You're listening to the Sands Pants Network. Though you see no water for miles around you, you are, like me, nonetheless marooned. We are castaways in this terrible bad dream somebody decided to name Barovia. To switch up the metaphor, we are imprisoned, and the fog is the bars of our cell, and our jailer is Baron Von Strahd. As far as I can tell, there's no way to escape, other than possibly by dying. Maybe by being eaten by a wolf, let's say. Goddammit.
A werewolf wearing leather armor explodes out of the bush, starts charging it. Then another one, then another one, then another one. Okay. Gorob and Lushan wade into the center, as deep into the center as they can be of the fighting. Maybe, actually, they're going to take an attack of doing that. Yeah, this is... Gorob and Lushan get bit. Goddammit. Nine points of damage. Are you morons? Goddammit. And then they cast Thunderwave. Well, Lushan casts Thunderwave. Yeah, yeah.
Gorob and Lushen deal 38 points of damage. Fuck. That minces the one you were fighting, Hector. It kills one of the ones you were fighting, Pip. That's great. And then it wounds the rest of them. By mince, you mean dead? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. They get, like, pasted. When that happens, all of the werewolves put their hands over their ears and howl in pain. It creates a deafening noise. All of the trees around you shake where they're standing. That can be heard for a while. Yeah, true. There are 15 werewolves. Gorob and Lushen, you sons of bitches.
And then Gaurab swings with his greatsword. He starts foaming at the mouth as he swings. So Gaurab beheads the bound werewolf and then kills another one by driving his greatsword through it, lifting it up in the air, swirling it around and fucking throwing it. They're such a fucking double-edged sword, these guys. They made them come for us, but they've already killed like four of them. Down to three werewolves. Hector, it's your turn. Oh, the one I was fighting died?
Yeah, the one you're fighting is dead. It got pasted. Health back, that's nice. You ever played Doom, the original Doom? You know when you explode the enemy and there's just like a ribcage? That's what you're looking at, buddy. Oh, that's cool. I get some health, that's nice. I will look at... So what are the other three doing? Who are they fighting? One of them is fighting Kribbit because he was backing up. The other two were ones that just burst onto the scene. I will go for the one attacking Kribbit. All right. Thank you. I will attack twice. First attack hit, second attack miss. I will spend Kribbits. Ah, buttock inspiration. Try to hit. Yes.
That's a d6 on each of them. So, fuck. 28 points of damage. Nice. That werewolf takes 28 points of damage as you slam it in the side of the head. And when it turns to face you, you slam it in the side of the head again. The werewolf looks like it's seeing stars. And Elenial's turn. Elenial is probably going to focus fire with you. She thinks the situation's pretty under control. She's not going to waste an arrow on this. Yeah.
And she's just going to fire twice. I like that I don't know what kind of ranger Eleniel is. Oh, and two more of her cordon of arrows go off. That's 11 points of damage on top of what you just did. This werewolf's getting fucked right up. She fires twice. First attack hit, second attack hit. Oh, actually, no, wait. She... Does she even need to? She can sacrifice some attack for extra damage. She downs another werewolf. Hell yeah, two left. Eleniel gives you... Eleniel, after she like arrow, arrow, arrow, arrow, arrow, fills that fucking werewolf like a pin cushion. Eleniel looks at you, Hector, and gives you an appreciative nod. It's the werewolf's turn. It's like, okay, that is all five and two more.
Yeah, two more. Four werewolves total now. Oh, two more, two more. Two more, two more. Two more werewolves burst out onto the scene. I guess I'll just kill them all. I guess I'll just kill every fucking werewolf in Borofia then. And they're going to go for eeny, meeny, miny Hector. Hector, two werewolves are coming after you. They've recognized that you're a fucking menace. Shit. And what's your armor class? It is. All right, it's pretty good. Miss, miss, hit, hit. You get bit once, clawed once. I will, as a reaction, I will cast shield. All right, you only get bit. That's not so bad. Okay, I was hoping I'd get not bit at all, but that's good. At last, the bit still happens. You lose three hit points.
And mark down that you've been bit twice now. All right. Then that was two werewolves. Another werewolf is going for Eleniel because they've recognized that she's a fucking menace as well. That's a bite on Eleniel. Fucking hell. Eleniel takes six points of damage. Death by a thousand cuts, these guys. And Eleniel marks down that she has one bite. And then the last one is going to go after Gorob Lushen. These werewolves haven't seen Gorob and Lushen fight. So they're just going for the weird guy. That's a lot of damage. Damn. Gorob and Lushen. Oh, but...
So Lushen, you can see his eyes are poking out of his head. He's a wizard. He's not used to the adrenaline rush of a barbarian's rage. You can see Lushen's kind of like, yeah. It's like doing speed or something like that. Maybe this is what they need to maybe, you know, stop being pieces of shit. So calm about it. You know the moment we split them up as well, they will never leave each other. There's no way. They'll become too used to one. Gorb and Lushen take 13 points of damage and I'll mark down that they've been bit twice now. Fighting's good. Pip, it's your turn. Okay, I would like to...
