High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #11 - Eye for an Eye (Part 2)
Episode Date: October 4, 2018We sustained some terrible injuries, will we press forward to save Valla?! Grab some HR merch and more at 10% off here:Â smarturl.it/HighRollersMerch or use the code HIGHROLLERS on checkout! Huge ...thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond and Brilliant. D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Use the code HIGHROLLING on D&D Beyond (http://bit.ly/dndbeyondhighrollers) to get 25% off all digital items (excluding the Legendary Bundle)! Brilliant.org helps you master concepts through fun, guided problem solving. D&D has a rich history of puzzles and problems, so boost your brain power with Brilliant! The first 200 users to follow our link (http://bit.ly/highrollersarebrilliant) will get 20% off an annual subscription! Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Pickaxe. Therapy is the ultimate self-care, and BetterHelp makes it easy to get started with affordable online sessions you can do from anywhere.
Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.
Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more.
That's BetterHelp.com.
Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations.
Hey.
No, too basic.
Hi there.
Still no.
What about hello, handsome? who knew you could give yourself the
ick that's why bumble is changing how you start conversations you can now make the first move
or not with opening moves you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches
then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself.
Hello, everyone.
Welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois.
Run by Dungeon Master Mark Sherlock-Humes with me, Tom, playing Keelakad Kalad, bard slash cleric.
I am Chris Trott.
I'm playing Lucius Viren, Elowin Elanastro.
And I am a High Elf Sorcerer.
Hi, I'm Rhiannon.
I'm playing Sentry.
I am a Guardian Paladin. And I'm Kim. I'm playing Nova who is
an air ganassi and she is a
hexblade warlock. A huge thank you to our sponsors
D&D Beyond and Brilliant.org
for sponsoring this episode. Check the
episode description for more information
about them. We've just sustained some terrible
injuries. Hopefully we'll be able to carry
on to save Vala.
My next big question to all of you is what are your plans next?
The forest, the Ironweald is quiet, near silent around you.
The body of this Goliath, you don't even know what he was called,
just this Goliath that attacked you, lays next to you.
The broken chain by his side, and there is the remnants of a campfire,
but no sign of the people you were campfire but no sign of the people
you were chasing after, no sign of the other
kidnappers or Valor. So what
are you going to do?
I think
Quill would probably take just a long
breath and then like look at Lucius
and say
are you good to carry on?
Lucius is whimpering
to the point where he's just like,
I don't want to do it anymore.
You want to stay here?
Yes.
I've never broken a bone in my body,
and this really, really hurts.
Really hurts.
When my brother broke his leg,
he had a cast,
and everyone signed it with their names.
Nova's crying nonstop while she's saying this.
Just endlessly crying.
Where are we going to get a cast? We're in the middle of a wood and I really, really want to save Valor but my leg really hurts and I've already lost an eye.
I could maybe make one up, Mud, and then sign it for you.
I appreciate your trying, Nova. It's really nice of you but I don't think it's going to do anything. Could you put mud in his face?
I don't want to.
It's okay.
Mud in my eye?
No, that sounds like a terrible idea.
Let's not get it infected.
I've never seen a fellow like that before.
Not somebody that can jump through shadows or red veins.
I've traveled a lot in my time.
I've never seen anything like that.
What makes you think the other
three or two of them
aren't just as bad?
We're in over our heads here.
This is too... Only Sentry could really stand up to
that brute.
I think we're out of
our depths.
Well, let's...
Y'all take a minute. I'm gonna check their tracks.
See if...
Well, if they're as big as this fella, they should at least have left some sort of sign.
Maybe if they're smaller, it means that there's only one of him.
They could be faster.
Just the strength.
Well, judging by where we are,
we're about a day's travel from Ironwick.
It's a small village near the lake.
It's closer than Rosehall, but it's smaller.
I don't think there's going to be a big fancy priest or anything like that there,
but there'll be medical supplies and things like that.
Horses, maybe.
I'm just going to slow you all down, frankly.
I can't keep chasing Valor.
They've got all their legs.
That sure is a problem.
I ain't gonna lie.
I'm not gonna stop you chasing him.
Maybe I could go to the town and rally some help or something.
I don't know.
Well, I wouldn't let you go on your own, Lucius.
I'll at least go with you if the others carry on.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alvo.
I'll go check that track. I'll at least go with you if the others carry on. Thank you. Thank you, Alvo. I'll go check their tracks.
I'll leave you all
to have a conversation
when you see him
trot over towards
the campfire.
We know who two
of them are, at least.
Brett Crookstone's.
But are you just
toughing this out?
I mean,
you've literally
not got an eye.
It's okay to vent.
He's, like, shaking it off as best he can.
You can see him trembling a little, probably, or something.
Yeah.
It's better out than in.
Come on.
It's already come out the eye, I mean.
Is that trying to be funny?
To try and be a bit sterner?
I really want to find Vala.
Right.
True.
I can't imagine the pain you're feeling, all of you.
But we need to find Valor.
We can't give up now.
We've come so far.
We've endured so much already.
Can we not just push a little bit more for Valor?
You know, I would, absolutely.
But I feel like I'm a detriment right now.
I can't run.
You're not the detriment. I'm the detriment.
I don't know how to fight. I don't know what I'm doing here.
I caused this.
How did you cause this, Nova? Does it make sense?
Because I ran away.
Well, in my head, I was working out what to do,
and I thought to retreating so I could shoot from a distance.
I didn't realise he would go after you two. I thought he was focused on me. Quill, I'm so sorry.
We've never been against anyone as vicious as this. There's no way you could have possibly known that he would have just come after me or Lucius or, well, Sentry was trying to defend as best she could but if you
stepped in front of him it could have been you that would have lost the eye or
broken your leg or anything. There's no way of knowing what you've done.
Frankly I dragged us into the shadow where he appeared so we're all out of our depth
but you're right Sentry we need to do as much as we can we've come this far.
Arvul trots back over.
Well, I've checked. It looks like we're dealing with three figures about probably Lucius's height and weight.
So I don't think there's going to be any more than Goliath fellas.
They don't have horses and they're carrying something heavy.
And it looks like without this fella, that slowed them down a fair bit.
Whichever way, they're heading towards Ironwick.
If they carry on where they're going, they're going towards the town.
So if we go at a fast pace, well, if the rest of you rush ahead,
I can follow with Lucius and we'll meet you there.
But also, if y'all need rest, I think we can probably take things a bit easy.
It looks like they've got to deal with the forest first, so we can take it this way.
It's up to you. I don't mind walking with the boy and coming up behind if y'all want to head on ahead.
You need to make sure you're fighting fit.
You're not looking so good, Quill.
Nova, you need to calm down. I know this is all very much,
but you ain't gonna do anybody any good
in the states y'all are, so you get ready.
As long as it's counting on you, it's counting on all of us.
You're right. You're right, Marvel.
Thank you.
I guess we...
How is everybody feeling?
Awful.
Sit down, Mark.
Let me have a take another look at this leg.
You don't have to. Just look.
He's looking at it. He's like, all right, okay.
He gets some strips of wood, and he starts cutting up.
Is it bad? I haven't looked at it yet.
He starts cutting up some of the bedrolls from the ones that the people left.
He's like, it's not great.
You're not going to be able to walk on it, but if I splint it, maybe we can fashion you a walking stick
or a staff or something, you can take the pressure off it.
I always had such an elegant walk.
That is ruined.
That's such great posture.
You healed my leg, I'll pay to make sure you get yours healed, all right?
Thank you, Arvo.
He splints it and he ends up taking, he's got a little hand little hand axe, he cuts like a, kind of like a crutch.
And it means that you can walk without pain. So it means that you can kind of hobble but you're just slow. Just half. Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah, what do you guys want to do?
Um, Sentry, can you do me a favour?
Yeah?
Could you cut a little bit of this cloak off? I think I need something to cover this.
It actually hurts a lot.
Oh, no problem.
An awful lot.
Yeah, can I do like a...
Does it need like a medicine or anything?
You can do a medicine check just to see how well you can apply bandage and stuff.
Oh, should I roll that again?
No, that's landed, sorry.
Okay, 15.
15, that's great. sorry. Okay, 15.
15, that's great, yeah, it's a solid bandage.
You should probably have a little bit of, like, sort of a...
kind of a herbal kind of thing which you can apply which eases the pain a little bit as well,
like some sort of basic medic supplies.
So you said it was like a scratch, like, right across?
It's basically like a jagged cut which goes right over the eye.
