High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #119 | Empty Husks and Soul Breakers (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 19, 2021

Heading deeper into the war-torn City of Glass the party encounter more feral Guardians! Check out the map for this episode on our Patreon (for free!): https://www.patreon.com/posts/53319984 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. app for details. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? It's hard to make time for the things that keep you healthy, but being consistent with self-care is like working a muscle. And when life gets crazy, that muscle keeps you strong. Therapy is the ultimate self-care, and BetterHelp makes it easy to get started with affordable online sessions you can do from anywhere. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more. That's betterhelp.com. 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 Erois. Last time, the champions of Erois along with the newly mobile Sky City of Horizon have travelled to the continent of Gisela to rescue hundreds of Guardians who had all gathered at the City of Glass, a ruin of the Valkyrian War. Armed forces of Gisela, now allied with Cala Starbane, are attempting to claim the ruined city for some purpose, but are being held off temporarily by a small guerilla force of rebels and guardians. Trying to combat drop into the battle zone, the party were knocked off course and split up, eventually facing off against an elite airship by themselves on the edge of the City of Glass. After its initial powerful barrage, Nova covered the warship

in a terrible, reality-breaking psionic storm of magical energy that turned the tide. Leaving the wrecked ship off the coast, the party travelled into the city itself but were detected by packs of feral Guardians. Sentry, wishing to help, approached them and attempted to use the Prime Matrix to save their weary spirits. Despite an initial failure, she attempted once more and managed to rescue one soul and place it with a fresh soldier called Archer. Now the party stand in the ruins of the City of Glass,

the sounds of terrible battle all around them, and they must decide what next to do. And that is where we begin. I heard you a little laugh there, Kim. Was there a little laugh at my description of what happened last time? Just thought it was, you know, very detailed. Very, very detailed. Lots of, yeah. A terrible, reality-breaking sonic storm with magical energy, I believe,

would accurately describe what Nova did Well, it was gruesome Horrifying, probably the worst thing that any of us have ever done That would have been more accurate But we're not going to hammer the point anymore Yeah I also caught

two of my friends in it as well, and myself in it Yeah, yeah So yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, we literally resume where we left things off. After Century has, you know, rescued this one guardian, Archer, who is now kind of following along behind you. You guys are in the City of Glass. As a quick refresher for audience and for you guys, the City of Glass was once a pretty big metropolis city.

It was once part of the Solwyn domain. But with the war and everything else that happened, it kind of got separated from the rest of Solwyn. It was, unfortunately, as part of the war, it was attacked by some sort of weapon that turned everything in it into this thick, kind of transmuted stone and metal and wood and even people into like this glass like substance it isn't glass but it is similar to it

it's like a kind of very strong resin um it's translucent for the most part although you know when you start layering it against each other it does become more opaque and it does get harder to see the thick of the substance um and yeah so you find yourselves walking down these streets of just scintillating glittering buildings of this kind of resin and the light warps as it passes through it can be quite disorientating um there's a beauty to it as well as a kind of haunting uh nature of what happened here um but you need to figure out where you would like to go. We're going to keep using the Roll20 map with the gridded map

because it's a good way of kind of mapping out progress and where roughly you are in the city. I've also added some locations, either places that you saw when you were kind of flying over or places that you might even remember from the last time you were here. So just to kind of give you a bit more

orientation. But at this point, I So just to kind of give you a bit more orientation. But at this point, I'm going to throw it to you guys. Along this walk, I believe Lucius would ask Sentry slash Archer. Is that Archer, the name? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Do you have a connection to Herald? I do not, Mr. Alinasto As Sentinel Prime will instruct you

I've been waiting in the Prime Matrix Ready for a rebirth I'm aware of Herald I saw Herald's actions with Sentinel Prime And what has been done before But no more, I'm afraid. So you don't share the- you're all in Sentry's belly. If you wish to think of it that way, yes.

Just whispering around. Do you share any sort of emotional connection or memories? No, no, nothing of the sort. Sentinel Prime is the only one who can perhaps gather those sensations from us. We don't share memories. We are our own people. We are not a hive mind or a collection of consciousness. We are, think of us as all swimming in the same river. The river keeps us there, keeps us afloat,

but we are all individuals. And then when the time is right, the Prime, in this case Sentinel Prime, will send us to a new body, a new matrix to inhabit. And when we do so, we gain a physical form. Until that time, we are ghosts, spirits, but individualized. Fascinating. Must be quite interesting being

in Sentry's belly like that. Swimming all the time. It's such a weird turn of phrase, Lucius. Is it? I mean, it's in the matrix. It's more like a heart. It's in her chest. Yes.

It's more of a chest thing. Either way, I was trying to get at whether we have to use our regular means of finding Harold or whether you had some form of connection. I'm afraid I do not. If anybody has a connection, it would be Sentinel Prime, not I. Right. I guess we keep on the lookout then.

That's our aim, right? Yeah. I mean, is there anywhere where Harald might have gone? I mean, we've been to the Temple of Siaska before. Maybe there? If Harald's looking for Rurik, that's where I believe we fought with him, right? So I think that's where they're heading. Okay. Makes sense. That's where Herald was before, so it's worth trying. Also, it's more central in the town, so I can always try to locate creature, and if something happens happens in the journey then we'll go that way.

Do you think we should focus on getting there as soon as we can? Or should we stop if we see any feral guardians en route and try and fix them? Or should we just beeline? Sorry. There's a feral over there. It's so loud. It's definitely... So as this is a genuine reminder,

when you're having this conversation, there is the sound of battle all around the city, but especially to the south, outside the city itself, you can still hear the barrage of magical cannons and the airships raining fire down. You can hear the sounds of large numbers of troops engaging in physical combats or things like that.

You remember when you were flying overhead that the main forces of Giselle are assaulting outside the city where the encampment of the rebel forces that you encountered when you last came here. They're fighting them. Probably, and you saw guardians with them and things like that as well, like living guardians with them. And here in the City of Glass,

you have heard sounds of battle and you have heard sounds of shouts and cries. But because of the way the city is so big, it's so empty now, and all this resin glass, it's very hard to pinpoint the noise. It seems to almost come from all around. Very, very difficult

even for Quill, who is... Yeah. That's cool. Well, we could always make a beeline for wherever we think Harold is, and I'm sure we'll come across people on the way. Guardians that we could maybe help.

Do we avoid them, Sentry? Do you think you could restore others? Or... I could, but... Would it take longer? Well, the worry is that it will exhaust me. I fear that by the time we get to Harold, we may not have... I might not have enough energy to restore as many as we need to. Whereas if we can get them all in one place, maybe do as many as we can. I mean, the bigger group we have with us, the better it'll be. Exactly.

Sentry already looks quite tired. And Herald seemed like she was in trouble didn't she if we don't get to Harold and Sentry has no energy when we get there then that's not really much use I think that's our priority let's prioritise Harold then

we should make a move, the war is still going on alright okay, Temple of Siaska. Seems like the best bet, so let's go that way. Just to check, Nova, is there anything you want to say or do? No, she's just... thinking. About...

