The Glass Cannon Podcast - Giantslayer Episode 113 - Shadow Lancing

Episode Date: July 25, 2017

After successfully navigating the Dark Passage, the party is welcomed back to the other side of the valley by a bloodthirsty group of flying predators. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com. To become an official member of the Naish, subscribe today at http://www.jointhenaish.com. Want to be a part of Glass Cannon Nation? Follow us at twitter.com/glasscannonpod instagram.com/theglasscannon facebook.com/glasscannonnetwork tiktok.com/@glasscannonnetwork Get the best apparel and gaming accessories in the biz at https://glasscannonnetwork.com/store If you enjoyed this, we have several other series featuring Call of Cthulhu - Time For Chaos Delta Green - Get in the Trunk Pathfinder 2E - Glass Cannon Live! Strange Aeons Pathfinder 1E - Legacy of the Ancients Traveller - Voyagers of the Jump and so much more! Join us every Thursday night for Campaign Two of The Glass Cannon Podcast – a playthrough of the Pathfinder 2E Gatewalkers Adventure Path! Videos premiere on YouTube Thursday nights at 8PM ET with a companion podcast available at midnight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When debt is taking over your life, it's time to get some relief. Here at BDO, we can help you find creative solutions to your debt and reduce the amount that you owe to something that you could afford. Visit BDOdebt.ca to book a free consultation. This week on the Glass Cannon Podcast. Something very weird happens. A flock of ghastly creatures descends upon the party. It turns and looks, and the other ones look as well.

The party finds itself gripped with terror. As the sunlight hits him, like, a huge shadow is cast on the cliff wall behind him, and it looks ten times the size of a huge creature. Yeah, these are messed up looking things. Plunging the field into chaos. Nester Will just sees Nester run by. He's like, Nesta? Yeah. Nesta? Nesta, what's wrong? As the creatures swoop in,

the adventure continues. Now. Hey everybody and welcome to episode 113 of the Glass Cannon podcast. I want to thank everybody, everyone, for continuing to listen and continuing to post iTunes reviews, all that, but I especially want to thank all the new Patreon pledges that have popped up in the last week or so. Thank you so much. That's such a huge help.

And, in fact, episode one of our disorganized play bonus content will be up and available Wednesday, July 26th, which is the day after this launches. So it'll either be available really soon or right now, depending on when you're listening to it. Uh, and you can still check out episode zero of the bonus episode,

a little preview of that. Uh, that's free, uh, on the patron site. Give, give that a listen. See if you want to,

uh, join in on that. And that will be available to Patreon supporters at the $5 tier and up. I also want to mention our buddy Steve Stagliano is doing a fan meetup in L.A., a West Coast meetup on August 17th. So check our Facebook events or the subreddit for details on that. Hopefully you can make it to that. And so anyway, let's get to it. Let's enjoy our newest episode.

Let's do it light. Taking me through the night. Shadow Lansing. What was that song you were just singing that you were making up I was singing with the they were scary

so uh I don't wanna fight these guys I wanna run away they might call us cowards but we'll live to fight another day you gotta understand

skid does this all the time yeah during sound it's always the song usually way dirtier than that Skid does this all the time During the drink time It's always a song They're usually way dirtier than that But it's one of the few That we could sing on air Pretty horrifically dirty

Oh yeah It's a lot easier to rhyme When you go dirty Oh, tell me about it So many simple words It's so much easier to work blue It's cheap laughs But I go for the cheap laughs. You're not above a cheap laugh.

I'm not going to turn my nose up. Oh, goodness. Well, that was a fun one. We got a new canon NPC, Fung Fah. I like it. That guy is a huge fan hit. Be ready for your Fung Fah t-shirts coming soon. I didn't eat the

I didn't eat the special rocks I was just I was just picturing him just sitting alone in that map room knowing no one else is going to come in there

because they're scared just eating rocks looking around I was thinking waiting for his moment I was thinking the Vulcan state of Ponfire

it sounds like his name and then I pictured him having sex every seven years and then I made a song about it You want to hear it? Here it goes Because he had to fight his friend And does his friend have to fake his death

So that he can not marry The woman he's engaged to Nerd Oh shit I didn't even queue it up Oh here it is Nerd Is that the original series? Yeah Oh, shit. I didn't even queue it up. Oh, here it is. Nerd! Is that the original series?

Yeah. When Spock goes into Pomfart, and then they have to go back to Vulcan, and he's got this fiance. It's when they do the... I don't remember the rest of that episode. They had the whole battle with the weird weapon thing. You really... Oh, my God. This is so nerdy.

Can we just play some role-playing games? Yeah. Can we, I some role-playing games? Yeah. Can we, I mean... Can we stop talking about Star Trek and do something? McCoy has to get involved and it gets...

Excuse me, Matthew, the jocks are talking. Why don't we let him sit at our table, guys? Get his own little table like Thanksgiving. Sit over there and roll your dice.

You'll role-play when I tell you to role roleplay. Alright, so now, healing-wise, you guys are in okay shape, but I know Della's used pretty much every spell and cantrip she has available. I've got a couple of second-level spells, but that's it. Oh, boy. Oh, man. And I've got my third

little pearl of power and my first little pearl of power. I should say that while Skid was singing this song, I was also saying very, very emphatically that we cannot fight these things. Yes. And live. I really don't think that we can. You were really, really forceful about that.

So Nestor walks up to the edge. You follow along this pinkish stream that gets darker and darker and darker. And you realize, obviously, it's blood. Blood. You turn the corner and you see, and if I didn't make this clear last episode, it's two cave giants that are being mauled by these. Stag, wings of a hawk, antlered, slavering, what did I say, slavering wolf heads with hooves and talons.

This is pretty gruesome, and they are just tearing into the flesh of the foremost one two of them are and then the other two are like taking turns flying and swooping down ripping out chunks of flesh and then flying back up flinging it in the air and catching it in

their mouth Nestor where you are the stream is running by it's beet beet red from one of the bodies in particular. The closest one to you. They're obviously distracted by their feast. You rolled like 90, 20, I think, on the

stealth. Something in the 30s. Yeah, 38. As usual. You're about 20, 25 feet away from the foremost one. There are four of them. Your party is 60 feet away from the foremost one. There are four of them. Your party is... 60 feet away? I don't know, 50 feet away?

I'd have to count it. Maybe less, maybe 40. Back near all the entrances to the cave mouths. What do you want to do, Nestor? You know that your party is not the most stealthy, and you've got the jump on them. Yeah. So they stop. Troy is just drawing you've got the jump on them. Yeah. So

they stop. Troy is just drawing you into attack! No! No! That's the sound Troy is making. So I'm going to turn around and do like hand signals. Say like there's four creatures with horns like on my head their head and wings, clapping wings.

Sounds like two syllables, second syllable. And I'm going to wave them up, and then I'm going to take a shot. All right. Let's do the surprise round. You're going to shoot the closest one, right? Yeah. Yep. Umlo is so dead.

