Dice Shame - 110 | 'Back Against the Wall'

Episode Date: November 18, 2021

The group is faced with a difficult decision when they uncover the truth about the boy in the woods... 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.

It looks like a good hunt I was just thinking the same thing, Jack What you want to do is get this fire Going real hot Dragon! Oh, ho, six inches, this one Goodbye, Jack! You've already beat me enough times, come on Kevin! So a wizard never tells... Nice diamonds.

Let me help you up. Jack's shit in the woods again. For shame on you for not shaming that die. Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame. Shame, shame, shame. Goodbye, die. Bye! Bad dice, pay the price. Welcome back to Dice Shame. This is episode 110, back against the wall.

MVP this week is Marie Boudreau from Twitter. Hey, Marie! Marie says that betrayal at House on the Hill is also one of her favorite games. Man, remember gaming conventions? Vaguely? Maybe in 2022 we can sit down with some of our amazing MVPs and play together. Oh, let's hope so. Enjoy a more tactile, combat-focused live play.

What about the Fallout Universe? If so, check out our friends at War Games News Radio on YouTube and Twitch. They stream a campaign every two weeks and bring you tabletop coverage that you can count on. They're a nuclear blast to check out. Get it? Stop by, say hi, give them a like from us. All right, shall we do this? Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah. It's actually a beautiful day, considering you're so far north. The sunlight glitters off the snow crystals, and the air is so clean and crisp, it almost feels like you can breathe fresh, cold water. Red and Kraloth, you make your way out into the valley of Kedroon, a desolate place sheltered in between the mountains of the spine of the world. A pine forest carpets parts of the valley, and you make your way for its shade. You've been tasked by cabin to find some animals that might feed the tribe of the great worm,

and in exchange, you may be permitted by the tribe's ancestors to ascend to the upper level of the cavern, to search for the giant artifact you've come to find. A young man, yes, he's skinny, and he looks like he hasn't seen you yet. He's just watching this deer fixated on it. He's slowly moving. forward into the clearing with Hunter's Grace. Can I roll perception on him to try to get a read on what this boy's doing out here in the movie?

Yeah, sure. That would be a 11. He's a human. He's probably about 15 years old. He's got bare arms. He's a druid. Rur! At least he's got a right to them.

Let's wait and see what he does. Red goes to say something. And he's like, okay. but Red's kind of nervous. Both of you roll stealth checks, trying to stay hidden from this. That would be a natural one. Whoa!

Which is nine. No. It's okay, I got a five. Still not very good. Okay, sneaky boys. Let's wait and see what he does, Red. This boy slowly approaches the deer. He's got his hands kind of outstreet.

stretched, almost as if he plans to, I don't know, grab it somehow, and then the deer raises its head and looks over at you, and the boy follows its glance, and both the creature and the human see both of you crouch to there and the undergrowth, and they both take off. He catches sight of you, and his eyes widened in a panic, and he sprints away. Boy! I'm going to cast a hold person. Ooh.

Oh. Hold boy. Hold boy What does the boy have to roll I sure hope he's not one of them folks that hates people who use magic Wow we're gonna find out Oh yeah

It's true I we've committed at this point Target must succeed on a wisdom saving throw Or be paralyzed Here he goes boy wisdom Just for a round Okay 19 Oh he's good Oh wow boy runs off

I feel like maybe narratively Krelok you stretch your hand out and Red sees it the way that you normally do it, but Red sort of does what you did, and he sort of holds a hand up in front of you. He's like, no, no, no, no, let him go, let him go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine. That's great. It's kind of cool, right?

And then he's like, just let him go. We can track him, we can track him. But he's hungry. Maybe, but look, if he's out here on his own, remember what they said back there? Reds gets a serious look as he stares, creel off in the eyes. They said one of their own murdered someone and ran out.

It very well could be that boy. He's just a boy, Red. Yeah. He's old enough to kill. He's just a boy. Let's get some old rabbit turkey on the way home. I love it. I hope he'll be all right.

Yeah, let's get another deer and then we'll head back. Cool. You know what? You should just redo that one line, Justin, and say it twice. He's just a boy. He's just a boy. He's just a boy. Can we do an overacted segment?

Yeah. Yeah, that's like. He may just be a boy. boy, Kraloth. But you must understand he's taken a life which makes him a man.

But he's just a boy. He's no boy. He's a man. Grayloth. He's a man. It isn't a man. No.

No. No. No. No. Man. Yeah. It's some end credits material for you. No, no, that's going to be in the episode.

