High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #1 - Welcome to Aerois (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 2, 2018

Welcome to Aerois! A brand new campaign in a brand new world with brand new characters!   The party are travelling to the Sky City of Gusthaven on an airship, the Sparrowblade. However, their journey quickly takes a complicated turn as they are awoken in the night by a thunderstorm and the sound of battle!   Huge thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond and Brilliant.   D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Use the code HIGHROLLING on D&D Beyond (http://bit.ly/dndbeyondhighrollers) to get 25% off all digital items (excluding the Legendary Bundle)!   Brilliant.Org helps you master concepts through fun, guided problem solving. D&D has a rich history of puzzles and problems, so boost your brain power with Brilliant! The first 200 users to follow our link (http://bit.ly/highrollersarebrilliant) will get 20% off an annual subscription!   Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. That's better Kim. I'm playing Nova, who is an air ganassi, and she is a hexblade warlock. I am Chris Trott. I'm playing Lucius Vue and Elowin Elanastro. And I am a high elf sorcerer. Hi, I'm Rhiannon. I'm playing Sentry.

I am a guardian paladin. Thanks to our sponsors, D&D Beyond and Brilliant.org. Let's begin our first episode in the world of Eros. Shall we begin? I think so. Yes, please. The skyship lurches and the world suddenly falls away and snaps back into place.

A flash of light fills your groggy, sleep-addled vision, followed by a boom of thunder that rattles the ethereum-infused wood of the hull of the Sparrowblade. The cabins are dark, and only the faint dim of starlight and the luminescent glow of the cradle provide any light. As you fully begin to awaken, you feel the airship rocking unevenly, swaying, you hear cracks of thunder and flashes of lightning outside. And what sounds like cries and shouts of battle above and screams from below decks. What I would like is...

Yeah. So Quill, yourself and Sentry are sharing one bunk on the Sparrowblade, this airship that you are taking towards the city of Gusthaven. Nova and Ayla, you are also sharing a bunk. You've been traveling together on the trip so far. And Lucius, your bunkmate,

you've not really spoken to them, but he is a Dwarven fellow. You just know him. His first name is Arvel. And you all awaken as suddenly the airship lurches in place. You feel yourself staggered around for a moment. Perhaps your belongings shift ever so slightly in the room.

And yeah, you begin to hear these noises of battle outside and cries coming from down below. What would you like to do? I was sucking my thumb. Okay. And cradling a little soft toy. Okay. When I was woken up. So the toy actually fumbles out of your hands and skids to the floor.

Daddy! Daddy! What in blazes going on? The dwarf cradler looks around. Sorry, sorry, Arvel. What's going on? I don't know, tell me. Another flash of lightning outside followed by this boom of thunder, and you feel the airship rattle once again. Why is it booming so erratically?

In the flash of light, you can see that, yeah, apart from these flashes of light, you're struggling to see. Only those of you with dark vision can actually see fairly well currently. Find snubbles. Where's snubbles? What are you talking about? My toy!

Nova and Ayla, what are you guys doing? So, literally, you are woken up by this mid-sleep. You don't know what time it is. It's pitch black, but you can feel that something is wrong with the ship. So hearing the thunder and the lightning, Ayla's instinctively going to look at her own hands first. Like it's not you. There's nothing on your hands.

And she's going to jump up and look around. It's Nova. Are you still in bed? Are you? I'd like to think that I would have woken up like really undignified. Just like, and I'm just cuddling one of my books and I probably just fallen on the floor. So you kind of fall out of the bed as it lurches because it's actually like tipping to the side every now and then as well. So you're almost thrown out of bed,

the blanket kind of half wrapped around you. I'm a mess. She's just gonna come over and just sort of pick you up. No, come on, you want to get that sword of yours, you're gonna need it. What, why, no, books! Come on, put the books down. Put me down!

Quillen, Sentry, what about you guys? Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, Sentry, a construct and you've kind of got this metal frame, I'm guessing you just have your armour on because you don't sleep. You just kind of power down. So you're still in your full armour. Anybody else who wears armour, it depends on whether you would naturally sleep in it.

Otherwise, you are in bedclothes. Like, this journey so far, you've been on this ship for maybe a few days. There's not been any reason for you to feel that you're in danger or anything like that, but whether you want to be in armour or not pink satin pajamas okay just you're in pajamas with little sockies clothes and a hat with a bauble on the end okay so uh you century go up to the door and you you don't have dark vision do you so it's incredibly dim you fumble around for a moment you manage to find the handle to this kind of of airship's cabin door you open it up and you see kind of this dark corridor but you do see that another door opposite yours is open and

there is a woman with dark skin wearing um kind of plain sort of like night dress and she's kind of looking out but she has a glowing holy symbol of a half circle with stars above it which you would know is the symbol of Siasca, the star mother, the main goddess of Eros. And she's kind of hovering this light, kind of like peering down, like, what's going on? You can kind of see her looking around.

And then Echo, your little kind of like flying ball of metal and wood with this purple gemstone just kind of apparates out of your body and flies out into the corridor. And you're going to send him down or are you just looking around outside? I'm going to have a look around first, see if I can see anything. So you see this woman kind of like startled for a moment, but you recognise her as another

passenger that's been on the ship and she kind of looks at it as it kind of floats down. You can see that nothing seems to be wrong in this corridor. This is kind of like where the passenger quarters are. You're on a passenger deck of the airship, and it just stretches down. There are some restrooms, and then it goes into a larger space where you know the galley is.

Okay. And in fact, I'll just reveal this on the map. So you can see that it kind of extends down. There is a staircase that leads down, and Echo, as you're kind of like focusing your mind and you're hearing through Echo, from the stairs leading down to the below decks, you hear a blood-curdling scream,

as in somebody being potentially attacked. Okay. You just hear this, like, Okay, cool. We'll hope. So she, blind and deaf, So you, Sentry is, like, holding the door open, but it's like she's shut down.

Like, the doll in her kind of purple eyes has faded, and she's just focusing. Arvel, this dwarf, kind of like... You can see him stumbling around, and he's putting on a leather jerkin and things like that. He's just like, I don't know what that sound is, but it don't sound no good. And he goes over to his pack and pulls out what appears to be a large crossbow, and he starts pulling out bolts and things like that's turning to that ready do we not have guards or something you're from the from the sky cities ain't you boy yes God Steve must have heard of sky pirates before no only daddy told me the secrets of the stories right not real he

gestures and you hear like the sounds of battle and the ship lurches once some more It's just like sure don't feel like no stories boy I'm gonna opens the door looking around for my arcane focus. That's on my hand Okay, so you get your like slip it on stone. Please your gems from the back those of other little gemstones all Yeah connected with metal and things are strips and I'll like a glove, but yeah, connected with metal and things like that. Leather strips, and I'll just like daintily hold onto his shoulders and push him forward. He's kind of like looking around, and you can see that he's an older dwarf, like maybe like middle-aged for his kind. So he's got streaks of grey in the beard.

His tunic, like he's basically got like, he's managed to pull on trousers and a shirt and a vest, like a thick leather vest, but it's very finely embroidered and well-made, and he's got like rings and necklaces on. And he looks quite, like, quite wealthy. I'm so thankful that you're here, Arvel. Protect us, right? Shh, keep it down, boy. Okay. Nova and Ayla. Yeah, so, because I can see

better, I've got darkvision, so I'm gonna go up to the door, I'm gonna grab my hammer, my warhammer, so make sure I've got that, and look out the door, and I'm guessing I see Lucius opposite. You see this dwarf kind of hunched down, looking down. He kind of gives you a nod, and you see Lucius above him. You also see Echo floating around.

