We return to 5E and the pending battle.
Knights of the Night
251_DnD_5E_Question_my_Dwarfdom
[music] Hello and welcome to Nights at the Night Actual Play Podcast. This D&D 5th edition adventure, Heart of Flames, was written and run by your DM Mike. And now, please enjoy episode 251, titled "You Question My Dwarf Dumb." Actual Play Against 5 Minutes, 34 Seconds. [music] We're gonna do feedback for... - I'm so too salty. - I'm so too salty. - 251. - [gasps] We only have two bits of feedback. - First from... - Come on, people! - Sorry. - First from Mad Mjolnir, with the title of "Holy Double Take Batman." - It's been a while. - It's been a while. - Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing, actually. It's been a while. - G'day, Nights, while that theme music came out of nowhere, World of Darkness and 5th year are much slower games. So it's good to hear the gang go after fate again. And good to hear someone follow my advice. I hope Skirtleth Ogre enjoys the show. That was in the feedback firm. The previous one he was sent by Mr. Mjolnir. I'd be curious to know if this foray into a crunchy fantasy game means that we can expect KO-10 to play Pathfinder or Burning Wheel on the future. 'Til next time in Mad Mjolnir, do you want us to play games? - The answer is no. - No, I wanna know. - We've had our fill of crunchy games, and we're probably... Well, actually, I could tell you exactly what we're gonna do in the near future. Well, let's be honest, probably the next half year. - Sure. - Schedule will be starting with... - Very special, so... - It's a very special episode of KO-10. - Good news, everyone. - Which we play... ...clockwork dominion, and this is a one-shot run by Zeke, one of the creators of the games. We've never had a guess GM, and certainly not one that's created their own game. So he's runnin' at a one-shot for us. That may end up being two episodes after the fifth edition run. Those will be released. Then we'll go directly into Dresden, our third adventure for that. And then we will... - Is that a name yet or not? - Not yet. - We should have a tentative calendar set up of... - Yeah, it's gonna be a... - And then we'll never follow him again. - Yeah, we'll be so good at that. And after the Dresden game, we're going to return to clockwork dominion, and Scott's gonna run his own adventure in his own setting. - Steampunk. - That's the foreseeable future for KO-10. But thanks for running in, Mr. Mjolnar. - Good evening, again. - Yeah. Over at Facebook, we only had one post... ...under episode 250, which the title was "Damn the Alphabet", in which R.E.J. said, "As the episode intro music started, I was like, "Wait, what's off here?" And then Tom explains the setup, and I go, "Woo!" Actually, yeah. I was alone in the car at the time. So, that was R.E. - Do you need to use it on his car? - Yes. - It's been promised now for... - Do you know what kind of car that R.E. drives? - It's just from a... - It's from a Scandinavian country. It's got to be a very... Yeah, a very solid model. Maybe, like, a Volvo? Is that what you drive? I mean, it's a Swedish car, isn't it? Volvo? - It is. - R.E., we need more information. - On the car. - And the drive. - And the drive. - For credit log. - This is important. - This is important. It sounds to me like a lot of people can't listen unless they're in their car. So, even if they had time and they sit in the house and watch it, they would jump in the car and go around the block. - I missed by one week. I meant to put out the hour 45 long episode on Thanksgiving week, so that the people that had the long drive to the trailer, and some of the listeners... - Shut the gun there. - I should have started five years ago one week later than we actually did, so that episode 250 would land exactly on the Thanksgiving weekend. - That would be perfect. - Yeah, but so much for planning on my part. - I am more of a winger than a planter. - Right winger or left winger? - Yes. - You're not a winger. - We have promised it for a number of weeks, so we're finally going to do it. In fact, we're going to do it. - You're going to school up so twice. - No, not younger. - I am attacking. - That was good, Scott. You're the only one who loves things. - I don't know. Anybody else good things? - Release that. - It does allow itself up to 52. - It's an hour and a half of Scott's singing. - A lunge, particularly. - That would be online only for months and months and months. - We have two t-shirts to give out. - Yes. - Actually, we only have one November, but we're going to give out December's as well, so hopefully both of them get... - Get there before Christmas. - Christmas or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or wherever they might celebrate. - Unless we end up shipping to Australia again. - So, who wants to roll for the November t-shirt? - I rolled last time. - So, I rolled out. - Yeah, I rolled out. - I would roll so shitty, no one would get it. - I rolled. - What'd you get? - I'll roll again. - We got a 14 and a 4. - So, the November winner of the t-shirt is Steve Eli. - All right, Steve. Or Steve E. - But that's kind of bad, because it's Steve. - Steve E. - Steve E. - Steve E. - Steve E's attacking. - Scott's going to sing the December winner of the t-shirt, Jason Carter. - What? - It doesn't really roll off the tongue. - I'm sorry, Jason. - You can't sing Jason Carter. - Jason is a sad... - No, I can't, Jason, I'm sorry. - We will contact both of these people, get their sizes, their address, and their five sayings that go on the back of the t-shirt. Thank you both for being Patreon Donators. And with that, we will go on to episode 251, the return of 5th edition. - This is Mike, your DM for the Heart of Flame campaign, starting on my right is? - Michael, I'm playing Vantesh Bodeck, Hill Dwarf Cleric, Combat Veteran, and member of the Rune Hammer Clan. - I am Jim, playing Theta of the Rune Hammer Clan. He is a Mountain Dwarf fighter and a confused person. - Bob playing Gillig, a Ranger, a form, and a folk hero. - I'm Tom, I'm playing Dally, a level 3 stingpunk sorcerer and tinkerer, adopted daughter of Thurl Rune Hammer and displaced refugee living in Rockfall. - I have Scott playing Dane Rune Hammer, third level Paladin of Torm, Cyon of the Rune Hammer Clan, and all around goody two shoes. - Thomas playing Barrow Ironhoath, the Rune Hammer Clan, level 3 fighter, experienced soldier, probably some other shit. Don't worry about it. - John playing Curth, clanless, bearless, youngling, ward of the Rune Hammer Clan, illusionist, mischievous. - The end of ring. - There you go. - Sentences. - I just wanted to clear it. - Did you say Ward or Lord? - Ward. - Ward. - That'd be a hell of a climb. - That'd be a hell of a climb. - That'd be a hell of a climb. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Ward, the teacher, Lord, can climb whatever he wants. We know better. - Okay. - Mike, what did I get for experience points last week? - A total of 300 experience points for everyone that was in attendance last week, and I'm giving Dally an extra 200 experience points for her solution, and actually the way we ended it with that natural 20 really kind of was cool in the thunder way into the mid-drop. We out. - Hey. And inspiration. - Yeah, I just leveled twice. - And inspiration for both Dally and Curth for Dally doing her thing and Curth promoting his secret of agenda. - She's not even a dwarf. - Find things out. - I'm not even a dwarf. She still can't carry heavy stuff. - Right. - Sorry, Dally. - Okay, so we are in the aftermath. For the most part, the greenery is about 40%. Burned. It is heavily damaged, but it is salvageable. And right now there's no active flames, but it is smoking and smoldering a little bit. Gillig, Dane, and Faden, as they are coming back to the camp, Gillig reports being the ranger. He reports that there has clearly been a lot of sign of a large force moving through here that force you count maybe two dozen humanoids. Some might to be orc, but most are tracks that they're bipedal, but they have claw marks too. - We think they're like a dragon-born army. - Probably. - You also have the impression that there is a lot of maneuvering and a lot of skulking that this base is in imminent danger. And there is at least two dozen humanoids that are around in the woods there. And you guys feel that this might be a tough place to defend right now. But it also might be too late if you've got refugees or survivors from the original attack. - But is there any indication that the forces are returning that would need to defend? - There's indications that they're still nearby. - Yeah, that's all I'm saying is that the trails are fresh. They're not leading away. Well, actually he found a lot of signs. So what he's saying is that there's a lot of maneuvering going on. To what purpose he's not clear, but... - Maybe they want us to get these guys to leave the vault and then come back and slaughter them. - Get back in the vault! - We should get back in the vault. - Okay, I have an idea. We pretend that the vault can't close and retreat into it. And they give chase and I've created an illusion and they think we're in there and we shut them in. How do you like that? - Some Scooby Doo and a shit. [laughter] - That's a dwarven word. - He was a legendary Scooby of Dew. - As far as that joke is going. - Something an elf would think of. - Yeah, it is. - Right, do any dwarves have any idea? - Advantage, what do you see as our duty here? Is this farm to be defended? Is it worth defending? - I mean, we will be here to check out. - I mean, we just returned back and go. - Yeah, it's fucked. - No, we do not do that. - Okay. - I mean, do we want to go around and chase them? Maybe set up a moving ambush? What are our assets here? Do we have wagons or be supposing? This is a fairly large village farm. - Yes, it is a fairly large farm. - It is a fairly large farmstead. - There are walls, there are towers. - Most of those have been damaged. And also based on what you saw before, it's not exactly well suited against enemies that can fly. - Oh, and they're reporting us. The enemies were many of them. - Well, I saw a flyer. - Well, a lot of them were the first time in trouble. They all ran for the vault. At least they're not combatants. And so it's kind of hard getting a-- - But when they're flying monkeys behind them, they're like the children, you know? (laughing) - They're flying monkeys, isn't it? - So what kind of magics do we have that would be useful against flying beasts? - Well, I'm sorry if you should ask that, because I've been working on this nail gun. - Also, there are several of the golden contraptions that have been designed for doing beasts of burden war. - Like plowing. - Plowing, carting, that kind of stuff. - How many golems are there? - Many golems are there, though. - Right now, there are four wagons, two of which are, they're unusable due to damage, and two of them that are serviceable, and there are a total of six golems, three plowers, and the rest are haulers. - This does bring to mind to Dally the question of the other gnome. Somebody wrote instructions. Somebody built the contraptions. So, when she finds that Hilton has a spare moment, she asks, "It was evident that you did have a gnome working for the farm. Was he or she lost in the battle?" - Hilda is in the middle of cleaning up and helping to repair most of the damage to the granary, which is where you find her. - Oh, you're talking about Cornelian Duhickey. - Duhickey? - Really? - Sorry, seriously? - He's a gnome. - I know, so am I, but I don't have a Duhickey. - Well, he does. - Duhickey's are males. - They craft amazing things. You ever heard of a Duhickey? - No, no. I don't know of any very good patterns. Just for your general knowledge, with her background, she is very competitive. - Yes. - So, this Duhickey ain't all that. I mean, you just improved his-- - Well, you know, if he was any good, that irrigation system would have naturally been a backup firefighting. I wouldn't have had to fix it for him. - Hilda kind of stands up a little straighter and kind of-- - Okay, since Hilda-- - He gets a little stern with you and says, "Yo, lady, if it wasn't for Cornelian, we wouldn't be alive here." He's the one that put the security onto the vault. So, in this room, have you met the man? - Perhaps I can teach him a thing or two. - Is he around? - He went out to-- - Did he let me bro? - Yeah. - He had gone out to his lab because he thought he was able to get some reinforcements for us. And in fact, I'm a little bit concerned that he isn't back yet. She looks to the south and she goes, "I know he has a lab. I know it's somewhere down the hill. I don't know where it is." - An unescorted gnome gadgeteer went out amongst this mess that we have here. - He wasn't alone when he went. He went with some of the garrison borders. - Okay. - How fast do those golems travel? - The golems travel at a 30-foot pace. - It's leisurely because we've been here for hours. - To be fair, you guys were going quickly. - I was just more interested in this feed. Of these things is a way to get some of the refugees out of the area. But if they're-- - You look at the wagons and you look at the thing and you think that they actually would probably serve very well under your followers by nature. But being very slow, I mean, when they come under attack, it's a good question. - They also don't flag. They also don't tire. They don't need food. They don't need water. They don't need rest. - We can hold them back. - I've got a plan. - I used to involve an illusion. - There's some Scooby Doo bullshit now. - I have a question for Kurt. - I'm assisting our illusions. - Yeah, I think I can keep them up for hours. - In regard to silent image, up to 10 minutes. - Yeah, hours. - And Dally, you're clever with these things. If you can think of a way to at least fool temporarily our opponents, you don't have to mow them down, but just something that would give us-- - You remember that thing that shot a bunch of shit at us? - Yeah. - Loved about to know I must hate you in the head. - Oh, yeah. - And put it in the wagon. And then fill that wagon full of children. - Illusion. - Oh. - Oh. - Illusion of the children. - Danger is exploding wine full of children. - And shoot the children. - What's step two? - I love it so far. - And then we know that the more you shoot them, the more you shoot them, the more you shoot them. - Whatever's tasty to dragons. - You're going to put a blunderbuss in a wagon. - Uh-huh. - You're going to disguise it to look like something tasty. They'll run up and we shoot them right in the face. - Yeah. - I like it. - That's part of the plan. - It is part of the plan. - Yes. - Can't be the entire plan. - Just to remind you, I don't think anyone ever investigated the blunderbuss. - I went to do it when we went to the