That's in the episode. End credits. Don't you dare. Sorry. Meanwhile, Doran and Jack are continuing to integrate themselves into the day-to-day going on at the Great Worm Cavern. Most members of the tribe seem to be relatively uninterested in the outsiders, but with Endezar's shaky grasp of the native tongue and with some assistance from

cabin, you're able to make yourself somewhat useful. Doran, maybe you find a piece of cast-off cookware that's split down one side and you're hammering it out into something new. Or what do you think you're up to? Yeah, Doran's gathering a few extra pieces of wood, and he's bringing them back to this fire that he's got going. Tosses the wood onto the fire in a very enthusiastic way, and he says, What you want to do is get this fire going real hot, and then we're going to take this pan. You see how it's got a big split down. on the side here you want to get this pan right in there you know and he sticks it deep in the

coals and he puts a couple of logs right on top of it now we're not going to touch it until this pan's nice and red hot the kind of red hot that you brand a cow with but we're not branding cows to be clear i think you're just talking to a bunch of elderly barbarians who are sitting around watching you they don't speak a lick of common so they're just watching you do this and additionally this tribe has access to metal tools like they know how to make their own stuff but you're i guess trying to teach them how to do it i think you're dwarf splaining no no no well maybe i mean humans think they know how to work metal but dwarves they've they got a stick up their ass about it that's very fair i just want to make it clear that these aren't like primitive peoples who you have to like

acknowledge to that they have their own stuff too but it's that's a really good point yeah no that's it's No, and I like that. And so maybe Doren, he's doing this fully realizing that these people don't even speak the same language. But he's just talking out loud as he's doing it. Yeah, yeah, I like that. He's sort of just saying, well, and then what I'm going to do, I'm going to get it real hot. As you guys know, I mean, I can see you got your own metal things over there. And then once I get it real hot, I'm going to pile some more wood on.

And then I'm going to pull it out. And he does. And he pulls it out onto an anvil and he wax away at it and then sticks it back in the hot coals. And he looks up and around and he's looking for maybe where Jack is while he's working on this pan. I think maybe Jack there's an ice column that's collapsed in the rear of the cavern. And you could be levitating big pieces of it like up and safely out of the way. Oh, I would do that, although I thought these people didn't like people who use magic. So I was probably a good bet. Then he's using his muscles.

Then he's just... But I do love the idea of seeing this busted ice column in the back and having to solve a problem. He could easily solve with magic without just using his mind. And like he's... I like that. He's not even like writing in the air in a lovely illusion like he'd usually do, but he's sketching out in the snow and balancing some forces and trying to figure out, well, if we build a fire here, that'll melt this piece.

and if we splash water on that and like trying to just engineer how he would rebuild this ice column and sort of come up with a plan for getting it lifted and, you know, where he'd need ropes and where he'd need people to haul at a certain moment or something. He sort of come up with a whole scheme for it. And I think maybe running it by Kavan and Andresar just to be like, is this something you guys would be interested in doing? I just couldn't get my mind to stop thinking about it. Kavin gives you her assent.

Yes, that is good. Excellent. So when everybody's ready and he's got Kieran kind of helping get all the ropes laid out where they need to be so the Jack's just got to go and tie the knots or wrap them around the thing or try and get them, you know, around whichever beam he's going to use to lever something out and, you know, interrupts Doren halfway through to be like, oh, oh, you're almost, as soon as you're done, Doreen, I could use your muscles. Yeah, and that's a great segue actually because Doren's now taken this whole thing to the next level. There's smithing and then there's Dwarven smithing. And now maybe he's started to actually impress some of these barbarians. He's taken some of their weapons and even like barbarians are coming up and handing him a weapon that needed mending. Sure. There's this great harmony. A lot of the more able-bodied kind of adult age barbarians don't seem to be part of this community right now.

So there's like family units. There are some older people. There are some children. And so you might imagine that the like the typical warrior types who might be taking care of the weapons or know how to manage these resources are not here. They're absent. So that's definitely a service that's well appreciated. And when Kieran is not helping Jack move this collapsed ice column, they're having the time of their life. You hear like happy barks echoing around in the cavern as they're playing with the kids.

And Jack, as you bring the final. chunk of ice to the mouth of this cave you see red and crayloth silhouetted by the sun carrying a deer from their hunt and maybe red's got some rabbits oh yeah that has three hairs by the ears that he's like skinning as he walks two of their pelts are like pulled down and then as he walks up he sees some kids scatter by and he like hides them behind his back before he sees them sit down and start skinning like their own rabbit that they had pulled off the back of red's He's like, oh, oh, fair enough. And he's like, you know, these are kids who are ready to help and who have grown up in this world.

Yeah, I think Jack rests his back against the ice for a minute, having done more labor than he usually does in a day. So I think he's sweating a little bit. It looks like a good hunt. Yeah, we found a deer and, and, hey, go get Doran because we found something else too. Sure. But there's deer here. I think I'll just send a mental command to Kieran to, like, go tug on Doran's boot. come this way.