You see this flying metal ball hovering around. And then you also see, just poking her head out of the other door, if you can move that to the other door for me, this dark-skinned woman kind of holding this holy symbol, and that is creating some light in the corridor. She's kind of like looking down like... It's otherwise quite dim. Yeah. Can I see his ridiculous pajamas?

Of course you can. Oh, nice pajamas, pretty boy. Really, really great. That's going to help us. I don't think now's the time to talk about fashion, but... I'm just going to start walking down the hall. Oh, good, it i'm just gonna start walking down the hall good more muscle uh as you start walking down uh the dwarf kind of comes out and follows behind you i've got a mini for the arm as well if you can move that down um but the woman kind of is

just like what's going on are you aware of what's happening no but i'm gonna find out she like looks back in the room and um as you passing by, you probably noticed that you can see inside the room there is another man wearing similar kind of robes. And he's kind of like sat on a bed and you can see he's got another one of these holy symbols with a light kind of emanating from it. And next to him is a girl, maybe about 14 or 15. She's got long, dark hair. She's kind of wearing like basic like nightclothes, just like a kind of ragged shirt. And she's kind of looking around. They seem to be

whispering. And the woman who's been speaking to you just turns back and she's like, Corinne, stay there with Valor. I'm going to go with these. And he's like, be safe. I'm going to turn and say, Sentry, could really use that x axe right now, buddy.

Nice. So you snap out of it. Snap out of it. So he just bobs, yeah, he just kind of bobs next to you. Cool, I grab my axe and I go with Aelip. Okay. So Quill's getting behind Sentry. Another...

We really have to get into combat now. Yes, hello. Hi. Do we have to? We don't have to, right? What's happening. Hello. Hi. Do we have to? We don't have to, right? What's happening? It's optional. Does anyone know what's happening?

What's going on? It's not optional, pre-boy. It's not optional. It looks like you two have it quite figured out. We need to keep you guys safe. Yes, yes. Excellent. Thank you, Century.

I love that. It might be better if you stay back. I'll stay right back. Right at the back. You're going to be a problem, I can tell. Nova! Nova! I'd like to think that at this point, right back right at the back you're gonna be a problem I can tell Nova Nova I'd like to think that at this point

all you can hear is like some thumps and cursing from our room as I'm just trying to get dressed like damn god damn it

where am I there's something in that room there's something in that room over there and then I'll literally just fall out back

so now that you're all gathered why don't we just really quickly, although things are tense, just give, especially for people who might be listening on audio podcasts, just give a verbal description of what you look like. We'll start with Ayla because you're in the lead.

Okay, so Ayla, she has got long, sort of very vibrant, fiery red hair. She's got lots of braids in it, sort of very Vikings kind of style. She's got lots of braids in it, sort of very Vikings kind of style. She's quite muscular. She is a wild elf, so she's more muscular than, say, Lucius is as a high elf. And yeah, she's sort of in just sort of leathers, and she's got a bit of tartan strapped to her belt as well. And you've got a massive warhammer. And a massive warhammer.

Okay. Quill? I am a brown-fe feathered bird aracocra with one large wing coming out of a cloak, but the other wing is missing and covered over by a red cloak. Okay. But I'm relatively short.

I'm actually probably shorter than most of the people in the pine. And I'm sort of carrying behind Sentry a little bit. He's got more of a falcon kind of face. Yeah, Peregrine Falcon, Blythe Falcon Hawk. Okay. I think I'll find. What does Nova look like for us, Kim?

She's pretty young. She has star freckles. She's blue, being an Ergonassi. Kind of tousled hair, like fluffy clouds. And she's dressed in a sort of uniform. Lots of pouches and scrolls. Lots of pouches, scrolls, books, writing equipment.

She's more of a scholar than a fighter. But you can see the main thing with Nova is, despite the scholarly appearance, she has this very long, elegant, almost alien looking longsword. It kind of has these very weird blue curves to it. It doesn't look like anything made on Eros. And she does not know how to use it. Yeah. Lucius. I am a very classical looking high elf

with big pointy ears, very pale skin, long platinum blonde hair, but the unique thing about me is I've got two different completely solid colored eyes one is blue and one is orange I'm wearing very elegant noble clothing that's usually purple right now it's pajamas with a tall collar and a cape that goes over one shoulder that's kind of like a half cape and a sash and I'm full of gems and colors and silk gloves yeah magic century

cool cool I am a like a robot almost lookingmost-looking being. I'm really tall. I'm sort of very silvery, and I have a green sort of tarp over my body. I have vines in my hair with flowers growing out of it because I'm really old. And then I have a massive shield and a nice sort of dainty, but really powerful-looking battle axe. Okay. So as you're making your way down this corridor, it is pitch black with only this faint glimmer. And the light being given off

of this priestess's holy symbol is almost like starlight. It's very silvery, very dim, but very faint. And as you begin kind of slowly making your way down the corridor, those of you who are moving, you hear and feel a sudden from maybe at the back end of the ship

further than where you are currently headed, there is an explosion. You kind of almost feel like this ragged bolt of force as you're kind of jostled around. Things fall over. You can hear boxes being toppled in nearby rooms, and everybody's kind of thrown. There is a faint scream from the girl,

the younger girl in the rooms behind you. And, yeah, you just kind of feel this rocking force as it kind of lurches for a second probably trip over nova all over sure you can be very heavy yes yes you should see me with my full clothes i am gonna keep pushing forward so basically yeah just keep moving forward so you can go down you pass what appear to be a bunch of restrooms um uh you can see that they're marked uh for men and women um and yeah there seem to be a bunch of restrooms. Okay. You can see that they're marked for men and women, and yeah, there seem to be short little cabins

where there is obviously the necessities. But as you begin making your way down, you see this dark set of stairs, and it is pitch black down there. Even with your dark vision, there is a heavier darkness. You can still see into it, but you can tell that

there's no light down there whatsoever. You'd be completely without any light whatsoever. But the screaming from down there has stopped. But you can still hear the signs of battle above you, which is the main deck of the airship. So do we hear anything at all from below now, or is it silent?

You can make a perception check for me. First roll. Whoa! That was a good one. 21. 21. So you strain your hearing, and you kind of let your senses adjust,

and you kind of almost try and place yourself back in the forests and the coast where you grew up when you'd be hunting wild game. You clench the warhammer tightly as you strain, and just ever so faintly from deep down below you, you can hear this kind of almost like metal on metal scraping and just this like a heavy breathing. It's just like almost scratching on wood. And then you also notice something else. Out the corner of your eye,

just coming around the corridor, you see two shadowy looking figures. They appear to be wearing thick black leathers. They have full hoods with completely full face masks, like completely encased with almost like a skull-like grimace. And they're wearing these thick leather tunics with big, long, thick black cloaks. They kind of stoop round and you just kind of catch them and you have this moment where they seem to be looking at you, although you can't tell with these full masks, and you're looking at them.

And then you just hear one of them just go like, looks like some of them are awake. Let's finish them off. And that's going to be initiative roll, please. All of us? Everybody please. So Ayla. Eight. Quill. Seventeen. Nova. Trying to find my initiative. It's at the top. It should be at the top. Getting used to being D.B. on, but we'll get there.

Lucius. 18. 18. Sentry. I'm trying to find my initiative. It should be... Just add initiative. Dex.

It should be on there somewhere. Oh, yeah. Just add your dex on the flyer. Okay, cool. That's three the fire. Okay, cool. That's three. Three. Three. Solid.

