D&D is For Nerds - Barovia IV #6 Broken
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No water anywhere.
Still, we are arooned, stranded in Borovia.
Mists around us.
like prison bars.
Strad are jailer.
We must escape.
We must kill.
Strad must die.
I want to turn onto the other werewolf.
Maybe I'll just like either stow or like drop the spear and pick up the silver shield.
And I want to start just walking towards the werewolf that is fighting Rahadun.
And I get under, maybe he's under my.
breath, just like, just not muttering. Like, if they do not bend, you must break them.
Behind you, you feel those two knights that you freed? Or actually, they maybe think that
you've got this. They're going to go try and free their other friend. You hear them rattling
around on that cage. These cages, dude. They break it open immediately.
The middle cage was the weak one. That was the solution to the puzzle.
Then it is Gorob and Lushin
Gorob Lushin and Tarpos's turn
They use this momentary lapse
Tarpos puts both of her hands
She drops, or she doesn't drop
She stabs the blood spear
Into the ground next to her
And then puts both of her hands into the mud
You see as a huge
Thornbush erupts in front of her
In a wave
She demolishes a ton of twigblites
Doing that
You see as the twigblites are destroyed
they get added to the huge bush
coming out, radiating out like a fucking shockwave from her
and every twig blight that is destroyed
increases the size of this attack.
Awesome.
And then it is Gorob and Lushin's turn.
Gorob and Lushin, what do they have left?
They...
Okay, actually, a lot more spoles than I thought they had left.
Go Gorob and Lushin.
Good for that.
Go go Gorob and Loshin.
you hear both of them bellow
and then they start
charging off
wading their way through the
many many twig blights
the ones that have been confused and dazed
now that another druid has been downed
and they start
massacring
Gorob swings his sword one-handed
and punches with the other hand
and Loshin as both hands are swinging
you can see him muttering under his breath,
not under his breath, sorry.
Akas, Nora!
And then a huge ball of snow
forms around the fist,
and as it strikes one of the twig blights,
it explodes, sending a wave of snow and ice
all in that direction.
Shards, jagged shards,
embed themselves in these twig blights,
ripping them, tearing them asunder.
And it is the engineer's turn.
The engineer
How are you doing, Pip?
Not good.
You're on six minutes.
I died twice in this combat account, I'm pretty sure.
Let me quickly chickadee check to see.
Thinks Amon had to good boy card resurrect me, so
I can't imagine I'm doing too hard.
I don't know why, but I thought he might be able to heal you.
He can't.
That's not his powers.
Damn.
All right, the engineer looks over at John Cavendish,
and you see Cavendish point at you, Pip,
and then the engineer moves in his mech over to you,
and then kind of just takes a defensive posture next to you.
You can see he's prepared to batter away any blow that might come your way.
And there is, I believe, one druid still cowering, hiding from Gora of the Luschen's wrath.
Let me quickly check.
I think they're just going to stay hidden.
It's probably for the best.
A little mouse
The last druid continues hiding
And Pip, it's your turn
What's the battlefield looking like?
The twig blights after one of the druids was killed
The twig blights are in a bit of chaos
You can see not all of them have been confused
Some of them, there's maybe like six
Still kind of cognizant being controlled by that last druid
Tarpos seems to have them covered
Tarpos and John Cavendish
Can I see
by where those more
like competent
blights are, can I like
triangulate the position of the druid?
Do you have anything for a perception check?
Is you rolled poorly?
I don't.
No?
What am Iona doing as well?
Yeah.
Iona is also standing near you
but it's not her turn right now.
Yeah.
She, yeah, sorry, forgive me.
Iona is standing near you.
Actually, she could try healing you
after she's kind of done
unfuckling her own situation.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But, yeah, she's standing near you.
Okay.
Yeah, actually, that's probably, the engineer is defending you and Diana right now.
Yeah, okay. Well, can I, having Whiffed trying to triangulate where the druid is?
Because the next thing we'll need to do after defeating this druid is find wherever Kolova's layer is.
Yeah.
Can I...
I guess I can't really see or figure out where she can.
We'd have to talk to people.
That's okay.
I'll just fire off two shots at the more competent...
twig blights
that are still standing
ice then fire
yeah that's true
what are you set
ice
ice
or cold
let me check
something really quick
are these twig blights
the special ones
special ones
huh
what's he done
bum bum bum bum bum
bum
your first shot
strikes true
in one of the twig blights
what's he doing
what's special
it doesn't
down the twig blitz
blight, but you see the, that icicles form around the wound.
Your second shot on the same twig blight, oh, oofa doofa.
Your second shot hits right where the first one did, and you didn't, you don't even need
a switch to fire.
It expands the ice enough.
Twig blights are naturally immune to ice, though the rapid switching from cold to fire does
fuckle their day.
Yeah.
But this ice is enough.
It shatters.
It explodes, and the twig blights very center becomes.
mush. It falls over.
Another one bites the dust.
I'm just waiting
for the bad. Yeah, me too. I don't
why they're special. I'm like, uh-huh.
Okay, it froze. That's odd.
Uh-huh. Yeah.
And then...
Is it going to get really big?
Meanwhile, it's the werewolves who's turn.
Well, we'rewolf.
Yeah.
That last werewolf,
let me quickly check to see.
Glances over its shoulder
and realizes it is alone.
That wherewolf,
Wolf. Eyes or lows, Joel?
