High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #127 | Lilac Grass and Giant Trees (Part 2)

Episode Date: October 28, 2021

The team warp themselves to the Feywild and are instantly lost in a magical land of lilac grass and giant trees! 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 Grab some High Rollers merch: https://freshmerch.fm/collections/high-rollers 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. Own each step with Peloton. From their pop runs to walk and talks, you define what it means to be a runner. Whatever your level, embrace it. Journey starts when you say so. If you've got five minutes or 50, Peloton Tread has workouts you can work in. Or bring your classes with you for outdoor runs, walks, and hikes led by expert instructors on the Peloton app. Call yourself a runner. Peloton All Access Membership Separate. Peloton All Access membership separate. Learn more at onepeloton.ca slash running. The multicolored light that surrounds you as you travel across astral space slowly begins

to fade. The smell of hearty woodlands, the sound of wind blowing through trees, and the soft, delicate touch of sunlight caresses your skin as your vision clears and you find yourselves in a new world. You appear to be stood in a clearing of wood. The trees seem as tall as the grandest spires of horizon, and their thick branches are covered in leaves of luminous blue the grass at your feet is a soft lilac numerous flowers and shrubs grow in patches scattered across the ground with pink blossoms and soft green flowers sprouting out that will have a gentle ethereal glow to them. Wait, wait, wait. You said the grass was lilac?

Yeah. And then there's green flowers? They're pink and green, sort of like shrubs and flowers and things like that. My mind is really struggling with that concept. That's wild. Oh, man.

All the leaves on the trees are like luminous blue. They're like high saturation, near glowing blue. That's cool. Okay, Lucius, you can breathe out now. No words can describe what I'm seeing. Are you all seeing this? Are my eyes okay? I'm seeing it maybe in some kind of usage of the book.

I mean, we saw a lot of rainbow coming down here. This does not seem right, but my eyes aren't adjusting. The book broke me. It's spellbinding. It's beautiful, but it's so unnerving to see the colors. It's so vibrant. It's certainly strange. Okay, before we do anything else,

just stay still. I'm going to pop a Divine Sense. Just Sentry's in like defense mode, big time right now. Yeah, sure. What kind of creatures does Divine Sense pick up on again? Anything affected by the hallow spell or no location may celestial fiend or undead celestial fiend or undead yeah you do not sense any of those

types of creatures nearby okay so there's no celestial fiends are undead nearby yeah okay good around here okay anything? Any Valkyrie? I can't see any. You are in a thick woodland at the moment. You are in the heart of a dense forest of crazy tall trees. You cannot see the sky. The trees are so tall and their canopy is so thick. But it's not dark because all of these patches of these pink and green flowers are giving off this ever so slight faint glow and they're spread out throughout the

entire wood so this whole area is like dimly lit you're almost like in a twilight where the sun hasn't fully set but it's low enough that it's kind of everything's quite um dusky you know it's kind of got this very strange blue, pink-blue glow. I did say that there's no way of controlling where the book was going to attune us. We could be anywhere in the Feywild, so I think we just need to find some way of getting a location. While Quill, Sentry, and Lucius are having this moment,

Nova, you feel like Thalia just collapsed to her knees, and you're still holding her hand, and she's still holding yours. But she's just looking, just tears fully in her eyes, just openly, tears just flowing down her face. And she's reaching out with her hand, and she's brushing her out with a hand and she's like brushing her hand against the grass um i'm just like it's completely stunned silent like she's just completely absorbed in this world um i'll kneel down next to her and put her arm around her and um i'm just gonna let

her cry for a little bit and then after beat i'm just gonna look at her and go so this is what grass is she just laughs like you know it's kind of like a choking sob laugh like in part of this world yes yes there's some places which will be a bit more familiar to you but yeah yeah this is grass and she just sort of like smiles at you i think i prefer the grass on your world than the grass on my world if i'm honest definitely has a definitely has a unique look to it you can see the snakes by the way of like come out of her like trousers and her sleeves and they're like wriggling around in the lilac grass and like having a whale of a time uh rose meadow who when you look back at rose meadow she's just like

it's just like freaking out she starts like literally like prancing like a horse like doing that like excited like dancey walking that they do and like she's going over to the flowers and she's like picking them up and like smelling them and like just frolicking she's full on frolic at this point outside of all of that noise of frolicking can I hear any

what can I hear can I hear any like creatures out there or yeah I mean there's definitely creatures you can hear like birds you know as you guys started speaking there was probably like some you know movement from one of the trees like a like a bunch of birds got spooked and scared um yeah i mean it sounds like a wood sounds like woods do right like you can occasionally hear like you know birds in the distance maybe some rustling in some of the the thick patches of shrubs further away and stuff like that.

And looking up, like, how tall are these trees? I mean, these are crazy tall. Like, we are talking, like, hundreds of feet. But these are, like, as tall as the tallest buildings in Horizon. Tall. So, I mean, what I was thinking was potentially flying up to beyond the canopy of this thing. You can try. Yeah, you can try.

I'm going to see if I can find out where we are and maybe try and spot some settlement or something nearby. Give us an idea of where we could go. Be careful. I will. It doesn't mean I'm up. You could get shot out of the sky by Valkyrian ships. We don't know what's just beyond that canopy right there. Just be careful.

I mean, this place is huge. I'll have to be watching this exact spot for the moment that I jump out. But I'll be careful. For the time being uh maybe try and talk to Rosemeadow maybe there's some way that she could identify this place some innate understanding I don't know um I look at her prancing around uh oh what was that is that like a little squirrel and like she's like like running around the perimeter like...

Can we turn to Thalia and just be like, do you recognize where we are by any chance? Not by sight. We're not in Heartspire, my kingdom, or the kingdom that I was part of um we're not there uh heartspire looks more like eros it's still um vibrant but it's it's more i guess what you would think of as normal to your understanding of the world green leaves grass, that sort of thing. So I don't think we must be a distance away. I didn't explore much beyond the borders of Heartspire when I was younger, or even as a young

woman, but this doesn't look like any of the neighboring territories. We must be at least a territory or two away from Heartspire. The problem with the Feyw wild is that it is split into many different provinces each ruled by different lords and ladies of dukes and duchesses the main thing you should know wherever we are if this if this is a province which is ruled by a sentient archfey an archfey who is like us rather than a beast or a creature archfey can impose rules on their domains um and when i say rules i don't just mean laws there will be laws and things like that but these will be magical rules that you adhere to and that there are severe consequences for breaking. Okay, so for now, keep a low profile. Perhaps ask Rosemary to just take it down a little bit.

Certainly. I think that until we know where we are, until we know whose domain that we are in, we should be cautious, certainly. But it also can be that that can make things safer for us. A lot of the archfes and lords, they don't like people causing trouble. This is one of the reasons that whilst Lunaria is a part of the Valkyrian Empire, we're not conquered in the same way that Calus is seeking to do with Erois. We join voluntarily and Calus leaves ruling of the planet to the Archfey lords and ladies here because even if Valkyrian troops were to land, the magic would still have some power

over them here. It can make things like attacking creatures difficult. It can make stealing from them difficult. It depends on the archfey really they set their own rules i have a question now is the time i think before we before we step any further whatever knowledge i have but keep in mind lucius it's been a long time since i was here it's close to something like 800 years, 700 years. A lot can change. I was going to ask about time actually, considering that we've been in certain places where time acts differently than it does on Aroas. Now, does that affect your curse being here?

