Dice Shame - 102 | 'Hold the Dark'

Episode Date: September 23, 2021

A shadow grows across the town as the team confronts a terrible truth... Comedy, action and a whole lot of shaming come together in Dice Shame, an Actual Play Podcast of Storm King's Thunder by Wizards of the Coast! Join our GM Jo; her partner Harlan, his brother Alex & their best friends Justin and Rob as they tackle the daunting world of Faerun in this legendary adventure module! Dice Shame is a podcast that welcomes its audience to the gaming table. Like the games they play at home, they try not to take themselves too seriously. The show aims to be entertaining, inclusive, and irreverent, while still taking the rules (somewhat) seriously. Join us every Thursday morning for brand new episodes available on all major platforms including; Spotify, iTunes, Google Play and more! If you haven't checked it out yet... what are you waiting for?!? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

board up the doors lock it stay inside and don't come out until morning just wait for me to come inside you dummy get out of the way hit him with your best shot oh in the planes did you do that that makes it tough to kill him then jack we've got something that can help haven't you had a chance to clean that up how long does that spell last jack should have stuck with sheep boy are her dogs barking you're god damn ugly and he runs up see is he gonna hit oh yeah with a natural 20 oh oh oh oh Oh, that's very good on this, on this role. Welcome back to Dice Shame. Episode 102, Hold the Dark.

MVP this week is Izzy, who's been hanging out with us on Discord and who found us through our podcast of the Frost Maiden crossover with Wizards of the Coast. Hey, Izzy, this one's for you. Coming at you. We are happy to announce that Dice Shame, has a new merch store.

Teespring was fine and all that, but with limited supplies, we opted to try Red Bubble on for size. So you can find all your favorite lines from the show, including Bingo Bango, the Old One Two, Bad Dice Pay the Price, and many more, some illustrated by the talented Adam Davis, others illustrated by LimeE D, all available for you. Get them on a shirt, a sticker, a button, or a face mask. Check it out at redbubble.com slash people slash dice shame slash shop. Go there now before they sell like hotcakes.

the hell is a hot cake. You ready to do this? Yeah, let's play D&D. Yes. So you're standing in Firth's house in the darkness, the smell of rotten sheep flesh pungent in your nostrils. Your hearts are pounding with adrenaline from just having convinced a bloodthirsty mob to dissolve. And then a scream from the streets outside and Alette runs into view carrying human remains. Kralath, you're standing at the window and you see that villagers has started running in all directions.

Yeah. Alet is trying vainly to rally them. You have weapons! Your children are safe in your houses. Let us find this beast. We must strike now! But no one seems to be listening to her and she stalks off in frustration

drawing her great sword. And Kralath runs to the door, concern painted on his face. and says, we have to go help them and begins marching down the walkway towards them. A snowstorm is gathering Kralath

and the flurries fly around past your face in the wind as you look out at the scene of chaos. A few hundred feet away, someone's house is on fire now. A dropped torch on the road

gutters fitfully, shedding a dim pool of light. Nearby, you watch as a small family flees into the forest, the parents holding axes and lanterns, children clinging to each other. This isn't right. This is foul. I think Red turns to Firf and he's just like, Faff, stay here, stay quiet, and he removes the manacles,

because like what the fuck is he do? But stay here and maybe clean up some of these heads. Kieran, stay with Firth. Okay, boss. And stay quiet. You can't be seen. So if anyone comes looking for you, they don't know your hair. All right, friend.

I really think Red, like, as, you know, stands next to the door, and I think he looks at that letter quickly. Okay. So I think Red just quickly pulls out the small letter and opens it very delicately in case Furf is watching and just reads what's inside of it. Dear Rainet, forgive my abruptness, but you are in grave danger. The man you described clearly carries a dark curse.

You must flee with your son to my estate. We have ample stores laid up for the winter and can shelter your family and friends. accompanying this letter is a magical ring. It has been a dude with a spell that will suppress this man's hunger for a short while. It should be enough to facilitate your escape. It has been charmed to attune to you quickly, as I fear the danger is near. Please do not trouble yourself with a response.

I will see you soon enough your friend in joy and strife. Marina Cindergather, this ring. Jack, and I hold it open. What kind of spell is on this ring? The fastest way is to attune to it. I'll put it on my finger. You have in your hand a magical ring of spell storing. Oh.

