Dice Shame - 114 | 'Set In Stone'

Episode Date: December 16, 2021

A giant threat appears as the party sets their sights on another burial mound... 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.

They're not flogging themselves before bed? What? You're not playing chess, are you? I thought I had it there. You could stand for some lessons with Kieran there, Dor. Who would you rather fight alongside the griffins or the poties? The Sky Poetys. What do you know about One Stone?

I don't know much about a lot of things. Do you like the fresh jazz man? That sounds fun. I love jazz. Stone giants are known for smashing things. You had a bit more of a complicated past than I had assumed originally. Yeah. Complicated.

That's the word. Do you say Complicated? What fuck is that? MVP this week is Derri-Annie Stover for sharing her Spotify report for the year and revealing that Dyshame is her number one. spot. Thank you so much, dearie. Can't wait to make next year's list, too.

If you're in the holiday spirit and you're looking for something that will motivate you to bake cookies, shop for presents, or decorate that tree, tune in to Invictus Holiday Radio. Harlan and I have been creating a weekly fake radio show to get you through the season. Harlan's spinning some of the best music the season has to offer, and we're splicing in our own fake commercials, collins, and segments. Join the Discord or our Patreon to stream or download the shows today. It's a lot of fun. All right. Should we get down to business let's do it so i was uh i was checking out on amazon and i realized that my cart was like ninety five dollars or something you have to buy the carts too the only thing i had

bought were these little car air fresheners so there's no way and i realized there was something left in my cart do you guys ever go on to amazon and you add a bunch of stuff and you're like for sure i want these yeah but not now i'm going to get them later right I've definitely accidentally just bought something that way. Oh, no. That's hilarious. Oops. It was a new microphone holder.

Ooh. Okay, I thought I needed a new microphone holder. Don't we all? Because my shock mount wasn't holding. Like, I was screwing it, but it kept coming loose. I was like, yeah, I need a new shock mount. And it happened a few times, and I kept forgetting to buy a new one. So I was downstairs, I was cooking, and I threw one in my basket on Amazon.

the minute I remembered. And then I threw in, I think this was before Halloween, so I think I threw in some Halloween candy as well, too. Secret candy. And then I remembered, okay, I got to get the Halloween candy because it's getting close to Halloween. I punched through my cart, boom, bang, bang. Next day or so, this shock mount shows up.

So first off, I was like, what the hell is this? Oh, right, I bought a shock mount. So this is a two-fold discovery. The first being that the shock mount that I have that's broken is nowhere near broken. I was just using it wrong. Upside down. I had it upside down.

So I was constantly trying to keep it tight And it was like fighting against gravity And then I was like literally I took it off And I was like Joe was sitting at desk And I was like, wait a minute I'm happy to announce that I did come to the realization Stupid as it was I came to it by myself

I was like, wait a minute If I do it this way So immediately turn it upside down Works perfect now And then the kicker was when I opened the other one It was like four fucking sizes too big So it's this giant shock mount That I have no use for

that I could probably find a way to return to Amazon, but I'm keeping as a lesson for my own stupidity to never press checkout without checking. What a goo. You just have to get a bigger microphone. I will get a bigger microphone. Keeping as a lesson. You know, if Henry ever hurts his arm again,

he can have it like a shock mount. Aw. Like one of those bungee jumper things. A sling. Perfect. It's like a prison for a hamster. How many years did you have it upside down for, do you think?

All of them. Before you realized. All of the years I've had. a microphone that sits in a shock mount i mean don't get me wrong you can do it the way i did it's just not it's not going to be as sustainable i'm thinking that in joe's cart was the entire harry potter collection she hates harry potter damn interesting selection an interesting choice actually i've read the harry potter series up until the sixth book i think and then i just got bored um what do you think was in my cart i'm guessing was a christmas present for me

Oh, what do you think it was? The Abbott-Costello Blu-ray disc edition that I've been asking for for so long. Incorrect. Incorrect. Wrong. Case of Diet Dr. Pepper. Just kidding. Oh, great idea, Rob.

$10 of Dr. Pepper. That's right. There's 80 cans. No. That'd be a terrible sale. I'm going to say it was like a case of dental floss. Ooh, yeah. $100.

