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Rotatoes! We are back again for part two of episode four of arc three. Very excited to share this episode with you all, but even more excitingly, I want to tell you that arc nine, episode one, plus the talkback for that episode is now live on our Patreon, which is patreon.com forward slash rotating heroes pod.com.
Or in the description below. So if you want to go ahead and get access to all of the ARCs currently out now in their full form, no part one, part two, and listen to Arc 8 and Arc 9, which are the brand new ARCs with me as your DM, then you can go ahead and check those out right now. If you missed our announcement before, Arc 9 features the one and only Vic Michaelis.
and of course, Rashawn Scott to carry on the Burrows End Reunion Tour that I'm currently on because I refuse to let it go because I loved it too much. I hope that you enjoy it. Take it away, PestSec! Last time on the Rotating Heroes pod, our rotators continued their adventure to save the forces of Fort Cutler from certain bug-laden doom.
They started the session by crossing the quote-unquote Cutler Bridge, leaping from post to post across the dangerous waters and avoiding monstrous crocodiles in a team-building exercise from hell. And that's where we are today. I would love to swim. Cool. So I'll say you guys are safely, now that you're not trying to make these jumps on post, make it all the way to the other muddy banks of the other side of the water. It looks pretty similar to where you guys are at. But yeah, make a perception check if
Is there a little patch of sun on the other side? Yes. Yeah, I'd love to get in the sun. 14. 14 for me as well. For the crocodile, what am I looking at for his perception? Is it intelligence? Perception is, I think, a wisdom. A passive perception. 10. It's not your passive perception. Okay.
What did you say it was, my what? It's based off of wisdom. I think you just don't add anything if you're a... A six. Cool. On a 14, I think you wouldn't notice anything else besides this. You guys are on the side of the shore. The
the banks are pretty muddy here and you are, you guys are, you know, kind of soaked, but other than that, you're doing okay. Like it could have been much worse. As you get to the shore, you see the displacer piece behind you and there's no way it's going to get across this water. It's like playing with the like cutoff end of the rope. It's almost cute. Except you know how fucking monstrous these things were. Um,
But in front of you, in the water, or on the muddy banks in front of you, while there's been a bunch of animals around here, you notice what looks to be a boot print.
Well, I want to go check out this blueprint and see if I maybe recognize it as one that might be from my father and brother's party. Yeah, make an investigation check. I mean, you would probably, it's safe to say you don't, this route is definitely the different route from where they went. You would just know that. Okay. Yeah, but maybe they've come through here through some way. I don't know. So I got a 14.
14, you're looking at this boot print, comparing it to your own shoe, and just you know that like there's not, it's not like modern day. So like everyone's boots are kind of the same. Sure, standard Cutler boots. These don't look like those. Okay. Do they look like mine? Everyone looks and takes off their shoes. Everyone compares shoes. Compared to these boot prints.
They don't look like the boots. You would probably have a similar boot. I don't know if it'd be like an elven boot. Yeah, yeah, totally. These don't quite look like yours either. Okay. And they don't look like a crocodile paw either. Sure, okay.
Yeah, Gribble's over at Crocodile. For free, I'll give you guys that. Thank you. For free? That's kind. That is kind. Really kind. Thank you. Well, I don't know who's... Someone's been here, but it can't be anyone from the party that we're searching for. I don't know who this could be. I feel like at this point, it's probably more advantageous for me to not be a crocodile. So I will... I just want to make sure... Yes, I will pop out.
Can I do a quick perception check? Can I smell the footprint? Yes, you can. Wow. Are you using like keen sense or something? I will for this perception check. So I do get advantage. Okay. Cause it's, if it's specifically smell. 21. Not yet. 21. Uh, Grib, you're smelling this boot print. I guess I would like to see like if the scent is close, like how far away the source is maybe. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. So on a 21, you would notice that this is like,
probably hours old and the smell does not feel, it feels like a strong smell. Like it smells like kind of strange to you. It doesn't smell like anyone, you know, um, but you would, I think you would be able to tell that it's, it's been a couple of hours since this person has been here or this thing.
That more subdued. Well, it's not fresh, but it's not old either. I think we should proceed with as much caution as possible. Grib, I just have to say, it's nice to have you back as Grib. For a moment, I thought you had died and become the crocodile and turned you into a crocodile and you were dead. So it's nice to see you again. I didn't hear much wailing from you if you were truly grieving. I wailed. There was a moment of wailing. He pokes him with his trunk to kind of make it, let it be known he's being playful.
It makes Rufus go, hee! I think you guys would notice that from this boot print and what you're looking at, this overgrown former trail, they're kind of going in the same direction a
So up to you guys how you proceed, but it's in generally the same direction. I feel like Grib is still kind of coming off this jail hangover, and he's gotten some good rest, but he's still kind of tired. And I think there's just been so much going on that he would like to kind of be able to tread some ground without being bothered. And especially with this new threat, would it be overkill for us to proceed forward?
Under the guise of Pass Without Trace? Not at all. So Pass Without Trace, for those who don't know, is... Do you mind reading it? A veil of shadows and silence radiates from you, masking you and your... Excuse me. Masking you and your companions from detection.
