This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:31] Great. So, welcome to Session One.

[Gerik 0:35] Hello.

[GM 0:37] Would we like to do a round table just to get an idea for voices, character names, etc.?

[Ren 0:46] Probably good to have.

[GM 0:48] All right, let's start with Jocq then.

[Jocq 0:51] Yeah, that sounds good. I will be playing Jocquelynn Searun, the Lord Heir to the Searun house, which has made its fortune in the city of Neverwinter by owning one of the major ports, not the only one. However, they have been taxing incomes and exports for several years now since the explosion of Mount Hotenow. He wears primarily the Searun blue and silver, styles his hair long in a more Elven braided fashion, is a wizard that uses his abilities to make his life more pleasurable. Extensive use of Mage Hand to allow extra conveniences as well as Unseen Servant for services that are otherwise unrendered.

[GM 1:42] Nice. We'll move on to Gerik.

[Gerik 1:46] Hello, I'm playing Gerik Runeheart, a country boy turned Paladin, the folk hero of a town called Piet. He came to Neverwinter to learn how to be a Paladin, so he's an initiate. He follows Torm. He's very devout and he was brought to our city by Ren, one of our party members, to help enforce law and order, which justice is very much a thing that Torm is a god of. Gerik has a country accent. He's a very genuine person. So, I'm Gerik Runeheart. I like to smite evil and keep my friends safe. And I hope we have a pleasure listening to our podcast here as we go through the Sunless Citadel and hopefully smite someone dead from this world.

[GM 2:34] Nice. Del?

[Delaria 2:37] I'll be playing Delaria, and I need to remind myself how to pronounce her name because I change it every time. She is the morningest of morning people. Her being a morning person makes her better at waking up and doing things than I am in the morning, which is right now. Cleric. She is a halfling as well, also has a bit of a country accent, and really likes cooking. She has a Mason Guild background, which she picked up from her family, and then uses. Super exciting, the end.

[GM 3:22] Nice. Ren?

[Ren 3:24] I'll be playing Ren Taro, a human monk, most recently from Neverwinter. Before that was in the Wayfarer's Rest monastery, which disappeared in the tumultuous last few decades. Ren is about 5'6", dark skin, a bald head, has a number of piercings and ear gauges, and has been in Neverwinter now for almost 10 years, has been helping restore one of the neighborhoods that was destroyed in the explosion of the nearby mountain.

[GM 4:13] Wonderful. The mountain in question is Mount Hotenow. And the neighborhood is called Blue Hope. And like you said, it was in Neverwinter. During the volcanic eruption of Hotenow, half or near half of Neverwinter was destroyed. That was about 50 years ago, roughly. Rebuilding efforts have been slow until recently, when Ren first started. And this has slowly gained some traction with some of the nobility. Jocq, what would you say is the one of the key things about the neighborhood?

[Jocq 4:58] Despite the common name, Blue Hope, the true name for it in the Illuskan term, translating roughly to the same, Gobaith Glas. The city itself holds interest to the House Searun to extend our political influence as well as the public opinion of House Searun as well as any monetary value that can be done by such.

[GM 5:22] Before you got involved, Ren was doing his thing. Ren, what was your purpose there?

[Ren 5:30] After the disappearance of Wayfarer's Rest, I had gone to the largest nearby city and was going up and down the ports, essentially listening for rumor to see if there had been any of other survivors from the monastery or pilgrims that had heard of such a thing. And while there, began a small garden, trying to recapture a sense of that serenity and peace that I had had at Wayfarer's Rest, where we used to have the vegetable gardens and flower gardens and such. Over time had moved a garden to where I now sleep, sort of a two bedroom house and then started to expand from there, finding ways to bring a little bit of rest and peace to the chaos that was that neighborhood.

[GM 6:34] Wonderful. And who was picked up next in the group? Was it Del or Gerik at that point?

[Ren 6:40] Believe it was Del.

[GM 6:41] All right, Del, how did you get involved with the neighborhood and how do you, I guess, foresee yourself helping out with the current efforts?

[Delaria 6:54] Del's family has been living on the outskirts of Neverwinter for some time. Their ancestral home was flooded, but this is the one that she's ever known. She has pretty much been helping rebuild for her whole life. Her family has been in on it, helping provide materials and such. She's never seen Neverwinter in its full glory. So, just a thing she does, now. How she was raised.

[GM 7:38] Nice. And this leads to Gerik, the newest member of The Adventuring Company.

[Gerik 7:46] Yeah, Gerik was hired on as a police officer, keeping the peace in the area, and now he has risen up in ranks, so he's a bodyguard for Jocq. He's a very straightforward guy. So his main thing is just keeping peace around Blue Hope, serving House Searun. He enjoys the gear that House Searun gave him, which is nicer than his own. And he wants to keep growing stronger, become a Paladin and some day wear plate mail. That's his aspiration.

[GM 8:19] Lovely. All right, so, if everybody's ready, we'll just jump right in. Everybody good to go?

[Jocq 8:29] I believe we're ready to dive in.

[GM 8:32] So, the date is 22 Marpenoth, 1491, as the Dale reckons. And it's a cold autumn day. The breeze from the north carries with it a chill and the promises of winter snow soon. The cobblestone street to the Hucrele estate is worn smooth by dozens of travelers that make their way through the Protector's Enclave, the current neighborhood that you guys are walking through. Your streets need light to help with crime in the area and to attract new settlers into the neighborhood. And the Hucreles have access to lanterns and lamp oil to get the job done if you can cut a deal with them. So you have a meeting with them currently and you're heading to their estate right now. What exactly are you bringing to the table to help with the negotiations?

[Jocq 9:29] There's obviously a bit of monetary investment that can be placed on the table. And as far as leverage goes, it might behoove us to lean heavily on their desires to merge our two houses in the future, not promising anything, but perhaps looking to speak favorably upon the situation.

[Gerik 9:53] Well, I got a nice demeanor and a winning smile. So, I can speak with them a little bit for Jocq and and the others if needs be.

[Jocq 10:2] I imagine you're a fair bit more likable than I am.

[Gerik 10:5] Well, I won't say that, Lord Searun, but I've got the gift of gab, I can talk them up a little bit.

[Jocq 10:14] Intrinsically, I would say it.

[Gerik 10:17] Oh, well, much obliged, Lord Searun. Thank you.

[Jocq 10:20] Del, is there anything particular that the Gobaith Glas project could bring to our table?

[Delaria 10:26] Well, if they have any additional artisans working on this bulk amount, could also be a training thing. They could get some younger apprentices at a higher level at the end of this. Though, we have a lot of hidden corners. So if there are some lamps that are functional but perhaps less beautiful, they could go around the corners.

[Jocq 10:54] That's a fantastic idea. An opportunity for an experienced work. Gobaith Glas is the perfect place for it. Ren, what are your thoughts? Any locations that we could offer such?

[Ren 11:5] I believe that Del has the heart of it. Providing them opportunity to become part of the project, I think will be value in itself.

[Jocq 11:14] Elaborate on parts of the project.

[Ren 11:17] They can start by contributing to the lamp oil and may catch a larger vision.

[Jocq 11:24] That sounds reasonable. GM, then what kind of history would we know about the House Hucrele?

[GM 11:31] The Hucrele are not as powerful as House Searun is, but they are very good at what they do. They trade in a lot of imported goods and are one of the main shipping companies and holding companies in the city of Neverwinter.

[Ren 11:54] This could be a deal that makes someone in the house, builds their reputation.

[GM 12:0] Definitely. And the fact that Searun is larger would definitely, as you say, add to that. And they would be interested potentially just based on that in making a deal potentially.

[Jocq 12:16] Fantastic. Well, let's not lay out all our cards on the table right at front. It seems we do have the upper hand going into this negotiation.

[Gerik 12:26] Yeah, I'd agree. We're more well-known. We can go to them and just tell them we need some lamps and, like a good neighbor, right? They should just give us some lamps in good faith. We can talk to them a little bit. Maybe Del can cook them something or something or other. I don't know if we're having a feast or whatnot, but yeah, to me it's simple, right? We just walk over there, we say, "Hey neighbor, how's it going? Yeah, we need some lamps," and then we trade some coin or something and they give us some lamps. Simple, right?

[Jocq 12:55] Oh, Gerik, I envy it.

[Delaria 12:59] Well, now I wish I'd made cookies. That was a good idea. I've got a leek and a potato. I don't think food's going to do it this time.

[Jocq 13:9] That's a little bit different in Neverwinter. It's a business transaction, not so much visiting a social encounter.

[Gerik 13:17] Ah, yeah. Right.

[Ren 13:21] I think as long as both parties come away with no debt on either side, then it will be agreeable to all involved.

[Gerik 13:29] Everything here is so formal, right? Back in my hometown, you just go and knock on the door and say, "Hey, I need a favor from you," and then you just help each other out. Here in the big city, y'all got ledgers and clout and all this stuff you're trying to keep track of. Why you got to be so difficult?

[Jocq 13:45] Things are a little bit more formal, yes, than they might be in Piet. That's all right.

[Gerik 13:53] Well, you just tell me what we need to do. I'm happy to help you.

[Jocq 13:56] Well, an earnest face and word goes a long way. I imagine with you facing the negotiations, Del providing the monetary balancing, we'll get along just fine.

[Gerik 14:9] Gerik nods in the affirmative and agrees.

[GM 14:12] All right. So you guys walk the streets and cross the Winged Wyvern Bridge and pass the boardwalk around Castle Never. You can see that a large contingency of Mintarn and Sons of Alagondar guards are posted around the perimeter. Some facing inward toward the castle and some facing outward as a reminder that Castle Never still has not recovered from the spell plague some time ago. It's still a very dangerous location. Skirting to the edge, you guys eventually make it to the iron gates of the Hucrele estate. They're open and flanked on either side by guards in livery identifying them as Sons of Alagondar. One of them, a man of broad shoulders and a scarred face, turns to you as you approach. "Well met, my lord." He bows slightly at the waist. "How can I be of service?"

[Jocq 15:17] We have negotiations with the Hucrele this day.

[GM 15:21] Indeed. If you'll follow me.

[Jocq 15:25] I will.

[GM 15:26] And he takes you up the path to the manor. You can see that its lawn, perhaps slightly smaller than the Searun estate, is kept in immaculate condition. A gardener tends to a patch of flowers planted carefully in the shape of an elaborate capital letter H.

[Jocq 15:43] It's a beautiful aesthetic. Good branding.

[GM 15:46] You know that for now at least, we're coming to the end of the season, so the flowers won't last much longer, but it looks like they're trying to do their best to keep them alive. The doors you're led up to are painted a deep purple and inlaid with gold, the colors of House Hucrele. A servant opens the door as you approach, and four more guards stand at either side at attention. They look you over once but stay at attention and let you pass. The scarred man gestures for you to enter. And you can see that the entry way is just as immaculate as the lawn is. Rich wooden panels cover the walls carved with details of flowers and trees, and the servant who opened the door to you closes it softly behind you. "May I take your coats, my lords and my lady?" He asks, bowing at the waist ever so slightly.

[Gerik 16:45] Gerik didn't wear a coat. He's used to the cold and it's not that cold yet.

[Jocq 16:50] Most certainly. The blue Searun cloak is removed from Jocq and handed over.

[Delaria 16:58] Yeah, thank you. Del has a green shawl around her that she hands off.

[Ren 17:7] And Ren likewise hands over a simple cloak.

[GM 17:11] The servant takes them and goes into an adjoining room to hang them on a few pegs. He comes back and says, "May I ask who's inquiring of the family?"

[Jocq 17:27] Jocquelynn Searun and company.

[GM 17:30] He nods and says, "If you wouldn't mind waiting in the parlor," and he walks to a couple of double doors, opens them up and reveals a large room with a large fireplace and very soft padded couches.

[Jocq 17:47] I make my way in and make myself comfortable.

[Gerik 17:50] Gerik walks in maybe a little more eagerly than is socially acceptable and almost literally jumps on one of these couches and sprawls out, probably embarrassing Jocq a little bit.

[Ren 18:3] Ren comes in and stands behind Jocq, then leans forward and says, "I thought you said we were expected, Jocq."

[Jocq 18:14] I believe we had made arrangements. Is that not incorrect, Delaria?

[Delaria 18:19] You know how people forget when they're busy.

[Jocq 18:23] That's not exactly how appointments work in Neverwinter.

[Delaria 18:27] Well, all right. No, how people pretend they forget that they're busy so that they can keep you waiting and keep you on edge.

[Jocq 18:35] Right, right.

[Delaria 18:35] Maybe they also know we have the upper hand. This is a nice hearth.

[Jocq 18:40] The hesitation I expect sets the tone for negotiations. Besides, they've given us a fantastic area to wait in.

[Gerik 18:47] Yeah, this is a right nice little room here. I like the fire going and some nice cushions. Maybe I can just take a little nap before they come out.

[Jocq 18:56] Don't be let down. The environment is meant to do exactly that. You'll want to have your wits about you during a negotiation. You in particular as I expect you'll be chatting.

[Gerik 19:8] Gerik rolled a fantastic two on insight coming in. So he's very much at ease and he sprawls back with his hands behind his head. He's like, "Lord Searun, what are you worrying about, man? These people, they're genuine, they seem like good people. You ain't always got to have your guard up."

[Jocq 19:26] You ever met the Hucrele?

[Gerik 19:28] Can't say that I have.

[Jocq 19:32] Any of you others?

[Ren 19:34] Only seen their people in the market but have not had any direct interaction.

[Jocq 19:40] It's about my experience as well. Run by a matriarch who I expect does not get to the position they're in by being unintelligent or unimposing in a business situation. As courteous and hospitable as they may seem, be ready.

[Gerik 19:58] Gerik sits up a little bit.

[Ren 20:0] Does seem to be a bit of a power play, but at least they have a nice way of doing it.

[Jocq 20:8] That's how the game is played.

[Gerik 20:10] I'll keep my wits about me, Lord Searun. Thank you for the teaching moment.

[Jocq 20:15] We'll get you there.

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending to another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one, in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:33] Now, as a check-in here, it's generally seen as impolite to come to a meeting with weaponry. If you do, it's generally polite to have it set aside somewhere. Do any of you guys have your actual weapons?

[Gerik 0:51] Gerik totally has his weapon and has not checked it because he is not used to these social norms and why would he let go of his only self-defense weapon? That doesn't make any sense.

[GM 1:02] Also with Gerik's job, it would also make sense to keep it.

[Gerik 1:07] So he's just got this big old great axe on his back.

[Jocq 1:11] In Neverwinter is it formally acceptable to wear a dagger?

[GM 1:15] Yes. It's often seen basically everywhere. The only time that you wouldn't see it would probably be when there's tense negotiations going on with families that don't like each other, in which case they'd be totally disarmed to go into them.

[Jocq 1:33] Reasonable. So with that exception then, equivocally unarmed.

[Delaria 1:40] Also, left the mace behind, has the dagger probably in her bag somewhere, not thinking about it.

[Ren 1:50] I have my spear with me, but I'm definitely willing to surrender that, it is not the only way of defending myself.

[Gerik 2:01] And Ren is a living weapon. Hyah!

[Ren 2:04] Yes.

[GM 2:07] All right, so as you guys are talking, the door opens, and standing in the doorway, flanked by two servants in kind of non-descript robes is the matriarch of the Hucrele. She pauses for a moment and looks at each of you and you can see just the hint of a predatory look to her face as she looks to each of you and then suddenly it's gone and she floats in with just this very elegant manner and she says, "Ah, my Lord Searun." And she curtsies. "Welcome to my house. Can I offer you and your friends a drink?"

[Jocq 3:02] "Refreshments sound lovely. That's Kerowyn, correct?"

[GM 3:07] "That is correct, sir. And you are Jocquelynn?"

[Jocq 3:11] "Indeed, I am. May I introduce my party? He gestures over to the rest of our group."

[GM 3:16] "I'd be delighted to learn the names of your group."

[Jocq 3:19] Gesturing at Ren first, standing behind.

[Ren 3:22] Ren steps forward and says, "Ren Tara, my lady."

[GM 3:27] And she bows.

[Gerik 3:31] Then Gerik stands up as they all came in, I'm sure he would have stood and shown some respect. He nods his head and he says, "Gerik Runehart at your service, my lady, a bodyguard to Lord Searun here. Much obliged."

[GM 3:43] She curtsies again.

[Delaria 3:45] Delaria's worn a dress of hers rather than her traveling outfit so she can fluff out the skirt a little bit, do a curtsy. "Nice to meet you, ma'am, my lady. Thank you for having us. Delaria Undertree."

[GM 4:02] "A pleasure," she says, and she motions to one of her servants and they go to this little bar and start pouring some drinks, which begin to get passed out and Kerowyn takes a place by the fire. And she says, "It's getting quite cold these evenings. I suspect that the frost won't be too far gone from now."

[Gerik 4:30] "Oh shoot, this ain't nothing, ma'am. I mean, down at town, right? We had to go work on the farm all day." And then he kind of looks around and he's like, oh, probably was addressed to Lord Searun. "Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean, yes, of course it's getting a little bit cold, ma'am."

[GM 4:47] "A farmer turned bodyguard, huh?"

[Gerik 4:50] "Yes, ma'am." On his tabard, he has the gauntlet of Torm. So it's very apparent that he's a Paladin of Torm as well as the Searun livery. And so he continues, "I'm here on a calling ma'am. I've been called to Torm. I'm a Paladin, so Neverwinter seemed like the place to be. Coming home here from the hometown, the little farm that I'm from."

[GM 5:16] "Wonderful." And she steps over to you and takes your hand to look at it. Are they still the rough hands of a farmer or have they grown softer in city life?

[Gerik 5:31] They're probably not as rough as when he was farming, he's been in the city for about a year now, but he's been a bodyguard the whole time and he trains with the orders and so he definitely still has very strong hands from gripping the axe and martial combat and things like that.

[GM 5:45] She says, "May Torm protect you and this city."

[Gerik 5:52] He smiles widely.

[GM 5:55] She looks at Jocquelynn and says, "I think the last time I saw you, you were a bouncing baby boy on your mother's lap at one of her famous dinners."

[Jocq 6:07] "Outside of passing as matters of estate, I do believe you are correct. I've had very little personal interaction with you or your house."

[GM 6:17] And she nods and says, "It's been too long. What brings the son of your lovely Mother Searun to my doors?"

[Jocq 6:30] "An ongoing restoration project headed by Ren himself, organized monetarily by Del, and protected by Gerik. We find ourselves in need of illumination."

[GM 6:43] "Illumination, you say. Is this philosophical or literal?"

[Jocq 6:48] "Literal illumination." Nodding over to Ren and Delaria.

[Ren 6:54] Ren steps forward and says, "My lady, we have been restoring the streets of our neighborhood, Gobaith Glas, and bringing up the people and area there. We are to a point now where the citizenry are generally safe, but we are looking to improve matters there by having lighting at night. We are also working with Lord Neverember to help patrol the area, but we need lamps and lamp oil to bring true safety to the area."

[GM 7:37] "I see. So fighting a war against the darkness, I see."

[Ren 7:44] "Both literal and philosophical, ma'am."

[GM 7:53] And she nods and says, "Well, lucky for you, I can potentially provide a fairly large shipment of lanterns and lamp oil. Unfortunately, they did come at some cost to me." And she looks at you guys suggestively, as if to ask what you are bringing to the table.

[Ren 8:17] And Ren says, "We have been in this project for many years. This is not just a one-off. Any deal that we make, of course, would be a long-term investment on your part with vast potential." Then steps back and gestures over to Lord Searun.

[Jocq 8:41] "We are hoping to strike a bargain that would provide a working relationship with House Hucrele and the Gobaith Glas project. Primarily the financial side of it has been managed by Delaria."

[GM 8:58] "Ah," She turns to you, Del, and says, "Tell me, Del, you seem like an honest individual. Would you suggest that I invest in this endeavor?"

[Delaria 9:14] "As an honest individual, I have to say I'm not unbiased, but if I try to take myself away from the project... yeah, I still would anyway. I've grown to care about the people in Gobaith Glas, but from a standalone point, there's also an opportunity here to get some of this lantern work out into the world. My companions and I discussed on the way here that this eventually will continue to grow as a bulk order in a way that you can have apprentices train with existing master metal workers to work on these lanterns and get a higher quality workforce out of this as well."

[GM 10:06] Kerowyn nods, and she says, "That does sound interesting. Ren, was it?"

[Ren 10:15] "Indeed."

[GM 10:16] "What say you?"

[Ren 10:20] "A simple investment now, compounding over time should provide plenty of opportunity for both houses."

[GM 10:26] And she looks back at Jocq and says, "You know, we've been working on a deal for some time to join our two houses."

[Jocq 10:38] "I believe I'm familiar with the rumors."

[GM 10:41] "Would this potential agreement have any effect on that arrangement?"

[Jocq 10:49] "That is my assumption. Establishing a working relationship not only with House Searun, but a project that I, Jocquelynn Searun, am financing and overseeing, can only speak favorably of your interests as in regards to my house.

[GM 11:04] And she nods. She's definitely interested. Go ahead and make an insight check for me, Jocq.

[Jocq 11:11] Most certainly. He did okay. It's a 15.

[GM 11:16] Nice. Not too bad.

[Jocq 11:17] Plus one, that's not bad at all.

[GM 11:20] All right. So you can tell Jocq that Kerowyn is definitely interested, but dealing with something else on her mind. Something that's weighing heavily. And she looks at the four of you and says, "I'm interested in providing what you need, but I'm in a unique position and I need some particular type of assistance."

[Jocq 11:51] "Go on."

[GM 11:53] "My two children have taken up with wandering about the countryside outside of Neverwinter and doing things to... I guess they call it furthering the Hucrele cause outside of Neverwinter. Essentially, they're adventuring. And I have not heard back from them in just over a tenday."

[Gerik 12:25] "Shoot, ma'am. How old are these children?" Just an approximation is fine. He just wants to know if they're little kids or around our age.

[Dalaria 12:34] My toddlers have gone off on their own.

[Gerik 12:36] Yeah, toddlers  with their wooden swords.

[Ren 12:37] Toddler adventurers

[GM 12:40] Sharwyn is three, just kidding. In elf years. So Sharwyn is about 25-ish and her brother is a little bit older and about your age.

[Gerik 12:57] "Shoot, ma'am. I won't worry too much. That's just what we do adventuring, it's got some glamor to it. I'm sure you have a mighty fine household, but I'm sure your children just wanted to go kind of be on their own. A tenday, it's not that long, unless you're expecting them back in a day or two. Maybe they went out on a trek. Maybe they found some righteous quest out there or something. But if what you're asking is if we can go look at them..." he looks to Jocq, "I would be happy to help, whether it's with Lord Searun's approval or if it's after hours, but I'm sure they're okay. It sounds like they're two capable young people."

[GM 13:42] "Yes, I would call them very capable and part of my initial agreement to allow them to go out and do this is regularly checking in more so than once a tenday."

[Gerik 14:00] "Ah, so you're saying they missed a check-in or two. That makes me a little bit more worried for them. I apologize, I don't know the terms of their venturing."

[Delaria 14:11] "It's no fun not hearing from family."

[GM 14:14] She nods and says, "So if you can track them down, last they told me they were going to check on somebody at the Old Boar Inn just north of Neverwinter. If you can go there and inquire of them, I would be most appreciative and would be very willing to provide an initial shipment of lanterns and oil and a nominal fee for our ongoing relationship."

[Jocq 14:46] How far away is the Old Boar Inn? What do we know about this place?

[GM 14:51] One day north, basically, one day's travel. Inns and whatnot have a tendency to crop up how far you would get in a day of travel from a location or so. It's fairly well known and has a good reputation.

[Gerik 15:13] Is it just off the High Road? It's just north off the High Road of Neverwinter?

[GM 15:15] Exactly. So… well known, well traveled, nothing particularly dangerous or anything about it that you've ever heard of.

[Jocq 15:26] "Lady Hucrele, might we have a moment to discuss amongst ourselves?"

[GM 15:31] "Please." And she sets her goblet on the hearth and walks away. She goes outside the room and so her two servants follow her and close the door behind her.

[Jocq 15:48] "All right. What do you think of the terms?"

[Ren 15:51] "These sound fair to me. Seems a simple enough request. We can take a quick check-in on her children. I do remember the Old Boar Inn, I’ve been there periodically. It's a safe enough place."

[Jocq 16:11] "Accommodating?"

[Ren 16:12] "Definitely."

[Gerik 16:15] "I have to agree, Lord Searun, this sounds like a milk run. We go down to this inn, we find the kids, they're probably just holed up having a good time. On the High Road it's pretty safe, right? We go there in a day, we come back, maybe get some good food at this inn. It sounds like a good trade to me, sir."

[Jocq 16:35] "Dalaria?"

[Delaria 16:36] "I feel an obligation to go help, even though it's not really an obligation. It just makes me sad to see family apart from each other. But also, I think we might be able to get a good deal from her. It feels harsh to say, but with this one strange request off to the side, outside of normal dealings, we start a very good business relationship from then on."

[Jocq 17:06] "It's a fair observation. Favors are a good trade between houses. I'm inclined to think we should go ourselves rather than send somebody. I don't believe I've actually been outside of Neverwinter before, and the personal attention might garner favor directly."

[Gerik 17:26] "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan, Lord Searun. And like I said, it sounds like an easy walk, just walk for a day, get there, ask about them in the inn, probably still in the inn, come back. Yeah, I think it's a good plan."

[Ren 17:40] "It does seem like Kerowyn appreciates the personal touch. This may be a good way to form the foundations of a strong business relationship as Del has said."

[Jocq 17:53] "My only hesitation with it is that Searun House is a larger house than the Hucrele family. We don't want to make it appear that we're beholden in any way."

[Delaria 18:04] "Well... maybe we just need a break and happen to go up north."

[Gerik 18:11] "Yeah, that's a mighty fine plan. If we go back in there, Lord Searun," he lowers his voice a little bit, "we just tell Lady Hucrele we had to go up north anyways and so we'll just go along the way. We're not going just for her, right? But we're going up there for some business and we'll stop along the way and come back when we're done."

[Jocq 18:31] "That sounds reasonable. Gerik, did you notice when she entered the room, by the way, the expression on her face before she put on her social mask?"

[Gerik 18:40] "I saw a little bit of a strange visage there, but I like to see the best in people and then she pretty quickly was all smiles."

[Ren 18:52] "Perhaps she was soothed by your visage, Gerik."

[Gerik 18:57] He smiles widely. "Well, thank you, Ren. Yeah, maybe just outside the door, she had a little spat with one of her servants or something. I don't know. But it seems like as soon as she turned in, she was all happy and nice to us. With my insight check of two, I'm sure that she's real nice."

[Jocq 19:19] "All right." Are there any servants in the room that we can send?

[Ren 19:25] I will open the door and let the servants outside know that we are ready to once again talk with Kerowyn.

[GM 19:39] The servant outside the door is the coat checker, but also one of the women in the non-descript robes, and she looks to you, nods once, and then she steps away into another room, and Kerowyn comes out and joins you guys in the parlor.

[GM 20:05] And she says, "Well, how do you feel about the arrangement?"

[Jocq 20:12] "I believe we found these terms to be agreeable. Our group has some business up north, and so we'll take it upon ourselves to personally check in upon your two missing individuals."

[GM 20:25] She steps over to you quite quickly and takes your hand and you can see tears in her eyes and she says, "I can't thank you enough." And then she recovers and curtsies ever so slightly and says, "Thank you, my Lord."

[Jocq 20:45] "We'll look forward to future dealings."

[GM 20:51] She nods and says, "When you return, we can talk about this ongoing lamp oil production. If you should find the worst with my two children, I would appreciate it if you could bring back their signet rings."

[Jocq 21:12] "Most certainly."

[Gerik 21:14] "Shoot ma'am, I know you got a little bit worried because they missed the similar check-ins but, Torm be willing, I don't think we're going to have the worst here, ma'am. We won't need to get their rings or nothing. They're probably fine." And he fumbles about and knocks over a drink or something because he just rolled a four on persuasion. "You just trust us, all right, ma'am? I'm sorry about that, but your kids are going to be okay, right? I mean you're just worrying too much. Just calm down a little bit." he says with his wonderful persuasion check.

[GM 21:51] She looks at you and her face is a mixture of emotion as she looks at you and considers your less than helpful words. And she nods and says, "Thank you, Gerik. Your words are appreciated."

[Ren 22:17] "We'll be on our way, ma'am."

[GM 22:20] She nods and says, "You can stay for a time and enjoy the warmth of the parlor fire if you'd like and imbibe some more wine. My servants are at your disposal until you are ready to leave."

[Jocq 22:35] "Appreciate the hospitality. Thank you."

[GM 22:38] She curtsies again and then leaves the room. All right, you guys are free to do whatever.

[Delaria 22:47] "Gerik, what was this 'I have a way with words?'"

[Gerik 22:52] "Shoot, well, you see, I knocked over that drink and it got me thrown off my game, but I think she'll understand. Her kids, they're going to be okay. Probably not my best performance ever. But, I've been told, people told me that sometimes I have a good smile and I can talk pretty good, but definitely not there, right? I get it."

[Jocq 23:17] "You haven't had much exposure to speaking in formal situations, have you?"

[Gerik 23:22] "No, sir. No, not like this. At the orders, we talk about a lot of the gods and how to worship, but it's very ritualized with how you do things. Don't put this on the left, don't put that on the right because that's disrespectful, but that's all tactile, with their hands. Not too much social situations there. No, not like this."

[Jocq 23:47] "Right. I'll have to keep that in mind in the future."

[Gerik 23:51] "Yeah, maybe after we come back from this milk run, I can sit down with one of your servants and they can teach me how to speak proper in these social situations."

[Jocq 24:02] "You keep saying that: 'milk run'. I don't know if I understand that."

[Gerik 24:09] "It's pretty literal there, Lord Searun. So, on the farm, you got to milk the animals. So a milk run is just like you go out back, you get the milk, you come back. It's pretty easy. And then you have breakfast. So that's what I mean. A milk run is like that... it's pretty simple."

[Jocq 24:26] "So, like, it's running out of the animals?"

[Gerik 24:28] "Yeah, yeah, where did you think milk comes from, sir? You got to go out to the animals, you get the milk."

[Jocq 24:34] "Right. I just wasn't aware it was running. I thought it was..."

[Gerik 24:40] "Oh no, you got to get it to come out. It don't just come out by itself."

[Jocq 24:44] "Right."

[Delaria 24:45] "But the animals don't have to be running."

[Gerik 24:48] "Yeah, it's the person that's running. It's a milk run. So the person goes on the run. You go out of your house, you run out, you get the milk, you come back."

[Delaria 24:56] "Yeah, cause it's just a fast, simple thing you can do."

[Gerik 24:59] "Yeah. You never been on a farm, have you, Lord Searun?"

[Jocq 25:04] "No, that's a little outside my purview."

[Gerik 25:07] "Well, sometime we're going to have to go down to Piet town. It's just south of Helm's Hold there. I'll show you all about it. I'll show you how to do a milk run, get your clothes a little bit dirty, but that's for later."

[Jocq 25:19] At the mention of getting your clothes dirty, there's a grimace that crosses Jocquelynn's face.

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending to another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies and wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:33] The journey is going to take one day on horseback. What preparations would you do for such a journey?

[Jocq 0:48] "Dalaria, I imagine you'd be able to supply us well, from the Searun pockets, of course," handing over ten gold to do so.

[Delaria 0:55] "You bet. I won't have to spend this on too many additional rations, because it's only going to be a day, but sometimes inns are a bit more expensive. I may suggest everybody bring one in case. I'll make some hand pies, but they won't last that long, so we'll probably eat them on the way. Anyway... Yes."

[Gerik 1:16] "Sounds delicious."

[Jocq 1:18] How much would a venture like this cost?

[GM 1:21] You would know that a single day's ride would not be too expensive, a couple of rations. The most expensive part would probably be horses, which you could requisition from the Searun stables anyway, all things considered.

[Jocq 1:38] Perfect. Ten gold will easily cover all of our expenses.

[Gerik 1:42] And then some.

[Ren 1:44] How much could a hand pie cost anyway? Two gold?

[GM 1:47] These are prime hand pies made by Del, so they are fifty gold each.

[Jocq 1:54] That's more than I started with.

[Gerik 1:57] What time of day is it right now? Gerik would be in favor of leaving right now if it's earlier, but if it's later in the day, then of course, we'd leave later.

[GM 2:08] It is still fairly early in the day. You could round up all your preparations, the horses and everything, and get started. You would arrive at the Old Boar Inn pretty late, but it's doable.

[Gerik 2:24] "Why don't we just leave today? We can walk back, get the horses, and go. Push the horses a little right outside of Neverwinter where it's safer. It's the High Road; it's pretty safe anyway, sir. Then we can get to this thing, knock it out of the park, get back, and get them lamps by tomorrow. Sounds pretty simple."

[Jocq 2:43] "All right, I suppose that would be all right. I don't believe I have anything pressing for the rest of the day. Ren, could the Gobaith Glas projects last without you for a few hours?"

[Ren 2:55] "I have made arrangements, my lord."

[Jocq 2:58] "Then I believe we should be all right."

[Gerik 3:03] "That's what I like to hear. Taking some action."

[GM 3:04] Great. I'm assuming to maximize coverage, you will split up. Some will get the horses, some will grab provisions for the road. Who's grabbing horses? I'm assuming Jocq, because it is your family estate and you don't want just anybody showing up to rummage through property.

[Jocq 3:23] Right. If we split up, I can acquisition them and have them ready to go, or put in an order to have them ready by the time everyone arrives.

[Gerik 3:33] As Jocq's bodyguard, Gerik would go with him. He also loves horses and animals, so the two of them would go.

[Ren 3:46] Del and Ren then can go get the other provisions.

[GM 3:50] Are you going to purchase them from the nearest store or are you going to go all the way back to Blue Hope and invest the money in neighborhood commerce?

[Delaria 4:04] To be polite, I hadn't brought all of my gear to this negotiation meeting, so I want to go back to Blue Hope to get my scale mail. Blue Hope, please.

[Jocq 4:18] Is your house in Gobaith Glas?

[Delaria 4:21] No, but Del left it on the top floor of the warehouse after our morning meeting of 'Alright where are we headed out today? Let's leave this here and come back later', since we expected to come back later. So now we are going to come back later. If anyone else has anything to pick up, let Del know.

[Jocq 4:42] Could bring Dreki back if you're so inclined?

[Delaria 4:45] Will he follow me? She? Pardon. Explain Dreki better, and will Dreki follow me?

[Jocq 4:53] Dreki , who was supposed to be a dragon but turned out to be a barn owl, was also left at the mezzanine in our warehouse. She is Jocquelynn's familiar. Yes, of course. She would be more than happy to be carried by an esteemed member of our circle.

[Delaria 5:14] [Cooing noise]

[GM 5:18] One last question about provisions. How are you prepping? Are you assuming it will take a day to get there and a day to get back? Are you assuming you're going to run into winter snows and packing snow gear? What are your thoughts?

[Gerik 5:36] Gerik didn't bring a coat, so that's going to be a problem.

[Delaria 5:42] As we gather our stuff on the way out, Del probably would have noticed that.

[Gerik 5:48] He has some traveler's clothes and is probably wearing most of them except for the jacket. If she picks up the jacket, it's in the same place in the warehouse where we met before we left. It's our HQ area.

[Delaria 5:58] If she happens to see a stall with socks, she'd bring some of her own spare socks, but they wouldn't work on everybody else. She doesn't expect Jocq to plan on bringing extra socks, so if she finds any socks... Additional rations so that there's enough for everyone to have one. Everyone may already have one. What else would be useful to have?

[Ren 6:28] Are we planning on searching further out than the Inn? Further than one day out? Camping in the wilderness?

[Delaria 6:38] Oh, camping. This time of year.

[Ren 6:42] Chilly

[Delaria 6:44] Let me see. I have made arrangements, my lord.

[Jocq 6:45] "If it's any influence, I would prefer not to spend the night out of doors."

[Gerik 6:50] Gerik's idea is that they're just at the Inn. He might be overlooking some key details, but his worldview is they're just at the Inn messing around. We'll get them, come back, and we're done. He's not planning on any outside stays.

[Delaria 7:07] It's always nice to be prepared. Not planning on bringing a tent, but maybe rations for everyone and some extra snacks.

[Ren 7:19] Extra rations for at least two days, probably. Bundle warmly, but not bringing camping gear.

[Gerik 7:31] Yeah.

[GM 7:32] Sounds good.

[Gerik 7:34] In Gerik's pack, he's always a little overpacked since he's a stronger guy and he's the guard. He'll have a couple of torches, extra rations, water, and a cooking kit. If things do turn south, the main thing we'd be missing is a tent.

[Ren 7:54] Giant mason jars filled with stewed tomatoes. All that sort of light fare.

[GM 8:02] Delaria, tell me about this insight check.

[Delaria 8:07] That was me trying to figure out how cautious Del is, and that's probably not what I needed to run. She may have picked up on the level of stress that Kerowyn's had. If her kids have checked in consistently up until now, it's probably a good idea to have extra stuff. But she could also just be overprotective, so maybe not too much extra stuff.

[GM 8:37] If they are just hanging out at the Old Boar Inn and not checking in, it seems out of character, according to your admittedly brief interaction with Kerowyn. Hanging out at an inn so close to Neverwinter, it would be very easy to get a message back and forth. So there's probably something interrupting the communication. Either they are not hanging out at the inn having a great time, or something has cut off the inn from communicating.

[Gerik 9:24] Or they could just be kids who don't want to check in because they're rebelling.

[GM 9:28] There is that.

[Gerik 9:29] That's Gerik's bet.

[Jocq 9:32] If I do recall, they are both grown individuals.

[Delaria 9:37] It's my mid-thirties. It's time to rebel. 'It's my mid-twenties!'

[GM 9:12] Mid-thirties are the new mid-twenties.

[Gerick 9:46] Jocq and Gerik have the coconut shells and got the horses. Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. Gerik is proficient in land vehicles, which is an obtuse way of saying horses and carriages, so he can help. Are we all taking a horse of our own? He can keep pace if that's the case. Or if we have a wagon? I think we all just go with horses, though, so he can ride lead.

[Jocq 10:15] Would a wagon be available from House Searun?

[GM 10:17] Definitely. It probably wouldn't be one of the expensive carriages because your mother is very protective of those, but you could get a wagon. There was an incident with your sister involving one of the carriages, so now she doesn't let you borrow them.

[Gerik 10:38] Did she crash it getting her driver's license again? Gosh. Are we talking about an open wagon or is it enclosed?

[GM 10:46] You can take the time to get it covered due to weather reasons. It's designed to be both... it can be open-backed or covered.

[Gerik 10:56] Got it. So we've got a cloth over the top to keep the wind and snow off people. Gerik can get up front and drive. I assume that will take two horses, so he can get up there with the reins and be the carriage man, because he's proficient in that.

[GM 11:11] Perfect. There would be enough room on the seat for an additional individual if you would like, or the other three could be in the back.

[Jocq 11:21] "Ren and Delaria, would you prefer riding in the wagon or would you like horses of your own?"

[Ren 11:26] "I'll have a horse of my own just in case we need to ride out."

[Delaria 11:32] "Horses are rather large. I don't want to sit sideways the whole time, so I'd prefer sitting on the wagon as long as we have one."

[Jocq 11:41] "We'll put in a request for one of those covered wagons and three horses. Ren will be happy to ride on his own, and Delaria and I can take up occupation in the wagon."

[Gerik 11:55] Yeah, and I can drive that wagon, right? You know Lord Searun, I know my way around a wagon and how to drive. Hopefully better than I know how to talk, apparently. I can drive and you guys can rest in the back. Ren and I can talk while we're going.

[Jocq 12:14] I would have it no other way.

[Delaria 12:16] What's Soleratus? And why do I have two pounds of it?

[Ren 12:21] Oh, Soleratus is pre-baking soda.

[Delaria 12:24] Hmm.

[Ren 12:26] But tastes more like chalk.

[Delaria 12:30] Yum... baking chalk.

[Ren 12:31] It's used to create carbon dioxide for raising bread.

[GM 12:37] Interesting. Learn new things every day.

[Delaria 12:40] Bread, you say? I have a bunch of that and no flour. We're going to have some rice bread with sugar. Going to make some rice pudding.

[Ren 12:51] And bacon on top.

[GM 12:55] A lot of bacon on top.

[Jocq 12:58] Seventy-five pounds of bacon for our two-day trip.

[Gerik 13:05] That is a lot of bacon for a two-day trip.

[Jocq 13:07] Little did you know, but Ren is actually thinking monetarily. We're going to sell this to the Old Boar Inn.

[Gerik 13:14] Was it supposed to be seven point five pounds of bacon?

[Ren 13:19] It's hard to see where the decimal point is...

[Delaria 13:20] If you order in bulk, it's cheaper. I don't know what Dreki eats or how much Dreki eats.

[Jocq 13:25] A proportionately owl-sized amount of food.

[Delaria 13:29] Oh, oops.

[Gerik 13:30] Dreki eats twenty pounds of bacon and weighs eight pounds. Dreki can no longer fly this session.

[Delaria 13:41] The happiest waddling owl.

[Ren 13:45] I think dividing all of those figures by ten is probably a reasonable thing to do for the trip.

[Jocq 13:52] You only want point five pounds of coffee?

[Ren 13:55] Right.

[Jocq 13:56] One cup?

[Delaria 13:59] It's not the water. It's the beans. So we're good to make more liquid out of that. I'll smash it with my mace.

[Ren 14:10] The two pounds of tea is for me.

[GM 14:14] Nice.

[Jocq 14:15] That... that is a lot of tea.

[Gerik 14:19] Tea for everybody. The horse loaded up for that.

[Jocq 14:24] That's why we got a cart. "I'm not seeing apples on your list."

[Delaria 14:29] Oh, don't worry. I remembered apples. I don't think I want seventy-five pounds of bacon if we were able to get it under two gold. That is not acceptable bacon.

[Ren 14:46] Just load that on the back of that wagon.

[GM 14:50] The joke's on you. It's a medium-sized pig. You have to get the bacon yourself.

[Jocq 14:55] Pre-process. That's all right. Gerik's here.

[Ren 14:58] Are we going with a cover story? Speaking of which, in the wagon? Do we have some sort of Searun delivery that we could be taking up to the inn?

[Jocq 15:07] We happen to have a copious amount of bacon.

[Gerik 15:11] That is our delivery to the Inn.

[GM 15:16] It might not be a bad idea to have some provisions to trade or something similar to take out there.

[Gerik 15:25] Seventy-five pounds of bacon.

[GM 15:27] Right.

[Ren 15:28] What kind of provisions might Searun have? We could probably just take whatever and be a simple trade run.

[Gerik 15:35] They trade mainly on the seas, so there are probably lots of exotic goods.

[Jocq 15:41] We're not a merchant house. We own the port, so we don't actually deal in goods.

[Gerik 15:48] Oh, yeah. You're the customs people.

[Jocq 15:51] Yep.

[GM 15:52] You're housing the goods when they arrive.

[Jocq 15:54] Correct. So that would be stealing.

[Gerik 15:57] I'm sure your vendors give you treats and samples of their wares.

[Ren 16:02] ...the free pen...

[Jocq 16:04] ...shirt with their name on it...

[GM 16:07] Carefully branded. After talking amongst yourselves about what you might need for the journey, you separated and gathered those provisions, the wagon, and horses. You meet up presumably at the warehouse that you are based out of.

[Gerik 16:33] Oh yeah.

[GM 16:34] And head out onto the road. Gerik, go ahead and do a general Land Vehicle Use check.

[Gerik 16:46] Oh yeah, fifteen!

[GM 16:51] The road to the Old Boar Inn is nice and smooth, thanks to Gerik's careful piloting of the wagon. Is there anything you would like to do to pass the time? Do you travel in silence? Do you do things to keep each other's spirits up? Any little thing that might reveal something about your character?

[Jocq 17:18] For a good portion of the trip, Jocquelynn is going to spend time summoning and de-summoning Dreki. 'This time a dragon, this time... no, still an owl.' Over and over and over.

[GM 17:34] Nice.

[Gerik 17:36] Gerik will be driving the cart and making small chat with Ren, but mainly he's all business on the road, looking for threats. Even though the High Road is relatively safe, he takes his job as bodyguard very seriously. He and Ren probably chat about some things at a shallow level to pass the time, and he'll also make perception checks constantly to see if there are any brigands on the road... or feral rabbits, or anything like that.

[Ren 18:05] It's been some time since Ren has been on the road, but it was not unusual to have long trips. He's shaking off the city and putting back on the travel mindset, rapidly getting in focus. Not a lot of small talk.

[Jocq 18:24] "You traveled much, Delaria?"

[Delaria 18:28] "A bit, but it's usually by foot. So not so far."

[Jocq 18:33] "I suppose that makes sense. I have never made a trip like this before. What do we expect?"

[Delaria 18:42] "I haven't made a trip like this either. I don't know."

[Ren 18:45] Ren pulls his horse alongside and says, "Usually rain, my lord."

[Jocq 18:51] "I'm glad we put the cover on the wagon."

[GM 18:53] Is anybody trained in Nature?

[Gerik 18:58] Negative.

[Ren 18:58] Noooo...

[GM 18:59] Perfection.

[Ren 19:03] Survival though.

[GM 19:05] Oh, Survival. Interesting.

[Gerik 19:07] I have Survival too, but not Nature.

[Jocq 19:10] Only what comes innately.

[GM 19:14] Let's see... Gerik has already done Land Vehicles and Perception. Ren has done Perception. Ren, give us a Survival check as well.

[Ren 19:22] Twenty-two.

[GM 19:23] Wow.

[Gerik 19:24] Hooray.

[GM 19:26] As you're traveling, you have a very smooth ride. You don't detect any issues along the way. You pass a couple of bands of people, but only one or two at a time, probably on their way from the Old Boar Inn. Ren, you can tell that those clouds off to the north are definitely coming this way. The breeze from the north is quite cold... you can feel the temperature drop slightly. You're pretty positive that there will be snow in the near future.

