Dice Shame - 134 | 'Slug it Out'

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

Leaving behind the sins of their past, the party pushes forward to the final 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?!?Content Warning: swearing, violence, horror, mental illness and suicide. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a long conversation for maybe another time. To be perfectly honest, yes. They're bulky. They can do a lot of surroundings. Try to focus fire this one down. Uh-huh. But what have we just smashed? Wait a moment.

I just got flattened. I'm done lying to you, people. Yes, I lied to him, but never about being his friend. I feel betrayed. How many people did you assassinate? You're right. I have no excuse to make. You are different than the person I met.

I know that name. Do you know him? Boulderhead Who's that? Who is it? It's dwarf. I was thinking Pixie. What is the dwarf?

Now that I've said it out loud, the audience can remind me. Welcome back to Dice Shame. 134, slug it out. MVP this week goes to Mishishi, aka Michelle, who spent a halcyon month binging dice shame and has somehow consumed all 133 episodes. Welcome to the present day, Michelle. Thanks so much for listening. Are you a big fan of RPGs and wonderful creatives? Make sure to check out Chapter and Multiverse, the newest RPG show from Rusty Quill. The show features a diverse cast and is set in the city of Chapter, which exists in many multiverses. We don't want to give away too much, but episode one launched April 20,

with plenty more to come. So check it out today at rusty quill.com. All right. Let's get down to business. Yeah, let's do it. You flee into the woods, into the high forest south of town. The sounds of battle surround you, but they grow dimmer as you enter the tree line, looking for shelter. Dorn, good job.

back there, by the way. That was really impressive. Well, fought, friend. You know, I have to apologize. I'm sorry for running away like that. I felt I needed to do this on my own, and I didn't consider you all. Thank you for following me. Of course.

What happened? Why did... It's a long conversation for maybe another time. Yeah, let's just get somewhere safe. Kralath steps forward. He's going to cast a couple spells. He's going to cast aid as a level four on everybody. Oh, thank you. And that's going to be plus 15 HP, temporary HP, like to your maximum.

Nice. And then he's going to cast cure wounds as a level three on Doren. Nice. Okay. Red turns around and looks back at Jallan Thar from the edge of the tree line. What do we see? The city is being overrun by giants. You hear the screams of men and dwarves.

And yes, the sounds of battle, you see a fire giant toppled, felled by the shot from some catapult but overwhelmingly the city will fall I hate to say it but they brought it on themselves Red says and turns to Dorn

you did the right thing trying to give them a chance I hope chaos haven't made it out alive yeah me too eat this Kralov hands out the treats do do do do do do do do so everybody gets another plus

Plus three temporary HP. Nice. You're feeling bolstered and confident and super happy. Yeah. All right. Let's head out. We need to head to be on as well. And Red starts heading south, leading everybody towards the direction of the well.

You're traveling through the trees when two giants appear, heavily armored, carrying great swords. and it seems that they were not expecting you as you were not expecting them. Everyone stares at each other for one moment and then you all roll furnished. Oh, that's a unnatural one. Oh, no. Why roll the natural one?

No, shame. What about you, Jack? 17. Red? 14. Top of the order. Jack Page. Yikes, here we are surrounded by fire giants. I don't love that.

I wouldn't say surrounded. You're just sandwiched. Yeah, I mean, they're bulky. They can do a lot of surrounding. Yeah, they are huge-sized. You guys haven't seen a fire giant in ages. These guys are heavily armored. They have giant weapons, and they look real nasty. Jack disappears into a silvery mist and reappears up above on this rocky outcropping behind a snowboard. bank trying to take a little bit of a space from being sandwiched between here, then looks at this beefy giant to the east of him and pulls out the spellguard sphere and that familiar tone rings out as I told the dead.

If you could make me a wisdom saving throw, please. 13. That won't do it. Nice. So he can take seven necrotic damage. Good stuff. I'm going to use my movement to sort of back away from the edge of the cliff to sort of hide in the trees up in the snow.

knowy area to get some distance. Okay. Red Doran Kraloth, your friend Jack Page disappears. Oh, classic. It's the Giants' turns. I'm sure he hasn't gone far. The first giant lumbers up to you, Doran, takes his great sword off of his back and swings at you with it.

It whistles through the air. That's 17 to hit. With my new armor, which just took me a moment to a tune to I'm now wearing the breastplate of distant glory. Nice.

