Dice Shame - 58 | 'The Forest for the Trees'

Episode Date: November 19, 2020

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This imp has been playing all of you. I'd like to make my announcement. Who is you that took my ring? Magic can make a lot of things possible. I'm going to drink fast so I get real drunk before eating. Cloud giant castles are somewhat malleable. Dig in, guys. Adventures are like few and far between.

Yeah, no, four plus one. Inside is not my deal. That was so much easier. Thanks, Kraloff. Welcome back to Dice Shame, episode 58, The Forest for the Trees. This week's MVP is Nesty, who just joined us on our Discord. Nice to see you, Nesty. Nice to see you.

If you're a fan of this podcast, make sure you check out malevolent. Malevolent is a Patreon show, released weekly, that allows our undefeated Patreon supporters to choose the direction of the story. Horrors of unfathomable origins and secrets that scratch the back of one's mind are what drives Arkham Investigator Arthur Lester to solve the mystery behind his lost eyesight. If you don't have the means to support us,

worry not, as the smaller weekly chapters are edited into monthly releases. Part 5 will be releasing next week, so make sure to check it out. You can find links and info at dicehamepodcast.com slash malevolent. It's super spooky. All right, shall we do this?

Yeah, let's do it. Do you think that adventuring, like being an adventurer in the D&D sense is a fairly common job in the forgotten realms? Or do you think like, so like if your character had to sit down with their parents in conversation about what they wanted to do when they grew up, yeah, would they be like, yeah, okay, cool, son, be sick. Not you. Not you. I had hoped for other things. Why did you be more like your brother? He's an accountant. I mean, it does feel like one of those things that would have a pretty high like mortality rate, right? Like there isn't a great, you know, unless you like go find a cleric and follow them around and like. But you know what? The money in this world, it must be finite

to an extent because a lot of the gold that like we have all comes from these tombs and places that we pillaged. So like it's also a pretty... Yeah, and to be the devil's advocate, the life expectancy for, like, just mundane peasants, as we have seen, often isn't very high either. It's 12. Yeah, fair. I passed me 12 birthday. I'm going to be old. I'm the mayor now.

I'm the oldest one in town. I really like the question, actually. And if you'd asked me six months ago, I would have said, oh, yeah, they're everywhere. But I don't know. I'm starting to think, no. I'm thinking, like, no, adventures are, like, few and far between. The fact that Torhill's tomb was like unacosted for the most part and most of the other places that we come across have been untouched. Well, that's...

Actually, Torild's tomb is an example of the other side of things because it had been quite thoroughly vandalized by other adventures. But no one managed to get in. Exactly. Just not as well as us. We vandalized it better. So then maybe the idea is that just the adventurer class of like the higher tier like where we're at is very few. So maybe there's like a hundred thousand low level. adventurers, just none that are where we're at.

We've met like maybe six people you could call adventurers so far, and two of them were bad guys, and three of them were the ones at Nona's whole last time. Like, Arlios's Stonehenge, though, who ran the staghorn flag in back in Amphail. She's an ex-adventurer. Like, there are people who sort of retired from the gig because it's, you know, not something you want to do when you're 80. Do you count the folks around Goldenfields who are definitely like badasses, but are they

adventurers? Well, I think, I don't know if there's. so many, like, low-level adventurers because if there were, there would be no goblins. But also, I think, what I mean to say is there's so many low-level adventurers that don't make it past level because they're dead.

Like, what I mean to say is, everyone makes it to level two, but not everyone makes it to level seven as an adventure, which means, yeah, there's a certain point where there might be a lot of adventurers, but the, like, demographics are like 100,000, 1,000, 50,000, 2, 10,000, 3, 5. And then, like, we're in a class of, like, 20s.

Oh, you guys are beating the odds. So, after your party says goodbye to everyone's new best friend, Elmore-Bottle River, you continue your trek deeper, deeper into the high forest. Day turns in tonight, you decide to camp. Yeah. Pitch the tents. Build a small fire. Yeah, build a small fire and just kind of collect ourselves.

and there's a moment after the fire is set up and we're kind of getting ready to start some supper where Kraloth clears his throat and says, um, gather out everybody. I'd like to make my announcement if, uh, if you can't. Yeah, Red sort of kneels nearby, sort of knowing what's going on, but curious about what he's going to say specifically.