[Ren 20:01] Watching the horizon, I see the clouds coming in. I drop back to the wagon, lean over to Gerik and say, "It does look like snow. It will be close to see if we get to the Inn before that starts. We may want to pick the pace up a little."

[Gerik 20:18] "Ah, I was fearing that, looking at the clouds. Let's try and pick up the pace." Gerik will try to pick up the pace of the horses. Can he use that same check? Does he need to make a new check? He wants to go a little faster to see if we can get there before the heavy snows fall.

[GM 20:41] Let's go ahead and do a new check for that one. See how that turns out.

[Gerik 20:45] Not so great. Seven. He crashes the wagon, we all die. Thank you for listening to The Adventuring Company podcast. It's been great.

[Delaria 20:55] Somehow it explodes...

[GM 21:03] As the sun sets, it gets much colder and you can see tiny snowflakes start to fall here and there. It starts to pick up as you go. You get bogged down trying to go faster, just random things, like getting the wheel stuck in a bit of mud. Nothing major overall, just enough of those tiny moments that it slows you down. It gets to nightfall and the snow is coming down much harder. Would you guys like to press on?

[Gerik 21:39] I don't we have much more choice

[Jocq 21:40] "Are we not there yet?"

[Ren 20:47] "Still a ways to go, my lord. We are not there yet."

[Gerik 21:50] "We'll be there in a moment, my lord." he says at the same time Ren is saying there is still a way to go...

[Jocq 21:58] "All right."

[GM 22:00] You press on through the snow, and eventually you notice a light up ahead. As you get closer, you can start making out a large building as you come up. A few moments later, you pull in front of this large building. The sign out front is weathered, but you can make out that it's been etched with the symbol of a boar lying on the ground, sleeping. You have arrived at your destination unscathed, if a little cold.

[Delaria 22:37] Hooray.

[Gerik 22:39] "We made it, Lord Searun"

[Ren 22:41] "Wake up."

[Gerik 22:42] "Delaria, time to wake up"

[Jocq 22:44] "This... this is it?"

[Gerik 22:46] "Yes, sir. It's a tavern and inn combination on the side of the High Road. It's not going to be as fancy as your mansion there, sir."

[Jocq 22:55] "ZThere's... There's nothing around here. All right. Okay."

[Gerik 22:59] "Yeah, it's specifically for travelers, just this building. They usually got a little farm outside out back so they can get fresh produce and such. But, this is it. There's no city around here, just this inn and a couple of houses. That's pretty standard on the High Road, my lord."

[Jocq 23:17] "Right. Oookay then. Let's go in and make arrangements."

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending to another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:31] All right, so the inn, when you step inside, is warm and quite friendly. The innkeeper is walking about to a couple of tables, wiping them down with a rag and whatnot. He sees you enter, and you can see that there are not too many people here. When you enter, the man looks up and you can see that he's pretty well-groomed with a nice mustache. He looks up from what he's doing and says, "Ah, welcome travelers. I'm Garren, presumably your host if you come for a night's sleep at the inn."

[Ren 1:14] I step forward and say, "Yes, goodman. We are here for a couple of rooms for the night. This is Lord Searun."

[GM 1:26] "Oh, a Lord." He bows awkwardly.

[Jocq 1:30] "It is a pleasure. I appreciate it."

[GM 1:33] "And would you and your servants require a room?"

[Jocq 1:39] "I believe we would, one or two for the night. Delaria will make arrangements. Is there a table ready?"

[GM 1:44] "Indeed, you can have one close to the fire, I think. Those early winter snows can be quite chill."

[Jocq 1:52] "Much obliged. Thank you very much."

[GM 1:54] He quickly heads over and sets up the table for you and moves on. He says, "I can get you some of the stew for the night if you'd like."

[Delaria 2:06] "I love stew."

[Jocq 2:08] "I believe that sounds lovely." Sitting down at the table, Jocquelynn immediately casts Mage Hand, pulls out a bunch of loose papers, and spreads them around the table from a satchel he carries. He will begin ritual casting Unseen Servant.

[GM 2:26] Nice. Gerik, you get to the barn and upon opening the door, you wake up the stable master who's sleeping on a pile of hay. He looks around, sleepy-eyed, and says, "Oh, here, let me take those for you, master. You can head on to the house."

[Gerik 2:47] "Well, thank you. So we just come back over here when we're ready to get our horses and such?"

[GM 2:52] "Indeed, sir. You can let Garren inside know whenever you're ready to leave, and we'll get them resaddled and all that. But I'll take care of them and make sure they have a good night's sleep for you."

[Gerik 3:04] "All right, much obliged there, stable master. Thank you. You said the master's name is Garren?"

[GM 3:08] "Garren, that's correct."

[Gerik 3:10] "It's a mighty fine name. My name is Gerik, so we're going to get right along." And then he'll head in, probably after Jocq is doing his Mage Hand and all that sort of stuff, and come join them at the table.

[Ren 3:24] As you sit down, Gerik, Ren looks over and says, "How many other animals were in the stables? Did you see anything unusual?"

[Gerik 3:36] "Well, as soon as I got up to the stables, the stable master took our horses for us. He was asleep, but then I woke him up, I guess. He's a pretty fine gentleman." He got a perception check of 10. Did he notice any other animals in there before he came back in?

[GM 3:54] You notice a couple of horses, but besides that, nothing springs to mind. There are no hippogriffs hidden in there or anything.

[Gerik 4:04] "Yeah, just a couple of other horses there, Ren. Just standard affairs, probably some other travelers. Didn't see anything out of place, but you got a hunch or something there?"

[Ren 4:14] "Just looking around and seeing who might also be here at the inn this evening."

[Gerik 4:22] "Yeah, there's just normal horses. Ain't seen nothing super fancy that stood out to me."

[Ren 4:28] "Yeah, haven't seen anything here at all. It's very quiet."

[Gerik 4:33] Are there any other people in the main room with us? Or is it mainly just us in here?

[Ren 4:37] It's really hard to tell with all these shadows and my perception of one.

[Gerik 4:43] Are those people?

[GM 4:46] Ren's just standing in the corner staring into the corner. 'I can't make anything out from here, guys.' No, there are a couple of people scattered throughout the common room. A couple of them appear to have just paid for the common room stay, so there are a couple that are wrapped up in their cloaks, essentially sleeping on the floor. There are private rooms above.

[Ren 5:10] Ren is busy staring into the fire, thinking about being back on the road again, pretty much oblivious to anything going on after hearing from the stables.

[GM 5:21] Garren comes back with the provisions and sets you guys up. Jocq, you finish casting your Unseen Servant and all that.

[Jocq 5:31] Delightful. As the fire is warmed up, I take my cloak off and hang it. Put Dreki on the Invisible Hand.

[GM 5:40] Garren steps forward and he looks at the hanging cloak and your owl and says, "I haven't seen something like that for probably a good tenday. I don't suppose you're related to that Sharwyn lady, Lady Sharwyn, that came through?"

[Jocq 6:03] "Not currently."

[Delaria 6:06] "That's what I was going to say. Been spending the whole ride up wondering if I should bring that up or not, but I didn't. I'm gonna ask you about that later."

[Jocq 6:19] Muttering out in the corner, I assume, or off to the side of the table? 

[Gerik 6:25] Maybe she's muttering to the rest of us. 

[Jocq 6:28] Fair enough."So, Sharwyn has been through this way?"

[GM 6:32] "Aye, indeed, my lord. She came by... it's been maybe eight days now since her and her brother and their friends left. I was hoping to see them back by now."

[Gerik 6:47] "Wait, you said they was here... so they're not here? They're not just having a good time?"

[GM 6:53] "Oh no, sir. They were nice enough to swing by here. My little Lizzie is stricken with some kind of illness. The Hucrele siblings, when they stopped by, mentioned that they could do something for her and then headed off to the east a little ways. They said something about an apple or something in that direction that can cure illnesses."

[Gerik 7:22] "Well, that don't sound too good. You said that was about eight days ago?"

[GM 7:27] "Yeah, roughly."

[Gerik 7:29] Gerik looks at Jocq and just shrugs sullenly.

[Delaria 7:34] "Well, as long as we're here, if you'd like me to look at Lizzie for you, I may be able to stabilize her a bit more, maybe. But also, you said they had their friends. Nice to know they have friends. What were their friends like?"

[GM 7:49] "Oh yeah, their friends. There was a big fellow by the name of Braford, I believe. Carried a big sword with him. And they had another friend, Karakas, I believe, was his name. A quiet fellow dressed in traveling leathers, had the air of a woodsman about him."

[Gerik 8:12] "You've got a mighty fine memory there, Garren. My name is Gerik. I don't know if we've been properly introduced, but our names are similar. I knew there was something blessed about you."

[GM 8:24] He nods and says, "Yeah, the only reason I remember is they promised to help my little Lizzie. I'd be much obliged if you could perhaps examine her, my lady."

[Delaria 8:36] "You got it."

[Ren 8:38] "As we head back into the room to check on your daughter, tell us more of this apple. Was this something that Sharwyn brought up or was this something that you mentioned to them?"

[GM 8:53] "So, it's a little bit of both, I guess. There's a legend, if you want to call it that, of a magical apple." He rolls his eyes, obviously willing it to be something perhaps real. "The legend was first brought to my attention a while back. I guess there's a goblin tribe or something around here that has access to an apple once a year that can cure ailments. I've never seen it myself, and I never thought I would need it until Lizzie became ill. In talking with Sharwyn and her brother, they suggested that they'd go looking for it."

[Ren 9:43] "Many times there is a kernel of truth, no matter how outrageous the legend. We've seen many strange things in our times, both rumor and fact. Where did you say they were? Just a couple days from here, or where does rumor place this grove?"

[GM 10:06] "That's the thing nobody could really pin down for me. Sharwyn said something about some lightless castle or some sunless citadel that this grove is supposed to be from, I guess."

[Ren 10:23] "I suppose if it were well known where it was, you'd just have a stream of pilgrims coming out here."

[Gerik 10:30] "So this Sunless Citadel is out to the east, you said, and ain't nobody really knows where it's at?"

[GM 10:37] "Yeah, this group of four said that they were looking for some old fellow by the name of Belak who comes around here occasionally. Last we heard, he was heading out east."

[Gerik 10:55] "There's a whole bunch of roads that break off of the High Road. Are they taking one of them roads or going through the wilderness? Because we've got a wagon... we can't really go through a wilderness with our wagon."

[GM 11:05] "I see. There is a path that's older. I think it's a bit overgrown and you might have some trouble with it, but it does lead up through the foothills up into Mount Hotenow. I'm not saying that the road is in the best condition, but your wagon might make it if you're interested in heading in that direction. Are you looking for them as well, or something?"

[Gerik 11:35] "Yeah, we're looking to make sure they're all right, and if they're looking for that Belak fellow, then we probably want to look for him. You said it was Lady Sharwyn, right? Yeah, we're looking for her and her brother, just want to make sure they're safe."

[GM 11:50] "Oh, I see. So they haven't headed back to Neverwinter."

[Gerik 11:55] "No, sir. We ain't heard that they've been back yet, no."

[GM 11:59] "Then perhaps... I was afraid that they had just abandoned the quest and my family. But maybe something else has happened. That's both hopeful and disheartening."

[Gerik 12:16] "Yeah, starting to get a bit worried here. Lord Searun, what do you have us do? What's your plan?"

[Jocq 12:24] "Well, as far as our initial inquiry goes, we were asked to find out what happened to them, if that's correct. I don't know if our obligation extends any further than that."

[Delaria 12:36] "She did ask if the worst had happened that we bring back their signet rings, and we don't know if it's the worst yet or not."

[Jocq 12:43] "Right."

[Gerik 12:45] Jocq is just standing on the deck of the Old Boar with the 'Mission Accomplished' banner. Peace out. See ya. I just want those lanterns.

[Jocq 12:59] "All right. Signet rings. How far away would you say this was? Do we have any frame of reference location-wise?"

[GM 13:08] So Jocq, your history check tells you that Faerûn has a lot of ruins, new civilizations built on old ones. And this Sunless Citadel, the minute that he said those words, you remembered an old tale that talked about an outpost for some group out in the foothills of Mount Hotenow. It was said that this citadel was swallowed by the earth some time ago and was essentially lost. So if somebody has found it, there could be some great history behind it, maybe some salvage, all kinds of things that are potentially useful to that site. You do also know, though, that it doesn't earn the title of 'sunless' for no reason. It was definitely not a good place to have to go to when at its height, and when it was buried, it was considered a good thing for the region.

[Jocq 14:19] "So if rumors are to be believed, it's at some ruins out near the base of that volcano. Some of the more travel-oriented folk, how far would you say we are from that?"

[Gerik 14:30] "I think Ren's probably been out there the most, right? Ren, you came from up north or something like that. You ever been out there by that volcano?"

[Ren 14:37] "I have been past there. It's a little ways out from here. I would need to take a look at the maps that Lord Searun has. It should be about two days, I think, by wagon."

[Jocq 14:53] "Are we Del, any way provisioned to continue on further away from Neverwinter?"

[Delaria 14:58] "Well, if you're willing to not sell off these bonus provisions and get our money back, then yeah."

[Gerik 15:09] 75 pounds of bacon.

[Ren 15:16] I knew all that salt would come in handy.

[GM 15:20] So much pork.

[Jocq 15:22] "As much as I love the meat, I can't imagine eating it alone for two days. Perhaps we work a deal with Garren here and add some variety to our stores."

[Gerik 15:35] All bacon, all the time. Bacon and coffee. Bacon and biscuits.

[Delaria 15:40] "What do you say, Garren? While I'm looking at Lizzie, why don't you look at the provisions we have in our cart and we can see what we can trade? You can have some of our fresh produce down from where it's a little bit warmer and we still got some produce. We can trade you for something that'll last a little bit longer."

[GM 16:00] "You got it. Whatever you need. You can find Lizzie in the room at the top of the stairs to the left."

[Gerik 16:09] "Delaria, you need any help looking at Lizzie there? I don't know too much about spells and such, but I learned this technique with the order, how we can remove poisons if Lizzie got poisoned."

[Delaria 16:23] "I would love your assistance. Thank you."

[GM 16:26] So Garren heads out to take a look at your provisions, which I'm assuming are in the wagon still.

[Ren 16:32] Yeah. I will come out with him as well. And to Jocq, I don't know if you want to come or wait by the fire.

[Jocq 16:40] "I'm absolutely not going back out."

[Ren 16:44] "Very good. Well, I'll return shortly."

[Gerik 16:47] While we're leaving our Lord all by himself by the fire, is there anyone else in that room or is it just empty with Garren?

[Ren 16:55] Nobody there. Nobody in the room. Completely empty. 

[Gerik 16:58] Completely empty. Traveling inn, no one there. 

[GM 17:00] That natural one says so. So yeah, there are definitely other people in the room. Some sleeping, some just hanging out at their table. Not a ton, but you're definitely not alone.

[Gerik 17:14] Would Gerik feel comfortable leaving Jocq at that point then? Because he might stay.

[Delaria 17:19] It's not a big place. I can send Dreki to screech at us if you need us to come back. Alternatively, I could come back down and ask for you, Gerik, if I don't know what's going on. That might be a good time for you to check on her.

[Jocq 17:34] "I do believe I'll be all right. I can sit in the common room without a sitter."

[Gerik 17:39] All right, I'll go up with Delaria. "If you need anything, Lord Searun, just give us a shout, all right? We'll come running down those stairs, bust open some heads if we got to. But it's probably okay. This is a pretty good inn."

[Jocq 17:51] "Well they seem like decent enough traveling folk." How does everybody look out there?

[GM 17:58] So there's a lot of drawn hoods and everything. Wow, this is fantastic. There are a couple of people with face tattoos that look so friendly, like they would like to get to know you better.

[Gerik 18:12] Well, my comfort level just went down like seven notches. So, Delaria, you know what? How about you go up and check on Lizzie, and then if you need any help, I'm happy to help out. But I don't feel comfortable leaving Lord Searun all by himself with our friends here.

[Delaria 18:31] You got it. Del will head toward the stairs.

[GM 18:36] Super easy to find the room. You can enter and you find that there is a small fire going in the fireplace and you can hear some coughing come from behind a curtain across the room.

[Delaria 18:51] "Hi, Lizzie. May I come in? Garren sent me."

[GM 18:56] "Yeah, who are you?"

[Delaria 18:58] "My name's Delaria. I'm here to see if I can make you feel any better."

[GM 19:04] "Okay." The curtain moves aside and you can see a roughly 12-year-old kid, clearly feverish. Definitely not feeling well.

[Delaria 19:17] "Oh. Hey, dumplin’. How long you been feeling this way?"

[GM 19:22] "Almost... just over a tenday now, I think." And she coughs.

[Delaria 19:27] "Oh, that's a long time. Did you get any weird food before you started feeling this way? Or did you have anyone come visit that was coughing?"

[GM 19:38] "Yeah, there was a man from the north that came down and he had a cough and a sore throat."

[Delaria 19:47] "Let me see what I can do for you." Come on, medicine check.

[GM 19:53] Oh, nicely done. So, this is something that would basically have to run its course. You can't heal it yourself. You can provide some medicines that will ease the symptoms, but you won't have the know-how or the ability to cure it entirely.

[Delaria 20:21] Can I tell if she is in danger of dying or if it's going to be a lingering thing?

[GM 20:27] It's very rare for something like this to continue for that long, so she's not overcoming it the way she normally would be. If she doesn't have some kind of outside assistance, she could succumb to the illness. The longer she has it, the more likely that becomes. There is a chance that the fever will break and it will go away, but the longer she has it, the more likely she will succumb to it.

[Gerik 20:55] There's only one clear option here with medieval medicine: Bloodletting.

[Renp 21:00] Get the leeches.

[Delaria 21:01] 'Be right back, sweetie, I'm going to go get my mace.' 'What?' "Well, let's see. I see you have a fire in here, so let me rummage around in my bag and make you a little bit of broth. It'll make you sleep a little bit better, and we will get back to figuring out what this is in the morning, sweetheart."

[GM 21:20] She looks at you and says, "Thank you."

[Delaria 21:23] So I'm going to boil some water and this leek that I still have in my bag. And some of the salt, not 25 pounds of it because that's in the cart, but...

[GM 21:38] So basically, with your medicine check, you can provide enough to ease her symptoms a little bit and give her a better fighting chance. But if there's truth behind this apple situation, then it's a good option to gop.

[Delaria 21:58] Would I be able to tell if it's poison? I'm assuming not. If there was a coughing person who came, that's not someone poisoning someone unless it's a contagious poison.

[GM 22:14] Any poison that you know of would have made it through the body already. So this is probably something else, like a disease.

[Delaria 22:23] Well, I'll sit up here a little bit longer while this brews. I'll head down eventually.

[Gerik 22:30] Lay on Hands can be used to cure a target of one disease or neutralize one poison. Could Gerik do that and would Delaria know?

[Delaria 22:38] I'm up by the temples. I suspect she would know of Paladin-y things, especially if she and Gerik have attempted to assist each other after being stabbed a couple of times. 

[Ren 22:55] Having exposure, that makes sense.

[Gerik 23:00] Yeah.

[Delaria 23:01] So I do plan to head down later, but it's going to take a little time for this broth to brew.

[GM 23:06] Wonderful. All right. So back with the provisions. With a trained eye, Garren goes through everything, and he says, "Trade me a little bit of this coffee, some bacon, and some of this saleratus, and I can get you a tent and a few coin. The dried fruit is also tempting if you're willing to part with half a bushel."

[Ren 23:37] "We'll retain some of the dried fruit for our own travels, but I think the rest of that seems fair."

[GM 23:43] "Okay, sounds great." He goes to the barn, which also acts as part storehouse, and grabs a couple of tents and some sleeping rolls for you. He asks if there's anything else you're particularly interested in.

[Ren 24:04] "So if you have any basic travel rations, we may just put those in the wagon as well. Not nearly as interesting as the fare here, but they can be much appreciated when there's nothing else to eat."

[GM 24:19] "Wonderful. I think I have something along those lines." He finds some iron rations to supplement your less robust rations. These won't go bad unless they get super wet. They're not the tastiest thing ever, but they'll keep you alive out on the frontier.

[Ren 24:41] Very good. I help unload some of the items and repack, getting ready for a possible journey in the morning.

[GM 24:52] Nice. Back to Jocq and Gerik. How long do you wait, Del, until you come down and tell Gerik that his assistance is required?

[Delaria 25:06] Let's see, probably five minutes to get some leek flavor into the thing, and then I will pull it aside to sit so it's not too hot. I'll tell her I'll be right back. So 5 to 10 minutes.

[GM 25:23] Okay, so, Ren, you're still outside with Garren. Del, Gerik, and Jocq, you guys are in the common room now. What's your plan?

[Jocq 25:35] "This stew is very earthy. It tastes like earth."

[Gerik 25:43] Gerik has already downed his entire bowl. "Oh yeah, it is. This reminds me of home. It's delicious. I love this stuff. The nice thing about stew is you can put anything in it."

[Jocq 25:57] Questioning eyebrow is raised. "What might you expect to be in it?"

[Gerik 26:03] "Oh, well, you've got some vegetables in there. Usually some sort of meat. It looks like they got some sort of wild game in here. I think it's rabbit. I think there's a carrot in here. Definitely a leek or two, some spices, probably like pepper. Yeah, it's pretty tasty, right?"

[Jocq 26:24] "It is certainly sufficient."

[Gerik 26:27] "It'll keep you going."

[Jocq 26:29] "Delaria. Welcome back. What did you find out?"

[Delaria 26:33] "She's not doing too good, you guys. I think she needs more than I can do. She might benefit from your assistance, Gerik."

[Gerik 26:43] "What's she got going on? What do you think is the matter with her?"

[Delaria 26:48] "Well, she's got a cough, and some guy came in with a cough about a tenday ago, so if you go up there, wash your hands later."

[Gerik 27:00] "Oh, all right. So you're thinking she's got some sort of disease. Not poison, but some sort of disease in her?"

[Delaria 27:04] "Yeah, because it's still sticking around this many days later."

[Gerik 27:09] "All right, yeah. I'm still learning as a Paladin, but I know how to do a Lay on Hands, like in that battle when you got hit by that brigand. If I use enough energy, if I pray to Torm, I think I can make that disease lift away, unless it's some greater evil."

[Delaria 27:30] "Well, that'd be good to know. We can either make her feel better or learn that there's something terrible going on here."

[Gerik 27:35] "Yeah, I'll head upstairs. I'll go talk to her. Where's she at? And if you don't mind, you can stay here with Lord Searun. There are still some unsavory types about." He lowers his voice.

[Delaria 27:47] "You got it. She's upstairs and to the left."

[Gerik 27:53] All right. I will go upstairs.

[Jocq 27:59] Pulling out a loose and blank piece of paper, I will use Mage Hand while pecking at this stew to write a letter addressed to the Lady Hucrele.

[Delaria 28:11] "That bit you're poking is a turnip."

[Jocq 28:13] "Are those words?"

[Delaria 28:15] "The stew you're eating, you're poking at it with your spoon. That's a turnip."

[Jocq 28:20] "Turnip into what?"

[Delaria 28:23] "It's a food. It's a root vegetable like a carrot or a potato."

[Jocq 28:29] Holds it up, inspects it, offers it to Dreki.

[Delaria 28:37] "It's not meat."

[Jocq 28:39] I assume Dreki doesn't eat it then. It goes back in the bowl.

[GM 28:45] Gerik, you get upstairs to the sick little Lizzie. You can see that she's resting a bit easier, drinking out of a cup. She seems to be more at ease; Delaria's medicine seems to be working quite well, at least at easing the symptoms.

[Gerik 29:08] Gerik will knock on the doorframe, since the door is slightly open. "Hey Lizzie, Delaria sent me up here. She said maybe I could help out. My name's Gerik. Don't be alarmed by the armor and the weapons. I'm a bodyguard of Lord Searun. We're just here in the inn looking for some people. But never mind that. I'm a Paladin of Torm and I think I can help you out. I heard you've got a little bit of a disease going on, like a cough and a sickness. Is that right?"

[GM 29:39] She nods and says, "Yeah."

[Gerik 29:41] "All right. Well, I think I got some abilities that can help you out, but let me talk to your papa. Garren is your dad, right?"

[GM 29:49] "Right."

[Gerik 29:50] "All right, I'm going to talk to him. You can enjoy that stew. I think he's out with Ren in the stables and I just want to make sure he's okay with it, right? I don't want to use magicks on you without his approval. So, you just sit tight. In a few minutes, I'll talk to your dad and if he thinks it's all right, I'll come back and put my hands on you and give you some blessings to make that disease go away. Is that all right for you?"

[GM 30:14] "Yes, my lord."

[Gerik 30:16] "All right. Oh, I'm no lord. I'm just a man, but thank you, Lizzie. I'll be right back." And then he'll leave, while walking up the stairs he was like 'Hey wait, I probably should talk to her dad first.' So he comes back downstairs. He waves to the others, saying, "I got to talk to her dad. It's unbecoming to use magic on a young lady without asking her parents' permission first." And then walks out.

[GM 30:42] Nice. Ren, you hear some strange scrabbling noises coming from somewhere near the wagon as you're helping load things up. It sounds like there's something underneath the wagon.

[Ren 31:00] I hear the scrabbling and turn to Garren. "You have rat problems here, goodman?"

[GM 31:10] "No, I suppose there are rat problems everywhere, but usually our cat, Miss Whiskers, takes care of them."

[Ren 31:18] "Well, maybe that's what I'm hearing." I take a look under the wagon to see what I can see.

[GM 31:26] Oh, this is beautiful. That's quite the perception check you have.

[Ren 31:35] A perception check of one. I hear the rustling. I have my separ with me and jump back and yell: "Tears! Eyes!" and shove the spear wildly underneath the wagon.

[Gerik 31:56] That's the third natural one we've rolled this session.

[GM 32:00] I know, it's going so well.

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending to another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Gerik 0:31] That's the third natural one we've rolled this session.

[Jocq 0:35] Hitting a lot of them. Two of them are Ren's.

[Ren 0:41] On the other hand, I'm really good at punching things with this spear here. That's an 18 to hit whatever's underneath that wagon.

[GM 0:49] Let's go ahead and resolve that real quick. Go ahead and roll damage.

[Ren 0:54] 10 piercing.

[GM 0:55] Wow. That's impressive. All right, so you slam your spear in there and you can hear hissing and jumping about, and then whatever it is lies still underneath there.

[Ren 1:12] Turn to Garren and say, "I think your rat problem has been solved, goodman."

[Jocq 1:20] Oooooh...

[GM 1:28] Sure this will be totally fine. So, let's go ahead and grab some initiatives real quick.

[Jocq 1:34] Most certainly.

[Delaria 1:37] Why?

[Gerik 1:40] All right. Nothing poor ever happens when the DM asks for initiative.

[GM 1:46] Nice.

[Gerik 1:48] I rolled an initiative of zero.

[Ren 1:50] Wow.

[Gerik 1:52] Oh no. You rolled almost as good as me. Actually we rolled the same thing. He just gets a better mod.

[GM 1:59] Gerik of zero, Delaria of 17.

[Delaria 2:06] Rather than packing all of my gear up inside of a bag, Delaria did wear her armor, with the shawl over it, but she's wearing it.

[Gerik 2:17] Nice.

[Jocq 2:18] Seems reasonable.

[Gerik 2:19] And you said this happened while Gerik was coming down the stairs, so he's here-ish?

[GM 2:22] Yeah. Now to set the scene so that you know what's happening here. You hear screeching coming from outside near the wagon, but also just outside the window behind Jocq there. And seeing outside the window, you can see that there's a number of creatures that look like dead bushes, but they're running around and coming toward the building.

[Delaria 2:50] "The shrubs are moving."

[Jocq 2:52] "Like in the wind?"

[Delaria 2:53] "No, like they're walking."

[Jocq 2:57] "Well, that doesn't look very good."

[Delaria 2:59] I'm going to draw my mace. I don't know if they will walk inside, but I am going to walk a few feet to position myself by the door so I can bash them if they try to come in. Alternatively, do these doors swing in?

[GM 3:17] They swing out.

[Delaria 3:20] Okay, good. So they'll have to open the door out and I'll know they're coming, and then I'll be ready to bash them. I'm hanging out by the doors, ready to bash them.

[GM 3:30] Nice. All right. The little dead bush looking creatures... The one underneath the wagon near Ren is small enough that he can run around underneath, screeching... "Rrrrrrwk!" And he takes a swipe at your legs, Ren, hitting you for four points of damage.

[Jocq 3:52] That's not very good at this level.

[Ren 3:54] No, I was going to say, dropping me to five hit points.

[Gerik 3:58] Ouch. 

[GM 3:58] This one's going to smash the window and attempt to claw at Jocq through the window.

[Jocq 4:06] "I don't like this very much."

[Gerik 4:09] Is Jocq going to get cover from being through the window?

[GM 4:12] Yeah, I would say because of their size it's probably half cover. So 17, 16, 15 against your armor class of 11.

[Jocq 4:24] As the window breaks, I'm going to raise my hand and call out, "Tarian," and shield's flash.

[GM 4:32] Nice. All right. So it scrapes across your shield. And Del, the door opens as the creature scrabbles at it.

[Delaria 4:42] "There's one behind me. Oh, there's one in front of me." Let me find my weapon... which Del is holding, but I need to find... there we go. Nine to hit.

[GM 4:55] Actually, let's call it advantage as it's pulling open the door and running in. Yeah, it's just blindly running in, so let's call it advantage on that as it comes screeching in. "Rrrrrrrwk!"

[Delaria 5:08] How about a five to hit? "Oh, there's one behind me."

[GM 5:12] You take a bite out of the door jam as your mace smashes into it. And it will attempt to claw you back as it continues its screeching, but it just rakes across your armor.

[Delaria 5:28] Eeep.

[GM 5:29] As it runs into the room, again screeching, hands over its head, it is clutching at whatever it can try to grab at.

[Jocq 5:38] There are two quick things I'd like to call out. The first is “Dreki assist with Delaria” and as a bonus action, I'm going to mentally direct my Unseen Servant: 'Fetch Gerik.' So an unseen servant wearing a cloak goes floating off in the direction towards the stairway. Jocquelynn will sidle between the table and the fireplace, trying to create some distance between him and the creatures.

[Gerik 6:06] Is he disengaging?

[Jocq 6:07] No.

[Gerik 6:08] Because if not, he'll get attacked.

[Jocq 6:10] Yeah, he will.

[Gerik 6:12] Ouch.

[GM 6:13] So yeah, he will get swiped at, but you do have cover again. Oof. Sixteen... against your armor class Is Shield still up until the end of your turn?

[Gerik 6:26] No, it's at the start of his turn.

[GM 6:27] Start. Got you. Okay. Perfect. So, two points of damage if I'm not mistaken.

[Jocq 6:36] Yes, indeed.

[GM 6:38] All right. And you can feel it swipe down your back and you can hear your fine shirt tearing.

[Jocq 6:45] "Ah, that's really frustrating." That was the one through the window?

[GM 6:49] Yep. 

[Jocq 6:50] All right. Then we're going to turn around, reach out a hand and ‘llaw farw', casting chill touch against him. That same skeletal hand and echo of the mage hand that appeared earlier shoots through the window, latches onto him as best that it can, which is not very well. It's going to get caught on the glass and not be able to make it through.

[GM 7:13] Anything else for your turn?

[Jocq 7:15] That'll do.

[GM 7:16] Ren, you're up. You've just been slashed underneath the wagon by what appeared to be a living bush. How would you like to proceed?

[Ren 7:25] So I stagger back, having been slashed by this thorn twig creature that seems to be crawling under the wagon. I throw my arm back and yell to Garren, "Garren, get behind me!" Then yell, "'Ware the house! Lord Searun, we're under attack!" and then I will strike at the moving creature that is coming up out of the wagon towards me.

[GM 8:00] Nice.

[Jocq 8:01] Critical hit! Yay.

[Ren 8:05] All right. So being caught off guard, I stumble backwards on one foot, but then pivot and do a complete 360 spin and thrust the spear into the heart of the brush. There's a rattle and some twitching of thorns and branches as they're breaking off. A whispering, gasping sound, like the breeze passing through trees, and the creature falls to the ground next to its other brush companion.

[GM 8:45] Wonderful. All right, Dreki, what's Dreki doing?

[Jocq 8:50] The owl, being dislodged from the Unseen Servant's movement as he dashes across the common room to the bottom of the stairs and opens that door, flies around, flanking with Delaria, and draking at its face... not attacking, but simply distracting before flying off again.

[GM 9:09] All right. Gerik, you're up.

p[Gerik 9:11] Gerik keeps walking down the stairs. His first 10 feet are leisurely, then he hears all this commotion and opens the door. It's like that meme from Community where the place is on fire, the pizzas are falling, and there's just this big battle happening in the lounge. He realizes that he's not going to be able to get there and attack this round, but surveying the situation, he sees Delaria and two of these bush creatures right in front of him. He sees one in that window and then he sees Lord Searun running back by the bar. So he's just going to dash and interpose himself between the monsters and Lord Searun this round and have his great axe out. If they try and get past him, he's going to try and give them some righteous justice. Then he'll try and help Del next turn. So he's just going to dash and he'll dash to about this position so if they try and get past him then he can attack. And by this position I mean about 10 ft behind Delaria interposing himself between Lord Searun and the bushes.

[GM 10:04] I love it... And Del.

[Delaria 10:07] "Blasted shrubs! Too many shrubs." There are quite possibly better things to be attacking with, but the mace is up and her shield's on her other arm. It's right at the table. Why not? So let's bash the one that I've been trying to bash before, who had come in the door initially.... not the zippiest one that has barreled around to my right and not the one that's clawing at me through the window... the one in front of me that I tried to hit before.

[GM 10:39] Okay.

[Delaria 10:41] 13.

[GM 10:42] That's a hit.

[Jocq 10:44] Oh, thank goodness.

[Delaria 10:46] Crunch.

[GM 10:46] All right. So you hit him for two and it's not enough to take him out, but you do crunch some branches. The bush that you clubbed with your mace returns with an attack with its claws again. Oof. Two points of damage as it rakes it across you. It's basically trying to latch on as much as it can.

[Delaria 11:13] "You get off me."

[GM 11:15] The creature outside the window scrabbles through the window and will attack you from the rear.

[Delaria 11:22] "They're everywhere!"

[GM 11:24] But your armor takes the most of it. Del is totally surrounded by now. The one that's harried will also attack Del, sensing that she's surrounded and perhaps might not last that long.

[Gerik 11:41] "Delaria!"

[GM 11:42] For five points of damage.

[Jocq 11:43] Oooof.

[Delaria 11:44] "Dang it! Ow! Ow! Rose shrubs don't normally poke back this way."

[Gerik 11:50] At level one, that is all her HP, almost.

[GM 11:55] Lord Searun, Jocq.

[Jocq 11:57] All right. From across the room, seeing all three creatures pile in through the door and in the window and overwhelming Delaria, he's going to hold up his hand, put out three fingers and shout out the word 'Taflegryn,' and magic missiles are going to spew forth, striking one per creature. 

[GM 12:20] Perfect. 

[Jocq 12:21] For a full damage of five. Little bits of force collide across them, branches scattering off at the impact. So five for each. Oh, that's really relieving when they all break and fall as twigs to the ground.

[GM 12:35] Nicely done.

[Gerik 12:36] Hooray.

[Delaria 12:37] "Thank you."

[Gerik 12:39] Seeing all these die, Gerik will go out the front door and see if there's any more, axe out, looking around. Oh, sorry. If we're still in combat order, though, excuse me because Ren would go next. I was assuming that we were out of combat order.

[GM 12:54] No, that ends the combat, so we can jump out into story mode, perhaps favoring Ren as I assume you head towards the house.

[Ren 13:05] Yep. I stumble back into the main room of the inn to see how the rest of the party is faring, clutching at my side where I've been raked by the twig creatures. Not doing well... but holding a spear, looking around to see if there are any other attacks forthcoming. Coming through the door, the side door into the main room, I see Jocq standing behind the table and I see Del down on the ground surrounded by the pile of bushes. "Del, are you okay?"

[Delaria 13:53] "I think I'm about as good as you are. Maybe. I'm just going to sit here and catch my breath for a bit. How about you?"

[Ren 14:05] "I think I may sit down as well. Where's Gerik at?"

[GM 14:10] Gerik is out front. Garren is right behind you, basically letting you lead the way with your spear, but does follow you inside the common room to join the others.

[Ren 14:21] "Garren, perhaps you can get some water boiling and see if we can try to get some of these folks patched up. And... I think I'm just going to sit here for a minute."

[GM 14:32] He says, "Just a moment, I have to check on Lizzie," and he'll run upstairs to check on Lizzie, make sure she's good, before coming back down to fill a cauldron with some water so that you have plenty of boiling water.

[Gerik 14:49] Do any of us know what these things were? "I ain't never seen anything like this before. What is this? I ain't never seen a bush walking around."

[Ren 14:57] "Just talking of goblins and woods and trees, I wonder...."

[Delaria 15:02] "I don't even know if this is a natural thing or an animal thing. Does it remind me of anything other than rose bushes? Not really, but those don't usually walk. Do they? Do rose bushes walk?"

[Ren 15:19] "Not that I can remember."

[GM 15:23] All right. So there's nothing natural that you know of this thing. Jocq, you know or you've heard some legend of plants becoming aware or awakened. Depending on how it's done, they can either be quite evil, trying to destroy whatever they can, or they can be quite good. These ones were apparently crafted by something with less than good intent.

[Jocq 15:56] Recovering his cloak from off his Unseen Servant and putting it on, hiding the unseemly gash in his shirt, he will dictate this to the party: "These creatures are magical sorts. I'm not sure if they're naturally magical or if somebody has to enchant them, but that doesn't bode well for your establishment, Garren." He hastily shovels loose papers back into his satchel.

[Delaria 16:26] "We need to figure this out in the morning, but I think a rest might do us some good. I think we might all be able to feel a little bit better if we just sit down and breathe. And I think Gerik was looking for you earlier, Garren."

[Gerik 16:46] "Yeah, I think a good rest is going to be needed here. I can watch the guard. We can have a guard rotation here with these unnatural creatures coming out of the woodwork. But yeah, Garren, I was looking for you. I think with your permission, sir, I'd like to try and heal your daughter, Lizzie, with some of the techniques I learned as a Paladin. I think I can make the disease leave her body."

[GM 17:11] "I would be much obliged for the guard and for healing my little Lizzie."

[Gerik 17:17] "All right. I'll head up there. I'll try and heal Lizzie and then we'll figure out the guard. I'll go outside for a couple of hours and maybe Ren and Delaria... if we switch around a couple hours each, we can be good. But yeah, I wouldn't feel safe without posting a guard here tonight." Gerik will walk up the stairs and head up to Lizzie.

[GM 17:39] Garren will come with you, holding his hat in his hands.

[Delaria 17:44] As they head up the stairs, Delaria sits on the ground, trying to catch her breath. If you could see a light within a person, it would be there. You can see her sit up a bit straighter, breathe easier, and look just about right as rain. She places a hand on Ren and sits with him in calm meditation, sending energy his way as well. You can see him breathe a bit easier and look just about right as rain after.

[Ren 18:24] There's a feeling of warmth from head to toe, like inside blood rushing hot and then back to regular temperature, and I'm feeling much better.

[GM 18:38] All right. Gerik, you enter the room with Garren. He leads the way a little bit and stands near Lizzie.

[Gerik 18:50] Gerik will head over there and he'll say, "All right, Garren and Lizzie, like I said, I went and talked to your dad; he said it's all right. So I'm going to put my hand on your head real quick and just say some words, and then the disease should leave your body if it's of a normal nature. Is everyone ready?" He looks around for everyone's approval.

[GM 19:09] Garren and Lizzie both nod.

[Gerik 19:12] All right. "Torm, please hear my call, the hand of righteousness, take the disease from this lady here and make her whole once again." Some divine light shines from his hands and flows through Lizzie, and maybe something happens. I'll use five points of lay on hands to remove a disease if it's a standard disease.

[GM 19:35] Cool. And how many points can you heal? Is it five total that you have right now?

[Gerik 19:38] I only have five, yeah. So he uses his whole pool.

[GM 19:42] You can feel this echo of divinity. Lizzie leans back a little bit more at ease, sighs softly, and falls asleep. You can see that her cheeks are less flushed and she sleeps with a smile on her face.

[Gerik 20:05] Gerik will put his hand on Garren's shoulder. "I think Torm has seen fit to take her disease from her, good sir. We'll check in the morning before we leave, but I think she should be all right now. Torm smiles upon us, both here with Lizzie and out front with those plant beasts. We're mighty grateful for this inn that we can rest at, and I'm happy that Lizzie's going to recover, sir."

[GM 20:34] Garren thanks you profusely. He says whatever he can do for you guys. After a bloody battle with these blighted plants, something about this common room and perhaps the inn itself... maybe Jocq, it's your imagination... but something feels different now that everyone's been healed, almost that same feeling you get when you enter an old chapel or something.

[Jocq 21:13]"You know, it's probably because the window's broken. It's become quite drafty. That chill goes straight to your bone. Might want to stock that fire a little bit, Garren."

[Delaria 21:23] "We've got some good kindling here by the door," and picks up some corpse-y branch bits.

[GM 21:29] They do burn clean, so you don't have to worry about that. You can burn them as wood.

[Delaria 21:34] Oh, good.

[GM 21:35] But we'll call it there. So well done. Well done.

[Jocq 21:40] Right.

[Ren 21:41] Excellent.

[Gerik 21:43] Time for a rest. That went smashingly well.

[Delaria 21:49] Not quite dead.

[Jocq 21:50] I was a little panicked for a minute there.

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of the Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM  0:31] You guys wake up in the morning and finish up your preparations, have a hearty breakfast, and go out to your wagon, which has already been prepped by the stable master, and your individual horses as well for Ren. You can tell as you guys walk outside, the barn is kind of a separate building, and you can see once again, this day is probably going to be a bit snowy. Is there anything that you would like to do, check, or anything like that before you head out on the journey?

[Delaria 1:12] "You know what, how about I don't mend your shirt on the road, because then you will not have a shirt on the road. I can fix your shirt later."

[Jocq 1:22] "I did bring an extra shirt. I also brought my cloak, so I should be okay."

[Delaria 1:28] "All right. I can mend a handful of things. So if anything gets scruffed up, let me know."

[Jocq 1:37] "A handful of things?"

[Delaria 1:39] "Yeah, when you grow up with a big family, you learn how to fix stuff."

[Jocq 1:44] "Is there any items we should limit this to or is it free game?"

[Delaria 1:49] "I mean, I don't know how to fix magic, but a thing that has magic in it, I can fix things up to a point." Whatever the mending cantrip does.

[Gerik  2:05] One foot in length!

[Jocq 2:07] "All right. We'll keep it in mind."

[GM  2:09] That tear in Jocq's shirt is 12 and a half inches long, so your mending spell is not going to...

[Jocq 2:17] Dammitall

[GM 2:18] ...just kidding.

[Delaria 2:17] That's fine. I'll sew that part. It won't be as nice looking… and the rest of it: cantrip away!

[Jocq 2:23] "I'll just wear my cloak over it. It's fine."

[Delaria 2:28] What we do is we need to find someone who can shrink your shirt. Then I can fix it, and then we can put it back to size.

[GM  2:35] That's brilliant spell usage.

[Ren 2:40] I'll lead my horse out and hop on and get on our way here.

[GM  2:46] All right, who's in the wagon? Is it the other three of you?

[Gerik 2:50] Yeah, Gerik's probably driving the wagon again with his Land Vehicle proficiency and I'd imagine everyone else in the back like how we came here.

[Jocq 3:00] Ren was on his own horse riding out. Are we bringing both horses?

[Gerik 3:05] Ren's horse plus the horse with the wagon? Yes. "Well, Garren did say it's up by Mount Hotenow. He told us about that cairn. Probably a day's journey or so from here. So just keep your eyes out. We're going to look for a cairn, if you ain't seen one, it's just a big old like pile of rocks. So then we're going to turn off at that big pile of rocks. We're going to hope and pray to the gods that there's not a bunch of these cairns out here. And then we're just going to keep going as far as we can go. I'm almost sure that these roads are going to end before we get to where we need to go to. So, we're going to have to get ready to to go out on foot, I would imagine. But first things first, let's look for this cairn and then we'll get off the high road onto one of these side roads and see what's in store for us."

[Jocq 3:55] "Following the roads to the base of a volcano. Delightful."

[Gerik 4:00] "Yeah, this is what we call adventuring."

[GM  4:05] Gerik, go ahead and do an Overland Vehicle roll for me.

[Gerik 4:12] All right. Boom. Hey, 21.

[Delaria 4:17] Nice.

[GM  4:18] And who's keeping their eyes peeled for the cairn? I would say that you could probably do two people on that.

[Delaria 4:25] I'm fixing some stuff first.

[Ren 4:27] I will. I'm ahead on the horse anyway.

[Delaria 4:32] Whenever I'm done fixing stuff, if it's about a day away, I probably don't need to look yet. I can fix some stuff for a little bit and then I'll go look too.

[Gerik 4:40] Could Dreki look from the sky with his owl eyes?

[Jocq 4:44] He most certainly could. We can have Dreki fly about when we're taking breaks or being lazy. We can take it in shifts.

[Gerik 4:53] So, all the time for you.

[Delaria 4:58] That was kind of on the nose. Rude.

[Gerik 5:03] That was all out-of-character. Out-of-character!

[Ren  5:06] Both Ren and Del apparently are super distracted today.

[Delaria 5:10] "It's been a long time since I've been outside the city. It's nice. I like how the snow is falling. I mean, the road's kind of muddy, but out there, in the direction that I shouldn't be looking, out there it's actually pretty nice and sparkly."

[Ren 5:24] "Definitely see what you're saying. The clouds look kind of grim, not paying much attention to the side of the road though. A little worried about this weather."

