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Ep. 92 A Door Begs To Be Opened
102 Plays1 year ago
A door lies dormant in the dark. It begs to be opened. What would you do?
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Transcript
Introduction and Banter
00:00:21
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, a very irregular D&D podcast, and I'm not talking about your bowels.
00:00:41
Speaker
Hi everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Hired Swords. I'm your dungeon master, Michael, and I've got with me some of my very closest friends. Derek is Daven. Hey, what's going on? What's up? Hey, everybody? Yeah, he's such a cool guy. I got Ash with me. She's Gwendolyn. I'm cool.
00:01:03
Speaker
She's all right. Like even your facial expressions were like really nerdy when you said that somehow. I'm cool. I'm cool. Mikey's here and he plays jockser. He, nice. Oh, he's channeling. Blaze is the best for last. Blaze, he's sovereign and Baroque. Don't I act like you know me? I don't know you. I've only known you my whole life. We only bathed together. Okay, so.
00:01:33
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the podcast, guys. Not that kind of podcast! What we do over the Christmas holidays is... Nobody's business. Strictly up to us and no one else. Thank you. Well, we're all dead now. We're all dying. I got myself. I died. Okay, should I start over? No. It's committed. We're done. We're in it now. I haven't even heard a... We're in it? But I don't know if we're winning it. I haven't even heard the edit this sound yet, so we'll see.
00:02:03
Speaker
But I think I got everybody. Yeah, we are playing Dungeons and Dragons. That's what we're here for.
Exploring the Mysterious Cavern
00:02:09
Speaker
And we left off after a long descent into a hole in the ground that was used for strip mining gemstones by these gemstone mining elves. Yeah, that's right. Elves that mine things. It's my D&D world. They can mine if they want to. And they
00:02:27
Speaker
The party, during various ways, different degrees of difficulty, made their way all the way to the bottom of this thing and decided that this doorway that was down here, this gemstone doorway kind of carved into the wall of this cavern.
00:02:44
Speaker
was something that they really were interested in, especially Daven and Gwendolyn, as they kind of left the group behind and went after to see what this thing was. Meanwhile, above them all this time, these glowing eyes are there, staring down this billowing mist, and...
00:03:00
Speaker
Oh, after some difficulty trying to get Daven and Gwendolyn to stop pursuing this doorway, and some spells were cast to try to trick them or stop them, and some conversations were had to try to help each other understand, hey, we've got to talk about things before we just jump out and do them.
00:03:18
Speaker
After all of that, suddenly this voice appears in everyone's minds and this figure appears stepping out of the mist. This giant being with horns on top of his head and this armor and cloak that drags down to the floor. And he speaks this strange guttural language.
00:03:38
Speaker
and calls out to them, and that is where we left the last episode.
Encounter with the Horned Creature
00:03:44
Speaker
We start at the top of the first round of combat in this episode, and it is this creature's turn, as he starts his turn with Cold Shadow.
00:03:59
Speaker
He puts his hands on the ground or points his hands towards the ground, his long arms stretching downward, his long nails pointing to the ground. And as he does, he slides his hands upward, lifting them. And as he does that, the mist and everything begins to coalesce and form beneath him and crawl out from underneath him and just slide and crawl towards the ground.
00:04:25
Speaker
Gwendolyn, Daven, and Joxer in a 60-foot cone in front of him and just go out in front of him. And it is dark black, and you can feel it ice cold to the touch as everyone makes a Constitution saving throw, except for Krigs. He's far, he's 70 feet away.
00:04:47
Speaker
This feels a bit rigged. Is it because you guys had a bath together? And now he doesn't get hit, but we do. Interesting. Does my desk have to roll? Because it kind of just plucked. Now you all know what it takes. So 18 plus what? Constitution? Yes. All right. So that's a 22. 23. I got a plus six, so that gave me 14. 14? Okay. Krigs?
00:05:14
Speaker
I didn't have to. That's right. I just wanted to get to say it again. You're welcome. And so so the success is everybody but me. Everybody except for Daven. So I'm going to roll the damage here.
00:05:31
Speaker
The damage total is 40. Davin, you take 40 damage. 40. Four zero. 15d6 on this. That's the damage. And Joxer and Gwen, you take half that. You take 20 damage.
00:05:56
Speaker
Oh wait, I'm resistant to cold so I take it is cold damage. I'm also wow you're resistant Yeah, because of the so I think it was so ash. Are you really no I was gonna say why would she would Gwendolyn be resistant to cold damage because oh man you could have had me I trust you people way too much and Joxer and already dead you two take half oh Well, thanks for listening everybody um and
00:06:26
Speaker
Davin, you also, you take half that damage, I guess, correct? It's at the Winterland, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. But you made this, came in handy. But you actually do, however, still have disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws to the end of your next turn. Disadvantaged to the end of your next turn because of the coldness.
00:06:48
Speaker
It you don't take as much damage, but it's still super chilly that like in your bones kind of cold and so he's gonna do that and then He has to do one more roll as he stands there looking around trying to fig trying to assess the situation and Yep, he stands in front of you all hands out still from casting that shadow spell on you and you kind of see the shadow
00:07:16
Speaker
the mist and fog kind of, as it passes across him, he kind of fades into it and out of it. Like he can become it or can dissolve into it, but he still stays there as his turn ends and we now go to Joxer.
