Monster Deep Dive: Gnolls

WEBVTT

1
00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:26.480
Tell some podcast or role players and
game masters have level up your game.

2
00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:31.000
We are your dungeon masters. Jason
Ortiso, I'm Joe McCall and Jim Crocker.

3
00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:35.479
And today's episode, we're going to
come back to our our deep dives,

4
00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:39.039
almost like our a little book reports. I feel like a little elementary

5
00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:44.039
school would be like I did my
report on hags, I would do I

6
00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:47.159
would have done way more book reports
school. It feels like something cool.

7
00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:50.439
It was something cool. So we
might keep calling these deep dives because that's

8
00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:52.679
what everyone else calls them. We
might change the name of the book reports.

9
00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:56.119
I would love your opinions. Hello
Adventures Podcast at gmail dot com.

10
00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:58.479
Let me know what we should call
these things. Do our jobs for us,

11
00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:00.799
please, we want to kill you. I wish some would do my

12
00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:04.959
job even I'll even I'll accept myself. Someone's got to do my job.

13
00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:11.480
Y'all's lazy. So Today's that will
not kill you, but Knowles will.

14
00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:15.959
Today's today's book report slash deep dive. Jim took his favorite monsters is the

15
00:01:17.079 --> 00:01:22.040
Knowle, and he's gonna tell us
some cool stuff about Knowles. Oh yeah,

16
00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:26.760
the Ganol. If you are not
familiar with the ganol gno lll with

17
00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:34.519
noles. They are hyena like humanoids
with long arms, long legs, and

18
00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:41.519
they've got a really interesting backstory that
makes them just implacable, creepy, scary

19
00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:46.280
foes. They're my favorite of the
humanoids just because of the nature of how

20
00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.280
they're created and where they came from. And I'll get into that a little

21
00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:53.879
bit as well. But what I
did was I took down the five coolest

22
00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.560
things about Knowles, or at least
the thing that I think are the five

23
00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:00.519
coolest things about Noles. Then that
that kind of boiled down why I think

24
00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:05.159
they're such a great creature to use. So, I mean, the first

25
00:02:05.159 --> 00:02:07.519
thing that we're going to talk about
is the fact that they are. They're

26
00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:13.560
humanoids, a regular standard knoll as
a challenge rating of one, half,

27
00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:17.479
a nol Packlord, which is like
a null leader As challenge rating of two,

28
00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:23.439
and a null Fang of ye Nahu, who is the kind of like

29
00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:29.520
priest did the demon priest mystical character
that is associated with noles. They've got

30
00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:32.879
a challenge rating of four. So
these are good early monsters that you can

31
00:02:32.919 --> 00:02:39.479
face that are super scary at the
beginning, even just because that they hit

32
00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:44.960
pretty hard for those low challenge ratings, and they've got some tactics that we

33
00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.599
talk about that make them really compelling
to use in combat and a lot of

34
00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:52.159
fun. But one of the other
things that I love about them is they're

35
00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:57.560
really scary for a new party and
they are a great monster to Then when

36
00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:00.879
the party has gotten a few levels
to go back, you know whatever,

37
00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:06.120
like that Noll pack that they couldn't
take on, then you can have them

38
00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:10.080
go back, and that, like
nothing makes a party feel like like they've

39
00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:13.680
accomplished something, like they've leveled up. Then if they can go mop the

40
00:03:13.719 --> 00:03:17.159
floor with someone that was terrifying to
them before. And I feel like noles

41
00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:21.360
are, you know, have that
in spades. But let me just let

42
00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:24.360
me go down the list here of
the five coolest things that I came up

43
00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:28.199
with for noles. And you know, curious what you guys, If there's

44
00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:32.879
any particular memories you have of cool
encounters with nools or or things you're interested

45
00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:38.120
in, you guys should go ahead
and chime in. The First thing I'm

46
00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:45.319
going to talk about is their ability
called rampage. And the way rampage works

47
00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:49.159
is that when a nole reduces a
creature to zero hit points with a melee

48
00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:53.280
attack. On its turn, the
nole can take a bonus action to move

49
00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:58.919
up to half its speed and make
a bite attack. Now that's pretty cool,

50
00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:01.319
but kind of on the face of
it, you might think, well,

51
00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:04.360
how many times are they going to
knock a party member down to zero

52
00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:09.400
head points? You know, it
might actually happen if you're going up against

53
00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:12.439
a party of first or second level
or something like that. But there's a

54
00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:16.519
couple of things to keep in mind
here. One is that that ability then

55
00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:27.079
strongly encourages you to create interesting encounters
where there are civilians or non combatants,