I don't want to play dragon chess right now. You've already beat me enough times. Come on, come on. It's not funny. I just yell, it's not about chess. Kieran is persistent. Oh, oh, all right. Excuse me, and he excuses himself from the group of people.

And saunters over to, I shouldn't say saunters. He, saunter walks over to, thank you. He strides. Slides. To the group of companions. Is that a dead deer? You're just happy to see me. Oh, it looks like you've got a nice piece of game there.

We could dress that up and... Yeah, but look, we're not interested. We're going to use every part of the body. Don't worry. Yeah, don't worry, Alex. No, the deer is for the people, but Cranoth and I saw something out there that we wanted to tell you about real quick.

Is that a dragon? We saw a young... It wasn't a dragon. No, it's not a dragon. A young dragon? I don't be a dragon. And if I was a dragon, I wouldn't bother bringing you aside. I would just come in and say, dragon!

Oh, sorry, yeah, good point. Look, we saw a young boy out there. He looked very hungry, and he looked like he was trying to manage some food. We tried to get his attention, and Krala tried to hold him in place, but he just get it away. I think I could retract him, but he may or may not belong to this tribe. Well, what do you guys think we should do about it? Should we do something about it, or, you know, people need to fend for themselves sometimes? If he's starving and he's not able to get any food, you know, I get he might not want to talk to people.

Kieran, I don't know, this is maybe a nefarious idea, but we could strap a little bindled to Kieran's back. And if you think you could track him down, Kieran could deliver it and, you know, we could hang around for a bit. This kid wanted to talk to us. That'd be great. If not, at least he's not starving. The issue here is, we don't know who this is. Remember, they said someone here was caught eating another member. Whatever hunger that consumed Renzo, whatever hunger must have interrupted our day at the manor, there's something off about the northern area. Kralov might have a little bit of light to shed on that, Krayloth. To what on that?

To shed. Oh, I thought you said. Light to shed on it. To shed. You know, how I shed. Like hair. And Kralov looks around to make sure that there isn't anybody else in earshot. And then gets close to Jack and Dorr and it says,

this hunger what we've been seeing lately here in the north it reminds me of something I saw on Barovia something that Captain Treneros tells me is the Shadowfell

does that mean anything to you Jack depending on which cosmological model of the universe multiverse you think fucking Jack you know applies that is... Red Dorn and Creelot's eyes gloss over

has been known to be called the Shadowfell by some It, you know, the shadow energies and magic, I mean, they're, they're a fundamental piece of nature. That being said, you know, just as, as you can imagine, other places are places of darkness and shadow and places of negative energy in a real literal sense. And, yeah, I, I, it's an actual place. Isn't shadow fell in Skyrim? It was a Hammerfell, actually. That's Hammerfell.

You're thinking of Hammerfell door. That's good, though, Alice. I've got a cousin in White Run. And you're thinking of a video game door. I'm not real here, friend. So, wait. What you're saying, Jack, is that the Shadowfell is a plane of existence where dark things gather, spirits. I mean, yeah.

This does sound familiar. It feels right coming off the time. tongue, but could there be a crossover? Could something from one plane go to another? Definitely. Yep. That's how my parents met. It's a long story. It was a plane full of stars. It was magical. They will never shut up. Parents are different planes of existence? That makes you like a god. Nope. It doesn't. It just makes me a wizard. Or at least related to wizards. It certainly is possible. There could be magical nodes or places where there are portals or where the walls between worlds are thin that the shadow fell could be bleeding over,

those don't necessarily need to be physical places. They could be things or ideas or something. There could be, you know. Is there anyone that you know, Jack, that would know about the shadow fell? More than you, obviously. Yeah, if we could go to Silvery Moon and ask my mom. You think your mom would know? We can send some letters and maybe we'll find somebody who knows something more about it. We have a couple of hours. You're going to send letters to your mom. God, man. At least say hi. What was the last time you saw your mom?

It's complicated. She's an elf. It's complicated because you never call. It sounds like. You're just going to drop a line. How close are we to Silver Moon anyway? And Red pulls up his illusory map and it's terrible. It's not far from Everland. And we could portal to there if we get... It seems like we're pretty close there now. I mean, we could probably just go there at some point. I mean, you don't need to send a letter, Jack. she's an elf she works on a whole different time scale i've only been around 50 years don't don't bring your

never mind it's let's let's feed these people well he's got daddy issues and then like a whole other set of issues jack's got a complicated family relationship yeah he does okay well if we could speak to someone soon that would be good because i have a feeling that this is only going to get worse and maybe after some of these sites we do a drop in at silvery moon i mean a letter's fine but you know i might have some questions too and who knows doran over there might doran's just picking his nose hairs flicking them onto the ground they get so long every single one nothing compared to my nipple hairs every day oh six inches this one this is going in the book but fair enough yeah let's get these people fed they have been starving and and in regards to the

boy, I mean, yeah, maybe we should say something to the elder at least, or Kevin. Oh, what are we going to say? That we saw him. Of course, I care about people and I don't want to, I want to make sure that people are taking care of. But, you know, it's a huge risk to put our necks on the line for some, you know, boy that you saw out in the wilderness. I mean, what we're doing is so important. We can't risk, you know, going out on some random side quest. here, whatever you want to call it.

