High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #153 | Assault on Nightbloom Hold (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

Quill receives some new information thanks to the Storm Eye and the team make plans to assault Nightbloom Hold! 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 Erois. The champions were ambushed deep in the jungles of Jakesh, pursued by an endless horde of hive-mind undead. They were attempting to reach a place called Nightbloom Hold with the aid of a small specialist squad of Guardian Scouts. But their efforts to be stealthy were not enough, and the group were engaged by a mysterious figure the Guardians called the Stalker. Attacking from hidden positions, expertly camouflaged,

the Stalker evaded and frustrated the party. Slowly chipping away at them, already drained and tired from their previous battles, things did not seem to be going well until quill aided by the wayfinder's guide spotted the stalker and unleashed a powerful guiding bolt that then aided a blinded nova lucius hotshot and various others in unleashing a barrage of attacks on the foe revealing their position and allowing the melee fighters to engage the foe, revealing their position and allowing the melee fighters to engage. The stalker was revealed to be a wild elf called Cerise Fairwind, a knight of Killara, now transformed and cursed with a sickly, pestilent form. Despite some very close calls, and with some creative use of their

powers and items, the champions prevailed. Cerise was slain, but as her body decomposed, she assured them that she would return and they would begin this game all over again. Desperate for rest, the party sought out somewhere to hide and tried to gather their strength. Whilst the others were asleep or unaware, Aayla was informed by Hotshot and the Guardian Protector that Undead Hive were close to discovering them, and that the others would not get a chance to rest. Protector made the offer to sacrifice themselves to lead the Undead Hive were close to discovering them, and that the others would not get a chance to rest. Protector made the offer to sacrifice themselves to lead the Undead Hive away and giving the

champions time to regain their full strength. Aayla, unhappy but understanding of the situation, bid them good luck and promised them that they would find them to make sure they rejoined the Matrix later. After their rest, the champions, unaware of Protector's sacrifice save for Quill, began to prepare to head out. Quill used the prophetic power of the Eye of the Storm to learn more information about these knights sworn to Calara, and learnt of four key knight commanders. A furious orc warrior woman decked in smouldering black plate mail, a gaunt, hollowed ember elf covered in blackened ice,

Cerise, the wild elf that they had previously encountered. And finally, the commander of Nightbloom Hold, the greatest of Calara's champions. An older human man with grey hair, a skeletal arm, and a wicked scythe. And that, my friends, is where we pick up again today, this week. Quill's vision having been completed, with maybe some additional information since the last time we spoke, but you are making your way towards Nightbloom Hold led by Hotshot, who is now just Hotshot and Shade, I believe. You have no other Guardian

allies left. No, but the rest of them are helping all the other guardians leave, right? That is the hope. That is certainly the hope. Right. You had about two hours left of travel time to reach Nightbloom Hold with Protectors Sacrifice and with everything else. We aren't even aware of that. Nope. Quill is. Quill managed to figure out that something had happened

based on Ayla's response and things like that. But to keep Sentry's morale up. Yeah. Hotshot, Quill and Ayla have basically not said anything just yet, saying that Protector had gone on ahead and was hopefully going to meet you later. I will say, rather than because, you know, we have had a rough time of it and we want to move on,

your travels are unimpeded. We're not going to make any more stealth checks and survival checks. We're going to assume that with Protector's Sacrifice and also with Hotshot leading the way, you guys are going to be able to make it to your destination after about two hours of travel. Okay. But if there's anything you want to do en route,

anything that obviously will give your position away might ruin that. Yeah. But if there's anything you want to talk about, make plans of, use spells, cast do stuff, now is the right time to do so. I mean, we were talking about me using the Eye of the Storm, so it makes sense I now come out of that and then explain to everyone what I've seen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Alongside all the new stuff. Four. Sorry? Grief Knights. Yes, four. Four. Sorry? Yes, four. Four of them. I just saw what they were and what they are now completely changed

from their original appearance. They all seem to fight with reckless abandon, with no care at all for their own safety. I saw one of them die just to be reborn maybe half a day later. So that's about as long as we have with Cerise, I think, before she returns, or they return.

But yeah, I saw how Cerise fights. I think we know that pretty well by now. But I saw the others as well. One able to summon brutal maces to smash into their foes and disorient them. Curved swords to rip and tear at armour. Jagged spears to pierce and leave lasting wounds on their opponents. This one, I believe, to be the Knight of War. The half-orc, yes.

The half-orc, yeah. But yes, he's able to summon weapons. But if you attack him... The orc was a woman, by the way. Oh, attack her then, okay. If you attack her and you're not able to land a blow, she might be able to damage your weapon or completely break it.

I saw knights charging in only to have their weapons shattered. They spread an aura of rage to everything around them, the undead horde that's following them, just enraging everything around them, the undead horde that's following them, just enraging everything around them, making them stronger, more brutal. And they also summoned four ghostly hounds and was able to plunge her spear into the ground to summon a pillar of fire. So that's one of four. After that I saw one that is able to wither and decay and weaken. Yes, I'm worried personally about this one, the Ember Elf, right?

Yes. The Knight of Famine, I believe, that has a whip of ice and bone that the moment you're hit by it, you are weakened and your muscles shrink and you just become slow, feeble. It sounds like pure necromancy spells, however more cold spells as well. And potentially, did you say the ability to drain spells from others?

Yes, yes. I'm only now saying this now, but yes. I've got it written down from last week. Yeah, don't forget this, because you guys were listening to me explain. This is the first time Quill has revealed, because don't forget, Quill's the only one who's seen this so far.

All right. I'll get info now from you. The stuff that I said last time, that was for Quill. Obviously, for the audience's benefit, you guys obviously made notes. Quill has maybe a bit more information. Yeah, I've got some extra stuff that was told to me as well. But yes, this one is a spellcaster as well. Walls of ice, teleports, slow, insect swarms.

A mage attempted to banish them, but then just had the magic completely drain from them instead. That's my worry, the draining part. Yeah, I don't know how we're gonna counter it. Well, it's probably best if us mellow fighters went ahead for this one and you held back,

but then I feel like you both would be more effective on the war orc. Yes, you're not right, but that's only two. But again, if you get close to this one, withering and weakness surrounds them, so... I'm not very strong anyway. Fair enough. But they will be physically less armoured than the war half-orc. Yes, they were a little bit,

yeah, from, again, Quill, like, I maybe didn't put this in your notes, the orc wore full black plate mail. Okay. The ember elf had, like,

breastplate, so still armoured, but not maybe as heavily. Well, the last I saw of this famine night is they covered themselves in ice armor, not too dissimilar to yours.

And then their mouth just opened wider and wider and wider beyond any human potential. No. That's the last I saw of it. Nope. No, I hate that.

Y'all seen that scene in The Mummy where Imhotep unhinges the jaw yeah that that one was going to pass out in cinema i was very scared of that yeah that was that's good it was the beetle going under the skin for me that was right that was horrible anyway that's that's the the image that quill saw is that kind of like distended kind of like i hate that can we just have a moment of respect for Brendan Fraser? I know he's not dead, but I just want to, like, recognise he's amazing. Yeah, sure.

Finally, I saw the leader, I believe, of the entire group, the Knight of Death, when he was, I suppose, betraying any military that was fighting against him, they were pleading with him, betraying any military that was fighting against him. They were pleading with him, almost begging for mercy from a Sir Godric. I think this is who he was, Sir Godric, but he is clad in chain mail.