Thinking about death. Things. Thinking about killing. Repercussions. Just thinking about killing. Again. Sure, no, I just wanted to check because obviously I want to make sure

that everyone has a chance if there is something they want to say. So, to make your way, I mean, you can see on the map the Temple of Siaska is sort of to the northwest. For the purposes of the map to make navigation easier, you have to basically go either north or west.

There's no diagonal movement on the map just to kind of make it to represent you moving through different city streets and things like that. And going around streets. Yeah, you're going to have to cross through those districts. To the north, the buildings seem a lot more broken. It's a lot more damaged to the north. You can see that a lot of the buildings have collapsed

and created much more debris of this like resin, which means that it could be quite an unstable area to move through. To the west is a marketplace. You can see that large sections of the city were opened up into kind of, you know, open plazas or marketplaces or streets with many shops and things like that um much more uh stable but lots more places where things could hide now we could expend some more magical ability to fly over these structures. However, I think we're going to need everything

on standby in case we do get engaged by more forces. I'll leave it to you. What do you reckon? Should we go through the marketplace? I can do the old invisibility trick, but unfortunately I can only really

extend it to us and I kind of shrug, Nova shrugs and looks towards Archer. I can send an arcane eye out and I suppose Sentry could send Echo out. Wait, is Echo still alive? I can't remember. Echo's still alive. Yeah, Echo's still alive. Just keep in mind that these, like, in terms of the map, Tom, these squares are like two miles. Like, the arcane eye can travel but you'd be sitting here waiting for it to travel there and then come back you know yeah you could always use it to scout ahead of you and just yeah

exactly early warning sign yeah exactly yeah i've got an hour so i can probably do like a tile uh yeah so that's the other thing i was going to mention so um the the speed at which you can travel through the city uh each square on the map um which is basically like a zone where i'll like describe roughly what it's like you might have an encounter or something like that um if you move in stealth in stealth if you move stealthily it is about one square per hour so it takes you an hour to move through one section, one zone of the city. If you move at a normal pace,

you can move about a square and a half, like a zone and a half kind of thing. Or if you move quickly, you can move two squares. You can move through about two zones. I think if we have a combo of the Arcane Eye and Echo, then maybe we could go like a regular pace rather than stealthing uh yeah i would say i would say if you if you have those two things going and moving ahead of you you can move at a normal pace but you you can still stealth i would say you could

still try and stealth it with those guys moving forward it would almost be a reverse stealth where i would have quill and Sentry make perception checks rather than you guys making stealth checks. And then you would just know right up ahead there's some enemies we now hide or we... Really? Exactly. Perception.

Oh. Maybe. Watch him roll a one. I will. Still a 12. But yeah, I'll cast Arcane Eye just before we set off. Okay. I like that plan. I'll do my Echo when yours goes.

I think both at the same time. Yeah, so I'll basically have you, Echo, you kind of send out, and then you and Quill will make perception checks to represent Echo kind of like spying on stuff and then telepathically telling you what's going on. Yeah, I think two at once is good. And when mine runs out, then we can just travel by the one. Or I can cast it again.

Yeah. Either or. Nice. Because Echo's three, right? So you may as well. Yeah, I can only use it once per long rest. So I get one use. Oh! Oh, I didn't realise. Well, he comes out for... he lasts until he's destroyed. Once you summon Echo, he's there until he's destroyed, basically.

But you know that Echo is extremely fragile. Like, one attack will probably destroy Echo, so... Yeah. Alright, sounds good. Well, I will cast Arcane Eye in that case. I'm going to go a regular pace. I'll summon Echo. And then is the plan to go through the Marketplace then, still? arcane eye in that case and we'll go a regular pace summon echo and then is the plan to go through the marketplace then still

yeah I think so yeah I'm going to keep using my invisibility thing you know where I can go invisible on an action at will yeah it's so good just permanent invisibility just

all the time i think a lot of us are still invisible for a little bit unless i dropped it took an hour to travel so that that invisibility would have gone i think oh no she did it before she might be there for the start because because we've still... I think some of us are still invisible. I think we should rest as well, then. From one sentry. Oh, we should rest. You took a short rest before then, didn't you? Or was that after?

We did take it before. I can't remember. It was after. In that case, then the invisibility is gone. I kind of imagine for Nova's invisibility, it's kind of like optic camouflage, where Tiangong kind of like ripples and like... It's not like... 100%?

Yeah, it's kind of more like that. So Nova vanishes, and then Quill and Sentry kind of lead the way with Echo and the Arcane Eye scouting ahead. Okay, well, in that case, Sentry and Quill, if you would both like to make perception checks for me, please. Plus 11, baby! Here we go. Plus 2...

28. 12. Oh. 28. Very nice. The Arcane Eye is basically keeping an eye out for you, and it becomes very quickly apparent moving through the city Echo kind of bobbing and weaving Echo's quite small and the Arcane Eye just kind of drifts through the marketplace and there are enemies here they haven't detected you yet because

the Arcane Eye is so far ahead but there are definitely enemies here not just feral guardians there are kind of you find feral guardians um i'll describe i'll describe the area first then i'll kind of get to the crystalline like market stands and buildings and shops all seem to be in fairly good condition but you can see areas where they've been broken into. Claw marks, great kind of fists or hammers have broken sections of them down, leaving these little kind of caves in these glass buildings. And where the insides became hollow, they then become places to hide. Many of them have had areas scratched so that the glass becomes frosted and can no longer be seen through. Dozens, hundreds of scratches to kind of mask it out from visual sight.

You see no signs of obvious battle, but for the first time, and you don't remember seeing a lot of this the first time you came to the City of glass you begin to see the outlines of people that were turned to glass humans orcs elves dwarves halflings um many of them in fear uh many of them sort of with like look to be that they were maybe carrying supplies but now they're just these solid kind of vaguely humanoid forms of glass You can see that time has eroded them, has worn them down, many of their features have been lost, but you can still see these shapes that vaguely reminisce of people as they're huddled around. Moving through the Arcane Eye, sadly not Echo, Echo's patrolling around, but essentially

you don't spot anything, but the Arcane Eye, in not Echo. Echo's kind of patrolling around, but Sentry, you don't spot anything. But the arcane eye, in some of these buildings that have been hollowed out, some of the kind of upper floors of them, it looks like people have, you know, things have clawed up and made their way, like there have been nests have been made here and there are feral guardians inside.

They don't normally seem to, there's not too many of them. There are small packs of like two or three, but there's, you know, several of them. There are small packs of two or three, but there's several of them scattered around. There are also non-functional guardians, guardians who have just stopped. It looks like some of them have just stood still in the middle of the street. Some of them look like they've fallen over and collapsed.

