Monster Monster
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Monster Monster
Caravans and Chaos - EP 8 - Necrowolves
Escaping the burning ruins of Eugringe, Dolo and Vance find themselves with an unexpected companion – a soldier named Av who secretly hitched a ride in their cart. As they journey north toward Kerhill, our heroes stumble upon an abandoned military campsite that carries unsettling traces of both illusion and necrotic magic.
The air thrums with dark energy as they discover a captain's diary revealing increasing paranoia, strange eyes watching in the night, and soldiers disappearing after behaving oddly. When dawn breaks, the party awakens surrounded by spectral wolves – ethereal creatures that observe but don't attack, their glowing eyes burning into our heroes' minds.
Following a trail east, they discover a cave entrance decorated with real wolf corpses mounted on stakes – a macabre mirror to the spectral pack that stalked them. Inside, overwhelming necrotic energy pours forth "like a water faucet turned on," and deeper exploration reveals soldiers trapped in magical trances, unresponsive to rescue attempts.
In the central chamber, they confront the source of this corruption – a skeletal figure in robes with fabricated skin patches, ranting about betrayal. This necromancer reveals his connection to someone named "Alyssum" who broke promises that would have restored his body. When Dolo and Vance's attempts at deception fail, skeletal soldiers rise, and battle becomes inevitable.
This episode deftly weaves humor with horror as our heroes uncover connections between the mysterious woman they encountered earlier and this vengeful undead sorcerer. What role does Alyssum play in the larger conflict? What ancient pact was broken? And can our heroes survive the necromancer's wrath?
Subscribe now to follow Dolo and Vance's journey as they unravel conspiracies that stretch far beyond a simple war between nations, into realms of forbidden magic and broken promises.
Previously on Monster Monster, dolo and Vance return from the Abyss to realize Eugringe on fire, and though things seemed dire, they were able to get most everyone to safety. Now, with the knowledge that this war is not what it seems, they head towards Kerhill to form their next plan. We start where we left off, with our two heroes heading east out of Eugringe until they take a path north with the embers of the burning city behind them. What do you guys think? You guys just got through and did this whole thing with the fire.
Speaker 3:This is the first moment of calm you've had in what seems like weeks. I feel like we are definitely trying to figure out how long it's going to take us to get there, just kind of stunned by the fact that we just burned down a city by accident I mean you guys, we, we didn't, yeah, we didn't do it, we did not do I mean, you guys did, we didn't. Yeah, we didn't do it, we did not do it. I mean, but we didn't do it.
Speaker 1:That's fair, I'll take that it's a real train track situation. Yeah, if you guys weren't there, it was probably going to happen anyway, but you guys pulled the lever and maybe killed less people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That is that church's still there. Yep, yeah, and we saved Essel.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He was about to get himself all kinds of messed up.
Speaker 2:He's going to have a bad time.
Speaker 3:Those dudes were drunk and they had him chained up. They was about to do something, yeah.
Speaker 1:As you guys are heading north, I hope we see a deer.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's what you want to see. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:I like deer. All right as you guys head north. It's been a couple of hours and you're making good time when suddenly out of the back of the carriage you hear well, hello boys. And you turn around and it's Av, that soldier that you ran into a few times in town. Human, human, jesus.
Speaker 2:I took notes. No, that's what I yelled Human and.
Speaker 3:I go Jesus who. Oh, yes, sorry.
Speaker 1:In the chaos of things. I didn't have a chance to ask you guys if it was okay for me to tag along, so I kind of just jumped in the back on the way out of town.
Speaker 2:Pretty wild to hide for like several hours.
Speaker 1:I ended up falling asleep, so that was on me, yes.
Speaker 3:I am a bag of swords I threw back there I could have killed you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, they're still back there she's like really and turns and just stuck in her bag.
Speaker 1:Oddly enough, you pile up a bunch of swords together.
Speaker 3:It gets kind of comfortable when it's in a duffel bag, it's like one of those weighted blankets.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I just wanted my entire town burnt down, and one might say I want a little bit of vengeance, would one might be you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm here. You're being real chill about this. This is cool, yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty upset about it, but I'm trying to stay positive.
Speaker 3:Oh, I like the silver lining, I like this kid's attitude.
Speaker 1:I like her yeah. So I guess it's okay for me to be here. I mean it's Vince Wood and A's call. I mean, at this point, if you kick me out it would kind of be murder, because I don't think I would be able to survive out here.
Speaker 2:No, you're strapping, you got this.
Speaker 3:I was going to say I think you'd survive the fall off the cart just fine.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, I just don't know if I'd be able to make it anywhere. The town's on fire. There's kind of no food.
Speaker 3:It'd be dicey, you know anybody in Kerr?
Speaker 1:Hill. I don't personally know anybody in Kerr Hill but I do know of the area You've been there?
Speaker 3:No, I have not.
Speaker 1:How do you know of the area?
Speaker 3:Let's just say some of my superiors that needed goods that weren't necessarily approved. I dealt with a lot of the people from curhill might be a good way to put it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you did. Yeah. Why are you looking at me like that?
Speaker 1:he just does that uh yeah, you can run along, just don't scare any of the deer oh, I mentioned that you I I heard you mention that you like deer and you seem very like dead set on seeing a deer and it would be a shame if somebody that like controlled this universe made sure that you never saw a deer you know, know what?
Speaker 2:I've seen a deer in the past. I can always go back to my mind palace. No, you can't. Vance tries to imagine a beautiful deer he's seen in the past Nothing. Oh no, he drives the cart into an embankment Right. Roll a d20.