Combat Strategies and Spells
00:07:38
Speaker
All righty then. I have a thing, but I don't think it's useful right now. So I will probably try to, is there enough space to kind of like move the opposite, like behind him-ish? No, he is right in that cavern entrance there blocking the whole thing.
00:08:01
Speaker
What about like but so I avoid cone ish So like if I got beside him like at an angle or so like right in there Yeah, yeah, you could probably get right up next to him to one of his sides there in that way I don't know that that would still be pretty in front of him So it's it's really like to at least avoid
00:08:22
Speaker
cone going direct, like dead center of some sort. All right, so. You think you might be safe there based on what you saw from the last. Yeah, I'm sure there's other abilities and I'm more up close anyway. So I think I will, you know, before I move, I'm going to cast a spell from this distance. So I'm going to do sickening radiance. Okay.
00:08:52
Speaker
seeing a little bit of shadow I want to do. So concentration, dim greenish light spreads in a 30 foot radius sphere centered on a point that I choose. And then I cast it when a creature moves into the spells area for the first time on its turn, the creature must succeed on the constitution saving throw. So it looks like I'm just putting a bubble down.
00:09:22
Speaker
Okay, but what is 30 foot look 30 feet? That's that okay, so casting it just up just up past him above the Up onto the wall there where it won't get any of your friends, but at the edge of it'll catch him got it Yeah, then I will move my did you say it's a constitution save yeah, so I'm gonna keep my concentration up And it's gonna be a con save of 14
00:09:49
Speaker
Okay. When it moves into and whenever it starts its turn. This light makes it impossible for the creature to benefit from being invisible. The light and any levels of exhaustion caused by the spell go away when the spell ends. Okay. He rolled a 13. Oh, well. 4d10 radiant damage. Oof.
00:10:16
Speaker
Three, eight, so 11, 10, so 21, 27 radiant damage. Okay, 27 radiant damage as this sickening light emerges from above him in the cavern and engulfs him and he winces.
00:10:39
Speaker
and just looks down at you all with disdain and frustration and he's, he doesn't like you guys. He don't like you. Okay. Well, that's fair. Then I will just move a little closer and I will end my turn. All right. If that's the end of your turn, Joxer, we go to Davin now. I'm going to move away. I don't like being as close to him. So I'm going to move away from the door and head site.
00:11:08
Speaker
about halfway down the steps, I think, because Krigs is at the bottom of the steps. Yes, he's down about 15 feet down past the steps, beneath him. Okay.
00:11:20
Speaker
So I'm going to get within 30 feet of him down the steps so I can see him. OK. And then I'm going to like take my hand and whip into a circle and you kind of see like this green clock appear and then I kind of throw it his direction and I'm going to cast haste on Craig's. So we need you up this way.
00:11:39
Speaker
So haste as a reminder, because it's been a while. Until the spell ends, the target speed is doubled. It gains plus two to AC. It has advantage on dexterity saving throws, and it gains an additional action on each of its turns.
00:11:55
Speaker
The action can be used only to take an action like one weapon attack or dash, disengage, hide, or use enough. Perfect. So you got all of that stuff. And that's pretty much all I can do right now. I'm going to win a little bit in my freezingness. Okay. All right. You run down the stairs, cast that on him, and that brings us to spell slots.
00:12:30
Speaker
Okay. It's not mage armor or taste.
00:12:39
Speaker
Yep, yep. And then kind of tuck itself into my cloak. Yeah, my cloak. Cool. Sounds good. Is that it? That's it. Then we go to Gwendolyn. Hi. Hello. Hello. Is this guy Misty? Oh, yes. He looks really solid. Very much billowing and stretching. No, it's billowing and stretching. There's just no more eyes in it.
00:13:05
Speaker
I think that, um, I know for sure that I'm going to put down spirit totem. Okay. Yes. More circles on the map, please. Yeah. Let's keep adding them circles. By the time every one of our fights are done, it always looks like a Venn diagram. It's funny and true. Uh, how do we feel about advantaged on ability checks?
00:13:33
Speaker
Oh no, we don't want that. God, I just always use, I'm just gonna use the bear spirit. Hey, if it ain't broke, give us some health. I reach up and I just snap my finger. Bear totem is going on the edge of the cliff where the stairs are. Okay. Got it. And then- And what's the radius? Bear totem, the totem of the eagle riding bear.
00:14:00
Speaker
a 30-foot radius. Great, thank you. And since I'm doing that. Beginning at the level, your spirit token safeguards the beasts and fae that you call forth with your magic. That's not it, is it? So I will be using that because I'm gonna conjure elementals to do the fight, and we are going to do fire. Fire. Fire.
00:14:28
Speaker
Is it elementals or like methods or whatever? It says element, elemental servant. Yeah. Minor elementals, uh, challenge rating two or lower. You can do one, two, four, or eight depending on the challenge level. Yeah. Uh, let's do, let's do snakes. I haven't done them. Cool. Cool.
00:14:49
Speaker
I say some Elvish words as one appear to appear, one on each side of me, and they're going to start slithering towards the Misty Creek. And while they're in my bear totem, because I also a mighty summoner will have more protected by... Okay. Will you roll initiative for them, please? How's a third? It's a number. You want them each to have their own number?