[GM  5:34] Out to the east, as you guys are traveling this road, you can see a few ships out on the ocean. And the road eventually pulls a little ways away from the cliffs that go down to the ocean. As you continue, you can tell that the road is in pretty good repair. Gerik, piloting your wagon is really easy.

[Gerik 6:06] Yes!

[GM  6:08] Out to the west is where that ocean lies. To the east, as you guys are again traveling, you can see the small dark green line of the Neverwinter Wood. Quite some distance away. And between you guys and that is a series of hills and plains and that sort of thing. Jocq, what are you doing in this time frame?

[Jocq 6:35] I'm spending my time passing through my own perceptions, watching the road go by and watching the land underneath through Dreki's eyes.

[GM  6:45] All right, go ahead and do a Perception Check for me.

[Jocq 6:47] Most certainly, from Dreki or from Jocq?

[GM  6:50] Probably Dreki would be the best vantage.

[Jocq 6:54] All right. It will be a 22 for Dreki.

[GM  6:59] So Dreki flying above, you can see abandoned farmsteads out in this area, probably abandoned since Hotenow first erupted.

[Jocq 7:12] Imagine a good number of them burned and damaged.

[GM  7:16] Correct, yeah. A lot of them are leaning like one way or the other, just really not taken care of. And the farmland itself has become more wild plain than anything. The road is well traveled. So you guys pass travelers coming the other direction and back behind you, you could probably see a few travelers following in your wake.

[Jocq 7:46] We'll keep a close eye on them... from Dreki's vantage.

[GM  7:51] Eventually, through Dreki's eyes, you do see the cairn up ahead. Or at least a cairn.

[Jocq 7:58] "Right. Gerik, there's a stack of rocks up ahead."

[Gerik 8:05] "Oh, perfect. How far up ahead do you think it is up there?"

[Jocq 8:10] He stands up in the wagon and points. "It's right there."

[Gerik 8:15] Okay. So Gerik will start turning the cart and he'll let Ren know. So he'll just yell out. "Ren, Lord Searun said he found the cairn up here. We're going to be turning off in a second, so just don't get too far ahead now."

[Ren 8:29] "Very good. I see it. It looks like the road is certainly older that's turning off here. This may be the one that we're looking for."

[Gerik 8:38] "Yeah, it's probably not as well kept as the High Road. So we got to keep our wits about us as we turn off here. And we got Dreki flying up overhead, got some cover over there, but these side roads are perfect for ambushes, so keep your wits about you."

[Jocq 8:55] "Right. Keep it up, Dreki. It's a good owl. Good job."

[GM  9:01] As you guys get closer, you can see that there is a small, mostly unused path there that was probably once a road, but now is mostly broken cobblestone, not really a complete, intact road. And it's flanked on either side by these low cairns. One is taller than the other and that's the one that Dreki saw. Jocq pointing it out makes it very easy to find.

[Jocq 9:38] "That's the one we're looking for!"

[GM  9:41] Turning down this road, you can see that there's more farms and ruins, basically stone ruins here and there. Nothing more than just a few low walls essentially and some overgrown hedges that probably marked out where farm properties ended and began. And the sun has begun to set.

[Gerik 10:11] "That was quite the journey right there. We got to take a little bit of a slower pace here. This road is just going to work havoc on our horses. It's not very well kept and we don't want them to break an ankle or anything. So, with the sun setting there, I think we should probably take it a little slow and find some place to rest for the night, Lord Searun."

[Jocq 10:34] "Right. By your experience, it makes sense. You know as well as I do that Mother Searun would have a fit if one of her horses broke their ankle."

[Gerik 10:43] "Yeah. Yeah, that's my long-term concern, but my short-term concern is, we don't want our horses to get hurt. We can't lug all this stuff ourselves."

[Jocq 10:54] "That's a fair point."

[Gerik 10:57] "I mean, also I just love the animals, right?" So, anyway, he'll look around and he'll try and see. I think we'll all look around probably and try and see if there's a good place where we can find shelter, preferably like an abandoned farm or something. But if not, we'll just tent out somewhere. But with it being very cold and the snow falling, it would be much more convenient to have an actual shelter rather than a tent.

[Jocq 11:23] Preferably four walls.

[Ren 11:25] We could sleep under the wagon...

[Jocq 11:28] Doesn't sound super pleasant.

[Delaria 11:31] You know, I'd actually be pretty interested in looking around this for anything that's still standing. For us to stay in, sure, but also, that's some good construction to not have anyone keeping up on it and it keeps itself up. Maybe we could learn something from it.

[GM  11:51] So, interestingly enough, Mount Hotenow is still a couple days, actually probably close to three days away from your current place. So, the explosion from Mount Hotenow was intense and quite violent.

[Gerik 12:09] So these are all abandoned because of that explosion some decades ago?

[GM  12:14] Correct. All right, and for investigating the current ruins and things of that nature, do you guys want to split up or do you want to stay in a single group?

[Ren 12:28] Some abandoned barn or something would be useful to spend the night in. We probably don't want to split up too much based on the heightened activity from the blighted sticks that we ran across last night or ran across us. It may take a little longer, but best to stay grouped.

[Delaria 12:48] Good educational opportunity too. I mean, hey, look at this masonry work over here.

[Jocq 12:54] If you'd like to provide a description of the kind of place we're looking for. We can have Dreki fly ahead and then if he's found something suitable, we can make a detour off the road to it.

[Delaria 13:05] For our happiness, anywhere that he cannot see in while he's flying over it. Might keep us from getting rained on, snowed on.

[Jocq 13:13] A roof is a good call. That's a good call. I like the idea of a roof.

[Gerik 13:17] Yeah, preferably without fires burning or other people inside. That could complicate matters a little bit.

[Jocq 13:25] "People just do this all the time? We can expect to see other people out here?"

[Gerik 13:32] "Well, yeah. When you're adventuring, you got to sleep wherever you can get, and a building's better than sleeping out in the open."

[Jocq 13:43] "Curious. Very interesting. Well, I would be happy to aid in the search for such a place, though I do not think it's quite my bailiwick to find it."

[Delaria 13:56] "You may not be used to looking for stuff out here, Jocq, but you know how to look for a roof. And you saw you could see through Dreki, you saw the cairn before any of us did. I think you've got some good eyes on you."

[Jocq 14:09] "All right, I'll let Dreki take the lead on that." And eventually he will indeed guide us to a place that has four walls ideally and a roof over the head. He didn't go inside, so that's the best we can do.

[GM  14:26] Did anybody want to do any follow-up rolls, engineering of any kind of nature?

[Ren 14:32] I will roll Survival.

[GM  14:35] Perfect.

[GM  14:37] Yes, the location that was found seems perfect.

[Jocq 14:41] "I spot a roof and four walls more or less."

[Ren 14:44] As described, that looks very survivable based on the 7 Survival roll.

[Gerik 14:52] Gerik will do Animal Handling to make sure our animals don't get hurt. He's going to kind of like guide them with care since this road is so shoddy.

[GM  15:03] All right. So you guys find an old farmhouse that seems to be slightly better built than the rest, or perhaps it was saved from most of the damage from the volcano erupting. It is standing, kind of leaning to one side. It does have a few holes in the roof. No intact windows to speak of, but it does also have an adjacent barn that would be large enough to park the wagon in.

[Delaria 15:37] Ooooh.

[Gerik 15:38] Nice.

[Jocq 15:40] "That's a good owl. You've done well." I ruffle his feathers a little bit as we pull up to the location.

[Delaria 15:47] "Does Dreki like bacon? We don't have 75 pounds of it anymore, but we do have some."

[Jocq 15:53] "I imagine he would love a treat. Meat of any kind... you know, dragons and all."

[Delaria 15:59] "What? I don't think we have any dragon meat. It's normal pig bacon."

[Jocq 16:07] "Right. I meant owls. Owls like meat as well as dragons."

[Delaria 16:11] "All right."

[Jocq 16:12] He cocks his head on it, snatches it as you toss it.

[GM  16:17] So, you head inside?

[Jocq 16:21] As long as Gerik and Ren think that's to be wise.

[Gerik 16:25] Yeah, I think Gerik and Ren will probably sweep around the house first, and just make sure that we're safe... we're not going to face check an unknown door and be like, 'Surprise, bandits.' But, one: make sure there's no one around. And two: go in and check it out.

[Ren 16:42] Yep. We can check pretty easily for footprints in the falling snow to see if there's anyone recent here. If they've been sheltered we can look for other signs.

[GM  16:52] All right, do another Survival for me, Ren, and a Perception from you, Gerik.

[Gerik 16:57] All right. That was not half bad. 17.

[Ren 17:02] 13.

[GM  17:03] Nice. So, circling the building first, you don't find any evidence of anybody entering or exiting anytime recently. The snow is not particularly heavy at this point, not falling particularly heavy. So any tracks that would have been made would not be covered up anytime soon, basically. Gerik, you don't see any activity inside the house. Kind of peering through any holes in the walls or windows, etc. It looks dark.

[Gerik 17:41] Great. So he'll finish sweeping around. He's kind of making a loop around the house with Ren. We don't want to go by ourselves. And so, when we come back around the far side, then he'll give everybody kind of the thumbs up. "Yeah, it doesn't look like there've been anybody here in a little bit. So I think we can go on in."

[Delaria 18:02] "All right."

[GM  18:03] Who wants to park the wagon?

[Ren 18:06] I will lead my horse in, but probably Gerik had better do the parking.

[Delaria 18:10] I stare, way up high to the horse. "I pick not me."

[Gerik 18:15] Probably Mr. Land Vehicles himself. So, Gerik will back the wagon in.

[GM  18:21] Perfect. The barn inside has a few farming implements, but is mostly empty besides those old farming implements.

[Gerik 18:34] So he'll just park it and then go in with everybody else.

[Ren 18:37] "Do we want to stay in the barn or in the house?"

[Delaria 18:41] "Well, the cart's in the barn now."

[Jocq 18:43] "I have it on good authority that it's a solid four walls and a roof."

[GM  18:48] Yep. So the barn and the house are mostly intact. So if you want to stay with the wagon where you parked it in the barn, totally feasible. There's plenty of room. If you would prefer to go for the house, which would have more of a traditional hearth, fireplace situation, probably a little bit warmer overall, then that would be a good option.

[Jocq 19:09] I think Jocq will hand-wave the idea of staying in the barn away out of hand. “Besides, if we need to bring anything in, we can..." Gesturing at the papers he's pulled out as he made his way into the house and began summoning an Unseen Servant. "...have the magic bring it in. Not a trouble."

[GM  19:26] Perfect. The house itself is a strange juxtaposition of 'people used to live here', and 'when they left'. It was very sudden. So you walk in and there's still old paintings hanging on the walls, rugs on the floor, but they've all been subjected to time and weathering. It opens onto a main living room as you guys walk into the front door. And that has some older furniture in it and a large fireplace. There's an adjoining kitchen and then a couple of small bedrooms off to one side and a rickety stairway going up to the obviously crooked second floor.

[Gerik 20:21] "I don't recommend anybody go check that out. Let's stay on the first floor."

[Jocq 20:27] "We could have something lighter or perhaps invisible go look or Dreki even. Might be nice to make sure nothing's up there."

[Gerik 20:36] "Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe if Dreki or someone or Unseen Servant, but probably Dreki, he can fly, so I don't trust them stairs."

[Jocq 20:46] "I think that's a fair observation."

[Ren 20:49] "I'll see if there's any wood in the back from previous occupants that is available."

[Delaria 20:55] "That sounds better." says Del, staring at the pile of ash and dust in the hearth. "I would be very happy to start cooking something and that will work better with wood to start a fire."

[GM  21:12] There's definitely wood in the back for starting a fire and for keeping it going throughout the night.

[Ren 21:20] Okay, I will bring enough wood in for feeding it throughout the night and enough to start the fire for cooking.

[Delaria 21:29] Hooray.

[Jocq 21:31] Finishing the Unseen Servant. "Please, let the servant do that. Don't trouble yourself."

[Delaria 21:38] "I don't know what else to be doing."

[Jocq 21:42] "Well, it can't cook as well as I can. You're probably better at that. ‘Bring in wood.’ I'm not much of a cook and it's worse."

[Delaria 21:51] Del will sit down on a chair, puff the dust all over the place. Shrug.

[GM  22:01] Del, this house is definitely made for humans. It might be slightly uncomfortable for you as far as reaching and getting to things, but not outlandishly so.

[Delaria 22:14] Nice news, she can sit kind of curled up sideways in the chair and have room to do that.

[Gerik 22:22] ...like a cat.

[GM  22:25] Jocq, did you want to send Dreki up into the second floor?

[Jocq 22:28] Most certainly. Probably before we finish the Unseen Servant, we'll whisk him up and see if there's anything out. Though I'll be focusing on the spell itself, so I won't be looking and trusting his report.

[GM  22:41] All right, so upstairs, there's two other bedrooms that he can easily get into and flap around. But he has to kind of stop and land on a railing to look down this hallway at a closed door. This room would be basically right above the living room.

[Jocq 23:04] Is there any way for him to hear? Or listen for anything in there?

[GM  23:11] Yes. I think you guys aren't being particularly quiet downstairs, right?

[Ren 23:18] jumping around... brushing dust out, sweeping out ash. 

[Gerik 23:20] We're not exactly the stealthiest.

[GM  23:27] So, let's go ahead and do the Perception check for Dreki, but not at advantage.

[Jocq 23:34] That's a 10 then.

[GM  23:36] All right. So, he doesn't detect anything on the other side of that door. Nothing that he can hear.

[Jocq 23:45] Well, that's probably fine. "He says there's a door upstairs that he couldn't quite ascertain any information from, but nothing too untoward or unworldly."

[Ren 24:00] "I expect nothing too large could be up there in any case. We would hear them and probably would not have survived those stairs as good Gerik pointed out."

[Gerik 24:10] "If there's something up there and they're trying to get the drop on us, them stairs are going to give out. We're going to know. We'll be all right, gods be willing."

[Delaria 24:22] "A closed door you say though."

[Jocq 24:25] "Directly above the living room, yes."

[Delaria 24:28] "Above us?"

[Jocq 24:29] "Right. Just right up there."

[Delaria 24:32] "Should we bang on the ceiling? See if anything shuffles around in there?"

[Jocq 24:37] "I mean that might be worth a try. I don't think like mentioned previously that any of us larger individuals risk the stairs, but you're mighty little."

[Delaria 24:47] "I'm actually kind of interested in checking it out. I can yell down at you."

[Jocq 24:54] "Do you want Dreki with you perhaps?"

[Delaria 24:56] "Yeah..."

[Jocq 24:57] "All right. Go on, Dreki."

[Delaria 24:58] "It'll give me something to do."

[Gerik 25:02] "I thought you were going to cook some delicious food."

[Delaria 25:06] "I thought I was too...." What's happening? Did you offer the suggestion to have the Unseen Servant bring in the wood, not cook the food?

[Jocq 25:15] It's not a good cook, no.

[Delaria 25:18] Okay. Well, all right. "How about I go check on that in a minute? Yeah, let's get some food out of the wagon and into the cauldron."

[Jocq 25:27] "All right, we can have the servant fetch it, that's fine. It'll be right in."

[Delaria 25:33] "Well, I think it'd be a good idea to use some of the squishier perishable stuff first anyway, so it'll be a fast-cooking stew."

[Jocq 25:40] "Is anything particular you want or just an armful of stuff?"

[Delaria 25:46] "Now I'm very curious to see what an armful of stuff brings back."

[Jocq 25:50] "All right."

[Ren 25:52] "The beginning of an adventure is usually the best eating before all of the food starts getting a little old.... and gone."

[Jocq 26:02] "Right."

[Gerik 26:04] "Yeah."

[Jocq 26:05] Then assuming the barn is within 45 feet of the front door, we can direct the Unseen Servant to go and fetch the goods.

[Gerik 26:14] 'Excuse me, it's 62.5 feet away.'

[Delaria 26:20] 'Will you go lean out the window, please?'

[Gerik 26:23] Yeah.

[GM  26:26] All right, so the Unseen Servant will go about unseen.

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of the Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:32] Del, you going to head up the stairs?

[Delaria 0:35] Yeah.

[GM 0:36] Would you like to investigate the stairs first?

[Delaria 0:39] Yeah. Behold my button press.

[GM 0:46] All of its glory. Nice. So you're positive that you can stand on it without a problem. They are going to squeak something fierce. However, anything heavier than you, say... you carrying your backpack or something, might be more of a strain on this than you would like. And anything bigger than you, like a human, you're pretty positive would just fall right through the floor.

[Delaria 1:16] Well, I would not walk on these if I were you, and also if I ask you to toss me something, don't. Can I bring my mace up though?

[GM 1:29] You don't think your mace will be a problem.

[Delaria 1:32] Good thing that my mace was totally attached to me already when I was doing this test. Good, good. My backpack's all back by the chair though. So, all right.

[Jocq 1:43] Are you armored?

[Delaria 1:46] Yeah. I just wear this while I travel, because my armor doesn't fit that well inside my bag. So, I wear it until I'm sleeping.

[GM 1:55] Perfect. Ready to go?

[Delaria 1:58] *Squeak* Yeah.

[GM 2:01] All right. The stairs do squeak terribly as you go up them. You get to a landing and on either side of you are the open doorways to the bedrooms that Dreki mentioned. From the landing, you can see corners of some furniture in both rooms, both of which look old and tilting this way and that. The bedroom to your right as soon as you're up the stairs, it looks like that particular floor is leaning quite hard and you can feel a draft coming through there. So that's going to be open to the elements. The hallway stretches in front of you. You have the stairs on one side, so there's a banister that stops you from falling down those stairs. And then that hallway reaches that door. You can see that it's red and weathered, so the paint is peeling off of it, and it looks like it's slightly angled, as if tilted just slightly from the house settling over the years.

[Delaria 3:22] Oh, I'll wave at Dreki. "Hello... All right, you guys, I'm going to check out this door that's closed first." I figure anything that's been open has been available to any critters running through the house already. So this one seems most interesting to me.

[Jocq 3:42] "Del says she's going to open the door."

[GM 3:46] All right, the floor underneath your feet, Del, squeaks terribly and you can feel the wood almost give... even under your light weight. You get to the door and find that it is not locked, but definitely stuck. You'll have to give it a good pull to get it open.

[Gerik 4:08] 'Del smash.'

[Delaria 4:11] Some sort of Athletic/Strength thing at it perhaps.

[GM 4:17] Yeah, you can either use your Athletics to pull on it, or you can try to smash it with your mace.

[Gerik 4:25] Like making an attack roll?

[Delaria 4:27] Part one: Try the door handle. I'll try to use it as a door first before I try to use it as kindling.... 12.

[GM 4:41] Perfect. With a mighty screech, it pulls open and you guys in the living room can see the ceiling above you shiver and you see some dust come down into the living area. But Del, you definitely get the door open and you almost fall back slightly. You use the door knob to hold yourself into position so you don't fall. But inside, you can see what appears to have been a master bedroom at one point. There's a large bed, a large chest of drawers, and a small chest at the foot of the bed near you.

[Delaria 5:35] "This room seems intact, you guys. They liked it enough that they closed the door when they left and I don't think anyone's been in here. I'm going to look around."

[GM 5:46] Dreki follows your movement, big wide eyes, feathers all poofed up from the cold, encouragingly.

[Gerik 5:54] "What in tarnation was all that ruckus?"

[Jocq 5:57] "She got the door open."

[Gerik 6:00] "All right, all right. Don't fall through the roof or nothing, all right? Be careful up there."

[Delaria 6:07] "I'll be careful, but how many couches are down there? I'll try to land on one of those if I fall through."

[GM 6:18] Yeah, there's two sofas down there situated around the fireplace. They would definitely be softer than hitting the ground for sure.

[Gerik 6:29] Can we ascertain about where she's at? Can we put some sofas approximately below that room?

[GM 6:37] You definitely can. You can almost see her shadow through the cracks in the floor and everywhere that Del steps, it will be very squeaky and dust will rain down from above.

[Gerik 6:52] Got it.

[Delaria 6:53] "All right, what's that over there? There's, let's see, a chest at the foot of the bed. That's a nice place for blankets. Blankets might be nice for the night." Bonus old blankets. Good choice, Del.

[GM 7:05] Go ahead and do a Perception Check. As you're moving around the room. All right, and you wanted to start with the chest at the foot of the bed?

[Delaria 7:13] Mhm.

[GM 7:14] All right. Surprisingly, it does have a lock on it and it is locked.

[Delaria 7:22] Well, those are some fancy blankets or not. I'll come back to this. I'm not convinced I have the ability to get through this lock though. I'll ask everyone else about it in a minute. To a dresser.

[GM 7:42] All right, the dresser itself has several drawers in it. Opening them up and investigating that dresser, you find some old clothes, some old blankets, and a few family knickknacks like a small snake carved out of wood and maybe a couple of dice.

[Delaria 8:08] Ooh, dice.

[GM 8:10] And that's about it for the dresser.

[Delaria 8:14] I think I'm going to try to pick it all up and take it... No, I don't want to walk around too much. I'll keep it in mind. Is there another set of... like is there a matching dresser or something on the other side of the room?

[GM 8:36] Yes.

[Delaria 8:38] Del's going to walk carefully around the bed to the other dresser.

[GM 8:41] All right, so you guys down below can see this as she moves around and Jocq, your Unseen Servant walks in with an armful of sustenance. It looks like it mostly matches and could make a meal.

[Jocq 8:56] That sounds like a successful venture then. "Put it there on the sofa."

[Gerik 9:04] "Well, Lord Searun, there's a table in here."

[Jocq 9:10] "Right."

[Gerik 9:11] "We can just use the table."

[Jocq 9:13] "I'd assume she'd want to use the pot on the fire for the heat. So easier in here, correct? No?"

[Gerik 9:20] "Well, it is an abandoned thing. So, yeah, do what you will, but why would we put the food on the sofa when there's a perfectly good table about 15 feet away?"

[Jocq 9:31] "Right. We can use the table. That's fine. On the table then." 

[Gerik 9:36] "All right."

[Jocq 9:37] "The table just has all my notes and papers. It's all right." I'll start cleaning it up.

[Gerik 9:42] As they're having this conversation, Gerik is pushing the sofa around as Del walks upstairs trying to catch her like with a trampoline in case she falls through the floor.

[GM 9:52] Perfect.

[Jocq 9:54] I will start hastily and unceremoniously shoving loose papers into Jocquelynn's satchel.

[GM 10:01] All right, so getting to the other dresser. Basically it's the same thing. These are mostly men's clothes, a few extra blankets. You do find a small silver necklace that looks like it was just buried at one side of one of the drawers. Not super fancy, but definitely something that a standard farmer would find very valuable.

[Delaria 10:38] Going to keep those in mind too. And then I'm going to check under the mattress cause that's where Del's family hides stuff. The ever-secure 'under the mattress'.

[GM 10:49] Nice. Go ahead and do another Perception check for me.

[Delaria 10:53] Wow, this mattress is dusty.

[GM 10:57] All right, so as you approach the mattress, you notice that there are two lumps underneath the dusty comforter, and looking a bit closer, you can see a skeletal hand hanging over the side of the mattress.

[Delaria 11:15] "Oh, they didn't close the door behind them, they never left. That's too bad...." Well, I think I'm going to go report back to the people now. The people. 'Hey people.' So, Del's going to make her way out of the bedroom toward the banister so she can shout out at everybody. "Hey, I figured out why that door was closed. It's because the people in that room never left. That's too bad."

[Jocq 11:51] "Are there people still here?"

[Delaria 11:53] "Not live ones."

[Jocq 11:56] "Oh. Oooooh. Oh. Well that's a shame."

[Delaria 12:00] "I think I'd like to set them to rest before we leave in the morning, but so far as it is, they're pretty well at rest right now. So, they also won't be needing their things anymore..." And then I'll describe the things.

[Gerik 12:14] "Well, I think it's best to leave those things where they lie. These poor people, they never made it out from when Mount Hotenow erupted some decades ago. But when we came, it certainly seemed like some people did escape, right? I mean, things are all askance, someone definitely escaped out of this house. So you thinking… maybe there were multiple families here and some of them left? Maybe the children left or something?"

[Delaria 12:44] "Maybe that. I haven't checked any other rooms and I haven't checked this locked chest that was at the foot of the bed. I don't know if maybe family was out. Maybe they don't know that their ancestors... parents... I didn't look to see. Okay, everything's human-sized. Yeah, if their parents… or maybe grandparents... anyway, there might be people who don't know for sure that their family didn't make it out if they weren't here at the time, so it might be nice to look around for something identifying and we can keep an ear out for them."

[Ren 13:21] "I suspect given the age of the rest of the house, the chest may be easily opened by that mace of yours. Never mind fiddling with the lock."

[Delaria 13:32] "Well, you put that couch under where I'm going to be and I'll give that a try."

[Gerik 13:41] "All right, yeah, me and Ren can move that couch. Try not to fall through the floor, but we'll do our best to catch you."

[Delaria 13:48] Going to go back and I'm going to whap the thing with my mace. Wham.

[GM 13:53] Perfect. Love it. Inanimate objects... that's a hit. Five damage, that's enough for the wood.

[Delaria 14:00] The lock is fine, the rest of the thing breaks.

[GM 14:03] Right. It is the softer bit. So yeah. You smash your mace down onto the area of the lock and the dry wood splinters quite easily. So you can open it.

[Delaria 14:19] Will do.

[GM 14:21] Let's see. So inside, you find that it's actually a quite nice chest. There's a few extra blankets, but these are a much higher quality than the other ones in the room. You also find a few books inside there and a small box. This box has a few extra pieces of jewelry and a small purse that has 10 gold pieces in it.

[Delaria 14:54] Now I'm really fighting..loot. I want to loot... but: Cleric? but... oh yeah. So there is a thing and there is precedence. Growing up with a large family, you take what interesting and useful and important stuff you can find when you can find it. So Del definitely takes the gold as the least identifiable and most useful thing.

[Jocq 15:27] I really enjoy that you're up there justifying this to yourself.

[Delaria 15:33] I'm justifying it to myself as a player. I'm like, 'but she's a good person', but she also... surprise surprise, spoilers, random roll says she totally stole money from her guild and no one must find out. So I had to think of a reason she would have done that. So, scarcity mindset is still deep within her. 'Take what you can, eventually give some back, but make sure your people you care about are safe first'. And then she also figures that it would be interesting to look at things with everybody else and anything that seems important and family-related, they could put to rest with the family in the morning. So I'm going to make an excellent choice to try to start carrying some of these things near the edges of the walls toward the door, toward the stairs, keeping to what is hopefully the most stable part of the wall and potentially hucking stuff off the banister before taking the stairs down.

[GM 16:40] Nice. I would say that that's probably the most important bit is just making sure you're not carrying any extra weight down those stairs.

[Delaria 16:48] So, all the blankets over first, and then the books, and then the jewelry…. and the wooden items like the snake and the dice.

[Gerik 17:03] Yeah, if there's a banister, she can just throw them to us and we can just catch them, right?

[GM 17:07] Yeah, easily. So you eventually get back downstairs, you can see that the Unseen Servant has brought in a few food items that you can definitely turn into a meal. And you have these various items down in the living room.

[Jocq 17:27] They didn't manage to grab any apples?

[GM 17:31] One, yes.

[Jocq 17:32] We have no apples in the pile. *Crunch, crunch*

[Delaria 17:40] "Well, hey, there's food. I didn't really get a whole big deep look at these. Now that it's in the better light, why don't you guys look through this while I start making something."

[GM 17:52] Nice. Are you trained in Cooking Utensils then?

[Delaria 17:55] Indeed I am. That's why I offered.

[GM 18:00] Go ahead and make a roll for that. You can tie any ability score that you feel like is relevant and can justify, I guess. You probably won't Charisma-fy your tool use unless you're talking up your food a lot.

[Delaria 18:20] No. The sorts of things I was thinking of are Wisdom-y, Survival-Wisdom-y at it.

[GM 18:32] Yeah, and Deception.

[Delaria 18:39] Why, look at all these apples.

[GM 18:41] Right. Perfect. So you get underway cooking. What would the rest of you guys like to do? Ren particularly, what are you doing during this time?

[Ren 18:52] I think I will be in the evening usually I go through various practice with the spear and so forth. So probably go outside and work out there until it gets particularly dark.

[GM 19:08] Okay, cool.

[Gerik 19:10] Yeah, and Gerik's going to take a rest. He assumes there's going to be some patrols tonight and he's been pretty busy and vigilant all day driving the cart, so he's going to get some quick shut eye real quick.

[GM 19:23] And Jocq?

[Jocq 19:25] Jocq will be, once Dreki comes down with Delaria, summoning and un-summoning Dreki, messing around, letting him perch on the mage hand and generally just enjoying having an owl that is supposed to be a dragon.

[GM 19:42] All right, so the main floor is large enough that you guys can spread out a little bit. You can find some extra candles to also light to provide additional light if you'd like. This is your moment. It's surprisingly homey here, with the fire going on the hearth to cook the food along with any candles you guys light, it actually is quite warm. Is there anything that you guys would like to discuss specifically? Let's start with Jocq.

[Jocq 20:26] Would there have happened to have been a broom in the kitchen?

[GM 20:29] Yes.

[Jocq 20:30] Fantastic. The Unseen Servant, after carrying in stuff, will be tidying up the place, particularly where we intend to rest our heads, dusting and sweeping and so forth.

[GM 20:42] The Unseen Servant goes about his business with the broom and so all you guys can just see a floating broom carefully sweeping dust and dirt out of the front door.

[Jocq 20:58] "How was the food, Delaria? How did you do?"

[Delaria 21:02] Level 13 wellness. "Oh, I actually am pretty pleased with the amount. I wouldn't have thought..." She stares at the food. "I wouldn't have normally thought to put all this together, but it's actually really nice."

[Jocq 21:17] "And what is it you've made for us this evening?"

[Delaria 21:21] "Behold the dish."

[Ren 21:24] "Apple-less fish. One of my favorites."

[GM 21:29] Perfect.

[Jocq 21:31] "Reminds me of home. The dishes that we'd make back home or they'd have made. The Luskan people are rather fond of fish."

[Delaria 21:42] "Oh, what normally goes in your fish dishes?"

[Jocq 21:45] "Ah. Uh... food items? ...that go into the fish."

[Delaria 21:50] "Well, I'm going to guess it's not a turnip because you weren't particularly familiar with that."

[Jocq 21:54] "No. That was my first time!"

[GM 21:58] Right. And Ren, you're still practicing outside or did you want to come in and participate in the food?

[Ren 22:05] I'm continuing to finish up the kata and I start hearing some chatter in the room there and decide to rejoin the party. So I come inside, put the spear against the wall, and come sit by the fire.

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of the Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Ren 0:31] "Two days on the road. It's been a long time since I've been out of the city. Jocq, you were saying this is the first time you've been out of the city ever?"

[Jocq 0:40] "Every step I take is the now-furthest I've ever been from Neverwinter."

[Ren 0:45] "What do you think of this whole business so far?"

[Jocq 0:50] Puts his spoon down for a moment. "I think it might be time we ask ourselves a little bit of a serious question. I don't know if those twig-blighty-majiggers were the largest threat we have here, but it seems like we're not in a safe location. Obviously, we've promised to retrieve some rings, but is this seriously something we're interested in doing? Del in particular was rather threatened."

[Ren 1:23] "I think that this is the strongest foundation we will have for continuing the project. But, I didn't want to put everyone at risk for a project. It's just things. But we did give our word to the Lady, so your house honor is at stake as well."

[Jocq 1:44] "That's a fair point."

[Delaria 1:46] "As for being attacked by shrubs, I'm pretty sure I was just in the middle of several access points. I don't feel particularly more picked on than I would have by any single terrifying shrub. It's a strange situation and that makes me think we should look into it. I don't like this unknown. I want to know what's going on. I want to know if it's a threat to our home."

[Jocq 2:20] "A threat to our home? Well that casts an eerie light. In a rather eerie location."

[GM 2:28] When Del says a threat to our home, does she mean the neighborhood or her specific abode within the neighborhood?

[Delaria 2:37] In her brain it was a chunk of Neverwinter. Sure, Neverwinter as a whole, but the part she frequents. I don't think her family's home is within Gobaith Glas because it's new, but it's near enough for her to know about it. That side of town. Not to the exclusion of the other side of town, but if she were to envision home, it includes her house, but also the world around it.

[GM 3:10] Gerik sleeps away. Needing to be awakened.

[Jocq 3:15] "He should probably eat some too."

[Delaria 3:18] "It will keep and there is such a thing as cold fish dishes. So if he chose to go to sleep, it might be good for him, but this is also an important conversation. It could be an important conversation at the start of a very long journey, which might be a good reason to get some extra sleep."

[Gerik 3:39] In-character-wise, he figured he would just eat after he woke up. Out-of-character-wise, if you guys want to wake him up, it's not a big deal. But I figured he would just rest because he's been out on the horses all day.

[Jocq 3:53] "I certainly wouldn't mind having his opinion on this. You three are rather important to the House, to the Gobaith Glas project and I appreciate your looking out for the Searun House's name and well-being. But risking lives is not something I'm particularly interested in." With a flick of the fingers, the broom drops, the Unseen Servant will go shake Gerik.

[Gerik 4:23] "How? What? What… what's going on?" He looks around and he doesn't see anything, but someone's poking him and he jumps out of the couch instantly and gets his axe. "Whoa, what's going on? What's going on?"

[Jocq 4:35] "Dinner time."

[Gerik 4:37] "Oh, it was just that..." He puts the axe down. "It was just that servant of yours. I'm not used to that. Sorry about that, making a scene when people are around and when they ain't around." He sheepishly comes over to the table. "Thanks."

[Jocq 4:58] The broom resumes sweeping. "I wanted to get everyone's opinion, and both Ren and Del seem to be of the opinion that continuing this, despite the apparent danger, is the way to go."

[Gerik 5:13] "Sorry, I missed the first part of this conversation. I was getting a little bit of sleep there, but just a quick aside. I don't know if any of y'all have ever tried taking short little naps, but I find it's really helpful. Sometimes in between training and stuff, I'll just go to a cloister and find somewhere to sleep for a couple minutes. It really helps your energy levels. Anyway, I think that..."

[GM 5:46] I love it. 

[Jocq 5:48] "You're not fully awake yet, are you?"

[Gerik 5:50] "No, I like to give some life pro-tips every now and then..." (Laughing) I can't keep in-character with that... anyway. "I think that we told the Lady that we'd at least find her children or their signet rings. There's definitely a high degree of danger here. This is out in the wild lands. We saw some unsavory types as we were in the Old Boar Inn even. We saw some on the roads. People wouldn't hesitate for a second, Lord Searun, if they knew that you were a noble, to rob you blind. That's my main worry. But if I'm looking at it as a man of honor, as I've been training, we gave that Lady our word to do our best to find her children. I think we owe it to her to try and continue on until the dangers are too great."

[Jocq 6:50] "You're all noble and well thought of individuals, and House Searun appreciates your support. Unless there's anything else then, dinner was a delight, Delaria. I appreciate it."

[Delaria 7:03] "Thank you. I'm getting rather tired myself. I think I may go to sleep. You know how early I get up in the morning, so I'm going to turn in. Wake me up if you need me."

[Jocq 7:17] "I think I'm there myself."

[Gerik 7:20] "I plan on doing some watches tonight. Maybe me and Ren can split them. Um..." He does some quick math on his fingers. "I think we're going to need someone else to look out. Maybe Dreki can keep watch for us there, Lord Searun for a little bit? Maybe wake you up if he sees any trouble?"

[Jocq 7:41] Mechanically, I have no idea. DM?

[GM 7:45] Sure. Let's do it.

[Jocq 7:48] "Dreki is nocturnal. He would have no trouble at all."

[Gerik 7:52] "That's fantastic then. I can take the first watch, Ren, if you want to get some rest. That's why I took that little nap. And then maybe we can go: me, then Dreki, and then Ren. Delaria wakes up so early anyways that last portion she'd already be awake. So maybe Delaria, if you would, you could do the last watch, which is really just when you're waking up anyways."

[Delaria 8:20] "You bet."

[Ren 8:21] "Yep. I'll take Third Watch. The Unseen Servant, are you able to command him while you are asleep, Jocq?"

[Jocq 8:28] "He'll dissipate. I'm afraid he's not very long-lived. I'd have to pull out my papers again if we're to do so."

[Ren 8:38] "Very good."

[Delaria 8:39] Curled up under a blanket on top of the chair. Mmmmmmm, blanket chair.

[Jocq 8:47] The items might bear some looking at, but that's out-of-character. Jocq's not particularly interested in farmer's items.

[Ren 8:56] The books at all?

[Gerik 8:57] Yeah, there's three books.

[Ren 8:59] I'm not particularly interested in books, but Jocq might be, at least idly looking at the titles to see if they're anything.

[Jocq 9:06] Seems like he would have read the titles. 

[GM 9:10] They appear to be mostly journals.

[Gerik 9:12] Ooh.

[GM 9:14] 'The Life of a Farmer.'

[Gerik 9:18] Gerik will read them as he keeps watch. So, his first watch, he's going to stay inside the house and pace around the living room area where we're all sleeping and make sure that we're all good. He's not on high alert because he doesn't think that we're in a super dangerous area, in this exact moment. He's watching the doors, watching upstairs in case there's some shenanigans up there, and then he'll read through the journals at that point.

[GM 9:49] All right. In flipping through the journals, the night is mostly quiet. You can hear the crackling of the fire as the logs inside break and you replace them. The journals themselves appear to be just one of the farmers writing about day-to-day life, like calves giving birth, trading goods and services. Occasionally a few things about children and extended family that lives in Neverwinter. The last name that you can see appears to be Amblecrown.

[Gerik 10:35] 'Amblecrown'. All right.

[GM 10:39] There were two sets of families living here. Two brothers and their spouses and their children. That's why there's so many rooms. It looks like one of them didn't make it out, while the other one did, apparently. And you can see that as you get closer to the date of the eruption, the journal talks about the occasional ground shaking or crops dying.

[Gerik 11:12] Gerik finds this extremely interesting. He's just reading through it, even the cows being birthed and the crop cycle and all that sort of stuff. That's what he grew up with. So he's reading through this. Does he find a name for this area? There's a whole township here that has been abandoned as well.

[GM 11:33] The only reference that you can see to it is just 'The Foothills'. It is capitalized, but it could just be what the farmers called themselves in this area.

[Gerik 11:50] Cool. He's not as fast of a reader as Jocq, so that probably takes him through most of his patrol, just getting that far, but he'll make some notes, especially of the Amblecrown family and put in his own journal that he'll want to go find this family if they ever get back to Neverwinter so they can tell them what happened.

[GM 12:11] Will Gerik tuck the journals into his own backpack then?

[Gerik 12:16] How much do they weigh? No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, he will.

[GM 12:20] They're smaller leather bound volumes. So not much.

[Gerik 12:25] Yeah. I'll throw them in there.

[GM 12:28] All right. And then it's going to be Dreki's turn.

[Gerik 12:31] Yeah. I'm assuming that Dreki's just around with us. So he'll just let Dreki know that it's his turn. He realizes that Jocq is asleep, so Dreki can't really talk back to him. So he just goes to Dreki and says, "Hey, Dreki, it's your turn for the patrol." And then he just stands there awkwardly and says, "I'm going to go to bed now. All right."

[Jocq 13:00] As you approach, his eyes blink open and do that really wide thing and his head pulls back and all of his feathers puff up.

[Gerik 13:08] "I guess that means you're going to do it. All right. May the gods be with you, Dreki. Good night."

[GM 13:16] Is Dreki going to just watch the living room or fly through the house or is he going to watch outside?

[Jocq 13:23] He's perched up in the mantel area, and I imagine he will continue to be perched there specifically, watching over the living room area.

[Ren 13:35] Do they need to eat and hunt?

[Jocq 13:37] Food is more of an optional feature for summoned creatures.

[Ren 13:41] Okay. Only for the fun of it.

[Jocq 13:44] Right.

[GM 13:46] All right. Dreki gets preoccupied with a small field mouse that has made its home in the corner of the living room. It comes out and steals a few crumbs of bread, maybe off of Del's blanket. It always comes out, takes a couple of things, and then runs back in.

[Jocq 14:09] Oh, he's got every right to kill it then.

[GM 14:13] He's a dirty rotten scoundrel.

[Jocq 14:15] Thieving mouse.

[GM 14:18] And Ren...

[Ren 14:20] Being woken by an owl for third watch, actually does patrol around outside. An alternating circuit of outside checking the barn and then coming back into the house itself.

[GM 14:33] All right.

[Ren 14:36] That might have been a natural 20.

[GM 14:38] It looks like it was. You guys are getting some good ones. Let's see. Delaria got a four. Perfect.

[Delaria 14:47] "When? What?"

[GM 14:50] It was the D6 roll that I had you do earlier.

[Delaria 14:55] Is that how many hours of sleep I get?

[Ren 14:58] Or how many ghosts we have disturbed?

[GM 15:03] So, you step outside and as you're patrolling around, you get to the barn. The snow has picked up a little bit, but you see a snowy impression in the ground. It's in the same area that you guys were turning the wagon around and getting it parked. Looking up, you can see that the door to the barn has been opened recently. It's moved some snow, not terribly far, but wide enough to get a horse inside.

[Ren 15:44] I will check to see if the horse and wagon seem undisturbed, not going into the barn, but just opening it a little further, peering inside.

[GM 15:56] It looks like it had been opened and then shut again.

[Ren 15:59] Ah, okay. That may be the Unseen Servant doing things. I'll still open it and check.

[GM 16:07] Are you just going to walk up and yank open the door or are you going to be stealthy about it? Would you like to make a stealth check?

[Ren 16:13] I can do a stealth check. Don't want to alarm the animals if I don't have to.

[GM 16:20] Ooh. Nice.

[Ren 16:22] Nice. I could sneak right past those horses with a 20.

[GM 16:31] All right, so you slowly ease open that door and you notice that the horses are definitely awake and pressed to one side. You can see that their heads are turned toward the other side of the barn, and following their gaze, you see a particularly large shape curled up on the ground, and you suddenly become aware of snoring.

[Ren 17:06] Animal, mineral, vegetable?

[GM 17:10] Do you have a light source?

[Ren 17:12] What's the moon like outside?

[GM 17:17] Mostly covered by clouds. It will break through occasionally providing a little bit of light, but inside the barn will be very dark.

[Ren 17:26] Okay, I probably do not have a light source with me then.

[GM 17:29] All right, so it looks like from what you can see, a very large lump as if something about the size of a horse is laying down, but the way it's laying appears very dog-like.

[Ren 17:43] Hm. Okay, I will back slowly out, go back to the house, and wake Gerik and Jocq.

[Jocq 17:54] "It is too dark to be morning already."

[Ren 17:57] "I think we may have an unwelcome visitor in the barn. There seems to be a giant dog or wolf or something. The horses seem concerned but are not freaking out. They are still in the barn."

[Gerik 18:14] Gerik dons his armor, at least the padding. I think technically, well it's chain mail. It probably takes about five minutes to put on, and then he'll get his axe. Before he does all that, he turns around and says, "I hate wolves." And gets his axe and then gets his armor on.

[GM 18:35] I like how serious that was.

[Gerik 18:38] He and wolves are not friends.

[Jocq 18:41] "Take it you're recommending we do something about this then." 

[Ren 18:46] "Gerik and I may be able to take care of that, but we need someone to help lead the horses out. I wonder if that's something Del would be able to do."

[Gerik 18:53] "Well, I think we got to wake her up."

[Jocq 18:55] "Will the halfling be able to lead horses?"

[Ren 18:58] "They do like her, it seems. Enough apples."

[Gerik 19:02] "Yeah, Del's got a way with animals. They've got their bridles and everything, so she can move them out."

[Jocq 19:10] "All right, let's be about it then."

[Gerik 19:12] "Right."

[Jocq 19:14] We'll wake up Delaria.

[Ren 19:16] "We have a bit of an issue, Del. You may be getting up a little earlier than normal."

[Delaria 19:23] "Well, that's all right." I remember now, she's a morning person, and I think that may just be when she wakes up, she's ready to go. "An issue that I should be less squishy for or a fast issue?"

[Ren 19:43] "May need you to lead some horses out as we are working on fighting a larger animal in the barn."

[Delaria 19:53] "Well, horses don't need scale mail, but a larger animal might. Can this wait?"

[Gerik 20:00] "It might be a wolf. I'd put on your armor if you could. It sounds like it's asleep from what Ren said. Is that right?"

[Ren 20:07] "It does seem to be snoring."

[Delaria 20:10] How long does donning armor take? I don't recall.

[GM 20:14] Not too long. A few minutes.

[Delaria 20:16] I take the few minutes.

[GM 20:18] So if you were chasing someone, it would become important, but whereas this thing is sleeping...

[Delaria 20:25] Yeah.

[GM 20:27] Yeah, it's definitely not an in-combat activity.

[Delaria 20:31] I mean it will make me noisier.

[GM 20:33] Ooh, that's a good point.

[Delaria 20:35] "I will be a little bit clankier if I put this on. Do you want me to try and sneak the horses out of there? Because I could do that. Maybe."

[Gerik 20:43] Gerik is terrible at stealth, so we're going to be giving it away one way or another. So up to you. And he would convey this in-character because he knows that he's terrible at stealth.

[Jocq 20:55] "So what is it we're intending to do about this? Just get the horses out, scare it off?"

[Gerik 21:03] "Well, I think the best thing to do is probably just to kill it. While we're fighting it, Delaria can try and get the horses out."

[Delaria 21:11] "Hang on, how did you find this?"

[Ren 21:15] "As I was patrolling, I saw some suspicious looking activity in the snow, something that would have been covered by any of our activity. The door was closed though."

[Delaria 21:30] "Did wolves often close the door behind themselves?"

[Ren 21:34] "If they're house-trained, they may."

[Delaria 21:36] "Well, then that's someone's pet."

