High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #112 | Assault on the Tassadar (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 17, 2021

We're in the flagship of the Valkyrian Empire waiting for our allies to join us! It's time to assault the Tassadar! 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 Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. The perfect summer mix. Bacardi. Do what moves you. Live passionately. Drink responsibly. Copyright 2024. Bacardi. Its trade dress and the bat device are trademarks of Bacardi and Company Limited. Rum 40% alcohol by volume. Every Canadian dairy farm is unique. That's why every farmer takes charge of their own unique environmental farm plan. Also drawing from 57 environmental practices. My plan starts with soil health. And part of mine includes biodiversity.

Why care so much? Because Canadian dairy farmers hold themselves to higher standards. That's what's behind the Blue Cow logo. Dairy Farmers of Canada. Hello, welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons and Dragons podcast in the world of Erois. Dairy Farmers of Canada in the episode description. Hello and welcome back to Eroes. The Storm Chasers have decided to make a good on their promise long ago and have set out to rescue Valar, a young girl they met when their adventures first began, and is somehow connected to Kallus Valkyrian, the goddess Siaska, and may be a key part of the fate of Eros. Having originally made plans with a faction of celestial rebels called the Wings of Ishtar, the party acquired the runic sequence to teleport aboard Kallus'

flagship, the Tassadar, named after the powerful Eterna that is bound within. Quill contacted Zelion, the solar leader of the Wings, and informed him of their plan, but a last-minute revelation that Zarkira's minions had probed Quill's mind left the Celestial deeply concerned. The party pressed on, however, and after gathering some allies, the Daever, Rana'el, and Edea Elanasto, Lucius' sister, they teleported aboard the Astral

Warship. Whilst trying to subdue the guards within the teleportation chamber, Quill reaches out to Zellion and the wings of Ishtar, but received no response yet. And we begin with combat as you guys were still just dealing with a couple of these guards within this kind of quite barren, plain black crystalline and metal chamber aboard the Tassadar. We have three Valkyrian guards within the chamber itself.

One of them, who appears to be the lieutenant who seems to be in charge, has got this kind of clear resin mucus over his face created by Edea, but has run up and is at the door that leads out into the rest of the ship. The two other guards are currently engaged in combat. We have one fighting Nova on a console, which seems to contain sort of alarms and other systems and things like that and then the other one is currently fighting lucius and rana uh in the rest of the room and we begin at the top of a brand new round of initiative

with nova sorry wait real quick did you say the guard ran out the door he is at the door the lieutenant is at the door okay yeah he didn't quite he only had enough movement to get to the door um but it is currently locked nova had locked it which he wasn't aware of um but he is there and may be able to start signaling for help century last week i i think i tackled him to the ground at the end of last week's session so yes you grappled him so you are next to him with him, yes. So that's the other important factor. That was because that was the very last thing

that happened last episode was you basically ran up and grappled him. But he does seem to be quite a dexterous fellow. He may still be able to wriggle himself free. But we begin with Nova. So I'm tussling with one of the not-so-indifferent guards at the console, right? Yes, the previous spell that has kind of rendered them

sort of in hostile has been broken. And yeah, they are now actively trying to fight back. And one of them is specifically like trying to struggle with you to reach and, to reach and get to the console and activate some sort of system on it. Okay. I will

carry on tussling with this guard. So I'm going to hit with Tiangong and also Green Flame Brit that. I roll a natural 20. That's off to a fix and a stop. All right.

This is going to be a lot of damage, so max the damage dice and then roll the damage dice again. So that's 1d8 plus 7, so 8 plus 7, and then plus 6 on the dice. I rolled 6 on the dice. So 21, and then plus six on the dice. I rolled six on the dice. So 21, and then you're... And then, yep, so 21 currently.

And green flaming is an extra... Not great. It's six points of green flame damage to this guy. Well, you max that as well. Does that get maxed? Okay, so that's 8 plus 8 is 16. Plus 6 is 22 points of green flame damage. So 43 points of damage currently.

And that's all of it, yeah? That's all. That's murder, she wrote. So Qian Guang just kind of whips out and this kind of green-blue flame, this energy that coalesces along the blade whenever you use the spell, Tiangong just whips across this guard's throat

and you just kind of watch as he's just about to reach for the alarm crystal as you step back to take a strike and then the blade just cuts him down. He just collapses to the ground, dead. Oh! Nice. All right. I didn't mean to.

I just tried to stop you. Unfortunately, fire damage does not do non-lethal damage, so the fire damage is what tipped him over, and unfortunately, he just watches the energy. This blue fire is just engulfing his body. Just checking the other... There's no other baddie within five feet of me. They're just out.

They're about 10, 15 feet away from where you were fighting, so they're just out of the... The other one is about 30 feet, which is the lieutenant that Sentry is currently grappling, but unfortunately, no other targets for Green Flame Blade in the area. But you have, however, stopped this one from trying to, you know, do something. You don't know what they would have done. Anything else, Nova? You still have movement and bonus action.

No. I'm going to stick by this console because I just want to stop anyone else kind of trying to do anything. So you're just going to kind of position yourself over it. All right. Lucius, you currently have one of these guards next to you you also have rana el the uh the deva uh next to you as well yeah what would you like to do i think as i'm engaged in melee with this one i'm going to keep using the captain's command to slice them down so here we go this is it easy. Easy. Natural 20 coming up. 26.

That's not bad. It's close. 26 is going to hit. So you're definitely going to hit this guy. Now, the question for Lucius, because this is just a normal weapon attack, there's no spell element to it. Do you want to do non-lethal damage or are you just going for a killing blow here?

Non-lethal. I think that was our intention. I am looking on at horror at what Nova just did. These blue magical flames. I do flick around the captain's command and try and hit them around the back of the head. Yeah, with a flat of the blade kind of thing. Kind of carry the captain's cutlass kind of thing.

Do they go limp? Well, give me the damage. With a seven. Seven damage. They do not... Is that with everything? Yeah. All right. They do not... Is that with everything? Yeah. All right.

Ease up. No, 7 damage for melee from Lucius isn't anything to sniff at. But no, you whip the blade out. It does kind of collect with a sign of their head, but they stumble. They're still conscious, but they do now look dazed.

They're not quite sure what's going on. They look on the verge of sort of collapse but can i still just enough fighting strength left can i like hit them around the head like go to grab their armpits as if they're going to slump to the floor and then just put the body forward towards the diva like yeah i mean sure you can you position yourself behind there's no mechanical benefit but you, but Lucius kind of slips behind, almost ready to catch this guy, and then when he doesn't, you kind of just push up against his back like...

And you just shove him towards Rana. Okay, anything else, Lucius, on your turn? That's all for now. All right. Kelek. So when you said uh he was attacking

with a regular weapon and that can be non-lethal does that mean magic can't be non-lethal depends on the type of damage

but I would say in most cases unless it's I would say unless it's radiant or force damage or thunder damage probably not

I would say things like fire and lightning and ice and necrotic so not shocking grass would say things like fire and lightning and ice and necrotic. So not shocking grass then. Pretty lethal things, yeah. Fair enough.

