The Glass Cannon Podcast - Giantslayer Episode 141 - Climbs and Misdemeanors

Episode Date: February 6, 2018

Having narrowly avoided an unnatural disaster, the party must now find their way to to the hidden mountain plateau where Skirgaard allegedly lies. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannon...network.com. To become an official member of the Naish, subscribe today at http://www.jointhenaish.com. Want to be a part of Glass Cannon Nation? Follow us at twitter.com/glasscannonpod instagram.com/theglasscannon facebook.com/glasscannonnetwork tiktok.com/@glasscannonnetwork Get the best apparel and gaming accessories in the biz at https://glasscannonnetwork.com/store If you enjoyed this, we have several other series featuring Call of Cthulhu - Time For Chaos Delta Green - Get in the Trunk Pathfinder 2E - Glass Cannon Live! Strange Aeons Pathfinder 1E - Legacy of the Ancients Traveller - Voyagers of the Jump and so much more! Join us every Thursday night for Campaign Two of The Glass Cannon Podcast – a playthrough of the Pathfinder 2E Gatewalkers Adventure Path! Videos premiere on YouTube Thursday nights at 8PM ET with a companion podcast available at midnight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 See yourself buying a home one day? Do future you a favor. Open a Questrade first home savings account and help that future come faster. The FHSA is a tax-free account where all your investment gains are yours to keep and put towards your first home. With Questrade, you can open an FHSA online. No bank appointment needed. It's easy and only takes a few minutes. The sooner you get started, the more time your down payment has to grow. Open an account today at questrade.com. This week on the Glass Cannon Podcast. I have never been more jealous of an adventure than I am for what you guys are in for. A new chapter begins.
Starting point is 00:00:40 Let's just keep climbing the mountain, try to get to Skirgard if we can. As the companions... You feel relatively safe. ...find themselves deep in the wild. Of course, you probably miss the inns of Skelt and Yanderhoff right now. With only their wits to guide them. I have an intelligence of 23.
Starting point is 00:01:01 What is your wisdom? But darkness will descend upon the heroes. Can I roll a perception check for any enemy camps or enemies lying in wait? And before the night is out... What? And you hear, all of a sudden, 20 feet away from you, a low growl. Everything will change. The adventure continues
Starting point is 00:01:25 now. What's going on, everybody? Troy LaVallee here with another, yet another exciting episode of the GCP. I just flew back from Portland, Oregon yesterday, and I don't even have the words to express what a wonderful time Skid and I had at the GCP West meetup. April Westervelt, Megan Holderby, the entire gang that put that thing together, it was mind-blowing. It was such a touching tribute to everything that we've created
Starting point is 00:02:16 and, more importantly, to this community that we're building. It was so nice to see people whose names I recognize on Twitter or on Twitch or emails that I've read from people from years ago when we first started the show. It was just, it just went by too fast. I wish that we had more time. I personally cannot wait to get back out to Portland and I hope everyone that was there can come out to PaizoCon in May because selfishly I just want to hang out with you again and it'll give you a chance to meet the rest of the guys as well. Honestly, I'm just continually amazed and touched by this community that we're organically building together.
Starting point is 00:02:54 To see everyone in that room just smiling all day long, playing Pathfinder, playing Starfinder, hanging out with Eric Mona and Dan Tharp, who made the trip down from Seattle, and then just to listen to trivia questions that I didn't even know the answer to. And just see the joy in people's faces to be making new friends, hopefully for life, and playing this game that we all love so much. These meetups are becoming such a hallmark of what we do. So thank you so much to the organizers that take the time to put this together.
Starting point is 00:03:22 Because it is this type of grassroots groundwork that is going to make the GCP different than everybody else out there. Speaking of meetups, they're popping up all over the place. We have the GCP Mid-Atlantic meetup on March 24th in Durham, North Carolina. Make sure you go out to that. Our buddy Kayvon is setting that up
Starting point is 00:03:40 and I know it's going to be awesome. And then on April 7th is the GCP Midwest meetup in Roselle, Illinois. And our good friend, AJ Taylor, friend of the pod, is going to be doing that one as well. Please, if you can get out there, it is such a good time to do these meetups and you never know who's going to show up. If you're interested in hosting your own GCP event, just go to glasscanonpodcast.com slash events and fill out the form. Let us know your name. Let us know where you want to have this event, when you want to have this event, how many people you think you're going to have attending.
Starting point is 00:04:08 And then we'll set you up with our GCP events war horn and help you do everything we can to make it a really good time. And speaking of good times, we have been having an amazing time here in the old attic, as it were. In the last week and a half, we have started both our Ruins of Aslan podcast and our Dead Sons podcast. And I can't wait for you people to listen to these. I couldn't be happier with how they've turned out. And I'm just beaming at the chance to be able to share these with you. And this month, February, this is when the Ruins of Aslan podcast is coming out.
Starting point is 00:04:39 And then, of course, in April, Dead Sons. So be ready. We'll be releasing exact dates very, very soon. But get excited, because I know I am. So much is happening. I could talk for an hour and a half, but we got an episode to get to, folks. We have a very important episode. One of those ones where about 10 minutes in, I would say no one was expecting what happened. So please, please enjoy episode 141 of the GCP Climbs and Misdemeanors. Doesn't it feel good to get back in some combat? Sure does, good buddy. I mean, I enjoyed all that
Starting point is 00:05:20 role-playing. Subreddit, they could go either way on this role-playing. But I mean, I loved it. I think you needed that after all that happened in Minderhall's Valley. We needed to check back in with these people.
Starting point is 00:05:33 Worked out real well for us. Well. This is going to be a real barn burner of a book, isn't it? You had to set the stage for this book,
Starting point is 00:05:43 really. And now, you're really making this trek. You had the encounter with stage for this book, really. And now you're really making this trek. You had the encounter with the Borrello, which didn't go very well. I wasn't able to award you a full compliment of XP for that because it ran away. And by a full compliment of XP, do you mean zero XP for not killing it? Zero XP. No, I gave you a portion. And to be fair, we ran away.
Starting point is 00:06:06 That's true. That's true. Like cowards. So I should have given you zero. I gave you a little bit. I gave you a little bit. But then you guys really handled the avalanche encounter well. And I mean, I really enjoyed that.
Starting point is 00:06:17 I had a very visual picture in my mind of what it looked like of everybody running and flying. And then the fight with the frogs. It was very very very cool uh and then we i love when they do mechanics for real world events like that natural disaster they come up with sort of events where they come up all the details of like what you can choose to do how it you know the risk reward system of running from an avalanche and how quickly an avalanche moves every six seconds and it's just really and and also just the amount of space it takes up yeah wrapping your mind around that because you rarely play on a map in terms of 500 feet three you know you move 150
Starting point is 00:06:57 feet this round yeah it wasn't quite enough you know what i mean it's a really neat way to to look at that stuff i'm glad it's over, because we couldn't afford that golf cart for Skid much longer. Up and down the table, left and right. I'm trying to think of all the party members that we've gone through. If there's anyone that would have had a real hard time with that, I don't know, because Feyeraz and Pembroke were able to keep everybody going. Like Sir Will would have had Lexington. Calabras at this level probably would have had the ability to fly. Umla.