Hise. Hyes? Are you sure
about that? Lows. Lose? Yeah.
You want to keep lows? Yes, Adam.
Yes, he does. And would you be happy if it ran or stayed and fought?
I think I'd be happy if it stayed and fought.
Okay, so, and you're going lows? Yes.
Okay, maybe switch back to highs. Okay, I'll go with highs, Adam.
Good idea. It turns tail and runs.
Adam, you. He got you, dude. He fucked you.
The last World Wolf attempts to beat a hasty retreat.
It gets...
How far are werewolves again?
How far? I mean, how fast...
What? You know, how far are werewolves?
Yeah, pretty far, I think.
The werewolf moves 80 feet in total, spending its entire action.
It sprints for the exit.
You see...
Does anybody get an attack of Op on it?
No, they're coming from...
So, it's moving north to south.
Okay.
And they're moving east to west.
So you aren't able to intercept it on your...
Well, now.
Okay, okay.
It's Iona's turn.
Mm-hmm.
Iona...
How is she doing?
Okay.
Could be worse.
I think you're doing worse, though.
Yeah, dude.
I'm struggling.
Iona's going to cast.
Are you...
You're not affected by any negative conditions right now.
I don't believe so.
Okay.
Well, then she's going to do a serious upcasting of cure wounds.
Oh, hell yeah.
Oops, that should be muted.
One, two, three, four, five.
Pipp.
You recover 10, 24, 25 plus 5, you recover 30 hit points.
Hell yeah, that's huge.
Yes, it is.
My max is tiny, though.
My max is from memory, like, under 50, so...
You're at your max, 39.
Jesus Christ, dude.
All right, that will be Iona's action.
Then she's going to use a bonus action to Pip She,
as she's healing you, you hear her whispering a lullaby to you as well.
The lullaby itself is not particularly relaxing, but you do recognize it as being one,
you don't know if she did this on purpose, but you recognize it as, it like triggers a memory,
a happy memory in you, Pip, potentially a memory from before the monastery.
Whoa, from before the monastery.
Yeah, you realize she's singing it in draconic as well?
That's crazy.
You have a brief flashback Pip Mandarin
to a time where you felt safe and secure.
That's very sad.
You gained Bartic Inspiration.
Oh, my God.
You can, in the next 10 minutes,
you can use Bartic Inspiration to approve any D20 role.
Okay.
Then it is Cavendish's turn.
Cavendish is going to do the same thing that you did, Pip,
and he does it.
He whiffs it too?
No, he doesn't better.
Well, hey, at least, you know what?
I don't even care.
You see Cavendish
He scans around where those twig blights are
And maybe it's because you burst one of them
You see it now as well
There's just a slight lump in the dirt
Cavendish spotting the lump
Takes a knee
Ames his rifle very carefully
And then
Boom
You hear a single shot
And then a bunch of dirt
And blood gets kicked up into the air
Nice
Those last group of twig blights
Start freaking out as well
And that was Cavendish.
All of the Twigblites are befuddled, so none of them can act.
Hector.
Okay.
Can I, so how far away are they from me, Adam then?
They are 60 feet from you.
Okay.
All right, I want to move 30 feet, and I want to cast Compel Jewel.
Uh-huh.
No, you do not get to run.
The werewolf rounds on you, Hector, and you recognize that, well, you got what you wanted for better or worse.
That Weirwolf has eyes, magically has eyes for only you.
Fantastic.
30 feet.
That was a bonus action.
Can I electric blast him?
Absolutely.
Fantastic.
Do you know how many blasts you get at this level?
Dos.
Two?
Hit.
Hit.
All right.
You fire off two bolts of pure arcane energy.
They deal a total of seven points of damage.
The Weirwolf is already wounded.
You're not sure by how much.
but you can see that it takes some damage
in addition to any damage that it already had.
Yep.
And then, yeah, get my shield ready, spear ready,
and just kind of like slam it into the shield.
Hell yeah.
It's Gorob and Lushin's turn.
I'm really not going to roll.
The twig blights are not resisting this right now.
Gorob and Lushin, one by one,
walk from twig blight to twig blight,
quote unquote, replanting.
They put a hand on top of their head and push them into the ground.
You hear the noise of a bundle of sticks being broken, shattered.
And that was Gorvan Lushin's turn.
It's, oh, and Tarpos, sorry, does similar.
She, instead of just pushing them into the dirt, though, you see just jab after jab, after jab with her blood spear.
Both of the three of them, I should say, are systematically making their way through whatever twig blights remain.
It's the engineer's turn.
The engineer, seeing that this is probably the right thing to do,
also wades in and starts smashing them with the mech arms.
Nice.
And honestly, actually, I think we can end that combat there.
The twig blight, you can get the twigblites faster than they are going to be able to recover from this.
So it's the werewolves' turn again.
The werewolf charges you.
Did Rahaddin or like my...
Oh, I forgot.
I'll do anything.
They get in line with you, but they're not able to actually make it to the werewolf.
And they're going to let you take the brunt of this.
That is understandable.
You asked for it, so you're getting it.
Miss, hit.
You know what, shield.
Shield?
Okay.
Miss, miss.
Nice.
All right.
And going down the list, Hector, it's your turn.
I would love to stab at him.
Much as I can.
With my spear.
No, I have silver.
stops the healing, right?
Adam, what is...
