High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #149 | Into the Umbra (Part 2)

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

We reach the umbral darkness of the jungle and dive in to discover what dangers lie within! 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

Pickaxe. Welcome back to part two of High Rollers. Our party have been travelling on the Storm Chaser for a couple of days. Some incidents have taken place. We're going to not linger on them, though, as the party have arrived in the northern jungles of Jakesh aboard the Storm Chaser and found, found oh things have gotten complicated as the grave bloom valley has fallen into what appears to be a magical permanent umbra a night has fallen on it where it should be bright morning daylight there is only darkness um and that is where we pick things up with the party

aboard the storm chaser now i didn't mention this before uh jakesh's jungle is incredibly thick uh the storm chaser can only it can't even land anywhere but there are a couple of points where you can basically jump off um where you could fly down you could use ropes to actually descend if you got the storm chaser close enough um lots of things that you could do do we have any feather fall tokens we don't't anymore, do we? Not anymore, no. But you do have people that can cast fly spells and people that can naturally fly and stuff like that. Hell yeah.

So that is something to consider. With it being nighttime, Stave can project their illusory map and show you where the clearing and the outpost of the Guardian Scouts is, but it is almost impossible to see looking down. Because of the ranges involved, things like your dark vision won't work,

so you are basically staring into a nighttime region, and you can just about make out the shapes of the canopy and the shapes of mountains and hills and things like that. Maybe the shape of a river, but it's very hard to see, especially being up high. It isn't darkness, it is up high. It isn't darkness. It is just night. It is a thick night,

so like a cloudless night. Like a torch would still light up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A torch would still be visible. It's not magical darkness, though. It's not magical darkness, no. No, it's not like... You're not going to be blind

when you go down there, but being like hundreds of feet in the air, looking down on it, you can make no discernible and how big is this area like yeah it's a big area the entire valley is darkness oh yeah yeah yeah the whole valley is yeah this and the jungles of jacques the northern jacques is like a massive landmass like the valley is a part of it but it like there's plenty of like just green jungle normally lit all around it as well i say jungle it's like a mixture of foliage you get like

some jungle trees but then you get like thick woodland kind of like you know black forest new forest kind of like environment as well um it's not jungle jungle so the jungle is massive it's pretty massive okay yeah it's not just jungle okay uh so So, Uriah will basically put the Stormchaser into a holding pattern while you decide what you guys want to do. You have the location of the outposts. Dave will, on their elusory map, you can basically figure out, right, it's there. You can't see the clearing and the camp, but you know it's there.

What do you guys want to do? I mean, I can fly down, obviously. It might be worth bringing out Elko? Winged Elkos. Elnissics. If you want to cast Fly, maybe? Yes, I can do that.

And we could also be a bit more tentative, considering our range and the darkness. I can put some dancing lights in front of us, that sort of thing. Stave and Dowser will say, Dowser will say, well, if you need me, I can come with you. If you have a way of getting me down there, I can help, because I know the camp.

Or Stave can come, or you can take one of us down, but it might make sense to keep Stave up here in case your ship needs to, you know, any aid. Yes, perhaps one makes sense, because we're trying to go in. I'm not much of a fighter. If we encounter the undead, I'm not really good at fighting, but I can make, I'm pretty quiet. I can just hide somewhere if need be. Okay.

I'm guessing once you're down there, it's going to be very difficult to get you back on the ship. As difficult it is for me to get down there, I suppose, yeah. If I can't fly, I mean, if you have spells and things. I mean, El Nessix could probably take you. Yeah, sure, yeah. Are you guys going to fly down, or are you going to lower the ship? And then when we arrive, we could get off ropes and things sometimes

and have supplies delivered that way, but I don't know if you want to get the ship that close to the canopy. No, I think we're going to fly down. All right. You want to try and be as quiet as possible. Okay, makes sense. I can send down a forward scout kind of thing. Arcane Eye.

Oh, great. Yeah, I mean, Commander Hotshot should still be there preparing things. Okay, I'll just make sure everything is okay before we go straight down there, obviously. Sure, okay. So, yeah, I'll just make sure everything is okay before we go straight down there, obviously. Okay. So, yeah, I'll cast Arcane Eye and sort of have that

continuously float down. Arcane Eye can go, like, miles in distance. Like, there's no range limit or anything. I don't believe so. Arcane Eye, Arcane Eye. Arc-A-N-E-I.

Right, who needs Fly? Ayla? Myself? I think Nova might now. I think she has it, but she's got such limited spell slots she would probably say like, yeah, can I get Fly please? Especially, well, if Sentry's gonna be flying on Alnysi- Alnysi- Alnysus, I can never say. Alnysix.

Alnysix. Um, if Sentry's gonna be flying down and she doesn't need it, then Nova will probably take it so she can save her spell slot. Yeah, I'll get Alnysix ready. She could also just levitate her way down, to be fair, but she might save that. I think she'll probably need to follow us because we're kind of like trying to find her.

Yeah, I think having fly would make it a lot easier because otherwise she can only go straight down. All right, I've cast that. Or I can give her a piggyback. Yeah, that's true. Depends on what level spell you want to spend as well. A fifth. Yeah, if you wanted to spend a fourth,

then Aela can probably just carry it over. And it would just be you and Ayla. Do you want to try it first? I'll cast it and see if you fly with her on your back. You know you can carry Nova. The heaviest thing on Nova is her armour. Okay, fine. I'll cast it forth.

That will save me one. Great. All right. So, Arcanine, did you get the details? Yes, it goes 30 feet a turn. But it can go infinite distance for an hour of concentration. An hour of concentration. So in the 10 minutes that Elna 6 is appearing...

That'd probably be enough time for it to go down and do a little scout, because it will take some time to... It also only has 30 feet of visual range. Oh, that's interesting. So I kind of have to scour the land a bit. You have to get real close. Yeah, I think make a survival check for me. Survival.

Mm-hmm. And does it have darkvision? Ooh, that's a good question. I got a 23 with survival and darkvision. Let's see. It has normal and darkvision. Okay, so it does have darkvision. You can see through its eyes can't

you basically yeah it's like telepathic sort of it's like a third eye right so quill goes into like it's concentrating meditating on this and what you see quill is as the as the eye descends the dark vision takes over and you now get this black and white grayscape it is very hard to see anything even with dark vision because the trees are so thick and closely entangled they create shadows that often obscures a lot of the the light and dark and like just like it's quite hard to see even with dark vision down here like if a creature was trying to hide it would have advantage it would it would camouflage in very very well um the eye scouts around you do eventually manage to find your way to the outpost but it does take some time

you're not going to have a long time to scout it before Alnissix is ready you immediately become aware you have not seen any other guardians and as the arcane eye

which I believe is invisible right? yeah it's an invisible sense it reaches the camp and you find tents and a campfire and supplies. It looks like it was abandoned in a hurry.

It looks like it was very quickly, like, there's no sign it is being used right now. And it looks like there was like a panicked kind of rush to leave it. Okay. I think in order to not concern Stave and Dowser, I would kind of just like look to Sentry or whoever I guess catches my eye while I'm sort of focusing on this thing and just gently shake my head.

Okay. Because you guys know what I'm doing, right? You know my plan. So I'll just sort of shake my head like... Okay. Can I sense any guardians? You're very high up in the storm chaser at the moment. You would have to get...

If you got to the ground level, then you could probably start using the matrix to try and sense out any that are close by, but not from up here, unfortunately. But once you're on the ground, sure. Nice. Yeah. are close by um but not from up here unfortunately but once you're on the ground sure nice yeah um so if that's the 10 minutes for uh unless it's to appear arrives i think yeah we can start heading down right okay all right uh so ayla grabs nova and you're going to fly down and carry Dowser probably on Alnissus. Okay.

Do you want me to get a miniature for Alnissus, actually? I can see if I've got one. A Periton miniature. Something like that. I'll have something. Yes, it's already going up there. I just locked eyes with the Chris Trott miniature. Oh, God, no. Where's that?