Some of them have been broken. Some of them have been ripped apart, pulled apart. Now maybe only a head and an arm or a chest piece and some legs remain. Some of them look like they've had, you know, things almost like a bracken and things like that have grown over them where they've been stationary for so long. Only maybe sort of a couple of them scattered here and there, but you see them nonetheless the last thing is the arcane eye would detect that there are living forces here

um you see ropes with grapple hooks attached to them attached to the side of the tallest buildings signs of movement of roots being cleared out um all sort of coming from this region this is definitely active with enemies um none of them have seen you yet but it is definitely here so am i able to good job by the way putting an actual war crime in here so we have some context um so all jokes aside yeah novo yeah compared to what zarkira specifically did during the war this uh this is pretty bad good god um so am i able to basically plot safer routes through um based on you know there's enemies this way that way yeah you will be able to for sure but it's that threat of you can plot

those you're all everyone else is still going to need to make stealth checks because there's always the chance that something gets heard um but you'll be able to avoid the majority of them for sure okay so there's so many that we do have to stealth through it then yeah it's going to be a lot easier i'm it's the dc is going to be significantly lower because the Arcane Eye can say, like, you send it around, you scout out for a moment. It depends as well, how slow do you want to go, Tom? Because you could slow the party right down and I would say you don't need to make a check at all

because you're going to be like, right, okay, wait here for 10 minutes, scout out the next plaza. There's enemies in these buildings, these buildings, these buildings, we're going to go around this way instead. Yeah, I think the intention was that if we have the arcane eye and echo, then we're able to plot a route and move

at a regular speed, so we're not wasting too much time making a route. But if it's so infested that there's so many enemies here... Yeah, this isn't just like a one wandering patrol kind of area. There are like nests of feral enemies here. Yeah, this isn't just like a one wandering patrol kind of area. This is, there are like nests of feral guardians here, like dozens of them,

all spread out throughout this like section of the city. This zone, as it were. So you can still use the Arcanine Echo to get through it. It's either you've got a choice. You either make stealth checks and try and move at a normal pace or you don't make the checks, but you go slow. That's the kind of choice I'm offering. You can avoid the enemies 100%, but you'll be slowed down,

or you can risk it and try and move through, but you might still alert some of them. Yeah, if the eyes are influencing the stealth, then regular pace with stealth works. I think that makes sense. Sure. So we could try that. I'm good with that. I'm right with that.

I'm going to roll really high on stealth anyway, so it's all good. Yeah, we've got sentry. Do I get advantage for being invisible? You don't need to roll. You're an automatic success in this because you're invisible. Hooray! I'm going to have disadvantage. I can't do this.

I'm going to have disadvantage because I'm level one exhausted. Yes. Oh. Oh. Okay. So, how do you give it a go? I mean Sentry's never stealthy, let's be honest. It's Sentry. Yeah.

True. If we run any of them to spot anyone. Actually Sentry, you'd have disadvantage anyway because you wear heavy armor. So. True. Double disadvantage. Double disadvantage. Triple.

Alright, well, yeah, I can roll some stealth if it's stealth all around. I'm rolling. Alright, boom. Let's do some stealth. Natural 20! Yep. Same. I'm so silent uh 15 oops my lowest was a five so oh my god so quill got got 22 i saw um that that a 2? That's a 2. Sorry. Aayla got 15.

Century got 2. Lucius got a 11. And then Nova's an automatic success. I think... Oh, I haven't rolled for Archer. Let me roll for Archer. Oh, good! This will fix everything. She has an Archer.

Yeah. What she can do is fire fire arrows as soon as we put a foot down no she fired explosive arrows archer that's the wrong arrows so well here's the thing it's actually

a complete tie because it's three failures versus three successes in a group check which does mean that the status quo remains unchanged. So I think what that means is, that's how I always kind of count a tie in this situation. What to me that means is you reach a point, Quill, where you're leading everybody through the eye,

everyone's remaining quiet, but you're trying to move at a normal pace and you find yourself out in a large, let's say like a big kind of amphitheater uh like a kind of like you know a public area where an amphitheater would have once been surrounded by these tall double story kind of shops and artisan stations in a kind of wide open street you think that this is a kind of safe place you've checked with the eye you've scouted around but when you get there you come to the realization of that actually they've these feral guardians have been moving whilst you've been moving through the city the sound the footsteps everything else they've become aware and they've moved repositioned and now you're at this point where

if you want to push on, if you want to continue moving at a normal pace, they will find you and there will be a confrontation. If you want, you can stay here and wait and take the time and they will eventually move on. With the eye, you can keep everybody out of that encounter,

but it will take time. But it's now one or the other. It's either take more time or you will have a confrontation. Okay, Sentry, the question is directed specifically at you because these guardians will find us unless we stay here and wait. I know that time is precious. It's a question of do we try and confront them? Do you try to restore them?

We either wait and we lose a bit of time or we attempt more restoration. Last time you tried it, the other ones fled. They did. But we need to preserve our resources. We don't know what's going to be out there. We don't know what's going to be in the temple. True, but time is also a resource that we're running out of, so...

Okay. True. Okay, let's push. You sure? Yeah. Let sure? Yeah. Let's keep pushing. How can we help you out? How can we help you out?

We'll stay together. When you do try. Like, we can draw on each other's energy to imbue the Matrix with more power. We can work together. Great, perfect. All right. Stick together. OK, so with Quill leading

the arcane eye, kind of noting the kind of major locations, the last sort of 20 minutes becomes not a full chase, but Quill, you try and lead them continuing on and you begin to get the sense that things are following you. Things in the shadows alongside streets that know this city far better than you, even with this kind of animal intelligence. These guardians in this feral state have analysed, have learnt the routes they need to take.

And it becomes a mad rush as you try and kind of push on as quickly as possible to get through this section of the city. Eventually, as you guys are dashing through, you run past the amphitheater through into these narrow sort of alleyways where once would have been these beautiful artisan shops and things like that.

You see things that look like a florist, that look like a kind of blacksmith, kind of weaving your way through these narrow alleys. You find you guys are surrounded by groups of maybe two, four, six, eight guardians, kind of raptor pincer as you were in these things. They, once again, as soon as they get near Sentinel Prime,

they hesitate for just a second. You can see that they kind of get there and the matrix of Sentinel Prime pulses and they kind of stop and they seem stunned for a second. What do you guys do? I'm looking at Sentry. Hold my hands. Everybody, reach out. Link hands.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I'll grab, yep. Grab hands. You kind of like touch or you know, you grab Sentry's shoulder or grab her hands or something. All right, Sentry, what do you want to do? Focus with me on being calm. Don't show them fear. Try not to be angry.

Try to be calm. And I'm going to just, I'm just going to try and absorb as much of their energy as I can into the matrix and again try and exude that same calming presence that I did the first time are we trying to calm them sorry or are we. We're trying to create a calm space. The guardians, and you can see they're all a mixture of guardian types, right? There's actually one who is massive. You can see these big hulking hands, maybe some sort of construction guardian.

Big hands built for like digging or carving out something. One of them appears incredibly small almost like a halfling sized guardian all different shapes and sizes purposes all built around their eyes are just dull there's no color to them whatsoever but they move in this kind of zombie functionless state where it's all animalistic they kind of just... Their jaws hanging open and stuff. You will grab Sentry's hand. I have a question for everybody but Sentry. You feel something tugging at your life force. You kind of feel like something wanting to take power.

Do you give it? Is it something Lucius has felt before? This is coming from the Matrix. You feel the same energy of the Matrix. This is almost like the Matrix is calling out for more power, basically. Absolutely, yeah. For Lucius, you would sense that this would probably be a spell slot for Lucius. All right, yeah.