All right, fire away. All right, so first shot, deadly aims, studied target. This is a standard action where it's the surprise round, flat-footed AC. Right. That is a 26 to hit. That is a hit. Nice. Nice. And

47. Oh my. 47 damage. God, 47 damage? Did you roll your sneak attack? Yes, that's what sneak attack. Holy moly, that one is almost dead. Yes. Yes. Roll for initiative. Yeah, baby. Roll, roll, roll. Roll, roll, roll. Roll for initiative. Yeah, baby! Roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll and the other ones look as well. Della, what you got?

22. 22, all right. Baron. 29. Oh, my. How is that even possible? Sir Will? Seven.

Who's playing Umlo this week? I'm playing Umlo again this week. Double on the Umlo, okay. Double up on an Umlo. What's his Anish? Seven. What'd you get, Sir Willut. What's his Anish? Seven. Seven. What'd you get, Sir Will? Did you say seven, too?

Seven. I would assume you have a... It's Sir Will. Yeah. And Nestor? 29 also. Wow. What?

Baron, you got him beat, I'm sure, right? Plus 12. I think so. Plus 12. Wow. All right. Let me just... Gun slinging's initiative.

Slanging. Fling. Let me sandwich my creatures in the middle of... Slanging guns for days. Hey, alright. Gun slinging initiative. Gun slanging. Let me sandwich my creatures in the middle of... Slanging guns for days. Hey, Troy, I just... In the middle of the entire party and Sir Will. I had an idea before this episode. If we could just deal with...

You know I discourage this. Can I be... Can I just switch my archetype to musket master and can I have a musket for this battle? Alright. Yeah, that's good. Yay! I hate to bend the rules, but sure. Since you use your dragon's bane pistol so often, here's another pistol.

A musket is a rifle, Troy. Rifle, excuse me. Good God. Yeah, you haven't used that dragon's bane at all. Are you afraid of the spread shot? Yeah, I don't want to hit my friends. That doesn't seem to bother Nestor. Yeah, I know.

They're not quite cut from the same cloth. No. Or coin. Round one. You're done with your puns. Round one, the little musketeer himself, Baron. Baron is going to move 20 feet forward.

He's going to take... It's played by Daniel Craig. Daniel Craig. He smashes through several drywall. Playing the role of D'Artagnan. It's a blunt instrument. 20 feet, and he takes a potion of Cure Modern Wounds out and drinks it. He sure does. All right, Nestor.

Oh, can I do a Knowledge Nature? Can I see any of them? You cannot. Okay. But tell me what you got on the Cure there first. Nestor, you're on deck. 12 hit points. 12?

12. Nice. All right, Nestor, you fired that first shot off and effed it up. Yes. You're up. So seeing how badly he hurt that one, he's going to do many shot again on another one. Ah. Okay, so the one to its left.

One to its left. And it's got the deadly aim, sneak attack. Steal target. That is a hit. All right. And... Oh, boy. Here we go.

This one won't get the... Well, will it get sneak attack? Yeah, because you're going forward. Yeah, it's still against its flat-footed AC. That's right. 37. Okay. Wow. Okay. Wow.

So Nestor. Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Fires off some damage. And then he'll turn back to the original one and fire off his second shot. So smart. 21. 21.

That is a hit. Yes. Awesome. Okay. That is a hit. Yes. Awesome. Okay. 17 damage. And you kill the first one. Yes. All right. Nestor.

Nestor. Classic Nestor. Awesome. Okay. Della. Nine. Della Narn. Della's going to move up 30 feet.

And then can she see any of these creatures? At that point, around the bend, yeah, I'd say at this point you can see the two in the back. I can see the two in the back. Or at least one of the ones in the back, yeah. I would like to do a knowledge check. Knowledge nature? This is going to be magical beast. Arcana. It's going to be magical no magical beast

arcana good magical beast 25 25 what do you want to know what are they called first of all

they're called peritons peritons these are another thing that go all the way back to the original D&D wow

yeah peritons what else what do I want to know? Weaknesses. Weaknesses. Alright, with a 25, that's going to give you a couple bits of information here. You're not supposed to be on the hook for this. The GM is just supposed to tell you a piece of useful

information. Yes. Make sure it's useful about it. Yes. Well, I've seen some GMs ask, what do you want to know? What are you interested in? I don't like them. I will tell you that they have DR. Magic bypasses it. Okay.

Awesome. They can fly. I'm just going to read this because it's probably not going to happen. They have this thing called horrific critical. A peritone's gore probably not going to happen. They have this thing called Horrific Critical. A

periton's gore attack threatens a critical hit on an 18 to 20. If a periton kills a humanoid foe with a critical hit, it can tear out the victim's heart with its wolf-like teeth as a free action. Any creature that witnesses this savage event

must make a DC 15 fortitude save or be shaken for one round. Wow. So wait a minute, if you get crit by it, you just insta-die? Yeah, I think if it... Crit and killed. Yeah, it rips the heart out of you. If it attacks Al Gore and gets a crit,

then it rips his heart out. That's straight out of the book. I believe that's what it says. So yeah, that's enough for you, Dylan. What is going on? The guys in the back that I can see are eating the second cave tool? Yes, they've temporarily

suspended their feast. What's going on over here? Are we in a valley? Are we in La Valle right now? You're back in Mineral's Valley. It's opened up and the stream continues two different ways. The stream forks. Yes. Yeah, so it's like three...

It's a forked stream. So this is a wall. It's a forked pea stream. It looks like a fidget spinner. Troy, are we bounded by a cliff wall, or is this just dense forest? Yeah, it's the same cliff wall as you've been used to since back when you were in the valley. It's a very narrow valley. But over here is open.

It's the ridgeline. Della is just going to double move. All right. Della, she moved to get up there, and now she will move even closer. Closer? Closer. Closer. And now it is the Peloton's turn.

Oh, boy. This is where the fun begins. Yes. About to go to sound. Okay. Paraton, we'll call him something fun. Number two. He takes off. He's called Perry Ellis.

Perry Ellis. He takes off into the air. Perry Mason? Yeah. Perry Winton? And Terry Polo. He didn't like that one he takes off into the air and that one died like a turban and you see as the sunlight hits him like a huge shadow is cast on the the cliff wall behind him and it looks makes this beast these are medium creatures makes it looks like

they're 10 times the size of a huge creature. Yeah, these are messed up looking things. You guys have to see this art. And, Nestor, yeah, we definitely got to put this one up. Nestor, you feel it using some sort of ability on you. Uh-oh. And it goes as a free action, a touch attack, ten against your touch AC. That is a miss. All right. So it does not, whatever this power that it was trying to use

does not affect you, so it just swoops in to gore you. And I dodge it. I'm a dodgy geezer. 25 to gore. Why is it hit? It gores you for 10 points

of damage and stays hovering over you. So it's just standing there. Bloody feathered wings. Actually, you know what? Instead of hovering over you, it's going to swoop in and use its fly-by attack. So it'll swoop in, move, and pull out.

