Arc 3 Ep. 6: Swamp Romp
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This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites, like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies, like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow.

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I am very excited to say that we have a full big episode for you today. This might be a little bit of combat maybe in the middle of this, so it didn't make too much sense to split it up. So I thought that we'd do the whole dang thing just to keep you updated and abreast of everything that's happening in the Rotating Heroes world. We have just released episode one of Archive.

Thank you.

That's about it for me. I hope that you enjoy this episode and maybe, maybe that you check out the rotating heroes, Patreon and all the fun stuff that we're doing over there. Bye for now. Take it away. Past Zach. Welcome back to the rotating heroes podcast. I am joined as always so far for the sixth time by the rotators of the third arc. Um,

Gosh, these folks have been through a lot today, specifically. I think we're going on the third episode after this one sleep, so it's been a really long, long, long day. So I'll just go around the horde. First up, we have...

the rotator who i i would say had the the most challenging time uh being stealthy in terms of the armor she was wearing we have victoria longwell aka freya the black hello uh victoria how are we doing from me and everyone who listens to the podcast how are you doing you know i'm doing a

really pretty well. Thank you so much for asking. Really pretty well. I feel on a plane. Yeah, I feel really pretty well. Wow. I haven't done that in a very long time. I know. I'm very excited to try that soon. I'm excited for you. I bet it's as fun as I remember. It feels crazy. Well, I mean, I'm glad to have you back. Thank you. Next up, we got a guy who

You know, as a druid could easily shapeshift into the character that makes this voice itself a little frog on a log. We have the Loxodon druid, Grib. Wazzup? There it is. Budweiser. Budweiser. I had a bud heavy last night. Oh, I guess the frogs don't say wazzup. Oh, well. I got it a little backwards.

Jacob, from just me, how are you doing? Thank you, and I'm happy nobody else asked because that would be invasive. I'm great. Good. I'm glad to hear it. You take any planes this weekend? No, just a train. Train? Okay. Yeah.

For real? That's a lie. I lied. Wow. That was a lie. I was going to make a planes, trains, and automobiles joke, and then I was starting to do the math on it, and I just was like, ah. Devin's got to come in with that automobile. Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure he knows. Yeah. There's no way for me to communicate that and guarantee it, so I just bailed. But planes, trains, and automobiles, man, I was on a train. I was on a train. Big train. Biggest train. I was actually on the biggest train in the U.S. Wow. Wow.

Is this a tall train? It was heavy. The heaviest train. Oh, okay. A dense, very dense. Wow. I'm glad to hear that you're doing good. And we'll let you, we'll just finish up this lap with our, you know, a rotator that we've mentioned. I could see being a professional baseball player in a different universe, kind of like in a Japanese manga where, where you just see them in street clothes for some reason. We have a Devin field, AKA Rufus Cutler. And I'm sorry to Victoria. I should say.

Wow. Well, call me John Candy because in the last week I've taken a plane, a train and an automobile. Hello, folks. Oh, my God. Nailed it. You've done all three. He's done all three. I've done all three.

Incredible. Because I took a plane back to Seattle and I took a train from one terminal to another terminal. Oh, wow. OK, count. And then I got in my brother's automobile. So you did all three in the span of an hour and a half, probably. That's impeccable.

Oh, my gosh. I like, Jacob, you, when you went into that, that was the Trumpiest you've ever sounded. It was really Trumpy. Where you're like, you go planes, trains, automobiles, big train, biggest train, one of the biggest trains you've ever seen. It's unbelievable, this train.

Just the way he goes on runs. Yeah, I hate that. Just stream of consciousness. That's what James Austin Johnson's impression, check it out online, folks. That's what that impression gets right, is just the babbling. Just the stream of consciousness babbling. Well, all I can say is that I was physically and mentally exhausted to be doing it. So maybe that is what he feels. He's just like, I have to try. I just felt like I had to try. The mouth is so separate from the brain. Yeah.

Well, and it's a good impression, right? Because, you know, I've been working on it and I feel like I'm finally going to. People will be excited to hear it. Yeah, I think it's time for my Trump. You sort of took all of the pandemic to kind of quietly workshop it at home and kind of get it ready.

And I remember talking to you like a week before the election being like, hey, we going to see that Trump anytime soon? You're like, not yet. It wasn't ready at that point, unfortunately. Yeah. The impression wasn't ready. And what would you say really solidified it? Well, I was doing a bunch of shows at the old zoo in Griffith Park, practicing the voice. And I finally had one person show up. It was an old coyote. And the coyote laughed at the impression. Yeah, he was kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sort of a who-yip, who-yip-who. Yeah. Almost how you know, like... Do you know that song, Victoria? I know that song. The Comanches are gone. Anyways. I feel like Robin Williams...

Yeah. Stream of consciousness, like word association into different voices. Yeah. The command trees are gone. Hey, get off that horse. I'm just a baby. Yeah. Right. Hey, man. Oh, the coyote. Coyote comes up. He sounds like this. I'm laughing at this partner. Put them up. Put them up. R.I.P. Absolutely perfect. Really good.

I mean, kind of the perfect primer to get into D&D. I mean, I'd love to see... Well, we can't, unfortunately. If Robin Williams were to play Dungeons & Dragons, I think it would sound a little something like... Well, why don't we get in the recap, shall we? Yeah.

Okay, last time on the Rotating Heroes pod, our rotators got to know the freshly rescued gnome, Cribbage. While trying to chat with them, Cribbage proved to be an obtuse, confusing little man who also had a little bit of helpful information at the same time, explaining that to proceed forward towards Walden Keep, they'd have to sneak through the camp of the Red Rust Clan.

Without many options, our crew made preparations to head that way. In an extremely tense sneak mission, Grib, Freya, and Rufus made their way through the enemy camp. But along the way, discovered these marauders were digging up some sort of ancient tech at the same time. Our heroes eventually found themselves eavesdropping on the leaders of the camp, discussing plans about the dig. These leaders seemed extremely ruthless and, to varying degrees, able to weaponize the artifacts they dug up.

When an excited commotion happened at the dig site, Cribbage and Rufus seized the opportunity to steal some documents and take a glowing blue device before escaping the Red Rust camp. Our heroes were spotted on the way out and found themselves running from a quickly mobilizing enemy force. Once they were seemingly tracked down by an enemy search party, the warden himself, a frighteningly powerful werebear, destroyed the small enemy force before introducing himself as Rufus's uncle, and that's where we are now.

So you guys are all in the forest still. You just saw this werebear transform from his bear form after just decimating this group of soldiers into a human man stands before Rufus, still sort of towering over Rufus.

As he is like just a large guy in general. It's kind of a little older. He's like got graying temples, sort of longish hair. You guys are standing here with the powerful presence of the warden. He's just stands there kind of breathing heavily, having just just absolutely decimated this troop of soldiers. There's still a lot of noises further back. You hear more soldiers coming.

He's looking around. It feels like the enemies are still mobilizing. So he's like, he quickly like looks at Rufus and starts sniffing him. You have the Ransden sneak on you. The what? The what? You have the Ransden stink on you. The Ramston stink? The Ransden. We are the Ransdens. This is your mother's side of the family. The Ransdens? I don't know how much you know about it.

Ransden. Ransdens? Is anyone getting what he's saying? I think he's saying Ransden. Ransden. R-A-N-S-D-E-N. Ransden. That was what I was hearing, yeah. Listen, you look just like your mother. You have her ears, her shoulders. I think the other characteristics are maybe a little more like your father, but it is good to see you, my boy.

Takes another deep sniff of your head. He takes your hand, Rufus, and shakes it. You feel like his calloused giant hand shake yours. And he says, the name is Lowell Ransden, and I'm your uncle boy.

Lowell Cranston. Good to meet you, sir. It's an honor. Cranston. It's with an R. It's with an R. What part am I not hearing? Everyone else hears me, right? Cranston? Cranston. It's a beautiful name. I can hear you. I'll repeat it back, though you don't feel in thing. Cranston. Cranston. Oh, my God. Cranston. Freya Cranston. Cranston.

Listen, we can say... I fear we don't have much time to keep repeating my last name. He looks back and sees that there are torchlights and other noises coming in from behind. It sounds like there's more horses being rallied, more soldiers are yelling, and maybe just brief glimpses of what seems like some kind of weird technology. Show us the way out of here, Vranston. Listen, my boy, what...

He's like, my dreams have guided me to you. He keeps sniffing you. He's like, listen. Your dreams have guided you to sniff me. That's what's happening? Yes. It's been a long time since I've smelled this smell on another person. I would really like to go. I would like to move out of this place. Listen. Do I smell that way? Not a lot of time. I'll lead them off. You have to... He's like kind of calculating as these...

troops are like mobilizing behind him he's like i'll lead them off continue north there won't be they won't be able to follow you through the swamp on horseback um i'll meet you around midday tomorrow keep your wits about you that's the swamp is filled with horrors and lies

Beware the earth itself. Look for the green torch. You all have my permission to enter my outpost. And you feel this sort of like swirl of green light kind of wrap around you briefly and disappear. That felt good. As he says this, he like claps you on the shoulder.

Smells you one last time and then rushes off making kind of a clanging noise, kind of going in a bit of a different direction than you guys. What do y'all do? What a cool guy. What a really cool guy. Really special. That seemed nice. I suggest we march our butt forward. Where he said. We got to go where he said. To the swamp full of lies? I don't know about this, Cranston. What's not to know? Fine, let's go.

