Well, to get started, we’re going to do a quick recap of where we were at. Alright. So you had left Drowning Wallace, and you had begun traveling to go across the mountains. On your way, you came across a city besieged by giants. It was Melrose. They gave you a bit of a quest for them. In exchange for supplies to make it through the mountains, you had to kill a Cyclops. Accepting this, you went after the Cyclops up into the mountains. Fighting the Cyclops, you handily defeated it in an ambush. After killing the Cyclops, you are standing in the midst of gore as you have slain many giants of different kinds. Now it weighs heavily on your mind that Ipid has been seen in many prophecies. You’re preparing to journey deeper into the mountains as the leaves around you are beginning to turn from a bright green into a deeper yellow as winter prepares to set in. Now as you’re standing around the giants, what do you do? You have many of these corpses around you. Ibid would probably check in on everyone. It’s like, hey, how’s everyone doing? Is everyone okay? Because we had just finished fighting. Yeah, that went well. I’m fine, but we really should search for information if there is any. Yeah, well, I mean, those guys back at Melrose would probably have some information for us. We can let them know that this Cyclops that was leading these giants for these organized attacks are finally out of the way. I think they’ll really appreciate it. I agree, but what if there’s more information here among their bodies? What if they document it or there’s a clue to why all of this is happening? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that’s fair. Well, I guess the smartest one out of all of them would have been the Cyclops. So Ibid checks the Cyclops body for anything. Roll investigation. That’s a ten. You’re searching the Cyclops body. Ruffling through its many little pockets and pouches tucked around its belt, and you find a pendant about the size of your palm engraved with an unfamiliar symbol. Aldric and Starling, you see Ipid hold this amulet and then fall over. Ipid, your mind goes black as it’s filled with a vision of a mad laughing god. You recognize this voice. You’ve heard it before. You would sometimes hear it in the throes of battle, telling you to be more vicious, cut down without consideration, and fight feverishly. Oh, wow. Then as this voice gets louder and looms over you, it begins to clear away as you feel the presence of your god and you wake up back flat on the ground, your eyes searing. Okay. Should we help Ipid? So like I’m back up awake. I just had like a moment of like I’m awake now. Yeah, you’re awake. Okay. What did we see? We just saw him fall over. You just saw him ruffling through the pockets of this cyclops, hold up this engraved piece of metal, and then fall right over. Ipid, what’s going on? What happened? Ipid, in the panic of what he just saw, he shoots back up and with the thing still in his hand, he throws it a couple feet away from him and he like backs up while still on the ground. And you said my eyes were burning? Yes, your eyes were burning. I like touch my face. I’m like, oh my god, what the hell is that? Well, I.
What happened? I, um… What did you say? I saw something. I saw… I saw voice. I heard voices. I saw the image of a god. Was the image clear to me? Or was it just the voice that was clear to me? The image was of a large grinning face with blood dripping down from its eyes and out of its mouth. I saw the face of another being laughing at me. Its voice was familiar. I… Oh, gosh. Ipid frantically pulls out his holy symbol and holds it close to his chest while he pants. This is… You’ve never seen Ipid this startled before. This is the first time he’s been like this in front of you guys. Do you need water? Do you need something? Can we get you anything? I just need a minute. I don’t know what that was as he points to the item that he threw away from himself. Aldric will go stand near the item and take a look. What does he see? Aldric, as you walk over to the item, you just see a steel amulet engraved with runes and the symbol of a half moon dripping with blood. On the amulet. Yeah. Wait, Starling, does this mean anything to you? It’s the blood moon or moon with blood. Darling is just like staring at Ipid, like almost like she’s in a trance and she looks really pale, paler than usual, and she just realized that she misinterpreted her divination or her message from her god. She just has to like shake herself a little bit. And oh, oh, yeah. And I look at the crescent. Do I recognize it? You recognize this. Long ago, you had seen this being carried by a small sect that followed the god of combat. But this god did not specifically just want combat. It was the champion of ruthless and bloody warfare. It was an elder god, something ancient and half-forgotten. Making some notes really quick. This is the crest of an elder god, but this is not a common god to be worshipped. This is the god of ruthlessness and bloody warfare. Yeah. So his name escapes me. I can see why Ipid would maybe not like that. Now, Ipid, as you look up in the sky, you see a half moon. And you’re not sure if it’s a figment of your imagination or if it really is up there. But it looks like blood is slowly dripping from the bottom. Ipid, to himself, not really minding anybody’s business. He’s holding his holy symbol. He’s like, Bahamut, what is this? What is this? Help me, please. And he tries to reach a connection to Bahamut, his god. As you try to reach connection with Bahamut, you hear something echoing. And it just says, you know him better than I do. What do you mean? What does this mean? I… And Ipid, he, like, stands up finally, and he looks up at the half moon. And he says, is this… Is this some sort of punishment? Is this a lesson? Please speak to me. Ipid, as you’re looking at the moon, you see the corners of it curl up into a grin. The blood slowly spreads across the sky. And you hear a cackling in the back of your mind. Aldrich looks up. Does he see anything? Aldrich just sees a normal moon. Yeah. I guess, like, yeah, from your perspective, you guys just see Ipid standing up looking at the sky, shouting nonsense. And, like, and not talking to Bahamut, he says, what do you want from me? What is this? He speaks to whatever he’s looking at.
In the moon, the moon just smiles at you and says, You already give me what I want. You are one of my champions. You fight in blood and glory. No, I don’t. I’m more than that. I’m not just some ruthless warrior that you think I am. I don’t follow orders of those who are corrupt. I write my own path. You hear the god again. I do not give orders. I am a master of freedom. You choose your own path. Your own bloody path is your satisfaction to me. Your violence is your tribute. Whether done in the name of righteousness or evil, you do it for me. Ipid in anger, he grabs his spear, not knowing what he’s doing, and he just flings it as far as he can into the sky. I don’t know how the others would interpret this. You guys see him throw this spear into the sky. It goes further than it seems it should. See it go up and up, and it seems almost like it touches the moon. And you hear something shatter. Glass and blood comes raining down as you see a bird of crystal falling from the sky. Oh, oops. We all see? Or only Ipid. Do I see this? You all see the bird. You all see this crystal owl get hit by the spear and come crashing down. Ipid snaps out of his argument with the sky and sees something fall from it. And his attention points to that. I guess Uldrich’s just worried. He’s never seen Ipid like this on all the times. Aldric wants to identify the object, but I guess he’d be a little bit too concerned about whatever Ipid’s doing. So he’s kind of probably like wandering back and forth, not sure what to do. Sterling is going to try to take the talisman that he had tossed away and wrap it up in her pack-pack blanket just to keep it safe. As you pick up the talisman, you feel no magic in it. It seems to be a mundane object. A significant item of worship, but not one with any powers. Did you guys see that? Was that just me? Ipid says in a like trembly voice. Is that a bird? I don’t know what it was. I think I killed it. Ipid is nervous. He doesn’t even try to approach it. He just keeps his hands on himself. Does it look like it fell within a range we can go to? Yes. It’s a little ways ahead. You can go get it. Okay, Aldrich will slowly walk towards it. Speak! Look at this ass! In Scotland, we would say, What time do you call this? This is the time that I woke up. I knew it! I knew it! Yeah. What were you dreaming about that kept you so entrance? Oh, I don’t know. I just kind of conked out. It’s been a busy weekend. Well, glad you could make it. I am here. Yeah, better late than never. I’ll give you a brief recap of what happened. I posted the longer recap on my website. You can go find it there. But to summarize, they traveled, encountered some giants, killed some giants, made it to a city besieged by giants, went into the mountains and killed the Cyclops. And now Ipid is in the middle of a confrontation between himself and a god that claims to be part of him. Okay. I hate when that happens. I got the recap of all, but that last bit. I was reading the recap earlier today, and thank you for that. Yeah. I gotta grab a quick.
Bite to eat. I’m going to be right back. The bird lies in the path ahead of you. I think Aldric would be slowly walking towards it and kind of looking back at Ipid to see if Ipid’s following or Ipid is not following. Ipid is completely catatonic. So, yeah, Aldric’s just kind of confused as hell, obviously, and he’s going to slowly walk towards it. And I don’t know. Is it afternoon? What time of day is it? It’s still in the middle of the night. Okay. Did we ambush them at night? Yeah, I think we did. Yeah, so Aldric will cast light on his staff to get a little bit of light and start kind of waving it around as he approaches towards this thing. As you walk up, you see a large bird that looks like it was carved from quartz. It’s an owl. And it flows blood freely from its chest where it is pierced by Ipid’s spear. What a name. What a shot. And the spear is in it still. Spear is in it. It has a wingspan of about eight feet. God dang. Aldric will gingerly approach it. And I guess to detect magic, cast detect magic as a spell. Not ritual. As you cast this spell, you detect magic flowing through this. It is one of the magical familiars of the quartz giants that live in these mountains. Masters of animation and masters of summoning. These giants can be great friends or horrible foes. They’re known to be generally peaceful and allow people through as long as they pay a tribute. Sorry, so giants summon those things. Yes. And when you said peaceful and stuff, that was in reference to travelers or to in reference to giants. The giants are generally peaceful. Oh, I’m sorry, right. Oh, those type of giants that summon those things are generally peaceful giants. Yes. And something that’s notable about these giants is they do not eat plants or flesh. They only eat stone. Huh. Okay. Does the bird look like it’s dead, dying? It looks like it is dead. Ah. Uh, just Aldrich is going to try anyway. Well, can I get any kind of vibe about whether it’s can Aldric sense in any way if it’s like a positive, if it’s a good bird or if it’s kind of evil? You don’t sense any evil coming off of it. It doesn’t seem to have any good either. It is just a neutral construct. Right, right, right, right. So I don’t think it’s going to work, but he’s going to try and cast Spare the Dying. As you do, you see the cracks start to mend. You see blood flowing from around it back into the body as it seals itself. I’ll try and pull out the spear with what little strength I have. As you wrench out the spear, you hear the grating of the blade against the quartz. Your ears ring as the bird lets out a shriek. Take it easy. I’m helping. It’s going to be fine. The bird stands and looks down at you. How tall is it looking? About seven feet, about as tall as Ipid is. I hope you’re okay. Sorry about my friend there doing that to you. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. I’ll look back at Ipid. Ipid’s hands on his head just standing in place. Starling, do you know what to do? This is where my knowledge ends, maybe. He’s up again. I’m going to come over. What’s up? I can’t see it. Oh, there it is. Yeah, I’ll wave the light towards him. I totally forgot I have 300 feet of dark vision. Oh. That’s a big bird. Yeah. That’s a very big bird. I’m not a druid. It’s a summon. Or something summoned. It’s made of.
