High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #100 | Episode One Hundred! (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 4, 2021

Episode one hundred! We're trapped between a rock and a hard place! By 'rock' I mean multiple drill-handed screaming dwarves and by 'hard place' I mean Mind Flayers that want to dominate us. Same thing. Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Dairy Farmers of Canada. In the mysterious weapons facility, Shadow Song Pinnacle, which seems to be a floating keep, a floating island keep in the northern mountains of Erois, you have made some progress. You've managed to infiltrate your way through the docks level up into the main keep's courtyard. You've successfully taken out a number of soldiers, both through stealthy means and non-stealthy means,

and encountered a strange fellow called Reverend Ocelan, who seemed to wield some unusual powers and have some expertise with a firearm. You have obtained the keystone required to access the large tower to the north of the keep, but as well as the keystone, which activates a small room on the right-hand side of the keep as well. Inside the tower, there appears to be an elevator that takes you up to at

least uh three floors above but also uh three basement levels below however the basement levels require a keystone of rank five or greater um you have heard some unnerving noises from the tower you've smelt some unnerving smells coming from the tower but lucius the sorcerer and moonstar his uh vigilante sister are both positioned in the smaller uh room on right hand side of the courtyard where they begin to hear strange melodic slow orchestral music in their minds and And I've... We're waiting for the rest of the party to catch up to us. In the relative darkness.

You're messaging them to kind of say, come here, we found something, you should come to us. Some strange goings-on here as well as your rooms. So if you wouldn't mind nipping over at your earliest convenience, we'd much appreciate it. Thank you. On our way. Thank you.

All right. Okay. So you all make your way through the blizzard, thick snow flurry that has descended over the Shadowsong Pinnacle, pushing your way through the snow and the wind to find this small pillbox room, which is, yeah, like a stone antechamber.

There is like a pair of stone braziers, not lit inside. And then there is just this stone staircase that leads down, like a 10 foot wide stone staircase that seems to lead down into the rock and foundations of this floating island.

Well. into the rock and foundations of this floating island. Well? All of you, when you enter the room, begin to hear this music in your minds. Okay. You all hear that too, right? Me. Oh, yeah, that's definitely in my head. Not right.

Before we go down Wait a second Who would like to go invisible? I have enough capabilities to cast it once more and then that's it Unless we take a short turn Century Yes Probably century

It's not century Can you silence her feet as well maybe if we got some material and padded her feet can we strap cushions to sentry just everywhere just pad her

completely you can certainly try yeah turn her to baymax I can try and tippy toe completely. Soundproof century. You can certainly try. Yeah, turn into Baymax. I can try and tippy-toe. I'll do that as much as I can. Thinking about it, I can turn four people invisible and then I can go invisible in shadow

so as long as it's dark, I should be okay. You can't move though. Remember that's only while you're stood still, Nova. Yeah. It's not like normal invisibility. How about... Do we want to do that, or do we want to just save that for when we get to level 5?

Because... I reckon the stealthiest of us, and I look directly at Moonstar, investigates what's downstairs while Sentry stays at the top and then we'll give the go ahead. I can go ahead.

If it's clear. Sure. All right, well, you stay here. I'll go down and see what's immediately down there. Thank you. And she will slip off into the shadows. You watch as she silently makes her way downstairs kind of pressing herself up against it those of you with dark vision she gets 60 feet down and then out of

the range of your dark vision and just darkness seems to swallow her up well i'm just going to message a ring from here on so all communication that that Lucius is saying is via the ring. Hope she's all right. She's doing great, isn't she? I'm quite proud. She's very badass. I mean, yeah, she is. She's pretty fantastic.

We're working together. Can we keep her? Can we just take her with us? Because she's very handy. She likes being alone. Working alone. And thinking that others are in the way. Anyway.

Hopefully she's not dead. Okay. I mean... Sure. There's an open position in Stormchaser. We could have her as a sixth sixth member have we ever thought about that? six? Moonstar

I think Gustaven really could benefit from her especially the prince needs an ally oh yeah I don't think she's responding I could try and go down it's quite dark Oh yeah. I don't think she's responding. I could try and go down. It's quite dark. And I can turn invisible in shadows. I think we should go not go down in ones.

I think a few of us should go down now and two should remain upstairs. Only because of Century. Sorry, Century. Again, understandable. Yes. As soon as bad happens we'll call via messenger ring and you can Sentry. Sorry, Sentry. Again, understandable. I, I, I'm, yes. As soon as bad happens, we'll call via messenger ring, and you can come storming down as loud as you like.

Okay. Sounds good. What's staying behind? Sentry, one. I'm happy to go down. I can go down, too. Sure. So Lucius and Ayla are going to head downstairs. Are you going to go down stealthy?

Yeah. Can I give them a little bless before they go? You can do what you like. I would like to pop a bless on Lucius, Ayla and Ayla. Pop a bless. I'm going down as well.

Yeah, I'm going to go down as well. I was also going to cast a level 4 aid as well so I'll go on me I'm not going down I know but whatever me Lucius and Nova get an extra 15 temp HP 21 stealth with sentry's bless 6 Stealth with Sentry's Bless. Six. What was the Bless again? I really should write it down. Oh, it's a D4. D4 for attack rolls and saving throws.

And attack rolls, yeah. That was pretty good. I rolled a 13 and I got a 21 because of that Bless and my bonus. Whoa. Nice. 22. 22.

Lucius with a whopping 4 there. Lucius, Ayla, Nova. You begin slowly making your way downstairs. Kind of tiptoeing down into the darkness. The stairs just go down 60 feet. When you look behind you, you can just

about see the silhouettes of Sentry and Quill disappear as the angle of the stairs becomes steep enough that you can no longer really see up into the tip room. You go down a little bit further, you keep going, maybe about 100, 120 feet down. The music that you've

been hearing in your mind is louder. The deeper you go, the louder it seems to get. And when you reach the bottom, the stairs seem to bring you into a corridor that stretches to the left and right. I need all three of you to make wisdom saving throws, please. Oh, shit. Should have gone...

