High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #109 | Bird in a Cage (Part 2)

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

Alongside the most powerful ally yet, the Stormchasers have found a way to get to Quill... but they don't have long to save him! We're sponsored by D&D Beyond! The ultimate Dungeons and Dragons toolset. Clean up your dungeon delving life and speed up your games here: http://bit.ly/HRDNDBeyond2021 We're also sponsored by NordVPN! The best tool to protect yourself online! Discover new content that's normally region locked and stay safe with code HRDND to get a 2 year plan + 1 free month here: https://nordvpn.com/hrdnd 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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of mind you deserve let us help you plan every detail with professionalism and compassion provider. Find us at dignitymemorial.ca You guys stand in these incredible majestic mind-blowing halls just this constant reflection of light that seems to just stretch on you don't see an entrance or an exit um just this single column of light comes down into the very center of these conjoined corridors atop this crystal sarcophagus where hespa was there is just this book just laying there nova crawls over to the book i imagine when the magic goes out everyone just drops. And she just... She crawls over to the book and just cradles it and is kind of looking around

at where Hesper was. Kind of almost in disbelief as to what we've just witnessed. Make a... Make an arcana check for me nova actually just to see if you could pick up on some stuff sensing 19 plus 7 26 judging by what you witnessed the state that hesper has been in you know the when you saw him but also the way that calls described him and the way that Hesper has been in, you know, when you saw him, but also the way that Qualls described him and the way that he's been depicted,

you get the sense, and, you know, this is an analytical thing. You're, like, making assumptions, but they're educated guesses. He was expending huge amounts of divine energy in short spaces of time doing something. Who knows what what i don't know but

whatever this was this last act sending out these infant numbers of himself to find the exact place that quill is it took the last vestiges but you do notice something else that sarcophagus is glowing brighter than it did before i think sentry you would notice that as well just that sarcophagus is definitely it's more radiant than before hespa brought you here i um Before Hesper brought you here. I, um... He's not gone. You heard him.

If we bring Siaska back, Hesper comes back too. We must do whatever we can to bring her back. Quill's gonna be real mad. Real mad. Quill's gonna be real mad. Real mad. Quill's gonna be alive, though. And that's the main bit. He has to sacrifice himself so we could get him. You know what?

Somebody, a god just sacrificed his life to save Quill's life, so that's pretty good. It must feel good to have someone respect you so much to just you know sacrifice every last bit of their life to save you so the burb's important wouldn't we do all that for each other absolutely but but i didn't know that the

god i don't i'm not you know, so to me this is... Whoa. Yeah. Hopefully we can find more that are on our side just as much as he was. We can worry about that later. We need to go and get Quill. From what I can gather from this book, it's linked to the Serpent's Coil, but Hesper said to the outside. You all know what it's like surviving in the Astral Sea, so we need to think about that.

Breathing cold. Do we go now, straight away? How are we feeling? How is everybody? How many hours have passed? I'm good to go anytime you guys want to go. I will say, one thing I hadn't considered is being the god of magic

and this amount of divine energy, I think you would all gain the benefit of a long rest from that amount of energy being expended. Long rest. Good god. I also get a new shard of Tiangong, you know? No. I gave you a really cool book Nova don't be greedy

no you did give me a really cool book and I appreciate that it is a very cool book do I need to attune to this book you do and the other thing I would say Nova recognizes is it's not set for the material plane it's not set for a row it's either it only has the one set

gemstone I was going to say actually like before we go uh one thing i want to do is spend an action to attune a gemstone to the current plane because i think it'd be nice if we could come back here yes it's not even the current plane it's this specific location so you attune it oh to the halls of infinite resplendence. Oh. That was a good move. This is our house now.

We're coming back here. This is our house now. This is our secret secret base. Nobody talk about this one. So two gemstones are now lit. And Nova, you can just holding the book and being attuned to it will say that

you attuned to it you know you've got to figure out how that's going to work but yeah with two gemstones you know exactly where they're located so you know one is the astral sea and you know it's you know some vague location but you know where it will take you and then this one is set

to this. Yeah. Siaska's tomb in the Halls of Infinite Resplendence. Just in terms of admin, I'm going to unattune from the Rod of Alertness. So if anyone wants to use that, you're more than welcome.

I've used the main charge on it. Yeah, I've used the main charge on it, but you used the main charge in it but you can use detect good and evil detect magic detect poison and disease and see invisibility with it if you want we can do that after we'll do that on the next episode or like have people offline go through items and stuff yeah because there's also like you've got like the ring of evasion the ring of teleportation as well like you got a bunch of stuff so um i think uh this whole situation after being dropped out the sky lucius hasn't said a single word he's in complete

uh stunned disbelief and all he's gonna do is slowly pick himself up and look at the sarcophagus in front of him so yeah lucius the first one kind of walked past nova he went to where the book was but lucius walks past and you get to the sarcophagus and it's this almost just like a chunk of crystal right like it's just carved or not even carved formed naturally like some sort of crystal that's grown there's this intense light and it's bright lucius like it's you know do you want to try and look inside like this is very bright no this is too much uh right now he's just almost can't believe he's here what just happened uh he's overwhelmed that he's even in this situation surrounded by the people he's surrounded by, involved in it in any way,

a god sacrificing himself or a dear friend of his. He's in and over his head right now, so he's very much locked off. So yeah, you're just not even realising it. Don't even look in. You're just sort of stood in front of this sarcophagus, this crystal tomb.