56
00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.160
or it's happening at a farmhouse and
you've got it like the noles are going

57
00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:35.000
after the farmer and you got to
get between them, because you know that

58
00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:40.800
if some nole comes up on this
hapless farmer and clamps his jaws around the

59
00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:46.399
guy's arm and rips it off,
then it gets to move again and attack,

60
00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:51.120
and so you can create the situation
where you know, civilians and people

61
00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:57.040
who might get attacked by the monsters
really matter, because the monsters get a

62
00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:00.040
buff, they get to do something
a little extra, and you're creating a

63
00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:02.519
much more interesting tactical situation than just
you know, we've got to stand and

64
00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:06.279
fight and heal anybody that's close to
zero hit points, so the noles don't

65
00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:11.079
get that extra buff you want to
create that situation. But the other thing

66
00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:15.680
that's really cool about that is that
the Nooles' basic attack, their bite and

67
00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:21.759
their claw both have reach on them. They both have five feet of reach,

68
00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:26.439
which is a thing that can be
easy to forget sometimes if you are

69
00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.319
running noles and you're not looking at
that closely, you can figure like they're

70
00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:31.800
just an orc or whatever, regular
standard bite claw something like that. But

71
00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:38.360
what that means is they can rampage, run at somebody and not get into

72
00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:42.959
your melee range and take a swipe
at you or try to take a chomp

73
00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:47.399
out of you, or like swipe
over your shoulder at the soft wizard behind

74
00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:50.360
you, right, something like that. And that's one of the things that

75
00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:56.079
makes them really scary, is that
combination of rampage and those reach attacks that

76
00:05:56.120 --> 00:06:00.560
they have. And they all come
armed with bows standard as well, so

77
00:06:00.680 --> 00:06:03.720
it's not like just staying away from
them is going to make sure that you

78
00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:08.040
know guarantee that you're safe. But
they're pretty versatile, and you can make

79
00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:13.360
really really interesting tactical situations with them
because of that ability. Because of that

80
00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:17.000
that mobility, and the fact that
they've got some reach on their basic tacks,

81
00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:19.680
their regular attacks that they can make. That's the first thing that I

82
00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:24.879
really love about them. There's just
tactically very interesting creatures, far more so

83
00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:29.000
than just your regular orcs or goblins. Yeah, the ature reaches are actually

84
00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:33.639
really interesting. I didn't I never
thought about reach as far as as that's

85
00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:36.519
a thing people forget, not even
so much that forgetting about reach is a

86
00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:40.240
thing. I just think of it
as a ten foot range. Being able

87
00:06:40.279 --> 00:06:45.160
to reach over the tank to be
able to hit the DPS behind them.

88
00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:49.439
That's huge at school. Okay,
So yeah, so that's something I guess

89
00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:53.399
I didn't realize either. This should
have been in our one of our just

90
00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:56.920
Fought knowls the other day. Yeah, one of our last episodes Forgotten Mechanics.

91
00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:00.480
Oh yeah, his reach. So
if a creature has a five foot

92
00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:04.800
reach, that means that they can
reach beyond somebody that's just in melee range.

93
00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.079
That's what you're that's what we're saying
that it can I'm thinking in terms

94
00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:13.040
of the grid. It can reach
across one grid to another, yes,

95
00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:17.199
somebody standing right right behind them then
yeah, that that then means that you

96
00:07:17.319 --> 00:07:20.800
got to think a little more carefully
about stacking up and how you're arranged and

97
00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:25.560
stuff like that. It's yeah,
yeah, they're really interesting, Like it

98
00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:28.759
makes for very interesting battlefields that way, like I said, And then if

99
00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:30.920
you if you're like, well I
don't, we don't want to all be

100
00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:32.839
packed up. We're going to back
up, so then the noles and back.

101
00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:36.879
We'll just take out our longbows and
you know, then wink away or

102
00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:42.959
they come with a spear as well, right, I think, Yeah,

103
00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:46.680
the standard weapon is a spear and
that's got reach. But the fact that

104
00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:49.759
if you disarm them, their bite
and claw have reach as well, yeah,

105
00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:55.319
is really something. It also just
means that they look creepy. There

106
00:07:55.319 --> 00:08:01.439
are these like gangling yeah exactly.
You know, like maybe there's like an

107
00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:05.360
extra elbow in there, there's something
like that. When their fingers are long

108
00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:11.879
and clawed and like, because they're
these hyena people, right, and their

109
00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:18.600
depiction in the Monster Manual is terrified. It's like a cursed lap. That's

