Hey there, Pants people. Steven here. Just want
to say real quick before the episode, thank you
for listening. Thank you for hanging out with
us. Thank you for being here. We love you. Enjoy
the episode. A nasty, nasty piece of work. A
hobgoblin, some reports say, that emerged from
the war -torn Bishabad region with a drive to
hunt. Born, by his own words, in Ta 'ib's great
civil war, the Pooch has since left his homeworld
behind to engage in illegal underground bounty
hunts throughout the conquered worlds at large.
As you know, it is not wholly illegal to hunt
for bounties, so long as they are posted officially
by the speakers from their ancestors. The pooch
himself has a decent bit of legitimate gold riding
on his own live capture. Underground bounties
are a different matter, though. The pooch and
his courted boys. Two halfling twins named Boja
and Baloo have reportedly killed dozens of targets
in secret. The lucky, they say, are struck from
the shadows by crossbow bolts, whilst the unfortunate
are cut down to flurry by the pooch's pot of
bleed. The Taib civil war was a tragic, bloody
affair, and the end of the conflict was relief
to us all. Though an uneasy peace may have settled
on the world, that horrid time will never, ever
truly put to past. So long as restless ghosts
like the pooch carry on with its killing. The
boys are back in town. How long have you been
waiting for that? About the last 1 .5 seconds.
It is almost, almost Halloween! Halloween started
a month ago. What? Well, okay. September 1st.
Even worse, because when this comes out, this
is going to be half of through October, which
means it's very close to Halloween. Okay, so
a month and a half ago. Yeah, well, that's true.
I agree. Thank you. Halloween! I love Halloween.
I love Halloween. It's time for Halloween hot
take. Hot take, hot take, hot take. You guys
ready for a hot take? Yeah, what's your hot take?
Let's see. The best Halloween movie of all time
is... Alvin and the Chipmunks meet the Wolfman.
Hot take, hot take, hot take, hot take, hot take.
Yeah, I don't know. It's a good fucking movie.
I watch it this Halloween. You got a hot take
for me? Ernest Scared Stupid. Oh, Ernest. Ernest
Scared Stupid. Yeah, I like Ernest. I know Ernest.
But let me say this, David. Yeah. You have recommended
movies to me that I thought were stupid before.
I hear you. The Puss in Boots movie. How fucking
dare you, sir? Relax and let me speak. Okay.
I knew. for certain that the Puss in Boots movie
was going to be stupid and a waste of time. But
I watched it and I really enjoyed it. There you
go. There you go, see? So now when you recommend
stupid sounding movies, I'm going to at least
consider them for a moment before I think, wow,
I'll never watch a fucking Alvin and the Chipmunks
movie. All right, just clear your minds. Clear
your minds for a second, right? Minds clear.
You're in space. All right. How do you do? What's
up with you? Little brother, Mr. Hyde. How come
you're howling at the moon tonight? Okay. Now
you got to watch the movie. Is this supposed
to make me want to watch the movie? Now you got
to watch the movie. That was... Yeah. It's a
good fucking movie. Give me your own Halloween
hot take. What do you got? Hot take, hot take,
hot take. Hot take, hot take. Hot take. I fucking
love candy corn. Wow. That's bold. I love candy
corn. Same. Okay. But all right. Circus peanuts
though. They're garbage, right? No, no, no, no.
Come on. Candy corn is terrible. Candy corn and
circus. But here's the thing. No, no. Here's
the thing. Hot take, hot take, hot take, hot
take. Yeah. What do you got? I love both candy
corn and circus peanuts, but no matter how much
I'm craving them, both of them are only things
that I can only eat a few of before I'm like,
that's it. And then I'm sick of them for however
long. And then I get the craving again and I
have a few more. Oh, the pumpkins? The candy
corn pumpkins? It's terrible. How delectable
are those? They are, but it's almost too much
in one bite. Well, yeah, you have like three
or four of them. Did you say Halloween salad?
Yeah, Halloween salad. It's candy corn, circus
peanuts, and pumpkins. My teeth hurt. Just talking
about this. That's dreadful. That's terrible.
You guys are awful. Any more hot takes? Halloween
hot takes? Hot take, hot take, hot take. No,
I think I spilled all of my Halloween stories
last year. It's a little scary this year. Let's
go to a haunted mine or a radio tower. Ooh. Yeah,
haunted beach. That sounds fun. Are radio towers
haunted usually? I don't know. It's probably
a cool place. You can turn on the radios and
the ghosts will talk. I don't fucking know. Dude,
I would do that. I think I would do that in my
house if I was like when I'm getting ready to
move out. I don't want to, I don't want to like
invite the ghost that leave. You're going to
rent the house. It's your problem now, tenants.
Okay. Fair, fair. Maybe I'll just suck it up
and try it. I want to hear ghosts talk in my
house. I want to get a little, you know, the
recorder, the little white noise machine. I think
that's supposed to help. I don't know. I've watched
ghost things a couple of times on TV. They can
communicate. I know a haunted house. I know a
real haunted house. Frequencies. My old haunted
house. My house on Parker Road. Remember my house?
Yeah. House was haunted as shit. Do you have
doors closing and opening randomly throughout
the night? No shit. I saw it. I was very young,
so I can barely remember, but I saw it. And I
freaked the fuck out. And my buddy Harrison had
to go turn on the lights to stop me from freaking
out. But it was in the hallway outside my room.
The door was open. My sister saw it. My grandfather.
Badass war veteran. Mega, mega hero. Trust the
man with any word he says. It's gospel. He saw
it. He saw the ghost in the kitchen. Before you
get too into it. I'm very into it. So excited.
What? We should do like a ghost story night.
Ooh. Okay. Okay. Cause I got some ghost stories
too. Just go to one of the camping spots there.
Light up a fire. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Ooh.
Yeah. Get a couple of videos for the Insta. Fantasy
Pants Ghost Stories. Is that how you say that?
Fantasy Pants Ghost Stories? You sound so hip.
Fantasy Pants Ghost Stories. Well, come on. We're
going to put it on the back burner. We're going
to think about it. We're going to think about
Fantasy Pants Ghost Stories. We're going to call
it Shit in Your Pants. I would say Wet Your Pants,
but both are good. Both are good. It's better
than Stevens. Oh, no, no, no. I didn't mean title
of the thing, Fantasy Pants Ghost Stories. No,
but it now has to be like, it's got to be Wet
Your Pants. Okay. Hold on. For real, though?
For real? When does this episode come out? Wet
Your Pants. I don't know, in two weeks? We're
piddling our pants. The 17th? No, it's not quite.
Yeah, that's in two weeks. Holy shit. Two weeks
is the 17th. I'm a genius. So, I mean, we'll
ask our Discord first because they're fun and
special and have easy access to us. This fucking
guy. Everybody else who's not on the Discord.
Everybody else who's not on the Discord. Once
this comes out, let us know if you want to hear
some ghost stories. Also, what do you think we
should call it? Just slaps his Discord server.
This beauty here. Holy shit. Okay. All right.
