CZM Book Club: Pathfinder: Dawn of the Frogs, Part Five

Summary

It Could Happen Here – CZM Book Club: Pathfinder: Dawn of the Frogs, Part Five

Date: November 30, 2025
Cast: Margaret Killjoy (as Spite), Jason Bulman (Game Master, Director of Games at Paizo), Hazel Acacia (as Sister Merdragona “Murdy” Bow), IO (as Squash), Robert Evans (as Trant)

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Overview

This episode is Part Five of the “Dawn of the Frogs” actual play series for the Pathfinder RPG, set in the world of Golarion. The main theme revolves around a group of misfit adventurers navigating the crisis in the swamp village of Bog Bottom, where missing villagers, mind-altering fungus, and a mysterious and dangerous “Great Work” by swamp-dwelling frog people—the Boggards—threaten the entire community. The party's mission: stop a catastrophic dam, rescue brainwashed villagers, and confront the true evil manipulating the Boggards from behind the scenes.

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Key Discussion Points and Episode Flow

1. Recap and Setup (03:12 – 09:00)

• Jason summarizes previous sessions: The party, broke and stranded, saves villagers from evil Boggards, recovers memory-restoring ingredients, and thwarts a monstrous toad.
• Main Problem Introduced: The swamp waters rise inexplicably, stilt walkways are submerged, elders worry the Boggards’ “Great Work” is dooming them.
• Scouting Party Returns (09:00): A worried, wounded team reports Boggards are building a massive mud-and-stone dam, with some missing villagers working as slaves.

“Do you think that's what's causing the waters to rise throughout the swamp?” – Amelia Earthrona (12:20)

2. Party Intros & Dynamics (07:04 – 08:41)

• Hazel: Introduces Sister Murdragona Bow, the “soup nun” cleric.
• IO: Plays Squash, a swaggering, sickly, crime-loving little guy.
• Margaret: Plays Spite, an anti-authoritarian with a prison-smashing moral code.
• Robert: Plays Trant, bomb-maker who may have accidentally blown up a previous acquaintance’s boat.

3. Mission Briefing & Planning (09:00 – 25:52)

Scout's Report & Town Elder’s Plea (11:07 – 13:57)

• Dam must be destroyed before floods overtake Bog Bottom.
• At least 4 villagers and 6 Boggards on-site at the dam. Eight villagers still missing; supplies gathered earlier can cure most of them.

Ethical/Comedic Debates (13:57 – 24:51)

• The group debates whether to attack, negotiate, or trick the Boggards, referencing real-world “Burning Man” traditions and pondering the Boggards’ possible motivations.
• Detailed satirical banter about the ethics of collateral damage, enemy targeting, and even delivering soup laced with curative potion.

“We kidnap the villagers and bring them back here... Ledrusa, do you have enough of that potion left?” – Spite/Margaret (15:43)

“I will provide you a ranked list of the six that I suggest you save. And the other two, just gently drown them in the swamp.” – Jason / Ledrusa (16:13, satirical)

Preparation & Town Interactions (19:54 – 22:56)

• Shopping montage: potions, bombs, and fashionable new capes.
• Discussion with a (somewhat bemused) town Boggard about sleep cycles and vulnerabilities.
• The party finalizes logistics (“Distraction team” and “Explosives team”), commits to rescuing all villagers, not just six.

4. Scouting the Enemy – Approaching the Dam (25:52 – 39:35)

• Arrive, scout terrain: The dam is huge, guarded, unfinished, with a separate foggy (web-filled) tree route as a possible alternate approach.
• Population estimate: Possibly up to 20 Boggards inside the dam, not just the handful visible.

“Maybe as many as 20. I think we probably shouldn’t try to fight them all.” – Jason (34:21)

• Comedic digressions on combat plans: exploding boats, bug bombs for spider-web trees, possible ambushes and traps.

5. Enacting the Plan – The Ambush and Battle (49:08 – 86:04)

Setup (49:08 – 55:49)

• Party splits:
  • Spite and Murdy: Lure Boggards away, pretending to be innocent soup-bearers.
  • Squash and Trant: Lie in wait to ambush, prepare bombs.

“So we’re gonna offer them soup. You all are gonna lay in ambush... and then we’ll go and get the rest of them.” – Spite (45:41)

First Skirmish (55:49 – 62:29)

• Ambush is a massive success. Two Boggards are eliminated almost instantly; villagers cower, confused.
• Murdy distributes antidote-infused soup, the villagers begin to regain their senses.

“At first the villagers were like, I don’t know that I just ate. I’m not really hungry for soup. And then they smell it... and almost immediately, their expressions start to change.” – Jason (62:07)

Bridge Battle and Raising the Alarm (63:16 – 71:44)

• The third bridge-guard Boggard tries to fight back, but is swiftly overpowered.
• Down at the docks, a Boggard tries to use a caged frog as a weapon, but the frog attacks its captor instead.

“We could have had a frog friend. Now we have a frogamy.” – Spite (69:46)

Assault on the Dam – Tower Combat (71:59 – 86:04)

• Two more Boggards (including a “boss” type) open hostilities from the tower. The party responds with fire attacks and creative strategy.
• Multiple memorable moments, including Spite launching a literal flying body drop onto a Boggard (wrestling style), the boss Boggard being kicked off the precipice, and the bridge being secured.
• The remaining villagers are cured; the dockside one warns Spite about a powerful and “terrifying” Boggard leader, protected by a deadly trap.

“He’s guarded by a deadly trap. Beware the frog skull.” – Dockside Villager (86:25)

6. Cliffhanger and Next Steps (86:30 – 87:28)

• The party secures the outside of the dam but must head inside to confront the cultist leader.
• Session ends on a classic RPG cliffhanger, promising a high-stakes confrontation and lingering questions about mind control, the cult’s true agenda, and the fate of Bog Bottom.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Margaret/Spite:
  “Every prison should be exploded as quickly as possible.” (07:41)

• Jason (about the ambush plan):
  “Ah, I knew we had the right man for the job.” (15:20)

• Hazel/Murdy (on soup-based diplomacy):
  “Just eat some soup. Everything will be all right. It’ll all make sense.” (61:13)

• Squash/IO (on attacking boss Boggard):
  “I do a fun kick flip off the tower and try and kick this fool off of the precipice.” (81:39)

• Robert/Trant (on ethics):
  “If you don’t remember doing something bad, it’s the same as not having done it.” (86:29)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | 03:12 | Recap, host and GM intros, summary of the campaign so far | | 09:00 | New threat: Swamp flooding & Scout's report | | 11:16 | Discovery: Dam is causing crisis, villagers being held and used| | 19:54 | Town shopping, comic interludes, buffing and buying supplies | | 25:52 | Scouting the dam, party debates approach and enemy strengths | | 33:12 | Spiderweb tree option explained; population of enemy estimated| | 39:35 | Final plan and division of teams for ambush | | 49:08 | Ambush begins: Boggard guards eliminated | | 55:49 | Combat round-by-round breakdown, villagers freed | | 69:46 | Frog in a cage released, chaos ensues | | 71:59 | Assault on the dam and boss Boggard appears | | 81:39 | Boss Boggard is booted off the ledge by Squash | | 86:04 | Villager warns of deadly trap, inside adventure to come | | 87:28 | Plugs, closing, cliffhanger, end of content |

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Tone and Language

The tone is rambling, satirical, energetic, and deeply collaborative, peppered with pop culture references, in-jokes, and asides poking fun at RPG tropes, power structures, and each other. The group alternates between meta-commentary (on rules and worldbuilding), dark humor, and genuine moments of teamwork and care for imaginary villagers. Dialogue often blurs character and player, stacking punchlines with underlying questions about violence, complicity, and heroism in roleplaying games.

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Final Notes

• The party completed a successful ambush, cured several villagers, and cleared the dam’s exterior. They’re poised to face the true villain—and whatever lies behind the ominous “frog skull” trap—in the next session.
• The episode, while lighthearted and comedic, regularly reflects on narrative ethics, player choices, and the intersection of game mechanics and real-world parallels (from fascism to frog legs).
• The cast mentioned their projects and social media at the end, attributing art to Jonas Goonface and plugging other podcasts and writing.

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Next Time

The adventure will continue with the party delving inside the dam, confronting the cult leader, and facing the ominous “frog skull” trap—a promise of bigger peril and mayhem.

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For fans seeking irreverent, ethically-charged, and boisterous tabletop actual play, this episode is a strong showcase of the cast’s chemistry and Pathfinder’s narrative possibilities.

Transcript

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[Jason Bulman]

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[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Dawn of frogs donna frog. Of don the frog of don. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Coolzone Media Book Club, the only dawn of Frogs that frogs at Dawn. And I am sort of your host, Margaret Killjoy. But not really, because I'm not Margaret Killjoy at all. I'm Spite, and I'm just trying to survive and also overthrow as many governments as possible. But who I'm not trying to overthrow is our game master, who's Jason Bulman. Hi.

[Jason Bulman]

Well, not yet, anyway. Hi there, everybody. I'm Jason Bulman. I'm the director of games at Paizo, and I am the game master for this amazing group of adventurers as we play through dawn of Frogs.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Wait, I've tricked you into getting your own module's name wrong.

[Jason Bulman]

Dawn of the Frogs. I knew that.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Subverting you.

