Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 74 The Other Side
139 Plays2 years ago
With failed efforts to cross the raging river, it gave time for a familiar face to catch up with the Swords. They have given him a chance to speak.. but for how long?
Recommended
Transcript
Reflecting on Uncertainty and Destinations
00:00:08
Speaker
There are certain moments in life that let you know you're on the right path. Special instances that give you confidence in your decisions and help you sleep better at night. Times where everything just goes as it showed. Both as I tumbled on the surface of that raging river, trying to keep my shield-surfing, rope-tying, wood-walking friends in sight, I realized today's decisions. They're anything but assuring.
00:00:32
Speaker
When you travel for miles and end up no closer to a destination, you don't even really know exists. Well, let's just say sleep will be ambitious tonight. And it doesn't quite help that our assassin has come back to parlay.
00:01:11
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, now in 8K resolution.
Introduction to The Hired Swords
00:01:31
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another freaking episode of the Hired Swords. I'm Michael, and I really, really love these guys that are joining me here. Hi, Michael. Hi, Michael. Hi, Michael. Hi, Michael. Hello, guys. Gosh, I'm so happy that you're here.
00:01:51
Speaker
What'd I do? Did I mess up? You messed us up, all right. You had a plan? We had a plan. We were going to be like all together saying, hi, Michael. And then you had to say it weird, different than you normally do. You say it the exact same way every single time. And this time it came in hot. I am angry. I'm mad. I'm sorry. I'm Derek. I'm Daphne.
00:02:12
Speaker
Ash is Gwendolyn. That's me, yeah. Joxer's played by Mikey. Ayo. And Blaze and his Bugatti is right here. He's crazy. Hi, Mike. Hi. Hi. We're just a bunch of silly no-goods playing some Dungeons and Dragons and I hope... I'm just glad you're here. That's what I was gonna say. Not anything about hoping. Just glad. I'm glad you're here. And let's just do a quick recap.
Gwendolyn's Water Spell Mishap
00:02:39
Speaker
We had some blunders and mishaps through the whole last episode. It was a lot of fun, at least to play. I hope it was fun to listen to as well. But we tried to cross the river, the Black River, and some great ideas, you know, really great conversation.
00:02:56
Speaker
followed by some just doing stuff which was Gwendolyn went ahead and cast a spell on everybody to make them walk on the water which was a great idea except the fact that the water was moving extremely quickly and basically tripped them all up and sucked them down river to where they ended up coming ashore finally after a lot of effort right near the skipping stones the large columns
Carmen Stone Joins the Quest
00:03:17
Speaker
of stone sticking out of the water so they're back on the shore well as they were getting pulled away
00:03:23
Speaker
Daven saw a hooded figure running towards them out of the woods and Made him, you know question mark there But sure enough after deciding to kind of camp and hang out near the shore and reassess how to maybe cross the river They're joined by somebody
00:03:40
Speaker
A man by the name of Carmen Stone, looking very different with dark gray leather pants, black tight fitting shirt, his cloak is pulled tightly over his head, shadowing his face that is extremely scarred with a right lazy eye, unmoving, dull blue gray colored skin on the right side, and the team, the crew here not knowing necessarily how to approach him, finally Gwendolyn just walks up,
00:04:10
Speaker
puts his hand, her hand on his face and says, what happened to you? And Carmen's answer is Darnaldi. And that's where we left the last episode. So we pick up, I guess, continuing that conversation. Everyone's favorite name. Gwendolyn probably after that whole remark where he was like, it's Darnaldi. She probably just takes her hand down slowly and then just spits on the ground. Just disgust. So sassy.
00:04:40
Speaker
He just hangs his head in kind of a nod of agreement. He doesn't spit, but he hangs his head and looks back up and he says, it's a long story, but I've been following you well, tracking you. I figured if anyone would know how to find him,
00:05:06
Speaker
and either get him to stop this and points to his face, or at least make him pay for it. It would be you all. Well, you probably are attacking the correct group. I don't know how easy it was with some of the unusual paths we took, but kudos on making it here. Yes, you had, you had a head start. I, after
00:05:34
Speaker
This happened to me. I went to Laverth and found a friend who works in a temple there. He was able to slow this down, but it has not stopped. Are you, are you hearing voices?
00:05:50
Speaker
No, I don't hear voices. I just... He did something to me that parts of me started dying. It's like crawling over me and death creeping across my flesh until finally...
00:06:05
Speaker
I don't know. I panicked. I passed out. I fell asleep when I woke up. All I could think of was my friend at the temple in Lavrath. And so I made haste, went that direction. Yeah, he did the best he could, but this kind of thing doesn't happen that often, he says. And now you want our head.
00:06:28
Speaker
I just could think of no one else who would stand up to him for what he's done. You know, I thought I had gotten away with our little ruse, but in fact, he knew all along that you jockser were living. Did whenever you told him about this, he, uh, he did this or was it after? It was nearly immediately. I, I told him that I had killed you and
00:06:59
Speaker
He acted like he was pleased when he stretched out his hand to pay me.
00:07:06
Speaker
Instead, he took hold of me, would not let go, and this death creeped from him onto me. This swirling, dark death. I could do nothing to stop it. I just stood there, just being consumed. And he let go of me and told me he still had use for me, but I did not stick around. I was gone after that.