blunderbuss. - I'm getting the gold because I got too distracted. - But I'm not really paying too close attention to it. If you're a dog, you can get it working again. - To answer your question, Vintech, I have a lot of items I can make into traps as well. Poison, fire, thunderwave. I mean, there's a lot of different things I can rig. - Anything effective against an air force? - I think the thunderwave would knock them out of the air. - What do you think? - Well, at night, most of you across the room, so I'm pretty sure, although its range is relatively limited. - What does we say to the food? - Can't we just put these people back in the vault and then pretend we're taking them to safety and then bomb the fuck out of this army? - I like that. That's a better part of the first plan. - You're assuming that they can't open the vault? - They didn't. - For like three days. - They just sat there, and currently they're not very good at math. - Really hard to go to Apollo. - Whoa. - They didn't have scooters on their team. That's what real life someone else comes looking at. - No, it was, it was, they were locked in there for their own protection, but the normal mechanisms and way to get out had been worked by the servants. All of the children and almost all of the survivors are absolutely afraid to go back into that vault. They do not want to be stuck in there again. - Let's see. - The alley could fix it. - I can make it look pretty great. - Obviously it wasn't built very good in the first place. - We are not going into the hole again, that dark hole, hot hole again. - How many illusions can you maintain at a time? - About two. - How big can somebody say about two, it means one. - Yeah. - The Thunder Wave is a 15 foot cube, so they have to be pretty close and I could blow them out of the air. - Ruth, how wide can your illusion be? Like what kind of space can you take? - We're not in the cars, but only in a couple of cars we put them really close together, it's 15 feet. - All right. - As the afternoon turns into really evening, starting with Van Tash, you can kind of tell me what you want to do and then based on what you tell me, I'll begin to answer questions or issues and we can role play that out. So starting with Van Tash. - Well, I'm going to meet with Hilden and Reginald and see if we can't come up with a plan, getting input from-- - Kriv seems out at the end. - Anybody who's around? - Yeah. Definitely Kerv and maybe Dally if you can look at the plundered bus with Kerv. - Sure. - Does that see if the tank plan is feasible? Does everyone have some sort of missile weapon because we are going to be facing flying creatures? Does everyone have spears or crossbows? - Yes. Does anyone not have them? - So we're good. At least instead of their guns. - Is there any reason we think we're not going to be attacked in the next five minutes? - Because we've all made plans, like it's going to be an hour. - One game. - Just expect them to attack in the morning? - We did see-- - Do we have a patrol out there? - We do have a patrol out there. We have both Mila and Giller. - Okay. - Giller, they and Dane have returned. - And we have seen activity out there. My question is, what makes us assume that we're not going to be attacked in the next five minutes besides the-- - Well, that's the first thing on the list then we need to set up. - I would say that you would think that an attack is imminent. - Right. That's kind of my feeling, is that I don't know that we have all night to do things, but we might, I just want to say we should probably have some people up on the ramparts on the terraces defending right now. Because they could hit at night, they probably-- I'm not sure Giller, you know more about the ecology of the dragonborn than I do. They have night vision. Do they have the ability to attack during the night? Or they're going to have to stage an attack and get it? We might first point of clarification to know when we're going to be attacked. - Can they fly? - They can't. - How do I need to make a roll on that? - Actually, yeah, just give me a quick, quick intelligence roll to see how much you would remember or know. - That'd be interesting weaknesses, but they have-- - They are like dragons. - Then yes, but. - They're not dragons, they're humanoids, they're dragonborn. - Just straight up intelligence? - Yes, yeah. - Drip intelligence. 14. - I do have history. - It's one of my skills. - It's an intelligence-based skill, which might-- - All right, I'll just tell you that dragonborn looked very much like dragons standing erect and humanoid form, though you expect them to lack wings and tail. The first dragonborn had scales of vibrant hues, matching the colors of their dragonkin, but generations have been agreeing and have created more uniform appearance, and they usually appear to be brass or bronze in color now. They are usually very tall and strongly built, six and a half feet tall, weighing about 300 pounds, and their hands and feet are strong, like claws with three fingers and a thumb on each hand. - That was a physical description of the creature. Does he know any of the actual abilities of these creatures? Do they wield magic? Do they breathe fire? Do they see in the dark? - No, wouldn't rain. - If they fly, how far are they able to fly into it? - Some of them can breathe fire, some can spit acid, some of them can actually even summon lightning. As far as some of their other abilities, they're much like any other humanoid races. They can study magic, they can become priests, they can have any number of... - There's no particular weakness. - When Gilly went up against something, we encountered some of these creatures. - Yes, he had firsthand knowledge as to... - They've been called servants, and you've known servants who were guardians and warriors to protect them, and you knew that some of them used sorcery to summon wings to fly. Some of them had probably gone through some kind of rites or rituals to kind of enhance their dragonness powers. You've also known some good people that were unfairly persecuted because they looked like they were dragonborn, and you've known dragonborn in rock fall, and most of the, let's say there were two of them, I think, and they have been good, solid citizens, but people still kind of treat them with a little bit of fear. And you've also known that servants, while a lot of the dragonborn were called to serve that dragon, you do know that there have been dwarven traders who have been servants, there have been humans that have been servants, and it's a little bit insidious to reach that cult. However, you're almost sure, and you've heard reports, that with the death of the dragon, their power base has been drastically and severely damaged, so up until now, you really haven't heard much about them, because you thought they all just kind of, you know, have been hiding or faded away or, you know, sculpt away. So this is the first time in quite a while that you've actually heard them being mentioned prominently. I didn't hear any weaknesses there, Dylan. Another pretty diverse. Do they have dark vision? Can they see the dark? Can we be expecting a nighttime attack? No, you know that dwarves can actually see better than they can in the dark. All right, well that takes a little pressure off of my thought process of this being the potential for a night attack. It should give us the night to at least prepare for the imminent attack. I need access