We head that way. Okay, you guys, it's still midnight. The moonlight is lighting your path, but it's still dark. You guys hoof it north. It got pretty sticky back there. I've got to be honest with you. Cribbage is running at your legs, just trying to keep up, and he's like...

I can't believe he's related to him, points out Rufus, as you guys keep running. Well, you probably don't even have any relatives, cribbage. More like trippage with the way you're running under my legs. Am I right, everybody? I mean, it's like his name is trippage. Rufus, what is wrong? Is everything okay? Nothing's wrong. I just... Nothing...

I don't understand where we're going or why certain people were here and then left. Like, it just doesn't make sense. It's like, are you crying? We should just be going forward and shut up. And Rufus starts doing his jumping up the trail, but like really red in the face, kind of upset. I, I, he moves forward and I, I Freya and I just mouth the word with the letters M O M.

And sort of shrug, sort of just shrug, like, what are you going to do? Yeah. And I lock eyes back with Grib and kind of mouth, wow, that's so insightful. I bet you're right. That's absolutely what's happening. You mouth that whole thing. But I kind of say it out loud too, because you know that you do that when you're mouthing. Yeah. Grib, give me a perception check to see if you understood any of it. Yeah, that's fair. 18 plus seven.

perfectly understood you can read lips you're used to it uh under the under the just like the faint moonlight you're able to understand that perfectly so you guys keep running through this like foliage and as you're tearing through the branches and the ground starts to get a lot softer and your steps aren't taking you quite as far as they were on the like firm earth that you were once running on

As you run still by, you know, by the light of the moon, you find yourself starting to enter an extremely thick rolling fog. You start to splash into what feels like a cold, wet body.

Can I produce flame? I would love to produce a flame as the mist starts to take over our vision. Cool. Grib, you, I guess, yeah, how are you guys traveling through here? Grib, are you leading the way with a little produce flame, it sounds like? Yeah, from my trunk. Grib holds a little ball of fire at the end of his trunk as a little lamplight to try to light the way. As your flame flickers up on your trunk, you're looking around you and you see...

Even though it's foggy, you're starting to see these, like, branches of trees that you're passing that are more, like...

for this type of climate there are more like mangrove-y kind of trees that are just built to be that thrive in this sort of wet marsh kind of land there's like gum trees and willow looking trees it's more of a haunted look honestly than the areas you've passed before in terms of what we understand to be Halloween I don't think you would actually see anything haunted at this point

As you continue through this area, um, yeah, like, what do you guys... Is there...

I think Cribbage jumps up onto Grib's shoulder. He's like, too much water, man. And just sits on your shoulder. Hold on tight, little one. Okay. Yeah, I don't like going through the swamp. It's too scary for me. There's a lot of lizards. There's all kinds of monsters in here. Sometimes trees walk around. Did you say trees walk around? Trees walk around?

Jinx. Yeah, like, I think I saw a tree walking once. Is that weird? Did you guys say that at the same exact time? We did. Well, it was an astounding thing you said. Trees walking around? I don't enjoy walking in the swamp. My socks are wet. This is bad. This is terrible. Yeah, you guys, I guess you would keep heading forward. Yeah. I've got, like, one hand. Do we... What is, like, the soundscape of the swamp?

It is... Yeah, yeah, give me a roll. Let me know how...

A roll of percentage die, and based on the percentage is the genre of music that the soundscape is. Yes, I have my genre of music chart up here. Okay, I think it's reggae and eight. Yeah, sort of just like... As he traipsed through the pitch black fog. Zach thinks the Aladdin soundtrack is reggae. No.

Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what I was going for. The more serious version of this is, are we hearing things that seem threatening or at least present? Yeah, any life, any sounds of other life? Yeah, roll perception checks for me. I will. 14. 22. Freya? Yes. 16. Cool. Those are pretty good. I think you're not really hearing much at all, except for as you start moving forward, you see little bursts of light pop up.

in the fog. You see like a red one to your left, a little bit, a light blue one, a yellow one. And you see eventually on a 22 grid, I think to your left, you would see sort of a swirl of a few blue ones. Do these look similar to the flames that were put on us? So that was like more, I think that that wasn't like literally fire on you. You just felt like sort of like a naturalistic energy. This feels...

Roll a nature check. Okay. 11. 11. Yeah, it's hard to tell. It didn't feel exactly the same. This is definitely a different color as well. But you see the swirl of blue lights to your left. I've never seen anything like this. Me neither. I haven't either. Well, there was one time when a cleric came into town with this really potent herb. And me and some other guys kind of had a fun weekend with it. And I saw some visual tracers there.

Similar to this at that point, but I don't really remember. Wait, you party? Yeah, well, of course. I mean, you work hard, you play hard is sort of the Cutler approach. I party. Gribbage holds his tongue. Gribbage, do you have something you'd like to say?

So you're saying you work hard, man? Let's move forward, shall we? Let's try to push forward through this one. Okay, sorry, man. It was just too easy. I just want to... I blazed, just briefly to say. Is that right? Interesting. Yeah, just an FYI. I could blaze. Just a bit of an FYI. Do you think that Rufus's uncle blazes? And do you think he would like it if somebody else did? Like, should I try it? You've never blazed? No. Freya, you haven't...

Freya, you've never blazed. No. I grew up with the Abyss. It's just me and Mother Willow. I mean, some of the best skunk I've ever had come from monks and priests. Yeah, Mother Willow sounds like the name of a dealer. I don't, you know. Grib, you feel your thigh get really hot, and Zwan pokes his head out and goes, I blazed. Wow. Wow.

Nice, nice. Vom can actually smoke me under the table. Wow. And just so that we're all on the same page, when you say blaze, what exactly are you speaking of? I'm literally always blazing. I'm on fire. I blaze. What are you talking about? Herbs. Herbs and spices. Well, yeah, you guys are, you know...

Just talking about the idea of getting high, I guess. What do you... You see this light to your left. Do you pursue it or not? It's tantalizing in the seas. I think it honestly appears avoidable. Bright, beautiful things in the forest are either dangerous or for bugs. And we're neither of those. Two categories I don't care for. Dangerous or for bugs? No thanks.

Well, what should we do? Should we just progress forward and ignore the siren song of those blinking lights? You don't think it's in any way like a, I don't know, a clue toward his outpost or something? I don't know. My uncle said that this swamp was full of lies. That's right.

That he did say that. Even though he's full of lies, you know, he can't even be honest enough to be a presence in my life before this moment. And then to just sort of dash right in and then dash right out is like pretty emotionally confusing. But, you know, I guess I'll take him at his word that maybe we shouldn't trust what's in the forest. The same way we shouldn't trust him because it doesn't make sense. I hug, I hug Rufus. Right.

Ruids kind of struggles against Grim's grip and then just kind of stops and just sort of stands like breathing heavy like a really upset eighth grader. Yeah. Aww. Yeah, you just feel the comforting embrace of this druid, just like a very wise creature just kind of holding you. I pat him on the back and say, let's press forward. Yes, let's.

He did say that about the flies. As you walk forward, you see these blue lights swirl and let it pass you by. Make one little perception check as you go by. Okay. 10. 9. 12. Yeah. You feel like you hear almost a little bit of a weird as you keep going. A little giggle.

Cribbage, are you laughing? Cribbage, is there something funny about the experience I just had? It wasn't me. That was one of those little lights over there. Cribbage points over at where that was. He was like, yeah, let's keep moving. Those are spooky to me. Okay. Cool. So you guys keep heading forward. You eventually...

start to slosh. Yeah, like the ground gets mushier and mushier to a point where there's sort of a natural little slope in front of you that you as you approach, you see that it is sort of a more primitive looking bridge. There's these like wooden planks over the surface of the swamp. It's like right on the water. So it's like

Still kind of there are parts of it that are like shallowly in the water. But as you step into this area, it looks more like the swamp is spreading out to a degree that like there aren't many other places to this bridge is here for a reason. We come to another bridge. We're good at bridges. Should we do the bridge?

I don't think we have much choice. This is like, also I should say, to paint the picture, it's truly like a little bit of a plank. That bridge that you crossed a few episodes ago was more like a massive roadway that has been kind of decayed. This is like someone spent their weekends making this. Okay.

It's like two by fours to keep you from not sinking. More like two by fours, yeah. With kind of spindly-looking ropes as guide rails. Well, cribbage. Go see if that's safe. Rufus. What? I mean, he is the lightest. It would be the most safe, technically, for him.

Well, we're right here, Cribbage. Huh. I guess everyone agrees that I should do it then? Okay, thanks. Do you want to tie yourself to me? Yeah, everybody tie me to them at all times. Everybody tie you to them? I don't think we're going to do that, Cribbage. I want to be floating suspended between the three of you. No. Like you're in one of those baby harnesses. Yeah, and you are all the post of my baby harness.

Yeah, that's not happening. That's my ideal setting. Cribbage, test the bridge, and we'll figure out how to make you a papoose. Okay. Walk on the papoose. And he hops off your shoulder, and he starts to step on the bridge, and he just kind of like does... Yeah, he just hops on it, and the plank just kind of bounces a little bit, but it holds his weight.

Okay. And this bridge is like going into the fog. You can't see where the end point of this. Well, who's next? I guess I'll go. How's the papoose going? Yeah, we're working very hard on the papoose cribbage. Seems like everyone's just standing there looking at me.

