The Glass Cannon Podcast - Giantslayer Episode 323 - A Jimmer of Hope

Episode Date: April 12, 2022

The heroes come upon an old ally while exploring the final rooms of Ironcloud Keep. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.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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Price and participation may vary. Extras, taxes, and delivery additional. Expires April 8th. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role-playing game entertainment last week on the glass cannon podcast blood starts to drip blood drop drop drop drop and then a steady stream of blood as the rain has washed over the dead bodies of Nestor and the Akorsh. As the party came to grips with the death of an ally.

Nestor, for all his ways, was invaluable when it came to felling giant creatures. I worry about our ability to stand up to them now. A tactical retreat seemed the only solution. Perhaps this fight is beyond our capabilities. It would be best to leave the castle now and mount a defense amongst the small folk. Gather our armies and prepare to meet Volstis for one final stand. But as they fought against hopelessness and pushed on... Ever since you woke up the castle, you're more aware of the movement of the castle.

It almost feels like it's flying. I don't want to use the word erratically because that sounds dramatic, but it does feel a little more like turbulence. A familiar voice beckoned from the depths of the castle. And you hear that sound again of a man moaning as if in pain. You see another fireplace. In front of the fireplace, a large web that stretches from floor to ceiling in an intricate pattern. The adventure continues.

Stuck, outstretched, the body is that of Jimmer Hardy. What's strange is that it appears both of his hands have been cut off. No. is that it appears both of his hands have been cut off. No. What's going on, everybody? It's your old pal, Troy LaValle. I have a couple pieces of very important information, and then we'll get you to the episode, one of the last episodes of this show.

I'm really aiming for 326. That means this is what? The final four. The final four have begun! But the first bit of information is after today, we're actually taking two weeks off before we come back with the final three episodes, because one of us got sick, and it screwed up the recording schedule, and so I don't want to record these remotely. They're too huge, too important to try to do that way, so unfortunately our schedule's thrown off.

We can't record until after we get back from our trip. And so we need to take two weeks off. And then we're coming back with the final three episodes of the Giant Slayer Adventure. So no episode on the 19th or the 26th of April. But then, boom, we're back on May 3rd with GCP 324. And then the 10th is 325. And it's looking like the finale is on May 17th, episode 326. So that's the first bit of information. Kind of sucks. I'm sorry, but people get sick. There's nothing we can do about it. We just hope that everybody gets better real fast.

Second bit of information, and then I'll take you to the episode, is the Glass Cannon Live Tour has eight dates on the books right now between today and the end of June. In fact, this week, we are coming to Milwaukee and St. Paul. Last time I checked, at the time of this recording of this intro, there was only 10 tickets left to St. Paul, so St. Paul might be completely sold out. However, that space in Milwaukee is huge, and we have a lot of tickets left. Last time I looked, there were only three VIP tickets left for Milwaukee. VIP in St. Paul has been sold out for weeks. Please come out to that show. Our Chicago friends, we keep saying we're not coming to Chicago this year. So come on out to Milwaukee. It's such a monumental episode, that Milwaukee show. You're going to want to see it live. And then in May, we're going to be in Portland on May 25th, and then in Seattle on May 27th.

That's the Doug Furr Lounge in Portland on the 25th, and the Triple Door in Seattle. And that's all happening during PaizoCon. So we're going to fly into Portland. We're going to hang out there, and then we're going to drive up, be at PaizoCon all weekend. We're going to be doing shows at PaizoCon, hosting the Glass Cannon Room. Hopefully PaizoCon tickets will go on sale soon. I know there's going to be a limited number because they're doing a smaller crowd this year. When you see those go on sale, buy them and come hang out.

We're going to be at that hotel just partying all weekend long. And then in June, we have four shows on Thursday. June 9th, we'll be in D.C. back at the Miracle Theater. I mean, we practically sold out, or maybe we did sell out, both of the shows that we did at the Miracle. It's always a wild show. Come on out to that. And then two days later, on Saturday, June 11th,

we'll be back at Newport Music Hall in Columbus. And that's during Origins. And we're trying to work out some shows at Origins as well, so make a whole weekend of it. Come on out to D.C., then come over to Columbus. It's going to be a fun time, and then two weeks later, we're coming to the West Coast again for a show on Wednesday, June 22nd in Los Angeles at the Terragram Ballroom, and then two days later, we're making our first ever stop to San Francisco at the Independent on Friday, June 24th. I cannot wait to get back to the West Coast. Any excuse to have that Mexican food,

sign me up. D.C. on the 9th of June, Columbus on the 11th of June, L.A. on the 22nd of June, and San Francisco on the 24th of June. And then, of course, in May, we got Portland and Seattle. And then this week, Milwaukee and St. Paul. Head to glasscannonnetwork.com slash tour to get links to where you need to buy the tickets. And sometimes you'll need to buy the VIGCP package on the website where the tickets are sold. Sometimes you'll need to buy them through us. It's all clear when you hit our website. And the reason we do that is we want to avoid making you pay crazy fees to these venues for the VIGCP package.

So glasscannonetwork.com slash tour. Get those tickets today. Come hang out with us on the road. After today, we will see you in three weeks for the final three episodes of the giant Slayer portion of the Glass Cannon podcast. of the giant slayer portion of the Glass Cannon podcast. It's weird to think that I will most likely never run another Pathfinder first edition adventure path again, unless it's finishing our Jade region campaign from, uh, seven years ago that we were so close to finishing before we had a podcast,

um, which would be off air. We would never do that on air, uh, cause we want to enjoy ourselves. Uh, or if I ran something for my children someday, I was like,

you know what? We're going to play through a little adventure called carrying crown crown you know i mean hey kids gather around i know you've been begging me to play some carrion crown so dad's gonna dust off his one e and uh and do it uh so it's there's a chance if we never play jade region again uh that i will never run any first edition content again that's very possible who knows maybe we'll come back to it uh well i think you got to give second edition a couple years and then you see you might be like i like first edition better yeah i meant to bring this up when we were talking about this last week because i was thinking about it in bed that day before we started recording i

just didn't want to interrupt anyone but like we would never think to like you know what let's play some dnd second edition you know you wouldn't do it you'd either play fifth edition or nothing i i don't see that happening though with that finder i feel like people i feel like you're making a jump people play all the time second edition i've literally asked to play it on this show yeah yeah but it's not like all right let's do it. 70 episode campaign of D&D 2nd Edition. You're talking about doing shows versus like people that are just playing the game. Yeah. People, I mean, it's a

whole resurgence, the classic games. What is it called? The old school games? Old school revival? Old school revival. Yeah, people love playing those games. I don't remember them well enough to be motivated. Sure, people play them, but I'm saying it's like, there's not podcasts with hundreds of episodes like this you know what i mean and we're not doing it but i think with pathfinder who knows what will happen in 20 years but i think people

will kind of still play both i don't know maybe not matthew what do you think i think you just opened up an amazing opportunity for a business venture go on you said there's no one else playing dnd second edition make a podcast out of it you want to do that i think you would you might realize you don't want to do it the game's better now i'm not saying i want to do 100 episodes yeah no i i listen i'd love to go back too and just see if there's any nostalgia or if I'd be like, this is an unplayable mess. You look at these early modules and it's just like room after room after room of nothing. And then you just have to be like, I'm going to throw a monster in here. You know, it's not.

It certainly was not built for show. No, certainly they were not built for show. I remember we were playing through a dungeon once from a module and the party, I was running it. My friend, my party, they opened the door and it was just like, all right, there's 10 orcs in there. Roll for initiative. And my friend Edith was just like, why are they there? I was like, huh? I don't know.