to everyone before they go wandering off for an hour, if that's what they're doing. Great. I want to set up this wagon, but I'll put the gun out front of the vault for a fallback position until it's loaded up and we're ready to go. Okay. I want, yeah. Some of us need to be very familiar with the other thing works. Only one of us is going to be, but she can do it. Well, it doesn't have to be us, right? Because the ones who operated it in the first place, you know, are still here. That's true. Yeah, a question about what we're going to do with the citizens. Once we do get attacked, what's the planning with them? David, what are you thinking of? If anything needs belt, I can help build it otherwise. Well, there has been significant damage to the walls and the gate if you wanted to devote some time to trying to repair some of those reinforced at the very least for ground troops. You can spend your time repairing. I think main gate probably the best place to start. Okay. My main concern now is the protection of the citizens. Okay. What the plan is to have them protected while we're under attack. That's my main concern and once that's addressed, I'll keep a lookout to patrol the area. That's one of my major concerns is what areas do we have to defend here? What assets do they still have that are worth, you know, that we wouldn't want to give up? Because we can all clump in one area and defend that and fight them off. But is there other stuff really that needs to be... Well, the majority of it is newly planted fields, so there's really nothing to burn. That's good news. Nothing left. Well, no, it's still spring. So there's fields to be plowed, work to be done. You know, there's nothing that's grown and they can be put to the torch or anything like that. Most of the damage that was affected was structural to like the greenery which was the existing in the winter grain. Most of that you would have to write off because of the fire damage and the water damage. And a lot of it was kind of scattered when the thunder wave hit. So there's a lot of popcorn. I'll hover over that one area. Probably their main hall, I guess would be the most defensible position there. It makes sense just to find a stone corridor that can't be burned and stick the people away the back and get a choke point for the attack of the dragonborn and just grind them to the yield. Does that not the bulk of us? That's dwarf as fuck. That's not bad. Well, that's why I was asking if there any assets need to be healthy. You know, it's my opinion that trying to guard this entire farm seems astenine with 12 people or whatever. It just, it sounds like we need one little small choke point that can't be burned down by their fire or acid and we just, we fight them in that area. Yes, but anyways, I'm sorry. The stone structure, the town hall, or whatever it was, the main hall. So as long as that can be defended. There are ramparts, there are towers and there are walls outside in the courtyard where a lot of the garrisoning guards did perish, but you also, from the reports that you heard from Hilden, is that it was a surprise attack, magic was used, and it was such a scramble that people were cut down so fast. Almost they weren't able to really even have a chance. So Dali, once everyone can be secure in there, I'm going to go on patrol. Right, so that's what I'm doing. Okay, the end. Dali's intent is to find out what has happened to the doohickey, but as she starts to walk off... Hey! ... Perth asks a question about the Blunderbuss and something, so she goes over there and starts talking to him. And then she starts to walk off again and she sees her brother Dane, and she's like, "Oh, I just wanted to mention that Perth is thinking, isn't it?" And she never gets to go check, and basically she stays around for the planning as well. Okay. I believe that these people have been traumatized, and these people, I mean, the dwarves mainly. I do care about the humans and the others who are here, theoretically. But I just tried to attend to their emotional and spiritual needs. So I'll walk among them, say a few prayers, bolster them with a story. Whatever it takes, if they need a little bit of healing, if they need, you know, a bit of fresh food or fresh water. Whatever it takes to basically... I've sent my peace as far as defense goes, and I have the utmost of faith and vantesh to set up a defensive fortification and plan. And I certainly can be pulled away if they need me, but my first concern is the well-being emotionally of all the captives, including the humans. I mean, just because I was taught in the ways of "torm" doesn't mean I'm completely oblivious to other religions, or just the fact that faith can help people feel better. So that's kind of what I'm focusing on. For the dwarves, especially, I certainly can put together a small ceremony, if they wish, and make it non-denominational enough for the humans to be able to participate as well. That's a good idea. Barrow. The clearest thing I could think of would be to collect enough hand axes that it's not going to be a problem when he throws his, and keep an eye out for if they start coming over the hill, because he's got eyes like a goddamn hawk. You can find weapons around him to be collected and reused, so if you want to stash supply of bolts and crossbows at different locations, you kind of give yourself some alternatives, and you can do that as well too. If we can find a way to protect the civilians during a guerrilla action, Barrow wants that more than a defensive one. But if we can't, a defensive one is the only choice, because we need to protect the civilians. And then in kirth, he after gets that gun running, kirth is interested in setting up these golems along the hallway, setting them with a certain command, each of them, and then he's waiting for his other one to come in, so he can move rubble to make these guys look like they're inactive, disguise them a bit. They're in the hallway where we're going to get invaded. So there are backup when the hallway fills up with dragons, and I'm like, "Kill!" Like a golem godly. Your first thing was that you wanted Dally to look at the gun working. Get the gun working. If I may make a suggestion, I would hesitate to spend a long time making a plan, simply because they never work anyways. A few key points is fine, but this elaborate Rube Goldberg plan is going to fail. No, I'm saying let's not do that. It's going to fail. Something like the Blunderbuss behind an illusion, we don't really need to get too much more detail than that. Yeah. But let's keep it more high level than if he runs three spaces here and, you know, type of thing, so. Speaking of high level, let's keep it vague so we can bullshit it later. Exactly. As long as the GM understands, I mean, I don't need a meticulous plan. Don't undermine it anyway, so it doesn't matter. Do you think that you're using a target at the lowest ground level? I'm sorry. One second move. Finish what you're saying, and then we'll go back to curve. No, go ahead. These golems aren't like stationary smashing machines. They just attack whatever I target with. It's an illusion, a particular trigger. Tell me how you would tell a golem, what you wanted to do. I say, we need this flattened, and this is whatever I'm going to make an illusion of. And flattened is just smashing it flat with their hands. Okay. Is that a good enough instruction? You think it will be, I guess, when