Slow robo body. So, Lucia, she would normally be going first, but one of, in fact, actually, you hear the woman at the back, this kind of priestess, just kind of makes her way out and she just seems to be following the crowd. She's basically unaware of what's going on,

so she just makes her way, and she'll move down the corridor to round about where Sentry is, and she just kind of is, she looks towards you, Sentry, and is like, I'm so glad that we have a guardian with us. At least, I'm sure,

I'm hoping that the crew can take care of this, and then by that point, we move on. Lucius. I'm terribly sorry. Get off of me. Hello, Koos. Ow. I get up and I just start. Just to see what's going on. Arvel! Arvel!

Shut your mouth. Keep quiet. Sorry. And you're just going to move up there? Yep. Quill. I don't know what's going on there. So you see Aayla. You don't have darkvision, do you? I don't have darkvision, but I have 20 passive perception. Can I hear those guys? I would say that you hear that voice.

You hear that, like, looks like some of them are alive. Okay. Let's push them off. In that case, I would like to cast Shield of Faith on Ayla. So you're going to... Now, is that touch or is that a range one? It's a range, 60 foot. Okay.

So you get plus two to your AC. So you hear, let's kill kill them and then there's just like this sudden realization let's go protect that one so you hold you hold out the wing and you utter a small prayer yeah um and what does the shield what does it look like does it have a particular as i like swing my wing round some white shimmering sort of ethereal feathers also spray out from that and i guess guess they coat round Aayla. And they just float around. And I guess then vanish into some sort of

invisible shield that's around her. I remember it's concentration. It's a concentration for ten minutes. Also, I would then like to whisper to Aayla and just say I'm sure you've got this one. Yeah, thanks, bird boy. And does that count as a...

As a bardic inspiration? As a bardic inspiration! I'm sure you've got this one. I feel very inspired by that, Tom Hazen. You've got it! Magic. But yeah, that's your bonus action. And then I've got bardic inspiration. Oh, sorry, that was two bonus actions I just did then.

Oh, it's shield of faith bonus action. And I'll leave it at that. You just give us some verbal inspiration, not some mechanical inspiration. So at the end of your turn, Quill, one of them turns to the other and is like, they're the spellcaster. I'll deal with them. And you watch as he basically runs, tries to run up the side of the wall and jumps past Aayla.

Well, that depends on how well he manages to run along the wall. Run along the wall? So you watch as he kind of kips up and the ship almost seems to lurch as he then begins running along the side. He bounces off. Aayla, you go to swing, but it's just so fast that you kind of judge that. He lands and he throws a dagger in the direction of what he thinks is Quill but it's probably going to hit Sentry instead.

Can I use my reaction? Well this is going for you, it's not going for Quill so it's just going to target you directly. That is going to be an 18 to hit. And I need a d4. Such an unprepared dungeon master. Who's the easy team, isn't it? So you take five points of damage,

minus one because of your royal shield. So you all take four points. So this dagger kind of flies forward, and you manage to bring up the shield, but the kind of shock kind of knocks a bit of the wind out of you, and this dagger kind of like... thuds in, and he looks. There's more of them back here.

Oh, no. Oh, shit. kind of like thuds in and he looks there's more of them back here yeah oh no oh um so that was one of their dynamic combat actions uh so after quill we then have was that custom huh maybe actually arval is like what in the blazes are they? And he's just like, Evangeline, don't fail me now. And he pulls up this heavy looking crossbow. And he's like, and he shoves Quill to kind of the side and he raises it up. Who names a crossbow? It's a very nice name.

He does the crossbow kind of like, flies out and you watch it it sails past quite expertly between yours and the woman next to you and thuds into the guy's side oh what a great shot I'm so impressed, thanks kid and yeah you kind of

hear like this as it thuds in and you can see the guy's kind of like bleeding from like some sort of wound that he's been dealt however the other assailant then fully steps around and he kind of locks eyes with ayla he holds out his hand like a free hand and a blade of black energy just and then he runs in oh no

level two tbk Runs in with a strike. Level two. TPK! Speak yourself, I'm at the back. So because it is dim light, he has advantage. He has advantage in dim light. Can I use my reaction on this one? You are not within five feet of her, sadly. You've got to be next to her to be able to do it. I need to protect you. That is going to be a 23 to hit.

Oh, boy. Just. That's going to hit. Oh boy. That will maybe hit. Just. That's gonna be, so that's gonna be 15 psychic damage. 15 damage? Jeez. As this blade, it doesn't, it just passes through your armor

and it passes through the magic shield. And you don't feel a cut, but it's just, you're wracked with pain as this blade like. Jesus Christ. So that takes a lot of It doesn't work against psychic damage Does it?

Yeah it doesn't It's only if you're a bear barbarian And psychic still affects you So you watch as this guy runs in And samurai style he swipes you with a blade And for a second you don't feel it And then your body is just like Wracked with pain. After him, let me just take this off.

That hurt a lot. So we have Nova. So once I kind of stumble up, right? Can I see this guy? Do I recognize him? You would recognize these. You've encountered these kind of figures before but these you've never seen them someone like you know watching the kind of thing you have do you have dark vision no then you you don't see the blade of energy but you see the one that jumped forward through the dagger and you just recognize the mask more than anything and these are the ones that you encountered in the shuttle can i tell who, like, kind of who they're coming for, maybe? Or, like, no?

You can give me an insight check, sure. Okay. Natural one! There's a moment where you want to try and figure it out, but your mind is taken back to those panicked, that panicked flight through the abandoned shuttle, this kind of ancient, derelict, magical ship where you found Tiangong.

And all you remember is the fear of, like, these guys chasing you, and it just overwhelms you for a second. Okay. I... I probably can't Eldritch Blast, can I? Because there's just too many people in the way. No, you can. Yeah. Yeah? Yeah, you can. He might get some cover from it, though. Okay, I'm gonna Eldritch Blast. It's a tricky there's just too many people in the way. No, you can. He might get some cover from it, though. Okay, I'm going to Eldritch

Blast then. I'm just going to kind of, once I stand up and look and go, oh no! Oh no! And just like just try and... And how does it look when you do your Eldritch Blast? Do you see the blade shimmer or do you just summon it from your hands?

I think, yeah, the blade would glow first and then just shoot it out on my hand. The same colour as the blade. It's this bluish, kind of glowing blue energy. So that's a seven to hit. Seven. Unfortunately, like, with

the, not only is it just the cover, but this guy, he kind of, like, the gold mask snaps up and he dodges to the side as this energy barrier launches past. Yeah, doesn't seem to... That's all I can do for now. Doesn't seem to do anything. At the end of your turn, the one that just

hit Ayla is actually going to try and do the same thing. He kind of like, leaps over you and is going to try and run along the wall. Let's see if he does it. However, this time he doesn't do it quite adeptly enough that he avoids the attack of opportunity. He avoids it? No he doesn't. He doesn't avoid it so he gets it. Oh and he's also jumped right up.

Oh Christ. Is that from sentry as well? Just from Aayla. It's just from the person he disengages. 24 to hit? Yes that hits him. So as he leaps up this time you're ready for it. You swing the hammer in a large arc. 9 points of damage. 9 points. So this one, you feel the blow connect, but he still manages to keep running with the momentum. But as he lands, he kind of stumbles awkwardly, spins around and now holds up this kind of energy blade in front of him.

Christ. Don't like that. The one that had jumped in front of you, Sentry, the one that threw the dagger, you see him, like, now he holds up his hand and... In fact, I have to make a concentration check for the one you just hit, but he passes it. This energy blade comes in,

and he goes to strike at you with it. So that is going to be a... That's going to be a 19 to hit. Oh, no. what's your AC? my AC is on combat so you might hide that down 18 so he does hit you unfortunately

for 11 points of psychic damage and again you feel this even though your body is made of wood and metal and stone you still feel in your matrix you feel this ag even though like your body is made of wood and metal and stone, you still feel in your matrix, you feel this agonizing pain like kind of course through your body as he leaps over. Jeez. Okay.