He has a giant scythe, a huge scythe, and they are always accompanied by an undead horde and seem to be strengthened in his presence. So I don't know how we're gonna deal with that specifically on its own, but yeah, if there's undead around him, they are bolstered by his presence. Brilliant. Well, his are bolstered by his presence. Brilliant.

Well, his undead steed, I should probably mention. His bone horse, I guess. Bone horse, okay. He's able to, wait, no, this is later in my notes. There was a steed as well, yeah. They were just mounted, like their horse was a skeletal horse. He yeah. They were just mounted like their horse was a skeletal horse.

Yeah, he's able to command the undead to charge forward and explode. Oh! He can command the hive. Yes, and also the shattered bones are then able to restrain cage people, as well as armoring himself as well. He can call the bones back to himself for armor.

The scythe was crackling with necrotic energy. Every time he struck his foes, he seemed to be empowered by it, almost, I suppose, maybe healing himself. Stealing the life essence. Yeah. He has a skeletal hand. When he touches anyone living with that hand,

it left the wounds festering and unable to be healed magically. That sounds familiar. I never touched anyone with my hand, thank you very much. Yes, but you got with it, though. Yeah, but I didn't think that it would leave festering wounds on people. No, but we know how bad that can look and be. Yeah, so it's that, but more...

Gross? More dead, more gross, more drainy, more evil looking. And he seems to have better control over it. No offence. I didn't want control over it. Well, I did, obviously, not to do evil things, but, you know, it's not a thing I wanted. I did it to save your life.

Well, he wants it. I'm certain he wants it. Oh, he wants to save our life, yes. But even though it seems like this one would be more of a melee fighter, he also casts spells. Oh, good. Okay. Able to conjure areas of silence, raise the dead,

send waves of deathly necrotic energy, as well as dispelling magical effects as well. So, again, we're going to be in trouble there in silence two, yeah. And I saw a group of militia surround him and he was completely unperturbed by this. He just levitated in the air and swung his scythe in two pendulous motions and it eliminated everything around him.

Killing without just cause or mercy. It was such power, too. Disgraceful. Did any of these four seem particularly up for a chat? No. I was going to say this. Parley? This vision you had, there was two sides to it.

You saw the humanity in them. Yes, there was two sides to it. You did say that at the start. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You saw two versions of them. Yeah, Quill saw who they were before and who they are now i wonder if that's hespa trying to say something to you that there is something there of them still i mean this this final one everyone was begging and pleading with him maybe and got no response maybe this leader in life was also a monster, but the others...

I saw them leading groups of infantry. He seemed respected, loved, and he cared for the people that he was leading. Clearly a champion of Calara, like, was fighting against undead. When they were alive, like, before this whatever happened, they were basically like, you know, mega a paladin of galara like a genuinely like you know holy good warrior like trying to stop undead trying to stop cultists you know trying to stop anybody like murderers and like you know tyrants and stuff like that like a genuine hero i think even if even if the people that served him and he served so kindly before, he was taking their life with the scythe and turning them into undead

and using them as, well, explosive. He might just be as controlled as Cerise was. What brief words she spoke to us through Tinker, she didn't particularly seem happy to be doing what she's doing, only that she has to. Exactly, but they did it nonetheless. It's like as if they're compelled, as if they have no choice but to. If we can remove that choice from them,

if we can appeal to their humanity, if we cut off what commands them. I think Ayla would say, she said something, like, she said something to me, like, that she didn't know, I asked her why, and she said she didn't know how, a way to free her. Like, she didn't seem to, I think you're right, but she didn't know a way to free her.

I'm sure she wouldn't be told. It's probably from Calara herself. I mean, when we talked to Scaldi, she said that grief and sorrow is all she knows now, as if Calara's aura is tainted. I don't think this is something we can talk our way through. This is a corruption from Calara. Yes, there is no way to get to Calara

without these four grief knights defending her at every step, so. If any of you want to make skill checks and things to get more information or ask questions, by all means, feel free to as well. Don't feel like you just have to make guesses. You can always be like, can I make a check to see if I know about this

or I've heard about something like this before? So Godric is the only new information, really? Well, I well i mean yeah but there's also like you now have a bit more information and like once you guys start thinking about theories like you know if nova thinks like oh you know maybe this is directly coming from cholera maybe there's no way to frame you can make a check to see if like can you think of anything that might free you on that or like yeah if you want like a history check to know about sir godric like who he was i was going to do a history check for cerise sir godric i think that's the only names that we've got yeah that's the only name she got so far yeah i'll do the same sure 23 23 no good seven all right so lucius

probably i imagine that this might come from when lucius was you know had dreams of being a you know sky jouster and like reading stories about knights and and heroes and people of the lowlands and kind of like learning about Nanny Norfyr would have known a lot of stuff um Sir Godric is a name you remember Cerise you don't know um but Sir Godric is a name Sir Godric Graves the knight commander of the Order of the Black and Rose. This is the highest champion of Killara. This is a hero who has put down necromancers who have tried to revolt and rise up armies, you know, to take over places in Aroas. This is a hero who has helped prevent, you know, planar forces from making their way in. Even with the cradle in place, you know,

there are always still things like the archways and ways that people have found, you know, as you guys have experienced, people have found ways around sort of the cradle or from, you know, creating and summoning creatures and things like that. So Godric has numerous stories. This is, you know, it's like hearing about Lancelot.

You know, this is a, you know, he's a much older human. He must have been in his sort of like late 60s now, but yeah, you know, a few decades ago, he was a hero of Eros. And the Order of the Black and Rose basically was created by, you know, his forebears. Like he was raised up through its ranks and sort of, he was kind of yeah

built to become its commander um sort of raised to become its commander um dedicated to kalara um very pious uh known as a very sort of serious and stoic but friendly man um a real kind of classic knight if you want to imagine it, you know. Would have been older now. Yeah. And did ultimately the antithesis of what he's doing now. Absolutely, yeah. Calara herself is the antithesis of what he's doing now. The idea of somebody like Ser Godric commanding

undead and killing innocent people is unthinkable. You know, this was a man who has put down undead legions, who has fought against necromancers, who sought to preserve life wherever he could. And where people did die, make sure that they were properly cared for and respected

and sent on their path to Calara. I relay this information to the team so I don't repeat the whole thing. Yeah. It's also me, like, rambling as i'm figuring stuff out in my head so yeah but i i i would love to think that we could uh restore some essence of humanity to these people um but i i if if even the loyal servants don't do that for them um i don't know what we can do. All I know is that individually, we might be able to fight them.

But the more of them that group up, the only option really is to run. They are an order. Yeah. They will work together. Well, Cerise wasn't really working together. You're right, but I imagine if Calara wants to protect herself and what she's doing here... I'd also say don't, you know, Quill saying that, that's Quill's opinion.

