Dice Shame - 2-43 | 'The Midnight Carnival: 11 pm'

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Imagine your best game of D&D. The shocks, the twists and turns, the moments that can’t be caught because you just had to be there. That’s Dice Shame.Join our DM Jo, her husband Harlan, their brother Alex & their best friends Rob and Alex as they experience those unmissable, gut-wrenching, heart-aching, joy-filled moments.This legendary AP releases a brand new episode every Thursday morning at 1:20 am!Content Warning: swearing, violence.Part of the Rusty Quill Network Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Doesn't look great. He's the one you have all right. Let's get the kids separated. Get over here and I can help. That's a good point. Yes, Maury. Yes. If they weren't dwarven children, they'd be fine. You don't normally I take offense to that, but that's a pretty accurate assessment.

Don't think you're going to run so quickly from me. Can we work together? She'll eat them or kill them or whatever it is that she's going to do. I may be blind, but I'm not foolish. Books don't move like this. Time to just start chomping away. If we're going to need someone to sacrifice themselves to destroy. The Witch, then I nominate

Red. No, I'm kidding. Welcome back to Dyshame. This is Season 2, Episode 43, the Midnight Carnival, 11 p.m. MVP this week is Fell, nominated by Jury. Jerry says, thank you for letting me get you hooked on Dyshame. Can't wait till you get all caught up and we can start yelling at each other about new episodes each week. Thanks for listening, Fal.

I think that's the best MVP we've had. Nominating people for MVP is a great way to share the love. All right, shall we do this? Yeah, let's do it. The streets of Slate Fell are dark. except for pools of light cast here and there by lanterns. In the town square, three wagons stand still and quiet, two lanterns glimmering where they hang from the rear doors.

A little boy, maybe eight or nine, looks out of his window at the square, remembering the excitement from that afternoon, when a kitten stumbles into a pool of lamplight, meowing weekly. The child's eyes go wide with instant love for the helpless creature, watching it move out of the light back into the darkness, and he's seized by courage, quietly slipping downstairs and out of the house. Outside, as the boy pokes around the perimeter of the town square looking for the kitten, the night begins to chill both his breath and his resolve. he's about to give up and go back inside when way down a side alley

in another spotlight cast by a lantern he spots the little kitten sitting all alone the alley is mostly cast in shadow and the child has to take a moment to steal himself before stepping into the darkness from the instant he enters the dark alley the boy feels his little heart start to quicken pounding in his ears.

With every step, the darkness becomes deeper. Barrels and crates stacked against the wall could contain any monster just waiting to reach out for his legs as he passes. He breaks into a jog and then a run. His panicky footfalls causing the kitten to cower from him in fear as he comes to the edge of the lantern light and then success.

The boy has his prize up in his arms, a tiny ball of warm fur, or smelling sweetly of hay, a reassuring animal smell, standing there, cuddling it in the spotlight in the cold alley. When, from the darkness behind the boy, a shape approaches, a tall, broad figure, black as any shadow, moving slowly towards the child, getting closer and closer, so close that the figure,

nose meets the edge of the lamplight, and its deep eye sockets are so severely shaded they seem empty. So close that the little boy stops cuddling his new kitten when he realizes he can hear something else, breathing right behind him. Fresh from victory against the witch Ossipete and already focused on their next target, our heroes leave slate fell through a wicket gate and cross the war-ruined fields into the surrounding woods. Red, Mari, Doran, and to Jack, you are on the tail of this terrible witch, tracking her through the darkness. Stay close. Remember, pass without trace only reaches so far, and I don't want to be caught. Not this far in.

We've already taken one down. Red says, as he like, stalks between the high grass. How much further? Not too far ahead. What's our strategy for this? Remember, there's going to be a child, at least. Doran's bringing up the rear of the foursome. Well, I don't know.

Or what are we going to do? Are we going to disguise ourselves? I mean, I could probably disguise myself as a child. Or are we going to go in there with, you know, weapons flailing and child? and chop off the witch's head. Murray's like right behind Red, and she's like, well, we're going to want to probably distract her

and get her away from the child and any other kids that might be there. So I don't recommend going in axe flailing. This feels like a great way to hit something you shouldn't. Good point, good point. Right, but I don't know if deception is really possible at this point. I feel like perhaps distraction is the right way.