Starting point is 00:07:30 Umla would have definitely died. Umla would have died. Yeah, Umla would have died. He would have been buried alive. Umla had no chance. Yeah. Calabras has the same dimensional steps ability that Pembroke. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:07:39 Or would have it at this level. Because of the travel domain, right? Right, right. Travel and luck. Does he have aphrodisiacs? God, I miss that cleric. Beautiful cleric. Yeah, so maybe everybody? Right, right. Travel and luck. Does he have a famous cleric? Beautiful cleric.
Starting point is 00:07:47 Yeah, so maybe everybody will be all right. I don't know. I was hoping for one like burial. Yeah. You know, that's always fun. Yeah. Somebody's going to try
Starting point is 00:07:53 and dig them out and they'll die too. But it didn't happen. It didn't happen. One can dream, Troy. One can dream. One can dream. Hey, but something
Starting point is 00:08:02 really good came out of it. Lork leveled up. Yeah! All right. Yeah. So now we have a party of 10, 8, 8, Troy. One can dream. One can dream. Hey, but something really good came out of it. Lork leveled up. Yeah! All right. Yeah. So now we have a party of 10, 8, 8, 8. 10, 8, 8, 8. Perfect.
Starting point is 00:08:12 Ready to go on these CR12 encounters. Classic. It's going to be so hard. So hard. But let's talk about this level up. We haven't done this for a while with Lork, of all people. Yeah, seriously. So did you, first of all people yeah seriously um so did you
Starting point is 00:08:25 first of all hot question on everybody's mind did you stick with ranger or did you multi-class did this experience of being transformed into an elf this reincarnation change lork in any way that he wouldn't want to take a new class no not right now he's taking ranger okay he didn't want to weaken an already weak under under-leveled character. Yeah, no, I think that he— You got no guts, O'Brien! No, he really wants to explore this ability to be the Ranger of the party, to try to track and find these giants, hunt them down, and kill them to the best of his ability.
Starting point is 00:09:01 And, I mean, he's just getting—it's really interesting after playing Sir Will for so long, who had no perception, because he just had no wisdom, to play a ranger with extremely high perception, especially in his favored terrain. Yeah. And so that's something that you get at 8th level, is an additional favored terrain. And your former favored terrain, which mountains For him Goes up Another plus two Just like favorite enemy Total plus four Now in the mountains So that's plus four
Starting point is 00:09:29 To initiative Perception Survival Stealth While he's in that terrain Cool What was the new terrain You picked?
Starting point is 00:09:37 I went with underground Ah What does that cover? I think it covers Anything that's under The ground I see Okay
Starting point is 00:09:44 No but I mean caves I would think. Dungeons. What if the cave is above ground? Asshole. I'm going to keep that in mind. You know what's really interesting? I was looking and I was like, oh man, there's going to be so many options because I had forgotten. I haven't looked at a favorite terrain for Lork in
Starting point is 00:09:59 two years. You pooh-poohed it when you got your first favorite terrain. Yes, that's true. You're like, this is garbage. I'll never use it. Yeah. I don't think anything happens for Lork. Ever.
Starting point is 00:10:09 I think that, yeah, I think it's growing on me. I think it's definitely growing on me, but I think it's because our terrain was changing so much and now
Starting point is 00:10:16 it's going to be steady at least for a while. Fairly consistent for a while. Yeah, and of course, one would suspect. And with any class, once you get two options,
Starting point is 00:10:24 you know what I mean? It really, really expands the different places you can go and get bonuses. Doubles it. Doubles it, in fact. But either way. Either way, but I looked it up, and there's like, you can take extra planar terrains. So, I mean, I want to know these adventures where a ranger's favorite terrain is like the fire plane. What happened to that guy?
Starting point is 00:10:45 Exactly. He got mixed up in some shit. That guy's life took him some strange directions. I'm not good in mountains. Put me in a fire plane. I mean, there's a bunch of them, too. There's a bunch of them. There's all these ethereal planes, the heavens and hell, and all kinds of different favorite terrain options you can take.
Starting point is 00:11:04 But I felt like this adventure is a little nitty-gritty if we're going into the mountains i also want to be able to know what i'm doing in caves so i went with underground and eighth level you get nobility point right yes what did you put it in i put it into strength and why because i lost my strength strength in the reincarnation ah i see so i had taken two points of strength i believe i believe i took two points of strength uh for my half work racial power so he lost that uh and then um so i wanted to get that get that back okay so at least start chipping away at it and because you know even though i want him to be ranged, I also, you know, he remembers a lot of melee fighting, and I want him to be able to do that if it comes to it. And he still has heart spit.
Starting point is 00:11:51 Heart spit! Heart spit! Okay. So, I mean, I think that if he gets in a melee situation, he's got a round or two to be alive. That's pretty much it. But I want those rounds to count. Sure, sure. Okay.
Starting point is 00:12:03 Yeah. All right. So there's a new lork in town. And Feyrazzo and Pembroke, when you guys leveled up to eighth, I'm assuming, Pembroke, you put that in intelligence? I believe I did.
Starting point is 00:12:12 And do you remember what you did, Feyrazzo? Wisdom? Wisdom, I believe. Berenstain, so long since you've been eighth level. Dexterity, of course it was dexterity. Of course it was dexterity. It was wisdom. I just checked.
Starting point is 00:12:22 It was wisdom. She's very wise. This party is interesting. I mean, you've got... What do you... I think what you're missing is that real melee operator. Somebody can get in there and bash. You don't have that right now.
Starting point is 00:12:35 No. Yeah. And I don't know that we ever have had that. Not really. The only one we had was you. You mean Lork? Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:43 I mean, he could lay out some damage with gorham's thorn but he had to hit and he also didn't have enough ac to stay up enough rounds in that situation against giants yeah i mean really the four-person party is perfect because it makes you have to like all right how are we going to figure this out we have to give something up yeah yeah do you feel do you guys feel like it's like you're you're constantly defending against the power play in hockey it's like what it's always like do you guys feel like you're constantly defending against a power play in hockey? That's what it's always like. Do you guys feel you adequately supplied yourself for your weaknesses heading into Skiergård?
Starting point is 00:13:14 Well, not for the incorporeal stuff. No. I mean, that became obvious. First combat. Oh, dear. It was incorporeal things. It's flying things that I guess we have more spells now. Faraz can fly,
Starting point is 00:13:25 so I feel better about it. But like, I'm thinking back to when Nestor went down during that fight against the Drake. I'm still worried about that. Or in the cave paintings.
