Dice Shame - 99 | 'Ship Out'

Episode Date: September 2, 2021

Things are moving forward as the team decides where to head next... 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.

From this point on, it's the furthest I've ever been away from level one. I look forward to seeing you soon. Bye, Harshnag. I'm going to miss you. How is that a mnemonic device? There's a whole bunch of... Whoa, whoa, whoa, everybody. This is a little scary, I'll be honest. Some of them are werewolves.

That's just a rumor I've heard. I mean... What? Herschnag made a joke. No funky triangles, Jack. We're good. Come on. You know, who gets to hold whose relics. I just keep looking at the picture of the obese donkey.

Welcome back to Dishame. This is episode 99. Ship out. MVP this week is Jeff D. Turner for his wonderful review and his kind, thoughtful comments on Facebook. Jeff is a fellow Canadian running his own game of Storm King's Thunder, and we like him. We love you, Jeff. Thanks, Jeff. It's that time of the year again. Extra Life 2021 is a charity fund. raising effort that benefits sick kids hospitals. We will once again be gaming live for 24 hours

in order to support this incredible cause. This will be our fifth year participating, and we're so proud of our community for showing up and showing their financial support. Join us on Saturday November 6th, starting at midnight on Friday and going to midnight on Saturday. We'll be streaming video games, RPGs, and back by popular demand, we will once again be doing the Hot Ones challenge. Ouch. Donate at extra dash life.org slash participant slash invictus spelled I-N-V-I-C-T-U-S. And thank you. Thank you so much. All right, let's get down to business. Let's do it. Woo! My next character is going to be an old man, I think, after Red dies.

Hey! He's going to be like a prime. prospector. He's going to be a dwarven prospector from Mirabar. Yeah, you got evils in those heels. Every stat will be a dump stack. I don't know why, but I'm just picturing Red in a old man costume coming back, like Count Olaf every time. A hundred percent, because I don't want to play anybody else. Red will, it will be, and I'll just flavor it in a certain way. Red will just be wearing like a lopsided hat, and then Jack will walk up and lift it and be like, Red, what are you doing? It's not red.

I'm blue. It's going to be a lobster. but it's still going to talk exactly like red. I love your blue. I'm imagining you as a lobster. I love lobster. It's a big blue lobster. I mean, they're delicious. In a different universe.

Boom, but doom, but doom, badoom, but do do everybody play war drums. I'm playing them quietly because the baby's trying to go to bed. It's primal. Those are the worst war drums. The silent primal war drums. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here they come. Do you hear them? No.

Neither do I. Good. Okay. Ghost drums. Bump-a-p-pah. Beware. The tribe babies are sleeping. The warriors have babies with them.

Oh, yeah, because you can hear they're playing the baby ward. It's the baby Bjorn tribe. Guys, I'm so excited. Me too. It's almost time to go to Wonderland. Yes. Oh. Yes, yes.

I can't. Wait. I love carnivals so much. They're one of my very, very favorite things. I love the rides that make you feel like you're flying. I love cotton candy. I love funnel cakes. I love ring toss.

I love it when the lights come on at nighttime. I love corn dogs and mustard. I love the games that you squirt water at things and throw like darts at balloons. I love everything about them. I like throwing darts at people. Don't do that. Not generally allowed, no. You won't win a prize.

Not usually. By the way, Canada's Wonderland is a theme park that is close to all of us. Yes. Although, my favorite variety of amusement park is county fair. I see, I was going to say, a lot of the things you were saying seemed very carnival in my mind, and I'd always thought Canada's Wonderland was more theme park. I've actually never been to it, but I don't know how much of that. Oh, no, they've definitely got all those things that I mentioned.

Yeah, they'll do that, for sure. But they don't have the agricultural competitions of a county fair. You don't have a guy operating with a cigarette hanging from his lips and a beer on the ground, And just being like, just keep your damn hands in the cart. I want to see the really, really big zucchini that someone grew. And then all of the other competitor zucchinies. Like, I want to see the best goat in town. Greatest of all time goats.