I'll do the bridge. I'll go next. Great. Curb it, I'm coming. Right. Freya just kind of like... Getting bored out here? Tentatively like touches it with her foot at first and then sort of starts sliding out on it. Cool. I mean, it looks like...

unsafe a little bit in that like it's you know something that is in the middle of the swamp that someone made that like is probably not up to code right but it doesn't seem like there's traps on it um at least at this point of it you know uh freya on the bridge you can make a perception check if you'd like great 10 yeah it just looks like you don't notice anything i guess yeah okay i mean i'm on it some uh

Okay, well, I'll walk out now, but we shouldn't stand at the same place, so you should probably continue forward as I walk out. Sure. Yes, okay, so now Rufus takes a couple of confident steps onto this rickety bridge. He shakes it a little. Rufus! What? Rufus, you start to, I mean, everyone as they get onto the bridge can make a perception check, so Rufus, you're on the bridge. 19. Whoa. Cool.

Rufus, as you walk, there's like, you know, it's they're a little slimy. So it's like a little like unsteady or I mean, it's less steady than you'd like, but the options are few and far between. So like you're looking down and even though it's sort of slimy, you're you do notice that there are like like you see like three lines kind of scratched into it.

Into what? Into the plank itself, where the algae is kind of scratched away. You see like a little bit of traces of almost like claw marks. Do we know what type of beast might have three claws and live in a swamp? Anyone? Your uncle? My uncle? No.

I don't know. I guess. I guess that's possible. But it could be. I'll say also on Rufus, you had a 19, is that what you said? Or 18? 19. On that, you look into the fog and in the water, you saw what felt like a twist of a tail. I saw a tail. I saw a tail in the water. There's a tail in the water. Tail in the water. Okay, okay, okay. Stop screaming. Maybe we should be quiet then. Rufus, calm yourself. I will come back and slap you. Okay.

Is someone going to do something about that? Does anyone know what could be in the swamp? Krimmage, what's that in the swamp? Probably an alligator or like a snake or... Jesus Christ. Maybe a dragon or like a... Maybe some sort of big bug or maybe like a sort of a... Is there something like a...

uh monkey um okay cribbage is all over the map with his suggestions you have no idea what you're talking about does can we get to cross this bridge please i guess i have to take a step up now right uh or you guys yeah it's up to you yeah yes i will continue the the bridge train cool uh grab you also walk out onto the bridge and um yeah you can make any uh any checks as you want as you guys start traveling i just rolled you said i can make a check

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It's very reptilian feeling. And I think on that check, you maybe would have seen also like the hint of the tail that Rufus saw. Like I'll say that you happen to see something similar and it feels a little similar to the crocodile that you saw in the last body of water you guys crossed. With the exception that something about this claw mark feels like something was

You see the faintness of a second set of claw marks and only two. So whatever this was felt bipedal versus something crawling on all fours. I don't like that at all. It's absolutely scatter away. It's time to scatter. I'm ready to scatter. So you guys continue. Yeah, how are you guys traveling on this bridge? Are you guys trying to stealth at all? Are you trying to just...

be close to each other. I don't know, gang. I don't know that we need to fully stealth. I think my instinct is like, let's all take our, like, can we dash across? Yeah. Can we take our dash action and just kind of be like, move quickly. The juju's bad. Let's press. Yeah, like maybe I get cribbage up on me again and...

We try to move. Yeah, Rufus is like spooked and is very interested in doing his little hopping sprinting across this bridge without looking around. And as a former crocodile, I don't need to deal with that anymore. You guys start...

across this bridge, moving quicker. Even though it's like, you know, an ominous fog that you can't quite see as much as you'd like through, you guys are moving pretty quickly across these bridges. You know, unfortunately, you couldn't see much of it at the start, but this feels like a pathway that goes pretty far. It wasn't like a path that was like just crossing a tiny body of water. This is like a straight up like trail almost. So,

So you guys are heading across this like weird little spindly bridge and eventually you see what looks like a kind of cloaked figure unconscious on the bridge. What do you guys do? Hold up. We got a body. There's a body up ahead. There is a body. Do you think it's Cranston? Do you really not know the name? Tell me later.

Don't tell her now. Hold your tongue. Well, only because I think we need to deal with this body. I think I'm going to inch closer to it and take a look. Yeah, let me know what skills you're using, whatever. Yeah, I don't have any magic abilities to assess the situation here beyond just getting close. I could try and restrain him. It would cost me a spell slot. Maybe we don't need it yet. I think maybe the only thing I could do is detect magic, but I don't.

Now that I need to do that or, or well, protection from, um, you guys can make just straight up regular checks without using spells. Okay. I'm doing perception check.

Yeah, same. Cool. Should we all? Go for it. 10. I got a 6. 24. Wow. Jacob, or I'm sorry, Grib, on a 24, you look at this body and you feel like it's breathing. You don't think that this is a dead person. But on a 24, you also see like a swirl of something in it that felt like beyond arms and legs, like maybe a hint of a tail.

And on a 24, I'll say you caught a little bit of a glimmer of something that

in the distance ahead of you as well on the bridge. - Grib, is this a trap? - Is this a lie? - It could be a friend of your friend. I imagine a werebear has friends that are all sorts of freaks, shapes, sizes, creeds. - A friend of his friend like in a romantic way or just in like a kind of-- - Just like a platonic pal, nothing cheap. - Do you have like a crush? It seems like you might have a crush on this guy. - Freya, what is going on with you and my uncle?

I don't know what you're talking about, and I haven't fully sorted it out, and I just don't know. I mean, I just don't see what's so great about the guy. So he's tall. I'm tall. I mean, he's got muscles. I've got muscles. Never mind. Anyways. I agree. Yeah, you guys see this body ahead of you. I think we should gently wake him up. Tell him that we're passing through, and then we didn't want to wake up his slumber. Yeah, he'll be like, we're not concerned about what this thing might be.

I think we are. Right now, he's just a tired thing. There's no danger. I'm going to go nudge him with my toe. Rufus walks up and kind of clenches his fists and approaches the body to nudge it with his toe. As you go to nudge it with your toe, the body pops up.

Saw this coming. Pulls out a Morningstar and takes two swings on you. No! No, I'm sorry, Tev. The cloak flies off. You see this lizard man raise a tortoise shell of his shield, hits it with its Morningstar, and takes the swings at Rufus. Yeah.

So Rufus, unfortunately, you're going to take these two swings. I thought he might have just been like a old lizard hermit man or something. You know? Damn. I'm taking what? Two swings? Yeah. Okay. So one's going to miss, but one I think will hit with the 22. Yep. So.

So that will be, you get hit for five damage as this guy pops up, surprising you. As this happens, you see this lizard man just kind of slinking, hitting his tortoiseshell shield with his morning star. And you see a green flame appear behind him. As you see another lizard can walk forward in a cloak, holding fire at his hand, uh,

seemingly casting something and then you hear another boom boom boom on a shield behind you oh my gosh you guys can roll initiative okay i should have cast protection on you this was 100 my fault 10 oh i critted cool if you crit add your initiative to that you know what i mean yeah 22

- 22, dang. - 17. - Great, so you guys are now surrounded on all sides by these lizardkin. This is seemingly a trap of theirs where they both are on either side of you holding shields out. One has a shaman behind him, seemingly trying to cast some spells. Freya, you are first to act. What do you do? - Rufus is still the closest to these people, yeah?

Well, there's one behind you guys as well. Jeez, I don't know. I just want to cast protection from good and evil on someone, but I can only do it on one person or one creature. Okay, I don't know. I guess I'll just attack them. Which one are you attacking? I'm going to attack the one behind me.

Cool. So you turn around, Freya, you turn around, you take out your sword. This guy's still holding a shield, but you're looking at, there's only one behind you, I should say. Okay. And you take your attacks. Great. Roll your attacks. Okay. For my attacks, I rolled an 11 and a 16. The 16 hits. Great. Roll damage and let me know if you're adding any smites or anything.

I'm just gonna go with the straight damage first, and I rolled a seven. Gotcha. Okay, so you hit this one guy for seven damage. He has a shield, and they have this kind of cobbled together looking armor feel. They probably looted other bodies. It feels like there's a reason that these Red Rust Clan guys don't like coming into the swamp.

but you're able to slash him. The other hit just clangs off his big tortoise shell shield, not hurting him at all. But that seven does hit him a little bit. After that, we have Grib, Grib, you're up.

I'm going to summon Zwom like near the caster. Cool. Like maybe, are you saying behind him or in front? Like, cause there's the guy with the shield in front of him kind of, you know, seemingly trying to like play some interference. I would say like behind the caster, which would, I guess also mean behind the shield person, right? Yeah. Yeah. So behind all of those guys, Zwom appears. Does he, what's his range on his like damage that he does? Uh,

You mean the dexterity saving throw? 10 feet. Yeah, like when he appears, right? 10 feet, yeah. Okay, so cool. Both these guys are going to get hit by that.

Cool. So they rolled a 14 and a 12. So the shaman rolled a 12, though. Yeah, the DC's 15, so. Okay, so they both get hit by this, so roll damage. Eight. Cool. So these guys are both hit by Zwom as he appears, does this sort of Ragnaros pose as he appears into our world. Hell yeah. I blaze. Good. And then Zwom gets a turn. Okay. Okay.

And he'll just do a Flame Seed on the caster again. Beautiful. Zwam takes his attacks. Ooh. Does an 11 hit? 11 misses. Great. You see the Flame Seed shoot off into the distance and disappear into the fog.