Anything that has like a concussive force, but anything else I think is going to pretty much be non-lethal. What if I lightning lure the guy into the ground and just slam him into the floor? You've got to hope that the lightning that courses through his body doesn't like stop his heart or something like that is what i will it will um all right i'll do a sacred flame in that yeah sure okay i'd say radiant energy radiant energy i'd say probably can be non-lethal because

it's more you know pure and celestial you know it's good aligned energy. Yeah. He needs to make a dex save of 21. 21? That's a failure for me. Boom, 3d8 plus 6. Wow, that sucks. 11 damage. 2, 2, 1, 6. Oh, my God. And this is against the one fighting Lucius and Rana.

Yeah. Yes. So the Sacred Flame, the kind of golden white feathers fly out, and they do seem to overwhelm this individual and render him unconscious. I will say that, yeah, radiant energy can knock out. But yeah. Nice.

They just kind of collapse down before Rana has a chance to swing, really. Cool. Melt his brain with holy fire. And that is all I will do for now. I'm still kind of by the teleportation circle waiting for Zelian to contact me. The bastard.

There is no response. There is no response. Rana, on her turn, will look to you, Quill. Is there any word from the wings? What is happening? And then she will rush towards where Sentry has this guy grappled, the lieutenant grappled, and will attempt to do

a non-lethal attack with her sword. That is going to, I believe, that might be a miss from Rana on this one. Yep. So he manages to get his feet up and sort of kick rana away with her first attack um and then on the second attack however that does hit

and this is going to be let's see 2d6 for the great sword uh plus four so eight and then 48 8, 12, 14, 18, 20, exactly. She manages to land another solid blow on the side of the lieutenant, this drow lieutenant's chest. You hear the wind get knocked out of him, but unfortunately, not enough to fully render him

incapable. And yeah, Branagh will just get in position to striking in if need to ayla i'm gonna hit the lieutenant okay so you just move up next to rana the two of you kind of charging together this poor dude are you raging ayla i am age, yeah. Raging? Raging, yes, I am. I am aging. I mean, technically, we're all aging. Yeah. 18 plus 13 to hit.

18 plus 13 is going to hit. Yep, can't do anything about that. Nice. 14 points of damage. Now, I would ask if you're doing non-lethal, but you are raging. She doesn't care. Yeah, I don't think she would be, right?

Yeah. I mean, even if she wasn't raging, I don't think... These are workers of Starbane. He's like a lieutenant of Starbane. I don't think she cares enough to be like, I'm just going to knock him out. She kills him.

Go for it. Sure. Yeah. What was the damage story? I missed it. 14. sure yeah uh what's the damage sorry i missed it um 14 14 points the first blow kind of cracks him along the jaw blood kind of out of his mouth onto the floor um still standing uh this guy is very tough you can see that he's obviously a well-trained fighter but he's just taking this pummeling 20 to hit on the second one?

20 to hit? I don't even think he can parry that away. No, he desperately tries to bring up his sword to try and block the hammer but it just... The strength of the force of the blow comes through. 20 damage. 20 points are down. And then I've got to make a deck save,

right? Yes, please. Deck saving throw. 20 points are down and then I gotta make a deck save right yes please saving throw that's a 2 plus 8 is 10 12 points of lightning damage okay so it's the lightning damage that as you kind of smack this guy twice some of the others probably are kind of like wait and then you just see

this lightning just and century you probably feel like a little tingle of it as you're still holding on to him um as ayla's lightning just blasts into him and you just watch him kind of like he like clutches his chest his eyes smoke and like bits of steam come out as you know internal juices boil and then he just falls dead in your arms he just goes limp he's just i think century would give ayla a nod like valkyrian dude like i i get it yeah that one's still alive we could we could kill him too

with that i will take you guys out of an as the immediate threat of these guys alerting anybody else is out um i am going to so you've been fighting in this room and these rooms aren't entirely soundproof um so the way that this is going to work is that uh i'm going to kind of keep like an alert level for the ship um and every time you guys do things that will slowly increase the alert level or decrease the alert level um and having fights even if you are even if you stop them calling out for guards, people might hear weird noises and they might tell somebody else, like, oh, did you hear that?

It sounded like somebody was shouting or like somebody, I thought I heard lightning coming from the teleportation room. That was weird and stuff like that. So I'm going to raise the alert level by one, just so you guys know, and I will keep a track of that. But that's kind of like meta knowledge. That's for the players, not the characters to know. But as characters, you might want to assume

that the sounds of fighting is not always a good thing to have going on. Yeah. Okay. And then, yeah, we drop out of initiative. So I hand it over to you guys now. At what point, what do you want to do? I haven't heard back from the wings of Ishtar. I did contact them, but I don't know where they are they haven't responded this isn't going so

great i'm panicking internalizing a lot of my anxieties right now good keep it bottled as much as possible please nova is there anything on that beta screen thing that says, if anyone heard us then? I don't... Can I look at the screen? Is there anything? Yeah, just make a straight-up intelligence check for me, Nova. So as you actually have time to properly analyze this device, this kind of magitek device that is connected to the teleportation circle, you can begin to see what other kind of thingsitek device uh that is connected to the teleportation circle you can begin to see what other kind of things it has 17 17 so examining this this this console it's very much a

kind of um you get the impression that its main function is to input runic sequences for the teleportation circle um sort of like a dial-up system of this rune, this rune, this rune, this rune to access different things. But there is a small readout that is more for administrative purposes. So there is an alarm feature built into it that you can raise a security alarm from this area if need be. The general administrative purposes, it's not like it's giving you a live feed of what's going on in the ship,

but you do see things that there is a scheduled shift change in about two hours. In about two hours, these guards are supposed to rotate with somebody else. You do see that there are things that are... There is a general... One thing you do notice is that there is a general alert state across the ship. There just seems to be a general alert state across the ship um there just seems to be a general kind of keep vigilant make sure you're you're anything suspicious call it out kind of thing uh that was posted several several days ago but it's kind of being repeated it's kind of

like a general message of of vigilance and and be aware um and stuff like that uh yeah and that's that's kind of it you see that there are like guard rotations there are things for like you know uh sleeping schedules um the only other thing that i think it would mention on there is that uh currently uh the lord emperor is not on the tassadar it does mention when he comes aboard and he is not currently on board the tessiton thank god does it does it say anything about when he was last on board or anything like that uh yes i think if you kind of scroll back through you kind of like end up getting the crystal slate and sort of moving through some of the pre-recorded messages and alerts um or like mess like kind of almost like message board postings almost they're like little alerts yeah uh The last time he would have been aboard

was about two, three weeks ago, I think. Two weeks ago, we'll say. He was aboard. And he remained on board for a few days and then he left. Sorry. I can't not think of like, like a Facebook group style,

like selling the latest data pad. 33 pounds. I will say it does seem to me that not every soldier can use this system. These messages are posted specifically by officers on the communications deck. So they are basically like, it's like a tannoy system almost but it comes recorded as like a physical message as well so these are like there will be somebody who is responsible for saying this is now happening this is you know this shift change is coming up and stuff official protocol okay cool um okay uh as far as I can tell, there's been no alerts raised.

