Into the Unknown

DM:

Hello, and welcome to Smash loot and roll. After a unique encounter at Desert Camp, Ares claims a lightning sword, and our adventurers now ask themselves, what are they really hunting? Let's join Aedrok, Ares, Boden, and Kalgras at Desert Camp and see what's next. Please enjoy episode 45 of Smash, Loot, and Roll into the unknown.

Bowdin:

And that's why you should never ever eat the head of your DM.

Kelgrace:

So Agreed. Before

DM:

Unless you dip it in chocolate and sprinkles first.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. No kidding.

DM:

You guys were

Kelgrace:

Well, no. Because remember, we we we made friends with those thingies instead of it attacking us. We didn't have to jump through the portal so fast.

DM:

Yeah. So at the end of it, you guys, after Adrock, it actually pulled a lightning sword from did I ever upload that to your character?

Adrok:

I think I thought,

DM:

not Adrock, but, Ares. Sorry.

Adrok:

Yeah.

DM:

Ares. Sorry.

Kelgrace:

I did not get that.

DM:

Yeah. My apologies. I will, I'll make sure I'll get that get that to you shortly. Well, Ares. When I last left off, you guys had successfully pulled Ares had pulled a lightning sword from the what would assume to be the head of a creature that had a bunch of little, multilegged insects that surround it and kept moving with it.

DM:

You guys were in the desert camp. You guys were at the desert camp, sent there to investigate why they hadn't communicated in a couple of days. And when you got there, the camp is it was pretty much empty. No bodies were there. Looks like it's been abandoned for a couple of days.

DM:

And you also got to see the, desert sort of move like the ocean in a couple different areas.

Bowdin:

Are there any deceased local fauna shells or skeletons or anything else like that around? You said these are high in they're they're high intensity magic creatures. Basically, they they have magic in their blood, basically. Right?

DM:

Yeah. From what you guys had gathered, what you guys had done a search for. Give me a, I'll let you use either investigation or, perception.

Bowdin:

Let's see. Bodhi will not be doing any investigating.

DM:

It's a rock.

Bowdin:

I got a 13. Yeah.

DM:

You take a moment to look around, at first, what you thought might have been, like, pieces of rock or just broke pieces of broken, or or part of the actual oasis that you guys are in. You sort of realize there's actually pieces of, like, insecticide shells. You know? And you pick them up, they're, like, size of your figure about the size of your hand, the pieces.

Kelgrace:

K.

DM:

Almost broken off in different place. As you look around, you know, most of them are contained in one area as if, they're almost breaking off pieces. It's it's sort of like you, the shavings left over from a shell from something larger.

Bowdin:

Hey, Adrock. Wandered Adrock. Can you tell if there's any of that magic left in these?

Adrok:

Role arcana? Yep. And it's, it's an 11. Your guess is as good as mine.

DM:

No. No. You can tell you take a look at it. It

Kelgrace:

DM wants you to know.

Adrok:

Yeah. The plot requires that we know.

DM:

No. It doesn't. But at the same time, you know what too. You can tell by looking at the, looking at the shell, there is some magical residue. You've also compare it to other, types of when you're collecting components and things like that, you can tell there's this has a useful level of magic, but it it's definitely one of those things that you could get you grind it into powder and everything else.

DM:

It it's gotten it's got magical properties. That way, it's got it could be used for magical purposes that might actually substitute other components.

Bowdin:

That's kinda cool.

DM:

You know, in the terms of where you guys are from, it's more of what they what's known as, residual. Never pronounce that word.

Bowdin:

Residuum?

DM:

Thank you. What I've

Bowdin:

been think what I've been thinking is that these guys are here killing whole living critters to try and get the magic resin to to get the magic out of them. If we can get it from their their skeletons and from their their shells and stuff like that, then we don't have to go around killing critters like these guys have, and it'd probably be easier. But what do I know?

DM:

Yeah. You guys were hired to come over here and hunt the creatures for their, well, you were told in that you were told before you jumped realms that they hired you to hunt creatures and everything else and bring back hides and parts and everything else. They really didn't give you guys a good description of exactly what you'd be taking back or what you'd be hunting until they get to the camp. You got a good idea now that it's likely talking with a few people in camp before you jump to the desert camp that these creatures have a these creatures creatures in this area have a large level of magic to them. So with that being said, do you get some different ways to, figure out how you how you may wanna collect the creature parts?

Bowdin:

Okay.

Kelgrace:

Well, it just sounds very murdery.

Bowdin:

Who who who here knows about nature?

Kelgrace:

Oh, should look. Probably not me.

Adrok:

I got a plus 4, and we got a better plus 4?

Kelgrace:

No. I have a plus 2. I don't know how I have a plus 2, but I do.

Adrok:

How about you, Aries?

DM:

I have a plus one.

Adrok:

Maybe it can be above 4? I mean, we don't have the monk here. So

Bowdin:

Tell Tell you what, Ed Rock, why don't you and I put our heads together? Guidance. And, why don't why don't you tell me if okay. Hold on.

Kelgrace:

Oh, wow. That was amazing.

Adrok:

Yeah. Guidance give me an advantage role, or is it gonna be just the plus d

DM:

4? D d 4.

Adrok:

Yeah. I think if I had held off rolling until after you'd finished your sentence, I'd have done better.

Bowdin:

Yeah. Mister jumping the gun, man.

Kelgrace:

Does insight help at all?

Bowdin:

Well, I added 3 to it, so he at least at least hit 10.

DM:

What are you trying to do?

Bowdin:

The intent is is, checking with Adrock to see if he knows if there is any sort of generalized behavior where critters like, is there is there, like, a crab boat is there a crabs crab graveyard or something like that? Do do do critters just sort of plop over dead where they're at? Do they go back to where they respond? I granted this is an entirely different new world, but maybe there's some patterns or some similarities between this one and where we we where we're from that might be useful.

DM:

Yeah. I direct you.

Bowdin:

Yeah. I did.

DM:

I'm sorry. I was I'm like I'm like you did 2 different checks there. 1 sorry. I was looking at the wrong check. But you get an idea that some of the animals may actually have those type of graveyards nearby.

DM:

But your guess is sort of as good as anybody else of what you'd even look for, where to find them. You understand that the insecticide creatures you have, if there anything like insecticide is back in for room, they're probably a hive mentality. So there's a a good chance that we can find the hide hide hive. You can find the remains out that that area. The other thing you can look at is, you know, finding the Apex Predator because they have a tendency to bring back their kills to everything else, especially if they're, for lack of a better word, tribal or traveling in a pride or a herd, but not really understanding this realm that you're in.

DM:

You could only do some, do some analogies of what you think would be best.

Bowdin:

So maybe maybe tomorrow it's getting dark now. Right?

DM:

Yeah. The sun's setting. The sun is setting they asked the the question you asked last time. There does seem to be a difference in time for when you left, from when you left base camp to where you jumped to desert camp, you almost seem to have lost a few hours. So you're thinking maybe the day is shorter in this realm?

Bowdin:

Or it's really far away from from the original base camp.

DM:

Alright. Well, they did say it would take a, overland travel would take a couple weeks.

Adrok:

Oh.

DM:

The sky ship would take, the sky ship they they have, they said take about a week week to fly.

Bowdin:

Wow. So we are quite a ways away.

DM:

But at the same time, they also said that the, big issue would take in the sky ship across the mountain ranges was the creatures and the elements.

Bowdin:

K. So why don't we camp, set up set up guards, and, do some scouting tomorrow to see if there might be some place around here that we might either find well, okay. We there aren't any bodies here, so there's a good chance that we might be approached by, an Apex Predator by itself if they weren't taken out by the lightning headed crab critters

Adrok:

or

Bowdin:

lightning headed crab monster.

Adrok:

Are aren't we the Apex Predators?

Bowdin:

I'll tell you in a couple levels.

DM:

Ask the ask the bipedal creature when they're swimming in swimming in water. Right. I've I've been on a few trips. It's like, I'm no longer the apex predator in this room. No matter what I'm carrying, there's more efficient killers that are with me.

Bowdin:

Alright. I'll take I'll take first watch.

Kelgrace:

Alright.

DM:

So is the is everybody else you have your choice of several dwellings or tents in it, out there with base with the desert camp setup, but there is one that's a bit sturdier than the rest. Seems like where they hold their supplies and maybe their mess all things like that. That's still that's still, for the most part, intact. And, you know, when you guys were doing your search, you didn't really find anything out of the ordinary. You could tell things that left in a hurry from this camp at at some point, something had caused everything to move and then just vanish.

DM:

But, Bowden, you take first watch. As the sun sets and everybody else beds down, you get the desert wind that picks up. And about what you're figuring is you guys are gonna break it into 4 watches. But, about halfway through the first of your watch, Boden, you noticed that the, the night sky seems to start having a what would be the best described as the northern lights. Play across it from different and in this case, you know, with the the color spectrum and everything else, one of the things that really stands out is instead of just the moving lights flashing and changing all the various hues, you notice there's always streaks of lightning that go through it.

DM:

It's Someone says if it instead of just being on one portion of the realm of the sky, it sort of moves its way across, and it it seems as if the night grows deeper. The northern lights sort of work their way over and eventually you could see them passing overhead.

Kelgrace:

But there's

Bowdin:

I'm not saying they're getting closer. So

DM:

They're not getting closer as getting lower to the ground, but they are definitely they come over and eventually the whole sky's, you know, about the time your shift is ending, you notice that all the way horizon to horizon, the, sky just plays with a a set of northern lights. Now they're not bright enough to, like, you know, call it daylight, but they are do have enough brilliance to at least cast a light shadow on anything that moves.

Bowdin:

Any, any animal stirring because of the additional light, or are they avoiding it?

DM:

As you peer out, do you notice that the, there are some animals that that are moving down by the water? They seem to be at first, you thought it was, you know, your eyes were playing tricks when you're seeing shadows, maybe movement of some of the fauna, and the plants that are on there. But did you notice that the sand is starting to move a little bit and low creatures almost as if as if they're low crawling or slithering across the ground and move up to the water. You know, looks like they take a drink, do a little bit, and then they sort of move out for a while. But you don't get any of the really big creatures like you saw or any of the little small things you saw, nor do you see, like, the big wave of sand.

DM:

Your visibility is nowhere near as as lengthening as it is in the day. So it's about it's not even a quarter of what you can see out there.

Bowdin:

I can see in the dark though, too.

DM:

So Yeah.

Bowdin:

Well That helps.

DM:

I don't know. Yeah. It it does help, but you still once you get beyond that point, it's gone.

Bowdin:

Right. Alright. Who's next up?

DM:

Who's got next watch?

Adrok:

I do. Oh, you do? Alright.

Kelgrace:

I got yeah. It's fine. Either one.

Bowdin:

You got it. I go I go give, Adrock a couple of nudges. Hey. It's it's your watch.

Adrok:

Fine. It's the Clunk.

Bowdin:

Snooze. I,

Adrok:

I light I light a or I I set off a, using my alchemy, I set off a, some blue fireballs, around our camp, that just stay lit. They're not explosive fireballs, mister mister Warbrook. Is it is it mister or master Warbrook? How old are you anyway?

Bowdin:

Old.

Adrok:

So it's Senor, Orbrook.

Bowdin:

Oh, he's he's a, he's a babe. He's he's he's barely out of the cradle. He's only 62.

DM:

They'll probably still be master Orbrook.

Bowdin:

Yep.

DM:

Adrock, you can is is your glowing lights kick off? Did you cast this particular spell or just, make something?

Adrok:

I made something with alchemy.

DM:

Okay.

Adrok:

I can double check and make sure there's not a particular spell behind it.

DM:

Okay. No prob. You got 2 glowing lights out there that sort of just sort of sit outside your camp and illuminate it. As to the as to the ambiance, nothing really different, but you notice it does attract, what you would best describe from your realm, probably the largest hummingbird you've ever seen that come up and sort of flitter around it, sort of poke at it, realize it's nothing there, and they fly off. But as you watch these creatures at night, you see there's they kinda remind you of the bats back home of how they dive and maneuver, catching things in the air.

DM:

A few of them you see skim low over the you know, you can see them skim low over the water, but your shift stays very quiet. Nothing seems to go on. What goes next?

Kelgrace:

I don't know, George. Do you wanna wake a sleeping dragon?

Adrok:

Nope. I I I wake up Ares. Yeah.

DM:

That drop goes. No, not touching that one.

