High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #170 | The Star of Siaska (Part 2)

Episode Date: January 12, 2023

The team hunt for the Star of Siaska in the mountains of Suvonna! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes 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

Hello everyone, welcome back to part two of Hyrule's Erois. We are currently pursuing a means to resurrect Nova Vigia, requiring a powerful diamond worth at least 25,000 gold, and it must be of a certain kind of diamond. It cannot just be magically created or purchased. These are rare relics that need to be found. And it just so happens, as the party are discussing where such a diamond might be able to find,

Lucius half remembered an old story about the Star of Siasca, a rare and kind of very valuable diamond that was found long, long ago. And then a knock at the door came. And as they opened it, their young their young little oh he's not young their little halfling cook howard uh revealed that he knew about the star of siaska thanks to an old story what coincidence he knew about an old story passed through his ancestors about a vault that his family once owned that contained a rare jewel of the same name. That's where we find ourselves today, up in the mountains, trying to find a way into this strange dungeon

or place or vault or whatever it happens to be in the mountains. And yeah, that's where we rejoin. We're in Valena's eye socket. You are? I checked. Halflings don't get darkvision, so... I wasn't very much playing up to that anyway.

I'm just hiding behind Aayla. Sometimes I don't know all the rules off the top of my head so what i can see is ayla's hair is like burying my face and then you got blasted out of the cave by water um but yeah so the very last thing that happened was you guys tried to make your way down and these are sort of after you enter the the large cavernous kind of like waterfall cave which which is about 60 feet. You then enter into a smaller 20 foot carved tunnel, which about 60 feet down of that, there is a stone platform upon which sat a series of stone braziers,

and when Quill got too close to one, it triggered some sort of trap or some sort of protective system that flooded the cave. And that was the last thing you guys tried. Oopsie doopsie. So, to recap. Are both the eyes the same on the inside? I mean, this looks like one tunnel.

Yeah, you've only looked in one. You haven't checked the other one. To check the other one. Do you mind, Will? Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to... If you want to fly on over there, I'm happy to try and detect whatever magical effects are around here,

and we can try and use that to avoid whatever these traps are from these lanterns. Okay. Okay. That's great. Braziers. So are you going to split up from, I don't know if that's what Tom's suggesting, are you splitting the body? I thought we'd just nip through, see if there's any braziers.

Have a little look, see if there's any lanterniers i have a little look see if there's any land on the back the other eye socket is identical okay okay it's exactly the same you see the lantern up ahead i'm assuming you don't get closer you kind of you see the lantern up ahead it's because you've been saying brazier stone brazier up does it feel like those two tunnels are moving towards each other they're moving in the say yeah you hard to tell because it's pitch black and it's all stone, but it does seem to be going in the same direction. Whether they converge, you don't know. Okay.

You would have to, you could try and make like a survival check if Lucius wants to work that out. Sure. Or anybody can make a survival check, actually. Try. Sure. Natural 20 for a 21. Really? Really? One. He's rolled a check, actually. Try. Sure. Natural 20. Or a 20.

Really? Really? One. He's rolled a lot of them. Nice. 20. 20. Unnatural.

Both of you, yeah. Both of you kind of looking around and like it's hard to tell, but you do have dark vision and kind of thinking about it. You have the feeling that these are both going to converge in the same point, but they're also, they're kind of heading sort of a slight elevation, and then you have a feeling that they're both gonna converge in the same point, but they're also, they're kind of heading sort of at a slight elevation, and then you have a feeling that they're gonna converge in a single point. Both tunnels are gonna lead the same place,

I'm pretty sure of that. Yeah. So it doesn't matter which one we pick, we can stay in this one. Okay. We just need to get past this whole mechanism that's triggering the dam. Yeah, well, it recognized something getting nearby. What if we put an hour first? I mean, at risk of another entire minute

of torrents of water. Try and dispel it? Potentially, I mean, let me just detect first. I won't spend 10 minutes doing it because of the flight. You should cast a normal detect magic. Yep, just a regular old detect magic. The sight activates. What's the range of detect magic? It is a sense of magic within 30 feet of me.

Okay, so you have to get 30 feet closer. You have to move up. I won't get within five, basically. Are you going to move to 30 feet or are you going to get up. I won't get within five, basically. Are you going to move to 30 feet or are you going to get closer than that? What are you doing? I want to just get to 30 feet away and see if I can see an aura. There is an aura of magic, yes.

Around that brassiere and it fills the tunnel, basically. It's emanating like a sphere of magic, like an aura of magic. And the school of magic would be abjuration. Abjuration. And that means... What does that mean? That means that...

It's all abjury. Yeah. So, yeah, the lantern's there. I think we might be able to get ahead, but just be wary. It might be a little abjury. Sorry, what was that at the end? Abjury. He's googling.

The school of magic is abjuration. What does that mean, Quill? It means that it deals with the protective spells and the suppression of others magic. Oh, a protective spell, right. Sorry, no. I just had a message from a completely different world in Pathfinder. What is it? Yeah, for fuck's sake, just ask me. No, I can do this.

My book is vibrating, and it's telling me... I'm learning so much right now. Is that... Is it useful? Fucking, look, whatever. Abjuration magic is generally attached to things like wards and defences and detections and stuff like that, yes. It is a lecture.

Can you get rid of it? Potentially, but I mean, I can... There was, like, slight... No, it's completely covering, okay. He doesn't listen. No, I mean... A sphere fills the tunnel. You did say that, Mark.

But before you said that there was a route around. No. I said that you could fly to the sides, but that was nothing to do with the magic aura. Like, you don't listen. Just listen to me. Yes. Everybody else was like, no, what are you talking about?

He said it. Yeah. The sphere of magic, the aura of magic fills the tunnel. There is not a way around it. I don't think there's a path past this abjury aura, past this lantern. Okay. I just, I wonder if, I'm going to regret saying this,

but maybe I should go first. Because you... Maybe there's something about my bloodline. The mark of the air. What if we try and dispel it to prevent another damn flood in case that isn't correct? And we are wasting another minute of time. Maybe if I

dispel it, if we start seeing that red light again. True. It kind of did that for a bit, didn't it? It was about six seconds. It was flashing red and it made a noise for about six seconds and then you heard the stone. So Howard tried.

I wouldn't mind trying it as long as Miss Aayla and Miss Century are right behind me. I'll be right behind you. Okay. And then I can get right behind them if it goes wrong. So Howard, you're going to fly ahead with Century and Aayla behind you,

but Aayla and Century, you're going to stop like... Oh, we're not going to go like within five. So you're going to stay basically where Quill is, basically. We wanna stay like ten feet away from the... Ten feet, okay, from the brazier. Yeah. Okay. When Howard gets close to the brazier,

you fly like, you get within ten feet, nothing happens. You get within five feet, nothing happens. Yeah, totally fine. No, no, no. And Aayla and Cintra, you're staying about sort of, yeah, well, so you're gonna stay 10 feet away from the brazier, so you're gonna move into the aura

that the brazier's projecting. Quill said there's a 20-foot aura. Oh, 20-foot. Oh, I'll do whatever Quill says. I won't get any closer than 20-foot, then. Okay, so you stay at the 20-foot radius of the aura, like Quill's saying, like, yep, don't go any further, whatever.

Nothing happens. Now what? This is good. This is great, Howard. You're doing great. Yay. the problem is i don't want to send you all the way in on your own i don't want to go in on my own no um the first time around was i in the aura for the full six seconds um yeah yeah yeah you would be you guys stopped when you heard the flash and you said we stopped stop, don't move, and then you backed up. We could try dipping in and out and seeing if that just cancels it

before the alarm, before the water. I'm going to get a bit closer to Howard. Okay. When you step within the aura, the brazier turns crimson red. It lights and it begins making a noise. It doesn't stop. It... Okay.

Come back, Howard. Come back, come back, come back. I'm running. Spell magic. Okay. Come back, Howard! Come back, come back, come back! I'm running. I'm running towards that. Okay, you cast Dispel Magic. Yeah. And that's within the six seconds. The Dispel Magic cuts the brazier off.

The light goes out. The sound stops, and you don't hear the grinding of stone. Okay. Solved! I mean, I could keep doing this, but it's moving through. Dispel Magic lasts for a while, I think.

What if I... Yeah, I just mean to any other traps that come up. That's okay, backpack Howard. Okay. We'll keep moving. Keep going. We have to do this to every brassiere on the way, right? There more? There are more. Yeah.

Oh. I mean, I could keep doing that, but there must be a better way. I have the same spell as you. Okay, and we can share the load. What if I go and see if there's something I can touch or... Is the spell magic concentration on? No.

It's not. Okay, so your detect magic is still on. Uh... Mine's concentration. Is it? Yeah. What else do you detect? Oh, it's detect magic.

Sorry. Yeah. My brain. Uh, yeah. You've still got detect. Raising brain. I can still detect. Yeah, within that first brazier. I mean, yeah, I'll cross that first one.

Nothing within 30 feet. Once it's dispelled, yeah, you see the aura vanish. The aura completely vanishes. All right, I'm gonna move through. Yeah, Howard, I really don't want you to head up through that on your own, because we don't know what's on the other side of this tunnel at all. Can I just see how many Brazilians I can see?

