High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #102 | Project Vanguard (Part 1)

Episode Date: March 3, 2021

The party find a terrified scientist who is willing to spill all the secrets inside Shadowsong Pinnacle! 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

Pickaxe. so you can live a more extraordinary life. Live more with Liquid IV Hydration Multiplier. Available in refreshing lemon-lime, passion fruit, and strawberry flavors. Buy a stick in store at Costco, Walmart, Amazon, and other Canadian retailers. Go back to school with Rogers and get Canada's fastest and most reliable internet. Perfect for streaming lectures all day or binging TV shows all night. Save up to 20 per month on rogers internet visit rogers.com for details we got you rogers Welcome back to Erois. Last time, our heroes have traveled to Shadowsong Pinnacle,

a weapons facility run by the Sky Pirates, the Wind Barons, in collaboration with the forces of Kallus Valkyrian, ruler of the Valkyrian Empire which stretches across astral space. Here they have uncovered a multitude of foes and secret projects that are prepared for Kallus to attack Erois. After gaining access to the higher floors of the tower, the party have encountered a Magitek-enhanced Githyanki warrior who slaughtered many of the engineers and scholars working on the focal project, Project Vanguard. After defeating this warrior, the party discovered one scholar who had hidden themselves nearby, Malatyr Emrys. Fearing for his life and begging for safety, Malatyr promised to

reveal all about the project and take the party to the lower levels of the tower to recover their schematics and learn more. And that, my friends, is pretty much where we pick up again this week. If you have any questions, if you need refreshes on who looks like what and

what's going on, do you think it's been a while? What? What's a quill? A quill? It's been a while. What? What's a quill? A quill? It's a feather. Would you like to describe and introduce your character, Tom? I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. No, I'm asking you.

What's a quill? I haven't played him in so long. He is a birdman priest wizard. How do D&D? How do D&D? Well, you tell me what you want to do and then i'll tell you what you need to do how about that uh to set the scene you are currently in one of these magitek laboratories that has been ruined it's partially been destroyed um there are you know kind of burnt papers and schematics broken uh crystal data slabs uh all of this kind of magitek is just lying in ruins around you um

there is this young fire ganassi scholar he's dressed in in scholarly kind of robes um he has a thick pair of glasses um and this wild mane of flaming kind of hair uh all around him looking very very nervous um not so much in fear of you, but as in fear in general, just sort of afraid of the situation he finds himself in. You've already searched this room. There wasn't too much left to recover. Instead, Malatea has kind of offered his key card,

his keystone, sorry, that leads to the lower levels. And that is pretty much where we pick up this week. Right. Alrighty. So, the immortal question. Did we speak to him? Or did it stop just before we did? You spoke to him a little bit, but if you

want to kind of re-question him, it has been a while. You're more than welcome to, and we'll just assume that, sort of like, yeah. I distinctly remember threatening him, so we definitely did speak to him. while you're more than welcome to and we'll just assume that sort of like yeah i just think we remember threatening him so we definitely did speak to him yeah you definitely threatened him and imposed that yeah if he wanted to you know that he would be best served in telling you everything he knew um and i think that the general the general gist he didn't really go into details more through fear than lack of wanting to

say anything but he did tell you that he was part of a team that worked on something called project vanguard um it it seems to be a project to create a super weapon for callus uh and that it was stored in the lower levels of the tower but it has already been taken out. The project was completed and the final version was shipped away via some sort of big magic portal. But he said that the schematics and some of the plans were still down there and that if you wanted them, he would take you down there to find them.

Apart from that, you didn't ask really any more specific questions. If you want to ask him specific questions now is a good time to do so. And I'm sure Kim has notes that will say he did tell us about this and blah blah blah which I rely on Kim's notes and knowledge to inform me.

That's pretty much all we were told. Did he offer us a keycard? I distinctly remember a high level keycard. He's offered his keystone yes he has like it on a kind of like leather leather necklace he kind of is offering this flat stone disc um that is inscribed with the uh rune of six the elvish rune for six um and yeah he's just offering that out it's just please whatever you need i I'm happy to tell you anything.

Just, if I can ask one thing, just get me out of here. Get me away from the Empire. I don't want to help them anymore. Please. Well, you've helped them enough so far, and they have some sort of advanced weapon. I didn't have a choice. I didn't have a choice. You don't understand.

If I had refused to come here, they just would have found somebody else. They would have hurt me, hurt my family. I understand. You don't say no. I understand. However, I hope you can help us now and understand the error of... You have questions. I'll take you down to the lower

levels. There's something here. One of the labs. Something we were developing. A kind of security tool. You can have that. I can unlock where it is. Of course, yes. That would be useful. If there are any attempts

to lead us to enemies or guards. We're hyper-vigilant. We have an all-seeing eye. Haven't we? And I'll just bring up the hammer again. Tall, strong woman has made it very clear there's no benefit to me

misleading you now. You saved my life. This is a chance for me to escape. I'm not here because I want to be I'm not working for The Emperor because I want to you've given me a chance. I promise I'm not trying to deceive you All right, so We need to know and gain evidence of a threat to a rowis Specifically a council meeting that's happening soon.

Do you know anything of that? I don't know anything of this meeting that you've mentioned, but I mean, all of my work here, it's not been about anything like that. There's an individual, one, he's like you, and he points at you, Lucius, some sort of elf from here on Arois. Yes, that one. I know that he's been developing his own weaponry. He's quite brilliant, magically engineered. He has a great knowledge of Ethereum, this wonder product that you have on your planet he's been very clever with that stuff and um i know that he's been building weapons and tools

but that's not that's not the emperor's plans the emperor's sole purpose for this facility was project vanguard that was its purpose but they But this elf was provided means and a room and staff in here? Of course. His knowledge of Ethereum has been invaluable to Project Vanguard. We wouldn't have been able to build it without his expertise. This material, this Ethereum, is something that none of us from the empire have ever seen before um we needed erosians to tell us how it works now we can see the potential and it's underused it's your people have managed to find a way to make the most of their own knowledge

they've perfected the kind of intricacies of using it, but they have its potential is untapped. It's incredible. Yet you mean to wage war on this planet, the very planet that you say has valuable resources, you mean to start conflict here? Not me.

The Emperor, yes. But I'm a researcher, an engineer. I'm fascinated by things, technology, magic. But war is, it's just, it's a thing that exists in the Empire there's no escaping it we all know the threat of the hungering one we know that Kallus keeps it at bay if there are tools to help us stop it I feel it's necessary

I didn't know anything about this world about this these attacks you just see him kind of he definitely kind of withdraws these attacks. You just see him kind of... He definitely kind of withdraws. You can see there's a lot of shame. Quill, I think, especially with your insight, he's very ashamed

of the things he's been working on, but there is a genuine sort of... He does clearly enjoy building things, and he probably didn't really consider the implications of exactly what he was doing. I think we've seen curiosity from Nova as well. I think we all appreciate the willingness to learn and discover

and the excitement that comes with that regardless of repercussions. But we need blueprints to take down this bologna we need to find anything i mean if they tried to kill the other researchers and i i mean i'm hoping that there's still something that we can salvage most of the people here are not engineers my theory is that even if they've destroyed some of the physical records we may be able to destroyed some of the physical records, we may be able to access some of the magical data storages.

