Dice Shame - 2-95 | 'Bad Blood'

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

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: animal death, swearing, violence, claustrophobiaPart of the Rusty Quill Network Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Detritus, that's my favorite. What the hell is going on around you? Hold it just like that. Jostle should make it blow up. There's goddamn trolls searching for us right now. Whoa! We could be in long saddle tonight! If I'm out of my mind, it was back in Scarborough.

I could have sent him home! What are you saying? You just want to give up? Welcome back to Dyshame. This is Season 2, episode 95, Bad Blood. MVP this week is Cass. Cass has been hanging out in the Discord with us for ages and has somehow evaded being named as MVP this whole time.

They're one of our great old ones tier supporters on Patreon, so this extra special MVP is for you, Cass. Thanks for chatting along as you listen to the episodes. And thank you so much for your support. You are friggin awesome. Hells yeah, you are. If you've been enjoying this show, consider supporting us on Patreon.

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Should we play some D&D? Yeah, let's do it. Woo! The Cobold Patrol crunches through the blowing snow with weapons casually drawn. Their bright eyes searching the darkening woods all around them. They pass by a partially fallen tree that's leaned up against a tall drift of snow. no, concealing something large underneath. And behind that snowdrift, Jack, Red, and Ellister.

Quiet, quiet. Ellister, don't move. I think there's some cobalt's passing. Yeah, I hear them. I don't think I could move if I wanted to. Yeah, is it that bad? Red looks down at Jack's leg. Oh, yeah, the leg mangled, just his whole body scraped and cut up,

and tossed out a window, he looks like shit. Elister, too. He's got these huge raking cuts across his chest that are still oozing blood from where the troll grabbed him through the window. Red, you know where we're going, right? You're the scout or whatever. Yeah, yeah, I know where we're going.

Relax, it's fine. Look, the others are fine. I saw them running away to the north. I know, Mari, I know Doran. They're going to keep each other safe. We just need to focus on us for a moment. We just need to get a break. I'll break from these patrols, a break from these woods.

Elister's holding himself. A duck down underneath this big whatever it is. Yeah, I helped lean Jack up against this pile. And Red runs his hand over the pile. Yeah, brushing snow away from this large object that you shelter behind, you feel a hard surface underneath. What is this? Jack, what is this? I don't know, clear a little more snow off.

Let's take a closer look. Jack kind of limps over towards it. You brush some snow away and reveal some plained or chiseled, smooth masonry, stonework of some kind. It's built, that's for sure. Are there any markings on it other than the chisel marks that might give a sense of what it was or what it fits into? You can roll an investigation check. I would love to. I'm going to take the mind off the gaping wounds.

Jesus. 22. There are no obvious runes or markings, but you can tell from the size of these blocks that this massive piece of granite must have belonged to some huge building. It's a piece of an old building or something. Get shelter behind it for a moment.

Let Ellison and I just check out the area real quick, see if we can't find a place to cover. Yeah, go take a look. I want to see if this keeps going, or maybe there's a door or something underneath here. Yeah, keep your mind. Keep your mind on that. And watch out for patrols. And Red taps Elster on the shoulder, and the two of them trege off to search the area around a little bit.

Yeah, Elster follows you into the darkness, into the gathering snowstorm. You see, as he's following you, he's kind of looking over his shoulder. Over here, against this tree. And Red, like, brings him up against the tree. as like a passing cobald, a patrol, sort of walks only at 20, 30 feet away. Shh, shh, shh. And he lets him go after a few minutes. All right.

All right, let's look for some sticks or maybe something else. No, red. Wait. What? What the fuck am I doing? What? You heard me. What the fuck is any of this?

What are you talking about? Alistair, you're not making any sense. Look, what happened was... Oh, shut up. Listen to me. This is... This is crazy. You found me, what, ten days ago inside of a stone giant's purse?

And you brought me with you, and then I fucking died. Those dragon cultists, and... And that was... That was... That was crazy. I mean, Mari revived me, and I have a new body now,

and you know that's been... really hard for me, but what am I thinking that I can just follow you guys around, take on all this risk, almost die again, and what? I'm just going to help you and Jack make a fire and then meet back up with Doren and Mari and pretend like, like this war pick is going to save me from, from what? Alist, I, I'm not helping you. You? I'm holding you back, Red. I can't do this anymore. And he sits down at the base of the tree in the snow.

He throws his war pick off to the side, and he just looks off at the tracks of the cobald party. And Red bends down in the slowly falling snow, and he puts a hand on him. Ellis's shoulder and looks at him in the eye. Ellis, Ellister. Yes, yes, it's dangerous out here. Yes, it's difficult. But what are you trying?

What are you saying? You just want to give up? I don't know. Haven't you ever wanted to give up, Red? Of course I've wanted to give up. Of course, but look, so we were outnumbered. So there was a little bit of a fight that we started. But I started.

Brad, a cloud giant didn't pick me off of the ground and tell me that I was ordained to change the world. I'm not a hero. And if I keep pretending to be, I'm going to fuck it up. I'm going to get someone killed. I'm going to...