I don't know. I honestly don't know. my understanding is that most places in astral space um time will progress for us no different to arois we will still experience days of around the same length etc but it's how much time passes on other worlds can vary i mean you saw this with arois itself it may be that a day here is half a day back on a rowis or maybe it's two days or three days it's not normally longer than that there are there are stories of people getting trapped in the twilight nebula um beyond lunaria who they wander in and uh as young strapping soldiers and they emerge as old geriatrics. That seems to be more of the case if you are out in the wilds of the nebula. Here on Lunaria, time seems to function as it does in most of the astral space, most

of the worlds of the astral space, but I don't know. It may affect this curse more and she kind of looks at it. You can see that there's been some progress, like the thorn is coiling up her arm. It looks a little bit further ahead than what it was in the thorn is you know coiling up her arm it looks a little bit further ahead than what it was um in the few hours that it you know you've been making plans on a rowist and things like that um i'm sure you're keeping a keen eye on its progress nova as anthalia and whether we could it's worth looking and seeing if it's shifting at increasingly fast or slower speeds than what it was on Aureus. I'll keep an eye on it.

As far as I can tell, I don't know if there are any effects to it apart from killing me. I haven't felt any different. I'm not in pain or ill or anything. Just apart from death. What I'm saying, my dear, is that unlike a normal poison, normally with a poison you begin to feel nauseous or running a temperature or something like that and I've not noticed anything like that so far. Good.

Well, that's something. I'll let you know if that changes, of course. I don't want to put any of you at greater risk. If there's anything I can share, I will. Now's not the time for playing a hero speaking of heroes here it comes so yeah quill did you so you fly up and you want to kind of get to the canopy and stuff before yeah before i uh fly above it i want to instead cast Arcane Eye and have that float above while I fly back

down. So invisible Arcane Eye. Is there a range on it? Can it go far away from you? Yeah, I can cast it 30 feet from me, but... After that it just... After that it can have any range. So you could just leave it up there, basically. Yeah. There's no limit how far away.

But it would just stay there above the canopy and then you fly back down and you can switch your vision to the... You just are aware of what it can see, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can move it around as well. Yeah. Well, even when you fly up there,

it's kind of a little, you fly up and it takes you a while, right? Because the trees become so dense, the closer you get to the canopy, you eventually have to like fly to a branch and then sort of like climb up a little bit and then you can fly to the next one because they become so thick and tense. It actually takes you a fair bit of time

to get all the way to the canopy. But eventually you manage to flap up, you push yourself through the uppermost leaves and you're greeted by the most incredible sky streaked with purple and pink and blue. But as it seems to stretch out further and further, you know, when it gets to the real horizon, that sky begins to shift and change.

In one direction, it becomes almost slate gray um streaked with like black and white and then in the other it becomes much more like blues and and light greens and it becomes more like the eros erosian sky but it's so much brighter and more saturated and you can see that that is on the very edges of like the horizon distance you can see that changing the canopy canopy stretches out. I mean, this place stretches out for miles. The canopy is just miles and miles of this luminous blue forest. A real-life equivalent would be something like the Black Forest in Germany,

like this huge woodland that stretches like a huge chunk of land. But you do think that in the distance it does begin to sort of like disperse and you know you could pretty much pick any direction travel in it and eventually you'll find something else but you don't see any things like settlements or anything immediately okay but the main thing is one direction is a color as good as the other direction yeah so that's the only thing is like's like, yeah, like to the west, the sky becomes more gray and black. And then to the east,

it becomes more like the Erosian sky and it becomes more colorful. And then you've got this kind of, yeah, kind of bluey pink around this forest area. Cool. Yeah, when I get back... Wow, that was tougher than I thought it was going to be. And sorry if I dropped anything on you from up there.

But, I mean, whatever we're in, we are in the middle of it. This place is huge. But the only identifying thing I can spot is in one direction, grey skies in the other one, it's like a rowis, I mean, I've no idea, Talia, what your what it's like where you're from.

It's more like a rowis where I'm from, but again this was 800 years ago. It could be that Mesmer has changed things. The archfey here, I mentioned to you that they can project these magical It could be that Mesmer has changed things. The Archfey here... I mentioned to you that they can project these magical rules, but they also shape the province that they're in.

Emotions have power here. Things like... It depends on the strength of the Archfey who rules that particular domain or that kingdom. They might exert their will, and other people might not be able to influence it very much. But if you're in a region where the archfey is particularly weak or not particularly sentient, or is perhaps more of like a creature or a spirit, you'll find that your own emotions. And she gestures and she points at Rosemeadow, look at the way that the area is changing around Rosemeadow.

And you can see that Rosemeadow is carrying these flowers, but the flowers, the patterns on them almost look like little smiley faces. The patterns in the flowers form little smiley faces. And there's butterflies flying around her, and the very air is shaping around her and like it like the very air is kind of like shaping around her whereas like and then and then Thalia points at Kairi who's looking more nervous and you can see that like the grass that was lilac is more blue around her and things like that like you can see that their emotional states are actually influencing the area around them so it could be that mesmera has maybe changed

heartspire uh it may be it might still be like the erosian sky it might be this black gray color i don't know um i think the best thing we need to find somebody who knows the feywild now we need to find a settlement or um a traveler or somebody who might be able to give us some more information. That would be the best way to get an understanding of what has happened to Heartspyre. Okay, in that case, I think we just have to pick a direction. I can't spot anything. I mean, the Arcane Eye is so high up now, I don't imagine it will spot any small villages or settlements or anything like that, but I can keep it up there and just keep an eye out. But also, no ships, no Valkyrian, anything. I imagine that Valkyrian will keep his forces

in one of the major cities or keep them in orbit. I imagine that most of the people we'll meet here will be in service of the Archfey Lords and Ladies. That doesn't mean they will be friendly. If you're wanted by the Valkyrian Empire and that news has reached here, it's likely that they'll know who you are and they may wish to capture you to gain favor with Valkyrians. The other thing I should let you know is that the Feywild is Lunaria, the Twilight Nebula. It gives power to things here. Concepts can become creatures.

I was always told stories about the Rose Knight. The Rose Knight is an embodiment of love. They are not just a knight who believes in love. They are the concept of love given a physical form things like death death walks lunaria like death is a figure that will just wander this place and if we meet them yes they they may wish to just do what they do and and fin and end us they have the capability to do the thing that created them? Potentially. I've never met any of them myself. These figures, because they're such big concepts,

they're extremely powerful. And they tend to basically focus on whatever it is that they are. The Rose Knight, for example, is supposed to be a champion of love. They are supposed to help people fall in love, help end love. Anything to do with it, they are connected to it in some way, in the same way that death is. Death is the bringer of... They are finality here. Many creatures here are not immortal, but they'll simply be reborn somewhere else. But death will end them.