you try to put it into the tablet. Okay, do you want to? You would use your intelligence, Arcana, Barrow. Did you say that you were thinking about doing something with the wagons to help the refugees if we had to transport them? We had a lot of plans. I was waiting until Van Tesh came up with one, and then I can assist him whenever formal. Well, one of the things that you can probably think of is scaling shields together on the wagons to protect some non-combatants that they came to that. That's in the event we're running. There's nowhere to go. This is Dorfus Fox. I know that's Dorfus Fox. So, what do I think of having a target trying to draw them to ground level because we have this cliff? I had an idea about that. We could shoot level or down at them rather than up in the air. I've seen a guy like do this smoky thing. If they can't see what to shoot the flame at, then they'll have to come down to our level. Close quarters would be good too. I do like close quarters. I really think we should be in a cave. That is our fault. I don't care about that fault. No, I don't want to put the civilians in a vault. When I say vault, I mean a stone tunnel of some sort. We talked about all kinds of tunnels that are here. We just find a tunnel that doesn't have another entrance somewhere and force them if they want to take the police. We have such a place. This is where I put the golems. Right. I just think that's where we should fight them. I mean they got to get down to a foot level and they have to slog it out with us. Imano Imano in this tunnel. Maybe the tunnel is 10 feet wide. Maybe it's 20 feet wide. Three or four warriors. We line up our best against their best. I think that's the best fighting chance we have. Then to try to fight them out in the open where they can use their numbers because when Gilligan and I were out on that patrol, there's quite a few of them. They can overwhelm our position if we try to be out in the open. They have to think like dwarves and fight like dwarves. They want to take this place. They want to kill these people. Then they have to go into a tunnel. Questioning like dwarf them. I'm not questioning your dwarf them. Well I'm just saying that fighting out in the open seems to me to be a more risky proposition. I'm sure it's either but they may not cooperate. They're just going to start living and kind of just hang out here. You know what I'm saying? Like did they have to kill us? They could see just. Yeah, they could starve us. But that's a great plan and I'm for it. Could I please get a cooperate? A perception roll from everyone at this point? Yeah. Is there any rolls that Dally needs to do prior to this like hooking up the Blunderbusser? Well first of all you examined the Blunderbuss and by its design it wasn't meant to be a one shot thing. Actually give me an intelligence roll modified by your proficiency and plus two for your tinker. I rolled our cana because I had to and then the other thing is spotting. Okay. What was your arcane roll? 17. Okay. 14. 14. You look at it. First of all it was kind of cobbled together in a hurry and it seems to have that kind of quality that you've been complaining about all night. Yeah, shoddy workmanship. Also it was used with the working spirits to ignite and fire off shrapnel and bits of rock. You think you might be able to reload it and rearm it and get it going. It just you won't be as effective as it was before. Is it a lack of ammunition or the fact that it's blown apart? It was damaged. The barrel here is clearly weakened by the initial blast and try to do it a second time. It's simply not going to be as effective. More of the force is a lot word rather than force. Actually it might even be more dangerous. Dangerous for oversight. I thought you could mend things. This is an initial role to do her assessment. She hasn't died. I'm just reminding him of his applause. You have so many. I have three. All right. Do you want to continue with that process? I guess you have to decide. We don't have to answer. We'll move on. You think about whether you want to rebuild it, reload it and have it ready or if you want to do something different. Gilling. I am patrolling the area. Oh, good. I need to come back to you. Thank you. You begin work on repairing the front gains or at least getting them closed and short up? Yeah. Yeah. Short up, that's the word I was looking for. Getting kind of like priced quickly, short of version. So at the very least they should be able to withstand ground forces a little bit. Vantesh, you were in conversation with Hilden and Reginald. Reginald. He realizes that the situation is dire. He has volunteered himself and his remaining men to support the defense of this farm. And while he certainly wants to protect the chest, it's all kind of meaningless if we all don't survive. So he understands that if you need us to be a last line of defense for the refugees or if you need us on the front line, my men will answer the call. We are. Do they have spears? The four warriors were in chainmail and had swords. They did not have spears, but they did have long poles to carry the chest with and they can probably improvise something with daggers and bayonets. They could probably create spears if they needed to. They do have bows. What was the perception mold that you mold? Thirteen. Thirteen. Sixteen. And Gellig is going to be an automatic because he's already out there. Dally. Twenty-one. Oof. Okay. Eleven. Eleven. Dane is in the middle of a service. Eleven. In crew, things said that he looked into him a good room. He said it's like six or something. Yep. What Dally hears, a type of distant clanking. It sounds familiar to you. This is possibly the return of the Golem. It sounds very similar to that, yes. But there's something different about it. There's almost a cadence or a marching quality to it. And then that's when you hear what sounds like a ram's horn being won. In a sequence that Van Tesh, Dane, and Faden and Barrow all recognize. Reinforcement. It's a dwarven signal usually used to announce the approach of allies to a camp or a fort. Okay, we don't have to die. Oh, long. That's good. Well done. And you look to the south and that's where Gellig is coming out of email. You're looking at woods and rocks. And all of a sudden he seems to emerge out of nothing. And there he is. Yeah. I think I should eat and drink. He's got a little bit of a smile, but also a little bit of a... You're looking at a particularly ugly rock when you suddenly realize he was actually good. Like all along. Right. That's still. Right. Right back at you. To what? Gellig kind of walks up and he's kind of got a sour expression on his face, but also one of somewhat kind of amusement. And behind Gellig is Mila Darrow. They approach the camp. And you continue to hear that king's growing louder as clearly something heavy and marching is approaching the camp. They cut giant dwarves. Gellig, what did you find? And when Gellig finds, well Mila is the first one to speak up. Not too far from here is a group that I know and I have called upon their aid to get us this emergency. Oh no. Elves. No. I have summoned the... Or I've requested help from the Spiderwood Clan. And Gellig is just like... This is bad news. Not bad news. He just discussed it with him. Yeah, we don't need help. Seemingly like leaping with tremendous power from up in the trees. They kind of drop down and you see what it first looks like a giant