Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 101 The Serpent Garden
17 Plays17 days ago
The battle with the snakemen won, the Swords follow Gewndolyn's instincts through the fey forest. When they happen upon a serpent garden, will they find answers or just more questions?
Learn More: https://linktr.ee/thehiredswords
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 2024 and the Game
00:00:20
Speaker
You're listening to The Hired Swords, an episode recorded and released in 2024. Barely.
00:00:41
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Hired Swords. I am your Dungeon Master. My name is Michael, and with me I have Mikey. He plays Joxer. Hi, everyone. Welcome to 2024. Oh, yeah. For us, it is 2024, the first, well, the third day, our first recording of 2024. Ash is here, too. She's Gwendolyn. Howdy, howdy, howdy. And I hope you're sticking to your resolutions, even though it's like a couple days out.
00:01:10
Speaker
Maybe not when you do this. Not when they hear it, it won't be. Derek, he's Devin Meinstreiter. I mean, they'll be listening in 2024 still. I mean, there's no way that we're going to be that far behind, right? Well, there's no guarantee. but because Good luck. it Welcome to 2025, just in case. Yeah, just in case. yeah Yeah, just in case. Yeah.
Recap of the Last Session and Snake Battle
00:01:31
Speaker
And Blaze is here. He's playing software in Ivaroek, formerly known as Kriegs Golder. Hey, it's me.
00:01:39
Speaker
Yeah. whistleless And we are excited to be with you again. Uh, just playing Dungeons and Dragons. We're excited to be back together again. It's been since last year that we've been together. Yeah, that joke never gets so bad. Yeah, it's always funny. Always funny every single time. But ah we are... The last time we were together, just as as recap, it was pretty simple. We just fought some snakey boys. Fought a bunch of snakes and we... You guys showed off some new abilities, some of the stuff that you your new levels had kind of brought about. We were able to do some cool stuff and made pretty quick work
Exploring the New Plane: A Colorful Forest
00:02:14
Speaker
of the snakes. Some of you got damaged a little bit and got, you know,
00:02:17
Speaker
i kind of got your bell rung, but made pretty quick work of the snakes. As the snake, as one snake, the only survivor began to run, slither off, dab and cast a spell to speak into its mind and say, yeah, go tell your friends we're not somebody to be trifled with. And so then you are now left standing in This lush, colorful forest in this strange plane of existence that you have teleported toothed, it seems, through that mineral stone crystal wall you walked through in the cave underneath the gemstone mine in...
00:02:58
Speaker
the forest somewhere in the untouched lands. You are now in this place. You're surrounded by these trees and you're also surrounded by several dead snake men who are laying around. Interesting that they, when they were killed, they kind of kept their form as looking like people's, like snake people. They are wearing, you know,
00:03:19
Speaker
armor and they have weapons and things like that um and but there's a few that you did kill that were actual just large snake companions of theirs it seems but but yeah you're sitting there you're standing there battle just ended and you're surrounded by a few of these some of these dead bodies of these snake men I'm going to go, there was one who was like a magic magic guy, right? Yes. I remember. I'm going to go up to him and I'm going to kind of loot the body, so to speak, I guess. Just look around and see if he has anything valuable on him or anything that kind of tells us who he is or where he came from. Yeah, make a perception or investigation check, whichever you'd like. Okay. um This is going to be an investigation because that's good for me, although that's just a 10 total.
00:04:03
Speaker
OK, a 10. You just it looks like you find a couple of vials on him with green fluid inside of them, but that's it. Two vials of cream i fluid. I'd be running to to look at the others um and oddly enough, spell slots would kind of jump off my shoulder and then run over to one of them and just kind of like point at its head.
00:04:27
Speaker
a couple of times and then start jumping on it. OK. And and I'd be a little confused for the moment, um but yeah I'll investigate real quick. OK. OK, so that is a 13. OK, so you definitely find another.
00:04:43
Speaker
As you're looking through them, you see one of them, he seems to be the guy, he had the big, he had a big like scimitar sword. He looked like he was probably one of the bigger ones. And in tucked in his like a makeshift pocket rolled up in like a robe that he had from the waist down. There is
Speculations on the Snake Creatures' Territory
00:05:01
Speaker
a gemstone ah shaped in the shape of a star. And it's similar to these gemstones that you've seen that you saw in in the untouched lands, the kind of softer gemstones that you had found, but they but this one is carved into a star shape. And ah it's a little it's kind of warm to the touch when you hold it. Interesting. um I'm also going to take a little like a little bit of blood off of one of these guys and put it in a little container. Okay.
00:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, the the blood is a deep dark green color, kind of like a like, almost like a purple green mix. It's this weird color. And oh, you you nasty. Yeah. And you fill the vial with it. Anybody else want to look at any of these guys or everybody good? Did Did you say, well I guess the tree that we passed that had the shield in it, did it have bones near near it, or was there no bones by that shield? There were no bones. oh It didn't look like there was any corpse of any kind around there, it was just the weapons. and they They were not anything like the weapons you see these creatures using either. like there you' see this There's no shields in these.
00:06:12
Speaker
ah snake guys first of all second of all they all use and they're all using like scimitar looking swords not the straight kind of like short sword like you had ah kind of tucked down in the actually I don't think it was swords I think it was a bow and arrow that was in the kind of buried on the roots Gwendolyn goes towards one of the corpses and kind of like wipes off the dirt and mud that she's got on herself and kind of bends down. And she hesitates to touch this creature because she wants to break into life with reincarnate, but obviously can't. But in RP world, she goes and she kind of just feels the skin. Because I don't think she's seen a creature like this before. She's seen a lot of different monstrosities. but
00:06:58
Speaker
like inner time and being with the hired swords, but nothing like this. Yeah, you can make ah an investigation check on it if you're looking at it more closely. Yes, I'm going to pet the dead body. For sure, for sure, for sure. Very Gwendolyn. Yes. For sure, for sure, for sure. Yeah. Oh, I rolled a one. So that's not going to be good. Yeah, it makes it three. So she's just petting a dead body. Yeah, you're just kind of looking at it like, you know,
00:07:27
Speaker
Poor little snakey boy. Poor dead snakey guy. Yeah. Um, I just and never seen something like like this. Why attack us? Why here? Well, my best guess is we kind of moved into their land. Probably, maybe.