I mean, it's a badass scar, but the eye is
completely ruined.
Like, the actual, you've had to basically
put, like, this poultice in the eye socket
and then bandage over it to stop it
from getting infected and stuff.
Jeez. You look more battle-worn than I do
and I've been around for much longer than you.
That's true.
You're very good, by the way.
That's the least I can do
I don't think we would have survived that without your help
You sustained so much, it's honestly the least I could do
There's so much more I could do for all of you
Question, good question
Quill, if you were to go down again
I've been taught resuscitation in my first aid course
Okay
Do I put my beak to your mouth or is that a
Yes, the other way around sorry I'm rattled it's a good question actually I don't really know I don't think I
Don't think well
I don't think an Aarakocra has ever been in a situation where it could only be
Resuscitated by well elves or humans or people like that. Probably have to fashion
some sort of pipe to gem in
his throat and then breathe in that.
It's okay. The way
I eat things.
Arvel also looks
over to you, Sentry.
I just want to... I found this.
He holds up remnants of little
echo.
Little shattered, brambly baby.
Great little... My arms.
So what is it? Is it just like a load of twigs?
It's like twigs and metal
kind of shards bent around like a spherical
device with a big purple gem in the middle.
The gem is completely shattered,
broken through. The frame is all cracked
and splintered. Many of the branches have been broken
off. I mean, it's in bad shape.
Could mending help a little bit?
It can help some of it, but it won't
restore its spirit. You can probably
mend its form, but whatever
spirit was inside is gone.
The only sentry can reply that.
If you want to use Tiangong, you can definitely
mend it so that the form is whole.
Sentry, can I just
try something?
Of course. I probably can't fix him entirely, but I just try something? Of course.
I probably can't fix him entirely, but I can make him better a little bit.
Of course. Yeah, anything.
So I'll gently take Echo,
and with Tiangong in dagger form, cast Mending on it.
Yep.
So you feel the power flow through Tiangong, and as it begins to glow blue, blue light emanates over Echo and you begin to see
the jagged cuts and tears
begin to meld back together.
The gem kind of reforms, crystallining
and fills back in. The little branches
snap back together. Some of the ones that drop
to the ground kind of fly up and
until it's a whole form
again, but the crystal is still dark. There's no light inside it.
I'm really sorry, Sentry. This is all I can do right now.
That's- it's fine. It's...
It's- you're amazing. You're amazing for doing that. I- I can't thank you enough.
We'll fix him, don't worry.
I'm sure we will.
I wish I could fix you guys as well, but I only know how to deal with...
...mechanical things.
Let's fix the main issue at hand, which is...
...rescuing Valor.
You with us, Sam?
Of course, I've just been really far behind, hobbling away.
But it was just as much determination as you all.
Alright. Well...
Let's get going then.
Before we go, can I take the chain from the dude
and wrap it around Echo and put him around my waist
so I'm not carrying him?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The chain is broken on one end,
but the bladed end is still there
and you can kind of hook the blades in his branches
and then tie the chain around your waist.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, absolutely.
You can do that.
When you take the chain off of his body, you do notice that there is a, there's some documentation
stuffed into his tunic, his pouches and his coins and his pouches and things like that
as well.
Oh, loot.
Yeah.
If you want to search through his body.
So he has 100 gold and coins in a small pouch.
Good for him.
100 gold and coins in a small pouch.
And he
also has a piece of paper
sealed up.
It had a wax seal, but it's obviously
been broken open, and it was
kind of stuck in a small tube,
which was hanging from his
belt. It's not very big, it's probably
about this long, but you open it up
and it appears to be
a notice that reads,
I don't have it exactly written down, but it would read something like,
Rend, I need you to take, I need you to get the girl tonight.
Her friends won't be there.
I'll have, I'll have my men waiting by the north gate
with horses
head to Ironwick
meet the contact
and it's just signed BB
unbelievable
I like that guy
yep
Brett Brookston was behind all this.
What?
Show you guys the note.
I thought you said he was nice.
He is nice.
Perceptively so, apparently.
Where is it? We have two options.
One, we go to wire work.
And we try to stop them before they meet their contact
and I imagine Vala then goes wherever she needs to go or is being taken. Or two, we
go back to Rosehall and we go to the top of the chain, Brett Brookstone. Is that a terrible idea?
Sounds awful.
Sounds awful? Probably is awful then.
We don't know what would happen to Valor in that time,
and maybe he'd eventually tell us,
but who knows what she'd have been through
by the time we find out and stop it.
But if something were to happen,
I'm not saying we go there to kill him
or to attack him or anything like that,
but his son and, was it his son and daughter?
You think.
They're the ones that were away.
They were away from him.
Yeah, right.
His son and daughter, if they know that we went back to see Brett Brookstone,
maybe they would come back themselves.
And they're two of the people we're chasing after.
I see where you're coming from. However,
that's, in my view,
a higher risk than just
finding Valor. We don't
know for sure if that's going to carry
through. And also, we don't know
what we're up against. All of Brookstone's
workers could be thrown upon
us before we even get to him.
True. Ironwick is closer
than Rosehall at this point.
Yeah.
Without a horse, because you spend one day travelling on horses, and that on foot would
be like a day and a half, two days.
So it's about three days back to Rosehall.
One foot.
Jeez.
We will come back for Brookstern once we have Valor.
Okay.
Okay.
Alright.
So is the plan to head on to Ironwick?
I think so.
It means travelling through the Ironweald.
So I need you to pick a Navigator,
Lookout, Vanguard and Rearguard.
Lookout?
I mean...
You were the Navigator last time.
I could Navigate again.
Did you make down 100 gold?
Oh yeah, yeah.
I've got 100 gold.
Yeah, cool.
Can you just add it on there now?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I guess I will try to be Navigator again.
Navigator.
Look out.
Do you want to basically take the same rolls as before?
I think so, yeah.
Okay.
My position is pretty good.
Quill, survival check, please.
Can I help, Quill?
Sure.
Yep.
Give me, make a survival check.
You need to get above DC 13.
What does that mean for you?
Seven.
Seven. No bonus from...
And I got 11.
Okay, 11.
As you're moving at a normal pace, there's no penalty.
I'm just going to assume at this point you're moving at the best pace you can.
20.
20 for the lookout, okay.
Vanguard.
So, Century, can you make an athletics check for me, please?
Check, yes.
14. Well, I can't really be lookout for that long, can you make an athletics check for me, please? Check, yes. 14.
Well, I can't really be looking out for that long, can I?
What's that?
Because they're going to get ahead of me.
We're assuming that you're all travelling together,
but you're just going slow pace.
Okay.
Okay, what did you get on the...
14.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
I'm glad you're here.
Okay.
A goliath groaned.
Can you roll a dice?
He's alive!
Man, how much would you love that if I just hadn't come back as an undead version, huh?
Please no.
I don't think love is the word.
Yeah, no.
Really.
I was, so, you know I was rolling dice afterwards
You know how he had to make checks for injury checks, by the way
Oh, yeah
I made death saving throws for him
I tell you this because he died
If he had stabilised, I'd be like
That's interesting
And then later on, one day
He'd be like
I'm back, motherfucker
Ranger
Ranger
You took my chain
I'm gonna to take more
than your eye this time.
Okay, can somebody
roll a d10 for me, please?
Who do you want?
Rhiannon, can you roll a d10 for me, please?
So that was the first one you had?
This one? Yep.
Sorry, it's a two. Okay.
Okay.
We meet the same family the last time. That's really interesting. No, it's a two. Okay. Okay. We meet the same family as last time.
Spiders.
That's really interesting.
No, it's not.
Spiders?
A good laugh.
You start travelling.
You go about two hours.
Your progress is slow.
Yeah.
You go about two, three hours with Lucius hobbling behind you as best as he can.
You have to frequently stop for rest.
Quill, your eye is causing you significant pain
and is uncomfortable for you.
You eventually come on.
Lucius, you spot this.
You find a small squat building
of moss-covered stone
with smoke coming out of a chimney
in the middle of a kind of very small
glade. Animals, deers, rabbits all frolic around this glade, and this hut is just in the middle
with a little smoke coming out of a small chimney. Outside, in the glade itself, you can see figures,
not humans, but almost like silhouettes made of iron and wood in various
shapes of animals and humanoids like sculptures are they moving they're not moving they're just
like they're like flat like art sculptures like a like an art piece like metal made from metal
and wood yeah and you can see that from attached to the small building must be some sort of small forge. You see that up ahead.