You could use the Tiamat one. That'd be fine, right? Yeah. That's about the right size. I've got a Pegasus. Oh, God, no. Where's that? Oh, no. You could use the Tiamat one. That'd be fine, right? Yeah. That's about the right size, right? I've got a Pegasus. Oh, sweet. You can have a Pegasus. Hell yeah. Because Almasus does have stealth and things.

I also just realised I probably need one for Dowser, now that Dowser's coming down with you. So I will use... A little Robo-Mini? A Transformer. I wish I did. I wish I did. I will use this little invisible, because he's quite stealthy. I'll use this little invisibleo Mini. A Transformer. I wish I did. I wish I did. I will use this little invisible because he's quite stealthy.

I'll use this little stealthy boy. Where'd he go? To be dowser. Okay. So, you descend and any of you who have darkvision, that immediately takes over. Those of you who do not have darkvision, it is very difficult to see down here

to the point where you have maybe about five foot of range around you oh do you cast magical dancing lights i do have dancing lights but you haven't cast them yet um i would rather do it when we land rather than just make us a beat those of you who have dark vision probably ayla and lucius are kind of almost leading the way to this clearing because it is all dense canopy. For flying purposes, the canopy is about 20 feet off the ground, so ground level 20 feet up. So these trees are pretty damn tall,

but once you're under the canopy, there is no real way to get up. You would be going through thick, dense foliage to try and get up. The clearings, you can just go up and it's just completely clear spice um when we get to a battle map i'll make that a bit more relevant and point out stuff um but yeah you make your way down into the clearing and yeah you find exactly what i described to coil you find tents you find campfire you do find hastily built barricades and defenses um but it all looks like it was abandoned rather rapidly um you also as you get down here there's another thing that you sort of pick up on um it's dark the jungle is almost silent

there's no animal noises you don't really hear any kind of like chittering insects or anything like that and the sound of the storm chasers aetherium engines are loud, even from down here. Like, the presence of the storm chaser above is like... You can hear, like, the aetherium engines, you can hear the wind kind of, like, being magically rebuffed around it by the shielding, and it is quite noisy. I might just, in my mind, do a messenger ring

and see if Oriah's got hers on. Yeah, yeah, she's always got hers on, yeah. Yes, Captain? The jungle is eerily quiet, and we can hear the ship quite loudly down here. I think it might be drawing attention. Do you want me to take the ship away? I think so.

All right. All right. Okay. It revs its engines. Yeah, they'll basically start, yeah. You do hear, like, a kind of... And it will start to pull away. As it does, Sentry,

you receive a message in your mind. You vaguely recognize this voice. It is a guardian called Harper. And you hear the message, Sentinel Prime, outpost compromised. Lots of undead in AO. You must hold position.

Secure exit route. Please confirm. Over. Okay, we've just arrived. Okay, we'll keep the exit clear. Thank you for letting us know. As Sentry's responding to this, the rest of you... I guess that was in her head, that response, yeah. The rest of you, Quill hears it first,

Ayla very closely being a woodland hunter. Movement. A lot of movement. Okay. Oh, no. We can bring out the battle net. You have got a fistful of minis. It's two fistfuls.

He's got more than that. Is it more than two? So many skeletons. It's lots. Spooky, scary skeletons. I'm going to come sort these out in a minute. Someone has been very busy this weekend. A third fistful.

Oh, I love this. Okay, no more. A fourth fistful. Oh, my God. I need to actually come around and sort these out in a minute. A fifth fistful. That is so many. You're actually going to have to excuse me.

I'm going to get in the way of a lot of cameras. That's like 50 skeletons. That's not 50. It's 40. It's 30. 30? 30 spooky, scary skeletons. Oh, look at these boys.

I wanted to have 40 of these Games Workshop ones done, but I did not have the time to. Four of them are unpainted. The rest look great, by the way. These are like actual D&D minis. A bunch of them are Games Workshop ones I painted. 20 of them are the ones I did. Man, you've really been in the workshop. So they are just surrounding us. Look at these beautiful boys. Really been in the workshop. Yeah. These guys. I'm gonna be coming from this direction. So they are just surrounding us. Yeah, we are.

Just everywhere. Maybe come back, all right? I'll get to that in a minute. Yeah. These guys are sort of sort of... Um, okay. Say, little boy. Okay.

What are we gonna to do? So. Let me just bring the old encounter up here. Perfect. Emerging. Those of you who can see, keep in mind, Dancing Lights isn't up yet. Like, you guys arrived, sent you the message. You're still kind of adjusting. So, Quill, like, you're seeing these shapes, but it's barely.

Yeah. You see these lumbering kind of skittering forms, not slow-moving, but quiet and sort of cautiously. Bones with pieces of desiccated armour, ancient-looking, rusted, worn, skeletons in tattered burial clothing begin pulling themselves all around the camp every single one of them you can see inside

its bony rib cages, out its eye sockets interwoven with its bones of its arms long black vines and flowers and leaves all sprouting these black roses throughout them. Also, I forgot this one as well. Emerging from... What is that? What is that?

To the south. Ayla probably sees this before Quill does because of the darkness. You see this mass, green leaves, no, black leaves, in fact, with black rose flowers and long vine-like tendrils with thick barbed spines and skulls buried in its plant-like flesh as they begin to emerge. Now, before we roll initiative, I've got a couple of unique rules here. Okay.

So, I'm not going to explain everything. There's going to be a unique initiative. You guys are going to roll initiative as normal. Okay. Monster initiatives is quite unique. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to be here for an hour. Exactly. One thing which is important for you guys, the storm chaser.

Right. It has gone away, so for the first round, this is not going to be available. If you would like to recall the storm chaser, you can have the storm chaser, because it's currently fine, it's in a good state, provide fire support. Oh. But to do this, there are conditions you have to meet. You have to illuminate the area with at least 10 feet of bright light. We have to throw a flare down.

We have to put a magic flare down. Oh, cool. Hell yeah. You then must send a message to Oriah, either with the messenger ring or the sending spell, to say that the area is clear and that you it can be fired upon right because ariah doesn't want to hit any of you so she'll only fire it if you give her the the command to do so so anybody can do that so i think century

and lucius both have messenger rings either of you can send that message quill you can use a sending spell they can do it once per round right they can have their turrets fire. You pick a spot that's illuminated with bright light. They will then fire. I will roll a d20. If I roll under a certain amount, it might veer off and it will have like a random element of being shifted ever so slightly. And it will hit everything in a 10 foot radius.

So it's like a 10 foot radius sphere basically. And the other thing I'm gonna tell you is nope I'm not gonna tell you that I'm gonna keep that secret oh I keep that secret okay sure I would like everyone to my apologies give me one second I just need to. I've got to click run encounter. That's why I've not done it in so long. Silly Billy. Silly Billy. Okay. Well, initiative.

Roll. Oh, okay. Okay. I need to light up an area. Well. Light up an area. How do I do that? I think I might have to close this without saving it. I have to build a temple of the gods.

By a brick. By a brick. By a brick. By a brick. By a brick. By a brick. By a I think I might close this without saving it. I have to build a temple of the gods. Ha! By a brick.

Mark, having fun? I didn't save the encounter. Now I've got to rebuild it. There we go, I did it this time. No. I imagine you've got them as groups, right? Not as like individual... Individual skellies.

30 individual skeletons! No, I have them as groups. They have their own personality skeletons they are in packs these are minion packs cool so minions was a

thing that was in fourth edition D&D my friend Matt Colville has done his take on minions in their new book that's coming out

I've done my own take on minions excellent so we can see what this looks like right okay so initiatives please if you

can now roll them um done all right i'll just have to manually do it so lucius 15 quill uh 18 ayla 24 century 24. uh in fact actually that's lucky i forgot to put out you know we used to have the character that would be for the overlays and stuff. Forgot to take them out of the combat encounter. They can be dowser. So, nice. Minus 12, sure. Nova.

If somebody else could just have Nova up just to help guide me a little bit, that would be grand. I know it's going to be difficult managing lots of character sheets. So playing a warlock, I think. I've done her initiative. That's 13. So, Eldritch Blast.