All right. Enough hot takes. How about some Dungeons
and Dragons? How about some Dungeons and Dragons?
Hot take, hot take, hot take. You're going to
die tonight. That might not be a hot take. That
might be. Let's do this. Let's do this thing.
So Jeremy, Hyena Crispin, 15 HP. Ooh. I mean,
then he reverts. That's rough. Then he reverts
back to regular Crispin, who's got, you know,
some HP. Oh, geez. Arhalon, 16. What the fuck?
Yeah, so... Dance is down to... Yeah, Jules is
still full at 19. We're all under 20. Wow, this
is pretty scary, actually. Yeah, this is pretty
nasty. Oh, yeah, dance is at four. Oh. Wow. Okay,
we got to pull some shit out of our hats here.
Yeah. This is not good. Even worse, when we pick
up now in this session, we pick up on my turn.
Well, kind of, sort of. Ish. Kind of, sort of
is. Sure, sure, sure. So let's... You've been
seeing this figure from afar, from the shadows,
kind of popping out from this sort of back area
of the pub, striking at you here and there with
crossbow bolts. And then, doo, diving back in
to sort of reshroud himself. And now, as we stand
here, do you guys kind of prepare yourself to
engage on him? Getting some ready action set
within range of the door you've seen him peering
out of. You're waiting for a moment. Waiting
for him to strike. As you're kind of waiting,
Crispin's over there terrorizing one of the boys.
The boy screams out for help. And the pooch,
dropping the crossbow, dropping his sort of ambush
tactics, comes running out to strike with his
gauntlet blade, his pata on arm, and moves in,
sees Arhalon immediately outside the door, and
goes to strike at him with a flurry of swift
attacks. Before you do your aid actions, real
quick, give me a quick perception check. Ooh,
okay. Jules and Arhalon. Arhalon. Give me a hot
sec here to figure out. You guys are focusing
on him. What that's going to be. Jules got a
13. Okay. 11 on the die plus two. 13, cool. Also,
real quick, who had Bardic Inspiration? Oh, no,
I didn't cast it on anybody. No, because I don't
have any. Everyone has blessed them. Never mind.
That's what I'm thinking. We have less. Yes.
That's going to last for something about four
rounds. That's going to last for another, another
after, after I cast Tasha's single digits for
our home. Okay. Jules though, you actually get
high enough as the pooch appears. your eyes are
drawn to the armor he wears. You see a set of
dark, studded leather armor. It's got like a
black sort of base layer with rough gray pauldrons,
bracers, and greaves. The make of it is sort
of foreign to Tythos, as you would know, you
know, your sort of armor used to seeing. But
it does have these sort of signatures of Taib
showing in the rippling patterns of magical inscriptions
sewn into the set. It looks maybe like magical
armor. Great. Cool, cool, cool, cool. So you
clock that as he runs out. Okay. Now, here's
one more thing to bring up before we get into
this. I did not, I kind of got excited for the
pooch to get out there. I had one of my guys
step out in this sort of block of my turns to
shoot at dance. I did not have him cunning action,
go back in and hide again. Will you, my players,
allow me? The courtesy of having my hand still
on that particular chest piece, being able to
move him back, hiding as I would have. Yeah,
you'd do it for us, so. Thank you, sir. Thank
you, sir. I was the only one saying that I didn't
play the characters right. So that figure, that
shot of dance does vanish again. And the pooch
steps out. You told me a little bit about what
you want to do here. And I actually think it's
a lot cooler to drop it all right now. Tell them
what's going on because you have a big strategic
decision to make here. I think it's really awesome.
So why don't you guys tell me your plan? Tell
them your plan. So Jules and Arhalon both have
a rated action. Jules' rated action was to cast
Hideous Laughter. Yep. Arhalon's was to attack.
So that's two swings from Arhalon. Like you said,
with disadvantage. Yes. So our sort of conundrum
is which to do first. Do we cast Tasha's first,
which would then enable Arhalon to attack without
disadvantage. Yeah. But then he would take damage.
The pooch would take damage and be out of hideous
laughter, be able to get back up. and go about
his business. And I will say, because Hideous
Laughter does, it says by rules, at the end of
your next turn, or near the end of your turn,
you get to recover. I'm not sure if it's the
next turn or your turn, but I'm just going to
say that this turn... It says at the end of every
turn. End of every turn. I'm going to say that
for this turn, since you're doing as a reaction
on his turn, it would feel really shitty for
him to just immediately roll to get back up.
He's going to have one save this round. I'll
get the next save until next round, unless you
attack him, because I want to add more weight
to this decision. If you attack him, he gets
another save with advantage to recover. Here's
the big thing. He came out here to attack. If
you drop him with hideous laughter, he's incapacitated
and prone. That means he can't attack. If you
break the hideous laughter, he's still prone,
which means he can attack at disadvantage. Right.
And if he has moved less than half of his movement
speed, He can stand up from prone and attack
as normal. You don't know how far he's moved.
You haven't seen him. You don't know where he
was back there. I do. So you're gambling partially
on how much he's already moved this round. All
right. So here's why I think Arhalon should attack
first, and then Jules should cast Hideous Laughter.
Ooh. I mean, I'm in agreement with that, so.
Okay. But let me talk it out anyways, because
now. No, just go and do it. Now it's a cliffhanger.
You should do the other thing. A couple things.
Dance says. Huh? Dance disagrees. Oh, well, let
me explain to you, Dance. Me, Steven. Okay. Why
I think this is how it should go. First of all,
I am up to my eyeballs in buttons. Oh, that's
right. I've got four buttons. Second of all,
after this turn of the pooches where we beat
them up, guess who's next? Jules. Guess who's
after Jules? Arhalon. Oh, you're right. We can
get the best of both worlds. Arhalon can attack
first, then Jules can cast Hideous Laughter.
Hopefully he goes down. On Jules' turn, Jules
can do, as long as he doesn't do damage to the
pooch, then after Jules' turn, on Arhalon's turn,
he'll be able to attack with advantage, or without
disadvantage. Okay. All right. Then with that,
I've stepped into view. I've activated your ready
to actions. I need to attack some Arhalon at
this advantage. All right. On the pooch. Without
further ado. Studded leather armor. Good luck
hitting me. Look at that furrowed brow. I'm sorry.
I was just reading his reaction here. I guess
I missed that before. Anyways, okay. That's pretty
cool. Yeah, he's got parry. That's nice. You
don't have it this round because you're using
his reaction right now. Well, right. And also
he's not being attacked really. He's going to.
Okay. So. On this first attack, I'm going to
hit the mic cord and then give you a button to
negate disadvantage on this attack. So it'll
be a straight up D20 plus six. Yeah, plus six
to hit. Natural one. Oh, man. Natural oof. Oh,
man. Okay. Now the question is, Do I use another
for the second attack? Or do I just roll with
disadvantage? I think this has to work. Yeah.
I'm kind of right there with you. I think this
has to work. Yeah. Give me all your buttons.
