High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #116 | The Darkness Inside (Part 1)

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

We continue the battle against the Dominators and Sentry attempts to return their souls to the Prime Matrix! Go to http://manscaped.com and use code HIGHROLLERS to get 20% off. 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. June 2024. Find out what makes Mazda different at Mazda.ca. It's new, it's blue, and it was made for you. Introducing the thirst-quenching Summer Berry Starbucks Refreshers Beverage, where natural berry flavors meet juicy bursts of raspberry-flavored pearls. It's our most blue-to-full drink yet, so try it while you can, only at Starbucks. most beautiful drink yet. So try it while you can. Only at Starbucks. Hello, welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois. We're sponsored by D&D Beyond, the ultimate online D&D toolset for both players and DMs. Make your dungeon-delving life a million times easier with D&D Beyond using the link in the episode description. Hello and welcome back to Aroes. Last time on Eroes, after returning from rescuing Valar with plans to head to the City of Glass to aid the gathered Guardians, Sentry was lured out into Horizon Streets and confronted by a group of corrupted Guardians who now call

themselves Dominators and into battle. The three foes had proven to be dangerous adversaries, and whilst one of them has been defeated, the storm chasers have taken significant damage and their opponents show no sign of stopping. Last week's episode was cut short due to a power cut. For those not in the know, Trot does run the streams and has all the software overlays, music, etc. But we are working on ways to make sure this doesn't happen again. Thank you for sticking with us through the shorter episode last week.

And we jump back in to the battle to set the scene. We are currently in a darkened street on Horizon. There are a few lanterns offering light nearby. And a couple of the houses seem to have lights. And you have heard some very nervous movement coming from within. People hurriedly trying to get out of the way of windows and doors

in case the fighting escalates there. We currently have Aayla, Sentry, and Quill all surrounding this large armored commander-like figure who's been issuing orders and tactics to his companions he is currently being affected by a slow spell that was uh cast by nova and has dramatically prevented him from being able to uh attack uh en masse one of the uh dominators these corrupted guardians is dead um having been destroyed by Aayla and Lucius as well. A combination of might and magic.

However, in some more concerning situations, one of these Dominators, this kind of ninja-like assassin that sped over the rooftops and clambered along the walls, has managed to heavily injure Nova, who has had to retreat into the ethereal plane and has backed away in a ghostly form but has now left the sort of Lucius undefended and also open to this mysterious stalker, this dominator stalker to now come and aid in the battle against the commander. I basically went back and made sure I tracked all the damage and the initiatives. And I can tell you that we are going to be,

this is only like turn three, by the way. So about 18 seconds of turn four, 18, 20 seconds have passed. So there is no sign of guards like coming to help or anything like that. You guys are on your own because this is happening so quickly, even like shouts and calls and things like that,

their guards aren't going to arrive for some time. Keelik, Nova, I'm assuming you've moved away because we basically went through your turn last time you cast Ethereonist and you've moved away. There's not really much more you can do. You are still maintaining concentration on Slow in the Ethereal Plane. That's one of the nice things that you can maintain

concentration on spells. There's no real way for them to hurt you in the Ethereal Plane It's one of the nice things that you can maintain concentration on spells. There's no real way for them to hurt you in the ethereal plane, so that's still active. Just emotionally. Just as a little bit of housekeeping, I will tell you the commander still has two legendary actions left to use.

Still has two uses of their reroll saving throw ability as well. And damage-wise, the commander is looking pretty beaten up, like heavily, you know, they've got big dents in their armor from Aayla's weapon sentry, and the magic of Lucius have both caused some damage to his armor. But still standing, still looks to be very sturdy. The stalker figure, when you look over Lucius,

really doesn't seem that injured. A little bit of damage, but nowhere near to the same extent as the others. Okay. We've only pulled off a couple of spells on him at the moment, haven't we? Yes, that's exactly it. We've focused on the commander as well.

Yes. Speaking of the commander, the commander is... Hmm. ...is going to use two of his legendary actions at the end of Nova's turn. And he's going to attempt to use Frightened Foe, which as they kind of roar,

they let out this kind of almost like wailing screech and their body begins to pulse red. The vine-like tendrils all around them try and reach out and grab on whoever they can. I need Sentry, Quill, and Ayla to make saving throws against being frightened. Sentry, I don't know if you are immune to being frightened now because I can't remember paladin stuff.

Okay, so you don't need to make the saving throw. Ayla and Quill is a wisdom saving throw. I'm, so I'm... Oh, Aura of Courage. None of them can be frightened. There we go. What's the range of it? Ten feet? There you go. So none of them are affected by it. So you just... it's almost like a kind of reaction to it.

You know, Sentry's own matrix glows and it just seems to almost kind of cancel out this kind of aura of fear being projected out from the commander. Wow. Thank you, Sentry, because that was a three. That would have been very bad. Very nice. Quill.

So I had it in my mind that my beacon of hope, I don't have any more. You don't have anymore don't have nope you lost it you took you took like 40 odd points of damage and you failed the concentration yeah and as for helping me out and I guess also updating from where we were last time how's everyone's health looking ah two other things I'm gonna point out both century and Ayla cannot regain hit points until the commander's next turn. Yes.

You're both affected by his draining blade. Cool. Hey, Lucius, how you doing? Great. Hey, okay. Hey, Ayla, how you doing? Well, I can't regain, but I'm okay. Sentry, how you doing? Taking some hits. I can't regain, but okay. Sentry, how are you doing? Taking some hits.

I can't regain, but I'm just... About half. About half. Hey, Nova, you're looking pretty bad here. I'm a spooky ghost. I'm a spooky ghost. I'm a spooky ghost. Woo!

Meanwhile, I'm about half as well. Right, so for my turn, I want to Shocking Grasp this boy. Okay. So with a plus 9, I get a 20 to hit him. Will hit, yes. The Slow spell, helping... Basically, you can see just about to go out of your reach, but the Slow spell slows him down long enough to grab. Well, with 3d8 damage, I do 5 damage.

