Up the River Without a Paddle | Blood of the Wild S1 E6 | Pathfinder 2E Quest for the Frozen Flame

Hey what's going on guys it's your good buddy Joe O'Brien and I want to thank you for listening to the Glass Cannon Network. Because you are here because you're listening you know that we're committed to making high quality entertainment. We want you to feel like you're here at the table laughing with us, crying with us, celebrating with us because you are becoming an official member of the nation by joining our subscription service is by far the best way that you can support all of the creators here at the GCN. And not only that you'll also unlock hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of hours of exclusive podcasts, videos, campaigns, side quests and behind the scenes high jinks that you just can't get on the public feet and it's all ad-free. If you're ready for even more laughs for more danger and more GCN head to join the nation dot com and subscribe that's join the N-A-I-S-H dot com. No that's not frostbite you're feeling in your fingers. You've just tuned into Blood of the Wild a show here on the Glass Cannon Network where we play through Pizzo's incredible quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path for Pathfinder Tui, the greatest role playing game in the country. I just realized how can a flame be frozen? Well, I've been thinking about this ever since Jared said he was going to run this campaign I was like, wait a minute, it's an oxymoron. We haven't even heard about the Frozen Flame yet. He didn't come up in the adventure yet. It's the mystery at the heart of it. We're still in the prologue. Not going to come up until, yeah, like we're level one, this is going to take us to what? Like level 10, that Frozen Flame won't even come up to level seven, let's be real now. Yeah, this is true. Well, we're still in the part of the video game where they're like, this is how you walk forward. It's not a tutorial. Please take these boxes to the other room and then I will teach you how your cyber tech works. Yeah, we haven't gotten very far yet, but we're getting there. unrelated to any of this. Mary Lou, I have a question for you. Oh, by the way, this is Mary Lou Paula Deming, Joe O'Brien and Skidmour, go ahead, Paula. Oh, hi, sorry, everyone. So in Mary Lou's Skype cam that I can see, but you listeners at home can't. I'm going to describe to you. So behind her is a bed with a really lovely, like Mexican blanket on it. And then the like a gallery wall of photos. Oh, yeah. They're really, really lovely. And a friend and I were just talking about this and she was like, I want to do a gallery wall beside my bed. But how do you make it safe for earthquakes? Do you have them attached to your wall in any specific way so that in an earthquake, they don't crush you or are you just like risking just like go bigger, go home kind of with them. I risk it for the biscuit, baby. Yeah. Um, I feel like that huge moose head you have in your wall is going to be a problem. I would have asked you to come to the wall. Do you think it's bad that I decorated it with knives? Yeah. I mean, like I said, you might as well make the risk worth it, you know, like, have some excited. So I understand you have them there. I find it really pleasing to look at as I fall asleep on moose head looming over me with knives. Um, but yeah, this is to be perfectly honest with you, Paula. This is the first time that I've even thought about earthquakes. Oh, no. Sorry. We didn't ruin it, Paula. But, uh, and we need a safe to life. Just in this moment. Being a so calm native. Yeah. Well, it would have saved my life if I plan on doing anything about it, which I do not. There you go. I will say a lot of them are stuck with like, they're like hung on nails and then also stuck with, um, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you, you know, those like, command strips, jib jib jibs. But that is exclusively because, um, I would like hit them when I made my bed when I like lost my duvet and that bothered me. And so I stuck them down with command strips, but that might also work to save my life. Your back wall is such an incredible mosaic of, of pieces that are large and small. Do you like, did you sit down and like, map it all out or did that? Yeah. Because it's so like everything fits just so, but it also has a beautiful chaos to it. That is really awesome. Yeah. So yeah, I've collected all of these pieces like in my life from my travels, when I travel, I go to art museums. Like that's my number one stop wherever I go. And then I, you know, get a couple postcards or prints from the, uh, from the gift shop and frame them and put them on. That's cool. All of these little pieces or their gifts or they have a little story behind them or something. So, but yeah, you do have to plan it out. You do have to plan it out first. I've seen, I've seen a gallery wall go astray. Mm-hmm. By, yeah. By not prior proper planning. Guilty. So, and, and you're not the first time you want to be the line to show. Yeah. Yeah. Let's leave my wall out of this. I have, and you guys can see behind me, I have kind of a gallery wall with a giant painting of Scarface hanging out with Tony's soprano. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, Robert De Niro. And it says, first you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women. I don't know if you can see that it says that. It was kind of hard to read. Yeah. Yeah. So, thank you for the clarification because I was, I was like, actually, it was a distraction trying to play, but I'm squinting, trying to see like what do those words say. So, now we know. Well, it's harder to make notes. It's harder to, like, get all out of the velvet. Yeah. The velvet can kind of mess with the lettering. The lettering. There's a world of opportunity out there beyond the typical nine to five where purpose and grit come together where the American spirit and ingenuity are welcomed in places that could really use your skill and your experience. We're talking about the Peace Corps with volunteers living and working communities around the globe. It's been called the toughest job you'll ever love. Because it asks so much of you to dig deeper, get your hands dirty, to go that extra mile, to rise to the occasion and meet challenges head on. And the love part comes from being part of something bigger than yourself. From building bonds that last a lifetime, it's knowing your hard work transformed lives, including your own. After 65 years, the Peace Corps is still the toughest job you'll ever love. Thanks for all the opportunities and more than 60 countries. Learn about benefits and apply at PeaceCore.gov-serve. Boy, check out the Wanchicago Podcasts from Wolf and Rtaiman and USG Audio available now wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the realms of peril and glory. Explore the mechanically magical vistas of veil. The paranormal mysteries of liminal London and the cyberpunk chaos of cyborg. We odd by our incredible guests from familiar shows like Ox Venture and No Rolls-Bard. Search realms of peril and glory