It never occurred to us. It's just like, it's just numbers, really just numbers on a sheet. You know, it's just, it was just how, it was a different game. Yeah. When we, before we started this and we played in our first game, Joe and I and Skid and Buddy McDermott, our GM like redid Tomb of Horrors and wedged it in as if it was a book of an adventure path. And so he played through that, but he connected it to the larger campaign and I'm sure changed a bunch of stuff around and rewrote it. And that felt right. But if you pick up

Tomb of Horrors and read it, it probably reads better than most old school modules, but it's still all over the place with no explanation. There'll be like a trap that you just kind of make up what the trap does or it just sends you to another dimension and that's the end of your life yeah eventually in like 1986 or 7 they started putting descriptive text boxes like in into the different like rooms and everything before that like you didn't even have that it was just it would just be just a basically just a dry like kind of the kind of laundry list of everything you see in that room yeah yeah that's it would be a map with like a through z and then you'd look at a and be two sentences this is a weapons room

it's empty right b this is a bathroom it's empty yeah most of the rooms were like that and then some would be like there is a plant creature in here right or there was now it's empty you see plant excrement in this room i think i i mean i think it would be cool to do like a six episode arc here we go rebuild a character like skid teaches us how to do it rebuild a character and we just and we and we say like well that would could have used some story yeah listen i'd love to do it just to see if it holds up at all and how it feels um it would be it would be interesting some at some point down the road maybe when we're all semi-retired when we have like major hollywood oscar-winning celebrities like will smith running these games instead of us and we just step out of the

shadows every once in a while at that point if we could do like i would do like against the giants yeah why don't we just do just do like a few episodes just do try running against the giants and first or second edition rules and see what happens it's a show it's a show waiting to happen but like all of our uh shows waiting to happen it's a matter of time but i mean my god you could we could always do like a let's it's called a let's try the old stuff that's the name of the show and it's just we build characters and we start doing an adventure play one or two sessions be like all right let's do another one yeah now let's try uh you know uh what's some other famous dnd modules escaping me right now uh expedition of the barrier piece yeah let's try that one oh

this is terrible too all right let's try this one dungeon of the mad mage isn't that another one uh yeah sounds right what's the one that's like under him off is it raven law oh ruins of under curse of straw ruins of under mountain that's what i'm thinking of has been is the new is a new has been redone yeah yeah ruins of under mountain i believe has technically speaking hundreds of kilometers of empty space to explore yeah you don't tell the players it's empty and it's literally hundreds of kilometers temple of elemental evil uh that would be fun keep on the borderlands keep it oh yeah yeah village of hamlet village of hamlet leading into temple of elemental evil yeah but again it's like i i'm i'm just saying people do

do this you're like you wouldn't do this like you kind of wrote it off but like i don't want to do it yeah it's like i agree with you i'm like they i think that they make improvements you know yeah you can have your debates all you want but i think that overall it's going to be a lot more work i'll tell you that much for the gm and players. Well, like second, first edition, there were no non combat skills. You just didn't have them. Yeah. It was a combat game.

It was a tactical call. Yeah. It was basically all like tactical combat. And then they kind of worked proficiencies into second edition, but it still was like nowhere near as robust as what we have. I will still remember the day you came over to my apartment, Joe, to help me build the Pathfinder character, build what would end up being Ron Powerhouse.

And you brought sheets. We were doing it all by hand because only Grant could afford Hero Lab at that time. And I didn't even know him. I remember when he said he had Hero Lab and I was like, he must make a million dollars a year. That's good. That's good buddy, Matt Coppola who got me on that i was like matt coppola must make a million dollars look at that librarian money he's sure surely he's rich you put down the character sheet and i was like what the hell are all these you're

like oh these are skills they have and i had never seen anything like that before i knew ac and to it damage gear but i didn't remember any of that stuff because they didn't have a whole host of skills yeah i mean there was so last week we did a level up and we had talked about feats and when i was out feet shopping there was one feat that i was like well not taking this but man this is cool and it's a perfect example of what wouldn't have existed before and exists now and it's like i forget what it's called it's smite opponent or whatever it is it's it is a you use a use of smite evil the person you're using against has to be evil but it's specifically designed for debate so it's like you have to be using it in a like a diplomacy situation and you get this massive charisma bonus to like

diplomacy or bluff or intimidate or whatever it is in a social encounter essentially to absolutely dominate someone verbally and that was the whole feed and i was like that's really cool but we're not doing any talking for the rest of this campaign so yeah i'll pass that one by but like that kind of shit didn't exist in the past yeah Yeah. I love those feats that are like you earn more gold during downtime from your profession. Right. Scholar. That always cracks me up. I'm always like, that's funny.

And I move on. I dance as much as I really want to. You're a particularly good cobbler. So you earn more money from making shoes between adventures. That's your feat that you take take that you get one of every seven months right yeah i don't know who knows maybe we'll play 2e and be like ah let's go back there's so many adventure but i remember the early days like i want to play them all i know and now it's like ah now we just write our own gotta get them all you know it is funny i was uh

mona eric mona on facebook the other day, he tweeted out the dragon magazine. When I think when he was editing, I saw this. Yeah. Yeah. He, they, they put out this in like 2004, they put out an, uh, an issue. It was like the 30 greatest dungeons and dragons modules of all time. And it's great. It's like one of the, I will just like go over that and over that.

It's just like one of those things that I can just thumb through. Just looking at the names of the modules. It brings you back, seeing all those. You will have to, excuse me, if I can ask this indelicate question. Please. Have you done the Christmas arithmetic to this yet? What? You know, it's been clearly documented you have 24 Christmases left before you're dead.

That's how many you... I have more Christmases left before you're dead. That's how many you... I have more Christmases than that. No, 24. We've done the math. It's taken like six or seven years to get through this one module. Now, we've had another one, or this one Adventure Path. We've had another one with Strange Aeons kind of going on concurrently, which feels kind of like the max. But what you got like, it's like 10% of a life.

That's what that is. Yeah, when you start thinking like, when are you going to retire? Or are you going to retire like we of a life that's what that is yeah when you start thinking like when are you going to retire or are you going to retire like we're going to retire from what we do i'm sure at some point we'll stop but like when and then at that point are you just are you going to play anymore like how's that going to work i don't know and right now are you like if you were to keep this pace like i think the max you could really squeeze in before you die is like five let's say i went till 65 doing this nonsense that seems like a reasonable thing uh that would be you know 20 to 22 more years uh at a seven year uh seven year that would be three more aps but glass cannon 2.0 when it drops is going to be

shorter uh than this it's you know much much shorter i just want to move more towards that kind of content but if we want to do published things you don't really have that option well yeah but you're also talking about one hour to slightly over an hour average per week like no game plays at that pace yeah pretty much no decent game anyway yeah i was here with these people like they finish it in a venture path book a month because they're playing a four-hour session every week and streamlining, you know, not doing it. Yeah, I mean, it's really not that strange for the average person, especially one with, like, kids and family that doesn't go out or do anything else besides work and hang out at home, like, to do one night a week. Yeah. You know, you play one night a week, three hours to four hours, and every single week, week yeah you'll cut years off of that pace yeah

and also the answer to the question what do you guys want to do often doesn't end in like a 90 minute role play like that's true that's a big difference yeah a lot of people don't go into a may you know made up debate about a museum or a dwarven city yeah the family that runs it in their inner work it's like it's just yeah but you know what i like the people who do yeah yeah it's my kind of game yeah it's funny something else we didn't do as kids that's true that's true i don't really remember all those things i remember very piecemeal yeah i remember a couple of things i remember really laughing about like they killed a couple of guards and they were just like, can we just pose them to make it look like they're still alive?

And then we role played like an incident of somebody coming to check on them. And like the guard is sitting there and it's just this head just started to tilt like slowly to the side. It's like I was talking. We laughed our asses off. But that was that's the extent of the role playing I can remember. What you got? I interviewed Josephine McAdam on Cannon Fighter, and she was talking about her father was running her through D&D

when she was six years old. Oh, that's awesome. That's when she started her. And she was talking about how much more in the old days the modules had puzzles. There were a lot more puzzles than there are now. And she was like, and that was so much fun. Like, fighting monsters was fun,

but we used to have so much fun with like, you walk into a room, a room in a tomb and there's three levers and you don't, you know, you pull one and you hear a sound somewhere in the distance. You pull another, you know, trying to figure out those puzzles.

And I remember that shit as a kid being really fun playing with my friends. Yeah. I think about this a lot with my children. Like I think I'll run them through unless they're not interested, run them through something, you know, I don't know what it's going to be like right now uh arch will

be like i'm playing dragons well sure uh we'll sit down with a blank piece of paper and it always i just i draw a road up to a castle and there's a door and i say what do you want to do and sometimes he'll listen sometimes he'll go in and then i just start making it up as i go but wait a minute wait a minute wait did you kind of hand hold him into listening at the door? Or he walks up and says, I want to listen at the door. Well, the first, first time we played, he said, I said, what do you want to do? He goes, I want to open the door. I say, well, do you want to make sure it's safe? Do you want to listen first?

