Dice Shame - 39 | 'Game Plan'

Episode Date: July 9, 2020

The team makes a plan and enters Grud Haug ready for a fight... 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.

Heyo. Hang tight, Doran. So you're talking about saving time by building a rat? No, just jumping on a log or something. I don't know. Yes, please, I would love a carrot. Oh, I don't know about that. Even in RPGs, we're all mindful of forest fires.

Tonight on Jack. She lives in this lovely tower for a single family. Felt trees. We can make some lovely things out of that. Felt. They had fallen. Redd, that might not be a bad idea. Go on food.

Welcome back to Dyshame. This is episode 39, Game Plan. MVP this week is Daryl, a kind fan who recently joined our Discord and has been chatting up a storm with us. Always happy to hang out with fans on our Discord, so be sure to check it out. While you've got your phone handy, swing by our Instagram account at Dyshame. We've got preview clips, fan art, selfies, and some things. Don's Doran comes by to review his favorite beer. I like ale.

It's a great time. All right. Should we get down to business? Let's do it. It's so lovely to see all of your gorgeous, pixelated faces today. Hello to these digital faces. You too. Justin is just gently touching his face in the most, like, glam.

I'm primping. You haven't grown. a COVID beard. I'm surprised that no one here's got the big sort of foot long. You guys are already bearded. Every single one of you already has some scruff. I mean, I had to shave it halfway through for the mask fitting. Did you

shave it halfway through completely or did you shave half of your beard? I did one half of the mask fitting one day and then I waited for that to go in and did the other half of the mask fitting another time. I'm ready for the other half of my mask fitting. But I will say, Joe, you're wearing a tank top today and it's really showing off your COVID armpits. I mean,

I'm loving the long hair. I can almost braid them. I know. I was just going to say, are you dreading them? Doran inspired. Speaking of, is Doran's beard dreaded?

I've always pictured him having this big bushy beard. It's like matted. After watching the Lord of the Rings again, I realize a lot of the dwarven beards have gorgeous little. It's a point of pride. Dwarves actually have jewelry specific for their beard.

That's right. Beard rings. Well, this is a question. I mean, Doran now has a chunk of adamantine. You know, it's not going to function in any sort of mechanical.

away. Is he going to make a beard jewel? Is he, or is your beard just sort of dreaded with the blood and the guts of your ears? Well, okay, I'll explain really briefly here. Doren has, first of all, some braids in his beard. But after this long, I've only really bathed a couple times in the last month. We know. I remember the last time. It was like we were in the woods camping. At this point in time, it is quite matted and bloody, and it is not pretty or good smelling. But I do have a piece of jewelry. It's actually a length of finely made metal. It's like basically if you can imagine a metal straw.

It's not as long as what you would buy a metal straw, but it is fitted into one of my beard. And it's like that thin? Or it's a bit thicker? It's about that thin. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

And again, it kind of shows my skill with some of the metal that I've been doing. I'm now picturing like wind chimes when they're like a strong breeze and just all of the wind chime effect of like, oh no, the dwarves are coming. Do you hear the tinkling in the darkness? I'm looking in the direction. I'm thinking after all of this because the last time Doran has had a good bath

has been a while. I feel like it's funny because we've had like a home episode where we were in the mansion, but we didn't rest or bathe or do anything. In fact, the one day we had down, we were just nailing fucking roof tiles on. I feel like we are going to need a spa day after this is why I was pushing to do

the underwater infiltration of this giant giant mound. Ultimately, I had alternate motivations. It's a matter of efficiency. On that note, on the options that we have, I think stealth is the smartest way to do this. Getting in through the back, maybe even through the

waterway, trying to get down where those piggies are and shoot up through that 20-foot hole. I think our first attack should be on that chieftain. I don't want to fight three giants before we end up getting to her. I agree. I agree. I think that finding a secret way in, there's got to be one. It doesn't look like it's fully designed like a Ford or anything like that.