I guess, what would I be doing
if I was to just kind of like try to get the shield?
And I guess John Walker, Captain America, this werewolf.
It would be at disadvantage
because it's not intended as a weapon,
but aside from that, you can use it.
Well, I got a good boy card to give you
an automatic critical with minimum damage
if you want to get in on that, dude.
I would say the shield does a D6.
damage. Okay, I would like to, um, using my, using the, the, the silver shield, is to try and
bring it down on the well as hard as I can. And I'll use my good boy cut. Do you want me to use this?
Yeah, dude. Pinpoint accuracy, automatically critical hit on the weapon attack, but do
minimum damage. All right. Well, both attacks will be a hit. We'll resolve that critical
hit first. Thank you, Jackson. Anytime. My beautiful boy. Anytime. I want to see what
happens. All right. Are we calling this slashing or bludgeoning, perhaps? How sharp is the shield,
That's not that sharp.
I guess it would be bludgeoning.
Okay.
Your options are 90-night or soften them up.
99.
99?
99. That's the selection.
Quadruple damage and the target must make a DC-16 constitution saving throw on a failed save.
The target is knocked unconscious.
Hell yeah.
They fail the saving throw.
So you deal.
Well, that second attack will then also be immediately a critical hit.
We'll resolve that in just a moment.
So, a D6 plus your strength modifier of three is four, quadruple that is 12.
No, 16, forgive me.
You, with your first blow, rather than stabbing it into the werewolf, you just don't, you gonged it right on top of its head.
It falls unconscious, and your second attack, which is also immediately a critical hit, you can pick either low blow or something slipped.
Oh no
Something slip sounds bad
Something slipped
With that
Maximum damage
And the target's AC is reduced by
4 until the end of its next turn
I don't think that's going to matter much
You deal maximum damage
Which will be a D6
6 plus your strength of 3
You deal another 9 points of damage
That is enough
After knocking the whale wolf out
You lift the shield up
And you bring it down
its face.
Blood.
All over you.
Yeah.
I just take a big, deep breath.
And I guess wipe the blood off my face, flick it down.
And I guess turn around to the three, four compatriots, I guess, in this fight.
The two women who have freed very easily just remembering how they got it on the first try for him.
the two knights
you can see that both of them
are kind of
helping their companion
that halfling limp over
to the rest of your group
Raha Dyn
you can see he's sporting
kind of like a nasty cut on one
of his arms he softly
puts his short sword away
and you can see that he is
gently providing himself first aid
I'm terribly sorry
that this had to
happen
It was most regrettable.
Are you bitten?
I was not bitten.
No.
I go ahead towards the three, two nights in there.
What would he be like the third one?
He's just like a halfling.
Yeah.
Just some guy.
Is he like in like a wizard robe or is he in like?
He's dressed like a merchant, like a upper middle class person.
Right.
Not barovian clothes.
He looks like he's from part of him.
It's unknown.
I head towards them and I start.
How is everybody?
One of the knights turns to you and as she does so, she takes like a knee and bows to you.
She says, I am Sir Philhart.
This is my apprentice, Sir Gretchen and our charge, Bobbitt.
We are in your debt.
How did you come to be captured?
We, it was a cold, Derek.
that we were making our way from Appleville down south
and a part of a merchant caravan.
We were the lead caravan,
and there was a mist, a strange fog rolling out ahead of us,
unseason like weather.
And in the unseasonable weather,
we became lost, separated from the rest of the group.
Ah, yes.
It was quite quickly apparent that we had left Kandor entirely.
Aye. And then you were...
The wagon came down the road,
a ways east.
We were traveling, searching for a way to escape,
went through at several towns, Borovia, Valakai.
And then we were heading here.
We'd heard that there was perhaps exit west of Creswick.
Right, yes.
I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but there is not.
What do you mean?
Although there is no water for miles around, you are, like us, moorant, stranded in this sad and lonely place called Borovia.
We are incarcerated.
We are jailed.
The fog that surrounds us are the bars of a dungeon, and Baron von Strade, I don't know if you've heard of him yet, but he is apparently...
Do you say the name?
Yep.
Okay.
Our jailer and, I guess, co-prisoner.
As far as I can tell, there is only one way out.
That is if Strad lets you.
This is disconcerning.
This strad, he is the lord of this land, is what I'm hearing?
Yes, in any way.
Perhaps he could be petitioned?
Perhaps.
I have heard he is not the most accommodating of men,
but I am on my way to...
See him actually.
Well, then we will come with you.
Perhaps.
We shall fail or succeed together.
Are you, um, have you, did you get bitten?
You can see, she's the one of the two knights.
She is, uh, Sir, Felhardt is the one who has been wounded.
And you can see she's still kind of nursing that arm.
She looks down at it and she says, tis, uh, not much more than a, uh, a, uh, a scratch, perhaps.
Uh, have you ever?
She shows you the arm and you can see.
There is, quite clearly, a huge bite mark.
She quite clearly does not understand the implication of that.
Have you ever dealt with any werewolves or lycanthrobes before?
I know the name werewolf, but not lycanthrope.
I haven't encountered them much.
A sickness of sorts.
In a way.
Your apprentice and your charge.
Sir, were you two, were you bitten by any chance?
Sir Gretchen shakes her head.
Sir Felhardt, you wouldn't necessarily call her
old or grizzled, but she's definitely like
maybe mid-40s, definitely the way more experienced one.