Starting point is 00:13:33 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. It's going to be a very interesting time. Ghosts and birds are two nemeses. Well, you brush off the snow. not that any of you tumbled. And there's no treasure, obviously, on these giant glacier toads.
Starting point is 00:13:59 Although you must think that they probably caused the avalanche, although they didn't appear to be very intelligent. And now you are up on that next level. You got up that steep slope and you see a path that you can take. That doesn't mean there won't be more steep slopes you have to climb. But there is a very... A mountain pass. Somebody want to roll a survival check oh you
Starting point is 00:14:28 know i'm on it 13 26 for faraz oh what druid druid 39 for lord what does the ranger have to say 39 that's a natty 20 to start the sesh. Nice. Wow. All right. So, Feroz, you're looking around and you see, obviously, there are tracks here. And... Going in all directions. I mean, you would think they're going both backwards and forwards. Left and... To the left and right. Every which way.
Starting point is 00:14:59 Occasionally diagonal. Imagine a species. Its tracks are there. Like one that goes right to the edge of the cliff and its ends. You'd see it pick up again like the next clip. How did they do that? There's multiple figure eights in either direction. Lork, you, with a 39, see a couple of things.
Starting point is 00:15:23 You see tracks of giants and humanoid figures and some dragging tracks of the smaller figures as well um going up the mountain and down the mountain and some walking some walking yeah okay some walking humans some walking giants, big, big footprints. Remember back to the Siege of Trunau and you saw that first giant. Yeah, the water puddling. Yeah. That was awesome. It reminds me of that. So it's like that, but it's in the snow.
Starting point is 00:15:54 Yeah. And you look up and you see that this plateau, if Skirgard does exist at the top of this, then it's going to take a few hours to get up there. But you do see tracks and you do see a trail. Okay. What is your plan? Start following it, I guess. I think we should be on our guard.
Starting point is 00:16:17 Clearly this area is trafficked. Although I don't know whether the toads would have triggered to trigger an avalanche against one of the giants. I wonder if they're waiting for some more manageable prey. Aye, smaller prey, I think. But we should, uh... Yes, this seems to be the only way to go. Would it be wise if I flew up ahead and got an idea of what we have coming for us? I think that is incumbent upon you, my friend, Firaza.
Starting point is 00:16:45 I like that idea, yes. So Firaza will wild shape into an arctic eagle. I don't even know if that's a thing. I just made it up. But you bought it so hard. Arctic eagle. Bottlecap.
Starting point is 00:17:01 That sounds beautiful. She's beautiful. how many wild shapes do you get a day four four eight hours each all right so wild shape
Starting point is 00:17:09 into an arctic eagle it's an eagle it's just an eagle but it's got arctic coloring it's a turd and you want to just start
Starting point is 00:17:19 kind of fly up the path ahead yeah I think well I think she'd kind of like veer off the path that way she can
Starting point is 00:17:24 kind of see the path from a distance, but like she has perspective down on the mountain. Okay. So flying up, and how long can you do this? Pretty much as long as you want. As long as I want. Okay. All right.
Starting point is 00:17:34 So you start flying up and you see the path is like wrapping around this mountain peak and it starts forking off in multiple directions that also lead up the peak at various points throughout this uh climb there are um sort of resting areas you think oh that might be a good place to camp if we decide to go up the mountain and then back down to avoid um succumbing to the altitude sickness not to mention the cold that may be up there and you know there will be cold up there because as you start to ascend, you start to feel it definite cold, uh, on these ice cap mountains.
Starting point is 00:18:08 Um, lots of trees, um, less, the far farther you go up. Um, and yeah, you've got a good idea of where this is going to lead.
Starting point is 00:18:21 It's just going to be a matter of trying to figure out which way you want to go. Can I roll a perception check for any enemy camps or enemies lying in wait sure ambushes as it were ambushes as it were 25 25 all right so you're turning around flying loops around this mountain, and it's taking a while to get around. At a certain point, you do see maybe seven or eight giants coming down the mountain with a bunch of humans in chains. Are they riding six white horses? They are not. How far ahead of where the party is, are they? You would probably, if you spent the rest of the day walking from where you are, you would probably never meet them. Okay.
Starting point is 00:19:14 So they're like a full day's journey ahead of us, basically? Not a day's journey away, but knowing what you know of the path, you would have to walk directly towards them. And most likely they're going to the other side of the mountain. Okay. Do any of the mountain. Okay. Do any of the prisoners look vaguely orcish? No. What about half orcish? No. Quarter? No, they appear to be quarter. Quarter? Female?
Starting point is 00:19:35 Depending on how close you get, they all look to be like... She lands on the shoulder of one of the giants. It squashes the earth. Feyroz is dead. Play the sad music sorry it makes me sad so for us we'll we'll we'll soar back down and land in front of him and update the others as to what she's seen. All right, so you give them all the updates, and you guys feel confident that you can begin ascending.
Starting point is 00:20:13 It's afternoon now. Feras, you probably think to get to the top, and I mean, I didn't have you go all the way up to the top. You can do that if you want. But to get to the top, it's probably going to take three hours of walking. You're able to assess that. Is Skirgard at the top? You would think so.
Starting point is 00:20:32 That's where it points on the map. It's just one mountain, one clear mountain. It's not like there's two mountains butting up against each other and we have to go over a mountain ridge or anything like that. Unless the paths get really funky up there, Feyraza feels pretty confident that if you just keep ascending, you're eventually going to get up there. Switchbacking, basically. But on the other side of the mountain where she saw these giants, you know, they may be coming from there as well. But that's not to say that the path that you're on isn't going to lead there as well. I wonder why or where they're taking prisoners.
Starting point is 00:20:58 You said they're coming down the mountain. Coming down the mountain. Does it seem like we're going to run into them inevitably? Like, are they coming down? No, he said that it looked like they were going to take another branch. We could try to catch up to them and see if we can...
Starting point is 00:21:13 I don't want to mess with it. I don't want to mess with it. No, I don't think so. You would be greatly outnumbered. You would be outnumbered. Our best bet would be to be able to ambush them perhaps and I don't think we'd have the opportunity to do it let's just keep climbing the mountain
Starting point is 00:21:30 try to get to Skirgard if we can very well my friend I have an intelligence of 23 what is your wisdom 4 no it's 16 I'm very wise very wise as well.
Starting point is 00:21:47 Come to me for advice. So do you guys start going up the mountain? Yeah. All right. What is the party order? Well, I think Baron kind of gives a hand to his elvish friend, L'Elf, and says, please, take the lead, my friend. L'Elf will take the lead. Ladies and gentlemen, Lelf. Yeah. He says, please, take the lead, my friend. Lork will take the lead.
