D&D is For Nerds - Fall from Grace: The Hag #1 A Town Besieged

Episode Date: January 18, 2020

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Sands Pants Radio, Australia's dumbest podcast network. Once, long before Tiffany or Sir Hector were even born, there lived a man named Jordan Grace, or, as he had recently become, Sir Grace. Newly knighted and looking to prove himself, he accepted a quest investigating disappearances in the small town of Sheabrook. Little did he know that this was the first step on what was to become a strange and dangerous life. Welcome to episode one of Fall From Grace, part one, The Hag. So, Grace, you are a knight in early standing, as it is sometimes referred. At the age of 21, you have become a newly minted knight. Very exciting.

Yes. You are on your way to a small, sleepy town called Sheabrook. The town of Sheabrook has reported that there have been disappearances. Okay. And as a knight of the realm, you have been dispatched to Shea Brook in hopes that you will be able to help them with their problems. It's a small village, mostly human, about 700 people approximately. Shea Brook is governed by a council of elders who meet once a week.

It's an old tradition in Kandor. Very few places still use that system. Most will have a mayorship, but Shea Brook has persisted. You assume that means that Shea Brook is very old-fashioned in many of its aspects. Am I to meet with the council? Is that the deal? Yes. Okay.

Do I travel alone or do I have such as a horse? You would definitely. Yeah, no, it would be tantamount to insulting to not supply you with a horse. What's your horse's name? I keep wanting to say Shivers. Whatever. Let's call it Shivers the horse. A beautiful white mare.

Short for Shiver Me timbers all right well i've learned my lesson shivers the horse what a powerful steed the town council will be expecting you when you arrive but as you approach shaybrook the night or the day starts to become long. Okay. And you can tell through the trees, you're in the Ironwood Forest right now, through the trees you can see that the sun is slowly dipping below the tips of the trees, and you can tell that soon it will be nighttime. Does this mean that I'm late, or was there not really an agreed-upon time?

There wasn't really an agreed-upon time. So if I turned up tomorrow, they wouldn't be like, where were you? No, they have requested help. And there's not even been a message responding, saying that there will be help sent. You are both the response and the message saying that there will be a response. So Shay Brooke isn't really expecting you

at any particular time. They don't know necessarily that you're coming. I mean, you can assume that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can assume that they think someone's coming, but you are, yeah, not expected. Are there guards at the gate when I arrive? I was about to ask, did you want to push into the night?

Yes, I reckon I will. Why not? Okay. I'm newly minted. You know, I got to make an impression. As you continue onwards, you can feel shivers beneath you. Ironically. Shivering.

Ironically? Pattern, mate. Is it irony? Easy, girl. Easy, girl. You're all right. It takes you too long to notice what shivers had seen before you. Stepping out of the brush nearby,

a pack of wolves appear. You can see that there are six wolves in total. They've already begun surrounding you. Can I act? We're not an initiative, so feel free to do whatever you want. Okay. I would like to hurl my spirit one from the back of Shivers.

Then I would like to roll off Shivers and almost use her as cover. Hefting your spear with a strong arm, you throw it at one of the wolves. Hyah! It strikes a lead wolf. Under my breath, I mutter something like, perhaps wolves are the cause of the disappearance. You deal six points of damage to one of the wolves. Cool.

Then, diving off shivers, you roll on the ground. Unfortunately, you come up without... Oh, actually. Oh, no, actually, you're fine. It's an awkward landing, but you don't take damage or anything like that. You feel like maybe your collarbone is going to be bruised tomorrow, but you come up standing with nothing in your hands, fortunately, and then we're going to go to initiative.

Right. Didn't even look cool. That's the downside. Grace, it's your turn. You get to go again. Cool. I would like to pull my longbow out and fire at one of them. All right.

Your arrow lands in the dirt just in front of the wolf. Unfortunately, your shot is misplaced. Then I'd like to action surge and can I, I guess, duck under the horse and grab my spear from the other wolf or rest it from the other wolf's body? Yeah, if you want you can use your action surge. You charge

forwards, grab your spear, plant a boot in the wolf, draw your spear out and you can attack again. Yeah, I will and I'll slam it back into the wolf but not lose it this time or at least attempt to not lose it oh that means a critical something happened you scrounging in your drawer that or you're looking for a tissue to blow your nose anything's possible in this crazy life of ours too much flourish drop your weapon and make a dc14 dexterity saving throw

on a failed save take the weapon's normal damage. Oh, no. You fail. Oh, no. You spear yourself, dealing yourself four points of damage as you accidentally skewer your own foot. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

So, Grace, come on. You're better than this. Does that mean I've dropped my spear? Yeah, you've also dropped your spear at your feet. Fuck. Look, it's unlikely that the wolves are not coordinated enough to imagine if one of them picked it up and ran.