You're setting him on a path of being that player at the table now. Well, now when he comes to a door, he's like, can I listen at the door? So he always knows to ask. But the other day I took him through this adventure. And it usually involves like one room, there's an encounter that has a key or a jewel and then another room has an encounter with the key or jewel you put those two together and it opens the door to the boss or whatever uh and then i just kind of make everything else up but then the other day we finished he goes all right dad my turn and he started running me through the

dungeon oh wow and he has no idea what he's doing but it was just really funny to see that was it a real shitty game it was i don't want to make him feel bad it was his first time first time dming but three years old he was like all right mangled a bunch of the rules do you want to listen at the door oh so you turn him into you oh yeah poor child you turn him to you pretty much yeah i just love i love the picture of your son going up to a grocery store automatic door and just listening for a while before he can walk in that's the lesson he takes away from it every door i know i know i think that i might given that i can mold these kids how i want to i think i might be like when you see a door just fucking open it just open it play matthew style i listen at many many doors yeah you do you do uh but you

also characters don't do that yeah i like those bold choices they make for good shows we lessen we listen less at live shows it's like let's just let's see what happens yeah let's just see what happens let her rip well that's i think another reason uh why tagging on to last week that we're excited about 1.5 it's like that energy is great it's going to make for a lot more risky situations i mean we just go and i mean i've got myself into some horrible situations it's because i'm just like i just want to just keep it moving keep it moving it's going to be so funny to see like carrying over like the energy from doing that adventure as we're doing it basically now and then that same adventure doing it then the next episode live in front of a crowd

yeah it's gonna be so strange and funny because the crowd the crowd can let they can fuel things into getting a little silly shall we yes for sure certain escapades with certain floor coverings shall we say i don't think that probably i mean we might have gone tiptoe in that direction we were here but we wouldn't have done that without the crowd right right yeah side quest side sesh though had that vibe you know yeah i was thinking about that the other day i forgot all about like how whenever johnny halfling would start singing the music would play and they would launch into that song with the special microphone like we did that every week at the beginning of the pandemic and that shit was hilarious johnny halfling was not at the beginning of the pandemic we went we went through two whole

yeah hey towards the beginning oh yeah i was thinking about johnny halfling and that yesterday i remember we're i think we had a conversation about backups at one point, and I was emailing Troy, and I was like, well, my backup was a bard, and now that's out. And Troy was like, yes, Johnny Halfling has ruined bards for all of us. Well, can you believe it? You are, as far as you know, and I'm purposely leaving that vague to either nag at you Well, can you believe it? You are, as far as you know,

and I'm purposely leaving that vague to either nag at you so you'll wonder, or, you know, to let you know that this very, very well be the last unexplored room of this castle. What's going on here? What's going on? Where is this fight going to happen? Right here, because the dragon can fly in. I know, I know. But I'm just saying, like, is it going to be...

Yeah, I just wonder if it's going to be outside the castle or on top of the castle or... Let's take it back one step. It's been a week. LaVallee, what did we see when we walked in here? We saw a Florida ceiling spider web. We saw a jimmer in the middle missing. What else did we see? Well, you know what?

Why don't we just go to the map? Oh, let's go. Okay. I'll show you what we see. Don't forget the big open space the dragon can fly through. No, no. It's webbed up. Wide open spaces.

That was me doing a breath weapon at last. I don't think a dragon can get through spider webs. I think we're pretty secure in here, Matthew. Oh, yeah. No. Check this out. There's your room. There it is uh i should say that the entire room uh that is it isn't shown here is covered in rubble uh that would be difficult

terrain if you were wondering the entire room is difficult terrain that heap in the middle um you know you'd have to climb to get to the top of it but you could also hide behind it and whatnot get cover if you needed it but But the whole room is difficult terrain. Whatever hit here, if it was during Volstice's assault or something else, like all that debris exploded inward on this room, and it hasn't been fixed since. Crazy, right? That this could be the last room that you explore. One thing's for certain, and this is what makes me happy,

is throughout this entire campaign, anyone could just pick up the book and read, like, oh, what happens here in this room? What happens here in this room? That's out the window for these final few eps. I don't think anyone will know. Did you think that one of the four of us would procure this book? No, I'm talking about listeners.

No, he's talking about what he's saying is he's homebrewing the end. In the real one, you fought Volstice. I wouldn't say homebrewing. I would just say adjusting. Changing. So yeah, you fought Volstice here. In the real module. Where is this

fight going to take place? Do you think we fought Volstice up there or in here? Up there. Up there? Okay. I think it's in here. You think this is like the secret place? In the original campaign, people would get stymied, being like, where is he?

And then they'd have to find the secret place, looking at the fireplace. There's a lot to think about. You know what we should do? For old time's sake, we should jump into the imagination sphere. Wow, I hope it starts up. We should hop in. It's been so long since I've... I can't find my keys. I actually don't know

where my keys are. They're right here. Oh, they're on your... Okay, great. We're gonna need to jump. Has anybody seen my keys to the imagination? Oh, here they are. Why did you put them on the outside of the GM screen? I don't know. I was looking looking for them earlier and i'm glad you found them uh all right let's see oh yeah she posed like a kitten joe give me uh give me something good give me something when you do this why don't you just say it in advance? Real good. And maybe some wind.

You got some wind? What does good mean? That is not a direction. Something that feels right. Something that feels right. You are so infuriated. Something that feels right. Something that just feels right.

There it is. Yeah, there it is. So, Gene. Is it? Is it? just feels right there it is so jane uh is it is it i want uh our our fans to get as excited when they hear the opening chords of jane as we do and they're not there yet they don't realize that means we're about to come out uh but i think by by once book three starts they're gonna oh yeah and we get so pumped i know we're backstage playing air guitar I think by once book three starts. Oh, yeah. Do, do, do, do. That means I got. And we get so pumped.

I know. We're backstage. So pumped. Playing air guitar, air drums, air flute. Matthew loves the air. Matthew does the air keys. Air keys. He's big on air keys.

He does love the air keys. Bum, bum, bum. And it's always like bi-level keyboard. Yeah. It's just multiple levels. Playing to the left and right. I'm playing like the piano keys up here the left right i'm playing i'm playing like the piano keys up here and then i'm playing like synthesizers over here uh speaking of synth

you wanted some synth for this you know what no it's not quite right you know what this is the album galactic trip from our stock music provider let her some wind over this maybe it'll work actually this isn't bad i kind of like the synth. Really? Just remember, you're going to need to change the music as the scene changes in the Imagination Copter. Like every six seconds? Yeah. So we need to just be on it.

Alright. I'll get you some wind, though. Let's get some wind. Okay. A little wind here. So, there she is. We're up in the copter looking down on our imaginary world that we've created together. And as we look down on this beautiful creation, we see an aerial view sweeping over the peaks of a mighty mountain range. Now, there are many who believe that Torag himself forged these mountains during the Age of Creation.

Whether that's a myth or not, those who believe those legends, his followers, the dwarves, long ago they came from beneath these mountains. When Earthfall shook all of Galarian, their tunnels collapsed and the quest for sky began. Making their way to the surface, the dwarves would fight not only the orcs that they displaced along the way, but each other. that they displaced along the way, but each other. The Sky Citadels were constructed, and nations were formed, each with their own king. Five nations, and five kings,

would soon be embroiled in civil war. The Five Kings War, that would give this mountain range that we're looking at its name, the Five Kings Mountains. It's like a John Carpenter movie. I love this. It really is. It's weird and cool.

It's like not expected. It is. Always. We're sweeping over these mountains. I'm so into this. Crack it up. I can see you getting so fired up. We're talking about the mountains.

Just fucking sweeping it over the mountains. Doom, doom, doom, doom. And we close in on one of these peaks where a solitary figure stands alone on a small ledge extending outward from a dark cave, like a tongue lolling out of a newly deceased mouth. We come in now from behind the figure, a figure clad all in black,

who stands alone on this cliff. We circle the figure to see that it's Brander. He slowly walks up to the edge of the landing and looks down below. Looks like he's looking for something or maybe someone. Satisfied, perhaps, with what he sees, he then looks up toward the heavens, closes his eyes, and disappears.

Somewhere else in the world, lying on the floor of a rocky chamber, lies a man on the brink of death. man on the brink of death. Lies a man on the brink of death. Even in his current weakened state, one can see the warrior that he truly is. Jimmer Hardy wakes with a stir out of a nightmare to a reality perhaps worse than his dream. His lifelong training has honed his senses to be alert even when asleep, and his eyes dart open from slumber because he knows he's no longer alone in this room. Sitting before him on what may have once been a small pew, is Brander. And he's just staring at you, creepily. Nobody likes to be stared at when they sleep.

He says, Hello there, Mr. Hardy. I'm sorry to say your traveling companion is no longer with us, but frankly, it's for the better. It was only a matter of time before his presence cursed yours as well. Now, you won't understand the irony in what I'm about to say, but I'm running out of time centuries of exploration trying to unravel

the threads of fate like a god have all led to now and I have one more thing in this world left to accomplish and he leans forward now I have one more thing in this world left to accomplish. And he leans forward now with his face in his hands, just studying Jimmer's face like it's a puzzle.

It's a face split in two that you're staring at, Jimmer, that of an ageless man and that of a deceased Kyle. He says you, I believe, are going to hold a rather auspicious role in my final journey. You are, for lack of a better phrase, an insurance policy. Then again, isn't that what you've always been, as a man servant? A great warrior who simply pledged his life to someone else to protect them, to protect their

family? Why someone of your power could have had glory, wealth, or in lieu of that, a family of one's own? A life of one's own? I chose the former. But you...

You were simply an insurance policy in the event someone came for your master or his son. But I won't let you die to protect one who is already gone. Now, I prefer to play to your strengths. For I am your master now. And he reaches down with both of his hands and lays them on Jimmer's head.