Speaker 1:No deer, as you're traveling through, roll me a history. Check both of you. Okay, anybody get above a 10? I did not. No, Nope Okay well, never mind, then you don't get the very valuable information.
Speaker 3:Well, isn't that something? So tell me what all you know about this place, what kind of stuff y'all used to get up out here?
Speaker 1:Oh well, kerr Hill, let's just say there are many goods that on that border of Sol Deus were not allowed, not because they were necessarily outlawed in the Oathmakers, but because we were pretty heavily targeted for smuggling because we were right on that border there. So a lot of alcohols and goods and luxury items and stuff that are banned in Sol Deus happen to make it to us, whether the higher authorities knew it or not. Luxury items, eh yeah, you know, like your elephant, tusk, boner pills and such Splinter free, You'll get it.
Speaker 3:Splinter free toilet paper yeah yeah, the good stuff Two ply. So yes, certain magical items also would pass through. It's in there, squint your free toilet paper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, the good stuff, the good stuff, two ply Ooh. So yes, certain magical items also would pass through from time to time.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:And at about this time you start to approach a campsite and you notice that there is still smoke coming from the campsite, but it's that lighter smoke of a fire burning out. Can both of you roll me investigation checks 15.
Speaker 3:I'm just sitting in the back like I smell smoke and it ain't mine.
Speaker 1:As you approach the campsite Vance, you notice that this is the campsite that Essel was talking about, that had recently had some issues with the wolves. Like the campsite.
Speaker 2:The campsite, okay, it's not like the area, it's like literally plot.
Speaker 1:A13. Yes, yeah, this is literally the campsite that was just slightly north. It's getting towards the end of the day, the sun's starting to go down With your 15, you notice that you can't tell if there's nobody here or just nobody happens to be outside. Okay, what do you do as you approach?
Speaker 2:What up, though? Hit him with the Detroit.
Speaker 1:Hit him with the Detroit.
Speaker 3:Hello, why are you yelling?
Speaker 2:There's a campsite.
Speaker 1:Where you would have seen the campsite.
Speaker 2:You didn't do that Don't play his character for him?
Speaker 1:Oh yes, I thought he was just going with the roll that he did Turn around.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, ain't nobody there though.
Speaker 2:Well, that's why I said hello. I was trying to see if anyone was there.
Speaker 1:During all of this, nobody comes out of a tent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's no one here, because if they were there, they would have attacked us or, I don't know, tried to protect us because all according to plan.
Speaker 3:I want to grab my bow and arrow and just shoot a shot at the fire and see if anybody comes out. Yeah, roll me a hit. Yeah, nine, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you take a shot and it hits right next to the fire. It spits up a little bit of dust Nobody shot and it hits right next to the fire, it spits up a little bit of dust.
Speaker 3:Nobody comes out. Nobody comes out, nothing.
Speaker 2:Let's hop down See what's happening. Hop down, I tie the horses up, investigate the area.
Speaker 3:Check that tent. I'll check this one Roll perception. There we go. Now you're ready.
Speaker 1:Both of you notice that the air around here feels thick, like something about this area has been manipulated and with that perception you can roll Arcana.
Speaker 2:This air is thick, 17. 10.
Speaker 1:Good roll 10, okay, you Dolo know that it is magically affected, but with your roll Vance you notice that the the area is basically there was a bunch of illusion magic here, but it's dissipating, which is why you're getting like the aftermath of it so it is dissipating, but there was a heavy concentration of illusion and necrotic magic here mmm, can I dig around in this tent that I'm checking out?
Speaker 3:yeah, there's multiple tents.
Speaker 1:This is a small campsite for you Grinch soldiers. I'll be check that. I'm checking out. Yeah, there's multiple tents. This is a small campsite for Ugrinch soldiers.
Speaker 3:I told Avi check one. I'm checking this one.
Speaker 1:You want to check those over there?
Speaker 3:You want to check that one over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 12.
Speaker 3:What am I?
Speaker 1:rolling for I would say probably investigation, if you're looking for clues or activity, or you would know that there were wolf attacks recently so you could roll. You would know that there were like wolf attacks recently, so you could roll nature.
Speaker 3:You let me know and I'll kind of tell you what information you get. All right, I want to dig around this tent and see if there's anything unique about the people that were staying here, or if they were just soldiers, or if I find anything in this tent.
Speaker 1:Okay, that would be investigation, Investigation, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me just kind of see, like like, if there's signs of struggle or Okay, cool yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right on. Yeah. What did you each get? 12. 12.
Speaker 3:Okay, I've got 20.
Speaker 1:Sweet, I would say, with where you are in respect to the camp. We'll start with Vance. You notice in the first tent that you're looking at it, pristine condition. This was a soldier outfit. They had very strict regiments. There is nothing out of order, the bedrolls are made, everything is all cleaned, everything. And you notice a diary underneath the pillow of one of the cots and some loose paperwork in the other one, and it seems like you've maybe seen or you're in one of the officer's tents.
Speaker 2:Nice, I don't open it and I burn it all.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, that makes it. Yeah, that was a mimic, so good job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you nailed it I take a look at the uh the diary and the paperwork.
Speaker 1:Okay, we'll get back to that in just a second. Uh, what did you say?
Speaker 3:you got dolo I was digging over, I got a 20 a 20 okay, with your 20.
Speaker 1:you notice that some of the residual magic is very highly concentrated in your tent, and the tent that you are in is like the barracks that had the 10-ish soldiers that stayed at this camp. That weren't the leaders, and a lot of the magic presence that you're getting in there is the necrotic and you're actually finding residue of some undead that were there.