Currently, there is one spell stored in it. Additionally, a character can attune to this item in one minute. Red slips the ring on his finger and looks towards the other two and crosses his fingers and then heads out to join Kralov. Kralov is slowly moving towards the chaos. There's mace in his hand and his shield drawn. Kralath, you hear the sharp beat of a hammer. Someone is trying to board up their home nearby. And a man screams in pain somewhere close by in the darkness.

Maybe two or three houses over. I feel like Red and Jack flank him on either side with Kralath in the lead as we're all walking. Like Red's bow is drawn, pointed down. Kralath has his, like, mace out. And Jack has, like, fire just looking from his fingertips. Absolutely. Walking as the snow's falling around us. Doren follows you guys, axe drawn.

Let's do this, brother. Yeah. Together. At the sound of this screaming man, Kraloth moves towards that. That sounds like the source of where this, whatever it is, could be. You run, you turn the corner,

and you come upon a grizzly scene. A dying man on the ground, blood spurting through a wound in his chest. Beside him kneeling, Zafri, and a pitchfork bloody in the snow. Zafri turns his pale face up to you in disbelief and horror. I heard a no noise. I thought it was the monster.

He came around the corner so fast. Dad, the man gurgles in response, blood seeping out of his mouth. Kralov runs up to this dying man and immediately puts his hands on him and says, it's okay, all right, I'll see what I can do. We'll do everything we can. I'm going to do a medicine check. Is there any hope? Uh, that is a 16.

He's got about three rounds in him, and then he's going to die. You're going to be okay. Red, let's cure him up. Yeah, Red slides down next to him and places his hands over, and I'm going to cast Cure Wounds, just at a level one. Let's get him stable. That's more than enough for a commoner. Well, could we do spare the dying on him to make him stable?

He's not dead yet. Yet. Let's kill him. Wait. Just wait three rounds, and then. Either way, I'll spend the spell slot and cure him up for six hit points. Cool, yeah. His breathing evens and the wounds close underneath your hands.

And he closes his eyes in repose. And Zafri says, is he going to be all right? He's going to be okay, but get him somewhere safe. Hey, where does Renzo live? He points vaguely in the direction of the center of town. I could snap and pull up a map of the town from above, Just to get the real answer of where's Renzo live, just so we know where we're headed. Yeah, he stabs a finger down decisively on the map.

Before you go, where do you live so that we can check up on them later? This is my house. Board up the doors, lock it, stay inside, and don't come out until morning, all right? Thank you. Thank you. Has it been a minute? Yeah, it's been a minute now. So you attuned to this rare ring, and you find that it has the spell removed curse already stored.

inside of it. The remaining slots are empty. Okay. I'm getting the sense of where omnivore big furry thing. My guess is maybe bear or something. A removed curse might be like unbear him for a minute. A wear bear? Or a wear something, but that's kind of the vibe I'm picking up. I can do it. Renz's house is this way, I think. You head through the dark streets hearing the sounds of chaos all around you. There are a couple of villagers who have set themselves up with short swords and crossbows,

and they are making patrols of the street, and they nod at you as you pass by. Go home and board yourselves up. You're not going to be any use to anyone dead. You see a lone figure near the tree line. They are pacing in a circle. You guys see that? And Kralath begins walking towards it. A dog starts barking and baying nearby.

identifying the figure as Elette. She notices your approach, paying attention to the dog's reaction, and backs off, squaring herself to you and readying her sword. You see that she's been examining the mangled corpse of some animal. Keep your distance.

I'm no easy victim. Alet, what are you talking about? We mean you no harm. Stay away from me. We only seek to find out what is afflicted this town. As do I. Where's Renzo?

I've not seen Renzo. I never really trusted him, to be honest. The corpse here was clearly a large animal, probably a horse. It's been nearly completely devoured. It's just a red smear and some large bones in the snow. Oh, my God. And the Basset hound is barking at you, lunging and retreating, eager to protect its mistress.

I can't trust you. I'm sorry. I have to protect myself. We got a letter meant for Raynard. From Marina Cindergather, I don't know if you know who she is, but Raynard had described someone cursed, and we've got something that can help. We just need to find whoever's been cursed and is haunting this town, and we can help. She drops the point of her sword down to the snow, and she makes a hand gesture to the dog who stops barking.

And she says, if Renzo is behind this, I don't know what I'll do. It might not be his fault. If he's cursed, it might not be Renzo's. All we're saying is Renzo was very eager to keep the eye off of the sheep. And he was very fervent that it was Firf, who was to blame. And it was very clear that he was the one that we're setting him up. That's as much as we know, which where we come from is enough to at least warrant being very nervous around that person. A strangled scream emanates from the town.