Thus ending my turn. Okay, that's the end of Grib's turn. After Grib, we have these shield guys. They kind of batter their shields as they step forward. One is still close to Rufus because of his surprise attack he got. And it's going to just take two attacks on Rufus. He swings his Morningstar and fully misses once, but then hits a second attack. So he's going to hit you for...

Only three damage. The other one is going to come at Freya, take two attacks as well. Six and a nat one, so he misses both attacks. Okay, great. After that, Cribbage is going to take a turn. The one that is close to Rufus, I think he gets sneak attack on because he is a little rogue. And so he is going to try to hit that one. So he is going to just try to throw a dagger at this guy in front of Rufus.

cribbage throws a dagger it nails this guy uh and he is going to this is actually a pretty meaty attack so cribbage hits this guy for 11 damage nice um the guy in front of you rufus gets a dagger into his shoulder uh as cribbage uh comes to your aim so that guy's been hit a good bit um after cribbage uh you see this shaman swirling flame in front of you try to prepare a spell and

freya uh you are you're fighting this guy behind you and as you wield your sword you feel something happen with your weapon uh and it gets starts to get really really hot in your hand uh and you look at it and it's glowing red hot uh make a you're just gonna yeah you don't actually make a check here you're going to make uh

You're gonna get hit for 2d8 as he has cast Heat Metal on your weapon. Ooh, that hits you for 13 damage. And make a constitution saving throw. Okay, 16. Okay, so you're able to hold onto your sword even though it's burning. It's still glowing red hot. It seems like the effect is still lasting even as the turn ends. After that, the shaman looks at you like,

It's speaking something that you can't understand. It's like this sort of... Does anyone here actually speak Draconic? Do you know if you're a character? No. I have a spell, speak with animals. No, I speak goblin. Hell yeah. So unfortunately, yeah, these are not considered animals. After that, the shaman kind of cackles in this language you don't understand. Oh, very funny. You feel like he's saying, it was very funny. Yeah.

Friends of yours, Tom? I don't know these guys at all. This is just a coincidence. Rufus, it is your turn now. Well, it's about time Rufus was able to recover. Let's say he got slashed in the chest twice by his boarding star, and then one more time he is stinging and bleeding from his chest. He's been knocked on his ass.

He screams an angry scream, channeling all the frustration he feels in terms of his family relationship with his estranged uncle wandering back into his life. And he says, he screams, where are you, Cranston? As he takes both axes and swings, goes up to swing both axes into the armpits of this lizard man. Incredible. Yeah, roll those attacks.

- A nine and a 20. - Oh. - The nine misses, but the 20 makes contact for sure. - Great. - Yeah, roll damage. - As this is happening, Freya locks eyes with Grib for a second and mouths M-O-M again. - And then I mouth, you're absolutely right. You were so good at noticing things. Great job. Let's chat more later. - Yeah, Freya, give me a perception check to see if you can tell.

- 17. - Okay, yeah, easy to understand. - Pitch a battle. - My hands burning off. - Yeah. Seven damage.

Seven damage. Okay. So, yeah, this guy... Yeah, Rufus, you do the double swing up. One side has a shield, so it's a little harder, and you smack into that, but the other side, you dig into his armpit, blood gushing out. It's disgusting. How's that for a soft spot? He's still standing. He's still standing, trying to, like, swing his Morningstar, but...

looks a little hard uh after uh yeah rufus do you do anything else no that's it i'm staying to finish this guy off hell yeah after that this guy uh tries to pound his shield again with this like torn arm uh i'll say that because of where you hit him he is not going to take that uh that morning star attack instead he's gonna reach forward and he's gonna try to bite okay motherfucker give it a shot

Give it a shot. Chompy, dude. Instead of using his Morningstar, which seems like hard to lift at his side, he snaps at you with his lizard maw. You see the teeth just like closing right in your face, not quite reaching you. And that's, I think, all he can do with his turn. Yikes. Coming up short, are you, you freak? Rufus. Rufus! I spit in the lizard's face.

It swallows your spit. Oh, heck yeah. He is a freak. I can't call this thing a freak. Now you can. Now you can. Now you can. It's allowed now. It spits straight up into the air and catches its own spit in its mouth. This is kink. I am part of a non-consensual sexual act with this. It looks a little uncomfortable. Like, I didn't mean that.

The other one is going to take a swing at you, Freya. It actually, yeah, it's going to take a swing with its Morningstar and also try to bash you with its shield. It's got like sort of raised spikes on it. And this is, oh God, two misses. Yes. It rolled a four and a five. Suckers. After that. Take that. Okay.

After the shield of guys, Cribbage looks up and he's like, he's looking at both guys. He's like, who do you guys think I should attack? Tries to get a little help or just input from you guys. He's a little overwhelmed. Is he near my front guy? Yeah, yeah. He's near that guy. Stab this guy, Cribbage. Stab this guy in the back of his dumb lizard head. Okay. Cribbage is going to... No problem. Do that. He gets...

Yeah, for sure hits. We're going to roll. Cribbage does 10 damage to this guy, and you see him stab the guy in the back of the head, and he just falls over dead. His body slinks into the water. Thank you, Cribbage. He's like, good idea. That was actually a really good idea. I never would have thought of it. What can I say? I'm full of them.

After cribbage, the shaman's turn. As that guy fell, the shaman is looking. So this guy seems to be like holding sort of this flame in his hand and you feel like it's attached to what he has done to Freya's weapon. And so he is holding that on. He's going to move forward and he's going to try to bite cribbage. Oh!

I'm going to kill this lizard. I'm going to kill this lizard. Okay. It's going to take a bite at cribbage and a claw attack at cribbage. I hate this lizard. Okay. He just slashes cribbage in the back with his claws, and that's going to do... Hits cribbage for four damage. Cribbage did not like that. Ow, my beak.

His beak. Pulled me right in that beak. His little, like, tunic, like, ripped open. This is my favorite tunic. You can't get them around here. They're just, like, arching his back. It's very much that energy. Just a guy who got whipped in an Indiana Jones movie. So you brought Zwaan. What have you done for your turn, Jacob? You brought Zwaan into the world, and that was it? That's my full turn.

Okay. So Freya, I got the order a little mixed up. Freya, it is now your turn. Okay, great. So you're holding this white hot, your sword is burning hot. What do you? Well, so I want to go. It feels like it's going to be harder to swing your weapon than you'd like. Oh, shit. Okay, but it seems like this shaman has this flame up and that is what is doing it. It's doing something. It's concentrating on your weapon.

- Okay, but if I do an attack with my great sword, am I attacking with disadvantage? - Yes, it looks like you're gonna be doing that. - Okay, okay. How many guys do we have left right now? How many lizards? - You just got the one in front of you and the shaman. So you have the shield guy in front of you and then the shaman on the other side of that. - Well, it may be dumb, but I think I'm going to attack with disadvantage anyway, and I'm just going to add a thunderous smite to it. - Give it a shot. - Okay, so you use your bonus action to have a,

like thundery kind of presence on this weapon as you take your attacks a roll. Roll with disadvantage and you have two attacks, so, you know. - Right. - Pair the rolls.

Okay, so a 10 and a 13. Fortunately, they both missed. Unfortunately, yeah, it's just the sword is burning. I'm sorry. You smell your gloves burning as your hand hurts. It feels like very, very hot in your hands. That's unfortunately Freya's turn. Grib, it is now your turn. You said all of them are wearing the armor, right? It seemed like the two guys surrounding you were wearing armor and then the shaman in the back was not.

Okay, and the shaman's the one that casted the heat metal, right? Yes. And he doesn't have any metal on him, it appears? No, it doesn't seem like his vibe. Okay, cool. And the other guy that's up, how bad is he looking? What's the status of both, actually? The other guy who's up only got hit for eight. The shaman also got hit for...

For eight as well, I believe, by your flame. Perfect. Grib will cast Heat Metal on the non-shaman. And I would like to heat his breastplate, if possible. Cool. So, yeah, he's wearing this scale mail. You see, like, that just start...

It's still fucking like two in the morning. So like it's dark except for this. You see his chest plate light up with this hot heat as he just like starts to like start screaming as his armor gets really hot. He's getting scrambled. Roll your damage for that, right? You just rolled damage. Yeah, it's just damage. I get to roll 48. 48. So you're casting it at a higher level? I'm casting it at level three and then I have my enhancement because Zwom's out.

Tight. 17. Cool. Okay, so he just takes 17 damage? Yeah. Damn. Okay, so... Zwams out, bombs out, you know? So this guy is badly hurt by that. He also has to make that constitution save. And otherwise he tries to just take his thing off, right? Mm-hmm. Okay, he makes his constitution save just taking the damage of this horrible burning chestplate on him.

But it doesn't affect his spell on me? No. The other guy has the spell. Oh.

So is he going to take off his armor then? So I'm reading the language of this. If a creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. So it can... I take that to mean that it has the choice now to take it off or not. So on its turn, we'll figure out if it takes it off. Great. And then that's the end of Grib's turn. And then I'll go ahead and do Zwom and I'll do the same seed flame that I did on the shamans.

Tight, tight, tight. Oh, nat 20 from Zwam, dude. Bam, bam. Baby. Baby, baby. Zwam, like a little no fear t-shirt, makes his cool pose and hocks up a nasty fire seed. Roll damage. How does that work with the crit again? It's just doubled the dice. So 2d6, if I'm not mistaken. Okay.