00:07:33
Speaker
I'm sorry to hear that. So, Darnaldi does magic. That's most me. I told you he was very powerful. Capable of more than we imagined. I had no idea how powerful. I had just seen him... use his magic for... tricks mostly, but this was something I've never seen. You seem to be the only one aware that Darnaldi was that powerful, or powerful at all.
00:08:03
Speaker
Well, we always know that there was more to him. We just didn't really know what. Yeah, I'm more referring to Wild Hill. The chief just taught him a rich man, a businessman of sorts. I believe Darnoldi had the chief wrapped around his finger. Any authority the chief had, I think,
00:08:27
Speaker
Darnaldi allowed him to feel he had it. I don't, I don't know a lot. I truly just was an errand boy in hindsight, but he seems to have all but given permission for the chief to be the ruler that he was.
Town's Transformation and Ominous Changes
00:08:46
Speaker
The chief is gone now, so that part doesn't matter. But Darnaldi is left unchecked, right?
00:08:52
Speaker
That is true. I can say I was surprised when I made it back to Wild Hill and I was looking for you all. Everything was so different. I was ready to dodge the chief and ready to hide from the minions that I knew served Arnoldi, but none were in sight. And I was surprised to hear of the council and what they were doing. Finally, I decided I would just track you all.
00:09:21
Speaker
The stories of Darnaldi vanishing that was a red flag for me, I felt quite concerned. You were right, Joxer, to say it was difficult to track you. I lost the trail for a while, and then when I found some random wolf tracks heading into the woods, I remembered you all summoning animals. And I hadn't seen wolves in my journeys around here too much, so I figured maybe it was you.
00:09:47
Speaker
I got lucky. I caught up with your actual tracks when I made it to the camp near the cavern.
00:09:59
Speaker
Well, I was only in town for a day, but it seemed like they were beginning to turn the place into a normal town as much as they could, trying to set up trade routes, still using hunters to protect trade routes or go into the woods. This darkness, similar to what you see over the river here, seems to be appearing in pockets.
00:10:26
Speaker
around the wilds and near town. So every now and then a hunter goes to investigate that. But most of all, it's beginning to export again, especially the farm and some of the brew they're able to make because of what they grow there at the farm. So it's interesting. It's quite different than when we all happened upon the town.
00:10:50
Speaker
Jogzer, you should be getting some dividends from that. You shared your recipe for the Dirty Brown Ale, I thought.
00:10:57
Speaker
It's true. I mean, I was more interested in the harvest that they had that seemed to have gone bad, but I'm more interested to see what comes the next season when we get back. I don't mean to be rude about this conversation, but I don't think any of that matters right now. We've got this giant smoke cloud in front of us. We've got this guy who tried to kill us, now asking for our help.
00:11:23
Speaker
We need to come up with a plan here.
Carmen's Quest for Revenge
00:11:25
Speaker
Um, um, you're, you're right. I, so I, I suppose you're in luck, uh, common when we left. We're not going to kill you. So luck, luck, fair, fair and quite well for you these days. That's lucky. Yeah. Um, when we, we can do it though. I mean, watch your back.
00:11:48
Speaker
Well, you spared me once. I wouldn't expect that mercy twice. When we left the village, they did say that Darnaldi left in this direction, so I don't think we've missed him. We have to be heading towards him. Yes, that does look ominous, though, Daven. You're correct. And he points to the cloud. Do you know anything about it? All I know is
00:12:20
Speaker
It reminds me of what we've seen in the wilds, just, it looks like there's more of it. Thicker. Stronger. Faster. Terrible. During this time, Gwendolyn's been pacing back and forth. I just, you, you knew DiGionni was bad. Why? Why? Why stop him now? Why?
00:12:48
Speaker
He takes his hood off and he points to his face and he says, bad. This is not bad. This is evil. There's a difference between bad and evil. You could call me bad sometimes, but I have never been evil. Oh, we could call you selfish. You did not care at all until it affected you directly.
00:13:13
Speaker
Exactly, I just don't I don't understand so just because you got ugly It that is evil compared to killing our friend. That croc scholar here has been able to even I believe the entire time and he's not evil
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah. It's different when he says it. I think everybody, it's perspective. Where you come from and what you believe to be good and evil is different person to person. Just because it doesn't benefit everyone doesn't mean that it's bad or good.
00:13:55
Speaker
And I'll walk over to a Carmen and put my hand on his shoulder. I yield no ill will. You did what we asked of. I'm, I'm sorry that this happened, but I still want that blade. Stellifishness runs through all of us, I guess. I do not know anyone who doesn't have an inkling of selfish
00:14:26
Speaker
reasons for the things they do, including all of you, I imagine. But Joxer, this blade is yours. If you help me killed and darn oldie with it. I'll look at the rest of the group and, uh,
00:14:44
Speaker
It, it was kind of my plan to begin with, but if you're going to offer out, I won't, I won't say no. Craig's is right. You are lucky cause your plans do align with what we're planning on doing anyway.
Questioning Motives and Goals
00:14:58
Speaker
I thought they might. Why are you doing this? Just to rid the world of an evil person or I'm sorry. I question you've questioned my motives. I figured I would question yours.
00:15:11
Speaker
Can I size him up? Cause Gwendolyn's just going to be silent probably for their own income. You want to make an insight check? I do, but I don't want to say I want to make an insight check. You can make an insight check if you're wanting to size them up.
