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Ep. 31 To The Skies
148 Plays4 years ago
Things that go bump in the night are often seen differently in the morning light. Curses might feel like blessings and blessings like a burden too heavy to bear. That fate is yet to be seen as we're left to gather our thoughts and prepare ourselves for what's yet to come. The only certainty we do have now is the turning wheels of Wildhill that have been altering the balance of life must be stopped. Sariah must not reach the next hunted prey before we do.
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Transcript
Mysterious Disruptions and Quest Introduction
00:00:13
Speaker
Previously on the hired swords Things that go bump in the night are often seen differently in the lazy morning light Curses might feel like blessings and blessings like a burden far too heavy to bear That fate is yet to be seen as we're left to gather our thoughts and prepare ourselves for what's yet to come
00:00:36
Speaker
The only certainty we do have now is the turning wheels of Wild Hill that have been altering the balance of life must be stopped.
The Hired Swords: A Unique Dual D&D Experience
00:00:46
Speaker
Saria must not reach the next Hunted Prey before we do.
00:01:14
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, the world's first dual D&D podcast and terrible dice roll simulator.
A Missing Teammate and a Morning Mission
00:01:34
Speaker
When we last left off, you had woken up in the morning, had a little conversation after a rough night for some of you and some of the best sleep ever for the rest of you. And made your way to the longhouse, except for Krigs, where you got some breakfast and found that there was some sort of mission going on down south or towards the south of the woods that has caused you, it's kind of piqued your interest.
Krigs' Advice-Seeking Encounter with Justice
00:02:00
Speaker
So you,
00:02:02
Speaker
Realized Kriegs was missing, who had been speaking with Justice, who they exchanged true names, and he shared with her a little bit of his life and his story and asked for some advice. And then when he found you all, you were on your way down to the statue to find out what was going on with Sarai and her party as they headed
The Race for the Hybrid Creature
00:02:23
Speaker
south. Concerned that you might be
00:02:25
Speaker
hearing of a mission to intercept Delmar as he heads south with Francine. You then proceeded to find out that they were indeed didn't seem like they were headed down to capture anything like Delmar, but instead some sort of hybrid wolf bear creature.
00:02:45
Speaker
And then Gwendolyn decided she wanted to go with Sarai's party to do that. An argument ensued in which the resolution was the chief allowing you to race to find that monster and do with it what you will, the gold or the prize being given to the one who makes it back with that monster in tow, that creature in tow.
Preparation for Flight and Enchantment
00:03:05
Speaker
And so that is kind of where we left off after Krigs had asked the party to jump into Joxer's
00:03:13
Speaker
crafting hole, his his brewery hole. And then he sprouted wings from his cape and was ready to take off with them in the hole. So did you all get in the hole or are you about to? I think that was just before they hadn't officially gotten in. Got it.
Taking Flight: Magic and Transformation
00:03:34
Speaker
There was discussion on whether you remembered how to open the hole back up. I knew the whole time.
00:03:42
Speaker
Joxer's gonna look over and I feel it, if you're doing what I think you are, it might behoove me to do this. And he's gonna touch you and cast jump on you. Which is gonna give you, I believe, double jumping speed, or jump, you touch a creature, the creature's jump distance is tripled until the spell ends.
00:04:11
Speaker
Big homes. Your jump distance is your strength score. So real high. Yeah. Was an 18. Yeah. And then it's it's like one. It's times one point five. If you're running right, I believe. Yeah. Big hops. I know it's going to be like the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk.
00:04:40
Speaker
Anyway, you can jump 54 feet at a sprint. Out of a sprint. I'll follow in everybody or at least assuming I'll be the last one in the hole. Devin. Yes. It's going to be a little difficult for me to manage maneuvering and keeping track of time.
00:05:02
Speaker
And also looking for this creature, if you could do your best to keep track of the amount of time you have in this hole. And if you, if you can send me a message, let me know when your time is expiring and I will make sure we're in a safe location. Okay. When I get down there, I'll set a test message to make sure it works fine.
00:05:23
Speaker
Sounds great. I'll pop down the hall. You said you're going to send a text message. Yes. Wait. I'll send you a text message. Yes. A Facebook request. Krigs, if you don't mind, can I help you out here? You've flown before, I'm assuming. Ah, yes. I'm going to try to deceive him.
00:05:55
Speaker
Okay, I'm just gonna buy it cuz I trust you you don't have to roll nothing, okay? Well as far as as far as I can see it two pairs of eyes are better than just my old dwarven pair So if you if you think you can help me look and can keep up by all means Okay, I I put I take my bag off that has Dale in it and I'm like, can you guys watch him?
00:06:22
Speaker
Absolutely, Gwen. I dropped the bag down. Did I jump up? All right, I'll climb down. I jump up and I turn into a giant eagle.
00:06:37
Speaker
Ooh, you can fly now? I can fly now at level eight. That's amazing. All right. We've got a giant eagle up in the sky, starting to head up towards the sky. And we have Craig standing there looking like Craig's, but he's got these big, beautiful blue wings coming out of his back, coming off of his back now. And yeah, I guess everyone else is going to get in that hole. And here we go. Yep. Jump in or take the bag and jump in.
00:07:04
Speaker
I don't know about you jocks, sir, but I'm really confused about all of this. Like, why are we doing this? Why did Craig's get the wings? Why can't we fly? A lot, a lot of questions. Um, you know what? Hey, uh, this brew is just about done. Would you like to try it out? Sure. If I just kind of relax really quick and he'll pull out his little piece of copper and he'll hold it to his mouth and he'll say, uh, testing one, two critics. Can you hear me? You can reply to this.