Yeah, baby. Seven plus three, so ten. Nice. Ten damage to this guy? Cool. Good hits. So this guy's taken, I think, 18 points of damage. Not doing too great. He's not as hardy as the other guys. They're both looking pretty fucked up. So now after Grib, it is the shield guy's turn. He's going to just rip his armor off.

and spend his turn, I think, doing that. It makes sense that he's the shield guy because I bet as a lizard man, he looks like Michael Chiklis. You know what I mean? And that's the kind of comedy you're getting an hour deep into the episode. Yeah. Like, it keeps coming. I'm still pitching curveballs. Yes. You know? Yeah.

Did Rufus say this or did Devin say this? That's a really good question. I'm going to say that Rufus said it in a weird trance-like moment that no one really understood and even he didn't understand. It's like that moment where your friend is kind of upset and then they make a weird joke and you're like, okay, they might be doing okay. But Rufus doesn't even know who Michael Chiklis is. You know what I mean?

He channeled another reality for a moment. Yeah, another dimension broke through. His eyes went purple when he said this joke. Rufus. Yeah, Michael Chiklis takes off his armor and then he's going to take his two attacks on Freya now. Fuck off. But his armor class has been lowered for taking off his armor.

He's rolling like garbage. He finally hit with his shield. So he's going to hit for only three damage, nailing you with the spike shield. After that, the other one's dead. It is Cribbage's turn. Cribbage is going to once again look to you guys and be like, who do you think wants it? Whoever's closest to you, Cribbage, just go and stab blindly. Stab Michael Chiklis. Oh, I forgot to roll a concentration check for this guy.

Yeah, he makes it. Actually, he does not make it. Freya, your sword, cool. You feel it just suddenly stop burning in your hand. Oh, really? As the shaman, having been hit by Zwam's nat 20, is unable to focus on his spell. Oh, that's better. After that, yes, Cribbage is going to take his attack on this dude. Let's see if he hits. What does he hit?

Cribbage does hit this dude. After that, yeah, Cribbage is going to take his attack or roll damage on this. He gets another sneak attack. And yeah, he throws a dagger through the shaman's head who falls over dead. After that, Cribbage destroyed that dude. That guy's turn was next. Rufus, it's your turn. There's this one last guy behind you. One last guy behind me. And I'm close enough to...

make some close contact or you know what? I'm, I don't need, it's a little awkward terrain by the way. Like you guys are basically on a line really. Well then I'm going to pull out my bow and tell anyone between me and this son of a bitch to duck. Cause I'm shooting at him. I love it. Yeah. Rufus, you line up the shot and yell duck. I'll roll your attack. I will. 10, 10,

Yeah, his armor class is lower, but unfortunately not that low. Fuck. As this clangs off his shield. After that, Rufus, do you do anything else? I check... Rufus checks his bow to be like, is this fucking thing broken? Uh...

You feel like cribbage is a little like on your side in this moment. And it's just like, yeah, what's going on with that bow? Do you get, is it, maybe it's wet. I don't know. It's like stuff is like broken or something. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe it's a little bit breaking. After cribbage or I'm sorry, after Rufus. Ray, it's your turn. Your sword now is no longer burning your hands as you look at this last dude. Great. Now that I feel better, I'm going to go ahead and attack him with my great sword. Perfect. Roll your attacks.

Oh, baby. She critted for one. So I rolled a 26 and an 11. Oh, yeah. The 26 hits for sure. Okay.

This guy's pretty fucked up. 11 damage. Freya, you're able to, as this man took off his scale mail because it was burning hot, you use that opportunity to stab him in the chest and get that dark blood. Give me that dark blood. They burned me and I don't feel this often, but I am mad. I am angry.

Incredible. Yeah, Freya, you kill this last guy as he drops lifelessly to the planks and just sort of slides into the water. With that, you guys are out of initiative on this little bridge, having survived this little ambush opportunity by them. I've got to be... I look around, I look at my friends...

And I go, I've got to be honest. I am tired of fighting. Or my name isn't Grib the Rock Johnson. Come on, Grib. This is your name this whole time? Your last name is the Rock Johnson? That's my last name. Sorry, what? Is that one word?

All I know is when I was dropped off, and this is why I normally tell people that I don't have a last name because it's a lot. It's a lot for people to take in. But when I was dropped off as a young lad, I had a piece of paper stuck to my seat and it said The Rock Johnson. Wow. So they thought that that was my family name and that's the family name that I've been given. The Rock Johnson. I think it's a lovely name. Gribb poses. Yeah, he shows off his biceps. Yeah, that's great. Does anyone else...

Wonder if there's any more of these goddamn lizard men. That was awful. I mean, I bet that there are probably more somewhere else in this swamp. We got to get the hell out of here, okay? We're trying to find this outpost of my uncle's that he's led us to our death, frankly, and I don't know if I trust this guy.

I trust him. Is that green flame that we saw earlier any clearer? You saw the shaman holding the green flame. Copy that. This was like maybe a bit of a sneaky shaman thing. Ah. Sneaky like, you would maybe presume that these lizard folk know of Ransden, Lowell Ransden. We're trying to like kind of have like a bit of a trap going. I understand that.

So you don't see a flame at all anymore, but you know the direction to head in general. Let's keep going and just get the hell out of this place. Yes. I want to apologize to my friend.

Sincerely, your friend, Gribb the Rock Johnson. You don't have to, you know... Gribb, it's not your fault. You're calling everything in this goddamn forest Cutler this, Cutler that, Cutler this, Cutler this. You seem really proud of your name. Those are the names for it. And that was a normal thing. Those are what they're called. So I want to be feeling normal. I want to be a normal guy. Here's my last name. It's Gribb the Rock Johnson. You want to be a normal guy? Because all I'm seeing is an elephant screaming at me that his name is the Rock Johnson.

No, really. Rufus! What did you call me? Stop! What did you call me? Stop right now before you say something. And that left me. Gribb does that thing. You know when a grown man is trying to not cry and you hear that lump in his throat that is just the tears that he swallowed and he points at Rufus and he goes, You don't know what it's like to be me!

And he storms off forward. No! Rufus, yeah, you see Gribb, Throck Johnson, heading forward into the fog and disappears in front of you. Rufus kicks his feet into the bridge and kind of looks down and is like, I didn't mean it to be a whole thing. Well, unfortunately, Rufus, he can't hear you because he's gone. Whatever's going on with you, I hope you figure it out before you permanently damage...

Excuse me? I don't need to figure anything out. I'm going to go find Crib. I rock forward into the fog. Also, like, lump in throat. Cribbage, it's just you and me. If you want to hop on, we can follow these two. Cribbage is gone. He steps back out of the fog. He's like, sorry, what were you saying? Nothing. Nothing. Do I look okay? Yeah, it's, like, pretty dark. Okay, let's go.

You guys head forward. There's like eventually you're walking along this little sliver of a bridge for a little longer and it pops out into a bit of a clearing where there's like a soft patch of grass that feels a little less rank and disgusting. Grib, are you waiting for them or are you just heading forward yourself? I think like for the dramatics of it, I think it'd be very funny if like Rufus came up on me like emotionally sitting on a rock.

And Rufus kind of like approaches the rock, like not quite looking at him. You approach the rock or the rock, Johnson? I approach Grib on the rock and I point to the rock he's sitting on and I go, was that your brother or something? I turn to him and there is a smile because I do get it. I do get it. Grib goes, at least you got to know your mother and father.

And yes, this is my brother. My best family friend. Rufus puts a hand on Grim. I barely knew my mother. It's the truth and...

Suppose if I were to look at that hard and kind of examine what that might have done to me psychologically, I'd wonder about what sort of emotional holes were still in my personality looking to be filled by outside validation from almost any external adult, really, regardless of gender or species. And in that way, maybe I'm looking to fill that void. That could be a conclusion I'd arrive at. I don't think that's true. I'm fine.

Yeah, and if we're talking theoretically, theoretically, it's... One of the saddest things I can think about is how deep the holes inside of us can be. Deeper than any holes in the universe. Luckily, we're healthy, aren't we, friend? I feel great. No problems here. Forgot about it all. Cribbage is just staring at the two of you. Cribbage, mind your business. Okay, then. You guys...

Just keep doing whatever you're doing. There you all are. You've stormed off. Have you made up? We worked it out. Maybe we're not as different as we think we are. And I've learned not to use the E word. Thank you. And I've learned to not leave. I should talk about my feelings instead of running away from them.

I haven't learned that part yet. And I was just wondering, did your uncle like give us a clear time when he was maybe going to try and meet us? Or did we have sort of a night? He said midday. So, um, I think you guys have been walking through the night and he was leading them off into another direction. So you probably have time. I mean, if assuming you get to where you need to go, you probably would have time to rest a little bit, but, um,

Yes, it seems like he's going to meet you guys in several hours. Well, let's try to move forward to that outpost so that we can rest before he arrives. Yes, I know that that is helpful to beauty. Freya, what are you going to say when you run into Cranston? I don't know. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You know his name. I'm just... Okay. Okay.

okay well it just felt like maybe you were doing a thing where you say his name feels like you're deflecting from the question wait no i'm not i don't know what i'm gonna say probably hello good day god be with you cribbage looks up he's like were you asking freya it seemed like you weren't asking freya right no i was asking freya oh that's interesting oh okay i see uh

He just walks over to a different side of the little mound you guys are on and just pretends to be looking into the water. As you guys are just on this little, you've made it through this rickety bridge area, make a perception check. Okay. You're not going to like it. Five. 24. 17. On a 17 and a 24, you guys hear what sounds like a commotion.

in front of you further into the fog. You hear what sounds like the sounds that you just faced lizard wise. You feel like you hear more of those guys fighting something. The other noises you hear don't sound really that familiar to you. That's within the fog itself. Let me know what you do. - Is that the only way ahead of us?

