High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #120 | The Tower of Glass (Part 2)

Episode Date: July 29, 2021

The party must repair the conduit to use this tower of glass but the Dominators will stop at nothing to destroy it! 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. RBC has helped millions of young Canadians turn their most likelies into most definities, making their ideas happen with scholarships, internships, and skill development, plus resources for artists and athletes. Learn more at rbc.com slash support youth. welcome back we return to eros with the party in a tall glass tower, a glass spire in the City of Glass, where they have met Herald and two remaining Guardians who are attempting to get the Conduit, some sort of Solvyn enchanted relic that will allow Herald to contact and communicate with Guardians all over the City of Glass, potentially giving Sentry a way to reach out and connect with all of their matrixes.

However, to do so, first things first, it needs to be repaired as this thing has sustained damage from various battles in the City of Glass. So what do you guys want to do? We wanted to check upstairs, I think, right? Have a little wander. We wanted to go outside and harvest some of that jet too sure uh jet oh the aether jet yes so going upstairs uh those of you who can make your way up there you see that um the the stairs kind of curl around and go up for quite a distance

and then you emerge into a rather open chamber this This one hasn't been protected specifically from the transmutation effect, but there is a small center where a small kind of globe shape of the tower itself seems to have been protected and sat in the middle of it is the best way to describe it would kind of be like a large metal column

inscribed with runes, decorated with inlaid crystal and a ethereum looking metal, silvery looking metal. Connected to it are all sorts of strips of chains of warded runes that seem to be scattered, engraved into the floor and walls of the tower itself. lying at the foot of this column, this metal column, with their hand kind of placed up against it, kind of almost like resting as if they were touching the tower. You see a guardian's body, a kind of bulky warrior-like figure engraved with sort of rose and vine themes that you would recognize as Rook, who was once an enemy, a partial enemy. One of the bodyguards of Queen Astoria of Solvyn,

and somebody that Sentry had known during her time there, working in the palace. And his body is currently laid almost peacefully at rest, except for this one hand, which is kind of placed up against the column itself. Okay. And he doesn't look Hadarian in any way? Like something's been happening to him?

Just the body as we remember him? So are you going over and examining the body and, you know, prizing open his armor to look at his matrix or anything like that? I mean, I'm not getting all up in his gut he works. I just want to have a little looky, you know? At a brief glance, you do not see any signs of Hadar corruption. Okay. Okay. Kin's faith.

And these warding runes, is that what protected the room below from the glassing? Well, the room below and this metal column, this conduit itself, appears to have been protected from the transmutation effect as well. It may be that there's other parts of the City of Glass like this that had magical protections, but this is just the first one you've encountered.

Okay. Okay. Okay. On the kind of sequel up on this level, any of you who are up here, you can see that there are sections of the floor which have like metal discs set into them. And judging by what you remember of the area below,

you imagine that this is where the focusing lens need to be directed towards. They need to be pointed up at these metal discs so they can capture the magical energy. Is there anything to repair up here at all? Or is this like... It doesn't look like it. Okay.

Lucius, who's here actually? Upstairs. I think Aayla flew Nova up. Yeah. So it'd be Nova, Ayla, and Quill, and then I guess Sentry and Hadar. Hadar?

Hadar? Herald. Oh, he gave it away. Now I just have two things that both begin with H, and my brain is not working. Guys, you know me. That is not work guys. I've you know me We got him you got me I'd like to insight check the DM Like just like in Mark Humes that you can DM me and you find out I'm stupid and I constantly see one

Yeah DC one the DM stupid. Lucius, what do you think? You're not there. I thought you could fly as well. He's the only one who isn't. He's chosen not to. Anyone who's interested then.

What do you think about Harold? I believe what she said that Is Harold here too? Fuck me! He just said, he literally just said that she's right there. He said, Hada! And then he said, Harold.

You know what, I'm going to go back down to Lucius. Okay. You guys carry on watch as you go you see Lucius like pointing his finger and like holding his hand with his other hand it's like it's very stable hands and he's pointing at a lens no I can't do it. I need Nova. Hi, Quill. Hi. I mean, Nova said that we need bodies specifically

to harness all of this power. Sounds bad. Doesn't have to be bodies! Bodies can be anything that can act as a conduit. You hear from above as you hear a weird wailing noise from the feral guardians outside. So anything

that's said in this place is heard by everyone. Great. I just have a time alone to talk about how concerned we are about Harold. Jeez! If only you had a messenger ring. Harold will look at Sentry

and sort of gesture to Rook's body. I'm hoping that when we're finished here, we'll be able to speak to him again. Can't we speak to him now? You can, Sentinel Prime, but not I. I'm afraid in our battle, fighting him, his spirit is normally if Guardians enter their their feral state there is at least seemingly some sort of

ember of life that still remains I'm not sure if I'm not sure if destroyed guardians can still be saved by the matrix I'd hope so I'll go down and to rook and yeah try and connect to the matrix you reach out and for the first time think since you got the prime matrix

century when you place your hand on the matrix it is cold and lifeless. There is not a soul there to communicate with. A guardian destroyed in battle it seems. If their matrix is broken, if they're destroyed in combat, if they die like another mortal race, that may be it. This wasn't supposed to be this way. Is there no way we can bring them back? I do not know. Sentinel Prime, Rook and I spoke briefly, but not very often. My knowledge of the prime matrix is limited. It may be that Rook may have answers, but even then, Rook is but one bearer. before Rook, the prime matrix itself came from somewhere. I do not know where.

To understand its powers. I don't have the energy to speak to Root right now. Perhaps it was just a matter of case of, I think that in a way we do not worship gods as your companions or is the people of a rowest do but they have a phrase we must have faith faith that there is an answer that there is a way to save the Guardian spirits they are gone. We know that the Prime Matrix can help replenish us, that can take us into its embrace and return those into new bodies, but perhaps

there is a greater power to it. Perhaps there is a greater purpose to it. And if anyone can find it, I believe it is you. Thank you, Harold. Eric was a great friend. Hopefully we'll see him again soon. If you have faith, then so do I. Understandable. Anyway, we must continue.