00:07:34
Speaker
Do I hear it? You do. Loud and clear there, buddy. Oh, Jesus Christ. All right. Yeah, so as that's happening, Joxer is just pouring pouring out a little bit of brew. It's it's a little it still has some.
00:07:53
Speaker
some floaties, it's not filtered yet. While they're having, just so we have this moving, while they're sampling, I've spoken to Gwen south, let's go, and then I go to a sprint and then just, and then leap and take to the skies and watch as we fly over the
00:08:18
Speaker
OK, over Wild Hill. Yeah, this looking Wild Hill has this giant eagle and this strange bluebird man looking thing flying above it now. And people are looking as you guys take off and you look down and you can see Sarai and make perception checks as you look down and see Sarai in there in her group. I'm going to make a perception check and wave. I get advantage. I got 19. I'm not even going to look at my number.
00:08:48
Speaker
Okay. JK, I'm gonna look. JK. It's 20. 30, 20. 17. Okay. So you both look down, and as you look down, you can see Sarai, you wave, and Sarai just shakes her head at you guys, like, oh boy. And you can see the wizard guy, the mage, has started etching this big circle and is drawing symbols on this circle in the ground.
00:09:16
Speaker
where they stand. And as you begin to fly south, that's the last glimpse you catch of Sariah's group. Fantastic. Yeah, and you start to head south and you fly out of town pretty quickly. How long do your wings work? Great.
00:09:33
Speaker
Mine work for an hour, but that really doesn't matter too much because we can't keep them in that hole forever. Right. So you got 10 minutes for them to be in there. So you you're flying. You guys are inside that
In-Flight Conversations and Brewing Ideas
00:09:52
Speaker
whole drinking, right? Just hanging out, partying.
00:09:56
Speaker
Yeah. What do you think? Yeah. What do you think Devin? Um, it's a, it's a, it's a little sharp for my original taste. I think it still needs a little bit of time. I'll be honest with you. I've had six of your beers so far and I never actually told you before. I don't like beer. Yeah. I've seen you throw out at least one. So I try and change the taste a little bit, but I don't want to be rude.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's, everybody has their own opinion. I guess I just prefer it over wine, I mean. Sure, yeah, of course, wine. I'm not sure if I've ever even had the stuff. But you grabbed some wine. Did you not have the wine that you grabbed before? I might have taken a sip of it. Was that wine? I thought wine was supposed to be like sparkling or something.
00:10:48
Speaker
Oh, no, no. Well, I mean, I suppose there are some more expensive wines that they are bubbling, but it's normally magically endeavored. You know, I'll make one specifically for you. If you were able to handle that wine, I could definitely make a more smooth beer. We'll call it fruity. All right, I'll try it.
00:11:17
Speaker
So they're inside talking about the intricacies of brewing and different types of beverages. And outside of this hole, you have krigs flying, keep keeping a lookout below trying to see through this canopy. You see this like a nature, a natural trail that is formed as you've gotten a good enough way in in about five, six minutes. You've made it your way away from town enough to start to see where the main road is kind of gone.
00:11:46
Speaker
Gwendolyn and Craig's, why don't you two make perception checks again? 12? 14. Okay. As you fly and look down, it's mostly tree canopy. It's hard to see beyond it or beneath it. You do see, though, that little bit of a trail where it looks like creatures and animals go
00:12:15
Speaker
travel into the woods. And so you do see that, but that's about all you see. And then you continue to fly. We'll say what's going on in the hole for the last five minutes or so of this little journey. Getting a little tired. How long has it been? Well, I mean, I haven't been keeping a great count, to be honest. Would you buy a figure probably about eight minutes or so?
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah, I can definitely say, I mean, when, when I'm at least speaking, it's about, it's about a beer every two minutes. All right. I'll send, Hey, Craig's, Craig says your two minutes warning. You might want to start looking for a place to land soon. Yeah, you hear that. Chicken. It's just a chicken eagle.
00:13:15
Speaker
All right, so yeah, Craig, are you gonna look around for a place to land? I'm pushing it a little bit further, trying to get as deep into the forest and as close to this creature as I possibly can get. Okay, so you continue to fly a little further south and you make it, I mean, on foot, this would have been about an hour's travel, but you've made it in close to 10 minutes.
00:13:41
Speaker
you do think that you're getting close to that 10-minute mark. As you look around down beneath you, you don't see any real big, good clearings. You find somewhere that you think you could be able to get in there, thread a needle between the trees and maybe find a place to land on a trail down there. I will thread that needle. All right. As you go into land, why don't you make a dexterity check for me?
00:14:11
Speaker
Okay. Oh, oh, oh, oh, that's a nine. Okay, so you come in and you're trying to navigate your body and you haven't used these wings in weeks, at least since you've been to Wild Hill. And you're trying to kind of navigate and get yourself kind of turned just right to land on this, this pathway. And as you come down, you
00:14:39
Speaker
you realize you're coming in too hot, you're coming in too fast. And so you have to do this tuck and roll thing. So you tuck and you roll and you don't take any damage, but as you roll, the portable hole flies out of your hands and you roll several feet past it. And as you kind of come up and stand back up, you've got to turn and go look for it. You can make a perception trick to try to find it as they've got about 20 seconds left. Okay.