Oh no! What would I do? I don't know what I'd do. I'd be like, fucking mind blown. Instantly that wolf story has become a million times more interesting than what was going to happen to me. We're following the wolf if that happens yeah absolutely all right then it is the wolves turn oh no all six of them attack you from no only three of them attack you from different

sides the other three go for shivers oh no not shivers a beautiful horse, who I assume is a newish gift, but still, I've become attached. One of them nips you from one side, another one bites at another side, and then all three of them that attack you get a good bite in on you. You're in trouble, Sir Grace. I sure am. Ten. Oh, no. I am. 10. Oh, no. I am in trouble.

Oh, no. 20. 20? No, 19. You take 19 points of damage. Welcome to one hit point. Oh, Sir Grace. Fuck.

Things went wrong so quickly. Oh, oh, Sir Grace. If only you were not controlled by Jackson Bailey. went wrong so quickly. Oh, oh, Sir Grace, were, if only you were not controlled by Jackson Bailey, the man who could have rid past. Yeah. The other three wolves

go for shivers. Shivers gets bit once, twice. Three times the lady. Three times. Similarly to you, you see the wolves as they circle around. One launches itself at you or at the wolf. Maybe in perfect time. One launches itself at the wolf and one launches itself at you.

Neither you nor the horse are quick enough to react. A bite. You swing and your horse kicks in that direction but as soon as you're attacking in one direction a wolf comes from another direction and then again and then again and again and again as you are being picked apart by the wolves so your horse takes 10 that's a horse's HP? 20. 26 points of damage. Oh no. Shivers is brought down. Oh no. With a terrible

whinnying sound, Shivers hits the ground and goes still. Okay. Okay. What I thought was going to be a gentle fight against wolves has become a life or death situation. Good to know it always must from somewhere further ahead two arrows fly through the night one misses but another

one strikes the wolf that you have already hurt and downs it one of the wolves goes down you're not sure exactly where the arrow came from, but someone out there is helping you. It's your turn, Grace. Bonus action, second wind. Alright. You recover. Get some health back. It's probably not the worst idea in the world. Three points.

Come on. Oh no. What would you like to do? I guess I have to just keep fighting. If I try to run, I'll get an attack of art Presumably, yeah? You can pick up a spear and try to attack another wolf Yeah, I will, I'll pick up a spear and swing at another wolf Critical hit!

Hey, Bambino! Bolstered by the knowledge that someone else Is trying to help me I'll attack with Renewed gusto Fighting for your life, you grab your spear. Maybe one of the wolves turns to see where the arrow came from as well. You use that moment to your advantage.

You quickly grab the spear at your feet and stab up into that wolf's turned head, feeling faint. The wolf will now have disadvantage on strength, dexterity, and constitution-based rolls for 10 rounds. Hell yeah. Additionally, it must make a DC 18 constitution saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns. On a failed save, it falls prone. Oh, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. You deal 8 points of damage, and you can see that the wolf cry well not see but you hear the wolf whimper in agony and pain when you speak all right then it is the wolves turn

the three wolves that downed the horse begin tearing into it shivers is devoured oh wow one of the wolves the wolf that you hurt, sprints off into the darkness, afraid and terrified. It passes its save, so it's somewhere off in the darkness. Cool. Cool. Another wolf keeps fighting you, and

successfully bites you. Oh, God. You take four points of damage. You're four points of damage. You're back on. You're on zero. I'm staggered. No, I'm just down, aren't I? Yep, you're down.

Everything goes black, Sir Grace. I am beset by wolves. Things go in and out for you, in and out. You experience brief flashes of consciousness the first one is you see a figure standing over you you look up into the face of like a dirty looking peasant okay but the peasant has a bow strung over their back then you fade out you back in. You can hear two people talking. One of them says in a strong commanding voice, grab him, pick him up, take him to town. Then you fade back out.