Walk off and try to pet the bird. As you pet the massive owl, you feel the smoothness of the quartz. It hums with a bit of life, and you feel a light warmth coming from it, radiating from underneath the surface. Where is your master? It turns towards you, pointing one eye in your direction. It turns its head up to the mountains. Can you tell your masters that we want to be friends with you? We will go see them. It leans forward and opens its beak. It’s waiting for something. Perhaps a message or a token of your arrival. Um I’m gonna give it Should we give it the talisman to show that the that we’ve slain or vanquished these things the cyclops maybe with a note maybe not just the talisman That would be wise Does anybody have any paper? Uh I do I’ve got parchment in my inventory Okay, what should I write Hey Giant you up kill kill the cyclops okay Aldrich is writing as he as he as he’s speaking he’s speaking and saying and writing at the same time hey giant killed the cyclops ask for passage ask if it’s okay if we pass through okay uh we are friendly and not violent normally uh we’re peaceful and we’re wondering if we may have your permission your acceptance to pass through uh okay uldrick will roll up the parchment and put it towards the this isn’t working the bird the bird reaches down and picks it up so gently that it barely bends the parchment did you say you’re going to give it the amulet as well i give it the amulet toward the balls oh okay um as it takes the amulet it looks down at it staring with an intensity and shaking its head violently you don’t want it it doesn’t want it put it back in my pack thank you for taking this message we we appreciate your help i’m gonna cast pure wounds on it as well bird shimmers with a bit of magic spreads its wings and with a big rush of air takes off into the sky okay i’ve um i’ve logged onto the forge twice and both times it’s made me an observer i can’t do anything i mean we’re just looking at this image we’re not doing anything okay okay but i i don’t think it’s gonna work for me at all tonight it’s well wait a second maybe it shows that you’re in there okay let me see if i can get it to work here um see if you can move your token around i just put it down uh okay i’ve got my character sheet okay the pop-out feature is not working anymore yeah the update killed that oh okay it’s yeah it’s working okay all right yeah so the update killed a few of the plug-ins pop-out was one of them so i’m gonna have to wait till that gets updated till i can get that going again okay i’ll figure something out here oh i’ll use the d beyond
Ipid. You hear something vibrating as the moon slowly fades away. It’s no longer smiling, it’s no longer bloody, and you see a normal half-moon in the sky. And you feel a presence depart from you. Um, Ipid calms down. His breathing slows, and um, he looks down at his holy symbol, and he looks up at the rest of the group. Ugh. Is everything okay? Sorry, I. Well, he, as like the bird leaves, like, what what did I hurt it? Did I what happened? What was that? It’s fine. Whatever it is, it’s fine. It’s going back to its masters. It seems like it’s one of the worst giants. Familiars. Yeah, you kind of. Do you know what you did, Ipid? There was another being trying to connect with me. It wasn’t Bahamut. It was something else. It was something darker. I mean, like… You were conscious as you threw this spear? Yeah, I did that out of fear. I look up at the moon. It was up there. Whatever I was seeing, it made me see visions of the moon in a different way. I… I was scared. Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of scary seeing you act like that. I apologize. I’m sorry. I. Did we get what we need here? I feel like we’d be best. Let’s. I think we should head back to Melrose. I. More than we needed. Yeah. I think we should head back to Melrose for the night and heal up. Yeah. And Ipid quietly sheaves his sword and grabs his gear and begins walking towards the direction which we came to report what we had done here in the mountains to the soldiers of Melrose. Darling, would you do like a quick once-over for loot? Alright. As you’re looting these bodies, you don’t find much of value, mostly bones and bits of scraps of flesh and some leather. But something of note that you find is a string of glowing red orbs. String of glowing red orbs. Yes. Just like a string, like beads. Yeah. You’ll have to take some time to figure out what it actually is. Alright, I’m just going to stop it in the back. As long as it doesn’t seem to be burning or harming me in any way. It feels warm to the touch, but not harming you. Alright. Interesting. I’d like to catch back up with Ipid. Catch back up with Ipid as you’re heading down the mountain. As you’re walking down. After a few miles, you catch sight of Tom. He is standing next to the horses. And beside him are two ogres. Both of them missing parts and dead on the ground. Holy shit. You had a bit of fun, Tom, while we were gone. The horse is okay? Tom looks towards you, and you see he is now holding one of the ogre’s great swords. He shows it to you. I got a new weapon. Some of these ugly guys had a nice sword, so I took it. Fantastic. Don’t worry, the horses are all okay. Thank you, Tom. We really appreciate it. Yes, yes. I do my best for the horses. Yeah, I mean, we’re really lucky to have you. You look like I could use a drink. He smiles at you. I can always use a drink. I know. Let’s go. Yeah. Let’s hop back on the horses. Let’s get back to Melrose. As you mount the horses and begin riding to Melrose, the wind blows alongside you. You hear an echoing from the mountain. Sound of steel on stone.
Steel, and you continue riding to the town. As you approach, you can see where they had once again been besieged by ogres, who had again failed to make it past the walls. Um, before Ibid approaches the town, he’s gonna look over at the rest of the group, and he’s gonna say, Could you guys explain to them that we were able to get a we were able to kill the um the cyclops that was supposedly leading these uh these giants? Um, I’m gonna head into town and um I’ll meet you guys back up in the barracks where we were sleeping. And um, Ibid is gonna find a place of worship for the night. All right, okay, well, let’s go find the guards or the yeah, ask around for the leader of the guards as you walk in through the battered gates that have been stood up once again after being knocked down. You see a tired man in plate armor standing next to there, and you recognize him as the one who asked you to kill the Cyclops. Sir, um, sir, the he looks up at you on your horse. What do you need? He doesn’t recognize you. Well, um, you know, you asked that uh Aldrich stumbling over his words. Your issues with the Cyclops are no more. Okay, thank you. He looks up at you, all of you. So it’s done away with. Yes. Well, that should buy us enough time for more fortifications. They were with three giants and two ogres were kind of nearby as well. We got them all. He looks around you guys. Well, you think I think we’re going to need you some more. Yeah, this place is pretty messed up. Our scouts returned from the mountains with news. This ogre was just the first. The Cyclops with his band of ogres was just the first of many. We’ll be happy to help, but at the moment we’re a little bit tired mentally and physically here. You know, a few things have happened, so we’re going to need to rest. She points down the road to where you had slept last time. Keep going that way until you find the place with the beds. If you can’t find it, ask any of the guards. They’ll tell you where to go. Does a moon with blood dripping from it mean anything to you? Looks at you a bit confused. No, nothing to me. Never mind. Just read something. This Aldrich points to Tom and says, This man saved a lot of people today. He needs a drink. Can you point him to where he can get a drink? He looks up at Tom. Yes. Down there until you find a tavern. There should be one or two that are still open. There we go, Tom. Tom looks at you guys, and without a word, kicks his horse and begins galloping down the road. That’s normal. Starling, that’s normal. I see. There’s everyone, you know, like that. I mean, some just hop into portals or turn into goo, so yes, there are many alcoholics. That’s not what I… Yeah, okay, yeah. All right. Ipid, as you’re traveling through the town, you find a small temple dedicated to merchants. Inside, there is a single priest who maintains it, and you see him sitting at a desk of ledgers. Um, Ipid approaches him, says, uh, good evening, sir. Uh, sorry to disrupt you at such a late hour. Looks up at you. He has a long grey beard and sunken eyes, and a hand with fingers that are so stained by ink they’ll never be anything other than blue. What can I do for you? I’m lost. Not physically. I know where I am. We’re in the town of Melrose, but spiritually, sir, I’m lost. He takes out his holy symbol, which represents the which represents the following of Bahamut. My god, Bahamut, the one who gives me strength, or who I think is the one giving me strength, has felt quiet, and I’ve been.
Reached out by another, another cruel god that I don’t know the name of, and it’s been causing me such it’s been causing me mental strain, and I need a connection with my god. I need to speak to him. I can’t help with that. I don’t know, Pero God. All I ask is perhaps a place of where I can have a ceremony and peace, where I can try my best to connect with him. That’s all I ask. He points towards the large open hall next to him. Do as you please in here, just don’t make a mess. Thank you. I appreciate it. And Ipet heads into the opening. And there he’s gonna sit down and organize his things, light up some candles, and sit crisscross applesauce while laying his holy symbol in front of him, and as well as the shoulder plates that used to be bestowed on his armor prior to him leaving his hometown. And he closes his eyes and whispers prayers to himself, trying to reach Bahamut for a closer connection, trying to speak with him. You hear Bahamut echoing slowly. What do you seek? Bahamut, I’m lost. I haven’t been close to you. I understand that. And my journey to find my journey to find my brother and to do good by the world is facing friction. Another god has tried to connect with me. A god who’s brutal, a god who’s who’s ruthless. I feel as if I’m getting attacked by this being spiritually. And I ask for your strength or words of wisdom at this time. It echoes through you. You misunderstand. This God is not brutality. This God is not evil. It is not good, but it is not evil. Is it not a betrayal to you that he is reaching out to me? What am I supposed to make of this? How would you betray me? What would you do that would betray me? I guess the main thing that caused me to reach out to you in the first place, after I struck that child in battle, I sought for your forgiveness and your strength, and you helped me out. I avoid these things, you know. I try to do good by justice and by the rule of law of this land, but it seems that these battles that I’ve been facing, whatever this thing is, it pleases it. And it calls me… It treats me as if I’m a bloodthirsty being. But I am not. I don’t believe I am. How many have you struck down since you’ve entered my service? How many beings? I’ve lost count, but it was all in the name of justice. It was all in the name of good. These are beings that were not good to the public, not good to those of innocence. Then is not justice bloodthirsty? Does justice not demand blood? I would have abandoned you if you had abandoned justice, but your ways are violent and bloody. You cannot deny that. You cannot deny this God’s interest in you. What am I to do with it, sir? What am I to do with it if it approaches me again? What am I to do? Am I to allow it to grant its connection to me? Am I to follow it? Or am I just to continue on my path? Do as you please, but remember justice. Justice is sometimes bloody. But hold to justice before blood. If you swing your sword with justice, you will not be corrupted by the thirst of the blood. But if you sing, swing your blood sword for the thirst of blood, then you will hold justice no more. I understand. But do not do not seek to deny this god. If you try to deny that your ways are bloody and violent, you will end up destroying yourself. Violence is part of your ways. Ipet nods and he looks up and he says, Thank you, Bahamut, for these words of wisdom. I’ll take them to heart and I’ll keep them in my mind. Please, send my mother strength and wherever my brother is, send him strength as well. Remember, violence is not evil. Violence is a tool of justice or wickedness. It depends.
Depends on how you wield it. If you begin to wield it in evil, then you will be corrupted. But you will not be corrupted simply for wielding it. Ipid, without saying anything, he um he uh and then Scorn plays a tune. Um no, you’re good. You’re good. Um Ipid nods in agreement and um he separates himself from the connection of Bahamut and he comes to to his place uh to where he currently is. And um you notice there’s bloodstains on your clothes there’s bloodstains on your sword, but your armor is still clean. This echoes as a symbol of justice in your mind. Ipid trying to pay it, no mind. He looks down at himself. He looks at his sword and he seeth it. He gathers his things to not make a mess of this priest’s holy place. And he leaves the room looking back at him. He says, Sir, I appreciate your time and the willing to share your space for me. He looks at you and said, Yes, yes. Just be mindful. Everything is an exchange. Understood. And Ipid awkwardly leaves the building to head back to the barracks, where hopefully he will find the rest of his crew. As you step out of the building, you turn around, and it is hollow and crushed with a boulder. There was nothing in there. The Ipid touches the boulder. You feel the cold stone. It’s rough and cracked. Ipid looks around to see if any bystanders are nearby, any pedestrians or anything. You stand in the middle of ruins. There is no one nearby. In the distance, the lights of the town still shine brightly, but you stand in an area that has been decimated by assault. Ipid questions himself if all of this was even here before, and he slowly walks back to the glowing city. Holy shit. Ipid’s tripping, dude. Now, back to the rest of you. You are in the barracks, where you have been granted a night’s rest and supplies for your journey into the mountains as reward for dealing with the Cyclops. Oh, just so you know, Scorn, you really kicked ass in that. You really helped us out. Scorn’s like, what? Giants attacking Melrose? Let him have it. Oh, okay. Wipe it off the map. He seems to have some something bothering him about Melrose, but he doesn’t say. In the town, it is growing quiet, and there are few people you see inside the town who are not wearing armor and are part of the guard. Most civilians have abandoned it. No nobility remains. This town is a hollow outpost of what it once was. We’re in the barracks, right? Yeah. Aldric will say to Scorn, You’ve been a bit distant recently, man. Are you alright? What? Oh, uh. Sorry, a little out of sorts. Never did like this town. Yeah. Uh, we might have a problem with Ipid, or I mean, Ipid’s going through something, just uh to let you know. I uh I gathered as much. I think that’s between him and his deity. I don’t know that I can help him with that. Yeah. Well, I’ll be watching him. I mean, if he goes berserk, I’ve got calm emotions in the Ring of Spellstoring, so I don’t see an issue. Oh. Good. Good job banishing the Cyclops, by the way. That was a good idea. Oh.
