Dice Shame - 76 | 'Eye for an Eye'

Episode Date: March 25, 2021

Returning to Everlund reveals an unexpected problem for the party... 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.

I don't even know if I should be telling you this. Maybe it's time to part ways with Harsnag. Say, how do you fare amid the goose market? The new Nightstone 4 motto. Bad guys is actually a relative term. And it's always stuck with me as a, but you have names. If he was bare bummed, it would be blushing to the high heavens. Quite frankly, I don't care.

Hey, Red, come here and take a look at this. A surge of warmth and light radiates through my hands and descends upon his body. Lerick power! Welcome back to Doshame. This is episode 76, eye for an eye. MVP this week is Linkum Ramos for reaching out on Instagram and saying some truly kind words. Thank you for making our day, friend. And remember, if you're enjoying the show, please leave us a positive review on iTunes or podcast.

It helps a ton. It's almost time for InvictusCon 2021. Join us this weekend for three jam-packed incredible days of cast and community-run RPGs, massive online multiplayer video games and matchmaking, educational panels, cosplay and costume gallery, artist Alley, and more. The full schedule for all events is at our website, www. www.dyshamepodcast.com. And thank you so much to everyone who's volunteered to help out by running games. This is going to be a blast.

Hope to see you there. All right, should we get down to business? Let's do it. You drag yourselves from the shores of the frozen lake, soaked and dazed, teeth chattering from the cold, and in reaction to the encounter with the giant ice centipede monster thing. You can hear its distant sounds, reverberating. through the water, an alien scream of agony and frustration at being denied its prey. That was damn close.

Red says, as he does that animal thing and shakes. Yeah. Harsh nag just shakes his head. Fresh water. Those ice worms get even bigger in the ocean. What the hell was that? I can't believe it. Doran says as he stands there looking just miserable, dripping wet, kind of

holding his arms out from his side, you know, blip, blip, like a little kid in a snowsuit. He's shivering. Let's make a fire quickly. And Red heads over to the tree line and just strikes up a fire just to get warm and dry. Totally. Assuming that we're relatively far away from this hideous monster. Yeah, so you're on your way again to Everland. You are traveling parallel to the road.

Harshnang wants to keep out of sight. So you're traveling just north of the road, sort of hugging the Ravin River. Yeah, I think we'll find sort of like a stony outcropping, something that we can get a little bit of cover to warm up. Take a short rest there, do some healing, roll some hit dice. I don't know if this is going to be canon, but we ended last episode with Kralov floating on his balloon pack to Everland. And I am 100% okay with you guys meeting Kralov there. I don't think that the balloon pack moves faster than walking speed. So I think you are traveling with them.

But you're just like 20 feet above them. Is there a way to deactivate this thing? Just get comfortable with heights. Yeah, this is like, what do you call it? Emersion therapy. Or you're just floating, freaking out for a while and then you just don't care. When you look up balloon pack online,

the first thing that comes up is not D&D. It's just a pack of balloons, by the way. Hey, guys, do you want a balloon pack? Oh, yeah, right. Party store, balloon pack, $3.99. The levitation for a balloon pack only lasts 10 minutes. So, Kralath, maybe you're like, see you in Everland and then you just

10 minutes later they find you on the road That's exactly I like the idea that you land and you don't even move You're just like defeated yeah I just yeah just his face is ashen He's just staring forward with sweat and snow falling on it Your butt's still in the air shivering slightly Hey buddy we're just gonna start a fire here That is the scariest thing that's ever happened to me

Come on So you guys settle down with the fire, you get warm, dry off, heal up, take a short rest maybe. Yeah. I think after we were warm, Red pulls out one of those silver berries and just hands it to Harshnag. Maybe hold on to this, and if we tell you to, just pop it in your mouth, just in case. Because we want to fly under the radar, and these help you go invisible.

Hopefully they're not by mass. I would need a great many of these in that case. Yeah, it's like every silverberry converts, you know, 100 kilograms of mass to invisible. 10 pounds. So, yeah, you travel throughout the rest of the day and then make camp at night and break camp the next day. You'll be making your way to Everland today.