I don't mean to alarm anybody,
but there is a settlement
up ahead, a single house
with smoke coming from its chimney, so the residents
are potentially home, or on fire.
One of the two.
There are sculptures outside, metal
and wood.
Insignificant, in my opinion. And one, I think,
just cracked.
and wood.
Insignificant in my opinion. And one I think just cracked.
Just rustling in the wind.
What do we want
to do? I mean it might be a good respite.
Does it look idyllic?
It looks pretty idyllic.
There's animals and things prancing
around outside. Prancing?
Yes, well rabbits.
Literally prancing.
The deers and that are like playing.
It looks idyllic.
Does it look like a fairy tale?
Yes, it looks just like the fairy tale books.
In these woods?
Yeah, how much of this is,
how much is this like a complete,
what's the word I'm looking for?
Opposite.
Yeah, a complete opposite of what we're looking for.
I mean, the Ironald is not a creepy
forest. It is an old forest
which means that the trees are very old
it's got very thick boughs. There are obviously
monsters and things in it.
But this is part of the
Ironweald. The same trees
you can see the same kind of ground. It just has like a
little squat building
with animals around it all playing
happily. Green fields, loads of flowers. Not really green fields. little squat building with animals around it all playing happily green
fields loads of flowers outside it is more Shrek than it is Disney Princess
yes please don't stop that there's a small chance we could get butchered to
death there's always that chance in this woods however there's also small chance we could get Butcher to death. There's always that chance in this woods.
However, there's also a chance that they might have resources
to both help your eye and my leg
so that we could get Valor quicker in less pain.
I guess we're following the tracks, aren't we?
Yeah, you're a little bit off the trail.
You're going in the same direction,
but you're not following the exact path that whoever the people ahead of you took.
You're kind of taking your own path at the same time.
It's not like they saw it and avoided it or whatever.
Yeah, you don't think so. It's just kind of on your way. Like Lucius has spotted it. You could ignore it and just carry on, or you can investigate it.
The statues, do they look like they're in motion?
you can investigate it. The statues, do they look like they're in motion? No.
They look like art sculptures,
like fake, not like a marble statue
which looks lifelike. These are like flat
almost abstract
humanoids and animals kind of thing.
But they don't look like, you know, caught in a moment of like
No.
You don't believe that there is some sort of
wood metal Medusa
on the prowl. I could always go
on my own with you, hidden. There's no way you're going the prowl. I could always go on my own with you hidden.
There's no way
you're going on your own.
You have...
I look
like I need help.
True.
Um,
I'll go.
I owe it to you both.
I mean,
you don't
owe anything,
but I think that's a better idea.
But that's a good idea.
But it's a better idea
than you going
because if it is bad
and you do need to run away,
you can't.
And if I go, and they're standing to the left of me,
the right of me even...
Don't say I.
One.
I also think it's a bad idea for Sentry to go,
because she kind of looks like the structures.
I might scare her a little bit.
I reckon the resident understands the difference
between their own sculptures and a walking one that talks.
Well, I'm just wary that if they see a walking,
talking structure of their creation...
I mean, the century does stand out, I will give you that.
In a good way.
Oh, thank you.
You see?
Thank you.
But yes, I think Nova's the best choice here.
Outstanding in a field.
You look terrifying now, Birdie.
That scar on your face.
It's covered, at least.
Is it bleeding?
I mean, you've got weird herbs kind of sticking out of the fabric.
It eases it.
And it's weeping.
It's weeping.
It's weeping a bit.
I think I'm weeping.
Ah, that's OK.
That's me, not the scar.
It's okay to cry
Nova
I've been crying
non-stop
maybe
maybe that's a good
approach
that's a good approach
I think like the whole time
I've been sniffling
as we've been walking
just like sniffling
your like
fluffy cloud hair
maybe a bit droopy
or something like
my sleeves are all wet
where I've been
blowing my nose
Nova
yeah
it's your moment.
Okay.
All that charisma that you've, you know, won us over with, win this person with.
Okay.
Well, you'd be dead otherwise.
What?
What?
What?
Why would you kill me?
I wouldn't.
Your charm has got you to where you are now.
I don't feel very charming right now.
Okay.
So you're heading up, Laver?
Yeah.
Are you trying to do it quietly?
Are you just walking up to the door and knock, knock, knock?
Can I be really careful?
Because I think she's probably really on guard at the moment.
Like, everything's going to kill her.
So can I just, like, walk, but, like, sort of staring at the statue to see if they're going to move? Sounds like you want to make a perception check to be aware of any dangers.
That's what that sounds like to me.
15.
It's a long S for a 15.
Okay.
So you begin making your way up,
and you can see that they are not statues of people,
as I said.
These are abstract, like, more like art sculptures.
So you can look at them in a certain way.
They form a person.
Kind of.
They're flat and they're two-dimensional
and they've been built in a certain way.
And they are depicting scenes almost.
You can see one looks like a lumberjack.
One is like a family of rabbits.
One is like a man or a woman with a bow.
You can kind of see little scenes.
Like Goliath. With a whip. You know, you can kind of see little scenes. Ones of Goliath.
With a whip.
And you begin just making your way through,
and you can hear, as you get closer to the building,
what does sound like humming,
but also like somebody hammering metal,
like a ting, ting, ting.
Like you can hear something like that.
Slow work ethic.
It's Bowsette. It's not Bowsette
Saving that for the jingle jam Chris
Can I cautiously go up to the door
And knock on it
So you go up
Um hello
You hear from inside a
And like something hitting the ground
And then almost like a whoosh Um hi Hello? You hear from inside a... And like something hitting the ground.
And then almost like a whoosh.
Like a whoosh.
Um, hi?
Hello?
No response.
I need some help. The door doesn't look like it locks.
It just looks like you just push it open or pull it open.
Um...
But yeah, no response.
I'm just a traveler and I need some help.
I have some injured friends.
Hello?
The door... I need some help. I have some injured friends. Hello? The door...
I sound really pathetic.
The door opens and inside you can see a very small house.
There's no bed, but there's a little work desk.
The chimney is connected to a small forge,
so it's quite hot when you enter inside.
But at the very center of the room,
there is a tree
planted in like
a little stone plant pot
and it's grown up.
It's not a big tree.
It's like a little small tree.
And its roof
is actually what's forming
the top of the building.
And then it's,
the leaves have almost formed
like what you thought
was like a moss-covered dome
is actually like
the roof of the tree.
That's cool.
And then the chimney
just kind of sticks out
a little bit to the side. Is it like a special kind of tree? It looks to be very similar to the ones in the tree. And then the chimney just kind of sticks out a little bit to the side.
Is it like a special kind of tree?
It looks to be very similar to the ones in the Iron Wheel.
But there's
like all sorts of knots and shapes in it.
I'm just going to look up and be like,
whoa. You don't see anybody inside.
Hello. I'm just going to, I'm staying on the
doorstep, but I'm going to stick my head in and just be like,
I don't mean any harm. I just need some help'm staying on the doorstep. I'm gonna stick my head in and just be like I don't mean any harm
Um, I just need some help my friend broken his leg you see
from the tree in the middle a
face
Stretches out as these long as this long limb thing and as it looks at you, can you make a wisdom saving throw, please?
So deku tree and as it looks at you, can you make a wisdom saving throw, please? Oh. Sudeku tree.
Seven.
That's sinister.
You look up.
Ah, what a relief.
You are charmed,
and you will treat this creature as a trusted friend
to be heeded and protected.
To be honest, you didn't even need to do that.
No one will just follow any fucker. But this face kind of sticks protected. To be honest, you didn't even need to do that. Nova will just follow Aang.
But this face kind of sticks out.
It's like, who are you?
Hi.
Hi.
My name's Nova.
Nova V'ger.
Hi.
Why are you here?
My friends and I were trying to get through the woods to Ironwick
and we got attacked and one of them has broken his leg
and the other one's lost an eye and we really need some help, please.
You start crying.
Give me a persuasion with advantage.
Ooh, if there's one thing Nova's good at...
Natural 20.
And a natural one!
Wow.
Natural 20 was on the Eroist dice.
Yeah, on the Eroist dice.
Although the natural one was on the other dice.
As you just begin breaking down,
this flood of emotions comes tumbling out,
kind of exacerbated by the charm
because you just feel so comfortable in front of this person.
This figure just pulls itself from the tree
and you can see a probably very short woman.
