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Ep.4 The Last Great One
193 Plays4 years ago
After terrible decisions were made our Hired Swords must come to grips with the path they've been set on. With regret setting in, trust in those back in Wildhill begins to falter. Outraged, the Hired Swords forge a plan of action. A plan for answers.
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Transcript
Introduction and Character Overview
00:00:21
Speaker
You're listening to the hired swords. Swords sold separately.
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome back everybody to the Hire Towards podcast. I am again your Dungeon Master, Mike, and I'm gonna introduce our group again real quick as we are back together around the virtual tabletop ready for another adventure here. So let's start again with Ash playing. Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn the druid, Derek is playing. Davin Meinstrider, the sorcerer. Yes, and Blaze, who are you playing?
00:01:09
Speaker
Greg's Golder, the Paladin. There it is. That's the realness. There it is. And Mikey, how about you, buddy? I'm Jackson Botel, and I'm the monk warlord.
00:01:22
Speaker
Was that a question? Your confidence levels are just next level. I am mainly spaced out when I said my name. I was like, I don't know what I am. I don't know who's Ash. When's she going to talk? I don't know. Speak up, would you? It's been a long since here, since our last podcast.
00:01:47
Speaker
It's been a long six years since two weeks ago.
Post-Battle Decisions and Dangers
00:01:52
Speaker
It is 2020. And speaking of that, let's get out of that world and into ours, into this one. So after defeating the great alpha elk, you guys settled in and harvested some meat. You harvested its hide and its antlers.
00:02:11
Speaker
You also are currently sitting still in this field surrounded by Flowers and trees it is about late. It's late afternoon probably a couple hours from sundown and you You do still have some regular sized great elk carcasses around you there's a tree line looming behind you and the area seems to have grown and
00:02:36
Speaker
A bit darker, darker since the death of this alpha elk. Everyone make a perception check for me as we get started today. Yeah, we're coming in hot. Coming in hot! Just like a fajita. 21. Oh, Gwendolyn sees stuff. With my special eye. Ooh, a 20. Ooh, Kree's golfing. He's 13. Kree's golfing over 13. Yocks are still looking at flowers with his three.
00:03:07
Speaker
They are really nice flowers. It's so funny how it goes. Can't see the forest for the trees. It's just how the dice fit a theme. They just always do it, don't they?
00:03:23
Speaker
Gwendolyn and Davin, as you guys are just sitting and looking and kind of listening, you can see a troll is back. You see something back inside the woods and it's big and you would know you've heard of these creatures before. It's kind of backtracking.
00:03:44
Speaker
Through the woods as you see trees starting to kind of been to break as it pushes its way through chasing after the retreating elk that you just. That you just.
00:03:56
Speaker
uh, chased off into the woods with this attack. Um, you know, you came in, you fought this elk over the course of a minute or so or less. And then in the meantime, it seems like this creature was stalking this group of elk and being held at bay possibly by this elk you just killed. Well, now it's heading towards the, towards the group of elk you chased away through the forest. Um, and, uh, so that is, that is your,
00:04:24
Speaker
That's your reward for rolling such a good perception check. You're able to see. About how far away into the woods is this happening and is it moving away from us? It is moving away from you, chasing the elk through the woods. And it's a good probably 80, 90 feet down through there. You probably only have another 10, 15 seconds before it just disappears into the darkness of the forest at this point.
00:04:49
Speaker
Devin kind of sits down on the ground and he just says, well, that was a little bit more difficult than I was expecting it to be, but at least we got the job done, I suppose. I have to admit though, that was weird, right? This entire thing was weird. It's not me, is it? Yeah, I agree. Something doesn't feel right. I don't feel right about this at all. It doesn't make sense.
00:05:17
Speaker
I'm assuming with my low perception role, I didn't see anything. You didn't see it. No. And, and, uh, jocks are just barely heard them talking and just jumped in and agreed. Cause he was still looking at flowers. Like we said, I was, I was asking, or I guess that I was talking about the elk itself. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think that's what Daven was talking about too. So just pay attention to your flowers. Um, look at the flowers.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think Craig's is kind of still just not really paying attention to the group. Just sort of just dismayed slightly at what just happened. It's not as cup of tea. Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker
Um, so you do have two more el carcasses nearby that are unharvested, so to speak. Uh, and it is nearing, like I said, nearing dusk. So, uh, your choices are, you know, you, you do know that, that once this has been done, you're really, all you have left to do is take your prize back to back to wild Hill, but, uh, you may decide to, you know, camp here, keep going, whatever it's, it's your call. So.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, we can.
Camp Setup and Night Watch
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah, at this point, Joxer is going to kind of basically, you know, I did kind of gather all this meat. We could set up a camp and maybe cook some of it up before it goes bad. It only makes sense. I think it'd be in our best interest, though, to move a little bit further away from the rest of this. It's going to attract some sort of animals that we probably don't want to be in contact with.
00:06:58
Speaker
I agree. Jocks are kind of looks a little confused, like we what what what animals. I think we just starts looking around surveying to see if there's anyone else. I imagine there's going to be other things that are hungry as well. And I don't really want to be around when they're here to eat. I think you should head back, head back, at least somewhat in the direction we came.