Bowdin:

Dragon, demon, dragon, or demon.

DM:

Demon the choices, Jeff.

Kelgrace:

Honestly, not great choices either way.

DM:

That's why button's like, I take 1st shift so I can wake up the hot goblin Aries, do you kick yourself awake? Well, you know, you dust off your sleepiness and look out. Like I said, there's the the northern lights that are, like, bluish purple pinks. You do notice that never really see a yellowish hue. It's always on the the colder spectrum of the colors.

DM:

Doesn't really get, very light. But you get to see there's, you get to see the similar creatures that are coming around. You notice that, the low crawling or slithering creatures have finally decided to come up, look around, and you notice that they they have, like, a reptilian hide. Now you could almost mistake them for gators or alligators back home, except they have instead of just 2 pairs of legs, they have, total of 4 pairs. They move across.

DM:

You see them snap at each other. You also also notice that the tail as what I'm sort of moves, and this tail's like a spiky ball versus just that swimming tail that you would get on the regular gators.

Kelgrace:

These are some scary critters.

DM:

Yeah. What sort of attracts your attention a little bit is you notice that much like what you would associate with a dog that's sniffing the air, you can see the elongated snout, everything somewhat come up, you know, scan the air, sort of come back down and it moves a little bit. It seems to get to a point around where you guys are sleeping, probably 30, 40 feet away from the structure and everything else. Then once it gets there, you see it's the snout goes up, and then it sort of stops, shakes its heads, and sort of moves away. For whatever reason, there's there's an established perimeter line that it doesn't seem like I wanna cross.

Bowdin:

Good.

Kelgrace:

Interesting.

DM:

I guess it's your turn to wake the sleeping dragon.

Kelgrace:

Good luck. I go nudge, nudge. I mean, I'm not too scared of a dragon. I can hold my arms.

Bowdin:

Good morning, sunshine.

Adrok:

Yeah. You say that before having tried to wake a sleeping dragon.

Kelgrace:

That's true. It's fine. I don't mind. Lightly. I do try to wake.

Bowdin:

I I hold the I hold the coffee in front of her nose.

Kelgrace:

There we go. That's the way to my heart. You got it. I'm up. All good.

Kelgrace:

It's one

DM:

of those things you sort of puts the mug out. He knows this.

Bowdin:

Yep. Yep. Sniffy sniffy sniffy.

DM:

Your your dragon board friend is pretty much sitting up and reaching for the coffee before you even realize she's awake. She's like, okay. Got it. I'm good. But it holds it, cradles it, like, this will work.

Kelgrace:

Perfect. The best part of waking up.

DM:

You did realize you forget to put you put you didn't add enough sugar to to flavor it the way you like, but black's black's black is good enough. So, Kyogai, so you get to see the disappearing skyline as the sun starts peeking over from what you could only guess is guess is the east.

Kelgrace:

Sounds good.

DM:

For cardinal directions, you'd most people assume the directions of where the sun is based on their previous realm. Mhmm. I'd say this the it's almost like the the light of the morning the light of the morning is chasing away the Aurora borealis and continues to move. One of the things that you do see in the early morning light is on the on the edge of the horizon from you guys, up in the on the way the light's coming up. You notice what you think is that you guys seen earlier, was large jutting rocks that come out in different areas.

DM:

You guys can see rocks in the distance and everything else. But as the sun comes up, you notice that, hidden within the shadow that becomes that becomes visible for a short period of time as the sun breaks up over it, is there's large columns of rock that are standing separate from it. It seems like as the sun makes its way into the morning sky, those individual pillars sort of seem to blend into the bigger rock. But right now in the morning sun, you get a good idea that think of it like a bunch of pillars that were just randomly placed in the ground, but near the rock formation. Large columns of rock jetting out of the ground that end in a either some of them end just broken off, others end, like, the cone shaped top, items like that.

DM:

But

Kelgrace:

So is this, like, a stonehenge formation type thing? Like, that was done by something?

DM:

Or more random.

Kelgrace:

Okay.

Bowdin:

But and normally it's harder to see, but now with the the sun at the particular angle that it's at, the casting, the shadows, and everything just makes it more obvious than

DM:

the Yes. It does.

Kelgrace:

Okay. Okay.

DM:

What you originally thought as the sun got up was instead of seeing the large shadow of just the one rock, what made it visible was the fact you're seeing a bunch of individual shadows like fingers coming out.

Kelgrace:

Oh, pretty. And

DM:

as the as the sun gets higher, you notice those shadows get shorter. Yeah.

Kelgrace:

Okay.

DM:

The Blair Witch Project is coming for everyone.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. Yep. It's like, let the let the record show that we all literally wiggled our fingers straight towards the camera.

DM:

Jazz hands. Mhmm. Good to see you can do that command and everybody follows

Bowdin:

exactly.

DM:

You guys eventually,

Bowdin:

we know everybody at home, you'd be doing it too. All

DM:

right. We call it jazz hands. Everybody goes jazz hands.

Bowdin:

That's right. Fosse, fosse 1, fosse, fosse 2.

DM:

Oh, boy. So you guys all eventually get up, have some breakfast, and, realize that much like any other desert, the coolness in the morning is gonna quickly bake away.

Bowdin:

Yay. We we enjoyed the the one the one nice part of the day. Maybe we should have walked when it was dark. Sudden realization. That that's not good.

Bowdin:

Let's see. Let me see if there's certain spells that I might wanna kick in or swap out. How are we for water? We've got a great big oasis here. Right?

DM:

Yeah. You have, definitely clean water, drinkable water. You're figuring this is the whole reason I built camp here was the fact that there's a water source that was healthy enough to sustain people. So build whatever containers you have and you can carry water.

Bowdin:

I'm going to add some hard choices. Oh, that's always prepared. Spirit guardians. I like that one. Mass healing work.

Bowdin:

Garnet. Which ones can I give up? I know. None of them.

Kelgrace:

None of them. Well, while he figures that out, I'm gonna sparkle my way into, some appropriate desert walking attire that'll help keep me cool because I don't know that I can regulate my body temperature very well.

DM:

That look like for you?

Kelgrace:

I mean, considering I'm probably one of the only ones who hasn't been to a desert. ADROC, what am I supposed to wear? Be my fashion consultant fancy pants.

Adrok:

Light colored, layered clothing, that is, not heavy.

Kelgrace:

Sounds great. Very exciting.

Adrok:

With a hood.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. With a hood.

Adrok:

Yeah. So that's where the hood is, is a euphemism, but also, keeps you cooler.

Kelgrace:

Okay. I'm

Bowdin:

not gonna ask. Nope.

Kelgrace:

Not gonna ask. Either. No.

DM:

I think all of us are like, no. We're not gonna ask.

Bowdin:

Yeah. Just just woof. Let it go fast.

Adrok:

Mhmm. In an alternate universe, someone asked, what does that mean? And and we had a good time, but we could just laugh about it.

Bowdin:

Alright. Alright. So, so how was everybody's night? Did you sleep well?

Kelgrace:

I slept great.

Bowdin:

Great. Did did you click the long rest button?

DM:

That's that's what he was saying.

Bowdin:

Yep.

Kelgrace:

I am good.

Bowdin:

Alright. Anybody anybody have any in anybody see any in anybody see anything interesting overnight?

DM:

All the

Kelgrace:

The, the rock formation thing over there is a lot of rocks, not just one big one.

Bowdin:

Is it how how visible is it for the rest of us now that we're all wake woke up?

DM:

Because it's still early in the morning, it's visible. It's visible, and you can actually see the longer shadows.

Bowdin:

What would it take to figure out roughly how far the far away that is?

Kelgrace:

How good are you at math?

DM:

Perceptions? To survival. Survival. Okay.

Kelgrace:

What, oh, what do you have to do? Do you

Bowdin:

have to be the 3?

Kelgrace:

No. I mean, plus 3? No. Yeah. A 3 maybe.

Bowdin:

No. Can can anybody beat a plus 3 on survival? No. Can anybody, can anybody match it?

Kelgrace:

No.

Bowdin:

Right. Darn. I can't I can't guidance myself, can I?

DM:

No. You cannot.

Bowdin:

That's what I was afraid of.

Adrok:

Not not in mixed company, at least.

Bowdin:

Exactly. Well, Well, when I think about it, I touch myself. So here we go.

DM:

That was a old paladin's favorite song.

Bowdin:

I got a 9, which is Oh,

Adrok:

they do call it lay lay on hands.

DM:

Yeah. Just lay on hands.

Adrok:

It's not throw hands, which is

Bowdin:

You know?

Adrok:

Is a barbarian favorite song.

Bowdin:

I figured we could get there in about 4 or 5 hours.

DM:

Yeah. It sounds like it for the for the distance and the, you know, walking through the sand and it makes it a little bit more difficult to move through the terrain. You know, it's not a bad it's not a bad estimate for you. You're like, yeah, it's probably where it should be.

Bowdin:

Alright. You guys wanna hike out there and see what's going on over there?

Kelgrace:

Before we do that, is there anything that would, like any any like, would athletics help us move here? Like, anything that would make this easier.

DM:

Through the sands?

Kelgrace:

Yeah.

DM:

Probably something that flies.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. Oh, do we have our thingies? Our griffins?

DM:

Yeah. Do you bring them?

Kelgrace:

Can we can we use them?

Bowdin:

Let's see. In my backpack. I've got the In

Kelgrace:

your backpack? You've got the Griffin?

Bowdin:

Yep. Who's got the other one?

Adrok:

I think I do. I have a bag of holding with stuff in it. I'm sure it's in there. Either me or the monk. It would be awkward if it were the monk.

Kelgrace:

Yep. Oh.

Bowdin:

Alright. Let's let's let's, let's FWP ourselves into some flying.

Adrok:

We're gonna assume it's me. Any any plot holes or continue continuity holes are because we don't keep good notes, not because it's not there.

DM:

That's the one just

Bowdin:

does. I'm pretty sure it is because you guys were the you and,

Kelgrace:

Yeah. You guys You and I took it, didn't we?

Bowdin:

Yep. Yep.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. But I don't have it. I don't have pockets.

DM:

You don't have pockets with that system. You can go, I'm gonna simply go sparkles.

Kelgrace:

And I have pockets. I know. Great. Yeah. I forgot to ask for pockets, and they don't just give them to women.

Kelgrace:

So Nope.

DM:

Jab jabs.

Kelgrace:

No. I I I take that back. I have pockets. I can fit a dime in them.

DM:

You can fit that's worse than not having yeah.

Kelgrace:

Well

Adrok:

Can we talk about in the, in the fact that we're in a fantastical world, a fantasy world, and we're still constrained by the fact that women do not have good pockets in any realm.

Kelgrace:

I mean, I've just got a complaint about something. So it's Like, D and D could've

Adrok:

fixed that. Right? And they didn't. They're like, no. You don't need pockets.

Bowdin:

Nope. It's now cosmic horror. So poof, giant, giant Griffin.

DM:

Geez. Giant Griffin's pop out. And, you guys load up in a, in a very short, flight. You guys fly over the desert, basically fly into the morning sun to get there, within about 30 minutes. So, Bodie, you're like, yeah, maybe my estimate was a little off.

DM:

Estimating distance in a in in a in a sea of sand might be a little bit more challenging than you thought.

Bowdin:

Indeed.

DM:

But, as you guys pull up to the largest rock face, what you notice is that these rock, pillars or spires, excuse me, seem to mainly stay in the shadow of the larger of the larger rock formation. And as they get to where. The sun would pass over them. They seem to be smaller. So the taller ones are.

DM:

Almost always in the shadow portion of it or closest to the rock. While the further out they go, they get smaller over the distance.

Bowdin:

Anything on the ground near them that should that might indicate it would be bad to land there? Like, I don't know, lightning scorched corpses or, piles of piles of skeletons or anything.

DM:

Piles of skeletons and miles. Give me a perception roll. Okey dokey.

Bowdin:

That'd be a 22, I think.

Kelgrace:

Nice. Or 21.

DM:

So as you're riding the griffin circling around, you don't notice anything that would give you the impression that it's probably bad to land in any one particular place. But what you do notice is what you thought might have been shadows or maybe even just simple rock overhangs. Looks more like there's several when I say several, there's about 6 different entrances, openings that you see that actually go in the rock face beneath that probably indicate some type of structure beneath the surface.

Bowdin:

Are they are they entrances at ground level, or are they they distributed across the face of it?