Yeah, been working on that trick for a while. Wasn’t sure it’d work. It didn’t work. Yeah, it did it didn’t work for that bone demon, but it was thankfully. It really helped out this ambush we did. Excellent. Well, what’s our next move? I think we gotta go help in the mountains again. Oh, well. Alright then. There’s more of those things. When it’s time to head out, I’ll be ready. Ipid walks into the barracks after being separated from you guys for a bit. And he connects with you Gal again. He says, sorry about that. I had to go see about something. What did the guards people say when we told them that we took care of the Cyclops? Not much. Just that there’s more. There’s more, as far as I remember. I mean, the conversation went so fast, I was too nervous. You would. Aldric, everything went so fast. It’s alright. I think there’s more guys. I think there’s more of the same, maybe, up in those mountains. Understood. So Melrose is just going to keep getting attacked from these giants in the mountains. Okay. There is. I’m not sure if you caught this, Ipid, but there’s a Chris… I don’t know. Quartz giant or something. And we actually communicated using some parchment. We gave the parchment to the bird. The bird flew away. So we might meet them on the road as well. I’m not sure if you saw all that. Are these court giants peaceful? Or are they things that we should be messing with? They seem peaceful, from what I understand about them. From all my readings. Got you. I’m going to ask Starling about the amulet. Do you have that amulet? I might want to. I don’t want to touch it, but if you can put it on a table, I might be able to identify it and see if I can get information about it. It was fine when I touched it. Just. I’m not going to touch it. Okay. I just reach in and grab it and hold it, like, lay it on the table. Aldric, well. Starting with the teacher. I don’t react to it negatively, do I? No. Okay, thank God. Aldric will get some tea and some tea leaves and start drinking some tea and then start ritually casting identify on that thing. Gorn, have you ever seen these before? And I’ll pull out the red beads. Oh, keep away from open flames. Absolutely. Never seen them before. Could have Aldric identify them, perhaps. Is it magic? Looks like magic. Looks like magic. They’re shiny. Yes. Alright then. Oh. I mean, I’d be happy to take a look at them if you put them on that table as well. I don’t want to touch it. You have to touch an object to cast identify on it. Do you? Wait, I knew that. Aldric knew that. Really? Okay. Where is it? I can’t even see it anymore. The very first four words of the spell description says you touch an object. Oh, throughout the spells casting. Yeah, there’s no… There’s no getting around it. Okay, well, Aldric would have known that then. Well, he still would have been scared, though. But he will drink some tea and steal himself and then touch it then. Touch the amulet first and try and ritually identify it. As you’re touching the amulet, you feel the cold metal. And you feel the smooth engravings of the moon and the blood dripping from it. I’m just going to run my fingers over the engravings. As you examine it with magic, you find it is a completely mundane object. So Aldrich will just look at Ipid and kind of like not understanding what happened between them then. Ever since you took out the pendant, Ipid’s been looking at it with wide eyes, not saying much.
So, what do you sense, Aldric? Nothing. That’s the strange thing. Yeah. I don’t get anything. When I had held it, I formed a connection with something. Something I don’t understand, but something that I’m not to ignore fully. Are you okay? I’m okay. Yeah. Again, sorry about that. That isn’t like me. I’d be weary of that, though. It caused me to react in a weird way. It’s hard to explain. We can hold on to it. I’ll hold up the object and say, does anyone… Does anyone want this? I want it. I put it back in the backpack. I trust you to hold it, Starling, honestly. And if we get some time, then Aldric would look at those beads as well. Same thing. Drink some tea. Look into his tea leaves a little bit and touch the object and identify. As you touch the beads, they feel warm to the touch. They feel like they’re slightly vibrating. And you see a little bit of light glowing inside. Identifying this. You count nine beads on it. And with it, you can throw a bead to cast fireball at a third level where it lands. I had a feeling it was that. That’s what’s up. Oh, fire. This has fire in it. This is stored fire. Does anyone… I mean, I feel like I’m hogging all the fireballs if I keep it. Does anyone want this? This could be quite useful for someone else. Gorn, do you want it? Can anyone use it? Does Aldric know that? Well, it might come in handy sometime. Anyone can use it. Anyone can use it. Okay. Yeah, if you want me to carry it, I’ll carry it. Yeah, you take it. I’m pretty good with fire. Not quite as good as you, but, you know. You do fine with fire, I’m sure. I’m interested to see what a double fireball will look like with me and you both casting at the same time. Maybe we shouldn’t. You could get really dumb with it and pass the beads around. And you can all throw them at the same time. Well, Aldric will probably just go to bed after that, exhausted after all that magic use. As you go to bed, you hear the quiet shuffling in the town, and you hear the sound of chiseling stone, hammers, and anvils, preparing for the next raid. Do we long rest? Yes, long rest. Thank God. Oh, 24 hit points for you. I forgot the thing smashed you a bit. Oh, yeah. It’s not a fight if Ibbit doesn’t get hit. We need to do something about that. Now, right here, we’re going to take a little break just to check in. How is everyone doing? I’m doing good. I’m good. I’m good. Good. So I’ve been working on a tool to help with your characters and to help make it easier to flesh out your characters as you’re going along. So I’m going to share a link in the chat just to look at when you want to on something I’m working on to make it easier to just a structure to work on your character. Awesome. Now, this is just the first revision of it, so I’m going to be working on it some more.
And let me know if it’s working correctly. You’re supposed to be able to download a PDF at the end of it. Oh, I see. Would the PDF download after hitting submit? Yeah. Okay. And if it’s not working, then that just means I did the coding wrong. And I’m still fairly new to web development, so that’s a solid possibility. Alright, now getting back into things. As the sun rises, you see dust drifting through the air. You smell the air. It smells like chalk and marble dust. As they’ve been chiseling away at the walls, putting in recesses, carving out damaged stone and laying new mortar. They have worked tirelessly through the night. And you see one shift of workers going to bed as you see the ones next to you getting up. I need to take care of something real quick. Well, it’ll just be like two minutes. Can I just say Aldrich is still sleeping? Yeah. Or is with the group as you go? Alright. Ipet gets up bright-eyed and scaly-tailed. And he has a little pep in his step trying to recover from whatever the hell happened yesterday. And he goes and tries to wake up his fellow companions. First, he goes to Scorn because he knows Scorn is an early bird. He says, Scorn! You ready to hit the road? You don’t know Scorn that well, do you? He’ll sleep in every chance he gets. But you wake up, you like. Yeah, Ipit approaches the bunk that Scorn is sleeping in. He says, Scorn, Scorn, wake up, man. It’s time to get going. Okay, I have rum. You have rum. I mean, rum this early in the morning, dude? What? How do you wake up without it? I wake up with a nice splash of water to my face and some push-ups. He’s up. He’s getting his stuff together. Alright. And Ipet’s going to go look for Starling. Starling actually isn’t in the bunk. She is helping Tom with the horses. Oh, okay. Alright. Well, I don’t see Starling here. Nor do I. I mean, I see Aldrich’s getting his things together. If it’s going to head out of the barracks to see… I mean, I guess all the guards are getting ready to swap shifts. You see Tom and Starling. They have all of your horses and another one. One loaded. Strapped with as many packs of rations as you can get. Oh, man. Whose horse is this? Or is this just another horse? Tom looks. Oh, this one’s just for the rations. Oh, my gosh. This is a lot of food, Tom. Guards are telling us we’re heading into winter. There’s a good chance we might get stuck in the mountains over a storm. Right. I understand. Okay. Are they okay with lending us this much food? Or is the town not in more need? Oh, the town has plenty of food. They’re just running out of men. Oh. I see. And until it starts raining men, they’re going to be out of luck. Alright. Ipet looks for the general or a sense of command from all these guards to see just to speak with them. You don’t find anyone of rank. Instead, you just find one man in armor yelling at people and pointing around. Hello, sir. Soldier. What’s happening? We are the travelers who helped out with the Cyclops the other day in the mountains. The Cyclops that was leading and structuring attacks against Melrose. Oh, yes, thank you. You’ve bought us a couple weeks. Perfect. I was a little bit checked out when our group came back from that attack to let you guys know this.
We have heard, we have found signs of quartz giants in the mountains. Would you happen to know anything about that? They’re generally keep to themselves. Strange magic, they like. They bring stone to life. And that’s how they make their own. See, rumor has it that we believe these quartz giants. Thousands of years ago, there was a wizard who made the first one. He carved it out of quartz and brought it to life. And then he taught it to do the same. And now there’s maybe a few hundred of them up there. So they’re just a duplicating kind. Yes, that’s how they live. They just make more of themselves. They don’t age. They just live these stone creatures. I understand. Got you. Okay, well, we’re going to be heading back into the mountains to see deeper into the information on why these giants are coming down to attack Melrose. Because you guys, a little bit of check-in. You guys haven’t dealt with an attack from these giants in ages. Is that correct? Yes, but these aren’t the quartz giants that are attacking us. Of course. These are other kinds of mountain giants. Yes. They seem to be coming down for food. Got you. Okay. Well, there’s no way we’re going to get to Lithlingau without dealing with these giants. So we’ll be sure to be on top of that to see if we’re able to find out any additional information. Hopefully put a stop to these things attacking your town and hopefully making it easier for our travels. Yes, hopefully. If you can do that, we don’t have much to pay you by. Oh, trust me, sir. I’m not in look for some money. These supplies and place to rest our head is more than a honestly. Your generosity is something that we are very appreciative of. Elaine’s back, rocking on his heels. Well, be careful up there. This time of year, many storms will pass through the mountains very unpredictably. Understood. Your men have given us plenty of rations and equipment to withstand the storms if we do get stuck up there. So we’ll be more than prepared. And we’ll be back to report of any new information if something crosses us. If we’re best of luck. But if you’re trying to cross the mountains, you shouldn’t turn back because if you come back down here, it’ll be snowed in by the time you make it back up. Understand. Well, we’ll be sure to mail you or something. And if it shakes this soldier’s hand and looks back to his group. Are you guys ready to get a hold head on? Well, we’ve got plenty of rations. How are we doing on blankets, bedrolls? That sort of thing. I think we were equipped with gear and stuff to keep us warm, correct? Yes, you were given winter bedrolls and thick winter coats and cloaks when you left last time. Perfect. We have plenty enough to keep us warm. We might have to bundle up when we sleep, though. I’d look over at Scorn. I should have something to help us as well if we need shelter and can’t find it. Got you. Okay. Sounds good. Let’s head back up these mountains and see what could be awaiting us. And the temple as well, right? I’m sorry. Well, the temple is in Linlithgau, which is over the mountains. Right. So let’s see. So, you look at the map that’s posted in the chat. You’re in Melrose. You’re going to be crossing the mountains going southeast through a pass there. And getting to Linlithgau, that’s where you’ve heard the rumors of the vampire celestial that you need to deal with. Oh, correct. You’re right. You’re right. And then the temple that you’re next looking for is underneath Alsdair Lost. Yeah, that’s after Linlithgau that we’d be trying to get to. There’s also reports of a dragon-born warrior in Linlithgau or Alzassair’s Lost. No, Jedburg. Jedburg. Oh, okay. Jedburg is out just outside of Linlithgau. Oh, just outside of Alsa.
