Dice Shame - 44 | 'Head for the Hills'

Episode Date: August 13, 2020

After a short rest, the team is ready to tackle the Hill Giant's lair once again... 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.

Go Frog! Go! I look back at Red. Read my fucking mind. Jack will do something, Zaini. Don't worry. Jack, where are you? Cigarette and a beer. That's the breakfast of champions. Not bad. Who made these? Guess I did. And I helped. He can create a ball of fire.

Master. They're going to be distracted and maybe not expecting us to come back. It wasn't great to run away, but we did end up saving two people. Orvois. Sayonara. Goodbye. Farewell. Evita's in. Fuck off. Shamed. Welcome back to Dice Shame, episode 44, Head for the Hills. MVP this week is our friend Merlin, who's been hanging out with us on Discord. We love you, buddy. Are you looking for something that's a little extra to add to your D&D diet?

Well, check out our friends at Little Real Real Realms. They're a 5E actual play podcast where the adventurers don't kill a single thing. Instead, they fill you up with piles and piles of delicious roll plane. Adding to their unique flavor is their cast. A fighter who only wears pajamas. A pacifist who destroys minds. A lone wolf who surrounds himself with friends and an elderly mushroom man who lives for death.

Little Realm's podcast is a bi-monthly show that will surely leave you hungry for more. All right, shall we do this? Yeah, let's do it. So, coffee? Yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

That's a yes from me. I mean, I don't know if it's a question that even needs to be asked. My question is directed at you because you're the person who's in the room with me. Yes, I'll take a coffee, please. Because we just drank it all we finish the coffee. Actually, I saw in Discord that someone was talking about donuts and that just made me one. God, I love coffee and a donut. Donuts really badly.

It's interesting because I was never a donut and coffee drinker and eater. Until I started, and it was a long time now, switching to straight black coffee. Because I feel like black coffee in a donut is wonderful. But cream and sugar coffee in a donut? It's too much. It's all very, like donuts and coffee are that's the thing I was a kid and I'd get dragged along to go sit with my dad and his friends

while they drank coffee and ate donuts. I would do that with my opa. Yeah, like stuck in this coffee shop with his friend who was boring and accessible to me. That's hilarious. Was it a Tim Hortons that you would go to? It was a Robbins Donuts because I'm from the West. Cool.

Robbins. Cool. Cool, cool. But yeah, now I enjoy donuts because of the black coffee. It's really nice to have something sweet. It's the same with dessert. I love a black coffee and something like really sweet. Now, I drink my coffee black as well.

And I don't know if I do this if I had milk and sugar in it, but when I leave a coffee around, I actually don't mind coffee the next day or just like left out cold. I don't mind that at all. Oh, I don't like the switch. I don't mind if it's hot. I don't mind if it's cold, but I don't like the in between. Do you know what I've been doing a lot recently? because I've been working midnight

I will I've got a travel mug it's nice and big and I put maybe a quarter of a cup of water in the bottom of it and I put two heaping tablespoons of instant coffee grounds

and I bring that with me to work so it's like this extra concentrated coffee solution slurry and then when I get off of my break in the morning that's when I need my coffee the most because it's like

2 a.m. I've just had a little bit of a nap and I need to go into the lab and be right on top of things. So I'll add hot water to that and chug it before I go in. And then I'll have about half of a thermos left and drink that on my drive home in the morning. Interesting. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Love some coffee. I mean, as long as it's caffeinated, right? Yeah. Is there coffee in Feroon? Oh, yeah. Oh, there has to be. Yeah. What would be the point of living in Ferroon without coffee? Considered a rare delicacy in the areas north of Kalimshan, Kath, also known as coffee, is was a relatively common in more southerly lands

and in larger cities such as Atcatlo, Waterdeep, and Westgate. There you are. Interesting. And Mazdica. Was primarily produced in Mazdica, the on rock desert, and areas of the south of Durpar.

That's why Red's so jumpy. Coffee is something that makes you feel at home because it's like you guys would have it with every meal. Totally. I feel like Red even has like a tiny little pouch somewhere deep within the bag of holding where he has like beans from Mazdica that he's kept. You just smell them.

You're not drinking them. Doesn't share them. But I think this morning he is going to make a cup of coffee with them because now that B is here, he's going to bring her a little taste of home as sort of a way to say, hey. Aw. I really like that. Yeah. And Reddy is going to take those beans out and make coffee and he's going to knock once again on B's door first thing in the morning and say, here you go. And he's going to thrust like a, what's a to go cup in Fyroonian?

