Dice Shame - 104 | ‘White As A Ghost’

Episode Date: October 7, 2021

Heading to their first ancient burial mound brings the party that much closer to their goal... 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.

There's a way you desecrate, you know. Are you guys okay? We made some friends back there. Oops. Yeah, let's not eat that we had creatures that we come across. B, B, B, B, B, G, G, G, G, G, R-S-T-T. I'm starting to get the hang of it. Oh, it's just too far away, Jack.

I'll tell you when we get up closer. I did. I was fucking cat wheel. 205 bones in the body of a fully mature horse. We got to use it like that more often. The story shrugs it off, and that chapter's closed, he says. What was that, Doren? Oh, nothing.

He said that chapter's closed. for some reason. What are you talking about? Did I say that out loud? Are you reading a book, Doran? Oh, what book were you reading, Doran? I love books. This week's MVP is Leon Vanderlinden, who is up to episode 10th and is really hoping that red finds or makes some studded leather armor.

soon. I don't want to spoil it for him, but I find some. Thanks for joining us, Leon. Thanks, Leon. It is Extra Life once again. On November 6th, we'll be streaming for 24 hours a series of games, RPGs, and events. But you don't need to wait until then. Every Friday night, including this Friday night, we're streaming spooky games on the Invictus Stream YouTube channel. Stop by, bring a warm Blaken and a hot cup of cocoa, and join us as we get spooky this Halloween season, and look to raise money for sick kids' hospitals. All right, should we get down to business? Let's do it.

Woo! Harlan and I live in a suburb of Toronto, kind of like up towards where if you drive for five minutes, it turns into farmland. So it's like, you know, residential neighborhood. But if you go past the next major intersection, there's like cornfields, there's forest, it's a nice area. We go foraging a lot.

You know, we're like, yeah, let's get apples to. The other mushrooms, you've got to find some berries and trees, you know. Fiddleheads. Catcher rabbit. It's the kind of Marion Pippin foraging where we, like, steal from the farmers. No, we don't do any of that. She breaks my carrot. My grandparents did that.

I very remember them coming home with like, oh, yeah, here's just a whole bunch of wheat we stole from somebody's, some farmers field. Wheat? I don't know. They had their own stone ground mill, and they definitely got wheat bread that they, like, ground the flour themselves. artisanally hand-grounded wheat from stolen wheat. Always tastes better. I don't think it was always stolen, but definitely I have a very clear memory of one time Nana and Papa

were like, oh, yeah, we stopped at the side of the road on the way home and we just stole this wheat and, you know, here's bread. I don't know, is that the most Saskatchewan story? I don't know, but... They want you to take it. If it's there, they want you. Right, it's just lying there in the field. This is crime stoppers, Saskatchewa.

Statute of limitations on that. I don't know. I picture Rob, you know, sitting there at his grandparents' kitchen table as a young child, thinking to himself, is this stolen bread? Is this? I can't eat this if he's stolen. Why does it taste so good? And why does it arouse me?

Jean Valjean. Forbidden bread. Anyway, so I was taking the dog out to the washroom. It was like just past midnight and I saw something move across the street. Just past midnight. Immediately, I know that this is not a dog. First of all, we don't have an owner walking. with a dog there's no jingle of a collar this thing was big and it was a wolf so oh you know what a wolf

looks like it's not a dog a wolf or a coyote this i am fairly sure that this was a wolf because it was really big and very gray colored i was like how big like great dame big i had the same question she came back in immediately she was like i just saw a wolf and i went i was like night i mean it was like I showed him the size with my hands and he was like, well, yeah, that's wolf fun. He showed me the size of your hands and I went, no, that was not what you saw. I was like, there's no way in hell. You just not believe me. She's like, put six feet on her arms.

I did not do that. I did not. I'm inclined to believe her. He doesn't believe me. Only knowing that coy wolves are a thing out in Scarborough and a little forest east there, which are chasperies and wolves and, you know, they can be sizable. thing. So then, yeah, we did some Googling and she did some Googling and I, and I was like, okay, if it's this, fair enough. But like a straight up, wolf? Why do you feel like a coyote mixed with a wolf is more likely than a wolf?

Because there are coyotes around here. But there are also wolves. And wolves are extremely territorial and you don't hear howling. How do you mix them with wolves without wolves? Well, no, they don't howl every second that they're alive. My point being is wolves. Like, if you do, if you do some. research on wolves you'll see that they live they don't there's not enough territory for wolves oh i've done research on wolves you're talking to a girl who was very much into wolves as a child it tasted like a wolf put it that way is it that's why that's why i'm a little perplexed as like i don't think that wolves would be in this part of our well that's why i started off my story by explaining how close we are i think that we should be paying close attention yeah we should

pay very close attention to this intro because i think it's foreshadowing for today's episode He never know. Oh, Joe's dead, guys. Oh, chill. When I walked in the dog and the wolf got her. I looked at this wolf and I could tell that it had exactly 64 HP and an AC of 17. I tried to roll on it, but. That's right.

The wolf was chill. He was just going, he was doing his own thing. It was, it was after midnight, so there weren't any, like, midnight toddlers around. I wasn't worried about, like, alerting the neighborhood. Midnight toddlers. When you said you saw something move at first, I did. think you were going to be like, I saw something move, and this family is trying to get into the house down the block.

There's stealing wheat from the farmer's field. This old couple. It's Rana and Oma. And it was Rob. I mean, Rob's sharing a cougar. I don't know. I went back to Saskatchewan. Get off Saskatchewan, man.

I can't. I went back to now. I'm all full of Saskatchewan horror stories from COVID to Cougars. I did notice you're wearing a bunny hood. It's true, an official bunny hug, which is the Saskatchewan slang. Oh, it says it right on the thing. I think you are. I think you are.

Like full Saskatchewan now. So what's a bunny hug? A bunny hug is a hoodie. Oh, oh, right. Yes, I remember that. I remember that. I don't know. To me, the name bunny hug specifically just makes me think of like of mice and men

squishing something too hard and having its like head pop off. Like, you know, like this real strong. Put the rabbit. Yeah, that type of thing. Feels like something Firth would do. That's fair. I bunny hug. Anyway, it became clear to me that I'm not an adventurer because I was terrified by this creature that I saw across the street.

