High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #141 | Technological Upgrades

Episode Date: April 3, 2022

Azariah returns with some massive upgrades to the Stormchaser! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes and Studio updates on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Grab some High Rollers merch: https://freshmerch.fm/collections/high-rollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello, welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois. Hello and welcome back to Erois. The heroes have enjoyed a few quiet weeks of peace following the various events in the Feywild and the Sky City of Horizon, before a council is called between their allies to the current state of the world. With Calus's forces taking a less aggressive stance and seemingly focusing their efforts elsewhere, the party discuss the matters of the giant Magitek construct, Project Vanguard, its whereabouts, and use Quill's prophetic powers to learn its current location and status.

Nova is informed about developments in the Ganassi city of Vortensar and a plan to transport the entire city back to the Ganassi city of Vortensar and are planned to transport the entire city back to the Ganassi homeworld. After the meeting with their allies, several groups come to speak to the party directly, old friends and allies who share a number of troubling events happening across Erois. In the Hawk's Dawn Archipelago, volcanoes are erupting and earthquakes create tidal waves. Strange dwarven women made out of gemstone have been spotted amongst the ruins of Solvin in the island chains and deep beneath the sea in Triton territory. An order of once benevolent knights, the Order of the Blackened Rose, went missing when Calara's

priests lost their power and now they have returned as merciless but sorrowful killers. And finally, three giant and terrible beasts have been unleashed around the continent of Al-Saraf by the Titan Atelicus. All of these problems will grow worse in time, so it falls to the PCs to determine which matters they wish to address first, including the fate of Vortensar and the Titan Killer Project Vanguard. And that is where we begin. vanguard uh and that is where we begin i think that the there was some brief discussions uh amongst the team about which of these problems you were interested in investigating first and i believe that there was a general leaning towards i'm dealing with the volcanoes and the seismic activity in the strange dwarven uh gemstone people um in the hawkstone archipelago yeah i think um we were we were able to send people out

to delay the beasties and the yes black and rose were we need to find the hub of of that area uh of where they're all chilling um yeah you have a you had a rough clue that there is a fortress on another continent, which is where they were based, but it is in a heavily sort of forested jungle area. And so you have sent scouts to try and locate that. And then you have allies who are trying to delay these beasts, but obviously you are just buying yourselves small amounts of time here

to try and cut things down. Yeah, meanwhile, Hawk this general sense of. Hawksdawn is currently like collapsing. So. Yeah. Like I said, it's all three will get worse in time and, and you know,

there's going to be consequences no matter which way it all goes. But yeah, you've decided that this is the biggest priority and that this is what you want to focus your efforts on. you are currently still in horizon um obviously we don't have century and ayla uh characters uh players here uh so if they are needed i will try and play them uh i will do my best but otherwise they might just be a bit quiet for the episode uh but yeah you are currently built still based in horizon um you i believe i wasn't quite sure if you guys intended to travel to uh the above ground cities in the

hawkstone archipelago such as like porto sovrano which you've been to before it's kind of like an island city um built into one of the islands uh with very mercantile and trade focused or if you wanted to there was discussions about heading under the sea to talk with the tritons um and try and find these uh these dwarven constructs women not quite sure yeah because we also wanted to see if we could recover that arcane gate as well that's right there was plans about that, yes. At Yamalotai. There was a broken... It was a much smaller one, yes.

Azaria Perel. There was a small gate. In fact, actually, I think that this probably would have come up, but Nova would have known this. The gateway that you use to travel between the underwater Sahagun... Cave. Mutated Triton base, yeah, cave, to Aegis V. It wasn't like a full, full archway,

not like the one underneath Kali's rest. It seemed to be a two-way specific teleporter kind of thing. Because if I remember, it didn't have a pedestal for putting in runes. It was just a locked gate. But it was unusual in that it allowed travel beyond the cradle, beyond the planar barrier that surrounds Aroes. That was what was unusual about it. So it could still absolutely be worth recovering and investigating.

Well, my other suggestion as well was because, because obviously the Ganassi and Vortensar have just built a gate that does have runes. Or at least they are building one. Yeah, at least my moron brother could maybe pass on blueprints or some kind of intel from that as well if they can get it. Or Nanny Norfair as well well i imagine she's still helping them yes and it wouldn't it wouldn't be inconceivable to exchange communication uh with those guys and basically the result of that would be they can't do that alone uh in a classic fashion because this

is d d right like they can help you do that you're gonna need to go there and help them is the idea like those plans are being stored in the very heart of Vortensar being guarded by Valkyrian troops and the council of Vortensar's forces like the Ganassi's own standing army and guards

and things like that deep in their major citadel basically in the center of the city. They can't get anywhere near that on their own, but they could certainly help you guys get in there is the answer to that question. Adventure has got to be adventuring. The gate in Savona, sorry, under Kali's rest,

that was destroyed, right? That was destroyed. Well, taken apart by Sarbanes, I think. I think he was a very smart boy. Yeah, that's the theory, but all you know in fact is that it was there, and then when you managed to communicate

with people and get people to check, it was not there. Those are the facts you know is that they were gone. But I believe Nova has made considerable you know, it's not a huge leap in I believe Nova has made considerable, you know, it's not a huge leap in logic to go, Kallus would not leave that thing where it was. He would have taken it with him wherever he was going.

More importantly, did Nani Norfolk communicate the message to Tornado that he's a moron? Did she pass it on? You don't get an update on that. You're going to have to wait and find out when you see him, if that message was passed on. I'll just note that down. Very important.

Lucius, any questions? This is kind of like a good moment if there are any things you want to do or questions that you have about all of these events and upcoming things. This is probably a good time to just sort of go over some of that stuff while we're a few players down. Lucius is preoccupied with the idea that almost everything is world-ending

and it's a difficult choice to make what to do and when to do it. But I think the volcano is the good place to start and that's about it for lucius he's not really preoccupied with any like individual things no like loose ends that need tying up right now all right well uh lucius is probably a big picture yeah yeah well i think lucius would be approached by um the enchantress azaria perel formerly of gust haven now a sort of free agent who has just sort of attached herself to the horizon alliance the alliance you know this alliance that you've built up and it's sort of become your go-to wizard uh who has been doing a lot of things like preparing magical items and providing magical knowledge and Azaria would come and fetch Lucius and probably the rest of

the crew with a ah Captain Elinasto there yes I have made I believe that my modifications to your ship are complete I would very much like to show you What has been done as you prepare for your next voyage, I believe And she just sort of smiles all dressed in this kind of long draped Fury clothing completely veiled like, you know, this kind of thin black gauze over her face hiding her elven features Thank you kindly. How exciting. I look forward to seeing your technological breakthroughs. Quite a number of them. I'm interested to see how they play in the field. Obviously, I'm an architect and a designer and I can create

these things, but unfortunately, there is no way for us to test them in any sort of rugged capacity. I am very excited to hear your reports on how things function or at least to learn significant progress from your deaths. He just smiles. From our deaths. Well in case everything goes wrong there is a high chance there is always a chance of death with these sort of experimentations but that is the nature of such things. So long as the technology you've implemented and upgraded on the

storm chasers not encouraging our deaths and is in fact the antithesis in trying to prevent our deaths. Of course yes of course yes absolutely I would have no benefits it would be rather foolish of me to try and eliminate you. I have no intentions to do so. You have given me many wonderful opportunities and I expect great results

and further opportunities to develop things even further. I've learnt so much about magic from investigating that strange starship you brought and these strange creatures that you have begun fighting and why you've even brought a demigoddess to the city i'm i'm what wonders i've unlocked i'm hung up on the death thing how would you ever get any information is it not is it not always a danger when you go out adventuring that there is a chance of death? I just think, how are you going to get any information when we go out in the storm chaser? I have installed systems that will keep me updated about the various magical information and power charges running through the ship,

so that in whichever circumstance, whether it is successful or not, I will have plenty of data and information to peruse. Okay, I have a few concerns. Yes. Are you scrying on us at all times? At all times, no. I'm not scrying on you as individuals, rather on the ship's systems. I'm going to have to have Nova check this over just to make sure.