spider. Can I catch you off guard for a moment? What you see is a four foot tall, what looks like a spider, but you realize is really a halfling, wearing tightness armor that was clearly from a spider, unusually muscular and fierce looking halfling. Almost a dwarf. Except it's not too moron. And his weapons are leather and fur and the hearts of spiders. Let me introduce you to Talon. Talon is the current war leader of the Spiderwood Clan. Are they all with apples? These are fierce, this is a clan of halfling. They're fierce barbarians from the woods. And they're here to help us fight. They're the nearest allies in the closest allies we can get here in the time that we have. Talon, it sounds like an apology. Well, they smell something. They're like, you know, reasons we don't want these particular helping. You know, like the helmet has like, you know, the bug eyes of the spider, kind of goggles on the thing and the leader. You said they're barbarians, right? Yeah. We're fucking tunnel fights where we need to protect civilians. I'm glad you're apologizing. That was dumb. Are you saying they're allowed to meal it? Saying they're allowed to somebody. Yeah. Maybe it's a mutter on your mind. How many of you? What might help you? Don't get no help. No, he doesn't say that. Yeah. But Talon just kind of, you know. All right. Hold on. Yeah. All right. You got the trees. Meanwhile, Gillick says, yeah, that's not what I found. I ran into... Do Dickey. Do Dickey. I don't think Gillick says do Dickey. That's the thing. The no. I call him the... Yeah, that's not... Cornelius. Or the no. And as he says that, you see emerging from the... up the path. The noise of a full dozen of tall, quite actually menacing looking constructs. They're almost like nine feet tall. They're made of metal, wood, and stone. And they look like they're meant for fighting. And I spend all the time getting these shit wipes to work. But look. You've got upgraded models. You should be happy. You want upmanship here. Well, that's why you don't like them. Yes. How many of these little hobbits are there? The... Are you starting? No, I'm talking about the actual spider habits. How many spider habits are here? The modding danger house. You see talent right there, but... So there's one. You see one. So we have a fourth of a dwarf in about... what, ten to twelve constructs? Eight. You see twelve constructs coming up the road and you see a younger gnome that is riding on one of the shoulders in a... in constructs. Yeah, wait a minute. How many halfs I'm doing? That's a whole half. One. You only see one. You only see one. Right. Like I said, because quarter of a dwarf in twelve constructs. Doesn't that make you happy? Better than what we have before. I want to fight a tunnel. I don't want to fight out in the open with spider constructs or spider habits. But... Is constructs fit in the tunnel? No. Or is it not? Yes, okay. They can... Fuck off. I am so bored. You're... Man, cannon fodder. Hilden sees the gnome there. And here's what you say. Oh, that's Cornelia. That's Alvin. It's good for nothing, cousin. You have to make the good shit. I just thought I have a link. There is. Go back into my invigorations. Also do hickey. Evolutions. Yes, he's... Where's that one to do, Dad? Son of Cornelia. He's... He's of the family do hickey. Oh, the dongles. Okay. Okay. Where's the other two chipmunks, John? Um... The door. Jesus, turn it into a fairy tale. Can we fucking just kill something? Of a dwarf! Set up an epic battle here, though. Right. Okay. So, what you have now is... Alvin nubly jumps down and comes up to Halda and hugs her. And they quickly exchange... What? No. They exchange information with each other about what happened and where your situation. And Alvin turns to... I guess it'd be Dantesh. He looks like Tilda indicates the door in charge from Rockfall. And... Alvin... It took us a while to get them here, but these are the shield guardians for the farm here. And these hopefully will help us defend and help reinforce until more forces can come from Rockfall. Or we can... Have you managed to send a message to Rockfall? Uh... We sent messengers out to Rockfall. Part of what my uncle Prineelian did was he sent several of the golems and sent several of the pigeons. And we also sent one of the... All of those messages resulted in who you see here. You guys aren't part of the relief effort. You and I... We're part of the emergency. You see what's wrong effort. Right. We were hearing word from the town, so that's why we came to investigate why we haven't heard anything lately. Nothing got to us. We are all you have. Treating it as well. But these constructs should serve well. They're my uncle's best work yet. Don't look so wrong. We slotted in our part on the way here. What are they made out of these constructs? Yes. What are their capabilities? Can we cut them off with a knee so we can play some of the tunnel? That's my major concern. I can really attest to this plan. Do some tactical damage. Intimately attached to the defense of the cavern plane. No, they should be able to... They can recognize threats. They can fight hand to hand. They can resist all sorts of... They should be very tough to kill. They're a rock and quartet group. They are iron. They are steel. They are rock and they are hardwood. How are they against flying enemies? Can they fly? They cannot fly. Can they shoot a weapon in the airborne target? Or they hand-hand fighters? They were hand-hand fighters there. Yeah, okay. That wasn't in the design specs. No, you did fine. These are great. They do. Much more helpful. They're... Yeah. We're gonna die. Well done. We're just gonna die. And we were better off than we were before. We were so glum last time. Come on. Just a couple of weird little insect people were finding. That's how much trouble... Oh, they look like this. Nice. All right. We'll use them. And then you tell me what you need them to do? No. I'll set them up. Fly. We'll kill Orks. And he looks at you and... He's up. Hello. How are you? My name is... They buy a windstart flying. The birds start chirping back off chipmunks. Hey, you talking chipmunks? I know. They're cuter than him. As deli's talking a snakes time is flicking out of her mouth hard to get my favorite time And eyeball falls out of her face You're ugly. I need you a whoa a snakes tongue away talking eyeball falls out. Oh, yeah, he should be backing away now Maybe he's into that Okay, Vantesh. We need a plan a quick one that doesn't involve them. I mean that they don't get to play For real They need to just shut the hell up and go talk to their non dwarf selves and we need to come up with a plan of defense that can suit we can survive Because they would have us fighting out in the middle of a courtyard with a bunch of slow steel Gliots that may or may not prove useful in the battle. It's upcoming because it's drawing us out into the open I think they'll prove useful against the ground forces my We've got first concern and continued concern is the air force. I could potentially put them in the air But they're not they're gonna easily be out whenever something with wings. Yeah, okay. That's here's my plan What about a water cannon? What about we we don't Why do we have to engage them in the air? I'm missing the point. I could not create fog Why can't we make them land they can't attack us from 50 feet above with fog they have to land and then we've engaged them the way