Even though it was not interested in murdering me, I definitely went back inside as quickly as possible. It's because you're a Call of Cthulhu player. That's a healthy thing in Call of Cthulhu. So it's an animal you're like, run away. Stay away from the monster. We were up at the cottage one time, and it was the middle of the way. winter and I decided I go for a walk by myself in the woods at night and I started walking up the road and you know how like the wintertime is just crisp and silent and you know I'm getting

up the road and um well actually full transparency I was also smoking a little bit of the you know the devil's lettuce and so that so you're stone that totally that probably that probably was that like romaine I don't kill you That's That ice You know I got I got You know

Halfway up the road It's pitch black And it's silent And all of a sudden I heard like Running in the forest And I didn't see anything I'll just say right there

I didn't see anything But all of a sudden You know The mind starts to work And before you know I thought Well fuck this And I just started running home

Like I full on booted it I was like And then of course The images Go through your mind You're like Oh man What if it is a pack of hungry coyotes?

Wait. So your coyote story is that you got stoned and you heard something in the woods and you ran away one time. So I love this. One time I didn't see one and it was totally there. Also, I was high. I love that. Alex does have this real tradition of anticlimactic stories. Like he'll like, he'll like tell this story and it will build up. Maybe Justin remembers this because it was around high school.

You did a lot. I still do it. I just like, building up. Building up, building up, and then just nothing happens. And you're like, that's not a story, Alex. That's just a sequence of events. It's got a beginning and a middle. There's no punchline to this.

You're not revealing anything, but you think you are. It's great. He's like, I was driving so fast, and I was, like, getting higher and higher and higher, and the engine was revving louder and louder. And then I came to that stoplight, and I hit it just in time. You're like, so you're just driving and you stopped? What is that? That's not a story.

Yeah. Anyways, I made it home, but. In one piece. Well, I was walking in the middle of downtown Toronto with my friend a few months back. And we're in this, like, really upscale neighborhood, just not somewhere you'd expect to see wildlife. And we see this dog approaching us. And it's just like, it's just got this friendly gate, just like walking around. And there's a car behind it at it.

It's honking. And we're kind of like, what are these people doing with this dog? Like, why are they abusing it? So it's on the road or it's on the sidewalk? Yeah, they're like honking, like, on the road behind this dog. And it's just like, come along. And both, like, my friend and I both love animals. So we're tempted to be like, oh, what a sweet dog?

And, like, and like, reach out and go to pet it. But for whatever reason, we hold back. And sure enough, it gets close enough that we can see. And it's just, it just looks different. The fur is just all, like, standing on end. And it's not like a dog where it's got like a nice coat. it's just kind of spiky wild looking yeah very wild looking so it was it was definitely a coyote but it was just so chill and it like looked at us and just kind of padded along could have been a

wolf how big was no it was only about six feet or so I did not do that I did not do that it was definitely a coyote maybe a fox let me just state for the record if you have done your research then I believe that you saw what you saw like I'm not I'm not disputing that thank you I'm really surprised at the amount of wildlife in Toronto, just I guess given the amount of park space. Like deer, foxes, rabbits, possums, skunks, like, and that's like in the backyard here or whatever, right? Like, I never expected that when I thought, oh, I'm going to move to the big city. And then also, it's like, hey, here's all this wildlife, though. Yeah, yeah. It was definitely a coyote, but it was a lot bigger than I pictured coyotes to be.

Far away, it looked small, but when I got close, it was bigger. Yeah, yeah. Well, they are a very big dog. The perspective story. That tree is far away. I was standing on the driveway. It was about 2 o'clock in the morning the other night. And I turn around to see what I think is like a cat coming down. And then I know we have skunks in the area.

But as soon as it turned, because it saw us and it turned and walked away, it was a possum. Awesome. Alex saw a possum. I was standing on the porch. It was late. Little did you. Stop possum. There was a possum watching.

I've only seen a coyote once, and it was dead, unfortunately. And it was when Alex and I went ice fishing, you went on a walk up the road in the snow. And there was like a shed just up there. And we were like, oh, let's check out the shed. Just to be curious. And we opened it. And there was just this coyote. A carcass.

Hanging by its feet with its throat slit. Yeah. And blood was just draining into a bucket. And we just stood there very, like, frozen for a moment. And it just turned around. We're like, let's. Let's leave. And to be fair, like, here's two city boys that don't, like, normally see there were not hunters by...

Oh, yeah, we were like, you know, we were wearing wheelies on our feet. We had skateboards on our backs. We didn't understand. That's too many wheels. No, it wasn't that we didn't understand. It was just that, you know, we both knew what was going on. Oh, obviously someone had hunted and killed this. Slices to pizza in our hand.

You found my hut. We weren't expecting to see it. So it was really sort of a... Whoa. Must have been a funny scene, though, to watch because we walked up, opened the door, stood there frozen, and then I remember I pulled out my phone and took a picture of it. Oh, do you know?

And then we left. I think we've told this story already. I think we have just told the story on. I think you have told this story on Dishu. I don't remember what happened. Whoa. We're over 100 episodes and now we're repeating ourselves. That's okay, though.

I mean, that's just like being friends with anybody. It's just they got to put up with our bullshit now. They're stuck with us. We got them on a hundred episodes, and we, we're hooked. And I think, unless you're binging the show, we probably had the conversation long enough ago that maybe he don't even really. If we forgot about it, they probably forgot. And now you're hooked. But then it really goes to show, oh, wow, maybe they haven't lived as interesting lives.

They're just telling me telling the same bloody stories. Why they go escape into this fantasy adventure later. Oh, we're not interesting people. Oh, yeah, well, when time I saw a possum. No way. It was late at night. I just saw a possum. I was high as fuck.

All right. Let's play some D&D. Yeah. You're ready. Ow, oh, ow. Ow! All right, we don't need that many. We're good.