Death is their finality here okay well let's avoid avoid death lucius don't be scared i'm absolutely fine i don't know what you mean uh the grass around you is quivering it's not it's just the breeze uh it's literally like there are like patches in the grass like the grass is forming the shape of of a skull and crossbones around Lucius. You can see that it's quivering, shaking, and it forms this scared death thing. What if I manifest something, like another death, just by thinking about it?

It's interesting. I think the concepts like the Rose Knight and death, they are conjured by the myriad of... There are many, many people here who believe in these concepts, and that's what gives them such a complex form. As an individual, I don't think you'd be able to, even a powerful individual like us, we may be able to conjure spirits, creatures,

but they won't be anywhere near as powerful. But you should just be wary of your emotions here. That's not to say to be emotionless, but just be conscious of them. Certainly, if we all believe in something, the more minds that are united in a concept, the stronger that concept can be, and that can give its form more power, is the thing to try and understand.

An individual's feelings. is the thing to try and understand. An individual's feelings. Let's all concentrate on having a decursing entity. The uncurse. The uncursor that can help Thalia immediately.

And he's wearing purple robes. Imagine it in your minds now. Purple robes and glowy hands. And when he places his hands upon someone, their curses are gone forever. Curses lifted, yes. Sure. Whoever's imagining that,

I'd like you all to roll just a d20 plus... Well, yeah, maybe. Ayla's not doing it. It's a d20 plus either your intelligence, your wisdom, or your charisma modifier. So no proficiency modifier, just your modifier your intelligence your wisdom or your charisma modifier So no proficiency modified just your modifier for intelligence wisdom or charisma And natural 20 and then that way yeah, we've gone eight

Ten so 38 total and then Nova I'm trying to decide whether or not to roll okay I'm trying to decide whether or not to roll. Okay. Nova's going to act. I don't know how this would show. I'm going to tell you what I'm thinking, Mark, and I'm going to ask what you think this manifests as. Nova, for all her belief that she's here and here is the solution,

there's something in her, in her heart of hearts, that doesn't think that this curse is going to get lifted. Sure. She just doesn't think it's going to happen. Oh, that's great to know. So the three of you, so Nova, the manifestation for you would be minor because it's just an individual, it's like a worry. It's not like a concept necessarily.

And I think that we see it in the the the kind of the colors around like nova i think that maybe like um there is uh like a tree branch behind nova there it begins to like creak and groan and it almost just seems to you almost think for a second over it's like saying failure like in its groan of like the wood but it could almost be like a breeze like shifting the branch um and the colors just seem a bit more muted around you um the other three you all try and focus on this thing and you actually all begin to see because you're all powerful individual creatures like the more powerful the creature got imagining stuff affects it you begin to see this form like this kind of misty form but it's erratic

it's all over the place like it's wearing purple rose but that seems to change into like more of like a gust haven nobleman's outfit and then it becomes more like a priest robe at the top but then there's like armor and shoulders and then it seems to have many but it's all missed and then it just dissipates it's like something is beginning to form and then it just dissipates. It's like something is beginning to form, and then it just vanishes. We did it. That was it. The decursor. Well, I mean, I tried to describe purple robes.

I feel like it was obvious that I was going for the clerical robes. No, no, it would be more like a sorcerer's robes, like a mystical entity. It would be like a fighter, like strong and ready to take on anything. Right. Okay, we are not united in this one, but we... Either way... Key, like, you're trying to physically manifest something like that.

It's very difficult. The individuals of the Feywild, we don't bother trying anymore. Certainly very powerful archfey or perhaps individuals can manifest smaller creatures to do simple things, but trying to manifest a concept of a universally powerful thing that can undo curses, I think that's quite a reach to do something like that. But you might be able to manifest something smaller and simpler but it's difficult to do uh people have different

minds about these sorts of things but things like the concept of love or death that's very easy for a lot of people to imagine and so it creates a stronger stronger visage stronger persona okay okay uh in that case we just i think we just need to get moving and uh try and find some way um i mean if i spin the eye around i guess there's no real indication of a good direction to go beyond Erosion sky versus grey, miserable. And even then, you could still just go north. Like, maybe if you go further north, the sky will start changing once you've travelled a bit to the north or south, you know? Okay.

But now it's just a big old wood. I would say maybe make a survival check for me, Quill. A survival? Oh, plus 11, really? Yeah, I think Ayla would probably do this she's in like a wood as well 15 17 I think you and Ayla would definitely and Ayla maybe points out and says like alright I know you're

having a fun time looking around and like you spot this at the same time Ayla does it does look like there's a trail and she points to what does seem to be like a very faded well worn woodland trail that seems to pass through this clearing um and it leads to the north and south and it it's not really a road but it's more that like trees have been cleared branches have been pushed aside the ground the grass is a little bit

more worn not very obvious at first but for people that know what to look for like you can definitely tell and see that there is something of a path traveling north to south. I think this will be the way to go. It looks like someone's used this before. So if we just try and follow this as best we can, we'll find something or someone or some who. So this looks like the best way. We have nothing else to go on right now. No, not at all. So, this looks like the best way.

We have nothing else to go on right now. No, not at all. And we're in the middle of a very big forest. Oh, we need to get a move on regardless. So any direction is better than no direction. Rosemallow? Yes, hello friends. Thank you so much for bringing me here.

Cool, this place is amazing. Oh, it's so wonderful. Look at these happy little flowers. And they are very cute. But we are going to stop moving now. And again, we don't know what's going to be ahead of us. So try and keep us a close-knit group, and we'll move forward together.

Okay, all right. And then she's like, and this and she's like looks around and she kind of says and she looks at kairi she's like would you like to ride on my back and kairi's kind of like terrified um but she kind of is like she just like nods a little head and rosemary like helps her like crouches down and kairi kind of like gets up on her back um she's like it's okay you can sit on my back and like she begins to sort of like walk along with you um big cat sort of like looking around you see big cat definitely goes into like i'm in unfamiliar territory i'm a cat he's like he's like he's smelling everything and he's looking around but he's uh stalking ahead it looks like and yeah you guys make it do you want

to go north or south uh the way the trail... Is the trail both ways? Yeah, I mean, it's like a road, right? Like, it runs both ways. Sure. North is good. All right, I'll go to my north bit of the notes. Also, the arcane eye can follow overhead for an hour. Okay, sure.

I think the arcane eye wouldn't necessarily see anything because, like, it's like the arcane eye is almost like the canopy of the trees just becomes like the ground. It can't penetrate through the canopy, so it just sees sky and then canopy. But after you guys travel for, I'd say, six to eight hours and you don't see signs of anything. You're walking through the woods and it's beautiful.

