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We come back to the party heading upstairs from the basement, having just been spoken to by who they learn to be verin toyed. I wanted to call him Taryn Boyd. I found out his name. Yes, that was wonderful to me.
Harbeck, I was real smart. I just think you know if it could be particularly inspiring, you know, if I might have some sort of inspiration for that. It's true. I mean, that's definitely a reason why you might have it.
I agree, Harbeck. Like, let's talk about, for just a second, why that might be, because it has kind of inspiring. It's so inspiring. You're the meaning in my life.
You're the inspiration. You're beard inspired. I have a thing. OK, Harbeck, you take 200 damage.
Not sure. No, check inspiration on your character. Yeah, I complain and got it. Yep, just anything to shut you up.
Oh, is that how we're playing it now? Oh, fuck yeah. Let's get the fuck out. I said a terrible precedent.
We need to dispose of these items. All right. I would leave. I don't think we could leave the village people.
I've learned my lesson at this point. Can I go to the townspeople and do a perception check to see if they are legitimately innocent? Yep. Is you going alone?
Anyone can go. I mean, it's free action. You guys could. What do you want us to go with?
Up. Yeah, yeah. I take the book and the mirror. If I can't, is the mirror?
The mirror is like a full, I'm sorry. It's a full length mirror. It's a large. So no.
I've got the tone, but not. So just quick side back to you, first time Paul and I played D&D together. And there was a ladder in a town. And I just dragged that ladder all around town.
It came in handy for sure. It totally did. But it was completely ridiculous. Then you, yeah, one part realized, like, wait, how are you carrying this?
Yeah, you're small. OK. In this situation, how many mirrors are there? That's my growth reference to the mighty Bouche.
And there's a character who's like, they have 17 mirrors in the mirror. I take my hammer and smash the mirror. You smashed my face for making that terrible reference. Yeah, I get the angle with you in the mirror.
Not for not errors. So make a dexterity saving throw? Shit. OK.
Oh, man. What happened to my die? There it is. I think after that.
Oh, no. The three. Wow. So you take 12 damage.
I'm unconscious. So you guys hear this enormous. So we go back down. Which is this enormous explosion come from the basement.
And you see dust and so it rise from the cellar. Well, I guess we should probably go check on them. Shit. And then Verna goes running to her friend, into the sun.
OK. Yeah, you see Hardback lying unconscious, like glass shards all over his face. He destroyed a very powerful magical item at point blank range and like a boss. But it is destroyed.
What's behind it? Nothing. Yeah. But it did get destroyed.
Yeah, it is. Curr exploded all over Hardback. That's just how I roll. I roll up on a magic item.
I break that shit. I don't give a fuck. Yep. All right.
So we need to heal him. Yep. So in my unconscious state, I have a small vision with my divine divinity. And I see the writhing mass of leaves and vines and flowers blooming and sprouting in that enigmatic ball.
And I just go off. Oh fuck. Harback. Harback.
It's you. You've done right by me. I've voted my life. You gave your life in the service of others.
It kept me time now. I still have friends. Danger is approaching. Yes.
It is not your time yet. Can I tend to his wounds with my medicine? Yes. Wait, go.
Please tell me something. We need you, Harback. We face the big guy, there is anything you can tell us. She goes to speak to you and you come back to consciousness with one with one HP.
And Verna, she's shaking him a little bit, lovingly. You're pulling a glass out of his face. And Harback. Harback.
We just want to do that. I saw my god. What? Welcome you up too soon.
Did he just say he was woken up too soon from death? He's a cleric. I take my brain back and I face it. I got his back to the party because he's defending, watching out with his crossbow.
He just looks back and says that. What did you say? I placed my blanket underneath your head. And I feel the soft blanket.
And then I'm looking up at Verna and Renella. And are you OK? I blink. I start picking the shards of glass on my face.
Yeah. Did it explode? It's destroyed. OK, good.
You did it. There's still a champion coming. I couldn't learn anything about the big guy. But we must prepare.