What's the comparative? Like a bamboo. It's like a birch bark with a leather pouch in it. Yeah, it's like a birch bark. I don't think there's disposable. No, there is. I love that. It's like a birch bark skin.

You know, when you peel the birch bark. Maybe red made one. This is unique to you. And he thrusts this very distinct Mazdican aroma of the coffee that we really grew up on in Bees' face and says, good morning. Morning.

It's early. Is she wearing the studded leather armor? No, not yet. Oh, damn. Yeah. I think maybe he's just standing there being looking at her being like, did you get the armor? I did. Thank you.

Maybe try it on. All right. I'll wait out here. He like shuts the door on her. Ow. And I think once they're up and she's dressed, we would head downstairs. I think it wouldn't take long for me to ask Maurice and find out that the guys left. And I would lead her back to our new Nightstone for headquarters.

Hamper house. and the hamper, yeah, the hump rat house. Hamperat. Whatever. It is what it is. And we head over to the house to meet up with the others. Oh, you know what? I forgot something super important.

Oh. You guys all level up. Whoa. Thanks, Joe. That's fantastic. To which level. To level seven. Oh, wow.

Skip a few. Don't just skip that one. Why don't we start with Rob? Yeah. What's your favorite thing about Jack at level seven? Well, Jack's level seven, the biggest thing. besides more hit points is fourth level spells it's two of those

bang so I mean polymorph because that's that's a classic oh man but also brand new spell that Joe and I made Jack's magic letters what yeah your own spell it's true it was pretty cool to make a spell so it's this cool ritual you can send a letter

to a creature that you're familiar with the creature knows the sender and there's some other stuff we can post it or something but it's like it's like sending a howler from Harry Potter where you can like put you know a little elusier audio visual things. AV effects. Yeah. So all those like maps Jack has with the, with the magic, he can send those and people can fly back. It's super cool. That's really cool. So you wrote that? I did, yeah. Oh. Joe and I worked on it. That's awesome. There are some guidelines

in the dungeon master's guide for how to create your own spells that we sort of loosely looked at, but Rob came to me with an idea and we sort of hammered something out. So I'm excited to see it in action. I love how it's not just like Fireball 2, super, super. Return of the fireball. It's more of a character, like a sort of a role-playing thing. And frankly, it pairs really well with my new spell, Red's cursed letters. Oh, it is. Sort of

the same thing. It's a letter in an arrow form that I fire at people and does the exact same damage as my current arrows. And also doesn't cost a spell slot. Hey, that's great. Spels the North Coast spell slots are huge. So, wait, is that actually a spell? I'm 100% being funny. I thought

that was crystal. I was just to say, where's the letter part in that? Sounds like an arrow. Why doesn't Doran get a new spell? Are you going to be rolling for hit points? I am rolling for hit points, and that is a six. Oh, nice. Six plus my constitution is eight more, bringing me up to 50 hit points.

You rolled six on a D6. I rolled six on a D6. Wow. So there. Nicely done. Moving around our virtual table, Justin, what's your favorite thing about Kray Loth as a level seven clerk? Oh, you know what? I got some new spells.

and one of them does exactly what my shield does. It's a spell called Death Ward. I get that at level four. And it allows me to touch a creature of my choice. And the first time they get reduced to zero hit points, they negate that and they end at one hit point and they survive. Cool. Nice.

In the last eight hours. Love it. Very useful. Amazing. Wow. Wow. That's awesome. Very good.

And what about your hit point increase? Are you going to roll or take the aspect? average. I'm all average. Average. Justin, you're anything but average. That's right. Thank you, Doren. All right. Alex, what about Doren as a level seven fighter?

So Doren, I get an addition to my martial archetype, and I'm just going to read it. If I spend one minute observing or interacting with another creature outside of combat, I can learn certain information about his capabilities compared to my own. Cool. And so you. So just observing a creature for a minute. You can be hiding and just watch it. That's right. That's right.

Very cool. Yeah. And so you as the DM are going to tell me if the creature is equal, superior, or inferior with regard to their strength, dexterity, con. No one's stronger than you, Dorr. Armor class, current hit points, total class or fighter class. Cool. Yeah, that's going to come in handy, I think. And one thing I find interesting about this is it's unlimited.