Well, it's the wolf. Wolf episode. Actually, that's not more like coyote. I don't know. Shut the fuck out. It's the quay wolf call. That's the... The sun is coloring the sky red and gold when you find your way back out of the clinging depths of

the lurkwood, stumbling through the cold back to the town of Pella's want. A thin line of smoke drifts from the bones of a burned out house and the snow has been churned through with blood here and there. But apart from that, the town seems relatively peaceful. Most everyone is in their homes, sleeping off the adrenaline and fear. But of course, Jack needs very little sleep, I'm sure. Jack, what are you up to when the boys finally make their way back first thing in the morning? He's just leaving Kershid's mansion, looking very pleased with himself, having a letter signed by the mayor that also came back, signed by the council of Mirabar in this, like, frantic negotiation over the last night to making sure the place is going to get some help. So he's sort of stepping out, you know, I'm sure Kieran is smelling some familiar sense on the wind and jumping around excitedly trying to chase those down. And so, yeah, Jack's feeling pretty elated considering the gravity of the situation yesterday.

Yeah, absolutely. So you boys waltz into town, and there's Jack leaving the mansion. Hey, Jack! It's more of a crawl back into town, just, like, dragging ourselves on the snow. Red's got that late-night energy, though, you know, when, like, that second wind hits you, like, you're just sort of, like, erratic because you're so tired. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is it, we're back.

Are you guys okay? Oh, man, it was so cool. We went to the mansion. It was so much farther than Fred said it was. and then we had this food, and then Doren and Crayloth were fighting over somebody, and then these creatures came out. Anyway, no, we weren't fighting, but she was just so beautiful. I can't, uh, and there's like, he's looking back in sort of a wanting manner.

Uh-huh, huh. Wanting the manner. Yeah, exactly. We, uh, we made some friends back there. Huh. And some enemies. These weird little creatures jumped out. Hey, I got one for you.

And Red reaches into his bag. And he pulls out the dead corpse of this. small little creature. Huh. This is a creature you've never seen before, Jack. Yeah. Isn't this cool? Yeah.

Yeah, we fought a bunch of them. I slaced a bunch in half, like I was playing that game that the kids play. Kind of like parasites, they latch on to you and try to drink your blood. Yeah, one got my leg. Then we fought a big one, which didn't really look like this at all. It had big long tentacle-y arms, but... Yeah, the despair dude. Anyway, I thought you'd like to see this guy.

Maybe we should try to eat it. It looks like it's edible. No, I... No, don't eat it, Doran. Well, I mean, with the right spices. Yeah, let's not eat the weird creatures that we come across. Well... All right.

Yeah, definitely looks otherworldly. Hmm. Doran's just like looking between that and like a chicken hanging in a window, and he's like, hmm, hmm, hmm. Why don't we get you some food otherwise? I had a minute to try and tidy up first place. Doran's hungry. We had plenty of food for some reason.

I don't know why Doran's hungry. We literally were at a party. But we just hike. And Red puts the little thing away for a moment. And he's like, but the hostess did say that there was this hunger. The hunger is what she called it. And she said it was sort of ravaging the lands, more or less. Oh, and she gave us this.

And I hand the letter to Jack. Wow. I figured you know how to mail these things. I don't know stamps and all that stuff. Oh, yeah. Well, I've got another letter about to go. I can add this bit as an appendix on it and send that right off. Yeah.

And Jack, I think maybe goes into the house that Firth was living in and sits down at the table to read this letter and do a little bit of magical letter writing, his favorite pastime. Kralath, for the first time ever, seems really curious and, like, sits with you and just, you know, polishes his shield, gets the blood off of his mace, and just looks up at you while you're writing your letters, and I might, at some point, enlist your help in writing a better to someone. Of course.

Just down the road, not any time soon, but... Yeah, whenever we got a spare hour on the airship, let's talk about it more. Let's... I'm ready to get out of this town, though. Yeah. I'd really like that. Me too. And Red, like, bursts in, shaking off the snow,

and he's like, I just flagged down the airship. I'm hoping that we can get the hell out of here. I picture Red shaking off snow, like a dog, shaking off... Yeah. Snow? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, the airship is, of course, still hovering nearby. It's maybe just been a kilometer away waiting for the sign to come and retrieve you. I think Jack promised it like a green sigil. But seeing Red doing cartwheels in the snow, it starts to drive closer just to investigate. I mean, Red can do minor illusion too. He could have signaled it with magic. I did cartwheels, man.

I did those fucking catwheels. And like the pattern in the snow is like spelled out. pick us up. It's all misspelled. That's good. The airship drifts closer and extends ladders down to the ground for you all to climb up. And Red climbs up. And Kralov climbs up.

Yeah, Jack, waves goodbye to the folks of town he was dealing with and climbs up the ladder. I feel like Doran climbs the ladder, but, you know, just kind of continually looks back thinking of his infatuation with this marina. He sort of shrugs it off, and that chapter's closed. He says, what was that, Doran? Oh, nothing. He said that chapter's closed for some reason. What are you talking about?

Did I say that out loud? Are you reading a book, Doran? Oh, what book were you reading, Doran? I love books. Are you doing that thing again? Well, you're talking out loud when you're meant to be thinking, God, I do this all the time. And as the airship departs the town of Pelaswant,

the few people who are outside this early in the morning wave you a farewell as the airship disappears into the distance. Another town saved. Another orphanage started. As the smoke rises behind us. Good job us. This town's going to be all right. On board the airship, you rest and recover.

It's been a long night for everyone. Shale is happy to see you, red. His alien eyes spin with delight. Hi, baby. Someone needs a little bath. Me, mainly. So everyone gets the benefits of a long rest. Cool.

And you continue following Harshnag's map, tracing the border of the lurkwood out onto the plains, sailing over gorgeous and stark wilderness. A herd of deer pick at the frosted field below you, raising their heads in curiosity and alarm to mark your passage. And you travel towards shining white, this barbarian spirit mound. Anything exciting happened while you travel?

