Dice Shame - 93 | 'Cat and Mouse'

Episode Date: July 22, 2021

While climbing towards the Eye of the All-Father, the party encounters a rogue group of enemies... 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's fine, but I'm gonna kill it. Dorian, you and I are gonna be buddies for this blizzard. You guys want to hear some dice shame? Natural 20. That's the way Doran sings when he attacks. Cairn, what do you smell? What? Come on. Ha ha ha ha ha. Hey guys, welcome to Kyle's Kyle. He's attacking me. With thander's light, everybody, look out. Well, it's okay, we've had a long rest in between them. I noticed. The shriek comes from somewhere up ahead of you and only occurs twice before falling silent. Everyone get ready!

Welcome back to Dice Shame. This is episode 93, Cat and Mouse. MVP this week is Mary W. Jensen, who had a co-worker knit her a cuddly fox, which she lovingly named Red. Adorable, Mary, and thank you so much for being a fan. He's beautiful. I've recently purchased some gorgeous enamel pins, patches, and lanyards from the lovely Paoless pixels. She designs all kinds of nerdy clothes and accessories, gamer tote bags, stickers, sweatshirts, and more. Right now I have my eye on the tabletop items skirt.

It's this ultra-cute, full A-L-L-A-L-S skirt that's got illustrated pattern of swords, shields, potions, and daggers. Super cool. The T-shirts are awesome, too. She's always got something great on sale. Check out the complete store at Paola'spixels.com. That's P-A-O-L-A-S-Pixels,

and support women-owned businesses. Damn straight. All right, want to do this? Let's go. It's hot out, y'all. Yeah, my armpits. Look at these pits. Oh, right.

That's a camera special for, sorry, this is an audio medium and you missed that. Alex is trying to get some pit sweat. Alex doesn't have pits wet. Not too hot yet here. We'll check back in with you 25 minutes into the episode. Back to you with Pitswain. I'm coming on the trail of like 16 months of being quarantined in our homes, I'm going to admit, I got like an extra 5 to 10 pounds going on. I like to take care of myself.

I want to be healthy, a little cute in a pair of shorts or whatever. So I've been doing some yoga. I've been going for walks. I'm trying to do like the hard stuff. Like when it's time to eat dessert, I'm like I'll have half of an ice cream sandwich. So why you need her other half plus my dessert? I give it to Henry. I mean, he's into it.

How do you guys stay fit? Do you, like, do you give a shit at all? Do you have got beauty secrets? Are you gym people? What's your secret? Who's gym? Gymnasium, our neighbor. I do miss the gym.

It's been sad. It's been shut. There was a really great one on the drive to work. You could sort of stop. At the end of it, there's the hot tub and the sauna in the pool so you could go for a workout and then like chill for a bit. It was pretty cool. Nice.

One day, that'll be possible again. That's good. I have moments, you know? I have maybe, you know, every two weeks or every month, I have this wind of inspiration to be like, I'm going to become fit. And, you know, the headband goes on, the rocky music starts playing. And then I'm doing P90X for five days, seven days. And then it's like, okay, no, I don't, I don't, this isn't me. I'm fit again.

Yeah, exactly. I did it. And then I take four months off. Mission accomplished. It's hard to sustain it. I've been doing these like 30 day yoga videos. and I'll get to like day seven and then I fucking stop. It's like, why am I doing this?

I mean, yeah, just right now, just getting out for a walk every now and then and, you know, maybe doing like a little run on the steps when I'm really feeling it. Because sometimes you do get that just like that surge of like, I need to do something, you run up and down the stairs. What steps are you talking about? I live right near Casoloma, which is the castle in Toronto.

And there's a series of steps that's 110 steps. I always count them every time I go up and down. It's this weird little particular thing I do. For you. And there's 110 steps. That's like bundling OCD in with your workout. Yeah, exactly. You got to keep the mind busy.

There's so much counting in workout. You got... One, two. Three. Five. I have a really great regime for me, which is basically I do whatever I want until I feel bad enough about myself to say, fuck, I need to do something.

And then I do something for a little bit, which is really inconsequential, until I stop caring about that. and then I repeat the cycle. And it just keeps going back and forth. It's really nice. What I need is a good, un-life-threatening disease. Thin me out, you know?

