Dice Shame - 35 | 'Speak of the Devil'

Episode Date: June 11, 2020

While delving into the dungeon of the mansion, sinister forces attempt to stop them... 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.

You devils are making a big mistake. Doran puts his axe and his shield onto the ground. As long as we're back within the hour, the scones should be fine in the oven. Best friends is more like it. Holy moly, roly, roly polly. You better slink back to the shadows, you're all going to go the same way. I know you guys are so sad about this. Zolkin, no.

Your mistress is gone, and soon you'll be sent back to hell where you came from. Welcome back to Dyshane. This is episode 35, speak of the devil. Oh, spooky. MVP this week is friend and fan Nara. You can check her out on her Instagram at Rise underscore Tofu. She's an extremely talented artist and just finished some unbelievable fan art of the boys looting vases from the villa. We've posted it on our social.

media accounts for everyone to see. Thank you so much for that, Nara. Again, check her out at Rise underscore Tofu on Instagram. Is it vases or vases? I always say vase. Oh, do you? Let's listen to the episode. Let's do it. All right, guys, let's get right back into this. Yeah, yeah. You guys are standing on the second floor of this spooky, dark villa. It's the middle of the night. You're halfway in the bag, and red, you're holding in your hands this curious, cube artifact thing. Yes. What do you do?

Oh, we're right back into it. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. Well, all right, and I head back out and I'll show the cube to Jack. Any idea what this might be? Um, I don't know. Let me take a look.

Natural 20. Oh, wow. Jack knows. Nice. 30 on this cubes. That's sick. Okay. Um, yeah, you've never held

anything like this in your hands before. and your heart starts to race as you recognize an infernal puzzle box. This is a box that is not magical. It is mechanical. However, it is made of materials that are recognizable to you as deriving from the nine hells. So there's like bone from a demon, infernal iron. These materials are all cleverly interlocked together such that they're, There is a trick to opening it, and you need to figure it out in order to find what's inside.

Oh, that's so fun. Yeah, so it's a puzzle box. How big is it, you said? It's six inches on all sides. Interesting. Airtight. Maybe you could force it. No, don't force it.

You're saying this to all of us, I'm assuming? I don't think he's going to oversell the box in front of Zulkin. I think he's going to look at it. His eyes are going to go wide. I think he must be some kind of weird puzzle. I have to study it when we get a minute alone. Probably just a toy. I love it.

Why don't you put that away? Yeah, Red's like already enamored with it. He's, like, looking down at it, especially with someone who loves audits. This is such a tabaxi thing. In the room where we saw the piece of armor originally. There's a desk there, three bookshelves, and there's a staircase, iron spiral staircase leading up. I wonder where it leads. Who's going first?

After you. All right. Dorn just shakes his head and does start to ascend the staircase. You ascend this tight spiral staircase into the darkness of a gloomy square room. Two tall cages flank the staircase and an empty bookshelf occupies the entirety of the far wall. A slight movement catches your eye, Doran, from behind one of the cages. And a huddled human form croaks, don't kill me. Please. Please don't hurt me. In sort of a fashion that you guys have not seen before, Doran puts his axe and his shield onto the ground.

And with his hands nice and low, he says, it's okay. It's okay. Come on out. We're friendly. There's a child up here, guys. All right. Are you okay? This huddled form is clad in this kind of a navy blue outfit that you recall seeing downstairs in the servants' quarters, but he looks very bedraggled and at the sound of you putting down your weapons, he kind of flinches back.

Kralath? Yeah. I hate to think this if he's found a kid up there. Like, devils can take all kinds of forms. Do you have any way to test whether or not that's really a child and not something? shape-shifting trying to kill us? You tell me, would detect magic be able to suss that out? That might work, it might tell us more than we know now.

Well, buy me some time. Yeah. I'll need 10 minutes. Okay, sounds good. Hearing that preloth needs someone to buy time, red jumps at the chance. Ten minutes? I got it, buddy. And I ascend the stairs next to Doren. I see Doren.