So it's not like I can only use a once per round or something. I can just do it whenever, which means I can basically size up people constantly. It's like my prime evil awareness. Very. It just costs sort of time. Yeah, it costs time. Cool. Are you rolling hit points, Alex?

I am going to roll. I'm going to roll right now. Yeah. And that was shitty. A three. Three plus. Oh, no. So seven.

Not bad. Okay, that's not bad. I'm up to 79 hit points. Nice. Pretty good. All right. And last but not least, Harlan, what's your favorite thing about red? as a seventh level ranger.

I first off, we'll roll for hit points, and I got five. That brings me to 48 hit points. Beautiful. So I also get a new defensive tactic, which is really cool. I can pick from three, two of which are pretty garbage.

One is like prevent frightened, and one is I don't provoke an attack of opportunity, which that's good. But you're a ranged character. But I'm a ranged character. But what I did pick was multi-attack defense. So when a creature hits me with an attack,

I gain a plus four bonus to my AC against all subsequent attacks. On that turn? Yeah, it's for the rest of my turn. So basically the first hit is your normal AC, but every hit after that, it's plus 40. Bingo, bango. So if a giant hits me twice,

the first time it's going to be trying to beat a 17, next time it's trying to beat a 21. That could be the difference between life and death right there. Exactly, which is why I took it. Additionally, I get a new third level spell, and I have taken an unearthed Arcana spell after GM Provo called Beastial Spirit.

It basically allows me to conjure a spirit, similar to Jack, for a much shorter time, but way more combat-centric, which I'm really excited about. I'm so interested to see what that looks like for Red to conjure a spirit from another realm and then be like, that's normal, don't worry about it. Yeah. No, I think it's going to be frustrating to you. Probably. He's going to be very much like, oh, by the way, this is my dolphin leaps out of it. Yeah, for real, though. flapping on the ground.

It can be any small beast. So it can, it's like, you know, a fucking... Hesham? Hedgehog. Mole. Frog. A frog. Go frog.

Go. But that is it for me. And that is all of our level ups. Beauty. Cool. Exciting stuff. Yeah. Well, then I guess B and Red arrive at the Nightstone 4 headquarters,

walking through the destroyed. Well, I guess it's probably built up a little bit now. Oh, yeah. Totally is. It's looking good. actually. So there are still some remnants in the courtyard of the villa of some of the larger cult paraphernalia that Jack was bent on removing from the bowels of the villa. There's like half of a profane altar still hanging out six feet from the back porch. It's like piled like you're

doing a renovation and just a big scrap pile. Exactly. Yeah. This is a clubhouse. I say to be and I'm like waving and then I go through the back door and into the kitchen. My God, it's beautiful. I imagine Krayloth's already up, making breakfast. No, it's surprising to you that Krayloff isn't in the kitchen. Why isn't Kralov in the kitchen? As you see, as you go through the main hall, you see him sitting down in the hallway with his shield out.

His head is slumped down. He's got his symbol of Kallimvore open, and in front of him hanging up on the wall is a painting, a portrait of Mrs. Hemporette. He's still sleeping in front of it. Cool. Yeah, Red sort of says, that's Krayloth.

You remember him. just kind of fucked up right now. Let's go find Dora. He's a laugh. And I, like, walk to the next room. Actually, funny enough, as you came in, I kind of picture me sitting in the corner of the kitchen, going through my own journal. And I'm enjoying a beverage, a beer. 6 a.m. beer. And my hair is combed. Comed. And I just picture like the sunlight coming in. Showered? Yeah. Whoa. Oh, I love this scene. Yeah. I'm clean again. Is he smoking a pipe? Yes. I'm smoking a rolled cigarette. Whoa. This is the first time you see Doran in like a very,

I picture like a dad sitting there eating, you know, having breakfast is smoking a cigarette. Cigarette and a beer. That's the breakfast of champions. I kind of love the idea of like red hyping up everyone's sort of zaniness as he comes to the house. And I'm like, just wait, Kraylott's going to be baking scones.

Doran's going to be doing something zainty. And I like kick open the door. Kraylop is like contemplative and quiet. Doran is sitting there with combed hair. He's like, Good morning. I've got glasses on. We'll do something, Zaney. Don't worry.