We must get this operational quickly. I heard the noises of the battle outside, I am cautious of it may attract attention. Okay, let's get to work. Okay. All right, so if everyone heads downstairs, do you guys want to try and salvage stuff out of the the Veracitor's aetherjet? What's the plan here? Worth a try, we can get some ethereum out of the the veracitors aether jet um what's the plan here worth a try you can get some ethereum out of it sure yeah help me to lend a hand all right who's gonna go and do that not me i'll go do it oh yeah i was thinking i can look at the gems all right yeah okay i can gems. Alright. Yeah. Okay. I can help with that while I do that. But I don't know what Ethereum, like, I wouldn't know

what to salvage, so I'd just be like, I can lift things for you. Yeah. For sure. Alright, so Nova's staying to repair crystals. Quill is staying

to do something. Lucius? When Nova comes back down and mentions gems, Lucius just walks over and then puts his arm out and points his index

finger. If you could just use my wrist and you do the very dexterous, perfectionist I'll just cast the spell in my finger and you point it at the right places, Nova.

I mean, what? Why? you pointed at the right places, Nova. I mean, what? Why? You're perfectly capable, Lucius. Like, honestly. I'm panicking. You can do this. I'm gonna smush his cheeks. Shh. No panic. Is this a spell? Oh.

I want you to take a deep breath with me. One, two, three, hold. Three. I want you to take a deep breath with me. One, two, three, hold. Three, two, one, let go. Sun's getting real low, big guy. You've got this. I'm sleepy. I believe in you.

That's fine. I find when I get a little bit sleepy, that shuts out the many voices in the back of my brain. Um, but I believe in you Lucius. I think you've got this. You're okay. There's nothing to panic about. It's fine. We fixed things before and we'll fix this. Alright. Okay? Yes. Yes. Okay. Alright.

So while Sentry and Ayla, you guys begin heading outside, kind of pulling on this, you know, Ayla lifting up this giant glass statue to kind of make way for you guys to head outside. Ayla and Lucius, you guys want to start repairing the gemstones, right? So what I need you to do is you've got two choices. You can either make a plain dexterity check, and this is to do the precision of kind of sculpting the you know using spells or whatever it is to kind of make the mending um or you can use investigation to do

the fine detailed kind of you know pinning things back together and using more of a kind of an intellectual approach uh as you do this i think i'll just be summoning all of my dexterous nature to try and stay steady and just keep my head empty and letting my body do the work. My finger do the work with mending.

Alright, so dexterity check from Lucius and then investigation from Nova, I guess. I'm not too smart. Twelve! Okay. and then investigation from nova i guess i'm not too smart 12 uh 17 it's 19 okay um nova you know with with care you kind of managed to match up the broken pieces you find all them kind of missing pieces placing them together and you think you have a vague idea of like right okay yep this makes sense lucius you keep your hands as steady as you can and you find one of the crystals which is mostly intact but has these big heavy cracks through it you fill it with the same kind of gold uh filigree kind of when you fix tiangong that time um you're going to cause these like you know magical kind of gaps begin to seal with this kind of gold filament.

It's not perfect. There are definitely mistakes, but it holds. It stays together, hopefully as much as you need it to. There are two more gemstones. Do you guys want to try and do them yourselves or do you want others to try and take care of those gemstones as well? I think in that moment, there's flashes in Lucius's mind. He's been trying to push these things down,

but he's literally recreating the moment where he was trying to repair certain things. He gasps at that moment where his lung was pierced. I'm sorry, Nova. I'm struggling. I'm making mistakes. What's going on? What?

And I put everything down and I was going to face Lucius. What's going on, Lucius? Tell me. It's all a lot, isn't it? Really? It is. It's all on us. When you think about how far we've come and what we've been through... Yeah. Do you want to know my secret?

I just... I just think... I try... I try and put it in a box. I try and put it in a box and put it out. Because the thing is, if we think about all this now... Yeah. It's hard.

It's hard and the whole fate of the universe is pinning on us. And that's too big a thought. That's way too big a thought. So I try and box it up and break it down and break it down and break it down until it's a small, manageable thing that I can deal with. And right here and now, we're here for Sentry. And that's all that matters. And to help Sentry, we're here for Sentry. And that's all that matters. And to help Sentry, we need to fix these crystals.

And if you just box that and focus on that, there will come a time. There will come a time when all of this is done. And we can open those boxes and think about this again. And it's going to hurt. But there will be a time for it. I know that's not the best advice, but we need to focus on now and here.

And I know you can do this, Lucius. Look what you did for Tiangong. I can't do that. You did that. Your efforts to repair this form were impressive, Lucius Elinasto. I am an ancient being. This form is not a typical item in your world. It takes someone of great sorcery power in order to be able to repair me. Take some comfort in this. Nova Vija believes in you As do I. Thank you, friends.

My one fear is it's gonna be some cracks we can't fill or mend. We can't fix everything. And if something happens, we'll deal with that. We've always dealt with things. When we've been at our lowest, we'll deal with that. We've always dealt with things.

When we've been at our lowest, we've still managed to come through. That's the faith I have. That's the faith I have in all of us, and that's the faith I have in you. No matter how bad it's gotten, we've gotten through. So if there are cracks, that's fine. We'll deal with it. Alright, I'll try again so if you can both make the same check again for me make a little note

on the ones that you've done so far 15 I don't think Lucius has done too good he's got a 4 do you have like any ability to re-roll that or do you want to use like do you have anything that lets you re-roll that or is that just you know you explain this to me Chris Trott like you tell me why this is a 4

because I don't want it to just be Lucius failing like this is your reason why it doesn't work for whatever so in my mind uh lucius's mind all he's thinking of is nova is he's trying his best to listen and focus to nova and tiangong that before lucius of before would have lapped this up it would have worked he trusts nova implicitly and he does now however flashes of hadar sentinel trapped in this dimension hadar washing over him that feeling of emptiness of nothingness that release his mind drifts sure okay as the mind drifts I mean on examination the gem

looks completed it looks like you've completed it right like the gemstone has been repaired to everybody nobody else knows this only an audience only an omnipotent watcher as the audience and myself are,

is that gap is full of brittle, tiny cracks. All of those repairs, that golden kind of material that Lucius uses to repair it, has in itself its own cracks, its own breaks, is extremely brittle. But to everybody else, it looks repaired. Sentry and Aayla, you guys make your way outside. Even you guys can hear this.