You fade back in. You've got a vague sensation of movement. You can tell that you're being dragged. You maybe look around and you can see that there's a wooden board that you are strapped to and someone is hefting the board and dragging it along. You fade back out. So, Grace, you are on five hit points. Cool. You wake up.

Standing around you are a dwarf a cleric you see that the dwarf has straight black hair and light brown eyes with big bulbous looking ears she wears chain mail and you can well she has a quarter staff leaning against the table the quarter staff has a carved bear rearing backwards at the end of it. You see a female peasant. Not the one that you saw before, though, but one with white hair and narrow amber eyes. Finally, you see the person who you do recognize from when you first started to fade back in. She's, like I said, got a kind of like a dirty face. She looks like a peasant, but specifically a peasant from a major town rather than a small settlement like here. She's got soot on her face. Yeah, for sure. She has uneven red hair and soft

grey eyes. City dirty. I get you. I'd like to sit up in bed and be like, that wasn't quite the entrance I wanted to make. They laugh. not a nervous laugh but a tense laugh you know what i mean um where are my manners i'm so sorry uh sir jordan of house grace i extend a hand the dwarf shakes your hand and she says my name is fudu fudo fudu t-h-u-d-u Thudu. T-H-U-D-U. Thudu. U-D-U.

Do what? The power of the babe. Thudu has a stern hand, and when she shakes yours, you feel like she could use that hand to break yours if she wanted. The peasant with the white hair bows deeply and says, I'm Birkinth. Birkinth. It's a pleasure pleasure I am in charge of this village Fantastic

Well, in a manner of speaking And then finally the other peasant With the dirty face says My name is Mally Mally, oh Mally, the alley cat Are you okay, Mally says I am now Thank you to all three of you.

I guess... Birkinth shakes her head. Don't thank me, thank Mally. She saved your life. I would like to get down on one knee and be like, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Mally. She seems a little...

Let me roll for your mannerism, I guess. She seems a little put off. Like she's surprised by this. That's fair. But she, you can, actually, yeah. So Grace, you see that she blushes beneath the soot. Thank you, she says. I'd like to, little gentle, you know, cheeky smile.

Stand up and be like, well, I'm here from on high. I've been informed that there have been disappearances in the village. I don't know really what time it is. You're from the capital? I'm from the capital, yes. Then you're a knight. Yes, I am. Sir Jordan Grace.

They all bow. Oh, please, please, none of this. This is all too much. I'm just, I'm no one special. But of course you must be. A knight? Well, look, right place at the right time. The door to the building opens.

You can see that it's a small chapel, presumably where the dwarf lives. And a man steps in. He looks overweight and he has thick gray hair with large blue eyes. He wears, I would say, reinforced clothing. This guy rules. So the clothing has the- Power pants. The clothing has both simultaneously the appearance of

clothes that were meant for a smaller man that have been reinforced for him, but also clothing that looks like it might be lightly padded and armoured. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. The sort of clothing that might give him a circumstantial plus one to his armour class. I see, I see. He is accompanied by a red fox that walks behind him.

Do I recognise this man as a person of perhaps authority? Is this the kind of man I should bow to? I guess is my question. He looks important. He's definitely the richest of these people. Cool, cool. By far. His reinforced clothing is definitely fancy. I'll give like a, you know, a kind of small bow. Ah, so

this is the knight. Sir Knight, I am William Innan. William Innan. William. I explain that I am Sir Great Sir Jordan of House Grace. He bows before you. We, the four of us, form the Council of Elders. We are in charge of the town. Fantastic.

I was just about to ask where the Council of Elders was. Wow. Yes, it's a great pleasure to meet the four of you. I am the knight sent from the capital. I hope I can do something about the problem your town is facing. Please, come with us. I hate discussing business over anything except an ale. Okay, that sounds all right by me.

They take you out of the chapel, and you walk through the night in muddy streets towards a large stone building that has out the front a sign made out of wrought iron that shows a hammer that has been quite clearly with like large jagged lines snapped in half welcome to the broken, my establishment. Oh, I see. Well, it looks wonderful. You walk inside. It's what you might call in Kandor, what you might call a modest adventurer's inn. Yeah. It's a two-story building of half-timbered walls

with a small fenced yard. Accommodations consist of a single large room with wooden cots and wooden cots near the hearth. Your choice. Sure. A small private bathhouse is available. Nice. It's a lovely establishment.

