Dice Shame - 32 | 'Burn the Midnight Oil'

Episode Date: May 21, 2020

The party is visited by an unexpected ghost of the past with a tantalizing proposition... Comedy, action and a whole lot of shaming come together in Dice Shame, an Actual Play Podcast of Storm King's Thunder by Wizards of the Coast! Join our GM Jo; her partner Harlan, his brother Alex & their best friends Justin and Rob as they tackle the daunting world of Faerun in this legendary adventure module! Dice Shame is a podcast that welcomes its audience to the gaming table. Like the games they play at home, they try not to take themselves too seriously. The show aims to be entertaining, inclusive, and irreverent, while still taking the rules (somewhat) seriously. Join us every Thursday morning for brand new episodes available on all major platforms including; Spotify, iTunes, Google Play and more! If you haven't checked it out yet... what are you waiting for?!? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a clip that goes in the TV show opening of us. Do we like this guy or not? I say loudly to the others. If it was a wraith, a wraith would be able to do it. For the greater good, right? We don't have our horses, do we? It would involve my axe blade and your neck. The musly part of my butt?

This is cool best friend stuff. You stay out of it. Oh, nice. Brilliant. Whoa. That's incredible. The Nightstone four, add it again. Welcome back to Dice Shame.

Episode 32, Burn the Midnight Oil. What do you think that could mean? I don't even know. MVP this week is Ryan Jenkins. Thanks for joining us on Facebook, Ryan. Thanks, Ryan. During these isolation times, it's important to find a way to socialize. If you're looking for a new crew to roll with, consider joining our Discord server.

Stop by, tell us what movies you're watching, which are. games are keeping you busy, just share your favorite memory of role playing. Heck, there are plenty of community members looking for players for their own online games. So stop by, say hi, join in on the fun. We're always happy to make new friends or else. Bring your favorite GIF. Are you ready to do this? Yeah, let's go. How's it going, guys? How are you all doing on this?

fine Friday nights. We're hanging in there. Oh, pretty good. Hanging around. Yeah. It's great to be around you guys. It's great to be around you guys. Oh, yeah.

I love to see you guys. Within six feet. Especially. Breathing moistly on everyone. No. Yeah. Especially during this pandemic. The aerosol is in the air.

So when last we left our heroes, you heard a knock at the door. And before any of you can move to answer it, an envelope slides underneath. What? What is this? I'm going to, Red drunkenly hands the bottle back to Doran because we're still drinking that brandy fire of wine.

This is still the tail end of Jack's birthday celebration. So I hand the bottle back to Doran. Doran takes two swigs, very, very diligent swigs. He's like, just being selfish about it. Diligent swigs. Diligent? And I walk over to the door. And I'm going to open it first, actually, before you even bothering with the envelope.

There's no one there. Oh. ghosts i bend down and i grab the envelope and uh shut the door and i'm like hi either a ghost dropped this off or a very sneaky boy or girl i doubt it would have been a ghost why's that well because ghosts are incorporeal inco what if it was a wraith a wraith would be able to do it maybe a specter let's let's open that letter i love letters are you saying that that ghost can't touch things is that what you're saying most ghosts can't but you know what now that i think about it Back in, uh, you remember back in Crip Garden, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Crip there. Oh, wait. Jack wasn't there.

Uh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We missed you for that. Embarrassed, FOMO. Uh, anyway, I take the letter and I open it in front of everybody, tear off the, is there anything on the front of the letter, I guess I should ask first. Yes. The envelope is addressed to the nightstone four. Whoa. The nightstone. That's got a ring to it. Who would know us from Nightstone? It's here. It's got to be addressed to us. That's, that's, All right, let's read the rest of it. Yeah, what is it saying? Yeah, I open the letter. Inside is a sheaf of parchment that reads, Kraloth, Jack, Red, Doran,

and your halfling friend. I have a business proposition, far more lucrative than the drunk sheriff can muster. Meet me by the well at midnight. It's not signed. What time is it now? It's about an hour to midnight, 11 o'clock. Oh, interesting.

Someone who knew us in Nightstar. I wonder if Morak, your old friend, Doren, I wonder if he's looking us up. It could be, but Morak would sign his name. I don't know why, whoever this is, they're being elusive. They are. They're also throwing some shade on the sheriff. They're clearly, at least knowledgeable enough to think he's a drunk that they're not into, right?

Like, they're... I always took drunk as a compliment. I don't know who... Oh. We should surely approach this with, uh, ambush in mind. I agree with Doran. I mean, meeting at midnight, no signature. This is something that we should keep our guard up for.

Right, but if somebody wanted to hurt us, wouldn't they? They just come to the door they knocked on and attack. I mean, we're sitting here drunk. It's not very likely that we're going to defend ourselves perfectly well. My bow is all the way over there. And I point like a foot away. Hey, Dorn past that bottle over here. Oh, here.

And Dorn passed the bottle. Can I take a look at the letter and see, maybe do a perception or intelligence role or see if there's anything I can gather from it? An insight role, maybe? Sure. I'll do an insight roll. 11 Nothing particularly

interesting about this letter There's no seal No specific flourish to the letters No fingerprints on it anywhere Ooh No Like smudgy fingerprints type thing Any coffee stains

Spaghetti sauce Any food of any kind What does the writing look like Is it well written Or is it sloppy Good call Childlike an unremarkable script.

Ooh. Ariel. Unremarkable. Red walks, Red takes the letter and walks over to a candle. I've seen this

before. Sometimes there is invisible ink and it only appears when you heat it. Oh, this is the last we're going to see this letter. I'm going to hold it

over the flame. Roll a slide a hand for me, please. Eleven. The edges of the letter begin to blacken and char. And very comically, it just catches almost immediately.