People who play D&D hate side quests. What the hell is a side quest? Well, you know what I'm saying. It's like a side from the main. All I'm saying is we tell them that we saw them. That's all. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you that we tell them and move on because we, I mean, unless they've got

some compelling argument for us to go. Doran knows a good point. Doran has to poo. Renzo was a tax collector and he'd gone pretty far down the way, but he was still cursed. If this is a curse, if this is an affliction, if this isn't a thing the boy is choosing, but a thing he's being forced to do, and he's going to grow in hunger, and that's going to manifest itself in claws and teeth and a need to devour people. And if we could do something to save this boy, you can't tell me, you know, he should be condemned to. Yeah, yeah. Especially

if he's nearby. Like, maybe there's nothing we can do, and all we've got to do is think of the many over the few and do something about the boy. But if that's something could be saving him, I'd like to do that. Well, I agree with Jack. I think that we should do something. We've seen him, we know he's there, and if he is going around and hunting and devouring people, he still poses a risk to these people, even though he's been cast down. Yeah, I'm sorry, but I agree with Jack as well.

Wait, wait, hold on. Who's on the other side of this argument? Well, I know I am. We don't want to save the boy. Well, that's what I was saying. Yeah. Weren't you listening to me? Not really, honestly.

Your nose hair picking really is distracting. Can I just give you a tissue? Put it this way. We can make it sort of a game. You know, looking for this hunger, the hunger, make it a hunger games, you know? Sorry. You're really on the pop culture tonight.

Skyrim and all that stuff. I suppose you're right. The first step of this is to tell somebody. That's the most important thing because we don't know what the history was. He could have slaughtered 10 infants, in which case he might be beyond saving. Maybe we should ask Edrazar. I was just thinking the same thing, Jack. Oh, the wizard.

Well, he's kind of an outsider. He might not feel as strongly one way or the other, depending on what. Like, he might have had an outside perspective to see, you know, it's not going to be his kid or, you know, a person that killed his brother or something, right? Like, maybe there's just a sense if we could see what the, we think the temperature might be. Is that the boy that we're talking about or is that a whole different lost boy? I guess. I don't know. It feels a bit weird. We need someone with an ethnographic perspective. I was about to say he's like kind of the outsider.

This is a tribe problem. We're like bringing the outsider. We go to the one other white dude in camp and be like, what do you think about this problem? We're the white saviors here. We just want to know what you think. Jane Goodall is a chimp. I'm sorry. Sometimes I do think wizards. think higher of themselves than other people. Look, look. And I say it with humor, but genuinely, I do think this is a boy that came from this tribe.

I do think we should at least help them. If we want to then escalate it to him as well, I think that's a great idea. But I do think it's important. You're the one who had this encounter. I think we, whoever you want to tell about it, I'm behind you. Let's do it. Kevin! It's Kevin.

Whatever. She comes over. Kevin, we, Kevin, we. Listen, dude, we saw someone in the woods. Kevin's a lady, right? I can call dude. That's fine. I just want to make sure I...

Hey, dude. Kevin, we saw someone in the woods. It was a young boy, maybe 15. He was starving, trying to hunt a deer, and we startled him, and he ran off. Do you know who that might have been? Her face grows grave, and she nods once at you. And then she turns and walks over to some other. tribe members. She starts to speak to them in her language. An argument seems to break out. Someone

speaks fiercely, and another one places a calming hand on their chest. This was a good idea. Talking in a measured voice. I'm sure they're all the most level-headed also being starving. And Dazar is watching it all kind of from your perspective as well, like off to the side. He's nodding here and there in recognition of a few phrases, looking kind of delighted. the fact that all of this is happening. After a few minutes of this, cabin turns back to you. You have seen Olverd. This is a man who was left from the tribe for violence. Some of us

want to see him come back to the cavern. Some think he is forgiven. Some need justice for the life he took. Please. Go back to the woods where you found him and to bring him back. Do this before we eat. Of course, yeah. I mean, that's the least we can do. Red says, sort of look into his companions. This buck we shot, and please feel free to begin treating it. Obviously, you people are starving. Don't wait for us, but we can definitely get him, right? Right? Red sort of says, with a shrug to Dorn. Yeah, with all the snow out there, we'll be able to track them down, no problem.

