High Rollers DnD - Bounty of the Sea (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #71

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Pickaxe. The Dragon Empire Welcome back to Ultha, the Dragon Empire. Our heroes have travelled along the glittering golden coast of the Suncrest Isles. Night Erent, Gruffydd of Tremoro, has been tasked with tracking down and slaying two champions of Orjanya, Mawmother, she who sinks ships, Mistress of the Deep. Once a benevolent goddess who helped create Ulthair, she was corrupted and turned into a being of hate and violence, becoming embered and now stands as an enemy against the world of mortal kind.
Starting point is 00:00:57 Gruff Search has brought him to the fishing village of Netting-on-Sea, a local community unused to outsiders. They are met by a few of the locals, a guard, and the wife of the town's wreath, Madeline, who encourages them to wait in the tavern while she fetches her husband and the local marshal. In the tavern, the catch, the party meet Kala, a woman from one of the largest cities of the Suncrest Isles,
Starting point is 00:01:21 and Daisy notices a golden glow around her, and she seems to recognise the same in Daisy. And it is revealed that Carla is also a Daeva, or an Aesimar, just like Daisy. Carla tells them of the encounter with a celestial hunter, a Jaeger, who hunts down the deserter spirits of Celestials. Barely managing to escape on her own, she fled out here to Netting-on-Sea to live in obscurity. She says that she has always had an uneasy feeling about the locals, but they tolerate her for her booze and her money.
Starting point is 00:01:52 Merrick Ogden, the halfling reeve of Netting-on-Sea, and his wife Madeline return, along with Jamison Cambric, the village marshal, and his mother, Hannah Cambric, the former marshal. They know nothing about the champions or attacks along the coast, but Merrick tells the party that the strange lights and noises have been seen coming from an old abandoned church about 30-40 minutes outside of the village. He asks Gruff to investigate whilst the town prepare for a festival celebrating the bounty of the sea. The heroes make their way to the Forgotten Church of Saint Talan, a divine saint of healing and rivers. They find it cold and eerily silent. Xanthius begins to detect desecrated energy but before he can warn his companions, some of them enter the
Starting point is 00:02:35 church and Gruff finds a loose flagstone that triggers a flash of a vision, a priestess being brutally murdered by cultists years ago whilst two young halflings watch then join in. Spirits of the priestess and others rise up and attack the party who flee as quickly as possible though some of their life force is siphoned away in the race to escape. And that is where we pick up the adventure today, my friends. The sun has fully set. The crown looming over Althea. Its majestic red and golden glow cascading over, being reflected upon the waters that you can see from the high
Starting point is 00:03:26 vantage point of these cliffs, looking out across the wide distant ocean. Malia, the paler, softer, silvery moon, casts everything in that gentle, soft, silvery glow. As you begin to hear the sounds of merrymaking coming from netting on sea, echoing up the cliffside, you can hear music, shouting, drinking. But you all stand on a very old, stony, broken pathway. The Church of St. Dilan broken, overgrown, like a shadow booming behind you. Cold still clinging to your limbs.
Starting point is 00:04:14 Sense of terror in your gut from your flight away from the spirits. That is where we pick up. Lovely. Lovely. Okay. Just to confirm, it was only Gruff that saw the vision, right? Only Gruff knows. It was only Gruff that saw the vision specifically, yes.
Starting point is 00:04:33 Gruff also managed to pick up a journal and a golden necklace. Yes. In the distance, do we see the pyre has been lit, or is it still just like... Give me a perception roll. Can we roll for fight, please? Very good point, very good point. Oh, I am just gonna bank, bank, bang it.
Starting point is 00:04:57 It's your first roll. Well, Tom, why don't you start us off? I got a two. Oh, that's a dice for me. I got a six. Oh, a dice for you. Cinco. A dice for me, thank you.
Starting point is 00:05:09 That's five. That's six. No, no, no. Cuatro. Cuatro, a dice for you. Yeah. Stop using Spanish. Why not?
Starting point is 00:05:19 Cinco. Oh, Cinco, this is looking very good for you. Five. Oh, dos. Oh, a two, this is looking very good for you. Now, what I get, a two, dice for me. Well, two's better than none. Yep, that's true. So, Mateo, you did a great job back there. You identified the threat and immediately ran away,
Starting point is 00:05:39 exactly as planned. Exactly, I helped Daisy a little, I shouted some encouragement to Daisy's way. Right, everyone please stop, please stop right now. What's the autograph? Stop, we need to stop right now. Can they see us from the village? I don't think so, no.
Starting point is 00:05:55 You can see that you are on sort of, the path that you led up here is kind of a path up through the cliffs, like you are high above, there is tree line and things in the way, though, right? So I would say that you don't have sight onto the village yourselves at this point. You know, it's kind of twisted around, there's like scatterings of shrubland and trees.
Starting point is 00:06:14 You can just hear the sounds of this festival taking place. I'm sorry, Mateo, I'm sorry, Santheus. Time, time is of the essence. We cannot, okay, quiet now, quiet. We cannot let the villagers know that we survived that. Why? Why what happened? They are the ones who killed the priestess.
Starting point is 00:06:34 That would explain why they were so furious, so tormented. Why do you know that? When I went to the flagstone, when I took this, and he points to the necklace around his neck, this journal underneath the altar, I saw a vision. I saw a vision of the priestess and how she died, how she was killed. Did you see the knife, the shark's tooth knife at the altar?
Starting point is 00:07:01 I believe only you saw that graph. There was a shark's tooth knife at the altar. It was a ritual knife. And they killed the priestess. And I saw in the village, it was... It was villagers and it was two young halflings. And they said something about the bounty of the sea and her being an outsider.
Starting point is 00:07:21 Whoa. They murdered her there. That blood was hers. That means Carla's in trouble. Exactly. Outsider. Exactly. Outsiders. Now, we need to be careful.
Starting point is 00:07:34 They think we're, they probably think we're dead or being dealt with by the ghosts right now. But we have two people in danger right now. That's Carla and that's Sir Joran. Yes, Sir Joran's down there. I mean, yes, goodness me. Carla said they've been settled for two years here, right? I can't explain it.
Starting point is 00:07:53 I don't know if they've had festivals in that time, but that's what I saw. I saw them. I saw villagers and I saw two young halflings descending upon her and murdering her in that church and they said the bounty of the sea, isn't that what they call the festival? Yes. What?
Starting point is 00:08:12 The memories of the undead, they don't lie. So you think this was American Madeleine, at the very least? It must be. They said to Nicola said that the Ogdens and the Cambrics's rule this village. So the marshals as well, okay. As Graf, you feel this kind of incensed fervor
Starting point is 00:08:36 to deal with this situation as you have this realization. You feel that necklace you're wearing. You know, your body's probably running a little, you know, you were grabbed by the ghosts, and you feel this, you know, unnatural chill throughout your whole body. But around your neck, it's almost, it's cold, but a very different kind of cold,
Starting point is 00:09:01 like a pleasing, like wading through a fresh spring, or a river. And you feel that, It's almost, it's cold, but a very different kind of cold, like a pleasing, like wading through a fresh spring or a river, and you feel this gentle reassurance there. You, if you would like to, may automatically attune to that item. It is a magical item. Yes, I would like to. Great.
Starting point is 00:09:25 You have the space for it? You also, if yes, that's the main thing, is if you have attunement slots for it, you also would then gain an understanding of what that item does. You get the sense you know what this item does, and it is the item that I gave to you before. Oh.
Starting point is 00:09:41 Whilst you read it out, I am just going to go fetch some things that I forgot, so do bear with me, but you read that out. It is the holy ampule of Saint Tulan. That's how you spell Tulan. A wondrous item, rare, that is T-E-L-A-N, with an accent on the E, a grave accent. Anyway. I've got an apostrophe of a dot.
Starting point is 00:10:02 A golden necklace with a cart figurine that houses an ampule of blood believed to be from Saint Tylan. You gain resistance to poison damage and have advantage on saving throws against poison and disease. Nice. And you have enhanced healing, which costs one fate.
Starting point is 00:10:17 When you restore hit points to another creature, you can spend one fate to increase the amount by your level. If you target multiple creatures with the effect, it only applies to one. So if I do like an aura. A fate spendy item. Yeah. Fate spendy item.
Starting point is 00:10:31 A fate spender. So you can boost your healing by, what's your level now? What is it? Eight. Cool. Wow, okay. So by spending a fate, you can give another creature
Starting point is 00:10:39 an extra eight hit points when you heal them. Now it doesn't say it has to be healing spell. So if you were to, you know, use a non-healing way of healing somebody, that would also apply as well. Like my medkit and stuff. Yes, if it restores hit points, it has to specifically restore hit points. Well with my new medic.
Starting point is 00:10:56 But with your healer feat, yes, your medic feat, I believe you can do that. So, but that is a fate to use it. Also, like I said, it does give you advantage at resistance against poison damage, also advantage on saving throws. So if that is to both resist being poisoned or diseased, or to end being poisoned and diseased as well.
Starting point is 00:11:13 Oh, sweet. So it should be in D&D Beyond a version of it. Things like the advantage on the saving throws you might just need to try and remember. It's not very good at doing specifics like that. It does have it. Perfect. Can I take the journal out and quickly,
Starting point is 00:11:27 I don't mean to spend time to probably sit down, but just quickly. Yeah, I mean, like, would you like go to, like, the last couple of pages? Like, you know, how are you gonna quickly disseminate this information? Yeah, sure, last pages are always good. Last pages, you just kind of flick
Starting point is 00:11:39 to the last couple of pages. You, with that, you wouldn't necessarily get the name of this person just yet, but you very quickly become aware that this is the journal of a priestess who came to Netting on Sea, and they speak about how in the last few journal pages they talk about how there is something wrong here. I am certain there are cultists of the the Ember here. I do not know who, but I believe that that is why the church has been abandoned for so long. They tell me that the Ogden's and the Cambricks have been the leaders here for generations. They
Starting point is 00:12:20 must know something. I'm going to pray to Saint Talan for guidance and then confront some of them to learn the truth. That is the last thing that was sort of written. So it says, embered here, like it says. Believe them to be cultists of one of the embered. And I think that given the location, given what you've seen, it would probably be most likely that this priestess
Starting point is 00:12:45 believed them to be cultists of Ogenya. The Ember do have cults like this. They are powerful beings, and powerful beings attract attention, especially in these kind of remote places. So it is not unfeasible. I'm trying to recall, how long ago was it that the priestess was killed as well?
Starting point is 00:13:04 They said, um... Does they say there was a priestess... Just said a while ago. Yeah, okay. Was it about a decade ago or something? It must be older, because if the church has fallen into ruin... Yeah, okay. Look.
Starting point is 00:13:19 And if the two halflings you saw in Madeline and Merrick, they were young, they're now in their 50s, 60s. Halflings do live a little bit longer, but yeah, you're probably looking at like 50, 40, 50 years. Decades ago. Yeah, decades. Right. Look, look here.