Yeah, Jack comes. He's kind of wringing his hands, but he sits down. First off, I would just like to say that I am so grateful to have each and every one of you in my life, watching my back and keeping me entertained and in good spirits. And I'll be honest, the past few days, maybe weeks on the road, I haven't really been feeling myself

and I don't really want to get into the details right now. I'm still kind of processing it. But I need to come clean and let you know that you might have noticed a couple of things missing. from your packs. Hmm. Or one thing from each of you, specifically. And, um, well, I want to be honest, let you know that I was the person who took them.

B, I took your necklace. Oren, I took your quill. Doran, I took your ring. Ah. Jack. I took an amulet. And, uh, well, Red and I have already been over. We already had a discussion, but I want to say that I'm sorry, that what I did was wrong.

It was an imp that appeared to me, an imp named Shaxel, and told me that he could give me something that I really, really would greatly adore. But he said that he would get this for me, and I have no reason to believe that after I delivered these items, that he's done it. I believe I was duped. And, uh, boy, is there pie in my face. Doran walks up to Kraloth and he says, So, who is you that took my ring? Yes, Doran. It was me.

Well, Kralath, and he puts a hand on your arm. He says, the important thing is that you've come out and said something about it like this. And, uh, you know what? Things like this can be forgiven. and had you just ask, I would have given it to you. It's easy to make a mistake when you're someone like us. I kind of go and sit back down. Thank you, Doran. Jack's searching through his pouches, any, any, oh, you took the Sunstaff medallion.

It was belonging to one of my ancestors, Eldris. One of the first things I ever sort of dug up anywhere. I didn't really know what it was when I took it. All of you, I didn't really think about the significance and how. it would affect you. I'm sorry, Jack. I wasn't thinking clearly. I don't think it's going to matter in a second because I'm a hypocrite and I made a mistake. When we left Gred Hogg the first time and I just, and Kieran had been killed and I didn't

know, like there was no way it felt like we were ever going to fight giants. We couldn't even take on Hill Giants and we just watched that whole family and, When I was trying to summon Kieran back, I summoned something else instead. There was a devil, an imp named Aglap. Egglap, show yourself. Your real self, not this form. The raven that was perched on your shoulder flutters down into the clearing around which you guys are sort of building your campfire and turns into an imp.

What the hell? And he's kind of preening himself, like picking at his claws a little bit. I made a deal with the devil too. He's been with us for some time. Is this the Shazeril or whatever? I don't think it's Shaxil. I put my hand into the bag of holding, and I'm going to cast locate object while touching the rod of the Von and Dodd.

Okay. I want to see if this thing kept anything. And if it is the same thing. So I'm going to just put my hand on the rod and I'm going to cast locate object on the ring. You cast locate object on this thing and you get a ping right in front of you. I turn to Jack. They're one in the same, Jack. This imp has been playing all of you.

How could they? It doesn't. And as you watch this imp's coloring changes from like an orange red. to a blue-purple and it grows two extra spines on its head in front of you now, Kralath, you see Shaxil and then morphs back into Aglap. It makes like a grin and bows at you and then just vanishes. Jack, you summon an imp. It wasn't supposed to work like that.

I didn't think that was possible. Jack's kind of lost in his own mind for a minute. Is there something that you want to say, Jack, especially to your friends like Oren? And Oren, who's been quiet this whole time, what is he feeling? Oren's got his knees drawn up to his chest. He's sitting on a fallen log. He's just kind of looking in shock at Jack.

I think we're all looking at you. Yeah, we're all just kind of... Yeah. It's, I don't know, there's... Magic can make a lot of things. possible. Unless you ask, the ramifications of it all get so easily lost, when you need an extra pair of hands and you find your friends raised the dead because they needed an extra pair of hands or something. Like, it's so easy to get lost. I'm sorry. I screwed up. You know, I look at Jack and I

think, you know, it's easy for us to make mistakes. I know I've made mistakes, but these aren't intentional axe. Was it, Jack? Did you intend to summon an imp that would betray us? I didn't intend to. It's just that they appeared. And then in the moment, I wasn't sure how we were going to be able to do it without it. And it seemed like maybe we'd have an edge if AgLab was with us. I guess I didn't know how it worked. I wasn't ready. I got a lot to learn. Look, he deceived you just as he deceived Kralath and just as it deceived Oran. But the important thing here is, we need to start thinking about each other as a family, people that we can trust, because this creature showed us in a very short time how easy it is to divide us. And Jack, I appreciated very much you

revealing this to me the other night, but maybe we were wrong to try to keep it from the others, and I was equally wrong trying to keep what I felt about Kralath from the others. and look, I understand we're all from different walks of life, but for whatever reason we've been put on this quest together as a team, as a family, as friends. And we need to trust in each other. We need to understand each other. I think Oren's like, I'm sorry too.