Yeah, what is the best goat? The goat goat. Well, they just, the animals just hang out. And they get ribbons and they just chill. Wonderland needs a goat is what we're saying. That's right. Yes, it might have one. Buy Wonderland a goat.

It's 2021 now. I mean, they might have one. I remember going to a county fair when I was maybe five or six. After shooting a... I wasn't going to reference that. After shooting the shotgun. After shooting the crow out of the air, I decided to go to the petting zoo. And I remember my dad telling me, he gave me some food to feed the donkey.

And he was like, Justin, just keep your fingers open. Just keep your hand open. And the donkey will... Okay, dad. That's why you're missing a finger? That's why I'm missing a finger For those of you who can't see us And I was scared

I closed my fingers and the donkey bit my fingers And it probably didn't hurt all that much But I wailed like it did But they killed the donkey They killed it, yeah We filed a full lawsuit The county fair was shut down

Now we don't have county fairs in Ontario anymore It's because of me And ever since then On a full moon Justin goes And despite all of that Amazing piano player Oh, thank you, Rob. Who, the goat?

Oh, you mean Justin. Yeah, yeah, that's it. I vowed to do something. I vow to never take my fingers for granted again. Make full use of them in this life. And you do. I like all the regional goodness, too. The town that I grew up outside of,

sort of bundled our carnival time in with like a demolition derby and a tractor pole. So there's like people who come to the fair to go on the rides and eat cotton candy. And then there's people who come to the fair. fair to watch a car catch on fire. Pie eating contests. A lot of diversity there, isn't there?

Well, in rides, maybe. Not really in the audience. No, not where I'm going. 100% white people. It's true. I mean, yeah, it's not wrong. It's not where we are at least. I meant in what you like to enjoy at the fair.

You can go and watch a car catching fire, watch tractor pulls, or sit on a donkey. They have everything. Wait, donkey sits? Oh, definitely. There's definitely horsey rides that you can go on. Oh, okay, I thought, yeah. Do you guys like going to the fair? Do you like the rides?

Or a theme park. Or theme park or whatever the shit. I mean, obviously, Rob doesn't. He's never been to Wondon Land. I mean, I'm way more of a carnival fair person than a theme park person. I don't know. I'm not, I just rides, I don't, some rides like the ones that are like meant to freak you out. I don't like that feeling.

But I do enjoy wandering around and Gocanets. stuff and that's, you don't like the really tall, like, tall as fastest coaster on it. Oh, man, not my favorite at all. We went to... That just creeps you up to the apex. We were in Japan and I did the Tower of Terror for the first time. Man, is that not... We went to Disney Sea, I guess, and a big theme park for my big theme park loving partner. And so I did the things like Tower of Terror. And it was, it shook me. It wasn't good. Yeah. Yeah, Joe, Joe is the opposite. She is the person who loves those tall screaming or freaking head off. Yeah, I scream my guts out.

Just nonstop, just makes me really happy. Alex, thank you so much. He just sent everyone a donkey fact sheet. In case you wanted to do a little bit of sphere reading. Maybe you want to learn. Some common health problems. Why does my donkey look dull?

No, no, my favorite is the first header in this on the donkey fact sheet is, why get a donkey? Why get a donkey? I like it a donkey. Figure one, donkeys are full of character and can be very entertaining. Oh, I was curious. And there's a picture associated. That's great.

What does my dog? I love that. I love, my favorite is on like page six, there's a donkey body condition score chart. But it's a score chart. And it's like one, poor, two, moderate, three, ideal, four, fat, five, obese. So that you can like hold up the chart and look at your donkey and then look at the chart and look at your donkey and look at the chart and go yeah he's fat they're not really selling donkeys here figure four donkey's hooves are more uptight than horses you want you want to get

some like chill hooves to go for a horse you why you're so fucking uptight donkey well this is uh for those of you want to know this is www.dick vet equine.com uh thank you very much dick vet uh we really appreciate your MVP this week your MVP dick vet donkeys are naturally quiet animals It's true. Really? Donkeys are not known for being quiet. I thought they were like loud and shit. Well, that's just because you're ignorant.