110
00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:20.839
what I think. It was scary, supposed to be gross, right,

111
00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:26.439
Yeah, they're terrified their hyaenas.
The second thing to keep in mind about

112
00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:33.320
noles is that they are vicious,
horrifying, cannibalistic creatures. The fifth edition

113
00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:37.600
Monster Manial version of this talks about
how chaotic they are, but this is

114
00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:41.519
not a not necessarily a thing that
it goes into. But fourth edition D

115
00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:46.440
and D made a big deal of
the fact that noles are happily cannibalistic,

116
00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:48.440
and this is a thing that I
like to carry over. So the thing

117
00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:54.320
to keep in mind about that rampage
ability is if one of their buddies only

118
00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:58.799
has two hit points left and they
need to get an extra ten feet to

119
00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:01.960
get to the wizard, they can
take a couple of steps, take a

120
00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:07.320
big chop out of their buddy's shoulder. He'll go down. But that means

121
00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:11.080
you can then get that bonus movement
and get on top of one of the

122
00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:15.440
adventurers there, and that's so cool. Yeah, yes, that is another

123
00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:18.480
thing that I love to do.
Fourth edition. I'll talk a little bit

124
00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:20.919
of the as a coda the fourth
Some of the fourth edition D and D

125
00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:24.600
Knolls are are a great thing to
look at for inspiration for ways to make

126
00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.320
you know if you want to kind
of house rule your knoles a little bit.

127
00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:31.639
And I'm sure that probably some of
the other like Toma foes and stuff

128
00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:33.000
like that, are the kind of
things that are gonna they're gonna have a

129
00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:37.279
little more about this sort of thing. We're just kind of sticking mostly to

130
00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:41.320
the base minds. If there's a
ton in Volo's guide where they get into

131
00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:46.320
the thing and like layers, yeah, yeah, sure sure, and that

132
00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:50.080
that will well, that only makes
them more interesting as far as I'm concerned.

133
00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:54.200
But that that, keeping in mind
that they are cannibals, they will

134
00:09:54.200 --> 00:10:00.360
happily eat anything anywhere, including their
buddies if it looks like their buddy is

135
00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:03.399
too weak to keep them from taking
a bite out of them, and that

136
00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:07.799
will then also activate that rampage ability. The first time you lay that on

137
00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:11.480
some players, they will freak out
as they realize that that's a thing that

138
00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:16.639
becomes Then it becomes real important to
make sure you don't leave one standing around

139
00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:20.039
with just one or two hip points. Right, Really, sad I didn't

140
00:10:20.039 --> 00:10:22.480
get to use that When I use
know exactly more important to make sure that

141
00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:30.440
they're going down. Hello, adventurers, just stepping in here to remind you

142
00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:33.799
guys that we're actively looking for submissions
for our Hello DMS episode that gets reported

143
00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:39.159
every month. Send us your burning
D and D questions to Helloadventurers podcast at

144
00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:45.159
gmail dot com, or send us
a voicemail by visiting Helloadventurers podcast dot com

145
00:10:45.240 --> 00:10:50.000
slash voice. Don't forget to begin
your message with Hello DMS. You can't

146
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.679
wait to get your questions and talk
about them on the show. Send us

147
00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:58.279
your questions today. That's Helloadventurers podcast
at gmail dot com. Poorly the voicecoing

148
00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.559
at Hello Adventurers Podcast talk voice.
Now, let's get back to the show.

149
00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:09.360
Third thing, and this is what
I love about this is kind of

150
00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:16.120
the most interesting story thing about Knowles
is that they've got their own demon prints

151
00:11:16.519 --> 00:11:22.120
ye naho y e e n o
g h u y naho. Who is

152
00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:28.720
this demonic nooll, who's you know
whatever, fifteen feet tall and horrifying and

153
00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:33.200
like whatever, constantly dripping blood out
of its bangs and whatever and stuff like

154
00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:35.720
this. You know, that's not
something that demon lord is not something obviously

155
00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:39.879
that characters, you know, starting
characters are going to see anytime soon.

156
00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:45.200
But it has been established it is
canonical in D and d lore. If

157
00:11:45.240 --> 00:11:48.639
you're going to go by what the
monster Maniel says, that every living knoll

158
00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:56.639
is a direct descendant of that demon
Lord. That the way they reproduce is

159
00:11:56.200 --> 00:12:01.559
one of those fang of ye Naho
Noll demon priests that I talked about.