I mean, they envisited me and I felt bad because Red was asking me questions about it and I hid what was happening to me and I won't do that anymore. That's all right. No more secrets and this will help. in my bag and I pull out a big strong bottle of bourbon. Yay!

It's been a while. Boom. Since we've decided, and Red takes a big sweet. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. And Kralov cracks his knuckles and summons a feast. 65 pounds of food again.

65 pounds. I'm not going to prepare this spell again tomorrow, so dig in, guys. I'm going to drink first so I get real drunk before eating. Here. And I hand the bottle to Jack. Good plan, Red.

Yeah, Jack takes a big pull off of it and can't help think about, like, every time he gets drunk, it's after some big tense moment, like the thing on his birthday with Red. And now this revelation here, it's just like, yeah, he forgives himself a little bit too and gets a little drunk and eats a little bit too much food and passes the bottle around. There's like this begrudging love, respect, sort of like, yeah, you jerk, here we go. It's going to be better. You know what I mean? And there's that like crisp betterness where it starts off a little bit prickly and then it's going to soften out in like five minutes.

Doran takes a big swig off of it and goes to speak and then takes another swing off of the bottle. I'll tell you this is pretty good stuff here, Red. Well, make sure Oxflet I get some and I take the bottle from you and I pour it on the axe. What do you eat? And then I take the bottle back and I pour a little bit onto the ground and I say, you know, I've lost enough friends to death. to battle, to enemies, to the real, the things that we can't change. And I'm telling you this right now. I'm not losing friends to things that we can change

and to decisions that we may have made that we regret. So here, here, damn straight. Let us fall apart by an axe, not some stupid in us. That's right. Stephen, get out of the hair. And you see from like the roughage, a goat just walk out. Stephen, I love you too, bud. I'll try some of that, too.

There you go, buddy. And Kralath reaches over, grabs it, and does a couple generous glugs. Oh, wow. Oh, that's good stuff. Where do we keep getting all this? I steal a lot. Oren, play something upbeat. Oh, wait for me, wait for me.

And Oren pulls out his lute, and he starts playing a rambunctious tune. Everyone has a fun time. partying and drinking and carousing. Honestly, it just feels good for everyone to be, you know. Hells, yeah. B, I'm going to show you how to dance. I show her true red style where I hop up on something and start dancing. So everyone parties hard into the night, enjoys 65 pounds of food somehow.

Somehow drunk off his ass, Jack still managed. It takes a couple of tries, but to get the magic, uh, the lean, I would now sound drunk off my ass. It's like wonky. Yeah. Jack's drunk off his ass. but still managed to get Liam and's tiny hut up to protect those after two or three tries. Like, it's not his best work.

It's bright orange. Like, it's not hiding anywhere. And you fall asleep to the glimmer of glowbugs flitting around the canopy of this beautiful forest. Of course. You awaken to the nervous sounds of your horses, whinnying and stamping their hooves in the middle of the night. I, like, sit right off. I'm like, show Stephen, are you all right?

Same here. Through the darkness to the north of the campsite, a huge shape lumpers through the trees on all fours. It's twice as big as a horse with long, shaggy fur. And as it gets a little closer, you would estimate it must be at least 12 feet tall at the shoulder. And then it pushes off the front legs to stand on powerful haunches, two legs, its nose in the air.

It must be 18 feet tall. at least. It smells the air, its head moving back and forth as it catches your scent. The ground shakes as it falls back to all fours and it continues ambling toward your campsite weaving through the trees. You guys see that? Kralath says with its goggles on. What is that? Can I spend a minute to know my enemy? I'm not sure if you're going to get a minute here, but yeah, you can work on it. Can I do a nature check? You can roll a nature check and you can start your, uh, know your enemy. Started. My eyes wince in the darkness. 14.

Once it's 60 feet from the campsite, red, you see that this is a massive bear. Rutro. Wow. Impossibly huge. The horses roll their eyes wildly in fear and start to make a lot of noise. It's a massive bear. Mmm, a bear. I'm going to use my primeval awareness, where I have the innate ability to communicate with beasts, and they recognize me as a kindred spirit. I'm assuming that this is a beast.