00:07:45
Speaker
I heard you, or at least saw you, I believe, sending some message, Davin. What? Oh, that was nothing, really. It was just a simple message I could just send. We've done it before. I'm just trying to intimidate them, making sure that they know we're dangerous. Did they respond? Oh, no. I didn't hear any sort of response. I mean, this, I don't know if it was necessarily an ambush as much as it could have been just territorial protection.
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's sort of my first instinct all day that don't seem like they're, I mean, do they seem like they're like any sort of a major civilized kind of group of people or they seem kind of very barbaric? Um, make a history check. You did call him monstrosities. Correct. That is very. A monstrosity would be. He did speak to someone or attempt to take control of when. Yes. You heard language in your mind or actually it was Ash that heard that.
00:08:41
Speaker
I would say that they're like a community. I don't imagine them having like some big city or anything. I wouldn't i wouldn't doubt it in a place like this. I would probably guarantee there's some kind of group at minimum, but I would imagine there's many, many more behind those few. Well, sure, but that's probably some sort of a village hidden in the trees. I mean, Griggs and I went up pretty high and we didn't see any sort of buildings or anything around.
00:09:09
Speaker
Not that weren't at least very heavily obscured. Yeah. Didn't you say there was something weird about, I call it a wall. Essentially it kind of feels like we're in a bubble right now. Well, uh, Marlow said something about a wall that direction, but the way we're heading right now, uh, it was like there's trees, but it was clearly an illusion. Like I could tell that they weren't real. It was probably hiding something. Yeah. So, so there might be, we might be kind of.
00:09:38
Speaker
in a bit of a container, and everything we see here is compartmentalized. Once we exceed that area, it could look like wasteland. Did you even think about that? It's almost as if we're in a globe.
The Illusion of the Enclosed Forest
00:09:53
Speaker
Can you imagine if it was snowing right now? A globe of snow? We definitely have to have an earthquake first, right?
00:10:00
Speaker
Ah, yes. Well, I saw these vials that were on the ah the one who was casting the magic, but beyond that, it didn't seem like they had anything of significance. Yeah, now I found um this soft gemstone. It has a shape unlike the rest of them. I wonder if this shape means something to them. um It seems a little warm, so maybe they're able to use it for something. So I'll keep it with us.
00:10:27
Speaker
Um, while they're conversing, you just see Gwendolyn just smell this creature, a big, big, like, of my touched him milk so let me smell. When you smell the creature, uh, you get this sense of like the smell. It's kind of like a sweet smell, like a, like flat, like a tea, almost like a hibiscus kind of like floral tea smell. And, uh, make a history check.
00:10:56
Speaker
Let's find out what you remember. What you remember? Well, I remember. Who knows? Who knows what I remember? 11 plus two, 13. Yeah. ah Yeah. I mean, it it smells like something someone would use to craft like potions or antidotes or poisons or that sort of stuff, like the kinds of herbal or tea-like plants. It seems like this particular one maybe used those at some point. Oh, like he used them, not he was like in a lab somewhere. No, it it feels it smells like the wrong ingredients. Like this guy maybe used to like create that stuff. He was a tea connoisseur. We just killed a tea connoisseur. Yeah, he's a tea sommelier.
00:11:45
Speaker
And his name was David. And Sunday he was saving up to have a tea shop. And I just murdered that man because he got enlisted in the army. I'm making a whole story for this guy, I'm sorry. And his name was Charlize. Welcome to the hired sword season one of our new campaign where Ash is the DM. She's gonna make everyone feel guilty for everything.
00:12:11
Speaker
No, but I, I, I sell them because I want to know if we had, I want to sense it. I'm rambling. I basically want to be able to sense it again. If we are walking about to try to be ahead of the game, but I also was wondering if it was a sense that we had when we were with Marlow. Use your, use your dog nose. My puppy nose. Was that Craig's or Blaze? Cause I was responding to Blaze.
00:12:36
Speaker
I mean, it can be both. I'm one and the same, right? I'm out of it tonight, I apologize to the listeners. ah We were heading toward the illusion trees, right? That's, I believe that's where we were heading. I think you had decided instead to head towards the clearing. Okay. Yeah. I wasn't, it's been a little while. Been a while. That's okay. Been a while. Yeah, you guys, if I remember correctly,
00:12:59
Speaker
And if I don't, forgive me, it's been a while. But um ah I'm pretty confident you guys had decided that you wanted to see what the clearing was because you figured that might be where some sort of villager in Kamen or something might be.
00:13:11
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds right. And then we were going to head to the the wall. We got distracted because there was a path, basic basically. Got distracted because they tried to take off throats. Yeah, you guys found the creek, the river, whatever, little little creek, and then some sort of like weapons kind of shield stuff laying around near the creek and followed the creek a little more until these guys kind of came out of the trees at you.
00:13:38
Speaker
gotcha Yes, we are heading Northwest. there's no and makes it up again yeah If there's no point in us trailing them, or honestly, if we believe they're no longer a threat, should we continue onwards? No, I mean, ah standing here is probably a bad idea because even if they did come through, they're going to see us around dead bodies and that's not going to be any good. he he He liked tea. What kind?