DM:

No. They're all at ground level. Many actually, all of them are at ground level, and all of them have at least sand the sand of the desert partially moving into them.

Bowdin:

Okay. So I I point out to everybody else. It's, like, pointing out the holes.

Kelgrace:

Well, the record show that he was pointing.

Bowdin:

Yeah. Pointing down.

Kelgrace:

Down. There.

DM:

He's pointing down over there.

Bowdin:

Looks like entrances or maybe critter houses. Hard to tell from here.

Kelgrace:

Maybe that's where the people are.

Adrok:

We should

Bowdin:

fly to the people.

Adrok:

To make sure.

Bowdin:

How are they big enough to fly into or at least flutter at?

Kelgrace:

As you as

DM:

you decide to bring your, griffin in for a low low pass?

Kelgrace:

Yeah. You get a

DM:

good angle on them. There's 2 of them that are more than big enough for the, Griffins to fly directly into.

Kelgrace:

Oh,

Bowdin:

can they hover?

DM:

Not easily. Okay.

Bowdin:

But it would give us some place to park them if we wanted to. Although, we can't just tell them don't be mad. Don't don't don't don't be a figure. Don't be a a a griffin anymore. Go back to being a figure, I guess.

DM:

Yeah. You can't do that.

Kelgrace:

The

Adrok:

best part is the Griffins.

Bowdin:

Yeah.

Kelgrace:

God. If

DM:

it The valet the valet pops out. How may I help park your Griffin's room?

Bowdin:

Here's the keys. Don't scratch it.

Adrok:

You see They get irritated if you scratch them.

Bowdin:

Right. Exactly. Unless you scratch them behind the ears, in which case they Right.

Kelgrace:

That's what I was just gonna say. Yeah. Just a little bit behind the ear. 2.5 scratches, though.

Adrok:

Right. Are they cat Griffins?

Bowdin:

Yes. Exactly. Yeah. You don't wanna get into, you know, twist and rake mode with a Griffon. The pillars themselves, are they other than the fact that they draw attention by their presence, are they significant?

Bowdin:

Are they, like, made of diamond or anything weird like that?

DM:

No. They're not made of diamond, but you noticed that they're not made of stone. It looks like whatever they're made out of, it was, it kinda reminds you of the ant pillars, back home that you've you've seen where they've build these large pillar formations, and you realize this is a the sand has been changed somehow to become a hardened surface and builds a tower up into the, sky.

Bowdin:

Are there holes on top of them?

DM:

Considering the, you know, the smallest ones about 4 or 5 times your height, you can't really tell.

Bowdin:

I'm flying.

DM:

Oh, you're you said you guys have landed.

Bowdin:

Alright. What?

DM:

There are no from the the from the sky. No. You did not see any openings on top of them.

Bowdin:

Okay. Alright. Let's see. Well, let's park the Griffins, and then every time every time every time Bodie says, well, let's park the Griffins. For some reason, Adrock giggles.

Adrok:

It's gotta be a euphemism.

Bowdin:

Where's Boden? Oh, I think he's in there parking the Griffin, if you know what I mean. No. I have no idea what you're talking about.

DM:

We just know every time we say park the Griffin, you hear the hobgoblins snicker.

Bowdin:

It's a Hobgoblins. I guess

Adrok:

the Hobgoblins 12. Yeah.

Bowdin:

All right. So how many of the, how many of these entrances are there?

DM:

6 total that you've seen.

Bowdin:

Holy smoke. Are they evenly spaced, like perfectly evenly spaced around this this?

DM:

No. They're they're about as random as you can get on the base of the cliff face. But the 2 biggest ones, it's got one of the one of them is almost dead smack in the center of the, rock formation at the ground level. The second one is, on the on your far left. The other ones are the other 4, even when I say the the 2 biggest ones, the Kell Grace and Adrock were probably the 2 tallest because, you know, stack on each other's shoulders and and walk through without touching the touching the roof.

DM:

The other one is the smallest one is for you, Boden. You can actually barely walk in there without having to hit your head in the smallest one.

Bowdin:

Okay. Everybody else has got a crouch.

DM:

Yeah. On the on the smallest one, but

Adrok:

So definitely.

Bowdin:

Yep. Do do any of them have, like, any obvious habitation signs, like, britter tracks going in and out of them, or, oh, look. This this was obviously made by gluing, you know, rocks together with giant monster spit to make a a a a tunnel or anything like that.

DM:

As you as you approach, and you look around, you notice that the rock itself from the history of your, you know, the dwarven, you're like, this is the crudest type of hacking you can do to stone to you know, this is the very first rough cut to cut your way through stone. It looks like large chisels and tools, is what it reminds you of is being used, but it was left completely raw and open. They never took the time to finish it. But at the same time, you're looking at it, and it doesn't look like any type of metal tool you've ever seen because of how long the gouges are. You know, some of the

Kelgrace:

Oh, great.

DM:

Swipes some of the swipes you see are as long as

Kelgrace:

you Are they, like, evenly spaced? No. They're Like, the claws?

DM:

They're about as random. Well, because there's so many overlapping cuts and things like that, there's no even spacing. What you're guessing is something flailing at it over and over to dig its way through.

Bowdin:

K. And all of the tunnels roughly are built using this same technique? Yep.

DM:

They're all roughly the same technique.

Bowdin:

K. And no no obvious been here yesterday tracks on the ground, like big something slithered this way came kind of thing going on.

DM:

There are no slithered tracks, but you do notice that this it's not slithering, but it it takes you a moment to realize that it's, the tracks you see are very thin. There's no definitive, like, human, you know, like a a human or a padded or a man would leave. It's it's more like a bunch of divots in the in the grounds.

Kelgrace:

Like, a lot of legs, divots?

DM:

Yes. Like, a lot of leg divots.

Bowdin:

Like, if somebody took a millipede and made it really, really big

DM:

Yep.

Kelgrace:

Yuck. Excellent.

Bowdin:

And that's there we see indicators of that. Are we seeing the footies prints of differing sizes at the different at the different, holes? So are, like, are they, like, really big ones at the big one and then somewhat smaller and tinier ones at the other holes?

DM:

That would be that's that's your best assumption. You know, it seems like the a big creature is gonna use a bigger hole, and you do notice that the smaller holes what you were first looking at it, the disturbance of the sand just looks like maybe wind or or natural movement, then you actually started realizing that you're probably looking outside inside the tracks and you're like, there's a lot of little creatures going in and out of these things.

Bowdin:

Great.

Kelgrace:

Really glad you decided to park here, Bodhi. Thank you.

Bowdin:

Why don't we check out one of the smaller holes? Not the one so small that I couldn't walk that I was basically the one who could walk comfortably through it, but maybe the next one up. Why don't we scout out a little further into the hole?

Kelgrace:

Alright. Not that I want to do this, but I feel like this is maybe where my plus 8 in stealth might be helping helpful.

Bowdin:

As long as I'm not walking with you.

Kelgrace:

Correct. Poor me.

Bowdin:

Our,

Adrok:

Maybe we should send her her down with a rope. Can we just stay out and let her do her thing? Do you want, like, a light source or you could

Bowdin:

Can everybody see in the dark?

Adrok:

I can.

Kelgrace:

I don't know. How do I know that?

Adrok:

Look. If you have your dark vision.

Bowdin:

Look on your left side where it says senses.

Adrok:

Dragon.

Bowdin:

On the left side, you'll see passive wiz, passive it, passive wiz. Yeah. And then right underneath that, it for mine, it says dark vision 60 feet.

Adrok:

Basically, everybody but humans should have dark vision.

Bowdin:

Dragons might not have it either.

Kelgrace:

I don't have anything under that.

DM:

I don't think, dragonborns actually have.

Adrok:

Oh, it's in 5.5 e You're getting dark

Kelgrace:

vision. What? We gotta

Adrok:

we gotta upgrade.

Kelgrace:

What are you talking about?

Adrok:

The next half version of 5e. We're playing 5e rules. 5.5e looks like that, you guys get dark vision.

Bowdin:

D d one. Oh. But not this time. Oh. Sorry.

Adrok:

Super awkward. You have stealth, but you can't see.

Bowdin:

You can give her a glowing rock though. Right?

Adrok:

I can give her a glowing rock, but

Kelgrace:

we'll have a I will take a glowing rock.

Adrok:

A range of 5 feet. I will take a rock out of my belt and give it to her and make it and cast magic tinkering on it so that it has a light for, 5 feet radius. Okay.

Bowdin:

Okay. Alright. Good luck in there. Light.

Kelgrace:

Question. Does my does my, oh my gosh, my werewolf wolf thing, does that give me

DM:

That gives you

Kelgrace:

night vision, or do I have to be in werewolf form?

DM:

You have to shift forms to do it.

Kelgrace:

Okay. Yeah. I'm not doing that. I can't control that yet. Okay.

Kelgrace:

Thanks.

Bowdin:

It's like you'd come out, giant wolf person. Kill it.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. Great. No, guys. It's me. Stop.

Bowdin:

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. Okay.

Bowdin:

Are we tying a rope to you?

Kelgrace:

I have a I have a glowy rock. Tie a rope to me. If you hear me scream, pull me out.

Bowdin:

Let's see. I've got who's got rope? Everybody check your stuff. I do not wait. I've got blanket, Bach Vincent's candles, sensorations, vestment.

Kelgrace:

I sparkle myself into clothing that has rope attached to it. I've done.

DM:

It's got this nice long silk line that runs about 30 feet behind her.

Bowdin:

Actually, it's one of those it's one of those things like in cartoons where we hold the end of the, we hold the

DM:

It just unravels.

Bowdin:

And it it unravels as she walks. Yeah.

Kelgrace:

Perfect. Perfect. Okay. Alright. So Do I need to roll my stealth?

DM:

Give me a stealth roll.

Kelgrace:

K. I'm wiping nerve.

Bowdin:

You better come back. We can see your tuckus.

Kelgrace:

Thanks.

DM:

It starts by unraveling the cape first.

Kelgrace:

Oh, that's not awesome. 13.

DM:

13.

Kelgrace:

You didn't you didn't bless me. You didn't guide me.

DM:

Everyone's like, ah, you're inside.

Adrok:

Yeah.

Bowdin:

Do it better next time. Okay. Now you're guided.

Kelgrace:

Thanks. Appreciate it.

DM:

You go stepping in with a light source of 5 feet. You notice that as you you move in, you're moving quietly and to keep your ears perked up, listening, and watching the tunnel. You're moving through. You notice there's about the size of this tunnel could probably fit 3 of you side by side moving through without too much of a problem. It doesn't really narrow much, but you get you feel that as you're moving through and the tunnel shifts and changes, moves up and down.

DM:

It it it seemed to follow the path of where it was the easiest to dig or cut through the rock formation. And the entire time you're moving in there, it's a continual downward slope for you.

Kelgrace:

Okay.

DM:

The steepest it ever gets is just before you get to, like, what you'd wanna do with stairs for that angle. But you know, as it starts going down, sharpen it, and it gets to a point where you're still moving down and you take a step

Kelgrace:

and you

DM:

you get a slight stone kick and you hear that click click click ahead of you, but you also realize that up ahead, you're coming to an intersection. You'd notice that you can hear that rock sort of make echoes, slight echoes off to your left and right as you can, come to a section that has multiple, multiple openings.

Kelgrace:

A fork in the road.

DM:

Yeah. It is. It's a three way fork. You're at one of them. As you look around, through the light source, you notice, the ground is strewn with debris, mainly like rocks and everything else.

DM:

So it seems like looking up at the, ceiling, those things have come off. But one of the things you do notice is a shoulder pad from a piece of armor.

Kelgrace:

Excellent.

DM:

Looks like it's you can see the leather that keeps it attached had been torn off. The metal is sort of dented and crushed, but, it gives you pretty clear indication that at least maybe some of the other hunters that have been out to this out to this camp had at least investigated this place.

Kelgrace:

Okay. Probably didn't end well is what we're guessing here.

DM:

Could be or just poor care of their equipment. You wish to take the tunnel to your left or to your right?

Kelgrace:

Can I use, like, perception or something else to take a a a better listen to anything that might be going on?

DM:

Yeah. Go ahead.

Bowdin:

You hear drooling down the right side.

Kelgrace:

Right?