they're meant to fight on the ground if we could fire them on I'm sure we could start a fire downwind and Put a lot of smoke over the area. So they have to come down low And they can't be too high. I know it seems I didn't and it's just to draw them down. I know I get you Green with you this place has been burnt pretty badly. It's been abused. I say we burn a little bit more Put some smoke in the air make it difficult for them and make them have to land if they land we can fight them We could form some can have some kind of defensive backdrop They can't even see what defenses we got until they get through the and get down to the ground We can't get them out of the air. We're doomed Yeah I'd say we just sit in the cave until they come to us But if you guys don't believe they'll actually come to us then what's like let's let's light some things on fire I think they will what I'm concerned with is we can't put the golems in there I think they should stay in the woods as like a backup when they're all in the tunnel they're gonna rush out right Yeah, I mean to close them But again, yeah, I don't see why we have to fight them in the open. I'm missing that we don't that point I'm not saying we have to I'm saying they may not cooperate with the tunnel thing and right even if they do I don't want all every last one of us in there that could be Dudley well need a reserve force Those are the golems who wants to lead those troops the golems will be part of that force. Yeah, I know who wants to lead it Yeah, and not not to get too crazy with the game plan So I think you're right Tom I think we just need to come up with a quick game plan and then let's let's fight but you you could technically put the 12 golems Scattered around the ground and use the illusion to make them look Non-functional and dad and just like there was another battle here of some sort And then when we draw the force to where we want them the golems stand up and crash into their Rear I do so many illusions wouldn't it be easier to hide them perhaps? I'm just throwing it out there as a potential. I wanted to use your specific magic because I know that you like Okay, can you tell me what the blunderbuss could potentially do for damage? We're talking an area of fact weapon right sounds like a killing an area effect weapon or he wasn't in an area effect Well, it was more of us. Well, it was like a cone cone in areas different in the book. Here's thing But how much damage did it do in the court is looking at that going I could repair this It's probably gonna do less than that. I've got a thunder wave that could do three dice to Everything at a 50 foot so it's worth my time to spend it on the blunderbuss But it really sounds like it if you have nothing else to do at that time Then heck why not have a backup a little something to do damage and if you can rig it so you can do it from a park Since the thing won't blow up in your face. I can fire the blunderbuss from 30 feet away. I Can't throw fire then I will spend time on it if it's something you can you know gives you a spell in effect That's fine, and then you intend to have a battle next week I say we set a timer for an hour But you mean for the battle order to talk about it to talk about it beforehand like a half out to right We've got a half an hour before the enemy shut up for three hours I mean I know you are you I've said it that you suspect there is a battle of cinnamon I'm just I'm just curious. I want to hear your logic so I can make adjustments. You are Anticipating an air attack. Yeah, you've only seen one creature that can fly Well, that's why I said I asked them when they were running to the safe room where the vault Did they see any flying creatures? They did not because they when the alarms went off in the attack. They have one ran for the thing They didn't they weren't witnessing the battle. They were trying to get Under the thing we're planning for the worst. I'm just I'm just trying to curious where you know cuz I'm not trying to say No, it's not gonna be their attack, but I'm Well, they're dragonborn and Right, we saw one of them at least flying so I would yes, right and we talked together He said they did have yeah, no, you do so. That's what I'm gonna say didn't didn't go It say that there were other flying ones when they fought against the dragon But it was through magic. It wasn't that they had not a racial feature And the one that was spotted had wings and was definitely using a wing supplies and that usually isn't at the notes ring Like it shows that's meant fire so maybe that's just scouts. That's excellent to know But we still should have a plan for trying to lure him in to lure them to some place and then have hopefully Something seal a trap just to funnel them into the area. We want them right whether that be an open area whether it be Slash fog could you're that generals from given an overview right now your illusions could be farmers who are trying to rebuild Try to clean up and rebuild they see the guys coming and they flee Because they were trying to get for how long are they trying to get in three days? Yeah, trying to get in to kill those the rest of the farmers So I don't want to put them out there at risk right the real people But an illusion of two, you know, 15 foot Designs that kept them out, right? Yeah, you're not so much involved with the battle blend that was fantastic He did a great job. So But you go get us some water with thirsty the grown-ups are planning the battle so no I don't you say that I don't say that I just think there's too many so think it right here There's enough cooks in the kitchen We don't need three NPCs given their idea, right? That's just a metagaming thing. I did not say to that laugh and tell him goes From yeah, I think we yeah, so we've got three forces here. We've got the real fighters Well, then we've got some we've got some golems that will do some damage and then we've got some spider habits Fitting any of those categories boss well, you're not one of us. You are the unspoken. Yeah, you're one of the elite Yeah, so yeah, I agree we put a timer on for half hour Maybe you have a small little thing so we can just look and say it would be smartest to draw them here And then we do lots of battle yeah, because we're gonna go on forever and it is everyone will have a great idea You're gonna make and get me a goddamn thing when the battle starts never suck Yeah Thank you for listening tonight's of the night actual play podcast If you'd like to send us questions comments or feedback you can reach us in a number of ways from Twitter at kotn_podcast or by email feedback at kotnpodcast.com and don't forget the iTunes reviews Or our Facebook page Facebook.com/kotn.podcast Speaking of Facebook join like-minded folks at our Facebook fan page and lastly there's our blog page kotnpodcast.com where there's an Amazon link on the right-hand side Thanks to Zen audio Smith for the intro and outro music get your own music at Zen audio Smith calm and Join us next week for more mystery and adventure *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* I do For John you never heard of a two-hickie Talon do hickies, but no, no, no, those are thing of us think about Bob's no, no, I don't know of any Very good I just stumbled upon a way to use puns all If a character says you got to put it in He went out to go to the armory That he had been or actually I'm sorry not the armory. I'm sorry wrong