Ten minutes in heaven. Wait, no. With the shield and his axe down. So what's the child doing? Is he like approaching? No, the child is just sort of huddled behind this cage. You can see through the bars that he's not actually in the cage. He's just using it as shelter right now.

And he's not making eye contact with either of you. I would like to roll for reassure. Persuasion. You could persuade? Yeah, I guess. But I have a really bad persuasion. Well, I mean, Red's next to you now. If you want to say something, maybe we can put our heads together because Red has a really good persuasion.

Right. You can help Red. Give him an advantage. Yeah, so let's do that then. Instead of me, Roy, I'm already showing the signs of reassurance. Like, I'm not going to attack this kid. I've got nothing in my hands. I turn to Red and I say, I think he's a little frightened. Maybe we should try to encourage him out and show him that everything's okay, that we're friendly. Good thinking. Of course. God, if what happened downstairs is any sign of what this poor boy's been through, then. Yeah, Red will, he won't put his boat down, but he'll put it on his back. Look, everything is okay. We are your friends, I promise.

There are no more demons or spooky boys downstairs. Here, and I'm going to approach him in a kind way, and roll persuasion. Sure, please roll. Can I give, like, a bonus to that? Yeah, you can definitely help him. Is it an advantage or just a plus to my role? Roll advantage. 22.

Whoa. Nice. Nice. Red, as you and Doran approach this. this child, he turns his tear-streaked face up to you, and a beam of moonlight coming in through one of the windows catches the tears glistening down his face. He's pale. There are dark rings around his eyes. His hair is unkempt, and he's shivering slightly. He looks at you with fear and hope in his eyes, and he says, you're not, you're not going to kill me.

No, of course not. Of course not. Come, come. Oh, you poor little thing. And Doran turns around and yells down the stairs. Oren! Oren, come up here! And I'm hoping that Oren can kind of help. Maybe sing a lullaby for this kid? Just kind of like take him out of harm's way so we can kind of continue investigating this floor.

Oren pokes his little head up through the staircase. You called for me, Master Doran. Maybe you should take this kid downstairs and maybe lullaby him or even just, comfort him. And yeah, I'll have my hands out to pick up the child, like, if he wants to be carried. He takes your hand, actually. This kid is maybe 12 or 13. Never red doesn't know the difference.

He's like, do you want a baby bottle? He's like, I can rock you. How big do you guys get? Yeah, so I lead the boy down to one of the rooms that was less destroyed. One of the bedrooms, maybe. Walk by Kualath, who's just chanting a little ritual. Find me the demon, find me the demon, find me the demon, find him. There he is, there he is.

Yeah, and I'll pick up one of those wooden folds that we pushed over and said I'm on the bed. Yeah, sure. And ultimately, I do want to sort of try to discern. Obviously, the hill giants have attacked this place. That is clear. The little red-capped blood gnomes are a bit of a question mark. And all of the devilish furniture have obviously perplexed Jack and to a lesser extent red. So these are the things that I am interested in talking about.

So when he kind of calms down, and I, so what, what happened here? Tell us, what, what, what's your name? My name is Thalas. Thalas Zoraz. Thank you for being so kind to me. Of course. My name is red-handed Robin. Look, tell me, if you can, what you remember about what happened. Well, these huge, giant men came, and they broke a hole in the back wall. It was mid-afternoon. helping to prepare the evening meal and all I heard was this terrifying crash and then there was screaming in the back and I put down what I was cooking and I ran upstairs and I hit and there was screaming outside. I looked out the window and I saw them. Some of the family was being taken. The huge monsters picked up the family members and were gone.

I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. It sounds like a terrible, terrible circumstance. Are you one of the family members here? Is this your home, or do you just work here? No, I've been a servant here since I can remember. Well, you must have been only little bitty baby. Was that your baby cage upstairs? Oh, no.