I don't like that. Ayla, it's your turn. I'm just going to smack the one that's right beside me then. This is right here. So you turn on the one that's now currently facing Century. And you can see he's aware of you. It's only 12 to hit. And you did not state that it was going to be a reckless attack beforehand.

So this time you go to swing and you think you've got him because he's turned away from you. But he kind of spins around at the last second and then puts his foot on the hammer. Almost kind of trying to keep it to the ground. Looks like he's ready to try and strike at you. Sentry. Cool. All right, I'm getting real, real anxious. I want these guys to be gone.

Real quick. Real quick. I would say that actually as well, Sentry, you would also recognize these guys because they wear an outfit. It's not the same, but this is very similar to what the forces of Starbane wore during the war. Christ, yes. These look very similar to these ancient enemies.

You've got Starbane-ers? Yeah. Cool. I wouldn't know who these are. Can I cast... I know that the audience won't know who Starbane is, but that's part of the mystery of it all. We'll find out in time. Over the next two years.

So what would you like to do, Sentry? Can I cast Thunder of Smite and get the guy between me and Ava? Yes, absolutely you can. So Thunder of Smite, read this out for me. Bonus. So the first time you hit with a melee weapon attack during the spell's duration, your weapon rings with thunder that is audible within 300 feet of you

and the attack deals an extra 2d6 of thunder damage to the target. Perfect. Perfect. And it's a bonus action, so you use your bonus action to cast it and now you make your normal weapon attack. I know So it's a bonus action, so you use your bonus action to cast it, and now you make your normal weapon attack. I know what she's about to do, so I like...

So you're doing a normal battle axe attack. So it's one wing, double one ear. 11 plus 5, 16. That is enough. You kind of bring the hammer down, bring the battle axe in, you, you raise up your shield, your eyes glow purple and the blade hums with the same purple energy and then the Battleaxe comes smashing into this creature. So roll the normal Battleaxe damage and then this one is... So it's 1d8 plus 3 to begin with.

So it's a die with that one. And you also add the Thunderous one. I'll give you an extra d6 for this. You might as well roll them all together. Nice. And then plus 3 to it. Whoops. Ooh! 12, 8...

That was full damage! Oh my god. 20 plus 23. 23 points of damage. What? So you watch as Century brings up this axe and you're kind of seeing how dangerous these things are and recognising them as this ancient enemy that once attacked your home

the weapon hits the body kind of shudders and Aayla you have to leap out of the way as this kind of and the body is thrown flying backwards down the stairs like it's literally like Aayla's just gonna go

I love you that was amazing you just see the head of the other one It's literally like... It was just going to go, I love you! That was amazing! You just see the head of the other one snap back, just kind of expressionless mask. Just doesn't say anything. Oh, God. Get out of here!

You see the priestess woman next to you just kind of like looks at you kind of stunned but then as she begins to hear the one behind you this kind of master sailor moving she turns around she holds up the symbol she takes like some deep breaths she's like Siaska please and you watch as this kind of silvery flame appears in her hand

and she casts sacred flame so that is does anybody have that spell that can just tell me what it is? I don't actually have it. I can find it, though. D&D Beyond! Maybe D&D Beyond could help us. Thank you. I didn't have that prepared.

There we go. Do you want to have a read? Is it that one? Sacred Flame. Thank you very much, Rhiannon. Deck saving throw, 1d8 Radiant. Deck saving throw, 1d8 radiant. Dex saving throw 1d8 radiant. Okay, there we go, he's got it, he's on it. Yeah, just make sure you can get back to your character sheet.

No problem. Dex saving throw, so he, unfortunately this time he kind of like leaps to the side as this kind of silvery star like tumbles past him. But she's, you can see she's trembling with her hands, but she's kind of like holding out the symbol, almost trying to ward him off. Lucius, what would you like to do?

Crikey! You watch as he kind of sw holding out the symbol, almost trying to ward him off. Lucius, what would you like to do? Crikey! You watch as he kind of swipes around, yeah. Almost. I'm going to throw out from my arcane focus an ice knife. Oh! So it coalesces into a point and then I fling it forward. Okay.

As a dagger. And so how does this work? Spell attack. So you make a spell attack. 17 plus five. That's gonna hit him. and then it's 2d8 i'll double check i believe it's a d8 piercing damage and then it does cold damage if he fails a save also but if you just tap on the spell it will it will bring it yeah yeah so ice knife it

is 1d10 piercing oh nice uh hit or miss the shard explodes. So that was half one. Oh, no. So you watch as he kind of floats. The ice knife, like you throw out this bolt of nice. Nice? A bolt of nice. This bolt of ice, and it kind of... You'll get used to that, by the way, Nubia. Marxisms.

I do that a lot. You watch as this blade of ice just kind of cuts through his armour, but it just barely nicks him. But as it goes past him, it then... So... He, Quill, Arven, has to make a dex saving throw. Awwww! I'm RPing this, I'm sorry.

Well, Arvel fails. Also... My blue eye. It's gonna glow. You can do that on a creature you choose. Okay, so it will happen on him. Well, it can't be the same creature, but there's no other things to target, so you can just not.

Okay, it was just one more. I got 18. 18, so I'm assuming that's a pass plus your save. Yes. So Arvel fails, and then he... I'll roll that properly. Also fails, actually. So he'll take one.

Oh, if the attack hits, the creature takes 3d8. 3d8! Is it meant to hit and then explode? Oh my goodness. It kind of, hit or miss it explodes at the radius. Oh wait, that's the wrong one, sorry. It's the wrong one. 2d6. 2d6. Borrow yours. Yeah, go for it.

Hope I get really high rolls. 6. Okay. So you watch as this ice kind of explodes outwards it covers awful he's like sorry quill you managed to kind of wait away but he's also struck by it and you can see that these shards of ice are now embedded into his side as he kind of stumbles. I've only done this against trading dummies before. I'm sorry. Yeah. Arvel's just like... Whimpering to the side.

Quill. Okay. I don't like that he is so close to me. So I am going to use Gust. So I swing a wing and a huge wave of... What is your spell save DC? My spell save DC says strength 13 on here. Yes. Oh, okay. So it's a 13 wave of wind. What is your spell save DC? My spell save DC says strength 13 on here. Yes.

Oh, okay. So it's a 13. I fail. Okay. This is what happens. So he is pushed five feet away from me. So I just push him back a little bit. Okay.

He's back. So you kind of like sweep the wing out and this kind of launches him down the corridor. And I will move to basically what is now the back line, which was the front line. So you kind of squeeze through past sentry and this woman in the priestess robes. Yes, and with a bonus action, I'm going to cast Healing Word on Aayla. Yay! Nice. So 1d4 plus 2.

Tom Hazel's not used to low levels. He's burning through spell slots like they're going out of business. I know, that's two of them already. So you've just regained 5 HP. 5 HP. Thanks, buddy. I'm doing my job. Yay!

What's that like? What? You wouldn't know. So Arvel, seeing this one next to him, he just, he's like, he kind of slings this crossbow behind his back. You can see it's kind of got like a strap that he slings over his shoulder. He just pulls out what appears to be just like a club out of his belt. Look, I said I was sorry.