That puts down to two buttons, which means if
one of your characters drops, you can no longer
roll an auto 20 on your death save to come back
up. Well, I'm going to roll an auto 14. 14 misses.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Okay. Great. I'm out
two buttons. Oof. Damn. Damn, damn. Damity, damn,
damn, damn. I mean, you're dealing with this
true veteran of a bloody, bloody civil war. The
blade comes at him so quickly and yet the pooch
just sort of dodges, weaves. Arlon, I mean, he's
only got the one good arm right now to strike
with. His power, his speed's so cut, so awkward.
And that's gonna be Jules. Because the pooch
steps in. Arm goes back with a gauntlet for the
powder. He's going to hit you real hard, real
bad, real fast. What are you going to do, Jules?
Oh, actually, it's my save, isn't it? Hang on.
He's still in the doorway, right? Yeah. Can I
see the map? Okay, so I'm more than five feet
away from him. So if I move away, he won't get
enabled. Right now, you're doing hideous laughter.
It's your reaction. You're casting it? Not reaction.
I have to. Rated action. True. That was my rated
action. So I'm casting Tasha's Laughter. Wisdom
save. I'm going to give you two buttons for disadvantage
on this. Man, we're spending big tonight. Do
we really expect anything different? Because
how this always works out is he gives us a benevolent
bounty of buttons and then forces us to use them
all the next episode. Four buttons in the first
four minutes or so. That's great. And then we
wait six episodes to get more. Yep. Oh, you're
never getting buttons again. Oh, man. Okay, here
we go. How does... 17 probably passes, right?
It's a damn good thing that second roll was a
three on the guy. Okay, I was going to say. You
motherfucker. You motherfucker. He goes down
just like... Holy shit. The pooch is... Drops
to the ground, writhing, laughing as Arhalon's
blades miss. He just drops down, pat a cladding
on the floor. And as he does that, Jules looks
over to Arhalon and says, Arhalon, he suited
up with magic. Oh, shit. Okay. I'm not doing
anything. That's it. That's it. That's my turn.
I forgot my blast. Roll it. I did. It was a three.
What would that be? 17. You gave me a little
leeway earlier this episode. I know. So I'm going
to tell you right now, 17 exactly hits. All right.
No, that's cool. We take those. You gave me a
leeway. I think I need to take it. It's a give
and take in this place. I think I need to take
it. It's a give and take in this place. Give
me the damage. Give me the damage. That's what
we're doing here. I'm putting my blessed die
on my laptop so I don't forget it again. That
blessed is going to be the second I would have
missed, and the laughter strikes him, and he
stops like his dodge is cut, and he starts laughing,
and then you hit him right there. And I imagine.
Being incapacitated probably means that I can't
use Uncanny Dodge, huh? I'm assuming that's the
case, so I'm not cutting this in half. That's
11. 11 damage. It's pretty damn good. Okay. The
guy hits big when he hits. 2d6 plus 4. That's
not too shabby. That's huge. Okay. Yeah, solid.
So he gets cut as he drops down laughing. The
spell cannot fully take hold. He's on the ground
writhing, laughing, and now, Jules, you are up.
For realsies. Oh, boy. Yeah. Oh, boy. Now it's
your turn. Good move. I mean, that would have
dropped Arhalon. I think it was last time. Three
attacks. Yeah. Right. So he's incapacitated,
so he won't get an AoO on me. No, he will not.
Fuck yeah. He will not. But if you hurt him,
he gets advantage on a save. Right, right. I
got to try to hurt him. Well. Arhalon's up after
you, and he'll have two attacks to... I will
say, there's another enemy you can see that Crispin
in hyena form is currently attacking in the chairs,
and that's pretty close to you. Where did he
end up going to? Was that the one with... That's
this guy right here. He's about 35 feet away
from you right now. Here's one thing. I'll throw
this out here, too. You can stack up advantage
to the point where you have one level advantage,
right? And the help action does exist. You could
move in and perform the help action to give Arhalon
advantage. On top of this guy already giving
him a bit. So Arhalon will just roll normal.
He'll roll advantage in this next round. That's
pretty damn good. It's also a risk because it
gets jewels up and close. It gets jewels up and
close. Well, what if I just move up behind Arhalon?
I think that would work. So he's between us.
Let me look up the help action real fast. I nearly
used it. It was within five feet of the enemy
to perform the help action. But I'm trying to
decide. I don't know if that means you can just
do it and then walk away. Well. As long as he
doesn't use all his movement, right? Okay. Alternatively,
you can aid a friendly creature in attacking
a creature within five feet of you. You feint
to trap a target or in some way team up to make
your ally's attack more effective. If your ally
attacks your target before your next turn, the
first attack roll is made with advantage. Jules
stands over the pooch and just points. I think
it doesn't say you have to be within range when
the attack happens. It just says in order to
perform the act, you do the help action when
you're within five feet. So I think you could
do it and then step back behind Arhalon. Right.
Okay. Who's after Arhalon? That is going to be
Crispin. Top of the order. Who's after Crispin?
Dance. And then it's the bad guys. Hear me out.
I'm going to go to Dance and Cure Wounds. That's
probably a fantastic idea. That's good. She's
only at four right now and she puts out a lot
of damage. Yeah. So that is what I'm going to
do. Okay. So scrap all that. Sorry, guys. No,
that's fantastic. That's probably the best. That's
what I'm going to do is that Jules is moving
over to dance. Level two. Level two cure wounds.
Yeah, pretty much everybody's low. Standing on
the bar. So you just reach out, touch a hand
or ankle as you're kind of like down on the floor
and immediately see her. This light envelops
her wounds begin to heal. She breathes a heavy
sigh of relief. 2d8 plus four. That's good stuff.
Oh, man. That's good stuff. And she gets healed
for 17, which means she's back at full. That's
clutch. She is in full. That is clutch. Incredible.
No, no, no, no, no, no. She's not. Two down from
full. But still, 17 is great. 17 is wonderful.
That's incredible. Yeah, her wounds were bad
before. The thing that struck her like stripping
open a wound right between her shoulders, kind
of like around by her neck, and that just seals
up magically, and she just looks down at you.
I got you. I got you. Thank you. Now stay low.
Let me do my part. Don't. Don't. Jules is going
to kiss her forehead and then run toward Crispin
more, but actually, no, I don't want to be exposed
in front of this thing. You're in a pretty safe
spot. Yep. So, no, that's Jules' turn. All right.
Forehead kiss will come later. She's too high
up anyway. It's in a bar. All right. So that's
Jules. You're hanging out. She's now healed.
And that brings us back to Arhalon. This guy.
No, my boys. My boys. All right. Man, this has
to work. I just can't use more buttons, though.
Right? I can't. No. No, no, no. Plus six. Single
roll. Single roll. Here we go, baby. What do
you got? Oh, shit. It's 17, though. So it's like
a little worse than 50 -50. All right, we're
rolling. We're rolling. Okay, first one's an
eight, so that's a no -go. It misses, but you
still have a second hit. Oh, wait, it's 17, so
it's not going to make it anyway with your bless.
Oh, no, you're not blessed anymore. Never mind.
I cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Oh, good catch.
