High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #172 | Festival of New Stars (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

The Stormchasers embark for Aelseraph to take down the beasts of Land, Sea and Air but they're just in time for the Festival of New Stars! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes and more 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

Welcome back to part two of Hyrule's Aroas. You join us as the party, having returned to Horizon, acquired magical items for companions who were perhaps in need of new equipment, catching up with their contacts and their allies. And now we jump ahead a few more days as the party aboard the stormchaser arrive to a continent on a roast that they have not visited before a new land al-saraf is in quill you would know this so this is information you could have passed on to to the team as you're kind of making your way here. It's a really pleasant place. Literally nothing goes wrong there.

Why would you even try and do this? It's like the Windows XP background. I say in character. Because you gave him a taste of power once. He just loves it now. If I say it, then it's capital. Would you like me to tell you about Alceraph? Yeah, go on then.

Is it just like that? Nope. Shit. Alceraph is a continent that is afflicted by powerful magic. Cause it to have extreme biomes that don't obey natural order. The presence of powerful primordial magic, like clear connection to a telekis, means that the land itself has a bit of a will of its own.

Nature spirits are extremely common, so things like trees and rocks and rivers or a stone might actually manifest a spiritual creature being. And the people here have to live alongside those spirits as well as the extreme weather conditions. There is a long mountain range that runs from the northeast tip to the southwest with a central kind of line dividing the continent almost in half. That range of mountains is called the Spearfall Mountains, as it looks like a number of spears that Italicus threw down, implanted into the ground, great stony spears.

Nice. The southern side of Al-Saraf is warmer, with a dense, hilly forest environment, whilst the northern side of those mountains is basically an arctic, scattered with a few alpine woodlands, craggy hills and snow-covered plains the northern east tip is almost entirely mountainous with no flat land it's very inhospitable whilst the southwestern area is nearly barren and desert-like creating these extreme biomes that naturally wouldn't really fit together with the temperatures and things

like that but because of the powerful primordial magic, it does. It's very, very few people live in Elseref. There are no governments, there's no nations. The people that do live here are kind of isolated communities or very small kind of, you know, rural self-policed kind of groups and environments, right? So there's no like kingdoms, there's no, you know, duchies or like borders or anything like that. It's just like pockets of people surviving in the wilderness.

The Stormchaser, having been given directions, makes its way towards the sort of central part of the Long Continent where you've been given directions to a place called Starwatch Rise. You don't know much about this place, even Quill, this wouldn't really appear in Messenger Guild records or things like that. Most places in Alcereth don't because a lot of it changes quite easily and people don't really travel there. But the Stormchaser makes good speed and you come across seeing this lush, thick woodland,

almost like the Rocky Mountains. You have those thick alpine pine, forests around it as well. And at the base of the mountains, like big steep hill lands as well. So it's kind of like these grassy plains with these kind of pine tree kind of woods nestled amongst the hills that then eventually become the mountains, the Spitfall Mountains. Melteds. The place, the town, I guess it would be like a large town, a settlement of Starwatch Rise is built into three large hills. And you can see that there are like windows actually in the hill itself, kind of like little hobbit holes with doors and things like that. And it looks like there is a network of like tunnels and dirt kind of like pathways that can connect them all. But then there are also bridges between all three of the hills and there are like buildings that have been built on top of them there's farmland

there are stairs that lead down to like the the more flatter flatter ground sorry um where there are farmlands and things like that and it is entirely populated by borough folk um so like san along is these are humanoids bunny ears bunny tails kind of slightly um not digit not fully digit trade legs but like longer feet and kind of have like this, you know, rabbit-like look. Some of them are more rabbit than others. Some of them look more humanoid. Some of them are kind of closer to nearly like having like the rabbit-like nose and kind of like a, you know, a mouth and snout and stuff like that. But all mixed around different types. And you can see that they just look up at the