00:15:18
Speaker
No, it's supposed to be as a group, I think. Yeah, so that'd be great. Perfect. So you've got them. They'll actually go right after you with your four. So if you're done with your turn, you can now use them. Yeah, one is named Nancy and is Chris. Sounds good. Did you say Chris or Crisp? Chris. K-R-I-S-S.
00:15:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. Yes. Of course. In a tree. Nancy had adoptive parents. So she didn't grow up with snake parents. So they just, Oh, is it Nancy? No, just Nancy. Don't be ridiculous. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Wow. All right. So we're just kicking him out of the group right now. Like that's how we're doing this. Totally shamed. What will they do now?
00:16:11
Speaker
So these fire snakes. Yes. We're going to do. Well, OK, so wait, if they go into this ring of light, they will die of light. It does radiant damage. I think it triggers when you trigger it again, right, Joxer? When when they enter, it triggers when you so it already triggered. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Let me let me read it one more time. Just make sure for one is in and one is out. Correct. One is out.
00:16:39
Speaker
But if it's when they start their turn, they didn't start their turn there. Sickening radiance. Sickening radiance. 30 feet, yeah. When a creature moves into the spells area on the first time on a turn or starts its turn there. So it does take damage the one Nancy does. How much damage? Do you roll again or is it what it did before?
00:17:06
Speaker
I will roll every time, so they have to make a constitution, save and throw. 14. That's a plus zero, Ash. Yeah, it's a plus zero. I'll roll. Three. One. One, okay. Four. Three. Fourteen. Fourteen damage. That is true. Nancy is not dead. Nancy's...
00:17:36
Speaker
Bloody, not dead. Very damaged, but not dead. And Chris is not in the light, currently. So what are they gonna do
Mist Attacks and Counteractions
00:17:45
Speaker
then? I'll say that my intention on the bubble was to avoid, you know, melee being, for me at least, not being damaging, but yeah. No, he's just a manic one. Yeah, a little bit. And he can't hurt her pets. So he'll hurt her pets.
00:18:04
Speaker
Nancy's going to go into his little smoke bottom. OK. Would you say that that's touching? I know. Yeah. Would you say that they're touching? Yes. Then we're going to do heated body. OK. A creature that touches a snake or hits it with melee attack, all within five feet of it, takes three 1D6 fire damage. Takes 1D6 fire damage. Got it. No, three. 3D6.
00:18:32
Speaker
Three D65 damage. Average of three. Let me pull out my bag of magic dice. Oh, one D6, average of three, one D6. Got it. I see it, I see it. Uh, yeah. Sorry. With the program. I was confused. I need somebody to explain it to me. Hang on, I'm getting all my dice out. All right, Nancy. Let's go for the win. Oh, I have to do a hit, don't I? No, not with the heated body. It's just when it's touched.
00:19:01
Speaker
Oh, Nancy. Oh my gosh. Six plus four equals 10 plus five, 15. But it's a one D six roll. Oh, you can take this. You can take the six though. Okay. I want six. I'll give you. Yeah, sure. For sure. So what does it mean by three then?
00:19:22
Speaker
That's the average average of some people play where they just like always do the average damage or what you can find your dice. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
00:19:53
Speaker
Okie dokie, so that was six damage. What is Chris doing? Chris is gonna slither up on the other side in front kind of On the other side of jocks are here. So I'm gonna slither in front probably giving jocks are a little Warmth in this cold dark cave got it and he's also going to do heated body and
00:20:17
Speaker
Okay, that's gonna put him in that light. Do you want Chris to get that damage? Yeah, I guess. Because he has to literally be in there touching the monster like that. So, okay. Then roll the damage for the light as this creature now enters it for the first time. Six. One. Nine. Nineteen. Oh man, that's close. Not quite though. He's cool.
00:20:47
Speaker
It's cool. They're just going to do a little bit of damage and then they're going to die. What was the total? Minus what? Total was 19. Yeah. Did they do a constitution shaving through? Oh, they did not. I apologize. Wow. Forgot about that. Okay. It has a four.
00:21:08
Speaker
That's a fail. You can do one for the other one now. The other one did. It was the other one. Oh yeah, that's right. I was thinking both of them right now. Sorry about that. Okay. Are you done with Chris or what? No, Chris has an action or something.
00:21:21
Speaker
Chris was gonna do the heated body, so. All right, so roll that D6. One D6. It was a two. Okay, two damage to Mr. We can do the three if we want. Mr. McNasty here, sounds good. All right, is that your whole turn? Or their whole turn, I guess? Because that takes us to Kriegs. Yes. All right, so I am how far away from this dude? I have haste now, so I should have double movement, I believe. You do. You are currently,
00:21:51
Speaker
a distance away from this guy that is 50 feet up the stairs, 25 feet to him. So a total of 75 feet to get there. Okay. Two questions. One that I forget, shields themselves or armor, they don't specifically require like expertise to use them. I know armor does, but like shields or weapons, you can use one even if it doesn't necessarily have expertise.
00:22:20
Speaker
I think you have to have the ability to use a shield, I think. Right? I think anybody can use a shield. Yeah, maybe anybody can. Yeah, I feel like there might be an additional proficiency for medium armor or something, but I think shield is open for everybody. I think you're right, I think you're right. Yeah, it's no problem. Okay.
00:22:41
Speaker
Um, I am going to start, I guess, hold on, but up towards Mr. Daddy cakes here. Okay. And in, in doing so, I'm also going to not an action. This shouldn't be an action. Come on. Don't action this. I'm going to toss Devin my shield. Oh no, you could do that for free as you run by.
