cover of episode C01 - Ep. 24 - Wight Winter -3 Weeks Later...

C01 - Ep. 24 - Wight Winter -3 Weeks Later...

Publish Date: 2021/11/3
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Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready. For

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Welcome back, my brutishly embracing barbarians. Stomp on into the Stinky Dragon for our latest beverage, the Barbaric Bonsai Booze. It's a basket of Badlander's bones blasted in Balthazar's best bonsai, topped with batches of basil burnt to a black and crisp, then brewed into a boastfully bold flavor embodying the best of our barbarian brethren.

Previously, our adventurers battled with the infamous Infinite, Sleek the Symphonious, and his savage string section. They managed to overcome the Discord dwarf but found themselves face to face with their formidable foe, Paralyte. But two tusslers and Sordo showed up in the brink of time with an unexpected escape plan and a portal outside. The interns and Sleek managed to step through the portal, but it seems Paralyte was one step ahead of them again. Where have the interns been sent and what is Paralyte up to this time? Let's find out together.

Doctor, are you still awake? My word, when's the last time you slept, my good man? Sleep? There's no time for sleeping, Mayor. I've got to get this infernal contraption working again. I'm hoping it will provide a clue as to where the interns are. Right. And how is the dreamery experiment coming these days? No!

It's been three weeks Felix, three weeks since Aleve took off, along with my best lab equipment, three weeks since Perilite exiled the interns to... to... well only Dia knows where she sent them.

Or if they're even still alive! You can't think like that, Doctor. I'm sure we'll find them. Besides, they are a pretty scrappy bunch. They've been through a great deal together, and you train them well. Yes, but it's all my fault, Felix. I sent them there. I played right into Paralyte's trap.

She's been ten steps ahead of us from the beginning. There's no way you could have known that. We both know when it comes to Paralite, you have... Well, perhaps we both have a... blind spot? Besides, I'm sure the interns are fine. For all we know, they could be sitting on some beach sipping on pina coladas. I suppose that's possible. If only we knew where that beach was...

It's been three weeks since your encounter with Sleek and Paralyzed. It's already starting. Do you have an inspiration die? That's pretty good. Yeah, you've already got one. Blaine, I need you to start feeding me some of these so that I can get inspiration dice. Okay, all right.

You all are in a frozen, I don't want to say wasteland, but a frozen desolate area. You have a makeshift camp assembled near the edge of a frozen lake and a forest. Like I said, it's been three weeks. You all have no idea where you are. You're just trying to get by and survive, hoping that you can find people or that somehow people find you. But at this point, your rations are starting to run low.

And you're scared a little bit because you don't know what's going to happen. There have been some wild animals that have come out from the forest that have been poking and prodding at the camp and you guys. And, you know, you all are trying to stay together, trying to stay safe. What do you think you all have been doing for the past three weeks to pass the time in this scenario? Or by a frozen lake, you said? Yes, between a frozen lake and a forest. Just nonstop snow angels, obviously.

Don't stop snowing, Jules. I will say it sounds like you guys are trying to set the stage for a miserable environment, but Kyborg did basically raise himself in the Everwinter Woods. So this is like his home. He's having a great time. He's camping with his friends. He's drinking hot chocolate. He's by the campfire. He loves this. I think...

I think Bart and Gum-Gum probably helped build a shelter because they're used to traveling together. And so they probably have some experience trying to forage things and build shelter while they travel. And so I could see them doing that together as Mud and Kyborg go look for food and makes no angels. It's like this where Bart is on Gum-Gum's shoulders, but they're both like hammering. Yeah.

I'm cutting the top of the tree, you're cutting the bottom. Gum-Gum has also been meditating a lot and trying to contact the spirit of his or the mana of his dad because he's gotten these weird powers that he doesn't understand. Some hair in new places? Yeah, well, when he gets angry, weird magic things happen. Yeah. And he doesn't understand that.

And his theory is that it's his dad trying to help him. And so he's been using that his wand that his dad left him that kind of like long rock. And he named Boomba and he's been trying to get in touch with his father. And he also, I think, had several conversations with Bart about not, you know, going through some changes and not understanding them. Yeah. How do you feel about that, Bart?

Bart actually really enjoys being kind of like a big brother figure to Gum Gum. So he's really taken to the whole educating him scenario. Oh, how about this?

Again, because he feels at home, Kyborg has also been putting all of its squad in through his training regimen. So we're all huge. We're all jacked. Three weeks, he can get cut. You have a squad? Who's your squad? My squad? It's my team. My squad, my mud bud, my gum, and my fart. My gum. I forgot their names, but you know. Would you guys consider yourselves part of Kyborg's squad? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I would consider him part of our squad. We're all part of each other's squad. That's what I was wondering. Where does that Venn diagram go? Mud, I think, would have been doing two things. One, Mud would have tried to look around for...

any creatures in this snow environment that would allow him to survive better in it. So I don't know if there's any normal animals that you can tell me that Mud would have seen, but he would have at least been looking. I can say that. Wabbits? Yeah. Why don't you roll me a nature check?

Why? Negative one on nature. Quick question. We could take long rest since it has been three weeks. I assume we've rested at some point. We have not. No one said it. You definitely have taken long rest. Okay. A few long rests, I assume. Yes. You're more than back to full. And we leveled up. Okay.

No, stop it. Chris. He's joking. That was a joke. They're a broken record. 13. 13. Give them more X. Give them more X. Give them more X.

I don't know if they're a snow creature. You'll at least get a rabbit. Maybe like, oh, snow leopards. Cute. See, Mud rolled a 13 on his nature check. Yeah, I mean, you have trouble finding anything out of the ordinary. You know, you're able to forage up and find... Initially, when you first get there, you're able to forage up and find, you know, some small rabbits that you use to extend your rations.

But for the most part, as time goes on, you find less and less tracks of a small game. The only remaining prints and animals you're able to find traces of are wolves in the area.

I guess to clarify, it was more so to turn into them. Oh, to turn into them. Yeah. You occasionally get glimpses. I mean, like I said, you know, small animals, which I assume you don't care about initially, rabbits, squirrels, things like that. But you do, you know, occasionally catch a glimpse of wolves in the woods. So can I add wolf to my library? Okay. And then on top of that, since...

druids are like the survival creatures who become one with their environment or at least that's how I think of them. You can tell by that negative one nature roll. Yep. It's because I don't need help. You know, it's like it's going to be there anyways. No, Mud would have changed a lot of his spells around which I just did frantically while everybody talked. And

would have prepared some spells like creating a bonfire as well as a first level spell of a good berry not to be confused with good burger but it creates berries that help people get their HP back so I've prepared some spells to help us like survive in the forest that's what Mutt would have done as well as

Digging the snow to find dirt to put in his coffee, no matter what. Of course. You got to have your ingredients. Kyborg is taken to calling Mud Dingleberry. And funny enough, Mud hasn't given Kyborg a single Goodberry yet. Can I make an interesting move here, Gus? Sure. It's the first time for everything. Yeah. We went through a portal.