Ah, okay. All right. Bet. Perfect. Let me write that down. Well, I say just outside. It’s about a week away from Al-Stairs Lost. And then after you cross the mountains to Linlithgow, you have another four weeks’ travel before you get to All-Stairs Lost. Wow. Okay. And it should take you around two or three weeks to make it through the mountains. So we got quite a ways to go. And you have rations for up to five weeks. So we should be well fed. As you begin setting up towards the mountains, you feel a cold wind blowing down them. You see clouds gathering at the peaks. And you hear stones tumbling down the pass you’ll be walking through. Have there been any signs of giants, footprints, or anything like that on our way up these mountains? Yes, but you’ve already passed through here. It’s all torn up by the giants you’re getting. Because the Cyclops was right at the exit of the pass. Gotcha. So we’re just pretty much catching up to that point and then proceeding forward. Yes. As you proceed forward in the mountains, you see signs where travelers have been waylaid by the giants. Wagons overturned, looted, and torn apart. The ground is rough and beaten. In the first day of travel, all you see are the quiet mountainsides, still lush with their bushes and their growths. And as you keep climbing up into the mountains, the air is slowly growing thinner. And the path grows a little steeper. As you come to a rest for the first night, find yourselves in a small clearing where obviously people have camped before. And you see a small lean to with firewood stacked underneath. Nice. As we set up for the night, I assume, Ipid talks of Scorn. So, Scorn, I see that you were kind of distant back in Melrose. Is there any reason because of that? What? Oh, nothing. Nothing you need to worry about. I’ve never liked that town. Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sorry that we stayed there. It seemed like some things cannot be helped. Understood. Can Ipid roll a bit of insight on Scorn to see if he’s letting on more than he is or letting off more than he is? You can try. Okay. Let’s see. What’s my. That’s a 19 plus 3. Maybe you can roll a deception or something against it. Yep. Yep. I’m getting that going right now. My Beyond 20 is not sending my rolls to the tabletop for some reason. Gotcha. I got you. Scott’s honor. And. Oh, we see it here. That was from the foundry. Wow. You got a 29. If it does not see anything past Scorn’s whatever he’s trying to say. And if it stays quiet, Scorn is telling you the honest truth. Absolutely. Why would he lie about that? Of course, of course. If it stays quiet. And he’s like, alright, I understand. Well, I’m sure you’d rather be in these mountains than Melrose. Well, now let’s not get carried away. Might not matter before too long, all these giants running around. I mean, we’ve been pretty well, you know, we’ve been dealing with them as we go. I had a thought, though. We’re aware that these quartz giants are pretty, you know, passive or kind of just mind their own business. And these mountains seem to be their home. If we’re able to set something up, maybe we can find, I don’t know, a means of them probably to help us out, you know? Because these giants, it seems like they’ve been caught. You know, these giants are originally from these mountains, but there’s for sure.
For some, there’s a reason why they’re heading down to Morrows and neighboring towns to seek for food. Something is going on up here. Yeah, something’s got them all stirred up. I have no idea what it could be. I guess I just want to say that we should keep an open book to maybe maintaining a relationship with these quartz giants because, um, to my understanding, uh, Aldric, you left, you sent them a note, right? Through the owl that I struck down. Yep. Parchment explaining, we killed the Cyclops and we mean no harm, and that was a bit about it. And can we pass through? Yeah, gotcha. So if we do have to pass through their domain or their area of like of their home, they hopefully shouldn’t cause us any issues. Hopefully. I hope not. I mean, the bird didn’t say anything. That’s birds for you. If only we had somebody who could speak to animals. Damn, I miss Pappy. Aldrich starts spinning his staff, and there’s like a little what you call it, a little thing of Pappy on it. It was like a mini of Pappy built onto your skin. Yeah, it’s like a mini, yeah. Just like, yep, miss that guy. Um, and I assume we just turned in for the night. Unless you guys had something else to do. Well, I see Starlings doing something. Is that really in-game doing that? Or yeah? You guys look up, and there’s just this very comfortable hut with a dim light inside of it. Warm light. And we’re all on the ground next to the campfire. It seems like Starling’s comfortable. You guys can come inside. It’s warm. Is there enough room for all of us in there? Not the horses. I see. Ibbid tries to fit his big frame in this tiny hut. As you enter the hut, it is warm and comfortable. Oh, wow. This is neat. Where’d you learn how to do this? My God taught me. Ah, I see. Wow, you magic users are creative. Yeah, I’ll go inside. You all go inside, and Tom says, Oh, I’ll stay out with the horses. Alright, if there’s any trouble, give us a shout. I will, if it’s something I can’t handle. You see him holding a sword that is a bit longer than he is. I swear to God, if he’s holding it with one arm, he’s not. Okay, barely holding it with two. If it respects Tom, even some more. You know, I feel like we might be holding back Tom by not including him in our combats because he took down two ogres by himself, it seems, by the looks of it. I see, but if we leave the horses alone and something gets them, we’re going to be in big trouble. I wouldn’t want to walk. Yeah, he’s also one of the horses has all our rations, so yes, they should be defended. That’s fair. And I guess he’s been… He has done more than enough that he’s capable of such, so we’ll just let him do him. Well, I’m going to go ahead and catch some sleep. You guys, oh, I’ll see you guys in the morning. And Ibid knocks the fuck up. I think Aldrich’s going to set up a tea set and try to get any kind of sense of where they’re going in the future and their actions and just get a general. See if he’s got any vibes about this next area they’re going to Aldrich. Could you roll a D20 for me? Private or public? Uh, private.
This is exciting. Did you see that? Yes. What did you do, Aldric? I don’t know. Do you want some tea, Scorn? What? I’m fine. He holds up his flask. Just fine. In your vision, you see Ipid picking up a shield and carrying it. And on it is a bleeding moon. Got it. Do I see any of the details of the scene? You see in front of him is someone in plate armor, much like his own, who is pierced through the chest with Ipid’s sword around the man’s neck, similar to the ones you found on the Cyclops. Ah. The vision fades, and you hear the cackling of a mad god. Uh Aldrich will be breathing heavily, I think. Kind of that kind of stressed out as you’re breathing. You smell rain in the distance. It’s gonna rain soon. I wonder how the weather holds up, guys. Did we get a little bit of a drink? You hear the thunder. Yeah. Starling, would you like some tea? Sure. I take the tea and drink it. Look in the bottom of the tea glass. Or the teacup. In the bottom of the teacup, you see the shape of a half moon. You know, sometimes I see stuff, and uh yeah, I think I’m seeing you know that moon again. Yeah, it seems to be everywhere, and I just hand him back the teacup. Okay. Uh Aldrich will try to go to sleep after that. But he’s worried, of course. You hear the sonorous tones of thunder rolling down the mountains. And slowly, the sound of a steady dripping rain. This is as we’re trying to go to sleep. Yes. I’ll say to Scorn, do you think we need to get Tom in here? You think he’ll be okay? I’ll go check on him. Scorn gets up, goes outside for a moment. You see Tom standing next to where the horses are, the rain falling, and he is just sitting there in his cloak with a small fire going. You see the fire beginning to dwindle, and then you see Tom muttering to himself and waving his fingers and the fire glows brighter and burns despite the rain. Nice trick, Tom. How you doing? He looks at you. I’m doing good. I’ve been picking up more of the tricks lately. Yeah, that’s a good one. I do that too. Scorn waves his hand at the fire. It burns green for a moment. Oh, I’ll let you know. Sleep well. I will. Do you need someone to relieve you? You should get some rest tonight. He looks. Oh, I’ll be fine. I’m out here with the horses. They’ll let me know if anything’s wrong. Yes, they probably will. Alright then. Have a good night. Sees Tom standing. You see him muttering another spell to himself. And you see his cloak flare up with a little gust of wind and you see a bit of steam rising from it.
Oh, he’s good. Okay. I’ll go back inside the hut. I think Tom’s going to be okay. Has one of you been teaching him magic of any sort? No. No, not. No. Hmm. Must have learned from one of the horses. Alright. Must be extra nice to meet now. Do what? My horse. His name is Meat. Meet me. If it didn’t tell you. That’s an ominous name for a horse. Ipet’s snoring to himself. He’s like, the horse’s name is me. I named mine before. Before? Yeah, nobody gets a joke because I don’t have a cart. I see. So what? We got Oath, we got before, we got meat. What’s the name of Aldrich’s horse? Aldrich’s very serious, and he’s like, well, my horse is called Aramel. Okay. I don’t like funny names for horses. I should be serious. That’s very dull, Aldrich. I know. That’s. That’s me, though. That’s… That’s the whole point. You can ride the serious horse. That’s fine. It’s got a pack for my spellbook. That’s all I need. Aldric’s horse is the equivalent to that one co-worker that you know nothing about outside of work. He just shows up. How are you doing, good? Alright, clock’s out. The night passes with the sound of slow, steady rain. And as you wake up, it is still raining and the sky is overcast. There are light gusts of wind. And you see outside, Tom is standing, leaning on the sword next to a fire that has recently gone out. I see the horses are ready. And suspiciously dry. Uh, morning, Tom. How do you keep the horses so dry in the rain? Oh, he waves his fingers. A bit of magic. When did you… Are you… I didn’t know you were a magic user. Oh, I picked it up recently. How? See, there’s a god of horses, and he and I made a deal. Is Tom a warlock? Oh, I see. Um. Okay, then. Um, anything happened throughout the night? Did you get any sleep at all? Oh, I don’t need to sleep anymore. Definitely a warlock. You don’t. Are you sure? It’s always important to get your eight hours, right, guys? Ipid Chipper looks at the rest of you. At least eight hours. The rest of you feel kind of soggy in the rain. One thing about Tom is he’s a fast learner, it seems. Maybe he’s just a really fast learner. He can just pick up anything. Or maybe it’s just horse magic from horse lords. You know, I’m glad we kept Tom around. Tom, I feel like you’re a good guy, and I’m glad you didn’t kill yourself. He looks at you. Well, you know, we all try to kill ourselves sometimes. And he says it in the most cheerful, happy tone you could imagine. Ipid pauses, mouth agape. Right. Let’s get a move on, guys. Are you guys okay to take a short break here and pick up on the road? Yep. Alright, we’ll be back in 15. Okay. Thank you.
Oh, you got a cat yesterday. Yeah. This guy looks similar to the other cat. Yeah, I usually get a Main Coon mix. So, yeah, he’s half Main Coon and half whatever something. How old is he? He’s a little over a year old. Oh, okay. Or as we know, he was actually feral cat that the adoption agency took in. How’s he settling? Still getting used to it? Yeah, he’s doing really well. His former foster mom brought him over here yesterday, and he just kind of was just like, okay, we’re here now. He likes it here. He likes it here. And right now he’s, I think he’s in the sink. He likes sitting around in the sink. I don’t know why. I love that. Yeah, he’s really well adjusted. Really friendly. He’s friendly, he’s smart, he’s chill. So we’re getting along just fine.
Good lord, there’s a tweet that says, I think the collapse of game market would be a good thing, actually. And they have these little Game Boy manuals that would come with the game. These things are going for $20, $40. Good lord. I actually went to one of those game stores with a friend of mine. He got on the game. No, what was it for? He got it for the N64. He got double dash bucks. Which, honestly, I couldn’t tell you if it was a Steeler. Hello. Hello, King. Oh, I forgot to ask what you’re drinking today. I’m drinking the high schooler special, Smirnoff Ice. Classic. What was that again? Smirnoff Ice. This is the high schooler special. This was. Oh, my. Smirnoff wasn’t. Smirnoff was my first beverage, but it wasn’t ice. It was the green apple flavor. Ruth. Oh, you’re luckier than I was. One of my first alcoholic drinks, I was about 16. And one of my buddies, he was 25, I worked with him. He’s like, oh man, you’ve got to try this. It’s the best drink ever. And he gave me a little glass, filled it like about that full with this, just out of a flask, right? And he gave it to me. And I took a sip of it and it just burns, but I don’t want to admit it. So I just do the whole thing. And I’m immediately feeling woozy. And he’s looking at me like I’m going to die. Alright? And he gave me 95 proof Everclear for the first thing I drank. Oh, gosh. He was just drinking that out of his flask. No! He just had that in his flask to mess with people. Yeah, I used to use that stuff to clean the heads on my tape deck. Before I switched over to CD, but yeah, that tells you how long ago that was. This guy, before he leaves his house, he’s like, phone, keys, wallet. Oh, yeah, my flask of Everclear. No, I’ve seen him use it for like starting fires and stuff while we’re camping. I’ve never seen him drink from the flask, but I’ve seen him use it for plenty of other things. It’s the multi-tool of liquors. It’s stronger than most rubbing alcohol you can buy. Anyway, as
You guys are continuing on the road. The rain is falling, slowly growing heavier and heavier. You see trickles running down the path next to you. A small creek next to the road threatening to overthrow. As the rain falls, you hear thunder rolling down the mountains. The sky is a dark, cloudy gray, and wind is blowing the rain sideways. As the storm worsens, the sky grows darker. You see a glimmer of light from two massive doors carved out of the side of the mountain. You see traces of giants, places where boulders have been ripped out of the ground, and around the doors you see bones piled. Um, I don’t want to think I’m imagining things again. Does everyone else see those doors over? Yeah. Okay, good. The ones are the bones, right? Yeah. The other set of doors? No, no, no, the one with the bones. Okay. What type of like, how big are these doors? About 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide. Right. So are we going to do something about that? Um, I feel like this is our first big clue on where these giants might. Um uh the two doors, are they together like two double doors or are they two separate doors? Uh, two double doors. The grand entrance of a hall or a home or something. Um, are giants capable of this? This is crazy. Yes, giants are very capable of stonework. Okay. Is this um is our quartz giant friends or is it someone else? This seems to be someone else. The quartz. I searched the ground for a skull. A human-sized skull. Do we have any? You find a large humanoid skull. It’s about the size of a basketball. It’s too big. I put it back. Find a smaller one. This one about the size of a mango. What can I tell about it? This seems to be a halfling skull. Oh. So they’re killing. And the bigger one looked like a orc. Yeah. A rather large orc. What do you got there, Aldric? Uh, it’s a halfling skull, but that one over there is an orc. So, well, they’re just killing anything. I guess these might be the skulls of travelers that have been through here before. Similar to us. But like the dead. Should we keep going on to the door? Should we go look? I’m not sure. Based on these bones, I’m not sure if it’s the best idea. Is there any places we could hide to see if we could maybe ding-dong ditch this door to see what comes out? Outside, there is just the road, the overflowing creek, and the doors carved into the side of the mountain. All else, there’s brush that you could attempt to hide in, but it goes up to your shoulders and is almost impenetrable. How do you guys think we should go about this? I was thinking maybe Starling could make you invisible or make someone invisible. Take a peek. Perhaps. I can send my construct in there as a lure. How many people can you make invisible, Starling? Just one. And it takes up most of my magic. Yeah, yeah, that’s the problem.