Excellent. 5 points of damage every little uh oh i had advantage if he's made of metal and he is but i've got it anyway um i guess i could aim for a crit didn't get it uh so he can't take reactions uh until the start of his next turn and i want to use that anyway because of the slow spell oh great well either way i'm gonna back up from him to about uh it's still in range of sentry but away from him uh and then use a bonus action to heal myself uh with thingy you know that one bonus action heal word healing word yes uh so i'll do 3d4 plus six boom oh god okay uh 13 healing to myself it's all right okay nice uh we'll go to century uh then um it's the order is century the stalker will go then it will be Lucius So try to have a plan of what you want to do, but keep in mind. There's a monster before you century

Just a quick question if I use misty step does that provoke opportunity attacks? It doesn't and currently the commander can't take reactions because he's a slowed and quill just you shocking grasp anyway So even if he was a side he would be able to because he's a slowed and Quill just used Shock and Grasp anyway, so even if he wasn't slowed, he wouldn't be able to. But yeah, Misty Step teleporting doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. Cool beans. I will try and smack this dude twice, and then I'll try and get out of his way.

That's the plan. Let's rock and roll. First roll is an unnatural 20 to hit. That will hit. Yeah, this one, again, that slow spell just causing his defenses to be low enough for these strikes to actually hit. Otherwise these would be hitting, well,

they would still be hitting, they'd be hitting his AC just barely. I'm going to do a level 3 Divine Smite on this boy. So that'll be 5d8. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam! Plus the 5. I don't know why, but for a second there I was like, I remember when Rhi was new. Listen to her now.

Oh, unnatural 20. Level 3 divine smile, I'm so proud! 4 plus 5 is 29 damage for the first one. 29 points of damage. Heavy blow as Her Majesty's Rose comes crashing down, tearing through the metal and stone plates. Sweet. And then I'll go again.

So that is a 27 to hit for the next one. Luck has shifted. Luck has shifted this week. It's very good. I'm going to do another level 3 on this guy. It's very good. Wow! I'm going to do another level three on this guy. So another five. 23 again, plus the d4.

23, 24, 29 again. Exactly the same. Oh, man. Nine points damage. Two heavy blows. The radiant light of Sentry's Matrix kind of glowing as each strike hits. As the blinding light, you can see this commander is heavily injured now, these two blows having torn chunks of stone and metal plate armor away from them.

I've just moved a couple of feet back just to get out of his range for the time being. All right, perfect. Everything on your turn, Duncentry? Yeah. That's it, thank you. Leaping, in fact, actually. Yeah, I think the commander will actually call out

and just say, Stalker, get over here and help me! And you just see kind of like running up the wall and onto the roof of this nearby building, this arm bladed dominator will come running 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, just about managing to get in range. What's up, Tom? It's like an XCOM when you get a commander

to run in one place and they take the roof and it's like, that's not quicker. It's not quicker. It is quicker. This guy has a climbing speed. He's quicker. It's cooler. He jumps down,

his arm blade's flashing out. Actually, can somebody roll a D6 for me? Let's say Tom, roll a d6 for me, please. Oh, okay. See if these vents, these poison vents... That is a five. Does not recharge. The vent's still kind of smoldering with smoke. However, this thing is going to land down beside Ayla

and it's going to... Two strikes in your direction Ayla aiming for your vital spots to try and score a blow it's gonna be a 22 on the first one yep yep this is gonna be with the sneak attack and then I need you to make a con save so I'll do all the physical damage first because we're gonna half that for you and then sneak attack damage so it's gonna be 32 so 16 regular damage and then a con saving throw please uh eight plus nine can't say high yeah uh so you feel again like this draining uh energy trying to suck the life out of you um but it doesn't you manage to kind of like shrug it off or like knock the creature away before this this uh draining effect can fully take place. That was its first hit, it's gonna make a second attack against you for a 20 to hit. Yep. No sneak attack on this one, because it can

only do it once per turn on its turn. So that's gonna be 10, half to 5, and then another con saving throw please. That is 19, rolled a 10. 19, again same thing, tries to kind of drain this life out of you, but doesn't quite manage. But you can see it's now trying to kind of keep you occupied, trying to take down this biggest threat to the commander that it can see. Lucius.

Lucius is going to do just some sorcery management with his bonus action. I'm just some sorcery management with his bonus action. So he's going to expend a level two to get two sorcery points. He's then going to cast Chromatic Orb and twin it, hitting both the stalker and the commander. Please. Excellent. Let's start with the stalker.

So two individual attacks. Yep. Stalker first. Level three. Here we go. First one. Ooh, I keep forgetting about this ability because he's not often attacked. You actually have disadvantage to attack him.

So you can see that this darkened frame, there is like a slight shimmering to the air around it. 17 is the lowest. 17 is still going to be a hit, though. Just barely. Even though there's this kind of shimmering field, the orb of magic manages to strike uh properly do the damage for him first then so that is 22 acid it's one

damage roll so we remember 22 damage for this one and now you roll um second attack sure so 22 is that cold or acid did you say acid it's only 14 for the second one, so the commander misses. The commander manages to kind of bring up the greatsword and kind of block the acid from striking. For visual, because I'm behind sentries like in the middle of these two, essentially I'm using both hands to like whiz them past sentries' head. Smash into them. Both come smashing in. The stalker kind of caught off guard, maybe not expecting it,

but the commander readies this blade and it kind of splashes not quite striking home um anything else lucius i've done my bonus action meta magics so i'm good okay all right uh at the at the end of your turn the commander is going to use his last legendary action uh to use um does he want thingy to attack yeah technically I'd get another sneak attack because it wouldn't be on his turn yeah he's going to command the stalker to make another attack against Ayla desperately trying to

get Ayla down so he can get away so the stalker will make an attack with advantage against Ayla so that's currently is a 19 but the heist is actually going to be a 25 ailer yep and then with the sneak attack oh that's a very low damage there the very high sneak attack so it's gonna be 33 half to 16 again and then another con

save please hmm interesting 13 plus 9. Yeah, it's just, I think you basically have to roll less than a 5 for this secondary effect. But yeah, manages to kind of like, again, while you're kind of twisting between the two foes, this arm blade of this ninja-like stalker just cuts a visible part of your body, maybe cutting into the waist or the ab muscles as it does so. Then it's the commander's turn. That was at the end of Lucius's turn. Commander's turn, the draining effect on Sentry and Aayla ends.