Starting point is 00:13:36 This is the priestess's journal. It says Cult of the Embered. She believed it was Cult of the Embered here. Right. Now, it may not be the entire village, but we definitely know that the Halflings are involved in some form, and the Cambrics must be involved as well. I mean, you saw how... We wanted to see those families.
Starting point is 00:13:53 Those two families must be leading the whole thing. You saw how that mother was looking at us. Hannah, Hannah Cambric. I don't like her. They didn't want to see it. I think we need to get Carla, we need to get Sir Joran, and we need to go. So what do we do, Gruff? You said that we shouldn't let them know that we are live.
Starting point is 00:14:10 Should we sneak in? What should we do? They sent us up to the church to die. That much is a fact. Either that or to distract us from the festival. It could be that we get back down there and... I mean, what's the plan? Do we sneak down there? Do we... We have an advantage here. They think that we're either dead or we're distracted by the church.
Starting point is 00:14:36 So we have the advantage that they don't think we'll be around for a while. Carla said she wasn't going to the festival, right? So we might be able to sneak her out somehow. Daisy, can you connect with her? I need to see her. You need to see her, OK. I could send Seren. I could send Seren with a message. We need to warn Ser Joran as well.
Starting point is 00:14:58 I know he can protect himself, but from an entire village. And if they have some commune with the Embered, he could easily be overwhelmed, especially because he's on the sea. We need stealth, we need to be smart here. We can't take on an entire village, and it might not be the entire village. Hmm.
Starting point is 00:15:23 Hmm. Hmm. It's probably the entire village, isn't it? I mean, if it isn't the entire village, it makes Fireball a lot more complicated. Not a careful spell. Oh, that's true. That's true. Yeah, I would say that by the time you guys have had this conversation,
Starting point is 00:15:40 this is maybe like 10 minutes of conversation, 15 minutes of conversation, you can hear Rokk, laughter, echoing, distant. It's like 30, 40 minute walk away, but this is big open space, so the sound is carrying quite well. Do you have anything that can make us more quiet, more stealthy?
Starting point is 00:16:01 Not me. And then I can always go ahead. I mean, I'm pretty good at sneaking around, but I don't have magic. I'm pretty good at sneaking places. I could, I could. I'm blending in. I could turn into something small. Yes, I could turn into something small
Starting point is 00:16:19 and approach Carla. I could make someone into gas. Okay, what about, how about we set up a kind of escort squad, so maybe there's a couple of us that go ahead, get Carla out, and some of us maybe wait further down at the harbor to defend Sojorin in case anything happens. That's if they haven't already done anything. Well, it's by the break of hour, I hope.
Starting point is 00:16:46 Would it have been about an hour, just over actually now, I'd say maybe an hour and a half since you left? The villagers probably wouldn't do anything. Although I sent, I sent, I sent that marshal to him. You did specifically ask Jameson to go and get Ser Joran. I trust in Ser Joran. He's smart enough and he's... We would have heard the thing, the whistle. My worry is if the ember turn up.
Starting point is 00:17:11 From the sea. Yeah. Well, I don't mean to disparage the good knight, but if they approached him as civilians and invited him up into the town, I mean, even for all the best will in the world, a strong whack to the back of the head might have just took him out before he could do anything.
Starting point is 00:17:29 You're that door, that portal you made, how far can it go? It can go pretty far. Can you get us to the ship? Can you do it again? Yeah, I can do it one more time, 500 feet. It's either that or maybe your first plan graph Yeah, I can do it one more time, 500 feet. It's either that or maybe your first plan graph of
Starting point is 00:17:50 turning into a small creature. Now let's just say, for example, a kitten for now. If you were to turn into that and travel into the town and try to- Not the time for cute things. I'm trying to lighten the mood. You're destroying shit. You go down there, we try to determine exactly how much we're in.
Starting point is 00:18:04 Maybe it's the entire village, maybe it's just a select few. We need to figure out what we're walking into. If we've been sent away as a distraction to not be led down and killed, then they probably have a reason not to have just attacked us outright. They are probably scared of a big group of adventurers they don't know anything about. So there's a chance that us just showing up in the middle of the town is enough to completely rattle them. However, if it's the entire village,
Starting point is 00:18:29 then obviously we're in trouble. Well then we just get to the boat as quickly as possible. All of us. Rowan, I am gonna tell you, your 500 feet is not very much at all. Considering this is like a 30, 40 minute walk away, your dimension door, you would have to be a lot, lot closer. That's maybe like, when you're like two minutes away,
Starting point is 00:18:49 that's about 500 feet. The gruffest of tomorrow, leader of this expedition, may I propose an idea? Let's hear it, lads. We go to Carla first, sneaky. I Dimension Door me and Carla out towards the boat. That's how I could probably use Dimension Door and skip the village.
Starting point is 00:19:11 If Carla's target, I can get them away. How many of us can get through this door of yours? Me and Carla. Just two, okay. But I could maybe go to a place adjacent to the ship, not directly on the docks. I just, I worry that if Sir Joran's been compromised or if the embered arrive...
Starting point is 00:19:31 I can do other things to make Carla look different. Mm. I don't think that's so much the problem, because outsiders, right, it's outside. If you make her look different, she's still an outsider. Or I can make them look like someone of the village that we've seen. I think they'd... Or someone we've seen, maybe, yes.
Starting point is 00:19:54 Like one of the people that we met earlier on? We'd have to be careful, though, because they're probably at the festival. Maybe we should start walking and walk. Yes, let's keep going. Either way... Try and not get seen. First of all, maybe we should start walking and walk. Keep going, either way. Try and not get seen. I mean, if we get seen, I have obviously plenty of ways
Starting point is 00:20:10 to hold things away from us if people start to charge us. Just need to be careful about making them do something impulsive, or if they're gonna do anything with poor Carla, that we don't expedite the process. That should be our first, that's the first place we need to get to. Yes. She has a gun.
Starting point is 00:20:30 If we need to, she does have a gun. A what? She has a. We know. You know what. I know what gun it is. Kind of like my demon gun. Yeah, that's true.
Starting point is 00:20:39 Um. If we need to get there quickly, the other plan is, Ophelia, obviously you are unbelievably fast, I can make you twice as fast. Well that would be lovely. You can also, yeah you're right, no, it's just you've got the 50 million feet movement, right?
Starting point is 00:20:56 100 feet, yes. I mean if Daisy dashes, they're about equal. Yeah. It's like 90 and 100. You've got double dashes, right? I'm a sneaky little thing. It could be a good duo. if we need to get Carla out. Yes, we can escort.
Starting point is 00:21:10 Just to clarify, is this a walk and talk conversation? Yes. And you are just making your way down to the cliff. While making sure we're not invisible. Can we try and stick to the, there's a tree line. You can, that would be a group stealth roll, and I will remind you that it will slow you down to move quietly, so it'll take you twice as long
Starting point is 00:21:29 to get there. I think we should slow down. I think we should just. Or you could hurry to a closer point, then slow down in stealth, but it is still gonna slow you down. I think that one. That incense you got from Magathera,
Starting point is 00:21:45 how long does it need? That's a, I believe it's a short rest. Yeah, I believe it's a short rest. It's too long, it's too long. So yes, we could. So hurry to a closer point then. Hurry to a closer point and then we. Then we'll.
Starting point is 00:21:59 Okay. You, you know, hurry. Is this like a, you are like tiring yourselves out? Is this like a forced march speed? Or is this a normal pace? That's it, it's a, well, I would, like you guys are like running. There's an urgency.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Like there's an urgency, you guys are running down as quickly as you can. If it was like situations where we are like, behind a wall waiting to see if people are looking our way and then we dash across across that sort of thing, rather than just, just, just running. So here's the thing though, is this is, the Netingan Sea, and as I described here,
Starting point is 00:22:32 the town center is really the only sort of big bustling bit that's got a collection of buildings and walls and things around it. Most of Netingan Sea is very sporadic, isolated farms, like all spread out. So it won't be until you're basically at the town square that you're gonna be at risk of being seen and things anyway.
Starting point is 00:22:52 Yeah. So it won't be until you draw much, much closer. But if you are kind of force-march, like, huffing it there, I would like everybody to make a constitution saving the road for me me to see if you wear yourselves out. Because that's like running for half an hour. Like, you know. That's true.
Starting point is 00:23:12 I'm not sure we should try that. If I did that in real life, I would die. Yeah, like an athlete, yeah, and if you've got a good con, you'll save it and you'll be all right. Like, you know, you'll pay to yourselves if you are not physically constitutive. I'll be on the floor, yeah. Yeah, I like constitution saving throw. and you'll be alright. Like, you know, you'll pace yourselves if you are not physically constitutive. I'll be on the floor here.
Starting point is 00:23:25 Yeah, I like... Is there a save or a... Constitution saving throw. 12. 12? 17. 17? 18.
Starting point is 00:23:34 18? 16. 16? Seven. Rowan, unfortunately, whether it's your big stride, you're used to walking, you know, a Dale Giant Leotnir, like you are used to a casual pace. Running wears you out, and it is gonna be
Starting point is 00:23:51 one level of exhaustion for you, my friend, which is minus one, two checks, and minus five feet to your movement, I believe. I imagine it's more tiring running while also trying to be kinda stealthy and not thunderclap those cheeksies. Well, this is, we haven't quite gotten to stealthing yet as well.
Starting point is 00:24:10 This is purely... I mean, yeah, even 500 feet away, the thunderous butt blast. And the sweatier the butt gets, the more slappier it gets. Okay, okay. Can I heal myself while this happens? You can spend spell slots or actions, okay. Can I heal myself while this happens? You can spend spell slots or actions, yes. I'm going to cast Cure Wounds at level two.
Starting point is 00:24:32 Alright, so Troth, for your benefit with exhaustion, because I had to remind myself of this. When you make a D20 roll, so that's an attack roll, a saving throw, an ability check, it's actually reduced, you take two away for each exhaustion level you have, and your speed is reduced by five feet. Two away for each exhaustion?
Starting point is 00:24:51 For each exhaustion. And if you get more than, if you get to exhaustion level six, you die. Well, but you're only at one, and it's unlikely you're gonna push yourselves beyond this. So it's just like a stacking effect now? It's now a stacking effect, yeah. So it's a minus two to any roll for each level you have
Starting point is 00:25:08 and minus five feet of movement. For each level as well. Yes. I'm gonna cast False Life on myself for some temp hit points. I hear myself throw 20 points. Oh hell yeah. How long does False Life last?
Starting point is 00:25:22 Long as I have temp hit points. Oh. There's no time. Forever. Well, 10 hit points don't stack, so it's until they go away. Or I believe it's normally on a long rest, they go away as well. Yeah, so 12 10 hit points. Okay, so.
Starting point is 00:25:33 Yeah, what's my armor last? So what's the ultimate plan to get to this tavern then? So what I would say is you guys start to slow down and you're getting to the point where you can now see, not like a big pyre burning, but you can see lanterns, you can see a couple of torches, you can hear the sounds of drinking, of dancing, of music, of merrymaking,
Starting point is 00:25:57 kind of flittering between these little copses of trees. Like you're kind of jumping through farmlands, like wheat fields, like short little stone walls, you know, very handmade put together, and you are approaching the point where now you're gonna have to start thinking about stealthing if you wanna approach quietly. So you still have a bit of time to chat
Starting point is 00:26:20 and think about what you wanna do, but this is the point now where you're definitely going, but you've done that in like, you've just ran like a 40 minute walk and you've just ran it in like 20 minutes. So you've cut your time down significantly. Right, our priorities are get Carl out and get Sir Joran out.
