Dice Shame - 122 | 'Pick up the Pieces"

Episode Date: February 10, 2022

After a difficult night, the party finally comes together and moves forward... 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.

I know that none of us have asked for this. Do you go sleep all right? There's really no one answer. Isn't that where Doran was keeping his cartography kit? Let's have another Doran Krayloth episode. Oh no! A shark in Yarder. We could fit it onto our boat.

Hey, uh, what about this? Oh, it's not really my style, but... Krayloff turns to the others and says, uh, looks like we're on our own for this. Yeah. And now I know trees don't talk back to us. Good, good job, Tori. Mm-hmm.

MVP this week is Michael Tobias, who wrote about episode 121 on Discord and said, I just want Crayloth to be okay. It's the only thing I want. No worries, Michael, but also no promises. We'll see what the dice say. If you like mysteries, conspiracies, the absurd and fellow Canadians, just like us, cram your ear holes with the podcast, Nowhere on Air. Jess Siret is the sole author to this faux late-night community radio show

broadcasting from the middle of nowhere. Check it out. It's a blast. All right, should we get down to business? Let's do it. How stinky do you think these characters are? Oh, boy. At least a seven.

Out of seven? Out of five. Oh, out of five, yeah. Out of five. Five points go. I see Doran's like a 12. Man, that's a good question. Because when was the last time,

canonically, everyone had a bath? I mean, Red and Doran had a tiny bath in a bird fountain, right? That's right. Seven years ago. Yeah. Did we? I don't even remember that. What are the chances?

I mean, doesn't press to digitation allow for cleaning of the self? Definitely a spell I don't have. Yeah. Minor illusion. At Marina Cindergather's Manor, which was 18 days ago, red and Doran briefly scrubbed their faces. But that was just the sensitive spots. That was like the hands in the face. That was it.

Arm pits, done. And the armpits. Which makes a lot of a smell different. difference. Jack went for a swim a couple episodes ago. Oh, that's right, during the fight. And I don't remember if Kraloff ended up in the water at any point. I don't think he did. But there was no soap involved. It was just a dip in the water, right? It was a rinse. Yeah, really, a rinse is not a wash. I guess it really depends. You got to be thinking about, okay, on that airship, what was the cleanliness situation? It's not like it's an ocean ship where you could, you know, you could just dip over the side and grab some water. period. Like every bit of water you had, you had to brought with you. Unless they had a water elemental. But you know what?

There's also like a stinky threshold where, you know, maybe day one to five, by day five, you're like, oh, I'm starting to reek. But then kind of like five to ten or five to fifteen even. You're not getting worse. Yeah. But then, but then eventually there is a point where like maybe 15 to 20, you're kind of tipping over the edge. But there's a long window there where you're not getting.

stinkier. You know what I mean? It's got to really influence like your checks, though, too, right? Like, you can't be that stealthy if they can smell you from 200 meters away. I can't cash this. Oh, that kind of check. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Like, if we're trying to sneak around something? Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Rob. So are we now as smelly as the giants and Gretthog? No. You're getting there. Oh, no. No, because I think they made like a point of pride about it. Like, they were like, let's rub shit on ourselves to make ourselves more stinky.

They lived above a bunch of pigs and their manure and associated off-gassings, and they were eating rotten food. Oh, you know what? We misremembered, no, because we all got dunked out of the boat. So we've all been in the water, technically, because the boat tipped, remember? And then we climbed up on shore. For a moment. So we actually have all touched water.

I'm not saying we've washed. I'm just, I misremembered that we actually have all been wet within the last 24 hours. We splashed through a creek. So you may be as a group at your cleanest yet. In a while, yeah, for sure. Good job, guys. I want to go home. Cleanest yet, no way.

It's very chilly, too. So, like, it's not even like a nice bath. It's like, oh, God, get out of this right away. Well, let alone, then we fought the undead and camped out in a rotten house. So, you know, that improves the situation. Funny, it's sort of odd how this conversation came up because as I was taking a shower this morning and getting ready to play this. game, I was thinking, geez, Dorn hasn't really showered, and maybe he should do something like a dry shower. And then this came up, how smelly we are. So, that's sort of coincidental.