I'm going to die. I can't keep doing this. I can't keep... Hagging around after you. Acting like this is where I'm meant to be. It's not. So what do you... So what do you want me to do?

I hear you. How can I... What can I do? I don't know. Just... Say I ran off. Ran off now. It's a snowstorm.

There's cobalt on patrol. It's freezing. I don't want Mari to think that I'm a coward. You're not. She wouldn't think that. I know she doesn't give a shit about me. You don't have to pretend. But I just... I don't know. Part of me thinks like maybe if...

If she wasn't here, then I wouldn't have... I wouldn't have tagged on in the first place. What if I... What if I told them that... That I convinced you to leave? What if I told them that I told you to... no red i couldn't ask you to do that let me cover for you i'll tell them that i i told you to leave okay and he looks up at you gratitude just washed across his face

why why not you're my friend elister you're our friend they deserve to think of you as you truly are whether you know it or not and i'm sorry that your strength doesn't match what's in your heart here Red gets down on his bag of holding and he pulls out

some rations and a blanket your invisibility should get you far far enough you know the way back to Skamboro I'll

I'll make it back to loud water I'm sure in the next few 10 day and listen if you come back that way

look me up I can't say thank you enough now but I can later don't worry about that look just get out of here stay invisible

stay safe. Your one person traveling alone there's no reason to think that you're going to be any threat and you know how to get out of a sticky situation if you need to. He stands up and he throws a hug around your middle. Stay safe, Red.

You too. And he disappears. You see a couple of little footprints in the snow as he crunches away from you and you watches the footprints turn around as he takes one more look at you. and then disappears into the night. When you get back to the rock where you left Jack, he's gone.

Just a fresh blowing snow where you left him. And it takes a minute of looking to see that the way the wind blows and the way the snow behaves in the area you expect Jack to be are a little bit out of sync. And beneath this like blanket of an illusion, Jack is carefully, you know, waving his hand and watching this rock in front of him clean itself and the dirt move away until he can get a full and better picture of what's going on here.

Red appears at the stone, alone, with a small bundle of firewood. He drops it quietly and slinks around. Jack. I'm here. Jack drops his illusion for a second, and you can see the area he's cleared out a little bit, moved the snow to the side, found at least ground. You gave me a heart attack. Sorry, I... Where's Elister?

Uh, uh, he's, uh, look, Alist is gone. What do you mean he's gone? He left, okay? He turned himself invisible, and he, he walked. That's, we have to get him somewhere safe. He's gonna die on his own. He's, he's gonna be fine. Uh. Look, we need to move. Come on.

Yeah. And Red, like, puts his arm over you and, like, supports your weight, and the two of them begin moving off. This way, this way. Towards another tree line that seems farther away from where Red detected the movement. Red, what happened? I told him. I told him this wasn't right for him to be here. It doesn't make any sense for him to walk.

If we all get together, I can get us back to Scarborough immediately. We just need to get together. He's safe on his own, Jack. Even if there were no cobalt, he'd freeze to death in this weather. He's not going to freeze the death in this. He's a Duragar. Sure, that's fine. He's fine, okay?

No, but let's keep going. Can't get caught with these fucking cobbles. Look. And Red is like whispering to Jack as the two of them like hobble together towards the farthest point in the woods. Watching Ellis to die again. I couldn't do it again, Jack.

He was going to die. Better he die alone in the woods. You shut the fuck up about that? How the fuck? He's not going to die alone in the woods, Jack. There's goddamn trolls searching for us right now. He's invisible, you morgue. Oron!

Invisible still smells! No one followed us! They're right back there! He's fine! Jack! He's fine. You're out of your mind. I'm out of my mind?

Yeah. I'm out of my mind. And this is coming from me. Having a fucking shop owner with four adventurers that have killed giants? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm out of my mind! Why did we pick the fight then if you weren't confident you... It's not about picking a fight!

It's about everything around here. There's cobalds and trolls and fucking dragon cultists. And we're going to see a fucking... dragon. He's a tinkerer, Jack. If I'm out of my mind, it was back in Scarborough, when for a second I thought that he could have come with us. I might agree with every one of those points, except for sending this poor dwarf out into the fucking cold to freeze to death, to find a place he's been once that was hidden and needed a password to get back into. How is he going to get down there, Red? He's a Duragar. He'll make it happen. An invisible Duragar that can

I could have sent him home. I could send him right back to his house. We could be We could be in long saddle tonight if we all get together. Red drops you in the snow. Then fucking send us home now. You jackass? Do it. Black King? And shut up!