And just kind of like stay, you know, twenty feet away or so, still in air. Quick question. Can it swoop in and then swoop back out the way it came? Like a fly-by attack, I think that you have to maintain some

sort of direction that's the same. When flying, the creature can take a move action and another standard action at any point during the move. So if you do a complete about face as a flying creature, you have to pass a hard fly check. Their fly might be plus 20 for all I know.

They're fine, but it's like, to go 180 degrees in the other direction while you're flying is a pretty steep high check. DC 20. No, that works for me. It'll fly straight past him and be more visible to the party.

The second one attempts to do the same No, that works for me. It'll fly straight past him and be more visible to the party. There we go. Okay, the second one attempts to do the same thing. Touch attack on Nestor. It is going to be a 22 touch. That is a hit. Something very weird happens. This one also casts a huge shadow on the wall behind it. As it flies by, the shadow of this magical beast with its wings and its antlers and its hooves turns

into the shadow of a man holding a bow. What? Oh, what? The shadow it casts on the wall is the shadow of that of Nestor Coyne. And it comes swooping in to also gore you. That is going to be

a 21. That's a hit. It's just a hit. Hits Nestor for six points of damage. So this one comes down, gores you. For only six points of damage, roll a will save. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

DC 13. No, that's a fail. Oh, no! That's a big fail. I actually misspoke. It was DC 15. Seeing your shadow up on the wall freaks you out, and you become frightened for one round.

Oh, no. Oh, that's really bad. Nestor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If it frightens Nestor, everyone's screwed. And the last one, it can only reach Nestor, so it attempts to do that touch attack again. Twelve against

touch? Miss. Okay. So it's just going to attempt to gore a frightened Nestor. Natty, too, misses on the gore. And that one will fly past we'll say flies like up to where Della is. Oh, man.

The paratons. Up in the air. Up in the air, yeah. So it's kind of hovering near Della. All right. They have made their moves. Nestor is frightened. And what does the frightened condition do?

Well, it's a minus two. It's like shaken. And I think you have to run away, right? Yeah, you have to flee from the source of your fear. A frightened creature flees from the source as best it can. Curious. Bad news. Bad news bears. Sir Will, can you fly on Lexington?

He is a magical wolf. I tried once. Joe rejected it. So Sir Will is going to move up into the fray here, and he can't really do anything against flying creatures, so he's just going to do total defense.

And before he leaves the area, he was right next to Umlo. Before he leaves the area, he's going to say, Umlo, stay clear of these creatures. There's not much we can do from the ground. Keep yourself safe. And he rides up into the fray and does total defense. Maybe it's being back out in the light.

Maybe it's your act of goodwill in preserving the life of Fungfar, the rock troll. But you feel sort of imbued with a little bit of sort of righteousness that you haven't felt. Divine in a while. Divine grace. As if perhaps you're being shined upon once again.

Nice. You're also far away from the cathedral as well. Yeah. And to round out round one. Oh, that's awesome. It's Umlo. Nice. Umlo sees what's happening and he heads back towards the cave.

Okay. Umlo's just like, nope. Round two. You mean you don't want to throw your mithril skillet at them? Round two. Actually, if they stay low enough, you could probably hit them with the, whatchamacallit? 15 foot. Yeah.

With hats. Round two. Baron. Baron is going to move 20 feet. Okay. Behind Sir Will. And he's going to put his gun right up next to his ear. Right or left.

Your choice. Oh, man. That seems highly unnecessary. And how far up in the air is the freakish creature that is nearest to Della? It's right within Della's reach. Okay. So that's like 20 feet. It could be 25 if it's flying.

So we'll say it's out of my first range increment. Okay. Take off. Deadly aim. Be careful not to miss or roll a one. Okay. I got so nervous with that gun when I watched the die roll. I just seen a bullet go straight through the back of Della's head. That is a 25 against traditional, or 20,

sorry, it's a 23 against traditional AC. That's a hit, buddy. Alright! Did you have flanking? You mother... So that is 11 points

of damage Nice Okay Boom Nice Alright It is gonna be Nestor's turn Nestor Something about this

You're magically frightened He's always shadow Like he saw Yeah he saw himself And he's just like Fuck this I have to do my fucking way And he just

Full withdraws And uh Just Shoot Back towards Umlo Back towards Umlo Back towards Umlo. Back towards Umlo. Back towards Umlo. Nester will just sees Nester run by.

He's like, Nesta? Yeah. Nesta? Nesta, what's wrong? Didn't this just happen in another battle? This ability is known as Shadow Mark. And once you are Shadow Marked and then hit, you have to roll that will save or you become frightened.

And how long does that last? Frightened for just one round. Oh, okay. But as long as it's still marked you, if it hits you again, you roll another will save. Oh, man. That one is marked with Nestor's shadow. Oh, man. All right.

That was... Now it's Della's turn. Della, you are face-to-face with this horrific creature. How far up in the air are all of them that I'm surrounded by? The one that is... We'll say that they're all about anywhere from 7 to 15 feet

off the ground. Okay, so if I tried to move away, it would provoke? No, because their reach is their reach. Their reach is the same as yours. Yeah. Okay, Della is going to move back. Okay.

I'm scared of what's happening now. And she's going to cast Web. Ah! Nice! She's going to anchor it to the cliff face on one side and then the ground on the other and get these two. Excellent. And try to get those two in it.

So those two is the one that attacked Nestor and flew by towards you and then the last, or maybe that was the second. The one that frightened me. Yeah. And then the one that attacked Nestor and just stayed, hovered there. That was the one that frightened me, wasn't it? No, the one that frightened you is the one with the yellow die under, the one that ran past.

Oh, okay. No, I'm sorry. You're right. They each get a DC 15 reflex save. All right, DC 15 reflex save. Decent reflex. All right, so we'll do the one closest to you. Natty 15 on the die.

And the next one, Natty 19 on the die. Got those 19s. Worth a shot. Okay. Web has been out for the past. Now the entire group is just behind Sir Will, and these things are all flying out in front of them. Now there is web there,

so they're going to have to fly around that. Right, right, right. Once they've succeeded on the reflex save, do they have to do anything now to move out of it? I always forget this when the web is there. It's complicated with them flying. It sure is. You're telling me. You're inside the web, but otherwise

unaffected, so you're still inside the web Uh huh Uh It's considered difficult terrain Anyone moving through the webs Must make a combat maneuver check Or an escape artist check As part of their move action

With the DC equal to spells DC Okay There you go You become grappled if you fail Okay And what's the spells DC? DC 15 DC 15

Okay Okay It was worth a shot Yeah Made my life Much more complicated Apple, but you fail. Okay, and what's the spell's DC? DC 15. DC 15, okay. Okay. It was worth a shot. Yeah. Made my life much more complicated. You're welcome. All right. The one who flew past will attempt to shadow mark Sir Will.

Sir Willamette. Oh, no. This is against touch AC. Against touch AC. Ooh, I didn't. Nine against touch. All right, that's a miss. That's a missette. Oh, no. This is against touch AC. Against touch AC. Ooh, it didn't. Nine against touch. All right, that's a miss. All right, so it missed, so it just comes swooping in towards Sore Will to gore.