Do you, and he looks at you, Nova, seeing that you have, like, Magitek, he's like, you don't happen to have a data crystal on you, do you? Something that I can, they've destroyed and taken all of ours, but if you have something like that, I may be able to pull something from our files. In fact, I do.

I have a data slab here that I took from that planet. Perfect. Elysium. Data crystal. Data slab. That sounds something a little primitive. Data crystal. But yes, this would be perfect.

I might be able to pull something from the records below. Yes. I'll take you there now. I'll take you there immediately. And you see him go to leave without considering that he might not have been given permission to leave. So if you want to stop him, he just goes to leave the room. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Mal, it's here. Call me Mal. Hello fellow Ganassi, Mal, uh, as a fellow Ganassi and someone who very much, uh, enjoys your vibe, um, I just want to give you a quick heads up. And I'm going to point to Century. And I'll point to Aayla. And I'll say, you need to, you need to not just walk off and make sudden movements because these two they might, you know bop you on the head

and it's really hard to do Hit you in the face with a hammer, you know pull you back into the room. Yeah listen to the Ganashi. Right, okay well, it's, and he points out the door like, we need to go out there and there's a device that I can fetch for you. It's in the lab next...

If you take me there, I can show you. Let's head out. I think Ayla's going to take note of, like, Nova. If Nova gives the nod to go, she'll be like, all right. Yeah. But she's going to stand very close to him, right. Yeah. All right, maybe. But she's going to stand

very close to him, though. Yeah. Go on. Can I, like, sort of, like,

go with Mal in a way of, like, I'm trying to talk to him just to keep him calm and just to keep him, like, I guess there's someone

who kind of identifies with him in that kind of curious mind. Just try to keep him from freaking out and everything, but also just so I can be next to him and make sure he doesn't like try to screw us over or run away or anything like i don't think he will but sure i guess just sure keep him you can you can basically

walk next to him and talk to him and then that way if he does try to do anything he'll be pretty quick to notice especially if ayla is close by as well. Yeah, unless, otherwise, unless you have anything else, Mal will lead you out of this kind of immediate Magitek lab, and he does divert away from the elevator and starts heading up towards another room. There's just something in here

that I think you should have, and he points to the door. Alright, I'll go check, I guess. Can I just double check the door. All right. I'll go check, I guess. Can I just double check the door? How about you first? How about you lead the way, buddy? That would be easier, yes.

I just didn't want to get punched in the face. And he will kind of take the lead. He swipes the keystone on the door. It opens. You kind of hear like the heavy metal kind of like hiss or click he opens it uh and you do see that there is a a kind of a workshop um in here um and there are lots of half finished projects um weapons armor shields but none of them seem finished um they all seem to be kind of in the process of being designed. But on a single, on a table, kind of suspended by a kind of metal frame,

is a long metal rod with a gemstone, a kind of pulsing blue gemstone at the end. And he points that and says, just like there, that's one of the devices we were working on. It's something of a countermeasure to some of the technology we were building. It's a kind of anti-infiltration device, and he points at that. And will this work on this Project Vanguard you've been mentioning? No, it's really not even close to working on Project Vanguard. Project Vanguard is something different. working on Project Vanguard.

Project Vanguard is something different. You noted, did you, when you were fighting Phalxra, she has a sort of ability to turn invisible. You probably noticed that when you were fighting. One of the side projects we were working on here is more infiltration magitek

to spy and scout on your world. This may be something that is of use to you as individuals. It is called a Rod of Alertness. It makes it easier to notice things around you, but also it can provide you with protection against invisible creatures for a time. It creates like a zone, an area of effect,

where invisible creatures will become visible, it provides you bonuses to your defenses, and he just points at it. One of you can take it. You don't need to identify it, because Malatyr has kind of explained it to you. It does require attunement, I think, but somebody can add a Rod of Alertness

to their inventory. Hmm. Hmm. Who would want this? I don't have the space for it. Yeah, I don't have any achievement space. I don't think anyone has any achievement space today. You can just add it to the equipment and figure it out later.

Okay. Would you mind if I took it? Go for it. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, go for it? Go for it. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, go for it. Go for it. Yeah, go for it. It is Nova touching it. It's an incredibly well-made piece of magitech

and physical magical enchantment. It's like a combination of, like, Erosian magic and magitech kind of combined. It seems powerful. Like, you hold it and you're like this is definitely got a lot of uh strong magic yeah i think in in terms of rp like nova would almost forget herself in this whole potential brick stone situation and seeing all this kind of technology around her would be like oh my gosh is that is that a flux capacitor how does that work

like and just like stop babbling away with Mal, asking questions of how it works and the power supply and the projection field and all this. Yeah, and he is very clearly a Magitek engineer. He understands it all and explains the device. He points at the other projects. Most of these are failed prototypes. They didn't work as we were intending them to.

Most of it is tools, weapons tools weapons armor that sort of thing uh nothing of things like this rod are more my uh speciality i like finding creative solutions and finding ways to take old enchantments and old magitek and finding new ways to use them and yeah after that he's just like well i just wanted i felt that perhaps this is a way to help gain some of your trust that i'm here to help you should take this it will be useful to you i think

let's appreciate it thank you now if we just head to the the elevator i'll take you down to the the lower I'll take you down to the lower basement. Yes, lead the way. Okay. Yeah, without any interruptions, to save some time, he takes you to the elevator. You have this kind of round sigil device in the middle.

He taps his keystone to it and then presses the rune for the bottom level of the tower, B3. He presses that, and you feel the elevator kind of shudder, the chains along in each corner. And the whole thing begins to descend. It takes a little bit of time. Again, you're not 100% sure exactly how far down you go, but it does seem to take a little bit of time. Mal kind of nervously taps his feet

and looks around he keeps like wringing his hands um just in a general kind of nervous state uh but when you reach the bottom the doors open and it looks out into a very dark dimly lit by a couple of glowing orbs set into the ceiling uh workshop um with the main thing that you notice is that the room is completely stone except for one wall which appears to be completely made of glass but the glass is dark like there's only darkness beyond it um inside this room you see that it has very clearly been uh sabotaged most of the physical records any books books, any pieces of scroll cases and parchment have been destroyed, torn up, burnt, leaving

really not even remnants left. There's no things that you can stitch together. It's either been burnt or it's been completely broken. There are also several large crystalline pillars and they have been shattered,

but Mal points at them. They've destroyed the pillars, but as expected from these sky pirates, they don't quite fully understand how this works. Nova, was it? Miss V'ger? I think that your data crystal, we can interface it with these and pull some of the data off. We may not be able to get everything, but we should be able to get some of the information,

some holographic projections, some schematics, that sort of thing. Okay, let's go do it. Do we need anything? Any cables? No, no, it should be fine. Once it touches the crystalline interface, it should just begin transferring the information. He points at the window. Well, the rest of you, while we're doing this, there's nothing really to see,

but this should give you an idea of scale of Project Vanguard. And then he takes Nova and he begins going over to the crystal pillar. What are the rest of you doing, by the way? I'm going with Nova. Yeah, I was going to say, can I kind of make quick eyes at Ayla? Like, come with me. I don't trust myself.