airship and they're waving. And you can see that there are colored banners of sort of blues and golds scattered around the village like it looks like they are in some sort of party festival environment there are also numerous paper lanterns and you can see that they've all been like placed out and like strung up and everything else around all of their their homes and settlements um and it looks to be in like a big kind of celebrationary mood like there's no sort of like worry or fear these people seem to be having a great time um you can see that there are a scattered amount of wild elves and they're kind of amongst them um but they definitely look like they are visitors or travelers not necessarily locals um the araya and lucius uh sort of ariya briefly speaks with lucius and quill and they find a kind of settled place where the the storm chaser can actually dock um it's not really like flat

ground so the airship will have to stay slightly afloat but there is like a plateau where you can dismount and then a mountain trail basically leads you down to this this village this town um you can actually already begin to see from the deck of the airship some young borough folk who are making their way up to that plateau, and they're kind of dressed like guides, right? They've kind of got good traveling gear, they've got mountain boots, ropes, they look like they are kind of guides and pathfinders that are probably going to come up and take you down to the village. And you can see, yeah, it's a big mood. One thing you notice down in the farms is, you know,

you don't see, like, cattle. You don't see, like, you know, meat and sheeps and pigs and things like that. It's almost all vegetables and crops and things like that. There are very large pumpkins. Like, big pumpkins, okay? Like, you see them from the storm chaser as you get closer. Oh, wow. Like, you're like, those must be massive,

because you can see them, like, from above. And you're like, that's massive. These would be, like, nearly, like, 10-foot-tall pumpkins. Wow. Okay. I was going to ask, as we're flying in, do we see any signs of... Stonewall. Well, Stone we see any signs of... Stone Moor.

Well, Stone Moor or any of the beasts, even in the far distance, or even just like where there's been a battle or damage. Oh, damage, yes. I mean, so right now you are coming from the sort of, you're going towards the southern half of Al-Saraf. So you've mostly been traveling across ocean. You've mostly been traveling across just open ocean this whole time. But as you do start to get closer,

I mean, yeah, like even from a distance, you begin to see like, you can see off in the distance, like that looks like a section of forest has just collapsed in on itself. And it looks like something's torn through it. You see shipwrecks like on the coast and stuff like that.

Big galleons, orc galleons, like have been just torn apart. On one of the days uh and there is a moment where it's like what are we gonna do uh you see thick clouds all over al-saraf like the weather obviously in al-saraf is maybe a bit stormy a bit rainy and you see something that looks like the clouds itself is moving and then you see like lightning kind of and then you see uh like a spray of like an acid-like kind of like spray and mist a green kind of cloud kind of almost like something many things are like battling in these clouds and then it disappears after a few moments as you draw

clothes so it's like a constant awareness that there are just three giant beasts in this land So it's like a constant awareness that there are just three giant beasts in this land. Yeah. Okay. But giant pumpkins, though. Yeah, and the Burra folk don't seem to be phased. They're just like, yeah, having a lovely time. And if we say hello to the guides as we pass by... So yeah, the ship kind of gets to the point that Orion docks the ship.

She throws the anchor out, wedges it, connects it with chains to the mountain mount side the crew go down there and like you know pitting it in um so they can sort of rest and they can power the ship down to an extent um and uh yeah the gang the boarding plank is extended out so you can kind of get down to this rocky cliffy cliff plateau um and stood there uh would probably be um there's a bunch of different they're all young kind of borough folk they all look kind of fit and healthy, but the one who's kind of at the front, how would I best describe him? He's really hunky.

He's like very muscly. He's kind of got like that kind of like chiseled jaw. He looks like a lumberjack, like a kind of like big strapping kind of like, and he's got the big muscles and the broad shoulders and stuff. He's got like big tall ears. He looks more humanoid. So he has like mostly a human face, maybe a little kind of like pressed in button nose

but the big ears um tell me more and uh he's got like you can see he's got like a big hatchet on his belt um and maybe like not a plaid shirt but like almost like a kind of you know shirt like a lumberjack you know he kind of looks like a like a logsman or like a woodsman or something like that um and he's got a number of other kind of like very accomplished looking hikers, basically, like kind of like along with him. And he's like, hello. Hello there. Come on.

Hello. Come in. Come down. Hello. Welcome. Welcome. He's like calling out to you like, don't be shy. Come down.