Of course. Nova and Nova. Whatever makes you feel comfortable. They rhyme. In the background, I'm just nudging Quill and I'm like, you see, you call me socially inept, but I at least know to keep the death thing inside my head. I never said socially inept. Just you talk a lot.

Exactly. And I see it in your eyes when I do talk a lot. But yes, inside voice for the death stuff. Nobody ever really likes to hear about how you're collecting data from their death. You are saying that quite loudly. No, but I'm saying how I don't say it. Lucius has turned around and is frowning.

Is everyone talking about us dying? Apparently so. It's okay for you guys. Two of us. It's okay for you guys. You don't know how it feels. It sucks. And then it's great. And then you come back. Century's like, nods.

It does suck, yes. I did try and ask you come back centuries like nods it does suck yes i i did try and ask you quill but you said later you just late later i did have that questionnaire for you like you know but you were just like no later going to fill in a post death i was not aware that you had been resurrected mr adkala i must surely ask you about the experience myself as well. Me first. I get first dibs. Quill, can you fill it out now, actually? I do have time. Damn it.

Fine. There will be time afterwards. Would you care to see the storm chaser? Yes, yes. Yes, we would. There are several facets especially for miss nova vega who i believe is the current serving sort of magitek engineer aboard um there is a particular avenue for you that i've after witnessing your strange symbiosis with this eterna i've developed something in particular for the two of you uh oh wait how long is this going to take i've

got a questionnaire to fill out now oh it will take some time it's uh i would recommend saving the questionnaire for later i can scrap the questionnaire late no why do you keep saying later i've got busy stuff busy stuff to do gotta check out fine the same... I'll slide under your pillow. Let me just go get my walking cane, and then I will be right out. Walking cane? When did he have a walking cane? Lucius comes back with a

very ornate walking cane. Okay. He tries to walk with it. But he doesn't need it. He's just trying to look like he does. Like, what's the thing? No, no, he's not hobbling or anything. He is looking more like prim and proper.

Prim and proper. Okay, so this is more like a display of nobility kind of thing, like standing with a cane, sort of like, you know. His chin is more like pointing upwards. Okay, nice. It does give you an air... I mean, walking cane? You don't need it for walking.

It's very glamorous, Olucious. How much... How much was this? Just put it the way. Oh, good. Was it a gift? Is it, like... Because you look very regal.

You look very, very regal. Thank you, Nova. Yeah, I like the chin up kind of thing. This is working. It's good. Yes, yeah. It reduces my vision a bit because I have to look down and I see a lot more of my nose. But yes, yeah. I'm trying to pull it off. I'm trying a new thing.

Okay. Is it inspired by anyone? I don't know. It's just that I'm trying a new thing. Okay. Is it inspired by anyone? I don't know. It's just that I've seen it a lot, and it seems like a good thing to have if you want to be treated seriously in aristocratic society and all that. Aristocratic. Royal circles.

I don't know what it is, but I respect you so much more. It's the head thing. Check this out. And Lucius whips up the cane and points at Quill with it. Whoa, okay. Man, I... You just want to do everything I ask now, don't you? Somehow I do.

Okay, get the door for me. Okay, sir. See, it works. It works really well. And he slams the cane back down. I don't know, but he likes me, right? He likes my company, right? Wow. All right, getting a very deep inside look

into Quill's insecurities there. Azaria will lead you to one of the airship docks on the very sort of the... from Horizon, from the main central keep, which is at the back of the airship docks on the very sort of the from horizon from the main central keep which is at the back of the floating city there are these four pronged walls that kind of stretch out and divide the city and it's sort of like a fan shape um and one of these prongs uh several of them have airship docks but she leads you to one which has a lot more military presence um this looks like it is a place where Horizon stores more of its war airships

and there is many guards here. You can also see there is a great hubbub because there is a scaffolding that has been placed around. There are actually sort of like privacy screens that have been erected so you can't look into. Kind of just cloth and wood but they've been erected so that people can't look

into this particular bay where a ship is undergoing repairs it seems and there are several offices you see a couple of gnomes from the gust haven shipwright the lillian sprocket shipwright company um that have been brought here you can see magitek engineers you can see um various enchanters and mages all sort of milling around as well with construction workers very unusual looking forges have been built nearby some of them look almost like

ethereum refineries very unusual kind of like buildings and Azaria leads you and says like I believe that such a unveiling deserves a little bit of ceremony so if you would accompany me I've set up a specialiling deserves a little bit of ceremony. So if you would accompany me, I've set up a special sort of viewing gallery for you. And she will actually lead you to...

She will lead you to what to you guys appears to be just a shimmering blue door in the middle of, like just on the side of the dock. Like it is just a hovering blue magical door. No walls, just a door on its no walls just a door on its own just a door on its own yep just floating freely um and azaria will move up to it there's no handle instead she speaks a word in elvish um which would be translated to something like bone marrow. She says the elvish word for bone marrow and the door opens. Of course.

It's just opaque. It's just this completely opaque colour, but she gestures to it and says just like, you have nothing to fear. It is merely a conjured mansion of which I like to occasionally reside in. You can't see into it there's not

like an interior that we can see is this a showroom of sorts I've constructed this particular spell allows me to create a sort of demi-plane of my own creation and I've used it to create a tall tower which overlooks

the docks and has a viewable platform on which you can see the construction it's sort of a private study of mine okay now what happens if the door closes? you would be in the demiplane with me

if the spell, once the spell's duration ends or if I were to lose concentration perhaps we would be ejected simply on the spot that you find yourselves in now. Okay. Okay. It is perfectly safe I assure you.

The extra effort is much appreciated. Oh of course. This has become my sort of personal study but I've remodeled one of the rooms to serve as something of a viewing platform. Well, Master likes a spectacle. Nova?

Yes? How much do we pay for the upgrades? I had nothing to do with the finances. I'm purely a science officer now. The bird is the quartermaster. The bird? You can't say that. What? He's a bird? The bird is the quartermaster. The bird? You can't say that. What? He's a bird?

The bird is the word. How much do we pay for the upgrades? Because we're getting a very premium experience right now. That is a good... Azaria, this presentation experience, this isn't an additional cost, is it? No, of course. You've only given me funds for some of the more basic supplies. This has become a personal project of mine.

I've not charged you for it. This is purely to expand my own understanding of the magic of the astral ship you brought me. But also, my understanding is that you are all intending to fight our oppressor as well as this greater evil in hadar yes then it would serve my needs and my desires to ensure that the survival of arois and the survival of our universe continues i cannot unlock the mysteries of all magic time and space if i I'm dead, of course. And you'll be the first person we come to if we find anything really weird. You see our relationship.

She has a point. There we go. She has a very logical point as well. We can't, you know, answer our curiosities if we're all dead. Dead. Dead. She's all dead again. No, but you are.

What? You're making me have a real complex about this, Quill. Dead. Dead. Dead. She yelled dead again. No, but you are- What? You're making me have a real complex about this, Quill. I said earlier, I say that bit quietly in my head. That was the one bit you said way louder than everything else. You really accentuated the dead bit. What? Dead?

Yes. Anyway, Azaria, please lead the way. Oh, please, no. Step inside after you. Oh, now it, please lead the way. Oh, please, no. Step inside after you. Oh, now it's awkward. After you. I'll point my cane at Quill. Okay, I'm going. Yeah, I think also Aayla and Sentry were just going ahead anyway, right?

So they make sense. When you step through the portal, the doorway, you find yourselves stood in a... It is glamorous. You feel as if you've stepped into this noble's mansion with a grand curved stairway in a sort of round, much larger than you expected tower. The only problem is the entire interior is decorated in a style that might be a little unsettling. Everything is kind of made of bones or black gauzy fabrics. It's all sort of like the banister of this curved stairway looks like a giant spine.