Good catch. Thank you. Wow, okay, yeah. You know
what? I love that catch. Take a fucking button
over that catch. Hey, there we go. Multiple combat
buttons. Screw it. Take this button. All right,
that's a 13. That'll hit. Sweet. That'll hit?
Okay. Man, this whole thing feels like kind of
garbage when we only got one hit in after all
of this. But this guy doesn't look super tanky.
Yeah, we're set up better than we were at the
start. I mean, with the exception of our Halan.
Yeah. Okay, so 2d6 plus 4. Here we go. 13. Oh,
my gosh. You're doing good damage. The pooch
is looking already pretty rough. Okay, that's
great. Only 70 more to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
exactly. I'm going to make a save with advantage.
Pass. Shit. First was a 5 on the die, second
was a 19. No, that failed. Oh, my God. Oh, you're
in for it now, buddy. Oh, boy. Yeah, he is. The
pooch is going to give you a smooch of death.
Don't like that. I'm sorry. That's worse than
Mesmerize. Don't like it. Mesmerize was great,
and you know it. Okay, that's Arhalon. The pooch
is still on the ground prone, though, for this
round. So every attack on him has that advantage.
And that's Crispin. Okay, sweet. Okey -doke.
All right, here we go. Bite, plus five to hit.
Ooh. That's 18. Okay. So 2d6 plus 3. Was that
first one a 2 or a 3? A 2. A 2, yeah. 3, 5, 8.
8 damage. You see he sort of rides out of the
way behind the leg as you go into strike. Again,
a vital strike, but it doesn't quite fully go
through. Oh, that's right. How's he looking?
Very bad. Damn. Very, very bad. Is it possible
to have gotten him that turn? I mean, you don't
have to say that. Maybe. I was just thinking.
I'm like, damn, I really wanted to do rampage
and then jump over to the pooch. Do you not multi
-attack as a hyena? No, he does not. Gotcha.
Okay. But you get a good claw strike, and he's
looking like he's... It was a bite attack. He
had a good bite, and he's looking like he's on
death's door pretty much. And again, just pooch,
the pooch, help, help. And that's going to be
dance. All right, so... The pooch is still on
the ground. Still on the ground. Okay, cool.
So how far is it over to him? 15 feet. Cool.
Danza's going to go over and sit on top of him.
She can actually go on the other side if you
want to get flanking with Arhalon. Yes. So she
goes to the other side. She just jumps down.
I think she looks over at Jules just like, now,
watch me, and just glides off the table. Jules
blushes as she goes by. Pure twirling grace,
lands on the ground, slides up next to the pooch
on the other side of Arhalon, getting that flanking.
The pooch is still recovering, still prone, and
she can take... Three actions? Correct? For three
attacks? You've got two ki points left. I was
going to say, how many do I have left? Two more
left. So you want to burn another one and get
three attacks? Well, can I roll my first two
attacks and then decide if I want to use a ki
point? Yes, you can. Because that's what's going
to happen. Hell yeah. Excellent. Excellent. So
first attack, I'm going to get advantage. Oh,
you already have it. I already have it. You already
have advantage. I already have advantage. That's
right. You can get that for another bonus. So
that'd be like an advantage plus four, but that's
a lot. So wait, so for both my regular, any attack,
all three attacks, I can have advantage and plus
two. Yeah, he's prone. Prone is nasty. I can't
get up till my turn. I just can't. I don't want
to play Jules anymore. Jules sets him up and
Dance knocks him down. All right, here we go.
First attack. Two singer and dancer action. I
love it. Yeah, first one's a 19 to hit. That'll
hit. Ooh. Second attack. Uh, nope. That's only
a 12. Okay. What's your regular attack bonus?
Oh. Yeah, that's a 17 still. That still hits.
17 hits, yeah. I thought it was... Oh, oh, oh,
oh. Never mind. You doing a third attack, or
you want to do your damage first? All right,
so let's roll some damage. 1d4 plus 3 for both
of these. So that's 10 damage. Oh, man. And I'm
also going to use a key point to take a third
attack. Okay. Nice. I crit my pants. Yeah, you
did. I crit my pants. Oh, yeah. Dude, I have
not gotten a crit in... Yeah, yeah, it's been
a minute. It's been a minute. It's been a minute.
It has been a long time. Oh, man. Holy shit.
Things are about to get critty. I mean, a good
crit. I've got the bad crit many times. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. A lot of those. All right, that's
2d4 plus 3. Oh, yeah, yeah. The pooch is not
looking good. Shit. That's only a 5. Oh, minimum
damage? It's minimum damage. Oh, my goodness.
Minimum. Oh, shit. Not nothing. Hey, yeah. And
then Dance is going to use her remaining 15 feet
to go back to where she was. Okay, just moves
away, hots back onto the bar, and stands at the
ready. All right. Oh, actually, that wasn't even
the rest of her movement, because she's got 40
feet. Yeah. Nice. I mean, she's still going back
to the same spot, but... Okay, with that, that
figure once again appears in the doorway. We're
going to do the same thing. Steps out, cross
a bolt on Dance, steps back in to hide. So here
we go. Sneak attack. Yeah, that hits with a 19.
On who? Dance. Great. Oh, wait. Sorry, a 16.
I looked it up on Staff Lock. Does that hit?
Wait, say that again? 16 on dance. Yeah, that
still hits. Okay, cool, cool, cool. All right.
Very shit damage. Only going to be six damage
on that one. Wow. Nice. Yeah, really bad. I'll
take it. Really bad damage for a sneak attack.
So she's, like, gets back up there and is fully
ready for it when he steps out, fires again.
This time she, like, moves out of the way and
just sort of grazes her. He bashes back. The
pooch. It's going to stand up. You didn't do
the other boy's turn. Oh, yeah, look at the boy.
Thank you, sir. Time for the boy. Two attacks
on Crispin. One's a 13, one's a 14 to hit. Both
hit. Oh, shit. That giant hyena has a low AC.
Five damage, and then eight damage. Oh, boy.
Oh, whoa. He's still in hyena form, but not by
much. Wow. Yeah. So I wonder what it looks like.
You almost start like you're really low. Are
you just like super injured looking in your form?
Are you kind of almost like half shifting? What
do you think that looks like in this? I don't
know. It's kind of came to me. I'm curious. That's
interesting. I like to think that, yeah, the
hyena looks injured because then when he drops
out, he's back to Crispin with his full HP pool.
Yeah. Hell yeah. All right. Cool. So hyena's
looking rough, real bad. Now the pooch is going.
And the pooch is going to attack Arhalon. All
right, here we go. Three attacks. I do not get
a sneak attack on any of these or anything like
that, so let's just roll it. Let's roll it. Arhalon's
AC is what? 16. Amazingly, only one attack hits.
Oh, sweet. Wow. Amazingly, only one hits. All
right. Oh, man, I cannot believe. So the Pata
goes out blurring fast, but Arhalon, that old...
Shieldbearer training, kicking in. He just weaves
out of the way of the first two attacks. So hold
on, hold on, hold on, hold on. What do you got?