Can you do illusions, uh, Scorn? Oh, a few, yes. What about sending an illusion in there? Well, actually, maybe not send an illusion in there, but maybe we can make some noise out here, or at least knock the door, right? And we ourselves can hide in a location that isn’t like isn’t visible to anything that would have come through these doors. And then maybe an illusion or something could distract whoever’s inside out of there, and then we can sneak in behind them, you know? Sounds good. Yeah, I don’t think I have an illusion for that. Um, not really. Well, I mean, Aldrick can use a construct. You can have your construct knock on the door and sort of like make a ways away. It can get chased by whatever might be in there. And are we going to engage with whatever comes out of there? I think we can leave that up to judgment based on whatever. So if it’s something too big, we’re going to just run. Maybe not run, but I mean, the whole point is to stay hidden for it, so we’ll just go into his lair or whatever this might be, and we might be able to find some information in there. Maybe we can surprise it. Alright, well, what do you think, guys? Should I do that? Well, I’m doing it. Alright. Um, we should find a place to hide that is like not directly in front of the door, but maybe like near the door so that whatever his construct does, and if it’s able to lead whatever’s inside of there out, and we can sneak behind it and head inside. Right. I think the horses will easily fit. Alright. As you’re hiding in the bushes, the construct approaches the door. Tell it to knock on the door three times. Each time it pounds on the door, there is a hollow echoing behind. It knocks, and it knocks. And from inside, you hear a horrible howling echoing from out. Do we get a sense of the kind of creature that that howling was coming from? Oh, I don’t know what that was, and I don’t know if I want to. I shiver right down it was going to be a stone construct, by the way. The stone type. I haven’t cast it yet, but yeah. Let me click the cast. Oh, it’s doing it privately. Sorry. I forgot to take the private off. Does your stone construct enter? Uh, well, I’ll turn to the I’ll turn to the group and I’ll kind of look at them questioningly. So nothing’s coming out to chase it, but we are hearing noise from it. Um that’s weird. I’m gonna I’m gonna tell it to push the door and see if see if it gives away a little bit. If it does, then we’ll know it’s kind of not locked. As it pushes the door, it swings inward. You hear the grinding of stone and metal from years of sitting quietly unmoving. Well, it’s unlocked. Does it step inside? I don’t know, guys. Should I do this? Should I make it go in? I mean, we’re not able to see what it can see, right? No. Maybe send it in and see whatever is in there, how it reacts to it.
Be ready to run. Yeah. I can only stay up to 90. Is there a range I can command it from? The range given in the spell information is 90 feet. I don’t know if that applies to how far you cast it or how far you can control it. It doesn’t really say. You can control it as long as it can hear you. Okay. Can’t get too far away now. Well, anyway, okay, I’m gonna send it in. As far as it can. From where we are, are we able to see inside or not? As you see it step inside through the doors, you’ll see a troll approaching it. Okay. Aldrich, tell it to lead it out. Okay. I’ll command it to turn around and jog out of there. It jogs out, leaving the door open, and from inside you see a troll peering out, but it doesn’t come outside. Do you guys see that? The inside is well lit, and you see piles of bones of giants and men and beasts. Should we kill it? I’ve already got a troll head. I’m not sure. Hold on, wait, so it didn’t come out or it didn’t come out. It didn’t come out. Okay. So I’m easy either way. I’ve got a troll skull in my pack. I’m happy. I’m easy. Hey, easy. Easy going. As you stand in the storm, it worsens, the rain turning to sleet. You feel your bones chilling in the wind. Um. We can’t stay out here much longer. Yeah, the only way is in. Um Aldrich, have your construct confront the troll and we’ll follow suit. Alright. Can my construct try to run up to the troll and grapple it? Your construct runs up and is grabbing the troll. It can’t restrain it, but it’s doing its best. Alright, guys, what do you think? I think that was better than anything to head on in. We’re only able to see one troll, right? Yes, you can only see one troll. Okay. Scorn holds up a little red bead on the necklace he got. I speak troll. If it looks at Scorn, I mean, like, hey, I mean, that thing doesn’t have a soul. He points at the construct. He’s just like. I would. I feel like you might be better off starting off first here, Scorn. Right, okay. Okay. I got you. Picking up what you’re laying down. Yeah. We can do this. Um. I assume. You know, if it, like, uh, motions to Scorn to take the lead, and um, I motion for the rest of the group to follow suit as we approach the entrance of this cave. Loading bony halls. Ooh. That’s right. My goodness. There’s piles of bones all picked dry. Don’t get too excited, Aldric.
I’m rolling my portent for you there. For the new day. The rolls are still private. Yeah, I know. I usually do it private for the suspense. Oh, okay, got you. Okay, okay. Alright. So that wasn’t this construct. That was me rolling portent. Alright. Um. The troll turns towards you. Held back by the construnt. It’s yelling. Yelling in the feverish, the resounding, the sonorous tones of the mountain giants. Doesn’t speak a word of common, but you hear it yelling again and again. It’s low-throating voice, violent and angry. Scorn, do a thing. Yeah, Scorn throws a beat of the fireball at it. Yeah. Which does. What kind of construct did you make, Aldric? Bone. Stone? So it shouldn’t be hurt too bad from this, right? We’ll find out. I’m rolling damage. Pretty good. Bit above the curve. So there we go. Should we all roll for initiative, I assume? Yes. Twins! Twins! Whoa. Me and Aldric are completely astounded by Scorn’s fireball. Hey, you told me to go first. There you are. Try to keep up. And what’s Starling doing that takes her minute to return to looking at the bones? Uh-huh. Oh my god. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I forgot. I don’t really need to do that. Yeah, that was unnecessary. We are all except for Scorn. Scorn, you fireball the troll and the construct together. The troll screams, its low voice echoing on the halls, and you hear shuffling from deeper within. You hear bones being kicked out of the way as something large approaches. I’m going to roll a dexterity saving throw for this construct then. Should I? Smart. Yes. Oh, shit. Do I not have any more giant oil? I don’t know. Hold on, hold on. Aldric, Aldric knew the. Can we say Aldrich knew? I don’t know if this would make it a save or not. What’s the save DC? 15 on a necklace of fireballs. Never mind. Aldrich would know that. Oh, there we go. Okay. Would Ipid still have some of his giant oil that was given to him last time? Or is he fresh out of that? He is fresh out. Oh, man. Okay. Alright, I’m going to bring his. Yeah, you did it. You did it. I was going to say this construct has 7 HP. And now, Scorn, we’re to you in combat. Yeah. I move over here. So that fireball was before the combat. That wasn’t my first action. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. I move over here and let’s see. I drop. I’m going to drop a bardic inspiration on Ipid and remind him that he’s got to stop getting beat up so bad. Duly noted. Move over here. And what do I do next? Not much. I’m going to cast mirror image. Because I think this is going to get ugly. Why can’t I wear my own dogs like that anymore? It’s lame. Alright.
You’re gonna be gone. There’s mirror image. Okay. Construct is concentration, so I can’t use any concentration stuff. So he’s gonna fireball the troll. Alright, roll to hit. That hits. Roll damage. Do I need to roll damage? Yeah. There we go. I can see it now. Wasn’t happening. 10. You hit the troll with the firebolt, it reels back, screaming in its low and angry language. And you see one of it dies, it’s burned away. Um, that’s Aldrich’s turn, but he would like to then control the construct to attack. So it’s gonna make its multi-attacks. So attack number one is the slam that hits. Oh, cool. Um damage is what? One d8 plus four plus four, right? So ten second attack nice fifteen that hits again on D8 plus four plus four thirteen damage. You see the troll’s limbs broken at its being beaten down by the construct and you see its flesh knitting itself back together as it stands angry. That’s his turn. The troll immediately tries to bite down on the construct that’ll hit then if can we say before that he could have done his stony lethargy, I believe, or not. It’s maybe not gonna matter if he’s dead. No, yes, that would be when it starts. So we’ll just although you did six damage, you’d still be alive at this point with one HP So wisdom saving throw It makes the throw I think are you sure? Because is it not against my is it against the stone construct one or the or my DC? I think it’s against oh it’s against yours so it fails so it fails yeah yes so it just means it can make opportunity attacks and its speed is halved yeah and then it attacks with its claws 14 ah still hits is it no its armor should be seventeen seventeen yeah misses again that time it hits oh no it’ll go down now you see the troll claw through your construct as it dissolves into stone dust and then the troll goes forward as fast as it can only making it a few steps and now it is startling’s oh no now it is ipid’s turn
Okay, Ipid is going to run up to this troll wielding his sword. He’s going to be like, hi. And he’s going to swing his. 14. That misses. That misses. So I’ll only get the graze. That’s 3 HP. He misses on his first swing, but he’s going to try again with his second attack. 26. That hits. Alright, let’s roll damage. Cool, that’s going to be 12 damage against it. Alright, Ipid, how do you kill the troll? How tall is it? About 12 feet. About 12 feet. Ipid sort of like he puts an extra bit of um on his strike up towards it, and he’s gonna slice its neck. Or as close as he gets to it, um, letting the blood drain from this troll’s body slowly and letting it die. The troll dies quietly, not an utterance out of its mouth. It falls to the ground in front of you. And after it falls, you hear the thumping of something running from deeper within. Guys, more are coming. Starling, it’s your turn. Okay, I would like to, as my action, I’d like to cast Aura of Vitality. Let’s see. Oh, that’s nice. Very nice. And then as a bonus action, I would like to cast spiritual weapon. Wait, hold on. I cannot. Ibid, did you take any damage? I did not, thankfully. Okay. Why can’t you cast spiritual weapon? Concentration. Oh, okay. That’s my turn. You hear the thundering of footsteps. As you see an ogre come running around the corner ahead of you. Oh, brain baby. You hear an ogre running from behind you. Well, that’s not the best thing I’ve heard today. Okay. What would Tom do? And of course their roles are better than ours. We all need matching. Tom is still outside with the horses. I mean, I’ll just saying that is just general. We all need matching. What would Tom do, tattoos? Yeah. The ogre from behind Scorn comes running up. Oh, hi there. And it swings at you with his great club. Okay. It smashes through a pile of bones beside you. Not coming close to hitting you or any of your illusions. Alrighty then. And now, Scorn, it is your turn. You should leave. Scorn cast dissonant whispers on the ogre. And oh, let’s see. I need my. Ah, there it is. Okay, dissonant whispers. Where are you? I need you. There it is. Boom. And let’s see. Uh damage. It fails. And takes 11th psychic, and he is running away. Hell yeah, dude. What’d you tell it, Scorn?