See one more. With your dark vision of 60 feet, you can see two more up ahead. Two more. There's two more barriers to get through. Can we just do the same method twice? We could do. Yeah. I can't see any other way to get us all there.

As long as it's quick. Unless we teleport or Misty Stamp or... Teleport. What are you thinking, Howard? What would Nova say at this moment in time? I used our kinky! Did you hear that? She was here with us.

That's a parrot, I think, outside the eye. You guys are still flying, right? You've not, like, flown next to the brazier or anything like that? You're just flying up in the tunnel. We're just past the first checkpoint. Going forward. Sure. Yeah, I mean, we're 120 feet on Dispel Magic,

so I could also just do it to the next one and the one after that, unless you want to take one of them all, both. Share the load. Share the load. I've got to take magic, not dispel magic. Oh, okay, in that case. It's all you.

Next lantern, I'll just preemptively... Cast Dispel Magic, right? Yep. I mean, you cast Dispel Magic. You don't know if it has an effect because you're not close enough for the aura. Okay. We'll test it out.

Howard, I guess go close to this one. Everyone moves forward. Nothing happens. Okey-dokey. Keep on moving through. You can see that last one, and then after that third one, there doesn't seem to be any more.

Those with a view with dark vision, you can see past that. There doesn't appear to be any more. What is past that? A little bit more tunnel, but it begins curving inwards now. Okay. We're getting near the end. Okay. So there's one more brazier.

Okay. I mean, I'll get close enough to this one to at least see the aura, if there is one. There is an aura. Okay. Dispelled. Okay. All right. Yeah, you mark it off. yeah. Just quill just silences the magic.

That's love. Closes down all of these different, whatever they are, these wards that seem to activate some sort of device. Yeah, the tunnel now opens up. It does begin to curve round, and you can see, begin to start seeing, but I'm assuming you guys push forward,

unless you guys are gonna say otherwise. Can we- Still got detect magic... If it's within 10 minutes, yeah. But can I see anywhere where the water would have opened up? Yeah, so as you begin making that way around the curve, you begin to see that in the middle, once it joins up, there is actually

kind of an antechamber with stairs that now lead down, and above the stairs, you can see this great kind of circular disc has been made. And there is, from that disc, there's almost these channels that lead the actual current water out, and it's what's filling the tunnel normally. But you can see that there are sections of that disc

that look like they slide or open up, and that's where the water is coming from. Okay. Well, anyway, anything beyond this point is not that trap anymore, so we don't need to worry about water. We just need to be aware of new traps. Yeah. Well, we made it this far, Howard.

Great adventure, right? Oh yeah, wonderful. Does every adventure start like this, where you almost drown? Yes, actually, yeah, almost all the time. That's a lot of drown threat, isn't it? We've been underwater quite a bit. Now, does this area look Lover's Grove-y to you?

Not at all. No, it's just plain stone. There's a staircase leading down. That's what you see so far. That's about the only path. That seems to be the only path you can see. Howard. Hello.

With your current eyes. Past the Gilded Grace bit. North of Gilded Grace. Yeah. What is there? The Gilded Grace bit. North of Gilded Grace. Yeah, what is that? Within the Lover's Grove, many roads they built to lead astray, but the mark of an error surely dwee. So it's, the Creator's face is looking at

the Lover's Grove, right? Yeah. That can't be inside the L lover's face, can it? I mean, maybe... I mean, the lover's grove thing is beyond the face part, beyond... The creator's face came first. Yeah. And we're in the creator's face rather than where they're looking.

It says, the legacy of our kin, so that's probably the vow, rests within the stones north of the gilded Greece. So it says within the stones. We are within the stones. Oh, we are within the stones, right. We're up in them. We're up in the stones north of the Gilded Grease. So it says within the stones. We are within the stones. Oh, we are within the stones, right. We're up in them. We're up in the stones, yes. Will, do you see anything else down these stairs?

Your detect magic does not detect anything on these stairs. Is it moist on these stairs? There is a little bit of slickness and sort of wetness, yeah, just from where the water is being channeled out, it occasionally splashes over and things like that. But it's not like, it's not being covered. No, no, no.

Trip hazard. So we can't just hail on down? Yeah. There's no risk of it flooding. Well. From the previous mechanism. No, the channels divert away from the staircase. Like, the actual kind of, like, big disc is before the staircase starts leading down.

So any water from there would flow directly out of the two tunnels you've been coming down. There is an ever so slight elevation to kind of channel it. That's a big disc. Yeah, it's huge. It's a slight disc. Well, I suppose we head down. Yeah.

Okay. Let's get on down. You guys make your way down. The stairs lead down further and further, and they're a long way. The stairs take a considerable time. There's long tunnels that they start leading you down. How long does Detect Magic last?

It's 10 minutes. 10 minutes and fly. Both of those would probably end by the time you've made your way down these stairs. You make your way into beautifully carved, pretty smooth and unadorned tunnels that seem to be taking you deeper into the mountain the heart of the mountain below you eventually though once both spells have run out and maybe

about five ten minutes after that you guys find yourselves in a large beautiful carved circular chamber it appears to be decorated like an open field in the hills with stone trees carved benches and banners all along its sides along the walls as a mural is a scene showing the marriage of an a dwarven maiden and a young halfling man with their families on each side in happy celebration throwing flowers up into the air and onto the ground when are we going to find a lover's grove what was the thing about the Lover's Grove and the thing in the? Many paths.

Many paths, leaves a tree. From this chamber, there appear to be 12 tunnels leading off from it. Okay, I mean. This is like my grandmommy told me around the fireplace. It's real. It's the union between the dwarf and the Arflin. It's simply delightful.

This is why I'm 16th dwarf, Miss Sentry. Oh! 16th! That's like a whole two or something. That is. Sorry, okay. I'm not a thought-back boy. I mean, look, there's many routes out of here. Are you feeling anything about exit number one?

This one. So I'll go and sit we'll stand like in the middle 12 tunnels leading up I'll just be like hmm really focus on your heritage in your ancestry okay yeah I mean what do you want to do here to make like an insight perception what are you trying to get? Do I have any of these stats? Should we show the skills? The amount you're tensing, a don't cheat yourself check. Are you trying to just get a feeling,

like a gut reaction? A vibe? A vibe. Make an insight check? Like maybe an ancestor speaks to me or something. Sure. Make an insight check. It's wisdom, isn't it?

It's just wisdom if you don't have the skills. So it's like a 16 plus two. Yeah. Plus two. Okay, 18. Thinking about it, like, you do get a gut feeling. You start looking at all these tunnels, and they're identical. Yeah.

There's nothing to really differentiate them. None of the tunnels individually call to you. You don't feel like a magical sense. You don't feel like any sort of, like, you know, nothing triggers your memories or anything like that. You just't feel like a magical sense. You don't feel like any sort of like, you know, nothing triggers your memories or anything like that. You just notice that this, yeah, this place is very pretty.

It's got lovely, lovely carvings of all the flowers, like some nice pretty coloured flowers that have been like thrown up into the air. Yeah, it is the kind of place

that your husband would have loved. But yeah, none of these tunnels, it's not like there's no magical sense. You don't get like a, nothing like lights up

or you can't see anything unusual. It all just looks identical. Apart from this chamber with the carvings and the flowers. Look at the statues. Okay. And look at where they're looking. Are they looking at each other?

They're looking at the couple in the very centre, kind of like the main wall. It's sort of like all themed around this couple who are being married. So I'll investigate the couple. Okay. And they're just looking at each other. And then all the statues are like throwing flowers, like the statues are carved so that it looks like they're throwing,

like a wedding, right? Yeah. And like all the flowers are like falling onto the floor, onto the walls. There's all different brightly coloured ones. When you look at the flowers, they're made of stone, but they're painted. They're all painted in different colours.

Because you have Luke Quill's light spell on your dancing lights your your dark vision isn't just in black and white so you can actually see the colors well are there all kinds of colors yeah there's uh yeah there's all kinds of colors like red blue green yellow purple there's about 12 there's about 12 different colors are they all flush to the wall or is there any that stick out uh what the flowers or anything on the wall that sticks out yeah it, it's all bas-relief. So like all of the statues themselves, it's like carved, like they're partially 3D. Yeah, yeah, it's like a bas-relief.

So they're not like, you know. I wanna try and see if any of them. Yeah, you start going around. Yeah, make an investigation check. Do any of these colors speak to you, the flowers? I quite like the purple actually, but then, you know, red. Red is the color that, you know, we wore at our wedding.

That's a bad one. Blue, blue is quite nice actually. Green, now you always want some green on your plate. So as Howard's sort of babbling around about his favourite colours, like Ayla, you test quite a few, like the flowers, you test the statues, nothing in the actual carving seems to be, you can't press into it.

You don't see any sort of like,'t see any sort of hinges or secret doors or anything like that here. I mean, we could just- Anything I think, with a 16, you do notice that the flowers don't just decorate the floor in this chamber, the flowers actually lead down each of the tunnels as well. Okay.

12 colors, 12 tunnels. Gotta pick a color. I mean, I can send an- I'm wondering if none of them are the right path. Oh, it's a red herring. Well, it said in the thing that there's many paths to lead astray, right? They all look the same, so.