And I'm like, and I start waving it up and down as, like, bits of ash start flying around the room. And then I put it on the floor and stomp on it. But you know what? This is a clip that goes in the TV show opening of us. It's the Nightstone 4 on a letter and then fire from below that like burns that. And the fire gets higher. And then Doreen grabs the bedpan. Throws it on you?

No. Starts batting it. But there's still like a little flame. So I grabbed the last of the Brandy Fire wine. And I'm like, no, the hell you don't. We got to get something. Got it. Fight over that one.

Oh, man. Smash cut to us outside the burning in. That's just burning completely. Another fine job. The Nightstone 4 added again. If anybody asks, it was the ghost. But in all seriousness. Yeah.

I do like the idea that Red saw this somewhere and the thing does catch on fire. Everybody puts it out pretty quickly. Well, I don't know about you guys, but maybe we should have a plan for meeting. this character. Should we perhaps go in pairs or have somebody hold back? Well, they mentioned the Nightstone

Four. They know all four of us are here. Well, they also said Orrin should come. Which is odd. But maybe Kieran could go do a fly-by-the-well and find a perch and just see what's going on. See who shows up. I like it. Sure. So, I mean,

the well is in the middle of town. You yourselves are in the inn right now. It's also in the middle of town. So it's not like they're saying, Come meet me at this secret spot in the middle of the forest. I mean, if something were to go down, we are in the middle of town, and it's not like we're going to drown.

And obviously, this doesn't feel like it has anything to do with the Giants. I mean, I doubt Giants could hold a pencil this small. Good point. That's the number one thing about Giants. It's good logic. That's the only logic I need. Well, I for one suggest that we go, and Doran drunkenly stands up and stumbles a bit, grabbing his axe from that bedpost.

It's still an hour to midnight. We've got time to finish this. Good point, Jack. So who do you think it's going to be? I say as I pop off the quirk of the brandy, take a swig diligently. Zentar, I'm out for revenge. I hope it's one of those goblins that we let go. We let some of them go, didn't we?

No. It's got to be someone in this town. They know of the drunken sheriffs. I mean, there's those orcs that they wanted the score of them wandered off. Oh, what if it's the healers, the ones with a symbol of asmodius? The ones that you had a real negative. feeling towards yeah

yeah what if it is them we never really talked about that you didn't like them very much we're friends again red let's save it so the the minute hand on the clock in your room clicks over you've got about 10 minutes until midnight

any specific preparations you said that you wanted to send Kieran out yeah I wouldn't mind like if Kieran went to just do a flyby and let us know of anything weird or suspicious happened sort of in that like half hour before we're supposed to be there Yeah, no terribly interesting news. There were some mice around that they were kind of excited about.

There's a giant holding a club up, just waiting for something to walk towards the well underneath it. I don't think we're going into battle here. I think based on the fact that they slipped a letter under the door, they're asking us to meet in a public place. We're not in for any major battles here in town, I don't think. You know, I tend to agree. I think this person wanted to talk. Now, why they didn't want to talk here in our room is, well, who knows? But at the very least, it could be some money in it.

So you head to the middle of town, where you see a dark figure. They sit slumped in the town square with their back to the well. Can never be a light figure, eh? It's always got to be a dark figure. Nope. Has to be mysterious. I guess I would draw my bow. I mean, I don't think there's going to be combat,

but I would also be silly to not have it at least readied. Friend, you could have picked a shady corner in the end there. There's a little bit of movement, but they don't stand or hail you yet. All right. And Kralov walks up, steps right in front of this guy, blocking out the moon, and holds out his hand and says, Kralath, I'm one of the Nightstone Four. These are my friends. You called for us.

I love reunions, don't you? He takes your hand and stands. The figure's wearing studded leather armor. No. A familiar dark pompadour glistens in the night. He gives you a cheeky wink. Well, Meda, I hope. Seems like you've been busy.

Not a lot of time to catch up, I'm afraid. The night's only so long, you know. Called it. Just want to say called it, everybody. I whispered at Doran, I'm going to take his armor when he dies. The Zentharam bandit Zulkin gets to his feet, dusts himself off, and grins at you all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we didn't get on so well in Nightstone.

No harm done, though, right? And Doran kind of stands with his axe, almost ready to hack at this guy. What are you doing, showing your face around us? Oh, I could ask you the same question. You didn't know I was in town? I didn't know you were in town, but, you know, one has to make the best of occasion, I suppose. You have a lot of nerves showing your face, I think. I don't actually remember you. Who is this guy? This is Zulken. Zolken was the head of the, uh, the Zantorum. And, uh,

can I have my hand back? He shakes it and then lets it go. Oh, right. Hi, buddy. I walk over to him and take the hand that Kralath has just dropped and starts shaking his hand. Yeah. I used to see you again. He claps you on the back. Kella had me wrapped around her little finger so tight I didn't know which way was up. Anyway, we parted ways after you tattled on us to water deep in the watch, and I never looked back. It's funny to run into you again here in Beliard. What are you doing here? Crayloth. Without my cavalry at my back and in hot water with the zince, it's up to me to make my own living now, and I've been sniffing around here for the past couple of days. What are you doing here? We're on our way north to, for nothing of any importance. Yes, nothing of importance. But we did see

that there was an award, uh, reward, that there was a reward for, um, for adventurers like us. Yes, that seems like it would be your speed. Uh, wait, do we like this guy or not? I say loudly to the others. Are you still shaking his hand right now? Yeah, I'm still like shaking his hand, just up and down, like pumping it. Is this, do we like him? Well, he did try to kill us, but only after we tried to kill him. There was a moment in the rain where you and I were trying to make sure Kralath stayed alive. That was this guy's fault. And, like, I pull my hand away.