00:07:25
Speaker
Great. Gwendolyn, did you want to actively look around and see if you could see anything else? Do you want to roll a perception check for that?
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, go for it. I want to see if there's any danger besides what I saw in the woods. Oh my god. I rolled a 12. You currently don't perceive any immediate danger immediate threat. In fact, the woods seem kind of quiet since that big creature you had just seen made its way through the woods. That direction it kind of seems to have cleared out the wildlife a little bit. Just its presence or your presence or both.
00:08:03
Speaker
Davin's got his rope out, and he started tying it around the antlers that we had taken off of the giant elk. He says, I'm not really strong enough to pull these things myself, but maybe you guys can help me. We could just start getting them moving. Kind of still frustrated, Kriegs walks over to Davin and just says, give me that boy, and starts walking back the direction they came, basically carrying the antlers himself. By all means.
00:08:29
Speaker
Jock Searle kind of jump over and be like, it's not just your job. Uh, no, let me, I, I feel it's, it's only right. Nothing about this is right. Don't, don't feel like you're the only one feeling that. And he just grabs the other side of the rope. Pull together.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah, I'll, uh, I'll kind of walk on the front with Gwen, assuming Gwen's going in the front and just try to keep an eye out around, make sure that we don't get like, uh, ambushed by anything. Okay. Agreed. Yeah. Cool. So, uh, make perception checks as we'll say you, you go ahead and you, you start traveling, you get
00:09:09
Speaker
about an hour, hour and a half of traveling and make perception checks at this point for me. The two of you up front walking, keeping an eye out. Daven and Gwendolyn. Daven rolled a five. I rolled a 10.
00:09:24
Speaker
A 10, a 10 is enough to, to hear things in the woods that surround this little bit of trail you're walking on. It sounds like large, some kind of large creatures there, they must be attracted to you because of possibly the meat you're carrying something like that. But they don't seem, they seem to be keeping a distance, whether they're, whether they're measuring you up or what, you know, trying to figure out
00:09:53
Speaker
whether or not to attack or whatever, if you don't know, you just you can tell right now that they're kind of keeping the distance. But there are things in the woods that have made their way towards you along this hour and a half or so of walking. And how long did it take us to get here? Two days? Two days. Yeah. And it's getting now to that twilight dusk time. So
00:10:16
Speaker
I nudge over. All right, nudge over. I nudge. Davin and Gwendolyn is like, we should find somewhere away off the path because I'm hearing things. We're being stalked, but it just doesn't feel comfortable. And you think that going farther into the woods is going to make that better?
00:10:41
Speaker
It'd be better to be off the path, I feel. Fair enough. Fellas, I think that we probably should try and start finding a piece of land that we can camp on. Lead on then. All right, so I'm gonna let Gwendolyn and Davin make nature checks as you look for somewhere or survival, whichever one you prefer. Just try to find a good place to camp.
00:11:04
Speaker
Nature or survival. Both your choice. My survival check is a 12. 15. 15 survival check. So you do find a small clearing that has pretty good sight lines to the woods. Back is kind of to a
00:11:24
Speaker
ledge of a hill to where you feel safe. One side of you is pretty protected while the other side you can keep an eye. So you do find somewhere that seems like a good safe place to set up camp for the evening. And so you can do that. And what does that look like as you guys get get set up for camp? What what kind of stuff are you guys doing? Gwendolyn's going to be collecting logs and twigs. Okay. Branches are wood. Got it. I'm a slap a tree with my hammer again.
00:11:55
Speaker
Jockster's going to do a couple of things. He's going to pull out a handful of meat slabs that he found and start hanging some of the hides of deer out so they can dry a bit.
00:12:12
Speaker
and start trying to take his rapier and start cutting the slabs that he already cut out and put some of the herbs that he's already pulled from, the herbs for brewing and stuff across them to kind of preserve them and get them ready to cook.
00:12:30
Speaker
All right, make Devin's going to try and find some like large branches, not necessarily for like firewood, but to see if he can kind of dress up the antlers a little bit to try and mask them a little bit so that it doesn't look like we just have these giant set of antlers we're carrying around.
00:12:43
Speaker
Okay, cool. I'm gonna have jocks are make a nature check or survival check for me as you try to preserve the meat and stuff. And then and then jocks are not jocks are Devin, you successfully find cool. Yeah, you you do a pretty good job of using the herbs and things like that you feel like you you've you've kind of cut down the smell a little bit the odor of the hides and the meat and
00:13:12
Speaker
Davin, you put some branches and stuff in the antlers, and it kind of disguise it to look like just a pile of firewood or something sitting there. That works. Very big pile, but still a pile.
00:13:27
Speaker
We're talking these like four and a half, five foot antlers. OK, make your attack roll on your tree. You just sit there waiting. I'm going to look directly up when I swing. OK, make a swing. I'm going to do a two handed. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do one handed swing with my shield directly on top of my head. Hey, he does have some intelligence. All right. Go for it. Nice.
00:13:54
Speaker
All right, you hit the, yeah, two plus seven is a nine. You hit the tree and when you do just a whole bunch of leaves fall slowly and you brace yourself and you just get leaves trickling around you gently and it's almost, it's just not really as satisfying as you would hope. I'm the most useless camper of all time.