And, I mean, I can, you know, find humanoiders than five miles as well. But, you know, yeah, snow tracks will help us. Jack, you hear a voice in your head. It is gravelly and strange. Go and kill the boy. But do not bring him here. The tribe cannot sustain a monster. It is the will of the ancestors.

No one else here, is it? Just Jack. Oh, Jack. Freaky. Is he beyond saving? Can nothing be done? Kill the boy. Who are you talking to?

I'm just thinking really loud. Jack's just got a real... I wish you were saying out loud, though. That'd be really funny. Filling a darn on us. We'll see, I think, back towards the ancestors. And Jack's strides off into the forest. determined suddenly, just like, you know, sends Kieran in to grab his pack and sort of drag it

along until he catches up and... God, I love Kieran as a golden retriever. He's so cute. It's so good, right? Mm-hmm, they are. Yeah. I think we head out into the forest as well, maybe following Jack, who doesn't know where it is. I think we're... Marches off into the forest.

Well, just generally in the direction you left, but honestly, just... Oh, goodbye, Jack. Bye. I guess we'll go in the right direction this way. Jack steps far enough away that the folks couldn't hear and makes some mental notes waiting to figure out where everybody's going to rally. And when we're all finally together again, he says something claiming to be the spirits of the ancestors of that place just spoke to me in my mind.

And it sounded like this. And Jack snaps his finger in a minor illusion of the voice. voice replays itself. I think including Jack's own mental conversation with it. How embarrassing.

You sound so different in your mental projection. Does it, is it speaking in like common? Yep. Interesting. That's the most interesting

part. I mean mental common. Yeah, but it's still, well, like what's the dialect that we hear? Because it wouldn't be like brain magic. It's common.

Yeah. Speaking in common. I mean, this, I guess this is a more metaphysical question, what's the cadence in brain language? But to me, if it was another tribesman that was sending this message, would, I mean, again, I don't know, it's kind of a guess, but I would assume it would have some sort of, you know, language barrier. But either way.

It felt, it felt genuine to me. Where do you think this comes from? Do you think it's a voice from the ancestors, a spirit? I mean, it's not beyond the realm of possible that the ancestors live here, that the spirit. these people worship are in these sacred places of them. That seems very possible to me. Yeah. And if the boy is cursed and we cannot save him, absolutely.

Something must be done. But I don't know that I could walk off into these woods intending to kill a kid. No. Let's go kill a boy. We are going into the woods intending to help. Help a situation. If it requires us to put down a monster,

then that's what we have to do. But we have other options first. we can try to remove the curse. We still have some charges left on that ring, right, Doran? Uh, yeah, yeah, actually, you make a good point. No, I need to recharge it. No, no, no, no, no, we don't have, no, we don't have, no, we don't have, that was put on the curse. We need to put more spells on this ring.

I've got thunder. Yes, Doran, you'll get your candy. Just, well, no. Relax. More, more, more, more. No, no, but hold on. Hold on. Holds his hand out and waves it.

It's, it's the sort of thing, like, we've, I'm sure Kellemvor has, the power to remove curses. Yes, he does. It would just be needing to get it charged into that ring or having prayed for that power this morning, I'm sure. I did not pray for it this morning. I did not expect this. Look, this spirit asked us to kill this boy

or rather asked you to kill this boy and said, don't bring them back here. And we at least have to float the idea of why the spirit would ask that. And furthermore, let's not forget why we're here. We're here to retrieve whatever the giant item is. And if the spirit could either help or hinder that, angering it might not be in our best interest.

Again, I'm only trying to extrapolate all the options here. Like, ultimately, they allowed us to go to what we assume is the location on the precipice, the sort of hill behind the cavern. But if this spirit doesn't allow us, could it be trouble? At the end of the day, we're not going to kill an innocent boy. that much I know is not within our Not another innocent That's right

We don't have enough information We do know that he has killed other people We do know that he is not An innocent boy As written in the way that we're viewing it Put it that way His crimes are more direct Than the hump rat woman

Yeah but she did kill a lot of people And she was summoning demons No we knew the summoning demons was 100% but she never actually like sacrifice anyone on an altar i thought it was devils i think it was implied but not discussed openly exactly the sun is gathering red light on the horizon of the valley as you track the boy through the pine forest no birds sing no small animals browse for hidden caches of seeds and together you pad through the needle thick snow you come to a tour who shadow casts over an opening in some rocks

about a foot wide and two feet long. Several footprints nearby in the snow indicate the recent passage of a human. From within the craggy opening in the rocks, you hear snuffling in the darkness, like crying. And Red holds up a hand gesturing for everyone to sort of move stealthily.

