The Glass Cannon Podcast - Giantslayer Episode 91 - The Horn Identity

Episode Date: February 21, 2017

While conducting a thorough examination of the spire drake's treasure hoard, the party also gleans some intriguing information with regards to the cave's original occupant. Then, after a series of dead ends, they come upon a curious network of tunnels seemingly abandoned for centuries. 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. You gotta discuss where to go next. This is true. You got a long way to come back, and then do you go north the way you originally wanted to go? The companions must backtrack through the valley without getting lost. Alright, so you guys travel for about 45 minutes and reach a dead end. And another dead end. But it is a dead end. It seems, 45 minutes and reach a dead end. And another dead end. But it is a dead end.

It seems, yeah, you see a dead end. You see nothing. There's just nothing going on there. Well, great call, officer. Uh, what have we got north now? Ominous signs will litter their path. You do find chains that, like, they kind of fall apart in your hands. They're just lying on the ground. Just lying on the ground.

Just lying on the ground. And we'll lead them into the darkness. Very mysterious. Nestor cracks a sunrod and follows behind him, about 20 feet behind. And straight to an old enemy. And just as you're ready to look up and see the ruin, Oh my God. You hear a noise from behind you. The adventure continues now.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gather around and put your hands together for another week of the Glass Cannon Podcast. We made it, you guys. It happened. We got an episode to air. My name is Joe O'Brien, and you may know me as Sir Willamette Keswick. Or I may know me as Sir Willamette the Dragonfoe, or Sir Willamette the tallest halfling in a 50-mile radius. That's right. Big Willie Style struck last week, and it was a blasty blast.

This week, though, more exciting story coming, and I don't even have to interrupt it with any kind of stupid business talk because this week we're just going right to the show. We have a dead end that we have run into. We're going to have to do some backtracking. I don't know what to expect next when I sit down to play the game this week. So it's really kind of starting over in a way and it's exciting to see what lies up ahead. But first things first, we have some Christmas presents to unpack.

And I'm just going to get right into it. Thank you guys, as always, every week for tuning in. We couldn't do it without you. And as my thank you, I'm just going to shut up and let you listen to the show. Please enjoy episode 91 of the Glass Cannon Podcast. Is there anything in the history of RPGs better than a horde of dragon treasure? No. Oh, man.

That's the number one. Skid, in all your years of gaming, how many dragon treasure hordes have you come against? Not many. I mean, honestly... Not nearly enough? No. Well, I mean, the ironic thing about Dungeons & Dragons traditionally is that you don't really run into a lot of dragons.

Which is good, because they're supposed to be special. They're always the most dangerous foe. And so, yeah, you're very, very, they're, like, always the most dangerous foe. And so, yeah, you don't face many, but when you do, like, there's a big fucking jackpot waiting afterwards. And I'm so fucking excited to see what's in here. Where did dragons get, because as our resident historian skid, where did dragons get this sort of character trait of being greedy? I think in the medieval tradition, they were just supposed

to... They ended up representing the worst aspects of humanity. The most vile selfishness. And Tolkien definitely played on that. That's why Smaug is, for my money, the best dragon in all of fantasy literature because he epitomizes everything that makes what I think dragons, dragons.

It's just so weird that they want all this gold and all these riches, but it's not like they go to the town square and be like, give me your finest cake. But that's the thing is they want all these riches, but they can't spend them. Right. So it's like it's this pointless greed. It's part of a plan to depress the economy.

Yeah. Drive down the value of currency in the area. The finest top hat. I want to deflate the currency in the entire region. Well, sure enough, as Umlo was just shoving stuff in a sack, I'm assuming after defeating

the Spire Drake, you guys say, dump it out, Umlo. Yes, yes, of course. He's going to dump it out so we can go root through it. Hey, where's Umlo? Where'd he go? Umlo? He fell in the bag, ran off in the sack. God i'm not he fell in the bag ran off with the sack he jumped in the bag and turned it inside out thereby losing himself in the treasure forever

he's gonna open a chain of michelin star restaurants and other parts of valerian he's gonna be like you call that a fucking omelet do it again it's It's so hard. It's so exclusive you have to go to an extra dimensional space to eat there. There's no sign. Table for one. Well, if he dumps it out I've got my fingertips at the keyboard. Yeah, you better and you're going to get

carpal tunnel by the time I'm done. You see the following. A magical amulet. Oh, amulets are the following. A magical amulet. Oh, amulets are the best! A magical elixir. Elixirs are also good. A magical potion.

Ooh. A scroll. Ooh. And now, let me just crack my knuckles and get into the list. Oh, no. A masterwork heavy pick. A cold weather outfit. A portable ram.

A smoke stick. Two sun rods. Two copper and silver armbands filigreed with snakes eating their own tails. Ooh, Remoros. Classic. They're worth 380 gold pieces as a set. Oh. A silver ring set with three aquamarines.

Worth 500 gold pieces. It is set with aquamarines. It's a set of rings. It's not a ring set. A silver ring set with three aquamarines. You know what? Cross it out. You're going to make fun of me? You don't get it.

I got a lot on my plate. A silver ring set. I was just typing words and I saw what he was reading. When I say it was worth 500 gold, it's worth two gold. Well, can we just have one of them? It's now worth two gold. We don't need the whole set. Can we just have one?

I'm cutting this list in half right now. A piece of alexandrite. Got any jokes about that? Worth 170 gold pieces. Alexandrite? That's great. Get out of here. A bag containing a dozen

irregular freshwater pearls. Ooh. Worth 10 gold pieces each. Oh, natural. Four pieces of silvery blue quartz worth 15 gold pieces each. Oh. And then you get 14 platinum pieces. Whoa.