And Jimmer bites down, fighting against whatever is happening. Biting down so hard that maybe some of his teeth in the back start to crack. And then finally, hundreds of seconds pass where any other mortal would have broke. And he breaks and screams. And we just hear that scream in the darkness as everything goes to black. screams and we just hear that scream in the darkness as everything goes to black. We now see the hollowed out crater of a volcano. Several large chains extend from the bottom of the crater into the sky.

An ash-colored giant riding a giant scorpion barks orders at a gaggle of similar-looking giants below who are working at removing one of the chains that extend upward to the base of an enormous floating castle in the sky. Three of the chains are still taut, while two others dangle loosely, whipping in the wind. To the north, a lone tower stands atop a cliff above the crater. And at the top of the tower, a massive ballista and catapult sit, fused together into a terrifying siege engine. Sitting atop the weapon, one of the ash giants scans the sky through this strange scope attached to the machine, and the machine is just slowly spinning around with steam like whistling out of one side. As he's looking, you can tell that he sees something.

He pulls his eye back, and he yells to the other giant guards standing about, and he's pointing at the sky. The other giants look up and see nothing. The one on the siege engine yells for someone named Ulcroft and this horrible, diseased, ridden giant with various bombs and alchemical reagents attached to his belt walks over and he looks through the scope. and he looks through the scope. So imagine we see Olcraf's perspective first looking into the sky and seeing nothing and then looking through the scope and as he switches from the sky to the scope,

it reveals an enormous invisible red dragon flying into the crater, circling around and then making its way up in the direction of the castle. The ash giant that spotted it turns to Ulcroft and asks something like, should we fire at it? And Ulcroft just looks at the dragon through the magical scope and says, no, it must belong to Volstis.

And if it doesn't now, it will soon. And as he says that, he looks more carefully through the scope at the dragon like he sees something he didn't see at first. And in the claws of the dragon is what appears to be the lifeless body of a man. And just as the dragon flies into the cloud cover, Holcraft makes out one distinguishing feature on the man, an eye patch. And now we come back to this rubble strewn room where you have descended from, presumably Volstice's resting chamber,

into this dilapidated shithole. There is a web stretching from ceiling to floor in what used to be a fireplace, and Jimmer is stuck in it with his hands chopped off. What do you do? I think Metro's first impulse is to rush. She still has Fly on, but rush straight to Jimmer,

but I think she holds herself and wants to scope out the room. Can we roll Perception? Mm-hmm. 36. 27 for Lexington. So you're looking about, and you're like, this floor is treacherous. It's going to be tricky to get around quickly

but you can walk over it slowly in terms of seeing any creatures that may be invisible or on the ethereal plane you don't see anyone similar to that walkway that led to Volstice's chamber there is a hole but this hole is much larger with those webs, rain coming in, forming a little pool.

But other than that, nothing else is jumping out at you. I'm sorry, I must have missed this. Every single square of the entire room is difficult terrain. The room has been bombarded. Metro will rise about a foot off the ground and will fly directly to Jimmer. Yeah, and Sir Will will say, Jimmer!

Lexington! And he'll kick Lexington into action and we'll move as quickly as we can over difficult terrain. So standing behind Lexington, you just boot him? Why do you kick your... Just dig my razor blade spurs into his flank, drawing

blood. He yelps in pain. I thought you were standing behind him. I laugh in glee. I laugh in glee. I thought you were standing behind him and just booted him. Get up there, you foolish wolf! You're trying to pick up the field goal.

What the hell just happened I thought Nestor was the monster alright you get over there put yourselves on the map over there where you are Jimmer and he's like literally yelling at you not sure if he's unconscious

or not yeah when I get there when I get there he'll's unconscious? When I get there. He'll check. Is he conscious? He is conscious. Oh, he was moaning, right? Wasn't that the... You realize now this must have been the source of the moan. Perhaps your limited wish to untrap that cabinet,

that lightning that crackled, may have been enough to wake him from his slumber. I'll use a wand of cure light wounds to just give him a little juice. Jimmer, Jimmer, speak to me. And his breathing is ragged. He's kind of hanging there with these bloodied stumps where his hands once were and sort of barely aware of his surroundings so then maybe you want them yeah they actually do need healing so uh he's up and he just looks he I've been treated very, very badly.

Hey. Hey, I know you. And you, points at Will. Timmer, yes. And I'm there. Beren. Beren. Beren. Would you mind getting me down from this, please?

Metro will go to work sawing the... His feet off. Yeah. Well, we like symmetry. Sir Will will dismount Lexington and immediately start laying on hands on Jimmer to heal him for as much as possible. To expend all your use as Lay on Hands for the day.

Just enough for him to tell us what happened and then we'll kill him. How did you get here? Slap! Everyone is rushing to use their expendables. I do have some scrolls for stuff like this I'd love to hop in on. Well, just take away three uses of Lay on Hands.

It's a role-playing game. You can do whatever you want. No, no, no. Also, a scroll is an expendable uses of Lay on Hands It's a role-playing game, man, you can do whatever you want No, no, no Also, a scroll is an expendable A Lay on Hands No, I know, but it's difficult to use a scroll in the heat of battle Because you have to pull it out So I'm just trying to use the scrolls and help you save yourself Okay

I'm trying to criticize that All right, well, I'm still just role-playing wise I take one of Baron's potions and I force-feed it down Jim's chest Caught a riser wound with this gun and I force feed it down Jim's chest. Caught a riser wound with this gun. I fire off the gun six times to get the barrel. Mark those six bullets, Grant. Somehow turned into using my expendable.

All right, first two, 24 points of healing, just on the first touch. Oh, yeah, and then you get get oh, seven from the wand. Okay, I'm basically good. Great. Basically good, Skid, or good? Well, we haven't rolled hit points yet, so. Oh! Oh!

Oh, that's a lot of rolls. Wait, what level were you when you pieced out? Thirteen? Thirteen. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. And I thought about having you come back at 13th, but then I thought, that's stupid. And it would ruin.

And it's not fun. So you're back at 17th, and I think it's fair to say you've gone through hell. So while you have not defeated monsters to gain the XP, with only a handful of episodes left, you have gone through enough hell to reach 17th level. You also have no hands. The fact that you even survived means you're 17th level. That's how it works. Read a book once in a while.

Could you use low level suffering to get just just a few points of XP here and there? Like if I turn on a movie I really hate, 10 XP, your next play will be that much better. You joke, but I can remember playing second edition, and they'd be like, oh, good, give yourself 5 XP. I'd be like, all right, I'm never going to level up. That's good. You level up Yeah That's good Like you level up

At 8,000 That's exactly how I felt During my first summer job Oh Five dollars an hour Oh I'll never buy that car That I want

Now it's more than doubled Both the car And the And the middleman Yeah It all worked out Um Yeah so what Get him down Out of this web What happened and the middleman. It all worked out.

Get him down out of this web. What happened? How did you get here? Will is like both grief stricken at seeing how Jimmer is suffering but also so excited to see him. Metro was searching for him in every room of the castle. Not the castle, the volcano.

The volcano, yeah. Yeah, he wouldn't let go. You guys bullied me out of it. Look, I could have saved him his hands. The ended up being a trial by combat against Skirkotla and the Dullahan. And this is the grimmest form of symmetry, and Baranj is... He's having PTSD looking at them taking down Jimmer because of finding Lork without his feet earlier. It's just awful. This has to hit you more than anyone. Was Sir Will there when we found Lork? I guess so, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So it hits both of you. Yeah. What happened? Oh, Will. I don't know. I don't know. And he's just looking at where his hands were.

And you can see there's this, like, streaked grime on his face. He's probably just, like, wearing, just wearing a loincloth or something. It looks like he's aged 20 years. And it looks like his muscle has kind of been burned away from inside. Just from rage and misuse and malnutrition and everything else. He just looks much leaner. And he's like, I can't, I don't know how to tell you about what happened to me. I just wish I could help now.

Look at me. Just a damn burden. No, Jim. No. Not at all. You can help. You've come at the most opportune time. It feels like the divine will. It feels as if we have been saved. I know it.

I know it. Your strength can be used. First, we must get you to stand. Stand on your own two feet. Is there any armor? Is he wearing armor? Is he, like, completely... He's just in a loincloth.

Give me a perception check. Lexington gets a 29. 24. It's your new favorite bit. I'm just saying. Well, all right. Sir Will got a 21. Lexington's sniffing around.

He's sniffing at Jimmer. Obviously smells death on him. But then his nose picks up another scent over in the direction of this pile of rubble. And you see him nosing at something underneath and his teeth grab on like a bag of something. He's pulling at a bag that's buried in the rubble. What is it, boy?

What is it? And we'll pull out the bag and open it up. And all of Jimmer's gear is in there. Convenient. Nice. Here, let's get you armored up. This castle is incredibly dangerous. Oh, come on.