Yeah. Like, you know, Quill thinks that, yeah, like, you know, to run might be the option, but that doesn't mean that, you know... Could I make a religion check to see kind of like this idea of the aura and its influence over her night yeah yeah absolutely yeah yeah absolutely 14. 14 um i mean there is clearly you know and i think that this is you don't need a check to know this but yeah there's clearly this is obviously kalara's grief and sorrow and madness in a way not in a sense that is like a detriment thing but like a you know she's clearly been changed and warped by this these feelings and thoughts i mean yes the you're a goddess having such a radical change would normally have a great effect and you've seen

that with with scaldi and many of the other priests. What's happened with these knights though, I mean, it's more than that. It's more than just Calara being corrupted. Like to turn somebody, like having heard what Lucius said about Ser Godric, to turn him into whatever he is now would be an act of will of Calara's. And there are other grief knights, like you've heard about like black clad knights and things like that, but they don't sound like they're anywhere close to this level of power. She has picked these four for some reason. And she's given them, and I'd say that with the 14 and Nova's general sort of intelligence and sort of understanding, I mean, it's very obvious that like, yeah, there's a war knight, a knight of war, a knight of pestilence, a knight of famine and a knight of death.

You know, historically, and you know, even in a rowist, I know obviously we have a war knight, a knight of war, a knight of pestilence, a knight of famine, and a knight of death. You know, historically, and even in a rowist, I know obviously we have a biblical connection, but even here, they are aspects of death. And she has infused these aspects of spreading death into these four champions. Why these four? I guess that that's maybe, it's not so much an answer, but maybe, Nova, that is like a question that comes to your mind.

Like, why wouldn't she give powers like this to all of them? Like, the Order of the Black and Rose, there are more knights than just those four. There are many, many knights, but she's picked those four particularly and imbued them with a much more powerful power, much greater power than it seems the rest. This is pure speculation, but I wonder if these four had qualities that match what they are now.

You know, perhaps the stalker, they're the representation of plague. Did they have some sort of illness that plagued them in life? Were they, you know, diseased by something? I don't know. Ayla will sort of go, she said, she called herself a coward. I called her a coward and she agreed. She said, yes, I am a coward. There was something, it was like, there was something with that, I feel like. Maybe not like she was diseased, she didn't, i don't think she was diseased or plagued but she she specifically when

i called her a coward it it mattered i don't know why but like by guilt perhaps maybe there was something she did oh i just remember her saying that and if this sirric, he's a hero, but you have to kill a lot of people to get that status, surely. I mean, if we think about our death count, perhaps not too hard, but I imagine being Order of the Black and Rose, going out fighting the undead, he is very experienced with death. The undead, killing, clearing the battlefield of foes. the undead, killing, clearing the battlefield of foes. The half-orc, maybe there's something about rage, about war. Maybe these four people have qualities, virtues,

that are enhanced and make them these knights of the apocalypse, that make them this virtue, famine pestilence death personified possibly will be but I don't know if that's exploitable in any way as a means to turn them away for a time. Was there something about a celestial as well? In the temple? Is that one of them? Or is this Sir Godric the celestial? I'm guessing.

I didn't see anything. The vision, you don't have any spells active during it, so there's no way he looked human, just apart from the skeletal hand. Obviously, he looked gaunt and sort of like blackened eyes and sort of like black veins. He looked, you know, if I say World of Warcraft Death Knight, you get an idea of what I'm kind of going with.

Less blue glow, more sort of like black necrotic energy, but definitely that kind of vibe. Didn't look like no angel wings, no divine light coming off them or anything like that from what you saw. The war knight had fire, maybe? Well, the knight of death did have a pillar of light they were able to summon that completely knocked out anyone in its path. And then they charged through on their steed and yeah. Brilliant. Hotshot, you were with the scouting party originally. You were the one who came...

We found the hold, yeah. But you were the one who came back and told us about the knight and a celestial. Was the celestial separate to these four? Stave did. Hotshot were kind of like crick and neck. Stave did. I'm not a mage.

I don't really know much about magic. I'm a sharpshooter. I just happen to know my way around sneaking around places. But yeah, we brought Stave with us. Once we located the hold, I brought in Stave, Dowser, and a couple of the other mages that we had with us and had them start scanning and casting spells and ritual magic to try and determine what was going on here.

And Stave, it's not a spell per se, but he has rituals that he can perform which allow him to sort of analyze areas. That's why we brought him. He's unique in that, sort of has access to unique abilities. And they said that they could detect the presence of a Celestial in the hold itself. It never moved.

The Celestial never left. Myself and the other scouts, we did keep an eye on. And I said, we've seen the Orc, the one in the big fiery armor. We've seen them come and go. We've also seen a lot more of the, I guess, maybe we could call them lesser knights, still wearing black armor with greatswords, look very much like Killara's old paladins. They come and go. We don't know how or why, but they'll disappear for days at an end, and then we see them again.

The main grounds, as we get closer, we can show you, but the main grounds, when we were investigating it, before the undead really started showing up, mainly attended to by friars and squires. It looked like trainees and monks that lived in the hold itself. The grounds are pretty expansive the keep itself the hold is on a small hill with a small moat around it and there's a very large tree that grows out of the at the back of the fort massive thing colossal ancient like similar to the rothaerts that we've encountered I think it might even probably be one itself,

probably the Rotheart, the one that the others all came from. That's a pure speculation on my part. We've not been back since the undead really grew in numbers, but given how much darker it is towards the hold, given the nature of these Rothearts from what I've seen, I would suspect that that being so close to the hold must be one, if not the one, the first one.

The one that if we were to get rid of it, might hopefully remove the grip of corruption on the land at least. Well, the other, the Rotheart that we destroyed, it was smaller than that one. But when we destroyed it, it completely disrupts the undead in the area, the hive creatures that we encountered. I don't it completely disrupts the undead in the area the hive creatures

that we encountered i don't know about other in other types of undead but those hive undead it disrupts them sends them running they no longer are coordinated they just panic and flee no longer a combat threat it kills things like the dead roots those big plant creatures they just rot and die as soon as the Rot Heart is destroyed. But also, I mean, you've been aware of it, right? This kind of malign presence, this kind of aura of sadness. When we destroy the Rot Hearts, it alleviates, at least temporarily. We think that Kalara can grow more of them, but it takes time.

But destroying them isn't easy. I'll tell you this now. Tinker had to rig a magical explosive using some powerful Ethereum charges we brought. We don't have Tinker, and we don't have those charges left. The Rot Heart, you can't destroy it from the outside. Even with your most powerful spells, I don't think you'd be able to actually destroy it. We had to do it from the outside.

Maybe the Storm Chaser's cannons could. They're powerful enough. If they strike a target like that, that's what they're designed to do, to destroy bigger objects and targets. The Stormchaser's cannons might be able to take it down, but the Stormchaser would need to be able to see it, and it might take some time. This is what I, I've sent a message to Araya and that the next command that they receive from me will be a signal flare that hopefully should penetrate the gloom and will be targeted at something important that needs blasting. There might be another way to destroy the Rot Heart

as well, but I would need to get inside it. And if it's at the fort then it's gonna be difficult yeah well protected by the sounds of it but if for example depending we don't know what how I don't know what you want to do about the keep when you get there you can start to make a plan and we can drop some maps but chances are if you're engaging their forces they're gonna drive all their attention on you. And then Shade and I myself can probably sneak in

and get to the Rothart. Infiltrate. Let's put him to two units. Quill. Yes. As Hotshot is saying this, again, it's very hard to read Guardians. Whatever her plan is to destroy the Rothart,

you don't think she's going to come back from it. There is like the way that she's speaking and like the way that she's trying to keep it professional, but like she just pauses like, yeah, I can take care of it. And like, there's just ways that she's phrasing things and like having seen how she responded to like other matters, there's almost a guilt there.