00:15:25
Speaker
I do. I'm going to pull Dale out of my bag and see if he notices anything while I'm doing this for flavor. Well, I thought you said a four. Well, while she's doing that, I want to give a little bit of a look at that ailment that he has right now.
00:15:48
Speaker
And try to, it hasn't worked out very well, but try to do some kind of a knowledge check to decide if I have any idea about it, whether it be through monk or nonsense. You can use either religion or arcana either way.
00:16:03
Speaker
Five plus five, so 10. 10. It's hard to read half a face because his other side is completely paralyzed, doesn't move. And the side you can see just looks defeated. I mean, he kind of just looks hopeless and that's all you can really read on him right now. Nothing deeper than that. So that is a massive nine minus one.
00:16:32
Speaker
Wow. Okay. Well, it's the only thing that comes to mind when you see this is you've not really seen it before.
00:16:46
Speaker
You've seen like cursed people with their like the like the flesh looking like stone almost, you know, and you've seen that sort of it's different than that, but it's definitely like just flesh that has died and the eye his eye has died and his hair is hanging gray and and wiry right there. And I mean, it's it's pretty clear that this is a a
00:17:13
Speaker
almost like a corpse face, but you don't have any connection to anything. You know, besides that, it's just you. Um, yeah. Um, I, I'd like to try something a little bit. I, I don't, I don't think it'll help if, uh, your friends in Lavrov, um, weren't able to do anything, but I just need to rest a bit.
00:17:37
Speaker
Okay. You ask us why we're doing this? I would say just because somebody has to. I mean, I, I can't speak for the whole group here, but I can see the effects of this is on the forest and I could see the sword team expanding out, corrupting the entire world for not careful. I've got family and I've got friends, people I need to protect as well. You're right. It is sort of selfish.
00:18:00
Speaker
We were also out here because we were asked to investigate this darkness. It just kind of overlaps that this is the same direction that Darnaldi went. Carmen, you don't know me. You don't know a thing about me where I'm from, who I am, or why I'm here, what I've lived and the life I've led. People claim to be good.
00:18:30
Speaker
but do bad or evil things in the name of good. It's not too far-fetched to believe those that fought with the Chief or fought with Darnaldi and Wild Hill thought they weren't doing anything more than just making a quick, quick coin. But it quickly turned bad. It quickly turned evil in the name of good, or at least a normal life.
00:19:00
Speaker
I made an oath to myself long ago that that can't stand, at least not in my world. Sure, I don't have the audacity to think that I'm capable of changing the entire world, but those around me, my family, and I look around to everyone around me, I want to be
00:19:22
Speaker
actual impact of good in their lives, and hopefully that can trickle down somewhere beyond that. So when I'm dead and gone, the impact I've had, if there is one, is a good one. Actually good. That seems like maybe something to have a drink to. I'm gonna pull a couple of small glasses from my pouch and
00:19:52
Speaker
I'm going to pour a little bit of my water canteen, which has the water from the fountain in it. And I'm only going to pour it in one glass and offer it up to him and go to start pouring it in the other. And I'm going to have a drink with Carmen, but I'm not really intending to drink mine. I'm just going to see if him drinking that water will have any effects on him. Okay. So you,
00:20:20
Speaker
Hand it to him and he looks at it and he kind of swirl swirls it around and it's dark. It's hard to kind of see already We guys I guess have a fire going or something, but it's kind of hard to see it He just kind of shrugs like I'll drink anything right now and he just downs it And as he does he looks back he looks up at you guys and he extends his glass and he's like very bitter very bitter and
00:20:44
Speaker
Not one of Joxer's best, but it's all we have this far from the wilds. Sure, sure. And as he begins to talk, you see that side of his face begins to move as he's speaking and he's no longer, he's no longer like having to over-annunciate to speak because both sides of his mouth are working.
Healing Attempts and Magical Curiosity
00:21:05
Speaker
And you see his skin starts to freshen a little bit on his face and it's not a hundred percent.
00:21:13
Speaker
But that definitely made an impact. How much of that water do we have? What happened? What was that? I'm going to take the shield and that same inside part that's relatively shiny. I'm going to brush it off with my
00:21:34
Speaker
Forearm and just make sure it's buffed a little and I'm gonna turn turn it backwards to him and let him see What little little bit of a reflection he can and the shield and in the the campfires light He looks at his face and begins to touch it and he's just I I Don't I don't understand it. What did you give me? look all I'm gonna tell you is that there is good in this world and That's what I'm fighting for
00:22:02
Speaker
I don't, too many have died for the resource such as that. Just consider it good faith for now. I thought it was going to continue and just get worse and worse, but it seems to have reversed a little and at least stopped it for now. I don't know how to thank you. He's still just kind of touching his face, like feeling a little bit of the life that's in it.
00:22:28
Speaker
dull gray color, but, uh, and his eyes still kind of hangs lazy and loose, but he definitely has a little bit more, you know, it's, it's creeped back away from his mouth and nose a little bit towards more his cheek, towards his ear and his hair. Well, you can take us by helping us. How do we get across this river? Can, can you, can any of you fly? Well, just for, for a short time at least. I can.
00:22:57
Speaker
Do we know how far across it is? We have ideas, but I'll pull out that map and kind of gauge that area. And it's just I'm not sure we have anybody who's, you know, verified this map. Oh, is this what they call the Black River?