DM:

Hear this drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip

Adrok:

drip drip drip drip

DM:

drip drip

Kelgrace:

drip drip

DM:

drip drip

Kelgrace:

drip drip

Adrok:

drip drip

Kelgrace:

drip drip drip drip.

DM:

Yeah. You, go ahead and roll perception and you get, you should have, 13. So the right quarter seems to be the quieter of the 2. You listen, and you're almost sure on the left hand side, the left quarter.

Kelgrace:

Mhmm.

DM:

You it sounds like there's movement, but it sounds like there's movement far away. Almost like an echo. It's the best way to describe it is what you thought may have been, like, falling rocks became too repetitive and too rhythmic. K. But the movement sounds like stone on stone.

Kelgrace:

Stone on stone?

Bowdin:

Yeah.

Kelgrace:

Interesting. K. And you said that was to the left?

DM:

That sound is to the right. The left one

Kelgrace:

That's the right. The left one's quiet.

DM:

Left one's quiet.

Kelgrace:

Feel like this is a trap.

DM:

Everything in the DNA is crap.

Kelgrace:

I know. How far in am I?

DM:

You've gone in about 60 about 60 feet.

Kelgrace:

Glad that, whatchamacallit? Happened to walk out of the room right when I asked that question.

DM:

That's actually I gotta I'm gonna go refill my old fashioned while the Dragonborn is sneaking down the dark tunnel by herself.

Kelgrace:

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay.

Kelgrace:

Alright. So other question, was the stone on stone sound heading away from me or towards me or I can't tell? You said it was far away, but it was a far away, like, approaching? No. It wasn't approaching.

Kelgrace:

Heading the other way.

DM:

It it was not approaching. At first, you thought it was, and then the the sound would come in gets to get louder than fade out. So it's almost as if it's moving the you're catching the echoes of the corridor as if there might be other corridors down there.

Kelgrace:

Okay. How long is how long is my magical rope? Does it have an ending point?

DM:

We'll call it a 100 feet, and you're about 50 feet in.

Kelgrace:

Okay. And you're right.

Bowdin:

You're we're, like, 50 feet back, and we're just watching you just stand there. And it's like, are you alright?

DM:

It's it's got

Kelgrace:

a guys.

DM:

It's got a big enough angles that the only piece you can see of her now with the light source is shoulders and up because you've realized that the tunnel she's walked into has a steady slope down for 50 feet that's dropped 6 feet over the 50 feet.

Bowdin:

Okay. So we can still see your head. Yep.

Kelgrace:

Swiveling left, right, left,

Bowdin:

and right. Exactly.

Kelgrace:

Yep. You

Bowdin:

alright? What's going on? Alright.

DM:

You hear Boden's booming. Hey. You okay? Boom. Yeah.

Kelgrace:

At this point, no. Thanks. All of my stealth now gone.

DM:

You look back really, Boden?

Bowdin:

Right. Exactly. Gone. Yours is probably fine now.

Kelgrace:

Alright. Let's let's go left. Let's go towards the sound.

DM:

That's the right.

Kelgrace:

To the right. Okay. Let's go to the right, but I'm only willing to go, like, 25 more feet or so.

DM:

Okay. You step off to the right.

Kelgrace:

And And immediately plunged to my death. Excellent. Good luck.

DM:

Well, time to make up a new character.

Kelgrace:

It's fine. I was on a rope.

Adrok:

Yeah. You

DM:

you feel the ground you feel the ground as Boden watches the rope slides out of his hands and goes, should've grabbed that.

Bowdin:

Mhmm. Thanks, buddy.

DM:

Do you step you step off to the right start? Within the first five feet, you realize the corridor is starts immediately moving left at a at a, at a much steeper downhill than what you were just in, and you realize it's starting as as as a basically a spiral down for that 25 feet. And you get to a point where the light shows it's no longer a tunnel on the spiral of 25 feet. It's the wall sort of fall away, and it's just an open bridge. Cavern?

DM:

Bridge? Yeah. There's a cabin around it. You can see the lights. The light allows you to see the edge of the bridge.

DM:

The stone bridge is maybe, is about 15 feet wide total.

Kelgrace:

Okay.

DM:

Moving down, the light source doesn't give you a lot of light outside of where you're already at. Okay. But as you move forward and you get to about, we'll say, the 75 foot mark completely, You notice that there's a which in the light, at first, you're like, that's weird to see roots here.

Kelgrace:

Oh, no.

DM:

And you realize it's more of a it's more of a stone structure, but it looks like a system that it looks like it was something that was secreted to make a support structure. And in and inside of it, you also find, looking at it, you find a series of, pieces of metal armor that are stuck inside what was would look like. Think of it like, support ropes hanging down from different areas to go attach onto the bridge. And at this point, there has been, you know, metal armor that you guys would probably find on probably find from other hunters is, still stuck on there.

Kelgrace:

Okay.

DM:

And it's not stuck on the outside. It's like someone's, like, halfway in. There's, like, a arm brace that's, like, only half sticking out. Okay. Things like that.

DM:

I mean, there's no skeletons, no bones, nothing like that. It's just the armor left.

Kelgrace:

Oh, no. It's fine. The the rest of it's been melted off of them. Yeah.

Bowdin:

The part part that's hard to

Kelgrace:

eat. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Alright.

Kelgrace:

I'm gonna go back up very quietly. Okay. Give me those stealth a

DM:

Give me another stealth roll.

Kelgrace:

Of course. Let's be okay. 18.

Bowdin:

Do you want me to guide you?

Kelgrace:

No. No. I don't. Oh, I hate you so much right now.

Bowdin:

We can't hear you.

Kelgrace:

Good. That was the point.

Bowdin:

I'm talking to I'm talking to the the dungeon master.

Kelgrace:

Oh. He was That was not the point.

Bowdin:

His mouth was moving, but nothing was coming out.

DM:

Can you hear me now?

Bowdin:

Yes. Yes.

DM:

Oh, strange. The mute button activated.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. Woo.

DM:

Again, the analog mute button in the headset, so I must have bumped it.

Kelgrace:

It was a, think twice before you say things to dragons.

Bowdin:

Right. That's

DM:

always a good thing to say. So you make your way back up through the, back the way you came, quickly gathering out the rope as you're, moving through and make it doesn't take you back it doesn't take you very long to quickly move back quietly. But you do notice that it is the group in front of you as the light comes out is all sort of standing there waiting. You can all see a bit of a look of relief on their face as you come stepping back in into their view.

Kelgrace:

Little too quiet.

Bowdin:

Glad you made it back. So what'd you see down there?

Kelgrace:

Alright. So I'm gonna explain the whole tunnel system, the left, right, left, right. Really wish you wouldn't talk to me when I'm trying to stealthy go through Bodhi. Like, we need to work on these skills.

Bowdin:

Oops. Sorry.

Kelgrace:

And then talk to them about the bridge with or, like, the how it, like, spiraled down. And then there's, like, a bigger cavern ish area with a bridge. It was plenty wide to cross, but there's armor sticking out of parts of it at awkward angles that It's

Bowdin:

embedded into the bridge?

Kelgrace:

It's embedded into the the rocky formation stuff things.

Bowdin:

Oh, weird. Did you grab any more any grab any more of it?

Kelgrace:

No. No. I did not touch it.

Bowdin:

Okay.

Kelgrace:

I valued my life.

Bowdin:

Did you did you grab did you grab any of it?

Kelgrace:

Did I touch nothing? This is how I have survived for this long. Survive.

Bowdin:

Right. So you didn't you didn't pick up the first one that you saw.

Kelgrace:

Oh, the first, armor?

Bowdin:

Yeah.

Kelgrace:

Oh, I'm happy to grab that. Yeah. Because that wasn't attached to anything. So yeah. First armor here, here's what it looks like, but the rest of it, no.

Bowdin:

I'm a trained I'm a trained Smith. I take a look at it to see if there's any first off, is it human slash dwarven slash elven nature?

DM:

Definitely human made.

Bowdin:

Okay.

DM:

It's, you're figuring it's probably a, definitely a piece of plate mail that was for the shoulder pads. They're not really sure if it was a full set of plate chain, whatever, but it's definitely definitely could come off any of the hunters that would probably take up this type of job that wear the type of armor.

Bowdin:

So it definitely came from from the hunting group, not from a domestic creature of

DM:

Not from a creature at all.

Bowdin:

Okay. Alright. Because we we still don't know whether there's, like we don't even know if there might be intelligent creatures on this planet or not.

Kelgrace:

So I'm gonna gather that embedding the, the armor of the the ones that you have, killed likely is they're they're intelligent.

Bowdin:

So so tell me more about this. So you said there was a bridge and the armor was, like, stuck into it?

Kelgrace:

Like, halfway sticking out of it randomly.

Bowdin:

Like, on the, like, on the guardrails or something?

DM:

That'd be a good description. Yeah.

Kelgrace:

Yeah.

Bowdin:

Was it stuck to it? Like, were the guardrails, like, made out of goo or something, or did it just, like they look like they clattered into it and sort of stuck there?

DM:

It looks like it was, you know, think of, like, when mud hardens

Kelgrace:

Like, they're absorbed in, kind of?

DM:

Yeah.

Bowdin:

Weird. So did the bridge It

Kelgrace:

was enough to make me wanna come back.

Bowdin:

Did the bridge look like it was made by critters, or did it look like it was made by people?

DM:

Definitely critters.

Kelgrace:

Goes peep

DM:

Definitely critters.

Kelgrace:

Definitely critters? K. Okay. It did not look like something I would make. No.

Kelgrace:

Whoever's making the tunnels was making the the bridge.

Bowdin:

So so

Kelgrace:

Is that fair to say to him?

Bowdin:

Yep. Here here's Bodie's here's Bodie's feeble attempt at using psychology.

Kelgrace:

Okay.

Bowdin:

You know, if if anybody survived, they might give us a reward for bringing somebody back alive.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. I don't think so, buddy.

Adrok:

Yeah. If they're still down there and they're alive, they would have said something.

Kelgrace:

Well, luckily, they didn't know I was there. The whole point of this was to not know I was there. So

DM:

Ares, give me a perception rule.

Kelgrace:

Oh, boy.

DM:

Actually, you're who has night vision? The dwarf

Kelgrace:

Boden. Everybody but everybody but me, apparently.

DM:

Okay. Whoever has night vision can while while the conversation's going on, you guys can give me a perception role. And I'm sure, Kale Grace, you don't have your back to the, cave anymore.

Kelgrace:

Oh, no. No. No. No. I am not dumb.

Kelgrace:

Not dumb at all.

DM:

You're not brave?

Kelgrace:

Sure. We'll call it that.

DM:

We'll call it that.

Kelgrace:

I got a 6.

DM:

You got a 6.

Bowdin:

Are we rolling perception? Yep. Oh, I got a 7.

Adrok:

I have 14.

Kelgrace:

Oh, thank god. Somebody got above a 10.

Bowdin:

Yep. Yeah. So so Bode is like, tell me more about this bridge.

DM:

There are some days that you just don't roll above a 10.

Bowdin:

Yep. Yep. Larry's like, yeah. Tell us about the bridge. That drug's like behind us.

Bowdin:

Woah. There's a bridge isn't there literally behind us.

DM:

Headrock, what's and while they're continuing the conversation, you sort of happen to peer down the cavern again. You you noticed that the it takes you a moment to to think to see what you thought you saw, but it reappears that you see a a a group of definitely 3 eyes in a row Oh. Looking at you. The space is very close on the head, but it looks like it's come up just high enough over the edge to stick its head over. And it's looking at you sort of it's got its head turned to the side so it can see with all see with all 3 of the eyes.

DM:

And you can see that same head shape of a creature that you guys encountered where Ares pulled the sword from, sort of staring back at you about 30 feet away.

Adrok:

Say hello.

Kelgrace:

Of course, you do. Jesus Christ.

Bowdin:

I turn around and look at what he's looking at. What are you what are you yelling? What are you saying hello to?

DM:

Yeah. Do you guys see see a smaller version of the creature that Ares pulled his sword from? So we're just staring there and looking at you.

Kelgrace:

Is it, like, looking at you like a dog curious looking at us with how it's looking? Or

DM:

That'd be a good way to describe it.

Bowdin:

I'm pulling out some bread, and I'm gonna gently toss it in its direction.

Adrok:

God, I hope it isn't gluten intolerant. Oh.

Bowdin:

You're cleaning up after the monster. No. You're cleaning up after the monster. I told you not to feed him buckwheat.