Cool. Grib just sort of like...
unfurls from a crocodile into his his moxon on form and you see this swirl of natural energy you know radiate from Grib and circle all of you as you walk past this boot print in the ground you leave no boot prints
Should we roll a stealth check or are we good for now? Yeah, I mean, well, tell me what you're doing. If you guys are just proceeding down this sort of trail. Yeah, I think we should continue down the trail we meant to cross, right? Yeah, it's like still midday, like everybody's feeling okay, right? Yeah. Cool. And I'll say, yeah, you don't really need a short rest, do you? Up to you guys. It would do so little for me because, yeah.
I am menstruating, but I'm feeling good. With that in consideration, we'll acknowledge it and make sure that there's space for that. Glad we're checking in. Good to know. I did want to throw this out there, Zach. As we're traversing through the forest, I would particularly like Grib to keep his eye out
Can I just give you a quick list of plants that he would like to keep an eye on? Water hemlock, deadly nightshade, white snake root, castor bean, rosary pea, any of those. They're all poisonous plants. Okay, cool.
You guys are going to be traveling under the guise of Pass-By-Out Trace, so you're a little stealthier. Grib, you're going to be looking out for that. Does anybody else have anything they want to look for or anything that, you know, is on their mind? No, I think I'm, yeah. All right, so you guys begin walking down what used to be a trail, following these boot prints further into the forest and generally towards where you guys want to go. As the Grib...
So we're taken off. We're very quiet. I'm looking for poisons. There's really no necessary... You can't really find a link as to why Grip would be looking for poison, but he's looking for poisonous plants. And, you know, it's kind of... He's kind of getting bored with the soundscape of the forest, so he pipes up. I must be honest. It's very rare that I've ever felt like I'm supposed to be where I'm... I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.
Where do you feel like you're supposed to be most of the time? Where do you feel the most comfortable? I've never felt I belonged. I mean, except for with Abbas Willow, who makes anyone feel welcome. But I agree with the sensation you're describing. I feel this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, and you are exactly who I'm supposed to be with. As for me, I would say I'd feel...
Most comfortable, probably either in charge or maybe in the training yard at Fort Cutler doing my target practice. But then Rufus pauses and he's feeling a little vulnerable and honest out here on the trail after everything we've been through and kind of kicks the dirt and he goes, but the truth is I never really felt 100% comfortable in the training yard. Sort of felt like I wasn't quite as good at some of the stuff as...
Even some of the cadets, even some of the young children, really. Some of the young children at Fort Cutler were better at the bow than I was. But right now, here in the forest, I do feel like I understand this place and the two of you. Has there ever been another time where you felt at ease and not like you did on the training yards before you came to the forest? Well...
I had a only good dream the other night where I was in a nice cabin eating some stew and that felt pretty comfortable. Nothing else happened in the dream. May I ask why you described it as only good and not just a good dream? Grib and Freya make insight checks. Rufus, make a deception check. Okay, good. Deception, 17 for me. 19.
18. You couldn't get it past us. So this was even one of Rufus's better lies. Yeah, true. It was really convincing. Yeah, Rufus, you're pretty good about that lie. Yeah, I was like, wow, I really nailed that bit of sociopathy. But at that moment, yeah, both Freya and Grib are able to see through this. It's probably something about the phrasing of it. Right, yeah. Yeah.
And yeah, you know that he's kind of hiding something from you. Why are you looking at me like that? What? Do you think we were born yesterday? Do you think we were born yesterday? No, I don't. What are you implying? Well, we've been very vulnerable with each other. We've been in some life-threatening circumstances now. I would say we're at a place where we can share with each other.
I've just, I just shared with you very openly. I told you the thing about the children being better than me at the bow. I've never said that out loud. No, but I had seen it. As a person who's walked around most of his life claiming that he's completely normal when he's completely not, your dream was nothing but normal if you brought it up. Okay, all that happened in the dream was...
I was eating some stew in the cabin and then a weird spectral figure with glowing red eyes appeared and said something that I don't totally remember that was either it's time to come home or maybe you should go home or I don't remember exactly. It was it's time for you to wake up. And this strange...
ghostly monster told me that it was time for me to wake up and I felt I felt its voice echoing in a place in my heart and my mind that chilled me to the core that's all that happened it's just a standard nightmare it's not standard at all
It's very troubling since we're here, and we were going somewhere, and it seems like this is the place that we shouldn't be. Well, what? It's not like we... You're telling me someone else in this party had a significant dream that same night at the forest? No, all right? I don't know about that. I don't know about that.
What do you mean, Chris? No, what's that? No, what's that? Nothing. Okay, well. I just had a dream about pumpkins. Okay, well, I got it. Yeah, make a deception check and everyone make insight checks. Insight checks. Six. I got a 25. I only got a seven, but still. You still beat the six. You still beat it. I'm one above what everyone gets.
Yeah, you, Grib, you didn't feel great about that one. Pumpkins, you maybe saw a pumpkin behind Rufus's head at that point. I turned around and looked at the pumpkin and realized Grib was kaisersociating this as horribly as possible. I too had a dream. Okay. But it wasn't disturbing as that. It was actually more of a relief. It appears...
In my dream, my seed gave me a map to where a giant tree appeared a trunk. What I can only assume would be somebody like myself. Another elephant boy? An elephant person? Yes, another elephant boy, Rufus. I corrected myself. I don't know what... I don't know, okay? I'm sorry. This is new territory for me. Smom goes, Sheesh.