Metro will help him don his armor. No. I can't. Don't waste it. This is good. Take what I have if you can use it this is good take what I have if you can use it yourselves but what can I do what can I do

look at me Sheriff all I got in me all I got in me all I got left is rage and no way to implement it

I can't I can't do this to you. It's a miracle I'm alive, I admit. But I'll do you no good. There, take it. Take what you can. He's nodding at his equipment. Will just locks eyes with Baron. Sheriff. It is... Divine Providence. Baron. Sheriff, it is

divine providence. It is, but... And he tries to whisper this outside of Jimmer's ears. He pulls it in Sir Will Close. We must teach him to hope again, to remind him that it's not just rage that kept him alive in that web.

But it's a hope of being able to prevail over evil. It can't just be rage attached to that arm, Will. It's gotta be something more. You can waken that in him. Speak with him. I don't know, Sheriff. I wish Adriel were here. He could do it.

He did it in me. It reminded me of all that was to come. And all that I was wasting and thinking about things the way I was. Seems to me all he did was remind you of what you had inside. He's got it in him, too. Now get to it. His eyes raise at Jimmer. He walks up.

Jimmer Hardy. Jimmer Hardy. I was once locked and alone in a dungeon in my own home. And you can see he's starting to get emotional.

In a place that should have been the safest place for me. Anywhere. My own family turned on me. That cursed brander had turned us against each other. And as I lay there, chained to a wall, malnourished, with no strength left, I knew I didn't just believe. I knew that it was over.

That my life could be of no more good to anyone. And then... And a tear starts coming down his face. I saw your face come out of the darkness. It is time I returned the favor. He reaches back into his bag. He pulls out Nargrim's steel hand. And he says, You have fight left in you yet, Jimmer.

And we're in sore need of it. I'll have no more of this dawdling. You can use this to wield a weapon larger than anything you could possibly imagine. Focus that rage and put it to use against our enemies. Help us. Help us save all of Avistan. He's so tiny, and he's holding it up to you, this hand. He almost needs two hands just to hold up the one hand. holding it up to you this hand he almost needs two hands just to hold up the one hand yeah i think jimmer sees this and this is a this is a wrathful object like this is something that's

fueled by like that's part of the magic that infuses it is, is wrath, you know? So I think he, he sees, he sees this, this commonality, like he sees himself in the hand and it's like almost trance. Like he like lifts up his right arm and the stub of his wrist towards the hand into the wrist. And it fuses. The shockwave blows Sir Will back ten feet.

He goes skidding across the floor. Liquid Terminator T-2000 metal just like fuses and it like it hurts it burns like he just like he like drops to his knees and he's just like nestor had done just hours ago he uh he reacts he sees the hand he starts like tentatively making a fist squeezing his fingers together splaying them out it's like oh yeah yeah that'll dora reaches into the bag of gear and finds Terminus Est. And presents it to him. Perhaps your fingers remember their own strength better. They held your sword.

He takes it by the hilt gingerly. He lifts it up, looks at the long blade. I never thought I'd be able to do this again. Now, they'll be sorry that I can't. Just does a couple of twirls with it. It probably feels lighter than it's ever felt. It probably feels like a dagger.

Yeah, this is like... Your bat speed has increased. Yeah, it's like he's got a quartz bat he's like sammy sauce he's like and you're like look a sec give me my armor oh man i'm so pumped oh this is amazing i just forgot that he also is going to get a plus two to strength. Like if anybody really dimmer. What's your strength now? My strength.

My strength with everything. It's going to be 26. Roughly the strength of a rhinoceros. Yeah, roughly. I think that's about right. I think a rhinoceros yeah roughly i think that's about right i think a rhinoceros is 27 so oh my god last week i was watching you guys debate the hand and i thought you were going to take it uh will or maybe baron and uh you know skit and i had talked about this but i didn't want to deter you guys from doing it so i'm so glad that it worked out yeah we actually

i mean it was a bulk of the time after the last week. It was like we were just talking about, like, well, what if we took the hand? Like, you didn't say anything, and you said you had other plans in mind and all. Like, we're going to bob and weave with whatever we did. Last week was a perfect example of, like, I'd tell you guys nothing. Like, you going upstairs and down and all around and then doing that with the hand, just trying to beep up and scab with what you came up with i'm just so happy that it worked out this way um grant was like i'm so glad you didn't take the hand i was like i was honestly just like kind

of mechanically i was like there's no point you know what i mean i was like i started thinking like nester i was like well he just carried it around until he found the right weapon so i'll just carry it around until i find the right weapon yeah it's amazing jimmy let's roll some hit points here buddy and then i want to hear about the 17th level jimmer i'm terrified uh what is your hit die uh d10 okay uh you want to roll 14 15 16 17 uh no sorry i think i was actually 14 when i was. You were? Okay. So even less. Make yourself 18. No, I'm kidding. All right. So this is for level 15.

Level 15. Seven. Ten. Oh! Shiver! Yes! Phenomenal. I remember that when the two comes up.

I know. It's funny. I was looking back over this, and I've gotten so many tens. I've gotten like, I think, eight tens. Eight tens? Oh, my gosh. It's like, it's one, two like, I think, eight 10s. Eight 10s? Oh my gosh. It's like, it's one, two, three, four, five, six. Well, six.

Your hit points are as maxed out as my monsters. All right, let's roll for level 16. Because Nestor was comparatively squishy, right? Yeah, Nestor did very badly with those. Seven again. Six. Okay. So you get that.

That's great. I'll take it. And then the final one. Final one. For level 17. The final one of Jimmer's life Okay Five Six

The final one of the campaign The final We'll see I mean you've got so many added things You want to give me a little Kind of play by play of some exciting things since last we saw you yeah there's a lot here so he's a weapon um weapon weapons weapon master so he's got some advanced weapons training um so yeah there's a lot here sorry so uh one thing is that he has is he so he's i basically

sort of focused him on on critic because right he And I took Critical Mastery so that I can, the critical effects I can do, I can inflict two of them with one crit. Oh, my gosh. So there was bleed and, like, what else? Yeah, I already had Bleeding Critical, so I've also taken Blinding Critical. Oh, my gosh. I've had that on a couple of bad guys and staggering critical oh my oh uh the course has blinding critical yeah um you passed

the save on that i think oh no yeah you did i did yeah we were just talking about this beforehand about strategy for high level pathfinder and joe said somebody who i know he recorded me you're like the best thing you do is maximize your full round attack actions and minimize the enemy's full round attack action right so staggering critical is so huge in the late game oh yeah that's i mean that's that's huge and so i figure like what i can do is i if i crit like early i can do like blinding and bleeding or or blinding and staggering and then i can switch out like if i you know i'm on a boss or whatever like i can do two other i can do bleeding with stacks and then staggering and just keep them staggering oh my god that you know that's the dream so i remember you used to

like three times around yeah yeah that's pretty good yeah so and then i also have uh i have critical specialists at this level which the save dcs for my critical effects are four higher than they would be normally you know what all of a sudden nester kicks and the other thing that i get is focused weapon with my long sword so it's like the war priest sacred weapon class feature okay so yeah boost the damage die of my sword and at this level i can also i can make i can give other like magical attributes to my to my sword uh as i was a swift action as i'm wielding it so um nice yeah i can make it i actually only have one plus one worth of magic to to do with it but i can make it like flaming or you know whatever uh so so yeah that is

terrifying yeah the only problem is is that my AC is still pretty low. So, I am, even with my armor and the shield and everything at this level, I just, you know, I don't have good, like, ring of protection. I don't have, like, all that stuff. So, I'm still, I don't think, honestly, all things being as they are, it will last very long. Well, you can get stuff from Nestor, right? Like a cloak, at least.

Yeah, the cloak is a little bit better. And yeah, I don't really have anything for the AC at the moment. What a way to go, though. Yeah. Get a couple hits. Let me ask you this. How are you getting the shield on? Because obviously you have the steel hand, but you're still missing a left hand.

Well, I was thinking that we could rig something. So just like make the shield a part of his body. Just like strap the shield, secure it to his wrist. His forearm. Yeah, just like make sure it's secure to his forearm. Well, it's a heavy shield, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Generally speaking, a heavy shield is... Well... Yeah. You need to strap it to your forearm. Baron heat his gun up and meld it to your arm. If you really think this is it. Do you need full-blown wish to regenerate a limb? Or a limited wish? I think it's full-blown wish.

Probably. It doesn't say anything about limbs. I looked. Under limited wish. That's a good question. I mean, what spell would you use? Regenerate is what would... Well, I will say I'll allow this and it's pretty cool.

I don't think it's going to give him any mechanical problems. Okay. Yeah. I think it's cool. Just tie it on there or like really cinch it tight around what's left of your arm. Yeah, but make a little like hook or something so he can like hook into the strap with where his hand would arm. Yeah, make a little hook or something so he can hook into the strap where his hand would be.