We need to heal him. We need to heal you as well. I can't help you guys with that, but I will stand guard. I want to do channel divinity.
And that's mine is reserve life. Preserve? Yeah, that's a P right there. Not a reserve.
It's a preservation. And so it's five times my level within 30 feet. So I'm at level two. That's 10 health for everyone within 30 feet.
It is a total of 10 health that you can divvy up to whoever. Well, Verna needs nothing. So dang. That's not as much as I thought.
Well, it's still good. It's just like area of effect healing is very strong. So it's divided that. That's not that strong.
It's not that strong. But it's the fact that you can give it to a bunch of people. So if a few people go down at the same time, you can bring two people back to life at the same time. So I have what's called a second wind.
Use a bonus action regale HP equal to 1 d10 plus fighter level. Yep. Can I use that? Totally.
On myself. Are you using? My disciple of life also apply plus 3 to healing. Yep.
It applies to all healing. So I'll just heal myself. I guess. I'll take 13 and back at 14.
Perfect. And Ornella, if you want to use second wind, you are second level. So you have 2 d10 and you can spend what is it? Both your hit die.
Sorry. What was it? Use a bonus action regale HP equal to 1 d10 plus fighter level. Okay.
So yeah, I guess that was different. What's one is it? D10. Yep.
That's a d10. One. Okay. Plus your fighter level.
So three. So I got three health extra. That brings me back to 16. Yep.
How much time since we beat me? Oh, probably a half hour, maybe an hour. Okay. The bar against the last 10 minutes.
Oh, damn. I use mine. Yep. Yeah.
Okay. I think we need to go to town. I think we need to wait for the champion. I agree.
I thought let's go. Maybe we could sort of stow away somewhere and watch for the champions and maybe get to gauge on him before we just present ourselves to him right in the middle of town. I think the... Stick out.
I believe the champion will have some sense of us. Yeah. I'm gonna just fucking fight. I'm mad at this point.
I'm currently carrying the book and it could be called to that. That's true. We could leave the book in the center of town. Whatever anyone else does, I'm gonna have my sort out.
We'll just burn on that. I love that job. I mean, we did read it. I figure we might as well just burn after reading.
Okay. Oh, let's just go stand in the center of town with the book and be right. I think we should burn it in the center of town. Let's throw it down the well.
What do we go down the well? No, burn it. I think we should just be in the middle of town. I think we should be in the middle of town.
Center of town, set fire to whatever we want to set fire to. The rain. I'll burn it and you three three stone away. Keep an eye out.
Are you sure? You're... Armed and ready. I think that's a great plan.
You're more and more of a fighter than me. You should be ready to attack in any second. You can have your bow ready to attack from a distance. So it's settled.
All right. We go to the center of town. Okay. Do you untie the people?
What are you doing with the... As you approach the people, the town's sort of like, please let us go. Are your eyes still red? No, they've returned to normal.
Is that scroll still usable? Yeah. Let's tie up the champion. Yeah, I...
Can we set a trap? Well, look, face is like whatever you think is wrong. So now I'm confused. All right.
With my guild experience, I'll take the lead here at Hell's Cribe. You just... I give this role a snare to Vordo who has... Wait, she doesn't have rope because the town's people are tied up.
I don't have a shit. Wait. She's tied up with your rope. Yes.
So give that to her. All right, I'm gonna pass it forward. Thank you. Take one pass.
That's fine. So I'm going to... But no, you... He doesn't have rope right now.
You do. Oh, so you're saying you should leave and tie it up? That's what I'm checking. I see.
I have no idea what's happening. You just threw things. No, in order to use this, you have to have rope. Oh, okay.
So we give it some of the head rope. So we want to use this to capture the champion when he arrives. Oh, hell yeah. So obviously I'm gonna set that.
I don't know what's happening with... We need to lay the trap. I refuse to use these people as the bait. I kind of assumed the book and we would be the bait.