So I turned to the others and I just say, Let me just see. It might not mean us any harm. Just get ready in case. And I'm going to step out. I'm going to hold my hands and I'm going to use my ability to try to communicate with this beast. So again, I can learn its emotional state,

whether it is affected by magic of any sort, its short-term needs such as food or safety and actions I can take, if any, to persuade it not to attack. this creature is not affected by magic its short-term needs are it's looking for food it's not likely to attack you if you don't attack it it's interested in finding some food to eat okay i nod do we have any of the 65 pounds of food well that's it like it's sniffing it starts to sniff around like it's getting pretty close and it finds some places on the ground where you've discarded scraps from your 65 pounds of food that you You did not put your food in a bear safe bag. No, we're the worst.

But I imagine some of it's in the hut with us, so I turn and I say, guys, bring out some of the food or let's get some of that food out for this thing. Hey, do you need me to make some more? Oh, yes, if you can. Sure. It's just hungry. It doesn't want to fight. Okay.

It's also not a good idea to feed wildlife there, Red. Between it eating us or us feeding it, let's go with the latter. Okay, all right. I'll come out with you. Doran, you know thy enemy pops off at this point. Perfect. Would you please tell me if they are equal, superior, or inferior in armor class? Inferior to you.

And constitution. It's definitely superior to you. Okay. So Kralath Red's advice sets up and he's not wearing his chain mail. Mm-hmm. And he begins stepping out of the tent. Don't worry. It's not going to find. It's just hungry. It just wants what we left. Let's just give it some more food. This is like an elephant-sized creature. Like it's big, big, big.

Hopefully 65 pounds is enough. What do you make for it? I look at this thing. Just do a giant honey pot. Oh, bother. Yeah, you know what? I think about everything that I know about bears, which isn't a whole lot. And I'm like, honey and meat. And so I do some like honeyed venison, like 65 pounds. of venison that like glistens and it's kind of oozing blood still definitely rare more than rare blue blue venison steaks and some like honey nuts and berries around yeah

some berries right yeah that's funny you guys are like kind of whispering like what a bear might like making this stuff berries and so oh good idea and so I create this bear feast and a little bewildered that I'm using this spell this way. Yeah. And then slowly backs away from it. And Red does too. Red sort of enters the tent as well. Our audience at home can't see you guys, but both of the actors who are playing these characters have your hands in the air like, like the bear is a gun. We're being stuck up here.

So you guys back up, back into Liam and's tiny hut. Yeah. It's incredible. This creature crashes through the undergrowth, slowly toward this bear feast and I imagine you created it you know with a little bit of space between it and the hut right yeah yeah but you just watch as the bear like mows down this feast and it's like greedy slavering jaws just wolfing down big pieces and like honey splatters the side of lehmins tiny hut and just drips down. This creature is like gorging on berries and honey.

The bear, once it finishes its feast, walks over to Lehman's tiny hut and places one huge paw on the dome. And it pushes down on the dome, testing its strength, and then snuffles around the base of the sphere and then continues on past the campsite into the darkness of the, the forest. Cool. Well, that's the closest I've been to one of those. Wow.

That's great. For some reason, I feel like we just fall asleep while it's like, you know, moving around. I feel like, I don't know. I don't get the sense of threat. Cool. So you guys wake up. It's a beautiful morning. Jack, you've been waiting for a response from your magic letter to Zephyros for some

time now. Yeah. You're pretty sure you cast it correctly. Maybe you're unsure if the cloud giant is disinclined to choose to respond to you for some reason. That's when a huge scroll of magic parchment descends toward you through the treetops. It shrinks in size as it descends until it lands in your outstretched hand, regular person sized. It reads thusly. Snowflake mountains, border of Am and Tahir. My little friend Jack, This spell is wonderful. Did you make it yourself? I think perhaps you are more powerful than you led me to believe. Or you are very swiftly gathering power to you. Either way, good for you. Yes, the moon shades are beautiful as ever, but shortly after I arrived,

I was driven off by some unfriendly folk. I think I'm still rather rattled for having to throw that cultist off my cloud, so I decided to head somewhere more peaceable for the time being. I knew I would hear from you, by the way. My magical interrogations of the plainer entities have told me, that you and your friends are well on your way to restoring balance to giant kind. Also, I do look in on you from time to time when I have the attention to spare. I do recognize the castle you have shown to me, or one like it.

