Dice Shame - 105 | 'Fight a Losing Battle’

Episode Date: October 14, 2021

Things start to get real when a violent encounter turns deadly... 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.

Hunt Lords round three. Red, follow my lead. Wow, I suddenly feel stronger. Get away from me. We have the high ground, Anakin. What, Star Wars told me? Yeah, gentlemen, I mean, his intestines are like pouring out of his stomach. You scallywag.

Bring it on, fucker. The one is prepped. Get that two ready. Hell, Oaksplitter. Blow him out of hell, Jack. It's a wizard battle. It's a wizard battle of the utmost order. Welcome back to Dishame.

This is episode 105, Fight a Losing Battle. MVP this week is Rob Drummond, who recently joined the Facebook group and is nearly caught up. He's running his own Storm King's Thunder campaign, and like all DMs, we encourage him to feel free to borrow ideas that our talented Joe is put forth. Stealing is caring. Tomorrow, Thursday, October 15th, Voting closes for the Discover Pods Awards. We found out that our sister show, Malevolent, was nominated in both the people's choice and audio drama categories, and we're absolutely over the moon about it.

If you're listening in time, please take a second to vote for the show. Winning this would mean a lot to us. It's really a quick process. You don't need to vote in all categories if you don't want to. Just go to awards. Dot discoverpods.com and click vote now. And if you've already voted, thank you so, so much. Thank you so much.

We really appreciate it. All right. Shall we play some D&D? Yeah, let's do it. So Harlan and I went to the movies last weekend. Have you guys been since the pandemic? There are these cool things. It's like a big scream that you sit and chair.

Oh, since the pandemic. Movie pictures. Actually, I did. I took Liam to go see Paw Patrol. We did too. How much did he like it? He loved it. How much did you like it?

I slept half or through. Oh, no. Oh, no. Classic dad. I imagine him looking over at you in the dark and be like, Daddy, did you see? Oh. Oh.

No, I didn't, it wasn't halfway through. I snoozed a little bit, like right in the middle. And then you couldn't get into the plot afterwards? Just, I don't know what's going on. How do you follow what these dogs are up to? Who murdered who? That's nice, though. Just the two of you, just the boys?

Yeah, it was nice. Was Liam really good? Did he stay? Yeah. It was fun. It was just enjoyable. We even, like, walked around. around the theater afterwards and looked at the size of the screen.

He was most disappointed that I didn't want to stay and play arcade games, though. It was the middle of the day in the middle of the week. Yeah, that's fair. We went to play to him after we took Henry to Pupportch. Oh, well, that's, there you go. But it was our last day before the school year started, and we wanted to... We did a blowout. Yeah, we did, like, a little...

It was so cute. During the movie, he turned to Joe and he goes, he said it. After, like, one of the pups said his, like, cliche tagline or whatever? whatever. It was really adorable. It was a great memory. But Harlan and I went kind of on a date last weekend. That was not to Pop Patrol. Well, we went to see it again because we missed the first. It's a subtle movie. You know, you got to get all the layers into it. Oh, man. It was really cool. It was really cool. It was really well done. Oh, I mean. We saw Shang Chi. Yeah. Yeah. I really liked it. Very cool. Have you guys seen it? I did. Yeah, Rach and I went a couple of days.

ago. It was great. Yeah, I liked it so much. It's like a Marvel movie, right? But it's a, it's kind of separate from, it's part of the universe, but the storyline itself is kind of separate to that. Yeah, it's like all the first Marvel movies, you know, all the character introduction movies. They all pretty much stand on their own, but this one was far and above, especially in terms of the action. It's totally my brand of Cosmic Nonsense. And I think when you know, like, one of Jackie Chan's, like, team choreographed a whole bunch of it. You're like, oh, that definitely feels, like that kind of martial arts movie and then in the middle it takes this weird left turn and you're like oh did not expect a lot of a lot of this but it was it was so good the choreography was so good well that's it the fighting you'd love it Alex the fighting alone it does it reminds me of those old Jackie Chan movies I'm a huge Jackie Chan fan yeah me too I can't wait to see it it's set up and paid off everything it did so well like I just they sort of did that like set up remind you of a thing and then like give you the punchline to it to it whatever concept they're doing it was just cool it was fabulous it was fun

