The Glass Cannon Podcast - Giantslayer Episode 147 - Spy Another Day

Episode Date: March 20, 2018

The party watches as the entire army of Skirgaard gathers around to watch a presence exiting from a door built directly into the mountain! 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

This week on the Glass Cannon Podcast... A hush falls among the crowd. Pembroke has a daring plan. Whatever you do, Pembroke, just be careful. I can't afford to lose someone of your prowess and knowledge. No, no, I shall be careful. I think... I will go with you.

I think this will work. The heroes must be patient... Now remember, broad daylight. You do see patrols walking around. And choose their moment wisely. Now we have a huge opportunity here. Because one small mistake. Did we lock the door, the front door behind us?

Could unleash an army. And the crowd's just like. The adventure continues. No, no, no, no. Right now. Welcome back, GCP Nation, to another installment of the Glass Cannon Podcast. I am Joe O'Brien, and it is good to see you. You're looking well.

I've got a few quick updates for you before we jump back into Giant Slayer. Two event updates and then a real, real important cannon fodder announcement. So stay tuned for that in 45 seconds. This Saturday, March 24th, is GCP Mid-Atlantic in Durham, North Carolina. If you are interested in playing the best games with the best people in the world, GCP Mid-Atlantic is the place for you. Troy will be flying down there actually for the event. And if you get there, maybe you can also lose an animal companion that you love dearly. For more info on that event, go to glasscannonpodcast.com slash events. Speaking of events, GCP Live on April 14th is sold out. We tripled the size of the venue from our first GCP Live only one year ago, and you guys have yet again stepped up, as you always do, to support our efforts.

Thank you all so much. Ari Rubin of Disorganized Play will be joining us, along with Eleanor DiLorenzo, also of Disorganized Play, and soon to be of our Starfinder podcast, as well as the composer behind the drops we all love, Nick Lowe, will be there as well. And rumor has it that this year he's playing. as well as the composer behind the drops we all love, Nick Lowe, will be there as well. And rumor has it that this year he's playing. Not music, playing. We are looking forward to seeing you guys in a few weeks.

And here's the last thing. Cannon Fodder is finally on its own feed. That's right. Cannon Fodder is its own podcast and will no longer automatically pop up on the Glass Cannon Podcast channel. Take a moment right now before you forget and head to your favorite podcast app and get subscribed to the new Cannon Fodder. Featured on that channel are also all four parts of our Pathfinder second edition play test with Jason Bullman and Eric Mona of Paizo. So get over there, subscribe to that and download that stuff right now. Okay, guys, that's it.

That's all I got. No more business up front. It's time for the party in the back. Let's get to it. Here is episode 147. Oh, man! You camped out overnight in the village of Skiergard. And, man, is it a different scene during the day.

It's already very different. It's a wild scene, man. It's a wild scene, man. You know, before we even jump into this, I really want to just keep impressing upon you the recollection of knowledge. You guys keep gaining a lot of intel. Some of it cryptic, some of it not as cryptic.

Some of it more open. Let's just walk through this again. When you came into camp, you went to that first watchtower. From there, you observed the lower camp and the upper camp. Between those two camps is a building, which you don't know what is going on there. Then there is a ledge leading up to four caves where it looks like what do you know about the caves that uh dire wolves use it but they they can they run they're left alone yeah they take care of themselves they got their own thing going and there's a huge entrance for what

we assume is some sort of mama wolf or something remus and Romulus sucking from her teats. Moving up from there is the upper camp. To the left of the upper camp is probably some sort of mess hall. You've seen the giants lining up for food there. And that's when the beetles went into it. That's one of the ones the beetle went into. The other beetle went into the storage silo,

which has now exploded, thanks to last week's covert operation. Not so covert like the explosion. It's a covert operation. Operation the thin blue line. North of that, and mind you, there are watchtowers. Isn't Errol Morris here? Yes, beautiful.

Beautiful, beautiful. A little Errol Morris callback. There are watchtowers interspersed all throughout this, but north of that is some sort of stockade with mammoths and a building inside of the stockade as well. Going back to the middle of this is that steep slope circular thing that leads down to where the stone giants are doing target practice and caves leading deeper inside this plateau. Do you know anything else about that um sometimes the target practice is against slaves sometimes yes to get slaves yeah we don't know any we haven't seen any evidence of anything particularly you've seen in or out of the excavation equipment excavation right and we we weren't able to discern whether or not they were continuously digging and excavating for something or if they had completed.

Correct? I think you mentioned that. Right. Something to that effect. To the northwest of that is some building right next to a watchtower. You really haven't had time to investigate that. To the northeast of that is the building with the docks and the strange spikes coming out of the ice that you have now seen are being used to forge weapons. The Frost Giant and the Fire Giant came out, hammered these spikes.

They got red hot. And then they started making weapons with it. Just moving on from there, another building on the ice. Smoke coming out of the chimney. More smoke coming out of it when you woke up the next day. Doors to the north, doors to the south, a staircase on the north side

leading to the second floor. All of them locked. We tried to get in. Tried to get in. But we're foiled by my shitty rolling. Foiled again. Foiled by the dice again north of that some other sort of longhouse don't really know that going farther north of that is

that statue of thremier the first jarl deity of the frost giants emanating some sort of intense cold. Just to the west of that is the slave pen. Guarded by two frost giants at any given time, is what you've seen so far. Feyraza went in there and talked to Baba Boo Jenkins. As the many slaves. How do we think Baba Boo's doing, by the way? Maybe you should go check in on him. He's a part of the show now.