It's kind of widened out at this point. It's not a plank that you have to cross, but yeah. Did you two hear something? What's going on? You don't hear that? No. What? No. Huh? It sounds like someone's facing a similar fate that we were with some more reptilian lads. I wouldn't mind doing a reptilian barbecue. You say you don't mind attending a reptilian barbecue? Is that what it is? Yeah, I want to barbecue some reptiles.

Cool. Yeah, so you guys hear that I'm ahead of you? Let me know how you proceed. I draw my axes and walk off into that goddamn fog. You know, it just would have been better if he'd been in a better emotional place and we could have made better, more grounded choices here. But I guess we're fighting more lizards. Well, we should help whomever might be in trouble. That's a good point, Grib. You're a good being. Gribbage pipes up and says, you know,

It seems like this place is full of lies. That's all I'll say. Do we think that's fake? A trap? Perhaps. I don't know. I mean, it's worth checking out, but I don't know. Maybe we just put our peepers on it and then maybe decide then. Okay. Good plan, Krivich. Let's quietly investigate. And if somebody needs help, maybe we jump in. Yeah. Cool. You guys sneak for me. Make stealth checks if you want. 17. 17.

13. 13. Cool. I think that's, like, these guys are, it sounds like a pitched battle, so it doesn't feel like people are really paying attention to anything else going on. Out of the fog, you see this large form slowly moving. It's got, like, a massive body that is

It's hard to discern the shape of, as you also see the smaller forms darting around. You see one of them get thrown really far into a big rock and just die. Just like their back breaks and falls over, and you see a lizardkin just fall over dead. And then you look, as you come out of the fog, to see this last lizardkin being held by this shambling mouse.

of roots gnarled up together with clots of mud just kind of dripping off of it as it just breaks this last lizardkin in front of it. Yeah, make nature checks. 15. 18. 7. On an 18, it feels like, you know, I think rib is probably...

more aware of the natural world in a lot of ways and you know probably looking out for things that probably connect to him this doesn't feel like something that's a lot you know like this does not feel connected to the natural energy that you're tapping into this is like kind of a big old creepy monster that doesn't

connect to the natural world in the same way that you connect to it. But on that 18, you see in its back, there are dead lizardkin just stuck in the body. And there's also this sort of wooden staff coming out of its back. It does feel like this thing was caught up with these guys and maybe hasn't clocked y'all yet. Crib is just going to pipe up and he's like, should we go around? What do you guys want to do? Let's continue to be silent.

I could, of course, jump up and kill that thing, but I'm not going to do that right in this moment. It seems like maybe we'd give it a slightly wider berth, but do we have any understanding of what that staff might be in its back? Could I try and do some check? I don't think you're really going to be... I would say, yeah, make a check with disadvantage just because it's like...

Middle of the night, you happened... I think on that nature check, you were able to even see it. And then, yeah, without... It would be even hard if you were just holding it in your hands. Damn, I rolled a 20. I rolled a 24 and a 7. Damn. Okay. Oh, damn. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Grib, it's hard to get a read on whatever's in that creature. But yeah, let me know what you guys end up doing. It seems like you can go around...

I like Cribbage's idea, right? Of going around. This could be another trap. Yeah, I don't think a staff is going to be enough for me to be like, let's fight this thing. I have so little spells. I have so little...

stuff that I could do. Yeah, and I'm slightly injured. This thing seems enormous. Even if it is a projection of some kind of magical thing, our goal should just be to get to this outpost rather than go with a giant. Yeah, I agree. Cool. So we can roll a stealth and maybe try and move around or make a diagonal in and out. Cool, yeah. I mean, yeah, give me your stealth checks and let's see. I am not very stealthy. Oh, fine.

But I rolled a 21. Cool. I rolled a 20. Freya, do you have your armor on? A 15. Oh, so I need to do disadvantage. Well, then I rolled a seven. As you guys are trying to sneak around it. Freya. Sorry. The Clank Queen. Yeah. This lumbering creature having just killed these lizard can turns as the Clank Queen herself clanked on. Fight or flee. What do you guys do?

I don't know, gang. What do you think? How big is it? How big is it? It's large. It's considered... Is it bigger than 20 square feet? I don't think it's bigger than that, no.

And what type of... Let me know right now, or it's going to kill... What type of visual clue do we have as to where the path for the outpost is? Is there a trail that is like, we think we're close, or what? You feel like there's a bit of a trail on the other side of this thing, and I think you guys are at a point where you can kind of dodge past this creature. Let's just run. It feels like a dumb troll. Let's run. And if we need to fight it, if it catches us in some way, we will, but we'll try to dart. Okay. Okay.

It is going to make two attacks as you guys run by. I'm going to do just rolls that ran. Let's say one through five, Grib, six through ten, Freya, eleven through fifteen, Rufus, and Grib is the last. Okay, Grib and Rufus. It's going to take a swing at each of you. Let's see if it hits.

I'm sorry. I'd like to see it. It heard me. I blew it earlier. It's okay. It got a nat 20 on grip. Cool. That hits. That'll hit, babe. That's... And Mrs. Rufus. Some are more fortunate than others. 17 damage to grip. Oh, man.

And you are grappled. What does that mean? Can I have a reaction or no? A reaction to what? Being grappled or... Not at all. You got hit and then you're grappled. Got it. So this creature has grabbed you guys. Grabbed just Grib. Everybody just roll initiative, I guess. Yeah. Sorry. Grib, what are you doing right now? I mean, what's it like being held by this thing? It's feeling cold, muddy, and...

I do feel like I might get a slight exfoliation from the experience, but it's terrifying and I won't. I rolled a 15. 14.

22. Nice. Sorry, gang. You have to fight this creature now. This is my fault. I did this. I can't blame Marcy. So, yeah, Rufus, I mean, sorry, Grib, you feel the cold embrace of this thing's wet, muddy roots. You don't feel any sort of natural intelligence within it. I mean, it does feel like there's an intelligence there, but you don't feel like a connection to it. It doesn't feel like something you should be friends with.

Okay, so Rufus, on a 22, you go first. Let's see. Let me know what you do. Is there any chance of... Because this thing is tree roots.

Is there any chance of like cutting this thing in a way that it will let go of grip? It feels like so like that kind of clay man from Batman where it's like other parts will like take the spot. It feels like Googling clay man. Hold on just a second. Clayface. Clayface. Clayface. Oh, yes. Totally.

Well, Rufus is going to treat it like, even though it looks muddy, like that is a branch to be chopped. And he's going to swing both axes at the spit of mud that is holding Grib. And I'll say, you guys saw it fighting these lizard guys. It definitely killed those guys, but it definitely took some damage as well. So it's not full health. All right, I'm going, let go of the rock, Johnson. I attack both. Ooh.

Not good. 14 and a 12. They both miss. He just swings through. They just go through the mud with no consequence. Yeah. You're just slicing into not the roots, but just muddy areas that just kind of seal themselves back up. And then I kind of look at my axe handles and I'm like, are these things broken? What the heck? Cribbage also nods like, yeah, what's going on with them? Freya, it is your turn. This mount's swallowing.

Oh my gosh. Okay, well then I might not do the Bless spell because I'm going to need to do a Thunderous Smite, I think. Roll an Insight check for me. Okay, 12. On a 12, I feel like you notice a bit of a crackle in this thing's eye of something that feels similar to that energy. Sorry, what energy? As she's thinking of the Thunderous Smite, she sees like a bit of a crackle and it's sort of...

plant-like eye. Okay, so it feels like Thunderous Smite is the move, maybe. Or does it mean that it's not the right move? Grib? Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and do a Bless spell if I can. Okay, who are you doing? I'm gonna Bless Grib, I'm gonna Bless Rufus, and I'm gonna Bless Cribbage. Okay, cool. So they're all Blessed. You guys can roll a d4 on every roll now. So that could help

I think it's just... Attack roll. I think you can add it to... Can you read it? Yes. So I can bless up to three creatures of my choice within range, and the range is 30 feet. Okay.

Whenever a target makes an attack roll or a saving throw before the spell ends, the target can roll a D4 and add the number rolled to the attack roll or saving throw. Okay. So yeah, you can roll it on your attack or saving throw. I don't think it says like straight up ability checks. So when it says attack, that's to hit, right? That's not to damage. Yeah, not damage. Got it. Just to hit. Great. So yeah, great.

Freya has blessed you all. After that, Freya, can you do anything else your turn? Can I do an attack still? Bless, I believe. What does it say? Is it an action or a bonus? It's an action, yeah. Cool. So that is Freya's turn. Grib, it is your turn. Great. I'm going to cast a level three Burning Hands.

He's got to make a dexterity saving throw. Okay. 15. It doesn't pass, but do your attack. 21. Yeah, you're able, as it's swinging you around, you're able to blast it with his fire, but you see the muddy...

in its body seems to absorb some of the flame and it doesn't take as much damage as you would have hoped. Yeah, it takes 11 damage. Okay, cool. And now I assume Zwan was next to me when this happened. Yeah, Zwan was out. You never put Zwan back, so yeah. So I'm going to use Fiery Teleportation. The spirit and each willing creature of your choice within 5 feet of it teleport up to 15 feet to unoccupied space as you can see.