Lifetime supply. No? No, you're wrong. 400,000 miles of dental floss. No, if I were to actually guess, that was your actual guess. No, the Blu-Reed thing is $128. I know this. I know this.

I could check right now and tell you on Amazon, it's $120,000. I'm just saying, your actual guess. That was your actual guess. This, I know. That wasn't. My actual guess, which is also wrong, but if I were to guess, I would say... There are not many things I know in this world. Funniest thing would be that if it was multiple versions of the same thing.

Like, if you accidentally got frozen on the page and clicked it... And added like 25 of that thing. That's happened to me before, too. And this is where I was going to go with my point to this. No, you already said your guess. No, you say it's not your second. But what I'm saying is I'll go shopping. And I like sometimes I was looking for like action figures.

For yourself? No, for the kids. For me. For your kid brother. And so I was putting like multiple in because I'd find this one for this price. I'm like, oh, this one's like pretty much the same thing. And then I get to the end, and there's like $500 worth of toys in there. I'm like, oh, I should probably delete some of these.

Boom. I only did because Harlan was just miming the arc of his story as a slow incline and then a sharp drop. But I was very close to putting the order through. I'm like, okay, I got that. And then I'm like, but then you did. $356. What the hell's going on here? I'm like, that's a good story.

Is it, though? He just said he put a bunch of stuff in his car and then he removed it. No, but I mean, it's the way he tells them. I can emotionally connect to the shock of realizing that you've got $500 worth of toys. What did I put in there? You're giving him too much credit. I need to know what kind of action figures before I can invest in the emotionally in the arc of the story. That's true.

That's true. What kind? Marvel superhero. Awesome. Marvel. Is that the name? Is it a generic Marvel superhero? He bought $500 worth of them.

No name Marvel Superhero. Actually, I can show them to you. Oh, he's going into his background. He's opened and oh. Oh my God, it's X-Man. I was like, oh, they're like collectible. And X-Girl. They're like the legends or something.

I don't know. Cool. They read very much. X-Force. Marvel's 90s. Who are those characters? I don't think that those are Marvel characters. Boom, boom.

and electrode man. X-Force. Boom, boom, ended up on Next Wave, which makes her one of the best. Oh, okay. Because Next Wave is awesome. Oh, X-Force.

Yeah, that's Deadpool's little team. Is there a piece of a leg? Anyway, what was it, Joe? It was two Yankee candles. Oh, wow, they're expensive. They are so flipping expensive. Yankee candle burned it up. What is a Yankee candle?

It's like a candle that you've seen. They have the glass that you've seen. Almost like bubble tops. Yes. And they have the, like, the plastic lip and you pull them off. It's a candle that you burn. What flavors were they? Okay.

Flavors sense? What are Yankee candles coming? They're flavors. Oh, yes. The way we use them flavors. So the reason that I put them in my cart and left them in my cart is because they're massive and they're each like $45. Oh, God. Crazy.

Too much. Too big. I need to find the smaller version of the candle. But they're like, like, standard Christmas bullshit stuff where it's like... Warm, spicy. No, no, no, no, no. I don't want the apple spice or nothing. I want, like, a spruce tree.

I see. I want a cinnamon and pine candle. You know what I mean? Yeah. I want to smell like I'm walking around in a forest in my house. I call that pinneman, an on-fire forest with cinnamon somehow. Just light the stove. Well, we do, believe me.

Even with the pilot light on, on. We just fill that house with gas. I love having a candle lit, though. It just feels like cozy. it's beginning to look not like You know it works well If you put like one of those candles Those glass candle

On like your Yeah we do that element of your stove So it's like nice kids it nice and hot Oh no we don't do that That's okay Does that work? I think you would definitely let your house on fire No but you know what we do do do

Is we make little like pots of water With like a bit of vanilla extract And like a cinnamon stick And you just like low bubble it Or even a piece of tin foil in the oven really, really low. And you just put like some spices right on there and you cook it. And it ends up just sort of, you know, smelling. And I'm talking about really low.