If we can get eyes on the kids, we have some more options, whether we can protect them or get them the hell out of there. You know, I think that's got to be the first step of anything we do. Yes, well, when I did my primeval awareness, I noticed that there were a number, five, to be exact. I assume that's her and the four kids, but I don't know. Dorn kind of looks around, the gloomy forest around him, and he's thinking about the children and how,

they might be scared. And he's looking at his companions in front of it. And he says, well, if we're going to need someone to sacrifice themselves to distract the witch, then I nominate red. No, I'm kidding. I'll do it. I'll become some sort of distraction. Maybe I'll pretend I'm a woodcutter, you know, wandering into the woods.

I mean, she knows who you are, right? Oh, right. Yeah. I forgot. I mean, it still would be a distraction. Like I said, I don't think it's deception. I think it's distraction. I think you could walk in and draw her eye and say,

I'm here to take you down or something like that. I mean, she would know we're working together, but... Mari's sort of listening to this, and she's kind of mulling it over, and she's looking around in the forest, and it's, you know, kind of chittering with little bits of life. And she's like, well, I could go with... there. I'm not the strongest, but I do have these, and she pulls out a little jar, and in the jar is some spiders that she had caught. And she's like, I could make them very large

and distract her with those and also maybe use them to protect the kids. Hey. Yeah, as long as they wouldn't be at any risk to the children, that could be a great idea. No, only I can control them, so... Well, well, I think that's a pretty good distraction. Why don't you cast your spider spell? I'll go up and distract her, and, you know, I'll take any of the brunt of the force and allow you to really focus on the spell

and guiding the spiders wherever. I mean, you know, and Doron takes his fist and slams it against his own chest. He's like, I'm sturdy, you know? I'm aware. And I would feel terrible if one of you three, you know, weaklings got hit by a, you know, one of her spells in it.

Wasn't able to stand strong. You know, normally I take offense to that, but that's a pretty accurate assessment. Yeah, I don't know if I want to be in the woods alone, so fair enough, Doran. You can take the brunt of this one. We're going to have someone to pull you out of the woods when it happens, Doran. Don't worry. Well, remember, you have Thunderstep and Shield in that ring if things get really dicey. Yeah, and he looks down to the ring. I'm just going to flank, probably climb a tree, and take a few shots once you get a distracted.

All right. But this one could be dangerous. Remember, children are here. Danger's like my middle name. After Actual Torin, Actul, Danger Iron Fist Danger Greg Iron Fist It's actually Gary

Danger Gary You hear the witch Before you see her With the thin, eerie sound of her flute music carrying to you on the breeze Coming to a clearing in the forest Hundreds of tombstones clustered in groups are washed in pale moonlight.

Aelo stands, luminous in her red and white carnival attire, surrounded by a handful of children. She lowers her flute from her lips, and as the kids stand around her, dazed, she moves between them. From the first, a small girl, she pries a ratty, stuffed doll from her hands. At the second child,

Aelo's hands run through her hair lovingly, and then she pulls loose a belt knife and cuts away a lock of it. Red begins to move south, trying to flank. He sort of gestures to Mari and Jack and gestures to follow, carrying the pass without trace. The three of us swings south to try to flank her. And Doran watches as you three kind of flank, and he waits for that perfect opportunity, kind of crouched and hidden on this. the side of this path that's leading into the clearing where the witch and the children are. At the third child, Aelo takes his hand in hers and raises the knife to strike. Doran moves into the clearing.

Back away, you witch! She looks up suddenly, directly at you, Doran, and pauses. He's got his axe already unsheathed. There'll be no hitting of children a night. Having witnessed Ossipeet's transformation after her death, it's unsurprising that Aalow also wears the guise of a human woman. As her shining blonde hair and flashy white tunic melt away, her massive form seems to unfold itself from the illusion.

