High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #142 | Solwynn the Problem (Part 2)

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

Arriving in Porto Suvrano the Stormchasers try to discover the source of the calamities! 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

Pickaxe. Set the scene. The Storm Chaser, its new upgrades, its new staff and officers, all at their new stations, set out. And for a few days at least, you travel unassailed, without incident, flying through the clear blue skies. You take time to train and to do whatever you

need to do. Familiarize yourself with the new systems of this new and improved Magitek airship. Around the third, end of third day, fourth day, you begin to notice that the air and the clouds You begin to notice that the air and the clouds seem to be lower and darker, and visibility is growing harder as you draw closer to the Hawk's Dawn Archipelago. And you can even see flashes of light, red-orange kind of pulses in amongst, in the distance, on the distant horizon, and great plumes of smoke fly up into the air and surround it. The air here is thick with ash, and traveling through it is going to make things a little bit more difficult. This is where I'm going to need Navigator Kelek Adkalar.

I would like you to make a survival check for me, please. Survival check? Man, all these lights and these blooms of smoke, it'd be great if we were in the studio today. We could turn that smoke machine on. Oh man, I wish we had a smoke machine. 21. 21. So with the assistance of these new sensors and systems around the airship quill, you are able to kind of make sure you stay on course without having to sacrifice too much altitude or speed.

You manage to make good time as you progress through these kind of like ash clouds that are slowly descending. It doesn't take long before the deck of the storm chaser, the crew's hair and uniforms are thick with this kind of like gray slimy sludge of the ash as it kind of settles and condenses. And it very quickly begins to build up on the sails. What do you guys, what do you guys,

has anybody taken any actions as this is all happening? Or do you guys want to do anything else as Quill is kind of focused on navigating it? There is definitely you notice that this is the crew are not happy about it and it's definitely kind of beginning to build up on the ship itself and many of like the sails and lines and things like that um is it worth activating the the environmental shield um or is it kind of too early for that are Are you asking me or asking your fellow crew? I'm asking you mark in terms of like just the mechanics of how I leave that to you. That's your decision Like you know that the environmental shield will probably yeah

I mean it would it would definitely stop the ash getting on to the the sails and the deck and things like that for sure But it will drain the power. It will drain the fuel quicker. Yeah. Ushos? Nova? What do you suggest? It's getting really ashy up in here. Is there something you could do? Captain,

we can activate the environmental shields. However, this will cause a significant drop in the fuel Quatermaster Quill, how far out are we from the port? I can't see a bloody thing Captain, we're approximately Half a day Half a day away And if we were to turn on the shields, Nova Vija

Could you make a rough calculation of how far we can get? Calculating. Yeah, it would still last plenty of time, but it will just mean that, you know, there may be issues down the road. Like, it's not going to, like, you're not going to run out of fuel for running the shields active for a brief period of time,

but it will just drain more power as you go. Do we have, like, reserve fuel and stuff like that? Not on you, no, you can't carry that much like you have to you have to like find somewhere to dock and refuel and things like that captain we calculate that if the environmental shields are activated there will be approximately seven uh 30 drop in the fuel. That seems like not very much. Yes, sure, engage the shield. Captain, we would like to advise that while it may seem like nothing now,

we do not know the mission parameters and how long we will be in this area. Therefore, I would advise caution on our fuel levels, on monitoring our fuel levels. We do not have spare fuel. We do not know where we can obtain spare fuel.

I cautiously advise engage the shield. Alright. So unless you want to try and... Yeah, right. I was going to say, unless you want to try and restrict it. You all feel this kind of pulse in the air, like a kind of something, like an invisible bubble seems to spread out from the middle of the ship,

engulf you, pass through you, and then it seems to settle, just kind of gently encasing the deck of the shield, and then sort of scooping around the sails itself, forming a sort of invisible bubble around it. And immediately, the ash stops falling on you as individuals,

it stops falling on the sails, on the lines, and it sort of begins to just drift off. It's basically burnt up by the shield. You maintain this as you travel, and very quickly, the ash cloud still exists, but you begin to see the shapes of other places, and it almost is like you're flying at nighttime. Like, the ash is so thick above, the clouds are so dense,

it's like, you know, traveling when the ash is so thick above um the clouds are so dense it's like you know traveling uh when the sun is covered um and you arrive within sort of a half a day a few hours eight nine hours or so you find uh porto sovrano this kind of once uh very bustling port town the air above it and the ship and the seas of the docks uh connected down are ram packed they are they are full of airships and sailing ships the sea tide seems to be incredibly choppy and ominous and dangerous looking the waves are actually crashing into like buildings on the sides of the docks and things like that and you begin to see from the elevated position lines of armed forces desperately trying to organize a chaotic mess of refugees and people trying to evacuate the city i'm trying to board ships trying to board airships but there are so

many there's certainly not going to be enough places for everybody the soldiers are trying to kind of keep some semblance of order um promising that you can't hear them from this distance. But you definitely notice that there is some chaos as people are desperately trying to pack up their things and evacuate the port city. The sea does look ominous and dangerous, but with, you know, flying everybody immediately when they see the storm chaser, new improved storm chaser like it draws attention and yeah people you can certainly land or get close to wherever you need to um excellent nice what's the what's the next steps do you want to yeah i like go back in time a bit and presume i would have had a sending spell sent out to the people of Porta Sophrano? Yeah, sure. Request docking permission.

Yeah, well, you can message the Duke. You've only met the Duke. You don't know any other specific individuals that you could contact who are responsible for the authority. But when you let the Duke know that you are coming, you receive a message back just like, Ah, Stormchaser. Yes, I will have my people ready at the docks to meet you. Be cautious. The air is thick with ash

and the seas are dangerous. Well, tell me about the shield. What shield have we got? I'm not going to tell him about that. I've only got 25 words. Okay. You've cast it and sent it and then he responds back. When you guys do arrive, there is

a contingent of pretty well-armed looking mercenaries they don't look like necessarily soldiers none of them have a uniform but they are all very clearly elite warriors with good weapons and armor um and they are surrounding a couple of officials who look very miserable they're wearing hoods all of their hoods are covered in black ash and gray sludge um from the conditions um but they are they have basically cleared an area for you and they're doing that by having soldiers kind of hold people back um but they are basically expecting you and waiting for you when you arrive um the officials when you get downstairs um a tiefling woman sort of a very uh curved goat-like horns thick black hair that's kind of pulled back into a braid um she wears like thin little gold spectacles um and she just kind of peers and

she's like stop storm chasing she's like calling out to you like the the duke is waiting for you um please when if you can come and meet with him he has uh information for you of course yes at once let's go everybody i'll i'll relay to ariah for the crew to stay on alert and stay defensive and to let us i think that's a pretty good idea captain i would be careful these people are quite desperate to get out of here i mean i'm assuming you don't want to hurt anybody, but we may need to use a little bit of force to make sure that they don't try and climb up or, you know, get onto the ship if that's okay. Yes.

Unfortunately, we're going to have to lock down, batten down the hatches, so to speak. All right. Yeah, should I say, like, Kamara, can you make sure that that gets out to the crew? Yes, I'll make sure of that, First Mate and Captain. We'll make sure that we're ready. We'll try not to hurt these people.

We know that they're suffering, but we definitely can't let them on board. Also, if you think it prudent that our fuel supply is running low, bring all the crew below deck so they don't get covered in ash and reduce the shield. We won't be able to bring them down below deck and kind of prevent people.