He's fine. I brought the Cobolds to us to follow us, so he had a chance to escape, okay? Now shut up and let me drag you to somewhere safe. Just walk, I'm fine. Fine. And Red walks up ahead. As the snow all around you begins to, to fill in your footfalls, Jack and Red, you sit with your backs pressed up against another

tall mound of snow, which you recognize as something similar to the one behind which you had taken shelter earlier. I think they passed. Okay. I mean, we can't stay here. We've got to keep moving. I understand. Jack says, but can't help himself with, like, a sweeping arm to knock any snow he can

off this thing, just to catch a passing detail and, like, not make eye contact. with Red? What are you doing? I mean, is there anything obvious Jack notices about it? Yeah, Jack. I mean, when Red and Alistair had disappeared for a few minutes together, you had the opportunity to investigate this masonry, and this seems to be the same kind of stuff. There are these big formations of rock, not formations so much as these looks like pieces of a building. Is there anything on these pieces of stone that would give Jack a sense of the scale of people who made this building? Jack, you've never seen masonry that uses blocks of granite this large apart from in a giant building. So you would assume that this is masonry made with giant hands.

I don't know, Red, I'm just, I'm a little out of, I mean, like, it's giant, giant, some giant, giant building. We're walking around in a big blown up, scattered around, giant building. Hold on, what do you mean walking around in a giant building? Look, not like the building is giant, but the may be made, but by something that was very big. And Red turns around and

also brushes some snow off of this masonry and sees what Jack has seen. What the hell does that mean? I have no idea. I just maybe it speaks to why dragons moved in here or something. I don't know. It doesn't tell us anything other than, you know,

giants run amok, it might be worth knowing something if we have to shelter between the next patrol. Yeah, yeah. Are there any more around here? And Red sort of also distracted for a moment with this new piece of information that starts looking around in the snowy woods. Yeah, off to the west, Red.

You see another place under some trees. There's like the shelter of the low boughs has prevented snow from accumulating. in that spot, and you can see like sharp lines in that place that are a gray, white. It's not the lines of snow. These are like the hard lines of architecture

through the trees. There's another one. Another one. There's one over there, too. Can you move on your own? Yeah, no. If you think we got enough time to take it at a reasonable pace, I think we can get over there.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean, it warrants investigation, if this is something important. We might as well use this time to our advantage. It's a structure. Maybe somebody else is hiding over there. You know, shelter. Yeah, yeah, shelter. That's what we need.

All right, let's go. Are you sure? And Red, like, sort of puts his hands out to help you and then pulls back. There's, like, this awkward air. Yeah, there's definitely a moment of Jack, like, pulling his cloak up and wincing, but still trying to, like, limp it and be independent for a minute. Fuck it. Just hold on.

And Red sits down next to you, and he's like, just don't move. And I'm going to cast Cure Wounds. And Red sort of rubs his hands on your swollen bloody ankle, and you heal six hit points back. Hey, not quite double what I have. So we're living large. And then he sort of like pulls his hands away.

That'll be easy. Now you don't have to worry about it. Jack takes like a big, the first like full deep breath he's taken without wincing or wheezing. in a bit and then reaches out to sort of say thanks. Thank you. Thanks, Ray.

Yeah, no problem. Let's go see. Yeah. But stay low. I'll try. The shapes of the trees in the dim twilight are these vertical blue-gray shadows. And Jack, you and red make these small figures

moving between them, trying to keep to cover as you're aware that your progress is probably being marked by these cobald patrols, you move west towards this spot that you found, and you come upon the broken remains of some white stone building. Nearly invisible against the snow, an arched entryway is lying on its side, and within its shadowy interior you see giant-sized steps at a crazed angle like, lying on their side as they are. You would be walking on the wall if you were to enter this tunnel. The hell can knock over a giant building like this.

I have no idea. Does this look at all familiar? The masonry, obviously, but we've been, we've seen stone giants, we've seen grud hog, we've seen the cloud giant Zephyros castle. The stone giants had specifically white stone and weren't necessarily super far from here. This is much more similar to Zephyros' home. something that you would imagine could have once maybe been in the clouds. Cloud giants.

Doesn't it remind you of Zephyros' castle? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Jack starts, like, pointing out. The doorway over there, just like the one Griffins were coming in and out of. Yeah. Should we go in? Well. I mean, it'll be shelter at the very least, but...

Let's get out of the snow, yeah. All right. Are you cold? Maybe you can get warm. No, I'm fine. Red says shivering. Yeah, yeah, let's go. And, yeah, we slink into the darkness.

Mm-hmm. You said it was like a tunnel, right? Yeah, so this is a staircase, essentially, that's just been broken off of its landing. So you move through this fallen stairwell, walking on the wall, so to speak, passing through it like a tunnel. You would be traveling some 40 feet

if you were to go from one side to the other and you see that there is light coming from the other side, just this dim twilight. So like outside light, not like it? That's right, yes. It's about a 40-foot segment of staircase. Let's just take a second and relax. I mean, it doesn't seem like a cobalt have found this place,

and it's safe from the wind. Yeah. Jack turns to the stone for a minute, trying to, like, get a sense of how recent this might have fallen here. and kind of mumbles quietly to himself. And Red sort of walks aimlessly up and down the little hallway that we've found. Red, you find on the wall, I guess, which is your floor, this sled-sized sandal lying discarded.