I think Red works with Jack to fill this ring of spell story with some of his spells. Oh, yeah. And I think Red's like, look, I think this thing can cast a few spells. And I'm wondering if there's anything you can throw into this bad boy to save our skin if the need be. And I feel like the two of them are like leaning over a table, looking at the ring, kind of trying to decide which spells to put into it. And you know what? I think Doran maybe could wear this. You know, Doran with a little bit of extra firepower in terms of, you know,

stone skin on himself, you know, things like that could be pretty cool. You guys are like going through Jack's spellbook to see, like, what the coolest spells are. And Red's just like looking at it upside down from the other side of the table. And he's like, whoa, why don't we give him that awesome thunderstep you have where you can blow shit up and then zap away? Because if things get really hairy while he's up close, I could see that being a real time save, if you know what I mean. Yeah, I'll put that one and trusty shield in there,

and that'll keep Doran out of danger. I'd hate to have him go down. He came back pretty shook. I don't know what you guys left back there in the mansion. Hey, Doran, get over here. Doran's asleep. So, like, I kind of picture while you guys are talking about this, you keep glancing back at Doran's sleeping,

kind of considering what might affect him the best. Doran, wake up. Jack and I got something for you. Oh, somebody called my name? He jumps up. Oh, would you wake me up for her? This is, uh, I hope it's important. I was getting some rest.

Remember this? This is the ring that I got that removed a curse from that freaky dude, Renzo. Oh, yeah, the magic ring. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. What about it? I've put some spells in it that I think you could use that that would maybe come in handy for you.

So there's some protections and a little bit of escape here. You, you, I mean, I help too, but yeah, sure. Put it this way. Thank you. Both of you, for doing this for me. I'm not really sure. It's magic. I just don't know how to do it.

You can do it, Doran. When the time comes, I'll remind you. But it's just like that wand you've got. Okay. Well, if you guys say it's going to work, then okay. So he puts the ring on. I love that with all these magical artifacts, Doren is slowly becoming like a battle mage of some kind.

Hey, maybe. in another hundred episodes. Apprentice Wizard. You never know. Atop a rocky hill overlooking a tributary of the Surbrin River, a tall spire of white stone rises up to pierce the rays of the setting sun. Visible for a fair distance as you approach, the spire is surely the eponymous shining white.

Two concentric raised rings of snow-covered earth span what must be nearly 800 feet, undulating as if to symbolize something specific. From your bird's eye view, the shape contained within the centermost ring of earth looks almost like a winged creature of some kind. The snow covering the sacred site is marred with dozens of excavations showing black earth underneath. Every 50 feet or so, another hole is marked with sprays of dirt across the snow.

Wow. Look at that. Am I fair to assume that that's the shining white thing that we're looking for? It must be. It sure is shiny and white. You're still on the deck of the airship. Red looks out with a perception of 20. Your natural passive perception. Bingo, bingo.

How high up are you flying? 300 feet. 300 feet. It's a venerable height. How tall is that spire? Ooh, great question. The spire is about 280 feet tall. So you're just almost in line with the top of the spire. But we're not near it.

So you're approaching the mound from the, the south right now. Yeah. So there's like this mound and then at the opposite end of the mound, sort of like the opposite end of the circle, there's like this giant spire. Exactly. Yes. So read with your passive perception of 20, you see that someone has recently desecrated this spirit mound. There are many ears and cairns of stone that seem to be toppled and broken all across the surface of this inner circle of mounded earth and snow. Hey, Kralath, it looks like it's been desecrated a little bit down there. Someone's pushed over some of those pretty stones.

Yeah, must have been for some sort of ritual before it was destroyed. I mean, I wonder what the effect would have been to start. Maybe our job is done. Jack, what exactly did the oracle say again? We needed to desecrate these by returning the artifacts or something? Well, there's some giant artifact that is in here somewhere. It could be somebody was here looking for it before us. I imagine maybe someone was here looking for it. Is there any sign of giant footprints or anything? I don't see anything. I assume a natural 20 would have revealed.

You're going to have to land in order to perform a more thorough investigation. We're going to have to land to perform a more thorough investigation. I feel like Doran sticks his head out the side of the airship and looks down and sees all these holes that. that have been dug, and it feels a little bit ashamed of whoever has done it. Obviously, this is really kind of torn apart this somewhat sacred site. You do know that's why Weheda are in that, right? Well, yeah, but I mean, look at the way that it's been done. I mean, there's a way you desecrate, you know?

Well, let me rephrase. I forgot that's, yeah. I hope someone hasn't, you know, taken what we're looking for already. Yeah. Fair. Is there any evidence about which of the tribes this site belonged to? Yeah. I mean, you have your handy mnemonic device.

What was that mnemonic device? My mnemonic device, how could anyone forget BBB-E-G-G-G-R-T-T? Of course. Such an easy-to-remember. Oh, yeah. It rolled off the tongue. Three B's, one-E, three G's R-S-T-T.

Like, I don't know, it just works in my brain. Yes, it does. Based on the shape of this spirit mound and its location, you think that it's likely belonging to the griffin tribe, which makes sense based on the fact that the center is like a winged creature. Yeah, look at that. Third G, right there. See, there's the shape of a griffin. If you look, you can sort of see it.

It's dug a hole there. They've got this altar in the middle of it. I think that, huh. Jack stops himself for a minute because that's clearly the place he's most interested in going, but whether that's the right place to go. I'd certainly want to see what's happening at that altar there if we think that would be a place to start, but, but, you know. Well, that's the question. How do we want to go about this? You're obviously the expert. You've been to the most things of this ilk. Never a great Karen like this. Do I know anything else about the Griffin tribe?

Yeah, roll a history check about this tribe. I'd love to. You definitely know some particular details about different tribes. Yeah. 22. You know that the Griffin tribe maintains a semi-permanent walled settlement, which is not very common among the barbarian tribes. It's fairly nearby in the Serbrin Hills. It's more of a guarded encampment than anything,

but it's somewhat close by to this location. Yeah, I mean, I guess it makes sense this would be the Griffin tribe. I don't know why I didn't put it together before. Do they actually ride Griffins, or is that just like a Holy See? symbol of theirs, like a totem. Oh, yeah, that would be so cool. It's not outside the possibility. Listen, it's not weird to ride griffons. The cavalry and water deep ride griffins. Everybody writes griffins, don't they? Have you never seen somebody write a griffon? We don't need the judgments. We're just saying it's cool, man. Well, also, I'm a little

concerned because that means our airship is maybe a bit more vulnerable than it was in Pella's one. Hey, good point. Yeah, that's a really good point. Maybe we should get down on the ground and have it pull back a little ways. Yeah. Tell it to come pick us up. Look at that spire over there. What have we got? No, there's a stupid idea.