She's not leaving them. She's going with them. So Nova and Ayla go with Mal. To Mal. Just at all times, just like waiting for him and he's very aware he's nervous you can tell that this you being around him makes him uncomfortable um in a he's afraid sense uh lucius quill and century what about you guys is there anything you guys want to do while the the two nerds go at it so there's a window separating this room from the project vanguard room right

that we can't really see through okay i mean i guess it's because it's so dark on the other side right like in here you have this dim light of these glowing orbs um but in the the beyond the glass it's just like dark and i think if quill like if you're gonna go up and look through the glass or do you like still linger in the room? Have a look, yeah. Is there any door to actually access that room, or is it just totally separate? Yeah, there is a door. Yeah, there's a door set into it.

There's a section of the glass that's like a metal frame has been put into it, and then there's a metal door. But when you even look up the glass, it's just like darkness. It's like looking through a window into a huge cavern, and you don't see walls, you don't see ceiling. It's just like darkness. It's like looking through a window into a huge cavern, and you don't see walls, you don't see ceiling. It's just darkness beyond. Okay. All right.

I mean, I'd very much like to get into that room. I can use the eye to find out what it was, what its purpose is when he intends to use it. I can find out anything about this weapon that we need to know. It's just, I'm wary of using it now. We can't see into the room from here. Let's wait for the right moment. Also, we need to think about our escape plan

in case alarms sound or anything like that. And let's not forget that we have others under our protection as well uh we have to coordinate all of that and give them the clear uh message that to escape i can keep watch by the door um in case anybody comes good idea okay all right um so yeah the um the door that leads out of this room by the way quill i mean it looks to just be a normal door you don't see like any signs of a locking mechanism there's no um metal there's no stone plate like you've seen on some of the magically sealed doors here it just looks like a mundane door that you would take you know out into a space um nova uh you and malatia uh gone tom so um malachi when i look back at him or what was his name sorry mal mal malatia he says

cool his name is mal mal right when i look back at mal um he's extremely nervous when i look at him is he nervous of ala or is he looking around, almost waiting for something to happen? Make an insight check. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Insight check, everyone. What's that? It's happening. What's one of those?

Woo! 31 with a nat 20. Oh, Christ. X-ray vision. It's through him. Insight is not a lie detector. Insight is reading somebody's body language and noticing minute behaviors and patterns

and reading their facial expressions and things like that. Looking at Malatyr, it's like I said before, you get the sense that this is somebody who is deeply regretful. The way that he was looking around the lab when you were. Like the way that he looks, the way that he was looking around the lab when you were upstairs, the way that he looks at the places here, he looks sad.

He looks sorrowful. He looks ashamed. You read these kind of like pained looks when he kind of like glances at the columns and he's downloading this information to Nova's magic crystal. You know, he looks ashamed uh he's not glancing around like he's expecting anything to happen like his body's tight but only when ayla is like looming

over him like you see him like cringing like the way that you would if you had an imposing figure stood behind you you know you'd be consciously aware of that. But he's not glancing around waiting for something bad to happen. Yeah. And the way that he's talking with Nova, the way that he's showing her, like, ways to use this data crystal that Nova didn't know, he's explaining how everything works. Like, he does seem very genuinely passionate about things,

and he seems to see a bit of a kindred spirit in Nova. And yeah, you get the impression that actually everything he said has been pretty much on the level. You do genuinely think he wants to escape. You do genuinely believe that he is glad of your protection in a sense. Okay. So like,

sorry that a passion project is now over and also regret that... of what the actual project is. Yeah, you get the sense that, like, there is, like, an element of pride in, like, I've built this amazing piece of magical technology. Oh, God, it's being... It's going to be used to, like, kill lots and lots of people. That makes me sad.

You know, that's definitely the kind of impression you get. And then his nervousness is because he is a scrawny little fire ganassi. He looks like, you know that's definitely the kind of impression you get and then his nervousness is because he is a scrawny little fire ganassi he looks like you know ayla would snap him into and he's terrified of her um all right okay fair enough um yeah i guess over messengering like i he is nervous i know but i i actually think we can trust him. So, Aayla, maybe you don't need to be so... Well, I mean, why not? Why not? I mean, I'm just being me, Quill.

Just being myself here. It's all good. It's all fine. You're being you very close to him, is what I'm saying. I can back off, like, maybe two centimues. That'd be okay you do that there is even like a there is a like slight bit of relief when he senses even just a tiny movement away

you can get a sense so century you want to stand by are you standing by the elevator doors are you standing by the door into the larger open chamber the on this glass by the elevator doors in case anybody else comes down. So you're just going to wait there?

Yeah. Okay. And then Lucius, what about yourself? And then I'll jump to Nova. I'm just hovering but watching intently. I'm not really imposing myself. I'm just observing really. Okay.

So Nova. It takes a little bit of time um but eventually uh you begin to see holographic projections and holographic script uh like illusory script appear on the data crystal like you've seen this before when you were on ages 5 you were able to download like these kind of magical scrolls like it's just the text it's like you know having a scroll on your crystal that can be deleted and edited and things like that you know it's like a text it's like you know having a scroll on your crystal that can be deleted and edited and things like that you know it's like a text file basically um but with it there are some magical um illusory projections of something um the first words is project vanguard you see

and then there is some text the titans of eros are powerful individuals, but without Siaska, their power has waned considerably. Atelicus is one of the greater physical threats, and our current war golems will not be sufficient to overpower him. We need something bigger, stronger, capable of facing off against a Titan. Then there's like a couple of line breaks. The Colossus, Project Vanguard. Gargantuan construct. Reinforced armor plating, high density structural frame, infused with wards and protections to make it impervious to non-magical means and give it limited ability to resist magical

effects. Line break. An Aetherium infernal infused engine to power the device and its multitude of elemental weaponry. The miraculous properties of Aetherium are incredible. The scholars of Arois have learned to use it efficiently but have only just begun to tap into its potential. It contains faint echoes of the Genesis Well and divine energy signatures. The Colossus will be able to function independently as though it were a golem.

However, it will have structure inside it for a crew to operate it from optimal military efficiency. A network of control nodes runs through its body like nerves and a control device stationed in the head allows someone to guide its movements and use reactionary tactics. Couple of line breaks. We have considered multiple weapons and devices as armaments. Two arcane turrets, physical attacks, and a powerful aetherium-enhanced light cannon will

be equipped for certain, but the scholars of Ganas have been toying with elemental-bound systems, storm shields, flaming flaming weapons magnetic arrays high pressured water systems even flight capabilities we'd be unable to power all of these but a current engine output we suspect at least two would be possible and then with a couple of taps of runes malatir brings up a holographic image of a gargantuan humanoid shape big chest large head shoulders arms you can see the outlines of magical turrets and what appear to be spaces within the creature that a unit of elite soldiers could be stationed in, where mages can be stationed, enough to transport a small unit of troops and accompanying mages inside the creature as well.