Look, I know. I know what it sounds like. But if we're not allowed to learn and grow, then how is this going to work? You're right. You're right. Quite odd that we both had dream. We both had transmissions. Grib doesn't refer to dreams as dreams. He refers them as transmissions. Okay, let me jot that down for the Grib canon. Grib doesn't call dreams dreams. He calls them transmissions. Yeah, okay, great. That's canon now. And I know I said dreams in the past, but now it's transmissions. Okay.
It's strange that we both received transmissions at the same night. Well, what would they mean? Did Freya, did you have a dream at all? Well, I didn't go to sleep when you did, but I did sleep and I didn't dream, no. Hmm. Do you think, and I'm on the heels of what I just said, I'm worried about how this might sound, but do you think that could have been related to you dreaming?
Don't say it. Well, I was going to say it, but I didn't know if I'd mentioned it too much. Yeesh. Swab, grow up. It's a part of life, okay? Actually, Rufus, for once, you're not far off. I don't tend to dream when I menstruate. I tend to sleep like a log. All right. Well, what could these dreams mean? I don't know how to interpret them or if they would change our actions on this trail at all.
Grib, have you ever encountered anything like this before? I certainly haven't. I mean, the only idea I have would be to put the seed in the ground to see if it illuminates a path. But even that feels too gauche, too simple. Why? Why not? Why else carry a magic seed around if you're not going to throw it in the ground when some...
Force tells you to. I can tell you why, because the person who has the seed won't fucking give it back to me. Oops, sorry. Little heat there. Too much heat. All right. Will it still work if I put the seed in the ground? It's still in my possession. I'm going to say no. All right. The two of you better work this out quickly. I don't want to hear you talk about your seed any longer. Okay, okay.
Grib, I will return the seed to you. I'll let you plant it in the ground and potentially show us the way. Yes. But of course, I will need some form of collateral that I can then return to you at the end of the expedition so that our leverage and power dynamic stays the same. You can have Swam.
Wait. Hang on. Do you have anything else in your inventory that would be more interesting to me? I just don't know about taking on a Zawam. No offense, Zawam. Zawam, you and I totally get along. But I just wonder if there's literally anything else. Interesting. When you say no offense, I didn't feel anything. So nice. Oh, good.
Nice. I love the idea of no offense because it makes it clear what you should feel. Right, yeah, good. Yeah, good. You, Zob, gets it. No offense taken. Yeah, do you give him the seed? I have nothing else to offer. I have the clothes on my back and my jewels on my head are too precious for me to give. Fine, I'll take Zob.
I don't know how I'll take Zwom. Maybe if I just sort of take Zwom in name only, but he could remain in your tattoo. Well, that's the whole thing is like, I guess logistically, I don't know how I can just like make him pop over. Zwom, just like you look at your tattoo and Zwom pokes out from behind the Ragnaros tattoo. And he has a little tattoo on his arm of Rufus.
Okay, so we've got it on the record. Here, here you go. Here's your seed. Thank you. Amazing. I wish I could jump to your body, but I don't think I can. No need, no need. I think that's best. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Don't think too hard on it, on how to figure it out. Zwom, you've handled all of this very bravely. Yeah, I know. Thank you. As we're traveling, you know, Rufus sort of was a little vulnerable, and that's making Grib feel like he should be
a little vulnerable too and again the it's weirdly how deafening the silence of this forest is and so he he offers if perhaps i could uh fill the time by reading an original poem a poem grip wow i do fancy myself a bit of a wordsmith you contain multitudes and i continue to be surprised please i would love to hear a poem we'd be lucky to hear the poem
Great. And Grib opens a book. They can't see what the title of this book is, but it looks like he's about like a quarter way through reading of the book, and he pulls out a piece of paper that appears to be like a bookmark, and that's the paper that he pulls out to read. And then he quickly puts the book that he's been reading back. This poem is called My Sweetest Cup of Tea. And Grib, please don't roast me.
My sweetest cup of tea, by Grib. A jasmine-soaked, honey-scented wind swept up fairy winds, tossing her in my kitchen. As I rested, she zipped, boundlessly, with a gesture in mind, a rush of water, a twist of a flame, the crack of bergamot steeped with intention. Inside, a chipped rooster mug, sweet vanilla woke him.
A lonesome bear, he loafed to the kitchen, bellowed by her wings steam-plumed from the cup, inviting him to drink. It was the sweetest tea he had ever tasted. So sweet, he forgot about all the chips and cracks in all of his mugs. As she snuck away back to her dense dwelling tree he saw her, she did not panic. Even though she had never been seen before, she knew she was the sweetest cup of tea he had ever tasted.
Wow. And Grib, that's an original poem? It's a poem I wrote. That is a poem Grib wrote. Wow. Freya's just super, super on her period and weeping. Incredible. Sometimes people come into your life and they... They leave. You all notice this sweet loxodon traipsing through the forest, artificially silent.
And vulnerable all the same. Wow. As you guys continue on through the woods, make a stealth check. And you add 10 to that per pass without trace.
I got a 23. Oh, Freya, I forgot to say this. As a paladin and wearing chainmail, you have to make stealth checks with disadvantage. So roll two, take the lower, but you still add 10 to whatever the lower. Oh, okay, great. And I add 10 as well, so then I actually got a 33. I got a 33 out of that 20.