160
00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:09.080
If they kill someone, if they
kill another humanoid, that humanoid will rise

161
00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:13.159
as a Knoll, and that is
how they make more noles. And so

162
00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:22.159
it is this constant battle between the
existing living noles that just want to rend

163
00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:28.759
stuff to pieces and eat and consume
whatever is there and these priests who are

164
00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:33.559
these kind of direct descendants of that
demon lord who want to make more Nooles

165
00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:37.519
and have to wade into battle themselves
to make sure they get some kills in

166
00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:43.080
and that it's not just their ravenous
flock destroying everything before they even get the

167
00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:48.080
chance to do that. But it's
got this sort of zombie plague kind of

168
00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:52.360
thing where like if you hear there's
like an infestation, like if the Nooles

169
00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:56.120
have come down out of the mountain
and started attacking the villages, you know

170
00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:01.639
you have to stop them right away
or they're just going to make more and

171
00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:03.440
the Horde is going to grow and
stuff, and then you'll have a real

172
00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:09.919
problem on your hands. And so
that kind of almost like infectious nature of

173
00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:13.120
that tint of that demon lord that
kind of goes through all of them,

174
00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:18.600
and also just you know, means
that they can be just bug nuts insane,

175
00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:22.679
all of them, you know,
and not like you think he can't

176
00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.519
be reasoned with, Like it's not. Noles are not a culture the way

177
00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:31.039
that orcs or goblins or cobalts are
or something like that. They are literally

178
00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:35.840
they're like a locust swarm or something
because they're all just the spawns of this

179
00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:41.840
one demon. And and that makes
for a terrifying monsters because they really really,

180
00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:46.120
no kidding, cannot be reasonable.
Just looked up you know Gou's you

181
00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:54.799
know who's stat block to twenty four
challenge reading just bad ass from the one

182
00:13:54.440 --> 00:14:01.039
legendary act. It jumps up quite
a bit, jump up quite a bit

183
00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:07.360
layer actions if you're in there is
their layer, which I guess you'd have

184
00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:11.039
to be, because this is going
to be in the layer. So yes,

185
00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.200
you could find it in Out of
the Abyss where in Mordan Caten warning

186
00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:20.240
kind of presents monsters of the multiverse. That's where you're going to find you

187
00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:24.519
know who. Yeah, that's who
himself. There's also the thang of you

188
00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:26.080
know who, which is just like
that's in the Monster Man. Yeah.

189
00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:31.200
Yeah, it's almost like a priest
or exactly stuff. And I'm finding I'm

190
00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:35.000
finding knowles and including thang fang of
on the Monsters No dot Com. This

191
00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:39.600
is is keith a Mon's stuff that
we would champion on the show over and

192
00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:43.639
over again for d MS to find
monster tactics. So absolutely read that where

193
00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:46.720
we'll showing to the show later.
Yes, but the fang of you know

194
00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:50.440
so you mentioned that knowles are kind
of like insane and unpredictable. The things

195
00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:54.919
are actually someone intelligent and we'll have
a good idea. Good. Yeah,

196
00:14:54.960 --> 00:15:00.759
here's what's really interesting about that,
which is that a Knowle and no Packlord

197
00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:07.399
are medium humanoid parentheses null a null
fang of you Nahu is a medium fiend

198
00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:15.440
parentheses. Oh, it is literally
a demon in the form of a knoll.

199
00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.159
Wow, which is just so.
I think that's so cool. I

200
00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:24.240
think that's another thing you can kind
of blow player's minds with, is like

201
00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:28.480
making it clear that oh no,
this is not just another knoll. This

202
00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:33.440
is actually essentially a low level demon
that has taken on this kind of mortal

203
00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:39.679
ish form to try to impose its
will on this ravenous force of nature so

204
00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:46.720
that it perpetuates Ynahu's will on earth. Just I love that about that.

205
00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:50.519
I love the chaotic nature of these
things too. Of a regular noil.

206
00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:52.960
Yeah, yeah, well, I
was saying with from keith am on the

207
00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.879
fangs in particular, do have some
intelligence or where they can kind of suss

208
00:15:56.879 --> 00:16:02.000
out who is the weakest and will
actually kind of like aim their rampage ability

209
00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:06.919
and and and use that tactfully.
I never consider them using it against their

210
00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:08.759
own like Jim said, And that's
actually one way that they would use it

211
00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:14.759
to able to bounce around from week
weekly to weekling right and get like several

212
00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:17.960
kills on the turn. I need
to go over there, because that ability

213
00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:19.879
stacks right. If that if the
rampage attack kills something, they get the

214
00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:26.679
rampage again. It's a bonus action. It's a bonus action, okay,

