
Introduction to The Hired Swords Podcast
00:01:21
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, a D&D podcast that's a waste of a good college education, according to my mom.
00:01:42
Speaker
You are now down the down these stairs and you are heading down this this Hall and there's a this Hall is about 20 feet long and there are two There are two doors one on either side of you about 10 feet down the right across from each other There's one to the right and one to the left and they are both stone doors that are That are look to be sealed up Or one of them looks to be sealed up pretty
Jackson's Discovery
00:02:10
Speaker
tight. The other one has been busted open
00:02:12
Speaker
Oh, where does the hall go to continue? It goes to just an opening at the other end. Yeah, you've got your door on the right and a door on the left. And at the end of this hall is another like archway opening that looks like it may go down again. Jackson is going to run to the broken door and just look in it.
00:02:34
Speaker
Okay, looking inside the broken door, you see a small, another small hallway. It's a good size as far as like height and everything. It's the same size, height and everything, but it's just a small, like,
00:02:50
Speaker
It's just the hallway and it just goes down the hall a little ways and to your right and left. You see a couple more doors and you see dried blood covering the floor in drag marks from where this entryway is here leading down this hallway. The hallway at the end is just
00:03:13
Speaker
just a wall, a blank wall. But there are doors on either side. So the blood drag marks are going down this direction and into that room and down the hallway. They're going down into that room. There's also they you can't tell if they're going into that room or out of that room. Oh, are there any blood like going down the hallway from that perspective? I guess the main hallway. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
00:03:43
Speaker
You've been walking on blood stains this whole time. Okay, and also down the hallway. Blood stains literally every hallway we go to.
Joxer's Challenge
00:03:52
Speaker
Great. Yes. Looks like there's more blood stains this way. One question. I failed my wisdom saving throw. I am speaking gibberish can't do.
00:04:04
Speaker
spellcasting, does that incapacitate my actual logical thinking? Like am I still able to attack, still able to do checks and stuff, or how is that going to act? Everything's normal except spellcasting, so you just can't use speech properly for probably another 25 minutes. Okay, so as Joxers said that, we should, I just can't do it. I just can't do it.
00:04:32
Speaker
And we find this weird, don't we? I mean, I feel it. Him doing that? Absolutely. Oh, OK. And you guys all felt like when he started that, you guys all felt just this shiver go down your spine that you kind of shook off this panic attack feeling and you're breathing a little heavier and nothing crazy happened. But you definitely felt that something, you know, this being in here and dealing with what you're dealing with and seeing the stuff you've seen is getting to you. Yeah, I don't mean to stop the.
00:05:00
Speaker
the whole thing, because when it happened, it's just like we just kind of went with it. We're like, eh, it's just Krigs. Yeah. Krigs being Krigs. You're right. Maybe now you're noticing, hey, something's going on with Krigs. He's been taking the lead up until this point, and now he's just kind of trying to put his thoughts together and seems to be struggling. Krigs, you see a little shaken up there, buddy, I think. We're going to have an effort to find me. No, we'll not go by aircraft.
00:05:29
Speaker
But the look in my eye is just determined like I still look fine. I like that's that's my look. I'm ready to go. I place my hand on him. And I want to try to dispel magic. OK. Because I didn't notice it till now.
00:05:53
Speaker
Nothing happens initially when you cast Dispel Magic. He still has kind of the same look in his eye that I'm ready to do this even though his words are just nothing. They're gibberish. They mean nothing to you. How's the book? I can't go back. I think we just have to wait it out to see what happens. We need to make decisions. I just can't do it.
00:06:20
Speaker
As I'm saying this, I take my hammer and just hit my shield and the look of my eye is just like, let's go.
Gruesome Discovery in the Cell
00:06:28
Speaker
Down the hallway through the door through the broken door. Okay, lead the way. Broken door.
00:06:38
Speaker
All right. I just, if, if, if Krigs looks at me in, in, in any form, then I would have been like, okay, straight, straight through this door that I'm already looking down. And so I start going down the broken door hallway and down the stairs. Okay. You walk, you walk. Well, the broken door hallway is not the one with the stairs. Sorry. Yeah. I thought it's the way you were in.
00:07:01
Speaker
The hallway you were in continued to an entryway that looked like it had stairs going down again. The other side was a closed door on your right and then this broken door on your left. Through that broken door is where you saw two more doors on the right and left, and then beyond there was just a wall with nothing. Okay, so I'm going to go through there and open the left door.