Yeah, that's right. I don't like you. Water under the bridge now, though, I hope. I agree. And I take his hand back. Water under the bridge. Well put. Sort of like the water that your horses fell into under the broken bridge.

That's right. And I pull my hand back. And I go and stand next to Doran. Uh-huh. What do you want, Zulkin? Seems like the giants have put some folks out of house and home here, as in Nightstone. And, well, I saw you liberate a few items from Nightstone yourself. so I know you're not above a little good-natured looting

and he goes and stands beside you, Red, again, and sort of elbows you in the ribs. Hey, he's not wrong. Maybe if we want to... Shut up, Red. And I just, like, study the faces of the other three waiting for whether I'm right or wrong. All right, keep talking.

If you're willing to help me, I know of an empty manor house that's sagging with goodies. The former occupants got themselves dragged away by Hill Giants not two days ago, so you won't be putting anyone out. I've done some scouting, and it seems like a bigger job than I can handle. He pulls open his leather jacket to reveal a sloppy bandage,

partly soaked through with blood. It looks like his shoulder was recently wounded. He retrieves a set of thieves tools and dangles them at you. Though you'll need my help, of course. Well, what's to say we don't just kill you and take your thieves tools and leave you dead in the street where you probably belong, Doren says bluntly. I was referring, of course, to my excellent skills and not just the tools, Little Man. Hey, watch who you're calling Little.

In fact, you wouldn't even know where to start. There's so many desolate houses and manners around this town. I can give you an idea where I'd start. It would involve my axe blade and your neck. Oh, right, oh, right. Look, look, do we like this guy or not? I'm so confused. Red is like so obviously conflicted.

This is the first person that he's seen from the past, I guess, that we've all had shared a mutual experience with. So he's excited, but confused that the excitement versus whether this guy is a nice guy. All right, Zokin. It's my birthday. And so I'm going to give you a present and hear you out. Whose manor house is this? What's there?

What's the prize? Yesterday night, I went to the villa myself. So I've had firsthand eyes on the place. And it is just brimming with vise. I was midway through rolling up a gorgeous tapestry when I was bitten by something invisible. I didn't really get a sense of what it was, so I just hoofed it out of there. And it being your birthday, Jack, you seem to need a little bit of more persuading. I'm certain I can appeal to your earnest altruism by letting you know that I suspect there's at least one survivor in the mansion.

I thought you said the place was empty. There's a moment where Jack catches himself because he was ready to go before Zulkin was like, oh, I see you're too good for this? And there's just a moment we're like, oh, fuck, I wasn't. But yeah, well, if there's somebody trapped there, we got to go save him regardless. So, yeah, you got my number, Zulkin. You nailed me to the wall.

Let's do it. You knew exactly what our altruistic friend Jack needed to hear. Well done, Zulkin. It was tapestry, but, you know. And I put a hand around Zulkin and Jack. Tell me this, Zulkin. What were the owners of this? mansion? Who were they? Do you know? I don't know. I've only been in town just a few days. I

crawled up the Desert River after I was done with in Nightstone and ended up here in town just a few days ago. It seems to be kind of an important looking place. My concern here, and I turn to my companions, we're not just a group of looters and pillagers. We're on a mission to serve the better good of the world. And yet this foul creature pries himself from the river and claims that all of a sudden he's changed who he is. Or maybe

he's better than who we remember him to be. But he's nothing but a lowly thief. And I kind of spit on the ground at his own. You are nothing. Easy there, master dwarf. He's had a lot to drink, don't worry. I understand you probably have a

low opinion of the Zantaran. and I never claimed myself to be a changed man, only that I no longer represent the Zentarim agents. So you're a free agent? In as many words, yes. Fair enough. And please, while I do think you are good-natured, you're certainly not above a little pillaging.

He's not wrong. Red, what's pillage mean? It's the thing on the chickens that you pull off, isn't it? Close, yeah. Give us a moment. Maybe we need to talk away from you, and I bring Jack and Doran and Kralov. And Doran, I can see he's like still turned towards Zulkin, like, hold me back, I'm ready for a fight.

Yeah, and you're like, kind of grabbing my shoulders and I keep on pulling back and, like, get rid of my shoulder so I can stand here. Your little boots are like, you're in the moonwalk forward, and I'm like pulling you back. And I'm like, okay, look, I remember this guy. He's not the nicest one, but he's not wrong. We have pillaged before. And ultimately, if there's someone in there that needs our help, it makes sense to go there anyway. And yes, we are on a mission from God. but we might need help.

We haven't pillaged. You're right, Krayloth. We haven't pillaged. We have pilfered, which is slightly different. Doran's concern is that he is a lawfully good character. To play him. Character she? Yeah, yeah, I was.

I don't know how Doran feels about this, even drunk or not. Like, I'm not the type of dwarf that breaks into people's houses to steal shit. Doran, this is definitely messed up. Zulkin's going to double cross us. and your instincts aren't wrong there. Thank you, Jack. But if he's saying there's someone trapped in this house, or let alone, if he's saying there's invisible monsters

biting people in town and Kieran can see invisible things, we have to at least go see what everybody else can't to save the town from whatever's haunting it. Like, that's the part that, you know, that... I mean, I know it's midnight and it's been a long day already, but if we can do anything before we leave this town, let's get the invisible monsters out. Right, well, devil's avocado.

Maybe he is a changed man. Perhaps him and Keller did split, and maybe the Zantarum did, you know, send him aside. And, okay, he's a thief, but we're all a little bit of a thief. I mean, I suppose the other way we could look at it, too, is that if it's not us, it's going to be somebody else. That's right. Who may do more damage. Right. And at the end of it all, I mean, I suppose we could put Zelk.