Shall we play some D&D? Yeah. Do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. I love D&D. The night finally relents and gives way to morning. And despite the sunrise, you are all extremely cold. Nobody lit a fire in the hearth, so you probably had a hard time sleeping. It's about minus 15 degrees Celsius this morning. You can see your breath in plumes of fog as you look out of the day. Jack hoped to get up a little earlier, definitely to watch the sunrise and to spend an hour summoning Kieran back, having finally got the energy from a little bit of sleep. And I think maybe red has been maybe hunting just around the area. Difficult because it seems like it's very

scarce around here. There's not much, but I think he does end up finding rabbit and sort of skins it in the snow. It's a very, like, still quite serene morning. Kraloth didn't sleep very well last night. He had a number of very strange, spooky dreams, and he's been praying this morning. His shield and his mace placed around him and his holy symbol in front of him as he clutched. touches it and mutters to himself quietly. Funny, I don't think any of us slept really well last night.

Doran also rolling over gets up. He actually lights a fire. He gets it going well in the hearth of the fireplace here inside this building. He's breaking up some of the old furniture that's already been broken and tossing it in. It's got a nice warm glow to it. Jackson curls up next to Doran. at the fireplace and tries to take in some of the warmth that way. It was a hard night for the four of you interpersonally.

There were some things said to each other that maybe left a sore spot on you this morning, some kind of bruise that it feels like you, you know, slept on something uncomfortable, but it's not a physical pain. It feels like something, an emotional pain. Yeah, and the back door sort of closes softly. I feel like the flames of the fire start to flicker and Dorn can tell that someone's entered as red sort of comes in from the back holding a rabbit. He sort of stops in the doorway, sees Doren, sees Jackson, and kind of scans the room

before joining Doren at the fire and like adding the meat to a small spit that Doren's been crafting. A little bit of nourishment might be nice. Yeah, yeah, hey, good job. That'll serve for a hearty breakfast, and he, kind of looks back. Maybe Kralath can cook us up something good when he's back from doing his morning prayer.

Yeah, look, there's not much out there. No, I kind of feel for the people around here with the hunger, and Red again, sort of a bash, at least like, I appreciated what you said yesterday. I'm sorry that I didn't reciprocate your apology, but you had every right to snap at me, and I'm sorry. Well, look, Red, I mean, listen, We're all under a lot of pressure here, and there's really no one answer.

It's okay. You know, we're all individuals, and we each do our own thing the way we do it, but we have to learn to come together and get our strengths from each other, and he pokes the fire. I want you to know that I appreciate that you admitted that you're scared, because I think that's important, Doran, and Red puts a hand on your shoulder, and he's like, I need you around

I need you to stay with us I need you to be there after a battle and that fear means that you're gonna do everything you can to make that happen and that brings me comfort yeah but do me a favor red let's just not repeat that okay

I don't want any of my other relations my other dwarven common folk I don't want them to know that I've uttered those words okay It's just not something that a dwarf like myself should utter. Sure. Should admit. Sure.

Well, if it makes you feel better, I think maybe I was scared too, to be honest. And I think that's what kind of made me feel that way. It felt really weird losing Kralov last night. And then he lowers his voice a bit. It's a little worried to see Kralath, you know, acting the way he has been acting. He seems like he's lost a bit of himself. I'm not sure what's going on out there. And Red just sort of shakes his head and stares at the fire, kind of like, yeah, well, he'll tell us, I guess, when he's ready.

Let's make us some plans to get those relics back, and we've got to meet a harsh nag, right? The Red nods, and he pulls a piece of cooked rabbit from the fire and opens his little baby Bjorn on his chest, and you can see him feed shale as he sort of watches the fires next to the fire. Little claw reaches out. Shelds and mandibles click appreciatively. Where's Jack anyways? Jack is the next room over sort of on the other side of the fireplace with his little fire burning incense and herbs and all the things he needs for the bundle of celestial joy that is Kieran to leap out of the fire and into his arms.

And, you know, Jack cuddles his familiar for a little bit and feels his heart grow a couple of sizes and stands back up. and, you know, starts walking towards the rest of you in the other room. The door to the back room creaks open, and you hear an armored Kralov clunk through the dining room and set down his shield beside the fire and begin to warm his hands. And he nods curtly at Doren and turns to red and says, do you go sleep all right?