It's made of some kind of braided fiber. It's just lying there. Oh, Jack, I'm going to look at this. Looks like some cloud giant Cinderella. Whoa. Yeah, sorry. I mean, you know, it's whatever. No, no, I, that's like a bed.

Gotta wonder how many cloud giants are walking around with only one sandal in the snow, too. Yeah. It's got to be pretty, yeah. Hey, sorry, I snapped at you. No, no, like, I... I, um, been feeling a little out of control and kind of sensitive about people leaving and stuff recently, and, uh, it was out of line. Elister's an adult, he's older than all of us combined.

And if he made a choice, he's responsible for it. But you're not wrong. Look, I started that fight in there, and it wasn't smart or fair or wise. And I gave Doran shit for doing it back in the tunnels in Descarborough, and I did it myself, and I got cocky, and I forgot. And, you know, it's easy to talk a big game and remind everyone that this is serious. But if I don't take my own damn advice, then what good is it? and it was a stupid call. We knew there were cobalds in those woods,

and we knew that these dragon cultists clearly have some connection to draconic beings of some sort, which... What the hell is going on around here? I mean, who knows? We got trolls and cobalds and dragon cultists and our clarions looking for eggs? Yeah, it was...

It was not the tactically right move, probably, but we did learn a lot about how tall, they are from a real first-hand experience and that's a lot of people they could be heading to someone more innocent than us so maybe there's maybe it's just a call that tells us we can get somebody out of their way or something once we regroup but we can cross that bridge once we've got marie and dorin and know they're safe yeah at the very least you know warning scarborough about it would be smart i mean they knew about the dragon cultists but yeah i don't think anyone guessed that they'd be working with so many other creatures

Yeah. And in the meantime, like, where all we got to we, and we got to survive this, so. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Okay. Look, if this is a cloud giant, you know, stairway, there's got to be more around here, right? Yeah. Obviously, something fell from the sky, which speaks, frankly, in my mind, to Clarion again. Well, and I think we've got to be going in the right direction, too. The pieces are getting bigger, the more we go this way, that, like, that other hill we stood designed was at least twice as big, it as the far one. I think if something broke apart, we're getting closer to the center of it. Yeah. Yeah, I say we check it out. I mean,

I could pretend it's for the guys of finding the others, but truth be told, I'm kind of interested. Same. Let's go. I'm right behind you. And Redd, like, puts his arm out to, like, link it. Yeah, yeah, no, Jack wraps his arm around yours and tries to keep pace as you're, like, swift feet carry us into the night. He's too excited. And the two of you leave this relative safety into the storm. Deeper still in the woods, Red and Jack, you come

upon an incredible find. A giant-sized building made from stone, half-crumbled but still standing, with a great wave of earth pushed up on one side and several downed trees poking out from underneath its base.

Holy crap. The broken trees, I mean, it's maybe fairly recent, right? It has to be. I mean, look, all of this feels pretty recent. The way that they were at the inn nearby, you know, this seems to be a wave of whatever the hell Clarion's doing. Did Clarion bring this place down? Is there something here that they were looking for? We should check to see if there's any signs of a dragon, and frankly, if there's any sign of anybody alive. Yeah, let's get inside. So this is a giant building. It stands two giant stories tall in some places, though the exterior wall is crumbled to pieces on the upper level on the southeast facing side,

sort of where you're facing right now, revealing supporting columns in the interior. So you can attempt to go up some ruined giant stairs to enter through an arched doorway. You can poke around outside first. You can go around the back. Like, how do you want to approach this place? Oh, so this sort of landed and skidded and ended up, like right side up. Yes. Cool.

Dig it. Let's just head through the ground floor. I mean, I'd scale up, but then you'd be stuck down here. And if something does come through there, I don't want you getting killed. I appreciate that. Let's check the ground floor first, and if we want to go up, we can figure that out. Yeah, and Red draws his bow and slowly approaches the front. Yeah.

As you wade through the snow and churned Earth, approaching this building, you discover two corpses in the snow. basically exploded there are frozen chunks of flesh and bone just littering the ground here Jesus what do you think killed him that's my god I don't believe him anymore but that's what I called you know it didn't even click for me this time usually I'm a shit about it but I didn't even make the connection are they like regular humanoid size or they giant sized did you want to roll a survival I can but I feel like that would be obvious wouldn't it is like a giant femur or a small a lot of chunks. It's a lot of chunks is the thing. Oh, I see. Okay. Sure. Yeah, I'll rule science. Can I do a science? Can I do a civil science? Is it, I guess, forensic science is the, this one. It's right. Are you trained in forensics?

Eighteen. Excellent. These are probably the chunks resulting from ogre bodies. They're terribly mangled. It seemed like ogres, Jack. What about yours over there? Same? I mean, definitely big like an ogre. from the exploded sense we've seen a lot of things get exploded ourselves included recently is it like a sense of these guys were some kind of sappers carrying explosives or did something like you can roll an investigation check yes i would like to do that because framing my question is not working no i love that i love just yeah telling me all the different ways that you've seen bodies yeah we've seen lots of explosions uh but boy have we oh jack is this one is is a little beyond me I got a 12 investigation.