It's all black, gauzy, draped funerary fabrics there's dead flowers everywhere nice leather chair that's flesh it's no it's not flesh it's it's always mostly either bones skulls uh like tattered black fabric lace um dead flowers it's like the morticia adams right of like houses um very gothic architecture as well like very very gothic in its style like there are like occasionally bits of stone like the walls are stone but they're in that dull dark gray kind of color makes it feel very oppressive big arched kind of like doorways with gargoyles and things like that but wherever wood would be used bone has been used instead nice um the lanterns on the walls are just skulls like unlike skulls with their jaws open and there is just a glowing magic flame in their mouth that is the light source um it's

like almost like if guillermo del toro hooked hooked up with Tim Burton and they made their forever mansion like yeah Very Tim Burton. Yeah, very very much so. Yeah Yeah, the Gotham is like Adam's family, del Toro, Tim Burton, right? Yeah. Yeah Anybody who's read the locked tomb series as well like the Gideon the ninth series very much inspired by And when you step inside Azaria kind of follows you afterwards um and she's like welcome to my humble home my little abode uh she claps her hands charlemagne charlemagne um and a decrepit looking skeletal butler dressed in like twin tails but it looks

like it looks like he's just crawled out of the ground like this skeleton but the clothing's all tattered and broken with a kind of carrying a tray like shambles its way over to you its jaw opens and this rasping unearthly death voice would you care for refreshments there is a it looks like red, you hope it's red wine, in like a kind of carafe with glasses. The glasses have all got like skull hands, like holding the goblets. Sweet. What's this? Azaria Port has a glass of wine. Yes. Was this person alive when you first employed them?

Charlemagne is a magical creation. I've merely put them into my own personal taste of what their appearance would be I could make any of my servants look however I wished This is a choice Yes, I find his presence so comforting isn't that right Charlemagne? comforting isn't that right charlemont yes my lady uh there is also like as that finishes there is like the sound like a howling shrieking wind blows through the entire tower and zara just kind of like sighs like it's pleasant music this is so adam's family wow amazing. It's lovely in here. It's so cold.

Oh, yes, I love it. The unbearable heat of the Sky Cities. This is a rather pleasant refreshment. Shall we go up to the viewing platform? Yes, yes. Look at the time. Come this way. The viewing platform, yes.

And she sort of glides in this place. Like the way her dress just looks like she's floating through the entire space. And you guys, Charlemagne, the skeletal butler, just kind of follows after you. And you are led to what I can best describe as a sort of bone cage lift with like the cages and bars are all bones it connects like this spiky gothic metal chain um the the flooring is like a kind of not stained glass but a mosaic stone uh that depicts like skeletons just like coiled around magical staves and books um yeah it's creepy you know the old tales of um

i'm directing this at the group of ancient undead evil entities going slowly insane in their caverns and wielding a force of untold power that adventurers go and vanquish I'm getting that Azaria sort of like gasps and looks at you Lucius when you're kind of talking she's with you and she goes you are speaking about liches I'm getting a strong lich vibe from the den cause she like she she looks like she's like blushing like she holds her heart she's just like one day one day and then she just continues leading that's a dream that's a dream i mean it must all have been master it would be pretty efficient yeah you can live forever and think of the things that you could

study in that amount of time that would be amazing you don't need to eat you do not need to sleep or drink i'm not bothered by these things i could i could study and work to my heart's content that is kind of dreamy actually i i would get so i would be so much more efficient if i didn't have to sleep indeed so much more productive how does the bone cage go up i'd like to get out of it now there's a giant there's a giant lever with a skull on the top and she pulls it and you hear this like SCREAM and then it Oh, I spilled my wine. No.

Oh, that's all right. I can have one of the maids take care of it for you. She like claps her hands and a shrieking banshee like it's like in a French maid. Like comes in and starts maddening away the stain. And it just looks at you like it's hit. Its jaw like distends down far too far. Lucius like backs up into a corner, but then touches some of the bones

and then like backs into the middle again. And then it's just awkwardly standing. Charlemagne. Something wrong, sir. Charlemagne something wrong sir Madam Azaria I don't suppose you happen to own a

mansion just outside of Rose Hall or anything no no I have no need once I mastered this spell you know what it's a little trick us wizards have we don't have a need for property anymore. Once you've mastered this spell, you can design your entire own space.

You can have whatever I desire. I don't need to pay rent. I could have the doorway and an alleyway. I could rent a room and a tavern and simply have this doorway there. It is quite convenient. It's a good way around city building taxes. That is quite convenient. It's a good way around city building taxes. And she sort of went... That is very efficient.

I might have to... Could you teach me how to do this? It's possible if you are familiar with the spell. I believe it's around the seventh sphere in power. But it's something I could teach you, if desired. Well, I imagine the screeching banshees and the howling winds doesn't distract any neighbors if it's all in here oh well that's the beauty of it master key like you could for example were you to cast a spell you would design the interior to be whatever you desired the attendance could be a lot of windows you could have imperfect indeed if that is what you wish

um designed to whatever specification you wish. I just find the presence of my friends here so comforting. How tall is this? It's a tower. It's really tall, isn't it? It goes for a while, and then eventually she brings it to a stop, almost mentally commanding the lift to stop. And a giant pair of bone doors are opened, and it leads you to a very, thankfully, very nondescript,

no bones, just stone grey walls, but the wall of the room is like a curved surface, like you're stood at the edge of a tower's curved wall, is entirely glass, almost as if there was nothing there except for a very faint outline of like a frame there are enough chairs for all of you plus azaria and they are just sort of red like red leather good looking wooden chairs they appear to and she's like i'm so sorry i had

to quickly assemble these and didn't quite have the time to put my personal design touches on them. I thought that these might suffice just for the time being. This was a rather hasty addition I must add. Please take a seat. We'll be looking out there anyway. I guess whatever's out there.

As you walk towards the walkway, because from the lift there is like a short distance. You can't actually see down yet. You're just sort of looking out onto blue sky. But as you walk to the edge and you look through the window, you look down on the skyship docks of Horizon, and there, hidden behind privacy screens for most people,

but you finally looking down, you guys see the storm chaser but it is no longer it is still the storm chaser in most of its design in terms of its aesthetics but you can clearly see it has been vastly improved the hull has been reinforced with magically enhanced metal ethereum and crystal so it kind kind of has a similar nature to some of the Starbane ships, the Twinstar Longbow and the Draconian ships, where it has this kind of like crystal-like substance, like armor,

but you can see worked metal has been used to reinforce the hull all around it. Still keeping that sort of shadowy design with the sort of blades and curved surfaces that you had designed for it originally. You can also see that the ballistae, one was on top and one was on the bottom, they have now been upgraded into arcane cannons.