216 gold pieces. Yeah, nice. 940 silver pieces. Keep it coming, keep it coming. 2,400 copper pieces. Whoa. Well, those are stale. You get a copper pieces. Wow. Well, those are stashed. You get a copper piece. Wow.

You get a copper piece. I was with you until the currency came. Yeah. We'll deal with this. I was keeping up. I was so proud of myself. We'll deal with this at the bar later. You were using your loot shorthand?

I looted shorthand. There are also two other important things. Between the bric-a-brac on the carved shelf that kind of surrounds this nest sit numerous stone tablets. Each chiseled with runes that none of you

recognize. I'm sorry, how many tablets? Numerous. Are they a set? Or do they And of course And none of you asked me about this this week I'm surprised that no one has interrupted me

And said what about the The horn The magical horn Well I wasn't going to ask you about it I was just going to have Umlo blow it It is a four foot long-long spiraling horn. Look like it's cut from the skull of some sort of creature. It's like a shofar.

It's a shofar. Yeah. Its surface is carved with an intricate pattern of interlocking knots inlaid with silver and copper. And it emanates as much magic as Baron has seen. Baron has not seen such magic since the hammer of Asgard. Oh, wow. I would like to say, too, that Baron's particularly attracted to it. I know he's lost his hat,

but he's basically a short Hasidic Jew running through Valerian with his beard and his locks and his peos, and he observes the Sabbath. It's great. So what do you guys want to do? It's probably nothing. We dump it all out of the cliff sides. Just dump it all down.

Just throw it off. Do you guys want to deal with the minor stuff first? Do a little spell check on the amulet, the potions? Give me a roll for everything but the amulet, the potion. Give me a roll for everything but the amulet. 29. Awesome. 22. Boom. Elixir of Tumbling.

Never heard of that. It's a good one. Acrobatics. Yep. Potion of Spider Climb. That's very good. She'll help. Oh, she'll help. Quite nice. And a Scroll of poison. What? I thought you didn't allow that,

except for when you forget to have your enemy discard your weapon. Well, that's why I'm giving it away, because I'll forget to use it. Somebody roll on the amulet. Nice. 21. That'll do, new magic user. It is known, and this is going to be an interesting fight to see who wants this one,

as a dragon foe amulet. Sweet. This amulet consists of a cracked dragon scale set in a disk of gold. Most are slightly damaged, bearing the scars of draconic breath weapons. So imagine this one has, like, scars on it from being blasted by dragon fire. It is a powerful specialized tool for those who oppose dragons, improving the protection and attacks of the wearer in a number of ways. The wearer... a number of ways. The wearer... This is so awesome.

The wearer of a dragon foe amulet ignores the damage reduction of dragons. Whoa! Boom! This only affects actual dragons, not all creatures of the dragon type. So drakes are out. But real dragons?

Such as the one that works with the storm tyrant? Who knows? In addition, if the wearer casts a spell against a dragon, she can roll twice to overcome any spell resistance the dragon might possess. Taking the higher result. Automatic bit of luck for every

roll to oppose SR. Lastly, oh that's right, there's more. The wearer takes no damage instead of half damage on successful reflex saves against a dragon's breath. Oh, wow. It's like free evasion against breath weapons. Well, clearly, that's going to Umlo. Following recent history. Give it to Umlo.

Following recent history. Give it to Umlo. He may not get the rest of it. Should we decide this now? I smell a roll-off. Let's just do a four-way roll-off. Can we see what the rest of it is? Oh yeah, that's a good idea. Well, the last thing is of course

this intensely magical horn. Emanating strong enchantment magic. Alright, let's figure out what this thing is. 25. Matt wins. 25. I'm sorry, that's not high enough.

You just take 20. When we're out of combat, we don't need You just take 20. Like, we don't... When we're out of combat, we don't need to roll these checks. No, it's a knowledge check. Spellcraft is a knowledge check? Spellcraft isn't. Spellcraft, you can take the time, I'm pretty sure,

and take 20. Ah, okay. So, out of combat... Well, you're the one writing the article if you're wrong, so go ahead. Exactly. Yeah, you probably can do that.

So, assuming Della takes 20, so you guys are going to stay in the cave for a little while. Yeah. To really examine this. We've got to pack this stuff up anyway. Right. So while they're packing up, you're pouring over this, Della. You're trying to think if maybe... Consulting my books.

Consulting your books, thinking back to maybe something your father said and you realize the more you study it that the horn is made out of the skull of a primordial drake. And it is in fact an artifact

known as a drakesbane horn. The drakesbane horn affects dragons based on their CR. According to the following, creatures of the dragon type of CR 5 or less within 400 feet must succeed at a DC 13 will save or be affected as if by scare. Creatures of the dragon type of CR 6 to CR 10 within 400 feet Whoa. Whoa. Okay. are immune to the horn's effects, though they are likely to seek out the horn

and attack its bearer. Okay. If the character playing the horn has the bardic performance class feature or the raging song class feature and succeeds at a DC 15 perform wind instrument check, dragons of CR 5 or less are instead affected by fear. While

dragons of CR 6 to 10 are affected by the horn's sympathy effect, must succeed in an additional will save, or also be fascinated for as long as the character continues to play the horn. Wow. So I guess I'm putting a skill rank in perform wind instrument. Well, that's all the time we have for this week.