215
00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:30.919
So the can take a bonus action. So so it would be whatever the

216
00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:37.080
normal rules that restrictions still bonus actions. You can take cover a good distance,

217
00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:41.200
like you know, you know who
to get multiple kills in the turn

218
00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:42.279
whether or Okay, so it's not
going to be a chained infinite, but

219
00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:45.320
still multiple kills on the turn.
It's great especially on a low level party

220
00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:51.679
right loads to mid level. Yes, you can put them in all different

221
00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:55.080
kinds of situations. So because these
are still these are still frequently still have

222
00:16:55.120 --> 00:17:00.120
higher levels encounter these, and they
then be a problem because they're impacts a

223
00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:03.640
pack. Like to what Jim's saying, it could be you know, maybe

224
00:17:03.640 --> 00:17:07.400
it got out of hand and that's
when nobody paid any attention to it for

225
00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:11.880
months, and they've gone to these, you know, a couple of small

226
00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:15.759
villages in the north of whatever wherever
you're playing your setting is, and they've

227
00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:22.400
a masked mining town or something.
They've a mass now like hundreds of of

228
00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:26.079
of No, it could be like
on the scale of Game of Thrones,

229
00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:30.839
right with all the zombies and the
Wildling, the marching out of the north.

230
00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:34.559
Yeah, I mean you really you
have right there, right, you

231
00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:40.839
have enough to do like an epic
epic campaign just even just a smaller pack

232
00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:45.720
being used as like almost like the
fodder around larger enemy, just just a

233
00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:48.400
messive player's action economy. And I'm
really upset. I didn't make my campaign

234
00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:52.519
more about knowles. You threw us
a couple of goals the other day and

235
00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:56.960
we got more. We got to
drop on them, so we encountered oles

236
00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:57.680
the other the other day. I
was gonna say this for later, but

237
00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:02.160
we we did encounter like a pack
of four and we kind of we super

238
00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:03.960
got the drop on them. We
got a surprise round and we just went

239
00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:08.839
ham on them and somebody got a
natural twenty stealth roll. I think did

240
00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:12.720
I create on them too? I
say there was like three crits on a

241
00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:19.720
rolled. Somebody rolled to oh to
Eldrich blast two net twenties. Yeah,

242
00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:23.599
both streams. Yeah, there was
just like so to us staying in the

243
00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:26.079
scene that that's off. But what
number was that, Jim? That was

244
00:18:26.359 --> 00:18:30.279
number three? That was number three. Definitely remembering as far as stealth and

245
00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:33.720
stuff like ou is that they do
have sixty feet of dark vision, so

246
00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:37.759
they can just they can straight up
see in the dark. So that's that's

247
00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:41.400
a thing to keep in mind.
The fourth thing I have written down here

248
00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:44.480
is and this is a little bit
this is something that you can get into

249
00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:48.319
in some of those more advanced books, is how cool you can make their

250
00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:53.240
layers because they're these hyena like creatures, and so the idea that it's not

251
00:18:53.400 --> 00:18:57.960
explicit about this in the Monster Manual, but this is the way I've always

252
00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:03.480
played them, which is they can
just hunker right down onto all fours and

253
00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:07.279
scamper around that way. So I
kind of like the idea that that they're

254
00:19:07.319 --> 00:19:11.440
going to have layers that involve spaces
you have to squeeze through and things like

255
00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:15.599
that, and they're just going to
be very comfortable in places that might be

256
00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:22.240
too tight or too like like too
difficult to move around in otherwise, and

257
00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:26.000
that with these layers and even just
out in the open, they're going to

258
00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:32.079
move and hunt like hyenas. And
it is entirely reasonable for an encounter with

259
00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:36.039
a for like an encounter with anole. I'm using air quotes here, which

260
00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:40.559
makes for great radio, but for
an encounter with a knoll to be the

261
00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:45.240
knolls attack, they do a little
bit of damage, and then they back

262
00:19:45.319 --> 00:19:48.920
off and you can hear them laughing
in the forest around you or something like

263
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:52.000
that. You know, you know, like like if they come at you

264
00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:56.000
and it's clear that you're going to
route them, they'll back they'll back off.

265
00:19:56.440 --> 00:20:00.799
These are creatures that very much,
like you say, are smart enough

266
00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:04.119
to know when they can take something
on and and when they can't. A

267
00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:10.000
regular standard NOL has eight intelligence,
which means it's not a genius or anything.