I've been to a lot of taverns in my time, and this is, I'm going to level with you. This one's wonderful. You sit down. You're given options for drinks and food. Exciting. There's boiled eggs and buckwheat bread. Dire hair and bitter cheese. Oh, dire hair.

Yum. Cashew bread and blue cheese. Vegetable stew. Boiled eggs and dried artichoke or stewed lentils. I reckon I'll order the hair. I'll say something like, look, nearly dying works up a bit of an appetite. So I'll go that dire hair. And now a something like, look, nearly dying works up a bit of an appetite, so I'll go that dire hair. And now a quick word from our sponsors.

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and then also asks you if you'd rather sleep in the private, well, more private common room or by the hearth. I don't mind the hearth. I'm sorry, you don't have nicer accommodation. Are you kidding me? This is lovely. Well, all of the council seem very pleased that you would consider this place nice.

I appreciate the food and everything, and obviously I appreciate you guys, all four of you, coming to my aid. I'm afraid it's not a terribly good impression for the person that's meant to come and help you to be bested by something as lowly as six walls. No, no, no, please. It's part of the problem here okay william doodoo continues uh yes it's of late it's become more and more hostile to be in the forest okay i i think mally can elaborate that best mally nods yes i would say that that some sort of malevolence

has taken residence near our village. I'm not sure what it is or what its purpose here is, but I know that animals have become more restless, violent even. I would like to pull out of maybe my satchel a small leather-bound journal, and I would like to start writing in it, taking down notes. leather-bound sort of journal and i would like to start writing in it okay taking down notes i'd also maybe the journal has the symbol of my house a dainty lady's slipper emblazoned on the front and i would like to start writing down notes malevolent in the far has anybody seen i don't know anything untoward anything out of the usual or is it just that the wildlife has become more

aggressive as of late well the local woodcutters report the trees have become hostile in some manners. Hostile trees? Yes. They don't care to elaborate too much. A lot of the people here are superstitious. Okay. I don't know how much stock I'd put by hostile trees, but if tales from woodsmen are to be believed

then apparently the woods here can suddenly are suddenly able to turn a blade against gosh so the woods have become impossible to log well it sounds unlikely but i mean i wouldn't discount anything surely they've seen something out there the dark expressions of the the council become slightly sad as well also there have been disappearances i i nod sympathetically a few adults have gone missing in the woods okay and their corpses have been discovered half eaten half something else, something far worse. And I'm sorry if this causes any uncomfortableness, but are the corpses buried or are they kept perhaps in a mausoleum? We've been burning the corpses because the locals won't have them buried.

They think there's some black magic going on, and it's hard to refute that. Of course, of course. There is one corpse, however, in the chapel right now, or with the chapel. Thudu can show you that later after this. I would be permitted to see it. Nobody would be uncomfortable with me doing so. Yes, of course. Okay, well I thank you for that. And finally,

there have been, recently, there have been two children who have disappeared oh i'm sorry if i'm wearing a hat i take it off ansis and annette they were brother and sister ansis the boy annette's the girl they um their mother is quite distraught uh apparently imagine yes apparently they they liked to play in the woods slightly north of here there's a like a small crook where the trees thin out a little bit and you can almost see meadow and apparently one day while this has all been happening one day they set out to play. And when they came back, when they returned, one of them, and Sis, I believe, had a nail in his possession, a metal nail.

A metal nail. And Annette had a small mirror. That is curious. Yes. I only mention this because that's when they started acting out. Their mother said that they became different they changed and sis became he was a good boy i knew him myself this is this is william speaking yeah i knew him myself and i had hoped maybe one day i would teach him i'm a craftsman

by trade i make beer but i also i'm handy with wood i'm a good woodsman i'm not woodsman i'm a craftsman by trade i make beer but i also i'm handy with wood i'm a good woodsman i'm not woodsman i'm a good carpenter i i chuckle i hope to take answers on as a apprentice of sorts so i knew him a fair bit and he was a good boy polite Okay. But after that day, he became aggressive, violent even. He would hit other children quite regularly and for little offenses. I'd like to write in my journal, Bewitched, and circle it with a question mark, I'll be. And Annette similarly changed. She became shy, very shy shy she didn't speak to anyone i mean she was always a little shy but she just stopped talking stopped talking to anyone and

anything and i don't know how much i believe this but several of the other children said that they could hear her muttering spells under her breath yeah Yeah, that is very startling, you're not wrong. And how soon after they returned with this nail and mirror did they disappear? It would have been about a week. About a week after. And it was a progressive thing. It was slow at first, but then over the course of the week, they became more aggressive or more quieted and closeted.