We'll need at least a rotation to stay on top, and I'll need to stay up here anyway. But we can deal with a bit of ash. You're not going to be here for longer than a few hours, right? We can probably hold position for a while. Well, if you're going to be longer than that, let me know, and then we can figure something out. But we'll try and keep the environmental shield off.

Ring buddies. Sorry, that was not professional. Valor and Maximilian will come out and be like, do you want us to come with you or should we stay here? Or is it better if we come with you? You two stay here. I think it's best if you're here. Again, ring buddies.

Yes, we can wait. Now that we're within range, looking at this place, it shouldn't be too hard for me to teleport us to you if we need to reach you quickly. Right. I can do that a few times, I think, so we should be okay. But yes, we'll wait here, and we'll wait for you to give us an update. Nova, you don't have to remain in the engineering.

The crew can also just run basic functions. It just takes them longer, and they're not as quick and efficient at doing it um but you can you can safely disembark the the pod um and make your way with them as well i'll do that you gotta let go of that power nova what no i wish you guys were star trek because i could totally tell you where this is gonna go and it begins with reginald Barclay and ends with a banger of an episode Justice for Reg Yeah, no, it's fine. Don't worry about it. Just wait until I find the life support systems. It'll be good

Is that the fucking nerd? That's a bit where they launched data out of the garbage chute That bit's awesome and he flies to the other ship. That's great. I love that bit I like the bit where Worf shoots the Borg ship and he goes, Assimilate this! Yeah. No, no, no, not the ship! He's actually on the deflector shield of the Enterprise and the satellite,

and he shoots a Borg. It's a communications array, I think. Yes, and he goes, assimilate this, and then it blows up. It blows up. Can we get Lucius a piccolo? Anyway. That blows up. Can we get Lucius a piccolo? Anyway. That's Titanic. Yes.

So the environmental shield is disabled for a brief period of time. The wolf pack will set a guard watch, and you guys make your way down where, yeah, you do see this military group and this official, and they quickly lead you back up into the city. And it's weird. Having been here before when it was lively and bustling, now the streets are basically empty. Everything is covered in this kind of like fine gray ash sludge.

It's dark. It's like you're walking around at night or an incredibly overcast day. And it has this very ominous presence as you're walking around um the uh the attendant will kind of hand you each um like parasols basically um and they pop those up and they're using those to kind of keep the ash off themselves as best they can um and you are led to get some of them just it's it's something simple just to keep uh keep the ash off for now but uh unfortunately they won't last too much longer but uh yes and she leads you up to uh sort of an estate building at the very top of the the city it's kind of all um built upon like a hilled into

the sort of side of a mountain and it leads you up into the very top section uh where you find a very elaborate luxurious looking estate um really no sign of guards or anybody around. Like it looks like most of the city is either already been evacuated or people are trying to leave it. You do see a few people, a few holdouts who look like they're trying to build like barricades and sand, you know, sandbags and things like that to try and just, you know, defend their property in their homes, like from whatever is about to happen. Now um now team which one of us is going to speak with the duke i can really take the lead here i think i'll be very strong uh uh century i can i suppose yeah

okay let's do a vote uh all those in favor of ayla say aye all those favors said she say aye aye aye all right you all led through to uh what appears to be a sort of map almost like a kind of um a gentleman's kind of study you can see that there are like framed maps on the walls luxurious looking armchairs a fireplace uh various mounted weapons and things on the wall uh paintings of the duke sovrano himself looking like one of them he's got like a big open shirt with like chest hair and he's got like a maiden and a young man on each arm and he's looking very handsome and you know he's it's obviously a very uh aggrandized uh self-portrait or portrait of him um but uh you know all these kind of like little

symbols of luxury and things like that uh but when you see him he definitely looks a lot more haggard he looks tired he doesn't look like he's been sleeping for a long time his hair is slightly unkempt although he has tried to present a sort of more composed well-to-do individual and he's ah storm chasers I'm so glad that you could come as quickly as you have uh as you can see things are not looking particularly good here in the archipelago um what what help can you bring what what what aid do you know anything of what is happening or is there anything i can help you with uh what do what do i owe the pleasure duke savrano um we we need to get to solving or where solving used to be i mean that is a very challenging ask uh central crime solvin the great city, the capital of Solvin, Suncrown was the name of the great city,

as I'm sure you know. And it was a city unlike anything that we have here now today. It was immense in size. Imagine six times the size of Gusthaven or Horizon or any of the great sky cities. It was almost a nation of a city itself. It was very expensive. And then when the war, when Artilicus caused the Sundering, much of it was lost beneath the waves. We have found many treasures. We have found pockets of it.

We have found areas that contain towers or broken buildings of Solvin, of the old Suncrown city. But much of it is now held by the Tritons, which we have had tumultuous relationships with. They occupy one of their cities, Silver Reef,

occupies one of the largest remaining ruins of Solvin. I can certainly point you in the direction of that, and I believe that Miss Corosong, who is around somewhere, can likely help you with that as well. I can point you in the direction of other ruins of Solvin that still exist today.

Some of them are even above sea level. They are not all beneath the waves. But pretty much anywhere that we have seen them, we have had reports of these crystalline dwarven women. And when my forces have attempted to speak with them or to use, to try and capture them or to ask them questions, it has had mixed results. They do not seem to respond to the people that I sent. They speak in strange patterns and languages, claiming that they are, that the people that I send, they speak in strange patterns and languages, claiming that the people trying to speak to them are unrecognized individuals,

simply telling us that their work must not be interrupted. And then if we try and capture them, they use non-lethal force magic to send my forces running or packing. But trying to locate Solvein, that is a question that has puzzled many treasure seekers and divers for generations and historians. We unfortunately do not know exactly where the heart of the city still is. It may even be buried deep beneath the earth at this point. Okay, sounds like Silver Reef might be a good place to start, however. Certainly would be. I can certainly have Miss Coruscant try and aid you to send you

there. If you want to speak or investigate these dwarven individuals, I can point you to some who are nearby. There is a section of ruins on an island not far from here, just a small island really, just a few ruins, tips of some towers perhaps. Forgive me, I've never heard of gem-like dwarves before. Neither have we. They are made entirely of ruby and emerald and sapphire. I would call them golems, but they are so detailed. They move like they are people, but I've never seen anything like it before in my life.

Extraordinary. Yes, I wish I would love to admire them, but right now, if they are the ones causing these problems, or even if they are not, they do not certainly seem to be helping. And they manifested around the same time, would you say? Almost certainly, yes. not certainly seem to be helping um and they manifested around the same time would you say almost certainly yes i am i would it i would better lifetimes of fortune that they are connected in some way right sorry please carry on no that is unfortunately that is really all i have to uh provide to you i do not have um much more information than that. We are currently trying to evacuate as many people as we can.

Volcanos has become particularly active, but several smaller volcanoes have also erupted in the island chain. There are underwater currents that have made sea travel exceptionally difficult. Only the bravest orc captains under, I must say, vast payments from myself have braved the journey to try and transport people away. And there is talk of underwater geysers. There is seismic activity, earthquakes that have caused numerous damage to other locations. Luckily, Porto Sovrano is well built.