13. 17. Okay. I think that's the highest I've ever rolled on a wisdom save. 16. 16. Nova and Lucius, as you're going down, this music is beautiful. It's enchanting.

You can't help but kind of enjoy it. And you feel, you're like, oh, yeah, we need to go find the commander to we need to go find the commander you need to go find the commander guys what sort of effect is this technically it's a charm so you have advantage actually Lucius this is a charm effect

haha I got 19 of his charm 21 okay so just Nova then just Nova nova you need to go find the commander you're you're being summoned you need to go report to the commander i need to go and find the commander i wonder what the commander would be what are you talking in in messenger i'm gonna start nova starts Yeah, Nova starts walking and she goes to the... Right, okay. Yeah, you grab her.

Nova, try and break free. You're not the commander. Yeah. It's like you're still yourself. Yeah, let me try and break free, shall I? Yeah, you're still yourself, but you're like, no, no, no, I need to... It's like a suggestion spell, right?

You're like, I need to go and find the commander. What is it? A strength save? So yeah, well you would make probably for you it would be acrobatics check versus Ayla's athletics. Acrobatics? I rolled an 18, 19, 20, 21. Athletics for Ayla.

Oh, I rolled a 19. I rolled a 19 plus 12. Yeah, so she's wriggling and trying to get out. Nova's desperately trying to break free. And yeah, if you want to keep hold of her, you're going to have to keep doing that every round for at least a little bit longer.

Aayla and Lucius, you don't know that anything's happened. You just hear this music quite loudly in your minds. There's like, yeah, you don't feel like anything's happened. You just hear this music quite loudly in your mind. There's like, yeah, you don't feel like any kind of thing come over you. I'll grip hold of her other arm to aid Aayla if she... With the two of you, I don't think there's any chance Nova has of getting free. Do we think...

Nova? Do we... Go on. I was just going to say, do we know that something tried to no you don't know that anything tried to we don't okay yep go on over with suggestion um i mean would it be in any way possible so light suggestion so doing something like maybe using my last spell salt to cast gase's form on myself perhaps would not break through. That might, though,

because you really want to go see the commander. And if you've got that available to you, I think that you would be like, I need to go report they don't understand. I have to go see him. In which case, I am going to turn into a gas. Fuck.

Just mist. Just mist. Now, you are slow as a mist, I think, right? You're like 10 feet speed? Yes, 10 foot. Okay. Lucius. She's exploded! We've seen her do this, though. We've seen her do this though.

We've seen her do this before. She's done this in a fight before. You rolled a two on his intelligence? Just play Devil's Advocate. I rolled a two on my intelligence. I thought I'd do a roll to figure out if Lucius would figure that out. Sure. He's freaking out.

Nova just turn to mist like her form just becomes like a cloud and just slowly 10 feet around begins drifting through the corridor uh to the to the right um you can see it does split off to the left ayla and lucius as well um and you can hear footsteps, like armoured footsteps, coming from the left-hand side. I'm going to messenger ring. I will messenger ring. You do it.

You do it. Something's wrong with Nova and there's footsteps coming. You guys might want to come down here. Where's Moonstar? Before that, me and Sentry up here. There's no trace of her. Sentry, this music's pretty good. Have we ever thought about getting, like,

a Stormchaser theme song or something? We could do that. Quill, Quill, have you ever made a snow angel before? I... no. You would make an amazing snow angel. I made a dirt angel, I think, when I... No, it was exploded! What is happening down there?

That's when the message comes through. I think when I know was exploded We have got to go In this in this I want to remember this don't just come wait So it takes a guy's about two rounds. Are you moving stealthily down? Are you gonna move move stealthy quiet down? She's the sentry's charging down. So as Nova is drifting away, you begin to hear the clattering footsteps of Sentinel Prime

coming down the stairs. The footsteps to the left, you hear them react and then you hear armored footsteps coming from the left. Ayla and Lucius, what do you guys do? You've got two rounds before Sentry and Quill arrive. Go the other way. You're going to just chase after Nova?

Did she go to the... I thought she went towards the left. She went to the right. The armored footsteps are coming from the left. Yeah, we're going to duck into the right, I think. I'm going to go to the right. You're going to follow Cloud Nova. I'm following Ayla, I think. I'm going to go to the right. You're going to follow Cloud Nova. I'm following Ayla, I think.

I'm going through Ghost Nova because she's too slow. So, yeah. Okay, so you're going to just keep going. I can occupy the space of another creature. Yeah, you just pass through it, basically. You're just a mist at this point. You can walk through me, yeah. So here's what happens.

Nova very slowly, about 20 foot around, because it's 10 feet movement like just drifts down this corridor to the right um you can see that it seems to be heading towards as she moves down this corridor that is like worked human or like humanoid stonework, like, you know, like, you know, chiseled flagstones and brick walls, begins to morph. The stone almost seems to shift and melt into becoming this organism-like structure. Like, it's still stone, but it's shaped in a way that reminds you of, like, maybe, like, an intestine, or, like, the inside of some sort of like organic thing,

like a creature, becomes ribbed along the sides. The floor becomes kind of this, you know, patterned strangeness. There's almost like a bone structure that's been shaped and sculpted out of the stone. And it all culminates in a door, which has almost become like a rounded stone blob. It doesn't look like there's a handle or anything to it. There's just like these little pinprick holes around the outside.

But it looks like maybe that it can be, you know, moved or like shifted or something like that. As Sentry and Quill bolt down the stairs, you two are the first to see emerging from the left hand side in this long like 10 foot wide corridor are four you've seen dergar before actually they're dergar these gray skin dwarves with white hair but these ones have been strapped into, I wouldn't call it armor.