Ayla, more so, your survival instincts, Ayla, of growing up in the woods and hunting animals. Something's coming. You can hear, it's hard, it's like a reverberation. It's almost like a stampede, or it could be one giant foot. You know, it's like a resounding kind of... But it could be dozens of things,

and it's echoing throughout the city. The sound of the jet crashing, Lucius's call for guardians, maybe even just the presence of Sentry. Something is coming this way. you don't have too much time here um you definitely pick up on that ayla looking at the ship itself a lot of it's buried under glass that's broken and collapsed there's definitely parts of it that are sticking out this is going to be an intelligence check from both of you guys to figure out what

what you need to bring back here you don't have anyone with expertise to to know what to bring back yeah i thought more people i thought that um quill was coming with us otherwise it's a bit pointless well i mean you're here now do i i have disadvantage right because i'm exhausted you're exhausted yeah no I rolled a fine yeah that's fine I got one on the first one that a four on the side you guys get out here and it's you spend some time like you try and pull out things you try and look for stuff that you've seen on the storm chaser you know you you guys aren't even though you roll bad you're still trying your best to try and find stuff you grab a few things that you think might be useful.

You find like, you know, cabling. Nova mentioned cables. You try and grab like these thin, like silver vines almost. You grab a big chunk of what appears to be some sort of engine and you drag that. And as you're doing this, you're hearing this noise getting louder and louder. And like, you're just like, right, right we got to go you start dragging it back in uh nova when the stuff that they bring back in unfortunately none of it a lucius and nova like none of this is going to really be functional to to bridge the gap between the crystals like you know they still need to be aligned but this unfortunately won't work as a conduit

um is this gonna work no we've got a big big bit unfortunately won't work as a conduit. Is this going to work? No, but we've got a big, big bit. Got a huge chunk of it. I mean, I did say I don't know what I'm doing and all I can do is lift stuff. I would like to commend you both in your efforts. A plus for efforts. It's a fail for actual product though.

This is garbage. This is actual garbage. I can't, no. I can't. Horribly brutal. Well then, find yourself another lightning rod. I'm looking at one. Now let's not discount the Aayla lightning rod. That seems like it's the best option at the moment.

But we have two crystals or two links we need to reform somehow. If we use Aayla for one... Quill... If... How do we get the other one? I will go for the second one. I will go for the second one. Quill, do you have any more healing left?

Yeah, I... Yeah, the second one. Quill, do you have any more healing left? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I'm going to... Yeah, I can do a mask cure wounds, actually. Harold will also say, I have a little energy left that I can use to mend wounds if needed. I could do with a little top up, but it's going to be...

It's fine. It's like Aegis V. It's fine. I will be the second one. It's like Aegis V? Okay. That's a, um... weird anecdote to bring up. You know, what with the arm in Aegis V? When you did that? I lived with it once. I'll live with it again. If it comes to it. Are you sure? You don't have to do that, Nova. I lived with it once, I'll live with it again. If it comes to it. Okay. Are you sure? You don't have to do that, Nova. Unquestionably, Sentry.

Sentinel Prime, I know that you would wish to put yourself in this. I must make it clear that without you, none of this works. You are the one who we cannot risk. If you were injured, if you become more exhausted, the conduit will be difficult. We need you as strong and as capable as you can be. I believe it is far better that Miss Vija does this rather than anyone else. Then I will help in any way I can. Any way. You say what you need and I will give it to you gladly. We still need to realign these crystals. The lenses themselves

need to be realigned. Mr. Keeluk, if I remember, you have a keen eye. Perhaps you can assist us with this. We will need both observation and strength to maneuver them back into place. Well then, I will be the strength. Just kidding. Mask your wounds.

24 to everyone. Yeah, sure. Okay. I'm at full health, so... Thank you. I know that Nova isn't, and I feel like you're probably the only one at full health. No, I'm not.

But now I am. How much did you say? 24. Is anybody else still injured? A little bit at this point. Sentry, Nova, Lucius. Alright. Herald will also cast Cure Mass Wounds.

Awesome. That's a 3d8 so that's quite a lot of healing. Did that show up? It is showing. It was extremely lagged for me. So that's going to be plus three, so it's only 12. It's only an extra 12 hit points, but that goes to everyone. All good.

I'll do it. Cool. Yeah, in that case, I'll help out with the... Yeah, so you need to do that first. So one perception check and one athletics check, please. From Sentry and Quill. Yeah, so you need to do that first. So one perception check and one athletics check, please. From Sentry and Quill. Yeah, okay. Perception.

Boom. 27. Not 20, 29. Hey, so between the two of you, you go around Quill, you kind of judge the angle, and then you guide Sentry like this way, lift this up, prop this up, angle this, and you go around to each one. And yeah, you think you've angled these perfectly, so they'll drive all of their energy up to the ceiling as necessary.

Amazing. All of them done. You've succeeded on that task. Herald will now turn around and say, this is now the difficult part. I will need to activate the conduit. You will need to channel the power once I'm up there, once it is activated. Sentinel Prime, I will call down for you

when the conduit is fully charged and is capable of being used. I will call down here, but if you wish to be with your allies to help them to heal them, remain down here for the time being. Chipper and Scout, if you can come with me, you can assist me with setting up the conduit. And they sort of nod their heads. There's not much we can do, but we'll go.

And they'll go up with Herald. But she just kind of looks around to everyone last time. I do not know how much power this will generate, how much you will have to endure. I hope that it is not too much but know that this is for the fate of many hundreds who knows how many guardians this could be the key that century and I need to saving as many as we can thank you thank you Harold do you Thank you. Thank you, Harold. Do you have any questions?

No questions. I mean, how much attention is this going to draw? I mean, if they're already heading towards us now, a beacon of light in a glass tower. She just looks impassively at Quill. I suggest that we hurry. Hopefully, if this is successful, Sentry will be able to, if it is the Feral Guardians, we will be able to stop them. Hopefully.

