D&D is For Nerds - Fall from Grace: The Hag #4 Cabin in the Wood

Episode Date: February 8, 2020

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Hey gang, in case you don't know, Australia's on fire. And it's only now just hit the start of our fire season. Already, close to 20 million hectares have been burnt or are currently on fire, 34 people have died and we've lost half a billion animals to the point where koalas are functionally extinct. half a billion animals to the point where koalas are functionally extinct. So, to help raise funds for Wildlife Victoria, we're teaming up with our mates from Planet Broadcasting this February 20th to bring you a live Plumbing the Death Star, followed by a Sandspans Radio v Planet Broadcasting showdown hosted by Do Go On's Dave Warnicke and our very own Jackson B. Bailey to decide which network is the greatest mate once and for all.

At Trivia. Details are in the show notes or head to our website, sanspantsradio.com slash live. Now tickets are limited, so get in quick. Once again, all proceeds are going to Wildlife Victoria. And for all you international or interstate dickheads that can't make it, you can still show your support by going to wildlifevictoria.org.au and giving directly, or you can head to our merch store over at streamlabs.com slash sanspantsradio slash merch and grab a fundraiser tee, where once again, all proceeds are going to Wildlife Victoria. to Wildlife Victoria. 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 four of Fall From Grace, part one, The Hag. Previously... Birketh, the mirror and the nail that the children had, did they disappear with them, or do we still have them? No, she rum I, uh, she rummages in a bag. I collected them because I thought we might need them. She hands them to you. I'd like, yeah, to collect them and put them in my coin purse with the wolf coin.

All right, hag in my thing and circle it. Who, who's the oldest person in town? The oldest person in town? Well, that would be Dwoin. Dwoin? Dwoin. Would I be able to speak to them? Do you think it's unreasonable for me to say that perhaps a hag is what we're dealing with here?

I mean, it would explain the magic. Oh, yes. A hag is surely the cause of our problems. But what hag? There are many. I open up Emmanuel's book of monsters to H4Hack. It's actually ordered by size. Granny convinces the child that it's okay to have bad thoughts and do bad deeds.

As I read this, I finger the coin that I have in my pocket, the little mirror and the nail. I am competent and I am confident, but I am also just one man. So Mally or Thudu, if you would accompany me, we'll both help you. Nothing happens and you've made the pit maybe five feet deeper. It'll have to do us. I don't want everyone here at night. I don't know. I don't want everyone in danger. All right.

I will go back to, I guess, where I first encountered the ogre, plant my ground and wait. In the forest, looking for the half ogre you plan to lure into your trap you wait after some time you feel a chill run down your spine and you can see that mist is slowly starting to seep all around you cool all right i still try to make myself known maybe i'll i'll just be kind of like whistling a tune or something like that. I want to stand out. You see a giant figure loping through the woods towards you. Hello again, foul creature.

This time you see something that you didn't spot the first time. There's two figures. Oh no. One figure is stooped, but in its stupid nature, you can still tell that if it stood up straight it would be massive okay compared to the the other creature it's still small does it roughly look like um if it stood up like roughly it'd be like eight feet tall maybe only seven oh well maybe it's not that as heck maybe i'm just that lucky you can tell that there's two creatures one of them much larger yeah walking towards you as the fog gets thicker and thicker and thicker and then eventually you're you're making you know

you're whistling you're trying to be noticed you see the smaller creature peel off and the bigger one keeps coming towards you okay that's probably good. Yeah, that's right, buddy. All right. comes into the light of your torch, you get its face in stark relief. Mama says it's time to eat! All right. She bursts towards you. I leg it towards the trap. You start sprinting further into the forest.

It is after you. Yep. Yep. Trying to keep, remember the direction that the trap is in. Don't want to fall in the trap myself that would be unfortunate you you do a pretty good job of keeping ahead of it you actually maybe even need to slow yourself down so that it can keep up and it won't lose you yeah come back food you launch yourself near the copse of trees and you can

see the trap ahead. You can see the, you've tried as best as you can to cover it up but it's not perfect. It'll do in the darkness and with this creature. I don't think it's very clever, yeah. Alright, do I have enough time to like round to the other side of the pit trap before it bursts out