00:07:20
Speaker
Okay, the left door is easy to open. As you push it open, inside you see the bottom half of a humanoid body. The entrails, what's left of entrails are spread across the floor. And that's it. It's a holding cell kind of place where you see
00:07:43
Speaker
you see chains coming off the walls with like cuffs on them and this this cuffs one of the cuffs still has a hand kind of mostly skeletal hand with some dilapidated skin and stuff on it that has been this this been removed and then you see this half of this body with just the
00:08:04
Speaker
floor here is stained dark, dark, dark with blood. And you can just still see rotted some rotted entrails that have kind of flopped onto this room, this floor in this room. And if you want to learn anymore, you're you can make a medicine check or something, but that's up to you. I jocks are just kind of steps back out of the room and just holds his mouth and looks down. And then motions at the other door.
00:08:29
Speaker
They have to blame me.
Gwendolyn's Speculation
00:08:31
Speaker
There's no way they don't blame me. Son of Hannah, there's no way. The door is closed and seems to be locked at this point. Yeah, I just motion it like other people to go to that. I'm not. My constitution's not ready for this. OK.
00:08:48
Speaker
Gavin will go and take a peek inside and he sees, oh, I see why he walked away. And then he's going to walk in and he's going to take a look at the body and see if he can ascertain anything about it. Sure. That is going to be a whole nine. I would like to also do a medicine check. Probably better than I am.
00:09:08
Speaker
I had rolled an 18 plus four. So as you inspect the body, the gruesomeness and just disgustingness of it builds that tension inside of you and we add another tension dice. But also
00:09:25
Speaker
Daven kind of struggles to make sense of it all because it's just such a mess. But Gwendolyn somehow precious little Gwendolyn is able to stomach it and look close enough to see that there are this body has been ripped not not like cut apart but ripped apart.
00:09:45
Speaker
And the entrails look like there's been some munching going on, what's left of those entrails. And again, most of them are kind of rotted and dilapidated. I mean, it's it's been a very long time. And with your 18, you can tell like it's been years and years. But this, it seems like the the mustiness and the lack of elements in this room and and it seems like no other living creatures have been able to come in and eat at this thing, other than whatever this big thing is, it is
00:10:15
Speaker
Because of that, it's pretty preserved in here. Could I tell how big this creature possibly could be based on how, I guess I wouldn't? Because it's been years.
00:10:30
Speaker
I was about to say I wanted to see like how, how big this creature possibly is with as much force as it could to just rip a human body. If you want to make a, well, you made that medicine check. I mean, you would think to animals. Okay. So because of what you know, and your knowledge, you would think about animals and you would think that the way this creature, this, this seems to have been ripped apart. A bear is not big enough to do this. You're thinking bigger than that.
00:11:00
Speaker
Wow. Gwendolyn's eyes. You can't think of a, you can't think of an animal that size. Um, she hesitates and kind of gasps back from it. Um, wide eyed. This is no, no creature I have ever, I can't even dream of a creature that's, that's this big. She starts trembling.
00:11:29
Speaker
Um, after him and it cursed you to, you know, it's no, it's true. With that said, just completely exasperated if the whole thing creates throws down his shield and hammer, uh, undoes the binding on his right hand and wraps it around his head, making a makeshift muzzle over his mouth. So we just stopped speaking and giving things away.
00:11:55
Speaker
After seeing the other two walk into the room that I just exited and knowing the door is locked, Joxer is gonna, and seeing Joxer do that, or, yeah, after seeing Krigs do that. Krigs, pull yourself together, just blast through this door, just break it.
00:12:19
Speaker
Very angry and everything else, I'm going to take the biggest swing at that door with my war hammer. All right, make an attack roll. That is with my 18. Okay, yeah, you bust it open. It doesn't fly open. You bust it and smack it and it just kind of goes. And starts to kind of creak open on the hinges a little bit.
00:12:50
Speaker
this big iron door, and you have access to this room if you'd like it. Did Krigs remove all of the bandages that he keeps around his hand? Davin wants to take a look and see what he's been wrapping up this entire time on his arm. Okay, make a perception check, I guess. While he does that, I want to go into the room that he
Krigs' Glowing Wound
00:13:14
Speaker
busted down. Okay. 15 perception. Okay. 15.