Eldritch Blast. Nice. Easy peasy. So, Aayla, as one of the few people that can at least see most of these things on the very outskirts, the very peripheral of the tree line emerging through, this central area is the clearing. So, like, basically

where the circle of tents and barricades up is open air. Anything beyond the camp is under the canopy. Right. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Okay. I guess what I will do is run towards the group that's to my right-hand side, to the south. I'll first just say to Lucius, lights, now.

And then I will... So you've got a couple of choices. You've got about another ten feet of movement. You run south. You can see this plant-like thing and two groups of six undead on either side of movement. You run south, you can see this plant-like thing and two groups of six undead on either side of it. I think I'll go to the group on that side first. So just kind of like tuck in?

And just be like, sentry giant thing, let's go! Just arrange these guys properly in their squares now. I will rage as my bonus action. Ooh! You raging? I'm raging. You can put my little circle on me. I could do. A little ragey circle.

Yeah, we've got new little... I'm not gonna rage on you. That's just a given. Oh, you want rage, okay. Yes. Condition tokens. Won it. Condition tokens. Yes.

There's rage. There may not even be one. I think there's a new one. There is one. There is one. All right, so Ayla is raging. Just feel free to take a... Take a hit.

Do what you want. Yeah, I'm going to... So these six things like... In fact, they don't really make much noise that's a lie they don't make it wow really you're just gonna hook it on the hammer there yeah it makes sense it's the point of it sure that's not 20. okay uh still roll damage barrel in there so So, 40 plus... Don't wanna give anything away.

You don't know anything about these things. Do they go down in one hit? How many hit points do they have? We don't know. Oh, nothing. 59 plus 13. Oh, I know exactly what it is. One of these things smashes apart. In fact, I'm exactly what it is. One of these things smashes apart.

In fact, I'm going to leave it there. No. In fact, actually, I am going to leave it there because... So the hammer comes smashing down, cracks into one of them. Its form seems to collapse under the weight of the hammer, breaks apart. As it does, all of the plants inside of its body seem to bloom and erupt out as it hits the ground. I need you to make a strength saving throw, please, Ayla. Oh, okay.

It's probably going to be fine. So 18 plus 13. You are fine. But the area, that space that its body is in, that's why I've laid it down, is difficult terrain. Gotcha. So as it turns into plants all around it, and it tries to grab your limbs, you break free like it's trying to grapple and restrain you as it exploded okay you want no as initiative by the way i got it got it i roll it's fine but if you can do like all of the combat rolls and stuff that'd be great hit another one okay great oh and that might not hit hang on 15 16

17 18 to hit 18 still hits yeah, yeah. I want a three. Oh, God. One of my damage. 14 damage on the hammer. Oh, I forgot to add my six. Never mind. It doesn't matter. 14 damage on the hammer plus two lightning damage.

Does not kill it. Plus a dex save. That lightning damage will kill it. I won't throw. So can you make another strength save as this one gets blasted into lightning? 13 plus 13. You are fine, but again, the same thing. The area, the body, as it hits the ground, these plants seem to embed and take seed

and become this tangled mass instead. End of your turn? Yes. At the end of Ayla's turn, I'm going to activate one of the packs. And this is where they don't have an initiative

of their own. I see. They will activate after you guys take a turn. I'll activate all packs. Oh, okay. Cool. We're alternating.

Yeah. And to keep things fresh, I'm going to have this. Oh, you get to choose which pack. Okay. Oh, cool. So can the same pack move, like, multiple times in a turn?

No. Okay. So they won't reset until, like, the next turn. Very cool. This pack will rush and basically swarm our mystics. That's the first living thing they see. They just rush towards it. And then I'm gonna activate their Frenzied Rush,

which means they move another 30 feet and they'll actually move through Alnissix, which means that they have difficult terrain. They basically move at half speed. But Alnissix will take six times six necrotic damage. What? Okay, 36. 36 points of necrotic damage.

It's gone. It's a 33 HP. They swarm over Alnissix, tearing, ripping, stabbing, slashing. And you watch as like black veins crawl up the periton's body. It kind of cries out as they swarm over it. That's going to be 10 feet of their movement. They're then going to basically surround Quill and Sentry. Oh, boy.

The rest of their movement. They just seem to rush forward, burst with speed as they do so. Sentry. I'm going to call burst with speed as they do so. Sentry. I'm going to call forth Starbreaker as a bonus action. Lift it up. Starbreaker! I'm just going to go to town on these things. Okay.

I'm going to take a quill. All right. Hell yeah. And there's attack rolls. Attack rolls. 26. What? That's going to hit.

Yep, hits. Nice. These are undead, so you will get your extra 3d8 of damage. Cool beans. Divine Smite. Can you miss? Level 3 Divine Smite, so that'll be 68 total. A 1 will always miss.

All right, here I go, loading up dice. 68 to... Here it comes. Yep. Five. I can't see. I'm blind. Six, thank you.

Oh, that's a point. I like century roll this, but there was something at the start of century's turn that happens. The pack activated after A-list turn. At the start of century's turn, something else happens. Okay. So it's before and afterry's turn, something else happens. Okay. So it's before and after. So they activate after your turn.

And then something happens at the start of Sentry's turn. And something will happen at the start of Quill's turn. But also at the end of Sentry's turn. Maybe. 45 for the first hit. Right, that first one, I'll do all their thing in a minute. The other thing is is when you started your turn century for every minion within 10 feet of you you're going to take some damage okay

i guess they're just it's just like this is this is slashing down this is physical damage and this is just like ravenous such a ravenous like swarm of thing of things. I'm not going to make 30 attack rolls. So the way this is going to work, so for each one within 10, which I believe is all six, that's six points of damage per one, so that's 36 slashing damage. Cool. Oh, my God.

36. And then you destroy one. Well, that's why the parrot took that. I see. The parrot, because they used a special thing where they rushed through it. Yeah. That was actually a special action they can only do once.

So they rushed through it, they tore it apart, and now they ended their turn, and now they're next to Sentry. It's like World War Z. It is. There is an element of that, yeah. So when that one dies, I need Quill and Sentry to both make strength saving throws, please.

Let's use it. Okay. Go on, Sam! Go on! Oh, that's a nasty bugger. Will, you are restrained. I got a... You're gonna roll the nat one.

One plus one plus what, three? Yeah. You are restrained. That lasts until the end of your next turn. You can use an action to break free. And that space is to control. Oh, he's got a token for that! I've got 24.

You're fine. There's so much on there. You not going to fit it around the skeleton you also i will probably i'm i'm taking them as far away from the other characters as possible as we get closer you might have to be like i want to kill this one i want to kill that one because obviously being close to these things might cause different effects so okay i'll swing around and i'll hit one the one that's closest to quill okay i'll go for that 19 plus 13. yeah hits okay let's do another level three divine smite same again 68 plus 2d 12. 12 14. i just thought something else there's another thing there's another thing 24 it's because of things

that Sentry did 38 for the second one 38 45 super dead well Lucius Sentry

strength saving throws please you don't need to because you're already restrained fuck 12 13 you are both

both of you are now also restrained as this burst of plant life latches onto your limbs, your legs, you're like... Like you're struggling to move and restraint does give you disadvantage on attack rolls.

The other thing, Sentry, to activate Starbreaker, you have to loudly call Starbreaker. Oh, fuck! Yep. When you do... Oh, God. Oh, my God, like XCOM and not the Horde arrives. Oh, my God!

Do you remember the lost missions in XCOM? So as this loud, like, Starbreaker echoes. Now, these guys don't get to activate this turn because they just arrived. They don't get to activate this round, but you see another pack. Can I just shout, we have to keep the exit clear.

There are guardians trapped somewhere in the forest. Sure. Another horde arrives. I'm not going to be that mean, but yes. Cool. End of turn. At the end of your turn, she says raging.

Oh, I'll do a different one this time. So, oh yeah, there's a horde. I'm fucked. Right next to Aayla. You are about to get surrounded. Yeah. Not including this Marlborough

that's around the corner as well. This kind of reminds me of the Marlborough from Final Fantasy. Is that what they are? Yeah, yeah, very similar. Marlborough. Without the big mouth. Yeah.

They just, yeah, they move making for this gap between the tents and this small little sort of like wooden palisade behind Aayla as well. Aayla is now, those of you who can see in the darkness looking around, Aayla is surrounded by these things, like just swinging the hammer, like...