of the woods? Probably not actually you slowed down a little bit too much okay is it running for me yes i would like to lie down and hope it overshoots me so like slide underneath you lucky little son of a bitch you stop right before the pit trap or right before the pit trap you throw yourself to the ground trap, you throw yourself to the ground, and the ogre, the half ogre steps over you accidentally. Food! His foot goes straight through the pit trap,

and he tumbles over you. Rah! You hear him being pierced by the spikes below. I'd like to stand up and like, hell no! All right. Have everyone throw that alchemist fire around. You deal, or the Piotr deals a total of six, seven,

eight points of damage to the half ogre. Cool. Then I will say that your two allies get a free round to act. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Throw in that alchemist fury. So Thudu waddles up to the edge of the pit and then pours a vial of alchemist fire down into it. The half ogre takes

a further two points of damage and catches fire. Cool. And Mally damage and catches fire cool and mally fires down into the pit first attack is a critical hint great fantastic all fun and games roll a d100 on a five or less you are blinded in one eye Cool. No, unfortunately. It is a hit, though. Yeah, good. And Mally deals 10 points of damage. Great. Fantastic.

The ogre bellows in rage. Cool. And then we'll go to initiative. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. All right. Should have kept the woodsman around. We could have all fired arrows in. Oh, well.

Didn't want them to get hurt, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could have gone wrong. I could have fallen in that pit trap with it. Very possible. Alright, it's the ogre's turn first. It tries to climb its way out of the hole. And it does so. Uh oh.

It is standing up. So Grace, I'll allow you... Oh no, wait. It didn't need to... If it was smaller, It is standing up. So, Grace, I'll allow you. Oh, no, wait. It didn't need to. Yep. If it was smaller, you might have gotten a free attack. That's fair. Unfortunately, getting out of the thing is pretty easy for it, actually.

It swings down at you with its giant axe and you roll out of the way. It kicks dirt up in all directions. You are splattered with dirt, but it missed. It's your turn, Grace. All right, I'd like to get to my feet and drive my spear into its legs, I guess. All right, your attack is probably going to miss. Yeah, unfortunately, because of your new spearhead, you're not used to using this weapon, of your new spearhead you're not used to using this weapon and the slightly off center spearhead just slides along its leg cutting it but not dealing proper damage i'll action surge and

stab again all right this time you do get it good good good good good good you deal You deal 10 points of damage. The creature sways. You bring your spear back towards you. And this time you used its slightly curved nature to your advantage. You cut a giant gash in its leg and you immediately feel it's like you. Well, a hydraulic system is not something that you would be familiar with but it's like a steam or water hydraulic system when you cut it open you cut open its artery very very deep and long cut immediately the half ogre's heart empties half of its blood out of its leg the half ogre sways backwards and forwards backwards and forwards and then collapses from blood loss oh odds are evens evens it collapses backwards into the pit oh thank god due to the

fire damage the fall damage and the spike damage the ogre is immediately and outright killed. I stand up or, you know, get back into a normal position. Well done. Well done, everyone. Okay. The ogre in the pit slowly burns. Is everybody okay? Everyone nods. All right.

Maybe, uh... Let's wait around. Let's wait around until it's finished cooking and go and have a kind of look at it, I suppose. Any clues we can discern about it or where it came from? Probably worthwhile. So you're not going to put it out? The fire? Yeah.

Oh, if it's dead, do we have anything to put it out with? I guess dirt. Yeah, you can pile dirt. Yeah, sure. All right. Well, in that case, yeah, if you don't have to wait for it to burn out, we pile dirt on it. Just go and have a, like, I don't know, like a quick investigate. The ogre had pants and a simple vest.

You stop the fire before it spreads too much and destroys much. Yeah. You've got the head, torso, arms, legs. Let's go legs up, I guess. Legs up. All right. legs up all right so you give the ogre a pat down and you find that in one of its pockets is a small little little metal or iron dagger okay i would say as well i didn't mention it before but the anise hag you find out yeah can pull one of its iron teeth or nails out of its body and spend about a minute shaping and polishing it

into the form of a coin, ring, dagger, or tiny mirror. Thereafter, any creature that holds this iron token can have a whispered conversation with the hag, provided that the creature and the hag are on the same plane of existence and within 10 miles of each other. I see. A hag can have up to three iron tokens active at any one time huh that's interesting active at any one time i guess maybe they're not i put the the iron dagger the little iron dagger in my coin purse

as well once the connection has been served it just becomes a regular like there's nothing special to it cool which is probably the case for i guess every iron object that i have at the moment possibly yes yeah well it's hard to well if have you made this aware have you made everyone aware of this yeah sure absolutely but when i'm reading through mally says uh she probably doesn't know that the ogre is dead that's a good point not yet this one's the dagger is probably still in some way active. Is it like a two-way route? Like, can she hear me? Yeah, you can hear each other, but only each other.