Oh, what were the cages for? I don't know. Oh. And maybe with that, we could jump over to Doran, who's all still up there? I think Jack's right behind him. I think naturally Kralath would gravitate. towards the room with the boy, just to check and see. He believes that he's just a little boy,

just based on that flash that he saw, Red walking by him. So we have Oren, Red, and Kraloth in the master bedroom with Thalas. And then we'll have Doran, Jack, and probably Zulkin. I don't think you'd probably let him out of your sight necessarily, upstairs with you in the tower. We'll call you B-Team. So, B-team. What do you guys want to do?

Jack, there's a bookshelf up here. You're going to want to check this out. Looks like there's books on it. Nope, doesn't look. It's empty? It's empty. Could be invisible books. It looks especially like there are no books on it.

Okay, let me roll a perception first for this room. Please do. Yeah, why not? Oh, with a seven. Yeah, you think there are books on that bookshelf. Never mind, they're just bones. Lots of bones. Well, and walking around, I guess I'm not very perceptive.

So I do, I yell down, Jack, there's a bookshelf up here. And I just don't mention. mention anything about books or not. I'm on your heels to come up and take a look at these gruesome cages and an empty bookshelf. Cool. Yeah, what do you want to do? Maybe you could be more perceptive than I am.

Yeah, I want to take a look around and maybe make a note for Kieran to get up here just to see if there's anything invisible or anything that smells kind of funky. Kieran haughtily wings their way up the stairs and takes a look around. Don't see anything here, boss. This whole place just kind of reeks of brimstone. Yeah. So can I use their help on a perception check? You can roll with advantage.

Amazing. That is a natural 20. Oh. Total of 21. That was Roland. Hey, Rortland. Yeah. So there are padlocks on these cages.

Yikes. They're not decorative. They're actually useful cages. They're not decorative cages. I mean, they're not like bird cages. These are like sturdy iron bars with padlocks. You figure that, you'd be able to pick them with a moderate check,

like the more dexterous folks in your party could probably do it. But the keys are nowhere to be seen. Is there anything in the cages other than... Nothing in the cages. And actually, with your 21, there's a fine layer of dust throughout a lot of this room, apart from the footsteps which your party has now created, and those that you would assume the child made

when the servant came upstairs and hid beside the cage. There's like a little bit of pacing in the room maybe from the same footprints, but basically the dust in the cage is undisturbed. This is a room that is not often used by the occupants of the villa. Got it. So there's no gold or emerald glints from the corner of our eyes. There's no glinting area in the room that indicates items to be picked up. and the bookshelves are indeed bare.

Well, I guess there's nothing else up here then. Just evidence of cruelty, I guess. Jack pulls out his book and checks off, Proved me right! It's a mental note, but definitely made with a big star beside it. Let's go see what's going on with the kid. Absolutely. Yeah, so Kralov walks through the door,

and right away he's got his detect magic on and looks right at the kid and... Kids not magic. All right, and he nods to red. And he nods to red. And so what exactly was your role here? You mentioned that you grew up here and you served this family. What was their name?

Yes, well, I'm a foot servant. I do the tidying up. I take care of the yard when I need to. I do some of the cooking. And I assist with Sir Thomas when he needs any help. Sir Thomas, that's your master? No, that's one of the Dutch. Duchess's adult children. Duchess Violet Hampirat lives here. This is the Hampurat villa.

Her three adult children also lived here with her, I suppose. Thomas is my master, but I mean, I serve the Duchess, first and foremost. And then Marion is her daughter. What about the Dutchie? Is he still alive? What? The Duchess's husband. I'm assuming that's... It's a duke. Sorry. What about the duke?

I've never met the duke, though I do know from context clues that each of the children were born from different husbands. Hmm. So the three children have lived here their entire life? I imagine so. They're quite a bit older than me. And Violet Humperot. Did you see where she went? Violet.