00:14:03
Speaker
How would you know something like that? I don't know. He liked tea. And then Gwen just kind of turns around and just kind of goes the way that we were going. Uh, I pull out my, my notebook, my fancy nature book that I found literally, I don't know, 60 episodes ago. And, uh, I write down that this interesting creature likes tea for some potential future knowledge that I'm going to remember in
Discovery of a Man-made Path
00:14:30
Speaker
60 episodes. Nice. She kind of stops in her path and she turns around and she's like,
00:14:36
Speaker
It's just a shame that like, I just, why fight us? I just don't get it. But we may never know. She pulls out Dale and kind of holds him and kind of carries on. I'm going to follow her. Yeah. Let's, let's keep moving.
00:14:54
Speaker
All right, so you continue in the direction you had been heading? Yeah. that No, we go the absolute opposite direction. What do you think of mine? We split in four different directions. Have you played this game with you guys before? Oh, yeah, you get a point. The real question is, where is Gwen going? were yeah We are going to keep track.
00:15:18
Speaker
We'll just slightly guide her, you know, like a, yeah. So you guys continue heading North direction that we were going. It was Northeast, right? She looked at me, look at my notes. Yeah. but Pretty sure you said it was Northeast. So you guys to continue heading that direction. The Northeast is where the, uh, the, uh, one hill much larger than the rest, uh, with the illusion of trees. So the Northwest is where we want to go. coco Cool, cool, cool. I had it backwards in my brain. I thought I was like, is this a joke?
00:15:46
Speaker
So you're going to go to Northwest. I had it backwards in my brain. My east never eats hockey balls. Oh, right. Okay. Uh, so, ah so as you go, you continue through the woods, uh, the environment of the woods stays very much the same. You're continuing to follow this Creek as it is flowing in that direction until, uh, suddenly the Creek kind of kind of stops and.
00:16:07
Speaker
With a nature check, everyone, whoever would like to nature check for me. I don't mind if I do. I'll roll that pass plus oh go i'm also plus zero. Sorry, it's a nat one minus one. So joxer is on his phone. Nineteen. Nineteen for Ash. What'd you get?
00:16:32
Speaker
ah 18. Great. Just slightly. ah i done I got 13. I'm reading. Ash and Devin. Palm. Not Ash. Gwendolyn and Devin, you two youtube just notice it that the water seems to have begin to flow like underground. like as the As you're kind of going up in elevation a little bit, the water doesn't climb. It's going underground a little bit. It doesn't look like there's any kind of like obvious place that it started doing that other than um you know it's
00:17:03
Speaker
the the The water has kind of gone away but you're you're like oh it's it's flowing down underground so there's probably water a cave caves or a cave somewhere underneath under us with water in it and so you continue walking through the forest.
00:17:16
Speaker
you're seeing ah The colorful trees, it's still very bright and colorful. The sky, it's almost like the northern lights, except instead of ah instead of on a dark blue, black night sky, it's the the lights are kind of flickering above you in this this bright kind of orange, purple, pink, like ah hues of color in the sky. And you could tell those those the those lights, those kind of, what was it called? The aurora borealis, is that what it is?
00:17:46
Speaker
yeah that sort of thing. yeah yeah ah You know that thing, you know ah Marlow had told you that that comes at technically nighttime there, what he would consider nighttime. So you've been traveling a while until you notice the grass start to kind of open up to a stone pathway.
00:18:06
Speaker
that kind of begins to advance and kind of wind a little bit, very narrow stone pathway that winds through the forest ahead of you. It's not directly to the northwest, to the direction you were heading. It seems to be kind of heading a little more north, but it's that direction. It's close to the northwest. Does it look man-made or is it natural? It definitely doesn't look natural.
00:18:32
Speaker
It's, it's craftily hewn by a craft's being of some sort or crafts person of some sort. ah Um, I do. That seems like a road of some sort, guys. I don't know if you want to try and take it or not, but it's definitely not. I mean, it looks like it was made by some, someone and for better or worse in a place like this. That could mean just about anything. I mean, can, can we tell if there's like slithering marks or if it seems like steps have been taken. make ah Make a survival check. Make a slither roll. All right. It's better. 15. Yeah. um You do see that there are footsteps here and there, as well as what does look like
00:19:20
Speaker
just the like lines of the kind of weaving
Deciding to Avoid the Path and Trusting Instinct
00:19:24
Speaker
lines through the brush that next to that stone road that seems to could have very easily been carved out by ah slithering snakes back and forth sort of thing. Big ones. Big snakes. Big ones. Big ones. Um, it kind of looks like we're heading to more of those things. Well, that doesn't sound like where we want to go.
00:19:48
Speaker
I don't know where we want to go. I mean, we don't want to fight more of those, but we're kind of aimless here. Well, I mean, we're heading northwest because that was the direction of the the wall that he had told us about, right? Right. But well, no, the wall was in the opposite direction. The saying the fuzzy wall that y'all saw was north The illusion was to the northeast. I think the what he what they considered was an illusion was in the northeast. You guys were thinking you were heading towards this clearing where you thought maybe the wall would be, which is the northwest. Oh, gosh. Okay. Now I'm i'm back up to speed. You guys thought clearing them. You guys were thinking clearing possibly means wall. I feel as if cartography school was not in our past.
00:20:39
Speaker
So I'm holding, I'm holding spell slots at my hand and reading his palm. Could he be my bomb pilot? Yeah, for sure. My hurts all of a sudden. Could he be my palm pilot? That's good. Uh, yeah, sorry. Go ahead. So the clearing, I guess we could stay away from the road and just keep going more to west. Right. And kind of go around a little bit. This is, looks like it's going a little bit off our main path.
00:21:08
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah, I don't remember snake people being mentioned um as, ah ah you know, near the wall. Well, did we know anythingch anything about the wall? Really? Well, he said he went to it. He just and tried to touch it. I imagine he would have been attacked, too, if ah if it was near this city. I don't know if you ever made it this far.