This golden armor was once worn by the legendary Dwarven fighter Nerrigal chaos hammer until his humiliation and defeat in Jalanthar. It features the engraved image

of a warhammer cross with a pickax. While I'm attuned to this plated armor, my weapon attack score is a critical hit on a 19-Ora-20. Nice.

20-Ora-19. Do we want to take bets on how quickly Alex forgets that? 45 minutes. Now that I've said it out loud, the audience can remind me. The second attack is a 23 to hit. Well, actually, on the first one that missed,

I'm going to do a repost. Nice. Great idea. That's going to be an 18 to hit. Yes. Excellent. Doing 20 points of damage. Wow, nice.

Excellently done. 18 slashing damage for that first hit. The other giant, having been injured by this tricky wizard, decides to go up after him and climbs hand over hand this bluff. Hmm. I don't love that. He makes it to the top and spotting you in the underbrush, hefts a rock, and throws it at you. No. Don't do that, please.

Ooh. 28 to hit? 30 bludgeoning damage. Ow! Red, it's your turn. Red sees us surrounded on old sides by fire giants. He's going to use his feline agility and get up the hill opposite Jack so that I can see everybody below as well as Jack getting smushed by this rock.

And Red sees the giant that's looming towards Jack, and he reaches into his quiver and reaches for an arrow, and as he does, one appears. in his hand. He pulls it out and fires at the giant. I'm going to use my inspiration to make sure this one hits. Ooh, nice. Nice. So you reach into an empty quiver and pluck an arrow and it just starts to exist as you grab it out? Yes. That's awesome. And I fire. 18 hit? Yeah, you hit. Amazing. And as this arrow sings across, you see it sort of glows with a Violet energy. This item that Red has retrieved is his quiver of the red hand.

This is an arcane archery quiver that allows me to use different arcane shot options. And what I'm going to be casting on him is the enfeebling arrow. So I weave a energy that Krayaloth might recognize a necromatic energy. and since he was hit he's going to take some extra damage but most importantly he needs to succeed on a con saving throw or damage dealt by him is halved okay hopefully that'll give jack a little bit of leeway in terms of how much damage he gets hurt by yeah

do you see is 15 I hit it exactly damn he succeeds but he's still going to take some damage 25 damage hell yeah nice and red will fire again just a straight up regular arrow this time at the same guy it's going to be a 17. No. 17 to hit. No way.

Your arrow flies off into the wintry underbrush. Damn. Doran, it's your turn. I guess I'll just focus on the giant that's in front of me. That's swung and I've already hit. Go for it. So Doran looks at the giant and with a huff. He's like, more battle.

And that's a natural 20. Ooh. Critical. Critical hit, which is... We're going to be hearing that a lot more. Doran. Yeah, which does... It's a 10% chance instead of a 5% chance.

Double damage, is that right? Oh, my God. You roll your damage dice twice. Right, right, right, right, right. Okay. But I only add my thing because it's 1D12 plus 7 slash, right? You only add the 7 once. Okay, so that's going to be 10 plus...

So 16 points of damage. Nicely done. On that first hit, that first critical hit. And the other one is a critical fail. Well, unless I use my lucky. Yeah. I'm going to use my lucky and re-roll that. That's going to be a 23 to hit.

Yep, that does it. Doing 18 points of damage. Good stuff. I got to set you up on this one down here. You think you can hit it hard? Wait, wait a moment. I just got flattened. Just give me a sec.

What are you doing up there? Okay. In that case, I can do it. Okay. I'm assuming this is the one, too. This is the one, too. I kind of wanted to try the one two with magic missile, but...

He got us to blow all of his spell slots, though. Yeah, I'm going to deal with this one up here first. That's fair. So if you want to save that around, we can do that. Okay. I'm going to run towards this giant that Doran is up next to. Mm-hmm. So that Doran and I are flanking him.

And as I'm moving, I'm going to begin to mutter under my... breath and cast healing word on Doran. Mm-hmm. Mm. I'm gonna cast it as a level two. Oh, sweet. Thank you. All right, so you're gonna get nine hit points back.

And then I'm going to shout out to Red. Red! Try to focus fire this one down. Sure you don't want Jack. Oh, is he available? I heard he just got flattened, but that magic missile. He turned you down hard, and now you're turning to me because you're neat. All right, bud!