And again, Kyborg grew up in the woods kind of on his own. He has plus two survival and I think plus one nature. I feel like he would kind of know constellations and would be able to figure out are they actually like from their place of origin? Like, do they know roughly? Is he seeing anything that he recognizes as near home, near boulder? Yeah.

That's an interesting thing. All right. Roll a nature check, I guess, for stargazing. We got an eight.

It's been pretty cloudy and snowy most of the time that you've been here. It's rare that you're able to get a glimpse of the stars. So it's hard to say. When you do get little glimpses of the stars, you seem like they look a little familiar, but maybe not quite. Something's a little off. Oh, interesting. Is there a check I can do? I would imagine mud being able to turn into a wolf and go on longer treks. Is there something I can do to see if, like, look for...

anything around that at least as a trail or like what is the extent of our perimeter of what where we are does the environment change at all even the you said we're next to a frozen body of water lake yeah yeah like would have turned into an otter and at least seen like what that's like so is there anything that i can see like if mud would have divined anything from that

Oh, that's interesting. You can turn into an otter? That's pretty cool. Before we get to that, I want to point out, I feel like we kind of glossed over this. Goodberry is actually a surprisingly good spell. I want to talk about Goodberry for a second. It's a good spell. It's a good spell. I feel like it's one that people overlook. It's easy to forget about. Basically, mud just conjures up berries and people can eat them. And they only restore one hit point, but they give you nourishment to sustain you for a day. Yeah. Yeah, they're decent. Yeah, it's kind of OP. Yeah.

Yeah, it's like things you can kind of hold on to and then, you know, eat them if you need to. Just pop those Skittles in. I forgot to mention, too, to keep everyone's spirits high, I think Bart has also been serenading everyone at night around the campfire. Kyborg hasn't slept a wink. Also, you didn't get a long rest.

Yeah, no long rest for kyborg then. Oh, yeah. I mean, your amazing tunes, Bart. They're great. And Gum Gum's been making winter flowers around our little makeshift shelter. It's a winter flower. So there's flowers everywhere. Poinsettias. Why'd you say it that way? Poinsettias. Aren't those poisonous? Yeah, yeah. Back.

Back to Mudd's. I don't know if your characters would know that. Maybe Kyborg would. Back to Mudd's animal shape-shifting exploration question. I'll deal with the otter first. You're able to go around and swim and explore under the lake. The ice looks like it's

In some places, it's pretty thick. In some places, it's thin. But of course, since you're an otter, it doesn't matter to you. In there, you find various fish that you're able to eat. Not a ton, but there are some fish in there. It seems like the lake is fairly large. I think you would be hesitant to explore too far to get away from the camp because you can't see where the other end of it is. Then as far as the forest, it's...

It would be a similar thing. You're not able to find any signs of people, just continued signs of the occasional small wildlife. As the days goes on, it seems like the small animals are moving further and further away from your camp, probably because of the smell and the noise that you all are producing. But that would be about it. Gum, gum. Gum, gum.

Three quick questions. One, how far of a distance have we traveled from camp? Like max distance. I'm assuming it would be John because he's like our little animal scout guy. John is definitely the one who has gone the furthest. At most, I'd say it's a couple of miles. Okay. Two, can John turn into fish? Mud. Mud. Mud. Sorry. Sorry. Can mud turn into fish?

That's a mud question. Mud, can you turn into fish? Well, I was just looking at it. At some point, we saw... I'm sorry. Did we see a metal fish at some point? I have a list of all the creatures that we saw in the pet shop. And you guys said...

a metal fish. And so I listed it with it along with like the sea otter and a frog and a kitty. But I'm looking at D&D and I can't find even fish under monsters. If you want to look it up, John. Yeah. Micah based it on a seahorse, but a fishbowl is required. It

Its scales turn shades of bronze, silver, or gold depending on how happy it is with you. When gold, the owner has advantage of constitution checks for holding breath underwater. Wow. That's if I have a pet. Right. I think an otter is honestly probably better if you ask me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of what you just described, yeah.

But I mean, other than the fish can like stay underwater perpetually. Fish also get eaten by other fish. Just like Qui-Gon said, there's always a bigger fish. And I would say after the first like week or two of them scouting and not finding anything, we would...

Start, I don't know, prepping for longer venturing out to the wilderness, like drying out berries and any little squirrels or anything that we catch trying to dry them out. Who has salt? This is a family show. That's a thing you do in Oregon. Who has salt? Let me check. Well, I just go in and I boil water. That's the Minecraft way. I think you make when Gum Gum cries. Oh, man.

Third and final question. Third and final question, yep. Has Mud, in his animal form, ever hooked up with an animal? Answer the question, Mud. No. Okay. No more questions, Your Honor. No, you're not going to answer the question, or no, you never have? No, never have. No more questions, Your Honor. There you go.

You may proceed. So in all this time you've been trying to, you know, figure out where you are and, you know, trying to find rescue. What do you think Sleek's been doing? Because he's also with you. Is he normal? Does he have his brain again? It seems like, you know, for a while he was initially, when you came through the portal, he was injured. You know, he had just been in the fight with you. It seemed like maybe not quite of his normal self. But yes, now as the days have gone on, he's healed and it seems like he's back to normal. He's no longer in a trance.

However, he seems quite upset, quite in a funk, if you will. Upset at us or just in general? It's nothing personal, Bart. I'm not the same dwarf without my lute. Okay. I feel incomplete. Could I lend him my lute to play while he's with us? That's very gracious of you, Bart. I wouldn't mind strumming a few chords, but I'm afraid it's just not the same as my emerald lute.

We had a connection. Could I ask him what the significance of his loot is? Like, what the, I guess, personal connection there is to it? Hmm, I'm usually quite loquacious, but...

Did it get broken? I forget what happened to it when we left. Paralite took it. Took it, okay. Yeah. Well, you may not have your loot, but you're never far from a toot. And then gum gum toots.

Bart laughs. And that just helped everything. Make a performance check for your toot. Roll for toot. Oh, please roll a one and poop your pants. Eleven. That's kind of what I was looking for. Middle of the ground. Eleven. Yeah, it's a solid toot. No turtle hitting. Gross.