00:14:23
Speaker
You hit it. I mean, you had, you hit it. It just, it wasn't good enough to jostle anything free. I looked around at the party and just kind of shrug. At least we know there's nothing hiding up in the tree, huh? Great. Sure. Sure. Okay. So we get a fire going. Yeah, we'll get a fire going. Cool. Got a fire going and
00:14:48
Speaker
gathering around, are you guys gonna go straight to resting or any other chit chat needs to happen or anything or what are you guys, if you're going straight to resting, we can pick out who's keeping watching stuff. So the only thing that like when serving out or helping with distributing some of this nice food that I prepped, there's gonna be a rock on Davin's plate. Okay. That rock just so happened to have made it into
00:15:19
Speaker
Wait, is this in place of the food? No, no, it's gonna be on top of here. It's gonna be on top. He knows. Yeah, okay. He knows.
00:15:29
Speaker
Devin just kind of picks it up and turns it over and kind of like glances over to you and kind of just trickles to himself for a second before tossing it to the side. Yeah, that's sly. Cool. So you guys sit around, you have your little meal around the table of, I assume, elk meat, except Gwendolyn, what do you eat?
00:15:52
Speaker
She pulls out some berries and rations that she had in her. She's got her trail mix, watching you guys eat like animals, eat an animal like animals. Tries to feed a little piece to Dale. Yeah, it just falls out. She tries to put it up to his mouth, but it just falls on the ground. There at least be some proper brew kind of handed out a little bit.
00:16:16
Speaker
Great, yeah, so there's... Craig's for sure is eating for sustenance and having the brew, but he's sort of complacent. He's kind of flexing his right hand and rubbing his palm with his left hand, just kind of still frustrated looking. Okay. Not really engaging with conversation or anything.
00:16:38
Speaker
Okay. Krigs is playing this strong silent type card at the moment. And, uh, slap a tree, right? So he's got, yeah, just there's, there's things going on in his way, things going on inside. Okay. And so I'll say, as you, you settle in, you get your, you start your rest and things look decent. Who wants to go ahead and keep watch as you guys settle in for the night?
00:17:02
Speaker
I would like, okay. Oh, Krigs. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. Krigs, you can go ahead and we'll say everyone else is having their rest. Krigs, go ahead and make your perception check as you just kind of keep an eye on the tree line with your back to the, to the camp.
Revelations and Guilt
00:17:26
Speaker
You get advantage on perception.
00:17:29
Speaker
I don't my mouse just likes to click things. Okay. I was like, man, you're really good. Wow. I just get a advantage of perception because I want to a 12. So you're also seeing stirring and movement in the woods in the forest. You're seeing some stuff happen. You're you're
00:17:50
Speaker
Again, things seem to be keeping their distance a little bit. But there is movement out there. Actually, make an insight check for me as you look. That is a 16. A 16, okay. Yeah, so you
00:18:13
Speaker
You are getting the feeling, Krigs, that something is keeping these creatures at bay, keeping them from wanting to pursue you guys. Otherwise, you feel like there's enough of them out there, they would be jumping in to, you might would look like a tasty meal, there's enough out there, so. I kind of, having realized this, just kind of look over at the horns and think, hmm.
00:18:41
Speaker
So I get the impression that there was something really special about the animal we just slaughtered in cold blood. Okay. Okay. Roll for sadness. No, I'm just kidding. It's a 20. I don't even have to roll. It's just a 20.
00:18:57
Speaker
That means he's an extra sadder. He's not sad at all. His sadness modifier is it's plus 20. He's an emo kid. Yeah, he's an emo dwarf. It's fine. It's fine. All right, cool. Well, again, things seem to be kept at bay and you actually feel like
00:19:23
Speaker
Oh, I think we don't have to stress or worry as long as these antlers are with us. For whatever that may mean, as far as what you've done, it does mean that it seems to, for at least the time being, be keeping predators at bay. Right.
00:19:38
Speaker
Uh, before my shift ends, which I'm assuming is happening soon, uh, I am going to have just a quick moment before rest, like awakening the next person, uh, and just go over to the antlers. Um, and kind of have a little solid, like solemn moment, little prayer, not to my deity, but just basically nature itself and be like, you know,
00:20:05
Speaker
Sorry. And that'll be my watch. Okay. Okay. Does someone want to take a second watch? Or who do you wake up? I guess. I go in to kind of like stroll over to Gwendolyn and just kind of lightly tap the shoulder and like, hey, I think it's your turn now. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm on it. Okay.
00:20:36
Speaker
All right, Gwen, make a perception check for me. Aye. Aye, Eden. I'm gonna get a perception check. 25! Dang. 25. Rolled all them numbers.
00:20:52
Speaker
Yeah, so you see as you peer into the woods, just from the dim light that's left over as the fires dwindling, you can see silhouettes of creatures and you see several wolf shapes in the distance that seem to be kind of
00:21:16
Speaker
Walk like pacing the the tree line just a few feet back from the tree line Going the the entire distance of your camp back and forth and they're kind of passing each other you can every now and then hear a little a couple growls and and little yelps or barks as they seem to be trying to communicate with each other but none of them breaks that tree line they stay back the way that
00:21:41
Speaker
the way that I explain Krigs, keeping distance. But you definitely make out what these things are. This is a pack of wolves that are interested in you guys, but they don't seem to be, they seem very agitated, like they're just not gonna make a move. I think Gwendolyn, she's going to try to talk to them from afar. Okay. Whoa, speech of the woods.