That's it. We'll see you next week. You got the Drake's main horn! Yeah, so that is a pretty, pretty powerful thing. Basically, dragons of CR 10 or less, you blow that horn and you're going to be able to, unless they make their will save, and they're pretty high will saves,

exert some sort of control over them. Or at least slow them down. Slow their roll. Or scare them away. Or maybe scare them away. Yeah, just, yeah. Yeah, like minor drakes now, blow the horn, they might just fly away. Question. Does it have a weight? I mean, if it's a four-foot

horn. It weighs seven pounds. Oh, that's not bad. Four feet. That's bone? Yeah. Yeah, it's hollow. Alright, yeah. So you can blow through it. Avian bone syndrome. Friend of mine you can blow through it avian bone syndrome a friend of mine had one oh avian bone I always get you with that

a friend of yours had what? he had the a Drake Spain horn? a Drake Spain horn? yeah what could your friend possibly have had this is why no one

likes New Jersey what were you saying? I had a buddy who had a Drake's Bean. Yeah, he kept it over his mantle. No, he had a shofar. It looked huge, but it was very light. Well, shofar's so good. Oh, boy. That is just terrible.

I'm just naming episodes left and right. That's all I'm doing for today. That's all I do. That was so good. All right. That's all I'm doing for today. That's all I do. That was so good. Alright, so the last thing to really be of interest that you might want to start looking at are these

tablets. These stone tablets. Do they have commandments on them? Is this going to be an entirely Old Testament episode? 15! 10! 10 commandments! It's runes that an entirely Old Testament episode? He's 15! 10! It's runes that you do not recognize, but they are

very large runes, carved with a large hand. Can I do a linguistics check? You can. It's difficult. You know without even trying it it's going to be a difficult check. This is so foreign to you, Della. I'll just try it. I'll try it.

Natural 20. Oh! Oh! I'm out of here. I only have a plus 8 on linguistics, though, so it's a 28. I'll tell you what. DC 20 linguistics check. Oh, nice.

Nailed it. Awesome. So, Della, you start pouring over these tablets. Della's very busy tonight while you guys are just, like, straightening up the place. We're just swimming like Scrooge McDuck through the piles of treasure. Will is just daydreaming of being large again. So I just imagine Della

sitting in the back of the cave and staring at these things and trying to piece together her knowledge that she's seen through traveling through planes, through study, through what her father taught her, and you recognize in these giant runes almost like an account by someone who lived in this cave of various events that took place during their life.

Whoa, very interesting. And the name that you keep seeing their life. Wow, very interesting. And the name that you keep seeing over and over again, like as if it was signed, each entry signed by someone, is the name Jogrothir. And sometimes it's very mundane him talking about his day or like you know, herds of giants

coming to the area and a lot of it is very banal but then you get to a certain section where you see him talking about lighting the fires of Minderhall's forge Oh

with dragon breath Oh the fires of Minderhall's forge. Oh. With dragon breath. Oh. And he talks about forcing a dragon to breathe upon the forge in order to light it. And he goes on to speculate that

if the forge ever went cold, it might be possible to rekindle the forge by igniting the fire geodes. Fire geodes! There we go. With flame from a torch lit by a dragon's breath. Or even using the blood or glands of a fire-breathing dragon.

Whoa. Wow. And that is the most important thing that you realize overlooking over the couple hours is this one section of him talking about lighting Minderhall's forge. Wow. To further

clarify what our initial deduction was originally. Does it say if fire crystals were yellow or red inside, or were we right about the others being a decoy to get people off in that hidden area of the church being where the actual fire crystals were kept? It doesn't say anything to that effect,

but it does name the fire geodes as if they're this mythic thing in the valley. And are there any mentions of the I apologize for forgetting his name the fire giant god Servoster. No mention whatsoever.

Not even in other things. If Baron comes over to tell us any mention of that you don't see anything. Are they magical? The tablets? No. So it's just a carving that tells this story. So is it like an ancient form of giant-ish that it's written in old?

What race was Jagrathir? You know that this is centuries old because you're interpreting runes. It's not like, today I went to the supermarket. It's just like rune after rune, and it's so archaic, even if you spoke giant, you wouldn't recognize it. Is there anything to suggest if Jograthir was a giant himself? Yeah, 100%. He was?

Yeah. Wow. And is there any indication of how old these things are? How long ago he lived? Between one to 300 years, you would think. And he talks about the horn being his horn, the Drake's Bane horn being Jogger Thyr's horn as well. So this is all his stuff.

And then when he passed on, these Spire Drakes came and turned it into their nest. It was just kind of fortuitous that it was already full of artifacts. So this is why the storm tyrant has domesticated this dragon. Forced it into submission to use

to light the fire. Must be. Well, it can be. I mean, I can think of other reasons you'd want to have a dragon for a pet, but I mean, that seems like a... If he has been conscripted, maybe we could use the horn to lure him away and dissuade him of his association.

Well, it all depends on his CR, though. I mean, it is true. This is true. We have a couple things we have to do, business-wise. I'll list them out. Got to decide who's going to hold on to the horn. Obviously, Adela thinks she should. Who wants the dragon foe amulet?

I think it's probably going to be a roll-off. I don't want to impose that upon you. And then, Umlo has to roll a very important will save. Now, obviously, we did it incorrectly, as we have done in the past, and we'll continue to Now, obviously we did it incorrectly as we have done in the past and we'll continue to do with Energy Drain. Luckily, several thousand people were available to direct us through email and social media.