00:13:21
Speaker
You can see, Krigs, explain what he would be able to see in just a little more than a glance at what's on your hand. Arm, hand, perfectly normal looking. The palm as a, you see a glow. That's all you see.
00:13:43
Speaker
Just a glow, something in his hands. In a glance, in a slight glance, you would probably see just a glow that looks kind of like a wound. On the palm of your hand? Interesting. Okay.
00:13:56
Speaker
Okay. And as you put your hand to your mouth, Krigs, this kind of aura, as you do that and you smack this door in, this kind of aura surrounds you and you, about 15 minutes early, you relieve yourself of this state you were in, this psychic
00:14:21
Speaker
Suffering you were going through and your you have this aura of protection around you to help you with that sort of thing and it kicks in with your bandage removed and you're kind of giving into.
00:14:34
Speaker
if I need home to help me now, I'm just going to take it because this is this is I can't go on like this. And so you have this, this moment where that kind of takes over. And so now my or protection, you have that or protection, you just you you had to give into it and allow it to allow it to take to take control a little bit. And you realized it was necessary at this point. So and that also benefits people around you. So
00:15:05
Speaker
when other saves are necessary, which you just kind of spend another chunk of time. So we're not rolling yet, but we're at three dice. So the stress is gaining. All right, so you bust in that door is anyone going in there? Yeah.
00:15:27
Speaker
Okay, so the door with the door open, you can see, and it's an empty cell, identical to the holding cell across the way. There are chains with cuffs hanging. There is no blood dragged in here, but if you'd like to look closer at all, somebody can investigate the room. I wanna look for secrets. What am I not seeing? Probably nothing with this roll. Nine, 11.
00:15:51
Speaker
Unfortunately, you just see an empty room with stone walls and a few places where people could be chained to those walls. I come out. There's no body in this. It's just a typical cell. We should move forward. I agree. Jox is taking breath in. I mean, the whole place smells bad enough. But after seeing that, he took a he had to take a minute.
00:16:20
Speaker
He's reaching at his belt hoping he's got something, but he's got nothing to drink. Yeah. Okay. As you step out of this hall into the other hall beyond, there is that other door right across, right there. That was to the right as you were coming down the main tunnel. This is a tunnel. That was a hallway. You've got another door to the right in front of you as you enter this hallway. I'll go check that door and see if it's locked.
00:16:48
Speaker
Okay, it is not locked. It's closed and latched, like not latched as in like, it's just latched into some hole in the wall inside that the door frame kind of to just keep it closed. But it's not it doesn't seem locked at all. There's just a handle there that you could slide to unlatch
The Armory and Velvet Mask
00:17:06
Speaker
it. I shall do so and open the door. Okay, when you slide that door open, you
00:17:16
Speaker
There it is. Yeah, it's a, uh, this is like an armory and you see just bits of just it mostly empty. There's a few daggers here and there, a sword here and there, um, anything beyond that you could investigate. There is a trunk sitting in one of the corners, but. Well, it looks like they were prepared. They were armed because they took most of the things out of here. There's a trunk over there. I guess I can see what's in there.
00:17:46
Speaker
Hurry. Okay, so. Daven without even thinking of any dangers, he's gonna go and try and open it. Okay, so you just open the trunk and inside the trunk, you see a black velvet mask in the trunk. And it just looks fancy. It doesn't really look like any use other than it's maybe worth something. You also see a small burlap bag in there.
00:18:13
Speaker
I will take both. Is there anything in the burlap bag? Yes, there are gold pieces. It just jingle jangles. I'll feel the weight of it. Try and get a guess of how much is there. Yeah, you're going to guess somewhere in the 100 range. All right. Look at the group. It's like, well, this isn't a complete loss. And he'll tuck it into his coat pocket. He says, we'll distribute this later. He's going to put on the mask.
00:18:42
Speaker
Nice. This mask is velvet black, and it's got like fancy silver thread etched around the outside of it and right around the eye holes. So it's not it's pretty nice. Go ahead, Glenn. I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. No, you're forgiven. Are you okay? I'm fine.
00:19:08
Speaker
Craig's didn't mean for that to come off so intense, but he's sort of shaken. Okay. Uh, jocks are just gonna just start down the hallway after he's regained and seen that room's done with. All right. Dang it. Why don't we get a fourth dice on the table? I missed that one. Yeah, I just added it. It took to look through the armory you were in there. I don't know. Like.