to find out more. Well, since we're talking about heroes, should we take on our roles as heroes of the broken tusk? Sure, it's a little bit dangerous. It's a little dangerous because... Put on your character like a set of well-worn clothes, everybody. Yeah. Just really feel it in your shoulders. Let your body shift into the way your character would stand. Yelka, I think might be about to get her heart broken a little bit. So I would like to stall, but it's fine. No, it's time. It's time to go to that vulnerable place, Paula. Are you ready? Ready. I was born ready. I didn't always think I'd be a comedian. I used to think I was a dramatic actress, so let's go. I think you are all things. It's all the same thing. I don't know if I've said my name. I'm Jared Logan, and this is one of the wild. The other lords say our days are numbered, our following dwindles, enemies, dog, our footsteps, and we have failed in our sacred charge. They say we will soon pass away into the endless Arctic night. They are mistaken. We are strong, broken, but strong. The snow blinds our eyes, and yet we see true. The wind freezes our skin, and yet we endure. Their weapons break our bones, and yet we stand tall. Our hearts beat, and it is like the sound of a herd of mammoths stampeding across the tundra. And in each heart flows the blood of the wild. There's that mammoth call, and that means we're back in the realm of the mammoth lords. Where our players are portraying a group of young scouts for the banner of the broken tusk, a migratory group that moves around the realm of the mammoth lords, hunting and foraging and following their ancient traditions. Very soon for this migratory group, for the following of the broken tusk, a sacred night is coming up, the night of the green moon, where they're following gathers at a stone circle called Rock Loom, and celebrates their lives as a part of the ongoing story, the tale that is the banner of the broken tusk. Our four scouts have been preparing for the night of the green moon at the behest of one of the following leaders, one of the mammoth lords, grandfather Aewa. He asked you to prepare the Rock Loom site. He asked you to gather some giant tapers and add them to the following's herd, and he has asked you to gather ceremonial water pitchers from the Gornock River with another young scout, Pecano. Pecano. Yes. Yelka's crush. Her toxic crush. Her toxic crush. Her toxic crush. Pecano is a strong young brave of the broken tusk, but he is somewhat arrogant, and that may be an understatement. When you went to collect water vessels with him, Olog, Crowborn, Skid's character, a large orc, with the demeanor of a friendly teenager, spotted a spear sticking out of the reeds. It looks like quite a special spear. There were some interesting details about it that we haven't explored yet, but before you could explore them, Pecano grabbed the spear and claimed it for himself. When the four scouts challenged him, Pecano said, let whoever would claim this spear wrestle me for it. And that is when Olog stepped forward, and that is where we left the adventure last time. I'll only put out one other thing before we start. You've noticed your last sort of task, gathering the tapers, that some other following was setting snares in the area where you've been preparing for the night of the green moon. And you talked to grandfather Aewa about it, and he didn't seem too concerned or yet any phased. You know what? He didn't know the fact that you're bringing it up again right now as the GM makes me think that he should have cared a little bit more. If I'm honest. There's so many things I want to dig into here. I want to wait until after this epic moment here that's in front of us, but even listening closer now to your intro, I'm like, it's going on here with all the broken bones and they say that we're all dying. What's going on here? I think that's the trouble. Let's take a mission that we failed. Are you talking about my overwritten intro? Yes, it does have some foreshadowing. It does. I want to dig into that. Well, let us speed that loud. Let us not forget. Yeah, it's hard to allow it. Let us not forget that this fear when you pulled it up out of the muck had a burnt severed hand. Yeah, hanging from it, which now as Pekano shakes it aloft, the hand flops onto the ground and falls into pieces. He drops the spear. He entwines fingers with O-log and he begins to push and the wrestling competition begins the one who overpowers the other will claim the spear and so O-log. He's strong. Pekano is strong. You see all of those muscles tense there and stark relief. He has, he's cut. He is cut. Not only that, you can tell he's vicious. He's looking you right in the eyes. His teeth are kind of grinding together and he is determined to be the superior wrestler here. As you give me an athletics role, please describe sort of your strategy here. So I've been thinking about this all week. I bet. Oh my god. I bet you. So much pressure on this day. This is a guy who's been bullying me and my friends and most importantly my sister for since we've been little, little, little kids together. So there's that. But there's also like if you if you've ever had a sister and she's got a crush on someone or seeing someone that you don't approve of, what a fantasy it is to literally just wrestle them into submission. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop seeing my sister. So the chance to act this out is there's a lot of pressure right now. So I want to ask, I'm not really clear on this. So with the hero point system, I know I can use it after I roll to re-roll, but can I use it before the fact like we use bottle caps? Well, there's no need to use it before the fact. I'm wondering because like it could actually be a little, I'm not sure like where the actual bigger advantage would lie. Like rolling twice and taking the better or rolling once, getting a middling result and then rolling the second one and having to take it. You know what I mean? Yes, each of you has a hero point. It grants you good fortune. You can use it to re-roll a check or you can use it to avoid death, but you cannot use it before a check. Okay. And keep in mind also if you use it to re-roll a check, you must take the second result. Yeah, they make it that way so that there's the level of it that's kind of like, oh, this seems cheap. Man, you just get to re-roll an epically important role that you just failed for the story. Like that's dumb. Like that's kind of how some people see hero points. But the way that it balances out is like if you didn't fumble, but you just wasn't high enough, you do risk a fumble by taking that second roll. It's, you know, it could be even worse than your first try. So it is, it's not just a freebie. There's some tough, there's a tough downside that can come with the hero point roll. Do you get to know if the roll failed before you chose to use it or you just look at the number and think? I believe, I mean, it's GM to GM, but I believe you can know if it failed, but the spirit of the game says you shouldn't know the effect, like the full