So I did not need to give Nestor and Umlo an initial save against it. They just take the negative level and then 24 hours later they roll to see if it's permanent. But, I'm... My hand was off the chess piece, so Nestor, you're cool. I'm low, however, I'm gonna make roll one more time.

We bow before your benevolence. Oh, great one. Oh, great one. Who's playing I'm Low? I give, and I give, and I give. Joe, are you I'm Low again? We said before we started that I would be I'm Low, and I completely forgot about this incredibly important... I didn't! Troy was like, Joe, you should play Umlo.

Troy is celebrating the dance. The new Manuba dance. It was the new Manuba dance. One of Della's spells that I didn't tell Troy about was Bear's Endurance. Oh, one of your knowledge pools. How convenient, Matthew. Show me the index card where it says that.

All right, so that would boost... I refer to the conversation we had last week. There is actually a record of it. On the podcast. I don't know what this podcast you're talking about is. It's not invisible in the court of law. Joe edited that episode. Yeah, Troy called me.

He was like, cut it out. Cut it out. Cut it out. Twist words, whatever he likes. It's not canon. All right, so Bear's Endurance would give him a boost to his con, thereby giving a boost to his Fortitude save. Yes. Which is right now at a rocking plus three, I think.

It's a plus three right now. That would make it a plus five. And I am sitting on three bottle caps. I'm going to give one of them to Joe Juice for Umlo. Very nice. It just goes to show you, don't ever say we don't do anything for Umlo. All right. Yeah.

And I'm sorry, this energy drain is a poison spell or spell-like ability? Level drain? No. No, it's just awful It's like profane damage It's negative energy damage Okay Yeah, it's not a

Not a spell Yeah Oh, I'm sorry I was just talking about the poison So I don't know if it's spell-like But I think it might be Because that would give him another plus two If so

You're right Yeah, so I guess what you're saying I think it's a supernatural ability. Oh. But that is your SOL, ums. Yeah, I believe. You know, it's nice you can just look. Ums.

You're the first one to ever call him ums. Do you have Bears Endurance? I don't know. All right, I got the two D-twins here. Same time? Same time? Same time, same time? Same time, man. I like it.

I don't know you. A 10 and a 13. 13 should... 20. 20? Plus 7? I'm low, we'll live another day. Yeah!

That's right. I'm low, I'm low, I'm low. All right, I can erase my one note I had. The steel hand, the steel hand. All right, dragon foe am one note I had. The steel hand! All right, dragon foe amulet. Who wants it? Just raise your hand. Everyone.

Literally everyone. And you know what? Umlo raised his hand as well. All right, so you guys do a roll-off. Ties, if they're the highest number, will re-roll. Highest number. Like an 18 would be two 12s. Okay.

Oh. Oh, Matthew. Matthew. Matthew wins. All right. Matthew. What's your roll, Matthew? Matty 19.

Oh. Matty 19. Bastard. Actually, that's not bad for you to have it anyway. Especially if you are carrying the horn because you'll need it more

if you're holding it. Well, there's a bonus too because, you know, where you can cast spells as well, that's going to help you as much. Well, and the really great thing is the evasion. Yeah, that's huge. Because Della's pretty special.

That's why I wanted it. That's why I missed it. That bought Della five more episodes. Yeah, and you should be able to get the reflex save to have on that damage pretty easily. Yeah. You are a live dancer. And is everyone cool with Della taking

the horn? Yeah, she can have the horn. She can have the horn. I will say, slightly off camera, Sir Will looks very jealously at the amulet. Oh, yeah, because you hate the giants. He has a trait called dragon throw. And he just looks at it

covetously and knows that he is sinning. Baron notices this and rubs the hilt of dragon's breath. Good girl. Good girl. Did Sir Walden say anything like, you know, my family was killed by dragons, but enjoy your ambulance. Nope. He isn't clever enough. Now, do you guys want to camp in the cave?

Yeah. Yeah. No safer place. As you're going to bed... He pushed the body of the drake out of the cliff. Ah, Splat lands on his friends. Now, another thing. I said you were done discussing. You've got to discuss where to go next. This is true.

You've got a long way to come back, and then do you go north the way you originally wanted to go do you backtrack and start checking out some of those southerly passages you've got a lot of options well I was thinking that we should

go our original plan and go back, backtrack and go back north and to the uh north northeast because there's some there's some big like valley that way that we didn't go yeah past the scarecrow and continue yeah and then take it had you not seen the scarecrow you that was the plan was the way we were going anyway so that's what i think we should do eliminate all leads yeah i agree because look i mean and you may say it's unlikely that our

objective whatever that is is that way but it wasn't this way look what we got we got like some of the best stuff we've got ever so i mean you know and it was my idea i just want to say i probably should have gotten the amulet as a result but i don't begrudge her having it you want it? Yes. I told you I wanted it. That's why I rolled off for it. Come and get it. I may at some point in the night. Sleight of hand.

Baron says, any unknown path may lead to another situation in which we have to put Sir Will into the bag of holding, and I'm all for that. That was funny. Him and the dog in the same bag was very funny. Can you believe that? That's another thing you've got to be mindful of.

You've just got a lot of stuff. Like, Della, you're carrying, I don't know what the Dragonfoamulet weighs, but the horn is seven pounds. You've got to watch your encumbrance. And Baron, you can carry a lot in that thing, but if you start putting a portable ram in and all this other stuff, just make sure you're calculating what you're keeping and what you're not. So a RAM, not like a sheep.