[Gerik 21:40] "Let's go give it a look. Yeah, you're right. Wolves don't usually close the door behind them, but let's go give it a look, get some light. We're all armored up. Maybe that wolf has an owner. That could be a problem."

[Jocq 21:53] "As in: the owner could be a problem? or you won't get to kill it being a problem?"

[Gerik 21:58] "Why not both, right?"

[Jocq 22:01] "Right. All right. How do you recommend approaching then?"

[Gerik 22:06] "Usually when someone's behind a door, I just open it."

[Jocq 22:10] "Very straightforward. Let's proceed."

[GM 22:13] So we're talking zero stealth because you guys need the light and your armor.

[Gerik 22:19] Yes: negative stealth.

[Jocq 22:22] Are there rocks nearby?

[GM 22:25] You can easily find rubble and rock.

[Jocq 22:28] Fantastic. Jocq, as we're getting up and ready to go, reaches into his backpack, pulls out a small glow bug, squishes it in his hand, rubs it on the rock, and as it starts to glow, hands it to Gerik, and then wipes his hand on one of the blankets.

[GM 22:45] Nice.

[Gerik 22:46] Having seen the bug killing magical ritual, he'll look at it and take it in his hand but hold it kind of gingerly. "Thank you, Lord Searun. Yeah. Thank you." Then he'll keep it in one hand because he has a two-handed axe, so he can hold his axe in the other hand. If he needs to, he'll just drop the rock and then attack.

[Jocq 23:10] "If it is easier, we could just put it on your axe."

[Gerik 23:14] "It's already on the rock. So let's just keep going." And he'll open the door.

[GM 23:21] All right, so you guys head out to the barn door. Any particular tactics or anything that you would like to use or attempt?

[Gerik 23:32] From a meta perspective, I feel like we probably should because you're asking that question.

[Ren 23:38] I was going to say, is there more than one entry? If there's more than one entry, then probably. If there's only one door, then probably throw it open wide. Probably Gerik would go in towards the wolf. I would go towards the horses along with Del.

[Delaria 23:57] Would a Nature check or Animal Handling check on strategy for how to make a scary thing go away make my character make better decisions than I do?

[GM 24:11] Let's see. There is no secondary entrance. It's mostly intact and it's just the main barn door on the front.

[Gerik 24:20] Is it like a double door? Big enough that we could both go in at once?

[GM 24:23] It's a very large door. Barn door.

[Gerik 24:28] Yeah, in that case, he'll just go up and talk with Ren, see where the wolf was, and then just be on that side when he opens the door.

[Jocq 24:40] No matter where the other three are, Jocq grabs his Searun cloak around him and bundles up in it and looks dissatisfied, probably about fifteen feet away.

[Ren 24:49] Okay.

[GM 24:51] All right, and Del?

[Delaria 24:53] Go ahead and do a Nature check for me.

[GM 24:57] All right. You are pretty sure that as long as you don't make eye contact, make yourself as small as possible, and run at the wolf, that would probably be Best Tactics.

[Delaria 25:15] 'Weird it out, right?' Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

[Ren 25:21] Maybe you should stick with the horses.

[Delaria 25:24] Fine.

[Delaria 25:27] I'll try and get them out, but if the wolf comes at me, I'll just blindly run toward it in a little hunched over ball.

[Gerik 25:35] Cool. So, Ren, did you want to do anything before Gerik reaches towards the door to open it?

[Ren 25:44] No. We can try opening the door as quietly as we can, and then just charge in. As opposed to throwing the door open, other than that, no.

[GM 25:55] There was a fair amount of clinking and clanking as you guys walked to the door.

[Ren 25:59] Yep.

[Gerik 26:01] Gerik will open it slowly and gingerly.

[GM 26:04] Gerik, you slowly start opening the door.... And... hm, interesting. All right. Suddenly the doors kick outward, as if something large hit them from the other side. So the two closest people, go ahead and do either a Strength or Dexterity save.

[Ren 26:30] I will dex jump out of the way.

[Gerik 26:33] I will not do dexterity. Oh. Well, I won't do strength very well either. 9.

[GM 26:41] Nice.

[Ren 26:44] 15.

[GM 26:46] All right, so Ren, you managed to dodge out of the way. Gerik, you're not quite strong enough to hold the door back. So you're actually knocked backward onto your back and the glowstone skitters out of your hand. Standing over you is this large wolf-like creature. Its eyes glowing yellow in the light of the spell. And standing next to it is what appears to be a small goblin as he makes his battle cry and has his scimitar drawn in hand. He looks down at you guys, takes in the situation, and says, "Oh, I thought you were going to be dangerous."

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of the Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:32] It's dark. It's the 23rd of Marpenoth coming up onto the 24th, and it's cold. And Gerik, you're lying on the ground looking up at this goblin and his warg beyond him. And the goblin sheaths his scimitar and offers you a hand. The large warg behind the goblin growls a deep menacing growl. And the goblin turns to look over his shoulder and says, "I know, I know, I got it."

[Gerik 1:00] Gerik will take the hand and he will stand up and look a little hurt, not physically, but emotionally, and he'll turn to the goblin he'll say, "Now, now you wait a second. You said we thought... you don't think we're threatening? We're adventurers. We can hold our own there. I mean our stat sheet says we're level one, but ignore that."

[GM 1:22] So he looks at you and he says, "Yeah, you guys are clearly very dangerous."

[Gerik 1:29] Gerik will nod in his approval and agreement.

[GM 1:33] He says, "It's just that I have a warg." He throws his thumb over his shoulder. He kind of stands there awkwardly for a second and then he says, "I hope you guys don't mind, I had some of your food."

[Gerik 1:47] "How much is some?"

[GM 1:50] "Just a little bit of what was in the wagon. Just the dry stuff."

[Gerik 1:55] "As long as we still got some, sure. Yeah."

[Delaria 2:03] "It's always good to share. It won't keep forever."

[GM 2:06] And he kind of backs up a little like a couple extra spaces. And he says, "Do you mind if I sleep in the barn? It's a little bit cold out."

[Delaria 2:17] "What are you doing out here? I mean, sleep is good, warmth is also good. If your warg won't eat us, I bet the horses will be a little bit less frightened if you come inside."

[GM 2:33] "The warg's name is Owl. He won't eat the horses unless I tell him he can. He just had a big elk earlier."

[Gerik 2:44] "Yeah, you got a warg named Owl?"

[GM 2:47] "I do."

[Gerik 2:49] "I think this is a story we got to hear when we go inside. It's a mighty fine beast. I've never seen someone tame one of them before." He puts his ax back now that he's standing and brushing himself off from the dirt. "Delaria's got a good idea there. I think we should all go in. And we can eat some food. Delaria is a great cook. We might have some extras. And then we can listen to your story and maybe you can tell us a little about this area. How's that sound?"

[GM 3:14] He kind of puts a hand over his stomach, almost involuntarily. He says, "Food does sound good. I'll take you up on that offer if you promise not to kill me."

[Gerik 3:27] "All right, I'll give you my word as a Paladin of Torm that no harm will befall you inside that house unless you're the aggressor. So, if you promise not to kill us, we'll promise not to kill you there, Mr. Goblin. What was your name? I don't think we got it."

[GM 3:42] "Oh, it's Snargle."

[Gerik 3:48] "All right, Snargle. Yeah, that's all right, let's go."

[GM 3:52] All right, so he steps inside and he'll wait for you guys to go inside first. And then he'll come in. And he says, "Is there room for Owl?"

[Delaria 4:03] "I heard, yeah, no, I think there's room for Owl if, well, maybe not through the door."

[GM 4:09] He can squeeze.

[Delaria 4:11] "Okay. Go ahead and try." She stares up at the ceiling and backs away from some of it.

[GM 4:19] He comes inside and then he kind of beckons at Owl. And he's speaking in goblin. Do any of you guys speak Goblinish?

[Delaria 4:27] I do not.

[Jocq 4:27] Negative.

[Gerik 4:29] Nope.

[GM 4:29] Okay. Cool. So yeah, he's speaking in Goblin at it. And after whining and laying down on the porch area, Snargle just shrugs and said, "I guess he'll wait out there."

[Delaria 4:43] "All right."

[Gerik 4:45] "Just please don't eat the horses."

[GM 4:48] "Oh, yeah." And he turns and talks to the warg. And the warg whines and just kind of grunts as it lays its massive head down on the ground.

[Jocq 5:01] "Dreki, would you mind watching that wolf?" Dreki flies out of the front door and up into the rafters.

[Gerik 5:10] Smart move.

[GM 5:13] The owl catches Owl's attention. And he just lifts his head and he's staring at Dreki.

[Jocq 5:22] "Be sure to stay up high, please."

[Gerik 5:27] So, Gerik will lead him in with everybody else, I guess. And we'll sit down and we'll feed him some of the leftovers we got, I'm sure. We'll probably have a little bit in there.

[Ren 5:36] Ren will actually go get some tea from his bag and start preparing some tea for everyone. “It's still late night. It's my watch. I'm up, but a little bit of caffeine will not hurt anybody. Help this conversation.”

[GM 5:55] Snargle will take a place by the fire and he happily munches away. He's actually handling any kind of utensils and plates very well. Like he's not eating with his hands or anything. And in watching him, you can already tell that he speaks common better than the average goblin does. But he does kind of keep distance from you guys as much as he can indoors.

[Ren 6:20] "So, Snargle, are you from the area around here? How familiar are with the lands in this surrounds?"

[GM 6:28] "I travel it regularly. You guys are kind of headed into Durbuluk territory. It's a goblin tribe. It's... I think it translates to... 'Dominator' in your language."

[Ren 6:46] "Are you of the Durbuluk yourself?"

[GM 6:48] "Oh, no, I'm a bit farther afield than that."

[Ren 6:52] "Where do you originally hail from?"

[GM 6:55] "That's a little bit of a story. We kind of made our own tribe. It was my great-great-grandfather, my namesake. He came crashing out of the Astral Sea. He said something about being from like the future or something. But he said things would go better for us if..."

[Jocq 7:18] "Sorry... did you say he came crashing out of the Astral Sea?"

[GM 7:23] "Yeah. Like you know how you have like..." and he points up out the window kind of at the moon that you guys can just barely see. He says, "You have Selûne and her tears. He came from out that direction. He rode in on a giant owl."

[Jocq 7:38] "Like your owl or mine?"

[GM 7:41] "More like yours, I think. I wasn't alive at that point, but they said it was a big metal owl."

[Gerik 7:49] "Well, that's sure a tale if I ever heard one. It's quite a..."

[Jocq 7:53] How convincing is this?

[GM 7:57] If you would like to see if he's lying, make an Insight check. You are utterly convinced that he speaks the truth.

[Jocq 8:07] Absolutely amazed at this. Flying in on an owl from the moons.

[Gerik 8:13] "I didn't know that people lived up there. So, that's... I might have to talk to the priests and the priestesses about this, see what they think. It's quite a tale."

[Ren 8:28] "Regardless, you do speak Common quite well."

[GM 8:32] He nods and he kind of leans forward and he says, "To tell you the truth, he said he wouldn't be born for many centuries."

[Jocq 8:42] "Your ancestor?"

[GM 8:43] "Yeah."

[Jocq 8:44] "Snargle the First?"

[GM 8:46] "Weird, right?"

[Gerik 8:47] "My head hurts."

[Delaria 8:49] How much sleep did we get?

[GM 8:54] You guys got about what was it like four hours-ish.

[Delaria 8:57] Cool.

[Gerik 8:58] "Wait, I know what's going on. I heard about this. It's a foul trick from a demon. It's probably no goblin. This is probably some like a trickster or something."

[Jocq 9:12] "Well, I've heard of this kind of thing before. It's utterly plausible. The question is how?"

[GM 9:18] "Oh, that's a great question. There was a great deal of talk about a storm sorcerer and the Astral Sea and he said that something went awry. Or I was told. I've never actually met the man."

[Jocq 9:33] "How many generations back?"

[GM 9:36] "It's been..." and he looks at his fingers and you can see that he's missing one on his left hand. And he says, "Three or four. Maybe five back."

[Jocq 9:51] "Three or four generations back." How long is a goblin generation?

[GM 9:56] In general, they would live probably to be about 30 years of age maybe. So you're probably looking at probably at least 100 years back assuming that he's not longer lived than other goblins.

[Gerik 10:11] "All right then. Well, that's interesting. So anyway..." Gerik is very leery of the goblin now with all this brain hurting talk of the Astral Sea and the stars and everything. "Have you seen anybody else like us?"

[GM 10:31] "Oh yeah, there was a group of four about a tenday ago, give or take. I think two siblings and their friends. They were on their way to the Sunless Citadel, if you've heard of it."

[Gerik 10:47] "Oh yeah. Yeah. that's actually where we're headed too. Did you speak with them like you're speaking with us right now?"

[GM 10:55] "Yeah, I talked to the group and warned them that it was the Durbuluk tribe ahead. They seemed unconcerned. They weren't as friendly as you are either."

[Delaria 11:05] "Hmm."

[Gerik 11:06] "Mmm."

[Delaria 11:07] "That's too bad."

[Gerik 11:09] "Them Durbuluks."

[Delaria 11:11] "Are there like customs? Because we're not trying to go into Durbuluk territory for their stuff, I don't think. We're mainly going to go find that other party. So if there's a good way to stay in their good graces, that'd be good to know."

[GM 11:33] Snargle nods and he says, "The Durbuluk tribe are very territorial and they consider themselves quite strong. The Citadel kind of operates as their homestead. So as long as you're respectful, you might be able to get farther. But it's kind of hard to say. They're still... what's the word? They're still a little bit rob-y and murder-y."

[Jocq 12:05] "You mean they're goblins, no offense to the present company."

[GM 12:10] He smiles and then he nods. "Yeah."

[Jocq 12:15] "You wouldn't happen to have heard of a magic apple or so in the area?"

[GM 12:22] "Oh yeah. That's more of a recent development. Well, fairly recently. The Durbuluk tribe has been harvesting this apple. And it provides healing capabilities to whoever can afford it. They've been using it to fund something, but I'm not sure. They also seem a bit more organized now than they have in the past."

[Jocq 12:47] "Interesting. So they're charging people to use the apple?"

[GM 12:51] "Yes. The apple, so the Durbuluk say, can be cut into four pieces and it will heal almost any ailment."

[Gerik 13:02] "So, they got lots of these apples or there's just one apple they keep selling off?"

[GM 13:09] "One apple apparently grows on some kind of tree or something that they have access to, but it's only one apple a year that they ever trade away."

[Gerik 13:18] "Ah. All right. So, yeah, we got a little bit of a problem here in this theory talking with them Durbuluks. We can't speak goblin. So could we entreat you to come be our translator there, Snargle, for a little bit? Maybe we'll get you some good meals, maybe a couple gold or something. I don't imagine the Durbuluks are going to speak Common like you do, do they?"

[GM 13:46] "They'll probably speak some version of it. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for somebody. So I can't go too far astray. But I can tell you that there's also a tribe of kobolds down there. They don't get along too well with the tribe of goblins, so you might be able to entreat one of the kobolds to talk with the goblins perhaps. But the goblin leaders will also be able to speak some of your language."

[Delaria 14:17] "Can you describe who you're waiting for? So if we pass them on the way, we can let them know where you are, then you can stay here and keep warm."

[GM 14:27] He thinks about it for a second. This is clearly a secret to him. This is important information. He's not sure he can entreat to you. You can try to convince him with a Persuasion check.

[Delaria 14:40] 6.

[GM 14:44] He looks like he's about to tell you and then he shakes his head and he says, "It's important for me and my group that we find this person. I don't know if I should tell you who it is."

[Jocq 14:57] Does that have to do with the Astral Sea?

[GM 15:01] "The Astral Sea?" He looks at you surprised. He says nothing.

[Jocq 15:04] "You're not trying to get back or anything to that effect or figure out why or how?"

[GM 15:10] "Oh, not this time. There was some efforts to begin with."

[Jocq 15:16] "That's a shame."

[GM 15:18] "Depending on who you talk to, they were either successful or not. The matriarchs can't really get that side of the story quite straight."

[Jocq 15:25] "If we were to be interested in following up on that after, is there a way we could... somewhere we could go or look into?"

[GM 15:36] "To learn about the Astral Sea?"

[Jocq 15:37] "Right, and where that all happened."

[GM 15:41] "Oh, I imagine your village elders would be able to tell you a bit more about it. You guys have village elders?"

[Ren 15:49] "Our village is quite large."

[GM 15:53] "Oh do you guys not live very long? I mean, you guys are walking into goblin territory."

[Delaria 16:03] "No, we have elders. There are actually rather a lot though, and we're not... like a thing I've noticed about a bunch of the community is a lot of people aren't as enmeshed as a family as some others might be. So, the whole city has got a lot of people, but not everybody knows everybody."

[GM 16:28] "You have a tribe big enough where everybody doesn't know everybody?"

[Delaria 16:31] "Mhm."

[GM 16:32] He scratches at his head.

[Jocq 16:35] "Not to mention the first hand experience people in your group might have had would be invaluable to a certain point of research. First hand experience always outweighs those recorded."

[GM 16:47] He scratches at his chin. And then he pulls a little amulet out of his shirt and he looks at it. And he puts it back in his shirt and he says, "I should be here for a while longer. If you guys finish finding this group of yours, then we could probably continue our conversation after that."

[Jocq 17:05] "That sounds delightful. We will be back this way. We'll keep an eye out for you and yours."

[GM 17:11] "Likewise."

[Gerik 17:13] "How far away are we from the Sunless Citadel? I mean, you're making it sound like we can just go in there, you know, talk with the Dudeables, what were their name? The Durbuluks. Just kind of like walk in there and come back out. You're making it sound like it's going to be like a day or two. Like how long are you sticking around there, Snargle?"

[GM 17:33] He thinks about it. And you see him count on his fingers. And he says, "I'll be here probably another tenday, I think. Probably."

[Gerik 17:43] "Well, that's quite some time."

[GM 17:46] "To answer your question on where the Citadel is, if you just keep following this lane, it will come across this ravine closer to the mountain that exploded. You'll see some broken pillars, and that will be the entrance essentially. You will be able to find it from there."

[Gerik 18:07] "All right, and you think we're going to run into any of the other goblins on that path, or do you think we can kind of get in there and just walk past them?"

[Delaria 18:18] "I mean if we're walking into their home, don't you have people watching your home?"

[Gerik 18:25] "We ain't got guard patrols all outside of Neverwinter, right? You can't guard every inch of grass."

[Jocq 18:33] "We do our best."

[Gerik 18:36] "I mean, inside the city, yeah, we got guards all over the place, but outside the city, you know, the territory of Neverwinter outside the walls, you can't guard that all the time. So maybe we can get in unseen."

[Ren 18:49] "If we are seen, perhaps we can ask about the apple and say we have heard tell about this and are wanting to trade with them."

[GM 19:01] Snargle nods and says, "That might work. I don't think there's too many guards on guard duty, at least not facing the ravine side. Not very many people come this direction. There are some direct entryways from what I understand into the Underdark in there. And they've spent most of their time guarding those. But basically this Citadel is at the bottom of the chasm that you guys will find, probably tomorrow afternoonish depending on when you head out. And the climb down is a little bit... what do you call it?"

[Ren 19:36] "Fun?"

[GM 19:37] "Yes, fun. But once you get down to the bottom, you guys should be able to enter without too much of a problem, I think. Just watch out for the giant rats."

[Jocq 19:51] "Kobolds, goblins, giant rats."

[Delaria 19:55] "I don't believe in those."

[Jocq 19:56] "Precarious cliffs. Is there any other threats we should be aware of?"

[GM 20:04] "The Citadel used to belong to some worshipers of some dragon. So, who knows what you'll find down there. But with goblins and kobolds living down there, I'm sure they've set off most of the traps. Probably."

[Gerik 20:17] "What in tarnation are them Hucrele kids up to?"

[Delaria 20:22] "I thought they were just going to go get a piece of the apple to get to Lizzie. Why are they still out here though? Why do they have their friends?"

[Jocq 20:30] "It is a bit weird. Snargle said he saw them about a tenday ago, but we're only about a day and a half from the Citadel."

[Ren 20:41] "They may have run into complications."

[Gerik 20:44] "Yeah, something don't add up here. It's not looking too good."

[GM 20:50] Snargle nods and says, "With the Durbuluk tribe, it's rarely good."

[Jocq 20:55] "I suppose we'll do what we can then."

[GM 20:58] "Thanks for the food. Do you guys have any other questions or anything?"

[Jocq 21:03] "For next time."

[Delaria 21:05] "I haven't seen a warg before. Are there going to be any more out there? Are there ways like this one's your friend. Other ones aren't going to be our friend. Are there ways to deal with them to make them leave us?"

[GM 21:23] "Yes. The Durbuluk haven't mastered the art of entreating with the wargs. The Durbuluk are a little bit too selfish to actually make any lasting commitments with anybody. So I don't think you'll run into any wargs out there. Plus it's all inside, it's hard to be a mounted warrior on the inside of a castle."

[Jocq 21:49] "That's something at least."

[Delaria 21:51] Delaria will look much more at ease.

[GM 21:55] "If you do happen to encounter them, they do have keen hearing and smell. So if you can find some way to mask your scent."

[Delaria 22:04] "Thank you."

[Gerik 22:06] "Well, we do have 70 something pounds of bacon, probably more like 50 something pounds of bacon now."

[Delaria 22:13] "I'm pretty sure we traded a lot of that. It wouldn't keep as long as some of our new stuff. So we traded that back at the inn for a more reaonable amount of bacon."

[Ren 22:21] An entire elks-worth...

[Gerik 22:25] Mmm, bacon.

[GM 22:27] You guys hear Owl bark from the other side of the doorway. And Snargle says, "I know, I know, I got it." Shakes his head, "Can you believe this guy?" He reaches into his backpack and he says, "Thanks for the food." He hands you these tiny little ceramic pots. He says "This is a healing salve that my great-great-grandfather taught me how to make. It stinks to high heaven, but it will close up your wounds fast."

[Jocq 22:58] "Would this serve to mask our scents by chance?"

[GM 23:02] "Wargs love the smell of this, unfortunately."

[Jocq 23:05] "I see. That's not ideal."

[GM 23:08] "But, like I said, you guys won't encounter Wargs. About 85% positive unless the Durbuluk has suddenly managed to figure out how to come to an agreement with somebody other than their own tribe."

[Jocq 23:22] "Appreciate your contribution to the efforts. Thank you, Snargle."

[GM 23:27] He nods and then he says, "I'll just sleep now if that's all right with you guys." 

[Delaria 23:34] "Yeah."

[GM 23:35] He'll go to the door and roll up into a ball there with one hand sticking out to basically rest on Owl. He curls up to sleep. Those healing salves work just like healing potions, but instead of drinking them, you have to apply them. And you guys each have one. So it's the equivalent of one healing potion.

[Gerik 23:58] So you said it'll take an action, is that what you said?

[GM 24:00] Yes. Mhm.

[Jocq 24:03] Delightful.

[Gerik 24:04] All right.

[Jocq 24:06] "Now that right there, a little goblin with his hand on a giant wolf, that is pretty adorable. Right there, that might have made this whole trip worth it." Jocq glances up at Dreki and then goes to sleep on the couch.

[Ren 24:24] I will finish my watch. Go back outside and finish the patrolling. Did I have last watch?

[Gerik 24:35] No, Del does. Because Del was going to be awake early enough. Like she'd wake up really early. So we rotated it so that I think Dreki had the first watch and then Del has the last one.

[GM 24:49] I think humans only need six hours of sleep in 5e. So yeah, you guys are probably on the last watch after being awake. So yeah, you probably have like two hours or something to yourself, Del.

[Gerik 25:04] Yeah, I think it's you have an 8-hour block and you can have two hours of interruption in the block. So you only need six, but you still allocate eight.

[GM 25:18] So Del, was there anything you wanted to do during this early morning?

[Delaria 25:22] She will do her normal early morning things except not really because she doesn't want to step over the goblin in the doorway or the warg to get outside. So she'll just kind of go to an east-facing window and... hang out. That's actually really bad at keeping an eye out if I don't leave the building.

[GM 25:44] There is the back door as well. I think you guys came in through the back door actually when you were first exploring the house. But it's past the stairs.

[Delaria 25:54] Then I will head out the door that Ren comes in and keep a patrol out. I'll keep walking around. But whenever I make a loop and I'm facing east, then I merrily face east watching for the sunrise to come up and thinking appropriate cleric-y thoughts.

[GM 26:20] Nice, perfect. Inevitably, the sun rises.

[Ren 26:24] And then there's the Halfling Song of the morning which I'm sure Del will sing for us one of these days. 

[Delaria 26:28] *Rrrrraaaaaaaaaaak*

[GM 26:32] Halflings are the roosters of people. At some point between Del you getting up and doing the patrol and everybody else waking up, Snargle wakes up. And you can actually catch sight of him riding Owl away, just at a slow walk. As you guys wake up, you find a thank you note from Snargle. It's mostly scribbles, but you can just make out like a poorly spelled, 'Thnk U fr yore kindnuss', but it's missing letters and things. You guys have a good early start on the day.

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of the Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Jocq 0:32] Well, as mornings are tend to do, the first thing Jocq will set about doing is summoning his Unseen Servant to do all the cleanup and braid his hair and all of that nonsense.

[GM 0:44] Nice. Ren?

[Ren 0:48] In the mornings, typically, I get up and prepare my tea again. The things are still up and about. So, just boiling water basically and getting ready for the travel this morning. I'll go back and check the cart as soon as people are up and about, checking to see if Del or Jocq need anything from the cart.

[GM 1:18] Nice. And Gerik?

[Gerik 1:21] Gerik will sharpen his axe. He's a little bit bewildered about what happened and will ask the others things like: 'Was that real? Did we have a dream about a little goblin man?' But the note proves that was real, and Del saw him walking away, so it's not an experience he will forget, and not one that he particularly enjoyed.

[GM 1:42] Perfect.

[GM 1:47] And then Del, as the rest of the group is getting up, do your actions change?

[Delaria 1:54] I don't think she has quite gotten the hang of how few people there are yet, and so she's still in make-breakfast-for-her-halfling-home mode. So, there's plenty of breakfast to pick from, at least until bacon and eggs go bad. And then there will be plenty of porridge to pick from. There's a lot of food. It may also be lunch. Enjoy.

[GM 2:22] Nice.

[Jocq 2:23] "Thank you, Del. That's quite a delight."

[Delaria 2:28] "You got it! Again, it won't keep forever. It's better to eat it and get the energy from it."

[Jocq 2:33] "I don't like it when you say things like that. Makes me a little bit nervous, but we'll enjoy this for what it is."

[Delaria 2:39] "I just, you got to be cautious about what you have, because maybe you won't have it all the time."

[Gerik 2:46] "Yeah, everybody knows food's best when it's warm, Lord Searun. So, let's dig in." He's got this big old plate, big old bowl. And I just start scarfing it down. That's the rest of his morning.

[GM 3:04] All right, so you guys have breakfast and you can eventually, unless you guys want to have any particular conversations or anything like that, get ready to travel and start heading out as early as you would like.

[Jocq 3:20] "I believe I'm ready to go when you are."

[Delaria 3:23] "Yeah, I'm a little bit worried about what the Hucrele siblings are up to, especially if there's so many goblins."

[Ren 3:32] "Best get on the road while we can. Make use of the light of day."

[Jocq 3:37] "All right." Then I imagine as we go, we can have Dreki circling the area, keeping an eye out for these pillars that Snargle mentioned.

[GM 3:49] Perfect.

[GM 3:50] The rest of the travel is actually extremely, almost boring as you guys are on high alert because of the goblin threat. But Dreki eventually spots the broken pillars up ahead. You guys get there just after noon on the next day.

[Jocq 4:16] Just after noon on the next day. So on the 25th?

[GM 4:19] Yes.

[Jocq 4:21] "A day and a half of rather... exstrenuous travel. There it is!"

[GM 4:28] And you guys can see broken pillars leaning out over this fissure in the ground. And beyond it, you can see the edge of Neverwinter Wood, the hills, the foothills leading up to Mount Hotenow. And you can also see the mountain itself, and you can see that it has a large crater formed out of it when it exploded out toward Neverwinter. Basically as you're looking at it, you can tell that it definitely exploded at one point and caused massive amounts of damage to the mountain itself.

[Jocq 5:05] "That's really quite remarkable seeing it in person after hearing all the stories."

[Ren 5:10] Ren looks at it for a bit and then says, "It is nice to see that nature is healing, but there's more evidence of the cataclysm. That's quite messed everything up here... whole continent shifted, mountains coming to pieces," gestures over at Mount Hotenow.

[Gerik 5:34] Gerik whistles.

[Delaria 5:35] "I have not been this close to something this tall."

[Gerik 5:41] "Yeah."

[Delaria 5:42] "I kinda wanna climb it."

[Ren 5:45] "Pretty sure we have climbing in the cards today, but I think it's going to be down here." And Ren points towards the fissure. "Going to be climbing down, I think, instead of climbing up."

[Delaria 5:52] "No.... Maybe later. All right, keep us on task. Thank you."

[Ren 6:02] "Good thing we have 100' of rope here in our cart."

[Gerik 6:07] "Is 100' of rope enough to get us down to the bottom of the fissure?"

[Ren 6:11] "We'll see."

[GM 6:13] Do you guys head over to the fissure then to double check it out?

[Ren 6:16] Yep. 

[Jocq 6:17] Yeah. Let's have Dreki fly around a little for any unsecured passage or anything to that effect.

[GM 6:25] Great. So yeah, you guys find the broken pillars and Dreki can actually fly down into this fissure if he would like.

[Jocq 6:34] Very much so.

[GM 6:37] So the fissure itself is like 250' wide. Looking through Dreki's eyes or getting his input, you believe that it's less than 100' deep. He can see the citadel, which is surprisingly largely intact. And just underneath those broken pillars is actually a sandy landing that has stairs that descend to the bottom of the fissure.

[Jocq 7:07] Accessible from the top?

[GM 7:09] You'll have to do a little bit of climbing. It's about 30' down into the actual fissure is where the first platform starts, but once you hit that first platform, there's stairs can easily take you down.

[Jocq 7:25] "This is not going to be as difficult as we had assumed."

[Delaria 7:30] "Oh, thank goodness because I'm actually really bad at climbing."

[Jocq 7:34] "I don't believe I've ever climbed anything in my life."

[Gerik 7:38] "Well, I'm glad that we're not going to have to climb down that then because that could have been a disaster. So let's use the stairs."

[Jocq 7:47] "There is a small drop. We'll have to figure out."

[Gerik 7:54] "I bet that Ren probably is the best climber among us. How big's that drop? If Ren can get down there first, then he can secure a rope and we can walk down with some of his help, maybe. Does that sound good, Ren?"

[Ren 8:09] "Sounds reasonable. We can tie the top of the rope to the axle of the cart here, have stabilization. I can head down and then provide guidance for the rest of you."

[Delaria 8:20] "All right."

[Jocq 8:22] "Is there anything we need to do up here before we descend?"

[Ren 8:27] "Depends on how well horses climb ropes."

[Jocq 8:33] "I'm pretty sure I've read that they don't do that so well."

[Delaria 8:38] "If we flip them around so they can munch into the end of the cart, then they can eat some of the apples if we don't come back fast enough."

[Ren 8:48] "It should be fairly protected here in the lee of the pillars."

[Jocq 8:53] "All right. We'll just leave a little note with them. It says, 'Don't steal, back soon' and off they go."

[Gerik 9:00] "Sounds like a plan. I'm sure no self-respecting adventurer would steal our horses, but the goblins, no guarantees there."

[Jocq 9:11] "I can't write in Goblin. I don't speak Goblin."

[Gerik 9:15] "Yeah, me neither."

[GM 9:18] And nice... you already did your athletics check, right Ren?

[Ren 9:22] Right. stumbling down the cliff here. I haven't really stretched this morning, that's the problem.

[GM 9:31] Oh, yes, that'll do it every time. So, Ren, are you going to start climbing down before or during these guys figuring out the wagon and horse situation, or do you want to help them out with that as well upstairs?

[Ren 9:44] They can probably figure that out. I'll head down.

[Gerik 9:47] While the other two are figuring out the horses, Gerik would probably go help belay Ren.

[GM 9:55] Oh, interesting. So, are you going to belay Ren or is Ren going to be climbing? What's your plan?

[Gerik 10:03] He has to climb down, right? Because it's 30' below us?

[GM 10:07] Kind of. If you belay, then Ren won't actually have to do Athletics Checks to climb. Gerik would have to do an Athletics Check to hold Ren up. I guess you could combine them and help each other out.

[Ren 10:23] Yeah. That would actually make sense of what we're doing... if we were actually lowering somebody down.

[Gerik 10:29] Yeah. I can do it. Athletics.

[GM 10:32] Let's have Gerik roll an Athletics roll. If you get a 15 or higher, then we will give Ren advantage on his. Perfect.

[Gerik 10:41] Hooray, 18.

[GM 10:43] Nice.

[Ren 10:45] We'll see if I can do any better the second time here on an advantage with Athletics. 

[Greik 10:51] Please don't pull us both off of the cliff. 

[Ren 10:54] Right. There we go. Oh, it was a natural 20... almost.

[Delaria 11:01] ...it's better...

[Gerik 11:02] A 10.

[GM 11:04] Let's see here, how to interpret these roles. All right, so Ren, unfortunately, you fall loose from the wall and you do jolt the rope. Let's have Gerik do a Strength saving throw.

[Gerik 11:25] All right.

[Ren 11:26] "Gerik, Gerik, I'm falling...."

[Gerik 11:30] Find that Strength saving throw here. There's one. 18.

[GM 11:35] Nice. Perfect. All right, so you save it basically. Ren slips free from the wall for just a moment and it pulls the rope and you take just a stumbling step forward, just a half step essentially. And manage to save him.

[Gerik 11:55] "Whoa there, Ren! Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing? Ren, are you all right down there?"

[Ren 11:58] "I got it. I got it. Everything's fine."

[Gerik 12:02] His feet slip a little bit towards the precipice, but we managed to get a hold on and Ren can get back to his thing. To climbing.

[Ren 12:14] I scrabble against the cliff wall trying to grab onto the roots and branches as I slip down. After getting the rope untangled from that branch, things go much more smoothly heading down. Gerik and I get into the rhythm. He releases a few feet of rope, I slide a little bit, take a few more steps down the side of the cliff, and do reach the top of the stairs heading down and call up, "Things look good, Gerik. I think we made it."

[Gerik 12:44] "All right, good. Did you get the rope secured down there?"

[Ren 12:48] "Yeah, I think I can tie it off here on one of these trees down here. Looks like we're clear of that snarl upstairs. Looks like we got caught on some of the roots, but if we move over just a bit, it should be clear for the rest of the group."

[Gerik 13:04] "All right, good. Are you okay? You okay down there?"

[Ren 13:08] "Everything, everything's fine." Just brushing off the dust and sand a little bit.

[GM 13:14] As Ren says, "Oh, I think I'm just fine," you hear chittering behind you. The chittering of giant rats.

[Ren 13:24] "Uh, Hang on a minute. There may be some issues here." I turn around and pull my spear off my back and peer around looking to see if I can find the source of the chittering.

[GM 13:41] So you can quickly spot an old fire pit here. Coming from the rubble, you can see three giant rats.

[Ren 13:49] When we say giant, are we talking a foot long? Talking eight inches?

[GM 13:55] Let's see here. So they are considered small beasts. So you're looking at larger than a foot but less than four feet. They're probably in all actuality two and a half feet long.

[Ren 14:09] "We have some rodents down here."

[Gerik 14:13] Gerik will turn back. He's got the rope in one arm and he'll yell back to Del and Lord Searun - Jocq - back there. "We got some company. We got some of the..." He'll yell back to the others (now with an accent). "Ren ran into some rats down there. We're going to need some help."

[GM 14:33] All right, let's roll for initiative.

[Ren 14:38] I have not rolled higher than a 10 all morning.

[GM 14:43] It's going to be a good morning.

[Gerik 14:46] Ren just really doesn't like getting his sleep interrupted at all. My initiative is one.

[GM 14:52] Wow.

[Delaria 14:53] I'm busy stabilizing the rope. I'm busy wondering if Jocquelynn is actually writing that note: 'Please don't steal our horses', but seems to be done.

[Jocq 15:06] "Of course I'm actually writing the horse... I don't know if you heard about the last carriage."

[Delaria 15:13] "Are you writing it to the horses too?"

[Jocq 15:15] "In fact, if we could shove the apples to somewhere else. It's important that the cart comes back. The Searuns..."

[Delaria 15:23] "Why don't you go over there and help with that. I'm going to finish wrapping up with the cart. I'll be over in a minute, all right?"

[Jocq 15:25] "As long as it comes back, the last one my sister borrowed didn't come back."

[Gerik 15:40] "What are you guys doing back there?"

[GM 15:43] All right, Jocq. It's your turn on initiative order.

[Jocq 15:50] All right. Gerik yells out that we need some help of some sort. That there are rats down there. And I wander over to the edge of the cliff, and there are rats down there.

[GM 16:04] Yep, they're about 30' down, and because of the shape of the wall, it indents slightly, you might have issues aiming. Depending on how close to the wall they get, you might have disadvantage on your attack roll.

[Jocq 16:19] That sounds interesting. Let's do what we can then and cast a Chill Touch at them, waving a hand and the mage hand appears decrepit and skeletal, falling down and attacking the rat on the end closest to Ren.

[GM 16:38] Ooh, nice critical hit.

[Gerik 16:39] Naturaaal... 20!!

[Jocq 16:42] As long as I don't have disadvantage on that.

[GM 16:44] You do not. They're far enough away from the wall there.

[Jocq 16:48] Delightful. Then a grand total of four damage as the necrotic hand uses all of the force of its fall to smash onto the rat's face, latching on for the turn, dealing four damage.

[GM 17:01] All right, so it squeaks, but it is not dead.

[GM 17:05] So, one of the rats on the end will run toward... scrabbling toward Ren. It's going to lunge at you and bite at you, Ren.

[Ren 17:17] Armor class 13.

[GM 17:19] You manage to pull your foot back as it snaps at it. It's your move.

[Ren 17:26] As the rat comes scrabbling forward and lunges at me, I pull my foot back, kick out, and then I will stab at it with my spear. That was a whole lot of dice for some reason. What's going on there? Oh, it's because it's a critical.

[Jocq 17:46] "Oh, fantastic. What a great way to open up."

[GM 17:49] Wow, what is all this?

[Delaria 17:51] Rat purée.

[Ren 17:55] I'm using the two-handed damage. 

[GM 17:57] Oh, I see. Gotcha.

[Ren 17:59] I stab down with the spear and skewer the rat, pull the spear back up and do the shake to get the rat off, and then kick it off towards the edge of the cliff, away from the stairs.

[GM 18:12] The body goes tumbling down. The rat in the middle will come charging at you, squeaking away as it does. Its adorable little squeaks as it attempts to savage your foot again.

[Ren 18:25] I will make snarling sounds as he comes at me.

[GM 18:29] All right, so you take six points of damage, Ren, as he munches on your toes.

[Ren 18:30] Oook...

[Delaria 18:36] "There are terrible noises coming from down. Oh, you look not good, Ren. Good thing you're within 60' of me." I'm going to attempt to heal Ren so that he can keep his foot and his life.

[GM 18:58] Nice. So it looks like five total healing?

[Delaria 19:05] I think that's how it works. I haven't played Del in a month. Why, yes, look at these five healing because two healing and also because I'm a Disciple of Life. So, Del reaches over the edge and thinks healing thoughts down at Ren. "You doing all right now, Ren?"

[Ren 19:28] Ren feels this wave of warmth from head to toe, and as the warmth travels down his body, the pain that came from the bites on his leg becomes a little more numbed and start to close up. "Thanks, Del. Very much appreciated."

[Delaria 19:47] "Oh, thank goodness. Prevention is better than... I forget the rest. I'm going to throw a dagger at the rat right in front of Ren so he doesn't have to get gnawed on again." Throw.

[GM 20:00] Yeah.

[Delaria 20:02] Gravity helps... maybe. But not enough.

[Delaria 20:09] Here comes a dagger for eight and bouncing off the rat.

[GM 20:13] The AC is 12, so it misses the rat.

[Ren 20:19] "Hey, hey, careful, Del."

[Delaria 20:23] "Sorry! I was aiming for the rat."

[Ren 20:27] The dagger skitters a little to the side after it hits a rock very close... right between Ren and the rat.

[GM 20:37] Nice.

[GM 20:38] Jocq, does your spell activate on the beginning of the rat's turn or is it just on your turn?

[Jocq 20:44] This spell prevents the rat from healing for the round. No other effect.

[GM 20:50] All right, he's going to run up to Ren, try to eat him. 14 against your armor class?

[Ren 20:55] Just hits.

[GM 20:57] For four points of piercing damage.

[Ren 21:00] "There's a whole lot of them down here!" 

[Gerik 21:03] It's a real good thing you got healed. Wow. All right, so with Ren in the corner surrounded by two rats and one rat carcass, how far down is it to get to him?

[GM 21:15] About 30'.

[Gerik 21:18] All right, so jumping is straight out of the question. I will throw a javelin then. With one hand, Gerik holds the rope, holding Ren steady. It hasn't quite occurred to him yet that he can let go of it because Ren's no longer on the side of the cliff, but in his mind, he's still thinking, 'Hey, Ren's on the side of the cliff.' So he takes a javelin out of his pack on his back from his other hand and throws it down at the rat with the skeleton on its face. And we will see what the fates say if I can find that darn button. Javelin button, go. That one.

[GM 21:55] Ooh, nice hit.

[Gerik 21:57] Gerik throws off-balance, a side arm throw almost, and still hits the mark, barely. And by some miracle, the Hand of Torm blesses them and the rat falls to the ground dead. The skeletal hand on it falling off towards the ground.

[Jocq 22:15] As the skeletal hand hits the ground and turns to dust, another one appears in front of Jocq, targeting the rat standing directly in front of Ren with the same Chill Touch spell, striking once again as close to the face as it can, hitting below the neck and gripping on tight for a total of four necrotic damage.

[GM 22:38] It squeaks angrily.

[Ren 22:41] Getting gnawed on a bit, so a little off balance, but I'm going to stab out with the spear again, two-handed at this last remaining rat that's in front of me. It's very close. Just not normally how you want to do spear work. Stabbing down, frantically: stab, stab, stab, stab, stab. I do manage to hit the rat a couple of times as it's making its death throes there. Again, shake it off of the end of the spear and then kick it away towards the fire pit.

[GM 23:13] Everything suddenly quiet now as the final rat has been disposed of.

[Ren 23:18] I will sink to the ground, panting after the exertion, looking at the wounds on my leg. "I think I'll be okay, but if you guys can make it down here, it would be good."

[Jocq 23:32] "Are you going to keep the foot?"

[Delaria 23:34] "I want to know that myself. Let's get down there."

[Ren 23:37] "I like this foot. I think I'll probably keep it."

[Jocq 23:41] "All right, Del, I think you'd probably best go next."

[Gerik 23:44] "Can you still hold the rope, Ren? You're in good enough shape to help us down?"

[Ren 23:49] "Yeah, I can still do that. I'll just sit here and hold the rope a little bit."

[Gerik 23:56] "All right. After you, Del."

[Delaria 23:59] "All right, here I go." Down the rope like a person who knows how to use a rope. I have forgotten what this is... Athletics? 

[GM 24:18] Athletics, yes. And the AC is super low because the anchoring and everybody helping out.

[Delaria 24:26] Good. Oops. Well, I rolled Arcana. I'm pretty sure I'm all right with touching this rope. I don't think it's going to curse me. Let me press the appropriate button. Actually, maybe it will curse me. I don't understand this rope, explain this rope. I've never climbed a rope before.

[Gerik 24:48] It's one of those powerful magic ropes.

[Ren 24:51] "Wow. You scrabbled down that rope as if you know what you're doing. That's..."

[Jocq 24:56] "That doesn't look too bad."

[Delaria 24:58] I'm too busy worrying about Ren to think about the rope. So I'm just going to go down the rope. And it's fine.

[Jocq 25:05] While Del was going down the rope, I'm scolding Dreki. "Where were you? You love rats. You eat rats. Where were you?"

[Gerik 25:15] "Lord Searun, it'll be easier if I hold this rope with Ren for you to get down. How about you go next and then I'll bring up the rear for us."

[Jocq 25:25] "All right, that sounds reasonable to me. This isn't so bad. Just one foot over the edge of the cliff here. And here we go." With an 18, I do all right.

[Gerik 25:40] All right. And then Gerik will be the last one heading down. So he won't use the rope because there's no one to hold it. And he will roll a... 20. Hooray! We made it down the cliff face.

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of the Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Delaria 0:32] "I want to take a look at that foot, Ren. Make sure you have all your toes. Let's just sit here a spell, take a minute to think about things..." and then Delaria is going to cast Cure Wounds. She'll sit next to Ren and take a deep breath and with everyone close enough, you can kind of hear her internal mumbling this time about. "Lathander, thank you for this opportunity for a new beginning. And every day is a new beginning, and we're glad that this one hasn't ended yet." She maybe isn't great at all of it, but she still means well.

[GM 1:13] That's the important part.

[Jocq 1:14] Whoa.

[GM 1:15] Oh, nice. Delaria just heals.

[Delaria 1:18] So the stability of being able to sit down and not have your friend attacked and think about it... means she can really focus.

[Ren 1:29] As Del is praying, then the wounds on the calf and even the twisted ankle from coming down the side of the cliff are strengthened. You see that tendons are coming back together. "My foot feels a lot better. The leg is good." Ren stands back up and does a couple of stretches and sort of hops up and down on each foot, and then looks at Del and says, "You haven't lost your touch at all."

[Delaria 2:03] "Oh, thank goodness. You're looking right as rain. I'm going to find that dagger before you jump onto it."

[Ren 2:12] "Be a shame to undo all your work."