It's genuinely looking around just stunning like everywhere you go is this kind of like vibrant colors um you hear animals shuffling around but yeah you don't encounter anybody um off around about the six to seven hour mark as you've been journeying you kind of stop you pull out some like rations you have a brief moment of rest you carry on going uh you actually hear quill you with perception perception boy um you hear uh and see up ahead um signs of something going on maybe uh you know several hundred feet ahead in the forest line you see something quite large moving very rapidly and you can hear uh what sounds like very in the distance like clattering

armor and almost like drums and you can hear shouts and cries and you can hear like some bestial roar and like the sound of like trees being felled and you can see this rapid movement there is some sort of battle going up ahead like you can see this from where you are like you hear and sense it ahead of everyone else um i mean yeah i'll stop everyone and get them to listen out as well uh so they can hear it yeah you all so when coil point's all out you all start to hear it um it grows louder like it's moving in your like coming towards you but like not for you guys just coming in the direction that you're coming from um and you definitely like whatever this thing is it's big you can hear these loud roars you hear the clattering of a headthorn and you start to hear voices you start to hear like yes

my friends come come let us feel the beast is nearly we need to need to pursue it to pursue the beast um and you hear like uh play play play my boy play a day go and then you hear like a like a marching like a like a kind of hunting drum sound. And you hear another voice kind of like, archers, archers, fire. And you hear the whistling of arrows. And then you hear one big roar. You hear like a proper bestial roar. And you hear something that sounds like, you know,

great, like, huge ballista bolts being fired, like... And then there are a couple of screams. You hear, like, take cover! And then, like, oh, God, it's stronger than we thought! You hear, like, trees being felled. Yeah. What do we do? Wait, is this still coming towards us this thing or it sounds like maybe about a hundred feet ahead and because the the trees are

so big and thick here like you haven't you can see movement but you don't know exactly what's going on but about a hundred feet ahead there is some sort of battle going on for sure it sounds like it's going very badly for one side. We've got no idea what's beyond the tree, but I think we should help. We should scout ahead. Maybe your arcane eye can come under the canopy and check. I think it would take too long.

It's really high up. Also, it's gone. That was six hours ago. Right, yeah, it's been a while uh we can go have a look if you like someone's in trouble we must help them you're heroes i knew we must help them okay i can fly up again and get an overhead perspective on this thing you may not seen it above the canopy you may have have to... Not that high up. You hear like another like, you hear like a Wilhelm scream like, and you see somebody get thrown through the air like,

I'm going. I will let you know when to run. Quill, you're gonna like fly ahead, like you're gonna fly up and go ahead, right? What are the rest of you doing? Are you gonna wait for Quill to come back? Stop making my way. Yeah, essentially, you start making her way forward.

So just like on movement speed, like land speed, basically you guys are going to go ahead. Yeah, Ayla's going to do the same. She'll go out with you. I think that Thalia will look and she looks to you, Nover, and says, my pistols aren't going to work very well here because of the magitek. I think I should stay here with Kairi and Rosemeadow

and I can at least protect them. But you should go with your friends and investigate. Sounds like a good idea. I don't think I'll be much use here. Yes, I think that, yeah, and Kairi's not much of a fighter as well, so... We'll have Big Cat with us as well, but she says you go. And, like, the group of them, the NPCs, basically, are like, we're not going in the fight. You go fight. We're going to stay here. No NPCs. Yeah, so, Quill, you're the going in the fight. You go fight. We're going to stay here.

Yeah. So Quill, you're the first to arrive as the others are coming on land. And you see what is happening. You can see, you see the creature first being a huge creature. It is an enormous, it has like the body of a lion. And it has these great draconic like wings., but its face is like this twisted man's face, but it's stretched and it's got this huge jaw with razor-sharp teeth. And you can hear it just like,

little shiny knights, I am going to feed on you for hunting me. And it's like snitching around. And its tail, it has like this long tail that ends in a big, thick hammer-like club. And it has all these spikes growing out of it. But this thing is massive and it looks incredibly powerfully strong. It swipes its claw and a giant tree comes like tumbling down. Scattering away from the falling tree you see a cluster of knights all of which have got this um purple but with all sorts of myriad

colors woven into its tabard um with this very resplendent looking art like piece of chestplate armor with like light is like an emblem um and they're all like some of them have got bows some of them have got spears some of them are on steeds with lances and they're all scattering like oh god my lady my lady the beast is too strong and they're kind of calling out and then you see there are three figures that stand out from the rest uh one is a woman with almost like she has feathers for hair and she has like a humanoid face but she has long feathers instead of hair and she has a very long kind of hooked nose um and she's wearing this resplendent like gleaming male and she's got a shield and a and a spear in one hand um and uh

she almost looks like a peacock like her hair is like peacocks feathers falling down And she's calling out like two arms swarms. We cannot we cannot let this beast Defile the the nearby settlements. We must slay it. We must let my friends come come and she's like trying to rally them but she's lost control of the force next to her is a You guys have seen beast folk like Santa like bunny people like Santa This is a rabbit who walks on two legs. He's like an anthropomorphic rabbit, but he's wearing the outfit of an English longbowman.

So he has a padded gambeson. He's got a little round pot helm, and he's got a big bow. And he's just like, come, my lady, come. And he's like, come on, you bastards, get back in the fight. And he's like firing, come, my lady, come. And he's like, come on, you bastards, get back in the fight. And he's like firing arrows at this thing. And then cowering behind a log underneath them is a satyr who looks exactly like Danny DeVito's satyr from Hercules. Like he's got a big pot belly. He's got like the curling ran horns,

but he's dressed like a little soldier and a drum is on the ground and he's just like covering his ears and he's like Crunched up underneath this log trying to desperately hide Send a message to century and say it's a Bring everyone we need to help Okay, I'm assuming you guys would like to help, so that is going to be initiative. All right.

Nice. Innoitative. Okay, 17. Roll Quirlybill. Let me do Aayla's first. Just because I've got to roll it. All right, Lucius. I got a solid eight.

Eight, lovely. Kelek? 17. 17. Sentry? 14. 14. And Nova Vija?

20. 20. Well, none of you are going first, but you all burst out. So you all come bursting out of the tree line. There is like a, this thing has created a clearing. There wasn't a clearing here, but this giant manticle is a sort of like super big manticle basically. It has almost formed a clearing.

You can see that there are these big fallen trees that it's like knocked over. It's like sweeped a path of brush and grass creating about a 60 foot radius like clearing um beyond that there are trees and you can see several of the knights are like hiding amongst the trees that you could use as cover and these big you know 20 you know almost like 10 20 foot thick trees um and then a couple of them are trying to climb up them they've got all the branches overhead and stuff like that. But there is this giant clearing space. And the manticore immediately senses all of you. As you're not stealthing, you've all just kind of like piled in.

It kind of whips its head around and sees you. With one claw swipe, it just knocks the peacock night lady and the rabbit man. It just knocks them back. It just like one sweep, it just sends them sprawling. They fall unconscious. They just like one sweep it just sends them sprawling they fall unconscious they just like fall into the ground um just for the narrative sake they don't look like they're dead it looks like they've literally like bashed their heads and fallen unconscious um but they just get knocked back immediately um and then this thing is gonna yeah turn on you guys

um did you have a question chris trot yes it's been a little bit. I've still got very low HP. Oh, you should have had a long rest. Yeah, you've had like days in Horizon and stuff. Make sure everybody has a long rest, because like... Yeah. Well, I've used a couple spells now.

Yes, any spells that you didn't use, yeah. Excellent. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Awesome. And yeah, so apart from Quill, those of you on the ground, you guys all rushed in this together, right? So you all kind of like rushed in as one group.