00:15:09
Speaker
17. Okay, so you come back and you start looking around and guys, you're inside this hole and you you don't feel anything, you know, you're it's not like this is a bag that you're in. So this this is just a portal to another, you know, pocket plane kind of thing. So you don't feel anything happening, but you sense that it is getting really close to time. And suddenly you start you you all start to feel
00:15:38
Speaker
little bit lightheaded and you're like, oh man, been drinking a little more than I thought I have in Davin, especially you, you're like, I haven't really been down in these things. I don't really like beer. Why do I feel so lightheaded? And it's kind of a little bit of oxygen deprivation, probably. And so Krigs is kind of looking, Krigs, you find the hole and it's just kind of rolled up and half of it's kind of unrolled, but the other half still rolled up laying on the ground, little crumpled up on one side, leaning up against a log.
00:16:07
Speaker
I'm going to rush over to it and try to flatten it out. OK, you rush over to it, you flatten it out. And just as you kind of get the last little crease out of it, you have to reach under and grab a rock and pull it out from under it so it'll lay flat. And just as you do, guys, you see the sunlight peer through the top of this hole finally as this portal opens up and the hole is now open. Gwendolyn, you've been flying above this whole time or did you come down and land too? I'm still flying. OK, make a perception check as you circle up there.
00:16:39
Speaker
Oh my gosh, his rolls are getting worse and worse. Rolled 9, 2, 1, 12, 13. Okay. So you you still see Krigs in the down there and whatever he's up to. You saw him kind of tuck and roll on you. Oh, that looked rough. But he got up and okay, he's fine. And but you don't see anything else of interest as you fly around in your circle. Krigs or guys as the hole opens up, do
Eagle's Eye View and Aerial Maneuvers
00:17:05
Speaker
you guys crawl right out? Or what do you do?
00:17:07
Speaker
Oh god, how? How's it up there? I don't care. I can't breathe. I'm going up. Sorry about the rough landing. I didn't feel that, but you definitely waited for the very last second.
00:17:24
Speaker
I'm just trying to get in as far as we could. Last, uh, we left Wild Hill. There was a mage in Soraya's party that looked to be either summoning some kind of portal or I'm not sure what, but I don't know how much time I actually bought us. It's been probably at least an hour or two on foot that we were able to get into the wilds. All right. Next time you go in the hole and I do the flying, how about that? You can fly.
00:17:53
Speaker
Oh, Craig, you know me well enough. I can do anything. That's true. You do surprise me on the regular. All right. Did you guys see anything while you're out there? Oh, where's Gwen? She's just circling up ahead just to make sure there's nothing coming towards them. Uh, let me, let me get this thing up and, and I don't know how do we want to proceed forward?
00:18:19
Speaker
Gwen, as you're looking ahead, make another, yet another perception check. And remember, you are doing these at advantage. Yes. 14. Okay. So as you're looking ahead, flying around, you do see the kind of a path that heads forward and you see as the
00:18:39
Speaker
as the path winds forward, it kind of goes away into a thicker group of trees that are just, I mean, it's like this canopy is impenetrably thick. It's so much tree coverage here and this is further south than you've been.
00:18:55
Speaker
You're looking ahead for the south. You do see to the southwest a little ways, this open clearing that looks a little familiar to you. But it's a ways, it looks like it's probably a day or more travel on foot away, but you can see it from up this high. How many days has it been since Delmar and his daughter left? It has been. This is the third day, I believe. Okay.
00:19:24
Speaker
since that since you left him in the woods with Francine. OK. Let me see. Yeah, yeah, this is day three. And there's like no sign of like. And a path that an animal would make or the the path that you see looks like a well worn like animal trail. OK.
00:19:51
Speaker
And it leads to that thicket of forest? Yes. Okay. So what are we doing now, exactly? Can anybody get a message to Gwen? Maybe she doesn't know we're down here. How high up is she?
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah, how high are you flying you flying up quite a ways? Uh, yeah, I kind of want to go over the thicket to see if I could see anything But it's tough. Okay, so you've got to fly for a few more minutes So she's gonna get out of sight from you guys for a little bit You don't see her up there anywhere and as you fly over that way go ahead and make a another perception check 21 21 you
00:20:39
Speaker
It's hard to see through this canopy. Like I said, it's very thick. But you're flying and you're just about to head back. You think, man, there's nothing down here. And ahead, quite a ways ahead, before you turn around, you see trees moving
00:21:01
Speaker
but not in the same direction or the way the wind is blowing the trees around them. It's like something's moving these trees and it's like a pathway heading away from you further south as these trees are being shifted as something goes through there. Oh. She's out of sight. Should we continue this, we can get back in the hole.
00:21:30
Speaker
I say we wait on her. She's got speed. She's got advantage and height. She knew where we were when we landed. I would rather not get into a position to lose connection. I can't speak with her naturally. Granite, hold on. I can still fly. Yeah, that is true. Back up into the air. OK. See if I can see her up there. I want to get closer.
00:21:57
Speaker
As you get up and above the canopy, Krigs, you do see this giant eagle heading your direction from further south. They're heading north towards you. Oh. Did you say you turned around and headed back?
00:22:14
Speaker
I changed my mind. She was going to go and see a little bit further, I thought. Oh, sorry. I didn't hear you when you said that. I apologize. So if you're going further, then you see the opposite of what I just said. You see her heading the opposite direction, not towards you. But you do see her of because she's flying above where you even get. But you can see her. She's big enough. You can see her in the distance. I kind of want to get down behind where the movement is happening in the trees. OK. And I just kind of want to just like sit on branches and kind of peer through.