You see access points at the feet, the back. You basically see the structural kind of technical layout of this huge, gargantuan-sized beast. This would be at the same sort of size uh as kind of probably bigger than anything you've ever encountered like this is bigger than airships this is enormous but you know this is huge it's into a scary size um yeah okay all right so only only never can really see that on the the at the moment yeah at the moment she's malice is showing it to just nova uh okay and he's not like projected

huge is what i'm saying not yet okay no cool mal you you created a titan killer! Well, not... it wasn't... it wasn't just me. I've always loved constructs, golems. I used to build them for fun back on Ganas. The idea of creating protectors, guardians, things that could function and move like people, but could farm fields that could serve as soldiers so that people wouldn't have to die. That's what I wanted to build. Calus wanted something bigger. The team were convinced that they

could create the ultimate weapon. And you have. He looks terribly ashamed. Do you know where this is being sent to? I don't, no. We weren't told things like that. We were kept here, basically forced to work on it.

I know that they used a very powerful spell, Gate, to transport it through to somewhere here on Arois. The cradle, this barrier around your world, it still is blocking planar magic. Things can't be taken in and out of it, except for seemingly in a very specific set of circumstances that only the Emperor and a few of his trusted individuals know. But I know that it was sent somewhere here on Arois. I just, I have no idea where. There's no record of it. It was all done so quickly. I won't lie, the technological advancement on this is incredible, but please, tell me you put a failsafe in that.

Why would we do that? Building a weapon, there's no reason to. This is under the command. The only, I mean, it is a creature. It can be fought. The only thing which I can think of for weaknesses is that if a team, if somebody were able to get inside the Colossus, the control nodes,

it's very difficult for even a golem to operate all of its functions at that size to that degree of power. If you could disable some of the control nodes, you would be able to slowly shut down some of its systems. But inside, I mean, there's space there for the best of the best, the finest

Valkyrian troops, and to head it all you would need an incredibly powerful mage to command the whole thing. And even just getting close enough to it, being able to open its hatches, you'd have to go toe-to-toe with this thing.

But that's the only thing I can think of. No, Ayla, no. This is way bigger than you. So yeah, at this point, like, Nova, if you wanted to kind of like like show everybody you can project the the hologram a little bit bigger so everyone can see it i just want to say one last thing to mal before i do that but i just want to turn to him and say this is this is brilliant mal and i

understand i understand why i understand more than these guys will about the need for knowledge and to build a beautiful, terrifying creation like this. But I was in a similar situation to you. I tried... I was tempted to make deals with the devil for knowledge, for information. I thought I could use it against Hadar. And it was devastating. It led to devastating consequences.

Of course. I know. I know. I know you know the ramifications of this. And I hate to say it, but you're gonna have to live with those consequences, you understand. But maybe, maybe you can

help. You can help stop this. We're gonna get you out of here. We're gonna turn you over to the prince. You need to give all your knowledge because we need to stop this thing. I will, but I know you're all defending your home

in a sense, but this machine, it was built to fight your titans, these beings of your world, but it was also built as a weapon against Hadar. The Empire, it's against Hadar. The Empire, it's holding Hadar back, but this isn't

something that is openly talked about, but I overheard things. Hadar is getting more aggressive. It's angry. It's pressing on its boundaries. It's stretching Valkyrian's forces like it hasn't before and that has had ramifications through the Empire.

There is a belief that Kallus is... There is something about your world. Maybe it's the Aetherium. Maybe it's these Guardians and he points at Sentry. I don't know, but there's something about this world that Kallus thinks is the only way to stop Hadar. This machine, this Colossus, this might be one of the things that can help us hold Hadar back. I know you have to destroy it, we have to stop it to save your world,

but in doing so, you might be condemning the rest of the... the rest of the multiverse. But... Mal... I'm just an engineer. That's... I'll help.

I'll give whatever information I have. I'm not... I can help you build the sword, but I can't use it. I don't know how. I can help you build the sword, but I can't use it. I don't know how Calus wants to use the entire planet To to use it as a weapon against Hadar

He wants to condemn an entire planet worth of people Now I have my thoughts on this, but do you think that's right right wrong it's when you're so drowned in the empire sometimes it's hard to see what that means but I know one thing maybe it's hard for you all but

I do believe that ultimately the emperor himself I don't think he's a But I do believe that ultimately the Emperor himself I don't think he's a No, that's not the right way to say it if the Emperor thinks that the only way to stop Hadar is destroying this world I do genuinely believe that that might be the only option He doesn't I do genuinely believe that that might be the only option.

He doesn't... He doesn't take risks. He doesn't need to. He doesn't... He doesn't throw away lives. He doesn't need to. He values life. But I think he sees it as a... A lesser evil.

Still. That's too philosophical philosophical too philosophical for me I'm just a I'm just an engineer but um and then he'll kind of say you should show the others what they're dealing with yeah thanks Mel thanks hey everybody you can see that he looks pretty shaken up so yeah uh yeah yeah team meeting this is project vanguard and i'll project it up and point out all the salient features yeah lucas is wide-eyed at such a device. It's... Surely it's not that big. It is, yeah.

It is. So you built a titan killer. A titan killer, Mal! Yes, we did. This Atelicus apparently is... He's meant to be the... From Calus's data, from the reports we received,

I mean, Calus is one of the few who was actually here, and he said that Atelicus was his greatest physical threat on your world easily capable of dealing with many of our smaller the smaller war machines armies but with his power waned project colossus the project vanguard was was built to not just defeat him but also be a weapon against things like astral dreadnoughts and Hadar spawn, very powerful things that are out in the astral space. But ultimately, yes, it was built to take on a fully powered Titan of Aroas. And we believe we exceeded those expectations. Based on the data, what we know of Italicus's strengths and abilities,

the Colossus should win. Why has it come to this? Considering the Titans could have helped, we could have all banded together to fight.

It's a question you have to ask the Emperor. And I did ask him. the fight. Why do we have to... It's a question you have to ask the Emperor. That's beyond my pay grade. And I did ask him. And he said... He said that he wasn't open this time to negotiation because when he's tried in the past, it hasn't worked. Well, then he's condemned us all.

What can we do? Look at him. Well, we're's condemned us all. What can we do? Look at him. Well, we're going to do something. I refuse to be a part of another planet that is taken out because of him thinking that that's the only solution to this. It's not. Lucius said this. We've got more than one god. So put that together.

Use that to fight. It's only a small thing I mentioned this to Nova but there's no failsafe or weaknesses but the structure of this thing this isn't like a guardian this isn't like

a normal golem such a size such power requirements it can't all operate fully there are control nodes things inside the colossus if if somebody were be if a team were able to get inside they would be able to shut down the colossus's components its arms, its weaponry, piece by piece. It can house elite troops inside, and even getting inside of it, well, that's a challenge you need to overcome.

But this thing was not built to take on a small group of highly skilled, very powerful individuals. It was meant to take on armies and other giant creatures. It was meant to take on armies and other giant creatures. If you were all... I heard you fighting against Valksra. You've beaten the guards of this place. From the sounds of it, you've dealt with a lot of things. You may have a chance.