Before we begin, Nova wants to get out the Rod of Alertness and bury it in the middle of the room so that it activates the protective aura. What's the aura size? 60 foot radius. Oh. size 60 foot radius um and it emits yeah it emits bright light and everyone in the bright light to gain a plus one to ac and a plus one to saving throws and you can also send any invisible hostile creature in the bright light cool perfect how long does that last unsure 10 minutes probably 10 minutes okay so yeah you get like this beak this kind of this single rod in the

middle uh it was i think it was actually create you got this from uh shadow song pinnacle didn't you so it's kind of created yeah from that ganassi yeah yeah so it's like all um ethereum based and you can see it's got topped with like a magical crystal and it projects this this thing out. Yeah. The Rod of Alertness fills the area. Herald the others make their way upstairs and you begin to hear them doing something. And then you begin to see the crystals beginning to kind of hum with power. And you can see that the enchantment runes on the floor begin to light up. And two of the crystals or I should say three of the crystals

connected to each other by these kind of coils of power sparks to life and you begin to see kind of raw magic flowing between them and then it begins channeling upwards. But two on the end, two on the south, the chains are broken, like these connectors are broken and the magic begins kind of flailing out everywhere. What do you guys do? I will take a deep breath,

step forward, quietly ask Tiangong if they're ready, and then step into the space where I need to. I will do my best to convert this energy away from you, but you will need to be resolved, Nova Vija. This could be painful.

Yep, I expect that. I will pick up the chains, stand there, and I will rage. Okay. Hey, real quick, I just want to interrupt today's episode to talk about today's sponsor for High Rollers, Manscaped. Manscaped is here to ensure your post-quarantine body is ready for the summer. Even if you've let everything go in lockdown, the least you can do is make sure you're not rocking some gross layer of fur like a bugbear or something. You're not a bugbear, you're a man!

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but you are raging. And Nova, you can add the... Nat 20, baby! Plus two bonus from Tiangong. 29! Add that to your saving throw. 31! Tiangong's going to try and drive.

Sorry. Extra plus two. I was just... Okay. Go on. I was just wondering, crazy question. So I have Alter Self, which means I can change my appearance into a bigger...

Would that help? Like, if I was bigger? Because it says I can basically... I assume a different form. Being bigger. Yeah, don't... How would being bigger help? You sell me on this.

I don't know. I want to look like Ayla. I want to be a big, muscly... Yeah, you can do that. It doesn't help you. You look like Ayla, but it won't help. You're not as strong as Ayla. Again, if you can come up with a good reason,

but just being bigger, I need... How would that help? I think that having a bigger muscle mass and a bigger surface area would better... But it doesn't make you stronger....conduct the flow of magic. How would that help? I think that having a bigger muscle mass and a bigger surface area would better conduct the flow of magic. But it doesn't make you stronger. No, but it would-

It would make you more confident. It's a bigger surface area to diffuse the magic. And it would make me more confident. Her mental resolve. Really good. Through the roof, I'm gonna say no. Probably a 32. But-

It's still gonna be a no. I'm gonna say no, but you could's gonna be a no uh I'm gonna say no but you could probably Nova is smart enough that maybe something with alter self you could do is uh like giving yourself almost because alter self it doesn't have to just be like a disguise like you can actually you know give yourself things like gills and like claws and stuff like that you could maybe try and almost transmute part of your body to have like vents and things like that to try and kind of you know get rid of the the ethereum like you could try and create like areas that can channel it out of your body i'd say that you could try

and do that yeah okay yeah like yeah i think that's what i would try and do is yeah yeah so you create like it's kind of almost let's do it yeah and that's what I would try and do. Yeah. So you create like this kind of almost... Weird, but let's do it. Yeah, and that's the thing is it is weird. Yeah. Go on. Maybe like, you know, my hair just goes completely wild and like starts kind of like sparking all the magic out of it.

And I don't know. I'm thinking vines for some reason. Like kind of vents and, you know, slits and things like in your forearms and your shoulders kind of like open up and like Vents some of the excess magic is gross. It helps so you can have advantage Sweet I'm disgusting. Do I still get a plus two from Tiangong or is that the good? Yeah Constitution saving throw

Okay 13 14 15 16 um on my first 16 total okay uh even for both of you i mean the pain is there ala sorry sorry sorry 19 19 sorry 19 the pain is there ala for you like but it doesn't bother you like this is nothing you've you've endured worse the storm chaser was worse than this like having so much divine lightning channeled through your body really pales in comparison to nova this is still quite painful um just channeling this amount of magic like it feels like your insides are on fire you can feel like your blood burning like it's made of acid but it's also you know there's cold running through your body like all this elemental power is just surging through you at once um you guys uh it's

gonna be a little bit of damage a little bit or a lot 3d 10. we're gonna find out uh so it'd be 19 points of damage half to ayla so that that'd be nine and then 19 to Nova. And that's psychic damage. So no normal resistance to that, but you did pass the save, Ayla. Like it hurts, like holding onto this thing. And it takes a long time. You feel like this humming power

kind of surging through the machines and you're gripping onto it, managing to keep hold um and channeling the energy but it hurts it's painful to do as it does you see flashes um you begin to kind of almost uh you can hear voices you hear guardians screaming and crying and in rage and fear um in hunger in loneliness you like thousands of them from all around you begin to almost hear them in your mind as whatever this conduit is doing is you can feel it like drawing in like all of these voices and it's channeling itself through you as it does it um maddening so the rest of you who are outside watching this happen i mean this goes on for

five ten minutes as like nova and ala are having to hold on like constantly channeling this pain through their bodies it's loud as it surges the lightning through the whole chamber is filled with like crackling of lightning of thunder of like roaring like it's all this magical energy is building up around you but quill cut through it all that lap the noises that you've heard of like the the creatures outside it's becoming clearer and yes there are hordes of feral guardians running around but there's another sound to it it It sounds like a voice, but it's muffled. You can't make out what exactly it's saying.