Then picking off as many giants as we can without setting off the alarm. I mean, Jack, you mentioned a distraction. I think that's a great idea. At least to draw the eye or the eye of these watchtowers, maybe we do something off in their distance. You know, not to alert them not to being attacked, nothing so bold, but just to draw their eye a little bit. And then, of course, there's the idea of bringing down the entire fortress and dam. Now, let's not forget that we have people in there who are prisoners. Potentially. There is Heruk and potentially more.

I don't really think Heruk is a prisoner. I think Heruk is going to the biggest, strongest woman in his life, and that's the queen, and Moog's real heartbroken about it. I don't really think we're trying to step into solving giant relationship problems, as much as, like, I want to feel compassionate for these folks. Night on Jack, we have one giant and her husband. She lives in this lovely tower for a single family. I'm picturing like this talk show.

No, I think the idea of destroying the dam is important to the people, but I think it is a secondary objective, not to say that it's less important, but that it needs to follow the killing of the chieftain. I don't think it's likely that we can destroy this dam until that chieftain is dead. My current thinking is that we create some distracted, maybe light some pie or off in the distance, just to draw the eye of the watchtowers, while we slip in along the stream and head into the basement. We know that there are pigs beneath 20-foot holes in the chieftain's area, which means, in my mind, there's not going to be many people or creatures down there with the

pigs. We use my animal calmingness to walk by them and start an attack from below. Thoughts. I'm down for that. Yeah, me too. Now, I kind of have a hunch that there is a way in under the water. Do you think that maybe Red, you could do some scouting? Me too. Well, and I look to Jack. Jack's the one with the swimming ring. Unless you'd like it. It would be beneficial to me for sure. It would be wisest. If one

of us were to go with the swimming ring, find the best route in, and then come back and tell us. Because essentially this whole process of a dam, I can't fathom that they would have built this dam without a way for water to enter

and that is essentially the best way. we could get in. I have no problem. It makes perfect sense for you to have this ring and go under the water to see if there's a way in there. And I think approaching from the water

to avoid the eyes at the watchtower makes sense too. And I can cast guidance on you too, which will help. And I have paths without trace, which gives us each a plus 10 to our stealth. So sneaking in isn't a bad idea. The question is,

do I scout, hopefully find something of value and then come back, risking two passes, or do we all just go once and hope for the best? I mean, either way we're going to go into it. I think that the best way to go is you scouting ahead without pass without trace because your stealth is so high to begin with, we need pass without trace to get us through.

I agree. If you use path without trace first, then we're not going to get a stealth bonus and there's a much higher risk of us getting caught. My vote is that you scout ahead. If the vote is for scouting ahead and we're unanimous in that, then ultimately I think the smartest call is just to use pass without trace twice. Oh, if you can do that, then sure. And Red gets serious for a moment.

This is the first giant encampment that we are going to tango with. This is a monumental feat if we can pull this off. I don't think we should pull any punches. And as much as my spells are quote unquote useful, Hunter's mark, I still have spots for that. Pass without trace, me getting in there silently and getting back and getting us all there silently and getting back is most important. Now that being said, I personally don't feel there would be a secret entrance under the water.

That's just me. Not a secret entrance, a way in which the water enters. And it's just some way that people wouldn't normally go. I personally don't believe that there's a way in that the water would enter. I don't get that impression. Okay. Is there a logical reason water would be flowing into this building? So you can see that there are trickles of water, rivulets, but they don't appear to be coming through doorways.

It's just they seem to be seeping through the structure. Oh, I see. There are also docks, like I said, that extend from the back of the building. You know what? Why don't we just send Kieran fist? Jack, why don't you take a good look at everything we can see? Sure. Kieran, how do you feel about a flight? I'm nervous, boss, frankly.

