Dice Shame - 95 | 'Get the Ball Rolling'

Episode Date: August 5, 2021

As the party moves through the massive dungeon, they uncover a few surprises... 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.

Woo, yeah. Wow. I felt the magic part of it. All right, Doran, we got this. The first thing you need to know if you're going to be an archaeologist. Should they put the theme music on here? Is there anything you can do about these doors? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Doran. I just got scraped off the ground, man. Well, it's better than being crushed. We could be walking down that hole for days. Rock times. I'll give you as much warning as I can. Everybody roll for initiative. Oh, no.

Shit, sorry, guys. Curiosity killed the Doran. Yeah. Welcome back to Dishame. This is episode 95. Get the ball rolling. MVP this week is Rain, aka Goblin Corps,

for their amazing support in both Dyshame and Malevolent. They are truly a wonderful part of this community. Thank you for everything. Yeah, thanks. Here on Dyshame, we love an independent artist. Rob Donaldson is a designer, artist, and creator who's been a part of our community for the last few years. He's made some incredible art for Dyshame and malevolent, and his style is heavy, dark, and brooding.

The portraits he did of the Nightstone Four are seriously metal. Take a look at his work and follow him at the captain's desk on Twitter. Love you, brother. We love you, Rob. All right, shall we get down to business? Let's do it. here we are guys we are approaching episode 100 yeah isn't that incredible who among you thought in september 2019 when we started recording this thing that two years later almost you'd be

closing in on triple digits looking it straight in the face no end in sight triple Didge in Sanford. I'm so proud of all of us. I'm especially proud of some of you, but I won't say it. I'm especially proud of all of you, too. Oh, thanks, Alex. All. Well, I'm especially proud

of each and every one of you for all of your commitment. Well, thank you. It's Joe. Joe is the one I'm especially proud of. I'm specifically proud of me. You know, and you've got to have pride in your own what you do there, but I think we should take a moment to really appreciate the audio

recording software that's always been there for us, never screwed up, caused us to record late, always. No issues. Ever. Smooth. And that is... Never caused us to wait for one literal hour. Perfect.

I just can't say enough about... But, to Rob Jack Jeff's credit, they're not wrong. We have had no failed recordings, you know? It's not like an entire episode was lost. he said into the void of the lost episode that you're hearing right now. So this is the one where we lost an episode. So we did all re-dub this one.

Who would have thought, though, 100 episodes? I mean, we all thought, let's be real. We all were like, yeah, we're taking this. Well, I knew we had sticking power because of the Invictus stream, right? We'd been doing this for five years when we had started this thing.

And because I made Alex sign a contract. In blood. And it's so hard to get out of this thing. If you do not do this every week, you are not my brother. We are officially, though, in the realm of the longest campaign ever for me personally. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Same. Like, I know for some folks, some fucking diehard nerds have been in campaigns for like five, 10, 15 years. Nerds. What do you think is the average length of most D&D campaigns? Oh, one evening. One session. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, for real. I mean, average? Yeah, average has got to be pretty low. The two longest ones I ever was in before this were maybe, you know, 20 to 30, like 20 to 30 times getting together long. So, you know, maybe those are like eight months or so. But, yeah.

To me, D&D is very similar to like Civilization 5, where the best part is starting a new right at the beginning, you know, where you get to make those first moves and figure out what character you are. You like Nightstone better than Ice Windale? No, no, no, no, because it's a different part of the brain. He likes two of the four exes. This is the part where everything gets really complicated and India's at war with China, which is at war with Japan.

Gandhi is just a total asshole. As soon as Gandhi gets nukes, we're... Just you guys wait, it's going to get way more complicated. Speaking of which, let's find out how complicated we're going to get. How complicated are we going to get, Joe? Oh, let me tell you. What's the forecast on complication? I'm really looking forward to you telling us.

So you are standing in this extremely long stone hallway in the cold. and frost covers every surface in this dark edifice. Kieran, Red, and Jack, you're perched atop this ledge. It's about 20 feet off the floor from where Harshnag and Kralath and Doran are standing. And you've just finished fighting all of these barbarians and also a white dragon wormling. Their bodies are cooling already on the cold stone of this. temple.

Ahead of you leading to the east, we are looking at a flight of stairs that leads up to some double doors. These are huge doors and, well, huge stairs. They are five feet tall, each of these stairs, and five feet deep. So you guys are going to have some trouble getting up, especially the shorter among you.

I'm looking at you, Doran. Not me. But that is a challenge that you guys are going to have to deal with, together. What do you do? Literally climbing the stairs? Yeah, man. Everything is a challenge here. No wonder those barbarians had such trouble getting down to fight you. They had to hop down five feet at time. They were... I think Doran... They just scooted down on their butts. Dornan kind of looks at the stairway. You know, as a short person, I'm used to living in a tall world. And he just

takes that first step, like, you know, grabs it by the cajones and jumps up. Yeah. I think Red would motion a harsh nag. He's like, can you give him a hand? Yeah. Because, like, he can carry us. I reached the first, the tip of the first stair, and, like, I'm not getting it. So Harshnike gives me a little boost up each step. Yeah. Speaking of giving someone a hand, Harshnan, can you help me back down?