So Krayloff is going to channeled. divinity and put path to the grave onto this fire giant, lining it up in this purple mist. Awesome. Jack, it's your turn. Yeah, Jack, dazed because he just got flattened by a boulder, kind of collects himself. Shaky hand finds Desan's wand, and he starts to weave this spell and pull in all the secrets. He uses spell secrets to change the save to intelligence. He uses his alchemical casting to make it harder to resist, and he points at this fire giant and just says slug and tries to turn him into a slug. Slug. You can give me a DC-18 intelligence saving throw, please.

Do you think fire giants even know what slugs are? I do, though. That's what's important. He's even more. No, but I mean like... Yeah, what does that even mean? Yeah, burning a fourth and a third level spell slot to pull this off. 13. I won't do it. My freshly besugged fire giant, I'm going to dash over there. I've got this pouch that used to have the

coins. Kirchid Breacher gave us in Pella's want. I'm going to scoop the slug into that pouch and hang it up in a tree. Just so we know where that slug is. I got this one for a little bit. You got a bag of a slug. Perfect. Slug bag. And then try and hide somewhere in the...

Keep it as a familiar. The fire giant swings at you, Doren. Of course. With its great sword, 25 to hit. That's a hit. You take 27 slashing damage. Oof. And then it turns on you, Kralath.

Sure. 22 to hit? That hits. 28 slashing damage. Oof is right. Next up, Red, it's your turn. Red looks down at the giant that he's a tit. attacking Doren, and he just watched Doren nearly die fighting for his life in the pits.

He's going to pull back and fire that creature below him. I'm going to cast Ferry Fire first, and he's going to have to do a dexterity saving throw against 14. Two. Nice. So now any attack on it has advantage. Sweet. That's going to be a dirty 20 to hit. Yeah, you hit.

And I'm going to try to do an enfeeble attack once again to try to again help Doren. So again, it's a con-saving throw, 14. Ooh, natural 20. Ooh. 31 damage. Oh, good one. Your arrow streaks through the air and explodes in a shimmer of violet light, tinged with smoky darkness,

and the giant takes a knee at the vicious hit. Red reels back and fires again. With a 17? No. Damn it. You miss. Red curses. Doren, what do you do?

The giant kneels before me after I watch Red, put an arrow into the side of the giant's neck. I attack hitting it with a 21. Nice. And eight points of damage. I bring my axe back up very quickly and bring it down again. That's going to be 20 to hit. Nice. 10 more points of damage.

Sweet. Nice. Your axe sinks deeply into his eye. Kralath, what do you do? Kralath is going to jump in on this blood fest and cast inflict wounds as a level three. And so that has advantage as well with the fairy fire illuminating it. It misses. I got a six.

I got 13 to hit. No, you miss. Yeah, all right. And then as a bonus action, Kralath is going to snap his fingers and say, Ah, hot dog. That's an awesome bonus action. What's a hot dog? Doran says.

Jack, it's your turn. We mean a meat stick. Yeah, Jack peers down off this snow-covered cliff, sort of figures out, cites himself where this other giant is, pulls out the spell guard sphere, and tolls the dead one more time trying to pull its soul from his body. You can make me that Wisdom 16? Four. Yeah, that's 13 necrotic damage as I try to suck this thing's soul life force away from it.

Mm-hmm. Tendrils. Just sort of pull from this creature's skin up towards your position on the cliff. The giant lashes out at you, Doran, with its great sword, trying in one last vain attempt to take something down with it before it perishes. Natural one. Yeah. I mean, if you wanted to shame that one, you could,

but I'm a little bit of proud of it. I'm putting it off to the side. It's a candidate for shame. And that's a 16. Man! I'm going to do it. I'm going to use her post. That's going to be a 25 to hit.

Yes. That's 16 points of damage. Yeah, Doren. as this giant flails out with his great sword once, twice, you duck underneath, then you jump up on top of his hand, run up the length of his arm and plunge orc splitter

straight into his jugular vade and you're showered with a spurt of hot blood. And all you see is Doran's white teeth shining through as he smiles being doused in the blood of his enemies. This is the shower I've been waiting for. Doran Iron Fist, everyone. Wow.

Crayloth, it's your turn. Oh, what's the status on the second one there, Jack? It's a slug. For how long? About an hour. Oh, all right. And Crayloff casually walks over to Doren puts a hand on his shoulder and casts cure wounds.