Kelgrace:

So you get it

DM:

you notice when you toss the bread, goes down for a second? You notice too the smaller creatures are small, but you just saw earlier with the other one come running out and and then sort of examine, and one of them grabs it and pulls it back. And so it's, you know, sort of van it vanishes from the site once again.

Adrok:

Don't you read the scientists who stop feeding the wildlife?

Kelgrace:

Well, I

Bowdin:

I'd rather they're chewing on that than chewing on you.

DM:

You notice that the creatures, sort of turns its head and you can see, like, what would probably be best described as. And tonight

Kelgrace:

Mhmm.

DM:

Kind of vibrate in your direction. You can almost almost feel the air move around you guys as it vibrates.

Bowdin:

Does there seem to be any sort of communication going on with the vibration, or is it just sort of like a, you know, a a ping from a bat?

DM:

Do you take a moment?

Kelgrace:

They're, yeah, they're communicating. All of them are about to come out and kill us. If he had to give us like that, it's not good.

Adrok:

Was it the good bread at least?

DM:

It was a good it was a good bread. You know, Boden always keeps a he always keeps a sourdough starter around. So, Boden, you you take a moment and you you feel that what you think is is, you know, a couple times that rhythmic, vibration in the air come by. You get a pretty good idea there's a communication trying to take place.

Kelgrace:

Can I use my my plus 7 in insight to see if I can determine, like, good intentions, bad intentions?

DM:

Yeah. Go ahead. Why not?

Kelgrace:

K. Probably gonna get, like, a 2. Oh, I got a 24. Hey.

DM:

You got a good roll.

Kelgrace:

A little better than a 2. Just a little. No. A little better. Just a little.

Kelgrace:

Just slightly.

DM:

You did get a 2 in that one.

Kelgrace:

I did. I did get a 2.

DM:

And you got a derivative of the 2 as well.

Bowdin:

Welcome, speaker to bugs.

Kelgrace:

So so my my question is, like, are these bugs looking to, like, kill us? Or are we are we looking to, like are they curious about us and trying to figure out what we're doing? I guess, is maybe the

DM:

You you get the latter, you're thinking. This is more of a curiosity.

Kelgrace:

K. And Are they baby are they baby bugs?

DM:

You've seen the baby bugs, but the the one you're looking at that's, is a smaller version. You're guessing maybe bug. Maybe half the size of the one that Ares you guys encountered the day before.

Kelgrace:

K. Preteen bug. Got it.

Bowdin:

Yep. It's a 12 year old. Yeah.

Kelgrace:

12 year olds are great, man.

DM:

Just keep telling Ares that.

Bowdin:

Yeah. Did I? Let's see. If there's any I I don't think I could I definitely can't do it now, but I wonder if there's any spell I could take, like, tomorrow that would help allow me to talk to to those. Don't think there is.

Bowdin:

Carry on with your exploring. I'm just I'm

DM:

I

Bowdin:

pull out a book and start flipping through it.

DM:

Boden's like, I gotta read a book. Hang on. I I have to read my holy manual for a moment. Right.

Adrok:

While you guys are saying, God knows, meant these, creatures before.

DM:

Yeah. As while you guys are standing there, you you notice that the creature, it doesn't move forward, but you see it brings out one of its long insecticide legs. You can see it dig into the stone. It it carves a a straight line for the most part, and then carves what you you know, the motion gives you the impression it's car carving an arrow pointing towards you guys.

Kelgrace:

I don't know how to feel about that. They are this way.

Bowdin:

Draw 1 draw 1 back in the sand.

DM:

Draw 1 back in the sand.

Kelgrace:

An arrow pointing towards them? Yep.

DM:

When you do that, do you notice that the the vibrations in the air get a little bit more best way to describe it as agitated?

Kelgrace:

Oh. Erase it. Erase it. Erase erase.

Bowdin:

Okay. It What happens to the vibrations?

DM:

Right. There's a vibrate the, you know, the communication I tried to do with the vibrations gets agitated and, you know, it's it's like it's a twice said message. And by that time you erase it, it just sort of stops.

Kelgrace:

Okay.

DM:

And so it's just sort of eyes you

Bowdin:

Tell you what.

Kelgrace:

Telling us to leave.

Bowdin:

Yeah. That's that's yeah. That's what I'm getting to. It's like, all of us come together. Let's let's move back towards the entrance and see if what if that changes the the the vibration any.

Adrok:

Yeah. Back As you move the entrance?

Kelgrace:

No. Back away from the entrance. So he's thinking we're in go away. Get away.

Adrok:

Do what they said. Farther from this location.

DM:

Guys I have As you guys back in as you guys back back out from the, entrance and back in onto the sands, you notice there's a a couple short bursts, vibrations to you again. Definitely not the same agitation, the the rapidness. It's more of a calm, message.

Bowdin:

K? Do you know

Kelgrace:

how to turn

Bowdin:

I'm gonna toss in some more bread, sort of a thanks for not murdering us kind of thing. So

Kelgrace:

peace offering.

DM:

Yeah. Do you see those couple little creatures? You notice they're like 6 legged creatures, and you notice they're they have a little much they have a much different look from the bigger one. They're more rounded. They're less defined with a bunch of spiky bits.

DM:

So you think there's your guess is either this is a different creature that's a symbiotic relationship with this one, or there's a period that it changes forms somehow.

Bowdin:

Great. Alright. So I think we figured out what happened to the people who are here.

Kelgrace:

Yep.

Bowdin:

And we've got at least one thing here. Now, of course, they're gonna they're gonna you know, when we communicate with the base camp, they're gonna say, well, did you why didn't you kill all the horrible monsters that killed our guys? It's like, well, yeah.

Adrok:

If they can kill all of your guys, then what do you think 4 of us are gonna do?

Kelgrace:

Right. Right.

Bowdin:

Although I wouldn't say it that way because then their solution might be, oh, we just have to send bunch a bunch more people. What we've got fast exploration now with the, the flying creatures. Why don't we do, is there anything of note? I mean, it's mostly a lot of sand. Is there anything other than the this this large stone mound here in the area?

DM:

As you as you were flying up, on the griffins coming in, you noticed that the stone formations pop up randomly throughout the open sand. It's not like that big, just big ocean of sand all the way through. You're you've got a good understanding that the sand is hiding a denser, you know, hiding a lot of rock beneath it. And given the oasis, and the the water the oasis is actually where the water comes up from, makes a small river that maybe goes a mile into the desert then goes underground then falls from the ground through a stone, opening. But other than that, I mean, the desert is fairly well.

DM:

Now you did you did get to see more of the undulating sand sand waves come through, from the sky.

Bowdin:

K. How far away was that?

DM:

You always caught them on the horizon. They always seem to be at the furthest distance,

Kelgrace:

and

DM:

it was one of those tricks that as you're as you're moving along, as you were flying and circling and enjoying the, the airtime, you'll you know, one of you would always go, hey. Look over there, and you'd see the sort of sand wave move on the crust and sort of vanish over the the edge of the, horizon on you. Never seem to be nearby, though.

Bowdin:

I get the feeling that these these these these mounds are, like, entrances to their cities. Now I don't know if they're connected, but like you said, you sort of described it as being a large open area underneath there once you got past the the the curve. Right?

Kelgrace:

Yeah.

Adrok:

Alright.

Kelgrace:

With a very well guarded bridge, apparently.

DM:

You also did notice too the other thing when you were down there is entering the initial part of the cave, there is that coolness of the air because you're deaf you know, the rock formation and everything else. But as soon as you got to the point where you were next to the, bridge and the the connectivity pillar with where you found the extra pieces of armor, you noticed there was a level of warmth to it that you were that you wouldn't expect underground.

Kelgrace:

Yeah.

Bowdin:

Were these critters, hey, Ares. Are you still here?

Kelgrace:

I am indeed.

Bowdin:

When you pulled that thing out of that thing's head, was it warm? Well, okay. Granted, it was zapping lightning all over the place. Right. Did anybody get a temperature reading off these things?

Bowdin:

Are they do they feel like are they could we tell if they were warm blooded or generate heat by themselves?

DM:

For you, it was very hard to tell with the fact that you were dealing with a lightning a lightning blade that was causing all sorts of uniqueness to it.

Kelgrace:

I like how you went that way, and I went with Aries. Are these your people in my head? The farther down I go, the warmer it gets.

DM:

Aries has found another type of demon to hang out with.

Kelgrace:

Yeah. Maybe.

Bowdin:

Maybe. Multi legged triangle headed giant armored critters.

DM:

Yep.

Bowdin:

But what we did figure out is these things are not dumb animals.

Kelgrace:

Mm-mm.

Bowdin:

They use they communicated. They made symbols. That is not that is a higher level of thought.

Kelgrace:

Yep. I feel like we have enough information to go back to our, our our not this this planet.

Bowdin:

I think you're right. Although, I'd I'd really rather find some way to motivate them. It's like, Yeah. There's there's these giant pillars full of these creatures, though. They're intelligent, so I wouldn't advise, like, going on a murdering rampage to try and get their magic.

Bowdin:

But maybe we're maybe there's,

Kelgrace:

can we take back the skeletons that have magical properties?

DM:

Oh, yeah. There's plenty of plenty of pieces to come back.

Bowdin:

Yeah. Let's let's take those back. If nothing else is a is a sample of maybe if if they can find dead ones as opposed to making them dead, it might be better.

Kelgrace:

Might go better for them. Yeah.

DM:

Alright.

Kelgrace:

Alright.

Bowdin:

So I go beep, boop, boop,

Kelgrace:

boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.

DM:

You guys

Bowdin:

head back to the

DM:

head back to the camp, head back to desert camp, go to the portal.

Bowdin:

Yep.

DM:

You get get that uneasy feeling of the, lightning storm that lights up around it. And all of a sudden you guys feel that crackle of new energy wrap around you and you guys have vanished into the, the network. And all of a sudden, you're standing out facing a lake, and, you realize it's excuse me. As you're standing out facing the lake, you you realize the sun is still low on the just low on the valley, just barely breaching the the mountain the mountain ridges that, that create the valley, and you're looking at the lake. You have a sort of turnaround look.

DM:

You can see the camp laid out behind you.

Bowdin:

Is that the dude is the gnome dude still here here guarding the gate?

DM:

Yep. Gnome guy's still there. Hey. Welcome back.

Bowdin:

How long we've been gone?

DM:

My best guess, one night.

Bowdin:

Okay. Good.

DM:

He's like

Bowdin:

It it it's the the the sun was a the the the sun it was a different time of day when we were down there.

DM:

He goes, yeah. We've, had reports of, people using this this network and losing hours, sometimes days. I think the longest we ever lost lost any one group was 3 days, but they popped out eventually.

Bowdin:

Well, we think we know what happened to the to the people at that camp. Who do we need to report it to?

DM:

Well, they're not responding. I could pretty well guess what happened to them. But if you want, he goes, Belle and and rest of them are still finishing up, their salvage and recovery for the big old sea creature they caught. They should have the airship loaded and be back by sundown tonight is what they were telling us. You go file your report.

DM:

You can go go talk to the, the halfling over. He goes, go talk to over at the, over at the end over at the tavern. He can take care of you.

Bowdin:

That means family. Got it. Okay.

DM:

Because good to see you back in one piece.

Bowdin:

Glad to be back in one piece.

DM:

Yes. I have just seen this big as you guys are walking away, he's like, hey. Did you see the big sand waves?

Bowdin:

We did. Have you seen them here?

DM:

No. That that whatever's baked in those is only unique for that for that environment, the desert. Yeah. So, you know, we're still trying to get a good idea of what what it is, but something lives out there that creates a very unique movement through the sand.

Bowdin:

Well, I've heard of, like, giant bitey creatures that live underneath the ground and sort of move through it like water, but they seemed a lot bigger than that. Right?

DM:

Yeah. There's, one of the guys that was at Desert Camp when we first got here claims it's a, it's a sand dragon. Sand dragon? Yeah.

Bowdin:

I've heard of land sharks before, but never sand dragons.

DM:

Well, he says it can, when it comes out, it's a, like a giant serpent out of the sand. And, apparently, you can use the sand as a weapon and spray it on those that attack it attack it.

Bowdin:

That it never got close to us. It was always off on the horizon. Did did they actually see him, or is he just doing that based on what he he thinks he sees in the sand?

DM:

Piss my desk. I I guess it's just a story that they tell our other tavern. I've never heard heard heard the firsthand account. I mean, he's Sounds got the guys left here before long before I got here.