00:21:31
Speaker
Is my memory wrong? I felt like he said he made it to it and it was too strong. Yeah. Yeah. He said he made it to it, but he couldn't figure out any way to get over it or around it or through it or anything. It was just this wall of what looked like tree material had just all grown together but to keep anything out. Branches and vines and roots and stuff. Devin, what say you?
00:21:55
Speaker
I find you to be one of my more wiser confidants, as well as these other two silly ones.
The Perilous Garden and Its Traps
00:22:03
Speaker
well I don't consider myself a very wise person. um And I am definitely not good with directions, so I shouldn't be the one really leading us in any sort of way. I feel like Gwen has always been the best at that. She kind of leads with her heart. What say your heart, Gwen? my How about Dale? What does Dale say?
00:22:25
Speaker
Cause Gwen's a little speechless, and so she looks into Dale. Does she hear Dale at this time and point? Cause I know more, it's now more feeling than anything. Or even it kind of got off. Okay. Yeah, you kind of get a hint from Dale. the The hint from Dale is that, actually do me a favor and make a history check first. Okay. Doesn't have to be amazing, but it can be terrible.
00:22:53
Speaker
Oh, we'll see about that. You said history. Yeah. Has an eight. Okay. I mean, it's not quite terrible, but it's pretty bad. So you are, what does Gwendolyn think you guys are headed towards? Or does she have any clue? I think in her heart, I think deep down, she would like to think that Sal Minora, but it's kind of, she's kind of come to terms with it being Albinora being a place where it's just an afterlife. It's not real anymore. The place they're going to might be their salvation out of this place. yeah Finding another colony that they haven't like known about. Meeting gods. she does Her mind's everywhere.
00:23:45
Speaker
Gotcha, okay. Because i I would say that all that kind of comes to mind when you look at Dale and you think about Dale is the voice, the echoes of the voice of Dale you heard in your dreams telling you,
00:23:56
Speaker
come with me, follow me this way." And walking you through a city that you assumed, or Gwen assumed, was Ama Nora. So, but walking you through the city, up the steps towards a statue of an elf standing tall, holding a big globe in its hand, and just all these things that your dream kind of comes back to mind.
00:24:20
Speaker
maybe it's just your memories maybe it's whatever this thing this connection you have with Dale in this place is bringing this back up to you or he's communicating with you some way but that's kind of that's kind of what Asking Dale or or thinking through this with Dale brings for you is those memories my own dad boy, that's deep dog is this a benramin butler type situation or something But I'm like a worm and I I won't get into this I keep waiting did I keep deep diving. I'm sorry It's okay. Um, I
00:25:02
Speaker
I don't know, Krigs. Going this way feels right, but I'm afraid we're just going to find ah another, like, ghost town. Well, maybe there's answers in the history of a ghost town. At least maybe you can find the right questions to be asking. If this feels like the right way, I trust you in that. She looks at Dale. I trust Dale. And so this is right. This is the way.
00:25:31
Speaker
well Well, I can guarantee it's not going to be a ghost town. So I'm in. All right. We keep on going. So the path or we stay off the path. Why not? Let's make this interesting and stay on the path. Follow me. And I just start walking. All right. All right. So you guys begin walking down the path, the stone path.
00:26:00
Speaker
Uh, it, it, the, the fight the, the, the path kind of battles. It's like ah almost like it's battling against the grass for space as the path kind of comes and goes from long stretches for, you know, 20, 30 feet of walking on this, this stone to suddenly 10 feet where the grass has overgrown it or pushed it aside. And suddenly you find yourself actually heading, uh, basically pretty much.
00:26:29
Speaker
directly Northeast as you follow this path. and suddenly the the trees become thinner slightly until you finally um step through a few rows of trees and you see a fence and a gate, a small stone fence, almost like ah like a like you would see around a um
00:27:01
Speaker
like you would see around a We're just back at Marlow's. Yeah. Almost like a fence. Almost like a fence you would see around a ah somebody's yard backyard or front yard. But the gate there's a gate that's standing wide open. And the stone ah the stone ground walks. You can step directly in through the gate. And inside there, you can see over the gate and kind of through it. You can see that there are several very large colorful trees, red, purples, some blue trees.
00:27:33
Speaker
here and there, and bright green grass grows there, kind of overgrown. This looks like a garden with a big rectangle, big rectangle ah walk path all the way around the edges of it that kind of go up some steps as you go to the right and left and straight ahead. You can see straight ahead the pathway leads to a center kind of courtyard or eight or area where there are almost like rose bushes and but in front of the rose bushes are two very large snake statues, serpent statues. There's a green glow from the center of this area and there are what looks to be torches or like not even torches like braziers in the corners of this very large garden area
00:28:23
Speaker
that are glowing with a magical green flame, and this place is glowing green. um And again, you can you can see just directly inside this this very easily ah to to see this garden with what looks to be these serpent statues, right in the... Kind of as like a like ah bordering the entrance to the very center area, what it looks to be like, and you can hear actually a bubbling fountain in the center of this big rectangular ah garden. So you guys just walking right in? ah No, I'm not walking right in. I don't believe I ever did in the last fight, so I'm gonna cast Mage Armor on myself now. Okay.
00:29:06
Speaker
I want to be, and then I'm also going to cast um just Mage Hand, just to have an invisible hand with me in case I need it for some reason. Okay. Mage Armor, Mage Hand are cast. And yeah, you've got this garden now that you are yeah able to do as much exploring as you'd like or not like.
00:29:27
Speaker
I suppose i'm and I'm going to go ahead and enter in, not casually, kind of maybe announce myself. Like, I'll knock on the the gate. Hello? Just to the gate. Traveler here.
00:29:42
Speaker
The gate creaks open just a little more as you knock. And it's it's kind of sagging on its hinges a little bit. So it kind of creaks back to where it had started, where that seems to be there's the ah place where it rests when it's open.
