Dice Shame - 10 | 'A Matter of Life and Death'

Episode Date: December 19, 2019

The team must confront life and death as they return to Nightstone and see what awaits them... Dice Shame is a podcast that welcomes its audience to the gaming table. There’s nothing quite like getting together with your close friends on game night, getting the snacks out, and rolling some dice together. Right now we’re playing through Storm King’s Thunder, an adventure for D&D 5th edition. Like the games we play at home, we try not to take ourselves too seriously. The show is entertaining, inclusive, and irreverent, while still taking the rules (somewhat) seriously. As for the eponymous Dice Shame? When the rolls get cold—well, you’ll have to tune in to find out! Episodes are released every Thursday at 1:20 am. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get your spears and your axes ready. Thanks, Jester! We're saved! We're saved! Yes, okay, spell scroll, I get it. Magic is interesting. Old salt and pepper shakers from the Clare Saffitz. Why does your beard smell like rotting blood? What powers do you have?

Witch? Demonry. Burn him! So do you remember the dragon that one time? Doran is obviously drunk again. It doesn't matter what Doran says. I'll do it. The Lord of Lies is where I want to spend eternity.

Welcome back to Dice Shame. This week we're on episode 10, a matter of life and death. MVP this week is Chemistry at Spectral Glooms on Twitter. Thank you so much for joining us. You're awesome. If you're a fan of this podcast, please check out our friends at Sound Booth Theater. Definitely join their Facebook group and check them out. Our very own Krayloff is a big wig over there, so send some love there.

from us. Absolutely. You ready to do this? I'm ready. Let's do it. Guys, welcome to the 10th episode of Daisha. Whoa! Double digit.

It's a decade in already. That's exciting, the 10th episode. Yeah. Where did we leave off last time? We should have champagne. Oh, didn't we clear the Goblin Cave? And we cleared the Goblin Cave. How's exciting.

We fucking killed that Goblin King. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hark. Dodge the bats. The oboes corpses are by the front door. And you got reunited with Morac. I did. Most importantly, Jack found some salt and pepper shakers.

Oh, yes. They're antiques. They're over 100 years old. As a matching pair, they're unprecedented to find things like this. I'm really excited to figure out who made them. I'm going to pull a prank and steal one of the... No. And just keep it in my pocket.

Just until he... Where's the matching bag? You like fill it with sugar instead of salt or something? Yeah. Fill it with anything. This is... Degrade. You can't...

What are you... Fill it with anything? So... You just... You also got a spell scroll. Yeah, no, that's exciting, too. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, obviously, we left the cave.

We're out front with the townspeople. Is there sort of, like, eating our rations? Yeah, I mean, leaving the caves, you all see that it has started to rain. The cold drizzle feels like an insult. It's autumn, so it's quite chilly out. A couple of children are crying. People look famished, exhausted, weary, but pleased, you know, happy that they're free now. and Morak is

clapping Doran on the back heartily So what have you been doing For the past 35 years? Well, as you know, I went back to the Great Peak Mountains And I've been running my smithing shop there And yes, I'm surprised you have you Maybe I'm not surprised

Have you seen any of my meticulous pieces Come by your shop? Iron fist steel is like nothing else in the north Oh, but so you've seen people come by with it Of course, in fact, I have a set of tongs that I believe were crafted by your own hands. You bought those tongs. I did, yes. Excellent.

Speaking of which, I've got something for you, and I reach into my backpack, and I pull out his helmet and his chain mail. Oh. I was able to scaven this from your inn. This is my favorite armor. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Very good. Would you help me don't it?

Of course. Bop, bough, bough. In the meantime, I have some weapons for your citizens. Now, there are a couple matters that we need to take care of, but first, I think that making sure that all of the able-bodied citizens are armed would be a good start. And Fed, here's all the rations we brought with us, share it amongst everyone. Oh, thank you.

Oh, welcome. And one last thing. as a follower of kalimvor it is my responsibility to ensure that any deceased are put to rest and put in a way that they will not come back afterwards it is a solemn business and i'm willing to take care of it creating burials proper burials for all of those who you lost the somber tone falls over the crowd and you see a couple of people start crying. There were many losses, clearly, over the past few days in this community.

There are 27 villagers standing in front of you. We have Morak Urge, who is the only dwarf. There are largely human families clustered together for people here, two people there. There's a halfling family. There are a couple of teafling. and there are three guards who have spears that they've recovered from Hark's weaponry that he had stolen from them. They all look between each other and nod, and a human walks up to you, a woman.