Speaker 3:Ugh, gross. I'm going to start. Can I just start checking bags, knapsacks and chests or anything that are in there, for anything that I might find of value?
Speaker 2:How many swords do you need? It ain't about that.
Speaker 3:I need this. It's been too long. Nothing is there.
Speaker 1:There's been too long Nothing is there.
Speaker 3:There's nothing around there.
Speaker 1:To the contrary of what the leader tent was in. Everything in this barrack seems to be gone. They were geared up.
Speaker 3:They had everything on their person.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm checking and the people are just gone.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:Back to the diary.
Speaker 3:That weird smoky chick was in there.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm thinking. Back to the diary, that weird smoky chick was in there, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm thinking. Back to the diary when you open up the diary, one of these captains was just jotting down the daily routines and stuff like that. But the closer you get to the current date, the more that you notice a lot of the things that he was reporting. The writing was to get like more and more frantic and illegible I guess I I got that word out I stuttered on it for a second there.
Speaker 1:but uh, you notice that it's becoming more and more illegible to where, on top of just reporting the normal duties of the camp, he's starting to write about how he doesn't want to bring it up because nobody else is, but he's noticing what he thinks is eyes and it's getting a little bit harder for him to breathe at night. And the other captain there stationed with him has kind of been acting funny. A man that was very rigid and to the point seems to be really slacking off, not really like oh, he's not taking his job seriously, he on that stuff.
Speaker 3:I think they got into the mushrooms. He on this stuff.
Speaker 1:I look for mushrooms so much so that he, as the second officer, almost has to completely take over the camp, and the main one is just becoming very anti-social. And then you get to a couple days ago where, in the middle of writing, it just cuts off and the last thing that was written was oh shit, I'm being stabbed, yeah right.
Speaker 3:And then and he wrote that out too, with a bunch of dots and ellipses, right.
Speaker 1:What it actually says is that he believes he has found the source of why everybody is acting funny and he will be heading east to investigate. Oh.
Speaker 2:Well, we're heading north, so that sucks. I go report back to Dolo and tell him all that.
Speaker 3:Did Avi find anything?
Speaker 1:I've stayed with the cart.
Speaker 2:Thank you for being helpful and keeping the horses calm.
Speaker 3:What'd you find?
Speaker 2:I found a diary and I read it, because I'm a bad person. You're not supposed to read people's diaries. I know you're not supposed to.
Speaker 3:I'm just glad you didn't write in it.
Speaker 2:Oh, that would be funny.
Speaker 1:You have a diary of sorts and then you come back and there's shit written in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you hand it to me. I'm like wait, did you write this? Did you keep going?
Speaker 1:And you got to figure out if you forgot what you wrote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you write it you write it as if you're the person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, this is fun. We should find somebody's diary. This is.
Speaker 3:Now. So what does it say?
Speaker 2:There's been a like. Now. So what does it say?
Speaker 3:There's been a you can read right it's about like the camp is starting.
Speaker 2:The officer started to see like eyes. The other one's acting real weird and there's like this stank of illusion magic in the air. Right now they think he found the source to the east.
Speaker 1:As you explain this to Dolo, your eyes start to burn.
Speaker 2:Also there's some fresh onion, I think, in there getting chopped up.
Speaker 3:Nah, you on that stuff, oh no.
Speaker 1:Is that your explanation for everything? Like you're consoling a child that lost its mother and he's like ah sorry, bud, you're on that stuff, you on that stuff, ain't you kid?
Speaker 2:I knew it Then. Yeah, I'd like to take a look around then. Yeah, it looks to me like the Shadowfolk within 30 feet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't see anything because the tree line is very close to the camp.
Speaker 2:I know you're out there and the moment you address them it goes away. Oh nice, look at that.
Speaker 3:I look at Avi and go you see, this kind of shit that I'm dealing with. This is what I deal with every day.
Speaker 1:He does seem a bit odd. I think he was just excited that it could have been a deer.
Speaker 2:No yelling would scare the deer, obviously. Come on, is this your first day? You say yelling would scare the deer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you yelled and then it left.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's not I was like what are you doing? You hide for two hours in our trunk, then you don't help. He asked you specifically to help search. Then you just didn't Wait, did you? Yeah?
Speaker 1:I did. Oh, I don't remember that at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're being a real asshole right now.
Speaker 1:What'd you guys get? Wendy's. I haven't had my Wendy's yet. Burger meter.
Speaker 3:Yes, burger meter. It's critical. It's just flashing now.
Speaker 2:It's like a boss fight that hits a second phase. But instead of you getting bigger and flashing red, you just fall over. It's just wimpy from. Popeye.
Speaker 1:Falls off a bar stool it seems like you guys have a decision to make. Do you investigate to see what you can figure out about this camp, or do you continue heading to Kerr Hill?
Speaker 2:I mean there's no rush to go to Kerr Hill, right.
Speaker 3:I mean, how far away is this camp? He just says east.
Speaker 2:East yeah.
Speaker 3:There's no far. I mean we could just be going east. Yeah, I mean, let's get to Kerr Hill.
Speaker 2:How far away from Kerr Hill are we.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're still a few days out from Kerr Hill. Oh, we're still a few days. You're not making it to Kerr Hill today.
Speaker 2:Whatever's affecting this can't be that far away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, plus, I found a bunch of dead people juice in that other camp and they ain't had nothing in there worth anything that does seem like important information that you were leaving out.
Speaker 1:It is pretty late in the evening and the sun has almost went completely down, so you are losing light fast. Do you head out tonight or are you waiting? I think we could use this campsite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean whatever.