Yeah. His beloved character. After that delightful role play. To the left of that or west rather is another much larger uh longhouse much more involved building to moving along continuing west from there again is some sort of temple stone building stone building stone temple pilots pilots uh to the north of that more caves and now you are all fixated on this far northwest situation i am curious as hell a wide set of carved stone steps sort of ascend

to this massive set of stone double doors set into the mountain itself. I can't remember. I might have said it was a rock or something like that. They're stone doors. You said doors. I did, okay. Yeah. Oh, that's nice.

You certainly don't hear that from all the way over there, but let's say you do. Wow. We rolled a natural 20 on the perception. You are thousands of feet away. I wish it was a rock. It's Easter. It'd be so this is easter just be so appropriate um there are platforms on either side of the um doors with statues on them

and then in front of the staircase like at the bottom of the staircase is this colossal structure that is perpetually on fire oh so burning towers isn't all that strange to them doesn't seem that strange but this seems very purposeful it looks like it's in the shape of a creature so it's an effigy it's a burning man it's a yeah it's a burning man right i wonder if i wonder if it's some sort of fire giant deity. Yeah, yeah. There's a frost giant deity on one side, a burning one on the other side. Yeah. Maybe it's the fire giant. Fire and ice.

You guys are very, very far away. However, the camp has never been more full of giants that you've seen. They're everywhere. It is a very dangerous, dangerous situation. that you've seen there everywhere. It is a very dangerous, dangerous situation. But something or someone is exiting this set of double doors. Is there anything you guys want to do?

Is there anything you can do? There is something I could do. I could. It's risky. I'll grant you. I could cast invisibility on myself and perhaps even one other person and teleport right over there and we could hear everything. Just stand there invisible. Not move.

Not try any funny business. Yeah. I mean, you could stand on the mountain Like behind her Behind it Totally Gotta be careful of scent though Yeah be careful of scent

Yes I'll fly I'll take the long road And I'll end up there Just do it Well I can We can We can both teleport together

And you can fly Oh yeah Yeah let's do it So that's my idea I like it That's one idea How are you going to get back from there i can teleport again oh that is all your teleports for the day though right it is or i could fly it might be worth it yeah you might yeah fly invisible that might work uh

like i can get over there now teleport over and fly back once i'm okay i'm satisfied so this is this is what pembroke proposes quickly as this is happening well the thing is if he teleports he can take baron with him like always well yeah but then he only has i only have two no no i i mean i uh yeah that's true um and then i only have two invisibilities that i've prepared so i want to keep a teleport in the chamber. You know what I'm saying? Sure. But I say, whatever you do, Pembroke, just be careful.

I can't afford to lose someone of your prowess and knowledge. No, no. I shall be careful. But I think... I will go with him. Yes. For us, yes. The two of us together.

I can make us both unseen and we can we can we can teleport over i think i think this will work and uh there's no time to think boom boom boom invisibility on both of us i'll go bird okay and you turn into a bird so save your invisibility okay all right then you just teleport to above where those doors are and i hold her i hold a penguin in my hand, and we teleport over. Thank you, Skid. I sit on your feet. Okay. Like an egg. Like an emperor penguin.

And remind me again the time you have available to remain invisible. It's nine minutes. Nine minutes. And I can cast it again if I have to. Okay. Yeah. So, swum, you go over there. Let me get another war horn, O'Brien.

Really need to set this scene. Yeah! All right, now. Now, with Pembroke and Feyraza much, much closer to all this action, you really get a view of the camp that you really haven't, to this point, gotten to really dig into. Because it's so far away from everything else. We haven't had this perspective yet. It would just be impossible even at night to sneak over there.

You would need, like, teleport. You would need things like this to get up there. It's got to feel like Saruman and, like like two towers and he's addressing the army of orcs just from that point of view. Exactly. Exactly. And you're just standing above it. To war!

To war! You see this towering humanoid colossus crafted of constantly burning wicker and wood standing before the carved doors of this opening overlooking all of Skirgard. Taking a close eye out for Edward Woodward.

The platforms to either side of the door hold statues depicting a fierce and proud-looking frost giant woman in her youth. Beautiful. Looking just badass. Runes everywhere. You can kind of see, but you're above and behind.

That frost giant guy in their splendid armor that came out. This amazing helm on his head. Looks like it has a beard that covers his face. He looks a little anxious, but as a creature is exiting from the doors, he stands at attention. The entire camp of giants, frost giants, hill giants, ettins, cyclops, a couple of fire giants, are all just on a knee directing their attention towards these doors. Nearby, Feyraza and Pembroke, you see like a half-naked female giant, her breasts covered by long black hair.

She's gorgeous. Frost giant? Frost giant. She's got. Frost giant? Frost giant. She's got blue skin, probably a frost giant. Also standing in reverence, like, near where this... A real one. A real one, yes. Where this guy was, so maybe they're important people.

A hush falls among the crowd. As a tall, gaunt, extremely gaunt frost giant slowly walks out of the hole in the mountain. And it's a woman. You guys are looking from behind, but she has this amazing-looking, ancient-looking chainmail just draped over her thin frame. She's got a battleaxe or a greataxe and a shield crossing over her back. And on her head is a helm with these two giant wings extending outward. Very, very like over the top. Almost like a headdress.

A Valkyrie. You can't really get a look at her face or anything because her back is to you. She gestures towards the frost giant who opened the doors, and the half-naked female who immediately becomes exultant after being acknowledged by who you can only assume is Skirkala. Oh! Skirkalings! Rejoice! And the crowd's just like... With all their weapons.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Look around you. Frost giants are commingling with fire giants. Ettons are breaking bread with hill giants. A new age of giant kind is rising and we are at the forefront.