You can see these kind of like long, slender, thick rod-like protrusions coming out of little bubble canopies. And they have now been moved to the sides of the prow at the front. And you can see that both of these turrets would actually have a much better angle of firing shots. The only area they can't now affect, the only area they can't target is anything on the deck itself

or directly underneath the ship. But they can shoot sort is anything on the deck itself or directly underneath the ship but they can shoot sort of on either side uh and get a full sort of 180 um degree of fire uh those are the most visual changes that you can see um but it does this is like the moment right and when i say this you're gonna get it when shepherd sees the normandy sr2 in mass effect 2 for the first time and it's the normandy but it's clearly bigger it's more powerful it's been upgraded this is that moment right where you're looking down onto the ship and you can see it um it's sort of as you know if this was a movie the camera yeah i can see like all of us like our

eyes lighting up and then looking at each other in disbelief yeah and you can see on the deck of the ship you can see your crew um wearing you actually got them sort of all uh that starbane armor and like pulse rifles you salvaged that's all been sort of like recolored um and designed to and i'll leave this to you specifically trot because this is your ship the the uniform that is is going to be whatever color and like design motifs you want the weapons have been colored so it no longer looks like starbane armor it will look like whatever you want it to look like um so if there's a particular color scheme that is down to you right like i'll leave that to you know because the storm chasers hull

is like quite a dark gray black like you wanted it to almost be like this stealthy shadow ship um i don't know if you want to keep that for the armor but it's up to you how you want to go with it right um everybody was also wearing it right whereas before i think you had like the wolf pack equipped with it now you can see like penny and lancean and even howard howard's got like a little halfling version of it um and they're all wearing this kind of like tight leather suit with built-in features um and you can see a couple of the wolf pack are testing something where when they tap their necks a sort of magic like half helmet comes down and then fills with like a force field creating like an actual pressurized sort of like suit almost it's like a magical shield yeah it's it's like they basically have like a little sort of like space suit but like a fantasy equivalent of it right so they have like a crystal headband that like then goes down the

sides of their heads um and when they tap it like this kind of force field comes down that's so cool all the way around i want one i want one way around this now well yeah because like like things like the wolf pack like they have like their wolf ears, right? So like there's like has to incorporate that and things like that It basically creates like a sort of like design for them. Yeah, like they've got little shape for the ears Lookout is the only one who doesn't have that you can see that lookout just doesn't have that sort of atmosphere pressure thing Um, but he's wearing like the uniform, right? So Azaria come and stands and says like i hope i have not disturbed the aesthetic of the ship too much but then we did need to reinforce the hull for certain elements oh no of course

not no i if this was my design i i'm working on my own airship design that has more of my own aesthetic but i wanted to keep this with me um but yeah this is you can see the hull has been reinforced. Yes, please, Captain, please. I'm blown away. I'm in awe of the work that's been accomplished here. Thank you so much. Oh, please, hold your thanks. This is merely the sort of surface level improvements. There is much still to be discussed and also yet still more that can be done.

But let me come to that afterwards. First things first, one very important factor the intention is for you to eventually be able to travel into astral space yes to do so upon the storm chaser we are not quite there yet but what i have incorporated is an a sort of environmental system as well as magical shielding. And she gives a gesture out the window. Or no, actually, she would cast Sending. You see her cast the Sending spell and she says, First Maid to Raya, would you please demonstrate the shielding and environmental systems? And you see a Raya on the deck, like a brand new helm.

The sort of big sailing ship wheel is gone gone and it's now more like a console like you would see in the twin star with like a kind of controls and she taps a few buttons and you see a shimmering field of energy like a big bubble shield completely enclose the ship um incorporating the sails uh kind of fully going around the ship itself um and azaria will say this system will provide you some magical protection, but most importantly, it contains atmosphere, air, breathable oxygen, gravity, that sort of thing, allowing you to traverse into places

that would perhaps formerly be inhospitable. This would also protect you against extreme cold and extreme heat, were you to sail into somewhere that was particularly hot, say the cauldron of a volcano, or perhaps an ice field, the people on the deck of the ship should feel no more discomfort than they would upon Horizon itself. Now, as I mentioned, this is not quite ready for astral space just yet. The sheer pressure of astral space is a little bit more than the shield can

withstand currently, but I do have my plans to improve it. But the environmental system should prove adequate if you wish to go underwater or, as I said, into fields of particular weather, extreme weather. There are also two other systems I have designed. The first one being a new weapon system. I hope you will not mind that I have perhaps used my own name for this, but I have developed something I call Perel Missiles. These are a brand new weapon.

There is a launcher built into the sides of the Storm Chaser, and I have provided you with a complement of ten charges that can be mounted into the launcher. It will fire a barrage... Brand new weapons, as in unknown to even the Valkyrian Empire? It is likely the Valkyrian Army's defences will still be able to resist this, but I'm hopeful that it would give you an advantage, yes.

It will especially be useful against smaller craft. It will basically... A Perel missile contains a barrage of magical projectiles, similar to the magical missile spell, if you're familiar with it. It will launch a series of magical missiles that will home in on their target, but it does take some time to reload once you have used one of the charges and they are limited i can only produce a small amount of them uh at a

time but i've given you a compliment of 10 for now uh out of character knowledge this is basically it launches magical anime missiles where they do the thing. It does 8d4 plus 8 force damage and it takes a random amount of time to reload. You have to manually reload it. I know you guys are going for anime. Can I pretend that they're like Star Trek torpedoes? I want photon torpedoes.

The idea is that they can be a mixture of the two. The idea is that the missile launches and then it splits up into lots of little miniature uh torpedoes if you want to mentally imagine it as just one big thing you can do that um so they're called missiles so so they they guaranteed if we want to hit something pretty hard like yes well provided that the like you know you've encountered this that like the valkyrian like big valkyrian ships will probably have damage thresholds and often were like don't take much force damage because their shielding protects them but if you were fighting against unshielded

ships like smaller vessels or like creatures space creatures this is like a really good weapon to use against those because it's basically automatically hit um she will also tell you that the arcane cannons have now do 5d10 damage on a hit they have been upgraded um and you have two of she says that um no she doesn't say that but like she doesn't say that but she tells you that the weapons have been enhanced um and then lastly uh she waves her hand over the window and we now see a sort of interior of the storm chaser itself. Like it kind of shows like an X-ray version of it. And it shows you the engine room with the twin engines. You guys designed this.

You designed the twin Ethereum engine system. It's sort of been overhauled. And now in the middle of where previously, where the engines were just sort of in the middle of like a hold, like they were in like a ship sailing hold and Nova was like there was pipes and things like that. It's all been tidied up and it's now more like a kind of metal room with like two sort of magical reactors. Imagine sort of like this kind of much more sci-fi magitek bent. Dilithium chambers!

But now there is also almost like a kind of pod that sits in the middle and it looks like a person sized pod um and azaria says now this is something of an experimental system nova vega you have created a symbiotic relationship with this tiangong your weapon is that my understanding of your abilities oh this is gonna be cool as hell. Yes. You are aware that Valkyrian ships use Eterna as a sort of control system, often as power, but also to control the ship systems. Yes.

This system, how I've designed it, rather than imprisoning an Eterna or even an individual who is symbiotically linked to one, you would be able to enter that pod, be within it, and you will have telepathic control as well as real-time information on the ship systems you'll be much able to react faster provide reroute power of the different ethereum engines be able to

activate systems um in a sort of magical space a semi-dimensional space. You could do this, or if I am to understand correctly, your form, the form that this Tiangong can take, could step inside instead as well. But I should note that once you are inside it, it would be difficult to remove you if there were a disaster or if there was an emergency aboard. You would be primarily in there. It primarily a way to get in and out of cover your ears cover your ears give me a moment excuse me Matt

she's always wanted to be a sheep I've never seen that reaction From Kim before Man I've never seen that Like man I didn't think That would make you that happy You've just given me a score drive From Star Trek Discovery thank you I don't know what that is

Mine's from the anime Outlaw Star They have a score drive They basically have a pod that you can connect in to travel. Like, it's a whole thing. Just Star Trek. In this one, it's basically you become the AI of the ship, right? Like, Nova or Tiangong sits in there. Yeah, even just Tiangong.

And you become the ED, the computer, or whatever. Very much like how the Tassadar operates the Tassadar anybody anywhere can be like Tassadar do this and Tassadar has access to all the systems right so is the idea that's so cool I approve of this Mark

I'm very I approve I think now this Azaria will turn around and say, I have done everything I possibly can with the Storm Chaser in its current form. There is more I could do. I have found designs for an old Solvin magical weapon.

I have found the Twin Stars astral engines that allow it to enter the Infinite Staircase and the River Styx. Unfortunately, I am unable to replicate these with the Storm Chaser's current power output. What we would need is rather to replace the Aetherium engines, which are built to function within Arois's atmosphere, and instead replace it with engines much more similar to the Twin stars, fiendish engines or elemental engines or celestial engines, you would need to capture two powerful elemental, fiend, or celestial beings.