Just spinning. Quill. So I need to take... Don't forget, you do have the Storm Chaser, Ken, if you do the thing. If you need a refresher on how that works, do just say. So at the start of your turn, you take six damage for each currently alive one.

So that's going to be one, two, three, four, within ten feet, I think. This one is technically ten. That's actually out. So it's only three times six. 18. Something for you, because this is going to be the first time it's relevant.

If these creatures ever have disadvantage, because they're not making attack rolls, disadvantage causes them to do half damage at the start of your turn, right? So they do. Okay. You could make one less. One of them,

because protection is only against one attack, right? Whereas if you had. Okay. You could make one less. One of them, because protection's only against one attack. Whereas if you had a spell like Bane, which can affect three of them, those three would do half damage. So any effect that causes them to be at disadvantage, halves their damage. So you couldn't use that defend to just push back a swarm?

No, it would only work for one of each of the minions. For Quill's relevance, any effect that boosts your ac reduces the amount of damage you take um and if you have a thing that you can use in reaction to being hit you can use it when you would start your turn by taking damage instead right so for example the shield spell you can activate that in response to about to take loads of damage and then you get that ac boost and that reduces the damage you take rather than boosting your AC. Okay, so plus four AC would reduce the damage by... It reduces it by four, yeah. Okay.

Per minion, that would be. Per minion. Powerful. Yeah. Or, like, for example, like, you know, other characters, like, if not relevant for you guys, but, like, a character might have a thing where they can use their reaction to gain plus two AC against an attack.

They could reduce one of the minion's attacks by two. Okay. Right. You are restrained, so your speed is zero. My speed is zero. I want to cast Sunbeam, please. Okay. It is a concentration, so it will be...

I suppose I can get Elder Quill to hold the Arcane Eye, but then its information is transferring to me still. Yeah. It's a bonus action to summon Elder Quill, I believe. Yes. I won't be able to use it this turn because it's an action to move, but Sunbeam is a 60-foot line, 5-foot wide,

so it would hit Sentry if I went across that horde and into the horde at the back. I'd take it. You could take it. Do we have lines on the thing, Trot? I don't think we do, do we? No. It's a 60-foot line.

And it's five foot wide, right? Five foot wide. I think I basically, from the centre of the map, I can hit pretty much everything. Yeah, I think so. You might not hit some of the ones on the side in the far-off pack. You'd have to angle it to... You'd probably miss the two on the very far left-hand side. I don't know if I can angle it in such a way

that it wouldn't hit, like... Someone. Someone. Unless I did it kind of... I think I'm still going to hit Sentry. You could hit four of them if you didn't want to hit Sentry, I would say. I would say that you can get away with a cheeky... Only four of the minions would get hit.

Four, as in the three right next to us. The two here and then the two on this far edge here. I would kind of argue that you're striking a line along here. Because you could shift your position a bit. I guess I couldn't do a Sentry duck. No. It'd be cool, but no. You could shift your position a bit. I guess I couldn't do a sentry duck. No. It'd be cool, but no.

Sentry. If sentry wasn't restrained, I might do Reaction or something. Okay, I will cast it through sentry. Okay. And I want to hit, I guess with a five-foot line, it looks like I can probably hit the four in the group surrounding us. I'd say you can hit three in the group surrounding you, because it's only a five-foot line, so it's not going to hit the ones on the edges.

I would say you can hit seven if you hit Sentry as well. So three in our group, four in the group behind. Four in the group behind, yeah, exactly. Okay, well, they make a constitution saving throw. They fail all saving throws automatically. I'm not rolling seven saving throws. Okay. Alright. So they fail

all saving throws, but they are also immune to a lot of conditions because they are a swarm of hive mind zombies, or skeletons in this case. Nice. Will I roll 6d8? It's a 22 save. I saved. Oh, it is. Yeah, so half the match. I've8. It's a 22 save. I saved. Oh, it is.

Yeah, so half damage. No, wait, it is a 22 to... It's two save. Two beat, so I think, yeah, you do beat it. Yeah, equal to, yeah, equal to a beat. Amazing. So half damage. Nice. So you take half of 38.

Oh, cool. 19. So 19. Awesome. So, a couple of things. They are all blinded, by the way. They're dead. Doesn't matter.

Okay. And then if somebody can lean over and knock these four over. The four my side. Because they do create difficult terrain. Yeah. These four? Yeah, those four, exactly. Oh, right, yeah.

And then it doesn't matter because you're all restrained. So all of these things explode into thingy, but the area does become difficult, kind of collapses as this big beam of light, right? Whoa! I mean... Oh, no! There are so many skele-bombs.

Oh, my God. You killed seven, but you brought another six. Significant light and sound seems to attract these things. Again, it can't activate this turn, but it's there. So, Will. You killed one, basically. I can do this, like, every turn for a minute. But, I mean, it's so powerful.

The ones that survive are blinded. You're getting a new crowd every time. They don't survive. They can't be that... You killed seven. You killed seven and you got six back. I mean, at this rate... It's a gain of one.

No! Alright, well, Quill, anything else on your turn? No, I don't... No. Alright, I'm going to activate this pack. How do the vines and flowers and things... Are they consistently, like, writhing? Like the ones that are restraining us, are they still alive?

Yeah, the bonds are, yeah. But the sunbeam's probably burning them. Sunbeam is... Do they screech and wail and boil in the radiant light? Are the vines, like, black like the roses? Yes. Are they sentient? All the plant life is black.

Are they sentient? Are plants sentient? Yes. They do have pain. So, yeah, if you could flip those up for me. That pack is going to activate, and I am going to activate their Frenzied Rush. This is a once thing that they can only want.

Oh, no. Oh, shit. And Dowser. Dowser's going to die. Dowser's dead. Yeah, Dowser's going to die. 36 necrotic damage to Nova and Dowsa, basically. Dowsa is unconscious by that.

He's not dead, but he is unconscious. And then Nova takes 36 necrotic. Right. But that's them done. Lucius. You only had 36 or less than 36? Yeah, he's only a little tiny scout. He was like, I can hide.

Oh, no! Lucius being restrained. So at the start of your turn, Lucius, that is... One, two, three, four. Four times six, 12. 24. Slashing.

So at least you will get your resistance, Ava. That's not what I'm worried about. It's the sheer amount. And the fact that three of them are restrained. You guys knew, you were told that there was a lot of undead in these valleys. Someone tell the storm chaser to come, for the love of fuck. The first thing I'm going to do is message a ring or eye saying, Change of plan, please come back.

Please shoot and hit the light. Yes, if you can illuminate the area, we need to strike. We can't see anything from up here. But yes, we're on our way. Thank you. So next turn, you'll be able to use the Storm Chaser to attack. Oh no, if we do significant light, we're just going to get more. The sunbeam is crazy amounts of light.

Dancing lights or the light cantrip or something like that is fine. The sunbeam is also illuminating that path currently. But if Quill wants to move it, that will be where it is, right? So he has to leave it in that position. It's like a 60 foot long line. Yeah. It's basically

and then 20 foot on either side of that line is brightly lit, basically. I'm wondering if we can communicate like a, halfway down this line this end of it is us. Don't shoot here. It might make it harder for them to get a more accurate thing. Whereas a flare, like a single

light, or like a dancing light, they're like that bit. I don't think dancing light is powerful enough, actually. I don't think it has enough brightness, but the light cantrip would. I have an in-betweeny one. Or maybe if you put all four on the same spot, that would be bright enough, I think. I have another spot.

Oh, that's fine. So yeah, it is significant. So like Starbreaker, it says in Starbreaker's Rules of the Century has to shout Starbreaker. Things like Fireball is an explosion of fire. Lightning Bolt is going to... Lightning Bolt might be okay because it's not thunder, but Thunder Wave is like a... It makes a cacophonous loud sound. fire lightning bolt is gonna lightning bolt might be okay because it's not thunder but thunder wave

is like a it makes a cacophonous loud sound it says in the rules doesn't make a noise it makes like a crack yeah and it's like a flash but it's not like a big sound thunder wave is 300 some spells will be okay but you need to consider what spells you use carefully yeah exactly um and then i'm going to rule it on things like Fireball. It's an explosion. It's going to. And also, yeah, Sunbeam makes sense. Five-foot line of 60-foot...