Yeah, it was good. What about you, Justin? Did you hit the movies? Yeah, let's see. I've seen two movies so far since pandemic. One was The Green Night. Oh, yeah. That was a thinker and a beautiful movie,

but probably not one that I'd go out of my way to watch again. I've seen that one also, and it felt very much like an opera where I should have had a playbill at the start of it to read what was going on and then watched it, and I would have really appreciated it a whole lot. Yeah. It felt opera.

It just wasn't really otherwise very accessible. I wonder how that would land for us because we played it. Well, you know what? So I am so pumped about it, but I haven't seen it yet for a very specific reason. That is 100% the kind of movie I need to be in a mood for, a very specific mood. And when I see it in that mood, I am going to love it. Because there are certain movies that I love sort of meandering, beautiful, like the Nicholas Renn. No.

Yeah, I mean, he does some really pretty stuff. The Bees. No, the guy who did drive. That was a good movie. Wicker Man. Wicker Man shot. Gone in 60 seconds. Nicholas Winding Refen.

He's the guy who did drive, but he also does a lot of really slow, meandering, beautiful movies. Like Valhalla Rising is a really good movie. And to me, immediately, Green Knight seems like Valhalla Rising, which is just a movie with very little dialogue. where a guy walks around a landscape and experiences things and it's beautiful and it's brutal. You know, so sometimes I'm totally in that mood. And when I'm in that mood,

I know I'm going to love it, but I'm not in that mood, yeah. Just take some mushrooms. Yeah, I really just wish I had someone tell me think of all the scenes like it's an anthology, not like it's a novel. Is it a Marvel movie? Yeah, it is, actually.

Very low-ton-solve. It's part of the Green Lantern. It goes, the green lantern, the green knight. So make sure you watch the Green Lantern first. The green hornet, and then is the, is the trilogy. The reason why I asked is it just googled it. It looks like there's a, like a tree guy. The Green Hornet.

I thought it was Groot. God. Yeah, no, it's not. It's like King Arthur Court. It's a fable. Yeah. It's almost like Pan's labyrinthy in the... Right.

Yeah. It's also like a true... Well, yeah, because neither of you guys played the RPG with us. That's right. So I think also, we're 100% in, like, I know exactly. what's going to happen probably more or less in the movie. Because Tim Woods wrote the RPG for the movie

and then he... It's a J.R. Tolkien book? No, no, no. And then he gave us... No, we bought a copy of the RPG. Yeah, and we played it, and I ran it for Joe and Chris and Gary and Ahmed and then, you know, and we talked about it

and then Tim came on the show and talked about it some more. And he was like, this is how I want the game to be played. Yeah, so it was really cool to... But more than anything, just mean to say that I think that did a really good job of communicating the premise of the movie and I think we probably have a leg up on that. Have you seen anything besides Pop Patrol though, Alex? No. I mean, well, the Green Knight is a Marvel Comics character. They did some like Marvel comics in the Green Night and so I was just because they told that story also because it's an old

story. Everybody's told. So I was just. Well, then you know what? Alex is not wrong. So one point him. Alex wins. I just Googled it and I saw the Green Knight. I knew it wasn't totally wrong but I like the movies I'm glad it's coming back I'm really happy they're doing a vaccine passport I love that idea I'm excited to be in a theater and feeling like I'm with other people I liked being able to select your seats before you went oh my god yeah yeah best invention to cinema in the last a million years absolutely no but for real the minute they started doing that I was like this is the best thing ever and I only went to landmark previous because they did that And now since pandemic, it seems like every theater is doing that.

And I love it. It's nice to know that you're going to have your seats there. And then you can say, those are mine. And you know you don't have any neighbors. Well, so people came into the cinema late and they sat right behind us. And I was so mad because they were like, they were just right there. And the one guy was on his phone. That's the other thing.