It's more like an exoskeleton. And it has like drills dug into their flesh. One of their hands has been transformed into a drill. They wear like these metal banded like masks that keep their eyes like, like fried open. Their mouths are like forced open. And they just come screaming out of this corridor. And that's going to be initiative. Oh my god.

That's pretty messed up. I am a guess. I blame Nova. I blame Nova. Wisdom saving throw. Lucius. 22. I just rolled a one and a two on my advantage initiative rolls fucking hell quilly boy

eight ayla total six six century a two a two nova 20 20 and then these guys okay these guys are pretty safe all right lucius you hear like stomping armored boots you see quill and century about 40 feet behind you in this corridor emerge from the bottom of the stairs about 30 feet from them down this corridor so just on the outside outskirts of your dark vision you can just see these shapes of like these these like cute dwarven machine hybrids these spinning drills on their arms. Like chasing forwards. What do you do? Nova the gas is still

looking like she's heading towards this door that you're heading towards. Can I create a wall of ice that zigzags down the corridor, blocking those Duggar from the party.

Yes, I think you can do that, right? Because it's ten ten-foot sheets of ice, I think is the spell. Read it out for me. You create a wall of ice on a solid surface that can definitely zed its way down a corridor in range. You can form it into a hemispherical

dome or a sphere with a radius of up to ten feet, or you can Z it down a corridor, a shape of flat surface made up of 10 foot square panels. Yeah, I'd say that you can zigzag that. Like, yeah. You could go 10 feet, 10 feet, 10 feet, 10 feet, 10 feet, 10 feet.

So if you zigzagged it properly, it would kind of like half its distance, right? So it would be 50 foot of zigzagged ice walls, basically. Yeah, that's what I want to do. And you place that like from where Century Quill... Yeah, I'd say I'd start it where they are and zigzag up as far as I can go towards the Duogar,

down the corridor. Okay, yeah. Towards the dark vision range. Sure, okay. Yeah, mean that's it's not gonna be too far but yeah you send like that uh down there's probably a good sort of like three four panels between um centurion quill and these durgar basically okay um sure that's me um i might back out of the room because i don't like it there So right now, okay, so here's the thing, though. You are in a 10-foot-wide corridor, right?

There is a weird stone door behind you, which is where Nova's going to. And now, in front of you, Quill and Sentry have just appeared at the stairs, and then there is the zigzag ice pattern. There is no room to duck into or out of. Okay, so all I can do is go towards Quill and Sentry. Or go towards Nova. I'll stay where I am. In the middle.

Alright. Nova Veeja. You can make another wisdom saving throw. Make another wisdom saving throw because technically you're under attack now. Okay. Wisdom saving throw is a plus four 19 plus four okay you kind of you're like wait where am i going what's going on uh wait we're being attacked like you snapped your senses and i'm a gas why am i a gas why are you a gas. Why am I a gas? Why are you a gas? That's a great question. Do I see this

door in front of me? This weird pinprick bumhole door. Yeah, so it's like, the way to describe it, it's almost like a round shape. You know like the iris in Stargate where it's like this kind of twisted metal shape? Yeah, that's what it is. It looks like somebody could grip it and turn

it to open it um but there are also holes around the outsides of it like these little tiny air holes um okay and and how far in front of me is it oh it's like 20 feet you were nearly there when this all kicked off i'm kind of tempted to keep going and go through it. But people are in danger. Can I see the wall that Lucius has created? Right now, you can see sentry. You can't know.

It fills this 10-foot corridor. So it's just like these 10-foot zigzag things has blocked that side of it, basically. So you can see sentry and quill, and that's it. Yeah, as far as you know, you're like, wait, what's going on? Who? What? I'm going to drift towards the door,

and while I drift towards the door... So the spell says I can transform into a cloud, and I have everything I'm wearing, and I can't speak, but can I use my messenger ring to talk to people, or would that fall under my way to speak? Yeah.

Yeah, I'd say you can. Yes, sure. In which case, I'm going to keep drifting another ten foot towards the door and messenger ring everyone, saying, What happened? Why am I aghast? in which case I'm going to keep drifting another 10 foot towards the door and messaging everyone saying what happened? Why am I a gas? Sure.

Because you lost your mind and said something about going to see a commander. So I held you back and then you turned into a gas. Please don't do that. Can you only move 10 feet or is it 10 feet movement? No. A flying...

The target's only method of movement is a flying speed of 10 feet. Okay, so you could go 20 feet if you want, because you could use your action to dash if you're not doing anything else. You could move 10 feet and then dash, move to 10 feet. It's up to you.

Like, do you want to actually go through this weird door or do you want to stay with your... Well, as far as Nova... No, she doesn't know that there's dergaw down here because i'm sure right because she's been a gas looking for can't see him yeah um yeah can't see him didn't hear him so yeah that's what i'm gonna do you want to go through the door uh ala shouted at me can i get through it um it's 20 feet away yeah move, it's okay. Action dash? Why not? Okay. So when you kind of... You really want me to get through this door, Mark?

No, I'm just checking, because I didn't know if you realized that you could dash to go another 10 feet. I think you thought you could only move at 10 feet, but you can technically dash to go another 10 feet. You don't have to. I was just making sure that you knew you could. When you kind of...

The rest of you watch as Gasnova... So as far as Aayla lucius are probably concerned you're just continuing under the influence of this thing you just through this little tiny air hole and you emerge into a large room it's very similar in that um it's the whole the walls the floor it's all sculpted to look like this strange, alien, organic place. You can see that there are holes like tubes in the ceiling that seem to lead up into egg dome shaped rooms. There is at least one passageway that leads a little bit further on. But this room's about maybe 30, 40 feet wide. There is a kind of stone desk,

which has been shaped almost like an altar. There is like a large high-backed chair rising behind it. And then there are these statues of these alien-like creatures with big bulbous heads and then tentacled jaws on either side. Yep. That's a hard test. We got there. We got there.