Okay. Everyone off the ship. Yeah. Hi. Hello. Hey. Oh, hey! And he kind of like looks down and he's tall. He's like nearly six foot tall. The other Borafolk aren't nearly as tall as him.

He's big. He's like a big boy. Big bunny boy. He's a big bunny boy. Well, we are the Storm Chasers, here to assist with the threat, the ongoing threat in El Sarav. Right, the big beasts. Yeah, yeah. So the Morgaine told us that you're some sort of famous heroes

and you're coming to fight the beasts. That's great. We've got some renown for... Good for you. ...saving. Thank you. We don't really know much about everything else out there. We kind of keep to ourselves here.

We hear a few things now and then. We've got cousins and brothers and sisters from all over Arois that come and give us news sometimes, but we're mainly just here. We don't know much about what's going on out there, so if you can come and get rid of these big beasties, that's great for us. We're happy to help in any way we can. Yes. You're a guardian, aren't you?

I am, yes. Wow, we've never seen a guardian before, but we've heard about you. Oh, that's exciting. You are incredibly high spirits. Yes, of course. Yeah, we've got a lovely festival going on. It's a really important time of year for us. Oh, I didn't introduce you. Name's Jack. Jack Brighttail.

Jack Brighttail. Well, key like I call him. They call me Big Jack. Big Jack. Mm-hmm. Okay, well... Big Jack. Big Jack. Mm-hmm. Okay, well. Big Jack. Big Jack, Keylight Catcaller. Or Woody Jack, or...

You have a lot of names. Yeah, yeah. Nicknames and things like that, but yeah, yeah. Well, Keylight Catcaller, or Quill. Quill works. I like nicknames. I like nicknames. Quill, then.

In that case, Aayla doesn't really have a nickname. Yeah, no, that's fine. Yeah. I know you. I know this one. Wild Elf. Yeah, that's fine. I know you. I know this one. Wild elf. Yeah, that's right. Are there many wild elves here?

Because I've not... We see out of... I mean, we don't see many others. There's a couple of... We see occasionally humans and some other folks who have settlements all kind of around the ridge, but we don't really see much of them.

But the wild elves, they travel all around the place. We do a lot of trading with wild elves they buy our food we buy like um you know materials and hunting leathers and things like that from them and we need them so yeah i'm you know we've spent a lot of time around the wild elves so we've got a couple here for the festival i think they're the ones waiting for you guys uh going out on the big um hunt yeah brilliant probably great so ayla i'm Sentinel Prime, or you can call me Sentry. Sentry. I like nicknames. Sentry's great.

Sentry. Sentry's great. I'm Nova. To meet you, Nova. He just completely goes there. He's just like, cool, okay, Nova it is. And who are you? And he's like, Lucius Vivian, Eloy Nillinaste, you can call me Lucius. He's like, Lucius it is? Yeah, great, well, we've got a village.

I hope you're ready. We'd be delighted if you would join us for some of our festivities. It's the last day of our festival today, so it's kind of a big, important day. We hope you don't mind us kind of going about it, and you're more than welcome to join in. Oh, I mean, we wouldn't want to intrude.

Oh, no, it's not intruding. No, we'd be delighted. We'd be honoured to have you here for it. Like, it's an important time. We'd love for you to be part of it. Well, I'll have to be honest. I personally am not aware of the festival. What is it you're celebrating?

Oh, it's fine. It's called the Festival of New Stars is what it's called. It's an old tradition. It goes back all the way back to when the gods walked Aroes before the Dark War. Right, yes. Yeah, it goes all the way back to there. And there used to be many beast folk and borough folk who...

This was... Alcerath, before everything changed, was the domain of Atelicus. And it was a very beautiful land. And it wasn't like it is now. It was a perfect haven for the beast folk to live in and yeah this festival was a celebration of Atelicus and Siasca and many of the other gods and we've been keeping the traditions ever since. There's not really most of the borough folk, other families they've moved away. This town's mainly the Bright Tales, we're all Bright Tales here.

mainly the bright tails. We're all bright tails here. Wow. Okay. I mean, yes, we certainly would welcome a... Break. Break. Small bit of fun.