I mean, it's better than my dumb plan. Her lightning-type anger, ragey energy into it. Sure. Okay, good. Definitely not what Sentry asked for, but the anger, you know, the guardians kind of snap up. I think she'll try and, like, control it in a way that's more giving the lightning

than the energy of the lightning rather than Aayla's rage. I feel like she's trying her best to do what Sentry says, but give her power in a way. Sure. I mean, yeah, my plan was casting calm emotions on them. I feel like this will help more, so I will... If you want to do that, Tom, you can do that as well. This is just like, you feel this sensation,

you decide what you want to do. I'm not going to say which one's better. You pick which one you want to do. I mean, I kind of saw, when we saw this happen before, it was an attempt to calm them and bring them in, right? So I feel like... That's certainly what it appeared to be to you guys, from the external, not seeing the internal, what was going on with the prime matrix to you they were

angry they were you know acting like animals century tried to calm them she spoke to them about you know you know emotions and taking things on and then archer seemed to calm down and became archer that's what you guys witnessed externally yeah i'll try it i'll try it so it's a 20 foot area how many could i get let's say for the sake of argument at least half of them you can catch kind of like two sections or like half of this kind of pack that surrounded you okay well in that case they make a charisma saving throw against 21 i'm going to assume they fail the effect here is going to be relevant. It's going to make things easier for Sentry. So you do see

them kind of like stop snarling. They kind of go slack bodied. Almost like, yeah, animals that have been pacified. But they're still there and the others are still kind of looking around. But you definitely sense that something changes there. Awesome. Nova, is there

anything you would like to do? You again feel that same sensation of like this. I think Nova would understand this more, like Tiangong maybe even kind of says to you, they are attempting to take power from my magical energy, Nova Vija. Are you okay with that? I believe that we can offer a nominal amount of power in exchange

and not be under advantaged then yes let's do it okay uh so lucius and nova i would like you both to expend um a fifth level spell slot it's the highest for nova and a fifth level spell slot for lucius um i just ticked off your lightning kind of crackles down your body um the energy definitely goes into the matrix um but you can see that the lightning even though you're kind of trying to focus it into this this kind of call for power trying to kind of focus it internally the lightning still kind of crackles up and down you um and it does seem to put some of the guardians on edge a little bit. Century, give yourself two charges. So, like, regain two charges on the matrix. And when you...

And do you want to try and connect with the guardian matrices, their individual matrices? Yes, please. How many would you like to try and connect with? How many are there again? Eight. Eight in total. Four of them seem to be fairly calm.

You see Quill's kind of magic kind of seem to soothe them. And you feel that connection go stronger. Like they are more susceptible to this than anything else. Okay. I'd like to focus on the big boy if posplers yep sure and i feel like he's going to be trouble and maybe one more okay two uh so just the two yeah um okay uh so uh the the big one is still an aggressive one by the way do you want the other one to be one of the calmer ones or one of the still aggressive ones let's go for let's go for one of the calmer ones okay that's probably the small little one

um that you saw earlier um seems to have just kind of slumped down um okay let me just bring up uh the prime matrix refresh myself on these new brand new rules that I wrote in Sensory earlier today. Okay, so just two of them, yeah? Please. So in an instant, for Sensory, this takes moments. This takes a few seconds. To the rest of you, it's like a flash of light. You see these two golden streams emerge from Sensory's chest and connect to these two guardians. One big bruiser

and the other one this kind of smaller quite vicious looking thing. And the two connect and there is a flash of light. Sentry, I need you to make a charisma ability check. Keep in mind you are exhausted so this is going to be at disadvantage.

However, because one is calm I'm going to be at disadvantage um however uh because one is calm i'm going to actually decrease the dc a little bit um so instead of being it would normally increase by two each it's going to increase two for the aggressive one and one for the calm one so the dc for this is only going to be nine um but you are going to be at disadvantage okay is that using my um saving throw not saving throw just charisma so it's a charisma ability check not a charisma saving throw okay so things like the aura and stuff don't help here this is purely sentin sentinel prime's will and authority to command and to instill these emotions

in the guardians rather than like you resisting the effect of something okay keep in mind the disadvantage the lowest 11 is the lowest so you feel the connection bond with these two guardians you sense that there are these tiny embers these these smoldering coals of their scent their sentiences the sentiences they once had they're're there, just asleep or, you know, just these bare embers. You pull those into the matrix. You can either refresh those individuals and send them back or you can send in two new sentiences and let those two rest for a while.

Let's send in two new ones. Okay. Let the other two rest. Would you like to send... So for each one, you get to choose. Do you have, like, an idea of who you would want to go in each one for the little one like you can just give me like ideas if you want okay um so i got a list okay the little one i'd like to be um an artisan yep and then the bruiser to be a fighter okay you watch as you send these two things down and for the rest of you see

a flash uh the three calm guardians don't go anywhere they just continue standing there docile thanks to the calm emotion spell uh the other uh three aggressive ones kind of look around in confusion um and then as ayla's lightning is kind of still sparking archer is like picking up you know like a club or something nearby, like a piece of debris to wield. And they can see this power. The other three kind of just turn and scatter away basically,

knowing that they're now outnumbered as you've kind of locked them down. The two guardians, one of which you see, and this may get retconned in the future because I don't have a full full list of the visual designs the little one seems to get I think they have purple eyes I think

or like pinkish eyes I'm desperately trying to find the pictures of them I'll have to look this up later if it's wrong I'll change this but they kind of have like a kind of like purpley kind of color to them um and their expression seems to go from this kind of snarling little beast to this kind of happy smile uh almost kind of like blinks a few times and then stands up a bit straighter um and looks around quite confused and dazed the other one has a much

duller slower reaction but its eyes glow blue and it kind of blinks a few times and then looks around. The little one, a very kind of little hyperactive voice like, Oh! Hello there, Sentinel Prime! And kind of gives you a nod. Hi! Welcome back! I'm trying to think of a voice I would give them actually Oh no problem And she just kind of nods her head And you can see it's like a female personality

And seems to kind of like bob around The big one turns and just is like Sentinel Prime Thank you This one is ready for combat activities It's wonderful to have you back It is good to have you back. It is good to be back. The little one kind of looks around and is like, ah, this place

seems to be, ah, it's a bit dreary, isn't it? Just kind of looks around. Yeah, it seemed better. Very much so. so yeah um uh uh welcome to the team i i i guess uh yeah this place um not a safe place to be right now we are on the move if you are willing to join us for a time um well i'm not sure if i can be much use and the little ones kind of looking around like i'm i'm so i'm not sure if i can be much use and the little one's kind of looking around like i'm i'm i'm a gardener really uh i tend to vegetable plots and farms and things like that but i'll try and help any way that i can and she kind of bounces around and looks around uh the big one looks around picks up two huge slabs of like glass embeds the giant fists into them so they form like crystalline shields and just

kind of brings them close barrier is ready Harrier okay barrier you sound like you'll be extremely useful right now and you what's what's what's your name I'm pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin will protect you for now but you will be very useful in the future I'm sure nice to meet you both yeah and she's just kind of like raises her arms up and like runs around in circles a little bit looks over and is like pumpkin perhaps it is best if you are quiet for now oh sorry what's the situation with the other feral guardians so well the three three that were aggressive ran away the other three are just stood there like the calm emotion spell makes them docile for like how long quill uh i think

it's like an uh no it's not an hour oh one minute oh god okay. So it probably would have just run out. Lucius is clapping at little pumpkin. She claps back. Phenomenal. Hello. Quieter, quieter. Sorry. Tiny clapping. Tiny claps.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much. Well, I mean, we're getting a much better understanding of how all this works, but I don't want to alarm anyone. These guys are about to get more aggressive again. Hopefully they'll run, but... Okay. Do you want to attempt again

or move on? You want me to look intimidating or something? Like, I don't know. Barrier's pretty big as well I mean that's pretty cool that's pretty cool it's gonna be selfie it's not gonna be very stealthy but that's fine cool barrier I love yeah I love these. Oh my god. They're awesome. Uh, yeah. I think we should I think we should move towards

Herald. As much as I'd love to convert everyone, I think maybe we should reserve some of Sentry's energies for Herald. Yeah, Sentry doesn't look any more tired this time. She looks like she's functioning.