And she almost like, you get the sense that it's basically a suicide mission for her well anyway we need to keep moving I don't think we're going to make it all the way with all these guardians for some reason we're about an hour from the lookout point and then you'll be able to give us a vantage point on the valley where the hold is

hopefully when we catch up with Protector, they'll have some more recent information about the area. May take them some time. Don't forget they've got to deal with this jungle on their own. That's true. We may have to operate on the idea that Protector won't join us in time. I hope they'll be okay.

Guardians do what do guardians have to do. We have a duty to perform. All right. Aayla's just like, right? Protect a straw. I'm sure they're okay. We are against the clock in terms of Cerise returning. Currently one champion grief knight down.

We should capitalize on this. Maybe for another four hours. Well, you had an eight-hour rest. Yeah. It took you an hour to find the place where you rested, so you're at nine hours. And it was about two hours of travel, so if you reach the hold, it'll be about 11 hours.

And as I said, it was 12 to 18 hours it took for them to come back. Oh, hey, BT Durbs, that final night has never been killed before. What do you mean, in terms of like we did with Cerise? Yeah, I mean, I saw the other ones getting defeated by just exhaustion, being overwhelmed, no care, like I said, for how they fight or the damage that they sustain, but this one just kept fighting.

I never saw it fall once. I don't think he's ever been defeated before. So maybe we have to get to the point where we go to Kalara's realm and... just breach that. Yeah, get to her before they get to us. Yep, and hopefully they don't follow us in, I suppose. True. I don't know how, I don't know how this, what your plan is to get to Calara when you're

there. I know that, is it the Valar? Yes. She might have more information on how that works, I don't know. So you may want to check in with them and make sure that if whatever plan you come up with, like just consult with them to make sure it's going to work i feel that that vision that you've had needs to be relayed to vala she might be able to glean some more information could you relay it as best you can or you as well century over the messenger well lucius i don't know if you took notes but you remember that they did say that vala has a way of like, at least having like a minute of conversation

with the group. Okay. I think she has a way of like, basically establishing like a minute of conversation. Tell them on the ship to establish that. Yeah. And you can always like messenger ring and basically, we're not gonna role play out,

but you can messenger ring and be like, all right, Quill said this, this, this, and this, and this, you know, to Oriah, Oriah then can relay it. And then when you start that minute conversation, you're at least all on the same page i've got 25 words at a time like yeah yeah yeah the messenger rings and also well also sending won't work here quill the messenger rings work you don't 100 know why but the sending spells scrying spells don't communicate out of the valley the messenger rings do for some reason i will messenger ring to say to Oriah, please, we would like to establish

that minute-long communication with Valor. And I'm going to prep Quill for that time that we have. All right. Do you want to do that before you arrive at this vantage point and before you see the hold, or do you want to wait until, like... I think we'd do it at the vantage point. Okay.

Give her, like, a description of what we're seeing. Sure. When we're there. Yeah, absolutely. All right, well. Is that good with everyone? Yeah. Yeah. Rather than now?

Okay, so. We may have to be looking at the whole thing. I'm gonna send something to all of your iPads. I'm not gonna show the audience because it's a very crappily hand-drawn map, but it is a very rough sort of overview of the terrain of which the mount is. But I'll read it out and describe it for the audience.

So, Hotshot leads you to a, I think I said it to everyone, did you Kim? Yeah. Okay. I think I said it to everyone. Hotshot leads you to basically, yeah, like a little cliff that looks down onto a sudden drop into an even deeper part of the valley. And you are now at the heart of it.

There's a couple of main things that you note right away. This area is nearly pitch black. And it is only through, like with dark vision, you really can't make out more than vague shapes. But Hotshot is describing it to you as she sort of lays it down and is maybe drawing a rough map in the ground and things like that but it is penumbral black it is it is dark here uh what once would have been a sort of beautiful monastery almost like a fortress monastery behind keep walls on a small hill has been transformed.

What you see is, I'm trying to think about how best to describe it, evil. Laying out before you is well-tended patches of land, almost like gardens mixed with graveyards and mortuaries. There are statues, mausoleums, gravestones, all amongst vegetable patches, flower beds, iron fences kind of shroud different areas, creating gardens all along different dirt paths. different dirt paths. These paths all lead towards a small hill with a large moat around it. The hill has a stone keep with a portcullis and a drawbridge which is currently up. Beyond the walls you can't see any real detail but Lookout will describe it that there is at three buildings, or two buildings and one sort of attached building. There appeared to be some sort of barracks,

maybe used for trainees and recruits, and then the keep itself. At the back of the keep, an enormous tree grows, hundreds of feet tall, almost similar to the trees you saw in the Feywild. It's so colossal and ancient. And its branches stretch out and cover this entire garden valley with its canopy, completely sheltering it from the light. Particles drift down from that tree, almost like pollen or petals. They drift down and those petals suck in light, which is what's creating this darkness here. The petals are actually absorbing most light around, which makes it utterly black.

It's like looking into an inky black void, with the exception of those of you with very high perception skills or things like dark vision or magical sight. Hotshot will point out I can see a little bit further in this darkness there's a lot of those hive undead here. When we were here those gardens that you can just about vaguely see the little fenced areas and the patches off the pathways they were attended to by squires and friars it's all hive undead now there's maybe i don't know anywhere between 50 and 100 spread across their various gardens there's a couple of those big dead roots i can see moving around down there too uh i can see i think figures on the. Looks like sentries, people with bows.

Looks like there may be a couple of ballista on the fort itself as well. That's the Rothart, and she points at the tree. That's the thing which is creating a lot of the problems here. Stave said that the Celestial Presence is somewhere in the main keep, the main building. That's about as much intel as we have, unfortunately. This is good intel. Something to work with. Can everybody make a straight up wisdom check. Sentry have an advantage because of your military background.

Okay. Just straight wisdom, just d20 plus your wisdom modifier. Six. Six. Nat 20. Oh, come on, 23. 23. 14 minus one.

14, so 13. I don't actually have any dice to roll for Ayla, so can someone roll for Aayla as well? Yeah. Tom, can you? With a natural 20 and 23, you guys are definitely going to get in. 10 for Aayla? 10 for Aayla.

Quill and Sentry, maybe Quill more like looking at the structure of the building itself rather than sort of any sort of like tactical knowledge or anything like that. Sentry, I mean, you don't build a keep like this because there's no escape.

From what you can look at, there is one way in, which is the main portcullis and the drawbridge over the moat. The moat's like 25 foot wide and it's fairly deep as well. You don't make something like this without an alternative exit. There has to be a hidden entrance or exit somewhere that connects into the keep.

You just don't know where it is um Quill looking at it there it is you don't see no you don't see it but you kind of come up with the same thing like analyzing it you'd be like this would be anybody who any like non-warriors would be trapped inside so there has to be an alternative way in and out it can't be in the connected to the keep itself you don't think unless it goes deep underground it would probably be connected to the keep itself, you don't think, unless it goes deep underground, it would probably be connected to one of the outer walls. It would probably just be like a way to get in and out of the actual inner walls, basically. Okay.

And connect down into the moat or something like that. The giant tree, can we see from where we are, is it almost growing through, like the keep is surrounding that tree? The part of the keep has been built around it, yes. And then there is almost like a temple-like structure in front of it, still connected to all the walls. So on the little map I drew,

you can see that it's kind of growing up out the back entrance of the keep, but there is like a building in front of it, and that's the main keep temple. Okay, cool. So there is like a part around the back that is the tree trunk? It's all walled. Okay, cool. So there is like a part around the back that is the tree trunk. It's all walled. Okay, yeah. So there is the walls, I will tell you, are...