And he's going to do that as a level three. Why not? And Doran, you're going to get 18 points. back. Nice. Thank you very much. Jack, it's your turn. Yeah, I'm going to mage hand to pick up this slug just so I've got it. From inside the bag? I guess the bag and the slug with the mage hand. I just want it floating somewhere in my sight. You pick up the bag. Yeah, and walk over towards the edge of the cliff with the slug and a bag and my face is still pretty bloody from where I got smushed by a rock like six or eight seconds ago. So what are you going to do? Well, um, Stephen could eat it. Well, then it would

turn into a giant inside Stephen. I don't recommend it. Ah, he'd like it. Well, I think we could, uh, we could probably dispose of it if we all focused our fire at once. Works for me. And Jack, mage hands the bag of slug down to Kralath while he goes to try and climb down this cliff. It's just, it's just an empty bag. What? No, there's a slug in there. There's a slug in here? Yeah. Oh, there's slide.

Krayloth, you got a slug on your shoulder. Do you want me to get it? Oh, I'll hit it. Don't hit it. I don't move. Let me get it, Krayloth. Let me, smack it. Where is it? Wait, wait, which shoulder? You go at him with a tissue, like, let me get that for you. I get this thing. Hold on, Kralath. I think it's going under your arm. Wait, wait. Oh, oh, no. It's going to turn back into a giant if you squish it. Hold on. What do you mean it's going back into a giant?

Get this fire giant slug off me. Hold on. It's underneath you. What? Crayloff, just don't move. Let me hit it. Oh, no. Oh, no. Doran, try to hit him. No, no, don't hit him. Jack said hit it. No. Right? You said do hit it. All right. And Krayloff starts to disrobe. He starts taking off his armor very quick. Smash cut, he's completely naked, just in his drawers. And Red and Doran are

searching through the pieces of armor. I don't see it. It's no... Doren. Your hand! The slugs on your hand. Dora, don't move. Don't get it. Don't hurt it. Oh, gooey. Don't hear it. Red, there's a slug on you, too. There's a slug on your forehead.

Smash cut, too. You guys are all sitting in the snow, all naked. The ground around you is all tramped down, and you have three slugs under close observation. Okay, slug one was the one we found on Krayloth. No, no, no, no, it can't be that. It had stripes on it.

This one has spots. I'm pretty sure those two are Arctic slugs, and I turned it into a temperate forest slug. But the difference is very subtle. The slugs still thinks like a fire giant. It's filtered through a slug brain, but one of these is going to be more vicious than the others. So what's the way we can piss off this slug real quick? Does anyone have any salt? But that might kill it.

It's not going to... Oh, right, right, right, right. Well, what if we just smash it? Oh, wait. No, no, no, that's right. That's right. That's right. Why don't we just leave it?

I'm with you. Let's just walk away with down three jars, but that's okay. One of the jars is empty. Damn crafty giants. Later that night. Look, I don't feel bad about leaving those three slugs and three jars. I don't want to talk about it. We've been over this.

It's been ours. Three weeks later, we come across a fire giant that has like a amazing. Jason jar suctioned to its neck. Remember me? That's awesome. Yikes. So after the slug fiasco, you've all settled in to maybe cook some dinner together.

It is Hammer the Third. And, yeah, you're camping. You're heading towards Bayerun as well, eventually. It's been a hard few days for you all as a party. You haven't really had a chance to be open with each other about your feelings. There's been some tension in the party. Yeah. I feel like there's some silence as we're eating some of our food around the fire

and maybe just glancing at each other. Doran decides to break the silence. So Red was hired to kill me. Isn't that interesting? What? What? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. Yeah, well, you know. Get her all over the table, I think.

Normally, I'm a lot more coy with things in the way they're revealed, but, uh, I've always appreciated Doran's candor. So, yes, uh, you asked why Doran and I had a disagreement. The Red sort of stands up as if he's giving like a presentation and like brushes his legs and gets the crumbs off from dinner. Um, um, to be people. perfectly honest, yes, I wasn't truthful. When I came to Fayrune, I joined a assassin's guild

named the Dark Tide. And they hired me after many successful jobs to kill Doren. And then, when we started to get to know each other in and around Nightstone, I changed my mind.