Hamperat. Is that not what I said? Humperat. Krayloff is chuckling to himself and reaching into his bag and pulling. out some jerky and he kind of passes it around hungry oh man yes red and thalus are both me too okay so everyone has a jerky break yeah it was just like there's just like a minute of us chewing this like hard jerky just around and he says uh after he glott finishes his last mouthful of jerky that was a loud gulp yeah well he's very hungry and yeah there's no water you know there's no water

so you get jerky mouth true a little sparkle of tear glints in his eye as his eyes dart around and he says Percival though Percival was killed during the attack yes so it was Thomas Peaseville and Marion did you say yes very sorry to hear that you had to go through this that's okay do you have any family no I mean the hamperats well they were very clear on the fact that I was not their family but um it felt like home here after a time. Did you like them, the hump-rots? Well, I liked Marion. Duchess was very cruel. She had me very severely punished should I ever fail to complete a task in a timely manner or to her exacting requirements. Also, she forbade that any of her servants learn anything

formal. I was never taught how to read or write like her children are able to. So I found that pretty mean. But I guess such is the lot in life of a servant. No, that's not okay. I feel for you, and I'm sorry you had to go

through that. Look, I don't know exactly what's happened here. We don't really understand if the giant were just making this a random attack, or if they were doing something... Giants? Is that what they were? Oh, yes. That's why they were so big. Wow. Sorry, what's your name again, kid?

I'm Thalas, Zoras. I'm sorry, Thalas. I'm Doran. And I put a hand out again, and a firm handshake. Are you a dwarf? I am a dwarf. That's... You've never met a dwarf before. You're the first dwarf I've ever met.

Oh, well, it's my pleasure. You know, now that there's nobody here, I mean, really... You've got a couple options here, kid. A first option is that you come back with us to town and find yourself, you know, a family to take care of you. But the option that I see presented before you, which is not one that you'll have often, is, you know, you've got this villa here. And, you know, it's pretty much cleaned out. As far as we know, is there anything in the basement that we need to be worried about? Yes, there is a dungeon underneath the house.

I'm not allowed down there ever. In fact, the Duchess Hamperat keeps keys to the dungeon, so I've never even seen downstairs. Which room is the Duchess's room? Oh, that's this room. And we thoroughly looted this one, right? I say loudly to the others. I mean, we looked around for anything pertaining to monsters, right?

Are you burglars? No, God no, we're adventurers, heroes, slayers of dragons. His eyes get huge. There's, like, stars in them. It goes anime for a second. Yes, and moo. But we're not going to lie. We did come here for, uh, to gain the riches of a house.

Because we had someone needed rescuing. Of course. That's, that's, you know, was a part of the reason why we came here. That was the only reason Jack came. I don't know. I thought that the Duchess would come back and that I would have a job again and that things would get back to normal. I guess I never thought that I would just be able to choose what I would get to do with

my life. Well, now you get to choose with your life. You can stay here, you can start a new in town, or you can follow us on an adventure to Killingja. No, no, I look to the others as they're like shaking their heads. Why don't we clear the basin for you and leave this home to you? I think you've deserved it, kid. He gets a little bit like cloudy-eyed, like far away, and you can see that he's having this like internal vision of what his life could be like, something that he's only ever really dared to picture for himself. And then he says, I think I would like that, Doran. I mean, obviously you can help yourself to anything that's in the home. It's not mine. I have no right to any of this stuff, but maybe I could live here. And I kind of look at this. I could see

us coming back after a big long adventure and the place is fixed up and he's like, he's the owner now and he's like, please stay here for as long as you want. And like, you know, it's a, it's a vibrant home. I was kind of wondering, because this is going to be a super long-form campaign, whether you might establish a base somewhere. And I thought that would probably default to Waterdeep because of Jack's connections there. But it's kind of cool. And this is actually a really interesting location because it's almost right in the middle of the map. Say, kid, do you want to make this the official adventure landing party zone?

Well, that's a cool name. Well, let's see we can find the deed. and get it signed over to the Nightstone Four. I like that. We're the Nightstone Four. Can you make this the official clubhouse of the Nightstone Four? I've never had a clubhouse before. Well, guess what, buddy?

I got one now. Here's your goal. We're going to go kill giants and save the world. You fix this place up, so every time we come back, it's a cool ghostbusters-esque meeting zone. With a fireman's pole and everything? It better have a fucking fireman's pole. Yeah, Red actually turns around and he's like putting his hands up and being like,

and this will be my room. over here, Krayloff can sleep when he wants to sleep in my room. Red, red, red. This is not ours for the taking. We're leaving the house for the boy. Yes, and the night's down four, boy, you're into this, right? Unless you don't want it, kid. I mean, it's...