The walls are about 20 feet high. The moat is about 25 feet across. So, you know, it's built for a ground assault here. However, with that giant tree overhead and the canopy and the darkness, yeah, any sort of air support here would be very difficult. Like, anybody, any airships wouldn't be able to look in, as it is all completely dark currently,

without any sort of, you know, light source. But also, anybody who was trying to, like, apparently, you know, kind of, like, magically parachute in or anything like that, you'd be jumping into somewhere blind. You might end up in a patch of those undead and they'd just be on you in a second. I'd say as well, Quill, Hotshot's estimate of the numbers, you count about 72 of the hive undead in 12 packs of six.

All scattered around the gardens around the keep itself. Wow. or scattered around the gardens around the keep itself. Wow. Okay. Is there any particular area that is more infested than others? Or is it just... I mean, the main front is where the bulk of those are, but there are still enough undead around the sides. At best, if you were to strategically pick a point

to try and climb over the walls, or like get through the, you know, sorry, to approach the keep itself, even if you kind of stuck to the woodlands and then came to the side, you'd be looking at dealing with at least two or three of the packs at any one time. And all the sentries on the wall, are they undead?

You're not sure. Hotshot will say, I think those are the squires we saw before, and they looked living. I mean, are the squires we saw before and they looked living. I mean, they looked haunted when we saw them gone. You know, eyes look like they haven't slept. They look like they hadn't slept. They didn't look like they've been eating properly,

but they looked living. I mean, I don't know who that is, but sure. Yeah, I'll just mention that to the group. Yeah, so yeah, Hotshot will say that they looked living. Same with the monks when we saw them, the friars. Robes, again, looked like they were alive. They didn't look like the skeletal hive undead with the plants and stuff growing out of them. Still, this close to Calara, I'm sure the impression she has on them is quite strong and potent.

I imagine that they'll be aligned the same as the knights, right? They have to be either coerced to fight or magically coerced to fight. Or extremely downtrodden. Yeah, one of the two. And like I said, there might be more of those lesser knights, if you wanna call them that, the standard sort of just black armored wearing knights

as well in there. I don't, I wish I could tell you numbers wise. numbers wise squires we maybe counted anywhere between 15 and 20 of them um at one time kind of walking around the grounds the friars maybe about 10 to 15. so not many and i don't think that they would pose much of a challenge to you champions i think they'd be kind of on the same lines as the hive undead um the other knights definitely they're strong enough that my scouts avoided them. Like, if we engage them, they were able to do some serious damage to us. Again, probably easy for you to take, but definitely a risk. All right.

Should we establish a communication with Valor and update her on as much as we can? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I guess we'll just be describing everything there. So what happens is when you send the message and say, right, yeah, tell Valor to do what she's going to do, it takes maybe a minute or so, and then you feel the space around you shift.

Not like you've been teleported, but suddenly the area you're in there's a bit more sort of ambient light not enough to illuminate where you are but almost as if you were next to a room and the door had been opened wide enough to allow just a little bit of light to come in um and you also hear the sound of rushing wind you can hear the wolf pack like in the distance and you hear you don't see anything but it's almost like uh there's almost like a slice of space next to you and you feel fresh air you feel like wind blowing in um and you hear vala's voice distant but she says hello is this working can you can you hear Valor's voice distant, but she says, Hello? Is this working? Can you hear me? Yes, it seems to be working perfectly.

Okay, I don't think I can... I think I can maybe keep this going for five minutes at most, but not for very long. But I've sort of connected our spaces together at least a little. Amazing. I need to learn how to do this. I think I might be able to make it into a spell i could teach you nova but it's well let's focus shall we yes let's keep the five minutes um okay cool go go go go go okay i describe everything that's in front of me yeah

to do that yeah and at the end of it we're like it's like a minute to do yeah if you have any information to impart to us how we can reach Calara. Well, I can sense even this close. I'm pretty sure we've followed you on the storm chaser. We're a little bit far away at the moment. We're not sure if they can see us. We can't see anything, but we're pretty close to the center of the darkness.

I know that the breach point is down there. I can sense Calara's presence. I think it's probably directly in whatever fortress or whatever hole that they point is down there. I can sense Clara's presence. I think it's probably directly in whatever fortress or whatever hole that they've got down there. It's probably there. In terms of the breach point, it won't take me long to take us through to her demiplane, but if there's anything to distract me,

even a minor injury will knock me out of it, and it'll take me a while to start the whole process again. So I need to be completely clear and have plenty of time to open the breach. The only thing is, from what you've told me and about these knights, I don't know if there's a way to save them, but Kalara, this isn't like her.

Like, this is... She is far gone. And I can't imagine that these people, if they've worshipped her, if they've devoted themselves to her, if they've sworn oaths to her, then they can't want this either. And my heart breaks for them.

I wish I knew a way that we could save them. Because this is horrible. The idea of being her champions, the people that held up her ideals and turned into this. It must be torturous for them. Now, I know it takes a great deal of power to do what you did for me, to reverse time and restore me to what I was. Is there anything like that for them? I could do the same thing, but, I mean, it wipes me out for at least a day at least. Right. And I think I've got the control on it where I could control it better now.

And also, I mean, they have to, you know, it took me, what, 10, 20 minutes to do the ritual on you. Unless they were unconscious or unless they were restrained in some way, I mean, they would be trying to free themselves, I imagine. Right. But I mean, I could. I think I could do that. But you would need to capture them and restrain them long enough for me to be able to perform the, not spell, but use my powers, I guess. And this would also delay us entering her well yes

yeah every time i try it that's at least a day maybe longer to replenish my my strength to enter the breach point um but it is a possibility if we can at least capture or hold sir Godric, the leader, and reverse him back to what he was, that would be quite a formidable ally against the others at least. It's very risky. It's very powerful. I think if anyone would be able to call the others to his aid, it would be Sir Godric. You hear Max's voice. Champions, forgive me for interrupting. It is also, having listened in to everything that you have said, it is... If I were to be...

From what I have understood, your conversation with Skaldi Ravenskir... Ravenskar? There must be some element of Calara's teachings that there will be at play here. I'm almost convinced that some part of these individuals' powers, or perhaps Calara's demiplane itself, definitely think back to what you've been told about Calara and her domains, her ideals, the teachings of her priests. There must be a clue in there somewhere. her domains, her ideals, the teachings of her priests, there must be a clue in there somewhere. A being like Calara, a Titan, they cannot just change their nature.

They are not a living person. They are not sentient in the same way that we all are. They are what they are. And so there must be elements of those teachings that we can use against them. Myself and Lady Valar, if you need us to enter this keep, I'm here to help. I have a little knowledge of sieging bastions and the like, but also Lady Valar's powers. You've witnessed them in the forge itself. She can be a great ally in combat, and I'm capable of protecting her if you need us.

We will definitely need you at some point anyway to enter Clara's realm, so. If you need us before then to actually fight against these grief knights or to simply enter the keep, we can teleport down to you. Miss Valor does believe that she can reach you, so. Should we have them now, considering that we are down tinker i think we

should more area right yes but remember the more of us there are the harder it will be to sneak in if that's the approach you want to take it's also yeah i mean like max is saying he can protect valor and everything else but like don't really know quill's seen their powers like they can hit wide areas of effect like they might hit like hit, like, they might cause Valor serious harm. You know, she's still, she does have all these divine powers, but when she has taken damage, she's nowhere near as durable as you guys. Like, she can get hurt badly.

