The Glass Cannon Podcast - Giantslayer Episode 141 - Climbs and Misdemeanors
Episode Date: February 6, 2018Having 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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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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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,
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
To initiative
Perception
Survival
Stealth
While he's in that terrain
Cool
What was the new terrain
You picked?
I went with underground
Ah
What does that cover?
I think it covers
Anything that's under
The ground
I see
Okay
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
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.
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
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,
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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,
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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...
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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,
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.
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.
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,
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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And all of a sudden, that distance away from nothingness in the air,
an enormous red dragon.
What?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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?
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.
Inquisitor.
That's Inquisitor, baby.
Damn, girl.
Damn, girl.
Damn, girl.
Damn, Gina.
Damn, Daniel.
27.
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
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.
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
come seeking a fight.
I come
seeking allies.
Let me ask you.
What do you know
of this
Volstas?
I'm sure we know
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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
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,
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
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.
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...
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?
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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?
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.
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,
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
once again for your assistance
oh most mighty
and sovereign
of great worms.
Know this,
old man.
I sense great arcane power
within you.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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,
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
But you can see what there is to see.
Sure.
Yeah.
Okay.
Here we go.
26.
Eagles have dark vision.
I'm an eagle.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
I want to play now.
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