He is just going to make an attack against Aayla because he's only got the one attack that he can do at the moment. Oh, at the start of his turn, Aayla, you take five, sorry, 10 necrotic damage because all of these red vines, these kind of like this red mist that's exuding from you is going to drain your energy and he heals a small amount as well. Luckily, Quill and Sentry both moved away out of that aura.

Otherwise, he would have been hitting all three of you doing that. So that's at the start. Then he's just going to try and attack ayla because it's the only target and he's slowed he can't really do anything else um so this is with his draining blade one attack at 24 yep and then i need to remember that you don't have reactions where you can do stuff whereas the other guys do so only 14 damage so seven but again can't regain hit points i can't heal and i'm pretty heal yeah that's the tactic especially against a big target like you um and that's gonna be it uh he can't do anything else so it's just a wisdom

saving throw against the slow um 14 i'm guessing that's still a no no your DC is what 17 18 18 18 yeah so still slowed still like moving like he's covered in tar like swimming through molasses just unable to shake off this spell from Tiangong these spectral

chains weighing him down we go to Ayla hello spectral chains weighing him down. We go to Ayla. Hello. Tom's making a face. He's making a face. I'm just thinking about Spellbreaker. When I restore HP to something, I can also

end a spell of my choice on a creature. Would that apply to... It's not a spell. It's like a draining... It's like tendrils coming out. It's like a draining... It's like some sort of Hadar corruption in the blade. Okay. It's like... It's basically...

Imagine it like every time he wounds Aayla, the wound is encrusted with like red crystals and fibers that's like... They won't mend together as long as this material is on there. And then it kind of fades away after a few seconds. Oh, hate that yeah sorry i just tom was making a face and i wanted to check and make sure he was uh i'm always making a face 26 to hit the stalker uh the stalker yes um, because he took damage, so you don't have disadvantage against him anymore until his turn. So, yep, that hits. 16 damage.

16 points of damage. Heavy blow, tries to block it, but not back. Ah, math. 30 to hit. Yes, 30 will hit, yes. Crikey. Just about. 15 damage and a dex save. Yes, dex saving throw. Of course, the guy with evasion rolls a natural one.

You'll love to hear it. See it. Do it. Feel it. 14 lightning damage. 14. So because of evasion, he's still going to take half damage, but if he'd succeeded on the save, he would have taken no damage. So he takes half instead, basically. So he takes seven um so you can see this nimble little thing tries to leap out of the way of the lightning but the hammer blows have kind of knocked it off kilter um kind of unbalanced it and it still gets blasted along one of its arms as it desperately tries to flinch away and you can see now that stalker is like kind of swaying to and fro pieces of its broken metal and stone form have fallen to the ground looks heavily heavily injured um ayla end of your turn uh yes plus okay

uh the commander that one is that one is weak try and finish her off he's gonna call out and the stalker is gonna make an attack against Ayla with advantage but that's 22 to hit which I think does and then sneak attack plus normal damage is gonna be 38 so half would be 19 yep and then a con saving throw that is 13 plus 9 yeah yep still just cannot this draining effect is just almost like these uh as the arm blades dig into you the same sort of tendrils try and weave into your skin you just rip yourself free from them, unable to get a grip. But yeah, that's the ally command. We go to Nova Vija, who is in the ghost realm. Hello, it's Spooky here and I'm really cold. In the ghost realm, I am going to nip a little bit towards the house in the north for a little bit of cover.

And then I'm actually going to come out of Etherealness. Just step out. And I'm going to attack the commander with Eldritch Blast. Sure. Commander has a Hexblade Cuss on him as well so i will get plus five damage to all of my rolls to my damage rolls that is um so here we go uh so the first one is a 30 23 to hit 23 will hit that's five plus two. Unfortunately, just 12 points of damage on that first one.

Points. 25 to hit on the second beam. Hits. 14. Yeah, 14 points of damage on the second beam. Second beam. And 25 to hit on the third one. And then 19 points of damage on the third beam. These three blasts, you know, both of these dominators now

looking basically at their last edges. You can see pieces of them sort of broken off and shattered and just, yeah, heavily injured. All these kind of like red fibers many of them torn and spiraling and just looking yeah low on energy you can see that they're sort of almost yeah coming becoming less aware and less tactical almost becoming a bit more feral as they get more injured Oh Nova. Nova, end of turn? That's end of turn for me. Okay, at the end of your turn, the commander is going to use his Legendary Action to make a weapon attack,

and seeing you pop out and blast him, he just turns in your direction, just like, Die! And his eye lights up, and he's going to fire an eye laser at you, NovaVeja. He's got eye lasers? Trying to take you out. It's a 27 to hit. It will hit. But one thing,

I have been using Tomb of Lelistis wrong. Thank you very much to the kind person on Reddit who explained it to me. I can be hit by it to activate it and then the first 150 hit points will absorb that first blast of damage. Right, okay. So, um...

But it also renders you out for a turn, right? Invulnerable. Like you're stuck in the thing for a turn. Alright, well it would be, uh... It would be 22 points of force damage, so... Yeah, you, um... So how's this look? So we see the beam sort of flying towards Nova, this like red...

I'd like to think as it, as it in slow motion, as it comes towards Nova, Tiangong being the BFF they are, just immediately activates the kind of crystalline form that just shapes up, so the beam just hits as the shield goes up, and then Nova's just frozen, kind of in a... like throwing herself back almost. Nice. Stasis. Very, very cool. Yes, and stasis. Kilik ad Kalar, that was at the end of Nova's turn. Nice! So when does this healing effect...

non-healing effect, sorry, disappear? Start of the commander's turn, or when he's dead. Right, and delaying an ailing will probably be like... start of the commander's turn or when he's dead. Right. And delaying an action will put me like... Yeah, delaying my turn will put me like way at the end, right? I'll just do a... I'm going to hold action.

You can't delay your turn. You could hold an action, but that's just the action. So, I guess the moment Aayla is healable again, I want to hold an action to cast heal on her for 70 HP. Okay. So you'll basically hold it. As soon as you see those red crystals and vines break away from her body,

you'll activate the heal spell. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. First time I used that one. 70. Boom! I use it so much in Lightfall, it's the best. Yeah, heal so good.