I'll deal with you later. And then he's like, goes in to smash this guy in the back. He's like, damn, Sky Pirates. Roll that properly. 19 to hit oh wow what a whopping uh four points of damage but that is you watch as like he probably cracks the back of his leg and you hear like something kind of like stumble as the guy's like oh what a guy you'll pay for that dwarf and as he kind of turns around and you can see arvel's just like, yeah, you can pay for a lot of things, like new fucking crossbow bolts.

He just shoves him sort of in the back. However it is, then after him is the assailant's go. He turns on Lucius, who he saw the ice knife come from. Take anything you want. You watch as his black blade kind of just shimmers out of existence. But he's just then going to turn around and he kind of sees that the situation is quite bad.

He is going to bonus action teleport to the end of the corridor. No! So you watch as he kind of like, darkness kind of envelops him. No! And then he appears like next to Nova. He looks down on you, doesn't seem to really regard you,

but instead he holds out his arm, and you watch as a bolt of lightning just launches outwards. What, down the entire hallway? What's that? No, not down the entire hallway. I'm not going to hit you guys with a third-level spell. That was going to hit everybody if you did that. Corridors. No, this one seems to target just gracious. Oh, yeah

Yes, good. Oh my god fine. So can you please honor this is me? I make a range spell attack minus But however, that is only an eight you dodge you kind of like fall down I guess maybe yeah You can just come yes As this like like bolt of lightning just kind of arcs off and bounces, but you can see the charge is still

in his hand. So there's no residual half damage. No, and he just looks, he's just like, even if you kill me, none of you are leaving this ship alive.

Do I get an attack of opportunity on him for, like, zipping into my base? No, teleport doesn't provoke, unfortunately. However, Why are you so mean?

It is your go now nova okay uh i was gonna be like that's it i see your face behind me um i'm gonna say stay out of the wagon why are you here he just looks down at you okay doesn't say anything i'm just gonna shout can i still shout everyone yeah core of shadows quarter shadows corner He's with the quarter shadows and then hex Unless you are super old or into history you won't know what that is man no idea So he is right next to you so we'll be at disadvantage Okay, yep, or you could be could... Because he's in melee range. Can I...

13? You're quite intelligent, though, aren't you? No, I'm not. Oh, you're not? No. Carry on, Kim. I'll answer your question in a moment, Lucius. Can I hex him as well?

So bonus action, hex, and then... Yes, bonus action first, and then you take the action. So you cast hex. Yeah. Okay, so it's one of your spell slots. So you hex him, pick one of his stats that he has disadvantage on, on skill checks. I would like to Hex his Dexterity. Okay, so you watch again, the blade pulses for a second,

and then you watch as almost like bands of this blue energy start ensorceling his limbs, and you can see he's kind of slugguggish looking around and then what would you like to do for your action over can I move back or will he you can disengage yeah but that's your full action that's my full action isn't it um that's girl just trying blast him okay so disadvantage eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen no because it's so close you try and bring the hand 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. No. Because it's so close, you try and bring the hand round,

but he sees what you're doing and just kind of almost grabs your arm, shoves it against the wall as it's just like this blast just echoes around. And you feel that connection with the blade, and you just kind of this one word just wheeled. You just hear this kind of like in your mind After Nova is he's dead Yep, throw the hammer at him.

Could I move up? He'd be at disadvantage if you threw it. Oh yeah, you could move up. What would you like to do? Can I try and throw the hammer? Yeah, if you move up as close... I don't want to throw the hammer actually, because then I don't have the hammer. You have fists.

The true barbarian way. And a face. He does look... I will say he looks quite injured. Like, you can see he's holding like where he's been wounded multiple times. He's got all these ice shards, like literally like... Yeah....like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, He does look, I will say, he looks quite injured. Like, you can see he's holding, like, where he's been wounded multiple times.

He's got all these ice shards, like, literally, like, big shards of ice sticking out of his side. Oops. So does Arvel. Um. No, I think I'll hold, and if he comes within distance of me, I will. Okay, so you're just readying yourself and you're going to hold your action. Readying myself to him. Okay, sentry.

Awesome. Yeah, I think... Hmm. So Aayla there, Nova's there. I kind of... I think I want to stay at the back, protect the three of these guys. Okay. So I think...

Is his name Arvel? Yes, the dwarf. I think he's been hurt. Yes. So I think I want to protect him. Okay, and the guys at the back. Okay, so Can I cast? Shield of faith on Arvel and then just move up between him and Lucius yeah, absolutely So you you met yeah You kind of summoned the magic that was imbued into your matrix and you kind touch Arvel, and you watch as, again, this kind of thing, and he's like, what did you just do?

And he's looking around, and he just looks at you startled, but then he just brings the crossbow, he gets his crossbow back out and starts reloading it, and he's looking at you curiously. So first turn attack, second turn protect. Yeah. I protect, I also attack. She attacks. The sister that's seen all of this go on, Second turn attack, second turn protect. Yeah. Okay, cool. I protect, I also attack. She attacks.

The sister that's seen all of this go on, she will kind of step up behind you because she saw you get hit, and she's going to lay her hand. She's like, guardian, I don't know if this will work, but I hope that it will. And she's going to cast kill wounds, force eight hit points. Nice.

When you feel like the wood of your kind of like form begin to knot and rebind as your damage begins to heal. Awesome. Quill. Oh, sorry, Lucius actually. Now don't be getting, hitting nobody else. Hit the bad guy. You're making me nervous.

Firebolt. Okay. Spell attack for you. Yep, yep, yep. So that is plus five. No. Okay. Spell attack for you. Yep, yep, yep. So that is plus five. No. Seven. You're making me nervous!

Your watch is like, it hits the wooden ceiling of the ship. Oh no! And just begins to burn a little bit. It's not good. Arthur, use one of your shards on your leg. Put it out. He just, he's like, I don't want to look up right now. I don't want to see it. I don't want to deal with it. Arthur use one of your shards on your leg and put it out he just he's like I don't want to look up right now I don't want to see it, I don't want to deal with it

I'd like to point out it is no longer Juto setting things on fire okay I am going to hmm I'm gonna I can't really get into range to do to get to 15 feet away from him. You can move through friends, it's just difficult terrain.

Yeah, it's just too far away for me where I am now. I will move up to behind Sentry, place a hand on her and give her Guidance. Okay. sentry, place a hand on her and give her guidance. So you can roll a d4 to add that to a number to any ability check of your choice. Oh, nice. Thank you. Arvel.

For one round. Arvel's just like... You can... Yeah, he's reloading this turn because he hit him last turn, so that's what arval's doing the assailant is gonna you can still see this charge um he's gonna through his dagger doesn't have his lightning thing he's cast that yeah he's just gonna with the the witch bolt he's gonna try and um lash out again i think um i mean yep but this time again, the bolt just...

I'd probably go for Aayla, actually, but it doesn't matter, I rolled a two. So you watch as he goes to do this, and you almost laugh as you see this lightning bolt, but it just goes wide. It almost seems to arc away from you. It's just like... Oh, wow.

As it hits into the side of the wall. I wish it did. Okay, he doesn't. No, it doesn't. It just doesn't. Okay, I'm gonna be like... and just very nervously bring Tiangong out. So you kind of pull this sword and you're kind of holding it like awkwardly. It's like clearly you're kind of holding it in a weird way.

Aayla's judging really hard right now. I'm a scholar, I'm not a fighter. I'm looking in awe. Oh wow. Praise the sky. So you watch. She doesn't look like she knows what she's doing, and then suddenly she snaps forward, she faints high, and then cuts down low

like an expert swordsman. What? How much? Eight. Eight points of damage. You watch as the blade slices through the leather armor like it wasn't there, leaving this blue trail, almost like a nebula behind it.