So there are four werewolves once again? Yeah. Can I get them all in my 34-cone, do I think? You can get the two attacking Hector if you're willing to hit Hector. Oh, wait, no. You attack everyone. No, you're fine. You can get the two attacking Hector. Okay, yeah, I'll do that. I forgot it's not like an area attack. You pick everyone. I pick the people in. Thunk, thunk. Looking at Hector. Thunk, thunk. It's the rules here. I kind of feel like I have to do this, Hector. Yeah. That's a hit and a hit. This is Undead Bane, right? Yep. No, well, ShapeChanger Bane. ShapeChanger. Sorry, sorry, yes. Don't want to let you know anything about these werewolves. Uh-oh.
Uh-oh, yeah. And that is 16 damage on one of them. Fuck yeah. 11 damage on the other. I have two more cordon of arrows, I think. Oh, yeah. One each hits one of each of them. One takes six for a total of 22, and the other takes four for a total of 15. Hell yeah. All right. That was... Oh, anything else? No, I got no other. Hector, a hail of crossbow bolts, slams down around you, and there is a perfect... When all of them have landed around you, there is a perfect Hector-shaped hole slightly to the left of you. No, all around you, there's a perfect Hector-shaped hole. And it's Griffith's turn.
He is going to give another bardic inspiration to you, Hector. And if you have a bardic inspiration. Yeah, that's true. And then he is going to fire his light crossbow. He hits. And the one attacking him is dead. He's instead going to hit the one of the two attacking you, Hector. It takes 10 points of damage. That one is bloodied now. It's taking a few knocks from a few different people. And Gorob Lushen. Gorob charges.
Gorob charges the ones fighting you. Oh no, they're fighting one. Yeah, they're going to attack that one. It hits. That one takes 28 points of damage from Gorob. No, 36 points of damage from Gorob. Oh my god. Gorob starts tearing it apart with his great sword. And then Lushen is going to cast... He casts Scorching Ray at second level.
Oh, no. Hit. Miss. Alright, so that werewolf takes a further... Only three points of damage. Gorob laughs at him. Lushan, you puny, puny, foolish wizard! Barbarians are best! And then there's an explosion. Wait for a low number. Oh, goddammit. One of Lushan's spells blows up in his face. Fuck. Oh, that's a really low number. That could be good. Sometimes it's good when magic goes bad. Yeah, it's certainly funny. Make a DC 12 wisdom saving throw or become frightened.
Lushet starts shaking his head. No! No! No! No! He starts dragging Gorob away from the fight. Fuck. That's these fucking guys. Yeah, I guess. Gorob is immune to this.
They're only sewn together at the waist. Does the magic transfer through? Well, see what I'm thinking is, it's the rage that makes him immune to this. So, because Lushen is experiencing the rage. Yeah, true. I'm going to give them advantage on this saving throw. Oh, no. Despite the rage, despite the adrenaline going straight to Lushen's brain. Maybe it's full on, like the meter is like full on.
You know how fight and flight are two sides of the same coin? Maybe previously, just a moment ago, the meter was like full on fight and then as far into flight as it can fucking be. All right. And that was Gaurav Lushen's turn. Hector. Back to the beginning. The bloodied one, I will try and I will hit it twice. That's a miss. And a miss. I will spend that inspiration to try and make it a hit. Hit. All right. 20 plus 27 points of damage. You down that werewolf. Goddamn. Three more? Three more. That's fine.
Fucking hell. It's like looking around, doing some mental math. It's Elaine, you'll stand. 15 werewolves in total. The other werewolf that's standing in front of you, the one that hasn't taken many knocks, she's going to fire three times. She's taking an extra attack to take a penalty to her hits. Funk, funk, funk, funk, funk, funk, funk, another one goes down. Fucking hell. Okay. Two left. Two left here. It's the werewolf's turn. Two left and...
You've been keeping track? Two more werewolves appear. Six in the wild. Four in the wild. There's four in the wild now. Does he get a good boy card for counting so well? Only if I can get a bad boy card. Okay. Get a good boy card. It's always worth it. Plot armor. Players roll damage twice and takes lower result. All right. That's for your next attack, Jack. Thanks, man. I can remove one condition affecting me. Oh, that's good. That's good. Worth it. Yeah. Perhaps if it's like, oh, a good friend of mine is exhausted. Yeah, yeah. Oh, hey. True. And then the two werewolves. Who was the most effective last turn?
Well, Eleniel. They converge on Eleniel. Miss, miss. Only one hit, but it is a bite. I don't know. Just coincidentally, six points of damage. Just coincidentally, it seems to be they roll best on their bite attacks. They love the bite attacks. They're chompy boys. Chompy lads. Eleniel screams as another werewolf tears into her thigh. And then it is Pip, your turn. Okay, can I get... Really, the entire party has to roll twice. Okay, except me. I'm good, right? I've only been bit once. Yeah. You are good. I'm good. I'm going to be okay. You're fine. How many can I get in a breath attack?