No, you're thinking of an ass. Episode 100, I want to hear everyone's favorite donkey fact. That's, where is this? Roslyn Midlothian. Where did you find this, Alex? I just googled things donkeys do. Prior to getting a donkey, it's important to be aware that owning a donkey is a long-term commitment.

The average age for, donkeys in the UK is 27. That's not that much younger than I am. I'm just older. If you were a donkey, it'd be dead by now. If I was a donkey, I'd be dead. I'm so glad I'm not a donkey. When you Google things donkeys do, the first thing that comes up

as sort of like the snippet from Google of this donkey fact sheet is, donkeys are a versatile animals and can have many uses, including for children to ride, for driving and showing, like draft work, a companion animal or simply as pets.

That's versatility. How's, how's donkey? How many other people in the world have Googled things donkeys do? Alex did in like five seconds. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Where is County Fair on that list?

Oh, County Fair. Donkeys do the County Fair. It's my favorite one in the series. I just keep looking at the picture of the obese donkey. My favorite fact is donkeys form strong bonds with other donkeys. When a friend dies, you may even need to leave them together for at least 30 minutes to help them understand the loss.

Oh, my God. That is really sad. Anyway, Alex, what about you? Do you like theme parks? I love a good fare. I won't lie. And I do love roller coasters. I will say that.

But I know you guys invited us to Wonderland. And the thought of going to Wonderland always brings me back to expensive, overcrowded, far away. And like, it just doesn't excite me. So Alex is what you call an optimist. Yeah. He's the kind of person you want to bring along to have a good time. You know, and if there was ever a time, it wasn't going to be overcrowded. Exactly.

That's why we're... Half capacity is the... I get it, Alex. I get it. This has been something... I'm not a dad, but logistical, like, planning is something that actually gets in the way of me now. I'm just like, the first thing I think, like, oh, okay, we could go to Kingston, but, uh, oh, where are we going to park? That's exactly what is what I'm just already thinking of all that.

All of the logistical questions. Well, I'm on team. Go to Theme Park. And obviously, Justin is too, because he's coming with those. Oh, yeah. I'm coming. I'm coming. I said yes.

It's because somebody else is handling the logistics. Got into the picture. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well, yeah, that's right. Logistic Joe has got a lot of key. That's me, Logistic Joe. That's a pretty good nickname. She's the GM, not just in the game, but in real life.

How many lists do I make every day? Oh, Parlin, we got to get to the car. And at this time, da-da-da, it's really fun. No, it's, it's like, I'm like, Is it like Oceans 11 or something? It sounds like you guys are planning a heist. We were having a serious discussion about how many water bottles we were going to need to bring. Yeah.

I don't know. I'm kind of on, I'm also, I enjoy that level of like, okay. But to me, I enjoy the atmosphere of theme parks tremendously. I'm not, I'm similar to Rob, where I'm honestly not crazy about the tall, tall ones. But I'm also not afraid of them. So I can ride them if Joe really wants me to We did the Leviathan And I was like, oh man, that was crazy

I don't want to do it again We did it two times That's what I love I love the rides I don't want to go to the theme park I just want to get on the roller coaster And go really fast down And really fast up and just swirly really

You just need to incorporate it into your daily commute instead Don't go to the music park I do remember a last coaster to work Remember a previous episode about the racing With the woman in the angry at the mini, poor woman. He never slows down when there's a bump over the railway tracks just to get a little bit of that thrill he could get if he went to the theme park.

That's exactly it, Rob. I love how it smells. Yeah, it's got a good smell too. Fried food smell and like dirt and like exhaust. I do love the theme parts of the theme park. Like if there's a ride that's telling you a story or something at the same time or there's a narrative built into it, that's way my jam. Me too.