00:23:22
Speaker
Yes, I believe so. Yes, Darnoldi spoke of it before. He spoke of a bridge that doesn't work anymore.
00:23:33
Speaker
that really it's impossible to cross without magic. None of this. But you guys all, you know, magic. I do not. My blades kind of what I've spent my time practicing what came natural to me. But I assume if you have magic, perhaps you can make it work. You could figure this out. I assume that's what he used. I don't know details, but. Well, I mean, we could fly, but we'd have to stay low, right? We don't want to get into that cloud.
00:24:02
Speaker
I would stay as far away from that as I could. Have you tried? Have you tried to cross it in any way yet? No, no. I thought I saw you heading on to it when I was running. You were quite a ways away. I was trying to see what you were doing. You just kind of all vanished very quickly as I was approaching before. We clearly could tell we were being followed and we were on fast pursuit away, you know, clearly. Yeah, we did.
00:24:31
Speaker
I wasn't hiding anymore. I was trying to get your attention, but one of you, I felt for sure, one of you caught eyes with me as I was waving you down, but as soon as I noticed, you were gone. How did you move so quickly? Never see a wave and think to yourself, man, I bet I could ride that wave. So the trees or shields or whatever you have around, bodyboards and surfing,
00:24:59
Speaker
Dwarves love it. It's great. Like moonwalking down a water slide. It just doesn't work out. I, I'm not a hundred percent sure what you're talking about, but I get the feeling you tried to cross and it didn't go too well.
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah, okay. You caught me. There's also, I don't know if you've noticed, but it seems that occasionally on the water, just these little black tunnels would just drop down and try to suck something up and
00:25:38
Speaker
I felt like it might be aiming for one of us. I'm, I don't know. I haven't spent that much time looking yet, but I mean, I, as he turns and kind of looks out towards the river, he kind of stands and looks for a few seconds. And then finally, yeah, it's a, I see them almost like tendrils reaching down. I don't, I don't like the looks of that. I assume even flying low could still be treacherous, wouldn't it?
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I have another option that we can try.
Crossing the Treacherous River
00:26:12
Speaker
I don't know how well it would work, but I could make us a boat. A boat? A boat. Yeah, sure. Not a big boat, maybe like 10 feet. He looks around at all of you. Can we all fit in a 10 foot boat?
00:26:27
Speaker
I'm sure that... We've fit across much smaller. We could definitely make sure we could fit, but how would we move it forward and not just downstream? Well, I'm not the answer to everything, so let's figure that out. Can we make the boat float above the water? You want me to make a boat and then make it fly?
00:26:55
Speaker
No, you wanted to make a boat. I'm trying to figure out a way across the water with it. I can't make it fly easy. Can you make oars? How about we just don't? Why don't we just stay on this side of the river and not? I mean.
00:27:15
Speaker
I just, I don't know. I still think the brew hole is probably our best option for getting most of us, but we do need to fly low and fast, I guess. Yeah, but the problem with that is we have 10 minutes, right? 10 minutes and then you're kind of suffocating. We don't know how big this thing is, how long it's going to take us to get across, if something goes wrong.
00:27:41
Speaker
When like comparing the map. Yeah. Literally up a creek at that point. In 10 minutes, we could legitimately just land on some of these blocks that are noted on the map, open the brew hole and try again. I'm sorry. And she's been talking to Dale just.
00:28:09
Speaker
I've never really been on a boat before. Well, it's sort of like what we did earlier on the water, just safer, hopefully. If you can make a boat, I can get us across the water. All right. Do we have a better option? I mean, we have the haul we could choose if we need to. We can do that spell I just tried just again.
00:28:39
Speaker
We could continue to push our head against the water, yes. As much as I love surfing, I don't know that we should give that a second shot so soon.
00:28:52
Speaker
All right, and she goes back to just kind of anxiousness. She can turn into animals, but she has one fear of boats because her mom told her a terrible seasick story about how her mother almost fell overboard on a boat. She could be a shark in water, but boats are different.
00:29:10
Speaker
Um, I could, I could try to maybe, I have a thing that I can try to do to at least see about half a mile down, but I just don't think it'll be much, much more than what we can see now. Pretty sure we have it sorted. If we can just get the boat, I can get us across. All right. I guess we could use the whole as a backup in case we need to like escape the boat really fast. Maybe there's a waterfall this goes to.
00:29:42
Speaker
I'm just worried about the whole because of the fact that if we run out of time in there, we've got to exit no matter where we are. It's true, but if the boat takes us 100 miles south, we've got nothing left. Well, once we cross, we don't know where we're going anyways, right? Which way does the river run?
00:30:05
Speaker
It runs the river is running west to east. Oh, I'm sorry. West or east. I guess east. Yeah. You would end up at the northern stone mountains, even further north than you were for, uh, in your, when you went through the, the fortress, you're further north than that, but you know, the stone mountains, stone mountains stretch the length of the continent on that side, uh, of the wilds. Can you keep us parallel or are we going to go down river? No matter what?
00:30:34
Speaker
pretty sure we're going to stay parallel. Well, my own curiosity has that going now. If we're going to do this, I would like to start it tonight. I can make a bot that I think lasts probably about a day. So if I do it tonight, even in the morning, if we decide to wait, we don't have to. It's not going to cost us anything after. Devin's going to reach down and he's going to look for like just a piece of wood on the ground. Can I find a piece of wood?