All right, this one you do have to hit Elenio. I don't know if I can do that. I'll just fire two arrows into the same one. I think you're out of Shapechanger Bane, aren't you? Yes, but I remember I have a bunch of silver bolts. I have one Shapechanger Bane arrow left, and then I have a bunch of silver bolts. So one will be Shapechanger Bane, one will be silver. And I'd like to hit the same one twice. I'm going to just start concentrating fire. Ah, silver bolts. They're rusty. I'm sorry. Shit, shit bolts. The werewolf howls as around where you struck it. You can see its flesh begins to decay and rot. And then pray for a low number.
I went real bad. Damn it. I got these silver bolts from Esme. She gave me prank bolts. Target practice. Next enemy does double damage. Ah, shit. Damn it. Gives his last bardic inspiration to... I'm going to say, Pip, do you have bardic inspiration? I do, I do. I keep forgetting to use it. Heck, did you have it? Not yet. I've used it twice. Get another one. Used it a third time. And then he's going to... Man. No spells? He's got one fourth level spell. I'm just so scared of using it. Yeah, no, you don't want to use it right now. Save it, save it, save it. Just use your crossbow. You kind of want to be like, that's when shit real hits. He fires and hits. Nice. Dealing nine points of damage to...
One of the ones fighting Eleniel. The defeat fight. It's just too many. There's so many. There's a lot. And that was Kribit's turn. It's Gorob and Lushen's turn. Can Gorob, can the mighty Gorob overwhelm Lushen and force them closer? Surely. Yes. Okay, that's good. He's tough. Gorob rolled half what Lushen did, but makes up for it in just athletics. Gorob drags Lushen back into the fight. Lushen is not going to attack, but Gorob does with his great sword. Oh, yeah.
That's a hit and a critical hit. Pray for a high number. High number, high number. Oh, that's good. We did it. We did it. Who did you pray to? Remember. Remember for next time. Okay, okay, okay. Heroic end. Maximum quadruple damage. Oh, my God. If this attack kills the enemy, all allies who can see you have advantage on their attacks for a D10 round. Fucking hell. All right, Gaurab and Lushen. Maybe it was good for him. Yeah, maybe they weren't having round. Jesus Christ. First attack deals 17 points of damage. Second attack would deal...
20 points of damage for a total of 37, which doesn't actually kill that werewolf, but badly injures it. That's one of the ones fighting Elenial. That one is bloodied. And then Gaurav, coated in the blood of so many werewolves, looks at everyone and goes, yeah! And all of you, you're all like, fuck, they got this! They have been doing incredibly well. For the next eight rounds, everyone here gets advantage. That's so funny. Fucking hell. Oh, sorry. Maximum quadruple damage. Sorry. Yeah. That sick attack did.
80 points a ton. I'm sorry, that werewolf is dead? Yeah, dead. And then some. Okay. Yeah, after that, like... Well, yeah, he did one fucking hit. All right. This is like the first time in such a long time you're like, I think we're going to be okay. Hector, it's your turn. There's three werewolves left. Well, um... Elenio looks at you like, holy shit, we're fine. As he like slices it down the middle, a bit of blood splatters on each of our faces. Gorob, yeah, maybe standing the closest to you, Hector, just puts his hand on that blood in your face and smears it down to give you a bit of like a...
Yeah, a bit of war pain. You briefly, just briefly in the back of your mind, you're like, is this how disease passes? No, no, no. Don't think about that. Some are wounded, yeah? No, I don't think any of the standing werewolves are currently wounded. Then I will swing about a swing at one of the closest. First attack, critical hit. Second attack, regular hit. And I will add that, maybe I'll save this part of inspiration when I miss. Yeah. I don't know, dude, you got it managed for so long. Bonk on the noggin. DC 14, constitution saving throw, and a failed save, perfectly loose, one point of intelligence.
This guy shouldn't change back. That's such a funny... All right, that's 32 points of damage. Nice. Just a reverberating bonk. Was there anything else? No. Just a bit of brain leaking over. It's Elenial's turn. She takes a step back, looks at that werewolf, and starts firing. She is going to use that ability again. That's a hit. That's a hit. I'm going to roll these two because there's a decent chance she's going to kill them. Gariband Lushen killing that wolf, man. Can you tell the difference between Gariband Lushen?
Which one's the wizard? Which one's the barbarian? Goron is the barbarian? That's what I think too, but I don't know if that's true. Goron's the barbarian. Okay, we were right. Lushin's the wizard. Okay, good. Just remember, handy little hint. Little mnemonic. Lushin, wizard supreme. Goron, first barbarian. Okay. Elenial kills another werewolf. First arrow hits it in the chest. Second arrow hits it dead on in its face and the werewolf's brain fucking explodes. Then she uses her final attack on another werewolf and deals 21 points of damage. Fuck yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, 32 points of damage. Nice. And that one's bloodied.