Sentry? Yeah, as Lucius walks over, can I put a hand on his shoulder and just quietly thank him for helping? We did everything we could. It's for Quill, right? Of course. Without your help, you'd help me. I don't know. I don't think we would have been able to do it

without you helping. So thank you. Like you said, all is one. It's all the one. Century, I mean, you're stood in front of this this crystal tomb do you try and look inside it's you can you can do it the light's blinding but you could if you as an you know force yourself

to look inside if you wanted to or you could not i think just out of because it looks like a coffin i just think out of respect she wouldn't like she she probably she would maybe like it's just filled with light if you don't try like just place a hand on it but not try and like draw too much attention to it place a hand on it though eh you touch it, the crystal. It's warm, but also cold. It's like there's a presence within it that's warm and loving and caring. There's also a coldness to it, like an empty expanse. Not in a bad way, not in a scary way, like the feeling of possibility. But there's sadness.

There's deep sadness too. There's a grief here. There's a guilt. There's a mourning. There's heartbreak. Essentially just say thank you like knowing it's got brighter after Hesper

like passed I think knowing that she would just yeah quietly just say thank you it doesn't there's no response the feelings don't change

but they're there cool well what next team um I have a scroll of water breathing but I don't know if that would

apply to astral space um it um don't think so to astral space. Don't think so. I think we just have to try and get inside as quickly as possible, which we don't really know what it looks like.

If it had windows, I could create a portal so we could portal in through the windows. It's just, obviously, we don't know where on the ship and what kind of ship it is if it has windows. That's my concern. The other way is to find some kind of launch bay hatch that we can get through. Yeah, that's my ideas while you guys deal with this let's jump to the man himself

after about an hour quill the pressure says you know goes you feel yourself like oh like you can breathe easily the weights lifted off your shoulders and everything again um but you see the the full plate wearing guard is now gonna be watching where you are uh let me just throw down like any old random token so you know where they are uh they basically position themselves on the wall opposite your cell cross their arms you can see that they've got like a uh this kind of heavy glaive um kind of like they're holding in fact they're leaning on like a bladed staff and they're just looking into the cell gotta ask do i feel any different no okay why would you?

Well, you know, just wondering. What's the plan? Are you going to watch me for another, what, eight hours? You've got about seven hours before Mistress Akira is ready but don't worry the intelligence officer will be along shorter than that I'm just watching you till then

he'll probably leave you a jelly brained fool after he's done with you oh great is this what you wanted to do with your life jelly-brained fool after he's done with you. Oh, great. Is this what you wanted to do with your life? Serving Zarkira? I'm not here to debate my life choices

with you, Erosion. I know exactly why I serve the Mistress. She doesn't say anything you see at the corner of your eye you see these Durgar who have been working on this like panel it looks like they're doing like some hefty repairs to it they're beginning to like pack up some things but they're just kind of lingering around

and like listening to this conversation and they're just like making faces at each other the woman just kind of like tuts and like doesn't quite spit but like makes like the gesture of like like as this guy's talking i mean i i i am at a loss of what can be done like i can just talk to this guy and just be like hey your choices suck and you suck you definitely do that and he just doesn't respond you know he'll just not engage um he's too disciplined as a soldier to really get baited into a debate on morality and things like that.

I will start to pray and just hope to Hesper, obviously, and just hope there's some way I can find some time to get a message out to find my friends and allies for them to find me. Okay. In that case, we'll just jump back. That's all I got. We'll jump back to the others for now.

Okay, team. You know what you want to do? Smash our way in? I don't know. That's my my plan i don't really have another plan pretty good plan that's alice's plan we do smash it up be stealthy if this is sarkira's flagship and she's just captured quill i think she's gonna be there right she's gonna be wanting to be there so yes we do need to be careful at least until we get quill then you can start smashing okay you just let me know when we may have the element of surprise considering Considering a god sacrificed themselves to give us a power which no mortal should possess. So the expectancy of us arriving outside the ship and infiltrating.

That puts us at a slight advantage. Don't know where we're going to end up, of course. But let's make the most of it. So my plan is we shift there. Hopefully there's a window, and if there is, I'll cast Arcane Gate and get us through into the ship,

and then I can cast Invisibility on all of us. We find Quill, and we get out. There are other spells in this book that I can pinpoint his exact location. So if we could find a quiet corner, I can cast these spells to pinpoint him. The main thing is just surviving in astral space when we get there. Question for Mark Humes. Yes. Now, this is going a bit out there.