00:19:38
Speaker
So as you continue down the hall, you come to the stairs that go down. It's only about 10 steps down to a wide open room.
The Mystery of the Metal Grates
00:19:49
Speaker
It's about 50 foot wide and 50 foot long square room. There are six five foot grates in the middle of this room that seem to cover holes in the floor.
00:20:04
Speaker
And there's a doorway on the back side of the room. The ceiling in this hallway is very tall. There are two tunnel shafts that look like they're coming down into this room here.
00:20:22
Speaker
pretty small, but they look like air kind of vents that have been carved into the ceiling here, this very tall ceiling, all the way up, somewhere out through somewhere up there. And then there are a bunch of small pieces of polished metal scattered all across the floor. And at the
00:20:53
Speaker
uh, end of the hallway or there's a, there's a, there's a door at the end of this, this room. I already said that I think, right? Yeah. There's a door at the backside of this room, but then there are those greats in the middle of the room here too. So there's only one door in this entire room besides the one we entered through. Yes. Okay. So you said there's six greats on the ground or nine? Six six and they're five foot squares. And you said it was 50 by 50. Mm-hmm.
00:21:24
Speaker
So how far is the grate from the step into the room? The greats as you step into the room you walk about about 15 feet and you come up to the first grate and they're spaced evenly from there from each other. And there's two there's like three on one side of the room and three on the other side, not all the way against the wall but just kind of centered on the room like it's the
00:21:52
Speaker
Okay. Craig's, do you have any idea what this room would be for? This is a strange room. He doesn't answer. Uh, can I, uh, can I see anything in the great that's in front of me if I walk in? Yeah.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah, you look down into the room and or the greats and you see a small like five foot square hole. They're dug down about eight feet deep. And you look in that first hole and you see what's left of a body of a person down there. And you can see where this these greats have keyholes in them where they have been locked.
00:22:33
Speaker
And a couple of them, the locks are busted, and the bodies inside of there are either beaten or destroyed and torn up, or there are no bodies inside there. Devin, it looks like holding cells. You're not wrong. Are we in a keep or are we in a prison?
00:23:02
Speaker
We're in a torture area. I don't like it. Can we please get out of here? He looks up to the ceiling. Can I tell anything about what the holes in the ceiling are? Yeah. They look like... Actually, make an investigation check as you look around in there and look up and try to figure it out. Nope. It's a five plus nothing big.
00:23:28
Speaker
Okay. It's hard to know. You would know without any effort that they have to have some sort of ventilation once you've gotten this far down. So you expect that. And it might would let some light through, but you don't know for sure. I agree with Craig, so we should keep moving. There's nothing good in this room. Is that stench that I'm smelling that I smelled earlier as a mouse getting stronger?
00:23:57
Speaker
Uh, you definitely smell it down here. Yeah. Uh, and, um, yeah. Uh, yeah. And you hear a foom, foom, foom, foom. It's getting louder and louder. Let's keep moving. All right. We'll go to the back door. Gwendolyn nods. I lead. Just wanting to get out of that room. Okay.
00:24:25
Speaker
So as you go towards the back of the room, there is that other door there. And that door opens pretty easily to a 20 foot hallway.
Sinister Contraption
00:24:42
Speaker
And this hallway leads to a small room that is in the middle of the floor. It's like this strange contraption that has been put here in the middle of this room.
00:25:06
Speaker
And it looks like it's made to hold something. And it's made from bits of, you see a couple like hot pokers that are like, they're not hot, but they're like stuff that's heated and then used to poke things or people maybe. You see chains and
00:25:25
Speaker
handcuff kind of things and stuff like that that have all been kind of configured together and kind of just somehow just formed to create this, this pedestal almost to hold something.
00:25:40
Speaker
And then around the room are just like scratch marks and big dents in the stone where the stone looks like it's been gouged out here and there. And this room looks like it's been like just something's just thrown hissy fits inside of here. Yet this thing still stands in the middle of the room.
00:26:05
Speaker
And there is a stone door on the back wall of this room, and it is exactly parallel with this thing that's standing in the middle of the room. It's just right in the back behind it as you enter. And as you enter this extra room, we add another dice, and that is six.