What's his name again? Zulkin? Zulkin, thank you. I suppose we could put him down when this is all done. Right. Or use this as an opportunity to show him the way things could be done. Maybe this is, you know, Moradin and Kellam Valls and Lathander's way of showing us that we can be more than just adventurous, but we could be teachers too, show Zalk in the Light.

By pillaging a house. Well, you know, I mean, we're on the ordained quest. We're going to need some pretty good stuff. Otherwise, you know, we're not going to make it to the end. Oh, man, I do agree that you. The more resources we have out our disposal, the better off we're going to be in terms of accomplishing this daunting task that's ahead of us. I guess you basically have to do some looting now.

It's the only thing that makes sense. It's the ordnitig. I'm sorry. For the greater good, right? Let's just hope that Kellenvore says we're on the right side of the balance. If we're going to do this, I'm going to need more to drink. Zokin, you got yourself a deal, and I stick my paw out. Wonderful. I'm so glad that you came around and he shakes your paw. Yes, one of the many arguments I made eventually landed.

So we head out to the villa. You did put out a lot of arguments there. It was a probably contradictory. I could just watch Jack, like, size up Red trying to like find whatever angle is going to, you know, get him this treasure in his hands. Oh, for sure. It was so good. But the thing is, and I think this is really important about Red and Tabaxi in general. It's not necessarily the treasure that he's after, but the adventure.

And this is actually true of Tabaxi. This is part of their character descriptor, is that they are all about finding that gemstone deep in an underground dungeon, but then we'll trade it for, you know, food or whatever. But getting it is the game. And that is so not just red, but so Tabaxi of him to be like, we've got to do this to get the stuff. Yeah. I love it. Kralas' motivation is a little bit less clear, and he still seems uncertain, and he breaks away from the group and walks back up to Zolkin and says, invisible creatures. What can you tell me about them?

Not a thing, my friend, just that one moment I was rolling up this beautiful tapestry, and the next day I was fighting for my life. You were bitten? I think so. Let's see the bite. And he pulls his jacket aside again to do. show you this bloody bandage on his collarbone. I'd like to roll an insight on that, being a military background. I'm sure I could.

An insight on Zolkin or like a medicine check on, yeah, so that'd be a medicine check. Okay. Can I do a medicine check as well on that? Both of you can roll for sure. A three. Okay. Yeah, he doesn't unwrap it for you guys, so it's hard for you. to ascertain the true damage.

Natural one. What dice was that? This was clear green. Clear green? That was the first role of the game, man. That's a pretty dice. Shame, shame, shame. Shame.

Right, so let's head on towards this place. We're all sobering up on the walk, I'm assuming and hoping. And, yeah, I'm ready for some intrigue. I think Doran pulls a flask out of his waistband. Yeah, no sobering up for Doran. He's doing it. If this is a middle of the night pillage, then Doran's got to be drunk for it. Oren's like, Masters, if you don't mind.

Oh, my God. I forgot you were here. Maybe I'll go back to the inn and catch some shut-eye. No, you know what? I think this is when Orange should come on. You don't get enough of the real-world experience, you know? You had to hang out during the giant bridge fight. You were at the edge of the forest during the dragon.

You should come. Maybe this will be your first real taste of adventure. Oh, I don't know, Master Red. I suppose if I'm supposed to write about your adventures, then I should get a first-hand look at it. Exactly. Doran pulls Red to the side, and he says, Red, what the hell are you doing? What? If Orrin wants to go back, let him go.

Look, look, look. I think Orin is playing it safe, and I think he's being respectful. But I really think that he wants a taste of what it means to be an adventurer. How is he going to get to tell our tales if he's always away from the action? All right, hold on, hold on. Oren. Yes. Do you want to come on this adventure?

Do you want to go back? Well, I want to be brave like you, Doren. If you want to be brave like Dorn, you'll need this. And I take Doren's hand, which is holding the flask, and I push it towards Oren. Here's where his bravery comes from. If you let him, Doren, he's going to take a nice pull at that flash. Doren actually just tips it into Oren's mouth. Yay!

Without even him asking. And I'm just, like, feeding him the booze. Oh, this is a choice. Drink this. I'm giving one point of inspiration for this whole situation. Y'all can vote on who gets it. Alex. Let's go, Doran.

Yeah. Doran? Why me? Because you're awesome. You get inspiration. You guys. So going to the villa, it's out of town somewhat to the northeast. It's about an hour's travel up a road called Jundar's Pass.

It's rutted with wagon wheels from centuries of travel. As you walk Jundar's Pass, Krayloth. Mist begins to creep into the sides of your vision, and the ambient sounds around you distort as if you're underwater. You're waiting for this to happen again. You're more ready for it this time. A ghostly figure in armor, besmirched by grave dirt,

is standing 15 feet away from you. You recognize him now. You're almost ashamed for not having known him the first instant you laid eyes on him in water deep. It's your captain. Lord Sikil Trinieros of the Eternal Order. His skeletal hand caresses the hilt of his longsword, the green light in his eyes burning insistently.

Gray, Lord, my boy, you made it back. His mouth is working noiselessly. But you've forgotten. You're missing. How cruel! A figment now, as Calumboor detests, return to your body, the silver dragon. He disappears. The mist rolls back out. Craylot.