Many of our buildings here have been able to weather the earthquakes, but unfortunately some other sort of remote locations have not been so lucky. Do you have enough forces on hand to help? We could maybe try and find a way to give you more assistance. No. The honest answer is no, we do not. I have mercenaries, I have a small militia that would run the city. It's taking every abled-bodied warrior and soldier that I have to keep the crowds from running riot, from panicking and causing even more problems. If there were more, what we need is airships. We need airships to come and transport people

out of all of this, but trying to convince people to send them into what is basically a very dangerous environment has been the stretch of my diplomacy. Is there a way we can gather more airships? Does Horizon even have any airships to spare? I'm sure we could

negotiate, Sentry, but like the Duke says, if we were to clear this ash, it would be a lot easier for airships to come in and make that decision to come help. And if you can find a way to stop whatever is happening whatever is causing these imbalances that would ultimately save many lives but uh i do not know if that is even possible i don't know if what has been done is now irreversible i don't know well that's why we're here to hopefully end this indeed that is what I hoped you would say.

But if I can offer you any more information, I gladly will, but I'm afraid I can't think of anything pertinent to tell you beyond what I have. All right, we'll have to do some investigation ourselves. If you want to know the location of those ruins where we spotted some dwarves above sea level... Well, do you have a map on you that he can mark? He's got a map on the table. He just circles like an island and he shows it to Quill.

Quill, you're like, yep, I can figure out how to get there easily enough. He does say if you have a means to travel beneath the waves, the Baroness could lead you to Silver Reef, the Triton City. And I know that the King, King Gael, will certainly be welcome for the aid as much as I am. We're trying to help each other as much as we can, but there's a lot of animosity between our people and a lot of mistrust. We're doing what we can to try and make it work,

but it is difficult, unfortunately. But I know that they have the same problems we have. Getting in and out of Silver Reef, the Baroness can same problems we have. Getting in and out of Silver Reef, the Baroness can tell you more, but getting in and out of Silver Reef, to my understanding, is quite difficult right now. Many of these problems that we are facing above land, the Tritons are facing beneath the waves.

And it seems to be almost creating a barrier that is preventing access in and out of Silver Reef. Do what we can to help. Of course. So, okay, so we need to find the Baroness. Is she around? I will send for her. She's around here somewhere. She's been helping me coordinate. We're trying to

coordinate efforts to support both the Tritons and my people and work what we can. They have a good knowledge of the seas, they're working with the ship captains, the few orc fleets that I've managed to pay into service, trying to work with them to navigate some of these changing currents that seem to change on a whim. But yes, I can send for her and have her brought here, yes. Thank you. to you yes thank you so the first stop then is to uh find these small islands with the gem dwarfs

if you'd like i could try and find out what i can about these whatever they are yeah sounds good makes sense um let's see if they're brand new, I suppose. In that case, I would like to do Legend Lore... ...on... I mean, it's a person, place or object. But I mean, can I do it on like... You would need more specifics. Ah, okay. Like, name or describe a person, place or object.

Name or describe. You could probably do it when we find them. So I can't use it on a race of people or something? Okay, nope. Use the eye. Again, I think that the problem here is you've not seen them. You're going by secondhand knowledge. If you see them, it would be easier for you to describe whether they're people or an object.

You're not sure. But secondhand knowledge isn't really going to be enough for Legend Lore. I don't think you need a bit more intel. I was kind of hoping I could almost name events.

I think I've got it locked in as the storybook sort of approach that you've got with the book. And I was basically just going to ask it for a story. And it was basically just going to ask it for a story, and it was going to be like the origins of the gem dwarves

or whatever like that. I mean, you could try casting the spell and say, like, the gem dwarves and see if that gets a result. It will be a use of the spell, and it might not work. We could just go and see them. Yeah, and then use it. I mean, if they're not reacting to people slash guardians, question mark, then we'll just go see them and walk right up to them

and just give them a look in the eye and just say, hey. What's your story, bro? Tell me everything. What's your story? I want to get all inside you. After a brief period of time uh baroness erin coral song uh a triton a young triton woman with pink hair uh blue skin dressed sort of in a ramshackle of uh sort of ship wreckage um cloth and strange plant-like material

uh arrives and she's like ah ah, storm chasers. Thank you so much for coming. I'm sorry, we've been trying to arrange things with the Duke here. If there's any help I can be, please let me know. We need to get to Silver Reef. Yes, Silver Reef is, we need to get to um silver reef yes um silver reef is um it's it's our largest city of the trident uh

in this particular area and and it's sort of a capital i suppose of our people it's ruled over by king gale mawbreaker um getting there could be tricky it's one of the problems we've been having um there's a series of... To reach the city is already quite difficult.

It's deep within a valley beneath the waves that are prone to many natural fauna and flora. But also there have been these steam vents, changes in currents. There's also been a much greater increase in underwater creatures. They seem to have been driven into a sort of frenzy by these changes.

They're panicking, they're frightened and attacking anything that comes close. But certainly I could try and lead you there if you wanted to go. But it's almost like there's a barrier around the city uh of these phenomena whether whichever way we try and approach there is some sort of problem yeah we heard the currents are random is there any sign that you know which way they're gonna go we've we think we've determined a way that we can at least begin to feel when they're about to change and in what direction, but it's an inaccurate science as it is. It's pretty much, I can work with

yourself and Kilek to maybe try and help navigate them if we get under the water, but it's difficult. Certainly difficult. Mm-hmm. And how would we avoid the steam vents and, well, the hordes of creatures under the sea now? Well, I don't know what means you have. I mean, if you have magic to breathe underwater and swim, fighting our way through and and trying our best to in the same way that you would navigate a treacherous forest or treacherous hill we would uh mountain scape we could try and navigate that way with my own knowledge um if you have other means that may make it easier i i don't really know well uh captain lucius do we intend to take the storm chaser

Captain Lucius, do we intend to take the storm chaser? Underwater. I suppose we could, but I worry about the currents and damaging the ship and all its crew. Whereas we could go in as a tight unit and investigate at least with some guidance. We could do um it's just dependent on how strong the current is and we just resist the full of the current with the storm chaser itself um like unfortunately nobody's gonna have that answer until you try because the erin doesn't know the strength of the ship she can't make in a judgment

like she can't say like it's gonna do 20 d 10 points of damage she doesn't she doesn't know what that is like um and vice versa you don't know how strong these currents are so like you can't really gauge it like what that's going to be if if we can't swim in it it's going to do that to us so but yeah if the storm chaser can't swim in it we can't swim if that can't swim in it, it's going to do that to us. So... But yeah, if the storm chaser can't swim in it, we can't swim in it. If that can't swim in it, we probably can't swim in it. Or we can, it's more just drowning.

Alright, well, we'll take the storm chaser as far as we can. Just be prepared to brace for any currents, I guess. I don't know what... I just wonder if we may be able to use the storm chaser to figure out the currents. Like, if we could maybe

do some experiments with tracking color or lights or something into the currents and figuring that out. The problem is that they're so... They change so rapidly. Even if you learn which way direction or which pattern that one is moving in, it can change in a heartbeat.

This is one of the problems we found. The best way that we found is we normally have a Pathfinder, a Triton who swims ahead of the pack, and they just warn us when they feel it's changing. And then we divert and we have to improvise. That's the best method we've found so far. But it means that we're extremely limited in getting in and out of Silver Reef

and bringing forces inside. I do know that more of these, there are these gemstone dwarves that I'm sure the Duke has told you about. There are several of them in the city. The last I'd heard from the King, they were plundering, well, plundering or repairing ruins of Solvin.

We don't really know what they're doing. We've found the same thing. If we try and approach them, they simply state that their work must not be interrupted, that they will endeavor to keep loss of life to a minimum, and for us to move to a safer location. And that's it. They just repeat those messages. When we try and stop them, they use non-lethal force, use magic to get us to leave them alone.