And he'll cast, pass without trace. Yeah, high five. No, Krayloff! After, saving. it for tonight. Wiggle worms. When we play wiggle worms, which is a game we haven't played in so long. Red stealthily leads the way towards this boy.

Okay. Roll stealth. Kraloth is actually going to stand back. Kralov is going to wait back and just be like, well, let the stealthy people do this. Yeah, Doren hangs back with Kralok. Okay. Plus 10. Whoever wants to go up, can roll with stealth.

24. Nice. 16. All right. So, Red, Jack. you stealthily approach this opening in some rocks. As I say, it's about only a foot wide and two feet long and it leads down. And there's like sniffling? Jack pauses before we get too far along the track

to draw a quick circle in the snow and perform the ritual that is comprehending languages just in case we run again without a translator. You're kidding, right? Right now, ten minutes? Jesus. I think I'm good. We've got to take a crap next.

All right. Constitutional will save for after dinner. Perfect. I have advantage. Oh, no. Red bends down and sort of looks over the edge of this hole, his dark vision leading at least 60 feet down. Mm-hmm.

The hole winds down in a very claustrophobic manner. Whoever is in here would have had to really kind of shift. their way through this opening. And sort of 15 feet down, the tunnel takes a turn, and you can see there's a little cave inside. Damn, it's a bit of a tight one, but I guess, I'll let you. Red starts shimmying down the little tunnel headfirst.

Ooh, that's scary. The tight spaces? Yeah, and I mean, Jack's crawling hands and knees in behind him, trying to squeeze down here and looks back towards the light and Kieran and his friends who are not going down into the ground and for a minute wishes he was them and then follows Red. Now I know what a TV dinner feels like. It's from Diod. He says something about TV. What the hell's a TV? I love just this random episode. 105 episodes in and all of a sudden we've just completely done away. Losing it. Pop culture references. Huddled in the corner, Madonna.

Timely as well, right, guys? I mean, all of our references were very dated. Skyrim, diehards. Skyrim's almost 10 years old. What? Anyways, that's another intro. Almost half of 20 years ago. A teen is sitting in the darkness of this rocky crevasse.

Red, you recognize him from earlier. His back is pressed as far back against the jagged wall as it goes. He's looking at the two of you as you enter in. into this cave with fear in his eyes. Yeah, Red sort of crawls out of the tight tunnel and backs against a wall. I picture like the earth and ceiling and the walls, you know, almost trench-like, like in the way that we're underground now in the dark mud and dirt sort of scuffing all over our clothes.

And Red sort of backs up and looks around. He's like, it's kind of cozy in here, friend. If you've been hiding out here during the storms above. It just shakes his head at you. He doesn't understand common. And Red sort of looks towards Jack. Hopefully, while you were taking that shit, you got comprain languages. How were you drawing a circle in the snow?

A wizard never tells. A long, thin one. Spaghetti maker. Oh, no. Mage hand. Mage hand. Just smash. to Doren walking off the path

to take a piss and he's like, oh, Jack's shit in the woods again. Just looking down at this. It makes a great target. You make do with the spell components you have. You don't always get the spell components who you want. Make do-doo. Just eat them.

Yeah, I think Jack sits down, like butt on the ground, tries to relax as far away from this kid in the cave as he can. And it says, Red, do you pull a ration out of your bag and toss it over to him? Sure. Red reaches over to Jack's bag and grabs a rash and throws it over it. Sorry, out of your bag.

Sure, I'll take one of yours, Dick. No, I reach in. Yeah, Red reaches in the bag of holding and pulls out some rabbit jerky and offers it to the boy. Yeah, he tentatively reaches out, sort of scuttles across the floor, trying to stay as far away from you as possible, like an animal, not trusting you, and then picks it up and scampers back to his side of the cavern and starts eating it greedily. I sort of make a motion at my ears

trying to, like, convey that I could understand you just that I can't. Ah. And in this native language that Jack can now understand, he says, I'm Uvord. He's over it. Okay. Best friend Redd, Jack.

Red waves. He waves back. Ah. A little tentative. What did he say? He said his name's Ulbert. That's the guy we're looking for. Yep.

I give a thumbs up. He says, uh, Cavan's son. Oh, shit. Oh, well, I guess I didn't hear that. I didn't hear that, so they're right. Uh, he's Kevin's son. Oh, shit.

Yeah. Nice. That must be why she wanted him back. Uh, I guess we can't communicate with him, can we? It's a tricky one. That's for sure. Um, maybe we'll just motion for him to follow us outside and see what happens. For the ambush.