You're not quite sure. The bodies, you can tell, have been preserved fairly well by the winter cold. Their clothing appears to have been strangely well-made for an ogre's wardrobe. Oh, fancy ogres. But you can't really tell the source of the explosion. They must have been pretty well off or served somebody rich or something. Look at these scraps over here. You can't get that kind of silk just anywhere.

Do cloud giants have ogre? butlers or something? That seems odd to me. Weirder things have happened. What caused them to explode like this? Well, you can roll medicine check maybe if you want to figure out. Are we thinking it might be gunpowder based? Maybe Stevie can sniff it out. And Red reaches into his bag and he pulls out Stevie and he just like holds him out to see

if there's any residual scent of like explosion. Stevie shivers a little bit indignant at having been brought out into this storm. And then he just wrinkles his nose. shakes his little head and then climbs back into your hand. Stevie is cold. I woke him up. I think he was sleeping in there. As Red wanders around with Stevie trying to find any explosive triggers, Jack has pulled out his starflower staff and is looking through the crystals in it

and feeling the ways the roots of magic want to blossom out of it, hoping to detect magic in the air around him and see if he can find anything residual here in this formerly floating castle. Yeah, that's a 30-foot radius, is that right? It is, and so there's a little bit of wandering around to try and get a feel for this space. Sure, sure. You are detecting only residual magic in the masonry itself, but nothing specifically pinging off any objects for you yet.

Red, as Jack wanders around trying to figure out if any of this ruin is made of magic, you and Stevie stumble upon more detritus from the crash. I just tripped over something stupid Oh, there's more detritus over here Detritus, that's my favorite After books, Detritus is my next best thing You find a giant-sized playing card, Red, damaged by the weather.

Oh my God, I found a giant red king. Overall, you find about a dozen scattered around, Red. The suits appear to be leaves, coins, knives, and bells with intricately illustrated and fantastical animals painted on the faces. I mean, in my mind, these are comically big. Yeah. Like, wopo, bo, bo, bo. They're like giant check-sized bag, right?

Yeah, they are. I mean, obsessively red shoves them into the bag of holding. Collecting them. You have to. You have to. You said six cards? No, you find about a dozen of them. We'll say you get 12.

That's enough to play solitaire. Just smash cut to, like, a night at camp and reds in the corner with these giant cards, putting them on top of each. other. We're like, ah. See, I'm really, it's the, it's the windy day where Red tries to pull one out and he blows away a little bit. That's the moment I'm waiting for. That's awesome. But like what? Just so I have like five foot by three foot, like how big are these things? Yeah, they're the size of. So I've previously compared a giant tooth to be dinner plate size. And you've like been held by a giant before. So I think they're at least like a card would be the size of us. Yeah. But I think you're like three by two, four by three. somewhere in that, you know, table. It's like a piece of Bristol board or maybe larger. Yeah, larger than Bristol board.

Just because I'm going to mechanically use them. Great. And it's going to be really fun. I'm excited. Whoa, found some cards over here, Jack. And Red puts them all in the bag of holding. Incredible. Save those for later.

I wonder where games giants play with those. Card games, presumably. Well, that's a good start. Russian roulette. And Red walks back over. What did you find over here? Any magic? Well, I've at least ruled out

No magic left here other than what's residual in the stones, but maybe we need to check upstairs. Yeah, let's head inside. Red heads inside and begins climbing the stairs. You clamber up these ruined, giant-sized stairs to enter through an arched doorway. This brings you into a lower courtyard-type area. So this is the lower floor of this giant ruin. there are columns ringing a sheltered perimeter and within it looks like a garden of some kind maybe or a meeting place there's a giant-sized wagon smashed to pieces in the center and some cargo spilled everywhere

there's also a statue off in one side that's been demolished in the garden are there any plants or anything Like red walks over and maybe clear some snow. And is there any greenery of any kind? Yeah, there were some plants growing here. It seems like plants that would not have appreciated this winter weather or else maybe from their carers haven't been gone for the past few weeks. They are terribly frost-bitten, wind-burned, and dead. And this is sort of my question.

Based on that, can I roll nature to sort of decipher how long they've been? uncared for to figure when this thing crashed. You can definitely roll nature on these plants. Fifteen. These are varieties of plants that you do not recognize so you wouldn't be able to ascertain within

a space of a few days, but you would guesstimate maybe a 10 day. Seems like it's been a 10 day since this thing crashed. These plants have been frozen for at least that long. Yeah. All right. It's going to be pissed. You can get to see these. Maybe we'll take a while.

and red grabs the weirdest most well-preserved one in ice and flex it for her. I'm picturing, you know how orchids can have like monkey faces or whatever? Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm picturing one that just looks like red, just like a foxy flower that's about the same size as his head. That's great. That's awesome. She'll love this one. I love it.