Hello. Greetings. My name is Yondra. She is maybe in her early to mid-teens. I lost both of my parents to the goblins and my younger sister. I'm not sure what you can recover from their bodies, but I would like to see them buried in Nightstone. I'm sorry about your loss.

Thank you. Where are they? I don't know. They would send the ogres into the cave with the bats, or some of the goblins would come and take us away. Every few hours they would take one of us. You believe that they are still in the cave. Yes.

I will go back. I will find them and I will put them to rest. Thank you. So if you wanted, Krayloth, you could, are you planning on taking a short rest, everyone? Yes, I think that's a good idea. Yeah. I don't need to. Yeah.

So if you wanted to instead, Krayloth, you could spend your hour sorting through human remains and halfling remains and the like. Yeah. And putting together some grisly bundles that you can drag back to Nightstone. you if everyone else wants to take a short rest. Well, you know, I'd help him to because I only am down three hit points and I don't have any spells that need to. There was a temple of Lathander and Maliki. Is there, is the priest among? Yes. And the priest would, we must bury them. We have a beautiful graveyard back at Nystone. And I'm sure that these people would want to be reunited with their loved ones, they're deceased. So long as we can share the load carrying them, I'm, I'm happy to

It shouldn't be too difficult. I'm sure there's pieces of furniture and stuff inside that maybe we can fashion some sort of... You can create litters for sure. Say, what's your name, friend, the priest? Me? My name is Hiraal. My name is Heral. Say, do you have family in town? It's just me. You live alone? Yes, I have a vow of celibacy. Ah, very nice. And you live in the actual temple. I do. Well, then these are yours, friends. And I reach into my bag and I pull out the incense blocks. I took in the first episode. I hear you get oh thank thank you very much here all morak can we can we speak to the two of you for a minute just over over to the side of course um we found something troubling while we were in in nightstone and i'll pull out the the holy symbol of asmodius there's a devil worshiper living in the town or where did you find this whose house would have rooms all over it oh that would have been the agonores.

Agonil. What's an agonore? The Tiefling family, just there. Oh. What is the problem? Where did you find this? In the house with the ruins and the door. So you found this in their cottage?

No, the goblins had ransacked it and pulled all the clothes and stuff all on the lawn, and we were just making sure that no one had survived, or rather finding survivors, and we noticed that this symbol was on the ground. I guess we were a bit concerned,

But obviously, you're not. Well, I'm sure that destiny would like that back, probably. Yes, let's give it back to them, then, I suppose. This is a profoundly evil symbol. Yes, yes. I understand, as a man of the light myself, at first I was a bit taken aback by her religious choice, but she's quite a lovely woman, actually.

I love how progressive you are. I like it. Yeah, Jack. Let's give it back to them. I'll give it to Hiral and just sort of... I'd like to return it. I think they'd appreciate it. Yes, be my guest.

I'm going to take it over to the Teafling woman. Sure, yeah. She's sitting on a rock beside a younger Tiefling looks to be her son, and the two of them are chatting quietly. I mean, to Red, again, religion, God, all that kind of stuff is sort of just a nothingness to him. But he recognizes through his best friend, Kralath and Jack, that these people really hold power to that. So he kneels down next to them and says, hello, what's your name? Oh, hello. I'm Destiny.

We're really sorry to have heard what has happened to you, but me and my friends, well, we were a nightstone just a short time ago. And, well, maybe this will bring you a little bit of comfort. And he pulls out the holy symbol and presents it. This was, unfortunately, in the streets, but... Her eyes flash over you briefly with just a hint of suspicion, and then she takes it from you. Thank you. You're welcome. I appreciate your honesty.

Of course, and we appreciate you as well. Are you doing all right? Yes. Unfortunately, we have suffered greatly as a community, and I was unable to assist in the ways that I can, being that we were forced from our homes. So quickly, I wasn't able to take any of the tools of my trade, but hopefully we can recover.

I have my son here. This is, oh, I'm sorry, this is. is Grin. Hello, Grin. Hello. You're cute. Oh, thank you. Well, don't worry.