Okay. So there's no extraneous noise that can be heard. Nevertheless, I put the dagger in the coin purse to be looked at maybe when we get back to town. Okay. Then I will, get torso torso it is obviously like i said the vest there doesn't appear to be anything interesting cool yeah i get a bad boy card and there doesn't appear to be anything interesting on the torso no worries uh all right arms arm same difference uh get another bad boy card. Wow.

I'm too distracted by this iron dagger. You clearly are. And then head, I guess. If there's nothing. In the arms, if I'm like, just arms. You get a good boy card. Hey! Just actually fucking crazy. That's karma, man. You can tell that there's nothing of interest other than the dagger

that you found. Okay. Cool. Well, is it worth covering the body up? We bury it, the hag doesn't... Let's bury it in the pit. Yeah, it doesn't see it, you know? Yeah. Alright, we spend the... You spend a great deal of the night burying

the ogre in the pit. Cool. Alright, fantastic. Well, thank you everybody, but we need some rest. If tomorrow we intend to go after the Anis hag, and I think we should as soon as possible, then time to go to bed. All right, we retire to the tavern. And as you're walking back to town, Sir Grace, you hear a voice in the back of your head,

like someone will be whispering there, where is my little boy? I take the, you know what, I'm going gonna wait till i get back to the tavern this is a conversation for me and the anise heck all right well if you say nothing immediately or if you don't respond for a couple of minutes you hear the voice again my little boy must come home now oh no, no. That's so bad. That's so bad. Is it worth pretending to be the ogre? Come home, come home, my little child.

I become too disturbed by it. I take the dagger out of the back of my coin purse and just hurl it at a tree. All right, cool. Sorry, but... Mally asks, what happened? That two-way communication through and a piece of the anus hag's tooth, possibly just a bit too much for me.

Are you okay? Yeah, I think I'll be okay. I think I'll be all right. Thank you. You get back to the broken hammer. I think I'll be all right. Thank you. You get back to the broken hammer. To the broken hammer and have a nap. Okay. Well, you have no hit points to recover.

I guess you get your action surge and such back. All right. Next day. Cool. We've got the magic arrows. We have the cold iron. It hasn't rained or anything yet. Like near where um the

two children went missing those footprints would still be visible do we think yeah you think the they'll be fine well then i'll gather thudu mally and myself and we will make our way towards the um towards the yeah the footprints when you get to the little meadow, the little meadowy area and the crook, you can see that the children's little, little hutch has been knocked over completely. And something's been thrashing around here. Not the half ogre, something big, but smaller than the half ogre. Okay. Carved, not carved, but set into the mud near the creek yeah you can see words in common written my little boy is dead i will kill yours now uh uh let's hurry mally looks pale

so do i all right you begin tracking back along uh the path well not the path you begin tracking the trail luckily now you have two sets of tracks to follow cool cool oh boy after maybe an hour of walking deeper and deeper into the forest you start noticing that the trees once again are being a blotting out the sun and that there's a fog that just clings to the ground i clutch my spear tighter and and push forward i steal myself and push forward you get deeper and deeper into the forest and the fog gets thicker and thicker and thicker and eventually the sun isn't here at all. You need to light torches. Cool. Yeah, I do.

I light my torch, hold the spear in one hand. The light, you're not sure if it's in your mind or some magic about you, but the light seems smaller than it would normally. So it is the light of the lantern held by Mally. You go further and further in and the fog gets higher and higher until it's clinging to about your waist. Gosh. Eventually, the trees become dead, gnarled things like hands sticking out of the ground, grasping upwards. But still with enough life on them that they continue to blot out the sun

so grace you were the first to see it yep in the middle of a copse of trees a copse of dead gnarled trees you can see a thatched building it looks like a hovel more than anything else an even sadder abode than uh dowan's place okay i have to assume this is it unless either of you can recognize this building neither of them say anything both of them just shake their heads slowly okay you can see a brackish looking dead like little lake near the house i mean very little not even a lake actually just a small body of water you might call you might call it a series of puddles all around here there is no vegetation there's just mud and muck you can also hear a child singing then you see a child, a small boy, maybe no older than five, slowly walking his way along the fence of this abode.