There is a general warning that's been in place for a few weeks to keep vigilant. Also, Starbane's not here. He's not been here for a couple of weeks now. That's something. Yeah. The only other thing is there's going to be a shift change here in two hours. So in two hours, someone's going to come into this room and wonder about these. And I point down at the bodies.

Okay. This is a big ship. That's our deadline then. We have to be in and out within two hours. And I'm going to, Lucia's going to, you know, rummage through the lieutenant's clothing. Just like looking for anything useful. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely some useful stuff. He's wearing a kind of suit of almost like a suit of chain mail,

but it's made from these really fine kind of metal links. It looks very well made. Kind of underneath his uh his valkyrian empire uniform um has weapons has a scimitar has like this energy whip it's kind of like it looks you know it's almost got like a glowing sort of um you know cable uh connected to it uh has a hand crossbow uh there is a keystone uh there um the there it's kind of like connected on like a metal chain that wears around his waist and connects to a belt

very similar to the ones that you've seen in other you know the Zarkira's ship you've seen at the base at Shadowsong Pinnacle these keystones are used to activate magically sealed doors that can be accessed yeah that's kind of what you find the keystone we will call it a level

this would be a find the keystone. We will call it a level. This would be a level three keystone. Look, found this. Ah, it wouldn't be the first time I wore a full Valkyrian suit and buy a uniform. I could do it again just to at least give us a moment before combat. That'd be,

that'd be a really good idea. We could maybe, if we take some of these uniforms, if the wings of Ishtar aren't coming, could we teleport these bodies away somewhere? I don't know. At least that would buy us more time. We should definitely hide them.

If in two hours people come in here and see bodies, the alarm is immediately getting raised. So we should find a way to hide them. I should point out that Mr. Elinasto and I, this one is still alive. I did not wish to... Many of these soldiers are just... I understand that they are working for your enemy, but many of them, they are not necessarily bad people. I would prefer not to kill them if possible.

At least the regular guards. Some of the elite officers are perhaps more malicious in their intents, but this one I feel is not a bad person. So they are still a conscious. Would you suggest just the one that Lucius knocked out? Probably tie them up and, you know, with the mouth and all that. Stop them shouting out. I believe that Nova's plan to perhaps teleport them away may even be more advisable.

I'm not saying, I don't think we should send them back to Arois, but it may be that there is, perhaps you can find another entry, Miss Vija, in the logs of where, you know, a sequence that has been inputted and that we can send them okay i'll have a look i mean we'll probably need to send them somewhere quiet you know it'd be a bit bad if we sent them to another starbane location and they're like hey why is there an unconscious naked dude on my teleportation pad hey look it came from the tassadar oh there must be something weird going on the tassadar. It's probably not a party. This is true. This is true. I'll look.

I'll look. I'll look. Can I have a look and see if there's, like, any... Yeah, there's dozens. You know, very... You know, you don't recognize them. They're just runic sequences. You don't know where they go. You don't...

It's not like there's a name attached to it, like Elysium, Gideon Prime. It's just a sequence of runes. You have no idea where they go. Okay. Uh. Eh. It's a risk. It's a risky risk.

A very big risky. Bigger risk is us being discovered on this ship itself, so maybe teleportation is the best option. Also, this is lined. It's lovely stitchwork as well. It's very nice.

So, Lucius, you want to put on the lieutenant's uniform, yes? I wish to don the lieutenant's uniform. The lieutenant's uniform is different to the regular guards. The regular guards are wearing sort of like these leather... You've seen them before, like these leather one-piece with like pieces of patches of armor and stuff on them. Very sci-fi kind of Mass Effect style. The lieutenant's is much more like a military uniform with this kind of chain mail over, you know, underneath it. Basically, it's almost like a kind of, yeah, like a more regal tunic with a collar and stuff like that.

It's very identifiable. Cool. with a collar and stuff like that. It's very identifiable. Cool. I will put that on so long as it's not got any weird stains or blood marks or... There's definitely a little bit of damage to it just from the fight, but I think most of the damage wasn't... You can cover it up, you know, with a few cantrips and stuff like that.

You can easily sort of like... Edea can mending, so any cuts and things like that, Edea quickly is like stitching it back together with a mending cantrip um cleaning it off with the presentation and stuff like that thank you it looks worn it doesn't look brand new but it looks worn that's all right brother i think that um you need to be aware lucius if you're wearing this you'll need to act like one of these officers this isn't just a regular guard's uniform. You'll need to be quite persuasive. Much more forceful with your personality. Yes. I will.

We should also do something about your eyes. Yes, you can practice later, brother. I need to do something about his eyes. Does anyone have any ideas, ways that we could hide Lucius's eyes? I feel that they may give him away somewhat. Blindfolds? Any bandages?

Maybe, yeah, maybe fake an injury. Like a rudimentary eye patch, perhaps. If we cover up one, they would not know that they're two different colours. That would look more suitable. Yes. Perhaps the orange one is a bit, yes, visible. I was wondering about Arcanist's magic aura, but I don't think it's visual.

No, it just masks effects. I don't think it's, it's not like an illusion. It's like an actual effect. I don't think i have anything then i mean you can always cut off like a strip of fabric from yeah i mean temporarily and a part of like the the lieutenant previous lieutenants like under clothing or whatever uh or like if they're wearing anything under that chain or a sleeve that i can rip off probably got like a vest on right like they've probably got

like a basic vest over their body or something like that underneath their actual armor and uniform you could cut a piece of that off and try and use that yeah i'm soaked i'll put it diagonally over one eye and then have they got a hat like a lieutenant's hat uh for the sake of making this very star warsy yes they've got they've got, like, the Imperial officer kind of... The shiny visor. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Nice. I'm putting that on to help keep it in place as well. Sure.

What's my name? What's my name, everybody? Where am I from? Where am I from? What's, like, a Valkyrian name? Yes, Nova. It doesn't have names on it. i get it doesn't have names on this shift uh no it doesn't doesn't have names it just says it will say something like uh teleportation circle

guard group you know x and then they're being replaced by group zeta you know stuff like that it's all code phrased and things like that there's no no names uh yeah i don't think that they they don't have things like dog tags and stuff like that so yeah all right well nothing erosion guard group yeah x um uh quill any word from the wings anything still nothing i'm gonna contact them again. I will cast Sending again, another third level spell slot. Zelian, you bastard. And I will say, teleportation circle clear.

Tassadar still unaware. I wrote this down, by the way. It is 25. Remember, this is our only chance. We will proceed with or without you. Join us for this decisive attack. Okay. A few moments,

and there is a reply. I am sorry, Keelik. This is a painful decision, but if Zarkira knows of the plan, the risk is too great. You must leave now.

Is the response I told him what I'm gonna do I'm not gonna Rana looks at you Quill what did they say did you hear back from Zelian I did they're not

they're not joining us they told us to leave immediately I'm sorry what they told us to leave immediately. I'm saying what? They told us to leave immediately. I told him that we would proceed without him because we have to. We have to. Right?

We have to get Vala. We have to get her out of this ship. We have half the force we intended to have. Is it a good idea? Can you ask them to... Yeah, maybe... Can they teleport at least the uniforms? The bombs?