Charity Event Promotion
00:26:37
Speaker
making the world a better place one dice roll at a time. Keotic Lawful Inc is organising and hosting their first big charity event, Pro Bono Week. From March 28th until April 4th, our Twitch channel will be filled with TTRPG one-shots, giveaways and more, all for charity.
00:26:56
Speaker
The community has come together to bring you games, t-shirts, dice vaults and more to win. And every $10 you donate gives you an extra chance to win from our pool of prizes. Seriously, all you need to do is come and watch some wonderful people play TTRPGs and donate to charity. It's that easy.
00:27:14
Speaker
The donations will be split between Mind UK, which promotes mental health awareness and services, the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to individuals illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state prisons, and the WHO COVID Relief Fund.
00:27:32
Speaker
Keep an eye out on our socials at LomaSellori and KiaDokLaw Inc on Twitter and of course twitch.tv slash KiaDokLaw for underscoring to get involved, see which games and guests will feature and to get that hype going. Hello everybody, this is Michael, your dungeon master and guide to all things
00:28:02
Speaker
the hired swords some things you know some things only I know how exciting is that anyway I just wanted to say thank you so much for listening to our podcast it is super super cool to create something and work hard on something and have other people enjoy it as
DM's Gratitude
00:28:20
Speaker
a dungeon master you hope your players enjoy it but this new level of people listening to our game and enjoying it is just
00:28:27
Speaker
It's mind boggling and I have a hard time expressing how blessed I feel and grateful I am that you guys are a part of this with us. So thank you so much to all those who follow us on Twitter at the hired swords and on Facebook, the hired swords, you are just a whole new level of that. Those who leave reviews on iTunes or your pod.
00:28:48
Speaker
Cast listening app of choice that it's just it's over the top and super we're super grateful We even have had some fan art and you know, we're looking at you Jess So we're just so grateful for all the things that you've done to make us feel welcome in this Dungeons and Dragons actual play podcast community and It's it's pretty mind-blowing again. I can keep saying we're grateful and just showering you with with gratitude and thanks, but
00:29:14
Speaker
I'll leave it there and just wanted to pop in here and give my thanks and remind you to follow us at those places. That's at the hired swords on Twitter, hired swords on Facebook, hired swords.com for some articles and things as episodes are released. And yeah, subscribe to our show on your favorite podcasting app. Thanks very much and enjoy the rest of the show. Bye.
00:29:43
Speaker
So it's another roll. This was with wisdom. You said another wisdom saving throw as I rolled one one only one one on both of those natural 20.
00:30:00
Speaker
Daven got a natural 20. I got 12 without my friendly. Yeah. 18. Thank you. I got 19 plus seven. I guess it would be a dirty 20 with my aura. Okay. All right. Are we all safe?
00:30:18
Speaker
I think so. Everybody's safe. So everyone feels this panic attack again as you hear this sound coming closer to you. And it's just as it approaches. So it sounds like it's coming closer to us now.
00:30:39
Speaker
It sounds like it might be it still sounds a little bit distant, but it's coming actually from somehow behind you now. And yeah, so as you as you are standing in this kind of smaller room, you you hear it now approaching. But it doesn't sound like it's super close at this point with
00:31:03
Speaker
With the corridors and everything we've been in, the understanding of the path that we've taken, we kind of get that there's no way it could actually be coming from behind us. It has to be either vertical or wrapped around somehow going forward, I must admit. Right. I mean, you may would... Yeah, you would probably put that together. That's what you would be thinking at this point, sure. Cool. Lego. Let's do this.
00:31:26
Speaker
All right. So jocks are seeing that contraption that seems like a terrifying torture device in the center of the room. I'd like to investigate that to see if there's anything that like I could take off or even use to understand how the contraption works. OK. Make an investigation check. Don't fail me now. That is 13 minus 12.
00:31:57
Speaker
Okay, this this device is it doesn't look like a torture device. It looks like somebody used torture tools to build something else. There is this base that is made mostly from like stools and stuff a couple stools leaning together with on top of that.