And then you hear, like, the sound of, like, metal snapping together. You hear something thunderous kind of... the ground outside the tower. What do you do? I will tell everyone. There's something out there, something big, and it's almost here. We might need to

see what it is. The conduit is still not charged. We need to maintain it for a little bit longer. We need to find some way to distract it if it's on its way. Okay, I'm going to start making my way outside and start running down. Right, as you make for the staircase, uh, sentry, just as you're about to reach the

staircase, the walls of the tower, of the floor you're on, three of them smash inward. And you see... Now this is not like supporting beams, the entire wall of the thing has just been shattered. Oh no! Oh, that's a big beast. You see... Oh, he's here! Oh, that's a big face!

Yes! You see... It must be as tall as this midsection of the tower. Gigantic. A giant head bursts through the wall in front of the tower. Gigantic. A giant head bursts through the wall in front of the area. One giant hand rips through one wall. Another hand

rips through the other wall as this looming giant metallic creature that is very clearly a Dominator. You can see almost made those giant Dominators you fought before, the two that were outside the Temple of Siaska. This thing looks like it's made up of multiple of them.

Like they've been joined, connected, snapped together as the giant fist through one end, through the other, and then this face with six glowing red eyes looms through. Sentinel Prime detected. Under orders of Veracitor, engaging now. My friends. Where the hell is Veracitor? Where is he?

It's a great question. Oh, my God. Sentry, you would sort would run over to the stairs. We have Nova in the middle here controlling one thing. Yeah, I was going to head down with Sentry. So I'm pretty much

with Sentry. All you can see, because the glass tower of the crystal, like, it's broken through in sections. Most of its body you can't see. the glass tower of the crystal, like it's broken through in sections. Most of its body you can't see. It's still obscured by the kind of fogged up ice and glass. Sorry, the glass that looks like ice. All that you can see is one giant hand, another giant hand, and then the head. They are three distinct targets.

And we are going to roll initiative. Holy shit! Yes! Oh, that was a bad terrible initiative from me once again. I just rolled another nat 20. What the frick is going on? That's the third one this episode.

Lucius, total. 17. 12. Feliq? 17. 17. Helic? 5. 5. Aayla, 20-something.

25. 25. Sentry? 13. 13. Nova Vigia? 16. 16.

Okay. So to describe it, one of the hand i believe let me check uh there is the right hand and then the left hand and we'll go with uh stage right so white background hand is right gray background is going to be left um and then the head is on the bottom uh the right hand is like a giant like flexible five fingers thumb hand it looks like a giant, like, flexible five-fingers thumb hand. It looks like a kind of giant metal gauntlet that kind of just smashes in. You can't see any other effects to it. The left hand, however, is almost like a giant cannon. And you can see that there is an orange glow deep within the barrel itself.

And then the head has these six red eyes and it's scanning it around. You can see that as it's looking at all of you, all of the conduits shut off. Like the conduits of magic stop working as it's looking directly forwards. Ayla. Oh, right. So I'm no longer channeling anything.

You're not channeling anything. You also, Ayla, notice you don't feel as strong as you normally do. The effects of your belt and your hammer are not working. So what does that mean? Any magic items are not functional. So you're just going to have to... Your strength was 20 before, so it's just basically minus two to your attack rolls and damage rolls.

Okay. Is that the only... I'm just trying to work out the mechanics of this. Yeah, it's just minus two to your attacks and damage, I think. Okay. And if your weapon had a plus on it as well, you wouldn't get the plus. That's what I'm trying to work out because i don't know i think it had a plus one on it so damn that's wait pretty shined yeah not working i'm guessing we'll find out on nova's day um what's

not working I'm guessing we'll find out on over some what's great okay I'm gonna try and smack it in the eye I guess okay rush forward Oh so minus two to my attacks yes I think it would be minus three because you get plus two from your strength and plus one from the weapon. So minus three. So it's plus 10 instead of plus 13, which means there's 20. 20 total. Smacks into the side of the head. Okay. And damage is minus three as well. Yeah?

No? Damage is minus three as well. Yes. Yes. Oh, I rolled a ten, so... Eighteen damage. Eighteen points of damage. The first blow causes it to kind of rock a little bit.

I hit it again in the eye. Sure. This head's massive. I mean, it's huge. Twenty-four to hit. Roll in the eye. Sure. This head's massive. I mean, it's huge. 24 to hit. Rolled a 14. 24 hits. Oh, 16 points of damage.

16 points of damage. As you hit the head, this second blow, your magic seems to come back and all the conduits seem to reappear, but that other one is now erratic as you can see it's opened like as you hit it it seems to it's central eye flickers off

and is no longer glowing red you can see that it's got one central eye and then it has five others and it seems to can I focus on this can he make a deck save then he can try. Oh, 18 minus 2 is 16.

It tries to reel back. 17. Where's my thing? Did you say 16? Fail. 16. Fail. So it takes full damage. Fail. Did you say 16? Fail 16 lightning damage

16 points of lightning damage Shudders back for a moment I guess Can I shout to Harold and say, is it worth going back with the conduit? What do I do? Yes, we still need more power. Okay, I'll go back to holding then.

You grab onto it. Sure. Yes, you rush out for a moment and then grab on and begin focusing the energy. As you do, the right hand is going to come in. It doesn't like what you just did and it's going to punch you really hard. A lot. Do it from here.

It's going to punch you a lot. Jeez. That is going to be 28 to hit. Yep. 16 points of bludgeoning damage. So if you're raging, that's eight. And you are grappled and restrained, Ayla, as this thing wraps around you,

like grabbing you in its palm. And you can see that as it grips you, you can begin to feel like necrotic energy pulling at your life force. Lucius. Seeing the grapple, I'll try and snap out of whatever I'm going through right now. And focus a dramatic orb on that hand. Okay, sure.

Sixth level. So here we go. Plus 10. It's a 23 that's gonna be a hit it's gonna be acid as well 88 31 points 33 points as the acid splashes over the hand where it grabs Ayla, almost in a reaction, the intensity of the blow causes it to drop Ayla. You are no longer grappled or restrained, Ayla.