[Jason Bulman]

I am going to hear about that. Anyway, today we're going to be picking up the third night of dawn of the Frogs. This night is called the Dirge for Dunmire, which was actually the original name. My original working title for this adventure. Yeah, we're gonna get right to that. When we last left our intrepid band of adventurers 4. Well, I would call you heroes, but I'm not sure that's appropriate. But to the people of Bog Bottom, you are certainly heroes. The four of you washed ashore near this tiny swamp village where you were dropped off by a ship's captain because you couldn't pay for passage. And you found yourself penniless in this small swamp town. There, you learned of their plights, their many plights, including missing villagers, where you first earned a name. With these folks, you ventured out to an old ruined windmill and saved a pair of villagers that had been taken captive by a pair of Boggards. Boggards being sentient frog people. These Boggards, however, seemed to be rather evil and were capturing people and feeding them some strange form of fungus mush that muddled their thoughts. Because even when you brought the villagers back they did not seem to remember their life in town and only wanted to return and help the Boggards with their great work. In the past couple sessions you ventured out again. Been to the Dunmire Swamp to find three ingredients needed by Ladrusa, the town healer, to purge these villagers of the clouded memories of and restore them to health and vigor. So you ventured out, you treated with a fungus Leshy to get some mushrooms, you battled some flies atop a hill to get some berries, and you destroyed a bunch of skeletons to retrieve some rare flowers. But on the way back, you were assaulted by two Tusk, a legendary predator of the swamp, a giant slurk, which is a giant monstrous toad covered in slime and giant fangs that nearly sank your boat and dragged you down into the depths. But through your heroic actions, you were victorious and made it back to town to cure the villagers of their plight. Ledrussa went to quick work brewing the potion to save the villagers. And after giving it to them, they quickly calmed, their fever breaking and their memories slowly returned. The only thing that they seem to remember is that they were being asked to go work on something called the Great Work. You don't know what that is, but it certainly has the townsfolk of Bog Bottom worried. That's kind of where we left off. At that moment, the town was celebrating. And before we get started with the game itself, why don't I toss it around the horn and let everybody introduce themselves and their characters. We'll start with you, Hazel.

[Hazel Acacia]

Hi, my name is Hazel Acacia. I use they them. And today I am playing a Sister Merdragona Bow, who is a half orc cleric. She's the soup nun.

[Jason Bulman]

Fantastic. IO, you're up.

[IO / Squash]

Hail and wemmit, all you noble heroes out there in audio land. My name's IO and I am very sick. I've got big pox, but I'm being really brave about it. But today it's not IO you're talking to, it's Squash. He's a squash buckling little guy pie and he loves crime. And we love him, don't we folks?

[Jason Bulman]

Yes, we most certainly do, Margaret.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Hi, I'm Margaret and I am playing the role of Spite, who's fresh from the creche and is just looking to try and do what's best by her very strong moral code. That pretty much means that every prison should be exploded as quickly as possible. But if along the way I have to raise money in order to do that, then I will do that by sticking to my values and helping everyone out.

[Jason Bulman]

Indeed, Robert round Us out.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I'm Robert.

[Robert / Trant]

I'm playing Trant. I'm an alchemist and expert bomb maker. And I'm just now realizing I left, like, three alchemist fires on a long wick in that guy's boat before he dropped us off. But, you know, it was a pretty long wick. I'm sure he got back to shore before anything happened.

[Jason Bulman]

There was a fire offshore. You saw the smokestack, but you're sure it's nothing? Probably unrelated.

[IO / Squash]

That's fine.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah.

[Hazel Acacia]

Boats catch on fire all the time, right?

[Robert / Trant]

In my experience, yes.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

That's why I wanted to get off it constantly.

[IO / Squash]

Boats are famous for catching on fire.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So I've only been sailing once in real life, and the mast broke, and so I am convinced that the mast breaks 100% of times you go sailing. This is the way that math works.

[Jason Bulman]

Anyway, that does explain why so many boat rides end in tragedy.

[IO / Squash]

Yeah, that's the way the masks works.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

All of them.

[Jason Bulman]

Well, it's been two days since the captured villagers were cured and their memories restored. The villagers report having heard their Boggart captors talk about building some sort of great work, but there are a few clues as to what that might be. In response, the town elders sent scouting parties to try and uncover the truth, but none have yet returned. Now a more immediate problem faces the village. The swamp waters are rising. The people of Bogbottom are no strangers to rising waters and have built their home on stilts to weather the rainy seasons. But there has not been heavy rain for weeks, and yet the water still rises. Just this morning, some of the wooden walkways between the stilted homes have become submerged. Inevitably, villagers have begun wondering if these rising waters are somehow connected to whatever it is that the Boggards are up to. Perhaps the answer will come soon, as one of the scouting parties has finally returned to Bog Bottom, looking both worried and wounded.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

You know, I bet this sounds like I'm cursing, but I think they're building.

[Jason Bulman]

There are some folks who have wondered whether or not such a thing was even possible. Swamps are notoriously difficult to dam in that way, but with enough work and effort, it is possible.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Maybe a great work.

[Jason Bulman]

It could be a great work. Yes, indeed. So the scouting party heads to High Hill, which is the village's kind of gathering place, where the town elders await them. Everyone is kind of going to hear what they have to to say.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I think we should go and hear what they have to say. What do you all think?

[IO / Squash]

I would love to hear what they have to say.

[Jason Bulman]

I am thrilled that you're following the obvious clue that the adventure has given you. All right, you go up to the hill.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Well, now I have to be oppositional. Hold on.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, I know. Forget it.

[IO / Squash]

But what's that over there?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

What if we steal a boat?

[IO / Squash]

Some sort of an unnamed npc, you say?

[Hazel Acacia]

I have to go serve soup. I'm sorry. It's my weekly service.

[Jason Bulman]

That's fair. Yeah. A dam. That's what the Boggards are building. A massive dam made from mud, wood and stone, reports the scout.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I know it sounds like they're cursing, but actually dam has two meanings.

[Jason Bulman]

That's right. Grave looks pass between the village elders before Emilia Earthrona, the oldest member of the council, replies. Do you think that's what's causing the waters to rise throughout the swamp? She asks, with no small amount of trembling in her voice. We do, replies the scout leader. It appears they've clogged up most of the estuary and built a dam at the largest opening. There's something more. A lot of the folks who have gone missing look like they're helping them. A hush falls over the crowd. Elder Urthrona's cool, compassionate eye studies her people intently. She looks over to the four of you. Seems we may need your help one last time. The dam must be destroyed before the rising waters flood us all.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I hear it's good for the salmon, too. We destroy the dam.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, those delicious swamp salmon. So, the townsfolk are gathered here. The scouts are here. The four of you are kind of ushered up to the front, and the scouts are currently being tended to by Ladrusa, being given, you know, bandages and ointments and soothing balms for their wounds. They look to you, and the leader of the scout says, well, I can give you a map that'll lead you right to it. It's on the far side of the swamp, though. It'll take you more than a day to get there.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Well, who attacked you? Because I feel like the path that you took. I'm sure you all picked the best path possible, but it clearly led to you being attacked.

[Jason Bulman]

The Barguds spotted us and immediately gave chase. We managed to lose them in the swamp, but not until they managed to hit us several times with their slings and spears. It was a close thing. There are a lot of Boggards there.

[Robert / Trant]

I don't know, guys. Are we sure we want to trust a scoutmaster?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I thought you could trust all adults who aren't imprisoning people.

[Jason Bulman]

Good sir, I am a master Scout, not a scout Master.

[IO / Squash]

Oh, that's a Different story.

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah, that's a real different thing.

[Jason Bulman]

Yes, quite.

[IO / Squash]

And spite. We will talk about that later. Wait, was it Amelia was talking to us?

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Amelia Earthrona.

[Jason Bulman]

Amelia Earthrona is one of the town elders. You've spoken with her a few times over the past couple of days. Most of your dealings have been with Ledrusa, but Emilia has been kind of leading the town as kind of the senior most town elder.

[IO / Squash]

Okay. I, like, reach up and put my paw on Emilia's shoulder and I say, don't worry, we'll go get everybody back. We'll blow up the Stam and we will choke the rivers with their dead.

[Jason Bulman]

Let's go. Amelia says, well, if you feel that is the only way forward, I would hate it to come to violence. The puckers have always been our friends.

[Robert / Trant]

But trust me, ma', am, whenever we get involved, we're choking the rivers with somebody's dead.

[IO / Squash]

Look, it's gonna get damned one way or another. It might as well be on our terms with corpses, you know?

[Jason Bulman]

I mean, it is likely. They seem to be intent upon flooding us all and causing us great harm.

[IO / Squash]

Right. The harm, etc.

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah. That means it's nobody's fault. Certainly not ours. Let's get to work, gang.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So we shouldn't try to talk to them. We should just. What if they let us blow up the dam?

[IO / Squash]

Now that's interesting.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I heard about these festivals where people build these elaborate sculptures that you think, no way would they be building that just to burn it down or blow it up, but then they burn it down or blow it up themselves and so maybe, maybe they want to blow this up and maybe we'd be helping them.

[IO / Squash]

Oh, like a wicker man up in Scotland.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah.

[IO / Squash]

I love that shit.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah.

[Jason Bulman]

The Master Scout looks at you and says, I doubt it. They're building it out of mud and stone. It looks like a more permanent edifice, but it also doesn't look complete. So I'm going to wager that even if you just opened up the sluice way, the entire thing would erode and crumble.

[IO / Squash]

Trant, can we light mud and stone on fire?

[Robert / Trant]

Absolutely.

[Jason Bulman]

All right.

[IO / Squash]

That's all I need to hear.

[Jason Bulman]

The Master Scout says, ah, I knew we had the right man for the job.

[IO / Squash]

We're heroes.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I suppose we are.

[Jason Bulman]

Now, we spotted at least four villagers working the dam. It seems they come in shifts, so there may be more. And we also spotted at least six Boggards.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

We kidnap the villagers and we bring them back here. Ledrusa, do you have enough of that? Potion remaining to help four more villagers. Also, I feel like you probably know how many villagers are missing. How many villagers are missing?

[Jason Bulman]

Ledrusa says grand total, there are eight missing. I have enough of the materials you gathered to make six more doses of the antidote. I will send them all with you.

[IO / Squash]

What are your six favorite villagers?

[Jason Bulman]

I will provide you a ranked list of the six that I suggest you save. And the other two, just gently drown them in the swamp.

[IO / Squash]

Thank you, Ledrusa.

[Jason Bulman]

She does not say that.

[IO / Squash]

It's just what Squash hears. We go into Squash's mind like there's like a cow playing a jug, like a chicken playing a washboard.