Aelic. Baby. By the way, I mean, they would be aware because I did have that conversation with Aela. You did have that conversation. That's true. I'd say that while I was drifting through the door. Sure.

Because why not? You emerge on the other side, and you're like, what the fuck is this? Quill. Did Nova still just go through that thing? What is happening? She did explode. Cool.

I'm going to cast Beacon of Hope as an action. That will hit anything within 30 feet of me. I don't know if that actually hits Nova. No, it won't hit Nova. You'll have to move like 10 feet towards Lucius and Ayla as well. I'm running towards them, yeah. I saw the Dwargar, so I'm heading towards those guys as close as I can. And I will also use my Spear of Oracles to have my future self contain this spell.

See this veteran-looking, older quill, 70 years old maybe, kind of nodding sagely as you summon him. So long dead, as an Aarakocra. Four years as you saw him four years old four years old, seven years old anything else? that will give everybody advantage to wisdom saves f y i

sweet I get double advantage bonus action well don't forget it's not on all wisdom saving throws it's just charm cool Ayla god I don't even know what to do

I think for now looking at the fact that Lucius has pretty much blocked off this room, I'm going to hold my action. I'm probably going to go to the other side of Quill and Sentry to where the duergar were coming at them. Well, Sentry's still there.

Sentry's still at the bottom of the stairs. Well, at least the other side of Quill to sort of be protection from that side should anything come at us they get through the wall of ice yeah and I think I'll hold my action and just say

Quill can you get through to Moonstar we can't find her we don't know where she is can you message her I'll try and that'll be my turn Moonstar, we can't find her. We don't know where she is. Can you message her? I'll try. And that'll be my turn. I don't want to... From behind the ice, you hear the sound of many drills

like trying to break through this ice, because they've got a lot of ice to try and break through. So each one of them makes two attacks. There's four of them. Okay, so... Drill, miss uh and then 2d6 damage from thunder damage right i gotta fucking track this somehow uh notepad give me notepad also if you break one and your first time going through it as a con saving throw. Cold miasma, yeah. Right, wall one.

Eight thunder damage. Wall two, wall three, and then wall four. We'll say like four panels basically are between them because there was 30 feet between Sentry and Quill and the Durgaar arriving. So we'll put four panels there. Right, so the first Durgaar does that. The next one is a hit.

That's going to be that amount of damage. Oh, my God, this is going to take me ages. Do you know the AC? I've got the AC and the hit points. I'm not making deck saving throws for Wall of Ice, so it's just taking thunder damage. You can hear muffled through these multiple panes

of ice, this screaming. It's just like like this horrid noise, this cacophony of noise. It's so messed up. Oh god. Third derby. Fails with the drill again. I've rolled three natural ones.

While I'm waiting for these drill things to come through, I was just thinking about it. An Arakokra Snow Angel would be pretty boring, actually. You don't even have to wave your arms or anything he's in full like a superhero uh quick-witted uh moment where you can just do comedy mid-battle oh snow angels did i do that the the frigid ice uh the frigid air trot is when it moves through or... The first time. Moving through the frigid air the first time, yeah.

So they'll have it when they move through. But you do hear, like, the crack of ice as one of the sheets breaks. So the first barrier is broken. And then on their next turn, they'll move through it and take the damage. So that's that. That's all their turns. Oh, the next wall does get a psychic scream, though. The five.

Range. Right, Sentry. You can hear this just like... Coming from behind these sheets of ice. Everyone else is rushing towards this weird stone door. I just had this image in my head. It was like a sentry's running down the corridor. Lucius casts the Wall of Ice behind her,

and then Aayla runs past Sentry to get just in front of her. And then as Sentry passes Aayla, Sentry would just skid and then turn around to face the Wall of Ice and cast Enlarge. She's turning around and then... Oh, my God. Right, it's a 10-foot corridor, so you basically fill this corridor. around to face the wall of ice and cast enlarge. She's turning around and then like... It's a ten foot corridor so you basically fill this corridor.

Take up as much of the space. Yeah. You kind of have to hunch your shoulders but you just fill the space as you emerge from it. I think I only got to quill because you were still at the ice so you're probably in front of everybody.

Nice. That's what she wants to be. Oh, okay. That works too. Nice. Awesome. You now have to roll a separate thing. Okay. Century, that's your whole turn, right?

Anything else you want to do? I'll just get ready. Just h hunker down ready for when they come through alright Lucius uh is Moonstar to go Lucius where is Moonstar well she

couldn't have come from the same direction as those guys cause unless they've already dealt with her she wasn't have come from the same direction as those guys, unless they've already dealt with her. She wasn't down there that long. Like, you had, like, a couple of minutes of conversation. She didn't go through the door. I'm going to messenger ring Nova. I'm going to go up to the door, look through one of these little holes.

Yeah, you can see the Yeah, you see the mist kind of on the immediate other side of the door and through the mist you can see this kind of very strange shape. Looks like there are like four figures in the corners of the room. Maybe there's a door on the other side of the chamber beyond this. Nova, snap out of it. We need to leave.

This place is strange. I don't of it. We need to leave. This place is strange. I don't like it. I'm not going to do much else. Does it look like there's any sort of button or lever to open this door? Yeah, there's like... It's not like a lever, but it looks like you can grip the kind of weird

kind of dais at the front and turn it. But it's strength. You're probably going to have to spend an action to do it. I'll try. It's not a strength check, but yeah, you can do it as an action. You just have to like... In each turn the door kind of swivels and opens a bit more, swivels and opens a bit more, and then eventually

like an iris, it becomes open enough to step through. It looks like if nobody is holding the door open, it begins to close. Like, it will close on its own unless it's kind of held open. Okay. I'll just try and hold it as much as I can.