00:22:43
Speaker
the leaves, see if I can get a better look at what is going on. You come down, make another perception check as you come down and try to find something big enough for you to sit on. I'm going to pop back down. Natural 20. Sit. I'm going to pop back down and just tell them, I see her in the distance. She might be on to something. Let's just give her some time, hang here. I'm going to pop back up so she can at least find her way back. Okay. So with that, go ahead, Devin. Sorry. How far did she go forward?
00:23:13
Speaker
From what you could tell... Actually, make a perception check. I mean, I can't tell anything. How much increase? It's 15. Okay. From what you could tell from where you were, it looks like she flew probably another half of what you guys just did, like half that distance, another five minutes or so after the whole ordeal with them climbing out. You guys talking a little bit and all that stuff. It's been about five minutes, so she's flown probably an hour's worth of walk time.
00:23:44
Speaker
And Gwen, you're able to pretty easily find a place to land. You find the top of this tree, this tree that's mostly the top of it's pretty bold with not a lot of leaves. And you see that the trunk, the main branch that comes out of the center of the trunk kind of curls up into this big, almost like crook looking thing. And you're able to land on the big part of that and look down a little bit into the
00:24:13
Speaker
canopy beneath you, make another perception check. You're perceiving a lot. I am with my eagle eyes. That's right. What do your eagle eyes see? 15. Okay. You, as you look down, you know, you see a little bit of the stillness of
00:24:37
Speaker
the forest after something has like, just kind of torn through here. You think similarly to
00:24:46
Speaker
when that big blood bore ran through the woods and everything kind of got silent because of every other critter left because this big predator was in the way or whatever. It's that kind of feeling down here. As you look down, you see that any tree or plant that is
00:25:08
Speaker
smaller than like the tree you're on anything that's not very big has been splintered and pushed aside in this like pathway heading kind of southeast into the wilds. Okay. Are we just gonna continue to wait for her? Should we go after? I come back. I slowly come back and
00:25:37
Speaker
I just. OK, yeah, it doesn't take too long after Davin says that. And you guys here, you know, you hear as this this eagle squawks from above you. Nice. And I'm going to try to do a lentil, a lentil, a gentle landing and transform at the same time.
00:26:03
Speaker
I think I I'm sorry, I kept you guys waiting, but I think we should go this way that. Lead the way. Gwen, would you like a Dale back? Yes. Could you tell about how far off it was, what you saw up there and what exactly did you see? I'd rather have you see for yourself. Are we going on foot?
00:26:36
Speaker
how far off can you recall it would be? 150 from here, I guess. I'm not good with distance. That's fair. It is a little hard to tell with perspectives being a little bit different.
00:27:02
Speaker
You guys say, I can't exactly entrust you back in the hole. It's been a good little bit. I can fly on. Gwen, can you fly again? Gwen can get in the hole. I don't know. That's true. But we need to be more sparing with our time in there, I suppose. I can possibly take you. Can you carry Gavin and Joxa?
00:27:33
Speaker
I think so. I can, I can still handle my own with these wings. I still have, have this for a little while. So if you can carry them, it's going to be a lot faster to get there via flight than it is trying to traverse these wilds. I can honestly, if, if I'm dashing, I mean, if, if I'm really trying to run, I could probably run as fast as you. You should only need to carry one of us. That's fine.
00:28:03
Speaker
and I immediately turn into a direwolf. Okay. So Gwendolyn now, instead of an eagle, she shifts down into this large wolf creature with its hair kind of stuffed back on the back of its neck, like permanently spiked up a little bit. What is your, like what color direwolf do you turn into? Probably a white one, because her hair is white. Okay. Yeah, yeah, a silver fox, if you will.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah. So she's a white, this white wolf, dire wolf, big creature. All right. I'm going to try and climb on the back of her. Okay. You can do that without a problem as long as she's allowing it. It's not a big deal. Do I have your own sense? She's already a wolf. Nevermind. I shake my head and then I just, I kneeled down a little bit because I'm pretty big. Yep.
00:28:57
Speaker
Davin, that mind speak of yours, uh, that little trick you got, how long do I have to reply? Uh, I figured like a couple of seconds up most. I don't know. That's fair. Probably not going to work the way that I envisioned before, but, uh, you can't bank it for later. You can't hold onto it for like a couple of minutes. No. Well,
00:29:22
Speaker
need to get a better major. I think, uh, a little bit of a competition within a competition then. All right. First one to get their wins challenge accepted. And I take off immediately. I cast Polly more for myself and I turn into a giant Eagle and I go flying up above.
00:29:47
Speaker
OK, no. Suddenly, Daven kind of pushes up off of the top of this direwolf. And what do you do to cast this spell? I like you said, I'm going to kind of plant my feet in the back of the direwolf and jump up in the air. And as I do, I'm going to grab at the necklace around my my neck, the necklace around my neck. What better word?
00:30:14
Speaker
And then as I do I stretch both of my hands out and they just immediately grow to just giant wings and I start flapping them and then fly up into the air. When he jumps up you hear a clap of thunder. And his arms shoot like
00:30:30
Speaker
They start to crackle with this electrical lightning energy, and these wings flash a blue color, and then they turn into a white as he flaps and starts to fly up like this very light brown, whitish eagle as he flies up into the air. And there's still this smell of
00:30:51
Speaker
of lightning, like superheated air in the air as he disappears up into the sky. And so we have him flying in the sky, as well as Craig's flying in the sky. Oh, perfect. A challenge. The chapter just says, oh, wow.
00:31:11
Speaker
Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. Greg is noting the challenge. He's going to pull his wings in and allow himself to kind of fall towards the canopy and he's going to try to use the speed and momentum he has and leap off of a branch to get a little bit more of a boost using that jump boon he was given. Okay. Make a dexterity check with advantage to do that. Uh, 18.