effects of the failure and then just decide to use a hero point. I think that that's kind of the way that's the way you are going to need this hero point because you're already a hero inside. Oh, thank you. That's lovely. Now, I also, I feel like all the pressure that's built on this roll, there's also, it is a defining moment in the opening prologue for this character. Oh, it's totally up. It stands up to the bully and does he actually beat the bully or does he just get beat? You know, like it's just a defining moment for Olog for the rest of his campaign. I know. Well, let me just add this because I feel as your GM, I must fully disclose that this will not be just one and done with one roll. This is a competition. And so I was going to reveal it after your role, but I'll go ahead and reveal it now. You are earning wrestling points here and you need a certain amount to win. Oh, cool. Okay. Okay. So we're going to have four rolls. Let's say that the broken tusk have a very formal wrestling style when they do a wrestling match. So there's a four rounds or something like that and you will need to earn a certain amount of wrestling points to defeat Picano within these four rounds. So there will be four rolls. Okay. Are you ready? Ready. Let's go. All right. Oh, look! How, for my own theater of the mind benefit, remind me how much taller than Picano is Olog? It was almost like seven feet, right? Seven feet is taller than every one. But Picano is not short. Picano is over six feet and Picano is also just like he moves like a cat. He's big. You know? You're a little bit afraid for Olog just because Picano doesn't hesitate either. He's very decisive in his movements. So that's my attempt to re-inject a little suspense based on a small human going up against the seven foot four or four. Well, I mean, he's more experienced. He's a little older. He's more agile. And he has the psychological upper hand. Right. And the psychological advantage. Yeah. And he is a soldier, a warrior. He's a warrior is probably the better term. And Olog is not trained yet, you know, as a warrior. So here we go. I'm still a 13-year-old kid. Yes. Yes. And you're, you know, the river is right behind you. Your feet are planted in mud. You could slide. Here we go. OK. Also, I just wanted to point out that my best friend, when I was 12 years old, was the biggest kid in the class. And he couldn't beat the shit out of anything. So it's like Brian Possein. Like Brian Possein is a giant man. But I wouldn't like pick him in a contest. Right. Right. Right. I'm much as I love him. Round one. All right. There you go. Kabato, Olog. OK. OK. OK. OK. So he may be, Pocano may be defined, as you say, as body may be well defined. Olog looks like he was drawn by Rob Lifel. He is enormous. He rolled a natural 19 from one. Wow. It's just a little bit. It's a strong open. Natural 19. That's the adrenaline. OK. Very good. So that I'm just keeping track of how many wrestling points you've earned. But I can tell you that it is Pocano who sort of loses footing for a second and has to kind of swing, try to swing you around. But he's not quite able to swing Olog around. So he really more swings his own body around Olog and gets into another position. And you can see him go, yeah, green skin. And he tries to push again. He goes on another offensive. And that means it's time for Olog to roll again. Let me know if you're using any particular strategy Olog, other than standing there like an immovable object. Yeah. He, like, Olog tries to lower his center of gravity as much as he can. It's going to try that. Just to try to be the mountain. And he is, yeah, and he's just going to try to just overwhelm him while he's in that position. Very good. Tire him out. Tire him out, Olog. You are strong. So Olog, again, when he calls him at the oracle, he brings out the racism. He actually does go into a rage. His eyes are starting to get low. And which is actually, bugs me a little bit second edition. There's no actual strength change to it. This is some other mechanical stuff, no strength. It's just for flavor. Well, another natural 19. Yeah. I got worried. The look on your face made me think you had not rolled well. I'll be honest. So I'm very happy. I was just surprised. It's much, really. He can't move. Now I'm just starting to feel bad for Pekano. He is just getting out. Now it's starting to look silly. He can't move you. It is indeed like someone just kind of pushing up against the side of a mountain. And you guys can see his face go red and even his body kind of go red and flush. And now, a vein is standing out on Pekano's forehead and maybe a little bit of perspiration is starting to bloom on his forehead as he grunts. And he comes at you again. And this time he's trying to kind of use a move to kind of like shake you out of your of the weight that you've kind of, yeah, your stance. So here we go. Our third roll. Wow. Oh no. So he comes at me trying to like knock me off balance again with the new on rush. And I think I just with one of my gigantic hands, I just one shout and grab him right by the throat. I rolled a natural 18. Yes. Yes. This is meant to be clearly. Clearly. Clearly. This is the first time Yelka has ever looked at Pekano while he's like sweating as his vein popping out and his face is all red. And she's the first time she's ever looked at him and like, oh, maybe he's not that cute. They're seeing the side of it. His hair has become all unraveled too. Like normally it's kind of done up and kind of like a knot or whatever. And so now you're lifting him kind of by his collar, his scapula. And he's got his hands on both of your biceps. And he's trying to kick off of you. He's trying to kick off of you, kick off of your chest. And now it's time for our fourth and final role. And then I will tell you if you have earned enough wrestling points to defeat Pekano. Oh, bad. This is all of our spout right by the way. You're original. You're original. Okay. Natural five. A natural five. Oh, no. So a natural five, that's with your bonuses or your nine, nine total. Oh, you've got to be a closer though. You know, you've got to be a closer. You know what? I'm actually going to spend my hero point. Oh, man. That's really real. I'm going to take a second result. Okay. Okay. Natural seven. So that's an 11. And a leg got into double digits. That's you. That's you. That's you. That's you. That's you. That's you. That's you. That's you. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. you're kind of like, you're kind of like grab, just grabbing him in the rage. Or a rage? You don't have your feet planted firmly enough. You lose your footing. No. You stumble back. You fall into the river. And as the first person to go down, which is how wrestling works among the broken tusk, you have not earned the four or more wrestling points you need after the fourth check to win. Oh my God. Wow. That has Pekana. Oh, good. Pekana lifts the spear. I think we're done here. Oh, no. No. Oh, girl for initiative. I'm going to get out of this. Raga is incensed. Raga is incensed because she goes over it. Absolutely not. These rules are silly. They are nothing like what would happen in the wild. In the forest, Olaug would have smushed you. You do not deserve that spear. Does it feel a little unfair? Well, life's unfair. And it's also exactly how it's written to do it in the Adventure Pack. So he grabs up the ceremony of vessel of water that he's in charge of and begins to walk off with his very fine spear. And you see the deer-hide banner trailing from it as he does his anime and slightly smirks and then starts to walk off the blue spear. Raga draws her spear. Is there a Raga draws her spear? Do not take another step. He does the thing where he just looks back over one shoulder. Do not take another step. That spear does not belong to you. Those may have been the rules of the wrestling, of the tribe. They've always thought you humans. Very funny. He turns around. Why don't you go dig for termites in that tree over there, bear girl? That does not interest me at the moment, but thank you for your suggestion. Right now I am interested in that spear. Is there snow on the ground right now? There is a little bit of snow on the ground, almost always in the realm of the mammoth lords. While this is happening, Yelka thinns down. She makes a little snowball and she chucks it at him. Really? Yeah. Give me a ranged attack roll. I don't know how to do this. Oh gosh. OK. Amazing. So oh no. Quick, I'm looking up snowball on the equipment. OK. A gear equipment. I rolled in eight. Now on my sling, I believe I add a five to whatever I roll. So would I do that for this is what? Did you use your, did you? Yeah. Yeah. No, I just chucked it with my hand. Yeah. You can, you can add your five. Of course. It's a similar thing. So that is a total of 13. A 13. It's not great. Wait, let me check. I mean, Picanos got stats here. This is also like a little bit of a mini-temporotantrum that's happening here. Yelka is like, how not to make it about her in this moment? You know, but Yelka's like, what? I thought, I could, I thought you were different. I thought you were not however instead you were. But you're saying all these mean things to my brother, and my friends, and me, and you're a jerk. And this is what's going through her head. So that's why she's like, no, no, no, no. Lashes out with the snowball. The snowball hits. The snowball hits, but it doesn't, you know, obviously. Sure. Yeah. It doesn't get him. It actually doesn't get him smack in the face. It gets in more damage. It gets in like on his knee. Right. And he moves closer to all of you, points his spirit at you, and says, I'm not going to hurt you, because the mammoth lords seem to be fond of you as mascots. But remember who the superior warrior is here, and to stay out of my way. Soon I will be leading this following. And then my way will be law. You do well to remember that. And he turns his back when you and starts walking away again. A.W.A.R.R.N. to Olaug as soon as he hit the water. Just to, you know, I don't know how. He doesn't know if he got hit or hard enough for anything to not just be able to get himself up. So he's just being sure he's helped up out of the water. Olaug furiously kind of gestures you away. And waves off your help. And it's like smashes his fists into the stream as he's squatting there and lifts himself up. And he one spears his let it go. And. Well, if you are such a good leader, perhaps a leader would want to know why there is fighting upriver. We weren't asked to investigate fighting upriver. We were asked to fetch water. And he is now farther away, down in the brush, heading up the hill away from the river. Oh, please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter, lighter music here? Are you a fan of true crime TV shows? And what about Unsolved Mysteries, the show that jump started all of our love of true crime? I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm Joey Taranto. And we host, I think, not a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campaign TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries. Baby, you will laugh, you will cry. You'll think about true crime in a whole new way. And you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics? New episodes of, I think, not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon. And every Monday, you can listen to our true crime rundown where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week. So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm Mandy, and I'm Melissa, and this is Moms and Mysteries. We're two Florida moms obsessed with true crime. From infamous cases like Ellen Greenberg to shocking Florida stories like the Dan Markelle killing. With 55 million downloads, we bring you new, deep dives every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen to Moms and Mysteries on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Pianist Maniacs. On my new podcast, Classical Music Happy Hour, my guests and I talk about life and music. And we also like to play games. Is it a composer or is it cheese? Oh, I know this game. Knowing Mozart, it's probably all I'm there about. It's all of the above. Is this a fake or was this a flop? Flop. That's more mistakes than I made in my last recital. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Y'all go and just run over to Olog as he gets out of the river and hug him. This runs right over and just wraps her arms around him and just gives him a hug and says, I'm. You did really good, though. That was so good, Olog. You almost beat him. You almost beat him. And he's flushed again like his skin is this like super dark green. He's resisting it for a while. But he finally just kind of like lays his hand on Y'all his head and he's just like, I don't know why you like him. I don't know why I do either. Maybe I don't so much anymore. They are right. You are this superior fighter. And in the forest, you would have one. In my eyes, you are the winner. And that stump could not lead a taper to a watering hole. LAUGHTER And yeah, he just sort of like snorts at the laughter and just bite himself. And it starts moving along after him. This looks like sort of falls in line. Well, we need to get these vessels filled up, right? So it will fulfill his vessel. And so you notice something as you do that, eh, well? Well, well, well, well, well. Eh, the water is filled with ash. Oh, the burned hand. I mean, oh, right. And now looking, you see that the ash seems to be flowing down river from the north, which is what Raga just said. There's been some sort of fighting up river. Can we, can Raga wants to investigate the hand if it has not alone, like washed away? Yeah, it does. It's washed away. It's all just like shake the hand off of it. Yeah, it's like you're in the mud. Yeah. We humans like to be buried, yes? Yes, we do. Yes? Perhaps we take this one to be buried. What do you think's happening up there? It looks north, and I know where the river is flowing from. Should we? Hey, well, should we investigate, do you think? Bring back some answers. What if that's where your compass has been pointing us to? It like scrambles it, it was the