Oh, yeah, no problem. Harshnike goes over to the ledge, and he picks Jack up underneath the armpits and just toddler-like, sets him down on the ground. And Jack's arms are just like hanging lifeless out. Like he's not kicking her and he's just standing perfectly still. Like how when you pick up a cat and their arms just gets really stretched out? Long Jack. Yeah, I think Red just volleys over the side and runs his claws along the stone artifice. And I see Jack just eyeing out of the corner of his eye and cringe as I like scrape across a deco just like ruining little flakes of blue stonework.

Kralath has no problem reaching the stairs and pulling himself up in the plate armor is a bit tricky but with the help of harsh nag he's able to make it up

as well. Cool. It's like doing cardio. Jack snaps his fingers to bring Kieran back around and then goes to sniff around some of the bodies of the wormling just to see if there's a

you know if we can identify what dragon it is we've slain the first one we've seen and what else was on the shamans or the other great worm tribe. With Kieran's assistance, you are able to deduce that all of these creatures are in fact dead. Nice. Step one. This guy's not talking. I'm not really sure. Kieran, what do you think? Smells dead. They being rude or what? And the body of a white dragon wormling is also

spayed out on the ground in a pool of its own blood. When you go through the balloon, belongings of these barbarians, you do find some treasurer. Trey. Hey. Treger. Trey. The chieftain of this tribe of barbarians has a couple of interesting things on him.

He has a twisted wooden wand with a copper pommel that's tucked into his belt. Tied to the belt is also a little. leather satchel. Hmm. Yeah, Jack is quick to pick up the wand and the satchel and just, you know, sort of turn to the others and be like, you know, I've been starting a bit of a collection of the barbarian artifacts. You know, we've got the ancient antler utensil and, you know, that dragon bone jewelry box.

I wouldn't mind if I could, you know. It's all yours, buddy. Yeah. Jack, as you pick up this wooden wand, you recognize that it is a magic item. Hmm. Do you want me to detect it for you? Jack, roll an arcana check. I would love to.

Fifteen. You recognize this to be a wand of secrets. Secret candy. Yes. A wand of secret candies. Show me Kit Katz. It allows you to find the secret Batman costume hidden in your toddler's room. Come on, I'm looking for the, where are the super nibs?

Give me the super nibs. Oh, yeah, baby. not the weed and money I mean I guess it depends which house I'm going through The wand of secrets has three charges Jack While holding it you can use an action to

expend one of its charges And if a secret door or trap Is within 30 feet of you The wand pulses and points At the one nearest to you It regains 1D3 expended charges daily at dawn And so this chieftain

Was carrying this wand of secrets with him into this complex. So it doesn't require attunement, which means whoever wants to use it can use it. Even someone that's not really experienced with a one? That's right. Yeah. And there might be a play for that because I know I've got a pretty good investigate. I know Red's got a pretty good investigate.

I don't know if it makes sense for Doran to have an ability to search around a little more. My investigation is a hard zero. Poor sweet Doran. Doran, so you just hold this and you swish and flick. And see... Swish and flick. These are not things I'm used to. You sure is not hit real hard? No, you got to just focus on it.

You just pretend like you're trying to chisel out a perfect sphere. Just something really precise. One wave. And then think about all the best ways for those lines to disappear and just the best joinery. If I was trying to chisel out a sphere, I'd do this. Oh. It goes flying. You expend one of your charges.

No, I'm just kidding. Inside of this belt pouch, Jack, you uncover seven emeralds worth 100 gold pieces each, as well as a wicked-looking curved black pin with a hammered silver lump on one side. Like a brooch kind of pin? Yes, like a brooch, very much like a brooch. I was like in like a railroad spike. Yeah, for some reason, that was the same vibe I got. But, yeah, a pin.

That makes perfect sense. Words mean things. Giants cufflink. Ah, yeah, yeah, the old giant's cufflink. It sounds like a euphonism. It does, right? Ooh, it does sound like an euphonism. Hey, show me you, Giants cufflink.

A Giants cufflink. Red scales the stairs and heads up to the door that was once frozen, but now you said it's been mainly chiseled away by the barbarians, right? So it appears that the barbarians had been attempting to open this door unsuccessfully when you came upon them. But thanks to the blast of fire from Jack's fireball earlier, he was able to melt away the ice that had been keeping these huge doors closed. Cool. Yeah, I think Red puts his head up to it and does a listen.

Can I roll perception or something? Certainly. I'm going to roll with my new dye that Mike Ashmore from Tales from Asperin gave me. Hmm. And I hope it rolls well. That's four plus. Oh, no. Plus five.

