High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #149 | Into the Umbra (Part 1)

Episode Date: June 13, 2022

3 days of travel until we reach the Order of the Blackened Rose and we learn how terrible we are at teaching and how to not deal with a flock of extremely rare birds! 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 & TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PICK AXE Welcome back to High Rollers, everybody. Last time, our champions spent time in the Sky City of Horizon, preparing themselves for their upcoming trial against the Titan Kalara. They bought some potions and some scrolls, spoke with allies, and ultimately made ready for their journey ahead. Of particular note was Lucius, who having accidentally wished himself into becoming an Aarakocra,

requested aid from Valor, a demigoddess with power over time and space. Worried for the potential risks, the process was, however, mostly successful. And Lucius is once again a high elf, though a tiny bit younger. As a teen Lucius, a late teen, very young adult Lucius has once again a high elf, though a tiny bit younger. As a teen Lucius, a late teen, very young adult Lucius

has once again joined. And really that's kind of it for the introduction. It was mainly a sort of preparing and shopping episode. You may now all laugh at the laughs that have been held in. It was a struggle. It was the noise that Rhiannon made.

It was the noise. She made a really obscene noise. You need to look at the time, and when it's like five seconds in, just go quiet. Oh no, she did it at one. At one. I couldn't help it. I had to let it out.

Before you. I bet that's a little bit in there. Yeah. I had to let the demon out. You probably, yeah, you probably were. You might have missed it. People were like,

was that, that hair annoying? Was that a rat? Oh God. Mouse? So, God. A mouse? So, are we currently in transit? Or have we not left yet? Chris Trott, you are aboard the Storm Chaser.

I didn't expect you to say that. Aboard the Storm Chaser. Okay. There we go okay there we go yes the airship is the storm chaser your airship is en route from horizon reaching the northern

jungles of jakesh which is where you believe the night bloom hold the headquarters of the order of the blackened rose once mighty nightly champions, who have now become these kind of remorseful... Well, no, they are very remorseful killers.

They are very guilt-ridden, sorrowful... They're remorseful. Yeah, mournful. Mournful. Mournful killers. Morseless. Yeah, that's it. They don't have Inspector Morse.

They have no Morse. They have no Morse. But no, they are all headquartered in Nightbloom Hold, which is in the Gravebloom Valley, which is somewhere in the northern jungles of the continent of Jakesh. You have had Guardian Scouts go and find this place, and they sent back two of their members, two Guardians, one called Dowsa, one called Stave.

And Stave, using magic, has been sort of showing you a magical map and illusory map to help you pinpoint where you need to go. Yeah. And you are... It was about three, four days worth of travel out from Horizon. You have completed one day of that travel, but there

are still a couple more days to go. Okay. How is the flight going? Smooth? Smooth sailing? Well, it's funny. That first day was super smooth. Oh. So incredibly smooth.

But these next two days, oh, there's a chance it might not be. Okay. It might have been that last time Mark didn't have anything prepared for the journey. Now Mark does. So, no, we're going to do some skill checks to see how the journey goes and what the weather is like and things like that.

I think I was working closely as navigator, I suppose, with those holographic maps or holographic magical maps. Illusory. Illusory maps. Yeah, that Stave was creating. Probably more tech than you've ever got from the Messenger Guild, right? Well, yeah. I mean, I've also got those screens

that are displaying all the scry orbs around the ship and everything. Yeah, there's the crystalline slates that basically act like computer screens. Occasionally, as you go past one of the screens. Anytime Ayla walks past where she knows there's a sensor, she just... It's like if you've ever worked in an office of a shop or something like that and you just see your mates on the CCTV, they know that you're watching. I feel like I see her

giving the middle finger at the northern prow of the ship and then seconds later she's at the back of the ship doing the same thing. Like, how did she get there so fast? Such speedy movement. 45 speed. Really bolting around the ship. So, what we're going to do is to, and i guess like

to reiterate lucius has now returned to being a high elf but yeah it's about 19 i think we said wasn't it i was about the equivalent in human years equivalent in human years yeah elves in in a row it's not as long lived well the thing is that elves in a row aren't as long lived as like traditional elves um but they do age like they they do live longer and they age a bit slower. I had a long adolescence. Yeah. I had a very short adolescence. Yeah, you did.

It just happened. You had one tantrum. His long hair still mostly, but one side shaved with runes and elven symbols. Elven runes and stuff. It's cool as hell. Yeah, and no beard now. Just clean shaven.

Clean shaven. Cool. A bit more youthful. No, like, weird scars on his chest and stuff. Nice. Well, I need three D20s to be rolled, and I don't want to roll them, so I think I will have Rhiannon, Tom, and Katie

roll a D20 for me each, please. Okay. You can roll the next one. Well, this will be for day two's morning's weather. Let's hope low rolls are good. So... Six. Six.

Four. Four. Eleven. Eleven. The weather is clear skies. The wind is calm. There is no rain. It is sunny and bright.

No rain? For the morning. Oh, we left it at that. Ah. Very good, very good. So, yeah, the weather is in perfect conditions, which means that there won't be sort of any unexpected events or sort of having to deal with harsh weather.

It also makes it easier for the next thing to happen, which is Quill needs to make a survival check for the navigation. There'll be no penalties to this because the weather is fair. Okay. Okay. Boom. Natural 20. 32.

32. Whoa! Whoa! Ah! The course is clear. You are... You just hurt yourself. There is 100% certainty

that you are going in the right direction. You are making good time. You might even think that, yeah, thanks to that natural 20 and that's such a high survival check, you've easily bought yourself, like, you've gained time. It's probably going to look more like two days rather than three days. If you continue, as long as you don't have any delays.

We'll be fine. Nice. And that's just to kind of like get a base understanding of like have you got lost what's the weather like um and then for each day for the however many days you travel we're going to roll a d4 to see an event takes place one of those events is vala has recovered enough to try and use her powers on lucius if lucius wants her to right so i i wanted to kind of give a little bit of randomness that like her power might take a bit longer to come back she thought it might just be a day

but it might be a couple of days at that so cool white uh so chris trot i would like you to roll a d4 for me it's a d4 roll a d4? Oh, interesting. Okay. So as you guys are travelling, on the first day, on the first day, Kamara, no, this is an event that takes place on a thing. Kamara, Lansian,

and Penny, along with, you know, maybe sort of like six or seven of the Wolfpack, approach you guys as the officers and the champions of Varos and Kamara say, Captain, officers. Some of the crew have been talking and we know that we've been sort of doing a lot of physical exercise to try and prepare us,

but we were thinking maybe a bit more of an in-depth combat training would be useful. We're dealing with enemies a lot stronger than we're used to. And not just physical combat, but also we don't have a lot of experience fighting people that can use magic and training and that sort of thing. We were hoping that maybe some of you could give us some tips and pointers, maybe, you know, run us through some routines and drills, that sort of thing. Really, whatever you think you can offer,

but we're keen to try and put some practice in while we've got the time. Well, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily want to be throwing spells directly at you, but I mean, I could certainly teach you what spells look like so you can identify them before they've been thrown at you. Tips on how to, you know, if there's a certain,

if there's any certain methods that we can use to try and avoid things or things that we should be aware of, stuff like that. It's all useful. It's really, we don't really know what to expect. I mean, obviously we know how to fight a little bit, but any kind of tactics or training or, you know, activities that you can put us through, we would welcome it. And this is really, it's more like you guys,

like you guys tell me what you would, if you want to help this crew out, what you're going to do to help them. Oh, cool. Hmm. Whatever. I like to like make some kind of like a gauntlet type thing. Okay.

Set up like obstacles on like the ship deck. Uh-huh. And like teach the crew about like hiding behind things, using cover to protect them from projectile spells, like magic missiles and all that stuff. So this is kind of Gears of War training of like, right, here's a wall, you hunker down beside it. This is how you move cover to cover.