It's just a high-level spell. I don't have much of that. At the end of Keelix's turn, Commander's going to use his last legendary action to command the stalker to make one final attack against Aayla. He's just like, Now! Do it! We must flee! So, with advantage... You'll flee. You'll die. so with advantage 25

this is all halved because it's like all the sneak attack damage and weapon damage is halved against ayla so that's only going to be 23 so 11 points this time really not very good but the arm blade sort of tries to get in a con save as well. Technically, I have to make you roll it because if you do roll less than a five, it might fail. You never know. Nine plus nine, 18. 18 still succeeds. Still succeeds.

Again, the vines and things try to dig into your flesh, but it's so tough, so resilient. It just can't quite find purchase. Sentry. Okie dokie. You can see the commander by the way sentry is like turning and like with nova in the block of ice with ala heavily injured you know with quill and you separated it he's turning like he's gonna start to run that you can see that he's about to flee not on my my watch, you son of a church. I'm going to... It's an old thing.

I'm going to move up here so I'm slightly ahead of them both. I'd like to cast Shield of Faith as a bonus action on Ayla. I can't heal her, but I can give her a plus 2 to AC. Do you have to touch her for Shield of Faith? It's a 60 foot range. Okay. Oh, great. Okay.

So I'll give her a plus two to AC and then I'm just going to wail on this commander. He's not going anywhere. Sure. So bonus action Shield of Faith on Ayla, two attacks from your action. I can roll buckaroo. Oh, 15 for the first one. I feel like that's not going to do it. Clangs against his... He manages to bring up his sword to parry it. But you can see, you know, you can read their emotions.

Nobody else can really see their facial expressions or, you know, emotions from them, but you can feel this fear beginning to grow inside of it. Come on, baby, 22. Will hit. Yes! Cool. All right, let's do... Oh, God.

She's turning into a Dominator. She's going for that. I'm going to do a level four Divine Smite on this guy, so that's going to be 68. Okay. Oh, wait. Sorry, can you? If if you burn a spell slot with shield yes because divine smite isn't casting a spell it's spending a spell so it's not burning

it's not casting a spell yeah trust me dudes paladins are strong man yeah paladins are really good dude oh my god keep it in mind for campaign three tom keep in mind for campaign three, Tom. Keep it in mind for campaign three. 32 plus 37 damage for that one. Okay, well, I feel that it's only fitting, Sentinel Prime, that you describe how this goes down. Oh, man. Okay, so I think Sentry would pull her sword back, thrust it into the commander's matrix and just say,

such a disappointment, and then pull the sword out. Overlord, I failed you. And you see the body kind of lands down. The matrix, like the Her Majesty's Road, pierces through it and you pull it back and it cracks and breaks. But essentially you notice as the commander falls down, I don't think Ayla would have spotted this on the adept, but you definitely notice it.

The Matrix begins to crumble, not because you've broken it, but something's almost like eating away, like an acid or a Virus kind of breaking the crystalline sphere that was once this Guardians matrix It's breaking it down this now red matrix is like crumbling into a into a powder You can almost you can almost hear like a voice And you're too distracted and second technically you have a second attack sentry

oh no you missed on the first one didn't you you did that's you done I'll move over a little closer to Ayla next to the stalker do I heal though because he did you do yeah so as the commander's matrix begins to crumble

the coil you notice all the cysts all the red vines begin to break away as well and you can see oh this is my chance and you're held up perfect go off 70 hp what did you get down to out of interest 20 no i've been on one because the meteor strike, I got to one because I had to. Yeah, but other than that... Let's use the relentless rage. I think meteor swarm on a crashing airship,

that's like a special condition. We put that to the side. That's like a normal fight. Yeah, this was the closest we've gotten to straight-up combat. Okay, well, the heal goes off. The Stalker is going to go next. Rhiannon, may you roll a d6 for me, please? Okay, okay.

Here it comes. This is probably this guy's only chance. It's a one. No, the vents never recharge. So, the Stalker, having seen all all of Ayla's wounds knit back together, it no longer has... I'll just grin at him as well. I'll just grin.

The stalker is going to disengage and then run away. Like a little shit. disengage and then run away like a little shit and just to annoy Tom he runs up and a lot of 5 10 15 20 25 and then you lose sight of him technically that kind of makes sense. Just to get away from us. I understand. Yeah. Long gone. He used his action to disengage, so can't dash. So yeah, that's his turn. Lucius. I'm going to try and chase him.

So... 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Do I see him here? No, I don't. You do not. I'm gonna cast fly. Okay. Casting it myself, so I'm gonna fly directly upwards.

Actually, no, I'm gonna diagonal for... Do I get that extra? Well, you've actioned to cast fly, and you've moved your 30 feet. Do I then get the extra fly amount? That's an interesting one. I guess because when you fly, you gain a flying speed of 60 feet,

but you've already used your move action, so I would say no. If you want to retcon your turn and say you cast fly first and then move, I'd say that that's fine. But in the future, remember to cast Fly first and then use your move action. Because otherwise you've already spent your movement and then you cast Fly and you'd have to wait until next turn to use the flying movement.

Okay, yeah, I think Lucius would have just started running and be like, I can't see. Okay, so yeah, I respect that. I respect the meta play. So yeah, you're ready. You can feel yourself ready to shoot up into the air, but you've kind of spent that time running and casting the spell on yourself, unfortunately. Okay. Yeah, it's more that the angle, this house corner here,

is kind of blocking your line of sight. I'll just mess with your room. You can't quite see through the thing. I can't see him. See if you can head down the other alleyway. Ayla. Can I? Can I jump onto this roof using my hammer?

A jump charge. To jump onto the roof. Can I see him when I'm in the air at that height? Well, there's a couple of things we have to check here. How high do you jump? The roofs may be sort of like, I'd say like 20 feet up, but like you can jump, like you could jump up in a huge arc. The thing that's going to matter is the fall damage,

like when you land, basically. I can jump 25 feet and I want to jump onto the roof okay so if my job is Ruth yeah you jump up on the roof you don't see him immediately after that not that jump basically you'd like jump up onto the top bit of the roof can I keep running forward with my movement then sure yeah you move your usual movement as you wish it's kind of like a pointed triangle roof, so you have to run up a little bit and then it will slope down. Do I see him at this end?