Maybe. I can show you its access points. I can show you the ways that you can get inside of it. I can tell you about weapons, but even I don't know its final armaments. We planned, we designed, but some of those were going to be built off-world and then sent here. Scholars of Ganas, and he points at Nova. They were working on elemental weaponry. But I don't know which

ones it will be equipped with in the final design. Have we got everything we need to bring back to the Skytreex? Is there anything about Magroth I missed? I need to recover. I mean, Democles, he was the one who helped us break through with the Ethereum engine.

The golem is powered by an infernal engine, a device kind of bound to an exceptionally powerful devil or demon. But that alone wasn't powerful enough. Ethereum has the ability to enhance magical abilities. And if it's constructed, if it's latticed in the right way, the effect can be 10, 20, 30, 100 fold. That's the only way we could make something this big, this powerful. Aetherium is very, very exceptional, but it needs to be managed in the right way.

It's also incredibly unstable. The wrong thing can send surges of powerful magic through it and can cause explosions and all sorts of complications. Democles is the one who helped us break through that, and he's been experimenting with his own things. It's about this time as you guys have been discussing this the lights in the room

grow brighter and outside the glassed wall lights begin to and they illuminate a chamber big enough to house this gargantuan project, this project colossus and it is like you're probably talking like nearly a hundred feet tall like this chasm it is enormous probably

bigger i haven't worked out the size category of it yet but it's it's gargantuan in dnd sizes and you can see like there is a scaffolding like metal scaffoldings have built been built up the side so that people could build and construct things but it is empty it's just completely void of anything just the scaffolding in the space and as all these lights come on uh a image begins to flicker in the middle of the room kind of like a projected illusion begins to... And appearing is a not particularly handsome, rather plain-looking high elf, dressed in kind of Gusthaven clothes, although they're not particularly ostentatious,

with a kind of pair of goggles, it looks like, on the top of his head, with a kind of belt of tools, a sword at his side. And Lucius, you would recognize it as the younger brother of Belenor Magrona, Democles Magrona. The illusion doesn't look... It kind of looks around, but it doesn't focus on any of you in particular.

It just kind of looks around. Ah! Well, I'm assuming that somebody has drawn some of the files. My intellect suggests that this is you, Lucius, given your overcoming of Iron Staff and the others. I know that my brother has been growing something somewhat suspicious lately. I imagine he would come to you, which I find a little, well, a little whimsical, a little whimsical.

A little ironic. You've probably seen what we've been building here at Shadow Song Pinnacle now. It's quite the marvel. Truly, the magitek of the Valkyrian Empire is beyond anything I could have imagined. And it's certainly beyond anything the traditionalists like your father

would have ever allowed Gustaven to become involved with too busy sitting in the past doing what has always worked for 500 years never changing, never growing

never evolving I wanted to leave a message I am sorry that you got involved in all of this. Of your family, I think that at least you never meant harm. You never meant to, well, for all your ignorance, for all your privilege, for all your naivety, you were ignorant to the insults and way you would demean others around you.

I think that you have a kind heart. And sadly, the rest of your family were not so innocent. Still, things are going to change now Valkyrian really offers something that I think all of a rowist needs no more tradition no more putting princes on thrones simply because they were born with the right blood. Elevate up the people with the skill, the knowledge, the strength, the will. They're the ones who should succeed. Ones who should be listened to.

I think it's an exciting opportunity for all of us. Calus knows how things should be. Everyone should have the same chances. Education for everyone. Opportunities for everyone. And then those with the natural talent and the skills, they succeed. No more boundaries.

No more manacles of tradition, fear, privilege. There was one you probably don't remember. I remember, Belenor, you probably don't know this about our family, but we were never really that rich. Mother made a good show of making it look like we were but many of our business failings were disasters. Father left us in terrible debt. She went to your father for help but he never offered it. They had a sordid past, your father and my mother she loved him deeply spurned her so we were always well

scrimping and scraping belenor would sneak down to the lowlands he would fight in taverns against thugs and mercenaries to earn enough money to buy his own set of jousting armour. He spent months saving up for that armour. And finally, he went to the training grounds for his first trials. And there you were, stood there in the finest, prettiest plate mail that money could buy. Oh, it enraged him. Of course, you didn't know. You didn't know any better.

You never did. I'll always remember it. It's so strange to think of that memory now. Of course, this is all really just to keep you in this room, to stop you noticing what's really happening. It's all just been a big distraction, I'm afraid. Right about now, the last of my soldiers should be done sabotaging the Ethereum refinery. There won't be anything left of this facility when it destroys itself.

It's nice knowing you, Lucius. And the illusion fades. All the lights go off. All the lights just plunge into darkness. Everything just goes black. What do you guys do? We need to go.

I was gonna say I wanted to start moving while the speech was happening, but I didn't want to interrupt your amazing dialogue. I was going to be like, should we just leave? He's kind of boring.

I would imagine that Lucius would not have left whilst that was going on, considering it is the person connected to his family's death and everything else. But yeah, if you guys want to say that you started moving over towards the elevator and packing up all your stuff and gathering

what you can, you can definitely do that. You find the elevator no longer works. You tap the runes, you swipe the keystones, it does not function. It just is locked in place. Mal, another way out. Interesting.

There isn't one. We're in the center of the island. He just points at the elevator. It's the only way. Down the cavern? The cavern is just a hollowed-out shell inside the island. It was carved to build the project. There's no way out of it. It's one way in,

one way out. It's the most secure way apart from the gate spell. I think we're going to have to climb. They have airships here. They've been stealing airships. There's an airship somewhere. There's a crew. There's an airship.

Climb up. Find it. Well, I'm going to assume at this point that's kind of like your, you know, what do you guys do? Quill. Yes. Yeah. Send a message to the airship team.

Tell them to run. Will do. Tell them to get an airship. Oh my god. What level is sending? No. Three. I can't.

Oh no. I don't have anything three or higher. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no. I don't have anything three or higher. Oh, no. Oh, fuck. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. Well, while Crawl looks that up, what about the rest of you? I can teleport us, but it's going to take ten minutes. We don't have that time.

We need to just start running. But I don't know where. We're trapped. Can we blast a hole? You can try. I can... Blast a hole in it. I can try. I can try. I can get to the

airship crew. There must be at least a mile around us, the island. Yeah. What was that, Tom? We're too deep. I can get to the airship crew. I might not be able to speak to them through sending, but I can fly to them. I just need to get to them as quick as I can.

Is there a window? There's nothing else. If they destroy this facility, there are weapons here. We could try and fix whatever sabotage they've done, but if this place destroys, even if we can fly away, I'm not sure we'll be fast enough. The Ethereum is so unstable, it will cause an incredible explosion.

We need to teleport then. We need to teleport. Are there any consoles that are flashing? You won't be able to teleport then. We need to teleport. Are there any consoles that are flashing with like a... It's just darkness. So unless you guys have light sources, it's like pitch black in here. Yeah. The doors to the elevator are open and you can see it has an open top. So Sentry can look up and there is this tall...