They feel like since the pandemic, people don't fucking know how to act in public anymore. Well, I mean, that was kind of always an issue. But you're not wrong. It's definitely more annoying because we've been very lucky. You know, for the past two years, you only have to watch movies at home with the people you care about who are going to respect it. Now you do have to go back out in public and deal with terrible people.

Jerks. People are, can be terrible. People are the worst. As we've seen, as we continue to see. I also saw Suicide Squad. Oh, that's right. We saw that too. Yeah, we saw that as well.

A blast. Everything I want out of a movie called The Suicide Squad. Didn't that come out like last year or something? They did a re-boot. Sort of, I guess. Another? Not really. I don't really know what it is.

It kind of irritates me. There's so many bloody Marvel film. Like, I don't even know what... I kind of feel the same way, Alex. I don't feel the same way. I enjoy the movies and I'm excited that they want to make more. Before Harlan and I started dating, I was kind of curmudgeonly towards the Marvel movies. And then I gave them an honest shot.

And I was like, you know what? I get why these are enjoyable. I see why people like them. Comic movies. Who gives a shit? Yeah. They're not memorable for me at all. I've seen the Avengers movies like three times.

And three quarters of the way through them, I'm like, oh, I have seen this. My favorite ones are when the people making them realize that comic book movie is not a genre. You actually need another genre. It's like a palette to paint with. Comedy. Or you can do like a spy thriller inside that universe with those toys. Like Ant Man. Yeah.

Or you, right? Like you can, but when it's just, oh, I'm going to do a comic book movie and that's all I'm doing, that's like. Justice League. Yeah, I agree with you. That's a very good point. Well, that doesn't mean anything. It could be, you know. So, Alex, what is your kind of movie then?

What kind of anime? What are the movies that you're excited to go see at the theaters? Alex likes Jean-Claude Van Damme-esque level of Nicholas K. But you do, though. No, I don't. My go-to film would be a crime drama. With John Claude Van Damme. No, either crime drama or history, a little bit of action.

What about Time Cop? Did you like Time Cop? I'm Googling Jean-Claude Van Dan. I just remember that commercial where there's the car, the car's moving, and he does the splits. I don't think I've seen a single movie with him in it. Yeah, that's right. What about Bloodsport, Alex?

I've never seen this man in my life. Really? I've never seen John Claude. They call him The Muscles from Brussels. Yeah, he's the best. The Muscles from Brussels. What about, but you also, okay, but for real, though, you do love Arnold Schwarzenegger movies?

Yeah, like, they're fun, but. Is Total Recall not one of your favorite movies? It is my favorite movie. You said crime drama is your favorite? After a decline, Van Dam returned to prominence with the critically acclaimed crime drama, J-CVD from 2008. Okay, look.

Why is Total Recall your favorite movie? You asked us to ask you. Because by the end of the movie, you still don't really know if he was dreaming or if he was awake the whole time. Spoiler alert. And there's a lot of action, but then there's this deep kind of story

and a bit of mixing with with um... There's a mix of that. I mean, that's going back. I mean, it's just, it's kind of got it all for me, but... It's got three boobs. I agree with what Rob's saying. Like, I don't like the fact that there's a straight action movie. It's got to have, like, I love the Bond films because there's a little bit of that espionage.

There's a little bit more a bit of action. Well, then what is a straight action movie to you? What's just an action movie? Well, that would be, that would be one of those Marvel, like the Avengers. predator. Oh, there's a bunch of CGI. The story's pretty light and that's it. Last action hero. Claudius. Big mistake.

Get in the chopper. What about like the Terminator? Anyways, get off the make fun of Alex's Conan the Barbarian. Lack of movie watching bandwagon. I don't think Harlan's making fun of me. No, because I love I love Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. But I have no to me, I'm not putting out any hate on any particular type of movie. I'm just a fan of movies in general.

Yeah. Pop Patrol was a riot. Now that's an action movie without substance. Yeah. Just action, action, action. And the torture scene, how tasteless it was. Gratuitous. There was a whole underlying theme there about Chase not being afraid of. I'm being funny, Alex.