I send 11 points of Dicromancy at that red eye. Yes, you can. It still hits the creature. There's no called shots in D&D. But you do kind of splash over and it kind of turns its head at the last second, causing it to spray across its face plate.

But yeah, definitely still injures the head. Seemingly, yeah, your magic, for a moment there, Lucius, you couldn't feel magic. And then Aayla hit the head and then it came back on like a light switch. Like you kind of went, oh, and then you could still cast um nova um so we're all connected to magic right now is the conduit is

the magic kind of flowing through nova at the moment from the conduit or um it's the magic has returned yeah the the as soon as the the head central eye turned off magic seemed to come back in and you're now sort of holding back onto this thing i'm i'm i'm kind of wondering about like maybe throwing some of the magic from this conduit at the eye at the you don't really have control of it in that sense like it's you're like holding like two pieces of chain and it's just going through your body across like using your body like a like a conductor yeah um in which case i would like to uh i'm gonna cast wall of light um and bring it up over um the head unit okay 15 it will still be able to see over it because this is a huge creature um but it will be can i stack it up you could do yeah depends on how you can build it 60 foot

it's 60 foot and i can stack it so i'm pretty sure i can stack i'm pretty sure i've stacked it before uh the wall can be actually long uh actually let me just uh cast on oh god ignore that roll um but i've just done it so you can see the text for it um but like a shimmering wall of light appears at a point i choose the wall appears in any orientation i choose horizontal vertical diagonal free floating or rest on a solid surface it can be up to 60 so i probably can't it'd be up to 60 foot long 10 foot high and five foot thick um it blocks like you could do it in like the very middle but the because the thing is so big it's still not going to block its vision it will be in its way like you'll still have to make the saving throw and stuff it will still affect it it just

won't completely block it from seeing in but it will give you like if it's 10 foot wide it would do sort of like 60 foot long I'm just trying to think wide would be like arm that and then what you could do is you could do it vertically well that's the thing though is if you want it to go along the ground this thing's gonna be able to see over it the hands will be able to pass over it by these giant holes if you did it in the center you could make it 60 feet up but 10 feet wide so it covers the entire like space from floor to ceiling so this thing would it would block its vision basically to an extent I'll do that one

then so it goes up yes it's like a column rather than like a wall it's like a column of light. Yeah. So could you make me a constitution saving throw, which it probably will make. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Everybody, don't forget as well,

because while the protective aura is up, you still have plus one to AC and plus one to saving throws. There's a 24. 24, yeah, okay. So it's going to be half and you're not going to be blinded. Okay. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 points of radiant damage. 17 points. Is 8?

That'd be 8, yeah. 8 points of radiant. Now this column of light is in the centre of the... The kind of in front of this thing. All good? Yeah. Yes. Okay.

Um, if it ends its turn in the wall, it takes more damage, so. Sure. Sentry. I'm going to move on down to the left hand here. Um, and I'm going to cast, uh, enlarge and get big time and then as a bonus action I'm going to harness divine power and regain a level 2 spell slot okay full turn full-tone thank you okay century you're the one who sees this. The cannon hand, which you're currently facing, the left hand,

you see it beginning to glow inside. I'm going to roll a D3. Three. Yeah, it seems to kind of glow with power, but it's just going to try and slam into you for now. Okay. That is a 30 to try and slam into you for now. Okay. That is a 30 to hit. That does hit.

Christ. For 19 points of damage as it kind of just slams into you and you can begin to see, you feel heat building inside the barrel of this giant arm cannon as it does. Quill. I would like to cast an Aura of Vitality for one action, and I will use the 2d6 as a bonus action on this turn to heal...

Aayla, who I think took the most damage in this turn, also from the healing as well. Not the healing, the, uh, conduit thing. So you heal for seven. Um, and I'll be able to keep the Aura of Vitality up for future turns as well. Uh, and that's my turn. That's me. Okay. I'll back up a little bit as well, just I don't want to be nearby anyone else when this cannon goes off.

On the heads go, the red central eye illuminates. And Nova, I hate to tell you this, but with the anti-magic, your wall of light is going to disappear. Yeah, the cone basically fills the space. Like this. Oh my god, did I just evade the... No, I just didn't fully extend it, Quill. It's a 60-foot cone.

It goes actually one space further. No! Okay, so my aura of vitality is also immediately down. Let me extend it. Are they dispelled or are they just blocked? Like, or is it dispelled? So let me look up the spell. Anti-magic field or anti-magic, whatever it's called.

Spells and other magical effects, except those created by an artifact or a deity, are suppressed in the sphere and can't protrude so it just it is suppressed so while the while this anti-magic cone is activated the wall is not there it's like the section that he's looking through disappears and it's like the wall just isn't there um but so i would say like the sections of not that isn't like yeah tiangong's an artifact would be fine is the rod the rod's not an artifact it's just a magic item an artifact is a specific type of magic item yeah got it an artifact is like a specific thing of magic item um okay yeah magic items spells magical travel dispel magic like

none of this stuff works basically as long as it's in the cone. Magic is shut off while it is in the cone. So Sentry, you are narrowly missed by this cone, like you're in large, everything else still seems to be working, but everybody else it seems to completely shut off. As it also does so, it is also going to fire three rays from its eyes its five eyes uh it is going to shoot uh nova um it is going to shoot a black ray at uh at ala it is going to shoot a uh a sort of pinkish ray um right so nova and uh quill you both need to make uh nova can you make a deck saving throw quill can you make a con saving throw and then ayla i've got to try and hit you with an attack roll 13 23 to hit ayla yep. Yep. Yep, hits. All right, Quill, you were struck by this black ray. Gray ray?

I thought I got a gray ray. 19 necrotic damage. I got a gray ray. Yep. I got black. Is it still 19 necrotic? Okay. 19 necrotic.

Nova, when this black ray hits you, it hurts. Is it a spell? Or does it work like a spell? Um, again, not really, but this is crazy. I hate how D&D phrases, like, spell, because this is basically a spell, but it's not. Um, because she would be in your aura wouldn't she yeah also does tiangong can is is that is tiangong an artifact because i'm like yes but your warlock powers don't come from an artifact item like that there's no phrasing they're still class abilities um you can't get around it that way see that's But Tiangong himself is still sentient.