We just don't know anything about them. Well, we intend to investigate the dwarves. Have you seen them react in any way to guardians? We don't have any guardians, really, that we've been able to have them sort of speak to or investigate. I can't say. Okay.

It's worth seeing how they might react to you, Sentry, being a native of Solvin. Let's see how that goes. We'll have a try. All right. Okay. we'll have a try alright okay well the duke will wish you best of luck and you guys can make your way back to the storm chaser it's only been an hour

and yeah you can decide where you want to go Erin will come with you because if you intend to go to silver reef she'll basically say if I can travel with you I'll go with you and try and aid you as best as I can there's not much more she can really do here on the surface so she's quite happy to just head back

and try and deal with things where she's more comfortable. Makes sense. So what's the plan? Do you want to try and find these surface ruins first or do you want to go straight to the Triton City or do you want to do anything else? Do you have any other wacky plans

that you want to throw my way? No, I'm happy with either of those. What would you like to do first, crew? I think getting some recon on the gemstone dwarves is a good idea. Yes, I agree. Before we batter our ship with underwater currents.

Alright, I'll tell the crew and prepare us to head in a certain direction. Quill, can you help with directions here? Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, we don't need to role-play through all of that. You guys can get the ship prepped. I'd like to. Well, too bad.

Well, okay, we're going about north-northeast, I'd say, Lucius, Captain Lucius, so I'll plot the course in with all the rest of the crew. It's about southeast, actually. I had my map upside down. I never do this. Carry on. You had some ash in your mouth? Just spit it out. It's not far.

It's only a couple of hours flight. With the Storm Chaser being a fully upgraded airship, you can traverse the winds and the currents. Well, I guess that's the next two hours of the episode, then. Nope. the upgraded airship you can traverse the winds and the currents. Well, I guess that's the next two hours of the episode then. Nope. You find a small island that really appears to just be a few sort of rocky

outcroppings and a vague shape of like maybe the top of a tower, but it's very worn, broken, eroded by wind and rain. Really just kind of very pale white stone that has still this vague kind of oval shape

that as you get closer you can see. As the storm chaser, as the airship begins to lower and gets closer and coil on your sort of crystalline screens, you can see working seemingly just holding their hands against the earth and stone

and just watching as like tunnels and you know uh troughs begin to appear like they just sculpt the land with their hands um you see about three entirely made from crystal. One, a very emerald green, one, a deep dark red, and the other a sort of yellowy topaz are all examining, searching these ruins. They can already see like almost like a dig site. They have dug out a huge section of this tower and it looks like they are in the process of recovering what appears to be some sort of maybe, I guess to you guys it would almost look like an arcane cannon, like you would have on the deck of an airship. It looks like an old piece of Solvin magical artillery.

It's completely busted, like a large shape, but they're removing pieces of it and they're looking at them and examining them and things like that. They seem to not give one hoot about the descending airship as it kicks all the water of the sea around it.

If they have noticed, they don't seem to, as my mother would say, give a single hoot. I like it. How is your mother, by the way? Have you written to her recently? Yes, I have. He does it all the time, doesn't he?

All the time. I noticed you didn't invite her to the big meal. You didn't invite her to the big meal. No. She wasn't around. She was back at the Messenger's Guild sorting that. She's busy busy wasn't it mother's day recently as well like yeah yeah there's an erosion mother's day cool come on let's get it together crystal it's a different day to forgotten realms mother day which is really confusing people People get really confused by that one. Yeah, okay.

So you can totally disembark, get on the island. These gem dwarf women don't react. Not even to something. You're currently at distance. You haven't approached them yet. You're still on the deck of the ship, but they haven't reacted to the airship landing. They don't seem to care

um now i i am just working on a theory here with the whole century gem dwarves interaction however i think it's worth just us four uh going down to have a look at them i'll try and find out what i can with the book and then maybe we try out Sentry interacting with them. Which four? Us four. Me, Aayla, Lucius, Nova. Five. Tiangong is here too.

Oh, sorry, Tiangong. Sorry, I'm so used to you being a sword, to be honest. We are eternal. Eternal now. Okay. Well, five of us and Sentry, I'll message you when you're good to come down. If that's okay.

I mean, it's just a theory. Yeah, just use your messenger ring like I... Hello, Sentry. Don't have my messenger ring. Just as a reminder, I don't have... Most of us don't. What? I don't... I thought of us don't. What? I don't...

I thought we were putting them back on. Century, we told you. I said that we were. How many times have you tried to contact me? Like, constantly. We've both been trying to speak to you this whole time. What, like, as often as I message my mother constantly? Or, like...

Constantly. Well, I've been in the kitchen with Howard and, you know, asking if you want a drink if you want any snack there's so much ash all the time oh and i've not heard a word hey let's keep this morale up let's let's not focus on the fact that you're very parched and need some drinks we'll figure that out we'll go approach these gem dwarves and report back, Sentry. I'll report back with my messenger ring that I'm wearing, that I'm bothering to wear.

So if I understand it, you're going to leave Sentry on the ship, and then the rest of you are going to go approach these dwarves on your own before Sentry joins you. Yeah, I'll just find out what I can, and then when we send the message, we're like, cool, Sentry, I like, cool. Are you Legend, Lauren? I'm on down. I feel like we can just take Sentry, though, because we know that they don't bother people in general. So why don't we just take Sentry?

Yeah, but just to examine as best we can before they go all Guardian-detected. We are testing a hypothesis. I see. Okay, I understand. Yeah, they're not reacting to people. They might react to Guardian. Guardians. Prime Guardian of all. Solve them.

Yeah. Okay. So we're just going to go over there and just, hey, Legend Lore, tell me everything about you. Okay. Be careful. Alright. Well, all of you Bar Century, make your way down onto this short island. The, all of you, bar century, make your way down onto this short island. The tide being very strong, like, you know, you already feel there's no wind,

but the waves are like crashing up onto the side of this island. And you very rapidly sort of make your way to the center towards this ruined tower. When you arrive, you get a closer look at the detail of these dwarven uh sort of gemstone people they are they're all women uh they all have almost an identical looking face um but they all have different hairstyles and dresses but their faces are all identical uh they are just a very almost like default like kind of round cheeked um chubby featured sort of like slightly flat but kind of a rounded nose pretty dwarven women right um but their hair is like some of them have like kind of almost like uh kind of braided sort of like locks some of them have like more like dread some of them have like shaved sides and it pulled

down um and there is the three types there is one which is made out of what you would assume is emerald one which appears to be made out of ruby and one which appears to be made out of what you would assume is emerald, one which appears to be made out of ruby, and one which appears to be made out of topaz. And they are incredibly detailed. Like these are the most detailed statues. And the way they move is completely organically, as if they were living humanoid creatures. But you don't see veins or anything else in their bodies. They are literally like gemstones brought to life.

As they move around. How close do you want to like get to these guys before you start casting spells or trying to speak to them and stuff i mean i'm being cautious because i know quill is planning on doing some sort of scouting so which is kind of ducking behind rocks and stuff like that. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I'm... From the reports, they are non-violent and don't react to people. I'm not being... I'm being, like, cautious walking up,

almost like walking up to a cat, you know? Okay, yeah. But you intend to get, like, pretty close, like, within speaking distance. Not in their way at any point. No. Like if they're walking in a direction, I'm not going to stand in front of them like...

No, but you'll walk near them and walk beside them or something like that if they're moving off. Yeah. Okay. What about Ayla and Nova and Tiangong? I think we would keep pace with Quill. Okay. Yeah.