Starting point is 00:22:06 Ladies and gentlemen, Lork the Elf. Lelf the Elf. He will take the lead doing stealth checks, so moving basically at half speed, and doing survival checks and perception checks kind of the whole way. Just being very wary of where these tracks are headed and making sure there's nobody lying in wait. No giant ambushes or other creatures.
Starting point is 00:22:31 Okay. Go ahead and roll a survival, a stealth, and a perception in that order. And Ferrazza will remain an eagle. Okay. She'll be 20 feet or so above the party. And as an eagle, you could tell us all that information you can speak i can see that's that natural i have natural speech very so cool um all right is it disturbing no i think no as an elf he's like this is awesome it makes sense yeah or if you like disney movies or. Right. Those are your two options.
Starting point is 00:23:05 Survival. All right, so the survival is 31, 35 if it's giant related on survival. And then what was the other one? Crunching in the snow. Stealth. Stealth is 28 if it'sants, 24 if not. Okay. And then Perception, you said?
Starting point is 00:23:28 Mm-hmm. Perception is 28 if it's Giants, 24 if not. Okay. That's already annoying. I know. I'll just say the higher one. Is it a spell or spell-like ability? Okay. I have this exact problem in games where I've GMed with Rangers,
Starting point is 00:23:43 and they keep, like, qualifying. You don't know what you're proceeding. You don't know. You don't know. That's good. All right. So you guys go up the mountain, and Lork is, what, 20, 30 feet ahead, ranging ahead.
Starting point is 00:23:58 Yeah, at least. You know, you're providing the stealth for the party, and I'm sure Baron is watching the back, making sure nobody's coming up from behind you, but you don't feel... It was such a pain in the ass for you to get up that steep slope. You don't think that you're going to run into any trouble.
Starting point is 00:24:12 So, Lork, you continue up ahead about an hour and 15 minutes into your walk up the way. You see a little... I don't want to say a landing, but kind of like a small area that you could rest for a moment. Okay. And it's, you know, the path continues up there,
Starting point is 00:24:34 but you guys have been going an hour and 15 minutes. It's getting a little bit colder. You don't have to roll anything. You can feel the air is getting a little thinner, and you guys know what you're in for. Yeah. Pembroke is, like, bundling himself in his newly purchased cold weather gear. I think maybe this is a place to put a base camp. What do you think, Sheriff Barrett?
Starting point is 00:24:57 Well, it's a little bit further off than where we told Sir Will we'd be, but I have faith in Lexington and his scent ability, so I think it's as good a place as any. Too bad Lexington's not here? Well, when he returns, as we discussed in a previous episode, Matthew. You son of a... Your perception is good enough, Lork, to know, too.
Starting point is 00:25:20 This probably would be a good spot. There's, like, some trees. You could safely be there. Buy some protection from the wind and then maybe a good place to get uh rest and acclimate to the altitude yeah we have our iron we have our um what's it called what we use to hide the spike spike yeah ah yes the spike i'll never be spending any time in that tent again i'll pitch a natural tent. Thank you very much.
Starting point is 00:25:46 It's only the, you know, it's getting to be later afternoon. I'd say it's probably like two in the afternoon. You would think you probably have another couple hours to get to the top. You have no idea what you're going to see at the top. You are at a place now. What do you want to do?
Starting point is 00:26:00 I think Pembroke is definitely out of breath. I mean, speaking as myself, growing up in Colorado, I know like climbing a mountain, like walking up a trail in the mountains is a huge pain in the ass. Right. So I'm imagining a 72-year-old man is not. I have a vote. And the elderly always vote. Disproportionate numbers.
Starting point is 00:26:26 I think we should... I would like to bed down. I would like to bed down for a bit. Aye, we should get settled here before we lose the light. Baron, I don't know if you'd like to start a fire or not. Personally, I think we should try to go without. I don't think we should risk a fire. But it's dangerous to do one, I know.
Starting point is 00:26:49 I think we should perhaps consider sleeping a little bit closer than we normally do, as distasteful as that may be. I have no problem with it at all. I have no problem with a little just friend's spooning. The first night we met, we slept in a queen bed together. Would you care to join us under the tent, Lork? Can I do a, is it a survival check to predict the weather? It is. It is.
Starting point is 00:27:16 I wanted to try to do a survival check to see if there's a storm coming in the evening and two, if the weather overnight is going to, seems to drop low enough that it's going to require checks to not become weakened or fatigued. Yeah, go ahead and roll the survival check. That's a 29. 29. And, Baron, you probably would get up there as well, right? Yeah, I was there. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:40 So, yeah, it's probably 50-something degrees. It might drop a little bit, but it's not going to drop below 40 overnight. And it's not warm by any means, but it's going to stay the same, you would think. I think we can go without a fire, Pembroke. Yes. Let's get a little shelter. And, Baron, perhaps if you'd like, you and I could range up a little bit and see what lies up ahead just carefully. Oh, as carefully as we can, my friend.
Starting point is 00:28:08 Yeah. One moment, my friends. So, Farazza has been casting Goodberry every night to make some Goodberries for everybody. So she's going to distribute them now that we're in. You know, hit points are the best. You're always good. Yep.
Starting point is 00:28:23 So each of you get 25 good berries. What? Oh, nice. Oh, wow. I've just been at the end of the day. They don't have a time limit? No. They're magical.
Starting point is 00:28:32 Wow. I love that spell. But you can only take, eat eight of them a day. Okay. Yeah. You can't just sit there eating them. And what do they do? One point. One hit point. Heal one hit point. Hey, that's great. Yeah. And you can eat a handful of them at a. Okay. Yeah, you can't just sit there eating them. And what do they do? One point, one hit point.
Starting point is 00:28:46 Heal one hit point. Hey, that's great. Yeah. And you can eat a handful of them at a time, I believe. Eight hit points right off the bat there. Yeah, you can just be like, standard action, but boom, eight hit points. Very cool, very cool. All right, so you bed down.
Starting point is 00:28:59 You don't see anything or hear anything. Luckily, whatever that giant chain gang was all about does not come down your side of the mountain. You feel relatively safe. As night falls, it gets a little bit colder, but as Lork and Baron predicted, it does not drop to dangerous cold. Of course, you probably miss the inns of Skelt and Janderhoff right now.
Starting point is 00:29:29 Before any of you go to bed, at one point, Kat Benatar seems miffed again. Not like she's being possessed or anything like that, like what happened with the Borello, but she smells something.
Starting point is 00:29:45 And she starts sniffing. What is it, girl? You don't hear anything just yet, but all of a sudden you go from feeling cold to all of you feeling overwhelmingly hot. Ooh. What? You hear 20 feet away from you, a low growl. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:30:14 Rogers' Days to Save event is back, with our most incredible deal yet on our most reliable internet. Enjoy Rogers Ignite Internet, now starting at just $50 a month, backed by our Wi-Fi satisfaction guarantee. Visit rogers.com. And all of a sudden, that distance away from nothingness in the air, an enormous red dragon. What?