You trudged through the snow. It's getting deeper as you travel closer to Everland. And the land grows colder and quieter as you travel. I'm looking forward to seeing Bea and Oren again, frankly, and our horses. Yeah. Say, what do we want to do with them once we start using the portals? Maybe we should find a place to stable them long term in Everland. I agree. It's not fair to drag these horses around.

At the same time, it'd be nice to keep them somewhere in case we ever want to say hi. I'm sure they'll be fine here. Maybe eventually we could pay someone to take them down to the orphanage. Now that's a side adventure just waiting to happen. You hear the sounds of travelers on the road, the crunch and squeak of a wooden cart, and the footfalls of iron horseshoes, some quiet talking. It seems like there are people traveling the road alongside you.

Can we see them or just here? You can just hear them now because you're some distance from the road, maybe, I don't know, a hundred meters or so, but with some hills in between. Red just holds up a hand, and we'll just do a quick scout ahead. Sure. And I'll do a sneaky with a nine. Hmm. Sneaky nine, eh? As you poke your head up out of the ditch to look up at the road, a wooden wagon on two long.

large wheels, being pulled by a shaggy brown horse, just kind of rolls by exactly where you are. And it's traveling in the same direction as you, somewhat more slowly than you guys are traveling. So you've caught up to it, it seems. There are two human men sitting on the back of the cart, their feet dangling and kicking off the edge, and two other men walking behind, chatting with them. Doesn't seem like they've noticed you, Red. Do I notice any insignia, any sort of way to understand where they may be coming from or who they belong to? Why don't you roll an insight?

Happily. I want to hear this happily. That would be a 16. Well. Ah, a 16. 16. There you go. They're wearing clothes that are kind of similarly made to each other.

Rough spun wool that are dyed a similar color, worn leathers. What color? Brown green. Oh. But I don't recognize them. No. Okay. And they're heading towards Everland.

Yeah. So there's two dudes sitting on the back of this cart that's full of like bushels. I will skulk back towards the party. There are some guards on the road carrying some bushels towards Everland. They might spot the giant if we get too close. Thoughts? How far are we from Everland? Like four hours travel.

Maybe it's time to part ways with Harsnag till we meet up in Mirabar. Oh, that's not a bad idea. Hey, big guy. Uh, are you okay if we part ways? Of course. Be safe, small folk. I just want to say it's been really wonderful to meet you and, uh, and Red Hugs as Cove. Ha, ha. You take that with you. It'll bring you good luck. Thank you for everything, Harsh Neck. We'll see you in Mirabar on the 25th.

Of course. We certainly wouldn't have been able to conquer that, uh, C centipede without your help there. Thank you. I mean, we ran away from it, but... You know what I mean? Survive. Conquer it by running. We wouldn't have been able to run away with it without your help.

Survive, conquered. I look forward to us getting some answers. Me too. It will be very cold for you up north, not like this. You'll need new equipment in Mirabar for our trek to the spine of the world. We'll make sure we do. Thanks, Harshnag. Thank you, Harshnag.

Have a harsh nagging day. What does that mean? Why don't you ever do anything for me? He heads off. at an angle, like northwest, kind of like eloping run. He covers a lot of ground quickly. Cool.

He's a pretty cool guy. Literally, because he's frost. He's a frost guy. Do you think we should ask these gods to give us a lift in a town? Just because why not? We might as well walk with them. Keep them company.

They seem friendly enough by the sounds of it. I mean, I rolled insight on them. I didn't get the sense that they were like... No, they're like laughing and joking with each other. Oh, well, then they're good guys. Bad guys don't laugh. Yeah, bad guys don't laugh. Bad guys don't laugh.

And when they do, it's pretty obvious they're bad guys. What is a good guy? Bad guys laugh like this. All the way Jack laughs. They don't laugh like we. What is the difference between good guys and bad guys now, really? It's the laugh. That's right.

Perspectives. You know what? On a total side note, I've been having this conversation a lot recently with my son. He's like, they're bad guys. And I'm like, bad guys is actually a relative term. There's actually nine alignments. There's lawful good, chaotic. But like stormtroopers, I mean, they're not really bad.