00:31:41
Speaker
Okay, yeah, you find one that actually kind of bends a little and then springs you back up and so you jump up about 60 feet and you're able to kind of missile yourself forward before your wings flap back out and you start gliding, kind of using what's left of that momentum to add a little bit of speed.
00:31:58
Speaker
And then as Davin flies behind you, he's catching up. He's just bigger, first of all. He's a giant eagle. He's much bigger. His wings, when they flap, they push a lot more air. Oh, yeah. And he just gets off ahead of you. And you gave yourself a little head start, a little boost. But man, you're just flying, literally. Gwendolyn, do you take off at that point? I start.
00:32:23
Speaker
Yeah, so either Joxer like so Joxer immediately looked down at Gwen as a direwolf and if she looks at him he will jump on her otherwise he will just start jetting. Okay.
00:32:37
Speaker
Um, I look over and I just start barking. All right. So I had to just jump. Yeah, I'd have been on on you. Like, yeah, it would be as quick as possible. Yeah. OK. As soon as he does, I take off. All right. What's your speed, Gwen? Uh, it's pretty fast. 50 feet. OK. What's your speed flying? Daven as a as a giant eagle. 80 feet. OK. What's yours with those wings, Krigs? 60 feet.
00:33:06
Speaker
Okay, so we've got a kind of a a strange magical What's the word a strange magical
00:33:17
Speaker
like a parade of creatures and people. It's a race. Yeah, and you have Kriegs flying ahead, but quickly, about every 10 seconds or so, you look back and you can see that Davens gaining on you pretty steadily. They're both inching away from you up above Gwyn, as you're running as fast as you can, but you,
00:33:44
Speaker
Pretty quickly, you get into the canopy where you can no longer look up and see them at all. You're just kind of running through the woods. And there's a little bit of this natural trail there, but you're just running through the woods. As you're running, Gwen, I need you and Jox are both to make perception checks as you run through the woods. And I need Daven, I need you to just make a... Let's see, how could I do this?
00:34:11
Speaker
Just go ahead and make a straight dexterity check for me, Daven. Just a dexterity check? Yeah. As an eagle? As an eagle. Ooh, natural 20 plus 3. Cool. When my push-ups are flying, top speed maybe a little more. Gwendolyn?
00:34:26
Speaker
Would my perception be focused on hearing or smelling, or is this more of looking around? I would say smelling. You could use smelling. Okay, I get advantage. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Joxer's just trying to hold on, and he got an eight. Okay, perfect. Joxer's mostly seeing fur as he has to keep regripping as his hands slip out of this dire wolf's mane on the back of its neck.
00:34:53
Speaker
I got 17. Okay. You smell whatever this creature is ahead of you. And you know exactly where to go. You're just... It is a ways off. Still, you can smell that it's kind of far away, but you definitely know the direction to run to. I howl once I get a scent. Yeah, there's a howl.
00:35:12
Speaker
Yeah, as Gwyndolin, Direwolf Gwyndolin howls as she's running, kind of jerks the head back and jocks her. Make a dexterity saving throw. Okay. I'm only doing this because you're still good at decks. I feel like it's going to be fine.
00:35:28
Speaker
Oh, God, that's a net one. No way. Wow. So so as Gwendolyn lifts her head back, rears her head back to to how you lose grip on the mane on the back of her neck and you start to slide off of her, but you're able to grab near her backside and pull slowly, pull yourself up. Go ahead and make a strength check as you pull yourself. So that's good.
00:35:54
Speaker
Krigs, will you please make another dexterity check for me? That was literally another nat one No way regular at advantage Advantage still I'm gonna use I'll use a luck die. Well, okay
00:36:08
Speaker
See if we can. All right. So that's an 18. OK. That's much better. So Dr. You are reaching trying to grab and trying to trying to hold on. And it's not working. But as you you kind of slip a little bit and you start to fall off of her backside and and you.
00:36:28
Speaker
Actually, your foot happens to land on the back of her foot as she's running, and you step up off of it a little bit, and the momentum of her foot lifting up and you stepping off of it pushes you up enough to where you're able to grab onto her and pull yourself back up to that sitting position you were in. Nice. And, uh, Krigs, what did you make on your dexterity check? Uh, 12.
00:36:53
Speaker
OK. So with your 12, you actually lose momentum a little bit as you start to slow down from your cool jump earlier. And Daven is right on your backside at this point, about to pass you, it feels like. OK. I am going to see above me, below me. Daven?
00:37:17
Speaker
I would be flying above him, I think. Okay. Because he's about to get right at the tree line. I'm going to be above. He's so high above me. 18 and a half feet. Oh, there you go. I am going to make a quick adjustment and gain as much altitude as I possibly can as fast as I can. And I am going to do a barrel roll.
00:37:47
Speaker
and grab on to the undercarriage of the flying daven and become cargo. Okay. All right. That's a dexterity check. Cool.
00:38:04
Speaker
16. OK. You fly up there, and you get in position. You do that barrel roll. You get in position perfectly. You're laying on your back. Your wings are spread out. You reach up to grab. Make a strength check to see if you can hold on well enough to pull yourself up and become cargo. Sure. Daven, are you going to do anything sensing and seeing that he's doing this to help him? To help him?
00:38:28
Speaker
We'll just allow him to turn himself into cargo on your back. No, I would like to make some sort of a check to avoid him. 17 plus 4. 21. Okay, Daven, as a giant eagle, you were able to pull your claws up and push down at him to try to push him off of you. Make a strength check against his... What was it? 24? 21. 21. 18 plus 3. 21.