And then after about a week, they went out to play and just didn't return. We've sent search parties, but we found neither hide nor hair of them. Well, I hope that I will be able to bring some closure to this town. If I can do nothing else else i hope to do that so grace you're not sure of the significance of the mirror or the nail okay cool but you yeah you're just not sure of the significance i feel like there's something there well yeah yeah but but what the significance is yeah i'm not sure um well this meal is is it like evening what's the time or like lunchtime it's nighttime definitely in night it's the same night that you were attacked well if you'd like i can get started right away

but um i feel i feel you're not going to get much done in your state and tonight so please tomorrow morning this is william still speaking tomorrow morning when you arise i would say go to the chapel through do nods yes uh tomorrow morning when you I would say go to the chapel. Thudu nods. Yes, tomorrow morning when you wake up, come to the chapel, and I'll walk you through the corpse. I'll be there. Crack of dawn. Okay.

Well, I should probably get some rest then. Thank you so much to the four of you. No, thank you, says William. And should you need any of our help, I am not a particularly good skilled fighter, but Mally knows a way around a bow, Mally nods, and of course Thudu is a cleric. Well, I would appreciate any help I can get, but obviously I don't want you to put yourselves in undue danger. You do have the town to look after, you know, you are the council,

so again, if you can spare your services I'd appreciate them, but please do not feel obligated. You're a kind man. Alright, well, I will to bed. I will see you in the morning. I will retire to my room. I will organize my notes within

my journal and then rest to a sweet rest. You'll awaken the next day completely refreshed. Okay, I'll head for the chapel. Okay. Thudu is standing outside of the chapel, and you can see that there's a line of people here. They all look quite clearly distressed,

and they're petitioning Thudu for advice. Okay. Thudu is slowly going through them. There's maybe 40 people here? Quite a crowd. Gosh. And each of them, you can see are saying something it's all something to do with whatever's happening one of them is like quite clearly a woodsman and you can see that he's he's cradling his arm and before thudu he says

one of the trees it turned my blade and sliced my arm i think i might be cursed can you show can you tell and he puts his arm out through who looks at it carefully and says no it's not you're a fool and a child sometimes off with you okay i'd like to if i can give a give a peep to the wound as he reveals it to see if i can see anything about it it just seems like a simple cut okay yeah um well know what? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Sir, sorry, before you leave, can you describe the tree? I could take you to it. Well, I may ask that of you at some point. I have duty to attend to this morning, but I'm Sir Jordan Grace. It's a pleasure. But if later on today you take

me out to... I hear many of the woodsmen have been seeing the trees come to life. And though I couldn't imagine what that would be, I would love to get, well, I guess a firsthand look at where it's been happening. My name is Grattan Wood. He tells you where you can find him. Well, I thank you, Grattan. I'd like to, I'll stay, Thudu whilst all of these people come through and offer what advice I can as well. If they ask. A lot of people are kind of just scared out of their minds.

You deal with a lot of people who are just like, my child is also acting up, but you're like, this is just, it's just a kid. There's nothing wrong here. I'm not a father, but that might just be children.

I don't know. Get a good boy card. That's funny. So I don't know if I'm just going to establish it once here. Yeah. So you can use your good boy cards to reroll anything. Oh, okay. Cool.

So you spend it and you can just get any sort of reroll. You can reroll damage. Cool. You can reroll an attack roll. Great. Anything, okay. Cool. So you spend it and you can just get any sort of re-roll. You can re-roll damage. Cool. You can re-roll an attack roll. Great. For sure. Anything like that. Sometimes it'll be a balancing act between how much did you roll? Is it worth a re-roll? Or worth adding whatever the cut. Yeah, fantastic. Yeah. Cool. So you're doing this for maybe an hour

before you and Thuddu slowly clear the crowd and then Thuddu can direct you into the chapel. As we head into the chapel, I'd like to be like, Thud is it is it like this every day or perhaps just every disappearance since the children have disappeared of course well yeah let's um have a look at the poor child and see if we can oh it's an adult oh an adult i see in the chapel yeah You find the mangled corpse of Gida. Mm-hmm. Gida.