All right. So most of you are moving up and then Lucius is like, I think we would keep pace with Quill. Yeah. All right. So most of you are moving up, and then Lucius is like hiding behind a rock, and then he's like moving over to like a tree, and he's like, he's trying to be more stealthy. I'm doing that. Okay.

When Quill, Aayla, and Nova slash Nova Tiangong all approach, one of them, the Ruby Dwarf Woman, who is the closest one as you approach, stops dead and turns and looks at you, and you hear this very monotonous voice call out, Life forms identified as Hesper, Sayana, Siaska, Champions, contacting D1, establishing cognitive transfer. And then they go dead still and they don't move. Wait, what does that mean, Nova?

What did she... She said, Hesper, I believe we are being contacted by an authoritative figure, D1. Yeah, said contacting D1, establishing cognitive transfer. As you're all kind of like, you're all like looking at each other. Lucius, you see your friends kind of freeze and like look. And you see the other two, the Emerald and the Topaz Dwarf. They are still going about their work.

They're just dismantling this cannon they're pulling out gemstones from it that look like burnt out like something kind of there was like a fire inside the gemstones and it scorched all the middle they're pulling those out and then they're pulling out like metal and crystalline components examining them and then they just put them to their bodies and the components go inside them they like and then they just put them to their bodies and the components go inside them. They like... And then they take their hands off and then they begin examining another thing.

They look at it and then sometimes they throw them away. Sometimes they like put them next to their bodies and suck them, absorb them into them. Is anyone carrying anything from Solvin specifically that you remember? Maybe something we might have bought or... But I think we've been identified as, you know, the group of us being the group of us and, you know, doing things.

I think they're on to us. I don't think it would matter if we had Sentry. Sentry, you are watching your friends from the side of the ship and they just seem to have stopped. Lucius is hiding behind a rock. Sentry mission report. It appears as if the gem statues have frozen still and one of them has mentioned something about...

I can't quite hear from behind this rock, but they seem to be engaging some sort of conversation. Okay, as long as it's just conversation, I'm keeping a close eye, and Sentry is on the deck of the ship, as close to the edge as she can be. You're by the human launcher, aren't you? Just like leaning over the edge.

Just like, let me know if anything changes. Roger that. Okay. As you're having this discussion, very abruptly, the ruby dwarf woman, her eyes open and her expression goes from this very stoic, almost

robotic, monotonous thing to a big, bright smile. And she just seems to come alive. Champions, I am so mightily happy to see you. The Forge Mistress was hoping you'd come a-callin'. Please stand by as I travel to your current location. And then the eyes close again. And then the ruby dwarf, the monotonous face returns and the ruby

dwarf turns and goes back to doing what they were doing previously. They begin pulling out components, examining them Who's coming to meet us? Quill, I really suggest you do legend lore real quick before whoever is coming is coming

Okay, okay Is the god coming to us oh god she didn't she didn't say that she didn't say velena she said the she said the ford mistress is looking forward to seeing you i am sending someone your way so i think they're sending like an avatar representative or something like that what are you doing quill i legend luring. So if I name a person, can I legend lure the thing right in front of me? Yeah, what do you say? Name or describe a person, place, or object.

So what do you do? D1? Sure, yeah. Say D1. The book flies open. The pages flip rapidly and then it stops. And painted in the style of dwarven art, so very blocky, geometrical-shaped kind of artwork,

it says, The Maidens of Velenor. And it tells the story of the great goddess velena as it is presented in your book uh the forge mistress um and when she was building the world and building homes for the people of arois and creating places for them to learn and to live and like basically this is almost like a part of the creation story of eroes she found that she could not complete all of the great works that she needed that was required that the earth that she could not mine all the ore she could not gather all the stone that she could not uh sculpt the land um as as she wanted. And so she took, I think it would probably be something along the lines of like six or seven of the greatest, most beautiful jewels in the earth that she could find. And from each one, she sculpted a dwarven woman in her image.

And she gave, breathed into these dwarven women a series of instructions she did not breathe into them life because velena did not have the strength to give them all sentience and life itself but what she could do is give them complex series of instructions that would allow them to fulfill uh dedicated uh purposes um and each one there was a diamond, there was an emerald, there was a ruby, there was a topaz, there was a sapphire, and some other gemstones that I can't remember. But she created one of each. And from each of these ones spawned more of them. They created more of themselves from other gemstones that they found. And they created a force of workers that was there to do velena's bidding and to aid her in her tasks across arois and these are known as the maidens of velena and they

sometimes would appear to the faithful of elena those who who worshipped her powerful priests and priestesses they could sometimes call upon the aid of these maidens to help them in great tasks in in building and mining and uh gathering of resources and that sort of thing so they have always existed then yes and did this sorry did the story say that the um the different gemstones had different tasks or that they all just had you certainly got got the impression that they all had different things that they could do. They were kind of all like specialists in different things, but they could all do the same jobs as each other.

But there's ones which they have like a focus on, right? It's not like Ruby is military and Emerald is salvation, whatever. Not that you could tell. The book also doesn't go into the detail of what each of those are. You just get the impression that they definitely all had uh different functions um as it were uh some were better at mining some were better at building some were better at um coordinating with the priests and priests priestesses uh that sort of thing um could be that at the end of her life, she's now trying to complete those unfinished works. Well, on that thought,

Verlaine is saying is better the self and add more to the world than you take away. So I think you're right, Quill. They're definitely building something. Are they maybe rebuilding Solven? Are they, what are they building? I've got no idea. I mean, we're about to find out. Well, your solving expert is

currently on the ship because you didn't want her to come down. We need to bring Century down. Century, mission update. It seems as if they're engaging some sort of discussion with them. I've moved back a rock because I think things are getting tense, so I really don't understand what they're saying.

Yeah, hold on, Sentry. Hold on. Mission report paused. Bring Sentry down! Bring Sentry down! This is why you need a messenger ring! Do you see? I'm going to cast message. Lucius, we need to bring Sentry down here right away. Ah, excellent. He put his

ring on. Sentry, come on down. You away. Excellent. He put his ring on. Sentry, come on down. You've been summoned. Okay. I'm coming. I'll stop making my way down. You make your way down. As Sentry arrives, a few moments, maybe sort of ten minutes

pass. The gemstone dwarves, they're just going about their work.'re i mean essentially i don't know how you would feel about seeing them but they are basically like digging out this tower recovering solvent artifacts especially like anything to do with weapons or like equipment and they're breaking it down and then they seem to just absorb parts into their body um oh yeah that would make her feel a bit sad i think just by watching them basically like dismantling something and then taking it right yeah um but after about 10 minutes

you all begin to feel the ground trembling like an earthquake you hear like what do you guys do What do you guys do? Dive behind a rock. Stand back. Make space. Duck and cover. Make a hole. I'm flying. I'm flying up a bit.

What about Nova and Ayla? Ayla's not bothered. Step back from where the dwarves are a little bit, but like... Yep. Okay. Nova? the dwarves are a little bit but like yep okay okay nova just i'll just stand slightly behind ayla yeah just a little bit uh yeah you clear this space you watch as the earth churns like something's disturbing it and then almost like she just pops up from the earth you see this brilliant diamond gemstone dwarven woman just

sort of like pops out of it like she just grows out of the earth itself out of this disturbed earth and then as she stands she opens her eyes and that same beaming friendly smile that you saw on the other dwarf kind of springs into existence on her diamond features. Well, howdy there, champions! My name is Diamond One, also known as D1, and it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance. And then she bows deeply. Um, uh, hello, uh, we are... Greetings! The storm chasers, uh, it seems like you were able to identify us pretty accurately.