But like barrels from storage, like stack them up and make like a slalom type thing. All right. And so this is obviously a very physical activity, but I wonder how much of this is about like, so this is more tactical as well as physical, right? Like positioning, where to move on the battlefield. Okay.

So I think for this then, Sentry, I would like you, and you're not going to like this because it's not one of your strong suits stats wise, this would be more of an intelligence based thing. This is about tactics and positioning and things like that. But if you have any training, do you have proficiency in history? Minus one. All right.

It sounds like it's just going to be a straight intelligence, which I think is a minus one for you. Yep. So, yeah, I'd like you to make a roll for me. Twelve? Twelve. It's not a success. It's not a disastrous failure.

What you find is you are used to working with guardians who are very good at following orders and they process things very differently to organic humanoid kind of creatures. You know, guardians have very focused minds to tasks. The wolf pack, like two of them bump into each other and they start having an argument like in, in the middle of this training. And then Kamara's yelling at them to, like, focus

and then people are yelling back. And, like, now Howard's crying. And, like, it just becomes, like, a mess of, like, a chaotic mess and you can't really... It all got kind of, like, messed up and, like, the tactics didn't really gel, right? Yeah. So, unfortunately for, like, that Sentry's kind of...

As Sentry's doing that, we'll see what everyone's doing. I'm going to kind of keep track of your successes and failures here. But unfortunately, yeah, the tactical stuff, the positioning, they're not very coordinated

and they don't seem to have good ability to sort of communicate and work together that Guardians would naturally have. So what about the rest of you guys? Any ideas? I think I will have set up in a sort of empty room on the storm chaser. There's like a whole inventory room.

Crates, benches, places for people to sit, and almost a stage at the front. It's like a classroom. I want to teach Magic 101. Is that? Wow. Yeah. And just do a lecture.

Is this on how to avoid offensive spells to watch out for? Is this more like... It's a six-hour lecture. A just do a lecture. On like offensive, is this like on how to avoid, like what offensive spells to watch out for? Is this more like... It's a six hour lecture. A six hour lecture on each of the different schools of magic. Welcome everybody. I hope you are all comfortable. Now, before we begin, we need a basic understanding of magic all the way through to the intermediate course,

which we will be covering in today's lecture. Firstly, the eight schools of magic. Sure. I mean, this sounds like it's going to be an the eight scores of magic. Sure. I mean, this sounds like it's going to be an arcana check of how well you can teach this stuff. Yeah. I just thought he'd take part in this class. And he sat at the back with his feet on the desk.

And then as soon as he mentions it, he starts saying the intro. You just hear the scrape. And just his cape billows as he just walks out. Nice. That unnerves me. I've gone full Oranger in this. Nice.

Oh, my God. 13. 13 is not a success. This lecture is very dull, and the wolf pack do not have the attention span for it. I get lost a lot of times. I'm like, no, hang on a minute. I think I should...

No, I should talk about this bit first, actually. It's getting a little bit confusing. Necromancy first is... What? Hang on. Yeah, okay, it's raising the... Wait, no, maybe I should teach you about radiant damage and...

Radiant damage? Radiance and that sort of stuff like nobody is able to follow along quills thing they're getting distracted quills ambling around all the place i understand it yeah you understand perfectly like anybody who's familiar with magic but the wolf pack are just not interested at this point like and they're like kamara you said that we would be training like shut up he's trying to teach him like there's a lot of arguing going on um what about anyone else I was gonna try something with um so Ayla has danger sense okay so she's quick to react so things like spells she obviously gets advantage to react quick and try and avoid some of the damage and I wanted to try and take her knowledge of spotting things early and being dexterous to teach the wolf pack

how to be quick on their feet and avoid taking the brunt of hits. Yeah, I think, make a acrobatics check for me. So this would be like teaching them how to tuck and roll when they dodge or how to shrink their body and stuff. Dammit, that's as good as my flesh. Well, you said dex basedbased and how to avoid stuff. I think that this is the most...

Oh, you rolled a nat 1. Oh my god, we are such bad teachers. We're rolling like garbage today. I had it set that it was the first three successes, or if you reach three failures, would end the result. Wow. I will give Chris Trott, if Chris Trott would like to do something. Yes.

Yeah, go on. Lucius will wrangle up the wolf pack as probably they're coming out of Quill's class. Sure. A break. It's not actually six hours long. So if that's the case, so we had Sentry's kind of like tactics and positioning.

Yeah. That didn't go. Then we'll basically say that Aayla's was next. And it was basically involved in a lot of like... the wolf pack are quite agile but they don't have necessarily the same senses that you do and so it was a lot of Aayla being like okay, pretend this rock is a fireball

and then throws a rock and it just fucking beans a wolf pack in the head and they're like, ow! It's the dodgeball scene of if you can dodge a rock, you can dodge a spell. And then it's just a lot of Aayla

throwing rocks and spears and hammers and wrenches at the wolf pack and they don't dodge very well. So they're coming into Quill's thing

like nursing, like bruises. Raylano's like bandaged them all up. They've all got like ice packs on their heads and like... I've got like a

four hour planned lecture. They have a break at an hour. Like 90% of the wolf pack are there for the first hour after the break three turn up and they're lost they're just like their books are full of doodles and everything else

and then after that so they come out of Quill's lecture like three of them you find that others are all like playing some sort of game that they've like you know they're probably playing like a kind of sport game

that they've got like you know they've set up in the hold or something like that, like a little indoor footy game. And you find the rest of them there. What do you want to do? Lucius will get out his Captain Command Sword and use it to shout to the entire ship. Yep. Wolfpack crew, who wants to do a real training session

with old Lucius? There's a bit of a groan. Like, oh, I think this was a bad idea, Kamara. Well, come on, it's the captain. We've got to do it. Everyone to the top deck immediately. Come on. She manages to get them there, but this is a surly.

They are not interested. They're really dragging their feet. They're really dragging their feet. You can see that these guys, the whole wolf pack, they are definitely frustrated. They lost a lot of confidence.

It's like a half-half blaming the teaching, but then also blaming themselves. Like, we're just not good enough. It's pointless. There's that kind of vibe in the atmosphere. What Lucius is going to do, he's kind of like that kind of vibe in the atmosphere. Okay. What Lucius is going to do

as he's going to be at the top of the... Well, the front of the ship. Kind of looking down on the pack, I assume. He's just going to, while they're still discussing amongst each other,

throw up a wall of ice that goes right down the middle of the ship and cuts them into two teams. Okay. Yeah, nice. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Two teams.

The ice wall, they immediately, like, oh! They kind of, like, are much more alert and focused now. All you have to do is be the winning team to get to me. On the count of three. And then after three, I'm going to unleash every spell I possibly can. Okay. Twin them so that they'm going to unleash every spell I possibly can. Okay. Twin them so that they're going to both sides.

And it's basically a gauntlet for the two teams to get to me. Okay. When you say every spell you have, I know some of the spells you have. Yeah. These are intentionally, like, throwing them near them and not at them. Right. Okay. So they, okay. Like them and not at them. Right, okay. So they, okay.

Like it's an obstacle challenge. All right. A gauntlet of sorts. There is still a very high risk here of some of the wolf pack getting quite injured. Good. But. I think they love it. You've got to hope so.

So I think for this, we will make this just pure charisma. Because this is your force of magic, right? This is pure charisma. Let me troll portents real quick. Would this be... Let me think. Oh, those are good portents. Pretty good.

Would this be pure, like... Because it's not your knowledge of magic, which would be Arcana. That's weird. It's kind of your force and your control of it and not hitting them, but making it a dangerous threat. So yeah, let's say just pure charisma

like your spellcasting ability modifier which is charisma for you. No proficiency because you're just basically unleashing power trying not to hit these guys. So just d20 plus charisma mod. 19. It's enough that the injuries are not serious.