So Gretchen is young.
You imagine that she's maybe
like just, she's like very recently
become an apprentice.
And Bobbitt, the Halfling,
you can see that he,
Halfing's show age a little differently,
so it's harder to tell, but you think he's,
Maybe quite old, potentially.
Gretchen looks quite clearly terrified.
Her face is stricken.
She looks like she's moments away from a panic attack.
Fell heart seems despite, well, not despite the fact,
because maybe the fact that she doesn't understand the danger of being bitten.
She seems, you might even call her gung-ho right now.
Bobbitt is just quietly sitting there.
He's not actually interacted with you at all.
He's staring off into space.
Bobbitt, you get bit as well.
Bobbitt nods slowly.
And what's your insight?
Natural 20.
It doesn't matter.
Get a good boy card.
Nice.
You see Bobbitt.
He's been bitten, and Bobbitt knows the implications.
Okay.
Rip, Bob.
When, the wound on Falhart, was that the, is that most recently, as in, like, on this
current fight?
No.
Okay.
It looks to be, well, actually.
So, no, one of them are...
Another good boy, Carl.
Okay.
Hell of the heck is killing.
Yeah, wow, that was crazy.
You know that the part of the way that you tell if someone is infected, that a bite was infected, is that a bite was infected, is that it doesn't heal properly.
Yep.
You can see that despite the fact that this wound was quite clearly several days old, it is still bleeding, openly weeping.
And that was Gretchen.
Sorry, that was...
That was fell hot.
Yep.
And Bobbitt, his wound is also, they're both, they're both probably from a couple days ago.
Yeah.
And I, you can see Bobbitt's wound is similar.
And I know enough to know that it's like, if I was to get them within hours, we're fine.
It's as difficult as picking a plant.
Whereas, a day, lesser restoration could have helped them.
Yes.
And I do not have that.
You're in the realm right now of powers greater than pennyers may be able to offer to the
people of Barovia.
So you don't know much about
Werewolves to you, Sir Felhardt,
but I can imagine...
Never tussled with them myself, no.
Sir Gretchen, Bobbitt, you too.
Sir Gretchen shakes her head as well.
Um, no, no.
I've never...
Sir Felhardt finishes for her.
The lass, uh, this was to be her first mission.
Bobbitt, he nods.
And he says,
I know.
I know.
Oh, Gretchen, I remember when I was in your similar, I guess, position.
Sir Felhardt, I am not going to sugarcoat this.
You are going to turn into a werewolf.
It is an affliction.
It is a disease.
I cannot stop it, short of a miracle.
Sir Felhard shakes her head.
She says there was a cleric in the town of Barovia.
Maybe we had there and he can help us.
Maybe, but Borovia is several days away, at least.
The longer you wait, and it already might be too late, you will turn.
You and Bob it both.
Sir Felha shakes her head again.
She refuses to believe this.
This is not necessarily a bad thing.
I want to, like...
Maybe just close my eyes for a brief moment.
The werewolves of Borovia...
have a deal with Stratt.
They can come and go from these lands.
But doing so, you need to do something for him.
It is a working relationship.
The previous pack, a kind of gesture.
They weren't really receptive of the offer we put forward.
I'm not going to pretend that if I was in your position,
I would be trying to do anything that I could.
to get out of it.
But sometimes, unfortunately, those are not the cards we are dealt.
Currently, looking around.
Yeah.
Currently, this werewolf pack is all but destroyed.
There might be some stragglers out there hunting.
And right now, I have an offer for you.
Was there like a table or chairs or something like that
that we were having a chat with with a meal?
Or is there something like that that we could kind of like sit?
There's, yeah, like a from your first time here,
you know, there is like a,
communal area with tables and stuff like that but sir fell heart is not accepting that answer
as you start calmly explaining this to her you see she gets more and more upset she's shaking her head
and she's pacing back and forth you can see she's skipped denial and has gone straight to anger
strad is a strad is the vampire have you heard of them i i i maybe there's like a shitty wooden chair
that was leaning up against a rock
she's picked that up
and you can see she's holding it
like she means to break it
like she wants to do something
she wants to break something anything
the chair is just what's nearby
she keeps stammering
you can break the chair
throws against the wall
she slams it into the wall
and it shatters
she winces when she does that
with her wounded arm
you can see that pained her to do
she starts picking up the pieces
of the wooden chair and throwing them.
There's there, the cleric
in Barovia, we can
consult them.
He might know more.
You, she says, looking at you,
are a knight, a paladin
of the gods.
Pena has powers,
but her powers may not be
too much here, wherever we
may be. And perhaps this
man might know more.
How long have you been here?
Last than a week?
We've been here for about a week and a half, yes.
Have you noticed that...
Our horses have bolted, but Creswick isn't far.
We can get more horses there.
And then we can ride swiftly.
No, we can ride swiftly to Borovia.
It is okay.
The moment you get to the gates of Creswick,
they will apply wolf spain, the plant to you.
And they will realize that you are a werewolf.
And then they will spear you.
I'll wear a long time.
shirt or something or I'll talk
my way in. I'm like shaking
my head. Just, no. We'll do it.
We'll do it. You watch.
They're human, right? They're not elves? Yeah, okay.
Good to check.
Yeah, just good check. I'm sorry.
You've been here for over a week.
You do know, have you noticed that
their wounds, they do not
heal as well as they used to?