[Jason Bulman]

Again, we get back to the jug band. That's just what's going on inside that Shoney's head. Yeah.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay, well, so there's at least six probably enemies, and then four. We sure hope they're not enemies. We have to somehow knock them out or kidnap them while they're sleeping. But for their own good.

[Jason Bulman]

Yes. Some of the Boggards are guarding a bridge that leads up to the dam itself. There was at least one down on the dock. There's a dock at the base of the dam in the deep waters of the swamp. And we saw a few more that were perhaps in a. Looks like a guard tower that's in the middle of the dam itself. But to be honest, we couldn't get a precisely accurate count. There were too many. And the guards near the bridge spotted us and gave chase almost right away.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

What if we get the guards to give us chase and then we ambush the guards?

[Jason Bulman]

That may work, Trent.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

You can throw bombs at them.

[Robert / Trant]

Well, we could also. We could set explosives. There's this thing you can do where you bury explosives in the ground where, you know, some soldiers are gonna walk by and then you set them off right as the soldiers walk by. And it works really well, kind of, yeah.

[Jason Bulman]

So trance invented landmines IEDs. Sure.

[IO / Squash]

You say there's a dock at the bottom of the dam?

[Jason Bulman]

Yes.

[IO / Squash]

Sounds like a perfect opportunity for what I like to call a boat bomb. Let's build a bomb out of a boat. Or vice versa. Let's sail that baby up there and bing, bang, boom, we're all home by supper time.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Where will we be if the boat's gonna explode?

[IO / Squash]

Oh, we'll be. We'll be elsewhere.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

How does the boat get there?

[Jason Bulman]

Oh, okay.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Without us.

[IO / Squash]

Look, I'm more of like an ideas guy.

[Jason Bulman]

Just what the adventure needs, more ideas. Guys. I can have the antidote ready for you in just a few Hours. If there's anything else you need to buy or procure from town before you go, I suggest you do so. It will take you quite a while to get there.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Ledrusa, I have a really important question that's absolutely related to the mission. Is it policy here in Bog Bottom that there's no returns on items?

[Jason Bulman]

Ledrussa looks at you and says, yes, we're. You bought it. No returns kind of policy. Town. That's how we operate. Okay, well, do you have a receipt?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

No, he didn't give a receipt. Yeah.

[Jason Bulman]

Some merchants do offer to have an exchange policy.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Oh, interesting. Okay. All right. So should we just wait for this potion?

[IO / Squash]

Go up there, I go into town, and anyone who wants to come with me will do like a. Like a fashion show montage. I'm getting a new cloak, and everyone's standing outside of the stall and like, shaking their heads. No, no, no. I come out with a big purple feather boa. No. I come out with, like a king's cape. No. And then I come out with just basically the outfit I was on, and everyone's like, yes. Big thumbs up.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Hell yeah. I'm very excited this happened.

[Jason Bulman]

You can return to the shops that are in town. The Mudfly supplies or the Sinking Pony. You can also just go and while away the hours at the Moss Pig having a couple pints.

[Robert / Trant]

I am gonna go try to get more bombs.

[Jason Bulman]

Sure. Yeah. You can make your way back to the Sinking Pony, where Alevinia still has their shop open. And Alevinia will gladly sell you Lesser Alchemist Fire for three gold a piece.

[Robert / Trant]

Okay, I will go ahead and get two more of those.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Do you want these bug bombs?

[Robert / Trant]

Sure. How many of those?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I have two of them. They're for bugs. I probably should have thrown them at the bugs we fought, but I think at the end of the day, I just really like hitting things with sticks with spikes.

[Robert / Trant]

You know, my grandpa told me, if you really love something, do it all the time and never wonder if it's the right thing to do or not. Just keep doing the thing that you like to do. And I've lived by those words ever since. So that's my advice to you.

[Jason Bulman]

That does explain the constant use of explosives. All right, so you went and bought some Alchemist Fire. Does anybody else want to pick up anything else before you leave town? They do have some healing potions. Elixirs of life for three gold each.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah, I'll take a couple of those.

[Robert / Trant]

Do I have time to, by the way, remake that magic device thing?

[Jason Bulman]

So it's been two days since you last returned from town, so that would have given you plenty of time to move a rune or anything like that.

[Robert / Trant]

Okay?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Oh, okay. Yeah. So everyone now has a plus one weapon.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, everybody should have a plus one weapon.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So your spoon can be plus one now.

[Hazel Acacia]

Oh, sick. And that's plus one to hit. Yeah, we also. It's a ladle, please.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Oh, I'm sorry, There's a difference.

[Jason Bulman]

Spoon. All right, so you've done a little bit of shopping. You bought some healing potions. You've bought some alchemist fire. You've spent a bit of your time over the past couple days transferring some runes from one Weapons over to your weapons. So everybody has a plus one weapon now. And yeah, you're pretty much just waiting for Ledrusa to give you the antidote, which she does. Later that evening, you are told that if you leave now, you should arrive in the morning, like a day and a half from now. Oh, you're going to have to camp out in the swamp.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I'm going to go to a boggart in town and be like, are you all crepuscular? I'm not sure if that's a thing I'm supposed to ask strangers.

[Jason Bulman]

Hold on. Allow me to Google. What did you say?

[IO / Squash]

Squash is tugging at his collar.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Crepuscular means awake. Like, not during the day or night, but at the sunset and sunrise.

[Hazel Acacia]

Extra crepuscular.

[Jason Bulman]

He's like, mostly awake during the day.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay, well, I guess if we're trying to ambush them, we should go during the day. That makes sense, because we should do it while they're awake, because we're not sneaking up to attack them while they're sleeping. Which would be fine and morally justifiable because they're doing bad things. But I don't know, what do you all think? Should we ambush them while they're sleeping? Or should we get them while they're awake so that they chase us? Well, let's ask him.

[Robert / Trant]

What would be the best way to kill you?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

No fret. People like you. People like you. Also, if anyone's mistreating you, you should let us know. Because people shouldn't make assumptions.

[IO / Squash]

But if we were going to kill you, I didn't.

[Jason Bulman]

I didn't do anything. I mean, I did sell you those bug bombs and I'm not taking them back. Oh, that's fine.

[IO / Squash]

Oh, brother.

[Jason Bulman]

Same boggard. Yeah.

[IO / Squash]

You'Ll have to excuse my friend. She was cursed to have no sense of humor. But we're. We're all just joking around here. But, yeah, but, like, not if we were to try and kill someone of.

[Jason Bulman]

Your.

[IO / Squash]

Disposition and feels bad to say race.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

The polite word here is ancestor.

[IO / Squash]

Yeah, I'm sor. Dancing around it, but let's just, you know, ancestry of your ancestry. That Pathfinder found a way around that one.

[Jason Bulman]

Took us quite a bit of workshopping, actually.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Well done. Like, genuinely positive direction. But anyway.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, yeah, we didn't want to go species. It sounded too technical.

[IO / Squash]

How does your ancestry die best?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I found that if you hit them with a spiked stick.

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah.

[Jason Bulman]

We die pretty much like most soft skins, right?

[Hazel Acacia]

I mean, you don't have any particular weaknesses.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah.

[Robert / Trant]

If you were gonna be, like, lit on fire or electrocuted or frozen, which one of those scares you the worst?

[Jason Bulman]

What energy type would you say that you're the most vulnerable to?

[IO / Squash]

That's the most painful death. You guys are kind of slippery.

[Jason Bulman]

If you were to rate your saving throws, which one would be worse?

[Hazel Acacia]

Can I also offer frogman soup and say, I apologize for my friends, but I would also like this information, please.

[Jason Bulman]

He's like, you'll have to excuse me if I decline any soup or food. You're giving me after asking me what kills me best.

[Hazel Acacia]

It does heal.

[Jason Bulman]

Shop closed. He closes the blind again.

[IO / Squash]

No.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Well, we tried.

[Jason Bulman]

So after a bit of time, the raft is ready, the antidote is ready, you've bought your supplies, and you're ready to go.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay, so the boat's ready, and we have the potions. What's our plan again?

[Hazel Acacia]

Well, I think mostly we're going to go and figure it out, but there was some talk about a distraction team and an explosives team, but I think we should probably get there first.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah. The scouts have given you kind of a vague notion of what's going on, but until you see it for yourself, you don't really have any way of knowing exactly what's going on there. You know, there's a dock, you know, there's a tower, there's a bridge, but you kind of don't know how it all relates other than just kind of a vague notion from these scouts who frankly saw it and ran away.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So I'm trying to figure out a way to roll my lore warfare at some point during this adventure. So that's part of why I'm really.

[Jason Bulman]

Excited about this plan. It's coming. It's coming. Don't worry about it. All right. Leaving Bog Bottom behind, the journey to the dam takes a little more than a day, so you travel. In fact, you can probably wait till the morning because why camp in the swamp? Tiesu go for an hour and then camp. So you leave the next morning and make your way there. You camp once in the swamp, which is, fortunately uneventful. The main danger of this part of the swamp has been taken care of by the four of you. No two tusks to threaten your sleep. And as a result, you arrive to the spot indicated by the scouts a few hours after sunrise. The dam is a massive edifice of mud, stone, and timber stretching between two squat hills. One hill has sheer sides covered in brambles, but it's hard to see due to a massive tree blocking the view. The other hill appears far more approachable, with a gentle slope leading down to the swamp waters. A bridge leads from the hill to the top of the dam near a crude watchtower. Near the base of the dam, there's a small dock with cages and a door that leads into the dam's interior. Even from a distance, Boggards and villagers can plainly be seen toiling away to complete the gigantic structure. I'm going to let you see the.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Map here, Trent, do you think you could blow up one of those hills? Oh, yeah, we could just redirect the water around it.

[Robert / Trant]

I'm gonna need a lot of urine, but, yeah.