Starting point is 00:26:38 Obviously we don't know exactly where Sir Joran is at the moment, if he's been compromised or what. Do we split up to do this? Do we do it together? I'm worried that we will have to do this. We can't all charge through the town, that's obvious. We can't all make a break for the tavern. So really it's a question of who goes where. If we want to avoid the entire town,
Starting point is 00:27:03 we're gonna need to be stealthy. If we want to make a break for it and go right through the middle, we need to avoid the entire town, we're going to need to be stealthy. If we want to make a break for it and go right through the middle, we need to be aggressive. So we've been in the town center. Where is the tavern? So, well, if Sam would like to show the battle map cam, I do have a battle map ready to go.
Starting point is 00:27:17 Adventure map. Adventure map. Adventure map. It's not a battle map yet. So, the town center, there are three main buildings that are off from the town center, the town center, there are three main buildings that are off from the town center. In the map there are only two, there is a third one sort of tucked over here,
Starting point is 00:27:31 but I didn't want to block the view for this side of the table. The general store is the one that is off the map at the moment, and it's just off to the little side. We never visited the little happy otters. They're cultists, we don't want to represent them. The building, let's call this, this would be to the camera's perspective,
Starting point is 00:27:49 the north east, west. Northwest. Podcast this is the tavern is to the northwest of the statue. This is the tavern, the catch, this building here. This building is the marshal's office. Oh no. Northeast.
Starting point is 00:28:04 And that's the pyre. There does appear to be, as you sort of glimpse over, you can see that up on a little rocky outcropping overlooking the bay, there has been set up a kind of wooden sort of pyre, like a bonfire is being laid. And in fact, you can see that people are going up and adding driftwood and twigs and tinder to it
Starting point is 00:28:28 as part of the celebration. Looking around, you can see that there are little rocky outcroppings. The entire town center is laid out with tables and chairs. There are kegs of ale that have been brought out. There are tables laden with food. People are mingling, they're stood around together, they're talking, they're drinking.
Starting point is 00:28:50 Few people are playing music. You don't currently see any sign of Merrick, Madeline, Jamison, or Hannah though. Those are the people you do not see. Also, you're kind of like peering at this over the wall through the tree line and stuff. Are we over that side? You will be entering from the north of the map, yes. This is where you will be entering from.
Starting point is 00:29:11 If you go in that way, you could, in theory, try and sneak around and come in at different points as well. Is everything in the center at this point torch light? Yeah, it's all like, there's a couple of like lanterns like that are projecting light around. There are also torches, like most of the building walls have like sconces on the outside with like flaming torches. And a few of the people walking around
Starting point is 00:29:37 have got lanterns that they're carrying as well. But it is, yeah, very rustic, very low light scenario. Yeah. So there is shadows around, you know, there's potential here that you could try and stealth, but it is gonna be difficult. There's a lot of people here. Maybe not the whole village,
Starting point is 00:29:54 but definitely a lot of people. You notice that the pyre is the opposite side of the tavern. I mean, that's just the layout. Look, the cliffs are down there, and we've got the, you know, it leads down. They want it to be seen from nearby, you know. Right, I think. A little beacon to invite the ships in,
Starting point is 00:30:17 and a little light out. The top's really flat, though. It's like, you know, being like a perfect bed kind of situation going on. Mm. Listen, I don't of what you mean. Are we talking like a flat funeral style pyre or Joan of Arc unburdened a witch?
Starting point is 00:30:35 I would say it's more the Joan of Arc. We're doing a witch burning. There's maybe not a pole in the middle yet, but there's definitely, you can see that like, tree, like, leaves and tinder has been scattered around on a base, and then it's been piled up into a large pile. Cute. Fucked up.
Starting point is 00:30:56 I think, perhaps, so the main concern is we need to locate our people. So, perhaps Daisy, Ophelia, you're the fastest, you're the quietest, are you? Oh, no. I'm not very honest. I try to be quiet. I can, I'm quite good at sneaking around.
Starting point is 00:31:19 I know I'm not a fighter, I know I'm not much use in a fight, but I'm good at sneaking. Perhaps you two go for Carla, the tavern. Yes. And hopefully she's still in there. Okay, if I can get just a line of sight to her, then I can speak to her.
Starting point is 00:31:37 How about, and sorry if I'm overstepping, Ruffeth, I could go to a strategic stealthier position because I'm quite tired right now. I won't be as quick as Daisy and Mateo, but I could get to a point where they could meet me and then I can, if we need to, dimension door Carla out. Perfect, sounds like a good strategy. Is that good?
Starting point is 00:32:01 Thank you. Perhaps an alleyway nearby or something like that. Yeah, maybe, but yeah. Wherever it's quiet, where the villagers aren't. I'll keep to the shadows. I was gonna try around the back of the tavern. Maybe. Back of the tavern. Sounds good. Back of the tavern.
Starting point is 00:32:18 Yeah, you can certainly try that. Definitely can get there. I'm gonna be slower than you, so you're gonna have to... Well, we can go slowly, at least while you're with us, Ryan. We can move quietly. Well, you can go ahead and I'll meet you
Starting point is 00:32:27 at the base of the taping. All right, okay. I think the importance is to get to it quickly. Sathia Synophilia. Yes. I think... Yes, hang on, sorry. I've got some runes on my finger. Finger of death. And I'm poking Daisy.
Starting point is 00:32:42 I'm trying to do something. I'm transferring my runes to you, Daisy. What? As an action, I can expend three of my charged runes, which I have, you now have the protection of my runes. The next time you take damage for the next hour, you roll one D6 per charged rune spent, and you reduce the damage by that amount.
Starting point is 00:33:01 So you have three D6 of runes that you can reduce damage by. Nice. But once you spend those D6, they're spent. You three d6 of runes that you can reduce damage by. But once you spend those d6, they're spent. You can use it all at once. You can use it all at once? Yeah, so you can do one big attack, or you can, you know, if it's a little damage,
Starting point is 00:33:13 you can mitigate it. That's awesome. It's probably better used for one big attack than it is. Oh, I didn't know you could do that. That's a cool class feature. So what does this look like, Xantheus? So you touch Daisy, but is this like, do the runes ripple down your arm?
Starting point is 00:33:25 Does this runes just appear around Daisy? It's literally almost like if a tattoo was to melt down my arm and then move on to you, except it's these magical golden essences, I suppose, that transfer onto your skin. So when you do this, there is a bit of a kind of you do this, there is a bit of a kind of, kssk, kssk, kssk, kssk, as your black, red, golden, sort of like corrupted arm and like the runes
Starting point is 00:33:53 that are normally appear in that kind of, you know, metallic-y golden color, as they kind of begin to hover over Daisy's body, you will see this very prismatic, radiant, celestial energy almost, almost like the two are conflicting and fighting, and then it seems to settle and calm down. But there's definitely a reaction there of some kind. There goes your protection.
Starting point is 00:34:20 The ability works, I'm not gonna take away the ability. I'm not giving you the shield from the crown steel. That's still there, this is a... Open up! And I think Nim is just like, I do not like this. This does not feel right, there is something unnatural clinging to these runes. And then it seems to settle, and Nim is like, the sensation is gone now.
Starting point is 00:34:48 That was peculiar. I thought it was supposed to be good for us for now. We'll see. Sorry Daisy, it just felt like something that felt right to do. Weird. Thanks, okay. It felt like the runes were just jumping off my fingers,
Starting point is 00:35:03 you know, it felt like they wanted somewhere to go, so I just, so I... Oh. Give them to you, it just felt like the runes were just jumping off my fingers, you know, it felt like they wanted somewhere to go, so I just, I... Oh. Give them to you, just felt... Anyway. That's interesting. That's very thoughtful, Xanthias. So, you're now the front line.
Starting point is 00:35:15 Xanthias and Ophelia, I think your priority is to find Ser Joran. Yes, but as you say this, appearing from the direction of the general store, you see Madeline and Merrick, the two halflings, they sort of make their way round. They move up to this group of other halflings who maybe look like their family,
Starting point is 00:35:38 and they're sort of like, oh, blah, blah, blah, they're kind of chatting away. They all share a little drink together, but you can see that they are now starting to mingle in with the people, the presence here, basically. Perhaps, perhaps Daisy and Matteo, you go now. And trust in us.
Starting point is 00:35:59 Worst comes to worst, get to the ship. What should I do if we're overwhelmed and I need your help really urgently? Should I just scream really loud? I'll try and be within range. What about a code word that I can just shout really loud? I need a panic word! What if, if something goes really wrong,
Starting point is 00:36:24 I could maybe come out screaming like something's happened at the church. I could make a scene, sort of, oh my god, my friends, they're all being killed up at the church. Oh, is it? The sole survivor, yes, good idea. And then that would at least distract them,
Starting point is 00:36:39 and then that maybe give time for you to get away or something. You need to look bloodied. Perfect, but I don't. He punches himself. No, he does, he punches himself. Oh my god. He's like, ah!
Starting point is 00:36:50 Oh, ow! Mateo! Mateo! I was thinking some like makeup or something, but. Oh, that would have been a bloody good idea. Julia has so much red. I don't. Oh.
Starting point is 00:37:01 Yes, you do. We don't have time for this. Anyway, anyway. Focus, focus. Good job, Mateo. But anyway, anyway. Focus, focus. Good job, Mateo, that was, ow. So much commitment. Obviously, your safety is primary as well, okay? Above all else.
Starting point is 00:37:11 The role is punch damage. Worst comes to the worst, get to the ship, okay? Three needs to be. Is that a tooth? Yes, of course, but I want to help. But okay, if we are gonna have players start taking actions, we are gonna be in a loose initiative where you guys are just gonna say, but let's try and,
Starting point is 00:37:31 once Matteo and Daisy and Rowan do something, I'd like to check in with the others and make sure you guys are doing stuff as well. Because it could be very easy for a lot to happen and you guys not to have moved. And obviously this is a very fluid scenario and there could be things happening with the NPCs and. This is also Gruff making a series of mistakes as leader.
Starting point is 00:37:50 Ah, no, no, no, no, no, I saw that. How can there be, you don't know what's gonna happen. Don't know what's gonna happen. And even if things go wrong, are those necessarily Gruff's mistakes? I just keep feeling that Gruff should maybe go for Karla because he's meek, vulnerable, and firm. Wanna come with me?
Starting point is 00:38:04 Maybe Ser Joran is meek and vulnerable and firm currently. There's two meek. This is an entire scenario of- You're talking the best of the team. Yeah. To fall for them. You don't wanna over stack. Ash thinking of the best of the team.