So, I mean, are we in a position where we feel like we should move the party elsewhere? We should try to find our way out of here? I mean, Gum Gum alluded to it earlier, but... I mean, I'm still kind of hanging on what Gus mentioned about how, like, looking up at the sky and stuff and, like, something seems slightly off.

Maybe we're trapped in, like, one of those crystal ball things. Like, maybe it's another, like, dimension or, like, another... I don't know. Maybe you'll be able to get a better look at the stars on this evening because now, after three weeks, it's nearing dusk, as you all are talking about what to do moving forward. Let's roll a perception. Yeah, should we gaze at... Let's do some stargazing and see... It's not quite dark enough yet. Soon it will be. Okay. Okay.

So, I may want to play some Parcheesi or... I've been whittling also. What you been whittling? Our patience. Magical instruments. Bart is whittle. So, I already have a magic wand. I made a magic wand for Bart out of some wood. Turns out it's just a stick you found. Right, just like his. Well, I whittled it. It was a bigger stick. Okay, okay.

Now it's a smaller stick. They say he carved it from a bigger spoon. Does it have a name like the other one? Oh, that's for Bart to decide. And I put a flower at the end. I wrapped a flower at the end of it. What is your one called? Boomba. Mine's going to be called Goomba. Oh, wait. No. Can't do that. Gambo. There you go. It's called Boomba and Gambo. Gambo. Gumbo and Gambo.

Mud, make me a perception check. Shabam. That's an eight. You rolled a one. I did. Okay. And just for the hell of it, Bart, why don't you make me one as well? You got it. Oh, God. Eight. Not good. Eight. You both rolled an eight.

Like I said, the camp is, you know, up against the shores of a frozen lake on one side and the forest is encroaching from another. You know, as dusk approaches, what would you all be doing in your camp around this time of day? Like, where would you be in the camp? What do you think you'd be doing? Probably, like, winding down for dinner prep and bringing everybody in for the night, right? Yeah, I think Mud would actually, like, have this, like, regular habit of turning into a wolf and...

and just hanging out curled up next to the fire because that would be really nice and warm because it got colder and darker. Kyborg would be coming back from his daily workout routine and meditating and doing yoga and cursing Quadrant under his breath all day. Yeah, that goes well with meditation. I am at peace!

Gum Gum would have been meditating, but not the kind of meditating that Kyborg was doing and trying to get in touch with his father magically. So like Indigo Montoya from Princess Bride. That kind of magic. Hell yeah. Oh man, I need to watch that movie again. You know, like when he has a sword and he's trying to get his dad to... He closes his eyes and hums. Can I hear how that sounds? Yeah, Katie, do you want to demonstrate what you would be humming?

That, pretty much. That's nice. Love it. What about Bart? He's probably just like...

Tending to the fire. He really likes being outside since he's so muscular. He's very resilient to the cold, of course. Nice. Yeah, he's very dense. Yeah, tending to the fire, making sure everything is kind of closing up for the evening. So Bart is tending to the fire. Mud is a wolf curled up by the fire. Kyborg is re-approaching camp after his meditation. And Gum-Gum is also re-approaching camp after some meditation? Yeah.

I think he meditates a little later, so he's probably just not far from camp but still meditating. Oh, yeah. Extra clarification. Gumbo is curled up with mud next to the fire.

Oh. Guy's a little badger guy. I'm a little badger. Mud has also noticed that ever since they passed through the portal and arrived here, Brink's pet flying snake, Hannibal, has been kind of like timid and typically stays inside of Mud's pack all the time. Got it. So...

There's like some large stone formations just like a little southeast of camp. Not too far away, like 35 feet or so. We could say maybe that's where Gum-Gum was meditating or trying to communicate with his father. Would that make sense? Like seated atop the stones? Yeah. And we'll say Kyborg was working out in the woods, maybe on the other side of camp, like to the west or northwest of camp, just near the tree line. Hell yeah. Not too far. I mean, that's also, let's say, 20, 30 feet away. All right. So the stage is set. Everyone's ready.

Everyone's getting ready to hunker down for the night when out of nowhere from the tree line, two wolves pop out and begin charging at mud. Uh-oh. Hey everyone, hope you're enjoying this episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. Want to remind you, if you could do us a favor, give us a follow on social media at StinkyDragonPod and send us some tweets using hashtag StinkyDragonPod. Your name might be included in an upcoming episode as an NPC or someone in the world. In fact, the

drink that the bartender or tavern keeper read out at the beginning of this episode was submitted via social media. It was sent to us from at Jasper Draws on Twitter. Thank you so much, Jasper Draws. Appreciate it. Thanks for engaging with us. And like we always say, the best thing you can do for a podcast is help spread the word on social media to people you know. So thank you so much.

If you've got a moment, I'd also like to recommend a podcast for you. Our own Chris and Blaine, who play Gum Gum and Kyborg here in Tales from the Stinky Dragon, they have another audio podcast they've been doing for a while called Good Morning from Hell. And if you check it out, wherever you get podcasts, wherever you get this one, you'll be able to find Good Morning from Hell. There's an episode that's out now with Barbara and Chris playing Bart and Gum Gum in a non-canonical question mark.

episode. Go give it a listen. Again, search for Good Morning from Hell, where we get audio podcasts. You'll be able to hear some of the crew banter about. It's really funny. It's a comedy improv podcast. I think you'll really enjoy it. I think it's a great episode.

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Everyone go ahead and roll initiative. Oh, no. Why me? Because you rolled a critical fail on your perception check. So you did not see them coming at all. But I'm one of them. Oh, they know you're not one of them. You're not part of their pack. They're here to hump. You're an imposter. 20. 21. 8.

Gum gum 10. Okay, Bart, you're right by the fire and by mud. So you see these two wolves pop out of the forest from the east running directly at mud. What do you do? - Is it possible for me to take one of the sticks I'm kind of poking at the fire to like light it on fire and throw it kind of in between mud and the wolves? - Oh, look at you. That's not a bad idea. Yeah, sure. Why not? What would that be? Let's say you would roll, yeah, survival check, I guess. - Survival, okay.

14. Yeah, I'll say that with a 14, you're able to get a stick lit and then you want to throw it. I guess just make a dexterity check just for fun. Dexterity? Okay. Yeah, just to like to toss the stick. I did a 18. Oh, not bad. Yeah, you're able to light up a branch on fire and you toss it between the charging wolves and mud and your location near the fire. And it does seem to slow them a little bit. It gives them a slight pause. Okay, cool. Pause. Pause.

Comedian over here. Do you want to move or do anything else? Would that have been an action or like a, but like if, could I do now do a spell or was that kind of it? That's kind of like your action. That's kind of like an attack action. You know, you didn't attack.