00:22:11
Speaker
I'm gonna read this for people who might be interested, okay? It says, you learn to speak, read, and write Sylvan. In addition, beasts can understand your speech and you gain the ability to decipher their noises and emotions. Most beasts lack the intelligence to convey or understand sophisticated concepts, but a friendly beast could relay what it has seen or heard in recent past. This ability does not grant you any special friendship with beasts, though you can combine this ability with gifts to curry favor with them as you would any non-player character.
00:22:39
Speaker
So this is a second level ability for her druid class. So, all right, what would you like to say to try to communicate with them? Um, I think she just shoot softly just because she knows they're there and they have good sense of hearing. Yeah, I feel like she'd just be. Hello. Are you following us? Okay. Well, boys,
00:23:09
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. Hang on. I'm looking up some stat here for these wolves. I'm so ready for this. I'm so ready to be thrust into the fantasy world of wolf and voice from my nature. Prepare to be disappointed. Hello, Gavna. Hello, Gavna. My name's Wolfie Wolfenstien. What do you say, wolves? They call me Canine. All right.
00:23:37
Speaker
You hear a series of kind of yips and barks as the wolf kind of tries to communicate back to you. And remind me what you asked it again. They got me distracted. I asked it if they're following us. Like why? Yeah, the yips and barks and kind of a couple howls
00:24:02
Speaker
that what happens is a few of them start to kind of step back in response and one steps forward and kind of takes kind of a alpha front
00:24:15
Speaker
position and that's the one that starts yipping at you, barking at you a little bit and calling out in its way. And you get the sense from its series of barks and things, you're understanding it to say that they're hunting and they have been hunting you. Sorry, no wolf voice. Oh, dang. What does the wolf say? I'm completely immune from the fantasy world. Yip, yip, yip. Ooh. Yeah, yip, ooh, ooh, yip, yip.
00:24:43
Speaker
Oh, there we go. That was perfect. There we go. OK. I think she would just respond to them. Is it food that you want? We can give you food. And I feel like she would try to sneak into Jackson Jackson's magic bag.
00:25:04
Speaker
I'm trying to steal like two slabs of meat. I wanted to say magic hole, but that didn't sound right either. I am so back in the fantasy world now. I'm really interested to see how this plays out. So how do you keep, Joxer, how do you store your magic hole?
00:25:30
Speaker
So the fabric that holds the magic hole is actually tucked into my hooded shawl, kind of right underneath my left man breast. Oh no.
00:25:54
Speaker
But it also takes a lot of effort and interesting to actually lay it out nicely to get into the dark hole. So are there still slabs drying? No, no, no. So I only had the elk hides hanging. I pulled out what we were going to use and I took all of it and I did rub herbs to help preserve it. Gotcha. Well, get in that hole.
00:26:25
Speaker
I feel, I feel like Gwendolyn would, she'd be like, hold on a second. And she's had Dale sit on a log, like by the fire where she was sitting. And she just looks over at Dale and just like, don't look at me like that. And she tries to go over to Jacksoner and she doesn't want to wake him up, but she, she wants to help these wolves. So they'll just not be around us. Dale's expression obviously doesn't change, but you do see a judgmental look in its eyes.
00:26:55
Speaker
Oh, she knows. She knows. Dale's being pretty critical of you right now. So. All right. So if you're going to go try to steal this portable hole, why don't you stealth over there for me? Make a stealth check. OK. Try to get over there without without waking. Oh, that's a eight. Nice. This is 17.
00:27:24
Speaker
So jocks are roll again for me. Oh, I'm sorry. What do you want me to roll? The same perception, but I'm going to give you a disadvantage because you're sleeping. Oh, perfect. Yeah. I don't know. That makes sense. Doesn't matter. So 14. I didn't think it would matter. It was only an eight. So, um, you, so Gwendolyn, you reach up, you, you sneak up and
00:27:50
Speaker
And as you step towards Joxer, you, you accidentally step on his hood. Like part of his cloak has kind of been, you know, fallen down off of whatever he's got his heads kind of propped up on a little log or something. And you step on that cloak and it pulls his head down and he wakes up. And what do you do Joxer when it wakes you up and you see her kind of look approaching you looking like she's trying to sneak up on you.
00:28:18
Speaker
So so instantly, I'm going to grab it like an ankle or like whatever is closest and like and pull it towards me just to just to kind of throw whatever it is in front of me off of balance because I'm not going to make an attack role, an unarmed attack role, which I guess is like a normal attack role for you. It feels like a Pink Panther blooper reel. The 14. All right. I'm going to have Gwen go ahead and make a
00:28:48
Speaker
Acrobatic check to see if she can, if she can keep from, you do grab her and you pull. Does she fall? Oh, 18 plus two. So a dirty 20. And so she, you do grab her for sure.
Moral Dilemmas and Return Journey
00:29:04
Speaker
And you tug on her leg and it, ow, it hurts a little bit. But she kind of hops her not grabbed leg forward a couple of times. And you have awakened jocks or Gwendolyn obviously now.