So it's nine. Not a good start, Mooney. You don't hear anything with your nine, but as you place your head up against these giant granite doors, you recognize that there's a bar relief-type sculpture here. Maybe it's partially singed by the fireball, but it seems to be an image of giant gods locked in battles with dragons. Damn it.

Granite. open you open you good I like that I mean it worked for me the meter was right the word you were wrong damn it

yeah I think red will just step back and maybe do an investigation on the door now he has a natural investigation of 17 so I'd love to just take a like a look at it

but if you'd like I can roll as well no you don't have to look I mean they are 30 foot tall doors they appear to be very strong they're well built

the door handles are about 12 feet up, so it's going to be hard for anyone except Harshnag to open these doors. Cool. Unless we stack. Unless you all stand on each other's shoulders. Yeah, I think Red just stands back, crosses his arms, and goes to Harshanag and says, Have at it.

I couldn't hear anything, and it seems like it's the only way forward. Harshnag nods and then sets his shoulder against the door and pushes. He has to kind of throw his. weight against the doors to open them inward. Really? Yeah. You're not sure if it's maybe because they're so cold or because they're so old. One of the two.

Maybe they're bold. I think it's mold. Do they fold? The strength required can't be undersold. Wait a minute. Those handles aren't brass. They're gold. Oh.

No, no. They're not gold. You do one, Justin. I was going to do sold. Thanks, Rob. Sorry, I didn't mean to take it right. out of your mouth. I know you didn't want

of being told. Damn it! You have it. There you go. Stupid. Stupid joke. The granite doors grind open to reveal a colossal chamber.

Whoa. Everything is bathed in a dim blue light originating from the wall opposite you some 300 feet away. Its source is blocked by a statue that occupies the center of the room. The blue light streaming from behind it. The statue is 80 feet tall, a devastating form, and its features are difficult to

discern from where you stand. Though you make up that the figure's back is to you, its cape covering nearly 100 feet of the floor. Six other statues kneel in two rows of three, flanking this central figure. They're smaller, standing half as tall as the central figure at around 40 feet, only less impressive than the central figure by comparison. big as houses, lit by the shifting dim blue light. You can see they appear to be giants, carved so as to appear kneeling with arms outstretched. I think as Harsh Nag opens the door and we all sort of enter, we all just sort of give a agreed upon whistle, some reactionary sound as we look around this massive room.

And I think I'd probably just say absentmindedly to Kralath as Doran goes to approach this thing. it's kind of odd that the statue's got its back to us. Ah, Shagg, are you sure this is the entrance? Yes. Why? There's not any reason the statue would have its back to us? Maybe it's facing something more important. If these are each of the giants kneeling towards the central,

maybe it's the Allfather, I wonder if we'll see on the other side. Maybe the Allfather reveals the Oracle in some way. As you enter a little farther into the room, you see, that the granite that this room is carved out of is marred in places here with some superficial looking cracks that you can just barely start to discern under the layer of permafrost. Additionally, you see that there are some exits from this room. Again, as you start to enter, you see through the dim blue light. There are two sets of double doors to the north of you. And again, this room is fucking huge. It's like,

300 feet wide. So two sets of double doors on the northern wall, two sets of double doors on the southern wall, and then there are actually two just blank openings leading to corridors that head back the way you came from.

Well, these must lead up to the higher levels that we were on. Yeah. Red says as he enters the room just giving a whistle. Fair assumption. Wow, you know this place reminds me the caverns of the great dwarven cities? The room is 100 feet tall.

Your voice echoes around the chamber impressively and then it slowly dies out. Let's try to keep it a little quiet. I still have pass without trace active. And Red just starts heading across the room towards the front of the figure. I'm all about following Red to keep that pass without trace going because I am not a sneaky boy. Yeah, I'll stay close as well. As you all make a tour of the room heading south from this giant figure in the center, you see that each of these smaller statues does appear to resemble an individual race of giant kind

and each of the statues appears to offer weapons in their outstretched arms. What kind of weapon does each statue have? As you're passing the large statue just to the south of it, you pass by a a representative of a hill giant, and then a fire giant, and then a cloud giant. Each of them are holding weapons. These are massive replicas, I suppose. The hill giant is holding a great club. It's okay.

The fire giant is holding a great sword, and the cloud giant seems to be holding a spear. Hmm. And red shoots an eye to the giants to the north as well. What weapons are they carrying? It's hard to see across the room, but if you make a foray up there, you realize that the frost giant's weapon is missing. Hmm. The stone giant is holding a boulder,

and the storm giant is holding a trident. And I turn to Harsnag, and I say, Harshnag, the frost giant statue there isn't holding anything. Does that mean anything to you? I feel like it should have a rod. Should it have an axe? maybe? I don't know why that would be the case, but yes, axes are weapons of our people traditionally. Logically, does it make sense that the Frost Giant could be holding an axe? You know,

typically when you're holding a certain weapon, it would be with a certain... This is my dagger. Exactly. Like, is it... This is air guitar. It seems that these giants are all posed in a very similar position, offering their weapons to this central figure, and one of those weapons is missing. Is the central figure holding a weapon? No. Interesting. So you go around to the front of this giant central figure? Yes.