Maybe a horrific gore? He holds up the shield. Critical threat. Oh, no. Are you shitting me? Its crit range is 18 to 20 on a gore. Well, wait, what's its gore bonus? Gore bonus is a plus 11.

So what did it roll? Oh, 29. Miss. So it's a miss. Miss. Right. Only natural 20s. Wow.

Nice. Total defense. Wow. So it's just a straight up miss. Straight up miss. So if something was in the critical threat range. And it's not a natural 20. A natural 20 always hits.

Will always hit. Right. Wow. That's shield always hits. Will always hit. Right. Wow! That shield, man! Yeah, I'll have it. Lancing off the shield. I'm going to have it linger there. That's fine with me.

Confused. I really thought that one was on the mark. I really... All right. This, the one that was hovering closest to Della, is going to attempt to move out of the web and then try a fly check to turn and come after Della. So let's first do the movement out of the web.

It's DC 15. 29. Rolled another natty 19. Plus 10. So it does that, and then a fly check. What is it to turn 45 degrees? I have it in front of me. 15, DC 15.

DC 15? Okay, as long as I don't. Well, actually, it's automatic for me. I have it in front of me. 15. DC 15. DC 15? Okay. As long as I don't... Well, actually, it's automatic for me. I have a plus 14 to fly. So it comes around and as a free action attempts the shadow mark ability against touch AC. Crack die. I have no room to roll over here. Uh-oh.

10 against touch, Della. Fail. Fail. Nice. All right. So it just comes in for the old Al Gore. Almost another critical hit. But it is a hit.

Critical hats, critical hats, critical. Critical hats. Eight points of damage to Della. Okay. And then what is going on over here? This is good. This is fun. It's really spread out.

Okay, now this one only has 60 feet of flight, and he's got to get out of the web as well. It's difficult terrain, so it's... It's going to slow him down. So, like, if he gets out, he might be able to come... You know what? He's just going to try and attempt to get out and put himself in a position to do something good next time. DC-10... Excuse me, DC-15... Roll the natty 15 on the die.

D20 is back! He comes swooping out and just kind of hovers behind this group here of what looks like a Periton, Sir Will, Della directly behind Sir Will, and then... Excuse me, Baron, and then to the right, another Paraton, and right behind that is Della.

Get a picture of that. This is good. Okay. So much work. Sir Will. Can I stab at this thing? Or it's just out of my range? Just past five feet? Well, it just attacked, right?

Did it back up? It attacked and sort of hovered just out of reach. Yeah, that should be within reach of you. I didn't do a flyby attack. I just came in and hovered there. You know what? Sir Will's just going to continue doing total defense and just try to take attention and let the ranged characters do actual damage.

Alright, Sir Will. And now it is Umlo's turn. Umlo, you backed away towards characters do actual damage. All right, Sir Will. And now it is Umlo's turn. Umlo, you backed away towards the caverns. Ask this, he said. Umlo is, like, going to just hang back in the cliffs of the cave mouth and pray. I'm going to pray. Pray. That's the way we pray. Pray.

I'm going to pray just to make it to death. All right, so I'm low. Wrapped in prayer. Perhaps some of Sir Will has wrapped off on as there's a... Yeah, he's got to be feeling guilty. If he wants to be a paladin, he better not. Bloodstain on his forehead. Round three, Baron.

So Baron had this great idea to target the wings of these creatures to make them drop 20 feet, but thanks to your sloppy GMing, I know they have a plus 14 to their fly check, so I'm not going to do that. Well, that's called metagaming. You tipped your hand, LeBally. I am sat next to the host and founder of metagametheory.com. That's true. You've learned from the worst.

He's rubbing off on you. I'm going to go blam, blam, blam, foot up a dog's ass all day long. There you go. On the one attacking Della. On the one attacking Della. Okay. Oh, yeah. Okay.

And... Sorry, I'm just turning on point blank shots. Sure, sure. Rapid shot. Got to kill him. Roll a one, roll a one, roll a one, one, one. Nice. That is a hit.

Amazing! 16 points of damage. Is it? Oh, right! Someone forgot to metagame a little more. Chip this hand! Chip this hand, man! Chip this!

Oh, and it's DR 15, too. That is rough. Oh, wow. That's too bad. Can I make that a standard action and stop my attack now? Absolutely not. You do not have this knowledge. No, he shared it with us. I shared it with him. Can I make that a standard action and stop my attack now? Absolutely not. You do not have this knowledge. No, he shared it with us.

Can I stop my attack? No, he did. Roll the tape back. I'm not going to let you retcon this now. Continue shooting. You can do it next round. You're still doing damage. You're still doing damage.

It's not a 15 to you. You'll get crucified on the board, Grant. There we go. 18 points of damage. Is it? And a hit. What happened? Oh, there you go, Max.

And 20 points of damage. Okay. All right. So boom, boom, boom. Foot up a dog's ass all day long. Don't know what that means. It's from Friday. From Friday.

The movie Friday. Oh. I thought you were going to say it's from Texas. From Friday. When we were talking on Friday. Remember when we spoke? We had a great conversation. From Friday. The movie Friday. Oh. I thought you were going to say it's from Texas. From Friday. When we were talking on Friday. Remember when we spoke? We had a great conversation.

All right. Nestor. You feel like, what just happened? It's like, oh, shake it off. Shake it off, Titus Swift. And I turn around and saw, oh, fuck off. Which is the one that did it? Whichever was the one that did that to me. It's the one that Baron just shot at.

Okay. Which is the one that did it? Whichever was the one that did that to me. It's the one that Baron just shot at. Okay, then I'm going to whip around, quickly study target again, and deadly aim attack. Many shot. That is 25 to hit. That is a hit. And with the old Jolta.

Old Jolta. Old Jolta. Oh, boy. Hold on. Someone reset Troy. He's stuck. 36 damage. You kill it.

Yeah, motherfucker. That's what you get for scary. As it fades, you see a shadow turn back into itself and falls to the ground. Yeah, that's what I thought. That's what I thought, mate. Fuck off. Fuck you. All right. Do you have any shots left? Yes. Okay. to a fort, mate! Fuck off! Fuck you! Alright.

Do you have any shots left? Yes. So then I will turn my attentions to Peritons down. To the one that's menacing Sir Will. Okay. And where it's up in the air, it's not going to get any cover bonus. And that's, I think that's probably yeah, it's a miss. 15.

15 is a miss. All right, but the damage has been done. Della, what are you going to do? All right. How tall is Baron? Four feet? I can tell you exactly how tall I am. Just give me one moment.

I am four foot. Tiny little bugger. Okay, great. So Della is going to step over here, and she's going to, above Baron and Sir Will, cast Lightning Bolt in a single line through the two peritons. Wow. Love it. Yeah.

Amazing. That's going to work. So that's a reflex save for each? Reflex save for half. 16? It is DC 16. Well done, Della. All right, so reflex you said, right?

Okay. Good reflex, as we know. Pass. And pass. Two 20s. Adjusted. Okay. So it's 21 total.