Don't get too close. We're just looking for a top-down view, enough that you could sort of paint the picture for me, and we can pull a map together. Don't die. Well, you're in charge, and they take flight. So it's about a half a mile away from where you guys have secreted yourselves on the banks of this new lake. You watch as the form of your familiar and gets smaller and smaller and smaller and

disappears into the sky as they approach this fort and they're gone for about 20 minutes. When they return to you, Kieran lands on all fours on the forest floor and looks up at you with their sapphire eyes wide and says, All right, boss. It's a big place. Let's lay it out. We'll start at the south. It's built on a huge dam. I don't know how far across.

There's a pen with sharpened logs that form the fence containing maybe a hundred sheep or more. Divided into segments with a camp in the middle. There's a campfire and several tents. A couple of openings lead into a lower level and then a road winds up to the top of the dam where the main building is perched. Boss, there's a big giant that's standing. standing with a stone, just like that bugbear described. There's a small outbuilding as well.

I don't know the purpose of it. What else can I tell you? As Kieran's describing everything, I've got this little minor illusion pulled up in front of us showing the lake and the dam and the river coming out of it. And as new buildings are described, new buildings are popping up, you know, in the illusion. And I think as Jack's doing that, Doran is also sketching in his notebook thinking, you know, this might be a good idea to have this drawn. Red, leans forward, and very seriously just says, how many were in the watchtower?

Four. I mean, we can't just take out one. I have to make four shots in succession and kill them all. You could do that. Well, of course I could. You are very good. Kieran, did you notice anything in the lakeside that maybe would indicate the pull of water toward the base of the building? Something that maybe would give us the opportunity to move in through the lake?

Oh, I don't know about that. Rob, why don't you roll perception for Kieran? Uh, so perceptions plus five, and I rolled a 14, so 19. They noticed that there's also a small entrance in the rock face of the hill to the east. Hmm. Did you see anyone moving in and out of that, Kieran? No, I didn't. It looks out onto a field of felled trees.

Felt trees? We can make some lovely things out of that. They had fallen. Feld. Oh, probably they're in the dam now. What? He's talking about the felt. the fabric.

Yeah, I actually like the plan of trying that little cave and seeing where that goes. I think the idea that in tight quarters, giants are going to be less effective regardless, just because they can't turn around and move around. And we sort of saw that with the ogres when we had them trapped in the cave near Nightstone that we had an advantage there. Oh, right? Well, so if that small cave, and I agree, Jack, I think it makes sense to try to enter through an area that at the very least it doesn't seem like giants would comfort.

fit. So if we just swing wide around this entire area, you know, skip the river more south of here, and head towards the cave that Kieran spotted, I think that might be our entrance. After all, I do think entering through the bottom where the pegs are makes the most sense, and this might be how to do that. It does look like it's on the ground floor, as it were. Now, not to take away from the whole conversation here, but what if we just built a small raft and one of you with that ring dragged us across as opposed to hiking south

across in the river and the hiking back north what if we just cross the lake here So you're talking about saving time by building a raft No, just jumping on a log or something We need to save the walk Let's construct an entire boat

Yeah Well, what do we all think Cross the river south of here Head towards the small entrance In the cave wall Trying to find our way below The Chieftain Where the pigs sounded like they were

and start an attack directly on the chieftain. Yeah, I think worst case scenario and the alarm gets raised, at least we're inside then. Yeah. Yes. We don't have to try and get over these big boulders and walls and their defenses. I'm good with it as well. As long as we're all sticking to a plan, I'm down.

Let's do it. Well, let's pack up and, uh... Chief Gah, here we come. Should we still maybe light a fire here, draw people's attention up northwest of this encampment? If we're going southeast... I mean, at this point, it can't hurt if we're swinging south. I mean, sure. I'm okay with it. These bodies would burn black smoke and it would draw a lot of

attention. Done that before? Yes. It also would prevent them from rising as undead. Well, if Kralath is into it. I mean, as so long as it's got a slow start and it gives us time to swing south and cut across the river, you know what I mean? As long as they're not on us, then sure, whatever. So Dorian builds a small fire next to the bodies and he encircles the bodies with logs and like branches and stuff so that the fire actually starts on the wood and then eventually will move to the rest of the bodies. It's the fall, right? Like, this is prime forest fire time.