And as soon as we returned to Waterdeep, I gave them their money back, told them that I didn't want to do it. And, you know, for the most part, I'd hope that that was the end of it, but obviously it wasn't. That's who tried to kill Doran in the marketplace. And obviously me is collateral damage and perhaps as punishment for not fulfilling the job. Hmm. How many people did you assassinate? That's not really important.

Many, many, many people. I'm sorry, Red. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. No, no, no, I'm the one that should be sorry. It's not about me. It's about being honest with the party, and this is something that, well, was near impossible to imagine me telling you a little while ago, but since the recent revelations and the differences that this party has faced and overcome, I'm starting to realize that we're all flawed in many, many very, very different ways. And I hope you recognize that this was a flaw and that you understand why maybe I have. trouble telling you. Well, I know about flaws. And listen, I was very upset when I first learned of this. You know, something to consider is that had you told us earlier, we might have been able to watch for some of these assassins. I mean, hell, they almost took you out with me. Oh, they nearly did,

which is why I retrieved this and read Pat's the quiver on his back. It's what I used to, uh, uh, kill people. It's very powerful, and I honestly didn't really consider ever pulling it out, because it's a bit of a brand as well. I worried that it might clue people into maybe who I am or what I've done. But look, I don't expect any of you to forgive me or understand necessarily why I did what I did and why I kept it secret. But yes, Doran's right. Had I told you we might have... Why did you do what you did? I mean, we might not understand, but you've got to tell us to give us a chance. Why did you do that?

Why would I do what? Not tell you? Or... Killing people for money? That's the part. Right. Well, to be frank, I feel like most of us here murder people for money in one way or another. Yeah, it's true.

Doran and Kralath were mercenaries before we met up. And honestly, my people were undead people, which I now have a problem with. So I digress. Yeah. And my people were, well, all I mean to say is that we joined Jack's Crusade because the understanding was that he might be set upon by people wishing to do him harm. I get that's a great deflection onto why other people might do things, but why did you think that was okay?

What drove you to that? I don't know. You're a craftsman. You could have sold arrows. Why did you kill people? Well, I guess I suppose I wanted to feel wanted when I could. came here from Mazdica, I was very alone. I saw a group of people that made me feel very special for being talented at something. My arrows, sure, they were fine, but they were one of hundreds,

if not thousands. And despite my appearance, I was not treated any better than anyone else, all different, just sort of another one of many that came here. And I don't know, I wouldn't say it was a just, a noble or even right feeling, but the way the Dark Tide made me feel in power and command of something, it felt very good. I know all about what you're talking about. There's a sense of belonging, and that belonging is sometimes the strongest feeling one can have. But it was replaced,

quickly with the love of Doren and Jack and Crayloth, especially Crayloth and he sort of locks eyes with you. Meeting Crayloff that day at the bar, I think, was the first real moment that I felt like I could be something more than what I had thought was my value. Does Pino?

No, no. And I'd appreciate you never telling her. We've been traveling together for several months now and I feel like we know each other quite well, or at least I thought we knew each other quite well, but that's a long time to harbor a secret. Makes me wonder if there's anything else that you're keeping from us. Now might be a good time to air it out.

I mean, nothing comes to mind necessarily, other than what Doran already knows about why I was hired to kill him, but that's for Doran to tell. In regards to me, I don't think there's anything. Hmm. I think you've got to step me through it. Red, I'm just not, like, at every stage here, like from where you started, when you, when you interacted with these people, I just, have you killed people since we've been together for the dark time? No, no, of course not.

Have you interacted with them at all? No, well, yes, I suppose, in Waterdeep, I slipped off towards the city of the dead and tried to return the money they paid me to kill Doran and told them that I didn't want to complete the job. you even tried to pay your way out of it I mean I'm done lying to you people I'm telling you that right now and I think it was very difficult to hear what Red had to tell me

but Redd I want to thank you and I and I forgive you and Doran extends a hand thanks Doran and Red walks over and takes your hand and hugs you with it really really Doran

you're not mad at all no we've all been asked to kill for whatever reason honor, money and some sort of end goal had we known the people that we were killing

it might have been a different story and Doran's holding back tears at this point you can tell there's something else there's something else though that's targeting at him it's awkwardly why why is he crying here there's something else

the audience thanks red let's go of Dorn wipes a tear from his own eye. Actually, there was one other interaction with the Dark Tide. Oh, of course. Back in Waterdeep when we met Z.