00:23:08
Speaker
as I'm running just so he has something to kind of like bolster behind. Okay. Um, yep. So enjoy the two AC from that. All right. And then, and your speed is what? Hasted? My speed is 50 total. Okay. So you get to the top of the stairs just at the top of the stairs. How far am I away from daddy cakes?
00:23:38
Speaker
you are currently I think it's 25 feet yep you can also use your extra action 20 feet it's actually 20 feet or you can dash which takes away your action if you want to get right on him but paste gives you an extra action so you still get your regular one oh yeah that's true that's true what is his situation um armor whatnot like what is he
00:23:59
Speaker
He's wearing armor, for sure, wearing armor. His head looks like it's mostly these horns, like probably would give him the same benefits as a helmet, possibly. And he's obviously a very large, strong-looking being. What kind of armor is he wearing? Heavy armor? It's just this dark, black, heavy armor, yeah, that kind of comes up and spikes around his neck and off his shoulders. Oh, crazy. Curious, big, big metal thing. Yeah.
00:24:28
Speaker
Well, I mean I don't know you you don't know for sure if it's metal looking at it, but It's armor of some kind Well, I am gonna try my best to cast heat metal with he's got metal on him
00:24:42
Speaker
Okay.
Regrouping and Strategy Discussion
00:24:43
Speaker
You cast heat metal. Does, do you have to, you don't have to do anything other than cast it, right? And roll damage. Nope. I just have to select an object that he's wearing and he has to succeed a constitution shaving throw or drop the object. Okay. He, uh, it doesn't seem affected at all by it in any way. All right. Wasted spell slot. Um,
00:25:09
Speaker
I still technically have one action from haste and I'm kind of far away, right?
00:25:14
Speaker
Yes, you do have an action. You have 25 feet to get into melee, or is he staying right at the entrance of this cave? You what? I said I really do stuff this one. Well, you don't know till you try. I am going to cast Aura of Vitality on myself. And as a bonus action, I'm gonna, Daven is still within 30 feet of me. I'm gonna, he's the only one without hit points.
00:25:42
Speaker
Uh, Gwen is lost like a little baby. I'm going to heal Devin for 26 hit points. Okay. Roll that. Do you want to do the honors or do you want me to? You do it. Your spell. So just be clear about the, uh, the heat metal thing. Like, did it heat this metal? Does it seem like the metal got hotter and it just, he's not affected by it? It seemed like there was maybe no metal involved. You got 10 HP back. I'll take it.
00:26:11
Speaker
And for up to a minute, each turn that I get, I can do a bonus action to heal anyone within 30 feet. Cool. All right. Awesome. Is that your whole turn then?
00:26:24
Speaker
I suppose, unless I have more movement. You did the action. I think you still have another action, right? Because of haste. Well, I did keep metal. It didn't work. And then the bonus action or the second action was aura of vitality. And then my bonus action healed. Okay. Thank you. So I guess I'm out of movement.
00:26:46
Speaker
Yes, you used all your movement because you use the double regular speed and you have to use your action to. Uh, that'll be, that'll be my turn for now. I'm going to sit there and take my hammer and kind of hold it out in front of me. Hope like, like it's a shield, but not at the same time. Just ready for whatever. Yeah. All right. When, when Daven got healed, you might've noticed that the snakes also got healed because I forgot that as of my guardian spirit, they get half my level and hit points. Cool. Cool.
00:27:15
Speaker
So I would like Craig's to believe that he healed them. I feel super proud that I was able to do three healings on just one cast like that. It's pretty amazing. It really is. Wow, it's so good.
00:27:30
Speaker
All right. So as Kriegs finishes casting that spell on Davin, the mist starts to close in all around the room. It's like it starts to creep inward towards everybody and it starts to get awfully close and surrounding each of you, almost like it's specifically targeting where you are. It's a weird feeling. It doesn't seem to have any impact at the moment. It's just,
00:28:00
Speaker
closing in on you very obviously as and then next you get we get back to our big friend here as he looks down at these two little flaming snakes and lifts one of his feet up
00:28:22
Speaker
and looks at everyone else and he's looking around at you like, what are these pests? What are these things here bothering me? And he lifts his hands up again and shoves them towards the ground. And once again, this mist, this fog shoots out from under him. But first he takes damage from this light if you want to roll that. I will. Constitution saving throw for him at disadvantage. Got it.
00:28:53
Speaker
Twenty-four radiant and another point of exhaustion if he fails. Well, yeah, he rolled a six. So he takes all the damage. What's the damage? Twenty-four damage radiant. OK, his movement speed is now halved. OK, because of what? Exhaustion? Exhaustion. Two points. Yeah, he doesn't seem to be infected at all by the exhaustion. You don't see him seeming to waver at all from that. Interesting.