Where are you? You are these people? Jackson, the basement. He is trying to get his familiar back. I'm going to get Kieran back. Using a brass brazier that's down there with the charcoal and incense and herbs and, you know, lighting all the things in the appropriate time and, you know, painting with the charcoal and letting the sparks fly in the air

and opening up this portal and reaching out between worlds to summon a spirit into the form of his familiar. exactly as they were as a tressor. However, it doesn't work like that. What happens? Jack, as you stare into the flames as incense reeds around the room intermingling with your hair and your clothes, we see something strange in your eye.

The infernal puzzle box is spinning within your left people as a form steps out of the flames towards you. It's small, it's tinged in red, and it unfurls its wings and stares at you. It says, Master, no. A glap at your service. No, I didn't, I didn't mean this. Few do.

You're a fiend, you're not. Where's Kieran? I, no, no, Kieran. How may I serve? I mean, so Jackson, Jack's pretty taken aback. He'd never intended to summon an imp and, like, is now going through, like, all of this despair and guilt in his head and that feeling when that puzzle blocks is, like, unfolding and has this mystery stuck in his eye and all of the, like, overwhelmed, we can't do this. There's

nothing we can do. And now realizes he's summoning it in a place that was very much infernal to begin with. Um, listen. If you are willing master, I may enter and do this contract with you. Egglap, I... I have many useful traits, I assure you. I see your trepidation. I need

your help. There are giants destroying this world, and I need every bit of firepower that I can get, and there's things I know you can do that Kieran can't. Power. Yes. A smile curls around this thing's sharp teeth, and it starts pacing small circles around where you sit on the floor. Yes, power. I can assist you. A glap can give you a kind of power you've never had.

can allow you to be brave in the face of danger, knowing that you are untouchable. There's definitely a moment of that power going to Jack's head. You're going to need to pretend to be Kieran, though. Oh, yes. I can become a manner of creature for my master. He makes kind of a facetious, curtsey. What form would you have me take?

Be a bird, a raven or something, and Kieran is a talking raven now. The imp snaps its fingers and in a puff of dark orange smoke, a black raven stands in front of you. We've got a little time now. I'm going to need you to teach me infernal. All right. That's insane. Is Jack a bad guy? What has happened? And then whenever is it appropriate time for that to be done, Jack can come back upstairs.

Cool. Spooky. You come back upstairs after, what, an hour or two? Yeah, an hour or two. I think I got it pretty early. I had some inspiration to write down some new spells that I came up with last night. So there's a lot of had to prepare today's spells. So spent an hour or two in the basement and then, yeah, coming up. Hey, Jack, you nearly missed a breakfast.

We made your craps. Crapes. What are they called? The crapes. Whoa, Red, you're in the kitchen. Hales, yeah. After our talk, I decided to dad up. And I'd throw an arm around B.

Oren's there, too. He's sitting on a stool by the stove, sort of watching in fear as the crape comes off. Red is flipping them as high as they go. You see four stuck to the ceiling. Of course, yeah, yeah. Oh. Doran's like wiping his mouth. Well, you know, they weren't bad. The consistency was a bit off. One was fluffy and light and delicious. And the other one was crunchy and dry and powdery. I'm not really sure what's going on. Did you hear that B? Doran didn't like your crunch. you want you welcome home master jack hi all of you promised that she would share with me the details of everything that happened while you were away uh please we we do have to have a pretty good conversation about about grudhog maybe after breakfast to or and we'll get we'll give to every detail uh it's

it's a pretty it's a pretty gruesome story anybody seen the kids this morning uh what about thales they came down earlier and they they got some uh water from the well and filled up the uh the coffee there and then, and I think Thales took them back upstairs and they're just doing puzzles in games. I thought I heard them laughing earlier. Infernal puzzles? No. Jack has a whole moment. Mmm.

Oh, morning, guys. Hey. Good morning, Kralong. Kralov. Have you guys had breakfast yet? We're just getting there. Krayloth looks up at the ceiling. Oh, uh, crepes.

And he reaches up and he pulls one down. And he starts turning up. Oh, no. Yeah. Not bad. these? Yes. I did. And I helped. Oh, way to go, buddy. By the way, I'm being a dad

now. And Kralath has this twinkle in his eye, as Red says that, he nods and says, it's good to see you again, B. It's nice to see you, too. Yes. Good morning, to all of you. Morning. And it'd be like a brew. There's some fine barrels in the basement. Gladly, gladness. Yes, here you go.