Maybe she can't be killed, but she can be hurt. And maybe, like, lose arms or, you know, have serious injuries and stuff so same with max obviously max is a trained fighter but he can still get killed he can he's mortal so is there any way you can send down just max for a time uh yes i i could send max down yes i wonder if that would be the best way i'm'm not sure I... I suppose Lady Valor would be safe enough on the Stormchaser. You hear him sort of like... Doesn't like the idea of leaving Valor on her own, but...

It's more a case of you, Max, helping us carve a path and a safe entry point for Valor to enter, rather than you leaving her. No, I understand, and I do trust the crew of the Stormchaser to protect her. The crew of the Stormchaser, Miss Ariah wishes, and Kamara wish to state that if you need them, the crew is there to provide assistance as well. My previous message still stands. If you see a huge flare of light, that is the target point for everything the Stormchaser has.

Understood. Well, that still stands. But also, if you need ground forces, there are a number of wolfpack who aren't needed to operate the ship. They can dispatch a squadron. Kamara can come down with a squadron of the wolfpack. Maybe we should have colour-coordinated flares.

Well, that will require Miss Valor's teleportation. That will be centred on you. Who is it that gave an item, one of the items to Valor? It teleportation. It will be centered on you. Who is it that gave, like, an item, one of the items to Valor? It was you. So it is centered on you, Captain. Valor's teleportation is honed in to you directly. So myself or anybody that Valor teleports will be arriving next to you.

How many can you teleport, Valor? I can send a squadron. So up to, with Max, I can send six of the wolf pack plus Kamara, which will basically give you guys, they won't be minions, but it's basically like having a minion pack on your side where they'll all activate together and they basically have a similar, like they do damage depending on how many of them there are

or you can use them to do distractions and stuff like that. They're not quite as weak as minions, but they are. Ooh, a distraction. Get them to lure the horde away. Mmm. Mmm! To their deaths. Well, you don't know that.

Do you say that as sentry, by the way? Because Shade will say, like, yes, I can also assist with that. I am very good at hiding, and I'm not going to be much use in a straight fight, but I can try and sneak in, perhaps take care of some of the sentries, or I can try and make, take care of, try and lure some of these undead away. I believe, personally, I know we've got limited time with you, Valor,

we try and enter this keep stealthily. We try and get in here. The ability to teleport would be more beneficial to have a squadron and Valor appear inside the keep already rather than having to breach it again. We infiltrate and then allow the pack to defend us or cause a distraction whilst in the keep. Yeah, that makes sense. So wait, are we bringing Max now or later?

Well, that's up to Max. If you need me, I will come. We need to make sure we don't trap ourselves. We need to keep ourselves in a fairly open area. Just in case if the Horde come to us and we have nowhere to run. Just remember that whilst you are down there, Lady Valor can teleport things in. We cannot teleport out.

Not until the breach point, not until the demiplane is cleared. From here on, it's all dangerous anyway. It looks like at the front of that keep, there is an open courtyard area that's still walled in, but it's the biggest area we have in terms of keeping distance from things. I shall say, don't forget about destroying the Rothart. That would not only disrupt all of the undead in the area, but it may have other effects we don't know. It might even clear up some of this gloom.

But to do that, we either need somebody basically on top of it with a signal light or i need to get inside it which i can do if there's a distraction all right maybe that's our first play destroy the rock heart give us a better fighting chance maybe that would call everything in to the keep uh but and maybe there's a chance this Rothard is also controlling the champions of the Grief Knights. Maybe. Maybe. We've got no idea.

But maybe that's worth it. If you want that to be the plan, you're going to need to go in and fight one of these knights. You're going to need... Well, at least they need to know it's you. They need to have a big enough distraction that they're not checking for anyone sneaking around. All right, so...

This isn't something that I think that your wolf pack or even shade can accomplish. Like, you want a distraction for me to get all the way inside to that tree? It needs to be you champions calling out whoever's inside to some degree. Drawing them out. Or at least having a ruckus somewhere.

All right. We're good at ruckuses. Yes, we're not very quiet. We've established that in the jungle. Not incredibly subtle, no. Not really. Are you going to replace your plan? I do worry about you infiltrating,

considering our experience in the jungle. I think that it's very risky that we'll be caught and then we'll be very quickly overwhelmed. My worries they're also smart and that they Immediately see through our ruse to draw them out of the keep if we're on the other side of the moat even so even It's more that I think that if they're if they think that you're up to something I think it will still give me enough time to get inside and do what I need to do. Maybe I could use Alnissix to distract some of the horde.

I know Alnissix is fast to some degree. They could buy us a little bit of time. Absolutely. Can help us get over the moat at least. Mm, could fly you over. See the thing is the drawbridge is currently up and there's this 25 foot moat and then a 20-foot hide wall. Obviously, a lot of you guys can fly, so that's

not an issue, but just keep in mind that to get in the keep, unless you've got other abilities and stuff, everyone can fly. Yeah, I mean, you can do that. You can cast fly so that everyone can fly. It's not a huge problem, it's just something to be aware of. Are there ballista?

There were two ballista, yes, on the front of the keep, basically. Yeah. OK. So it's either we find a way to raise the portcullis, or lower it, sorry. Yeah. Lower the drawbridge, raise the portcullis. Yes.

That's it. That's the one. I can get us through the wall as long as we can get over the moat. Oh, yeah. You did that in the fey world right yeah tiangong can cut through it uh we just need to get to it then um it depends how much well what's what's the actual plan here we have a distraction for heartshot yeah so this is the point where like out of character now let's actually concrete what you guys are gonna do

like do you want max to come to you now yes no if we're going to make a ruckus yes yeah so yes yeah all right are you so is the plan and what's the plan are you guys going to basically get into the gardens in front of the keep because remember you've kind of got these guns full of all the undead in front of the keep and you're going to have to fight your way through the undead to get to there we'll find that secret entrance or like try and sneak past the undead, get to the keep, and then get inside the keep. I think we'll go as far as we can, like with the original plan. Like, if we can sneak our way there.

Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. If it fails, so be it. Plan B. Rockers time. Rockers time. So get as close into the keep as you can.

Yes. And then try and draw somebody out and have a fight. Draw people away from the keep. From the rock as you can. Yes. And then try and draw somebody out and have a fight. Draw people away from the keep, the Rot Heart. From the Rot Heart, yeah. Okay. And then fight until that Rot Heart is destroyed. And then decide, and then basically then, at that point it's this.

See the reaction to that Rot Heart. Improvise. And then improvise. Okay, no, that's good. That's good to kind of like concrete in my head so I know what's going to go down. I mean, like, to absolve myself of any guilt, tactical-minded Sentry,

can she see this plan that Hotshot is putting together? Make a insight check for me, Sentry. It's not great. Once we all get through this. So trusting. Five total. Five? No idea.