opposite. It is more like pointing right up the river. His mouth jaw drops. He looks at Yelka. Did you when recognize the banner, the symbol on the banner, do we know? Does anyone know the other tribe that that is? You could recall knowledge if you wish. Try it. I do want to recall. Would that be like a diplomacy? Nope, it would have to be society. But I'll tell you what, you can just remember what it looked like. You just won't know anything about the following. I rolled a natural 19, and with my plus zero on society, that's a 19. Right. Yelka, you were the one that got a good look at it. Maybe because you were looking so closely at Pecano. It depicted a mammoth with fire around it. Oh, it was deer hide. And Yelka, you've been with the following your whole life, the following of the broken tusk, and you remember something hearing whispers, whispers between your father and other members of the following about something called the burning mammoth. Oh, I think that could be the burning mammoth. Do you all ever hear anything about that? Are you seeing my dad sometimes saying it? I think it's another tribe. Is it another tribe? I've never heard of it. I want to look at the hand that I've picked up. Does it look like it? Is there anything we can tell? Does it look like it? The unburnt flesh is not skeletal. It's not skeletal. It looks like it's recent. They look kellid. Yeah, does it look kellid? It does look kellid. The hands look like they're callous, like a warriors, or do they look like? I can't tell that part. Beneath the wrist, it's pretty much charred. And part of the wrist and the upper forearm are charred, but there is a little piece of flesh that wasn't burned. I'm going to take a little piece of leather from my pack and wrap it up and put it back in my pack and say, I think grandfather A. Well, we'll know what to do with this. Should we get more information? Should we go up further up the river? Find out what's burning up there. Hey, well, I think we all know that that is not a very good idea. Do we all know that? Well, here's the one thing though, Raga, is we're supposed to get clean water for the ceremony, and the only way to find clean water is to find before the ash starts, right? Yes, exactly, exactly. Listen, every animal knows smell of fire and the smell of smoke. It is the one smell we are all born with. We are born with the smell of blood and the smell of smoke. Everything else we learn, smoke is danger, fire is dangerous. You do not want to run toward it. And Baba to support you, your bear, your polar bear goes, see Baba Grace is young and he does not know much, but he knows this. Then he shakes some water off because he was taking a little dip. What do you think, Olog? What do you want to do? The hog is kind of poor. Yeah, he is. It's like, I worry that that device you all warns us from danger, but perhaps it is pointing toward something dangerous, a mental boy. What might be something dangerous to the following? We've got to find it and make sure they know it's coming, right? Yeah, and Father Aewa didn't even believe that it was a big deal that we found a trap from another following, right? Aewa also, maybe we have to prove that there is something you should care about, and that's what a scout does, right? We're grown scouts. That's what scouts do. Yeah, and he looks back and... Yeah, so now Olog is like, he looks back at... Piccora, it's not Piccora, Piccora. Piccora, I don't even remember his name. So, yeah, he's thinking like he feels humiliated again in this moment, and so yeah, now like he is a little more inclined to want to redeem himself by doing something extreme. So he's like, just like, perhaps we should. Maybe we should. Yes, yes, that would show them. That would show them that we're more than mere water bearers. We're not just mascots. No. Rugged to want them all to think we're just mascots will be careful, come on, please. You can not keep a safe. I did not care what they think. I just care about this being safe. Please, please. Yes, please. Oh, of course they will come. I do not want you to be unsafe, but just please, we will be quiet, we will be careful, we will see, and then we will both. Yes, we will be quiet, we will be totally careful, and if we find something that is dangerous, we won't go anywhere nearer, we'll just turn around, come back and tell the following. Come on, let's go. Yes, I'll put my hand in the middle, wait, before we go. Everyone, put your hand on my hand. Scout team. Scout team, quiet, careful, scouting. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that's what I was talking about, that's not very quiet, okay. And we'll set off, Jared, upriver, looking, going stealthily upriver along the bank as long as we can, and looking for signs in the river of any other details, bodies, burned banners, or ash, you know, just in general. Yeah. Yeah, so why don't you give me, let's see how stealthy you're being. Give me stealth rolls from everybody to avoid notice. That is a 20 for AWAL 3020. 15 for O-Leh. Yelka has a 10 total. I have wrote a natural one. Oh, no, Raga, I'm touching us. Total four. She's traveling with a bear, it's difficult to stay inside. Yeah, I'm traveling with my bear, I'm going, Baba, Baba, you should not have taken a bath. It's late in the day it is cold, and you will get chilly. Yelaga, you're the one that notices, everybody's being very quiet. You come to a section of river. The river is to the left of you or to the west of you, and you can see that there's a little island out in the river with a big fallen log on it. Right ahead of you is an enormous tree stump, very old and ancient, and beside it ahead of you, and you can look on roll 20 where I've brought all this up, there's an enormous kind of a bog, like a big muddy puddle that stretches up ahead of you. And it's Raga that notices or hears, perhaps because Raga's being the least quiet herself. Suddenly you hear, and you see bubbles in the water and you hear, why have you come? You come to help me? Hello? Hello, is there someone there? Do you hear something? I've been so polluted, I feel so weak. Oh no, is this a water spirit? Perhaps? Hello? Can I help you? Please help me. I feel so much ash coming from the river. The river is coming from the bank. Is it coming from the boggy part of the bank? No, no, it's coming from the river itself. It's coming from just from the little bank of the river itself. Yeah, Raga, you've moved right there. I'm just a note. I'm just a note that the water is, you know, it gets up to your knees or maybe even up to your hips when you wait in a little bit. And you can see that the water is bubbling and also setting up little spouts that sort of dance through the air, kind of like glistening and kind of doing little acrobatics ahead of you as this voice speaks to you. Hello? I heard you. You can also see that the water is filled with ash. You are choking with ash, you are dirty? Yes. A way you can help me though. You know the way to help you. We would like to help. There is a flower ahead in the bog. What? Can I, I'm sorry, I'm listening to all of this, but can