When I had my gallbladder removed, I shed all this beautiful way. It was really healthy. So check out Dr. Harlan's great workout routine. Get a disease. Get a disease. But something that's not big. You know, just something, like a gallbladder,

something that won't let you eat fatty food. A kidney stone. Yes, great. Right. Gets. Just a good, yeah. Terrible gas. A good case of terrible gas.

Diabetes scare. Good taste. Good taste. Good old diabetes scare. Are you guys still doing the bowl of veggies to get your... So funny. We almost did that this morning. Oh, really?

We had other things to do this morning. Yeah. Well, that's the counter for whatever. But we're having veggies with dinner tonight, A. And B, I went with my new favorite breakfast. Because I found a favorite breakfast recently. Harlan has been hard on this favorite breakfast. So I get into these modes where I find the perfect thing.

So what I do is there's this very specific type of granola. I don't remember the brand, Nature's Path. Yeah, Pumpkin Flaxseed. Pumpkin, yeah. Nature's Path, Pumpkin flaxseed. Dude, what the hell? So good. Yeah. Yeah, it's so good.

So I do that. Yeah. Here's what I do. I do a great, like, you know, half bowl of the granola with a ton of fresh berries. I do like, I cut strawberries and blueberries. And then I do a single yogurt into it and I mix it all together. That's amazing. Let me tell you, it is so fucking good.

I eat it almost every day. It's so good. And it makes me feel, I mean, it's not healthy, but it's definitely not. It's not, I mean, it's not like fast and, you know, nutritious. You're getting some berries and refreshing. The freshness of the berries plus the crunchiness and the, like, the granola is, because I've tried it with other granola, and other granola is far too sweet. It sounds such a fucking old person, but like, it's just far too sweet.

I like the nature's path because it is. It just feels like, I mean, there is some sweetness to it. At Harland. Yeah. It's too sweet. So I'm, I think I might know the answer to this question already. But are you the sort of person who can find a food and just eat that food because it's delicious until you get sick of it? Or do you need a lot of variety and like the same thing twice?

Honestly, I would have always said I'm the latter until I found this berry bowl. No, wrong. Yeah, I agree, Joe. What? Tuna pepper. Oh, yeah, I do love tuna pepper. Oh, yeah, I do love tuna pepper. classically enjoys of simple food constantly.

Yeah, that's true. Tuna pepper? And I take it back to pizza too. You know, you're like your pepper-or-in pizza. Yeah, you're right. I guess I do. Tuna pepper is when Harlan cuts up two bell peppers into little scoop-sized chunks. Tuna pepper.

And then he has these spicy tuna can. So Cloverlythe does flavor tuna, as we all know. It is no. Soracha. No, it's not saracha. I hate sarahcha. Oh, it's the Thai chili. The Thai chili.

The sweet Thai chili. uh clover leaf tuna they're fantastic it's got like a little Thai chili in each can same middle ground where it's like not unhealthy but it's also not like healthy for you but it's just like you know flavored tuna so you're eating fish and you're eating some calories but i eat it with the pepper that i can eat all the time and i think the thing is a raw pepper to be clear yeah raw pepper must be it's when i find something that's somewhat healthy i'll attach hard because it's so easy for me be like fuck it i'll eat chips so i think the berry bowl and the tuna pepper because they're both sort of middle but leaning to healthy i try to go hard on those because it's it's like a good

way for me to get excited about something that's good for me right and it's not it's not something you don't have to put a lot of thought into it when you know that you've got this thing it's like you can just turn off just like you know you don't have to think about that turn off the think yeah yeah for real it's a great fatigue it's a great thing highly recommend everyone try tuna pepper and variable. Well, you know what? Speaking on tuna fatigue, tuna fatigue.

What did you say? Tuna pepper. Yeah, you're talking about... Decision fatigue. Decision fatigue. Menu fatigue. Sorry, tuna pepper and then decision fatigue.

Speaking of decision fatigue, I think that's what trips a lot of people up with their food and like the good eating decisions. Yeah. And I've learned this from my very organized and note-taking wife who's constantly making notes and lists.