He finishes the last of the food. I mean, outside's not going to be much better. And not to say I'm disagreeing with you, but we must... You guys have illusions. Oh, that's right. Red pulls out, we're so dumb. We're just both look at each other at the same time. We're like,

allusion! And Red, Red snaps his fingers, and he conjures an illusion of the cave. And it's actually really nice the way he's done it. And there's like a moment, a fleeting moment. in Jack's mind that maybe is like, is Red putting on every time he does these illusions really shitty? Because there's nothing wrong with the scale. It's actually perfect. And he snaps his fingers and it sort of rotates softly, like a hologram from Star Wars.

At worst, Jack would assume, oh, maybe he read that book about how to do illusions good. Way to go, Red. And Red says, uh, Superman does good. I do illusions well. Learn your grandma, son. And he rotates this image. There's another reference. So you're just showing a really great picture of the cave? To start. And then I'm showing the people like pouring out of the caves angrily. And the figures are all sort of faceless.

They're sort of just the shapes of them, you know? And they're all angry at one person. And as the person runs out of the cave, this small diagram, there's like bloody footprints that he's tracking as he runs out. And it's sort of meant to signify that he's, the one that was cast out. It's sort of a really odd, almost puppet-like depiction of what we believe had transpired. And then sort of it fades and the people, you know, kind of become distorted and Red sort of looks at him with a questioning look to kind of be like, you know, and gestures back at the image to hopefully sort of get the question of, can you clarify what happened or maybe explain this story?

he says no that's not it is that supposed to be me that's not what happened jack opens his hand now and in it is the boy in the cave before anything red had just shown like that moment before that scene red showed and as as the kid said that's not what happened jack's trying to get him to say well tell us what did happen he says bonem told me chief warm blood would kill my mother when he returned He said he would tell the chief. We had disrespected El-Ram, and that's why we'd been starving. Worm blood likes Bunem. I knew he would. I fought him. I didn't mean to kill him, but I did. He killed the chief?

He killed this other guy, Bunim. We killed the chief. No, this is where I was confused for a minute. Yeah. But he did not kill the deputy. And red at the name worm... Well, again, I'm waiting for you to describe all. I think in, so as this kid is talking, I'm both showing the picture of what he's, he's

describing so that, that he knows, I understand him, and at the same time, sort of repeating the words so that Red can hear them as, like, translating for Red at the same time. So it's sort of a shared communication. Wormblood, that's, and Red sort of gives an knowing look to Jack. This is the dude that we iced the intro. And stole his shit. And stole his shit. Doran's carrying his wand of secrets right now.

I think I've got a brooch of his in my... You do. You know what? Maybe I will fish out of my bag the brooch and toss it across to this kid. He catches it and then throws it in the air kind of in delight and holds it up to the shaft of light that's coming through this crack in the ceiling that you scampered down through. And he gives you a toothy smile.

He says, yes. Can I real insight on that? reaction? Sure. Is it like, you know, natural one? That's the second natural one I've rolled. You should shame a die. When was the last time you shamed a die, Harold? Yeah. That's a...

You know what? We're ashamed. We're not shaming to die. Shame. Shame. For shame. Shame it. Goodbye. Die. Bad dice. Pay the price. You hear a voice from the entrance to the cavern. Are you guys still alive? We're good. Should Doran and I come down?

No, no. It would pretty crowded down here as it is. Don't worry. We're going to come up in a few seconds. He seems more or less innocent, I think. Okay. Sun's getting low. Yeah. And Red sort of looks with a curiously back at the depiction. And to Jack,

it's like, well, what element of this did he eat them? That was the impression we got, wasn't it? So Jack's going to conjure this picture of people talking, like people of the village telling stories and in like this kind of cloud bubble of their story, there'll be an even more cartoonish illusion of like

a werewolf boy eating people and running off into the woods to try and communicate like this is what people are saying about you. He shakes his head. No, that's not it. Jack will then show a version of this boy with a word bubble in front of him as if he could tell the story from his own perspective and, you know, we're eagerly waiting to hear it. He throws the brooch back at you and he says, I told you, I told you what happened. I had to leave.

I thought Wormblood would come back and kill me. Well, that's not going to happen. Jack tries one more time. He sees himself, or maybe it shows all four of us standing in front of this cavern and an illusion of like the voice of the spirits angry about this. Just trying to kind of question, have the spirits ever talked to you? Or is that a normal thing? Are they...

I don't think he really understands your depiction. It's a pretty complicated... it's kind of abstract. Yep. So he just shrugs, and he says, what will we do? Red nods and sort of looks towards Jack, and without changing his expression or anything, and sort of with a bit of a smile, Red says, I don't trust this kid. And I think something is wrong with him.