[Gerik 2:15] Well, while those two are doing that and healing Ren's foot, Gerik will walk to the precipice of the next staircase and just stand there so that we have this bluff secured so we're not interrupted by any other rats or goblins or kobolds or any other interlopers while they're healing his leg.

[Ren 2:35] Once healing is done, Ren will take the butt of his spear and kind of poke through the ashes of the fire pit there to see if we can see anything of who might have lit that fire... if this is from the siblings, if this is kobold or goblin.

[GM 2:54] Let's do Investigation.

[Ren 2:56] Investigation. So... There's some ashes here. We may need to have someone who's more familiar with fire take a look at this better and beat this roll of zero.

[Delaria 3:12] I mean... Are they ashes?

[GM 3:14] That's amazing. I love it.

[Delaria 3:15] Maybe it's toast.

[Ren 3:18] "It's not on fire, currently."

[Jocq 3:27] Using mage hand as to not actually touch any of the ashes, I don't mind prodding around myself if I may.

[Delaria 3:35] The ashes are not lying to you, I'm pretty sure, but can we be absolutely certain?

[Jocq 3:40] I see that I rolled Insight instead of Investigation.

[GM 3:44] Perfect. There it is.

[Ren 3:45] There we go.

[GM 3:46] The fire pit's not been used in a long while. You do find a couple of goblin spearheads within the ashes themselves and a few small animal bones. It looks like they ate some giant rats or something.

[Delaria 4:03] Speaking of giant rats. "Oh my word, these are terrifying. I thought the distance was playing tricks on me, but things don't look bigger when you're farther away. These are huge. I don't like these."

[Ren 4:20] I pick up one of the corpses and say, "Jocq, perhaps you might want to feed one of these to your companion?"

[Jocq 4:31] "I don't think he deserves one. He didn't participate."

[Ren 4:34] I shrug and throw it over the edge of the cliff.

[Jocq 4:38] "If you want a rat, you'll have to earn a rat. Or be a dragon. I'll feed a rat to a dragon."

[Delaria 4:48] "So here's the thing. I forgot to bring down any of the provisions. There is a sack up there with a mix of stuff. How much can Dreki carry? Could Dreki go get it so we don't have to climb back up and get that? Or are we hoping to be back by tonight? We hope to be back by tonight. Everything is worrying right now."

[Jocq 5:09] "Well, how heavy is your sack of provisions?"

[Delaria 5:12] Dreki carrying capacity minus one. "I don't know."

[Jocq 5:15] Fantastic. That will do then.

[GM 5:20] I imagine Dreki wouldn't have too much of a problem carrying a sack of provisions, maybe as long as it wasn't any more than a couple of days worth of food for each person.

[Jocq 5:30] Well, in the interest of fairness, he has a strength score of three.

[Delaria 5:37] Nice. So 15, 15 pounds of food is a lot of food.

[Ren 5:40] He just needs to glide down. He's not carrying it so much.

[Delaria 5:44] Yeah, he doesn't even need to carry it. He just needs to yoink it out of the cart and huck it over the edge.

[Jocq 5:52] "All right. Can you do that, Dreki? Can you earn your rat that way?" All right, we'll send him up.

[Delaria 5:59] Thank you. Just in case. And now we'll for sure have food, keep us through a day or two easy. I don't know that I want to eat down here, but...

[Jocq 6:12] "Well, somebody was eating these rats. Are those food?"

[Delaria 6:16] "You can eat rat. Rats are edible."

[Ren 6:20] "It's better in a stew."

[Delaria 6:22] "Like a lot of things you need to know how to clean it, I bet. I don't. More of a potato gal myself."

[Ren 6:32] "There's more than one way to peel a rat."

[Jocq 6:36] "I'm picking up a lot of skepticism. I'm going to guess this isn't actually food."

[Delaria 6:41] "I mean it's edible. It's like how you like apples and you don't know what a turnip is. You can have things that you prefer and then things that you will eat to not die."

[Jocq 6:56] "So we should bring them."

[Delaria 6:59] "I don't know where they've been. I haven't been here."

[Gerik 7:04] "Yeah, let's not eat no rats. And also if we meet some of them goblins or kobolds in there, let's not eat them either. It's not good. It's just not right."

[Ren 7:14] "Regardless, Dreki may enjoy it." I pull the javelin out of the last remaining rat that we haven't kicked off the edge and hand the javelin back to Gerik and say, "Good eye, Gerik. That helped a lot."

[Gerik 7:27] "Oh, yeah, thank you." He'll take his javelin back, a little sheepishly because he knows that that barely hit the mark.

[Jocq 7:36] "All right. You can snack on that one, Dreki."

[Gerik 7:40] Is Dreki going to survey ahead of us before we go down?

[Jocq 7:45] That's a fantastic idea. Let's have him do that instead then, shall we? "Go on, bird."

[Delaria 7:51] "Oh. Well, there's another rat down there if you go find it."

[Ren 7:57] Yes, on the next tier down on the landing of the staircase, there should be another rat.

[Gerik 8:06] Yeah, he can do both. He can have a little snack and then fly down and tells what's down there.

[GM 8:13] Dreki can definitely fly down. So remind me again on familiars. Jocq, are you looking through his eyes or are you just receiving input back from him, like descriptions?

[Jocq 8:24] There is the option to see through his eyes, but it takes a standard action and I lose my senses here. If I'm going to be walking downstairs, that doesn't seem ideal.

[GM 8:34] Okay, sounds good. So he's going to scout whilst you guys go down the stairs.

[Jocq 8:39] Right.

[GM 8:40] Perfect. Okay.

[Jocq 8:43] He can hoot or something to that effect or fly back up if there's any nastiness ahead, and if that stays within 100', I can telepathically communicate with the bird.

[GM 8:55] He can definitely go beyond that range down in this ravine. Do you want to make sure he stays within that telepathic range? Or do you want to send him out a bit further and have him come back occasionally?

[Jocq 9:08] We can do a ping system. He flies ahead and comes back. Circle the area, that kind of thing.

[GM 9:15] Perfect. So traversing the stairs is very easy. You guys do that without any kind of a problem at all. You can feel a cold breeze travel through the ravine. You know it's winter upstairs and so down here it feels even more cold. As you guys descend these stairs, you come to the bottom of the ravine. You can see broken cobblestone and rocks and stuff from when this thing fell into the ravine. The Citadel is mostly intact and dark.

[Gerik 9:59] Good thing we have torches.

[GM 10:01] All right, so the floor is very uneven. Once you guys leave the stairs, it will take you some time to carefully pick your way across all of these large broken stones.

[Gerik 10:18] Do we see any threats around or does Dreki alert us to anything? Because if not, we can just take our time and go over the rocks. But if we're worried, then we might need to make haste.

[GM 10:29] There's nothing that Dreki spots of interest. It's all just empty down here. You guys don't even see any light sources down here at all. You guys will need to have torches lit at this point.

[Jocq 10:45] "You guys want to see a cool trick? Watch this, watch this!" Pulls out one of those luminescent bugs and squishes it in his hand and rubs it in the air. And up ahead where Dreki is, he alights on a small rock and the rock illuminates.

[Delaria 11:00] "Oh. Nice."

[Jocq 11:03] Wipe my hand off with a cloth.

[GM 11:05] Nice. 

[Gerik 11:06] "Wow, look at that, why don't you? There's some light up there. That's amazing."

[Jocq 11:12] "I realize it's not very helpful to us now, but that's pretty neat."

[Gerik 11:18] "It's always good to see someone who takes pride in their craft, even if it is about squishing bugs and what not."

[Jocq 11:29] "It's about the light, Gerik. It's about the illumination, the utility of it. The bug is just a side effect."

[Ren 11:37] And I will light a torch as well to be carrying that. I think, standard, we should each have 10 torches probably. I had it in my pack as I was coming down. I don't know if everyone else has their packs with them.

[Gerik 11:48] Yeah, Garrick has his pack and he would light a torch as well, but if we ever get into battle, he's just going to drop it because he can't hold the torch and his axe.

[Delaria 11:58] I have my pack, but I have no torches. I have candles and I have a censor, so if we need to waft some incense around, let me know.

[Ren 12:09] So Gerik, if you are in front, you can have the torch up front and I'll have the torch in back and that should provide a pool of light enough for the party.

[Gerik 12:18] Yeah. Between that and the light... is Dreki carrying it, right, Jocq?

[Jocq 12:23] No, he left it on the ground. I'll pick it up as we get up there. I will grab it.

[Ren 12:30] Good, good.

[Gerik 12:33] We'll have three light sources either way, so that'll be nice. So yeah, let's go to the entrance of the Citadel. Are the doors closed? Can we just make our way over there slowly or do we need to make checks over the rocky ground?

[GM 12:47] Let's have everybody make an Acrobatics check at advantage for moving slowly and picking your way across.

[Ren 12:56] Yeesh. ‘At advantage’ was helpful...

[Jocq 13:00] ...for most of us…

[Delaria 13:03] Eight, not five....

[GM 13:10] As you guys are moving across, Delaria, you unfortunately trigger a collapse in the actual stones there into a little cavity that must have been there since all the debris fell in. So you fall into the bottom of this little cavity.

[Delaria 13:32] "Ow."

[Ren 13:34] "Del!"

[GM 13:36] You take two points of damage at the bottom.

[Delaria 13:39] "This is not where I wanted to be."

[Jocq 13:42] "Are you going to keep your foot?"

[Delaria 13:44] "You hush."

[Ren 13:47] I lay down and reach down into the crevice there and pull Del back out.

[Delaria 13:53] "Thank you. I'll just stick closer to you now, I guess. Ow."

[GM 14:03] All right, so, picking your way across the rest of it, now that you know what to look for... thanks Del... You guys easily cross to this courtyard here that you guys should be able to see. The courtyard there has these small, narrow stairs that lead into it from the rest of the debris filled down there. You can see that the courtyard has the main entrance, as it appears there. And the doors are closed.

[Ren 14:40] So once we've entered in the courtyard then, we see the entry into the Citadel itself seems to be what the curved walls with the door that's closed there. So what's the door look like? Is it a major entrance? Does it look like a side door? How much of a front door are we walking into?

[GM 15:00] So this actually, because of how the Citadel fell and sank into this fissure, you believe that this courtyard that you guys actually are on is actually the crenelations of a battlement. So it looks like you guys are actually entering from what would be the second floor of this building. So it's just a simple wooden door. It does look pretty warped and twisted in the frame, probably from the fall itself.

[Jocq 15:29] Is there any sign of traffic or Hucrele?

[GM 15:35] Do an Investigation check for me.

[Jocq 15:37] Most certainly.

[Delaria 15:39] Did I get a real close look by having my face fall through the ground? Let's find out. You know what? It works less good when your face falls into the hole in the ground and you're staring at the dirt. Nope.

[GM 15:55] So Jocq, you can see that there was some travel up through here. It looks like you can see a couple of footprints in some of the dust here and they don't appear to be goblinoid.

[Jocq 16:08] All right. Can't imagine anyone else would be down here. I'm going to cast Mage Hand and hold the light in that to keep my hands free. I assume they lead up into the door.

[GM 16:22] Yes. And Gerik, that's you by the door, yeah?

[Gerik 16:27] Yeah. He's right by it.

[Delaria 16:30] "Are you coming in here, Jocq? Or are you just going to keep dancing by the door there? The entryway toward the other to this courtyard that then goes in the door and this courtyard is less terrifying than all the rubble out there."

[Jocq 16:46] "I mean, I might be a little more sure-footed, but this is ominous."

[Ren 16:55] Ren looks around and he says, "I do believe that we are in the crenelations. It's a bit of a perspective shift, but it looks like the front door is the top of this tower."

[GM 17:07] Gerik, I need you to make a Dexterity save for me.

[Gerik 17:12] Oh man, Gerik is so good at those. Zero. Can I inspire my zero?

[Gerik 17:22] Oh sure. Let's do that. So I can get something sterling like maybe a five. 

[Ren 17:33] Woah!

[GM 17:35] Perfect.

[Jocq 17:36] Woo!

[Gerick 17:35] I got exactly a five. All right.

[GM 17:43] All right, so this pit trap underneath you just gives way. And as you tumble down into it, it looks like somebody has been fairly crafty with it and has designed it to look like the cobblestone there. But the lid actually snapped open. You take five points of damage as you fall 10'.

[Gerik 18:09] "Ouch." Are there spikes at the bottom or is it just a normal pit? Hopefully no spikes...

[GM 18:15] It is just a normal pit.

[Gerik 18:19] "Gah!"

[Delaria 18:19] "Gerik!"

[GM 18:22] But... when you fall down and hit the ground, you can hear squeaking of a giant rat.

[Ren 18:27] Oooooh...

[Gerik 18:28] "Ah. I think there's a rat down here."

[Delaria 18:35] "I'm pretty tapped out. Oh, no. I can't. Oh dear."

[GM 18:45] All right. So, I'm going to say that Gerik, you surprised the rat a little bit on your way down into the ground. But unfortunately, you're kind of stunned from the thing, so no real surprise overall. So Ren, you watch your friend Gerik tumble into this pit trap. What do you do?

[Ren 19:08] Is the rat in the pit with him?

[GM 19:10] It is.

[Ren 19:12] If I hang off the edge, can I drop the remaining four feet or so safely?

[GM 19:18] Easily, yeah.

[Ren 19:20] Okay. I will do that.

[GM 19:21] Perfect.

[Ren 19:22] So I stab at the rat here. The spear work is tricky in these tight quarters.

[GM 19:32] All right, so you do miss the rat.

[Ren 19:36] Then as my bonus action, I will do an Unarmed Strike as I have used a monk weapon as my main attack. So I get an Unarmed Strike as a bonus action as a monk, to try to kick at it.

[GM 19:54] Ooh, hit.

[Ren 19:56] So I kick it and it kind of thumps up against the wall there for a little bit of bludgeoning damage.

[Gerik 20:02] Angry squeaks ensue.

[GM 20:05] It's true. And he's going to try to exact his revenge on you, Ren. Oooh, missing terribly.

[Ren 20:15] It's a little dazed from getting knocked around.

[GM 20:17] Exactly.

[Jocq 20:20] All right, dashing up after Ren throws himself in after Gerik into the pit. Jocquelynn is going to run up to the side of the pit, look down, identify friend and foe and another hand appears and launches itself down the pit, looking for the scruff of the neck of the creature. Believe we'll grab where I wanted to. The skeletal hand shakes it, lifts it slightly onto its hind legs, and shakes viciously till the creature stops moving.

[Gerik 20:53] That poor... evil giant rat.

[GM 20:58] All right, so you guys easily handle the giant rat.

[Ren 21:02] So I'm down here with Gerik. I say, "That fall looks like it's kind of messed you up a bit. You may want to try asking for some divine assistance there. Maybe heal yourself a bit and then we can try to climb out of here."

[Gerik 21:19] "Yeah. I think that's a good idea. We probably want to save some a little bit because we don't know what other surprises this place is going to have, but yeah, just give me a second. I'll say some words." He'll climb out of the pit and then before we go into the door or investigate the door more, he'll say a little prayer over by himself and he'll heal himself for three so that he still has some healing in his pool.

[GM 21:46] Perfect.

[Ren 21:47] And Ren jumps and scrambles out as well.

[Delaria 21:50] "You fell in a hole bigger than you. I don't like it down here."

[Gerik 22:00] "Yeah, it's almost like someone designed this place to kill us. That's what these old fortresses are for, right? So it looks like, I think it was Ren who said we're at the top of a castle, so it goes down further. It's just going to get worse as we go."

[Ren 22:18] "We should be able to move along the edge of that pit and see if we can get to the door."

[Delaria 22:24] "Do we want to go in that door? Are there no other doors that aren't in front of a terrifying pit?"

[Jocq 22:32] "I can have Dreki circle around, see if there's any other entrance."

[Delaria 22:38] "I'm going to sit here in the corner and think about my life choices."

[GM 22:44] Because of how the Citadel kind of fell into this fissure, Dreki does not actually find any other entrances. Most likely if you were entering on the first floor, there might have been additional entrances, but right now because of the damage and everything, nothing springs to mind or springs to his eyes. The door here that's right in front of you guys, there is a small walkway about 2' wide that you can circle around from the side and be able to open the door without having to worry about the trap.

[Jocq 23:25] "Well, it looks like this is it. We either go in here or we go up and tell Lady Hucrele it's the worst."

[Delaria 23:33] "We don't know it's the worst even though it looks like it would, but they wouldn't. I mean, we haven't found them yet, so maybe they're still all right, maybe they need help to get out of here. So let's keep going."

[Gerik 23:47] "Yeah, I think it's our duty. At least open this door, right? I mean, we open the door then if we find more malicious traps and things and other stuff, we know, maybe we can back up."

[Jocq 23:59] "All we want to do is open the door. We can do that from 30' away."

[Gerik 24:03] "Yeah, we're just going to open the door. It's not going to be too bad."

[Delaria 24:06] "If there's anything terrifying in there, maybe it'll fall into the pit."

[Jocq 24:10] "All right, all right, let's do that then." Transferring the lit stone to my real hand and using Mage Hand to open the door. I'm going back to the stairs though. "And yes, Del, I do like the stairs better than this sure-footed platform all of a sudden."

[Delaria 24:26] "Yeah, I get that now."

[Jocq 24:28] "Let's open the door."

[GM 24:30] You grab the door and it squeaks loudly as it pulls open.

[Delaria 24:37] "The door's a rat!"

[GM 24:40] But nothing else, no surprises, right? No sprays of acid or anything, just a door leading into a dark room beyond.

[Jocq 24:52] That was oddly specific... "Oh, that wasn't so bad."

[Gerik 24:54] Gerik is going to go ahead and use Divine Sense now that the door is open. It lets him sense undead within 60' as long as they're not fully covered. So he couldn't do it through the door because the door was there, but now the door's open, he's going to try and talk to Torm and sense anything: celestial, undead, fiend... all the holy things or unholy.

[GM 25:21] All right, so you do not detect any of those monster types within that room.

[Gerik 25:27] All right, he'll tell everybody else that then. You guys will have seen him praying like he is wont to do and he'll turn to you guys and say, "Yeah, I entreated Torm a little bit just to make sure it's safe in there. I'm pretty confident there's no undead or fiends or anything of that nature within 60' of this door. So that's one thing we can check off the box, Lord Searun."

[Jocq 25:52] "All right. But if we're proceeding then, I advise we watch out for pit traps."

[Gerik 25:58] "Yeah, maybe someone a little more swift of foot than me should go first." He looks to Ren and asks, "Would you be comfortable leading us through the traps and such, Ren? I'm not as swift as you are."

[Ren 26:13] "Sure." Ren slips along the two foot wide path there next to the pit trap very easily, gets to the door and then steps through the doorway. Before stepping through though, I do take the butt of the spear and push very firmly in that area right there from the entry of the door to see if there's a mirror pit trap.

[GM 26:36] All right, so it does feel solid as you enter this room. You can tell that this room is obviously circular. You can also see in the darkness in front of you, these dark shapes that appear to be corpses lying on the ground.

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of the Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Ren 0:32] I turn around and yell back to the party, "I don't see any movement, but there are some bodies here. I wonder if these are our missing... siblings." And I will go over and take a look at the closest corpse.

[GM 0:46] So, it's the corpse of a goblin. It's relatively recent, but probably about 7 to 9 days or so that it's been down. So, it was not killed when the Citadel fell, but it was killed more recently than that.

[Ren 1:06] After rushing over, taking a look at the corpse and discovering it is not human, I do breathe a sigh of relief and yell back, "It looks like there may have been a battle here. The party ahead of us may have been here. It looks like they encountered some goblins."

[Jocq 1:23] "So it's probably safe to assume they're not trading for the apple."

[Ren 1:28] "It looks that way."

[Delaria 1:30] "Great."

[Gerik 1:32] "Yeah, that smells something mighty fierce, Ren. I can smell it from here. That's disgusting."

[Ren 1:40] "It means it's freshly dead, but not so fresh that rot hasn't set in. Probably a little less than a tenday.”

[Gerik 1:50] Gerik grumbles about battlefield etiquette and cleaning up after yourself.

[Ren 2:01] "But otherwise, this looks pretty clear. I think we should be good to come in. We definitely are in the top of a tower."

[Delaria 2:09] Skirting around the edge of the pit that's way deeper than the pit she fell in. "No, no, no, no. No, thank you."

[GM 2:18] You guys walk in and your torchlight illuminates more of the room. You can see two more wooden doors leading out. You also do see the corpse of another goblin that's being held against the wall with a spear that killed him.

[Ren 2:34] I will go over and pull the spear out of the goblin, let the goblin fall, and take a look to see if the spear is of goblin make, of kobold make... human.

[GM 2:46] It is a crude spear, so perhaps kobold make. And, did you pull that spear out or are you just examining it?

[Ren 2:55] I pull it out.

[Jocq 2:57] Dreki flutters away with his perch stolen.

[GM 3:02] The body of the goblin slumps to the ground and behind it you can see a rune etched into the wall long ago.

[Ren 3:11] "Jocq, there's something here written on the wall. Do you recognize this?"

[Jocq 3:17] I don't go any closer. "Does it explode?"

[GM 3:21] It does not explode.

[Jocq 3:23] Okay. "...All right, then let's take a look."

[Delaria 3:30] "If it doesn't explode when it's had a goblin pinned to it with a spear, what else would make it explode?"

[Jocq 3:37] "Oh, it could be proximity-based, pressure-based. There are a number of things that are rather dangerous. I've heard of entire ships going down from single runes before. That doesn't appear to be anything quite like that. A Draconic rune... 'Ashardalon'... is what that roughly translates to."

[Delaria 4:03] This room has no corners for me to contemplate my life choices in.

[Jocq 4:10] "'Ashardalon'. Yep, that's what that says: 'Ashardalon'. I don't know what that means, I think."

[GM 4:20] You can make a history check, or anybody can.

[Ren 4:24] "You can sound it out, but I can't read it. Sounds kind of like gibberish to me."

[Jocq 4:33] "A lot of Draconic does. It's when you have to say it slowly that it begins to take on meaning. A very, very purposefully spoken language. I don't speak it."

[Gerik 4:42] Gerik will forgo the history check and he'll just stay on guard. Make sure nothing shifty's going on with these goblins or other things that could come through these doors.

[GM 4:52] You don't notice anything coming or going in this area and it seems actually very quiet.

[Gerik 5:01] "Anyone else think it's kind of odd that there's a battle here and they didn't clean up the goblin bodies? You'd think they were fighting in haste or something, right? But they did close all the doors. Seems kind of weird to me..."

[Delaria 5:16] "Is the whole thing kind of tilted? Maybe the doors just fell closed. But not all of them open this direction. Oh, that's weird."

[Jocq 5:28] "I do have a question. We left our rats, we just tossed them off the cliff. They're out there still. Is cleaning up corpses normal battle procedure?"

[Gerik 5:38] "Well, with vermin and stuff, no. They attacked us, it was self-defense, and there'll be something out in the wild that'll take care of them. But yeah, if you're fighting another sentient being, it's common respect to bury them or something. It just doesn't seem right leaving them here like this."

[Jocq 5:58] "Does that cross fields? I mean, Ren said that was a kobold spear, right?"

[Ren 6:05] "Certainly primitive make. It doesn't look human."

[Gerik 6:08] "Yeah, that's a good point. If this is some kobolds that came in here and attacked these goblins, then I don't know their traditions and stuff. You read after the big battles up north with the orcs and everything, the orcs aren't going to bury nobody, but the dwarves do, right? If the dwarves are going to win, they're going to bury their own and stuff. Anyway, we can talk about this later. It just doesn't sit right with me."

[Jocq 6:35] "I think our question then would be about kobold ethics.... 'Ashardalon' was a dragon. As far as I know, had a group of followers in the area, but it's been a long time since he's been seen. This is his rune."

[Ren 6:52] "I wonder if it's carved as a warning or as a sign of respect? The rune itself looks pretty old."

[Gerik 6:59] "Yeah, maybe this is his castle or something. Not the dragon himself, but one of his followers or something."

[Jocq 7:08] "Right. Dedicated to it."

[Ren 7:10] So these two doors are both wood?

[GM 7:14] Both wood. And the rune etched into the wall that says 'Ashardalon', it's as old as the Citadel is. So it's not a recent thing.

[Jocq 7:24] Perhaps it's not something to worry about at the moment then. "Do we go, left or right?"

[Gerik 7:32] "Well, we're all over here on the left anyway, maybe we should... It seems like with that goblin being pinned to the wall here by that spear that likely whoever came through here went through the left as well, I would think. If you look at the way the bodies are positioned in here, it seems like there's fighting by this door, so maybe it's a good place to start."

[Jocq 7:52] Seems reasonable to me. Let's proceed then, with the same kind of caution we did here."

[Delaria 7:58] "Yeah, I like the Mage-Hand-not-fall-into-a-pit bit."

[Jocq 8:02] "Right."

[Gerik 8:05] "I like that too."

[Jocq 8:08] Once everybody is positioned a good distance away, 5' to 10' at the minimum, with Jocq on the very far side of the room, Mage Hand will attempt to trip the lock and push the door in.

[GM 8:21] It opens easily actually, surprisingly so. And doesn't really squeak too much as the door opens. No traps are activated or anything else like that. It just swings open.

[Ren 8:38] I will again step to the front of the door and do the same spear check as we did before for the stability on the other side.

[GM 8:49] And it does appear to be stable.

[Ren 8:51] All right. Then we'll step through to see what we can see in the room adjoining the tower. It looks like it probably once was a walkway along the top or possibly a hallway.

[GM 9:06] Yeah, as you step in, you can see that the masonry walls are in very poor repair. The far end has collapsed, filling the southern section with rubble. The western wall is in much better shape than any of the other walls, and it holds a stone door that you can just kind of see in the shadows. It appears to be carved in the form of a rearing dragon. The door has the dragon's mouth chiseled in where the handle would be. And you can just make out what appears to be a fairly large keyhole from what you can see from all the way across the room.

[Ren 9:55] "More dragons."

[Jocq 9:57] "Anything that looks a lot like the rune in here?"

[Ren 10:01] "No, it looks like carved stone dragons. Otherwise, it looks very quiet in here. This gives a 'deck of a sinking ship' feeling from the slanted floors here. We might be able to peek through the keyhole there and see what's on the other side.

[GM 10:18] A quick check does reveal that the door is locked. Looking into the keyhole, the next room over is just utterly dark beyond there. There are no light sources on the other side. All of your light sources are on this side, so you can't actually see anything besides dark.

[Ren 10:37] "Can you toss one of your stones through there, Jocq?"

[Jocq 10:41] "No, I can't toss a stone, but I've got a trick if I could put my eye to the keyhole here for a moment, please."

[Ren 10:49] "Certainly, let me step away."

[Jocq 10:52] I clap my hands and Dreki vanishes. I clap my hands again and Dreki will appear within my line of sight on the other side of the keyhole.

[GM 11:01] Okay, so you want to put Dreki on the other side of the door?

[Jocq 11:05] Right. And then I'll pull out one of those phosphorescent bugs again, smash it between my hands, and rub it on a rock that Dreki is holding to illuminate the area. The one my Mage Hand is holding goes dull. I'll take a step back, sit against the wall, and look through Dreki's eyes.

[GM 11:24] This room that you can see now, Jocq, is very dusty and has not been disturbed in a long time. Sensing through Dreki, you can tell that the air is fairly still and stale in that area. You can see three alcoves against the north wall and one in the south wall. Each of the alcoves contains a stone pedestal with a fist-sized crystalline globe on it. You can see that the globes in the northern alcoves are all cracked and dark. But as Dreki's looking around, you can see just a small glimmer of light coming from the globe in the southern alcove.

[Jocq 12:16] "Well, the good news is there are no Hucreles behind this door. Theoretically we don't need to go this way. There seems to be something mystical in there." I relay the description of the scene itself. "Anyone skilled with a lock pick or do we go the other direction?"

[Ren 12:37] "I think we go the other direction for now. It sounds like our party has not headed this way, but we may want to come back and investigate the mystical orbs further if we get a chance or find a key."

[Jocq 12:51] "Right."

[Gerik 12:53] "Yeah, I ain't got no lock pick, but if we need to, I can just smash that door in."

[Ren 12:57] "That stone door seems like a pretty tough barrier."

[Gerik 13:01] "Oh, maybe. Maybe I'm just being too confident, but we could always give it a try if we had to."

[Ren 13:06] "If needs must, we can, but let's try the other door and see where that heads."

[Jocq 13:11] "All right." Before I return from Dreki's eyes, looking at the other side of the stone door, is there any way to open it from that side?

[GM 13:20] There is just another handle, which upon checking, reveals that it's locked.

[Jocq 13:27] Right. All right. To be determined later then.

[GM 13:32] All right, are you guys going to do the same basic setup?

[Gerik 13:36] Yeah, I think so. With the Mage Hand opening the door and all of us a comfortable distance away from any acid splashes, crossbow bolts, traps, or any other things.

[GM 13:48] Perfect. All right, so after you guys go back to the main part of the tower and get yourselves set up to open the door safely, the door does open. It's a little bit of a push, but it opens up onto what appears to be a hallway. Pretty narrow, about 10' wide and probably about 40' long.

[Ren 14:20] So we can see just to the very edge of the torch's dim light?

[GM 14:27] Yep. And Ren, as you go into the next area and prod the ground with your spear tip again, you can see three wooden doors towards the end of the hallway: one at the terminus of the hallway in the west wall, and then one in the north wall and one in the south wall, both towards the end of the hallway.

[Ren 14:51] "Looks quiet again everyone. Let's get out here and take a look to see if we can see any signs of wear on the floor or the door to see which way someone would have likely traveled before us."

[GM 15:06] Oh, nice Investigation check. Anybody else want to join in the investigating?

[Gerik 15:11] Could Gerik give someone the Help Action? He's not going to be great himself, but maybe he can help walk them through it.

[GM 15:17] Sure.

[Gerik 15:19] He'll help Jocq then.

[Ren 15:21] I think Jocq is our search-iest.

[GM 15:26] All right, so Jocq, you do find some evidence that people have been through here recently. It's hard to tell if it was goblin, kobold, human or a combination of the three. But logically, it would probably be a combination of the three assuming that the Hucrele did come through this direction.

[Jocq 15:52] "There were definitely human footprints out here and the disturbances in this room make me think this is the right way to go. Also, the other door was locked, so this is the only way to go. Was there any direction outside of the three doors?"

[GM 16:07] Three doors. No, that's it. Just the three doors at the western end of that hallway, leading in three different directions.

[Jocq 16:19] "All right, outside of that, your guess is as good as mine."

[Delaria 16:23] "If we try the south door, maybe it'll go to that room with the orbs. Maybe we don't have to go through everything. Feels a little off, but..."

[Jocq 16:34] "It might be worth a shot. But there were no other entrances or points of egress in the room Dreki's in."

[Delaria 16:39] "Ah."

[Gerik 16:41] "Yeah, that sounds like a mighty fine idea. Let's give it a try."

[Jocq 16:45] "Alright."

[GM 16:47] This door is actually locked when you try it.

[Jocq 16:51] "Right, we'll need another key."

[Ren 16:54] "We've eliminated one of the possibilities for a swiftly moving party coming through here. If it was the Hucrele, they would not be locking doors behind themselves."

[Jocq 17:03] "Right."

[Delaria 17:05] "I mean, wouldn't they? Maybe they have a key. If I had a key, I'd like locking doors behind me."

[Ren 17:13] "If they had a key, I think, would be the *key* point."

[All 17:18] (many groans of protest)

[GM 17:22] All right, so the other two doors are not locked.

[Ren 17:26] "So we can get the side rooms out of the way and maybe the main door after."

[Delaria 17:32] "All right. Sounds like a plan."

[GM 17:35] Yeah, you guys again do the Mage Hand and spear tricks to double-check the area. The north room is totally empty except for a small amount of rocky debris.

[Ren 17:54] "It looks like this was just an empty storeroom at some point. Nothing of interest here. Let's continue down the hallway."

[Delaria 18:03] "All right."

[GM 18:05] So opening this door, you do the trick again to make sure that nobody gets hurt, and you open the door and you can hear the faint sound of crying.

[Ren 18:16] "Do you guys hear that? Sounds like maybe somebody is hurt or injured."

[Gerik 18:21] Gerik's going to toss his torch in that room and pull out his axe.

[Ren 18:25] ...as you do anytime you hear small children crying...

[GM 18:32] You can see that there are crude symbols and glyphs inscribed in a bright green dye that decorate this particular chamber. There's a large pit in the center that shows evidence of a recent fire, and a metallic cage is situated in the middle of the southern wall. It contains large gaping holes and is totally empty. A small wooden bench draped with a green cloth is next to the cage. You can see several small objects resting on it and a bedroll near that wooden bench as well. The sound of crying and whimpering comes from inside that little bedroll. You can see that it's shaking a little bit, like shoulders rising and falling with the sobs.

[Gerik 19:27] And we don't see anything else in the room? No danger, just seems like someone having a night terror or something?

[GM 19:35] Yeah, sounds like somebody having a nightmare.

[Ren 19:42] The green runes, are those luminescent? Are they phosphorescent? Or is it just green dye or paint of some sort?

[GM 19:51] It's just a green dye. It appears to be Draconic in origin, but using the kobold language. So it would be difficult to transcribe.

[Ren 20:09] "Looks like more of these same kinds of runes in here, Jocq. Del, it sounds like somebody might be hurt... possibly? Gerik, can you see where that's coming from?"

[Gerik 20:19] "Yeah." He'll glance out towards the west to make sure there's nothing else there first, then double back and go to the bedroll where the sobbing's coming from. He'll keep his axe down on the ground, trying to be unthreatening but close enough if he needs it. Then he'll open the bedroll just enough to see the face of whatever's in there and say, "Now, now there, hey, what's the matter?" and open the bedroll to see what's inside.

[GM 20:50] All right, so inside the bedroll is a kobold. As you pull it open and reveal him, the kobold skitters backward away from you on hands and feet and he says, "Oh, don't hurt Meepo. Don't hurt Meepo." And you can see that he's clearly been crying and he cowers in the corner of the room.

[Gerik 21:20] "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Meepo. Meepo is your name, right? Yeah, I'm Gerik. Nice to meet you, Meepo. We're all some nice people here. It sounds like we came across a battle or something. You know what? Never mind that. Meepo, what's the matter? What's got you down, Meepo?"

[GM 21:40] He looks at you and then looks at the rest of the people in the room and just starts sobbing. He says, "We lost it. We lost the dragon. The wretched goblins stole Calcryx, our dragon."

[Gerik 21:56] "Uh..."

[GM 21:56] And he just covers his face and starts sobbing again.

[Gerik 22:00] Gerik will look to Del and shrug like, 'What do we do here?'

[Delaria 22:06] "I'm sorry you lost your dragon. What does it look like in case we come across it?"

[GM 22:15] He looks up at you asking about the dragon and he scrabbles towards you on hands and feet again, just a little ways, not all the way up to you. He says, "Calcryx was a mighty dragon, as big as your friend there with the axe, but pure white in scale."

[Delaria 22:36] "Hmmmmm.... And was your dragon friend just here recently?"

[GM 22:43] Meepo hangs his head down low. He says, "Yes, until the goblins stole him from me."

[Gerik 22:50] "What? Meepo, was your dragon... Was it a person like me or was it like an effigy or something?"

[GM 22:59] He looks over at you and he says, "Are you... you're not a dragon."

[Delaria 23:03] "Does your dragon move around on its own or is it a symbol?"

[GM 23:11] He says, "Both. Both. Yes. It's a symbol of great kobold power and Meepo's status and also real with great wings and a cold breath."

[Gerik 23:25] "Could you talk to the dragon there, Meepo, or did it breathe? Did you have to feed it food?"

[GM 23:36] "Yeah, you have to feed dragons food. We feed it rats." And he points at the door in the southwestern corner, he says, "That's where we store the food for the dragon."

[Gerik 23:48] "So you say the goblins came and took your dragon. Why couldn't she just fly away from them if she didn't want to be with them?"

[GM 23:57] He looks horrified at you. He says, "Calcryx doesn't want to be with Meepo?" And that leads to massive amounts of crying.

[Gerik 24:11] "I... that's not what I meant. Okay, that's not what I meant, Meepo. I was just trying to ask you, can your dragon move on her own, or is she like made out of stone?"

[GM 24:32] "No, she can move on her own. That's why we have a cage to keep her here so that she doesn't leave."

[Gerik 24:38] "Oh, okay. So we're talking about an actual little dragon, not a statue. Let me guess, you're going to want us to go find her?"

[GM 24:49] He looks surprised and says, "You promise? You'll find Calcryx and bring her back?"

[Gerik 24:56] "I mean, the words I said weren't a promise. I'm just asking you a question. Maybe Jocq or Del, a little bit of help here? I'm not doing the words too well with Meepo. I think we're on different streams or something."

[GM 25:13] He scrambles towards you, Gerik, on hands and knees and reaches towards you imploringly and says, "Please bring back Calcryx."

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of the Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Delaria 0:32] "How long have you known Calcryx, Meepo?"

[GM 0:36] Meepo thinks about it pretty hard, and he says, "I've known Calcryx my whole life. I am the Keeper of the Dragon."

[Delaria 0:46] "And is this where Calcryx would live?" 

[GM 0:52] "Yes."

[Delaria 0:54] "Like, forever?"

[GM 0:55] "Yes. We worship her here forever... until she dies."

[Delaria 1:00] "All right. Knowing Calcryx your whole life, is there anything you know, like favorite food? or does Calcryx like music? Tell me, tell me about your friend. Tell me about your dragon friend."

[GM 1:18] "One time, she scratched me when I played music." And he points at this long scar across his chest that was clearly a pretty bad wound. "She's a silly dragon."

[Delaria 1:35] "I'm going to guess not music then. All right."

[GM 1:39] "We feed her rats. Pretty sure she likes them because she ate them."

[Delaria 1:44] "Do you feed her anything else? Do you know if rats are her favorite thing?"

[GM 1:47] "Occasionally goblins. I think she likes the rats better."

[Delaria 1:52] "All right. You know, maybe she just went with the goblins because they seem like a tasty food source. Maybe she'll come back."

[GM 2:02] And he looks at you and then kind of reaches towards you and says, "Do you promise?"

[Delaria 2:08] "I promise... that maybe she has her own motivations for doing stuff."

[GM 2:18] He says, "All your words are confusing."

[Delaria 2:21] "Yep. You're right."

[Gerik 2:25] "All right, let me try this again, maybe with the help of some dice, like a persuasion check or something... All right, so Meepo, we will look for your dragon. We are not..." and he makes his hands into an X. "We are not going to promise we're going to bring her back, but if while we're exploring, we find her, then we will consider bringing her back to you."

[GM 2:51] He hops up extremely excited. "Yes, you bring back the dragon Calcryx and you be Meepo's friend forever." And he goes to give you a hug.

[Gerik 3:02] "All right." So kobolds are smaller, right? So it'd probably come up to Gerik's chest or something.

[GM 3:08] Yeah, it's probably slightly taller than Del, is all.

[Gerik 3:12] So he'll give it an awkward side hug and pat it on the back and say, "Hey, hey Meepo, yeah, all right, all right, oh good. That's good. Yeah, that's great. So could you help us out a little bit? Where did they take her and do you have a map or anything of the Citadel we could go through?"

[GM 3:35] "Meepo take you to talk to Yusdrayl."

[Gerik 3:38] "Oh, there's more of you. There's more of you guys. There's lots of kobolds here."

[GM 3:43] "So many kobolds. This is a kobold Queendom."

[Gerik 3:46] "That is, that is, that's fantastic. I love kobolds, it's great."

[Delaria 3:54] "Now I do have a question for you. Does Yusdrayl know that you don't have your dragon right now?"

[GM 4:04] "Yes, she's so angry."

[Delaria 4:07] "Will we make that better? I don't know. I don't know if she'll be excited to see us, so maybe we should just look on our own."

[GM 4:18] "But if you promise to search for the dragon, it could make things better." And you see that he's got a scheming face on.

[Ren 4:28] Kobold cunning. 

[Gerik 4:30] Yeah... let's insight our little buddy here. It's going to be terrible. 5.

[Delaria 4:39] I am a little bit worried myself. 11? A little distracted by the whole situation.

[GM 4:51] The entirety? 

[Delaria 4:52] Uh huh. Wow.

[Ren 4:55] Wow. 

[Jocq 4:57] So doing real good. 

[Greik 4:58] We have rolled a 5, an 11, and a 3. 

[GM 5:01] Jocq, do you want to just pile on these rolls here?

[Jocq 5:04] Jocq has not been paying attention and has been looking over the runes that Ren pointed out earlier.

[Ren 5:11] I've been paying close attention and believe this kobold implicitly.

[Gerik 5:18] So does Gerik.

[Ren 5:21] "Reminds me a lot of the kids that we have training back in our neighborhood."

[Delaria 5:27] "Yeah, the thing about kids though..."

[GM 5:30] Delaria, you rolled the highest with an 11. What are you looking for insight-wise? What are you trying to get a bead on?

[Delaria 5:40] Are we being brought as offerings to the kobold leader? Or is this a legitimate attempt to get help from us?

[GM 5:52] So, this appears to be a legitimate attempt to get help from you guys. You're positive with how Meepo is acting and from what little you can gather from him, is that the dragon's been taken, being the Keeper of the Dragons, Meepo's status is in the gutter and he's thinking that even just your promise to look for the dragon might improve his standing in the clan.

[Ren 6:21] Enlightened self-interest, always a strong motivator.

[Delaria 6:25] "Well, I can tell you care real deeply for your dragon. Let me talk to everyone else. We'll figure some stuff out. Take a breath, sit there and we'll get back to you in a minute. All right?"

[GM 6:39] He nods vigorously and he'll actually move over to this area here.

[Ren 6:46] Over by his bedroll?

[GM 6:49] Yeah, he basically goes over to the archway in the western wall that leads down this hallway, and he'll sit back on his haunches and just stare at you guys.

[Delaria 7:02] "So, hey everybody. What do you think?"

[Gerik 7:07] "You guys all speak Halfling, right, except for me?"

[Delaria 7:13] "Yeah."

[Ren 7:14] "Mhm."

[Gerik 7:14] "Maybe y'all should talk about this in Halfling because he obviously understands Common and you can fill me in later. I trust your judgment."

[Delaria 7:23] "All right."

[Ren 7:27] So we switch over to Halfling. "Meepo seems very concerned. Seems like a legitimate request. It might be a way of seeing deeper into the Citadel without having to check every single door."

[Delaria 7:44] "That's true."

[Ren 7:45] "...at least on the kobold side of things."

[Jocq 7:48] "Taking a more diplomatic route has never harmed anyone in the past. Certainly would be a more direct route. I'm afraid I wasn't paying the most strict attention. Has anyone asked about the Hucreles’ presence at all?"

[Delaria 8:02] "Oh, you know what? Let me..." Back in Common. "Hey, Gerik, could you ask Meepo about the Hucrele?"

[Gerik 8:12] "Oh, yeah. That's a good idea. I'll go talk to Meepo." He'll get out a... is there a ball or anything in here? He thinks Meepo's a kid so he's gonna try and play with Meepo like a child. So he'll get out one of his javelins and try and spar with him or something. So he'll go over and talk to Meepo while they talk.

[Ren 8:33] A fake sparring is always a good thing to do with kobolds too.

[Jocq 8:37] Nice. "That said, he looks hungry. I don't like the way he's licking his lips."

[Ren 8:46] "Does he eat rats too?"

[Delaria 8:49] "Oh, yeah. So I got a couple questions, like do the things on the wall say anything, and if you weren't listening, I'm pretty sure that southern room is filled with rats that might be alive, so maybe we shouldn't open it."

[Jocq 9:06] "That's... good."

[Delaria 9:07] "But apart from that, it does seem like an all right opportunity to get an escort through here, but it's not why we're here, so..."

[Jocq 9:24] "Right. This all seems real dear and endearing to him and I don't particularly feel like getting involved in petty clan troubles between the goblins and that. Let's find out what they know about the Hucreles and extract that information. Keep our end-goal in mind here."

[Ren 9:44] "We can go talk to Queen Yusdrayl. See if she has heard or had any interactions with the Hucrele kids. Make no promises."

[Jocq 9:56] "Right."

[GM 9:59] All right. So who's talking to Meepo? Is it Gerik again?

[Gerik 10:03] Yeah, Gerik's talking to Meepo while they have this conversation in Halfling.

[GM 10:08] Okay. Gerik, what questions do you have for Meepo?

[Gerik 10:13] "Hey Meepo." He's throwing a ration up and down in his hand.

[GM 10:17] Meepo stares at it.

[Gerik 10:19] "You look a little bit hungry. Here you go." He tosses it to him. "Yeah, there, we call this a ration. It's pretty tasty. I mean, it's not the best food we got, but you might like it. Yeah, here, how about you try that Meepo?"

[GM 10:33] All right, he tears into it, eating it. He says, "Not as warm as rat, but slightly tastier."

[Gerik 10:41] "Oh, yeah. That's some high praise. Thank you. Anyway, so say tell me.... before Calcryx was taken away, you didn't happen to see any humans like me, right? Or maybe like four of them came in here, maybe they did some magic or something."

[GM 11:02] "Humans. Yes. There was the one with the tree. There was the other four."

[Gerik 11:11] "Yeah, yeah. You met them? Did they come here and talk to Yusdrayl?"

[GM 11:18] "Meepo don't know. Yusdrayl would know. You could make nice with Yusdrayl."

[Gerik 11:24] "Okay, yeah, maybe and you're going to take us to Yusdrayl, right?"

[GM 11:28] "Mmm-hmm."

[Gerik 11:29] "She wants us to promise we're going to find Calcryx?"

[GM 11:32] "It's a good way to make nice with Yusdrayl. She's very angry."

[Gerik 11:37] "All right, yeah, I don't like that part very much at all. Okay. So Yusdrayl, you said that there's a person with a tree, did they come and talk to Yusdrayl?"