I just turned around and said, you should leave now. He didn’t like that very much. He’s running away as a reaction. Can I get an opportunity attack? Yes. Oh, good. Okay. Let’s see. Where are you at? Oops. Oh, there we go. This is with my staff without True Strike, unfortunately. Let’s see. Cornerstaff. Core staff. Yeah, there we go. Boom. You hit rule damage. Yeah, this is a part that sucks. He is not strong. Yeah, I did one point of damage to him. We. You have a minus one on your. He’s got a strength of eight. He’s not a fighter, yeah. Ah, poor guy. He felt that. He felt it. I know he felt it. I saw him flinch. It’s like when you step on a Lego. Ipid. As you’re standing by the corpse of the troll, you see an ogre come running down and throw it out of its way to attack you. Did I do that? No, he doesn’t. He swings down, smashing the body of the troll out of its way. You missed. And now, Aldric, it is your turn. Oh, it only gets one attack? So, is it… I’m sorry, go ahead. Oh, you up? Okay, I thought you’re right. Is it raining outside still? Yes. And are we getting thunder and lightning? Yes. Okay, so Aldric’s gonna. Is Aldrich kind of still near the door? Yes, he’s right by the door. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he’s gonna kind of turn. Aldrich’s gonna turn and run away. No, um. No, no, no. Um. He’ll turn and kind of put his hands out a little bit towards the outside as he casts a chromatic orb. And the chromatic orb will be of lightning damage. So he’s going to kind of try and harness that weather outside and kind of draw the weather from outside and all the way into the ogre right side beside Ipid. Alright. So it was a spell attack 22. That does hit. So then. Okay, there it is damage. And add a D8 to that. Ooh. From the storm. Ooh, awesome. Clever. Ooh. Uh-uh. A little bit of storm. It’s when you, um. It’s when you get a little shock from your outlet when you plug something. Or a little bit of static on top. Yeah. Ow! Bonus action, nothing really going on. No one’s being hit, right? So it’s fine. That’s his turn. Alright, Ipid, it is your turn. You, having just cut down the troll, are now face to face with an ogre. Its breath is rancid and vile as it stares you down. Ipid looks at it with anger. And he’s going to strike it with his great sword. See if this hits. 18, does that hit? That hits. Okay. When Ipid grips his sword, his blade burns as a bright red. And he’s going to be casting this as a bonus action. He’s going to be casting Wrathful Smite. So on top of my original damage, why right now? Take the best of the two. What the heck? I’m rolling the exact same. Alright, so that’s an 11 damage on Smite, which is the target takes an extra 1d6 damage. I’m going to just do it as a level 1. And it must succeed on a wisdom-saving throw, or it will be frightened until the spell ends. I’m going to roll damage on it, though.
So that’s an 11 plus 1. That’s 12 damage. And it has to beat a 12 DC wisdom saving. It fails. Fails. Before it runs away again, though, I’m going to strike it again with my second attack. Oh, gosh. Ooh! That’s a critical natural 20. So that’s damage with a critical hit. And that’s 20 damage on one swing. So how do you kill this ogre? Oh, my gosh. If it swings down with the bright red sword, and he swings down, slashing it across the chest, and then right after that first swing, he’s going to jab it directly into its chest until it stops moving. As you slash down and jab straight in it, you open up its guts and you’re just covered in them. Oh, gross. Oh, man. Guys, I got it. We can see that. Yes. As you hear this, you hear a whisper in the back of your mind. Yes, grevel in victory. You see the smile on Ipet’s face after beating this ogre fade almost instantly as he swings his sword to get the guts off of it. And he looks towards Scorn. And he says, any sign of that ogre that you sent away on coming back? Oh, he’s over here thinking it over. Might take him a while. And that’s it for Ipet’s turn. Starling, it is your turn. Okay. Starling is going to head in the direction of the other ogre. Okay. And Cal’s guiding bolt. If I can find it, here we go. That hits. Did I roll the damage? I think you rolled attack again. You rolled attack again. Okay, how do I roll the damage from there? Do I have to click it again? So back up on this first spell, there’s one of the buttons will be damage. I see. I got it. Thank you. Come on. Oh! Oh, you see the troll’s knees buckle as the spell hits it. And it turns around and glares at you with its dark red eyes. Good job, Starling. Thank you. You hear the thumping of feet. And Ipid, there is no rest in sight as you see another troll round. Not a troll, another ogre round the corner. I’m standing next to two dead bodies, and I, and I, and Ipid looks at him. He just goes. You still have a part of it where you should die. Don’t worry. Okay, noted. Thank you. Ipid stands at the ready. Ipid. From your left, you see a troll approaching. Another one? Oh, wait. An ogre or a troll? A troll. You can barely make it out between the shadows. Oh, okay. Yeah, I see it. Okay. So there’s an ogre on the right, a troll on the left. I see. Don’t worry, guys. I think we’re still in the advantage here. Let’s take it as it goes. Scorn. You see a troll running down the hallway towards you. Not a troll. An ogre. Yeah. And it swings at you with its great club. Okay. That will hit. Let me make rolls for mirror image. Yeah, he definitely hit one of the mirror images. He smashes his club through one of the illusions, screaming in a low, guttural tone. And you hear the other ogres and trolls in the halls echoing after it. Oh, dear. Her rage. Abundant.
Scorn, it is your turn. Okay, uh, true strike with my staff, and I’ll have advantage on this one. Yay. Um, advantage. There we go. That roll’s not happening. Why is this roll not happening? Let’s see. Advantage roll. There it is. That’s more like it. Okay. And that’s 2d6 plus 4. There we go. That’s supposed to be 2d6. Okay. Eight points of radiant damage. Yay. You hit the troll and its eyes flail about wildly as it yells, bellowing from the depths of its guts as you’re covered in its spit. That’s why I told you to go away. Nobody likes you. You’ve seen ogres and trolls running down the halls, and you hear more coming. Can’t see anything yet. Ooh, okay. I’m going to create a flaming spear. I want to cast a third level, though, not second. A little bit more damage. How do I do that? If you scroll down to your third level spells, or no, no, no, you go to that spell, it should give you a drop what level you want to cast it at. It’ll ask you. It’ll ask me, yeah. I’m just scared of clicking it too soon. Oh, yeah, there we go. I’m scared to cast it. Scared of magic, man. He’s scared of magic. Leave it to this wizard who’s scared of magic. So he’s going to put it. I assume he can hear the left. The left. Yeah, right. So he’s going to put waiting at the entrance of that tunnel on the left. If you can see where I put that template there. And it’s just, I can have that there and roll it around. So he’s just going to wait until he sees something and try and direct it towards those trolls or those enemies when he sees them. I think that’s his spell. That’s his turnover, though. Ibid, it is now your turn. You see an ogre down the hallway, ready to approach. Oh, man. I don’t have enough speed to get to it. I do have my spear, though. Okay. Alright, it bid at the um if it’s just gonna move up a tad bit. It bid at the ogre that’s approaching him dead ahead. He’s gonna go ahead and try to throw his spear at it. That’s an 18. That hits. Okay, I’m gonna roll my damage. It’s a seven damage against it. Now, hold on. Does my savage attacker does that work with only melee? Hold on. Once per turn, you hit a target with a weapon. Roll the damage twice. That wouldn’t go specifically. That’s a weapon. That’s a nine, so I’ll take the nine. And as a bonus action, that’s going to be a yeah, that’s going to be a divine smite. This isn’t a fiend, is it? No, it’s a giant. A giant from hell? I’m going to use one of my divine or one of just one of my. This doesn’t count as a spell. It’s one of my innates. So that’s going to be a nine plus ten nineteen total. With a bright light, I throw my spear at this ogre coming towards you. Your shining spear stab this stabs this ogre. It bellows at you. Oh, did that upset you? Hmm. Now star. I do have another attack, but I can’t do it. Wait, you want to do it? You have another spear? I’ve had the one once been just picking up. So that’s it. Okay. Starling, what will you do? Ibit, are you good on hit points? I am full HP. I’m okay. Oh, we’ve been very lucky. All right.
I’m going to touch the ogre and cast inflict wounds. Ouch. It’s a DC-15 constitution saving through. We got another heavy hitter. It fails its saving throw. Roll damage. 19. Ow. As you inflict wounds upon the ogre, you see the many scars on its body opening up. Blood gushing from it as it collapses in a heap of every wound it’s ever experiencing being re-inflicted upon it as it falls to the ground dead in front of you. Oh, wow. Good job. Hold on. That’s my free action. I just like to kick it. You have a little blood on your boots now. Then you see a troll run straight into Aldrich’s flaming spear. So it should be 3d6 fire damage if I’m. Oh, wait, he’s going to dexterity save me and throw that one, maybe. Roll 3d6. Okay. Ooh. You see the troll’s flesh burning as it bellows at you. An Ipid behind the ogre that comes running down towards you. I see another troll rounding the corner. Oh, gosh. This is a beefy combat, man. Starling, past the body of the ogre that you’ve killed. You see another ogre coming. It howls in rage. Yeesh, okay. First, it is the ogre facing down Ipid. It swings, battering Ipid’s armor with its club. And Scorn, it is your turn. Uh-huh. Yeah, you have Scorn at your back. Yeah, not for long. Scorn takes a look at Starling. He’s like, I think we should leave. Would you like to leave? I think we can handle it. Oh, I’m sure we can, but not like this. He just puts a hand on your shoulder, and he’s casting Thunderstep. And I’m going to come down here. I’m going to bring Starling with me. Unless she wants to stay behind and take some damage. I don’t think she. I don’t think she does. That would have been the second time Scorn hurts a woman with his thunderstep. He’s wincing a little like, oh, God, this better work. Let’s see. No, no, no, no, no, no. Scorn’s like, if I had a nickel for every time I hurt a woman with thunderstep, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot. It’s weird that happened. And let’s see, let’s erase that. It’s 3d10. There we go. Thunder damage. Oh, nice. Not terrible. 15 points, thunder damage. You got a DC 15 con save against that. Not the save I’d like, but that’s that. Oh, nice. He eats it. And I’ll, in the process, give Starling a bardic inspiration. Just in case. Thank you. The troll is confused, swinging around where you had once stood. Now, Scorn, will you do anything with your bonus action? Yeah, that was the bardic inspiration. Okay. And let me see. I still have movement. Let me see if I want to do anything with that.
I like where I’m at. Yeah. Stay right there. That’s me done. You see a troll come running down the hall angrily charging toward Ipid. But it can’t get past the ogre that stands in its way. So naturally, the troll begins attacking the ogre. It tries to bite. Failing that, it begins clawing. Claws deep into the ogre’s back. Yay. You’ve never seen anything like this before. A troll mercilessly tearing apart an ogre. This is pretty horrific. Like the old joke, what does a troll eat? Anything it wants to. Aldric, could you roll 3d6 for me for fire damage? Okay. See the troll standing next to your flaming sphere burning, and it rushes forward towards you at Aldrich. Aldric gets a premonition where he sees an attack coming and he kind of does a kind of quick dodge that you would never think is possible. You see, it fails to bite off Aldric’s head by just a minch. And it attacks with its claws. Failing yet again. Aldric’s ducking and weaving. Finally, it makes contact. Ow. Ow. Dang. Is this the first time we’ve taken damage? Those are squishiest guy. Now, Aldric, it is your turn. I need to do concentration on sphere. You’re good. Your concentration holds. Right, so he’s going to move this. Is anything attacking? Where is it? Is anything attacking Ipid? There’s an ogre. He’s being attacked by an ogre, and right behind that is a troll. And that’s where they’re doing the attacking thing. Yeah. There is always something attacking Ipid. And from the very left-hand side, is there anything coming? You hear things coming from the very left. Alright, so I’ll move the sphere to that left entrance as the bonus action. As the action, he would like to try and hit the troll with his staff of withering. Oh. I forgot you had that. Holy shit. And he gets the premonition that it’s going to work. He hopes. He gets the premonition this door. Basically, I’m saying I want to use my portent dice if this fails. I don’t know if you want me to do my portent first without rolling or whatever. No, it just fails and it gets hit with the staff. Yeah, so that’s the portent gone, then, is it? Yeah. So, roll your necrotic damage and your staff. Okay. So, does that do it for me? I wonder. Okay, no, right. I’ll get to that separately. So the staff does that, and it is 2D10. Necrotic damage. Yeah, but doesn’t it have a charge that you can use? 2D damage. Yeah, so I did want to. Oh, that’s that. Okay, never mind. I see. Use that for 2D10 and force it to make a DC Constitution, a DC 15 Constitution Semitro. You see the troll as it stands before you. Its flesh shrinks and withers as it dies. Holy shit! Wow. Hell yeah, Aldric! Beat an animal to death. Wow. Now, Ipid, it is your turn. You’re face to face with a troll that’s being torn apart both on your end and by a hand from behind. Ipid is about to sneeze. Um. Sorry. Uh, Ipid hits it with his sword. Because that’s what he’s been doing. It’s been working as this twelve. Okay. Do you want to put a bardic inspiration on that? Yeah, my.