Speaker 3:Pull the cart up. Let's block the entrance. Make camp right here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, plus, whatever did this might try and come back now that there's people in it, absolutely Okay.
Speaker 1:So you guys are staying the night.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hell yeah, I'm about to build this fire up. I got a little herbal kit. I'm about to mix me up some nighttime fun time.
Speaker 1:Okay. Do you stay in a tent or on your cart, and which tent do you stay in?
Speaker 2:Officers, because it seemed to be the least affected. Because if there's dead bodies in the barracks.
Speaker 3:Juice in the barracks. Yeah, there's dead bodies in the barracks. Yeah, there's dead body juice everywhere. It's dead people juice Like they gone. It's they juice that they left behind.
Speaker 2:That's an incredibly odd way to phrase that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like they're oranges or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, you know how when an orange goes bad and you throw it away and there's still some juice left on the counter. That's what they got in there. It's not exactly anything but dead people juice. Very descriptive.
Speaker 2:Anyways, officer's Quarters yes.
Speaker 1:And then is anybody staying up for?
Speaker 2:Watch, we'll do shifts. Okay, cool, not our first rodeo.
Speaker 1:Who is staying up first? I'll stay up first, you're up first. Okay, take first round. Roll me Perception.
Speaker 3:Two of I got a 17 and a 25.
Speaker 1:Okay, throughout your watch, you don't notice anything.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right, high numbers. I'm just watching.
Speaker 1:Just looking Now. Are you switching out with Vance?
Speaker 3:I'll switch out with. Whoever I switch out with, I'm not actually going to sleep, I'm just going to go in a meditative state.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Right, right Elf so.
Speaker 2:I was like I'll just take the next one, okay, because I don't trust Av. She snuck on, didn't help she's out cold sloppy sleeping, just snoring and shit.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, drooling on her armor, it's almost like she's lost everything in trying to recover from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we're like what are we? Come on, what about us?
Speaker 1:You got there with nothing and left with nothing so you broke even.
Speaker 2:We still have nothing.
Speaker 1:Actually Dolo left with a bunch of swords, yeah.
Speaker 2:So he benefited.
Speaker 1:So when you think about it that way, quit tuning a tiny radio.
Speaker 2:when looking at me, I don't get that. What is this?
Speaker 1:What is this? What is this? Uh, roll me two perception shakes. Okay, eight and eleven, and eight and eleven so and eleven. On. Your first couple hours you don't notice anything, but as the sun starts to come up, your eyes begin to burn again and you start to hear twigs and tree branches and a bunch of noise around you. I'm like if you're not a deer, I will fuck you up and a deer comes out of the woods oh, hey bud yeah, with way too many teeth.
Speaker 1:Ah see, I gave you what you wanted, but it's not a deer.
Speaker 2:But it's a not deer it.
Speaker 1:It's the wolves. Essentially, these wolves start to come out, but they don't attack you. They are literally just standing right at the tree line all around the camp.
Speaker 2:It's because they like my armor, because it's got wolves on it. They think I'm their king.
Speaker 1:Roll perception. It's not.
Speaker 2:I'll banish the thought I wake up Dolo and Aver just no Okay. She has not painted herself. As a very competent ally, I'm going to protect her, but I don't need her.
Speaker 1:Fair point. Yeah, so Dolo, you now wake up.
Speaker 3:It's not a deer. What Wolves what.
Speaker 2:Not a what-what A Wolves Roll me perception Not a what, what?
Speaker 1:A wolf 16. 16. Okay, you notice the wolves as well, and they do not come into the camp at all, but the noise that is being made around the camp is growing. Roll me perception. Insight Insight would be a good one for this.
Speaker 2:Ooh, all right then 23. 23. Oh no, perception Insight would be a good one for this.
Speaker 1:23 oh, no 6, dolo. You can't quite pick up on it, but with your insight you begin to notice. You guys know what these things are.
Speaker 3:Wolves.
Speaker 1:The illusion and the Spiritualness of it. These soldiers probably didn't, so the ones that were going crazy Were probably the ones that were waking up at night hearing these things, were able to kind of perceive the bits, but they didn't have the full picture.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But half of the people aren't seeing this, or some of the people aren't, so what's going on? But they are not moving in to attack you. They are just watching.
Speaker 2:I do a little dance, okay.
Speaker 1:I. They are just watching I do a little dance. Okay, I put on a show. They attack. It's just like this is how I knew I'd die right at. At the moment that you're in the camp, they aren't doing anything other than watching you and your eyes continue to burn. Um, but because this happened at the very end of the shift, you guys are able to get a full night's rest cool, cool I want to.
Speaker 3:I want to grab my necklace and it it has a little piece of metal to it and I start clicking it like it's a dog clicker. Okay, and I go here here.
Speaker 1:So you're calling them in. Yeah, here, yeah, they start to move in Sit.
Speaker 2:Say here only if you're chill.
Speaker 1:Sit, give me perception.
Speaker 3:And then I have a little piece of beef jerky in my hand. Ooh.
Speaker 2:Vance comes over. What do you do with that jerky Back up?
Speaker 1:15. 15. Now, with your perception, you know that these are not real wolves, you know that these are spectral wolves, but you're still trying to kite them like they're real wolves.
Speaker 3:I'm going to still try to train them.
Speaker 2:I reach into my bag and I pull out spectral jerky.
Speaker 3:You have spectral jerky.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tight yeah.
Speaker 3:I'll trade you here. You want a piece of real jerky.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Where did?