I think that makes more sense. Well then let's tell these people to hide in their homes, I assume? Yes. Or we could ask them if they know anything of this champion before he arrives.
Or she. Or they. I doubt they would know anything. Their minds are foggy.
I say we let them go and back to their homes. We should give them fair warning that the monster approaches. I agree. Let them make their own decisions.
Well since no one's saying anything, I'm just gonna yell at them. Hey everybody. I'm Verda. Are you going to let us go?
Yes, but the thing is, you need to take cover. I can't get into it now. Take care of your loved ones. Protect your home.
Hide, but save yourselves. Why are you being so fake? There's a monster coming. I'm trying to be nice to these people.
They don't need to know the horror. Okay, you know what? Fine. There's a monster coming.
He could desecrate us all. Literally every orifice cut off and blood splurting everyone. I'm trying to get out of the horror. I'm trying to get out of the horror.
I'm trying to save you guys from that. Imagine everyone you love dying. That is what everyone else is trying to explain to you. I'm saying just protect your family.
Okay, okay, okay. You lock your doors. All right, that's good. If you have any weapons of any sort that is all around, maybe someone has a home filled with all kinds of armory or something, I would suggest going and arming yourselves and we untie them.
So they don't really save much to you. They look at you cautiously, but pick each other up and sprint towards their homes and you hear the doors slam closed. Good. Protect yourselves and everyone you love.
Those doors aren't very strong. Take has the kitchen knife if you need to. No, so, vanilla, you're going to be the bait. Carry the tome.
Here you go. Thank you. Verna. nearby.
Let's start the rope with the scroll ready to capture the champion. All right, I'm setting it up. I can do this within seconds. I got this set up.
The hell scribe and I will take a planking position opposite of vanilla. All right. Good. All right.
Classic principle. So, I want to say less than an hour passes and you hear from overhead a whooshing sound. Oh, fuck. Oh.
Oh. Oh, thank you. And you see the through the night sky a dark shape the large wingspan fly overhead and swoop down and land its enormous claws digging into the dirt atop its back is a man who humanoid in red and gold armor and the gigantic. Uh, gigantic is too big.
I guess its size. This actually matters. Yeah, it is. This is a thing in D&D, there's different class sizes.
Oh good. So gigantic is one thing and there's something less than that. Yeah. The gargantuan is the largest.
Then there's huge and then there's large. For reference, a human is a medium-sized creature. A giant is a huge size creature. Thank you.
So this creature would be size huge. Comes flying, and it's a dragon. Its scales are bronze. And it comes gliding in and comes screeching to a stop.
It's claws digging into the ground to halt its momentum. And it stops right in front of you, Ornella. I turned the book to the page with the ribbon, and I just hold it out in front of me open. I don't know.
I'm pretty sure none of your characters have ever seen a dragon before. Not very common at all. I'm pretty described. I don't know where I got my flask of dragon blood from then, but I'm not.
Well, it might be an item that's passed down from person to person, but they're rare creatures to see this far south. Verna wanted to have a plush dragon toy, so she does feel pretty comfortable, but at the same time, in awe. I've studied them. Our back has heard stories in the guild.
I'm only aware of the one that lived by the sea. I speak Draconic, so I've studied them. Cool. This accidentally is way cool.
So the enormous head bows down and looks its eyes lock. Well, I guess it turns its head to the side so that it catches you with its one eye, and its eye dilates, looking at you. What, he was it? It's green, and it emits a loud snort.
From the eye? Fuck. No, from its nose. And the man in the red and gold armor steps off of a saddle and climbs down a small ladder, well, like a rope ladder that would come down from the saddle, and clumps its boots down onto the dirt and approaches you, Ornella.
I reach out and touch the dragon face. Yeah, sorry, go ahead. And I say to it, something really calming in Draconic. Such as?
Hush there. Big fella. No, I say something like the, what, is this a city state, a nation? Yeah, I guess a nation would be more happy.