Can they at least teleport their equipment if they're not going to join us? The spell doesn't work that way. The spell, they can't teleport. They'd have to send people. Rana kind of looks... Rana! I am disappointed in Zelian, but i would be lying if i said that i

zelian operates a large network of agents across many many worlds he is very protective of all of them if he thinks that this mission has if he thinks that this mission will fail if he does not think that there is a chance to succeed he will not risk them he is too protective if he or any of his close circle were caught or captured it would give up hundreds thousands perhaps of other agents across other worlds i think that perhaps he agreed to this plan when he thought that an element of surprise would at least mean that they could get away if things went badly but if he suspects a trap then and what about you ron are you not a i owe you my life i owe you my life i will come with you if you still wish to remain here and rescue this girl i will come with you as far as i'm concerned i still have a debt to pay back to you, far greater than the one I owe Zelian and the Wings.

Whatever you wish to do, I am here. Do we run? There's significantly less of us, but we're here. We are here and we cleared this room. We've got a long way to go with significantly less than what we'd hoped. Do we think we have a chance? That worries me. It's Zarkira that worries me.

She could have set up anything here. She could come aboard this ship and mess everything up because she knows. Can we really take another fight with her? She hits hard. I mean, Starbane's not here. He hasn't been here for weeks. He didn't flee the ship a couple of days ago when Zarkira found out.

They could have put armies in this teleportation circle. But if Zarkira never told him, then what is there on the Tassadar to surprise us? Edea will kind of step forward. If I may, if I were this Zarkira and i knew of you coming or if i was this starbane and i knew that you would arrive that you had the specific sequence to this chamber i would not have left three guards to capture you i would have had a battalion waiting with rifles and weapons and agents and tricks ready for you to arrive. Even if they are aware that your intention is to come here, it seems to me, and I can only speak

as to if I were in this woman's place what I would do, I would have set a trap here now to capture you as soon as you arrived, when you are at your most vulnerable. To let you into the ship allows you a chance to escape, to influence, to hide. The best opportunity for her to strike would have been the second we arrived aboard the ship. If she has not done so, then there is a chance that either she is playing a greater game, and she has a far, she knows things that I do not, another reason, another way to entrap you, or that she has not informed the ship yet. That is my assumption on all of this. Sides, it's already too late.

Starbane's going to know we were here one way or another. Two guards are dead. The other one's still alive, and he'll tell someone at some point that we were here. Quill, I know this might be a bit of a stretch, but you're sending, you're messaging, you send to people. Are they aware that it's you, first of all? They can hear it's my voice, and they should be aware it's me. Can you change that can you alter

it to disguise yourself as far as you know there's no way to like change the sound of it there's no illusory component to sending now there's maybe a risk but you've seen that mind flayer before what if you sent them a message if it doesn't come back you know that that creature is dead it can choose not to respond and I would have as much information as that I could just use the eye um

you could also we could scry as not a as big a means as the eye on the mind flare yes uh I was thinking about this actually um as big a means as the eye. On the mind flayer? Yes. Uh, I was thinking about this, actually. Um, Zarkira, surely, in her army and primes,

would have someone that could cast Speak with Dead, even if the mind flayer was dead. I don't know. I feel like she would try and figure out what happened. I didn't think about that. Maybe we should just focus on the present, and that we're here, and that Valor is here. This is the closest we've ever been to her, and we should take this opportunity right now.

We're going to take the opportunity. I'm not... But to be safe, I have a loaded question. What does Zarkira intend to do with the knowledge she gleaned from the mind flayer's information it got from me in a simple way I had it in my head a lot quicker

what does Zarkira what is Zarkira doing with the information the mind flayer got from me sometimes Tom Hazel I regret giving you this eye because I have to fucking think of stuff uh right okay quill you summon the power of the eye and this is the first time you've attempted to use the eye since hesper is no longer with us. Good question. Does it work? There is a flicker.

The storm clouds form. They form slower and they are not as thick. Things are thinner, almost shifting. The clouds seem to change across different time days. You see sunlight,

but it does appear there is a flash of lightning but the vision is now hazier as if seen through crystal as if seen through glass frosted like that of a sarcophagus you once looked through

but something does you can see something you begin to see shapes But something does... You can see something. You begin to see shapes, and the vision begins to clear as you see Zarkira, this very beautifully, darkly beautiful, long, dark hair, red kind of robes, high collar, these bladed-like wings folded behind her

as she sits in a large chamber with windows that look out onto astral space. You see her in deep thought, no other soul around her. And for the first time you see her, she looks concerned. She looks doubtful. She looks contemplative she mutters a few things to herself but with this this filter you can't make it out what she's saying even with being able to

read lips you know that she's saying something but it's not quite there and then she steps forward and she moves to the glass and presses a hand up against it and looks out and in the distance from this this window that you can see you can see just this tiny red light very very far in the distance it must be millions of miles away and across the astral space but you do see this red light. And she places her hand upon the glass, and she thinks,

and out loud you do hear, Well, if it is a choice I must make, then better to negotiate what is best for me. She places her hand upon it, and she begins drawing runes across the glass. And you recognize this is a spell that she's crafting with the god being a cleric of the

god of magic and knowledge. It is a spell that allows Zarkira to contact another plane. Oh my god! And you see the red star just glow brighter for a second and then the vision ends oh my god so I said the question out loud and then I guess like the flash in my eye. Oh! Okay. Oh.

Oh. I see why you were worried about her learning the information now. Well. Hey. Oh my god. Just now? Just now. Oh my god, Tom. No.

It's a good thing that I know what makes you up anymore because I swear to god you were in the coffee chair so many times. Listen, I'm on the same page now. Anyway, okay, look. Good news. Zarkira is in contact

with Hadar. Bad news. Zarkira's in contact with Hadar. But the good news though... Best news I've heard all day, Quill. Best news ever. The good news is she is not using the information to contact Starbane about us

entering this place. That's good. Starbane has no idea. One thing I'm going to say I should have... This is something I want to make clear because it's also me thinking about doing this stuff on the spot. When the vision ends, it's not a clean ending. It's like you see enough and then the power fades. Maybe there was more, but you couldn't see it.

I only let you see a touch of what your question asked. Like, if that was, you get the sense that that was the most immediate things Akira did with the information. You're not 100% sure if there's more to it. Right. But. It gave me an answer, but not every answer. Yes.

There's definitely, you're beginning to sense that the eye has got more limitations now that hesper hesper's magic is being blocked like now that siasca isn't fully formed the eye isn't as uh reliable as it once was like you definitely think that what you saw was the truth and it was the first thing that zarkira did or at least the most important things zarkira did i will say perhaps um But there was definitely more that could potentially come from that question. Okay. Yeah. So still an answer, still intel, but a little bit more dubious now.

Her first thought on getting this information, which, by the way, she has now, we can confirm that, is to contact Hadar. Which, obviously, is bad. But not right now. Right now, that's good. She found out and she didn't use it to make this entire Tassadar infiltration

the worst. She might have. She still might have, though. It's what Mark's just said. Well, I mean, that's her first thought, right? Yeah, but she could have. The most important thing from the most important response

as well. If I were Sarkira, my second thought would be get Valor, because if she's turning against Starbane and aligning herself with Hadar, that's a powerful bargaining tool against Starbane. That's a way to control him.