I don't know when we met them. It definitely was Z, but at some point it seems like the Dark Tide might have swapped places because... Oh, killed her too. It was very clear that... No, no.

She was all right, of course. I made sure. But they made it clear that the contract would still be in place. And I should have said something. Well, I mean, personally, a mercenary is a mercenary, a hit is a hit, and Red was doing his job. I can't fault him for that.

But it strikes me as odd that the entire foundation of your friendship, this is one of your closest friends, the entire foundation of it is built upon a lie. No, it wasn't built upon a lie. My friendship with Doran is the truth. Nothing about that interaction has ever changed. In fact, that's the reason that I left all that behind. Yes, I lied to him, but never about being his friend.

Never about being his brother. And he never tried to assassinate me. I mean, that's a big, that's a big one right there. That you know of. It puts an interesting spin on those first few episodes where Red is like, oh, I've never met a dwarf like you. Like, you're so cool. I love dwarves.

Tell me more about... Let's sleep in the same bed. Yeah. Let's go alone on this dark pathway. I'm just trying to make sense of a door and is all. I mean, if you forgive him, that's totally fine. But I know that forgiveness can sometimes be handed out when people aren't ready to forgive. So I'm curious, how is it that you are able to forgive?

such a terrible initiation of introduction. Look, look, Kralath, look at me. Do you feel like I betrayed you? Yeah, I do. Well, I'm sorry, and fair enough, you make a good point. I feel betrayed because from the day we met, I put you in such high standing as a being that I could live up to, that by spending time around, I would.

learn how to be a better, more human version of myself and to find that there was so much deceit in this party this entire time. It's shocking to me. It's a challenging thing to have put so much trust and to use you as a beacon of the good in the world to learn that you have so much darkness in you, to be able to do something like that, to just agree to something like that, Red.

You're right. I have no excuse to make, no reason that I can put upon you. You're right. Other than to say I'm not who you thought I was. And I'm sorry. Red takes out the Sylvan dagger that you gave him. Looks down at it, nods a few times,

and says, you should take this back. And he walks over to you and he hands it to you. and then goes to sit back down by the fire. Doran stares into the fire. You know that stare that you do into fires. We know that fire stare. Fire stare. Classic.

And he says, you know, I've done things that I wasn't proud of. And I've lied. I've lied. And all I'm saying is that I might be quick to forgive, but that is because I've had to forgive myself. And I know how difficult that can be. It's not always the decisions that we make, which show who we are.

It's the actions that we take on those decisions. It's the intention behind those decisions. I appreciate that. And Kralov nods. He stands up and walks over to the fire and says, you both raise a good point and something that I've been thinking about a lot lately.

Red, and he's kind of like, fiddling with this this ghost knife you are different than the person i met just as i am just as doran is and jack is and uh i can judge you for your past actions or i can judge you for who you've become in the process i held on to a belief maybe an unhealthy belief that you were someone without fault. And I think I clung to that hope, because even though it does feel like a shock, this revelation, it's also the truth.

And now that I have it, I have to say that not only do I admire your bravery coming forth and admitting this to us, and particularly to Doren, I also feel like I can trust you more because of it. Thanks, Kralov. I appreciate that. He's like wiping away his tears.

And this was a gift, and I want you to keep it. Okay. It's very nice. He puts it back away. I mean, yeah, Jack's sitting by the fire. I think he's... Jack is like the only one who is looking... Your turn to forgive me.

Jack sets the notebook that he was sketching in aside, and he's... he'd had his arms open for Kieran to jump in, and he's sort of been hugging Kieran pretty close at this moment, finding out that the, like, motivators for this guy are off the wall and trying to figure out, like, are these manipulative tears? As he's just trying to get everybody on his side against? He's still lying to us. He's a changeling assassin friend. Is he, is he a changeling? He could be. I don't have any proof he's not. He could be setting us up for something else. Like, it just shattered so much trust. And I don't, I don't know that he, He knows how to express that in the moment.

I don't know about admitting things in which we have omitted, but I think it's very important that we be honest with each other. If Rayel was able to forgive me, Rayel has the ability to forgive all of you, and so do I. So you've made mistakes, and I'm sure we will make mistakes again, and I'm sure we will tell white lies to one another, to, in the interest of each other. we are perfect in our imperfections.