00:32:22
Speaker
they have like lashed using this weird twine some other like pole type items things that look almost like a crowbar or iron rods and then from the from the middle of that coming up
00:32:36
Speaker
Is and there's some like chain like I said some chain cuffs and things that are holding things in place but then from the middle of that coming up about to just about chin high to you jocks are is this almost like a golf tee Looking top of this metal pole that is sticking up like something supposed to set right on top of that little thing right there to hold something on top of it and
00:33:03
Speaker
I guess is the creature that we're hunting at this point was created right here in this chair or this contraption. I feel like this was created to destroy the creature. So I think it created it. You think it's supposed to destroy it. A bunch of sharp pokers and random devices tied together that I don't know. This creature, I
00:33:33
Speaker
It's not natural. I trust Daven in saying that it probably was created here. I don't know if that's possible. If you recall the logs, they found this in the mines. Unless... It didn't know how to open a door. How could it create this?
00:34:00
Speaker
Think back to Teld's note. Find the creature and dispatch of it. You are right. It was a bad idea in the first place. I think that Teld and Denaldi at least were involved in creating whatever this thing was. That note, it's been in the back of my head. I just...
00:34:24
Speaker
I don't, I definitely don't disagree that it's been created, but I don't think that this creature has the intelligence to create. No, I'm not saying the creature created this contraption. I'm saying this contraption created that creature. But look at it. It's a bunch of tools. Well, we don't know exactly what we're dealing with yet.
00:34:50
Speaker
Krigs, have you seen anything like this? And she's stern when she says it. I have nothing to do with anything in this room. I don't think I just it doesn't feel like from the it doesn't seem like a helm thing. This seems like a wild hill thing.
00:35:14
Speaker
I think we need to find out exactly what it is. I think we need to keep going. The longer we stay here, the worse it's going to get for us. I think we're about to find out. I push forward. If it's still behind us. There's a door there. And it is seemingly stuck sealed shut. investigation as to why it is sealed or how it is sealed. Yep. Let's do it.
00:35:46
Speaker
17 plus one is 18. Looking at this door, it doesn't seem to be made to be locked in whatever fashion it has been locked.
00:36:03
Speaker
It seems like something has barricaded it on the other side or sealed it off somehow on the inside. And with that role, you do notice that a hole has been carved into the door.
00:36:18
Speaker
very small hole, not much bigger than say, like the the like the tip of the the back end of a pen like that you would use to write with but just like, you know, or your pinky would fit inside that hole is pretty small. And it's it's about it's just above your head, about chin high to most most people but right just above your head, you see that hole carved through this door. All right,
00:36:49
Speaker
Um, like to peer through that hole with my dark vision. Yeah. You peer through that hole and just off in the distance in through that hole. Uh, you can see, uh, a stone wall in the distance over there. And, uh, there's just a room beyond this door and there is a foul, uh,
00:37:16
Speaker
smell coming as you get close to that hole you can smell this this rotten smell it doesn't smell like meat it doesn't even smell like a sour like creature kind of smell it's some other kind of rotting something almost like plant matter or something that's rotting like a it smells like a like a compost pile almost that hasn't been really tended to has just been thrown into the right pile um
00:37:47
Speaker
Peering through the hole, can I see any kind of mechanisms holding the door open on the other side? You can't see anything on the other side, no. Does this hole look like some kind of keyhole or some kind of trigger hole to activate a way to open this door? Make another investigation check, this time on the hole itself. Okay. No jokes.
00:38:13
Speaker
Well, that's a three, plus one is four. Plus, yeah, nothing. There's just a hole in this door. Rad. Uh, lads, we got a door with a hole in it. I'm wondering, Gwen, you said that whatever tore up that man back there was bigger than a bear. Yes. Well, some of these hallways are not that big.
00:38:35
Speaker
And now we've kind of come to a bit of a dead end, at least for the sake of this monster. Is it possible that we either miss something back there, or it has a way of changing its size? Has Gwen ever heard of anything changing? Like, has she ever heard of shapeshifters? Of any sorts? Uh, yeah, I'd say so. Um, how much you know would require a history check, but you've definitely heard it's something of that happening, of that existing. How about...
00:39:04
Speaker
a 10 plus a 12. You have heard, you've heard of like creatures, individuals that can change their the way they look, you've definitely heard of magic that can do that. But you've heard of creatures that have kind of got that magic as a part of their DNA as well. But you've never met one and you don't know much about them. You just again, you've read that that exists.
00:39:33
Speaker
I have heard stories of shapeshifters, but it's impossible. I mean, the size of the thing just doesn't seem possible. And she is so flustered because she cannot figure out what this thing is. ALICE Well, unless it's got a way of getting through that little hole right there, it's somewhere behind us.