I'm telling you know. But how all cops are bastards and they really, you know, they're really questioning how they feel about being part of the Paw Patrol and supporting the system even though that's, you know, what allows us. And the gritty inner city environment that they depicted. Yeah. Yeah.

Should we make our own stories now? Yeah, let's make our own story. Let's do it. Heck yeah. Somebody with some depth. Which one of you is the Arnold of the team? Doran's the Arnold. I just want to fight, fight, fight this episode.

So, you know, don't mind me. I think you guys have just been putting it off. I just want to push off yet. The hunt lords again. As long as possible. So here you are in the gathering dimness of night. The dusk has come on. The sun is set.

The mist has sprung up around you on this sacred site. You're on the spirit mound of the Griffin tribe. All of these insubstantial forms, these figures whispering, come at you through the fog. Captain Tranieros confirmed to you, Kralath, that they are not undead. And then you see the hunt lord caught up with you once more. Everyone roll for initiative. Whoa!

The hunt lords round three. Fight. All right, boys. What'd you get? Let's start with Red. 12. Doran? 10.

Jack? 15. Also 12. Red, Kralath. Who wants to go first? Krayloff will go first. And four more figures stride from the mist as you ready yourselves for battle. Clearly the hunt lords have found you once again.

What do you do? Jack, you are top of the order. Jack pulls out the spellguard sphere and looks around frantically for red, chanting a few words of a new spell he touches Red, who turns invisible. Ooh. Take your best shots. All right, brother. Greater invisibility for the next minute so long as Jack can continue to come. Wow.

I like that. All right, so it's the Hunt Lord's turns. They each pull out their long bows. Each of them are going to move in towards you about 30 feet. Are they climbing down those hills? Or are they floating above them? Oh, okay.

Yeah, they're climbing down. We have the high ground, Anakin. Don't try it. Who? Anakin, my cousin, who died on a hill? So all four of you are gathered on top of this very central hill around the ruined altar. and these arrows begin to whizz out of the darkness towards you.

Two of them aim at Kralov. Does a 19 hit you, Krayloff? No, it does not. Klang's off my shield. A 24. That hits. Six piercing damage. Another hunt lord aims his bow at you, Jack, and fires.

Uh-oh. A natural one. Ha! Oh, nice. No. I think these dice are going to have to be set aside, not shamed, just warned. Yeah, Jack ducks out of the way of the arrow. And one of them about to fire at Red, then he goes invisible.

And so adjusts his aim for Doran Iron Fist. Good luck. 25. Yeah. 10 piercing damage. Kralath, it's your turn. Red, follow my lead. Okay, buddy.

Krayloth is going to run towards the hunt lord that is closest to him. the hunt lord that just pegged him with an arrow and within 30 feet now in the valley between the altar and the second ring he casts path to the grave illuminating it in this sacred light the one is prepped get that two ready all right buddy and then he's going to cast spiritual weapon next to the hunt lord that's closer to dorin so his scythe appears in midair Cool. And takes a swing at this abomination. 16 to hit.

That hits. Nine points of damage. Excellent. The creature that is affected by path to the grave turns his burning green eyes towards you, Kralath. Make a wisdom saving throw. Ooh. 18. Nice.

You succeed. And then from the northeast. of you, an arrow flies out of the darkness and hits you in the shoulder. Oof. Four piercing damage as one of the hunt lords loses an arrow towards you. Red, it's your turn. Red moves up to the very center of the little island that they're on, so that he's within more or less 90 feet than this creature that Kralov has cast, passed to the grave on.

As a bonus action, he's going to cast Hunter's mark on him, and then he's going to roll. with advantage, because he's invisible. That would be a 23 to hit. You hit? 48 damage. Wow. Very nice. Good job.

Because this arrow sings out from nothingness, and I'm going to attack again. Do it. Do it. And do you still have invisibility even after attacking? Yeah, for a whole minute, no matter what he does, he's invisible, so long as I maintain my concentration. Awesome. Uh-oh, that might not hit, 12?

No. Damn, second one does not hit. And then, Scriven sails 60 feet towards the one to the northwest. Scriven dives up above the mists and sort of disappears for a second. Upward dive. I love an upward dive. Oh, yeah. Who doesn't?