Then it is the werewolves' turn. Okay. All right. Hey, they're all here. Oh, the gang's all here. Gang's all here, baby. Okay. All right. And then there needs to be... Ah, here they are. Yeah, there they come. Here they come. Out of the wolves. They're all going to bring Gorob Lushen down. Or they're going to try. Uh-oh. Oh, I forgot as well. They get advantage. Gorob and Lushen are the heart and soul of this party. Kribbit's been demoted. Kribbit is now the annoying one. Two bites, one claw. Oh, fuck. Shit. Fuck, dude. We're all going to be wolfmen at the end of this. We're going to be a party of werewolves. 17 points of damage to Gorob Lushen. And that's two bites.
Okay. Cool. Good stuff. Good stuff. They've been bitten four times. Two each. Jesus. Woo! They're so little and werewolves are so big. They're just mostly bite. Primarily bite at this point. If I attack with a precise shot that gives me advantage, what do I get? Do I get triple advantage? If you wanted to, I'd allow it. All right. I'll fire two arrows into the werewolves and I'll make one of them a precise shot. First one, shall we say? Yeah.
Hit. Hell yeah. Somehow. Hit. And you only get the two. All right. Is there... That one is the one Elaine you'll hit. I assume you want to hit the one Elaine you'll hit? Yeah, yeah. These are also two silver bolts. That's another one down. Nice. Very good. You hit it twice in the shoulder, rolling its shoulder back. You hear its collarbone snap, and then it falls to the ground. You shove your crossbow into its mouth, pull the trigger one more time. All right. Then it is Kribbit's turn. He's out of body inspiration, so he's just going to plug away with his little light crossbow. That's a hit. He consistently does pretty well on this. Yeah, his crossbow is really good. It's magical. It's magical, yeah.
He does 14 points of damage to one of the werewolves. Nice. And it's Gorob Lushen's turn. All right. They're going to save this party and become werewolves. That's going to be fine, though, because we are a party of. Yeah, we'll be a party of werewolves. That's fine. The fear effect ends on Lushen. Gorob does get his attack. That's a hit. That's a hit. That's a critical hit as well. Fucking hell, they're going nuts. Yeah, keep inspiring us. Yeah. Pray for a high number. High, high, high, high, high, high, high, high, high. The highest? Yes. Oh, my God. Gorob and Lushen have a bunch of pent-up fucking combat in them.
Disarmed. Make a DC 18 dexterity saving throw on a successful save. Drop what you're holding and lose that hand. Well, that's actually not any extra damage. I don't think there's werewolves lasting much longer. What's the werewolf holding? Yeah. It's self-together. Emotionally. Just barely. 25 points of damage. That werewolf yips in pain as its left hand falls to the floor. And then Gaurab, just screaming covered in blood, looks at Lushan, who...
I also start screaming. I hope his spellcasting is now just screaming. He's going to cast Burning Hands, which bathes four of those werewolves in flames. We don't even need to be here. We can just go. All of them fail. We can just get out of here. They got it. We're going to the winery. Good luck. You got this. 15 points of damage for all of them. One of the werewolves is bloodied. The other three are just singed. And then it is back to the top. Hector. I will go for the bloodied one, and I will swing twice.
Hit. Hit. Oh, that's right. You get advantage. Sorry. Hit. Hit. Do you keep going in your head for a critical? Yeah. I'm like, the odds have got to be my favorite for criticals. 30 points of damage. That one goes down. Yeah. But still. They're fun. They're fun. Yeah.
And that was Hector. It's Elenial's turn. Elenial fires. That's another one dead. And then the last one takes 21 points of damage. I mean, this fight was scary, but it's been sort of okay so far, really. Yeah, yeah. Well, for the moment, until these Ws on our character sheets. Well, Gorob Lushen are coming into this fresh. Yeah, that's a great point. If you'll recall. Gorob Lushen have... I mean, like, to be honest, Gorob has only lost one of his rages. Yeah. They're, like, nearly half health. Gorob has only lost one of his rages. Lushen hasn't lost much. He's lost...
And those rages, you get back on a short... Gotta be short. Gotta be short, baby. Barbarians love to have a little nap. A little nap, they get angry again. Doesn't take a day. It's a long rest. So that's a rage that you're not going to get for another week. Lushen hasn't spent too much of his spells, but he has spent coming on half.
Cool stuff. Oh, I forgot I did that. Damn, I'm clever. Lushen can cast Booming Blade to make Lushen's attack so much more powerful. I should be doing that all the time. That's crazy, because Lushen's already been so strong. I forgot. Lushen's got a lot of good stuff for Gorob. And Gorob could not help. There's no barbarian ability that could help Lushen. Anyway. If only, that was the arc of their character. But unfortunately, the arc of their character is to be separated. And then go there different ways. I never see each other. All right. That was Gorob and Lushen's turn.
No, Millennial's turn. It's the Werewolf's turn. Eyes always. Eyes. The werewolves turn and flee. Fair enough. All right. Okay. Well, we'll fire them after them, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to chase after them? No, no, no. Is it? Well, while they're running, we'll do some... We've got two archers. Twang, twang. Try and hit them from a distance. And some spells. Yeah. Just to get them on the way out. No. I don't think... Bellenial? No. None of you can hunt them down. They're too fast. That's a shame. You'd fire some shots after them, but they get away. It's kind of more... The three of them left behind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good job. All right. Who are you going to check first? Right. I see. All of us have been looking around, seeing a... 12?