Starting point is 00:38:15 Hey, Ree, what's the plan here? Okay, I was thinking maybe- Let's bust this thing wide open. Don't worry, we got this in hand. And we're gonna make zero mistakes. I've got a potion of speed. We do not wanna talk about that potion. That's actually a really good idea. You don't need to't worry, we got this in hand. And we're gonna make zero mistakes. I've got a potion of speed. We do not want to talk about that potion.
Starting point is 00:38:26 That's actually a really good idea. You don't need to do that, I can haste you. Oh, yeah. I could just go... Or you could drink and I haste myself. Yeah, yeah. Don't forget as well, with haste, if you lose concentration, you become stunned.
Starting point is 00:38:37 The potion doesn't have that effect. Oh, la la. Because it can't lose concentration on the potion of speed. Or I could haste myself, and even then, I'd be able to keep up with you at your regular speed. And then we could just run around looking for Mateo. It's a drawing.
Starting point is 00:38:49 Mateo's right there. Hello Mateo. Hello. Ow. I've got an ornate painting. No you don't. We could, how do we, so. Rough through it into the ocean.
Starting point is 00:38:58 Ooh boy. So our aim is to get to. This is gonna be the new thing of him talking like, what, gen, whatever. Gen Z. Gen Z? Anyway, yes. We've got an ornate painting to start taking damage.
Starting point is 00:39:11 So, we're not necessarily heading towards a pier because if I was to look at the map, I would say there's no minis down by the boat except that one. Oh, Tog'o War. Well, yeah. Tog'o War. So as a point as well,
Starting point is 00:39:24 the stairs that lead down to the beach and the quay and the wharf, I don't have anything to represent the little dock, but that is about 20 feet down from, those stairs are actually about 10 feet, sorry, they're five feet each, and it goes down about 20 feet. So you can see maybe the tip of the mast,
Starting point is 00:39:44 you know the boat is there, but you can't see anything on it, which is why I haven't done any extra details for the boat. So shall we start from the bottom, work our way up, or start in the town and work our way down to the boat? I mean, yeah, how? We're coming in from there. We're coming in from the north, right?
Starting point is 00:39:59 You are coming in from up here. There is no way to get down to the beach without moving through the town square. The town has been designed in that way. Like this all kind of becomes high cliffs and there's no way down basically. All right. I mean, I mean, you could,
Starting point is 00:40:13 Ophelia could, because you can just spider-warp climb down, but it would be like a 20 foot, 30 foot cliff down basically, up to the sides. Just like running behind as best I can. We need to ask the team where Ser Joran is. I just, I'm a fool. I sent the marshal to him.
Starting point is 00:40:32 You didn't know. No, you're not a fool, Gruff. Anything but. I know Ser Joran can take care of himself, but when you're on your own, you're on your own. So we need to ascertain if Ser Joran's still on the ship or if he's in this godforsaken, the Sion's forsaken village somewhere.
Starting point is 00:40:51 Ah. At least it's quite recognizable. Right, you three get on. And I trust you, okay? Trust in us as well. Raise the alarm if you need to, do the destruction if you need to. Okay, so for Daisy, Mateo and Rowan, what is the plan?
Starting point is 00:41:05 You want to sneak back around behind the tavern? I want to try and get to, yeah, behind the tavern and I want to try and look through a window. Basically, I want to try and get a visual on Carla if she's inside so that I can connect. Can I have stealth checks from the three of you? So, Mateo, Daisy and Rowan. Can I allow them to go ahead of me?
Starting point is 00:41:26 Yes, yep, so you just delay and then tell me when you wanna move. 21. 21. I don't wanna make their stealth worse. 21, yeah, and Matteo actually got a 25 on his stealth. Wow. So the two of you creep on, and don't forget, you guys aren't quite
Starting point is 00:41:40 in the town center yet, obviously your minis are on the battle map, but you're a little bit ways out yet. You begin creeping closer and closer. You can see that there are a couple of like farmers and guards and things like that, militiamen maybe hanging out near the front of the tavern. You can see that as you approach, there is a sort of market stand that's been set up
Starting point is 00:41:59 in front of the tavern with a couple of people sat there drinking and things like that. But you actually divert and you make your way behind. There are windows, all of them have been shuttered. So all of the wooden shutters have been closed and latched. And there's no lights inside. You can see that there's no candlelight, there's no fire or hearth, everything is dark inside.
Starting point is 00:42:26 Doesn't, I can't see in. No, we're gonna have to try and get in. Is there a door at the back as well? I would say that this is a fairly small inn. It wouldn't make sense that there's a back door. Yeah, I think that there would be a back door at least. Can I try and... Locked.
Starting point is 00:42:48 Can I try and... Yeah, absolutely. Yep. You broke stuff. This will be your action, and then we'll jump in and see what everyone else is doing. Yallah. So give me the thieves tools check.
Starting point is 00:42:59 What's the thieves tools check? So it depends on if you have like expertise in thieves tools. So it's double your proficiency and then your dex modifier. Proficiency? What? Uh, proficiency. Should be three, so six, and then your dex mod. Plus...
Starting point is 00:43:14 Five? Six plus five, so 11. Plus 11, pretty good. I rolled a 19. So 30. Plus 11. Yeah, silently... Tk tk tk tk. Um... There wasn't a door there. Good. I rolled a 19. So 30. That's 11. Yeah, silently. There wasn't a door there.
Starting point is 00:43:30 Didn't exist. I'm going to say that, I'm gonna spend a faith to add a complication. So you unlock the door, no problem. As you go to open it, you, or maybe like Mateo or you realize at the last second, oh, when you open this door, it's, there is, you remember that when you came in,
Starting point is 00:43:58 there was like a little jingly bell on the main entrance, there's another one on the back door as well. So it's like, you- Who threw that on the back door? I know. But you go to, and you, just before it goes off, it doesn't go off, but if you open this door wide, it's gonna jingle that bell. Ah.
Starting point is 00:44:14 So there might be a way to silence it, but that's what you notice as you successfully pick the lock. You didn't hit it. But you didn't hit it, so it's just, but you have, before you go in, you're gonna have to find a way to deal with it. Can I see anything from the... It is pitch black inside.
Starting point is 00:44:30 This leads straight into sort of the main bar area. It doesn't look like there's a kitchen or anything else like really here. This is like a small little back room with just like a desk and a chair. But looking into the main, the whole of the tavern is dark. Like you don't see any,
Starting point is 00:44:45 you would see maybe a flicker of candlelight coming from upstairs. Rowan, are you gonna give them a little bit more time before you start moving in closer? Okay, what is everyone else doing? Okay, I feel like we should probably start heading off. I was thinking if I drink the potion of speed, I could probably, I could probably run past the buildings,
Starting point is 00:45:06 try and get to the cliff side. I'm gonna move you guys. Oh, over the marshals' house? Yes, and I can probably try and see Sajoran fairly quickly to try and see if he's at the dock or not. Is there a way you can signal back to us to let us know? Let me see, what have I got? If I make it there, I mean, I could just
Starting point is 00:45:23 throw fire into the air. Maybe a less visible signal. Ooh, throw fire at you? I have a Mage Hand. Maybe less fire in this situation. Maybe I could strike a rock, maybe make a, like, just throw a rock down the cliff if he's there. Maybe that would make a sound loud enough
Starting point is 00:45:40 for you guys to hear it. It's quite loud in the village right now. It's singing, dancing, music's playing. In terms of the route, if we were to attempt to go around, say, the back of the marshal office, is that an avenue we could take, or is it completely blocked? No, no, no, you can make it that way, yeah, for sure. I'm almost wondering whether or not,
Starting point is 00:46:02 and this is assuming the worst, whether or not to look into that marshal's building and see if anyone's detained. Well, what I will tell you is the only windows into the marshal's building are the two front windows here and the door here. There are no windows around the back and sides. Yeah, okay.
Starting point is 00:46:17 Any pipes or gutters? A little dirt? No, these aren't. This is like a tiny village. This isn't like a modern plumbed-in building or anything like that. They probably use like chamber pots and, you know, jars. Night soil merchants. Night soil, indeed.
Starting point is 00:46:31 No, these are maybe gutters, like rain gutters, but probably not like actually plumbed into the building or anything, just to catch the rain from the outside. I do have Saren, but I just, I can't help but feel the sending her. Saren's not invisible. She's not in this van. She glows, and they'll know something is up. If you guys don't want to take action, I will go back to Daisy.
Starting point is 00:46:55 Ophelia, can you get to the actual ship? I wonder if something like raising a mast or something that could do it. I'll see how far I can go. Try and raise the sail. The tip of the mast is just visible from where you are. I think if you run ahead... Just the tip of it, like... If you run ahead, Ophelia, I'll try and head around
Starting point is 00:47:11 the back of the Marshal's office and just try and make my way towards... I'll go with you, Santheus, as well. Okay, so the two of you are going to go around the back of the building. Ophelia, remind me, what exactly are you doing? You want to climb up and over the roof? Like skirt around so they can't see me around the back side. Yeah, the back of the building. We'll still need to make a stealth check
Starting point is 00:47:28 because there is still noise to factor in here as well. Like, you might slip and cause roof tiles to fall or anything like that. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, so I would like stealth checks from all three of you. I am. You're going to drink the speed potion as well? So, speed, is that basically the equivalent of Haste? It just says Haste effect.
Starting point is 00:47:46 So you just get double your movement. So you get double your movement, plus two to AC, and you can take an extra one attack per turn, or an extra action per turn, but you can only make one attack with it. And you have advantage on dexterity saves. Yes. I would like to use a fate with my stealth roll.
Starting point is 00:48:01 Okay. Yeah, additional action on each of your turns, and it can be attack, dash, disengage, hide, or utilize. And that lasts for a minute. For a minute, yes. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. So I guess it's worth, yeah, like, if we're doing these actions,
Starting point is 00:48:19 is it like a six second thing again? Just for the interest of potions? It's not like six seconds, but I'm not gonna... This is gonna be like a round for the potion duration. Okay, cool. I can track an action just as like a second, just to keep it in my head. Just a turn, yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:34 Yeah, so track an action as a turn, and then ten turns. I would not call it an extra action as... Oh, as in for this. As in for this, yeah. It's kind of doing a thing is gonna be a turn, yes. So you currently have ten turns of the duration, yeah. But yeah, you can also use that bonus action, or not bonus action, extra action as a hide action as well.
Starting point is 00:48:53 Nice, awesome. Which could be useful. Yeah, so yeah, stealth checks, please. Oh yeah, stealthy 20. 20 from Gruff, that is a success. Sure. And I used a, yeah. You did use a fake point,. And I used a, yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:05 You did use a fate point, yes. 11 for me, unfortunately. That is going to be a problem. Four for me. Now, I will remind you guys, okay, you can spend fate to make failures less severe as well, if you would like to. After the fact.
Starting point is 00:49:25 I would say that, because it is on a failure, like you have to know that you failed to do it. Yeah, I'll do it. So if you wanna spend a fate point to lessen the severity, okay? So I'm... You and Gruff are making your way around the back. I'm gonna move you about to halfway.