Well from that one over there. Your visual representation has been implanted into our memory banks and allows us for identification upon the forge mistress's notifications. Mildly terrifying. Okay. Please, not be alarmed. I do not mean any physical harm or mental damage to any of you. I am here to beseech your aid. Ah, now that's what I was going to ask.

Why are you communicating with us specifically when, I mean, we've heard reports you don't seem to want to communicate with anyone else. Unfortunately, the task of the Maidens of Valena has progressed to a very large and expansive project, and as such, only a few limited number of identifications could be specified. You are lucky that the Forge Mistress

implanted visual representations of all of you, allowing us to identify you if you were to approach. Oh. I mean, it's an honor, I guess. What is your mission parameters? Currently,

we are working to excavate, repair, and manufacture a number of subsystems based in and around the ruins of the previously known domain as Solven, or the City of Suncrown. We are currently working to complete one of two major projects that our mistress seeks to complete before the inevitable failure of the planet. Inevitable... okay. Um...

What are you building? I'm afraid that that information is currently classified and i'm unable to share it but the forge mistress would be willing to discuss it with you yes where is she she is currently based in one of her final forges deep beneath the earth close to the uh close to one of the geothermic engines of the world engine oh and I suppose that's where the project is being constructed as well she is completely she is constructing one of the projects in her secret demiplane however the other project is being worked upon deep beneath the earth that's what is that is is that what's

causing this the volcanoes this yeah, there are a number of environmental disasters that have been caused due to complications in one of the major projects. Unfortunately, we are deeply regretful for this small loss of life. However, the Forgemistress is certain that it is absolutely necessary, and if we could avoid it we would a number of contingency plans were meant to be put into place however the maidens of velena have encountered difficulties in establishing these contingencies and uh i'm trying to get the wording uh maybe maybe it would be uh more damp to to inform this forge mistress of not just the small loss of life that is projected from this catastrophe.

We're looking at a scale of, I mean, the Hawkstone Archipelago could be gone in a very short time. In the grand scheme of the entire world and the entire planet, my Forge Mistress has deemed that that is an acceptable loss, even if these contingencies cannot be completed. Her work is of the utmost importance to Erois's survival. Is this work offensive, defensive, or restorative in nature? I'm afraid I cannot share any details on either of the projects at this time. And the only way to communicate with your Forge mistress is to visit her directly? There's no

remote communication we can have with her? Unfortunately not, she is currently in her demiplane. Can we urgently ask that you pause operations until we've had a discussion with her? I'm afraid that pausing the operations is not in our mission

parameters. We cannot be allowed to interrupt this important work. However, if you do wish to try and reduce these effects, there are two missions that we were entrusted with that unfortunately we have encountered difficulties. And as such, these complications of environmental dangers have progressed to much more dangerous levels. But if you wish to help, we would greatly appreciate it. And if we were to succeed in these areas, how much would that diminish the ash and the volcanoes? We estimate that it would diminish these...

The impact on the environmental conditions Would be reduced by 75% It's quite considerable It's a place to start Could could we ask not about the projects that are currently being worked on but on previous projects? My limit my date my memory banks are limited on previous projects, but I can do my best to answer as much as I can. It is my duty to be a liaison. What was that, sorry, Sentry?

Is Valena planning to leave? No, goodness me, no. By the Forge Mistress, not at all. She is working on two contingencies that she feels are important to the survival of Arois. She would never abandon her children in this hour of need But she'll kill them to get what she wants to save to save the vast majority It has been decided that a small loss of life is an acceptable loss Elena Linda brings peace She brings a life I don't understand. Belaina... Belaina brings...

She brings a life. She's... She creates. Why would she destroy? Why would she kill people? I fear that... She just repeats the same message. I fear that she's gone to a point where

that loss of life is just a small resource required to build this whatever this final project is um at least in her eyes um but maybe if we can figure out her previous projects we can maybe figure out what the current one is um so i mean when was the last time all of these were activated and for what purpose? I fucking hate you, Tom Hazel. I know. The short answer there is that D1 begins listing a number of like things that you've never heard of.

Like she just begins listing like a number of projects that it's it's like terraforming protective uh mission zero nine like she just lists like a bunch of things um that really don't mean anything um it sounds the best i would say that like maybe between you and nova you can get the you can get the idea that velena has been basically operating She's been doing things like maintenance on the world engine to make sure the world engine doesn't cause problems. She built warships and defenses for the war against Calus 500 years ago. She helped basically stop the Sundering being worse than it was.

She erected underground systems to keep Teutonic plates together. I don't know, stuff like that. So basically the general gist is that we've never seen the gem dwarves. No. But they've been working since the creation of Erois to keep the planet. Yeah, just the protection of the planet and just ensuring bigger catastrophes don't occur i suppose yeah i imagine the general survival environmental disasters that come after the sundering that she's trying to

patch up yeah it's basically yeah she was she was keeping like the sundering from being even worse than what it was um then another thing as it goes further back one thing that century would probably pick on there are a number of projects that uh d1 lists that are things like um completion of sun crown city completion of sun crown defensive systems um most of solving it seems that uh velena and queen astoria of solving worked very closely together to develop the the technological and magical advantages that Solvin had. There is no implication that the Guardians were involved in Valena's projects. That seems to be something purely for Root and Queen Astoria. But Valena was a big part of creating Solvin.

It seems that she had a very expansive hand in designing some of the infrastructure systems. Solvin had things like plumbing and heating long before anywhere else. It was much more technologically advanced than a lot of other places. It seemed that Valena was directly inspirational for him. You can stop

listing all of these. Sorry, I didn't realize there were so many. I thought there'd be bigger, grander projects of few and far between, but I think we get the idea. Century, it's protective. I guess this final project will be similar in nature. Two final projects, D1, correct? Two final projects, sorry.

Well, whatever the project inside her dem-plane is may not necessarily be so um defensive or perhaps it is but did you say one of the projects was taking place in the forge closest to the world engine uh is it no she just said that velena's like uh demi-plane is located close to that so it's a demi-plane but there is one of the projects is taking place underground i ponder if one of these projects is rooted in the defense of the world engine callus wants the world engine so villena is a, not a destroyer. It strikes me that she would want to protect the world engine. Yes, I don't know if she would hold sentimental value for things like creating Solven if she was a big part of it,

but to begin dismantling the ruins of Solven for this other cause must be very, very important indeed, if it were sentimental. Some interesting wording from d1 there though of uh the inevitable demise of the planet i suppose suggesting the world engine being removed from a rose but it would be intact it would be it would be able to create a rowis again perhaps well this is all assumption isn't it all we need to do is figure out how to stop this ash and these volcanoes

from killing people and if we can reduce it by 75% I believe that was wasn't it D1 it is my calculations expect that if two of our wayward projects were to be able to complete it we have tried to limit these environmental disasters as much as possible. However, the sheer scope of the work involved

and the current state of the world engine does cause some of these incidents. There were two projects that we were currently working on. There is a stabilizer that should help Volcanos, the largest volcano here in the Hochstaden Archipelago, from erupting. However, the crystal device needs to be delivered deep inside the magma chamber at the heart of the volcano.

None of the Maiden's bodies are able to reach such depths and intense heat and pressure. The other involves a seismic activity dampener that has been lost in a deep section of ocean called the Feldraven Traverse.

All maidens nearby have been lost in contact, and any that we have sent to retrieve the device have also been lost. Oh, right. Okay. Well, for starters, we can't go into a volcano either. I almost died last time we went into one.