Human corpses? Yeah, yeah. I will be searching those. One human and. Okay, so I don't know exactly what Esmeralda did to cure us the first time, but maybe we're okay. Wolfsbane or something? I'd like to search everyone with the wolfsbane touching it to their body to check. Hector, you're fine. Elenial... Not Elenial's cursed. She's got lycanthropy running in her veins. You can see that. Pip, you are fine. Kribbit is fine. And hang on, let me get more D20s for Gorob and Lush.
Gaurab and Lushen are, fuck, are fine. What? Yeah, I know. That's crazy. Well, see, if you'll recall, Gaurab is a barbarian. Yeah, that's fair. He gets advantage on this saving throw, and he gets a plus seven. Okay. All right, let me see what I can do. What do you need? Well, yeah, maybe while I have a look through this, you can search the wolfman for guts. Did you, uh... Esmeralda was not terribly forthcoming with... I know she had a book. Yeah, she has an Emmanuel as well. I've read through it. Was there anything? I mean, it was a long time ago. Okay.
You remember that in her book, which has some... No, Emmanuel the Monster is the same. No, of course not. A copy of the same book is different. No, Emmanuel the Monster is the same. But you, reading through hers, you saw that there was a section on how wolfsbane can be used as... If you get the dosage right, it can be used to eliminate lycanthropy within someone's blood. If you're very quick. First off, you've got to be quick. Second off, it's worth remembering that the wrong amount of wolfsbane is just poisonous.
okay uh here's the deal maybe there's like something in like a man you vaguely remember if in thine werewolf lycanthropy thus is thine in their blood thy may be able to synthesize from thine wolf's bane a sort of molecular bane potion that will seek out thine changing cells to unchange and destruct upon them but must one must be thine careful for if thine is overzealous with application of wolf's bane or similar then I will discover that instead of targeting only thine changing cells, it will also target thine normal cells, thus causing the user to lose blood. In brackets, all of it. Emanuel to Monster, Simolecular Theory Edition. Emanuel to Monster, The Smallest Things Possible Edition. So if you get the message wrong... Yeah, if I get the message incorrect, it's just a poison. It's not clear. Elenial is staring.
Pretty hard at you right now. Recently, we received, you'll recall, from the diarist wolves, some quaggoth vein. That provides an immunity to poison. Plus, I have this formian eye which deforms magic. So, theoretically, I could concoct something that, if I get the dosage incorrect, will at least, perhaps, mitigate some of the effects. However, I say, like, putting a finger up to Elenil, this is not my forte. It is Esmeralda's, and we do intend to reunite with her at some point. How far are we from... Elenil looks at you very seriously and then puts a hand on her belly and says,
Or the protection lost for just me. Do I know? A potion is drinkable by only one person. Okay. I use my potion, my Google Card Supersize Me, to make it twice as potent. Confer the full benefit twice. Alright, so if you spend that, and you don't fuck up the roll, you will be able to create a potion that will hopefully keep her from being poisoned, and then allow you to put in as much Wolfsbane as you want. Just ram it in there. You pack it full of Wolfsbane, you put the Formian Eye and the Kwakoth on top. Can I use my Barotic Inspiration? I think I also have some Barotic Inspiration. Barotic Inspiration?
I'd like to squat down and make the most important potion of my life. Did I do that with the Borotic inspiration, Adam? Yeah. Can I have my Borotic inspiration? Would you like that, your Borotic inspiration? I would love to. Yeah, because this isn't an instant fail, because I don't do this for skill checks, but it is snake eyes. All right. With both of your Borotic inspiration, you are able to concoct a potion that won't. You don't spoil the potion. You thank God. You put everything you can, your most. You put all of your skill, all of the best ingredients you have at hand, and you just...
Make it right. Take it off before it gets too hot. Maybe a little beaker as well, part of it. That should do it. Elenial drinks it and then there's a long...
Pregnant pause. But at the end of it, if you check her again, the curse has left her, and her and child are fine. Thank you, guys. All right. All right. Well, that was... I need to find out the specifics from Esmeralda for the next time. Is that a werewolf pack? What is this? I mean, there are many werewolves in Barovia, although I thought we got rid of most of them in this part of the Svelich Woods. But are they... I was asking if we inspect some of the bodies while I'm assuming Pip starts butchering. Yeah, yeah. Can I see if they have any of those medallions or anything like that? Maybe see if they're connected to the previous pack we encountered? First things first, you get... I'm going to say...
You just unfortunately can't harvest all of them, but you do harvest all of their diarist wolf hearts. Hell yeah. You get, I don't know how many that, how many did you kill again? 12. You get 12 diarist wolf hearts. So many hearts. I got 16 diarist wolf hearts. Actually, you know what? Make it 11. Okay. One of them is a frankenheart. Okay. Yeah, it's just a quirk of nature. Cool. But in addition to that, you get eddercap lung, which one of them had presumably just ate. Nice. Actually, no, sorry. You get three doses of eddercap lung. Cool. You find some poltergeist screams. Cool.