You unleash a prismatic spray, and one part of it accidentally clips a wolf pack, and they start turning to stone, and Grey Larno, like, drags them and is, like, putting, like, mixtures and stuff on them before it gets worse. Because I've got a bit of, like, recent teenage angst. Yeah.

I'm just like, well, you should have dodged. And, like, the wolf pack are like... And the training is successful in the sense'm just like, well, you should have dodged. And, like, the wolf pack are like... And the training is successful in the sense that, like, it kind of rejuvenates them. They do feel that they've dodged it. There was that element of risk that's kind of got their adrenaline spiked. I'm hoping that I'm getting the two teams to do a lot of, like, team bonding, like, pulling each other through situations and, like...

Make a persuasion check, because I think that it's going to depend on when you said like the winner is who gets to me, there's an easy chance that they see it as like no, we're going to fuck the other team to stop them winning. A persuasion. Yeah, see if you can kind of subtly encourage them as you're doing stuff. Ooh, that's a seven.

Plus... Nine total. So, sixteen. No. Nine total. So 16. No. Nine total. You've only got plus two in persuasion? Oh, sorry, that's plus 10.

I was looking at perception. 17. 17, that's a bit better. I was like, I don't remember you having such a low persuasion. So I think that, yeah, you do manage to kind of subtly convince them to help each other, and they do work on that. The whole experience definitely rejuvenates some of their confidence

and you think you've outweighed some of the negatives that would have happened if it had just been the other three's training okay well it's okay it's now Nova's turn to teach well the thing is it technically already failed and I wanted to because Tron had a thing you wanted to do,

but unfortunately you hit the failure limit. So I think what this is, is that, like, you basically spend the day doing all these training activities, and Lucius is the last one, right? Nova was planning to do another lecture, and it was immediately, like, you know, they kind of, everyone cancelled, they signed up to... She's the only one that stuck around with mine.

Yeah, I think Nova was, and she was correcting most of yours as well. Hell no, was she? Well, I don't know. What's your intelligence score? My intelligence score? Oh, it has, yeah, it has higher. It has, it's higher. But I have a book of knowledge.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean you have that knowledge. That's fine. You're more wisdom. Yeah. So, the thing is, so I think that the Wolfpack, like, the training day is not a success, but it is also not a failure, thanks to Lucius trying to pull it back at the end.

Waste of the day. Yeah, and so there was a benefit. If they had been successfully trained, there would have been a benefit. Is there a negative? There was a negative, so neither of those things is going to happen. Okay.

It was basically the crew doesn't feel better or worse than they did when they started. They've kind of realized like, maybe we're in a bit over our heads. It's fine. If we just keep practising maybe we'll be okay. And there's kind of like that kind of attitude is around. Any deaths? But it was pretty bad. Any deaths? No deaths.

But one of the crew members is out for a day with a petrified arm and they're just walking around with one of their arms just stuck out like that. They're like, I can't work today. Unfortunately he was also grasping onto the person in front with a petrified arm and they're just walking around with one of their arms turned to stone like that. Yeah. They're like, I can't work today.

Unfortunately, he was also grasping onto the person in front of him. So that person is stuck too. I thought that rocks were better than spells. Rocks hurt less than spells, right? So that's my theory. You also threw a lot more of them at us.

Yes, sometimes there's many spells. You also destroyed a crate and threw planks at them. It was there. You gotta use what's around you. Another lesson. Use what you've got. This is like a kind of like,

uh-huh, everyone's terrified of Aayla now. They're also pretty terrified of Captain Lucius Having just unloaded All of this magical power I'm exhausted of all the spells You're just like Super tired If anyone needs me I'll be in my captain's quarters

And the three people that stuck around in my lecture I am expecting the homework to be returned It's not So that was Day one lecture I am expecting the homework to be returned. It's not. So that was day one. Yeah, a thoroughly exciting thing. At the end of the day, this is for the evening, I am going to ask

for three more d20 rolls so we'll do retrop Tom this time for the evening's weather and then we'll need another survival check just before you clock off. This is just a... This is weather. And then we'll need another survival check just before you clock off. This is just a... This is weather. So, Rhi?

A nine. Nine. Seventeen. Seventeen, okay. Twelve. Twelve. Higher is worse. Higher is worse.

Well, it depends on your definition of worse. So, it is clear. Bad. It is dry. The temperature is moderate. But there is... A wind is picking up. There is a slight wind, a light wind,

which does make navigation a bit harder because it can obviously drag the course of things. It also means that the night's sleep is still restful. You still get a full long's rest and everything else, but it is rocky. You can hear the wind creaking the ship around you and stuff like that. So this is going to be another survival check from Quill

to make sure you stay on course. Okie dokie. 30. 30. Even with the wind, you keep this ship on the straight and true going towards Jakesh, and you will not lose any time. In fact, you are gaining time. Hell yeah.

I'm getting some great survival check rolls. And I've got a plus 12 as well. Perfect. The next day, that will cover over until the afternoon of the next day, that kind of weather. I would like Katie, roll a d4 for me. If you get a one, I will pick what event takes place. Two.

Two. Oh, that's a good one. Lucas is married again. On the second day, as you are traveling uh the slight wind in the air but it begins to die down and returns to sort of moderate calm weather quill being the navigator you and lookout uh both spot something in the distance you see a large flock of unusual birds that are flying at a very rapid pace, just a little distance away from the storm chaser.

I'm going to describe these birds, and then there'll be checks to see if any of you know what they actually are. The birds are fascinating to you, and would you alert the crew and sort of direct everyone to look at them, or are you going to figure out what they are first? I mean, I'll see what I can from an initial bam. So you see these birds. They're about the size of a golden eagle, so they're pretty big,

but they're not the biggest they can possibly be. They're large, natural creatures, but there is something inherently magical about them. They have their eyes kind of focusing in. You can see that their eyes shimmer with a multicoloured magic. Their wing tips seem to be almost prismatic. The wings kind of go almost... There's something about the cradle about their wings,

their feathers, sorry, as they drip down into this very bold, prismatic colour at the tips of their wings. And in their wake, as they fly, they leave a very faint pattern behind them, like a trail of magic. Almost like a rainbow, yeah. Almost, well, more like an aurora, like the cradle itself. They leave this kind of multicoloured-hued prismatic trail behind them.

If you would like, you can make a nature or an arcana check, Quill, before you tell everyone else. Arcana it would be. Cool. Oh, God. Twelve. You do not know these creatures. But I'm a bird.

Yeah. Okay. Never seen any beast like this before. Guys, and Lucius, Captain Lucius, and crew, everyone, actually. Hi. Can you see these birds in the distance? The rainbow ones, they're very spectral, glowy, shimmery. Yeah, it's probably you have to bring people up to the console

and you can bring in the scrying stones to kind of zoom in to give people a better look, because they are quite far away. Nova or Tiangong, just give us a perspective on it. Of course, Captain, Lucius, Viren, Elowen, and Alastor. And you see the screens kind of project this image. And yeah, you all see the same flock of birds, and there's quite a perspective on it. Of course. Captain, Lucius, Viren, Elowen, and Alastor. And you see the screens kind of project this image. And yeah, you all see the same flock of birds. And there's quite a few of them. There's maybe sort of like 20 of them all flying.

Some bigger, some smaller. Wow. Glorious. Anybody can make a nature or arcana check. Very majestic. I will roll one for Nova. Nova knows what they are. 17 nature.

25. 17. 25. 17. 25. Nine. Nine. Ayla and Lucius and Nova, you know what these creatures are. And I think it will come from a different thing.

For Ayla, you have heard of these creatures. They very rarely come down to the lowlands. They are very rare. Very, very rare. But they are highly sought after. When you maybe were a hunter back a long time ago in the clan, these birds are worth a lot of money, right? Either to be captured live or dead.