We'll bringing you back to Nightstone very quickly. I thank you for your bravery. We heard the ogre's terrifying language. Yes, well, they were no match for us. And their bodies are still dully smoking in the rain. So I've crafted a couple, and I've got the help from some of the other citizens who are willing to do the work. And we've crafted these kind of, what are those called where it stretches? Litter.

Litter, litter. And using various ropes and different fabrics in the cave, we have managed to cover up the remains. Yeah. And make it look like a nice little carrying case. There are two human men that help you. They introduce themselves to you as the Ostra family. The Ostra. A man, Thelbin, and his husband, Bryn.

they both help you put together these litters and Thelbin says we lost my mother and my sister to the goblins I would like very much to help you recover our dead, please. You can join me. Thank you. This is Bryn. Pleasure to meet you. We can't see in the dark,

but I see you have a holy lantern. Kalimvor will guide the way. Praises be. He leads the way into the darkness. I'm doing a short rest. Marvelous. Yeah. Are you going to roll some hit dice? I am.

And you add your constitution modifier to each roll. Seven and five. 23. Wow. I was doing it as he went. Oh, my gosh. 30. What powers do you have?

Witch. Demonry. Burn him. And I also get my second wind, action surge, and all my combat superiority dice back. Hell yeah. Nice. Thank you. Anyone else?

taking their short rest. Jack's pretty put off by this, the idea of accepting as modius devil worshippers amongst the people. Some just really doesn't feel good to him. So he sort of retreats a little bit. He goes to like focus on stuff because that's kind of his safe place. So he looks at the spell scroll tries to figure out what's there. He tries to identify this holy symbol that they found. He admires the salt and pepper shakers to try and figure out where they're crafted from and how such antiques could have ended up here. Yeah. Why don't you roll religion for the holy symbol? Sure. A 19. You turn this holy symbol over in your hands.

It is in the image of an oak leaf. So it's a wooden leaf with veins of gold running through it. This is the symbol of sylvanus. Silv anus? Sylvannis. But jokes. Sylvannis. Yeah.

So I think I'll tuck that into my bag and check out the spell scroll next. So I rolled for this magic item. Excellent. And it turned out to be something you're probably going to like a whole lot as you unstopper the scroll tube and you knock the scroll out onto your hand, unscroll it, and read to yourself the arcane symbols that are present on the parchment. You recognize this spell as chromatic orb. Nice.

Chromatic what? So I can use it. I can just cast it without spending a spell slot. I could just cast it off the scroll once. Or I could write it into my spellbook and then be able to prepare it, depending on how much time we have. You need to spend time and money to decipher the spell and then copy it into your spell book. The rule goes for each level of spell, the process will take two hours and cost 50 gold. Yep. I got that right in front of me.

Wonderful. Now to the most important part of the treasure, the salt and pepper shakers. They are shaped like roosters. They are... finely made silver wrought, and they have the initials of the artisans stamped into the bottom of them. C.S. Human made, dwarven made, elf made. These are human. Human made. Do I know C.S. as initials?

Does that artist's name ring a bell to me? The artisan Claire Safetz, you know her well. She resided in golden fields until her death 50 years ago. Claire's dead? Yes, this is a collector's item. Ooh. Wow, these are... I think I spend almost more time like,

yes, a case, spell scroll, I get it. Magic is interesting. Cool, cool, cool. Old salt and pepper shakers from the Claire Saffitz. Do you have any idea how unique of a find this is? I mean, it says 25 gold together, but to the right person, I'm sure. As Jack is sort of giddy to himself,

Red walks over to him and sits down, and despite happy now, I noticed that you walked away when you were really upset about the... sulking a little bit, yeah. Jack, friend, what's wrong? You seem really upset that this nice family is following this deity that it bothers you for some reason? I don't understand. I don't understand the mentality of a person who can decide the Lord of Lies is where I want to spend eternity with.

When I die, instead of ending up in the wall of wailing souls, I want the Lord of Hell to come and petition for my souls to go to his realms so I can be a dretch and crawl my way up to become these great demon princes or fester and. hell forever. The person who wants that, I don't want as my neighbor. Well, that doesn't seem very open-minded, does it? I mean, ultimately, look, this priest, Harold. He doesn't seem to have any problem with it. I mean, yeah, that's, that's really weird. It's also weird that he's a priest of Maliki and Lathander, and not one or the other. It's just, I don't, I'm not comfortable with any of it, I don't understand it. I don't know. Where I come from, we all have different weird beliefs and things like that. It's never stricken, I mean, look at Crailth and We're so different opposite ends of the spectrum.