But the mark of an heir shall lead the way. The mark. Well, what's the mark? What's your family mark mark is there a family ending or something that's a very personal question what's your

is there any family I've got my dwarven too true one hairy dwarven twice it's really hairy

it's a lot hairier than the others okay what about the page you've got is there any any symbol on there any the horn silver

family there's a splurge give it here where I accidentally got some that's super family's never had like a crest Is there any symbol on there? Any... The horned silver family. There's a splurge. It was here where I accidentally got some full crest on it. That's super. Families never had like a crest or a color or heraldry. No, no crest, we were just a humble family. I mean, we could, I can send an arcane eye down one of them, but you just need to pick which one.

Maybe you could do, Oogie Boogie, Boogie Go. What? I can't remember that. What's that? Oogie Boogie, Boogie Go. It? I can't remember that. Who's that? Oogie Boogie, Boogie Go. It's always four. So it's always the fourth one. No.

Starbane's Forces, Gotta Go. That's four again. Grab his nose, punch his throat. Oogie Boogie, Boogie Go. Right. It's the erosion version. I don't remember that. I don't remember that. It's a kid's theme.

Yeah, okay. Which is technically what I still am. Yeah, he's three. Yeah, yeah, Version. It's a kid's theme. Yeah, okay. Which is technically what I still am. Yeah, he's three. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Is there... I just feel like there's an additional thing. I mean, the fact that there's a riddle

and there's these clues in the story to help lead the way. And I mean, we did just fumble our way through with Dispel Magic. There's children on the thing, right? There's a mixture of adults and children, yeah. Is there anything on any one of the carvings of the children?

Is there like a... Symbol or anything like that? No, there's no symbol. They're all kind of dressed in the same sort of clothes. Some of the kids are throwing flowers, some of the adults are throwing flowers, but it's a mixture of things. Are there any silver flowers?

Silver? No. No, okay. Just orange, silver, isn't it? They tend to be like the base colours. The ring was the colour. If it was, they're not coloured. Are they really? Yeah, they're not coloured.

The main colours, it seems, is there'd be green, blue, yellow, purple, pink, red, orange, brown. I'm trying to think of 12 colours now. Teal. Magenta. Yeah, like magenta. So not magenta, not teal. Two more. I don't know.

I feel like it's not anything to do with the colour. More. Yeah, brown. Did I say brown? You said brown. Black, white do with the color. Yeah, brown. Did I say brown? You said brown. Black, white. There you go. Oh, wow.

They're not colors, they're shades. You look up at the ceiling. It's just carved to look like a canopy of trees. Mark of the air. It's got to be something like a family. If you'd like to make rolls. Mark of the air. Mark, tell us what the answer is. If you'd like to make roles? Mark of the air. Mark, tell us what the answer is.

If you would like to make roles, if you'd like, cause your characters might be able to figure something out. I'll have a look at this mural and see if I can spot something. Like, I don't know, maybe everyone's looking at it. What are you looking for? I'm looking for the right.

What are you trying to do? I'm trying to see if there's text on there that says door five. Okay. There is not any text on there. I actually- No check required. I speak Dwarvish. Is there any Dwarvish anywhere?

No, there's no Dwarvish here. Nothing, no written down. No Halfling or anything? No Halfling, no. Elvish, nope, no Elvish. How many people are in the Reliefs? Maybe 12. That's annoying. Uh-huh. Which one isish. How many people are in the reliefs? Maybe 12. That's annoying.

Which one is they? How many children? Four. Okay, that doesn't matter. Troy's basing it entirely on if Mark goes, oh, who cares. And they're wearing very similar things. Not like... People are dressed in...

Some of them are in common clothes, some of them are in fine clothes. What are the children looking at? All looking at the couple. Everyone's looking at the couple, yeah. It's like a wedding. They're all like, hey, some of them are in common clothes, some of them are in fine clothes. What are the children looking at? All looking at the couple. Everyone's looking at the couple, yeah. It's like a wedding. They're all like, hey, happy couple, yay, throw the flowers up in the air.

What colours are the couple wearing? No, the people aren't coloured. The only things that are coloured are the flowers that seem to all scatter on the floor, and then as Ayla noticed, they all seem to lead down the tunnels as well. And do they have any, like, markings on them, anything? On the flowers? No, on the couple themselves have any like markings on them anything on the flowers

no on the um the couple on the couple on the flowers on the flowers there's i mean they're all individual colors um and each tunnel seems to now that you look at them like you'll pay more attention each tunnel has a single a trail of single color each each color goes into each tunnel so it's like all the yellow flowers eventually lead into one tunnel and then lead towards down that tunnel. All the blue flowers lead down one tunnel. All the pink flowers lead down one tunnel. When we entered the tunnel, the brassieres lit up red.

Well, red when there was... Bad. Bad, yeah. I don't think it's a colour thing. I think it's like some kind of a sigil for the family. Mark of the heir. I just feel like all these paths are just not it. Can I do some kind of check like for,

I don't know, family history or something? Yeah, yeah, make a history check. What's history? Intelligence. The past. Oh's history? Intelligence. The past. Oh, sorry. 15. 15.

I mean, you don't remember any stories about crests or heraldry or symbols. I mean, the story, you know this story pretty well, and you're remembering all the parts that are relevant to this part of the story. I think the only thing that with a 15, you get the feeling that, like, this whole story, this whole, like, all of these clues, they're always, it's very cryptic. You don't think it necessarily is always literal. Like, the mark of an air,

you don't think it would be, like, a symbol or a sigil or something like that. It would be something to do with what the word air means and what signifies an air, like what could represent an air. Can I pluck a hair from my head? Yep, you pluck a little hair from your head. Throw it up to the wind. It's just like... I think it's pointing towards that one. Yeah, which one? Do you want to be a roll?

Maybe. No, it's moved. It's moved. It points towards tunnel number 11. Yeah, which one do you want to be a roll? It's moved. It's moved. I don't know that one. It points towards tunnel number 11. So an heir is like an ability of some kind, like a prince or princess of something like that. This is a halfling and a dwarf. Mm-hmm.

So this is how the whole... Mark of an heir. Again, if you... I mean, you could also just pick a tunnel and start going down it and be like, fuck it, let's go. Pick one. Process of elimination, if nothing else.

You could send an arcane eye down. Just one of them, yeah. Just to see what a tunnel is like. Is there anything near the doorways themselves to the tunnel? Apart from the actual just reliefs of all the characters, not really, and they don't, nothing seems to separate them.

There's nothing which like makes each one individual. It's just their positioning and then these, again, the trails of these coloured flowers. We tried to get Nova back. Over.

I think it's, and then we're good. Best way that like, this is the easiest way I've found to challenge you guys is not like combat encounters but puzzles

riddles really annoying yeah like I said if you want to make checks you can make checks I don't even know what to check for

Quill's got spells Quill's got abilities if you want to Katie you can just make like a wisdom like an insight check that will go well oh wow

fuck it yeah insight sure oh my god 19 plus 1 20 yeah Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Fuck it, yeah. Insight. Sure. Oh, my God. 19. Plus one, 20. What?

Yeah. I thought I had a minus one there. Lucius says, like, yeah, like, kings and queens, like an heir, like something to signify it. Well, I mean, like, in a clan, it's more like you signify who's, like, you know, in the, like, Wild El elf clans and stuff like that it's hereditary it's like bound by like somebody's blood it's like you are the father and son or the daughter of like a clan and it follows down she's holding a knife next to me like the mark of an

heir to ala would probably be like the blood the blood of the descendant or the blood of an heir that would be like the most like that's what i descendant or the blood of an heir. That would be like the most... I've got to cut you, Howard. The blood of an heir? Excuse me? Hung, drawn, and quartered. Well, you are the key... I just remembered I left the oven on in the storm chaser.

I am going to go check it out. We have an oven? What? We have an oven in our wooden ship? Oh, great, great. Speaking of usage... Even after Nova, she's blowing up the ship. Just a small bit of blood.

On the wall, maybe. What? Blood's red. Yeah, but... Could be like a red flower. Could be, but... My blood's green. Could be the green flowers.

It's not green. Howard's blood is not green. I can send Mark and I down the red flower tunnel. Before we spill any Howard blood. Just a little... I'll faint. I know, we've seen a lot of blood. You've seen a lot of blood.

We've seen a lot of decapitations, broken bones. Really? Yeah. That's pretty nasty. Sounds ghastly. We've seen a lot. My jaw was blown off at one point. I remember that, actually.

I do, yeah. Do you remember I tried to bring you some soup in a straw? I do. It was a bit messy. Really hard to grasp on that straw. How was it around when that happened? I think... If it was after a gusty event.

It was during gusty. During gusty. I think the crew got recruited at the end of Gusty. It was when you were recovering, and I brought you a straw. Somehow you were there. Yeah, I was there. That's why you hired me. Yeah.

Rejuvenating suit. Someone jammed a straw in my throat. We should hire them. It's Howard from Monster Universe character. No. Okay. I do love the fact that if I don't interrupt, you guys would literally spend two hours just talking about

Howard bringing Kroll suits. I just remembered. I do love the fact that if I don't interrupt, you guys would literally spend two hours just talking about how I'd bring Quill to some... I just remembered. I'm like, this is why it's taken us four years to do a D&D campaign. I just remembered the fridge. Yeah, I was going to say, Master Quill. Yeah, I'm really sorry. You said you were going to get me some kind of...