00:38:57
Speaker
21 yeah, okay, so you guys are stuck in this like he's holding on to your feathers and you're pushing down at him and you guys are stuck struggling and fighting and You've actually slowed way down Davin because you're focused on this you're gliding your wings are just out gliding and you're just focused on trying to get him off of you and You you Krigs are are
00:39:19
Speaker
Just hold it on tight and you're like, for dear life, trying not to let go. You're not even really fighting his push. You're just holding on as hard as you can. Gwyndolin and Joxer, you guys are currently speeding through the brush here, the undergrowth of this forest.
Spotting the Prey: Bear-Wolf Hybrid
00:39:36
Speaker
And you're running as fast as you can. Joxer, you're starting to get the hang of this. Now you're kind of sitting up a little bit, kind of able to look, make perception checks as you run.
00:39:47
Speaker
I'm not going to use that die. That one's been real mean. Both of us. So that one is. Reception is so 19. Oh, great. Did you do one, Gwen? Yeah, 22. Dang. OK, so as you're looking, you now see
00:40:11
Speaker
You're not where you saw them, the trees moving, but you see a similar site. The trees aren't moving, but you see like what you saw before of this, you kind of cross this path where everything has been kind of broken and pushed over by something pushing its way through and you.
00:40:29
Speaker
You can now shift your direction just slightly towards the southeast, and that is where you are now kind of running in the wake of whatever creature this was. You saw it and you're able to head through it.
00:40:43
Speaker
Krigs and Daven, I need you both to make a contested strength checks again against each other to see who wins this grapple. This is sporting. Natural 20. Okay. Are you serious? Four? Yes. I also got a natural 20. No way. I'm only a plus three. But yeah, it's a plus three. Wow. Oh my gosh. We need dice cameras for this. No kidding. No, it was the llama. I wrote the llama.
00:41:13
Speaker
uh when he when davin eagles starts pushing against against krigs and shoving him down and it literally pushes both of your feet down off of this and you're hanging and another of your hands krigs slips off the feathers as three of the feathers pull out and davin
00:41:31
Speaker
The feeling of those feathers pulling out of you is strange and hurts, and it causes you to lose your focus on pushing him, and Krigs is able to kind of shift himself around and pull himself up, fling himself up, and now he is literally straddling your feet, hanging on to your legs with his arm, with his arms, holding onto your leg, one leg with his arm, and his legs are wrapped around like he's hanging onto a pole with a seat on the bottom of it, but he's sitting on your feet.
00:42:01
Speaker
You're short of just shaking him loose in a violent tantrum. You don't know that you could let him go at this point. All right. I'm not going to try. Instead, I'm going to swoop down right to the the tree line and scrape him across the top of the trees. Oh, man. I love it. OK. Oh, God. That's like a violent way to where it's going to knock him off just enough to kind of like scratch up his legs. So Gwen and Joxer, you guys are running.
00:42:28
Speaker
And suddenly the trees above you split a little bit just ahead of you. And you see, it looks like every now and then you can catch a glimpse of sunlight and it's like the shadow of two legs kicking as the feet, like from the knees down of Krigs are hanging over
00:42:50
Speaker
the little claw hook feet of this giant eagle as it's dragging him through the trees. Krigs, make a strength saving throw to try to stay hanging on. Okay. Gwendolyn's barking. Okay. Eight. No way. Yeah. Okay, so.
00:43:09
Speaker
As you're flying, suddenly your grip loosens and you just catch a branch right in the face and it knocks you backwards. And you now are falling through these trees, still with your momentum forward at 80 feet per, you know, six seconds or whatever. More than, you know, you're going like 12 feet a second. And so you're flying and you're just, and you're probably a good 30 feet in the air. So we're going to give you
00:43:41
Speaker
with the momentum heading forward and the momentum falling. So before you roll, is there any way we would catch up enough for me to try to grab him?
00:43:51
Speaker
to try to grab him. Oh. Midair as he's falling. Yes, you could probably try to grab him to keep him from hitting the ground. Yeah, that's, yeah. Because he's going forward a little ways first and he's gonna hit some branches on the way down. Right, right, right. So yeah, you can run forward and make a dexterity saving throw to try to reach out and catch him.
00:44:15
Speaker
Craig, you have no control. You're just falling at this point. That is a dirty 20. OK, so he's falling. And as he's falling, you are on Gwyn. Gwyn, are you going to, or Joxer, are you going to try to jump off or try to catch while you're under? Like, try to time it with Gwyn.
00:44:38
Speaker
uh so so for me i i guess it's it's more like i i care less that he's falling but more that
00:44:48
Speaker
He's about to fall behind the moment he hits the ground. So I'm just trying to grab a limb and try to maybe bring him on or at least let him drag along with us. Okay, you're more concerned about the time being saved than you are the, okay, the life being saved. Yeah. That sounds fine. So as he falls, you ride up and you reach up and you try to grab him. He still has his wings.
00:45:14
Speaker
Krigs, you're falling and you do try to, actually, I'll let you make a dexterity saving throw at disadvantage, trying to get your wings out to do something. But you're kind of out of control. Okay, so it doesn't work. So your wings, every time you try to spread your wings, they hit a branch and you, let me see. Oh, that is a lot of ones. So you're lucky.