[Jason Bulman]

It'S gonna be several weeks peeing into jars. So I put this map down. The map kind of shows this large dam structure. Across the top of it, in the middle of the dam, there is a watchtower kind of on the backside on the opposite side away from you. That dam is pretty sheer. It doesn't look like you could, like, climb it on the side very easily. It's probably doable, but it would be very hard, especially for all four of you to make. Looks like the easiest way to get up would be to take the hill. There's a hill kind of to the southeast, and that's what leads up to the bridge. Now, before you get too far ahead of yourselves, you can see some Boggards, and I'm going to show those to you here on our map. So you can see a pair of Boggards up on top of the dam near the bridge. You can see a third Boggard across the bridge with a pair of humans who are working to gather mud and stones into, like, giant wicker baskets, probably to take over to the dam and continue working on it, because it's clearly not finished.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah, but you're not beating the Wicker man allegations here, Jason.

[Jason Bulman]

No, that's fair. That's fair. In addition, there is a Boggard down on the Docks with another human who is currently working on the docks, like, working to reinforce the docks. There's also a cage on the docks that looks like it has something in it, but you can't really tell what it is. It's definitely not a human, but it's kind of a dark shape inside of a wood cage. Now, the tower that is on the back side of the dock clearly has some Boggarts in it, but you can't really see from this angle. It has a thatch roof over it. And as a result, it's kind of dark up there. And you can't really get a good view other than the fact that you can occasionally see some movement. So there's definitely some Boggarts up there. Now, on the other side, this other hill, the other side, where there is land, there is a very large tree that goes up about 40, 50ft and is, in fact, taller than the dam. Could you climb that tree to make it up onto the dam? Possibly. Doesn't appear that there's any Boggards over there, but there's something strange about the tree. It looks like it has a fog cloud inside of it, but from this distance, you can't really tell what's going on with that.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay, I have two questions. One, do I know if Boggards have night vision or darkvision or.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, darkvision is what you curious about? Yeah, they do.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay. Two, those eight missing villagers, sure wish I'd asked if any of them were Boggarts. Is there any way that I would have picked up or gleaned that information? Do you think that maybe, like, a list was provided or some names and some of them are clearly froggy or, like, sounding problematic?

[Jason Bulman]

I'm gonna go ahead and tell you that they did give you a list and a description for all of them, and none of them are Boggards.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

This makes this part way easier.

[Jason Bulman]

Wait, are you holding a blade to their neck? Wait, are you a good Boggart or a bad Boggart? I don't know. We're not doing that.

[Robert / Trant]

We can declare every member of this group the enemy.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

See, Trent, I think that that's actually the basis by which oppression is built. I know it seems okay when we're not the ones with systemic power, but if we became the people with systemic.

[Robert / Trant]

What if the bomb chooses?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Let Melani sort it out.

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah, if that's what you want to call the bomb, sure.

[Jason Bulman]

What if the bomb chooses? That's a. There's the party's slogan. Let the bomb choose. So, currently you are pretty far away. I Know, it looks like on the map that you're right on the edge of the map. There you are not as of yet. You are more like quarter of a mile away, kind of hiding. You've got your barge that you were on, kind of up on a small island, and you're currently just hiding in a bush, you know, behind some plants and kind of taking a look at the scene. Now, if you want to know more, if you have specific questions about what's going on, we can investigate some of that, or you can formulate a plan based off what you know.

[Robert / Trant]

Right now, we know those three are pretty close in terms of exploding.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So, Trent, only one of those is one of the enemies. The other two are the people who are trying to get potions into.

[Robert / Trant]

Technically, they have potions.

[Hazel Acacia]

How is the potion administered? You have to eat it.

[Jason Bulman]

You have to drink it. Yeah.

[Hazel Acacia]

Soup.

[Jason Bulman]

Soup.

[Hazel Acacia]

Soup.

[IO / Squash]

Soup is good food. You know, we didn't even promise, you know, we said we're gonna try and get six of these bad boys back to the village. Out of the eight. And what is two minus eight?

[Jason Bulman]

Four.

[IO / Squash]

You know, exactly.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I think we should try to rescue all the villagers.

[Jason Bulman]

What?

[IO / Squash]

Oh, okay.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay.

[IO / Squash]

Sounds like a. Okay. I'm just thinking about all the work that's gonna be.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah, okay, but if we get them on our side, then they will also help us do the work.

[IO / Squash]

I love that.

[Hazel Acacia]

Six plus six, that's 10 people. We could keep two people captive. We could probably even bring some bodies.

[IO / Squash]

You know, I'm, like, counting on my paws. I'm like, by God, she's right. Look at that tree, though. Can I roll a perception on the tree?

[Jason Bulman]

Sure, go ahead and give me a perception check.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Melanie does ask us to always go the hard way instead of the easy way, when the hard way is what's necessary to get work done.

[IO / Squash]

Your Melanie speaks in riddles. It's an 11. 5, 16.

[Jason Bulman]

Perception on the tree, boy. You can't be certain, but looking at the tree, you're like, why is there fog in the tree? That doesn't make any sense. And you look closer and you realize it's not fog. It's webs.

[IO / Squash]

Oh, brother.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Bug bomb.

[Jason Bulman]

The bug bomb might work. That's possible.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I would like to look at the size of the fortification and use my lore warfare to determine the size of the Garrison.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay, go ahead and give me a lore warfare.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay. Can I have magical guidance on this, Marty?

[Hazel Acacia]

Sure. Can you get a plus one for that?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

That's good because I did not roll well. I rolled a nine plus three. Plus one is 13.

[Jason Bulman]

Well, you can't be certain, but looking at it, you can tell that there is an entrance into the dam structure itself on the waterline. You would suspect there's probably an entrance up above as well, because otherwise none of the boggards could get inside unless they took a raft out to the dam. So there's probably a second entrance. And looking at the size of the dam and the fact that it, I mean it does get wider and wider the further down it goes. Boy, if there was barracks or quarters inside the dam, there could be a fair number of bargains in there. Maybe as many as 20.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I think there might be as many as 20 Boggarts here and so I think we probably shouldn't try to fight them all.

[Hazel Acacia]

You'd also shouldn't try to fight the.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Desire to purchase ads. No, the desire to purchase the things that the ads advertise.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah, you've got it.

[Jason Bulman]

You wouldn't want to resist that.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

It's irresistible. You're going to roll a one on resisting these products. Unless they're bad, in which case rolling that 20 here they are.

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[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

False.

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[Jason Bulman]

We're back. God, I've bought so many things. I'm ruined.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Gold is doing really well right now.

[Robert / Trant]

It is. It's great.

[Jason Bulman]

I bought a lot of gold and some tactical wipes and some ready made meals.

[Hazel Acacia]

I blew all my money at the Chumba Casino. It was too good.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, that's a better call.

[IO / Squash]

I made too many websites on Squarespace.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I remember when the ads were going to the forest. That was a great. I miss when that was our advertiser. Go into the forest. Go into the dark forest at night alone. It'll be fine. Anyway, should we. Yeah. Okay. Our options are we go in the front easy way which has the bad way, or we go on the dock, but then there's a boggart and a person and we'll be very seen. Or we go in the spiderweb tree. I'm very good at climbing trees. I was the best at climbing trees when I was a kid. But it's not a competition. Melanie reminds us that it's not a competition. But if it were a competition, I was the best at climbing trees. But it wasn't a competition. So I just was at the top of the tree faster than everyone else and that has no moral value. And. Or we could also try and sneak around and like come around the back of the dam. We could also wait till night and then like kidnap some of these people and feed them potions. I don't know.

[IO / Squash]

I'M just spitballing here, Trent, what's your stealth at?

[Robert / Trant]

Pretty good. I am at a five.

[IO / Squash]

Okay. I'm at a six.

[Robert / Trant]

I mean, what if we were to set up some bombs on the way and then try to lead them out and then detonate said bombs and then fall upon them in ambush after they've been exploded?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So my worry is that if the kidnapped villagers are also part of the crew that follows us, I was thinking you could throw bombs into the mitts of Boggarts rather than having trap bombs that you can't pick who they affect.

[Hazel Acacia]

Sounds good to me. Hey, I know it's not as fun.

[IO / Squash]

Are we sure those villagers are even good at all? We've only been in town like a couple of days. These guys could be.

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah. What's good and evil even?

[IO / Squash]

What is good and evil?

[Jason Bulman]

Tell me.

[Hazel Acacia]

We have literally never tried to talk to them. We don't know what their deal is.

[Jason Bulman]

Listen, we got rid of alignment in Pathfinder, so don't worry about it.

[Robert / Trant]

See?

[Jason Bulman]

Oh, we don't do that anymore. It's all shades of gray.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah, but Jason, some things are just evil. Like fascists and frogs.

[Jason Bulman]

Absolutely.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

And landmines that are indeterminate about who they.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah. So there is something a little odd that you notice. It looks like the Boggards all have some sort of red sigil or symbol on their foreheads. You have not seen this on any of the other Boggards you have encountered.

[Hazel Acacia]

Are they also being mind controlled? Do I have to feel bad about killing these fucking frogs?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

No, they're French.

[Jason Bulman]

I mean, you don't know what the symbol is, so I don't know.

[Hazel Acacia]

Maybe I have cooking lore.

[Commercial Announcer]

Jason.

[Hazel Acacia]

Does that help?

[Jason Bulman]

It doesn't look like a cooking symbol. You don't see any notation for how many cups or teaspoons of flies to add.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Does anyone have Arcana or Occultism?

[Hazel Acacia]

I could give you plus one. I've got one to Arcana, but that's it.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Do you want to roll an Arcana?

[Jason Bulman]

Does nobody have Arcana or occultism? You can try religion as well.

[Robert / Trant]

I do have quite good Arcana.

[Hazel Acacia]

Oh yeah? Well, I have +7 in religion and.

[Robert / Trant]

I'll take an Arcana.

[Hazel Acacia]

And I'm taking guidance from Arastal. Thank you. All right, that was a 10. Plus seven. Plus one is 18.

[Robert / Trant]

All right, and then for Arcana, that's an 18 total. Thirteen plus five.

[Jason Bulman]

So from both of your areas of expertise, you converse with each other, ruling out some possibilities, talking about talking about what some things might be. And that's when you kind of figure it out. The symbol that you see on their forehead is a fiendish rune, one belonging to Go Gunta. Gogunta is a demon lord of swamps and a patron of evil bonkers.