When we get back to Horizon, I'm going to look for ZamZim. Oh, so you did look into it? I did, yes. Oh, thank you. Someone's currently making it for us. I gave them a lot of money and resources for it. Can I just pick up Howard's hand and just get a little knife? I can't believe there's such a nice thing in pain.

Like the tiniest. Yeah, you can make it look. I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding my own blood! Put it by the couple on the wall. Yeah, smear some a little, yeah. You can get a little bit of blood. I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding my own blood! Put it by the couple on the wall. Smear some blood on the stone. Death saving throw. 14.

Okay, you're right. Okay. Blood. Send an arcane eye down the road. Before you start tearing Howard to bits. That's all I was doing! I'm done! But we had an idea, blood, red, red,

mrs. G. Howard. You got distracted talking about a fridge, whatever that is, so I decided to take mattress into my own hands. That didn't work. Next thing. Oh, it really hurts. Sorry, Howard.

I think I'm gonna lose it. Oh, it's gangrenous, I taste gangrene. You're okay, you're okay. I need this for chopping, chopping apples. It's all right, I'll look after you, I'll look after you. Here, I've got this little cold compress. I need this for chopping. Chopping apples. It's all right, I'll look after you, I'll look after you. Here, I've got a little cold compress. Thank you, thank you.

Oh, it's so true. The arcane eye travels down the tunnel. It goes on for, and it lasts like a long time, right? It's like a half. Yeah. It's invisible and it basically just follows on. And it has dark vision? Does it have dark vision?

It has. It lasts for an hour, yeah. It has normal and dark vision out to 30 feet. And can look out in any direction. It takes a while kind of navigating down these tunnels, but eventually the path of the ruby red flowers leads into a series of carved winding corridors that all have a slight decline to them. And you get the sense, almost like roots of a tree,

it kind of winds here and there, kind of going all about the place. And then eventually, it kind of smooths out into a long, flat corridor, where it comes to a large antechamber. And in the large antechamber, with only 30 feet range, it has to, like, how much do you want to send it around?

I mean, I'll have a, yeah, I want to make sure this is not just a trap. Sure, sure, sure. The Anti-Thember has a giant set of stone stairs that leads up to an ornate door decorated to look like the entrance to a great dwarven hall. At the top of the stairs, the arcane eye can see that there is a dais, like a stone-like platform to stand on, about the size of a dwarf or a halfling could stand upon it.

Around that are 12 discs. The arcane eye sees everything in black and white. There's no light source in here. Yeah, I mean, I'm... It sees black and white discs on the ground around the dice. I'm making sure I'm following specifically the line of red flowers so I don't start following everything. Well, the flowers, as they reach the entrance to this chamber,

the flowers stop. This chamber doesn't have any more flowers in it. The other thing in this chamber is that there are, along with the dais with the 12 discs, the black and white discs, there are 12 statues, six dwarves and six halflings, different genders, different clothing,

all spaced around, each holding out a hand as if they were putting a key into a door. And you notice that each of the keys have different amounts of teeth on them. Don't worry, we've got more of this, guys. Okay, so what is the fridge? It's an evocation spell, I found out from TikTok somehow.

What the heck? Oh, the other thing that the eye might pick up on as well, as you're travelling it back, at the foot of one of the statues, you see... I mean, it must be so old. Quill would kind of recognise it, like rusted-looking chain mail, but in a heap, like a pile. And there's maybe some tattered, really old-looking pieces of cloth in here.

Okay. That's the last thing you have to do. Thank you for that. So. Why did you turn towards me? I covered my mouth. Did COVID teach you nothing? Not at all.

Just lost all of my social ability. What? Aren't you the last one who went to have, you haven't had COVID yet? I don't know. Me neither. And we lick each other all the time. Anyway, I mean, unless this is a very ornately designed trap,

I'm pretty sure the red tunnel is the correct one. How long have you got left on the Arcane Eye? It's taken about 15 minutes to send the eye down here and explore around. That's quite a while. 40, 20 minutes, yeah. All right. What, you want me to go down another path? Yeah, by the time it comes back, you'd have half an hour left,

so you could basically check out, go down one tunnel. Check one, yeah. Let's rule out that they all have this. Sure. I like the colour green. Green. We'll go down the green path. The green one travels about the same amount of distance. Greens again.

That same winding, confusing, twirling path. And then it reaches a flat sort of like length, kind of just like the other one did. And you can see that there is like the eye can, you know, as it's moving forward, just continues, continues, continues going. And then eventually it reaches a point where from the eye's perspective,

it looks like the tunnel continues. And then the eye hits a solid wall. It, like, impacts into a solid wall. Okay. It's a Wily Coyote. The eye's not, like, a creature or anything. It's just, like, a magical effect with, like, invisibility. Why would you need to know that part? Fucking Hawaii.

You don't know these things. No, it's just an invisible sense. Yeah, it just bashes up against the dead end. But the dead end is painted, almost like you get the impression that it's been painted to look like the tunnel continues, like a Wile E. Coyote tunnel, basically. Yeah.

Like using very, very clever, careful artistry to make it look like it would continue, even to somebody with dark vision. Okay, dead end on that one. So, I mean, it sounds like the right is the right one. Don't cut Howard anymore. Mark of the air. It was worth a shot.

We might need to cut you in the next bit. Let's go. What? Sentry, protect me. I'll protect you. Okay. And as for you,

I'll explain what I saw at the end. Yeah. Yeah, it was as Quill's kind of explaining it and eventually you guys see it for yourselves. You see, I'll read it out again. Where's the description of it?

Here it is. The tunnel comes to a large antechamber with a great set of stone stairs leading up to an ornate door decorated to look like a great dwarven hall. At the top of the stairs before the door is a dais with 12 discs set around it on the floor seven of the discs are made of white marvel and five are made from black onyx around the chamber are 12 statues six dwarves

and six halflings each of the statues is posed as if putting a key into a lock and each of the keys have a different number of teeth um as how would you kind of get into this chamber you begin you remember more of the story that your grandmother told you i just remembered something really yeah yeah tell me uh cursed it's very cursed but uh if you don't i will read it out uh just because i didn't want to give kim too much pre pre-information uh because i know that she'd be sitting there trying to work it out um yeah uh i'll read it in Howard's voice. Don't, you'll show me up. It'd be nice to hear it.

You're going to show me up. Howard, the next part of the sort of story, the clues in the story, because there is more to the story, but these are like the clues, like, you know, Indiana Jones has got a little bit. The legacy's path shall not yield to any but a child of stone and field.

The legacy's keys are held by, yeah. The legacy's keys are held by those who came before. Seek their name to open the door. The miner, the master, the weaver, the maker, their keys turned once shall touch the taker. When all four keys are quiet and still, an air's caress unlocks the will. Fuck me.

Could you, like, send that to me? No, I'll just read it out again whenever you want. That's a lot of words. Miner, the master. Can you paste it into Discord? Yes, I can paste it into Discord. Stone and field. Yeah.

The legacy's path shall not yield to any but a child of stone and field. The legacy's keys are held by those who came before. Seek their name to open the door. The miner, the master, the weaver, the maker. Their keys turned once shall touch the taker. When all four keys are quiet and still, an heir's caress shall unlock the will. I will put it in discourse.

So those four came before the stone field one. Miner, master, weaver, maker. So that's the descendant of the master, miner, weaver, maker. They need to point towards the taker. Is that like the undertaker? No, the taker is the person who's going into the... Oh, the person taking... If I may, I wonder,

all the keys have different number of teeth on them. What if this is a case of arithmetics? You reckon? I mean, yeah, how many teeth are on the keys? If you take a closer look, so the statue was literally, it only got like a closer look, you'd need to get closer to a statue to examine it.

If you'd like to do that, you can do that. Just tell me like specifics of what you want to do at this point i mean because there's extra information that like you might get a class to a regular arcana check to feel if there's any magical presence in this room can it's not exactly how arcana works but i'll let you make an arcana check yeah but that would be that that is called detect magic sir i think you're fine magic in this room. I have spent a lot of my magical energy as it is. I can detect magic. Mm-hmm. That would be useful. The chamber's quite large.

Like, you know, it's probably sort of like 90 feet across. It's quite a big chamber. Maybe around the statue area. Okay. Yes, I'll stand by one of the statues. Okay, cast detect magic? Yeah. All right. The statues all resonate

with almost the exact same aura. If you move and check out different statues, they all have the same thing. There's a couple of different pieces of information. With the Detect Magic, each of these statues

does have strong magical auras. Mixture of schools of magic, though. Transmutation, Abjuration, and Enchantment. All different kinds of magic, basically, but very strong transmutation school of magic. The other thing you would notice, Sentry,

taking a closer look at the statues, is the keys, where the head of the key is coming out, there is a seam around the barrel of the key, if you want to think of it that way, which makes it look like the ends can be twisted or turned. Do you want to examine anything else with detect magic or just the statues? Can I look at the dais on the floor? Yeah, up by the door.