I'm kind of embarrassed to say it, but I've never really had friends before. Thinking about the freedom that I could have and the idea that you might come back. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, friends. Now, let's be real here. best friends is more like it. And I throw my arms around this young boy and try to pick him up in a jovial way. And I think with that said,

we should head into the dungeon. Yes, let's look for the rest of the place. Orrin, do you want to sit with Thalas? Will we go take a look in the basement? I would love too, Master Jack. I'll sit here too. Again, I look at you guys and you're all shaking your heads.

I'm like, never mind. I'll come as well. I get it's a tight space, but... Meanwhile, the smell of baked goods starts to waft up the stairs. You fucking baking? Krayloff might be, well... Yeah.

The scones, man. He's... He's... Funk in, like, one of the morning. Drunk scones. Baking in this house. Somebody else's kitchen. There's a hold of the fucking moonlight

outside from where a giant tore down the house. What time did we get here? Did we get here like around midnight? I got here like 1.30 in the morning. It's coming up on three, we'll say. Should we push on through? Clear out the basement. All right.

Oren, you keep him safe. We're going to go check out the basement. And Thalas, it was nice meeting you. Nice meeting you too. And good luck, Mr. Red. I don't need you. luck. Luck is my middle name. And I go to put the arrow that I have drawn up to my face and I accidentally cut my cheek. I thought it was handed. Oh, that's all the same. Come on. And we head

downstairs. So the entrance down to the lower level you found through the kitchen, I believe. And Kralath is there baking, I guess. Oh, are we ready to move out? Smells wonderful. No, we're going to go right to this basement. Make sure it's all safe. Get your mix ready, buddy. Oh, oh, well, Well, I mean, someone's got to look after these scones. I mean, they're in the oven right now. I'm wearing, like, I found a silk, like a red silk kind of sexy apron. Do we not have time for scones? There's always time for scones.

As long as we're back within the hour, the scones should be fine in the oven. So let's make this quick, a quick dungeon delve. Priorities, I agree. All right, so we stand in front of the door that Zolkin is opened, and I have my bow trained on the door. Who's going first? Obviously. And Doren, like, pushes the door open.

It's like the classic, the door opens. It's a loud creek, and it's just, like, three steps until complete darkness. Except we all have dark vision. Come on. I'm trying to give the audience a visual here. A visual in a podcast. So what do you think is down here? Lots of death.

A dungeon, probably. Now, we do know that there is that trapped door. in the horse stables. I'm assuming that's how the imps are popped up, although they are invisible. Either way, let's remember that there is probably an alternate exit from here. Could be anything.

If the Duchess is the kind of person who wants to keep people in cages and other things in the attic, it could be all kinds of devilry down here. Secret of two, because Thalus wasn't allowed down here. No. That's right. Well, let's tread carefully.

So you descend this staircase into a dark room. There are four stone pillars here. They brace the 10-foot-high vaulted ceiling of this dry cellar. The walls of which are lined by a dozen barrels on wooden braces. Half of the barrels seem to be tapped. Others are left untouched. The room also contains two stacks of wooden crates. There's one in the middle of the room and one by the south walls.

So you walk down the staircase and there's just a big pile of crates in front of you and then beyond that, this large square dark chamber. There are some sconces on the walls where you could put some torches or lanterns if you wanted light, but as you all have dark vision, it's not really required. As Zolkin comes down the stairs,

Doran lights one of his torches. Mm, nice. It also adds a certain element of, you know, a golden glow of the dungeon lit by a torch. How many doors are leading out of this room? Great question. There's a door on the, east side and a door on the west side.