The general sense of lethargy.
It's thick here.
There's a miasma in the air.
I won't deny that. But it's,
Nothing I haven't handled before.
I've fought undead.
I know that.
And I know a fast horse when I see one,
and I don't think I need to know more about this place than that.
I have fought undead.
I have fought things beyond your imagination.
You watch.
I have fought a headless dragon.
I have, there is fell magic here, old magic here, blood magic.
There are, we do.
discovered, perhaps, well, maybe the first undead one. And I am not trying to sway you one way
or the other. But I would like to see you alive. I would like to see you not be taken too much
by this place because it will take everything. But it doesn't need to. It doesn't have to. We can
work together. Please, I'm pleading now. You can see. You could see. So. You could see.
fell hard, she's
stopping.
You see the fire
if anything, your
insistence, you can see she's
digging her heels in now. You don't think
you can move her from this
position. She takes a couple
steps towards you. You don't think she's going to
hit you or anything like that, but she gets real close
and then she starts angrily kind of
with her finger
stabbing you in your
chest. Once again, there's
like an aggression, a physicality,
to it. You don't think she's going to hit you.
She's just doing it for emphasis. And she says,
you watch... How far away is Barovia?
Barovia? You've actually not been to the city.
No, no, but how far away is it from where we are?
It's probably like roughly a week
by horse.
Roughly a week.
Thereabouts. It's, you know, depending on how much
you might get waylaid.
Krezik, they'll just absolutely just spear
them down. Kresik's not letting
werewolves. That's what I mean. They'll do
a test. They'll spear them down.
The nearest town from here is, what, Valachi, I'm like, well, Villagall is not
Coochuri, almost. Coochery is closer as the crow flies, but they know Valakai exists.
Yeah, getting there. And it's also easier.
And the thing is like, so to cure them, basically, to cure them a werewolfism, there is
nothing. You think it's impossible at this point?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I just, I'm like, there is no way.
Oh.
and like also if there's a full moon as well
yeah so um after the full moon transformation happens
there's no cure i know the next full moon is in three days
yeah okay so i know that there's like three days at the most
and that's if we find a very powerful cleric there is no one i've been to
even if we got to kutri in three days there is
no one there right like right
kutri no one in kutri can help and in in
Creswick, like, if they could help, they, they would, and they,
funnily enough, the angel might have had that power, but he certainly doesn't anymore.
Okay, okay, okay. I just want to know how sure I am in about, what I'm about to do.
Okay. Um, so as they, as, as, as, um, as Felhardt, so Felhardt is coming towards me,
just pointing at me. Yeah, she's right in front of you. She's pointing at you. She's saying,
you just, I jab, I just, the spear through her, who,
it through her jaw into her head.
You, she's pretty
weak already as well. I know. You jam
the spear up.
Oh, dude. She, actually,
I'll roll up for advantage. She really wasn't
expecting this. You don't
get a critical hit.
But, yeah, you
pierce the underside of her
jaw and your spear comes out
the back of her head. She
jerks once, which causes her to
tap your breastplate one more time,
and then covered in
werewolf and Sir
Felhart's blood. Which is
werewolf blood. That's true, it's all
werewolf blood. You withdraw
the spear.
I just, I want it all, just be
like, yeah. She collapses to the
ground, and
you hear a scream behind you.
I'm just in, like,
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
Before you're able to turn around,
a second chair hits
you from behind. That's fine.
You take, it's a chair, it's not going to do with punna damage.
It does four points of damage.
The force behind it is enough to hurt you a bit.
Like, okay.
Sorry.
So sorry.
And let's go to initiative again.
Oh, fuck.
That's awesome.
All right.
You wheel around.
It's her turn.
So Gretchen is there.
The chair is broken.
She...
I want it like, I'm not even...
Like, as I turn around, what she will see is, it's not someone who is preparing to fight.
Maybe a little broken, a very broken man, a very, very broken Asimir to be like, I'm not, I'm not saying to fight you.
Hector, she, the breaching on panic mode has hit panic mode and her body has chosen fight.
Okay.
She, chairbroken, she starts swinging at you with hailmakers.
She, donk, don't, don't,
start, foolishly, starts punching your,
the biggest target on you, the breastplate that you wear,
and she's unable to score a hit.
It's your turn.
Can I bring her in for a grapple that is basically a hug?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
But you fail.
You attempt to grab one of her fists.
Yeah, I just want to play as defensively as possible.
That's fine.
You grab one of her fists and she swings again.
This time her fist does collide with your jaw, but it just bruises your jaw.
There's not enough power.
You've kind of knocked her off balance by grabbing whatever wrists.
You could try to grapple her again if you want.
You rolled particularly pool.
Okay, I'll try and just...
I'm sorry.
All right, that's better.
You grab both of her fists.
You give like a jerk and you drag her into a bear hug.
It's her turn.
she starts struggling to get free
I don't think she's able to
no she can't get free
you hear Bobbitt
stand up
he looks at the two of you
lass
last it's over
it's over
he and you
manage to calm Gretchen down
she stops trying
she stops struggling
she's just sobbing into your shoulder
I am so sorry
Bobbitt looking at you
you're sad though
is a deal that could be made.
You know exactly what he's going to happen to you.
I get an inkling.
I gesture to maybe the seat,
but the non-broken seats, I guess,
to be like, shall we have a discussion?