Look at him over there trying to bury these bodies while I'm sitting over here and chatting with you about salt and pepper shakers or whatever they'd like. I think what makes us different is what makes us unique. And why I love Doran so much is because he's something I've never seen and why Kralath is so joyful. You're right. Kralath is doing good work. Maybe I should go help.

I'll put the salt and pepper shakers away and go over to try and help Kralath with the bodies just to like... And Regist stays there as you walk with. Fair enough. And Doran sleeps under a tree. So it was grizzly work, but with the help of the villagers, with a couple of humans who were offering their assistance. The couple. Yes, the Austras.

And with Jack's help there near the end, you pulled about a dozen different remains, you think. It's hard, especially in the little caverns where those children goblins are hiding. there was just a pile of remains. Hard to sort through, difficult to stomach, honestly. But you've pulled out as much as you can fathom belonged to the village, and you've strapped it together and covered it away from the eyes of the survivors.

And yeah, we returned to the others and give a solemn nod to Morak indicated that we're ready to go. Dawn, wake up, we're ready to go. Oh, thank you. Thank you for giving me that chance to take a nap. And I'll hop up on a rock and address the crowd and say, We're going to move quickly, we're going to move quietly,

and we're going to make it back to Ninth, Ten, as a team. Let's stay together as a group, because all of my abilities of traveling consist of a group travel. And again, just to very quickly reiterate, you know, difficult terrain doesn't slow the group's travel. We can't be lost when engaged in foraging, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's no issue, and so moving as a group is going to be beneficial for us. Does it say there's no issue?

It says there's no issue. We don't run into any problems. All good. NBD. That big deal. Well, thank you to Red for that because it is raining. So the tracks that would have led you back to town are erased effectively. But...

You're welcome. Red does not get lost. People move slowly because the rain on the fallen leaves makes the ground slippery. Mud patches have appeared in the woods. Again, red strategically points out places dry land, high areas. logs that you can cross but everyone is starving exhausted and chilled to the bone kids are crying still there are banks of fog in the low-lying areas of the forest and despite the treacherous slippery ground takes just a few hours to get back to familiar forest while we're traveling since we are

traveling as a group anyway I'm going to forage so that I can find some food additionally I can find twice as much food because I am a natural explorer and pass it out amongst the people as we are going. Great idea. Why don't you roll a survival check? Happily. Jack would happily help. He's sort of looking for some moments to be in the woods

and not immediately surrounded by these people. Yeah. So if you want, you can roll with advantage then. I like that. Natural 20! Holy shit. And is that Chester again? That's Chester.

Oh, Chester. Thanks, Jester. So we find twice as much of whatever we find. Yeah, you come upon a brace of partridge. There's an apple tree. You're able to skewer a couple of rabbits on the way. Some fiddleheads. If you eat those uncooked, you will have terrible diarrhea.

Autumn fiddleheads. Blackberries and the like. Yeah, I come back. Jack and I come back with like armfuls of food. Because natural 20, double food. Yeah, there's like, going foraging is like going to the grocery store for you guys. Literally. It's just like, yeah, I'll take that one.

Taking things off the shelf. As we go, Doran is sort of like, you know, helping pull up some of the stragglers, maybe carrying a kid for a little while here or there. I like that. You know, catching up with Murak. Why does your beard smell like rotting blood? Because I use it to wipe the blood off my axe. It's just honest, eh?

Yeah. I like the idea, too, that because Jackson in the forest, he's really familiar with the nature around here, but maybe not how to catch stuff. So maybe he's, like, talking a lot about, oh, these are this sort of berry. Here's what we use them for. Here's what they're like, here's what they might be like for you. Jack is the best at, like, so much when it comes to history and, like, the solace. But in the forest, despite these being your forest, I am the impressive one as I'm moving through. I almost not, maybe I, not, maybe not knowing the names to me.