No. It's like a battering ram? Yeah, a battering ram. I think it's an ultimate equipment. Dodge Ram. It's a Dodge Caravan. You can drive around the valley. It's an SUV. Alright, so does the whole party

think tomorrow we're going to wake up, backtrack, go north? Yeah. Could I make a case for not camping in the cave? What's that case? The horse? The horse for one and the spells needed to get us down safely. We could spend – I could use up some – Oh, yeah.

That's a good point. I could feather fall myself down, for example. I don't know if I can cast on somebody else. Oh, how far down is it? 120 feet. You want to use your Elixir of Tumbling to backflip off it? No, no. Show off.

While you're talking, while they're, let me just, while they're talking about it. You know, it's, yeah, sorry. You know what Yeah I'm sorry Nestor just like Kind of Wanders over Towards the edge

Of the cliff And like kind of Looks down Spits down And he turns And like looks back At the group And while they're talking

He just like Falls over Like he's doing A scuba dive Like backwards Falls off Yeah So you guys see this

What do you do Oh my god Nestor Rush to the edge Rush to the edge. Rush to the edge. So it's 120 feet. 120 feet. All right.

I take 12 points of damage. What? I'm standing at the bottom on my feet. Wave. Wave up. What? How? How is that possible?

Does anybody say? How did you do that? How did you only that possible? Does anyone say? How did you do that? How did you only take one? Yes, sir! That really hurt, but was it effective? Was it funny? Is he undead? Detect undead?

I mean, how did it play? You're shocked, right? Am I right? You didn't expect this. Speechless. Yeah. Please stop yelling There are drakes in the area

No we got rid of them How did you do it? Oh it's a secret Trade secrets Can I do a knowledge arcana? Sure Please yeah I want to know

Why was 12 and not 12d6? 25 I have... I rule that that's sufficient. I have a pair... I'm wearing a pair of boots of the cat. Oh. So every time I fall,

I land on my feet, and it's always treated as if I rolled a 1 on every d6. That is insane! That's a really cool item. So I've got a couple of, like, compound fractured shins, but it was Wolfie. Oh, Wolfie. Nice.

I always knew you'd jump on Reginald and take off. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say, like, with the mechanics of Pathfinder, Will could literally just jump off and have no problems. Like, just take the damage and then heal himself and go to sleep. Yeah. All right. So, the climb down.

Can anybody make it? Lexington, back in the bag. Let's go. I guess so. Back in the bag. I can feather fall a couple people. All right. So, you guys camp for the night.

Down there, you check on Reginald She's unfortunately dead You're such a bastard Being ripped apart by a marsh giant So now you're down just to Lexington Only one more left for you to get, Troy. I had totally forgotten Reginald's a girl. He's quite the mayor. So do you guys need to do any healing?

You can do that, whatever you need to do. I think you're kind of... No, I do need to heal. So I'll infernal healing myself. Okay. So you wake up the next morning. Everyone pray. Sir Will, are you praying on some new spells?

Yeah, I'm going to prepare new spells for the day. Are you going to try and prepare Baron's detect undead? Yeah. What other Orisons do you have, Baron, that are first level spells? I think he has greater invisibility. Oh, that's just an Orison? I think he has greater invisibility. Oh, that's just an orison for Inquisitors. Greater invisibility.

All right, so two arcane pull points today. Two arcane pull points. Oh, and I was actually damaged even before I jumped. So if anyone... I'll do a channel. Okay. Skid has brought me Galavris' old gold-plated dice. Yeah! For channels.

He'll never want to touch them again. I know. Let's see how they do. A quick 3d6 channel for everybody. A six and a four. Ooh. So that's 13 total. Nice.

I can cast Cure Light Wounds on you before we go to bed. Oh, that'd be great. Nice. You guys are pretty much at full. And Umlo actually took off that negative level. I did. Yeah, took care of it. So now he's at a whopping

46 hit points? Oh yeah, he's killing it, he's crushing it. Ready for battle. Baron is going to craft some more ammunition before bed, so I'm going to do a little bit, I'm going to subtract from my gold, we'll do it off air. Great. Next morning, you wake up. You've been down

the valley since the Scarecrow, you know that it's a long hike back from as deep as you went. So now you're traveling northwesterly to get back up. You enter the thickly forested district again. You see the bodies of the marsh giant whites decomposing. You follow the stream along and you get eventually back to the scarecrow. It takes probably six or seven hours to get there.

It's a hike. It took you a long time to get to the Spire Drake cave as well. So you get there and there's the north passage. You follow the stream now northeasterly. You go for maybe half an hour or so and you see the passage splits off directly due east and continues northeasterly.

What do you do? Continue northeasterly. Continue northeasterly. What? So we're already in the afternoon now. Yep. Okay. Getting to be later afternoon, like 3 the afternoon now. Yep. Okay. Getting to be later afternoon.

Like three o'clock. Wow. Yeah. These walks, like, going back is a long time. Sure. So you continue northeasterly, and you go for another couple hours. Wow. So the sun's setting, but it's not completely set, and you

see another passageway, this one leading, instead of Dewey's, more southerly. Wait, so there's only one way to go? Nope. It's a split. It continues going northeast and splits down another fork. Oh, man. I mean, I could scout.

I could fly up in the air and see what I can see. Happy to check ahead. If we think stealth is preferable. Before you go ahead and use up some of your valuable flying, I might well just do a simple humble old survival check to see if there's any footprints going down one way or another. I thought he was going to say flying is an orison for me. Before you go casting that spell.

We were violently corrected on that. That is a 23 survival check. Yes. That is a 23 survival check. 23? That'll do. You, in fact, do see tracks.