00:29:17
Speaker
In jocks are you realize who it is shortly after you you grab her leg? Absolutely I'm sorry I Didn't want to wake you Is it am I am I supposed to start watch or what? No, can I have some meat? I
00:29:39
Speaker
from that hole of yours. So Jaxxer looks pretty confounded currently, like he's like what?
00:29:56
Speaker
Hi, there's a lot of meat I don't care, but what? So why? What? There's some hungry wolves and they just want some of our meat. Oh, thank God we have a way to get rid of some of this meat before it goes bad. Why didn't you tell me that in the first place? I wasn't going to wake you and then have you
00:30:20
Speaker
You weren't gonna wake me. I mean, Dale ill-advised it, but I did it anyways. Dale, that's right. Please, I am a very... Just talk to me when you have a question. Unlike throwing rocks and stepping on my hood.
00:30:43
Speaker
Very disturbed by all this commotion. Craig just looks over and is like, God, get a dwarf, get some sleep. Yeah, for real. God. Yeah, no, a jockser is not a quiet folk, so I would not imagine anybody. Yeah. Devin, I'm sure your passive perception is picking this up, too. My passive perception is 11, but he doesn't care. He's rolled over and snoring. He doesn't care. OK. Yeah. You rolled 20 for snore. Yeah.
00:31:14
Speaker
So I'll stand up and kind of get a little bit grips of what's happening, lay out the hole neatly so it's not raveled, and kind of jump down. But I'll tie some, because it's about a 10-foot drop for me. So I'm going to tie the majority of the meat that we have, minus what I want to be able to try to share.
00:31:42
Speaker
and kind of jump out and ask Gwendolyn for a little bit of help to pull it up because it was easier to throw it down than it was to pull it out. Yeah, it was a pretty large amount of meat. And then we'll try to hoist it out and
00:32:05
Speaker
Um, and then I'll kind of, uh, if, if we, you know, get it out, then I'll ask, is there anything you'd want us to do? Like, do you want me to cut it up? Um, or just throw this giant piece of meat out into the woods? I can take it. I want to talk to him a little more. He's kind of blindly. That's okay. Well, okay.
00:32:31
Speaker
What's your strength? She's so confounded. My strength is negative three. Yeah, it's this big old hunk of meat. How about I help you get it to the edge of the woods and then you can talk to them all you want?
00:32:52
Speaker
That sound good. This whole time, Dale is just losing. She's furious. She just keeps sigh-eyed, Dale. Somehow, Dale's turned around and is facing away now. He doesn't even want to watch. Dale's not even watching him. Dale's actually a little scared of the wolves. He's calling over.
00:33:16
Speaker
Yeah, Dale... Dale, you know, unintentionally fell off the... Yeah. He must have been in the wind. Yeah. So I'm going to help move everything. I'm going to see that, like, the hides that I put out have mostly dried. I'm going to fold them up, throw them in the hole, then close it up and then get back where I was sleeping. Okay. And not tear anymore.
00:33:44
Speaker
Okay, so you guys successfully, you do that. You help her get the meat over there to the wolves and then you go back and you do that. You get the hide I'll put away and get back to resting. Gwendolyn, what do you want to say to these wolves as you provide them with a meal this evening? She's going to try to ask if they knew that elk, if they were hunting that elk originally. So, shoot.
00:34:14
Speaker
Did you know what we were hunting? That's what I say to the wolves. Yeah, the leader kind of steps out from the shadows, the alpha wolf, and raises its head up to you like proud like, you know, as a
00:34:34
Speaker
as a warning as well as a just a sign of dominance and walks towards the meat and lets out a little yelp and the other wolves start coming out of the woods as well.
00:34:49
Speaker
Towards you and and start biting at the meat and start pulling it back and pulling big chunks of it into the woods with them So they're not sitting there and just feasting in front of you. They're dragging it away and in big hunks as they tear it apart and then the creature looks at you and Makes literal eye contact with you make an insight check as as it does that Eight
00:35:16
Speaker
Okay. So it makes eye contact with you. And when it does, uh, it kind of, it, it kind of gives a low growl, just this, and a nice, a couple, couple little barks. And, uh, you hear you, you understand it to be saying, uh, this was the last, this was the last of the great alpha, uh, the last of the great, the great ones in the woods.
00:35:44
Speaker
Well, made a way to make me feel worse. They weren't hunting it because it was one of the last of the great ones. You don't know it. Gwendolyn, I think. Oh, saying Krigs doesn't know. No, Krigs doesn't know that. Blaze feels bad, but Krigs doesn't know. Go back to sleep.
00:36:04
Speaker
I feel like Gwendolyn would just fall to her knees because she already knew something was wrong and she just looks at the wolf and says, we didn't know. The wolf lowers its head.
00:36:19
Speaker
and turns and three little skips out into the shadows and you can't see it anymore as it's gone. And they all seem to have dispersed at this point as well, all the rest of the wolves. And the tree line seems to be pretty clear now of creatures. I think she'd just go back and sit near the fire. Okay.