Starting point is 00:49:46 And something is gonna, right now, both you and Ophelia are gonna make some noise. That's gonna draw attention now. Ophelia, I've got something in mind. The way that yours is gonna be lessened. Yeah, I mean, I could spend a fate to reduce the severity. It's up to you. Either way, I think I'll just...
Starting point is 00:50:04 Let the failure ride? Deal. Okay. For now. All right. Because we're way off to the north, and like... You're still coming around the side. This is as you're moving in closer, right?
Starting point is 00:50:15 So, here's what happens. Ophelia, you are making your way along. This is like an old rural building. As you step, a bunch of these tiles have clearly worn down and a bunch of them loose and slip and you have to grab on making quite a loud noise. These three guards, this guy with the axe and these two halberdiers, kind of look up
Starting point is 00:50:38 and you see they start looking and you just flatten yourself against the roof. Enough that they're like, what was that? And they'll do the kind of like, it's probably a bird or something, they dismissive off of it. But they are still alerted that something, and you've sort of risen alarm a little bit.
Starting point is 00:50:59 Then he trips over every single tile. Yeah, and I walk into him. He'll hit you in the face. I am going to reduce their, well, increase, I should say, their alert status. Defcon one. Oh, there it is, yeah. And then Xanthius, you are,
Starting point is 00:51:14 because you failed it by a certain degree, they definitely hear you. And these two guards, one of them is gonna be like, I thought I heard something. And he turns, sort of clambers over this wall as this one moves in front of the door. And this one is kind of takes a few steps back. He's kind of looking up at the roof.
Starting point is 00:51:36 But this guard has absolutely heard something and is making his way to exactly where, you and Gruffa maybe like crouched behind a low wall of like a farmer's building, a couple of bushes, you're nestled in those. You, like, snaps of tree, you know, you fell and tumbled and caused like an immense amount of noise. Just like Gmod ragdoll. B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b This guard now is like, who's there? Who goes there?
Starting point is 00:52:10 Those are your actions currently, Gruff. You are fairly hidden, but Xanthius is nearby and you know that he has absolutely alerted this guard. Rowan, are you giving some more time or do you wanna? No, I'm gonna go in now. All right, can you give me a stealth roll, please? Yes, certainly can. You are moving a bit slower, so. Stealth is, apologies, 18.
Starting point is 00:52:34 18, yeah, you creep along. You're winded, you're exhausted. You maybe get to the corner of the building, the back of the tavern. You can see Matteo and Daisy are looking at this door. Looks like Daisy and Mateo, and they're looking up into something on the inside, and you're gonna get to this corner of the building here, basically.
Starting point is 00:52:55 Daisy, Mateo, or anybody else who wants to jump in, what's the plan here? I don't know how to silence the bell, the bell. I'll boost you. Okay. And then you take it off. Okay. Okay, and he'll give you like a little boost. I'm gonna have Mateo give you advantage on a disarm check,
Starting point is 00:53:13 so it's gonna be a thieves tools check. But you have advantage, because Mateo's gonna help you. A natural 20. You reach up and you unscrew this little bell and you get your knife. The bell never existed. And it's just silent and the door just silently opens.
Starting point is 00:53:33 In fact, maybe you even spot. No one's ever seen me, no one's heard me. You spot that the hinge is quite rusty, so you press against it and silently opens. I'd say with a nat 20, you also, as you get that door open and you and Mateo step inside, you hear a woman, not Carla, a deeper-voiced woman like, can't believe I'm stuck here.
Starting point is 00:54:02 Spits on the floor. Did it sound like Hannah? No, it just sounded like a deeper-voiced woman. You and Mateo enter the lower floor of the tavern. Cor blimey, the roof's come off. The two of you are now in here. I'm gonna take this front door off, but it is still there. Yes.
Starting point is 00:54:27 It only went and blew the bloody door off. So yeah, you guys step inside, there is a staircase leading up directly next to you. You can now also see into the rest of the building. I should actually take both of these off. Oh my gosh. It's the Sims. And you can see, but you can see it's just a bar.
Starting point is 00:54:43 It is dead silent. Outside, maybe peering through, there's a small window by the Sims. And you can see, but you can see it's just a bar. It is dead silent. Outside, maybe peering through, there's a small window by the door. You can see that there's a few stalls, there's people having drinks and conversation, but you also see Merrick and Madeline have sort of moved over, and they are now speaking to the group over here,
Starting point is 00:55:01 and they are encouraging, and in fact, actually, this guy finishes coming down, this guy starts making his way up, and he's gonna start, he's got like a bundle of, you know, twigs and branches that looks like he's gonna go add it to the pyre. Do I get a sense that the voice came from upstairs? Yes. Definitely.
Starting point is 00:55:21 And that's the candle lights coming from up there as well. And you can hear now that you're inside, you can hear like floorboards creaking as if somebody stood or sat down upstairs. Right in the room above you. Am I trying like, I wanna try and peak but not fully go. Yeah, I'd say you can do that, yeah, no problem.
Starting point is 00:55:47 No check, yeah, if you're not moving, you can sort of very quietly, you and Mateo sort of peak around the staircase. You can see at the top of the stairs, you just see her legs, but you imagine that she's maybe sat up against a wall with a chair, there's like a candlelight flickering, but you see like militia woman, like a kind of,
Starting point is 00:56:05 like the loose sort of battered iron greaves of somebody who is in the militia, like somebody who's probably wearing armor that's been passed down for a long time. You can see the butt of maybe a halberd or something like that, but you don't see anybody else up there. Okay, is there any signs anywhere down here of a struggle?
Starting point is 00:56:26 Yes. Yes, I'd say, I would say, I'm not even gonna have you roll for it, I'm gonna say it's obvious enough. You look over and you can see that there are knocked over chairs, there are bottles smashed behind the bar, and it looks like it didn't have time
Starting point is 00:56:39 to really clean it up or anything like that. Definitely looks like a bit of a struggle in here. Is there any sense of someone being dragged up the stairs? That would require an investigation roll. Can I try and investigate? You absolutely can. Matteo will give you advantage. God, you guys really are the good kids.
Starting point is 00:56:56 He also has a ability where he can use the help action as a bonus action, so he's just kind of spending his time like, what are we doing? Are you able to look for a struggle? Okay. A 19. A 19. spending his time like, what are we doing? Oh, you want to look for a struggle, okay. A 19. A 19. I would say that you maybe find,
Starting point is 00:57:12 and it's dark in here, right? There's just a bit of candlelight. You're kind of like peering around trying to examine what you can see, and you maybe see caught on the banner store, on like a kind of loose bit of wood that, you know, has been knocked. you maybe see caught on the banner store, on like a kind of loose bit of wood that has been knocked,
Starting point is 00:57:27 you see like a torn strip of a white blouse, similar to the one that Carla was wearing. And that is halfway going up. Going up, so it looks like they've dragged her up there. You get that impression, yes. I'm gonna take a minute away from you guys here and pass it over to the rest of the team if there's anything anybody wants to do. Hello. Hello, so.
Starting point is 00:57:46 I've got an idea. Yeah? Yeah, I'm gonna let you guys react first, right, basically. The guard is coming around. I'm kind of taking a bit of inspiration from Daggerheart rules here, where like when you guys fail at something or if I wanna do something, I'm gonna jump in,
Starting point is 00:58:00 but I'm gonna generally try and react to what you guys do. So if you fail, stuff will happen, or sometimes if you succeed, like characters might move around and stuff. But the situation now is Ophelia's on the roof, she's laying down, she's fine. She made a noise, but they're alerted. They're around the back, but there's a guy
Starting point is 00:58:13 coming around the corner ahead of us. Like directly towards where you are. I've got an idea of how I can escape this. If you don't do something about this guard, he is going to see Xantheus. So either Xantheus has to try and re-hide himself. I guess I have Gruff, right? Because we're in the same place.
Starting point is 00:58:29 You're in the same place, but Gruff was pretty well hidden. Like Gruff is maybe a little distance away from you and he's hidden right now. There's a tree, maybe he's hiding behind the tree. Yeah, whereas you're like in a bush. I literally just fell out of the tree. Yeah. Okay, well.
Starting point is 00:58:41 I've got an idea. If you've got an idea. How confident are you about yours? Like 95%. Okay. But this is a Tom 95 confidence, you know? Should we just slap the table? Swipe on the table.
Starting point is 00:58:56 My idea is to use conjure animals to conjure a little swarm of rats that will then run out from behind, run past the guard, run and just create a distraction. Like this little swarm of rats. And you want them to go into the town? Yeah, so like come around the side to swarm around the guard who's coming towards us, swarm around the building, run across the plaza, like just be a menace. A little swarm, a swarmy menace.
Starting point is 00:59:20 Okay. No, that's better than mine. Mine was the moment I see him coming around the corner, I was gonna Misty step to behind him, not right behind him, or teleport behind him, nothing personnel kid. But like, let's go as far down here as I can, so that he's looking down that way,
Starting point is 00:59:37 but I've already Misty stepped beyond him. That was my plan. That's cute. Let's just do both. Both cute ideas. Let's do both. Let's just do both. Let's do both. Okay.
Starting point is 00:59:45 He needs to see something. Because then you can be closer to like, yeah. Because he's comes in some things down here. If he doesn't see rats, he's gonna think he's gonna come for you. So keep in mind that your characters don't really have a way to communicate these ideas to each other.
Starting point is 00:59:58 So you're gonna have both of these things. That's why I'm saying both. Yeah, we both have. So, you are gonna conjure a swarm of rats. Yeah, so I can conjure nature spirits that appear as a large pack of spectral intangible animals. So that's the only thing is like... They are going to be very obviously magical.
Starting point is 01:00:14 They're not going to be natural rats. Yeah, but who's going to be cool enough to step towards some rats? Scary little things. Yeah, but these are like glowing fey rats. Oh, glowing? Are they actually? Spectral and intangible. Spectral and intangible.
Starting point is 01:00:28 They're going to be ghost rats. That's even scarier, dude. It's scary, but it's also very clearly not normal. Ghost rats from the church? Curse from the church! So is that happening? Is my final question. My only other idea was to turn into a big dog.
Starting point is 01:00:42 All right, no more ideas. What is Gruff doing? You've got lots of ideas. Otherwise, I'm just gonna have Xanthias go. I'm misty, Stefan, that's happening. This boy's doing it. I said conjure animals, we conjure knee xanthos. All right, okay.
Starting point is 01:00:54 That was your first thought, I think it's cool to give it that. So, this guard begins making their way towards you, Xanthias. So it's literally a moment I see him coming around a corner, or even just like a bit of metal or whatever. So where are you teleporting to? Because you're going to end up somewhere in this area.
Starting point is 01:01:09 So ideally, I'd like to end up right at the very end. That wall is connected. I couldn't fit it with the battle map. It basically connects to this cliff face. All right, so is there anything that I could jump to? You have to go up here. Oh, that's like right in the open, dude. There is, at this point, like it's, there is, this is like the wall connects to this piece of cliff face
Starting point is 01:01:30 and then it just joins up to the cliff face beyond there. And then there's a... Or there is this kind of like wood stack here, you could try and like hide behind this. That's the thing, that's the thing. If I look ahead of me and it's literally like, my only thing is I'm gonna warp, Misty step myself onto the pyre,
Starting point is 01:01:46 then I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna do that. Okay, but yeah, I'd say you can like get behind, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is gonna be another stealth check from you because there are people that can potentially see around here. This guard though, as he moves a bit closer, a sudden swarm of ghostly rats rushes towards him. And at first, he is gonna think that they're normal rats.