00:45:42
Speaker
soft branches. 15. I rolled 7d6. No. Yeah, 7d6. And I rolled a 15. So a four ones out of seven. So you, as you're falling, you hit a branch, it hurts a little bit of another branch hurts a little bit. And then your wing catches one and that hurts, because it spins like rolls you over. And finally, you
00:46:11
Speaker
You're about to hit the you do hit the ground fun and as you hit the ground it's just in time for jocks are to swing by and grab you by your by the little
00:46:22
Speaker
hook of the top of your cape on the back of your neck and start dragging you behind him. And as he hangs on to Gwendolyn and you're kind of he leaned down and grabbed you and leaned back up. And as he did, your toes are dragging across the ground as he has a hold of you now. Davin, you suddenly don't have a Krigs in your feet anymore. I'm going to slow down and see if I can see where he landed. I want to make sure he's not like hurt. OK, make a perception check with advantage or whatever like an eagle.
00:46:51
Speaker
Um, it's going to be tough. It's a thick canopy here, but 15. Okay. You can see where he fell through, but you currently don't see him anywhere, but you don't see him underneath you either underneath there. So it's like he moved somewhere. Somehow. Okay. I'll keep flying in the same direction, but I'm going to slow down. So if I can see anybody, okay, sure. Craig, what are you doing as you're being dragged by jockser?
00:47:19
Speaker
Yeah, Gwendolyn's not swallowing down. She's going. Joxer's just going to get up. Just pull your own weight. Why does this remind me of like those hamsters in the wheel where one's running and the other one's just like spinning around and around and around in the wheel?
00:47:37
Speaker
I guess at this point, if he's not going to do anything, I'm going to try my I'm going to try to pull him up. All right. Make a strength check. OK. So. That is a nine plus four 13. You as you try to pull him up, you get you you get the the.
00:48:03
Speaker
You're able to kind of get him kind of up the side of the creature a little bit to where his feet aren't dragging anymore. So he's just kind of hanging there. But you can't pull him all the way up on top of Gwendolyn's back. Krigs, just come on. I'm gonna try to pull myself up. Okay, make a strength check strength saving throw saving throw. 22. All right, yeah.
00:48:32
Speaker
you finally reach up and grab the fur on Gwen with one hand and just pull yourself up and throw one leg over the back of Gwen. And you're now riding behind jocks are holding on a jocks are while you ride down the road on top of Gwendolyn Gwendolyn, you now have a jocks are and a krigs on your back. And it's it's a little heavy at this point. It's not slowing you down. It's not hurting or anything. But yeah, it's
00:49:01
Speaker
It's definitely going to wear you out sooner, probably. Okay. And you're hustling. Daven, as you kind of fly, kind of keep it an eye out, make another perception check with advantage.
00:49:13
Speaker
What is the canopy like right here? It's pretty thick. Every now and then, you'll see a slight opening where a tree has died or a branch has been cleared off by some storm or something, but most of it is pretty much just like a ceiling over the top of this forest. With advantage, I got a 10.
00:49:35
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah, you're not able to catch him at any time. You're seeing spots where there's ground beneath, but you're just not able to catch the right timing where you see Krigs or anybody kind of running through there. Do I know where I'm going? At this point, you only know southeast. OK. Yeah. So you you you hear Joxer. Did where did Devin? Where was Devin at this point from that? Was he saying that?
00:50:05
Speaker
Craigslist can be like that mother and I still have jump How long is jump? It's only I think you would have expired by now for sure. I think it's only like a minute tbh
00:50:20
Speaker
Give me the hops. Fine. I'll grab it. So, uh, uh, your, your hands are wrapped around me holding on. Uh, you, one of hands, one of Chuck's hands just grabs at like your wrist and then you feel a surge. Uh, as, uh, I lose another grasshopper leg and.
00:50:45
Speaker
You OK? Well, here's what I imagine is going to happen. And you can tell me what I got to roll to make this happen. OK. But I envision Craig's going and he's going to just jump off the back of Gwen using the momentum and he's going to jump as high as he can through the tree canopy, looking for the best up like the best hole he can possibly find to get through the canopy and get enough height with
00:51:13
Speaker
Daven flying as low as he was. He's just going to spread both of his wings as wide as possible and just be right in front of Daven and be like, oh, just like this little dwarven bird man jumping in front of Daven, like fully ready to tangle in the midair like he's. I'll show you to throw me off like that. All right. Make a perception check first to see if you can find a good spot. All right.
00:51:43
Speaker
Gwenilan's gonna howl. 16, 15 plus one. Okay, you do see a spot, it's a small opening, but you think it's your best opportunity you've seen. So go ahead and you make your leap, and as you leap up, make your dexterity check to leap up. It krigs, bird person. It krigs, wingman. With advantage. Okay, thank you.
00:52:12
Speaker
because of the jump spell. 18.
00:52:15
Speaker
I had a three on my first roll. And I don't know if that's a mechanic, but it makes sense to me that if you can jump good, you can dex good at this point. So you leap up off of this thing and you kind of rock it up like a missile and you get about 20 feet above this canopy as you do finally hit, you do hit the spot you were aiming for. So you get about 20 feet up above this canopy before you spread your wings open. And just when you spread your wings open,
00:52:42
Speaker
There is a Davin just off to your right about 15 feet. And he's flying right almost right next to you as soon as you open your wings. Davin, what do you do when you see Kriegs just like suddenly throw open those blue wings next to you?
00:53:02
Speaker
He's going to go. I'm just surprised to see him just leap through the air right back at him. Right towards towards Craig. No, I'm just. Oh, you're saying that him. I'm going to shout back. Run yourself. And I'm just going to dart forward full dash. OK, so I'm going to do the same. Both wings back and just episode just diving as fast as I can with my wings.