Arhalon has parry. His turn has passed. He now
has reaction again. But the last line. Now this
might just be flavor, but it says must have use
of both arms. Oh, oh, oh, that's just in the
stat block I took it from. Never mind. Ignore
that for the sake of Arhalon. All right. So then
he adds plus two to his AC. I'm not going to
take everything from Arhalon and be like, no,
he's completely useless. He's got the training,
and he's got, like, full -on dragon strength.
It's the dragon strength in him. I heard that.
He's very powerful. All right, so that makes
his AC 18, then, for that attack. What'd you
hear? That he said that he gets a plus two for
the AC. Last attack misses. Holy shit. Last stack
misses. Holy shit. I was at 18. I was at 18 for
the last one. It's working out. No, sorry. I
was at 17. I was plus 7, 9. No, 10 on the die.
Attacker wins on the tie. Right. It's helpful
to say rolls out loud. Attacker wins the tie,
right? Yeah. Okay. Let me replay the... It was
a 17 to hit. Okay. So I do... Do not hit, because
you now have 16 plus 2 AC, which is 18, correct?
Right. So I do not hit. That's for sure. 17.
That was a 10 on the die, but plus 7 to hit.
We can end it this round. So he goes... And the
last one's going straight for, like, his throat,
and you just kind of see him very fast, like,
veins sort of bulging in his arm as he just,
like, calls upon his draconic strength, whips
up his greatsword, and ping! parries the pot
of blade, which goes high. Hell yeah. Holy shit.
All right, now it's a game. Holy shit. Unbelievable.
Let's do this. That's Jules. So he can't see
the boy that's closest to us. I love it so much.
Yeah, the boy? The boy that's closest. Yeah,
the boy. The one that went for dance. No, he's
gone. You can't see him. He's hiding in the back.
That's what I was asking, if he was hit. Yes,
you don't see him now. Okay, cool. So in that
case... Roll a stealth check. Yeah, you definitely
don't see him. You super don't see him. Goddamn.
Super don't see him. That boy's gone. All right,
fuck it. Jules is going to go over to try to
help Crispin. Nice, nice. Yeah, finish that guy
off. And he's going to... So he's going to go
next to Crispin on his right side there. He's
keenly aware of Dogface over there. Right side.
I'm bad at that. Say north or whatever. Can't
do left and right. But yes, he's keenly aware
of dog face over there and wants to kind of make
sure that he's got some space. And then I'm also
going to cast Dissonant Whispers. Oh, shit. Onto
that boy. So that's a wisdom save. Six on the
die. Massive failure. Yeah, that doesn't sound
like a save. It's not going to save. Let me get
a look at my bonus. So, okay. You're taking 3d6
psychic damage. Okay. Okay. Does he have three
or less left? Damn. It's possible I'll survive
this and then have to run away and get AO'd by
the coyote. Or the, sorry, the hyena. Hyena.
We're done with coyotes in this show. We're on
to hyenas now. More highbrow. Give me a hyena
laugh again. It's been too long. No. Damn it.
What'd you get? That is eight. Seven HP left.
Yeah. All right. Nice. That boy is gone. Excellent.
He's just, like, terrified. This heinous snarl.
And then just this fog suddenly comes wrapping
around the table, wrapping around, sort of getting
into his mind. He's... And just screams out.
And you just kind of see him, like, with this
look of terror on his face, just sort of fall
back against the wood of the wall and go still.
That's fucked up. It is pretty brutal, you monster.
It's so satisfying, though. It's satisfying.
And I think you just hear, like, a howling. No!
From the pooch. It's a weird noise. He makes
weird noises. That is a weird noise. Give me
an Emmy again. No, I'm going to throw that in
post -credits. Yeah, that's Jules' turn. Sour
beers, man. They get in you. All right. That's
going to be Arhalon. All right. Arhalon's going
to go for his two attacks. Disadvantage now,
though. Yep. You got buttons in there. I'm not
giving you any more fucking buttons. First one.
First roll was a one. So that attack, I'm not
even going to roll again. I'm on to the second
attack now. All right, well, would have been
a crit, but then I rolled again, rolled a 12
on the die, plus a 6, so 18. That'll hit. All
right, 2d6 plus 4. Oh, boy. Here we go. 12. That's...
Oh, yeah. I'm in trouble. The pooch is in a lot
of trouble. He is looking really, really bad.
Arhalon's just eyes glowing with these embers.
Greatsword just, like, slashing down furiously.
This is bad. This is really bad. Bad for the
pooch. Bad for the pooch. All right for the party.
That's Crispin. All right, yeah. Finish him.
Crispin's going to look up at Jules as if to
be like, Tanks. What do you actually say? Arr.
Coyotes don't growl. I'm just like so unsure
about coyote noises. You're a hyena. Sorry, hyena
noises. You're a hyena. You were done with coyotes,
remember? We're fucking done with them. Yeah,
no coyotes tonight. We're on to hyenas. I'm so
unsure about hyena noises. Jules now has a very
quizzical look on his face. Yeah. And then he
just says to him, watch the armor. Because Jules
is like, hyenas don't growl. I don't think, right?
Okay, anyway. I mean, the whole trying to laugh
thing is in the last episode, so. Yeah, yeah,
trying, trying. He just cut it in, just cut it
in there. Crispin's going to move up behind the
pooch here. I want to say one thing to give this
a little more intensity. When the other one dies,
I think the pooch just like screams out and then
just says, no, Baloo, Boja, hit the road. We're
retreating. Oh, retreating. Let's see if he gets
that option because the giant hyena is going
to attack with a plus five to hit. 19 on the
die. Once I get my roll 20, just crashed a little
bit. David's busy reading, but I'm going to say
it. That's a hit. That's a hit. Yeah, okay. So
you run up, the hyena runs up. And I'm going
to roll my damage while David's still reading.
2d6 plus 3. That's when he crashed. I had to
fix it up. Okay, we're back. We're back. Roll
your damage. What do you got? Just 9 damage.
9 damage on the poop. You just called him the
poop. No, I just looked down, so I had 9 HP left
exactly. Oh, yeah. Got him. Holy shit. You just
run up, and you see, like, he's preparing to
cunning action. Just disengage and start booking
it. Start running. He is planning on getting
the hell. out of there and just like turns, sees
this hyena coming, just like, oh, you can't keep
this wild dog down. I'll be back for you. What?
As this hyena just chimes over the fucking bar
and just lands in front of him and explain what
happens. Explain what happens. What happens?
The hyena, Crispin, the hyena grabs him right
by the shoulder with his teeth and pulls him
to the ground. Holy shit. So let me read Rampage
to you one more time. When the hyena reduces
a creature to zero hit points with a melee attack
on its turn, the hyena can take a bonus action
to move up to half its speed and make a bite
attack. Does that mean that I have to make a
bite attack at the end of that turn? So even
like if I can't see somebody, how are we going
to rule that? I'll let you run into the back
and see if your passive perception will pick
up the guy that's hiding. Okay, perfect. Giant
hyena passive perception is only 13. Only 13.