I love the narrative ones. And it's funny because obviously Henry is coming with a. three of us and I'm really excited because I was looking at all the rides and measuring him and like showing him POV. It's so different now. Like when you were a kid, it's like you go there, you look at it, you line up, your stomach feels uncomfortable. Now I can be like, hey Henry, do you want to see this one? And he gets to see the ride from start to finish. And I don't have to waste the time of him being uncomfortable. Not to mention, I've also had him in VR with roller coasters, you know, especially when lockdown first started and we couldn't go anywhere. He was just

sitting there. I'm like wiggling the chair. He's going up and down, having a great time. So He's, like, already mentally there for a bunch of stuff. He's so excited. But I saw a few, like, there's, like, a bunch of kid ones that have themes. Like, a lot of the kid's stuff has themes. Like, there's one called Boo Blaster or something, where you're just riding through his haunted house shooting at ghosts. And I was like, fuck, yeah, that's awesome.

It's so great. I ain't afraid of no ghosts. Well, they have a whole Snoopy world. I guess Paramount bought Snoopy or whatever, or they did. Peanuts is like... Peanuts. So now the whole kids section, which is, like, half the freaking park is all just peanut stuff, so. And fun fact.

actually. Wizards of the Coast just released a new D&D module, more adventure paths in this world, called something in the Fay Wild. And what it is, it's a carnival set in the Fay Wild. Oh. Yeah. I just saw it. That sounds so cool.

I made an entire campaign. Ferry carnivals. Yeah, it's called... Do you sound like bad news? It's called... What about don'ties? What's the coincidence? You just like, oh, right, I just remembered this one. It was about carnivals. We just happened to be talking about carnivals. It comes for It's called Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and it is a source book, yeah, that takes players to the Fay Wild, and it's all like carnival theme. It's really cool. The art is phenomenal. Apparently it's like based on a cartoon from the 80s. Is that? The fart is phenomenal. The fart is phenomenal. The fart is phenomenal. The wild beyond the witch light. The wild beyond the witch line. Something wicked this way come. A wickedly wins a cool adventure for the world's crazy rippling game. And then basically it's like this witch like carnival touches down.

every eight years that merges the realm between the Faye Wild and Fyroon, which I thought was just a great, great idea. I love the cover. Well, introduces new races, play as a fairy or a herringen, a race of humanoid rabbits. A rabbit person. And two new backgrounds. Fay Lost, where you like grew up in the Faye Wild or which light hand where you like work for the carnival.

Oh, wow. This is the new source book. Yeah. That's awesome. I know. Well, I would totally go to a. I could see this being something we work in. If we get to a lull, episode 150, just this carnival touches down.

Very cool. All right. Should we get down to business? Yeah. Let's do it. It's down to D&D. Dund to Dund. To roll some dice.

All right. Guys, it's been a long time since you've leveled up. Been a long time. When was the last time we leveled up? Right after Grad Hogg. Yeah. Almost 50 episodes ago. Oh, holy smoke,

Wow, wow. It's been a while, but I'm really proud of you. You guys have made it pretty far. I think this is the highest I've ever been in a D&D campaign. Same. From this point on, it's the farthest I've ever been away from level one. Is anyone going to multi-class? Does anyone have an idea?

Not planning on it. Does anyone have any ideas about what they're going to be delving into at level eight? Yeah, is Doren going to multi-class barred finally? We've been waiting for it. The move we've all been waiting for it. for? Bard? I don't know.

I don't think so. No, no, no. I'm pretty interested in a feat. Oh, whoa. Ah, Jack's a footman, eh? Jack loves feet. I'm really interested in feet. Just a side story.

That is telekinetic. Telekinetic feet. Tell me about it. I figure he's got this keen mind. He's been picturing all of these things, keeping them, you know, in uncanny detail. And I think the idea of him picturing himself doing magic in his head and having it have real world effects, like having that be so real in his imagination that it can actually affect the world is kind of cool. And so the idea that he can, you know, move stuff around with

his mind because he's imagining doing it in his head struck me as neat. That's awesome. Krayloff's doing a level up dance. Very cool. I'll take it too. Sounds good. We'll take it. We all take telekinetic. Yeah. Everyone take telekinetic. It sounds like a great idea. No, that's cool. Um, so you wake up. Yeah. Red's been thinking about our next steps all night. And I think immediately after he wakes up, he looks at the map. And just, I mean, like, what's our next location here? Where are we going next? So Harshag has written in giant script here. Which I read. You read. Jack reads. Kralov is still learning to read. Passingly. Hey, Hashnag, have you ever been to any of these locations? Yes, I have. Any hints or information you can give us about that? He points down the hall to the entryway, and he says, you've met the chieftain of the tribe, I imagine.