Speaker 2:you get spectral jerky In the interim when you weren't looking.
Speaker 1:I'm God, this is my world.
Speaker 2:When you rested on the seventh day.
Speaker 3:He made spectral jerky.
Speaker 2:I found a ghost and I made some jerky.
Speaker 3:No, but I focus in on one of them that I think might be the leader. I see one that's standing more prevalent than the others and I want to get his attention. Yeah, boy.
Speaker 1:Come on, they'll get closer, but you can clearly see that they are not even attempting to become friendly.
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't want them to be friendly, I want them to listen, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you've got their full attention.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hey, vance, see if you can get around them, Get behind them, see if you find anything in the woods that ain't just them. We're like surrounded right, pretty much. Are they all around us, all around the camp. There's a lot of them, buddy, I don't know if I can do that. Well, how far away from us are they?
Speaker 1:Since you've called them in probably about 20 feet, 15, 20 feet.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure they're here to spy on us, make us go crazy through lack of sleep, intimidate us and report back.
Speaker 3:I'd throw them a couple pieces of beef jerky just to see what happens.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Gans, do not chase the beef jerky.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like grabbing by his jerky. They do not eat it.
Speaker 2:Just a waste of beef jerky, that's all. All right, you can go for it then I don't want to get closer to these guys. They seem suspicious of these guys.
Speaker 3:They seem suspicious.
Speaker 1:So we said uh, there was nothing in the rest of the camp. What time is it? It's morning, it's very early morning, probably 7 8 am.
Speaker 3:Are they keeping us away from our cart? No I think it's time to go east. I think so cool.
Speaker 1:It doesn't look like your cart will be able to make it east. There is no path, it's just into the trees all right.
Speaker 2:Well, I leave av with the cart and the wolves.
Speaker 1:Oh, you don't want me to tag along. I take one horse, I just carry it. You want to leave me here with all these wolves.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I see them. I rolled pretty well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see them.
Speaker 1:No, we'd bring Av with and her shield.
Speaker 3:She's got a spear and shield. I'm already loaded up with weapons, my core weapons but, I'm going to grab a couple extra daggers out of my bag. Cool, you want anything out of this bag?
Speaker 2:Vance Nope, got my, just hold up my hammer, got my hammer.
Speaker 1:Cool, so you head east.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:As you head into the forest, you have to go through the wolves.
Speaker 3:I was going to say what do they do? Do they move or do?
Speaker 1:they. As you get closer and enter the tree line, they part and let you through.
Speaker 3:See, I told you that beef jerky worked.
Speaker 2:Didn't work. Can I just?
Speaker 3:Just eating dusty beef jerky that's been stepped all over by Spectral yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they let you get the jerky back. They're not very good animals.
Speaker 3:I don't think they're animals. Man.
Speaker 2:They're not deer, I'll tell you that much. No, they're not. No, they're not. Okay, so you start heading west, all these damn spectral wolves are going to scare away all the deer.
Speaker 3:Spectral wolf would be a dope band name.
Speaker 2:It wouldn't be bad. New plan guys. Yeah, New plan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we all have to learn instruments. Let's start a new party as you head east. It doesn't take very long. Only a couple hours into the woods you see an opening with a cave entrance.
Speaker 2:Probably that I had to guess where the spectral undead thing is.
Speaker 1:Roll me perception if you care, a whole ass cave 22. 22.
Speaker 2:Okay, with two 20s you're Whole ass cave 22.
Speaker 1:22. Okay, with two 20s you're going to get all the information. Yeah, you see in front of the wolves, out on stakes and pikes, and just everywhere, scattered around the entrance of this cave, is dead wolves, and you can almost guarantee that the amount of wolves that you saw as spectral beings could easily be a one for one match of the amount of dead wolves.
Speaker 3:Same thing with them soldiers at that castle.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That government hearing.
Speaker 2:Also dead wolves, another cool band name yes, cool. I want to go ahead and use some of my cleric abilities because I am a guy.
Speaker 3:Okay, to do what I don't know, yet Let me see here.
Speaker 2:This is the question.
Speaker 3:I'm going to walk up closer to the cave. I want to like uh, can I roll for a count and see if I feel any magic?
Speaker 1:coming out of the cave. Mmm, that's big time. 21. 21. Almost pure necrotic energy that is just filtering out of this cave like a water faucet turned on.
Speaker 2:I'd like to use my stone cutting tremor sense. Okay, so I'll walk up to the edge of the cave and put my hand on it and I gain tremor sense with a range of 60 feet for 10 minutes. Must be touching a natural or worked stone surface to use this, but I put my hand on the cave to see if, within what's happening, if there's any like motion in there.
Speaker 1:Okay. So you notice that the cave doesn't go. From your knowledge as a dwarf and your abilities, you notice that what you hear from the cave and what you're sensing is that it doesn't go super deep. Your 60-foot sense it goes a little bit deeper than that, but it branches and the branches don't go very far. So after about 20 feet there's a branch off to the left. It only goes in another 5 to 10 feet. So, it's a very shallow branching-out cave Cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think anything's in there that at least is like touching the ground or moving.
Speaker 3:No, there's something in there, I can feel it. I can feel it.
Speaker 2:It feels nasty, it feels dead, it feels like them dead people juice yeah it smells bad too all right, and just kind of vance gets his shield up and goes. Well, shall we?
Speaker 3:might as well. But also, what can I? Can I roll perception and see if there's anything outside of the cave that looks like, um, like markings or relics, or magic tome information or anything like that, any kind of scribed spells or anything, before I walk myself into death?
Speaker 1:So for sure you haven't entered the cave yet, right?