00:31:02
Speaker
You have to walk around a little bit, kind of back towards the forest. But yeah, you can pretty easily walk around for 10 or 15 minutes, finally find something. Okay. So I'm going to take it, I'm going to walk kind of sort of near up to like the edge of the water.
00:31:17
Speaker
And I'm going to hold this piece of wood out. And then when I move my hand, it's going to stay floating there. I'm going to use my hands and I'm going to cast creation and I'm going to stretch my hands out. And as I do, the wood stretches out and becomes larger and slowly over the next minute, I stretch it out to kind of become a boat sheep. I'm casting at six levels so I can make it a 10 foot by 10 foot square. Okay. And then once it's float form in front of Davin over this 60 second period,
00:31:47
Speaker
That was a little bit harder than I thought it was going to be, but there it is. That's the best I can do. It should float at least. Sorry, there's not a lot of detail to it. That'd be more than enough. That's impressive. Yes. Are we going now or? Carmen says, how long you say this boat lasts? Oh, we should be able to have it for about 24 hours. Something like wood. It's, it's pretty easy to work with. Sounds good to me. I think.
00:32:17
Speaker
Personally, it'd be a little easier to navigate the waters as dark as this in the daytime. So maybe get a night's rest, even if just till morning, morning break and then leave then. And to be honest, that kind of took a little bit out of me. So if something was to come up in the middle of the night, I'm not sure how much trouble I'm going to be. I could use the rest. That's what I'm saying. I could do.
00:32:43
Speaker
I've been tracking all day, so any rest would be welcome as long as your boat's going to still be here in the morning. Unless nobody steals it. That's not too close to the water, I don't think.
Carmen's Military Past and Determination
00:32:53
Speaker
I haven't seen anyone for days. That's a good thing, I think. I suppose.
00:33:02
Speaker
And he just walks over and sits down next to the fire and just kind of rubs his face and kind of can, you could tell he's like feel, trying to feel the difference of what that drink did for his, the damage on his face. Uh, I'm going to set up my camp and pretty much just get ready for bed. Okay. How about everybody else?
00:33:28
Speaker
Gwendolyn's gonna pace her around for a little bit, but eventually settle down. She's kinda worn out from her wooter walk. Yeah, wooter walk.
00:33:39
Speaker
Kriegs is going to kind of jostle the water skin that he had that drink in and try to get a feel for how much is left in it. I realized the value of what I actually have in this water skin or at least believe I do, but I'm terrified to run out of it all or for it to lose its magic. So I'm kind of having a moment of like, I really hope that was worth it. But at the same time,
00:34:05
Speaker
I just had a big speech about doing good in the world, so I still feel like it was at least worth it for that. Sure. It's about two thirds of the way full still. Troxar, are you going to sleep tonight? I'm still not feeling very tired. I don't know. When we left that cave, I had a, I don't know, a couple of dreams or
00:34:32
Speaker
I just haven't been tired since then. I mean, I guess weary, but not sleepy. That worries me, but if you're not worried, then I guess that's all right. You can keep an eye on the boat. Yeah, I'll make sure it doesn't go anywhere. If anything, if I get tired, I'll wake someone.
00:34:58
Speaker
And I'll pull out probably two flasks and if Carmen is still or two drinks and if Carmen's still there, I'll offer one for my belt.
00:35:09
Speaker
Okay. He'll take it. And as he takes it from you, he kind of lifts it and he looks at it and smells it. It's not, it's not the same. I assume, but no, this is a, this is, this is something from, from home. So still very welcome. And he just starts to take a swig.
00:35:30
Speaker
sits sipping as he watches the fire and continues to kind of fingertip on his face and forehead, trying to feel where the, where the, the line of damage has kind of receded back a little bit on his face. Sitting around the fire, I'm going to, I'm going to look over to Davin and just kind of note, I really hope this jockser thing doesn't, you don't think it's going to be a problem. Do you? It's gotten kind of weird.
00:36:01
Speaker
Oh, I just sort of assume everything's going to be a problem. But you worry about it when you get there. Cross the Broken Bridge when you get to it. Fair enough. Or figure out how to cross it, I suppose. Carmen, looking back, I have to say, no hard feelings. Again, your ambush was actually quite impressive back in the woods outside the wilds or outside of Wild Hill. You didn't have any experience
00:36:29
Speaker
or your family, maybe, didn't have any experience in wartime, did they? A little. Not me, per se. I was in the military for a little while, but it was post-war. I was, I did train and went to a fine school. My father was, well, he was pretty high ranking and I...
00:36:51
Speaker
Did not last long in this school. I learned quite a bit, but I enjoyed the classes. It was the campus lifestyle that I really did not enjoy. It was too rigid for me. Well, my own father kicked me out of the school he ran. So I haven't been back since. I feel like in ways that we have a kindred spirit in that.
00:37:21
Speaker
Good riddance, I say. With that, I'm going to kick back and get into a sleeping position, cross my arms over my chest and put something over my face to block the light. Okay. Gwendolyn's been laying down and she was listening and she didn't want to hear him. She didn't really want to hear Common Talk because she still has that slight
00:37:45
Speaker
anger towards him and Durnaldi, but when he kind of mentioned that, her face kind of softens, but she closes her eyes to go to sleep. Well, Carmen, I'm sure it's hard to believe, but I am sorry that that did happen to you.