It's the best one. I love it so much. Something about it is so charming. While Red is drawn to the garden, Jack is drawn to the wagon to see what's in there and what he can discern from this wreckage. There are giant-sized crates that have been smashed beyond recognition. And within, you find fruit, giant melon and berries of completely novel varieties. Also, most of them smashed to pulp, but you do find some intact.

specimens. And preserved, loving that hopefully the frost has at least kept them from spoiling. Maybe we'll get to try a giant berry. Jack unfolds the portable hole and starts to load a few melons inside. You guys are just ransacking this place. We're going back to our adventurer roots, right? Like, you've got to, sometimes you've got a dungeon crawl with two best friends, that's how you bring things back together. If there's one thing Red loves, it's eating strange berries. And Red walks over and sees you putting some into the portable hole. Look at these melons.

Boob jokes. And Red reaches down and grabs a berry too and puts it in his bed. And the gay dude and the asexual. Like boobs, right? Boobes. I fear you. Somebody would love this joke. I don't know if it's us, but somebody would.

The audience, probably. And Red grabs some berries too and then heads to the stairs. And I imagine him like climbing up, turning around, putting a hand down for Jack. to, like, hoist him up. Because these are giant-side stairs, right? Yeah. And, yeah, they do kind of that hot scotch up. I do my best to act as at least a ladder for you to climb up

while I'm hanging down off the next shelf. It's okay, I don't need it. My claws would definitely cause you more pain. As you climb to the top of the stairs, panting an out of breath with exertion. Come on. Yeah. There we go. You find yourself on a landing, looking on two.

two 10-foot-wide archways, one of them leading into a huge chamber that overlooks this courtyard. Oh, wow. Look, Jack, and Red enters sort of awestruck. You know, I know we've been in Zephyros' castle, but it feels different, doesn't? It kind of feels special to be here when no one else is here. It's special and a little creepy. Like, it's oppressive. Like, it's really nice, but so big. and I'm just waiting for something to jump out of a corner. I don't know. Yeah, but how many other people like us have gotten to do this, you think? You know, it's pretty special.

And I know you and I don't talk about it very much, but, you know, when it comes to the people who are more or less fans of giants, it's really just down to you and me. I quite find it remarkable. And Jack starts replying in giant just as an excuse to speak the giant language while we're here just, you know, to nerd out about it well, nobody's going to give a shit for not being understandable as he replies and like, oh, and look at the archway, but there's like a real specific giant word for this kind of

archway, and so there's a little bit of it. And red speaks giant right back and you're just talking giant, like assholes. In the chamber, a nine foot tall table dominates the center of the room. Carved stone legs connect seamlessly to the floor. The west side of the room is a rubble of smashed upholstery and polished dark wood. remains of chairs, perhaps. A spray of some ruby-colored droplets makes an almost beautiful arc on the east wall.

Oh, boy. Red looks around the room with a curious eye and lands on the blood spray. He walks over and just sort of gives it a close look. Roll perception for me. 21. Whoa. Natural? This is blood spray by some terrible violence.

You, a creature who has created your own fair share of arterial blood, you recognize this as having come from a giant and being the result of some terrible fight. Red not being a slouch to violence, as you said, but also knowing giants fairly well and being curious because sort of at first he thought, you know, Clarion maybe just mash this thing out of the sky and it fell. he he sort of stands next to the blood and casts minor illusion and almost like recreating a crime scene sort of outlines the blood spray and draws it back to sort of a few different variants you know to sort of see it out and be like does that make sense what about that angle and sort of sees if he can like move its it's like point of origin around the room to make sense that's definitely something you would do with your intelligence so roll investigation. Maybe we could work together on this. Once you're going out there, we got a couple

of illusions going on. I rolled it 21, but I would definitely take the help anyway. What do you make of this, Jack? Take a look at this. I'm trying to recreate a little bit of violence here. Well, you know, yeah, I can see, you know, if the knife flung that way, it would certainly give that kind of pattern. And that kind of spray only comes from the neck. There's a certain vein right here and redleg points on, Jack. Oh. When you cut that, let me tell you, it sprays out. The beat gets faster, definitely. I imagine. Oh, you're so sweaty, Jack.

Red's using his, like, very sharp little kitty claw. Very precise. You want to be with you, when you point to veins. Yeah, I don't know when it's cold, but it's, I call it the spray vein. Jack, you're able to estimate that that's perhaps two liters of fluid represented on the wall there. Yeah. And Red, you can almost pinpoint where this being must have been sitting, you figure, by the table. when this injury had been sustained.

Huh, Red turns around looking at the table. He was sitting when he got attacked, sliced across the neck. That doesn't seem to me like a fair fight. That seems like, well, it seems like a bit of a assassination almost, you know? Yeah, I mean, I wonder if that was the person who was piloting this vessel in some way, if it crashes when they die, or if there's some other cause for it to fall from the sky.

It's interesting, you know, I don't see as many battle wounds as I would have. expect. You know, around here, you know, there's no arrows scattered along the ground or anything like that. It almost seems to me, and I could be reading this wrong, but it almost seems to me like someone was invited here or came here as a friend, and then from within, things started to go haywire. And it seems pretty well preserved, too. I mean, I don't see any bodies, but I also don't see any like signs of a carcass being torn apart by wolves or something either, right? Exactly, exactly, other than the ogres out front, but that seems something different entirely. Castle lands on you.