00:36:46
Speaker
Would she have known about these great ones in the woods? Like would she have read about them? Make a nature or history check, whichever you'd prefer. We're going to go with nature because I'm better than
New Allies and a Mysterious Disappearance
00:36:59
Speaker
that. Oh, eight. You kind of may remember it from like children's stories growing up, but you don't have a
00:37:14
Speaker
working knowledge of, of the lore of it or the, the, the history behind it at all. It just seemed, it just, it seems to be like something you may have heard a nursery rhyme about when you were little. Yeah. Cool. So not nothing, but not anything real significant. Okay. So that will be, unless there's anything else you want to do, Gwendolyn, other than sit by the fire for the rest of your watch here. No, she just picks up Dale and just holds him.
00:37:43
Speaker
Okay. So you, you all get your long rest. So you have a full long rest for the night. Yeah. And, uh, so everybody's back at maximum everything. And, uh, so you, sorry, I got distracted roll 20 added options for some, um, you, uh, you awaken in the morning. It's a, it's a very still and quiet morning. And I have to make a little rolly roll here.
00:38:13
Speaker
Oh, my, my, uh, sorry. Bear with me a hot second. My, my, um, that second is cold. Yeah. I was about to say I prefer cold seconds. Bear with me a cold second. Then I unfortunately have my random chart on a different set of notes. There it is. I didn't think that through. Okay. So somebody roll a D six for me.
00:38:44
Speaker
Go ahead, Triggs. Yeah. That's a five. Okay. So the morning is very clear and very still. The clouds and a little bit of rain from the day before doesn't seem to repeat, doesn't seem to be repeating itself. And today seems like a pretty nice day that the sun, the sky is currently the
00:39:05
Speaker
the dark purple going down to the orange and pink of sunrise, as the sun comes up over the little bit of hill behind you, you now have a morning to continue your journey. So you may do so any morning activities or conversations or anything.
00:39:27
Speaker
I think Craig's at least having kind of had a moment to compose himself more. When with the party, we'll just say, I thought of something, I realized something last night. The woods were active, they were lively, but I believe something about these antlers, the beast, it somehow protected us.
00:39:57
Speaker
Yes. I spoke with some wolves last night. I'm sorry, hold on for a second. You spoke with the wolves. Yeah, I'm a damn druid. So I know the natures. The natures. We were being hunted and
00:40:22
Speaker
I got that impression as well. Speaking with them, this was the last great one. I thought they were hungry, but it's because we killed one of their elders in the woods. I knew it didn't feel right, but I thought it was a nuisance. Why do you think they'd have us do that? Why would we go out here to kill one of the elders? That sounds like an important thing to be part of the nature.
00:40:51
Speaker
Yeah, I don't want to bring them back, these antlers. Oh, you don't think we should take the antlers back. Can we just make a new elk? I'm joking. I mean, the way I look at it, it's already done. We may as well finish the job. I just don't understand why it happened in the first place.
00:41:16
Speaker
Maybe maybe we can take at least a part of its soul and bring it or maybe you could give it to Dale. Like if we if you wanted to take a piece of the antler, they they can't argue that one couldn't have come off. I think Dale. Yes. And she just she's staring at him for a while, so Kriegs can go and talk. She's having a conversation with him.
00:41:46
Speaker
I think Craig's at this point has become just slightly, not enraged, but is not happy hearing that the balance was not somewhat respected. It seems just like play at that point and that's not his shtick. Someone, someone is going to have to give me some answers on this.
00:42:09
Speaker
Joxer's kind of going to look over and absolutely, this is not why I came to this area. I just wanted to find some unique ingredients. Well, there's got to be some sort of reason why they'd have us do this. So let's just get back to camp. We'll ask them and we'll figure out exactly why in the first place. Do they deserve this whole thing?
00:42:37
Speaker
I mean, they're just antlers at this point, right? What difference would it make? From a magical beast, an ancient egg. Devin wants to go take a look at it. Can you see, is there anything magical about the antlers? Make an arcana check. Arcana? I'm not terrible with that. That's a 17. These antlers are not natural. I mean, there is something about them that
00:43:07
Speaker
that gives you just that, that magical buzz. You know what I mean? Like when you look at them and you kind of look at how they're, they look, they look, I don't want to say they look crafted like man-made, but they just look too perfect and too pristine and ornate. Yeah. They're, they're just, they're, they're,
00:43:29
Speaker
They're other than, they seem not of this world, they're so pristine. Well, I can only say that there's, I mean, it's hard to tell by looking at something, but I imagine there's some sort of a magical property to these antlers themselves. Maybe it's something they use on the comp, maybe it's important for the way that they live their lives around here. I don't feel like it's for good. It seems evil.
00:43:57
Speaker
from the little bit that I spoke of in the tavern in the north of town, they're losing people left and right and just replacing them. It doesn't seem like if this is the last of the elders as you spoke or the great ones, then this is it. Then Wildhild is done. This is an unhealthy establishment at best. Agreed. Dale agrees.
00:44:27
Speaker
Well, unfortunately, we can't undo what we've done already. So it's a matter of either taking the antlers back or not. I'm taking them back. I need answers for this. Someone will definitely have to do that. I agree. Well, I will agree.