A male elf. I'd like to, I don't know, have a look over the body. I'm no surgeon, I explained to Thuddu, but perhaps it's something I can see that others missed. So I'm going to break it down into head, chest, arms, legs. Cool. Where do you want to look first? Well, let's begin at the head.

Gida has a narrow face, which is splattered with blood. There's blood presumably from the chest up along his cheek and over his nose and even touching his eyes, which are closed. Okay. How do you want to? Maybe I will try to open the eyes just to see if there's anything. Pull the eyelid up gently and respectfully,

but to see if that helps me, if his eyes are bloodshot. What were once soft grey eyes are now, as you say, bloodshot. And I mean completely bloodshot. Deep red pools. I write down in my journal something like perhaps a high amount of pressure or tension something like that could have caused something like this it's very interesting uh all right i'll let the eyelids drop i'll uh open the mouth if i can see what's inside there

in inside gita's mouth his tongue has his tongue is missing there's a lot of gore in here. Fudo, I don't know if you know, but the other people's bodies, were their tongues missing as well? Sometimes. Okay. Some of their tongues had more just been destroyed, popped as if under great pressure. Yeah, I'd like to write tongue, then an arrow from tongue to great pressure or crushed.

Okay, I give a brief check in the ears, I guess. The Gitter's pointy ears appear normal. There's a little bit of blood leaking out of both of them. Okay. All right, I'll move on to torso. All right. See what I can discern here. Gitter's torso is a mess.

see what i can discern here gitter's torso is a mess he was wearing at the time wearing studded leather armor and you can see that the studs in the studs have been all pushed together with the leather there's the leather is wrinkled from something you peel the leather back and look at Gita's chest. Gita's ribs are powdered. There's like just fractures everywhere. Gita's internal organs are a soup. So some kind of strong force to the chest, some kind of immense pressure on the chest. chest some kind of immense pressure on the chest does it seem like it's a um uh like a concentrated area on the chest or the whole chest seems like the whole chest okay so i'm gonna write in my

journal crushed possibly okay um can i okay so. Organs are basically a slurry with delicious bone chunks in there. Yes. Cool. And it seems contained on the chest, or if I move down to, like, pelvis... It seems contained on the, yeah, the chest. Okay, the very front. Or chest and stomach area. Yeah, okay, cool, cool.

All right, I'll move on to arms just to have a look there. Two of his fingers show obvious calluses on it, and you would deduce immediately that those calluses are from a skilled bowman. Was Gita a hunter, I ask Thudur? Thudur shakes her head. A short bow was found near the corpse. Okay, presumably Gita's. Do I know of a short bow?

Is that like a hunting bow? You could use a short bow as hunting, yeah. Okay. It's typically the sort of bow that you might use hunting on horseback, but not exclusively, not by any chance. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah, you find calluses there, but you find no marks of like a struggle.

There's no like damage to any nails well yeah like nothing under the nails like as though gita's not like scratched the chest or whatever this is um at the the place where the body was found i i don't suppose you know if there were any arrows discovered doodoo shakes her head no okay did she have a quiver gita yes okay can i have a look at the quiver doodoo brings you the quiver. It's stocked with 20 arrows. Is that typically, I mean, I guess, is there like a, this is how many arrows you bring kind of thing?

You think to tip the quiver one way, because all the arrows are spaced very evenly out. Yeah. You think to tip the quiver upside down and look inside. Yeah. You can see that the quiver is subdivided with little strings of leather. Yeah. Inside the quiver upside down and look inside yeah you can see that the quiver is subdivided with little strings of leather yeah in inside the quiver you can see clearly that this is meant to separate the arrows like a like how you might put bottles into like a six-pack or whatever okay meant to separate the arrows for easier grabbing all 20 arrows are still here. So no arrows fired. That's very interesting.

I suppose whatever this was came as a shock to Gita. Okay, well, let's have a look at the legs. All right. Get a good boycott. Lucky devil me. And when you're inspecting Gita's legs, you see nothing of interest until you get to Gita's boots. Gita's boots are covered in a

soft milky residue when you put a hand upon it and brush it forwards it comes off and it's it doesn't really stick but it does it feels like a like a slush like a like icy almost you can tell that this is residue from the spell fog cloud oh magic of some kind or the magic yes a magical spell cast presumably by a creature with intelligence an actual spell spell okay are there um many magic users in the village doodoo shakes her head I can cast a spell, but it's more prayer, I would say. Sure, sure. Other than me... I just know magic use is somewhat rarer the further out you get.