And I gesture.
And I let go of Gretchen, to be like.
Gretchen, as soon as you let go,
she's stumbling back from you.
Her face is wet.
Her cheeks are red.
You can see, like, puffy, exhausted.
Uh, not wounded, puffy exhausted, but physically safe, but emotionally wrecked.
As soon as you let go, she stumbles a bit and then starts sprinting away.
If you move to follow, Bobbitt puts up a hand and says, I, I'm friends with her father.
She, she'll be back.
I know the last.
You sit down with Bobbitt, and then Rahaddin gives the same offer to a mill to Bobbitt instead.
Yeah, I just wanted, yeah, so before, I even,
give the same deal
emphasizing that he'll turn
he was probably going to be turning in three days
do I know enough about like
the werewolfism that will
change their like attitude
their demeanor
it's definitely something I've told you
yeah like it's going to be
yeah yeah yeah
when I've justified the massacre
of war wolves
it's like there's no
when they don't come back
well when the change happens
one of two things can occur
Either they can embrace.
Think of music.
You recall one specific piece of law relevant to the current situation.
Can I just know as much as like, if I examine it have a question about whales, can I know that?
Yes.
Fantastic.
So, you spend that card and Hector, you understand, you recall that when the change happens, one of two things can occur.
Either the person can embrace the change, at which point they gain control over their lycanthropy
and their alignment becomes chaotic evil.
Obviously, you wouldn't catch it as chaotic evil.
But embracing this disease causes one's personality to radically shift in such a way that they become cold and cruel to the world and to the people around them.
And they often, they knowingly seek out people to bite and infect and transform and more often feed as well.
or they can resist the transformation
in which case it becomes much more of a curse
they have no control over it
just at the full moon they transform
and when they are transformed
they become like a beast
and the beast is way worse
so it's a
pick your poison of either
you become inexplicably transformed
into the animal but you retain
some of your humanity
or you retain all
of your humanity, except for when
you are the beast.
Well, then I start explaining this to Bobbitt.
I'll give you, you have
two, well, actually, you have
three choices. The first choice,
if the full moon is going to be
in three days, and you will transform
from what you are now into,
adjusted to the dead werewolves.
Yeah.
What they were. The corpses. They're not
werewolves anymore? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the human corpses.
That's the terrible thing about defending yourself
against the whale's attack. It looks like you just
kill the naked person.
You will transform into, well, what they were.
You will then have a choice to make.
You either need to resist it.
You will be living with a curse.
You will, I guess, remain exactly as you are.
But every time that there is a full moon,
you will turn into one of them.
You would also know that resisting the curse
takes a tremendous amount of effort.
many people try to but not everyone can and there is no guarantee that you will succeed you can resist
as much as you want and it will take it's tall and it still might not work and you'll be living
with a curse you cannot get rid of and when you do turn because you will every full moon and let me
tell you in borovia there is a lot of full moons thing that you will turn into would be nothing
compared to what they were or well you can give in embrace this affliction you will have more control
the beast you will become can be reasoned with it will change you you might become crueler
things that you used to bring you joy perhaps won't and you will want to feed and
hunt. Sometimes you'll want to feed
and hunt. And people.
Those are your two choices.
And I gesture
to fell hard. That is the third
choice. Bobbitt thinks
about it for a while. You see
there's no tears, just a
incredible sadness etching the
lines of his face.
The lass, Gretchen, she
wasn't bit.
She was not. He nods.
Here comes the problem.
There is
a question I suppose
should I choose
the third option
what would come to her
if she wants
I could try to find her
a safe place in Borovia
I need you to know that there is not many safe places
in Borovia she could go to Kresik
I gesture to everyone around like
they value the slaughtering of werewolves
they might let her in
it's not the safest place
and well
she wasn't born with pointy ears
so she might be accepted
she might be safe there
I cannot guarantee it no
how long have you been here
I've been here long enough to know that nowhere here is safe
another thing if you choose one of the other options
is you will want a pack
I was hoping
a gesture to fell hard
I was hoping that they would be more reasonable
to be able to work together
we could at least come to an agreement
so Sir Gretchen
right now you want to keep her safe
and in a few days
you might think the only way to keep her safe
is for her to become like you
and that is another option
I
or if you would like
she can come travel with me
as I said I am going to meet
Strad personally
perhaps he will let her go
I think
perhaps the girl
if Kresik could be a safe place
at least for a time
that would be good
I do not
I have seen what this disease does
I do not wish for her to see it
come to me
I do not know you
but
you're perhaps the first
kind face
I've come across in these lands
well I smile at that
just like bittersweetly almost
if you would have the girl
at Creswick and
if you can escape take her with
you. Of course. I will do that for you. I don't wish for her to suffer, if possible, with the
affliction or with anything. Of course not. I will do. I will do everything in my power. You have my
word as a knight of the cloth, and you have my word as a friendly face. I am very sorry. Truly I
am. I did not once. I wish I could, if I knew if you had been beaten today, if we had more than
three days, if Penae was more powerful here, we could have helped. But we have to deal the cards
with help. I will do everything in my power to help her and protect her. I think, I fear that we
have found ourselves in the belly of the beast when all we meant to do,
look it in the mouth.
Well, he says, and he puts his hands on the table,
I'll tell Gretchen, I'll tell her you're to look after her,
keep her safe as best you can,
and then, please, give an old man some time,
and then I'll return and...