Yeah, you see him directly below you. So you get into the alleyway and you can see that, obviously, he just didn't have enough speed to get much further away. So he's directly below you. And it looks like he's pressed up against the wall. Or I'd say it is pressed up against the wall. And it's looking to the alley on the opposite side like it's going to dash towards there.

Yeah, so I'm going to jump down in front of him and smack him in the face. Okay, you're going to take a little bit of fall damage. Do you want to make an acrobatics check to try and reduce it, or are you just not bothered? Okay. Why not? That is a 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 18.

Yeah, I'd say you half the damage from the fall. So it'd be six damage, half is three, and then you're raging, so half that again for one point of damage. Oh. The stones, like the pavement cracks and breaks as you land, like smash. Okay, I will attack. 15 plus 13 to hit. Yep.

Don't need to tell me that hits, you know. 11. 19 damage. That's enough. So with one final whip of the hammer, you just send this thing sprawling, spinning in a circle as it smashes into the building next to you and just falls to the ground, unmoving, completely destroyed.

Just non-functional. So we see Ayla jump onto the roof, run over, and then the alleyway is just this... The alleyway is just him flying across it. You just see parts of his body flying into the alley and crashing against the wall. Wow. Got him.

Then I'll just walk down the alley with my hammer on my shoulder back to the group. Sure. Yeah. Lucius, for the point of thing, you fly up into the air, and you see Ayla just walking back with this this destroyed dominator oh all right and then nova unfreezes that's it you guys are out of combat i have initiative i'm gonna fly around

just sure i mean why not enjoy it why not why not um yeah you i mean, Lucius, once you're out of combat and time's kind of flowing, within, you know, you guys have maybe two or three minutes, and then you do begin to hear maybe two minutes and guards are closing in on your position. And you can hear sort of like, maybe actually a halfling man just sticks his head out of the doorway of the building that you've been climbing over and he's like, is it over? It's safe. We've had fighting. It's safe. We've cleaned the streets.

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Isn't that just a wonderful gift from Manscaped? I think I'd messenger ring. Sure. Out of the e ring out of the earshot of the locals what was that is there going to be more of it the fact that

it's on horizon it's a little worrying yeah seems like Breeze has been busy since we last saw them this is worrying. Perhaps we should tell the guards what we did. I'm sure they've already seen us.

And there's a bit of a clean-up. Yeah. Such a waste. They were too far gone. They were good allies. They were too far gone. They were good allies. They were strong. Well, we know what happens to Hadar Touch, though. Very difficult to bring them back.

Because they're consumed. That's what we think is happening here. I assume it is. It's like Bree somehow maybe convinced them. Played to their fears and... and brought them over to his side. I think probably Bree's themselves was Hadar-touched as well. Yeah, I wouldn't doubt that. And was probably the puppet master, so to speak, of the events.

So I guess we can't fully hold them entirely accountable. Although they did some wrongs. They wanted to extend life and it got out of hand. Yeah. How's everybody feeling? I started to recognize your messenger ring faces, especially yours, Lucius. Sentry is just blank all the time, so kind of hard to recognize that.

What? What is happening? We'll update you in a minute. We're going to just inform the guards what's happened here. Right, okay, okay. Somewhere safe. Great, perfect. Okay, good. Before we go, though, Sentry, they're matrixes, matricize, matrixons. Is there anything that you can... what's happening to them? I mean, I know normally you store the

guardian soul, but can anything be done with these ones? I can ask Root, see if Root has any contact with them, but I feel like if Root were in contact with Hadar-touched Guardians, that could be bad news. That would open them up to corruption in some way, right? You can see, looking down out of the three, the Commander's matrix is nearly gone. There's only a chunk of it remaining really it's rapidly uh disintegrated the stalker the one that ayla destroyed its matrix is it's breaking down but there's still maybe about half of it left but you can see almost like

like rot eating away at it just kind of breaking down. It turns it into a powder and then that powder just almost just dissolves. It just becomes like air. It just turns to nothing. Does anybody check it out more thoroughly or are you just looking at it from a distance at this point? I'll go have a look. Okay. So Sentry, when

you kind of get closer and look, you sort of heard it before but there is like a faint whispering when you kind of reach out almost maybe just kind of like looking at it get closer you do hear this kind of echoing voice uh and you sense pain. You sense terrible fear. Not of you, but of something else. You just hear this voice. They are mine. And you feel this horrid sort of...

Scream? But scream isn't the right word like something spiritual like a spirit crying out in agony you can make a pretty good guess that hadar is consuming the spirits of these guardians like the the guardian spirit was still there in the matrix corrupted as it was it was still there but it's it's not anymore like as that matrix is dissolving the spirit itself is being consumed can i commune with prime sure yeah you can spend you've got the have you got the charges on the prime matrix to commune Have you got the charges on the Prime Matrix to commune? Let's see.

Ah, shit, I don't think I do. We haven't long rested, have we? No, we have not. I don't have the charges, no. You can always take a rest and then ask at a later date. Yeah. I think, yeah. I mean, if it's not a specific question,

like, you can just try and get a vibe or a feeling. Like, you can ask me, the Dungeon Master, a question, but if you want to ask Root Prime specifically questions, then, yeah, you have to use the Communion spell. I was going to ask Root if there was a way to save them, but... Well, I'm afraid that you're going to have to just make any decisions of your own now. There's no time to ask Root. If you'd like to try anything

ah let me see um i could do like a like a medicine check maybe oh i don't know though investigation what would you what are you trying to do you tell me what you as the character would like to do and then i'll figure out the mechanics of it you know if there are any i want i just want to see if there's any semblance of goodness left in the shard i want to see if there's a part of the commander that hasn't been corrupted that can be convinced otherwise sure you to do that you would need to touch you You'd need to touch what remains of their matrix. You would need to try and connect to it. To try and do that. It's worth a shot. Let's do it. Okay. You reach down, you grab it in your hand, and you feel that connection to the Prime Matrix go out.