Yeah, he's got like the Latin names. Knowing, knowing the sorts of mushrooms to find is very different than like actually figuring out where to find them. Yeah. And I'm like, you know, sort of flexing accidentally in this way that red wood where you're like, you know, oh, this is the, off mushroom and like yeah but don't eat them because they'll cause diarrhea like he doesn't know what it's called and knows it by color and yeah and what it will make your poop feel like meanwhile kraloth has the back end of a litter and um is walking with one of the austra men the austras yeah austras you're walking with brin brin and i casually just bring up so so brin what do you do back in

nightstone we are wheat farmers honest hardworking now are the lands around these parts good for farming Absolutely. The land here is very fertile. Good year. This may be a difficult question for your answer, but do you possibly know any reason why your town might have been attacked? I don't know why, but I saw the whole thing happen. I was out in the field. Yeah? Rocks started raining from the sky. First, I thought we were under attack by the elves again, but these rocks were. There's not an elf alive who could lift one. We saw them.

They looked like they couldn't have been thrown by any trebisier or catapult that I've seen. No, indeed. And I looked up at the sky. There was a bang of clouds such like I'd never seen. And the creatures atop it, pale skin, reithed and mist, dropping boulders three feet across, as easily as you or I would drop a fork. Kraloth, it was terrifying.

When we arrived in town, we expected to see, well, the namesake of your town is Nightstone, correct? Yes. My friend Jack tells me that there used to be a stone in the center of it, is that correct? Used to be? We saw no stone when we arrived. Those goblins steal anything that's not nailed down. You think the goblins could have taken a stone in the center of town? God, I suppose, the Giants, what times we live in.

Indeed. It takes about three to four hours to travel through the woods with your litters of corpses and your bands of children. As you crest the final hill toward Nightstone, you see through the rain, and notice the drawbridge is down. Oh, shit. Some of the villagers raise up a ragged cheer. This could be good. Doran picks up the pace and runs to the front of the pack. with where Morrigan is.

Morric. Thank you. And Morrican is there. And Morridan is with us. He is with you everywhere you go. I'm never alone. Morik is trudging proudly in his chain mail and his helm. Morik, it's probably good if we halt for a moment. When we left, the drawbridge was up.

And actually, I stop and I kind of hold my hands up. Like, you know, stop everybody. And that's when I think my companion is probably. Yeah, a huddle. This doesn't sit well with me. I mean, it could be good luck. But remember, those oaks were heavy enough. members when they retreated, they may have just waited for another opportunity.

Orks? You're right. What orcs. I know, Morak. We're talking without you. Oh, okay. No, we're talking with Mara. Okay, fine. Wait. Don't disrespect, my friend, right? I'm not disrespecting. I just didn't want him to go, Oh, what I don't. The town was attacked by a score of our orcs.

That's 20. Two scores. Was it two? Yeah. I thought it was just a score. Or maybe it was two. You're brave warriors. It was 20. We managed to fend them off, but there was no indication that they wouldn't come back. They were also covered in Elven. arrows. Yes, well, we have trouble with elves. I've heard

that, and so do the orcs, apparently. We'd also sent away to Waterdeep for help. They could have sent a patrol from the long road to... Yeah, you're very right. And you know what, regardless, it makes no sense to only send five people. Let's keep going with the townsfolk, go up, and worst-case scenario, be prepared for a battle. Best case, walk straight up to the keep.

Perhaps then we should tell the townspeople what we may expect, and perhaps some of the more fragile folks stay back. Indeed. We'll let them know that they're walking into dangerous territory to keep their wits about them to call out if they see anything amiss.

Morak, they're your people. We're going to go ahead, organize them as you see fit. Yeah. Friends! He turns his back towards you and addresses the gathered crowd of villagers. We have been through quite an ordeal. And I really just applaud you for your courage

and your strength. We don't quite know what we're walking into now, but I do know that thanks to our friends will be safe. I think it would be best if we kept the little ones near the back, and us able-bodied folk stay up front. We are almost home. And Doran jumps in as well. Get your spears and your axes ready.

Ah! Gras! And Doran and Morak clang their weapons together. Honor. For honor. For Kralath. Oh, thanks, buddy. No problem. Clink. And I'm going to, yeah, let's head up to the bridge. I mean, there's no sense of being stealthy. They'll see it's coming from a mile away.

As you approach the drawbridge in the rain, you see four liveried figures standing atop the battlements, and they salute you as you approach. Do you see the liveried people? What does liveried mean? Whose colors are they wearing? Those of Waterdeep. Of course, the Water Devians. Haza! Your letter reached somebody.