33. I got a 20. With the 10, I got a 14. Okay. Yeah, Freya is a little clunkier than the rest of you guys. Bloated. Still generally okay in stealth roles. Grib, you're able to hide better than Freya. It seems like Rufus disappeared into another dimension. Mm-hmm.
I'm kind of like hopping from behind one tree to another tree. I'm really using my full forest knowledge to slide effortlessly. Pretty impressive. I think the first time Grib's truly been impressed by Rufus. I'm doing lots of like the way strongmen would hop around and go like, hup, hup, hup, hup. I'm doing that kind of jumping around the forest. Really quiet? Yeah. Yeah.
As you guys are stealthing through the forest, you start to hear something ahead. You hear it's getting a little later in the day. It's probably around 4 p.m.,
You kind of can smell something that almost smells like... It smells probably like a fire. And then almost mixed with that, like something else, like it smells... It just smells kind of bad. And as you hear like a deep rumbling laughter, as you get closer, you see a fire with three...
human figures around it. They're dressed in sort of like cobbled together leather armor. It feels like they've scavenged most of it. It's got sort of this like reddish brown powdery streak of paint across it and across, you know, some of them have it on their heads. Like most of them have these like pretty intense looking mohawks and they're sitting around a fire and
in the middle of the woods and drinking. One of them passes this flag into another guy and he's like, drink up, boys. We're going to be set when we get back tomorrow. And then the other guy is like, yeah, this one will fetch a pretty penny. And he points to something on the ground and you see what looks like a little tied up figure. It looks like a child on the ground. Everybody make a perception check. Grib, you can do this with advantage.
14. 22. 16. Freya, I'm not sure if you would have met one at this point, but you've definitely learned about it. And Grib, 16's high enough that you would know what that is. It's a little gnome right up next to them. And you hear them continue to discuss, and they're like, are you sure we can't eat this one? I mean, it was going to make a pretty good soup out here. And the first bandit, it looks like he's in charge, is like, that's enough of that.
We're lucky we caught this little bugger. And you see the little guy shaking in the... Not shaking, but struggling against his ropes. He's got a little... He has something gagging him as well, so he can't speak. The wind shifts behind them, and you see a branch break behind one of them.
on the other side of where you guys are one guy pulls his like sword and he's like he looks really scared and he's like what was that and the first guy is like like laughs at him when they don't see anything he's like uh what are you scared the warden's gonna get you he says shut up what if i was and uh they all kind of like collectively make fun of this one guy who looks scary he's like oh he's scared of a big bad monster and they just continue to hang out for a second um
What do you guys do? They can't hear us if we speak, right? Yeah, quick huddle, quick team huddle in our bubble of self. Sort of a stage whisper. I'll tell you what I see here, gang. I see an innocent gnome, which I know to be a kind race, and I see him being taken advantage of by three disgusting ne'er-do-wells. I don't think there's much...
to these men's lives to save. I propose killing two of them and taking the third alive and seeing if we can gather any information about this forest or what might have happened to my father and brother. I should also point out that up until this point, Rufus...
You guys didn't even know people in the forest. Yeah. Right. Okay, yeah. This is pretty unusual to see. Yeah, so I'm like, these men have no business being here in the forest. I know they're here under some strange orders or by some evil. So it's in my interest to find out from at least one of them.
who they are and why. Perhaps they know certain paths of passage. Maybe it's a familiar trade route, a bandit route. So maybe we kill whichever two look dumber. Okay. I also think there might be something larger going on here, not to overcomplicate the situation, but...
Just knowing that there's someone ahead of us and we don't know who or what. And that third one seemed very startled. Like maybe he really did sense something. Should I, I'm feeling like I should use some divine sense or something at the moment.
to detect any evil, if that's even allowed. Freya, you can commune with your paladin powers and see if you feel anything beyond this. Okay, so Freya kind of goes quiet for a moment. She goes into herself. We see the wind whisper around her. Flutes are lightly playing. Can you read Divine Sense for us? Yeah, so Divine Sense, it does say as an action.
That's okay. You can use an action one. You can detect good and evil. You can sense anything affected by the hallow spell or know the location of any celestial fiend undead within 60 feet that is not behind total cover. Cool. So in 60 feet, you don't necessarily feel anything right here. These guys are just from looking at them and the fact that they've taken someone prisoner and we're talking about eating them, it
They don't seem like good guys, but as far as, like, worldly magical evil, there's not really anything going on to that level with these three guys. But they don't look like good guys. Okay. But you were doing that to test what might be beyond them, right? Yeah, but maybe... Oh, yes. But within 60 feet, you're not feeling... Like, does it say beyond 60 feet something happens? But, okay. Within...
Within 60 feet, you don't necessarily feel anything here. Okay. Yeah. Okay, in the immediate area, I don't feel anything evil except for the base evilness of greed and monstery that these men have. I suggest if we are going to attack, we take them by surprise. Perhaps we create a noise further out in the forest so one of them goes and checks. He's already on his wits.
Really smart. So one of us can make a noise while the other lies in wait and jumps out and attacks. Well, I think we let one go walk into the forest and we attack the two that remain. Yes. And as the one returns, pop goes the face. So...