Going in every direction. Going every which way. Every which way. A million different kinds of creatures. Animals and giants. And the tracks continue northeast

tracks of what? giant tracks so if we want to continue these guys don't seem too organized maybe we can find another little nook or cranny that might have something useful to our cause going away from these prints so we'll head

southerly right away from the tracks? it's fine with me. Lead the way, Sheriff. All right, so you guys travel for about 45 minutes and reach a dead end to the south. And nothing there. Nothing there. You want to roll a perception check? 29. 64.

25. 25. 25. Della and Baron, you do find... It looks like chains, but they're so old, you can't quite piece anything together. The only thing of import you find are just chains that kind of fall apart in your hands.

They're just lying on the ground. Just lying on the ground. With a 29 and a 25, like, really digging around. That's the only thing you find of import. Not magical or anything, just, like, chains that, like, fall apart as you pick them up. Well, I don't think keeping captives is anything new to giants. They've been here hundreds of years, so this must be an old tale of their poor deed. Let's turn

around, boys. I just, I check like end to end, see if I can find the ends of the chains, see if there's anything there. No, it's like a couple links here or there and then if you look a little bit more, maybe there's a few more links, but it doesn't lead anywhere. Well, great call, officer.

What have we got north now to the north then all right so you continue back north now it's getting later the sun has set you keep going northeast and you see another passageway cutting off from the mainstream leading east um the stream splits here and continues northeast and continues east. Whereas the last two places, the first one you walked by and the one that you just

took a little mini detour to, the stream did not go down there. In this case, the stream continues both ways. Northeast and direct. So the sun is set. The sun is set. Well, we should stop.

Yeah. We should not continue in dark. I'd like... I'm actually still down hit points. By pure coincidence, 12, which is what I took on the call. Serves you right. Show off. It was worth it.

A quick channel. I think it's in order. Nine total. You get eight points. Oh, thank you. Yeah think it's in order. Nine total. You get eight points. Oh, thank you. Yeah, that's lovely. All right. Yeah, so I don't know.

What do you guys think? Do you think we're on the trail of... I am guessing that we are not on the trail of the Forge. I'm guessing we're on the trail... I'm with you. It's about 6.30pm. Yeah, well, we don't want to be wandering around

late, so I think that we should set up camp, talk, plan the next day, pray. Do we still have daylight or is it dark? The sun is set. I could do a quick fly or do a quick perimeter scan at the end of the day. I think you should.

Alright, so Della is going to use one of the spells she used an arcane pool point for, which is invisibility. Okay. And she's going to cast fly on herself and take off and kind of do a... She's going to go out and do a scan, make a circle to see what she sees

of the paths, if she can catch any glimpse of dragons or sees of the paths. You know, if she can catch any glimpse of dragons or evidence of a forge. Okay. So you're going to go to the northeast or you're going to go to the east? How long can you fly? I believe it's around... Hold on. It's a minute per

level, I think. Yeah, a minute per level. So seven minutes. Seven minutes. Okay, so you're pretty much going to want to choose which way you want to go to scout. I've lost all track of which way is which. The main way you've been going is northeast. You came to a southerly portion, ignored it. Then you came to a direction that went due east.

You guys ignored it, continued going northeast. Then you came to something that went south, just went down there, found little chain links. You've now come back, and it continues northeast, or it goes directly east? Check the east. Alright, I'll check the east. Okay. You scan over to the east, you fly out there, and you see just rocky

outcroppings and another dead end. From up there, you don't see any movement, other than maybe an animal here or there. Not large animals. Not even like a game animal. Just running around. But you can't see a lot because there's still trees and whatnot.

But it is a dead end. It seems, yeah, you see a dead end. How far? What's the distance between the start of the valley and the end of the valley? It'd be like a mile and a half. Well, we can do that tomorrow just to clear it just to see

just to cross it off the list and I fly back and report I mean I do feel like we're getting it doesn't feel like to you we're getting farther away from Forge and I don't care I honestly don't

but there's things here that could be useful, so that's what I think. I feel like we may be on the trail of the captives of Shinemon's Fortune. If they still live, we may be on their trail. Yep. That's what I think. I agree with him. All right, so you guys want to camp out?

Yeah. Take a long night? Yep. Well, we also want to get going at break of day. You know, not at 10 a.m. Not like Troy LaVallee hours. Like actual adventurer hours. Troy should be aware that it is possible

to get up and start your day at like 6 o'clock in the morning. I'm pretty sure the only one that wakes up before me is Matthew. All right, so you want to camp out and you want to wake up sunrise. Before sunrise. Yes. Start out fresh

and just get on the road. Boom. Alright, so you do that. 5.30, 6 o'clock. Next morning, where do you want to go? You want to go northeast? You want to go directly east? You want to check out the eastern part first. You go directly east and like Della thought, mile and a half or so, you see nothing. There's just nothing going on there.

There is... It seems like there used to be something in the walls, like, carved out, but it's so worn over with time, you can't quite tell. You can roll all the perception checks. You mean, like like the cliff walls? Like something huge carved and worn away? Maybe something was carved out of them, but it's been

like rock slides have come and filled it up again. So it could have been like the Drake Cave? It could have been, yeah. So something could live in what was carved. But you see a bunch of those things, but you can't make heads or tails of it because it's either, it's been centuries since whatever was there was there. So time and avalanches were on the slide.

But it seems like it could have been like a civilization of some kind was there. Something was here. Gotcha. This is a lot like the Indian former civilizations in New Mexico that are carved. Yeah, Ballarat. Yeah. Not Ballarat. Not Ballarat. Baccarat. Near Los Alamos and all that stuff. Yeah. Iarat. Not Ballarat. Not Ballarat.