But we make a meal. a meal plan, and we do that every week so that she has, she knows what she's going to the grocery store because she likes to do the grocery shopping. It helps her get what she wants. And then she can also get snacks and stuff, but it also like gives us exactly what we're having that

night. It doesn't have to be always healthy or always whatever, but it takes away that decision fatigue, which is such a big. We try that, but I don't know. I don't think we're that kind of people. Harlan and I end up having the same conversation every single morning, which is what the fuck are we going to eat. Because the problem is, we are also,

So we are two sides of that coin. We both really do appreciate that meal plan at the same time. We're also creatures of like impulse where we're like, man, but I really fucking feel like X, Y, Z tonight. And that, especially during this time of COVID, it's like, okay to be like, fuck it. Let's have the ribs tonight instead. But here's the thing is like we have one of those whiteboards in the kitchen with the days of the week on it.

So we have what we're eating each day. But sometimes we'll like, we'll go, okay, tonight we're supposed to have burgers, but I don't feel like making burgers. We're going to do that on Friday and we'll switch. with Friday. Yeah, well, then that's what we do. You know, at least you know what you have in the cover. You know the flavors you're going to need.

But to go back to the original question, no, I don't work out either. I don't go to the gym. But I do get the same as Justin. I get every now and then, well, same as everybody. I get that like, like, that buildup of energy. And I'm like, oh, I got to get out of here. But that's more about your life situation. Kid kidding.

And then I go, we'll go to the park and, like, we'll take a soccer ball. And we'll just run around for, like, like 20 minutes, 15, 20 minutes, kicking the ball back and forth. And not taking it easy, but like actually, you know, actually running the whole field or whatever. Well, we walk the dog twice a day too.

And you have a pool too, so you can just jump out there and go swimming. Yeah, and I do. Speaking of pool party. Pool party. It's coming. One day soon. Speaking of working out,

I think your characters have been doing quite a bit of adventuring. That's definitely got to get the heart rate up. I'm sure they get their steps in every day, right? Like, there's nobody not getting there. At least. 10,000 steps when you're hiking through the fucking wilderness. Yeah.

I mean, I look at the map and I'm like, wow, we've literally gone here and there and back and forth and up and down. It's a lot of traveling. Here and back again. A hobbit's tail. I wonder how many kilometers we've traveled. I'm sure Rob will figure it out.

Let him do it, Rob. Oh, all right. Rob, don't worry about it. Rob will handle it. But I asked the question. Rob, unless you're excited about it, then Rob, okay, Rob, Rob, let Rob do it. Where's Jeff?

Jeff likes this kind of thing. Jeff? I didn't actually hear what you were talking about. Kilometers. Oh, how many kilometers have we traveled? I just figured that's one of those brain teasers that Rob would be like, that's actually kind of funny. That is something.

Fun fact, actually, speaking of working out and all that kind of stuff, there is an app called Walk to Mortar where you can put in your steps. And it'll tell you how far you are to Mortar. But also, this is why I like it. It's figured out the distance that it takes to get to every, like, specific landmark. And then it rewards you when you get to. there by giving you a passage of text that Tolkien wrote about the journey to get there or something that happens there. So you read little bits of Lord of the Rings as you log distance.

Joe just comes in and she's like, I'm in Rohan! Not even close. I'm not even out of the shire yet. It's insane. So you can't say the line yet. You can't go, this is the farthest I've ever been. Yeah, the end of like Farmer Maggots Field or whatever the fuck is. My favorite description of those books recently was that because they're written by Hobbits and they contain so much food, They're just to think of them as a food blog where they have to tell you the whole story before they can get to their recipe. That's good. Which I hate, by the way. Those are annoying.

That is probably one of the biggest recent trends that I fucking hate. You Google a recipe for like buns or something and they're like, oh, here's a great easy, cheesy bun recipe. When I was a young boy growing up in Europe, I found that. I'm like, I don't give a fuck. Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. And then it's like another way you can do these. It's, I just tell me the fucking recipe. why I hate Googling something

and looking for a how-to and I'm looking for instructions and there's just a bunch of videos. I hate videos. Hey guys, welcome to Kyle's Kyle. I just, I want like, oh, how do I take this thing out of my car? Like, how do I remove this piece

from, like, under the engine or whatever? And it's like... You might be asking yourself how to remove something from under your engine. Yeah. Well, I have the answer for you. But first, did you know the Toyota Corolla is? So I've been working on my 1995,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, okay, That's the wrong vehicle, first of all. Why did this even come up? It's true. Lucky for us, there's no cars in the forgotten realm, so we don't have to worry about it. The best part is we're not the kind of people to ramble during an intro

when people are waiting to listen. You just want to be. Like, where in the world? Self-reflection. You guys want to hear some dice shame? I've been playing D&D since I was two. And the thing about D&D that I've always thought is that it's most fun when you're actually playing. That's awesome.

