Delving Deeper: Episode 2 Recap

Watch the full video on our YouTube channel: Dissonant Whispers Age of Magic - YouTube

Welcome to Delving Deeper with Oleander Hawthorne, where we have meta game discussions about our characters, events in the game, the world, or even just to demand of someone "What the hells were you thinking!?" Joining Oleander this episode are Einar and Roald, to discuss Episode 2.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Welcome to Delving Deeper with Oleander Hawthorne. Today I have with me Roald Grimble and I know our wild soul. Delving Deeper is a metagame series where we talk about our sessions, our characters, events in game, or generally ask our partners, what the hell were you thinking?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

A lot of that.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

So we are going to discuss today our session two, our episode two, uh, where we had the Battle of Crystal Bro. Now, this was a big session for Rold, specifically because it involved his great nemesis.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going after this orc. Uh his name is Throck, and uh, I guess that's sort of a key aspect to my character, because that's uh the dude that pretty much took out my family, so uh, you know, just a tiny little bit of angst there against him. Uh yeah, he uh, you know, was responsible for putting me in a prison camp for most of my life, you know. So uh yeah, I didn't like him too much. Didn't do nice things to your sister. No, no, exactly. Certainly did not do nice things to my sister. Uh vision powers? Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Yeah, he had your sister trapped with him, apparently, the whole time that you had been enslaved, and after you escaped, he'd had your sister the entire time enslaved.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

And uh we Yeah, I didn't know that oddly until you know she came around, but yes, exactly. So I had suspicions.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yeah, the rest of us were suspecting after a few clues that your sister was alive, in fact.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Like there was definitely a little trail there. Trail? Uh kind of just been using that just to create a little bit of, you know, get my character sad and all, because it's, you know, I should have been dead.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

So wish we had the Breakfast Club recorded. Because Einar did red thread, red threads, red threads, red threads. Which sounded absolutely crazy about because of this, because of this she's definitely alive and taken by him. Oh no, this is and it was a hundred percent right. Every part of the red thread, it was one of my greatest conspiracy moments because it was actually right. Yeah, but like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I don't know, from my character's perspective, it's like, hey, I haven't seen her in years. I assume she's dead. I know it does sound crazy often. It's not like it didn't make sense, it was a pretty reasonable assumption.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

So for you to have, you know, actually embraced that hope that she wasn't dead would have been pretty crushing if we had not, in fact, found her. That's true. So you you you did resist that completely.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Yeah, you know, you you're sort of a realist when you you you live in an orc essentially prison for 10 years and watch them eat people and you know make them turn on each other. So yeah, it tends to have that effect if that's who your character is. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

So uh at the beginning of the session, we have just been um just been introduced to this army of orcs that are approaching Crystalborough. We are trying to barricade the walls, get all the um soldiers and archers and everything ready for battle, and these orcs are approaching the town.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Um I started on the other side of the wall.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

You started on the other side of the wall?

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah, that was a misunderstanding at the end of the last session with the DM implying that I would be s able to use my tricks and probably be safe out there with engaging limited ones. And then he read up on like army engagements and was like, yeah, they're gonna be able to focus fire too many shots at once if we do this. You need to go back inside the wall for some reason, come up with something, and leave, you know, engaging big old Throck to to roll, because I wanna get him hooked. And I had to think about that for three weeks and came up with this. The reason he was out there was to inspire everyone, show them that there's no nothing to fear, that he was willing to stand out there in front of them as they fired flaming arrows over my head, landing in front of me, kind of call to the men, give a rallying speech that went fairly well, even though I'm not the bard. But hey, it went well. He gave me a roll and it went really well, and then uh joined the back up the wall and got a rallying cry from his men and handed it off to the rest of the party, and not a single person picked up the and kept going with it.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

So well, as the bard, um, I was kind of busy causing the first friendly fire.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Look honestly, looking into the stuff that normally I would have had my ear to the ground on. Friendly fire? I I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