Starting point is 01:02:06 He's gonna be like, whoa, whoa! And they're like little black rats. Yeah, real rats. And then you see he's like, oh god, oh god, what are these? And he's like starts slamming them with his halberd, like trying to kill them. He's like, this is like, they're not real! And he's like stabbing, he's calling out very loudly
Starting point is 01:02:21 and this guy turns around like, what are you talking about? There is like, it is an attack, but like, my idea. Do you want it to attack him? My idea is I kind of want him to swarm, but then keep going, like into. I will say that means you can't use them to attack, like I don't know if it's a concentration spell or. Concentration up to 10 minutes.
Starting point is 01:02:41 You don't have, they don't have to attack, right? Are they an actual creature or is it like an attack spell? Read it out for us. You congenate your spirits that appears as a large pack of spectral and tangible animals in an unoccupied space that you see within range. The pack lasts for a duration and you choose the animal's form.
Starting point is 01:02:57 You have advantage on strength saving throws while you're within five feet of the pack and when you move on your turn, you can also move the pack up to 30 feet into an unoccupied space you can see. Whenever the pack moves within 10 feet of the pack, and when you move on your turn, you can also move the pack up to 30 feet into an unoccupied space you can see. Whenever the pack moves within 10 feet of a creature you see, and whenever a creature you see enters the space within the 10 feet of the pack, or makes its...
Starting point is 01:03:13 ends its turn there, you can force that creature to make a deck saving throw. Okay, but it's you choose to. So you're just choosing not to, right? Yeah. I'll get you a little token to represent the... What does the deck save... Is it literally deck save to take damage?
Starting point is 01:03:25 Deck save on a failed attack, the creature takes 3d10 slashing damage. Wow, okay, holy shit. Does it like prone them as well or...? No, that's it. That's... That guy would be done. I'm going to use this little whirlwind to represent the brats. Yeah, that makes sense.
Starting point is 01:03:38 So they basically swarm around this guard. You choose not to do damage to him. Yeah, I kind of want them to keep moving, like, because I would have thought that... Graff would have thought that he's coming around this guard, you choose not to do damage to him? Yeah, I kind of want them to keep moving, because I would have thought that, Graff would have thought that he's coming around the corner, so he kind of wants them to go away. Okay, all right. So they come around here, so he comes running back.
Starting point is 01:03:56 Well, he kind of gets to this wall, his mate sees these things go past. You can make your stealth ward with advantage, I would say, actually. With advantage? Yeah, because this is happening, I think. Okay, in that case, I won't add fate to it. That's confidence. Fuck.
Starting point is 01:04:14 Okay, 14. 14 is just barely enough, I'd say, with the distraction here. So these guards become super aware and they begin calling out these spectral rats. It becomes a big hoo-ha. You can see people like, oh god, what are those, what are those, the scions?
Starting point is 01:04:33 You see Merrick and Madeline both look over. They've seen this as well. Okay. I smiled. I did a little smile. Beautiful smile. I rolled a number. The guards though distracted. Xanthius, you are currently hidden. Gruff, do you want to move closer at this point
Starting point is 01:04:53 or are you gonna stay where you are? I'd say you are about 30 feet off of the map. There's no port of entry or anything in this. Only to hop over the wall. Not into the marshal's room, no. Into the marshal's office. I'm no port of entry or anything in this. Only to hop over the wall. There's no, not into the marshal's room, no. Into the marshal's office.
Starting point is 01:05:10 I'll move closer to the building. Okay, so like just tuck round to this like corner here? Like here? Not that close to the guards. Well this guard is probably gonna like come running out here in a minute. Yeah, so you'd be behind a wall. A little bit further back.
Starting point is 01:05:25 You're still gonna be about 20, 30 feet, if that's the case. I'm gonna say like, because the map is very, I can't put you directly on this corner, it's a bit of a loose map. So either you've gotta be on the map or not on the map. I think my thought is I kinda don't wanna be
Starting point is 01:05:39 where they might think that it came from, if that makes sense. Sure, in that case I would say I recommend you stay where you are. Yeah, or can I go the opposite side of the building? You can start going back, but then you're gonna be further away from everything. I will stay where I am.
Starting point is 01:05:51 I would say that if that's, your intention is to be as close as you can without giving yourself away, this is the best place to be. If you don't want to get closer, just keep in mind you're gonna be about 30 feet, or at least a move away from everything. All right, that is all happening.
Starting point is 01:06:06 Yeah, Ophelia and Rowan as well. Yeah, if you guys want to do anything. Ophelia's going to take advantage of the Rat Cthuffle. I think what's going on... Catastrophe. The Rat Catastrophe. Okay. And I think she's going to sprint or she's going to travel as far as she can while this is happening.
Starting point is 01:06:21 All right. So as a reminder, if you move at full speed, you have disadvantage on stealth. If you go at half speed, which for you is still 50 feet. Still 100 feet if I dash. Yeah, if you just spend your whole turn dashing. Yeah, disadvantage on stealth when you're going that fast, they'll hear you, but that was 200 feet ago.
Starting point is 01:06:40 Yeah, it's true. Sonic. It's true. But then they might look and be like, that blur. That red blur. I'll do it at 100 feet. Alright, so stealth check please. Yep.
Starting point is 01:06:50 You will have advantage because of the commotion. Amazing. And then, yeah, sorry, and then basically move. So if you get to the corner and then we'll talk about what's going to happen with going down. That was 20 feet physical. It's, yeah, I'm not worrying about distance right now. What'd you roll? It's alright, don't need to worry about it.
Starting point is 01:07:04 It's fine. Five and a four on both my dice. Oh! So nine was my highest. Nine was your highest. Do you like to, don't forget, you can spend fate to lessen severities. Yeah, I do it.
Starting point is 01:07:16 You sure? Yep. Okay, stack me up. All right. You get to the edge. I'm gonna say the complication is you, because you get to the edge of this building, and what's the plan?
Starting point is 01:07:28 Is it to run down the building and run along the wall behind Santheus and then up onto the cliff? Okay, so I think that what this is is you make another load of noise coming down this building. And the guys are like looking at the rats, but they unmistakably hear like the screech of metal as like Verasty scrapes along the stone of the wall
Starting point is 01:07:51 as you reach the bottom. You do manage to basically drop prone under this wall. So wait, I'm prone on one side of the wall, you're prone on the other side of it. And I'm gonna say that the failure, you're prone on the other side of it. And I'm going to say that the failure, you've got a choice now, right? You can stay here and I will keep you hidden, but you obviously end your movement,
Starting point is 01:08:12 you don't get to where you want to go. You get up and you keep going, they are going to see you. I'm going to stay prone. Okay, perfect. So you kind of, fuck, and then just dive, lay yourself flat as these guys are like, what the hell is going on? They start calling out,
Starting point is 01:08:33 because it is still a failure, I've kept you hidden, but it's still a failure. They call out like, Reeve, Lord Merrick, Mr. Merrick, what's going on? And you hear this little halfling go, these are some spell conjured, there are intruders somewhere, they're trying to disrupt the festival,
Starting point is 01:08:49 it must be those outsiders, find them, find them, and he's gonna call out, somebody send word for Jameson. And he and Madeline look over and he will say like, Madeline, do something, and she is going to be like, close her eyes and she begins whispering something, and she is going to be like, close her eyes and she begins whispering something, and the rats vanish as she casts Dispel Magic. Third level spell? Yes.
Starting point is 01:09:13 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, a good thing to spend. And she makes a thing of like, be gone evil spirits, like you cannot interrupt the bounty of the sea, be gone. And they watch, and all of the, a bunch of the villagers are like, oh, spirits, like, do you cannot interrupt the bounty of the sea, be gone. And they watch, and all of the, like, a bunch of the villagers are like, oh, ah, like, you know, very clearly impressed by this warding of evil. Probably pulls out, like, a necklace of fishbones
Starting point is 01:09:35 and jangles it in their direction, using some sort of ritual to try and disguise what she's doing. But yeah, so that is what we see. And they are now, I'm gonna say, that yeah, like, the guards are now actively searching. They are like looking around. Yeah, and I think that that's gonna be it for them for now.
Starting point is 01:09:58 So Rowan, you're the last one. We had a good run without people noticing something. It's all right, let's all go this side. You and Mateo are over here are fine. Team stealth over here is good. Rowan's part of team stealth as well. Team stealth, yeah, he's done very well. It's freezing alone.
Starting point is 01:10:14 It's freezing. He's going to carefully move up to the door that's been opened. Okay, yeah, I'm actually gonna say, do you want to go inside the building? In that case, I'm not gonna ask for a stealth check from you. I think that this is fairly clear, there's a big motion. Steps on a single floorboard, aren't we?
Starting point is 01:10:32 So that, and also, there is also somebody directly upstairs that may hear him. So, but I'd say if you're just moving up, that's not a role, you can just move up to the back door, no problem. And he'll see me and Mateo inside, right? Yes, yeah. I'll go. Bardic Inspiration Daisy. What does that look like? Dono inside, right? Yes, yeah. Bardic Inspiration, Daisy.
Starting point is 01:10:45 What does that look like? Don't forget, it has to be verbal or something. I believe it says it has to be something like, it has to be an ally that can see or hear you or something. What does it look like? Can you give us a thumbs up? Bardic, this is Bardic Inspiration, you, yeah. They can see or hear you, they just gain it.
Starting point is 01:11:04 Okay, so if they can see it, you can, literally, just be like see or hear you. They just gain it. Okay, so if they can see it, you can literally just be like, but thank you. Like mouth, like I believe you. Yeah, a mouthed, exhausted version of you got this. I'm gonna point to the upstairs that there's a person there, there's a guard. Try it.
Starting point is 01:11:21 Daisy, you can, you can telepathically tell them. But I'm saving it. That's fine, if you want to save it, that's fine. I just wanted to remind you. No, I know, I'm aware of that, but I wanted to do it when it was a better time to do it. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. I'm not, I am aware, I didn't forget. But he's right there.
Starting point is 01:11:39 It's just funny that you're like, there's that person upstairs. Perfect. And then I will motion to him like, I stab, should I stab? Nodding. You coming in? Shake head. Okay.
Starting point is 01:11:58 Just. All right, so do you and Mateo want to go up and try and take out whoever's up there? Yeah, did I get the sense, have I heard any other voices or any other footsteps? Just that one? Just one. Okay, I want to, yeah, basically I wanna try
Starting point is 01:12:17 and take them by the prize. Okay. So that is gonna be another stealth check, please. You do have, um. Bardicons brush. If you need it for this bit, or you wanna do a few tenths. That D8.