Oh, that's right. Oh, they're not going to be happy. So are all of these places who's got barbarian men's? I mean, I know the oracle said it, but are they all, you know, active? You said that you've dug up a few, didn't you, Jack? Jack's never been to a spirit mound. These are, like, huge sites of cultural. significance for vast tribes of people.

Yeah, we've dug up some minor cairns of folks who died somewhere in their life that were buried. But, I mean, these are huge families of people who have very spiritually significant places that they gather. And they're a little xenophobic. Some of them are werewolves. They don't really love wizards poking around there. Pause, pause for a second.

Some of them are werewolves. That's just a rumor I've heard. I mean, one of the reasons. Yeah, but who blows past something like that? Let's just pause, rewind, what's a werewolf? Remember when we were north of... Rassalantar. Between Rassalantar and Amphail, and we were traveling in that way,

and we saw some Uthgar barbarians just fucking tear up a forest in front of us, and we thought, let's not. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, and maybe I just assumed everybody knew it, and I didn't mention at the time, like, there's rumors that the full moon and gray wolf people and people. There's

a really famous story about a werewolf and a great wolf barbarian and a vampire. It's all the water deep tales. Vampire. Warewolf. Mommy. Oh my God. This is a little scary. I'll be honest. Wairwolves. If we're dealing with werewolves, is there some sort of

thing we can take to protect ourselves, you know? A good meal, probably. I've heard they can't control themselves. We're probably not dealing with gray. I'm sorry, look, there's 11 of them. There's a whole bunch of them. One's called the Black Lion, the Black Raven. Look, there's B, B, B, B, B, G, G, G, G, RSTT.

It's my, it's my mnemonic for remembering, man. Oh, huh. There's 11 big families. B, B, B, B, B, B, G, G, G, G, G, RSTT. Hmm. How is that a mnemonic device? You're just listing initials. Yeah, and

that doesn't work for your memory? Okay, look, we got the Great Worm Cavan, shining white, one stone, and we all run as well. You never been to any of those, Jack? No. And Hashnag, there's nothing you can tell us specifically about those. They're all abandoned?

Not abandoned. You said they were burial mounds. Why would they be abandoned? These sites are attended by groups of barbarians quite frequently, and so I don't go near them often. It's like a temple. Or a graveyard, like the city of the dead in Waterdeep. Oh.

These are big, important, sacred spaces, not super welcoming to outsiders, that are like central to these cultures. The oracle has asked you to defile each of them. Uh-oh. And you're okay with that, everybody? Oh. Feels a bit xenophobic.

Defiling the Uthgard, Barbarian. I hadn't really, like, crunched it through. But philosophically, I can see why giants would want that, given that Uthgar, Gardolphson, the big hero who ascended to become a god of these people, was known for conquering the North and slaying giants. I could see the giants holding a grudge about that especially when these cairns are built on top of great giant relics.

And so now, you know, who gets to hold whose relics? I just think, you know, defile might be a bit of a harsh term. I mean, really, we're going to go to these. It's part of my name, Harsh Nag. Yeah. That's a good one. Harsh nag made a joke. Usually you're trying to laugh so people know.

I love it, Harsh nag. Oh, you slay me. But listen, we only really need to find these conks. Conscious. Conscious? Conscious? Conch. Conscious.

I think it's conch. Conch. There's multiple. We need to find them. And I think the Uthgard Barbarians were, they collected these and put them atop there. No, we're getting the relics so that the Oracle can tell us where the conchers are. I thought they were on top of the burials. No, no, no, no, no, no.

We have to prove ourselves. and then the oracle will tell us where the conscience are. Anyway, look, it's got to be done. I'm fine with it. I just figured we should all make sure everyone's hunky d'ary. I'll be honest. The idea of digging up graves and disturbing the dead does not sit well with me.