[Hazel Acacia]

Oh, so they're evil. We can mark them.

[Jason Bulman]

They are definitely not good guys. These are cultists. These are Boggard cultists.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay.

[Jason Bulman]

It's not surprising that the ones you saw out in the swamp weren't showing off the symbol. That would kind of give away that they were part of this cult. Those ones were kind of hiding. But the ones here at the dam are not hiding. They're allegiance.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So let's get some of them to chase Murdy and I will and ask if they want soup. And then when they chase us, we'll run. And then once they're in the woods, it'll only be a couple of them squash and trant attack. And any of the villagers who chase us, we will knock unconscious instead of killing. Right, Jason? That's a thing you can do in this, right? You can do non. Lethal.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah. You can attack people and deal non lethal damage. If you reduce them to zero with an attack that does non lethal damage, they're just knocked out.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah.

[Hazel Acacia]

I might have a spell.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

How does that sound to folks?

[Robert / Trant]

Okay.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

You can throw bombs at the people who chase us.

[Robert / Trant]

Okay.

[Jason Bulman]

I appreciate the defeat of like. Well, I guess we could do that.

[Hazel Acacia]

I have a spell called command which does have a range of 30ft. So I can hit a bunch of people. I can command a target to approach, run away, release what it's holding, or importantly drop prone or stand in place. It does have to make a will save, but they're already under effects of like a mushroom. So I. I would hope that that affects their. Their willpower.

[Jason Bulman]

So I should note it will only affect one target.

[Hazel Acacia]

It only affects one target.

[Jason Bulman]

Yep.

[Hazel Acacia]

Jason. Jason. Jason. We're friends.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

The game master is no one's friend.

[Jason Bulman]

You have made a terrible mistake. Assuming that I am your friend, Jason, have you.

[Hazel Acacia]

Have you considered the rule of cool and that it's cool when my character gets to do a thing.

[Jason Bulman]

And it's even cooler to have these frogs chase you through the swamp and murder you. So let's do that.

[Hazel Acacia]

Doesn't sound cool to me.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Well, you'll be able to commit if only one. Like you'll be able to command one of the villagers or something to drop or something.

[IO / Squash]

What if we get one of them to come on over and give us some tasty little secrets?

[Hazel Acacia]

The command doesn't do that. It doesn't like, make them your ally.

[IO / Squash]

Oh, rats.

[Jason Bulman]

That's a more powerful spell and it.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Only has 30 foot range. And we're a quarter mile away right now.

[Jason Bulman]

Well, at this point, I've kind of assumed that you've moved at least a bit closer. You're now probably only a couple hundred feet away. You couldn't have seen the runes without getting somewhat closer.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Does anyone have another plan? Besides.

[IO / Squash]

My only other plan is we go up that Webby tree and we use some bug bombs and we blow up the whole Fuggin Dam. That's a lot of spinning plates, baby. And I don't know how big these spiders are, but I would love to use those bug bombs. I don't know. I like this plan.

[Jason Bulman]

So you've got two sides. You can either try and climb this tree or you can go up the land bridge. It's really up to you what approach you want to try.

[IO / Squash]

I like your plan.

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

All right, so we're gonna offer them soup. You all are gonna lay an ambush, and we're gonna, we're gonna take care of some of these fools and then we'll go and get the rest of them.

[Jason Bulman]

All right, so it sounds like two of you are laying in ambush. That's gonna be squash and Trant, correct?

[IO / Squash]

Yes, yes'm.

[Jason Bulman]

And it sounds like Spite and Murty are gonna kind of approach more out in the open to attempt to lure the Boggards away. Is that correct? Do I got the shape of it?

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah, we're doing a modified L shape.

[Hazel Acacia]

I've got a bowl of soup that has potion in it prepared.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay. You got some of the antidote mixed in with some of the soup. And you make your way up to the hillock. And frankly the Boggards, you're not sure if they're just not paying attention or if they're, you know, busy focused on their work. Because they are like the humans are being are basically on a work detail. The Boggards seem to be guarding them and kind of doing work, but mostly letting the humans do it. Or I should say the villagers. It doesn't look like they're all humans. You just know that they're not Boggards. It looks like the guy on the dock might be a Dromar and the two people on the bridge are human. But as you approach the Boggard that is on the side of the bridge with the two humans, immediately kind of moves forward, drawing a club that he had tucked into his belt, shouting in Boggard and I doubt any of you speak Boggard, but he's making a bunch of loud croaking noises which is having the two guards on the other side of the bridge. One of them looks like he's about to come over and investigate, but the other one is staying behind. So not all three of them are coming to check this out. You also notice the Boggard over on the dam, who's not very far away. He's like, you know, 40, 50ft away, is suddenly watching intently at what's going on.

[Hazel Acacia]

Do you want to try to engage the boggart that's coming towards you? And I will skirt around and try to talk to the villagers.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I thought our plan and try to.

[Hazel Acacia]

Pitch them on joining the cult of Melani, perhaps.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I thought the plan was that we were supposed to run at this point so that we get chased into the ants.

[Hazel Acacia]

Oh, we could do that too.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

And then it's funny because you're running with the bowl of soup like, ah.

[Jason Bulman]

Soup sloshing here and about throughout the swamp. Okay. So it's easy enough to do because as it turns out, the barger, if he can understand what you're saying, you don't see any indication of that. He instead comes charging at you with this club and the other buggered that crossed the bridge kind of stays with the humans on that side as the two of you kind of run away. Now at this point in time, Trant and Squash, I'm gonna ask both of you to make stealth checks.

[Robert / Trant]

Hell yeah.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I will say that as I envision this plan, this does not really fit within the scale of this map. I was envisioning not running 20ft back. I was envisioning running, you know, a little bit. So the whole point is that we wouldn't be seen because we want to kill these Boggarts and then move forward.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah. So for those of you listening, the map is a little truncated. We'll assume this the entire ambush site is, let's just say it's 50ft away. We'll still use this part of the map, but we'll assume it's further away.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Awesome.

[Jason Bulman]

So that the Boggarts that are still on the dam maybe can't see what's going on. But for ease of play, we'll still play on this corner of the map. The map is only a 11x17 kind of grid, so it's not huge. Okay, so Squash, Trant, give me those stealth checks.

[IO / Squash]

I rolled a 14 plus 6 for a filthy 20.

[Robert / Trant]

I also have a 15 plus 5 for another 20.

[IO / Squash]

Let's go.

[Jason Bulman]

So a pair of 20s is going to be plenty to beat their passive perception DC So the two of you remain hidden as that boggard kind of runs past. So the way it's kind of worked out is one boggard has kind of chased down this hill. Another one has kind of stayed with the humans, but he's, he's moved in front of the humans. Trant and Squash, you're kind of between the two right now. They're not clustered together. One's kind of closer to the humans. One's chasing murty and spite. And assuming you plan to spring your ambush at this point in time, I'm gonna ask everybody to roll initiative.

[IO / Squash]

Should we use our stealth for the initiative or roll another one?

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, you certainly can if you'll especially want to do that if your stealth is higher than your perception.

[IO / Squash]

Yeah, it sure is.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

But it's a new roll.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, this is gonna be a brand new roll. Yeah.

[IO / Squash]

I am gonna turn to Trant and say if we get these villagers out of the way, we could start just going fucking hog wild with bombs. So maybe we should try and pull them out first. What do you think?

[Robert / Trant]

I mean, I feel like we could go. Well, there's only two of them, right within range.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah.

[Robert / Trant]

So I feel like we should start by just kinda sniping the two within range. Although then we're not going to have much in the way of the advantage of stealth.

[IO / Squash]

When more come out, it's thinking. We get up there, get these villagers, hand over the mouth, pull them into the trees.

[Robert / Trant]

Okay.

[IO / Squash]

Say calm down. You bunk them on the head, bing bang, boom, they're out of commission. And then we start, you know, firing it up.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

We are in a fight right now.

[IO / Squash]

You're in a fight. We have not arrived yet.

[Hazel Acacia]

Before we start combat, you know what else is arriving?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Is it the ads. It's time for ads. Oh, they rolled a higher initiative than any of us.

[Jason Bulman]

They rolled a nat 30.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I hate when they roll 30 sided dice. All right, here's ad.

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[Jason Bulman]

And we're back Ambush ads. Take that. All right, so let's go around and gather everybody's initiative. Spite, what do you got?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

22.

[Jason Bulman]

Murdy, what do you got?

[Hazel Acacia]

12 plus 7 is 19.

[Jason Bulman]

Squash, what do you got? Rolling Stealth.

[IO / Squash]

15 plus 7 is 22.

[Jason Bulman]

And Trance, what do you got? Rolling stealth.

[Robert / Trant]

We got a 20.

[Jason Bulman]

20. All right. You know, the one time I actually rolled decently well for my bad guys and you still all beat them? That has happened this entire campaign. All right, so top of the order, we've got squash. Now, you've got two options here, or two immediate targets. You've got one that's closer to the dam. If you go to attack that one, the other Boggards at the dam may see it. You've also got the other Boggard that is chasing Spite. And Murray. If you go attack that one, the Boggards back at the dam will probably not see it.

[IO / Squash]

I'm going to go up. I'm gonna give this guy a sneaky little stab.

[Jason Bulman]

Sounds good. He is off guard to you, so his defenses are going to be even lower than normal.

[IO / Squash]

That's right, they are. Ooh. And it's a 13 plus 7, for a total of a 20.

[Jason Bulman]

A 20 is an easy hit. Unlike the Boggards that you fought up in the tower, these ones are not as well armored and frankly, aren't as buffed. These ones look more like just workers.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Maybe we should just storm the place after this.

[IO / Squash]

Wow, that was like crazy easy.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

You could just stab these guys.

[Jason Bulman]

Go ahead and roll. Damage.

[IO / Squash]

Oh, I sure wish it was more than a one, but what can I say, folks? It's a one, but it's a plus.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Two, so it's a three.