She'd probably be about 5'1 5'2 in real life um made completely
of wood with like hair like a tree like leaves and branches falling down long limbs but you can
see that um there's also what it appears like almost like not a leather but like a cloth uh
apron that she's kind of draped over herself and a small hammer kind of hanging by her belt
she comes out she's like no no no don't
cry and she pulls you in and kind of like wraps her arms she's like it's okay it's okay i'm so
sorry it's been a really horrible day oh you poor thing no no no and she kind of pats you he's like
oh what do what do mortals eat um um and then she goes over and she's like ah and she there's like a
little window at the back of the house she opens it it and calls out, Ruffles, Ruffles, bring water.
And then this deer holding like a little bucket kind of brings it up, puts it down.
And she's like, thank you.
And she like creates like a little cup out of wood and pours it in.
She's like, drink, drink, drink.
You're so nice.
No, no, it's okay.
I just don't know.
Are your friends mean? No, they're really not. You don't think they'll try and hurt me or my tree? No, they, it's okay. I just don't know. Are your friends mean?
No, they're really not.
You don't think they'll try and hurt me or my tree?
No, they won't. I promise they won't.
Okay, okay. Well, alright Nova, you have to tell them that they must be very careful,
right? That they can come in but then if they hurt me you have to protect me.
I will protect you. You're so nice and so beautiful.
Okay, okay, thank you.
What's your name?
I'm Selamy. Selamy. okay, I'll go get them.
Okay. And then you see her just meld back into the tree.
So I'll come back to you guys and I'm just sniffling like,
oh I'm a mess, like I'm crying. There's a really nice woman in there, she's made of wood.
You don't have to play up now, it's us.
I can't, she's so nice.
Why are you crying so much?
Because I'm so sad.
She's acting, it's really impressive.
Like giving over a really big hug.
Yeah, of course, like,
Sandra just comes up and it's very similar
to the hug from the creature.
This wooden being just envelops you, branches tickling your face.
I'm just like, goo is coming from my face.
Like snot coming out of your nose.
Probably dribbling a little bit.
Fair play, that's fantastic, Nova.
I'm just so sad because I was so useless when I got you guys
and we're stuck in these stupid woods and I'm so useless at this.
I've got to be in this city with my mom and my dad and my brother and my sister.
And I put a hand on her shoulder.
I'm so far from home.
Nova, you've done very well in finding this place.
Finding the place and finding someone who can help us.
She's so nice. She gave me some water.
That's a relief.
Well, that's good.
But you have to promise not to hurt her or I have to kill you.
Sorry?
Yeah, you can't hurt her because she's really nice and she's got a really nice house and there's a tree in the middle.
And if you hurt her, I will kill you.
Wait, okay, hang on. So so for starters why we wouldn't hurt her
That's what I said!
But you would have to kill us?
Yeah because I promised to protect her
Wait
Okay that's fine
How long were you in there?
We just won't hurt her
We won't hurt her
It's very simple
Why is this even a question?
Why would you be...
I mean, sure.
We won't hurt her.
I think she's just emotional, boy.
I think it's just, you know, it's a bit sad.
I want my mom!
Yeah, exactly.
I want my daddy!
I'm just gonna start crying.
Please, for the love of shitska, let's just get inside.
Oh, for the camp sentry, let's go.
I'm just gonna start crying.
Please, for the love of shitska, let's just get inside.
Oh, for the love of shitska, let's just get inside.
Oh, for the camp sentry, let's just get inside.
Oh, for the love of shitska, let's just get inside.
Oh, for the love of shitska, let's just get inside. Oh, for the love of shitska, let's just get inside. Oh, for the love of shitska, let's just get inside. Oh, for the love of shitska, let's just get inside. Oh, for the love of...
Let's just get inside.
I can't sentry. Let's go.
I mean, I'm a nice fella,
but there's too many emotions in here.
I'm not good with this sort of thing.
There's a reason I've never married.
Can I call you dad?
No.
No, Missy, you may not.
I am not that old.
Let's go see this lovely lady.
All right, let's take a step.
Just be careful.
Just don't break her stuff.
We won't break her stuff.
What's her name?
Salafane?
What was it?
Aselemi.
Aselemi.
Yeah, the charm kind of you're like,
oh, you definitely would have forgotten your best friend's name.
Aselemi. Aselemi. Aselemi. Aselemi. Aselemi. a salami a salami yeah the charm kind of you're like oh you definitely would have forgotten your best friend's name a salami
a salami
salami
a salami
a salami
a salami
alright let's go
meet a salami
she's so pretty
uh
Nova you might
want to lead the way
you've already met
her once before
okay
um
and we'll follow
Nova I suppose
into
oh yeah
okay yep so you follow inside
you step inside and you see
the same thing as Nova this kind of central tree
little lovely little house with a little forge attached
to it and a workbench you can see there's
blacksmith tools little bits of
metal you can see like ingots and things like that
that have been built little bits
of there's no leather you don't see much leather
but you do definitely see like wood and things like that. And as you step
inside, Nova's
like, here you go. And do you say anything
Nova? Do you like call out?
You don't see a Selami, she's probably in her tree.
Mrs. Selami, these are my
friends. And you
watch as this figure begins to meld
out of the tree, very
cautiously, and she's holding up
like, and she's kind of holding her hands to her face like,
Nova said that I can trust you.
You're not going to hurt me, are you?
Some of the woodsfolk try and come after me sometimes,
so I try and send them away.
We're not the woodsfolk.
I don't mean to cause offense.
You just came out of that tree?
Yes, it's my house.
What exactly are you?
How rude.
Who asked that?
Fuddy.
Do you know what...
Oh, no, no, it's all right, Mr. Elf.
I'm a dryad.
I see.
We live in the natural world
places
we are fey spirits I guess
ah ok
hello
we mean no harm
I'm being very very rude
sorry
and she stretches out her fingers
which kind of grow out like vines, and little berries
pop off onto plates.
She can cast
eight berries.
Just boop, boop, boop. Please,
these will make you feel better and full.
Please. I guess I would
just eat it because I'm charmed. Yeah, you take one of these berries,
you heal one hit point,
and you feel as if you've eaten a full meal
for the day. Oh, wow.
What a good berry.
That's so tasty.
It's a good berry.
I'm not dying.
It's a very good berry.
Is it like a fake full feeling?
No, no.
Is it like when you eat McDonald's?
No, this is like a lembas bread.
This is like, oh, I'm magically full.
Arvel's like, all right.
Yeah, I'll do the same. Yeah, do the same anybody who eats one heals one hit point
and there would be three left over
for any who are feeling particularly injured
do you want
one century or
I've still got my cure
just squish it into your face
she can eat if she wants
I can appear to eat if I want to.
It's like data from Star Trek.
That's very tasty.
Thank you.
Oh, thank you.
Yes, I grow them myself.
Do I feel anything in my...
Yes, we saw that.
Do I feel anything in my leg when I eat berry?
Healing, but it doesn't...
Like, the broken leg doesn't go away.
So your general vigor and energy is restored,
but, yeah, any injuries, unfortunately, still remain.
I'm going to...
She looks at both of you.
Are these the ones that got hurt, Nova?
This is Lucius.
Oh, you poor thing.
Hello, Lucius.
Hello.
I'm a Selami.
Hello, a Selami.
I think.
Your leg looks very poorly.
It is.
It's really bad poor thing thank you
I've never broken a bone before I don't know what bones are well it's like a
twig you imagine snapping a twig that's awful imagine that tree branch just dip
and you see her eyes just go wide and she begins trembling at the thought of
that like the mention of her tree being damaged.
She's like, not that I would, of course.
I'm just saying, that's the extremity of it.
Yes, but that's awful.
She looks at your eyes like, oh no, your poor eye.
Now imagine uprooting the entire tree,
and that's how he feels.
She faints.
Lucius!
What? I told you not to be mean to her!
I wasn't mean, I was just giving her a relative scale of his...
It comes to a little bit like,
ahhh!
Completely like, the worst thing ever she could possibly imagine.
Yeah, sorry.
Imagine having all of your family just murdered in front of you.
So I... Imagine having all of your family just murdered in front of you.
She's like, oh, well, you poor things.
Oh, well, I'm not sure if there's much I can do.
But, well, if there is anything, I'd be happy to help, I suppose.
I don't really know you.
You grew berries out of your fingers.
Could you grow branches?
Yes, I can.
I can cultivate nature in that regard, yes.
Do you think you could wrap my leg up so it doesn't move?
I mean, yes, you're...
I can see that your friend has already taken a poor dead tree
and has tried to use them to help you.
It's not one, no?
Yes, I suppose I could try,
but I don't think it would be much better than what you have there.