So we kill the first two and then attack the one when he returns. Yes, Pop Goes the Weasel. It wasn't crystal clear to me what Pop Goes the Weasel meant in this context. Okay, okay, okay.
We're still far away, right? We still have some... They're in a little bit of a clearing. I would say you guys are probably close enough to hear them. So you're probably within 30 feet, but behind bushes and stuff. Cool. Can I use druidcraft to make a little noise? What's the range on that? About 30 feet. So 30 feet away from us, the noise of a foot smack breaking a branch, or just the sound of a branch...
Cool. So what direction? Cause they're like in front of you and you like, if they're in the center of a circle. So essentially if they're in front of us and we're the cream of the Oreo, I want the sound to be the second, the last cookie. So behind. Correct. So they, he travels beyond us. Okay. So you want them to come towards you. I got it. Yeah. So you're able to do that. You snap a twig 30 feet behind you. Let's see what happens.
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I didn't make that up. That was right. That was over there. I'm telling you, I didn't make it. You guys are making me feel bad for being scared of a monster that ripped up a ton of our brothers. What are you talking about? And they're like, well, I guess I did hear that as well. And they like all you see them pull out bigger axes and one of them
kind of just like pumps his chest and he's like, I'm not scared of anything. And he just runs out towards you guys, leaving the other two behind. What do you guys do as this guy comes towards you? Well, we should stealth check for him, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Because wait, so were you trying to get him to come at us or go away from us? I want him to go. Yeah. Okay. I'll try and be as clear. He has to go past you guys. So you guys have to make a stealth check. That's fine. Yes. Yeah. I'll try and be as clear as possible. I want him to run past. So he's gone. We attack the two people. Right. But I mean, is it easier? How do you know that one guy is going to go is my question. Well, didn't you just say one guy took off?
Yes. It's sort of plan-y, so I'm wondering... I anticipated that because you said that one guy stood up with his sword out, that that guy had the tenacity to continue to follow through with his suspicions. Cool. So yeah, that guy got up, and he is going to walk past you guys. Okay. But that means he comes towards you guys. Whether he sees you or not is up to these stealth checks, so just roll your stealth check.
And I do mine with disadvantage, right? Disadvantage, but you still have Pass Without Trace. Does anything apply to me being in the forest with this? I think if you're not proficient, then you add that three. Great, so I got 16. And are we adding a 10 to this? That's the Pass Without Trace? Yes. Yes. Oh, then 26. I got a 19. 19, 26, and Grib? 26. So I have 7. 27. 27.
Okay. So he keeps walking. He's like walking right past you guys and doesn't notice. We should try and spring on them. So we should all like... Well, I'm wondering, should I shoot my bow and then the two of you jump out? Well, I have a range attack too. So we could all technically have a surprise round where we all attack those two people. Yeah, I think we should do a range attack and then jump in.
You guys get a surprise round because of the way this is working. So everyone just roll attacks on these guys. Okay. Tell me who you're attacking. There's three guys. There's one guy who went past you guys. He's not that much further past you. It would be like someone 15 feet away from them attack their friends so that he's going to turn around probably. But then there's two guys sitting down there who aren't really paying attention. One looks like to be in charge a little bit bigger. And the other guy is also just kind of
one of the underling types. Then I think, cause the idea was to get the guy, get these two and try to take the guy who comes back alive. Right. Uh,
So then I'm going to shoot for the man in charge. I'm going to notch my arrow and shoot it at his frigging neck. Tight. Everyone tell me who they're attacking. We're going to all do the attacks at once. But yeah, so Rufus, roll your attack to see if you hit. 16. 16 hits. Roll damage. 11. An arrow thuds into this man's arm who was just sitting there drinking and he's like...
what the fuck is going on? And screams. They look around scared. You guys can take the rest of your surprise around. I'm going to cast Scorching Ray. Cool. I will do two rays on the big boss and I will do one ray on the small weenie boy. So these guys aren't weenie boys, but they're little. I think I'm going to refer to them as little. I'm not a weenie boy. So I'll just do, I'm going to roll all my hit rates. First one.
24. Hits. Second one, 18. Hits. Third one, 16. All three hit. Wow. Great. First damage, four. These first two are for the captain guy, right? Yeah. So six for the first ray. And do you have something that adds to your damage or healing? Yes, I can read it if it's helpful. Oh, no, I'm just making sure you have that back. Yeah, I'm rolling a D8.
Oh, you know what? My wild spirit has to be summoned for that. So the first one only does four damage, not six. That's my mistake. And then the second one does seven damage. Okay. And then the third one.
And that's on the other, the weenie guy? No, the first two, the six and the seven are on the boss. Yeah. And this last one here is two damage on the weenie boy. So you hit that guy for two. Freya, what are you up to? So Freya looks at the two and assesses who seems worse off. So which one of these two...
is damaged more. One guy got hit for two damage. One guy got hit for a couple of shots. So one guy, the captain guy looks worse off. Okay, then I'm going to go for the other weenie boy. I'm going to...