268
00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:12.599
But that's regular walking around on the
street human intelligence. That's not a

269
00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:15.559
feral intelligence. Yeah no, yeah, yeah, no, no no,

270
00:20:15.559 --> 00:20:21.400
no, that's that that that's not
hyena level intelligence. Right. But you

271
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:25.039
know, if you want to have
them have a bunch of packs of hyenas

272
00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:27.240
along with them, you can certainly
do that too. That's another thing that

273
00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:30.440
you can add in that might be
interesting. But they can have really cool

274
00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:33.160
layers. And I don't want to
spend a whole lot of time getting into

275
00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:38.440
what some of those options that they
have available in more than Kanan's Ultiverse Guide,

276
00:20:38.839 --> 00:20:44.279
are you know what I should because
like I think of them that as

277
00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:47.000
being in Volos, But Volos is
the old book. They don't do anymore,

278
00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:49.680
right, Volos folded into the other
one. Volos basically turned into Monster

279
00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:55.200
the Multiverse yet, got it?
Okay, So there's a lot of cool

280
00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:59.000
stuff in that Monsters of the Multiverse
that you can do with Noles and their

281
00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:00.480
layers, And you definitely want to
take a look at that. That's one

282
00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:04.160
of the things I can make very
very interesting places that you have to go

283
00:21:04.200 --> 00:21:07.960
into. And that kind of goes
into number five, which sort of spins

284
00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:12.519
off from that idea that in order
to create more noles, the fang of

285
00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:18.160
y Nahu has to kill them,
which is these are an ideal creature to

286
00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:25.279
have to set up a time sensitive
rescue mission for right you know, the

287
00:21:25.559 --> 00:21:29.960
Fang of y Naho says, go
out there, rampage through that village,

288
00:21:30.039 --> 00:21:33.039
eat anyone you want, but bring
me back one in ten of the healthy

289
00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:37.920
young people or something like that.
And so you show up on the scene.

290
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:41.200
The village has been raised. It's
carnage everywhere. You know, it's

291
00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:45.359
a slaughterhouse. And you don't need
a ranger to see. Oh my god,

292
00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:49.920
they dragged a dozen people away to
the Fang of y Nahoo, who

293
00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:55.119
is eventually going to sacrifice them and
like chomp their throats out, you know,

294
00:21:55.160 --> 00:21:57.720
for the glory of Nahu to turn
them into noles themselves. And that

295
00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:02.480
lights a fire under the pecs.
That is a timed mission. But well

296
00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:04.839
you've got to get in there.
Well we're a twelve innocentstead but now we've

297
00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:10.160
got a nole problem exactly. Yes, do you want knowles, because this

298
00:22:10.200 --> 00:22:14.960
is how you get in It's two
bad things today. It's funny. I

299
00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:18.400
almost as you were describing that.
I like envision that if you're familiar with

300
00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:22.039
the Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, but in one of the books,

301
00:22:22.039 --> 00:22:26.880
there's the whole Wolves of the Cala
and like the wolves come and they take

302
00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:30.880
like a bunch of kids basically,
and then they send them back years later

303
00:22:30.119 --> 00:22:36.279
on a train and they're rooted,
is what they say. But they're you

304
00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:41.039
know, their brains aren't working well
anymore. And I almost like, oh,

305
00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:44.920
man, that would kind of be
cool like in that, like they're

306
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:48.039
smart enough. Maybe the fang of
you know who is smart enough to like

307
00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:52.359
kind of call this town and like, Okay, we're gonna come. We're

308
00:22:52.359 --> 00:22:56.680
gonna take our offering once every year, once every couple of years, and

309
00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:00.720
like maybe that's how they send the
sends an envoy out and they're like,

310
00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:03.319
go find somebody that can help us
with us, but we have to do

311
00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:07.480
it secretively because they're watching it.
And you can even do something even creepy.

312
00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:11.640
Yeah, And this is something where
you can even do something even creepier

313
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:17.440
where like there's one town that knows
that the Noles are there and they hole

314
00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:21.720
up in the fort, you know, but they draw straws to see who

315
00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:25.359
goes out to you know, as
a sacrifice to the Nole. You know,

316
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:27.839
they do the lottery or something like
that. Yeah, there's all kinds

317
00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:32.359
of but because you know that they
won't relent until they get there, you

318
00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:37.039
know whatever, they're their two score, you know, sacrifices to Naho that

319
00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:41.359
the Fang has demanded or something like
that. Finding reasons to do a campaign

320
00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:45.920
all about noles. Dang it all, guys, new plan. Yeah,

321
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:48.519
and if you have access to it. The final thing I'm going to say

322
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:55.119
is I recommend take a look at
the D and D fourth Edition Monster Manual

323
00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:02.920
two listing on noles because they just
had some cool, cool options for knowles.