Don't blast your oven at 400 and roast because it's just going to burn. Or you get some really good quality bleach and some ammonia and you just mix it together in a pot and you just slow simmer it. And take a good whiff. I like to put a towel over my head as I breathe in the bucket. Definitely have the fume hood on for that, I guess. Try this at home. No, don't try this at home.

That's a joke, ladies and gentlemen. That will cause you to die. That's a poison. That was a chemistry joke, I think, probably. I don't even,

well, I was, I guess, technically. Anyway, should play some D&D? Yeah, let's do it.

Yes. Yeah. Speaking of poison gas clouds. Speaking of which. Oh, Rob's going to fart into the microphone. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, come on. Oh. Oh, For the 30th time today. My God. Our sound effects budget, unreal.

Got a consummate professional. Back aboard the airship, it would seem that some of the cultists on deck are looking at you with a little bit of amusement, perhaps, at your antics lately. you just descended from the ship in order to track down a parcel of belongings that you had thrown overboard yourselves and then tried to hit with an arrow. It seems like maybe some of them don't really know what you've been up to

and maybe are a little bit afraid to guess. So they're going about their business, but maybe a few of them are casting looks at you. If anyone would understand weird religious rituals, you'd think it would be cultists. No, they only understand their own weird religious things. Everything else to them is still weird. They're like, what? They're not flogging themselves before bed? What?

How do they know the gods won't kill them in their sleep? They don't commune with the great dragon? Jackson is perched on one of the tethers that's on the side of the balloon. His little tressum wings folded along his back, his huge yellow eyes casting around the ship, and he finds the huge form of Krayloth, glides over and lands on your shoulder, Krayloth, purring, appreciably. Oh, hey there, little buddy. It is a beautiful day, isn't it?

Oh, I got a treat for you. And Kralov reaches into his bag, and he pulls out a little piece of dwarf cured fish that he'd been saving for Kieran. This fell off of Doran. I think it's good. I found this in Doren's beard. Beard brine.

So speaking of Doran, the ship writes itself ever so slightly and the massive ape shape of Doran quickly, you know, reduces down to the normal. You're way behind, brother. Dwarp size. The arm comes up over the side. You're not an ape. When were you an ape? You're not an ape. Was I not an ape coming up?

No, no. That was like 10 episodes ago. Oh, you're right. You're just normal and we came back from. Okay. I thought I was really, I thought I had it there. Damn it. I know.

The last thing that's important for your character is that. you were leaving, one of the other dwarfs went, see you soon, Doran Iron Fist, and you were like, huh? I remember that part. I love that. Leading up to that point, Alex went and turn off the lights, closed his eyes. Well, I'm getting in the world.

I'm getting in the mood. We've been practicing Doran's d'Or ape moves. I don't know, Jack and Doran on their days off, have been just making sure Doran kind of like his giant ape stone boulder pulling stuff down. Thank you for going along with it, Rob. I'll play a long. Say yes.

Doran's arm clambers over the side of the ship as he's the last one up the ladder and he looks around and kind of makes eyes back at the cultists who give him odd looks and he sort of grumbles under his voice

oh mind your business yeah what we do with our stuff is our business that's right the red nods emphatically throwing an arm over Doran's shoulder and following him into the inside of the ship If only they'd know we'd been through. Yeah.

I mean, they do, but... Well, but not all of it. Right. Come on. Well, Damien does. I told them. Damien? Yeah, that dude. Oh, is that one?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the one that looks after Shale, right? I feel like my voice has changed. How does Doran sound again? Christian Bale, Batman. Right. Obviously. So, uh, how far do you reckon we are from the next stop there, Jack?