I remember that. Yeah. Wasn't a good time for anyone, really. No. Wouldn't recommend. If you do not feel that you are able to enter the magma chamber, unfortunately, there is very little we can be done. Even our bodies cannot sustain the intense heat and pressure.

It was hoped that the Forge Mistress hoped that perhaps your abilities and your allies would be able to find a way to traverse deep inside the magma chamber. Hmm. Did we drain the volcano somehow? If we did, it probably would create

even more environmental disasters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not really sure where it all comes from, you know? Deep in the Earth's core. Well, there is no Earth's core. There's the world engine.

Deep in the Earth's world engine. Nova would probably surmise that things like lava and stuff like that is probably yeah generated by the world engine like it's probably being generated by it and maybe it's just creating too much magic that reminds me actually sorry to go back a little bit what do you mean the current state of the world engine uh is it damaged the world engine, as Valena currently works on her projects, the world engine is outputting tremendous levels of heat. As such, this is resulting in the... And the rhythmic, the creation process

is affecting various elements of seismic activity. There is no damage currently to the world engine. Again, don't... Sometimes Mark says things, and they don't always and what that's fine they come across well I latch on to it that's fine that's fine but I don't want to I don't want to panic you guys by saying that yeah like literally it's if you want to if you want to stop these volcanoes erupt in you got to go inside that volcano. Or you can go find this other thing that will help stop the earthquakes. We have been there before.

Or very, very close to it, right? You've been in a chamber full of lava, yes. Yes, I remember that, yes. Did you buy resistance potions? Yeah, we did buy fire resistance potions for that then again we also bought uh water breathing uh no but almost kind of exhaustion right yeah yeah i got real tired remember i was literally one roll away from dying from exhaustion yeah that happens all the time that's just corridors yeah if you would like a dm hint I will give you a small DM hint, but I will not say anything

unless I'm wanted to. Which one has corridors? Yeah, which one? All of them. All of them. Okay, dammit. Well, I don't want to do either. I'm doors.

Oh, we're doomed. We're doomed. Of course, you could just leave this and like, they can, you know, D1 will just say, I can direct you to the, there is a just say, I can direct you to the, uh, there is a current situation where I can direct you to a chamber that will lead closer to the demiplane entrance. Hell no. If you do not wish to assist in these. This is cool as hell.

Going inside a volcano? I think that's pretty cool. Not even that, just the D1 stuff, the gem dwarves? Hell yeah! She will point out, like, my apologies, the gem dwarves? Hell yeah. But she will point out like, my apologies, the other maidens are currently not engaged in

conversational purposes. This is, and she will say, E9, Emerald 9, Topaz 3, and Ruby 4. They all have designations, and they call themselves E9, T2, R4. It just makes me think of Borg. I'm very into Borg at the moment, and this is just makes me think of Borg. This is just...

I'm very into Borg at the moment, and this is just making me think of Borg. No, Kim, you're into Star Trek stuff? No way. No. What? Season 2's not right now. What?

I know. Nice. Is that the one where they launch data out of the garbage chute? Or Wolf goes, assimilate this. Oh, we should get Lucius a Piccolo. oh that's titanic anyway it's the one where they say may the force be with you yeah great um i will well the other thing i would say anyway is don't forget you there may be there's it may not just be a case of drinking some fire

resistance potions there may be be other things you can do. That probably is. But we're expecting something akin to that exact same... Whatever happens, if you find a way to not literally swim in lava, but find some other way... You experienced last time that lava creates intense heat. It causes exhaustion if you are not strong of constitution, shall we say. But I also, like, last time you were fighting creatures and navigating chambers and things like that.

This sounds like, and D1 will tell you, you would basically, she can provide you with a device. It's like a kind of like oblong crystal cylinder. Basically, she can provide you with a device. It's like a kind of oblong crystal cylinder. It just needs to be delivered basically at the base of the magma chamber in the volcano. Magma. So basically, it's like Lord of the Rings, and we need to cast it into the fiery pit. But you would need to actually, if you just drop it, it won't work,

because it won't go down far enough. You actually have to take it down. Accurately place it in the fiery... We need to cast ourselves into the fire. Yes, and swim down in the lava and put this thing at the bottom of it. It's your door! Okay, and the alternative plan... The alternative was underwater.

Well, there's two things. One will stop the volcanoes, one will stop the seismic activity like the earthquakes and stuff and that other one is yeah some sort of basically at the mariana trench uh they were meant to deliver some sort of device the maidens that took it there lost contact haven't come back the marinara trench yeah well this one's called the Feldraven Traverse. Feldraven Traverse. It's okay. Oh yeah, Vala, just do a magical portal. I mean, Vala might be able to help. Yeah, for sure. She can rip holes in demi-planes and she's created bubbles of protective environments when you've been in the Demiplanes.

It might be that she could create a bubble to go in magma for a period of time. You can ask her. Magma. Magma. I don't know. What does everyone else think? Magma. Magma.

I think we're capable. Magma. It was a long. I think we're capable. Magma. It was a long time ago. 17 adventurers. Yeah, exactly. I'll dive in a volcano. Last time, the sea saved our butt

and sacrificed their butt for us in magma. It'll be fine. Magma. Nova needs a redemption arc with magma. She needs to not get tired this time. Oh, my God.

Well, I can use etherealness and potentially not even have to swim through the lava, just swim through the ethereal domain right next to the lava. Not going to be hot there. Until you have to put the thing there, and then you would have to come back to the material plane. Eh. I'm living in a material plane. But it would certainly help one way.

LAUGHTER HE LAUGHS HE GASPS Oh, my God. I can cast it twice, etherealness. Three times. I could teleport us back out, cos I have my teleportation helm now. We could Aetherialness all the way through it. We've got better to get out again.

There's a tree in there. Unlike last time where it was a bit of a shitter. Let's be honest. If there's a tree, we're good. If there's a tree in there, I can teleport us through a tree in the volcano. Okay, let's look for it. We should, oh my god! We should legit put a tree in the volcano okay let's look pretty good oh my god we should legit put a tree on the storm chaser what can we can we can't we can't we can't we can't we can't wait

it's in like a plant pot and you don't have access to the roots right yeah i think you might need access to roots yeah yeah you could build's big enough, isn't it? You could build a container, you could have a planter, like a deep-set planter filled with soil. Oh wait, they can just go to any tree? Any tree. As long as it's big enough. What kind of dumb magic is this? That's where you draw your line?

That's where you draw your line? Anyway, let's just go into the ethereal domain it's still in dirt and if you know the tree and you know where it is which is on the deck there's no reason how do you get there how do you get there imagine another tree how does teleport work you travel through the air we're mind free that's not how teleport works now can you remind me mark yeah how big the entrance into the volcano was not big enough for the storm chaser it was like a door it was i end my line of questioning it will be bigger than 10 foot it won't be it's not like it will be quite big it will be like a 20 foot radius it's probably like 40 foot across maybe 50 foot

but the the storm chaser is a gargantuan ship it's massive it's like a huge gallon um it's not gonna fit in the the caldera of the volcano last time we went in we went in at the you went into the base you didn't go at the top yeah yeah you guys went in at like the bottom and you you actually went in through the research facility that you you don't know if it was like actually it was connected to the volcano but you don't know if it was actually connected to the volcano, but you don't know in what way. It was underwater, wasn't it, the entrance? Yeah, the entrance was underwater, yeah.

Whereas for this, you will need to, from the top, to get to the magma chamber, like the central magma chamber, you have to go down through the caldera, through the lava, into the magma chamber. Sweet. Okay, let's coif our potions in there. How long does it last? Fly over, we'll just drop.