Yeah. So you still have a move action if you want. Could I move so like I could see the wolves, but I'm like further away from them? I don't know how far away from them I am right now. Like what? 20 feet, 30 feet? Yeah, it's pretty, pretty close to say like about 20 feet or so. You could maneuver to like put the fire, like the campfire in the middle of camp between yourself and them if you wanted to. And still have range on them? Yeah, that would probably put like another 10 feet between you. Okay, I'll do that.

Fire. Kyborg, you would have been coming in, like we said, from the northwest. Yeah, from where you're re-approaching, you'd have line of sight on this. I assume you'd be looking at camp and you would see the kerfuffles starting. What do you want to do?

I'm gonna take a bit more of a tacky approach. So I'm gonna draw a Longbow Triumph and I will hit the wolf that is closest to mud because daddy needs a new wolf pelt. I roll a 28. Your shot rings true. Go ahead and roll some damage. Mario?

11. 11. You hit the wolf. It seems to be extremely injured, but it is still making its way towards mud along with its companion. Making its way towards mud. Okay. Running fast. Um...

Gonna eat your face off. I take an action surge, which gives me an additional action. Every time you say that, immediately I envision that's Kyborg popping an energy drink, chugging it, and then going again. Action surge!

Real talk, I did try Surge recently. Oh, God. Do they still make Surge? You can buy it on certain retail providers that are...

destroying the world slowly but surely. And they're pretty good. There's a reason I like them. Is it like new Surge or is it like old Surge from 20 years ago? It's like it's new Surge, but it's old recipe and bottling. Yeah, they come in tall boys now. Oh, Surge Soda is back is the top thing on their website. That's right, baby. All right. So another longbow shot. Ooh, that is a nat 20, baby.

Are you firing at the same wolf or the other wolf? Who are you targeting here? Let's weaken the other one. Yeah, let's even things up. I go for the other one this time.

Nat 20. So lots of damage here. Go ahead and roll me some damage. That's a 14. Yeah. The other wolf falls to the ground and comes to a skidding stop. Dead. Okay. And because of the long bow of triumph, I get 10 temp HP when I land a killing blow. Look at you. Thanks, Wolf. It's very vampiric.

and then I do a backflip. Roll for backflip. Okay. Ooh, that is a... That's a nat one. That's a critical fail. That's a critical fail.

Kaibork, very pleased with himself with his newfound 10 HP, tries to do a backflip, but you're not used to doing it on the snow and the ice. You lose your footing and you end up landing face down in the snow. It was leg day. That's like wind getting knocked out of you kind of an instance.

Did he lose the 10 HP? No, he does not. How do you feel about that, Kaiborg? I don't know if you've had a nat 1 on your backflip rolls before. I don't feel great about it. I mean, I did just get back from a long workout in the woods, and I was feeling, like, real cool after those two shots, and then I'm like, yeah, this is about right. I'm just kind of in the snow. Who all saw it?

I would say probably nobody. I assume Bart and mud are preoccupied with the wolves. I don't know. We would have seen the first arrow hit, which would have drawn our attention to him. And the second arrow definitely hit. So we, we really like any, and one of the wolves died and would have made a noise dying. So we really would have had our attention. It's like mud. You're, you're focused on the wolves that are charging you. Can I have a, can I, can I roll perception to see if I saw it? I really want to know. Okay. All right. That's 19. I saw it. Oh,

Hold on, I'm gonna roll for stealth really quick. I'm gonna roll for stealth. That's a one! That's a one! It's a critical fail! Oh no. Come on!

Well, Mud, you turn to see where the arrows come from just in time to see Kyborg slip during a backflip and faceplant and fall face down into the snow. You chuckle a little bit in your wolf form, and then you notice a third wolf pop out from the woods and begin trying to attack Kyborg as he lay prone on the ground. What? Oh, my. I think Mud would still have a hard time not laughing at the irony of what he's seeing.

The wolf has advantage because you are laying down on the ground prone. That's a 19. Yeah, that's definitely a hit. Okay. The wolf bites down doing... Here's a 10 page beat. You do.

Six points of damage. I mean, you're already knocked prone. Normally a wolf would try to like pull you to the ground and knock you prone, but you're already there. But just for fun, make me a strength saving throw anyway. I'm just curious to see if your bad luck is going to continue. Okay. Strength. He rolled a 19 plus your save is six. 25. Yeah, that's a good roll, but you're on the ground anyway. I'm strong. He whimpers out of his mouth. I'm strong. Strong.

I'm so strong. I'm big boy. I'm big boy. Gum Gum, what do you want to do? How far is Gum Gum from camp? You're not too far away. The rock, like I said, is probably about 30 feet away or so. See, and where the tree line that the wolves popped out of is

is kind of between you and the camp. So you can see the wolves are closer to you than the camp is, if you wanted to go after. The two, I should say, that charged out initially at Bart and Mud are closer to you than Bart and Mud are. Okay, but not the one that's attacking Kaiborg? The one that's attacking Kaiborg is, yes, on the other side of camp. It's opposite from you. So it's a considerable distance. One wolf close to him. Yeah. All right, so Gum-Gum will charge a fee...

Towards the wolf. Charge towards the wolf and just take a baseball swing with his axe at the wolf. Or like an axe swing. No, it was a baseball swing. You know how you swing an axe? Baseball bat swing, sorry.

Yeah. I mean, you definitely have the movement to clear that ground, catch up to the wolf and take a swing. So yeah, go ahead and make your attack roll. And that's a 23. 23. That connects. And he does 13 damage. 13 points of damage. This one had already also been injured by the first arrow that Kaiborg shot.

So yeah, it falls to the ground also, unmoving like its companion. Can I clarify? When I said he swung it like a baseball bat, he swung it broad side, not pointy side? Still did that much damage, right?

Well, it still rolled it. Just for clarity, normally you have to call that, you have to clarify that beforehand. You can't say that afterwards. It's fine this time because it was already weak, so it would have died regardless. But yeah, normally in the future, just make sure you clarify that ahead of time.

So when he swings it like that, it shoots the wolf into the air, up past our camp and into the other tree line. That's what he's asking for it to do. Yes. Yeah, you can't say that's what happened. Well, can it do that? Because imagine him swinging it like a shovel. And the wolf explodes into a pile of money. It wouldn't fly that far. Sure, I'll say it gets some air. Sure, why not? Let's have fun.

Yeah. The wolf goes airborne as the life leaves it. And then I growl. Do I have any more movement? Move? No. This is going to be... I mean, you might have like five feet left, honestly. Gum gum go feral in the forest? Okay.