But wall of ice, right? I can make a dome. Yeah. Technically, ice is water and got oxygen particles in it right so placing us in a dome and us just being really close to the ice will provide a level of oxygen uh yeah it'd be like a bath so because this isn't space this is astral sea remember there's no pressure it's not like space where like things will implode it's really just there's no air and it's intensely cold i would say if you could basically you'd have

to wait until you the second you arrive but you could hold the spell and then craft the dome around you it may hamper your vision a little bit and you wouldn't have any control of where it goes. But in theory, yes, there would be oxygen inside it that you could breathe, and also it would give you some protection from the cold because the air, you know, you'd basically... It's like an igloo. Kind of, yeah. I would argue that you'd be creating, like,

a magically created, like, atmosphere within it that wouldn't be harmful anymore. But you would have no control of where the dome goes and it would be hard to see through because it's ice you'd have to like you know find a way to look through it my plan uh as lucius would be if we teleport and we see the vessel and i know lova's looking for a window I'd cast the dome onto the ship itself encasing us in a dome where the floor

is essentially the side of the ship so we are but you're going to wait until you can actually see like an entry point yeah so we'd wait for that moment essentially okay sure why don't we I mean yeah you can try it and see what happens

I can only try you can try and see what happens i can only try we can only try to beat it again we we walked along the back of the serpent before yeah yeah that was a little different the serpent yeah like there was no the serpent was so massive and it magically kind of created atmosphere around it um it was like being on like a like a small planet almost because it was massive um but it was still freezing cold like you were taking cold kind of created atmosphere around it. It was like being on a small planet, almost, because it was massive. But it was still freezing cold. You were taking cold damage every second you were out there. And the other

thing is you guys can take a big breath and then transport there. There's no air there. There's no air to breathe in the Aspen Sea. Only Nova would survive. Yeah, because she could... Well, I mean, you could hold your breath, like Aayla can hold her breath. I can hold her breath.

Aayla can hold her breath for like 10 fucking minutes or something ridiculous. It's just Lucius you can't hold it for that long. I think you can do like two minutes or something. If I remember looking at your stats. Yeah, my call is plus one. Yeah, so you have two minutes of air, basically. If Lucius holds his breath

um okay i'll try this dome technique and i'll relay that to the rest of the team it's the best i can think i love it very creative okay uh the other thing as well is um depending on where you arrive if you're just floating like the astral sea is there is no gravity as well so like you need to be able to either fly or give yourself some sort of propulsion to get around that's the other thing but I know that you have spells

and yeah you have like flying off line Lucius can cast fly you've got options so that's why I wasn't too worried about it because I know you have options. If I do a fifth level, I can do everybody. Okay.

Alright, well. Nova, you've got the book. Everyone ready? Yes. Ready. Okay. Let's go get the bird. Probably don't need to, but I feel really good

if we could all just hold hands. I'm just gonna... I think you have to, actually, for Plane Shift. I think you physically have to be in contact with each other. Link hands in a circle. You do have to hold hands. Okay.

Amazing. It's a little bit sticky but there we go um deep breath and activate yeah you kind of hold it in one hand and then you bring your other one you know holding lucius's hand and touch the gemstone i'm assuming nova uh this is probably a dark green gemstone and then the one for Rois is gold if you want to get specific you all this doesn't feel like the teleportation that you've held before whereas before you feel like your spirit

like you've been pulled out of your body and sent somewhere fast this time you are surrounded by prismatic light like all different shades and shimmering with this kind of material like these winds it's almost like you're lifted up by this gust of wind and you are surrounded by a cylinder of shifting colorful magical light and you are pulled up and you

accelerate rapidly you blast through the cradle across the astral sea faster than you can possibly imagine or holding hands and then eventually it comes to a stop holding your breath like forcing yourself to remember to hold your breath and not try and breathe there's no sound you just float next to a long black crystalline vessel you can see lines of purple energy running through it you can see like arcane turrets protruding from it at certain angles um you can see that there are these kind of like shifted sections that seem more see-through than others um but where you arrive you can see that one section in particular is almost like a wall of force. You see that it's just completely open and there is a shimmering field of magic that seems to lead into some sort of, you know, craft bay.

You can see that there is a kind of like astral ship inside it. It almost like a little docking bay almost like for a fighter or some sort of vessel uh it's maybe larger than a normal fighting vessel it looks like almost like a a smaller battleship um and you can it seems that hesper anticipated that you would need a way in and gave you an opportunity to at least see some point but you are floating so you'll need some way to get closer to it if you want to kind of anchor yourself to the ship or anything like that i will cast fly on everybody everybody gains the ability to just control your movement in the astral sea

as a point everybody takes five cold damage as soon as you arrive everybody takes that you take five cold damage every 6 seconds and it's going to take you probably at least 2-3 rounds to get to the actual ship. Yes, Lucius. I've got defensive dichromancy. Yes.

If I cast a load of level 1 or even frostbite as a cantrip and use that multiple times can I give everybody resistance I can't

remember for right now I'm gonna say yes I will look into this and check 30 feet of you gain resistance when I use my dichromancy feature to the same damage type until the end of my next turn. So you wouldn't be able to do it with a cantrip, because Dicromancy doesn't trigger a cantrip, it has to be a plus level or higher.

The other one as well is that you'd have to do this one per round, so you'd have to be like, right, Nova gets it this turn, which means that she takes, but everybody else takes 5 damage, and then the next turn I'll do it for the next person, and the next person, and the next person, and the next person. So what I'll do is pass Armored Anacathis on myself, which would give the next person the next person the next right so what i'll do is pass out armor of alakazes on

myself which would give me temporary hit points to kind of mitigate that give someone that gives you five resistance who you're going to give it to uh i'd give it to nova being technically the least hp everybody takes another five cold damage. You take half Novus. You take two. That's the second round. Third round. Do you want to try and do it again, Lucius? Or does anybody else want to try and do something?