Starting point is 01:12:30 It's a D8. Use it for ability attack or saving throw. Ugh, I'll use it now. I forgot to heal now, at the lower level. So what did we get on ourselves? I also have to roll for Mateo in a moment. 20. 20 for Daisy.
Starting point is 01:12:53 That took me way too long to do the math. That was a very easy thing to work out. Oh, natural one for Mateo. Oh shit, okay. With the bardic, if you used it, is it an eight? It's not. What is it? It's a two.
Starting point is 01:13:10 You can reroll that with an ability check and choose which one to use with the mote of potential. I use the six. Perfect, all right. So it's actually a 25. So you. Four. Four.
Starting point is 01:13:23 No problem, you make your way up this person's, so you see, like, four. So you, no problem, you make your way up, this person is in C, you see, like sat outside a door, which seems to probably lead into some sort of bedroom up here, a guard, one of the local town's guard. They are sort of like half leaning out of like looking through the shutters of the window, grumbling to themselves a little bit of dull candlelight. As you're like making your way up,
Starting point is 01:13:45 pulling out the blade, ready to make this strike, you just hear, fuck, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, as Mateo falls down the stairs with a natural one, as he just, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Completely, this guard is like, what in turns sees you in the, what do you do? I say like, you were unseen, so they don't know that you were there.
Starting point is 01:14:11 You've got like one shot at this. Take the shot. Is this a Radiant Blade or is this a normal dagger? Radiant Blade. Okay, go for it, make the attack. They are, I will say you have advantage. No, they turned, yeah, they didn't know you were there, but they knew something was there,
Starting point is 01:14:29 so I'm gonna say it's a normal attack. But I will let you get sneak attack off of it. Just no advantages on the roll. Oh, I love a stairs. Uh, you know, uh. Um. 21 to hit. That will hit.
Starting point is 01:14:48 It's going all right, it's going all right, don't worry. It's going all right. It's going to last longer. This is an instant kill that we're about to see. No, it might not be, so let's not speak too soon. Oh, he's downstairs. No, I'm like 95% confident. It's a good percent.
Starting point is 01:15:01 He's throwing him downstairs. Yeah, throwing his mini downstairs. Yes! It's just like percent. He's throwing him down the stairs. Yeah, throwing his mini down the stairs. Yes! Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It's just like Brian at. Oh dear. 24 damage. You hear this guard like,
Starting point is 01:15:15 like goes to yell like, man! And it just burns. This radiant blade just sinks into their chest and then vanishes. And they just fall down dead. Shit. I mean, I was kinda, I need to up my percentage because 95% confidence is too low.
Starting point is 01:15:34 Done. You do hear from outside, because somebody fallen down the stairs, you hear like, what's just going on? You hear like a couple of people like, what was that? Did somebody just fall down the stairs? Does it help that there's a kerfuffle
Starting point is 01:15:47 in the town square with people here? I definitely think it helps. Like these people are just like, what was that? And they turn around, alerted, but yeah. Not quite away yet. Good job. Can I? I wanna check in with everybody else first.
Starting point is 01:16:01 What's everyone else doing at this point? Didn't know if Rumen wanted to do anything. Yeah, if Rumen wanted to do something, like, Mateo just lands prone at the bottom of the stairs. No! Are you okay? No! Ha ha ha!
Starting point is 01:16:12 Help him up. Pfft! Did you get thrown? No, I fell! Oh. I'm an idiot! I've dusted him. I got him!
Starting point is 01:16:21 It won't be your action to just help him stand up, let's just say that's like normal. But you two do hear like maybe I would say this woman comes to the door and it's like we'll call in, Larissa, you all right, Larissa? Can I try and imitate the voice I heard? Yeah! Yeah!
Starting point is 01:16:47 I can't hear you speaking. Yeah, give me a, this would be performance roll. Oh no, that's not gonna go well, but okay, it's worth a shot. There is two points of lovely yummy fate. Yum yum yum. Sure, I'll use a fate. If it's below 95% use a fate. Yum, yum, yum. Sure, I'll use a fate. If it's below 95%, use a fate. Performance.
Starting point is 01:17:09 Performance, yeah. Not an easy 94, I know. Ooh, 94, yeah. 22. Ooh. What are you saying? Oh my god. Yeah, the floorboards are uneven.
Starting point is 01:17:21 Just tripped up a little bit. It's fine. Oh, okay. All right. Tavvern's a wreck. There's some sort of, I think there's something going on out here, be wary. It might be those outsiders coming in. Okay.
Starting point is 01:17:32 Mateo, there's a god in there. He looks up towards Daisy. But I thought Daisy killed them. We need to help. Anybody else, just jump across to anybody else as quickly. towards Daisy, but I thought Daisy killed them. We need to help. Okay. Anybody else, just jump across to anybody else just quickly. Are we jumping to the other side of the map? Yeah, yeah we can do. You are currently crouched behind this wood pile.
Starting point is 01:17:58 Ophelia, you've heard, just flunk behind the wall behind you. These two guards, the rats have been dispelled, so they are now going to start turning their attention back to where the rats came from. That means they are in the process of like turning around to go back in that direction. What do you guys do? So, I'm currently...
Starting point is 01:18:24 Got away. Crawl away. Yeah, you could try to, yeah, I'm currently... Got away. Crawl away. Yeah, you could try to, yeah, yeah, if you want to. You're in a good position where you can just crawl and you'll be able to stop. Yeah, 100 feet crawl. 100 feet crawl, that's another stealth roll. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:18:36 If she flubs this. Uh, fate, I'm gonna fate this one. Okay, yes please. We are out of fate. My luck is trash. What are the points? I'm out of fate. What? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:18:46 Where'd you go? I can't hide under there. 17. 17, you manage to, on your hands and knees, you crawl. That is gonna half your speed again, so you get about 50 feet this time. I become round.
Starting point is 01:19:02 And you scramble up here. So I go like around. Spider climate. Yeah, you can spider climb around. Yeah, I'd say that you can. Yeah, so you get to the other side. That's going to be your thulga. You are just like spider manning away just in time
Starting point is 01:19:20 as these guards are turning Xanthias. Is that why you need to roll stealth? Because the whole time she's going, I'm not here, I'm not here. Don't look at me, don't look at me. Don't see me, don't see me, don't see me, don't perceive me, please. Don't perceive me. So have they fully turned around yet?
Starting point is 01:19:33 Slow motion turn around. They are in the process of turning around. Because the only way I can get to the other side of the wall is by vaulting the wall. And if I vault the wall, that's like. Well, there's a part of your stealth, right? You could do that thing of like, you time it, or like you flick a little rock,
Starting point is 01:19:50 and then you, that's part of the stealth role, right? The stealth role could be like, throw a little rock, jump over us, they're like, huh? And then they look back, you know. You can't even jump. Throws the rock, it backfires, hits him in the face, somehow. Lies.
Starting point is 01:20:01 Knocked him out. Yeah, I have to give it a go, because otherwise I have, well, I basically have zero movement if they start turning around, because I can't go further to the west, because that's into the village. I can't go onto the stone wall behind me, because that's the pyre.
Starting point is 01:20:16 Yeah. So I'm gonna try and vault the wall to back to where Ophelia was, before they turn around and see me. I'll throw a stone at their face before I do so. At their face, specifically. I don't know. You mean stealth roll, baby? I hit one of them in the helmet,
Starting point is 01:20:32 it bounces off and hits the other guy in the helmet. They both die. Okay. Stealth check. Yes, please. I have no fate, but. You're fateless. Watch this drive.
Starting point is 01:20:41 I believe. I don't believe. Is that a fate, is that a fate, is it? So basically. I believe. I don't believe. Is that fair, is that fair, is it? So basically what actually happens is I just stand up. You think you've timed it, you throw the rock, and you go like, ha ha, and then you go to leap, looking directly at a guard. Yeah, I mean.
Starting point is 01:20:58 Not just that, but at the same time as these guys turn around, this guy, he was going to put his, he throws his bundle of twigs on and then looks down and sees you sort of there. These guards are just like, they're here! As he calls out, they are now fully alerted and at this point it is initiative time. That is literally, that is in the worst possible place, just gets absolutely locked in.
Starting point is 01:21:30 No way to reduce the severity of the failure. I mean, yeah, like. Now, let's roll initiative and then I'm gonna give you guys like a little recap of some of the information. So obviously, Ophelia would be able to look and see the boat if there's anything going on there and everything else. So, let's get Initiative going.
Starting point is 01:21:50 Initiative, surprise rank for them though, right? Daisy. 18. Xanthius, 10. Gruff. 17. Rowan, 17 as well, Dex is 10. Yours is one more, so.
Starting point is 01:22:05 Okay, I'll put Gruff down with a plus one. First, Ophelia. 21. 21, I pre-rolled all initiatives because there is a lot of people here. 20, 20, 20. Minus one, because it's a blocker. Of course, yeah. So. That's true.
Starting point is 01:22:19 Ophelia, you look down at the Sunkist and you can see it's bad. Oh shit. The sails have been removed. The ships, like, it has basically been, like, chained, so the anchor is, like, locked in place. There is very clear sign that they are making sure this ship is not going anywhere.
Starting point is 01:22:45 So we have to kill the village then? Well. That's what you see. Let's try. I think other people's lives. I wanna jump in. Daisy. Oh? Obviously you have this door next to you. You maybe can peek through the keyhole.
Starting point is 01:22:59 You can see Carla is unconscious in the room next door. On her own? On her own, yes. She is currently unconscious, being held there. Okay. Gruff, you see Xanthius just caught in the light of all of this. Just open wide.
Starting point is 01:23:20 Like a prairie dog. Rowan and Mateo, you're at the door. Open wide. Open wide. Rowan and Mateo, you're at the door. You see this woman who clearly knew the guard up above, is like, all right, Kurt starts making her way back in as well. The last thing before we go into the initiative
Starting point is 01:23:37 as a reaction to Xanthias is Merrick will look and be like, the pyre, light the pyre! And starts yelling that. We jump into initiative. Ophelia, you are the first to act. I feel like they catch me literally halfway over the wall. Yeah, yep. I think Ophelia's gonna go up and start
Starting point is 01:23:56 dismantling the pyre. It is a very large wooden pyre. I'm gonna like Charlie in the restaurant and always say... So you clamber up. Just start kicking at it. Okay. Pushing the logs off the cliff.
Starting point is 01:24:10 That's going to be your action. Yeah, you start trying to dismantle this pirate. I will say you make an Athletics check for me. Okay. I'm going to set this on a hand. Can I Rage? Yeah, you can Rage, but yeah, it's your turn, right? You move up, you use your bonus action to rage, and then your action to start dismantling this.
Starting point is 01:24:31 As I rage, can I say, what have you done to our ship? Let us go! Then just like, put a fire in. Hell yeah, motherfucker! 19 with advantage. 19, okay. I'm gonna take this down by one. You start dismantling this pile,
Starting point is 01:24:50 but it's a lot and it's heavy driftwood, like you're ripping and throwing stuff down, but there is still enough there, and it's all oil soaked as well. You are now covered in oil yourself, Ophelia, as you're like ripping this stuff down as you go. That is gonna be your turn. We then jump to...