Touchet. All right. All right, let's get down to business. So you survive this terrible avalanche. Day turns into night and you continue your trek through the spine of the world. The next day dawns, snowy and cold. And as it progresses and as you travel, a blizzard comes up. Oh, no.

Yes. Visibility is very limited now. You can only see to maybe 10 feet in front of you. So it forces you to sort of clump up a little bit closer to each other than you maybe normally would have. I'm not sure if like Harshnag or Red was doing any scouting. Oh, most definitely. But at this point, if you want to maintain contact with your party, you're either going to have to string a rope between you all or stay close together or come up with some other strategy

because you really can't see where you're going very well. Well, Red has this innate ability to really be able to navigate difficult terrain. He can't get lost, which means that whatever destination we are heading towards, Red can sense it. So he sort of moves to the lead and begins, maybe he even takes like a rope from Harshnag and starts leading the way this tiny little fox compared to this giant standing behind him. Well, and Jack always knows which way is north. Absolutely. Even in a blizzard.

So I think between us... Kralath and Doran, how are you handling yourselves during this situation? I recall last time we were in a blizzard. Didn't Doren go off somewhere else in his own dog sled? He did get lost, yes. Doren, Dorn, you and I are going to be buddies for this blizzard, okay? Blizzard buddies, everybody tie yourself to your Blizzard buddy. We don't want anybody getting lost.

What a great idea. Kralov, who's your Blizzard buddy? Red, will you be my Blizzard buddy? I'm leading the way, buddy. Oh, well, it's okay. Kellenvore will be my Blizzard buddy. I'm your Blizzard buddy. Well, I figured I'm holding a rope.

Oh, okay. Rob said that Doran and he are blizzard buddies and then Craylaw and Red might be. We're all blizzard buddies. I'm taking the lead. Red like goes to each person and he hands them a piece of the rope. And yeah, Jack can be at the end

making sure that we're on course. But again, the way I sort of imagine Red's skill is that, yeah, he literally ignores this difficult terrain. It's still sees him, but there's this innate sense that he can kind of get to where they're going. He doesn't know which way is fucking north, southeast, west. Yeah. But do you know, which actually might throw Jack off at times

when Red's like, oh, we're going to have to move around this hell, you know? 100% I trust your ability in the woods. You have always made it way easier to walk the path of least resistance and not as the crow flies, which is sort of the way Jack would navigate. So along this course of hemp and rope, Red is at the beginning of the rope. You're leading the way. And then what's the marching order, quote unquote? So Kralov is behind him, his goggles on, holding on to the rope, saying a prayer to Kallumvore,

because even with the dark vision, he can't see anything. And then I guess maybe Doren and then Jack. Does that sound fair? So for once, Doran's not at the tail of the party, but... And maybe Harshnegg is bringing up the rear? Or maybe he's even parallel to us. You know, maybe he's just off to the right

so I can see him and he's sort of like, you know, within seeing distance of these tiny folks. Yeah. I think Harsnack's kind of on his own. He's probably like, his head's probably above the... Yeah, he's above the blizzard. Maybe not like right above it. Clear up here, guys.

A blizzard would be more confusing on the ground with snow blowing up from the ground. Yeah, this is a much better idea than last time. Remember, I got lost. I was all the way over there when you guys were over here. Don, I'm over here, come back. Where, over there or over here? That's a bush. Through the blizzard, you hear a troubling sound.

A male voice screaming in panic and terror. The shriek comes from somewhere up ahead of you and only occurs twice before falling silent. Everyone get ready. Roll for initiative. Oh, there we go. Yes. Ba-pa-pa-pa-ba.

All right, red. 21. Kralath? Five. Doren? 16. Jack? Jack at a 13.