Aaloh stands 10 feet tall with mottled blue-gray skin covered in peach-sized growths Her arms hang down nearly to her knees with powerful clawed hands. She's wearing a robe made from flayed human skin, leather made from arms and legs hanging in layered skirts around her huge muscular body. Her head sits necklace on wide shoulders, the skin all around her mouth all stretched out and torn from decades of careless feasting. and she just points at you, Doran. She says,

Come here, boy. Everyone roll for initiative. Marie, would you get? 16. Hey, nice. Doran. Oh, yeah, I got a 17. Oh, snap.

Red. 21. Holy crap. Oh, yeah. Jack. 21. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Fight, fight, fight. Yeah. Red, it's your turn. Red sees Doran approach the massive witch standing in the center of the gravestones, pulls back his bow, and turns to Jack, should I try to banish her? Give Doran a round to maybe get the kids out of there. Yeah, let's do it. Okay.

And I'm going to let go a banishing arrow. Can she make me a charisma saving throw, please? Okay, dook. I'm going to use my gemstone dice because I feel like they'll give me some long. luck tonight rolling rocks they're heavy they're just going to be a low number that's all oh come now yeah can get a stone cutting on those dice that's a 19 ah damn that saves red's arrow glances past and disappears into a gravestone but before she can turn towards me he fires a second arrow this time without any fancy mints no fancy mints just regular ass

projectiles regular mints and because We are hidden. I'm going to roll with advantage on this one. Yeah, you are. Which wasn't that great. Anyway. It's all good. Can't remember it all.

What'd you get? 18? Yeah, you hit. Brilliant. 19 damage. Excellent. The arrow sings in their thigh. The creature roars and turns to lose.

Anger. And Red is going to dive, lay fully flat, behind one of the tombstones in an attempt to hide. cool yeah i mean you're fully obscured she saw where you went but she can't target you from where she's at right now rock and roll jack it's your turn jack pulls out the spellguard sphere from where he's hiding behind one of these tombstones and he's got a spell cooking inside of it and he's you know got a little map of the graveyard in here and he's sort of got little images of all the children reflected inside the sphere and he's ready to cast it as soon as this witch takes a few steps away from the kids, but otherwise he's staying hidden and watching just to try and wait for

that perfect moment. All right. It's the witch's turn. She begins to laugh, a full-throated, gravelly sound. She reaches out towards you, Doran, and closes a fist. Blood begins to leak from her palm, and as it hits the ground, mist begins to. to spring out from the soil all around her. A fog cloud rises up and obscures her and the children from view. What in Morridan? Doran, what do you do? What, so you're going to hide in your shadows?

While you prey on little children, you weak witch. I'll lob your head off, just like I lob the head off, your sister. I'm going to move in to the cloud. Yeah. Continuing to taunt as he steps in too. As you try to move into that space, Doren, you bump directly into a child. Okay. Then that's going to be my action and I grab the child and I like throw the child into the clearing behind me.

Okay. Like I'm not really too concerned that they might get hurt bumping their head on the ground. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like I'm more, I'm more like, you might take it. five year old that child takes so much

fault damn they were dwarven children they'd be fine but I'm living out my dreams here throwing my six years

honestly Doran you like fucking sunk your battleship on this one like you literally picked a spot at random

bumped into a child did not hit the witch it's super easy to grapple and move a kid as you pull this little girl

up into your arms you see her eyes are milk white and look up into your face blindly, she mutters, it's my birthday. And then you throw her to safety in the snow. Mari, it's your turn.

Yeah, Mari's standing there behind one of these graves further back, and she looks over at this fog cloud and sees it rise up from the ground. She takes a fistful of the dust that's on one of these, one of the grave in front of her, and she hisses to herself again like last time foul, filthy magic. And she takes the sand and she rubs it between her hands and says in Aquan Ekimira. And with that, a 35 square foot cube of that fog should disappear. Amazing. That's awesome.