Yeah, in that case, seeing all of you rushing together and Quill flying through the air, who would be at the front of the group? Probably Sentry and Aayla, I'm going to guess. They're the fastest, right? Aayla's got the most movement speed. Aayla's got the most movement, so it'd be Aayla,

and then Sentry, I'm guessing, like Nova and Lucius, you'd probably be behind Sentry for, you know, defensive purposes. Protection it. Yeah. So this thing whips up its great big tail, and it flicks it in the direction of all of your party kind of springing from the tree line um and several uh big spikes come flying out of its tail uh it's

gonna pick sentry ala and quill and you guys are well it fires one how many is this one d3 tail spikes against each of you um so Quill. D3. So that's gonna be just one tail spike at Quill. It's gonna be, this is against, that's gonna be three against Ayla. And then against Sentry, three against Sentry as well. So I'll do the first one against Quill. That's gonna be a- Oh, that was how many he was firing towards us, I see. So one spike

comes your way, Quill. That's a 13 to hit. No. Okay, so you manage to like, you dodge out of the way, you kind of dip under, you let your wings drop and you, before you start flying again and the tail spike, and this thing is like several inches long, it's quite thick, it's like a javelin.

It just into a tree behind you, causing splinters to erupt, and it stays embedded in the tree as well. I'll do you, Sentry, next just because then I can just do Ayla by myself. That is a 21 to hit you, Sentry, on the first tail spike. Exactly, yep. All right, let's do the second one. That's a natural one, so that's a miss. And then the last one is a natural 20.

Of course it is. Oh, that's all right. So we'll do the first one so that I can work out the damages and stuff. So the first tail spike actually flies through, and that's going to be 16 points of piercing damage, and the spike is embedded into you. So as this tail spike, it, like. And the spike is embedded into you.

So as this tail spike embeds, it impales you. Whilst you have a spike impaled with you, each spike, your movement is reduced by 10 feet and you have a minus two penalty to attack, saving throws and ability checks. This thing is wedged in your side and it's making it hard to attack. It's making it hard to move and dodge and stuff like that. And it's like this, I to move and dodge and stuff like that um and it's like this sort of you know i would say something like 12 inches long spike is like driven into your body yeah that'll take sentry back a bit yeah and then well and then the second one which

is the critical hit comes in uh and that's going to be 2d8 max so 16 plus whatever i roll oh that's not too bad uh that's gonna be 16 uh 23 points of damage and a second spike impacts in and it's accumulative so like while you've got these two things in you you've got like minus 20 speed and like minus 40 attacks and saving for devastating so the motor like so like one's in like your leg and like the other one's in your shoulder and it's and saving for devastating. Minus 23. So the motants are like, so like one's in like your leg and like the other one's in your shoulder and it's making hard to like move, to attack, like because these things are like so, you know, embedded in there. I will tell you that, yeah, if you want to try and like do something

to get rid of them, that you can absolutely try that on your turn. So but you tell me what you want to try and do to how you want to try and do that. I'm not going to tell you necessarily how to do it, but they can be removed. And then against Ayla, so Ayla has got AC of 20. So the first one's going to hit. The second one is going to miss. And the last one is a natural 20.

Exactly what I did to Sentry. Thanks, IndieBeyond. So that's going to be... That was a natural 20, exactly what I did to Sensor. Thank you, Libion. Oh. So that's going to be... Ooh, and big damage as well. So that's going to be 18 points of damage. She's not raging yet. So 18 damage.

And then the next one is the crit for another 16 plus another 16 for 32 now okay you see the same thing so a like it's like two of these things like one in her side and like the other one in her upper thigh like what embeds in like these big quill like you know javelin slight heads like spearheads and and you just hear like, ow, fuck, like just call out angrily. How many quills does this tail have? So it now has, how many was that? That was three, three, and one.

So that's seven less than what it did have. I should note this down. I mean, do you want to try and do a quick calculation while this thing's moving around, Quill? I mean, if I'm just looking at it, is it more? It's definitely got less. Like it's, yeah, Quill? I mean, if I'm just looking at it, is it more? Is it... It's definitely got less. Like, it's...

Yeah, it has a set amount. About half? For sure. Fired seven. No, not about half. It's definitely less than half. And then it's going to start moving towards you guys, so it probably spends about, like, 20 feet of movement,

so it's about 30 feet away from all of you. In fact, as you know, it would spend all of its movement. It just comes barreling towards you guys so it probably spends about like 20 feet of movement so it's about 30 feet away from all of you uh in fact as you know it would spend all of its movement it just comes barreling towards you it's like it's yeah it spends like 30 feet of movement so it's about 20 feet away from you guys and then at the end of its turn it regenerates 1d4 tail spikes oh oh they come back too, cool. Alright, only gets one back. Um, so... Damn. Okay. So yeah, you see one of its, like, one of its expended tail spikes, it just comes back,

it grows back immediately. Uh, Nova Vija we go to. Hello. Hello. Hello. I would like to use my 30 foot of movement to kind of split off from the group as far as I can. And then I will use Hexblade Curse. So a little shimmer of light comes out from Tiangong and shimmers over the Manticore.

And I'm going to go for a good classic blight. Okay. So could you make me a constitution saving throw? 18. It's probably going to be 5. This thing does look pretty tough. I mean, I only just made it. 8 plus 10, 18 on the dot.

So it makes it, but just barely. Okay. I've rolled 46 total so 23 3 but plus 5 from the hex blade curse as well does that get like that one as well mmm yes it would do so it will go down to 2 and I'll heal 2 more yeah you kind of cheng on the black energy springs forth. It wraps, you know, the effect hits the creature. You can see it kind of like...

What is this? And you can see it speaks, but in this kind of very broken way. And it's like eyes lock onto Nova's like... Hit the little mage. Looks pretty angry. That's all she got. That's all she got?

Okay. Well, Aayla is going to rage as a bonus action. First of all. Classic. One of those. And her movement is reduced by 20 feet, but she's still got 25 feet of movement, so she can still get within striking distance.

So with two of these, like, spikes, because she thinks about trying to take one out, but, like, she wants to attack. So she's just going to run forward, crackling with lightning, and attack. And I'll try and play as Katie, so I won't do a reckless attack. I will just attack with the penalty, which is minus four. For a 23, which hits, I will do 10 plus nine.

And that's 17 points of damage from one attack. And then a second attack with a minus four is I'm gonna take the minus four off of this that is gonna miss though so the second attack because of the spikes in her arm because that would be a 17 17 total the kind of like the spikes in her arm stop her from being able to complete the swing and like the creature manages to step back and avoid it and she kind of just grunts in frustration and then lightning damage from aura deck save is a failure so that's gonna be how many d6 3d 6 nothing now let's do it this way. One, two, three.

For 10 more points of lightning damage. Nice. Yeah, Aela gets up into its face, swings the hammer a couple of times, connects once, the lightning blasts out of her, but she's now up in this thing's grill. Keeluk and Kalar. I am trying to figure out if there is any way for me to disrupt this tail anymore because it's pretty devastating from what I've seen so far.