Red. It's your turn. What do you do? Presumably, if we can't see them, unless they have blind sight, they shouldn't be able to see us. I'll ready in action then. I guess I'll just ready an action for. any enemy that I see pop into my field of view, and I'll keep my head on a swivel.

Why have we stopped? Ready yourselves! Well, now it knows we're here. Red, leaping out from ambush in the craggy snow around you, all but invisible until it's right on top of you, a pride of large white cats, vicious and hungry, looking to sink their teeth into you. Two of them get to within striking distance of you

as they charge at you out of the snow, and both of them try to pounce on you. You do manage to loose your arrows before one of the cats gets within striking distance of you. So I would argue that you're able to fire your arrow without disadvantage because you have a 10-foot radius of sight. The shape of the cat resolves, and you recognize it to be something that wants to do you ill.

You're able to fire your arrows before the creature, comes to kill you. So I will attack it. So that is a dirty 20 to hit. Yes. 18 damage. Okay. And then I will attack again.

Great. Natural 20. Hey. Whoa. What? Come on. Excellent. Roll all those dice twice.

The first time was like max and the second time was ones on both. Oh, no. 27 damage. Yeah. As this cat charges towards you, you loose off two arrows and drop it before it even manages to get to you. All right. The second cat launches itself at you in a fury of claws and teeth.

And it tries to claw at you with a 23. Yeah, that hits. 11, slashing damage. Make a strength saving throw. Oh, my best skill. Ten. You are knocked prone, red. And as you are knocked prone, the cat then bites you.

you. 18 to hit? No. Nice. That's the first time my multi-attack defense has come into play. When a foe hits me,

then my AC jumps four points. That's the first time that because of that first hit, I ended up getting to dodge the second. Nicely done. So satisfied. That is handy. So, Brad, this cat

knocks you to the ground with a powerful swipe of its claws and tries to get its teeth around your skull, but you manage... Red grabs the top and lower jaw. and I'm like holding it back.

Yeah, but just barely. And Kralath, you see this happening. Your friends also feel the line go slack. You drop it to defend yourself, I'm sure. Doran, it's your turn. What do you do? You don't see Red being attacked. But you can hear me.

You can hear him screaming. You sound like you're in trouble, Red. I'm coming. And he comes running up and he says, I don't know what to expect, but I'm going to kill it. And he tries to attack with 19. Yes. Excellent.

Then he does 10 points of slashing damage. Excellent. Orxploers like, Ha ha, fuck yeah. Yeah. And then he attacks again. Pitiful, that's it. Pitiful.

With an 11. You miss. I did not take anything else to do on my turn. At this point in time. It's fine. Harshnag acts next. He rushes forward, likewise, hearing Red's distress and wanting to protect him like Doran does, wielding his great axe, he swings at this cat twice.

I should say that hits with a 27. Nice. Wow. This cat's dead. You dead. Probably. 28 slashing damage with his first hit. Yes, that kills the cat.

This kills the cat. This kills the cat. See? Now, aren't you glad I didn't use one of my lucky dyes? The cat comes back. The very next day. Not today. We thought he was a goner.

Jack, it's your turn. Well, it's okay. We've had a long rest in between them. Jack, it's your turn. You watch as Doran drops the rope and runs off into the blizzard. And then you hear the heavy pounding of harsh Negg's feet. And then the scre of a cat. I mean, the whole world is white.

And so Jack kind of turns to Kieran. and it says, Kieran, what do you smell? Is there anything you can tell me about what's going on? Kieran makes perception checks with advantage that rely on smell, correct? Hearing and smell, yeah. Okay, roll that with advantage for me. 16. Nice.

Kieran looks up at you. They're loyal eyes full of apprehension. They're all around us, boss. That's no good. Jack's going to turn and slowly start backing up towards, you know, where everybody else is, keeping his eyes out and channel that inner stone giant energy he picked up that one time hardening his skin to stone as he gets sort of close enough to Kralath and that he can see Red and Doran and just the image of Harshnag kind of on the edge

and says, they're all around us. Kieran can smell them everywhere. Stay on guard. Not a bad plan. Everyone stay close. With that, Jack, you wonder if maybe your mood. movement triggers another attack because out of the blinding snow that swirls around you, Jack, three more huge cats pounce. Two of them launch themselves at you, Jack. Okay. I rolled bullshit.