He's balancing on the top, trying to keep himself from falling on either side. And as he goes, you hear him singing like a strange song. One, two, time to kill. Three kill three four they're all dead five six kill some more seven eight granny says don't start one two okay i i i i come out of the forest hey hey there little uh little fella hey mister the kid stops on the fence and mally standing behind you whispers it's ansys is um is your granny home yeah granny's home okay um are you hurt no okay how's granny doing today you see him he slowly sits down on the the fence the fence is made out of like just piled piled stones you see him pick up a stone and throw it at you okay rude

critical hit fucking hell wow all right kid j. Imagine this kid blinds me. Christ. Rap on the knuckles. Triple damage, and you have disadvantage on dexterity-based attacks for four rounds. It deals you triple damage, so it would deal you two points of damage. Fuck. He threw it hard.

He threw it to her. That kid, he wants me. Yeah, okay. Fuck. He threw it hard. He threw it to her. That kid, he wants me. Yeah, okay. And you will take a disadvantage on dexterity-based attacks. You nearly drop your spear. Hey, kid. Don't throw a rock at me. All right.

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Granny says it's okay. Yeah, well, Granny's wrong. He picks up another rock. Okay, I'm going to go and back it today. Granny says it's okay. Yeah, well, Granny's wrong. He picks up another rock. Okay, I'm going to go and grab the child. You sprint towards the child. Yeah. And as you do so, he stands up. Granny!

Granny! Granny! Too late. The door slams open. Standing in the doorway. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Let me have a propaganda at this old gal.

This looks nothing like the one in Emmanuel's Book of Monsters. Oh, I don't like... Well, I mean, everything about this is bad, but the black flowers growing on her body is truly awful. Wow, she's huge, too. those are human skulls granny's too big yeah yeah granny's huge you've come have you give these kids back oh no, no, no. She takes a step forward, and as she does so, her form changes immediately to that of Mally.

And when she speaks, she speaks with Mally's voice. How could I possibly let my beautiful grandchildren go? I know that's not really Mally. She takes another step forward and her visage changes to that of, we'll say, Grattan. She changes to become Grattan and her voice changes to become Grattan's. But of course they're going to stay here, just as you will. I don't think that's going to be the case. She takes another step and her visage changes to that of willian she appears as willian and she speaks with willian's voice you will all stay here your bones your your beautiful

flesh consumed and put in my pot i'm gonna. If she keeps doing this until she's close enough to hit and then stab her. She takes another step forward and she is close enough. I will drive the spear into her gut. You stab forwards. She grabs the spear and then combat begins. Oh, no. Oh, no. All right.

So it's the hag's turn first. I've amassed a dirty amount of good boy cards over the course of this adventure. Hopefully they will benefit me in the coming battle. All right. Wait, I choose my initiative score and I go first. You act lost in the initiative score. Damn it.

No, we'll say they cancel each other out. Yeah, that's fair. Nothing happens. So you're not lost, that's fair. Nothing happens. So you're not last, but you're not first either. All right. So the hag goes first. She swings at you with one of her claws and misses. Then she swings at you with another claw and, oh, critical hit.

Oh, no. Ba-ba-ba-bam. Bam. Stunning blow. Make a DC 16 constitution saving throw. On a failed save, you are stunned until your next turn. Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

So you will take three points of damage. Yeah. And you need to make that saving throw. Uh-huh. You fail. 1d4 to a saving throw? Reroll. You rolled a two. Okay, I'll reroll that dice,? Reroll. You rolled a 2.

Okay, I'll reroll that dice. Yeah. All right. You rolled another 2. Roll, reroll. All right. You rolled a 1. I'm just not.

I'm sorry, buddy. All right, whatever. I guess I'm stunned. All right. Stunned. You are incapacitated as the condition. You can only move and speak only falteringly. Basically, you just lose your next attack.

Yeah, that's fair. Then she finally, when she grabs you with either claw, she tries to drag you forwards to bite you. Oh, God. And she's going to bite you. Being bitten with human teeth is the worst. Iron teeth. Oh, no.