You okay? Yeah. You look a little pale there. It's just the Apparition again It's I know who it is You do Who is it

I don't want to talk about it right now Let's let's keep going Fair enough Fair enough Apparition None of your business This is cool Best Friend's stuff

You stay out of it Yeah Haunted by the sins of your past Craylon Aren't we all Jokken I swear you Shut up I give Zolkin a

elbow in the chest Oof Shut up We have something else to be focusing on right now Just a little ghost from the past isn't a big deal. True, true. And I take another swig of my alcohol, whatever is I've gotten that little flask.

Actually, I'll have some of that. Here, and I pass it around. Thank you. Kralath, you are seemingly unmoved by this. What's happening in your head right now? Well, I think that having a little bit of booze in my system is helping me face it with a little bit less of the fear. But definitely I'm just suppressing the hell out of. what I'm feeling right now. And, uh, I take a sip from the flask, hand it back to Doran and say,

speaking of undead, the, uh, invisible creatures could have been some sort of specter or wraith. Does that ring any bells with you there, Zolkin? Oh, I, I have no idea, frankly. This is kind of more your realm. This is why I thought I should include you. I'm glad you did. Well, Kieran, make sure you keep your eyes and nose poised for anything that's invisible. I've got my eyes open. You're the best, Kieran. So off the road, up a steep hill and through a copse of leafless trees, a walled compound is visible. Zolkin leads you up this twisting dirt laneway and leads to this villa, a stately stone edifice. Looks like there's a detached stable house, and there's a 12-foot stone wall that encloses the villa. Zolkin sort of beckons at you. This way, it's a detached stablehouse, and there's a 12-foot stone wall that encloses

the villa. Zolkan sort of beckons at you. This way, it's just around the back and heads through the trees. Wow, you weren't kidding at all. This is a mansion for sure. Is there any like signs or heraldry or like anything that gives us a sense of who was here or the name of this place or anything like that? Not immediately detectable from the front gates, no. And nothing like in the rod iron of the front gates or something? The front gates are thick oak doors. I'm wondering if I should scout ahead and maybe do a little bit of a looky-loo before we head towards the building. Sure. Why not? I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to my friends.

You should bring Kieran with you at least. Yeah. All right. Come on. It's just the invisibility thing. Kieran will just sort of follow in your footsteps. Where do you want to go? I guess I think it might be wise to do my primeval awareness. I can detect my favorite enemy, which at this point is giants and humanoid within a five-mile radius. So if there is, at the very least, one human in there, as Zokin has promised, I should be able to detect them. Humanoid. Correct. Apart from your friends, you detect one humanoid within the five-mile radius.

Brilliant. I'd say that to the others. That definitely is a human in that. Humanoid. Yeah, and then I'm just going to, I'm just going to stealth up, and I'm going to do a general perception. Maybe if it's not too lavish a building, I'd like to do a quick circle around it, just, you know, perceiving as I do, and then head back to the guys.

Okay. Make a stealth roll. If Kieran helps, oh, I guess not for stealth, for the, for the perception, maybe they could take the help action. You can roll a stealth roll for Kieran. Let's do that. 19. And red?

Drunkenly, nine. Kieran slips into the shadows with a 20. Shut up, Karen. I'm like kicking the dirt, stomping off. So does the stone wall have any unique carvings? Is it like a nice stone wall or just stone? It's nicely cut stone, but there are no etchings or relief carvings in this stone wall. Nothing to study on this, okay.

No, not right now. So I loudly walk around the perimeter of the building. Yeah, followed. Relatively, I mean with a nine, so I'm not like screaming. followed by this shadow of a tressum. Red, you circle the walled villa and you find the rear gates are in ruins. One of them is ripped off its hinges lying on the dirt road.

The other is hanging at a crazy angle. Cool. Beyond which you see through the darkness of 1 a.m. The yard is in a disarray as well. There are some drag marks through the dirt leading through this back gate there is a dead horse in the yard its limbs ripped from its body

Oh my God Yuck! And beyond this you see the villa stately stone edifice with a detached stable house both buildings have sloped rooftops covered with clay tiles

and you see the veranda appears to have a body on it as well I wasn't all that stealthy I can't imagine that I did this successfully with a nine. So I think I might just go back and get the others so they can all witness this scene with me. That'd be great. So Red pops up back towards the three of you and Zulkin. I think I found another way in around back.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as stealthy as I thought. So you guys, Miles, will come to and help me take a look around. All right. Lead the way. Perfect. And I go to give Doran a piggyback. Maybe you should get on my back. Because if you're not quiet, then...

Well, you're gonna carry me around? I mean, I would try, and then I'd probably fall over drunken. We're all pretty tipsy. Yeah. I think it's been established. Yeah. Yeah, this is a drunken midnight adventure. All right, get on my back.

Oh, right! I kind of slur. So you're all standing in these broken gates looking into the walled compound of the villa. I had to view some 40 feet. The villa stands in the darkness. As I said, there's a body of a horse in the yard. Looks like it's been dead for a little while.

There's also a veranda that leads to the back door of the house. Now, you mentioned that there were drag marks. Yes. Can I do a survival role on those? I kind of want to understand where we go and what they are. Go right ahead. And that's a natural one. Oh, no.

For shame. Now, this isn't Chester, because Chester, Chester's basically dead I put Chester out of the game for now I'm too mad but too attached yet I don't know yet but anyway

no this is one of our pallid and dye I've been using him for a long time he is unnamed but for now and hopefully that sends a message to the other dye that I'm going to be rolling as I pull out ash my stone dye rolling rocks and hope that I do better

from here on out. But anyway, yeah, no, it was a fail for the track. Ashta, the die. Damn. You guys left your horses back at the inn, correct? Yeah, they sure did. They're probably in the stables for the night. Okay.