And then I would be able to bind them into the ship itself. Until I have sufficient power, I cannot make it so that the Storm Chaser will travel into astral space. But if I do, I can not only do that, I can not only allow it to travel in astral space, but there is a weapon I have designed, the most powerful weapon I think a ROAS can produce.

An energy cannon of such power, it would rival that of the greatest cannon in the Valkyrian Empire. The twin engine design that you originally concepted is unlike anything else I have seen before. It is truly unique and I think that with the two, if it is possible, one fiend and one celestial, their opposite elements, these kind of opposing powers would create such an intense power fluctuation that we could harness. It would truly make something spectacular, but that might be difficult. So just two powerful planar creatures such as elementals, fiends, celestials. And I do have something to help you provide that.

And she will pull from her own bag of holding, which is like a little purse. And she pulls it and she'll hand it to you. They're not in there, are they? Probably. No, no, unfortunately not. She will hand it to Lucius because you're the captain. This is called a binding sphere. You can look it up on D&D Beyond.

You should be able to find one. And what it is is it's like a brass orb with etchings and runes around it in bands. And it looks like you can twist and rotate it on various different axes. And she passes it to you and says, this is a binding sphere. If you encounter such a creature and you fight it and can weaken it, you can spend time to activate this sphere and it will try and force the creature into basically

being captured within it. You can then bring it back to me. I can release the creature and bind it into the engines. But this will allow you to transport it back to me once you've found one. Wait, we've got Pokemon now? It is like a very big fancy Pokeball.

Yes. Okay, give me a sec. Yes! Yeah! Hell yeah! Imagine, to me, it is a pokeball. This would be more like summons in Final Fantasy, right? Because you need to find the sort of fancy of nerds. Have you found and added that item, Chris Tron?

I have not, actually. It can't find Binding Sphere on D&D Beyond. Let me add it for you. Thank you. Unless I fucking didn't save it. I've also had some thoughts about what the uniform looks like. Oh, that sounds good.

While I do this, that sounds good while i do this that sounds great tell us about that so it's a sleek uh skin tight outfit right yeah it's like made from like a kind of like leather it's like a leather jumpsuit kind of like body armor like kind of like mass effecty star trekky kind of like skin like um the expanse like the armor that they wear and stuff like that in that it's very it's very sci-fi. I picture this being somewhat of a flashback moment of when I'm discussing these ideas with Zarya or whoever would be taking on the uniform concept. And I'd be like, I'd like it to encompass the entire party in some fashion.

So we'll start with the neutral dark leather, the blacks and the grays, some different panels, which could break up the monotony of black with little gray side pieces and whatnot. And maybe a collar, a skin-tight collar at the top here that's just, it zips up a little higher than you'd expect, but probably better for those...

Are you talking about magical... I'll let you figure that out. Yes, yes. For astral space. But I'd like everyone to be included in this uniform, so starting with the arms, I think some feathers, as if they were wings going down the back. Down the center.

As in like just embroidered filigree that looks like feathers. Just a pattern in the things. And then another embroidered pattern of a sword that goes all the way down the middle to represent tiangong uh in the center a a sphere maybe of energy if it needs power or something like that for the for the magic i don't know to represent the matrix i'd like to have some some the seams to have the tartan of Aela that would be nice on certain accentuated pieces

and somewhere on the back I don't know where prismatic colours like all sorts of and a nice strip panel somewhere perhaps not on the back but what would perhaps something along the collar perhaps a small sort of band along the perhaps not on the back but what would perhaps as like um something

along the collar perhaps a small sort of band along the collar perhaps on the side like a vert a sort of vertical shaft of the various prismatic sort of maybe perhaps ending in a prism or perhaps sounds wonderful off in color perfect yes what about and she shows you a design so on the back rather than having small individual feathers sort of on the shoulders, the back has a kind of like winged pattern. That's cool. Sort of in sort of, you know, silver and gold kind of embroidered on the back. So it's like this kind of emblem of wings.

The middle there is like a golden sort of like orb or sphere, which serves as like the matrix, like almost like a replica of the matrix right in the chest. I think she would maybe say rather than having the sword of Tiangong like the matrix, like almost like a replica of the matrix right in the chest. I think she would maybe say, rather than having the sword of Tiangong in the middle, sort of where you have on one side, this kind of vertical column of the prismatic colors ending in a crystal that then splits off into white,

a sort of like white point, like a triangle pointing down. On the other side of the collar is a kind of like sword emblem that looks like Tiangong going uh horizontally along the side um and then the the tartan i think would yeah maybe be woven into like uh i'm trying to think where that could look good like yeah maybe like a seam down like on the arm seams like a band of it or something like that or like maybe across like the forearm like

on the bicep there's like a band of it kind of thing so it's subtle um tries to keep it quite stylish almost like when we were given a piece of the time this is almost like an addition that's been given to the crew i guess yeah yeah i think azaria can replicate that she can use creation magic to kind of you know design this thing and it's it's built into it like part of the suit right so it's kind of like a band around everyone's arm. Yeah. And can we have the symbol of Siaska somewhere? Well, how about on that vertical column of the prismatic light,

rather than a prism, it's Siaska's... There you go. Half, half, half. This is what we represent. This is what we're fighting for. Yeah. And Siaska's symbol, for those who don't know, it's like a heart it's like a

setting sun with stars over the setting sun so it's like a half circle on a line on a plane and then stars over it kim's probably got it somewhere she probably has um yeah so yeah so okay so that's the design that is seen uh there you go that's like an early early revised copy um you could have less stars they don't have to be those kind of stars either they can be like more like uh trapezoids and stuff like that cool um cat is trying to cause big cats trying to get involved not now big cat we're trying to talk about the uniforms yeah and then then Lucius is seeing these uniforms for the first time and he's just... And I think maybe like Azaria like waves her hand

and we see like in like proper Mass Effect style, it's like a shot running through the storm chaser and we see the crew sort of like the wolf pack going to and fro like all wearing the uniform like as it makes its way up to the top deck and then we see Oriah sort of like arranging the console and stuff. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. it's way up to the top deck and then we see ariah sort of like arranging the console and stuff very cool very cool yeah i'm i'm going to need all the instruction manuals all of them all all of them of course yes yes well we have designed a comprehensive system we've tried to make it as

user-friendly as possible for all of you to get to grips with um the systems themselves should run provided that the ship has power shouldn't be too much you need to do beyond activating and deactivating them as required. The crew have all been briefed on various new functions and you have already seen they have these uniforms which I know for some of you environments and atmosphere are less dangerous than others but you all are considerably more adept at handling dangerous situations. So the crew have been given something to kind of help protect them against explosions of magical meteors or astral space and the like, underwater, that sort of thing, if anything were to happen to them.

Yes, I'm glad, I'm pleased that you like my work. It's been quite a, it's been the challenge of my lifetime, my very, my hundreds of years. It has been a great challenge to design and improve upon this and to learn so much about a world, worlds that I did not know anything about.

I'm very grateful for the opportunity. After all this is done, I, I, can I study? Can you teach me? Can I study with, can I i i would be delighted to have you as an apprentice this this is beautiful what you've made here is astounding it has been a challenge magitek is intriguing but there are many elements of the technological side that i do not understand i'm very grateful to the gnomes of Gusthaven. They have been quite useful in deciphering

the more sort of technological aspects. But magically, it is quite a wonder and I'm very pleased to have developed it as I could. But yes, if you can find those two planar beings to replace the Aetherium engines... Yes, I was going to ask about this about this now is this the raw power of of a celestial or does it need to be captured and contained and trapped within this binding it would be bound it would be bound if you are uncomfortable with that especially with

a celestial being i would say this it would not be difficult for me to release said being once your business with the Storm Chaser is completed. If once Erois is safe, if you wish to release these beings, that is totally possible, completely and utterly. The Binding Sphere, if a creature is willing, it will simply capture them. If they do not resist its attempts to to uh contain them they will simply do so what i would say is that elemental creatures and fiends will not take kindly to being imprisoned no matter whether they are released or not they would very likely turn violent once they are released a celestial creature if you could strike a bargain

with one if you could perhaps say to one, help us, give us this service for a year, two years' time, and then you will be released, you may find that some planar beings are willing to make such a sacrifice. Indeed, the dragons, the ancient dragons of their homeworld did a very similar process to help their people escape. It may be possible you could convince a Celestial to temporarily bind itself to the engines. So the other two, I would not...