[Jason Bulman]

All right, so you dive out of the shadows and stab the Bargard. He screams in pain. But you still have one action left. You needed to take one to approach, one to attack, and you can attack again if you want.

[IO / Squash]

Can I twist the knife that's in him or pull it out with a flourish that's sort of another just counts as another attack.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, I mean, basically you're making another attack, so go ahead and make another. Another attack. Roll. We'll see if it does damage.

[IO / Squash]

I'd love to make another attack. A swashbuckler specialty. Oh, boy. Here I go with my other attack. And it's a 16.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

That's with the minus five. And the.

[IO / Squash]

Well, with the minus five, it's an 11, but plus seven.

[Jason Bulman]

So yeah, that is going to be a hit. So go ahead and roll damage again. So you walk up and swing Your blade left, swing it right and carve some deep cuts into this Boggart. How much damage?

[IO / Squash]

Nine total.

[Jason Bulman]

Huh. Well, the Boggard that was guarding the two humans collapses in the blink of an eye. Your blade slices and dices and cuts down the Boggard. That is the end of Squash's turn. Spite. Further down the hill in the background, you can see Squash has come darting out of the shadows and just dispatched one of the guards instantly.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So should we just storm the place?

[Jason Bulman]

Did we try to make a plan? When in reality we should just run up and kill everything I ask while.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

While doing a defensive advance walking up to this Boggart. I'm going to flank it by going on the opposite side of it as. As Murty.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, I was kind of chasing Murdy down.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah. And I just don't approve of people chasing my friends. And so I am going to swing my MorningStar with a 24 to hit. It's a 16 plus 8.

[Jason Bulman]

So. So with my reduced armor class, that's not only a hit, that's a critical hit. Your morning star bashes the thing in the back of the head. The Boggard cries out in ribbity pain as you roll. Damage.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah, I don't know if it's gonna cry out much longer because I did 16 damage to it.

[Jason Bulman]

16? You know how many hit points it doesn't have?

[Hazel Acacia]

16.

[Jason Bulman]

So you cave in the back of the Boggard's head. This Boggard cultist collapses into a pool of bubbling green blood.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I yell, let's go. Use my remaining action to move towards the dam.

[Jason Bulman]

And with that, I'll literally just move you to where you are on the map right now and we'll call that proportional. So the villagers, to be clear, see the buggered guards just get wiped and they both grab their heads and they're like, oh no. But they don't really run, they just kind of cower. They frankly just kind of run over into the brush and just hide. They just look afraid. They don't know what's going on. They look very confused. So we'll move on here. Trant, it is your turn.

[Robert / Trant]

Okay.

[Jason Bulman]

Spite has destroyed the bogger guard. Squash has destroyed a bogger guard. The only bogger guard that's left is the one across the bridge and he has drawn his sling and he looks like he's prepared to defend the bridge against all invaders. Okay, with his, I guess.

[Robert / Trant]

Can I move up to here and then hold the rest of my actions?

[Jason Bulman]

You can move up to there and ready another action. So what you would do is basically spend two actions to say, if something happens, I want to make an attack. Yeah. If something happens, I'm going to fire.

[Robert / Trant]

My shotgun across the bridge.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay. So probably if anybody tries to cross the bridge, I assume that's the trigger. Okay. All right. In that case, my we are up to you.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah. I am going to. How far can I get to those villagers?

[Jason Bulman]

We'll say if you spend two of your actions moving, you can make it up to the villagers.

[Hazel Acacia]

All right, that's reasonable. Cool. I'm gonna cower down in the bushes with them and I'm gonna lay my hand, say, I know it's been a really big day. I can understand your fear. I brought some soup.

[Jason Bulman]

They're like. They're like, what's happening? The Boggards. They're dead.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah, they are.

[Jason Bulman]

What are we gonna do? They were the ones telling us what to build.

[Hazel Acacia]

That's okay. I have some soup. Just eat some soup. Everything will be all right. It'll all make sense.

[Jason Bulman]

Can you give me a diplomacy check?

[Hazel Acacia]

Oh, I sure can, Jason. Well, that was a five. Do you have a five diplomacy bonifier, though?

[Jason Bulman]

So I will say this as a reminder. You all have one hero point.

[Hazel Acacia]

I do have a hero point, but if I send guidance, does that help?

[Jason Bulman]

You would have had to cast that, and you don't have the action to spare. But you can use your hero point, which does not require an action, to reroll that die roll.

[Hazel Acacia]

I'm using that hero point, Jason.

[Jason Bulman]

Sounds good.

[Hazel Acacia]

All right, going again. Oh, that was a 19 plus 5 is 20.

[Robert / Trant]

I'm here.

[Hazel Acacia]

I serve soup so well.

[Jason Bulman]

At first the villagers were like, I don't know that I just ate. I'm not really hungry for soup. And then they smell it. They're like, oh, you know what? I could go for some soup. So the both of them start chowing down on the soup, and almost immediately, their expressions start to change, soften. They don't look as frightened, they just look kind of confused, as if coming out of a daze. That's all they're going to be able to do right at the moment.

[Hazel Acacia]

Can I ask a question? Like, are the villagers willing to help us fight in the coming rounds, or should I tell them to stay on the side of dam and to not get involved?

[Jason Bulman]

To be honest, they don't really look like combatants at all. They're not wearing armor. They don't have weapons. Frankly, they look kind of malnourished, and I wouldn't call them sickly looking, but they definitely don't look combat Ready. Right. They look like bystanders, really?

[Hazel Acacia]

Well, I'm going to pat them on their shoulders and I'm going to leave them with two bowls of soup and just, you know, tell them, I know you've had a rough couple of weeks. We're here. We're going to do our best. Just stay out of the action and you'll stay safe and we'll make sure we get you back. I'm just trying to be a calm and steady presence.

[Jason Bulman]

So the boggart on the far side of the bridge is going to use his sling to attack Trant. So a rock comes flying across the bridge at you.

[Robert / Trant]

Not very nice.

[Jason Bulman]

No. And I didn't roll particularly well. I rolled a seven for a total of 13, which I'm gonna wager is not enough to hit you.

[Robert / Trant]

No, I may see 17.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah. So he's going to then reload for his second action, and then he's going to fire a sling stone at you again. And even worse than the last time, these Boggards don't look too skilled with their slings. Both those stones went pretty far and wide. The boggart down below is going to go to the cage, and he is holding his hand atop the cage. That's all he does right now, actually. The one down below lets out a rather piercingly loud croak. Almost like a one. Perhaps it's trying to raise the alarm. Squash, we're over to you.

[IO / Squash]

Would rolling a perception check be one of my actions in combat?

[Jason Bulman]

I mean, most of the time, a perception check is something that's kind of done for free when you might spot a thing. But if you're intentionally trying to see a thing or notice a thing, you're trying to focus on a thing or ask a question, that would be an action.

[IO / Squash]

Okay, well, I realized when he went to go put his hand on the cage, I meant to investigate that earlier, but I got caught up in all the podcasts, casting magic, and I would like to see if I can sort of tell what's in the cage. Well, first I want to, like, run to the square that's closest to him across the river next to Trant, and see if I can tell what's in the cage.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, all right. That will take an action. Go ahead and give me a perception check.

[IO / Squash]

That's a 15 perception.

[Jason Bulman]

You're pretty sure there's a really big frog in there. Not as big as the slurk you fought, but looks more like just your garden variety giant frog. But the fact that they have it in a cage is A little odd. Clearly, it's not fully domesticated.

[IO / Squash]

Oh, that's a little bit odd. Well, I shoot him.

[Jason Bulman]

You shoot the boggart over there.

[IO / Squash]

I shoot the guy who's got his hand out the cage.

[Jason Bulman]

Yep. All right, so the boggart down at the dock. Go ahead and make me an attack roll.

[IO / Squash]

It's a no natural. Four plus seven for a total of an 11.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay, your shot goes wide, hitting the dam, making no appreciable damage. For a minute there, when I thought you said natural, I was like, oh, it's gonna be something. Oh, it's a four. All right. Okay, that is the end of Squash's turn. He has spotted the giant frog and taken a shot, but otherwise, that's that spite. We are over to you. You're kind of the furthest away from the bridge right at the moment, but that can be rectified with a move.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah, I can use one action to get right next to Trant, and then I can use another action to get right next to that boggart. Ironically, I thought I was gonna stop there, pull a javelin and throw it, but it is just outside my range. I think. I think I can get there.

[Jason Bulman]

Well, remember, range anything that's beyond the first range increment, you can still shoot at. You just take a minus two.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Oh, okay. Yeah, Okay. I can get there. I'm running up there and I am screaming, don't put people in mind cages.

[Jason Bulman]

So Spike goes charging across the bridge.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah. Hopefully it doesn't collapse underneath me.

[Jason Bulman]

It does not. It creaks a lot, but it holds your weight.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay, I rolled a 8 plus 8. So 16 to hit.

[Jason Bulman]

A 16 is a hit. You go winging your morning star directly into this boggart's chest while he's desperately trying to fumble and reload his sling.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

And that is a two plus four. So six damage.

[Jason Bulman]

Six damage. Reeling from the hit. This boggart looks very badly hurt from that. All right, that is Spike Trant. We are back to you.

[Robert / Trant]

Well, shit.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay, you've got a boggart in a down below at the dock that doesn't look like he's much of a threat because he's kind of far away.

[Robert / Trant]

And I'm gonna run up behind the boss, and I'm gonna hurl an alchemist fire at that boggart space.

[Jason Bulman]

All right, the poor boggart, who thus far has fired two sling stones, is desperately fumbling with a rock. Well, just got hit in the chest with a Morningstar, and now I roll 16 plus 5.

[Robert / Trant]

So 21 hit in the face with alchemist.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Fire.

[Jason Bulman]

And gets hit in the face with alchemist fire. Go ahead and roll.

[Robert / Trant]

I'll teach you to not hit me. That's gonna be six plus, I think, plus one. So seven.

[Jason Bulman]

Collapses to the ground, burning, riveting, and frankly, smelling kind of good. Okay, so cannibalism has entered.

[Hazel Acacia]

Is it cannibalism to eat these frog legs?