We are at the precipice of a new dawn. They all go crazy. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Raises her hands like, Yeah Awesome Awesome Raises her hands like more More and more

I love it Though I have spent my entire life Raising this tribe To prominence Never In my wildest dreams could I have imagined

what we are about to become. All hail Volstice! And they're all like, all hail Volstice! You guys are shaking. The inside of your chest are shaking. Baron and Lork, as far

away as you guys are, you feel the ground beneath you shaking as well. She pauses. She starts pacing back and forth on this like miniature dais. Like she's thinking to herself. You guys get a little bit of a view of her

profile. And her skin looks like it's barely clinging to her face. Just very very thin. Ghastly pale. So old? So old. Like malnourished or old?

Just old. Somewhere in between. It is not normal. Not healthy. Not normal. It is not a normal situation. It has come to my attention that there has been some discord lately among the various tribes. Now I know that for many of you,

coming here and living with other species may seem to go against everything you were brought up to believe. But understand this. The men and the women and the other creatures that walk amongst you are not your enemies. Out there, she points, like beyond the mountains, are your enemies. These are your brothers and your sisters. You do not kill your brothers and your sisters. You die for them.

No longer shall we be divided by petty tribal differences. We are all one tribe. Only by coming together can we enslave the free people of the Inner Sea, destroying the world that they have taken from us and rebuilding it in our image.

Thanks to the great and powerful storm giant warlord Volstis, we now represent the future of this world. Victory by any means! And the crowd just goes crazy. They stand up from their kneeling positions just like shaking millions of different weapons up in the air as this is happening

she gestures to the male giant who moved who opened the doors and he makes a motion towards like the front row and maybe half a dozen slaves are dragged up towards the opening.

Meanwhile, six, maybe half a dozen giants you guys can see, looks like four frost giants, a cyclops, and one grisly, badass looking hill giant are also brought up the steps next to the slaves in front of her.

One by one. They unchain the slaves and just of her. One by one. They unchained the slaves and just forced them down on the ground. She walks up to one of them, grabs its head in one hand, and lifts it off the ground just by its head, its body just like struggling

to keep attached to the neck. She then raises it over her head. It is a person, right? It's a person and tears it apart in one hand. She takes one portion of the body, the upper torso, and hurls it at the burning effigy. And it hits perfectly and just lights up even more.

She hands the other half to the frost giant that was standing in front of her, and he proceeds to devour it. Oh, man. It's blood and organs just falling all over his chest. Oh, man. She then takes her greataxe

from off her back and, like, knights him or something. She then repeats this for the other five giants that were standing there, the other frost giants, the cyclops, and the grizzly-looking hill giant, ripping apart a slave,

throwing it on the effigy. Sparks go everywhere, hands it. Some ceremony is taking place. They then get up and walk away to cheers from all the people, just walking away, just, ah! place they then get up and walk away to cheers from all the people just walking away just and they walk straight towards where Lork and Baron are in that

direction and they continue walking to all of this applause right out of camp the tributes yeah I think I'm right what do you think just a question for you yeah what is there a ventriloquism skill like a ventriloquism skill i'm joking go on is this though precisely what fijimon was talking about when he said he could get promoted to a lieutenant? This seems like, yeah. Bottle cap.

Oh! There you go, Greg. You get a Baron bottle cap. Baron Von bottle cap. Good, very astute observation. Yes. That was some sort of ceremony. Wow. As they make their way out of camp,

the camp goes back slowly as she retires back into the double doors and the frost giant, who must be her second in command, very solemnly closes the doors from behind. The half-naked female goes back in the direction

of that stone temple. Ah. Priestess. And everyone else just kind of goes about. Invisibility is running out. What do you do? I cast it again on myself. And follow her into the door. And I cast fly on myself.

Start floating very gently. Yeah, just fly, like, follow her for a little bit as long as I feel like it's safe. I'm just going to learn as much more as I can following her. Following who? Following the priestess. The priestess. Yeah.

Okay. Well, there went a lot of good work into sewing discord. Yeah, that didn't work at all. Yeah. She doesn't seem too concerned that they have no food. Yeah, she kind of glossed over that part Yeah, yeah Roll a perception check there, Pembroke Okay

25 I just love this flying old man And I did disguise myself again, even though I'm invisible Right, right This time as Ethan Coen, one of the two Coen brothers. Nice. Good. Not Joel?

Not Joel Coen. Variations on a theme. You're working with Skid. She walks towards the temple. Like I said, this colossal stone edifice, now that you get a really good view on it. It appears like it was sculpted from living rock. Like that was just an enormous rock that someone A living rock? Yes, built

into. Carved out of the mountain itself. Right, carved out of the mountain itself and built into some working temple. Wow. You see stairs that she's walking up ascending between massive columns, each carved in the form of a frost giant

from, like, way, way, way back. And she gets up to a portico where three sets of double doors are set in the southern face of the structure and goes inside the doors and closes them. All right. I land at the top of the stairs in front of the door and pol closes them. Alright. I land at the top of the stairs in front of the door and politely

knock. No. Alright. I message Farazza to like point at the bird and say I think we've learned all we can for one day. And fly. I'm

returning to the others. and I fly back. And Farazza will do the same. She'll take a different path. Well, not that she knows because Pembroke is invisible. Okay. And you get back and obviously Baron and Lork

you didn't hear what was going on but it didn't take, it doesn't take a lot of wisdom to know that this was Skirkala. She was giving a speech and that those guys that left as barons like, oh, those must be, they must be going south. Right. They made it. And Pembroke with his eidetic memory is able to relay the entire speech word for word that she gave. A feat that not even I could do right now.