That's fine.
I could make you a new leg.
A new leg?
Yes.
What does that mean?
Well, I like making things.
Oh, the sculptures outside, they're very wonderful.
Thank you, Yes, I make
things from time to time. I could try and
make you one out of wood and metal.
I'm afraid it won't attach.
Well, we'd need to cut
off your leg and then I could attach
it. And you can do that?
Yes, but it'd probably be quite
expensive. I'm
okay, actually, but thank you for the
offer. All right. Yes, I want to keep the leg. I don't, actually. But thank you for the offer. All right.
Yes, I want to keep the leg.
I don't suppose you can make eyes?
I mean, not a functional eye.
I could make you a nice metal one.
Hmm.
That's fine.
Is it?
I could also...
That eye probably needs to come out, Mr. Bird.
Right.
It could get very infected if it stays in your eye like that Right
I could do that for you
It won't hurt
No I can make more berries
What?
The berries I can smush them so that they
so you won't feel pain in the eye
He does not want to do that.
It's gone.
You're already in a lot of pain.
It will just be for a moment and then...
Unless there's some magic.
You'll be better.
You should listen to your dryad friend.
You're very far from your tree.
Oh, I'm not from a tree.
What? That's impossible.
You must be.
No, no, I'm a guardian.
Like a woodland protector.
Um...
Just super light.
I'm... I protect people, I guess.
I protect everyone.
Oh, that's nice.
Yeah.
Speaking of protection, and I appreciate the offer,
but we're actually trying to do something that I don't think I have the time to go under an operation for.
What are you trying to do?
We are actually tracing people who came through the Iron World with a girl who is a friend of ours.
Is there anything you can do in that regard to, I don't know, slow them down, speed us up?
Well, I mean, can't you just ask your friends to come back with them?
I suppose we could.
Yes, we didn't actually try that.
No, you're right.
We could just talk to them.
You should try that.
I hear that talking to people is the best way to resolve problems.
Well, these people are more like the woodland hunters.
Oh.
Yes.
Oh, I see.
They did it very bad and they took a friend from us
And they their other friend injured us. Oh, that's terrible. So we would like to get our friend back. Make a persuasion check
With double advantage
Eight
She's like well, I, that's terribly tragic.
And you can see she's a bit hesitant. Like, she does want to help you, but
you sense that there is still this
you're strangers, she doesn't really know you.
But she definitely wants to help.
She's like, well, I can make some
more berries for you if you want, but
berries are
very good. Is Nova still pretty charmed at
this point? Yeah, but you just see her as your, like, trusted friend.
Like, you just, yeah, as a bestie, really.
And, yeah, she just is like,
ah, yes, I mean, I mean,
I mean, outside of my house and my tree,
I can't really control the rest of the wood.
I don't have any dominion over it or anything like that.
I have lots of animal friends,
but I'm not sure that they'd be much use.
Well, do you know the
quickest way to Ironweald?
You're in the Ironweald.
Ironwick. Ironwick.
Oh, that's the town. Yes.
I try to avoid it.
I don't go anywhere near that place, I'm afraid.
She thinks for a minute.
Maybe one of the animals might know
They often wander around
I could ask them
Would it be possible to get one of your animals
Maybe a bird
To deliver a message to someone in Ironwick
I could do that, yes
We could tell them to stop
The bad guys
That's a really good idea
Or to look out for Valor.
Send a message to the guard, though.
You need to write it on a piece of paper.
I've got loads!
And I'll just pull up my writing pack.
Okay, yeah, if you want to write...
I can do this!
I can send one of my bird friends to deliver the message, yes, of course.
This is something I can do, I'm really good at this.
It's literally like a fairy tale.
Just so you're saying.
Like, my nanny used to give me these kind of bookies.
How did these fairy tales happen?
I grew out of them.
I will be honest.
It's a very, very low-age kind of fairy tale,
but regardless.
It just isn't.
It's not like she's even listening.
She's just like,
hmm, very good.
Shall I write a note then?
Yes, absolutely
So I'll write a note along the lines of
urgent
for the guard, Ironwick guard
and then
can I write like a short description of the three?
You've not seen them
Okay, well we know that one of them
had a pickaxe
and two looked
like hunters or something mine oh yeah they had a longbow as well a long bow a
boy and a girl same age mm-hmm and they're all in another man who was
carrying a pickaxe mm-hmm they're also carrying a sack with a valour in it okay
so you had a description of valor as well okay and you're gonna send two
ironwick guards yeah description of them please as well. Okay. And you're going to send two Ironwick guards. Yeah. Description of them.
Please stop them.
They have kidnapped the girl.
Okay.
And then are you going to sign it or are you just going to leave it anonymous?
What do you guys think?
I mean...
If we had a team name, we could have signed it that.
They have good relations with Rose Hall, so you could sign it.
Nova.
And everyone else. Arvel, would
your name carry there? Not much,
I'm afraid. I mean, I travel
through, but I'm a merchant down
in Goldthrone, up in Goldthrone mainly.
Do we sign it by Merrick's name?
You could do.
I mean, impersonating
the Field Marshal and the Harvest Guard is technically a crime.
Yeah.
Put under order from the Harvest Guard.
I mean, that's a way around it, I suppose.
It's still kind of illegal, but...
Not really.
I guess they won't necessarily know it was y'all that sent the message.
Well, they told us to go out, didn't they, as part of the Guard?
Sure.
If Merrick backs you up, yeah, that should cover it.
I'm sure he would.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, as long as they arrest them first
before trying to verify the note.
So Esmely is just like,
well, who should I...
I can send the bird,
but I need to give a description to the birdie...
To the birdie?
To the bird of who I should send it to?
Um, to
the guard, so anyone in an
official guard uniform?
What's a uniform?
Um,
oh,
God, I mean, you know what a
sword looks like? Yes.
So, do you know
what a town looks like?
Vaguely. And do you know what a gate looks like? Yes. So do you know what a town looks like? Vaguely. And you know what a gate looks like? No.
So it's like the door that you have into your home. Yes. Much bigger. Right. And it's on a wall. Okay.
Anyone that's standing still in front of that holding a sword. Okay, yes, I can tell that. That's good. Animals like that sort of description.
I'm very worried, but sure.
I mean, do I know anything about Ironwick?
Can you make a history check for me, if you like?
No, I don't know anything about Ironwick.
Five.
Okay, five.
Yeah. I just want to know if there's like no even heard the name it must be pretty small because you it's not really on maps and stuff like that
smaller than rose hall as well as yeah smaller did rose hall have a wall and gate yeah at a
wall and gate okay would it be unreasonable for a place like ironwick to have that as well
hard to say with that kind of check You don't know enough About the town Yeah If there is
It's better than nothing
Yeah
So she's like
Calls to the window
Little blue jay
Flies in
Or something like that
Like perches on it
She takes the letter
Ties like a little bit
Of twine around its leg
Like speaks to it
A little bit
And then off it goes
You're ever so kind, thank you.
No, it's you're quite welcome,
especially if you're traveling with another dryad.
She looks incendiary, still not quite understanding.
Yes, we must get you back to your tree soon.
Yes, you must, in fact, give me another persuasion check.
That's a clever thing to say to her.
16.
She kind of looks.
She's like, yes, you must get back to your tree as quickly as possible.
Yes.
No, I just, yep.
And she's like, I know.
Ah, yes.
Mr. Eker.
Sorry.
She, like, goes up to her window.
Mr. Eker.
Mr. Eker.
Okay.
And you begin to hear. Sorry? She, like, goes up to her window. Mr. Eker! Mr. Eker! OK.
And you begin to hear... A giant elk head that is enormous.
Brr!
It's true.
Oh, wow.
Mr. Eker, you need to help carry someone for me.
What?
You can't walk on your poorly leg, right?
Mr. Econ can carry you,
and then you can travel fast.
Back to your tree.
That's phenomenal.
That's very kind of you.
That's huge.
But you have to get back, of course,
and your friend is injured.
Yes.
The tree is right next to Ironwick.
Oh, right.
Now, the other side of it,
obviously not in this forest.
Okay.
Give me a deception check.
It's on the way.
Shit.
Why must you always ruin everything?
11.
Oh, OK.
Thank you, whimsical dragon.
We found someone dumber than you.
She's not as...
Yeah, she's kind of a bit...
Naive. Yeah. She's not as... Yeah, she's kind of a bit... Naive.
Yeah.
She's like, yes, that sounds wonderful.
Mr. Eker will meet you out the front.
Mr. Eker.