Maybe we should just... So we drag the bodies out into a clearing. Because even in RPGs, we're all mindful of forest fires. Right, okay. After all, only you can prevent forest fires. Yeah, and you should build it out with circles around circles of different debris.

So the fire actually burns for a long time and grows larger as it burns. You know what I mean? Exactly. Like, if you start in the same, center. Yeah, I think Doran probably has experience building certain types of fires for signaling. There's a slow burn distracting fire. I mean, in this time, distraction fires are probably maybe not commonplace, but definitely something that is on the tongues of many people,

because it is used frequently. Yeah, agricultural burning, not to mention after a huge battle, yes, Doran does know that bodies burn because after a huge battle, it becomes a cesspool unless you do something with the bodies, so. Perfect. Well, let's start the fire and head south, and we start heading south. Apart from the fire that you've created, do you take any other efforts to conceal your passing? You make a good point. Doran would like to cover our tracks. He uses brush and stuff and kind of tries to be his best to cover up footprints. And I think before we leave, I'm going to cast pass without trace as we circle the building. It lasts an hour, and it's everyone I see that I choose within 30 feet of me. So I obviously choose my friends and our lovely little tressum

and we swing around. So you're going to spend, I imagine, the entirety of the hour stealthing around, taking a wide loop of this place. Correct. Going first kind of southwest, then south, then sort of hugging around to the eastern side of the lake. Ultimately, our goal is to get right against that wall that we saw the hole carved in through Kieran's eyes, and then probably just scuttle along the wall until we approach it. Everyone make a stealth check for me. Krayloff got 25. 21.

25. 34. The four of you stealthily swing around, make a big arc around this den. As far as you know, there has been no movement in the den, no alarm back. Bell rung. Nothing that would indicate that your presence has been noted. So you approach. Walking through like sparse forest, right? Very sparse. The closer you get to the den, the fewer trees there are. And they, because they've mostly been felled. Yes. Right, right. And then way off in the northwest, we can see the black smoke rising from the mass of fire. That's now going full blaze. Exactly.

This can't be good for the ecosystems, eh? Red. Yes, I weep for my trees. The balance is off here. So you have successfully approached this hill giant den. You are on the eastern side of the lake and this dam, and you're standing just outside of a hole in the cliff face upon which all of this is built. There's a few trees just scattered around the outside here, and you are looking upon this opening.

To your back, there's a field that's mostly just cut logs and tree stumps. To your south, that's where there's this huge encampment. It looks like the wall that's around it is 20 feet high and there's sharpened logs. And when you were arcing around the base, you saw that there are tents within. And those are the ones that were described by Kieran as having orcs in them. We did it quietly, guys. You hear the faint bleeding of sheep from the enclosure. I'm going to cast aid on myself, Red, and Jack.

And that's going to give us a plus 10. I'm casting it as a level 3. So we get plus 10 HP to our max HP for eight hours. Nice. I think the minute we officially decide to move in, I will cast pass without trace again on all of us. So we can take a minute here and just discuss our plan. Well, this case scenario, we can just run away. Let's not forget that. Run away, run away. But, I mean, retreat is a valid option. Well, it's an option.

Ultimately, we want to get in there quietly. Find anyone in our way. But if we do have the opportunity to remain completely silent and get right under that chance, chieftain, that should be our goal, correct? Yep, right. Which means don't pop the first thing that moves, Doran. It should also be noted that with Pass Without Trace, Harlan has indicated the radius of the effect of that spell. So if you move beyond that radius, you're no longer quiet. Doran tiptoes up to the doorway, the cavern doorway, and with his eyes covering the shine from the sun, he looks into the darkness. And with his dark vision, I should be able to, to see what's kind of going on in there. And I'll cast Pass Without Trace again. All right.