Of bright light blinding sun. What about Eldritch Blast? Eldritch Blast would be fine, yeah, because Inova's used it before, and it kind of makes light noises, but no more than like a hammer or sword strike. Yeah, it's force damage. Trot's now looking at his new exact tool.

Okay, so, Lucius, considering we've got the sun thing sorted out, I'm going to do a 20-foot radius vitriolic sphere. Yeah? Just on Aayla. What? And all surrounding area. So, on Aayla, yeah?

20-foot radius? Yeah. yeah it's gonna hit all of them um so i'm hoping that vitriolic sphere is not as loud it just splashes acid on everything rather let's find out in fire and so please thank you great i think it's definitely a ski fan deck save of 18. so you have advantage of 18. yeah that was i mean to be honest even if you i rolled an 18 so plus five all right so you see so that's a half damage so this is like i said uh the only thing that does get a saving throw is the big plant mass oh it's acid resistant interesting well it might also just say no it just says not a crowd of like 100 things. The big plant thing does fail. Okay.

So that is 40d4. Yep. I'll just roll that on here and crash my iPad. Here we go. That is a total of 41 acid. Wait, 42. Every single one of these. Yeah.

Half to 21. 20. Uh, 21. Okay, that's fine. Oh. Yeah, no, it's not. God, just all of these things at the same time just spitting out vines and flowers.

Technically, you've got to make 12 of them, Ava. Really? Yeah, every single one. Really? Yeah. Every single one goes down. You might roll a 1. Keep rolling until you roll a 1. I think you succeed. What's your bonus

to a strength save? 13. 13. If you roll... What's the success? Yeah, that's what I'm going to work out. Death Bloom.

DC 16. So what was your plus? 13. 13. So if you roll a 3 or less, you fail. Or 2 or less, even. Okay, and I have advantage on all of them at the start, so I actually have to roll twice.

Now to pass. And how much damage was it, Lucius? 40-something? That would be a pass. It was... How many? 12. 21 was half, so 42. That will pass. 5.

And it will do half next turn. No, it does, like, a set amount. Wait, no, but that was with the advantage. So now you do advantage. No, no, I did one before, which was the five. No, every time you've done a first roll, I've been moving on to the next one. Oh, no, I failed.

You actually failed, one and two. I was strained. Okay, there's nothing around me, though, right failed. You actually failed. One and a two. I was strained. 70. Okay, there's nothing around me though, right? Not alive, but there's all this massive plants

and the area around you is now difficult terrain and then, yeah, you get engulfed by these things. That was the only way you were going to fail by. Because I've coated

this area in acid. Is that going to disrupt the plant growth? Yeah, I do. Okay. It will continue to burn. The initial blast wipes these skeletons out

and you just watch as 12 of them just collapse to the ground. They all burst into this foliage and the foliage It will continue to burn. The initial blast wipes these skeletons out. You just watch as 12 of them just collapse to the ground. They all burst into this foliage. And the foliage is burning. You see the big root creature is definitely kind of undulating and bubbling. Cool. I'll send a dichromancy bolt of acid at... Actually, is that 30 feet from there? Yeah, it should be.

I think so. I'll take it. I'll fling it at it for 10 points. Another 10 points of acid damage at the big plant thing. The dead root. The dead root. Cool name. Nice.

All right. Are you done, Lucius, Viren, Ela, and Astor? Yes. Yes. These ones can't activate. These ones, Tom Hazel. Yep. Can you bring them in?

How far? 30 feet. Oh, God, just meeting up with the other horde? Yeah. And the acid, by the way, does not seem to draw any more. Good. That was the hope. Lands on tour, lands on tour.

I imagine it's like a steamy, like, sound. Yes, where it burns. Lanzon Tor, Lanzon Tor. I imagine it's like a steamy sound. Tssssssss. Yeah, where it burns. So, on Nova's turn... What a mess of minis. I know! 7... 7 times 6?

42, isn't it? 42... Yeah, 42. 42. Nova takes 42 slashing damage. And poor little Dowser takes an auto crit. No, just one. He's done two failed death saves. Oh, he's not going to get rest.

He might do. He might do. Everyone's restrained. Well, you know. I mean, yeah. Sentry's not. Oh, no, Sentry is. Nova's not.

That's who isn't. Whose turn it is? NovaVegia. It's a strength-like action, right? You can use an action to break free of it. Is Nova restrained? I forgot. No, she's not.

Okay, she is going to... War crime? She's going to use her multi-attack to basically attack everything around Dals. Around as much as she can. And she Misty Step is a bonus action as well. Misty Step is a bonus action. I reckon what she'd do is Misty Step 2

as close to Dals as possible and start attacking all the skeletons around. She'd probably go basically behind him like this. Yeah. And then she'd technically be on like this space here but there's like a big fence in the way so she can hit one two three i would say she can hit three of them okay yeah that's the 27. yep uh yeah do yeah do the attack rolls because they eat your individual creatures so oh yeah that hit 26 and that one is uh. Yeah, that hits, yeah.

All right. And then it's a... If it's versatile... Yes, she doesn't use it one-handed, so it's a d8. Oh, okay. Because she has a shield in yellow. Okay, so d8 plus 9 is... That's a 7.

16, yeah? 16 does not kill the first one. Okay. I think she's just wildly slashing, so she not kill the first one. Okay. I think she's just wildly slashing, so she wouldn't focus on one. Okay, so she moves on to the next one. Tackle all three. I don't know.

15. 15 does not kill the next one. Oh. 10. All right. So she hits all three, wounds them, the sword kind of cleaving through, breaking bones, shattering armor,

but the three that she struck are still staggering and alive. As alive as Undead can be. Yeah. Action surge. Okay. So she can make another three attacks? Same three. Same three.

Okay. Okay. 17 plus too much three though um that's plus 13 so 20

uh 16 16 just hits oh sweet yeah that hits so three more and it's the three same ones so she's gonna strike

the same three again what's that d8 the first one will die ah I'll save you that die yeah it's an eight plus nine yeah five plus nine fourteen and this one is a eleven Nice, all clear. So, yeah. Can Nova make three strength saving throws?

She's not good at that. That's a five. She's restrained. Plus minus two. That's all right. Don't need to make any more. So she gets there and then just... Guardian is restrained as well, right?

Even though he's downed right now. Yeah. And then I believe the only pack I can activate anymore is just these two little dudes at the end. So when you get a chance, Chris Trot, just bring those guys. Oh, with pleasure. They just move forward.

And that is going to be all of the minion packs. So it is the dead root's turn. And the dead root... That's the big boy, right? That is the big creature. It's going to kind of... It just seems to walk through this foliage completely unfazed. Is it like being held up by the vines on the ground?

It kind of... They just seem to like push it up. Like the vines almost help it move. It's going to kind of move closer to like the big mass melee in the middle. And then against Lucius and Quill, it is going to use its poisonous touch to hit you guys. In fact, I rolled normal d20, actually. So against Lucius, that is a 13 to hit. Yeah, that doesn't hit.

And against Quill, that was a natural one. These two big vines kind of snap around, but do not seem to do it. As it gets closer... Do we get advantage because we're restrained? Ooh! No. Yeah, it does, yeah. So, actually, Lucius, that would be a 25.

That hits. And against Quill, that would be a 20. Hey, he just did a tom! I just got tommed real hard. How does it feel? It feels pretty good. I like to play by the rules. 15. 17 poison.

You get tommed. 17 poison damage to you, Lucius, and can you make a con save? Oh, I have resistance to poison. Oh, I have an armour. Yeah, baby. 16, so half to eight. Hell yeah.

And a constitution saving three. Yep. That's 26. 26, okay, you're throw. Yep. That's 26. 26? Okay, you're fine. Fail. 46. You are poisoned.