And I pass you, like, a big wooden jug. Jack, why are we in the basement for so long? Oh, I had some ideas for some new spells, and I had to summon Kieran back. Oh, hi, Kieran. Oh, you went with a Raven this time. Very nice. Yeah. Kieran chooses their own form sometimes. Red pays it no mind as he does with Kieran. So, and as we sort of finish up breakfast, we move towards the dining room where all the treasure was previously laid out. And I think we all take chairs, ready to tackle the subject of, what the fuck do we do now? Sure. And I think I push my diary, my journal to the

side and you see like giants and like different areas of weakness and you're like spread that out on the table but they're very like they're very blueprinty yes like it's it's almost like you've like analyzed and i like that a dwarven drawing is like an engineering document like lines for where our height is and where its height is so yeah we move into the dining room uh sit down i think i would invite b and probably we'd allow orrin at least be in the room so we could hear what happened. I know he wanted us to recount the tales. Cool. So we're all hanging out in the dining room. Doran is standing at the head of the table. All right. I think we tell Orrin and B exactly what happened at Gretthog. Here's my question then to you all as players. What do you feel like you need

to recap together in order to be more prepared this time going in? I think that we did a good job. I'm going to just guide and say it. Up until the prisoners, I think we were stella. I think we were stealthy. I think we had a good idea. I think the problem was we weren't as quiet as we could have been and not to point fingers, but there was a few drop javelins. There are a few things that turned the ire of... It carries the javelins. That being said, and I mean this genuinely, we had left because we had the opportunity to save the two orphans that now sit upstairs. So while running away might have felt like a defeat, we did save two lives from it that otherwise would have gone most likely unsaved. So it wasn't great to run away, but we did end up.

up saving two people. I agree. And we know the contents of the layer much better now. We've messed things up for them and they're going to be distracted and maybe not expecting us to come back. I'm picturing Doran at the head of the table, Jack and Red directly on either side and kind of mirroring each other but disagreeing. And then Kralath kind of pacing around in the background offering like nugget of insight here and there. I think we barely, we like, we like, we lost too many lives. There were lives that were our responsibility that we let get crushed by giants that we were not prepared for. We weren't prepared to find people that needed saving and we had no plan to save them. We're not heroes coming out of that. We barely saved two children

and made them witness their parents get crushed by giants. This is Hill Giants and our task in front of us is reorder all the giants. I don't know how we're going to do it. Well, hold on. I don't think that's fair. Those people wouldn't have had any show. shot if we didn't get in there. Yes, it might feel like we failed them, but those children would be dead full stop without us. So, no, Jack, I disagree. What we did in there was difficult, but we made a decision that saved two lives that otherwise would have not existed. Doesn't feel like enough. We certainly did not succeed. No matter what, whether or not we failed in there, we have to keep moving forward. Agreed. We have to do something about this threat that is

messing with the ecosystem, as Jack tells me, and that's putting a lot of people at risk. Yes, we did retreat. And yes, that was not a successful mission in its entirety. However, there were some successful points, as Reds pointed out. The other thing I want to remind you all is that these creatures are flesh and blood. We have taken them down before. Let's not forget that. We are a powerful foursome, possibly five-sum. And he looks over at B, who's sitting kind of at the end of the table there. And Red just shakes his head. She takes this as an opportunity, and she sort of tentatively gets to her feet.

And she says, I wanted to take just a moment right now to say thank you so much for inviting me into your fold. I wanted to let you know that I'm ready and I'm willing to join your party. I think your cause is noble. and I would be loathe to leave my apprenticeship before it's even begun. I came across the ocean to be here with you all. And I think maybe fate has drawn me here and that I could lend myself to be helpful for you if you would allow me to be by your side.

Be, you will be invaluable to us. And I think I speak for the party when we say any aid at this point is valued as well as knowing that you're back in mind. life. However, I do not think you are ready or equipped to head into Grudhog. It is the most daunting task that we four-seasoned warriors have ever encountered, and you are but a child, a very smart, intelligent child, but you are not ready to face such things. If you can aid us in any other way, I would welcome it, but not in there. And I have to put my foot down, please. Look of disappointment crosses her face

And her shoulders slump This villa, now that it's kind of established, it definitely could use someone with knowledge of combat To protect these kids I did not travel all the way across the ocean To be a den mother for you She does have a good point B, look, I don't want you in Grudhog

But maybe you can be covering us Look, this West Tower It's something that we notice There were a few people up there Maybe we could try to take that out And if you're on this hill to the west, then maybe you can just help pick off some of the people if the alarm gets raised. I think that's a wonderful idea. Oh, well, from there, I mean, I don't know.