Starting point is 00:30:47 Appears. That's not right. Oh no. And is just standing there, looking at you. Oh no. I have been watching you. I've seen you parley with a woodland spirit. I've seen you fight for your lives. I've seen you survive and have lunch. What business do you have high atop this plateau in the village of Scareguard?
Starting point is 00:31:26 I advise you not to be dishonest. Pembroke Indraconic says, I beg you, oh great and powerful worm of the mountains, may this our humble supplicants, we humble supplicants ask you your name. My name is Naximara. And who might you be, old sir? Oh, great and powerful Naximara.
Starting point is 00:32:02 Can I do some kind of check to see if I've heard of this dragon? Sure. Knowledge local? Arcana? Arcana. Arcana, yeah. That's 40. You know his middle name.
Starting point is 00:32:16 You have not heard of Noximar. But that name, it probably comes from a great line of dragons. But you haven't heard of her specifically. Okay. Clearly you are from a great line of potent dragons. It is an honor and a terror to be in your awesome presence. I am Pembroke. These are my companions.
Starting point is 00:32:45 This is Feraza. This is Baron. And this is Lorc. And this is Cat Benatar. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Not to be confused with the sea. Oh. She does not like the joke. She does not like that joke. She's like, she hasn't heard that one before. I ask you again,
Starting point is 00:33:15 what business do you have atop this plateau? We seek the giants that have made their camp residence atop this mountain. Why? We track a party of... I'm sorry, she was speaking common when she first came down. Yes. We track a party of humans that were set upon by frost giants.
Starting point is 00:33:43 We track them up the mountainside. We saw their tracks and have been following that. Is that your only business, to save your friends? It's our most pressing business. Can I roll a sense motive to see why he's asking us this? Like, if he's a... She. She?
Starting point is 00:34:01 She. Yes, absolutely. I would also like to do that. 27. 9. She. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I would also like to do that. 27. Nine. Ten. 27, Bear Bear? Yeah, babe.
Starting point is 00:34:12 Inquisitor. That's Inquisitor, baby. Damn, girl. Damn, girl. Damn, girl. Damn, Gina. Damn, Daniel. 27.
Starting point is 00:34:24 You're looking up to see if she's lying no I'm looking up a skill you have no idea but she has not attacked you yet so we know that from her tone you cannot you cannot
Starting point is 00:34:40 quite get a read on what she wants to know Baron makes eyes with Lork and knows this is a dicey situation and he turns to the dragon and says i'm gonna be honest with you we're here to kill them all of them i like it risk lay it all on the table be honest i'm umlo i'm Umlo. You've come to kill them all, you say? Any that serve. Volstice. Volstice. Any that serve.
Starting point is 00:35:15 Goddammit, that's not Baron's voice. Any that serve. Any that serve. We are here to kill any giants that serve Volstis. Her eyes get huge. Volstis. I do not know what your experiences with my kind have been thus far in your lives. But know this. I, Noximara, do not
Starting point is 00:35:47 come seeking a fight. I come seeking allies. Let me ask you. What do you know of this Volstas? I'm sure we know
Starting point is 00:36:05 very little, less I'm sure than you, your greatness. We know that he seeks to accumulate the greatest power that he can possibly gain to reclaim the giant's power over all of Galarian.
Starting point is 00:36:21 And all creatures within it. He wishes to subjugate the entire world to his will. That may be true, but that is no business of mine. For the power that he possesses, that is of interest to me. Ah, he has dominated one of your kind. Yes.
Starting point is 00:36:39 He has dominated many of my kind. For he possesses a very powerful artifact known as the Orb of Dragonkind. Oh, shit. Let me ask you, old man. You seem to know of my lineage.
Starting point is 00:36:58 Do you know of the ancient red dragon, Baelgroth? Do I? Oh, yeah. Oh, yesgoroth. Do I? Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. He was an ancestor of mine. For nearly a thousand years, Balgoroth terrorized western Arthastan, from the Inner Sea to the Stormspear Mountains, until his reign of terror was cut short and he was imprisoned within an orb of dragonkind. For the first two hundred years of
Starting point is 00:37:36 my life, this Belgaroth was just a figure from the ancient past, nothing more than a subject of old stories that were half-hearted attempts at cautionary tales for hatchlings. It had nothing to do with me. But all of that changed when I learned that the orb of dragonkind containing Belgaroth's essence, my great and powerful ancestor's essence, had resurfaced in the hands of an upstart storm giant warlord who called himself Volstis, the Storm Tyrant. Oh, this Volstis. Ever since his reign began, he has used this orb to dominate dragons under his command. One of these is the old red dragon, Akazaroth.
Starting point is 00:38:36 You also know this name, Pembroke. But he uses younger dragons as messengers between his headquarters and his outlying holdings, such as Scearguard. In fact, a dragon normally roosts in the watchtower in the northwest corner of the village. But he has been absent for some time. I ask you this. You, dwarf, say you've come to kill them all. You say you've come to defy Ulstis. What is your plan to take on an army of highly skilled giants?
Starting point is 00:39:19 Do you even know what you are getting yourselves into at Scarecrow? know what you are getting yourselves into at Scarecrow. We know that we're the only thing separating the rest of the world from these giants, and we are prepared to stake out and get as much
Starting point is 00:39:35 reconnaissance as we can, and perhaps turn the giants against themselves. We've already done it in Minderhall's Valley. Reconnaissance is key. The giants of Scarecrow are too numerous to face in direct conflict. It would be sudden death for all of you. In order to have any chance of succeeding, you must use guerrilla tactics to drive the camp to disband instead. I don't know what you know of giants,
Starting point is 00:40:10 but they are independent, self-reliant monsters. When they do work together, it is usually in racially similar groups or along tribal lines. So this heterogeneous mixture of different giant races that you will see in Scarecrow is unusual and uncomfortable for many training there. As a result, if these giants become sufficiently dismayed or disheartened with the camp's conditions or leadership, they will quit altogether. Omnipotent and most gracious
Starting point is 00:40:55 and powerful dragon. Your ancestor, the tales speak of your ancestor Laying waste to entire regions He was the bane of a continent If Volstis has the power that he wielded Then he is more mighty than we even could have imagined We thank you very much for your advice.
Starting point is 00:41:27 Cogent and prescient as it is. But there remains a question. Yes? Why are you here, and why is the dragon that is normally in the northwest corner gone? Are you...
Starting point is 00:41:42 Have you gained any information yourself you could share with us? I do not know about the whereabouts of the dragon. He's most likely back with the storm tyrant. If I were to guess, I have disguised myself as many creatures and walked amongst the village myself. I've seen what they are all about, With your knowledge of his artifact, does he have to be near you in order to dominate you, or can he do it from distance?