00:29:58
Speaker
Any notable rustling or awareness once I've like kind of made myself known? No, currently you look out and you you can see the the length of this garden from you towards the back is the long length of the rectangle. the the shorter length is to your right and left with the steps going up and down. You can see the trees border this almost ah right up to the fence that you guys walked
Communication with the Guarding Plants
00:30:22
Speaker
through. And then on the very, the very far edges, it's almost like cliffside as the the trees kind of climb up these like mountains or hills to the right and left of you. ah And yeah, so but you don't see any movement or any anything like that. If you want to make a perception check, you can see what else you might see. And I'll open
00:30:44
Speaker
I'll open the gate so at least it's open so we can walk through and just hold it open like a true gentleman. Sure, sure. Uh, Gwendolyn's probably going to walk past with Dale out and she's probably going to look around as she walks up the path. And so probably do proceed. Okay. All right. single sp those guys So snakes, just, just, you go see that, right? 14. Yes. That's, um, I do see it, but maybe they're a little more, well, I hate to use this word, but civilized than what we experienced.
00:31:21
Speaker
I imagine anything that can build something this beautiful, it can't be that evil, right? Hopefully it's just a misunderstanding. We've seen some pretty brutal things from all humanoids we've met. so Look, I know I'm pretty hot, but I can swing a hammer real well too.
00:31:38
Speaker
I'll walk in to just to stay in the other group. Okay. And what was your perception? What were the perception checks? 14. Okay, I'm just I'm going to roll on two for the sake of perception is 18. Rolling is a good time. Wapping three. All right, jocks are ah you can see that there are vines and roots kind of growing.
00:32:08
Speaker
throughout the the grass area that's not that's not on the actual stone walkways. The the grass and roots on the um the grass areas under the trees, there's a little bit of a squirm to them. um Just every now and then you see like a subtle little twitch or squirm. or people Be careful, Gwen. Either there are more snakes or these trees might be alive.
00:32:38
Speaker
um She takes the opportunity to walk into the grass as soon as she says that. Hunt all trees alive! I was trying to remember why I used snake statues with goofy tongues and eyes on this map. she I'm like, I don't remember that. Oh, my gosh, that's funny. I was kind of dying because you were giving me that description and you were seeing these red and I'm like, oh, wait, what? Oh, that's not. Oh, that's not part of that. That's not. That's not. You give Gwen a pin yeah and pen. Gwen a pen and a masterpiece.
00:33:14
Speaker
It was a masterpiece. It is a masterpiece. ah All right, sorry. So what were you doing next? Sorry. I was going to walk where the trees were. Oh. said no he's so You are?
00:33:30
Speaker
I feel like is that the gist of the campaign is Jonksu's disappointment. Yeah, as you step into the grass, I'd like you to make a dexterity saving throw. Oh, my goggles. Can I do something after?
00:33:43
Speaker
You could do something before, like as you're stepping in, whatever. Um, I want to do my talk to plants. Okay. If I have it. Sounds like they're about to talk to you. As I walk in, I start casting it. Okay. Um, dexterity save is 16. You said that the, your deck save is a 16. Yeah.
00:34:07
Speaker
Okay. So as you step in and you cast, talk to plants, the short enough of vine wraps around your leg. And as it wraps around, you shake it off. And what do you say to the plants? I say, hello. And I reach down and I start petting it. All right. And you immediate hear jocks are, Hey, no.
00:34:29
Speaker
And that's, uh, okay. It begins to wrap around your knuckles and your hands and like to go around your wrist and start to climb up your arm. Like it's going to try to wrap you up and you get this. It starts creaking and the tree, it's like a wind that comes out of nowhere. Um, going that only you hear and see Daven and jocks are encouraged. You don't feel this wind or see it, but it's like the wind blows through and there's like a whisper in your ear as it blows through. And it says.
00:34:59
Speaker
The whisper is, Leave, they're gone. Is that aside one more time to make? Make sure I heard that right, even though I didn't hear that. Leave, they're gone. Oh, there's a comma there. Okay. My leaves, they're gone. Almost felt like it felt like I heard Shao Kahn. Leave, Shao Kahn. I thought he said leaf. Like a pun. Leaf on the pond. a Leaf. po Leaf now.
00:35:29
Speaker
Live laugh make like a tree. and It is not fine that you are here. live so wow Get your grass out of my garden. oh nice This is going to dirt.
00:35:42
Speaker
ah oh Don't be hysterical.
00:35:52
Speaker
That was funny. Seeing the vine start to wrap around her and everything, I'm going to send my mage hand up there to kind of grab and see if I can pull her back off the grass. Make a strength it's a strength save with your deck's hand. A strength check. While he's doing this. I actually have, because I have the upgraded one, I have the shove action, so can I can just pretend like it's a shove? Yeah, yeah. You just shove the vine down off and it unwraps and coils up a little bit and then another one comes up from behind and starts to try to wrap around your ankle.
00:36:20
Speaker
ah Gwen. Ah, man. I see that. Or I try to. Okay. What's, what danger is here? What, what could it be? Because she's starting to speak to an Elvish to it. They are gone. And in Elvish, I just keep going. Are you okay? ah Davin's going to run up behind her and see if he can grab and pull her back. Okay. How long does this spell last?
00:36:46
Speaker
uh i want to say it's a long time isn't it 10 minutes yeah 10 minutes 10 minutes okay so you say what do you say the last thing you said was uh are you okay is that what you said yeah we are strong and then the wind blows through again and rustles your hair this time davin you're close enough to gwen you could kind of see Her hair kind of blow back a little bit, but you don't feel anything. and And that second blow says, we stand, we are strong. And she just kind of looks back at Daven. And we should hurry through this in Elvish. We should probably stay away from the things that like to grab us. Do you understand Elvish? No, I have no idea what she said.