What do my dwarf eyes see? I say it loud. Your dwarf eyes look in on a tunnel. This entrance is 20 feet high and 10 feet wide. 20 feet high. Mm-hmm. And leads into a dark chamber beyond your vision. He tightens the straps on his gauntlet and shield

and looks back at the rest of the party and kind of does a nod. Let's go. Leading the party in, though. Kralov follows him close behind. As does red. As does Jack. Doran, you make your way into this underground chamber. The chamber that you come into is about 80 feet long by maybe 55 feet wide.

It's kind of oblong in shape. There are two wide exits from this room on the. the western side of the room. And the room is occupied by a couple of ale barrels smashed in the corner of a room. Hail! Hang tight Dorin. They're smashed. I whispered back.

There are four giant-sized sleeping pallets arrayed around the perimeter of the room. And there's a guttering torch mounted on the eastern wall that you see as you come in. A top one of the pallets on the far northern side, of the room, loud snores erupt at odd intervals. A giant is sleeping here. Okay, so we got our first giant. Fast what's up. I whisper back to the party. Shall we slink around the giant? Or? Yes. And I see red nodding. We'll sneak around the giant. But there's two entrances leading west. One on the right, I think this is going to go upwards towards the actual build. and one to the left, going down, probably to where the water enters into the lower part.

You're the master of caves, Doran. If that's what your gut tells us, let's follow it. Agreed. Not actually, and on that note, I think Red's just going to sniff the air as well, because we know that Yeah, good call. Giants smell foul, and I want to know if one smells stronger than the other. Yes, we stealth into the room all together and kind of stand in between the two doorways, and you're going to sniff both of the doorways? I mean, yeah, I just want to sniff the one to the south

and see if it smells more like pig or what. Definitely a stench of pig, but that's kind of throughout this underground series of tunnels. Are we going to the right or to the left? Let's go to the South Tunnel. Kraloth, you okay? You look like you're a bit concerned. The way that we would approach this sort of thing in Borovia

was to go around the perimeters first and work our way inwards. I know. I'm just thinking if we get surrounded and this guy wakes up then that's one more giant we have to deal with but if you guys want to pass without taking this opportunity to put him out of his misery then I'll agree to that

I think the minute we attack this guy unless we can kill him in one round which is highly unlikely well the entirety of our plan has gone up the window Doran looking across the room is the giant's neck exposed I will see Doran looking and I will just say no let's go All it takes is for him to bellow once.

Okay, you're right, right. Let's just focus on the task at hand. So you're choosing the southern tunnel? My instinct is to go north, because if we go south, we're putting ourselves right smack dab in the middle of the encampment. Whereas if we take the north, it's only coming from the south that we'd have to worry about people. Doran pulls out a coin, a silver coin from his pocket. No, no. North makes sense for me.

Oh, does it? From the one direction for there to be bad guys to come from, highly on Kralov with that one. All right. Majority is north. And it's going to be a dead end and we have to turn around and sneak back by this guy and that's cool.

That's fine. Joe's looking at this. No, no, not at all. Okay, so you head through the north passage. The tunnel winds slightly and you feel the warmth of the cavern on your skin. It's only a short walk before you reach the opening of the next room.

You know how in the cloud giants home everything was so massive. Hill giants being smaller than cloud giants have slightly smaller furniture so that, like, well, still large is less massive. and more just too large for you guys. Cool.

So there is a blood-stained wooden table of giant size in the middle of this room. There are two huge iron cages, each containing a black boar that snuffles at you as you enter the room. There are some barrels and crates in this room as well, but there do not appear to be any giants. The room is a little bit smaller than the one. that you just came from, but, uh, you know, maybe 50 feet wide. I look back at red and I point at the bore and I give him like a generous nod. And red slowly shakes his head. No. Pass without trace is concentration. Okay.

Doran says quietly. And while my primeval awareness is not a spell, it does say by spending one interrupted minute in concentration. You probably can't concentrate on two different things. I glance up at the ceiling. Is there any opening in there? No opening in the ceiling. Remember the bug bear said something about pigs? Yeah. How many pigs are in this room?