She turns back and she says, we are needed. All right, let's get going. Let's go. As you run back into town through the blizzard, you spot Renzo Addy. He's crouching just outside of the town smithy, looking down at a body of a villager on the front steps. And as you approach, he looks up at you and he says,

shame, really. They've been starving so long. There's so little meat left. and as you watch his eyes sag down his mouth grows into a giant grotesque long stretching and splitting his lips a stream of saliva dripping out and he takes the villagers's entire arm ripping it clean from the body in a shower of blood and swallowing it whole everybody make a constitution saving throw for me Whoa. What? 18. All right.

11. 11, okay. Six. Oh, no. Oh, shit. And eight. Well, guess what? The sight of this abomination chills you to your bones.

But then Doran and Kralath and Jack, you hear a tiny voice coming from Doran's hands. And Ork Splitter says, Don't worry, guys. You can kill anything. I love it. And you are saved from the terrifying visage of this monster. And now everyone roll for initiative. Hey.

All right. All right. Kralath, what did you get? You sound happy. 14. Not bad. Doren? 13.

Jack? I'm swinging all over the place. I rolled it two, so I got seven. And red. Fourteen. Kralath, do you want to go first or red? I wouldn't mind going first if it's all the same to you, Krala. Sure.

Light from burning homes and dropped torches flickers in the distance. And a blowing snow reduces the visibility to a mere 60 feet. You hear the crackling of fire. You hear screams of terror coming from some homes. And Renzo stands up from his meal. and runs at you, red. He gets immediately up to you, and he tries to bite you.

Bring it on. That's a 13 to hit. No. Okay, so he misses you. And he draws a long sword. Ha, ha, ha, ha. I think Doreen scoffs like that. Scoffing is a free action.

You can just do that. But he uses your reaction. That's right. The official rule. Red, it's your turn. You have this creature up against you, this human. Red looks him dead in the eyes and says, that's enough of this. And he places his hand on this creature's body.

And he's going to cast, remove curse using the ring he just attuned to. All right. So you touch this creature and his. mouth sort of shrinks back to normal size, and he just starts panting in fury. So Red touches him as Remove Curse is cast, and then he steps back and runs 60 feet behind the group so that he keeps this creature in his eyesight. Cool. Kralath.

Take him down. Kralov sees Red do this, and he hasn't seen the ring. He doesn't know anything about this. He's like, how in the planes did you do that? And he steps forward into Red's place directly. He's going to say, Doren, hit him with your best shot. And he's going to use Path to the Grave on Renzo so that the next hit does double damage. Gotta hit him with your best shot.

Thanks, Doren. Dorn, it's your turn. Doren hits him with his best shot. Good. And he runs up. Let's see. Is he going to hit? Yeah, with a natural 20.

Oh! Oh, that's very good on this roll. Okay, 68 damage. Wow. 68. Yeah. Damage! That's not nothing.

That was your first attack. Oh, yeah. That's right. I have two. So that's going to be 22 to hit. Nice. Yep. Good stuff.

Nine damage. Okay. Plus, I am going to use my action surge. Mm-hmm. One additional action, which is going to be an attack. 18 to hit. Yes. Nice.

17 damage. Okay. Nice. Whoa. So that's another 22. Yep. Nice. Hey.

To hit. 14 more damage. My turn's complete. Well done. You did 108 points of damage in that round. Holy. This guy is not dead. Substantial.

The record. Holy fuck. He's still how I got a head? You wheeled Ork Splitter with ferocity hacking away at this monster, and he is still alive. She laughs maniacly. Yeah, Ork Splitter is loving this. This is great. Cool.

Good job. Great job. Wow. That was some pretty wild damage. Well, I could have done it. without my trusty companions. Jack, it's your turn. Jack looks at this bloody mess

of a monster in front of him and finds this moment where we lock eyes and says, friend, you're outnumbered. You have just been chopped in half in less than six seconds. Surrender and be at peace. And when he says those last words, he fills them with all the magic he can.

He puts his spell secrets in there to target this thing's mind directly. He fills this suggestion with as much a chemical casting to make it as hard to resist as possible, friend, surrender, and be at peace. And I would like an intelligence saving throw with a DC 18. Okay. It's going to be a tricky one.

Nice. I rolled a 19. No way. Man. No way. Uh-huh. Rude. It's okay.