But then he'll come straight back.
I have to have him back.
That's fine.
Does he understand us?
No.
I can speak with him.
Does he at least respond to his name?
I mean, you called him.
Yes, he should do.
He's very smart.
Very smart.
He's...
How did he... He is enormous. He's very smart. Very smart. He's... How did he...
He is enormous. He is
a large creature, so he's probably
like the size of a big yak.
Just these huge
stag antlers.
Is he big enough for
all of us? He can certainly
carry at least two or three of you. Maybe not sentry
in a heavy armour, but two or three of you
can ride. Me and Arbol
maybe. And Quill.
And it looks like he's very
adept at climbing through the woods as well.
So he obviously lives there.
So you want to do that?
Okay. Well, thank you very much.
You're welcome!
Before we go... But you mustn't tell anybody
I'm here, especially not the people in the town.
They're always humans. They just really don here, especially not the people in the town. No.
They're always... humans... they just really don't... they come after mankind all the time.
Well, we'll make sure they don't see Mr. Eekir either. I imagine once they see him...
Yes! Oh, they'll try and eat him.
They might, yes.
Speaking of eating...
Before we leave, could we get some more of those good, good berries?
Course you can!
Thank you so much.
Eight more good berries.
Hey!
They only last 24 hours, I believe.
That's fine.
You have one more full meal. I will put 11 good berries in my inventory.
Nice.
I can check the entry for good berry.
Within 24 hours of casting the spell.
So you have 24 hours worth of eight Goodberries,
and each one heals one hit point.
Yeah, and there was three left over from both of those,
so I still got those as well.
There you go.
Look at this, math's boy.
Eleven Goodberries.
Yeah, so if you want to head off,
Esmere will just wave you goodbye.
I'm going to give her the biggest hug in the world.
Oh, yeah.
She's like, yay!
Thank you so much!
You're the best!
Thank you for not killing me!
I told you he wouldn't.
She just, like, nods and, like, waves from her door.
And she will trundle off on the elk.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, so I'm guessing, like, you have Lucius up on the elk.
Arvel is, like, on the back, like, whoa.
Are we quill?
I don't know if it will take me.
I don't think I need to go on there, really.
You should rest.
Okay, fair.
The three of you are probably, like, the lightest as well. I can't think I need to go on there, really. You should rest. Okay, fair. The three of you are probably the lightest as well.
I can still perceive from up here.
Hollow bones, after all.
Yeah, hollow bones.
Still a good point to look at, but you might have to catch up.
Well, on the elk, it's going to make you travelling much easier.
You don't necessarily need to make navigation checks,
because the elk knows the way.
And you don't need to make athletics checks,
because the elk just...
Yeah. Everything out of the way and you don't need to make athletics checks because the elk just everything out the way
for the podcast
listeners I was
shaking my head
to improve
like a dragon
elk
so yeah
good thing we
didn't ask about
those iron structures
I feel like there
was something else
going on there
oh she just makes
them art
I'm sure it's
absolutely harmless
sure
cool
and you're gonna carry on right yes okay with the aid of the elk Oh, she just makes them art. I'm sure it's absolutely harmless. Sure. Cool.
And you're going to carry on, right?
Yes.
Okay.
With the aid of the elk,
you manage to actually catch up to the point where it doesn't look like,
even with the giant elk,
you encounter a sight ahead of you.
It looks like Arval using the tracking and the elk,
they must have gotten lost or they must have gotten delayed
whilst they were traveling through the Ironweald
because they have to make the same checks you guys do.
And it looks like that without the aid of the Goliath,
they actually got quite lost and turned around
because you managed to catch up with them in a couple of hours.
So you're getting to near afternoon.
What you see ahead of you is you see
three figures, three humanoid figures and a large sack on the ground, big enough to hold a girl like
Valor. And you see just ahead of you, I would say maybe about a hundred feet ahead of you,
you see the three of them not having spotted you, but are now looking around cautiously in this dense part of the
forest. You can see the
girl is wearing chainmail with
a shield and has a long sword.
The younger man with a beard who looks
a lot like Brett Brookstone has got a long
bow, or a short bow, sorry, and then
a miner with a heavy-looking pickaxe is
looking around. Oh, so none of them
like the Goliath that we...
None of them look like the Goliath. But they are looking around. Oh, so none of them like the Goliath that we... None of them look like the Goliath.
But they are looking around and Quill,
even with your bad eye,
you see what has clearly spooked them.
A plant.
You can see these long vines with these red flowers
moving around them.
And they're beginning to get ready for battle.
And that's going to be initiative, I think.
Wow, okay. Straight in. How do we approach this?
Barely. I mean we don't want them to hurt Valor but at the same time...
Get my nerves quickly. We wouldn't want them just to die would we? We want to bring them to justice! Yes. Justice.
Justice.
Just ice, please.
So...
Some of the doors there.
I know.
Bolt of just ice.
So, I don't have time to sort out a map
for it, but the
topography is very similar to before. Large
rocks, large trees, uneven
ground, but you can see
that they are just ahead in a small opening, about
100 feet ahead of you.
Do you want to just rejiggle some of these?
Have you got a giant... If you can, but they are taped
down, and there's a lot of
drawings on them.
Have you got a giant
elk miniature? I don't.
You're going to need stats. If somebody wants
to go on D&D Beyond, you can actually search for
other monsters in a new tab.
It's just a giant elk.
Nice. Elk boy.
How many ordinary elks would
fit into a giant elk?
I reckon three.
Yeah, throw that into the pool.
Oh boy. There we go. Big boy. I reckon a three. Yeah, throw that into the floor. You boys. Oh, boy.
You boys.
There we go.
Big boy.
Strength 19.
Century, what did you get for initiative?
I got 17.
Should I roll his initiative?
Elky's.
That's right.
Mr.
What was his name?
Iker.
Mr. Iker, yeah.
Mr. Iker.
I don't have a mini for the miner. and I don't have one for Arvulf.
Well he was a d4 before.
Okay I'll use this pencil sharpener.
So Sentry, what did you get on initiative?
17.
Quill?
Oh I got 9.
Nova?
18. Lucius got nine. Nova. 18.
Lucius.
Six.
Okay.
Should I roll for the Mr. Icar?
Yes, please, actually.
Ooh.
Oh, wow.
20.
Aww.
Mr. Icar.
Mr. Icar goes first,
but he just, you can see he's wary to go closer.
So you guys would be like quite far back here
because you're about 100 feet.
Like 10, 10, 20, 40, 50, 60.
You're off the board.
Yeah, you're off the board at the moment.
You can see he slows down and seems kind of wary to advance.
He's not going to really do anything on his turn
until you give him orders.
No, that's me.
Nova.
What the fuck? I don't know what the to do
you can see these vines beginning to they're almost like beginning to crawl down like the
side of a big tree and they're starting you can see the others are like oh and they're starting
to get ready for this thing that's like crept up on i'm gonna go she's probably still quite rattled at this point.
Can I hold...
Yeah?
...action?
Mm-hmm.
I will Eldritch Blast.
Can I... to hold action, can I Eldritch Blast if someone tells me to blast something?
It's not like that.
Someone else's.
So if I shout out, I don't know what to do.
Yes, I will say, you can say, who should I hit?
Who do I hit?
And then you're saying, I'm going to hold an action
until somebody tells me an answer.
Yeah, and then I will object blast whoever wants it.
Okay, you can see the miner is like, oh shit!
He steps forward with this large pickaxe,
just swings, but it's a bunch of vines and plants,
and his axe just kind of beds into a tree, missing completely.
Bad weapon for it.
Sentry.
By the way, I'm guessing that wasn't a short rest that we had with...
You can count it as a short rest.
So if you wanted to have spent hit points, yeah.
Wow. Mark. I can't do anything a short rest. Yeah. So if you wanted to have spent hit points, yeah. Wow.
Mark.
I can't do anything at range.
I see.
You could start just charging forward.
I could do.
You can go about 60 feet if you spend your whole turn just running.
Yeah.
So that would get you 40 feet.
So 10, 20, 30, 40.
You're going to be about here.
Sure.
Let me, yeah, I'll have a little sprint.
So you just start sprinting forward.
The sack
that is Valor is probably behind them
about here. Okay, cool. I might be able to snatch her
and run away. Yeah, you could try.
For sure. The creature, the
plant creature now fully descends from
the trees, and you can see it's a writhing
mass of these red-tipped ferns,
and it shuffles.
It kind of shuffles towards them.
It's weird.