Can we just try? I think just move towards it. Just go as quick as we can. Just move. To minimize the amount of rounds that we're outside. How long does the resistance last lucius is it until the start of the next turn so it's like so we've got to keep moving while we're doing this so you take another five cold damage everybody you take two nova and then at that point you are basically up next to the not quite the back of the ship it's like a

side section of it um but there is a wall, like it's a physical wall of force, like you can't pass through it. It's like, you know, like a barrier. So you kind of bump against it. What do you guys want to do? You've got like a turn and then you're going to take more damage. So, is there something that I can anchor the portal

onto, like the side of the ship? Yeah, you can do it on the side of the ship, yeah. That's a solid surface. So I'll start casting. I'll use Tiangong to carve into almost like the side of the ship you could do it on the side of the ship yeah yeah that's a solid surface yeah so i'll i'll start casting i'll use tiangong to carve into almost like the air and create a portal and then connect it to a second portal inside but hopefully tucked away yeah okay yeah yeah there's nobody inside you look inside there's nobody actually in this dock as well like it seems to be you know empty it doesn't seem to be being used um and yeah you carve like this port this orange portal uh and you can all step inside without taking any further damage you emerge on the inside of the ship through the arcane gate and you are now successfully aboard the serpent's coil oh Yeah, I want this one.

And then let's... And then we need the dome. You did not. Thank you, Hesper. It was a good idea, though. Oh, no, not quill. It was a good backup plan. I had a vision of us just, like, appearing on the side of just the ship

and being like, crap. Or just in the engine. Imagine if we just appeared in the exhaust. Anyway. So, this is not quite to scale this room just because of the way the map was. This is much larger, this thing.

But the same entrances and exits are there. So you can see on the far side, there is like a pair of double doors that seem to lead further in. But to the south side, there also appears to be a singular doorway. This does not appear to have any guards in it. You do hear the sounds of somebody moving around, but there's all sorts of crates and walkways and things like that. And Nova specifically said she was going to tuck the portal away.

So you kind of emerge behind like a bunch of these like storage crates and things like that um you can hear that there is people moving around but it does not you didn't spot any guards when you were looking in uh what do you guys want to do can um yeah go on can i cast um locate creature okay yeah so uh weed out what's this girl do yeah um so describe a name or creature that's familiar to you you sense the direction to the creature's location as long as the creature is in a thousand feet of you if the creature is moving you know the direction of the movement um yeah um if it's under the polymorph spell it doesn't locate the creature okay and this is through the this is through the you know it's a paladin spell right so it's under the polymorph spell, it doesn't locate the creature. Okay. And this is through the, you know, it's a paladin spell, right?

So it's coming through the matrix. So you kind of almost, you know, there's a guardian spirit that lends you its sort of like tracking ability and you kind of let that energy kind of leak out and it forms this very delicate golden line that leads to the singular southern door and goes through it. Okay. I'll relay that to the team and say, okay,

I've cast a spell to locate Quill. He should be through that south door. Can only Sentry see that? Only Sentry sees the line, yes. Okay, good. Imagine it just, like, going between guards. People are like, what's this golden roof doing here?

Who put this golden roof? Bob, is this you? Yeah. Work, Sentry. Let me cast Invisibility on everyone, and then at least we can be concealed. Although,

Sarkira's ship, who knows what security measures she has. So be aware that it might not be completely 100% invisible proof. Okay. Casting invisibility on everyone. I know it's not normal. Four people. Perfect. I know it's not

normal, but we are still able to fly. So it may be beneficial to stay on the ceiling right now. I mean, well, not even on the ceiling. You could hover just above the ground. Yes, I think invisible and hovering above the floor.

Yeah, you just won't make any noise, right? Like, yeah, 100%. We finally did it! Yeah, that's really good. She's silent! It's okay. So, you guys are currently in this docking bay, we'll call

it that because that's basically what it is. I can't think of a fantasy equivalent of this magitek, you know, astralral ship you can hear that there's people moving around you are all invisible you're all flying you're not touching the ground you've got this rope what do you guys just begin to follow it yeah also are you guys communicating are you messengering i was gonna say how are you communicating i'm messengering quill hear us if we were oh no it's they've probably taken it that's what i I... I would have definitely tried it. It's like, Quill, can you...

Okay, let's get our bird back. Okay. This is very interesting. You have a combination of spells here that makes it very hard for me to detect you and no real reason for me to call for stealth checks because you are flying, you can't be seen, so unless something can see invisible creatures,

which maybe some things can, there's nothing there. The first obstacle, however, is as you make your way to the door, the door is shut and it does not open. It's one of these kind of magitek doors that slides open. You see a control panel.

There seems to be some sort of panel, but it doesn't open. Do you want to try, Ayla? Does it react? Can I try and see? Because things have reacted to me before. It has. This one doesn't.