And I'm wondering if a Thunder Wave, if I just went there, flew close to the tail and Thunder Waved the tail, if there's any way of just breaking these spines or something. And just try and destroy that in some way. Sure. If there's any way of just breaking these spines or something. You could try it. Try and destroy that in some way. Sure. So yeah, I will try that. Fly close to the tail and yeah, Thunder Wave.

Okay. So it needs to make a constitution save of 17 and it's a manticore, so I mean... It's a 16. I thought it was a 19 I roll 10 so 16 fails nice just okay it may be not expecting you to conjure this blast of lightning it doesn't focus its attention on you no I wasn't I just pressed sorry I 2d8. Sorry, I should have said I'm casting this at third level. So it's another... Well, just cast it at third level and then give yourself the spell slot,

the first level spell slot back. Yeah, it was just I clicked the 2d8 on the spell slot. So 4d8 damage. And... Oh, wow, 26 damage. Okay. and oh wow 26 damage um uh roll 3d4 for me 3d4 one two three boom what was that what 10 what was that i accidentally somehow i was in a discord call and i don't know how that happened because i definitely wasn't when I started this

I think I had a shortcut maps and I think it either unmuted or like it joined it. I don't know 3d for what did you get I got very good again. I got a 10 Okay, so So I would say that that blows like it breaks ten of the spines. So the Thunder Wave kind of blasts these things and like ten of the spines either get like shattered or sheared off or broken by the thunderous force of the Thunder Wave kind of erupting forward in it. However, it's going to use its reaction to do a reactive flick, which is it fires one

of those tail spikes it still has back at you because you targeted it with a ranged weapon or spell. Okay, fair enough. And it's going to throw this your way, Kili. That's a 27 to hit, Kila Gadgalar. That'll do it. Dead for sure. 16 points of damage.

And likewise, you are now impaled with a spike. That's reduced your movement by 10 feet and you have a minus two penalty to attack rolls, saving throws and ability checks. Oh, good. Good. Are you done? That's, yeah, I think that's all I'll do for now. And, oh, actually, if he used his reaction to flick at me,

then I'll also fly back a bit so I'm away from him again. How far back? You would have had to phone a little bit towards him. I've got 50 feet of movement, so... You're about 20 feet back. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. It's very convenient because after your turn,

it's going to use its legendary action to do a pounce, which is it moves 20 feet without provoking opportunity attacks and makes a bite attack against the creature. so it's gonna leap up and it tries to chomp you basically oh my god okay that's a 25 to hit yeah it's unshieldable as well and that is gonna be 25 points of damage and you are bleeding whenever a creature moves or takes an action moves more than five feet or takes an action or reaction they take 1d8 damage that cannot be resisted in any way um so like as it bites you it leaves this like deep gashing wound that is like bleeding profusely wow used to lose nothing to be fair

i've lost a lot of blood yeah um but that was its legendary action so we go to century um so this thing's like underneath quill like because it's huge it's like it's like 10 feet under quill it's like it's about uh it about 30, 40 feet away from you. It's about 60 feet away from Nova now. It's going to leapt to the side. Okay. Can I bonus action Misty Step towards it so I'm about 30 feet from it and far enough away from the other people that we just met? Mm-hmm.

And then can I... Don't worry about those guys consider those guys like out the fight like they've either retreated or they the manticore is not paying attention to them okay and can i as an action do turn the faithless okay so you want to be you want to be 30 feet away from it or you want to be 30 feet closer to it? 30 feet closer to the... So I'm 30 feet from the manticore. Right, okay. I'd say that at the moment, yeah, you could even just walk that. You could just walk 10 feet and you'd be within 30 feet.

Okay, I'll do that then. Okay, yeah, so you just walk up and then you want to try and turn the faithless. How's that work? Yep. So, yeah, Sentry will raise up her shield and the uh the solvent emblem on the front will glow gold and project out a golden radiant light towards the manticore and she'll just shout leave this place leave us be try and turn it away do i what is it

like a saving throw like what's then what's the effect saving throw is it against any creature or a fail fiend it's turned uh for a minute or until it takes damage it's a it's a fake creature uh because it isn't it's it's a special type of manticore um okay six so and and the effect is that it's turned so it has to move away from you right like it has to spend its it's its turn moving away from you yeah for a minute okay yeah sure and then is it just a minute. Okay. Yeah, sure. And then is it just a minute until it takes, or is it like, can it save out of it, or is it just that's it?

No. Creature is turned for a minute on the failure or until it takes damage. Okay. All right. Good stuff. Well, Lucius, you're up next. So yeah, like Sentry strides forward.

I mean, honestly, is there anything else Sentry you want to do on your turn? Is that action and move? You've got a bonus action in the movement um could i try and remove one of these spikes as a bonus action and that's exactly yeah so you can if you want to like reach up and try and pull one of these spikes out it's a bonus action to do that you have to make an athletics check it's a strength athletics check so you're like reaching up and you're gonna did you misty step no she didn't in the end because she could just walk 10 feet yeah nice okay cool just like because this is theater

of the mind like i'm being i don't want to like get too caught up in yeah yeah that's cool unnatural 20 on the athletics check unnatural 20 okay so you rip this thing free um which is gonna reduce that you don't have you only have the one in you now you do take four points of damage because you're literally like pulling this out of your body but now You only have the one in you now. You do take four points of damage because you're literally like pulling this out of your body. But now you only have the one spike, so your penalty is only the 10 feet and minus two, not minus four and 20 feet. So you remove one spike from you.

Cool. All right. And then we go to Lucius. Seeing how dangerous being hit by that is, I'm going to cast something a bit different that I haven't done before which is mirror image which is going to create three illusionary duplicates of myself um just going to mitigate some of the damage hopefully or hit a dupe instead yeah and then it's a chance hundred percent cast that before but not in a combat scenario have Have I? No, I just mean like off camera, you've 100%

passed that one. I'm going to spend my bonus action to try and remove one of these spines from Quill. If you want to move up to him. He's in the sky, isn't he? He's flying up. You could move up to Aayla or Sentry and do it

on either one of those guys. Who has the most spines in them right now? Aayla. got two in her I'll try and remove one of those then Okay. Yeah, you can spend it's a bonus action and it's an athletics check strength athletics. All right That is a 19 Yeah, you do Ayla's gonna take a d8 of damage as you pull it free that she can't really hurt, but it's worth it is going to take a d8 of damage as you pull it free that she can't reduce but it's worth it just do it and she kind of calls out it isn't reduced by her barbarian rage you can't reduce this damage um but she's like grunts as you pull it from she's like thanks uh fuck this thing and yeah you managed to pull one free um the manticore has used its legendary action this turn and on its

turn uh turn the faithless it it, like, sees Sentry, and it's, like, shielding its eyes from, like, Sentry's shield. It's like, no! Ah, what is that? It's, like, backing away. Like, it's moving away from Sentry. Do you want to make an attack of opportunity, Quill, or Sentry? I mean, mine will be wars.