Each creature within five feet of the space that the spirit left must succeed a dex saving throw and take damage. Oh, so you're saying Zwom comes to you and teleports you out of the area? Yes, dude. Amazing. Hell yeah. Zwom, when he teleports, he touches his temple just like Goku. And he gets us out of it, dude. Hell yeah. Do you roll damage for that? Well, we got to see if he makes the dex saving throw.

The creature. The shambling mount. The creature. Okay. Rolled a... I don't think he has much dex. Yeah, he has negative... Okay. So he rolled an 11. Okay, great. So he does take damage. He's going to take 1d6, 3 fire damage. Rolled the damage.

Ooh, nine. He only takes four of this, but you're teleported out of the body of this creature. Very good, because you would have taken a lot of damage on your next turn. Cool. After Grib, Cribbage is going to use this chaos to try to take an attack. Definitely hits and rolls sneak attack damage. Nice. Cribbage hits for 10 damage. So this guy's been hit...

You guys are doing damage to this and it's been pretty hurt already. After cribbage, who just throws a dagger into its plant-like eye as it makes this weird moaning noise, it's the shambling mound's turn. It's going to look up. It's going to come for cribbage with a multi-attack and take a slam attack at cribbage.

That's going to hit. No. Cribbage is hit for... That's a lot of damage for Cribbage. Cribbage. Cribbage gets hit for 18. Cribbage. Cribbage. Cribbage is not looking good. Oh, my God. Get out of there, Cribbage. And after Cribbage goes, or after he hits Cribbage, he's going to take a swing on Freya. Damn. Okay. It does hit Freya as well. Freya, you get hit for 13 damage, and you are grappled as well. No. You're both grappled.

So next turn, you're going to take some damage there from being engulfed. In addition to the 13 that I just took. Yeah. So at the start of its next turn, you feel like it's going to pull you in and crush your body more. After the mound goes, Rufus, it's your turn again.

Well, Rufus has got to see his friends get snagged by this son of a bitch. He's going to swing on it. Just just windmilling his axes. Incredible. Yeah. Roll your roll your text. OK, the first one is the first one is 21. The second one is 25. Both hit for sure. Roll your damage. Things not looking great. I'll say that.

Great for a big mound. Not great for a... Yes. 18 damage. Both were nine. Damn. That's a significant amount of damage. This thing looks kind of woozy as a lizard-kin guy just kind of falls out of its body. But it doesn't drop me? It doesn't drop you. After Rufus Freya, it's your turn. You're still on the body. I don't know. I don't think you can...

So a grappled creature can use its action to escape. You would need to succeed a strength or dexterity check. That can be athletics or acrobatics. But that uses your action as the trade-off. Okay, otherwise I could attack with my melee weapon from inside? Yeah, you could. Okay, then I'm going to go ahead and do... I'm just going to kind of struggle inside and do a great sword attack.

Awesome. Roll your attacks. You rolled two attacks, right? Yeah. Okay, a 19 and an 11. 19 hits. Okay, great. For my damage, I'm going to do it with Divine Smite. 21. Freya, while you are trying to decide what to do, being grabbed by this horrifying, rude-y creature...

You end up deciding to go for the attack, and with the holy energy flowing through your sword, you're able to stab it through its chest, and with a burst of light, the entire thing unconstitutes and falls to a pile of roots on the ground, dead. Oh. Kill shot. Kill shot. Thanks, B.

You both, you and, not Zawam, you and Cribbage just sort of like plop to the ground. Very muddy, very gross, but alive. I run over to Cribbage, unexpectedly emotional, and kind of like go put my hands on him and be like, Cribbage, Cribbage, speak to me. Cribbage, Cribbage, are you here? I am here, completely here. Oh, okay. I thought I lost you there for a second. Wow, I've never seen you come running to me at every...

And you never will again. Let's move on, folks. I'm going to give Cribbage a cure wounds because he's pretty bunched up, right? He's not doing very good at all. He's fair to see if he's all there, honestly. I forgot how wounded he is. Yeah, I check in with my buddy and he's not looking too good. So I cure his wounds. Kiss of the trunk to the cheek. Radiant, beautiful, healing green light. And I'm also going to inspect that.

Yeah. You see this pile of roots and just kind of dig through it to find a staff that is like a wooden kind of gnarled staff that looks like it's made of sort of a different wood, like something not of the swamp. Yeah, make a nature check with advantage. 22. Yeah, you feel like a deep druidic presence in this. Something about it feels very right in your hands. Dibth.

I'm just saying dibs. You're calling dibs. Grib's calling dibs. Grib dibs? Did someone say cribbage? This is my dibs. Okay. If everybody's okay with that, I mean, if anybody objects, it just feels really, it feels like it's mine. I would say it might be Freya's choice, considering she, you know, swung the blow that killed this thing. Oh, I thought you'd forgotten me. How kind. How could we ever...

It just normally happens every few days. It just feels like you're not forgettable at all. We're like all having a conversation together. We're like all talking. We watched you rip a giant forest swamp beast asunder. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it about me. I mean, I really will remember seeing you do that for the rest of my life. Don't lie. Grib, you keep it. And what a gentle thing to heal cribbage.

Thank you so much. I'll say you guys head forward. You feel like yourself climbing a bit of elevation in the swamp out of way below sea level, feeling wetlands to this sort of like...

a little more of a grassy hill. You're coming out of the fog a little bit, and you see a cave with a green torch out of it. A cave in the side of this hillside that doesn't feel like there's a human presence, except that there is this sort of torch outside of it with a green flame. I think it's time we get to rest our eyes. That seems like it's got to be the outpost. This looks like the place. Yeah, probably my stupid uncle's house or whatever.

He lives in a cave like an animal. That's interesting. I was just thinking how much I like the name Lowell. Lowell? Yeah, Lowell, your uncle's first name. It's barely a name. It's like one letter repeated so much. Rufus. It's dumb. Shall we go in? I think you're tired. Yeah, let's go in.

Cool. You guys head in and you feel as you walk towards this cave that there is a similar energy that you were kind of blessed with earlier by as you cross through sort of a threshold that

almost feels like you crossed a membrane, so to speak. And you are inside this cave. You feel like kind of the, the, the sort of dry it's, I mean, there's like a wetness to like the bottom layer of the cave, but it's much drier than the actual swamp itself. As you enter this deck, is this cave dry or wet? Listen, it's in between. It's a little hybrid, um, drier than the swamp, wetter than our houses. Um,

So that, does that make any sense? So you're out of the swamp, really. And in the cave, there is a light that's like a little further into it. You know, it's like very traditional cave. You got stalactites, stalagmites, not a lot going on here in terms of like a human presence, except towards the back, there is this cauldron that's seemingly used for just sort of like simple cooking. But then there's also a ladder going down or up going up.

Kribbage dashes up the ladder, climbing as fast as he can. You see a pop of light as some kind of hatch opens up. It's now basically morning at this point as Kribbage enters the top of the cave. And he goes, oh, cool. Cool? What's cool? Come see this, guys. Guys.

Okay, I follow. I follow Kripage excited like I'm walking fast like when a teacher tells the class to line up at the door. I'm like speed walking to the front of the door to get there first. I follow Rufus sort of like hoping there's a mirror up there. Yeah, I'll fall asleep. Yeah, you guys all climb this ladder up into what looks like

basically just like kind of this like forestry like outpost like it's on stilts like it's a little hut on stilts looking out over the forest and past the swamp oh a watchtower yeah a bit of a watchtower in the middle of the swamp beautiful um yeah and from here you can see

so like you've been kind of lower elevation i'd say for a lot of this we're not able to get like a full vantage point of it but from here this is like the deepest you've ever been in the forest and you are looking out and seeing it go endlessly on further um i'll say that also to the north you see the kiptide mountain where the mountains the mountain trail that uh

that you would know is where your father and brother have gone, curving around to what looks like a big kind of fortress on the hillside. That must be where my family is. We're closer than ever before. Hopefully my uncle can show us the way. Yeah, and as you're up here, you see what looks like little...

bits of a person's just sort of campsite like there's like a simple cot or like a sleeping arrangement like uh uh fran just give me a luck check for a mirror oh i rolled a four dang yeah i mean you could maybe look at your reflection in that cauldron but outside of that no mirrors unfortunately oh she like spits on her hand and tries to like wipe mud off of her face

Gross. Yeah, I'll say that you guys have enough time to just take a long rest at this point. That sounds tasty. Let's take a rest, baby. Long rest. Take it easy. What a treat to sleep. As you guys rest, I'll say that

You know that he's coming in an amount of hours that makes sense for you to just like take a full night's sleep in the morning. And eventually you hear something approaching the cave and passing through. It sounds like straight up a bear running through the forest. And here's sort of a sort of the shaking of a body that like is maybe transforming. And you see the powerful figure of Lowell Ransden coming.

climb up to where you guys are. He's got like a lot of blood on him. He sets this huge axe into the wall and these like posts that are seemingly designed for it. Gets some jerky out of his pocket and starts eating it like he's like really quiet like kind of that like you know that weird camping thing where you're just like not talking. He's just sort of has that energy about him. Takes a deep breath. Hello. Sorry. Sorry. I'm not used to. Toodaloo.