Quest for the Missing Hunter
00:44:44
Speaker
at everything. I'm sorry. I'm, I'm privy to ingredients in my, like, the idea of just handing over something of very obvious unnatural or rarity seems. Jockster, you brought me here for a reason. I trust you in that if you want to attempt
00:45:08
Speaker
to split at least a portion of this antler for either yourself or for the group. By all means, I don't feel as if that would be too worse than we've already done. I mean, do what you need. I have no use for any of these antlers, but if it's going to be beneficial to you, by all means, take whatever you need. I think... Go ahead. Yeah, go on. You go ahead.
00:45:31
Speaker
I think as we're walking back, when we decide to walk back, I think Gwendolyn is going to have a contingency plan, if I said that word right. A contingency plan? Yeah, I got it. Yeah. And I'll send you a message what it is. Okay.
00:45:47
Speaker
OK, so so looking at the antlers like you say or just looking at them, they seem abnormally perfect. Does it seem that if I if if I were to attempt to break anything off, it would it would ruin some portion of it or if it would just take off a piece of thing? You I don't you really don't have any way of knowing.
00:46:15
Speaker
There you wouldn't know if if in in based on your knowledge of You know a little bit of alchemy and in chemical things and Some magic involved in that you you're not You would think that it wouldn't have that effect, but you're not sure for sure I can't say you could you would know a hundred percent
00:46:42
Speaker
Josh jocks, who's just going to grab the rope that's tied to it and, and kind of look like he's ready to start moving it. Kind of frustrating, kind of frustrated himself and, and the whole situation. Devin gets the hand. He starts packing up the rest of his stuff and he starts moving along the road. Craig's pulls. All right. So you guys continue walking. You've got about a.
00:47:06
Speaker
Just about a little more than a day and a half journey ahead of you. And, uh, so you're able to continue walking and as you do so, you, who, who's, uh, what order are you guys kind of marching in? I assume probably the same as we had previously. Okay. Yeah. I think Gwen and me up front and then the other two pulling. Okay. Great.
00:47:32
Speaker
You grab the rope, you're traveling down the pathway towards Wild Hill with questions in your hearts and minds about what's going on with these antlers, what's going on with killing this great alpha, one of the last great ones. And you are making your way that direction downtown.
00:47:52
Speaker
Oh, I was waiting for it. I try not to say making your way for that reason. And I failed. Some reason why you don't say been a while. It's been a while. Yeah, exactly. It's been a while. You're not wrong. Oh, geez. You used it. I don't want to wait. I want to know right now, what will it be? Oh, man.
00:48:19
Speaker
It will be travel. So we're going to, for the sake of time, we're going to, unless there's any thing before you get into town that you need to say, or do, we will, we will, we will fast travel you to jockster, uh, taking the antler. He, I believe he did not take any what of the antler itself. You just kind of picked up the rope and we're like, let's go. Kept it intact.
00:48:47
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So you continue towards Wild Hill and you have pretty uneventful travel the next day and a half or so. And you arrive at Wild Hill, which is a near ghost town. Most of the hunters have yet to return.
00:49:05
Speaker
You do see the locals running about here and there about their business. You first approach the farm at the south of town. And the first thing you see there is the farmer and his wife and son all out working in the fields. They're picking root vegetables. And as they see you come up, they stand and watch you walk by the little boy there tugs on his mother's dress and points out points over towards you. You can kind of tell he's pointing towards the antlers that you're dragging.
00:49:34
Speaker
Just beyond the farm there is the camp and as you approach the camp you see two of the hunters you had met before you left sitting there looking kind of
00:49:45
Speaker
distressed and disgraced as they sit there with their heads down. And beyond the camp, there is the Tower of Testing where you know you are to turn in your stuff. Which was it to Wild Hill? You see as you see Marius or Marius and and Edie sitting there. Oh, no. Oh,
00:50:16
Speaker
We are now back at the... You're back at the camp area there at Wild Hill,
Episode Conclusion and Call to Action
00:50:21
Speaker
yeah. How do they look? They look pretty beat up. They look like they've had some time to rest, but they're not. And they're definitely very down on themselves. They're talking kind of heatedly back and forth, arguing a little bit as you approach. Before you can really hear them, you can still already see with their body language and stuff that they're having kind of a
00:50:45
Speaker
heated a heated conversation and Edie and Mariahs are both both look like they're you know their armors kind of disheveled they they've they've had a rough go of it it looks like but they're uh and yeah they're they're sitting there chatting with each other not in a loving kind way at the moment yeah i don't have any any report really with these guys so it'll be somebody else kind of here
00:51:13
Speaker
I feel like Gwendolyn wouldn't run up because Marius was the other elf, correct? Marius and Vip were the elves, yes. I almost called him Mario. Whoops. It's a bee! He's an Italian elf! That's the spicy meat of all of them!
00:51:34
Speaker
She runs over because they were nice to her the last time she spoke to him. And so she runs over, she goes, hello, how was your hunt? It's nice to see you. And she just shoves Adele into her pocket. Like back in her bag. Edie just, they stop talking to each other and Edie looks at you and throws her brow and she says, there's nothing we could do. It came from underground. We couldn't stop it. It had him before we could stop it.