[Robert / Trant]

No, we're not frogs.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, I mean, you're not a frog.

[Hazel Acacia]

So frog legs too.

[Jason Bulman]

Ah, yes, answering the important ethical questions.

[Hazel Acacia]

It's not cannibalism if they're evil.

[Jason Bulman]

Sure, I think that's a rule somewhere. So you go up behind Spite and throw the alchemist fire right into that bogger's mouth. You do technically have one action left. You can move through Spite if you want. You're not gate locked there. You can move through your allies, or you can stay where you're at, do whatever, because you are a quick bomber. You could throw a bomb down at the Boggart on the dock.

[Robert / Trant]

I'm gonna sprint ahead of Margaret up on the side of that hill, and I'll just kind of hunker down and wait to see what happens.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay, so Spain's patient for everybody. Squash and Murray are on the hill preparing to cross the bridge. Spite is on the bridge. Trant has moved atop the dam and is not too far away from the watchtower. Myrtie.

[Hazel Acacia]

Yeah. I'm gonna move as far as I can onto this bridge with my one action. And then with my remaining two actions, I'm gonna cast divine lance at that last Boggart, who's still outside.

[Jason Bulman]

Sounds good. Go ahead and make me an attack roll. Okay.

[Hazel Acacia]

That was a nat. 2 plus 7 for my spell attack is only a 9.

[Jason Bulman]

You're blinding beam of light misses the Boggart guard entirely, who croaks out in fear before ducking back behind the cage. Its hand goes to open the cage, and since it goes next, it opens the cage, hoping that the frog will be its ally.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

We could have had a frog friend. Now we have a frogamy.

[Robert / Trant]

Well, we had a lot of frogamies.

[Jason Bulman]

Well, in truth, you have neither. You just have a frog that immediately turns on the Boggart. Oh, take it. All right, the first thing the frog does, the moment it gets out of its cage, is leap upon the Boggard and begin biting him viciously. So that's what's going on down there. Meanwhile, up on the dam, there are other Boggards. There are in fact, three more Boggards up in the watchtower. One of them climbs down the ladder with its first action with its second action, it approaches you, Trant. And with its third action, it's going to attempt to attack you with its club. Okay, but I only rolled A8, which is a total of 13, which is not gonna be enough to hit you.

[Robert / Trant]

Nope.

[Jason Bulman]

Or nimbly able to dodge out of the way of that. Meanwhile, up above the pair of Boggards, one of them is going to make an attack at you. So it throws a bag, a small sack down at you, Trant, that misses you, only barely, and explodes on the ground in a sticky, viscous substance that would have rooted you in place. But I missed.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I was afraid it was the mushroom spores that were going to turn Trant against us.

[Jason Bulman]

Oh, no. Finally, the last Boggard that's up there is going to load his sling and fire at you. Trance, just because you're close, closest armor class 15, I'm gonna wager, is not gonna hit.

[Robert / Trant]

Nope. 17, baby.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah.

[Jason Bulman]

No. These poor Boggards are having no luck today.

[Robert / Trant]

I'm accidentally tanking.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah. So that is all the Boggarts. The Boggarts have gone squash. You're up.

[IO / Squash]

I'm gonna run across that bridge to be amongst my friends.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay, you can get right up to there for two actions. Right up next to the Boggard, if you want.

[IO / Squash]

I would love to get up right next to that Boggard.

[Jason Bulman]

All right.

[IO / Squash]

And these two. Two Boggards are up on top of the watchtower.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, the watchtower is about 15ft up above the ground.

[IO / Squash]

Oh, excellent. I'm throwing me alchemist fire up at them.

[Jason Bulman]

Oh, okay. So you're gonna throw up into the watchtower.

[IO / Squash]

Yeah, I got the range for that.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, sure. So Squash goes running across the bridge, passing Murdy and Spite, who are still on the bridge, getting up next to the Boggart and then tossing an alchemist fire up into the watchtower. Go ahead and make me an attack roll.

[IO / Squash]

It's a 15 plus. What would I. What would I add for an alchemist fire?

[Jason Bulman]

It would be three plus whatever your dexterity modifier is.

[IO / Squash]

Well, that's great news, Jason.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Oh, good.

[IO / Squash]

That's a total of 22.

[Jason Bulman]

22 is going to hit. Okay, so go ahead and roll damage.

[IO / Squash]

What a delight. And it's a 4. 4 fire on these bad boys.

[Jason Bulman]

All right, you're gonna do four fire to the one that you threw at. Actually, five fire because you get splash as well. And then the other one's gonna take one damage. The Boggart that you hit looks like one of these kind of workers or guards that look pretty fragile. But the Other boggart that's up on the tower looks like the boss and it's given the orders to the other ones. And it looks significantly more sturdy than the frail guards. And that is the end of Squash's turn. Spite, we are over to you.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay, I'm going to use, I'm going to defensively advance immediately to the north of the boggart that's on the dam.

[Jason Bulman]

Sure.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

So that'll be a strike. And that is a 20 to hit at 12 plus 8.

[Jason Bulman]

That is a solid hit. Not a crit, but you do hit the buggered cleanly.

[Robert / Trant]

Excellent.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

It's a shame that I rolled a one on damage for a total of 5.

[Jason Bulman]

5 damage. That's still respectable. That bugger now looks very hurt. You do still have one action left if you want to make another attack.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I'm going to attack it again. I'm sad because I mostly I am very concerned about the well being of the civilian that is on the dock below. How far is it down to the dock below?

[Jason Bulman]

You're about to 25ft up.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

What would happen if I were to jump on top of one of the combatants down there, either the boggart or the large frog.

[Jason Bulman]

So from this distance you would probably take about 10 points of fall damage, but anything you hit would also take about 10 points of damage.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I'm doing that. I am jumping on the boggart down below.

[Jason Bulman]

So instead of attacking the boggart up here, you're gonna jump down on top.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Of the boggart down below.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah. So boy, give me a reflex save athletics. Let's go with that.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay, fine.

[Jason Bulman]

You can make an acrobatics check if you want.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Not athletics.

[Jason Bulman]

Not athletics then I'm doing reflex.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yep.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah. Okay. So you go slamming into this boggart. I'm gonna make a check for the boggart as well. Let's just see how that goes. Terribly, terribly so. You crush this boggart, you land right on top of him. The boggart was already being attacked by this giant frog and had like half of its arm was in the frog's mouth and the frog's trying to swallow the boggart whole. And then you crash land on both of them. The frog freaks out and jumps into the water. It's not here for any of this. The boggard is dead. He didn't survive that. He did not survive all. A full sized human landing on him from up above.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah, with a six bulk of gear.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just basically dropped on that boggard like a ton of bricks. You do take 10 points of damage.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

From oh that's fine. I expected that. I think I did it very WWE style. I think I drove down into it head first. Which people's elbow. Yeah, I people's elbowed it.

[Jason Bulman]

You are spattered in green Boggard blood from top to bottom. Right now. You are goated.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

And I look up at the civilian who is clearly, I am aware, still under the spell, and I say, don't worry, I'll save you, civilian.

[Jason Bulman]

Also spattered and green bonkered bits from head to toe. Yep.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

And that's my turn. And it'll probably take the rest of the battle to climb back up this thing.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, I mean, you're gonna have to get on the raft or something. And yeah, I'm very athletic.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I think I can climb this dam.

[Jason Bulman]

That's fair. All right, Trance.

[Robert / Trant]

All right, all right, all right, all right. Well, there's this guy in front of me.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, he looks pretty hurt.

[Robert / Trant]

Hey, buddy, would you hold on to something for me? And then I'm gonna throw alchemist fire at his face. Oh, that is an 11. Not doing good.

[Jason Bulman]

An 11. So an 11, unfortunately, is gonna miss. The Boggart panics. He doesn't want whatever you're gonna give him. And it goes over his shoulder, landing right behind him. That is gonna still do one point of damage to the Boggart, as it does explode right behind him. But he is still up.

[Robert / Trant]

And then I'm gonna whip out my katar and try to stab him.

[Jason Bulman]

All right, so a little bit of knife work.

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah.

[Jason Bulman]

All right.

[Robert / Trant]

Oh, nope, that does not do it. Wait, did it roll twice?

[Jason Bulman]

It did roll twice, oddly enough. And you know, I'm a fair and benevolent game master, so I'm gonna let you have the first roll, which I.

[Robert / Trant]

Happen to know is the 20. Yes, 20.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Big difference there.

[Jason Bulman]

So that's my one kindness for the day. I'm glad I got that out of my system.

[Robert / Trant]

Well, in that case, that would be a nat 22, because. Minus five, but I'm a plus seven normally.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, but it's. Because it's a nat 20, it's still going to upgrade from. From a hit to a critical hit. So go ahead and roll damage and then double it.

[Robert / Trant]

Okay, that's D4 plus three doubled. So that's six. Doubled to 12.

[Jason Bulman]

Oh, God. Yeah. In his panic to avoid the alchemist fire, he left his throat wide open. And you just opened it right up.

[Robert / Trant]

He collapsed every frog's weak spot.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Yeah, yeah, it was the distraction. You were like, look over there.

[Jason Bulman]

That is the end of Trant's turn. Merty you are still on the bridge. There are only two Boggards left. They are up in the tower. One of them looks pretty badly hurt from the fire. The other one looks kind of like the boss Boggard and does not look very hurt at all.

[Hazel Acacia]

Well, Jason, I hear you about those two Boggarts. But I also see my friend and comrade down on the bridge with the villager. Both of whom need some healing and some antidote potions. So I would like to spend. How. How about this? Would you accept if I spend one move to get as close as I can to that bridge and then my next two moves to craft a police system for my climbing gear so that I can then do my third move. Lower down of healing potion and the mind control antidote.

[Jason Bulman]

Sure. You know what? As you're walking over, you break out the rope from your climbing kit, tie it around the two vials and you can lower it down as your third. That's fine. There's no risk of that going into the drink or anything like that. Spite on your turn. You'll have to grab them and use them. But other than that, you should be fine. Alright, so that's the end of Murnie's turn. So Murnie's doing that, the Boggarts go. The chief Boggart's gonna climb down the tower. That's gonna be his first action. Second action is gonna be to draw his morning star.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I shake my fist.