Not really, no. No, neither, neither did I. Yeah, me neither. Thanks for making this fire, Doran. It's good to feel some warmth in my hands again. Of course. Good morning, everybody. Hey, good morning, Jack.

Oh, morning, Jack. I have some rabbit guys, just not that much. And Red grabs the rabbit off the fire and sort of walks over to the half dilapidated table and tries to sort of like pick off pieces and hang it to everybody. is we sort of come together for the first time, you know, like even as we were clearing the house, we were all very separate. And like, we're sort of standing shoulder to shoulder for the first time since being in the boat, really. The idea of sitting around this table using our hands to pick pieces of rabbit off to eat in the like ugly morning light of today is kind of evocative.

And they're like the table creaks. One of the legs is definitely broken and we're, you know, Doran's propped it up with something. There's no plates, no forks. We're just like chewing this rabbit meat in our hands. Love it. As you're all eating, Kralov grabs a piece of this rabbit, and he is obviously lost in thought as he kind of fidgets with it a little bit, and then sticks it in his pocket, and then continues to fiddle with his ring. Look, I said some things last night that wasn't exactly true or fair, and I just want to say,

I'm sorry. look, this quest we're on, it's enough of a weight on all of us, that it doesn't need to be further weighed down by my feelings. And I know that none of us have asked for this. And I know that none of us necessarily would make this our first choice for what we're doing right now. So to selfishly make that more difficult by blaming you, the way I did last night, which it really was. It's not fair. And the truth is, Kraloth, and Red turns to you, Kralath, kind of looking at you for the first time. And there's a bit of water in his eyes as he puts his hand on your shoulder, and he says,

The truth is, you scared the shit out of me when you went down, and I'm not ready to lose you. the way I've lost so many people in my life, any of you. And I don't know if we did anything wrong. Maybe we did it all right. Maybe that means we can still lose, but... God damn it, it scared me. And if Dorn could admit his fears, so can I. And I'm sorry I projected that back onto you.

I wasn't fair. I appreciate you saying that. and for what it's worth you have every right to have felt all the feelings that you felt in fact it's completely natural to have felt anger and fear and pain after what we went through and after what you saw and the way we've all been acting the past day I can only imagine that it's been hard to stomach I feel like I owe you all an explanation. Ever since yesterday, I haven't felt the same. Something has changed. I can't quite put my finger on it, but this morning when I tried to reach out to Kalimvor, I wasn't

able to access him in the same way. It felt different. It felt strange, and I haven't been able to access my own feelings about any of this. I truly died back there. My time. My time came, and yet I'm still here. And the thing that's been weighing me down and keeping me from moving forward is that I don't know if it's because of Kalimvor that I came back. It seems perfectly human to me to have no idea how we're all feeling like after a day like yesterday. It's a lot to process. That might take some time, and I wish we had that time in a comfortable inn back in water deep. However, the Lithander proverb from death comes life, there's always another morning to turn a setback into success. We got to make a plan and figure out what we're going to do

until we get back to civilization, because there ain't many more rabbits, and I don't plan on starving in the woods for too long. Nope. Well, I agree. Well put. And on that point, I had a dream last night. similar to the dreams I've had before, the ones where I could smell the salt air on my fur after waking. This one was just as vivid, but a little bit more pointedly towards, well, a place we've been. I saw a shark swimming beneath rippling waters, but then it arrived at a dock, and as it leapt out of the water, it turned into a man with a beard. I remember him vaguely. I think he was in Yata. And I don't know.

This one felt real, maybe even more real than the last ones. I figured I'd let you guys know. Hmm. We know that Yarder is important for a few reasons. Yeah, I'd love to see what you remember of this man looking like in that transformation. That sounds really interesting. Yeah, of course. And Red walks over to like a sewing mannequin in the corner,

and he stands the mannequin up after it's fallen over. over. And then over the face, he projects this image of like these shark-like features sort of fading into the beard and then the face of the man that he saw in his dream. Wow. A shark in Yarder. It sounds like there's, uh, maybe there's like a card shark or something. Red, do you have any inkling or reason as to believe why this druid or shark person might be important? No, other than what the Oracle told me, which is that I'm being watched. You think that this creature might be coming after-roads?