Starting point is 00:42:28 But I am not one to take chances with such a powerful artifact. Where do you make your home? I make my home where I lie my head. It has no interest of yours. Oh, in your paramount supremacy, we humble ourselves before you as much as you have condescended to help us. Is there any way that you may help us further in our quest to rid the mountain of these giants? The mountain of these giants. You must find ways to disrupt their activities.
Starting point is 00:43:12 Destroy their stockpiles and infrastructure. And more often than not... And she just, like, shakes her head, looking at you, trying to figure out how the hell you're going to do this. Kill them outright. With stealth, espionage, out how the hell you're going to do this. Kill them outright. With stealth, espionage, careful planning, observing your enemy,
Starting point is 00:43:32 and sufficient tactics, you may have a chance to succeed. However, if you choose the path of humans and dwarves, aggressive blunt force strategies will get you killed. And you'll be lucky if a quick death with a single blow of an axe is all that is your fate.
Starting point is 00:43:52 Very well. We shall attempt to use cleverness, insurgency, and grievance politics to achieve our goal. and grievance politics to achieve our goal. Do you know anything of the human captives they take? What they do with them at Skirgard? Do they enslave them? Do they kill them? Yes. They enslave them. For what? And they kill them.
Starting point is 00:44:21 They kill them for food. And they enslave them to work the land. The giants are numerous, and the food supplies are dwindling. The slaves help them to keep the camps fed, but when they become useless, they become the food themselves. As of late, that has been happening more often. Who are the most hated giants, racially, among the giants? Well, the Frost Giants reign supreme. Their word is law. There may be fights once in a while between hill giants and ettins and the like.
Starting point is 00:45:08 But when the Frost Giant comes into the camp it stops immediately what do you know of their leadership we know little but what we have seen at the cathedral that here in mindehall's valley i am second guessing choosing my allies when you don't even know who your enemy is. For you must understand, if you are able to succeed in disbanding the camp, you will only incapacitate the body. To fully drive a spike into the storm tyrant's designs. As you say, it is your desire, dwarf. You must finish the job by cutting off the head. They are led by a frost giant Jarl,
Starting point is 00:45:58 known as Skirkatla, a possibly immortal frost giant of legendary power and resilience, who is certainly capable of reforming the training camp elsewhere if she isn't stopped permanently. But know this, you must not confront the giant queen until the threat of the village is no longer at your backs. Do you understand? Yes, yes, oh omnipresent one. My ability to gather intelligence is limited.
Starting point is 00:46:37 I can't assume the form of a giant and my size, weight, and scent make invisibility a limited gambit at best. Only worked for the likes of you four. Now, I know that we have to take care of the camp first. But surely one as powerful as you cannot believe that Skirkotla is invincible. Do you know any of her weaknesses? Vanity, physical, or otherwise? I do not know.
Starting point is 00:47:07 She only makes appearances every so often, and she has many in her retinue that keep her safe. From what I understand, she cannot be defeated. However, you must find a way. We will strike at the body until the head falls. Most revered one. Yes. As you have walked among them, have you noticed any wildlife that survives and escapes their attention?
Starting point is 00:47:42 I've seen you take flight. I would stay in the air. For if you walk amongst them, you will be their next meal. Do you have any other questions? I will watch you. If I were to come to your aid, it could be extremely detrimental for our plans.
Starting point is 00:48:08 But are we together on this? Aye, we're together. And we can stay smaller and more silent, I think, than you. So I think you need to stay away. Stay safe. We'll explore these guerrilla tactics, as you say, and try to separate them, split them out, kill them in small numbers,
Starting point is 00:48:34 and then maybe you'll meet us again. Is there a way that we can contact you, should we need to speak once more? I have been watching you for days, and will continue to do so. We'll just wave then. Wave is fine. Thank you
Starting point is 00:48:56 once again for your assistance oh most mighty and sovereign of great worms. Know this, old man. I sense great arcane power within you.
Starting point is 00:49:12 If you seek to charm them as I have done, they are smart and they are wise. And repeated castings they will know There are too many of them
Starting point is 00:49:27 Use your magic wisely Yes I shall attempt to be judicious Thank you We dragon kind Are a proud race And we will not be exploited as weapons In a conflict we did not plan
Starting point is 00:49:44 Start Or more importantly, command. Know this. I have no love for humanity, but I refuse to allow my race to serve as giant slaves. Her wings pick up, and she fades out, and you just feel the wind and the heat disappear as she flies off snow melted all around us she's just like emanating heat it's just black ground underneath lark is sweating well that was illuminating matth, we never got to ask her if she was wearing hockey pads or not. It seemed like she may not have been. That was awesome.
Starting point is 00:50:32 That was quite unexpected. I never, ever get to just talk to dragons. I know. It's so great. It's always a fight. I wonder what Sir Will would have done. I was thinking that the whole time. I was like, so glad Will's not here.
Starting point is 00:50:45 He'd be like, George! To Highbury! To Highbury! So it sounds like if we're going to take her suggestion and go gorilla on this, we want to cut off their supply lines and end their food supply, but we'd have to first get the humans out so that they won't be used as food. I don't know. Well, I think we've got to scout out the situation.
Starting point is 00:51:06 It sounds like we need to do a lot of planning and a lot of scouting before we make any moves at all. As she said, she illuminated quite well how little we know of these frost giants and their habits. If we can identify where they move and when. And maybe not even just the frost giants, but the hill giants, the ogres,
Starting point is 00:51:32 whatever other lower species a giant is up there. I suggest we make use of the world around us. Speak to the trees. Treat with the insects. I have magics in my ability that I can
Starting point is 00:51:50 use insects as spies. I believe that between that and the natural world, we shall find a way to observe their comings and goings. The birds and the beasts will be our allies. Indeed. And also I can make each of us invisible in turn for a given period of time if we have a
Starting point is 00:52:08 route a route to take to find a safe place i do think though however that we certainly can't rely on siege tactics and starve them out over time there are people in there as you say so i think the more theatrical perhaps our disruptions be, the more effective they will be, and they will not go unnoticed. We will so discord. Perhaps the occasional use of my charming spells could help us to some degree in this area. Can you disguise yourself, my dear friend? Yes, but only as a younger man. friend yes but only as a younger man i don't know how helpful that would be unless unless i'm looking to date or something a younger giant man no a baby giant um man i'll tell you i am thinking
Starting point is 00:53:02 that if it's like, I don't know. I don't know why we would do scouting of, well, I don't know why we would do scouting of them during the day. Yeah, well, I was going to say. Because then we're more visible. We should definitely move at night regardless. Right, but the problem is we want to observe them during the day just to get a sense of the movements and the training and who goes where when. I think we have to. Eventually, we have to get into this place the movements and the training and who goes where when i think we have
Starting point is 00:53:25 eventually we have to get into this place and like kind of set up shop uh i think that's what we're going to have to end up doing is find a place where we can remain hidden like in in the camp yeah you know beneath really that's what i think i think that um i mean i think that it's feasible that we would have like a like a two-hour commute to work. We've attempted. You know what I mean? Like stay completely away and out of the altitude and then go in there, scout, come back away, go in there, scout, come back away. Obviously, we could be scouting and find a place that we think is totally safe.