00:29:23
Speaker
But the billowing fog does come from out from under him and start to engulf you, uh, jockser as he points it in that direction. Um, kind of like this 60 foot cone. Ah, there we go. So it's going to get Gwendolyn and jockser. So each of save that save is a constitution saving throw. That is a
00:29:52
Speaker
Three one sixty sixteen Gwen Constitution saving throw. What was it? Oh nine nine Sorry, I didn't hear you a nine. Okay, so two failures. So you both take you both take 45 Take 45 cold damage and
00:30:18
Speaker
And you have disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the end of the next turn. Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the end of the next turn. As this forms around you and this black fog feels like ice and just wraps around freezing your flesh on your body, freezing your clothes to you, making it hard to move and making your muscles stiff and tight and causing just pain and agony as this
00:30:46
Speaker
freezes your body. All right. Ash, did you adjust the hit points in Roll 20? I'm going to. Oh, you are? Okay, I'll let you do it then. You did, though, jockser? I'm about to. I'm trying to do the... Remember, you have 17 temporary hit points from that bare circle. All right, that I did not add, so we will add. Had. So plus 14 back.
00:31:16
Speaker
All right. So, oh, it also got Chris and Nancy. So they're both dead. They're literally right underneath him. So that just wrapped, just turned that, that fire into ice cubes. Plus I think they're vulnerable to cold. So it's like double damage. Yep. Yeah, they are.
00:31:38
Speaker
And then that wasn't a role. OK. Wow. Then effort into making them. Then. Yeah, I know. We looked so hard. We looked for so long to figure out what to be. So then he he has to roll a D 20.
00:31:53
Speaker
And as he as after he shoots that his He you see his face kind of He starts to like raise his hands up like he's gonna strike at Joxer and his eyes go wide like he's like oh no And he starts to flicker as these this shadow and this fog
00:32:14
Speaker
Comes up and wraps around him and begins to take him and he suddenly all you see left are his eyes as he is is Taken by the fog and is no longer visible to you. It's awkward Hmm That's his whole turn and we are now at Jox's turn Every time every time they just disappear on my turn. This is this is a thing. This is a thing
00:32:41
Speaker
Well, you gotta learn how to deal with invisible thing. Well, he can't turn invisible. Like, that's the thing. Like, with my light, he's unable to, but apparently this is not invisibility. He just left. His name is still there, Mr. Daddy Cakes.
00:32:55
Speaker
He has to be there still. Well, like, that's out of combat, guys. We're good. We're good. It's it's fine. Well, that is super unfortunate because now I get no benefits of anything with no one around. Why you got to do this on my turn? Sorry, it was just you happen to be after him. That's yeah. No, I get it. I get it. It's my fault. It's fine. It's fine.
00:33:25
Speaker
um shoot that is not i don't know what to do so in this scenario we will uh if i just spend as an action i can spend two key points to regain hit points
00:33:43
Speaker
Number rolled plus your proficiency. So I guess I'm going to pseudo heal myself with an action, which that is a d8 plus proficiency. So we'll do that.
00:34:00
Speaker
that I'm gonna regain nine hit points and Shoot I don't sense anything right? It's all just nothing now. It's just it's like he was never there Except you definitely know this fog seems to be closing in on you guys. You definitely noticed that Does it seem like any of it is somewhat avoided or like the the big ball of light that I created is not it? avoiding it at all
00:34:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's not going near that. It's definitely going around the outside of that and kind of splitting before it gets too close. I guess with an extra attack, I'm just going to swing my flamesaber or flame rapier at the shadows above me. Okay.
00:34:56
Speaker
16 plus numbers plus seven. No, plus eight. So 16, 24 to hit. Yeah. OK.
00:35:08
Speaker
What's your damage? Oh, so nine damage plus five fire damage. So 14 plus four. So never mind. No, 14, five fire and 11 or yeah, nine, nine regular for five. Got it.
00:35:33
Speaker
An unregulated fire fire, got it. All right, and then, is that your whole turn then? As you strike out and you hit this, the fire burns something and you see this like, some of this black mist like spark and crackle as it burns and the fog near you kind of spins and shimmers a little bit and then kind of reforms itself.
00:36:00
Speaker
Is that it? Yes, that is essentially.
Discovering Light Effects on Gemstones
00:36:05
Speaker
And I guess because I can't technically get out of any form of cone away from Gwen, I'm going to use my full movement, which is going to be what is that? You are hasted. So yeah, so 75 feet. You're basically a moped.
00:36:26
Speaker
Yeah, I should be able to get, I don't know, I wanna go to the opposite wall over here to the west side. Got it, okay. In hopes of avoiding literally someone from being hit with me.
00:36:40
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Sounds good. I'm done. All right. So jocks are strikes out at the fog and seems to have some sort of effect. And then he turns and runs towards the wall on the other side, staying up on this upper platform, running past the stairs, past Craig's and ends up standing right up against kind of the cave wall, looking around, just hoping to stay where he can avoid any attacks on him, hurting anyone else. Uh, that takes us now to Davin's turn.
00:37:09
Speaker
All right, I'm still midway up the stairs, so I'm going to head back up the stairs and stand next to Craig's. Okay. Be like, why does everything always disappear on us? And then I'm going to kind of do a motion with my hands and you see like my eyes glow white and then I pull out a guiding bolt and I'm going to hold it and I'm going to hold my action until I see him reappear, in which case I will throw it.
00:37:33
Speaker
Sounds good. Is that your whole turn? Got it. All right, so that's he's holding guiding bolt standing next there next to Craig's you notice that the Oh at third level by the way got it you notice that the the fog around Craig's everything it's it's been closing in up there on him as well and You kind of step near a bunch a big patch of this heavy fog as you approach Craig's spell slots is next
00:37:58
Speaker
I'm going to I'm going to have spell slots token, but I would have him start moving its way down the stairs by itself and try to try to hide. OK, got it. The slots is running and hiding. Deal. All right, then Gwendolyn, we're at your turn now.