Very, very valuable. Like the hunters, like normally if one of these birds could be captured, it would feed the clan for like months, like six months. Like it would provide tons of value and wealth. Lucius, you actually know the name of these creatures. These are called aether hawks um and they are very very rare but they are known amongst sky city especially amongst high elves um because it they have aetherium like the the trail that they're leaving behind is a very very faint trace of aetherium that they generate themselves they

seem to just, it drips off their wings, basically, and that's why it leaves it behind in the wake. They're very rare. They're very suspicious creatures. They generally avoid people and contact with living beings. And yeah, the other thing Lucius would know, a bit more detail, their feathers are very powerful spell components. Because they are enriched with Ethereum, a single Aetherhawk feather can replace 50 gold of a spell component cost. So if you needed 300 gold of diamond dust, you could use 50 GP, you could use one of these feathers to knock off 50 gold of that cost.

Now if you see, if you had six of the feathers that would cover the entire cost of it. It's quite difficult to get feathers off of them, like generally, unless you want to ruin the bird and prevent it from growing the feathers back and flying, you can only really get two or three at a time.

But it's, you know, like if you're careful like you've you've lucius would probably have known either other rich nobles that maybe had one as a pet or had procured some of these feathers um very very expensive very expensive to do um but yeah uh and there's yeah a school of them sort of like school i don't know what you would call a group a flight a flock yeah flock flock of aether hawks um and uh nova obviously will excited to be oh and just identify identify um araya also knows what these are and araya you kind of see you've seen a kind of very similar glint in ariah's eye before whenever she talks about money and treasure she'll say oh well you know captain uh a's very, very rare, and if we could...

Of course I know. If we can capture one, people would buy them for huge sums of gold. That would be great for providing the Alliance with resources. I already knew that. Yes, no, I know. I'm sort of saying I know people that would buy such creatures if we were to capture them.

Yep. Oh. Oh, what would he Oh. I say... Okay. I did tell him that he was still mostly Lucius, but I know he's playing into it, so I'm going to let it go. Bullet oestrogen.

Is that the one? No. Oestrogen? Hormones. It's just hormones in general. Yeah, close enough. Testosterone. That one.

I don't know. I say as captain that we capture them because they're very valuable. And I also know that if you gather their feathers, they're very, very good at replacing spell components. I mean, do you really want to capture one? They look so... Majestic and beautiful. Well, yes.

All the more reason. Very rare. And they are littered with ethereum. So are we. In our engines. True. But this is pure ethereum. It leaves a trail behind it.

And also, those feathers. We can't recreate those with our engines but look at them Lucius, look at them they're beautiful, they're quite beautiful but very useful we could gather some feathers without capturing one of them I suppose you could, yes

but if we captured one and kept it aboard our ship we'd treat it very nicely of course we could have a limitless supply of feathers. But what if they're a family? What if they want to be together? Well, we can't all have family that want to be together. I walked into that one.

Yeah, walked right into that. Strange. What's one more, eh? That's true. We'll capture two and they can be buddies. Also, because of what's recently happened to me, I've got a fresh memory of skyjousting. Right, but how would you...

I could utilise my abilities on the field to, you know, capture one. But you need something to fly. I can fly. Oh, you can fly, yeah. No, okay, you're right. Me too. We could ask them if they'd want to stay with us. Or I could at least try and ask them.

How could you communicate with them? I can talk to animals. Oh. Oh, well, I mean, and if they say no? Then we let them be. You could always say that Siaska would like them to help us fund, you know, the giant world-saving mission that we're on. Because they look all shiny in Siaska.

I do kind of want to see you just fly. That would be interesting. Yes, I mean, I could fly with them if we do try. I mean, if you're speaking to them and they say, yes, we want to be captured, then we won't need to do that. True. We're also giving them a head start on knowing that we're trying to capture them by doing that.

There is that. They don't like to be captured, just as an FYI, because, you know, when I've hunted them in the past, yeah, not a fan of it. They're very skittish, very suspicious. They're probably already aware of our presence and are planning to route. Maybe don't use the word capture.

Maybe they'd like a lift or something. Maybe they're tired. An alliance. I could calm their minds before we get to them to ensure they don't just dart away. And then you can try and talk to them. Make a deal. Just ask for a few feathers, and then we'll leave them there. Not capture if they don't want to be captured.

Or... They look like the cradle, though, so I think there's a Siaska angle here. Oh, yeah. That's the Aetherium trail. Sure, but world-saving mission. If they're smart, I don't know how smart they are. Some birds are smart, Quillsmart.

Should I? Yeah. If you wish to try it, by all means. Okay, I'll give it a try. What's the plan? I'll cast Speak with Animals. Okay. They're quite far away.

You can definitely yell. I'll give Century my captain's command. Okay. So that she can speak through it loudly. Are you sure, Lucius? Seeing the range on calm emotions. temporary, give it back. I mean, but this is...

I think you might need to be attuned to it, which takes an hour. I'll still give it to her and be like, just project your voice through it. Hello? It's not working. 60 feet on calm emotions, so I don't think... Oriah will say,

I can try and get the airship closer to them, but they are very skittish. If we start getting too close, they will probably try and fly away. As fast as the Stormchaser is, Aetherhawks are very, very quick. Look. They can be magically fast.

Just get Nova to cast Invisibility on me. I'll fly out there, capture a couple. We'll be up some feathers. Why are you looking at me? It's not my decision how to respond to that. You could fly over. It would take me ten minutes to get ready to fly. I can cast fly on you if you want to be diplomatic.

I can also fly naturally. You might be an intimidating bird. Intimidating bird? I'm invisible, right? Am I going to be invisible? I could also fly up there? Calm their minds? We get closer? Three invisibilities Nova, and i'll cast fly on everybody

i do not believe i'm capable of making three people invisible anymore since my bonding with tiangong my spell power is somewhat diminished i believe i could manage two people to be invisible at best including yourself one main i am just checking my databanks. Okay. When she's in the ship, or Tiangong's in the ship, she takes on a very different persona. Yeah, I think that might be Tiangong. It's almost logical and rigid. Yeah, that might be Tiangong speaking. Yes.

I can make two creatures. They do not need to include myself. Great. All right, well, I can do fly on three people, so... Okay, well, I mean, if you're flying up, I'm flying up. I'm going to... We're going to try the calm thing. I'll hang back. Sure.

And you just give me a messenger ring that it's gone south. Yep. And be honest. Okay. So let me understand. So Lucius is going to cast Fly on Lucius and Sentry. Nova's going to make Quill and Lucius invisible. Yeah.

And then you're going to fly over to these birds. Sentry's going to try and talk to them. I'm going to go fly up to them, palm emotions on as many as I can in one go. And then Sentry's going to go up there and talk to them. Okay. Do you want to give Aayla Fly as well, or is Aayla just hanging back? I could.

I could do it at... Just raging. So it means that Century and Aayla will be visible when they fly over, but then the others who... I'll hang back. Okay. So that I don't mess up. Sure. Alright. So yeah, cast the spell. So cast

Fly, no more casting visibility. And you guys fly your way over. To approach them, I would like everybody to make stealth checks. If you're invisible, you have advantage. Excellent. Is this even if we're going... Even if we're holding back?

If you're hanging back, still make it, but it will have less impact. It's just generally to kind of help give me an idea of their general personality. I have disadvantage on stealth. I have disadvantage on stealth. Because of my bootsies. Not great. Not great.