324
00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:04.759
I think I might have that book. Yeah, they have some cool

325
00:24:04.759 --> 00:24:07.880
options for the kind of thing that
you might you know, see available in

326
00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:11.440
some of those expanded Monster books something
like you know, like I said,

327
00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:15.799
Tomophos or something like that. But
like they had the Fang of Ynahu using

328
00:24:15.799 --> 00:24:23.039
a weapon that was a club that
was just embedded with all the teeth of

329
00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:29.440
its victims, like that it had
pulled out of the jaws of people that

330
00:24:29.480 --> 00:24:32.279
it had killed and turned into nooles, and every time it did, it

331
00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:36.799
extracted a tooth and pushed it into
this club. And so when it attacks,

332
00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:45.000
it's swinging a club impregnated with like
bloody cudgel cudgel of bloody teeth exactly

333
00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:52.880
a sentence. Yeah, they're from
Knowles who died fighting for enough. Yeah.

334
00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:56.160
And they also had a kind of
a sort of a a variant on

335
00:24:56.160 --> 00:25:02.960
that rampage ability where they were like
noles that were like literally cannibal warriors that

336
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:08.920
would like take bites out of each
other and that would like regenerate more hit

337
00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:15.960
points than the damage that they did
to their buddy, the noll Gorgeer exactly.

338
00:25:17.400 --> 00:25:19.960
Yeah. And then the other one
was a death pledged knoll that they

339
00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:25.240
can fight for another round because they
fought with bone devils. I'm sorry,

340
00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:27.160
they fight bone claws, and when
they dropped to zero hit points, they

341
00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:33.440
can keep fighting for another round.
Exactly. Yes, Yes, there's just

342
00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:37.680
lots of cool stuff. They're they're
super scary monsters and and I love that

343
00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:41.680
idea. You know, we're and
we're talking about nahu As, that demon

344
00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:45.960
prints right. That's if you have
a long running campaign and you want to

345
00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:51.599
just have like just blow the player's
minds with having like the shoe drop in

346
00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:56.640
no uncertain terms, you know,
throw noles at them throughout the kind of

347
00:25:56.680 --> 00:26:00.480
low to mid levels and then have
them go in half a dozen eight ten

348
00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:04.200
levels. But then when they're when
they're level up to where they're fighting demon

349
00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:07.839
princes and those kind of big critters, you know, who can show up

350
00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:11.240
and go, Okay, now you're
going to pay for all of my children

351
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:15.519
that you killed back then, because
I don't forget that. And that's the

352
00:26:15.640 --> 00:26:18.960
kind of thing that you can really
blow people's minds with. The you know,

353
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:22.839
because because they're all his descendants,
and I like to think that he

354
00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:26.119
feels it every time, you know, you stick a sword through one of

355
00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:29.640
them, he knows that it was
you that did it. So but just

356
00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:33.279
no super cool, like my favorite
humanoid monsters. I like, no matter

357
00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:37.119
what campaign I'm running, whatever the
situation is. If it's an urban campaign,

358
00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:41.960
you know, they live down in
the sewers, and you know a

359
00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:45.920
big part of past control of the
city is identifying where they are and trying

360
00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:47.880
to root them out. You know, smoke them out and kill them,

361
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:49.480
you know, and certainly if you're
in the wilderness, they're just running around

362
00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:52.480
and packs out there and stuff like
that. So but but yeah, love

363
00:26:52.519 --> 00:26:56.440
them, use them, and then
tell us about the creepy ideas that you

364
00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:00.519
came up with that that we hadn't
even thought of yet. And I actually

365
00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:03.200
I found a blog called power score
RPG, so I'll include that in the

366
00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:07.640
show notes. I'll send us to
you. Jay. It's got the whole

367
00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:12.200
history of Knowles from first edition Monster
Manual through Keep on the border Lands all

368
00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:15.920
the way up to our five A. Yeah, it's really neat. So

369
00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:18.720
more wise, I find them pretty
This is really cool. You'll like we're

370
00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:22.160
doing that. We're doing that deep
dive as far as I'm concerry. So

371
00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:25.359
when when Joe brought us to the
Hags episode last month, Jim's eyes lit

372
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:29.200
up. He's like, can I
do Knowles, and and j I just

373
00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:30.039
I just kind of sat back and
let you take the reins. Today.