Speaker 3:Right, okay.
Speaker 1:I'll just let you keep your perception. Check. You don't see anything yet. Okay, yet Keep your eyes peeled.
Speaker 3:No, it's a wave of dark energy coming out of here, and I don't mean synthesizers. It's real gross up in here.
Speaker 1:Do you enter the cave?
Speaker 2:It's the vibe of when your neighbor's learning how to play an instrument, but the instrument's a bagpipe and an accordion.
Speaker 1:Seeing you draw your hammer, Av draws her spear and shield to get ready. Oh, I forgot you're still here. Yeah, always around.
Speaker 2:Careful. There's probably whatever did all this and he motions all the wolves on pikes, wolves on pikes. I think anything with wolves cool band name Wolves on pikes would be a dope band name but here's the thing about the whole wolves thing being a cool name.
Speaker 1:Very quickly it crosses the threshold of every man has two wolves in him territory and it's like oh, we went too far, almost immediately, almost.
Speaker 2:So what if the band name legally where does this land? And also, is it still cool? Because Wolves makes things pretty cool, right?
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But what if? It was two wolvesves that Enjoy Five Finger Death Punch. That's the name of the band.
Speaker 1:See, you had me until Five Finger Death.
Speaker 2:Punch Exactly right. Is it still cool? No, no.
Speaker 1:It's also way too long of a name, yeah it's got to be short?
Speaker 3:No, you can tense it. It's T-W-T-E-F-T-E. I'd go see Necrowolves tomorrow.
Speaker 1:I've never heard their music and I would probably see them too, Right.
Speaker 2:They're probably not the best at their instruments, but their show, their presence pretty great, absolutely. Anyways, yeah, careful, there's a lich or a beast in there or something.
Speaker 1:You can tell that she's getting actively nervous, but she's along for the ride.
Speaker 2:Hey, you're going to be okay, as long as you don't get hurt or die.
Speaker 1:Good luck. Oh wow, just full of wisdom. Loves deers. I'm learning so much about Vance.
Speaker 3:I pull out my meat cleaver and then I spark my hand to create a little torch.
Speaker 1:Okay, Cool, that's very nice of you because you have dark vision as an elf Dwarves also have dark vision.
Speaker 3:So this is just for Av. This is just for Av's dumb ass, as a matter of fact. No, I take her sword and I light it.
Speaker 1:She's like that's weird, I didn't even have a sword, I had a spear, oh well then it's on fire now, good luck.
Speaker 2:He gave you one. He has so many swords You're gonna poo poo a free sword.
Speaker 1:No, no, I didn't realize. I got one Flaming sword. How do?
Speaker 2:you feel about swords, you love them when they're free.
Speaker 1:I was literally just a lady in town that's very passionate about helping people, and you guys have been very mean to me.
Speaker 2:You snuck on our cart? I did. We asked you to help investigate and you're like. I did not hear that.
Speaker 3:That was an honest mistake and I admitted that. Okay, all right, you slept through what could have been horror.
Speaker 1:I lost everything. I'm still trying to recover. Just right off the rip, I feel like a lot of negative energy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's coming from the cave. Now get your shit together.
Speaker 2:Raise your hand if you've lost everything. And then Vance raises his hand. How long?
Speaker 1:ago, yesterday, I didn't think so.
Speaker 3:Technically he didn't have anything yesterday and he has nothing today.
Speaker 2:I did have some jerky. That was pretty good, and it's gone now. And it is gone. Things are on the up. Dirt, ooh dirt jerky. Love it. All right, so do you head in the cave? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as you enter the cave you then start to notice runes as you pass through and you start to see these first branches that you detected with your ability, and you notice that a lot of these areas seem to be different types of storage. So the first one that you notice on the left is a bunch of like arcane symbols and stuff like that. On the right you see an area that has food, but not as much as you'd expect. There's just enough food for one or two people for a couple weeks. And then you make it past that first threshold where the necrotic energy is almost overwhelming, and the symbols that you're seeing all around the cave are very clearly, with your Arcana check, those that are used in rituals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah. You think this. Where she from, I I gotta feel the same way I feel in. Here is how I felt when I, when she was in my mind it's not that strong but it's a similar feeling yeah, yes it it's.
Speaker 1:it's similar but different because she controls illusionary magic. That was all illusionary magic. This is necrotic, so it is a different magic branch.
Speaker 2:How are my eyes?
Speaker 1:At the moment, your eyes, nothing. You got nothing right now, okay, but for 10 minutes you had the 60 feet, correct?
Speaker 2:I still, I can touch again and feel deeper. Okay, yeah, don't do that.
Speaker 3:He's got little hands.
Speaker 1:When you do touch the wall of the cave, you notice that the final branch, before continuing onward, has many. I guess you said that you can detect things on the ground.
Speaker 2:It's tremor sense If there's anything like moving.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you get a ton of small movements towards the left branch and you get a lot of movement directly ahead of you, and those are the only two directions.
Speaker 3:Can I get up close to the wall and see if I can decipher the language?
Speaker 2:of the ritual.
Speaker 3:Yeah for sure. See what it says. What would I roll for this?
Speaker 1:What am I rolling, I guess. What languages do you know before you can even try and attempt?
Speaker 3:this I know Draconic Sylvan Common and Elvish, elvish and Thieves.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know quite a bit of languages. You do not recognize these symbols in any of those languages.
Speaker 2:I'm like, hey, bud, we got a.
Speaker 3:What languages do you know, vance? Yeah, I was going to say can you read this shit?