21. Okay. If you're hanging back, it has less impact. I am. The invisible guys, it does still matter, but you have advantage, so. Mm-hmm. What are we looking at Tom

I got 11 an 11 Chris Trott I got a 16 16 and then Century 7

7 nice the birds the Aetherhawks are on the cusp of like they are not running away immediately

but they are like pulling away like they are definitely spooked a little bit um not massively they're gonna stick around but they are that they could go they could bolt at the drop of a hat right so uh if things particularly go badly they might just bolt and fly away um and you can see that they're kind of the way that they fly is very gentle and soft but their wings look very powerful, and this trail of magic, like,

Lucius and Aayla would probably know that when they want to, they can basically generate a burst of speed, almost like a kind of super expeditious retreat. They can just... And it lasts for a short period of time. So do they just look like they're just floating, essentially? Yeah, it's like a very gentle flap of their wings. Like, quills flying is, like, you know, at a good pace to try

and keep up with them. But they're just every swoop of their wings is like almost in slow motion almost. Like a manta ray. Yeah, yeah. Very, yeah,

manta ray-esque, yeah. All right, so essentially you cast Speed with Animals. So what's the plan? You're just going to go up and say hi? Um, yeah. Okay, what'd you say?

Could I do calm emotions first? You can, yeah. Because I feel like if you speak in their minds... Casting a spell will make you no longer visible, and it will have somatic and verbal components. But I mean... I'm going to do calm emotions.

Okay, well, tell me what it does. If it works, then that's great. Suppress strong emotions in a group of people. Does it say humanoids? Humanoid. Oh, that's interesting, isn't it? So, Quill. PS, there's a flash of magic.

The bird's fucking... I would say that maybe there's a chance. If you want to do something, you can try. But they are basically going to go this round. And they go very quickly. They go like 200 feet when they want to. They can just zoom. So if you want to call out and try and call to them, you can. Lucius, if you want to do something. Ayla, if you want to do something. Pull out longbow to them you can Lucius if you want to do something

Aayla if you want to do something pull out longbow take a shot that's because the spell is like by the power of Hesper I call my americans but that's terrifying yeah

pop out of nowhere pop out of nowhere these birds are like oh fuck wait oh my god master of magic I just champion of the Master of magic. I just paid...

Champion of the God of magic and knowledge. I should do a fucking lecture on magic. This spell doesn't work on birds. Why doesn't it? Why, though? Why would you use it? I'll tell you why, Tom, because it says here in the spell

each humanoid in a 24 radius sphere. That's funny. But why specifically? It's like Lucius. Fucking wizards of the coast. Yeah, it's their fault. It's their fault, not yours. It's definitely wizards' fault.

Sentry, save us. Lucius, go ahead. No, no, well, if you're going to say something, a cone of cold is going to go past your words. Oh, my God! No! What if the cone is 60 foot, isn't it? I'm using distance spell to 120 feet it. I don't know if distance spell works on air of effect.

I don't think. I think it's, like, the range of the spell. I will check. The range is 60 on cone. Yeah, but I think it's that it's... If a spell that has a range of five spell. I will check. The range is 60 on cone. Yeah, but I think it's that it's... Yeah, that's the thing. If it's a spell that has a range of 5 feet or greater, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double the range of the spell. How does that work?

Would a fight there? I'm going to make a ruling here, Cristron. I know it's going to disappoint you, but otherwise you could be like, that's a 40 foot radius fireball for 1 sorcery point, which is bananas. Sounds pretty cool. No, that sounds incredibly broken is what it says. All right.

I'm probably very wrong, but I think that there is going to be some element to this of like, it's like a distance spell of like, if a range is like 60 foot, like a point within 60 foot, I don't think it's going to double a cone, for example. Can I? Yes. In which case?

Unless you want me to cast that in it to not work. No, it will still work. Can I cast... Yeah, check the range, because it might say self under range for cone of cold, and then it's a 60-foot cone out front. It does say self. That's the thing, is that's the actual range, is self. All right.

So, can I... Yes. Oh, no. ...twin a wall of ice in the middle of the air? What I want to do is... Also, you can't twin wall of ice because it's a single target spot. Not with that attitude. No.

Not with those rules. Century saver. So what do you want to do? Are you cone of coaling or are you wall of icing? Because if you Kona Cold, I'm not going to bother with Century. I'm going to be quite honest with you. Is it going to reach them?

Yeah, you flew up invisibly. If you knew that that was a spell you were going to cast, you would have just been right next to them. Hell yeah, I'm Kona Colding. It hits every single Aetherhawk. How much damage does it do? And what's the save? I'm doing this at 6th level,

so it's a con save of 18. Yeah, I'm just going to make one roll for most of them. So they fail. How much damage? Excellent. So that's 98. Oh my god. Are you going to kill them?

We're going to find out, aren't we? Or are we going to get into a giant fight? 48. 48. All but three are turned to ice because the spell of Cone of Cold is if it kills a creature, it immediately becomes a statue of ice and it plummets out of the sky

and falls towards the ocean below you. Three of them run away. So, Sentry, you're like, wait! Whirlwind vortex of ice blasts past you, and you just watch all of these birds turn to ice, and then... Now, can I dash downwards and try and... Not quick enough to grab them, no. Your flight speed's 60 feet.

120 at dash? Yeah, these things fall at, like, 400 feet around. Like, they zoom. And also, the other thing, you've turned them completely to ice. The feathers no longer have their function as... So they're not?

No, you turn them to ice. I've preserved them. I don't believe that, Salvas. I don't think it's cold of... cone of preserving. Do they disintegrate

in the ice or are they preserved? Basically... Well, I'm going to check. My understanding is... Gosh. A creature killed by the spell

becomes a frozen statue until it thaws. Okay, until it thaws. All right, so, yeah, the feathers are still there. So, yeah, it's like fridge spell. But these things are going to hit the ocean long before you reach them because, like, even at your flight speed, you can't... Terminal velocity, et cetera. Like...

Would they, like, shatter if they hit the ocean? At this speed? Frozen statue, yeah, I think that they would. Yeah. Fuck. I might say that maybe you can catch one. I'll be nice. You can catch one.

In the explosion of Cone of Cold, did any feathers just erupt off them and slowly descend? Like them dashing away, did any feathers come off? Roll a... I'm not going to give you too many because you just killed a bunch of these rare beautiful animals

d4 I'm really sad I'm sad too four feathers four feathers are slowly from the kind of shock and their burst of speed four feathers and a mixture of the ice

and the spell four feathers doing this Lucius you dash and you manage to grab the And a mixture of the ice and the spell. Four feathers doing this. Lucius, you dash and you manage to grab the leg of one of these ice-cold statues as the rest. I got one! Can I try and snatch it off Lucius? Yeah, sure. I imagine opposed strength checks, I imagine. You're going to snap it in half.

I'm going to take it off him. Let's find out. I'm scared. He's scary. 21. Is it a saving throw? Nope, just strength. Regular strength.

19. Lucius manages to, through a mixture of strength, but also, I think in the contest, maybe what happens is you go to grab it, you snap its leg off the frozen statue and Lucius manages to like Grab the rest of it Back to the ship everybody. This is my win. Thank you. I'm Furious, I don't think we've won Lucius

Can I try and get these four feathers there? Yeah, yeah You can sort of because the feathers would would sort of be going a bit slower. I'll just shout, Keep flying! It's the best thing you could do! Just keep going! Leave, please! Ventry, this was one of those rare occasions

where I felt like you really wanted the birds to survive and I was on your side and now it's all fucked. I just... I dump the ice onto the top of the deck. I'm very proud of myself. Okay.

Look what I did. Vala, age him immediately! Lucius, go to your quarters! I'm the captain here. No, you just killed three beautiful birds. No, you just killed three beautiful birds. No, no, he killed 17. Seven?

Oh, my God, he killed 17 birds. Three got away. I was hoping to catch more of them, but they did plummet. I didn't factor in the ice and all the weight of it, but... I want to call a crew vote. Commander's vote. Lucius goes to his room. Lucius goes to his room.