The statue in the middle of the temple is a robed giant, his arms outstretched, and his face hidden behind a stony cowl facing the glowing archway. The statue's face is a mask of bare rock, bereft of all facial features. This is the old father, I'm assuming. He gives you kind of a stark-faced nod. Doran, look. Look at the craftsmanship. That's incredible. What are they made of? Well, let me take a look.

I'd like to roll some insight, or not insight. I'm saying that metaphorically, I'm, I'm saying that stod-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I want to know stuff good. Alex wants some insight on this. I'm not rolling insight. That's going to be 14. And you want insight on these sculptures? No.

Stone cunning. So history. Stone cunning. History. Okay, great. Yeah, with a 14, you can determine that this sculpture was made without a face. It wasn't defaced in any way. And any idea how old?

Oh, impossible to say. these are probably very ancient on the eastern wall a glowing archway filled with shifting mist illuminates the room it's eighty feet wide and eighty feet tall niches in the walls on either side of it contain six empty ice-covered sconces made of iron and on the floor around this archway are arrayed six different runes carved into the stone and inlaid with mithril. Something to note is that there are six runes and six giants offering their weapons too. And they seem to be in similar formation. If we wanted to take a couple of minutes, I could comprehend languages and see if that helps.

Well, you're doing that, Jack. I'll just detect magic. Might as well. That's always been knocking the park. Can't help with detect magic. Yep, yep, every time. And Dorn and I will walk around the old-fashioned way and try to do it with the brains.

Absolutely. I do love where the two of us just sit down and like, we'll take 10 minutes and fuck around and see what they get up to. We take out our little pouches with like salt and... Yeah, oh yeah, 100%. We're going to use those 10 minutes, Doran. All right, Doran, we got this. There are six giants and there are six runes.

Obviously, one run associates with one giant. Maybe. It seems like they are before this glowing archway as if we need to do some sort of puzzle before passing through. Does the mist look deadly at all? I say that out loud to Doran. Well, I don't know about any of that. My favorite enemies are giants.

And after traveling with Harsh Nag, I have learned a lot more. And I can roll with advantage on information to discern what they are, you know, just about them. And I'm wondering if there's anything significant about the Frost Giant and the missing weapon that I might be able to discern from the information that Harshnag has shared with me in my experience with them.

Fifteen. There's nothing that you can tell from a Frost Giant's nature that would lead you to understand more about this puzzle. But it is a puzzle. And with that, both rituals go off at exactly the same time. You guys have timed it all out. Nice. We're in practice.

You beat me this time, Jack, but I'll get you next time. So your detect magic spell goes off like gangbusters, Kraloff. Yes. Yes. The mist in the archway that dimly illuminates the temple is an aura of conjuration magic. Conjuration. It's like a purplish hue. I know it.

Something's being conjured there. I think the runes also glow with conjuration magic. So I'm guessing because this is conjuration that this is some sort of portal. I don't think it's dangerous, but maybe we should check out some of these other rooms first and see if we can learn a bit more about this room before proceeding. I mean, a lot of my magic is conjuration. It could also be a summoning, you know, flaming sphere. I'm pretty sure that's conjuration.

Find familiar. You could bring stuff here too. It could just as much be that kind of evil trap. Oh, is that how that works? Okay. Well, then it might just be a wall of fire, in which case it is dangerous, red. So we probably shouldn't go through it.

Wall of fire is technically evocation, actually. Ugh. I canceled Detect Magic. Jack, what are you ritualizing? So Jack leans down and touches the ground, the surface that these runes are written on and understands the literal meaning of them. Yes, you're inching with your fingers towards the run,

and you can tell as you approach it that you're gleaning, your understanding, this run is going to be dependent on placing your hand on the run. Uh... yeah i mean jack's hand is getting closer and closer it's going so close i i think there's there's a there's a there's a moment where where jack pulls up right before he you know before he realizes okay to to comprehend what these ruins mean he's going to have to interact with that magical field crayloth is is sensing and motions for everybody else to sort of come in and and and give that explanation

we don't have to play with this now but if we wanted to understand What this means, we'd have to touch it. There's this conjuration or a Krala has detected that could summon things here. Don't touch it. Yeah. Let's just not touch anything yet. Let's head to one of these doors. Maybe there'll be some information that we can gather through one of these rooms.

Yeah, we need more information. Let's go to the ones in the north. So everyone travels together as a party to the north? Should I put the theme music on here because the room's so large? It's quite a journey. And then we've arrived. Again, these stone doors, these granite doors, require Harshnag's effort to open them. Thankfully, he is with you and he loves you all very much.