I'm not going to bother. If it takes damage, the turn of faithless stops and this is the yeah so there's an action that can make a wisdom saver through turn creature must spend its turn trying to move as far away from you as it can and it can't

willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you it can't take reactions for its action it can use only the dash action or try and escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. Yeah, this thing literally, so its wings begin beating and it flies 100 feet up into the canopy and it just flies off. Like it just vanishes from view into the thick tree line.

Okay. Combat's over. Like this thing for a minute, it's going to travel 1,000 feet. It just goes 1,000 feet away from Sentry. Well, for two minutes,'s going to travel a thousand feet it just goes a thousand feet away from Sentry. Well for two minutes it needs to come back right? Well that's so and again you don't know like you guys are going to have yeah like a minute here

where we'll basically come out of combat what do you guys do? Like Sentry you know that eventually this thing is it's going to run out. What do you guys do? You look around several of the knights like when this thing just goes running the knights are all like you've done the beast fleeing like and you can see that they all have similar thing to the the

peacock lady they all have like feathers instead of hair they have like hook-shaped noses um they all wear the same sort of tabards but they're all different species of like fat bird bird feathers some of them have like owl feathers some of them have like more like chicken feathers like all parrot feathers all different kind of birds um and they're all sort of cheering but then one of them is like lady penelope we must see to lady penelope and radovan um and they begin sort of like rushing over to their to their companions but you guys have got like what do you guys do like think of it that you've got 10 you know 10 spells or actions

or whatever you guys want to do basically yeah I mean I oh you go I was just gonna say I'd immediately run over to um lady Penelope and cast Spare the Dying. Yeah, sure. Whether or not I think she's actually dying. No, no, we'll say narratively, maybe that's like enough to stir her to like, normally it wouldn't put her on one HP, but because this is an NPC,

we'll just say that this basically brings her, she was only unconscious. Like she was literally like knocked unconscious. She's not even at zero hit points. It was like she hit her head and sort of like knocked her out and she kind of blinks a couple of times and like looks around and she sees you and she's not even at zero hit points it was like she hit her head and sort of like knocked her out and she kind of blinks a couple of times and like looks around and she sees you and she's like what she kind of like blinks for a second like what is going on where is the beast and she's like

looking around she's oh and she like grabs her spear and she looks a bit dazed like when yeah looks sort of confused and dazed. Everything's okay. The beast is gone, but I think it might come back. So we might want to get ready or go or leave. Yes, let's set up an ambush. We have about a minute before it comes back. So it blinks a couple of times. Then we should set up an ambush.

My friends, my companions, the beast will return. Get up into the trees, set an ambush. Dig a pit or something. We must face the beast again. And you can see that the knights around her are not into this plan. They're just like, they're like, Lady Penelope, perhaps discretion is the better part of valor. The beast is clearly stronger than we were led to believe.

She's like, nonsense. We must stop it. We must stop the creature. It has been ravaging in the lands. I will not see us defeated by such a beast. I mean, within these minutes or two minutes, I want to almost identify the archers and longer range people and gather everyone as I can as well

for a beacon of hope and also to do some healing to restore this fighting force for when it does come back. Sure. Yeah, there is a couple of like archers. All the archers are not dressed like knights. They're not the same like bird people.

All the knights are these bird looking humanoids. The archers are a mixture of things there's actually like goblins there's a hobgoblin there's uh this rabbit the the rabbit man who seems to be unconscious the one that lady penelope called um there is a there's a couple of fairy folk who have got like short bows and things like that all sorts of different races but they're all dressed like little uh english longbowmen like little men at arms with like the little padded gambesons the little sort of pot helms um and they're all dressed in the same way and it's the colors it's all purple and green that they're wearing um and uh they're like they look at you and they're like oh we we should get we should get sir radovan up mr radovan he he normally leads us

in battle uh one of the little fairies kind of looks at you and you can see that the rabbit man is still unconscious. Yeah, I mean, with the beacon of hope, it'll be maximum healing. So all of us plus one more gets 30. So I'll go with Radavan. Okay, sure. So 30 healing to everyone.

All right, everyone gets 30 healing. I will heal Ayla. And yeah, see what Radovan says when he's back. Yeah, Radovan kind of blinks and he gets his little paw and he like rubs his face and he gets his little snout. And he's like a little Peter Rabbit rabbit, right? Like he's like an anthropomorphic rabbit. He's not like a bunny person.

You know, his limbs, like his hands, like he's got paws,omorphic rabbit he's not like a bunny person um uh you know his limbs like his hands have like he's got paws but they he can hold weapons and stuff with them um and his feet he can stand on two legs um and he kind of blinks to uh and he looks he looks he's like bloody hell you're not like any you're not you're no avian knight who are you and what's going on where's the manticore and he's like looking around like lady penelope is she all right and he's you can see that he's like well what's going on? Where's the Manticore?" He's looking around like, Lady Penelope, is she all right? You can see that he's like, Whoa, what's going on? Lady Penelope is currently figuring out some kind of plan

to ambush the creature when it returns in just a couple of minutes. Well, we need to figure out, I think we're best in the center of the ground to stop this thing from charging at you guys. Maybe if you can fire at it from a distance while we distract it. But the main thing is its tail, those spines, like they're a nightmare. But yeah, if we can have a group hold the main ground,

I can have my lot take cover in the trees. And now that we know what those spines do, we can be better prepared for it. But we need a group to engage it, keep it focused on them. I was supposed to be leading Penelope's knights, but they panicked they fled as soon as the thing started tearing them apart the you watch and he looks and he like sees like some of your companions i don't know who you are but if you're willing to fight that

thing you should be watch out for his claws it can rip through steel armor like it and he points to several nights and you can see that parts of their armor have been literally like torn apart by this these claws um why why are you why are you fighting it uh who are you asking this to the rabbit man or are you asking lady penelope those two seem to be the ones who are like oh um when you ask rada van he goes to answer and lady penelope interrupts like she kind of looks over and she's just like the illusion of choice yes it's like he goes to answer right but she would overhear it and be like and you get the sense that like she is the leader but is also like this kind of zealous knight type right and she just says ah yes we are we are hunting the beast uh it has been ravaging villages and causing terror and and killing people

we we are here to slay it as true knights would. We are the knights of the splendid Penelope. Penapoli. Penapoli. I can't know how to pronounce that word. Panoply. The splendid Panoply. That's Mark Humes not saying it. Wait, what's her name? I thought it was Penelope. So it is Lady Penelope.

Okay, so she introduces herself. She's like, ah, I am Lady Penelope El Pavo Real of the Knights of the Splendid Panopoli. She's Lady Penelope of the Splendid Panopoli. Penelope of Panopoli. Amen. Penelope of Panopoli. Is that where we are currently?

Are we in Panopoli? No, no, no. That is the name of my... We are free knights. We do not serve any lord or lady. These are free lands here. These belong simply to the wilds. But beasts like that, they tend to...

They grow to abominable sizes. They feed upon the natural magical energies here. They grow in size and strength, and then they come and strike at settlements and citizens, and it is up to us glorious knights to put them to the sword. Or spear, in my case. I will the spear. But come, come. You are clearly heroes.