I turn and I growl at the other wolf that's attacking Kaibor. Okay, it's pretty far. It might not be intimidated by that. Not even by his friend flying into the woods? Maybe by that. That's maybe a little more scary to it. A little frightening. Yeah. Mamma mia. I don't know. Can I roll to intimidate? Yeah, make an intimidation roll. Yeah.

-15? -15. Not bad. Yeah. You're not keen. You don't know what a scared wolf looks like versus a wolf that's eating your friend, but you feel pretty proud of yourself. That's a good effort. You think that was a really good growl. -Thanks. -Mud. -So the two wolves that the original attack are down and there's one attacking Kyborg and Kyborg is how far from Mud? -I'd say about 40, 45 feet away or so. -Okay.

I have 40-foot range as a wolf. Okay. So would you say that I would close that distance and be able to get up on the wolf? Sure. Why not? Yeah. Okay. I throw gumbo onto my back and charge...

We'll grab him with my mouth and toss him on, and he holds on. We've done this before. You've been practicing. It's a practice maneuver. Yeah. It's your routine. You should have mentioned this. It's something you've been practicing for the past three weeks. Okay. Yeah. You know, actually, that would have been, again, because I'm really bad at remembering all the things that have to do with the mud, but with Gumbo, they would have spent a lot of the exploring together, and so I think we would have bonded even more and more together in our time.

So Gumbo's on my back. Run at the wolf. Actually, could Gumbo attack first? Look at you trying to use this. Can Gumbo attack? Yeah, he has bite attack.

Hold on. I did not prep by pulling up a badger stat block here, so you have to give me a second to open a badger. He doesn't do a ton of damage, but he does some. Yeah, sure. Why not? Okay. I'm going to roll for his attack. That's a 13. Yes. Gumbo connects with the wolf. I've never seen a move like this. It just says hit one piercing damage. There's not even a roll. He just does one piercing damage.

All right. I guess he, what do you picture? Like he bites? Yeah, it's a bite attack. Yeah, I think he would kind of like, since he's on my back, he would jump onto the other wolf and bite it.

So he, like, bites the ear of the other wolf doing one point of damage. My thinking is that with Gum-Gum's intimidation and a badger flying off another wolf, this wolf has to be a bit shooken up. Maybe. Yeah, my thinking. There's nothing scarier than a badger. Well, I mean, a badger flying at you off the back of a wolf. I'm kidding. Off the back of a fake wolf. While I'm being throttled by that wolf, I'm like, oh! Cute! Ah!

So as the wolf, can I like, I kind of think that instead of just biting at it, I would try to push it off of Kyborg and try to pin it. You know, maybe even like use like some pack mentality stuff of like trying to

assert my dominance. Now, you're sure you haven't hooked up with an animal as one of the animals? 100% sure I have not. Okay, just making sure. Some Lion King stuff. You know, Nala rolling down the hill. Well, yeah. No, that is not Mudza. Pumbaa just jumped off your back. That's Gumbo, not Pumbaa. No, no. What's the little meerkat? Oh, Timon. Timon just jumped off your back. Yeah. So, could I do that?

Yeah. So we could try it. Why not? I always love the why nots that Gus throws. Yeah. Why not? Let's do it. What the heck? What would that be? Try to push him off. It would be like an opposed strength check, I think, to see if you can push him down or if he's able to maintain and stay up. Sure. So his strength is plus one. So I'm going to roll and it's going to be plus one. So 17. So you make a strength check.

The wolves also have an ability called pack tactics. The wolf has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the wolf's allies is within five feet. Would this count? No, because Vekibia says the ally isn't incapacitated at this point. He's not incapacitated, but Kyborg is on the ground, so he's unable to really help with any pack tactics. Hold on, you're saying Gumbo doesn't count as an ally?

Oh, gumbo. Oh, is that? Sorry, I was thinking of kyborg. But this isn't an attack roll. This is just a strength check. Okay. I didn't know if this whole movement counted as. Okay, I'll try. It's only 11. Yeah, you try to shove the wolf down, but he digs his paws down and is able to resist your shoving, even though he's got a badger on his back. Okay.

Anything else you want to try, Mud? Or anything else up your sleeve? Up your furry sleeves? No, as a wolf, I can't really use any of my bonus actions. I think Kaibark should be great. Yeah, I guess. You know what? I growl at the very least. I take Gum Gum's lead. Okay, make a intimidation. Seven. Meow.

Yeah, the wolf looks at you maybe a little quizzically and growls. What's the current layout of where all the wolves are? Just the one, right? Yeah, there's the two dead ones east of the camp over by where Gum-Gum is standing, and that's kind of close to where you are, Bart. Then a little northwest of camp, that's where Kyborg's laying down with a wolf over him, and

Mud and Gumbo are also over there. Okay. We're wrassling. Right then, a fourth wolf pops out, however, in the vicinity there where Kyborg and Mud are. This one, however, seems bigger than the other three wolves.

It pads around slowly, almost as if it's sizing you up, Mud, contemplating what it's going to do. Then, much to your surprise, the wolf seems like it takes a big breath, then exhales a giant cone of cold air. Kyborg and Mud need to make constitution saving throws. What? Cool. Literally. That's a one again. Six. That's my third one in a row. You are not doing well, huh? I am not doing well.

Is this a regular wolf still? This one looks not like a regular wolf. It looks bigger. There's something really terrifying about this one. It's a big bad wolf. I'm going to make you tell me what species this is when this is over so I can know if I can add it to my list. The two of you, because you failed your saving throws, each take 23 points of damage. I'd rather not. And you're both unable to move. You are frozen solid. This isn't very nice.

How are y'all doing? You both still up? You both still alive? You both still breathing? I'm still good and now no longer a wolf. He blew the wolf out of me. She blew the wolf off of you.

Yeah, they blew the wolf out of me. She's a she-wolf. What is it, Shakira? All right, anyways, I'm half empty. So after she blows this cold breath on you all, she makes a dart for the camp into one of the tents. Oh, no. Bart. Oh, my God. I'm scared of this thing. Would that have done damage to the other wolf? Sorry to interrupt. Oh, no, you're good. No, she was careful to just position it for you guys. I'm going to call a little BS on that, but I'll allow it.

considering that wolf was pinning a kyborg. But the wolf had also taken damage from gumbo, so it had pulled up a bit and you tried to shove it. So you put, you didn't knock it down, but you shoved it a little bit. Are wolves afraid of bears? Make a nature check.