Good job, Doren. You saw it. What's your stupid idea? I want to hear it. You scale down the spire. Landing on the top of the spire. The Griffiths surely can't get us up there. Not if we're high above them.

All right, so what's the plan? Why don't we touch down and get a closer look while the weather is nice? I think you were saying we go down. Yeah, that's what I meant. Our feet. We touched down with our feet while the airship stays high. Just check. Yeah.

I agree. All right. And Red jumps over the side and slides down the ladder. Just looking so cool. As it's unfurling beneath you. Oh, man. I imagine like when you're traveling on this thing that Red has people let the ladders down partially so that he can just like hang on and like feel like he's flying. Oh, yeah.

I mean, he casts the icy mantle, right, just in case? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because he's not crazy. No, cool. But this time he doesn't. Kralov looks at the ladder, and he has this weird moment of, what the hell? He grabs onto his backpack, takes a deep breath, and jumps over the side. Oh, my God.

And pulls the cord to his balloon shoot and slowly levitates to the ground. Yeah. I'm starting to get the hang of it. Who else does a cool dismount? Well, I don't do a cool dismount, but I see Krayloth jump off the side. Kralath, no, no, what are you doing? I'm all right, Doren. Oh, my God.

You got to get one of these packs. That's great. No, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I want to give you inspiration, Kralath. You're facing your fears. Yeah, yeah. You're using your magic items in a cool way. And I love, like, the image of Kralath sailing down through this dust sky onto this holy site.

I feel like you land there before red is down, you know? Like, he lands, and turns around. Hey, buddy. How did you get here? Oh, backpack. What? Like a holy paratrooper. Ah, cool, man.

Yeah, we got to use it like that more often. Nice. High five. Ah, high five. Jack checks his backpack to make sure he has everything he'd want in there for an archaeological investigation and sort of like has his little shovel and pick packed away and a little rope tied on. It's that already.

Safely tucks Kieran away in a pocket dimension and starts like carefully making it down this ladder with this big backpack on the back of. of him just like he's he's in his element. Jack must be so excited right now. Oh, absolutely. This is his dream. It's certainly an area of interest for him. And I mean, it's also a little tragic, both seeing that it's already had some stuff knocked over or messed up a little bit and not getting to see it in the pristine condition. But that's the archaeologist's curse, right? You never get to see anything the way it's intended. And he just got to piece it all together. And so his mind's already trying to like stand the rocks up. You got to use your imagination. Yeah. Are you coming, Doren?

I need somebody to map it out. Doran nervously climbs over the edge and climbs down the ladder as he does every other time. So all four of you are on the ground now. And being that you're on the ground, it's even a little bit darker than it was before. Dusk is truly coming on.

But all around you, the whiteness of the snow and this white marble, some kind of stone. It just glimmers. You know, when like the sun is setting. So like the top two-thirds, of the stone are still in bright sunlight, but the bottom third is already cast in shadow. Cool. You know, that's a good question.

What kind of stone is it, Doran? Well, that's a very good question. Let's take a look here, and Doran kind of looks closely through eyes. You do? Through your eyes? Through his stone cunning eyes. How many feet away is it? It's 650 feet away from you right now, so you peer through the darkness and you ascertain

it is indeed a stone. You're going to need to get much closer. It's probably white, but the colors are... But I might know what it is just by the refractory of a light, you know? I mean, there's a possibility, right? The wet, sorry? The what?

The refractory of the light. Nice. Go for it, go for it. The light bounces off of there and then it needs a break for a minute and then it... You always get a natural 20. I would love for this to work.

You always have lucky. So a 13. Not great. Yeah, you don't know. You're too far away. right now. Oh, it's just too far away, Jack. I'll tell you when we get up closer. So what's the plan, Jack? Where you want us to head first? Should we... Let's climb this first hill here and have a look at these Cairns. Just to see what happened here,

just because we don't want somebody sneaking up behind us. Cool. Red just lays his ear to the ground and checks for any giants within a five-kilometer radius. Oh, that's smart. Yeah, so you do your primeval awareness. Yeah, I feel, you know, the movement beneath the snow and even their footsteps. And I sort of breathe the earth, and I feel everything around me within 5K. You feel the presence of your three friends and Kieran's little doggy footsteps, ascend the circular mound to the north of you. As you listen for these giant footsteps, you don't hear anything. So no, no giants within five miles.

Cool. And red pops up. No giants! And catches up. so again just to be clear so that we're all picturing the same things in our heads this spirit mound it's enormous it's 800 feet wide and it's comprised of these two concentric circles so there's an exterior circle and an interior circle now that you're on the ground each mounted circle is about 30 feet tall it's like a hill that you have to climb and maybe 50 to 100 feet wide and then you're And in between the two circles on this mound, there's like a trench that runs between them. So atop the first mound, everyone is kind of climbed up to see what they can see. Wow.

As Red climbs to the top, he raises a hand and shouts, Scraven! And Scraven just comes out of like a snow pile and starts flying up around them. Cool. Might as well get a bad's eye view. Yeah, absolutely. And Jack, once we're on top of the first hill, Jack brings Kieran back out of his little pocket dimension. and, you know, lets him clomp around in the snow and try and see what he smells.

Krayloth stands at the far side of this raised area and looks down into the valley that separates the outer circle from the inner circle and says, I wonder what was in here, if it was some sort of moat. Doran, you think you'd be able to tell if you got to the bottom of that? Hmm.

Well, I don't know, Kralath. I suppose if I get down there, you know. Yeah, when you get a minute, just kind of got me. curious. Yeah. Yeah, no, it is very interesting. I mean, perhaps at one time or another, there was a water float here, but I suppose once we get back up in the airship, I mean, looking at the topography, it might make better sense. Are you investigating this excavation? I would like to. Yeah, please. Jack beams at the use of the word topography from Doran. Yeah, yeah. And maybe Dory

even, like, looks when he says the word to Jack to make sure he used it correctly. Rolls the word around in his mouth like a marble, so unnatural. Yeah, just like a thumbs up, trying to make sure, you know, wait for Red and Crayla's eyes to be turned. Just so it's just a moment between us to be like, there's a knowing glance of like, fuck yeah, topography. Could I help Doran investigate? Yeah. And get them. Oh.