Yeah. A feat that not even I could do right now. Yeah. Firaza, could you possibly follow them south? See which, where they go, how far. Well, just observe. Just observe. I don't know for how long.

A few hours. I don't know how long, how far away it is. Might be close. I mean, I could. Just an idea. It might be a waste of a valuable time. I think that their destination is very likely far away from here. They're probably going to Volstis. If they're going to

Volstis, then it must be a dead journey of several days. It's crazy to think how, as far as you've come from the tug of war, but even since when you heard the name Volstis, how imminently close you are now. People are not only invoking his name,

but sending potentially more people to him. You've got Noxemara talking about Volstice, like Volstice is becoming much more a reality. A presence here in this tale. Well. Perhaps we should try to get into the we should lie low and then try to get into

the building with the the water motion thing. Yes, we could take another attempt. I could try again with my spells to open the door. And it may, in fact, during the day, the doors may be open anyway. We certainly do need to do more to shake Skirkatla's confidence with her at the lead of... Charismatically, as you delivered the speech I imagine she did as well and

I imagine the morale and the esprit de corps of the giants will remain high until we do more. It definitely seemed bolstered. Whatever damage we did to it has seemingly been undone by the power of her speech. We shall have to know more about the dynamics

of this camp. Yes, we must learn all we can. And time is of the essence. I know these... I saw the slaves torn in two and the thought of it happening to the others that we know are here is horrifying to me.

We must do all we can to save them the time we have. I forgot to mention one of the slaves was a half orc female I knew you were going to say that 100% knew you were going to say that we're having fun quarter orc

quarter orc well now well let's I mean we could observe the if we want to wait tonight we could observe what's going on the spiky ice house first. See if we can see anything. True.

I think we... There's a good chance that we've seen anything we know. Yeah, I don't think we're likely to see. Yeah, I don't think there's anything else there. We also... I mean, from where we're standing, from where we're camped, I think we have a better viewpoint, perspective in on the pit. I don't know if there's anything else that we can see now that we didn't see before. Yeah, I mean, I figured I could do a flyover.

Are you talking about the pit in the middle of the whole thing? Yeah. I mean, you guys are way, way up here. Yeah, we are. They are giants. they are giants they are giants um i think since we have a unique opportunity here right we know that all the giants are moving going to finally break this congregation and go back to their their places so we're going to be able to know exactly which buildings are occupied and which are not and where the best place is for us to go undetected so if we wait up

here for a couple minutes keep an eye out see if any of the buildings remain unentered we can go into those areas that's true true i'm all for that just taking a couple hours during the day after they come back and seeing who goes where yeah does anybody go in or out of that building with the smokestack? Yeah. Yeah, do some recon from up there for a little bit. All right, how many hours do you want to take? Well, let's go hour by hour and see what we see. Nope, you have to commit to all the hours up front. It's all the hours of practice. It's all or nothing. Okay, so from where you guys are,

your main sort of focus from where you're sitting or where you're resting is the statue, the slave pens, the longhouse, which you're not quite sure about, the building with the smoke coming out, and the building with the docks. Everything else is like 1,500 to 2,000 feet away. You've already done some recon on the slave pens, and the statue, all you know is it got really cold as you got close to it. Occasionally, you will see people go up to the statue and, like, pray in front of it.

Mostly frost giants. But not only. But not only frost giants. But not only. So you would think that perhaps they are converting these people. Some of the Ettons and some of the Cyclops. To worship Thremir. The statue, it's a stone statue?

It looks like it's made of ice. It's got this, it may actually be stone, but it just gave off this cold, cold feeling like it was ice itself. Beyond that, you don't see, it may be like every couple hours someone will go up there to pray for a couple minutes and then leave.

But for the most part, not a whole lot going on. Slave pens, same thing. Two frost giants and dozens and dozens of slaves. We could try to deface the statue. I don't know how we'd have to... The feces plan. You never got to do the feces plan. Yeah, we never follow through on any of our feces plans.

Never do. This is not a new thing. Of this group from the very beginning, and I'm frankly a little tired of it. You all have such repressed psychologists. But I mean, if we did that, like... I don't know what the narrative is. I mean, it's...

Yeah, it's worth a shot we could use to do the same thing like use the mark of you know that whatever tribe or yeah i think if anything that well that that is the the the best idea out of it but it may just bolster the anger and make them congeal even more outside of that one small clave of death-worshipping cult, you know? Yeah, but that's great. That's giants. Yeah, that's if they, like,

expel them or kill them. I mean, that's better for us anyway. Okay. The one good thing about the statue that you guys see is it's secluded. Right. You know, that doesn't mean you can go up there with no stealth but i mean you just look at where it's positioned it is the far far north east corner of

the plateau and there are times when it's unattended and occupied yeah okay you know i don't even think we have to deface it necessarily if we just get there and put a little shrine to Urgothoa like right on it yeah that would seem like something that someone would do as just to send a message or something that isn't that huge of a deal but that would cause a lot of

hubbub yeah that said I'm still most interested in this building with the smokestack yeah I think yeah let's go I think that is something that we can do that will get results in terms of screwing up operations. That's why I want to go there. The building? Yeah. Let's do the smokehouse.

So I'm imagining, Lork, I want to get some sort of like one of those like the military has in like snow situations where it's like an all white coat. Like, you know, and it's like kind of hiding, and it like lifts up to look at it, and scurry forward. Snow job. G.I. Joe. Yes. Yes, exactly. Yeah.