Near Los Alamos and all that stuff. I think it's pronounced Baccarats. No, it is Ballarat. Yeah, Ballarat. There's cave dwellings near Ballarat in New Mexico. You think, yeah, is this a cave? I can't quite tell. But something was here.

But other than that, nothing. You don't see anything. The stream ends. Dead end. All right, let's go the other way. Yep. Getting a sense of the size of this valley now? That was only a mile and a half.

Yeah, it was 20 minutes. Three miles. Come back. Barron checks his Fitbit. Okay, we're doing good. Don't forget, only Lexington and Reggie are keeping you guys moving at a good pace. Everybody else has got to slog along. I'm slowing you guys down.

20 feet of movement. No con. No charisma. So you get back, and all that's left is the northeast. This small river that you've been following that just keeps splitting off since you entered the valley, this is another tributary of it, runs directly through the center of this valley that you are now continuing upwards through. The precipitous slopes of the rocky canyon walls

up ahead seem to be dotted with a few dozen dark cave entrances. Oh, this looks like trouble! And you see this after going for like an hour or so. Hour and a half, two hours. You see kind of like the end of the valley. Dozen cave entrances.

So this is the end to the north. This is it. This is, yeah. This is it. So after this, we have to go all the way back to the scarecrow to move back west. There's only one place that you skipped going up here. Okay. Oh, my goodness.

Should we check out some of these dark places? Oh, I charge into the cave. I pick one at random. You know what? How about I put out a map? Yes. Yeah, that would be lovely. So there you are. End of this valley. Very wide.

Dotted with you know, I think I put through like 14 different caves. So the river... The river ended just about where you guys are standing. I don't understand these rivers at all and how they start and stop. It must be spring.

This is a mounted character's dream map. Wide open space. Completely wide open. It's like Mile High Stadium. It's like Foxborough. There's just a big empty field and risers surrounding it.

To your left and to your right, about 50 feet on either side of you, are the first of these openings. What do you guys do? So all of these are cave openings? They appear to be, yes. Well, we must start exploring these caves. I think it behooves us. So, first on the right, start there. Yes.

Nesta, Della? Your right or mine? I'll be right outside. Why you? No, but yeah, I think that, you know, I'm happy to go in first, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. You guys can kind of stealth up there and see what you can see. I'll go with you. I can stealth too if you guys want.

But then we'll have one more. One more fatality. Check to fail. One more fatality. You want to be vanished? Fatality. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, that sounds good.

And I turned to Will right before we go. He says, I put my hand on his shoulder. I look down and it's like, yeah, that sounds good. And I turned to Will, like, right before we go. He says, I put my hand on his shoulder. I look down, and it's like, listen, while we're gone, no matter what happens, keep our nose safe. Will nods very seriously. So should we, like, approach the cave, and then I'll banish us, and we can jump in? Yeah.

I don't even know. Well, let's let's let's like stealth up and you know just see. 31 for me. 19 for me. 19 for Della. All right.

So next year Della. Clong clong clong clong as usual. The horn is just like clank clank clank. Drop the horn.

It went off on its own. I don't know how this thing works if I were with any other character the reaction would be like 19 respectable

is it like a Harpo Marx horn with a bulb on the end it's like what if you roll a 2 it rolls an 11 so you guys walk over your stealth is terrible

I should have gone I saw this plus 8 I have a 14 you guys sneak over. Your stealth is terrible. I should have gone. I still have this plus 8. I have a 14. You guys sneak up to the first entrance to the right. Yes. You see a large entrance. Around the edge of it is a stone arch set with a keystone carved in dwarven runes. Della just turns around and looks at the dwarves.

I'm moseying over. I gesture them up. Dwarves come up. Do they just roll up? That rolled one, but that's still a fifteen. Umlo just rolls up. Spirit the ready. Umlo just...

Oh, I have my giant Spain crossbow out in my hands. Okay. You guys walk up, and sure enough, you see this cave. You can't see the end of it, what's inside of it. You don't hear anything or see anything. But there is a keystone, and there's a bunch of images, looks like, drawn on the inside of the cave.

But at the top is a dwarven rune. And you read it and it appears to be a family name. Red heart? No, it doesn't say red heart. Start with an M. It does not start with an M. I wish I had knowledge.

Can I do a knowledge check on it to know who it is? Knowledge ability? I guess you could probably do a linguistics check. Yeah. I'll do that, too. Yeah. Do you have that? I don't have that.

Oh, no, I do, I do. 26. Nine. It's the dwarven rune for a family name Forgeheart. Oh. Oh. Forges. It's a recurring theme. Do I remember any Forgehearts from Five Kings Mountain?

It's not an uncommon name. You've heard of it. It's not like Smith or Jones, but you've heard of Forgehearts before. Actually, it is kind of like Smith. I guess it would be a little more Smithy. I mean, they're literally Smiths. They're actually Smiths. Bad're maybe a little more Smithy. I mean, they're literally Smiths. They're actually Smiths. Bad example.

A little more Smithy. And you mocked us for the show far, show good. Well, I can't see, so... You have dark vision, right? I have dark vision. If I peek my head over, can I see into the cave at all?