Oh, or do I want to? Yeah, I'm going to go for the weenie boy and I'm going to throw my javelin at him. Cool. You throw a javelin. You can also like at this point, he's not going to be less surprised if you run up and attack him. Oh, then. Okay. You can do that. Yeah. With that in mind, actually, Freya is going to go ahead and lead this charge and attack with a great sword. Freya burst through the foliage and comes up to these two dudes who are just sitting around a fire. Roll your damage.
roll your attack uh 24 hits for my attack oh and roll both uh to see if you hit twice and then roll the damage on the attacks okay so let's see if that because you have two attacks now right yes that's true uh so okay so first attack 24 second attack 23 great both hit uh how much damage is
Great. So with my Divine Smite, I'm rolling a 26 damage. Amazing. So that's two hits and one Divine Smite. Pretty brutal to this guy. He is not doing great. After that, everyone roll their dice. We're going to roll initiative. Nine. Six. 20. So now that they're awake, that was your surprise round. You're in an actual initiative. Rufus, you're first.
These two guys at the fire look fucked up already. Okay, but they're still standing. We haven't dispatched these guys fully yet, have we? Not yet. It's Rufus's inclination to go for the top man on the totem pole since that's who he is. He wants to take out the rival, so he's going to spring forward for the captain, pull out his hand axes, and say, I'm going to cut your head off.
What? Who are you? Straight and to the point. And take two attacks. Okay. We got a 15, and we got a crit 27, baby.
No, yes. You see him pull out his blade. He's one of the... The other two guys have axes, and he has a scimitar that he just unleashes. He's able to... You feel like both those should have hit, but he's able to pull this one out, and your hit should have hit, but you know that he used his prowess to block the first one. That was a 15. But the second one, the crit...
Nails him. Roll damage on that. You're able to bury your axe deep into this guy's shoulder. And roll double dice. Yeah. 12. 12 damage. Yeah, you nail this guy. Rufus, your axe that doesn't get blocked just hits this guy deep in the shoulder. He's still sitting down at this point like, what the fuck? After that, do you do anything else? I'm just a little disappointed I didn't cut his head off. But I...
I go ahead and- I got a thick neck. I pull the axe out of his thick neck and get ready to strike again. After Rufus's turn, Freya, it is you. Okay, great. I think I'm actually going to cut this guy's head off. Good luck, you know. Everybody stop trying to cut my head off.
Yeah, roll your attack. Okay, I'm going to go great sword against him. Okay, we got a 22 and a 12. Cool, the 22 hits, the 12 does not. Roll damage for that first attack and tell me what you do. 11. Cool, and that's just a regular attack? That's a regular attack. From the other side, Freya lines up the shot and just buries her great sword deep into the guy's other shoulder. He's like, fuck, quit.
Please, everybody stop trying to cut off my head. This guy has got to be spewing out of his neck arteries. Yeah, it's like, it's shooting out like Monty Python. So you said 11 or 12? 11. After that, this berserker who's watching his, like, captain's head almost be chopped off, he's like, oh, you know, we don't, you don't chop off our heads, we chop off your heads. And he's going to go up to Rufus and take two swings. Whoa!
You see him get really pissed off and he's really angry at you. He's going to take his attacks. So he's shaking with rage. He's going to take attack at you with advantage. No. Wait. Oh, no. Does a 14 hit? I'm 15. Even with advantage, he's so mad. He almost swings around and hits his own captain's head. He barely misses. He cuts off a little bit of his hair. He's like...
I'm just so mad. After that, the other berserker running from behind sees Gribb in front of him. He's also pissed. He's like, nobody tricks me with sticks and takes two swings at Gribb. Rolls two threes, fully misses, whiffs, fall down. After that, Gribb, it's your turn. I'll turn my attention to the guy who's complaining about his head not being...
cut off and I go perhaps you're right perhaps it will get burnt off and then I produce flame right on his head captain's like please please this guy's having a tough day with his head roll your attack and damage 21 to hit yes six damage nice
Yeah, this man is Joe Pesci in Home Alone. His little beanie off. He had a little beanie on, by the way. It is burned off. You see the crown of his head, the smoldering skin on top of him. At that point, he leaps up. Everybody stop trying to
to mess with my head uh he like shakes off the blades he fully draws his sword uh and he's going to make uh three attacks one at each of you oh fuck bring it on i've never rolled worse he takes a scimitar out he swings once at freya once at rufus and pulls his dagger and swings at uh grib uh he's got two weapons he's like there's a lot of flourish here all three miss
Well, his head is very battered in. He's like, I'm sorry, people are trying to cut off my head and my head is a little melting right now, so cut me some slack. A little melting. Rufus, it's your turn. I've got both my axes. I got a guy with a burning head who just missed some attacks. Burning head and a bleeding neck right in front of me. There's the other guy and then the third running in.
right yeah he's who i want to take a lot i gotta get the damn kill stroke on this captain what's for all so i'm gonna swing both axes together at either side of his head taking two equal shots to see if i can cut this guy's head off uh with two clean strokes amazing uh roll your tax okay
10 and a 21 10 misses 21 does hit uh roll so one of them you're just kind of short yeah it's just sort of yeah misjudged dexterity of using two hands yeah because one arm is far out enough but the other i pulled in too tight to my body yeah just a depth perception problem uh roll your damage on that hit six six
Yeah, this other axe connects deeper into his neck, and he's like, Jesus, please, anything else? Come on, I aimed for the notch that was already cut. I really thought I'd have hit and severed bone by now. This guy's neck is thick. I do have a thick neck, and you'll never cut it off. Rufus, do you want to do anything else with your turn? Is it too late to do action surge?