Simply summon, magically, a Celestial and then bind that with a... If you were able to summon a Celestial, we could certainly... You could make that bargain, yes. I mean, out of game. So this is a... Yeah, no, it's okay to ask

for an hour, right? Like, I imagine if it is then bound within this orb, then after an hour, the orb is then empty, right? So, what is the spell? What is the spell? Summon Celestial. Summon Celestial. So I think these ones create, like, temporary spirits, but there is one called

like summon planar ally i think where you can like make a bargain with one it's called like playing our ally uh yeah like yeah i was looking through all my spells so the summon ones yeah the summon ones you don't think they kind of create a creature they don't summon one even though the name of the spell is summon it kind of creates a creature they don't summon one even though the name of the spell is summon it kind of creates like a temporary celestial creature to serve you right playing our ally you beseech an otherworldly entity for aid the being must be known to you a god of primordial demon prince or some other cosmic being a cosmic power that entity sends a celestial an elemental or a fiend loyal to it to aid you making the creature appear in an unoccupied space within

range if you know a specific creature's name you, making the creature appear in an unoccupied space within range. If you know a specific creature's name, you can speak the name when you cast a spell to request that creature, though you might get a different creature anyway, GM's choice. When the creature appears, it is under no compulsion to behave in a particular way. You can ask the creature to perform a service

in exchange for payment, but it isn't obliged to do so. The requested task could range from simple, fly us across the chasm help us fight a battle to complex spy on our enemies protect us during our you know dungeon uh you must be able to compute complete with the creature payment can take a variety of forms um it might require a sizable donation of gold or magic items it might require something more more extreme um but yeah playing our ally would summon one to you and then you could hash out a negotiation, potentially. I mean, yeah, I guess, like,

beseeching Palidor, who is literally riding around in a giant airship with a Modron army. I guess the Modrons themselves aren't Celestial, but... Modrons won't count, no. But Palidor could probably send four as Celestial. The other thing I will say

the bit about requesting a god to send a champion we don't need to worry about that as much like the way that gods and divinity work in a row

is a little bit differently you know you've met Celestials you met Celestials in Elysium if you could

remember those names you could try and summon those guys you also know one here on a row I was going to ask where is Rana?

Where do we leave Rana? I can't remember. You can summon her if you want. You can find her. It wouldn't be that hard. I feel mildly queasy about asking Rana because given that she was imprisoned by Sarkira and tortured by her, it's like hey brah, you know how we rescued you?

Could we just shove you in a chamber again? Can you be our engine for a you in a chamber again? Yeah. Can you be our engine for a bit? Let's capture Grotz. I was thinking Grotz. Can we just shove Grotz in there? Oh, that would be just the best.

If Quill says that to Azaria, Azaria's little eyes will twinkle. A demon of that power would be very useful. Surely dangerous. Yes, of course, absolutely. And I imagine that you would have to weaken Grotz's will, incredibly so, to be able to bind them into the binding sphere. And nothing can get out of this binding sphere. I believe that my...

That device is one of the greatest inventions I have ever created. It is one of my greatest relics that I have manufactured. The nature of these beings, the very nature of elementals, fiends, celestials, they are... Their essences, their souls, if you will, must obey certain rules that we are not bound to you could not use that binding sphere to capture a humanoid a sentient creature you could not use it to bind

an animal for example but there is something different about fiends and celestials and elementals their essences are tied to principalities principles of the universe that are infallible. If, if you can use it, if it can capture Graz, if he comes inside, he is bound. There is no escaping it. But, you must remember that this

Graz, from what you have told me, what I know of it, is an incredibly strong-willed, powerful creature. You would be hard-pressed to achieve it. That is not to say it is an incredibly strong-willed, powerful creature. You would be hard pressed to achieve it. That is not to say it is not possible. You would also need to be in his presence to do so. Mm-hmm. It would be so funny though. I have the Planar Binding spell and I've had it for the longest time.

I've been trying to find a way to use it. I could literally bind Grut to me and then tell him to go into the sphere and he will just do it. Oh my god. I think anyway. Keep in mind, planar binding takes an hour to cast. Yeah. That's the thing.

So you have to trap Grut. Trap him for an hour. We wouldn't even need to fight him though, but if we could trap him for an hour, I could just bind him to me and then... That alone will be terrible. Yeah. We've got it. Trap him for an hour. could just bind him to me and then that alone will be um trapping for an hour it's not not possible like out of game and i don't mind you guys knowing this like out of game you're gonna need to burn through his legendary resistances because he can just choose to make a saving throw he can just be like i choose to succeed i choose to succeed i say no um but the

ball does have a caveat that if a creature is under half its maximum hit points, it has disadvantage on the saving throw. So if you can actually weaken them, it makes it easier to capture them. And yeah, like... I mean, it even says in the planar binding spell description, typically the creature is first summoned into the center of an inverted magic circle.

Like it's giving you hints on how to actually use this thing. Yeah, magic circle. Again, you've got to remember. Yeah, also keep in mind, Grots ain't stupid. Like, if he gets, like, Quill, it's like a ping. Like, Quill is summoning you to his world. He'll be like, pretty sure I know that bird. I know.

Yeah. But yeah, it's, I mean, how to make you a duracell for our ship please let's just like it's definitely a thing i thought of like i was like they're probably gonna want to they might have the idea of capturing grats and it is possible it's just hard right that and that's the difference what's going to be the determining factor here is like the more powerful creatures you can capture, the more powerful the storm chaser will be for the big conclusion. Azaria has mentioned she has developed a weapon.

That weapon will become more powerful depending on what you can capture with this. We're in the late game, like power level grinding. Just trying to get the number just that little bit higher. Arois at this rate is going to last for another three years while I just get that number a little bit higher. No, it really won't. It really won't Tom Hayser because the world is going to stop

while you're grinding. The world's going to keep turning. Oh boy. We're going to grind. But you know, like there's a big difference. You guys capture like, ooh, a shitty CR-12, you know, bone devil. Yeah, I mean, that will work and it will let the ship go into astral space, but it's not going to be super strong. You capture like a pit fiend.

Ooh, that's pretty scary. That's going to be pretty strong. You know, you capture grots. Oh, Jesus Christ. Like that's crazy powerful and it's the same with like the type of creature right so if you had like a fire elemental and a water elemental and you captured two really powerful fire and water elementals because they're conflicting nature that makes it more powerful right if you captured like just two devils it's going to be strong but it's it's not going to get a little boost of power right whereas if you captured like just two devils it's going to be strong but it's it's not

going to get a little boost of power right whereas if you get an angel and a devil whoa that's really good like again you've got this conflicting energy going on so if we get like a really shitty little imp and uh and palidor himself for example right yeah okay the power would be completely imbalanced it would be completely imbalanced and it would be on the lower side it wouldn't be brought into the middle it would linger more towards the inside because that's restricting the power yeah yeah okay it's bottlenecking so what you want to do is you want to get two equally powerful things of different elements maybe maybe grunst is a bit too much, but however.

I just kind of want to do it for the lols. It would be so funny, you big prick. Get in there. It would be a great fucking Grunt. Let's just throw a Pokemon at Hadar. Yeah, let's get Hadar in there. Hadar wouldn't work because he's not one of the

three creature types the ball can capture. Hadar is not an elemental fiend or a special. He's dark type. Can you imagine if that was the loophole to stop this whole Hadar thing with this fucking pokeball. Immediately it's just like, okay you don't have the pokeballs anymore. Just get in the engine. Just get in the engine.