Wait, hold on. So you're telling him that you're teaching your son that the empire is good. Well, what's good and bad? What I'm hearing is Nazis are okay. What I did say was the emperor was bad. That exactly. Oh, but I guess, yeah, if you're looking at like, thin. From the perspective of Germany, did a lot of good.

You sound like my grandfather. Anyway, for mine too. But that, all joking aside, All right, let's go see if the caravan wants to, you know, keep us company. And we'll head out towards the road. Cool. Oh, travelers. So you guys head out towards the road, all four of you.

And the two dudes who are sitting in the back of the wagon, so they're, like, facing their rear, I guess. They both sort of wave at you guys. Ho, travelers, yourselves. Hello. Share us some company. Yeah, come on over. All right. Maybe Red will scamper up the back and head towards the person in the front and sit next down to the driver. There's no driver, actually, of the cart.

A horse kind of plodding along, pulling this cart. Hi, horsey. Nay. Ha, ha. Cool. Yeah, so there's these dudes just hanging out, and they're like, you just came out of the woods there, like, nothing. That's cool. Are you guys a hunting party?

What's... We're a party party. We go place to place, bringing good will towards men. Hey, you didn't hear anything about any dwarves in the area, did you? No. The other guy who's sitting on the back of the cart scratches his beard. We just came out of the high forest ourselves, so I haven't been in civilization for a little while. Hey, we hear that, and Red hops down and walks alongside his friends. Hey, I didn't really think about that, but I guess we sort of ditched those dwarves.

They might be a little bit angry. But if that letter got to them and they understood why we left, then maybe they'll be fine. Oh, we can only hope. And I look to Doren. Doran is deep in thought as he trudges along the snowy path. He's looking at his feet. He looks up. He catches Red's eyes looking at him and immediately diverts them back to the ground

and then looks up at Red again to try and make it seem not so obvious. You know what? I think I will roll insight on Doren. I think this is a fair moment based on all the other times. You know, Doren has never acted. Doran, it's my time. If he was bare bummed, it would be blushing to the high heaven. You're going to roll deception against his insight?

Yes. All right, let's do this. Contested. Oh, damn, negative one. So three. Versus 21. Whoa. Doren is an open book.

And it's not necessarily that you can put together everything that happened or why he's feeling the way he's feeling, but you can absolutely read him. Doren supported Red when B came. And Doren gave him the tough love speech and, you know, made him feel connected. and Red is really fascinated by Doren's past for many reasons. So he sort of makes eyes at Doren and sort of nods and gestures to the back maybe of the cart as the two others are at the front talking with the guys or we go to the front as the two others. Trying to separate so we can talk. One of the brothers is like showing you guys what's in these bales on the wagon, maybe Jack and Crale.

It's fucking hay. Check it out. Look how nice this hay is. You ever seen hay? There are bales of furs. It's for horses. They're like leafing through these different kinds of animal furs to show you the pelts, like fox, mink, elk, deer, blah, blah, blah. So they're like, what?

Jack catches himself in a whole moment of like halfway. Oh, I really wonder what trapper culture in the high forest is like, but he's way too distracted about thinking about water deep to take any notes. So he's just sort of like nodding and smiling and asking questions, but not absorbing anything they tell them really. So, yeah, Red hangs back with Doran, and he's like, Doran, I can tell him something's on your mind. What happened with Chaos Hammer on you?

Red, you can read me like a book. I'm not proud of it, but I don't even know if I should be telling you this. Maybe I'm not the dwarf that you thought I was. Chaos Hammer called me out on something that I embellished on, He's trying to blackmail me, but I didn't let him, and I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me. Quite frankly, I don't care, because at the end of the day, I stand by my actions always and forever. It's who I am, but he can try what he wants. Red puts a hand on Doran's shoulder and even drops back a little more than before.

and almost quietly to Doran he speaks and he says Doran I don't think you're the same person I met that first day I think you've shown yourself to be a compassionate person and whatever happened in the past whatever problems might have happened I sincerely believe that you are a good person that deserves a second chance and Ezred says this he says it

with a surprising weight, a knowing weight, and he catches your eye for a second, and then looks back forward and says, we don't need to speak of it anymore. And he sort of pats you and then heads up towards the other two. And as you look in a Doran's eyes, there's a welling tear. That quickly dissipates back into his eyes. He sucks in back. Don't even wipe it away. It's just no tear escapes Doran's face. I want to give both of you guys inspiration. I love you. Thank you.