Not at all. You can action search. Then I'm going to take one last sneaky chop with that axe that didn't quite connect. A sneaky cheeky chop from Rufus. Rufus rolled one more attack. Sneaky cheeky chop. I rolled a one. No.
Rufus, unfortunately, the depth perception was... Again, yeah. There's something going on. It's like an optical illusion with how his head is barely hanging on, and you unfortunately missed. I'm going to stick to the right. Those left swings are... I'm not a switch hitter. Freya, it is your turn. This man's head is barely hanging on, but he's with it.
He's, like, psyching himself up. The other two guys... One guy's running in at Grib. Yeah, what are you up to? One guy's running at Grib? Well, the guy that y'all, like, got away from the group is back in the fray, so... Okay. Well, okay. I think we gotta finish off this captain, though. And that guy we kinda wanna keep alive, so...
I'm gonna go ahead and attack this captain with my greatsword. However, I'm gonna go for a plunge to the gut. And we're gonna hope that that... You wanna see some of that dark blood. You wanna see some of that cat blood. You wanna see the dark blood. Liver blood. Yeah. Horrifying. Freya, roll your attacks. Okay. Great. Okay, 14 and 22. The 22 for sure hits. Roll damage. Okay. Okay.
And I am going to roll this damage with Divine Smite. Total damage is 24. Sheesh. All right. So as this man's head is like barely hanging on, you've made this sort of...
You have this mini game almost of trying to chop off this man's head. Freya just changes her mind at the end and plunges her sword that crackles with the divine energy right into his chest, getting that dark blood as he falls over, dying, saying, I always knew my head would stay on my head. And that pisses me right off. You know what? For that, I do apologize. That was obnoxious. Nah, dude. Dark blood gang, dude. Hashtag dark blood gang.
These berserkers are going to go now. They're shaking with rage. I'm so mad. One's going to take a swing at Rufus with advantage. That definitely hits. One's going to take a swing at Grib. Yeah, 19 hits. Grib for sure. Grib, you get hit for 10 damage. Oof.
And Rufus, you only take four. Okay. These guys are swinging wildly, and they look like they're not being defensive at all. After that, Grib, it's your turn. The one that just swang at me, I'm going to cast Burning Hands. Okay, cool. Roll your attack. You'll have to make a dexterity saving throw. 15 is the save. Okay. He saves. So I'll take half damage. Okay. Ooh, 14, so seven. Seven damage on that guy. Yeah, Grib sticks his trunk at this guy who just completely whiffed.
And just blasts him with a wall of fire, a cone of fire, rather. Damn. Sheesh. Amazing. After that, what is the damage on Burning Hands? Seven? 3d6. But it was half, so I rolled a 14. Totally. Totally.
After that, Rufus, it's your turn. Okay. So we've got Grib is kind of dealing with the one berserker who was still by the fire. And there's this third guy who's approached who hasn't been dealt with yet at all. And he's the one we might be trying to keep alive, right? That's the one that he just burned, yeah. Oh, wait. Grib just burned the third one who popped up? Yes. Okay. Because I'm wondering if...
If I did an unarmed strike on him, would that be part of, like... These guys have a lot more health than that, I should say. Yeah, gotcha. Okay, so we should get him down a bit before I try to knock his ass out. So in that case...
I'm going to forget him, and I'm going to attack that second guy who was first by the fire. I believe we've been referring to him as the weenie boy. Yes, weenie boy. Weenie boy looks up as you come at him. You can take these attacks with advantage because of the way he was swinging. Great. So that's four different rolls. Holy shit. Here we go. Yeah, paired off. Yes.
12 and 26. Okay, the 20... The 12 doesn't hit unless you use your bracers. No, and then 17 and 16. Okay, gotcha. So both those hit. Roll damage for... Yeah, just roll all that damage. Damage was a 6 and a 5 for a total of 11. This guy's fucked up, but still standing at this moment. The other guy...
Is a little hurt, but still standing as well. After Rufus Freya, you're up. And I get two attacks per turn. Is that right? Yeah. Cool. For my first one...
Can I go ahead and try and do... Freya's worried about this other guy, our guy who stepped away. She wants to try... That's the one that's a little burned. Right. She wants to try and get him tied up. Can I do a nature's wrath on him to try and... Or is he within 10 feet of me? He could be if you move to him. You guys are in a little area that...
yeah you have you have 30 feet of movement probably okay uh then i think fray is gonna run toward this guy and go for uh nature's wrath to try and restrain him with some vines cool what kind of check does he make uh either strength or dexterity saving throw cool uh he rolled a 16 what does the same uh
DC 16. Okay, so he bursts out of these mines. Damn it! Grib is still impressed. I mean, he has never really seen other people manipulate plants like he did. Wow, okay. He's noticed. Freya kind of says,
- You have anything else you can do with your turn? - Yes, I can do another attack, right? - So unfortunately the way actions work, those two attacks are under one action. So you can't really divvy it up in that way. - Okay. - 'Cause nature's wrath is also an action. - I see.