Yeah. Yes, but I think we like kind of drunkenly forgot. Like it wasn't, I mean, we would have, but it was definitely like a, oh, we don't have our horses, do we? Yeah. That's fine. I mean, I just wanted to make sure that you're walking. Oh, right.

So, yeah, Red, you recognize that the drag marks that come through these broken doors and disappear down the road are those of there's some footprints of giants and then drag marks associated with these tracks probably left about the same time you would presume and i let them know that do the drag marks resemble anything similar to the drag marks we saw leading away from the excavation site where the fire giant was no okay these are different maybe body drag marks probably look like bodies this is probably where the the giants dragged away the uh the owners of the mansion. I wonder why they went after the owners of the mansion.

And looking around, especially at the dead horse, do I see like this has been eaten? Why is it dead? Great question. How close do you get? I say within 15 feet. So enter the gates. Roll a medicine check.

Or, I mean, if you just want to perceive, you can roll a perception check. But if you want to sort of think about the horse in terms of bones and sinews and. Oh, I'm definitely giving this to perception versus a medical. I just want to see if it's how it's been killed. Has it been half eaten? Oh my God. A natural one on my paladin die, you son of it!

Oh, no! Paladin! Yikes. But that gives me a four. We've all rolled ones. Or just Jack hasn't. Yeah. Here, pass me the jar.

But I guess my number's coming up, isn't it? Yeah, you're going to roll the next number one. Just make sure you don't roll something on me. Well, I can see that this horse is dead. Yeah, it doesn't have a head, so you would presume. I assume that it's probably dead. I think this horse is, I think it's living. It's just one of those headless horses that I've heard of it.

I'm going to poke it with a stick just to make sure. You mind if I take a look at it there, Doran? No, please, be my guest. Be my guest. Be my guest. And Doran sings off into the moonlight. Piss my nervous to that test. Kralov gets down on one knee.

21 to medicine. Kralath, as you head over to give Doran your educated guess about what may have happened, you see that this horse's limbs were ripped from its body as were its head, and there's a large bite mark out of its torso. Large bite looks like blunt teeth as opposed to... Looks like big, big giant teeth. And essentially, I saw the other wound earlier. I got a natural one on it,

but I don't see any bite marks that look similar to what Zokken has in this. No, this doesn't look the same necessarily. And as you are examining this horse, you hear... What the fuck? And the creature launches himself out of the bush right behind you and sinks a sickle deep into the musly part of your butt. Whoa. What the fuck?

The musly part of my butt? Everybody roll for initiative. Yeah. Oh, man. All right. All right. Justin was Kralov have. You got a 13.

Harlan, what about Red? 12. Alex? What does Doren have? An unnatural 20. Oh. And Rob, what about Jack? 17 for Jack and Cure.

Which kind of actually makes sense for my initiative. role, considering that while you were looking at the horse, Kralath, I had actually turned around to go take a pee on this tree about 15 feet away. Good thing the sickle didn't go into you. Yeah. Yeah, really. My penis! Oh, yeah. Not musily enough. So, this creature launches itself out of the bush at you, Kralov, and makes an attack against you. It's got a sickle. It's a very small creature. and it's wearing these thick metal boots. And so when it lands at your feet and tries to attack you,

the boots clang make like this crazy sound against the ground. And it misses you. It misses. And is this a hand sickle? Because there's like two sizes, right? Yeah, this is a smaller weapon. It's got a handle on it that's maybe about a foot long. And then there's this.

half-moon blade attached to it. Perfect. Thank you. It glances off my bum armor, which I call buns of steel. So the buns of steel repel the creature's first attack with a sickle. It bears its tiny, sharp, bloody teeth at you, Kralloth, and tries to hack at you twice more. Don't do it. I've got an 18. Does that hit you?

Yes, it hits me. And a natural 20. Nah, so I'm going to convert that to normal damage. Nice. Ooh. Nice. That you were going to forget about that for some reason. No, wow.

And she wouldn't even remind you. Because that's, what is that called again? Sentinel, a death store. It's my level six spell. Oh, right. Yeah, whenever me or an ally take a crit, I can turn it to normal damage. Three times per long rest. Brilliant.

So the first hits you for eight slashing damage, and the second hits you for nine slashing damage. Yikes. Now, Doren, one of the creatures leaps out of the bush and tries to attack Doren. But he fails, obviously. Just let me shake. Just let me shake. I've got a 21. Oh.

Actually, two 21s and a 14. So two hits and one miss. Yep. The first hits for 12 damage and the second slices at your leg for 9 damage. 12 damage and 9 damage? Yes. The final creature jumps out of the same shrub. It looks like they were all just hiding and also tries to attack you Kralov.

Going to do three big bad hits. That's one hit. 11 damage. All right. So yeah, these creatures, they are short. They have iron boots on. They have these big, weird hats that sit kind of low. over their eyes and they're, I mean, it's hard to see in the darkness, but they're just

this crimson red color. And they're wielding these vicious-looking sickles and seem to be just bloodthirsty. Doran, it's your turn. I attack the one that's standing in front of me and to my right. So the one that's like farthest from Kralath. Correct. Yeah. So I take a swipe at him with my battle axe. That would be a 20 to hit. Oh, yeah, that'll hit. And it'll do 12 damage. Nice. Nicely done.

You little bastard. Palpable. He, it like reaches a grimy arm up, wipes the blood away from its forehead and licks its own blood off of its hand. What do you do next? Let's take my second attack. Okay. You disgusting little creep. And I attack with a four.

14 to hit. That hits. All right. Doing another seven damage. Okay. All right. And then I'm just going to stay where I am. There's no sense in moving.