00:53:31
Speaker
All right, so you take off and as you're, you're diving and using that momentum to gain speed, you're, you're able to add a little bit of speed, but Davin just bails on you. He's just going and Davin, you make a perception check as you get quite a ways away at this point. All right. Uh, 16. Yeah. You see the.
00:53:54
Speaker
movement in the tops of the trees like Gwyn did at this point. You can see it now ahead of you. And it looks, you know, the wind's blowing the trees kind of gently above the tops of the trees and you can kind of see that motion. But then you see this more violent, sudden motion every now and then leading away from you towards the mountains in the southeast. All right, I'm going to start diving down that direction.
00:54:19
Speaker
Okay, so you start to dive down. Gwen, you and Joxer, you're running and it's really easy to stay on this path and on this trail now. And the smell of this creature is getting thick now, Gwen. You can smell this guy from where you are pretty strongly. And Kriegs is now gone, but you're still just galloping up towards where you think this
00:54:44
Speaker
creature was going through the woods. And as Davin kind of starts to head towards it, Davin, are you how are you approaching, you know, that area? I'm going to get down low to where I'm just kind of right above the tree canopy and see if I can peer through and see what it is that's moving through there. And now I'll slow my speed down and make another perception check. Sure. Say, oh, I rolled a 15 two times, so 17 total.
00:55:12
Speaker
Okay, so you peer down and it takes you a good 30 seconds before you come across an opening where you can see kind of what is going through this canopy, this tree area. And you look at it and you can see from the top this brown creature. You can't tell how tall it is from up here or how big it is. You can tell, I mean, it's pushing over or moving out of the way
00:55:42
Speaker
some pretty large trees with its arms and it's just kind of pushing its way through and it's moving it's on some sort of
00:55:51
Speaker
tangent or, you know, rampage as it runs, run walks forward pretty quickly. And it's got, from the top of its head, you can see there is a snout on this thing that goes out. And you heard, heard bear wolf thing. And sure enough, this thing's snout looks to be a lot, a lot longer than a bear's would. And it's got like gray fur coming down off the top of it. It's pretty bright that kind of goes up above its head.
00:56:19
Speaker
On its head through like a middle stripe and down its back while the rest of its brown, but it's got this kind of gray streak going through it and it's kind of just pushing its way through the woods at this point. All right. And then suddenly the canopy just reappears over the top of it and you don't see it anymore. You just see the trees moving. I know about the speed it's going. So I'm going to be heading about the same speed and I'll try and every once in a while make a circle so I can see behind me and see where they are and kind of try and notify them.
00:56:46
Speaker
Okay, well, you guys go in as you and...
00:56:51
Speaker
As you and Joxer are riding as fast as you can, and then Krigs, you're going a little faster than they are, Krigs. You see, you can now tell that Daven is circling back every now and then, like he's onto something, and you can tell. So you can catch up to him pretty easily and start to look down there as well and see what he saw every now and then. This opening in the canopy will show the top of this creature as it's walking through the woods.
00:57:23
Speaker
Gwen and Joxer, you guys are the furthest behind, but you're not that far behind. And it takes another about eight to 12 minutes or so, and you guys can now hear the sounds of this creature kind of tearing through the woods. And as you kind of approach the backside of it, I need you to make perception checks. Again, that is Joxer and Gwen.
00:57:52
Speaker
Once I get closer, I would like to. I guess I want to be stealthy, but I want to also like. I don't know, I make perception. That's a 15 for Joxie. Dirty 20 for me. OK. So Gwendolyn, you see ahead of you this creature.
00:58:18
Speaker
Finally, you can see the backside of it. And this creature stands about seven and a half, eight foot tall. Big broad shoulders, big claws the size of your torso, big paws and hands. And it is this is a big bear looking like creature with patches of hair look like they're missing. It's got some like streaks of white on it. But it's definitely much more, much more
00:58:48
Speaker
different hybrid than any sort of like normal bear would look. And it's running and you see it as it's running, it kind of kind of sniffs it above its head and and kind of looks behind it a little bit and then just keeps going forward.
Battle with the Hybrid and External Interference
00:59:07
Speaker
Like maybe it noticed you. Now I can't decide if I want to be stealthy or if I want to try to talk to it.
00:59:19
Speaker
Um, it's, it's moving. So yeah, it's moving pretty quickly. Yeah. Uh, I want to keep going, but I'm going to kind of zigzag, try to watch what I'm stepping on. Okay. You're still moving pretty quick. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm still going. I might make a mistake and snap a twig and stealthily. Yeah. Okay. Make a stealth check with disadvantage. Well, you're going quick.
00:59:49
Speaker
That's rude. How are two 16s? You're not nice. 16s plus four, so dirty 20 again. All right, so you're able to kind of finagle through and this creature. Let's see, actually. I can't believe that happened.
01:00:15
Speaker
I believe what happened to 16 to 16 and it rolls a nat 22 for perception, not quite 19 plus seven though. Uh, so a 26. So, oh, wow. It's still sniffing the air as it runs and increasing its speed a little bit as it sniffs until suddenly this, this burst.
01:00:44
Speaker
of fire hits it in the face as it's running away from you and just explodes around it. You see flames erupt everywhere and the creature just stops in its tracks and turns to you. Look around where you are and looks, looks around everywhere else and you hear now and an arrow flies out from the, from the tree canopy and the battle is on. No.
01:01:27
Speaker
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01:01:37
Speaker
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