Yeah. It's my current theory. Interesting. And Red, sort of with a pensive look, scans the room one more time. Is there anything else that sort of jumps out? There are two large windows overlooking the northern reaches of the forest. Huh. Do you see any signs of anybody following us out that big window looking out at the horizon?

Yeah, I'll scamper up there. And Red scampers up. I will act as a stool if he needs it and mostly just watch him. I love the idea that like every time, like, Jack will, like, go up against the wall and Redges climbs next to him. No, 100%. Jack will go down on all fours and Red just climbs up next to him. Like, doesn't use him.

He's trying. Of course, but I don't want to put my muddy feet on you. I know how gross I am. You look out the window into the dark treetops that are waving down below you in the landscape of snow, and you spot something strange that alters the shape of the tree line. It's hard to pick out in the near darkness, but as your dark vision, kind of clicks on, you recognize that this is a massive snake of chain attached to the base of the building. Each link must be taller than you, and its length has laid waste through the

landscape out to the north like a whips crack. You can almost hear the rattling snap it must have made when it landed on the ground, felling dozens of trees. Whoa, this thing was chained down. or some such, there's a giant chain just snaking its way through the forest around here. Well, I'm so glad that snake is metaphorical because the first was spoken about it. I was really concerned. No, not a real snake.

Just a, just a serious thing. I understand. Maybe there's an anchor at the other side of it or something? Maybe. But that also means it's quite an obvious place, and I'm worried that the cobalds might end up thinking, hey, maybe they hit out here. Undoubtedly, if it's been here for a 10-day

and they've been in these woods, they may have already scoured through here. So maybe we don't shelter here too long. Yeah. Check out the last room and get back out there. At this point, we should be trying to find the others. I know they're okay, but it might be smart. Yeah, let's check out that last room.

And Red heads out to the hallway again. There's a moment where Red mentions the others that Jack taps his ring on the wall and the song of Goldfinches sort of fills the room for a little bit and he sort of smiles comforted by it for a second and then goes to follow Red into the next room. Yeah, I think Red actually maybe even turns to you when you do that And he's like, hey, that's a good idea, yeah We should use that when we're back out in the woods

That's shrill, but the cobalds won't think it's anything different I mean, assuming that they are wise enough to know that goldfinches Don't typically hang out in blizzards. Well, and you've got one too. Mari will know what these sound like. It's true. There's going to be no birds like this that... Yeah, all right, well, let's check the last room

and then we'll head back out and start using our rings, see if we can't find them. Yeah. Red and Jack, you make your way into the final room here. you find a ruined workshop with half of the floor dropped out a thick layer of debris covers the floor here although jack you're able to discern a glow of magic coming from the corner underneath some things there's a stool and a desk that appear to be mostly intact although the desk has fallen on its front jack you also detect magic coming from within this furniture evocation magic, both of them.

Seems like kind of a nothing, room. Let's leave. No, no, hold on. Wait, there's a couple of different oras of magic here. There's something in the furniture over there, and there's something under this pile, and they both have evocation, which could mean a lot of things.

Some of those things are explosive. And I've been blowed up enough recently, so maybe you can help me move this stuff out of the way real gently. Well, look, we'll take it one step further. Why don't you step back, and I'll kick the two and see if anything happens. Just wait in the hallway. Yeah. And you just see Red walk over from like 20 feet away, and he just walks over the desk and slowly puts his claws under it and then like flips it up quickly.

Well, it's huge, unfortunately. Oh, right, right, right. So, Red just walks up to it and he's like, if it is explosive, a jostle should make it blow up. And Red, like, full out, uh-uh, and like, body checks it. Just to get it to move like a little bit. This is when I remember Red is exactly as strong as Jack. Yes, yes. You don't have the muscle with you, unfortunately.

But that jostled it. I think that one's safe. All right. Hey, let's do this together. Yeah. Red grabs one side of the drawer and Jack gets the other side, tries to like weasel a dagger in there to at least move it a little bit and then heave to pull it open.

As you heave the desk up as high as you can, the drawer is open, you know, respectively for the giant a couple of inches, right? Yeah. And you see within this drawer, Jack, in red, there is a huge scroll. Just hold it, hold it just like that. I think I can get it.

And Jack reaches out with his hand, and the paper starts to, like, jiggle and move and slide out from under the desk while we're both, like, doing our best to keep this thing just inches above the ground so we can slide it. Yes. It rattles and shakes and slides out from the drawer. And carefully rolls itself up into a perfect scroll

as it gets out the other side. Do we drop it? Okay, on three, watch your fingers. One, two, three. Oh, wait. Just kidding. Okay. All right, let's go check out the other one.

Hey, it's a scroll. Probably for me, right? I mean, we can read it together. It could be a giant... Not teasing. I'm sure it's a magic scroll if it was glowing magic. It is. Well, let's tuck that carefully away for later in a...