We love you too, Harshnags. So he opens the doors, sets his shoulder against them. I stand you. And reveals a large chamber. Again, with the large chamber, guys. Large chambers. Wait a minute, there's a theme here. Everything's a fucking large chamber.

It's like giants were here or something. God damn giant size. This appears to be an entry hall, again, made of plentiful granite, as with everything, here. There are two large staircases heading up to the east and west. And it appears actually that both sets of these granite double doors open into the same room. Hmm. I guess we enter and take a peek around, being very cautious in using the pass without trace. Come on, everyone.

Stay close. Right behind you, Red. Right here. I'm right on your tail. Get off my tail. I'm just kidding. I don't have a tail. So as you enter into this hallway,

you see that there is a large statue of a stone giant. It's in the eastern end of the hall. I guess we take a look at it. Ooh, Kralath, as you get up close, it's radiating magic. Oh, we got another magic. thing here. Still conjuration? No, this is transmutation magic.

This is transmutation, Jack. What does that mean? I know, I know it's a, it's like an aqua sort of color, like seafone green. I know the color. Well, I mean, transmutation magic is often the kind that's going to change the physical properties of a creature or a thing or a condition so it could, you know. Yeah, turn you into stone. Okay. Okay. That would make sense. You know, but transmutation is also levitation. It changes, you know, how the gravity of a situation sometimes, it's very useful. It's not my specialty per se, but. Does this stone giant have elements sticking out of it like the previous one we fought? Or does it seem more designed for lack of a better word? Does it have an anchor in it? It doesn't have any anchors in it. Its arms are lifted up with hands outstretched. And its palms are

facing the far side of this room, the northern side. And indeed, as you turn from examining the statue to looking where its hands are pointing, you see that there is an extremely long hallway. We're talking 410 feet long, along which there are punctuated doorways that you could walk through, should you be willing to be the kinds of people to walk through hallway doors. We could be walking down that hole for days. Hey, Doran, try that one. Yeah, here.

Get close to the first doorway there and try that one. You really want me to do it? Yeah, you got to get within about 30 feet of the first one. Let's just see if there are any tricks or traps around there. Okay, so do I need to roll anything? No, you just need to get to where you're going and tell me where you're going to use it. So Doran walks up, I guess, down this hallway until he's about 30 feet. within 30 feet of a doorway and he pulls out the uh just like i told you swish then flick here here goes

here goes nothing and dorin kind of looks at the wand perplexingly and you're doing it dorin you're doing it swishes and is this the first time you're casting a spell dorin yeah yes it is switches and like he's carving out a sphere he flicks it all of the hair stands up all over your tiny Dwarven body as this wand activates and discharges its magical electricity. And you blow up. Unfortunately, you don't get any pings. There are no secret doors or traps within 30 feet of you here. I kind of turn around and I look at Jack.

Wow. It worked. I felt the magic part of it. But I don't think there's any traps. That's good news. Red's looking at this stone giant with its palms out. What kind of expression would you describe that as? Because I'm having a tough time understanding what that.

Pushing its hands toward the far, far, far, far, far distant wall. As if to say stop. Yeah, it's kind of like that hand expression. And Red walks up to it, and I just want to do an investigation. You high five it? Do you high five? I kind of want to. But it's a bit too tall.

Sort of like a mime pushing a glass wall. Well, to me that's a very odd expression, right? I want to understand why. And I want to look at the statue with an investigation of 17, or I can roll, whatever. I would want you to roll insight with disadvantage. Happily. Oh, 16. The stone giant statue doesn't really have a discernible facial expression, but it does seem

like the arms are uplifted in a pushing motion. I was wondering, does it look like the statue moves at all if I walk around it? Not necessarily. Doran pears into the doorway, the open doorway. And I think as you're kind of investigating, he gets inquisitive on his own terms without really consulting and just peers down. Doran, you look in on a 30-foot-tall archway that leads to a 60-foot-square chamber furnished with two frost-covered stone couches. Oh, it's like a lounge. They do not look very comfortable.

Lazy boys. Guys, it's a giant sitting room. Are there giant magazines? Rock times. Maybe it's like a bedroom. That's what you see. And there's another room across the hall. You want to look in there?

You want to stay put. Yeah, Kralath will poke his head across the hall. See what's in that room. Yep. You see the same thing as Doran, but one of your couches has got like a gross old fur on it and that's covered over with ice as well. Nothing interesting here. Is it cold in here?

It's super cold. So you guys are walking through like a freezer. I wonder what's in the next room and Doreen kind of jogs up to the next room on the right and does the same thing, peers in. It's a similar setup. More of the same. You're looking at... This is just a couch wholesale place.

Just selling a giant couch. Maybe it's like a living quarters for sleeping giants. I don't see any personal effects, though. Let's try to stick together. We're getting kind of spread apart here. These halls are so large. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. They are large halls. There's nothing really more that you can say about the halls than they're large. I just like to continue. I think continue on down. Yeah. Just kind of montage us going down and looking through the rooms. Yeah.