Let's stop with one to the east and I'm going to stand opposite it as far back as I can and I'm going to motion for somebody to open it. Okay. And so Doran takes a wide sweep and as he's passing by the barrels helps himself to some of the whatever is in the barrels. Hold on, Doran. Hold on. Hold on. And he's got his mouth underneath the tap. Huh? Kraloth walks over and says one of those bottles upstairs was laced with poison. I think you might

want to be careful. Well, you've got resistance to poison. Well, how about this? Everybody roll initiative. Do I get a drink first or no? You are mid-drink when this occurs. My mouth is under the tap. I have not opened the tap yet. So I'm going to go around the table and ask everybody for their initiative role and then also for your passive perception.

Red. 21 initiative and 15 passive perception. Jack. 17 initiative. His passive perception is a less. Kieran's passive perception is 14. Doran. Doran's initiative is 11, and my passive perception is 13.

Kralath. Initiative is 15, and passive perception is 16. Doran, did you want to go before or after Zulkin? Before. So, yeah, this big, square, dark room that is ringed by barrels, has a pile of crates in the middle of the room, and Red puts himself in a tent. tactical position ready to explore the room beyond as Doran moves into the room and starts to drink from one of the barrels.

Three creatures materialize from the darkness. These creatures are kind of on the smaller side. They have skin that you can see through the guttering torchlight that is peaked up into these jagged points. And they appear to be winged. Interesting. Red, Kieran, and Kraloth all have high enough passive perceptions that you will not be surprised by these creatures. So you'll all get to act in the surprise round with them. Perfect.

I don't even get, do I get a sip? Yeah, you get a sip. You're lying down there getting a good sip. So we'll call you prone. I prefer not to. Because actually, and here it is. I didn't actually open the tap. Okay.

I want to play it in where one of the taps get knocks off mid-battle and I get a drink. during mid-battle. You can make it happen if you can make it happen. Okay. Top of the round, red. What happens? So I get advantage on my first attack on creatures that have not yet acted in initiative. Correct.

Ooh, 14 a hit? That hits. Hey, nice. Oh, wow. That'll be 17 damage. Nice. And I will attack again. 17 damage.

On the same one. How does it look taking that first hit? Your arrow sinks into its spiny flesh and it... screams. Cool. I'll attack again. This time I will cast Hunter's mark on it

and I will also use the sharpshooter perk again. 22 to hit. Whoa. Holy crow. 27 damage. Wow. Nice.

Holy moly roly-poly. That was with my Colossus slayer which I can only use once per turn and then I obviously had Hunter's mark on that one. So your arrow sinks deep into this creature's chest and it falls backward and dies.

And I yell, you better slink back to the shadows, you bastards. Are you all going to go the same way? And I move back around the corner to the bottom of the stairs. It's Kieran's turn. Kieran, go help Doren out. So you are going to put Kieran in melee range of one of these creatures in order to add the help action? That's the one, yeah. I would love it if Kieran got the wrong request, and instead of helping me attack or defend, helps me open the tap. Both of these small monsters take to the sky. guy. They launch themselves into the air. They're not wheeling into the wild blue yonder. We're still

in a 10 foot tall room, but they get airborne. And the far one, the one that is closest to Zolkin on the far side of this central stack of crates, it's got this long tail and it whips the tail forward in front of it and a bunch of spines just like fly out at Zolkin. Sounds like a Pokemon move. I know you guys are so sad about this. Zulkin, no.

Oh, boy. Quick move, Zulkin. Get out of the way. Watch out. Hits him once. Can we use luck to make you real higher? Oh my God.

Just die already, Zulkin. So he gets hit with one of these sharp and very long spines right through the place where he had previously been bitten by an impet.

The remaining creature is going to Harry Doran. It's got this trident, and it's like flapping around in the air, and it's going to try to fork you. Yeah, we'll fork you. That's a 19 to hit? It hits. So you take two piercing damage. Take that.

He like pierces my ear. And then it's going to try to bite you. But with a 12, so it skewers you with its trident, but then when it's, you're not. It tries to get up close and personal to you, but misses. It's sharp teeth. Okay, can I interject here then? Yeah. I'm going to play repost, use one of my combat superiority, because that was a melee attack, right?