Okay. You do not see the figure in that room.
Bummer. But you are now back there. So you get
that move. You can move back there. You're just
going to stand guard looking around, eyes sharp,
searching for the last remaining combatant. And
that's the end of Crispin's turn. That's Dance.
She's going to run back there too. Okay. Which
way are you going to go? She saw Crispin go in
that door, so I think she's going to go in the
other. If you want to burn your last key point,
you can double your movement. for a bonus action.
Ooh. Yep. Well, because she has, doesn't she
have 40 feet? Oh, she has 40 feet. Yeah, that's
right. So 40 feet will get her into the room,
I think. Yeah, she'll get right in the doorway.
That's as far as I want to go. Okay, so get in
the doorway? Yeah. So Dan just drops down, charges,
slides into the doorway, looks into the room.
I'm sure her passive isn't higher than Crispin's
hyena, so she does not see the figure. Okay.
Which means it's my turn. And on my turn. You
see Crossbow comes out right beside you, actually.
Oh, my God. Crispin, right from behind us, there's
a chair in this back room, and you see kind of
like the chair suddenly skids out as this figure
stands up from behind the table, crossbow in
hand, and drops it onto the tabletop, raises
his hands and says, Please, please, please. Mercy.
Mercy. And that will effectively end this combat.
Awesome. At this point, Dance and Arhalon are
no longer under your control as we've left combat,
but I want Jules and Crispin to make moves. Dance,
I think, is going to hold at the door and kind
of like move in to sort of, if he tries to get
out, intervene. That's kind of her. She's standing
at the ready. Yeah, I forgot. He's got an hour
of wild shape, so he's going to stand close to
this guy with his fur up, just making sure that
he's not making a move. He's kind of holding
this guy in his position. Okay. Jules, what are
you doing? So Crispin and Dancer are now in the
back room. Arhalon stands over the pooch, blood
running down his greatsword. He's just staring
down at the body. He's got this almost grim smile.
Jules stays where he's at. He dead? Oh, yes.
He's dead. I want you to make me an insight check.
No. That's a five. Okay. Yeah, Arhalon just staying
over the body, breathing hard and staring down.
Long time no see. He's not looking at you. Arhalon
just looks around, his eyes scanning every inch
of this main room. So, where is he? Hiding in
the back, waiting to ambush anyone who leaves.
Where? I know he doesn't leave your side. You're
his favorite person in the world, right? Where
is Zebulon? I should have known he'd come in.
Come after me. Get in my way again. Come on,
Zeb! Come on out! Fine, then. There's one left,
right? We should put an end to that. He raises
his greatsword. Above his shoulders, blood running
down the blade, running down the back of his
chainmail, soaking into his dark cloak. Hold
on. Zeb's not here. Did the boy finally see reason,
then? Huh. I didn't think it possible. Good.
We're better off without him. You take that back.
It gives you a quizzical look. His eyes... Just
boring into you. Just two orange glowing spheres.
You better take that back. Why? Where is my brother?
Nobody told you? Told me. I've been here in the
borderlands. Hunting scum. He's dead. He's fucking
dead. His eyes go wide. They seem to lose some
of their color, some of their intensity as he
just stares for a moment. And then... Of course.
Of course he's dead. Just smashes the bar. His
sword just goes down, wood sprays around him.
Tell me how. By saving a dozen lives, he died
so that they could live. He died. He died. That's
what matters. I told him. I warned him. When
he fucked up, I wouldn't be there. I wouldn't
save him. And I wasn't. You were there with him.
All this time, he was just trying to make you
proud. Everything he was doing was for you. And
because of you. Then he shouldn't have died,
should he? Who killed him? Who? You would have
done the same thing, would you not? He slowly?
rounds the bar, it begins to move up towards
you. Jules stands tall. He shows no sign of being
intimidated. Tell me, who killed my brother?
He saved lives, right? From who? Roll an insight
check. Crispin, you're aware of this. You're
hearing it all. You can roll a check as well.
Nope. Natural one on the die. Okay. Dance moves
into kind of like controlled situation. Maybe
behind this remaining figure is Crispin starts
to move his high uniform back into the room.
16. You hear this, Crispin? At the back of the
room, you're staring at Arhalon's back as he
stands above Jules, this just massive half draconic
form. You can see it in the twitching of his
fingers, in the shaking of his shoulders. And
Jules... maybe isn't aware of just how dangerous
this is. Arhalon is different. You didn't know
him before, but what you look at is a hair trigger,
a bomb about to go off. But you're a hyena, so
we don't care. Yeah, no, no. Crispin's going
to fall out of wild shape. I'll give you a chance
to make a move. like from where you stand, but
you probably won't be able to get all the way
over there before Jules is about to make his
statement. I think Jules was about to say something
before I jumped in that, so I don't want to.
Okay, that's fine. Then, sure, yeah. Crispin
will... Unless that doesn't work. I don't want
to feel like I interrupted Jeremy to be like,
hey, this happened, then have you just... Is
Jules ready to speak? I think so. Let's roll
back. So you step into the room. Just to make
this less muddied, Crispin, step into the room.
I'll give you a chance. There's a moment of silence
between the two of them, we'll say, as you see
this agitation. You see Jules is about to say
something. Go ahead and make your move. Whatever
you want to do. Yeah. If Jules is going to say
something, Crispin will fall out of wild shape
and just step in the door. So he's out of the
back room. He's come out that door where the
pooch is lying. Okay. And he's watching over
this interaction? Conflict? Whatever you want
to call it. Both. I'll say you round the bar,
because otherwise your little rabbit ears will
be sticking up over the... No, no, actually down,
because they're down your... You're behind a
bar, and you're Taney. Taney Rabbit Man. Conflaraction.
Okay. So Crispin is standing at the back. Jules,
you clock Crispin moving into the room. I clock
him, but I don't turn my eyes over to him. Because
I don't want to give anything away. Maybe you
can see the worried expression on his face. I
think you see that. You see there's something
in his eyes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He makes a plan.
Jessinth. Kellig. The Shieldbearer. The one who
hated you. He became something. Something I've
never seen before. What do you mean? He changed.
How? He turned into this dark thing. Could move
wherever he wanted. Get to whomever he wanted.
In Zebulon. The hero. The luminary. Put a stop
to it. We're all only here right now because
of Zebulon. Because of his heart. Heart. And
his ideals that he shares with you. His eyes
flicker away from you. For a moment, he's just
in thought. I suppose I should get revenge. Kill
the one that killed him. It's only right. It's
only right. You know damn well it's not me. He
smiles grimly at that. Was I so transparent?
It was you. You led him into this life. He was
safe beneath my wing. Until he met you, followed
you, chose you over me. And on top of that, on
top of that, his eyes flicker to your hands.