[Jason Bulman]

The third action, he is going to swing his morning star at my. Okay, here we go. Well, fuck.

[Robert / Trant]

Shit.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

We can see the die roll, dear audience.

[Jason Bulman]

Well, I may have rolled a 18 plus 8 is gonna be a 26. My, what's your armor class?

[Hazel Acacia]

It is 14, my fair liege.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Oh no.

[Jason Bulman]

14. So this is a critical hit. God, fortunately for you, I rolled minimum damage.

[Hazel Acacia]

Oh yeah, you did.

[Jason Bulman]

So you only take eight. All right, which is good because had you fallen unconscious, you would have dropped the rope and the vials down onto the bridge and possibly into the spawn.

[IO / Squash]

That would have been really funny.

[Jason Bulman]

That is the end of that Boggard's turn. We have the Boggart guard up above who's gonna spend their first action loading their sling. Their second action, firing their sling at squash. What? Yeah, I know it's unfair. Fortunately for you, I rolled a one, so that's gonna miss. And then I spend my third action reloading my sling. So that's it for the Boggards. Squash. We are over to you. There's two Boggards left. The boss boggard and the guard boggard up in the Tower, the boss boggard.

[IO / Squash]

Is hanging out over a precipice. Yayes.

[Jason Bulman]

Yes, interesting.

[Robert / Trant]

Uh oh.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I'm gonna get a reverse of what just happened is gonna happen to me.

[IO / Squash]

Uh oh no, I think it's gonna be good and fun when I do a fun kick flip off of the tower and try and kick this fool off of the precipice.

[Jason Bulman]

So you're going to move over to there and try and push the buggard off the edge.

[IO / Squash]

A very acrobatic maneuver to plant my feet directly on this fool's shoulders and tip him into the drink.

[Jason Bulman]

All right, give me an athletics check. I don't like your cackling.

[IO / Squash]

That's a natural 20 plus seven acrobatics, Jason.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Oh, but it's athletics. But it's still grat.

[Robert / Trant]

20.

[Jason Bulman]

It doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Here's athletics. So you go shoving this boggard who falls all the way down into the swamp, bouncing down the dam as he goes. And he lands down into the muck, sinking beneath the surface.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I'm gonna be diving to find a loot later.

[Jason Bulman]

I'm just gonna go ahead and remove him from the map. Yeah, Spite, you can grab those potions and administer them. That'll be most of your turn.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I think it'll be my entire turn probably. So I'm gonna grab the potions, give a big old thumbs up, and then I'm going to turn to the civilian. How is the civilian handling this?

[Jason Bulman]

The guy down on the dock looks at you and says, what happened to my friend? He doesn't look so good. I'm like, he spattered with him.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

The answer is in this vial. And I try and see if he'll drink the vial willingly.

[Jason Bulman]

Okay, he does.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay, good. Otherwise I was force feeding this, the file, to this man, and I was trying to figure out the ethics of that.

[Robert / Trant]

Yeah, the exact contours of your ethical beliefs are always fascinating to Tran. He doesn't understand them at all, but he goes along with it.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Same with Spite. When I tried to climb this dam. Is that a single action or is that a multi action?

[Jason Bulman]

Well, it's probably going to be a multi action. We'll worry about it when we get there. Do you drink the minor elixir of life that was handed down to you as well?

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

It depends. If I think I can try and climb up in one action, I'm trying to do that.

[Jason Bulman]

You definitely will not be able to get up in one action.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Then I am drinking the elixir of life.

[Jason Bulman]

All right, you regain 1d6 hit points. So go ahead and roll that and give it to yourself.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Okay.

[Jason Bulman]

Meanwhile we'll move on to Trance.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I regained three.

[Jason Bulman]

There is one boggard left up in the tower.

[Robert / Trant]

Let's see how far up is the top of the tower?

[Jason Bulman]

About 15ft.

[Robert / Trant]

All right, can I get up to that staircase and then overhand try to hurl a grenade up there?

[Jason Bulman]

Absolutely.

[Robert / Trant]

All right, then that's what Trant's going to do, baby.

[Jason Bulman]

Go ahead and roll me.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Attack.

[Robert / Trant]

That is an eight. I'm going to use my hero point it.

[Jason Bulman]

Oh my.

[Robert / Trant]

Neither of those are gonna do the job.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, yeah. So what did you get?

[Robert / Trant]

Eight and then a six. Both are plus five, so.

[Jason Bulman]

So believe it or not, the eight actually hits.

[Robert / Trant]

Oh shit.

[Jason Bulman]

Yeah, no, you're all good. So you lob the alchemist fire up there. Go ahead and roll me. Damage.

[Robert / Trant]

That's an eight. Nine total.

[Jason Bulman]

Nine. You toss it up into the wicker roof of this guard tower that immediately catches flame, burning debris falling onto the boggard, who dies in a fiery conflagration.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Does he fall off the tower going, ah, kind of like Saruman, but yeah, no.

[Jason Bulman]

He even does the Wilhelm scream.

[Robert / Trant]

Trant exaggeratingly shakes his head and says, it's a story I've seen too many times. You can't stand the heat, stay out of the getting hit directly by a hand grenade.

[Jason Bulman]

That's just how that goes.

[Robert / Trant]

Uh huh.

[Jason Bulman]

So with that, you suddenly come to realize that the outside of the dam at least is secure. The three villagers that you have rescued have all come to their senses. The one down at the docks looks to you spite and says, I don't know how I got here.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I remember well, you got kidnapped by people that I don't approve of because you shouldn't put people in cages, whether mental or physical. And so it was these people who happened to be boggarts. But that is not a defining characteristic of the decisions that they've made. And you got kidnapped by them, but fortunately you got rescued by a team effort by the entire village.

[Robert / Trant]

And don't worry, buddy, you know, it's like I always say, if you don't remember doing something bad, it's the same as not having done it.

[IO / Squash]

He is always saying that.

[Jason Bulman]

That's the worst part. I remember building their dam. I've been here for, for weeks. And then spite. He grabs you by the shoulders, their leader. It's terrifying. His voice screams and burns into your ears. He's cruel, he's vicious and he's guarded by a deadly trap. Beware the frog skull. You do not know exactly what he means. But the passageway leading down at the dam beckons you to go deeper to face the final boggart. But that will have to wait until next time, everybody. That is where we're gonna wrap this session. That's right on the precipice, the edge, the doorway into darkness. That's all we got here for today.

[Hazel Acacia]

That's bullshit, Jason.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

We don't want to wait till next Sunday. We demand that we get a five or ten minute break and then keep playing and then everyone else has to wait a week.

[Jason Bulman]

Very well.

[IO / Squash]

Tough affair.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Thank you all so much for listening. And I don't know, do you folks want to do plugs? We didn't do them last time because I'm a fool. Starting with squash.

[IO / Squash]

In other worlds, I go by the name of IO and by the time this comes out, I might have some new comics out. I'm bum lung on social media things. Oh, the person who did the beautiful art, I might add, for this campaign, Jonas Goonface. And I did a comic that you.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Can buy on my shop, Legally distinct from Batman.

[IO / Squash]

It's legally distinct from Batman, but we are trying to get sued because we almost had a contract with them until they got a load of this guy pointing at myself. Oh, and I have a podcast called the Spectacle.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Hazel.

[Hazel Acacia]

Hi, I'm Hazel Acacia. You can find my zine called how to Do It Anyway, A guide to self managing an abortion at your house, anglewilderness.org and that's it. I'm nowhere else. I do not exist. I'm only the lovely voice in your ears.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Jason.

[Jason Bulman]

Hi there, everybody. I'm Jason Bullman. You can find all of my work by going to paizo.com. that's where you can buy all the things that I make and all of my other genius, brilliant co workers make. You can find me on all the various social media platforms, usually at the handle Jason Bullman. That's B U L, M A H.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

N. And Jason also has H's in it. It's always funny when people say jokes about people's name. No, now that I say that aloud, it's never funny. Robert, what do you got?

[Robert / Trant]

You can find me at this podcast and at behind the Bastards. And obviously all of the stuff about bombs is just jokes.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

All jokes legally distinct from truth.

[Robert / Trant]

That's right.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

I'm Mario Kiljoy. This is a podcast I'm on pretty regularly because it's a podcast that I do the voice for and I also have a podcast called Cool People did Cool Stuff and do a bunch of things. You can find them probably. I once wrote a book called Escape from Insel Island. It's a really fun book. If you like adventure and shooting incels and then getting really complicated moral quandaries. As you realize the complications of that, you should read Escape from Insel Island.

[Jason Bulman]

It also includes an rpg.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

That's true. There is an RPG of it.

[Jason Bulman]

I have it. Yeah, it's great.

[Hazel Acacia]

There might even be art by Jonas Goonface involved.

[Spite / Margaret Killjoy]

Oh, that's true. The COVID of Escape from Insel island was done by Jonas Goonface, our honorary sixth member. We'll see you all next week with a thrilling conclusion.

[IO / Squash]

Bye bye.

[Jason Bulman]

It Could Happen here as a production.

[Metabolism Ignite Advertiser]

Of Cool Zone Media.

[Jason Bulman]

For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media.

[Metabolism Ignite Advertiser]

Visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us.

[Jason Bulman]

Out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts.

[Metabolism Ignite Advertiser]

Or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Jason Bulman]

You can find sources for It Could.

[Metabolism Ignite Advertiser]

Happen here updated [e-mail] sources thanks for listening.

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[Jason Bulman]

This is Julian Edelman from Games With Names.

[IO / Squash]

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[Jason Bulman]

I mean that literally. You're so anxious over your lineup you can't fall asleep.

[IO / Squash]

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[Jason Bulman]

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[IO / Squash]

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[Jason Bulman]

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[IO / Squash]

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[Jason Bulman]

Use as directed. This is an iHeart podcast.

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