Sure. Okay. Calling for Nova and Messengering. Nova Vija. Is there any, like, does it look like there's any door control on this side like a button that would hold it open or anything like that no it's really weird it's yeah it looks like that the door itself has this thing built into it to kind of like lever it open almost nova make an intelligence check for me i can do that um straight up intelligence between 16 17 17 judging by the way that the door's built

like looking at the stonework and this strange opening device it looks like it's not meant it that a creature that would use this door would either have to constantly be turning it to opening it and stepping through and then having it closed behind them or would have the ability to just manipulate the door naturally like either through some sort of magical control telekinesis or something like that they'd just be able to like open the door like that the sci-fi nerd in me is really loving this um i will drop a gaseous Cloud and reform. Lucius has got the door open now. You can see back.

I'm fine, Lucius. Why is everyone shouting? Why is Sentry big? Why is there a wall of ice? There's weird things in this room, like weird alien-looking things. And then can I try and help with the door, like try and just hold it open from this i mean you have a strength of seven you're like look stranger things have happened you are not really

gonna help but maybe uh mage hand probably isn't strong no it's not strong enough i do need to be stronger than that look i'm just gonna look just for the look of the thing i'm gonna try and just you know keep the door open you're trying to hold it open you and lucius lucius is doing the work lucius is actually holding the work i'm just you know it's fine though nova because is that is that your turn um i guess because yeah nova still doesn't really know nobody's told her that there's bad things Nova can you make a roll of d20 and then add your strength

yeah I mean can she not hear the drills and stuff she can hear it like muffled from down the end of the corridor but at this point Nova yeah make a roll of d20 add your strength mod add? you mean subtract? but at this point, Nova, roll the d20, add your strength mod. Add? You mean subtract?

I do, yeah. I rolled a 16, so subtract 2 from that 14. Cool. Lucius, you watch as Nova is pulled by some invisible force into the middle of this weird alien room and is held about 10 feet off the ground in the middle of the room and just like held locked in place um and you all hear this voice

in your mind uh you just kind of hear this just like ah what do we have here new hear new playthings, perhaps? Let me find out exactly what you are here for. Can you make a wisdom saving throw Nova? Can you not even bring...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, no! There it is. Because I was thinking alien. I was thinking like that. I wasn't thinking Psycho Mantis. Give me that wisdom saving throw.

I got advantage because of Beacon of Butts. A natural 20. You didn't get Beacon. Okay. Should I roll again then? Because I rolled two and one was a natural 20. I think you should roll again.

Okay, I roll again. Take it back. I rolled a 17 plus... What the hell is my wisdom? Four. So 21. Okay. You feel something in your brain

trying to probe at your thoughts. Something that's trying to sift through them like flicking through the index page of a book but you're mentally holding it off from getting at your deeper memories. Ah, this one is strong of

mind. Most delicious. What a powerful brain she has. But still, we can sense that you have come seeking schematics. Yes, yes. So. That's that one you like Castlevania Lucius you sense

a wall of force cuts off you from the room that Nova is currently in an invisible wall of force cuts off you from the room that Nova is currently in. An invisible wall of force kind of erupts in place. You see the air shimmer. Can I counterspell it?

Mmm. You have to see. Interesting you do, but this would drop the invisibility spell, I think. So I think that, yeah, casting this. So what happens is you see floating, levitating off the ground above, like, behind Nova. You see this robed figure with these gangly long limbs and this alien-like mask that seems to kind of come down

and has like this almost like box like shape beneath its face it's just like hovering in the air behind and over as this music is kind of still playing in your ears it appears and gestures its hands you may attempt to count a spell or what level

are you casting this at I know it's a sixth to count a spell. What level are you casting this at? I know it's a 6th. What level? 7th. You use a 7th level spell? Yeah. You manage to, seizing the moment

before this wall of force erupts, you kind of throw out your own kind of magic and disrupt this wall from being formed. A powerful magic user i see we'll have to do something about that won't be and then so down this 10-foot-wide corridor, we currently have Lucius, Quill, Aayla, and then Sentry, right? And then the ice. Cool. Seemingly, from this figure's space, this hovering figure, a lightning bolt courses down the corridor.

I need Lucius, Aayla, Quill and Sentry to make deck saving throws. Oh. Oh, hello. Okay. Okay. I rolled a 22. It didn't come through on the visuals, but I did. Anybody that gets 15 or lower, just keep a note of that.

That's okay. I rolled a 400. It didn't go through. I'll roll physical dice. 20! Right. Who got lower than 15? Just Sentry? Sentry. Tom, are you bullshitting me? Are you lying to me, Tom? No, I got a 17.

The rest of you, so it's 31 points of lightning damage. Halved to 15. Ayla, you halved that again to 7. 15. There goes my temp. At least I had that. Oh, that is a spell, Sentry. So your spell aura would go off.

You take 15 as well because you halved it. It's a spell damage. I can't protect anyone because I'm not raging. Sorry. Yeah. So you watch as this line bursts down. Do I need to make a con save for enlarge? You had to be...

I think we changed that with the matrix that it no longer requires concentration because that was really bullshit that like the matrix makes you big and then one damage spell and you're like nope small again so yeah we changed that Quill

cool so I'm going to cast aura of vitality it's another concentration spell but I can do that now so I've got the power combo did you make a concentration It's another concentration spell, but I can do that now. So I've got the power combo. Did you make a concentration check for when you took the damage, by the way? DC 10.

Hey, cool. So that stays up. And Aura of Vitality, I'll use the action to cast it and then the bonus action to activate it. To do 2d6 maxed because of Beacon of Hope on Lucius. So 12 healing on Lucius. Okay. Nice. Lucius gets 12 points of healing.