Yeah. Yeah, both the dais and the 12 discs around it all have a resonance of magic as well. Okay. And what order are the... Do you step on any of the white or black discs or are you examining them from afar? I'll examine them. Okay.

Do they alternate white and black? They go in... I'll tell you the exact order. It goes white, black, white, white, black, white, black, white, white, black, white, black. Okay. White, black. White, black, white, white, black. White, black. White, black, white, white, black, white, black. Okay. White, black. White, black, white, white, black.

White, black. White, white, black, white, black. Nice. So it might be that white is dwarves and black is halflings, or the other way around? There is seven white discs and five black discs. Can I look at the keys, see how many toothies are on? Each of the different statues, it looks like each of the statues,

one has one, the next one has two, three, four, five, and it goes up to 12. It's just in order. Oh, right. And is it obvious the statues... The statues are all different people as well. Who's a dwarf and who's a halfling? It's obvious which ones are dwarves and halflings. They vary between different genders and styles of dress. Some of them are androgynous, some of them are men, some of them are women,

some of them are young, some of them are old. They're dressing changes from fine clothes to common clothes. How many of the statues are dwarves and how many are halflings? Six in each. Six of each. Six dwarves, six halflings. Okay. White, black. White, black, white, white, black.

Seven white. We've got five black and we've got the miner, master, weaver, maker, and taker, which are five. Can I do some kind of maybe like history check for Howard as to like the roles, like, you know, the miner, the master? Yeah, sure. What's history again? Intelligence.

D20. 15. 15. 15. I mean, yeah, they're all pretty kind of almost like archetypes. Like they're kind of traditional roles in Dwarven and Halfling culture. It's kind of a mixture, right? Weavers and like Makers probably would be more associated with like, I mean, Maker is kind of both.

Everybody has all of these things. But yeah, like a lot of dwarven and um dwarven mainly but some halfling society is you have your job and that's very important to like maybe that forms part of your surname or you know that's your role in the village and like it's very sort of like what you do is almost part of who you are as well um so the miner the maker the take like all of these different things they're probably you know they were people like who like somebody would have been the miner somebody would have been the weaver um and you probably with a 15 as well like you know that like in halfling and dwarven each of those different jobs has like a name like a like a word associated with it and that

sometimes becomes a name as well if you'd like want to name somebody to be a great weaver, you give them normally a typical name that is associated with that word. Are there any names anywhere, like on the statues? Is there anything written? No. Or symbols? Do any statues look like they have a pickaxe or like mining gear?

No, none of them hold other objects except the key. They do have different clothing. Some of them do gear? No, none of them hold other objects except the key. They do have different clothing. Some of them do look more rich. Some of them look more common. But they're beautifully, they're perfectly rendered, especially their faces. They're very intricate and detailed. Is there anything else around the room?

This is all in the middle of the room, right? The statues are kind of scattered all over the place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they look movable? No. Do they point moveable? No. Do they point in different... They do look like, they almost look lifelike, but they don't look like you can drag

or move the statues around. Well, they don't have to put them on the dais then. Are they pointing in different directions? Yes. Can I just try turning one of the keys on one of the statues? Which key would you like to turn? Um...

Let's go one through twelve. Okay, let's just do six. This appears to be the statue of a dwarven boy dressed in fine clothes. Their key has six teeth marks on it. And you just go up and you just want to... Give it a little turn, yeah? You give it a little turn, sure. You turn it, you hear a great and you feel a kind of pulse of magic um the rest of you hear a great stone rumbling as a big stone disc rolls into the doorway of this chamber blocking it off from the tunnel that you entered from um sealing the entrance. You begin to hear a faint hissing,

as you begin to see that from sort of like, seemed kind of built into the cave's walls, gas begins to. Maybe, what was that, who did something? At the same time, that statue of the key that you turned, of this dwarven young dwarven man. Oh! Wait, sentry! Oh! Sorry!

Oh! Okay. Someone was going to. No! Don't ever touch the puzzle! Listen, I love it. That's, it's, you know, rather than sitting around worrying about it,

just do it. I'm worried because I've only got, you know, 30 hit points. 30 hit points. Well, I've actually technically got 25 because I kind of almost fell out of the cave earlier. Yeah. Just pretend to be a statue. I'm just going to pretend to be a statue. Thank you. Quill.

I'm just imagining Sentry is slowly nudging a little bit closer, a little bit closer, raising a hand, then choosing against it. That's it. Okay, just still looking at the key. 12. Lucius. Still looking at the key. 12. Lucius. 18. Howard.

8. 12. 15. Ayla. 18. All right. Lucius or Ayla. I think Ayla has the higher dex, so we'll go with Ayla.

Fuck knows. Yeah, you see this stone statue literally turn on Sentry. It's still holding the key in one of its hand, and it just looks like it's going to start clobbering sentry. Also, at the start of your turn, I need you to make a constitution saving throw for me, please. I agree. Unless you are immune to poison.

That's a natural one. Total, though? Twelve. Twelve. You're going to take three points of poison damage. As you begin coughing, it's like your lungs filled with this poisonous gas. Well, I will rage as my bonus action. Then I think what I want to do is, there's a disc that covered the doorway. Can I see if I can run over and try and move the disc and open up the tunnel again?

You certainly can try. Sure. That'd be a strength athletics check. So it's going to be your full movement to get to the door and then action to try and open it. Strength check. That'd be athletics. Ooh. Strength check. Yep. Ah! B, athletics. Athletics. That is A, plus.

Very high DC. It's very high. 32. 32? Nearly, but even with your immense strength, like you begin pushing this thing and it must weigh thousands of tons. Like it is a thick stone

like pure stone disc. The DC is 35. Oh wow. I can't reach it there. Even with a nat 20. It is immensely heavy. I wanted to try it anyway. Yeah, absolutely. Alright, so Lucius.

The seams that are leaking gas. I'd say actually with you got so close, you've managed to move it an inch. You don't think you can open it, but you've created enough of an airway that some of the gas is not having an effect. So this round, nobody has to worry about the gas,

but you can't, if you hold it open, that's like your whole action is to hold it open. So you need to decide what you want to do on your turn. But for now, no gas for anyone. How big's the seams that are leaking gas in? They're all over the place.

They're everywhere. They're like built into carved walls. There's no chance of covering it up. You could try, but there's lots of them. You can see that like wherever there's like, the cabin looks like it's natural-like formed, you can see that a very carefully, cunningly disguised seam has been hidden amongst it now.

What are the other statues doing? They're just... They're still still. Anything else lit up or changed in the room? seam has been hidden amongst it now. What are the other statues doing? They're just... They're still still. Still fine. Anything else lit up or changed in the room? How do we reset this? And then the statue came alive. And they're still holding the key?

They're still holding the key. And it's twisted still? Mm-hmm. I might try and just get in there and try and twist it back. Sure, yeah. You'd have to make a... This would basically be... You'd have to make a... This would basically be...

You'd make a melee attack, so like an unarmed strike attack to grab it, and then you could try and use your action to turn the key. Natural one. Okay. This thing is just moving around and tries to fight, and you just can't grab it and get a hold on this thing. That's my turn, yeah.

All right. After that, the golem with two new targets, with Lucius and Sentry in it, it just tries to clobber you once each. That is a 22 to hit Lucius. Can I use my new feat? Yes. Yeeeah! This is your Sentinel. Yeah. Okay, so you get to make a free attack against it with your reaction.

I am going to do the damage to Lucius now, but then we'll do your attack as a reaction to that. Nice. So Lucius, you're going to be taking 20 points of bludgeoning damage. Oh! Pothers you in the face. Ow! Sentry gets a free hit.

That hurts a lot. Oh, sorry! You didn't do it. Oh, I did. Come on, I go. 17. 17 just barely hits this thing. Oh, sorry! You didn't do it. Oh, baby, come on, I don't. 17.

17 just barely hits this thing. It, like, breaks through its stony carapace. It is a stone golem. I'll just do a regular Starbreaker attack for now. Okay, no smite. No smite. You do get one D8 because of your improved Divine Smite, so you do get, like, an always-on D8, I think.

So you just get a free attack against... Yeah. Well, as a reaction as a reaction okay so when it hits a creature within five feet of century that's not century she gets to make a free whack as a really strong so that's eight eight points so far 12 total 12 points total um is from a magic weapon so 12 points of damage yeah. Chips some of the statue, breaks some of it apart. Its second attack then goes towards Sentry. It's a copped 24 to hit Sentry. Yep. Okay.

That is gonna be 21 points of bludgeoning damage. Kinda clobbers back into you as it strikes back in retaliation. That's it for its turn. We go to Quill. That's it for its turn. We go to Quill. I guess I'm going to yell to Sentry to twist the key back, like Lucius tried to do, and I'll just Sacred Flame.

Okay. The thing to dex save. Six. Fantastic. That is 48 plus 6, 26 damage. 26 points of damage. 26 radion damage. Okay, yeah, the sacred flame, the radiant energy does sort of break away parts of the golem itself

and you can see it kind of crumble away from the radiant light. Okay. Yeah, and yeah, just telling Sentry, refix what you fixed. Sentry, your turn. Yeah, I'll just do it telling Sentry, I'll re-fix what you fixed. Sentry, your turn. Yeah, I'll do it for Sentry. So it'd be basically like an unarmed strike to try and grab it and grapple it. And then if you do...