You pretty much get rid of the whole fog cloud, which she cast at a higher level, so it was 40 feet in diameter. Basically, there are these translucent wisps here and there that remain, but essentially you just bamf her whole spell out of existence. And you're able to see the witch again, surrounded by four children now, Doren having removed one of these satellite shields. Do you want to move, Mari? Yeah, I think shift over behind one of the gravestones.

and hide there. Excellent. As Mari creates this opportunity, Jack releases the casting of his spell that he's been holding in the Spell Guard sphere, and this invisible dome of force springs up around the witch,

sort of trailing down from her head to the ground, separating her from the children. Excellent. Well done. Jack starts running towards the witch, saying, kids, come this way. We've got to get you out of here. Red, it's your turn.

Red sees Jack run up to the children. Do they react? it all to him? Do they seem to look at him? No, the children seem fixated on Alo. Doran, he's the one you have all right. Is she responding to your words? Their eyes were sort of white. Doran, the little girl that you pulled back from beside this witch seems to be unresponsive.

Doesn't look great. Jack, what are the details of this spell? Is any attack I do going to just bounce off or what? Yeah, she's trapped in there for a minute. Let's get the kids separated from her, and then we can figure out how to deal with her. Red will hop up from where he is standing, and he is going to run. How small are these kids? These kids are between four and ten years old.

Can I carry two? How strong are you? Or I have a negative one strength, but a plus three saving throw, if that's any. A negative one strength? Yeah, but a plus three to my saving throw. You can try to carry two littler ones, but it might be too much for you. after 30 paces of running. Like, you're not going to carry them all the way home.

Red runs up, hopping over gravestones. He makes his way there in double the time trying to dart between these things. He scoops up one of the children, takes a few steps to the north, and scoops up another, and then quickly makes for the tree line to the east. You run in there, scoop up two kids,

and they're so strangely limp in your arms, and one of them turns to you these blank white eyes and says, you have to share. Mama said you have to. She starts weakly pawing at your chest. It's okay. It's okay. And Red once again huddles with the children behind cover. Again, Pass Without Trace still active.

You hear a scratching, burrowing sound underfoot. And in a shower of graved, skeletal pan burst through the soil all around. you. They grasp at your feet. Everyone make a constitution saving through them. That's a two. That's not a good number.

That's a bad one. I'm not constituted. Unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional. A fail is less than 15. I got exactly 15. All right. I got 12.

And a 221. Oh, no. I was going to say. I got a rock. Mari and Red, you each take 10 points of damage as you begin to feel your life energy sucked away into this ground caught up by these skeleton hands.

Jack, it's your turn again. Yeah, Jack finishes climbing over some of these gravestones and tries to get the two kids on the north side of her and pull them away, not nearly as speedily as red, but doing his best. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And assuming I can pick up two of them. Sounds great.

Heaving them behind a little bit of cover. Sure. Those arms burning with the lift. The strongest members of the party are each carrying two children somehow. There's a 10-year-old squiglin away underneath your arms. I mean, it's not hard to carry a child. Well, when you think about Henry, who's six. I could easily carry two of those.

But you don't have a strength of minus one. And you just ran, you just did it running as, like, almost as fast as Usain Bolt. Yeah, it's almost like I'm a fucking hero. It's almost like I've killed giants. Jack's like, these are books. I don't know what to do. Books don't move like this. Kids enjoy it in there.

It's fine. Just throw them into the portable hole. You know, with the dynamite, because that'll be fine. Hold your breath. And don't touch the dynamite. You're playing stuff in there to play with. It's okay. It's just books and dynamite.

It's not a good scene for children. And books on dynamite, probably. Oh. So let's drop out of initiative order here, because unless Jack, like, falls and hurts himself really badly, you've got 10 minutes to concentrate on this spell while a witch paces angrily inside. I got my two. What's going on? Mari, what's wrong with these kids?

I can't they're still under some kind of curse or something they don't seem to be responding right yeah and Mari runs over to them and she takes a look at one of those kids and can I can I do a medicine check on them is that gonna help yes you can what the hell's wrong with her red says as Mari is checking them out just kind of like walks close to this glass bubble with this witch inside I rolled a dirty 20 nice oh so yeah so she like bends she like picks up one of these kids and she sort of very gently like takes their

takes their head and sort of looks at their face and see these of the weird, milky eyes and tries to get close. Yeah. As you pick up this child and look deeply into its eyes, it lashes out at you, Mari, and claws at your face. You take one point of slashing damage as this little girl gets, like, hooks a fingernail under one of your eyelids. Oh, Jesus.