Just do the brakes. It's gone. Weird. No. It's, yeah, that was, don't. This guy knew. I was like, that was... This guy knew. I was like, only works on three creature pilots. Only will work on elementals, fiends, and celestials. Bringing it back to the four and the current,

Lucius will say, okay, that's something we can definitely put on the to-do list, shall we say. We've got a lot of urgent needs currently going on at Aroas before we even reach astral space. So hopefully we'll find some time to find some two forces of opposing powers

that can fuel us and get us out there for the final stages. Until then, I believe we need to go see our crew in their new uniforms yes I need to be on the ship right now right now right now I've been holding dimension door for the last 20 minutes I need to be on there now dimension door from here Nova will need to step outside back in the bone cage yes back in back into the bone lift, please. And she takes everyone back. More screaming banshee maids.

Come screaming in. I was thinking... Perhaps with such a radical upgrade to the Stormchase and its crew, a more fitting name. I had a suggestion. I did not wish to it is of course your choice but I did have something

that I thought was quite fitting but it may not be to your tastes go on I've got one too my suggestion would be to call it Storm's Requiem as is the first but it is your ship Captain Alanasto

hmm that is a good one i like that write that one down okay yes uh storms requiem i've written it down because it's a nod to the original name yes well what was your i think i did well i was going to go for a more radical change I was going to go for a more radical change. But keeping with S's. What is it? What is it?

What is it? I was going to call it and the crew and all of us Siaska's Salvation. Oh. But that might be a little too ambitious. You could. It could simply be called the Salvation. Or the Salvation. If The Salvation, yes. If you wish not the goddess's name, which does add a sort of grandiose element to it. But The Salvation would also be fitting.

We should put it to the crew to see what they think. We'll take a vote. The crew! If only we could see a live vote on the names of the crew! We won't go with a vote. We'll give them a week to ponder it. And then we'll look at the

conversations that have been had on the billboards as to what people think. Let's stew on it for a while. We've got some great names there. The Storms of Requiem is actually quite favourable. Stew on Zyaska's Salvation. I heard the crew seemed to also have another idea,

which I remember hearing from the crew earlier. Starchaser was another one as well. I heard that. Starchaser. We chased the stars. I was going to suggest Stargazer, but that's because I'm a big Star Trek nerd and Stargazer's come up a lot recently.

But Star Chaser, I like that one. Star Trek, Star Wars, that's a good name. I think we've had plenty of Star Trek nods. What? But yeah, Star Chaser's really cool. I mean, to be fair to Kim, she needs to get them all out now because Campaign 3 is going to have none of this sci-fi bullshit in it.

So get it out now. We're going full Tolkien, three months of trees and walking in the next campaign. And if anyone's surprised about the Star Trek Discovery, it's not my favorite Star Trek, but if you just look at Nova, her entire uniform about the Star Trek Discovery, it's not my favorite Star Trek, but if you just look at Nova, her entire uniform is from Star Trek Discovery, including the breastplate from Michelle Yeoh's character

in the parallel universe. So just don't be surprised that I'm frothing over Spawn. At this point, hundreds of episodes in, I don't think were surprised. I don't think anyone is. Some people seem surprised. Some people seem surprised. Some people seem surprised. I just, do you know me? What is Vita a reference to?

I know, right? I just can't spell. I'm just so fucking dyslexic. With that, I don't know how you guys feel. There is, we can do a little bit more if there's more stuff you want to do, but like we are kind of approaching natural break time anyway.

I guess like the only thing is going onto the ship and I guess letting Kim Nova just splurge about the new AI system. Oh, she is running around that ship. If you want to do that, and then that could be like the last thing that sort of like we see before we take a break i think also it'll be good to have the whole crew here for like a big crew yes look at us and that's the thing is like i would have loved to have done this with everyone

here to show them and we can i'll do like a recap of it next week of like the reveal and stuff but yeah this was i definitely wanted to have a cool thing happen for for this week because we have had a few weeks off so i wanted like this to be like a nice kind of thing to to bring it man i am i am loving this these new quests i mean i'm just seeing them as quests in a list i'm like hunt down three little beasts in the middle of this place investigate the tomb in this area hunt down two celestials or two fiends and it's like i don't know why why do i love that so much oh yep i'll tell you why it's a gamer it's it's i think there's definitely an element of being a gamer but also it's sometimes nice to have very clear if you do this you get this right and it's like we've talked about this like i think that

you know sometimes in dnd it's like no we've got to try and keep it realistic and it's like no it's still a game at the end of the day and like knowing if we do this we get this cool thing that's a very good thing and it makes you excited to get the thing you're like i want i want to get the thing so that we get the cool ship cannon um yeah and stuff like that right like that's the thing. For sure. For sure. All right. Nice. Amazing. Any crew votes are not legally binding. I'm putting that out there now.

It's good to know what you guys like. You're very much taking it on board, yes. Yeah, but it's not binding. Pun intended. So we will have a chat about it and then go with what the team likes the most. Indeed. We'll speak to everyone else as well.

Yeah. Get their thoughts on it let's uh last thing i'll do then is you guys make your way down into the brand new storm chaser you travel down and azaria is showing you around and eventually we come to this brand new sort of engine room a sleek quite narrow um sort of area but a kind of metal crystal chamber with these two powerful ethereum engines contained within sort of metal canisters and you know pipes leading into the rest of the ship and system and in the middle there is almost almost coffin like this kind of pod chamber um that is connected by a short set of stairs

and its pipes feed into the chilled dual reactors you know what visually if you remember genova in final fantasy 7 sort of in that little window and then the things behind you went to genova kind of a bit like that yeah that's okay wow and azaria will press a few console crystals the door slides open with a faint mist descending and then she will gesture towards it and say yourself or your symbiotic companion Nova Vija can take their place. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, Tiangong, um, do you know what? Tiangong has been used a lot. And I believe, with all respect, my friend, you deserve a rest.

I feel uncomfortable making you return to become a ship's energy source. So I'll do it. Yeah, me. Aren't you also you? And you're both you. We are. Whatever Nova Vija experiences, we both experience, yes. You just hear Tiangong's voice.

So it doesn't really matter, frankly. Yeah. Azari will say it could matter. For example, if you were in a battle and you wish to have Miss Vija up on the deck fighting, your astral form or whatever mana you call it by could take their place. If you're in the thing, your astral form, so to speak, is roaming the ship, right? Yes, I could set it up. We could work that way.

You could manifest it, yeah. Can I suggest, Nova, this is entirely your choice. You get to do this cool new thing. We have Squishy Nova for when we actually go out there and Swishy Nova goes in the pod for when we're out there. But for now, for you to experience it fully, Squishy Nova can go in the pod and Swishy Nova can stay outside. But we are both Swishy and Squiffy. Swishy and Squishy Nova can go in the pod, and Squishy Nova can stay outside. But we are both Swishy and Squiffy.

Squishy and Squishy. Close enough. Are you both Squishy? I haven't squished Squishy Nova yet. And nor shall you. Noted. We do not enjoy being touched. That's Tiangong.

Understood. We'll very... I'll leave it to you. All right. When Tiangong is saying that, by the way, there's also a slight echo from Nova.

Like, whenever either of them speak, there's a slight echo from the other one. Nice. But it's like, mouth's not moving, but there's like a psychic kind of like echo

as if they were speaking. I see. Cool. You can hear their voices in each other. Bit of a chorus. Yeah. Yeah. All all right do you want to step up inside nova i i would like to experience what this is like i believe it would maybe perhaps bring me closer to understanding what the um eterna are going through um so i i would like to go in

a turner are going through um so i i would like to go in squishy no over it is not squishy step up let's squish a sentry probably does panicky mum worry things uh ayla just sort of slaps you on the back um you step up inside and when and again azaria presses some buttons on the console and the door slowly closes. And for a moment, Nova, you don't think anything's working. You think it may be broken, but then it all turns dark. And then it's almost as if opening your eyes from a dream. Like being suspended in water that you can't feel, that has no temperature. Almost sensory deprivation sort of style.