00:38:07
Speaker
I don't assume that we're all new family or fine friends. I believe a partnership and an arrangement is well enough. I must say this situation with Darnaldi has kind of
00:38:31
Speaker
expended my desire for adventure. And seeing the look in his eyes, whatever he cast on me crept across my body.
00:38:43
Speaker
I don't want to see that again. I want to end him and then I probably want to find a nice place to settle down somewhere and just allow you to carry the sword if that's what you desire because I believe Darnaldi is the final resting place of this sword. That's my hope anyway.
00:39:06
Speaker
If we do see him, then I'll let that be the final blade to land, or maybe stay in Darnaldi. Well, final resting place, by my hand at least. For sure. It's too good of a weapon to go unused for too long.
00:39:27
Speaker
Yes. And then I'll look down. And he kind of chuckles a little bit and looks at you like, I hope that was an okay joke to me. Awkward. Like saying a risky text. Yes, it is quite a fantastic weapon. You're correct.
00:39:48
Speaker
And then I'll pull out the rapier that I do have. And I almost feel that it's a pair. I found this one. Seem to have been left by a friend with the chief. I'm sure you never saw them, but...
00:40:05
Speaker
I don't know what he did to Edie and Mariahs, but they left talking grandeur of marriage and a new life, and I hope they got it. I just don't understand what spell came over them, but after getting rid of the chief, one of our
00:40:28
Speaker
I believe it was I believe it was Daven. He he found this weapon and I'll kind of pull it up and let that little fiery sheen come up from it. Yeah, he looks real close at it. Hmm.
00:40:45
Speaker
I don't know if I've seen it before, but I'm not surprised. The Chief had quite the fondness for magical items. He always said he despised those who used magic, but loved the items that could come out of magic.
00:41:04
Speaker
Seems he always was jealous of power. Yeah, jealous to the core for sure. Would you say it's been about an hour-ish?
00:41:18
Speaker
Uh, I mean, since he, since you guys started resting, since the, after the boat was cast, like from wind to wind.
Curse Removal Failure
00:41:25
Speaker
Uh, so, so since we started like the camp area esque and chat and before he showed up even. Yeah. Oh yeah. I think it's definitely been an hour that whole situation.
00:41:35
Speaker
OK, just at this point from an hour's rest, I'd regain my warlock spell slots. Oh, great. And so I know you're going to get him. I'm just kidding. Yeah, it's time. Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. Dang it.
00:41:52
Speaker
I didn't warlock right. Your whole body starts humming. Okay, go time. I said that I wanted to do this, and I know it's not going to help, but it's the only thing I have, and I'll put my hand on his shoulder and then cast Remove Curse at level four.
00:42:16
Speaker
Okay. You cast remove curse and it doesn't seem to have any effect. He lowers his head and he just kind of looks back up at you with one eye and he says that has a slightly different but familiar tingle. I'm sure that Lavrath would have tried this or those in there.
00:42:39
Speaker
I believe so. I believe that is what my priest friend was able to do, but it only slowed down what was happening. It seems that whatever I drank reversed the damage that grew today, but anything from before that is still here. And maybe, yeah, when, when all this is done and over, maybe, maybe we'll have a chance to
00:43:07
Speaker
to figure out more about that. I'm definitely going to ask our elven friend when I find him. If he will answer, I don't know, but I will ask. And I hope you get what you are the answer that you're looking for.
00:43:27
Speaker
I'll get something, maybe if it's just his head. And he leans back, starts to kind of settle in and shift a little bit, grabs his arm and pulls it up over his body.
00:43:42
Speaker
And it just kind of holds it. And you can see as he lifts his hand up to kind of rub his arm that you can see this gray dead skin going down his arm. And he's kind of rubbing the edges of it, trying to feel if it's changed at all. You can tell as he lays there with his eyes closed, starting to rest. Well, I'll, uh, I'll keep watch and I'll let, let anybody know if there's anything going on.
00:44:09
Speaker
He lays back and closes his eyes and you can just hear him big sigh as he begins to just lay there, still kind of stroking his arm a little bit, feeling his scarring. And Devin, are you sleeping? Yeah, I think so. Gwendolyn. Oh yeah, she's been out. Yeah. So there, everyone else is kind of sleeping, snoring. Joxer, you're just kind of sitting up, chilling, roll a D 100 for me.
00:44:37
Speaker
Oh, no. You got to throw that. All right. Is this my D10? D10. Yeah, I got it. 99. All right. That is a 79. Close enough. OK. Almost nice. Almost nice. There it is. 79. OK. Make a perception check. Ooh, ooh, ooh. I can do that.
00:45:08
Speaker
That's not bad. Where's the plus? So that will be a 15.
00:45:17
Speaker
So you're sitting and just kind of looking and it is dark and this glow of the fire is just barely enough to illuminate those laying near it, sitting around it. You look around and you see the shoreline of this crazy intense river stretching as far as you can see in either direction, the river flowing heavily and fast. You can hear this low rumble of the of the river as it flows and you can see the
00:45:48
Speaker
clouds that mist above the river as these tendril-like cyclones continue to spin and swirl, but they seem to increase in frequency and just shoot
00:46:03
Speaker
down and swirl around the river and you see water shoot up like a geyser as it seems to just suck this water up and into the mist and then the then the funnel will go away and another one drops almost immediately after that one comes down and it looks like there's some sort of like mist cyclone storm going on and as it does the the mist pulsates and every pulse it retracks a little less to where it seems to be swelling and growing like
00:46:33
Speaker
What?