22. You do manage to get a grip on its arm, and then you can spend your action, you twist the key. Unfortunately, nothing happens. Oh, that's not working! Oh, good, good. Okay, okay.

I'll solve it. I can roll. So that's unfortunately your action to do that, so unless there's a bonus action you would like to do. Nah, I'm good for bonus actions for now. Howard. Hello. Hello.

I'm going to step up to the beat. I would like to pick up a rock and go through it. Nice. You're gonna throw a rock? Yeah. You're gonna throw a rock. That's a natural one. That's a natural one.

That's a natural one. That's hard! But you do have an effect. But I do have an effect. So I see the rock misses and I'm gonna shout, oi, your mother's a rockery! It does, yeah. And...

But not just the golem. Lucius and Century, Howard is throwing rocks and yelling at this thing, and you two and the golem are all distracted because you're worrying about Howard. You're like, oh, God, Howard's here. You start thinking about Howard. Whilst you are distracted, you take, was it 1d4?

Extra damage? Extra damage. From all sources. I didn't realize it would do it for them. Yeah, well, yeah, you should read the ability. All creatures within five feet of the target, I believe it says. Piss. So you're like, oh, God, we've got to worry about Howard.

You're kind of like worrying about Howard being there. I forgot how I was here. And then this thing is like partly distracted as it's trying to fight you as well. No, I don't mean your mother, Miss Century. Yeah, it's like, what did you say about my mum? Do you have a mother? Yeah.

Existential crisis. Can I do this? Bring her stories, a rockery? Can you bonus action? What? I would like to bonus action, take the help action. Yep. And I will help...

I'll help Ayla, why not? Okay, so you want to give Ayla the help action to do what? Whatever she wants. So you basically, it's like, do you want to help her attack this thing? Do you want to help her, like, you know, do something with the door? I'll help you with the door. Okay, so Howard runs over to the door and he's, like, trying to help Ayla. He's like, what are you going to do here?

Try and wedge my frying pan in it. All right. Oh, there you go. With Howard's wedged frying pan. Howard would give you advantage, which you already have. Howard is not helping you in any way. I rolled a 19 on my previous one, and I physically can't reach the decent.

I'm just here to help, you know? Go, Miss Ayla! Thanks, Howard! Does the frying pan keep it open? No. I mean, I watched a video of a frying pan get crushed by a hydraulic press. Very similar to what happens. I guess, yeah.

The Teflon, was it, uh... Anyway. Anyway! How... How far away from the statue am I? You can get to the statue. Okay, I'm just gonna go to the statue. Not gonna worry, it's the fear of the mind combat, you can easily get to it.

Yeah, give it a whack. Yeah, I'm just gonna do that. I just love that Howard goes over, wedges the frying pan, and is like, I'm helping, Miss Ayla! And she just immediately leaves, and I'm like. And it's like your frying pan is stuck in the house. Sorry, Howard! I had that one for 20 years!

I'm so sorry! 14 plus 15 to hit, I think my Howling Tempest has got the wrong, I'm sure it! 14 plus 15 to hit. I think my Howling Tempest has got the wrong... It's true, it's plus 16. Anyway. It hits. Huh? It hits.

Yeah. It kills. It fucks. It does. What? Let Katie add up. I know! God, so many just like...

Oh!...HD extreme. 15, so many just like, ADHD extreme. 15. The other horse table, yes. 15 damage plus five lightning for the first. So 20 points of damage. Hey bro, nice hammer. Next one is 20 to hit. 20 hits.

18 damage plus one lightning. Just getting over the fact. I'm sorry. Howard's changed you. He fails the, the golem fails the save. It's the Brazilian enemy. 21. 21 more points.

That hammer, fucks. Oh, yeah. All right. With Ayla's two combined strikes and the blast of lightning, I mean, parts of the golem are basically falling off it now. It is still up, but it is badly, badly damaged. It is under half HP. Yeah, as Aayla finishes bashing this thing.

It's pure stone, nothing inside it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, there's like, you maybe see like lines of enchantment or like that that help bring it to life and stuff, but there's no hidden inside there, so no joke. Lucius. It's a giant demon.

Diver, whoa! Lucius. I's a giant, whoa! Lucius. I will help finish that thing off. And we're in melee with it. I am in melee with it. Oh, actually roll two more d4 for me please, Ayla, because technically it was distracted by Howard, so you helped.

Oh, d4. Yeah, d4. Yeah, two d4 extra damage. Super distracted. Six. Six more points, alright. Alright. Sorry Lucius.

I'm just gonna cast Frostbite on it. Okay. Is that a ranged spell? Frostbite is... Saving throw? Oh, it is. Hold on. I thought that was gonna be a touch one. It's not. What about Chill Touch?

I don't have that. That's also not a touch spell. That's done. That's necrotic as well. I'm going to get my sword out and swack it. Swack it. Swack it? Swag it. Don't come in, I'm swacking.

Wait, I know I do have it. It's fine, I thought I do have it. It's fine, that's all I've got. Okay. God, our brains are broken tonight. Natural 20. That's a joke. You're joking. It's a crit, he's rolled three.

I wanna see 2023 stats. Oh, these are all 20s on there. Yeah. So the base damage of it, so it's eight plus the modifier, so what's its normal damage? It's one D8 plus four. So it'd be 12 the modifier. So what's its normal damage? It's 1d8 plus four. So it'd be 12 damage plus another d8.

I'm doing it one-handed because I imagine getting a sword out and swinging. Luchas is more of a one-handed fight. Eight. A one-handed fight. So what was it? 12 plus eight, 20 points of damage. Nice. Yeah, you're going to chop it down.

You cut into the arm with a magical blade slicing through the stone, badly damaging it, like breaking part of its forearm off. Still up, but badly, badly damaged now. Excellent. Cool. End of turn for Lucius? Yeah. Alright. The golem, still partially distracted, is gonna lash out. It is going to...

It's kind of in its defensive mode, actually. It's got three of you around it. So actually rather than making attacks. D4? Huh? Oh yeah, plus a D4 please, yeah, for the distraction. Is it two D4? No, it's because you hit it twice. Three. Oh, because I hit. Three more points.

Is it dead? It is not dead, no, unfortunately not. Yeah, it's not, the golem doesn't really know what's going on, it doesn't know it's badly injured, but with having three of you around it, it's going to activate like a field of magic. I need Lucius, Aayla, and Sentry to make wisdom saving throws, please. Oh, crap. Plus three.

Plus three from Sentry. That's really good for me. Six. Six. Twelve. Twelve. Sixteen. Sixteen.

All three of you fail and are under the slow spell you can only make one attack can't use reactions your speed is halved but that's it the golem is just like it almost like it activates that automatically

when enough of you get nearby but that's its whole turn quill like flapping wings at the poison has the poison come back now by the way

yes it would have done so yes after Ayla's go Lucius can you make a con save, and Ayla, Quill, you will make a con save. You're welcome. Would it be on mine, because the door was open at the start of my turn.

Yeah, true, yeah, okay, so no Ayla. But just Quill. 22. 22, yep, you're fine. 10, but I do have resistance to poison. All right, then you take, instead of four, you take two poison damage. Oh my god, I'm going to die. Very slow.

5,000 cuts. Quilt, your turn. I start screaming. Okay, I'm just going to Sacred Flame this guy again. It fails. All right. So Sacred Flame plus a D4. Total of one.

Is this your dice? Three, 25, 28. 28 points. Oh, is this some... We got a set recently, didn't we? Yeah. All right. With that, the Sacred Flame, the Radiant Energy,

breaks what's left of this golem apart and it crumbles into stone pieces to debris at your feet and it is defeated. You are no longer under the slow spell and the golem is dead. And the poison? After a few moments, after about six seconds, the door rolls back and the gas stops emanating into the room.

Okay. Okay, now, Sentry? That was number six. Yeah, that was exciting. Sentry, did you... Did you twist a key? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, why? Don't do that. Just try something. We weren't getting anywhere. We had been in the room for like six, 12 seconds max. It felt like half a session's worth of figuring out shit. I saw it could be turned and I turned it. No fighting, everyone.

All of it could be turned. Master Quill, come on now. No fighting, everyone. All of it could be turned. Okay. Master Quill, come on now. No Quill words. Century, thank you for trying something. It's eliminated one of the options, and it's made things easier in the future. I feel like trying things will lead us to our demise, but I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your actions.

I twist a key. I punch Luciusness of your actions. I twist a key. I punch Lucius in his fucking face. To get these key twists absolutely correct. So there has to be information here that signifies which four to do. Yes, Howard. You said there was some chain mail on the ground. Yeah, old, old, yeah, like really, really ancient, yeah.

So Howard would recall there was a part of the tale about how eventually, because of the falling out between the dwarves and the halflings, there was a battle within the vault. I'll tell you this, it doesn't look like it's like, it's not good dwarven-made chain mail or anything like that. Cheap. It looks cheap, and the cloth and things like that, it's all dark clothing.

I mean, it might be that these were thieves that came in. They've triggered one of these traps, maybe had to fight one of these golems or something like that and got killed. Or it could be from this battle that you remember. It's kind of the two options that you think are most likely. Is it facing inwards towards? It's like in a pile. It looks like it's like somebody. It's an arrow.