No. And I think that makes sense because century's just like hot shot is come on like she's doing her job like it's helping and stuff she's lying to us it's just like she's gonna go into this tree we are gonna blast it with the airship well i can also like go inside trees so i guess to me it's just like oh she's just gonna do go inside then come out again yeah yeah like yeah i mean market or something yeah well it sounds like centuries like yeah she's gonna go in and do something and then leave and it'll blow up yeah and that might very well be the truth it's just that in quill's insight having like the way that she's talking about it the way that she kind of looks at century especially the way that she looks at century and then looks to

everyone else you pick up on, like, she is not planning on coming back from that mission. Yeah. Well, if she's using that travel via plants spell, then whatever, she can just go fucking anywhere, apparently. Lucius Pictures, at some point, Hotshot is going to, like, fire off a little whistle, and then Protect is going to come in with all the lost guardians.

Lost guardians, yeah, sure. And then fight. And then fight. Like Gandalf. As a point, whilst I've said things like teleportation magic you can't get out of the valley i will say something like transport via plants because it is not direct teleportation in theory that would work and there is a big fucking tree in the fort we can't see it so we that's the problem currently only see you do you like pick what part of the tree you come out of let's find let's come out I want to come out at the very very top so is it transport via plants century it's

tree stride for me but it's only but it's trees are a similar size to you oh I see because there's there's a couple of different spells there's tree strain then there's transport via plants, which is the petal of luck. God, imagine if that were worse. Yeah. Both trees must be living in at least the same size as you. Both trees must be living. I'm guessing for some reason this tree ain't living.

There's any tree within 500 feet, which is huge. That's pretty big. That's a big distance. 500 feet it is, but it's actually like the keep that's probably about one end of the keep to the other end of the keep. You would basically have to be at the moat and then activate it. Over there. Enter a tree and move from inside it to another tree of the same kind within 500 feet. Both trees must be living and at least the same size as you.

You must use five feet of movement. No daffodils there. So actually, I would say that, yeah, it doesn't, like, as long as the tree is your size, so medium, which most trees are going to be large enough like it's not like it's a little diddy plant if you go to any of the trees on the out outer edge of like the the keep like especially on the sides they're probably within 500 feet of the rotha um and it doesn't say you have to be able to see it you instantly know the location of all other trees of the same kind within 500 feet it doesn't say i can't is it just you uh i think it's just century oh you appear in a spot of your choice within five feet of the destination tree so that's just you it's just

more just more it will say if it's like you can take plus one creature or whatever oh but but it is concentration for a minute and she can basically use this transportation ability once per round. So she can bamf, bamf, bamf. Ten times? Yeah. You can just tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, like 500 feet? Within 500 feet of the same type, which these would all be the same kind of tree. One's giant because it's magically enhanced,

but most of them are all the same type of tree. Jesus. You can tree bamf, smash people over the head, and then bamf around. Kill everyone near a tree. Yeah. You're nearf, smash people over the head and then bamf around. Kill everyone near a tree. Yeah. You're near a tree, bamf. That's pretty cool. Yeah, and it's only five feet of movement to enter the tree as well.

It's not even an action or a bonus action. Oh my God. But you can only use it once per round. What level is that normally? It's a fifth level and I've only got one level five spell slot. That's pretty sweet. Still. It's very specific to the scenario, but it is very good.

And it only counts for you on your own, which is not... It is only sentry, yeah. I mean, I could stand in place... It's not transport via plants, which is basically teleport via trees. And then I could meet with you near a tree so I don't make loads of noise. Oh, I see. Use it to overcome your stealth disadvantage. What sort of noise do you imagine sentry coming out of a tree would make? That's fine. That's not going to ruin a stealth attempt.

I'm a tree, bitch! Yeah, watch me grow! All right, so... But also we've got Max with us, who's probably got disadvantage on stealth as well. Max ain't stealthy. We're going with the whole trying to sneak in. We'll try it, see how it goes. Maybe this is the time when we are like the wind. Yeah, sure.

And we just glide right through. I mean, yeah, good rolls. Like, you absolutely could. What are those? I believe. Yeah, Max is going to roll great. He's going to do fine. It's not Max I'm worried about. We believe in our boy.

It's me and my four nat ones. Oh, thank you. Yeah. While Mark is mumbling to himself, I'd just like to remind everyone that you have death wards and potions with necromantic resistance. Yeah, I was going to say that. Oh. I think we might need those against the Prince of Death.

Who would like to scramble the death ward? Well, do you want to use those now or do you want to save them for the later? Yeah, I was thinking, wait. Yeah, yeah. just a reminder. Also, like, there's this fight. You've still got to fight Kalara as well. It only lasts for an hour, yeah. You've got the necrotic resistance.

Okay, nice. Who would like to hear Nova go on a rant about Kalara to see if we can figure out what Max said? Yeah. What we know of her teachings do it could perhaps sure yeah so when we first met cast your mind back uh yes sit on a stump so when we first met one of the order of the black and rose he said that calara was a guide to travelers lost in the night, and that's what he was doing.

Remember, we met him on the road to Ironwick. Obviously, a lot of things have changed since then. But from what we caught up with with Scaldi, she's a life maiden. She's not actually death. She's not the bringer of death. She's a life maiden. She guides souls to the beyond, like with U-Quill. That's her lantern, that's her job. Her symbols are flowers, tomb lilies, the light.

Scaldi said, trust the light. She's the god of trickery, twilight, and darkness. She's the oldest, along with a telekis of the Titans. Specifically, Calara's holy symbol is a lantern with a light inside it. Yep. Yeah. The temples have gardens, and that is what Gravebloom Hold is. It's meant to be an area of pilgrimage for her worshippers and as you can see there are gardens here. There's definitely

something with the flowers. She wears a mantle of flowers. So there's things with flowers and light and life in fact. So the fact that everything has turned on its head and is corrupted, the flowers are controlling in some kind of insidious way, her knights now are knights of death, it feels as if everything has been inverted. She's no longer guiding souls to the afterlife, she is harvesting them for the afterlife. Whether or not she is actually taking those souls further to the dark beyond or collecting them for some reason, we don't know.

This is pure speculation on this part. But Scaldi iterated that grief and sorrow have overtaken Calara. She has succumbed to it. Even though one of her domains... Because domains is like a mechanical term. It's not so much that Calara is about darkness as she is about being a guiding light in darkness. So the fact that this area is shrouded in gloom like this penumbra is also not right like calara's temples almost always have a beacon light like something like a big lantern that hangs outside the the temple at all hours it's like always lit um and so it always guides people

there are no lights in night bloom hold like. Like, it is pitch black. Apart from the Celestial, right? Even then, you don't know. You've not seen any light. Like, there is no light there. The Celestial might not, you know, you don't know what's happened. You don't know what's going on with that. Scully advised us that her priests can summon Celestials as a champion. So perhaps that's what her priests have done.

Now, what the Celestial is doing, who knows? But it feels like everything here is an inverse of what Calara stands for and what represents her. Why is there no light here? Her symbol is a lantern. We were told to trust the light. Where is the light? There is none here.

And even the plants, whilst they are not dead, it's not like they've withered. They've all turned black. Any sort of, like, colour has gone. They are living. The plants aren't dead, but they are not the same. Like, something has changed them. What if we were to bring light to the night?