Also, hate increases your max. It's not temporary HP. Yeah. So you can be healed up. Do you move anywhere, Qu Quill or are you staying in this narrow corridor I'm gonna stay I mean

I'm gonna stay near sentry so you move back towards the ice and the duergar because you had moved down towards Aayla imagine you've got this locked corridor sentry and the ice are at one end lucius and the door leading into this

room is at the other end ayla's in the middle you're in the middle that's the kind of scenario and then nova's in this room just being held in place in the middle of this this weird alien room but i'll head towards the weird alien room uh stay at the door

and uh okay you stay basically next to Lucius. Yeah. Okay. Ayla? Yeah, I mean... I don't really know what to do yet, because there's

nobody out here. Nope. You can hear the drilling and screaming behind the ice. Yeah, that's where I think I'm going to be strongest. About 20 feet odd to the door.

I'll move back about 15 feet but I think I'm going to be no good in there. I'm going to be best out here where these guys get through. Just honestly, I think Aayla is like, I can at least hit these things. This thing is messing with my head. Sure.

So yeah, I'll do that and hold. And if anything comes through, we can hit it. Okay. All right. So you move down, and then we'll go to Ilvi Sentry's turn. I just need to get something quick. Sentry, what are you getting? Okie dokie.

So can I see the alien guy from where I am? Yeah, I think that... Why can I not find that? Sorry. Yes, you're in the corridor. You're at one end. So I'm just trying to get my spacing here. They had moved about 40 feet down.

So about where you are, it's about 60 feet to the doorway where Lucius and Quill are stood. And then behind them, and that room does have like a dull purple lighting. So you can see this like

weird robed figure standing behind a floating Nova. But that is like 80 feet away from your current position. 80 feet. Okay, cool. I didn't have a map drawn up for this, unfortunately. That's all good.

Just to get my spacing and everything. Awesome. I would like to bonus action, use my harness divine power again and regain another spell slot. So I'll regain a level three spell slot. Can you do that multiple times? I can do it twice a day.

Oh, right. that's right. Channel Divinity is different for you, yes, that's true. Yeah. So I'll do that as a bonus action just to get myself ready. And I'll just stay ready so when those guys break through, I will cast Sunbeam. I'll hold my action. Okay, cool.

Emerging from the door in the back of the chamber where nova is currently being held um you do see a kind of slender leather clad elven form um as moonstar kind of walks out of it um and uh you you see elusious she kind of looks up at you um and uh you are... Oh, hang on. You are disturbing the commander, and she raises her gauntlet, and she's going to shoot her starbolt at you. That is a 10 to hit Lucius. No!

Second one. That's an 11 to hit Lucius. Can I, like, neo this stuff? What do you mean? I mean, yeah, if it doesn't hit you, you can describe how you dodge it. Neo. Yeah, so it's like she kind of holds up her, like,

palms and these two blasts of, like, light. And you're just neo-dodging them whilst simultaneously holding this door open. Sister, snap out of it! That's what I'm shouting in response. It's controlling your mind! You'd like to believe that, wouldn't you, brother? You'd like to imagine that I'm weak and I'm not superior? I don't have to.

Oh, I forgot about the duergars as well. Right, duergar time. I can't forget about them. Oh, I can't forget about the duergars. They've got a whole load of ice to come through. Bam. Right, so how much damage do they take on Cone of Cold, Lucius? They're all going to move through it.

So they make a con save, did you say? Yeah. Yes. All right. Five. Four. Ooh, 20. And 16.

Only the 20 succeeds. Okay. It will take 5d6. I'll roll that now for you. Thank you. 15. Each and then half, I'm assuming, for the one who succeeded, yeah? Correct, yeah.

7d6. they move through you hear more kind of like as one of them is trying to drill through and then you hear another scream eight points the second wall smashes apart and then three of them are gonna move through the next one. They make another con save. They don't show any abandon. What's the DC I have to beat? 17. Alright. One succeeds, two fail again.

New roll, or same? Yep, yep, yep. New roll. This is a different cloud of frigid gas that they're moving through. Brilliant. 16, yep, yep. New roll. This is a different cloud of frigid gas that they're moving through. Brilliant. 16. Points of cold. So eight's the one that succeeded.

16. You hear them move up to the third wall between them now. There's three of them left. That's a hit. For 11. Let's make a stream of only three points on that one last one we can attack against the third wall as well that is going to be a hit actually it's 80 12 it's another 11 And then the third one comes crashing down.

So you can see now on the other side of this last remaining thing, there are these four creatures just crammed up next to each other. Some of them look like parts of them have been frozen, just drilling into this one piece of wall and just screaming at it, trying to bring it down as you are caught on the other side. Right. Then we go this is a brand new initiative because i'd forgotten about them so lucius uh it is you how far away is this floating uh creature at 20 feet kim when do i get a go you go after Lucius you go after Lucius

you move through the door that was your turn last time and then we haven't had another round a new round since it's a long it's a complicated thing with a lot of people involved but you go after Lucius I'm going to cast cone of cold

use my font of magic to make it careful going to cast Cone of Cold. Use my Font of Magic to make it careful to minus Nova from that at the creature that's holding her. If possible, please. Sure. Does careful mean that she just doesn't take any damage or she just succeeds

on the save? I believe it's a success on a save. So she'll take half damage, basically. It's a fantastic point there, yes. I really wanted to do a Cone of Coal that just, you know, didn't hit her at all, but

it's protecting you from the full force. Okay, so give me the damage on this. You've hit me before. It's protecting you from the full force. Okay, so give me the damage on this. You've hit me before. It's fine. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to be hitting multiple people on my side this turn. So the cone of cold. Sorry, I just lost it.

There we go. It's just rolling. 31. 31 points. 31. 31 points. Okay. Sorry, Nova! You take 15. All damage.

Can I Dicromancy my sister? Yes. For 8 yes uh for for eight points of cold points of cold damage nice does that help snap her out of her maybe she'll get a saving throw on her turn um she'll get a saving throw on her turn so one thing so another thing happens by the way you see this hovering figure that's looming behind nova and as the cone blasts that figure kind of barely manages to shield themselves you see ice kind of forming all up along their gangrene like these these elongated limbs but in the corner of the

room where the 60 foot cone would catch pretty much everyone... Oh, I forgot to make the same throw for Moonstar as well on Cone of Cold. She failed. She took another 30 points of damage. Wait, she was in front of me? Your Dicromancy would have... Yeah, she's in the room where Nova and all that are, yes.