The nation. Alalalalalalalalalalalalalal. Res expects you as a species. A extremely low and deep throaty laugh amidst from the dragon.
And you can see its snarls, its cheek at you, and says back to you, intro conna, Dr. Funny little one. And the man in the armor approaches you and says, you speak their language then. I do.
My master is sent for whoever was here. You were two. One of you was to come with me. Who's your master?
You know. But for the sake of argument, maybe I have come with you. What does he want with us? And does he want us dead or alive?
He wants to clean up and tie any loose ends. Make sure that everyone understands what he's doing here. All right. I'll go.
Whoa, hold on. I mean. OK. And he walks over to the saddle and extends his hand to you.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He draws his sword at you, Harbec. Yeah, mix up, mix up at the store. You want the other one.
The hell's crime is over here. It's me. And then I curate. He never stopped volunteering.
I know it's Vernon. She curated very cutely. And everyone's like, that's adorable. Why have she come out of hiding?
He looks around and says, who are you? They were protecting me. And I'm letting you know. Christ, just take the hell's crime.
There's a hell's crime here. Yeah. She's super cool. While all this confusion is happening, can I walk around to the other side of the dragon and see what's going on over there?
Perhaps there's a satchle. Maybe the other eye has a different view. Maybe. I want to see what's on the other side of the drive.
What's up there? Yeah, there's a rope ladder on either side. And at the top near where the saddle sits in the middle of the dragon's back, in between its large wings, are saddle bags. But they're more like, yeah, I did air quotes there because they're much larger.
There's a lot of equipment. You can see that there's. Foot rest. Yeah, foot rest.
There's an Ottoman. A mini fridge. A mini fridge. But the e-mail.
A luggage is stored. Yeah, I think we get to take it. Yeah, B-Bag chain. And that's what you see.
The dragon takes its head and turns to keep its eye on you. And it says, awfully brave of someone such as yourself. I don't say anything back. The knight looks at the rest of you.
One of you is coming back to Mr. Toyde. I don't care who. But one of you is coming with me.
And you can either come with me up there, pointing to the second saddle towards the back of the dragon. Sidecar. Or my friend here will carry you there. I can assure you, it's not comfortable.
We're going to just wing set her back. And just say, hey, remember, I'm actually good at this kind of thing to find myself. But would you know of me? You say you can veil that in a look.
You just give that look. Well, I'm not disappointed. It's like, you know me. That is what she's doing.
She's just going to be like, hey, I remember like, despite what this podcast is showing, I'm actually quite good at being a liar. And letting people know who I am. I don't know. I don't know.
I want to climb up the rope ladder. She wants to try and convert. I want to convince people she's who they want. OK.
That was a poop roll. Talked out. What are you rolling in? I don't know.
I'm going to try to get on the rope ladder. Oh, you can just climb up. OK, let's all go. I'm climbing up the rope ladder.
Is there enough room on that thing? Why are we? I mean, seriously, why don't we all go? We're going to sort of a Charleston to confuse the dragon and the night on top.
The night takes a night. The helmet is hands. And he's like, oh. Good.
I'm slowly disarming him. Look at me. Don't look at anything else. So you can or no, you can just climb up.
Yep, I'm climbing up. I'm on up there now. Fine. Fuck it.
He says something in Draconic to the dragon. You hear him say, grab them. And he climbs up the side of the saddle to sit on the main saddle with the reins that lead to the dragon. In Draconic, I say, wait.
Stop. I have a reward for you for disobeying direct orders. The night turns his head and looks at you. Fuck, he also speaks Draconic, whatever.
It just looks at me. Verda yells, hey, look at me. And she doesn't fancy me work that is very similar to the Charleston. He's not distracted by your Charleston dancing.
But what if it was a different dance? Tell me, would I have had a chance? Not a Snowball's chance in hell. He looks at you or no one says a reward for disobeying Sir Toid.
In Draconic, I tell him that me, the halfling and the big guy are part of the guild. We were hired by this guy. But he means nothing to us. And so we want no harm.