I can't imagine. I'm so glad they made it. Let's go in and see who's here. And I'll wave all the townsfolk forward. There's no sense not to. I'll run back and get the little kids. Come friends, we're going to home. I think even like the town themselves,

they'll see the colors like, is that? Yeah. What did Avian? We're saved. We're saved. And then they begin running down the hill. Yeah. In fact, maybe some of the townsfolk,

the more vulnerable people still just pass us running. Yeah. And the dumb ones trip. They're all pretty dumb Cry, break both of their legs No, we'll head through the drawbridge and Into Nightstone The guards come down off of the battlements

And they salute you as you approach And they meet you in the square In the cobblestone square In the rain Their feathers on their helmets drooping slightly Well met brave souls And well met indeed. Your name? Jack Page

So it was your letter Yes. Brent Aberdeep. Lovely to meet you, Brent. And you. We were sent by the city watch to liberate Nightstone from the oppression of bandits.

Brent! I approach with my hand out. Brent Aberdeep. His eye, door and iron fist. We've never met. Glad you're here. Holding out a big thick hand. And you, he clasps your wrist,

gives it a hearty shake. And I am Reginald Hummersby. Hello. And yourself? My name is Krayloff. I say, Eloth's a bit distracted as he's clearing the drawbridge a little bit and gesturing for people to move aside for the litters to move through.

This town faced heavy losses, Sir Aberdeep. Indeed. What is the fate of Keller and Zolkin who were occupying it? They have been run out. Goodbye, studded leather armor. We are curious as to what happened here. Surely the bandits were not responsible for these boulders. And I give a nervous look to Jack and Kralath.

Let's get everyone situated inside and we'll tell you the whole story. Yeah. And Morrox's like, yes, uh, ale, Ale, come with me. Yes. He leads everyone towards the ruins of the inn. There's like water pouring in through a hole in the roof and just ruined furniture. There's like half of a bed on the ground in the corner from where it fell from the second story.

And he doesn't even fucking care. he just like trudges in in his soggy chain mail this like short dude who can barely see over the top of his own bar and he's like how many tankards do we need and there's like a secret door that he pushes aside where there are more barrels of beer it's like specifically untouched other than to hide the beer yeah i think red would like go to the fireplace and begin like striking up a beautiful fire and like flipping tables back over as like townspeople sort of migrate back in and and start breathing some life back into the town. Doran steps to the door of the inn looking outwards to the town. And you just see all of a sudden the hustle bustle of people putting doors back on and kind of doing makeshift repairs so they can sleep for the night. These are hearty folks. And as you watch Doran, you see people putting their backs to boulders,

three, four, five strong-bodied farmers. These are settlers. And they just, they use timbers. They're prying these boulders. out of the square, and it feels like they're taking their town back. They're rolling them together, you know, using teamwork, rolling them off of the drawbridge into the moat. Lever action.

And with four tankards from Morac, I take one and give it to Kraloth and one to Jack and one to Doren and one for myself, and I sort of propose a toast. I said, gentlemen, this is because of us. We helped bring this town back. Good job. Here, here. Cheers. Morak from behind the bar pops his head up

and his whole beard is covered with suds of beer. He's just apparently like dunked his head directly into a barrel and he's like just happy. And as Doran takes a swig, the beer drips down his beard and slowly moves chunks of blood and brain matter from his chin down further down his beer. The rain did nothing to wash it out. Only beer cleans that beard. I forgot about it. Only strong dwarf in ale. It's not water soluble.

Grab your tambourine. I'm going to jump on a table. Yum. Celebration. Yeah. And as this is happening, I'm imagining the town's folks. Some of them are going into the larder

and grabbing the chicken that's in there and, you know, rounding up the eggs. That's in Doran's bag, I believe. It is. It's a chicken and saffron. I think this chicken is part of the party now. Hello. Can't you talk to animals?

I can. Ask it its name. I'm going to put the chicken on the counter and I'm going to look at it in its eyes and I'm going to do a beast read and I'm going to find out what its needs are right in this moment. It's like clearly dead

and I'm not trying to make you feel bad about it. I can't get a read on this thing. There was a live chicken in the sack though. So maybe it's banging around in the kitchen. Yeah, I think that's not the one I had. I think I had chicken. You took a dead chicken. Roasted chicken.

Oh, yeah, yeah, from the second. That's the one I was talking about. The one that the little goblin had. Long story short, I think a feast is being prepared because all of these citizens, despite the fiddleheads and everything, I think they're all pretty hungry. Yes. Everyone has been starving for three days, going on four days.