And then his body just splits. I'm so sorry. That was amazing, but also awful. I just wanted him to stop. You need to use that more often. Really, really. I can't look. You do look a little bit weird when you use it, though.

I'm going to work on that. I'm going to run back to the stairs and look down to see if the first guy is actually dead. And I guess I'll see him crumple. You see darkness. Oh, there's nothing down there. Okay. No, it's pitch black and your dark vision, literally, you don't have any. So it's just pitch blackness.

We still have an initiative. I imagine this one's dead. You're not an initiative. Arvel is like, now at least things are going to melt out of me or what? He's just like, ah. I've never done it on a human before. Dwarf, dwarf. What does that mean?

It's usually training dummies or bags of sand. I'm sorry. It's not the first time I've been mistaken for a bag of sand. Really? Sister, sister, please. And he watches the priestess woman. He's like, I'll deal with you in a second, dwarf. Please, I must check on my charge.

And she's going to go back to the back room. She looks in. She's like, Corinne, is she all right? Yes, yes, she's fine. She's fine. I thought that thing was going to come in here. Can I very tentatively, like, I don't know. I go to shut his eyes, but realize he's wearing a mask.

Yeah, it's like this. Yeah, and then I want to start searching him, like, desperately, like, for any orders or, like, anything. Yeah, so you search over the body. And you find, yeah, he's got, like, this toughened black leather armor underneath the cloak, a dagger that he threw. And then you see that he has, like, a leather cuff

with a small charm, like an electrum charm. It's probably worth about five silver. It's just like a little kind of like, yeah, like a little charm of a sword. Is there anything to identify, like maybe who he's? Look at them. Not really.

The only reason you even know what they are is because you've encountered them before. Can we still hear fighting and screaming? Yes, from above you, yes. And you can also begin... The fire that you hit does die out. It was just like a little spark that kind of like... But it doesn't take hold.

But there is the sound of... You can hear like crackling flames coming from above. You still hear the thunderstorm going on outside and the ship is still lurching. All of you... you're Sky Citizen, so you come from the Sky City, so you've probably been on an airship before. The rest of you, if you can make perception checks for me, actually.

Lucius, you don't need to make this. 11. 11. 17. 17. Unnatural 20. Natural 20. Unnatural 20.

Perception. 11. 17. Unnatural 20. Natural 20. Unnatural 20. Perception... 11. 11. So those of you who got above 15 and Lucius, now that this kind of immediate danger's out the way, and although you've been feeling the ship lurch and tilt, it's now the first time that you've realised that the ship is descending very quickly. It's not dropping out of the sky, but you imagine it is going down. Like the ship is descending very quickly. It's not dropping out of the sky, but you imagine it is

going down. Like the ship is crashing. It's just doing it at a point where it's not nose diving, it's just kind of going in a steady descent down. Um, friends? And by that I mean Sentry and you other guys? Well, we're going down, you know, yes. What do you, what do you mean? The ship, it's going down, we are going down, we're going to crash. Why do these things exist? They're stupid. They're beautiful, but yes, it's going down. Court of Shadows. I don't care. He's from the Court of Shadows. It's Kallus and Starbeam's forces. Where do you, where does this thing, where's the controls for this thing? Fix it. The rest of them don't seem to notice, but you notice that when you say that, the priestess, kind of like, her eyes go wide, but she doesn't say anything.

The dwarf is just like, we need to figure out, the captain, she must be up on the top deck of the ship, she'll know what's going on! That's where all the fighting is, but what else can we do? I say that's all we can do! Keep fighting! Come on guys alright I'll follow you

so you guys can make your way around can I like completely dive back here grab my books yeah you guys can grab your luggage and stuff like that if you want to

do we have any idea based on how it's falling and do we know how high we were before yeah you would have been at very you would have been extremely high altitude

like in a kind of cloud level kind of like plain kind of level given the time of night and again it's difficult for you to because you're an arrow croaker It would have been extremely high altitude, like kind of cloud level, kind of like plane kind of level. Given the time of night, and again, it's difficult for you to tell because you're an Aarakroa Krennic and you're used to flying, kind of feeling it out, you think maybe like five, ten minutes before you hit, like, if you hit, you might hit water. You're not quite sure where you are.

You can't see. You might hit ocean. You might hit mountains. You could hit land. You don't know. I don't know who callie starburn is but we don't have time we have to we've got like not long left i'm putting my stuff on so while they're putting stuff on ayla you run around uh you know because you've been

on the ship for a few days you run past the galley where you've been taking your meals and you go towards the the stairs that lead up to the deck and you see that the entire stairwell has collapsed inwards um part of like a mast has fallen on it and smashed the floorboards down, but it is also on fire. You can see flames are trickling and roaring through it. Cargo has fallen in. It's just a mess. It's a complete crush of debris. But you can see little gaps,

and you can see some of the ship's crew wearing loose sailor's tunics, wielding curved cutlasses. They're fighting off similar kind of masked skull figures. And you can occasionally hear cracks of magic. You can hear kind of snaps and, you know, slices of weapons, steel upon steel. Okay, I'll relay that back to guys. Would I know if there was another way sort of off the ship from down here?

That's what I'm thinking too. There is a boarding platform, which is at the bottom of the ship, but it would potentially just lead you into open sky. The captain or any of the crew would probably know more of the procedures for crashes. They don't do safety videos, unfortunately, on skyships and cranes. I suppose we'd know the captain, we'd know he's not.

You've met Falthia Alessandris. She's a high-off windmaster at CAS, a skyship captain. Yeah, like, she's either in her quarters down below or she's on the top deck fighting. Ayla, you just looked up, you just glanced up. You didn't see if you could see her specifically. In our bedrooms, are there... There are windows, yeah. There's portholes, yeah.

Yeah, you can go to one of those. I'm going to run out. Cedric! Cedric, you've got grippy hands, right? Could you grip onto the hull and maybe climb out of a hole? You're too big is there a hole where Lucius fired oh yeah it's not a full hole now they can just scorched it but I saw there are holes in this kind of crushed air well that could go out or you could probably break a window if

you're thinking of sending echo you could probably smash one of these port holes and he could fly up and yeah I'll, I'll do that. I'll send Echo through. That makes far more sense! You go into a room, you smash that and send Echo out. Just before you do that, anybody else doing anything? You see Arvel, the sister is currently tending to Arvel, like pulling out shards and things like that, but he's obviously injured. Can I go to the sister? Yeah, she's currently tending on Arvel. She's like...

I was going to say, you know. You know who they are, and I know what you are. I have heard the stories, yes. Are they coming for your ward? I don't know. I don't know. Who is she? That is a longer story than we have time for. Myself and my fellow brother have been charged in taking her to Gustafsson.

That's all I know without being able to spend time exacerbating the story. But yes, maybe, but I don't see why. She's just an orphan girl, one that we've been tasked to charge with. She may have some magical, latent magical power, but that's it. Enough for the court to want her? No, absolutely not. If this is indeed the Court of Shadows from the Dark War, then I have no idea why they are here.

Are they after any of you? That was my first thought. You're all a colourful bunch of travellers. Perhaps they're after one of you or something you have. They might be after my business. No. You don be after my business. No. You don't know my business! Sorry, sorry, that was very rude of me.

Looking inside, you see, now you see a gentleman and a young woman. I do have many, just four. I can't find the other one. You see a fellow wearing the same kind of siasca priest robes kind of step out, and you can see he's kind of got one arm around this kind of young girl's shoulder she's now dressed looks like that in the commotion she's just quickly put on some traveling clothes they've

both got bags you can see they've got backpacks and satchels he's like Yousef what's going on and she's like Corinne I don't know they were figures perhaps perhaps they were the Court of Shadows I don't know but we just need to keep her safe and I think that we should stick with these travellers for now. They seem very competent, we should stick with them. We're about to crash. These guys are all talking a lot. Yeah, so there's something downstairs, guys.