But you can take the hell's crime. I know. I know. He looks the dragon and the man exchange a glance.
And the hell's the night. Nods his head. And the dragon reaches back and picks you up off the saddle, gingerly, and sets you back down. And turns to look at you, Raban.
I haven't come out of hiding. Oh, I'm sorry. That's my mistake. I pointed in the general direction of where he is hiding.
Thanks. Don't worry. We're all cowards and will. I'm not.
Let's keep going. So the dragon or the knight says something back to the dragon in Draconic. You understand him to say that this girl speaks our language. Let us confer.
All right. So I'm hiding. But I'm confused about what's going on. But we seem to be having some activities happening.
So I cast Speak with Animals so I can understand the dragon. OK. OK. So now I know what the dragon's saying as well.
OK. Good to you. But I don't know. Yeah.
The knight says to the dragon, find the hell scribe then. And he dismounts the dragon. And the dragon begins with its enormous claws like plod through the town. It's head like looking through the windows.
You can hear people screaming inside the house. Oh, well, this is great. So when the dragon is kind of far enough away from the knight, I make eye contact with Vernon or Nella. And then I yell out, plan L.
And we all spring into action. Vernon just grabs her short bow. She's ready to fucking block it. You also have that right.
I also do have a road. Yeah. Thank you. And there are you right now.
And that's why I say short bow. I have no idea within the situation. So this is fine. I think what we're going to do is we're not going to end part three.
But we're just going to take a quick short break and get everyone in the cast figured out where they are. And then we'll come back and we'll conclude episode three of Des Moines and Dragons. Please enjoy this message from our sponsors. Yeah, lids.
They keep stuff from spilling. Lids, you kind of need to help. I'm done. And we're back.
OK. So we have the situation as it stands. The dragon is hunting for the hell scribe village. The rest of the party is gathered within a single turns movement of the night.
We'll give it over to the party to decide what you want to do, what happens. Breanna has her boat drawn. She's like fuck everyone. I'm mad.
Children were put in danger. My friends might be in danger. But then she kind of looks at Ornella. And she looks at Harback.
And there's just a random cat that gives her a real wise look. But says don't shoot yet. So she puts her bow back. OK.
Despite herself, she's pissed at that. She does not want to put her bow back, but she does. So let me see. I think these dragons have detect.
OK. I'm going to cast the dragons going to cast it detect. OK. So, Rabanne, where are you watching from?
I kind of took it that Harback and I were sort of near. Well, Anne Vernon were sort of near. Yeah. Vernon was in a different spot.
But we were kind of near the opening of the town. So that we would kind of be coming in Pinser. Yeah, Pinser move. Yeah.
So you see the dragon snap its head, and it looks like right to where you are hidden. And begins like walking towards you. OK. I will use a cantric of message point at the dragon and whisper to the dragon, and only I can hear me.
And I'd like to if possible, roll a persuasion check to ask the dragon to take me away from here. OK. So yeah, you totally can do that. Let's see what the stats on this bad boy are.
10. Can he respond? He can respond, and I can only hear it as well. OK.
So he responds through the message thing, and says, you will be taken from here. So again, or Nella can't hear that. Correct. That's all through their telepathic link.
And he climbs up to the side. And now he's in front of you. And he's looking right at you. And he lowers his shoulder down to where the saddle on his back, the rope hangs down.
Or the rope ladder, climb up on top. OK. I run to where this is happening. You see, Robon climb up the side onto the back of the saddle.
There's two saddles. There's one that's more towards the upper middle back where the reins are. And there's one down where the wings ends more towards his lower middle back, I guess. And yeah, you see Robon climb on top of the back of the creature getting into the saddle.
What are you doing? I'm rolling out. I'm getting out here. Where do you think this dragon is going to take you?
Close your to toid. So that's it? I paid you. The knight walks over behind you, or Nella, and looks at you and says, I think it would be smart if you and your friends forgot what you saw here today.