Might as well. Yeah, that’s a DA race. Oh, 12 hits? Save it. I’ll do damage then. That’s going to be a 14 or a. That’s going to be a 14. That’s going to be a 14 damage on its first hit, and he’s going to use his second attack on the same thing. Ooh! Ooh! Another crit, baby! You’re on fire. All right, how do you kill this ogre? Oh, hold on. I just want to see what it looks like, though. And that’s a 20 on damage. Ipid, uh, if it, as his first strike hits, he sees because the troll is still hitting it, right? Yeah. So, Ibid’s is going to back up, and we’re just going to say that the troll killed it. And it falls to my feet. You hear a voice in the back of your mind. Yes. Revel in their mindlessness. Ipid shakes that off and is ready to face the troll. I’ve been getting way too lucky. Maybe you were due after getting beat so heavily in the past. Ipid’s going to play the lottery after this. Starling, it is your turn. Okay, so our vitality is going to heal Auric. Aldric, yeah. Aldric. Nice. And then let’s see how far is this? 40. Okay. I’m going to do another guiding bolt on the troll. That hits. See. Nice. As you hit the troll with your guiding bolt, you see it begin to shine with radiant light. And Ipid, you see a line drawn from your sword straight to the troll’s heart, guided by the light. Oh. Awesome. Will that be all, Starling? That’s my turn, sorry. Alright. And then you see an ogre approaching down the hallway on your left. And from behind, you see a much larger giant. From behind? What do you mean, from behind? From behind the ogre or from the egg? From behind the ogre. Oh, okay. Comes running up, cleaves the ogre in two, and runs straight towards you. Oh, gosh. Does it pass through the fire? It does. 3d6. Nice. You see the fire licking its legs, and it doesn’t flinch. It doesn’t burn. Loser! And scorn. It is your turn. Yeah, we gotta get on this. A massive giant come running down the hallway. Oh, yeah. Its shoulders are 15 feet wide, and it stands over 30 feet tall. And it one-shot an ogre. Maybe it’ll be friends with us. I guess Charm Monster. See any good movies lately? None of our people are attacking it yet, so yeah, it’s not going to have advantage on that save. You sure Aldric’s thing wouldn’t count? Don’t know. No, it didn’t take any damage. Oh, okay, never mind. And it wasn’t a direct attack, and it didn’t take any damage from it. So, no. That’s nice. So, yeah. Charm monster. And that’s going to be a DC-15 wisdom save? Yeah. Oh. Oh, just made it. It barely sees through your magic. Its eyes burning. I think you made it more angry. Maybe I did. I’m trying to think if. I don’t think cutting words will help with this. It doesn’t work out. Shall I use my portent then? That would be good. Yeah. That would be wonderful. It’s my highest spell slot, and I only get to do it once. Oh, really? Okay, I didn’t know that. And yeah. We might need his help. We might need his help. Okay. So Ultric sees him. What does the Charm Monster Magic kind of look like?
Like as it’s going on towards the mouse. Oh, well, you know, he suddenly realizes that this stranger he just met is his best friend in the world. Well, his best friend. We’re going to cry. You know, we get along, okay. Yeah, that’s just it. It’s a it’s an enchantment. So I guess Aldric would see that it’s not quite taking effect, and maybe the giants, like, I don’t know, maybe, like, shaking his head or not sure. And Aldric is like, no, I’ve seen. I’ve seen this before. You are our friend. Yeah, definitely. He scorns friend, not your friend. Scorn’s friend, right? Yeah, you are scorn’s friend. You are. Definitely are. It’s kind of sending his positive vibes to. So he’s using the portent roll that you got. If you can. So Aldric, you bend fate a little bit. And you see the fire in the eyes of the giant go out as it stands with its sword at its side, looking around, trying to figure out just what’s going on. Score and say something. And then the troll goes running up to Ipid. I wish you would. It fails to bite Ipid. Attacks with its claws. Glancing off of his armor again. You are on the receiving end of a battery of weak attacks as it attempts again and again to make it through your armor. I am a wall! I will not falter now, Aldric. It is your turn. Alright, so I kind of know that the monster, the giant, is fine for the moment. So I want to move. Oops, move say 20 feet over there. Let me do that. 20 feet to 15-ish. 20 feet. So about there. So I can be more in the thick of it. What am I seeing? So I only see like one troll. You’re seeing Ipid standing on a pile of bodies. Yeah. And he looks really good. Like, his back muscles look really nice. And I see one troll. One troll staring down Ipid. Alright. I will chromatic orb the troll. Let me see. It will be. I’d want to try and do an acid one on the troll. And cast it as third level. So 19 to attack. That hits. So I think Aldric would try and use whatever horrible stuff is in the room. Like the bones and the bodies. To try and conjure up a horrible, acid-y, disgusting toxin to try and fire it towards the troll there. Alright. Third level. Third level is 5d8? Yes. Roll 68. As you pull more energy from the deep and disgusting refuse left in the hall. 22. You see the troll’s flesh melting as the ball of acid burns through it. And that’s my turn. Ipid, it’s your turn. This troll has been going after you. It’s unsuccessfully beating on your armor. And you just saw it get burned with a ball of acid. Now, I’m going to beat it. Never. Oh, you have advantage. I have advantage. Now that part of inspiration might be useful. Oh, yeah, I didn’t use it yet. That’s an 8, right? D8? Yeah. Alright, so that hits. Okay. I’ll take 13 damage on the first hit. And I shall swing once more. That’s a dirty 20. That hits.
With 11 damage. See the troll cut deeply, burned from acid, but still hanging on. Starling, it is your turn. Okay, I’d like to move up to the troll and do another inflict wounds. DC-15, saving through. It fails. Roll damage. 11. You see the wounds already carved into the troll with blade and acid widen as they grow and split its body into pieces as it falls to the ground in a wretched heap. Fantastic. I would like to take the rest of my movement to let’s see. Move 25 feet in the other direction. And that’s my turn. After the troll dies, the hall is eerily quiet. And before you stands the fire giant. How long does your spell last, Score? Oh, about an hour. Have we… We’re out of combat now, eh? Yeah. Okay, I’m gonna. Yeah, talk to the giant. Do you speak common, my friend? Its voice rumbles, and you do not understand it. Well, at least he’s friendly. Does anyone speak giant? I don’t. I do not. I need to get the tongue spell real soon now. Um, don’t have it now. Okay. I can learn it, but it’s um not in my ability at the moment. So, I’m just gonna. Um, I’m just gonna pan him. I’m putting down my weapon and motion that I want him to do the same. You see him look at you, then it takes its sword and spears it through the body of an ogre. I’ll take it. Now remember he is charmed only for one hour. Uh-huh. Yep. I’d like to try to speak to him in Dwervish. He doesn’t understand. Okay. Okay. Well, let’s not make any threatening moves towards Tiny here and see what else we see what we can find in this place. Yeah. Should we go to the right first? I don’t know. I’m fine with that. I’m going to go that way. Ipid, do you come in? Yeah, you leading the way. Aldric and lead the way. Maybe I shouldn’t. Yeah, what am I doing? Okay, go back. It’s okay. You know, it’s my honor to protect you guys. Not saying that, you know, you all need protection. I’m just… I’m… Never mind. And if it shuts up and keeps moving. I, um, yeah, I’ll follow them and motion to my big friend that he should follow me. Gosh, this place is still just covered in bones. He grumbles along in his low, giant voice. And I’ll try Draconic. You don’t speak Draconic, do you? He shakes his head. What’d you say, Scorn? What’d you say? What? I was talking to Tiny. Oh! Did you say that? And then he starts to speak in Draconic. Do you speak Draconic? Uh, yeah, I studied. Oh, wow! Hey, that’s neat. Hey, the more I know, huh? I didn’t know you spoke. I didn’t know you spoke a little Draconic. Your accent sounds really good, man. Aldrich, as you’re examining some bones, you find some boots lined with fur. You can sense magic rippling through them. I’ll put them in my pack. I’m not going to waste any time identifying just yet because we’ve got a bit of a time limit here. So I’ll just say, I got some boots. Okay. Definitely the boots with the fur, yeah. Is my giant still following me? He’s still following you. That’s nice. You pass.
Pass through a few passages that are too narrow for him, but he finds his way around. He can squeeze through. Maybe. No way any of us talk to Speak Giant or whatever. We can get an understanding of what this place is. Aldrich can mutter a few words in Elvish and see if he responds to that. He does not. Yeah, I didn’t think so. Scorn says in Elvish. Well, what did you expect? I just saw the giant rushing at me. Is there anything of value in this place? Gorn. Yes. Everybody roll investigation real quick. As you’re searching. Oh! Nine. Oh, there we go. Two. Five. Oh. Well, Scorn, you find a pair of gauntlets. You feel magic within them. Okay. Well, I’ll pick those up. Tuck them away somewhere. I’ll stay behind, Scorn, as we’re exploring. Aldric, you find a bundle of four red potions. Ooh. Four red potions. Do they look anything like those temple ones? They do not, but you can feel them vibrating with giant magic. Scorn, as you get to the depths, you find a large belt engraved with giant writing. You can feel it has stronger magic than most other things you’ve touched today. Hmm. Well, that’s good. Okay, let’s pick that up and hang on to it for now. If we’re looking at the bones, are we still just seeing like various probably travelers? You’re seeing everything from the size of travelers to giants and everything in between. That’s fairly revolting. Okay. Some of the bones are fresh, bits of flesh still sticking to them. Some of them have been sitting here for so long that they are completely white and dry. How long is this taking? This whole exploration is taking about 45 minutes. Okay, well, let’s finish it up and get out of here. Maybe the fire giants should go to the back of the thing. The back of the hall before we leave it. What are you planning? I’m just going to tell him. I’ll try to tell him to stay where he is, just right here. And I’ll point to a troll and an ogre and make, you know, sword-slashing noises or motions. Let him know that he should attack anything bigger than us that gets in here. And I hope he understands. Can I make a check for that? Like, performance or something? Yeah, roll performance. Okay. See if I can get the point across to him. Oh, wait, I have advantage on charisma checks because he’s charmed. So there’s 18. Second roll. No. So 18 it is. He seems to get the idea and sits down next to the door. Excellent. Let’s run like hell. Yeah. Get out of there. Yes. Time to leave. As you go running out, the storm has lessened. It’s now a light rain, and you can see a bit of the light of the sky again. Tom, horses? The way ahead of you is steep, and Tom is at the ready with horses. All lined up and ready to go. I think we should be on our way quickly. I’d suggest we put as much distance as we can between us and this place. Because, um, well, when that spell wears off, that giant’s going to be pissed. Yes. Agreed. It’s a shame we weren’t able to find any more info. Yeah. We found a lot of trinkets. Yeah. Magical trinkets. I’m just curious on why there were so many creatures that didn’t seem to be working together, you know? Alright, as you’re running on the
The horses are going faster than they should. They seem to be taking two steps for every one as you go thundering up the mountains. You see Tom’s eyes glowing with a magical light. After you’ve been riding up the hills as fast as you can for a solid 15 minutes, you hear a bellowing from down below. Doesn’t know where you went, and it is enraged. Does anyone have the ability to send a message back to the guards of the town? Melrose. I don’t think I really. You hear it getting further away as it runs down the mountain. I think Melrose might be in trouble. I think you might be right. We can’t go back. We did what we could. Well, I mean, if we can catch it before it gets there. Ibid. Wait, so hold on. Explain the scene again. The horses are going very fast. They are riding up the mountain very quickly. And you hear the giant running towards Melrose, screaming in rage. How far is it? Right now, you have about a mile’s distance between you. Ibid, seeing that it’s running towards Melrose, pulls on the reins of his horse. And he is going to run towards that giant. I follow him. Wow, we’re doing this. So follow him. Or them, rather. That giant’s headed right to Melrose. I don’t even care if it’s only just. I’m not going to let it get near that place. As you turn your horse, Ibid, you hear the voice of Bahamut. Remember to choose justice. Ibid narrows his eyes and he. I don’t know. He does something to make the horse keep going faster. Ride. Uh-oh. Thrive. As you are riding down the mountain, you’re coming up behind the giant. And it turns towards you. Its eyes burning with infernal rage. Okay. If it’s like, that’s right, pick a fight with me, not them. And Ipid. You see a familiar symbol around its neck. As it has the symbol of the bleeding half-moon. Um. Okay. No, it’s not like the pendant that we found. It’s just the bleeding half moon. No, it is like the pendant you found. Oh, okay. So, alright, so Ipid pauses for a minute. He looks up at it. He’s like, okay, this thing is probably similar to the Cyclops that we fought after we banished it. Um if it’s trying to pay it, no mine. Um, while on horseback, he is going to run straight to the giant and attack it. All right, Ibid. My meter attack. Alright, yeah, bet. This is going to be like Breath of the Wild when Link fights Ganon at the end on horse. That’s a 25. That hits. It’s going to roll damage twice. That’s going to be a 12, and he’s going to be doing that as a. That’s going to be a. Damn it, where is it? That’s going to be a divine smite. Alright, everybody roll initiative. Is this a fiend? No. No? Alright, I just wanted to. He’s going to roll a spell. Level 1 Divine Smite. You know what? No, he’s going to roll a level 2 Divine Smite. Beautiful. So that’s going to be a. What did I do for damage for my sword? I did 10. No, I did 12. So that’s 12 plus 21 damage on my first attack. So yeah, he runs by on his horde. He hits it. And then with.