Yeah, no, it regenerates too high. Seventh level, yeah. All right, well, how are you doing? Do you need more healing? Are you ready to fight? I feel pretty good now. I feel way better than just a few moments ago. It's like he's putting his, like, agile armor plate on.

And, you know, he's just like, ah! He's, like, tightening the straps, like, on his shield of the leather straps. Just, like, making sure it's there. It's like, boom, boom. And he's just, like, testing his, like, footwork. He's getting, it's just like, yeah, I'm all right. Yeah. It's good to see you again, Jimmer.

Yeah, you too. Yeah, I didn't, uh, I'm all right. Yeah. It's good to see you again, Jimmer. Yeah, you too. Yeah, I didn't think I would. Allow me to quickly catch you up on everything we discovered. And 37 to 45 minutes go by. And yeah, now he knows everything. Yeah. You kind of came in around the same time as dalgrith were those the two figures that were oh no that was metra and dalgrith in uh skier guard wasn't it

metra and jimmer walking toward dalgrith and baron oh that's what it was the two dwarfs that's right no because dalgrith and baron were venturing with pembroke and remember for a while dalgrith and pembroke yeah right i want to see this and jimmer and metro had just had uh escaped the battle for highbury right right the defeat at highbury that's right when the number of walking yeah we're saying like did jimmer ever meet will it's just like oh no they had that whole like off screen yeah he saved thing yeah he saved him it Yeah. He saved him. It was episode 200. 200, yeah. That's a long time ago. A long time ago.

So, I mean, I imagine the news of Dalgrit's passing. Oh, right. Is a bummer. So, how do you break that news to him, Maitre? Listen, Jimmer. Don't even think about it it Matthew hasn't even started Joe's just shaking my head

because I know he's gonna besmirch the memory of Dalgrith I just remember when Dalgrith died the death bringer how dare you just everyone shitting

on Dalgrith for five minutes and then Baron had to give like a very impassioned speech and Joe was just like thank you finally finally alright Matthew go ahead well not

to speak ill of the day here it comes but Dahlgrif made a series of poor tactical decisions not to put too fine a point on it but he acted very stupidly and now he's

laughing that is so horrible and then Metro busts out laughing no no we've lost many of us along the way not so many

as stupid as Dogger Jesus Christ I'm going to the restroom No no I kid I kid It's good that we can laugh And on her fourth riff What did she say Many we've lost many along the way

And Dogrith was Dogrith has fallen Hmm It's been too much death Doggerth has fallen. There's been too much death. Too much loss to bear. He was someone I had heard tell of his

of his deeds long before I met him. And he did not disappoint. We shall attempt to keep the legend going hereafter. But I hope we have not seen the end of death, because that will require some violence to get out of this alive. Oh, so he also, Jimmer definitely wants to know

if there's any news of Galabras. Galabras. Yes. Yes, there is. He's awoken. He is well, but not quite himself. He's, even now, I think, working against Brander and Volstis all at once, somewhere out there. Will is just like bright-eyed and excited.

I met him at a church in the country, far away. He was secretly moving, so as Brando could not follow his steps. Second of Ali. Second of Ali. That was it. It came to me. And he gets just, like, his eyes light up. Like when you say, he's alive.

He's well. He's moving again. He's talking again. And he just grills will for every detail about what what he what he saw of him yeah and i think he finally because that's really that's his only real motivator is to save galabras so now now now though like having been tortured and everything and being treated the way he's treated and kept in captivity now it's like he wants some justice for that but above anything he thinks now like like he did before that the way best to help galab is like we get as we talk through this

the best way to help galabras is to help you guys now yeah and so we'll just kind of doubles down on it and it's like he sent me like when he does this like detailed rabbit when you're grilling him with questions you know by the end of it you you just know that, like, Galabras was there as Will was, like, training to, like, find his way here and get better and get back and retraining his levels and everything. Like, Galabras was there. But at a certain point, we separated. We split ways. He, with Shael, and me with Adriel. He said that we would meet again,

but I was to go to the castle. So, he could be on his way here for all we know. And he gets real excited, and then he just looks sad after a moment. I can't,

I can't begin to comprehend the path that young man is on now. I just hope I can... I hope I can help him by helping you and taking down this monster. He's not a young man anymore. He has grown. Though it may not be so visible in his visage, he may appear young, youthful. But he has a power about him that is awesome. about him that is awesome.

He carries a... I can't even explain it, but I know that with him on our side, whatever work he's doing is going to bring us to victory as well. It's hard to imagine him

the way you describe him. But at least I know of nothing else, he'll do the right thing. Yes, yes, and I could see it in him, Jim, when I got to spend time with him. I could see you in him. The training, the discipline, the respect, the honor. I could see what you had done. he's putting it to good use now and his lip like he swallows like he's trying to hold back tears for a second all right good thank you now let's do our part baron's so pleased without smiling just just pleased that that hope re-entered

jimmer's eyes and that sir will sparked it in him and that he has something besides just rage driving him but he looks down at the steel hand on jimmer that's like still fusing probably the skin is irritated around it still that's red on the base and he just thinks it's a death sentence it's a death sentence either for Volstice everyone who's worn that hand

it's either going to kill the person that is the big bad evil guy or it's going to kill the person but that's Baron thinks to himself this grim calculus that only an adventure this long it could be which is it would be better for everyone to just die than to be trapped in a web without hands or to be trapped at the top of a castle without legs like it's in some ways that's freeing i don't know it's a weird thing to think about but it's things people in those situation probably do at some points or

maybe they block out of their mind altogether but it's better than being trapped and to feel helpless and defeated the only way you'll be defeated is by either achieving your mission or not but it's also i think there's this feedback loop happening between the hand and and jimmer right now just like the the rage and the impotence that he's felt for so long kind of bouncing off the the wrath the wrathful nature of the hand and like amplifying itself like as it goes back and forth you know so even that like changes him a little bit more and more i think too like, as he goes through this. Hmm. Narkom steelhands blood somehow maybe coursing through his veins.

What? Now. All right. Question about this room. Hmm. The staircase at the southwest. Hmm. That leads down?

That leads down, you would would assume to the room that was the throne room where you fought the fire giants and the staircase in the northwest is the one we came up um came down came down sorry um so what's right below this room

it's the room where you fought the fire giants with the throne but that was so long ago that was like when you first found that secret staircase you came up there was the room with the orcs uh the gathering of the orcs and uh then there was the room with the fire giants and then you remember you went through some floors that were non-existent you know you were making a longer thing you You now realize that was the rooms that had the cemented up fireplaces. Then you got to the attic where

you fought the spiders of Lang. So yeah, what do you think you want to do now? Just talk it out. I feel like we should pay some attention to this room, search it, detect jewels, detect magic. And then, oof. Are there spots in the castle?

We think we might have missed a whole hiding spot for both Volstis and Nalbia? Well, maybe, or maybe just they've not been in the part of the castle that we've been in. Like, we've seen every part of the castle, but maybe they just have been in the part of the castle that we've been in. Like, we've seen every part of the castle, but maybe they just have been in another part. Maybe they're moving around.

Yeah. I wonder if they're, like, in the engineering level right now. Yeah. Or in the throne room. Because remember, the thing got more violent? Like, the flying got more violent? Oh, yeah, true, yeah. I wonder if they're, like...

But Valsys can control the castle from his headband. Yeah. From his headband. Yeah. I wonder if they're like... But Volsys can control the castle from his headband. Yeah. From his headband. Yeah. I mean, allegedly we're being watched. Yeah. So we could request an audience. Mm-hmm.

That's true. That's a very interesting course of thinking and so i'm gonna use the my gloves of silence to whisper messages to you that you can whisper back if we are being observed in a way that they can see and hear us and maybe this will help us communicate without them hearing everything we say where's the best place to ask for a fight then? I don't think they would say no Metra, but Where? Somewhere enclosed where the dragon can get in Yes, but they won't agree to that, right?

Then somewhere big Or Somewhere where they have no choice but to face us If we go to the engine room And threaten to crash the castle They'll have to come fight us The bomb? The engine room or the bomb

I don't think we Or keep the bomb secret But we definitely don't have the ability to crash the castle So long as he has the headband That's what we discovered they know about the bomb they just they was there before they okay if they knew about the bomb why did they do nothing about it

shouldn't we learn that they decided it was just too risky to try to disable I don't remember learning that but am I wrong or am I did I make that up um I can look you know it was risky to try and disable it but yeah you don't know you don't want you know about the dead man switch right man so it's their purpose 299 the diadem can control the castle site but it's also connected to a dead man switch

uh renfall would use the orb we found to contact other giants throughout the castle. Yeah, remember that room with the crystal ball? You could use, like, you could make announcements. It was like a PA that would just go to all the giants. Well, that's another way we could talk to them. Yeah. As you're standing about, Jimmer, getting his strength back, trying to decide where the hell to go next,

replaying in your mind all the places you've visited since you entered Iron Cloud Keep. Nay, Zephyr Hall. You hear a sound from outside, like a low rumble of a voice. Does anyone speak Draconic? Yeah. Yeah, you do? Yeah, Will does. Know thy enemy.