She's in this room. She'd emerged from this doorway that is in this room and was stood in the room with it Can I spend that change anything careful on her then and I wouldn't have died. Okay, so she would have taken 15 Yeah, yeah I'll document see that in the big bad as well Your documents you can okay sure complicated

Complicated combat is made complicated Um, so like I was saying, this cone of cold basically covers the entirety of this room. It just fills the room with 60 foot. You managed to shape it away from Nova and Moonstar. But what you hadn't anticipated is in the corner of the

room, seemingly invisible, is another one of these almost identical figures hovering off the ground. You can see them in this robe thing and they were they were holding concentration um on uh would have been um the telekinesis so nova you actually drop as well um you kind of like down to the ground as you are freed from the telekinesis as yeah there are two of these things one of them hiding in the room. No. They have seen us.

We must destroy them now. Oh. Destroy us. Lucius, anything else? I can't do anything else, no. I maxed out my turn. Yeah. Oh, barrier ring.

I can't do it again. Never mind. I was going to say, I can't do it again Never mind Nova So I just need to Know distances so I've got one Mind Gonna suck my brain dude Hovering above me

You have one mind basically right next to you Within 5 feet yes So the room's about 50 foot wide. You've got one guy right behind you. There's another one who would be sort of 20 feet in the corner. Moonstar is about 20 feet in the opposite corner, or a little bit closer, actually. And then Lucius is about 20 feet behind you.

Let's see if I can just quickly draw a map or something. 20 feet. So if I... Just freehand it a little bit. And the Wall of Ice has dropped, hasn't it? Okay. Okay. Well, there's one left in place that's holding the duergar's back.

So I couldn't see on the other side. So I've got your vice like this. Okay. Yeah. Doorway here. I'm going to do something a bit weird. Statue, statue. Go ahead.

Oh, okay. I've just seen that. Okay. I would like to cast... First of all, I'm going to message ring and say, don't worry about me. I'll get us out of here. And then I'm going to cast Dimension Door.

And I want to Dimension Door myself to the corridor, like the stairs that we came down. So I'm behind the Degar. Or am I behind? No, you'd be in front of him. Sorry, I'm just seeing the map now. This is my very freely drawn map.

Those are the stairs you came down. Are those the stairs that we came down? Oh, in which case... Oh, okay. In which case, I'm just going to... Yeah, I'll just run forward and grab... Grab someone and... I'll just run forward and grab someone. No, because I can't, because the mind flayer will get a nom on me.

So I'm just going to dimension door to the stairs, is what I'm going to do. Okay. Do you need to be able to see it? Nope, it's a place that I know. Okay. You teleport yourself from a current location to any other spot within range. You arrive exactly at the spot desired. It can be one I see, one I visualize, or one I can describe. So, and it's 500 foot of movement, so

I'm just gonna... The delicious one is escaping me, brother. We should catch her. She will be delicious. They want to eat my brains. I am getting out of here. I think I would like it if you all came with me. Thank you.

Love you. Bye. Yeah. And I'll messenger ring that I'm on the stairs. Okay. All right. And I think I'm going fuck out of factions. Sure.

Mindflayer ones go. I would like Lucius. This is a charm effect. Please make a wisdom saving throw. Very well. With advantage. With advantage. That's a 13.

You are dominated, my friend. You have a telepathic link. Finally. You can use this telepathic link to issue commands. You can specify a simple and general course of action. Did the quills thing also... I guess it wouldn't, like, extra, extra... There's no double advantage.

There's no such thing, I'm afraid. So it should just be a natural 20. Well, that's not a thing. The command issued, by the way, will be... I mean, they can eat dead brains. They don't particularly like dead brains. It will be defend us. And it's specifically the mind flayers that it's referring to.

So that's its immediate command. It can use its action to take you over completely, but it's used its action to pass this initially. So the initial command is just defend us. Quill, I would like you to... Make a strength saving throw, please. Shit. Okay.

Sixteen. Oh, no, it's not a saving throw you can keep the roll but it's you make a strength check as opposed by my my own ability check so 16 same thing so you feel this telekinetic

force trying to pull you and like grip you and pull you towards them and you manage to kind of shrug it off basically as it's trying to grip you. Okay. From somewhere else

in the room. Alright, I want to take on the bird. Okay. Okay. Between Ayla and Sentry, sorry, between Aayla, Quill and Lucius, you see a third one of these

robed figures with these masks on appears, drops the invisibility drops, and a ball of force will emerge. Holy crap, holy. From one big battle to another. Yeah, we're toast.

Sending Moonstar down on her own I wasn't expecting, so I was like, oh, fuck. Oh, shit, so I can't even get to Lucius and Quill now. You might be able to. You have allies that can help with spells and things like that so we'll see i remember last time there's a wall of force and it didn't end well

and quill your turn okay so i want to cast a six level mask your wounds and I'm going to break every fucking spell in this room. Are you 100% sure that's how your ability can work? Can you do it on every creature or is it one creature? Well, I was going to ask. So I'm going to cast it on Moonstar, this heal. So that still counts as an ally, right? And Lucius. Spellbreaker, when you

restore HP to an ally, I can end one spell. So if I was to cast a peel on this Mind Flayer, would that break the wall of force? No. So the Mind Flayer does not count as an ally.

And I would say that the problem is it's not just whether you can consider the creature an ally I think it's whether the creature considers themselves an ally and Moonstar wouldn't but I'd say Lucius still does because he's not been given any orders otherwise

he's not been told like all he's been told is defend them he's not been told like you know kill them or anything like that so I'd maybe argue that Lucius could be broken on it But I don't think moon star would count as an ally right now. She's it's a bit more than a person Yeah, the problem is you could say no no that mind flay is my friend I end a spell on him Oh My friend I end a spell on him

my friend, I end a spell on him. We go way back. You know what I mean? We go way back. We go way back. I will say you can break it on Lucius. Do you have to make a check if it's over a certain level, by the way? Or does it just end in effect?