It’s divine smite, and then on its pullback, he’s gonna strike it once more to see if it hits. Oh my god, that’s another critical. All right, roll damage. That’s 21. It’s a sign you’re doing the right thing. I gotta need an initiative. And Ipid roll another second-level divine smite as you feel the power of the god of wrath burning through you. Oh, it’s helping me. Am I using a slot for this? No. Beautiful. Oh, wow. That’s 16. You see the giant heavily beaten by your attacks as you cleave into it with divine wrath. I have a question about Ipid’s damage. So he rolled a critical hit. Does he get double dice or double damage? Double dice. Right, so he would have rolled four. You should roll another 3d8 for your divine smite. Okay, I thought it would be base. I thought it was just based on the sword attack, not the divine smite. It’s because the divine smite adds damage to an attack. It’s not a separate attack. Okay, so I guess just roll again then. Yeah, just another 3d8. It’s a three. Oh my god. Three ones. Holy shit. My luck was bound to run out at one point. Well, I think you just used up all the bad luck right there. Yeah. So, like, regularly, your attacks do 2d6 damage. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Plus four, right? Okay, so when you get a critical, you get four d6. I see, I see. Yep. All right, Aldric. It is now your turn. All right. Aldric’s impressed by the heroism, if not a little bit scared at the same time. By like, what the hell are we doing fighting this? Okay, let’s be okay. Let’s try and do the. What do you mean, what the hell? This thing is running towards Melrose, and the whole point we’re up here is to help Melrose. So I’m not letting a giant slip through my fingers. Right. Anyway, he’s going to do another chromatic or this time. Again, third level, last third level slot. And it will damage. Yeah, I need to decide that. So, based on where we are, I think. Oh, and the fact that it’s a fire giant, he’ll try and bring it down as cold damage. If the mountains are cold at the moment, I’m not sure. He’ll try and bring cold damage from the area down onto it. So attack roll. Uh-oh. Only, well, never mind. It’s a three. It’s a ten. Were you doing anything with your bonus action? Are you okay, Ipits? Health HP wise. I have not been touched this entire session. Amazing. And I think everyone else is fine, right? So, yeah, I’m fine. I think Aldrich will just move slightly towards Ipids 10 feet or so, just being like, wow. Enthralled at Ipitz heroism. And that’s his turn. Starling, it is your turn. I have a quick question. Innate spellcasting, you can just innately cast it once per day. Yeah. Without expending a spell slot, right? Yeah, you don’t use a spell slot. Okay, cool. I am going to. Let’s see. Got it. Hmm. I’m going to cast Moonbeam. DC 15 saving through him. It makes the save. Okay. Okay, let me see. Failed save. A creature takes 2d10. Okay. Alright, nothing happens. No, it takes half damage on a successful save. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Six. Alright, now, Scorn, it is your turn. Scorn dismounts and walks up. My friend, I see you are.
Going the wrong way. I’m going to cast slow on him. That’s a DC-15 wisdom save. Bails. He is slowed. Let me get that onto the board here. Where’s my slow spell? Ah, there you are. Boom. So, minus two to AC and dexterity saving throws. Can’t take reactions. It can take an action or bonus action, but not both. And it can only make one attack if it takes the attack action. Yay. And I’ll. It doesn’t matter what the area is. I’m only hitting one target. And I’ll. I’m going to save the bardic inspiration. Because I think we’re okay. Yeah. I’m not taking a bonus action. Alright. Let me see. Yeah, that’s all. That’s all for me. Ipid, I think you’re finally getting the hang of this. The fire giant turns towards Ibid and slowly smashes into him with his great sword. Okay, that one hits. Yeah, but he can only hit you once. Ow. That was with. That was with like three ones and two twos. Uh-oh. Ipid, he hits you for 20 damage. What am I concentrating on right now? It’s with 16, whatever. And now, Ipid, it is your turn. Ipid winces through the pain, not faltering, and strikes at this giant with all of his might. Because he’s cool like that. It does not hit. Alright, that’s three damage on a graze. I’m going to swing one more time. 18. That hits. It’s going to be a 14 damage. And since we’re already doing it, I’m going to go ahead and add some stank on that. And that’s going to be a divine smite as well. Level 1 divine smite for right now. That’s going to be an additional 9 damage. See the giant falter underneath the heavy blow. You see blood leaking through from his armor. And Aldric is your turn. The giant is slowed down, right? Yes. Does that give you advantage on attacks or anything like that? No. It doesn’t, does it? It gives him a minus two to his AC and deck saving throws, so sort of. Oh, okay. So you do get advantage. Right. Aldric’s going to. Sorry, go ahead. It’s not advantage, but. He’s got a penalty. Yeah, he’s got a penalty. That’s good enough. Aldric will rush forward on his horse. If he’s still on his horse, I assume at this point, well, whatever. And try to hit him with a staff of Withering again. Alright, roll to hit. It’s going to need some luck here. No. He’s like, nope. Nope, working. Nope, nope. And then try to run away. If I run away, is he going to attack me? Nope. He can’t make an opportunity attack. He’s slowed. Okay, so he’ll just run back to 10 feet and just be like, oh, well, I tried. And then that’s it. That’s my turn. Oh, no, no, hold on. Let’s do… Let’s do bonus action. I will. I’ve got my spell. Can I do that? Yeah. I’m going to do… I’m going to do. Oh, except I can’t cast that. I’m run out of spell slots. Never mind. Oh, well. That’s my turn. Starling, it is your turn. You’re… I’m muted right now. Yep. Ipid gets eight points of healing. Yay! Excellent. And that’s my turn. Scorn, it is your turn.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I haven’t got much for this guy. I got I got fireballs, I got a necklace of fireballs, I got knocked I want to move up there and um cast true strike and try and hit him with my staff Alright, roll to hit And I don’t think that’s gonna do it That does not Okay, that’s alright Yeah, I’m just going to I’m just gonna leave it at that Took all my movement to get there, I think one two three four now I’ve got a little bit of movement left. I won’t get out of his reach though um I want to back up a bit Yeah, that’s me. That’s all the giant looks down on you Ipid holds back his sword and swings He misses heavily And you feel the weight of his sword as it pulls the air behind it You feel it in your bones One hit bad enough from that can end you Ipic acknowledges his strength but his eyes still fierce looks up at the giant it’s your turn Ipid Ipid shall strike And he hits That’s fifteen damage He’s gonna swing once more It’s gonna be a fifteen plus nine damage As you cut into the giant again and again, it still stands strong Aldric, it is your turn You can feel yourself waning as your magic slowly depletes Yeah, there’s not much left. So can we maybe retcon did with regards to movement? It’s just a small thing. I just thought it would be funny if Aldric had charged in on his horse tried to hit him with his staff, but because I got that natural one he maybe can fall off the horse. Yeah. So he kind of fell on the ground. He’s like, oh crap, and then kind of try to run away. But then he sees the giant is engaged with Ipid and he’s kind of slowed down. So Aldric can try and run in again and try and whack him with his staff. He really wants to get this staff of Withering to go. So he’s going to do that again. So 10 foot in, whack, and try and 10 foot back controlling. Roll to hit. 15? That’ll hit. Ooh, that hits. Damage is 1d6. And I would like to use the charge of necrotic thing to try and get him to have more damage. It’s not once per day, is it? You have three charges a day. Yeah, right. So, yeah. 2d10, necrotic. And he has to make a constant some kind of saving throw. Constitution saving throw DC. Oh, holy moly. 20 damage necrotic. Aldric. You see the light in his eyes get snuffed out as you hit him with the staff of Withering. And he falls backwards into the road down the hill and slides to a stop. Yay! Aldric looks around confused and goes, what is this staff? He’s hit a troll with it and immediately died. He’s hit a giant with it and immediately died. He’s like, this is a staff of murder or something. It’s a giant killer staff. Yeah, I’m a giant killer, guys. Yes, yes, you are. Now, standing in the road, the giant laying in front of you. You having pushed yourselves to every limit you could, you stand quietly in the rain. Holy shit. We kicked ass.
Yeah, let’s see what’s on this one. He was apparently the one in charge back there. He might have something useful on him. Scorn’s going to look him over. Scorn, roll investigation for me, please. Wookiee. Oh, that’s pitiful. Okay. As you’re searching through the giant, seeing what he has stashed with him, you find a spell scroll. Can I tell what’s on it? Roll Arcana. Wookie. That would suck at Arcana. Oh, yeah, okay. 23. This spell scroll has word of recall on it. That’s interesting. Very interesting. It seems this giant had a contingency. I’m surprised she didn’t use it. So this, if I understand that spell correctly, the location to which the caster would be recalled is already set. It’s already set? Yes. Okay. Very interesting. How to explain this to my reference. Yeah, word of recall. You guys know that one? Sort of. Yeah, he set up an emergency plan to teleport him back to his, I want to say temple, but I’m not sure. Anyway, someplace consecrated by his deity. And we could use this to go there. All of us? Yeah, it’ll take us all. Would that be the smartest idea? Well, I’m not saying we should do it right now. That would be suicidal. There’s probably a lot of his friends there. But, you know, if we had a mind to, it would be a way to get in there and catch all of them by surprise. Because I don’t. Cut out there for a second. Yeah, they would not be expecting that. So, yeah, we should keep this for now. Yeah. It’ll help once we get a better understanding. I’m pretty sure Starlink can cast this better than I could, and I hands it off to her. I just hold on to it. Thank you, Scorn. Uh-huh. All right, and that’s where we’re going to leave off today. As you’re standing in the rain, having found a way into their sanctuary with all that entails. A lot of large creatures. I hope you have a good night. You too. Thanks, guys. Sorry, I was late. It’s all good. I’ll be here at 7 next time. Local time. Sounds good. Glad to see you. Yeah, it was good that you could make it. Yeah. Bye. All right, bye-bye, baby. Bye-bye.