When you do so, normally when you touch a guardian spirit in this way, when you reach out to call them to come into the Matrix or to install them into a new body, you get a sense of many of their emotions, their regrets, their spirit, their courage. find fear fear of death fear of not a death like a mortal knows it but death as guardians do this long endless sleep or this maddening hunger and that's what this guardian was afraid of this maddening hunger turning feral becoming a thing that is not itself this need to feed and that has grown like a tumor it has become twisted and shaped and warped and this thing has been enriched with magical life like the ritual you saw breeze doing where he tried to feed on the sorcerous energies this guardian has has glutted on that sort of energy draining magic wherever it could go i forgot he did that with like all things there is there is still there is there is a a tactical mind there is a warrior a peerless warrior you know a great fighter who fought not just in the wars for arois but the

spirit that fought here is a spirit that had fought for millennia past you know this this great warrior and that's where that source of fear comes from knowing that this warrior was so strong that it had overcome so many battles to simply fade away was terrifying and that's where you feel this other hand, where you have got this spirit by one hand. You feel this red, calloused, clawed, just being, gripping the other end of the spirit. You can't see it, you can't hear it, but you know

it's there, and it is immensely powerful. I need you to make a charisma saving throw, please, Sentry. Oh. Okay. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. My charisma's plus 12.

What? Yeah, it's gone. Although I did get a 16, so that was a bad roll so the rest of you as your grip for century i'll come to the rest of you actually in a minute century is your grip in the spirit and you you can feel the spirit you can see that there's still something there a lot of it's been destroyed being killed but there's something there maybe if you can see that there's still something there a lot of it's been destroyed being killed but there's something there maybe if you can save what remains inside the prime matrix they can heal they can know peace and they can be reborn they could be re-educated and given a second chance maybe and you try and pull it into the matrix and then you begin to see in the formless golden void

of the spirit world of the prime matrix, this figure begins to take shape, almost in the twisted form of the guardian that you're trying to save. This red humanoid head with just this grin. There's no eyes, no nose. It's just like a blank shaped head, but with this enormous widespread toothy maw.

I see you. And it opens its mouth wider and wider and it begins to swallow you. And it's beginning to like clamp onto the rest of you. To the rest of you, Century's holding onto this shard and the shard glows bright red and all of like centuries vines and like parts of her arm you begin to see like this red infection like a virus spreading through her her eyes kind of begin to flash the matrix begins to flash and century just collapses like convulsing on the ground as this thing is beginning to spread um what are the four of you do knock that over hand immediately make a strength check ayla as soon as you touch this thing racking pain spreads through your body like it's like your blood is on fire when you touch this thing, and it's fused into her hand.

Like, Sentry is gripping it with an unnatural strength. Straight strength? It's just straight strength. Straight strength? 20-plus strength, yep. 25. You're older than 18. Okay, you managed to get two hands on it. Your blood feels like it's going to burn out of your body,

like you are in intense agony and pain. You managed to get two hands on it and grip it and you're pulling it away and you can see now that it's not century holding it this shard has like embedded these crystal like vines into centuries own you've pulled it free but these vines are still connected but it's taking all your strength they let, to like pull it away from her hand, leaving these kind of tendrils exposed. Sentry, in your mind, I need you, like right now you're almost engulfed in darkness and red and you begin to see visions. You see this kind of sprawling space, like crimson jagged crystal formations forms almost like a hollow like you're inside of a great geode but these aren't crystals it's bone covered with gore and it's covered with shards

of cysts all shaped in this deep red crimson and they're covered in mouths just everywhere you look you see these like toothy moors on the walls on the stalactites on the stalagmites all around you and at the center of it all you see this almost sprawling palace the palace is crafted crafted from blood red rock and it's shaped into a giant screaming mouth. And in the center of it all is a throne, a throne made of teeth and bones. And that humanoid shape, just this formless, androgynous,

limbs too long, no eyes, no features, no muscle definition, just red energy, but with this huge mouth is just sat in it. No eyes, no features, no muscle definition, just red energy, but with this huge mouth is just sat in it. Can you make another charisma saving throw for me, please? Come on.

Come on. Come on. Seven plus 12. 19. 19? 19, but it is Hadar. uh seven plus twelve nineteen nineteen nineteen but it is Hadar your mind begins to become overwhelmed you you fears you begin to imagine all of centuries worst

possible fears you feel parts of yourself like you can feel things like memories being eaten away from you can feel beliefs being eaten away from like you can feel things like memories being eaten away from you can feel beliefs being eaten away from you you can feel your very essence like everything that makes you sentry is being consumed by this thing you are unprotected like in this space you realize this thing it can do whatever it wants this is its space space, its realm. You are its pawn. You are its puppet.

You can only hope that it gives you enough mercy to let you live or just be consumed by it. And you almost lose for a moment. Quill, Lucius, Nova. Aayla is pulling this thing away from her hand, but it's taking everything Aayla has to just rip this thing as far as it can. But there's these tendrils, these thick crystalline tendrils.

What do you guys do? Get the tendrils! Get them! Get them quick! Hang on! Way back when, when Sentry was going feral, I had the Wand of Guardian Recovery.

I want to use that on Sentry and allow you to use a reaction to roll your saving throw again against an ongoing effect. This is not a feral saving throw. The wand has absolutely no effect on this. What? This is the power of Hadar. This is not anything to do with Sentry going feral.

Sentry can't go feral. This is... Sentry's being attacked by Hadar right now. Oh, but it says allow Guardian to use a reaction against a sailing throw. Ah! Begins going feral, yeah. Different things, yeah.

Different things. I'm gonna throw that away. Lucius. I will also call out to cut the tendrils. I'm gonna try and save her from the inside, and I'm going to touch Sentry's matrix, knowing that I have a connection with it. Yeah, Lucius has done this before.