00:38:23
Speaker
Okay, I'm gonna try something weird. Before the creature left and he snuffed out my best friends. Yeah. She had a little tear go down her face because she was very upset. Bad. But she's gonna try to do, I'm gonna try to give you a scenario. Okay. I'm gonna try to do the cantrip druid craft. Okay. And within 30 feet of me,
00:38:48
Speaker
I am going to try to talk to my God or my nature fellows, see if I can try to connect in a way where when I pick up a pebble from the ground, it starts to become an orb and I want to try to clear their surrounding for them. Okay. So you want to clear our surrounding, your surroundings, meaning. Yeah. Cause one of the effects in the spell is as a golden orb for clearing skies, for clear skies.
00:39:13
Speaker
OK, I think I know what you mean. All right. So you bring out that doable, you bring out that orb and you begin to wish and kind of hope and pray that this will have some effect because you're just at a loss of what to do. You lift it up.
00:39:33
Speaker
It starts to glow and as it does it pulses and begins to flicker and as it pulses bright and for just a half a second it looks like it's going to be bright and then suddenly it's like it's snuffed out and it turns this gray like all of these gemstones that are surrounding you in this cave.
00:39:53
Speaker
And so this orb is there, but it's this, it's now this gray non light emitting just object. Does this thing float? Is that the idea? Like can float up? Yeah. So it's just floating there. My other question is now that the doorway is kind of freed, do I still have the mentality of.
00:40:16
Speaker
No, it seems like when you took damage, that cleared your head. You didn't think about that anymore. Okay. Joxer as well. No, no, no. Daven. Daven as well. Joxer was already prone, not door. Correct. He was never door. No wall, no door. No door. All right. That is going to be all I do.
00:40:40
Speaker
All right. That takes us. Oh, I was going to say your fire snakes. Sorry to bring up a sore subject. Krigs. Wow. Okay. Cool. Sorry. They were still on the list. I forgot to take them off the list. Krigs. So I can't see this creature anymore. Um, how close am I to jocks are currently? You are a measurement of feet away from him. 40 feet. Uh,
00:41:08
Speaker
I'm going to take a couple steps towards jockser. Here's a question. Do I get technically, since I get multiple actions, can I do bonus actions? I don't know. It doesn't double your bonus actions, does it?
00:41:25
Speaker
No, you still get your regular bonus action. Yeah. No more. Okay. So I'm going to take a couple of steps towards Joxer, roughly 10 feet. And I'm going to use my bonus action to heal him with my aura that I have. He'll be at range at that point. Okay. And that's 10. I got another 10 hit points for you, sir.
00:41:54
Speaker
I'll take it. Nice. Cool. All right. Then at that moment, or are you going to do anything else? Do you have more things? Um, I'm going to use the rest of my, here's my, here's my question. I don't think I can do it. Is there a way that I can make it all the way back to Gwendolyn and still have the ability to do an action?
00:42:18
Speaker
Oh, let's see. You moved 10 feet. So you have 40 left because of because of your haste. Yeah. Oh, no, I guess not. Do you still have the two actions or is it? I have only used a bonus action, so I have two actions. So you can use one to dash and one to do your correct. You can you can dash, but then. Yeah. And then you have a regular action left so you can get to her and then have a regular action. So I'm going to dash lightning and then get over to her. OK.
00:42:49
Speaker
And I am going to... What's your HP looking like? She looks bloodied but not almost dying. I forget like how much he's actually missing though. She's about halfway. Uh, well then I guess I'm gonna dump 20...
00:43:06
Speaker
Hit points with my play on hands. Into Gwyndolin. Into Gwyn. All right. It's my birthday. Apparently. Awesome. And you still have 30 feet of movement if you have any reason to use it. Correct. Oh, then I'll go back to where I was on the other side of Gavin if I can make it there.
00:43:25
Speaker
If not, just in between Devin and Gwen. Yeah, you're almost you're almost there. Almost there. Just healing. Just healing everybody. Is that your entire turn? That's it. That's my turn.
00:43:39
Speaker
All right, so now this mist begins to kind of come in around you all again, it seems like it starts to move down and towards you and it begins to kind of encircle you and you feel like you're kind of, it's kind of around your feet and around your waist as the fog thickens around you all and
00:44:02
Speaker
Uh, I need everyone. Uh, oh, actually, no, it's attack rolls. So let's do, um, four attack rolls, one on each of you. Um, and Krigs, just remember you have an extra two AC. Right. So the one against Jockster on the left is 24. The next person across is Daven. Can you attack the hand instead of.
00:44:29
Speaker
Doesn't seem to care about the hand. Uh, that is a 12 to hit Daven. That doesn't hit your two AC for my shoe. We're trying to hit Krigs now. That is a, Oh, not good. An 11 to hit Krigs. What about Gwen? A 25, 19 plus six.
00:44:49
Speaker
I have a 30 AC. Oh, what's your AC jockser with haste? 22. All right. So 24 does hit you then. So this is a strength drain. So you lose.
00:45:04
Speaker
Well first you take 2d2 2d8 plus 4 necrotic damage This could be really bad for Gwen So kill me kill me now the 2d8 most oh my gosh, so joxer you take 12 16 necrotic damage
00:45:23
Speaker
I rolled max on that. No, that's, those are d6, these eights, not d6s. Still. So you got 16 necrotic damage, and then your strength is reduced by 1d4. Your overall strength score is reduced by 3. Mm-hmm. Is that for both of us?