And she writhes away. Leander, yikes. Do I get any other insight out of that children's fingernails Sharpe. This child is under the influence of this witch's power, as you can tell. Seems to be some kind of link, maybe. Kind of like a charm spell, but different. Yeah, she stands back up and she brushes off the little welt on her face.

She can feel that there's just the tiniest amount of blood there from where this kid slashed her. And she's like, well, there's some sort of charm, but I don't know what it is, but it's nothing, it's nothing that I recognize, but it's tied to her. And she gestures to this figure in this bubble that's just looming over them. Yeah, Red's just standing beneath it, like, looking up, just kind of like, what the hell did you do to these children? She's just laughing, low. And, Red, you hear footsteps behind you. The children are slowly walking back to her. What the hell?

Dorin kind of stands up after crouching down next to the child, and he hears what you say, Mari, about them being possessed, and he sees the other children beginning to walk back towards the witch. And Doran shouts out, I think we should bind the children. And he kind of sits the one up that he's next to, and he wraps his rope around. the child's arms and actually sits the child up against a gravestone and like ties the kid to

the gravestone yeah yeah and i think red does the same thing i think he walks up to the two and he trips them like he just full out sweeps their legs so these kids go down and then picks them up and ties them each to a gravestone you don't take any pleasure in that to you maybe i've always wanted to hit a kid sorry about this like we're trying to help you the kids struggle weakly against your bonds. I think Red's going to try to talk to one. He's just going to lean in and be like, now that his hands are tied.

He leans and says, you're not where you think you are. Where do you think you are? Surrey? Would you like a hot roll? Snap out of it. Snap out of it. You're in the middle of the woods.

The other one says, My dolly, give it back. Wake up! And Red like glances over at the witch and the bubble. She just stands there, underneath this wall of force, glowering darkly at all of you, flexing her hands, waiting.

What's our plan, Jack? Once the kids are safe, that's as far as I was thinking ahead. Doran, Mari? There's nothing we're going to be able to do for these kids if we don't stop her, because whatever is causing them to act like this, and again, there's still that cut,

and there's just, again, this tiny stream of blood that's leaking down her face that she hasn't wiped away. And she just sort of gestures at these children who are stumbling and struggling against them, until we stop her, these kids are going to stay like this, or she'll stop us and she'll just eat them or kill them or whatever it is that she's going to do.

Yeah, I know, I'm saying plan for taking her out, Red Point at the Witch. All around you, the woods start to move. The trees are like shivering almost in anticipation. You can see movement from the corner of your eyes. the dark limbs are like stretching almost. It feels like the woods around you are filling with this dark, desperate energy. Filty magic. Doran stands up and sees the shadows in the trees moving slowly and creeping about.

And he says, Mari's right, there's only one way. And it's a pommel, that witch. I'm asking how. So, Red, let's get you set up somewhere over there. If you can watch the kids, you're always going to be in range. Yeah, I can hit her from far away, but do you have anything, a whole person, a spell that can help here? Hypnotized or something?

I'm concentrating on a spell that's helping. I thought, I mean, after. I'm just going to blanket. I'm talking about killing her when this thing stops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's our plan after that? After, after killing her? Oh my God.

I turn to the kids. We're going to die. We're all going to die. It's pretty simple, Red. We kill the wish when we have the opportunity. The witch crouches down and begins to scratch symbols in the dirt that start to glow blood red. You can drop this force field at any time, eh? Yeah, with his other hand extended, creates an invisible spectral floating hand inside.

the bubble and starts wiping away as much of her symbols as he can trying to like... Oh no, this is going to turn into fucking yakety sex. Can we work together on combining so that when it drops, we can

do something useful? Well, I can toughen door and up and make sure he's able to take a couple of hits. Tough me up. Yes. Brilliant. More. Get over here and I can help because I can bless you. Okay. Red runs over. We've only I've got a few minutes left on this thing.