That's a lot of damage and it didn't like that very much. It's going to try to hit you back. And that's three misses. So the creature just trying to swipe at you with the sickle. And you, Harry. And Doran just kind of has his look on his face. It's like, ew, ew, what, ew. Not really fear, but disgusting little bastards.

The other creature that is directly in front of Kraloth is going to try to attack him three times. The same wicked sickle that it's holding, 17 misses you? Yep. So all three miss. The third creature catches sight of those of you who are standing beyond this broken gate, turns and just locks eyes with Jack, this bloodthirsty creature. And it's going to break away from Kralath and run over.

Kralath got a reaction? Yeah, if you'd like to take one. Thank you very much. Yes, I'm going to knock it on the back of the head while it tries to run away. Roll to hit. That's a 21 to hit? Oh, thank goodness. Oof, yeah.

Jack is like, oh, good. Not liking this at all. Six points of damage. You clonk the creature on the back of the head and it takes one disease. step, but then just continues running towards Jack where he stands in the darkness outside of the gate. Takes three big swipes at him. The first one is 16 to hit. It definitely would hit me, but I'm going to bring up that magical shield in front of me. I see this thing coming. As soon as it gets out of that dizzy spell, I throw like both my hands up in this wall of force, this bubble sort of

appears in front of me, pops up. And that's just for one attack, right? It's for the rest of the round, Okay, wonderful. So this 23. That will still hit. All right. Well, he ducks underneath the shield just as it comes up and his sickle clang off the shield and then he gets closer to you up within the space of that shield and gets you with a sharp part as opposed to the not sharp part. I mean, honestly, you know, it hurts less sometimes when you use the sharp part instead of the not sharp part. So I kind of am thankful. Nine points of damage, Jack. Damn. And you see, he's got like a bristly white beard, this creature and glowing red eyes. He's just so thirsty for your blood. It must be a little vampiric gnome.

Vampiric gnome. Jack, it's your turn. Kieran, go make sure there aren't any more of these things. And I want Kieran to go fly around and see if they can spot any more of them or make sure there's no more surprises hiding in bushes with their fabulous nose. Okay. 24 foot there, keen smell. She says to you telepathically, Hill Giants were here, boss, I can smell them.

Any more of these things? I can't see any, no. Trying to compartmentalize and process some of that, I'm staring down this thing. Do I recognize it at all? Do I know what kind of thing it is? You can roll a nature check? I would love to roll a nature check, 23.

Blood-soaked gnome seems like a pretty apt description. These creatures don't seem to be vampiric in nature. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. them before, but they seem maybe like their fay. Cool. And then, yeah, so the shield falls. From the open wound where Kralath hit this thing in any of the other bloody places, I try and pull whatever life forces I can out of there into my sphere. I would love him to make me a save.

Wisdom save? I'm looking for 15. That's a 16. So you're good. That's it. Gotcha. I think Jack's just looking a little stunned at this thing. He's seeing some weird fay creature. He knows Hill Giants were here.

This thing is sort of taken a beaten already. It broke through his shield. He's just a little bit shook and trying to figure out what to do next. The creature jabbers at you from around thigh level. Kralov, it's your turn. Kralov is going to turn towards the creature that is attacking him,

and he's going to cast vampiric touch. Okay. Melee spell attack. That's the creature. Do it. Natural 20. Nice. All right.

Natural 20. All right. Um, so that's going to be 3D6, um, so 6d6, right? Yeah, you roll it all twice. 19 points of damage. Wow. I heal half of that. Right.

What does it look like when you vampiric touch this fool? So I put my mace away and hold my hand out slowly. And this is a spell that Kralath hasn't cast before, but somehow he knows that he can do. and a dark cloud begins to envelop his hand and almost curiously he reaches out towards this blood-skinned creature and the creature is kind of confused too as this gentle hand reaches out to him

and then begins to suck his life essence from him. Interesting. Red, your turn. Oh, right. I'm going to move back 30 feet from the entrance to get a good look at what's going on. As I'm moving, I just want to do a cast around to make sure that we're not being ambushed on the outside either. You don't see anything.

Perfect. But as I'm moving back, I walk by Oren, who's, like, hiding. And I'm like, oh, oh, Oren, this is the real shit, buddy. I don't, I don't have them get to me. Don't worry. It's going to be a good time. And I, like, put my quiver towards him. I'm like, pick whichever arrow you want.

He reaches a quivering hand forward and gently grabs an arrow out of the quiver. Perfect. And I take it from them, I'm like, this is good luck. And I'm going to fire at probably the one in front of Jack. Thank you. And I'm going to cast Hunter's Mark on it. You guys ready to watch this little creature die. Very.

And it is hurt? It is, yes. Yeah, it's like a 26 to hit. Yeah, that works. 20 damage. And I turn to Oren and I'm like, good arrow choice. That one hit. Thank you.

No, thank ye. And I fire again. I'll pick this one. And I'm going to do the same attack minus the Colossus Slayer. 12? No, sir. The arrow skids wide. Oh, damn.

Sorry, Orin. I should have let you pick this one. Maybe next time, Master Red. Dorn, it's your turn. You have one salivating, gibbering creature standing right in front of you with a sickle raised, and there's another one just to your left. Doren's going to take two attacks, obviously, in a row. So, first attack is a 11 to hit.

No, that doesn't hit. Okay, and then a 20. That absolutely hits, natural 20? No. And so that's to the 14 damage. So that's the one that's also in front of Kralov? Yes. Okay.

Right in front of the two of us. Neither of them like that very much. They're both going to try to slice and dice with their little sickles, dripping with blood. One of them hits you with a 24, another one hits you with a 23, and then the other one hits you with a 23. That's minimum fucking damage. So... That's good.