It took something out of all of us, right? Yeah. Took the spell slots and stuff, for sure. Although saying that, that didn't look like that was necessary for what Sentry did. It did help Sentry. You can see that the Matrix's light is brighter than it was previously. For sure. Cool.

Okay, awesome. At least we're learning. We're learning. We know how to do it now. Kind of in the future. Better. Without completely wiping out Sentry at the same time. Okay, let's get moving before these guys, I want to say wake up.

More anger up. Let's go. Yeah, I i mean with a minute because this has been like a few seconds like if you i mean you can start leaving now and they shouldn't really have cause to pursue if you can kind of get away from them and they should hopefully just go back to what they were doing before um yeah let's chill for a time sure all right you guys uh begin making off and uh you think that with the arcane with everything else you think you can now get through this area uh without any too many difficulties it's taken about you know 45 minutes or so um as you move through the marketplace are you going to now head north

towards the temple you know that vaguely quill you know being a messenger you would kind of remember directions very very well that temple where you fought against Herald and Rook, where you met Max and Dana, the... Not Dana, the Durgar woman, that is to the north. You remember it being a large section of the central city and you can begin making your way there if you'd like. Yeah, if I know the way. And are we retreading ground now, places we've been before?

Not yet, actually, no. You came in through a slightly different way. You think that you might be sort of a little bit further into the city than when you came in the first time, but you're going in the right direction for sure. I remember that being... The same question applies. How quickly do you want to move?

Do you want to kind of speed things up and just bomb it and risk what might be the case, or do you want to move? Do you want to kind of speed things up and just bomb it and risk what might be the case? Or do you want to try and go quiet? Barrier does not look like they move very quietly. Pumpkin looks like she could move very quietly. Like she's small and seems to be very light on her feet. I mean, with a amassed a small army at this point

Well you have three people, that's not an army Hey, that's why I said small I didn't say how small I mean we have eight people and one of them is an artisan So, small army One woman army right here Hells yeah, I'm up for fights!

But then I probably shouldn't fight guardians that Sentry wants to, you know, make her friends. That is a good point. Someone will need to tell me when to hit and when to just leave. Pumpkin just looks up and says, hit things now.

I want to see you hit things now. I like this. This is encouragement that I like. Well, let's operate on a whack discipline situation, okay? That sounds horrendous. Keep in mind, Kristra, I know you're fleshing those arts up. Those technically might be how they look eventually.

That's maybe how they looked before they got put into these noob forms what do you mean how is there already so very well the the characters and the personalities and that is you know that's eventually what they will look like or perhaps what they used to but right now it's like these and because these are feral guardian forms right these are old feral guardian bodies so they're rusted they're broken maybe they were built originally for a different purpose to what central prime's given them Because these are feral guardian forms, right? These are old feral guardian bodies. So they're rusted, they're broken. Maybe they were built originally for a different purpose to what Sentinel Prime's given them. But guardians being guardians will adapt themselves.

They'll have new arms, new limbs made. They'll sculpt their own bodies. Even Barry, you can see that he had these, or they had these like big scooping like construction hands, but they've just dug them into these giant blocks of glass stone. And they're now just using those as shields instead. Just like using those in place. So they'll

make adjustments. You say Barry? Barry. Yeah, you can call him Barry. You can call him Barry. Barry and Pumpkin. Barry Pumpkin Archer. Yeah, cool. I mean yeah

if like Barry's a Barry's a big big boy Barry big boy and yeah he's actually a large like he's a large creature

he doesn't he's not medium he's he's sort of like nine feet tall and very big very wide a bombastic

big big boy so Barry no stealth no sounds of things I guess we may as well move just at a fast pace just run yeah just yeah move at a fast pace sure So Barry, no stealth, no sounds of things. I guess we may as well move just... At a fast pace.

Just run? Yeah, move at a fast pace, sure. It only takes you half an hour then to make your way into the central part of the city. This text is going to get in the way. Um... You come... The temple... You remember it being upon a long street with all these different alleyways

that you remember Feral Guardians pouring out of when you were here the last time. You actually approach the temple from a different angle this time, coming from the back of the temple. You can see this large glass dome, this statue of Siaska out front, but coming from the side, as you are moving quickly,

you don't have time to try and hide. These people are going to become aware of you as you become aware of them. When you emerge in, hearing the sounds of battle echoing around the City of Glass, you stumble into a scene. You can see there are slain Gisellan fighters scattered around their bodies some of them have been pasted on the ground like they've been hit by something immensely strong and flat just smushed and

scraped others look like they've been shriveled and energy has pulled out their life forces and things like that there are are also a few not fresh guardians, but feral guardian bodies that have been destroyed in a similar manner. On the steps leading up into the temple of Siaska, you see a number of figures still living.

And you've seen them before in Horizon. Similar kind of build. Skeletal guardians. All their natural parts, their vines, their flowers, their wood elements have withered away, leaving just metal and stone. You see these red coils of some living tissue have replaced them. Their eyes glow red. Two of them are bigger than barrier they are big creatures nearly huge in size um they are both got these giant one they have a giant hammer arm and then a scything axe blade and they lumber up the stairs and they're trying to break down um the front glassy doors that have fused together

they're trying to break into the temple itself uh leading them you see a much more lithe agile looking Dominator a corrupted guardian of Hadar this one has wings that kind of stretch out from the shoulder blades and you over here it like I put a voice on for it you lumbering oaths we must get inside the temple. I must seek out the answers to Lord Verasitor's questions. And as you kind of hear this voice, you hear this, there's like a, and then they turn around as you all kind of come head to head as you come running into this area

or kind of moving at a fast pace into this area. This dominator looks over and just, it's one red eye seems to pulse ah sentinel prime lord veracito will be pleased with your capture tell the others and we will roll initiative you can see actually for sentinel prime you can see that this one whilst the other two are trying to tear down the doors this one is hovering over the body of a normal guardian a guardian that doesn't look feral looks fairly polished and well kept and looked after they're big just like barrier is one arm is a

big chained flail it ends in like a big swinging wrecking ball. And you recognize this guardian. You met them long ago in Kali's rest. They were protecting the other guardians that lived there. This is Smasher, who was once a company in them. And they are lying on the ground. They're like completely either dead or unconscious. And the Dominator is like looming over and you can see red energy kind of pulsing down into its

body but it stops doing that and looks up to engage the rest of you I didn't add okay hang on give me a second here cuz I gotta add your sense but I'm gonna guess that you want a barrier to could be part of hell yeah yes frontline infantry next to pumpkin well i mean sure okay i'm a pretty good strategist i think it'll work throw pumpkin at them yeah all right uh let me auto roll for them. Lucius, let's give me some initiative. I got me a 10. 10.