Absolutely, but that doesn't mean that we can't beat it. I wonder if they know you're having these dreams, or if it's the act of watching you is resulting in you watching them. a Sympathetic connection Like if there is Maybe that divination magic goes both ways Yeah, maybe

But you're being watched I don't know It seems very specific All I know is I woke up this morning And went hunting And it made me think of the hand Ever when Zolkin was telling us On our trip down the river

He was telling us about the hand The old female guild in Yata Might be a good place to start If we swing around there And I personally think that, well, these dreams are starting to have a little bit more of a connection to what we're doing. Remember, I dreamt of the coin not too long ago.

I want to push this up on our to-do list. Of course, not before. Getting these artifacts back. Yeah, top of my concern, we got to go see who survived. Maybe they're lost in the woods just as bad off as us. I agree. But perhaps if we aren't able to move these artifacts,

perhaps Yard is a good place to hire on airship. crew another one one that we won't well what's the closest town to us that's a great question jack you're the one who knows the directions yeah i'd love to pull up the map press em so jack with his knowledge of geography as well as his personal knowledge of this specific area the location is very close to silvery moon silvery moon beautiful um and you would know that the river that you have been following does indeed head down and empties out into the evermore's eventually. Yeah, so Jack pulls up a map and shows on it sort of the one stone where the sky pony is and that

river we sailed down and on it he highlights silvery moon and that river that goes all the way down into the evermoors. This might be our way out. We've got a boat. We could probably fit whatever those, if the giants left anything there for us to collect, we could fit it all onto our, onto what's the name of our, Stephen? Never mind, I'm not going to say it. Just in case.

But we could fit it onto our boat and maybe get out of the woods that way. Suddenly, with a creek and a cloud of dust, a panel in the ceiling falls open to reveal an attic space shot through with beams of morning

light through the broken roof. I feel like there's a moment of like stillness. Yeah. Like the camera's showing it between us and we're all just standing there and we're just like, hmm. Maybe a friend came back and Red will walk over and look up into it. Nothing stirs above you. Hey, Krayloth, give me a boost.

Yeah, come on. Kralov holds out of hand. And Red climbs on Kralath. and hoists himself up to this attic. Hey, come on up, and he reaches back down and puts his hand out for Jack. Yeah, and Doran kind of stands as the stool now, and he puts a hand out for Jack's foot.

Jack steps on Doran, gets the boost up to Kralas' shoulders, gets Redd to Hilton haul into the attic space. What's up here? Come on, Doran. Let's get everyone up first, Jack. God, I turn back around. I say, come here, Doran. And Doran.

No, I'm just. I love the idea that I'm helping everyone up and we turn around and Jack's like The map of what we need Like he's solved whatever mystery is up here Is guys you don't need anything And I'm like just getting everybody up Maybe I'll just stay down here

Ah come on up Doran And red hoists you up Come on Come on little guy Can I get two more grunts from everyone Just like It's like one climb We've been on this huge adventure

and this is where we're moaning and complaining. You're tired. Climbing into an attic. Kralov pulls himself up. The caved-in roof interrupts this attic room with long splinters and rotted shingles that litter the floor. There are a few crates of moldy bedding and blankets up here. Some animals have clearly made their homes

over the past few years in this space. Birds nests in the rafters and cozy piles of leaves in some corners. Uh-huh. I almost thought there would be something a little bit more exciting up here. Maybe there will be. And I take a look around. Can I rule investigation? You can roll perception.

17. Red, you find that stuck to one wall with a nail, curled and warped by moisture, there is a piece of parchment. Hey, guys, look at this. And Red walks over anxiously. Mm-hmm. What did you got there? I don't know. It's the beginnings of a conspiracy board.