00:37:25
Speaker
Stop speaking gibberish. Stop speaking gobbledygook. but Davin, just, just, yes, she agrees. She wants to move through here. I pull her back to the path. Do they let go of her? Will they let me? Uh, yes. As you pull her back, they don't get a good hold on her and they let go. All right. Are we, if we're passing through, let's just go. Um, part of me feels like if that was dangerous, maybe we shouldn't go down the center of the path.
00:37:55
Speaker
It seems seems like the path on the stone is is' fine. Just to stay away from the roots. I didn't need to talk gibberish to a tree in order to know that. All right. One last time in Elvish, she looks at the tree and goes, what's your name? No name. Well, do you want one? Russell. Oh, cause trees rustle. I get it. I get it.
00:38:24
Speaker
I don't know if that was on purpose, but it was too smart. Yeah, it was. He's going to take credit no matter what. All right, Elvis. No, it was. I actually regretted saying no name and thought I should have said Russell. My name is Russell Branch.
00:38:41
Speaker
In Elvish, Gwendolyn just goes, goodbye, no name, Russell. and She just thinks him. One of the vines comes up out of the grass and waves.
Magical Suppression and New Mysteries
00:38:51
Speaker
by naous This is not supposed to be silly. i'm I'm going to take the right path because I'm right-handed. Well, when you're right, you're right, and you, you're always right, I follow along. Gwendolyn looks at Droxer and speaks in Elvish. The trees trees aren't the trouble, it's apparently the snakes? That's all I can assume. Droxer gives back a solid Doi.
00:39:21
Speaker
Um, I still wouldn't trust the trees that much. I'm not saying anything against them, but they seem to have just a general vibe. Well, yeah, that's I'm, I just wouldn't have a picnic with them or, you know, just in general, I wouldn't personally expect. I mean, I imagine they'd have a pretty good hug until she's going to walk back into the trees.
00:39:50
Speaker
No, no, let's talk to her. Were you responding to her in Elvish? Yeah, yeah. Drugs are. I didn't know you spoke tree also. How'd you learn to speak to the plants? I probably respond in in Elvish as to you for a second. I'm like, no, not tree. and No, I'm sorry.
00:40:11
Speaker
um This is Elvish, not not tree. What? Oh, all right. Well, they sound remarkably similar. that Yeah, i'm I'm guessing the Sylvan tongue in general works fairly well with um wildlife, especially in this area. ah In Elvish, Gwendolyn goes, it does. Probably sounds like Shaboo.
00:40:42
Speaker
I'm going to continue on my path to the right, going up the stairs. You're going up the stairs, there go up some stairs, stone stairs. And as you look ah in the distance, you can kind of see now as you've gone upstairs that the the garden ends on the other side of those stairs, the grass kind of stops at this kind of rock wall rock wall that starts to go, not rock wall, but just like a rock cliffside that goes up to like a plateau above it and only about eight or so feet up. And yeah. And then,
00:41:12
Speaker
There's a long, um you know, very long, what is it like? Golly, it's probably 100 feet, maybe more walkway from where you're standing on the top of these steps all the way to the backside um of the garden and to the right about halfway, a little further than halfway, there's a little indention, a little alcove kind of where there are two ah concrete Uh, they're like the size of a bench, but they don't stand like a bench. They've got like almost like a small, too small to be a sarcophagus, but almost like built like that. But they're definitely too small to be that. Hmm. Concrete boxes that are carved to look like benches. Okay. Well, first thing I'd like to do is take a look at the the magical light that's right here, right next to me. Okay. Uh, and I just want to see if I can figure out what kind of magic it is or how it's working.
00:42:07
Speaker
Great, make an arcana check. It sets off an alarm. Probably. Since while while he's doing that, I am eyeing Gwen. And if she gets in front of those steak snakes, I am holding an action to try to like run and tackle her if something weird happens. I am going towards those statues. Of course you are. okay i roll You I a 13 to my arcana. You rolled a 15? Like out of out of the way if if I notice anything goofy from those statues. OK.
00:42:37
Speaker
ah So you roll a 13 the this seems it it behaves exactly like any flame that you would have seen Except there is a no fuel source in this brazier. It is it is just like the flames are just magically hovering even though there's nothing to burn there, you know. um But you've seen magical flame produce flame, that sort of stuff before. And this is just whatever, whatever is here is causing these magic, ah these these things to to continue to burn with this flame somehow. Hmm. I'll look back assuming everyone's behind me. Well, this is actually a pretty nice magical. ah What the hell kick is going on now?
00:43:23
Speaker
Um, I'm walking towards East. No one's here in my mind. So I'm like, it's fine. did Didn't you ever see the, the never ending story? You don't walk between statues. Wendell has seen never ending story. All right. Are you going to try to walk through them? Actually, she was not going to walk through them. She's going to probably walk up to the one on the left. and Okay. And just kind of just look at him. Make an investigation check. Okay.
00:43:51
Speaker
Here to to die, not to play. yeah ah 13. All right. ah You definitely see as you're looking through, you definitely see that their mouths are open. ah You see the fake fangs, like the the stone fangs in their mouths. And then it looks like in the center of their mouth, it looks like either the concrete has been carved out or somebody has entered a tube of some kind. It's like a cylindrical opening in the center of the mouth of this snake. I want to touch it.
00:44:27
Speaker
Gwen has a death wish, man. What do you what do you see over there, Gwen? you There's like a tube. Normally that means it's going to spit out at you. So you should probably avoid those statues. That's why I was saying to go on the outside of the pathway, step in front of it, but she kind of steps to the side of it and just kind of waves her hand real fast to see if it's motion detected.
00:44:55
Speaker
Uh, as you step to the side before, am I running? Yes. Yeah. Before you wave your charges or who before you wave your hand,
00:45:07
Speaker
uh, jocks or make a dexterity saving throw. Okay. Okay. I will use a luck dike. That was only a four. And that one, Hey, it's a nat 20. I'll take that one.