Nothing like a good upward dive. And that's it. All right. Kralath. Wait, I have Krayloth twice here. Great enough, go again. Go again. She said it. Legally, she has to allow it. Do it, do it, do it. Well, they're moving out of turn, so I think I'll do it the same thing.

All right, Doran, it's your turn. Doran yells to Red. Red, take a strike upon that bastard demon. And you're going to add, oh, dang, only one to an attack because I'm going to use my superiority strike. Thanks, buddy. It's going to be a 17 hit? It would hit.

But you watch as the hunt lord raises its arm. This dripping appendage of undead fluid. And a blinding light emerges from it as it shields itself. And your arrow flies into the dark. Damn. Doran runs south and meets face-to-face with this hunt lord and attacks, 23. Nice. 15 points of damage.

Excellent. And then second attack, 22. Yep. Doing nine points of damage. Okay. That is all for my turn. Very good. Jack, top of the order, you watched as your invisible friend Redd fired an arrow out at this hunt lord that's in front of Doran, and the arrow was rebuffed by something you recognize as shield.

Uh-huh. What do you do? Jack's going to move south towards the end. edge where Doren is fighting the clearly somewhat magical hunt lord and is going to do two things kind of simultaneously. He's going to try and yank this guy off his feet to hopefully tumble down into the cavern and then he's got a firebolt lined up to sort of give him a one-two in his own way. Fun. Can you make me a strength saving through DC-16? Absolutely. Oh, he fails with a 10. He moves five feet tumble into the ground. So he moves five feet north towards you.

as you pull him telekinetically from his feet. Yeah. And he stumbles and falls down the rest of the hill for bludgeoning damage as he falls. I don't feel bad about that. Now, I've got the high ground when I'm shooting down at him. Is that going to give me any kind of advantage of my firebolt? Nah. But Star Wars told me.

Oh, you're right. We are playing Star Wars. You're right. It feels pretty ice planet to me. And these are Sith Lords. Yeah, and so then I point my finger at him and imagine flames and draw the ill-d-roon in front of me, and this bolt of fire flies down towards him with a 22 to hit. That does hit. Doing 15 damage.

Great. I did want to try and get back behind some of those big marble slabs that we'd put up on the... Sure, yeah. So you move back behind one of the altar slabs. Yeah. And that's when an arrow sings out of the darkness. towards you. Okay.

With a 22 to hit. It will hit, yeah. You take five piercing damage. Ow! Mm-hmm. We got some Hunt Lord turns. So the first Hunt Lord, who was, until recently, in melee combat with Doran, he climbs back up the hill from where Jack had left him sprawled in the snow

and makes two attacks with his long sword against Doran. Oh, yeah? 24 to hit you. Oh, yeah. Damn it. 10 slashing damage. Yeah. That's okay.

And then 21 to hit you. Can I cast this shield at any time? Yeah, as a reaction to an attack. So yeah, I'm going to put it up now then. Cool. So the attack that would have dealt 12 damage to you is now cast aside as Doren, you use this ring of spellstable. going for the first time. Yes, and I feel invigorated.

Wow, I suddenly feel stronger. Like I could protect myself with invisible shield. And at this, the huntler looks down at his sword, shakes his head, and dissolves into a silvery mist, reappearing up at the top of this hill right beside. side of you, Jack. Oh, shit. Next up, there are three hunt lords to the north. So there's one to the northeast, one to the north, one to the northwest.

All three of them are going to fire at Jack, who is standing at top the hill. Oh, shit. Red is also on top of the hill, but he's invisible. And both Kralath and Doren are in the trench of this spirit mound. So the three of them fire arrows at Jack. Get ready to dodge, Jack. Does the cover that I am taking behind some of the stone give me any bonus? Ooh, yeah, we'll give you a plus two to your AC because you're behind some of these slabs of marble.