Valkyrie, isn't it? Wrong baddie. It does seem to me that she has tailored this ship's security systems for her forces, not Valkyrian forces. Can I go over to the

control panel? Little panel. Yeah, do you want to just try and like kind of... Can we speak Parseltong tongue at the door can you speak snort snake can you speak snake snaky tongue sure why not um but can i just look at it before i even start touching it like you know what is it does it look

similar to valkyrian stuff or is it definitely like it's the same make it just looks like and i guess like nova being a magitek you know having learned about magitek is that you get the sensation that this is a valkyrian ship that zarkira has tailored to her needs she's overwritten certain like security like the the wards that would control who can go in and out she's tweaked so that only her forces are allowed through and things like that um very similar to other systems these doors can be opened either by some sort of creature holding some sort of key or uh by specific individuals um it does detect those individuals based on just appearance though so like it you know if somebody it seems to like almost like a facial scan right like it's like

yep that's that person and then they they get let through farewell nova uh so similar to the facility we're gonna need key cards or it recognizes facial scans now i can change my face but it would need to be someone on this ship. I could look like some of the guards we've met maybe down on Aurois, but I have no guarantee that it's recognized by this ship. Who do you think would have ultimate clearance of this ship, Nova? Zarkira. Starbane?

Valar? Look like Zarkira, please. uh starbane uh star vala uh the big z yeah you're invisible exactly she can end the invisibility on herself i can end it on myself um the only thing is it is a concentration spell so it would drop invisibility on everyone well and maybe other ways through the door you could try brute force we've got a that would drink that will also drop my invisibility we've got a that would drink that will also drop my invisibility while you guys ponder the door puzzle quill the guard waits while you pray and then another figure appears so we'll back over to this you've seen these creatures before and it does not bring you any ease when you see this thing making their way

towards you they enter through the doors behind the dergar their large bulbous purple head and tentacled mouth kind of making strange undulating gestures

as some sort of communication happens between the guard and this creature it makes its way over towards you and sort of peers in through the wall oh I see that my latest

guest is here just a moment my dear fellow I have some questions for you please come with me the guard moves up

and taps the side of the wall and the barrier comes down and he steps in let's move okay oh man but the barrier's down though right the barrier is down i saw the thing yeah thank Thank you. It is. It is guard. You're right. Hey, look. Barrier is down. And I have...

I can cast spells while I'm in these shackles, you said. I would say you can use somatic and verbal components, yes. I'm going to have to try it because I know they don't want to kill me. Okay. I want to.

Oh, this is so dangerous. What do you want to do? I want to cast Thunder Wave. And I want to blast them away from me, and then I want to make a break for it. Like, I need to do something. As far as Quill is concerned. What's the saving throw?

So, okay, two things have happened. Both the guard and the mind flayer had readied actions, but the spell goes off. The spell still goes off, but both guard and mind flayer had ready actions okay uh well they need to make a constitution save i'm casting this at uh fourth level again but they need to make a con 15 save and i'm gonna say that the guard rolls a two yes okay yeah well that's funny because the guard definitely did roll a two on my advantage i rolled a one and a two. Yes. Okay, yeah. Well, that's funny because the guard definitely did roll a two

on my advantage saving throw. I rolled a one and a two. So you make his one a two. However, he goes flying. So how much damage does the guard take? Let me... At fourth level, he would take, what is this? One, two, three, four, five D8 damage.

Okay. Which is a stonkin'. 26. 26 points of damage. Okay. The guard... And then his lawn. It's funny.

So the Thunderwave pushes him back against the walls of the... The wall opposite him, opposite your cell. You hear him thud against it. And his ready thing was to make an attack him like thud against it and his ready thing was to make an attack so actually pushing him away

stops his ready action going off. He was going to basically come forward with this glaive and you see it beginning to crackle with lightning like he was going to try

and like hit you with this like, you know, stun baton thing. But he gets thrown up against the wall and bam, slams down.

He's still conscious but you do hear him take a hefty hit. The mind flayer, some sort of psychic energy erupts out from it I need you to make an intelligent saving throw please oh god plus two

oh natural one you Mr. Keelake take 22 psychic damage and you are stunned you're stunned. Oh! You're stunned long enough. Before you even get a saving throw,

it's long enough for the guard to come up, like, kind of pull himself free, run up, grab your hands, yank them behind your back, put, like, his arm over your mouth, and get you in, like, a chokehold as you're just sort of reeling from this stunned effect. As you just... It was worth a try. It was definitely worth a try. Well, well,

it seems that someone still has some fight in them. We'll soon deal with that, my boy. Don't worry. I'm struggling. I'm kicking. I'm struggling and kicking yes i'm kicking and you can make a strength check you can make a strength check uh disadvantage yeah i mean i'm stunned as well yeah that's a disadvantage yeah i mean the stunned lasts for a minute you

have to make saving throws but we'll assume that after a while like unless you want to roll a ton of saving throws uh intelligent saving throws uh 14 and a 15 on strength so actually not bad but not bad but not enough unfortunately this guard is still much stronger okay that's cool yeah they take you not too far uh in fact actually you are taken out of your cell. You are led up slightly around the corner where the guard... My goodness, I need to turn on hardware acceleration. My Roll20 is struggling. They take you up to another door, which slides open into a circular chamber

where a single chair is at the center. The guard shuts the door uh behind you where the mind flayer joins you you are placed in the chair uh which has straps your arms are like strapped down um whilst you are still reeling from the stun and like you know you're forced down um you can no longer cast somatic components. Your mouth is left. You know, you can any any verbal only spells you could cast. But the mind flayer just kind of steeples his extra long fingers in front of you and just looks. Now, I hope that that unpleasantness has gotten out of your system. I need to know thing.

Oh, oh God. Show me your secrets. Oh, but I've got so many. Wisdom saving throw, please. Wisdom saving throw. please. Wisdom saving throw. Oh, Illithid. You picked the wrong verb. Well, here's the thing.