Maybe... I mean, it goes up in darkness. You can't see as far as it goes up and then there are four chains in each corner of the shaft um that connects to whatever winching mechanism is there um but yeah there's no power i'll just yeah i'll just point to that and just say we can try up here climb up the elevator shaft ay, do you have any rope on you? I think so. Quill.

Does anyone have any rope on them? Because I can levitate Ayla, she can go up, drop a rope down, pull us up. How about... I have wings. Yes, Quill, just go. Go and get that other crew. All right, I'm going to cast Expeditious Retreat, and I'm going to fly as fast as I can

to the airship crew. Okay, what is your maximum speed per round? So with Expeditious Retreat I can take the dash, I mean it's a fight spell but

I'm using a bonus action to dash instead of an action. And my fly speed is 50, I believe. Yes, 50, so 100 I was to fly. Okay, and what's your constitution modifier? Because if you're dashing every turn, you know, there is like, your stamina becomes a factor in that.

Dashing is like sprinting effectively. Sure, it's a plus one, effectively. Sure, it's plus one, twelve. Okay, so plus one. Okay. All right, so Quill shoots off. I am going to tell you now, Quill, it will take you 100 feet. It will take you about five rounds

to reach the top of the elevator shaft. It's a 500-foot shaft. When you reach the top, I do need you to make a constitution saving throw for me, though, please. Because by the time you reach the top, even with the magic of the spell propelling you upwards, you're still sprinting and your body is still tiring. Am I able, with Expeditious Retreat,

bonus action dash and action dash? You can. Again, it will tie you out quicker, but you can do it. Okay, well, that means 150 feet. 150 feet. So that's three rounds, four rounds. That cuts it down to, no, one, two, three rounds.

It takes you to reach the top. And give me two constitution saving throws. My other suggestion whilst this is being rolled is I say to Nova perhaps you could levitate

Hal and fix the elevator instead because the time it's going to take us to climb this shaft is going to take us longer than this whole thing. I don't think I can get up there. 500 feet. You can climb it.

I don't know. I don't know what he's done. It could be that he's removed the power source of the whole shaft. There's normally a control stone at the very top of the tower that controls the chains, the stone. It could be that maybe they've removed the power source maybe this is an anti magic effect I don't know quill by the time

you reach the top of this this elevator shaft this 500 foot shaft that you kind of fly up in you're exhausted uh you gain two levels of exhaustion by the time you reach two levels um so you're now at half speed but you can like you're looking around there's no sign of any sort of um soldiers or anything like that okay okay well yeah half speed so 75 feet of movement if I'm still doing action bonus action dashing. Well, the more you get more tired, you're going to keep making constitution saving throws because you've just used all your energy

to sprint up this elevator shaft. If you keep dashing, you're pushing yourself to your limits. Nova, if you cast levitate on me, can I carry you up one by one? I'm going straight up. Levitate is 20 foot around. So as somebody who's levitating, you can go up 40 feet around, basically.

Because you can dash and go 40 feet around. Which, if you think about it, is like 10 rounds. Just over 10 rounds. If you climb, you climb at half speed. So that's 15 feet around. So it's a minute to get up levitating, basically. Yeah, around about a minute. Yeah, it's around about a minute.

It'll probably be about two minutes if you just climb up. Yeah. Take someone. We'll all start climbing. That's all we've got, right? We're dead if we stay here. We can at least try. If you fix it, we'll use the top of the elevator to just carry us the rest of the way um if i was levitating if if nova cast levitate on me if i was levitating could i use the jump action on my hammer to propel us faster? Or the gust cantrip that I have on my hammer to propel us faster?

Gust won't, gust won't, but you'd basically be able to... I would say that with the levitate... So here's the thing, right? With the jump action, you could use that without a levitate. You could use that to like... Because there are four chains in this elevator shaft in each corner. You could hold onto a chain, swing the hammer, jump, go the jump distance, and try

and, like, grab a chain and then do the same thing. Like, kind of, like, hulk your way up to the top, right? Jump, jump, jump, jump. Um, levitate just means that you won't have to grip onto the chains. Like, you'd just be able to, like, hover in the air, basically. Um, you could do that. Okay.

Or, yeah, you could just levitate and just jump, jump, jump. Nova, levitate yourself. I'll jump. Okay, I'm going. Okay. So Nova's going to levitate and start Rise Up. Okay. So Nova, you're moving about 40 feet around.

Because it's magic, I'm going to say you're probably not going to be as drained as Quill was. Because he was, like, physically flying, whereas you're levitating. Yeah. I don't know if it'll affect, but can I ask Aayla or Sentry to just give me a boost just to get me, like, momentum going?

Like, get me up? Sure, yeah. Either of you want to make a strength check, I'd let you kind of like thrown over and then Nova casts levitate as she hits the peak of the apex. Who wants to do it? One of you make an athletics check for me.

I'll do it. My athletics is probably higher. I rolled 15 plus 12. Yeah. So I'd say that you probably get like a good sort of like 30 extra kind of feet. And then you start levitating. So with that based,

six. You will reach the top of that elevator at one minute, 12 seconds Nova. If you're levitating. Sweet. Ayla, you're jumping. What's your strength score? 25?

Yes. So high jumps would be 25 to 50, 75. How many times can you use jump charge? Only three. Three times, isn't it? uh only three three times okay but it triples your jump distance every time you do it so 75 150 and it says it can be in addition this can exceed your movement speed for this turn so it's in excess of that so if you spend all three charges aya you can go 225 feet in like three jumps which is six 18 seconds you basically like jump jump jump and you get 225 feet up in that space of time you're like literally hulking your way like grab grab grab and then you can climb the rest of the distance up now your movement speed's also faster, right? What's your normal movement speed?

45 feet. So half is about 20 feet. Dashing then. So 40 feet. And then what's your con mod? Plus 4. Plus 4? Okay. So 8 rounds. That's going to be more than enough to get to the top.

I just need to work out the time. rounds that's going to be more than enough to get to the top i just need to work out the time um so that's going to be about so it takes you about less than a minute it takes you sort of around 50 odd seconds to reach the top so you're kind of like just actually you're going to get there just before even nova does like because you're doing these huge actually, you're going to get there just before even Nova does. Because you're doing these huge jumps, you're actually going to get there. The rest of you... As I jump up, so I threw Nova, right? And as I jump up and grab the chain, can I just go on your left? And then just...

You sail past her. And then Nova's just like slowly levitating upwards, just like... Straight up in a line. Yes, yes, very good, yes. Sentry, Lucius, and Malatear, you guys are all going to... And Moonstar, technically, who's with you. You guys will start climbing, right?