So each of them takes 10 points. Nice. Nicely done. And that bypasses the DR. It certainly does. Good job, dude. That's nice. I mean, kind of a perfect use of it.

You never get to crack. That was the purple power, by the way. And I'm not one to give praise easily or readily, as you all know, and I'm not prone to hyperbole. But that was the single greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. No, skid, skid, you're forgetting the magic missile in the Grog Hall. Oh, the second greatest

thing I have ever seen in my life. It'll never be beat. It'll never be beat. Okay, Della, good use of that lightning bolt, which you learned by drinking the blood of Manoni. It's true. True statement. Scumbag. It's true. True statement.

You scumbag. All right, it's their turn now. I'm down to two. I'm down to two. All right, so the one that is right up in Sir Will's Sir Grill will attempt free action to shadow mark you. Oh, that'll do. 19 against touch?

Is that going to beat your touch? I say so well. That's a hit. All right. And now it will do a full attack action. Gore. 15. Miss.

Oh, come on. Come on. Any power attack? Anything I can do to hurt you really badly? All right. Hoove number one. Damn it all. I'm going to have one of these hits for you to roll this really badly. All right, hoove number one. Damn it all. I'm going to have one of these hit

for you to roll this will save. Damn it, they all missed! Yeah! All right, so... Benefits of heavy armor, LaValley. You are marked, so that shadow on the wall is the shadow of a man.

Of a handsome knight. He says small little halfling. Small little halfling. A small little halfling. And the other one will fly by to Shadowmark Baron and do a gore. First the Shadowmark against Touch AC. 23 against Touch Baron.

Miss, you sucker! No, I did. And attempts to gore Baron. 16, Baron? Nope. Let's use the 18, because it's going to plus two. Nope. Are you sure, Troy?

Wow. You had all your bonuses? Wow. We'll wait. All right. Oh, you already did it. Thank you. I wanted to be on the other side,

but it's cool. All right. Little respite here. Sir Will, you're up. So does he just run now? Aren't we frightened now with the shadow mark? No, not yet.

No, you have to... If it hits you and you fail your will save, then you're frightened. But I cannot hit the broadside of a barn today. Nope. Alright, so yes, Sir Will, you're up. Sir Will is just going to continue tanking.

He's just going to stay in front and not try to charge or anything. They're up in the air. Okay. Total defense. Alright, I in the air, so. Okay. Total defense. All right, I should, yeah, that's fine. I should have moved them a little bit with flyby, but that's okay.

Umlo. Umlo is still praying? Still praying. All right, so Umlo's just trying to find his deity. Round four, Baron. You got one of these bad boys right up in your stuff. Baron's going to take a five-foot step away from the creature. He is going to, as a swift action, do what he should have done, what he planned on doing, which is call down a judgment of sacred smiting.

Yeah. There you go. Which treats the weapon as magic for purposes of damage reduction. As we learned, you can't smite good. You don't get that until later. Nope. It's a different thing. I can detect undead, though, as an Orison.

Right. We all know that. Okay, good. We all know that. For a second, I was like, are you serious right now? So full attack I can do now? Sure. Is that all right?

Absolutely. Is that all right? Okay, great. Magical gun. Oh, that's a hit. That's a hit. Is that alright? Absolutely. Okay, great. Magical gun. Oh, that's a hit. For 16 points of damage. Okay. Second one is a, you tell me,

is a 16 against touch a hit. Yeah. That is a 18 against 18 damage. And then the final attack is going to be up close and deadly. It's got to be a 1 in here somewhere. 17, that's a hit.

So that is 20 points of regular damage and the precision damage is 10. So 30 points of damage. Take your precision damage and shove it up your ass because it's dead. Yeah! Wow, okay. Alright. So you guys were nervous about nothing.

Nice. There's going to be a tenth animal. The whole rest of this adventure will be this easy. All right, Nestor. All right, so he turns his attentions once more to the guy, Medicine Will. Money shots, study target, deadly aim. Pull that. Pull that. Oh, 19.

19 is a miss. Yeah. Is that the multi-shoot? That's the multi-shot. Okay. Second shot. That's a hit. And the damage is going to be 19 points of damage.

19 damage. Okay. Okay. Della? Della is going to swift action Keen and shock the scimitar. Oh, that's awesome. So cool. And she's going to get up around the other side of this thing and take a swing.

All right. All right. 15 to hit. Miss. That is a miss. All right. So you moved in to do that. Yeah.

All right. It will attempt to mark that. Yep. All right. It will attempt to mark you, Della. Me? Yep. Oh, that's going to be a mark. 22 against touch. Yep.

And then gores. Almost a critical threat. Definitely a hit. So roll a will save. 27. All right, so you're not frightened. You do a will save. 27. All right, so you're not frightened. You do take 10 points of damage, and then it begins flying off. Oh, it leaves.

It's running away. It's running away. It only gets about 30 feet, though. Ooh. But it's going up in the air. Yeah. That's Nestor range, though. Yep. That certainly is.

It is Sir Will's turn. Well, attacks of opportunity, no? Yeah, attacks of opportunity. Full withdraw. Oh, full withdraw. No, it wasn't a full withdraw because it did its attack. Oh, then yeah. It's going, like, straight up.

But yeah. It's leaving it right in the square. Okay, yeah. You're right. You're not wrong. 18 to hit. That's a miss. 18 is a miss.

Okay. Thank goodness. All right, Sir Will. As in my turn? No, I just wanted to hear what your... Yes, it's your turn. I was surprised it got back around to me. I just like saying your name.

Sir Will, your shoes are untied. Sir Will's going to hold. All right, Sir Will will hold. Umlo, still praying, I'm assuming. Yep. Round five, Baron. Okay, so he's going to step five foot forward. Skate shooting.

And he is going to... This will be regular AC. No, it's not, because he's going to use a new deed he's never used on air before. What? Called Dead Eye. What? Oh! Who do you think you are?

Typically a seventh level, or it's typically ast level gunslinger trait, but pistol arrows get it at 7th level. So I get to spend a grip point and resolve against touch AC beyond the 1st range. Ew. Awesome. Dirty gunslinger. I still take a negative 2 penalty

on attack rolls, however. So, that's it. 19 points of damage. And as the thing is flying off, Baron just sets his sights on it, digs deep, maybe takes a puff off his cigarillo, and knocks it out of the sky. Yeah!

It's like... Right in the river. It's like English Bob shooting pheasants. Yes, yes. Exactly. All right. Give yourself a round of applause. That was not nearly as bad as I thought. I tell you what.

You know, these combats where we are able to do really well are so much more fun in the wake of one where we almost all died. Yeah. Absolutely. You need that bounce. I'll tell you right now. That was a CR9 encounter. You effectively took Umlo out, and that is just a classic ninth-level characters

in a CR9 encounter, and you handled it. Yeah. You took a little damage, but very, very well done. Who wrote this book? The book we're on now? Tim Hitchcock.