Can I be poisoned with poison resistance? You can. Poison resistance just takes half damage. Poison the condition. You have disadvantage on pretty much everything. Yep. And that lasts for a minute. So you can go and add a little ringy to yourself

disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks saving throw at the end of your turn that can end the effect the other thing you will notice as this thing draws closer because it didn't really get a chance to do this um the group around it as it draws closer you watch as all of these minion undead the flowers and things in them seem to almost pulse and grow stronger and the creatures become faster and they seem to become more tougher. Like the plants wrap around them like armour. The ones that are alive?

Yes. The ones surrounding the boy? Yeah. The ones on the floor aren't being absorbed by it, are they? No. Not yet. At the start of a round, I have some bad news you haven't even removed the ones we'd kill do that soon yeah I think I'm gonna make a very impromptu rule that after a round they decompose and then I get the minutes back we go to the top just have a round, they decompose, and then I get the miniatures back.

We gump to the top of round two. You could just have a camp. Huh? You could just have a camp. No, no, no. There's no cap to this. I'm struggling to run all over the place. What was the message that you got sent? Hold?

Hold the position. Hold the position. Ayla. Hold the line. So you don't have any living ones. No, but I'm restrained. You are restrained. I have to turn my action.

It will go at the end of your turn. So if you wait until the end of your turn, the restraint will go anyway. Or you can use an action to break free if you desperately wanted to move now. Can I still throw a thing? You can still throw a thing. You have disadvantage on attack rolls.

So if you wanted to throw a line... That's pretty much what I want to do. I want to throw a line and get as many as possible. So you would hit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, I would say. Oh, hell of a line. I'll do that. Okay. So I've disadvantaged.

I rolled 11 twice, so plus 13. Yeah, that's for the last one. The rest of them have to make a deck save I throw, and they fail those automatically. So just give me the damage for the ones in the line. So these are the ones with the deck save. Does the death root? Oh, yeah, the death root needs to make a save.

It fails. It's very slow. It does not seem to be particularly agile. So 15 plus 6. Is it like the Stranger Things creature? 21 damage to the dude at the end of the line. Okay. And then plus.

And then 46 for the rest of them, I think, right? I like how you say Stranger Things creature, but the Stranger Things creatures are D&D creatures. 15 damage to everyone else. The line of lightning is not enough to destroy any of the... You know the one I'm in there, right? Yeah. Apart from the one at the end, which also got whacked by the hammer.

Yep. Then goes down. Yep. There's no creatures nearby for it to affect, so... And now I'm not restrained? And then at the end of your turn, you are no longer restrained. Is that Doody What's-It in 10 feet of me? The big dude.

I would say that they are, no, they are 5'10", 15, because I actually put them sort of here. So, yeah, they're 15 feet away, unfortunately. Yeah. I'm done then. No, my aura's 10. Oh. Yeah. All right. After Ayla's turn, I'm done then. No, my aura's turned. Oh. Yeah.

All right. After Ayla's turn, I activate a pack. And I'm just going to activate this new boy. Activate. They basically spring on Nova from behind. Oh, man. Sentry. At the start of your turn, Sentry! How many we got? One, two, three... No, you've got a load of dead ones.

Yeah, that's a lot of dead ones. I would say four. So, 28 points of slashing damage. Nice, nice, nice, nice. And I am restrained. It's kind of hard to tell what ones are tipped over and which ones aren't at this point. I can see, but I think I'm going to clear

all of these ones away. Because we know that things, they're going to go by the time they're coming together. Right? Okay. Take the rage away. Give me my rage!

Yeah. Do you just... If you need to think while I'm picking up miniatures, that's fine. I don't need to take that many. I can't cast spells. I need that many back. What do you mean you can't cast spells?

Can I cast spells? You can cast spells while you're restrained. Restrained is no movement. Disadvantage on attack rolls. Creatures attacking you have advantage. Oh, God. Can... I kind of want to...

All the stuff I want to do is loud. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, like, we know how big a horde it attracts. So if you can take out more than that with this loud attack... Which also, don't forget, you're a team as well. Lucius took out two packs of them, basically, with one spell. Yeah. That didn't attract any more.

Imagine if I was the angsty teen and I did that. You would have been so cocky. So cocky. You'd be like, hell yeah, I just kicked your ass! I did. Another six come in. Dead. Oh, God.

I think I'm going to do Aura of Life. So that gives each non-hostile creature in the aura, 30 feet aura around me, has resistance to necrotic damage and its hit point maximum can't be reduced. Oh, okay. around me has resistance to necrotic damage and its hit point maximum can't be reduced. Oh, okay. And also living creature in the aura gains one hit point when they start in the

aura with no hit points. So someone... Okay, it stabilizes. What range is it? 30 feet. Oh, he'd get up. I can get him up. Get up this turn. Everyone actually.

Providing he doesn't take any more damage. Well, yeah. I'm going to do that. Okay. So you watch as, like, Sentry, like, this wave of magic pulses out from you. So who goes first, then? The zombies on his turn or Sentry's aura? That's a great question.

That's a great question. End of turn? I'm going to stay the next to call. So the restraining effect goes away. You're no longer restrained with us at the very end of your turn. I will then activate my pack and have those guys go on. There's a few of these guys still up. One, two, three, four, five. These guys are... Yeah.

Oh, yes! When you say a pack, because these have all merged together now, is it just like five at once? No, they stay in packs of six. Even if they lose their number, that's still one pack. Oh, okay. So that group of two and that group of one. Yeah. Yeah.

So this pack has basically shifted and they're just going to move. And they're going to basically move a little bit closer to Quill. Surrounding Lucius. Quill. At the start of your turn, Quill. That's one, two, three, four. So 28 points of slashing damage. Okay. Oh, boy.

Do I have to roll concentration for 28 or is it like individual hits like it would be for 28 okay all right it's like one massive attack you're taking damage from one source okay uh it's only it's only oh yeah because you've got two spells. Yeah, the eye is gone, and 11, 28, 14 eye needs to be, right? Yes. Sunbeam's gone, which is probably fine, actually. If that had remained when you started your turn, another pack would have shown up. I would have used it again, though, to be fair.

Yeah. I had a good blast in mind. That's frustrating. That's gone. So you're just like... Just being swarmed on all sides by these things. And you can see that they don't take much to be destroyed. It's just... One of them on their own wouldn't pose a threat to you.

It's because they're in these massive numbers. Oh, yeah. Oh, boy. Yeah. It's a chance to use a lot of stuff that you've not used before. Yeah. Well, I think the area around me at the moment is not terrible, and everyone has taken a significant chunk of damage. I'm going to do a Mask Cure Wounds. So 60 feet of range. Nice.

And it is six creatures, so that's all of us, pretty much. Including Dowser? Including Including Dowser. Nice. 3d8 plus six. I know that kind of nullifies your aura of life thing, currently. Look, you get protection from necrotic. You get resistance. So 3d8 plus six.

Oh, pretty good. 14, 18, 24 healing to everyone. Dowser's eyes flutter open. Cool, 24, yeah. And that is pretty much my turn. Yeah, bonus actions, I'm a little light on, so that's fine. Yeah, I'm included in that, right? All right.

Everyone. Another pack. Sweet. And Nova. Yeah, I've done Nova. I'm doing Nova before me because for some reason I'm caring more about making sure Nova's all right than Lucius. I think that makes a lot of sense. I'd be the same. I hate running other people's characters when they're not there.

That makes a lot of sense. I'd be the same. I hate running other people's characters when they're not there. So this pack is going to activate, and then they're going to use their Frenzied Rush to basically swarm Aayla. Okay. And that means they're going to walk through you as part of this Aayla as well, technically.

And that is going to be 36 necrotic damage. But they can't use that again now. damage. But that is, they can't use that again now. And then that's going to be, that packs go. Lucius. Lucius is going to messenger ring the storm chaser

and say, when you see my light, please attack it. Okay. I'm then going to shout to Nova, Nova, get to us now. And I'm going to hold my action until Nova moves and cast Lucius's Luscious Light

basically in the area where all of those skellies are. Where Nova is. At the start of your turn, Lucius, you would have taken... I'm being scratched to hell. Same as me. Yeah, 28. 24, sorry. 24 slashing damage.

So that's... it. Okay. Can I... quicken that spell? Even though I'm holding the action. It would be pointless, too. I'm just thinking if I disengage, then I wouldn't be here.