Starting point is 00:53:59 I'm thinking Pembroke's wisdom could be sublime in this instance. We could. thinking pembroke's wisdom um could be sublime in this instance we could there might be little areas uh these are giant belt areas where we could kind of skitter around much like rats do in a house you know we hide behind the stove when they turn on the lights and then we're gone we'll be like a vermin to them yeah sure but i guess and i mean every time we'd have to like infiltrate the space every time right now it's Right now, it's just conjecture anyway. So why don't we go for it? And I'm also talking about, mainly what I'm talking about is the very first few trips.
Starting point is 00:54:31 You know what I mean? Like figuring out, well, the size of it, where it is. I mean, we definitely have to figure out how to get in and where to go. And we should probably do that at night. Yeah, we should do that at night. Because there's valuable intel at night, too. Who's sleeping where, and how many guards are posted, and what are their patrols. Farazza can fly up there right now.
Starting point is 00:54:50 True. Yeah. And report back. I mean, that was the dragon's advice. Yeah, I mean, and Lork can also be, I mean, he's all but invisible, stealth-wise, to giants. I mean, you're still rolling, Joe. So, he's going to fail. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:04 Terribly. It's pretty high. It's pretty high. It's pretty high. Oh, damn. I have the spell tree shave. Remember Uyghur used that to hide from us? I was hoping I could turn us all into cops of trees, but I can only do it. It ranges personal, so I can only do myself.
Starting point is 00:55:17 I can just set myself up as a tree at night and just sit in their camp Just in town square? Yeah, for eight hours. Where'd that tree come from? It's getting later in the night. Do you want to you know that you've got a few hour journey to get to the top. Do you want to sleep
Starting point is 00:55:34 it off and assess in the morning? What do we think? I mean, I would have to rest the next day if I go now. Well, I think we would my thinking is we rest overnight and the next day during that period someone scouts out the area and then we do whatever it is we plan on doing the next night tomorrow night yeah i mean and lork would and then you can rest also
Starting point is 00:56:01 you can rest eight hours during that period also. Yeah, that's fine. So I could use my last wild shape of the day, or my second to last. Head up there, see as much as I can, fly around for a couple hours, then fly back down. And Lork is definitely going to do light ranging at night, a few hundred feet or more from the camp. He only needs four hours. So he can definitely scope stuff out at night. And he's going to have the energy to do it. Sure.
Starting point is 00:56:28 He can't just sit there. Okay. So are you sleeping or are you doing some scouting? I'm going to go fly up. Okay. But then we're going to rest until the next night, so I'll come back and rest during the day. All right. Fly up and roll a perception check.
Starting point is 00:56:43 I'm assuming you have dark vision. Actually, do eagles have dark vision? No. You sure? I'm fairly confident. It's a magical... Turn into an owl. Yeah, animals, like, there's very few that do. I could do an owl.
Starting point is 00:56:58 Owls have low light vision. Yeah, I could do an owl. Well, I mean, it's a clear night. You said if it's clear, I mean... Oh, there's a moon. Yeah, yeah. Or starlight, I mean, it's a clear night. You said if it's clear, I mean... Oh, there's a moon. Yeah, yeah. Or starlight, I mean, it would be plenty. You just don't know what you're looking for.
Starting point is 00:57:10 But you can see what there is to see. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Here we go. 26. Eagles have dark vision. I'm an eagle.
Starting point is 00:57:20 I hate eagles. All right. What's with that? I hate the fucking eagles, man. Oh, wait. It's a summoned eagle. I don't know if that's different than a wild shaped eagle uh pies a little piezo i wild shape into a summoned eagle a summoned eagle all right so i'm kidding for 26 you are flying up there and how many hours do you spend so you
Starting point is 00:57:38 said it would take two hours to fly up to the city no it'll take three hours to walk up probably two or three hours to walk up from where you are but i mean you can fly up there but you've got to find where this camp is so i have eight hours okay there so that includes there and back time and so i was i think i spent the full amount of time just kind of circling pretending to hunt like as i'm observing when i eventually find it. Alright, 26. You see a what looks like some sort of patrol. There are two they look like trolls
Starting point is 00:58:13 with two wolves with them. And they're walking around. And in the distance, you can see what looks like lights and noise. And are they close enough that they might come upon our camping ground? No, no, no.
Starting point is 00:58:38 You've flown way up to the top of the mountain with your 26. You see what you think might be Skirgard. I fly in that direction. You fly over in that direction. And you're thinking to yourself, man, I wish I could see this during the day because there is a lot going on. There's a lot going on. You want to see it in daylight. And you can see the way that this mountain is, this plateau is shaped.
Starting point is 00:59:03 Sunlight is going to give you a lot more information. But with dark vision, you're going to get that black and white photo of it. Yeah, but the dark vision is still only 60 feet. It's light. There's got to be ambient. It's not pitch black. Sure, sure, sure. We're on top of a mountain.
Starting point is 00:59:14 But the details, the little details. Well, like, vision, like, how much, how much, all right, I don't want to get into the weeds on this, but how much detail do you think an owl hunting sees at night? That's their natural environment. Sure, sure, sure. I'm giving it to you. With dark vision, it's only 60 feet, so that's not going to help you at all.
Starting point is 00:59:31 But obviously with the moonlight and whatnot, you're going to see some things, but they're not – this is a very spread out camp. So there's a lot of – there's some things you're going to see. You're going to see on one part of the camp tents everywhere. There's a lot of light there, and you see innumerable giants on, like, multiple levels. This camp is like, it goes up and down. There's paths that lead up. It's all different levels. There's a lot of light emanating from that, like, double-leveled camp.
Starting point is 01:00:00 There are buildings spread out throughout the area, There are buildings spread out throughout the area, and there looks to be maybe half a dozen buildings with the lights on inside. You can see people, I say people, giants milling about near cave entrances. There's a lot more going on that's going to need closer inspection in daylight. Okay. So if that's the conclusion I reach, I would say I'd probably cut it short. Yeah. Like once I get some rest.
Starting point is 01:00:36 Once I know where it is. Is there a definitive guard patrol or is the only guard patrol the trolls and wolves? It's my idea that like with that 26, she was scanning about and saw this patrol, and then followed the patrol backwards and found the camp. And so she's just flying over the camp, looking at all this stuff. So they were heading back to camp? Yes, heading back to camp.