So Hitchcock did a really good job, and you did with the cliffhanger together. Oh, thanks. I was terrified of these things because they took out those two giants, and I assumed that they were just going to murder us. Right, right. And at the time, I was like, I couldn't remember. Once I heard the name, I was like, oh, now I remember what these things are.

But I was just like, this is some weird new thing. I have no clue what they do. Speaking of those giants, let's go take a look. Dem giants? Yeah, they might be giants. They might be. Nailed it. Nailed it, Skip!

Okay, so, as usual, Della goes to raid the corpses. I don't know why you think so little of me. Alright, so, tell me what you're doing. And Nestor tries to act cool like he wasn't just terrified. Right. A little scared back there.

Oh, no, just needed a little bit of room. It's funny because what I saw is you run away like a scared little child. It may have seemed like that to the untrained eye, but I was just honestly like there was suffocating. I just need a little room to breathe. So you don't understand because you're not used to like... Because I'm just a woman with a small brain Is what you're saying No no no

The fact that you have A small brain Is completely unrelated To your gender So I'm totally I'm not sexist like that at all But anyway Let's just go to get

These giants I mean I know That's what you're interested in So let's go look Yeah Yeah let's go Yeah These two

You guys should get a sitcom The train killer And the being From another plane Just a couple of Chaotic evil characters Ethnic mismatch You guys should get a sitcom. The Train Killer and the Being from Another Plane. Just a couple of chaotic evil characters. Ethnic Mismatch sitcom number 615. All right, so the cave giants just have the normal stuff. Oh, they're cave giants?

I thought they were storm giants. Yeah, they're cave giants. Dead cave giants. You know, those elongated tusks. Yes. This is what you fought back in True Now, Baron. Back at the Hope Spring. Back at the old Hope Spring.

Roll a perception check. 26. 24. 21. 5. So Sir Will has no idea what's going on, but you go up there and you look, you notice that one of them is wearing a...

Is it flanged or flanged? Flanged. A flanged collar of mithril and steel. Detect magic. Oh, yeah. Oh, interesting. I'll remove it and spellcraft it. 18.

You don't know what it is? Do you want... Or do you just want to roll? I'll just roll. Natural 18. Nice. Nice. 29. Get ready to fight.

Oh, boy. Ready to hear another debate. We'll see you next time. My friends. So one of them is wearing this flange collar, mithril and steel, protecting the neck of it as well as its shoulders. Like a coif. Can you picture this thing? Yeah.

It is known as a Guardian Gourget. Perhaps Gourget. It's Gourget, I think. Gourget. Gourget. You look Gourget. Guardian Gourget. Right off the bat, it provides a plus two armor bonus to AC.

Ooh. Does not stack with other armor bonuses. Oh. What's the point of that? That's absurd. Well, that's what it does. Okay. If you don't... That's all point of that? That's absurd. Well, that's what it does. Okay. If you don't...

That's all you're wearing? Just nude apart from a collar? Yeah, it's nude apart from a steel collar. Does it have no armor check penalty? Is it good for a spellcaster? I don't know that. I'll read you the rest of it. It grants the light fortification property to the wearer.

Nice. Are you familiar with that? What does that do? That's Sir Will's shield. 25% chance to negate crits oh wow like yeah so you basically would trade this in for another armor oh your arm is going to give you more than a plus two in addition this is right up della's alley the wearer may engrave a glyph of warning directly onto the guardian gorget. Gorget? Gorget. When the wearer is struck in melee, she can trigger the glyph as an immediate action, causing the glyph to discharge against the creature making the attack,

and any other creature within five feet, as if a blast glyph was placed. But the wearer is not harmed by the glyph's effects. The glyph can be triggered even if the attack would normally leave the wearer incapable of taking such actions like if it's stunned or dazed or unconscious if it attacks you it would explode

if you put that glyph on there but yeah not stacking with other armor bonuses makes it no no it's great it's not armor it's a necklace exactly it's not really armor it makes your armor light fortification armor.

Yeah, yeah. Which is insanely valuable. Yeah, yeah. So all of you, none of you are going to get the plus two to the AC, but you get the chance to negate crits. That's pretty great. Plus the glyph of void and exhaust. So you go to unconscious and someone goes to kudagra you and hits, it

explodes in in prison. Who wants it? I do. I do. By the way, a Blast Glyph deals 1d8 points of damage per two caster levels. What's the caster level of the item? 13th.

Now, here's the thing, though. So it's max. Max is 5d8. This damages acid, cold, fire, electricity, or sonic. now here's the thing though so it's max max is 5d8 yeah here's the thing that none of us can't oh and it this damages acid cold fire

electricity or sonic you choose at the time of cast oh wow do you need to be able to cast glyph of warding no no no

it says in addition the wearer may engrave a glyph of warding directly onto the guardian gorget so uh I'm sure

I think it would look lovely on me is it is it steel? Is it heavy? Mithril and steel Not all that heavy You know what, I think you have to actually be able to cast the Glyph of Warding Oh really?

I'm reading it too, it says you may engrave a Glyph of Warding You need a Cleric, Oracle Witch or Inquisitor Level 3 Well it's a level 3 spell for them It is however worth 12,000 gold pieces A cleric, oracle, witch, or inquisitor, level three. Well, it's a level three spell for them. It is, however, worth 12,000 gold pieces. You know what you could do?

You can bring it to the next town and find somebody to cast that spell for you as well. Yeah, but that's the least value of that item. Sure, sure. The value of the item is the life fortification. Yeah, absolutely. All right, so you all want it? Yeah. Sir Will's good without it. Okay, make your case, Baron.

Just case for wanting it? I'd love to not be critical. That'd be great. It would look really sweet. I don't have a hat now, so I need something. Do it as Daniel Craig. I need to be looking at you to give you the smoldering blue eyes. Oh, my heart.

Wall of Flutter. to be looking at you to give you the smoldering blue eyes. Oh, my heart. And I would love Inquisitor level glyph of warding. I want to put a glyph of Toreg, but I want to kind of remix that with Abria by the time I'll die before I get the spell. If I were able to do it, I do a glyph of

Toreg plus Abria on it to remember what I'm fighting for at all times. Okay, I like that. I like you tied it into the story. This is interesting. Della, what are you thinking? Well, you know, with all due respect to my good friend Baron here

who stands 20 feet back from all melee attacks and my other good friend Nestor who literally runs away like a frightened little guy. I think it would make sense for the wearer to be someone who actually is brave and courageous enough to get up in the face of danger and it

just feels right for me to have that magical ability baked into my armor so that when all of you run away and leave me to die at least I'll be able to kill off the thing and save you all and leave you bleeding out to death. Hey, Joe, do you have the sound of burning bridges queued up? Can we play that real quick?