I think something is foul here. Something feels wrong. And Red sort of nods back to the boy and sort of holds up a finger to be like, okay one second and he's like let's talk to the others and Red starts crawling back up

yeah I mean Jack turns to follow Red and goes and climbs out of the hole Jack as you turn to follow Red out of the hole this boy leaps at you I fucking knew it

I was like something's off this kid leaps at you his face utterly changed Like the dawn of some new emotion Pushed beyond its logical endpoint Startling and wild His lips beared to show fangs

And he grabs you, Jack. The two of you tumble to the floor And he grapples you in his tight space As Red is halfway through this opening Caught in the crevice He's incredibly strong And he tries to bash your head against the wall. Jack, what do you do?

Jack's been grabbed by this kid and thrown up against the wall with a strength that he doesn't possess, Jack is going to turn invisible. I love that. I love that so much. Okay. Maybe he's grappled me, but Jack's going to turn invisible and squirm like the Dickens to try and get out of his grasp. All right.

I think Red hears this kerfuffle behind him and sort of tries to turn around in this tight little claustrophobic tunnel and sees this vicious boy like trying to wrestle with Jack. And then Jack goes invisible. And Ren is like, the boy's gone feral! And he turns around and starts like trying to clamor up. But he can't grab purchase on like the inside of the tunnel. I feel like the dirt is wet and muddy. And he's like sliding back down.

And Red sort of tries to grab his rapier as he's almost stuck in the tunnel. I'm picturing outside Kieran is starting to go nuts a little bit, like barking back and forth, trying to run back between the boys and the hole and the boys again and being like trying to get some help for Jack. Kieran's digging. And then I think Red looks up. After gaining a little bit of purchase, he looks up to the hole, lock size with Kralov and says, Jack is down there.

We need to help him. And Red slides back down to try to help. Kralov looks at Dora and looks at that gap. And there's no way that Kralov is going to get into that gap. So he pulls out his mason, wait. Jack, you are grappling with this creature. You are invisible. What happens next?

You're just trying to squirm out of his grasp? I mean, there's a couple of moments of squirming, and Jack is trying to get his wits about him, and like he's feeling his head bashed into the rocks behind him, and there's a mimic. He's got a good grasp on your shoulders, and he pushes you up against the wall with such violence. You can feel the skin break on your back

as he rasps you against the sharp rock. Yeah, and I think there's, like, one push, and I'm there, and he's rasping me, and the next second I'm in front of red. I've just a puff of mist, I've evaporated from his hands, and I'm scrabbling outside of the cavern being like, Red, I'm free, I'm out. Jack, you squirm through the rocks and Redd, you are in the dark cavern alone with this boy, this adolescent who turns on you. His face is unrecognizable now. His teeth elongated somehow, and he launches himself at you.

Yeah, but Red matches it beat for beat. There's a moment where Red has become fair. It's rare. It's usually at night or when he's being deceived. But Red in the darkness, without any of his friends around, leaps at him as well. And the two... You go rolling end over end, the two of you. Red is driving his claws into this man's stomach, like, pummeling him with slashing damage, tearing shreds from his bare torso, turning him to mincemeat.

And again, with unarmed strikes, Red gets to do slashing damage for more damage than it would be normal. To get the one good bite in on your shoulder, your neck somewhere, before you subdue him with your claws. And I think Red holds him down his claws, piercing into his shoulder as he bites ravenously at the air, and red draws a dagger and rams it into his skull right between his eyes and twists the dagger as a cracking of bone beneath his paws sort of rattle, and the dripping of blood sort of spreads across the ground.

in the underdark, and Red just stands there for a second breathing heavily, a look of anger distorted on his own face. And as he like regains control and starts breathing slower and calmer, you see through the speckling of blood on his fur, the anger dissipates and a smile washes over Red's face in the darkness. And he sits back, gasping. It's all right. I ended him. And up on the top, Jack being tended to by Kralath, who's, like, looking in his back and Kieran is just licking his face all over. Maybe Doren's peering down into the hole as Red pokes his head up. And I feel like Doren kind of was keeping an eye out, so it wasn't right there at the edge of the hole. So now that Doren's run back up, he's now, like, on his stomach, looking down to the hole, reaching his arm down.

Red. And I think there's a moment, Doran, where you see Red pull the dagger out of the middle of this boy's head, sort of the dull thump of the boy's skull hitting the dirt once again. And he wipes the blade on his, and almost embarrassed like he got caught. Red sort of goes, oh, yeah. Yeah, it was, it was the only place I could stab him. I only had a moment. I, you know, and Doran kind of looks at you in. a very knowing way. And we lock eyes and... And you know that Red didn't accidentally stab him there, but purposefully. Just let me help you up. And Red grabs your hand, his face stern, for only a moment.

It's like a fleeting micro-expression. And he nods and then comes up. There's a shared truth between the two of us where you know that Red savagely mutilated this boy in a very violent and primal way and liked it. And he climbs back up with you. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters.

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