Uh, well, the next one, we're going to, to is where are we going where we going the boom bastic jazz man aisle oh that sounds fun i love jazz yeah for some reason it's just it's on the map so jack conjures up the map in front of us and sort of plots our course indiana jones style to sort of see well we're headed to one stone and you know we should get there late on the 25th so we've got a couple of days hopefully to uneventfully uh fly through the air there. No more bugs. No more celebrations. Yeah. You're telling me I'm really tired of those bugs flying around. Clear skies. No storms, I hope. I guess I don't really have a weather sense. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. No more celebrations. Red turns to shale and he's like, I guess they forgot

my birthday. He runs back to his room. Just kidding. Oh, okay, good. Cool. Did you guys want to do anything before we end up at the next burial mound? There's about five days to burn. I think red Fletches some more arrows in his downtime, but it's very matter of fact. Jack spends his time practicing his flute when he needs a mental break and swapping spells with the fellow wizard on board and telling stories and getting that, finding all those friction points between archaeologists and anthropologists, just because. And highlighting how one is better. Yeah, Endesar's got a lot of books with him and maybe the two of you peruse.

Oh, for sure. Does Andesar, does Andesar speak giant? I don't think so. He's kind of a budding linguist. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, he's, he's been studying some of the languages of the different barbarian tribes, but, you know, he's, that's something that he's saved for his, like, 500th birthday through.

Although it might be interesting for, you know, one evening after perusing books, knowing we're going to one stone, Jack might sort of say when we're all gathered around. Andres, what do you know about one stone? I'm not even sure I know which tribe spends time at that sacred place. Ah, yes. Well, it is interesting that you're going there. I've never been personally, so if you don't mind, I would love to accompany you down. Well, you're pretty committed at this point.

Well, yes, you could drop me off anywhere you like. I'm just kind of a side dude. A bit of a ways down. As far as one stone itself, I believe it is. of the Sky Pony tribe. Oh. Red laughs.

That's a pretty good name. Sky Pony. Who thought of that? I'm sorry, Red, is there something? Sorry, I didn't mean to talk out of turn. I just mean to say that name. It's stupid. It's a stupid sounding name.

It is a stupid sounding name. Well, Red, you must understand there are some peoples whose language does not translate. very well into common. And so I'm trying my best to do the most accurate depiction, I suppose. No, of course. Kralath and I don't mean any offense. Again, it's just a really stupid sounding name. Sorry. You could probably think Pegasus or Nightmare or any of those other horses that fly through the air. I mean, we just came from the Griffin tribe. You'd think that they would have something that's a bit

more intimidated to kind of keep up with their neighbors, right? Yeah. Who would you rather fight alongside the griffins or the ponies. The sky ponies. The sky ponies. I doubt we're going to run into anything dangerous there. No, no, stupid skyponies. I suppose you are right.

So Doran, you know, seems a little bit you know, you guys are laughing and having a good time with the skyponies. And Doran's... You've never seen a sky pony. Yeah, it's all fucking serious. No, he dies. Stabs his knife into the wood.

and leans forward, y'all laugh. But not like that. Fucking jaws here. He does a lot of self-reflection. And, you know, you kind of see Doran, Doran's a little bit separated from the rest of you. And he does a lot of self-reflection.

And you see him doing push-ups a couple days. And then... For days at a time. He goes to Kralath and, uh, I guess maybe I, I rat tat tat on the, on the, on the, your door. You knock? Yeah. What the hell is a rat?

I go to seek your, uh, conversation. Yeah, and Kralov welcomes him in and Kralov is sitting with Kieran and Kieran and him have created a system where Kieran's been a much better student of Giant and has

far surpassed Kralov's understanding. So now Kieran is teaching Kralath and they've got this system of barks that they've worked out and Kralath is struggling. Steady buddies. I love the idea that Kralath translates giant through his understanding of

dog. So he's like, Oh, door and giant, that's three barks. It's like, you've now added another layer to your understanding. But,

unbeknownst to everybody else, you've just like fluently learned dog. Right. Is there anything more like positive reinforcement though than conjugating the sentence right and a happy puppy

jumping into your lap and being like, you fucking did it. Yeah, go you. Face kisses. Oh, it's great incentive. I would never learn any words. I'd be like, no.

When Doran Wau. said, and Kralat says, oh, Doren, oh, good to see you. I could honestly use a break here. My teacher's real hard on me. You're not playing chess, are you? Doren closes the door behind him. He steps in and he looks a little bit gloomy.

Kraloth, I wonder if I could talk to you for a few minutes about, well, about some things. Yeah, sure. Have a seat. I was just about to brew some tea. Oh, thank you. I love one. I meant for me, but okay.