Everything you said was factually correct and in character as it was selfish. And there it is. You're in the burn zone. But a very fair point I did say With all due respect

Baron Not to Nestor That's true Nestor Why would she Well listen Um Now

As I made clear I did not run away That was not me running away From danger I believe it was magical Della But Magical running away

Scared It was magical scared Just to be clear But If I had if I did it what are you OJ? if I did it

this is how I do it it would have been well listen I mean I nearly died I came very close to dying and who saved you? well you saved me but

look at mostly Baron well no and I did I'll thank you both for that but the you know at the time but i want but i don't

want to put you in that position again that's that's what i'm concerned about this is your welfare that i'm worried about is you risking yourselves to take care of me if i go down so i mean that's just it's just it's me i'm being as selfless as I can possibly be here, and I think I should be rewarded. Now do Amlo. Now do Amlo. Amlo comes up to me and I say, I know that you are all very generous in letting me cut off my hand and, you know,

take this thing that's controlling my brain. But I don't know if you've noticed, but I have rather a hard time in the combat, like getting, you know, killed almost a lot. And maybe if something that would help that might not happen. I don't know. I don't want to impose, but I've got this problem where I like to live and I want to be alive. And I don't know if you can relate, but I just like to not die.

And I'm always also in the thick of combat, usually. Right. No, usually. Like, I try to... But not this time. No, because I'm, you know... Because of the healing rules. Right.

Because of the house rules on healing. All right, I'm going to say Baron gets a plus three and the other one's going to plus two. Let's see a roll off. The black die is for Nestor. The red one is for Umlo. Can I throw in a bottle? Sure.

It's going to be hard to beat, Baron. Grant is using a bottle cap. Bottle capping. That's not going to do it. It goes to Nesta. Nesta wins. And I win Grant's bottle cap. Yay!

Everyone wins. Coin. I was about to not check it in because I saw the 19, but then I thought, you know what? That's not the spirit of the game. Not only do I appreciate it, I was going to take it anyways because the words came out of your mouth. Does anyone ask

Guardian Gorgit? I couldn't find it in Hero Lab. Oh, maybe it's not. You have to have ultimate equipment, I think. Oh, I have it. Yay. Yeah, Matthew, you wanted to pony up the big one. Does anyone ask Amlo what he was doing? What do you mean? Like what he was doing? What do you mean? Like why he was

What he was doing in the back? Oh yeah I think we Well I had asked him to stay away From the flying creatures His spear would do not much good At ground level I thought Nesta and Baron

Could take care of it Yeah don't like Oh don't be Shameful but It's a shameful thing for a dwarf. But I'm almost dead as it is. You can see I've got these big, deep wounds all over my body. And I thought I wouldn't do a lot of good to preserve my own life.

I still need healing. I think you made the right choice, Umlo. And at that moment, Baron takes the sapling out and stabs it in the ground right next to Umlo. Yeah. And says, tonight we dine in hell. Wait, what? Wait, what? Wait, wait, no.

Wait, no. I'm not doing that. Is it too late to cancel the reservation? I don't want to die in there. It took years to get this reservation. How long does it take for that thing to grow? An hour. One hour.

All right, so is this going to be a camping spot for the night? I don't know if it'll be camping. We'll just hang out here for an hour and then move along. Okay. Because it's only 3 o'clock, right? We searched the whole area, right? We searched. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, the paratrons didn't have any magical items on them. Okay. Because they're magical beasts. All right. So we hang out and wait for our fruit And within an hour this Sapling rod turns into

A beautiful tree full of pears and apples And to know how many We get we get 2d4 Here we go 4 Do it again Grant 4 Maximum fruit We gotta have Grant roll for all these type things I'm gonna do exploding dice for you Come on, do it again, Grant. Come on, buddy. Four! Eight! Wow!

We've got to have Grant roll for all these type things. I'm going to do Exploding Dice for you. Oh! Nice! Go for it. That was fun. One more. Three! Yes!

Amazing. We have 11. Yes! So what is that? 11 potions of cure moderate. Wow! Or restore damage to skills. Right.

That'll be the house rule. If you roll two fours on the tree, you get a third roll. That's awesome. I love it. That's great. Awesome. Wow, that's great. And does that just stay there and you can harvest it every day?

No, it's one hour. Once a week. It bears the fruit. Then you can pick all the fruit and then you pick it up and it turns back into a rock. So the fruit are actually going to be fruit. They'll be like pears and apples and stuff like that. And they still love eating apples. One tree be like pears and apples and stuff like that. And they still love eating apples. One tree that grows pears and apples.

Yep. It's a magical tree, Matthew. It's a magical tree, Matthew. God. Sorry it doesn't fit into your dreams. Troy, make sure you mark it like what day we're on because we need to know in a week. In a week we can recharge it.

Ah, yes, yes. I need to go back and do more of that. He just doesn't even know it. So the other thing about the sapling rod, and this is no problem considering how much we're all down, is that the fruit only lasts 24 hours. So we just eat it now, basically.

All right, so we each get three? Yeah, that makes sense. Does that work? 2D8 plus 3, I think so. Yeah So we just eat it now, basically. So we each get three? Yeah, that makes sense. Does that work? 2D8 plus 3? Yeah. We just got to use them. What about Umlo and Lexington? Umlo's getting one because he only got 10.

Oh, yeah. We forgot about Lexington. Umlo's back. Anybody want to donate any fruit to Lexington? Anyone? Anyone? Wolves don't eat fruit, Joe. Yeah, hang on. I'll just shove it. Shove it in his mouth. Della will give Lexington? Anyone? Anyone? Wolves don't eat fruit, Joe. I'll just shove it in his mouth.

Della will give Lexington one of her fruits. Does she feed it to him? Yes. She gets down on the ground next to him and just cracks it open and lets him lick it. He licks her face. Actually, she carves it and gives him slices one at a time. Oh, like after a soccer game.

Oh, eight? And three? Eleven? and gives him slices. Ooh. That's nice. Oh, like after a soccer game. Oh, eight. And three, 11. And three is 14. Great. Thank you. And Sir Will will do the same to Lexington. And Nestor almost back to full. Nestor's one point down.

He's good. Wow. Are we resting? We should. You don't have spells. I have literally no spells. We got to move. Let's move a little ways down and then... Yeah, let's try to find some

cover so drakes don't fly by. Actually, you know, maybe we should just go back into the cave and do it there. Just inside the cave, like where Umlo was praying. Yeah, sure. Sounds good. Alright, you can go into one of those hollowed out caves that only goes a few yards in.

Let's do that. Then no one can sneak up behind us. Cover and concealment. All right, you can go into one of those hollowed-out caves that only goes a few yards in. Let's do that one. Yeah, we'll do that. Then no one can sneak up behind us. Cover and concealment. Healed up pretty well for the most part. Obviously down on spells, but pretty much everybody's at full. You go into the caves, and it's not long before night falls.

There may be still light elsewhere in the valley, but at least where the sun is setting here, it crests behind the ridgeline and you are engulfed in darkness. And the five of you in Lexington sit within this tiny hollowed out cave and can only wonder if some of these could actually lead to the dark lands and you picture like ancient giants carving these out what were they doing what were they building or attempting to build what were they searching for and how are these caves different from the

ones you saw way way up north that were similarly carved and ending short ways in, but covered in runes of dwarven families. And eventually, you set up your watch, and you fall asleep. you wake up the next morning and it's still pretty dark. You know that it's morning though because those of you who have stayed awake can track the time, but if the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, it's going to be a while before you actually get the sun overhead.