It's not like you managed to- I didn't mean to, I just accidentally took down part of the wall and killed a bunch of our people. I didn't mean to, it was an accident. That's just how I roll. So instead of uh, you know, being useful and inspiring, I was blowing stuff up.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

I was I was actually thinking about this today because I realized how paranoid and how red Freddy Einar had been for most of the campaign. Right up until about this moment in Crystal Pearl, where all of a sudden I dropped my frickin' guard. The DM even is handing me some stuff like, hey, Obsidian Shadows might be around doing shit, Einar, and I'm like, alright, kinda, we should look into this. Yeah. We were giving blatant hits on these explosives. I kind of traced it, tracked it a little, but didn't even track it to being obsidian shadows shit until it went down. Neither did Drax for a matter, which we are normally on the shit like Bloodhounds. We dropped the ball so bad.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

It used to be, and then you got lazy.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

We got lazy, we got complacent, we got got happy and comfortable all of a sudden we're like, oh.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

See, we're outside the game. I don't know, I don't feel like that's how how it went, but that's okay. I I sort of feel like he he pushed us away from it, but that that's just my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Well, we just kept not sharing information.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

We really didn't we really didn't push it, which me hadn't No, I I don't know, I definitely asked about it a couple of years. The first time we checked me and Drax for Obsidian Shadow markings was after Delphine did it before us.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

I I get that this is a big thing, but like uh really that mark means absolutely nothing. Anyone can put a Marcus soot on their arm on their arm. Just just just as a beside the game here. But anyways, I'm just gonna point that out. It's like, ooh, I got ash in my arm.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

We're we're not we're not gonna put that idea out there because otherwise I'll be devastated.

unknown 6:42

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Um so, anyways. Oh right, right. Oh, that's even better.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

He's downplaying he's downplaying the obsidy shadows mark. You just happen to brush against a little pile of ash. Doesn't it really happen?

SPEAKER_01 6:54

You want that to be. We've already talked about how that mark and how it's much more than that.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

It's definitely it's a very, very significant mark that very few people can have for only specific reasons. For sure. Definitely no alternative for faking it.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Not that has anything to do with anything, but like it's absolutely stupid. Any criminal organization that purposely marks themselves like that and makes themselves a target really doesn't make sense, but that's okay. We'll just go with it.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

I'm allowed to live in denial.

unknown 7:21

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

So, anyways, we are we have this huge battle ahead of us, and we've got all these orcs charging at the town. Um, I actually ended up casting after blowing a big hole in the wall. I cast plant growth and entrapped them a bit so that they were slowed down. And um now, did you start the flaming arrows?

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Or who started the flaming arrow? No, no, of course that was uh Drax. He started with the big ass shot of throttle. Oh yeah, I was freaking just thumping thrott the whole time. I did nothing but shoot arrows of throttle.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

You had some big arrows at at that game. Do you remember the title wave?

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yeah, I had a title wave arrow essentially. Uh yeah to pick one up and I was like, uh, let's play with this blue arrow. I honestly, when I shot it, I thought it's gonna be like decent arrow, but I thought it'd be like, I don't know, maybe something that like returns or something like that. Some sort of plus bow, plus sort of arrow, but yeah, you know, it was pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Delphine had some great great big plans, and then the battlefield kept changing, and those plants kept shifting on it. Like the wall of force was huge when it came out, yeah, but then the battlefield shifted to the other side. Right? Because they didn't attack that side because the math was going off. There's one thing we can point out the plant growth was huge. It covered the entire amount of time. Well, it slowed down. It got the DM so distracted because he was tired that he forgot about being able to like bonus action move. So he was only moving his characters literally like half, like a quarter of their distance. Some of them were throwing stuff or getting frustrated, but we're out of range and taking, and he's we would have had much more of an engagement if the double movement had happened, but it's almost like that plant growth, and then Drax taking the moment to be like, Everyone take a moment to light your arrows on fire and we'll skip around, and then lighting the entire area on fire. Realistically, it almost was like it sapped the intelligence and the KSL almost almost explaining.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