Just red yarn connecting nails. Scragly Bush did 9-11. What the hell is that? On it, you can read faint words, though the ink is running in places and it's barely legible. Guys, come over here, look. And Red sort of gestures it down

between the four of us, and he reads it out loud. Now be careful, Red, and make sure you're not reading a spell. At Buccaneers and Barry Goward. Whipstaff with a treasure hold. Treasure? It says,

Father, Mother, Issa. Walking skeletons attacked Mother while in the garden two days ago. There must be ten or so, and they took the house. I can see them through a knot in the floor, shambling and crawling around. Mother took Issa down to the cellar for safety,

but I have no supplies up here. And I'm so thirsty I can hardly think. I will try to escape and bring help as soon as I can I'm so scared Father Oh you are gone Far longer than we expected

I know in my heart you are safe And you will make your way back to us as soon as you can We miss you more than we can bear I'm gone to beg charity in silvery moon Eldeth guide me Love Calliope Hey And red

it, like, looks up, again, sort of welling up a little bit. They didn't all just die here, guys. Someone got out. There was hope here. That's not nothing. Kralov puts a hand on Red's shoulder and nods and says, well, then it looks like we have another reason to head to silvery moon. Yeah.

Jack's mom. She's probably so far. fine, by the way. Oh, there's anything like Jack, but bam. Just female Jack. Hi. Played by the same actor that plays Jack, but like eyelash extensions. Like like how they would do it like Monty Python.

Hello. I miss I'm Jacqueline. Let's complicate it. Let's have another Doran Kralov episode. Oh my God, Doran. Look at her. She's so beautiful. Oh my God.

She's so hot. There's something about her that's just so familiar. As we stand in this attic, Jack collects him tough and says, So what's next? Well, next is we need to find a way back to where this whole thing happened and scout out and make sure that it's safe. And if it's not, find a way to, I suppose, defeat the giants or draw them away. This is another all way to do it. First things first.

Let's get up there. I think we need to do this the same way you eat a snuffer lump. One bite at a time. Jack Kieran interrupts your discussion upstairs with a thought. Someone at the door, boss. Someone's outside. And Kralov immediately jumps down the hole, grabs his shield and the make... These fucking skeletons!

Red follows him. You hear a scrabbling, scratching sound on the door of the cottage. And a shadow passes over one of the windows briefly. Red points his bow at the door and gestures to Kralath Kralath nods and shouts, who's there? Maybe it's the father. You don't receive a response.

Just open the door, I got you covered. Yeah, he opens the door, peers out. The morning light casts the winter forest in dreary gray white, the snow streaked in ash and pierced with leafless trees. What greets you on the doorstep is a welcome reprieve from the gloom.

The awakened tree has found its way back to you. Worse for wear after its fight yesterday evening. Its bark is scorched and charred black in places. A branch hangs broken with splinters drying in the air, and two great limbs are ripped from the trunk, showing raw heartwood and leaking sap. Its mantle of leaves shivers in recollection of you.

It's hard-fought favor complete. Erikaul! Guys, look! Erichol's back! Oh, man. Whoa. Surprise you made it back here in one limb. Red walks out and hugs the tree. Just like getting absorbed and it's like falling branches.

Wow. I can't believe it. Hey, guys, if he made it out, maybe the Giants are gone. It's only one way to find out. So, tree. Erichor, he has a name. He's deserved that much. Well, sorry. And Red looks at him with pride.

Erichor. Thank you for your. help. What, uh, when you came from the battle scene, is there anything there left? What happened? Is it, do you, can you tell us anything? Please. I don't think it talks. You can talk to it, but go with yes or no questions. The tree doesn't talk back to you. Okay. I think this is as good a time as any to head back and see what happened. Ericor, will you guide us back there? The tree, Let's out a great creaking groan that reverberates from somewhere deep within, and it yawns and then pulls loose its roots heavily, and it just starts striding back toward the trees, but then hesitates. It moves to the side of the cottage, at the edge of the woods, where it settles back into the ground.

And you notice, Kralath, that this is the grave site from last night, where you had buried the bodies of the occupants of this cottage. And the awakened tree arranges its remaining branches to cover and shade the resting place of the women. Shudders one final time and returns to slumber once more. They deserved it. I picture the roots, the legs, like driving themselves deep into the ground. It's kind of wild.

up-earthing the corpses of the women. And then it devours them. Hellish. With an understanding nod, Kralov turns to the others and says, it looks like we're on our own for this. Yeah. And now I know trees don't talk back to us.