And I say that without being sure. But I'll tell you what. It would make sense if you could, so go ahead. Yeah, I kind of remember you taking it, but I'm curious. Known languages, who speaks? I feel like I i got this i don't speak any i don't think do i not i guess i don't i thought i could oh nope yeah it's abyssal that he knows because of the world wound

demon tongues baron you're staring at like uh an sat question you're not sure about no draconic no draconic i'm just reading old notes from let me tell you this episode like 242 where we classic we found back we found a room that's decorated has candles maps and parchment plans of the giants to attack belkson and then enslave the orcs into the storm tyrants army in order to take last wall and other places i wrote down iron cloud keep question mark the dragons are dominated by volstice and take messages from ash peak to the iron cloud keep notes of a cloud giant named now boar ash giant named ulcroth ordered chains taiga named sir dasa and someone named Nalvia, now Boar,

and now we know all of it. Isn't that crazy? I love that. Killed a bunch of them. Ulkroth even showed up in that flashback. That's wild. As did the chains. Well, since no one speaks Draconic,

all you hear is this just like, I can't imagine what dragons sound like when they're speaking their own language. I wonder if it's Noxemara. But it comes in the direction of the open air space where the webbing is. And you see, flying through the webbing, in a way as if the webbing did not exist at all, just passing through it, permeating it, as if it's not even there, you see a red dragon fly. What? What is it, an illusion?

The webbing? The dragon flies through into the room and looks about, sees all of you, continues flying. As it does so, Sir Will, you realize

it's Noxymara it is Noxymara and Noxymara just looks at all of you oh no she's dominated as if as if she wasn't expecting you and her head just starts thrashing back

and forth and she's like no no no no, no. You fools. You shouldn't have come here. You shouldn't have come here until you finished your mission. Your gods saved you, little knight, but they did not serve you well to bring you here before your quest

was complete. Your oracle friend knew his place. He sacrificed himself to keep me safe from Volstice's

ever-vigilant eyes. As a descendant of Balgaroth, only my breath can destroy the orb and stop the storm tyrant's attempts to enslave my kind. The future of Dragon Kin. This must be done when the time is right

and no one can stand in my way. And she rears up to breath weapon you. What? Roll for initiative. Oh my God! What? Sacrifice.

What the fuck? So many problems I have with this. Roll for initiative! Roll for initiative! We're going long! We're going long! We're going long! Oh, there you go!

We're going long. We're going long. So gird your loins, cause we're going long. Oh, Nick. Going long. Going long. So get your lines, because we're going long. Baron, what did you get? 34 on the flex. Oh, yeah.

Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. Sir Willamette Keswick. Sir Will got an 18. 18 for Sir Will. Metra. 25. 25 for Metra in making his appearance, his reappearance to the podcast after a long hiatus.

Jim or Hardy, what'd you get? 25 also. 25 for Jim. Who's got the high vote? Natural 20 on the initiative roll, so I'm a plus 9 initiative. Okay, you don't have to brag like that. Heard Skid's feelings. Getting ready for a good time. I don't think Skid's feelings are going to be heard

as long as he can get off an attack with Terminus Essence. I'm excited. Nox and Mara is here. I don't think it's good feelings are going to be heard for as long as he can get off an attack with terminus essence. I'm excited. Noxie Mara is here. She says, you shouldn't have come here. You should have finished your mission. The gods may have saved you, little knight. But where were they when they told you to come here right now to run into her?

At least your oracle friend knew his place to sacrifice himself to ensure that Volstis could not dominate. When did this happen? Adriel and Sir Will were flying through the air and Noxemar appeared to be dominated in that moment Sir Will fell from the sky landed on the landing, Adriel fell you knew Adriel had the ability to

save himself but we haven't seen him since now Noxemar tells you why somehow, someway Adriel sacrificed himself to ensure that Noxemar would not be dominated. She then goes on to say, as a descendant of Balgaroth, only her breath can destroy the Oerp and stop the storm tyrant's attempts to enslave all dragons. So why is she coming after us? Because if you're here now where Volstice sees everything and sees you

talking, she has to appear to be your enemy. And in episode 281 we learned about which I wrote down as Belgaroth at the time. It was imprisoned by the Orb of Dragonkind.

Noxemara cannot come within 100 miles of the Storm Tyrant without being taken over, is what we learned in that episode. And remember, you, Sir Will, and Adriel buffed the shit out of Noxemara on the fly-in. Noxemara knew where the meteor holes were in the force field surrounding the castle. You flew through there and you thought everything was going to be fine

once she got within 100 yards or whatever it is. Volstis knew. Volstis cast the spell. And was she playing that she was being caught? Did she actually get caught? Did Adriel do something to save her? All you know is she does not appear to be dominated. But should she just start chatting with you

like an old friend, Volstis will know, and Noximar's chance to save her people could very well be gone. A lot of information here I'm throwing at you. And we gleaned that from what she said. Yes. That she, okay, okay.

So we run? Yeah. Get to me. Okay. Round one. that this is that she okay so we run yeah good to me okay round one it is baron's turn baron in that moment though you have not met adriel i don't know what your feelings are maybe you're excited maybe you're not excited but there's one last ash peak in the world as far as you know and now it appears you won't get to meet him yeah it's devastating uh baron has spent this adventure running away from family that he thought was his but wasn't and then beginning to develop the sense of a family he was able to choose with the people

of true now that have taken him on as this chief protector and he's met people like abria and and the other adventurers he's become brothers and sisters with along the way um and yeah it's hard because it seems like it was someone that could be both both blood and a chosen family member later someone that maybe if sir will is talking so highly of this person sir will's you know sign off on someone it's like how everyone i meet that's already skid's friend i already always like right away skid has like a good sign off like it's the same thing with sir will sir will's like a paladin and a good judge of character so it's it's brutal um the baron has been kind of like hiding that because he's been so mission

focused and he takes that all in and he stares down at the dragon across from him and as a part of a move action he will draw his weapon and point it at the dragon and maintain a threatening facade facade, but he is going to move 5, 10, 15, 20 directly in line with Metra, and he's going to fire at the wall behind the dragon. Twang! Ah, okay.

So you step back behind Sir Will, about 10 feet away from Jimmer, behind Sir Will and Metra, and you fire off a shot, clearly, just to do a show here, to see if Noxiamar maybe will pick up on it. It is Metra's turn. Metra will just grab everybody,

and I'm going to Dimension Doras out of here. So, as you attempt to do that roll a will save uh oh uh 25 as you attempt to cast dimension door

something happens where you are intending to something happens where you are intending to go one place which is where? Up a floor. Up a floor.

But instead, you are teleported elsewhere in the castle against your will. Is it a compulsion effect? Auras, baby. Is it something that's just futzing with the magic, or is it futzing with her mind? It's futzing with the magic. It's probably not a compulsion effect. Yeah, no.

Wow, I was not expecting this. Okay, so instead, you are teleported to a room that takes you a second to recognize because it's pitch dark. Some of you have dark vision, some of you don't. Maybe you get torches open, maybe you don't. But the four of you are standing in this room, and it smells like death. And you realize you're back in the Gug Pit. What? Whoa, what what in the volcano no the gug pit within this castle the stranger thing came out and attacked us and we had to tear open and they barricaded off and even the giants who lived here before we were just going to ignore it we were

just going to move around it and then yeah they, the giants had even cordoned it off. We talked to Renfall right outside of it. Right? No, the Gugs were what we thought were the demogorgons. Yeah, they're the stranger things. We went in. Oh, okay. Right.

Okay, sorry. So you end up there. In the darkness. Did you guys build a new wall on your way out? I can't remember. Yeah. I feel like we did. I think we did.

You walled it off. Oh, no. So you trapped yourself in this room. It's Jimmer's turn. Jimmer, this is not what you were expecting. It's not. What do you do? Jimmer.

Jimmer. Did you do this on purpose? This is not my intended destination. Where are we? We're in the gug pit. What the hell's a gug pit? It wasn't fun. It does smell fun.

I think all of us have darkvision of some kind. Yeah, we all have I do. Let me take you back to that old map. Okay. You're way over in the corner here. There's still bodies of gugs laying about. I'll delete those.

The pit that you made there is also gone. I don't see a wall. I don't think we put it there, but I distinctly remember you guys. I have a memory of it, yeah. So let's build it here so that people will think that they're still trapped in there. I mean, whatever. You're not going to hang out here for very long.

So I'm just curious what you do here as a round passes. Delay. Well, it's Jimmer's turn. Jimmer says to metra you know yeah did you mean to do this she says no i'm just i'm just gonna do a perception check uh 22 22 yeah you haven't been in this room uh All the windows are boarded up or covered over. It smells like wine and shit in here. And there's wreckage and splinters and shards of numerous destroyed wooden barrels and glass demijohns all over the floor. Like maybe this is a wine cellar that they just covered up and let the Gugs live here.