Two sugars, Krala, thank you. This bad looks awfully comfortable. A lot of stuff has come to light recently, and I just, I don't know much about my own religion, and I don't know much about a lot of things, but you see, I seem to be struggling a bit, and I'm concerned that, well, All of this stuff I've done, it's going to come back to get me.

And I don't know what Morridden says about it. And I guess I'd love to know what Calumvir says about it. And if you have anything that you could tell me about, what maybe my future holds knowing these terrible deeds I've somehow managed to perform. Mm-hmm. And Kralath has a stoic but warm look on his face as he nods and moves. over to the stove. Yeah, the things you mentioned the other day,

they caused me pause to realize that you had a bit more of a complicated past than I had assumed originally. Yeah, complicated. That's the word. Do you say complicated? What the fuck is that? You could stand for some lessons with Kieran there, Doran.

Well. Come in here. Put your feet up on the wolf-wolf. Kralov takes a moment as he puts the water slowly on the stove and turns it up with wood and fire. And he comes back to sit down and says, well, here's what I see. There is one thing that can absolve you of your past misdeeds. And I'll tell you right now, Dorn, as far as I'm. I'm concerned, you're already doing it.

Oh, it's killing bad guys. No, not exactly. Lately, you've been doing a lot of self-reflection. Looking into the past. Seeing where you've wronged others, created problems for friends, foes, family. I'm not proud of it, Kraloth. I'm not. Exactly.

You're recognizing how you feel about these things that you've done. You are facing your pain. And I have to tell you that that takes courage, Doran. It is not easy to face the pain and what we've inflicted on others. And in Kalimvor's eyes, the courage that it takes to reflect upon yourself, to stay with these uncomfortable feelings, is what is going to move you to a place of balance. Well, I truly hope that Kalimvor can I don't know

Give a good word to Moriden Thorin You don't understand It isn't up to Kellemvor Nor Moriden It's up to you You have to be the one

To face your pain You have to be the one To solve your problems And make it right This is your responsibility The gods are there to support you To guide you But at the end of the day, it falls on your stout shoulders, Dora and Iron Fist.

Ah, there we go. Jasmine T. I was very happy when the cultists said that they had a little bit on board. I haven't had it in ages, and Jasmine is my favorite. Thank you very much, Kralath. I appreciate your kind words and thoughts. It certainly puts my mind a bit more at ease, but... I think I have some ways to go.

You most certainly do. And Krayloff pours him some tea, and I think we just sit and hang out for a little bit and talk giant with Kyrid. Kieran rests their head on Doren's lap for some scratches, and Jackson's curled up enjoying the heat of the stove nearby. And the cultist asks, do you like the fresh jazz man? We got him from Yartar. and shaved off thin pieces for you. Your request was weird, but not impossible. Wait, who is this?

Jazzman tea. Some weird cultist who killed some jazz player from Yarder for you. Jazz man. God. That's what we're drinking. Klaus asked me to do your quest and I have done. He screamed a lot. It's the evening of the 25th of Nytal, the drawing down, when you find the third spirit mound.

tucked inside the tall pines of the moonwood, west of the Red Run River. A grove of bare trees does a poor job of concealing the third burial mound, marked on Harshnag's map as one stone. The spirit mound is encircled by a swift and sparkling stream. The island at the center is 400, 500 feet wide and is a two-tiered affair, with a top tier built to resemble a dumb creature as seen from the sky. Told you. Much like the Griffin's tribes was.

Like how stupid it looks like. And unoriginal. You included that? That's great. It is a pretty silly looking pony. I'll give it to you. As you approach in your airship, you discern movement on the ground. Four stone giants are busily destroying stone cairns that mark the graves of Uthgart barbarians, tossing rocks from these markers into the stream, digging chunks of earth out of the mound itself. And you see there are corpses here too, still figures lying in red stains in the snow.

See, even they think it's stupid. Oh my God, look! And he points out the stone giants. Mm-hmm. Those are stone giants, like the ones we fought down in Amphel, down around Amphail, down between Rassalantar and Amphail, down around Rassalantar. Well, they're stone giants, yeah. Jack's hands grab the edge of the ship tight, his knuckles go white.