I, uh, shoot, what is it since motive? Can I sense motive on this situation? Is this a trap? You may, if you like to. Are we all hearing this? Is this thing everybody can hear this? Common like a calendar. Yes, it is not, it is not mental to like a raw, a thing. It's not just a raw, but once raw gas pointed it out or once you see raw gas walk over and start listening, all of you can hear it. And so yes, Yelka, if you'd like to, you can try to discern whether you are being kind of led into a trap. I believe that is done with deception if I'm not mistaken. It's perception, but it's against deception DC. Ah, very good. Yes, then you may, then you may attempt that. All right. While she's doing that, can I do a knowledge check on what this is? Absolutely. Like, is that nature? Can I roll nature? Nature sounds good. Okay. So I rolled a 14 total. Right. I will say that, you know, at this point, you're unable to tell. You're not able to sense motive on a bit of what? You know, sensing a motive, like looking at someone's face or like their tells, you're watching water kind of bubble. Right. Well, you know, I do have a special connection with water. With my tempest, mystery. Oh, true. You're usually qualified. There's a, but I can't, yeah, I'm like looking around. I'm just, Yelka is just not sure. She is wary, but she can't find anything that proves that she should be wary. So she's just trying to keep very alert and be ready to spot the first sign of trouble if necessary. Very good. You are tense and a little bit suspicious, Yelka. Yes. Yes. And so let us ask, eh, well, how did your nature check go? We're only 19. Nice. And I rolled a 24. Very well. Oh, okay. So the water, the movement in the water, it's definitely caused by a spell, a minor magical effect of some sort. Mmm. Magic mouth. And if it's a spell, if it's a spell, somebody has to cast it. Please. The flower. It can clean my waters. Yeah. I mean, metagaming, this is totally a trap. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And Paul annealed it with the instinct and it's a magical trap. But how would we know? Well, if you were to say to me, I don't know if this would be helpful or not. I have detect magic as a cantrip, but I think you've already detected the magic, so I don't know that detect magic would then like give us much more information. And the fact that, let's see, you receive no information beyond the present or absence of magic. Well, we can now that we know that it's a magical effect, we can roll arcana. I tried to identify the effect more specifically, but I have no training in that. I have, okay, here's something. I have imprecise scent. Can I smell if there is any other human in the near vicinity besides the humans I know? Any other human? Is that what you're asking? I am going to hide. Any other, well, because I can't say living creature, I'm sure there's a lot. Humanoid. Any other humanoid? Well, again, sorry, I say again because I was working on episode four. And so I might be a little bit more clear in my mind than it is in years, but we talked about setting up episode four just to reiterate scent. It's really a close range scent. Close range, yes. So you're saying is there is there another creature or animal within 30 feet of me basically? Yeah. But you can look around. Sure. I guess we could look. Do you have identified magic? You're my occultism. It says once you discover that an item location or ongoing effect is magical, it would take me 10 minutes to try and identify the particulars of its magic. If it's a cultish, you know, it can be an arcane tradition magic. It can be a primal tradition magic. Do we have any arcana trained in this party? I do not. Mine is all divine and some occult. Mine is actually appropriate to the realm of the mammoth lords where arcane magic is rare and distrusted. Let me ask what people are doing. Raga, you seem to, you were trying to scent things, but that's not going to work. Is there anything else you'd like to try? I just want to look around to see if, yeah, if I can see anything because I think Raga has never heard of this before. She's never seen a water spirit. She's never been approached by a water spirit. She's never heard of a flower being able to cleanse an entire river. So I think her hackles are a little bit raised. A flower cleansing a whole river? What do you mean by that? Give me a break. Give me a break. That's insane. Use my powerful magic to say that's bullshit. Give me a perception check. 19. 19. Okay. You see two things. First, you see that there is, in fact, a flower, a little white flower out in the middle of that giant mud puddle. Then you see something else. You see out on the island a bird type creature. And I say bird type creature because its head is that of a bird. But then as the body goes down, along its wings are large, taloned hands. It has like the bottom torso of a human with a big, flabby belly. Two human legs that end in bird's feet. Here it is, everybody. That's my god. And the reason you see it initially is because it was kind of crouching against that big overturned log. You can see that it's clearly watching you with its red bird-like eyes. Oh, no. The water starts to bubble again and you see its beak move. It's doing like ventriloquistos. Please, get the water. Please, come on. Get the flower. Okay. Oh, this is, this is, no. Well, off to get the flower. Like, he just like starts walking behind Raga to go get it. It will stop. This is not nice. This is not very nice at all. Listen, we have had a really rough day. And this is not going well for us. And also, you may be in danger. There is fighting going on. I'm shouting at the island. Raga, what, who are you, who are you talking to, Raga? The puddle, the, whoop. Okay, this is a creature. Um, okay, meta-gaming. I think I would know what this creature is because I lived in the forest for a really long time. I think Raga would know. Well, should I like recall knowledge? Should I prove it? These birds with human bodies are very common. In the forest. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, you know, different types of skills recall what things are. So, I'm going to recall a different type of creature than nature or arcana. Okay. So I could roll nature. Okay, very good. I'm on you. Um, 14. Yeah, I'll, I'm going to say that that's enough for you to know that this is some sort of river faye. River faye. Oh, okay. All right. Listen, I do not know your name. And I do not know what you're doing here, but I can tell that you are trying to trick us. You're making the water talk. I can see your mouth moving. I can see your mouth moving. I see your mouth moving. Listen to me. Yes, I did not want to show my true form because it is so magnificent and it ruffles its feathers and becomes very big like stretches its wings out really wide. I was afraid you would fear me. But still, I need you to grab the flower as it will heal the waters of this river. Please. Please. Strong humans do this for me. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes. And agile humans. With feathers are quite nice and lovely. What do you really want this flower for? Yeah, with my herbalism lore. I'm pretty sure this is a, this is just a scam, but I would love to have very like specific knowledge of like to be able to be like, no, I know about flowers. This is just a trick to get us to go into this bog. But I know if there is any actual legitimacy to what they're saying just in terms of being able to argue with them about them. Sure, yeah. What are you going to do to identify the flower? I'm going to go to the edge of the bog, but not exactly. So it's in the middle of this bog, right? So I'll just walk over to sort of the edge of it, but not so close that I'm going to touch any part of it and give it a good look. See, I'm going to look at it and recall from my herbalism lore. Have I seen this? Is this a flower I know? What I know, any of its special properties? Give me a, give me a nature world. And your herbalism, um, go ahead and add a plus one circumstance bonus to it. Ooh. Oh, my rolls are such garbage today. That would be a total of 11. I hate, ah, I want to switch guys. Please. This is the only one I have. Magnificent warriors. Powerful braves. Please help. It is a magic flower. It will cleanse these waters. Please, I have based myself before you. The bird bows and rubs its beak into the mud and a base is itself before you, as it said. What if it's like Shaggy? What if it's like Shaggy? And if we help him, I mean, he can help us. And he'll start like slowly walking toward the flower like. What's wrong with that? Hold on, hold on. Yeah, oh, like two. He's just like, oh no. If anyone's getting the flower, it's going to be me. I'm the great agile warrior, like the bird said. I don't let me handle it. I'm brave, like the bird said. Well, I'm agile to almost. Meanwhile, oh geez. While they're having this, is there like a long stick of some sort? I could like grab and like try and like, I want to see how deep this thing is or like if I throw a rock into it, does it like, erupt in acid, you know, like can I just grab a piece of this out? Yeah. Yeah, I'll allow you to do that while Olog and A-Wall are kind of arguing. And I can say that it goes in deep, but not so deep that you would. It doesn't go over your head. It goes like kind of to your waist. Can I reach the flower with my spear from the shore? Yeah, if you give me some sort of roll to do that. Sorry, boys. Yeah. No, and I think that Yelka and Raga have the right idea that we're just sort of like not involving the boys and we're like letting them do their little thing while we just quietly take care of business. I'm going to, you know, maybe not maybe to attack her all, I don't know. I know I'm not attacking, but I want to. It's a viewpoint. No, let's make it a, let's make it a athletics or acrobatics. Acrobatics means you can kind of get up on top of that stump and like hang way out there. Okay. Athletics means that you're just able to kind of like stab far enough out. Yeah. I'm going to try athletics. I'm going to try, I'm going to know what I'm aiming for as I'm aiming kind of aiming my spearhead, which is like, I think it's a chipped obsidian. Maybe it's a chipped obsidian spearhead. And I'm trying to, trying to aim it so that like a shovel, I like, sting, stab underneath the flower and like, lift it up so I can try. And like long shovel this flower out without ever touching this bog. And while I do this, I want to say to Yelka, watch the bird, watch this reaction. See, see how he feels about this while I do it. Okay. I will turn around and I'll give him a good watch. And I want to see like, if I get the flower, if he's actually really happy or if I succeed in getting this flower and he's like bummed because we know. And knowing that Aewol has better observation skills than me, you know, as our, I think Aewol is a very good like scout though he has, you know, he's impulsive, but he's really good at looking out. So I'll go, Aewol, watch this bird with me. Stop arguing with my brother. So I'm going to. Alright, he'll turn and look at the bird. The bird is turning it, you know, it has to turn its head each time to get like one red eye on you. And you can see it's like, ah, that's amazing. He's straight out of the labyrinth. This is such a huge incident. It really is. Alright, so now with that in mind, as she's reaching for the flower, I will roll a perception just for like watching the creature, hopefully, you know, doesn't get a jump on us or anything. Okay. Roll the 18. And 18. And I roll the 17 on the perception. Nice. He is more than enough for you to pluck the flower up out with your spear, like a little shovel very quickly before you lose your balance. And once you have the flower, I can tell you Aewol, you know, the creature seemed to be like, ah, like waiting. And then when you get the flower out, it's like, ah, and shakes its feathers like it's clapping. Oh, okay. Alright. Now, you must move into the center of the river to use the flowers magic. No. No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. I'll do it. I'll do it. Aewol, it is already on the spear. No, I will just do it with the spear. It's going to clean the river. It'll clean the river. It'll clean the river. We need the clean water, don't we? We need the clean water, but I don't want you all going out in the middle of the river. We can't trust this thing. It's just a river. Yalca, your own, your, your two afraid. It's just a river. The Gornuck is a very fast-floating river. I have a free river river. I'm, I'm, before they even say anything, again, I'm going to act without like, without consulting them. I am going to stretch out again, get as far over the water on the stump that I can and stretch out as far as I can with the spear so that the flower is like floating over the center of the water. Oh, okay. So we're kind of like taking the flower. Because you have to be standing in the river. You must be standing in the river. See? I have to be standing in the river. Why do I have to be standing in the river? You don't know. You don't know how to do it. I could all do it. Okay, the flower must touch the river. So I, I, I dip my spear down so that the flower, the flower is like, is right on the surface of the, of the water. But your body must be in the river. Why? You must make three turns withershins and remove your clothing. Oh, I'm curious. All right, all right. All right. Why don't you do this bird? Let me just say, Raga, would you please place your character out onto that leaf where you are currently? And everybody please place your characters where you think you're watching all of this. Where you're standing now. So yeah, you, you would be kind of closer to the closer to the bank. And I'm, I'm right next to Olog, Yelka's right behind us. And A-Wall is, Olog, are you going in? I intend to go in. I have you're going in. My God, Shalik is going to get so drunk. He like starts to take off his weapons and stuff like that and then he'll stop if Olog is like, actually going in and, and then he'll just stand there by the bank and watch. Olog, are you going in? Are you going to grab the little fly? I'm going to blow it off the tip of