00:52:04
Speaker
And Mariah goes, you could have stopped it. You could have. And they go back to arguing. What happened? Mariah says, Edie, Edie just kind of as you put your hand on Edie, she kind of sits down on one of the one of these benches there by the campfire there and
00:52:28
Speaker
just kind of lowers her head and Mariah says, we never found what we were out to hunt and something ambushed us from underneath the ground. And before we even knew what was happening, it had him and it dragged him down. There was nothing we could do. It was so fast. Devin will come up hearing this conversation. He says, did you get a look at whatever it was that pulled him under?
00:52:57
Speaker
It just looked like some sort of insect, but it was the size of a bear. It was bigger than a bear. It was massive. Came up out of the ground, grabbed him and dragged him off. We followed it down in its little tunnel as far as we could until it got too small for us to fit. We were afraid we wouldn't be able to get back out, so we had to retreat. Well, this was not the thing that you guys were after.
00:53:25
Speaker
No, we were just after some owlbear and it's nothing too crazy. We don't even know what this thing was. We just gave up and returned here. We don't know. We haven't even seen the chief yet. We thought maybe we could go back out to find him, but we just don't even know where to start. Hearing this, Craig's asked, did they send you after a normal owlbear? What was your task?
00:53:55
Speaker
It was something about, something about albares overpopulating and there was certain albares that don't need to be around anymore. We were supposed to go kill any albares we came across, basically bring back as many as we could. I don't know. Apparently they're overpopulating the woods here.
00:54:19
Speaker
Devin will kind of walk over to Kriegs and he says, something started telling me that maybe we were set up a little bit. Maybe we weren't meant to kind of actually succeed in what we did. I definitely think you're on to something. Edie goes, Edie goes, we have to try to go find him. We have to. We must. We've got to turn around and go back. Marius, get your things. We have to go back. We can't even see the chief until we at least know that he's, know what's become of him.
00:54:46
Speaker
I reach out and I grab Edie's arm and I'm like, you be careful finding him. This hunt doesn't feel right. Something is wrong. Mariah says, that's what I've been saying. I feel like whatever that creature was doesn't belong here. I've never seen anything like it. It's like, I don't know. It's like we were intended to be ambushed by the thing.
00:55:17
Speaker
I think you will. There's definitely something fishy going wrong. There's something strange about our hunt as well. Something makes me think that maybe it was set up to be a little bit more dangerous than we were planning on it. I think unfortunately for you guys, you ended up losing one of your mates in the process. Joxer kind of walks up and he's, it doesn't seem that
00:55:42
Speaker
They want to lose any of their ranks, so I wouldn't put it past them that they might put newbies in some more dangerous areas than they should be. Edie just kind of quietly says, well, if that creature hadn't come up from beneath us, I'm sure we would have dispatched it quickly.
00:56:07
Speaker
all we could do was scramble to try to save Vip. It was just too late. I'm not kidding, Mariahs. We have to get back into the woods, go where we found, where we lost him and see if we can track him down. Mariah says, go ahead, go ahead. If we can get rid of these antlers, I wouldn't mind potentially helping out. I don't know if the rest of the group's with me.
00:56:37
Speaker
I would be. I mean, I don't mind going and helping, but I don't have a whole lot of hope for the situation. Some knowledge is better than none, I'd imagine, for these two. Edie says, any of your help would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if we could
00:56:57
Speaker
handle it on our own. And if there are albares, we were nearly at the place where they said we would encounter this nest of albares. If they're there and this creature, I don't know that we can handle it, just the two of us. How far out is it from here? We traveled just a day into the woods, but straight in, but yes, just a day's travel. If you wouldn't mind giving us an hour to finish up here, then maybe we can go out and help you try and find your friend.
00:57:28
Speaker
It'll take us an hour to prepare ourselves to go anyway. We've got to get some of our armor fixed up. We tore it up to trying to dig down and tunnel down to find him. So Joxer is going to kind of look over at Craig's more specifically and just kind of just kind of blankly stare, waiting for an answer from him.
00:57:58
Speaker
Jockster, you know I cannot turn down helping, and there's someone definitely in need. We do need to find answers, though, behind all this. So I feel we should definitely see what this is all about. And then they have my shield. I promise you that. So Jockster is going to nod after that and kind of look at
00:58:22
Speaker
Currently, how badly are your armors set? How badly were your previous gears currently in your last battle, speaking to Marias and Edith? Edith says, well, my breastplate is almost a total loss. I'm going to have to try to find someone who can
00:58:48
Speaker
Um, so he's immediately just going to hand over 50 gold. Okay. Um, so I'll knock that off and put it in and said, uh, prepare yourself. Well, thank you. I will be back.
00:59:07
Speaker
Okay. Okay. She, she just kind of sputters, looks up at Mariahs and they, they stand up. He stands up and they both kind of start walking off in the distance towards the, the armor bearer, his, her place over there. And then, uh, yeah. So you guys heading towards the tower. Yeah. Yeah.
00:59:44
Speaker
Well how'd it do, adventuring crew? Seems our gang here's got a bone to pick with whoever's calling shots here in the Wild Hill.
00:59:54
Speaker
God, the voice was a mistake. Tune in next time to hear our heroes confront the village master and the rescue mission for VIP must begin. Be sure to follow us at the Hired Swords on Twitter as well as on Facebook. You can also catch us at thehiredswords.com.