374
00:27:30.039 --> 00:27:33.200
This was this was great. I
learned a ton. I can't wait to

375
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:38.079
run a noles a Knowles game now. So these these make for fantastic Monster

376
00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:41.920
of the Week type of stuff.
And my favorite Monster of the Week campaign

377
00:27:42.039 --> 00:27:45.400
creator is d M. Dave.
I do some word him on Patreon,

378
00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:49.920
but he does do free versions of
most, if not all, of his

379
00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:55.119
Monster of the Week with what he
calls Dungeons and Layers of his little mini

380
00:27:55.119 --> 00:27:57.000
campaigns. He's rolled me to be
one shots, and the Dungeons and Layer

381
00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:02.079
series do focus on Monster every time, which is kind of definition of Monster

382
00:28:02.079 --> 00:28:04.559
of the Week. He has one
called Noel Burrows which can we run at

383
00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:07.640
levels? Which can we run at
levels three, five, eight, or

384
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:11.079
eleven. There is a free version
and I will leave the link to that

385
00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:14.440
in the show notes. If you
want to go support on Patreon, you

386
00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:17.759
can go unlock the rest of the
levels. I believe the free version is

387
00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:21.440
probably just going to be one of
those levels, but the Patreon version does

388
00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:25.000
give you all the rest, and
different tiers will also give you access to

389
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:27.039
the maps and things like that too. So not only will I leave that

390
00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:30.599
in the show notes, but if
you are a player of one of my

391
00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:33.799
games that was listening to this,
don't read it because we're going to run

392
00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:36.519
it soon. I might prep that
for for next month's the games. I

393
00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:38.599
got prepp a new one shot every
month now, so that's gonna be that's

394
00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:42.240
gonna be very cool. Also,
I'm gonna leave notes links to Keith A

395
00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:47.079
Man's blog and the monsters know what
they're doing, which will include Noel tactics,

396
00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:48.359
which I'm also going to have to
read if I'm going to do that.

397
00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:52.319
And we'll leave one of the Joe
just mentioned as well, Empower score

398
00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:55.599
our pgslots. So yeah, this
is this is awesome. Jim, thanks

399
00:28:55.640 --> 00:28:56.680
so much for bringing us to the
table. Yeah, you're very well,

400
00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:00.119
and it is you know, it
is, thank you. Laughter. Circling

401
00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:04.200
around your campfire and you look out
between the trees and there are like some

402
00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:10.200
you know, glowing yellow eyes snickering
back at you, you'll know what's coming.

403
00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:11.200
So if you if you're if you
grew up in the Lion King like

404
00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:15.599
I did, I'm absolutely gonna play
every single one of these as ed Yeah.

405
00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:18.319
I was gonna say, can we
all do our best nol hyena laugh

406
00:29:18.680 --> 00:29:25.480
right now? If you go first
joke, I'll either goof of your EDG

407
00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:34.880
styles. Oh yeah, you know, like like whenever I when I see

408
00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:38.440
hyenas and think of hyenas, I
think of Harley Quinn and her couple of

409
00:29:38.440 --> 00:29:41.480
pet hyenas you know that hang around
with her and the Joker, and that's

410
00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:45.240
that's the direction that I go with. So guys, go forth and go

411
00:29:45.319 --> 00:29:48.240
bring some nose to your table and
it's gonna be awesome. That's gonna wrap

412
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:55.440
it up for Propagate. Propagate propagate
for you Nahue children and call us with

413
00:29:55.480 --> 00:30:00.000
your best hyena laugh. Sure,
God, go ahead, give us your

414
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:03.720
best hia lab Well, we'll play
the best wars of the show. That's

415
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:07.519
a Hello Adventures Podcast dot com slash
voice. Go ahead and ruin my day

416
00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:12.519
and Jill say about Oh God,
I'm gonna regret allowing that gets a point

417
00:30:12.519 --> 00:30:17.799
of inspiration. Yes, that tell
us your favorite Noel encounter Hello Adventures Podcast

418
00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:21.519
at gmail dot com or tell us
yourself with the along with your best hyena

419
00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:25.000
laugh at Hello Adventures podcast dot com
slash voice. That's gonna wrap it up

420
00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:26.759
for today. Thank you so much
for listening to you, Hello Adventurers.

421
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:30.680
We are your host Jason Portiso,
Jim Crocker and Joe McCall producer, editor,

422
00:30:30.680 --> 00:30:36.279
Engineer Jason Portiso. Music by Nick
Spurrior, artwork by Kristin Roderick.

423
00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:38.839
You can be chat to us with
any feedback or suggestions by emailing Hello Adventures

424
00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:45.480
podcast at gmail dot com. Allow
Adventures is a j PP audio production. Goodbye Adventures