Maybe this is something I can speak with my captain about. I don't mind for the greater good. I think we need to at least scope one out, get a little bit of reconnaissance. At least see up close what's there. We only have rumors and, Harshnag's descriptions of what the place looks like. I don't know. Harshnag, you never saw the relic yourself at Great Worm, did you? He shakes his head. We got to get all the information.

And I just really want to see one. The truth comes out. Speaking of our friend who passed away in Grudhog, Greyhawk, what tribe was he part of? Gryhark was from the Elk tribe. Do any of these sites seem to... Be elky? Elky. Ha, ha, ha. I mean, there's a great worm tribe and a great worm cavern. So that is certainly obvious, and you would also presume probably the raven rock would be related essentially to the Black Raven tribe. Whoa, Black Raven. The others are a little bit less obvious.

It was a nice guy. You know, if we found out an elk tribe was there, maybe we should try to talk to them. He seemed pretty chill. We don't need to trek all the way over the mountains. If we made it back to Mirabar, you know, some of these are close. to Long Saddle or Everland, we might have another path to cut some of those days down. You know, if we're teleporting around anyways, take a trip back to Waterdeep for a day or two. Maybe we should have kept those crows.

There's a lot of options, but I suppose we should start moving. Harsh Nag is going to say goodbye to you. He's like, you know, sad a little bit. He doesn't show very much emotion on his face because that's not his style. It's kind of an icy guy. Your face is frozen with emotion. But he's like, now, good luck, nightstone four. Be well, travel safely.

And I hug him. And he says, I'll miss you most of all. And everyone goes, what the hell, man? I think Doran would put out, I think, put out his hand to handshake the giant. It's nice to have met you and I look forward to seeing you soon. Take 66 bludgeoning damage He takes your little hand in a pinched forefinger and thumb

And shakes it And he feels my strength And he goes, wow, you're strong for a little guy And he sounds just like Doran saying Wow, you're strong for a little guy This is what happens in Doran's imagination Doran's whispering it Jack tries to stay a little stoic and be like

You know, it's a pleasure I you know best of luck defending this place But Kieran is all over harsh nag to jump over his feet and be like, say goodbye. Can't keep all the feet on the ground. Bye, Hirschnick. I'm going to miss you. He'll miss you, too, Kieran.

And Kralath steps forward. He's got this little package, and he unveils a baked pie. I stayed up late making this for you. Just so happened to have all the ingredients and a little bit of help from Kellenvore. Don't eat it all at once now, okay? You made him a pie? What the hell did you have time to make that? You're holding out on us.

It's eight hours, lots of time. Take care of yourself, Harshnag. We'll be back soon. You little oven? You're like a little crillets. It's like a little oven that he could like unfold. We worked it out. It's just a bake-upy.

Yeah, there's plenty of supplies there. Creasy bake oven. The four of you head back out into the blizzard along this long, dark corridor, out through the frozen heart of this mountain. And you watch as the light grows brighter and brighter as the sunlight reflecting off the snow illuminates the entranceway of this huge temple. It's so bright outside, you are so unused to sunshine. It's been days since you've been outside that it takes you a second for your eyes to adjust.

and as you blink away the sun shines sharp illumination you see that a strange vehicle hangs in the sky overhead slowly drifting closer to you. It looks like a small ship with sleigh runners

and it's held aloft by a giant red balloon. Well, that's no. Huh. Whoa. But I like the color. I wave it down. I start waving.

It drops some ladders Two 50-foot-long rope ladders unroll themselves over the side of this airship, and they dangle about three feet above the long gangway that led out into the mountains. Guys, guys! Red jumps to one. Oh, no. Oh, now hold on, Red. This might not be good.

Does it have any of those funky triangles of Yon C. Bin and or any other markings or heraldry we might recognize? No funky triangles of Yon C. Bin. Great question. No funky triangles, Jack, we're good. Come on. I imagine red just clung to the ladder, but not climbing it. He's already on it. Yeah, he's like already on the bottom treads, and he's like got one arm out, waving everybody forward. Come on! Kralov turns around and he's like, okay, we should all talk about this first. I don't know if this is a...