What do you think, Doran? And Doran is just finishing, opening up and spreading out this map that he's drawn. And he's almost looking at Jack for some sort of acknowledgement. Yeah, I think as you lay out your map, Jack brings a bunch of the features of it, the things you noted that he maybe didn't think were tactically important into the, like, 3D minor illusion map on the. the table. So as you sort of point out details on your map, those are showing up on here. Perfect. Everyone's like color-coded. Yeah, for sure.

All right. Great idea, Red. Let's put B up on this hill. And he points to like the western edge of the lake. And if us four, we come up from the south, we cross this river and we take out this little building here, it looks like maybe a shed of some sort. We can use that as a starting point. I think then we can climb.

up to the tower here. If we come up here, this is a great bottleneck. If they come out, they're going to be coming either around from the south or they're going to be coming out this western door or the northwestern door here onto the docks. Not to mention they're going to have to climb those ladders. If you get me in that tower, then I am at my best. Kralath and I, we can stand here and act as those iron doors. All right, well, we'll use pass without trace to get as close as possible that will give us a good advantageous sneaky, sneaky, and even Jack, with your ball of fire. That's right, and I look up at B.

He can create a ball of fire. Among other things, I don't know if the map tips it away, I'm a wizard, but... Yes. Very impressive. I can't wait to see it. And Oren? Yes, Master Doren. Instead of us walking all this way, we'll take the horses down.

Oren, you're going to be maybe a mile out, and you're going to stay and listen for our calls and be ready with the horses so that, When we come back to you, we can gallop away. My ears are very sharp. I know. Y'all need I'm sharp. And you're a very wise, young halfling.

Is there any chance we could buy health potions in town? You could buy a couple, yeah. Thoughts? Yeah, we could do that. Well, look, there's no sense in delaying. This is something that we have to do. We've already prepared mentally for it. So I guess this is the plan.

Yep. Yeah, I got a few things to go prepare, but this seems like a way we can get into Gretthog and deal with Chief Gha. Yes. Well, I think it's the best that we can do, but it's still going to be dangerous. I think we're a little better prepared this time.

I think so. Let's all put our hands in for success. You too, Oren. The Knight's Stone Four on three. One, two, three. The Nightstone Four on three. What? All right, let's go.

Before we leave, Jack's going to spend an hour to write his first magic letter to Sidiri Hanlar in Waterdeep, just to let her know where Gredhug is, the awful shit that's happened, our plan to take it out, the kind of support these communities need and, like, get something on the way.

But I am going to sign it, the Nightstone 4. Cool. Aw. You know, Nightstone doesn't exist anymore, right? That's why it makes it so cool. But the Nightstone still exists, and we're going to find it. Yeah.

I was thinking about that. The Nightstone 4 will go down in history. Well, what do they call the Nightstone? Well, because it used to be, you know, Dawnglow used to be Nightstone, and that's where these four. I think on the way to Grud Hog, I'm going to stop by in Bellyard.

I'm going to buy a few health potions. How many do you think would be in stock? This is a kind of smallish town. They don't see a lot of adventures kicking around. Maybe they got eight. You know what? We got a long life and we got lots of money. I'm going to buy all eight.

Nice. Good idea. Might as well. So that's 400 gold. That's right. Perfect. I kind of imagine the Monty Python, the Holy Girl. Dun, dun, dun, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.

Being reunited with our horses, too. I feel like we haven't really seen shit fart in a while. Yeah. Shit fart, Asta, Glynn, Amacier. Yeah, I helped B-Up onto Aster. This is Asta. I named her after a little bunny I used to know. She's beautiful. And this is shit fart. Can you wonder where he got his name? Ney. Yes, that's right. And I think we ride to the outskirts of Grudhog. No sentence in delaying. We have giants to kill. The journey takes you about six hours.

ours on horseback. So 4 p.m. you show up a mile away from the fortress. You're on the shore of the lake. You can see some smoke rising from it in the distance. Kieran, do you want to go circle around just to see if there's anything changed? See if the place crumbled because of the explosions or something, how they're rebuilding. Gives a lay of the land. Since Kieran, in this new form and I remain within a mile, I can sort of update in real time as they fly. So that as they fly, the map gets sort of refreshed, you know, as they're seeing new things. I'm going to cast Pass Without Trace, and we are going to head towards our destination. B, I sort of stop her, and I say, you know what you meant to do?