Did you say screams? Five poltergeist screams? It's called poltergeist screams. It's actually kind of like a plant, but it does scream. At night, the flower opens up and issues a screaming noise, which can be mistaken for a banshee if you're uneducated. That's when the flower was planted, right? No, just... Oh, so these ones can scream? It's a quieter scream. More like a...
Vampire teeth, one dose. Whoa, that's a cool one. That's basically specifically, vampire teeth, you would know, specifically used for staking vampires. That's awesome. They ate a vampire. That's fine. It's just called vampire teeth. You find nine doses of, oh no, sorry, only four doses of raven feather. Oh yeah? And then a emerald. Uh-huh. And three garnets. Fuck yeah.
Anything else of use? Anything for the non-monster hunters in the party? Anything for maybe the true hero of today's adventure? Yeah, Pip's getting all of the rewards. You go through the pockets of their many pants and you find... Oh, that means the other three are going to like to have banned their pants. True. 120 gold. Not too bad.
Then, as I would say, as afternoon is wearing on, not anytime close to night, but just as afternoon is wearing on, you encounter just a small, like a, you know how, you know how if you don't wear pants? Oh, sorry. If you don't wear pants, people stare at you. You know how if your pants don't have pockets or a precursor to pockets was like a little pouch that people would carry? You see one of those just lying in the middle of the road and slightly off to the side of the road. You can see that there is a wagon that has lost one of its wheels.
It appears. You can't see into the wagon. The wagon's kind of facing you. There's no animals here. There's just the wagon that appears to be empty and then the pouch in the middle of the road. Is the pouch placed in a way that it looks like a trap? I mean, describe what that looks like. A pouch, you just place it down as opposed to it falling down and scattered it. It doesn't look like it's scattered, but it's lying down on its side. It could have been placed. It could have been dropped. On its side, I'd be like, that's more of a chance of it not being a trap. I'll approach and I don't want to look in the wagon. I just want to look for tracks and stuff around it.
As you, just as you get closer, you don't have to look into the wagon. Never mind. You don't roll high enough. All right. You're looking for tracks? Yeah.
You see that there are, I mean, this is a very frequented road, so there are kind of always tracks going through here. But right now, you can see, looking at the road, what probably isn't just people traveling back and forth, you can see that some people kind of like ran about here. You don't see any signs necessarily of a struggle. You just see like a lot of people, when I say a lot of people, I mean like 10 people, in one place just kicking up dirt, running about. Possibly a scuffle, I say. It looks like it's about 10 people were here at some point. Maybe they were dancing.
I look around. Illenial sloops off the road and into the forests. You immediately lose sight of her. I'm going to pick up the satchel as well. There's something in it. I'll look into the cart then. I tip it out into my hand. In the little pouch is a spinning top carved with four faces. One of them is quite clearly a happy face. One of them is a sad face with tears running down its cheeks. Another face is, you would imagine, maybe wrathful. It looks like it's screaming at you. And then the final face is a, well, no, I wouldn't need to roll. This is a common sight in Barovia. The face of a dead person. Oh.
You look in the cart, and you can see, lying in it, with just their legs dangling off the edge, are two people, a man and a woman. They're cold to the touch. I look to see if they are... What might have killed them? You... Oh, today... This is a divine sense. Undead, maybe. How many of them do I have left? I'm going to say, not many, but last one, I cast it. You, at senses, undead, celestials, devils, and demons.
You detect none of those. That's not going to jump at me. That's nice. That's good. Yep, then go in and inspect them. Having a look, you can see telltale bruising around their wrists and throat and maybe their legs as well. You can see that they were bound and then unbound post-mortem. If you open both of their mouths, you can see inside is a single flower growing. Oh no.
Flower growing or flower placed in there? It's alive. These people have been here for some time. This flower, you look, maybe if you grab or manipulate it, you can see it's planted in their throat. Like, taken hold. So this isn't like, say, the rose in the previous... No, that was ritualistically planted. Well, I mean, this is probably also a ritualistic thing. Of course it is. But when you pull it out, you pull it out, the roots come out with blood and esophagus attached. It had sprouted and rooted in them. Is this like the needle? Is this like some of the plants that we fought on a bridge? Do they look like that?
Fuck, good roll. You see, yes, it bears a very rudimentary appearance to, like, if you'd shrunk one down teeny tiny size and then it had a flower. Right. Maybe I poked my head in. As I pulled it out, is it still alive? Would that kill it? Yeah, I think the flower would immediately wither and die. Pip, Pip. Yeah, what the hell? Hold up, like, the plant. Emmanuel the Monster does not say this, but I would say that you know this, Pip. So there is a great creature, sometimes called the Goliathus tree. It's got many different names, though.
But that is the most common name for it. That is where blights of different types come from. It creates a fruit, which when either the seeds are planted, it sprouts blights. Or if the fruit is eaten, the person dies and a blight grows from them. They were force-fed this fruit. Right, yeah, I would say this is the work of druids, possibly blights. You see, they don't just come from anywhere. They come from a Boliathus tree. It's kind of like a big, not a big evil tree, I suppose. And the fruits of this tree, once consumed, will make that happen. I open the other mouth of the other person and maybe read out the... Yeah, there's one in there as well. ...and make that dead as well. Is it just one? Is it? Is it?