Good job, Torin. And I think Red walks over to that grave site because he didn't see you guys dig it. And I think he just stands a moment. He looks at the tree, He looks at the grave site, and he reaches into his bag. And he pulls out one of the bloodstones, one of the four that we each got, and he places it on top of the grave site, as if one of the bases of a cairn, and he steps back.

Kralov following Red's lead, reaches deep into his pack, and he rummages around and finds his bloodstone, and he kneels down and places it on top of the grave and says, may you find peace in the afterlife with one another. Yeah, Doren reaches into his pocket and he feels this smooth edge of the shattered nightstone and he pulls it out of his pocket. Dorns are the nightstone this whole time? Is this smooth? Doren took the night stone.

Bloodstone, Alex. Here's to better times. And he puts the bloodstone onto the Karen. Jack reaches into his pouch and finds his bloodstone. and pauses for a minute to feel the weight of it in his hand, and he sets it down atop of the other three and says a quiet prayer to lethander and leaves more than just the weight of the bloodstone behind

as he steps forward into the woods. I freed up two inventory slots with that. You walk through the dense moonwood, a forest of close-grown oak and cedar and pine. It's slow-going. The snow is quite deep in places, and under the snow, snarls of dead vine and fern catch your feet. As we move back towards this, I think Red wants to take the river.

Taking up what Jack said about heading it south, I think what he's doing now is basically walking along the river and leading them and spotting any like issues. And I think maybe every once in a while, Red's like, Kraloff, and like we grab a big pole and like push a rock that could be problematic later on so that we can come back down. down this way. We're sort of setting ourselves up for being able to leave one stone via the river after.

Because that's what dumped us out last time, like a big stone. Yeah. Very smart. You smell the wreckage of the airship before you see it. Fallen ashes turn the surface of the snow gray and pebbled from heat. It's a devastating sight. The ship is dashed to pieces on the ground, leaving a wake of destruction. where it must have skid along the forest floor, mowing down trees.

The largest piece is the aft castle, leaning up against a crazily bowed pine tree, with its staircase exposed to one side. Its exterior timbers ripped off and burned to ash in places. The forward upper deck was flung some distance away in the crash, lying on its side. The deflated balloon has been torn to pieces. red dragon's skin hanging in tatters from the broken ship parts of it still leashed by ropes and cables to the gondola fluttering softly in the cold breeze the remains of the crew are sadly evident throughout the wreckage corpses of people you'd been traveling with for the past 25 days and there are two stone giant bodies in the snow showing terrible burns all over them i think red covers shale's eyes on his chest and he's like

you don't want to see it someone else if they find Damien please just roll him over Kralath begins to pick through the wreckage and look at the corpses and just turns all of them over

marking them mentally to be buried later but he just goes through not really showing any affect here Jack does his best to be a little bit disconnected and look at it almost like an archaeological site.

Like, he's here looking for one thing, and that's evidence. Jack? Really? Archaeology? Wizards only want one thing, and it's disgusting. It's to be archault. That's awesome. Oh, Jack.

Love that, man. Hanging from a long splintered timber, you see the ornament that used to hang above Damien's hammock, something made of beads and string, and vaguely resembling a long. lizard. Some of the beads have torn off and are lying in the snow nearby. Red reaches up and pulls it down and bends down and scoops up the beads

and sort of in his hand next to shale begins stringing it back together as he walks through the wreckage. Kralath, one of the foot lockers that used to sit in your quarters lies open in the churned dirt of the wreckage in front of you. It's empty.

Hey Jack. Yeah. Do you remember what was in this? Yeah, it was 70 health potions. This was mine. It had a lot of gold that I'm now missing an owed.

Insurance. Isn't that where Doran was keeping his rocks? His rocks. Infantilized Doran by like 70 years. Guys, look at this rock I found. It's like white. Put it in the rocks,

Doris, Doran. This is rock locker. Rock locker. I don't want to be the law to tell him. Doran's getting rocks now. He was at a potty. Metzen together. Oh, no.

God, that's funny. It's a rock locker. Isn't that where Doran was keeping his cartography kit? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But maybe it means somebody must have taken it, which means there must have been somebody to take it, which means there must have been somebody who

walked away. Ah, yeah. As you approach the locker, you see that there are some strange markings in the dirt around it. Kralov's going to do a survival check. Awesome. Meanwhile, I picture Doren's sort of dragging dead bodies and organizing them into a row. Size? Picking up new rocks.