I wanted a chance to fucking kill this thing as well. Does anything happen on a success? Uh, I don't think so. Yeah, he gets your lunch money. It's whining out nerd So many spell sluts I'm sorry Rob I rolled an 18 plus one

Jack falls back A couple of feet to sort of head back towards The direction Red left to leave Doran And Kralath between him and the monster As is his want to do Jeez Louise It is Alette's turn She runs up to stand

Directly beside Kraloth and tries to stab Renzo with her great sword. And she rolled a natural one. Oh, get out. What is up with your dice, Joe? No galette.

Weighted dice. Top of the order, it is round two. With this, we have a little bit of a change of environment. Uh-oh. The wind starts to pick up. Snow on the ground is being pushed up into drifts, supplying cover and allowing easier access to higher ground, so it pushes up against the side of the smithy,

which would allow people to climb up onto the roof easily if they would like. Additionally, Red, you feel like if you were to try to make a ranged attack, you would have disadvantage on your attack roll because of the heavy wind. Impossible. Nothing makes me miss. Renzo disengages from the three strong fighters, who are menacing him, and he runs into the snowstorm and disappears. Coward!

Red, what do you do? You should shoot him. He's gone, Doren. He's gone. You can't see him, he's gone. Oh, right, right, right, right. I should try. Maybe he's just invisible.

Well, you've watched him run away, so he's probably not invisible. Red is going to run back up to roughly where Renzo was before he turned and ran. And I'm going to do a track to see if I can't determine exactly where he went in the snow. Okay. And I'll do a tracking. Mm-hmm.

25. Great. His footsteps are fairly clear to discern in the blowing snow. You see that they lead east. I point them out to the others and sort of say, look, there's the tracks. They're heading east. Let's go. Onward.

Lead the way. Cool. Krayloff, it's your turn. Awkward. Onward. Kraloff is going to nod to red as he says this, and he's going to move forward. He's going to go towards the center of town towards the east, and he's going to keep his wits about him preparing the cantrip sacred flame if he sees, if it makes itself visible. Okay. You prepare your action and you move 30 feet east following the footprints.

Doran, what do you do? yeah I just follow so Doren follows the others I don't really think there's anything else I can do Jack what do you do not at the moment yeah Jack follows behind red and sort of moves to catch up with everybody else now that he's sort of on the edges again not a place he likes to be for creatures that might circle around in the ice and snow

so he hurries to get back up with the group and has a spell in mind ready to flash on this creature as soon as he sees him Mm-hmm. And Alet is going to follow the group with her sword drawn and her mastiff at her side. Does your dog smell anything? Hmm. Good question.

I rolled a five and a six. Those dice. She just shrugs. She's like, what dog? Oh, shit. This is a guinea pig. You hear the sound of a woman scream from inside of one of the nearby houses.

Can we tell which one? So there are a couple of houses up ahead on your right. It's probably coming from the closer of the two. That house right there. Maybe 35, 40 feet away. The bigger one in the center of town. I think that's where the scream came from. Let's go.

All right. Red, it's your turn. Hearing this, Red will move up to the guys and then he will touch the snow by his feet until it melts. And he will cast icy mantle on himself. this shield of frost over his entire body from the ice ruin will help him should something go south. Smart.

You were previously his target of a bite, so you're trying to protect yourself. Kralath, it's your turn. Kralov turns to door and says, you take the front, I'm going to loop around back. And he's going to cast sanctuary on himself and move towards the side of the building. Are there any windows on the side of this house? Yeah, there's one window kind of towards the back of the house. Yeah, he's going to move close to that window, and he's going to look inside. Yeah, you look inside and you see Renzo standing in a dark corner,

and he is licking blood from his hands as he stands over the mangled corpse of a villager. Not fast enough. I'm going to hope that the storm keeps me hidden until Doran has a chance to move, And I'm going to gesture that he's in there. Doran. So Doran runs up to the front door, bangs on the door, and then kind of steps to the side, preparing my axe for swinging into his gut area.

Little pig, little pig, let me come in. Jack, you watch in horror as the corpse that Renzo left on the stairs of the smithy rises up and is standing right behind Red. Agha, Aga, Aga,

ha, ha, ha, ha, g, g, ha, g, g, g, g, greg, greg, they're like, bad. Red, this creature tries to strike you with its terrible claws and misses. Good.

Are they terrible, like, scary, or they're just actually, like, terrible? They're, like, dull, they're very new. They're bad, but they're also scary. Jack, it's your turn. Jack points at the house, and he unleashes a new spell he's been thinking up.