So she could be... Then even more reason we must rescue this girl. Can you use the book to see where she is? Find out if she's on the ship. Uh, oh. I certainly hope so. Wayfinder's guide.

I don't know. Does locate creature work on... Oh, it worked on me, right? Of course it did. It does. Yeah, fine. I'll use, what is it? 4 out of 10 charges on me. I can't run the wrong ship. Wayfinder's guide. I got the wrong ship. Wayfinder's

guide. Go straight out the window. Cast Locate Creature. Locate Creature. Wait over there. The Tasedar. The Tasedar. She's already with Hadar. Shit.

Sorry. Quill, are you casting Locate Creature, yes? The taste Hadar. She's already with Hadar. Shit. Sorry. Quill, you're casting locate creature, yes? I am, yeah. It's concentration for one hour. Describe or name a creature that's familiar to you. Sense the direction to that creature's location as long as that creature is within a thousand feet of you. If the creature is moving, you know the direction to them.

Given where you guys are, I would say that currently, if she's here, she's out of range of this spell. She's not within 1,000 feet. It's a big ship. I mean, 1,000 feet isn't actually that much in terms of, like, it's 0.1 of a mile. And if this ship is massive, then that's probably not going to cover it. That sucks.

Huh. Okay. It does kind of suck. I agree that I think locate creature is a bit crap because its range is very, very small. Does that still use the... Do you want to homebrew the range? Does it still use the charges when you when you cast it uh i'll find out i believe yeah i believe so should do either way it doesn't work one fifth of a mile there you

go one fifth what 0.2 or something yeah i misread it it's it's yeah it's not it's not as far as perhaps you think it is and especially a ship the size of the Tassadar, you suspect that this ship is probably a good 3-4 thousand feet tip to bum. Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, yeah. Nothing

yet, but we are... Well, if you look at the blueprints of this place, we are probably the furthest we can be away from where we think she is. So we definitely need to get closer, but that involves actually proceeding with this plan,

which I think we should do. I'm in agreement. Me too. Okay. Maybe it's foolhardy recklessness, but I want valor back and well yeah i at least want to speak to tacitar then let's go let's not waste any more time let's put these

subdued people in hidden places and let's move on. Yeah, I'd say Moonstar's probably tied them up while you guys have been talking. She's got, you know, she's an officer vigilante type. She's got like manacles and stuff that she kind of, she's like cuffed all their hands behind their back and stuff. Well, the alive one, the dead one, she's just sort of done nothing. Putting the head back on.

Yeah, I think she would have pulled the uniform off the other guard and is currently in the process of putting that on herself so she's putting on the regular guard's uniform, so one of the lower guards she also points out that the two guards have their own keystones but they're only level 2 keystones and level, it seems that these guys can access, the regular guards can access the lower deck and the mid deck the officer's keystone can also access the the regular guards can access the lower deck and the mid deck the officer's keystone can also access the top deck um but not the bridge deck uh it looks like the keystones go

level one to level four um okay so there is uh potentially one more uniform um if you take off the other kind of normal guard. And then that's it. You're out. Those are the only uniforms you've got access to for now. Me and Sentry are not quite so easily disguisable being erosion, but I can shift us to another plane for a while to navigate the ship. Makes us pretty much undetectable.

Even in the elevators. What? Three of us. Including myself. I nominate Century at the very least, but it's a question of how everyone else wants to see the ship. I personally vote that Nova gets the other uniform

because her ability to get into the logs and the consoles get away with it easier in uniform. I can also alter my appearance as well and go invisible and shift to another plane. So you can look Valkyrian

in whatever way that means. Would there be Ganassi on this ship? Would there be Ganassi on this ship? Would there be Ganassi on this ship? I don't know. Ganassi are part of the Valkyrian Empire, so yeah. Rana will also say, if we can find a basic uniform, my celestial appearance won't be

too inconspicuous. There will be other celestials on the ship as well, of lower, angels of lesser power, or greater power as well. If we can find at least something for me to wear uh ayla here i honestly think that perhaps this other guard uniform if nova you can change your appearance even if that can't fool magical senses it's still better than

poor miss ada who will stick out like a bit of a splintered wood, I feel. I will put the other uniform on. While Aayla's changing, one thing to note, if you're thinking of using etherealness, people with true sight can still see you. So these

crazy generals that you were telling us about, they would still be able to see you. So these crazy generals that you were telling us about, they would still be able to see you. If we find them, they're going to be able to spot any of us. We just have to avoid them. Yeah. Alright. Either way.

Should we head towards... I think Ayla's going to braid her hair and put it in some kind of bun under the cap. Yeah well so the two guards have helmets they've got like more traditional kind of helmets um and then they've got like these leather kind of um yeah like sci-fi jumpsuits basically the lieutenant looks like an imperial officer and then the two guards look like uh you know star trek stormtroopers kind of thing a mix of star trek and stormtrooper merged together yeah like a hybrid uh you know star trek stormtroopers kind of thing a mix of star

trek and stormtrooper merged together yeah like a hybrid of like a star trek uniform and a storm trooper merged together basically um the the lucius is one looks like an imperial officer with a hat and stuff so like ayla and and adea currently have like these two helmets on they've got like these uniforms on um it looks like you can carry weapons it wouldn't be you know it wouldn't be unusual for guards to be walking around with their weapons and things like that so you guys have definitely got that covered um okay um so we've got adea lucius and ayla in uniform we've got quill and sentry uh traveling through another plane, although I can also make you invisible if you want. And then we've got Rana and myself. I can alter myself or I can make us invisible. Well, until I can find a uniform, I'll need something.

The etherealness or the invisibility, either way, I'll need something to hide myself. If we can get down into the crew quarters i it shouldn't be too hard to find uniforms at least for the regular guards or perhaps even officers if we can locate some of them um okay to me they may aid us the uniformed and ethereal folk i say we go to the crew quarters at least ahead of everybody else and try and get in and out with a uniform for you. Then we can rendezvous back at the elevator. I don't think we should split up too much

as a general note. Considering our way out of this is the book that we need to be around. Team Ethereal, we won't be able to help in any way if something goes wrong unless we end the spell. Speaking of, I can get one more person still.

Me and Sentry, I can still have one more. Take Rana. Rana, then. If you can take me, then Keeluk, yes. And then until we can locate something for me to disguise myself with, that seems best. Also, this is a dangerous strategy, and shut me down instantly if you want. If we're in this ethereal form we can move through walls, we can go through the entire

ship. Now that does mean only the ethereal ones of us can potentially just head straight to Kvala, but it does mean splitting. only the ethereal ones of us can potentially just head straight to Valor but it does mean splitting not to mention where Valor is is at the top where there's more security and true sight and

anti-magic fields and what not so be careful of that if you are planning that don't believe anti-magic could be useful perhaps quill it would be useful if we can move through solid objects perhaps we can scout ahead we can always make sure that the coast is clear for the others if you have a way of communicating still then at least that way we can give them a signal if something is happening or we can check for areas to hide rooms that are empty or Yes, maybe you scout ahead and towards the crew quarters for now.