You can't outvote the captain. Engineer Nova Vija also votes in favour of Captain Lucius going to his quarters. You'd better not take this. You're leaving that here? Yeah. Well, we'd better make the most of it, right? Otherwise this is in vain. Unfortunately, they are worth more alive.

But I suppose the feathers we could still recover. Will it thaw? It's missing a leg. It won't be very happy when it does. Oh, I think it's very dead, Sentry, unfortunately. It's really dead, yes. Yes. I really got it.

I think in all of this, Valor, still looking tired, but it's like being watching this, for the first time really looks at Lucius and she is not happy what? we kill things all the time why are you still here?

go to your quarters we made a vote you've been outvoted we've made a vote whatever and Lucius flicks his cape and storms off oh

I am really not sure about that. Valor will say, I'm really sorry. I think I... I thought I managed to keep most of his personality intact, but clearly something isn't quite right. It's OK. It's like having an angry princess again. Can we rewind time a little bit and stop him from freezing 17 birds? It's such a drain on my reason. I don't even have all my full power back. I'm sorry. And even then, I don't think, as horrible as that was,

I don't necessarily think that that's something I can change that much. I feel like it should be saved for more dire circumstances. But I'm just worried about him, because that was... I mean, yes, of course we fight things, and I've seen you fight and kill people before, but generally when you don't have a choice... They were very, very rare creatures, and I know that they clearly possessed an element

of my mother's magic within them. That really upset me. I need a bit of time. And Max will just be like, Come, my lady, let's take you back to your quarters. Okay. She was so milked. Jesus. I put in these beautiful, rare, magical creatures.

I genuinely wanted Sentry to have a conversation with the bird. I put an option in here. If a player would like to befriend the Aetherhorns, I did a whole bunch of stuff. No, of course you didn't. But it was in here. If a player would like to befriend the Aetherhorns, it's a whole bunch of stuff. No, of course you didn't. But it was in the Equestria. I wanted them to be our pets on the ship and support us in our magical adventure.

I cannot wait. Chat is going to hate you. Good. Good. Good, I'm glad. Let it happen. But yeah, I think that like, Araya and the Wolfpack don't give a shit. I'll tell you that. Likeaya Araya and the wolf pack

don't give a shit I'll tell you that like Araya and the wolf pack are just like yeah it's a rare prize it's a good hunt to his credit

but Valor is like definitely quite upset by it to his credit these feathers are very powerful and I think we might be able to preserve

some of the feathers from this one that we've recovered Howard's like oh yeah I can pluck that bird. Nice and lovely. Yeah, get that. Do you reckon they taste nice?

No, no. But since we, I mean, it's better we don't waste it. Can't let the poor blighter's life go without purpose. At least we could have a lovely dinner. I look to my navigation screen. There's a camera pointing down. It's just a couple of... I, like, turn that away.

We won't waste this one. Here, let me take care of this, and Howard will pick it up very gently and softly. He's like, I could find a nice hot pot for it to go in. I don't think I will partake in the meal for obvious reasons. But, but for Fenn. But,

but full offense. He's right. It is very powerful. We could have befriended 20. We don't know that. All right, for starters, I'll admit I made a mistake. I held back because...

With my understanding of the calm emotion spell. I feel like it was such a comedy of errors because if the spell had worked, none of this would have happened. And then it was just like, disaster, disaster, disaster. I just pop out as a hawk, wings way out. Whoa! To be fair, speak of animals...

Be calm! Well, you'd already cast that, though. You'd already cast that on the ship and then flown out. You would've just been like, hello, and then it would've worked. Also, like, just a load of birds just flying around, and then suddenly you're like, hey, hey, hey, what's up? Like, God, you're just, like, flying. The other thing is, like, you're another bird,

which is, like, twice the size of... They'd be like, oh, Predator! But, yeah. So, to clarify what happens... I'm very upset. twice the size and they'd be like oh Predator fuck but yeah so to clarify what happens I'm very upset after about an hour

Howard being an he's an expert cook he manages to get another three feathers off of the one that had died seven's not bad

as a result from this so if you Quill want to write down you have seven Aetherhawk feathers. They're worth 50 GP each. So 350 gold of...

What was the maximum amount of feathers we could have gotten? I'm not going to tell you that. I don't think we need to know that information. Oh, God. I think we do. We'll speak with animals. Would I have heard their final thoughts? Oh!

Yes. You basically, a lot of like, what is, ah! Sorry, like, like,

like, one of them is like, flee my children! No! Carl's gone! Sorry, are these fucking birds sentient? Yes,

of course they're sentient! They're living things, Chris Trott! Like, a dog is sentient, a fucking birds sentient? Yes, of course they're sentient! They're living things, Chris Trott! Like a dog is sentient, a cat is sentient! Of course they're sentient! They have an intelligence of ten! They're smarter than sentry! They have names like Carl? They have names!

Maybe not Carl, but they're living things! One flies away! Stephen! No! Okay, maybe not sentience, but like, above, you know, basic... They're like a family! It's like a flock of 20 people in a family! That was like generations!

That was like... Fucking grandparents! Not even joking, that was like a huge generation of these rare things. Stop adding more info. I'm putting up my notes. The last thing Sentry hears is, we will never emotionally recover from this. I don't think any of us will.

Oh, God, I wish Kim was here. It's her grandfather's birthday. Let's go out for a little flight. His final flight. His final flight. One of them was like, it's like a bird passing, like the elephants do.

It's your first time flying. You're doing pretty well. He's so proud of you. This is the most information I've ever had from the other side. I said that. No, I said that before, and I said there were some that were young and old. I mean, this is not far off the cow massacre. The cows attacked us.

They did. This was a bit more cold-blooded. They're smarter than sentries! Oh, no. They're smarter than anyone, too. It was just the question, do they have sentience? Okay, I was the wrong one. I know it was. I know it was. I know it was. It was just such question Do they have sentience? I know it was It was just such a funny thing

Oh my god Oh my god For those who wish to partake Howard does cook up a lovely roasted aetherhawk Yes, Lucius is there and he's like sat at the

table just like slamming his fork in and like chewing. Like Den of Thor. Play me a song Master Hamilton. It's like these aether birds aether eagles were the ones that killed your parents.

This is Lucius stewing on what just happened in his quarters because he got told off and now he's grumpy. And of course the wolf pack and Oriah also enjoy the meal and the wolf pack, they don't give a shit about these birds. They're like,

hey, taste nice, don't it, Captain? It's quite succulent and quite a rare delight. You're welcome. Century is nowhere near this. Howard's tuck rare delight. Nom, nom, nom. I've never had anything like this before. You're welcome. Century is nowhere near this. Howard's tucking in. Howard's like, better that they do something in their life than just get a waste, eh?

I reckon. Just tasty, tasty bird. I mean, yeah, I've kind of got like that survivalist sort of thing. Like, I mean, I don't like that it happened or how it happened, but we got some materials out of it.

We've got some food out of it. Quill, I heard their screams. Does Aayla partake in the lovely roasted aetherhawk? I'm not going to eat it, by the way. I figured you don't eat cannibal birds anyway. I'm like, I'm not there. Yeah, yeah. I feel like on this rare occasion,

she genuinely was having one of those moments of rare, Sentry really wants to do this thing. I'm going to support Sentry. And so she's not going to partake in this one thing. She's going to just go and get some ale, glare at Lucius, and then walk away to meet Sentry. He makes a point of taking a big mouthful.

That's the point. It's delicious. Is anyone eating this bird? they do they anyone look at me after I mean they've had things like chicken and stuff before yeah there is one a particularly skull he was one of the ones that like I think like got a really serious injury in the meteor swarm but survived he's got my got, like, all scarred face and, like, covered in things. And, like, he's eating it. And he's got more of, like, the wolf kind of, like, facial features. And he's like...