How long would you like? We can make camp here.
Perhaps the night would be nice.
One last time.
Even in the darkest of places,
would be nice if they were singing
even about the dark times.
It would be nice to see
one more beautiful thing.
Well, I can't offer you that.
I can offer you at least
a Barovian sunrise.
He gestures into the corner
where the equipment of the prisoners
was kept. You leave the music
to me. Bobbitt leaves
and after a little
bit of silence, Hector, you hear
Gretchen, wailing,
howling, crying, and
anguish and agony. You do not know the nature of their relationship, but they knew each other.
Certainly, Bobbitt, who knew Gretchen's parents, is someone who was maybe close to her,
and you hear the cries of someone who does not want this. She's screaming at one point.
Please don't. Please don't. Please don't. Pipp, you and Cavendish slowly walk up to
the last druid who Cavendish shot
the musket ball
clean through his neck
tore out enough
this druid is not long for this
world but in
in these last moments he is begging
for those for those seconds
if you do not rob them from him
twang
right who's
poisoned and then I'll go around
and check everyone everyone has been
wounded and in the mad scrum
No one really knows where every wound came from cannot be properly accounted for by each individual, so you're going to have to check everyone individually, including yourself. You're not 100% sure you weren't also hit.
This is so annoying. Protection from poison is a spell I have, but it's like a second level spell. And I can only do it like. Yeah. It's very annoying. Yeah, that is so annoying.
Is it like a ritual?
Is it a...
No, it's just a second level spell.
How long is it lasts for?
It lasts, but the way it works is I touch someone
and then I can tell if they're poisoned or not,
which is great for one person.
And I can neutralize the poison.
But I have detect poison and disease.
Let's see if that is like just touch or...
It shouldn't be touch.
For the duration, you can sense the presence and location of poisons,
poisonous creatures and diseases within 30 feet of you.
You can also identify the kind of poison.
Poisonous creatures or disease in each case.
You cast in that spot?
I'll test detect poison.
Wow.
PIP shows magic ability for the first time.
Well, I was actually about to say, because I don't believe that for you, it is actually magic.
I pluck a little bit of something out of my alchemy bag, just some plant or whatever.
Thumb it into my mouth.
And then I look around.
Okay.
Well, no check required then.
You detect that you have been poisoned.
Oh, that's right.
And you can detect that iona has also been poisoned.
I believe that spell also gives you access or informs you what specific poison or I think disease, right?
That you have been affected by.
So let me quickly, you detect the presence of weeping poison.
Oh, yeah.
So you
And I mean you could feel it kind of
You have the poisoned condition
As does Iona
You can remove
Oh you know the effects of weeping poison as well
Even I'm gonna say even if detect poison does not tell you this sort of stuff
I think you know
Yeah absolutely
I think you know what it does
Until this poison condition is removed
You take a D4 points of poison damage every minute
Which reminds me
Oh, no. I might be about to fall unconscious,
although I did just get healed.
You and Iona both take four points of poison damage.
Oh, okay. That's fine.
I'd like to squat down and make a potion at him.
Okay, what's the potion?
If you'd allow me.
I'll combine a raven feather for radiant damage,
just for radiant, you know, qualities.
Then a quaggoth vein for immunity to poison.
And then a...
what are we got?
Maybe I just use water
because there's nothing necessarily here
to make some kind of poison
neutralizing
elixes. I'll say
you can make three doses.
You don't need the third one, but you
have a third one. Cool. Well, I'll hand one
to Iona and I'll chug one myself.
She gratefully takes it.
Iona's sitting on a rock
and you see she gratefully takes it and then
drinks it down.
The rain, incidentally,
After the fight, the rain, well, during the fight, the rain had kind of stopped briefly.
But now that the fight is over, the rain begins again, but it's not heavy like it was before.
It's more, I don't know if this expression exists outside of Australia.
Spitting.
It's just spitting.
Very light rain.
As if, for those of you, if this term does not translate outside of Australia, a level of rain equivalent to a million people constantly spitting out of.
of a cloud.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, beautiful.
Very light rain.
Is everybody kind of gathered together?
Yeah, vaguely, yeah.
You can see Cavendish is speaking with Tarpos, Goroblushen, and the engineer.
He's kind of directing them to form a perimeter around you, or at least to search the immediate
area just to make sure that they, just to make sure it's clear, basically.
And then he's, yeah, like I said, he's establishing a perimeter and also a watch of sorts.
What time is it?
It would be right now, it would be coming on sunset.
Okay.
So we're probably going to camp, I would imagine.
You can still, by the way, hear, I don't know if you remember this happening.
The beginning of this fight feels like eons ago.
Oh, yeah, you can hear the guy yelling.
Yeah.
Iona, you all good?
Iona looks up at you from her sitting position on the rock.
I do not think that all right would be an accurate assessment.
of how I feel, but...
You're no longer poisoned, at least.
I would, yes.
I would.
I would concede that, yes, I am feeling better.
Right.
I'm going to go check on the yelling guy.
I get up off the ground.
She gets up as well.
She's coming with.
And I'll go over and check the guy yelling over.
Is he still screaming the same stuff?
Is his voice just like, ah, at this point?
No, he's not screaming anymore.