[GM 11:49] He thinks hard and kind of hits the side of his head softly with his fist. Then he looks at you as almost... do an insight check for me.

[Gerik 12:00] All right. We know Gerik is fantastic at these. Boop. 13. Not terrible.

[GM 12:08] He seems to be working out what you want to hear for this answer.

[Gerik 12:14] Ah. Got it. He really is like a kid. Like, 'Do you want to hear No? No? Can I get candy if you say No? Okay, great. No.'

[GM 12:25] And so yeah, he thinks about it and looks at you kind of sideways. And then says, "Maybe. Yeah, maybe. Yusdrayl would know."

[Gerik 12:35] "All right, thank you, Meepo. I'm just going to talk to my friends right here right quick and we'll get right back to you, okay? Here's another ration, just, you know, maybe eat it a little bit slower this time and then we'll come back in a minute."

[GM 12:48] All right, he nods and says "Slower." And then by the time you turn around, he's already eaten half of it.

[Gerik 12:57] All right, so then Gerik will turn to the rest of the group and let them know that Meepo has definitely seen the Hurcrele party, even though he's being a little bit shifty about whether they went to see the leader of the kobolds or not.

[Delaria 13:09] "Well, I'm feeling a little... it's not stressed… but I think it might be a good idea to talk to people. It might be a good idea to talk to people after we take a breather. We've fallen in some holes. But time is also pretty pressing, so..."

[Ren 13:32] "Perhaps we go talk to the queen and take advantage of her hospitality for the night and then continue our search better rested."

[Jocq 13:41] "Sounds like she's the best source of information at the moment. This kobold really seems to only have one thing on his mind, whether he knows more or not. I don't really think we're going to get any information. All of his notes here, they're all just 'Calcryx is the best.' 'Calcryx this', 'Calcryx that'."

[Ren 14:03] "Strange obsession about dragons. Who would ever want a dragon that badly?"

[Jocq 14:08] "I mean they've got their appeal. Let's not be hasty with our judgment."

[Ren 14:13] "Fair. Fair." I do want to take a look inside the cage before we leave. If it looks like there is a dragon trying to get out or what this damage was.

[Delaria 14:24] "Now if we're going to help look for your dragon friend, we're going to start now, so we know what we're talking about. So don't mind us, all right?"

[GM 14:33] He nods again, and he's happily drooling over the rest of the ration that he's holding.

[GM 14:40] So, the little cage there has definitely been broken from the outside in, and you guys do find, as you're investigating it, a handful of small white scales.

[Delaria 14:52] I'm also interested in what these things are on the table.

[GM 14:55] Oh, yes. So on that bench there, it looks like a makeshift altar. You can see little containers of green dye, a little paintbrush to use to actually paint the Draconic on the walls, and also four tiny figurines of dragons. They appear to be made out of jade.

[Delaria 15:18] All right, so we found the miniature painting table. Good.

[Gerik 15:22] For their game, 'Dragons and Dragons'.

[Jocq 15:29] I think I'm going to take a moment to resummon Dreki back into the room we are in rather than leaving him in the room with the broken crystal orbs. So after a moment, he will poof back into our room.

[Delaria 15:42] "Ha."

[GM 15:44] Meepo chokes on his ration and then scurries over to where Dreki is. He kind of looks at it, sniffs it, and says, "It would be better if it was a dragon."

[Jocq 15:55] "It would be better if that was a dragon, wouldn't it? You have just come up a notch in my opinion."

[GM 16:06] Meepo will kind of scratch behind his ear on one side and just stare at you.

[Jocq 16:12] "I think better of you, slightly."

[GM 16:16] And his tail wags at that.

[Jocq 16:22] I'm going to rub his head.

[GM 16:24] You just made a best friend, Jocq.

[Jocq 16:26] Yes.

[GM 16:31] And he also gives you a hug.

[Jocq 16:33] "Oh, that's a little weird. Okay."

[Ren 16:36] I turn to Meepo and say, "You know, as they say in the Citadel, take us to your leader."

[GM 16:42] Meepo jumps up, very excited. He says, "You follow Meepo," and he just tears around the corner and just runs down the hallway.

[Delaria 16:51] "Wow, all right. I.... okay."

[GM 16:57] All right, so if you guys follow the hallway to the west, all the way to the end, and make a turn to the north, that is where Meepo will bring you. So, as you guys enter this chamber, Meepo's dancing kind of excitedly. And you can see down the length of this room is a double row of relief carved marble columns. The worn carvings depict entwining dragons. You can see several kobolds in this room and they all look at you with some surprise as you guys enter the room with Meepo. And toward the western end, you can see what appears to be a female kobold draped in a white robe sitting on this throne made of mostly broken rock and above her, the throne is kind of carved into the shape of this dragon. And in the dragon's mouth above her, it holds a key.

[Gerik 18:09] That's the key we need!

[GM 18:11] Yeah. So the metallic key is held firmly in the dragon's jaws, and sitting on the throne is Yusdrayl. She stands as you guys enter the room and turns to Meepo and says, "What's the meaning of this?"

[GM 18:25] Meepo bows low on the ground and gets on all fours and crawls toward her and says "These outsiders wanted to speak with you." And then he turns to you guys and looks at you and says, "Go on. Speak to her."

[Gerik 18:47] So knowing of the courts and not wanting to demean his Lord Searun, Gerik will take one for the team and he'll kneel, bow towards Yusdrayl, and he'll begin speaking slowly but hopefully eloquently in the kobold's eyes and say, "Oh Great Leader Yusdrayl, Meepo has told us of your greatness and of your plight with your dragon Calcryx being abducted by the goblins. That is why we are here."

[GM 19:21] She looks at Meepo and then looks back at you. Ooooh, nice.

[Gerik 19:26] 20 persuasion.

[GM 19:27] 20 persuasion, all right. She says, "It seems that Meepo has spoken to you about a great deal of things that perhaps he should not have." She glares at Meepo and he kind of cowers behind Jocq.

[Gerik 19:42] "Well, we're on a little bit of a quest ourselves there, Great Leader. We're looking for some more humans like us that might have come through here and we told Meepo, 'maybe we can go through, look for the Hucrele children. Well, they're adults, but anyway, sorry. The pair of the Hucreles, and their friends, and while we're doing that, if we, we'll keep our eye out, look for Calcryx for you, try and free her from those goblins if we cross paths, which I think we will.'"

[GM 20:16] Yusdrayl says, "The humans went to fight the goblins and never returned. You would have to enter the goblin territory to look for them."

[Gerik 20:29] "Yeah. It seems like all roads are leading towards the goblin territory. Just let me ask you a question there, Great Leader. Is that the Durbuluk goblins, the ones around here, is that where the Hucreles went?"

[GM 20:44] She eyes you suspiciously and says, "Yes, it is the Durbuluk tribe."

[Gerik 20:51] "Yeah. I heard they're no good. They're pretty aggressive. So, yeah, we're going to go that way anyways. I bet if it was goblins, that it was going to be the same goblins that took your dragon. So, it sounds like both our quests are entwined and if we do this efficiently, we can get double the experience. So we'll go in there together and we'll find the Hucreles and the dragon and then we'll bring the dragon back here if that makes sense."

[GM 21:25] "And you would do this out of the kindness of your heart?"

[Gerik 21:29] "Well, there's a couple things we'd want, of course. Namely for all y'all to not attack us and maybe share with us any information you have where we could go get the goblins. But yeah, that's it. We're not looking for any gold or anything." He looks towards Jocq and Del at the end of that statement.

[Jocq 21:56] "All services have their comeuppance. A quid pro quo if you will, but that can be discussed at a later time."

[GM 22:04] Yusdrayl scratches behind her ear and stares at you.

[Jocq 22:08] I stand firm.

[GM 22:12] And she turns to you, Gerik, and says, "What did he say?"

[Gerik 22:19] "What he said, your Great Leader, is that we'll find the dragon for you and then maybe someday you could help us out or or maybe right now you could help us out by telling her where she's at and where the Hucreles are. Yeah, you know what? Let's go with that one. How about you tell us where the Hucreles went? Maybe you could draw us a map and also where you think Calcryx is, and we'll go get them both. That's the deal. Does that sound good?"

[GM 22:47] She nods and says, "We have an agreement."

[Gerik 22:51] Gerik will bow. He's not super familiar with their traditions, so he just says, "Yeah, yeah, sounds like a deal, Your Great Leader, Your Greatness."

[GM 23:01] She directs you back toward Meepo's room. She says the room that housed Calcryx also houses a back door into goblin territory.

[Gerik 23:13] "Oh, that's convenient. Great."

[GM 23:16] "Meepo can show you the way if you need. When you leave kobold space, we cannot help you anymore, but my clanmates will not attack you."

[Gerik 23:29] "All right. Yeah, I understand that. If you could also tell us where all the pits are, we found a couple on the way in. They weren't very pleasant. So, just make sure we don't fall into them on the way out. We'd be much obliged."

[GM 23:43] She nods and says, "And I can mark out the traps on a map for you."

[Gerik 23:50] "Oh, that's delightful. That would be fantastic."

[Jocq 23:54] "There are two immediate requests that our party has before setting about our joint endeavors. The first of which is to the south of here, there's a room with three cracked crystals and one aglow. I can't help but notice a silver key above that might fit a stone door. Know you anything about this room?"

[GM 24:16] "We do not enter that area."

[Jocq 24:19] "Why?"

[GM 24:21] "We've never found the key to unlock it."

[Jocq 24:27] "I take it then the key above your queenly head is not the key to that door?"

[GM 24:32] And she looks up at it. And her eyes widen and then she tries to compose herself. She says, "I can trade the key to you if you bring back Calcryx."

[Jocq 24:52] "At the moment, this promise has no sway, as we know nothing of the room that lies beyond."

[GM 24:58] "The kobolds do not know what's beyond that door either. But if it's mystery you seek, you can certainly find it there."

[Jocq 25:07] "Right. The second is our party has suffered a few grievous occurrences on the way in. If there is a place we can recover and rest before continuing our adventure, it would be much appreciated."

[GM 25:24] She says "Happy to provide that for you. Would you like some rat stew for food?"

[Jocq 25:31] "You know, I've heard about that. That sounds..."

[Delaria 25:35] "If you... I've never had kobold rat stew. That sounds...like a people who would know what to do with it."

[Jocq 25:44] "That's good. That's good. That sounds good."

[GM 25:47] Yusdrayl seems happy and she says "The recipe was my own." And she directs you to a room that you guys can stay in or you can stay in Meepo's room where she can keep some kobolds away. Basically, you'll be watched to make sure that you don't cause any havoc.

[Gerik 26:09] "Yeah, I think we much prefer our own room." Gerik cuts in very quickly.

[GM 26:16] Yusdrayl nods and says "There's an empty room next to Meepo's room. There's an empty room there that you can use that will offer some privacy. And I'll have some food brought to you."

[Jocq 26:29] "Delightful."

[Gerik 26:31] "All right. Yeah, thank you, Wise Leader. This sounds like quite the plan."

[GM 26:37] She points at Gerik. She says, "You. I like you."

[Gerik 26:42] He bows to her and says, "Why thank you. Yeah, I like you too. You got a nice little Citadel going here."

[GM 26:52] She forms what appears to be a smile of some kind. But it's very toothy. You guys can take a rest. You can do a long rest, you can do a short rest, but you will not be harassed by the kobolds.

[Gerik 27:10] Let's do a long rest. I think we need help. Do you guys need spell slots?

[Jocq 27:16] Not at all.

[Delaria 27:17] I do.

[Gerik 27:19] Nice.

[Ren 27:21] I need Del to have spell slots.

[Gerik 27:23] Yeah. Yeah me too.

[Gerik 27:29] One last thing before we go into the room, like as they're leading us there, Gerik will ask them how long ago they saw the Hucreles because I don't recall. I don't think we asked them that. I think Meepo just said go talk to her, the leader.

[GM 27:41] Yusdrayl can confirm that the human adventurers came through about seven days ago. So you guys are catching up. 

[Gerik 27:48] All right. So we'll set ourselves back a day, but I think it's worth it because we can't catch up with them if we're dead. So let's rest.

[GM 27:57] Meepo comes in with four bowls of stew and a small rodent for Dreki.

[Jocq 28:03] "That's very thoughtful of you, Meepo."

[Gerik 28:05] "How considerate." 

[Delaria 28:07] No Constitution saves. Is Kobold food safe for us?

[GM 28:14] Yeah, that's a good question actually right there. The stew is quite flavorful. Apparently, the kobolds are very good with seasonings.

[Jocq 28:30] What kind of seasonings?

[Ren 28:33] The best seasonings.

[GM 28:36] You're not sure. And it's quite flavorful.

[Ren 28:40] Jocq is now convinced Rat is the best food ever.

[Jocq 28:44] And so plentiful.

[Delaria 28:45] It's not seafood, but yeah. For not being at the sea, it's the fish of the land.

[Gerik 28:53] Jocq will go back to high society and rave about the Kobold Rat Stew.

[Jocq 29:04] If we play our cards just right, we may come out with kobold allies here, and this might be a delicacy.

Thank you, fair listeners for attending to another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:32] It's hard to tell down here when it's actually morning and when it's not. So you find that you're not particularly sure exactly what time it is as you wake up. You guys are in that room still  that the kobolds left you in. What is your morning routine down here in the dungeon?

[Jocq 0:55] Darkness or no, the day starts by casting Unseen Servant to tend to the necessities, like brushing your hair and pressing your clothes. So I'll be taking 10 minutes to do that.

[Gerik 1:10] Gerik's going to get up and do some exercises, get the limberness out of his joints.

[Ren 1:18] Ren is meditating for a little bit and preparing a torch so we have some light in here. Do we have breakfast outside the door?

[GM 1:30] Just outside the door, Meepo is standing there. He looks like he's been there for quite a while, actually, just holding this small cauldron in his hands. It looks like it was basically yesterday's food that's just been reheated.

[Delaria 1:47] "Morning."

[GM 1:49] He grins at you, drools a little bit, and almost drops the stew. He says, "I'm so hungry. Can I have some?"

[Delaria 1:58] "Yeah. Come on in."

[GM 2:01] He'll scooch in, careful not to bump into you or anything, Del. He'll go and promptly sit by Jocq and hand the cauldron over.

[Jocq 2:15] "Thank you, Meepo." Taking a good look at the stew. "Is this reconstituted?"

[GM 2:24] He stares at you blankly.

[Delaria 2:27] "Have you not had leftovers before, Jocq?"

[Jocq 2:32] "Leftover what?"

[Delaria 2:34] "It's the same food again. Not like the same food again, it's not like a baby bird thing. It's just if you make more food than you need, then you have some left and you can eat it later."

[Jocq 2:51] "There are always other people to eat the food that I don't eat. There's not a lot of reason to save it."

[Delaria 2:59] "That's true. We don't end up with a whole lot of leftovers either in my home, but it's fine."

[Jocq 3:05] "That's not going to make you sick or anything?"

[Delaria 3:08] "Not if it's heated, right. Things keep."

[Jocq 3:12] "But Meepo, where was this kept?"

[GM 3:15] "Right here." He jostles the cauldron a little bit.

[Jocq 3:19] Eyebrows raised at Del.

[Delaria 3:23] "It was real spiced. I think it's fine. So, I'm going to eat some, but if you don't want any, I've got some of our provisions from up in the cart that Dreki helped bring down because I forgot to grab them before we left. I thought we were going to be back up by now because I don't like being under the ground. Anyway, here."

[Jocq 3:43] "I appreciate that. Thank you, though. Thank you for bringing it, Meepo."

[GM 3:50] "You're welcome. Speaking of baby birds, we put some in there for you."

[Gerik 3:55] "In the stew?"

[GM 4:00] "Yes." He grins at you again, takes a spoon, and eats some of it.

[Gerik 4:06] "Well, the last thing we're going to want while we're trying to save your dragon is to die of dysentery. No offense. I think we're going to go with some provisions. Meepo, we're not as accustomed to these types of provisions as you are."

[GM 4:23] Meepo looks around curiously and says, "What's Diskenberries?"

[Gerik 4:29] "Oh, they're a foul type of fairy that do all types of nefarious things to your body, so we don't want to deal with them. Eating rotten food will lure them to you." Gerik smiles, wondering internally if this is too far down the path for a Lawful Good paladin, but he just smiles.

[GM 4:51] Meepo looks in the corners of the room and draws his little dagger. He says, "I'll protect you from the Disenberries."

[Gerik 5:03] "Yeah, thank you, Meepo. I'll have a little bit of this stew. I'm sure it's spiced enough." He'll have a very small portion, but probably a normal kobold-sized portion.

[Delaria 5:19] Del will eat the stew, until or unless it crunches.

[Jocq 5:24] Jocq will say eating the provisions, muttering quietly to himself, "They told me to take prestidigitation. It'll flavor your food. When will you need to flavor your food? You'll live in a city."

[Gerik 5:40] "I'm sorry, what was that, Lord Searun?"

[Jocq 5:42] "Nothing, this is fine."

[Gerik 5:44] "Oh, alright. I heard something about the city. We're going to be back in the city soon enough, right? We're almost there. We'll find those Hucrele children today, hopefully. Torm willing."

[Jocq 5:59] "Gerik, how old are you?"

[Gerik 6:01] "Uh, Let me check my character sheet. I forgot... Hm. I'm 26."

[GM 6:16] A shuffling of paper is heard as the character pulls out a sheet of paper from his bag.

[Gerik 6:22] ...let me say that in a second when we stop laughing...

[Jocq 6:27] ...this whole morning session. Oh my gosh...

[Gerik 6:31] ...well, we're gonna have lots of outtakes. That's good. Good content. Sorry, just a second...

[Delaria 6:40] '75, why do you ask?'

[Gerik 6:43] 'I'm 75 years old, Lord. That stew didn't make me feel so good.' "I'm 26 years old, Lord Searun. Why do you ask? I think we already  talked about this a little bit ago..."

[Jocq 7:04] "I thought it might be pertinent, should we actually run into the Hucreles alive. Referring to them as 'children' at our age is not ideal, not very diplomatic."

[Gerik 7:16] "Oh, yeah. Understood. When we meet the 'children', I'll let you do the talking."

[Jocq 7:29] "Right, I appreciate that. Thank you."

[GM 7:33] Ren, how are you handling the stew this morning?

[Ren 7:37] I will be eating it.

[GM 7:40] Perfect. There are bits that are chewy, some that are best described as gooey, and some crunching.

[Gerik 7:49] Mmmmm... Yummy.

[GM 7:51] Eventually you guys finish whatever portion you're going to eat. And whenever you'd like, Meepo can show you the way.

[Ren 8:02] "Meepo, if you'll lead on, we can get this journey undertaken."

[Delaria 8:08] "Alright, everybody got all your stuff? So much as we brought down with us."

[Gerik 8:14] Gerik hefts his axe over his shoulder, his armor is on, and he replies in the affirmative. He's ready to go.

[Jocq 8:24] "Alright, alright, hold on." Hastily shoving loose papers into his satchel with Mage Hand. "Alright."

[GM 8:33] Meepo guides you back through the dragon room where you found him crying. He takes you through the door to the north, into a hallway that zigzags a little bit, and then takes you to a heavy wooden door that's reinforced with metal and has a large deadbolt on it. He points and says, "This leads you to the goblin territory. It's the back door."

[Gerik 9:06] "Are there going to be any goblins behind this door?"

[GM 9:10] "Maybe not directly behind it, but somewhere beyond it."

[Gerik 9:17] "Alright." Gerik will open the door then.

[GM 9:22] Meepo will retreat as you guys open up. As he passes you, he says, "Good luck and bring back the dragon, please," as he races back away from the open door.

[Delaria 9:36] "Alright. Bye Meepo. Thank you."

[Gerik 9:38] "Hey now, wait a second there, Meepo..." Too late. What do we see behind this newly opened door? Is it just a 10 by 15 room that's empty?

[GM 9:50] It's about 20 by 25. It's totally empty. The flagstone floor is warped, and you can see a lot of dust and cobwebs. There's a door to the north of similar make to the one you just entered through. Otherwise, it's quiet and the only light is from somebody's torch. Who has a light source?

[Ren 10:18] I'm carrying a torch.

[Gerik 10:19] Gerik's got a torch.

[Ren 10:23] "The goblin territory looks suspiciously like kobold territory. I was perhaps expecting a larger difference here."

[Gerik 10:32] "Yeah, I thought this was going to open up into a field or something, but we're still just in this big old Citadel. Alright, should we keep going?"

[Jocq 10:42] "Lead the way."

[Ren 10:44] I see if we can look at the dust and see if the Hucreles came through this back door.

[GM 10:53] Go ahead and do an Investigation or Survival check for me, either way will work.

[Ren 10:59] Survival.

[Gerik 11:01] Nice.

[Ren 11:03] That's a 17... er, 20.

[GM 11:06] Nicely done. Yes, there are definitely newer tracks in this room that are still a little bit aged, maybe by a few days.

[Ren 11:22] They seem to be human?

[GM 11:24] Yes. Four distinct individuals that have gone through the door ahead of you.

[Ren 11:31] "It appears that we're on the right track. If you notice the footprints here, it looks like a party has been through here before us, maybe a few days ago based on the dust accumulated. Human. Not goblin or kobold."

[Jocq 11:49] "Let's see. That would be the party we're chasing then, right? Talgen and Sharwyn had their companions with them, if I recall."

[Delaria 11:58] "I believe so."

[Gerik 12:00] "Yeah, that's some mighty fine detective work there, Ren. Good job. No wonder you made it all the way back from that monastery when that mountain blew up."

[Ren 12:12] "Sharp eyes do come in handy."

[Gerik 12:15] "Well, I'm going to open this door." He's got his hand on the door already as you gave him that info."Anybody got any problems with that?"

[Jocq 12:24] "There's only one other way out."

[Gerik 12:27] "Alright." He pushes the door and takes a step in... Probably hopefully doesn't die...

[Delaria 12:35] It's entirely a hole. 'Stupid pit trap.'

[Gerik 12:38] 'You fall 300 feet to your death.'

[GM 12:42] This particular room is a similar size to the one you were just in. There is a door to your left and a large hall to the north. On the east side of the room is an ornate fountain, cracked, a bit stained, but devoid of liquid at this point.

[Gerik 13:07] "It's safe to come on in. No threats I can see. There's just a weird fountain, ain't got no water in it. But we're good. You can come in."

[Delaria 13:18] "Hmm."

[Gerik 13:20] "Ren, you see anything in here? Any indication which way they went?"

[Ren 13:25] "Checking the footprints coming in from the other room... they did enter here."

[GM 13:30] They do continue through this room, through the archway to the north.

[Ren 13:36] "It appears they continued straight through, not distracted by the other doorways."

[Delaria 13:42] "That sounds like a good principle to me. Keep going straight. Will you come in here and stop pacing, Jocq? There's plenty of room in the room."

[Jocq 13:52] "I just have recollections of people falling in holes last time we were doing this."

[Gerik 14:00] "Oh yeah, if by 'people' you mean me? Yeah. That's right..."

[Jocq 14:04]  "I do."

[Gerik 14:05] "...that's my job. I'm your bodyguard. I'll fall in the hole so you don't got to, right? Let's keep going. There's that doorway over there, but let's ignore that for right now. Alright, I'm going to keep going. There's another crossroads up here everybody." I guess I don't know what I see. What do I see?

[GM 14:25] As you continue through the northern hallway, you do come to a T-intersection. The eastern part is caved in. It looks like it may have attached to a larger section of this place, but when the Citadel fell through the ground, it looks like that was part of the damage. To the west is a single door, and then the hallway continues to the north even further. That's where the footprints go. Ren, go ahead and do another Survival/Investigation check.

[Ren 15:02] Okay.

[GM 15:03] Alright, yes. There's a little bit of confusion in the footprints in this intersection, but it looks like they continue to the north.

[Ren 15:14] "It looks like the party was moving with purpose. The footprints are wide enough that they were moving quickly, it seems."

[Gerik 15:23] "Alright, let's keep on going then. There's a lot of doors up here." Gerik keeps walking about 20' forward and then sees doors at 45-degree angles, three to the left and three to the right, which he relays back to the group. Gerik is leading with Ren right behind him, and then Del and Jocq bringing up the rear.

[GM 15:47] This area contains six doors, three on either side of the hallway. It appears to be an old jail of some kind. They look like very small cells with barred doors, all of which are open. As you investigate those middle ones, you see giant rats in the corners, and they come charging out at you. Everybody, roll Initiative.

[Delaria 16:15] Ah.

[Gerik 16:16] Gerik will sigh... "Always giant rats."

[Delaria 16:21] "Why are you sighing up there?"

[Gerik 16:24] "We got some more giant rats up here."

[Delaria 16:26] "Oh no."

[Gerik 16:27] "Maybe bring them back for some more stew."

[GM 16:33] Ren, you are lucky number one in the initiative order.

[Ren 16:39] I will run forward to the cell door on the west and see if I can pull that door shut before the rat gets out.

[GM 16:51] Great.

[Gerik 16:53] Smart.

[GM 16:54] You yank that door shut and you can hear the rat scrabbling on the other side.

[Ren 17:00] I will yell, "Gerik, get the door!"

[Gerik 17:03] ...Gerik will be too slow...

[Ren 17:06] I will ready an attack, if I have time to do that, for the rat coming from the cell across from us, in case Gerik is unable to get the door closed.

[GM 17:21] The giant rat behind the cell door that you just slammed shut scrabbles at it, trying to get at you. A rat comes out of the cell... west...

[Gerik 17:35] Ah, from the northwest.

[GM 17:37] and with a bite... 

[Ren 17:38] Gaaah.

[GM 17:40] for a critical hit. 

[Gerik 17:41] Oh no.

[GM 17:42] For four points of damage. It savagely bites at your calf, Ren. From the cell door that you're investigating, Gerik, a rat comes out of the darkness to also attack you. 17 against your armor class.

[Gerik 17:58] Exactly. Yep.

[GM 18:00] Nice.

[GM 18:01] He comes leaping out of the dark with an angry *SKREEEEE* as he chomps down on your [possibly unintelligible] for six points of piercing damage. He just gnaws on it, salivating.

[Delaria 18:14] Chomps down on your where now, pardon?

[GM 18:16] Onto your foot.

[Delaria 18:18] Ah... that is not the word that came through to my ear. Thank you.

[GM 18:23] I'm pretty sure that's the word I said. So if I said anything else...

[Delaria 18:27] No, it just with the start of the word gone, it sounded a whole lot like a chomp down on your butt.

[GM 18:40] Gerik turns away. Butt Chomp.

[Gerik 18:43] Our Initiative rolls were atrocious except for Ren's. We're all three and zero.

[Jocq 18:51] I mean, Dreki got a 6.

[Gerik 18:53] Where's Dreki? Oh, there he is.

[GM 18:56] Okay, Dreki's turn. As these rats pour out of the cells, what does Dreki do?

[Jocq 19:03] Dreki, flying off of Jocquelynn's shoulders at a quick urging, is going to flap around to the opposite side to be harassing the rat that's attacking Ren and simply maul at it with its talons... ineffectually.

[GM 19:22] And it is now Jocq's turn.

[Jocq 19:26] "All right, I knew this would be trouble. There it is. There's the trouble."

[Delaria 19:31] "It's all the way up here with us, Jocq."

[Ren 19:36] Ren turns as Dreki came rushing overhead, looking down to see if there are even more rats pouring in from the northern corridors.

[Jocq 19:49] "Llaw Farw!" and a ghostly skeletal hand will shoot forward at the only rat Jocquelynn can see, the one in the hallway being harassed by the owl, Dreki, for the Chill Touch spell.

[GM 20:01] Attack 15, that's definitely a hit.

[Jocq 20:04] Fantastic. The skeletal hand latches on, grabs it by the nape of the neck and begins to shake lightly for 4 necrotic damage.

[Gerik 20:13] "You want to come closer at all, Jocq? Get up in the fray a little bit?"

[Jocq 20:16] "No, I'm alright. It’s alright. This is good."

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:32] Del, your turn. As you see your friends getting chomped on by rats.

[Delaria 0:37] This is a lot of rats. I do not like this number of rats. These are too large. You know what? Last time, I threw a dagger down at a rat, it did not do very good. So I am going to do something different. No more rats. Fewer rats means less having to heal all my friends. So, Sacred Flame. *Whoooosh* See if I can crispify the rat to the east next to Gerik.

[Gerik 1:11] The one that chomped on my… ‘foot'?

[Delaria 1:14] Yes.

[GM 1:16] Ooh. Nice. The rat fails miserably.

[Delaria 1:23] Thanks to being in the darkness of the underground for long enough. The rat is unaccustomed to bright flashes of light that come streaming out of halflings... 'That's weird.' So it's startled just enough to not get out of the way and this beam of holy light zaps it to death in a descriptive manner.

[Gerik 1:51] A Descriptive Light comes from on high.

[GM 1:56] Ren, I believe you have a readied action.

[Ren 1:59] Yes, I will turn and stab out at the rat that had bit my leg. I will be using the spear with 'Snake Strikes in the Darkness.'

[Jocq 2:15] Good advantage…

[Gerik 2:18] Yes, advantage was good. Fortunately, the tips from Dreki were able to make it so an initial stab into the dark was a little off, but the second directly skewered it. So again, the rats are unaccustomed to a heavily armed party. And I am able to skewer the rat taking revenge upon the creature that had gnawed on my leg.

[GM 2:49] Nice. All right. With that being said, you only have one rat trapped in the cell and these two corpses. How would you like to handle it?

[Gerik 3:00] Is there a way to lock off the cell? Can we just put a javelin through and lock it in or something? Or do we have to get it?

[GM 3:09] This cell would have a deadbolt on it that would then be locked with a padlock of some kind. So you could easily just throw the deadbolt and then it would be stuck in there until it grew smart enough to reach through the bars and open the deadbolt.

[Gerik 3:26] All right. Gerik will reach past Ren and hit the deadbolt in as Ren stabs the rat. And then he'll say something really, really wise and witty like, "Man, them rats came out of nowhere. I can't believe they bit my... foot. Terrible." And then he'll use a couple points of lay on hands from his pool to heal himself up.

[GM 3:49] Excellent. Ren, what would you like to do about your wound?

[Ren 3:54] I think I will smear some of this healing salve on my leg if we have a moment and just bandage it up.

[Gerik 4:01] Gerik will now remember that we have healing salves and use it next time. All right. "Well, should we keep on going? Them rats were annoying, but we got to go find those Hucrele child-- er, fine young adults. Definitely not children."

[Jocq 4:23] "I appreciate your efforts at decorum, Gerik. Can you walk?"

[Gerik 4:27] "Yeah, I'm good. By the grace of Torm I healed my foot up, so I should be good to go. Let's keep on going. Hopefully no more rats up here." And Gerik will continue north past these cells into a new room.

[GM 4:42] There are two trap doors that are held open by what appears to be iron spikes. One right at the entrance there.

[Gerik 4:51] Do I see them or do I fall in again?

[GM 4:53] No, you definitely see them because they're held open. So it's quite an obvious large pit trap there. This particular room is a little bit larger than the last few that you've seen. And in the north is another dry fountain with an overarching dragon theme carved into the stonework. You can faintly smell the stench of some kind of rotten meat in this room.

[Gerik 5:27] Hmmm... Are these traps easily circumventable or do we need to make a check to get past them? He'll call it out to everyone else. How do we get past them? Since they're blocking the whole entrance.

[Jocq 5:39] "Can you close it?"

[Gerik 5:42] Um, can he close it?

[GM 5:44] Yeah, you could remove the spikes and that would close them. You would probably want to figure out some way to reinforce them if you did allow them to close because they're going to fall back open again as soon as somebody walks on them.

[Gerik 5:58] "You know what, Jocq? I'm looking here. It's just a quick little step here over to the east. I think we can just step over it. We can help you out. If we close it up, someone else might come in and fall in the spikes. It's going to take us a lot of time to take them spikes out, so let's just walk past it. We can help you over if you need."

[Jocq 6:18] "All right. Let's do what we have to do."

[Gerik 6:21] There's only about five feet right here. Do you want us to check for the jump or how do you want us to do that? Because Gerik and Ren can jump over it and then throw a rope back or something if we need.

[GM 6:31] I don't think it's too much of an obstacle for the four of you, if you use some rope and whatnot to help out your teammates.

[Gerik 6:42] Yeah. Gerik will throw rope over to lead Jocq because he knows he's not the most athletic type.

[Jocq 6:48] No.

[GM 6:50] Do you guys happen to have any metal spikes or anything of that nature?

[Gerik 6:55] I have some pitons.

[Jocq 6:58] I could.

[GM 7:02] If you use up maybe two or three metal pitons and some of your rope, maybe cut off a 5-foot section, then you could easily make a handle that circles those corners there to help out with making sure nobody falls in.

[Gerik 7:21] Oh, it looks like I actually don't have those, but I do have some javelins. Can I just use a javelin instead? Just expend a javelin.

[Jocq 7:29] That's fine, that fine. I've got some pitons. It's not that hard.

[Gerik 7:32] Okay. You can Mage Hand them over, if you need.

[Jocq 7:36] Reaching out and plucking some pitons from the air, I'll hand them to Del.

[Gerik 7:42] Oh, yeah. Huh. Because your School.

[Delaria 7:47] "Where did...? All right, thank you."

[Jocq 7:49] "All right. They're just right there."

[Delaria 7:53] "You don't even have a... I mean, you have a bag, but you keep all your papers in there. Were these with your papers? Okay."

[Ren 8:01] As Del and Gerik are busy improvising a safety rail for the trap for Lord Searun, I'd be looking down at the pits to see if there is a body down there or where the smell of the rotten meat is coming from.

[GM 8:18] Go ahead and give me a Perception check, please.

[Ren 8:22] ....Welp. It's dark in here....

[GM 8:27] It's pretty dark down in those pits, and it's full of rat bones and other refuse. You can't really tell. It doesn't seem to be coming from this particular trap... hole in front of you, but there is still that pervasive smell.

[Ren 8:49] "It definitely appears that our adventuring party before us found these traps. They seem to have left them open, hoping for a return, probably. Paid off for us. Not sure where this smell is coming from, though."

[Gerik 9:07] Gerik's pulling on the rope, helping Lord Searun and Delaria over. "Just a minute. After we get you guys over here, let's go look for it."

[GM 9:17] Would anybody like to stay on the other side of the trap in the hall or would you like to enter this room?

[Delaria 9:22] Into the room!

[Jocq 9:25] If we're all going in, we're all going in. "Dreki, could you look around for the source of that smell?"

[GM 9:34] Dreki certainly can. Go ahead and do a Perception check for him.

[Jocq 9:39] That's a 14.

[GM 9:41] Nice.

[Ren 9:42] Owl eyes... Dragon eyes.

[GM 9:47] Dragon eyes in the shape of owl eyes.

[Jocq 9:50] I certainly hope one day.

[GM 9:52] So, Dreki flaps around the room and discovers that the smell seems to be emanating from the one other door in this room in the west wall.

[Jocq 10:06] "All right. Well, I get the feeling that that's the way you're going to want to go, isn't it?"

[Delaria 10:11] "Well, if there aren't any other doors out, and if this is where the Hucrele siblings went, then yep. Let me get out of your way."

[Gerik 10:20] This one's going to be a little bit harder to get past because there's about 10 foot of trap before that door, whereas before we could just sidestep to the side, 5 feet one way or the other. So we're going to need some sort of boards or something. Maybe you can Mage Hand the door open, though maybe that's not the smartest thing. I don't know, but it's going to be a little bit harder to get past this trap, it looks like, unless we close it up or something."

[Delaria 10:43] "Actually, I like the idea of leaving that open, opening the door and hopefully if there's anything in there coming to get us, it falls in the trap."

[Gerik 10:53] "Yeah, goblins ain't too good archers, right? So they'll probably just come running in here if they're in there. Or if there are rats, they'll just come in here and jump in and die. I like that idea."

[Jocq 11:03] "All right, if that's what we want to do, I'd be happy to open it from a distance."

[GM 11:07] Great. You cast Mage Hand?

[Jocq 11:10] Oh, yes, and I stand in the corner where there is no line of sight through the door.

[GM 11:18] All right, so the door creaks open. It's pushing the limits of how much weight the Mage Hand can actually handle, but it slowly creeps open revealing a dark chamber beyond, and that rotten smell pervades the room even stronger.

[Jocq 11:36] "Ugh."

[Delaria 11:37] "Oooooh."

[Jocq 11:38] "Och, that's not good."

[Gerik 11:39] "That is foul right there." Gerik will throw his torch into the room so he can see. Gerik is right in front of the door, so he's the only one who can see straight in. The rest of the party is back, in case it explodes or something. Sacrifice the paladin, I get it. Back behind the walls. So he'll throw his torch in there. Can he see anything?

[GM 12:03] Go ahead and do a Perception check for me.

[Gerik 12:06] All right. Perception. This guy.

[Delaria 12:11] Wow

[Gerik 12:14] Perception of... zero. While throwing the torch, Gerik's like, 'Man, there's a lot of spikes down there in this trap,' and just looking at the ground, sees nothing.

[GM 12:24] The torch lands in the room, a great throw. As it sputters, the shadows dance across the floor and the walls that you can see. It looks for a moment like there's movement in there. As the torch comes to a stop, you can see that it's actually next to a boot.

[Gerik 12:48] Does the boot have a foot in it?

[GM 12:50] It's hard to say as it's casting this large shadow up onto the wall there. You can definitely tell that there's a boot there, but you're not sure if it's attached to a body or not. But with the smell, you think it probably is.

[Gerik 13:12] "Guys, I can't really see anything in there. It's pretty dark even with the torch, and I got a little bit distracted, but it looked like there was a little bit of movement. There's a bunch of shadows everywhere. So, I think we're going to have to go in there. Nothing's shooting at me. Nothing exploded. I didn't fall into another pit. So I think we just got to figure out how to get past this trap and into that room, and then we'll probably be all right."

[Jocq 13:34] "The smell is awful. You really want to go in there?"

[Gerik 13:38] "No, Lord Searun, I definitely do not want to go in there, but it's our duty. We said we're going to bring back those heirs to the Hucrele throne or whatever you call it. Yeah."

[Delaria 13:51] "Sooner we get in, sooner we can get out."

[Jocq 13:53] "Tedium of obligation." The pitons vanish, the rope falls to the ground. Jocquelynn shakes a scented handkerchief into existence and presses it over his nose.

[Gerik 14:06] "Where are you getting all this stuff, Jocq? Is it a magic trick or something?"

[Jocq 14:13] "That is exactly right. It's that precisely."

[Gerik 14:17] "Oh well, I see they don't call you a mage for nothing. I get it."

[Jocq 14:21] "Right, we're rather a-mage-ing."

[Delaria 14:26] 'I just accidentally shove you into that pit.... OoooOooh.' 

[Gerik 14:34] Puns so bad, they're good. All right, how do we want to get past this pit?

[Delaria 14:37] "Well, we still have this rope unless the rope was prestidigitated too. That's a real rope."

[Gerik 14:46] "Oh, yeah, that's my rope. 100% real. I only deal in real things."

[Jocq 14:51] "This is real."

[Delaria 14:56] "Persistent. What I meant by 'real.' It'll stick around even if no one's paying attention to it."

[Gerik 15:04] "Yeah, this rope's been with me since we met way back when. So it's at least going to last for a few more months."

[Jocq 15:14] "Longer than another hour or so then. That's fine. Is there anything to tie that rope to?"

[GM 15:22] Anything that you could see visibly? I'm going to say nothing super solid, unless you wanted to try to tie the rope to that boot.

[Gerik 15:32] What if Gerik ties the rope to a javelin and throws the javelin? Is there anything he can stick the javelin into? He can throw it really hard. He's pretty strong.

[GM 15:44] On a scale of 1 to 18, how strong is he?

[Gerik 15:47] On a scale of 1 to 18, he's like... 14 strong.

[GM 15:52] Sure, we can give it a shot, knowing full well that physics probably would not allow for such a thing, but it's kind of cool, so let's see.

[Gerik 15:58] 'It's magic.'

[Ren 16:02] How wide are the javelins? Are they 6 feet? Or how long?

[Gerik 16:06] I think they're five feet.

[Ren 16:10] Yeah, that's probably a five foot door.

[Gerik 16:13] Yeah.

[GM 16:14] I see where you're going with that, though, and that's a good idea. I like that.

[Ren 16:18] So I think you could throw it across and then it just sticks as we pull back on the javelin.

[Gerik 16:23] It doesn't actually say how long it is, so that's up to the DM. 'How long is this javelin, DM?'

[GM 16:29] I'm going to say: 'just long enough.'

[Gerik 16:32] Perfect. It's like magic.

[GM 16:37] I like that. You easily throw the javelin in.

[Ren 16:42] We just pull the rope back so it catches on the door frame and we should have that secured to go across.

[Gerik 16:50] All right, so Gerik will pull back. The javelin goes across horizontally, so we can go through. How are we going to secure the rope on this side? Because right now the securing mechanism is Gerik's muscles, but those muscles need to go with him when he tries to cross.

[Ren 17:06] How's the fountain look behind us?

[GM 17:09] It looks pretty good, actually. The dragon's head is perhaps a little narrow, but probably would carry one individual's weight at a time. If all four of you got on it at once, it would collapse, but the dragon's head would work to tie off the rope.

[Ren 17:28] Okay, good. "Gerik, perhaps if you can secure... Or Lord Searun, if you have a lot of sea-knot knowledge..."

[Jocq 17:35] "I was never a deckhand, thank you."

[Gerik 17:38] "I think we can just tie it off right here. It looks sturdy enough. I'll go first. I'm the biggest one and if it breaks, I'll fall down. It seems like a pattern, so let's just keep with it."

[GM 17:50] Nice.

[Gerik 17:52] So he'll tie it off on the dragon's head and then he'll walk across it gingerly. He does have armor, so he will by far be the heaviest one of the group.

[GM 18:04] So when you say walk across it, do you mean like a tightrope?

[Gerik 18:07] No, he's not that athletic. This pit is 10 by 10, so he'll probably use the rope, but try and keep his feet on solid ground as far as he can, and then hop the last little distance.

[GM 18:21] That makes much more sense in my brain. Gotcha.

[Gerik 18:23] Yeah, he's not very acrobatic at all. He would fall in and get injured.

[GM 18:30] All right, cool. You can definitely do that. Do an Athletics check for me. The DC's incredibly easy.

[Gerik 18:38] Luckily, I've been rolling like zeros all day, so what could go wrong?

[GM 18:43] He said bravely just before he rolls.

[Delaria 18:47] 'It worked.'

[Gerik 18:48] I didn't roll a zero that time, so I'm assuming that he'll be all right.

[GM 18:52] Yep, you easily get into the other room.

[Gerik 18:56] All right, so he goes into the other room where the stench is mighty horrendous. As the next person is coming to the rope, which I would assume would probably be Ren, does he see anything? Is there anything I need to tell them about before they enter the room with me?

[GM 19:11] There are large piles of refuse in here.

[Gerik 19:16] Disgusting.

[GM 19:18] The smell is much worse in here. You can see that the floor is covered with chewed carcasses of cave rats, smaller vermin, and a few humanoid-looking creatures.

[Gerik 19:32] Gerik tries his best not to barf and will look back at everybody. "Ugh. It's mighty foul in here. I can't even get my accent right, it's so foul. Um. You're going to want to brace yourselves when you come in here, everybody."

[GM 19:48] And that's when you notice that the carcasses are piled like some kind of horrible, giant nest. Gerik makes his way across using the rope into the new room. The smell is just disgusting in this room. He notices that it's a nest, and then he sees the beady little eyes blinking at him from the corners. And then they all squeak. *SKREEEEE*

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Gerik 0:32] "There's more rats in here, everybody."

[Delaria 0:35] "I don't want to go in there. Oh no!"

[Jocq 0:39] "I don't think I can go in there."

[Gerik 0:42] "It's all right. I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to bring them to us. Hopefully they'll fall in that pit."

[GM 0:47] All right, so Gerik, you notice the first giant rat that moves towards you is actually slightly larger and seems to be mangy and covered in sores. It's definitely not a healthy rat.

[Gerik 1:06] "Shoot. It's diseased."

[GM 1:10] It moves towards you and will attempt to bite you. You managed to get out of the way as it tries to eat you. It has a much deeper squeal as it almost roars at you. "*SKRAAAAk*

[Gerik 1:31] Gerik's having nothing to do with that, so he is going to disengage and run back in the other room and try and make this jump.

[Delaria 1:43] The rope was still there, isn't it?

[Gerik 1:45] Yeah. So he's going to try and use the rope-assisted jump into the corner to get the rats in here because they ain't smart enough to use no rope.

[GM 1:54] Nice. So go ahead and do Athletics at advantage.

[Gerik 2:01] All right...

[Ren 2:02] 21.

[GM 2:03] You easily make that jump.

[Gerik 2:05] That's his... Disengage was his action. He'll run, jump over there, and then he'll share the information with everybody that there's a massive diseased rat about to come through the door and we should try and get it to fall in this pit. "Lord Searun, get Dreki on that big one. I got a trick, I got a plan."

[Jocq 2:21] "Alright. Dreki, Alright."

[GM 2:25] Perfect. The giant rats come out and try to do their Athletics checks too. This rat tries to make the jump and falls down into the pit.

[Gerik 2:39] Mwa ha ha ha...

[GM 2:41] And I think the others, knowing that they're not athletic, are just going to try to climb down the walls and try to climb up the other side.

[Gerik 2:50] Like a dog pile? 

[Jocq 2:51] Clever.

[GM 2:53] Nah. They're stupid rats. They're just going to jump.

[GM 2:58] All right. So none of these... 

[Gerik 3:04] This is a perfect plan. All these rats fall in the spike trap. Thank you goblins or whoever made this spike trap.

[GM 3:09] It's a gross look, as these rats that are basically the size... just a little bit shorter than Del, pour out of the opening of this room.

[Gerik 3:20] Disgusting.

[GM 3:22] And they fall down to the pit and they'll make their second moves to try to climb out.