Yeah. One of its vines
whips out, grabs the miner,
wraps him up in the vine, and
begins crushing him.
Okay.
If only it was one of the Brookthorns.
You could bargain.
So the miner is like crushed.
You can see the life being squeezed out.
He's like, ah, Finn, help!
He's being crushed.
Wait a minute, Finn?
I know that name.
God, there's a lot.
Oh my God, he's a bad guy!
Oh my gosh!
Quill liked him.
How much would it be to dismount from the Mr. E?
It's not even a five foot.
You can just dismount him and then carry on your movement.
Okay.
I will do that, and I suppose just move up towards them.
So you can get next to Sentry, basically 60 feet.
I am going to prepare the Thunderstone pistol,
but not use it.
Yeah.
I think it's the same situation of like,
I'm just gonna follow Sentry
and we're just gonna stroll in.
Yep.
In the chaos.
Okay, sure, okay.
I mean, are we stealthing?
Oh no.
No, Sentry was like,
just like the Terminator and just charging through there's
nothing subtle about this girl no okay oh i'm a hulking seven foot man okay and behind you is a
giant elk yeah 45 foot titan
so you watch as this guy, Finn,
moves up and starts hacking away at the plant,
trying to free this miner.
He's like, come on, get off him!
And he's slicing and slashing away.
Sorry, he should be more Texan than that.
Get off him!
Starts slashing away,
hitting with one of his attacks,
like cutting one vine,
but then more just kind of writhe out.
Oh, gross. Lucius. but then more just kind of writhe out.
Lucius.
Mr. Ica.
Come on, buddy, we need your help.
Go!
Yeah, he will move.
So what's his speed?
His speed is... I think we're about to get run down.
I think we're about to get run down.
60 feet.
I have nine hit points.
Wow!
He will go 120,
so he just charges forward.
Whoa!
So technically, you end up past them.
So you, like, gallop around them.
So as you gallop past, you drive by, like, spellcasting.
No, no, I'm just going to shout at them.
Okay.
Give us fella back!
Okay.
They're like, what the hell?
And they're confused by a moment.
You've got a full action.
You can take your full action.
Because you'll literally just go and then you're yelling as you're running.
If you want to do something.
Yeah, I'll cast Blade Ward on myself.
Okay.
You're like...
So I'm resistant to
types of melee.
They look up and they're like,
huh?
And they get confused seeing you.
The woman at the back,
hearing the charging sentry,
will just turn around,
like, draw her blade and stuff
and, like, put herself into a stance like,
come on,
come on, Finn, free him,
we gotta move!
They found us!
And yeah, turns to face you.
And she turns around
and sees you
with your sword
and, no,
your axe and sheath.
Mr. Eker.
I'm pointing a gun
at them.
Roll a two
to try and hit this creature
on the ground.
It's plus six to hit.
So yeah,
his horns just kind of
dig into the ground
as he's trying to hit
this blind creature
it doesn't quite hit.
Yeah,
I guess the one is Nova.
Does them like moving
count as like,
like, no. Nobody said, nobody said, Nova, shoot that guy. Okay. Yeah, I guess the one is Nova. Does them moving count as my...
No.
Nobody said, Nova, shoot that guy.
Okay.
I don't think we know what we want to do.
Fala's on the ground, I'm guessing.
Yeah, she's right in front here.
She's basically here.
5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.
I'm just going to stand to the side.
Okay.
30. Well, I'm just going to stand to the side.
Okay.
Yeah, can I Eldritch
Blast
the lady? Yep.
Go for it. Eldritch Blasto!
Eldritch Blasto!
Wow.
That's an anime.
That's what they say in the anime.
That would be a natural one.
Oh, nice.
Just blast so it takes a huge chunk out of a tree or a piece of stone on the way.
This episode really has it all.
That was a warning shot.
Yeah, you can call that out if you want.
At the start of the miner's go, whilst he is constricted by this creature...
This poor guy.
Screw him. He's melted by poison
this thing is like
this poison is seeping over him
and he watches his skin
he's like
he's crushed into the goo
and the vines begin crawling out
looking for their next target.
Is it like in Robocop?
Yeah, kind of.
Just melted by poison.
Slushy.
Slushy.
Sentry.
I'm going to continue running.
So, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.
You're next to Valor,
but this woman is right in front of you.
You could grab the sack of Valar
and throw her back.
So you just grab the sack
and throw it behind you.
You have to slide it rather than throw it.
You ready yourself.
Nice.
The vine monster.
It's got a lot of different targets
now. Go for the juicy
shrooms. Everyone within 15 feet of it. So Lucius, Oh, it's got a lot of different targets now. Go for the juicy shoes.
Everyone within 15 feet of it.
So Lucius, Mr. Ica, Arval, and these two.
However, not Valor because Century pulled her out the way.
Can you make straight saving throws, please?
Can you make one for Mr. Ica as well?
Mr. Ica got a 14.
Okay.
What does Lucius get?
Lucius gets a cock.
Oh!
10.
So a writhing mass of plants just begins spreading out in a
15 foot radius around this creature.
The woman, the Finn, the boy
both get caught up, their legs just
completely trapped by this plant creature.
You are pulled off, Mr. Eker, buy these plants and also restrained so is our vol
But mystery could just pulls his hooves up and it's just mystery. Yeah. He's just like pulling himself free basically
As he charges, but you are all currently restrained. You got everyone
Everybody except the giant elk. Yes, the incredibly strong giant elk. Even though they're on the back of it?
Yeah, it literally was like... Oh, it pulled you off it?
Okay, yeah, sorry.
Loads of vines came out.
However, that is technically all it does this turn.
So you're all currently restrained.
Quill.
I'm going to walk up,
point my gun forwards,
basically at them both.
And...
I mean, I guess they're, like,
freaked out right now, aren't they? I guess they're like freaked out
right now.
Yeah they're like
what?
And they've seen
their friend be melted
and you're now pulling it
but they're also
yeah.
What do you say?
What are you going to do?
That's what you see initially.
I don't really know
how to get them to
just not
you know.
What do you say?
This is the RP.
I'm going to point the gun, like, directly at her, the one in front of me.
So you're like, with your scarred eye.
My scarred eye.
I suppose I have to look the other way.
Yeah, you're kind of, so is it?
Like, yeah.
And I will shoot.
But it's hitting the vine creature.
Okay, so you're just going to shoot.
You don't want to talk to them or shout at anything.
That's why I thought you were going for it.
Yeah, you can make an attack roll.
I mean, the initial thing was just to spook them.
Okay.
Like, super spook them.
Okay.
And then the last second, shoot at the thing behind them.
Okay.
19 plus my intimidation, 21.
Yeah, there is definitely a moment of pause
as she's staring down the barrel of this gun
and then you're just...
And I do...
I guess I need to shoot the actual thing to see if it hits that.
Yep.
Natural 20!
Yay!
Amazing.
So it's a D10.
Double it.
Yeah.
12 plus 2.
14 damage.
14 to the vine creature.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you're like... you point it directly at her
kind of grimacing and then you're just like
and you watch as the bullet blows out
like three of these vines just ripping them
from the stem and then you're just
I mean it's empty but you just
point it back
I probably don't
when you see this bullet just tear through the plant creature
ripping parts of it away
anything else you want to do? I will say to them that we're
taking them back to Rose Hall okay you say that Finn's like you ain't taking us
anywhere fucking birdman and he's trying to free himself
I mean I am a fucking birdman but come on I have to point out when I wing bird
man see he's like he can't pull himself free of these vines.
He's desperately trying to pull himself free.
He's just like, Fela, grab that kid and get out of here.
And she's just like, ah.
And you can hear them kind of grunting.
You're going to have to get past entry first.
Yeah, there's definitely a point.
I'd like to see that.
Lucius.
Yes, let's do try.
Move action to try and break yourself free.
I'm going to say...
Whilst restrained to them two
If you don't give us back, we're not going to help you destroy this vine creature Okay
And then I'm going to hit the vine creature
Okay, give me a persuasion check
Nine plus five, fourteen
Okay, now you want to...
Did you want to try and escape or are you just going to attack it?
Because you are currently restrained, so you want to... Did you want to try and escape or are you just going to attack it? Because you are currently restrained, so you have disadvantage.
Can I use a Chromatic Orb, cast a spell?
You would still have disadvantage, because you're still making an attack roll.
It's only a move action to break yourself free.
Okay, I'll do that.
Yes, I'll try.
Okay, so yeah, it's Athletics or Acrobatics.
Yes.