00:45:21
Speaker
Nice. 20 plus, what's Dex? Dex, Dex, Dex, 30. Plus nine, or no, 10. So that's a 30 if it's a Dex 30 saving throw. All right, so you get to her just in time to knock her down and push her five feet back. And as you do that, um this thing ah just...
00:45:45
Speaker
just sprays out this ah gas, this poisonous gas comes from thats the mouth of this snake and the other snake fires it off too and it continues to just um and begin to just move out from where it started. It it kind of hovers at ah like waist to height level, this gas does, and starts to spread out across this garden and um and let me show you. Yeah, so right now you've got this garden kind of just, or not garden, this, sorry, the fricking settings here on roll 20 are different. Ah, here we go. They change things. Yeah. All right. So as you, it starts to engulf this area and in a, in the matter of,
00:46:39
Speaker
in a matter of probably 10 seconds, it's gonna be in a good ah twenty about 30 foot circle ah that this gas has kind of filled the area here. um good Could I have a like rolled with her forward? Yes. Potentially to keep moving? Yes. So ah you guys continue to roll out and as you roll out, I need ah you guys to make, both of you to make dexterity saving throws. As this this gas is just still pouring from these things, it's starting to spread even as it's pouring out of these statues. 13. That'll be a 16. 16 and a what? 13. All right, ah Gwendolyn, you ah suddenly get,
00:47:35
Speaker
You're just barely, you're not quite able to get yourself rolled out of this circle in time as jocks or rolls past you, rolls over the top of you and you're still laying there and you just breathe in a big gasp of this poison and you are poisoned currently and you take 3d4 poison damage. Oh, I see a one. For a total of seven poison damage. What'd you say?
00:48:02
Speaker
but it was all the one your role yeah Oh, so you have seven, you got, you take seven poison damage and you are poisoned. So you have the poisoned effect on you, which means, oops, that's the wrong thing. I'm looking at apologies. Breathing into my microphone. Oh, I was just making pop noises.
00:48:27
Speaker
Dang, sorry, I don't have this the effects of this pulled up, I apologize. What a loser. I believe poison, what ah that's disadvantage on attack and ah there enough all checks. Poison creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
00:48:44
Speaker
So you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks for the foreseeable future. um Davin, what are you doing now? As you see you see this start, we're kind of in a turn order of sorts now with Krigs, you being next after Davin. I roll my eyes and I casually start walking down back down the stairs, i'll walk my 30 feet and kind of have my hands on my hips being like, Krigs, and that's it. Okay, Krigs, what are you doing?
00:49:13
Speaker
i really wasn't paying attention to what was happening. So with his saying Krigs, I look back and my expression goes slow motion, mission impossible style. There's a bird flying behind me. I'm just like, and then got it that's that's everything I do in that moment. All right. Well, the circumference of the poison continues to grow and I'm going to need Gwendolyn and Joxer. If you're still trying to get out of it, I'm going to need you to make another dexterity saving throw to try to get out of there as it's expanding even further, ah whatever direction you want to go. You're currently, you're kind of barely still in between the two statues. ah Gwendolyn is for sure. Joxer, you are yeah just right next to a set of those rose bushes into the central area of this garden with the fountain and everything behind you. The fountain and a couple trees and little planters nearby.
00:50:10
Speaker
Yep, so that'll be a 23 for me. Definitely succeed and go whatever direction you're wanting to go. um Do I notice a lot of things that I don't want to see?
00:50:25
Speaker
That's a that's not a real question, but I'd like to be more try to think funny. You know, that's all. He's like, I mean, the the map has a little tiny things everywhere. And a couple of. Do I see a lot of secret traps? Yeah. So I probably. As you go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, I was like, I probably want to. Yeah. ah Pick ah Gwen up or just try to pull her as far as I can. And OK.
00:50:55
Speaker
um I'm going to go to the right. OK, you'll get half your movement. You go right up by the fountain. You can take her with you if with half your movement. Yeah, but I like got 40 feet movement so I can get cool one more square. Good. And there we go. As that continues to.
00:51:16
Speaker
You should just like spray this green ah gas vapor spraying out of this. And you've backed up now right to where you're around this central central circular fountain. You can see in the fountain there looks to be a statue of a stone serpent, like it's crawling in and out, like it's swimming through the water, but it is a statue.
00:51:43
Speaker
um And so that's Joxer and Gwen. Gwen, make another, ah make a constitution saving throw for me. Uh, dirty 20.
00:51:56
Speaker
All right, so you're able to kind of cough out the last little bit of that poison that you had breathed in and you are ah you're no longer ah you no longer taking damage from it. You still have the effect of the poison for an amount of time. You're not sure how long yet, but you're no longer being damaged by it. ah Davin, what are you doing now? As you see that this gaseous circle is expanding. Well, Craig, do you want to just skip on this and go to the other side?
00:52:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's a, yeah. I'll just reach out my hand like a buddy, and I'll i'll take it by the hand. I'll reach out and grab, and we'll just start walking that direction. Oh, and and I can't, once he takes my hand, I just catch the cast Dimension Door.
00:52:41
Speaker
Okay. And I'll just travel to the other side. So immediately what you see is like my cloak just like grow to like an enormous size and wrap around as quickly. And then immediately in the blackness, you see like a river of fire and then like a giant city made of brass in the distance. And then it like pulls away like a curtain. And then we're just on the other side. When we get to the other side, I say, I bet that looked cool, but totally smells like farts. Nice. So you bypass take us all the way. Yeah. I take us all the way to the other side of the gate on the other end.
00:53:09
Speaker
Do they know where we went? Like, can they see us or are we just like gone now? I would probably, I don't know if we can see through it. I mean, they definitely heard the spell getting cast and all that stuff and could tell that that happened. Sure. Meanwhile, the gas is starting to expand to yourself across more of this garden. Couldn't just leave the garden alone, could you Gwen? Hey man, I had to see what was going on. They said no one who was home.