Before what needs to be done, yes. Well, it's definitely fun. There's a good bit of work to do as well. It's a big part of it as well, but we've got, there's going to be fun, there's games, there's food. There's lots of food. We love our food, lots of that. Yeah, I'll take you through it.

I'll introduce you to some people, we all do different things here. I've got an important job to do coming up, so I need to go get ready for that. I'll have somebody else explain it to you. Wonderful, well, bash your head against the wall. What? It's still not good. Break a Well, bash your head against the wall. What? It's still not good. Break a leg. Is that what you said?

Break a leg is what I said, yeah. Is that...? Well, that would be really... I mean, I wouldn't be able to... Why would you want me to break my leg? I thought it was bash your head against the wall, but just good luck. It's like the worst thing for a climber and a guide to do. No, don't do that. No.

I guess I could maybe cut it off. And if I tried it off and if i if i tried it off i could make it back not necessarily just saying for good luck you should probably just say good luck that's what i said that's confusing okay it's fashion you know different people different things it's all it's fine apparently maybe it's you know it's just our way of doing it but different ways of doing things let's take you you down. I'll introduce you to Mama. Matriarch, I call her Mama. It's an old thing.

But let me introduce you to her, and I'll introduce you to a few other people, and then I'm going to have to leave you and go get ready. So let's take you down. You don't mind a bit of hiking? Oh, not at all. Great. Perfect.

Great. Piggyback? Piggyback. Yeah, sure. If youback? Piggyback. Yeah, sure, if you want to piggyback Nova, Lucius is like, nice entry. No, no, no, no.

Piggyback Lucius. Yay! Nova died, she gets a piggyback. Yeah, that's fair. I thought you meant she died on the piggyback when she said that. What happened? Perma-dead.

I just threw her out. Big Jack will take you down to Starwatch. Starwatch Rise is the full name, but most people here just call it Starwatch. And yeah, you quickly realize that, yeah, being all borough folk, those three hills are their, like, warren. And they have, like, inside, there is a whole town inside these hills all connected up as well. And then they have the outside as well,

where they've got, like, wooden buildings and things like that for visitors, but also, you well and then they have the outside as well where they've got like wooden buildings and then things like that for visitors but also you know so they enjoy the countryside very very at home in nature here like you can see that they've kind of blended themselves with the world it's not like they've tried to build like a big wall and wall themselves off they've used the natural environment they're gonna really settle into it takes you like an hour to hike down from the from the weather the storm chaser is pitched in well in that case i want to have a conversation with big jack okay um i don't mean to um interrupt uh your festival thinking right now but i i have to think no thinking going on up

here okay great well uh in that case uh have you been... I kind of wide grin. Have you been involved at all in the fight against the... Oh, well, the Wild Elves came back. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be joining the hunt. I'm kind of one of the main sort of hunters and fighters here. So I'll be coming along with you. There's another Borafolk who's come over from around your part of Aroes, actually. She came over and she's going to be joining us as well. And there's a couple of hunters and things like that.

Is that Sana? Sana Long Ears, that's the one, yeah. She's with all of them. So she came over, she's kind of been the one helping organize a lot of this stuff and telling us about what's been going on and things like that. Okay.

Now you mentioned hunt. Yeah. Is this like a competition or? No, I mean, it's a big beast. Okay. We're going to go out there and we're going to kill it. So, I mean, we try not to, we don't like killing animals. Right. But sometimes when you get a predator and you get a wolf lion or you get an owl bear,

you've got to sometimes, unfortunately, you've got to cull them because otherwise they pose a risk to everyone else. We don't like doing it, but it has to be done sometimes. Okay. And yeah, we go on hunts with the wild elves when there's a big threat. Sometimes the owlbears can get kind of corrupted by dark spirits here and they can get pretty nasty. So we team up with the wild elves and we'll go hunt one.