Bowdin:

Sound sounds like as good an explanation as I could as as any.

Kelgrace:

Yep.

Bowdin:

Alright. So we go talk to Ohana.

DM:

Yep. It was you guys come walking in. He's, once again for the size of this you know, this is the only real big permanent structure that's fully complete and actually done as is the tavern slash long house slash, you know, main main room for the or main building for the camp. Everything else is, like, half built, still being built.

Bowdin:

Well, Bodie Bodie can respect that. You have to have priorities.

DM:

Yeah.

Bowdin:

There's cons there's priorities in construction. Tavern first.

DM:

We're all based first.

Bowdin:

Yep.

DM:

So you get, you see your honey? And there he sort of looks over. He goes, oh, you made it back. The only other people in there is, the hobgoblin or that has all the little stones on them.

Bowdin:

Ah. And it

DM:

seems to be all it seems to be always chattering on, you know, chattering on one of the stones.

Bowdin:

We brought our own.

DM:

And on Han and his wife. Ah. And, he sort of looks you guys up and down. He's like, so, either you had a quiet trip out to, desert camp,

Kelgrace:

or

DM:

you were smart enough to not not fight whatever's out there?

Kelgrace:

Well,

Bowdin:

I think that it's a total law. The camp down there is a total loss.

DM:

That wouldn't be the first time it's been had to be rebuilt.

Bowdin:

Yep. We may have stopped whatever was destroying them as long as it wasn't the giant the giant sand dragons. There seem the the there's some creatures there, and, the heads that are up here one of the heads that's on the wall is one of is one of these creatures. Right?

DM:

Because yep. It is. It's he points to the he points it out, and it's it looks just like you see them before. Yeah. He goes I he goes, I forget what they call this.

DM:

I I forget what they've they've named it as usual. And it was coming up with some silly name and everything else, but, best we can tell you, it's, you know, people around here called called a sword head because the the blades on it Yep. Are really dangerous.

Bowdin:

Yep. Especially when they actually have a sword in their head. That also does a little bit to it. But the ones that we encountered, we're pretty sure they're not dumb animals. They communicated with us both now we couldn't understand what they were trying to say, but they definitely used, like, symbolism.

Bowdin:

They drew some symbols to to indicate what their intent was.

DM:

You see him pause for a moment and look at look at you guys and, you know, he's look at you can see is looking at you in an entirely different light now. He's like, why don't you guys have a seat? Let me get let me get you guys some food and everything else, and let's let's have a bit better talk. Alright.

Kelgrace:

And so Well, they're not just barbarians who go out and kill things for the fun of it. I imagine.

Bowdin:

That or they knew.

DM:

And he goes he he brings back, you know, some plates of food, some ale, and things like that, some food or food and drink, and he's and he sits down with you. You also notice that his wife has sort of walked over you know, you know, in the process, the wife has walked over, talked to the hobgoblin, and they've those 2 have sort of vanished outside of the, tavern.

Kelgrace:

Okay.

DM:

And he's like he's like, so he goes, the sword head is, can communicate?

Bowdin:

They can. It looks like it it it looked like in one of the battles in the past that apparently some of the hunters have been having with it, somebody lost their weapon in its head, and it was probably driving it a little bit crazy. That may have been driving that may have been what caused at least it to attack. But at the same time, we were able to find what we think is their home, and they made very clear that the we threw some food towards them. They took it.

Bowdin:

They didn't attack us, and they basically told us leave. And, we left, and we weren't attacked.

DM:

So What what what weapon did you find?

Bowdin:

Well, Ares, you wanna show them what we found?

Kelgrace:

Nope. Nope. I'm not sure that we do. I'm kind of, cautious to share what we have found with the group.

Bowdin:

Well, there's there's there's scavenging rules. So

DM:

He's like, oh, if you found the sword, you can keep it. So I'm just curious curious if I recognize it, whose it whose it might be that might tell us a little bit more.

Kelgrace:

K. I very cautiously pull out the the sword and

DM:

You you sort of look you sort of look around, and you realize it's you it's your group and him in the in the entire tavern. That's it. Everybody else has left. He's like, oh, that's Darian's sword. Well, I guess he's not coming back.

DM:

Darian. He was one of the other hunters, one of the other Merck groups, part of Merck group that came out here. Believe it was out from Baldar's gate.

Bowdin:

Was he stationed down at the camp?

DM:

Yeah. That's where they that's where they would hunt it, and they were they were trying to track down the, the prize out there, the sand dragon.

Bowdin:

Ah, well, it looks like they encountered the, the sword heads, got into a bit of a tussle, and did didn't make it out of that that particular encounter well off.

DM:

It's like We've we found

Bowdin:

rec we found remnants of their armor down in the the underground dwellings of the, the sword heads.

Kelgrace:

Yeah.

DM:

Looks at you, Aries, and he goes, well, best I can tell you is if you got his sword, it's your sword. He goes, just be careful. He goes, that thing seems to like to randomly pop off lightning at times.

Kelgrace:

A sword with an attitude. I love it.

Bowdin:

Give me some bad news.

DM:

You have you have noticed that in, there's always seems to be it's always like a static electricity of lightning moving around it all the time. So right now and then when you you reach a touch, it's like grounding your you you static electricity, shock yourself. It's like, okay. It's a little bit much from time to time, but you you notice there's always an electrical charge running up and down it. It doesn't always bother you, but every now and then, you'll you'll hand will brush against it or you put your hand in the palm, and it'll be like, and get popped.

DM:

It's not it's not a not anything more than an annoyance, seems like. So he's like, so tell me. How did this thing how did, the sword head communicate with you?

Bowdin:

Well

Kelgrace:

It drew lines in the stand, literally.

Bowdin:

They basically drew an arrow telling us pointing out, and, we drew a comparable symbol going towards them, going into the cave where we had found them. That seemed to elicit a negative response. We rapidly removed that. And, when we moved away from them back out of the cave, it seemed they seemed to get more calm. That seemed to be indicative of what they were trying to communicate.

Bowdin:

I also followed that up with a a parting food gift as well just to indicate that there was no negative intent on our part.

DM:

Well, I am actually surprised. I didn't think, any of Bell's recruiters actually figured figured the highest higher higher hunters that are actually were intelligent.

Kelgrace:

I not sure whether it'd be offended by that or not.

Bowdin:

Well, we found it we found it better to to to to hunt with a head on our shoulders as opposed to just pulling out our weapons and flinging them at whatever comes by.

Adrok:

Yeah.

Kelgrace:

The irony is not lost on the rest of the party?

Bowdin:

No. It's not.

DM:

Well, best I can tell you is those creatures out there are known, What I've been able to gather. Is, they're called they call themselves they they call their race of bite biting the horn tails.

Bowdin:

Oh, so somebody's actually been in active communication with them?

DM:

I have.

Bowdin:

Oh, excellent.

DM:

And I'm realizing that the this whole realm is filled with creatures that are, you know, from our world from from our realm, from Forun, it's a matter of maybe nothing more than semi sentient creatures, that we can just that we can do what we want with and harvest them and everything else. And that's really why this camp was built is because these creatures have such a high magical essence into them. The, what do you call the well, those 2 guys are apprentices out there, so they're they're mentor.

Kelgrace:

The

DM:

the 2 wizard slash scientists that are out there always building stuff. Their mentor has helped discover this area and has realized it's a high magical content. And, basically figured out how to get a, patron to sponsor an expedition here about 18 months ago to figure out how they could better wield the resources of this realm for their own purpose. And it would seem like, there's a noble family in Baldur's Gate that is, doing quite well with that.

Bowdin:

I see.

DM:

Because, one of the problems is, though, is every hunter that kills something out here is killing a fairly sentient creature with a high little magical component. And from what I've been able to figure out is these creatures aren't here naturally. They're kinda brought here from something. How did

Bowdin:

Honestly y'all how did y'all get here?

DM:

How do we oh, the camp's been here. Do you can meet, the the wizard that figured out the the stones and everything else has set the expedition up. You guys remember the stones you came through in the warehouse? Yep. Those stones were found out on the, Moonshay Islands.

Kelgrace:

Oh.

DM:

And, for whatever reason, only around when they were brought into Waterdeep to be added to a museum or a collection, it seemed the magic activated, and we've it has we think it has something to do with the old some some of the old Elven ruins around Waterdeep and the same and the same magic that has the enable the statues of Waterdeep to work, the defenders.

Bowdin:

Oh, okay.

DM:

But it's allowed it's allowed the wizard parents to, build an expedition to come down here and harvest these creatures for their valuable bits and pieces and essences to turn into magical items. And it it makes it a lot easier to these creatures have such a magical endurance, such a magical essence to them that the typical ways of magic that we have back in the Forun, the rules are almost being rewritten with how these things can how these parts can be used

Bowdin:

in the

DM:

magical experiments.

Bowdin:

Have you considered not using the living parts, but maybe using the remnants after they're dead? Ares, did you bring back those those shells?

Kelgrace:

I thought we had talked about it. I don't remember if we had actually brought them back or not.

DM:

No. You you guys have

Kelgrace:

We did.

DM:

The the bag. So

Kelgrace:

Okay.

DM:

It seems like parts of them are correct. You can use some of those, the remains for it. They they still maintain the level of magic. But some of the more valuable pieces of the creature, when the body dies, the magic goes away from it. And some of that is some of the fluids that they have.

DM:

One of the most power one of the most powerful ones that I've I've come to understand is, there's a brain fluid that makes a very powerful ingredient for several different types of healing or regenerative magics.

Bowdin:

Well, not not to be a not to be a a pest, but, from what I remember in history, critters that know what you're doing harvesting critters that know what you're doing usually ends up with a war as opposed to just, you know, an active harvest. And I got the impression these things have a pretty big civilization here.

DM:

No. I I don't disagree with you. There are several, for lack of a better word tribes in each of the different areas that I don't believe Belle or any of her other people understand what they're getting into. And, I'm gonna go out on a limb here. I'm part of a group that's been trying to, unsuccessfully convince them to leave.

Bowdin:

I I think that probably is in their best interest and the the best interest of everybody involved.

DM:

There's a lot of gold invested here.

Bowdin:

I understand. And

DM:

I think there's a lot of obligations that have to be met that so as long as there's gold to be made, I think they'll suffer any type of, I think they'll suffer any type of thing short of, being completely wiped out.

Bowdin:

Well, there's gonna have to be a that that's gonna be a lot of blood for that gold.

DM:

Do you know mercenaries to be in any way any way different?

Bowdin:

Sure enough.

Adrok:

But still doesn't how does this affect us? Right? Like No. You can be do anything. You don't have to do loan.

DM:

You're right. You don't have to do anything. You can simply buy out your contract that you owe and, go about your merry way. And,

Adrok:

but wasn't our contract to go, like, rate these little buggers?

DM:

Yeah. And they, you know, you agreed to at least in the contract at least one kill. Most new hunters, you know, they figure out after one kill whether they wanna stay or not.

Bowdin:

Did we did we specify in the contract what we would kill or just that we would bring back harvestable creatures?

DM:

More than likely, you just said the harvestable parts of the creatures and everything else. If you wanted that bag of shells that make that you brought back, they'll be, good pieces to add for the armor mix. They'll, you know, they'll take them, grind them down, and put them into the actual components they need to do what's and you can call it you can pretty much call it even and walk away from here.

Bowdin:

I was also thinking that there might be a way for everybody to win because let's face it. Like you said, as long as there's gold flowing, there's gonna be blood flowing. But maybe there are creatures maybe there's a way to, you know, take you know, leverage some existing resources that aren't intelligent, but also at the same time aren't limited completely, gonna be exhausted anytime soon. We were hoping that there might be, like, a a a graveyard or maybe even the like, a a a predator's nest where some of these remnants might be left where that we could maybe harvest large amounts of the the remnants rather than trying to pull them at the cost of lives from living creatures?

DM:

Possible. I don't know of, any place like that in the desert. I haven't

Bowdin:

How easy your how easy is it is it for you to communicate with the sort with the what is the bar tails? The what do you call them? Sword heads slash

DM:

Yeah. So sword heads are fine. I mean, that's what everybody and if you call them anything else around here, the the, other mercenaries won't know the difference. He goes, can't communicate with enough, to understand quite a few different things. He goes, but if you're looking for that, you're probably your best bet's going to be there's a over in the river, over on the other side, and he points out towards the, eastern side of the valley.