Oh, yeah. I'm assuming the iron things she's given me aren't cold iron, are they? No, they would not be. They won't negate the damage. Cool. Be deals. Negate the resistance, I mean. Five points of damage.

Oh, fuck. As she bites down upon you. Okay. Give Granny a hug. Fuck off. All right. Your turn. You unfortunately kind of just miss your action.

Then it's the NPC's turn. So, Thudu charges in behind you and grabs you from behind. I've got you, she says. She casts a spell and you regain six hit points. Thank you, Thuddu. The first arrow that whizzes past you embeds itself

in the wall of the house. The second arrow, however, strikes. Yep. She hisses and takes nine points of damage. How dare you hurt Granny? Okay. Then it is her turn.

She's going to keep attacking you. That's fair. Her first attack is going to be a hit. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. You take four points of damage. All right. That's not too bad.

That's not too bad. I can deal with four points of damage. All right. That's not too bad. That's not too bad. I can deal with four points of damage. I totally didn't even realize Thuddu was a, she's a cleric. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. No, that's good.

I totally didn't even wig to that. So I'm glad we've got a healer in the party. Second attack is a miss. Okay. And she fails to bite you as well. Okay. You can feel that she's trying to draw you in to hug you. You do not. I know that that is. Yeah. You don't think that's. What a way to die. bite you as well okay you can feel that she's trying to draw you in to hug you you do i know

that that is uh yeah you don't think that what a way to die and then it's your turn sir grace okay can i uh disengage or leave i'll use my good boy card to not get an attack of op all right you can just move back can i if i move to my basic plan isengage, grab the arrow out of the wall of the shack, and then throw my spear at the anus hag. You can do that. All right, I will do that. All right. You move past the anus hag. As you do so, you slam her in the belly.

She doubles over and is unable to, maybe she tries to swipe at you, but it's like a very wide open swipe, and you can easily duck under it. You get to the house. You pull out the arrow. You throw the spear. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Oh, that's a one. Oh, goddammit.

I can't believe this. I've only got a fortuitous circumstance, which seems like such a- Spend it to reroll. Yeah, spend it to reroll. All right, you strike the anise hag. Okay, cool, cool, cool. You deal 11 points of damage to the anise hag.

Great, good. She cries out in pain. Then it is your ally's turn. Thudu draws her holy symbol in against her chest, and you hear her saying, By the blessed light, by the blessed light, please, please, please, by the blessed light by the blessed light please please please by the blessed light shine down upon us you can see a little bit of light start peering through

the trees as the hag hisses at thudu your god will not save you from granny but nonetheless you feel a bit invigorated while this spell is active all you, when you make an attack roll or saving throw, you can add a d4 to whatever you roll. Oh, great. Yeah. All right. Fabulous. That's her turn. Then Mally fires regular arrows.

No, that's fair. First attack's a critical hit. Hey! Second attack's a critical hit! Hey! Second attack's a critical hit! Mally, you fucking champion. Mally, you fucking gun. Look, half damage, but... Still.

Poke in the belly, double damage. Just deal damage. Mally does four damage on her first attack. Great. The arrow maybe shoots the hag right in the eye. Ah, yeah, fuck. Pinned. Double damage and the target becomes pinned to the ground and is restrained.

Great. So the second arrow goes straight between the webbing of one of her feet. The second attack deals eight points of damage. Great. The anise hag hisses and tries to lunge at Mally, but probably just can't work itself. Oh, no, no. The Anishag is out and is free. Oh, no.

It launches past Thudu at Mally. Thudu gets a free swipe, but misses. The Anishag gets to Mally. First attack, miss. Second attack, miss. Okay. Oh, no. Grabbing both of Mally's hands, the anise hag tries to drag Mally forwards.

Mally is doing a good job of twisting and shifting, trying to get out of the creature's grip. But then the anise hag wraps its entire mouth around Mally's head and bites. Oh, no. Oh, Adam, that's the worst thing I've ever heard. She deals 10 points of damage to Mally. Jesus Christ. Mally is screaming, but the screaming is muffled by the anise hag's mouth. That's so awful.