He points at the house, and everything from the corner of the house inside is filled with this 30-foot cube of bright, hypnotic, pulsing light. And so everything in a 30-foot cube starting at that corner of their house and going sort of southeast. And he's putting all of his alchemical jazz again. He's spending so many spell slots to jazz these spells up because they might as well. So we're hypnotic patterning inside that whole 30-foot cube, and it'll be a wisdom-save DC-18. And that'll cost all of the rest of my third-level spells. So we're...

Wow. We're running on empty. It's a wisdom save? It is a wisdom-save DC-18. I got a 17. Hey-o! And if there's anyone else alive in there, they would also fall for it. But the pattern appears for a moment and vanishes.

Each creaser in the area who sees it must make a wisdom-saving throw on a failed save. The creature becomes charmed for the duration. while charmed by the spell, the creature is incapacitated and has a speed of zero. Nice. So hopefully it can be charmed. What is the duration of the spell?

One minute while I concentrate on it. So you don't know if it's successful or not. I've tried to hypnotize everyone in the building. You can, don't shake them out of it if it looks like they're under my spell. We've got a minute to figure out something else. Who's that? What's going on back there?

I heard you shout. Something's crawled up from the dead behind red. I'm going to get out of the way. What? This just got serious. It wasn't serious before. And Jack moves sort of off the road, sort of southeast, to get kind of in line with Kralath,

but put like a house in a brick wall between him and the last. Go-G-G-G-G-G-G-W-D-Wadder, whatever the heck that is. If that's the case, keep an eye out for all bodies. G-G-G-G-G-G-Hate to state the obvious. That's a good point. They seem to come to life, eh? It's not the first time I've seen this. Oh, really?

Alette makes a constitution saving throw. Was she bit? No. She succeeded, so she's fine. She moves towards this risen villager, this corpse, this undead. And she tries to slash at it with her great sword. She hits once. Hey-oh, go Alet.

The only time anyone ever cheers for a tax collector is when they're killing the undead. So death and taxes is really pretty. Proving to be, the truths are coming out here. She deals 10 damage. Nice. So this dude is, I guess, just going to chill for a little bit. Nice. That's right.

Incapacitated, can't take actions or reactions. Red, it's your turn. Make a constitution saving throw. Oh, 17. Cool, you're good. Yeah, it smells real bad. Oh, few. All right, you're fine.

What do you do? Red will pull out his bow and fire at this thing's head. You're right next to it. You're going to get disadvantaged, right? I'm okay with that because I still hit with a plus 10. So that'll be 24 to hit. That'll hit. Doing 15 damage.

Great. And then I'm going to move. It's going to try to bite you. No, it will not. Why not? Because I am fleet of foot at level 8. I got fleet of foot, which means after I attack, I can move away without provoking an attack of opportunity. Oh, no way.

I will never worry about that again. Way to go. Never again? I am going to move towards Kralath by the window, and I'm going to cast Hunter's mark. Kralath. Okay, so Kralath, seeing that this creature is, you said incapacitated, right?

Yes. Can't take actions or reactions and has a speed of zero. And how long does that spell last, Jack? I've got him for a minute. Minut. Unless anybody hurts him or shakes him out of it. That makes it tough to kill him, then, Jack. If he's cursed, it might not be his fault.

He might not have done this to himself. I don't know. He seemed like kind of an asshole even when we met him in human form. We removed the curse. We already removed it and he's still fighting. We got to take him out before he gets to more of the villagers. If you want to kill him, he better be dead that time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This window that's in front of Kralov, is it open or I guess it's not? Can I get in there?

I mean, you could break the window. Krayloff hefts his mace and smashes in the window. And then a shard of glass. falls in the toe of the creature, and he is broken out of his tip. And Kralath vaults over this ledge and steps onto the hardwood floor and looks up, and there's this eerie sight of this writhing body on the ground next to the standing form of Renzo. Kralath doesn't take his eyes off of Renzo as he steps into the room. There is another villager in the house that is also hypnotized.

Okay. The Kralath is going to look down at this person at his feet, the one that Renzo just attacked. Can I do a medicine check on her to see whether or not she's turning? Yeah, you can. You can do a medicine check. 17. It's very possible that the outcome of this gruesome violence is that there will be another undead creature on your hands. And is it writhing right now, or is she dead dead?

Dead currently. This other villager that's in the house. Where are they looking? They're just looking straight ahead of them in fear, just kind of petrified by an invisible hypnotic pattern. Kralov wields his mace and smashes her head in. What? Why? She's just a person?

The living one? No, no, no. The one that's, the one that's, yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. So Kralath glances at this other villager, sees that their gaze is unseeing and knows what. what he has to do. He turns back to the corpse, hefts his mace, and smashes her head. Cuda Gras.