He can do this ten times. You have to make this saving throw. I've got a plus ten. So, 21 on the first one. 21. Wait, I have to do this another... Yeah, nine times. Okay, well, the first one. 21. Wait, I have to do this another... 10, yeah, 9 times. Okay, well, the next one...

Stop resisting. I wish to know. Keep going. 16. The next one... Your mind, what is this power that keeps it so strong? 24. The whole time, this is like

you feel like something wriggling in your brain, trying to jab into your mind to pull your memories. You know it can read your surface thoughts, your immediate thoughts, but it's trying to dig into your memories. It's trying to learn everything it can. Oh, 13 so far.

The 13. So what was that, number seven? Oh, yeah. Seventh roll. Yes. Yes, reveal to me. I see. See much.

I see the leaders crumbling allies. I see. Valor rescue the Tassadar sequences make another wisdom saving throw make three more wisdom saving throws

you need to maintain this natural 20 no no do not resist. Yield your secrets to me. 18 and the final roll. No, a one. No.

Yes, yes. The whole Paladar guidance. My lands. I see. I see. I see. Calus, the world engine. You have seen things that you could not see. Things that have yet to pass.

Calus's plan fails. Adar. Adar wins. Where do you stand now? The creature stumbles back. The creature stumbles back. The master can't win. It's not against Hadar. Zakira.

I must tell Zakira of this. You think... You think too small, little bird. Kallus is not my master. And Zakhira... She is cunning. If there is no hope for Kallus, then her allegiance must go elsewhere.

And he leaves. Oh, no. Oh, I just fractured them. Meanwhile, infiltration team. How do you want to get past this Dawa? Okay. New plan. This is taking too long.

I'm going to disguise myself as Zarkira. You are my prisoners. Let's go. I don't know if that's going to work, Nova. I think that the invisible thing is probably uh we're flying let's just get through this door and find will quietly can i use my flame lance like a uh like a torch that's not quietly try and like so that will unfortunately break the invisibility because it's an attack or anything like that it is an attack okay um like that. It is an attack.

You think you could do it. You think that this is this crystalline kind of... It's actually no, it's a metal door. You probably could do it, but it would reveal you. You can hear people stomping around. There seems to be like a catwalk above. You can hear kind of like footsteps stomping around upstairs. What's the plan?

It's probably more... You can try and grab one of their passes sneaky like we still need to get through this door there's no one in this room where we are there's people yeah i said that there's walkways above and you can hear somebody moving around above in which case that's what i said go for it stealthy if you want to it would be a slight of hand check with advantage if you want to try and like lift like pick their pockets basically so if you if you fly out and look up there is there are dergar there are dergar like engineers who are they seem to be kind of like working on like

the structure and just repairing things and cleaning things and things like that yes can i use a cantrip while concentrating? I know this is a question I ask If it's a concentration spell, it depends. The cantrip will say whether it's a concentration or not. If it's not, then no. No. Mage hand. I was thinking of mage handing.

Yeah. I would say you... Yeah, you can use the mage hand. Still give me a sleight of hand check, but do it with advantage, and I'll give you a bonus for using the Mage Hand. A hidden bonus. Okay, I got a plus three to this. It's not an attack.

Normally, Invisibility is like it breaks when casting a spell, but I think I'm going to say this is Mage Hand. You're trying to pick a pocket here. I'm not going to make the Invisibility break. 17 and 14 plus 3, so 20. Unnatural 20 is my highest. Okay. With the Mage Hand, with Tiangong kind of controlling the Mage Hand,

you see that one of these Durga maybe looks like he seems to be giving orders to these other workers. Definitely has one of these keystones. You've seen them before. This one's on like a chain attached to like something. But you kind of using that, you kind of lift it up and you can hook it off of the belt, this kind of long chain with this stone

and kind of float it down and grab the mage hand. And he doesn't seem to notice. Doesn't seem to notice that it's been taken. This just has the... This doesn't have an elvish rune. This is a rune you don't recognize. Oh wait, have you still got eyes of the runekeeper? Or the one which lets you read stuff? Okay, so you don't understand what this rune you don't recognize. Oh, wait. Have you still got Eyes of the Runekeeper?

Or the one which lets you read stuff? Okay, so you don't understand what this rune is. Yeah, I would if I have Comprehend Languages, but that's a ritual, and I'm a bit pressed for time right now. So, yeah, let's go through the door. Okay. With that, you guys make your way through this door, and it leads once again into another sort of corridor leading down

the door opens it does open with a slight metal scraping you hope nobody will hear that uh as this kind of you know uh you float through invisibly not touching the ground no need for stealth checks you emerge into a circular corridor there seems to be a door to the south, a door to the right, and then an open hallway leading to the... Sorry, open hallway to the right, closed door to the left, and then another door leading south. Sentry?