Yeah. Yeah, it's time's running out. I hope those kids are over there secured safely, and away we go. Yeah, Dorn is not really taking much part in the conversation about how to... He's just, like, still pacing and staring down the switch. He's ready to draw blood. Like boxers circling each other. Cast us.

Mari smiles, and she touches both hands together and pulls them apart, and this wave of shimmering, like, comes out, and it touches down onto each of the... their foreheads onto Jack and Reds and Doran's foreheads and, uh, leaves a little star and then disappears. Thank you. Cast guiding bolt on this thing too when it's your turn. If it's Doran or me going after, we're going to hit hard with that advantage. Yeah.

And she's going to try to hide probably, again, in the fog. And Doran turns to Jack and he says, you know, it was really a pain in the ass when that last witch went invisible. There's no possibility for you turning me invisible, is there? I mean, think of the antagonizing approach I could take on this evil witch. Dorian, I can make that wish come true, maybe some other time, but I need you to keep her attention here. Because if she gets away, if she gets back to those kids,

if there isn't someone right in front of her holding her down, we might be in trouble. And I, Aelo, I can see you looking at me listening to this. Hey, that's a good point. That's a great point. We should be talking in pig lab. Dorn, you're my favorite big, beefy boy. Get out there and just tank those heads, please. And I'm going to cast Hunter's Mark before the wall drops. The wall of force begins to dissolve from the top down, crumbling away.

Oh, boy. Red, what do you do? As a bonus action, Red is going to cast Fairy Fire. Can she make me a dexterity saving throw? Absolutely. 14. Oh, that fails. She is outlined in red,

which means every tack on her has advantage. That's a big win for us. There you go. Huge. Red pulls back and fires. Suck on this, you witch. I rolled a two and a natural 20. Whoa!

This was the good one. 40 damage. Wow. Is that it? As the arrow sinks into her other thing. Big numbers. Wow. Welcome back to the woods.

She howls in peace. You take children from towns. You eat them. You deserve this. And Red will fire again. That's a two and a three. Oh. And with my D4, that's a six.

Actually, well, six plus, oh no. A 12 wouldn't be it. Red's second arrow misses because he's too worked up, thinking of all the lives she's ruined. Oh, actually. Red, the witch, having been skewered in the leg by you, turns and breathes fire as a reaction. Oh. You have to make a dexterity saving throw.

Wow. On it. That's an 11 plus dexterity? Mm-hmm. That's 19. No. Yeah, you succeed. nimbly dodging out of the way of this fire breath.

Red dodges out of the way, covers behind a gravestone. Take it down, Doran. Jack, it's your turn. Jack reaches a hand out and touches Doran and channels his understanding of stone that he gained from his time as part of a stone giant and pours all of that understanding into Doran, hardening his skin to be like the stone

that dwarves were carved from, and then moves back. to sort of stand in front of the kids on the other side to be a layer of protection to them, you know, wand and orb in hand, ready to tangle. Excellent. It's the witch's turn. The witch charges you, Jack.

Ooh. All right. Deaking around Doran, so Doran, if you like, you can make an opportunity attack. Yeah, I am. It's going to be a 21 to hit. Yep.

Doing 18 damage. Excellent. Don't think you're going to, to run so quickly from me, Hague. Jack, she reaches out to gather you up in her huge arms. 22 to hit you?

It does hit me yet. You take 36 bludgeoning days. And you are grappled. She crushes you against her body. And you are overcome with the smell of decay, rotten. flesh yeah you make a concentration check for your spell 17 no yeah you fail dorin the stony skin that you were enjoying for about three seconds is gone oh no dorin fuels this softness return to his

flesh doran it's your turn again dorin moves into the space next to this witch and he's going to attack and if he's successful in this attack he's going to use what's called his goading attack Okay. Which I think is going to do with a 21. You do hit. Okay. So what you're going to have to roll is a wisdom saving throw. 10.

Ooh. That's so good. 18 damage and a 10, so you failed. So now you are going to be taking disadvantage on all attack rolls against targets other than myself. Excellent. And that's my first attack. So second attack is going to be. be straight up. And you're still rolling with

advantage, right? Because she's all outlined in fire. A 23 to hit? Mm-hmm. Another 18 points of damage. Nice. Yeah. Your axe bites deeply into this creature's thick hide.