I can messenger ring back and forth between us groups, so... Well, here's the thing. Your messenger rings won't work. They don't... Because the ethereal plane is a whole other plane, so you technically are not on the same plane of existence. No. So the messenger rings won't work.

So does message work? Because it doesn't actually say anything about different planes, as long as I can see them. And I can, technically. Then, in theory, it should still work. We'll find out, won't we, Quill? Okay, either way... Is it a concentration spell? Message? Message, no.

I just have to see them within a range of 120 locate creature is concentration though so if you ethereal you will lose the locate creature spell that's fine that's when papa quill comes out i can cast locate creature if

need be that's true sweet all right you guys be ghostly scouts and we'll head towards the elevator l2 okay so you guys you guys have got the little map here um if you guys want to kind of draw me the route that you would like to initially take so because you guys can like pull this out before you go ethereal like you can say right this is is the path. We're going to go to this area via this elevator, and then this is what we're going to do. So the current plan, as I understand it,

is go to the crew quarters and then find additional uniforms or additional IDs or something like that for you to do. If you guys keep doing stuff like that, I'm going to be like, okay, cool, I'm just going to start rolling random encounters then for this ridiculous route you're taking. We're going to go with your fun. Ethereals, show us the route you're scouting first. The Ethereals are going to go up

into the four mid deck, down the L2 elevator, and into the crew quarters. Okay. Alright. And yeah. Rana will probably say say I know did you still wish to try and disable the Tassadar as the wings initially planned

or do we wish to just focus on your own objectives the Tassadar and this girl is there any still any intention to try and destroy the Tassadar I believe that rests entirely on our communication with Tassadar right Nova I believe that rests entirely on our communication with Tassadar.

Right, Nova? Very well. If there's no... It's a secondary objective. It's not the top priority right now. We're going to have to improvise on the fly. Like we're secondary to the Wings of Ishtar. Yeah, kind of are. All right.

Okay, so in that case uh yeah quill are you going to cast etherealness i will cast etherealness and swoop me century and rana okay and because i don't want to be an unfair dm you guys did say that you wanted to try and hide um the dead guards and the unconscious guard now there isn't really anywhere to hide them in this space um you could try and hide um the dead guards and the unconscious guard now there isn't really anywhere to hide them in this space um you could try and like put them to the sides of the doors so if the doors open if somebody looked inside they wouldn't initially see them but the second anybody comes in they would obviously turn around and see dead bodies in the corners um but there's no way really to hide them there's no hitman style bins in here to be like what's in um yeah i know shocking no convenient man-sized bins to put bodies in um

oh man no shoots do you just want to just kind of like shove them in the corners and just try and be done before anybody comes in or are you gonna what do you want to do fifth level spell to teleport yeah that that's what i was thinking yeah it does want to do? It's a fifth level spell to teleport. Yeah,

that's what I was thinking. Does it kind of suck to do that? Does it not activate? You do. You still need to have somebody who can cast a spell to activate the teleportation circle, yeah. Just bung him in the corner. Bung him in the corner. Alright, okay. I'll just put like a

little note to myself on this. Bunged. Guard's bunged right now. I'll just put like a little note to myself on this bonged guards bonged right now and now they're bonged alright okay so when quill you cast the ethereum on yourself sentry and ran a sentry and quill

you both experience this kind of thing as the spell kind of spreads over your body sentryry and Quill, you feel this intense cold. Like, you no longer can feel... You realize, as your body begins to change, there were, like, tiny air vibrations. Things like the sounds of the ship,

the sounds of your friend speaking. As soon as you enter through it, it's like it all cuts off. You enter a space that is... your skin feels cold to the touch. The sound and the world around you, you can only assume that this is what spirits must feel like. You can see the outline of the ship. You can see the outline of your friends, but it's all muffled and gray and wispy.

It's almost like it's all made from smoke and mist barely tangible really to gather together the three of you are the only things that look real the only things that look you can reach out and touch you sense that your body no longer obeys the laws of things like gravity or weight you can just will you have to think where you want to go moving your arms moving your legs does nothing trying to fly quill with your wings does nothing here in this space you move by thinking go this way and your body kind of begins to just drift through the space itself you can see renna seems to be a little bit more adept at it she immediately kind of helps guide you through to start moving and things like that um but yeah it kind of takes a second to get used to and in the

spell does it say anything about being able to see and hear i can't remember uh yes uh everything looks gray uh and you can't see anything more than 60 feet away um and rules for centuries benefit uh is that we can move at ordinary speed but if we move up and down it costs an extra foot for every so it's twice so it's 15 feet around kind of thing yeah half speed up and down

but we can just go through stuff and we can't interact with anything it's just like trying to touch mist it's just like your hand just goes through it and it reforms immediately afterwards um even your companions uh so yeah you guys begin drifting away so while as soon as they cast a spell by the way to those of you who don't have a theranos they vanish like they're invisible they just vanish from the world you just see them kind of turn translucent and then they're gone. Wow. What's the plan?

I assume we'll wait for the okay from those. How are they going to give us an okay? They're on a different plane. They'll have to come out of the plane to tell us that we're okay. They said there's something about a message. I trust in Quill's ability he thought this through let's just wait here so is the plan you guys are going to stay in the teleportation circle chamber until they come back yeah until we hear from them at all okay all right uh ethereal crew

you float your way through the mid deck um you could you just want to try and like go through the floors or do you just go along until you can see something that looks like the the magitek lifts and then go down those are you going to try and stick to stuff that you can see or are you just going to start trying to float through walls that you don't know where they lead uh i mean based on our memory of the blueprints i guess we'll try and yeah make our way to the four mid deck time saving do we go with time saving through walls or follow the route properly it's like no clipping it's like no clipping it really is

you can't see you can only see like yeah you know 60 feet in front of you so you're like i don't know where we're going mystery no clip yeah i think it's best to take it safe yeah go take it safe okay yeah actually follow the rooms right so yeah on the blueprint by the way if a room is below something that doesn't necessarily mean you have

to go up it sometimes means that it's just like an adjacent room rather than it being actually lower than that you guys make your way through the corridor and immediately kind of stepping out onto the mid deck uh you realize man there's guards pretty close to the teleportation chamber. Like you can see that stationed at every major bulkhead, there is at least a couple of guards. Sometimes there's just groups of them in the corridors having a chat. It just looks like they're kind of like talking about business, you know, discussing kind of personal matters, sometimes like, you know, matters of military matters. But you just pass through them. And this is a very busy ship it's a case of you

can't just like walk through in its empty corridors there's pretty much somebody at every major junction or every major doorway um going about something you see all sorts of different rooms you can see sort of like uh armories you can see barracks you can see uh maintenance bays all of this kind of stuff as you're making your way down. When you reach the Magitek lifts, you can see that at each of those, there is two guards basically checking keystones and things like that. You make your way down. And then when you enter the lower decks, things become a little bit more chaotic. All of these, the corridors down here, unlike these pristine black and metal corridors