I heard about the spirits. Yeah. Are we likely to need to know about them oh no i mean unless you kind of go into the the deep woods or you're going into the the high peaks and things like that unless you do anything to upset the spirits no they're mostly harmless um you'll see a couple you'll see a couple around today okay are they harmless the beasts are they upsetting the spirits oh yeah i mean yeah, are they upsetting the spirits? Oh yeah, I mean yeah, definitely where they go. The spirits avoid them.

Spirits are afraid of them. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of how we, we kind of, it's kind of nice because we kind of get like an early warning. We've learned to live with the spirits here, so the wild elves and the borafolk and the beastfolk here, we can use the spirits to know when these things are coming so we can clear out of the way. I don't know how much you've been told. The Wild Elves can probably tell you more,

but after our first couple of times we engaged the big lizard, Stone Moor, I think we're calling it, we learned to quickly back off. We would attack it, and then the next time we encountered it, our arrows just bounced off its hide. What was the word they used? Adapted. Adapted, right? Mutated.

So what we've been doing is just tracking, observing, studying, learning how it moves, watching how it interacts with other things, and we found ways to lure it away. So we put out like we can lure it into a den of, you know, dangerous corrupted owlbear, right? And that buys us some time and, you know, we watch and observe how it fights and kind of keep it away from the settlements. We've been living in this place for a long time and we've kind of learned to survive like this. You know, we know we don't need to fight this thing head on just yet. Okay. Well, it'll be useful for us to be well acquainted with the spirits ourselves, I suppose, if they are giving warning or some kind of assistance.

Not so much assistance. We learn to read them, right? Like when you see a flock of tree spirits leave in the woods, you know that something spooked them. It's kind of like looking at wild animals, right? You kind of see their behavior and their patterns. We have shamans who can speak to some spirits, but most of us can't do that but that's magic stuff i i just uh just got these and he pumps his arm sure his big arm i have one more question um those pumpkins it's not a question actually it's more a statement are huge yeah yeah how oh they're not normally that big uh it's anticipation for the new star festival a couple of the farmers got pretty competitive we

thought we'd have a who can grow the biggest pumpkin contest and they kind of took it a bit too far some of them yeah really big pumpkins um they're not normally that big i am almost terrified to see the winner of that competition yeah yeah well i think that i think that the problem is you're standing on it we don mean, I'm going to be busy, so I can't go and help them kind of get it to the village. So that might be something that some of the folks might ask. And he looks at Ayla and he looks at Senju. They might come asking for you guys to come and help with that

because I'm not going to be around. But yeah, trying to get the pumpkins up here. If you want to eat, by the way, you're going to have to help work and gather up the food and stuff like that. That's kind of part of it, right? Oh, of course. Yeah, nice.

Well, yeah, any other questions about Starwatch or the Bright Tales or the festival? Is there anything you'd like to know? I'm happy to help. Food. Yeah. Hungry. You said something about food. Yeah, I mean, you've got to do some work for it,

but yeah, we can get you some food we uh during the festival it's kind of common to do like big uh communal kind of cooks normally families get together and make a big meal together and then you eat it it's because it's part of our harvest season right now um you go down you go down to the farms you'll gather up fresh veggies you grab up some fresh crops and fruits and things like that and then you come back and you make a big big big old dish uh it's great it's really fun cool function a bit of hard work a bit of dirt oh not at all yeah i knew it no i know i like to say um and you kind of look around yeah we can use some food uh i mean if you're feeling you know if you're feeling a bit faint or weak and you know obviously a bit of hard work and he's you get the impression that he's looked at nova seen like this scrawny nerd and he's like oh if you can't do any work and you need food first

that's okay he's like we can get you something it's fine if you if you're desperate we won't make you work your guests but it's kind of part of it to do so um yeah um anything else you scrawny nerd. Scrawny fucking nerd. Resurrected, couldn't resurrect any fucking muscles. I got one thing I should tell you about. As we go down there. So, big part of the festival, right?