It helps with the GM, you know, really and understands fire. So, you know, he's gonna be a good one. Yeah, he was definitely like way more than DMs. He was definitely working with fire. I'm just gonna like put that out there. Which was awesome. Like, yeah, that's not like it's a fireball. This does like a D6 around, but no, he's like, no, they fucking burn.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

It's increasing smoke inhalation going on. I can't see shit because I didn't do much, honestly. I I I mostly commanded engaged, like I didn't even take command of troops. The one thing I did do was once it was given us a hint after she blew up the wall that there was obsidian shadows people among us trying to do this. I, you know, tracked my men, nobody really amongst them. We stopped one more guy, but uh I mean we only had one major explosion on the wall, really.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah, no, it w we actually did really well.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Um, there was the other side way by the game.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah. Yeah, no, yeah, they there was that. Um there was the explosion I caused, and then there was actual explosions from the enemy.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

The one that yelled for the obsidian shadows and jumped down and blew up by the by us. We had traitors in our midst as well. So Which was what we were like, yeah. Of course there's obsidian shadows here.

unknown 10:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Now, tell us about finally facing your nemesis.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

I don't know, there wasn't really a lot to it. I just freaking pounded them with arrows, and then uh, I don't know, during the fight I think I got scared. It was sort of funny because I was like, you know, the DM was fighting trying to give me the killing blow, but unfortunately, I had both haste, that wore out, that took me out for a round, and then I got feared and I had to run away, and eventually somebody else got. So Somebody else got him, eh? So Finar got him.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Distinctly trying not to. Yes. I jumped off the wall the opposite direction. Because the team had been like, let, let, let, you know, you don't need to take this one. It's like, yeah, you know what? I don't. There's an obsidian shadows guy assaulting Droken and his Trebuchet crew, which have been doing a hell of a lot of fuck. That's why we haven't really mentioned Druken yet the entire time. He's been like, Trebouche crew, load up, hit shit. Trebuchet crew, load up, hit shit. And this man, honestly, he's been pounding at Throck and the areas, it's been pretty hard. But there's a guy going at it, he's gonna cause them disruption. So rather than letting them get disrupted, I'm like, I got him. So I jump off the wall, engage this Instagram Shadows guy, beat him up and knock him out, which comes into relevance later for Drax, actually. And then looking around, there's literally no one around me. Druken has run to the front grate because Throck has appeared at that explosion. Right. He's got a few men with him. I can see Oleander who's like giving me the salute and mental talk of like, go get him, Tiger. And he's there. And he's beaten up my friend. I walk over, I even pulled my punches. I didn't do action surge, I didn't throw in any extra dice, but he had hammered him hard enough several times that it was like, here's one weak hit. Why really? Here's a second weak hit, and that was enough to draw Throck. But you got the cool moment at the end though.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Oh yeah, of course I had my little spiel, of course, you know, saying that I was really happy I killed him and uh it was good to avenge my family, essentially. Yeah, became too spitting bloody.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Yeah, and then and then he was gone.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

I probably stuck in a rose in his eye or something.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Uh yeah, I think you I think you uh I think that's how you ended it off.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Yeah, and spat on him.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah. And then that was the end of Throck. The end of the Orc tribe, essentially, that had uh held you captive and enslaved so many people, taking so many children from elven tribe. Yeah, yeah, wiping out your elven tribe.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

We shouldn't talk about what that was events, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah. But uh, so, anyways, it was a great battle. The DM had intended for it to come into the town and like slaughtering so many and just devastating the town, but then it never ended up really even barely reaching the gates, which was kind of funny. So we stomped them. Yeah, we really did.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Well, that fire just absolutely decimated them and the spells and went on.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