word The quickie mark. No not the quickie mark. I'll find your do-hickie That could just be the tile Dally I'm a dolly that's that with the mustache and the crazy paintings. I saw what we have on sheep. That's so cloned sheep Dally, Dally. Yes, Dally not Dally, Dally Sing a lady and child move on. Okay, that's you. Yep, that went too far. Much too far They held the guard Last week we called our iron and I'm gonna write it over here. Sorry. I've been yet Dally. Wow. Gilly fuck you I just already lost. I'm you I just question Oh, I'm sorry then. Gilly go ahead. No, I'll just be seen now Story of myself Kicking rocks in one room. Yeah, he'll return circle. Yeah Dally. Oh days could kill it again. No And then that makes her cry and be grace and makes the only children crying so good job, Gally Right now I'm playing the role of Sister Katie What was the name of the farm now? Cornelian do Hickey You suspected so much longer name, but this is what the door is known as you had to choose and he picked that. Yeah, really Keep it off change that with her 21 plus and her big no mirrors I have dainty no mirror for another year, right? Viagra That's why you're gonna Fitness Okay, I could be wrong. I want to go with kindness. You've had this argument before which is the right one. You're both right Excellent carry on. All right. Fair enough. I didn't say we had a solution. We just had the argument You made this in your own game. You had a choice. You chose spiders. You don't like spiders, too They're made There is this no There's so there's someone else new. Yeah, well, there's there's a no wonder what the construct is a court is it Is it sexy? It's not Cornelius. You know, it's really funny alien No, because the Cornelius is the the Yukon explorer who Sure, it's a name. We know him According to the matter, but we know obviously his work. We're not impressed. All right You were gonna go look for him and you weren't impressed. Oh, really build the the vault all that you can't kind of cut him off at the knees Yeah, you can get the saw it's like a Gundam by your way barberians singular Yeah, you only see the one I know that's cockroaches Yeah, when you see one, you know they're a boy You will affect your house and you guys are all major players in it now it can be a man you're talking about I'm talking about my idea for clock wish I think yeah clockwork dominion and how it's gonna be steam punk meets Game of Thrones with a little small dash of I'm not from saying his name right about but China me, Bill So he's a massive previously. Okay, China me, Bill who wrote iron council Peridido Street station in the scar the idea is is you'll have you guys will create your own house and you can be scions You can be a tendons to the house. You could be guardsmen You could be any mixture of that you know one of you could be a third son far removed of ascendancy while Tom could be a stable hand who happens to be really good with or you know I'm saying this it doesn't have to be though So it's all we're all in one house. Yeah, you're all part of one house in this world This one shot is going to be the start of our campaign. No, no, it's gonna be complete different good Okay, Zeke is coming in and running by con game He's got two different con and he's gonna be in his Victorian Setting next so the setting is different. It's just him explaining a game to us and he's gonna The one you're doing is a little bit more the one I'm taking his not so much I don't want to go dark again because I have a world of darkness to be as dark as I want to be So what I'm gonna do is it's gonna be a little bit dark because the idea behind Yeah, I mean Game of Thrones is really a little bit dark right and the idea behind steampunk as I understand it Well, it's realistic gritty gritty gritty as maybe because the the punk is this was great from this is right His smile, but also I've noticed it from the steampunk that I've read the punk is Whoever's in control fuck them is always Abusing it they're always abusing it. They're always in control making decisions for their own good and screwing the general Populous as much as they possibly can unrealistic, right? I mean that's crazy and the steam of it is the you know the tech in the you know They're the mixture of fantasy elements with with tech elements a flavor, right? So the idea here is to you guys I have a whole backstory written like it's my own home brew It's my own world, but the general idea will be you don't have to be a noble house You could be a merchant house. You could be a house of magicians of some sort You could be an alchemists guild of assassin a guild of assassins second story man. You could be a thieves guild You could be any house you want to be but the house will be something that you could actually Grow like through your experience. You could say I'm gonna spend this on me. No, you know, I'm gonna invest this prestige There's not that's where game of thrones the actual role-playing game comes in There's a game of thrones role-playing game, and I am just absolutely cutting their house creation rules Grafting yeah completely ripping it out of that system and grafting it on the clockwork dominion Guys, I mean there's not a whole crew here to discuss yet, but I'm thinking a house of ill repute like hookers and still repute Yeah, hookers, but I'm right prostitutes the higher houses the lower houses virtually everybody comes here spider Robinson literally It's an interesting take because you could be a crime house that runs various brothels Around the area, but there's a whole world to choose from Bob. You could handle the drug area of it I was thinking of like it like a tin man like part Thomas would be a man Maybe he got like his ass kicked in the war and he's missing some limbs, so he's got some robotic stuff going on Yeah, I'm already counting on rowing poorly for your Novel that had to do with running a brothely was like the best brothel in the world, and I mean he described how it all worked And all the people know but I will because I like spiders really interesting. I think it was him I'll have to go back Yeah, so it could be anything I mean there's whole continents that you could be on and there's different races it won't be your typical Fantasy races they're gonna be completely different races for you to be able to become or again Just humans and each one will have its own advantages and disadvantages The cool thing about plot work dominion from Bob's point of view is that you don't actually roll up your character When you you just spend in a lot of the amount of points for what the things you choose your you like your race your background Basically you just kind of build it all up now the house you all roll for Somebody use the game of thrones. I'm not gonna I think we just give you a set amount of points, but that kind of takes the fun out of it because truly unless your house was just created in the last couple of Years or decades your house has a history it has four fathers and madam's you're doing the brothel thing You basically go around the table and for each of the Attributes if you will of the house fortunes the lands it controls, you know all those types of things you roll randomly I think our motto should be in another language and we tell people that the motto is all are welcome But basically it says all come here. Yeah in the crude way, but it's like inside. Oh no. No. No is Latin sounding. Yes I'm supposed to get it.