One can never be certain whether someone's decided to do some renovations of some sort. Cloud giant towers and castles are somewhat malleable in nature to those who create them anyway. What I'm trying to say is that I'm fairly certain you've spotted the home of Countess Sansouri. She and I differ in opinion, with regards to you, small folk, so I would recommend against sending her any letters. We haven't been on each other's horizon in many years, so I couldn't say what she's doing in the area. I should very much like to indulge in some netheries reading myself. Astoria being ancient history does not preclude you and I from collaborating similarly. I'll give snowball a nice scratch from you.

Until next time, Cloud Giant and Wizard, Zephyros. Perfect. And that's it. You guys want to keep going? Yeah. I'm into it. Yeah. It's the second day of travel in the high forest, and I don't know.

How are you guys navigating? Me! Red is taking the lead here. Every once in a while, you see him claw his way up a tree and sort of scout the top. For the time being, my recollection was that there was a large mountain in high forest that we were sort of guessing shadow top cathedral was near to. was near or maybe near, you know, the precipice or whatever. So I think for now I'm using that as our landmark and we're going to be moving towards that.

Cool. It is interesting, Red. Occasionally throughout the day as you climb trees to get a bead on the mountain range that you're trying to approach, you realize that you have been becoming lost a little bit throughout the course of the day. You'll realize that, oh, shit, we were traveling the wrong direction for the last hour and that's something that has never happened to before ever and as i scale back down the tree i approach jack jack if this forest were magical or if there was something in this forest that were

affecting the direction that i take us how would you go about finding that hmm well i mean there's a there's a couple of tests we could do and jack starts thinking about you know any any ways we might be able to to mark landmarks or stars or things that we are certain are going to be in fixed places or go known distances in certain directions or come up with a plan to test that. I promise you that I am leading us in the right direction. Yeah.

I have a landmark that I've been leading us. However, is there any way to detect magic on a large scale, I guess is what I should ask. I'm just wondering if there's any arcana or nature would sort of give Jack a better sense of how to approach that or, you know, as we're like spending the next hour walking, he could be enacting one of these plans to learn a bit about the weirdness of the forest.

Yeah. I guess you're wondering if your character can figure out how Red is getting lost. Yeah. Yeah. And certainly knowing that Red can't be lost and studying the way he's moving about it, is there any way to like see what, a way to sort of learn anything about what is affecting him or just how he's going about doing his thing compared to how I've seen him do it at other ways? Roll insight.

Insight. I got a five. Is that five total? Yeah, no, four plus one. Insight is not my deal. Don't worry about it. Kralath, any idea how I'd get lost in math? Sure, I could cast detect magic.

Thanks, buddy. Let's do it. Maybe that'll show us something. Yeah. Kralath is going to... Just give me 10 minutes. Go for it. Okay, I'm done.

Let's see. That's good. Is there anything magic happening? Yeah, there's... You see a mark on a tree nearby that is radiating. That was so much easier. Thanks, Krayloff. I feel like there was an opportunity to arcana or history or investigate.

Yeah, but they moved on so fast, didn't they? Well, that's such a... Kralazzi's a cool magic thing. Well, that's good. There's a... There's a ruin carved into this tree that is glowing with some magic. Huh. Do you guys see that, too?

This tree right here. There's something right around here. I knew something magic was messed. passing up my senses. I never get lost otherwise. Oh, we're lost. What languages do you guys speak? I speak common elvish, draconic, and giant. I could take 10 minutes to comprehend languages if it's not one of the ones we speak. It's none of those. I will take 10 minutes to comprehend languages and start casting a ritual around this symbol trying to see if I could make any further meaning from it. Cool. I'm going to throw a ball with Stephen. I'm going to throw a ball.

I'm going to summon Stephen and just toss a ball around. That sounds good. Do they see the insignia or is it just magical? They do, yes. Okay, cool. So those of you who are not seeing the magical essence of this run, you just see that the bark of this tree has been scraped or carved into a set of runes. Yeah, that's like a waypoint, like a point, like a, like a point that's, like a symbol that's pointing the way, maybe. It's abjuration school of magic.

I believe you get to learn that. as well. Yeah. Cool. After 10 minutes, Jack, you now speak every language. Yeah, so I touch the surface of the tree and see if I can figure out what is written here. It's runes for protection of an area.

What language? This is sylvan. This is sylvan magic. These are protection runes. They're sylvan magic. I guess they're protecting the forest or the trees, certainly. Huh. Doren pulls out his notebook.

and he sketches down the ruin and the meaning that Jack kind of defines for us all and then puts it placement on the map of where Doran believes we are based on what Red's been telling us and I've been kind of keeping this map in my journal.