Beautiful. I like that. Cool. Yeah. And Red heads up to the others. But Doran, you do catch a very odd look from Red. It's a weird knowing acceptance. And he sort of heads back up to the others.

I appreciate it, though, Red. I appreciate it. This family unit of furriers introduces themselves to the four of you as you travel for the next couple of hours. They try to sell you on their wares. No, we're not fucking interested. God, no, stop bothering us. What about two first? Stop calling me from the back.

Our ducks don't need any cleaning. It's goose in Everland. Oh, that's true. Do you work with a tailor in town? I mean, these goods, the furs look pretty damn warm. Well, we sell them in the market just at our stall, so not directly, no. Do you know of someone we should be in contact? with, always looking for a business.

Not in particular, just curious. Say, how do you fare amid the goose market of Everland? It's a tough market. But you can't skin a goose is the thing. Or you can, but it doesn't look good. Thanks for that

bit of wisdom. You know, I heard from a furrier and hide the high forest once. You can't skin a goose, or you can, but it doesn't look good. It's always Stuck with me, is it? You never heard that.

It's a common saying. As Jason the differ. They have names. What's his name? Therick. The new Nightstone 4 motto. What are the rest of their names? There's, so Therick Rastia, his husband Boris Yartov, and then Therick's brothers, Sam, Sam, and Augra Rastia.

Hey, a question for you. So you've been traveling for a while now, a few days, right? Oh, yeah, just for, this would be the third day. Have you run into any trouble on the way? Giants. I know my friend here mentioned dwarves, but what about giants or anything else? Giants. Stuff of legends.

What do you mean? Did you see... Are you guys just NPCs that are meaningless? Yeah. Oh, okay. But you have names. No, they don't know anything. They don't know anything, but you have names.

They're cool. We never seen any giants before. You ever seen any giants? Yeah, once or twice. A couple giants. Eventually, the walled city of Everland comes into view. Four hours later. Let me fast for it anyway.

No, but I just didn't. Therick, Boris, if you ever run into trouble, you can always stop in at the baker at Everland. It's been a wild time out here. I'm glad you've made it out okay. Giants are rampaging through the north. There's been some Dwarven vigilantes around here recently. So let's get safe to Everland.

I mean, for real. Let's go. And then the horse steps just a little bit faster. Wait, you could have gone faster? Just a tiny bit. Why were we taking so long? His boyfriend in Waterdeep is... Wait, are we in Jalindborg?

We're heading towards Everland. So the walled city of Everland comes into view, hugging the Ralvin River and surrounded by a mile of deforestation. The shadows from Everland's walls and towers extend far across the plains in the late afternoon sunlight. As you approach, Kralath and Red, I believe you guys have the highest passive perception. You both see many figures patrolling the walls.

And there are members of the city guard actually standing out front from the gate that you're entering. Look up, boys, Red says, who I imagine is sort of perched on top of the carriage. They seem overly vigilant, more so than when we left. Doeron watches Red. Hey, uh, Jack. Yeah.

I forgot my question. Okay. Well, when you remember it, Krala? That's why I keep a notebook around always, because I got tons of questions. That's it. I remember now. Can I borrow a notebook? Good.

What's our story? So we've dealt with dwarves. There's no story. We're here to see Valharo. I don't think we need to lie to the guards. I mean, we're not with these folks. They're humble traitors. I'm just thinking that it might seem suspicious, like, oh, yeah, we went and we hung out

with the dwarves for a little while. We met Chaos Hammer and then we came back. I bet if we said we're on a mission from Valharo, nobody would blink twice. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'm fine with that. Members of the city guard in full regalia have pole arms crossed in front of the open doors

and they stop the merchant vehicle with you and also the four of you before you enter. State your names in business with Everland. Boris, Therick, you guys can go first. We're just going to hang out in the back here. We're on business with Valharo. We're working in conjunction with the harpers at Moonglean Tower. Valhalla were vouched for us. We are the Nightstone Four.