Crispin steps out from behind the bar. Ahalan,
I'm sorry. If you need to blame anybody, blame
me. Who are you? My name is Crispin, and I was
tasked with protecting your brother. I'm sorry
I failed. Then tell me, Crispin, why is he still
alive? If you want to protect Zebulon. Shouldn't
you have seen the sickness eating away at him
by his side? Look at him. The demonic elements
of his blood have grown stronger. I wondered
what sort of heart could cultivate such malicious
growth. You once called yourself a man of honor,
Jules. Would a true man of honor not accept his
death, seeing what he has wrought? What he is
destined to become? I didn't ask for this. And
if when the time comes, I gotta die to make this
darkness go away everywhere, then I'm gonna fucking
do it. But I'm not gonna do it until I know that
what's in me is the last shred of it. I want
you to make... A persuasion check. With the help
action? With the help action from Crispin. Remind
me of the help action. Advantage. Advantage,
okay. This is a very, very important check. 25.
Arhalon's arm brings his sword down until a tip
gently touches down onto the wooden floor. Very
well. Then I will. Join you, if only so I can
be the one to bring down the blade on the day
we realize what must be done. I'll give you that.
His eyes just close for a long moment, and this
sort of guttural chuckle sort of plays in his
throat. Something between, like, a laugh and
a sob. Deep breath. smoking, flaming breath then.
We have a mission to accomplish. We have to move
before more hunters decide to come. Join me.
I know where the child is. And he turns and moves
to like the back rooms where you see there's
a door on like the left. He opens up, moves downstairs
into a small basement area. Yeah, there's no
pause from Jules. He just immediately starts
walking when Arhalon starts walking. Yeah, and
Crispin follows him when he passes by the door
with the other boy. Crispin looks up at Dance
and just says, leave him. Okay, I tied him up.
Do I untie him or? Please, please untie me. Someone
will be here in the morning. He's tied down to
a chair. Dance just kind of shrugs and starts
following you guys. Wait, wait. Door closes behind
her as you move downstairs. You step down into
the basement of this pub storage area that has
been turned into a makeshift camp. So there's
bits of rations that Arhalon's been working on.
You see there's a small like hay made bedding
and bloody like wraps and stuff they've been
using to treat wounds. It looks like down here.
And you see there is a full conspiracy type board
on the wall. Images that are put up, scratched
out in like charcoal. a small map of the region.
And actually, let's put you back on the map page
on Roll20. Oh, real quick, actually, just because
this, I mean, you've seen this bar, right? Amazing
bar, beautiful map. I can't wait to put this
up online. It is so gorgeous. It made for such
a great encounter. Did I shout out some pukey
last time? I don't remember, but... Oh, my goodness.
What up, Rochelle? Rochelle, honestly. It's fucking
beautiful. It's amazing. Look at this pub. It's
so... It's huge. It's beautiful. Look at those
back rooms. You see it all. It's awesome. Thank
you for another map that we almost died on. Thank
you. And actually, this also is the basement
area. Look at that. Oh, the basement. Shit, we
didn't get to the basement yet. Okay, cool. So
that's a little handmade room in the back there.
Nice. That first room, you step down, and there's
a whole conspiracy wall, and, you know, this
other stuff's kind of largely untouched. But,
yeah. So, I mean, like, I never got to use the
basement, but... Look at this basement. Yeah.
I think we're posting some of the maps and stuff
like that. But if you guys want to see, like,
the manor map, Rochelle on her Instagram page
is posting the videos of her actually drawing
it. Dude, it's unreal. It's wild. It's unreal.
It's like seeing your hand, the way it sketches
out every detail of the floor. I lost my shit.
It's so cool. So one word. Sound, pukey girl,
just like it sounds. Go check her out. Hell yeah.
Let's go on a less cool map from the book. Sorry,
book guys. Damn, back to these boring book maps.
Look at these boring book maps. No color, no
character. Nothing customized about them at all.
Meh, they suck. I'm going to puke. I'm sorry.
You guys are great. I love you guys too. So Arlon
steps down to the room as you guys move down.
He's just like, you see his eyes are burning
with just a different kind of determination.
Just like you said before that you're like, this
is your mission now. This is how you push on
and forget. Arhalon is pushing on. Arhalon is
trying to forget. He just walks over to the wall.
His claws are tapping on images of the map. I
came here to recover my strength and to think,
to plot. When I first heard of the child, I...
Came upon the hunters by incident. I'd heard
people asking around about a half -orc child
recent to the world. I thought, maybe good Samaritans
like myself. Then I found the posters. And so
I realized the best thing I could do for this
boy was to kill all those that came after him.
So I set myself to the Borderlands and began
my own little hunt. The first group I came upon.
was just north of the city. They assumed, as
would make sense, that the child had moved towards
signs of civilization, catching the old road
between Pontezuela, the hollow, as the locals
now call it, the place near to where the child
was last seen and to Sansatian City. They had
initially planned on pushing eastwards, as their
information had indicated they should, but the
threat of Etna attacks had leashed them closer
to the city than they wanted to search. Once
they were dispatched, I move farther east, catching
a group that had been around from the start.
The first ones on world, perhaps. They had pushed
east immediately from hollow, traveling to the
various farmsteads that hug the base of the Rusanor
Peaks that jut off to the north. It points to,
like, the mountain range, kind of, from where
you are to the west that shoot off far north
off the map. The soil there is apparently quite
good, so a number of small farms have cropped
up at the borderland's edge. Though they... aggressively
interviewed each family on the path. None had
seen this child, so they said. But I thought
the best place to start my own investigation
was there. So I went back to the farms once the
men were dead, and I asked my own questions.
Unfortunately, the farm closest to Harlow had
been recently destroyed. The owners sadly killed.
Now, this wasn't mentioned by the hunters. It
had to have been done within the last two days
after they'd had their initial search. My assumption,
it was likely done on the night prior, as the
dinner table had been set and untouched. I found
the bodies of the family members. I did what
I could for them. Seven graves. But it didn't
sit right. I was quite thorough in my search.
Seven graves. Taps like seven times. Seven bodies.
Yet the table was set for eight. Other farmers
nearby confirmed two things for me. The family,
the Cabrales, had only seven members living at
the farm. And this killing was most certainly
the work of a local Etten. Apparently they roam
around unorganized in the Riesener Peaks. Occasionally
they are drawn to the smell of cooking food or
the sounds of cattle at the farmsteads. They've
been known to partner with peritons in the mountains,
using them to scout the desert for vulnerable
targets. They also say this sort of murder spree
is rare, but not unheard of. These ettins apparently
do not generally care for the taste of humanoid
flesh. I had planned to turn back, to find some
sort of tracks into the mountains, to follow.
But then I was ambushed by a third group of hunters.
Though I killed them, the battle took its toll.
I knew I needed to find somewhere to lay low
and to rest. I had stirred up some ire in the
underground bounty hunting community. Turns out,
killing the scum, they don't much like being
murdered themselves. A pity. But that's where
I'm at. I believe. I don't know the motive. I
don't understand it. But if there was an eighth
person at that farmstead, quite close to Harlow
in the direction indicated, but there was not
an eighth body there at the site. Then perhaps
the ettins have made off with the child. Crispin's
standing mouth agape, looking up at Arhalon.
But could you explain, you mentioned ettins?