Like a sniper. Yeah. A ghillie suit for the snow. You should have bought one of those when you were in skeleton time. I know. I know. They had a sale. I'm sure Roy knew a good guy.

Well, an hour, two hours goes by. Nobody goes in or out of that building Alright so The smoke building itself No What about the humans Are there humans working the fields Directly under us

Are there slaves working the fields right now Since you've been here today No That may be a product of the commotion You guys caused last night at least right now there's no one working the fields okay um why don't we just go let's go let's go let's do it let's just try to sneak over there we have seen no giants we gotta get you guys down on the broom though okay all righty all right so ferry back and forth on the broom now remember broad

daylight you do see patrols walking around. But assuming you time it correctly, you're not going to go like, let's wait until the patrol walks in front of the smoke eyes. Go, go, go! You can take turns brooming down. That's not a verb. Not at all.

Things that are only said at a Pathfinder table. Brooming down the house. Sweeping? Not at all Things that are only said at a Pathfinder table Brooming down Brooming down the house Sweeping Now here's the thing There are watchtowers There's the one to the south there

That you sabotage The firework on But luckily there is a copse of trees However a flying humanoid is going to be quite a scene Yes We could go around the back and come Up along the fields But luckily there is a copse of trees. However, a flying humanoid is going to be quite a scene. Yes. We could go around the back and come up along the fields. Are you a copse? You've got to tell me if you are.

We could also simply continue our stakeout until night falls. That's true. We could wait until night. I hate using up all that time. Pembroke, like you said, he's very concerned about how many... The rate they're going through slaves. And every day you have to use three Endure Elements for every 24-hour period.

Yeah, and Lork is totally on board with that, too. Like, he doesn't want to risk giving ourselves up too soon because that'll just kill all the slaves. Right. But operating as quickly as possible to get... Because that's why I asked if anybody was in those fields. Because it would be like, maybe we could grab one or two. And they wouldn't even notice they're missing.

And just like, take them into the cops. And teleport them down off the mountain or something. You know, like, just start the process. How many people can you teleport at once? I think it's a pretty big number. I think it's like nine. It's like one per level Let me just

Hold on I don't want to Yeah it's not gonna happen right now So Not gonna happen right now Huh Well the broom You know the flying humanoid thing

We don't have to fly All the way over to that house We could literally just Fly Straight down To the bottom Of the cliff All the way in the back there

And then walk Make our way on foot All the way around To those houses Yeah then walk make our way on foot all the way around to those houses yeah yeah make sense troy are you hearing me no so instead of flying instead of flying from the uh the upper cops where our spike tent is all the way to the cops by the buildings right just fly straight down the cliff right at the back there it just gets set down on the ground and then come on the ground all the way around. Yeah, that's far enough away.

And so you'd be moving towards the back doors and the back staircase. Yes. Okay. All right. So all of you fly down. Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. You're far enough away from all the watchtowers. And then we start making it on foot past the fields.

Right. You go past the fields. Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. Staying along the wall. Okay. Everybody roll stealth check. I shall fly. wall. Everybody roll stealth check. I shall fly. I still have shared stealth going.

Nice. What you guys got on the die? 19 on the die. 18 on my die. Beautiful. So that's a 38 for Lurk. 38. 20 for Benbrook. 32 for Baron. Okay. No prop. Sweet. You get to the back doors

And where that's positioned You know, you've got that ledge Where the other building is To the north So you're kind of hidden right there Between the north side of this building And the south side of that ledge Obviously farther west

You do have that other building, and there are those giants just working on those ice spikes again. Tell me what you'd like to do. You are currently safe. You still like the lower door, Baron? Or should we go higher this time? I don't like the lower door. I love the lower door, Lork.

So why don't we do a quick check to see if it's unlocked during the day before we try to waste a night. That's a good call. Lork will gently test the door to see if it's open. The lower door, lower back door entrance.

It is locked. Locked. Okay. I've got... Bottle cap? I do have a bottle cap. I have two bottle caps, actually. Oh, you hoarder.

You just got one. Oh, that's right. Hoarder. Keep that economy tight. Do I want to spend it on this? Grant doesn't want to spend a bottle cap on anything. I know. I want to spend it on life and death situations.

Typically. It's fair. It's fair. It's fair. But. I mean, if he rolls anything decent. Well, in a sense, it is life and death. Because the more time we lose, the more slaves die. And if we don't get this now, we have to just wait and come back again.

I just love if we were actually in our characters right now, Baron handing a bottle. I know. It's ridiculous. It's absurd. You can't make Baron feel bad for not spending a bottle. No, totally. for this at all You can't make You can't make Baron feel bad For not spending a bottle No totally I can make Grant feel bad

But I can't make Baron feel bad Can I wait But I could give you Touch of Law on this Couldn't I Yes What would an 11 give you That would be 30

30 30 That's pretty good man That's pretty good Alright Let's try it Let's take off the Touch of Law Save these bottle caps

For when Baron certainly Is going to die. When we have to beg for help. So Baron grants me the might of his order. The might of order. In the name of Torag, our infiltration must continue. So you touch of law. Pembroke then uses that to cast knock.

Tunk. Yay. There we go. Yay. The door unlocks. Okay. All right. Now.

Thank you, Baron. I will attempt. Lorkel, he's got his bow out. You got the crossbow ready, right? Got the crossbow ready. Lorkel's going to attempt to stealthily open the door. Roll a stealth check. Rolling a stealth check.