Something was making some noise. So at this point, we see Echo... He flies up. So Echo kind of flies out, and the wind almost throws him backwards. He kind of has to... He the wind almost throws him backwards. He kind of has to, like, he kind of, like, pushes forward and upwards, and he kind of makes his way, and he kind of bobs up,

very gently kind of, like, peeks up onto the deck, and you can see that there are already a ton of dead crew members and perhaps only a few left fighting. You recognize a half-orc navigator covered in big tattoos, big burly arms, and he's just got these two heavy maces, and he's just smashing into two of these guys fighting.

And then the captain is actually at the back of the ship, near where the stairs would lead up, by the wheel. She's got one hand on this wheel, and you can see these power lines are feeding into her core crystal at the center of the wheel, and they're kind of flowing down her veins, almost like she's channeling magic into it. And she's got aier in one hand and she's like parrying and like fending one of them off and she's just like ah keep it going wreath breaker we've got to keep this thing from falling from nose diving and stuff like that um and you can see like this all going on there does

seem to be one of these figures he's got the same almost identical outfit but he's actually carrying a physical great sword and he's just stood at the back gesturing um and you can hear like enough stop playing with them kill them now um and like some of the others are like rushing up and trying to fight them and things like that but he's avoiding the combat so far okay cool um but not cool um i am suddenly even though i'm panicking quite a lot, I'm trying to stay as calm as possible and thinking about any stories of airships crashing and where the safest place to be in that situation is. Give me just a straight-up intelligence check.

So D20 plus intelligence. D20, that's 16 plus 1, so 17. 17. Yeah, you would probably... You've spent being... You were once a messenger guild. You trained to be in the messenger guild. And as part of that, you would have done a lot of, you know, training with airship crews. You would have delivered messages or couriered, you know, packages to airships.

And you probably would have spoken to a few captains. There is always safety measures. There are normally things called glide cloths, which are basically like parachutes. They're enchanted ethereum cloth that you can use to basically slowly descend. They're kind of like, they're deployed almost like a little harness. They'll be secured somewhere on the ship.

If you did have to crash, you'd probably be best off where you are, securing yourself in the galley and finding ways to just strap yourselves in so you're not thrown around. Because one of the worst things is debris crushing you or things falling on top of you and things like that. Right.

Does anyone have any plans? Because I think this might be a crash situation. No. What are you talking about, Aragogra? I don't want to alarm anyone, but I think this might hit the ground and potentially kill everyone aboard. The young girl for the first time speaks and she's like, I think telling us that the ship is about to crash is pretty alarming in the first place. Okay, well, don't worry. I'm sure it'll be fine.

We're going to crash! Technically speaking, we are in the safest area. If we just find a way to secure ourselves so that when we crash we're not hit by debris we're probably going to land in water depending on where we were in the air flight uh it's fine just go in the galley find somewhere safe strap yourself in okay i'm gonna run there's still fighting going on up there well there won't be once we crash how are we gonna get up there there's i don't know can we break our way through that's it uh you have the hammer! I could try. Are you going to bring Echo or do you want to bring him back?

I can bring Echo down and I can relay the information to these guys and be like, cool. So the captain and the... First mate are up there fighting. Knowing we need to help them so we can get the ship safe and to life. I'm going to start going back around here. It doesn't look like I can start smashing this.

So the fire has got more intention, it's now starting to spread. Anyone got water? I have ice. Ice? Uh, okay. Alright, the fire is now beginning to kind of creep out. I skip along. Looking up, so you turn around the corner and it's like blazing flames.

You can see that the large mast is enormous. It's maybe like a ten foot diameter and it smashed through where the stairs were and it's just basically crushed the entirety of the stairs and filled it in with debris. Can I try and like Eldritch Blast a hole through the roof? Sure. You don't need to roll to hit.

Just roll damage for me. Damage. So it's a d10 isn't it? You missed. Is that a 1? Yeah that's a 1. As you't it? You missed. Is that a one? Yeah, that's a one. As you blast it upwards, it hits the wood and you see it scorch and mark. It seems incredibly tough. But you would kind of, as you blast it, most airships have ethereum-infused wood, which is lighter and stronger than most stuff.

The fact that the stairs have collapsed, it must have been such a weight from this mast falling that it's basically, that's, you know, shat in it. I think this is out of my skill set. It's quite a lot of fire, and I have tiny knives. I saw it, it went into Arva's body. Judging by the rate of fire and knowing what this ship is made out of, I don't think this is going to get through any time soon.

I'm just still like... I believe we either need to brace for it. There's got to be some other way off this thing. We could go down. Down? There's something down there. There might be some cloth. We can see.

Gliding cloth. Gliding cloth. That's the one. Sails? Sails? No, that's up there. Enchanted cloth. Enchanted cloth. Downstairs. You can hear it, can you? Can you hear? Hear what? Can you hear the though that's up like in change. Yes and charge it cloths downstairs. You can hear it

Can you can you hear hey what can you hear the thing that I'm nice with your passive? Yeah, you can hear like in fact actually I would say that you just barely hear this kind of like It's heavy breathing does it sound like before the same thing? Yeah No, it doesn't sound like it doesn't sound like a humanoid. It's like No, it doesn't sound like a humanoid It's something else Oh What? But it's like it's moving around

down there, like it fades out because you've got such, you're so good at hearing and things like that that you're kind of listening and it drifts away and then it comes back and it drifts away I was like, well, I mean I just don't want to stand around here and do kind of listening and it kind of drifts away and then it comes back and it drifts away. I was like, well, I mean,

I just don't want to stand around here and do nothing if this ship's crashing. I've got my merchandise and I'm not losing out on my business. Correct. Daddy would be so pissed. What is your merchandise? You got light, someone? No.

Okay. You can send light, can't you? Not meaning to alarm anyone there. Yes. Send it down. Okay. I coalesce dancing lights. Okay. You can send light, can't you? Not meaning to alarm anyone there. Yes? Send it down. Okay. I coalesce dancing lights. Okay. Which is three or, no, four torch-sized lights. Okay.

I'm going to just... So we'll, like, stagger them, like... Yeah. One, two, three, four. Okay. And then spread them out. So for a brief flicker Quill who happens to be stood there 10 foot radius each one

such high passive perception the lights go down and you see for a second the flicker of a large kind of made from metal and crystal but the metal is dark like the night

almost blackened metal. This kind of steel jaw and this panther-like body kind of like very briefly touches the edge of the light, seems to realise what it is, and then into the darkness. What would I need to make a roll to recognise anything like that? Give me a Arcana check.

Okay, Arcana, that's an unnatural 20. I rolled that. Unnatural 20. I rolled that. Unnatural 20. Unnatural. You have heard of some creatures like this. I mean, obviously, Sentry is a guardian who is a construct. And after the guardians, the knowledge of how to build guardians was lost, there's been a lot of attempts to create constructs and similar things before.

It's some sort of golem. You're not really sure what, though. It's clearly made of metal. You don't think it's a living creature. It's some sort of construct or a golem. You've heard of them sometimes. You've heard stories that in parts of the lowlands where there is a lot of what they call remnant activity,

these last vestiges of the Dark War. There are these kind of creatures that stalk the night and snatch people away. Sentry, Sentry, Sentry. Hello. There's a big, it's like you, if it looked monstrous and big and had teeth. Do you know what that is?