Yeah. And Red will head there too, I guess. It's about halfway down the hall before you notice anything of any substantial difference. Here, on the western side, you find a small tunnel that is burrowed through this cold stone. It's 10 feet high and 5 feet wide. It's kind of a crack in the mountain rock. So not part of the giant architecture here. Yeah, we got something over here, a little entryway into the mountain.

That's not something a giant would fit through. Definitely not. Harsh Nag looks in and he gives you all a big no shake of his head. Well, being the type of person that I am, I really just want to see what's in the rest of the rooms up here. Yeah, I know. I feel the same way. I have to clear it, you know? Yeah, yeah.

um noted can we um do a bit of a jog and you can definitely continue up for sure doren decides to continue up i think maybe i'd stay back here well i mean i think i'm going with doran to keep an eye out as you make your way further past this stony opening trying to look into each and every cubby hole and leave no rock unturned as it were yeah you pass over a certain area of the hallway that causes a terrible grinding sound to emerge from the far end of the hall. Like stone on stone grinding?

Oh. Everybody roll for initiative. Oh, no. Curiosity killed the Doran. Red? 10. Doran? 19.

Nice. Jack? 18. Excellent. Also nice. Harsh Nag rolls as 16. Kralov. 14.

14. Nicely done. So here's what happens. As this trap activates, walls of stone seal off the archways along the west and east walls. So there's no more ways into the rooms. All of these rooms magically seal themselves. Looks like one of them almost closes on Kralov. Nearly.

Perhaps you duck out of the way. Krayalov. Yeah. Whoa. Doran, it's your turn. What do you do? Oh my God. I'm so sorry.

I went too far. I pushed it, guys. I'm sorry. I suppose I look back and see what the statue of the giant is doing. Hmm. Great question. Nice. The statue of the giant has still got its hands outstretched.

Doran, the first rule of archaeology. There is either a boulder or a wall coming to crush us. We got to get back to that giant and in a corner somewhere quick. Yeah. Yeah, I like that idea. Run! The first thing you need to know if you're going to be an archaeologist. Doran's going to dash back towards the entrance of this hallway.

Heating Jack's salient advice. Yes. All right. Salt water advice. Jack, it's your turn. Doran takes off beside you. Go, Kieran. Go after him.

I'm right behind you. And he's going to send Kieran down. Come on, Jack. Kieran who can run really fast. And Jack, who's like huffing and puffing and taking up the rear, dashing behind Dore. to get back to where the stone giant statue is. Excellent. It's Harshnag's turn.

So Harshnag dashes down the hallway, looking back a little bit regretfully. And at that very moment, vindicating Jack's suspicions, a giant boulder... That was the number one, not a number two. Falls out of the ceiling and begins to roll down the hallway towards you.

These traps are pretty typical for giants. They like to crush things. All right, it rolls 200 feet on each of its turns. Are you fucking kidding? That's, we're done. Yeah. So the boulder drops down out of the ceiling and just rolls down the hallway at such a speed. It's going 200 feet every turn.

Bowling like it knocks all of your pins down. Everyone, please make a dexterity saving throw. It's a sphere. So the edges would be. astute observation so true dirty 20 12 for crayloth 11 no jack can i help him it's DC 12 dexterity save Doran I got an 18 okay you save and what about Kieran Kieran also gets an 11 oh okay Kieran and jack both fail so everyone manages to scoot out of the way of this rock except for Jack and Kieran Archaeology, it's all about bowlers.

Oh, no. Maybe the edge of your cloak gets caught underneath it. Jack, you take 55 bludgeoning damage and you are knocked prone. Dunford. Fuck. I'm dead. Yep. Zero.

I'm dying. No. So Jack is knocked unconscious and Kieran disappears. Oh, wow. Kralath, it's your turn. All right, Kralov runs straight to Jack. Mm-hmm. And he's going to cast cure wounds as a level three.

And Jack is going to get back the full amount. So that is going to be 3D8. So that's going to be 27 hit points you're going to get back. All right, Jack. Yeah, it opens his eyes again, freshly less flattened. You're right about the boulder. Thanks. They might drop another one.

We've got to get out of here. Yeah, come on. Red, it's your turn. Well, I mean, now I'm just in a shit situation Because if I run Yeah, you're directly behind the boulder Yeah, so I think red is going to defer Until after the boulder moves

And then go directly after the boulder Okay, Doran, it's your turn Hmm Doran, it's your turn I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna go for it All right, Doran, you're gonna dash? I'm going to dash, Doran dashes past the moving boulder

In a valiant effort. He's, yeah, and so I move 70 feet, and that's my turn. All right. Jack. Well, I stand up from Prone, and I start walking south to try and get out of here, stumbling on my freshly crushed feet, trying to get back somewhere where I can get out of the path of boulders. You just, like, get up behind it? Yeah. I mean, I only get 15 feet of movement because I had to stand up for half mine, so I'm not going very far.