DM:

He's like on the other side of the lake, up on up on the beyond the ridge, there's another there's a whole another area that it sort of leads into more of a a tropical area as you go down the mountains into the, river valley. You'll find a few different areas that seem to have a more gathering of of, dead creatures.

Bowdin:

Yeah.

DM:

But like I said, the the most valuable parts are pretty much either taken away or rot away fairly fast. The the bone structures or the hides, the actual the shells, I should say, wouldn't even call them the hides, are the ones that, take the most effort to turn over into a magical thing, turn over to be used in magic.

Bowdin:

Do you know if the sword heads are the only thinking things on the planet?

DM:

Oh, no. Every because from what my, counterpart has, told me, Most of these creatures here are intelligence, and some probably way more intelligent than we are. A word of caution. When the other hunters get back, this discussion we're having probably shouldn't shouldn't be led out to the rest of them.

Bowdin:

What discussion?

DM:

I'm glad you're enjoying your food and drink.

Bowdin:

Indeed.

DM:

He's like and he sorta perks his ear up, and he goes, sounds like the, and then about that time he about the time he does it, about shortly after, you guys can hear the bell. And it it's like, sounds like the airship's on this return. And, he gets up and walks out towards the, walks the door and sticks his head out. What have

Bowdin:

what have you told her so far?

DM:

Bell?

Bowdin:

Yeah.

DM:

She would have me either, vanish in in one of this one of these, darker areas of the of this realm, or she'd send me back home, or she'd send me back to Farooqn.

Bowdin:

Why hasn't she been able to?

DM:

Because she doesn't know I'm not again I'm against her.

Bowdin:

Understood.

DM:

I also haven't found anybody slightly, slightly as, intelligent as a there's never been a group of mercenaries that's come through that gate that have been at least curious about what they've done. They just saw gold on the table, and they were happy to take it regardless of the cost.

Bowdin:

That's led many men down a bad path.

DM:

It's led many many things down a bad path.

Bowdin:

Alright.

DM:

You guys can see what I'm seeing in there. It's like, there'll be a wild crowd tonight. Oh, looks like I need to start cooking, making sure all the l's ready.

Bowdin:

Alright.

DM:

Do you guys can hear, like, the creaking of timber and wood and a bit of an impact of what sounds like, you know, heavy pallets being dropped on the ground as the airship comes to rest?

Bowdin:

Airship's back.

DM:

And, you can hear a bunch of cheering and laughing, going on. And he's like, well, well, it's time for me to go break out the good stuff, and, they're gonna wanna celebrate tonight.

Bowdin:

Well, I appreciate you letting us bend your ear.

DM:

I know. Well, it's always that's what I'm here for. I can chitchat and everything else. I'll mark you down as, collecting some, good salvage while you're out there and also reporting back, and, that'll Bill will be happy with, least she didn't send a bunch of newbies out to get get slaughtered in the desert.

Bowdin:

That's appreciated.

DM:

She's she's gonna be pissed that they, you're gonna re report to her this. It's gonna be the 4th time she's had to had desert camp rebuild under her watch. I could be happy about that. But, hey. If you don't mind, could, you know, just 1 or 2 of you tell me to throw the, get some of the meat on the grill, you know, on the rotisserie and smoking.

DM:

You know, if you guys don't mind grabbing some firewood and stoking the fire so we can get stuff going. And, you

Bowdin:

got it.

DM:

Yeah. So you guys busier yourself?

Kelgrace:

I could just breathe on it. Yeah. That's what

DM:

I'm just gonna gotta get the wood going and things like that. Then all of a sudden, Kevin Grace goes, I got it. Didn't even need the accelerator.

Kelgrace:

It's cocked.

DM:

Yeah. It's like, I'll have you for the end for the charbroil. I don't, I, you know, we'll, we'll make it the birds ends, but, it brings out basically like the. 2 halves of a cow puts it in the rotisserie type stuff and starts going through the motion. And it's like, it'll be ready by the time these guys are done and get everything set and packed and settled.

DM:

About to go ahead.

Bowdin:

We're working, I leaned over to Adrock and Calvary's and, Ares. So what do you guys think?

Kelgrace:

Kind of my sentiment exactly. I'm just trying not to think.

Adrok:

So we signed a contract to kill things, got to things, decided we don't wanna kill them, and and now we get to see what we do.

Kelgrace:

Something that could even out the contract. I think we should

Adrok:

Hand it over and and skip out. Bye.

Bowdin:

Be ashamed if the full sale slaughter of these intelligent creatures continued on after we left, though.

Adrok:

Seems like they're holding their own.

Bowdin:

It's true.

Kelgrace:

At least in that one.

Bowdin:

I'd I'd hate to think of the bloodshed of the the the hunters themselves too. Because, eventually, these things are gonna full up, swarm every single one of them, and take them all out. Because you've I got the impression, Cal Grace, that you saw that it wasn't just 1 or 2.

Kelgrace:

No. No.

Adrok:

It was not. A fool

Bowdin:

and his life were soon parted? This is true.

Kelgrace:

I mean, is this the is this the place if you wanna fight this? Is this the place to fight it, or will it be better fought? Well, I

Bowdin:

just wonder if if Here. A little bit of our, you know, putting our noodles on it, if we couldn't find them something else that might be at least almost as profitable, but at the same time, not something that's gonna rise up and tear down every single one of them eventually. Absolutely. If we could find something that's profitable for them, maybe it's profitable for us too as I lean over towards towards, Edrock. Mhmm.

Bowdin:

So so

Adrok:

do you wanna have the conversation with him and ask him why, why these creatures and why not you know, what what are they trying to get from these creatures?

Bowdin:

I think he told us, basically, they're trying to get their brain fluids. They're both

Adrok:

But, like, no one's just like, hey. I love collecting brain fluid. Like, it's it's like, why do you want the brain fluid?

Bowdin:

Well, you can ask him that. He could whatever answer he'd give me, I would have no I would have no understanding of it.

Kelgrace:

Well And also, what if they they say, nope. This is the only thing that we need. This is the only thing that will work for us. We have to get this specific brain fluid, and you're not convincing us.

DM:

Well, not like I said, the mentioned that the fluids as as well as the, other parts of the body, probably the inner any of the innards. They have some value to them, the giblets. All have some value to them that are you know, the harvest as well as the skins, the bones, things like that. Everything has a different level. He said the the brain fluid has the most valuable about making the most effective healing and regeneration potions.

DM:

They also told you that there is a noble family that is paying good money out of Baldar's gate to have this stuff, brought out.

Bowdin:

So So, yeah, if we if we don't leave something if we if we basically undermine this production, we're gonna make some big big enemies. So not that that stopped us before, but

Kelgrace:

Yeah. Sound like it's going to a good cause. You know, rejuvenation potions and all that.

Bowdin:

Well, at the cost of living creatures

Kelgrace:

I mean, so is food if we're gonna take that argument.

Bowdin:

Okay. Thinking creatures. Let me be a little more clear.

Adrok:

I think the cow thinks.

Bowdin:

Are we really gonna get into a debate about sapience?

Adrok:

We are the DM for this disposition.

Kelgrace:

I I am not.

DM:

Laying the DM for, ethical conundrums. About the time you guys were having your discussion, bell comes tearing through the front door, and she's like, so what do you got a report?

Bowdin:

We we gave our report to, what's his name over there?

Kelgrace:

Yeah.

DM:

Yeah. I'll get it from him. Tell me what you got. You seem to have lived. Is Desert Camp still there?

DM:

Yes or no?

Adrok:

Nope. Hey. Everybody says that in unison. Yeah. Nope.

DM:

It's like, I don't know what it is about that place, but there is nothing that stands out. It's it is a desert. She sort of looks at you just like, you guys are either real lucky or or you guys have gotta be real lucky because I was sure I was gonna come back to report that you guys have been in returned. I'm surprised. She's like, well, I'm in a good mood.

DM:

We've we've got the harvest and everything else. I'll worry about desert camp later.

Bowdin:

And we've cooked up some good we've cooked up a great meal for you.

DM:

Oh, I'm glad I'm glad he's putting you to good use and everything else. We've gotta get all this stuff packed up, get ready to ship and everything else. We gotta make the window for the, the corridor. Hopefully, that's we haven't missed that one yet. But, stick around.

DM:

There'll be there's gonna be good reason to celebrate.

Bowdin:

The,

DM:

the payday payday is coming off this one. It goes, not to be able to share a lot. You know, I'd be not be able to give you a fair, you know, share of it, but at least you can see the celebration of what goes on when, you make a big score like this.

Bowdin:

Fair enough. Internally cringing.

DM:

She's like, glad to see you're all okay. Well, you know, just thought of something. Everybody else gets a bigger cut since desert camp's gone. Sort of shrugs her shoulders and walks back out to she starts yelling directions and everything.

Bowdin:

Yay. We get more money because the other guys are dead. Yep.

DM:

Got a pretty good idea that these guys are in it for the money. Yep. So far you've might have found one ethical person in the group,

Bowdin:

right? Luckily he was the one we gave a report to. So we hope.

DM:

So you guys wake up in chains the next morning? Right. Is there anything in particular you guys wanna do? If not, we'll, you guys get to celebrate and have the party going on with everybody drinking and, going on. There is a moment where everybody, goes over the names of those that perished out in desert camp.

Bowdin:

Yep. Porn out worked for Fred.

Adrok:

Do they even know their names? Or they're just like, guy with the red helmet?

Bowdin:

Lightning sword guy poured out.

DM:

Yeah. That for the most part, it's it's there's about a dozen names they go through. They all have nicknames, but, you know, it seems like every time somebody calls out a nickname, Ahonni actually calls out the proper name for them.

Bowdin:

Oh, okay.

DM:

So they're known. There is you get a few, looks at you for, you know, people recognize the the sword of, Darren's, but most of them sort of clap you on the shoulders and, hey, finders keepers. If you were able to keep his sword, wouldn't he couldn't. It's all yours. Love that.

DM:

And they you get the few jokes that you hear. It's like, oh, so and so had a really great helmet or a sort you know, things like that. It's like, wish we could have found wish you know, maybe we should go out and check for that type of stuff. I don't know.

Bowdin:

I wanna spend the evening trying to get them to talk to see if, to see if I can collect any information about other creatures and what they're like. Any we've we've seen the sword heads, but there's a bunch of other heads along here.

DM:

Oh, they they go ahead and describe all they have they love telling the tales of all the different creatures.

Bowdin:

That's what I hoped.

DM:

A lot of the ones, you know, they talk about is like, oh, yeah. These are like you know, in simple terms, is that you got, like, buffalo rabbit, things like that, the the smaller creatures, you know, the jackalopes up there type thing. He goes, oh, yeah. These are easy to find. They're they're pretty much just easy kills.

DM:

You find them out. You know? The bigger ones that they talk about, the ones where you you don't see the, like, the whole head or the you just see, like, a particular body part, like one where you see a series of 3 claws. He's and they talk about the big giant, 6 legged lizard with the spiky tail that stands, like, 3 dwarfs tall on the shoulders, at the shoulder. You know, that that's a good kill.

DM:

They call it, they simply call it spike tail for the simple fact of it's a wallop. A lot of these creatures that they talk about for the bigger kills, you know, they all sound reptilian to you.

Bowdin:

Okay. I was wondering. It's like, does Aries, does that sound like the the lizard you saw that came in and drank drank the water?

Kelgrace:

Sounds like them to me.

DM:

Yeah. It does. It's just on a much bigger scale.

Bowdin:

Right.

DM:

And they talk about over in the, the plains where there's a large that they haven't really gone over into it much just because moving in through the planes, they've gotta pass over into the floating into the floating mountains, and the wind currents are really bad for the airships, to bring stuff out. Right. And, for whatever reason, transporting some of these creatures, the components back through the teleport system, they don't all their shipments don't always make it back intact. Mhmm. So they figured they figured the airship was the best way to bring them back and forth.

DM:

But they go over every creature, and then some talk about all the different components of how much gold and you're and you're realizing exactly how much gold some of these things are worth, where you can buy yourself a small fiefdom type stuff.

Bowdin:

For each one of them or for Not

DM:

for each one, but, you know, what you're figuring, you know, after these guys collect their contract, which most of them agreed to, like, a 6 month contract, you guys just simply agreed to the initial contract, which is go out and prove yourself you could do it, then we'll sign you up for another contract. It's how you as you found out that's that's what work works. They entice you out there. They'll pay you pay you a fair wage where, you know, back home back in Farooq, it would be he probably won't have to work for a full year after doing one job you know, bringing back one successful kill.