Yeah. Why don't we look around here, Doran? So I'll roll with advantage then on the investigate. Not like I made much of a difference, a nine. Yeah, you look around. It's kind of difficult for you to tell what happened here. You're not really used to seeing holes in the snow. These holes that are dug, is it hitting into dirt?

Yeah, so there's like a spray of earth around. And actually, there's a couple of bones lying on the snow as well. Hmm. Any... What do you think here, Doran shovels, claws, hands? How'd they dig the hole? Would I know that? Not with a nine.

It's hard to say, but there's bones. So I suppose maybe these bones were dug up and not left here. They must have had bodies buried everywhere around here. Well, it's a sacred site. I'm sure these people are important. Yes, yeah. Red and Kraloff, I feel like, have taken up their more traditional role when Jack maybe intended to hire them originally,

where they're sort of just acting as bodyguards. You know, like Red is standing on the outside. skirt watching, you know, just scanning the landscape, looking up to scream every once in a while, and he just walks over to Kralov and he's like, uh, Blackberry? And he like holds out a hand of like seven blackberries that he's just eating. Hmm, don't mind if I do. And Krayloth grabs a couple, still looking out over the, uh, the landscape. See anything cool? He points to the west and says, uh, not much daylight left and, uh, brings his goggles down. Yeah, boys, I don't know how much we want to do this at night,

but let's make sure we keep an eye on that sun. Yeah, we got 15 minutes till sundown proper. Don't worry about it. I got a keen sense of how much sunlight we have left, tearing himself away from the really, really interesting part of who's in this hole and why they were buried. I think Jack moves his attention to try and see what he can figure out from the fact that they've all been dug up, who dug them up,

where did they go first? Just trying to investigate anything around the holes to figure out who is here. How long did they like unearth this stuff? Yeah. First, I would say that would be a survival check. I would love to help here because that's exactly what I was going to do is start looking at the footprints and stuff. Yeah. So if the two of you are working in a concerted effort, putting your heads together on all of these things,

let's say any of the checks that the two of you make to investigate this spirit mound can be rolled with advantage. Perfect. So go ahead and roll with advantage, Rob. Yeah, look at the footprints. They seem to be coming from here and going there. Hey, look at that, 20. Hey, way to go.

Not a natural 20, no, 16 plus 4. Excellent. Save me from the natural one on the other die there, though. So Doran points out a shape in the snow maybe, and Jack, as you go over there, you identify giant-sized footprints. They're not super fresh, probably laid within the past. five days, but deep. And from the shape of them, they appear to be stone giant footprints.

Jack shivers just as soon as he says, oh, stone giants. You have like a flashback of being stuck inside of a stone giant skin? Yeah, yeah. Now you can roll investigation. We'd love to. 26 on both dice section. Yeah. Wow.

As soon as that piece of information clicks into place in your mind, The whole occasion resolves itself, what happened here. You see these wide, dragging marks in the snow around all these excavations, and it seems like the stone giants must have taken whole handfuls of snow and earth and bones and just flung them around this site. Am I able to figure out how many of them? Yeah, there were three. Doren's kind of standing, looking at these holes with his hands on his hips, trying to discern why the giants have decided to dig where they dug.

I look over at Jack, who's, you know, a little ways away, and I say, I kind of yell, well, sort of random, isn't it? Yeah, I can't find a pattern to it either. I will have to, why don't we move around towards the center? Like we're saying, we're losing daylight. Let's see what we can figure out why the Giants stopped or if they got chased off or, or, or, or, we'll have to be. where they went. Can I roll anything on stone giants? I have advantage on information about them. Definitely. I'm wondering if I can sort of use my knowledge collected from harsh night to our advantage here.

I figured I would have seen them. If there's tracks around here, I would have seen them eventually anyway, because I'm just sort of looking around. 17. You recall something specific about the night that Jack was taken from you by the stone giant. Sounds so romantic. Remember this? When you guys were on the road with the stone giants, the one melded Jack into his arm. How can we forget? I do remember that, and it snaps in my brain. I said, hey, remember those stone giants that we came across, they were throwing

dwarven architecture. They hated it, remember? That's right. For some reason, they wanted to destroy the idea of these people's past. They really wanted to annihilate it. So far, from what I can tell about stone giants, they seem obsessed with destroying previous cultures, especially the dwarven one we saw to the south, and

obviously this now. But this is their own culture, is it not? No. Stone giants? Definitely not. Doran, do you need some blackberries? Sorry, I take that back. Is this not a giant? No, this is the Griffin tribe. Oh, right, right, right, right, right. Barbarian. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. But you're looking for

a giant artifact, so I actually had it the other way around. I thought this was a giant site and the barbarians had dug the holes. Sorry. It was misunderstood. Opposite. Kralath watches Doran slide down this embankment and says, do we know exactly what sort of artifact we're looking for?

Is it another conch? No, these are the artifacts that we have to return so that we can find the location of the conchies. Right, right, right, right. These are just artifacts that we're returning to the giant peoples. So we wouldn't be able to use the rod of Von and Dodd to say, look for giant artifact. If they're made it of Adamantine, we could, and it can locate an object, so...

Yeah, that's Kralath. That's a great idea. Thank you. I have them every once in a while It's probably Kellenvore's influence Once we set up camp We can take that hour maybe Let's look around a little more True

Well we've got a few minutes of late Let's get to the altar Just to see what's through there All right And Red Lake walks a few steps ahead Holds up a hand To gesture for everyone to stop Looks around

Gestures them forward and continues As if like It's like him and Kraloth Are like the bodyguards here Hold on! All right it's safe Let's go Oh yeah Just trying to contribute.

Just trying to contribute in any way we can. Because we just have nothing to do here. So these embankments, they're rock. Could I roll like a stone cutting to see if they were chiseled? Yeah, great idea. There was water erosion. Yeah. You kick aside some of the snow to take a look at the ground underneath.