It ends anything of 6th level or lower. Oh, in that case, yes. The spell on Lucius will end. I would say the dominate person on Lucius ends. Okay. So you get healed for 3d8+. The only thing I'm going to check is... 16, 24.

You get 30 healing. I get 30 healing. Because of my... Blinding... All-guy radiance beacon of hope. Aayla also gets 30 Sentry you get 30 as well Thank you

And I can't see Nova Okay I was just checking to see if anything It says nothing physical can pass through the wall So I'm going to say that Healing magic will But like a fireball Wouldn't or like a lightning bolt wouldn't It says nothing physical can pass through the wall, so I'm going to say that healing magic will. But a fireball wouldn't, or a lightning bolt wouldn't.

Okay. Who else needs healing? Because I've just boosted a ton of people. Who needs another 12? You can heal Moonstar, you just won't be able to win the effect on her. I've hit her with dichromance so we don't know how she's gonna be on her turn

alright I'll give Lucius another 12 since we're still stuck on this side of the wall thanks for that one you can't heal the same creature twice wait one? I can't heal the same person twice? no

not in one go not in one spell you can't like the same person twice? No. Not in one go. My aura... Not in one spell. You can't, like, say, oh, up to six creatures. Oh, two of those will be Lucius. One of them gets to be Lucius. He counts as one creature. No, it's Mask Cure Wounds.

I've done that, and now I'm doing my bonus action for my aura of vitality. Oh, right. Oh, that's fine. Yes, sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought that was still from Mask Cure Wounds. So, wait, did you only have one HP left? You do. It happens. And I feel really good.

Like really good. There you go. Oh, sugar. Iced tea. Well, that's my turn. The biggest heal you've ever done. Alright, Ayla. Mother of God.

Nova can't see this because she's around the corner, right? Messenger ring. There's three of them them I'm blocked off I can't get through and I will I can yeah I can reply right

you can reply yeah you can reply yeah don't worry I'll get them out of there come to us okay listening to Nova saying that she'll get people out of there

I'll move across to her but keep on this side so that I'm kind of as close to sentry in this wall as I can get I guess yep but first before I go I'm kind of as close to sentry in this wall as I can get, I guess. Yep. Yeah.

But first, before I go, I'll say to Quill, don't worry. No, I'll say a messenger ring, actually. Oh, messenger ring. We can't hear me at all. Can I messenger ring and say, no, there is a plan. If you messenger ring, he can. Yeah.

If you messenger ring, they can. If you shout through the wall, no sound gets through. Okay. I'll messenger ring. They'll have heard me say the wall, no sound gets through. Okay, I'll guess they'll have heard me say... Yeah, he can read lips as well. I hear you say it, get out of here! Wave at him until he turns around and go

It's okay! She said it's okay. They're just leaving, Lucius. Trot Lucius, roll me the Cone of Cold frigid air damage damage all four of the dergoth fail their save as they move through the remaining remaining one you mean the wall of ice yeah yeah the frigid ice yeah yeah the wall of frigid air 18 18 all of them failed. Right, three of them

turn into frozen statues and just shatter into pieces. They just drop to the floor. That's awesome! They literally know... If these were like smart, sentient things, they probably would have gone, hmm, cold air, bad, not go through.

These things have just continually tried to punch their way through these walls of ice without thinking. The one left is going to try and break down this last wall. So the drilling and the screaming has just gotten a lot worse. It's just one guy now, just like... Right he's he doesn't manage to break the wall um he doesn't manage to break the wall so he is just going to continue working at this one until it breaks um century and then when we finish this combat round we're probably gonna have to call it uh an episode okie dokie let's find this ok so they're on their way out there's one guy left

we've got 10 minutes I think I'm just going to have to hold I'm just going to have to hold here I don't think I can move up can I move I can't actually I could misty step into the room but I don't know if that's really dangerous

I don't think I should do that. So I'm going to hold my line. I'm going to hold the line. Sure, hold the line. Hold the line. When that Durgaard breaks through, Sunbeam's going off. Sure, cool. Okay.

All right. Moonstarar under the influence will... She got hit from a Dicromancy. Yes, so she will get a saving throw with a Nontage. That is a 6

and a natural 20. So you can see that from taking damage and being in a combat situation, she seems to falter for a moment. What's happening? Where am I? What's going on?

What the... And she obviously reacts to the three creatures that are beside her, sees everything going on, will just do the thing that she can think of which is to try and uh move she will basically make her way towards quill and lucius uh and then she will toss a small vial of uh i said quill and lucius vial of, uh... I say Quill and Lucius.

No, he's just MS. Oh, yeah. He's got a token. Look, this is a very hastily drawn map. She will toss a small vial in the direction of the three figures, and they all make same throw.

One passes, one doesn't. This blinding light seems to flash and two of them clutch their masks and you hear in your mind it's like, what has she done? The light! But one of them manages to get his arm up in time

and shield it away. You will not escape. We will feast. And that then goes to top of the round would be Lucius. We've got eight minutes. I'm going to call the episode here and we'll have to have Nova's cool plan

next week because we've still got to bleed stuff out and we might have people after us. We do have people after us in Yogs. Let's just carry on on High Rollers. I think it's a very long combat round. It's a very long round. It's been like one big thing to another big thing.

Write my cool plan down. It'll be a great start to the next episode. Yeah. I'm very interested to know what this plan over has. I'm very interested to know what this plan Nova has I'm very interested to know how it's going to work you'll probably find a way to cuck me it's fine probably

that just means standing on the side and watching so I'm fine with that nice let's not just move on we'll see you very soon take care everyone we love you bye you