No, because to hold an action has to be an action. You can't hold a bonus action. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's me. Rules quirk. Nice. All right, you are concentrating on this. On doing that.

So I'm basically going to cast Lucius's Luscious Light and then dismiss it as quickly as I can. It's basically after they've attacked. I know it's going to cause a huge noise anyway from the attack. Does luscious lights make a noise? I don't know. It's kind of like a modified... It used to be a Hadar spell. It was, uh, yeah, it's, uh... Where it made writhing noises and stuff.

I think it's anything inside this. It doesn't make noise, but it does make bright light. Ah. Yeah. It's basically the inverse of the uh truck you're all the d4 for me yeah one two three four two two sorry about the mic there everyone oh fuck um like my head so as the luscious light emerges, another pack seems to crawl out of the woods. All right. So you're holding your action as soon as Nova acts. They're going to do their thing. I've just activated another pack.

They basically swarm towards Century and Lucius. And then it's Nova's go. At the start of Nova's turn, Nova is going to take... One, two, three, four, five, six. Six times 636. necrotic uh no uh just normal slashing this one because they've not done their rush um and they're so concerned i'm concerned and i guess she would misty step she would miss step away from them so where do you

want her to miss you step to like back over there towards you guys? I did request towards us, so I guess she would come in swinging. So 30 feet, she could go... Kim was here, she'd come. She can actually kind of get... Get behind? Yeah, she can get on top of like next to one of these things. Okay. Far away from where the light will appear.

If she's there then I might just do her four Eldritch Blasts. Sure. Are they going to be loud? No. Eldritch Blasts won't be loud, no. All right, cool. Well, before she does that, the held action goes off. So this is Luscious Light.

Yeah, so let's do that first. What's the radius of that thing? That bad boy is 150 foot range, so I can basically put it anywhere, and it's a 20 foot radius. That's the whole thing, basically. Where's the best place to do that? Basically, I'm just going to pick the best spot

to not hit us. You'll hit the scout. You'll hit six. Yeah, you'll hit scout. You'll hit dowser. If you don't want to hit dowser, I don't really want to hit dowser. Where the new pack is. Yeah, you can do a new pack. I think you wanted Nova to move, right?

So it'd probably be these guys. I don't think I'd notice them swarming towards me. I'd be focused on... I mean, there's a full six. You're going to be hitting six either way. Yeah, alright. I avoided Downster. Alright, deck save of 18 for all of them. They fail, so it's

I'll cast it at this regular level because it's mostly for a beacon that's just 2d6 on all of them okay and that is

a solid 5 points okay 5 points but it does create this big sphere of sort of light

shimmering blue and orange light that seems to radiate. It completely covers the area they're in. Yep. But you also then hear a kind of... Difficult terrain. Yes.

You hear a... as something from the air... I now need to roll. So on a 13 to 6 it misses by a small degree on a 5 or less it misses by a large degree

anything higher it's precise 7 oh my god it misses by a small degree just so can you Chris Trott

roll a d8 and a d4 for me so direction and distance 1 being that way and then we'll go round and count 1, 2, 3, 4 d8 and a d4 for me. So direction and distance, I guess. One being that way, and then we'll go round and count. But why is it in distance? One, two, three.

The d8 is a six, and the d4 is a four. Two, three, four. Thousand? So, so sad. And by four, can you pass me the pipe, please? There on that tree. It just explodes. Well, we don't know the explosion radius of the shot right no it's ten

foot ten foot so it actually just clips that group still it still hits that group just um does the tent explode uh god yeah well if it was on the middle of if it was on the middle of the Hadar... Yeah, it was about the same space. So, yeah, it does just about clip them. And those guys all die. Nice. How loud? You don't see anything because the luscious light is kind of covering it. It is very loud.

Okay. As soon as that explodes, I am dismissing the luscious light. Okay, you dismiss the luscious light. You see that the earth is all churned up as, yeah, this arcane turret has fired a force projectile and annihilated that group. Well, that works. It does.

Can you roll a d4 for me, Christopher? Two. Two. One, two. Same on this side. So the... What is that? East?

West side? Northwest? Yes, east. If we go north, it's away from me. East. So they're coming in. So we have more coming in from the eastern side. The north is pretty clear, to be honest. Oh, no, wait. They're all surrounding us. Now Nova's turn goes off. So from her position, she will Eldritch Blast the four closest creatures that's surrounding Quill and Lucius, I'm guessing.

Sure. Just to ward them off. Yeah. So Eldritch Blast. What is that? That's a plus 11. Yeah, that's 29. And a 21.

Okay. 1d10 plus 5. Why did you roll twice? Oh, it's four, isn't it? Yeah, I'll do two more. Yeah, that hits. Oh, 2 plus 11, 13. Miss.

So three hit. Three hit. And then d10 plus something. What ones are they against? The ones against, yeah, once you and Lucius, he said. 10 points for the first one? 13. Miss. So three hit. Three hit. And then d10 plus something. What ones are they against? The ones against, yeah, once you and Lucius, he said. Ten points for the first one.

Ten points of damage. He survives. Next one is... Oh, ay-yi-ya. 13. Ay-yi-ya. 13. Survives.

Nine. Ah, you know this one. Survives. Yep. So damaged, but all of them still standing. So they also, those ones that are next to this death root, they're the stronger ones now, right? Thank you for reminding me.

Some of them, as they get impacted by the Eldritch Blast, the others were too far away for this to affect them, but these ones, as the Eldritch Blast hits them, yeah, some of that damage seems to be absorbed. The first ten points of damage they take is ignored so they are barely scratched I think from that point just these two little boys in the back so many boys just wondering where the best where would Nova go to be out of as much.

That swarm's going to come in on Nova. This swarm's going to come in on those guys. They can all move double anyway, so wherever you put her. Only once. They're going to move in a very simple way, aren't they? Towards the closest thing is a hive mind. Yeah, they seem to just go towards whatever's closest. At Alnissus, they just rampaged over because it was the closest thing is a hive mind. Yeah, they seem to just go towards whatever's closest.

On this, they just rampage because it was the closest thing. Does Nova have the wisdom to spot the group behind her? She's just like blinked there and is like, I'm behind cover from the group. Nova doesn't have darkvision and there are currently no lights activated. She would have had disadvantage on those attacks as well.

No, those ones are close enough I think I wouldn't have given. But I don't think she would spot this group behind her. Because it's only just coming out of the tree line here. Kim would be furious. My roll, like...

Kim would have absolutely gone over there. She would have gone fucked off over there. Yeah. I think Nova's going to see Ayla and move into that group. Say...

Like, move into combat? Yeah, behind that rock. So, like, move into combat? Behind that rock. So a bit of back cover and then get in there. It's totally another thing. Yeah. So hard to tell. We want to use her effectively, but we also don't want to just kill her.

He's repurposing. I've got to. I've also got to fit new dudes in. Get rid of these guys. Oh, Quill's dead! He keeps dying. These two boys. Now you can fit a little Restrain token in there. Nope, they've just surrounded me again.

Oh man, he's got so many to use. Is that how it works? He's got so many. Is that how this works? That's how it physically can work. I'm surprised you had this many, and you are repurposing them as well. Just grabbing and clawing at everything.

Give them to me! I want my skeletons! Give me my skeletons! Give them to me! Give them to me! I want my Skelemens! Give me my Skelemens! Alright, so all the packs have activated. Every one of you has taken a turn.

The dead route, which was very useless last time. Give me my Skelemens! Give me my Skelemens! No, it wasn't. It hit both of them last time. That's true, because of the advantage. Yeah, you're right. This time, it hasn't taken any of that. I wonder if Kim's in chat. You've got a thing

that stops necromantic thing, doesn't it? It's really early in the morning. Aura of Life, I think, is the only concentration. Yeah. The dead root pulses.

The flowers seem to they don't open. You can see all of its flowers are currently like buds. They're not open yet, but there's like a pulse of like magic. What spell level is Aura of Vitality? Fourth level. Fourth level is Dispelled as it casts a spell magic. Oh no.