You reach out, Lucius, you place your hands on the prime matrix, and you feel that connection of magic that you've had before, this primal magic within you that you've sensed in all of the guardians that you've encountered before, and you try and focus your mind. in all of the guardians that you've encountered before and you try and focus your mind you feel you've seen visions when you did this before you would have visions of that guardian's life this is different you're not seeing the past you're seeing what's happening to century now as you kind of reach out but it's like you're seeing it through this kind of red glass you're almost

like banging on it and you can see century just stood in this middle of this place and you begin to see that same space that domain that she was in these crystalline red mouths forming this cavern this throne this temple built around this thing and you you can you can't see it but you can feel this ancient powerful god-like thing and it is eating sentry you bang on the glass what like what's the plan here like what do you want to do i was like you've you've entered this space like you can you've got this connection but you're on like you're like it's like you're on the outside, like, of watching this happen. I've got an eighth level here.

Yeah. What do you want to use it with? I think I might try and smash my way in in the most powerful way that I know, and that is Prismatic Spray. Well, this is a kind of perfect spell, I think,

because this is color magic. This is Lucius's magic. Yeah. So I'm going to try that at 8th level. Yeah, you don't need to worry about casting the damage and stuff of the spell. The red. The red. The red.

It's blocking other light. You have that magic to create color, to bend light. You focus the spell and just this column, this cone of magic erupts. Your eyes begin to... You've had this before. The others don't see it you don't see it but to us the audience we see lucius's eyes where they're blue and orange begin to see kind of like fractures of other colors they begin to shift almost like prisms as we see other shades reds purple black you know we see other shades, reds, purple, black, you know, we see all the different kind of shades of color beginning to come in. This column blasts against the glass,

just all sorts of energy, cold, radiant, fire, necrotic, and it begins to crack and break. But as soon as it does, it smashes inwards and you feel this overwhelming strength just kind of billow over you. And the same thing is century. You begin to feel your very essence being consumed immediately as you're exposed to this place that you've broken your way into,

that you forced your way into this godlike realm. Everything that is Lucius, you almost feel it being pulled out of you. You see this humanoid figure. You see Hadar, this humanoid shape with this eternal mouth that has consumed gods and worlds and universes and has consumed civilizations, and you are next. Nova. So can I see physically tendrils reaching out to Sentry?

Yeah, it's... Imagine, like, from her hand, Aayla's pulled this shard away, and there are these, like, thick, kind of like vines, but they're made of crystal, and they've, like, embedded into Sentry's hand, and then you can see this infection beginning to spread all up her arm. Almost one entire arm is covered now. I don't know if this would work.

I think it's down to DM's discretion. I have this idea where I want to cast Arcane Gate and create a portal that cuts between Sentry and the tendrils. Either side. And then, yeah, either side. So basically it almost blocks between it, but I don't know if that's it's down to you really um i'm gonna put the text in roll 20 so you can read it no no don't worry about

the text i know the spell i know arcane gate it's stuff like this i'm the wording of the spell it doesn't matter the intent here is that you are going to use your your your portal magic let's call it that like this idea that Nova can create holes in space to try and cut the vines by separating their literal fabric of reality from each other. An ambitious plan, Nova Vija. This will require all of our available power. We will need you to support us in this matter.

There is no question. Do it. You bring Tiangong up high and almost cut like the the space that you want to create and you see this kind of blue black tear forming like a portal when it reaches the crystal vines they begin to kind of almost splinter but they're resisting like they're trying to fend off the tear in the fabric of reality itself. Tiangong glows blue as bright as it can and you begin to feel yourself, Nova, like, literally on your feet wavering. Can you make a con save for me, please? Con save... Okay.

Uh, 17, 18, 19, 20 You just By the way DC20 managed to keep your Awareness You managed to keep your Conscious As Tiangong sucks every amount Of magical power it can

Out of you And you watch as these red vines Are cut in twain by the portal the other side of the portal just these fragments of of of crystal vines part as soon as that's cut lucius and century you feel yourselves that whole thing that you've seen just disappears in an instant and you are awake back in the material world um Ayla, the chunk goes flying out of your hands as you are thrown backwards as soon as the vines are separated.

It just evaporates. As soon as it becomes exposed to air, as soon as those vines aren't connected to Sentry, it just... I think Sentry's laying on the ground, right? I think after that Sentry would roll on her side, curl up on a ball and she would cry. Like, I don't think she's- has she cried? But she would be sobbing as if like, yeah, like you've never heard. Just, yeah, big chesty sobs.

I think Lucius would be fallen and just exhausted, I think, at the moment. Just staring upwards. Yeah, all of you except Quill, because Ayla, this was, this was like a, you've never had a test of strength like that before. It was like fighting the strongest thing you can imagine,

like trying to pull that, that gem away, took every, like your muscles are just on fire. Nova, like you feel like you're going to pass out from Tiangong, just taking everything it could. Lucius and Sentry obviously experienced this incredibly, you feel like you're going to pass out from Tiangong just taking everything it could. Lucius and Sentry obviously experience this incredibly mind-shattering,

horrific thing. Quill, you're just looking at your friends, and they are out. Yeah, I'm also just snapping this wand in half. So the vines on her arm, they've also dissolved and disappeared away, right? Yes, all of that red material is beginning to kind of burn and evaporate and disappear, very much like the kind of wounds on Aayla and the Matrixes themselves when they began to dissolve. Returning Sentry's arm is going back to normal.

Aayla would probably just crawl over to her, pick up the arm and be examining it, making sure every last spot of red leaves Sentry's arm. Sure. Goddamn. You saw him, didn't you? You saw him.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I... It was awful. Yeah. Thank you. I don't know what I was... I was stupid. Century.

I'm sorry. I'm not stupid. You did save that spirit. Do I know that? Do I feel it? Yeah, you feel it. I saved him. You did what you had to. That's what makes you you.

I nearly killed all of you. Every single one. I nearly lost them. Thank you. Saving a guardian who just beat our asses is the most Sentry thing I think I've ever heard of. So, you know, good for you sentry you're back that's why you're their leader

I can't we can't let them win we can't let them keep taking and taking it's not fair they no one deserves this well we know what our next step is we've got to get to the city of glass immediately as soon as possible do you want me to find out where this this this I'm not going to call him

by his dumb new name do you want me to find out where Bree this this this i i'm not going to call him by his dumb new name do you want me to find out where breeze is yes please okay i'd like to mother's name i'd like to scry on breeze overlord veracitor please okay uh i have to make a saving throw, I believe, for scrying, do I not? You do. So, because I've met him... Well, I've met Breeze. Have I met Overlord Rassadore? You are familiar with the target, I would say. Okay, so minus five because I'm familiar. I don't have any possessions from him, I don't believe.