I see. Okay, so then I don't think I have anything. So yeah, under the umbrella of one action, you have two attacks. I see. So it's kind of complicated. Two A words. Cool. So after that, the berserkers are going to go. This guy is going to just run up to you and attack wildly. He's going to hit and he's going to hit you for six damage. The other one is going to come up to Rufus and take two swings or take a swing with advantage. Does a 16 hit? Yes.
He's going to hit you for 11 damage. Okay. He makes contact. After that... I don't care for this. Grab it. It's your turn. I am going to produce flame again on the weenie boy. Weenie boy is going to get hit by this produced flame. Oh, a 10. Beef's it. You miss. Weenie boy dodges. After that... Sorry, do you do anything else? That's it. Thank you. Cool. I'm out of my time.
I yield my time. Fuck you. Great. After Grib, the bandit captain's dead. Rufus, it's your turn again. Well, it's time to... If I couldn't cut off one guy's head, I might as well see if I can cut off another guy's head. I'd like to swing both axes from the side, try to get it right this time, and cut off this person's head. The weenie boy? That's right, the weenie boy. Take two attacks with advantage. Okay. Wow. Wow. Wow.
26 for the first and 23 for the second. Cool. Roll damage.
nine and five for a total of 14. Uh, yeah, you're able to, uh, land two ax blows in this guy. He's, uh, on a death's door, essentially. Come on, I can't cut someone's head off to save my life. Fred, it is your turn. Uh, there's these two guys. They don't look like they want to be taken prisoner. I'll say that. Uh, these guys are the ones that are, like, berserker rager dudes that are trying to kill you guys. It's going to be a little hard to just, like, catch them, right?
Okay. Well, I'm going to go ahead to our weenie boy. And... Weenie boy! Weenie boy! I'm going to try and cut off his head with my greatsword. Wow. Okay. So much for Darkblood. Well, I don't know. I mean, you want to see a head get cut off. That's true. I would like to see a head get cut off.
So I'm just going to do like a roundabout swing, like a run and then a roundabout swing. You can do this with advantage, by the way. Hell yes. Is that like a Cutler thing? Like you're not a true Cutler until you see somebody's head get cut off or something? Yeah, maybe that's a bit of family lore. Ideally, it's you cut off someone's head. Yeah. But I sort of count it as. 25 and 23. Jesus. Okay, roll damage.
So that's a total of 21 damage between the two attacks. Sheesh, this man, you're trying to cut his head off? Trying to cut his head off. We're trying to do an ambo-lin. Yeah, you guys look over and see Freya just cleanly chopped his head off. There's one berserker left. He looks on at his friend's head. He is gonna try to run. Yes, yes.
So he just starts sprinting away. So he is now going to be 60 feet away from you guys. It is now Grib's turn. I will cast Entangle. Cool. What's his save? 15 strength. He fails. So these vines grab him and he falls to the ground, struggling against you. And I kind of look to Freya in a sort of playful, like, that's how it's done.
And Freya does like a sort of playful, I bow to you. That's a really intimate moment. I'm glad you guys could connect like that. So this man's entangled in these ropes and these vines that Grib launched on him at this point. Why don't we exit initiative as he is struggling against the vines and fail to save?
There is these dead bodies around. There's this gnome on the ground, and there's this entangled man. Well, I'm going to run over to the entangled man and jump on top of him and yell, who are you and who do you work for? And hit him a little. Render him on... Yeah, as he's trying to render him unconscious, I'll simultaneously untie the gnome. Mm-hmm. Cool. That little gnome...
You untie him. And sorry, Rufus, you've tied up this other guy in like... Because he's entangled in the vine still, right? Yeah. I mean, that would probably like... That's like a spell that only lasts for a certain amount of time. Okay, then yes, I've hogtied him at this point. I flip him over and hogtie him. You've hogtied this guy. You let the gnome go. The gnome like looks at you guys. He looks relieved. And he walks over to where Rufus is.
And he pulls a knife out of his boot and he slits the man's throat. No! He takes a little gag out of his mouth. He goes, oh, guys, my name's Cribbage. And that's the end of the episode. Cribbage! Cribbage! Sorry, guys. Cribbage. That, what a wild episode. Covered a lot of ground. Sorry that Cribbage had different goals than you guys, unfortunately. Cribbage.
Thanks for listening to this week's episode. We'll be back next week with an arc park to discuss the events of this one. We had a lot happen, so it's kind of a doozy. As always, you can listen to these folks on other podcasts. Anybody want to jump in here? Sure. Listen to you first.
You can check out the podcast I co-host with Talia Tabin, Friends Talk, Frasier and Feelings. It does not have to do with D&D, but it does have to do with Frasier. And I think it's close. And you can listen to my podcast firsthand that I co-host with Greg Gallant. It has nothing to do with this nerdy shit. Oh.
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We hope that you enjoyed that episode of Rotating Heroes. That was DM'd by the one and only Zach Oyama and the players were Victoria Longwell, Jacob Wysocki, and Devon Field. Remember, if you're enjoying Rotating Heroes, then please go ahead and check out the Rotating Heroes page.
Patreon, which is where you can get early access to all of the episodes. You can get them in full as well, so not part one and part two. And you can also get the exclusive talkbacks, which is where the crew dissect and talk about everything that happened in obviously totally the most serious possible way. So I don't even know why you'd think anything else. This episode has been edited and produced by Zakoyama and Jasper William Cartwright, which is me.