Shit. That's its turn, though. We go to the top of a new round. Can you roll a d4 for me, Thomas? Yeah. What's the d4? Three. One, two, three.

Ah, fuck. Right by Ayla. I already have a whole pack. Now that someone has laughed at what's the D for, I'm going to stop saying it. Ayla. For another year. 36 slashing, half to 18.

Um, okay. I found a way to make you afraid. This is spooky as hell. Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, you're all all okay you're all above half health at the moment like can it stop that's yeah it seems to be this is true we've got no idea we've got no idea how long we have to hold four right yeah it's turn three and even then what happens

when we held for long enough like two dudes are going to come out of the forest like oh we're here what is it when it's uh in x-com it's the alien ruler that's when i have the alien ruler turn up oh no don't do that so ayla you're 10. i just you want to get get whacking i guess something i can do five plus the 15 so 20. Hits. I love seeing you guys like, you're really thinking. I can see Trotts just like, how do I not kill Nova is my thinking. Yeah. She's going to kill me.

26 damage. Which one do you want to kill, by the way? Because this might affect Nova being damaged. The one closer to the fruit. That one. Yep. This could be a strength save from you and Nova, by the way. Oh, hang on.

Let me do that first. I got a 19. You do need to do it first because you might be... Yeah, I figured you'd be fine. I got a 19 plus a 2, I think, or minus 2, actually. So 17. Still 16. I rolled a net one. So the second attack misses.

But aura. Aura? But aura. That's Ellie Noah. 18 lightnings. She just manages to destroy one. Which one would you like to destroy? Another one near Nova?

That one, yeah. Yeah, this one. Another strength saving throw from you, Nova, please. God damn. Does that make me roll for her? Nat 20. You're fine. You're both fine.

Neither of you are strained, like, pulling through all these weeds. Like, as these things fall down, they're just littering. The ground is, like, now this weird mix of bones and skulls, but also this plant matter, and you're now, like, stood on, like're now stood on mounds of plant matter and bones that are filling up underneath you. I've removed a lot of it, but that central area, I'm just going to count that all as difficult terrain.

It's just a mess of terrain at the moment. I'm going to do one pack. I'll see how we're going to do in five minutes, how much we get through, and then we're going to probably have to take a cliffhanger break. Oh, no. And to be a right old butt head. Don't do it.

Whatever it is. No, not that pack. No. This is why I moved Nova. Oh, I am going to get absolutely swarmed here. Yeah. And Lucius as well, to a lesser extent. So, these guys move up, and then, yeah, in a frenzied rush. Actually, yes, that group. Why?

Oh. I'm going to do my nasty shit. Lucius and Quill both take 36 necrotic damage. 36? Wait, do they swarm right through us? Yes. I love how you didn't even stand them up, you just dumped them in a pile in the middle. No, I can't dispel it.

Yep. So these things just rush past you and as these things tear at you, and this time as they strike you, their claw marks leave these black lines of barbs and thorns that seem to sap your strength as they do so. Sentry. Fuck it. I'm going to go loud. Can I...

Is that a gap I can get through, those two skelly-mens behind me? You can move through these creatures, they just count as difficult terrain. So it's like an extra five feet to move through them. Right. So is there any attack of opportunity or...? No, no, no, no. I'm not doing any of that shit. Come in for a closer look. Get out of the trap!

Right. I'm gonna go... So, five, 10, 15. Can I go here? Yes, you absolutely can. Sick. Oh, no. You have really lined them up now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I will point out Sentinel Prime. Dowser is right here. I would like to... Yes? ...do Destructive Wave. What is that? Oh, new!

It's a new spell! New spell I've had ready for this. Oh! So... It's really loud. It's very loud. Is it really loud? It's really fucking loud.

It's got thunder damage. Oh, fuck! No! I got a little six-pack ready to go. Do it. No, no, Rhiannon, do it. I'm all for it! So I strike the ground,

creating a burst of divine energy that ripples out from me. Each creature I choose within 30 feet of me must succeed on a constitution saving throw or take 5d6 thunder damage as well as 5d6 radiant or necrotic damage

each creature you choose yeah I can choose so you can just avoid yeah I can choose and it's every creature within 30 feet of you that's a 20 foot radius this is a 20

yeah that's a 30 that's a 20 foot radius we don't have a circle big enough I'm clearing a path so basically everything

in the middle I would say if you wanted to re yep moving into the middle move into the middle you could basically hit everything I think if you wanted to read moving into the middle into the middle you could basically hit everything i think yeah you also yeah where you are now though you i think you can catch that group also at the start of your turn you were like here weren't you five one two three four five six seven times six necrotic

sorry slashing 42 slashing 42 slashing. 42 slashing. 42 slashing. At the start of your turn. All right. So it's up to your choice. You can go where you are now. You're going to catch, how many is that? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I'd say seven of them in your current location.

If you move into the middle, you will be able to hit every single one of these. Just not the group at the edge. Yeah, or this group around Aayla and stuff. I'm going to hit all of them. All right. I imagine it like- Like on the campfire at this point. Yeah. I picture it like a matrix charge where it's like...

Oh, shit. And then she slams the star break into the ground. It's like a pulse of radiant light. Oh, my God. Are you doing radiant or necrotic damage? Radiant, please. Interesting. So it's 10d.

Oh, it's constitution 17. They fail the save. Can you roll the thunder damage for me just as it is? Okey dokey. So I looked, it will catch all of the ones around Ayla except the one in front of her. Oh right, okay. But none of the ones in the sides. It's also going to spawn another pack.

Yeah, but I mean, how much are you getting rid of here? Five. So for the damage, 2. Yeah, but I mean, how much are you getting rid of here? Five. So, thunder damage. We'll find out. Two, four, six, ten, thirteen. Thirteen points of thunder damage, yeah. And then radiant. Well, that's better.

Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, nineteen. So, this is interesting. I need to do some maths. Hey, Siri. Siri. Divide 158 by 19. 158 divided by 19 is approximately... 8.3.

8.3. So, as you fire the shockwave, the thunder damage ripples through and the echo spreads through the forest sentry. And you see that the bones of these creatures vibrate, nearly breaking them apart, but not quite enough. As the radiant energy follows it, the dead root's flowers open.

What? And the divine energy is pulled into it or some of them it is gonna choose to take seven of the creatures radiant damage into itself so it takes seven times nineteen radiant damage Oh on itself but it will leave seven of them alive basically right and I didn to pick which ones, unfortunately. So is this like two pulses of energy, the thunder and then just the radiant wave upwards? Two ripples, yeah, that's cool.

Almost like a nuclear bomb sort of thing. Yeah. The blast and the shockwave. The shockwave, yeah. Cool. How blasted do these things get as well? Free blasted do these things get as well? Like, just... Nothing left?

A huge mass of things just surrounding her just get blasted away. Well, there goes my nasty turn. I was going to do Turn Undead. That's... Oh, that's... That's slightly there. I mean... You can still do it. Let's get nasty.

Within 30 feet, destroy Undead, and they auto-fail saves. Well, you can still do it. They're still low. They're still coming. I think we need to just focus down this death route, though. Yeah. Also, this was loud as hell. I haven't been able to, so...

Can you roll a d4 for me, please, Rian? This is going to be the last thing we do today. It's been surrounded, so we can get to it. I can... There it is. Two. It's always that phase they love this side the eastern side

alright I'll sort those out next week as yeah century your kind of blast ripples through and you watch as the dead root absorbs

some of the divine power into itself taking some of that damage leaving several of these other ones alive because it does also stop 10 points of damage to all of them um yeah it seems to so a lot a huge swathe of them

collapse uh bursting into things we can make saving throws i feel like we should just be like you guys get restrained but at this point i don't think it matters massively um yeah the dead root does look weak heavily weakened by that as it absorbs all of that damage in but on the sides you see more of these things coming you see more coming coming from the side and still no word from the scouts of how long you need to hold out for oh man and there's still seven surrounding us in the middle as well those ones that survived the wave yep and that is where we're gonna leave it this week and we'll pick this up. Not next week, but the week after.

We'll see you in two weeks' time. Take care. Bye-bye. We love you. Goodbye. Goodbye, buddy. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. I'm