Nice. That is stealth check. Nice. That is a 33. Ooh. These big, big barn doors. You open one of them, and immediately you are hit in the face by smell of yeast and hops. It is a brewery! It's a craft brewery.

Wow. That should be another bottle cap. That's impressive. Oh, man. That is impressive. So that's why I was familiar. I thought it was going to be like a gunsmithing thing. You know that sound because you grew up amongst brewers, I'm sure. This is your bread and butter.

And I brew myself. This is our stuff. This could be Barron's place. You could just retire to ScareGuard, open up a craft brewery. Fastest growing business in Galarian. You could do worse. Wow. A single vast chamber occupies most of this building

I say most because obviously There is a second floor I like that they have to lock the brewery Right well wouldn't you Yeah you're right You see flickering torches Set 10 feet or so above the ground

Interspersed throughout the whole building. And they're on right now because there were no windows. Tiled stone covers the floor, and in the center of the main room sits four huge vats, each 10 feet tall and chained to a wooden catwalk constructed above them. Cool. Along the west wall, there is a flight of steps that ascends to the catwalk with a single roof support rising from its center.

A smaller room is evident in the northwest corner of the building, which makes sense because you know there's a staircase leading up. In fact, it's not a whole floor. It's just a smaller room with its own exit and entrance to the building. Two doors lead from the northern and western catwalks to this small chamber. The heady scent of fermenting grain

hangs heavy in the air. Barrels and kegs litter the floor. No creatures. All right. I just shrugged. I'm listening at home. 28. 16.

29. 39. You do not hear or see any creatures at the moment. I would like to detect magic. You detect magic all over the place. It's a magic brewery. Oh, wow. You detect magic coming from...

Is this Magic Hat? The vats? Magic Hat Brewery. You detect magic coming from the vats. I mean, you see boiling water. You don't see any fire. You detect magic coming from inside of the vats. I mean, the vats are just glowing up.

There's magic all over the place. Do you guys want to see a map? Oh, yeah. Oh! Look at that map that you produced instantaneously. Through the magic of radio. You totally didn't pause it and have me draw it just now

That's pretty good for a quick draw Look at this That is a huge brewery I'm definitely going to take a picture and then not post it on the Tumblr Please forget to do that That's something else Look at this place You were right, I wanted to add a little bit of me

Into the adventure So I went with something that I know very well, a brewery. So now that you can see the map, you guys obviously came in through that north door, the ground level door. Exactly opposite you are the other set of doors which lead out to the southern part of the camp. You see these catwalks that go all around where these vats are. So obviously where the brewer walks over, puts the hops, puts the yeast, a little water, a little malt. That's all you need to make beer.

I'm assuming that these Skier guardians follow Reinheisgebot, which is the German laws for beer purity. Gotcha. You're such a beer nerd. That's me. There are a couple people listening right now really enjoying this. I'm sure. I'm sure there's a couple.

Far side of the room, you would see stairs leading up. And you can see that because imagine all of this catwalk stuff between the vats. You can see straight through to the other side. vats you can see straight through to the other side. Stairs leading up to the catwalk and to this small chamber which you know can also be accessed from the

staircase outside. You got all real pretty badass perception and did not detect any preachers or anything. I'm sure there aren't any. No. I would assume not. Otherwise, why would he spend 15 minutes drawing a map? any preachers or anything. I'm sure there aren't any. No. I would assume not.

Otherwise, why would he spend 15 minutes drawing a map? As he reaches for his initiative tracker. I'm just erasing old things. You've tipped your hand, LaValle. We're on day five. Hey, where's Kat Benatar in all this? We haven't talked about her in weeks. I'm sure she died of neglect. I thought she was dead.

Of a broken heart. I didn't want to take up time discussing Cat Benatar. No, I just assumed at the time that we were that Lork was

doing the foul play in the tents that she was not around. I didn't want her there to screw up any stealth checks by accident. Uh-huh.

But by the time we There she is. There she is. But by the time we... There she is. There she is. But by the time we went up to that other camp and camped out for the night, I had called her back. Okay.

Just to mention it. All right, so she's with you. She is with me, yes. And, you know, she's stealthy. I'm not too worried about her stealth. Right. Bad news,

she's an alcoholic. This is going to be a real trigger point for her. She just dives into the first van. God, but I don't know. Is Baron impressed with this situation? Does this look like it's on the up and up?

Top quality containers, equipment here going on. Does it seem like they're doing a good job, these giants? This is pretty top notch. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's a giant operation. You've got a pretty solid brewmaster. So Baron's going to turn to the group and say, now we have a huge opportunity here. I detect magic inside of all this brewing.

And we may be able to use it for ourselves, but we also might be able to poison or disable all of these breweries. Pembroke, I'd love your help in examining what's going on in these things and determining exactly what is contained within. What are these things called? Bats? Tons? Are they tons?

These are just called bats, but yeah, I guess they would technically be called. Well, Pembroke, he spent many an hour at the Arakakra and Child pub outside of the Arcanarium. So, yes, I haven't had a good glass of ale in many, many months. This is tempting. But I understand we have a job to do. Well, why don't we mosey on up this catwalk and take a look inside these vats? Yes, let's take a little turn on the catwalk. Right said, Fred.

All right, so do you guys make your way into the room to the far side where the stairs are? Clanging pots the whole way. Here we come, brewmaster! I mean, obviously, whenever we get an advantage point around one of the vats to see something that was concealed by them, we're going to pause, take a look. We're going to kind of stop at the corners, at the sight lines, kind of like we're SWAT teaming in. Sure, sure, sure. I love all the levels in Ghost Recon where you infiltrate a brewery

so Baron and Pembroke in front working their way in here Lorkel stay back keeping his bow at the ready looking for trouble Faraza will go will revert back to Asimar form.