I can't even. It's your turn, Grace. Can I run? hag's mouth that's so awful i can't even it's your turn grace uh can i can i run handing something to someone is not a that's like a reaction yeah it's a for them to take it it's a free action yeah can i can i want to give the arrow to because i don't think giving it to mally will help anyone can i give it to thudu and then jump on the anise hag and drive my spear in further. I'd allow that. Yeah, cool. You run past Thudu, giving her the arrow. Fling it to her. And then you

launch yourself at the anise hag. You get a... You hit barely. You manage to force the spear through the anise hag's hide. And unfortunately, you're going to deal minimum damage on

curse you bad boy god you deal three points of damage fuck no uh four points of damage hey something you drive it as deep as you possibly can but you can't have you don't have any leverage yeah and the spear is not very well made, unfortunately. No, that's fair. You do hurt the anise hag. Unfortunately, that just means it starts tightening around Mally's head. Fuck. All right.

Thudu charges up behind the anise hag and tries to swing with her mace. She lands a hit, but she only deals three points of damage. That sucks. The anise hag doesn't really seem to care much about what you're doing. And then Mally tries to get out of the anise hag's clutches, but she cannot. Fuck. It's the anise hag's turn. Fuck.

The anise hag wraps its arms around Mally and lifts her up. With an awful squelching sound she begins to crush mally a popping sound is is its is its mouth letting go of mally's head okay ali you see her her mouth is open in silent scream but she has no air to make any sound mally's tongue explodes oh no mally's eyes pop pop pop out of her head oh my god mally's chest is crushed completely out of mally's mouth a few white shards shoot up into the air when they land you realize they are ribs oh my god the anise hag lets go of Mally's corpse. Yep, yep. Cool, cool, cool.

Super sick, dude. So, Grace, it's your turn. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Did you say disadvantage? No. Were you about to say it, though? I'm sorry.

I'm just going to let you know. Disadvantage on your next attack. That's cool. That's so cool. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm out of bad boy cards, though. Hey, that's pretty good.

But I'm also out of good boy cards. Can I see whether or not the second magic arrow is crushed? It's in her chest. Okay. As in, it's in the... Anise hag's chest. Okay, that's right. Yes.

Sweet. Okay. Will it be an action to take it out i would say no but i would say that the anise hag gets a free attack on you if you try to um all right that's okay can i run run up to the anise hag or maybe try and if i'm still if i'm still standing next to it yeah if i'm still holding my, try to force it in further, like to get some leverage behind it. And at the same time, try and take out the arrow. Oh, you rolled 2 to 14, so it was largely irrelevant. You keep driving your spear into it, and you deal a further 7 points of damage to the anise hag.

And the anise hag gets a swipe on you, but you will to the anise hag and the anise hag gets a swipe on you but you will recover the the anise hag no actually it it's all right it hits that's that's oh yep that's a hit you take six points of damage as the anise hag slashes you with one of its claws yeah you however grab the arrow cool then i Then I can action surge. Yeah. Then I would like to leap off the anise hag, back up, load it into my bow, and fire it at her. I'll allow it. Cool.

Cool. You take a five-foot step backwards, knock the arrow, draw back, and fire. You strike the anise hag directly in its chest a second time, dealing seven points of damage the anise hag collapses over backwards when it hits the mud you see it writhing and twisting and trying to get up but as it does so it slowly it slowly begins leaking black bile into the mud around it. It hisses and screams.

The book told you this would happen. It screams everything it has ever said in life backwards. Oh, God. Oh, God. I, like someone hearing. This isn't dying. Yeah, yeah, I figured. Like someone hearing the THX sound, I reel from the noise.

But as it finally dies, I would like to say, the Summer and Winter Court had the right idea, you fucking wretch. I'd like to look at Thudu, see how she's doing. Thudu looks shocked, but is standing. She wasn't touched by the anapad. Then I would like to go over to the mangled corpse of Mally. Okay. A rock strikes you on the back of the head.

Hey! You killed Granny! Quit it! Someone grab that kid. Thudu runs over and grabs Ansis, then goes into the hut. She comes out really quickly with Annette as well. Yeah. What's the, I like look away from Mal, like tear my eyes away from it.