Also, what are you doing on here? With us? I can't see anything. Can I do a perception check on it? I've still got Quill's D4 to add to my ability check as well. Would Nova know anything from my reading? Seeing as it's a cantrip, you could just cast Guidance again. Oh, okay. Sorry?

Would Nova know anything from my reading? You can make an Arcana check. And it would be... Do you want to try and just see it, or do you want to try and just see it or do you want to try and remember information about it? I want to try and remember information. That would be a history check. History check. And I'll give you advantage because of your circumstance.

So you can roll twice and take the highest. I'm going to roll a d20 again. 17 is pretty good, but see if you get anything higher. Take the 17 plus the 4 from guidance. Oh, you already had the d4. So add 4 to the 17 Plus the 4 from guidance Oh you already had the d4 So add 4 to the 17 21 And my history bonus Is minus 1

23 23 You remember You remember designs Of Starbane and his forces One of his commanders These kind of demigod commanders You remember designs of Starbane and his forces. One of his commanders, these kind of demigod commanders, loved to tinker and create and was kind of inspired by the Guardians to create his own soldiers for the enemy. And they created these things called Stalkers.

And they sound pretty similar, made from black metal and crystal, but they have almost powers of the night where if they're in darkness they you know they their predatory instincts are stronger they can also kind of drain the life of people around them they can kind of send out this pulse okay and to drain life around them um and they're pretty vicious you kind of have like they were kind of created very near the end of end of the war kind of similar time when you were. Cool. Yeah. You probably would never have fought one, but you definitely heard of them.

Yeah. Okay. So I'd want to get these guys out of the way. Okay. So, yeah, what do you do? Like, come over and... I'd come over and take a defensive stance in front of them and just let them know,

guys, this is a bad situation for you guys. You need to be really careful. Maybe we don't go in there. Sentry, do you know if that thing would survive, let's say, for example, an airship crashing into the ground? I would assume not. That's okay, we can stay here. I'm going to go buckle myself up. See you later. But it quite potentially, it wouldn't be enough to destroy me, maybe.

So I feel like maybe they would survive. So, at this point, what would you all like to do? I'm running to the bedroom, and I'm gonna ice myself to the floor. Okay, so you're gonna go take, you're gonna basically- Under the bed. So, is my understanding, well, what do you wanna do? Because you wanna fight stuff.

I wanna try and smash up to the deck somehow, but there's no other way to get up other than this that I know of There's no other stairways that we know of that go up on these ships are pretty slim And they're kind of built to be kind of quick and speedy you've seen Yeah No way to watch the only way it seems you could go yeah, it's like potentially there might be these There's the platform and the glide cloths down, but there is also this beast.

What would you like to do? Can we take it? We can try. Arvel's like, now that's my kind of talk. Look, we can sit here and hope to die. We're probably going to die anyway. Why not? No, we're not.

I'm like at my door and I turn around like, we can take... No. Oh, Sentry, please. Arvel turns around and he's like, none of y'all need to come this way. I don't know any of you, but if...

Listen, lady. Ayla, was it? Yeah. If you want to go down there, I'm with you. I'd rather go down fighting than stay up here and die by being crushed to death.

I get on an airship once and it freaking crashes. This is bullshit. Best way to fly. This is bullshit. And I'm going out fighting. Statistically, they are quite safe. Thank you.

Listen, well, I'm up. I'm game. I could use your help. Out of interest, how long has it been? A few minutes. Okay. How crashy are we feeling? Yeah, how? It's been a few minutes.

How crashed does the ship look? You can still feel it listing and like, yeah. You're not sure. Why are we fighting? You have no idea. So the glidecloths are where this creature is? We don't know if there is any. Okay.

I'm not willing to take... You haven't seen anything like that on this level. You've not really gone down to the bottom level because it's mainly for storage and the crew. Which is where it might be. It's the only way to go. That's also where the platform is, where the kind of like launch, what's it called? Launch bay. I don't know what it's called.

Bay doors. Bay doors, yeah. Cargo. Cargo bay, yeah. Nice. Millennium Falcon. I guess I'd quite like to sketch it. That's the Spirit Nova, sketch it. That's the spirit, Nova. Sketch it.

Just later. Later. No, if you find it, I'll sketch it. Sketch it later, Nova. I'm going to whisper in her ear, just like, big teeth, really big teeth. The sister... I'm literally going to start, like... The sister gestures.

She looks to the other two. She's just like, Corinne, take her and strap yourselves into the galley. If we find anything, I will come back and get you. But do not risk coming down if I do not come back for you. I will go with them. Try and aid my healing if I can.

And she's going to come in behind you as well. Panther like, you say? Oh, yes. Very. I'm going to take the pen out of Nova's hand. So, I'm doing a courage check. Darling. Okay. I reckon it would be a wisdom saving throw. Wisdom saving throw versus fear, generally.

15. Oh, that's in it. Yeah. Daddy wouldn't approve. It's for you, Daddy. I would also say Lucius might have the thought of, he's not sure if they do kill it and get these parachutes, you're not sure if they would actually come and give you one.

Okay, that's going on under the surface. So, Aayla, you are leading the way. So just give me a descending order here, so I know who's going down in the current order. Well, this guy's... Yeah, he's dead. I'm actually next to Nova, sorry. All right, so Aayla, Arvel, Sentry, Quill, Nova, Lucius,

and then Sister Yusuf at the back. She could be next to me, I guess. Okay, so you guys descend down. We're not going to be using the map cam anymore, Steve, if you want to turn that off to the character portraits. You descend down into a large black space, and you can see that this large dark, I mean for those of you who don't have dark vision it is near pitch black

there are no portholes, there's no light naturally coming in here. The dancing lights they give off very dim like 10 feet radius kind of light There's four of them, they'll just spread them out So he kind of spreads them out and you watch these kind of hovering, I guess like blue, orange and different coloured globes

and they're spreading this kind of multicolored light. But it's over a large area, and they're so dim that there are all these elongated shadows. You see, like, big stacks, most of which have fallen over, but these kind of create these, like, large piles of cargo. Rigging, like wood, like roped rigging, kind of hanging down, hammocks. And you begin making your way down there, and it's, for those of you who don't have darkvision, you're struggling to see, those of you who do just see these kind of hanging down, hammocks. And you begin making your way down there and it's, for those of you who don't have dark vision, you're struggling to see, those of you who do just see these kind of shapes

and maybe you just catch glimpses of like movement and then it's gone. You look that way again, it's not there. And then suddenly from behind you, you almost begin to hear this movement, but nothing jumps out at you immediately. May I suggest, I heard that these things don't light, or at least they come out in the dark you got hard no I

Got nothing. This is what I've got I'm gonna surround us with the dancing light sister Yousef is like I can provide a bit more and she Jen gestures to the holy symbol and this silvery light But again, it's just around you guys like it's it's kind of creating like a you know Gandalf in the minds of Moria like yeah Can I have one? It's kind of creating a Gandalf in the minds of Moria. Yeah, kind of dancing like the front of the party, sides and back. So you're just continuously shifting them by casting. Just moving them around us. So you watch as you begin making your way,

and then the foot, you're kind of stumbling through the dark, Aayla's leading you around these piles of wooden boxes, storage barrels, and then you see bodies you begin to see the other crew members the ones that were sleeping just torn apart and shredded um and you can see blood kind of pooling out and staining the ethereum wood and then at the very back of the room you can see kind of slatted storeroom of which you can see hung up these kind of like leather harnesses and then just as you begin taking the movement something large and predatory springs out of the darkness

and that's where we're going to take a break Thanks for listening to the High Rollers podcast don't forget to check out our next episode and please do rate us on iTunes. Thank you.