The cord, sorry, Sentry's cord heads to the open corridor leading to the right Okay, I'll tell the team the okay. It looks like quills in this direction, and I'll yeah start leading them down the open corridor Okay, let's stay and wait Messenger ring and hold on to somebody so we stay together Okay, let's move through this section i drop you guys into a new map oh oh i didn't do the lighting on this one that's my fault never mind it's okay because

pretty much nothing's going to detect you here anyway uh you know they shouldn't know that so this one leads you to a t-junction you can see more of these like dim red lights kind of stretching off in either direction you do you hear any creatures nearby let me roll and see if we get around the counter uh we do not the cord leads you to the north uh moving your way through the corridors this one seems to lead to a section with just this large pit uh it seems to just descend into the bowels of the crystalline ship um on the other side of it you can see more corridors leading off y'all have seen star wars you know what this kind of looks like but the cord continues leading um it's taken you kind of down you feel like there's been some slight

sloping to these corridors that's led you a bit further down. Leading around, you are all brought through the corridor and into a section of cells. It is at this point that the corridor, the golden rope, seems to lead through. And I can now put you guys on this map. Oh, you prepared so many maps. I did. There was so much to get through. Yes.

There was. Line of biz. And locate creature, yeah. Smart plan. And locate creature. The cord goes to through a door where a guard in this kind of full black armor is currently stood outside,

just arms folded. As you enter, you all hear a voice in your head. I don't know who you are. How have you arrived here? You are not Zarkirin forces. Who are you? Who are you? My name is Ranael.

I'm a prisoner here. Are you... Do you know the one called Quill? Yes. Where's the bird? We're here for the bird. I do not... I do not know exactly. I can only sense minds. He is nearby, either in his cell or it is possible that one of the Illithids has taken him into the interrogation chamber. Let's move. We can't trust any strange voices right now.

I mean you no harm. I am a prisoner here if there is kindness in your hearts with myself and another are kept here we have been experimented on by Zahkira I will gladly aid you if you can release us where are you located I do not I can sense that you have entered though I do not know I can sense that you have entered, though I do not know which from. One of the northern cells. Right. We'll get our friend and do what we can. No promises. I understand. If you can save Quill from whatever fate awaits him, I am glad for that, if nothing else. He seems a good soul. if nothing else. He seems a good soul.

Yes. You see the rope lean through the door, but there is a guard in front of it. We need to distract this one. Do we have anything we can throw down the corridor? Perhaps the other side?

Throw your coin sure okay I'll do that get out of my inventory nobody ever speaks to it again distraction light hit man I love it

I might just never use it purely to annoy the crap out of people. Anyway. Anyway. I'm sure we've got something on us that we can share. Maybe knock on the side to make a noise. Is Mage Hand strong enough for that? I can manipulate an object

over a locked door. Only 30 feet range. Okay. And not be very far. Yeah. I'm going to say in my head, Prisoner,

you can reach out to us. Can you reach out to this guard? Get them away from the door. I can. They have become prone to ignoring me. But I can try. Are you... Do you believe that you know where Quill is? Or do you believe yourself to be in position?

I do not know which door of you speak. I can only sense minds. I cannot see you. We know where he is. Then allow me to buy you at least a distraction. You wait for a moment, and then you hear the sounds of somebody casting a spell, and an alarm goes off.

Only a short alarm, like a quick sort of like, whoop, whoop. The guard kind of gets up, moves directly across and seems to stand in front of the cell near to you. And you hear... Can't believe you're causing trouble, Rana.

Thought you'd had enough of this punishment by now. What were you even trying to do? And you hear him press a few crystals and buttons and you just hear like a... You hear like a woman's cry of pain, but it pulls him away from the door. Let's not waste this. Come on. Through the door.

Let's get moving. That poor... I didn't know the the this the keystone you have won't open this door but I mean it's a door it's another metal door what you guys want to do you got like six seconds like six seconds we're gonna have to take that guard out or take the key from them uh mage hand again if i try mage hand again try while he's pressing those buttons i'll try mage hand again then um okay you need to go up and like sort of peer around the corner uh nova um as you do so you can see he's kind of still on the very edge of this kind of uh prison cell and he's looking in and you catch a glimpse of the figure that he's currently uh watching suffer um they appear to be i mean there's no way of saying like, they look very similar to the figures you met

when you met the wings of Ishtar. This is clearly an angel. This is a celestial. But her wings have been surgically removed from her back. You can see, like, scars. Like, she's not wearing, she literally has, like, a loincloth on. That's it.

Her wings have been surgically removed and a metal plate has been bolted across her eyes and, like, seared into her flesh, been bolted across her eyes and like seared into her flesh like completely covering her eyes and she's like she's like coughing and choking as like she's you know on the floor of this thing the guard is kind of just watching her

as you see that quick that Hadar that first Hadar creature that we fought that had that mask and then the life the life that the no no the one that that was that was like a mask that was like a very ornate beautiful like face mask almost and then she lifted up and had a big hole in her face uh ignore me then no this is like know, she's got beautiful pale blue

hair. It's been cut short. So, you know, it looks like it would have once been this luxurious long blue hair, but it's now cut short. You can see she's just like scarred. It looks like she's been cut and experimented on. But yeah, she just looks like she's basically Zarkira's done awful things to her, basically.

But yeah, you kind of go over the Mage Hand. Give me another sleight of hand check, Nova. Advantage? Yeah, advantage. This guy doesn't like it there. 16 was my highest, plus 3, so 19. Okay.

The guard seems to almost feel something. He's kind of looking around. Hasn't spotted you or the Mage Hand, but definitely is alerted. You don't quite manage to grab the thing off of him. As you're doing this, the door leading into the room that you were trying to get behind opens, and a Mind Flayer stumbles out, looking as shocked as a Mind Flayer can.