Speaker 2:What languages? I don't think I've picked any languages yet. Like a real D&D game, yeah.
Speaker 1:So pick something that's not those and then hope for the best. Dwarvish, common and gnomish Okay, it is definitely not any of those. All right so you do not recognize the language, I'll let you roll a history check though. I might not be able to read it, but I might know what it is. Yeah, it's infernal.
Speaker 2:I think we got company. Hey, av, yes, remember what I taught you Nothing. I taught you Nothing. That's not true. Don't get hurt and don't die, and you'll be fine.
Speaker 1:That wasn't really a lesson, that was more of a demand.
Speaker 3:This is what you don't listen. I would stick to his demands right now. I'm not saying I won't?
Speaker 1:He's just very bad at phrasing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's not good at it. This is an infernal. There's some dead juice flowing in here. It's a real sick wave and I got a strong feeling that whatever is down there that you're feeling through with your little hands in the cave hole, it's going to be real bad and they're not from this planet. So I'm about to give myself this planet, this world rain plane. Spain rains.
Speaker 1:Left or forward.
Speaker 2:You had two path options.
Speaker 1:Well, which one's closer? The path left is closer.
Speaker 2:I think we're going to address that, because it would be a foolish thing to be like. No, I'll let them.
Speaker 1:Get behind us, okay, as you enter, very quickly you start to notice cages and you see about seven of the you presume soldiers from the camp and they are completely unresponsive soldiers from the camp and they are completely unresponsive. They're not dead but they are completely in a trance, just cannot. No interaction immediate. When they see you they're not like oh, thanks for being safe.
Speaker 3:They are conked out.
Speaker 1:I don't like how we were when we were in our trance. Uh, I guess you guys don't know, because that happened in like an instant in reality.
Speaker 2:uh, as soon as I see that it's like like not creatures or anything like that, I'm like, all right, turn around, they'll be fine. And then I want to just turn Well, like yeah, I don't want to have like whatever the big thing in the middle, just like comes up behind us while we're like.
Speaker 1:I wonder if Bill's okay. Yeah, Cool, Right on. So yeah, you just leave him and then you head back For now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll come back and like Vance is like now starting to like actually like show like a bit more prowess, like he was like as soon as he saw it, he just quickly like returns back to the other end, like not the danger. Yeah, and like he's quickly, like he's to turn around now you're at the back end, so he quickly shuffles back and gets in front of Av and starts to head back down.
Speaker 1:Cool Right on.
Speaker 3:I just look at Av and I go just follow him. He's kind of like my little danger groundhog.
Speaker 2:Got danger groundhog, another cool band.
Speaker 3:He sees a shadow.
Speaker 1:I know it's going to be real bad.
Speaker 1:So now you head down the main path correct after about 50 feet it opens up into a very large open cavern area and the first thing that you see when you walk in is torches lining, an area in the center that has a bunch of these arcane symbols, and on the other end of that is a dark figure that is working over a bench. And the moment you cross that threshold he goes ah, seems like somebody's finally found me ever since, and then he just kind of nods and then he turns around to see you and then you just see essentially a skeleton in a robe, but it looks.
Speaker 1:It really looks like the pieces of skin that are on the face are like fabricated on.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm glad he has a sense of modesty as a skeleton in a robe. Yeah, he's at least covering up a little bit.
Speaker 3:Nobody wants to see that boner.
Speaker 1:Got it and cut, and that's Monster.
Speaker 2:Monster everybody we did it. We're about 37 minutes.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, he turns and he goes. I got a bone to pick with you, I knew it.
Speaker 3:Alright Tyson your turn.
Speaker 2:Metatarsals, god damn it.
Speaker 3:Go back to the cart.
Speaker 1:Av said that. So now you're definitely left out. So yeah, he turns around.
Speaker 3:And then he just looks at the two of you.
Speaker 1:Do you have any response? Av said that, so now you're definitely left out. So yeah, he turns around and then he just looks at the two of you. Do you have any response?
Speaker 3:How far away is he Like? How deep is this cavern?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's probably 80-ish feet, because there's the circle in the middle, all the torches and he's on the other end at like a workbench with a bunch of mysterious meat.
Speaker 2:We'll put it that way, way around him on these work benches and the symbols on the walls, and hey bud. So are you like a good necromancer or an evil necromancer?
Speaker 3:we picked up your feeling outside. We just decided to come see if you needed anything. You look like you're doing good, though you got door dash.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he looks at vance and he goes. Well, the way that I've always seen it is that, uh, good and evil seem to be.
Speaker 3:Yeah he's evil, yeah he's got a description of evil and how it's not that bad. He's definitely very evil um is men in cages what you doing there? Bud you putting some skin on yourself there?
Speaker 1:He goes well, I wouldn't have to do this if she kept up on her promises and you can tell that he's getting very angry and he snaps his fingers. And then, the first time he snaps his fingers, two skeletal soldiers appear beside him and he goes, and I highly doubt that either of you two gentlemen, or the lady in the back there, have any magical ability to get me what I want, and he's just going mad.
Speaker 3:What do you want? Chicks be crazy dog what she did Tell me what she did to you. Look, I had a similar situation. He had a real bad situation yesterday. She wasn't even real, yeah.
Speaker 1:Roll perception both of you 20. No, okay, what did you say?
Speaker 2:No, no 20. No, okay, what'd you say? No, no, I think I got a three on the die.
Speaker 1:With the 20, you were able to put the pieces together that the illusion. Magic is what was dissipating. The necrotic magic is still here and he is ranting about this lady. He clearly had some kind of deal with the woman that you guys were dealing with, and she either stabbed him in the back or something and he is just in a rage right now.