Quill. I got a big nat one with a three. Oh, Aayla. I got a seven because I rolled a one and a two with advantage. How about Sentry? Sentinel Prime? I got a nine. Nova, please tell me your name. I'd love it if you have an eight.

I got, well, I did roll, I got an advantage, but I rolled a one, but I also rolled a 13, so 16. But also, I just presumed that I was still doing Shroud of Shadows. Like, do I get any kind of like jump on them or anything like that? That's true, actually. You would be invisible. They wouldn't know you were there.

So yes, you will have a surprise round, Nova, which is good because you're also first in the initiative. So you basically get two turns here. Oh, that's super cute. Yeah. Okay. Well remembered. So Smasher is lying on the ground underneath the

flappy dominator? Imagine you've got a big open-air street and then you have steps leading up to the temple with a big statue of Siaska on the steps kind of leading up to that. There's not really much cover or anything else around in the street itself. There's alleyways kind of leading off of it. That's where you guys are kind of running from the side of the temple

the Dominator who does have a name then maybe they'll yell it at some point. So, you know, it is crown Is crouched over smashers body on the stairs, so leading up to the front of the temple. And then the two huge dominators, they're stood on the stairs, but they're basically at the door to the temple, smashing it down. Like I said, in terms of D&D sizes, they are huge.

So you guys are medium, Barrier and Smasher were large. These guys are huge. These are like a fire giant. These are like a frost giant these are like a you know a frost giant size um wow oh okay um holy crap first thing i'd like to do is cast synaptic static um it's a 20 foot radius um so can i catch all three of them in it sure okay um please can you make me an intelligence saving throw for all three um dc is 18 it does psychic damage doesn't it oh don't say this don't say like that why are you saying it like that

um are there any other effects apart from psychic damage um 8d6 psychic damage and then on a failed save a target has muddled thoughts and there's a bunch of stuff that happens with that okay so that will go off unfortunately the psychic damage the synaptic static when you unleash it this kind of psychic mind-bending, disrupting, I guess, not electricity, but like magical power. The psychic damage does nothing to these things. Whatever influence from Hadar seems to protect them or make them immune to such things.

But the other effect will technically still take place. So what was it? A wisdom saving throw or was it intelligence? Intelligence 18. Okay, intelligence 18. The winged dominator does have advantage because of magic resistance, but it still fails. And then the other two,

oh, they are not going to pass this. Nope, I mean, I'm going to roll, but it's pointless. Yeah, all three of them are affected by the secondary effect. Okay, so you have muddled thoughts for a minute, and during that time, each creature rolls a d6 and subtracts the number rolled from all its attack rolls and ability checks, as well as its constitution saving throws to maintain concentration.

You can make an intelligence saving throw at the end of each of your turns. Okay. Nice. Loads more rolls for me to do. Ignore that roll. So that reveals you at that point. So you come out, you swipe Tiangong,

this kind of burst of energy erupts between them, but they turn and you can see the Dominator kind of holds up its head. Just like, ah, what have you done, foolish creature? Soulbreaker will not stand for this injustice! Kill them! And they just basically order the others to attack you. Then it's your go. That was your surprise round.

Now you are the top of the initiative. Okay. Sod it. I'm going to cast Wall of Light. The mighty Lord Verasator will destroy you! Amazing. Yes. I'm going to cast Wall of Light.

I want to catch the two big boys in it. But knowing that Smasher is there, and obviously we don't know if he's, you know, out or not, can I just basically arc it in a way that it catches the two on the stairs and then the walls go down the stairs but around Smasher and Skeletor or whatever his name is.

We'll say that you create like a circle. You just create like a circle around the group. Yeah. Catching the two big ones. Yeah. Are we now in an arena with them? No. This is like a smaller wall around them they're still sort of I'd say like

60 feet away from you guys at this point where you guys kind of met eye to eye and the initiative kicked off because you guys weren't moving stealthy so they knew you, they heard you coming span around, you've seen them like oh fight but Nova's popped out of invisibility, done this

caught the three of them in like a wall of like a ring of light basically um which does hide the dominator soul breaker uh and smash his body from you the other two are so big you can still see them like their faces are like out of the wall they're just their bodies are in it, basically. They're all within this thing. Yeah, that's like to their, that's like to their waist, Nova. Okay. These things are, they're over it.

Can they make a constitution saving throw, DC 18, and then obviously you've got all that like fun synaptic static bullshit I just gave you as well. That's only ability checks

and attack rolls, right? Because these guys aren't concentrating on spells. Yes, that true yep ability checks okay so they're saving throws normal uh dc 18 uh the first one is only a 14 it's gonna fail uh the second one is only 12 it's gonna fail nice um so i rolled uh 4d8 of damage i rolled an 8, 8, 8, and a 4. Nice. Crikey. Which is

28 points of radiant damage, and anyone who failed is blinded. Cannot be blinded, either. But they still take damage. They seem to. You can see that they've got multiple gemstones. They seem to have multiple abilities to sense individuals.

They don't seem particularly clever, but they don't seem to rely on normal sight to see enemies. They just turn and begin lumbering in the direction. Probably in, like, a cool thing, like like where their previous garden, because these also, they're so big. Essentially, these could never have been normal guardians. No guardians were ever built that big. This looks like many guardians have been like fused together.

So like one guardian is like a leg, one guardian is a number, but all of like the head has been pulled away, and you can see that it's covered in areas where its head would have been bolted and plated across with metal. And then these red muscular fibers have been stretched between them. So it's like, it's very grotesque. It's like a Frankenstein of guardians, basically. Is it still one Matrix?

That's the other thing. You don't see a Matrix in these two. You know, a Frankenstein of Guardians, basically. Is there still one Matrix? That's the other thing. You don't see a Matrix in these two. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember now. Oh, my God. And if there is, do not touch it. The other one, the Dominator Soulbreaker still has a Matrix, a red Matrix,

in the chest cavity like Sentries. These other two don't. They almost look more like golems, you would say. They now resemble just straight up constructs, but they seem to be under some sort of command and sentience regardless. But the radiant energy of the wall still scorches and sears their legs.

And you can see it kind of melting away at parts of their metal plates. They do stumble a moment, Nova, but the blind effect unfortunately Nothing, we then go to Nova, do you want to move closer, are you going to stay Like, you know, with the group at the moment You guys are on this open street I'm going to move 30 foot

Away from the group So like if there were any AoEs or anything If there's AoEs, yep, that's perfect Perfect, Lucius. Lucius is going to lob a fifth level vitriolic sphere of acid right in that

wall of light, trying to catch them all with a 20-foot sphere. Okay. So that's a dex saving throw of 18 to beat. Smasher automatically fails it because they're unconscious on the floor in the middle. I thought they were behind the wall.

I thought... Yeah. Never created a light that was... They're in... There's the guy, the Dominator over Smasher and then the two big guys and they're inside the wall of light. Can I not get Smasher that's behind them?