00:45:46
Speaker
And then, no, I have to roll separate for each of you. So, Ash, you're a 7 plus 4, so 11 damage. And the D4 for your Strength Drain, I rolled a 3 as well.
00:46:03
Speaker
So you both lose three. That's not your your straight score. That's your straight score, the high number, not the bonus. Yeah, we're not the whatever. You said minus four or three. Minus three to that. Correct. Thirteen to ten. Cool. Negative four. No, no, no. The big. Oh, the big number. Yeah, it was six.
00:46:29
Speaker
That's three you had it you had a six I had yeah, I have a negative two for strength. Okay, so you lost three so you're at a three Got you. So you're negative four modifier got it. Yep. Yikesies Sorry when you and I are about to go so just don't try to punch any just don't try to punch anything
00:46:49
Speaker
All right, that takes us now to our big friend's turn. Hang on, let me, here we go. Takes us to his turn. Suddenly, he reappears.
Struggles with Vanishing Creature
00:47:03
Speaker
Can I shoot him with my guiding bolt? You can immediately. Excellent. As he appears right next to Gwendolyn. What? 66. Okay, I think this is a little unfair. Sorry, I'm gonna kill him right now. First the snakes.
00:47:20
Speaker
I'm sorry, the snakes were not my fault. It is 21 radiant damage. Yes, they were. Oh, I guess I have to hit them first, huh? Yeah, you gotta make it a tackle. The snakes were your fault. It's 18 to hit. 18 does hit. Okay, so it's 21 radiant damage.
00:47:36
Speaker
And 21 damage, ouchie, okay. So that beam hits him, that bolt, and it just illuminates, and you see this big illuminate, like it's almost like it splatters on him, and the spot that got splattered is shining with the light now, and you see a burning up his face as it seemed to have hurt his face. He looks over at you, David, and points his finger, and then he looks back down at Gwendolyn, and he strikes at her three times with his,
00:48:05
Speaker
Talons attack tinnabrous talons. What's your armor class ash 30? No for real I am being free 14 if we want to play in a different kind of game. It's 14. Okay. She wrote he rolled a 25 And then he rolled a 25
00:48:31
Speaker
And then a 31 that one hits, okay So that is 2d6 plus 7 slashing damage Each time oh boy
00:48:54
Speaker
I was once alive, and then I was gone. That comes to 12 damage for the first hit, followed by, wow, 12 again for the second hit, and then 11. 12, 12, 11.
00:49:08
Speaker
And then necrotic damage. The necrotic damage is D8 plus what? No, just straight D8. So a one, eight, and a three. So 12 total necrotic damage on that attack. So with three solid hits, he hits you and- He said 12 for necrotic? Yeah, total. Are you dead? No, I'm at eight. Yep, okay.
00:49:35
Speaker
So he's going to now roll his d20 and yeah, he goes again. So as he...
00:49:43
Speaker
He shows up, gets hit by that beam of light, and then he strikes down three times at you, twice with one hand and one time with another hand. And then he takes a step back, puts his hands out like, and then slips back into shadow as he seems to just be sucked into the shadow again and is now,
00:50:08
Speaker
Does it seem like he's doing it on purpose or is it like he has no control over it? It seems to you like every time it happens, it's like he's trying to stay and do more, but he gets pulled away. Alright, one more round. Joxer. Things don't look good. Like this isn't feeling great to me. Sure. So in this room, I see a door.
00:50:34
Speaker
doorway that is covered in radiant light right now. And with that radiant light, do I see anything else in this corridor that even remotely seems helpful? Do you want to use an action to make a perception check and look like try to really see something? I can use one of my actions to do that, yes. Great. Go for it. Make a perception check. It's gone. Someone stole it. And I'll use a luck point. That fell.
00:51:04
Speaker
All right, so that is 17. That's a 17. Do I see anything of importance? Yeah, you see that where that light hits, where it's hitting, there's just a couple of those like stalagmite looking gemstones within the radius of that light, that radiance. And as that radiant shines on them, they begin to glow back that colorful glow that they feel like they should have.
00:51:32
Speaker
And you can barely make out because of the brightness and just because of the faintness of the glowing of the gem itself. It doesn't seem like this is enough power to really just make it shine bright, but you definitely see as the the kind of cracks and crevices that go up behind this gemstone as it's embedded right up against the wall, the cliff wall, they are
00:51:56
Speaker
barely glowing illuminated the same color as this gemstone as they reach and it kind of reaches up the crevices kind of reach up into this doorway to where these gems are inside this doorway almost as if the light is flowing into it from there.
00:52:16
Speaker
So do I get a feeling that if we sent more light into the doorway, it would have an effect? Is that what I'm understanding or what I'm thinking? It's definitely an idea you could be having, yeah. I think Jockster would have that idea when he sees that.
00:52:37
Speaker
And the things around the door, because this is a 30-foot bubble of radiant light. It's not having any effect other than just making it look like it just needs more light to me right now. Yes, correct. Currently, yes. It's affecting the gemstone. It looks like the gemstone's what's affecting the door, not the light itself. So the light on the gemstones is what is giving some effect to the door.