Yeah, shouldn't be a problem. And Red pauses for a moment, and he actually takes out Rivers Bow, and he hands it back to her. Why don't you use this one for now? She would have wanted you to have it, Red. No, but she also is the one who's most used to covering my back when I'm making stupid decisions. So I feel safer with it on me. Cute. And I give her a hug and a kiss on her forehead and cast pass without trace for all of us to begin heading towards Gredhog.

Now, is that a concentration spell? It is. I'm going to cast aid as a level three spell. And I'm going to give it to myself, Jack, and Red. and that's going to give us 10 temporary hit points for eight hours. Nice. Thank you, Krayloff. Why doesn't everyone roll stealth for me, please?

All right, this is the one that matters. Let's roll well. Jack? 21. Kralath? 17. Doran? 15.

Red? 23. 8 for B. After about three or four minutes of traveling that you hear the warning gong from Gretthog start to sound. And at this time, Jack, you're familiar, contacts you. Yeah, we have a telepathic bond. So you hear the sound of your familiar.

Wizard, there's movement all throughout the base. Sounds like you've kicked the antilles, so to speak. How many? Where are they moving? Who's coming out? There's a dock on the north of the building. Orcs are all over it, looking out at the lake. How many orcs are there? Seven. on the north dock.

Also, there's a Wivern. Looks like it's about to take flight with a warlord on top of it. Oh. There, it's in the air now. Fly to B and tell her to get the ground. Red, there's a Wivern on top of the tower. You're going to need to pull out that bow. We've got to get that thing's attention.

If they don't notice us, maybe we shouldn't draw the attention of this Wivern. All right. It's, uh, because it's, it's like that thing could fly out and take out B, it could take out Oren. So you are all approaching the base, this hill giant base, from different directions, but at about the same speed.

So you can estimate that B, I mean, she's probably the one that's been spotted. You guys know that you've been very stealthy. You're using Red's magic. She's probably about as far away from Grudhog as you are, but definitely not even close to as stealthy. They've probably spotted B. I think it's very likely that we could make enough noise in the time we take to Gredhug

that this thing might turn back and come think we're more interesting than whatever one person out there is when this place goes up in flames. So I think there's the gamble of sure let it fly half the distance over there and then see a whole bunch of shit go down and maybe change its mind to come hang out with us.

Look, B is a smart girl. She made it all the way from Mazica to Férun and all the way up to us. She can get out of here. We need to focus. She knows exactly why we're here, and if anything, she's going to give us the best opportunity to move in. Let's keep going. I agree. Follow your lead.

She's a creature of the wild. She can hide in the bushes, hopefully. And I genuinely think this. She's smart. Even if she's a mile out, I think she can get back. She can get Orrin. Like, she's a version of me that's much smarter. I think she's going to be pretty safe on her own.

Okay. So we're going to continue moving north, and I think using the distraction and the veil, it's not the distraction we wanted, but it's one nonetheless. I think we're going to try to get to that auxiliary building to the south still. I agree. I'm going to cast guidance on us as a cantrip as we're getting closer, just to give us a little bit of a boost for our stelt. Everybody roll initiative. I don't get to roll very often in this game playing a wizard.

So when I roll a one. Oh, no. On initiative, this, Roland, very disappointing. For shame, for shame, for shame, for shame, shame, shame. Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame. Or blah. Sianara. Goodbye.

Farewell. Avita's in. Fuck off. Dice. Shame sound. So what's your total initiative then, Rob? Five. Kralath?

Fifteen for initiative. Lovely. Red? 16. Um, Dorn. A 20. So you know now that from the information that Jack's familiar has given him, that the base is on alert. You also know that there are.

are some orcs on the northern side of the base on the docks. And you know that there's a whiver and that's taken flight from the guard tower. Tell me now that we are in initiative order. How are you approaching the base? Are you continuing to do so stealthily? Or is there a sense of urgency? Are you moving more quickly? I don't think so. And this is a quick mechanical question. Does rolling for initiative mean that you've been spotted regardless? No. Then no. I think we should continue the course. I mean, Red's the one with the spell that's keeping us hidden. I'm just following his lead.