Starting point is 01:25:09 The best way to get rid of a pyre is by burning it, right? The Cambric family cultists, which includes the farmer right by the pyre. Oh, he's Cambric. The first thing he is going to do is he pulls out a tinderbox and he's going to attempt, use his action to attempt to light the pyre. This is a flat d20 roll, I need a 12 or higher.
Starting point is 01:25:35 That is a 19. Okay. Watch as the pyre erupts into light. Where is my little pyre that I had, I had a little special one for it, I can't find it. Bam. Uh, I'll just use this instead. It's fine, it didn't light.
Starting point is 01:25:54 Yeah. Ophelia, can you make a dexterity saving throw for me please? Got advantage because I'm raging. What is that? Well that would be your Danger Sense. So it's still going to apply, but it's not because you're raging. Uh, 10. 10, you catch fire as part of this. You take two points of fire damage.
Starting point is 01:26:16 Oh, that's alright. But you are ignited, you are burning. Every time on your turn, at the start of your turn while you're on fire, you can take D6 fire damage. That's right, it's because I'm burning. You watch as he's just like, yes, yes, yes master! And he starts setting fire to this pyre. The other Cambric things, Xanthius, these two are going to try and attack you,
Starting point is 01:26:38 you're gonna get some cover from that. Who are the other ones? I have to remember who is who. These three, five, 10, 15, 20. To podcast listeners. 30. These three are in the middle, running towards me. Basically five people are running towards me.
Starting point is 01:26:53 Yeah. Who are the other Cambric ones? These ones, she's gonna, having heard that voice, she's gonna come up, uh, uh, Larissa, get down here! Get down here now! We need help! This guy's also gonna start making his way. Five, get down here, get down here now. We need help. This guy's also gonna start making his way.
Starting point is 01:27:08 Five, 10, 15, 20. No. No. No. Uh, you see, you see that quite a few of the people here right now are very confused what's going on. The woman behind this this little food stand, the woman serving drinks over here,
Starting point is 01:27:29 a couple of these woodsmen and stuff like that, they're like, what's going on? What are you talking about? It's not ready to light the fire. They seem to be utterly confused as to what's going on. That is gonna be the cultist, apart from I've gotta make attacks against Xanthias. Hi there. You're gonna get plus two AC from this,
Starting point is 01:27:46 because of the cover. That's cool. That's cool. I'm gonna use their group attack, so they're gonna get a plus one to this attack roll. That is going to be 20 exactly to hit. 20 exactly does hit. Perfect.
Starting point is 01:27:58 It's unshieldable, in fact. So it's a plus one to damage. I'm actually gonna spend a fate to add a D6 damage to this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, four, nine points of necrotic damage. Oh sorry, just slashing damage. Why necrotic? Yeah, sorry, just because the stat block I'm using
Starting point is 01:28:17 has necrotic, but it's just slashing damage. Slashing, okay. So yeah, they're like these two, it's the two of them together, they're like piling in. So if I get out of here, you scum, we're gonna pull them up like, another sacrifice master. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Try and get ya.
Starting point is 01:28:33 That is all of the Cambric family guards, family cultists, which means we go to Daisy. Hello, can I enter the room please? The hall is locked. The door is locked. Can I pick the lock, please? The hall is... The door is locked. Can I pick the lock? Please make a thief's tools check. A 19 plus 11.
Starting point is 01:28:53 Yeah. With a quick flick of the wrist. Open the door, no problem. You open the door. Can I... And you run in. Can I? Is it action for you to pick the lock, unfortunately?
Starting point is 01:29:09 So you've got a bonus action left and some movement. Is it a bonus action to use? Is that something you can do with cunning action? I think the thief archetype gets to do that, not the radiant knight. It just says once prolonged rest is a magic action. Yeah. You touch a kid. So can I just try and...
Starting point is 01:29:32 That would be an action to wake her up. Or just, like, can I just check if it... She's alive, I will tell you that. Yeah, she's alive, she's unconscious. She's just been knocked out. She's unconscious, she's a bit hurt, she's a bit beaten up. You can see bruises, like bloody lip. She's lost some knocked out. She's unconscious, she's a bit hurt, she's a bit beaten up, you can see bruises, like bloody lip, she's lost some hit points,
Starting point is 01:29:47 but she is alive, she's just unconscious. Okay. That's fine. All right. Yeah, I don't think I can do anything else, but I know what I'll do next time, then. Yes. All righty. In that case, we come to Gruff, then immediately Rowan.
Starting point is 01:30:03 Hello, I need your guidance on this counting. So starting from if a spell was centered on the bonfire, on the pyre, what is 30 foot going diagonally towards the gods? 30 feet from the pyre. God Kim, yes. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 would get you to about where my pencil is now.
Starting point is 01:30:27 So past these cultists, obviously Xanthias and Ophelia would be in that range. I don't know if this is in an emanation or if the spell allows you to choose the targets. 30 foot long, 10 foot wide, so I can do it avoiding Ophelia and Xan. Ah, Ophelia, no. Ophelia is on the Pyre.
Starting point is 01:30:44 She is like, obviously for the movement of the map, I have to balance them in a certain point. Ophelia will be in that zone. Cool, bruh. Could suck. It's all right, I put myself there. Okay. I would like to cast Tidal Wave.
Starting point is 01:30:56 This is Tidal Wave. Mm-hmm, yep. Ooh, okay. Yeah. Okay, so. So you know what she can hit is the two guards and one of the guards. Yeah, I would say if it's a 10 foot wide.
Starting point is 01:31:06 10 foot wide, 30 foot. I'd say, because it's a bit of a tricky one, because it's basically, this is like 15 feet across. That's right. No, it's like a line, it's a 10 foot wide line. I would say, yeah, you can catch all but one of the guard, of these cultists, I would say. I'd say this guy technically is gonna be out.
Starting point is 01:31:26 I'd say it's gonna catch these guys here. Alright, deck saving throw. First one passes, second one fails, third one passes. Fourth one fails, fifth one fails. So two have succeeded. For the sake of ease, I'm gonna say it's these two here, next to Xanthias. Ophelia, did you succeed or pass?
Starting point is 01:31:45 19. Succeed. Succeed. So half damage. So 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 points of bludgeoning damage. And they're knocked prone. And... Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:02 If they fail... On a failed save, bludgeoning damage knocked prone and is either pushed or pulled along the length of the area. On a successful save, they take half damage, they're not knocked or moved. The water extinguishes any flame in the area. Completely goes out. As it does, smoke does begin to trail upwards
Starting point is 01:32:22 from the sudden extinguishment. But it did go up, it did like brightly, burnt very quickly with its soaked in oil, but you have now extinguished it completely. And the wood is all soaked and damped and everything. And the range, sorry, the range is 60 foot from me, so I imagine I'm...
Starting point is 01:32:41 Yeah, you're within range here from your current position. These, one, two, three, four, five, all just crushed by this wave of water, smashed into the ground as they are annihilated by this. Obviously, Ophelia, you do get pummeled by this wave of water, doesn't quite drag you to the floor or knock you off the stone cliff, but you are not too badly hurt by it.
Starting point is 01:33:12 But drag gold, but... Does the water... Oh, sorry, I saved for two of them, didn't I? I did save for two of them. So they would take half damage, what was it? It was like 20-something damage, wasn't it? 21. 21. Check, they're still dead.
Starting point is 01:33:24 Oh. I had to check, I was like, oh damage, wasn't it? 21. Yeah, they're still dead. Oh, I had to check. I was like, oh no, they saved. Oh no, it doesn't matter. And then there was still fire on Ophelia, go out. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. There we go, win-win. Yep, so took some damage, but not on fire anymore. Exactly.
Starting point is 01:33:35 And it was bludgeoning, so it was, yeah. But I will say, that pyre definitely did go up, let off, and is now leaking smoke up into the air, but we'll see if that has any effect on anything. You do would get the impression that Merica and Natal are agitated, like they are concerned when you put the fire out. Um...
Starting point is 01:33:55 Yeah. Do you want to move a bone section? I will say right now you have line of sight only to that corner where the pyre is. You cannot see anything else in the village. I'm going to move towards Zan. Okay. Seeing my boy.
Starting point is 01:34:10 So if you just pop him... So 35 to move. So that would get you next to Xanthias or you can be just behind the wall. I will be just behind the wall. Okay. And then bonus action, I will activate the armor of Oakenthorn. Okay, perfect. Rowan, you are up.
Starting point is 01:34:28 Okay, this turn and then I think we're gonna go to break after this. Okay, Rowan steps in and, worried, will go upstairs. Yeah, sword drawn. Yeah. Sees a very bloodied mess of guard and Daisy in the room ahead, I assume? Yeah, you see the door is open,
Starting point is 01:34:48 you can see Daisy is like stood over a figure, you quickly realize its color. Is everything okay? She's unconscious, she's been beaten up. The person downstairs is asking for the guard to leave. I've got an idea. Okay. So I've got the wand of the sculptor.
Starting point is 01:35:06 I look down at the guard. I'm gonna alter self to look like guard. Okay, as a reminder, alter self doesn't change your clothing. It only changes your body. The guy's self would change your clothing. Ooh. In which case, I may not do that then.
Starting point is 01:35:23 I believe so. Check the spell, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't change your clothing. Yeah, you're right, characteristics. Yeah. I won't do that. I can help you carry her out and then I can dimension door her to safety. Can you just heal her?
Starting point is 01:35:38 She might be able to help. I'll come in if I have the movement. Yeah, yeah, you got movement, loads of movement. I only have thanks to my magic initiate druid, cure wounds. Where'd you get that from? Great. And I have one for long rest.
Starting point is 01:35:59 You can also use your spell slots with the way rules are now. You can actually, if you have the magic initiate fit, you can just use your spell slots for the spell as well. So you get one free casting of it at the lowest level, or you can use any of your spell slots, yeah. I'm gonna use the free one for now. Okay, so 2d8 plus modifier.
Starting point is 01:36:15 Amazing. 10 points of healing. Okay, I'm gonna roll initiative for color. She's gonna come in at an 18 and she has 10 HP. She was at zero but stabilized, so she was unconscious. I don't know why, I thought it was 10 max. No, no, no, no, she's got more than that. You hear her like, she like blinks a few times,
Starting point is 01:36:39 looks and she's like, there's a concert, okay? I don't know what they do, but they hit me and locked me up in here. They mentioned something about being a sacrifice. Let's not let that happen, let's take you out of here. Okay. She kind of bleary blinks ahead. Killed the guard, but there's someone downstairs who I think knows her, and, ugh.
Starting point is 01:37:00 Okay. We've gotta get you out. All right. Do you need some help? No, I can stand. Well, on her turn. You can probably help her up with your bonus action or whatever. But yeah, great. Okay. Is that everything done, Rune?
Starting point is 01:37:11 Yes. In that case, we are going to have to take our break there, unfortunately, everybody. We will see you back in part two to see how the Bounty of the Sea Festival goes. Ooh. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye.
Starting point is 01:37:28 Bye. Bye.

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