[Gerik 3:32] "Remember everybody, they're diseased. Don't let them bite you if you can avoid it."

[Ren 3:37] As they're scrabbling out, can we try to poke them? I'm standing there on the edge with my spear. Can I try to harry them or harass them?

[GM 3:46] Yeah, the two that are still in the pit trap are probably a little out of range, but the one that climbs up over the edge is fair game.

[Ren 3:56] I will stab out as it comes over the top of the lip of the pit, with my spear... As the one rat is scrabbling up the side of the pit, I stab down at it two-handed, skewering it. It screams and falls back down onto the spikes. Shaking it off the end of the spear, I'm distracted that I don't have time to react to the other two rats that are snarling in the bottom of the pit there.

[GM 4:39] Beautiful.

[Gerik 4:41] It like stabbing rats in a trap.

[GM 4:45] Now it's your standard turn, Ren.

[Ren 4:48] Ah very good. Then I will throw a dart down at it.

[GM 4:55] Nice.

[Ren 4:57] To the largest rat there. Taking aim, I hurl one of the darts down into the darkness and do manage to catch the large rat right in the eyeball, actually. The dart pierces its brain and it goes down immediately.

[GM 5:21] Beautiful. Anything else for your turn? Would you like to move or anything?

[Ren 5:24] I will step to the other side of the pit so that we can give Gerik advantage on that rat if it comes up.

[GM 5:37] Nice. Dreki's turn.

[Jocq 5:41] "Alright, Dreki, go claw the eyes out of the biggest one you can see." Dreki will fly over to the pit, seeing the biggest one still in the room, fly in and make claw motions at the eyes using the Aid Action before flying more or less to relative safety as best as she can. I can't see in that room anymore, so I hope she's all right.

[GM 6:07] Great. You can hear her doing her owl shriek as she does that.

[Gerik 6:13] Hopefully she stays above the rat's reach in the sky.

[GM 6:20] Jocq, it's now your turn.

[Jocq 6:27] Alright. I don't think I'm going to do too much. Mostly avoid the pitfalls and run to the far side of the room.

[Gerik 6:35] 'Brave, brave, Lord Searun.'

[Jocq 6:41] "I wasn't hired to fight."

[Ren 6:43] Putting the 'run' into 'Searun.'

[Jocq 6:48] That's it for me.

[GM 6:51] Great. Delaria?

[Delaria 6:53] As rats have been falling, have I been able to tell which one of them looks extra bonus creepy?

[GM 7:02] Yeah, definitely. The creepy one's still in the room there.

[Delaria 7:08] Then before we get too many corpses in the pit that maybe it can just walk over, I'm going to try and zap it.

[GM 7:17] Perfect.

[Delaria 7:20] If I can reach that far, I'm not used to... what is Sacred Flame? How far do you reach Sacred Flame? 60'? Yeah! Alright. It worked before, maybe it'll work again. "Go away, terrifying creature, I purge you from this world." ...maybe.

[GM 7:40] For seven points of damage, nice.

[Delaria 7:44] Greasy, greasy little rat had some crackles go along its fur, flame and crackles, just crisping along its sides, making it look vaguely uncomfortable. I'm not convinced it helped the smell.

[GM 8:01] I completely agree. The smell is even more horrendous somehow.

[Delaria 8:07] I'm staying here. I'm not moving any closer. Thank you very much.

[GM 8:13] So the creature, the large rat that you just burned, screams again, that strange roaring-type scream, and do a running jump.

[Gerik 8:26] The Olympian of giant rats.

[Delaria 8:27] Oh, this is exactly what I didn't want.

[Gerik 8:32] Every rat is falling in this pit. MVP pit.

[GM 8:37] And he's stuck halfway up the wall.

[Gerik 8:42] Most valuable pit. Can Gerik jump down on top of the rats with his axe or will he get damaged?

[Delaria 8:53] Gerik... No.

[Gerik 8:54] …Because they're on the spikes. So can he jump on them onto the spikes more? 

[Delaria 8:58] Gerik gross.

[GM 9:01] There's always going to be the danger of also spiking yourself. You can definitely do it, but there is some inherent danger.

[Gerik 9:12] Gerik is not that reckless…. Gerik is not another character we all play together in a different campaign! So he will throw a javelin instead at the little rat. Does he get advantage on the javelin throw because of Ren or is it just a normal throw?

[Jocq 9:30] Dreki did use the Aid on that one.

[Gerik 9:32] Oh yeah, on the big one. Okay, that's what we'll do. We'll javelin the big one and then he'll hold his axe in his hand so if the little one comes up, then he can hit it like Ren had planned. Javelin the big one. For four. Gerik takes aim at the large one and he does not want that to injure his friend. So he throws his javelin with all of his might and the javelin pierces through the back of the giant rat, some pus pustules pop and it's disgusting and blood goes everywhere, but it's dead at the bottom of the pit just like all of its comrades to this point. And Gerik will say a silent prayer to Torm and look with his axe in hand now for any other danger, namely being this last rat in the pit.

[GM 10:17] All right, so this silly giant rat is going to try to climb out.... Hey! He succeeds in climbing out.

[Gerik 10:25] As he leaves my range and tries to get to Ren, I'm going to smash him. Everything's going according to Ren's plan.

[GM 10:33] Go ahead and roll.

[Gerik 10:34] Smash-alize. With the great axe.

[GM 10:38] Oh, nice.

[Gerik 10:41] As the last rat comes up with murderous intent on Ren, it starts leaving Gerik's field of power and Gerik's not going to have that. So he smashes his axe down and cleaves this last rat in half. Then he shakes off the viscera and puts his axe back on his back and looks to Ren and says, "Some mighty fine work there, Ren. It looks like you got almost all of them, you and that pit."

[Ren 11:06] "Turns out it's not too hard to out-clever a rat."

[Gerik 11:09] "Ain't that the truth. I'd be a little worried if we couldn't. But I'm also worried about them Hucrele kids. Yeah, Ren, do you see the tracks of Hucreles anywhere? It looks like they went over there, but there's no exits to that room and there's lots of bodies. I can't imagine they got taken over by these little rats."

[Ren 11:29] "We should investigate the bodies that you described. I have a bad feeling. Possibly the rats are just vermin, there may be something else in there."

[Gerik 11:43] All right. As he goes in and Dreki's flying around, he'll try and pat Dreki, but that will likely be unsuccessful. "Thank you Dreki. that was some fine help in distracting that big old rat."

[Jocq 11:55] A hooting sound as he flies back and alights upon Jocquelynn's shoulder.

[Gerik 12:01] Ren and Gerik will go into the foul room and we'll do some searching.

[Ren 12:07] Do you want an Athletics check to get into the room?

[GM 12:09] No, I don't think at this point we would need it.

[Ren 12:12] Okay.

[Delaria 12:13] If you go from the other side, now you have a rat pile you can just step over.

[Gerik 12:17] A rat ladder.

[GM 12:20] 10 feet of rat. So delicious. 

[Delaria 12:25] "I'm not convinced I want to go in there, but..."

[Ren 12:28] "Ugh. Gerik, you are right. It is foul in here."

[Gerik 12:31] "Yeah. *cough* Delaria, you can stay back there. We got this hopefully. It's mighty foul."

[Delaria 12:39] "I'll stay here where I can hopefully see you, so if anything gets you, I can help, but maybe a bit farther back cuz I can see farther. My nose smells farther than I can reach."

[Gerik 12:55] I'm assuming Ren, but definitely Gerik will be using a javelin or something to poke at all the disgusting piles rather than use his actual hands.

[Ren 13:04] Yeah. Do we see any… Are these primarily human corpses? goblin? kobold? anything fresh?

[GM 13:12] It appears to be mostly goblin and kobold with various other small creatures. The boot that you saw earlier with your torch actually is connected to the rest of a corpse that has been gnawed on.

[Gerik 13:28] Let's check that out.

[GM 13:31] Right, and let's do an Investigation check or a Perception check, whichever you'd like to search the refuse and the body.

[Gerik 13:41] Equally bad at both. So let's go with a 4.

[Ren 13:45] Nice. I will go with a 3. Taking your lead, Gerik. It looks like there's bodies in here. It's hideous and disgusting. I can't look too close.

[Gerik 13:54] "Let me tell you, these are dead, very stinky and dead."

[GM 14:00] All right, so the body does belong to some kind of adventurer that was wearing studded leather armor that's been mostly destroyed. On their hand, you can see a gold ring.

[Gerik 14:15] "Oh, no!" ….Well… *YOINK*. I'm going to take that one. She did ask for the rings, so...

[GM 14:21] In looking at it, you can see that it's a cheaper gold ring, a little bit thin, and it has the name 'Karakas' inscribed into it.

[Gerik 14:33] "Hey Ren, I found this ring. This looks like it used to be Karakas, one of those fellas that was with the Hucrele children. I'm going to guess that they happened in on this room and everything was just dead already and he fell into a spike pit and died... because of my wonderful 4 investigation.

[Ren 14:55] Looking at the armor, does it look like the armor was pierced by the trap or other damage to the armor itself?

[GM 15:03] It looks like the rats basically chewed through the armor to get to the delicious squishiness inside. It's unusable.

[Ren 15:14] "All right. So it looks like we can't tell how Karakas died, just that he is dead now."

[Gerik 15:23] "Yeah, and where did the rest of their party go? All the tracks led in here. Maybe there's a secret door or something in here. Or maybe they just walked back out and went some other way, but the tracks down that south hallway, they all led north up here."

[Ren 15:36] "Well, we might have missed something, but we should check the walls and see if there's another way out that we can't see."

[Delaria 15:44] "I'm going to come help. More eyes means faster. Leaving. Let's go. Oh gross. Rat pile, rat pile."

[Gerik 15:53] As Delaria comes in, he's going to show her the ring and that we found this Karakas guy.

[Delaria 15:58] "Oh, no."

[Ren 16:00] "It does seem to be the only human in this room. So the Hucreles seem to have survived this encounter, but their party seems to be lessened."

[Delaria 16:12] I'm going to roll Perception because I can. 9.

[Gerik 16:19] Almost out of single digits. So close.

[GM 16:22] So close to... So close to double digits. Dang it! So, with your additional set of eyes, Del, you find a couple more torches and a gem that was stuck in the nest, nestled inside one of the little rat skulls.

[Delaria 16:47] Oh, and why was that? How do I flavor that to have been Perception instead of Investigation? "There are a lot more bodies in here than what you found. I feel like it probably munched on something. So, let me... Maybe there's a door under the rat. Nope, but there's this gem."

[Gerik 17:04] Gerik is going to exit the room and go back with Lord Searun because he thinks he shouldn't leave him alone in such a place.

[Jocq 17:11] Jocquelynn is standing over the corpses of the rats, hand on his stomach when you approach. And as you do so, he mentions, "We ate that last night, didn't we?"

[Gerik 17:24] "Well, them kobolds do breed their own rats, so hopefully it's a little bit of a better breed than these guys, but yeah, don't worry about it, Lord Searun. We're all right. If it was rotten, then you would have already felt it today. So, don't worry about that. But maybe... Dreki's got some mighty fine eyes. There's a lot of refuse and crud over there. It smells real bad. Maybe you can do that trick where you see through Dreki and we want to know where the Hucrele kids went, but there's no way out of that room. So maybe there's a secret door or something in there, but we couldn't find nothing... because we rolled a combined 16 Perception between all three of us."

[Jocq 18:03] "All right." Dreki, who's perched on the statue in this room... Jocquelynn nods to him. He flies into the room and Jocquelynn slides down and covers his eyes with his hands.

[GM 18:15] So I think Dreki would notice probably just one set of prints entering this room. And so probably what ended up happening is exactly what happened with Gerik. This Karakas jumped into the room and was immediately assaulted by the rats, but to a much more disastrous conclusion.

[Jocq 18:43] "Well, that's unfortunate." Eyes open. "I don't think that's the way we want to be going."

[Ren 18:50] "Back to the other doorways it seems."

[Delaria 18:54] "I'm happy to leave, thank you. Gross, gross." REEEEACH... across the corner of the pit trap, back into the safe room that is slightly less filled with stench. Barely.

[Ren 19:08] Ren will long-stride behind.

[Gerik 19:11] "Man, that poor Karakas fellow. It's a hard life opening doors. I guess he got caught out without his wits about him."

[Jocq 19:21] "At least we're on the right track."

[Ren 19:24] "We know that they are here now."

[Gerik 19:26] "All right, we want to head back south and check out some of them doors on the west that we skipped over?"

[Jocq 19:32] "I believe that's the way to go."

[Gerik 19:35] "All right, perfect. Let's keep on going down here. Yeah, there's that rat. Ha ha! Stuck in that cage. Poor devilish rat."

[Ren 19:44] ...walking past and hearing the scrabbling in the door...

[Delaria 19:50] "This one, this pit trap at least, isn't filled with rats, so I feel more better about just stretching across it." Oh, that's good. Now it works. "Back across that one."

[Gerik 20:00] We get past the pit trap once again. We passed all the jail cells… with one of them with a rat still in that we locked in there, and then we get to the cave-in on the east on that T-intersection. And this is where Ren had seen the tracks diverge and that is where we currently are with Gerik and Ren in the lead. And Gerik will turn to Ren and ask, "Ren, this door here to the west? Do we think we should try this one? There was another one further south, but maybe we should hit this one first and then that one second if we don't find them."

[Ren 20:31] "Yeah, this is where the tracks were confused. There's a lot more footprints here. It seems most likely the prints down below were more clear, so something happened here. I'd say let's explore this door first."

[Gerik 20:44] "All right."

[GM 20:46] This door is similar to the other doors that you've seen. It's a solid wood construct with metal bands holding it together and reinforcing it. It is also closed and currently locked.

[Jocq 21:02] "Is there a keyhole on that door up there?"

[GM 21:05] Yes.

[Jocq 21:07] "Can you see through it?" Do you look?

[Gerik 21:13] I will check. If I get down there and put my eye into it, can I see through it?

[GM 21:18] Oh man. So it's dark on the other side. But you can tell that you can see through it. There's nothing particularly blocking the keyhole. It's just dark on the other side.

[Gerik 21:36] "Yeah, it looks like we can see through it, Lord Searun, but it's just pitch black in there. You're not going to see much. But you can see through it, if you want to call it that, if you could light up the other side somehow."

[Jocq 21:48] "If we can see through it, I believe I can whoosh Dreki through to the other side to give us an idea if that's the way we want to be going. It depends on if I can see the space on the other side. I'm not exactly sure if I'd be able to do that into darkness."

[GM 22:05] Oh, good point. If you got a light close enough to the bottom of the door, you might be able to generate enough light to actually see at least a little bit for the Dreki summoning.

[Gerik 22:18] Yeah, or could we poke some ashes from the torch through there? They're little... tiny lights.

[GM 22:20] Yeah, I think you'd be able to do something to generate just enough light to get Dreki on the other side to see.

[Jocq 22:33] That's perfect. "Is this the direction we're interested in exploring then?"

[Gerik 22:37] "Well, we got to go west, but there's another door to the south. It depends. I'm not too keen on magic, but I know sometimes you make Dreki show up real fast and sometimes you chant and dance a lot. If you're going to take the long dance one, we probably don't have time for that. I would suggest going to the next door."

[Jocq 22:57] "This is just the quick one. The long one happens when he dies."

[Gerik 23:03] "Oh, all right. I'll keep that in mind." And Gerik will step aside.

[Delaria 23:08] "Yeah, I would be happy to know that nothing's going to come through here after us after we leave. So, thank you."

[Jocq 23:16] "All right. Do we want to explore the other door while I'm fiddling about?"

[Gerik 23:21] "Yeah, I'll go check the other door if y'all want to stay here. Maybe Ren, if you want to come halfway with me, so you can see both of us, but I'll just peek in real quiet like."

[Ren 23:33] "All right." I'll stand in the corridor between the two rooms as you approach the door to open it. Scream if you need help.

[GM 23:43] Oh boy.

[Jocq 23:44] All right. I will do that.

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Jocq 0:32] Jocquelynn will step back once again and cover his eyes and look through the owl... dragon, excuse me.

[GM 0:38] Great. So this room is much like the beginning room that first led into this area. So it's pretty large, like 20' square. Basically empty with some broken cobblestone here and there, very easy to find a rock to cast light on. The door that you're standing next to, Jocq, is locked with a dead bolt on this side. And there's another door to the north that leads out of this room. And those are the only two exits that you can see.

[Jocq 1:14] I'm mumbling to Del or whoever happens to need it be nearby, I can't actually tell anymore on this side of the door. Repeating that information. I really doubt that Dreki is going to be able to unbolt it, but he'll certainly try.

[GM 1:29] Cool. Let's see here. Dreki unbolting a door. How hard would that be?

[Jocq 1:34] He has no thumbs.

[Gerik 1:36] He has talons, though. I think it's more of the weight, right? Like how much force does he need to apply? I would imagine he could get it. 

[GM 1:45] Let's go ahead and do a Dexterity check of some kind, if he's trained in acrobatics… by chance.

[Jocq 1:53] He's not very acrobatic, but he did roll a natural 20 on his dexterity check.

[Ren 2:03] Wow.

[GM 2:05] So Dreki can easily unlock that bolt.

[Jocq 2:11] "We got it! We got it! It's open! We can go! It's all right!"

[Delaria 2:18] That very much helped with the stealth. Thank you.

[Gerik 2:21] How do you want to handle Gerik's trying to look in this door? Is it sequential? So we're just going to go back, or does he bumble into it while that above happens?

[GM 2:33] So you went down to check the door and see what you could see?

[Gerik 2:37] Yeah, he was just trying to slowly open it, but he rolled a 2 for his Stealth, so he probably tripped over it.

[GM 2:45] Yeah, as you're trying to stealth, you're being extraordinarily loud. Just creaking. What kind of armor is Gerik wearing?

[Gerik 2:56] He's wearing chain mail. Yeah, and probably metal greaves and stuff, but...

[Ren 3:02] ...and a bell around your neck?

[Gerik 3:03] Yeah.

[GM 3:05] All right. So you see as you come up to this door and give it a second look, that this door is carved with the relief of skeletal dragons. Something inscribed in Draconic across the top of the door.

[Gerik 3:22] I would say… this is up to you… but he would not try and open that door by himself. Seeing the etchings and the Draconic, he's like, 'I'm not going to mess with this until we have everybody here.'

[GM 3:35] Totally understandable. So yeah, those new details stop Gerik from barging in.

[Gerik 3:43] He'll pass that along to Ren right around the same time I imagine that Jocq and Dreki are opening the other door.

[Ren 3:49] "Let's come back to that, Gerik. It looks like Jocq has managed to get the door open. Dragons make me a little uneasy if we don't have to tackle them right now."

[Gerik 4:00] "Yeah, yeah. I agree. That's a wise course of action. You lead on. I'll follow you back over there, Ren."

[Ren 4:06] "All right." I will return to the room where the door has just been opened.

[GM 4:14] Perfect. Yeah, it's just empty, devoid of pretty much anything of interest and it just has that door to the north.

[Delaria 4:23] "Good job, Dreki."

[Jocq 4:25] "That's a good owl-dragon."

[Delaria 4:26] "Yeah. Well, if the footprints had been heading north before, are there any footprints in that room, Ren? Did people come through here?"

[Ren 4:39] "Let me check before we have any more people come trampling through here. There should just be owl-wing bits and anyone else who has come in before us."

[GM 4:51] Nice. Yeah, you can tell that somebody retreated here. It looks like three distinct individuals. You do see an empty discarded potion bottle.

[Ren 5:06] Good. "It does look like probably after the battle with the rats, our friends retreated into this chamber. Looks like they did have some recovery that needed to be made. There is some blood, some footprints and an old potion bottle. Looks empty. I think this is the way they went. They probably came in here and bolted the door behind them."

[Delaria 5:31] "That sounds actually like a good idea. Should we do that?"

[Ren 5:35] "If we can get everyone to come in, we can do the same."

[Gerik 5:39] "Yeah, it is a bit uncanny how we're... y'all feel that? We're like mirroring their exact movements, right? We talk to Yusdrayl. We went in the same room. We have the same archetypes as their party. There's four of them, there's four of us. This is all a little uncanny. I'm getting a little bit..."

[Delaria 5:56] "Well, there's three of them now, so..."

[Jocq 5:59] "And *five* of us."

[Delaria 6:01] "They could use our help."

[Gerik 6:02] "Yeah, yeah. Torm willing, there's still three of them."

[Delaria 6:05] "That's true."

[Gerik 6:07] "All right, let's all let's all pile in here. Come on Lord Searun. We're gonna get in here. We're going to lock this door, just like they did so nothing can get us… Except..." he pauses as if it's just dawning on him. "But we know there's nothing else back there anymore. Between them and us, we got it all. Do we want to lock this door?"

[Delaria 6:25] "Why not?"

[GM 6:27] There is that one door that Gerik discovered with the dragon skeletons etched onto it.

[Gerik 6:34] "Oh, oh yeah. Yeah, I should tell y'all. I told Ren this, but I found a door with some dragon skeletons..." and as he continues to say this, he does lock the door. "...with some draconic on it. Yeah, I was not feeling good things coming from that door. So I'm going to lock this behind us til we find them Hucrele kids and then we can unlock it when we come back."

[Jocq 6:55] "I have to say that sounds like an interesting doorway. Perhaps on our way out we should stop by."

[Gerik 7:03] "Perhaps, or maybe…. perhaps not. You know, we'll see."

[GM 7:08] Skeleton dragons are always good times.

[Jocq 7:11] "Simply academically. If that's going to turn into trouble, I support your decision."

[Gerik 7:17] "Yeah. All right, so there's a door going up north. We want to go through that, I'm assuming. Anyone need a rest or we're miraculously unscathed? All right, I'm going to go through it then." I'll say a prayer to Torm and go through the door as per usual.

[GM 7:37] So yeah, you open that door and there's a bell actually attached to it and it rings as you get it about a quarter of the way open. And up at the end of the hallway, you can see this hallway heading north covered in caltrops and a low stone wall that's been crafted across it. And you see two goblins peek over and they're like: "Intruders!"

[Gerik 8:02] "Excuse me. Y'all from the Durbuluk tribe? We come in peace."

[GM 8:09] They chatter at each other. How would you like to... So you're just yelling that you come in peace and hoping for the best?

[Gerik 8:26] He's going to try and Persuade them. He'll say, "We've heard long of your strength and your glory and that you have a mystical apple. I bring a lord of our lands.  We're here to parley for that apple. I hear you sell one for a hefty sum every single year."

[GM 8:42] They chatter at each other.

[Gerik 8:45] …and he'll hold out his bag of gold. It's not nearly as big as Lord Searun's, but he'll show them a little bit of good faith.

[GM 8:52] And then and as they're chittering at each other, they both do this prairie dog thing where one pokes his head up and stares. And then they drop down and talk and then the other one pokes his head up and stares and then they say, "You throw the gold over. If there's more than 50, then we talk. If not, then we activate our deadly trap."

[Ren 9:17] We did just find 30 gold pieces in the rat nest, which might be enough combined with what you have.

[Gerik 9:24] I hope Lord Searun's going to let me put this in my expense report. So, that's actually not enough though. He only has 10. And so even if he has all 30, which I assume we would have divvied out, it's going to be less.

[Ren 9:37] We haven't had time to divvy. Throw 15 and say 'Half now'. They're not good at math.

[Gerik 9:43] All right, so Gerik will do that. He'll take the 15 he's got in a pouch, throw it over there and say, "All right, we'll give you half now. There's all of us. You let us get past this wall and we'll give you the other half later. And then we can go and talk with your leaders about that mystical apple. My lord is mighty and has many funds. We can outbid any other… any others that may be looking for this apple."

[GM 10:07] You hear them kind of talking to each other and you hear just faintly, "Is this half?" The other one's like, "Yeah, pretty sure." And then one of them pokes his head up over the top of the little low wall and he says, "You stay here, we'll grab our shaman." And then they both start to leave and then one of them's like, "No, you stay and watch them." And he's like, "Oh yeah," and ducks behind the wall. And then you hear a door open and close.

[Gerik 10:39] Gerik will take a step back and tell everybody what is happening, even though he had clearly said they wanted to go across the wall. He's a little disappointed, but he doesn't want to spook them. So he will not instigate any violence as of yet.

[Jocq 10:54] "I'm sorry to inform, but I didn't actually bring a lot of currency on this adventure."

[Gerik 11:01] "Oh, that's all right. Just we'll just tell them we, you know, writs with big numbers on them and it'll be all right."

[Jocq 11:08] "Right. You think they'll take an IOU?"

[Ren 11:11] "Paper is as good as money."

[Delaria 11:13] "I have some in the funds, if we need some. I've got about 30 gold."

[Gerik 11:20] "Goblins are... I mean, there's been treaties in history about goblins... you know, writing treaties. So they understand that concept. I mean, Lord Searun, if you give them a paper, especially if it looks very official with your nice embroidered signature or whatever, you know, with the fancy letters. That might work."

[Jocq 11:39] "We'll have to see if they're interested in drafting a contract then."

[Ren 11:43] "We can give them the Karakas House ring."

[Delaria 11:47] "It's also this little gem."

[Gerik 11:49] "And gem. Yeah, exactly. And you know, if worse comes to worse, we can always resort to violence, you know, that was always on the table, but Torm be willing, we can get past this with a little bit of charisma and some trickery, some good-natured trickery for the better... Well, it's not even trickery, right? I mean, we can give them a real contract. They just need to come get it from us. They just… we don't have the gold now, but we'll give it to them later."

[Jocq 12:16] "Right, but just to be clear, we are on the kobolds' side, right?"

[Delaria 12:20] "I don't, we're on our, we're on the... here’s the thing, however we can get to the Hucrele is good. Not throwing the kobolds under the wagon is good. If we happen to find Calcryx, that might be good for Calcryx, but I don't know if we need to bring Calcryx back to the kobolds, so I'm not convinced we're against the goblins."

[Gerik 12:49] "Well, I'll have you know, I gave my word to Yusdrayl. We're going to get Calcryx back. I also gave my word to the Hucreles that we're going to find their children. It's pretty simple in my book. We're going to find Calcryx and we're going to find the Hucrele kids, or at least their rings, and then this whole quest is over."

[Delaria 13:08] ....the end.

[Gerik 13:09] Mission accomplished.

[GM 13:13] You hear the door open and slam and you hear three hushed voices now as they're talking and stuff like that. And then you see a goblin, a female goblin, with a bone headdress on. It is a lot of bones that are tied into her natted hair. And she says, "You're looking for the humans?"

[Jocq 13:38] "Right. Primarily."

[Gerik 13:41] "Yeah, we'd heard there was a group here looking for that apple. We're looking for that apple too, and them humans and any other business you've been about. We heard you're a mighty great Durbuluk tribe."

[GM 13:54] She stares at Gerik for a minute and then she says, "No weapons. You can cross and talk."

[Gerik 14:03] "Can we all come across over there?"

[GM 14:06] She seems to consider it for a minute and then nods.

[Gerik 14:10] "All right." Gerik will place his great axe down and his javelins, but not his side dagger. Actually, he has a maul, I think. That one he probably should place down too.

[GM 14:25] He hides the maul behind his back.

[Gerik 14:29] Actually, he doesn't have a dagger currently. He will have to rectify that when we get back home. So he places his great axe and his maul down, begrudgingly, against this corner and then tells everybody else the same thing. He takes confidence knowing that Ren is just as deadly without a weapon as with one, and then he will try and keep a dagger... he doesn't have a dagger... like a javelin or something, but if they take that from him too, then he'll just be bare-handed and sad.

[Ren 15:00] Ren will lean the spear, approach the hallway, but lean it against the hallway right against the short wall so that it is possible to reach in case of emergency, and then step over the wall.

[Gerik 15:17] Since Ren did that and went ahead, Gerik's going to be like, 'smart man', and do the same thing. Put his weapons up 20' closer than way back at the end of the hallway.

[GM 15:29] The caltrop-ridden hallway?

[Gerik 15:31] Yeah, and he'll go ahead and throw his javelins too. He second guesses himself with trying to bring a javelin and just puts them against the wall so he has no weapons… as they asked.

[Delaria 15:41] All right, looks like we're doing this. I suppose it's nice to leave the weapons in view where they can see we don't have them. I was thinking of putting it over in the corner, but all right, I'll put it here in the hallway too. Put down the mace and hang on, let me unhook this dagger. So, yes, actually disarming.

[Jocq 16:03] I don't have any weapons that I consider to actually be weapons. The dagger I carry is almost more ornamental and so I don't even think about it. As I am walking through the hallway, I'm kicking the caltrops with the side of my foot off to the side, rather than stepping gingerly around. It takes me longer.

[GM 16:26] And you can see one of the goblins is a little bit miffed at that.

[Jocq 16:32] "Well if you want guests, you don't put out traps."

[GM 16:35] The female goblin says, "Normally we don't like guests."

[Jocq 16:40] "But here we are."

[GM 16:42] "And you're his master?" And she nods at Gerik.

[Jocq 16:49] "That's close enough, I suppose."

[Gerik 16:52] Gerik will nod. He doesn't think it'll be easy to explain to these goblins the exact social constructs that are between the humans, so he just says, 'yeah, sure.'

[GM 17:03] ‘My social constructs are not your social constructs.’ So yeah, she stares at you for a minute, and then she says, "I can take you to where the Hucrele went if you can do a favor for me."

[Gerik 17:23] "Oh man, always with the favors. All right."

[Jocq 17:26] "Does it have anything to do with a dragon?"

[GM 17:29] "What!? No."

[Jocq 17:30] "Oh, all right."

[GM 17:34] She says, "Although that dragon has been a pain..."

[Gerik 17:38] "Oh, we can take care of that dragon for you. Yeah. But hey, what was the favor you were you were looking for? Maybe we can do both, right? Depending on what this favor is and we can take care of that dragon so it's not going to cause you no trouble."

[Jocq 17:51] "You haven't even heard the offer yet. Why are you offering?"

[Gerik 17:56] "I'll have you know," he turns to the goblins, very holy. "I'm a Paladin of Torm and I am sworn to help those who are in need of help…. be they kobold, goblin, orc, human. So, tell us what is it that we can help you with this day? If it's not of an evil purpose, then we're happy to help."

[GM 18:17] "My name is Grenl, Shaman of our tribe. Our chief was killed by hobgoblins and they've taken control of it. I don't particularly like how they run things. I want you to kill them."

[Gerik 18:30] "Well, that..." he's just going to think to himself for a second. On how evil or non-evil this is. "These hobgoblins, they murdered your leader. Was it in cold blood? They just came up and murdered him because they could?"

[GM 18:46] "Yes."

[Gerik 18:48] "Sounds like there's some vengeance to be had. And my god," he pounds on his chest, "is Torm, the God of Vengeance... Well, he has a Hand of Vengeance at least."

[Gerik 18:59] Fair enough. She nods and says, "They're in the throne room not too far from here, but also below us is a human by the name of Belak. He's the one who took the Hucrele, and I want him gone too, so that my tribe can leave back to the Underdark."

[Gerik 19:20] "By 'gone'? Define what you mean by 'gone.' What if we get this Belak out of the way, so you guys can go back home? Does that work? Belak will not impede you. That's our mission."

[GM 19:33] "That works."

[Gerik 19:35] "Perfect." He'll look to everybody else and shrug.

[Jocq 19:40] A long suffering sigh, "Look, we gave your guards half of 50 gold. If we're going to be doing these favors for you, I don't think we should be paying you. Could you return the 25, please?"

[GM 19:55] She looks at you and says, "I don't know anything about gold."

[Jocq 19:58] "But they do."

[GM 19:59] And one of the goblins hides it behind his back. And she says something in Goblin. Do any of you guys speak Goblin?

[Jocq 20:10] No.

[Gerik 20:11] Let me check…

[Delaria 20:12] No.

[Gerik 20:13] …I speak Elvish. Nope.

[Ren 20:17] That's the same, really.

[GM 20:20] Excellent. So yeah, she says something in Goblin and then takes the pouch and then she hefts it and she looks at you and says, "Are you liars?"

[Jocq 20:32] "No, the deal was half of 50."

[GM 20:35] "Half of 50," and she shakes the bag again. "That's not half of 50," and she hands it back to you.

[Gerik 20:42] Gerik will take it.

[Jocq 20:43] "Where did the other..."

[Delaria 20:49] "Is it not? Well, that's a bag we handed over, so we got it, we got it back. Thank you."

[Jocq 20:55] "I mean, having the bag is fine, but it sounds like we're short a few coins."

[Gerik 20:58] "I believe... maybe you misheard. You were in the back. It was half of 30. Half of 30 is 15. We can count it here if we want. I gave him 15. I'm a man of my word, Grenl. It was half of 30."

[Jocq 21:12] "My mistake."

[GM 21:17] She eyes Jocquelynn angrily.

[Ren 21:22] "Grenl, did you say that the humans are down from here? Is there a stairway down? I think we should address the humans first. Dragons and hobgoblins and such. I would feel better if I were armed so I could be more prepared to face these difficulties."

[GM 21:41] "Yes, you'll need your weapons to face Durnn. He's a strong hobgoblin. And he blocks the way down to Belak."

[Gerik 21:52] "Ah, perfect. And where's that dragon at? Is that dragon also down?"

[GM 21:57] "No, she's up here. Nothing but a pain since we've taken her from the kobolds. She's eaten three of my men."

[Gerik 22:04] "Could we take her off your hands? Maybe use her to fight the hobgoblin at the same time?"

[GM 22:10] "I don't know if she would agree to that."

[Gerik 22:12] "Could we ask her? Maybe get some yummy hobgoblin meat?"

[GM 22:17] She looks at you and says, "You eat hobgoblin?"

[Gerik 22:19] "No, no, I don't. I mean, I ain't never had hobgoblin... yet, but... No. No, I'm not going to eat a hobgoblin. But maybe she could, right? She's a dragon."

[GM 22:30] She nods and says, "Yes, Calcryx, I think, would prefer your meat actually." And she pokes at Ren a little bit and says, "You look clean."

[Ren 22:44] "Very gaunt, though. Not much fat here." I pinch the arm and...

[Delaria 22:49] "We were just accosted by a bunch of diseased rats. You might want to not touch us."

[Gerik 22:59] "All right, well, maybe we'll come talk about Calcryx afterwards. After we do all this, y'all are going to leave, you said. We want to talk with the dragon after we're done, all right?"

[GM 23:10] "Yes. Talk to the dragon after."

[Gerik 23:13] "All right, perfect."

[GM 23:15] And she says, "You can grab your weapons and I'll lead the way."

[Gerik 23:19] "Even better."

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:32] You guys were talking with Grenl, and she wanted your help to clear Durnn out of the Citadel so that you guys could continue further within the Citadel. He's blocking the way to Belak, which you know is in the lower levels. Grenl says, "Follow me." She starts leading you guys through this series of rooms into a makeshift archery range, past a few goblins that look surprised that Grenl is leading a bunch of adventurers, non-goblins, through the area.

[Gerik 1:18] "Oh, hi. Howdy. Nice to meet you."

[GM 1:21] She takes you through a door into a storeroom, ultimately into a larger room that has a series of columns. This particular room does have a few torches mounted on the wall, so it's a little bit better lit. The smoke from these torches fills the air with a haze, so it's hard to see in this area. It's not very well ventilated. You guys do have a double row of marble columns. These are carved with dragon motifs and it runs the length of the hall. There are several doors in this room. Grenl points to a heavy-set one, reinforced with iron, and she says, "The dragon is in that room." And then she points to a single door at the western end of the hallway. And she says, "Through there is where the goblins live. What I'll need you to do is to go through one of these northern doors." And she points to a couple of non-descript doors in the northern wall. "Through there is a back passage that will lead to the Hobgoblin Chamber. If you can give me a few moments, I'll go in, gather my kin away from the area so that you can approach the hobgoblins without alerting the rest of my people that you're here."

[Gerik 3:09] "Oh yeah, we're real good at sneaking. Don't worry."

[Ren 3:14] "Is there a password or some sort of emblem that you can provide us, Your Majesty, if we run into any of your people and they are unaware of our arrangement?"

[GM 3:25] Grenl thinks about it for a minute, and then pulls a crude amulet off of from around her neck. It looks like it's a combination of rat bones and carved wood. And she hands it to you, Ren. She says, "Anybody who sees this, you can tell them that I allow you to be here."

[Ren 3:55] "Much appreciated, Your Majesty. Thank you." I take the amulet and hand it to Lord Searun and say, "Perhaps you should display this prominently, Lord Searun."

[Jocq 4:09] "Right, it’s quite an honor to have this emblem."

[Gerik 4:20] Gerik smiles widely.

[Jocq 4:25] I hold it. I don't put it on, but I hold it.

[GM 4:29] It feels a little bit oily, and there's definitely a scent coming off of it. Something about it reminds you of the rat stew, but you're not quite sure why.

[Ren 4:43] Does this appear easily recognizable, so there will be no mistake that this is a forgery. It looks authentic in every way.

[Gerik 4:54] "This is a great honor, Lord Searun."

[Jocq 4:58] "Right. I'm very pleased to receive such a thing. We'll display it proudly."

[GM 5:06] Grenl waits and stares at you.

[Jocq 5:10] All right. I'll loop the cord over my neck, put my hand behind it, and let it rest against my hand against my chest.

[GM 5:21] It's definitely designed for a goblin neck, so it feels tight for some reason.

[Jocq 5:28] "That's got my hair, hasn't it?"

[Delaria 5:34] "I'd help, but you are a bit tall."

[Gerik 5:38] Gerik tries to stifle a laugh, quite averagely.

[Jocq 5:48] "I should have taken prestidigitation. They said, 'Take prestidigitation, clean your hair, clean your clothes.' You'll be in the city, when will I ever need prestidigitation?"

[GM 5:59] Alright, Grenl nods once, and then she scurries off through that far door. She opens it just enough to squeeze through so that she doesn't reveal your guys' presence. Beyond, you can see a couple of makeshift barriers. They've taken a larger room and have turned it into a series of living chambers, essentially. It's all very flammable.

[Jocq 6:32] Flammable?

[Ren 6:34] "So, Gerik, how long should we wait for her to move her people?"

[Gerik 6:39] "We probably should get going as fast as we can. You know when we come back, they're going to try and kill us, right? So we better be ready for that. Which door y'all want to go through? We got this door on the left or the door on the right that they told us to go through. We're supposed to be sneaking, but y'all know we're not very good at that. I'll try my best, but clink, clink, clink, clink. This armor ain't made for sneaking."

[Ren 7:06] "Center of the three doors in the north."

[Delaria 7:09] "Because if it's the right way to go, it's the right way to go, and if it's a trap then we know sooner rather than later."

[GM 7:16] She did indicate both doors when she said that this way leads to Hobgoblin territory.

[Ren 7:25] As long as it's not the heavy reinforced dragon door, we got the right one.

[Gerik 7:29] A big old voice in the sky and in my heart, we're all formed up on the middle door. "Let's go. Boom." We walk in the door and hopefully don't die.

[GM 7:41] All right. Gerik, you're leading the way. You open that door and you can immediately hear some voices coming from the west. You can see that the hallway it opens up on immediately turns to the west and appears to follow the large room where the goblins live.

[Gerik 8:08] All right, he's going to try and sneak up to that corner and see if they can hear him. Do you want me to make a Stealth check?

[GM 8:14] Yeah, you're pretty close. Let's do some form of Stealth.

[Gerik 8:20] Nine, which is pretty dang good for Gerik. He's just trying to mozy up to the wall and not peek his head around, but be close enough where you can hear. And then he'll hold his hand up for everybody else, who will also obviously hear the voices since we're all in such close proximity.

[GM 8:39] These guys are all chatting with each other, and so they actually do not notice you.

[Gerik 8:46] "Ooh..."

[GM 8:48] You do know that there are three of them. You can peek around the corner and see that the three forming a conversational triangle, essentially. They're all facing inward, chatting in Hobgoblinish, and are totally not aware of their surroundings.

[Gerik 9:09] As opposed to a love triangle, got it.

[Gerik 9:14] He'll hold up three fingers, so everyone knows there are three of them around the corner. And then, this is probably not the most tactically sound thing, but Gerik's going to Gerik. He's going to rush on in there and start lopping some arms off.

[GM 9:31] Nice. Let's do an Initiative roll.

[Gerik 9:36] Do we get surprise on these guys since they don't see us yet?

[GM 9:39] Yeah, you will.

[Gerik 9:41] Hooray! "Surprise."

[Ren 9:44] We have palindrome initiative order. I have a 21. Gerik, 12.

[Gerik 9:51] All right, how do you want us to handle the initiative order? I think narratively, I was going to have Gerik run out first, but mechanically Ren is first because he's fast.

[GM 10:02] He's very fast.

[Ren 10:02] It looks like as soon as we round that corner it's wide enough for two. I can run ahead down the corridor as you are trundling behind in a loud, obvious way. I can hit from the side.

[Delaria 10:18] And Lord Searun is happy enough exploring this room for a minute, apparently.

[Gerik 10:24] He's just happy to be here.

[Ren 10:26] He's readjusting that medallion.

[Jocq 10:31] "My understanding was that they gave us this owl pellet so that we wouldn't have to fight. But if this is what we're doing, all right."

[Gerik 10:39] I thought we were taking that... "That was for the other goblins."

[Delaria 10:43] "The neck is for, 'Hey goblins, we're cool.' Hobgoblins, we're not even trying to talk to."

[Gerik 10:50] "Yeah. Both the kobolds and the goblins told us the hobgoblins are highly aggressive and not to be reasoned with. They'd insinuated that."

[Jocq 10:59] "Right. I should probably take the word of creatures known for their lies and scheming."

[Gerik 11:05] "Yes", and we definitely have time for this conversation right now.

[Ren 11:11] "Hobgoblins aren't intelligent anyway. They can't talk or anything like that... like we just saw."

[Delaria 11:17] "That philosophical discussion they were having." Not.

[GM 11:23] We all know that goblins don't have philosophicles.

[Ren 11:28] "Can you truly be hobgoblin without knowing oneself?"

[GM 11:34] The existential hobgoblin experience.

[Gerik 11:38] Plus, our mission from the goblins that we accepted was very clearly to kill the hobgoblin, not to talk to them, I think.

[Delaria 11:45] Leader. Everyone else might leave if you murder their leader.

[GM 11:52] Ren, the time for talking seems to be over. You're free to attempt to if you would like.

[Ren 12:01] All right, let's see here. I think I will just round the corner as Gerik is taking the inner corner. I will round past and come running through. I still have my torch lit, so it's probably not going to be a lot of surprise. Hopefully their eyes are going to take a moment to adjust to the sudden light coming in. But we'll run and engage the closest hobgoblin, rounding the L, coming to maybe midway through that wider corridor, to engage and attack with my spear.

[Gerik 12:47] Do we get advantage since we're surprising them and they're all huddled together?

[GM 12:52] By the book situation, I believe you do.

[Ren 12:56] Which is just as well.

[GM 12:57] Yeah. So yes, advantage.

[Ren 13:03] Okay, with advantage, I attack for 17 to hit.

[GM 13:08] That is a miss. Armor Class is 18 for these guys.

[Ren 13:13] Oooo...

[Gerik 13:14] They're not messing around.

[GM 13:15] They're wearing chainmail. Oh, I apologize. Two of that is from a shield. So you do hit, because they do not have their shield out.

[Ren 13:23] Very good. Six piercing damage.

[GM 13:27] He's definitely feeling that one.

[Ren 13:30] I will use my bonus action to do Unarmed Strike against the same target. So following up with the spear, I turn around and hit him with the palm of my hand.

[Gerik 13:44] You still have advantage on the second hit too. Since they're surprised, everything against them is at advantage.

[Ren 13:50] Okay.

[GM 13:51] They're still surprised. Ooh, another 17.

[Ren 13:54] For an additional three bludgeoning damage.

[GM 13:57] Very cool. He's reduced very low, but he's still up.

[Ren 14:02] A hobgoblin whirls and I strike him in the head. He's looking a little stunned at the moment, but shaking his head, and he's starting to pay attention to us now. We have made our presence known.

[Delaria 14:18] Del is going to sneak up and poke her head around the corner and go, "Mmmm... That's a lot of them." And then, perhaps take inspiration from the torch that Ren is holding, might be distracting. I'm going to step just behind Ren where I can see the hobgoblin beyond him. He seems to have bopped this one closely on the head pretty well, so let's try and startle that other one with Sacred Flame. *Whoosh.*

[GM 14:58] Ooh. He got a natural 20 on his saving throw.

[Gerik 15:05] Better to waste their natural 20s there.

[Delaria 15:07] He's already ducking out of the way of the torchlight. "I missed. Dang it. Oh no."

[Jocq 15:16] "All right, Dreki, go do your thing." Launches him up into the air. "It seems we're fighting a battle!" Dreki flies in overhead, over Gerik, and to the closest creature and begins clawing and gnawing at the hair. Not going to do much as we already have mechanically Advantage, but double Advantage is always good before flying more or less out of range once again.

[Gerik 15:38] Gerik will walk up to the first hobgoblin right by Ren. He sees it's weak and he wants to be opportunistic and hopefully finish it off. He will pray to Torm for a Shield of Faith to bolster his defenses and be the bulwark against the enemy. As he moves, he will think, "I'm going to step up right in the middle of them," just so that he can protect his allies so that the remaining two can't get past him. Shield of Faith is a bonus action, it gives me +2 AC for the duration, which is up to 10 minutes if I hold it the whole time. He's hoping that we can do a lightning strike, get in, attack, get out, and the spell will go far because he only has two spell slots.

[GM 16:19] Nice.

[Gerik 16:20] All right. Now it is time for the axe-en-ating

[GM 16:25] Get it.

[Gerik 16:26] If I can find it. Boom. Boom.

[GM 16:28] Nice.

[Gerik 16:30] Hooray.

[Ren 16:32] So confident, he rolls three times.