00:40:02
Speaker
Devin's going to go up and he's going to peer through the hole to see what he sees. Okay. When you peer through that hole, again, you see what Craig saw. You see a stone wall in the distance and make a perception check besides that. All right. 12 plus perception is one, so 13.
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah, you just see that stone wall in the distance and you smell that same kind of compost, rotten food smell. I looked at the group and I say, I can probably get into that room. But if I can't clear the door, I can't get back out. At this point, Jackson is just going to look up and see if he can see anything on the ceiling.
00:40:48
Speaker
okay on the ceiling you look up and there is it is a just carved stone ceiling almost like a cavern ceiling but but a little bit hewn and there are
00:41:04
Speaker
a couple more of those ventilation shaft holes that have been carved into this or drilled through this somehow. You don't see anything through the holes, it just gets dark as you look up, but you can tell that there's several of them up there. Devin wants to walk back to the other room and I want to go and investigate all of the grates on the ground and see if they all are just eight foot deep holes or if there's anything that goes further.
00:41:34
Speaker
Okay. And you, you are all at your, we're now at another third, a third tension dice. Joxers. I guess at that point, Joxer is just going to say, were there always these ventilation holes? And that's about it. Okay. Joxer.
00:41:58
Speaker
I'm, I'm asked, I just said it out loud. Any, anybody, all the rooms, did they have these ventilation holes? I don't recall any ventilation holes in any other rooms. I can't, I can't imagine we're dealing with a spider. It would have, no. Going back to the other room, do I see anything in any of those holes?
00:42:25
Speaker
Make investigation checks as you look in the holes. Make one for all of them. Sure. It's 19 total. Okay. You can pull a couple of them, the grates are busted open and whoever was inside of there has been pulled out of there apparently because there's just blood stains and no bodies.
00:42:46
Speaker
you do find a couple of them are locked with bodies inside of them, but none of them go deeper than the eight foot, just eight foot holes. If you're just inspecting those greats, yeah, that's all you can, that's all you find there. I come back to the group and I say, well, those little prisons in the ground, they don't lead down. So I'm not really sure. Krigs, from your recollection, do these,
00:43:14
Speaker
Do they normally have these ventilation holes throughout all of the mine shafts? It would make sense, honestly, for ventilation to be in any mine shaft, it's a part of the mining process. You have to be able to get fresh air. But in this room specifically, I've only ever heard of these rooms and rumors.
00:43:41
Speaker
I don't know what the purpose other than just standard fresh air and there's no this ever man the last. Oh, I'm, I'm more curious if, uh, if this beast is following us from above. That sounds like it's coming from below.
00:44:03
Speaker
Can we actually ascertain if it's above or below based on the sound and general vibration of the ground and everything? Make, what kind of check would that be? Just make a perception check. Sure. As the fum fum.
00:44:23
Speaker
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
00:44:50
Speaker
but it doesn't feel like it's coming from that room that he looked in.
00:44:54
Speaker
It could be you just you don't know. You really can't tell from what direction it's coming from. For a while you felt like it was coming from behind you. From a while you felt like you were heading towards it. Just now Kriegs felt like it was beneath you or maybe above you. It's hard to know. Devin, you're a little bit more familiar. Can you look at this device in the room? I'm going to look in the previous room to see if there's any holes in the top ventilation shafts.
00:45:23
Speaker
Okay, I'll go take a look at the contraption and see if there's anything magical about it, maybe. Okay, make an investigation check. Natural one. Oh, man. All right. Jocks are as you walk around the other room, you do see the there are ventilation shafts in the ceiling. There's several. There's like a dozen of them up there. Do any of them look like they're open?
00:45:48
Speaker
They're all open, but none of them are more than eight or 10 inches diameter. Okay. So they're itty bitty. Okay. Yeah. They're not like big, big vents. You know, they're, they're just a bunch of, uh, and yeah, there's just a bunch of eight to 10 inch diameter holes in the ceiling. Okay. Well, I figure we've got two options. We can either see if critics and bust through the store and continue forward the way we've been going, or we go back to the other rooms and we kind of investigate a little bit further and see if we can find a way through over there.
00:46:21
Speaker
After I return to the room, I look at that spot that looked like it needed a device of some sort. And I just grab it and pull it. Okay. When you pull it, the whole thing just kind of like comes undone and just falls into a pile of junk on the floor. Just kind of crashes to the floor. Okay. I don't think that's the way it was supposed to work.