So you're just physically going to climb up these chains. You're all moving at the same speed. Can I cast Bless on Lucius, Moonstar, and Malatear before they go up? Yeah, absolutely. Can I just ush them all through ahead of me so I'm the last one up? You're the last one? Okay. Well, there are four chains

in the shaft, so you could each take a chain and start climbing up at the same time if you want. Yeah? Right. So you guys are going to be going a lot slower because you're basically at 15 feet, double to 30 if you dash, and you're going to start making con saves um it's a route of endurance so that's going to be about one minute and then

maybe about four so 20 odd seconds um okay, I need Lucius. Century, what's your constitution modifier? It is plus three. Okay, Lucius, can you make for me, because I think yours is plus one, you, Moonstar, and Mal are all pretty much going to start getting tired at the same speed. How much do you want to dash? Are you just trying to go up this chain

as quickly as possible, or do you want to kind of take it slow and steady and conserve your strength? Me? I'm going to... I think I've got some faith in Nova fixing the elevator, so I'm kind of conserving

myself. You're going to take it slow and steady? Okay. Yeah, because I think exhaustion's going to be worse in a minute 302 minutes i don't want to slip and fall it's going to take you about three and a half minutes to climb up if you're going slow and steady all right um so century are you going to keep pace with the rest of them because moonstar and malatia are going to go at the same pace as Lucius. Okay. So, Quill, you're the first one up at the top. You are up there in, like, fucking three rounds. Like, you've 18 seconds. You're like...

But when you get to the top, you feel yourself just absolutely drained of strength. It's like sprinting, like, for, like... But magically sprinting, because you're not just sprinting, you're sprinting twice. So what do you do when you get to the top? I would like to messenger ring, well, everyone,

and ask Nova, between you and Mal, do you have any idea how long we actually have? I don't know. I don't know what exactly Democles has done. I don't know if he's... My guess is that he's done something to blow all the Ethereum in the reactor.

That's my biggest guess because that's what I would do if I wanted to bring this place down. It's been a while, but you guys did notice when you were going up the tower to find Mal, you did notice there was a floor called Ethereum Refinery, and it had

warnings, unstable, dangerous, blah, blah, blah. That was on the second floor of the tower, basically. Quill. Okay. Hey, Mark, how much of an idea of time do you actually have? Because this will change my question very specifically for the Eye of the Storm.

I know... You can't ask me that, so... Okay. I was just wondering. In that case, I want to... Hey, God! Do you know how long the timer is? I want to...

I want to ask the Eye of the Storm if I were to start counting in seconds now, what would I get to when the Eye of the Storm, if I were to start counting in seconds now, what would I get to when the factory explodes? Okay, you see your vision goes cloudy, you see the stormy haze overflow your visions in an instant, and you see yourself as you are stood over this hole, but then almost like little runic scripts,

there is a timer in your vision that's counting up um your vision uh actually then starts flowing in you float into the tower you go up to the second floor you come into this room that you can see six um of these giant steel vats and two of them have like they're just like ruptured in places or they have sparks and magic flowing out of them they they are kind of like flashing and sparking and they seem to have been damaged in some way and it is building up this intense silvery mist or gas in the room that is getting bigger and bigger it gets to the little runic timer gets to, I would say 5 minutes 30.

And then there is just an explosion of light. And it engulfs, you see the whole island engulfed. You see like the mountains below it and like the whole air around it. Just... Shit. Okay. By the way, we have 5 and a half half minutes two of the ethereum engines are ruined five and a half minutes five and a half five and five minutes and 25 seconds i'm dashing you still

you still got uh you still got a fair few rounds on your own quill before anybody else gets a chance to do anything so if you want to do something right, this is a good time for you to do it. I think I'm going to... If that's possible... I'm still trying to get to the airship crew, like, knowing how much time I've got. Yeah, you can get... With your fast movement speed, you can actually get to them pretty quickly

because the Mind Flayer's base wasn't too far from here. Yeah, okay, so you're pretty much going to spend your time doing that, I think. Pretty much, yeah. A few seconds. Ayla and Nova, Ayla, you're actually the first up. You kind of pull yourself up into this long hallway that you first came into. You can see the elevator shaft keeps going up to the upper floors.

What do you do? Like, you kind of pull yourself out onto the first piece of platform you can. You're tired, but with your endurance, you actually didn't even need to make a single saving throw. Okay. What do you do? Is there...

Can I see... Have they tampered with this part of the elevator in some way? Can I see that it's been tampered with? It's just a shaft. It's just like a pure shaft. The chains still keep going up. It looks like the chains are attached to the very top. Okay.

But I would say you looking up, there is light here, and you can see that the upper tower is not as tall as the lower shaft you just came from. It's probably about, it's probably about 40 feet and then another 40 feet to the top of the tower. So it's only about another, it's about 80 feet above you. You can see the top

of this shaft. Where there is a control for the elevator. And that's where you can probably just about see it. You can see that, like, something has been removed. Like, there's, like, a big stone disc. The chains connect into it, and something, like, a gemstone or something has been pulled away from it.

Okay. Can I... There's... from it okay can I there's can I climb up there I don't know how long it takes to climb up there 80 feet you climb it 20 feet around you can still dash 42 rounds you could get there in. And in doing so, you're still up there before Nova is. That's... 1 minute 2. Okay. You get there. You can just about see Nova beginning to

come up below you, but you climb up up and you can see that this is i mean ayla doesn't have a clue what this is but yeah all you can tell is that something's been taken out of it and it seems to be connected to the chains in some way okay can i do anything in that time then to try and identify what I think it could be? You can make an intelligence check. What kind of... It'd be an intelligence check to figure this out.

Is there any way that I can get a sense that if I can physically do something to help pool that it would start the lift working? Or is it magical too, I think? You can make an intelligence check to try and figure it out.

Oh, okay. I rolled a 19. Minus one. 18. Looking at this, you do think there's probably magic attached to it. You've seen a lot of magitek. You kind of get a lot of sense that... But you've kind of seen similar stuff to this before. This is like the Magitek gems that powered things like the bike,

some of the Magitek stuff you've seen. This is a power source. It needs power. Like, the energy is being taken away from it. It needs some sort of magical energy to power it. Do I get the sense that if I channeled lightning into it, it would do anything? You can certainly try, Katie.

Can I try? So yeah, do you want to spend a rage and just basically... Yeah, can I try that? Okay. You kind of... You kind of begin churning this rage inside you. The lightning begins arcing up your arms down your back and then just hold the hammer up and the lightning

into this thing and you hear and the chains as long as you can keep raging. As long as you can keep doing this, it will keep the elevator moving, which means you need to start taking damage. Otherwise your rage is going to end.

You can always just be like... Can I do that? If you just punch yourself and deal unarmed strike damage to yourself, you can keep your rage going, yeah. Okay. I'll do that then. Well... Alright. So, the elevator moves much, much

faster. Century and Lucius... Nova, you get to the top, because that would take a round. That would bring us to 108. Century and Lucius. Nova, you get to the top, because that would take a round, that would bring us to 1.08. Sentry and Lucius, Nova, you reach the top. Ayla, you can see Ayla channeling this thing in at 1.14. Yes, go on. When Quill figured out the timer, did Quill communicate, Tom, did Quill communicate the vision, like what the source of the self-destruct was?

Your messenger rings are free actions? Yeah, he said two of the refineries. And also, your messenger rings, by the way, are free actions. You guys can communicate. You could ask Quill, what else did you see? Blah, blah, blah. I don't mind that. Yeah, exactly what's wrong with it.