Or anything like that. But it's a wisdom 21 with a minus 5 to their role minus 5 kind of wish I had overlord raster stats ready to go but I'll make a good guess at what his house why 20 20 20 I'm gonna roll this one to myself I'm not gonna show you guys this one. Oh. Okay. How rude. So.

And this is through the storm eye, yes? It is. We see Quill. Your vision turns cloudy as it does. We see the crack of lightning. Like before, the mist is... It is not as clear as it has been before but the spell still functions it is just growing you're not trying to see the past or the future you are trying to view the present and that it seems the eye can do

no problem you focus in and you see it's difficult because it's only a certain area around him. You don't recognize Breeze to the guardian that you had seen before. Instead you see this nine foot tall skeletal very

much like these dominators were. Red matrix, red eyes now sort of six of them kind of all placed around the head a crown almost like these curved horns like a crown shaping up a giant staff in one hand sat i think you would recognize it's some sort of airship clearly on some sort of airship of airship clearly on some sort of airship but around him you see maybe a dozen more of those dominators that you just fought against all different types but you see about a dozen of them all kneeling as if to a king uh and you just he just seems to look around soon we will have many brothers and sisters to add to our new glorious empire my lord hadar has informed me that some of our brothers and sisters have failed in their task, but a blow has been delivered to the

Pretender, to the False Prime. We will have victory, my brothers. We will rule over the barren worlds left by our mighty lord. And we will conquer again and again until all is left but rock and iron. And I see you, little spy. Yeah, fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, shit! Oh, good.

Just kicks so much ass. Holy shit. An airship surrounded by more of these, uh, well, guardians. He's building an army and he's calling Hughes a false

prime sentry. We need to get to the City of Glass. As soon as we can. That goes without saying. But he's on an airship. Probably headed there now. Then we'll beat him to it. Two. Not to play out everything, but a patrol of guards.

You know, this has all taken a couple of minutes at best. You know, you guys have arrived super... This battle and then even the scene, like everything with Sentry has maybe taken two minutes. Guards eventually arrive. they do recognize you you they nobody's gonna suspect you they interview the people in the houses who all claim that yeah you were attacked and you fought off these horrible creatures that used you know poison gas and all of this kind of stuff the gods seem completely dumbfounded at how these these guys got into the city nobody seems

to know how um but yeah they they help they'll dispose of the the bodies if that if you want them to or they ask you if they well they probably ask century like what do you want us to do like we don't really know what to do with these these bodies? Are they... They're dangerous material. It's best you dispose of them somewhere no one can get to them. We'll have them destroyed Sentinel Prime. We'll speak with the mages in the Citadel and I'm sure they can find a way to

dispose of them thoroughly. Do we have... Stormchaser's my apologies. We do have some medics with some minor healing capabilities, but I honestly think that they'll pale in comparison to your own. If you do want us, we can have medics here, but I'd almost rather see to the citizenry and make sure that there are no injuries

or that we almost want to check to make sure that these people haven't hurt anyone else. We don't know if they just attacked you or if they've done anything else in the city there's no need we'll take care of ourselves thank you for the offer though i just be sure everyone in the area is safe yes we will make sure you likely a personal attack just for reference they were looking for us specifically we'll still have a look through see if there are any reports of missing people or any injuries or battles elsewhere,

but make sure that you check in with Commander Rain. Make sure that if we do find anything, we'll let Commander Rain know and then they can pass it along to you. Go back. We can have you. Do you want an escort back to the Citadel? No, no. We'll make our way back. Good luck, Storm Chasers. Thank you for dealing with these. From the looks of your own injuries,

I don't think any of the Horizon Guards would have been much use against these foes. I wouldn't say that. We know our limits, Mr. Al-Alasto. We can fight soldiers, sure. These things and against people like you, we know our limits. They just kind of half salute,

not in like a, you're a military person, but like a gesture of sort of like, hey, we respect you kind of thing. And then they'll leave you to it. And leave you guys to head back to the Citadel. For a long rest, I would assume. Yeah. As they go, Nova's like,

can someone carry me when they're out of sight? I can't feel my legs. Yeah. I'm just up on Peggy's legs. Peggy back to Aayla. Can I lay on hands, you two? Poof! Just like, while you're together.

I'd like to think, like, you lay on hands as I'm trying to get on Aayla's back and you give me, like, a little boosty on her back. There we go. I'll give you guys 20 each. Aw. Nice. Lovely.

There we go. Thank you again, everyone. Yeah. Sit down. Well, long rest. You guys make it back there are no no further incidents um i think val will obviously be very concerned we'll go cover that if there's any conversations you want to have there but other than that uh that seems like a pretty great place to take a little five minute breaky and then we'll come back yep tell uh get this city moving yes that will definitely be happening um yeah i will i will say that probably when you get back

uh rain or somebody an aid will tell you that uh in the morning danica will be making a proclamation to the city and then she will begin transporting the city to Giselle in the morning. Awesome. Don't touch the red stuff. Yeah. I mean, do touch the red stuff, because A, you did the most paladin thing you could, which is, I know that this is an obvious danger.

I have to try and save this this person even though they tried to kill me incredible power in play good job but also cool law though in it cool bit yeah true yeah i could listen to this description forever yeah it's eating it tell me more about this yeah so it's num num num indeed That's very much what this Hadam's all about Have we all seen Hadar now? I mean I saw him at a very great distance through the storm eye but

I think I saw him before back when Quill died I would also say that anything that Quill and Nova saw pales in comparison to what Lucius and Cedric just did. Yeah. Like, I don't think you guys are, like, knowledgeable enough about the planes, but maybe if you talk to Nova and Nova makes some checks,

she might be able to glean some insight into what you guys specifically saw. But, yeah, it was a big deal. Yeah. Durary connection. Direct connection connection we're in the nope plane close that goodbye far realm's not a place mortals want to go generally um pretty bad um and that was in you oh that was all inside you me as a Russian doll let's not say that

save that for the after hours let's take a five minute break