Okay. I like plus one on nature. Oh, God. Six. You are aware that wolves and bears exist, but you're not sure who's afraid of who in that relationship. Okay. Well, I'm going to take a gamble here. I'm going to try to cast minor illusion to make a really giant bear appear and try to scare off the wolf. Who are you going to try to make it appear? Like out where Kyborg and Mud are? Maybe not. No.

Maybe not draw more attention that direction. Okay. I want to... Could I put it like... But... Well, I want to scare it off. So, like, I got to... Okay, you do you. Yeah, I'll put it near where they are to, like, try to encourage it to, like, run back out into the woods and never return.

It cannot make sound though, right? It's just like a visual illusion? Yeah. Okay. So you make a giant bear. Do you care if it's a black bear, brown bear? Do you have any specific bear? Let's go brown bear. You make a giant brown bear appear. Make it weird. Make it weird. In the snow next to the wolf. Make it like neon green with like spiky hair.

It's an emo bear. Oh, just to clarify, it's a medium-sized bear, not a large bear. I think I said large. I meant comparatively large, but still a medium-sized creature. It's, yeah, but it looks like a bear would in comparison to these wolves. So, like, however big a bear would be in comparison. A medium-sized brown bear appears. With the tail of a scorpion. Hopefully does not startle your compatriots.

Ah, well, they know. They know the Bart signature. Yeah. Rolling for investigation, I got a two, so I think it's real. Kyborg, it would be your turn. However, you are frozen solid. Is there any sort of check I can do, or?

No, no, you are entirely frozen up solid, face down in the ground, still humiliated from your failed backflip. And the cone of wind somehow pulled your pants down, so you're frozen, showing bare butt. No. What about second wind doesn't seem like a kind of spell that would require a lot of movement. Can I do that so that I can get a little bit of HP back? Because if I'm still conscious, I'm still very embarrassed that...

Yeah, it doesn't say that you necessarily have to move for second wind. But, I mean, let me look up what the status effect does exactly. That's how I understand.

So we're petrified, technically. No, you would not be able to. This status effect leaves you unaware of your surroundings. So no. Okay. But we get resistance to all damage. That's nice. Yeah, look at you. The eternal optimist looking on the bright side. You know. Oh, Gumbo. He would also need to have... Wait, Gumbo was on the back of the wolf. So he wouldn't have not... He would not have taken a hit. Oh, you got lucky there. Yeah.

Would you say gumbo gumbo still on his back? I think gumbo would have let go at this point.

Gumbo's not just like holding on like a bulldog. Gumbo's loose. Can I say Gumbo ran and hid? Sure. You can say Gumbo is hiding. The wolf that is still over there by Mud and Kyborg and the bear. You don't know if it's the bear or what's going on, Bart, but it seems like it's withdrawing a little bit. It's positioning itself like a little further away from the bear, closer to camp down towards the south, close to the tent that the other bigger wolf ran into.

Gum gum, what do you want to do? So is the big wolf, is it in the tent? Yes. You can't see what it's doing. Wait, it fits in the tent that we made? Yeah, there's a couple of small tents around camp and it's in one of them currently. Can I make it to the tent? It's about 30 feet away. What's your move? 30? Yeah, you could make it. You could open the tent or you could look in there.

I imagine there's something of value inside the tent. After seeing him do so much damage to my friends over there, that cold burp that he did. Cold burp. I'm going to go into a rage and I'll roll my rage thing and see what happens. What's your jack-jack power? Let's see.

i got a six what's that oh you this is the last one you got uh until your rage ends you're surrounded by multi-colored protective lights you gain a plus one bonus to ac while within 10 feet of you your allies gain the same bonus so who who was near me was it barton when you first enrage um yeah at that point bart would have been close to you but bart had moved to the other side of the fire so bart was further than 10 feet away so no one was around me no one was within 10 feet of you dang

I don't like this one. And it's while within 10 feet of you. So it's not when it starts. It's if you when it ends, wherever you're standing.

at that point within 10 feet of you. Well, if this wolf attacks you in a second, you're going to be glad for that extra AC. Oh, anywhere near me? Yeah, wherever you're standing, wherever you're moving, that's where it is. Oh, okay. Well, I'm going to run towards the tent and, like, get open the tent. Okay. Gum-Gum dashes across the camp, opens up the flap of the tent, and you see the big wolf with its jaws locked around Sleek's neck. And is there anything I can do? Yeah, that was your movement.

you that was just your movement yeah you could still attack well then i want to try and uh disconnect him from sleek would that be like a grapple or would that be like how do you want to disconnect you want to stick your hands in the wolf's jaws and like try to open it or like how do you that how would you try to approach that let me think here um i know an axe usually makes me up in my mouth sometimes the easiest solution is an axe i guess i could just axe it

Try and open its mouth with an axe to the throat. You got to say something like, let me axe you a question. And I will recklessly attack. Okay. So you're recklessly attacking the big wolf here. That's got sleek. And so sleek would also have plus AC, right? Yes. Now that you're within 10 feet of sleek. Yes. And just for reference for everyone, reckless attack gives Gum Gum advantage on his attack roll. But attack rolls against him also have advantage until his next turn.

No, sorry. 23 and 13. So it's a 23. Yeah. So that your axe connects with the large wolf. Yay. Big damage. Big damage, Gum Gum. A one. That's not big damage, Gum Gum. So six. 6.6 damage. Do you do extra damage because you're raging? Yes.

- Yes, I get plus two melee. So that would be eight. - Eight points of damage. Yeah, your ax connects doing a significant amount of damage to the large wolf. It flattens its ears down and gives you a very cold calculating look like it's studying you. - I don't like that at all. - Get away with its breath. - And then I growl at it. - Go ahead and roll an intimidation check. - 13.

13. That's pretty good. It doesn't look like it affected it. You're very happy with the growl, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect on this wolf. And I look back and see if anyone saw it.

The only person who probably could have noticed it would have been Bart. It would be Mud's turn, but Mud is frozen in place. I don't think he is. So it's the big wolf's turn that's in front of you, Gum-Gum. You think maybe after all, maybe your growl did do something because it seems like it's withdrawing and moving away from you, exiting the tent, still with Sleek in its mouth. It regroups with its remaining partner and they both take off running into the forest, carrying Sleek along with them.

That's not good. Bart. Could I try to cast sleep on the wolf before it runs away? No, their turn was before you. So like at that point, they would have disappeared into the woods. The big wolf moves at 50 feet.

So it would be well into the woods by the time your turn rolls around. What the hell do we do now? Help us. There's no advantage. What is it called? The attack of opportunity? No, it disengages. Oh, so it doesn't count towards them, but it counts towards us. Got it, got it, got it. Cool, cool, cool. No, there's an ability called disengage. If you take that ability or if you earn it, you can get by without attacks of opportunity. Okay, cool. Yeah, sure. Read a book, nerd. Help us.