I'm going to use my reaction and make a melee attack against the creature. I'm going to roll a superior to die first. I love the way you say superiority, because it's like an S sound and then a bunch of garbled syllables. It's like a signature. Superiority. So I'm going to add three to whatever. damages here. Cool.

Thirteen. That hits. All right. So I'm going to add three to eight, so that's 11. 11 damage? Yeah. Okay. So this creature jabs you with its trident and then tries to snap at you with its long,

sharp teeth and it misses, but you manage to sink your axe into its ear. Wing. Oh, wing? Okay, sure. Yeah, I don't think they really have ears. Okay, it goes through its wing. Do you want a wing or a leg or a breast? Kralath, it's your turn.

You're about 20 feet. away from each of them. Well, I know that Doran can handle himself in this situation. I'm going to run forward to the one that's using ranged. Yep. And I'm going to try to whack it with my mace. Cool. That's a 19 plus...

Oh, yes, sir. Five. So 24 to hit. Nicely done. And how much damage? Five points of damage. Five points of damage in Kral's damage roll. It's the top of the first round now, and it's Red's turn again.

I'm going to spend my bonus action to move my hunter's mark to another creature. Have both of these been damaged? Yes, they have. I will attack the one in front of Kralath. Okay. With a sharpshooter disadvantage. Uh-huh. 22 to hit.

Ooh. Yeah, that'll do it. 24 damage. Thank you, Ash. Yeah. Do you do anything else? How does it look? Really hurt.

Almost dead, or? It's coming up on that time of the, like, I'll attack it again. This time I will not use sharpshooter disadvantage. Nice. Good call. 13 to hit. That hits, exactly. Excellent.

Nine damage. Okay. Jack, it is now your turn. Welcome to the fight, Jack. Yeah. Casting a glance towards where Kieran is still flying around Doran, Jack's going to sort of just nod and know that they're going to hang out there and help Doren again try and connect with this, whatever the hell it is.

And I think that's the thing on the top of Jack's. mind is, what the hell is this thing? He would love to sort of see if he knows anything about creatures like this. Doran, did you stand up on your turn, or are you just hanging out underneath the barrel for now? I'll say, I'm still hanging underneath the barrel for now. Cool. Doran could do this battle lying down. And he will. Okay, what's your role in your intelligence, Jack? 25. Jack, this is a devil for sure. Oh, servants of Asmodius. Oh, weird. You've seen

depictions of these kinds of devils. also. These are spined devils. So they're smaller than most other devils. They act as messengers and spies for greater devils. You know that it's got a limited use on that tail spine attack, so it can only regrow a certain number of tail spines to use as these ranged attacks. Yeah. And it's also going to similarly be resistant to non-magical damage. Well, Jack's going to shout to red, using silvered arrows or magic ones will pierce their skin easier. These fiends got a thick hide. And I think he's going to pull his orb out of his pocket and sort of try and grab whatever these things consider a soul from the one that's right in front of Kralath.

Okay. I make a deck safe. And I think it's wisdom. It's a five regardless. Beautiful. How does this creature like 15 points of necrotic damage? He hated it. I think there's almost like this dark pulse and glow is whatever energy it pulls out of that

thing gets into the orb and gets swallowed up and consumed and converted to. cloudy. I think it starts out cloudy and then like a chemical reaction sort of gets digested and goes clear as it shines with magical energy. Cool. So you guys all see these creatures attention just snap towards Jack as they see this magical energy just absorb the essence from one of the devils. And then I'm going to duck behind Zulkin. Zulkin, watch out for those spines. As you push him towards the enemy. Zulkin, be careful. Unfortunately, it's not Zulkin who's really going to have to be terribly worried about what happens next.

Because each of these creatures flies through the air towards you, Jack. Do I get an attack of opportunity? You do not. These creatures do not provoke attacks of opportunity when they are flying. I definitely try to grab it around the ankle, but... But it flies out of your reach. Yeah. They're all going to make their attacks against...

against you, Jack, as they see you as the most dangerous combatant now. You devils are making a big mistake. Does a 15 hit you? 15 is my AC. So I think I'm going to goose it and pop the shield in the last second as they try and connect. I'm just going to throw my hands up and create this force field around me to keep their attacks at bay.