And it's important for you guys to know this because you're gonna have to play along. We'd like you to play along with it, right? Right. So, okay, how do I do this? I'm not really good at stories, maybe I should let Mama, I'm gonna let Mama do this. Mama's gonna tell you a story, but it's really important

that you kind of follow it along, okay? Well, is there some way that we should act before we get to Mama? No, you should be okay, you're gonna be okay, it's not till, don't worry. Okay. You won't need to worry about it until I go away. Sure.

Okay. Okay, nice. Okay. Thanks for the warning. I'll let Mama tell you about it, she's a better storyteller than me, I'm not very good at. Sure. Okay. Okay. Nice. Thanks for the warning. I'll let Mama tell you about it. She's a better storyteller than me. I'm not very good at telling stories. Okay.

Cool. Good. Great. Oh, we've arrived. Right. He leads you down into the main kind of big hill and into the warren. You can see this place is,

it's not like mega, mega busy, but it's pretty packed. And it's like, it's mainly families. It's pretty much all borough folk and things like that. Just kind of having a good time. You see a lot of people making these paper lanterns, like literally kind of like bending wood, kind of stretching paper and kind of decorating them, painting them and things like that with all different symbols and lots of star, starry kind of motifs and things like that. And there's an element of a somberness to some of it that they're doing. Like when they're making the lanterns, like they're kind of having hushed conversations and you know you can see a couple

of tears and they kiss the lanterns and things like that um but then there's a joyousness a celebration to it as well um and you see people bringing in food and all kind of stuff and you see a lot of little borough folk kids like little kind of like kids with the bunny ears and little tails and they're like looking around like they're searching for something or they're worried about something. And they're like going up to adults and like asking for things. And the adults are like, oh, and they're kind of whispering to them and stuff like that.

And like maybe you see one adult kind of passes them what looks to be like a little bell and a ringer. And the kid grabs it and he's like, oh, and he's like looking around, almost scared. But they kind of like, Jack leads you on and he leads you into a big open parlor with thick rugs and cushions. No chairs, no furniture.

It's all just like sit on the floor, big floppy cushions, like full of straw and hay, pretty nice feathers and that kind of stuff. And sat there and she's in the middle of telling a story to a bunch of these kids. You see this kind of older borough folk lady and she's got a bit more of a rabbit look she almost has like whiskers but they almost look like kind of like you know hairs like a like a old lady kind of beard or something like that but they're actually like long whiskers yes i look forward to that coming in for me yeah

and then she's got like the the pushed in like rabbit nose and she's kind of dressed in like proper kind of like cottage witch granny vibes like it's a big knitted vest and it's got patches on it and she's got like twigs and acorns in her pockets and she's kind of like so and you must be careful make sure you go there you must go and find uh things to make noise and light otherwise you know what will happen um and the kids are just like the mama please mama give, give me something. And she's like, no, no, I'm afraid I don't have anything. I'm too scared to go outside and fetch anything.

You need to go and get it. And all the kids, like, run off. And she sees kind of Jack. And she's like, oh, Jack, these are our guests. And he's like, yeah, Mama, these are the ones that we were told about. They came on their big and juicy, their airship. It's amazing. But I'm going to leave them with you, Mama, because I gotta go and get ready.

And she's just like, yes, yes, go, go, Jack, it's fine. Have you told them much about what's happening today? And he's like, you know, I'm not very good for stories, Mama, you should tell them about that. But I've told them a couple of little bits, but they might have some questions. She's like, okay, I will go get ready. You know where to, you know where to?

And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, okay. And she kind of sends him off. She's like, well, firstly, thank you so so much all of you for coming uh to star watch my um i am i have to scroll up leave me alone um i am uh matriarch vindra vindra bright tail i'm the sort of elder here the leader if you want to think of it that way you have your sort of kings and queens we don't really do that here but um i'm sort of old and people think i'm wise so they put me in charge um okay and thank you thank you for coming um i know it may not seem it but uh these concerns of these these beasts of italicus um at first we thought that

they were a sort of blessing we were very faithful to telicus and siasca and the gods um and so we thought that they were protectors perhaps to come and help shape us but it very quickly became then that was not the case and then we had guests come from overseas and and the wild elves um who have been our friends for a long time have sort of informed us about these greater events in the world that we had no idea about um so yes so we're very grateful for your assistance i have been told that you are heroes of some renown. You have fought great villains and defeated great beasts and the like and hunted evil. It's a short story, yeah. You're very humble from what I've been told. There's a lovely borough folk from Suvona, I think it's called, one of the Longyear family, who I knew long, long ago.