You can. You won't hit the small one because the Dominator Soulbreaker is on top of his body. I'm not going to hit Smasher. So you can hit the two big guys. You can hit the two big guys by aiming the Vitriolix Fit up in the air, right? And then you would just catch those two.

You won't hit the small guy. With their chests. Sure. DC 18. Deck saving throw, yes. Mm-hmm. All right, well, I'd better roll a 20. Otherwise, this is a fail. I actually know a yes. Alright, well I'd better roll 20, otherwise this is a fail.

Actually no, a 19 would succeed as well. That's failure. Both of them just this acid just sprays all over their chests. 12 T4. Here we go. And all ones are twos. Oh, that's a lot of ones.

I'm just going to wait for you to tell me 31 acid. 31 damage each. That's a lot of ones i'm just gonna wait for you to tell me one acid 31 damage each that's a lot of ones geez and they take extra damage on their turn as well right yes yeah on the next turn uh i'll remember that for you and lovely an extra 10 points of dichromancy to one of them, please, on the left. You can't see the Dominator, unfortunately. He's hidden by the Wall of Light now, but you can hit one of the big guys. So you watch as this acid sprays

over their chest, begins melting away sections of these Guardian bodies that have been fused together, dripping puddles of liquid metal down to the ground. Any movement, Lucius, or do you want to stay with the group? At the moment, I'm considering that the group is all bunched up apart from Nova, who's separated.

I'm going to spread out a little bit, so be with the group at like 10, 15 feet away from the closest person. 10 or 15, you tell me. 15. 15, Okay. It's very important for an AoE. Very important. It is.

Sentry. They're about 60 feet ahead of you. Okay. And the wall of light is now separating, is now between you and Soulbreaker and Smash's body. Okay. I'm going to use my charge

and cast Sunbeam towards one of the golems. So we just look up and the golden matrix, iron man beam. Yeah. Love it. Cool, what do I need to do? A con save was that? Yeah. That's 16 to 8.

9? I'm rolling terribly, i have a plus 6 to this 68 radiant damage and this is you can keep doing this as well because the beam continues here it comes 26 i mean where the acid has already begun to weaken them and where the wall of light has scorched their legs, this beam now carves a line, a glowing hot line across their chest. It kind of stumbles around,

trying to deal with this new attack. Yeah, good roll. I think I'll stay with the group for now. Okay. Yeah, and I think that'll be my turn, TY. All right, cool. I really need Chris Trott to come back because it's the two giant titan dominators' turns next, and I don't know how much damage his acid thing does.

Are they close to dead I mean damage matters right yeah I just did 60 down treat and we'll move on with all this I'm just gonna look how about this I'll look up the spell and then Tom Hazel you can roll 5d4 acid damage for me. There you go. Trish Trot. 5d4 acid damage, please. Do you want me to roll it or take it? Well, it's you rolling it. It's your vitriolic sphere against these two big

things which are about to go next. Rolling. Rolling. That is a 14. 14 points of damage. Perfect perfect to each of them on 44 that's before they the acid is melting away and these two things come charging at the group now nova is there any effect on wall of light i think it's if they end their turn there, isn't it? Yeah, only if they finish there. Yeah. So these two things stomp.

They come for the group. Their movement gets them to about 10 feet in front of the group. And one of them turns to face more towards Lucius. One of them turns towards to face the entire group. The one that faces the group, so Nova's currently the only one who's separated enough away that these two things aren't attacking her. The first one against everybody, except Nova,

it swings this giant axe hand in like a big arcing swing that's going to catch everybody. I need you to make dexterity saving throws. Everybody but Nova. Don't forget to do your cute little roll a d6 and subtract it from your attack roll this is not an attack roll this is a dexterity saving throw

so it doesn't apply on this because it's such a wide swing it's more about them dodging than this one being accurate 21 plus 3 24 I got where was. I got... Where was it?

I got 17. Six. 17. Six for Lucius. Sentry. 15. 15, okay. If you got lower than 17, you're taking full damage.

If you got higher than 17, you're taking half. For the sake of preserving NPCs, Archer and Pumpkin both jump behind Barrier, who implants the giant big slabs of crystal in the ground, and the whole, like, he basically protects the two behind him. He's not going to protect you guys. Like, he protects the other two guardians. Yeah.

I thought Lucius was too far away. Well, no, he moved 15 feet away. This thing stands about 55 feet, no, he moved 15 feet away. This thing stands about 50 feet and its swing is like 15 foot arc. It's like a crescent moon that just this thing is huge. It's like 20 foot tall.

Its arms are like as long as its body and it just swings this like a giant axe blade. God, it's a big buff. God, it's a buff uh so 24 damage to those who took full uh 12 damage to those who took half um for once ayla you're not raging yet so no no half damage this time normally you're probably one of the two on my initiative yeah with uh sucks uh and then i think the other one is going to do

the exact same thing. These are recharge abilities, so it's a deck save from everybody again. We're already entering the mixer. While they're doing that, don't forget you can make an intelligence saving throw at the end of each of their turns to end the synaptic side. These things physically cannot succeed

the saving throw. They physically can't succeed. They have a minus four to saving throw. They physically can't succeed. Oh, wow. They have a minus four to their intelligence. They cannot. Oh, in which case it can't be affected by the spell. So a creature with an intelligence score of two or lower cannot be infected by the spell.

Oh, it's okay. Its intelligence is three. Hey! Oh, okay. Okay. It just can't succeed. Yeah. Yeah. intelligence is three okay okay just call it yeah yeah since in intellect is nothing at all it can be basically sentient but yeah so who got lower than 17 on the second saving throw I didn't this time

what's the face why is that not showing up in the thing? I don't understand why they didn't show up. I rolled all eights by the way. I rolled 3d8s and got 3 eights. So if you got less than 17, it's 30 points of damage. If you got higher than 17, it's 15 points of damage. 17 or higher. Okay, okay. So these two things just swing these giant axe blades like two huge pendulums that just... And you guys throw yourselves to the ground. The two crystal slabs that Barrier was using shatter.

They just break entirely. And, you know, Barrier's protected the other two for now. He can't do that again. Like, that's it for this round. It's like Sen's fortress up in this bitch. Yeah. Barrier turns, grabs Fortress up in this bitch. Yeah. Barrier turns, grabs the other two. Central Prime, I will protect these two.

And then just basically runs the other two away. Pumpkin is like, kind of like screaming and stuff. And then just like a quarterback carries them away from this battle. Excellent. Ayla. Hello, I'd like to rage, please. And how far in front of me is this one of these nerds? They're like 10, 15 feet in front of you.

Cool. Okay. And is other small dude, is he still over the body? You can't see. So Nova's wall of light encapsulates around them. So you just

see this ring of light, basically. You don't know what's going on inside there. And that's like 60 feet away. Through the barrier Okay Can I 60 feet Use a charge

On the old hammer Yep To jump to That little Chip And push him and smack him off of Smasher's body. Yeah, I'd say you can.

I think that one of these big things would get an attack of opportunity against you. Okay. Okay. I want to try and assess him. Sure. All right, well, Kim, can you roll a d6 for me then, please, to minus from the attack roll?

Time to yump. Six. Wow. So minus six to the attack roll. So a plus three. I was hoping if I got a natural 20 then. So that's only going to be a 14. So this thing swings its giant hammer.

