Ep. 2 Dancing with Shadows Chapter Two

## Listen

Ep. 2 Dancing with Shadows: Chapter Two

—Sun Tzu, *The Art of War*

Beric, Lyle, and Draconos venture deeper into the Faded Forest and find the Dhakaani Ruins they heard about last episode. They kill a bear, scold Acko for not reading ancient goblin runes, and fight a hobgoblin boss.

## Synopsis

Following up from last episode, the party follows the path the goblin's have pointed out to them. Eventually they come across a hill with a stone door built into it, which is Dhakaani in nature. There is ancient goblin written on runes, and Beric traces them in case they come across someone who speaks it later.

Lyle hears rustling behind them, and turns to see an angry black bear. Draconos, being one to never hurt an animal, tries an animal handling check to see if they can avoid a fight - and rolls a 2. Eric comments that it's going after him first. Lyle and Acko choose this time to have a conversation about how Acko can speak ancient goblin and didn't bother reading the runes, but Beric interrupts them and points out that there's a big black bear about to attack them.

They fight it, and Draconos regretfully ends up being the one to deal the killing blow. Saddened by what he had to do, he walks over and starts caressing the dead bear. Beric chooses this time to pull out some silver filings, spread them over the bear, and Create Bonfire underneath it. Trevor starts, but decides Drac wouldn't care because he has resistance to fire anyway.

*"Hey look, a bear."
"Ah!"
—Beric and Acko*
Once done terrorizing the bear corpse, Acko reads the goblin rune for them: "Tomb light of Ja'Sharaat." The doors on the temple have been shattered, and the party enters without incident. They walk for a little and the path veers to the right, and they see a fire in an entrance and voices they can't quite make out. They look inside and see a moldy, tattered bedroll, simple tools, and cooking instruments over a brazier with fire. The walls are carved with beautiful murals. There are three goblins talking by the fire, and Acko stealths up to them to hear what they're talking about. He returns and tells them they're talking about their new leader, Drec Shugaan, and using a lot of foul language while doing so. They approach the goblins, but Acko is not very charismatic and they draw their swords. Lyle intimidates the goblins into not fighting, and they lower their weapons. He starts questioning them about Jacob, but they don't know anything.

*"Winds are whippin' in the willows and the shadows are dancing on the plains."
"You're doing great."
"That's not how that goes, but good effort."
—Lyle, Beric, and goblin*
The goblins start complaining about Drec Shugaan. The party questions why they let him be their leader and are told it's because he's a hobgoblin, so he's stronger than them. But he doesn't give them any loot and they hate him. Three more goblins appear, and they agree that they hate Drec Shugaan. Beric suggests that if they help take him out, the goblins will help them look for Jacob. The goblins agree to this, as long as they get to stay near Drac, to which Drac cheerfully agrees.

*"Drec Shugaan will be…shuh-gone."
—Lyle*
Before they leave, Beric wants to study the murals on the walls. They shows scenes of hobgoblin warriors fighting massive creatures and fearless foes and it's all very dark and the enemies seem inky, like they have tendrils coming out of them. They don't have whole forms. There's more ancient goblin on the southern wall and Acko reads it to them:

*"Against the shadows I will fight, against the darkness I am the light. With my life I shall fight the shade and with my death my debt is paid."*
Drec is in the next room over, so one of the goblins agrees to be a distraction as the rest of the party starts sneaking towards the room Drec is in. On the way there, Beric falls into a trap and takes some damage. Acko helps him out, healing him as he does. The goblin enters the room and starts giving him a report on their patrol. Unfortunately, patrol reports are something that doesn't happen and Drec is instantly suspicious. As this discussion is happening, Beric, Lyle, and Drac sneak in. There's a large room with broken chairs and tables, with tattered tapestries barely hanging from the walls of the large meeting hall. At the far end there's a massive statue bearing the resemblance of a hobgoblin in ornate plate armor holding a strange weapon.

Beric casts Hex on Drec Shugaan and gestures for Lyle to sneak in, who follows Beric and gives him a very quiet high five. Draconos peaks around the corner and casts Thaumatergy to make the torch behind Drec turn green. As he's distracted, Drac sneaks in after Beric and Lyle.

The party fights and kills Drec Shugaan, with Beric's Create Bonfire doing the last of the damage. Because of the fire he's created, Beric's shadows almost looks like it's dancing and the goblins almost attack him but manage to roll well on their insight check. Jeff insists that either Beric or Lyle is the new goblin chief, but the goblins definitely just want them gone.

End of episode.

## Locations

* Breland
	+ Dhakaani Ruins
	+ Faded Forest

## Spells

* **Beric**
	+ Create Bonfire x2
	+ Hex

* **Acko**
	+ Cure Wounds x2
	+ Light
	+ Sacred Flame

## Quotes

"You are one with the shadows, the shadows are one with you."
*—Eric*

## Trivia

* This episode uses the intro music from The Knowledge Check, Eric and Philip's other podcast, in the fight with the black bear.