They open the way and stand back to allow you to pass. And you can hear them questioning the furriers behind you on the road. Gates close at sundown and open at sunrise. Plan travel accordingly or get approval from the high captain. Listen, we're just returning back to Everland here. But security has been ramped up. since we left here only maybe a week ago.

Yeah, she nods at you. Keeper of the bridges has increased watch in all shifts. Oh, interesting, interesting. Do you know why? Red shouts. No, it's not my station. All right, let's go.

Let's hit up with B and Oren. Maybe they can shed some light. And I think we head back towards the tavern we stayed in. As when you came to Everland, a short five days ago, the city is bustling with merchants and geese. The snow is turned to dirty slush

in the gutters due to to traffic. And the geese have turned to dirty geese in the gutters due to traffic. Due to dirty geese traffic. Some are shaved and they don't look very good. And the furrier nudges us and he's like, what I fucking tell you? Listen, Boris, you don't have to be like that.

I know my shit. The furriers say goodbye and good luck to you guys as they head off down a different road. So you head from the upper. Rivergate down through the middle of town, passing the Bell Market. And it's kind of a similar time of day as when you first entered Everland. It's like coming up on evening. The marketplace is all packing up for the night. And you're intending to go on in a westerly direction towards Danavar's house,

which is this, if you remember, this giant inn on the river. It's like a mansion, right? Yeah, it's a mansion. I nudge Jack, and I'm like, better returning now, eh? I guess, so we're going to go to Waterdeep soon, though, like in the hour? Yeah, God, he's the... Torren's in trouble. I don't...

I just wanted to say... I can't really think about anything else. Let's go. You're right, you're right. As you pass through the marketplace having your own conversation, you'll overhear little snippets of gossip. And actually, it seems like the marketplace is kind of clumped together. Huddles of people are talking.

You hear people talk about bandits and some... battle, drunken patrons of an inn, and a haunting. Hmm, a haunting. Can I try to overhear a conversation? Read some lips. Sure, yeah. You just want to like, listen. I want to observe, yeah, I want to read some lips.

I want to do my observant trait. Why not? I mean, I just have to see them. So really, I just look. Flon't it. Yeah. I mean, why not? He just, he just tell the time, told the time.

Nope, I said, I want to leave within the hour. That's all. Looked. But he knows what time it is. I do, intimately. He just didn't show it. Kralath is going to step up beside Red and put his hand on his shoulder and say, see what you can find out.

And I'm going to cast Enhanceability and use Owl's Wisdom, which gives you advantage on wisdom checks. So perception, insight. I can read all the lips. I'll roll my check, which was a first. Perception. Yeah. So, nice.

You look across, I'm picturing this like a Sherlock Holmes sort of moment, uh, where you like look at something and zoom in on people's mouths across the square or whatever. You hear someone say that a dozen bandits attacked Danny Vars house and made off with all the furniture. You hear from another side of the square someone saying that a bloody battle between some drunken patrons at the king's carriage left four dead and that it's closed. for the whole day. You hear someone say, members of the city watch saw a spectral apparition last night that walked straight through the city walls. And I tell them this and I say, we need to get to

the inn quickly. It makes it be an oar and are okay. Of course. And yeah, we head to the inn. It looks much the same as it did the last time you were here, full of light and life, music pouring from the windows and patrons inside eating and drinking. There's an armored guard standing at the door looking bored. Excuse me. We heard that there was a fight here. Is everyone all right? Did anyone get hurt?

No fight here. The other night? No, not here. Well, I don't know. Whatever. Let's go check to see if being Orrin are okay. And I guess I'll go inside. Sure.

Yeah. You go inside. There's like a post-des there standing just inside the front door and she nods her head at the four of you. Will you be staying with us this evening or just dining? We were here a few nights ago. We're actually just looking to meet some friends. Can I go up and check their room? They would have been staying in the same one, most likely.

Can I take their names? Yes, B and Oren. Your name, please? Red, red-handed Robin. Wonderful. I have a message for you. B and Oren will be staying at another inn just a few blocks away.

It's called the Innocent Jester. Oh. Do you need directions? Please, yes. She tells you how to get there. It's in the northeastern part of town. sort of between the Hall of Elders and the Mountain Gate. Okay, thank you.