00:53:39
Speaker
I love the fact that you mentioned there's another snake statue and then all of a sudden it has a red tongue. It has a tongue, a red tongue now. It has to. Oh, that's a snake? Okay, it needs a tongue. Gwendolyn, as you look at that snake and in that fountain in the center there, please make a perception check. Just would like to cast a spell. I would like to do the same if that's okay. Perception? Yeah, sure.
00:54:08
Speaker
I was going to look in there. House 20. Nope. It's a dirty 20. I meant a dirty one. You just noticed that this this water is spinning like a whirlpool. it's It's turning towards the center like a whirlpool. Do I think it's a portal? It doesn't look like any portal you've ever seen. It very much looks just like water, but it is...
00:54:32
Speaker
spinning like a flushing toilet or a pool going down, going the way the toilet and the water normally goes, or is it going to Australia style? i Australia style. Okay. I'm going to, I want to do so much right now. I want to do the thing I've been wanting to do. I want to grab Josh's hand and I'm going to cast warding wind. Okay. And basically when you grab his hand and you go to cast that spell, you are unable to do so. Nothing happens. Oh,
00:55:00
Speaker
You start to cast it, and it's like the spell starts to happen. It's like the spell starts to happen, and then it just like fizzles out. You still lose the spell slot. All right, in Elvish, Gwendolyn goes, what the F? But she won't say the real word, because this is a family friendly place. Yeah, it is. She goes, what the beaver? And she just kind of looks at her hands and kind of snaps again to see if she can do it. Fizzles out.
00:55:29
Speaker
Okay, well then she just, who's like, well, I guess we need to go. Joxer, what was your perception check? ah It was ah it was ah a one or a dirty one. It was a two minus one. ah Davin and Krigs, what's your passive perceptions? ah I know, I barely use those, do I? 11. Also 11. Okay, nevermind then.
00:55:56
Speaker
But I get a, but we might really hold on it's a wisdom thing. So I'm kind of old. So I'm sure that I actually have and like life wisdom in there somewhere. So confusing stats and Dungeons and Dragons wisdom and why, and how it's yeah up my passive insight is 16. Nice insights. Yeah.
00:56:16
Speaker
Uh, okay. I'll give it to you, Joxer, with your passive insight. I am just, I am merciful. Um, you, you noticed that when she tried to cast that spell and couldn't, uh, all of the green flames dimmed and came back up. Oh, okay. Okay. So we don't want to be near these green flames if we want to do fancies. Well,
00:56:43
Speaker
Devin's going to try and get their attention. Oh, Gwen, Gwen, over here. I wish I could whistle. Gwen, over here. I can try.
00:56:58
Speaker
be It's like a ram's horn kind of. Oh, yeah, I'm just trying to mimic like the the dwarven battle horns. Yeah, they usually would bring everyone to attention. So that was like my. Like the kind of. I'm going to jump in this stupid fountain. I'm real mad about it. I want to jump in the fountain. Yeah, you messed it, messed it up. We can't do it now. There's. Yeah, and it's definitely you guys have all made an action, so it's definitely about to expand.
00:57:28
Speaker
Yeah, and my feet I'll make my 40 movement. Oh, where do I want to just jump in? It's flammable. I just ah oh, no. OK, I run 40 feet. I'm too. I'm too. OK. Too. Does the water call me?
00:57:49
Speaker
Does the water call you? Yeah. Uh, that's not for me to decide, homie. Yeah, it is because she asked Dale. All right. Uh, if she asks Dale, then, um,
00:58:06
Speaker
in this, where you are right now in this area, you don't get any sense of anything out of Dale. You just don't want to answer my question. Um, Dale's magic.
00:58:20
Speaker
Can you imagine if at the very beginning if I dispelled magic don da the news doesn't top The whole time Okay She doesn't want to so okay, she moved half and so she's moving half this time all right, so you guys move up to the next the gate as this poison continues to expand behind you and
00:58:48
Speaker
ridiculously all right there are stairs there's another gate there are stairs that everything narrows and there are just this narrow like 10 foot wide set of stairs that walk up to another set of stone like another area of stone pathway and as you walk up this these stairs and onto this stone pathway ah you it's very it's It's not very long. It's literally like 50 feet before you before you find yourselves at a place where the stone starts to give way to just dirt ground, hard packed dirt as the stones kind of seem to have crumbled ah a little bit. And
00:59:35
Speaker
the there you're suddenly now the gate like the fencing has turned to stone like waist high stone walls and this space is glowing bright and these waist high stone walls still 10 foot narrow that only goes about 20 feet ahead of you and then opens up to these two bright green uh braziers again but more ornate braziers and ahead of you right in front of you there there's a little bit of an opening it's about a 20 foot by uh 35 foot rectangle that you see a um statue in the center of this rectangle of an elf with a bow, holding a bow.
01:00:18
Speaker
and a sword attached to its hip. It is dressed in a in robes and a leather, what looks like would be leather armor, and it is glow it's it's got this green hue of glow on it. You also notice to your left a bright glow from just beyond the trees to your left where it looks to be a couple of, ah there's a number of large stones there that are glowing for some reason. That's where you find yourself.
01:00:48
Speaker
as we end this episode. Oh. We're just out of time, y'all.
01:01:09
Speaker
Thank you for listening to us here at the Hired Swords. If you liked this episode, tell your friends about us. And if you didn't like this episode, tell your enemies about us. And you just kind of felt okay about this episode. Well, I mean, come on, pick a side already, alright? No, but seriously, thank you to everybody who's stuck with us through this very inconsistent 2024, and hopefully we'll go into 2025 with a great new year. Happy new year, and happy birthday to whoever's birthday it is. Somebody's birthday out there. Happy birthday.