of the mid deck that you saw above and you've seen on zarkira ship and things like that these kind of sleek metal sci-fi things down here it's a lot more chaotic there are these kind of thick uh almost like copper pipes um that kind of like line the ceilings and the walls um you can see that there are steam like vents of like hot air that seem to erupt in you see sections that are almost uh there's uh like flames like hellfire is literally like burning out of like one of these like vents like just scouts of it coming loose uh and coming and going at all sorts of different you know you see engineers in like overalls dirty overalls with like magitek tools and things sticking out their pockets and you

know all covered in like uh soot and blast marks from being in some sort of hot environment you see soldiers in normal gear coming and going and eventually you make your way into a section which has been cleaned up a little bit more the walls there's no vents there's no hot steam blasting you go back to the kind of crystalline black frame of the rest of the ship and here you can find that there are dozens of small bunks, you know, set aside to about four or five individuals each one, but there are dozens of them. Judging by these crew quarters, there must be at least sort of 200, 300 soldiers aboard the ship,

along with all sorts of, you can see constructs. There are whole bays, like these giant cargo bays down here, and there's just racks and racks and racks of automatons not guardians these look much more like the things you fought before basically kind of yeah like golems uh there's no organic elements to them there's no sentience to them they just hang up like they're puppet dolls uh these long limbs with clawed hands, all painted in black and purple, just kind of hanging there. Hundreds of them in these corridor bays.

You definitely see some which are much larger. They look to be, you know, hulking sort of 12 feet, 13 foot tall machines. Some of them look like they have like chest cavities where somebody sits inside them and they're all kind of like prepped up and ready to go. You see all like some of those those the vehicles that you've seen behind. Like this is a warship and it is prepared for a war.

Checking down here, you don't see signs of any. Most of the soldiers you come across are Ganasi uh humans orcs um eladrin fey creatures you don't see any like elite angels you don't see any elite looking devils you don't see anybody that would nobody seems to recognize you as you're moving around um this area seems for the most part fairly clear any questions as you've been making your way through the constructs do they look do they have like a similar looking construction to like the colossus blueprint um not they're humanoid in shape so they've kind of got like a human shape like the colossus did but not a not a similar design these things look a lot simpler um okay and there's you know they're clearly you know they've got uh basic framework bodies you

know that they they seem to not have like any inbuilt magitek or anything like that they are literally just like robots you know they're literally like lifeless automatons um because the colossus is i mean looking at the schematics for that that thing had like energy cannons and it had like compartments for troops to hide in and stuff like that you know it was incredibly technical um these things look yeah more like uh almost like animated suits of armor or like something like that kind of thing but produced on a mass scale please tom right um so yeah they're fighting in the teleportation circle that didn't attract any guards it's just people talking casually just living life yeah so far you don't you don't

think that anybody's um under any sort of alert the ship definitely does have an air of being on edge like you said like moving through the mid deck, there was a lot more security. When you get into the lower deck, not so much. There's a lot of people here. So moving around and being suspicious would be potentially very dangerous because there's a lot of people to notice you. But it's a lot more relaxed down here. The only place it gets much more heavily secured is by what you assume to be some sort of entrance to the elemental engines. You can see these large hulking automatons and, you know, sentient guards checking everybody coming and going and things like that.

It seems a lot more heavily locked down, but the crew quarters and the lower decks, much, much less security. The mid deck, a lot of security. Okay. Sentry,

we need to go back and tell them what we've seen. Also, the plan, I guess they just mingle. They just mingle among the Tassadar crew. I'm pretty sure they could blend in, right? Looks like the kind of place someone could blend in. Lots of... Yeah, for sure. Aayla's a mingler. ...fingraces and creatures and this will be fine it'll be fine hmm okay

alright okay let's head back get in contact with them have them follow us within the range of message and we'll lead them through

okay alright you scoot back uh I'd say that in terms of time because how long does ethereal last one hour

eight eight hours okay yeah in that case I'm not even in terms of time, because how long does Ethereal last? One hour? Eight. Eight hours. Okay. Yeah. In that case, I'm not even going to bother tracking time because you really don't need to worry about that. Yeah. You guys make your way back to the chamber.

Do you want to go the safe route again or do you want to try and cut through the actual kind of like walls and hull of the ship itself? Maybe with some tracking ability because i'm a cool bird who knows everything i know the exact route that i took to get here and therefore the exact route to bypass with shortcuts straight line as the aracocra flies through the ship you lead the others through that and yeah you start going through sections of wall moving through the ship you lead the others through that and yeah you start going through sections of all moving through the crystalline black metal is very disconcerting because unlike moving through

the air where you feel nothing as soon as you pass through this kind of magical crystal resin and whatever they make these ships out of it feels like you're moving through something it's almost like trying to move through viscous liquid like you can move through it but you feel something like touching you and coating you as you do so it it feels like trying to swim through dense magic you know you almost get the sensation that you're pushing through layers of very powerful magic here but you do it one thing you notice quill um is uh beneath the running along the four mid deck between the mid deck and the lower deck uh there is in fact um small cavities that seem to uh be almost like

um chambers that you can move through like so maintenance hatches and things like that because there are sections of the ship where like magical repairs need to be done and things need to be tweaked and added and bolted to and things like that um and these uh seem to run underneath the teleportation circle they run all the way a bit further along and they lead to the magitek lifts as well now the magitek lifts it's not like a modern day elevator where it's a sealed container it's just a platform that goes up and down so there are along the wall you can see these hatchets um that you know lead into these maintenance things now you could stop these magitek lifts you know next to one of these things and climb in and climb out and stuff like that but uh they do connect to it so if somebody

was trying to come through one of these they would have to kind of almost jump across the elevator shaft to get to the next one um right you know the hard way he's climbing down and has to jump across kind of thing is there any access to this vent from the teleportation circle so when you when you come up into the room you kind of follow this this chamber along and yes there is At the very back of the room, and it's beneath like a solid metal piece of floor paneling, so unless you were actively looking and investigating the room for it, you wouldn't have found it. But yeah, you can see that there is this kind of like little tunnel almost.

It's a squeeze. Even Sentry in her normal form, no way could Sentry crawl down this thing. She'd be too big this is a tight space for sure I mean that bypasses the mid deck sounds like a good idea to me I can go really small

you don't need to we're ethereal remember you can't sentry if it's from the prime matrix it's only enlarged on the prime matrix it's only big big only prime matrix no's only big big only i think i put that in an old edition of the the thing but i might have deleted that out of it but it is in large only nice okay uh well i'll try message and i will send a message to ayla uh this corner of the room, there is a vent. Please tell me you can

hear me. Just nod if you can. Okay, good. You can hear him. You can. I'm going to say that if it doesn't specify... Okay. This corner of the room... I'm going to walk to a random corner and point at it.

Over here. No, this is the other one. The other corner... Point at it. Over here. Wrong corner. No, it's the other one. The other corner. I'm going to go to a different corner and point at it. Right, yes. Yes, down here. No, not that one then. Not that one.

I'll go to another corner and point at it. That one's the right one. Oh my God. Okay, yes. She got it on the third try. This corner? There's a vent below you.