[Gerik 16:33] I don't know why he rolled so many, but Gerik accidentally rolling three times but only needing one because the first one's a natural 20, runs in the middle of the hobgoblins, raises his great axe high, turns around towards Ren and just cleaves that hobgoblin in half. And then turns to the others and lets out a battle roar and says, "Torm is with me." And then he’s all done. He sounds very much more manly, apparently, right now, too.

[GM 17:01] I like it.

[Jocq 17:03] All right. Following up after Dreki and Gerik, bringing well up the rear, Jocquelynn will dash in through the doorway and up through the hallway, just barely poking his head around the corner, looking around seeing a hobgoblin fall to Gerik's axe, the two surrounding him from the other side. Hearing his roar, he mistakes it for a roar of, 'Oh no, I'm surrounded.' And with a panicked look on his face, targets the furthest hobgoblin away, and says the words, "Llaw Farw," and his necrotic hand shoots forward, and much like Dreki's talons, gets tangled inside of the hobgoblin's hair. The bones wrap around and pull for a total of 6 necrotic damage, and as long as it's latched on, that hobgoblin will be prevented from healing.

[GM 17:51] You can see that drain energy out of that hobgoblin. That hobgoblin that you got is angry now. He roars. He doesn't even try to go for his shield that's propped up against the wall near him, but he does go for his longsword, wielding it in two hands. He'll try to swing at Gerik, missing horribly. Gerik, do you have a shield? Remind me.

[Gerik 18:22] No, I have a great axe. But I do have a Shield of Faith.

[GM 18:28] Oh, nice. How does that look when the longsword smashes against your Shield of Faith?

[Gerik 18:34] This attack is so pitiful that Torm doesn't see it fit to even need to spend any of his great power to protect me. It probably just misses.

[GM 18:45] Nice. Gerik ducks out of the way as he dodges this wild swing?

[Gerik 18:52] Yeah.

[GM 18:54] Ren, you're up. Dead hobgoblin at your feet. What would you like to do?

[Ren 19:00] I run through the pieces of hobgoblin and end up running right beside where Gerik is standing, engaging with the hobgoblin with the necrotic hand tangled in its hair and again strike out with my spear. As the hobgoblin is distracted trying to engage Gerik, stabbing out towards him, misjudging the distance and the smoke and battle screaming, and miss. But I will try to follow up with an unarmed strike. Much easier to hit with the hand than the spear, having closed the distance, and hit the Hobgoblin for 3 additional bludgeoning damage.

[GM 20:00] Nice. He reels back from the strike. The hobgoblin in front of you, Gerik, he'll actually take the time to grab his shield from leaning up against the wall. And he'll slash at you with his longsword, also something of a wild swing. The sword bounces off the wall and creates a shower of sparks as it hits some flinty material.

[Gerik 20:33] "We got 'em in disarray, y'all."

[Delaria 20:35] "That was actually a rather pretty shower of sparks." Delaria is going to come in front of the hallway that leads to the second door. Both doors led to this hallway. She's going to come to this other hallway so that there's an extra bonus pile of people, so no one can leave this way. And then try it again. Maybe being closer, she can focus a little bit more. Maybe that bit of sparks let her see better where this hobgoblin is. So the hobgoblin behind Gerik who has the shield up is going to try to drop the Sacred Flame onto... "All right Lathander, let's start a new beginning for this hobgoblin."

[GM 21:28] Oh, fails his saving throw. It's a hard hit but does not kill him.

[Delaria 21:35] While the sparks coming off of the wall are of that quality, the flame coming down from the lack of sky and appearing on top of this hobgoblin is brighter and cleaner. Clean energy, y'all.

[Gerik 21:58] Would you say it's greener?

[Delaria 22:03] No, it's yellow.

[Ren 22:06] Searing. Searing light.

[GM 22:11] Sacred flame does Radiant damage, correct?

[Delaria 22:14] Yes.

[GM 22:15] He flinches away from that Radiant light. And... Dreki?

[Jocq 22:24] All right, the feathered fiend flies fast, flailing feathers in the face of its foe before fleeing further down the hall. The same very foe that Delaria Sacred Flamed, blocking its view with such as it can.

[Delaria 22:40] Chill out because that's a bunch of F words.

[GM 22:42] You don't want to get us flagged.

[Ren 22:43] Another F word.

[Delaria 22:47] Another F word. Yep.

[Ren 22:52] Fine.

[GM 22:57] That was excellent. I love it. I have so many questions. How long were you working on that sentence?

[Jocq 23:10] All of Delaria's turn. Thank you.

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Gerik 0:32] Gerik will turn towards the hobgoblin, straight up not having a good time with the necrotic hand still in its hair that Dreki had just flown in front of, who just saw his friend get boomed with some Holy Light. And then Gerik will give him the nasty dunk face, take out his axe, and just swing at him with Advantage because of Dreki's help.

[Jocq 3 0:57] Yay, Advantage.

[Gerik 0:59] Yay, Advantage. Barely...

[Ren 1:03] Wow.

[Gerik 1:04] Gerik is in the zone. He is becoming battle-hardened and emboldened, wants to protect his friends, takes his great axe and slashes it from head to toe against this hobgoblin, going in a chink of armor between its neck and torso, slicing down and clefting through that chain mail as well. He gets his axe a little bit stuck and has to kind of yank it out, and the hobgoblin falls down to the ground lifeless. Then he will step over the body towards where Dreki went, further into the hallway to ensure that there's no more hostiles to engage our friends, and stand up next to the final hobgoblin with the shield out.

[Jocq 1:44] Jocquelynn, seeing the carnage up ahead, will slowly scoot just far enough so that he can see around the corner once again, transferring that necrotic hand from the body of the dead hobgoblin that lies cleaved from the axe of Gerik, making that gesture once again whispering the words: "Llaw Farw", that shoots up and grabs as close as it can at the remaining hobgoblin. Varying degrees of success. No success. It misses completely. The bones clatter off the wall and splash as a broken hand falls to the floor.

[GM 2:19] One villain standing.

[Ren 2:21] Spring-boarding from the wall behind me with the corner, I will run through the second set of cleaved body parts that Gerik is leaving in his trail... past Gerik, and run behind the final remaining hobgoblin and again strike with my spear. 14, which is probably hitting his shield if I recall properly. 

[GM 2:48] Yeah. Yeah, definitely. He blocks it to the side with his shield.

[Delaria 2:52] It's only because you look so cool running against the wall. He's like, 'I'm totally watching you.'

[Gerik 2:58] Right.

[Ren 3:00] And as I pinwheel back around, I will again try to strike out with Unarmed Strike. This time less successfully, perhaps a little dismayed by seeing the bones from Lord Searun's hand collapsing... a little distracted there... I actually end up hitting where the bone hand hit as opposed to hitting the hobgoblin.

[GM 3:21] Right, watching your martial display. This guy will focus on you, Ren, resetting his shield directly in front of him. He'll slash at you, missing.

[Ren 3:34] And I will do a quick dodge to the side as he lashes out with his longsword, nimbly squeezing up against the wall as he slashes past my head.

[Delaria 3:45] Well, with only one hobgoblin left, no need to protect this particular exit. So, Delaria is going to surround him. Now he's got a wall to his right while he's facing north with his shield up against Ren, Gerik to his left, and a tiny halfling behind him.

[Gerik 4:09] Bonking time.

[Delaria 4:11] I can't bonk. I mean, hobgoblins are... maybe I could bonk. I'm not going to. There's a feeling that if the Sacred Flame hits, I'm meant to be doing this. I don't feel like stabbing anyone right now. So Sacred Flame again, just right in front of me.

[GM 4:30] Oh, he succeeds at his saving throw, again.

[Gerik 4:34] This is one agile hobgoblin.

[GM 4:39] He ducks behind his shield a little bit and avoids the Radiant Light that you tried to use.

[Delaria 4:47] I am out of practice on what things I can do. Is the cantrip my having taken an action?

[GM 4:56] Yes.

[Gerik 4:57] Yeah. You still have a Bonus Action left if there's anything you can do with a bonus, but yeah, that's your full action.

[Delaria 5:03] I don't think I have... And then I heal him so I can try again. No. That's all for me.

[GM 5:12] Dreki?

[Jocq 5:14] Dreki, the dragon who wants to be, will fly in after the burst of flame ignites the area in bright light, once again clearing over, clawing viciously but not effectively, only distracting, not necessarily damaging.

[Gerik 5:29] Gerik will swing his great axe, not quite as effectively. He goes for a horizontal swing straight for the hobgoblin's body. Makes a solid connection, but the armor holds. So he knows the hobgoblin's feeling it, but not a killing blow. The hobgoblin is still standing, but he did manage to get his axe past the shield. He feels quite proud of himself.

[GM 5:51] That hobgoblin's definitely feeling it. You can see that you drew quite a bit of blood from that one.

[Jocq 5:57] Dreki flies back into the area. Jocq looks at him briefly and dashes up, taking up the position that Delaria had recently vacated with his back to the hallway, with the door that enters into the room they came from. And once again, "Llaw Farw!" leaves his lips and the necrotic hand takes the position of where his Mage Hand normally does, shoots across the intervening space, and latches on to the breastplate of the foe. Hopefully, hopefully latches on to the breastplate of the foe. And yes, I believe that will do it. Latching on and draining 3 points of his very life essence. And as the life essence crumbles from the creature, his knees weaken and buckle, and the hobgoblin falls to the ground. The necrotic hand does not let go for a good long while still.

[GM 6:42] Excellent. So the hallway is now quiet with the corpses of the hobgoblins at your feet. You can see that the hallway is a little bit askew, but generally heads a westerly direction, and it does terminate in a door in that western wall. And there's also a door leading south, presumably to the goblin village that's here.

[Gerik 7:09] "All right, y'all, someone check the bodies and see if there's anything useful on them hobgoblins. Just do a quick check. This door here is going to lead back over to the goblins. I don't think we want to go in there yet. So let's keep going to the end of the hallway. I'm going to wait by this door just in case anything comes out. But when you all are ready, let's form up on this door and then go through. Hopefully, there are more hobgoblins through here."

[Delaria 7:32] "My goodness, this is a bunch of body parts." That's Delaria's Investigation.

[GM 7:40] Yeah, Delaria, you kind of come away with your hands covered in blood.

[Delaria 7:45] "I regret this action."

[Gerik 7:48] Ew, gross.

[GM 7:50] Anybody else like to check the body?

[Ren 7:52] Investigation, I'm going to be about as useful as...

[Delaria 7:58] Me! 

[Ren 7:59] Yeah.... No. Less useful. "Yes, there are body parts. Might be three or maybe four hobgoblins. It's really hard to tell anymore."

[Delaria 8:07] "Maybe if you squish the body parts harder, something will fall out of them. Let me..." *squelch* *squelch* *squelch*

[GM 8:15] You just start wringing them. 

[Ren 8:19] "I suggest we move on while you still have a Holy Inspiration, Gerik."

[Gerik 8:24] The light around Gerik shimmers faintly. Those of you with a practiced eye can see that there's just some protective force around him still.

[Jocq 8:33] Jocquelynn doesn't seem to be paying attention to any of this. The owl pellet around his neck seems to have splashed onto his shirt and he shakes his hand and a bag appears which he fits it into and draws the string. "When you're ready, go ahead."

[Gerik 8:50] "Man, what were we all doing back there? I just asked you to check their pockets. You got stuff everywhere." 

[GM 9:00] It's like writing with a bad pen. 

[Gerik 9:04] All right, well, with that disgusting image in our head, let's go ahead and open this door. Gerik's going to turn to everybody else and kind of pantomime opening the door and see if everyone's ready.

[Delaria 9:15] A slightly gory thumbs up from Del.

[Ren 9:18] Ren nods and readies his spear.

[Gerik 9:22] Seeing that everyone is ready, Gerik will kick the door in with his foot, because we're past stealth at this point, and if there's a trap, he doesn't want to be in the middle of it. So he kicks the door open to try and see what's in there, and then things will happen.

[GM 9:38] The sounds of combat down the hallway must have alerted these guys because they're ready for you.

[Gerik 9:45] "All right..."

[GM 9:45] Let's do a new initiative round.

[Gerik 9:50] Uh oh.

[Ren 9:51] Wow. I'm a little winded from the last battle, apparently. "Oh, now? Now we're going in? Hey, hey, hey."

[Gerik 10:01] All right, so kicking open the door, Gerik sees a room full of hobgoblins who are ready because they have heard the violence down the hallway. And then he'll take a step back and stand shoulder to shoulder with Ren. We are encompassing the width of the hallway, so we are the defensive wall against our friends, so the hobgoblins can't make it to Delaria or to Lord Searun without going through Ren and Gerik first.

[GM 10:25] Directly across from this door, when you kick it in, you can see two hobgoblins with longbows readied. And they both release arrows out at you guys.

[Gerik 10:39] Do we get cover, since we're through the doorway?

[GM 10:43] It looks like Gerik would not get cover, but presumably Ren would because he's kind of behind a wall. But you're straight through that door.

[Gerik 10:55] My cover is going to be their friend who comes to fight me.

[GM 11:00] All right. The first arrow misses. So it's a 16 against your armor class. And then the second one was an eight. So both arrows shatter against the wall behind you.

[Gerik 11:13] "Shoot, why is everybody scared of all these hobgoblins? They ain't even hitting anything."

[GM 11:18] And this one will stand in the doorway and he'll slash at you with his longsword that he is wielding two-handed. So he is not using his shield. Oh man, and it misses as well.

[Gerik 11:32] So, to this point, none of the hobgoblins have actually had a hit good enough that the Shield of Faith around Gerik has ever enacted. He's feeling pretty proud of himself. Maybe getting a little bit too prideful. Things are going a little bit too well, but he's feeling real good.

[Jocq 11:48] Our eagle owl will open up combat by darting into the room, flying by and once again harrying our foe that just threw down, striking at our allies... and flying haphazardly into the middle of the corridor and outside of the majority of our line of sight.

[Gerik 12:03] You got to watch out for Dreki because they have bows.

[Jocq 12:06] Well, he's not very smart. He's just an owl.

[Delaria 12:13] I don't like people harrying my friends. So now that this hobgoblin has walked up to the door into her line of sight, rather than moving, she will zap it with Sacred Flame. We'll just keep calling light down from the ceiling onto hobgoblins. Our eyes will never adjust. *Fwoosh*

[GM 12:40] He fails his dexterity check. Excellent. So he takes 7 points of damage.

[Delaria 12:46] Yes.

[GM 12:48] So he is still alive, but that was a pretty devastating hit that you may describe if you'd like.

[Delaria 12:54] All right. When I focused this way back there, it didn't work. When I focused this way back there, it didn't work, but these ones are ready and a little bit more threatening. I'm going to focus and concentrate this light so it's a little bit more like a spotlight. 'It's your turn.' She's going to stay here though and not move any closer as of yet.

[GM 13:26] One of the hobgoblins in this particularly large circular room is near a throne and he stands up from his throne, grabs his shield, grabs his sword, and starts to circle this pit that's in the middle of the room that leads just down super deep. And from that pit, in between the flashes of Del's Radiant Fire, you can see that there's kind of a purple glow coming out of it. And he just kind of moves forward and shouts a challenge at Gerik and smashes his sword against his shield. Ren?

[Ren 14:07] All right. CanI get a clean strike through that doorway?

[GM 14:12] Yeah, alright.

[Ren 14:13] All right. We will attack the hobgoblin that was foolish enough to run forward to engage, seeing if we can clear the path. So I lash out with a spear, catching the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin had its two-handed sword raised above its head. I managed to find a hole in the armpit of the armor there, stab through directly into the heart and pull out, and the hobgoblin slumps to the side, down and dead. Let them come to us, as a funnel, as opposed to jumping in and getting surrounded.

[GM 14:49] Jocq?

[Jocq 14:50] From my current position, all the way back near the corpses of our previous combat, the only line of sight I have is to this purple clad large foe who just stood up and challenged our paladin directly. I do believe he looks rather threatening enough for me to actually expend a spell level... and reaching forward and shooting out a ray flying through the friends and through the doorways, the ranged touch attack of Ray of Sickness will fly. Does a 23 strike this opponent?

[GM 15:23] Ooh, yes, it does. 23 definitely hits.

[Jocq 15:28] The ray strikes him and where it strikes, bits of poison begin to bubble and fall, eating away through his armor. He'll be taking 2d8 points of poison damage and I need a Constitution saving throw from this gentleman. 9 damage. My DC is only 13 though. I don't expect it should be much trouble.

[GM 15:50] Oh, a 12. So he just barely fails.

[Jocq 15:52] "Right!" This gentleman becomes poisoned until the end of my next turn, which mechanically, he has disadvantage on his attack rolls and ability checks. "All right. Enjoy your duel, Gerik."

[Gerik 16:08] How deep is this pit?

[GM 16:11] Very deep. Would be terminal to fall in it.

[Gerik 16:15] Gerik is running to the northmost point of the circle. The middle of the circle is that giant purple hazy pit, and he is going to try and shove this leader into the pit, who is also sickened, and hopefully it will work.

[GM 16:33] All right, and that is an Opposed, I believe.

[Gerik 16:37] Yep, Athletics or Acrobatics check, his choice and he'll have disadvantage on either. Mwa ha ha ha! 

[Jocq 16:47] Yes.

[GM 16:47] So he does fail that check. Go ahead and describe that.

[Gerik 16:50] All right. Gerik runs in accepting the challenge. This hobgoblin leader is sickened by the magic of Lord Searun and Gerik is going to take his great axe, hold it horizontally across his body, and just push the guy with the great axe into this pit. He'll flail for the edge trying to reach, just like in an action movie, but he can't as his hands have his sword and his shield. His sword will fall away and he'll fall on his backwards screaming into this giant purple pit. And then Gerik will turn to the two archers and he'll say, "Lay down your weapons."

[GM 17:25] Fantastic. All right, the hobgoblins' response: they watch their leader fall, and you got the hobgoblin scream as he goes down and it cuts short. And they'll nock arrows and fire them at you, Gerik.

[Gerik 17:43] I wouldn't expect anything less.

[GM 17:46] So, first is 13 against your armor class. Second is 16 against your armor class.

[Gerik 17:52] For the sake of narration, we will say that the Shield of Faith comes into play for once. One of the arrows comes close to Gerik's head, hits the deflection field, and deflects off harmlessly. You all see a reverberation of light, almost as if a wave of light has been hit, as the arrow reverberates off it, to a wall.

[Jocq 18:18] "Go, Dreki, go." Flying up to the nearest hobgoblin he can and harrying once more as he does so, particularly paying attention to where his bow is drawn, getting in the line of sight, getting in that area altogether, before flying... hopefully... he can't really fly out of bow range. But, you know. Away.

[Delaria 18:39] 'King Dreki on the throne, all bow down.' Delaria is going to come forward so she can see into the room more. Now that there is yet another hobgoblin body. And from her vantage outside of the door... has line of sight to both archers, and I'll check the distance of Sacred Flame on her sheet. Oh, yeah, that's fine. Everything is within range. And I will drop it onto the farther one because technically the one all the way across the room from her is the one that's slightly closer to Gerik. Even though it's an archer, it's not going to matter. That's fine. That's fine, me picking that one. Yep. Spotlight time.

[GM 19:38] He succeeds his saving throw. *Womp womp*

[Delaria 19:41] Nothing so dramatic as watching your leader fall down into a pit. It is not my time to shine. 'It's time to avenge my leader.'

[GM 19:56] The leader is dead, so that brings us to Ren.

[Ren 20:00] Ren will enter into the circular room and... hmmmm.... 

[GM 20:09] Just try jumping across the pit. I dare you. 

[Ren 20:13] I'm thinking that's not happening right now. I run in and throw a dart at the harried target.

[Gerik 20:20] A nice dart

[GM 20:21] ...but he's not dead.

[Ren 20:23] It sails across the room hitting him in the arm for 5 piercing damage.

[GM 20:31] Nice.

[Jocq 20:32] Jocquelynn seems to be lagging quite behind the rest of the group as the circles of line of sight are no longer intersecting. He's going to have to move up.

[Gerik 20:43] Oh, no.

[Jocq 20:45] Right? it's a weird thing for him. Also, he can't see anything in the door. Positioning himself right behind Delaria, I don't know if he will actually be able to see anyone inside of the room.

[GM 20:57] Yeah, they probably just have like a little bit of cover is all.

[Jocq 21:00] All right, a little bit of cover is just fine then as he once again summons his Mage Hand, the necrotic version, calling out "Llaw Farw!" over Del's head, outstretching his hand and shooting it across the room. That is going to latch on specifically the upraised bow pointing at either Gerik or Dreki. It's hard to tell which from this angle as I can't actually see either entity. It will latch onto their wrist and attempt to shake. It won't actually matter as far as their aim, but it will prevent them from healing for the turn for 3 necrotic damage. 

[GM 21:35] You can see that it drains him a little bit, but he's largely ignoring it.

[Jocq 21:41] That's fine.

[Gerik 21:43] Gerik, mindful of this giant pit that he just shoved the leader down, is going to run up to the nearest hobgoblin archer while telling everyone, specifically Ren, "Watch out for that pit. Don't fall in it."

[Ren 21:57] "Heeeeey...."

[Gerik 22:00] And then he'll walk up. Gerik seems to really like spaces with torches, so he'll walk up to the 9 o'clock position of this circular room and then make a swing at this hobgoblin, and for the first time all battle, I think it'll be without advantage. 

[GM 22:18] Ooh, hit.

[Gerik 22:21] Gerik swings his axe down. He breaks the archer's longbow in half. As he's making this motion, he's thinking, 'Maybe now's a good time to smite', but as he's thinking that, his axe finds the flesh of this archer and he falls down dead. He hits him right in the heart. Blood goes everywhere and Gerik figures, 'Well, he must be dead and if he's not, he's pretty, pretty messed up.' He withdraws his axe and, wouldn't you know, the hobgoblin falls to the ground like a bag of rocks. Then Gerik will step up over his body, saying a prayer to Torm as he does so and kind of apologizing for the Breach of Ethics, but he's not stepping near that pit. So he steps on top of the body next to the other archer to distract him while Ren or the others hopefully can finish him off.

[GM 23:09] He's going to drop his bow, draw his sword, two-handed, and we're going to see... 18 against your armor class.

[Gerik 23:21] All right, this time, as the hobgoblin two-handed swings right at Gerik's head, Gerik has a look of surprise and then that Shield of Faith reverberates quite brightly, more than before, and the sword is stayed inches from Gerik's face.

[GM 23:37] The hobgoblin grunts in surprise. His sword kind of hovers there and you can see it vibrating slightly as the force has been completely stopped right there. And he pulls it back to ready another swing and it's Dreki's turn.

[Jocq 23:53] "All right. 'Dash, Dreki, dash into the fray!'" He flies. As the hobgoblin pulls back his sword once again, Dreki claws and gnaws and bites and beaks at the creature before flying away, perching on the sconce just above Ren's head.

[Delaria 24:11] It's heartening to see that shimmering Shield of Faith above Gerik. This feels better now. Maybe the Sacred Flame will work this time against the hobgoblin that remains. Get him, spotlight of doom.

[GM 24:37] Goodness...

[Delaria 24:38] That poor hobgoblin... saw his leader get shoved into a pit and then his friend get cleaved in front of him and then... 'What is this spotlight? This is too much. My eyes! No!!!' And then the weight of the day is too much, and he crumbles to the floor in a slightly crisped heap. Dead.

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[Jocq 0:32] "That's rather vicious, Delaria."

[Delaria 0:36] "It felt righteous."

[Jocq 0:40] "Right. If it's righteous to burn your foes alive. Eeech."

[Delaria 0:46] "It's a warming heat. From the inside... until dead."

[Jocq 0:48] "Oh, he looks very warmed. Very warmed indeed."

[Delaria 0:52] "I'd prefer to get it over as quickly as I can as opposed to clawing its eye out."

[Jocq 0:59] "Well, technically speaking, Dreki can't actually attack anything. He's not substantial enough. The attack action eludes him completely."

[Delaria 1:07] "I think it might have distracted him, actually, so thank you. That was helpful."

[Ren 1:11] While this conversation is going on, I'm going to do some searching for the bodies here to see if there's anything, regathering the dart.

[Delaria 1:21] It's not like my hands are particularly any less gory than something-teen seconds ago. So, sure, let's search this hobgoblin by the door also.

[Gerik 1:31] Gerik will follow their lead, stepping off of the hobgoblin's body and then he'll say a quick prayer to Torm, thanking him for his protection and for the luck that they've had to this point because none of us even took a point of damage.

[GM 1:46] Yeah, interesting how the rolls have landed.

[Ren 1:50] Say if Ren had been leading some of those charges, I would be a lot more messed up right now, by the way.

[GM 2:00] Does anybody else want to investigate the bodies?

[Ren 2:04] I'm busy rummaging around inside the guts again.

[Delaria 2:07] Apparently Delaria is mostly used to trying to like, 'ah, I see a wound. Let me put my hands on it to heal it.' And so when she sees pieces, it's like, 'let me find the wound and stick my hands in it, apparently.' That's not good for finding things in pockets.

[Gerik 2:27] You guys have rolled two, three, four, five across four Investigation checks.

[GM 2:38] Oh, that's impressive.

[Ren 2:40] Well, we could plot that chart and just assume we don't need to roll this next one. We're going to assume that it'll be a six, seven, eight.

[Gerik 2:48] We're gearing up for the future. When it's important and we're like level eight, you guys will get the 19, 20 and really ace those Investigation checks.

[GM 2:59] All right, so zooming out slightly, your investigating of the area, you do find that the hobgoblins don't really have much on them.

[Jocq 3:12] "I can't help but feel like we pushed the only one that might have had anything valuable down a hole."

[Ren 3:21] "To keep us away from the notion of greed and materialism. Best just to have what you can carry on your back."

[Gerik 3:29] "Yeah, I'd rather have my health and y'all's health any day of the week, even if you had some fancy magic sword or amulet. Plus, he gave me a challenge, Lord Searun. I mean, how am I going to turn that down? And he stood right next to a hole."

[Jocq 3:44] "I'm certainly not faulting your bravery. It's just that I was under the illusion that adventuring was a profitable endeavor. It does not seem to be such at this point. I believe we're down like 30 coins."

[GM 3:58] As you say that and you're panning across the room talking to your friends, you do spot a small chest near the throne. It was being used as a footrest and it's covered with a blanket.

[Jocq 4:15] "Right, so maybe we're jumping the gun a little bit. Have we looked there and under that?"

[Gerik 4:21] "Have we looked where?"

[Jocq 4:23] "Under this. I assume it's a box, a shape, a lot like a foot-chest or a footlocker."

[Ren 4:33] "Very observant, Lord Searun. I didn't even see that, or anything, really."

[Delaria 4:40] "I'm at least glad to find that there's this blanket I can wipe my hands on. So let me pull that off..." and then Delaria will clean her hands a little bit on this blanket.

[Jocq 4:51] "If you'd like a wet cloth, we can... here."

[Delaria 4:57] Well, now that I have most of it off on this blanket, this is good for extra cleaning. "Well, thank you, Lord Searun. I'll come all the way back over there and grab that from you. Thanks."

[Gerik 5:09] With Delaria and maybe Ren occupied with cleaning their hands, Gerik will go ahead and open the chest if it's unlocked. Is it unlocked? 

[GM 5:21] It definitely has a lock on it.

[Gerik 5:23] "Well, there's a lock on this, but if y'all don't mind, I'll just try and cut it off."

[Jocq 5:29] "I don't see that we have any other option given that none of our party are privy to such negative activities."

[Gerik 5:38] Is it a lock on the outside that I can hew off or is it a built-in lock on the lid?

[GM 5:45] It appears to be a built-in lock on the lid.

[Gerik 5:48] He is going to lift it and take it back to the others then, because it's right next to the precipice. For the listeners, this chest is right next to the precipice into that purple hole. So he doesn't want to accidentally shove all the riches off into the abyss as well. So, he'll pick it up, go into the hallway. That way if it leans or teeters when we smack the crap out of it, then it won't fall down in an abyss.

[Ren 6:11] And Ren says to Lord Searun, "The last royalty we talked to had keys dangling above their throne. Perhaps you should go take a look and see if you can see anything around this throne. Perhaps he left his key hanging conspicuously over his head as a reminder."

[Jocq 6:32] "I certainly don't mind taking a look. I'm particularly inclined to assume that the key to such a box is now down... or possibly continuing to fall down... this pit."

[GM 6:45] Oooh. Investigation 20. That's one of the best Investigation roles of the night. Morning... day.

[Jocq 6:58] Looking around the throne area, Ren's remarks about our kobold friend having the key unawares dangling above their head had us interested. Perhaps it's not on the personage that we've thrown down this pit and stored conveniently on the side table next to the throne?

[GM 7:18] No keys of any kind here. This hobgoblin seems a little bit smarter than that. You find the bones of some snacks and stuff off to one side of the throne. Other than that, nothing of real interest around the throne. Just snack bones and no keys or anything like that.

[Jocq 7:42] "Yick. Seems we're out of luck. The bones go down the pit in the center of the room. The way I see it, we can either attempt to break the box or we can pour out a bit of creative floating and just drag the chest along behind us."

[Gerik 7:59] "I don't particularly trust them kobolds or them goblins and I think if they see us come back, knowing the hobgoblin is gone and we got this chest... Everybody knows there's nice stuff in chests. So they're already going to attack us… probably. And I think that would just seal the deal."

[Jocq 8:18] "Very reasonable Gerik. All right. Swing away."

[Gerik 8:23] "All right. Torm, please bless this swing." And he will chop down across the top of trying to hit the top of the chest, but he gets a natural one.

[GM 8:39] As an inanimate object, I'm going to say that it's pretty hard to miss.

[Gerik 8:46] Great. We'll just use the good part of the roll.

[GM 8:49] Yeah, we'll just use the damage.

[Delaria 8:51] "I'm going to step away. That's swinging a little wide."

[GM 8:57] All right, so you bury the head of the axe into the top of the chest and create a pretty solid 2-inch wide and 12-inch long gash in the top. As you pretty well cut through and shatter some of these bits of wood on top, it kind of knocks the lid askew. It pushes the lock out of the way essentially. It bends the top of the lid to pop it open and you see a little needle eject out of the padlock.

[Gerik 9:31] "Well, it's a mighty fine thing that we didn't try any roguery on this."

[Delaria 9:38] "Also glad I moved."

[Gerik 9:40] Is there like poison mist or anything coming out of it or do we feel safe enough to open it? Since, once again, the entire party went 10 feet away from the danger and was like, "Go Gerik, go die." 

[GM 9:56] Bye, Gerik. It was nice knowing you.

[Gerik 9:58] So, he'll open it, since there's no mist coming out. The dart went through and he's safe from it. And he will open the chest and see what is inside.

[GM 10:09] So you do find a pile of gold and two small black stones. They look like they're onyx of some kind, and two half flagons of wine.

[Gerik 10:22] Nice. "That's probably really old and gross."

[Delaria 10:27] "That's not how wine works. It's old, it's good. I mean flagon though."

[Gerik 10:33] So since it was so heavy, I'm going to assume that these bags of gold or maybe copper, whatever denomination they're in must be relatively large. He'll hold one up. He'll go through it. And then he'll say, "Lord Searun, I think we found our payday here. Got two big old piles of gold here." And he counts through it, gets ovlike er 100 gold... and it's well over 100 from one bag. Well over 100 gold. He'll kind of toss the bag, not to Lord Searun, who is now by that pit. We don't want our bounty going down the pit from a bad throw, but he'll kind of toss it five feet into the room, by Delaria or even over by this wall, actually. He's in the hallway right now. So he'll just toss it to the side by the wall, nowhere near that Pit of Treasure Eating. And then he'll let everybody know we've got probably a couple hundred gold here. He'll hold up the stones and he's not going to mention the half flagons of wine because he figures they're probably rotten. I guess you could look at it. Are they rotten? 

[GM 11:35] So they actually look relatively new. It's probably King Durnn's stash. He was locking it away to keep it away from other goblins and hobgoblins, most likely.

[Gerik 11:44] Can we tell what kind of wine is it? Is it like elvish wine or like halfling wine or is it just non-descript?

[GM 11:51] It has a little symbol that denotes it as a trade good from Neverwinter. So best guess is it came from a human winery somewhere that was involved in Neverwinter trade and was probably stolen during the course of its travels there.

[Gerik 12:11] Got it. "All right, yeah, I found two kind of black stones. You'll want to look at these Lord Searun. I'm not sure. I'm not sure about stonery. What's it called? Stonemancy. Anyway, you'll want to look at them. And I found a couple flagons of wine here too. Probably they say they're from a tradegood of Neverwinter. So, maybe some good drinking in the future."

[Jocq 12:36] "Well, that's a delight. I will suggest that our treasurer hold on to the coinage until we're in a safer location to divvy up pay as necessary."

[Gerik 12:47] We are playing with coins having weight, right?

[GM 12:50] Correct.

[Gerik 12:51] Okay. Gerik will volunteer to lug the coins then. I mean, he can give it out to other people too, but Lawful Good Paladin’s probably a pretty good bet to have them keep the coins anyways.

[Jocq 13:01] You know, I hadn't considered that when volunteering our halfling to carry it.

[Delaria 13:11] "I mean, I'm happy to, but my goodness, those are large bags. You you saw how that hobgoblin fell over like a bag of rocks? Here we got, it's like a bag of rocks, but they're expensive. I would appreciate not carrying the bag of rocks. Thank you, Gerik."

[Jocq 13:31] "Well considered. Let's do take a look at those gems.” They wouldn't happen to be components of any sort?

[GM 13:42] Nope, they do appear to just be raw onyx. Something that somebody would use instead of carrying gold to lighten the load a little bit, or maybe trade to a jeweler for extra money.

[Jocq 13:57] Ah. Well, that's all right. “I was hoping for a diamond, but onyx is valuable, too. Do you want to hold on to these as well, Gerik?"

[Gerik 14:06] "Man, these coins are heavy. I can take the stones. They shouldn't be too heavy. I'm getting pretty full up though. If someone else could take the wine, maybe Delaria, if you could take the wine or Ren, that'd be much appreciated." 

[Delaria 14:24] Strangely enough, the thought of the weight of carrying more consumable items doesn't worry Delaria as much, so... we'll take at least one of the bota bags of wine and see how heavy that is.

[GM 14:40] It's about the same weight as a water skin, I believe.

[Delaria 14:44] "Well, let me carry them both for right now, and they will even themselves out. If we get tired, then we can have this. Like if they're still good, then they're safer than water might be down here. So..."

[Ren 14:58] "Carry 8 pounds of wine versus 4 pounds of gold?"

[Gerik 15:03] "Yeah, I can help out. I did the math. I can carry the 8 pounds of wine as well."

[Delaria 15:08] ...as she teeters ever more closely to the Pit of Doom. "You know, that might be a good idea. Thank you."

[Gerik 15:17] All right, we'll do the hand off. Gerik will take all of it. Gerik "The Mule" Runeheart.

[Jocq 15:26] "You know, if that does get too heavy, I can drop a bit of mercury and we don't have to carry any of it."

[Gerik 15:33] "But I mean then we're going to have that same problem with, if it's out in sight, then them goblins and kobolds are going to get a little greedy on us. So, let's go back. everyone's good, right? Let's go back, talk to the goblins. Maybe they'll let us see that dragon, get the dragon, get the kobolds. We still got to find where them Hucreles went too. They're not in here. So..."

[Ren 15:54] "Oh, there's the door over there... and the southern part of the tower that Belak may have led the Hucreles through."

[Gerik 16:05] "Can we check out this purple pit real quick too before we keep on going?"

[Jocq 16:10] "I see no reason why not to."

[Delaria 16:12] "I... I... hmmmmm...."

[Jocq 16:14] "Delaria?"

[Delaria 16:15] "I like taller things. I like mountains. I am not fond of this pit, though."

[Gerik 16:22] "Yeah, how about we have me or Ren, probably Ren, he's more agile, tie a rope around him so while we're investigating, we don't have any accidental pit deaths."

[GM 16:35] Yeah, so this pit, as you walk up to the edge and look down into it, you can see it has a series of gray vines that are growing out of it, hugging the sides of the walls. So climbing it would probably actually be pretty easy. The light appears to be from a luminescent fungus growing down in there. And you can see about maybe 50 feet down, it opens up onto a chamber down there, and you can see the body of Durnn and also another body next to him.

[Gerik 17:18] Got to get that loot. Nah, I’m just kidding. "But they did tell us, the goblins did tell us that we'd have to descend and we haven't descended anywhere. We've all been at normal level, fought these hobgoblins."

[Ren 17:33] "A controlled descent as opposed to a 50-foot drop to our certain demise."

[Gerik 17:41] "How far is the drop? Because we all have 100 feet of rope. So if it's under 100 feet, we could just repel down, right? Or use the vines."

[Ren 17:47] "Or use the vines."

[GM 17:51] Yeah, 100 feet of rope would be enough to get you to the floor of the chamber, just barely.

[Ren 17:48] We tie the rope around the throne, use that to help with the vines in case the vines are less secure than they appear, and work our way down. "Do we want to check that door first or head down?"

[Delaria 18:14] "I mean, do you see a door down there? I feel like this might lead back to all the other goblins."

[Ren 18:20] "I'm thinking that goes back to the goblin village. So down is probably our route."

[Delaria 18:27] "Yeah, it'd be good to make sure there's no more danger for these goblins before we open the door onto them and then have to point at Jocq and say, 'look, we're friends.'"

[Ren 18:39] "Inside of that secret bag that he is wrapped around his neck is a very important item that you want to see before you kill us."

[Gerik 18:48] "Yeah, I think it'd probably be best to explore down below. Our plan initially was to go down there, check it out, look for the Hucrele. There's another body too that you said, Ren. That's mighty interesting to me because that might be one of the Hucrele party. And we think that back through that door is probably the goblin village again. So, they're probably going to want to... our deal is done with them... but they don't know it yet. So they're probably going to want to just say, 'Hey, get out of here now. This is our territory.' So I would say let's press on, and then we can come up and talk to them goblins when we're finished with our business."

[Jocq 19:24] "So it sounds like down the hole, Ren goes."

[Ren 19:28] "All right. So Gerik, if you could help me fasten this rope around the throne and I will do the initial descent and check to see how safe it is."

[Gerik 19:38] Gerik will take the rope. He'll tie it around the throne and make sure that it's tight. And then he'll also stay up and belay Ren, much like we did when we came down to the Citadel itself.

[Delaria 19:49] ...didn't do great then...

[Gerik 19:53] But we lived.

[GM 19:56] So yeah, let's do a Athletics check to climb down.

[Ren 19:58] Okay.

[GM 20:00] Yeah, it's going to be pretty easy with all the vines and having Gerik's assistance. So yeah, DC 5, I think will probably be best. And you start your descent. The those gray vines and everything, they do have a certain amount of strength to them. So it actually takes quite a bit to break it away from the wall. You would have to try to snap those off the wall. So you could use them as hand holds.

[Ren 20:24] "It does look pretty safe," I call back up as I'm descending. "The descent is pretty easy. Much easier than the cliff earlier."

[Jocq 20:33] "I'm still not going down there."

[GM 20:38] When Ren gets to the bottom, you can see the body of Durnn. You can see another body nearby and it looks like a human male. His armor bears the crest of the Hucrele family.

[Ren 20:54] "I think we may have found one of the Hucreles," I call back up.

[Delaria 20:59] "Oh no."

[Ren 21:01] I roll the body over and see if it matches the description of either Talgen or Braford.

[GM 21:10] Yeah, it matches Talgen and you can see he is still wearing his signet ring on his hand.

[Ren 21:20] I will take the signet ring as I'm rolling over and then look up.

[GM 21:27] All right, so you pull the signet ring off and you hear the rustling of shrubbery behind you and the groan of old bones grinding against each other. And we'll call it there.

[Gerik 21:46] Dun, dun, dun!

[Ren 21:41] "I think we have company."

[Jocq 21:43] "I think you have company."

[Gerik 21:46] "Yeah, good thing we let Ren go down there first, all by himself."

Thank you, fair listeners, for attending another fine session of The Adventuring Company. Join us next time to see what dreadful peril lies in wait for our intrepid heroes.

This podcast is brought to you by our friends, Patreons, and discerning listeners such as yourself. If you would like to support us or learn more about this podcast, visit www.theadventuringcompany.com. And now, hail and well met, fair listeners, to The Adventuring Company, a 5E campaign podcast. Settle down for a spell, banish sorrow from your heart, and join us for season one in which many things are revealed.

[GM 0:32] Behind you, Ren, as you're investigating the body, you hear a few soft noises, as if a child is running through the soft earth.

[Ren 0:43] Footsteps?

[GM 0:44] Yep, footsteps. And you look up and you can see four skeletons rising up out of the soft dirt and several twig blights that are running behind them.

[Ren 1:00] "Not alone down here. It looks like we have a lot of company!"

[Delaria 1:02] "Plants are not supposed to move!"

[Ren 1:05] "Some more of those twig things, and some skeletons are coming up... I think I'm coming up too. If you can start pulling me up, Gerik."

[Gerik 1:18] "Yeah, all right, you start running up that wall. I'll pull you up and hopefully give you advantage on them Athletics checks."

[Ren 1:24] "Very good." So I'm going to jump up as far of the rope as I can and then start climbing. Acrobatics?

[GM 1:35] Athletics to climb, I think.

[Ren 1:38] Athletics...

[Gerik 1:40] Can he get advantage since he's being belayed.... And he's tied to a rope.... And being pulled up?

[GM 1:44] Oh, yeah, for sure. And Gerik, why don't you do an Athletics check as well?

[Gerik 1:49] Alrighty.

[GM 1:50] ...Because Ren's going to need it.

[Ren 1:51] Yeah.

[Jocq 1:52] Oh boy.

[Ren 1:55] "I have this ring in one hand..."

[Gerik 1:56] "Muscles!"

[Ren 1:57] "...the spear on my back. It's a challenge here."

[Gerik 2:04] You do get another roll, Ren...

[Ren 2:05] Oh, that's right. I have advantage. 

[Gerik 2:06] You have advantage.

[Ren 2:07] Can't be worse than that 4.

[GM 2:12] There's only a 5% chance he'll get less.

[Ren 2:14] There we go. Retightening my hands on the rope...

[Delaria 2:21] Interesting 17 is better than 4.

[Ren 2:24] It's much better. …I slip this ring onto my finger. I'm sure that's not going to be a problem.

[GM 2:28] All right. You guys easily haul Ren up, probably a good 25 feet, halfway back up the pit there.

[Gerik 2:37] "Y'all can see these things, right? Can you shoot them or something?"

[Delaria 2:44] "Okay."

[GM 2:46] Now, I will say that from where you're standing on the pit, it would be very hard for them to see the skeletons and the twig blights. I just switched maps for you, so you should be able to see there now.

[Gerik 3:00] We can see everything now.

[GM 3:03] The dotted line reveals the pit, and it's about 15 feet wide as it goes down into this room. One of those creatures would have to be almost directly underneath the pit to actually be seen, and they haven't moved yet. You know that they're there, thanks to Ren, but out of line of sight.

[Gerik 3:25] Got it.

[Jocq 3:27] How far down was this pit again?

[GM 3:28] About 50 ft.

[Jocq 3:31] "Oh. I suppose. If that's the direction we're going."

[Gerik 3:36] "Can't you cast spells through Dreki?"

[Jocq 3:39] "To a degree, yes. Right. Yes, I can. Though... if we wanted to make them glow, that's about the most I've got that would be useful in that case."

[Gerik 3:53] Go, go, Dreki drone.

[Ren 3:57] "I think if we can get them visible and then maybe lure them away from the mouth of the pit so we can get everyone down safely. Don't want to get caught 'crossing the ford' as it were, halfway down the pit."

[Jocq 4:15] "All right."

[Delaria 4:16] "This feels like... fishing. If we leave you dangling there, they might come out."

[Ren 4:26] "I can make noise and serve as bait!"

[Gerik 4:29] "Yeah. We can make Ren the bait, get all our ranged attacks ready, and when they come, we can throw javelins and shoot magic at them. I like that plan. Ren, how you feeling?"

[Ren 4:40] "A bit like bait."

[Gerik 4:45] Marvelous. Gerik does not say that in character.

[Delaria 4:49] 'Excellent....' [steeples fingers]

[GM 4:53] All right. Is that the plan? You're going to send Ren down a little bit and then see what happens.

[Gerik 4:59] Yeah. Does Ren have stuff he can throw? You have darts, right?

[Ren 5:03] I have darts.

[Gerik 5:06] If dangling there doesn't work, you can throw darts at them to piss them off. When they come to you, we can throw all of our magic at them.

[Ren 5:14] Good. Let's see... range on darts is 20/60. So, I'll need to go down a little bit more.

[GM 5:22] Perfect. All right, you guys lower him down?

[Gerik 5:26] Yeah.

[Delaria 5:27] "Should we be helping with the rope here?"

[Gerik 5:31] "Nah, I'm good with the rope. Just get your attacks ready. Ren, throw some darts at them so they'll come get you, and then we'll attack." And cut this part out because I'm just mumbling. (We didn't cut this part out, because we love you, listeners)

[Jocq 5:45] "You know, it might actually not be a bad idea to make some of them glow. I'm assuming it's rather dark down in the hole, Ren?"

[Ren 5:54] "Yes, it's only illuminated by the vines there, so it's hard to see. If we had some way of illuminating those creatures, it'd be much easier to hit."

[Jocq 6:06] "All right." Holding the owl, "Dreki, go touch them." The owl will flap down around the hole buffeting Ren for a moment on its descent, hopefully approaching one of the skeletons or twig blights. It's apparent it doesn't really care which.

[GM 6:25] So, closest is skeletons.

[Jocq 6:27] Skeleton it is. Flying close enough by... will get one of those luminescent bugs, clap it between our hands and reach out at the same time and wipe the air as Dreki goes by and rakes talons across one of the skeletons, hopefully casting the Light Cantrip against it.

[GM 6:47] Awesome.

[Jocq 6:48] It's a Dexterity saving throw to avoid Dreki's touch.