That's right. In the name of Kellemboy, he will not rise. Doran, it's your turn. You're standing in the doorway of this house, and you watch as Krayaloth breaks the window, jumps in, and pulverizes the corpse's brains with his mace. What do you do? You know what? Doren really doesn't know much else other than take out your enemy.

I think Doran's instinct is to barge in. You were listening to the conversation, right? So as Doran comes in, Kralath is going to say, wait, wait, he's hypnotized right now. Jack has him under a spell, and if we touch him, he's going to come back to life and he might attack other villagers. So Doran stands there with his axe wielded and, like, ready to strike, and he hears Krayloth say this. So what? Or Exploders whispering to you. She's like, you have to care.

Get the villagers out. Save the innocence. Just wait for me to come inside, you dummy. Then we can do it all at once. Doran looks at the villager that's frightened and standing in the corner. He says, get out of here. He's frightened and standing in the corner. He's hypnotized as well.

You've got to take an action. Get the innocent out of the room. Good idea. Yeah, yeah. So I grabbed the shoulder of the innocent person. Cool. That's what I meant. I just forgot that they were also charmed.

I like that. And you see this villager's eyes snap to realize what's going on. Don't look down. Martha? And then the villager starts to just bolts out the door. Good stuff. The undead creature outside exchanges blows with Alette. You left me.

You left me. She's got this. Now she's fine. It's going to try to bite her with a. 13 and does not hit. Alette's got great armor. Nice. Good job, Alette. Jack, it's your turn.

Jack's been using a lot of his time to use his keen mind to practice magic without moving. And he's going to try it now for the first time. As a bonus action, he can telekinetically shove a creature to get them out of the way. And I think he's going to say to Alet, I'm going to move you, just let it happen. And try and pull her sort of southeast away from this creature she's fighting. If she agrees and lets it happen, she can just move five feet sort of towards me and to the right a little bit. And if not, she can make a strength saving throw. I mean, she wants to kill this undead creature.

She's going to try to save against that movement. She's locked in deadly melee. Millie. That's fair. That's only a 12th. So DC was 16, so she's going to move sort of southeast five feet. What a weird feeling. And that's my bonus action, because I'm going to...

Does that incur an attack of opportunity? It does not because it's forced movement. Cool. But then I'm going to draw the ill fire run with my fingers and in the dot in the center of it when I press that point, a bolt of fire is going to shoot out towards this creature. Aha.

So there's another thought process there. I see it. Of course there is. It's Jack Page. And I get to roll an attack roll for like the first time in this whole game. Yeah. That does. Episode 100, I thought I'm going to break out an attack roll.

And fail. Let's see it. 12. Let's see what you get. How do we like 12? You miss. Yep. I'm not good at this.

Yeah, bolt a fire lands in the snow at the feet. It's a warning shot. And I'm going to... Olet turns around and she's like, what the fuck, man? I don't know. I'm already moving 30 feet to get behind... All right, good luck. That's great.

That's great. I let trams back through the snow to get... to get back up to beside this creature. Her dog is just barking wildly beside her. Boy, are her dog's barking. Unfortunately, you put her off balance. And so she misses both of her attacks against this creature. Don't blame Jack for that.

Blame the wizard. We're used to it. It's all our fault. I can and I will. A team of four riding horses careens through the village, dragging the burning wreckage of a carriage. The mangled carriage is splattered with gore.

The horses have clearly trampled someone in their fright. It careens by your party. The horses screaming in fear as it passes. What the hell is that? Alet's okay, right? Yeah, Alet's fine. She kind of like dodges out of the way, but it looks like it could potentially be a dangerous situation

for some of the nearby houses, depending on what happens next. Renzo is still paralyzed inside of the house. So it is Red's turn. All right, let's do this. Red's going to go in through the window and stand in the farthest corner of that house. He is top of the initiative order after Renzo.

So if we're ever going to attack, now is the time to do it. And I think he will break this guy out of his hypnosis. Because for me, I'm pretty sure it goes me. Krayloth, Doren, and then Jack, more or less. Here we go. This one's for all the beans. I have Hunter's mark on him. He's damaged, so I'll be doing Colossus layer if I hit.

He is humanoid, correct? He is. And now that you see him in the dim light of this house, it's clear that his clothes are absolutely covered in blood. 23 to hit. Yep. Nice. Thank you.