I'm not used to talking to people. Hi. What's up? Hi. Hello. Hi. Wow. He looks at everyone and he's like, Nephew, it seems like you have some fine friends here. Yes, I do. They've been more supportive of me in just the few days that we've known each other than you have maybe my entire life. I'm sorry. I wish I could have been there for you. It seemed like, to be honest, it felt like your father didn't really...

want us around that's okay i forgive you i forgive you i forgive you look to freya and i'm out okay that was fast yeah you see even lao's face like oh i thought this would come later like just wrapped rufus up in a hug he's like my god look at you another i know you have a

It's been a really long time since I've seen another one of us. So you were my mother's brother? He nods. He eats his jerky. What was she like? Well, she was, I guess, like me. Our family was charged with protecting the King's Forest for many generations prior to the war that consumed this continent.

And with that choice, we were given the sort of lycanthropy abilities that you see before you. We were sort of the bear wardens of the forest. My mom was a big bear? Your mom was the biggest of bears. Wow.

Rufus gets choked up and has to look away into the distance as he's thinking about his mom, the bear. Freya locks eyes with a grab and goes, his mom was a bear? His mom was a bear. It's not something that was passed genetically, I should say. It's a choice that was given to... Am I a bear? Am I a bear? Shoot me straight. Am I going to become a bear or something? Rufus, you currently are not a bear.

It is only kind of wish I was, it's only passed through very intentional. It's, it's very, it's passed very intentionally from person to person. Uh, it's not like we are, I would say, um, it's not like a werewolf where sort of an out of control creature spreads it wherever it can. Um, where bears have sort of restraint in that respect where we try to only choose those who would, would do the job properly.

Like me? Maybe. Yeah, so probably me. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah, I'll mull it over. Well, listen, my father and brother are missing in this forest. Do you have any idea of where they have been? Well, Al thinks about this. He's like, where were they? Can you tell me more? What happened?

They were headed on the trail up to the keep when they disappeared. But I assume they would have continued on there or maybe made it there before the road itself, the bridge that connected it, collapsed. I don't know. I don't know where they are. Well, they're headed. He kind of looks worried for a second and is like, headed to Walden Keep. That's not good. Not good? Not good.

He thinks about it for a second. He's like, I think eventually the Red Rust Gang or the Red Rust Clan is headed that way to try to take that forward as well. They were looking for bits of technology that maybe would help them in the process to hold that area because it is not the easiest place to hold in some ways. And also there is the people who used to hold Walden Keep

generations ago were very I want to say they were wizards that were into some strange stuff so in general I don't think that's a good place to be

Well, then we've got to go there. Okay. And he looks... We've got to save them. Sure. Let's do it. He's like, he's on board. But he's like, but who are the rest of you? I need to know this group of people before we... Loxodon friend, it's been a while since I've seen one of you. Yes. Now that you bring that point up, I'll introduce myself. My name is Grib the Rock Johnson. It's a pleasure to meet you. Um...

Have you seen other people like me amongst this forest? Thinks about it for a second. He's like, yes, it's, I mean, I feel like we, it's been a while, but they, I mean, generally your people are further north. They are sort of charged with protecting us from that volcano. Of course, the volcano. Yes, of course. The volcano? Yes. I mean, yes. I don't know how much you know about your people, but they're,

elemental protectors that will protect this how much what do you guys know about this world we'll be honest we're coming in pretty pretty strapped for cash he looks at you guys and he's like and and you what's your deal he looks to freya um freya just turns bright red

Letha's Freya, she's one of the most amazing people you'll ever meet. Up until recently, her deal was just sort of that she was menstruating. No! No! Look at Rufus. I slap him with my trunk on his chest. What? What? That was what was going on. I don't know. He's like, nods. I'm sure there's more to it than that. Are you?

Are you a child of Zophine? I am. How did you know? Well, nods, and he was like, well, obviously, I can smell the energy of Zophine wherever it may be, and it's... You smelled me? You know. Hmm? You smelled me? I smell everything. I'm, you know, it's... Yeah, this guy smells everybody. He hasn't smelled me. Huh? Wow. Hasn't smelled me.

He takes a deep whiff of Grib. Yes, just what I thought. And he's like, well, I mean, he looks really sad at the mention of Zophie. Oh, no. And he's like, well, obviously from the great war that was happening, we had sort of a lot of powers at play. And do you know how the forest itself was made? I don't know. Kind of thinking deeply about how to articulate this. And he's like, well,

It's hard to say exactly how it started, but I know in my mind what made things worse. One day, the enemy had a new weapon, and it was a level of technology we hadn't seen before. And once these artificers took the battlefield, they were able to decimate whole legions of Malgos foot soldiers with their advanced weaponry, and our king, King Archer, died.

chose to violate his lands and destroy the natural world around him in order to have the resources to compete. In order to gain the upper hand, each nation essentially ruined itself until the skies were completely strangled with smoke. Eventually, there was almost nothing left of the natural world to protect, and that's when Zofien took action. He really did not have that many choices left. I don't know all there is to know about this, but I can tell you what I understand.

There are many gods, and most of them seek to control our world. It is a delicate balance of many forces and gods of all sorts, you know, demons, devils, angels, and other things I don't even have a name for. They all seek to control our specific world, the material plane. Though the one rule that no god can seem to break is that they themselves cannot step foot onto our world. If they do so, they pay a great price, and...

That was one that Zofien felt there was no way around. And so with the natural world almost completely gone, Zofien came to our plane and sacrificed her existence to create the Endless Hole. No! He's like kind of tearing up a little bit. And with her sacrifice, she was able to end the war.

as the natural world dominated the landscape suddenly. It was a great splash of her magic across the world as she sacrificed her mind. The forest exists now, but there is no god looking out for it anymore. No! Her sacrifice was extremely powerful, though. I would say that the problem with it, unfortunately, was that it only bought us time. It was a devastating blow to all the enemies of our world, but none were outright defeated and

And now they grow stronger each day, knowing that the natural world, though vast as it may be, remains extremely vulnerable. We are surrounded by enemies and I fear we do not stand a chance. And he just sort of looks out into the trees as he says this and takes a deep breath of the mountain air. So that's basically everything about the forest. After the world essentially fell, me and my siblings who were

Freya's just like silently crying.

gripping her prayer beads. Rufus is just redoing the leather seals around his axe handles, going, no, God, got it. Well, I guess I've been alone for a long time. I shouldn't say that there is just no God that protects the forest. Her magic is all throughout it. The werebear curse that I have is...

part of Zophine's magic itself. There are people who have been blessed by her magic, but there is no conscious god shaping the will of the forest anymore. What can we do? I want to fight to save the forest and the natural world. Well, it's kind of a war being fought on all sides with very little... There's very little, unfortunately, organization on our end. Is there other places in this world where gods do not watch over us?

Or fight over the ocean, mountain cities. There are different places where I guess the material plane has more of a soft spot where other gods from other realms can have more influence, but none of them can outright enter our world. If that's what you mean. Yes. But I also don't know everything there is to know about it, if I'm being honest. Seems like you know a lot. Super smart guy. He sighs. He's like, I've been doing this a long time.

Sadly, that's the situation we're in now. But Rufus, sorry to lay this on you like that. How is everyone doing? Well, I'm personally being reminded of some of my biggest fears, which if you were to maybe tune in next week, you could hear about. About what your biggest fears are? Yes, my biggest fear. Well, I'm devastated. I'm just feeling prepared.

To finish this off once and for all, I don't know about any of this god mumbo jumbo. Hey! I just know. That's my god! Okay. Sorry. Don't say sorry when you don't mean it. You can't say it. That's the takeaway. But I'm ready to help my friends to find the answers. Perhaps the forest doesn't have a god watching over it, but it has a lot of... It has a lot of individuals doing that. Wow. That's right.

Um, he was like, but there are other people that we can unite with to make an impact. He sighs. He's like, there's sort of a group of group of other people cursed like me who, um, it's kind of embarrassing, but, uh, they, they're like, um, we should, uh, at some point should round them up to have a conversation about protecting the forest. And it's nice to have new allies to bring into that conversation.

Yes, take me to these other people who are just like you. I would love to meet them. The name's kind of stupid. Looks around. The name? Yeah, the other guys who have been cursed like this. It's sort of a stupid name. I didn't pick it. What's the name? What is it? I don't want to say. Please say. Well, you obviously want to say it. Just say it. It's the Beast Lords. I know, right? Like, I didn't come up with it. I think it's good.

No, it's good. Yeah.

No, it's okay if you don't like it. I like it. Let me process it. I feel like I'd have to see the whole group together and then be like, oh, these are the Beast Lords. Right, let me see. Yeah, I don't need any more information. And with that, I think we'll end the episode. Everybody, we found out a little bit more about the world we live in. You guys got through the slog of the swamp and it looks like Walden Keep is in your sights.

I think that's it for today. Does anybody have anything they want to plug? Yeah, please check out the Friends Talk Frasier and Feelings podcast that I host with Talia Tabin. We talk about the show Frasier and also mental health. And all of these characters will be on it at some point. Incredible.

Please check out the firsthand podcast hosted by myself and Greg Gallant. And everyone of these creatures has already been on it. We're a bunch of creatures. Everybody just try a new restaurant this week. Thanks. Well, that's it for today. We'll be back next week with the artwork. We'll talk about the things that our friends avoided in this forest and swamp. I mean, and talk a little bit more about the episode today. So thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. Thanks. Bye.

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 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 Sakoyama and Jasper William Cartwright, which is me.