The end of it was on our way into the yelling at a bunch of orcs running away about how he's gonna come for each one of them. You run up by like we were chasing them off.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yeah, yeah. The last few stragglers ran away.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Yeah, the battle looked like it was not in our favor, but yeah, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Yeah. So that it just goes to show that no matter what you have coming at you, you never really know how it's gonna turn out. Something really easy ends up killing people, and something really hard ends up not getting anywhere. Uh, but after the battle, then we ended up uh going and finding out that the captain of the guard was uh a traitor. She was uh helping to get the obsidian shadows into the village, helping them taking children. Uh she ended up uh using her end up using her power and her position to absolutely devastate the town, and we took we took a little bit of a uh insult to that on their behalf and our behalf, and nobody liked that except for somebody who didn't mind so much. Never understood that one. But uh we did take her captive, handed her in to the town guard so that they could hold her. Um, even though we didn't entirely trust that the obsidian shadow wouldn't sneak in and break her loose. So that would begin uh the next couple sessions, I believe, where we have a lot of interactive interaction with Captain Valera.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yep. I mean Delphine uh Delphine and Drunken watered into 10 founder while we were hurting Guy's feelings outside by the fire. And Drax was dragging off the Obsidian Shadows guy, knocked out to uh for a friendly conversation when no one was watching him. While Roled honestly kind of stood about surveying the wreckage of everything. Pretty much, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Now and I made him get I made the everyone give the money to them that we got off the works to add to the town.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

It wasn't so much a maid as we were happy.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah, yeah, we love to add to the town. But it yes, it was her suggestion.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

They didn't have a lot on them.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah. Now, end of the battle, we are trying to corral the people that are organized are in charge of the town so that the council. We were trying to get the council to convene and so that we can say, hey, you've got traders in your midst, and uh I go to find my friend that has um ran back uh alone to the manor, and I want to have a little talk with him. But I find him packing up his bags, trying to leave without any kind of word, and I was a little bit sad and a little bit insulted because he's left me once before without saying goodbye, and he was trying to do it again. Now, we're all a little paranoid. We're all a little paranoid, right? Right? Everybody's super, super paranoid. We just found out that we had big traitors in the guard. The captain of the guard herself is a traitor. We think that there are people on the council that are probably traitors. And then I look down and I roll, I think, a 20-something for perception, and see a smudge of the obsidian shadow on the hand of the DM specifically focuses on it as he's reaching for guns to put away. Yeah. So, uh, this guy is a bard, amongst other things, so I know that he's a caster. Now, this is one of those things that everybody doesn't seem to understand my rationale, but I did have rationale, and it sounds like psychopath rationale now, but at the time I was panicking, and I thought I'm stuck alone with this guy who is super, super powerful, and if he can speak, he can hurt me. And so I was trying to stop him from speaking, and I may or may not have gone for the throat. At no point did I think that that was going to kill him.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

No choice of words for the intent. The intent was there, it was obvious trying to subdue, but the words I tear his throat out. And the DM decided, ah, he's beat up enough, this can kill him.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yeah, I didn't know he was injured, I didn't know. It didn't occur to me when you when you are faced with somebody who you think is invincible, and then all you're trying to do is your dandest to not die on your own. I didn't think until afterwards, of course, he wasn't gonna hurt me. So I killed the man that I loved growing up, and that was awful. So I caused my own trauma and then I went home and cried. For real. Because I was so excited to finally find this guy that had been uh that I've been searching for for six years, and then he was dead in less than I think 24 hours of me finding him because I am a catastrophe. So that is that. That is our session two.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

That's pretty much how session two ends.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah. Uh, anyways, thank you very much for joining us for delving deeper. If you have uh any questions, feel feel free to put them in the chat. Please tell me if you guys have caused your own trauma or catastrophe. I would really like to not be the only one. And uh give us a like and a follow, and we'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

In loving memory of Guy, two and a half whole episodes. If you're enjoying the tale, maybe give us a like, a follow, even drop us a comment wherever it is that you're listening to.