Ah. Oh, and is immediately fatigued. It's warm in here. Yeah, it's definitely warm enough in here. The altitude. The altitude, though, is going to be an issue. Not yet, though. Yeah, you're okay right this second.

Why don't you go back outside? All right. Well, I'm sure the altitude is the same. You're okay for the inside as it is outside. But I have to roll it every hour. Yeah. Roll a fortune set. That quick change from bird back to human.

It's exhausting. My ears popped. My cloaca. Gross. Gross, gross, gross. It's part of life, Grant. I got so used to having one, I don't know how to react Now I have two

Alright, so you guys want to walk towards the stairs Stopping to see if you see anything different The only thing that you do see different Is right by the stairs Is some sort of strange contraption Looks like it's fashioned from a brass kettle Bristling with a series of curling metal tubes Just sitting over there.

Everything else just appears to be like barrels of beer. Some are full, some are empty. But that is the one thing that stands out as just something different. So it looks like, my real world knowledge, I would guess that they're distilling liquor out of that one. Right, it does look like some sort of still. Okay. All right, I was going to knowledge engineer that, but Skidilling liquor out of that one. Right. It does look like some sort of still. Okay. Okay. All right. I was going to knowledge engineer that, but Skid got that out of the way.

Still, there's no central. Still. Go ahead. That's funny. There is no central source of the magic. It's still just permeating everywhere. There's no location. If I'm detecting magic as I go where I can pinpoint it to a location in particular.

Correct? Right. I mean, it seems to be emanating from the vats itself. And you would just deduce that something, some sort of magic is causing these vats to be heated because you don't see any source of flame. Why, though, you don't

know. The nice thing, though, is that stills are very very flammable there's been a lot of explosions in the south uh during prohibition due to that reason and blindness and uh the uh beer baron episode of the simpsons yes all right so we turn the corner from the still and we walk up the stairs to the catwalk yeah you walk up the stairs to the catwalk. Yeah. You walk up the stairs to the catwalk. Yeah. Taking all of my willpower to not start singing this song. What song?

What are you talking about? I'm not going to do it. What song? I can't remember how it goes. How does it go? How does it go? I'll kill all of you. The catwalk.

All right. So you guys put yourselves over there. Great. And do it as party order, how you're walking up the stairs. Does anybody stay downstairs? What do you want? I think we should stay together. I think we should stick together.

Yeah. Let's stay together. Okay, so Baron and Pembroke are at the forefront of the party Followed immediately by our good friends Lork and Farraza And the beautiful Kat Benatar is in the rear The sleek Kat Benatar She's normally a front woman, but today she's taking the back Backing band She's in the wrecking crew today.

Okay. What do you guys want to do up there? You see at the end of this catwalk, it turns off to the right to go towards the vats. But if you go straight ahead, there's doors that lead to that small chamber. A little turn off the catwalk? Just a little turn off the catwalk. I'm back in Asimar form. Yes.

Yes. Roll for it in Asimar form. Yes, yes. Roll a four, if you'd say. You've now gone up the stairs. The altitude has changed. That last 15 feet. I'm really feeling it. Just yawn a little. The air is thinner.

So we'll walk towards where the catwalk hits a right angle to the next passageway. And from up here, maybe we have a better vantage point. You also seem to draw on this map with your amazing cartography skills. Isn't this great? These little black wires going from each of the vat, are we able to examine those? Chains. They're chains that are keeping the vats chained to the catwalk.

Got it. So they're hanging from the catwalk. No, no. They're just chained there. It's probably for support, because you see that in the middle of the entire structure is just one support beam holding up the roof, so this probably

has some thing to do to hold the whole space together, or maybe to help to put the catwalks up in the first place. The chains really bring it all together. It really does. It holds the room together. Really tie the room together, yeah. And I used two colors on the map. I mean, it's a little bit of everything for you guys.

So Baron turns to Pembroke and says, Pembroke, should we sample the fare that they're brewing here? Should we approach one of the vats together? Well, at this stage of the brewing process, I don't know that it would be quite appetizing. Well, we should at least examine it. We should examine it, yes. Could Farazza do perception on the double doors at the end of the catwalk?

Perception on the double doors. Yeah, sure. I mean, I'll stealth up there just in case. All right, roll a stealth check. 17. 17? Okay. And now roll perception on the door.

31. 31. 31. Wow. You hear the guy that heard you. You hear heavy breathing. Who was that? No. You don't hear anything.

You, in fact, hear the absence of sound. Oh, Pembroke is going to take this opportunity to use his wand of mage armor on himself. You cast it, right? Did I? Yeah, I believe before you went into the room. Oh, you did. But now you burn into the church. Roll a fortitude save. Roll a fortitude save.

Farazza will rejoin the group, but she's going to keep an eye on the door for now. Okay. Alright, you are now facing the catwalk that leads right to the middle over all four of the vats. Did we lock the door, the front door behind us? No. You did not say that you locked the front door.

Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't we close the door? I would say you closed it, but you probably didn't lock yourselves in. That's the end. So without necessarily a disabled device on any of us as we approach these vats baron's just going to do a quick perception for any uh tripwires or anything like that uh-huh 28 uh yeah no you don't see any uh you guys walking along just show me where you're walking walking put yourselves exactly where you are on this beautiful map i think pembroke and i are overlooking the vat facing the southern edge of the southeastern edge of this collection of vats.