You also know that the Gugs were somehow in union with Linaratus. You also know that the Gugs were somehow In union with Linaratus Okay Jay I'm just going to hold Just like be on guard Okay it now goes to Sir Will Sir Will's going to say Jim no matter what happens

Stay close as long as possible My auras will guide you And he's going to reach out and touch Jimmer And he's going to cast Protection from Evil on Jimmer. Sweet. Just as kind of a reaction. Okay, Protection from Evil on Jimmer. It now goes to the top of round two, and it is Baron's turn.

Baron is going to cast Longshot on himself in preparation for anything that may happen. Although Invisibility also seems juicy long shot will last longer um and i mean i can't really i don't i'm not in combat right now so i'm not going to call down a judgment or anything because there's really no one to judge against it doesn't make sense baron is in this very uneasy state of feeling like he wants to fight but he's not ready to fight and feeling like things are out of his control after we ended up in a place that we were not intended to be which is something metra doesn't miss man metra is metra doesn't miss precise instruments you don't miss um yeah this is the last place that you want to be what do we what do we do now met? Do you think we should try again?

Should we try to move out ourselves? What's next? He's flabbergasted. Well, not only does Metro not miss, but Dimension Door doesn't miss either. That's the text that spells, You always arrive exactly at the spot desired. So can I roll Acknowledge Our Candidates, see what happened, what interfered with our travel? Yes.

Noximaru wouldn't have done this. Especially if Adriel had sacrificed himself. 24. There was some sort of teleport trap on that room that you have to pass a will save. Had you passed the will save, you wouldn't have teleported. You would have stayed right in that room,

but still used up an instance of Dimension Door. But when you fail the will save, you get sent wherever the trap sends you. Now, I had this happen earlier in the campaign. Say you were in the middle of a battle in this room or something, and you're down to your last hit points, and you get sent in with the Gugs.

Yeah. Now it's just inconvenient, especially because Noxie Mara, Baron was trying to set up this situation where maybe we could fake the Storm Tyrant. Look how angry we are at each other. And now you've been sent here. There's no reason to set up this situation where maybe we could fake the storm tyrant. Look how angry we are at each other. And now you've been sent here. There's no reason to think that this room has the same teleport trap.

So if anything, it just kind of throws you off in terms of what to do. So you're nauseated for one round? Yeah, you're physically nauseated. We throw up in the Gug room and then dimension door back. Add the nauseated condition. I mean, the worst part for you is that you lose that Dimension Door, but there are other weird ramifications that you don't know about yet. I mean, the effect that...

I think the effect we were going for with Noxemar was a cheat, which was that Baron shot to cover our retreat, and then we retreated. We didn't want to fight a dragon. Well, we didn't want to fight a dragon that said that only their breath was capable of destroying something. And, like, if they're right, like, we need to do the job that Noxemar said we need to do first. Just kill the Storm Tyrant? I think so. I wasn't there.

I didn't get directions from Noxemar. Well, I mean, I'm just taking it from that last encounter. You were there for that. So, like, that's what I'm kind of reacting to. And what Troyes said to us. So, wait, what are we talking about here? Where to go? Yeah.

I want to find and kill Volstis. That's what I want to do now. But the point of those last two rooms was that we'd been to everywhere we hadn't seen in this castle. What is the deal? I mean, we could go to the crystal ball and make an announcement. Like, don't send your dragons to do your dirty work. Come face us. Yeah. All right. crystal ball and make an announcement like don't send your dragons do your dirty work come come face us yeah all right what was your initial plan to go the room above the room above we could just

go back to the room above you figure with noxie mara's size she probably couldn't get up the stairs it would be would take her a second or may she may not pursue you because she just disappeared all right you want to go back up to the throne the uh the apartment Yeah. Yeah, the doorway leading into it, not near those stairs. Just go where you're meant to take us. All right, I'm going to do another knowledge or counter or spellcraft or detect magic to see if there's any kind of... You told me there wasn't, but I think Metro would do her due diligence to make sure we're not going to end up in some random square. Yeah, it's fine. I can tell you that you don't feel that presence in this room. All right, this should work.

Hold tight. Before you do that, Jimmer is going to, like, hold on. And he looks at his belt, the drinking horn at his side. Oh, yeah. He lifts it up, and he drinks deep from the horn of bottomless valor.

Grows to eight times his size. He says, all right, I'm ready. Oh, my God. Is he huge now? He's in large parts. He's eight times his weight. Yeah, eight times. So he's large?

Yeah, he's a large creature. Actually, why don't we take a round to buff? Yeah, because that'll take me two rounds. Sure. You guys got buffs? Yeah, I just don't know if we're actually going to fight anything. I don't either i'm just i'm rolling the dice yeah i mean i'd love to get a mirror image off i didn't mind doing protection from evil just because it's uh low level but i could also do it to metro too i just want to get a mirror mirror image off myself without having a great mirror

image who's next is it me or jimmer i is. Well, he just delayed and then went. This is a two full round action when I'm doing so. Oh. Okay. So we each get two rounds left before this takes control, so a lot of the things I want to cast are rounds, so they'll probably go away. Alright, so is it Sir Will's turn? Yeah, right now I'm just kind of doing a little free play

Here to see what kind of buffs you want to do before she teleports Free play Alright I'll do another protection from evil On Metra Okay Thank you And then you tell me what the next thing you want to do is Metra

I'm ready to teleport so Once Jimmer finishes growing So that's his second round He does then what do you want to do is metra i'm ready to teleport so once jimmer uh finishes so that's his second round he he does and what do you want to do baron with your second um i'll cast protection from evil on myself just so we all have it uh might as well be useful uh and in line i kind of i wanted to cast len judgment on Jimmer because Skid mentioned his low AC, but my Judgment is not active, so that feels wrong to me. Okay.

Sir Will's going to do another one if we can. He is going to... He's going to pull out a potion and drink it. Okay. Should I risk a high-level spell? It would be great to have particulate form, but that's only rounds. I was thinking the same thing about stone skin. Let's just get there and we can assess the situation.

I'm not going to do the potion. It's rounds per level. Okay. Great. All right. Ready? Let's do it. Okay.

We go back to the apartment. I put you on the map here in the positions you were relatively in when you were faced with Noximar. But now Jimmer is doubled, or at least on the map, doubled in size. So you are in Volsus's chamber, which used to be Azarth's chamber. You stand there. You listen below. Maybe you hear the sound of wings, the sound of talking to herself.

But you are alone in this room. Metro will turn to the walls. See? Volstice, so-called Storm Tyrant, stop sending your lackeys to do your dirty work. Come meet us yourself. We know you've been listening. We know you've been watching.

It has helped you not at all. We're waiting. You say that Aloud Wondering if perhaps Volstis Can hear you And you receive A response But the response is not

From Volstis It is from a voice Which is now Familiar to you. Oh, no. Oh, no. That flower. Oh, no.

Does she not know the blood of the dragon and the blood of the naga flow from the same source for centuries their ancestors have ruled the sky above as well as the land below Volstice knows their might and that is why he has chosen to dominate

their kind but your ally Noximara has chosen poorly to try and deceive him she is not worthy to fly beside a

Khazarith and a creature of her vast intelligence should have known that no simple ruse can fool the almighty Volstice. And you see, coming up around the stairs, invisible to everyone but you, blinking in and out of existence, Linaratus, and she stares right at you. You can hear her, the other three of you, but you can't see her.

And she says, and you fall. You can't see her. And she says, And you four, you may have left a trail of blood throughout this castle and a mountain of bodies throughout the armies of Volstis, but no more powerful armies

are being raised to serve him. Armies of creatures you cannot even imagine. Why, I alone could step into your humble city of true now and lay it to waste.

Imagine what thousands of my kind and even those more powerful than I could do. Creatures such as these are rushing to Volstice's banner as we speak. Do you not see? You cannot stop the inevitable.

Whether your allies be this soon-to-be-vanquished dragon or this one-eyed warrior whose true purpose has now been made clear. The crucidamen Daizelki tortured him within an inch of his life, took his hands to try and find out his place in all of this. His mind is as strong as his body to have withstood what we did to him. And yet now he stands ready to fight.

But I am done toying with all of you. Your weapons may have gotten you this far, but they will fail. Your magics are useless, and I have tethered your enemies to this plane to avoid your sorcerer's tricks.

Yet now, you think you can trick the future ruler of the world? Your time in this world ends here. All enemies of the storm tyrant Shall perish And we'll see you next week God damn it son of a bitch I think we should each get a speech next week too You get the right one You get a speech

You get a speech You get a speech Oh man I am gonna fuck this naga She threatened true now Oh, man. I am going to fuck this snog up. She threatened True Now. That was her last mistake. Don't mess with True Now.

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