Yeah. I think Red even says as we're moving, look, until something fires at us, there's no sense in revealing our position. We can't be traced by any means unless magical. We leave no footprints whatsoever. Pass without trace isn't just stealth. It's vanishing. And you're sure that B is going to be okay?

I have to. And you hear there's a hesitancy in Red's voice. Absolutely. He's totally afraid, but he recognizes that one of two results are here. Either B is going to be attacked by this creature. And there's unlikely that we're going to be able to save her since she's a mile away. And we could draw its iron and just have everything down on us. Or she gets away safe. You know, like it's a gamble, absolutely. Okay, well, I trust you. Let's keep moving forward. I agree. I think we should continue moving forward. I kind of picture us all kind of like crouching in sort of a culvert. Yeah, just kind of going from tree to tree now that we know that they're on alert. And the minute anything changes, you know, the minute we get detected, then, of course, we'll start firing and we'll run. So you're continuing stealthily toward the base.

Yes, that small southern building, the little outbuilding. So as you continue to stealthily approach the base, you see now that there is a group of orcs. that have laid down their construction materials. I mean, they're not like hammers and saws and shit, but I guess they're just, they've drawn a pile of logs up to the hole that Jack had blasted in the side of the dam, and they had been trying to stop the hole

that had been blown in it yesterday. These orcs are now drawing weapons and talking with each other frantically. It looks like they're trying to get organized. Do any of them seem to be looking in our direction? No, but they are all looking around very alert. So you are some 60 feet away from the outbuilding when a hobgoblin exits through the door. Doran, you see as this hobgoblin exits from the building right in front of you and just straight up sees you guys.

You're about 80 feet away. I give a knowing glance. I look back at red. My eyes, wise. with read my fucking mind I'm rolling combat superiority and take your shot over my shoulder. Nice. I like to imagine you do like a, you pop a squat just so he can see like well over your head.

Knowing glance. Exactly. Four damage to whatever you do. Right now. Then I will attack with sharpshooter penalty. I still do have advantage on foes who have not acted in combat yet, so I will be rolling with advantage. 14. No, you miss. Damn.

Your arrow misses the hobgoblin and just sticks quivering into the door behind. As he's doing that, I drop my crossbow off my shoulder off my back and swing it around to my eye and take my shot with 19 to hit. That hits. Nice. Doing four damage. Okay. That's not no damage. Sticks in his thigh.

And then I'm going to use my movement. And I'm going to move right up. Why not? Nice. I feel like, man, that nice felt like it should have a golf clap beside it. It's like, well done.

There was just that quiet moment of like, oh, good move. Nice. Oh, thank you. Oh, well done. An excellent shot from Doren. Doren moves five more feet towards the hop goblin.

Nice. Yes. Ah, he didn't. Yeah. Whoa, nice. I see what he did there. Thank you for that, Ron. Thank you.

I like that, actually. I like that. That's good. So the hobgoblin takes a crossbow bow bolt to the thigh, stumbles back half a step, and then makes a whistled signal, pulls a long bow out, knocks an arrow, and aims directly at you, Doran. With an eight to hit.

He misses. I pull up my shield, and it deflects up, and it goes off in the distance over everybody's head. And then there's a response from the guard tower. as you see multiple heads pop out and over the barrier and they look down at you. They're about 300 feet away. Multiple hobgawlins all draw their longbows

and start shooting down at the party. Raise yourselves. Two of them are going to aim at Doren and, oh no. Two natural threes. Nicely done. On the two shots aimed at. Doran. One of them will try to hit Krayloth, who's by far the biggest target. No offense, Kralath. That's a 13 to hit you, Krala. That misses. And one at Jack, and that's a five.

That misses. So arrows start whistling out of the guard tower, and you hear the gong being wrong. As this happens to the northwest of you, a figure. rises up out of the landscape. The Wiverin that had landed takes to the air. You see this large dragon shape spread its wings and take flight. You can just barely see from the distance. It's got a saddle on it, and it's occupied by a rider. And the Wivern starts screaming fast flying toward the guard tower.

Uh, that's a problem. Don't worry, we'll fight the dragon next week on Dishame. Thanks again to our great All-One Patreon supporters, Michael and Brianna Weber, Adam Fry, and Christopher Ryan Evans. Thank you so much. See you next time. I don't know.