I hope you all remember that. That's what I learned from my goddess. Red clears his throat, sort of nods to Kralath. Yeah, I mean, maybe, who knows? There's a lot of changes that have been coming up. Maybe I become religious. And on that note, is a final omission, I should say,

the fallen changeling drop this. And Red reaches in the bag of holding and pulls out a leather-bound sort of folder. And he opens it up. He says, truth be told, I don't know what these are. And he pulls out three folios, each with a name on it. Two of the names seem Elvin. One of them seems almost dwarfish. I typically was given some sort of contact in a way that was a little bit more straightforward. They didn't like paper trails. But these three names were on the assassin for whatever that is. And he sort of hands the bag off to Doran.

And Doran leaves through them. I can't read. I can't read much of this. I can't read. Here. And he sort of nonchalantly passes it over to Jack. I don't know what any of this is. Yeah, Jack flips him over and sort of takes in what's written here.

Hastios Kethira. Teryl Favon Aragrind Boulderhead Arachrid Oh Do you know them? I know that name Boulderhead

Who's that? Oh Who is it? It's dwarf Thank you I was thinking Pixie What is the dwarf?

Is there any other information On these names And the folios? I don't think They'd be targeted I mean Oh look the way these dark tide work and believe me they work

most of the names given are by word of mouth only which is probably why it took so long for someone to realize that Doren needed another assassin but something about the marketplace fight also didn't seem normal I would think the most likely solution was that those three assassins were in silvery moon for other reasons when they spotted Dora Hmm. Red, did you have a folio on me, or was it just spoken word?

Just spoken word. You just had my name. Yeah. Why would anybody want me dead? That doesn't make any sense. I think a lot of your past might shed light to that, Doran. I think perhaps some of the things that you did, some of the dwarven families you heard. If Chaoshammer knew about it and Mulgier knew about it, then obviously more, more,

people than you realized knew about your past. Hmm. Anyway, whether the names are important, yet I don't know, but I figured I would share them with you. It's a place to start. Mm-hmm. Yes, and again, we need to be very cautious about who we trust, until this is properly dealt with. The Donglo lasts till morning. This is the last of the artifacts we have must find, right?

Yeah, and then back to Everland. teleport to Mirabar, track back up into the mountains, take these back to the Oracle, hopefully figure out what we've got to do next. I feel like Doran, he senses the unease... Oh, yeah, Jack's upset. In Jack, you know? But he's not sure how to approach that.

Well, we've come this far, gentlemen. It's time we take a look at ourselves and be proud of who we are, how far we've come, and where we must go next. Of course, we've had some... trials and tribulations along the way. None of us are perfect. Sure, we might need time.

And of course, we all have to think about the decisions that we still have yet to make. But we're not dead yet. And I want you all to remember this. Well, we're not all in the ground. And he sort of chuckles and smiles at Kralath. And we can rely on each other. We can. Doreen, you're right.

and I appreciate you all forgiving me and I'm glad that we can move forward as friends and trustworthy companions once again Yeah We're the Nightstone 4 on 3 Jack sort of speaks up at the end of everybody else's rallying speech and says We're all united in purpose

And that's important We've got to be in our A game tomorrow We're going up around as well And last time we went to one of these places One of us died we gotta be sharp can't happen again hell's yeah and red light puts a hand on jack's shoulder we'll do it we can make it throw

anyway Kralath why don't we go check the perimeter before we head to bet yeah okay Jack I know what's going through your mind or I can imagine what's going through your mind about red yeah I'll just say this we don't always have to trust immediately but I think his actions will follow

his words. I guess I've never been a soldier or a mercenary. I just wanted to play in the dirt. Yeah. Well, if there's one thing I've learned, you can say all you want, but it's your actions that come through. Fair enough. Embers from the fire drift up into the night sky and intermingle with the stars as the four of you uneasily fall to sleep. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters. Christopher Ryan Evans, Alexander Reed, Merlin, Mitchell Cadwell, Michael and Breonna Weber, Brian Blass, Heather Nichols, Colin Burkart, Daniel, Teresmith Blass, Doug, Gray, Jackie and Rain, Creature, Stephen Lovett, Jessica Orrett, Jonah Goldman, Melanie Cheyne, Lars, and Mari Knesski.

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