Speaker 3:Hey man, let's talk about it. Bro, it's not look, we all got stuff. How can?
Speaker 1:we help you, help you. He. He looks and he goes. Oh okay, well, if you can help me, how much magical power do you have? Can you can, can, can. Can you help me lure people in to get my body back? Am I just going to be stuck like this forever?
Speaker 3:How many people do you need? My brother, you got some power in you. I'm sure we could channel it.
Speaker 1:And as he's ranting, he's snapping, and every time he snaps, more soldiers are appearing around him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's all about body positivity. I think you're just looking at it the wrong way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're a good-looking set of bones. Yeah, you're a good looking set of bones.
Speaker 2:You're thin, look, oh, come on. You know how much I love to help.
Speaker 3:You don't need her. You could get anybody. Just do Pilates.
Speaker 1:Roll me persuasion, Actually deception, because he's not good looking.
Speaker 3:Eyes and the beauty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some people are into that. We're going to.
Speaker 1:Cri-Hill, I also like how your guys' angle is that he was trying to hook up with this lady.
Speaker 2:He's mad about his body.
Speaker 1:Well, he's, you know what. I'll just let you guys talk together he has a much deeper.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to keep him from telling us what might really be going on and see if we can persuade him and I'm talking to you like he can't hear us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I know we're working on it, we got this, we're working on it, we got it and I wink, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, yeah, wait, what are we?
Speaker 2:doing A deception check, I got a 13.
Speaker 1:Okay 17. 17. Okay, so just a second here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean like dude, you're thin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude down the line. And she wasn't the first one to break your heart. What heart you don't have. We've all been there.
Speaker 1:So you got a 13. Yeah, and what did you get? Dolo 17. With your 17,. You don't convince him to slow down or you don't convince his anger out, but you are able to get him to slip up to give you some information. So in his rant he goes I see the two of you. I can see that neither one of you have the magic power that Alyssum had.
Speaker 2:I'm like Alyssum, write that down.
Speaker 1:write that down Alyssum, had you have some magical abilities, and so do you, of divine nature, but neither of you are going to be able to get me back the body that I so much deserve. What if we could get her to give you your body back? Oh, are you associates with?
Speaker 3:Alyssum, yeah, we've met her a few times. One might even say, we've shared a thought or two.
Speaker 1:Roll me another deception. I'm like, I'm not. Ooh, good luck guys. No.
Speaker 2:I just don't lie.
Speaker 1:I'm like, no, I'm not, yeah, no, so with his bonuses he got a 22. How'd you do, brian?
Speaker 3:I got a two. Oh, oh no.
Speaker 1:So he goes. I can tell who is friends with Alyssum, and it's neither of you.
Speaker 3:However, I do think I didn't say we was friends. Don't be putting words in my mouth.
Speaker 1:I said I know her, I'm done talking and he says your bodies will suit just fine. Turn undead turn undead okay, he snaps one last time as two more soldiers appear, and I need everybody to roll me initiative uh, within 30 feet.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I'm gonna just rush up and just get into the pit, okay your movement as a dwarf is 40, 30 feet, 30 feet okay what are you doing? Turn undead yeah, I'm just trying to get up in the pit like I'm at a necro wolves concert so here's the thing.
Speaker 1:You run into the symbol, like you, straight path right through the symbol with all the torches around it yeah, I guess I didn't.
Speaker 2:I'm just making.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that that was there buddy, that's the first thing I described when you don't listen, you say av can't listen you're a hero as he's running towards it.
Speaker 3:Can I shoot an arrow at the symbol?
Speaker 2:uh, if there's, I'm not gonna run through the necromancer's big symbol in the floor, but you did say that. I didn't hear you say it earlier. I run towards them.
Speaker 1:I'll go around. Okay, so you go around. That still doesn't get you within 30 feet of him.
Speaker 2:That's fine.
Speaker 1:But it does get you within the first skeleton on one of the sides.
Speaker 2:So it's like, only how many skeletons are there? Six, and they're all, and I'm only getting one of them Correct.
Speaker 1:I'm not, I'm waiting to get all six. Okay, I got you, because basically it's him in the middle and then he's summoned. One on each side, one on each side, one on each side. Oh, he's in the middle, correct? So?
Speaker 3:he's wearing a robe and he's how far away is Torch?
Speaker 1:is probably 30-ish feet. So, essentially, you walked into the room, you were on one side of the symbol. You got to go all the way around. There's symbols in the middle of the floor and then there's skeletons on the outside and he is directly across from you, about 70-ish feet, and with Vance running in. That's where we're going to end it, okay. Yeah, we're starting with combat next time, outside the symbol.
Speaker 2:I will outside that symbol.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking about saying no, so you learn your lessons and you pay attention and I just look at Av and I'm like he's a danger groundhog.
Speaker 3:He'd have turned around if it was bad. I trust him.
Speaker 1:Thank you everybody so much for joining me. My name is Tyler Waltz. I've been your DM.
Speaker 2:You can find everything I do at nerd news and to my left hi everybody, I'm Tyson Cox, so you can find me at Tyson Cox Comedy. I do stand-up. So if you need some stand-up in your life, book me, I'll do it.
Speaker 3:Yo and.
Speaker 2:I'm.
Speaker 3:Dolan Mears Sedren. My name's Brian Petrie. You can find me at everything on Brian Petrie Comedy. I do stand-up skits, voice acting whatever it is you want.
Speaker 1:Thank you all so much and we'll catch you in the next episode no-transcript.