And he speaks to the dragon in Draconic and says, to me, the dragon begins to turn around. And lower its shoulders again to expose the ladder so that the knight can climb up. The knight climbs up the ladder and turns to you, Robon, to make sure that you're seated. The creature's enormous wings unfurl, and a couple large flaps shooting dust and debris.
The creature takes flight, jumps, and you see the black shape of the dragon get smaller and smaller and the knight's skies. It flies off. Oh, lovely. Brr, brr, brr, brr, brr.
What a little bitch. I'll miss you, Ornie, and Harbeck, and Verna. Damn it, that was actually weirdly sweet. So here's what I think we can do.
So I think this scene is a good spot to end, but I want to, there's like an epilogue that I want to do. Yeah. If you ever run into Robon again, you did not resolve the fact that you do not like in calling your audience. Right, right.
So is there anything in specific that you guys wanted to do with the town before you left? Party? No. OK.
I'd like to think Verna double checks, at least the eyes, to make sure no one is under that same spell. Yeah, I think you catch sight of people like drawing the curtains in just a look of fear. Can I suggest anything as an outsider, even though my character's down? No, you may not.
OK. Yeah, you can. I have no harm. Harbeck has knowledge that there is a one house that's filled with weapons.
So that's kind of a thing you could consider upgrading your weapons and stuff. I remember that. No one else knows that. The first houses that you went into was full of farming equipment.
Well, there was one that had like. Oh, it was all hunting stuff. A bunch of good stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hunting implements. There's some bows and one. And I mean, Verna and Verna don't know that, but just my thought. So the three adventurers gather in the center of town and dust ourselves off.
And well, it flew away. Verna. What's that? He's gone.
We're done here. Yeah, I suppose we are. There's a house over there with some things we could take. Like what?
I don't know, stuff, villager stuff. Like gold? I mean, OK, well, so then just like. Let's go check it out.
Ruby bows or sword maybe. Like, fancy blades. Oh, OK. We go over.
We follow Harbeck to the house. Yeah, so there's hunting implements. There's a couple long bows. There are some short swords.
Not anything super fantastic, but there, I mean, if you wanted to swap out some weapons, you could roll to see if there are weapons that you're interested in taking. I think I'd like to trade out my javelins. OK. So how do I go about that?
So I mean, you don't have to even, well, they're too heavy to carry javelins and something else. So there are some short bows. So you're looking for like a ranged weapon? Is that what you're looking for to swap the javelins out for?
Yeah. I was looking for something smaller. OK, yeah, there's some short swords too. I think I'd take a short sword.
Nice. We're not looking for like financially good things. She's looking for gold. She's looking for things that could be traded later.
Good rocks. There is a. First of all, fuck you. I think you can just assume rocks are going to be good at any place.
They have to be meaningful. Oh. And you know what? There's a venture.
Wasn't that meaningful? I thought burning down a church in your relationship with Govro and meeting a dragon would be. No, let's go. But it wasn't like a huge thing for her life.
This was an adventure. She knows she will have many of them. OK. So she genuinely wants to steal shit.
You find a pack of firsts that have been dried and bundled. So stuff that like trading the two. She's showing it in the pack she has. So add your character sheet bundle of animal skin.
Well, I suppose this is it. I think I'm sorry. I mean, I'm in a wrap. Unless anyone has anything else, we can montage back to the city.
And there's an epilogue that I really, really want to get tits. So it's everybody now tits big ass double mouth. Double mouth. Nice.
So several weeks go by before. Well, excuse me. A car, what's to do is four. Maybe a week and a half.
Takes about a week and a half for the party to return back to Alal. Upon approaching the city gates, a guard sticks his hands up and says, whoa there, you, lady, looking at Ornelo. Yes. What's the meaning of this?
Are you the youngest noble lady of House Ambridge? I am. Master Sambridge has requested your presence upon your return. We are to escort yourself and those with you to the family estate immediately.