They were fleeing from their town and then locked up in this cave. It's been a really harrowing ordeal. And so the potato farmers are bringing potatoes and people have, you know, anything that the goblins failed to scavenge from their larders, they are bringing to the inn. Jack's not feeling very celebratory, I think, at the moment. He's, once everything gets going, you know, he has the like cheers moment and then wants to head over to the keep and see if he can find the body of his friend. I figure we're behind lashing beers and Red's now on the table dancing and, you know, Dorn's lying on the bar.

And the once almost dead, dark, destroyed in, barely moments ago is now lively and lit up and their lanterns and warm. Jack, as you leave this beautiful scene, you noticed. that you are not the only person who has looked for solitude. Some of these villagers have needed this comfort, needed the noise and the togetherness and the warmth, needed the music and the wine, but some have wanted solitude. And you see, there are a few candles on in a few of the cottages, people who have lost the majority of their families who want to be by themselves. and a guard, a Water-Davian guard, follows you as you leave. She puts a hand on your shoulder and she says,

it's Jack, right? That's me, yeah. My name is Celeste. Hi, Celeste. Hi. I was hoping to go find Lady Nandar's body. Yes, I know. We sent her body back to Waterdeep.

Okay. There were two of us here who thought it best that her family receive her body. Her sister's away. I know in Tribor for the holidays. Maybe we could send a note that way, too. That would be wise. I was unaware. I just found out yesterday. Jack, what happened here? I'm still trying to piece it together three, three, four days ago, giants attacked. And you can hear stories direct from these folks. The descriptions of it seem credible, a cloud of a cloud of appeared and giants throwing these boulders down from it. They must have taken the

nightstone. God knows why, I would have loved to see it just to understand. And outside all of that, it's just then been scavengers and what happens in the Ardeep Forest stays in the our deep forest, you know? It's a tough place to make a living. There's a lot of orcs and elves and goblins. She walks with you as the two of you cross, the makeshift bridge. to the keep and you wander around the courtyard of this ruined building. We will stay here for a 10 day to help rebuild the town and bury the dead. We were given orders from Waterdeep to keep the peace, protect the walls, and assist however possible. And you, what will you do? I don't know. I've got to talk to my friends to see where they're plan ahead of you next. I'd promised them we came here

looking for work, actually, Lady Nandar was going to negotiate some, had somebody was going to help negotiate with the elves to try and find some peace here to try and make this settlement a thing that could last more than 10 years, but with her husband passed and now her gone, and if none of the, if none of the other Nandars decide to take up this cause, I don't know that this village is going to survive without a source of funding. It's certainly not standing on its own two feet yet. We climb the steps of the battlements together and look out over the forest as the clouds from the rain roll away to reveal a red sunset, just the last few glimmering rays of sun out over the town. Jack says a quick prayer to Lethander sort of goodbye to the sun. We'll see you

again tomorrow morning and just lets it go down and sort of sits quietly in the dark standing in this tower of his friend. Back in the inn, Morak is drunkenly recalling the attack on Nightstone. So there were dragons? No, no, not dragons. Though, my friend, was there a dragon here? You know I would have been atop it in a flash. Dragons?

Where were we talking about dragons for? Dragons. So do you remember the dragon that one time? Doran is obviously drunk again. There was a dragon that one time. Oh, but no, you're right. It was giants, giants. Did you say there was giants?

Giants, yes. I was inside. It was midday. I was making... At the middle of the day, yet they're home. Making a fire, you know? How you do? Oh, yeah.

Getting ready for dinner. Takes a while. Dinner. You've got guests to feed. He shakes his hand upstairs as if Keller was still living there in the front room. Bastid. I heard a loud crush. The splintering of timbers, and I thought maybe someone had crashed a cart or something.

Ran out to the front step, just as a boulder fell from the sky right in front of me. Oh, Jesus. Then another one punched through my own blasted roof. Oh, no, bloody way. Chaos knocked me right off my feet. Me, Morak Urgi. No. Can you believe it?

By the state of Morad. I believe it. Clearly no cart. Accident, as I pulled myself to my feet, I saw the Zellbrin family's house catch a massive stone and crumble into dust. Oh, no. Lady Nandar had instructed us to fall back to the keep. Bless her soul. Yeah. Wonderful woman.