You're just sort of floating in space, hovering for a moment. You can see a sort of blue translucent body version of yourself just sort of hovering there in nothing. And then the blackness gives away and becomes transparent stars and astral sea. You can see the outline of the ship around you can see the outline of your companions of your friends you can see and now you can feel the powers and the systems of the ship as if they were your own body the guns the shields the helm the controls although you may

not have control of all of these things you can feel how much power is going into them you can feel the status of the hull every slight adjustment to it as it is being repaired and fixed feels as if it is a part of your own body your senses expand even further you can not only feel the ship but you can sense the dock that it's built upon you can sense horizon as a city around you can feel the people going about their business, maybe not on a macro level, not being able to hear what they're saying or what they're doing, but you can feel their presence. You become aware of them. You become aware of the buildings, the structures. It begins identifying threats, potential threats, potential things that need to be protected and dangers.

You begin, at first it seems a little overwhelming, but slowly your mind acclimatizes to it. And it is unlike anything you have ever felt before. It is like being yourself, but on a whole other level of awareness and connectivity. You can feel raw magic and power flowing through you but then there is also a sort of sad element of being trapped of being unable to physically move like you know your body is there but you cannot move it it's like an out-of-body experience like being completely aware of your body being vulnerable in this chamber but being unable to move it in any way but also this wonderful sensation of connectivity,

of being able to tell exactly where Lucius is, like feeling the air around Aayla move as she paces back and forth in the chamber and things like that. Yeah, powerful stuff. Wow. And if you speak, anybody on the ship can hear you um like you can have your voice project from any point of the ship to anybody um and likewise you can hear any like any conversation you are

aware of what anybody on the ship is saying like at all times like you can hear the smallest conversations from the wolf pack to lancean and and uh howard discussing you know the next steps of the journey of of everything going on you are aware of so i've basically become the ship's ai kind of like yeah it's that kind of sensation yeah and it is a lot if it was not for tiangong like you can feel tiangong like sifting that information in your brain to make sure your very mortal brain is not overwhelmed. Almost like you can feel Tiangong's presence is ahead of you and is quickly sifting that information

and just feeding back what subconsciously you need to know or hear. But Tiangong is kind of microprocessing it a lot of the time. Otherwise, this would be too much. This would probably make your head blow up if you were a normal person. This would be way too much. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So I think, yeah, you'd probably see all this go on

and then after a moment kind of just hear from the ship's consoles, like, we are Nova V'ger. We are Tiangong. hear from the ship's consoles. What does Nova look like while she's in this thing? Is she just completely static? You can see like a little porthole, like a little glass reinforced crystal porthole. And she's just, her hair is kind of floating as if it's caught in water. Like, although it was kind of floaty and cloudy anyway,

almost kind of like disperses out and floats around. Her eyes are closed and it's just like she's floating there as if like she was in a little you know underwater chamber um just completely serene you know i'm gonna kim what i'll do is i'll actually give you some um like the systems of the ship and like this is what this is called this is what this is called and like it so that when you're like our paying it you can be like you know environmental Lehmann's environmental shield hundred percent and stuff like that yeah I might come up with some names technically engaged yeah I like the sight of humans on their knees.

But yeah, I'll give you some sense. I think the environmental system is based on Leomund's tiny hut, but I think Azaria would probably rename it. It would probably be called the Azaria Environmental Shield or something like that, or the Perel Shield. And then you have Perelman because she's all about the branding as well.

Yeah, Perelman. Perel Missiles, Perel shield. And then you have Perel, because she's like all about the branding as well. Yeah. Perel missiles, Perel chaser. Yeah. Perel missiles, she's definitely keeping. I don't know about the shield, we might change it. But yeah, there we go. And I think that that's where we're probably going to take a little break. Oh my god.

Oh, that's so cool. Just wow. I did not expect that no no you weren't expecting the cool ship reveal uh what i knew the ship reveal was coming but not to that degree yeah you guys are going to go fight an evil god in astral space eventually i want to make sure you've got a cool we're gonna need it you know um tom and in fact you guys would all know this and like very slightly minor spoils if you've not played final fantasy 14 the latest expansion but there is a moment when we were all playing that together and there was a moment that a very similar thing happens when it actually it's a thing that takes off to go to a place. If it's Endwalker, shush. The whole time I was just like,

that's cool. I want that. That's fucking cool as shit. That's going to happen. Yeah. You know, and that's, anybody out there, this is how you fucking DM, all right?

You just take all the cool shit that you think is awesome and then you just do it. You make your own push. Generously yeah you actually had a thing after that i thought you were just going to like just be a great drop dm this is how you dm mic drop and walks out of the room like okay not that guy tom hayes i just i was glad you added something after that um yeah holy so so just uh visually like the colors yeah i guess this is a trot like the colors of the ship if the name is changing the uh uniform has got elements of everyone on there but it's still dark grays and things like that is the ship still the same color scheme or you think something different there hot pink hot pink it's not hot pink it's not hot pink. It's not hot pink. Please don't make it hot pink. Oh, okay.

Don't ruin my mind. It's what happened to you, Mark. Please, please don't make it hot pink. Now, I picture it being, you know, the darker aesthetic, like, because it was originally based on Night Frost, and it was in Storm Chaser. However, these new additions would add some tech and some like leds and like lines what about white and gold it's got like the black crystals underneath but i reckon

they got like a pearlescent oily if the sun hits it just right you see like shimmers of different colors hell yeah prismatic like lucius yeah i dig that that's pretty big but also it's like a really powerful like crystal right that's reinforcing the hull yeah the hull yeah so very similar to how the Valkyrian ships are made and stuff and I picture the shield that goes the bubble shield that goes over it

is like an oily soap that's constantly shifting like a bubble yeah so less stealth, mist, shadow ship. More prismatic, glamorous, shiny. Sleek. Yeah.

But still. Oh my gosh. Fantasy sci-fi. Yeah, that's the thing. I don't want it to be like, it isn't a spaceship. It is mainly like this kind of sailing ship, but imagine like black crystals, like metal

components. Like it's been revived. It still has sails. If you've seen like the movie Treasure Planet and stuff, it still has sails, but those sails are still kind of like holographic, prismatic kind of color. The ropes are made almost like light they're made out of um but then

it has this like bubble that can kind of go around it and create atmosphere and things like that the last thing i was going to say is this idea that perra had this weapon that she talked about that she could eventually build like the schematics maybe you guys see this in her study but it's basically like rather than having the two sort of like you would still have the two little mini turrets on the side, but the entire front prow, which we've always kind of designed is like almost like a blade coming out of the, the,

the ship's front. Um, it would basically extend the prow and split it in the middle. So it's one enormous cannon at the front of the ship, like a giant arcane, uh, Midgar cannon. The entire thing has to lift up first.

It opens out sideways. opens out sideways it goes like oh my god like the one from sonic adventure 1 i don't know what that is but okay run around he's so excited yes yamato yamato cannon

robotech macross cannon as well it happens in sonic adventure does it do the anime thing that when it fires Yamato Cannon, Robotech Macross Cannon as well. If you know Macross. Does it do the anime thing that when it fires, it generates a ball of energy that's offset from the front of it and then fires out? It can do. I haven't decided what it looks like when it fires, but it could do that. I'll tell you this.

The missiles for me are... Yeah, just nice. I fucking love those. Yeah. Cool. Cool. We are going to take a quick break. Yes.

And then we're going to join us after that. All right. Yes. For real. Indeed. Take care. Thank you.