21 to hit? Yeah, so I'm going to throw up a shield then, so I'm surrounded on all sides as I put my hands out in this bubble of protection throws up around me, so my AC becomes 22. Nice. Okay, so one of the arrows from the Hunt Lord to the northwest clangs off of a piece of marble, and the second one is rebuffed by your shield. Then the one to the north attacks, both of those miss. And the one to the northeast, a 24. That'll hit. So one arrow finds its way to you, and you take eight damage.

Yeah, I mean, Jack's standing there. He's starting to look like a pin cushion with two arrows sticking out of his back in his backpack, and it's pretty gruesome. Red, you see this happening beside you? Yeah. there's one more hunt lord to go it's down in the gully about 30 feet away from crayloth and it stalks towards you crayloth glaring at you make another wisdom save 13 oh crayloth is that good you are struck with fear as the hunt lord moves towards you you lose sight of everything but is glowing green eyes. And you are paralyzed.

Oh, fuck. That's really bad. It is your turn. You are paralyzed. You watch as this creature moves towards you. At the end of the hunt lord's next turn, you can make another save. But right now you are.

That's really bad. You automatically fail strength in deck saving throws. Anything that attacks you has advantage, and any creature that hits you makes it automatically a critical hit. Yeah. Once you take damage, you are unparalyzed. Red, it's your turn. Red sees his friend freeze up as this creature approaches and he shouts, no! And he's going to fire everything he's got at the one that's

stalking towards Kralov. Mm-hmm. With a, oh yeah, 24 to hit. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that hits. Take it out. 31 damage. Nice. And I'm going to attack again. Arrow after arrow singing towards him. Oh, no. Uh, four, uh, 15. That hits. Hey, there you are. 19 damage. Nice. I guess Scriven will dive down and attack the one that it's above.

Ooh. Scraven! Uh, no. Ah! Second one. Oh, 18. Yeah, that hits. Screveen's claws catch at shreds of rotten flesh as the bloodhawk dive bombs this hunt lord.

Nice. Twelve damage. Yeah. Yes, breathing. Welcome to the fight. With that, the hunt lords to the north and northeast start firing arrows at a place where they feel like red is, knowing that he is invisible and launching arrows at one of their kind, but not being able to see him, they are rolling with disadvantage to hit you.

And nope. It's comical how bad I'm rolling. I rolled a three, a four, and three ones, and a six. Oh, wow. I feel so bad for the huntler. Yeah, me too. So all of those arrows, red, they sing past your ears. They're seeking you, but they can't find you invisible as you are.

All right, Doren, what happens next? Okay, so this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do a goading attack so that. Oh. Ooh, good, smart. Smart. Smart. So I will dash, which will get me right up next to it.

Then I'll use my action surge. Yeah, running through the snow in the dark through this mist. And I'm going to use my goading attack. I'm going to use my inspiration here. And I'm going to use Lucky. Damn it. Oh, boy. Oh, no, Doren.

Holy fuck me. 15. Yes. Oh, nice. Excellent. Excellent. 18 damage. Nice.

Hey-oh. And the target must make a wisdom saving throw. Ooh. Oh. A nine, what happens? On a failed savings, though, the target has disadvantage on all attack rolled against targets other than me. Oh, I see picking on someone your own size. You don't want to just pick off the little old me, do you?

Uh-huh. That's because you're afraid of my little size, aren't you? You scallywag. Whoa, Doran called him a scallywag, Jack. Shit's getting real. So, and 14 to hit? Misses. Damn.

Oh, okay. Jack, the hunt lord swings its sword at you. Yeah, I don't like that. Jack's already struggling to maintain his concentration after the two arrow wounds. He's just barely holding it together to keep red and visible, but he's managed to do it. 25 to hit you. Oh, shit. Ooh, 13 slashing damage.

Ouch. Maintaining concentration? Nope, that didn't happen. So, yeah, the 13 damage cuts Jack. right to the quick. And as he's bleeding, red appears beside him sort of up on the ledge as the

spell drops. Ah, fuck. And with that, the Huntlord to the northwest fires an arrow at you, Red. Bring it on, fucker. 16 to hit? No.