Two. Doran procures two carrots out of his pocket. Lately having been stolen from the bug bears. Yeah. Keeps the potato for himself. This is a snack for later. And he kind of looks back at the rest of the party and sort of a, will you allow me to do, like, is this a meaningful glance?

A meaningful glance, thank you. Looks back at the rest of the party for a meaningful glance. No, that's not the word I'm looking for. Approving. You're looking for permission? Permissible glance. Yes. For approval.

For approval. For approval. And I hold. And we are like, yeah, just fucking do it. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, red at least. Yes, please.

I would love a carrot. And I take two and I give each one to the boars. And I let them eat it out of my hand. And I pet them on the head and they don't really make a lot of noise. Well, one of them does a little while it enjoys the carrot. As you are right up against the cage doors,

Doran, you see that these pigs have probably been fed meat. There are entrails on the ground. These are war pigs. In seeing this, I pull a couple more carrots out of my pocket and I give them a couple more carrots. You feed them a little more. Make an animal handling check for me, Dorn. I do a few more.

I just throw a bit of food in there. Animal handling. A six. Okay, yeah. They both start making a little bit more noise more. Eating these carrots that you've put down. Dorn, as you've moved further into the room, you can see that there are two exits here.

One of them is, again, quite wide, about 20 feet wide, 20 feet tall. That's leading to the northwest. And then there's an alcove to the south where there are these barrels and crates. I had described, and a small, thin crack in the wall here leads south. What do you do? I mean, that small crevasse to the south of us, it looks like it's big enough for us, yeah?

Doran's nodding his head. It's skinnier than a five-foot square, so you might have to squeeze through it points, but you could make it through. But do you think that that leads to the chamber? I don't think they'd carry the pigs through there. To certain death. To certain death. Let's just take a peek down to see a whole.

far it goes but I think if we're looking for for chief gun she's going to be a place giants can get to i agree i agree too red will step up and take a look around the edge red as you squeeze by this barrel it connects with the fur on the backs of your arms and it's slick with some foul-smelling ooze i look at jack and sort of gesture to the ooze to sort of put his mind on it see if he can figure out what the heck that might be. And then I'm just going to take a real quick peek down the tight passage. I only want to know what's down there. It's not a long passage. With a 15. It ends maybe 15 feet from where you stand. And from the exit of the narrow passage, you can see the glimmering of a torch in a wider corridor. So this looks like maybe

just a shortcut. Yep. And I pull away. This isn't the way we want to go. And I sort of shake my head to the others as I pull back to the center of the room. So I'm going to take a moment to investigate these crates and barrels and just see that we got the slime in one to figure out what's up with that and yeah just see what's generally going on over there role investigation for me uh 14 and 7 is 21 you can tell before you even get within touching distance of this barrel that it is likely being used to hold entrails the same ones that are being fed to these swine and that's what your friend red now has remnants of on his person any idea what kind of entrails Pig.

Pig. So these boars are being fed pig. Cannibal pigs. Cannibores. Yeah. Is this big enough to hide in? I'm going to hide here if I have to. Maybe we should rub entrails on us to mask our scent.

Oh, hey. Hey, no, actually, Red, red, that might not be a bad idea. Giants do love smells, right? Aren't they not sensitive about? Well, we know they're smelly. I mean, I have advantage. This is the whole thing that Doran had a theory about. Maybe that's what I'm thinking back to.

I have advantage on information to hill giants. We're in their den. Can I roll to see if they might have more sensitive smells? Yeah, I think you've had enough context now to merit a new information role on these giants. Perfect. 10. I was thinking about this earlier with regards to dogs. Like, a lot of dogs have really amazing noses, but they also smell very bad.

So it's kind of hard to know. The way they react to smells is different. They mean different things. Should we keep moving forward? Let's do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's keep going. Let's go down the main passage.