24. Yeah. You can tell that this structure was made maybe. maybe a thousand years ago. Okay. It's definitely very old. And there are chips of white stone in and amongst the other kinds, standard stone, but this, there's chalk here. And it clicks in your mind that that spire, the shining white beacon, this tall pillar stone, is probably also made of chalk.

So Doren, like, excitedly runs back up to Kri-law. and joins them. So you know what I did? Down there, I kicked aside some of the snow. Good job, Doran. Yeah, thank you. You kicked that snow so well. Oh, thank you.

Guys, did you hear that? Doran kicked the snow. Well, let me tell you, they're not valleys. In fact, we're on hills, and these hills have been built out of stone, and what I think that spire is over there, pointing at the giant white rock, it must be chalk.

It's what gives us that brilliant, Great job, Doran. I'm so proud of you. I thought you were just kicking snow, which is cool, but that's even better. Well, I can kick snow, too. Watch this, Red. Whoa! What a kick! There was something significant about this. I mean, I know that chalk you could, uh, it's very easy to carve. Maybe because it's nice and visible from the air, right? If they want to be seen, they want to be seen from far away. If they're, if they've got a relationship with Griffins, I could certainly understand an appeal to something that you're going to see no matter the time of year.

There could be something to that. I'm not sure. Jack's like, he's doing his best to follow Red's lead and not rush ahead, but he definitely wants to like dash through the snow and hop a cliff to get to the center of this. Oh, Red was just getting you across the valley. He's fully just helping you here. I'm done now. I step aside and I gesture forward.

How about it, Jack? You're on the ridge of this second inner concentric circle. And all around you, there are these. toppled cairns and meneers. And also strange shapes under the snow here belie the presence of something hidden. Too bad you don't have moved snow, only move earth. Well, watch this.

And Doran kicks some snow. Oh, Doran! For the wind! We can do it with our feet or with our hands even. Perhaps to Jack's dismay, Doran kicks a mound of snow and a pile of bones underneath just goes flying. Oh.

Oops. I mean, Jack does his best to reach out with his mind and, like, catch a few of them with his mage hand just before they crash into the ground, but he can't get all of them. Some of them, you know, tumble past. He's like... A vertebra just falls down the hill.

So good. Oh, shit, Doran. Doran's bum blushes. Hey, don't beat yourself up over it. I would have done the exact same thing. Look! Yeah, bones go flying. You're kicking a bunch of bones.

See? And Kralov to stop, all of a sudden, very serious. And he's going to reach down and pick up one of these bones. Hmm. Roll a nature check for me. 17. These are not human bones. Hmm. They're bigger than human bones?

They're horse bones, actually. Oh. Horse bones. Maybe food for the griffons. I toss one back to Jack. Roll dexterity. Roll dexterity. In the dusk.

Just get hit the head with a... horse femur. Jack, it's clobbered. 2D4 bludgeoning damage. Jack, you know that this tribe would sacrifice horses at this site over the years in order to potentially feed their mounts or maybe just to appease the spirits. Think about how many horses they must have collected over the years to build this pile of bones over a millennium.

Four? Five? No, five. Five. Final answer. Five. Seven? Seven.

Doran, don't say seven. I'm going seven. Definitely more than seven. They have to have at least 12. Eight? 12. Final answer, 12. Jack, 12? Jack's closing his eyes, and he's counting in his head at this picture of a horse he's seen in his book. 205 bones in the body of a fully mature horse.

Which is one fewer than humans who have 206. I was closest. All right, what's the plan, Jack? You want to look around here? I do. I definitely do. I mean, we got to find... Yeah, you know what?

Maybe I'm going to go ahead. I won't touch anything, but I'm just going to hop to the middle and see if I can't find something. I promise I won't mess it up. And Red Joggs off. That's where I want to go to. I'm right behind you. Bye! See you later, Red.

Just ruining this whole experience for Jack. I waited. I was very patient. I was like, all right. Jack wants to do this stuff. He's going to be patient. But Red runs towards the center. Dorian, we really should head that way.

Yeah. I'm already here, don't worry, I got it. What do you see? I'll tell you. In the middle of the griffin-shaped indentation in the earth, Red strides up atop a mound of its own. And on top of that, slabs of broken white marble lie in a pile.

What was once an altar is reduced to rubble. I wonder if they tuck it! Red shouts back. Okay, I'll rule an investigation real quick. Like a nine. Yeah, apart from the pieces of this broken altar, you detect nothing. Red just loudly shrugs towards their direction. Screevin is flying overhead and goes, scree at you. By this point, I assume...

They all came over, yeah. Hey, boys, look at it. It's a marble slab. That's broken. Anyway, we're losing daylight. I'm going to go check out one of those other mounds. You'll let me know if you find anything. Bye! Okay. Doran, why don't we try and move this Marvel slab and see if we can find anything under here? If there was a most sacred place to hide a most sacred object and you wanted to do things on top of it my guess is here let's let's see if we can dig a hole yeah why not put things underneath the marble slab uh how are we going to move that though i don't know you're strong heave jack just waves his hand at you good luck and has a seat well maybe i don't know you're strong

hired help yeah it's there's a whole like a whole year worth of like camarader you just slipped out of his mind and we're back at the very first dig site which is like you just haul some shit whatever. Let's lean into it. Higherlings. Doran looks over Kralath and he gives a shrug and says, well, let's try it. Kralath, you want to grab that end of this piece of stone and see if we can roll it over? Oh, yeah, sure. Move it over the way.

Yeah, okay. After about five minutes of heaving and hoisting you two, the huge human and this small dwarf managed to clear the majority of the remains of the altar from the top of this mound. And Jack's like right in the middle. He's got his little shovel and pick and he's sort of... His sleeves rolled up.

Oh, absolutely. The sleeves on his jacket rolled up. He's not even worried about the cold. He's probably taking his jacket off, actually, because he's got this ruin to not worry about that. So he's down there in the sweat, moving the small pieces. Digging underneath the altar,

you uncover a smooth white disc. Ah. Oh! Marked with one hole, semi-circular, but appearing to have been broken along its flat edge, jagged. It's nearly the size of writing desk, and as you fully unearth it, you realize one side is beautifully painted in blue and silver, made to resemble half of a face.