All right. Red grabs the arrow mid-air and snaps it. Ooh. Vicious. Jack, it's your turn. Blow him out of hell, Jack. Let's do that. I'm going to try and shove this guy away from me

because it's way up in my personal space and I don't like it. Could he move back five feet, please? I get to make a strength save? Yeah, you do. 15? 16 is the DC. All right, you shove him.

Get away from me! There's definitely some terror in Jack's eyes because he's not really doing this, but he raises up the spellguard sphere and steals himself a little bit and starts to picture all of these little magic, these arrows just like Redwood make and tries to put as much of his

alchemical jazz in there as he can and fire a whole bunch of darts at this Hunt Lord in front of him. Mm-hmm. What level of spell is that? That is a third level spell. Ooh. Jack. Oh, he raises his hand up towards you and absorbs your spell's energy

out of the air as you cast it. Damn. and that's not a spell he's used or that is a spell he's used. Counterspelled? Well, I've got a counterspell. A counterspell is counterspell because I'm a fucking wizard.

You're counterspelling the counterspell? I'd love to. It's a wizard battle. It's a wizard battle of the utmost order. Third level spell or lower it fails. Counterspell is a third level spell. It is indeed. And so you raise your hand

just pushing the missiles through his wave of interference. Leave me alone. And they push through the mist and hit him. How much damage do you do? 80 damage of arrows. Wow.

Just blasting one after the other. The snow is sort of just this wall of white around us. His magical energy is bouncing and reflecting off of it. Chunks of this putrescent flesh just fling away into the darkness, pulling him to pieces, but yet he still stands.

I'm going to step back around to try and at least get this broken pieces of marble between us just to try and get a little bit of space from him. A little bit of cover. Yeah. Jack, the creature, pulls itself back upright and directs its steady burning gaze back on you, relentless. Make a wisdom save. Six.

Oh, no. Jack, you are penetrated by this gaze and paralyzed. I mean, Jack's pulling out all the stops because he's. he's terrified of these things. He's kicked the hornet's nest a while ago, and it's just eaten away at him. So he's absolutely shook in fear. It's the hunt lord's turns down in the trench.

There's one standing about 10 feet away from Kralath and Doren. Doran, you made some melee attacks. We know he's right up with you. But Kralath is standing there in the snow frozen to the spot. The hunt lord is also compelled. to attack you instead. So he turns his glare on you. Doran, you are pierced with these glowing green eyes,

but you gain strength from the weapon in your hand. Ork splitter vibrates warmly, filling you with courage. And you are not affected by this creature's terrifying visage. No, I'm not. I'm filled with courage. She says, Fuck yeah, you can do it.

Get him, Dorn. Hell, Ork Splitter. That's the end of that hunt lord's turn. And so Kralath, you are no longer paralyzed. And you are filled with courage also from being within 30 feet of Doren now. You feel like while you are close, you are immune to this effect. That's right. However, there are more hunt lords on the battlefield.

field. Yes, there are. One of them is barely standing, but stalking you, Jack, and now red also, atop this centermost cairn, picking between pieces of this broken white marble altar, he stalks you. The creature moves up to within melee range of you red and takes two swipes at you with his longsword, almost like trying to chop you out of the way to get to Jack. Bring it on. 17.

Misses. Yeah, just misses. And then the second hit regular. Ooh, that's going to miss again with a 10. Stop trying to hit me and hit me. There are two hunt lords that have been firing from the second circle of snow. So the ones to the north and the east fire at you, Jack, with their long bows. One misses, but one hits from the first one with a 22.

Yeah. And you take five piercing damage. Okay. And the one to the north also fires twice, misses once, and hits with a 21, I presume. Yep. Seven piercing damage. 21 hit points I'm sitting at and scared out of my boots. The final hunt lord aims an arrow at you red.

18 to hit? Yeah, that hits. Eight piercing damage. And another, ooh, 23 to hit. Yeah, that hits. Seven piercing damage. Kralath, what do you do? Kralath snaps to attention and realizes that the hunt lord is much closer to him and sees Doren there.

And you're back with us, Kralath. Gets a sense that he needs to get into support role right now. And he's going to run equidistant between Doren, Jack, and Red. So part way up this hill. Yeah, part way up the hill. And I should be within range. Cool. Then I'm going to cast eight as a level four.