Other than me, Thudu shakes her head. There are no arcane casters in town. That's very interesting. I write wizard in my notebook with a question mark. Fog cloud isn't going to cause... Fog cloud is just like a cloud of fog it's it's it's like obscure obscure yeah it obscures things obscuration of it gives light obscurity okay obfuscate that's what i'm looking at yeah okay it might be enough to sneak up on a

person sure sure sure sure sure sure the area you found Gita's body, there was none of this residue. I kind of gesture with my hand. In the area? Thudu shakes her head. I didn't search it. Okay. I believe the body was discovered by Mally. Okay.

Well, thank you, Thudu. I think I've discovered everything I can from the body. All right. What would you like to do next? Well, first of all, I'd be like, look, I appreciate you letting me have a look. I think I got a lot of valuable information from this. I might, I spoke to

a woodsman earlier, the gentleman who cut his hand. He said he was going to show me that part of the woods. Did I think that was far from the village? You think it would be kind of close, like within walking distance. You're not gonna you're not gonna be going it's not a day trip i guess what i'm just wondering is like is it worth chatting

to mally first about what the um the crime scene looks like uh before heading out to the woods if you ask thudu yeah the crime scene seems a lot further than okay i'll head to where the woodsman was then okay thank you and well tonight if you want to grab a drink with you and the rest of the others, I'd love to do that again. It will be our weekly meeting tonight. Fabulous. I'll be there. Before you leave, Thuddu gives you two health potions. Oh, much appreciated, Thuddu.

If you're journeying into the forest alone, Thuddu says, be careful. I appreciate that. Well, again, like I said, when I make the trip, maybe even to the crime scene if that's far away I wouldn't say crime scene maybe even to the

scene of the crime to where Ghida was killed yeah maybe if I make the journey to where Ghida was killed later today I would love for you to accompany me do do nods I can help after six yeah okay no worries.

I like to think I'm a skilled fighter, but as you saw with the wolves, sometimes I need a hand. No, it's not you. It's dangerous. Well, thank you very much. And I will head for the woods. You track down... Are you bringing the woodsman with you? Yeah, if he's outside, yeah, absolutely.

He'll come with, absolutely. He wants to show you. Great. Alright, with his help, you don. Absolutely. He wants to show you. Great. All right. With his help, you don't need to make any sort of roll. Cool. His name was Grattan Wood. Grattan Wood. That's right. Yes.

He takes you to where he was chopping wood. You see that there's a large, thick tree here, ironwood tree. At the base of it is an axe that is slightly chipped. Okay. Grattan points to the axe. That was mine okay you was the incident um it where you did sorry let me begin again grattan did you attack the tree and then it attacked you back or did you start to chop the tree and it attacked you i was trying to chop it

down yeah well reasonable that's what a tree is for and as soon as i swung, I could tell that something was wrong. When my axe struck upon the tree, it sounded like a bell rather than iron on wood. And then my axe bounced back and cut me on the arm. I see. I'll go up to the tree and like, I don't know, give it a feel. Just a kind of an investigate, you know. The bark of the tree feels normal. You can see that there have been several cuts made on the tree by an axe, presumably. Okay. It looks like someone has, presumably Grattan,

has been swinging at it for a little while and made considerable headway. Okay. Grattan, would you mind if I swung the axe at the tree? Go for it. All right, I'll pick up the axe and hook, chop into the tree. With a single swing, you clear a lot of wood. Okay. The tree almost immediately starts toppling.

Oh my God, I'm so sorry, Grattan. I don't know my own strength, I guess. What mysteries does this tree contain? Find out next time on Fall From Grace Part 1, The Hag. you can have access to a whole bunch of bonus shows and content that were once only available to Sants Pants Plus members, the further adventures of the Greyhill Free Company if you want shorter campaigns with beautiful guests, and D&D is for Nerds, not Ognot,

where all our non-canon D&D adventures go to rest. Just search for D&D is for Nerds on your favourite podcast app of choice and join us on this epic quest of D&D podcast discovery.