Yeah. And you said something else with a P? Peritons.
Okay, you want to tell us about these? Give me
nature checks. The ends will be, I believe, a
history check for a humanoid or for giants, and
then the perigons will be, I want to say, nature.
Nope, I only got an 8. 14 for history. 19 for
nature. Wait, we can roll both? Yes, roll both.
Oh, two checks. You're rolling on both of them
to see if you know either of them? Yeah, only
10 on history. Okay. Neither of these creatures
are local to Tythos. Jules, you have not been
off -world much. And when you are on -world,
you don't see a lot of wildlife because you've
been in the city. Mostly Tythos, you're dealing
with wyverns and zorns. Right. Not much else.
Earth elementals here and there causing some
trouble. Crispin's been around the block. He
knows both of these creatures. Ettins. They're
foul, two -headed giants that actually are seen
as sort of cousins to orcs. They're seen as somewhat
related. That's scary. They're... brutish creatures.
You know the ones at least here generally tend
to roam around in either small packs or on their
own. They are two -headed, each head having distinct
personality. And they're intelligent enough that
they would know to take a hostage? They know
that this boy has a... It's unusual? It's unusual.
No, they are not intelligent enough to take a
hostage and know that someone's important. The
fact this boy was taken... It makes no sense.
Have you not seen Lord of the Rings? Well, I
just... My assumption was that, oh, it was set
for eight, seven died. That means that Miskin
just got away. That's what I am assuming. And
Jules assumes the same thing. Jules knows he
didn't get taken. It's possible, yeah. It's possible.
You can move back there and check it out. Well,
you would know this. If they wanted food, they
would have taken an adult, not a child. If they
wanted ransom, Well, they're stupid. That wouldn't
happen. The only thing that plays at your mind
a little bit is that one detail. Miskin's a half
-orc, and ettins are related to orcs. They're
seen as, they're often called the cousins of
orcish kind. Okay. So maybe there's something,
something there, but you don't know. And the
other monster? Paritans are these great sort
of, they actually are generally carnivorous,
and they generally do go for the taste of flesh.
They are essentially these great sort of birds
of prey. They have the body and wings of a hawk
or a falcon, that sort of thing, with the head
of a stag. How high did you get? Was that history
or nature? That was nature. Nature was 19. Okay.
A really strange detail about them, this is really
cool, is they say that when the light hits a
periton and shines past it, creating a shadow,
the shadow it creates is... Weird. There's, like,
it's sort of postulated that the first Paratons
were humans that were transformed by, like, hideous
curses or magical experiments, though. That's
still, they're very mysterious. Not a lot is
known about them. They're actually, like, relatively
intelligent, more intelligent than Inetton. Sure.
And they tend to just, again, live in the mountains,
moving around, scouting. You know that... I'll
say, like, you could have information to back
up what Arhalon knows, that the Paritans of San
Satyan tend to work with their more formidable
cousins in the mountains. They work with the
Ettans in order to, like, achieve mutual survival.
Okay. Interesting. Paritans scout the Ettans'
attack, because the Paritans, while strong, aren't
nearly as... They're much more susceptible to
danger than Ettans, though they are, with a 19,
generally resistant to non -magical... this sort
of curse that plagues them. Ooh, let me write
that down. Not super, like, well -built, but
they resist a lot of things. That's what you
know. Okay. Give us a hand here on the map real
fast. Yes. Can you point out where the farmhouse
was? I'm going to mark it for you. Excellent.
Actually, more like right here. Okay. These ettins,
do you know where to find them? I don't. Perhaps
we can find tracks. Either the Child's if he
ran away, or the Ettin's if he did not. But I...
I had to flee for the time. If you have any means
of tracking, anything you can do, it's not exactly
my forte. I can investigate. Interview. But...
Once we're away from the humanoid element, my
expertise is lost. What's going on in that big
brain of yours, Jeremy? I will tell you it's
a ten -mile, almost exact journey from Milpazool
to this particular farmstead. And from there,
who knows how far you have to go into the mountains
to catch. Right. Or into the borderlands to catch
miskin if you went that way. Hmm, now I know
exactly which way you went. No, you're wrong.
Shut up. Well, it'd be suicide to continue on
as we are. I've got none of my magics left and...
God, I could use a rest. To me, it sounds like
that's where Miskin was. Can I roll some type
of check to see if Jules would know whether he's
close enough to him or not to know whether he
would have stayed there or ran somewhere else?
Hmm. Give me... Boy, that's tricky. Give me a
history check. I don't know if that really works.
That's more history of the world. Or would it
be like insight into Miskin's... I like that.
Insight. Insight into Miskin. Yeah. Do that.
Okay. I'm going to use a button for advantage.
Okay. Not the best use, but... I think he's let
enough slip that I think he's with the ettins.
Yeah. And you roll. It's only 13. 13. You know
this. There's been a time before dealing with
sort of some rival... Let's say back on Tithos.
Every once in a while, they would put a sort
of poster out for you, and there would be some
small -time bounty hunters that would move through,
trying to get to you. There was actually a time
where Miskin was taken more as a lure for you.
They wanted you to exchange yourself for him.
But Miskin's clever. Even though he got got,
he left a sign trail behind him. And you know
what to look for. You know subtle signs that
might not be noticed by other people. instantly
catch on to. Perfect, because I thought about
that too, because Jules wants to go there first.
Hell yeah. And to check signs if he's not there
still. Yeah. Yeah. So if he was there, likely
there's already signs there for you and whatever
direction he went in. Perfect. They'd be pointing
the way. Perfect. Cool. See, button well spent.
Great. Crispin has just put forth that he wants
to rest for the night. Jules, what are your thoughts
on that? Well, yeah, Jules knows we need to rest
too. Okay. He's had two fucking combats without
rest. So, that's where I think this group is
going to be left off. As darkness falls, you
guys start to repair yourselves for sleep. Before
we end this, I do need one last thing. One itsy
-bitsy little thing from you, Jules. I need a
constitution saving throw. Whoa. Fuck. That's
an 18. Wow, okay. That's pretty good. That's
pretty good. And negative two, that's still a
16. Because night has fallen. And your exhaustion
has returned. And as it has returned, you suddenly
feel out of nowhere this energy being drawn from
your body going so, so cold. Every hair on end,
your skin going pallid. Breathing becoming hard
for a moment. Shoulders slumping, your body growing
weak as if a claw is digging into your back.
Spilling out all your life's energy. You can
feel it. Feel two great open eyes. An owl's eyes
staring at you from behind. But you grit your
teeth thinking of Miskin. Of what must be done.
And tonight, you pass your save on Serino. Hell
yeah. I was going to take a lot of exhaustion
off that. Oh, shit. Instead, I'm only taking
one stack. So you only get one. More level. You're
at level three exhaustion tonight. Okay. But
you greet yourself, and you are okay. Sweet.
And with that, with the owl's eyes on your back,
the threat of ettins and flying creatures in
the mountains ahead of you, and a long journey
with a half -dragon that truly wants to see you
dead, we'll leave this group for the night. And
we'll call it there.