Six. So the first one deals six and then seven damage to you as it just starts hacking away your legs. And then the one that's in front of Kralov turns to you and deals nine slashing damage. turn your back to it to deal with this first creature, it just sticks its sickle right in your back, right between your shoulder blades. And Doran exclaims, you little fuckers, like they're almost an annoyance. But just like flex of your dwarven blood just spraying in their faces and you sit in like licking the blood. Yeah. Yeah. What's your health at? 29. Jack, the little creature in front of you just tries to stick you with its sickle really quick. Yeah. Stickle with a

A 20 to hit? It brings the sickle up again, and Jack's now got his orb in his hand, and he brings a shield bursting out from there to push that away. So the sickle clings against your shield, and then almost as if you were doing a dance, again, it steps in and underneath the shield and sticks you with a 23 to hit. That'll do it. Deals another nine damage to you. Your leg is just getting shredded.

Jack, it's your turn. Jack disappears into a silvery mist. and reappears on top of the wall and looks back down at that one he was just standing in front of and before it can even turn around, he holds his oarabout again and tries to toll the dead and pull its soul from here. But now he's got some space to concentrate

and hopefully get a little bit of extra oof behind it. Okay, so it needs to make a wisdom save? Yes, please. 12. We're liking that. 18 damage. You kill it. It's soul just

sucks out of its body. Nice. It just crumbles to the ground in the darkness, its head lulls to one side, and falls lifeless. Yeah, and I don't spend too much time focusing on it. I look to see what's happening with Doran and Kralath. And so, Kieran, can you help distract that one that's in front of Doran? Okay, boss, they launched themselves down from where they're perched on top of the gate

and start circling around the head of the one, this like nomish, demon fay. Krayloff, it's your turn. So Krayloff still has this shroud of darkness around his palm, and he realizes kind of quizzically he looks and he sees that it's still connected. There's this magical tether between him and this creature that's hacking at Doran. Weird. Without really thinking much, he pushes his hand out and then pulls it back, yanking. And he's going to try to use vampiric touch again, which is a concentration. spell. It's up to a minute, and I can use it until the spell ends.

That's very cool. Okay, roll a hit. It's another natural 20. Oh, nice. Brilliant. Whoa. That's incredible. Nice. How much damage do you deal? I like this die. This one can stay. All right, let's get some more health back. 13 plus seven, so 20 points of damage. Wow. So the creature only had 12 hit, points left. Oh, I see. You only get 12 hip points in return, I'm pretty sure. You're like sieving its hit points off of it. So I get half of 12. That sounds fair. Okay, yeah. So you get six hit points back. And the creature, ooh, what does it look like when you kill a creature with

vampiric touch? Ski-ezy. I think that there's like little droplets of blood that are siphoning off of this creature and beating... They just, like, start percolating through the skin. Yeah. Like bubbling at the pores. And then before, and by the time the spell is done, it's completely colorless. It's just gone completely gray and collapses to the ground. Gross.

Red, it's your turn. I'm going to move 30 feet so that I am in line of sight of the other creature inside, even if I have to hug the wall. Absolutely. And then I will fire. Okay. Roll to hit. No, that is it.

12. I'm going to attack again. Oh, and I'll spend a bonus actually to move Hunter's Mark towards this creature. Okay, perfect. Natural 20! Oh, my goodness.

They're just coming out of everywhere. Colossus Slayer, Hunter's Mark, original damage, doubled. I'm rolling all these twice. Amazing. 23 damage. Oh, my goodness.

Total. It yet lives. Doran, it's your turn. This creature, an arrow just protrudes from this creature's head as you. You know your friend Red is nearby somewhere. What do you do? And that shocks me more than the little slices that I'm getting from these guys.

Oh, I kind of take a step back and smile with glee as I take another strike. Into the area that I often, most often aim for is the area between the neck. and the shoulder. Where a head is most want to be separated. It's because you're so used to putting your axe into the, you know, the headboard at bedtime. What is this? That's like the most likely place.

That's the headboard of the body. Yeah, but like coming down like this. So into the chest. I wonder if Kieran doesn't land on that arrow. They just got there and sort of wrenched this creature just a little bit trying to get a nice open spot for your axe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you can actually roll with advantage because Kieran is helping you to strike this creature. Okay.

which is good because the first one wasn't good. So that is a 24, 25 to hit. Yeah, so Kieran just lands on this arrow and the creature's head swings to the side, leaving a big open spot for you to hit. How much damage do you do? Thank you, Kieran, I say to the bird as I do 13 damage to the neck area of this little demon gnome.

Yeah, you get a nice hack in there. as blood just sprays up at you. But he's not dead yet? Not dead yet. So I literally go like that, and then I take another one at the exact same area. Like I didn't get through the piece of wood the first time. Fuck!

With a nine. You have lucky. I'll use action surge instead. And that gives me one extra action, which is an 18 to hit. Yeah, you do. Doing 11 damage. What does it look like when you kill this?

this last creature. Thank you. So I do take my first slice, which doesn't go all the way through. And then, oh, the second slice, like cutting a piece of wood, my axe gets stuck and I actually lift the creature with my axe.

Oh, no. Bring it down as it, like, slices all the way through him from... The clang of these, like, iron boots on the ground as he, like, you just knock him into... And the iron plate that he's got on is like weirdly broken apart. And I turn and I smile to red.

And I got like this, I just like that this big bloody smile. I lower my bow and look to Oren who's like standing next to me. His mouth is like a gape. See? Aren't you glad you came? Drunken hijinks, yes, please. Thank you once again to our. great old one, patron supporters,

Kellan Holman and Christopher Ryan Evans. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. If you enjoy this program, you could have a die named after you. And of course, shame. See you next week.