And as a point, if that thing had hit you, I mean, you probably would have made the saving throw, but if it had knocked you prone, I would have just had you literally fall out the sky. But you kind of push your hammer and knock it to the side as you Hulk jump. After a few steps, you Hulk jump your way, landing in the middle of the ring when you

land you can see that the the dominator is not doing anything to Root's body anymore it looks like he is preparing himself to come and fight basically as you land okay

a foolish living thing I'll hit him. Ah, a foolish living thing. I'll hit him twice. Please. I said it so that you could be like, I smashed him in the face. 19 to hit. 19 to hit.

He will cast Shield to boost his AC to 20. What a nerd. So you see him hold up a forearm and like this barrier of course. 25. That hits. He can't do anything about that. Oh my god. And a dex save, please. Oh yeah.

I am rolling so badly today. Failure on the dex save by the way. 14 points of damage from the hammer and then... I'm rolling so badly today. Failure on the deck save, by the way. 14 points of damage from the hammer, and then... 16 points of lightning damage. 16 points of lightning damage. Ouch.

Okay. So when you land this thing, you swing the hammer, but you feel a similar sensation to when you fought these dominators before. It feels like you land this thing you swing the hammer but you feel a similar sensation to when you fought these dominators before it feels like gravity around this thing is like pressing down on you ala and it you feel your movements become sluggish and slowed um your movement speed is reduced by 20 feet while you are uh within this thing's aura um can i make sure that i'm standing between him and smasher sure you're kind of standing over Smasher's body then in that way.

So you're stood on Smasher, basically, because he was big. He's a big, big lad. So you're kind of stood on top of Smasher's chest, and you swing the hammer down. He blocks the first one with his barrier, and then the second one catches him and blasts him with lightning. And in the messenger ring, I'll just say, Smasher's okay, but I need someone to come over here and help him.

I'll keep this guy busy. Okay. Okay. All right. At that point, the Dominator will look and say, I have no time to deal with the likes of you. The wings kind of extend, and he is going to fly up into the air with the likes of you. The wings kind of extend,

and he is going to fly up into the air with a burst of red energy. Can I attack him? You can get an opportunity attack, yeah. That is a 12 plus 25. 25 hits, yep. Even with the shield. Ooh. 19 damage 19 points of damage a heavy blow but he still manages to fly up diagonally away from you as you just watch him kind of

rock it up on red energy he flies about 60 feet diagonally to above the rest of the team. And then he will look down. Sentinel Prime, I will enjoy taking your head to Lawn Verasitor along with the Prime Matrix. And then we'll cast Chain Lightning down on... Probably Sentinel Prime as the initial target. Three bolts then leap from the target to as many as three other targets. So that are within 30 feet. So we'll make Nova, Lucius and Quill those targets.

And that's everybody make a deck saving throw, please. Of course, plus three. Ayla's the lightning rod, Sentry. Ayla. Sorry, my bad. But Sentry will be able. Sorry, my bad. But Sentry will be able to help, right? Because she's like all spell stuff.

Oh, I mean, she can, but not against these rolls. Would Quill have damage resistance as well as me? I'd Quill. I do have plus three, but like... Yes, you two would, but the others won't because they're outside your aura. Okay. Let's save 13. Nova, you're making a very sad face and I've seen the others rolls.

I rolled a 10. You rolled a 10. Oh, dear. Oh, boy. All of you would normally take full damage. Century and Quill, because this is a spell and Century has her aura, it's going to be half damage for you guys. But Lucius and Nova are both going to take full damage here

as lightning blasts everybody. 53 lightning damage. So there's a couple of things. Lucius falls unconscious. Hold on. Hold on. He falls unconscious. And then Tiangong, safety protocol activated.

Back up to one. The shield kind of manages to save him at one hit point. Is that a reaction to use, Nova, or is it just a thing that goes off? It just happens. It's not automatic, whoever goes down first. It's automatic. That's fine. It's interesting because I was thinking what if multiple people went down at the same

time? So, Lucius, you just stood there smouldering and smoking, like your body electrified. Nova, you need to make a concentration check for Wall of Light. The DC is 26. And I got advantage.

Oh. I rolled 12. Total? Yeah. Well, wait, it's plus con, isn't it? 16. Is your con 14? No. In that case, it's a failure.

As you are blasted by the lightning, the wall of light, Aayla, around you drops. You just see it kind of... I'm assuming wall of light is concentration. Nova. Yeah. I don't think there's any way I could... You said it was 25, right? I don't think there was any way I could...

I couldn't say... There was no way I could save for that. Big damage. You can't really do much. If you'd be next'd be next to century Cassandra gives you a bonus to the saving throw So you might have been able to Entry and quill that's 26 damage to you guys half. So Yeah damn it if I was there I should have that but

Yep, not only within 10 feet so I couldn't have done it for everyone anyway Yep, that's why this guy definitely did it. Now technically, he didn't reduce a creature to zero hit points because Nova saved him. No! That blast should have killed your foul little sorcerer! What magic is this? He's very unhappy about that. I should be dead!

It's the magic of friendship! Well, I wish I was dead! He's very unhappy about that. I should be dead. It's the magic of friendship. I wish I was dead. Cool. I was going to do the old classic Cleric in an MMO opening of Guiding Light, whatever it's called, but instead I've got to do… No, no, no. The other one.

I've got to do a Mask Your Wounds. So within 60 feet is Aayla within 60 and Smasher. Just. Just. Smasher would. So within 60 feet is Aayla within 60 and Smasher. Just. Just. Smasher would technically be within 60 feet. Yep. It's up to six creatures. Yeah, that works.

That's everyone. Okay. So that is going to be an amount of dice that I don't know. There it is. 4d8 plus 6. 4d8 plus 6. It's like his own spell. I don't know. There it is. 48 plus 6. 48 plus 6. It's like his own spell.

I don't know what he's expecting. Not bad. 18 plus 6. 24 for everybody. 24 for everybody. Nice. Ayla, you see... I guess I didn't roll same throws for him. Okay, you can see that the injuries that Smash has sustained,

a lot of them are, you know, you see the matrix begin to flicker. Smash's legs look crippled. It looks like one of those big things maybe like stamped on his legs. So you see like the chest flicker and he kind of like manages to turn his head. Danger. Threat. Danger. Waiting. Sentinel Prime. Message. He's up! She's here! Sentinel Prime's here! She's here! Just, uh, I'll be with you, be with you soon. Just gonna go and do- Sweep. Smash her! Sweep. Sweep inside Temple.

Oh, oh, oh. Set sentry. Break time! Break time! Awesome. Everybody break time. Awesome. Just before that, I also wanted to, as a bonus action, I've been messing this up before, bonus action, cast my phantom thing as well my elder quill um okay there you go boom easy done cool perfect awesome love it lucius almost died by elder quill you mean like just a year older that's about as old as you get wearing a white shirt it could be like a tie he's got a name tag and he's carrying a book. And he knocks on your doors. Hello. My name is Elder Quill. Ding dong.

I would like to share with you the most amazing book. Esper. God of Star Wars Magic. I've got the Wayfinder's guide. By A. Plumbus. Amazing. Book of Quill.