And then he just looks at Quill. He just licks his lips. He's like, I've never... I wonder if all special birds taste this nice. I throw a bone, a bird bone at his face. Takes it. That's enough of that. Starts picking his teeth with it.

Starts, like, sucking on it. Leave the table. What have I done? You know what you've done. Yeah, I know what I've done. And I know what I'll do. You see, just before he leaves, he turns around one last time.

He looks at Quill's, like, legs. And he's like... He just leaves. They don't need help. What about Wills? Wills. Plump drumsticks. Been having Howard bread for three stanky days.

Nice. Right, well, wonderful. I would like three more D20 rolls for the weather and then a survival check from Quill. Let's have everybody butt-trot roll these ones. Sorry, I need to write notes for that day. Yeah, please do. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And now the weather. And now... Eight. Eight. So we'll go like this way, right? So we'll start with Ayla. Fifteen. Fifteen. Three. Three. Okay,'ll go like this way round. So we'll start with Ayla. Fifteen. Fifteen.

Three. Three. Okay, so it's basically the same as it has been. Light wind. Nothing else. No other consequences. Oh, good. Okay.

So survival check, please. Navigator quill. Survival. I forgot about the flying. Twelve. Natural 20. 32 again. Wow.

A 20, an 18, and a 20 on survival check. Incredible. New. So. Zooming. 32 again a 20 an 18 and a 20 on survival check incredible so zooming because and the wind I think a part of this as well is like the wind actually while it has been

you know moderate it's actually been in your favour and after the second day you see the continent of Jakesh

and you have arrived 24 hours earlier than you expected. Damn. The wind currents. Yeah, basically. And Quill's excellent navigation as well. Phenomenal.

Okay. Valor has fully recharged, but you are going to basically be arriving today. So she will say that she could try and help Lucius but that means that she will need to basically spend another day or two resting on the storm chaser but you might need that time to like scout out this area anyway so it's up to you what you would like to do

help Lucius as in re-age him try to yeah I mean there's a chance that she might make him too old the other way babby yeah or maybe maybe baby Lucius will eventually happen Try to, yeah. I mean, there's a chance that she might make him too old. Horrible. She's just trying to go the other way. Babby. Yeah, or maybe. Maybe baby Lucius will eventually happen. Or I guess you could just go forward again and it's just Aarakocra Lucius again, right?

But there are sweet spots. It's like a timeline. Has his hand gone back in time and has created a new timeline? Yeah, that's it, right? Like, this is... I'm not going to go into the rules of it because time travel rules and anything don't make sense yet. I re-round him back to the timeline where he dies tomorrow.

If I fast forward him now. Anyway. So yeah, Valor's like, while I am feeling better, I would like to help him. She says to everyone else, like, I don't like this sort of rebellious Lucius. I want him to come back to the Lucius we know. I feel like we need him to be in his right mind

when we, you know, go up against whatever we're going up against. I mean, even if I go too far, a more mature Lucius, I think, could be... That's not the worst. It's not the worst. Teenage Lucius is clearly the worst. Baby Lucius will be better than teenage Lucius. Well, I don't really want to be dealing with the mess, but yes, I suppose.

I won't do it without his consent, though. I need him to ask for it, or at least be willing to let me try. Were you saying something? Hello, Lucius. Hello. I'm feeling recovered. Would you like me to try to get you back to where you were? Oh, no. We're about to arrive, aren't we?

We are, but you'll need some time for scouting out the area. I have plenty of time to recover. Is it not exhausting? It is, but I think I'll be recovered by the time we find Nightbloom Hold. But it's your choice. I mean, I don't want to force you to do something you don't want to do.

Well, I was forced into my quarters yesterday. We just feel that since you went back to... You're being a dick! Well... Sorry, I'm just sorry. I learned from the best. Too slow. Fair point. I don't deny it. But we can fix this one.

Yeah. Unfixable. Oh, me. Unfixable. I should say, Lucius, I was particularly upset. Those birds, they're very deeply connected to Siasca. I don't think you would have been so keen to deal with them the way that you chose to

if you were not in this mindset that you're in. You've always been very respectful of Siasca. We've destroyed Titans, which are parts of Siasca. Yes, there is a difference. We've destroyed Titans, which are parts of Siasco. Yes, there is a difference. The Captain Lucius that we know is kind and considerate. Yes, and I considered us and the Valley of the Feathers. Your attitude has been subpar as of late. Whoa.

Are you sure about that, Sentry? You've been disrespectful. I just straight up called him a dick, but somehow that was worse. I don't know. That was cutting. That was. It's very much the I'm not mad, I'm disappointed.

Yeah, I hate that. People say that to me all the time. Sorry, was it too harsh? I'm sorry. I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. Yeah, I hate that. People say that to me all the time. Sorry, was it too harsh? I'm sorry. No. He's tearing up. But what Sentry said is correct. No, it didn't mean a thing to me.

I'm sorry. Can I give you a hug? I'm really sorry. I don't want one. Oh, no, I feel... Fine, change me back, Vala. Whatever. All right.

Vala doesn't... I got my consent. He's like ranting whilst the transformation takes place. Well, you never wanted me anyway, so whatever. I would actually, if everyone could help me with this, that would be appreciated. I'm rolling my guard bow. Do you remember how we dealt with the final forge, the foci? Yeah.

I think if all of us and Nova can focus on the Lucius we want to reach to, and this is the same for you as well, Lucius, if you can think to the person you were just before you made the wish, focus on that Lucius, I think it will be a sort of anchor, a guide for me to control the magic. This is teenage Lucius thinking of this, right? What Lucius do I want to be? And so she'll arrange Lucius in the middle,

but then she has all of the player characters and herself stand in a sort of circle around. And for this, I would like everybody to, yeah, think what Lucius do you think of? And Valor will sort of say, ideally focus on a moment within the last month. So we're talking basically... Oh, last month?

The last sort of like since you went to the Feywild. Likes. That's up to you where you want to pick. But she would suggest perhaps from since you went to the Feywild, anything in that sort of time period. The problem is, is the time when he told Calus to shut up, that's who he is right now.

That's who he's been this entire time. Well, no, he was older. That was a different thing. But that was a moment in time to think of. It's not necessarily the personality. It's the period of time. Perhaps slightly more justified than killing birds. Random or rare magical birds which you know the justification makes total sense lucius in this state by the way uh which

i am leaning heavily into uh yeah we know is like fresh bullied yeah but he is uh that's his defense at this point in time in his life it's's like throwing... And also, you've got all this power now that you didn't have before, right? It's like a teenager that thinks he's better than his parents kind of thing and knows best. I get it. I totally get it. But there's also security.

You don't have to explain. No, it makes sense. I do get the character. It was fucking funny as well. Birds don't have sentience, so whatever. Hey! This one does. So, we'll go round.

I guess let's start with Aayla. Can you think of a moment in time since you went to the Feywild? Something Lucius did. Something to focus in on. I remember the Feywild. It doesn't have to be the Feywild. It could be the battle in Horizon.

That moment with Starbane. If that would stick out to Aayla, the moment where he told Calus to shut up, if that's a strong memory. That would probably stick with Aayla the most because he was standing up and being loud and aggressive. And him outsmarting Zarkira with the spell. Outsmarting Zarkira because he was very clever to have done that. Yeah. So maybe that. Outsmarting Zarkira

because he was very clever to have done that. Yeah. All right. So the moment where he tricked Zarkira with the fainted spell. All right. Cool. All right.