Starting point is 01:00:57 What's the CR of the trolls? Oh, you almost got me! But Matthew, the most important thing is the sheer scope of this place. Yeah. While it's contained on this plateau. It's still a city. Yeah, it's like a little city, a little winter village.
Starting point is 01:01:15 It's got to be huge. Is it larger than the culmination of the cathedral and surrounding camps of Minderhall's Valley? It's more spread out than that, but no, I wouldn't say it's larger at all. No, I'd say it probably fits into... You know when you skulk down to go to the Dark Passage, there was that camp with all the giant families? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:01:36 It's probably about the size of that, maybe a little bit larger. Okay. But it's denser. It's denser, yeah. Man. Okay. You can't just make a run for it in denser. It's denser, yeah. Man. You can't just make a run for it in one night. One does not simply walk into ScareGuard.
Starting point is 01:01:53 One does not simply walk into ScareGuard. I mean, it's just pretty clear. There are giants everywhere. Everywhere. And you know, you knew this, you know that these are the best of the best, allegedly. You fly back down to camp, try and get some rest. You guys wake up the next day.
Starting point is 01:02:10 What do you want to do? Lurk wants to range. Do some ranging. Try again in the daylight. Try again in the daylight. He also wants to look for natural animal tracks or anything, like things that are dangerous regular predators. Wild game. Yeah, not just giants, but also, yeah, I don't know what like, what we're doing for food and stuff like that, you know?
Starting point is 01:02:27 Right. Do we need to hunt? I'm assuming he picked up some rations. Right. But either way, I think he wants to make sure that there aren't natural predators that are kind of sniffing us out or walking around that could make for a dangerous encounter. Rural survival check? 39. 39. Another. 39.
Starting point is 01:02:46 Another natural 20. All right. So a couple of things with that 39. You see that as you continue up ahead, you're going to have to make some decisions on where to go. But there are tracks you can follow, and you would assume that these tracks are either coming and going from Skirgard. In terms of wild animals that are around the camp, you think that the wild animals are at the base of the camp and that they're going down there to hunt and then bring the—not the base of the camp, base of the mountain. So they're going down there to get these animals and then bringing them back up to eat. To their lairs and stuff.
Starting point is 01:03:14 They probably use the furs and whatever. But you don't feel in danger, per se, from wild prey on these trails. Okay, good. They've scraped them clean. Yeah. Are there any mountain goats or doll sheep? No, there's nothing. They have yamas.
Starting point is 01:03:31 If there's anything living out there, they've taken it. It's dead. They've eaten it. So, Ferraza will go again as a different bird of prey so as not to attract attention to anyone who might be bird watching. Ah, what kind of bird?
Starting point is 01:03:46 A kestrel. This is the headquarters of the Audubon Society. A kestrel probably is going to attract some attention. But yeah, I'll go as a kestrel. No, I'll go as a hawk. A toucan. Look at me. That's really out of season.
Starting point is 01:04:00 Here goes a puffin. A hornbill. You go up there. There goes a porg. Feyraza. And you remember exactly how to get up there, because it was tricky flying around trying to find this out, but you remember how to get up there, and it's going to help Lork and Co. track their way up the mountain as well and hopefully avoid danger.
Starting point is 01:04:20 And now you see the entire camp, and you come back down and relay this information to them and this is what you see. Take one and pass it around. Oh, wow. Welcome to Skirgard. Oh my God.
Starting point is 01:04:38 It looks like a super fancy Christmas card. It is like a Christmas village. There's Christmas trees and dickens skier guard merry christmas from skier guard oh wow the detail is amazing really cool look at that is that a blue dragon in this picture yeah that just gives you a sense of perspective that blue dragon flying in the distance wow um so if you look at the bottom of the map and i'll put this up on the uh on the website i was gonna say the tumblr put that on the website bro at the bottom of the map do you see there's a little guy on horseback the first thing i looked
Starting point is 01:05:17 at no i think he's riding a mammoth i think that's what he's yeah oh you're correct he's riding a mammoth and they're little tiny people walking behind him. Oh, my God. The thing that concerns me is the mining situation they have in the center. Yeah, there's a pit mine in the middle of camp. Is this in the book? Is this actual Paizo artwork? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:38 I've never seen artwork that looks like this. This is from the map folio. That's crazy. It's amazing. The detail is so incredible. This might be my favorite piece of art, like map-wise that I've ever seen. I mean, the people are the size
Starting point is 01:05:52 of dust motes, but you can still see them. Look in the very center. Is that people working? Is that what that is? Yeah. Oh, wait, in the very center? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot going on. And there's there's a lot going on and there's there's some kind of statue yeah on the upper and upper corner frost yeah i see with a
Starting point is 01:06:12 big axe held up in the air and with like stare like on a on a on a column you see that stone with stairs steps leading so look there's watch towers all over the place have you seen i mean it's it's literally a bird's eye view. It's the exact view. This is exactly what Farazza saw. So I'm assuming she has to fight the blue dragon. Roll for initiative. But you see now Pembroke and Skit,
Starting point is 01:06:34 like why she could see all the stuff going on at the camps, but everything else is so spread out. She didn't see the full scope of this. Yeah. She might have seen some acolytes near that statue, but for the most part, look at all these cave entrances to the left between the two camps. I wonder if they're connected. Cave entrances
Starting point is 01:06:50 in the middle. There's some kind of temple on the upper left. Looks like a temple. Looks like some sort of temple. There's a great hall next to it. Yep, there's a long hall to the right of that. It looks like a mammoth farm. There's a mammoth farm. There is a... do you see the stairs
Starting point is 01:07:06 leading up to a door that is in the mountain itself? Where? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. There is a lot going on. There's a whole bunch of giants in ranks
Starting point is 01:07:18 shooting bows and arrows at targets. Yep. Doing target practice in ranks. Oh, my God. Wow. This target practice in ranks. Oh my God. Wow. This is so cool.
Starting point is 01:07:26 And then look at the little ice skating rink. That is horrible. It's right there. It looks like they're doing ice fishing or something. There's a little boathouse on a tiny lake.
Starting point is 01:07:35 Right. And the ramp is built out on the lake. Little dock. I have never been more jealous of an adventure than I am for what you guys are in for.
Starting point is 01:07:44 And I feel pretty confident the four of you have never played an adventure like we're going to play in book four. And it all starts next week. Get excited. Fuck you. Try it. Damn it, I made a nice bet. Fuck you, buddy.
Starting point is 01:08:01 I want to play now. The Glass Cannon Podcast is a Glass Cannon Network production and is an officially licensed partner of Paizo Incorporated. Giant Slayer is copyright 2015. Giant Slayer and the Pathfinder Adventure Path are trademarks of Paizo. All Pathfinder images are property of Paizo and are used with permission. you

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