And moving to the edge, just so I'm not right in the ditch. just so I'm not right in the direct path. Maybe there's some, if I fall prone, at least maybe I get a little bit of extra space to try and squish. It's Harshnag's turn. He's going to move another 80 feet. Unfortunately, the boulder goes next.

Doran, I don't know why you got in front of the boulder again, my friend. Because I like to gamble. Gambled he could get a 12. The boulder moves another 200 feet. Gonna see how that pays off. The boulder just finishes its roll all the way down the hall. Doran, make another dexterity saving throw for me, please.

Doran rolls a 17. Excellent. So you again throw yourself into the tiny crevasse that this spherical object leaves on either side of it. Harshnag, however, does not succeed on his saving throw. So he's going to take 62. Oh. And he has knocked prone.

I could have killed you. Mm-hmm. As this huge stone bowl. hits the end of the hallway, you on the other side of the boulder begin to perceive it being rolled back towards you slowly. How tall is the roof in here? 60 feet. It's rolling back slowly right now?

It is rolling back slowly right now. Red, did you want to take your turn now that the boulder's gone? You had decided to hold your action. Red will run 30 feet and then he will dash for another 30 feet. and then he will use his feline agility. There you go. Lightning fast. Fast. A.F. Excellent. Krayloff. It's your turn.

All right. Krayloff turns to Jack. What's the move here? You think it's going to come back? Does it look like you said it was pushing back this way? Did that look like it was coming slowly or is this giant going to roll it back real fast? It looks like it's moving a little slower than before. In fact, much slower, but it hasn't started its turn back yet. So I'm giving you guys a little bit of a prelude. Oh, so it is turning back.

Can you carry me? I can't carry you, but this might help. No, if you can hold me, I'll levitate you and we'll be above it. Interesting. All right. Hop in. Kralov holds out his arms. Oh, my God.

It's adorable. Jack jumps into Kralath's arms and starts preparing the spell for as soon as it's his turn. Awesome. Kralath for your turn, you hop in to Jack's. No, the other way. Kraloff for your turn You get ready to accept Jack as a passenger on your person Yes

Red, it's your turn now again I will run another This time only 60 feet I will just dash So you get basically right up on this sphere Bingo bingo Doren it's your turn Doren it's your turn

I can't not hear it I know right Um, Doran, I think, yells toward Jack and he says, Is there anything you can do about these doors? You gotta get us out of the hallway? I just got scraped off the ground, man. I, uh... No, I know.

Climb up. We got 60 feet above us. Get up. That's my plan. Is there anything to climb on, Doran? Not really, no. It's very smooth stone. So Doran runs another 70 feet, and he says,

Don't get squashed again. Get up and run. Jack. Yeah, Jack leaps into Craven. Kralath's arms and grabs the spellguard sphere by the chains and, you know, says some words in an arcane tongue, and suddenly Kralath starts to levitate 20 feet up in the air. We've got 10 minutes. You can climb along the surface of the wall to get there, and I'll keep us up above the

Oh, okay. Up above the stone. All right. Well, it's better than being crushed. But you can hold onto the wall, so you don't have to feel like you're, just don't look, hold onto the wall. So we don't float away. Okay.

20 feet this round. Maybe it makes sense for us to hang out up here until the boulder's gone. Maybe we can investigate. I don't know. I'm not thinking straight. Once we get to the end and the other side of the boulder, I can bring us back down to the ground. And it's like, I'm going to keep concentrating on this. So if we need to float, I'm going to dive towards you and we're going to go up, okay?

Sounds good. We stay close. I'll give you as much warning as I can. All right. And I'll heal you if you need it. I really appreciate that. I just give a big whack on the armor. It kind of rings through the hall for a minute.

I just love this entire seat is happening with Jack and Greyhards. Just being cradled by this giant man. Red, it's your turn. I move one more time and I am free. I make it to the other side. And I mean, the boulder's being pushed back up. You know, there's nothing really for me to do. I don't think.

I turn to Harshag and I just. say well that was unfortunate so excellently done folks doran you can use your movement to escape this boulder easily so i'm going to drop us all out of initiative order um as you watch this stone giant statue just slowly pushes this boulder all the way up the hall until it disappears into the wall magically. It is re-transmuted into regular stone. And then just as slowly and methodically as before, the statue of the stone giant turns heel,

returns to its place on the pedestal and then becomes lifeless form again with its arms outstretched. Hoshnike, trip it. I probably should have mentioned animate object is transmutation as well. It's not just turning people into, What do you guys want to do next?

Let's do it again. Got it. Jack, we lost you there for a second, bud. Yeah, I'm going to stick next to Kralat. He can levitate and see magic. So that's dungeon buddies. Dungeon buddies. Kralath's shaking from being up in the sky. Jack is shaking from being dead recently.