So that's Aayla's going to be moment. Quill. God, the only thing I can really think of is way before Feywild. This is like episode 10 I've got. Sure. So it's way beyond. Well, but if that's the first thing that Quill jumps into mind,

we're just going to go on it. The watchtower in Rose Meadow, no, not Rose Meadow, Rose Hall, when I think there was a Lucius and Quill conversation talking very fondly of Valor, and prior to that he was daddy's boy rich lucius but that was the conversation where sort of became very strong friends and understood each other's goals and ambitions and yeah sure aligned all right nice but it is a very old memory sure obviously kim's not here, so I'm not going to do nobis, but she thinks of one. Sentry? More recently,

Lucius saying you can do it when Sentry was about to make her speech during the forge. Just that Lucius is always supporting. He's always bigging Sentry up. Just that moment just before you touched the foci where he was like like You've got this

Yeah Nice And what does What point does Lucius think of For himself So Lucius thinks

He's got all his memories Yeah But he's got this Teenage angst Yeah And self indulgence Yeah He thinks

He wants to be the Lucius When he still had his parents before he knew that they died he'd wish he could remove that still older but like a couple of years before, a year or a couple of years before this all began

I know it's not going to bring him back but I want to forget that it happened I see, alright alter the mind? Well, we don't know. No, it's just this is like a whimsical thinking, like, well, I wish I was the Lucius before my parents died kind of thing. Yeah.

So what I'd like everyone to do is make either it's your choice, it's a wisdom or a charisma saving throw. Christ. I know, not great. Wisdom or charisma. Wisdom or charisma, yes. You God. Wisdom or charisma, yes. You can pick. Saving throw.

17. I don't have a plus one. So we've got 17 from Lucius. I rolled two, so I got three. 17. 27. Fail. So you got a fail for Ayla.

That's okay. I'm just trying to get up Nova's stats here. So I can roll. I don't really like garbage. Jesus Christ. So 18 for Nova and then for Vala. That would be a 15 just barely. So what that did is everybody who succeeded would cancel out failure.

So you basically currently have four successes because you had... No, five successes because one failure from Ayla. Yep. And then we had everyone else succeed on the saving throw, which is just basically like your mind focusing. And probably like Ayla,

it's more like just your memories get distracted by other things and it's hard to just focus purely on Lucius. And you're like, oh, that fight with Kavos was really awesome and you kind of get distracted by other things. And what that does is that adjusts the odds slightly, right? So if we had five successes, that would be...

All right. So in this case, you watch as the magic warps over. You see Valor kind of spread her hands out, kind of forming this triangle shape. The spinning clocks and diocese begin to swirl around her. And you see these familiar geometric shapes kind of appear around Lucius. His body shifts and rapidly ages forward again.

Like you see this kind of in seconds, he kind of flashes forward. You see the beard grow back in. You see the hair grow back in. You see the hair grow back in. You see the sudden short cut to the short-haired Lucius. You see the scar quickly mend. And he arrives a day before the wish was made. And he returns to exactly the same period you were.

You pushed the odds over 100%. Oh, wow. Because we had a lot of successes. So it doesn't land on before to when parents were alive or before they even ventured together. No, it was never about that. It was never, like, focusing in on specific periods. It was by thinking of a certain Lucius,

you were helping Valor anchor herself to, like, this is where I need to hit. The time period that she wanted to hit. Yes, yeah. Cool. Okay. So, yeah, it was kind of balanced out. But yeah, so Lucius, you kind of come back in

and you have returned to the Lucius you were the day before you made the wish. I wish I were... It's a good job you don't have the ring anymore. I've got the spell. I mean, yeah. It turns you to the exact person you say that. And yeah, like, you see Valor sort of collapse,

like, kind of fall to her knees. Max catches her. And she's just like, ah. We just all run forward and help pick up Valor. You okay? I'm all right, yes. Just very tiring. I think that was better this time.

I think that process, I think that was actually... That really helped having everybody just focus and help anchor me that really made a difference I think that might be something I need to work on having external foci

I can see why Valena built the forge that way now it really helps you focus but I need to rest I think everything should be I think everything should be back to normal now please go rest Val Val. Yes.

Thank you. I feel together. Like parts of my mind are in the right place now. Other parts were far forward and it was strange. But now I'm feeling as I was. Pre-bird. Pre-bird, yeah. I mean, you're not a bird anymore and you've got the goatee thing back. Oh, yes. There it is. Your hair's grown back. I mean, you're not a bird anymore, and you've got the goatee thing back.

Oh, yes. There it is. Your hair's grown back. I mean, I'm trying to figure out... Yes. I'm trying to figure out how old you are, because I'm going to be honest, you were a bird for a while, you were a teenager for a while.

I feel the scar, I think, round about the right time. Okay. Okay. And everything's... Like I said... Back to normal. I can only apologise for the previous version of me. I'm sorry for that.

It's not something I would have done nowadays, so I'm sorry. I think Max would probably say... youth makes us do things that we learn from. You don't need to apologise for making mistakes when you were younger. That's the point of growing up, isn't it? Yes, I don't often get the chance to be a teenager for one day amongst being an adult and have everyone witness that, so...

Try not to think on it too much, I think. If any of us were to experience the same, well, perhaps not century, I do not know how you quite age. I've been the same my whole life, apart from the prime. Consider yourself quite fortunate. If I were to go back to the same ages,

I think I would probably do some pretty foolish things myself. That stage of my life lasts three hours. I wish it was... Never mind. I wish... Why do you keep bringing up that word in me? I don't know.

I don't know. I need to be very careful. So much envy. You see one of the wolf packs like Oh! And he's like, write something down and then scurries off. I didn't mean to shout at you. I was warranted.

No, no, no, no, no. I'm just I've only known how to be around you know, teenagers and young girls for a long time, and that's kind of what I've been programmed to deal with. Well, it worked. That got through to me, cut me to my core.

But I feel like I shouldn't have had to. Oh, I killed a rare flock of birds. I think that's justified. And I don't think you had those emotions alone. I think everyone was equally annoyed at me. I wasn't. You said it more delicately. I throw a bone at him.

Takes it. He is now called Bone Eater. Bone Eater. A one orcish wolf pack. But yes, maybe we should focus on the task ahead and stop looking back so much. When you say that, Lucius... Stop milking this.

When you say that, Araya is just like, the captain makes a good point. There's something you all should see. We're coming into the jungle and I think you need to see this. And Araya will point your attention to... Looking across the landscape, the dense foliage of northern Jekes, and the spiked mountains that jut up throughout its thick canopy, you do spot something certainly unusual.

A section of the land, a valley large in size, appears to be drinking in the fading sun's or the morning sun's light as it is dark. At the very edges of this valley, the light quickly fades and blends into a permanent umbra, a twilight with no lights within, into a permanent umbra, a twilight, with no lights within, with the vague shapes of trees and canopy. This valley is magically nighttime. Even though it is dawn morning,

it is early day, it is, sorry, pitch midnight in this valley. Wow. And looking at it, it's like a, not quite a sphere of nighttime, but like the light just fades and fades and fades and then becomes night in this valley it's very strange to look at because everywhere else is normally lit is it like if we were to circle just that area of our vision it'd be like looking at night time i guess it'd be more like it's it's like a watercolor where like the inks bled right and it's all become. So it's like as you get closer to this valley, the darker it becomes.

And so on the outskirts of it, it's almost like night, like sunfall kind of time or sunrise. And then it becomes eventually the normal time of day everywhere else. So it's like this kind of blended inky miasma almost. inky uh miasma almost um

hmm well I think I know where we need to go yeah uh Douser and Stave will briefly appear

just before we take the break and Stave will say I'm afraid that it was not like that when we left nothing like this? it was uh

no not like this at all. Okay. And how long has it been since you were here again? A few weeks, perhaps. It took us a long time to travel back to Horizon. We did not have an airship. We had to sail by sea and then catch a ride. Troubling.

And with that, I'm going to take a five-minute break. Yeah. Okie dokie. Okay. Okay. So, with that, that's the end of part one. We will see you for part two. See you then.

Bye. We'll see you for part two. See you then. Bye!