00:53:06
Speaker
Yes. Um, then I will use some of my movement, which I, what do we got? Let me five, put this back since now we know nothing matters for where I'm at. Um, so 70 movement and I will, I guess just cast light on, on my, my blade and point it to the door.
00:53:30
Speaker
Okay. Or actually, you know what, I will, uh, instead of doing that, I will just grab like a rock and cast light on it and throw it at the door. So that way it gets closer. Cause I don't want to enter the radiant ball. Okay. So as you throw the rock in, you kind of lose it in the radiant brightness of that, that ball of light there. Um, you hear it and tick against the.
00:53:54
Speaker
the door, but it doesn't seem that that small item had much of an effect other than just the sound of it clocking up against the doorway.
00:54:05
Speaker
So I guess I can't see the door light. It's not brighter than the radio lights. It's yeah, that radio light so bright right now there that it kind of turns that door into just a big glare of light, you know, like so bright, you can't really make out details or see it kind of thing. You can see the cliff wall and stuff because it's dark. But that that that doorway, the the the gemstone doorway is reflecting all this light back out. And that's making it hard to like look at.
00:54:35
Speaker
directly and really make out what any, you know, details of it. OK, because of the brightness of it, then I will use action action. I can't remember if my my extra action could be an ability, because at this point, no, I doubt I doubt it would be. Then if I could just go into a defensive stance
00:55:02
Speaker
OK, sure. Then that that is what I'm going to do, I guess. All right. Davin, that goes to your turn. All right. Seeing Gwen in peril over there, I'm going to dash so I can get all the way to her. OK, she's 50 feet away from me, so I'll push by Krigs and rush over. And when I get to her, I'm going to use quick and spell. So that's two sorcery points.
00:55:29
Speaker
Okay. So that I can then cast a fifth level cure wounds on her. Oof. It's awesome. Five D. Yikes. That's good. Oh, get it. Take that. Ooh.
00:55:43
Speaker
uh 28 points you're gonna get back so you are still alive all right but i use my action to get there and my bonus action to heal her and that's all i can do okay it takes us to spell slots still just hiding yeah he's uh he's hiding he's moving closer to the group but he's he's moved kind of like down the wall a bit okay so he's uh moved an extra like 15 and that's about
00:56:13
Speaker
Sounds good. All right. Red like squiggle. Referencing spells. All right, Gwendolyn, it's your turn. No, I don't say that. I think spell slots goes before me. Well, he just did. He's just hiding. A good plan in my mind. Let me ask you this. Ash has all the books out. I like it. Yes. She's a big planter. Big plans. So with my all purpose tool, can I can I create something
00:56:43
Speaker
Like it's all creativity. What do you mean, create? You can't make something out of nothing. Why not? I mean, if it's an all purpose tool, couldn't it become what I want? It's a tool, meaning any tool in the game, like locks, like lock picks and, you know, uh, herbalism tools and tools for, um, you know, jewelry making and things like that. It says that I can be creative.
00:57:13
Speaker
I would argue that anything can be a tool if you need it bad enough. Yeah. Even I've been a tool before.
00:57:19
Speaker
What? Well, like, alchemist tools, brewers tools, calligrapher tools, carpenters, cartographers, cobblers, cooks, glass blowers, jewelers. Like, there's tools in the game. You can use it for however you want. But those things. That's all. That's all it is. What do you want to do? Ash has gone off mic as she's going back into her books. Yeah. Eating deeply. I'll tell you what. You want to just live this on a cliffhanger? What is Ash going to do next? Oh, well. And technically speaking, we can.
00:57:48
Speaker
We can. What would you say this mist is made out of? It seems to be made out of some sort of like necromantic cold energy. Also chocolate milk. Seeing how it drains your strength and harms you in that way.
00:58:10
Speaker
So what, so then my next question is, I was about to say what's the opposite of death, but it would be, but what's the opposite of. Necrotic damages, radiant damage. Yeah. Radiant damage. Surprising. This dude doesn't seem to be.
00:58:26
Speaker
Yeah, he seems not nearly as affected by the exhaustion or, you know, radiant damage. I tried to look him up, but there is no Kugler in the... Oh man, I really... I've been wanting to Google the Kugler, but... You wanted to goog the Kug? Goog the Kug. All right. With Gwyndolin unsure what she's gonna do, looking to and fro at the damage that's happening and the dangers around,
00:58:54
Speaker
And the dangers that keep appearing and disappearing, jocks are standing, trying to investigate, figure out what is going on with this door and what can be maybe the solution to this that doesn't require them all coming near to death or beyond in order to get out of here. Craig's trying to just, Craig's and David just trying to keep people alive and keep this thing moving. We're going to wrap it up right here.
Episode Cliffhanger and Season Tease
00:59:17
Speaker
And on the next episode, we'll find out what Gwendolyn does next.
00:59:22
Speaker
and we'll find out what's going on with this door, and if the hired swords can survive, this shadow giant and the fog that has finally turned violent against them. We'll see you next time. Spoilers, maybe. Yeah, I'm not feeling it. Do you remember the last time Joxer was given a puzzle? I do. It broke and, you know, yeah.
00:59:54
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of the Hired Swords. We're very nearing the end of Season 2, and it's taken us a very long time to get here. With that, I super appreciate you hanging on there with us. We'll get there. Season 3 has already been recorded, or at least a portion of it, and I can't wait to see you there in the wilds.