Oh, yeah. Having a moment thinking about stone giants. It's okay, Jack, it's all right. And Kralath shouts to the cultists that are leading the ship, stay out of range. They're throwing heavy debris. Don't come until we signal you. So what's your strategy, guys? How do you want to get in on the ground level?

You are looking, may I remind you, for a specific artifact in the midst of this scene of chaos. I think we should get down to the edge of the trees and fire at them from a distance one at a time and try to kite them as far as we can. There's a ravine that goes around the mound, which we could use for our advantage. It would be at the very least difficult terrain for them to cross. There's another idea. How high can this ship go? I mean, what if we were to go way up high?

above the clouds and float down. Then cloud giants would get us. Who would float down? I'm thinking, you know, with Kraloth's... Balloon pack, levitate. But to what end? So we do that and then land where? Like on a giant.

Just looking at it from above, if we're trying to pinpoint things that could be the artifact we're looking for down there, there's a couple of poles, there's that boulder at the eye of the pony. Oh, yeah. You know, stone giants are known for smashing things, and Jack is kind of, you know, knees knocking together

a little nervous about him, just giving his history with him. Right. But remember that the stone giants were smashing humanoid things. They were smashing Dwarven ruins, and we're looking for a giant trinket, which, I mean, I don't know them that well, but I get the feeling that when it comes to giant stuff, they might be acting a little bit differently.

Maybe. I guess my only concern is, are they, The sort of intelligent giants that's going to think a relic that's been in human hands for a long time is still a giant relic, even if it started out as one. If there's no concern for them destroying the relic here, then, why don't we just wait for them, maybe observe them, see what they do, maybe learn a bit about their motives? The stone giant to the northeast, as you're having this conversation from afar, bends down and picks up a boulder, holds it up high above. its head examining it. And even from this distance, you can see there's something different about this, this boulder. And in giant, Red and Jack, and even now Kralov a little bit, you're piecing together the language,

you hear this giant say, Look how these small creatures have stolen from us and used this bull to decorate their insulting cemetery. And then the giant kicks in this burial mound, caving in a crypt and launching a huge clod of dirt into the air. It would appear that the giant has discovered the relic. Ah, so they want to take it? Ah, so it's not even that they're going to destroy it, it's that they're going to steal it. That's woof, woof, wine, woof. They've discovered the relic.

You got it, Kralov. Nailed it. Yeah, they have. All right, that puts a clock on this thing. Let's move the airship down south and approach from that direction. I see one down there that I think we'd be able to pick off and that we should land, keep the ship far back, approach from the woods, and try to take out these one at a time.

What do you say? Well, we need that relic. That's what we're here for, so we're going to have to take it down. Sorry, Doran, I was actually talking to Krayloff. Can you scooch over? Krayloff, what do you think? I'm just kidding.

I know, but, you know, you can't joke around necessarily with Doran. All right, let's do it. Take the ship round! Let's make sure we're all prepared. And while the airship is maneuvering to circle this island, Krayloth casts a spell as a level four. You guys are going to get aid.

Now, this is going to go to Red, Jack, and Kraloff. Not Doran. That's fine. Sorry, Dorn. So everybody's going to get plus 15 at temporary HP. I understand. I get it. And don't forget to eat your treats, Krayloth says,

as he pulls out a, I don't know, like a chocolate truffle. You made chocolates for everyone? Yeah, yeah, little cocoa balls. And he eats that and you get another plus three. And Doran, you get the plus three HP. And Kieran also gets plus three HP. Aw, don't feed him fucking chocolate. Are you kidding?

This isn't cocoa. I'm imagining those like overpriced, like energy bites that you can get at like a health food store that's like dates and coconut and like pistachios. His are made with, theirs are made with fig. Nice. Thanks, buddy. And red eats his.

How much does that give you? I'm at a total of 75 hit points now. Yes. Take it around! So the airship cranks through the sky silently at a distance such that you hope the stone giants do not observe you. And it seems like they don't because they are really busy right now, dismantling the very structure of this spirit.