Ah. Okay. Where is Lork and Cat Benatar? Lork's going to stay back at the junction of the catwalk. Okay. So he can face both the door if someone comes out of it and has a clean eye down at Pembroke and Baron as well. And also to your right, the stairs. And the stairs coming up to us.

Bayraz, I see you near Lork. Is that where you want to be? Okay. Okay. Did you roll perception? We are going to now that we have told you where we are. Oof. 23 from Baron.

Pembroke, do you want to roll perception? I shall. Oh, 29 for Pembroke, do you want to roll perception? I shall. Oh, 29 for Pembroke. 29. You don't see any tripwire. Okay. Oh, yeah, we rolled for that. Now we're looking into the vats.

Is there anything else we notice while we're in there? Just rolling that stuff over. I mean, it looks like a beer is being brewed. It's really strong smelling. Is it hot? Temperature wise? It looks pretty hot, but not all of them are boiling. Pembroke is going to take a little alchemical measuring spoon out of his belt pouch.

Okay. And take a little thimble full of it and sip out of it. Sip out of it. Roll a fortitude save. Oh boy. 15? 15. It's way more powerful than any alcohol you've ever had.

It's built to be strong enough for giants. Right. And you're sickened for six seconds. I vomit into the vat. Into the vat. Thereby ruining. Should we just pee vomit into the vats. Into the vats. Thereby ruining. Should we just pee in all the vats? Yeah, let's do that.

That's the most obvious solution. So if there's magic emanating from these vats, is there a method through which an alchemical or a spellcraft check or something like that that we can determine what is the magic, or is it just what's heating it? Like, is there anything magical about the brew itself, or is it just really strong? I mean, you know it's really strong, having had Pembroke take a taste of it.

Very high alcohol by volume. The magic itself, you... That making double IPAs. Like, if you keep concentrating, you detect magic. I think you can... The final one is you know what school of magic. I don't think you can ever determine the spell unless you do spellcraft.

Unless I see the spell being cast, you have to do that for spellcraft. Pretty sure it's transmutation. Transmutation. Interesting. Well, I've certainly come to sense that it's transmutation Pembroke with your time in the Arcanarium do you have any idea

can I do a spellcraft check yeah go for it 28 it appears that someone or something cast heat metal on the vats they've got a druid to create or something cast heat metal on the vats. They've got a druid. To create to boil

the water without using fire. Right. Why would they do that when they could very easily use fire? Well, one might assume that it is because this entire building is constructed over a pond of frozen ice. It's possible, yeah.

Perhaps they wish to preserve the consistency of such ice. Heat metal only lasts for seven rounds. Interesting. Has it had permanency cast upon it? You don't... In fact, it has. Nice. Baron, you roll a wisdom check.

Fuck. I rolled a 13. 13. Yeah. I'm also pretty wise. I'm also pretty wise. I'm also pretty wise. We have a wise party.

Pembroke's over there, so Pembroke, you roll it. Okay. I also have craft alchemy if it helps. As do I. Uh, seven. Oh, no. That's why I'm wise! That's another damn three. Um, yeah. Okay.

So, yeah, you're up there, checking stuff out. Nothing, uh, nothing else really to see. With our alchemical skills, would Baron and Pembroke together be able to poison the ale brewing within these vats? Yes. Can we come up with a way to do such a thing with the materials that we have on hand? I got medium spider venom.

We got that spider venom, yo. You never know when that's gonna come in We've got spider venom we've got uric acid We've got We've got tears Vomit tears vomit yep Did I tell you Baron was Russian and he has some Plutonium to drop in there it's gonna kill them all

Oh no the Libyans are gonna come Both of you roll a craft alchemy Alright I wanna roll with this guy. Oh, yes. That is a 28. Nice, 19. All right, Baron, you're not 100% sure.

Pembroke, you know if you had the right alchemical regents, you would be able to effectively poison something of this size. But you don't think any of you have anything on your person at the moment that would be able to effectively create a poison for a liquid of this magnitude. Jade region? Jade region. All right. Just teleport down to the skelton and come back.

We'll wait. I can't. We'll wait. I have one left. I'd have to come back tomorrow. Just come busting into some alchemical shop in Skelton, sweating. I need poison! Immediately!

Just slam a bag of gold on the table. All the poison you have! All the poison! Hurry! Sir, there's a five-day waiting period. The time! That shopkeep to have quite a story that night his lady wife I don't know what was going on

it was the weirdest day I had the weirdest day honey as Baron and Pembroke are looking over at the vats just kind of trying to figure out maybe we'd be able to poison these. Maybe there's something we can do here.

Feyraza and Lork, roll a perception check. 29. 24. Lork, you notice this first, and maybe you tap Feyraza, who doesn't quite pick it up as quickly as you, that the floor is starting to get really wet. And you hear sound of like running liquid coming from below you. And you look down and just see puddles and puddles of water like emanating out as if the vats have been opened.

What? What? And then you notice on the far, far side of the room, the door that you closed on your way in is now open. Told you it was the end. We'll see you next week. No, no, no, no, no. I'm just picturing that zoom in on the open door. Oh, my God. Dun, dun, no. I'm just picturing that zoom in on the open door. Oh, my God.

Oh, man. Wettest catwalk ever. Maybe it's just a couple of drunk giants that figured out the door was open and came in to get a taste. Maybe it's a couple of teenagers trying to steal a little on-team. I'm rolling teams. The Glass Cannon Podcast is a Glass Cannon Network production and is an officially licensed partner of Paizo Incorporated. Giant Slayer is copyright 2015. Giant Slayer and the Pathfinder Adventure Path are trademarks of Paizo.

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