So smart. As the stones rained around me, I rallied the townsfolk to the drawbridge to stand against the attackers. Bloody good. But there was no army at heart gates. No army. No siege catapult. Where were the dragons? In the sky.

In the clouds. Hanging as easily as a rock that doesn't hang. By God. It's like it was a big castle. Shrouted in clouds. Castle. That seems crazy. Giants.

You are such a brave man for facing them and we owe you such a tent of gratitude for bringing the townsfolk to the king. No, no, I'm not brave for we fled. We fled to the forest. Brother. I give you a big, uh, big embracing hug. Brother! Very drunken.

And then I embrace the two of them hugging. Brothers! Oh, brothers! Oh, brothers! It takes a brave dwarf to stand up to a giant. It takes an even braver dwarf to know when to take your townsfolk out of harm's way. He takes the backs of both of your handswark. heads with the two hands and pulls all three of your foreheads together and drunkenly demands this of you.

The Zellbrins were my closest friends in Nightstone. They moved here just a few years ago at Lady Nandar's request. Really, really nice people, you know? Of course I know. It's not going to be the same here without them. No. His drunken breath on your face, Spittle. If I didn't have Vin'in to rebuild, I'd head to Goldenfield myself in order to break the news to their son murals, Doran.

Doran, I know I can ask a favor of you. Anything for you? Please bring them this message, and he roots in his pocket, and there's nothing. This message, and he roots in his other pocket, and there's still nothing. I'll write a message, and you, please, and there's little. a relics, sweet little thing. She belongs to Miroth now, and

I'd love to keep her, but it's not right. I can't. Would you do that for me? We'll do it. It doesn't matter what Doris says, I'll do it. Morik, you're my brother. You have my word. And my word. If you like, you can stay here at the inn, please. Anywhere you like.

I would love to take you up on that offer. We will do this. What are you doing here? Kraloth. Kralov. Come, John. And I push his head into the heads.

His foreheads in the middle. We're going to do it all. We're going to do it. Don't worry. Sorry, I just had to make sure that the priest knew what he was doing in terms of the burials. Sure, whatever. I think I want to wrap up this episode by seeing the ritual happen in the graveyard. Heral and Kralh.

We each have the accoutrema of our religion, some incense. some candles and we're attended by the majority of the village who's gathered around the rear of the church in the cemetery and the rain has let up um a bit but it's still overcast and there's some mist that has surrounded the tombstones and um this is a joint ceremony between kalimvor and la fander so um kreelof has done his best to respect the traditions of Hyrell and Lathander. And is Hirae okay with Kellenvore being a part of this? Yes, absolutely. Wonderful. So the holes have been dug. There is one hole for each of the litters. And then there are a couple holes for the individual citizens who we found scattered around the town.

And we have them all beside the holes and some citizens who are donning there. best garb to lower them in. People are veiled largely in morning. And when it is time, we've lit some lanterns around. And I turn to Hyril to see whether or not he wants to say anything. Yeah, he starts singing. It's very Aowen in Lord of the Rings. La La.

Okay. So he does some chanting. And following it, I begin to address the crowd. And I say, people of Nightstone, followers of Lathander, Kalimvore, other deities. We joined together to mourn the loss of those who were lost in the battle that befell this town. and though sadness is very much a part of this morning process

I wish to remind you all that though this is the end of your dear loved ones lives here on this plane it is not the end of their overall journey hand in hand Lathander and Kalamvoran will guide them to the new chapter in their lives,

in which one day we all will be reunited with them. Praise be to the lords we praise. Praise be, praise me. Thank you, Kralov. It has been an honor for you to be here. Thank you. Indeed. And with that, I turn away, and I imagine so does Hyrell.

and the bodies are lowered into the ground. And I watch carefully. I watch carefully to ensure that the holes are as deep as they need to be, and the people are lowering them with the respect that they need to be lowering them, and that the soil is placed upon them and tamped down firmly. And there is an entire ritual, part of the ritual, is not just burying them and paying respects, but ensuring that everything that can be done

to ensure that they do not come back as undead is done. And so I'm going to sprinkle some holy water as well onto the graves. And after you pass by each grave with holy water, Heeral passes after you and lays a flower on each grave. So you guys want to take a long rest? Yes, please. You guys want to advance. to level four?

Heck yeah. Oghers and goblins and walking. Oh my. Oh, my. A whole other level for me to sink my teeth into. If you're a fan of dice, shame,

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