It's a giant-sized mask, broken vertically in half. The eyehole is open, staring blindly up at the darkening sky. The mouth is twisted in an evil scowl. I'm wondering if Jack might use levitate to get it just to come up and just in those last shining rays of light this mask floats and catches the light. Yeah. You just hear Red be like,

did you guys find anything? And then he looks over and he sees this mask and he's like, I didn't see anything, just bones! And he like waves a femur that's like loosely attached to another leg piece in the lake. He just goes flying. As it like disconnects, the cartilage way too old, just goes flying like 300 meters to his left.

He's like, oh, and then he drops the bone. Screven picks it out of mid-air and just flies away with it. That's one screaming. All right, I'm coming back. And Red just runs back towards you guys. I think completely out of character, Doran has retrieved his notebook

and is scribbling down, you know, what this looks like, you know, even the situation. A mask. Not words, like drawing it. Big mask. Yeah, I think carefully setting this half of the mask aside, I think Jack's trying to see

if the other half is down here somewhere. Digging further reveals the second half of the giant mask, spoiled by grave dirt, but still impressive in its crafting. Oh, Jack's got his little brush, and he's carefully, like, getting the edges of the dirt off before he moves it too far, just not wanting to have it crack or break this cool thing. Is it the same face, or is it one of those drama faces where it's, you know, one... No, it's scowling, its mouth completed now with the other half in this fearsome grimace. I think Red catches back up.

How cool. Well done, guys. Way to go. Can I roll with advantage on information again to see which of the giants might have worn this mask? Absolutely. Nice. Good call. Good answer, good answer. Let's show me blah, blah, blah. That's 16. Given your experience with the species. And Harshnag. I feel like a lot of this came from Harshnag.

Like long, late night conversations that Red had with him. The aristocracy of the cloud giants certainly use masks like these. Hey, you know, I remember Hashnag saying that Cloud Giants wore things like these every once in a while. They were pretty fancy, fancy people. I guess they are. Interesting. And Red just sort of leans over. This must be one of the artifacts that we need to return.

Yeah, I think Jack's carefully, like, wrapping them in pieces of his cloak maybe to make sure they don't break together or clink around and tries to, like, carefully get them located in the bag of holding. Well, once we get it on the ship, then we can just store it up there until we get the... back. The mouth of the bag of holding is just large enough that you can squeeze them inside. I kind of picture that being a funny scene too. Like we open the bag of holding and they were like, oh, well, the mouth isn't, and then it just keeps going. We're like, oh, never really realized how big this bag of holding. Yeah. And Red's like leaning in. He's like, oh, oh, don't knock over my set of manacles. Oh, no, no, no, not next to the piece of cloud. Okay, keep that. Keep that. No, no, take that. Those are the cloaks and masks from earlier. No, no, don't, don't put it

next to the bare skin taxidermy toy. We're going to have to rotate. We're going to have to rotate it to get in. Just hold it there for a second, and if we put it in an angle, this will fit. Look, it's a good thing. It wasn't in a whole piece. I mean, because otherwise we have to break it and have to fit here. You're knocking over the infernal puzzle box. Don't, no, no, no, next to the table, next to the table. Why do we have a table? What do you mean, why do we have a, for putting the things on? Don't worry about it. All right, it's in. I guess we should signal this bad boy to come back. As the sun dips below the horizon, a fine mist spills out of the ground and hovers over the snow ghostlike and something moves within the fog at first you think it's the mist playing tricks on you it's

very unsettling and then there's a shape an outline of a figure almost some distortion in your perception that resolves just for a moment into a featureless head and torso then dissolves immediately Artemis i'm so sorry where have you come what the hell was that who's there I don't feel very good right now. This mist came out of nowhere. Duren pulls out his axe. And reflected on the head of Ork Splitter on every metal breastplate in Kieran's deep eyes,

translucent figures step through the fog. I feel like Red pulls out that little locket with the glass in it where he's been looking at this young girl and he sort of looks at the reflection in the glass and holds it up to try to see in the mists. Mm-hmm. When you're looking through the fog, You can see these distortions in the mist,

but they don't really resolve into figures until you look at them through the reflection of some metal object. They walk in a dream-like state, hairless, eyeless, naked, insubstantial forms. And as they pass near to you, you can hear their mutters, groaning, pleading. I'm dead. Oh, something. They're trapped. Their souls haven't been able to move on. They're spirits.

They're spirits of the dead that were buried here. What race are they? Are they all human? Great question. They're not all human. Although their differences are blurred, they seem almost as if archetypal versions of themselves, indistinct, featureless. Hello? Red says shakily.

Can you hear us? You hear a voice pass by you, Red. I would have never left if I had known it to be so cold. Just for one moment to hold our children again to help you with the field. Yeah, I think Red's drawn his bone. He's like spinning around, you know. Just maybe we should try to make it out of the circle before calling the airship because... Marina said that something up here was causing this hunger.

I wonder if this is related. I wonder if this has something. something to do with it. I've never experienced anything like this before. Perhaps. Kralath rubs his ring. Captain Treneros, you hear me. He appears in the mist, frightening you for a moment. As one of these insubstantial forms walks through him, he looks around at these forms and he says, Crayloth, these are not all dead. And what are they?

Illusions, visions? And then something more substantial moves in the mist. A putrid corpse, festering with bloat and slick with maggots, dressed in shreds of armor. Its eyes burned triumphantly with green flame, and its bloated lips. slur. Over hill, through forest, across river, the thrill of the hunt calls to us. A quarry so tempting, a kill so deliciously inspiring to hang your skull as a trophy in our great hall. Come to me.

Shit's about to get real. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters. Christopher Ryan Evans, Merlin, Mitchell Cadwell, Ashley and J.B., Colin Burkart, Daniel, Doug, Jessica Orrett, Jonah Goldman, Katie Orrett, Marrikaniski, Brianna and Michael Weber. Thank you so much. You make all the difference. We've got a big, bad wolf, and we went on our side crest. We did a whole thing, and now we were doing the best. Everybody here's going to go on an airship.

We're going to find all the mounds. Tadda, ta, ta.