Raga's hair. Yes, just your let me. And Gidey sets down his like giant axe and like, pulls off his boots and he starts waiting into the water. And A-Wall is just smiling and it's like nodding to Yelka. It's like, it's going to clean the river. No, I'm not. It's going to clean the river. We have, so in, as it's happening, and I'm like, I cannot, boys are so dumb. Boys, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm trying to grab. I'm trying to grab. I'm trying to grab. Like, some sort of like rope situation or like, like undo like a belt around my waist to get ready to be able to throw it. I am convinced this bird is going to try and drown all of us. So I'm like, trying to be ready with a, some sort of rescue operation if necessary. Because I'm like, this is it. Olog is drowning. Mm-hmm. Here we go. You got this, Olog. You got this. Yeah, he turns back. Orp child. Great warrior. Ah! Let's love this guy. Three turns, winners, shins, and remove your clothes. All right, so he's basically almost naked at this point. He just got, he flushes again. Turns like dark green. Turns out, it's just like, he looks back at everybody else. It turned around. It turned around. Oh, look, I can't turn around. What if you drown? Well, don't look. I don't want you to look. I'm looking in the eyes. I'm watching. Oh, thank you, the eyes. Okay. A little farther into the river. You must be in the main flow of the water. Oh, please, Olog, careful. The garlock is a fast-flowing river. Oh, the current is not enough to knock me off my feet. I couldn't say the same for A-Wol. He pulls his fur off and everything. He's got down to his loincloth. He's kind of looking back and he gets deep into the water where it's up to his waist. Nice cover. And then he pulls off the loincloth and tosses it out of the shore. Okay. If you drown, I'm telling dad. So you need to move out just a little farther. It's asking you to move out a little farther into the river. One, two, three. Oh, my gosh. That's fine. Perfect, perfect. Now three turns, winners, shins. All right. And I take the flower and turn in a random direction. Oh, no. Widdish in. The other direction. Clearly, bud. All right. I speak clearly. Now the other direction. Now the other direction. The flower in the water. I do it. Now sing the song of purification. Rum-tum-tagi. Tum-tum-tee. Rum-tum-tagi-tati. Rum-tum-tagi-tati. Rum-tum-tagi-tati. Rum-tum-tagi-tati. You're not doing the dance. You have to dance. What is the dance? Show me the dance. And it shakes one wing, and then it shakes another wing, and it shakes a leg, and then it shakes another leg, and then it shakes them all at once. I have no feathers and wings, bird. And he tries to try to surprise me. Use your arms, orc. Oh, I see. And he starts trying to match the birds of certain events. A-Wall is just laughing on the side of the bag. At this point, so is Yelka. She's a little less concerned now, and she's like, okay, he deserves this. Now turn away from my divine face, and turn your back toward your friends. Okay. He lowers one giant hand over his groin, and turns back to his friends. Uh, uh, and now bend over. I got like slowly, like, looks over his shoulder back at the bird. Wait, wait a minute. Ah, so that is many jokes, I can't say. That is when the bird, uh, gathers water between its wings by sort of flapping them in this sort of like rhythmic, somatic motion, until there is like a orb of water between its wings, and it shoots it out, and it shoots the water as near as it can right up your ass. And it's freezing cold. And, um, let's see here. Um, oh my. Just a softball of river water up your mouth. It makes you range to spell attack roll. Oh my gosh. Don't worry, the damage is only emotional. You take five point psychic damage. I take 14 points of dignity loss. It rolls a 22 versus your AC on this spell attack roll. How did that, how did that hit you? That's a hit for sure. It hits you. It's not a critical though, right? No. No. No, not at all. And it does, it actually knocks you over into the water quite hard and pushes you five feet toward the shore toward your companions, and it does 14 damage to you. Oh my gosh. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh no. And it falls down rolling in the mud. Olog, Olog, are you OK? And I will take whatever bit of rope I've pulled off of myself that normally holds on my pouches and I'm just going to chuck it into the river to grab onto this. OK. floats away, like Olog like stands up out of the river and he goes into a rage and media. Never once. Oh no. You pick the wrong day, Bard. And he charges up naked onto the opposite shore to try to humble the life out of the show. Oh, yeah. So just keep in mind if we're going into encounter mode that you are currently wearing no armor. So be sure, if any attacks come toward you to calculate that Olog, the water also guys is a difficult terrain. So moving through it, you get about half of your movement. And right now, let's have everybody roll a perception roll for combat. Oh my god. Oh my god. You pick the wrong day, Bard. He's already been ego had his ego wounded. The last straw. This is the last straw in a bundle of straws. And so is Olog. I guess I have to deal with this. Olog goes splashing toward the little island. His friends suddenly arm up or begin to empower their spells. The bird laughs and laughs. But then it looks up and sees in a seven foot four orc moving toward it. And it's like, aww. And that's where we'll stop for today. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh, Yalcus is like, oh, boys are so, oh no, she pulled her rope back in. Oh, this is so tough. What I could see happening was clearly Jo and Skid knew that it was just trouble. And you were like, I won't be encounter anyway. Yeah. It's like acting, acting, character. Oh yeah. You guys know. For sure. For sure, because I'm just like, I'm looking at this 10 intelligence, I'm looking at it like, water magic. Yeah. Definitely. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Legendary stories, awe-inspiring sound, and endless adventure. Welcome to the realms of peril and glory. For the mechanically magical vistas avail, the paranormal mysteries of liminal London, and the cyberpunk chaos of cyborg. Fall in love with our core cast, or be awed by our incredible guests from familiar shows like Ox Venture, Three Black Halflings, and No Rolls-Bard. Ignite your imagination and discover the realms of peril and glory today. Go to realmspod.com or search realms of peril and glory wherever you listen to podcasts. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not-so-dark, not-so-stormy hard-boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the intrepid chaotics detective agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high-flying action-packed venture will take them across the world, fighting for every clue they can find. It's one heck of a tale, which is good because this story might be the only thing that can save their lives. All will be revealed in Sonic the Hedgehog presents the chaotics case files. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.