Would that at least distract them? So are there, from what we can see, are there like, are there literally just extinguished lanterns and greys and all of this? Maybe if you get closer, you'll be able to see more of that stuff, but from this distance with the darkness. Hotshot might, because she saw this place before it got super dark,

Hotshot might be like, if you kind of, with saying that, I think that there were, yeah, I mean, they were might be like, if you kind of, with saying that, I do, I think that there were, yeah, I mean, they were extinguished, but I remember seeing sort of poles, like in the gardens, I can't see anything in the keep, we never could get close enough, but in the gardens, there were sort of poles that had like unlit lanterns on them, and actually, no, that reminds me, and she kind of thinks back, she's like, yeah stave pointed out that the the friars and the squires were taking the lanterns down that's right they they took the lanterns from the poles that were outside and they took them into the keep interesting okay um so maybe if there's some way of finding those lanterns

we might be able to light them again. Maybe, but we've had physical... Like, we've had lights when we fought the other knights, the minor knights, and we fought the undead before. Normal light didn't do anything. Even magical light didn't seem to do anything. I don't know if there's, like... Radiant or holy or...

I think there has to be something more to it. I mean, we had lit lanterns, we had magical lights, and it didn't really seem to do anything or stop them. Well, it's probably a divine light, something from a believer, maybe. Yeah, I think that that's... I think you're right. I think there's got to be something to it. It's either maybe it's got to be in a blessed... Maybe it's got to be a certain type of lantern.

Maybe it's a holy symbol. Maybe it's got to be from a believer of Kalara. I don't know, but... Hmm. Still the light she's lost. Yeah, those lanterns might be the best shot anyway if they are modelled in exactly that symbol. Maybe that'll be the best chance.

And even if they were magically infused with some flame, maybe there's still some trace of that. Maybe they weren't completely extinguished and we can empower them again. Could be. But it's worth a try, I guess. It's an option. Something to keep an eye out for when you begin making your way inside. Nevertheless, if our focus is on destroying the Rot Heart, we'll aim to do that. Yeah, leave that to me.

Just get inside and buy me enough time to get inside it. I'll take care of it. We will. Where is Protector? Like I said, it might take them some time. Do we wait? No, we can't. We need to keep moving with this.

Don't forget, there are a lot of Guardians still infected. The longer that we leave this going, that disease continues, Rem. All right. I'll be honest, Lucius. Look at everything we've accomplished. You guys, you are the champions of Rois. Me and my team are just scouts.

We're not gonna contribute that much to this fight. Yes, we are. Without you, we wouldn't be here. Through our guidance, but in terms of what you're about to do, I think Shade and myself, Protector, all the others, there's only so much we can do. So focus on your own plans.

Don't worry so much about Protector or me or Shade. Well, you've done more than we could have ever asked for already. Not enough. Too many dead Guardians. We'll bring them back. I hope so. With that, so, I'm assuming you guys want to take a break. Mm-hmm. And then your plan is to try and sneak as close to the fort as you can.

Yeah. Across the moat, and then is the plan to use Passwall to get through? Yeah. To get inside the keep itself? Yeah. Do you have a particular part of the keep you want to get to immediately like so on the little map I drew you basically you have like walls there is an there is an open courtyard area inside the keep things right well you don't know you you've not seen anything inside you

don't know any details about inside the keep okay around the back like nearer to the tree yeah so you want to try and get as close to the rothart in your own breach yeah keep in mind that that might draw attention to hotshot trying to do their thing yeah that's my word um we want to get in if if a bigger group then leaves that area i imagine any horde that sees us will follow us away well i mean and if you can leave that area you again you don't know the interior design of this place right right? But it might be something. It looked like the tree is in a massive courtyard that attaches to the main temple. There is also a small barracks.

There is also a cloister, which is like a kind of open-air plaza, sort of like covered walkway to the side of the main keep, which is the little sort of square building to the side. And then it just has a big open plaza. But you want to basically go into the courtyard with the rock it sounds like that was nova's idea it's like getting in the back and then yeah yeah we want to find the uh the other entrance as well so if we rotate around we might be able to spot it i think i'd also use arcane eye and well the secret

entrance if nova's going to use passwall like you don't you won't need it it will basically do the same job but without having to find it. It will basically be like, me cut doorway, walk through. Yeah, fair enough. Hi. Yeah. Could I then summon Alnissics when we get in, or before we get in to just drive away some of them?

It takes like 10 minutes, won't it? Yeah. You can do. Put that alert us to us being there. So it depends on when you summon Alnissics, where you send them, and how they accompany you. Because if they come with you as you're trying to sneak in, 100% they're going to make it really hard.

It's like 10 minutes to summon them, so even if you do get in, you're probably, whether or not you have that time, you don't know. You might do, but it might risk that you don't get to do that. The other option would be to summon Elmessics before you begin sneaking in

and send them to just try and sneak, like try and distract some of the Ki Undead. There is a flaw with that in that it might give away that something is about to happen. What do you think? What about Elko? Elko can't fly. That's the only sort of downside.

No, true, but it's quicker, I suppose. No, Elko is the exact same. Oh, is it? Yes, it's the same as well. Oh, I thought it was just like an instant thing little echo is like an instant thing but echoes like a little tiny ball yeah yeah mmm yeah being stealthy yeah do you get it for I think it for an hour or until it don't think until it dies I think. I think I'm fine. Might as well summon it then, yeah.

As long as we've got the time to do it. It's also a spell slot, keep in mind. Yeah, spell slot. And it's not concentration or anything. It's just... But if you think it will lure people to us being there? I think summon it before we go in. Okay. And then...

And just send it off. If something happens, then you then control it. Yeah, do you have telepathic communication yeah okay yeah so as long as you're not too far away you could leave alniss six here at the sort of overlook you guys begin sneaking in if things go badly we need you can use alniss to try and yeah you know cover that yeah that works all right i'd say that that works all right cool and then we'll figure out the rest and then just just so i know you guys want to try and get to the the base of the Rothart

is where you want to breach the wall. If you get there. Because I'm just thinking, because I might have to build a map in a minute. Yeah, and I want to arcane eye, if I can, over the wall. Okay, but not actually in the courtyard with the Rothart. I think so. Well, because we'd have to go through the outer wall first, right?

Before we get to the keep. The outer wall is... There is a keep. It's the perimeter. Oh, okay. Yeah. Like, the same sort of courtyard as the... That.

You want to go in here? Yeah. So that's the courtyard with the Rothaar. I'm a shitty drawer and I don't do architectural plans. Yeah, that's where we want to try. Okay, so the back half of the fort, which is basically this giant courtyard and garden built around the Rothaar. Yeah, that's where we want to try. So the back half of the fort, which is basically this giant courtyard and garden built around the Rothart.

Yeah, where all four of the knights are. Maybe. But you want to get into that area and then that area attaches to the main temple keep. Right. Okay. So if you wanted to leave that area, I don't know how long past,

but if you don't leave the way that Kim brings you in, your only other way to get out is through the main temple keep and then through the main doors. We're going to cause a ruckus and distract them from the Rothart. We're going to run through the middle of the temple and head towards the court at the south, right? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. As noisily and as obnoxiously as possible. The sneaky plan is go straight to the Rothart. The go-loud plan is to go right through the drawbridge. Okay. Anyone remember the Abbey? Yeah.

I'm feeling that. I'm feeling it. On that wonderfully positive note, we're going to take a break. We'll see you in like five, ten minutes. I'm going to quickly try and build a little map here. So enjoy. In fact, that's part one.

Thanks very much, Chris Charles' Naked Face and Me. Thanks for watching part one. We'll see you in part two. Bye, everybody. See you in a bit. Bye.