28 damage. Excellent. Well done. And I'll attack again. This time I'm going to cast Ferry Fire. He's going to have to do a dexterity save. Yeah, I'm just going to rule that he can't do that. Perfect.

He is outlined in Ferry Fire, which now gives advantage to attack. Great. That is a 18 hit? Yep. Again, everyone has advantage on this guy now. Sweet, creepy. 27 damage. Great.

Now that he's not paralyzed anymore, he's looking back and forth between all of you and he's just drooling uncontrollably. Should have stuck with sheep. Next up, Krayloth. Kralov is going to cast ray of enfeeblement. Okay. Which is going to be a concentration

and it's arranged spell attack with advantage. Great. That's 17 to hit. You do. Nice. All right. So the target only, deals half damage with weapon attacks

that use strength until the spell ends. And then at the end of each of its turns, it can make a constitution saving throw against the spell. Cool. Adoran's turn. Adoran. Doran, it's your time. So Doran

moves up next to the creature and looks him straight in the eye and says, you're goddamn ugly. And he swings. And he, hmm, I'm going to roll again because that's to be a, okay, 19 to hit? Yes.

Doing 17 more damage. Excellent. Doran pulls the axe out of the beast's chest. Cool. So this creature takes some arrows, gets a spell cast on it by Kralov, takes some axe hits by Doran and is still standing. Outside, you hear the roar from the undeading. creature as it's attacking

Alet. The two of them just locked in their own personal combat. Yeah, Jackie watches this creature, claws her across the face, and she staggers back. Her hand clasped to where her cheek is bleeding.

Why didn't somebody push me away from this fight? It's your turn, Jack. Jack steps up to that window. Everybody crawled through to where he can see Renzo, and he prepares an old familiar spell. He pulls out the spellguard sphere and now it's got this fire opal hanging from it and he fills it with all of these magical darts that look like miniature fireballs and sends two of them are going to that creature fighting the tax collector and the other four are headed towards our favorite

monster in the building so against the creature fighting with the tax collector 42 damage as it's full of all the magical alchemical jazz and force he comes and fit in there and the four more darts that creature explodes by the way excellent and then another 63 as four more darts come in the window and take a hard left towards this

this guy very good so alet rushes towards the door and comes in I guess she's going to get right up on this creature she's just going to die she's trying real hard death and taxes right

she's trying real hard she doesn't get the mess message, yeah. All right, round six. Fight. It's the creature's turn again. So, Doren, the creature bites you, and you take three piercing damage and 10 necrotic damage. He then disengages and leaps out the window, and he runs. Damn.

And Jackie watches, he rounds the corner, run the house behind you. He's got to do a constitution check. That's 17. Yeah, okay. So he's full damage mode. All right. Red, you watch as this guy, bites your buddy and then runs out the window. He's on the west side of the house.

Red will follow. He'll jump out the window, stand next to his friend Jack, and take a few steps south so that he can get a good shot. Yeah, he's running. You're just lining him up. Yeah. And I will attack. 17 hit. Yeah.

Nice, that's going to be. 30 damage. Yeah, you sink an arrow into this creature's skull, and he goes down. Whoa. What's the matter, boy? You didn't want to fight. Finally. You're like falling.

Is he dead? Yeah, he's dead. Oh. Redd, you watch as his body curls inwards towards his stomach, and you hear his bones crack. Oh. And then he shrivels up until. There's nothing left of him but a mummified husk, which crumbles to dust. I think in the snow, red just continues walking as he's like putting another arrow

and he's like just like, kept running. He didn't have to keep running. He's like talking to himself. And he walks up to this crumbled dusty pile, pulls back on the bow and just lets another one into like the husking shell of his head. Yeah, the husk just explodes into a cloud of dust. and you see that there are two leather pouches on the ground that he was carrying. Yeah, I'll scoop them up.

Cool. I think Red paces back to the others and sort of goes through the leather pouches. It's dead? Oh, yeah. Put an extra one in just to be safe. That bastard can rot in hell. So Red joins the others and goes through the leather pouches. You find 70 gold of assorted coins.

The other one contains a collection of jewelry and drinking. One of the trinkets is a ring that has the phrase for krena engraved into the interior of the band. Let's put the fires out and then we can sort of see who's alive. And I think Jack walks around to some of the fires and uses this new power of the illed ruin to start extinguishing as much of the flame as he can to save as many buildings in town. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Cool. Maybe Red grabs the decanter of endless water then and like. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Jack tosses it over.