That's how wide and high this valley is. And I'm assuming you set out. There's really only one way to go for a while. You see to the south like little alcoves, but it doesn't look to be anything there. You go a little farther along and see another southerly passage, but you see the ending of it. Do you guys want to check out any of these passages or just forge ahead? Well, are we moving in the direction of the temple that we want to go to first?

Is that the idea here? You are currently moving west. You need to get south. But the temple is south and west. Right. From where we are now. From where you found the map room and the dark passage. So if we see any that kind of head south a little bit, we can check them out.

And then I can do a quick survival check on each one to see if there's any strange footwork. The first two little passageways you see end, at least. Yeah, so I believe all the passageways end in a short amount of time, except one that goes deep. Okay. Do we want to explore that, or do we want to move on to the temples? Oh, no. This is the one the trolls would not even go in.

I'm so curious what's down there. I do. No! I really am, but we have a mission here, so let's just go. Are you sure? I don't know. I kind of want to know what's down there. Let's look real quick.

Let's go look real quick. Can I do a survival check to see any footprints? Yeah, absolutely. 17. Not even a hint of a footprint. Ghost. What if it's ghosts? Let's just go.

Let's just go. Go in or go away? Gos. Let's just go. Let's just go. Go in or go away? Go away. Let's go away from this thing. If it's ghosts, fuck it. Let's go. Why? Isn't this your scare?

No. No. Tell it. It's such a shitty talk. Scared is scared. No, I'm afraid of no ghosts. As a matter of fact, I want to ask you, who are you going to call if there is a ghost? I don't know.

Me. All right, let's go. All right, so you continue on as you see these southerly passages, but they look like they end. If you want to continue checking them out, otherwise you can keep going on the main path. Do you want to check for secret doors at the back of these little caves? Sure. I'll look for unusual stonework and anything unusual at the end of each one.

All right. The first one is very small. You don't see anything, even with your passive perception. The other one, you have to go in. You might lose 15 minutes going in and coming out. That's fine. Oh, okay.

A nester shall hunt down this rogue flautist. And Baron's going in alone, right? We decided? Yeah. Heedlessly. 30, 32 for unusualusual Stonework. Nothing, nothing. Yeah, it's just ants in a cliff.

You experienced this before when you guys, after you beat Gristlecrack, and even on the way to the Gristlecrack fight, there were all these ups and downs that some led somewhere, but usually it was pretty obvious. You continue going forward. You see it opens up to the north a little bit, but pretty obvious. You continue going forward. You see it opens up to the north

a little bit, but ends again. You continue going. You've gone like five miles now. You see another southerly passage that ends, and you just don't feel like there's going to be anything there. You keep moving on. You go about eight, eight and a

half miles. Wow. Wow. And here here and see the stream widen as it joins a stream going to the north and a stream going south. And it's really, really large and now there are two passageways.

One to the north and one to the south. I think we should go south. I believe that is correct. South it is. So you head south. And the stream is pretty big here. Like, you have to stay to the east of the stream in order to actually...

You can't walk in it, basically. To cross it would be a pain in the butt, but there's more room on the easterly side. And you continue that for about two miles or so. The sun hasn't set. You know, you guys got an early start for sure, and now you actually have some light overhead. And eventually, all of these mountain streams converge, and up ahead you see a side canyon intersecting with the main valley and what looks like very

widely spaced structures built from thick coils of clay and stone just standing upon this black soiled floodplain. this black soiled floodplain. What very few buildings remain standing resemble tremendous beehives. But the great majority lie in heaped piles of rubble. Let's get to the map. Oh, no!

New map! A new map! They don't love you like I love you. I'm sorry, Troy. We can only do one map per episode. I'm sorry. Yeah, possibly fit another map. There's just no time for more maps.

Oh, wow. I have a bad feeling about this. Yeah, yeah. You always say that. You always say I got a bad feeling about this drop. You always say that. How many is this for you, Lieutenant? Two.

So as you can see from the map, you guys are coming from the north, and there's streams running all throughout what appears to have been like an abandoned village, but abandoned centuries ago. Oh, this is so cool. This is great. A ruined village in the middle of the valley. Some of these beehives still So like human-sized inhabitants? Still look... No.

Oh. Still look like they're in decent shape, but you can see there's some disrepair. But it's creating this like maze throughout what looks like it had to have been some sort of village. Oh, so cool. Wow.

What do you guys do? This makes me wish we had a tank like it's reminding me of warfare in Iraq where they have to go through really slowly we have no armored support or aerial support or air support

we have Adela do you have air supply though I'm all out of love well let's can I do a knowledge check on the structure though no I'm all out of love uh well let's do a knowledge check on these house on the structure to see if I would know anything about the civilization sure go knowledge local I will too

as well nope 21 13 anyone 25 25 alright for Nesta Baron you see that whoever lived here definitely giant

Nesta you know that as well and Baron you can tell there is remnants of the work of great master metallurgists oh

ooh and so thinking like who who dealt in that in the giant world, in the species of giants out there? And Nestor, it dawns on you. Slag giants lived here.

It's an ancient slag giant civilization. It was a tribe of slags. What do you guys do? Are you all just standing clumped together there, ready for an AoE spell? Nestor is ahead, like he's ahead of the group, and he goes to the corner of the first building on the left. Well, actually, he looks in the door. The last house on the left.

This first house on the left. And I'll roll the perception check. And 25. Okay, 25. You hear, off in the distance, as you're looking, there's nothing in here of interest, but you hear off in the distance, in giant,

I don't care if it looks like junk. Urathas wants it. Whatever's here. Whatever's here. Bones, scrap metal, anything. And you hear like a scent from other creatures. And you hear a low growl. Oh no.

And that's off in like the, the back of the village. Okay. So, I... Nestor does hand signals. Like, hold up. Quiet. Stuff over there. Like, in the direction of the voices.

Off in the distance what is it what is it bear oh no stone giants and bears what is it what is it boy oh we'll go check it out

and you hear sounds coming towards you Nestor do we hear, Nestor. Do we hear this? Nestor hears it. You guys can roll a perception check. 14. 14.

18. You certainly didn't hear the talking. You didn't hear the words. You do get the sense that something's coming at you. Say that. It's a group. Sounds like stone giants. Probably a bear. Large bear-like creature. Probably a bear. Are there any... Let's take them out.

They're looking for something. Go get them! Go get them, boy, if you smell something! Here it comes. Here it comes. And out from the buildings in the middle comes a smaller bear than what you expected. Emaciated.

Missing chunks of fur. No! Slightly larger from the last time Della saw it. It's singing? It's Barry Connick Jr. No! Oh, my God! And he charges to attack you.

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Giant Slayer is copyright 2015. Giant Slayer and the Pathfinder Adventure Path are trademarks of Paizo Incorporated. Giant Slayer is copyright 2015. Giant Slayer and the Pathfinder Adventure Path are trademarks of Paizo. All Pathfinder images are property of Paizo and are used with permission.