Eight. Well, roll die instead. And the second one is an 11. So Jack, these claws of these cats are just rebuffed by your strong. wrong skin. Yeah, there's the stone skin and the mage armor over top of it and they just can't get purchased in my hide. But it's freaky as hell to see giant cats come out of the blizzard to try and rake across you. Jeez, that's probably not what I say, but with Fenders Light, everybody, look out. Cheapers, creepers. Wowsers! Jeepers, creepers. Yikes. Holy moly. And Krayloth,

a third cat leaps at you out of this blinding snow with a natural twasers. Oh, no. I'm going to negate that. Yes, please. Fine. Normal, please. And so it hits you with its claws, Kralath, for five slashing damage. Make a strength saving throw. All right, all right, all right.

That is going to be a 13. Ooh, yeah, you succeed. So the cat tries to drag you to the ground, but stalwartly, you just, you do a cool flex. You flex your legs, and you, Stay standing. It's leg day today, and you were looking forward to the challenge. Great job. Kralath, now it's your turn.

All right, I'm going to cast Bless on Harshnag, Red, and Doran. Then I'm going to just brace myself with my shield and my mace and stare down this cat. Red, you feel the tingle of being blessed as Kralath runs up to you. You don't see any cats yet. What do you do? Okay. Red's going to take a step forward and sort of down so that all three of them are within his range, but he's still far enough away to not get killed.

And you're like tucked right behind Jack and Kraloth, which is perfect. I'm right over your shoulders, buddy. You smell pretty great, actually. And Red is going to attack. Are any of them damaged? No. Not yet. Come on, guys.

Pick it up. I already killed one. And as a bonus action, I'm going to cast fairy fire on the one in front of Jack. It is a Spell Save DC Dexterity 12. I feel like these cats are pretty good with Dex. Yep, 22. These cats are dexterous.

Good with Dex. Dexterity. They go nice dix. It just jumps out of the way. They got nice dix. Nice dix, they might. Perfect. And then I will roll.

Shop chuteau. No, that is a miss with an eight. Oof. 16 a hit? Yeah, you hit. Nice. Hey. 22 damage.

Great. Great job. Focusing down on one of the smaller members of the party, two more white cats leap out of the blizzard and try to tackle you, Doren. You call me small? I'm not small. I've got a big heart, okay? I've got a big brain.

Just because I'm short, it doesn't make me small. Does an 18 hit you? Yes. And a 15 misses you, right? Correct. You're making me feel real small. One of the cats manages to claw you. Oh, yeah.

Deals nine slashing damage to you, Doren. Make a strength saving throw. I will. That's going to be a 25. Yeah, you're fine. You succeed. The cat tries to tug you to the ground with its sharp claws buried deep in your armor, but you stand firm. You son of a.

Now, he hits me, he hits me, right? So actually. So one of the cats missed you. So I'm going to use repost as my, as my, as my new, one of my, one of my maneuvers, which when they miss, I attack. I'm going to add four to it. Does a 15 hit. Yes, it does.

Nice. Fuck yeah. All right. So it does 19 damage. Awesome. That's a beefy hit. Nice. Hit the beef.

The axe sinks deeply into the cat. Blood sprays all over the snow. Yes. Now it's your turn, Doran. So I'm going to turn. And so I swing my axe. I hit real hard. That's the way Doran sings when he attacks.

Gonna hit with a 25. Absolutely. And does 11 damage. Great. And then I'm going to attack again. The one next to me, I kind of do an up and down. Do I hit with a 17? Yeah, you do.

And then it's going to do seven damage. Excellent. I swipe down and swipe up. It's kind of cool, actually. I don't think I've ever seen you guys in this formation. You're all very close, clumped together, protecting red in the center of your crew, basically. So he's firing arrows out over the tops of everyone, just overhead. And then these cats are closing in all around you.

There's five right now. Three of them have been wounded. Harsh Nag is just to the north of all of you. His blade of his axe is already dripping with blood, and he charges in laughing. He comes around the side where Kralath is holding off two of the cats, and he sort of does like a pincer movement. Comes around the rear of the cat, so on the other side of Kralath. And he's going to attack this cat twice with his axe, 30 to hit.