He's muttering, babbling under his breath.
you recognize what languages do you know
I believe common
dwarven
that might be it
you recognize something familiar
about the language
though you do not speak it
you recognize it as
a language spoken
or a language communicated in
kind of like a
dialect of Sylvan
the language of Fay
you recognize it as kind of a dialect
within that, but you don't know
really what he's saying. Yeah, I can identify it,
but I can't translate it. Yeah.
Yeah, he's babbling it to himself
now under his breath. I turn to Iona.
Oh, actually.
No, never mind.
You identify nothing further.
Oh, I turn to Iona.
You don't know what he's saying, do you?
She shakes
her head slowly. It is
a dialect, a specific,
almost you could say regional
one of Sylvan
I believe that this language is
common among Weirravens
Right
Does he look like a druid
Or does he look more like a local
Or possibly a member of the Wizards of Wines
A little investigation check from you
You
I mean it's impossible to tell
If he's local
Because he's not wearing like a name badge
Or his uniform
But he doesn't look like a druid
You assess that much
Okay.
You could make the logical leap that if he's not a druid,
there's not a lot of people who come out here other than the Martikov family.
Can I cast Detect Magic on him?
Sure.
You...
Great question.
Hang on.
Chew a little something.
Swish it around in my mouth.
All right.
You do detect a slight magical presence about him.
It would be maybe...
Hmm.
You're not very skilled.
In magic itself, you've got kind of a, better than a layperson's understanding of magic,
but really you only know enough magic to do your job.
Yeah, I know it as a component of monster hunting rather than as a sole focus.
Yeah.
This is, the magic upon him is not anything related to your area of expertise.
So this has got nothing to do with monster hunting.
That's all you're able to assess.
There's a slight whiff of abjuration magic about him, which is a magic.
of protection and alteration.
So it changes the nature of things
and it protects things.
I say as much to Iono.
I mean, there's something going on here.
Some kind of abjuration magic, I'm thinking.
Why, do you think this man is dangerous?
I don't know.
I guess we've got two options.
The abduration magic makes me think
perhaps he's something else transformed.
I don't know.
Or that he could just be a member of the Wizards of Wines.
But his yelling previously,
felt like a trap, so I don't know if he was compelled to do that or what, but it's probably
best to, I mean, whoever's this person is, he is unfortunate. We should cut him down.
Yeah, well, that's what I was going to say too. All right, the two of you untie and or cut
the man down. Plus, there's like five of us and only one of him, if anything does go wrong.
He falls limp. He, there's no strength to his body whatsoever. I don't know if I specified
this before, but he's old.
He's human, quite old, advanced age, like maybe in his 90s.
This man is ancient.
How are you doing?
You speak common, I say?
Well, I know you do.
You're speaking it before.
He continues to babble in that language.
He, he, you can see some great trauma has happened to this person in the recent, very
recently, and he, he's kind of withdrawn within himself.
He's not processing information.
You don't think you're going to get anything out of him today.
Have people started to settle?
up a camp? Yeah, you look back
and Cavendish
you're not sure where these
came from, but you see that three
neat and identical tents have
been erected. Okay. You know, yeah,
like I said, you're not a hundred such a sure where those
tents came from, but they're there now.
Does this guy see him like you'd need to be carried?
Yeah, he's not moving under his own power.
All right, I'll, you'll grab his legs,
I say, and I'll grab him under the arms.
Okay, you, with Iona,
carry him back to the tents. You can
see Corub and Lusher
have been sent purposely possibly
as far away as possible.
Good to hear.
Though distantly you can hear
Wizard Supreme
or like wizard
piss. What could they be doing?
What do they think they're doing?
But whatever. Either Pipsch is glad they're not here.
And I'll dump the guy down on the ground
and be like, this is the fella that was
sort of strapped down over the well.
He's very traumatized.
I can't get a word out of him, but maybe somebody else
here will. I might go check the
Well, I'm thinking.
Iona kneels down.
As soon as the two of you place this man on the ground,
Iona maybe, like, with just her foot,
kicks out a bed roll so that you're not just lying him down on the cold ground.
Yeah.
But as soon as the man is lying on the ground, she kneels down and she starts tending to him.
Nice.
Cavendish comes over.
He's got his weapons slung over one shoulder.
Would you like assistance with that?
Yeah, probably.
And also, I mean, we should stay here tonight because I don't want to, you know, be tramping through
Well, I figured we would be, yeah.
Yeah, but we're going to need to find wherever curlover is, you know, entombed and deal with that as well.
My understanding with the vampires is that, yes, once you beat them outside, it's kind of a race for time, right?
Step one, yeah.
And we also need to make a stake from a tree in the forest around here to stab her, according to the flowchart.
Right.
Okay, well, if that's how it works, that's how it works.
Yeah, that's how it works.
In matters of shoemaking, I refer to the cobbler.
Yeah, well, exactly.
My name's Ryan, this is my best friend Tony,
and together we do the Tony and Ryan podcast.
Montreal, bonjue.
People right across Canada are listening to our daily podcast, though,
but don't just take our word for it.
Jamie from Vancouver.
I think people should listen to the Tony and Ryan podcast
because they are hilarious.
There's no better comedy than Australian comedy.
They are unhinged.
Thank you, Jamie.
But just be warned if you're going up for a walk,
you might laugh.
your ass off in public, but it's worth it, trust me.
Oh, yeah, be safe out there.
Yeah, take it easy.
Yeah, listen to Tony and Ryan every day.