Melt us. Okay. Well, I guess I'll unfreeze my comrades over here somehow. Could I, I guess, take another stick of fire and run over to them and try to melt them? Sure. Why not? Do you want to make a new stick of fire or do you want to pick up the old one that you threw?

I'll make a new one. Okay. We'll say at this point we're out of combat. So if you want to help, you can as well. Gum, gum. Are you also going to make a fire stick? No, I'm going to go and wrap Kyborg in my rat cape slash blanket. And then hug him tight. Okay. So you're taking care of Kyborg. And Bart, I guess you'll focus on defrosting mud with your fire stick. Yeah. Hold up.

Hold up. Kyborg is lying down on the ground frozen, so that means that Gum-Gum is just lying on top of it. I kind of roll. I roll towards the fire, too. And it's also like a feverish hug, too, because he's... What are you currently... What's your status thing? Rage. You're raging? I would have unraged because I didn't attack someone. Sure. But, yeah, I'm like...

get him close to the fire. It's okay. It's okay. Just let me hug you. The way I picture it, it's like you wrap your arms around him to hug him, and then together you start rolling back towards the camp close to the fire. But he's also wrapped up in a blanket, so he's kind of like his arms and legs are pinned in the blanket. Only my eyes can move, and they're darting around nervously.

Yeah, we'll say it takes a while, but your friends slowly begin to thaw out and return to their normal selves. So by that point, it's clearly dark. The evening has fallen. And I would assume you all are still huddled around the fire. Yeah. Matt speaks up and says, I feel like us losing one of the Infinites is a bad thing. Should we go look for Slake? I think after a long rest, yeah. Yeah.

We don't have time to rest. The trail goes cold. Because it's so cold outside. Some witticisms from Gum Gum there. Mud casts Healing Word on Kyborg. Oh. Actually, no.

Yes, but no. No, actually, it's actually better if I just do Goodberry and give him all 10 Goodberries. What do those do? One HP per Goodberry. They're great berries. Oh, you actually give him some now? Didn't he insult him when you cussed it before? He did. I'm just calling him Dingleberry. I don't know if I think that's a term of... Well, he doesn't get a choice because I'm still hugging him, and so you kind of shove him in his mouth.

So you get 10 HP. All right, 10 HP. I'm going to do second wind as well, which is 1d10 plus 4 HP. I want to thank you guys for failing that saving throw. Which saving throw did we fail? The cold breath one that froze you to.

Yeah, no problem. Plus six. Jesus. I'd do it for you, Gus. I was hoping that would happen. I wasn't sure. I thought, knowing my luck, y'all were going to make it, and combat was going to be much more difficult for me. But thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. I had an inspiration die. I was really considering using it. But, no, we need to help you out there, bud, because, you know.

Can we just, we need to go after him right now, right? Yes. Let's do it. So you're not quite sure which direction the wolves headed off in. You know, they initially ran through the forest, but you think that maybe they could have also cut across the lake. So, I mean, you can either go through the forest to try to find their trail or see if you can pick it up going across the lake. Is there snow? Yes. Mud asks Gumbo to do a smell check to see if he can find the trail. Yes.

A smell check. He's got keen smell. He gets advantage on perception checks. But there's snow. We just look for the tracks. There's lots of tracks, though. The wolves are always in the area. I did see which way they went, though, right? Yeah, but once they hit the forest, it seemed like they split up as well.

Yeah, I'll make you a perception check, yeah, with Gumbo. That's an 18. Wow, lord. 18. Gumbo definitely smells them going into the forest, but like I said, since they did split up, he thinks that they could have gone in either direction. There is wolf smell going both towards the lake as well as further deep into the forest. Well, which way does everybody feel like is the best route for us to try? I think the ice will be the fastest and the most fun and deadly. Ha!

Having recently been unfrozen in a manner in which I did not enjoy, I don't know if we should go lake. But it will take a great deal of athleticism. Then I'm in. Oh, Gum-Gum's getting manipulative. He's learning. What do you say, Bart? Are you okay with that? Yeah. Bart's a team player. The party decides to set out across the lake. Am I understanding that correctly? Yep. That's right. Let's go. But...

Let's do this. Spaced out. Yeah, spaced out. And we want to use our rope system where we kind of like tether each other. Atta boy. What does that mean? You're going to like take a rope and then tie everyone to each other? Yeah, but they're all separate ropes. Separate ropes. What does that mean? Well, they're not all one rope tied together. So if we need to untie one of them. So it's like, for example, one rope between Gum Gum and Kyborg, a different rope between Kyborg and Mud, and a different rope between Mud and Bart. Yeah. Yeah.

Is there another rope between Bart and Kyborg? Or is it just in the direction I said initially? I think we're just like... It's one person in the front all the way to the back, right? So it's not like wrapping around. Well, in that case, what's your marching order? What order are y'all going to walk out of the lake? Can I pipe in here? I feel like we should do an anchor system where we go lightest to heaviest. And then the lightest person leads.

So we have an anchor. So in my mind, it would be Bart, Kyborg, Gum Gum, Mud. And Mud also casts Enhance Ability on Bart, if Bart's okay with leading, which is choosing Cat's Grace and is giving Bart advantage on dexterity checks. Ooh. Nice. Bart likey. And I also want to be on all four, so my weight's distributed. Okay.

What? This is going to be so slow. No, I'm pretty good at all fours. Also, before we leave the campground area and we're packing all our stuff up, I want to take the two wolf pelts. Oh, you want to loot the wolves? We don't have time for you to skin two entire wolves. Listen, Kyborg's been living in the woods his entire life. He's really good at this. He'll make a quick work of it. He's like John Marsden or Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2. Okay. Okay.

Believe it or not, I'm actually glad to hear you say that. Micah took the time to find a harvesting wolves table. What? So I get to look and see what it was that you got on there. So you are able to get a hide, but it's just like infested with insects and parasites. It's really disgusting. And you're also able to harvest some discolored teeth. Say you get six discolored teeth. Yuck. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm just going to drop all this crap. I'm just going to leave this here. Thanks for nothing. I hate this. Insult to injury. I had a table. That's what you got. I had to roll on it. But you got your hide. I mean, it was just infested and filthy, though. Looks like you caught lice. Anyways. The lice knock you prone. So, like I said, it's dark. Darkness has fallen across the land. The snowfall picks up.