Honestly, anybody can make a medicine check or a investigation, which is intelligence. Ooh, 19 plus four. Okay. On medicine? No, investigation. Yeah, kind of looking around about it, Howard kind of gets a bit of CSI on it.

You're like, actually, the way it's been dropped here, it looks like somebody fell, like somebody fell down. And then the way the chain mail's laid and the scraps of cloth almost look like they were maybe clothing or leather boots maybe. It looks like somebody died here and then their remains have rotted away after so many years. They've basically decomposed and only the metal

and this little very flimsy piece of hardened leather is left. And it's like dust at this point. You pick it up and it's... And is there anything, like identifiers or any... There's some crimson stains under it, but no identifiers or anything. It's so rusted and old. Flowers.

So nothing useful. Are they near a statue? Are they near a statue? Hmm? Are they near a statue? Yeah, it is actually. It is near the... What number is this? One, two, three...

The fourth statue. Maybe not that one. So you said all the statues are pointing in different directions. Does it so happen that there's any pointed towards that dais in the middle? Or four of them. Some of them could be seen as being looking that way, but it's not a direct... Yeah, not a definitive thing. Okay.

But I'd say maybe seven of them look like vaguely they're looking in that direction, but you're not sure if that's intentional or if that's just happenstance. Yeah. But again, none of them immediately look like miners, masters, weavers, makers. They don't have any objects, yeah.

Even by their clothing, there are some that you would... I would say Quill can identify with your massive whopping perception. In Gorge. Your passive perception. What's your passive investigation as well? Do you have a high passive investigation? I do. No, I don't, actually.

It's 17. 17. 17's enough. I mean, yeah, you can tell that some of these statues are wearing kind of more common clothes and they tend to be like, you could almost imagine that them being sort of more certain like roles, like, you know, like, you know, maybe some of them look like they might be dressed like a baker or like a carpenter or something like that. The other ones who are dressed more finely definitely seem to strike you as being more associated

with wealth or power or something that might be, you know, important to these kind of cultures. Okay. There's definitely, but it's, they don't have the clothing of like, oh, that one's clearly a this. I could like categorize some of them and say, one of these three is a minor.

One of these is definitively a master. Like you can't definitively know well. I just mean like Yeah, I guess if I if we pick if we find the minor we can then say right we know it's not those three Yeah, if you can find one that might help you yeah Determine some of the other one how many look like they have common clothes and not like wealthy clothes Two three and not like wealthy clothes. One, two, three, four, five, six of them are wearing about common clothes out of the now remaining 11. So five have got either fine clothes. One of them seems to be wearing armor as well.

Okay. I don't think a weaver, a miner, maybe the master, maker. Maker maybe. I mean, I get the impression that the taker, in this sense, might be Howard. Potentially. I mean, we haven't actually tried anything to do

with this platform. The dais, yeah. Yeah. With the 12 disks around it. I don't want tried anything to do with this platform. The dais, yeah. Yeah. Twelve discs around it. I don't want more gas coming out and choking everyone. All four keys are quiet and still. An air's caressed unlocks the will. So there's definitely something about me touching something at some point.

We need to find out their names. And again, their names could be associated with their careers. Yeah. So there's no wording here or anything like that. Can I go over to one of the statues and not touch it, but just have a look at the statue itself and see if there's anything on the statue or the base of the statue, anything at all, the key that has anything... There's no writing. You can see very you know, very beautifully sculpted and written. You can see the different teeth,

like the different, you know, amounts of teeth on each key described before, but yeah, nothing really else that stands out. I mean, they're really realistic. Like, they almost look like people that you could, you know, like,

you know, like converse with, or like they almost look like petrified like people, but you've seen the golem come to life, you know that they're not. We've messed up one of the children ones right uh it was a young yeah kind of like a young man maybe not like a child but like a young man like a teenager there are children here though yeah there's some who would look younger and there's some who look older yeah there are some who are men some who are women some of them look androgynous or like um non-binary

oh i see the first part is we need a person that is from halfling. Yes, stone. A child of stone and field. So stone is probably dwarf and field is halfling. Yeah, so that's you. That's me.

Do any of them look like a dwarf? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a bunch of them. There were six dwarves and there were six halflings. So there's now five dwarves and six halflings, but... So no, the dwarves would be the miners, probably.

That's typecasting, that is. Sorry. But they did enlist. There's something about their names. If we know their names, we know what they do. Seek their name to open the door. How do we find their names? What are your names?

You are sat in just out loud? Yes. Okay. Does anyone know that in halfling or dwarvish? I can say it in halfling. Yeah, say it in halfling. Okay. Or dwarvish.

After you, Miss Taylor? Sure, I'll go. I'll say it in dwarvish. Are you going to say it out loud to all of them or are you going to go up to an individual statue? Oh, I'll go up to an individual dwarf. Sure. Give me a number between one and eleven.

Or one and twelve, sorry. That isn't six. Because that's destroyed. Well, I guess not one and twelve because it might be a halfling, right? Oh, one and twelve, sorry. That isn't six. Because that's destroyed. Well, I guess not one and twelve, because it might be a halfling then, right? Oh yeah, true, yeah. Between one and six. One and twelve's easier, because then I can track it down. Which statue do you want to go up? Number two?

Number two? Two is a halfling. You could go one and three. Number three? Yeah, you can go up to the third statue. And when you say, in Dwarven, what is your name? What's your name? The mouth animates. Oh, my God.

We literally just had to talk to them. Ask their name. Learn their name. And the statue goes, Farrow. Farrow? Farrow. And you speak Dwarven, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Does anybody else speak Dwarven? Yeah. So Sentry and Ayla, you both know that Farrow means minor in Dwarven. Okay. Boom! and you speak dwarven right yeah yeah does anybody else speak dwarven yeah so century and ala you both know that pharaoh means minor in dwarven okay okay all right nice how would you talk to the halflings all right um find out their names i'll go around and talk to the halflings okay which numbered statue would you like to go to number two so the two okay so out of all of the 12 because i'm not going to do it by halfling, I've got them in a list here. So the second one is a halfling man dressed in armour.

His key is two bars. And you ask in halfling, what is your name? Yeah. In halfling, the man says, Milo. Which means warrior in halfling. Okay, warrior. Okay. Not that one. So the miner was number three.

Don't twist his key. Yes. Can we, through mitigation of asking everybody, find out the four? Yeah, I mean, you find out the first statue is called Shira, which means baker. You've learnt two, you've learnt three. The fourth statue is of a young dwarven girl with four teeth on the key. Her name is Mivna, which means baker. The fifth is a halfling girl dressed in common clothes

with five teeth marks called Mavna, which means weaver. I'll just jump ahead because you want to mind. So five is... So yeah, so certainly three and five is miner and then weaver. Number one. They might have had a cold. Baker might be maker. Baker. Baker. Number one They might have had a cold Baker might be maker Baker

Number nine Is a dwarven man dressed in five clothes With nine teeth marks on their key Their name is Arvos Which means master Okay we've got a master We have to find the legacy of Arvos And then the very last one

Number twelve Is a halfling man dressed in common clothes With twelve teeth marks on their key. Their name is Valin, which means maker. Okay. So in order. So in order, it's three, five, nine, 12. Three, five, nine, 12.

Oh, that is literally Miner, Master, Weaver. Maker. Maker, in order. No, that's not, oh, Miner is three. Right. Miner, so it's three, nine. Weaver maker. Is it maker then? Weaver maker.

Weaver maker, so three, nine, five, twelve. Okay, three, nine, five, twelve. Just remember that, just in case that's right. Their keys once turned will touch the taker. When all four keys are quiet and still, then the caressing. Okay, so I feel like they're going to move a lot. Something's going to happen.

They're going to move. So we just need to, let's all just stand by one. Let's stand near Howard, protect Howard. Well, they're probably going to move towards the taker. They touch the taker. Oh, and they need to be quiet and still, yes. All right. Well, just in case.

I still feel like the platform. I would still like it if you will protect me, though. I'm going to stand in the middle. If you could form a shield around me, that would be nice. Is the dais the furthest point from all of the statues? Maybe not the furthest point from all of them, no. It's a very central point because it's right by the door. I really want to put you on a platform.

I don't want to go on a platform. I'm going to stand in the middle here. Okay. What are you going to say? Twist number three. You're going to... Ayla, twist number three. Oh're gonna, Ayla twists number three. Oh no, actually, you should twist them.

You should twist them. Okay. Because you're- Can you hold me while I twist it? No, I'll be right near you. Can you just pick me up and hold me? And then I'll twist it. I'll go and twist it.

Okay, just be wary. It might wake up and still attack us. Just don't destroy it. Don't let it twist it. Okay, just be wary. It might wake up and still attack us. Just don't destroy it. Don't let it hurt me. Okay. So Howard is gonna turn the key of number three. The third key. All right.

When you do, Howard, you twist it, and there is a pulse of magic. Howard, you begin to hear like a note, like a musical note in your head. You cannot hear anything else. You're deafened to everything else. All you can hear like a note, like a musical note in your head. You cannot hear anything else. You're deafened to everything else. All you can hear is this like, what? This note, this ringing note.