God, it feels good to spill some witch's blood. Especially those that prey on children. Mari, what do you do? I think it's time to become a wolf. Yeah. Nice. And Mari sees Doran chipping away at this monstrosity's shins and sees it crushing Jack.

And she looks up at the sky and sees the clouds start to clear a bit. She can see the moon up there. She sort of pulls in on herself and everything starts to change in sort of this weird, imperceptible way. And then all of a sudden, where she was once standing, there's just this giant wolf with this weirdly soft looking hair but it's furious and I'm going to

charge it this monstrosity cool I rolled a 23 to hit nice absolutely let's trip this witch time to just start chomping away and she just starts biting and ripping 10 damage and also

target as a creature must succeed in a DC strength saving throw excellent I'm pretty great at strength She's super big and super beefy. She, she lourg. 23. That definitely saves, but Mari in this wolf form is almost rabid and just is trying to tear at her.

Red, you watch as Mari turns into a dire wolf and throws herself on this witch. Fuck yeah, Mari! You can't see Jack because he's on the other side of her, but you hear panicked crushing noises. You just hear crushing noises and Dorin noises and dog noise. somewhere in the darkness.

Yes, Maury, yes. Red, what do you do? Bite that witch. So the fairy fire fades, and Red is going to fire. 23 to hit. Yes. Perfect.

26 damage. Hey, great job. And Red is going to fire one more. Leave Jack alone. Twelve to hit? Mm-mm. No, you missed. Second arrow again goes wide.

Damn it. You kid's doing all right. red turns to the kids who are like tied behind them. Yeah, the one's just like, kitty, kitty. I'm not a kitty. I'm a fox. He kicks snow at her. Jack, it's your turn. Jack tries to get a full breath in where he's got the wind knocked out of him as this

monster crushing the life out of him. And when he finally fills his lungs, he breathes out and silver mist covers his body and he disappears from this spot, reappears 30 feet away, and pulls out the Spell Guard sphere. and from it this trail of life tries to induce a little bit of necrotic damage

into this witch if she could make a DC-17 wisdom saving for please. Absolutely. Oh, fuck. 11. That's seven necrotic damage as Jack moves

to take some cover behind some further tombstones. Beautiful. A thick choking mist begins to leak from between the trees and pours into the clearing all around you.

It swirls around your feet, creeping up your legs and surrounding you, climbing your torsos, burying you in swirling gray plumes. Everybody make a wisdom save for me. Don't love that. Glad I'm blessed. That's how I feel about that. Oh, we're all blessed. Y'all blessed.

Not me. Except for Mari, who is blessing 21. I got 15. I rolled 15. That's safe. Yeah, I rolled 15. Nice. Nice.

Doran? I rolled a seven. Oh, no. Oh, no. Doran, you are blinded for one around as your vision is obscured. Everyone else is able to disbelieve the mist as the illusion drops. Meanwhile, Aelo, deprived of her favorite wizard target, turns her ire toward the dwarf beside her, who is now staring vacantly into the middle distance,

and she tries to fucking multi-attack you. She claws at you with these long, terrible claws. That's a natural 20. Oh. That hits. One of those in a long time. Yeah, it's been a fucking minute, hasn't it? Here we go.

Oh, does that hit? Yeah. Oh, does that hit? No. Wait. Almost maximum damage. 34 slashing damage. She's going to attack you with her claws again.

Is it legal? This will miss you with a 15 to hit. Miss. And then she's going to bite you. Oh, hold on. Dorn's going to perform a repost. Excellent. You're going to roll with disadvantage because you're blinded.

Doren being hit with the witch's attack decides that he's going to try and fight back even though he's blinded. You can kind of judge. where she's at based on where the blows are coming from. You bring ork splitter up. You get in the way of the claw and then you swing back around. It's going to be 11 to hit. No, you miss.

Doran. God. 20. Dirty. Yeah. Oh, no. She chops down on you with these sharp, rotted teeth. 19 piercing damage.