You head toward the frozen lake, trudging through icy slush for about an hour. Eventually, you come up to the frostbitten shores of the lake. It looks to be quite the trek across to the other side. A snowfall is obscuring your view of the opposing shore. Now that you're up close, you see there are small cracks scattered across the surface. One misstep could land you in frigid water. We're going to approach this kind of like how we did the chase for the baby T-Rex a few episodes ago. There's a skill challenge where you make skill checks to see if you can navigate across. Okay.

Okay. Are there any birds that are making riddles along the way? Giant. It's a pterodactyl. Scoville the Stumper, how can you forget? No. And you have to make three successful skill checks before you make three failed skill checks. And you check one at a time. And help actions are permitted. And skills can only be used once at a time per player. You use it, you burn it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Everyone good? Any questions? I think it's pretty straightforward. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. All right. So you begin walking across the frozen lake and your first obstacle you encounter is a log, a rather large log that seems to be blocking your path. Do you want to try to climb over the log or work your way around it? How tall would you say this log is? It's, we'll say, four or five feet across. The diameter of the log is about four or five feet. Oh, wow. And how long is it?

It's about 15 feet long. Looks like an old tree trunk. Probably safer to go around it. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, let's try to go around. Okay. You start to shimmy across, watching your steps. Someone needs to make me a dexterity check. Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Barb. Okay. Okay.

Dexterity. Oh, and to be very clear, this one also is a touch spell, so it's a good old slap on the butt. Just to be very clear, Enhance Ability is also a slap on the butt. Bart's little butt cheeks are a little red at this point from all the slapping, but he's okay with it. In the cold. Yeah. Very sensitive skin. 17. If you have advantage, go ahead and roll it again, see what you get. Another 17.

How perfect. As you're kind of stepping through the frozen lake, you're very carefully stepping around any problematic cracks while still managing to keep your footing, keep your feet from sliding out under you, and you're able to navigate a good trail for everyone behind you to follow you. Got it. You continue moving across the lake, trying to find the other shore. The Jersey Shore. Someone needs to make me a perception check. I think Mud's perceiving me.

Don't forget, you can assist each other or you could try to assist each other if you want. Yeah, could I give a lot of bardic inspiration here? Yeah, sure. Okay. What's that do? For 10 minutes, a creature can add it to one ability check, attack roll, or save and throw. This can be added after seeing the roll, but before knowing the outcome. Yeah, you basically get like a 1d6 inspiration die. So if you see, if you make a roll and you don't like it,

Even after you make the roll, you can add it. Well, I rolled a 10, but then the bardic inspiration gave me 6. So 16. Most excellent. 16. That's a really, really fortunate that you had that perception roll there. Mud, you know, you're bringing up the rear of the line.

and without noticing it, you wander a little astray from the people in front of you, and you nearly step into a broken-out piece of the ice, and you almost fall into the water, but at the last second, your eyes catch sight of it, and you correct your step and keep yourself going on the correct path. Matt does that thing where, like, you almost fall, and then you immediately look around to see if anybody saw you almost fall. Bart saw him.

We all felt the rope. But he winks. Mud is very embarrassed. Bart winks at him to make him feel better. Yay. There's something about Gum Gum on all fours turning back to look at you that makes it a little uneasy. Yeah. I'm going to need someone else to make a dexterity check. I will do it.

Okay. Could I give him a bardic inspiration as well? This is the kind of skill that you'd only be able to use once per skill challenge. So even though, since you already used it once for mud, you wouldn't be able to use it again during this skill challenge. You can still try to roll to help if you want, but using that particular skill wouldn't be allowed again during this crossing the lake challenge. The bardic inspiration? Right. That's all good. Who's in front of mud? Who's attached? Gum gum.

So Gum Gum's got to do what? Dex? Dex. Dex. Okay. I have advantage on... I have danger sense. Oh, that's right. You do have danger sense. Look at you being smart. It's a 14...

And a 20. Yay. As you all are walking along a particular section of ice, Bart and Kaiba were able to cross it okay, but something about the extra weight of Gum-Gum causes the ice to start cracking under him. Even though he's on all fours, he's able to jump out of the way to a more solid piece of ice as the ice where he had been crawling crumbles and falls into the water. Yeah, he's good at it. For a while, he thought he might have been a cat.

So he was good at all fours. When did he think he was a cat? When he was roaming around by himself in the wild. Ah, gotcha. It was really treacherous, but you all make it. You finally reach the other side. The shadowy silhouette of the majestic mountain comes into view under hazy moonlight. A wail echoes across the harsh wind.

I thought you meant like an actual animal, a whale. Whale. W-A-I-L. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hike onward. This isn't a Hideo Kojima game. I was like, where's the whale? Was there a whale under the ice? That's cool. Gum Gum doesn't understand the difference in the spelling, so he thinks it's a real whale. It's a real whale. Oh.

It's that time of year, the whales come out. Yeah. You hike onward through frosty brush and a shower of snow falls thicker and thicker until you barely catch sight of a cave entrance at the base of the mountain. That seems like a place where a wolf could go. Are there any tracks leading into it or anything like that? You see Sleek laying there, seemingly unconscious. Ooh.

Can I do a little like a look around, see if like any sign of a wolf or if I can see from a distance like what the state of Sleek is? Yeah, make a perception check.

Like I said, the snow's gotten really much more thick, so it's hard to see. So actually, you're going to need to make the perception check at disadvantage. Don't need to. Don't need to. I rolled a one. Eight. No good. Yeah. You think there's a mountain in front of you? Maybe? Question mark? Just going to roll that again. Okay. So it's either an eight or a 21. So we'll go with eight. Yeah. You get a particularly sharp snowflake lands in your eye. You have to rub it.

Try to melt the snow that's now in your eye. Do I roll for damage on that? No, no, you're fine. I don't see anything. Can I call out to Sleek, but like stealthily? Sleek! Stealthily call out? Sleek! I don't know how you yell stealthily, though. He just did it. I just did it. He just did it. Sleek! Make a stealth check at disadvantage. I'm obsessed.

Fourteen. Oh, God. One. Oh, wait, no. Seven. Twelve. The one and the seven look very similar. You call out a few times, your voice cracking, but Sleek does not seem to move. He's dead. We got to go across the lake again, guys. Restart. Load save. Does someone want to go check on him? Could I try to go check on him? I'm very stealthy. Yeah. You're going to stealthily walk up. Make a stealth check. You got it. Thirteen.

Untether the rope. Which is not great. So actually before I deal with Bart's check here, Qyborg did actually raise an interesting question. So I assume once you all cross the lake, you all untethered yourselves and you're not tied together anymore. Let's do that. Yeah. Okay.

Um...

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