An hour, I think. Do we need to complete both these tasks for that 75% reduction? Completing either of these missions will reduce environmental effects substantially. Both of them would reduce overall effects by 75. However completing either one will have significant assistance.

37.5 reoccurring? Roughly. Right. 5 reoccurring? That's why she said roughly. She was humoring Lucius. right 5 reoccurring that's why she said roughly she was human anyway

33.3 reoccurring of course I'm glad that's so fucking funny it's just a number I hate him I actually hate him he's been a real wiggly boy today I hate him. I actually hate him. It's not even that funny. He's been a real wriggly boy today. It's so funny.

It's number one. It's divisible. And this is why the studio never gets used because Mark kills Tom in the next week. I won't kill him. We've been going through so there's a caldera there's lava classic volcano yeah it's spewing lava as well like it like even flying even flying storm chaser there it's like

shooting rocks and spewing lava like getting storm chaser there is going to be a risk to the ship as well but that's that's the ship's been upgraded. It's been reinforced. It's got shields and stuff now. We're fine. But just don't be too long. Just don't leave it hovering over the volcano for too long. Just don't take too long, Forehead. What if we plunged the storm chaser

in? Nope. Mast? No. What if we fixed the human catapult and then In. Nope. Say mast. Mast. No. Mast, no. What if we fixed the human catapult and then had the storm chaser go like that and just yeet Ayla and Sentry into the mine? The reason that the launcher hasn't been fixed is because there is not enough power for it. Like you have to upgrade the ship.

You can't. You can build it, but it just won't work. It won't function. How big is the crystal that we need to take? Oh, it's like, probably like five foot diameter. Like, it's quite big. Like, it's heavy. It's like a big sort of like...

Yeah, like five foot, like, you know, it's diameter the whole way across heavy it's like a big yeah like five foot like you know it's diameter the whole way across it's like a person so need a strong it will definitely need somebody with a high strength to carry it there's a way we can protect whoever does this. Or you could mount it and then drop it from the ship, but then you need to basically push it down through the lava. Drop me. We need, like, a dome of invulnerability,

but that's such a high spell. And even, well, even globe of invulnerability only protects against spells. But, I mean, you could ask, like, Valor Valor and see if like there's a thing she can do You can use your own spells like I don't know what you can do We need to produce wish mission and come up with a plan. Thank you D1 for your Help I guess and also causing all this mess. Thank you You are most welcome. Would you prefer for me to accompany you until these tasks are completed?

Um, well, can you... can many of you accompany us? So much so that it reduces the work our people... I cannot... any further maidens cannot be spared. They must work to complete the projects. However, my designation is specifically to act as a liaison with the champions of Siaska. I look around. Lucius looks around, just like shrugging and nodding. I'm shrugging. Why not? I can at least provide answers

if you have further questions. Right. Okay. Yes, please come along with us to our airship. Very well. Alright. She just, you know, follows you. Like, the whole time she speaks, she always has this Yes, please come along with us to our airship. Very well. All right. She just, you know, follows you. Like, the whole time she speaks, she always has this, like, smiley expression, but it's always a smiley expression.

Like, it's just, like, everything is like, yes, how did, do, did, did, did. And she's just like, people are going to die. It's kind of creepy. Like, it's, it's, you very clearly, like, looking at, looking at Sentry and D1, D1 is clearly a construct, an incredibly complex, well-developed, almost lifelike construct. But she doesn't have the same sentience or soul spark that Sentry does. Sentry is clearly a person in the way that she speaks and behaves and has emotions. D1 doesn't have any of that stuff d1 is just very complex um parameters and algorithms basically running her um no sentience yeah right

okay i i think the best course of action is to go to the most powerful person we know and that's vala yep definitely and that's that's the best we can do right now other than that it's about endurance and constitution and sending one of us into lava with a crystal now i don't know how deep i know that we've done it before and we've made them into a lightning rod before, but... It's not all with me, okay? Look! Well, I just, if anyone... If it's a team effort, we're good. But you can't just, you know... hurt me! But you can probably withstand, I'm not hurting, just saying, you'd be the one. Of all of us. Well, last time you made me an elf lightning rod.

I didn't make you anything. You kind of volunteered. It was in my dream. It was in my dream. Oh, I'm getting a vision. Ayla's going in a lava. Where are you getting a vision from? Where are you getting a vision from?

Yeah, that's me. Swirling or anything. With that, last thing before we wrap up Valor will basically kind of as you explain the situation she's like well I think I think I could create a pocket like a bubble of it would at least protect us from the lava itself I mean it would still be the heat would be very powerful we would need to protect ourselves against fire and heat and that sort of thing but I could at least you know create a bubble of safe space for

us to exist in I get the sensation I don't think that we would be the only life forms in that volcano. I remember stories of going to Rescue Century. You told me that there were creatures that lived in the lava that attacked you. I think that there would be creatures existing in there. The big worms. You would need to protect me. I would have to be completely focused on generating a shield, but I could do it,

and that would at least allow us to reach the bottom slowly um i would be able to control our descent um to deliver the the package can you control our ascent yes i would be if i'm still conscious as long as i'm not burnt alive by lava or worms i could bring us back up to the top as well. Or, Nova and myself both are experienced with teleportation magic, likely your teleportation headband, we could use that to simply, once we've delivered and secured the device,

we could then teleport back to the storm chaser. Yes, I think our escape plan is far more solid than our entry. So assistance with the entry would be extremely useful. Thank you. Well, you'll be happy to know that we bought one, two, three, four, five... Five fire resistance potions.

Oh, I... Well, I... If... I don't know if somebody else knows the spell, but... I know Maximilian is naturally resistant to fire. And I think you... Do you have a way of protecting others from fire? Yes, I know the spell. I can protect you from fire for up to an hour, Your Majesty. Yes, I can do that.

But again, that requires my concentration. If I take too much damage, that may be broken. Oh, wait, so can I. Oh, well. I'm just thinking, Key, like if you will likely, you are likely to use far more powerful magic than I. Perhaps rather than giving up your concentration,

it is perhaps better if I do it. And then if I fail, you can quickly protect Her Highness, if need be. That's what I was thinking, Max. That's what I was thinking. I'll give Vala my potion. You can cast it on me. Then if it fails, it's not as big a deal because Vala is more important. That's very kind of you. Quite honestly, Ayla, I think that out of all of us, if you were subjected to fire, you seem to be the toughest.

I think you and Sentry would be able to withstand the heat a lot longer than the rest of us. a lot longer than the rest of us. I should be fine. I am... My world was quite... had an intense temperature planet. I should be fine as long as I'm not in direct contact with the lava. Alright.

So we have our hour time limit to get into a volcano and plant a crystal and get out again safely. Yes. Not going to be easy, but I'm ready to go. Alright, and with that, that's where we're going to end. And so our first adventure in the brand new studio

is going to be you guys descending a volcano. Hell yeah! Boy, do I wish I had bought the magma tile set that I have. We could build the science project. I am going to see that I can have. We could build like the science project. I am going to see what I can do.

We will... A visual of the depth meter and you can slowly bring it down. I'm thinking I've got some ideas. It's got a noggin thought. It's going to be cool to have one session in the studio before we're forced to take a long break

because we have to start a whole new campaign. Yeah, TPK to Corridor. Sure. A lava corridor. Oh, I didn't know it was just a lava corridor. Never seen again. A big lava corridor, yeah. Thank you.