So Tiangong is still there, but you can't access your powers while he's active. Otherwise any warlock could be like, I'm a hexblade warlock, I'm immune to anti-magic now. It just doesn't work that way. I'm trying to decide on if this counts as a spell. Well if it's like an energy boom kind of thing, then, like... No, you do you, boo. So normally this is an effect taken from a beholder.

If it's like an innate thing that this creature can do naturally, I say naturally, it's a giant mechanical guardian thing. Yeah. Yeah, but if it's like something that the race can say naturally, it's a giant mechanical guardian thing. Yeah. But if it's like something that the race can do naturally, then I guess it's not really a spell. Yeah. Actually it's a natural ability. That's

a point. I'm going to undo that damage, Tom, that 19 damage. It can't actually use its rays in its own cone and it would know that. So instead it would basically be targeting everything at sentry that it it can see oh because it can't physically shoot you guys while the cone is active um so and it catches most of you by doing it in the middle so there's a good point it can't use its rays in its own cone so sentry it's going to choose to shoot you with... It's not going to use...

Can you do a... I'm going to do an attack against you, and can you do a dexterity saving throw, and I'll make two attacks against you. All righty. Sorry, Sentry. No, you're all good. First one's a miss. Second one is a miss.

19. Okay, you succeed. Wow wow you should avoid all this yeah well it's not avoid it sentry fucking tanks it like a pro um and the nice thing is is on the big nasty black ray if i admit if it if you succeed it just does no effect the black ray you sense how powerful this is and you kind of throw yourself to the side. You watch as it hits a section of the glass staircase. It disintegrates it into dust. It just turns it to a dust as it strikes it. In another world, that would be over.

The two other rays, they strike you, but you manage to deflect one with your shield. And as the other one hits you, you sense it trying to weaken you, but the matrix kind of staves it off and you manage to kind of uh debuff this this ray effect that it's projecting um nice that is the head's go ayla so magic is down again so can i if i So, can I, if I go towards the head at this side, I'm not in its ray? Yeah, I mean, technically your characters can't see the ray, but yes, when you move forward, you suddenly realize like, oh, my belt and magic's come back on.

I mean, if she was going like this across the line she'd probably oh wait yeah exactly that's like the way i see it is ayla rushes just straight down and he's like oh hang on a minute if i stand here my hammer's glowing again huh and also my muscles are four times bigger again well no because it's the belt makes her stronger yeah uh i'll give it a couple of whackings in the face. Sure. So 20 to hit. 20 does hit. Oh, my. Stop that.

20 total damage on the first one. 20 points of damage. That went away. I have just rolled another natural 20. Jesus Christ. Nice. Amazing. I'm...

What? Roll the damage. Good stuff. 30. 30. Good stuff. 30. 30. So 41 plus 3d10. Big mess.

It's all mess. 60 silence um and a dexter hammer comes smashing down gouges a huge chunk out of this thing's jaw and you watch as the central red eye powers down once again the wall of light springs back up. Okay. Oh, does my... Do I still have concentration? Yes, it only

suppresses the effect. You were still concentrating on it and everything else. Okay. Sweet. And then deck saving three. Yes. And it's 16 as a total. 16 lightning. 16. Blasting this thing.

You can see the armor plates falling off the head, smoke pouring out of it, but still functional. The arms certainly don't show any sign of stopping as well. Yeah. Now that magic's back, I guess I'm just gonna jump back and just be like, Harold, hurry up! It is not up to me, it is simply the time that it takes to charge. What is happening down there?

How much longer? A few more moments! Right, in that case... I think this is... Yeah, it's gonna just try and grab Aayla again. Right, in that case... Hmm... I think this is... Yeah, it's gonna just try and grab Ayla again as the hand comes in. Whack. 30 to hit.

Ayla. Mark, my AC is currently 20. I know. I just rolled the damage. I just rolled the damage. 28. You are raging, yes, so 14. But you are grappled and restrained. Okay.

But still channeling the magic. Just about, yeah. That's all you can really do is you're holding on to these gauntlets while you're being crushed by this thing. Lucius. I think Lucius, whilst there is this moment of respite, he's going to focus on the head of it. So he's going to, again, go for a high power.

You'll need to move, Lucius, as the wall of light currently is blocking your line of sight. Okay. There. So you rush across to the side of the room. Shoots. Almost sits down on this... Like trips into this glass chair. Ice chair. Glass chair, yeah.

And then fires a Chromatic Orb at level... The fifth level this time. Don't have enough Font of Magic to twin it or anything. Oh, that's only a 13. I do have enough, however, to try a seeking spell. You gonna do it? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Need these things to hit.

Here we go. Oops, it says firebolt, but it's plus 10. 18. Is that enough? No. Just hits the head. The armor plating weakened by Aayla's hammer. It manages to strike true, just avoiding the wall of light. Excellent.

And here's my damage. Looks pretty alright. 37 points of acid damage. 37 points of damage. You watch as this wave of acid conjured by Lucius's magic streams forward and just cascades over the held,

melting pretty much all of the head away. Oh, no. You've got this, Lucius. That was amazing. Wow. Nice. And then 10 Dicromancy to the stage right. Left or right.

So the one that's grappling Aayla. Yes. And 10 points. Left or right. So the one that's grappling Ayla. Yes. That's 10. 10 points. Throw the acid in it, kind of coats the hand, but it doesn't let go this time. Seemingly not enough of a strong blow to cause it to release its grip.

Nova. I will channel the wall of light to strike out the hand that's grappling Ayla. So I make a melee spell attack. That is a 17 to hit. That is not enough. It glances off the hand's armor.

Just glancing off of it. Anything else? That's all I got. Sentry. How's this left hand looking? Pretty much untouched. It's glowing with power.

Yeah. Okay. Can I try and get underneath it and lift it up so everybody's out of its range? That, to me, sounds like you want to grapple the giant hand, which you absolutely can do. So you need to roll to hit it with an unarmed strike, and then it will be a contested strength check.

Sentry with all the cool plays here. I love it, though. I love it. High five. 19. 19 hits. So now just roll plus strength. Plus strength.