You leapt to our aid. You are clearly a knight of steel and stone. We shall fight together and defeat the thing. Sounds like a noble cause indeed excellent radovan are your archers ready this time we must not have them flee into the woods and he's like yes of course my lady yes absolutely we will not flee uh but he's like well no he's like we didn't flee the first time like um but he's like absolutely're gonna flee like hell well no he's like we didn't flee the first fucking time like but he's like absolutely my lady yes we should be where's

where's Dago where's our where's our musician and you can see they're both looking around I mean I can bust out some more healing if needed I do not see him among I do not see him among the injured and like they're looking around and like you can see the knights have come out limping

and they're starting to get themselves ready and stuff like that. Have you seen a musician? Can I have a look around? Maybe a perception check? I mean, with your perception check, you don't need to. You don't hear any music, but you do see Nova. You would see the discarded drum, but Quill, you see the little satyr is like trying to sneak off. Like he's like creeping through the woods

and he's like trying to make a fucking sneaky exit away from this place. I don't wanna know. I have no idea where he's gone. Okay, they're just like, ah, damn, damn him. Well, I guess we must battle without music then rada van yes my lady very good it's just it's like hi i don't want this thing to die like i'll chase after him later after the fight sure sure um uh well again i go we'll say that this

conversation took like you know 30 40 seconds i'm not gonna I don't want to like, I spend out like, or maybe it took a minute or something like that. So if you've got any more like preparations you want to do, like Ayla pulls the other spine out of her shoulder, which is going to take, she's going to take some damage from that. Oh, yeah, I got one in my leg. I got to get that off. Yeah, don't make a roll. We'll assume that you can do it, but you'll just take some damage.

Okay. While everyone's preparing, Nova will be like, maybe we should focus on the tail and try to cut the tail off before it can use it again. A fine idea, young lady. Yes, we should. The tail is quite the thing on that beast, but you should be aware of its claws. It can tear through armor as well.

Cool, you were actually bleeding, right? Oh, yeah. You've not really taken any action so i'm just going to roll a little bit of damage for you because you've been bleeding i did do a uh heal on myself how much did you heal yourself for 30 yeah that's enough and it would have stopped the bleeding awesome um so the way that mechanic works by the way is you have to heal the amount of damage the bite did or use like a medicine check or use like lesser restoration or greater restoration to stop the bleeding.

So like when you healed yourself, it was enough to seal the wound basically. So does that mean I still regain that HP? You still regain the HP, yeah. You just have to stop the bleeding. It has to be an amount higher, equal to or higher than the damage you received. And it's cumulative.

So if you had healed 10, and then the next round you'd healed 15, that would have been enough, and it eventually would have closed up. Sure. I think I'll also, with the turn after, I guess, or this third turn in this whatever, I'll do Aura of Vitality as well.

And because everyone has got got beacon of hope on them everyone is going to get 12 healing or no one person is going to get 12 healing every turn until this thing comes back you want to focus on your party or do you want to focus on the npcs to begin with yeah um so yeah all of us and then well you're gonna have to divvy that out so like you you elect who gets like you know 12 then another 12 then're going to have to divvy that out. So you elect who gets 12, then another 12, then another 12. Okay, 12 to myself. Sentry took a bunch.

Ayla took a bunch. You took a bunch. So what is this, like seven turns left? Yeah, I'd say so, yeah. So Sentry gained 12. Lucius gained 12. Nova gained 12. Ayla gained 12.

I don't need anything. God, turn two. Okay, turn one to three. Gained 12, Aayla gain 12. I don't need anything. Oh, God. Turn two. Okay, turn one to three. Gain 12, Sentry. Gain 12, Aayla. Thank you. And then I'll just throw it out to the crowd.

Aayla's not a max. Do you want to give another one to Aayla? I'll give another one to Aayla. And then... Sentry, are you a max? Yeah, I'm maxed. And I've got three turns for just NPCs. Yeah, like, to be in all fairness,

the knights, all of the knights are like, no, no, you must heal Lady Penelope first. Please, heal our lady. And Radovan is like, he looks at you and he nods. He's like, yeah, heal the knight. He probably would say, she's the strongest among us. Heal Lady Penelope. Okay, in that case, she gets 12 times three so 36 36 she she her wounds

like yeah she can see that she's you know she probably had several of these spines that she'd removed from her like she was badly injured as well um and the wounds begin to knit and she kind of looks at you ah fellow avian uh you do not look like any you do not look like any avian knight that i know but uh thank you very much for your kind eating. Wait, what are my French now? I don't know. I'm very bad at doing Spanish, so that's why it sounds French.

If you need any more, just say, live in La Vida Loca. Oh, no, wait, that's not. That's such a fucking in-joke. Nobody will understand. Oh my god, that was so good. Yes, quite. Live in la vida loca, very well. Don't make that canon.

Some sort of magic ritual, I see. But we need to prepare the defense. I think we'll be up the front to distract this thing. I will join you. Me and my mates will fight with you. We will be there with you. Perfect. How much time do we have left?

We have enough time for it to be next week so that I can properly stat up all of these NPCs and stuff. Okay. Because I was kind of expecting the fight to be done this week, and then Century was just like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Go away. And I was like, okay.

Classic storm chasers, putting off for another time. Yeah, I was like, it's all right. I'll have the manticore knock out the knights and then i don't need to run worry about running them in as npcs i can just have the party fight this monster that'll be easy he's no problem rianne and caitlyn went no no no no no no no no i mean amazing going away yeah amazing place i am going to regenerate all of its tail spines however that's one thing yeah it's going regenerate all of its tail spines however

that's one thing yeah it's going to have all of its tail spines when it comes what if it doesn't come back what if it thinks about its life choices and maybe it will you know what i'm not into it i'm just not maybe i'm gonna go yeah maybe uh maybe just make it run into a village. It's now just tearing that up. Not quite enough to get to another village. Oh, well. I should have put the village there. Out of sight, out of mind. Cool.

Well, we'll leave it there. I'm glad that we at least got to meet Lady Penelope of the Splendid Penelope. Penelope of Penelope. Radovid? Radovan. Radovan. Rabovan. Radovan, yep. of the splendid panoply yeah panoply little cream radavid uh radavan radavan rabovan

radavan yep uh who is a harangon radavan with a new race i thought it was a harangon right

it's a harangon yeah and then and then and dago who is the satyr musician who is fucked out of it

like i'm out see you later i'm out peace oh my god um well i mean we'll finish the fight next week who has fucked out of it. Like, I'm out. See you later. I'm out. Peace. Oh, my God. Well, I mean, we'll finish the fight next week in our Halloween special. And by Halloween special, I mean...

We'll be in costume. We'll be in costume, yeah. Do you know what? Somebody has made a point that every time we've done, like, a Halloween episode, it goes tragically bad. Like, as in, like, people die, or, like, NPCs, it's, like, really dark people die or like mpc it's like really dark serious like emotional stuff happens and it's while we're fucking dressed up in stupid outfits every time i'm gonna cry it's gonna be three three layers of makeup yeah

well you can look forward to seeing those next week. Next week. Very exciting. And yeah, thanks for your support, everybody. Thanks for the 100K. And we will see you all very soon. Bye. Bye. Bye.