He uses that on the other fires. Firefighting team. I like it. I like it. Doran just wipes his blade of his axe, and he goes around kind of standing things back up. You know, there's like chairs and stuff. Yeah, the city, I mean, this town is in need. I guess, where's Kirshed? Do we remember where he ran off to last? Kershid hasn't been seen since before the mob attacked you. Kralov looks up to Alet and says,

what happened to Renzo, what is all of this? I swear, I swear I didn't know. I had no idea. Man. So what about all that tax stuff? Was that something Renzo made up, or is that actually legitimate? Is this town suffering? Yeah, yeah, it's true.

We're supposed to report to Mirabar in like five days. I'd like to have a conversation with Kirchid, maybe see if we can get Pelas want some help from Mirabar. That's, you know, was their tax collector who, who, who, brought a lot of this pain on them, you know, they're a rich town. They can certainly spare a little for Pella's want to help him get back on their feet. I agree with all of that. You know, Firth also needs to get to that woman's house, that Marina Cindergather. I'd happily take him there, get him there safely before helping out here. Yeah, it could be that the townsfolk are still

suspicious of him. It's probably better that we take him now rather than wait until morning. That's my thinking. Yeah, no, I agree. I don't feel great about Firth heading there by I feel like Doran looks around and he sees like the building smoldering and then he sees how Jack's kind of put a lot of the stuff out and then he looks into the dark forest that's surrounding us and he says, yeah, you know what? I think I'm going to go with Red and maybe just to keep company along the trip. Who knows what's in those woods? I'll join as well. Jack, Cullimvore Speed. Yeah, sounds good. Take care, Jack. We'll be. be back in, I don't know, maybe an hour. Yeah.

And I think Dorn, Krayloth, and I head back to Firth's house. And as we're walking back, Kralath separates himself from the rest of the group and trudges through the snow, wiping sweat from his brow, heavy breathing. He knocks on Zafri's door, who he had sent with his father who had been injured

into the safety of the house. And not sure what to expect on the other side. He's clutching. He's got his hand close to that, the health of his mace. After just a minute, the door opens a crack, and Zafri's face appears on the other side. Yes? Your father. How is he doing?

He's fine. He's recovering. Thank you. Thank you so, so much. Good. The town is safe. Kralath, knowing that Zafri and his father are safe, bids his thank you and farewell. and heads back to meet the others. So you head back to Firth's home. It's, again, a two-story house. It's larger than most. And you find it in good repair.

It was not set on fire or anything. And he comes to the door when you knock. Oh, hi, friends. Hi, Firth. Sorry about what happened, friend. We know you're innocent and happy to see you looking all right. Did anyone trying to break in? No.

No, I was sleeping. Good, good. kind of like peers in, God, the place smells like dead animals. Haven't you had a chance to clean that up? It kind of... No. No?

No, we're sleeping. Yeah, that's okay. We wanted to thank you. That ring that you gave to us really came in handy. Oh, that's good. I'm glad. Look, we want to help you get to your friend's house,

Kath, Wraithwright, whatever her name is. Marina Cindergather, I think it is, right? How far away is she, 15 minutes, 20 minutes? Um, he leans out onto the porch and points down the road. Marina's house is that way, not far. Okay. Just down the road. Yeah, we'll take you there, bud.

We'll come back and collect Jack. All right. Be on our way. Yeah, grab whatever things you need, Firth, and we'll be on our way. He bustles around the house just for a few minutes, putting some things in a backpack, and then he's ready to go. What is he collecting? It's like watching a kid pack a bag for the day.

It's like marshmallows and fortune cookies. It's a bunch of food, but it's also like... Rubber bands, a single shoe. Yeah, like a spoon that he likes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, like one shirt, but then also no pants. He's going to Yogi Barrett. Oh, so maybe Doran's like, you might need an extra pair of pants for it.

I like that, Alex. I'm going to give you inspiration. Hey! All right. let's get out of here. We've got to come back and help Jack soon. So let's drop them off and we'll be back before you can say bingo bingo. Oh yeah. Yeah. It'll be real quick. You head off into the woods following Firth. Content in your very wrong opinions about how long you'll be gone.

I'm sure this walk will be short and sweet and short. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters, Christopher Ryan Evans. Merlin, Mitchell Cadwell, Ashley and J.B., Colin Burkhart, Daniel, Doug, Jessica Orrett, Jonah Goldman, Katie Orrett, and Mari Kaneski. Huh, we owe you so much. Thank you. Because he's the taxman. Oh, the taxman. Lead your face, bring you back to life. He's got lots of things. He'll make you die.

The curse came back. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.