Eleven. That is just enough, actually. Okay, so yeah, it's a athletics or acrobatics Yes
Hello, that is just enough actually you like to pull yourself free
Bring your hands up. You still want to cross chromatic orb
No, not now that it's
Yeah, you could run you could just like get away from this or hobble back to to Mr. Eker. You've only got 15 movement, haven't you?
Then go back to Mr. Eker and get behind him.
Okay.
So, yeah, you can kind of move up behind him.
Kind of grip onto his fur.
You got it, Mr. Eker?
Yeah.
He's just stomping his hooves down and things like that.
Okay.
So that's Lucius' go.
Can I ready an action?
Yes.
If they were to attack me, I'd chromatic all of them.
Yes.
Although, no, your action would have been to move, all of them yes although no your action would have been
to move
because you broke free
which would be a function
to break free
okay
the large woman
in the chainmail
Fila
steps forward
swings a blade
towards Sentry
that's going to be
a 14 to hit though
go away Jose
pating
pang
she's like
staggers back
at the top of the round,
the vine creature's
going to grab Finn.
It does.
Oh,
they're all melting.
We need him alive.
Well,
we don't need him alive,
actually.
We need one of them.
Yeah.
It gets caught up.
He's like,
Finn,
get this thing off me!
Before,
ugh!
And you can see him panicking,
scared of what it might do
to him next.
Hmm.
Very. Mr. Eaker is going to him next. Hmm. Very.
Mr. Eker is going to make an attack roll.
I got a 7. What bonus do I add?
Plus 4, I believe. 6.
Plus 6? That's a 13. That's a ram,
by the way. Okay. But if you want to do hooves,
it's plus 6 as well. Yeah, hooves. How much damage?
So, what are you trying to do?
It's on a 1 prone creature's
count. Yeah. Okay.
So that's 48 plus 4 or just 22 straight
22 i'll just do 22 which is nuts it stomps on this plant creature just slamming its hooves down on
the ground like i'm tearing parts of it away i mean you can see this plant creature however is
still it speaks elvish oh there you go cool um but we don't know But we don't know that. You don't know that. It begins tearing it away.
Oh, it knows Elvish, giant elf in Sylvan, but can't speak them.
Yes.
So it knows what you're saying.
I'm just going to quickly...
Oh, wait, no, you're speaking common, yeah.
Yeah.
Dirty common.
Not beautiful Elvish.
Okay.
I can speak Elvish.
So you guys can go, but to speed things up here, on Finn's next turn, he is also melted.
Oh, come on, no, we wanted him alive!
Well, you can try and save him, but I don't imagine that, like, considering your situation, who's gonna go?
So it would have been Mr. Icarus, and Nova would have gone, what would you have done?
I was gonna try and free Valor from the bag, like get her out of the bag.
Okay, yeah, so you move up, you free Valor, that's easy, you can do that, she's unconscious.
Would that be an action to do?
Yeah, basically. It'd be like move up, action, undo the bag, drag her out, she's unconscious, probably drugged.
Oh, she got rolled back, right?
Yeah, she's been, she can pick her up.
Uh, then the vine creature, no, then the vine creature would go, he's already got thingy, so she could do some damage to him.
Sentry, what would you do do would you attack the woman i would i would have given uh the guys one more chance to give themselves up
okay and i can free them or i'm just going to flame lance them i probably would flame lance
the plant try and flame lance the pants and catch them in it or would you just try and i'll give
them one last chance to give themselves up okay flame once the plan what do you say to them so
like this is your final chance if you don't give yourselves up
and let us take you back
to Rose Hall
then I'm flame lancing
all of you
okay
you are all going down
otherwise
yeah
intimidate check for me please
20
oh
natural 20
so the woman
I'm scared
looks at you
just
like
drops her sword
and is like fine fine, fine.
Just get him fruit.
Like, she, like, turns, like, save my brother.
Okay.
You turn to him, like, because obviously you've done that.
So do you still want to flame lance the creature?
Flame lance the plant.
Okay, so you can step to the side
so you only catch the creature.
So remind me what this does again.
So it's a...
Dexter saving throw?
Yeah, Dexter saving throw. That fails.
Okay.
Takes 3d10 of fire damage.
Yeah, because I up the damage.
Oh my god!
I up the damage on it, so that's 3d10.
3d10!
Thank you very much.
Because it takes health away from her as well.
A, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
Wow. And then I take 1d6 of cold damage yes i'll roll
that you take five five cool um okay so the flame launch races across this creature um you can see
that the it does seem somewhat resistant to fire however like the creature itself like uh yeah i
know but the red tips on it begin to kind of glow
and heat up
when the flame touches it
and things like that
and seems to absorb
some of the heat
but it still does burn
you know this long line
of trail of fire
as this blast
erupts from it
however it's not enough
to kill the creature
after sentry
quill would you do anything
I appreciate we're going
to be running late
but I would finish that
yeah I would probably
magic missile.
The plant?
The plant, and probably try and hit the vines
that are constraining.
Just roll the damage.
Yeah, the problem with magic missiles is it's...
I do it level two as well.
So that's 4d4.
4d4 for me.
Let's see if we can save this guy.
Four, two, so six.
Seven.
Seven.
Ten. Ten plus 4, 14. Yeah, ten plus 4, 2, so 6, 7, 10. 10 plus 4, 14.
Yeah, 10 plus 4, 14.
Not quite in that.
After Quill's go, Lucius.
Okay.
Or the last one.
What about Arval?
I didn't actually roll for Arval.
Let's say Arval, well, Arval's also restrained,
so he's kind of like, let's say for the sake of, Arval's also restrained, so he's kind of like...
Let's say for the sake of the story,
he got completely wrapped up
and he's like a little dwarf
trying to kick out of the vines.
Yeah.
I'm going to do a Chromatic Orb,
4-inch diameter sphere of cold energy
at the creature.
And so that would be a ranged spell attack.
That's a 10.
Nope.
No damage on a miss.
If the attack hits, 3d8.
So you throw it, you do hit,
but you're kind of hitting the area around it
where Sentry's already burnt a lot of it away,
so the cold doesn't quite spread out onto the body.
After that, you just watch as this poison just melts Finn away.
The woman is just like,
Finn, no!
And just
But this creature moves so slowly, if you guys just choose to run,
you can easily outrun this thing.
What about Arbol?
You can free him, like, yeah.
Look, we've got five minutes minutes I need to wrap the episode up
alright
okay
Mr. Ika
the main thing was
whether the guy
you wanted to take back
for justice
lived or not
like
yeah
we'll take her
the elk can easily
pull her free and stuff
yeah she's
you just grab her
and drag her away with you
alright
I suppose I'd also
tie her up as well
as best I can with one arm
but you know
I'm assuming you'll do that
in the safety of these creeps away following you.
Because the thing is, as well, is, like, you two can just constantly, like, firebolt or Eldritch Blast this thing.
It moves at five feet around, so you can just be like, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam.
How did it catch up to them?
It probably stood on it.
Yeah, basically they jumped into it.
Cool.
Well, we're going to read some donations now, because that's the end of things. We're going to wrap, see how this all develops next week. into it. Cool. Well, we're going to read some donations now because that's the end of things.
We're going to wrap, see how this all develops next week.
Holy crap.
Man.
Crikey.
That was a lot of stuff that happened.
Wow.
There was a lot of stuff of me rolling stuff behind the scenes
of their encounter and how much they got delayed by and stuff
and obviously how much you got delayed by
and it all worked out.
But we got Bella.
We got her back. We got Bella. We did it. Yeah, you got her before you got delayed by, and it all worked out. But we got Bella! We got her back!
We got Bella, we did it!
Yeah, you got her before you were late.
Oh, I lost my leg and I lost my eye.
Hey everyone, thanks for listening to this episode,
and thanks again to our sponsors, D&D Beyond and Brilliant.org.
There's links to both of them in the episode description.
Also, we're going to be at MCM Comic-Con in London
on the 26th and 27th of October for a live show and signings.
Come meet us if you're going,
and follow us on Twitter at High Rollers D&D
for specific timings, and we'll see you there.
Also, we've just released some shiny metal Erois-themed dice
on store.yogscast.com.
Check them out, and remember you can use the code
HIGHROLLERS on checkout to get 10% off
not just High Rollers merch, but all Yogscast merch.
Maybe you can grab yourself a 10-year hoodie while you're at it.
Anyway, we'll be back on Monday for a
brand new episode where we take the culprits back
to Rosehall and finally get some
justice. We'll see you then.