Tallest to smallest. Better start my collection again. No, not in any particular size. Just doing a count and seeing who's missing. Who we know who's missing. He puts a head with one of the bodies. I think this one belongs with this one. Do you remember what Daphne looks like?

22. Nice. Yeah, these are footprints for sure. They are not deep impressions, so the creatures that left them are probably fairly light. Though they do appear to be hoof prints. They lead off around the side of the broken ship. and away into the woods. You see them disappear.

I say as much to Jack. Do they remind us of the Sater hooves we might have seen at the wedding? Very similar to Saterhoofs, actually. Well, put Jack, the smaller. Some other sort of fake creature, maybe. Well, it doesn't look like it was one of the survivors on the ship. Doran, have you figured out how many people you've found?

Yeah, you're not able to account for all of them. But based on the state of the wreckage, it would be pretty much impossible. Like, someone may have been flung from the ship while it was up in the air. They could be 200 meters away. You know, you haven't canvassed the area perfectly yet. While I'm stacking and organizing the bodies, I'm also respectfully checking for anything on them. That could be of use, valuables, whatnot, including the giants that have also been killed by the fire element. So I'd like to do a role for a, I guess, what is that, in perception?

Investigation. 13. Okay. Do I find anything? Some of the black cultist masks that these cultists used to wear pretty much 24-Sev are still in fairly good condition despite the state of their owners. Okay. So you could potentially salvage a few of those. I would like to salvage a few of them, as many as we could find.

Yeah, you can find four. Okay. You are also able to find, if you're looking for like gold and stuff, overall you find 82 gold. And you also find a small gold ring on one of the cultists' fingers that when you touch it feels magical. Oh. Would probably fit on your pinky.

So Doran comes walking back over to the group, and he says, well, it looks like all the cultists are accounted for, and we've got some gold here. Maybe take this and put it in the bag of holding, and he holds it out to red. Also passes over the black cultist masks. And I don't know what we could do with these, but we might be able to do something. I'll add them to the collection. And then there's this, and he holds up the small gold ring. I found it on one of the cultists, and I feel like it might be magical. It feels funny. Put it on. Well, it won't really fit, and Doran tries each of his fingers, and then it finally slips onto his pinky. Pinky ring, cool. This small gold ring does not require attunement.

It is set with a stone in the center of the band. It's a little bit gaudy. The stone is kind of large for the setting. And it glows whatever color you would like. It's kind of like a mood ring. Okay. That's what it does. So Doran puts it on and he's,

oh, it's not really my style, but... And then it turns a bright yellow and starts shining. oh my god it's doing something and then it changes to green whoa and then it turns to red well let's put it in the bag of holding for now we don't know if it's got any negative side effects yeah good idea and he takes it off and

tosses it into the bag hey uh what about this red doran and kralov pulls down a like a ripped sheet of dragon skin from the balloon. Hey. And he pulls it and he says, well, it's been through a lot, but I wonder if either of you could

do anything with this. Oh, I'd love to. Yes, I have a few ideas for this. Let's put it in the bag of holding. And Red shoves it in. Hmm. Dragonskin isn't easy to come by. And you notice as Red shoves this in

that he's fashioned that little necklace that Damien had into like a little charm that Shale is now wearing. You kind of see this little tiny, necklace around him, and the broken part has actually been refashioned, so it has a little D to remember Damien by, because he really did take care of him a lot. Red, you spot movement from the corner of your eye.

And quick as a flash, my bow is out drawn. Movement on the north. Toward the northern side of the clearing, you spot the giant artifact you found in the great worm cavern, the dragon scale shield, floating about two feet off the ground, and steadily moving away from you into the forest. The shield! Ah! Wait, hold on, hold on. Whatever's taking it, maybe it's leading them somewhere. Maybe it's taken them already and is collecting them.

Perhaps if we follow, it'll lead us back to wherever the other ones are. Hey, it's not a bad idea. All right, let's follow at a distance. Yeah. And Red will begin tracking them. And with that, you head off through the woods, snow crunching underfoot, following Red as he tracks the strange creatures to an unknown place. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters

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