00:46:35
Speaker
as it begins to grow and push over the edge of the river. And it doesn't make it to where you're camping, but you can see that it slowly begins to expand and billow out as if it's growing from the cyclones pulling in stuff. And as the cyclone pulls away, the cyclones pull away and the mist clears, you see the black smoke almost like it's transferring from in the water up into the sky and vice versa. It's just feeding itself both directions.
00:47:04
Speaker
as this thing reminds you of like some sort of creature feeding almost. I'm not saying it is, just gives you that feeling of like a creature feeding off of what's
Storm's Threat and Urgent Crossing
00:47:20
Speaker
beneath it. And it is as far as you can see from side to side along this river, this storm seems to be surging and happening all along here. And as you watch, it goes for about
00:47:32
Speaker
about 10 minutes you watch this just just continue and continue and as it swells you just start to feel that maybe I should wake everybody up something's happening and as you do it slowly just stops and it stops pulsing stops growing and that storm seems to ease up as it just billows above now covering a little more of the shoreline than it did earlier in the day
00:48:02
Speaker
Well, that is unsettling. And I'm going to grab one of the darts that I have in my bag and cast Light on it. And just like where I think that line is, where I think it has increased, I'm just going to put it there so that if it starts either takes that or goes any further, I'll alert everybody.
00:48:27
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So you said it and it's kind of under the, there's still this, that's kind of varies with the billowing of the clouds. It's between 15 and 30 feet of distance between the ground or the river and the bottom of this billowing black mist and
00:48:43
Speaker
Uh, it doesn't seem to go down towards the light at all. Like it's drawn to it in any way or anything. So yeah, it just kind of sits illuminated and glowing there with this black mist above it swirling around. Okay. I'm just kinda, you know, just passing, passing my eyes across a forest behind us and then kind of focusing on, on that light. You do notice you can't really see the boat anymore.
00:49:10
Speaker
You don't know that maybe it's not necessarily like you feel like it's not there. It's just the darkness with it being night and the mist spreading and the boat being right on shore, right next to the water. It's like that darkness has creeped across it to where it is now kind of harder to see. Your visibility has decreased. The distance you can see.
00:49:36
Speaker
Well, I, hopefully I, uh, didn't mess that up. The one job that you had in the middle of the night. Well, I hope that's still okay, but I'm not going out there without my buddies. Uh, so you continue to, to keep watch and look around and the, everyone else rests and sleeps. You hear snoring and some talking in their sleep and
00:50:03
Speaker
I need Daven, Krigs, and Gwyn to all make Charisma saving throws. Charisma is my specialty. Okay. First roll of the night, boys. I have a 27. Great. I have a 21. Great. Is it a saving throw? Yeah.
00:50:28
Speaker
Okay. Uh, 17 minus two. So 15. Okay. Oh, are we within what is it? 10 feet of creeks? Oh, I would say. Sweet. Then I'm at 29.
00:50:39
Speaker
Oh, you're at 17. Oh, nice. 15 was what you needed. So you and Mr. Carmen passed as well. So, uh, the one sleeping, you, you sleep and you sleep. Okay. But it is the most silent,
00:51:04
Speaker
dreamless empty sleep and it feels long like it's like you're sleeping and in your sleep Devin you kind of experience this a little bit maybe a little worse than this but it reminds you a little bit of that sleep where you're just in darkness and you're you're conscious that you're sleeping and you're like I should be sleeping it's nighttime why do I feel like
00:51:31
Speaker
I'm not sleeping, but I'm not dreaming. Like it's a very uncomfortable and strange place to be. It's like being at the DMV. Yeah. And it lasts this like, this like purgatory in between and it lasts, it lasts a while until finally the sun begins to come up. And Joxer, you see the first little glimpse of sunlight and it feels late to you. It feels like the sun, where have you been? It is,
00:51:59
Speaker
It's if you're looking at your watch, if you had one going at that, the sunrise was two hours ago, but no, it's on time. It's been up. It's just finally up enough to where it's penetrating through the darkness that you currently are under. And we all come to wake jeez. Dr. Dr. notices. I don't know if he wakes everybody up, but yeah, that all right. That's that's, I think that's the sun. It should be. All right, everybody.
00:52:29
Speaker
Hopefully you're well rested. I wouldn't call it well, Carmen says, but perhaps rested. I'm awake. I was asleep and now I'm awake. I can tell that for sure. Best sleep I've had in ages. I'll just go and do your calisthenics. Over in the corner, you just see Gwendolyn face down, her head in
00:52:55
Speaker
I didn't like the mud because she couldn't get any sleep. You just hear her go, huh? She raises up and she's got twigs all over her face. I didn't get any sleep. And she puts it back down into the mud or the dirt where she's at. Spell slots, go over there and make sure she's okay.
00:53:22
Speaker
as I put the hand onto the ground and just skitters across and pokes at her face. Okay. Gwen starts to get up and starts checking your bag. Dale's still in there. I'm glad you got some sleep and she just closes it. She goes, some of us just aren't morning people.
00:53:50
Speaker
She started throwing her face off, getting all the dirt and twigs out of her hair. Carmen looks up and he kind of puts himself back together a little bit and he looks up towards the river and the mist clouds above it and he says, is it just me or is that growing?