And Red sort of, I guess a little bit concerned, looks to Jack. Did they take all the horses with them? Do you know if there's anything still in the stables here? I believe they did, yes. Thanks, great. I guess we'll head to the other place. The Jester's? The Innocent Jester.

Mm-hmm. A block past the Hall of Elders toward the Mountain Gate, a small crowd of people is standing in the street, citizens and members of the town guard. The townsfolk are hanging out in small groups, chatting and looking around. A street vendor has wandered up from the bell market and is trying to hawk-fried fish at the crowd. You watch as one of his would-be customers shoes him away with a sharp word. Two armored guards stand on either side of the door to the innocent jester.

A friendly-looking two-story pub with a red-tiled roof and an awning out front painted with diamond shapes. Next door, the inn is neighbors to a candlemaker's shop and a carpenters workshop. You can see in the front window of the candlemaker's shop that there are two more city guards talking to the shockkeeper inside. What's going on? What's wrong?

Sorry, we can't let you in here, sir. Why not? There's an investigation. An investigation? And Red looks nervously. We have friends that are staying here. Are they all right? I'm going to message generally in the direction of the inn

to Oren to see if they're within 120 feet. You don't hear a response. We have friends that were staying here. Are they all right? Honeybee of the meadow and Oren. And he goes inside for a second and he comes back out and he waves you in. The tap room of the innocent jester is empty except for a tired looking member of the city guard standing by the fireplace. And a woman in gray trousers, little black shoes and a loose white shirt. She's sitting at the table in the middle of the room with a mostly empty bottle of wine in front of her and a glass.

She's in the middle of talking when you walk in, and she stops when she sees you come through the door. Fela, Morrow, at your service. How can I help you? Oh, Red Hen and Robin, Jack Page, Kraloth. Doran. Look, we are here to try to find our friends, bee, honeybee of the meadow, and Oren. The guard who's standing by the fireplace speaks up. There's been an incident. Uh, and your friends were involved, I'm sorry to say.

And the color drains from Red's face. What do you mean involved? The Inn was attacked late last night. Honeybee of the Meadow and Orrin Yogelvi are alive. And he's pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace now. I think Red just sits down, a weight slightly off his shoulders. Oh, God. And he, like, holds Kralath.

I'd like to take a walk around the room quick and just investigate for myself to see if I, without too many more details from them, to see how much of it I can piece together for myself. Sure. So, Jack, you want to do a little bit investigating? I'd love to investigate. Sure.

24. You'd notice that there is an arrowhead dug deeply into the wall that's adjacent to the front door. Hey, Red, come here and take a look at this. Is this one of B's arrowheads? And Red, in a day, sort of walks over and just sort of touches the shaft as it sticks out of the wall. It is. It's beats.

Yeah. And Red looks directly at check. Yeah. Yes, it is. Where are they? Are they hurt at all? Captain Vico asked if... I've interrogated the witnesses and been investigating this crime for the past few hours. I think we put together a fairly accurate picture of what happened here, but... Well, if you'd like to speak with Honeybee, she's upstairs. I nod to Red. Yes, very much so.

Red, I guess, leaps upstairs. Jack, you're like in the middle of figuring out sort of the parabola that the arrow would have taken and realizing that when B made this shot, she was probably walking backwards toward the kitchen. There's like a rear corridor. Like she would have been moving back and firing at the same. same time at someone maybe coming through the front door. And, uh, you sort of just put this together, deduce it as your companions are going upstairs. Are you going to stay down here and keep collecting clues or you want to go upstairs with them? No, I think I'm going to, I'm going to

head up with them, but I might be the last one in the room sort of looking around, waiting for Doran to see what his take on it is and then it's definitely B's arrow. It's got a Bion. But she missed. Yeah, unless she was aiming for the door frame. Inkeeper Fadla leads you through a corridor and then up a creaky staircase and as you walk the staircase you note that there are some droplets of blood on each step leading down phala leads you to a door that's cracked open and it's leaking light out into the hallway you open the door and inside this chamber you are greeted by a scene that looks like a renaissance painting honeybee of the meadow is sitting on the edge of a bed bathed in golden lantern light. She's surrounded in rumpled white linens stained here and there with

blood. Her lithe form is bent over a figure lying prone in bed, naked chested and bandaged. Orin Yoglevi has never looked so frail. His curly hair is plastered to his face in fever, sweat. His eyes are closed. Bee turns quickly to you as you come through the door and when she sees you Red, her eyes well with tears. I think he's going to be okay. Red runs over and kneeling on the floor next to them, sort of puts his hands around both and kisses her on the cheek. And he's like, you can't scare me like that.