Oh, yeah. 24 slashing damage. Oh, yeah. That cat's got to be on its last legs. He's got four of them. And he's going to slash at this cat again. Only 19 to hit. Plus, Bless, is 23.

Oh, yes. 29 slashing damage. So he just hacks this cat to pieces. Oh, nice. Nice, harshness. Ha, ha, ha. Jack, it's your turn. You got two cats right in front of you and one off to the side a little bit that you can see.

Jack sees them all and he fumbles to get the spell guard's feet. into his, you know, numb, cold hands, and it starts to warm up as he mumbles the words to this spell. And he's, you know, pulling out some stops to get some of that alchemical casting going on. He's using all the spell secrets to have this powerfully attractive smell to these cats appear somewhere right behind them. He's taking a fireball. He is changing the save type to intelligence because it's just such a good illusion of a really attractive meat smell to them that they're all going to turn to look and then just explode in their faces, sort of ending that last wave right in front of Jack and Kieran to try and catch three of them.

And maybe more in the darkness. Who knows what's going on there is fire blossoms. Ooh, freaking knows. So what kind of a save am I making here? Intelligence 15, please. Nice. That's awesome. 50 to the ones that fail, 25 to the ones that pass.

Absolutely. So the cat that is closest to you, Jack, just directly south of you. fails on their save and they take all of that damage and just evaporate into a pile of ashes. The cat that is directly adjacent to Doran, having also been injured by Doran succeeding on the save, also just absolutely dissolves into burning hair and flesh. Oh, nicely done, Jack. The final cat that was impacted by this fireball succeeds and had not yet been. injured and so takes the 25 points of damage but is still alive. Did we hear any yelps or does

Kieran smell any additional burning fur somewhere out in the blizzard that would give us a sense that there were more enemies out that way? There is no additional burning smell coming from the area of effect of this spell. Cool. Okay so the cat that is smoldering but not deceased launches itself at you, Jack, and tries to drag you to the ground with its claws. Sure. That's a 21 to hit you. It does hit me, yeah. With a claw attack, you take five slashing damage.

And I'm going to half that as it scrapes across my stone skin. Absolutely. And then make a strength save to try to prevent yourself from being dragged to the ground. Not my best, not my best work. 15. Hey, pretty good work, actually. Yeah, kicks this thing in the mouth, takes a step back. Absolutely. Yeah, you break a tooth off. Kieran, go help Doren. And Kieran turns around and starts to like bark and yell at this thing, trying to give Doren advantage on his attacks.

Cool. Maybe a bit of a distraction. Woff! Yeah. Kralath, it's your turn. Seeing that these cats are being picked off pretty handily, Kralov is going to step forward, heft his mace of Decept. and he's going to swing at the cat in front of him. That is a 25. Oh, absolutely. All right, and A, full damage, 11 points of damage. You heroically raise your mace over your head and just absolutely clobber this animal to death.

Hey. Excellent. Good adequate murdering, buddy. Top of the round, red. All right. You don't see any more cats, but you know that Doren's, Doran, you got one over there? I've got something, yeah, he's attacking me, he's hissing, and he's...

All right, that's enough. I take a step north and I go to attack. I liked it. Once Doran shuts up. I like to express myself in lengthy detail. I noticed. But you... Really?

Dirty 20. Absolutely. 17 damage. Cool. You kill it. Nice. Yeah, it died. You guys did great.

Way to go. And as you look up from the corpses of these creatures, you see that the blizzard is just starting to resolve a little bit. The snow lets up and ahead of you, the mountainside. You have arrived into the valley of the eye of the world. Of course it fucking lets up now. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters, Christopher Ryan Evans, Colin Burkhart, Daniel Doug, Jessica Orrett, Mari Kineski, Katie Orrett, and Merlin. See you soon!

Rolling down mountains on avalanches It's red with his little shill, umber hook And they go down and down and down the right mountain D&D adventures roll And they go down and down with avalanche mountain Log drivers I'd sing along. Long driver.

No, na, na, na, no, no, time. Mighty fly

for a white guy. I'll never forget my dad saying that. Mighty fly for a white guy. And they go down, down, down the right

to jump, and they go down, down, down the right crunching a book of this for me. Thank you.