00:46:49
Speaker
crazy just laughs for a second. This whole situation has been that that caused a loud ruckus. And we're adding another DC. As you hear, you're kind of hearing some boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then suddenly it stops. It's like boom, boom.
00:47:12
Speaker
Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. It starts to sound like it's more purpose to this. Seriously. Okay. Out. What'd you say, Gwendolyn? She's stressing out. Okay.
00:47:31
Speaker
All right. Oh, wait, let me check my rules on that real quick. Hang on. You don't have to. Roll, add 1d6 and roll for every loud or dangerous activity.
Frustration at the Sealed Door
00:47:42
Speaker
So I have to roll them too. Well, at least we're doing one less dice for the roll. We're rolling five instead of six. Oh, yeah, that's nice. We're gonna do more loud stuff. Five ones. So let's see. One dice has a 20% chance of rolling a one. What does five dice have?
00:47:58
Speaker
there were zero ones in that roll, gosh. They're all gonna catch up to you guys, don't worry. Yeah, we're gonna get six ones coming up. Oh my God. All right, so that did clear your dice, but at what cost? I want to walk up to the hole on the door.
00:48:21
Speaker
I'm going to peer through the hole and double check there's obviously we've heard more purpose to the walking. I want to make sure that it's still an empty room. From what you can tell now, granted, you're only seeing like you're not seeing a room yet at this point. You're just seeing because that hole so small, you know, you're just seeing like the wall on the other side of the room. You can tell it's probably 20 feet away. Can I see a floor?
00:48:51
Speaker
Yeah, you can see a little bit of the floor leading up to that wall. Yeah. Just a very little bit. You can just see where the floor meets the wall there at the bottom. Can you push the door open? Is that possible? I try to push it. Just push it or are you like banging into it? I'll give it a shoulder strike like stupid stuff.
00:49:17
Speaker
Okay, so you kind of lean your shoulder into it. And it and it kind of just makes a little fud sound. And let's see how much we're gonna add a dice for that. No, I was rolling to see if the thing hurt it and it did
Krigs' Teleportation Discovery
00:49:32
Speaker
not. So you you made that you made that little fud sound and the door doesn't well make a strength check actually. 13.
00:49:46
Speaker
Yeah, the thing doesn't budge like it doesn't even Care that you did that the door doesn't the door the door is like honey badger. It just doesn't care I look back. There's an efforts reference Yeah, there you go I'm old. I'm an old guy back at the group and I just say I guess if we're doing this we're doing this and they're gonna see a silvery mist circle around my legs up to the top of my head and Then they don't see me anymore
00:50:14
Speaker
What a teleport Misty step into the room looking through the hole, okay so Krigs is looking through that hole and he BAMPS out of existence and You hear up as he appears on the other side and Krigs when you appear on the other side you're looking at a torture chamber and you're looking at a
00:50:38
Speaker
a torture table that has been set as if for a small meal for one. You see a cage to the right, not a cage necessarily, it's like a cell with one bed in it. You see, you smell, the smell of rotting food just overtakes you, and you see piles and piles of rotting food all over the place.
00:51:03
Speaker
you also see on the walls little etches like little marks of tally marks and in the in the coming from the bed that is hanging by chains it's like a wooden bed prison bed hanging by chains off the wall inside that cage kind of jail cell
00:51:24
Speaker
A voice says, I wasn't expecting company. And that's where we're going to stop today. No! I'm generally mad right now. Well, Griggs.
00:51:48
Speaker
It was nice knowing you. What? Well done. What? Yeah, that was fun. Yeah. This is worse than the one week. So we're playing next week, right? So how much you want to bet I'm dead?
00:52:14
Speaker
Thank you again for listening to The Hired Swords, minus Krigs apparently. If you liked our show, tell a friend about us. And if you really liked our show, tell the world. Leave a review. If you want to keep up with us and all the behind the scenes goofs and gaffs, you can find us on Twitter and Facebook at The Hired Swords. Again, thank you for listening.
00:52:45
Speaker
But really though, you might want to send some help because like I'm in this room. I'm with this dude. It's really kind of like not great. He's probably going to eat me. It's not, it's not ideal. Um, yeah, I don't know how much longer I have.