I mean, the fact that this happened means there's possibly blights or druids around. But that's pretty much it, right? Like, they eat the fruit, they die. Yeah. Bada bing, bada boom. Yeah, but that's, I mean, they're not about to jump, well, I hope they're not, about to jump back alive at us. No, I wasn't. It's just murder. That's all we're looking at. What was in the patch? This. I put the little spinning top of my palm and spin it. You spin it? Yeah. It's like, what is that? When it lands, it lands on the happy face. Pip, you feel happy. Oh, can I immediately associate it with the spinning top? No.
I'm happy I found it, I guess. It brings you a little bit of joy to spin it. It's kind of fun. I might keep it, I'm thinking. Yeah. Happy, sad, angry, dead. One in four. Cool. That's a bit of a worry. That's a bit of a worry. It was just in the pouch. Yeah. I don't know. Perhaps dropped by one of these people before. I imagine that as the plant flowered within them, they probably crashed their wagon. No, they were, it looked like they were unbound. Oh, well, that's weird. Bound, false feather fruit. That doesn't sound unlike the droids. But then to crash the wagon? Oh, the wagon isn't crashed. Oh, it's just a wheel. Okay, yeah, okay. The wheel could have just fallen off. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Does that make me more suspicious of those? Well, actually, the druids could have made the wheel fall off as a ploy to get them to stop. I mean, it's wood. Druids, good with wood. That is a very sad thing. Maybe it's like if their eyes are open, kind of close their eyes. And is there anything on this wagon of use? Or has it been basically stripped there? Yeah, the people, maybe the druids, or just people before you have stripped this of anything worthwhile.
If we could burn the bodies, well, that's everything we need to do here, but we need to head off. Yeah, look, something will come for them. Gorob and Lushan, being uncharacteristically quiet, wander over, and Lushan puts a hand on the wagon, and from underneath his hand, flames begin to spring. Step back, let the wagon burn. As you walk away, the wagon is consumed by flames behind you.
you find somewhere safe-ish. I mean, nowhere in Brody is. And probably beyond the wagon as well. Oh, so you don't want to, in the beautiful wagon lights, set up your camp? The smell of burning corpses? That doesn't increase, that doesn't well within you an appetite for dinner? That's super appetizing. Not really. Strange. So with the, these were, I guess...
I was like planted. The blights were planted a long time ago. So we know that these are the hunting grounds of the druids. Are we close enough to where the druids are that it's like they're watching probably? Or is it the kind of thing where the druids are always watching? Yeah, pretty much. It's hard to find a place in Barovia aside from a city where the druids don't have dominion. They're more active in the west, which is where you are. But anywhere that you can find the slavage woods, you will find the druids. Yeah, well, I mean...
We are in the west, which is where the activity is higher, but the druids kind of have dominion over everything. It's not city, and Barovia is mostly forest. Whether this is a plant or just some fucked up thing they're doing, I don't know. Whether they put it here, I mean, because they knew we'd be coming by, I don't know. This is around where we encountered them last time, though, yeah? We're kind of close to the Moonfall crossing. You're in between the two crossings, yeah. So it's, yeah, pretty much. So, I mean, maybe this is just where they're doing their druid biz.
they're farming yeah yeah yeah maybe who knows millennial nods she almost like an animal is at the edges of your impromptu camp like sniffing the air basically she turns to the two of you and says i would assume anywhere within this area to be dangerous yeah it is an easy assumption to make especially with the druids This handiwork, it implies that they are, they have been active recently, and we should assume to be attacked within the night. Yeah, watches. I mean, we do a watch every night. Who wants the first watch? I'll take first watch. Okay, sure. I will join you, she says. Okay.
Can I get you to roll that big old d20? Yeah, baby. Yeah, baby. Oh, no, baby. What'd you get? Hot 19. 19? Oh, okay. This could be fine. Highs may be good. It's good in regular. But it's bad in encounter, bro. It's great. Oh, fuck. He's going Tony the Tiger mode. Far away from the two of you, back the direction that you came, the dying embers of the wagon are slowly, slowly going out. But there is still enough light cast from the embers that one could see quite clearly if one was standing here. One could see a single heavy thump.
Oh, my God. Down into the road. Boris looks behind him at the assembled... Oh, God. I'm so sick of fighting wolves. At the assembled maybe 80 or more diarist wolves. 80? Pardon? His full pack finally assembled. Escher has failed and Boris will find victory. Strahd will have the heads of Pip Mandarin and Hector the Dragonbane on a platter. And then, finally, Boris will receive the recognition he so deserved. The two of them will be just another...
Another on a many long list of adventurers that Boris has killed in the name of Strahd. 80? For these two, for all the others, it was just for the fun of it. But with these two, it's become personal. They have thwarted Boris again and again. That Pip Mandarin has lasted longer than a year is a mark against Boris's name. No adventurer lasts this long, and no adventurer will continue to last this long. Boris issues a long, low howl, and then the pack hunts.