Mound. Pst, Alex, shut up. We add those in post. Well, that's for Justin to use later. Oh, yeah, I'll use those. I'll use those, Alex.

Literally, the roll for initiative is an Alex song. And that one we use the most. I made a flying machine. All right, folks. Everybody roll for initiative. just unanimous sadness i bet yours is better than mine doran would you get a six

craylash seven ah he was right jack 15 and red 16 oh it's a game of increments between the two of you anything you can do i can do better dorin feels the surge of adrenaline rushed through his veins and he looks over at Jack and he kind of nudges with his shoulder. He says, well, you got your, you got your fingers all ready for your magic? Just like we've been practicing. Oh, yeah, it's always a little bit exciting before battle, isn't it? Careless whispers on the flute is something else. Let me tell you. Especially the way Jack plays it. All right. Oh, do you want Andesar to come to?

Yes, yes. Let's bring them. Let's bring the high, powerful wizard, please. Yeah. So let's say this airship drops you in the middle of a copse of trees just to the southeast of the spirit mound. The coltis shoves us off the side. It's about 200 feet from the river. And you feel confident that right now your movements are relatively secret. However, the trees are. leafless and you can still see the giants moving around in the growing darkness in the island. I think red 200 feet back from

the river will climb a tree and find one big enough that he can sport himself in. And before he does, he turns to the others and he puts a hand on each of their shoulders. He's like it's all right. Everything's going to be fine. If anything gets too hairy, we retreat. Do you understand?

And he locks eyes with each of you one at a time. We turn and run. I hope it doesn't come to that, but fair enough. Cray off? Yes. Jack?

Mm-hmm. No, yes. Just say yes. Just look at me and say yes. God, you guys, we just really need to be on the same page for all this. This is making me very uncomfortable.

And a rock crashes through the trees and smashes red. Retreat! Retreat! It's flat. All right. I mean, I'll take that as a yes, emphatically. Yes.

All right. I love you, boys. And Red scales the tree to find a good position. Okay. Red, you're in the forest 200 feet from the river's edge? Correct. Okay. Because you said these were bare trees, which means I have line of sight.

Yeah. Ruh! Ah! That's right. Roar and then ah. Doren gives Endes our quizzical look and he says, Are you going to be okay? my mature friend

Hey old fuck It's been some time since I've seen battle but yes I prepare spells for events such as these and he touches the middle of his chest and the shimmer of mage armor appears over his ancient cloaks and he adjusts his earmuffs.

Very clever. I think I'm ready. So Doran suggests that Kralath, Jack, and Endesar follow him up to the very edge of the trees so that we're kind of on the front line, if you will. And I think at this point, Red is just watching the Stone Giant for the moment that he might be alerted to their presence. So Red has already knocked an arrow. He is basically playing Overwatch right now as his three friends move up.

Why are you playing video games, Red? Pay attention. And Dorn in a very SWAT-like manner. Maybe not SWAT-like, but very military manner, using the hand motions, you know, tells everybody to follow them up and keep low to the ground and hide behind that tree and hide behind that tree. He uses the hand motions and then tells everyone. No. Move!

You know, so I point out to the trees, you know, where just stand behind a tree and he does so himself. Looking back at Red. I want everyone who is moving through the trees closer to. to these giants to make a stealth check, please. Oh, fuck. Everyone sounds like they did a great job on their stealth checks. What's the signal mean again, Doran? It means, as Doran rolls a six for me.

Okay. Five for Kralov. Okay. It's an 11 for Jack. Holy fuck. Guys, look a chipmunk. Endezzer rolled a 16, so he's crushing it. You're doing great, Endezar.

Well done, Andy. You make it about 60 feet through this bare wood. The ground underfoot is crunchier than you were hoping for, being that it is frozen. And the ground is littered with dry leaves. No matter how quietly you try to step, all you can hear is the crunch, crunch, crunch of your own footsteps echoing through this leafless. forest and you hear the burbling of the river as you approach red you see the stone giant closest to you straighten from this sabotage of the crypts that it was undertaking and look directly into the trees where your companions are making their approach

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