It will bypass the mid-deck where there is a lot of security. If you open this vent up, it will take you straight to the elevators, and then you can get down to the crew quarters. Now, I'm going to send a message to Lucius. Lucius, there are a lot of crew here.

They are just not here, not in the teleportation circle in the crew quarters. Now, you will need to exercise your charisma and ability to mingle. I'm sending this message to you, not to Ayla. Mingle. Mingle. In the Tassadar. Mingle.

Right. You mean avoid people. Don't actively interact with them. Just look like you belong here. Right? Right. Right. So, as you're doing that, that Ayla you come over to this corner that Quill said was right what do you do can I check you see you like a metal

yeah you can make an investigation check you know like trying to search like rummage around Ayla's fucking really good at this almost like somebody else would be a really good choice for this It's a vent to pull open right 11? You're looking around it all just looks like a metal floor you don't you don't see any sign of a vent

I don't know what he's talking about It's just a floor I'm going to end the message with Lucius Oh for the love of message to Nova Nova I need you to come the message with Lucius with, oh, for the love of message to Nova. Nova? What? I need you to come over here and... Ah, he's in my head.

Where Ayla is, there is a vent. Please find it for her so she can open the thing. I mean... There's not a vent. Maybe there's a way to open it. On the console. Can I check the console first and see if there's a mention of vent controls or anything?

Yeah, I think that that makes sense, right? It's buried. You have to go into pressing a few of these crystals. It brings up these different symbols, and one of them is... You think it's maybe like a converted elvish rune for repair. You're like, oh, maybe, and you touch that. And there is a faint popping hiss. And A, there's a section of the floor that you were like looking at

and turned away from kind of just pops up a little bit just like an inch it's just like girl left me a very important message about mingling with a crew but I just have no idea where to oh where to go I don't think

we should mingle with people I think we should just hide are valkyrian soldiers very talkative I don't think we should mingle with people. I think we should just... Hide? Are Valkyrian soldiers very talkative? No, I think we should just... Those two were. Just the indifferent ones. Speaking of...

Looking down into this little tunnel, if Ayla does pop it open, by the way, it is very small. So basically any of you, because none of you are small creatures, you would have to squeeze through it. There are like jagged sections of metal and crystal. There are, you can see like steam and things like that.

The uniforms you wear will get pretty wrecked if you try and crawl through these. Oh, okay. Can we, is it big enough to stuff their bodies down there? Oh, good idea. You could certainly try that. Can I do that? I'll do that. Sure.

What are they doing? What is this place? Cramming? Oh my god. How are they moving their arms? What? How are they putting their arms up like this? Oh my god.

I'll give it a go. Okay, yeah, I'll do that. I don't think shoulders are supposed to bend that way. Okay, I can't watch. They're not going down that way. If Ayla can't get the last one in, she's just stamping on it, you know? Like, really.

Is that the unconscious one? Let me see if he wakes up. No, no, not the unconscious one. Let me just like stamping on it you know like really the unconscious one let me see if i'm assuming you put the unconscious one in there safely and then you stamp on a dead one uh i don't think yeah i'm looking around at the doors just like pretending that it's not happening he's like wedged in between two dead bodies in this like tiny space. I really should have just killed that guy. I'm so sorry. Should I just like... No.

No. Why? There's something rather immoral about killing an unconscious guy. But then he's going to wake up and be very traumatized. Sentry, I always wished to see what it'd be like to see everything from the outside perspective this is the worst this is the worst i understand i understand now i've

seen everything okay nova uh i honestly that wasn't the plan you were kind of meant to slip through that and just go straight to the elevator but but okay. Body's hidden. That does mean you will now have to go through the mid-deck, which is full of security and it means even more mingling. Quill's criticising our plan. Quill's criticising our plan. He thinks that we did a stupid thing and we should have listened. I'm sorry, but

I can't fit down there. It's tiny. We're going to have to go through the mid-deck. Hopefully there's no one there. Nova, you just make us invisible. It's tiny We're going to have to go through the mid deck Hopefully there's no one there Nova You just make us invisible Reiterate what I just said please He's shouting at me now

He's shouting a lot I can hear Century laughing in the background though That's a waste of a message It's like discourse I know What are they doing and he's shouting a lot about the fact... It's like Discord. I know. Quill's just got it on my voice. He's like, what are they doing?

He's shouting a lot about how the mid-deck is very busy. It's very busy. There's a lot of people there. It's really busy. It's very busy. That's why he wanted

to go through the vents. But I don't think there's any way he was getting through the vents, especially without ruining her uniform. Her uniforms would be ruined if we went through i've got an idea oh yes i i can go invisible um i was only why do you just make us all advise that

well will we not advise that the the magitek lifts have sensors that detect invisibility. Probably. I believe that Kilek did tell us that. Do we even need to go down there? Do we need to go down there? Because Val is not down there, right?

Yeah, but if you can go invisible and point to there. Edea brings out, she sketched her own version of the layout, right? Because this is Edea, so she would absolutely have drawn her own schematics.

The difficulty, if I remember from the schematics that Nova had, if we travel through this foredeck, we have to go down in this lift, this Magitek device. Otherwise, we must pass through security checkpoint which my understanding is is that that would be difficult uh to pass ourselves off we would need

to pass through now we do have a keystone we do have the uniforms to do so um but if they have sensors if they have people that can see through illusions they may detect misnomer but also this would be very reliant on lucius's ability to lie and convince others. Now, perhaps that is still possible, but that is a greater risk. I believe that Mr. Kelek wants us to go down where things will be less secure, but we will have to navigate these anti-invisibility sensors in some way. Well, we don't have to necessarily. We're not invisible, so we're in uniform. We can go in some way. Well, we don't have to necessarily... We're not invisible, so

we're in uniform. We can go in the elevator. Miss Nova is not, brother. Ah. And if she uses a magical disguise, we encounter the same problem. I've got an idea. I thought someone was going to get me a uniform. Yes. I've got an idea.

Yes, but that leaves you on your own, stranded, while other people go and wrestle a guard. We'll bring someone from the four-mid deck into here to check on the maintenance of the door that's not working properly. And then, boom, we take the uniform. If there's someone on their own... I'll go as a lieutenant and look for somebody that's on their own

I think that Lucius could pull that off I think that is something he's capable of Unless he's wearing a bear uniform He's had good skills with people The problem is that the ethereal ones who are ethereal can't gather them they can't bring them to us no you would have to fetch them for

Nova we can yes we that means leaving over on her own as you mentioned if you unsquish the bodies I could go through the vents on my own and go invisible at the Krug wet deck find myself uniform uniform, crew up, wait. That is true. We could attempt that as well. Stuff. You have a choice, Nova. Make that choice in five, four, three, two. I'm going to the mid deck.

And we're going to take a break. Oh, my God. And it's break time. Break time. Yeah. It's a classic High rollers plan It's the best We are the worst

All of us in ethereal form Just putting our hands around people's necks To be fair Do you not feel that? You're not helping that much It's cold around my neck I've got a chill Somebody's touching me from beyond the grave I love it. I don't feel that. You're not helping that much. It's cold around my neck. I've got a chill.

Somebody's touching me from beyond the grave. Yeah.