Wait, where's red? Oh, no. Raise it to the top! And there's someone up on one of the sides of this airship. dark figure and it's waving one hand overhead at all of you. See? Who is it? It looks like it's probably humanoid.

How big is this thing? It's not nearly that big, but it is the size of a large ship. It's 45 feet long and 20 feet wide. Wow. It's got a huge balloon overhead. It looks like, you know, it's like a hot air balloon, but instead of a basket underneath, it's a ship on sleigh runners. Sweet air.

yacht. Yeah, yeah, it's an air yacht. Come on, guys, they have caviar. What? I feel like Red's, like, way above. We can barely hear you. What did you say? He did say something about caviar. Oh, Krayloff's just a puff of smoke. He's already cleverly. What's he doing now? After you, Doran?

Oh, fine. So Doran jumps up and starts climbing at the ladder. As the four of you are climbing. this ladder, the airship starts to gain altitude again. Red's just like, wee! It's awesome. It's like heroes clinging to the bottom of a helicopter as you are being evacuated from your most recent skyscraper mission, essentially.

The things I do for caviar. Yeah, really. Just keep looking up. Red, as you climb up, you're the first one up onto the death. of this airship, swiftly followed by Kralath, Jack, and Doran. You find yourself greeted by four crewmates wearing black leather armor and black leather masks. This is a little kinky owl.

I'm not going to lie. Do any of them have a whips? Cool, mask and armor friends. What's your name? My name is Red. This is my best friend Kralath. This is my best friend Jack. And this is my best friend Doran.

One of them steps forward and unzips his mouth mask. Yikes. I'm just picturing gimps. Nice. We welcome you on behalf of Clouth, the great dragon of the north. Clouth offers you this vessel and our services as a gift so that you may cross his vast dominion while avoiding the many perils of the land below. You have a lovely singing voice. Doran kind of turns to the other three and he says,

Does anybody else notice that they're singing everything they're talking? Yeah, maybe when they're up this high, everything just feels a little more musical. I love it. We're happy to be here. War against the giants is inevitable, but the great dragon commands you to forge ahead and face your destiny. The ordaining of the giants is broken, and they are not united. Slay their leaders, and you may yet prevail. If you succeed in quelling the giant threat,

Clouth bids you come to his hidden veil, so that he can reward your bravery. Normally, I don't really like to be commanded, but I think that sounds like a pretty cool offer. I wonder if this is the dragon magic gold that they were talking about. We're talking about. Red jumps up on a barrel and starts like going into Pirates of Penzance level of... It sounds like Clouth was watching.

I wonder if they're watching Red. Mm-hmm. Hey, are you saying that to me, or is that inside your head? Don't tell me that we're singing. Whoa, whoa, whoa, everybody. I have a very important question. It was a quite long climb, and I find myself famished. I hear that there is some caviar aboard.

Hey, you're doing great. We don't have to sing, though, do we? and I say to these gimps. Thanks, Red. I'm doing my best, okay? Another cultist shakes his head, and he's like, no, that's Del Saphene. She's our leader, and she addresses most things with kind of a formal quality. Formal song?

Del Saphene says, I choose to dedicate my every word. to the ears of the dragon. All right, whatever. Do you have any caviar, though? Do the dragons like music? Is that why you are singing? He just kind of shrugs.

Cool. All right, so the dragon cloth says we can use this airship to help their desire of reshaping the ordaining, which is what we want to do anyway. It seems oddly suspect. But what are we going to say no to? Five days walking through snow or an airship ride. Mm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I will pull up a map in the space in front of me with a snap of my fingers and sort of show the like Indiana Jones-style dotted line of we're hoping to go here. Dalsafine claps her hands. And two of the four cultists run downstairs. and you hear a great gust of wind and then there's like a huge tower with fire

that just spews to life and erupts and the airship gains quite a bit of altitude and sort of spins on its axis a little bit to face the southeast and you head out towards your first location. Oh, flying high in the sky! How cool is that! Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters, Christopher Ryan Evans, Colin Burkart, Daniel Doug,

Jessica Orrett, Mari Kineski, Jonah Goldman, Katie Orrett, and Merlin. See you soon! Thank you. Thank you.