Well, that must be why I'm getting lost. Maybe they're trying to protect something that we're working towards. I guess maybe they're trying to protect Shadow Top if we're anywhere near that. It's possible. Oh, Red, I just had this whole idea. Have you ever realized

Like, Liferlis was a tree that could move. Sure was. And he was awesome at it. These are all trees that can move. You can't pick them as your landmarks. They all can move on you. I'm not. I'm using the mountain.

Wait, so that these trees... Or like, there's a tree... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. ...civots 90 degrees every time you come down. So you're like, oh, that's the mountain. And by the time we're in the ground, you're facing a different direction. Oh, I get you.

Clever. Good thinking. Can they speak to us like Liferless? Hello? I want to message this tree with the protection run and just like whisper into it and be like, can you talk to us? We're searching for Shadowtop Cathedral. We're friends.

Nothing comes back to you. That's worth a shot. We're friends of Liffelis. You're yelling into its asshole. Come on. All right. Well, maybe I can make this a little easier then and I will summon Scriven

instead of Stephen this time. Bye, Stephen Goat. Hi, Scriven, Bloodhawk. And I'm going to send her up into the air. and use her to sort of make sure we're following towards the mountain every once in a while. Solve, don't worry. Just wait till we get to water. Then I'm going to summon my third familiar, Stephen.

He's my favorite. Where do you come up with these names, Red? They're pretty good. Yeah. I don't know. My father, Stephen, was a good influence on my life, but I couldn't do it. No, I'm just kidding. Red's walking along, and he takes a second and reaches into his pack, and he walks over to Creeloff and says,

why don't you take this back, buddy? and he hands him back the wheat carving that he gave him and then goes back to walk alongside B. And Kraloff takes the wheat carving and shakes his head and smiles to himself and clutches it close to his heart for a moment. You know, as we're moving on, you know, I can see Jack is kind of concentrating and, you know, still seems to be carrying the weight of yesterday. Kralov falls back a bit. He's just walking next to Glynn and he reaches into his pocket. and he pulls out something that he hasn't really shown the rest of the party. And it's an old, old medallion, almost like a coin, but it's very weathered and tarnished.

And on it is the insignia of the knights of the Eternal Order. And he says, Jack, catch! And flicks it up to Jack. Yeah, Jack reaches out his hand and does his best to catch it. What's this? It's a mark, mark of the Eternal Order. It's what I was given when I became a knight. Barovia to vanquish the undead. And, uh, well, from what I saw yesterday, um, you've earned

yourself a place among the knights. Um, thank you. Uh, wow, thank, thank you, Krayla. That's, that's, that's really mean something. I appreciate that. I also feel a little bad for, uh, well, for the emulate I took from you. I know that that was special to you. And, uh, I don't know if this, this has any value, you know, I know they're old. These things have been around, you know, of the knights of the Eternal Order have been around for eons. I mean, it sounds like I got my amulet taken from myself and you're just a middleman in that transaction, so I can blame that on squarely on me. But as far as any value, Kralath, this is literally a piece of metal from another world.

It's irreplaceable. This is when you, like, if you wanted to talk about something that belongs in a museum, almost everything you brought with you, man. And Kralath laughs as he walks away. way he's like yeah yeah pretty much actually it's just like another world I don't know

about that and then he just keeps walking as your second day of travel in the beautiful and vast high forest wears to a close the sun starts to set on the foot of the lost peaks but some measure of this darkness is due to more

than the sun going down and you notice that above you the tree limbs are thickly interconnected by hundreds of spider webs, blocking out the sun and plunging you into gloomy twilight. The hairs on the backs of your neck's prickle as you get the very distinct feeling that you are being watched by something you can't see, something hungry. Everybody roll for initiative. back together and no secrets needing to be kept from the others. Thank you once again to our great Old One Patreon supporters and shamers alike,

Christopher Ryan Evans, Megan Shepidson, Mitchell Cadwell, Charlie McBroom, and Merlin. See you soon. Red Doran, be an orange. Waka, wauk, wauk, wow. Red Dorin be an orange. Red Dorin be an orange. Red Dorin be an orange. Waka, waka, wako, waka, wau, wow.

Red Doran, be an orange. Red Doran, be an orange. Red, dorn, be an orange. Waka, waka, woken, wauk, wauk, wauwaka, wow. Red, be an orange. Red, Doren. Be an orange. Red, be an orange.

Waka, waka, waka, wau, waka, wow, wow, wow.