While I'm at the top, can I shout down to Mal and be like, Mal, is there a way to vent the refinery and stop it from blowing? It's like echoing down the chamber. He gets the sense. Yeah, you can ask Lucius or somebody else to ask. Ironically enough, Moonstar, Lucius as well, you might know a little bit about this because your family ran an Ethereum refinery.

Your father made Ethereum parts for airships. You make an intelligence check for me, Lucius. I will make one for Moonstar as well. That's actually extra 20. She knows. She knows everything. Lucius doesn't. Lucius doesn't.

You did not pay any attention to that stuff. That's a one. The idea is communicated, and both Malatya and Moonstar... Balanced. Yes, there should be... Tell Nova that there should be Multiple ways to do it The chances are that the malfunctioning Refineries need to be

Fixed before we can vent it If we try and vent before they're fixed It will cause a catastrophic explosion But if we can get there Both myself, Nova, Malatyr And maybe even my brother May be able to help fix the machines. I'm going to keep going up.

I can try. It's magic, Lucius. You understand magic. You can do things. We'll probably need Sentry and Aayla's help as well. There may be some manual fixing that we need to do. It's either that or I prepare a teleportation circle. It'll take a minute.

I'll do whatever you need. Malatea will say, you can't teleport inside the tower. It's warded against teleportations. One of the things they did after the gate was to prevent further teleportations. You could do it from the roof or outside, but not inside the tower. I forgot to do his American accent, but you get the idea. Yeah. Alright, so...

Activating the elevator will cut down the time, almost cut down the time for everybody else massively. By the time we get to two minutes, everybody who was in the shaft, you kind of have to let go as the elevator comes rapidly up behind you.

You're like, oh, fuck! And then you catch the floors as you are pulled up by it. Nova, this gives you about 45 seconds of stuff to do if you and Ayla wanted to do it. Ayla, you need to keep doing this, by the way. You're going to take... How much unarmed strike damage do you do per round?

I don't... What is my unarmed strike uh so it's normally just one plus strength mod wait eight points but you are raging so you have it so it's four so you take uh this would be uh it was one minute 40 so it's like 45 seconds. So 45-ish divided by 6. What's that? 35. Let's call it 6 times 4. So 24 points of damage you've taken. You're just like,

punching yourself. Punching yourself. Like biting your hands. It's more important to get them up. And you're just constantly causing yourself pain to keep your rage going. Nova. Can I keep going

up to the refinery level? Because it's one level up, isn't it? So you can get there. You'd get there just before the guys reach the ground floor. When you get to that, Nova, the doors are closed. they do look like they just open but you see all of these warning signs like these kind of like dangerous poisonous

unstable um etc etc uh quill by this time you definitely could have gotten to the other airship crews and told them to do something and started heading back what do you do hey good news uh we are getting out of here bad news we have got to get out of here right now. Follow me, everyone. All right, okay, everybody, let's hustle up. And you see, like, they begin pulling themselves together. Quicker, quicker, quicker, quicker, quicker, quicker, quicker. And yeah, I...

And yeah, they start moving. Yeah, I mean, the only route that if everyone was to head backwards to where I am, I'll follow that route back to get to the outside area, outside the elevator. Okay, so you're going to take them into the tower, basically, where the elevator is. Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah. Okay. So they can die, of course.

Sure. Take them right to the bum. I mean, I need to meet up with you guys. Yeah, the whole, the Dagus airship crew, the few stranglers that were remaining, I do have their names somewhere. Yeah, they follow. Awesome.

Captain Dallas Orgren. Dallas Orgren and his crew, and then Vedalan Zarbeth, Arena Goodtail, Scork McKenzie, very important. They all start following you. Elevator team, you guys reach the floor and Malatea hits the button for the second tier.

This is pretty much about, yeah, about two minutes, like six seconds, or like two minutes, 12 seconds, which is where we're going to basically come in quill that's the point where you basically get the crew to the the bottom floor of the tower you can just fly up to the second level but the elevator's already gone up so they're stuck on the ground level for the time being until it comes down uh nova what do you? Are you waiting for the others or are you going to go in on your own? I'm going to go in on my own first. I have a level four key card in.

I don't know if that matters. It does, yeah. These doors, this opens. Once you've accessed the room on the elevator, you can open the doors easily enough. Ayla, you take another four points of bludgeoning damage, but then you can stop. Like, you can see the elevator kind of clicks in place,

and you're like, and then you can just sort of drop down onto the elevator with them at this point. Nova, you get in about 12 seconds to two rounds early. I will show you guys on level 20. So when you open, you step out into a kind of long corridor-shaped

space. There are gangways above you with stairs leading up to them. Each of the gangways connects to one of these large metal vats and there appears to be a central control system on the other side away from the elevator.

You can zoom out a fair bit, I think, on the map. And then you should be able to see everything. The two tanks that are sparking, you notice them immediately. It's A and G. But this area, do you hold your breath or anything when you step in? Or are you just like stepping into the room immediately? I'll hold your breath or anything when you step in, or are you just, like, stepping into the room immediately?

I'll hold my breath, yeah. I mean, I don't... She doesn't need to breathe. Yeah, so you don't need to. There is a fine silvery gas filling this entire space. When you step into it, it kind of tingles against your skin. Tiangong seems to almost fizzle and spark in amongst this gas.

This appears to be aetherium waste gas from the refinery. There are shapes moving around. You can see almost coalesced forms of this mist as well as lightning bolts that seem to just kind of arc through the air

are in this space. They don that seem to just kind of arc through the air are in this space. They don't seem to have noticed you as long as you haven't fully stepped into the room itself. But this definitely appears to be a dangerous place to be. What do you do? Oh, goody. I will communicate to everyone. The room is flooded with Ethereum gas.

It's probably poisonous. There's shapes in here. I don't know. I don't know what to do. Moonstar, tell me where to go. Okay. So when the rest of the team catches up, Moonstar ducks ahead in.

Malatyr does the same. Malatyr holds his breath. You see him kind of like holding his breath. He sticks his head in. All right. We need to deal with the two Ethereum refineries that are currently unstable. We need to fix them.

Nova, you head to one. I'll head to the other one. You may need to spend some time trying to figure out what's wrong with it. Once we identify the problems, we can fix them. Then somebody, she pointing at Malatea, you head to the central console. When Nova and I give you the signal, hit the large central lever. That will vent the entire chamber and it should stabilize the pressure uh looking around um she ala century whatever these things they're probably unstable magic they'll be they'll probably be aggressive you need to keep them off nova and i as much as possible we need time to figure out exactly what's wrong with these these refineries but we may also need you to come and as possible. We need time to figure out exactly what's wrong with these refineries, but

we may also need you to come and fix things. We may need you to move heavy objects or pry open vents, things like that. So just be aware we may need your help as well. I know you can all communicate telepathically. Malatea and I can't, so we're going to have to hold our breath as best we can.

For the sake of ease, Quill, I will have you join the party and after we come back from break we're going to roll initiative! Oh no! Oh my god! This is tense. This is very tense.

We're going to fix the machines before it blows up. Before it blows up. We. Before it blows up. We're going to die to another corridor. You've roughly got three minutes. You'll be fine. Another corridor. It'll be fine.

It's another exploding corridor.