It almost stumbles out, looking around frantically, and then is going to go and move past you guys what do you do i'm gonna move to the side yeah just like fly up and like press yourself to the side yeah this thing just walks past you muttering like no it wouldn't mutter to itself it speaks in telepathy but yeah it's just kind of like, almost looks shocked as it stumbles away and then makes its way to wherever it's going. The door

is going to close. They're automatic unless somebody, like Ayla and Lucius, you push yourselves to the side, but Sentry, you've got a chance here if you want to do something about that door. I'll dive in and hold it up. So this invisible Sentry, the door kind of goes to shut and dive in and hold it up yeah so like this invisible sentry the door kind of goes to shut and sentry are holding it up um what's your strength modifier

is it plus five strength or is it plus four plus four plus four you can hold this for four rounds and then you're gonna have to start making checks where you're holding this up. But you see, strapped into a chair in the inside of this circular chamber, you see Quill. Oh, I'm messenger ring. Quill! Quill's in here!

Quick! Quick, I'm holding the door up! Quick! Can I... This guard's about to turn around Nova as well. So as Lucius and ayla can go but you can see this guard is about to turn around and see the doors held open by some invisible force uh ayla and lucius what'd you do yeah flying in fast flying in and ripping any restraints off the two of you can easily just grab these restraints. Quill, some

invisible thing grabs your arms and then suddenly they release it like your restraints grow and you're like But the dimensional shackles are still on. I'll just like whisper really quietly Can you not get teleported to, you know, astral space?

It's really inconvenient. Wait a minute. While you do that, Nova, this guard's going to turn around. What do you do? Can I use my nage hand to knock, like, just push, like, hit the other side so he has to look away opposite

the door? He's no Metal Gear Solid guard. I'll roll and see if he notices that, it's some sort of weird noise he hears it but he and he does momentarily flick back but you don't think he's convinced like he's he's like something fun he's going on and he's like looking Well You hear Ayla Nice trick, Ellithid I'm not gonna answer your questions if you're gonna use their voices And I'm seeing like the door is screwed I'm gonna like try and run towards it

No, well, you try and run towards it And your voice echoes That's when the guard fully is light Hey, oh oh you there can I and with that Kim we're going to end today's episode and that is where we're ending this week and we're going to pick it up

next week absolutely that's where we're ending this week are you kidding me are you kidding me I mean I know I just alerted them but come on like I have no reason to believe they'd be here. Yeah. And they would be here.

Yeah. I think it would make the most sense that you would think that it's some sort of trick. Right. Like Zaki or the Mind Flayer or something like that. A hundred percent. I think that's great role playing. Yeah. I'm about to run face first into Sentry.

Bonk. Donk. That'll stop you. That will stop him. They've put up a wild horse here. What? What an episode. Holy crap.

What an episode. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Last time was amazing, and then this one's like even better. Jeez. So fun. It keeps escalating.

I've got no idea. You guys are doing cool stuff. Well, here's the thing. Like it wasn't until today that I knew that Kim was going to try and contact Hesper until I, I didn't know that until like just before the game started. And then you guys came up with a plan of going to the cathedral and using the priestess instead of using contact other plane.

Hey Hesper, your boy's come. Help. That whole thing with Hesper might not have happened. If you guys hadn't tried that it might not have happened. At the moment Kim said to you, I'm going to contact Hesper you were like, list of living and dead Aroes characters.

You just shifted one over. I guess it's going to have to happen i texted no i had this in my mind i said to myself when i was planning it i was like if hespa finds out what's happened this is what he does but he won't know until he's told you know what getting captured yeah so far has been the best thing because i had no way of communicating my vision with the eye and now this illithid has seen it oh it's it's only Zarkir that knows. That's fine. Definitely a good thing. Definitely a good thing, Tom.

If we can capture the illithid. Well, you said they were a little bit mind-controlled, right? Not this one, though. Maybe. Not this one. Yeah, no, we need to kill that boy. He's gotta go. Squidboy's gotta go. He starts Civil War in Arois. I'll start Civil War in

the Archerian Empire. Sure. My campaign plans might get a lot of... My plans for these last five levels might get a serious shift depending on how things go. It's so annoying how you have to...

The Illithid walks past us but we don't know anything so we just have to be like we let him go past it's great dnd man like you guys did great job of not metagaming that because you were just like yeah fucking let get him out of here yeah great brilliant i could visualize that so well of yeah that's a big deal between the two and we're just letting it pass by yeah ignoring yeah just keep walking buddy keep walking holy crap holy holy crapoli what an episode there's uh the only one downside of this episode is i feel really bad the studio mirror when they eventually have to animate this as a this is like all the budget like a couple of episodes before this

they do a ton of stuff as well just those thousands of hespers like yeah amazing yeah tell me about it oh i need trust me that is is the the dream inside this brain that we got a cool studio mirror opening to eros and like a full fucking you know animated series but it will never happen but man uh with someone watching has to know somebody someone's got throw us a bone here come on on. Let's make this happen. We've got to finish getting this bird out of prison. He's still got those shackles on. There's still a whole ship full of baddies.

And Zarkira, Mommy Zarkira is still around somewhere, so fingers crossed. He can get out. Bye! Bye everybody. See ya. Bye-bye.