You want to keep heading west of this room? I say so, yeah. Yes. I got war pigs stuck in my head, though. So you continue to head down the western tunnel. It looks like it's widening a little bit as you head on. And indeed, it ends in a T-junction. One heading north, one heading south.

Camamel or orange pico? Macha. Earl Gray. Let's check north. I'm curious. Again, the same sort of deal. Lakeside. All right.

And we turn north. As you head north, your first few steps into this corridor, you begin to hear the squealing and grunting sound of many pigs. What do you do? Let's keep going north. Yeah. Stealthily as possible. Why don't you guys all roll a stealth for me?

Okay. All right, Christopher, come on. Come on, yellow dye. Sorry, guys. When do you roll? Liferless failed. No. Finally.

No. It's a natural one. No. Oh, God. Liferless. You. I mean, that's still 11. Still, it's actually 10 because I've got minus one to stealth.

Yeah. Oh. This is good. Okay, so we have a 10 and, uh, 25. What does everyone else have? 25? 34. 27.

I drop my shield. I see Creolel of McNois and I hang back. Plang tinglingling. No, I feel like, I feel like, because the group stealth check is meant to give us a an average. So if most people succeed, the check still succeeds as a group. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, rearing my head back for a sneeze and then Red shoots his hand up and covers my mouth. It's like a pass, pass, fail, pass thing. Like, there are more passes than fails. Our average is 22. They did the math. Subreddit.

Subred it? No, Kralath. We're trying to be quiet. That's the one where we don't make any noise. We put the shield back on your back. Dorian, are you still in the least? Doreen, are you still in the lead here? I am. You see a massive room. This room is approximately square with rounded off edges. Obviously, it's kind of more naturally made than that, but it's about 250 feet wide. Wow. There is a stream that cuts through the middle of the room that seems to be bridged by a little bridge, maybe 20 feet wide. The floor of this room is packed with swine. In some places, they're shoulder to shoulder.

The sound of them is just deafening. Well. So you're right now on the north-eastern corner of the room. On the eastern side of the room, just to the south of where you are, there's like a little ledge. It's like a swine rave. Yeah, it's a swine rave. This is the swine wave room.

It is dimly lit by torches in places. And then also there are shafts of light coming down, piercing the darkness of this room from the ceiling where there are a couple of grates. Lathander reaches even here. These are probably the ones that were described by your bug bear. Mm-hmm. Walking among this herd, there's an eton. This is a two-headed ogre-looking motherfucker. It seems to be fairly preoccupied with its herd.

And there are also a couple of bugbearer walking around. One of them, as you're watching, roughly pulls a pig away from a trough and then gently caresses the head of another smaller pig. He brings it forward so that the smaller pig has a turn to eat. Fatten them up. There are a couple of exits from this huge underground pig cavern. There's one directly on the center of the western wall.

Again, there's like a ramp that kind of leads up to it, just made of earth. And then there are two exits to the north, smaller exits. The walls here are made of piled timbers and mud that have logs jutting out of them. And the river that flows through the middle of this room seeps through a gash in the north wall and cuts across the eastern half before spilling through a small hole in the south wall, tumbling down logs as it goes.

Is it wide enough for us to fit through? Doran gives a knowing glare. Told you there was an underground river. Told you so. Because Doran classically loves water. Baths are his favorite. There are fences erected around some of the lower tunnels,

one of which you are coming out of, that seem to be designed to keep the pigs out. so right now you are in a pig-free zone and as the stench of pigs makes your eyes water with the amount of manure that must just be littered throughout the floor of this room your attention shoots upward through the holes in the ceiling of this room you see shapes moving gargantuan shapes and a voice rattles the rafters as you hear something call out in giant. Go on food! These hill giants are really hungry. Speaking of hungry, thank you so much to our great old one Patreon supporters,

Kellyn Holman, Christopher Ryan Evans and Adam Frey. With them helping us out, we don't have to go hungry ourselves. Please consider supporting us on Patreon if you're enjoying the show and want to see more of what we can. Until next week.