What's going on inside? Thudu shakes her head. The hut is not good. The hut is not good. Stay here. I'm going to walk. Thudu is dragging. Annette is dug both of her feet

into the ground and is kicking up mud as through slowly drags her away from the hut do you walk into the hut yeah there's no obvious place to sleep okay there's like badly made shelving and on the shelving are alchemical ingredients but fell awful ones you see like rather than eye of newt it there's like human fingers arranged in jars cool there's uh uh like awful body parts taken from various animals shelved here for whatever the anise hag was going to use them for. And there's a big pot. In the pot, you see a broth is bubbling. Yeah, I can put two and two together as to what's in the broth. I would like to search the place to see if there are any other kids

and maybe even clues as to what brought the anise hag back. You find no clues of other children here, but you... All right, so you find... No, you wouldn't find any clues here of what brought the anise hag back. Okay. Well, if there's nothing else to be found in here,

I'll leave. Okay. How are the kids doing? Are they still kicking up a fuss yeah they don't want to leave i'd like to go up to them and like hoik up my pants and like kneel down in front of them hey guys hey how you doing i know you're angry right now where's granny what have you done with granny granny was no good okay i know that ansys tries to slap you yeah yeah I'd like to maybe grab like Ansis like gently and like pull him in for a hug to be like it's okay you're okay Ansis kicks and screams he tries

to bite you all right okay okay Ansis we're gonna get you back to your mom and dad. Blood! Blood! I want blood! Okay, well, this is going to take some doing, I guess. I will carry Ansys back wriggling and screaming if Thudu carries Annette. You get back to town. All right, we're going to take these kids to their parents' first things first. When you get back to town, everyone was kind of expecting this. Everyone kind of in town knew this was do or die so when you return there's actually quite a lot of people out of their houses and waiting for you there's a tremendous cheering and people accelerating and wild and there's drink and

merriness as you and thudu with the stoniest ashen-faced expression. Slowly wander through town. The kids are grabbed again. You gotta go serve them again. Birkinth grabs them and says, I'll take them to their parents. Right, they're in no state. But hopefully, I don't know, after some time, whatever magic the anise hag was weaving will wear off. Birkinth slowly nods and says, they're alive. Yeah, hey, that's all that matters at this point.

They seem like good kids underneath it all, you know? They got parents that love them, so hopefully they'll be okay. Unfortunately, Mally didn't make it. But everybody else came back alive, and we got the kids. And I don't think the anise hag is going to cause any more problems. She's well and truly dead william is also william comes in halfway through your explanation and nods gravely yeah well let's come to the tavern and drink in yeah in excitement and and in mally's memory yes yeah absolutely absolutely and hey william i gotta thank you without the cold iron on the tip of my spear i don't think I would have been able to do it.

No, please. You know, and the magic arrows as well. Thank the gods you were here. Are the magic arrows in good nick? The magic arrows, no, have been kind of, well, so the magic arrows you were able to recover, but the magic has been used. That's fair.

Well, if you want to return these to the wolf girl, please be my guest. Yes, I will. I will. Well, we drink then. You drink in celebration, you drink to Mally's memory, and maybe you also drink to not think about

what you've done. Yeah. Well, I guess after it all, I've got to head back to the capital and give a report. Fudu, I don't know if you if this is the kind of thing you'd like to do more of but i don't know you were a big help back there i could use more people to do nods slowly i um i don't think i could go back yeah yeah well i get that you know and it's a it's a kind of life um you're never not excited i'll tell you that much

maybe in the dead of night after a lot of people have gone home and a lot of people are just almost incapacitated drunk you're sitting at the table william burkenth it's you and thudu as well but william and burkenth are both like nearly blackout drunk face down on the table doodoo looks at you and says it it's awful what happened to mally yeah terrible terrible but i'm not going to pretend like i'm not i'm never i would never have considered myself someone who would lie to themselves no and i would be lying if i said that it wasn't exhilarating. You would have to be, yeah, the world's greatest liar to say that in a way it doesn't feel good. You know?

We saved the town. Well, yeah, I feel good because I know I've done good. Yeah. And obviously, like, it is a tragedy that Mally has died. And in a perfect world, she wouldn't have. But I don't... Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. It's...

It's something else. Yeah. If you want to join me again, you're welcome to. I think I would like to. I'll extend my hand across the table and grab hers. She shakes your hand. And then I'll get my journal and I'll close it. And so Sir Grace found that the adventuring life fit him like a tight leather glove.

And with the respect of the town at his back and Thudur the dwarf at his side, he resolved then and there to spend his days vanquishing evil and upholding good, no matter what the cost might be. Thank you for listening to part one of Fall From Grace. month, you can have access to a whole bunch of once only available to Sandspans 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.

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