I guess you turn around. Yeah, I mean, you don't even hear that. You see their mouths moving. Well, it didn't come alive, so that's good. I'm just covering my mouth, because otherwise it's gonna be loud. I can't hear it! There's a note in my head, there's music!

Just say it, I'm shouting. I'm shouting There's a note in my head! There's music! Just say, I'm shouting. I'm shouting. There's music in my head! Oh, okay. Your lips are moving, but I can't hear anything. What are you saying? We just switched sides.

Your lips keep going. I'm going to message. Just put Howard there. Howard. Can't hear. Message requires hearing. It's not telepathic communication. If you put Howard in front of the next statue.

I'll take him to nine and put him down. Oh, it's so loud in here. Oh, yeah. I guess you want me to twist this? When Howard goes to turn this key, it doesn't move. Like, he goes to try and turn it, but, like, it won't move when Howard touches it. It's not twisting, Miss Ayla. Have you tried caressing?

He can't hear you. I don't know what you're saying, Master Quill. What's the thing? The key's turned once. Is this something with the die? If the key's turned once, she'll touch the taker. Have you been... Do we have to turn them all at the same time?

Oh, when all four keys are quiet and still, there's a music playing in Howard's head right now. It's so loud right now, I don't know what you're saying. Maybe one single tone. After about six seconds, Howard, you take one point of psychic damage. Oh no Oh it really hurts I think my ears are bleeding

You see like a little bit Of blood out Of Howard's nose Okay Howard's nose is bleeding Maybe untwist it No Can I twist nine

You twist nine That's the next one That is the master Yes Yeah That's the next one Same thing happens to Ayla Ayla

You're hearing You become deafened to everything But you hear a musical note In your ear Okay next one. Same thing happens to Ayla. Ayla, you're hearing, you become deafened to everything, but you hear a musical note in your ear. Okay. Yeah, same thing, same thing. I can see that face. Who wants to do it? I can do one.

Five and 12. I'll do five. Okay, same thing, deafened. You're hearing a musical note in your ear. Oh, this is not pleasant. This is not good, guys! Rock, paper, scissors. Oh, this is not pleasant. This is not good, guys! Rock, paper, scissors? Oh, hurry up, guys.

Aayla and Sensory take a point. One, two, three, boom. The longer you take to decide. Boom. You go. Okay. I twist the final one.

Yeah, same thing happens. You become deafened. Ah! But it's not like, it's like, you're deafened. It's not because it's so loud that you're deafened, it's not because it's so loud that you're deafened, it's like this magical effect

deafens you magically, and then all you can hear is this pleasant like, like different tone. I think my brain's coming out my nose. Anything, anything happening? Nothing happens. I'm gonna go point to the platform for Howard. Can I go stand on the third platform? On the discs, the black and white discs around the dice?

Yeah, when you step on it, there is like a, you, I mean, you step on it, nothing happens for you. Quill, you hear a tone. You hear a like a boo, boo. I heard a boo. Oh, you can't hear me. Okay, wait, who was you? Nine.

Nine, go stand on. You here. I'll go and stand on the ninth. I'll gesture everyone over to the relevant numbers of discs. All right, I'll stand on 12. Yeah. When they stand on them, of course, you all hear notes,

but nothing seems to happen just yet. Every time there is a note, there is a pulse on the diastole. Hold on a minute. Can you read out the colors again? And the order? White, black, white, white, black. White, black, white, white, black, white, black, white, white, black, white, black. So it's a piano.

It's a piano, yeah. I can see it now, yeah. So we need to figure out the tone of the piano we're on. I mean, there's no way of knowing if the tone you can hear is the same as the one that I can hear, because you can't hear what I can hear, and I can't hear what you can hear. You might have to work as a team.

I'm going to start singing my note at you. Okay, great. Could you make... Are you proficient in performance, Lucius? Do you have a proficiency in performance or a musical instrument? I don't have proficiency. I don't know if I... Absolute tones.

No, it's fine. Would I not be able to just sing the note? You can try. It's a performance check. If you're not trained in music, it's like saying to me, like, sing a C, I'd be like... I'm hearing. Yeah, but like you might not have I'm toned if

I can't I can't replace a pitch because you're being deafened and you can't hear yourself yeah you can't hear yourself yeah that's true but if you were proficient in it I'd say you're

13 okay that's a C you don't know how it feels to sing that note 13 yeah you

it's a yeah it's close enough that Quill hears I take 1d4 psychic damage okay wait hang on you three

everybody who has a tone take another point of psychic damage I'm pointing at the three that other than Lucius to come off the thing is the note that Lucius is howling the same as the one he stood on?

Yeah, because you wanted to stand on the number of teeth on the key. You were like that position. Yeah. But then actually, no, they're in a circle, so how would you know where number one is? So it's a potluck which one you stood on. So, I mean, if his needs to be higher or lower, I mean, I guess do I need to also make a are you proficient in music am i proficient in any musical instruments or performance i am a

bird he can hit both notes i'd give you advantage then if you don't have any proficiency i'll let you have an answer okay i didn't expect that um performance oh, the first one was a one. 16 plus performance? Okay. One, yeah, 17. 17. If you go around and you like, touch each of these white and black discs, they each produce a different tone,

and it is exactly like you guessed, like a piano. You can find the one that matches. Can I play Chopsticks? Yeah, ding ding ding ding. Yeah, everyone takes a point, it's like. You can find the one that matches the tone that Lucius is singing, yes. Okay, yeah, I'll put Lucius on that one,

and if someone else sings a note and I recognise... Okay, Lucius steps on it, nothing happens. Everyone on the same, on their relevant notes. Okay. I guess, can we use the one that Lucius is on to count around? That's what I mean, yeah. Yes, you can. Okay, let's try that then. If you worked it out, you know that Lucius would be on on a because i can't remember which how many was number did you

have five five or you know it was 12. um 12 so it's a g-shot oh you mother keys is you absolute bastard in the year of 2023, you punned us. As you have figured this out, the only thing is you get everybody to stand on their relevant note. I'm not going to make more checks, so I want to speed through it so we can wrap up the episode. You get everyone to stand on the individual discs, but nothing changes.

You do see that every time somebody steps on one of those discs, the dais has like a pulse of magic. Their keys turned once shall touch the taker. Undertaker? The dais has like a pulse of magic. Their keys turned once shall touch the taker. Undertaker? Yeah, having them stood on the white and black discs, no change, even on their correct key. Turned once. Can I turn around?

You turn around. Nothing happens. The dais is in the middle of the white and black discs. Someone shall touch the taker. What if we all moved up one? Move up one. So if we all move up. No change. Move down one.

Move down one, no change. Everyone take a point of psychic damage if you have the time. Can we touch each other? You can. Where we're stood. Well, I mean, well, some of them, no. Yeah, based on your positions, no.

Touch the taker. The key's turned once, you'll touch the taker. I mean, it doesn't- Does the dice move? Yeah, there's Quill with his eye of perception. When you touch that tone, there's a pulse. It vibrates. I mean...

Stand on it? I'll stand on the platform. You stand on the platform. It's only when you touch the disc that it pulses and vibrates. When you touch the different note keys. The dice, I mean. Yeah, you stand on the dice, nothing. Even if we all step off and step on them at the exact same time?

Yeah. Okay, I'm going to stand on the dais, get everyone off it, and then I'm just going to do one by one and just do it like a scale. Like starting with lowest to highest and then just hear what that... So you're on the dais and then you have them stand on the white and black, the relevant note disc. But not all at the same time. No, but not all at the same time.

One off, one off. I'm trying to figure out if I can hear like a song or a tune or something out of these individual notes. Not really, they're just different notes. It's not like a tone or anything like that. And does it twist when you're on it? When all four keys are quiet and still. And air's caress unlocks the will.

So... Can you try a bunch of stuff? When we get off of it and it's quiet and still. Even though Howard can hear the tone, it doesn't necessarily mean they have to be the one to identify the note. So I'm going to direct Howard to stand on the dice and then I'll stand on their platform. Howard, you no longer hear the tone

and the disc vibrates and that pulse seems to reverberate and you see the door shudder for a second. Howard, you can now hear normally and the tone goes. Oh, that's nice. What's nice? Wait, you can hear me? Yeah, I can. Lucius, I'm pointing at Lucius.

Stand on the dais. And it was like when you stood on the dais, as soon as Quill touched that thing, it was like you felt like a vibration through your body and then the sound stopped, like as if it was something. That was lovely. Yeah. Okay, we need to remove the sound from everyone's heads by putting them on the dais and then the sound stopped like as if it was something Okay, we need to remove the sound from everyone's heads by putting them on the dice and then standing on their thing, okay

Get on and then individually relate their notes bing bing bing once all four have been done all of you now here again the door Begins to open and that's where we'll end the episode. We solved the puzzle! We solved the puzzle, not by dispelling it. I mean, yeah, you could have, yeah. There was probably a solution to the lantern. You probably could have just been like, great restoration, maybe. But hey, that is going to be it for this part.

Thank you very much for joining us. We'll see you next week for more High Rollers D&D. Until then, take care. We love you. Bye-bye. See ya. Bye.

So fucking smart.