Okay. In a blood frenzy, Doren, she hits you these two terrible attacks. It's your turn. How do you retaliate? He's still blinded? Yeah, for one turn.

He's going to back up and try again. Okay, that's going to be a 13 to hit. No, you miss. And I miss. Okay. And so I'm going to take a second attack in a 14. No, Doren, you miss both hits. Oh, no.

You miss both swings. Weak dwarf, stupid as you are. foolish you missed i may be blind but i'm not foolish i'm just trying to distract you witch eat her face mary marie it's your turn 18 nice yes and 18 hits so yeah so she rears back and she leaps at this thing and just tries to rip at its neck and forth nine damage Mari, as the witch is distracted temporarily with Doran, you lunge at her. Being this dire wolf, you're so big, you manage to get your jaws around her neck. You drag her to the ground.

Yeah. She's screaming and burbling with blood gushing through your teeth. You feel her body go lifeless and limp. Just for a moment, in the pure rage and the pure wolf sort of in. instinct takes over and she just keeps shaking until she's fully sure that this thing is dead, even as she can feel it lifeless underneath. For once, Mari and Doran are both covered in one. Yeah, she's just soaked in it.

Not for the last time. Red seeing as turns to the children, looking at their eyes. Are you okay? They blink for a minute, and you see the blankness drop. And confusion crossed their faces. One of them looks up towards you, Red. Where are we? Let's take these home.

As the moon cuts a path into the night sky over Slate Fell in the town square, three wagons stand, two of them lit by the lanterns hanging from their doors. Suddenly, one of the lanterns gutters, its flame flicker. and extinguishes, just one lamp remains lit. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters, Adam Fry, Amanda Kitchener, Amy Gaza, Anne, Cecil Lee Wilson, Cherry Rose Anderson, Christopher, Colin Burkhart, Crow, Cypress Key, cytosine, DS, Danny, Default Trauma, Dippity, Elizabeth H, Emma, Ghost, Haley, Hop of the Marks, Heather Nichols, J.D, Joy Robinson, K.R., KM, Kade, Kirsten Wolf, Lizania, Last Ruth on the left, Leader Jay, Lizzie Demon, Lorelei Feldman, Matilda Rushing

Marie Melinda Curley Mills Melissa Merlin Nimble Dingo Reagan Ren

Ruth Ann Reed Scotty Sky Sray 96 terabyte Tony pepperoni Zander Morning Dove

and Zach House Woo Alex Alex while we're waiting for her to run numbers

Give me a few more takes of your threat Yeah I'm just trying to get into the mindset to be honest so you know oh i know yeah um hey now step away from that child how about just drop the knife in your most intimidating way eh it sounds very policeman like drop the knife yeah better than hey now yeah i know come over here so i can kick your ass why don't you pick on someone your own size no i think quick i think i think i think what i'm trying to

get out as quipping feels wrong. Don't you think it's, no, obviously she doesn't think it's wrong. It's knife o'clock. You could tell her that you killed her sister and that you intend to come for her names. That's a better vibe. Yeah, it'd be like, I just killed your sister.

Your sister's bloods on this axe and I'm coming for you next. Yeah, I was, I've just lobbed off your sister's head. Looks like I'm coming for you next, which. All right, that's fine. I'll fix it in post. Cool, cool. what you're going to turn to the angry dial

I don't know It just needs to be angry Stop right there Vile creature I like it It's yeah It's good It's good

Stop Right there you vile creature That better That's better That's better Yeah I'm definitely more of that That's cool Okay

Cool There you go Looking up into your face blindly, she mutters, it's my birthday. And then you throw her to safety in the snow. Well, happy birthday then. I know, this is not supposed to be comedy, but that's pretty fucking funny. Happy birthday. All right.

What's her name? Aelo? A-Lo? A-Lo? I can hear you. Look at this fog you build. Well, baby, it's crumbling down. Jack's got you set in a bubble.

You won't get under the ground. The children you took from town ain't going to be tied down. And less were the ones to do it. And you can't claw through the ground. And now we're killing halo, halo, alo. We got your Aaloo, Aaloo, Aaloo.