Is he? And he sort of cautiously places a hand on Ogil's tummy. And does he feel like feverish? Or what is he? Do you want to roll a medicine check? Sure. 13. Yeah, he feels a little warm.

And then, you know, through now weeping eyes of his own, Red looks up towards Kralath, who's just a foot behind him. She turns to you, Kralath. They had a cleric in here earlier, but it didn't. Shush, shush, it's okay. It's all right. Let me take a look at him. Kralath is going to kneel down.

He's going to pull out various spices. Yes, some of them he has used in his cooking. And he's going to get to work. And as he's muttering a prayer at the same. time. He's going to cast the same spell that he cast on red earlier. He's going to cast it on himself to do a medicine check. So he's going to get an enhanceability. He's got advantage on this role. Okay. So that's a 17 plus 6. So 23 medicine check. Nice. Yeah, you make a thorough assessment of this man's condition, taking his pulse, feeling the energy coming off of his

skin, magical, clerical ministrations. And you determine that Oren is still bleeding somewhere inside and that whoever, whoever healed him earlier this morning, their powers were inadequate to staunch that flow. And he's going to need some help from you. I'm just going to cast cure wounds and put as much of my cleric power into it as possible and see if that helps. Cleric power! A surge of warmth and light radiates through my hands and descends upon his body. And then his breathing evens out and he enters what you know. to be just an untroubled sleep,

something that his body probably needs right now. And he turns over in kind of a comfortable way, resting. And Red looks to B as Kralath is sort of preparing this, and he's like, what happened? B looks around to the four of you and then casts her eyes around the room. We decided to leave Danavar's house after two days because it was so expensive

and we just wanted a change of scenery thought it would be nice and well we came here we woke up in the middle of the night Oren and I to a terrible commotion Sarah

and then she looks with the other bed in the room This piece of furniture has been marred by some violence. It is all bloody mattress and torn sheets. She screamed in pain, writhing. She was being murdered. She was stabbed to death. Oh, no.

It was by some cloaked figure. in the middle of the night, and we rolled out of bed. I took my bow and arrows, of course. I pushed past the creature into the hallway. Oren couldn't see anything. It was too dark. Not even mourning. He took some terrible injury on his side on the way out the door.

The figure followed us in hot pursuit. I fired at him, protecting Oren behind me and retreating downstairs. But then a second figure came in through. the front door of the tavern so we fled back toward the kitchen there were two cooks who i guess had come in early for baking or something that were surprised by us and they had knives kitchen knives and they brought us inside and they pushed a heavy kitchen table in front of the door to prevent them from coming in so that we could be defended Then, and she turns just pale here, and her eyes get really wide. Heedless of that obstacle, two figures moved through the wall beside the door.

I fired arrows at the attackers, and Orrin threw whatever was close to him, ladles, pans. And the two cooks set upon the creatures with their knives. One of them fell. Cut down, and then I scored a direct hit to the creature's neck, and it fell to the floor. The remaining assassin retreated, phasing back through the wall, out of sight. But, Dad, it said something to me. I can't remember. Through the haze of battle, I was so afraid.

It said something like, Every burrow will be turned out, and the warren set ablaze. What did the creature look like? It had the same dead eyes, burning with vengeance. It was them. It was the hunt lords. The hunt lords return? My God!

Anyway, thanks to our wonderful Patreon supporters. Christopher Ryan Evans, Mitchell Cadwell, Mary Kahniski, Jessica Orrett, Colin Burkart, Daniel. Kate Yoritt and Merlin. See you. Well, I guess we'll see you this weekend at InvictusCon. Be turns to you, Red. Did you want to clap?

Thank you. Thanks, Kraylon. It's what I do. I mean, it was worth a clap. Thank you.