00:54:15
Speaker
I, I wasn't going to tell anybody, but it at least grew. And then I'll go over to that, that, uh, dart that I put in the ground and look up and see if it's gone further past where, where mine was. No, it's about where, uh, about where you marked it. Yeah. It's right in that area. Yeah. It originally was here, uh, at the waterline and then, and then, and then it made it here. So it's about 15, 20 feet on shore.
00:54:43
Speaker
Is the boat okay? Is the boat okay? Can I see it? Yeah, it's sitting there. Okay. You and your pauses. Well, all the more reason to get across now, I guess, and I'm going to start walking and like grab the front end of the boat and walk into the shoreline. So you're really not going to tell us what you're doing, right? We're going to just surprise. We're going in the water. Craig is going to save us.
00:55:07
Speaker
Oh, I would never. And, uh, just as I, I'm assuming everyone's ready at this point. Yeah. I'm going to grab spell slots and then look over at Carmen. Oh, this, this is mine. And then I'll like send it back to its own space. He just shivers. Yeah. Yeah. That's that seems fair.
00:55:30
Speaker
Why does the bone stick out of the back, the wrist? Why is there a bone there? It's easy to grab it with, really. Gross. You started it. That is true. Hey, you know, vivid imagination. That's why we play this game.
00:55:50
Speaker
If we're all ready, then, uh, I guess, let me introduce you to another friend of mine and I'm going to cast conjure animals and you're going to see a swirl very small, but get much, much, much, much larger in the water. Uh, as I summon a Lysiosaurus water dinosaur. Oh, what? Tell me how Craig's has seen one of these before. Yep.
00:56:19
Speaker
I mean, he saw one because during wartime, whenever they would have to move armies across long distances of water, these were once wild to portions of Glintree that we have not yet explored. So it wasn't uncommon to see these creatures actually be used similar to how cattle would be used or mules to carry large
00:56:48
Speaker
bits of equipment long distances. So these plesiosauruses used to be native to more of the southern regions of Glintree and as the campaigns moved south they had to find ways to move units and munitions across great distances across the water whenever ships and things were just not an option. Make a history check. Okay. Oh plesiosaurus go well.
00:57:19
Speaker
17 plus nothing. Yeah, that's all true. Oh my gosh. Wait, that's all we can do to create history in your world. It was either going to be true or he read it in a comic book one time. That's all I was checking there. It tracked. Well, I'm going to say that David has bionic legs and I can make up a story for that too.
00:57:42
Speaker
Yep. I could have fooled me. That's a little different than I once saw these creatures. I love it. I love it. So I'm going to summon this plesiosaurus and it's roughly in size. If I'm not mistaken, they get real big. Yeah. Let me see if we have a amount of 11 feet in length. How do you spell them? Spell it.
00:58:08
Speaker
P-L-E-S-I-O-S-A-U-R-U-S. Oh, there he is. I got a stat block for him and everything, because you're going to need it.
00:58:21
Speaker
All right. Yeah. Uh, they are large beasts. So they are, yeah, it's very strong. 18 strength can hold its breath for an hour. Looks like the average size was be up to 15 feet long and about 4.5 meters in length. So you, you can, uh, you summon this dinosaur creature and are you able, you're able to naturally like control and communicate with this thing because you summoned it. Is that part of that spell?
00:58:49
Speaker
Yeah, I can give it instructions and whatnot, but I don't know its name. Gwen, do you speak and maybe ask my friend its name? I look at this creature for the first time in awe and just, I've never seen anything like this before. And she goes to touch it. She like reaches out.
00:59:27
Speaker
Well, Edward, are you ready? And I'm going to tie a bit of rope to the front of the boat. And, uh, yeah, we're ready to get swam across.
00:59:36
Speaker
All right, so everybody loads in the boat. Yeah, we all squeeze together. You all load into the boat. Edward, the plesiosaurus aims to please. And so he is in the water and swims, begins to swim. And as he does,
00:59:53
Speaker
Carmen finally gets in the boat and then boom, the tension in your rope kind of snaps tight and it begins to pull you offshore into the water. Make a charisma saving throw for Edward, please. He's got a charisma of negative three. Fantastic. Roll high. Wait, no, no, wait. That's another creature that I was looking at. Disregard. No, please. Your source is also negative three. I'm looking at it right now, too.
01:00:23
Speaker
I rolled 18. So that would be 15. At least you rolled high. Yeah. So as it's better than last week, as it begins to swim, its body, you know, waves side to side and its tail flips and you see water splash out. And as it does this black in the water begins to surround Edward and swirl around him and he shakes his head and it begins to dissipate around it away from him.
01:00:47
Speaker
And as it does, it swirls and swirls and then starts to come back towards him again. And he begins to shake his head again. Like this mist is trying to do something to him inside this water. And that's where we're going to leave the episode. No, Edward. We might as well tie rips around ourselves again.
01:01:16
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episodic installment of The Hired Swords. If you liked our show, tell a friend about us, and if you really liked our show, do us a favor, tell the world. Leave a review. If you want to keep up with us on all the behind the scenes goofs and gaffs, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at The Hired Swords.
01:01:34
Speaker
If you want to check out our merch shop, feel free to visit the higher.store. And if you want to join our Discord, chat with the cast, you can find the link on our pinned tweet. And again, thank you for listening.