She speaks very highly of you. She claims you to be great heroes. But yes, as I understand it, the rest of your army, I suppose, I don't know what to call them, are coming in several days, so you have time here. Please, make yourself at home. We have rooms ready for you. Some of the... They are... You will need to stay with a family. We don't really have inns or rooms to spare here. So you are, you'll be living with a borough folk family here. We can sort of put some of you together, but we're a little bit tight on space. Okay, no, that's totally fine. Thank you for your hospitality. Big Jack, Jack, Big Jack,

Jack. Yes, Jack, Big Jack, Woody Jack, all sorts of names. Well, he told us that we would have to play a part in this, these festivities. Yes, good, I'm glad he told you that. And she looks around and she's like, good, the children have all left. So, if you do not mind, we would like you to sort of play along. It's part of our tradition in this festival. I suppose it requires a bit of a storytelling if you don't mind.

I'm going to take a seat. Yes please, come sit. We can bring you freshments and things. Let's bring some water and get some wine and things like that in. And she kind of gestures and there's a couple of younger borough folks who look like they may be like, not servants, but like apprentices or like students of hers. Attendants. But not in a kind of subservient way. They just like they respect her and she's like would you mind they're like yeah of course mama we'll go get that and she's good good girl good girl um so uh this place star watch and the borough folk and the beast folk have long lived in this land since it was the domain of Atelicus and Siasca. And Atelicus likes to test us. He believes

that we must be strong and if we cannot be strong we must be cunning. Long ago it began a tradition of testing us in this way but one year when we all thought we were being tested what had really happened was that a dark spirit had corrupted a creature called a wolf lion. They prowl the woods here. They are terrible beasts, quite scary. Normally they are just predators. We do not mind them. We try and live alongside them.

But this dark spirit turned it bloodthirsty, made it large and aggressive and quite wicked. And at first the adults thought that this was just another test of a telekis. It met a grisly end, unfortunately. But we did not know any better. Two young borough folk, a boy and a girl, had gone out into the woods to gather supplies for our lantern festival to celebrate those who had died in the past year. And as they were gathering supplies, they saw this dark wolf-lion, and being cunning, they did not run and instead began to gather what they could around the forest. They

found loud sticks that could make loud noises, they brought out instruments that they had carried, toys, and they attempted to lure and scare the dark lion away, even though the adults themselves were too frightened because they still thought it was part of Italicus's test. And so it began this tradition of... And they were successful. They drove it away with bright light and fire and loud noise and colour, and so they scared this wolf lion away.

The dark spirit not understanding what fire was, it was a spirit. It was not aware of what fire was. It did not know what these loud noises, these strange ringing bells were. And so it was driven away and the children were celebrated for their bravery. Ever since, it has been part of the Festival of New Stars to continue this tradition where we encourage our young to be brave. And so we tell them the story that if they are not careful, that dark spirit will return. It was never defeated. It would come back and if they misbehave, it will eat them or it will steal them away

or it will do terrible things. And so they are deathly frightened of it. But around the festival, we tell them the story of the brave ones who scared it away with music and light and fire. And the adults all act too scared they are too scared to go into the woods to face it off they are too scared to confirm the line if they see it they will run and it's up to the children to ward it away to fend it off and so you might find that the children come and ask you for something that makes a loud noise or

something that can create a spark of light or fire and we kind of use this as a way to test them and to sort of encourage them, and we give them things like that. And then what will happen is two borough folk, or in this case one, because he's big enough for two of us, it will dress as the dark spirit of the lion and will emerge and try and frighten the children and frighten the adults, and they will have to chase them out of the village, basically. So we would like you to play along if that's all right.

Yes, of course. And if you have any things that you can provide the children, we have things that we can give you as well, little firecrackers and streamers and musical instruments and things like that. But almost anything will do. Anything that you can think would lead to that. What have you got? I just saw my pistol.