You should play rock, paper, scissors with it. 23. I want to play rock, paper, scissors with it. Oh, 24. You push yourself and you're trying to lift this giant hand to push up and you're straining, you're succeeding, but then it seems to just push down on you and it kind of pushes you down and towards the ground, unable really find purchase you're still grappling it but it's just this round

it's it's won the contest basically okay pharaoh dues oh you do get a d4 for being enlarged that's true oh um was it a saving throw as well? Was that a saving throw? No, it's not. It's just an ability check. It's a two! It's a two! That's enough! With your giant form, you manage to push the cannon

so it's aiming up rather than towards your allies and the crystal and you're kind of holding it up there like... as you do so oh nice cool that's pretty much gonna be your turn though because you can't really attack while you're grappling this thing i just said like everybody get down as like yeah i'm lifting this thing up you do uh you can shout that out to everybody as i'm gonna roll a d6 here I'm gonna roll a d6 here oh you see this thing

lets out a just geyser of flames that fills the entire room by the way it just oh having built up so much power over the last couple of seconds the flame just

completely fills the room. You all take no damage as it is pointing up. Sentry literally avoiding everybody from taking what would have been... Holy crap. 46 plus seven. That would have been 11 D6 fire damage to everybody in the room.

And Sentry was like holding up like, ah! That is... I mean, you may as well roll it to see what we would have avoided there too. Sure, I want to know. I want to see how much damage the room above us just took. Well, this is a very tall building. So it would have been 38 fire damage

to everybody in the room. It's fine. Everybody. Century just holds it up like an absolute champion um it's gonna try and uh it's gonna try and slam down on you it's gonna have disadvantage because you're grappling it actually no you're not it's not restrained so it's just gonna try and slam on you century um okay as you've ruined ruined its cool thing it's only at 14 to hit though so it tries to like slam you into the ground and you just resolutely hold it up.

Quill? Nice. I'm going to do a bonus action heal on Aayla again because getting a lot of punchies is Aayla. And also I want to... where was it? I want a Guiding Bolt. My favorite spell. I haven't done it in a long ass time. I want to Guiding Bolt the fist next to Aayla too. Okay.

So the heal... 2d6. Two healing. Yikes. And I've got a plus 13 to hit. So, boom. 20. Unnatural 20. 20 hits.

And 46 damage to this dude on the right. Nine damage and advantage on the next hit. Advantage on the next hit. Sadly, not enough to cause it to let go of Ayla. Still holds her in a grip, but you can see the kind of thing glances off against it anything else in your turn Quill? I'm gonna

yeah fly to the south of the room as well so if this thing does try and shoot again I mean it hits the entire room but yeah I'm gonna move to the south of the room and that's me okay alright the last thing before we wrap up today you hear Herald call down,

Sentry, come up here now. We're almost ready. Just hold on just a few seconds longer, but Sentry, you need to come up here and be ready, is the last thing you hear, kind of Herald kind of calling down to you. The hands are still in position, still trying to like fight,

trying to reach the crystals, trying to fight you guys. Sentry, you hear Herald call down and then you also hear something smash up above you and that's where we're going to win today's episode it's got a tail and it just put a tail through the window now. Like a scorpion tail. So is it a scorpion tail? Is it a scorpion tail through the window? No, it's not. Or is it just his booty?

Did he just booty bump the entire tower? Is he twerking the tower? I knew it, of course he is. Also, if his head and hands are at the mid-level, how is his booty going to get the top part of the tower? His waist just slowly flips upwards. It just rotates upwards. He's really, really good at twerking, Mark.

It's a stripper pole. Yeah yeah he's using it as a pole like yeah you know he's got some students where they they can do yeah pole fitness they can lift their whole body size of the thing when the booty cut it's gonna start smashing windows yeah uh nice good job awesome thanks thanks That was a good job for what I just said, right? Yeah. Interestingly, I added the mechanic where if the head took enough damage, it would shut off the anti-magic cone. Kind of, I'm like, I shouldn't have done that. Because I forget that Aayla can just be like, 40 points of damage, meh.

40 points of damage, it's fucking off, innit? Like don't need magic, hit smash. Actually, yeah, he didn't take the extra 48 damage from finishing his turn in the wall so um well he kicked because he shut the wall off you shut the wall off so he didn't take so he didn't take the extra damage for being in the wall at the end of his term oh so it did something it did something yeah i guess initiatives also worked out perfectly there where like Ayla could just whack him

before anybody else's turn went. Yeah. So it's just like he was last, Ayla was first. So it just meant that the anti-magic cone meant nothing apart from to Ayla, who was just like, don't whack me, smash. If any of us started our turn without any magic, I mean, I can't do anything.

I've got talons. Yeah, same. I think like everybody but no no um nice yeah good job we did it we did it we did it we did it yeah and also god sentry with the giga play yeah so that was so cool and again i want to highlight that because you know a lot of people oh why do you do stuff that's not like an attack or a spell? That's fucking why you do stuff that's just fucking cinematic and cool. And you as a DM, you're like, fuck, yeah, that's awesome. You know what?

It completely misses everybody. And you just, yeah, you absolutely just save the fucking day because that's the cool shit that you spent your time doing. I fucking love it. And there was a chance that since you could fail, like if she, she almost failed that, but it was only because of the enlarged default that she got the the to actually lift it up you know that's dope yeah it was an entire turn and two saving throws as well to make it succeed it was deserved um and then oh yeah earned for sure it's very cool such a such a cool encounter it's like well you might be able to tell

i've been playing a lot of final fantasy raids and i was like yeah two giant hands and then like separate things and like if you hit one it does duff damage it stops this thing go yeah yeah that'd be fucking cool let's do that like i thought about that with the uh when the missile came out like it targeted one person and you just have to run away for ages until it hits you or whatever. Or attack it or destroy it. I thought it was. Thank you so much, everybody, for joining us for today.

Very exciting episode. Once again, big thank you to our sponsors, D&D Beyond. We love you. We'll see you next time. All right. Bye, everybody. Bye. Bye.

Bye. © transcript Emily Beynon