So as these devils fly at you, their spines bristling, their eyes glowing with malevolent fire, you throw up your magical shield and rebuff all of their attacks. You have distracted them, but you remain unscathed. Nice. Your mistress is gone, and soon you'll be sent back to hell where you came from. Kralath, your turn. Okay, so seeing that they really don't like the magic being used on them, Kralath is going to try to use sacred flame on the one that is closest to him. Yeah. And it might not work I thought you were going to be like, Kraylaught tucks his magic away. And just watches the show. Oh, get them, Jack.

You're the only one with magic powers. Don't worry, Kralath. I got this. Your scones, we don't want him to burn. You're right. Maybe I'll go check on them. So Sacred Flame on the one that is right next to Zulkin. Great.

And it has to do a dexterity save, which is why I think it might not work. But let's try it. 17. Oh, it's fine. So then Kralov is going to move and... Get within melee range of them. Yeah, and then say, hang on, Jack. Let's send these things to hell.

But that's where they want to go. They might like that. You got it. Doran, it's your turn. You see these devils fly past you and attack your friend, Jack. But he seems like he's okay for now. Kralath tries to shoot this magical flame at them and one of them just wheels out of the way on its spiny wings.

What do you do? How far off the ground are they? They're like four feet off the ground. Doran watches the devil fly over him towards Jack. Looks at the tap. Looks at the devil. Looks back at the tap. Quickly opens it takes a big squig.

Closes the tap. It's like Popeye. Kieran is giving you the most awful look right now. Standing there, ready to help you attack any of these at any moment, perched on top of that cask. With a mouth full of the booze, Doran stands up and with like a new energy within, he runs across the room.

And I attack the one that's right up to Jack. So you run over there, fire in your eyes and beer in your mouth. Vom it on your beard. And I swing wildly and miss entirely with a two. Oh, no. As my axe goes wide. And then I come back around and I swing again at the same one with a, oh, that should hit it, a 19. Yeah, 19 hits for sure.

Nine points of damage. Okay. So your axe just takes this thing's head clean off. Nice. It's like swooping to avoid your first axe slash. And as it ducks underneath, it gets just down low enough for you to take a serious swing at the thing. And your axe sings through its neck and showers just this black blood all over Jack. I love the idea that it stops on the shield to and drips to the ground.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a windshield and a really, really juicy bug. How about that? It's Zulkin's turn. His one arm is occupied with the torch. So he's going to make an attack with his scimitar. Well, he's going to make two attacks with his scimitar. And that's two juicy hits.

Where to go, buddy? I don't know why I'm talking like red now. I got to just came to me. Great job, best friend. And as the devil has his back turned to Zulkin occupied with Jack And now Doren, Zolkin just goes right ahead and puts his scimitar right through the thing's stomach and then slices it in half. All right. Well done, buddy.

We never doubted you for a second. And yeah, we'll walk into the room and take a perception around, see what's, if they were guarding anything. 15. I mean, apart from the barrels and the crates, it doesn't look like there's anything really of much interest in the room. And with a 15, your cursory perception, and you don't see anything terribly interesting. This seems to be the mundane belongings of any villa ready to host a dinner party. The crates seem to mostly contain old personal effects. There's some broken furniture.

All right, Doran, lay down. You earned it. Yeah. The minute you lie down, I pull up my rapier and just take the nozzle clean off. It just starts pouring wine into his gullet. wine for everyone thank you of course to our great old ones kellen holman and christopher ryan evis and again to everyone who's been supporting us and reviewing us on various platforms we appreciate you see you soon

maybe we should try to try to encourage him out and and show them that everything's okay That were friendly. Good thinking. Of course. God. That were friendly. That were friendly. That were friendly.

That were friendly. That were friendly. Good thinking. Of course. That were friends. You called for me, Mr. Lord. Of course.

That were friends. You called for me. Mr. George. That were friends. That were friends. You called for me, Mr. Do you.

Can I give, like, a bonus to that? Should I roll or no?