You don't want to read it? What does it say? At least find out what it says. Well, all right. Yeah. Okay, you hold that end. I got it. And maybe we'll take it away from the ink.

Okay, but don't let go because it's going to roll up and whap me. I would never. And then it's just like, obviously at this point, Jack slips on ice and it rolls up and waps you when we have to start again. Ow! This frozen paper is covered in giant script. And as you read it, you recognize that this is a... magical scroll for the spell fire shield.

Whoa. What is it? Hot damn. It's a pretty interesting fire spell. Whoa. Yeah, we'll have to decipher it in a minute, but I think I could probably cast it if we had to. Cool. Let's check out what's in this pile for me.

Absolutely. Let's see what's in the other pile. You know me too well. No, I just get two things for Jack. It'd be very weird. It's another scroll. That red walks over to the other pile. Yeah, across the room underneath some spiral staircase that leads up to another floor and has been kind of shorn off at the top.

You find a big pile of a bunch of trash. It's like curled wood shavings littered around. There are some metal gears and gizmos, things that would have comprised maybe a giant-sized vice. Like a workbench? Yeah. I recognize a lot of this stuff. Big, like, blocks of wood that would have served some utility, like they have gouges in them and whatever.

I wonder if anything in here is useful. I mean, maybe. I don't know if it would be sized for your hands. Yeah, that's true. The magic's, at least a few layers of debris down. Red gets down and sort of rifles through all these things. You know, recognizes a lot of them, even though they're giant-sized. I used one of these when I made your staff. And as you dig through the rubble, you find a tool that feels magic, this thrill.

Oh, I think this is what you sensed. That's got to be the one, yeah. Red pulls it up. It is a knife. To your hands, this is like a huge, like, bastard sword. Whoa, mama. Giant's knife. This appears to be a magical cloud giant knife.

Whoa, it's a magical cloud giant knife of some sort? I don't know if I can use it. Red tries to stand up holding it. I wonder what it does. A little big. Well, do we want to stash these and... Red, as you grasp both of your tiny Tabaxi hands around the hilt of this carving knife, it slowly begins to resize.

Whoa! and turns into a carving knife in your hands. Hey! And Red, like, does that cool thing where he, like, spins it around his fingers a little bit, you know, like, really dexterous. Hey! And he grabs it from the air, and he's like, now that's more like it. I use one of these all the time. And he, like, pulls out one of his arrows from his quiver and just, like, shaves off an imperceptibly thin, almost, like, hair-like strand of wood in one deft, like, and it just, like, floats to the ground.

It is incredibly sharp. And as the thin sliver of wood floats to the ground, it catches fire. Whoa. Whoa, what? What? Hold on for a second. That's not normal. Well, it's evocation, though, for sure. This is a fun little tool that I've created for you as a fletcher read that once per day, when you use this knife to fletch an arrow, you can designate a type of elemental damage. The arrow will act as a mundane arrow for all. all purposes of the amount of damage it confers.

It's not going to be used as like a banishing arrow or anything like that. Right. Except that on a hit, all of the damage that would normally be piercing is going to be whatever designated kind of elemental damage. Oh, that's fun. Very cool. Wow, that's fantastic. And like, you get to use a cloud giant knife every day.

Look at the handle. It's made of ivory or something. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'll be able to imbue my arrows with some elemental damage. and Red spins it again and he like tucks it into his empty sheath where Kraloth's dagger used to be. All right. Anyway, I think that's it. We should probably get out of here. Those cobalds aren't going to be far behind. Yeah. Jack, your eyes wander over the stonework. This room is open to the sky. And you see that along the top of the spiral staircase and the top of the masonry where it would have been connected to another subsequent level, the stonework. stonework that was broken away is stained a dark color.

Yeah, I'd like to take a close look at that and see if I can figure out what's stained this stone. The stonework that is affected by this dark color begins to crumble away as you watch, and it sifts off and floats away on the breeze before your very eyes. What the hell? The source of this stain can only be guessed. What was that? I think I have a inkling of what brought the tower down, but I have no idea how they did it.

What? I don't know if you remember. There was a big chunk of stone here before. Something made it as light as dust so it could be carried away. Just melted the stone like nothing. Whoa. Yeah. We should get out of here.

If this ground's not solid, then we could fall through the floor at any moment. It's already missing some levels. Yeah, we got to beat feet. You turn around and begin to head for the stairs, back to the courtyard when you hear the sound of a robin on the wind. They must have heard your ring. That's a spring bird. Let's do it. Let's go.

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Thank you so much Woo Just is it So is this more than an hour Later I was right into acting Rob I'm sorry I hate to

Respect the process I'm kidding I don't know why But I totally phased out there What did you say I wasn't thinking about anything What did you say? I heard down trees.

I don't. It's it. I, what? Yeah, so once per day. And that's going to be a reason that you're going to give a shit about the campaign calendar now. Which is once per day, you get to make an elemental damage arrow. Is that what all this was?

That's right. That's awesome. Oh, cool. I like that a lot. Thanks.