And Red is shaking from just being so full of adrenaline. Let's try up. Sorry, just the stairs, though, Kralat. Just... Yeah, let's go to a different floor. Yeah, I think we're done with this hallway. Yeah, we all head up the stairs to the next floor. See ya.

Again, it's two flights of stairs that are separated by a landing. So it's kind of a substantial effort between everyone to get everyone up the stairs. Harshneggs may be helping you all out. Some people are standing on shoulders, et cetera. Kralat, just levitate people. I'll get you over there. Nope. I'm going to take the slow way this time.

All right. If you don't want to, I won't make you levitate. Well, you know what? If it's going to be faster, I might as well do it. It's for the good of the party, so... Exposure therapy. Hop in, Doran. Yeah, this is going to be cool.

All right, you ready? And I just motion up with my hand. And I do, I hop in. It's very slow. And then Kralov just kind of awkwardly pulls along the wall. I don't really know if this is fast. I'm imagining you kind of going like head over ass over head over ass

rotating the slowest tornado ever Krayloff is holding me by the waist and then I'm like pulling the walls like kind of swimming us along Yeah and Ork splitter's just like Wee As everyone arrives upstairs You find yourselves in a hallway

structurally very similar to the hallway below you. Instead of a stone giant, there is a statue of a female cloud giant wearing an angry mask. Her arms are positioned in a way that would suggest she's casting a spell of some kind. Based on an experience, she's either going to cast a boulder or she's going to... Kralath, with your detect magic active, you note that this is a mundane statue. Mm-hmm. Uh, no magic on this one. So I think it's either just burnt out or it's just meant to intimidate us.

Maybe we should go down this hallway, um, floating like we are first, you and me. Well, look, last time it was a magical trap and between Jack and Mize's investigation and Krayalot's magical trap sense, I think we could be okay. Let's just stick closer together this time. Okay. I'm in. I agree. I wish I could see her movements. They carved her.

it's almost halfway through an abjuration or maybe a conjuration. I can't quite... God, it's a close statue. Rob. I can't even joke around. I don't know what the two words you used. Adjuration. Conjugation?

It's not abrogation. That's a conjugation stuff. They carved her in conjugation. No, no, conjugation is what we learned when we were learning giant. Oh. That's like... I know it's another word I used, though. Right?

There. proliferation as you head down this hallway it becomes clear to you that the far end of it has collapsed leaving just a few rooms to the east and west to explore and guys i'm going to tell you just straight up and down the third room on the right that's where the business is so as you head down this hallway looking left and right you're seeing much of the same just frost covered stone couches, the occasional discarded fur pelt, and then. Whoa, third room on the right. What are you doing?

What'd you find, Red? Ah, this is cool third room on the right. Come on, guys, look. It's a third room, and it's on the right. It looks the exact same as all the other rooms. Look at that, and Red points at the thing. You point at a discarded sack. Wow, really good find, Red.

A discarded sack. Let's check it out, guys, and Red. head hens and gingerly opening it. Yeah, you like scramble up onto this super high couch. It's like eight feet high, you know. I think I'd like to all be in the room. Everyone scrambles up onto this couch together. We're like not, no longer leaving each other's sides.

You guys are like the size of puppies on a king size bed, just the four of you all cuddled together on this terrible piece of stone furniture. And you all poke your heads into this giant sized satchel. At the same time. Yeah. It contains... Spiders! Ah!

It contains a giant half-nod wheel of frozen but still stinky cheese. Amazing. A wooden ore. A giant-sized smoking pipe. A pair of badly kept giant-sized sandals. And you find a shard of ice. Oh, look at this, guys. Is it glowing magic?

It is. It is glowing magically. Does anyone touch it? I'll touch it. You touch it? I'll get my little claws into it. All right. You touch it and you die.

No. Cool. It is a long, slender piece of ice, roughly the size of a dagger, and a ruin glows within it. Wow. It is magical. It requires attunement. And I go, in the air.

You break it into pieces. Just like a kid playing with a new weapon. Whoa. I mean, yeah, I would love to attune to it unless anyone has any strong objections. It'd be interesting. Well, we might as well take a short rest then. Harsnag, you look a bit beat up from that boulder,

and Jack, you could probably stand to gain a few more hit points. Wouldn't hurt, that's for sure. Yeah, you're looking thin. I'm just feeling a little flat. Yeah, I could use a minute to feel a little more effervescent. I really admire that in Kralath. He just seems like he floats around the room some days. Hey, put me back down on the ground.

Kralath realizes he's floating about a foot off the ground right now. Just burp. Just burp. It's a fizzy drink. It must have been. As everyone relaxes, Harsh Nag stretches out on one of the couches and is soon softly snoring as we all take a short rest

and red attunes to a magic item called the Shard of the Ice Rouse. Shut up the ice rune, that sounds cool. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters. Christopher Ryan Evans, Colin Burkart, Daniel Doug, Jessica Orrett, Marie Kineski, Katie Orrett, and Merlin. See you soon. Thank you.