Oh, my God. Florida, we've just run away. We've just fought a bunch of wolf men. Hector, you and Eleniel turn your heads eastward. You vaguely think that you heard something, like a noise. It echoes impossibly, making it hard to discern what it was. Is that a scream? It could have been a lot of things, Eleniel says. Oh, shit, Blights!
From the lights, jumping you a cadre of blights, and up the back, you see Hector. When you turn around to face the blights, you recognize that your darkvision is... Maybe you saw this last night as well, but your regular darkvision has become augmented, different. It looks like shadows disappear within a larger range than normal darkvision. Darkvision is also in black and white. You no longer see in black and white in darkness. You see in full color. It's just as if all of the shadows... Well...
You would describe them as the shadows die. Something about it feels like the death of shadow. Yeah, well, okay. Okay, okay. But anyway, you see quite clearly up the rear of this blight formation is a druid. Well, what you would assume to be a druid. He wears furs mixed with leaves and brush. He has in his outstretched arms a staff made of wood, and he has a maniacal grin on his face. You can see that he is bleeding from his mouth. You're not sure what the significance of that is. Anyway, let's go to initiative. Cool.
Feels berserkery, I reckon, bleeding from his mouth. Definitely doing something. Yeah. He's eating some bad berries or whatever. Hector, you're first. They're 120 feet away. Pip and, I guess, Kribbit and Goroblushin, they're not awake, are they? No. No. When you turn around and Eleniel calls out, they kind of realise they've been rused. They've been rumbled, if you will, and they start sprinting. So who's 120? You and Eleniel would have only just noticed them, because both of you have enhanced vision.
So 120 feet away, who am I seeing? What am I seeing? You see a mass of blights moving. Some of them stand upright and sprint. Some of them are on all fours and loping towards you. Some are large, some are small. They... Some are set.
It looks just like a mass of trees and bushes are making their way towards you. I just start lobbing Eldritch Blast. Oh, Eldritch Blast for the first time? Yeah. All right. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. You know how I said earlier that sometimes you're not in control when you use this power? When you channel Eldritch Blast, your arm jerks and you realize you're now holding a whip. You're not doing any of this.
reaches backwards or you reach your arm backwards and the whip arcs back behind you elenial glances at you like what is going on and then you throw the whip forwards as the whip is thrown forwards it becomes it started out as an ethereal thing but as it becomes more and more physical you realize it is it has a bone white pearlescent handle and then the the whip part where leather would be instead it is bone change to bone change to bone change to bone as you do it you hear a screaming sound which you realize is you Involuntarily screaming. Who do you target with the Eldritch Blast? I still have that. Oh, that's going to be good. Let's see. I will cast... Can I do it? I'll cast both beams at the Druid. At the Druid? Miss Smith.
Too bad. The druid reaches up with her hand, and as she does so, you see the earth explodes out before her, and she creates like a shield of rock in front of her that it strikes. I'll call out to wake up to the others, but a horse whispers. How fast can these things move? Pip's a heavy sleeper. They close half the distance towards you, and then pip.
Am I roused? You look up and you can see a line of bones on top of you. You track it one way and you see Hector wreathed in unholy looking black flames holding a whip made of bones. That's not good. Alright, I'll roll out of bed at least. Can I see the blights? No. I don't have dark fish. Yeah, you don't have dark fish. You just see darkness all around you. I don't think you'd have a campfire right now as well. No, no, no. Can I light a torch? You can light a torch, sure. I'll do that for my action.
The torch, unfortunately, does not shed light. Oh, no, wait. In dim light, you can... In the dim light, you can... Well, there's a lot of them. That's all you know. Oh, fuck. You just see a lot of shapes moving towards you. Oh, fuck. It's Eleniel's turn. She's going to start firing into the mass of blights. It's bad not knowing how many. That upsets me. That stresses me out.
Oh, nice. Critical hit. Pray for high number. That's pretty good. Good job. Yes. You can pray harder. Just letting you know. And I expect you to pray harder next time. I will. I'm sorry. I apologize. Follow up. Maximum damage and you may make another attack with advantage against the same target. Oh, good job. Nice. There are rules.
Holy shit. She does 75 points of damage. Oh, fucking hell. Literally, in the last two combats, somebody's gone fucking apeshit on the damage. Jesus Christ. The mask gets a little bit smaller, but it doesn't look like it got smaller enough. You know what I mean? Yeah. You're looking at it, you're like, I wish I got a bit more smaller, you know? Everywhere Elenial fires one of her arrows, it creates a hole in the mask that just begins slowly closing itself up. It's Kribbit's turn. Kribbit rolls out of bed, and that's his action. It's the druid's turn.
The druid plants both of her feet squarely on the floor. Hector, you're really the only one who can see this. And she stretches her arms out in front of her. When she does that, trees begin to explode out of the ground. Pip, you hear this and then you see it. A ring of trees closes you in in your camp. There is no escape. You would need to chop down some pretty thick, hefty pine trees to get out of this. It is do or die. Okay.