Sure, you look into the cave and it seems like it ends in a few dozen yards or so but on the wall itself are a bunch of pictograms and if you have dark vision you can see like there's a hammer and an anvil there's like uh flames there's uh you know like a bicep being flexed with a fist a bigger one than that right? nope visual humor he was using his own bicep for reference

like that, you guys can't see that at home? you can't feel its presence good thing it'll knock you out welcome to the gun show ladies and gentlemen with Troy LaValle. Baron would like to just walk along with his hand along the wall looking for any secret doors.

So you'd go inside? I'd like to, yeah. Okay, yeah. Climb up inside. Yeah, roll knowledge stone cutting. And while he's doing that, Sir Will and Lexington are just kind of patrolling outside. Not going far, but just staying outside and keeping an eye out there.

27. kind of patrolling outside. Not going far, but just staying outside and keeping an eye out there. 27. 27, you feel along, and you don't feel any secret doors, but you do feel like something held fast to the wall,

and with it, chains. So these were slave dwarves, probably enslaved by giants is my idea, because they had the smith knowledge from Torag and their heritage. That seems like a very reasonable conclusion. But yet at the same time... The pictograms are a little weird. They're in homage to dwarves.

Well, I would think that slaves might make their... I mean, no matter what, regardless of a dwarf's freedom, they would have pride in their work and in their workplace. It's like, not to get too much into American history but like it's like having songs to sing while working the fields having things to do at least that's just on first idea so did the chains look anything like the chains we found at the end of that oh sure oh exactly and they're in the same state

and they're dwarvish size not not giant size. They could fit... They're human size, for a medium size human. Okay, well, let's go check the others and... Can I do a perception? Della will poke in after Baron. Can I do a perception check just around to see if there's anything? Sure. 25.

You see some artisan's tools that are broken down. Like, you'll pick one up and the handle, the head of it will fall off. And more evidence of slaves of some sort. As we approach the other caves and step outside, as we glance across, do all these caves look to be about the same size as if they were made? Generally. Generally the same size.

So, like, cells or a dorm or something. Della's going to just kind of stand. Felt like prison when I lived in one. You know what, Baron? Now that you've come out and you start looking at everything, do you go up to the next one? Yeah. And look for the name specifically,

since I saw a last name there. Maybe they kept whole families in here, which is either nice or worse. I'm not sure which. Del also wants to fire off a detect magic. Just kind of scan around the cells to see if anything picks up. You don't detect any magic at all.

Whatever was here in these caves has long since been plundered. I knew they should have built these 120 feet up on a cliff. So it's rather bright out, right? Midday? Mm-hmm. And all around the perimeter we can pretty much see in, at least to the first several feet of these caves? Yeah, I mean, if you are...

Right now I just have you at the first cave. Right, right, that's all, yeah. But, I mean, it's bright enough out that if we were to kind of just sort of scout all of the caves at once, we'd be able to sort of slightly see into them. Yeah, if you've got dark vision, well, you see how big it is, you know what I mean? If you want to get to look into the ones in the back. You have to walk right up to it.

I get that. I'm saying there's sunlight shining into the first dozen feet of the caves. Sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, you walk up to the next one, Baron, and it's got the dwarven rune for a name. Bone Gut. Bone Gut.

And the pictographs on the inside are, like, of warriors fighting. Huh. So, oh, wow. So maybe that was artisans, slavely, and these were fighters being trained for some purpose. Or a family had a history of famous warriors. As you start to look around, Baron, you realize that these were probably mines. That they just started each direction? Like an ant colony type of thing? They're all just going off?

They were mines that were abandoned do you enter this one? yeah absolutely you start walking in it ends about a couple dozen feet in but there's a passageway to the right I let Umlo know and I let Della know if she's curious

because she's wanting to come with me I let everyone I just kind of wave them in if they want to come if they don't I'm still going to look. Nestor cracks a sunrod and follows behind him, about 20 feet behind, and knocks a couple of arrows in his bow as he goes. So you guys enter the cave, and you walk on to the right.

It's kind of like single file. It points, it opens up a little bit, so you can go two by two. So we're all going now down this path? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You start walking around and it winds. And if you keep your sense of direction, you realize that you are kind of going deeper into this mine system and then coming back closer to the surface.

And then you eventually enter into another cave somewhere a little bit farther down the way. It's An interconnected series of tunnels. And there's passageways leading off from that as well. Is there any evidence in the front of the caves of there ever being any sort of obstruction? Like bars or

anything like that? No, nothing of the sort. So those chains are really... So which cave are we in now? Which one of these entrances are we in? We've been in the first two. You come out now, and you're basically deeper, like way at the far corner of the right where you came in. Of the cul-de-sac.

Of the cul-de-sac, yeah. So you guys all come out there. All right. Wow. Very mysterious. so you guys all come out there alright very mysterious is there any dungeoneering check I can make to see I'm not sure exactly what question asks but can we just

quickly look into each look at each of the runes for each one and kind of see the related families and look at the names and they're like Earth Finger, Lightbringer. And then you see a

pictograph before you even see the rune itself of a volcano. And that catches your eye. You don't even look up. And you see like. A child.

Being carried up the side of a volcano. And you see. What looks like. A gun. Drawn on the side of the wall. And just as you're ready to look up. And see the rune. Oh my god.

You hear a noise noise from behind you. And only Baron recognizes these creatures that are coming at you from the far side out of one of the caves. Because you have not seen this creature since the Hope Spring. Oh, no. As three cave giants.

What? Come running at you. No! We'll see you next week. Oh, I don't want to get rid of that now, man. At least it wasn't the grips. Oh, God. Don't even fucking remind me.

No, man. I was scared of that already. Yeah, I was scared of that. I think we can handle that. Outro Music