Nice. Which means that each of you for eight hours are going to have 15 temporary hit points. Ooh, neat though. Nice. Good stuff. And then at the same time, my flow. Loading scythe begins to hover down the hill towards where Doran is engaged with the hunt lord that tried to attack me. Mm-hmm.

And that's my turn. Awesome. All right, Red. What do you do? Red looks to the one that was just engaged with Kralov and is still engaged with Doran. Oh, I'm engaged. So happy for them. And he is going to take an attack on it.

That is going to be a 19 hit. Yes. Nice. Nice. Ty came out. I'm engaged. Take me out. 17 damage.

Okay. And now that I have attacked, I can use my fleet of foot ability to disengage without any sort of penalty. Hey-oh. So I'm going to move away from the gentleman who is currently engaged. That's pretty generous of you. Gentlemen? Yeah, gentlemen. I mean, his intestines are like coring.

They are. And I'm going to move. And then I'm going to take. take my second attack on the guy that I was just next to. Okay. I'm just imagining a colossal leap from Red off of this one hill, like, sailing across the distance to scrabble up the far side. One of those kinds of jumps where it looks like you're still running in the air. Oh, yeah.

Red's looking bad ass, motherfuckers. So he, like, jumps across the chasm and turns, and as he turns, he points, and he casts fairy fire as a bonus action on the dude. So he's going to have to do a deck save. Okay. 16. Yeah, that passes. and he lands and he's going to fire.

15, oh, 15 to hit. 15 hits. That is immediately nine points of damage. All right. And Screevin dive bombs that fucker to the north with a, oh, 23 to hit. And he does 14 damage. He's not doing too bad, this little Scriven.

Scree! Scraven! Take out his eyes. And that's my turn. Good turn. Doran, what do you do? I'm going to do just a straight-up attack on this hunt lord that's right in front of me. Yep. I least do what I can to take him out.

27. Yes, I should say so. 19 damage. Awesome. And then a second hit, 17 to hit. Yep. Doing 14 damage. Doran, you chop this hunt lord to pieces.

Nice. Finally. Perfect. Well done. He's like, And then Doren goes running up the hill to join Kralath and Jack. Yeah. So Doren, run up the hill. You see Kralath standing there. And Jack, who's, you know, not doing great. You've seen him look better. No, Jack's having a whole time. Jack, it's your turn.

I look this hunt lord square in the face and I cast levitate trying to just. yank him up in the air so that he can't hit me with his sword any damn more. Ooh. That's my plan. Okay. Is that a deck save for me? Yeah, you're looking at Constitution save, I think, actually. Con save.

You're 16. DC 16 is what you're looking for. That's a shame. They've got great con. Sorry, Rob. That's okay. Damn. Seeing that, I sort of scrabble around the edge of this hill over to get kind of back behind

Kralath and Doren. with Kieran kind of following me, barking the whole time, ready to sort of help whoever attacks this guy next, Kieran wants to sort of help distract him and pull him just a little bit off balance. Cool. Okay. It's the Hunt Lord's turns. The one that's occupying the central mound with the altar

disappears into mist and reappears a little bit away to the west, back on the part of the mound that surrounds the altar. There are three other surviving hunt lords. Each of them picks a target from the central mound. The first one aims at Doran. A 20 to hit you, Doran? Yes. So one of the arrows misses and one slams into your shoulder.

Five points of piercing back. Two arrows come from the north to hit you Kralov, seeking your flesh. 20 to hit. Miss. So both arrows bounce off your shiny armor. And then two more arrows seeking you Jack. Yeah. Ooh, 22 to hit and 19.

Both will hit. Four piercing damage and 10. Yeah, just the barest amount of that aid from Kralath is keeping Jack alive. Like these wounds from these arrows are knit just as fast as they're made. But Jack's running out of that energy. Those creatures stalk towards you through the mist, steadily. Just as they hunted you across the countryside, untiring, moving as one, as if from some unvoiced command, their whole beings focused on one goal. Their quarry.

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