Bowdin:

Alright.

DM:

These guys, after the contract's done and after 6 months contract's done, they could probably party, drink, and gamble for multiple years before they'd ever have to go back and do anything.

Bowdin:

So which of these critters is the meanest and the nastiest of them all?

DM:

He goes he goes so far, those are ones we still haven't taken down yet. Because there's a flyer out there, I'm gonna call it Redwing, that is absolute absolute death. He goes, no hunter that's ever seen it ever has ever come up against us, has ever walked away. It's like a fiery bird in the sky, and it's probably the worst thing you could ever encounter.

Bowdin:

Okay.

DM:

He goes with freaking frack. They they say based on, based on what they believe is it's probably one of the most sought after prizes for the type type of energies that type of magic it can be used for.

Bowdin:

The red bird?

DM:

Yeah. The red bird. Yes. But honestly, I don't honestly know if they even know what it could be used for.

Bowdin:

Because nobody's ever brought one back yet.

DM:

Nobody's ever brought they've brought back other smaller things that probably have some type of relation to it somewhere. But he goes my guess is everything out here is, fairly usable. And you hear one guy who's like, oh, don't we've seen the deadliest creature. It you know, they joke and they basically say, it's us. We're the only things out here that kill stuff and walk away.

DM:

And, you one of the guys actually pipes up because that's not true. He's like, there are other there are other ones like us out here that show up and interfere with our hunt. And you hear people go back and forth, and you you notice the one guy is, is some older work talking, and they have an argument basically about a when you when you listen to the description, it sounds like a large dragonborn Uh-huh. With the way it's with the way it's but what's different about it is the, legs are sort of reversed on the on the bottom of the legs. It's a bipedal creature.

DM:

So think of it like a canine, legs when it's walking upright, how the legs are arched backwards, but it moves that way.

Bowdin:

Oh, it's a drawing. Oh, crap. We're in the traveler universe. It's a what? Drawing?

DM:

Drawing? I forgot those. That's the

Bowdin:

best one. Guys with backwards legs, I think?

DM:

Or I think so. Yeah.

Bowdin:

It's been a long time. Yeah.

DM:

It's been a long time. He's a and I was like, you are so nobody's ever seen those but you. It's like I was the only one who survived a fight with them. You know, this works as you know, they go back, you know, it's that camaraderie of but you you notice everybody sort of downplays these creatures. It's like, yeah.

DM:

Don't worry. You'll encounter them once. Let's see if you're still here when when you get done with them.

Bowdin:

Alright. Well, if people as as soon as people sort of drift away from him, I say, tell me more about these things. They sound interesting.

DM:

He looks you up and down. He's like, you must be the new one I heard about.

Bowdin:

Mostly down, I'm assuming.

DM:

Yeah. He looks up to go look around, like, who else and he sees the rest of your party, then he looks down at you, and he's like, He's like, you must be one of the new ones.

Adrok:

Aye.

Bowdin:

And you must be one of the survivors. Respect, blank.

DM:

He's like, I'm Colas. Colas? Boden. Colith stomites. What brings you here, Boden?

Bowdin:

Same as all of us. Trying to find trying to find some gold.

DM:

Plenty we had here. Too bad you didn't come up, few days earlier. You could share in this, treasure trove of the sea creature, the mega megadon, megalith, or whatever the hell they're calling it.

Bowdin:

How how did they cap how did they take this one down?

DM:

Because I wasn't part of the team out there. I was actually hunting up in the up in the floating floating mountains. But

Bowdin:

What do they do typically? They they float above it and harpoon it, or did they do something else?

DM:

Oh, no. They they'll never risk the airship like that. They risked 1 of them one time. They lost it. They're still trying to replace the 2 that they lost.

DM:

So since they're gonna be built here, it's gonna be a while. No. Best guess is they lured it close lured it into the inlet and somehow harpooned it and trapped it and took it down. Lost from my understanding, Ocean Camp lost about half the crew, taking it out.

Bowdin:

How big was this thing?

DM:

I think it was, tip to tail, probably over a 100 feet.

Bowdin:

A little one.

DM:

He's, like, more than big enough to swallow you, dwarf. And he basically pulls his mug up and flanks it to you. Plank. Yeah. He go he he goes, but the creatures you're talking about?

Bowdin:

Yeah. The ones that look like her.

DM:

Uh-huh. You must know her. Otherwise, she might be insulted on you.

Bowdin:

We we've met. I've pissed her off far more ways than this.

Kelgrace:

She chooses not to engage.

DM:

This you said you you both see smoke coming out of her nostrils? You know, other than the fact that they're making fun of funny of you, Kel Grace, they seem to be in in good humor and banded along. He goes, I don't know what to call him. He's like, we're out over at the, the jungle camp. And one night, a group of 4 of these things came in.

DM:

They'd stand about 9 feet tall. And, there wasn't much of a conversation. They just commenced kill them. They move fast. They're strong.

DM:

I don't even think we took one of the 4 down. Because I I'm not so proud to admit it, but I I fled once I knew the battle was going against us. And

Bowdin:

that's the charm.

DM:

Magic. Magic? That is the best way to describe it. The weapon they wield is is a is a is it's a magical blade that protrudes from, protrudes from their forearm. Oh.

DM:

They wield up they wield like a deadly scythe. They have smaller ones as well.

Bowdin:

From their elbows?

DM:

Not really on their elbows, but, no, they they're they don't protrude from the elbows, but they protrude, like, from the wrist or the knuckles areas.

Bowdin:

Oh, okay. So they're basically walking armories.

DM:

Yeah. They and the worst thing about them is they can, I wanna say, fade? Best way is they they could sort

Bowdin:

of

DM:

camouflage themselves to make them almost invisible until they move.

Bowdin:

That's not good.

DM:

No. It makes them I said that they fight like demons. The absolutes just, I mean, the berserkers, and and the chaw berserkers out in chawl seem to be comparable to where these guys fight. They show no mercy.

Bowdin:

What were you harvesting out in the jungle camp?

DM:

We were scouting out the, the big creatures that were out there, and it's got a lot of, lack of a better term, birds that freaking wanted to find out if they have any uses. So we were really trapping trapping the birds and bringing them back.

Bowdin:

No no chance you accidentally grabbed one

DM:

of their youngins. Right? No. Well, if those things have youngins, we grab one of those, that'd be our mistake and then some.

Bowdin:

Yep. Just wanted to make just wondered if there was something that may have triggered their their attack or if they're just ornery.

DM:

You go to that? I'd say something triggered their attack, but I I couldn't tell you what it was. I'd say definitely something triggered them, but they came in with a vengeance, and and it wasn't done until until they wiped everything.

Bowdin:

That that's a that's not exactly a measured response. Well, I appreciate you talking with us, Clank.

DM:

Okay. Have a good one. You notice that, Carlos, he drinks, but he all you know, he's in there with everybody else, but he's you notice everybody's very clannish, clickish

Kelgrace:

Right.

DM:

About the mercenary groups. So they all interact and have a good time together. But for the most part, they actually have a good separation of they stick with their groups of almost like they're you know, there's tight knit groups among the bigger group. They all have the same mission, but they all work together.

Bowdin:

Who's his group?

DM:

You notice he's solo.

Bowdin:

That's good information. I guess the last thing I'll check if it's so where where are you working next?

DM:

He goes, me? Yep. He goes, I generally stay around here and camp and help out more or less. He goes, pay is just as good and, threat level is a little bit less.

Bowdin:

This is true. But you have a good night.

DM:

Yep. And is do you guys allow the party to continue on into the evening and the celebration of the payday that's coming? Unless there's objections, I will bring this game to a close for the night.

Bowdin:

Sounds like about the right time.

Kelgrace:

Yep.

Bowdin:

Shall we consider going out to the jungles next time?

Kelgrace:

Why are you doing anything? Kill us

Adrok:

and to other creatures that kill us.

Bowdin:

I like that, I just didn't want you guys I just didn't wanna leave you guys without a fight.

Kelgrace:

Oh, thanks, Bodie.

Adrok:

We we need a good band of goblins. Well, not goblins. Let's say orcs to fight. Like, something that we know is evil. Right?

Adrok:

Because it's the stereotypical evil thing.

Bowdin:

But But what about these guys? These are these guys came in and slaughtered an entire group unprovoked. The mercenaries?

Kelgrace:

Oh, yeah. Let's go up against the entire part thing of these these mercenaries that

Adrok:

But, Bodhi, they're sentient.

Bowdin:

Aye. But well, we true?

Kelgrace:

Well Oh. Yep. We

Bowdin:

can just go home. Good idea.

Adrok:

Well, we can't kill sentient things. Remember?

Bowdin:

Didn't you call chance. They sounded pretty evil to me, but, you know, entirely up to you.

DM:

Ares, has the idea of monster hunting changed in your mind since you came here?

Kelgrace:

It's still become more complicated.

DM:

Larry seems to be in his mug looking down going, I really like the idea of hunting creatures and monsters and getting paid, and now something's changed.

Kelgrace:

I I don't think I've ever thought this much before. I just don't like the idea of somebody hunting something that looks like me with backwards legs. Like, I'm thinking I should leave sooner rather than later because they're drunk, and they don't notice that my legs aren't backwards. They might be me.

DM:

You you, Congress, you got the impression that even though they acknowledge the story that the the Colas, talks about, they don't take

Kelgrace:

a risk guy that, like, nobody believes?

DM:

Yeah. They don't believe that they were actually attacked by these creatures. The because nobody else has ever seen them. Okay. You get that But

Kelgrace:

he's that guy?

DM:

Yeah. He's that guy. They figured that Gap got a you know, they got they got hit by 1 of the, you know, they got hit by something that was just beyond their skill.

Bowdin:

You gotta listen to me. They had swords coming out of every part of their body.

DM:

Dad, get out of here. You're crazy. But, yeah, you get the definite impression that there's, you guys have definitely learned and and got the impression that there's the simple hunt hunting of monsters that you were hired for. Seems to be a little bit more complex than just, go out, kick the door in, kill the monster, and loot the room.

Adrok:

Yep. It's never just easy.

DM:

I think maybe the DM should just give you guys a hack and slash game one time ago. Make it simple so you guys

Kelgrace:

can Are they are they sentient? Because if not, there may be no hacking or slashing.

Bowdin:

Well, you know what'll happen is you give us a hack and a slash thing, and we'll go in there. We'll make them we'll make them for we'll make friends with them.

Kelgrace:

Mhmm. Well,

Adrok:

I think what we need to see is we need to see some something that makes someone an outright baddy. And, we don't you know? I mean, I I guess Boden sees the mercenaries as outright baddies. Nope. But I I I it's not that I it's not that my character doesn't see them as outright baddies.

Adrok:

It's that they haven't they haven't done anything yet that would that would put them in an unfair advantage over the creatures they're trying to kill. It seems like both sides are

Kelgrace:

Right. Pretty even.

Adrok:

In their

Bowdin:

horrible with the mercenaries is I I'm concerned that the whole bunch of them is gonna get slaughtered to the man. I

Adrok:

mean, fuck them up.

Bowdin:

I'm fine. They're setting them they're setting themselves up for a war,

Kelgrace:

and Yes.

Bowdin:

It would be a lot better if no if they didn't have to get all of them slaughtered. So, you know, I was wondering if these backward if these, these backwards leg, dragon born things, well, they don't they might not be quite as nice as some of these other critters. So but who knows?

DM:

Well, I guess you guys will just have to see what comes out of it when, we get together next time.

Kelgrace:

Yep. Yep. So Sounds good.

DM:

Thank you guys all for taking the time out of your busy week and and long evenings to, play.

Bowdin:

Thank you, sir.

Kelgrace:

Thanks. You too.

Bowdin:

Have a

DM:

great weekend.

Kelgrace:

You too. Bye, guys. Bye bye.

Bowdin:

Good night. Bye.

DM:

Well, our adventurers are questioning what's really going on. Why are the creatures of this realm being hunted without question? The simple answer by many back at the main camp would would tell you coin. That is not enough for Aedrok, Ares, Bojan, and Kelgrace. So what will our adventurers do?

DM:

We will have to catch up with them next time to find out. Thank you for listening, and take care.