Here you go, kid. Please don't shoot a child. He's going to give a child a gun. And shoot off the other side of his jaw. Yeah. A pan flute. Yeah. I've got nothing.

I mean, we would love to be given some kind of tools to help, but we would love to get involved. You will likely, I imagine, the children will come to speak involved you will likely i imagine that the children will come to speak with you almost if you see that they will definitely come and speak with you because they see you as heroes uh they've been told many stories that you've gone and fought these horrible beasts they might ask you to help them against the dark spirit oh and are we no no no you must you must be afraid of it it must be like but you can wake up whatever you wish but do say that no it is up to them.

This is all about encouraging them to be brave, to face their fears, to be strong, but to be cunning. We borough folk are not predators. We are not strong. We must rely on our wit and our cunning, and that is part of what it is. So if you want to set them a game, often for myself, I won't give them a firecracker or an instrument

until they perhaps solve a riddle or perform a job or do something for me. But they'll do it because they want to have something to fend off the spirit so uh does that make sense is that all something yes yeah that makes sense to me um but there are other things as well this is jack will be getting ready he'll start prowling around but we don't know exactly where he he tends to sort of meander around and make sure that the children know he's around as the dark spirit before he'll fully come out. So do keep an eye out for that.

But there are other things as well. We will do probably big cooking. We'll go and fetch some food. I think the farmers could use a hand with gathering up these ridiculous pumpkins that they've found. But also we've been having a problem with some beasts that are running off with our crops and we could use your help in dealing with those.

What else, what else, what else? If you have, if there has been anyone that you have lost recently, it is very traditional to... Have I? No, it's fine, carry on. It is tradition that when an older member of a family dies, we build a lantern, a paper lantern,

and we decorate it in their image, and then at night we will send them all up to, part of the festival is the idea of new stars is we are sending their souls up to join siaska in the sky above to become new stars and so the lanterns represent that journey of kalara taking them up into the astral astral world so if you want to do that we have supplies and we can we can fish you with that um and then the other tradition uh that i'm sure that somebody will likely to come ask you for with is part of this whole festival is um you've been told about the spirits of our world and that they can kind of attach to many things

well it is uh part of it is we clear out uh old dirt mess get rid of things that we no longer need um as a way of clearing out bad luck that may have accumulated in our homes and on our person and we welcome in new luck we make space for new luck and good spirits to come and live with us and because of the nature of our world because of the magic and the spirits that live sometimes when we are clearing and cleaning it will conjure a mischievous spirit that represents dirt and mess or clutter and things like that. They're harmless but they can be a bit of a handful for some of us who are not particularly, we're not warriors and things like that. So you may have some borough folk ask you to help them with something

like that as well, fending off these little mischievous little sprites. They're nothing to really worry about but they could be something that you are asked for. I mean yeah, I love the idea. If there's anything material that we have that we are not massively attached to, then it would make sense to also get rid of some of our things. Nova, do you have anything on you that you want to get rid of? Nova just narrows her eyes, staring at the quill. And then there are other things which you will see,

but I don't think you necessarily have to be involved in. Shadow puppetry is quite common here. Part of it all is we create lights and we often do little performances and plays. I can make a wing and that's about it. We have a perfect representation for a large bird spirit perhaps. Oh, thanks. But yes, that is just something that you may see going on around here. Most of our crew of the Storm Chaser, they are the wolf pack. Yes. Now is that going to be a problem?

No, no, no, no. Beast folk... We may be descended from sort of a rabbit spirit and things like that. And we are not necessarily predators ourselves. We eat vegetables, we don't eat meat and things like that. But we have good relationships with many of the beast folk around the world. Well, I meant more for the children currently trying to run off from a giant wolf lion. It is all part of it.

Your crew, you may wish to warn them that they may get a firework set off in their face or a loud bell rung in their ears thinking that they may be this, but it may be worth informing them of that. But the children, I would be delighted if the children are brave enough to confront your crew. They've had a lot of training for surprise loud noises from Ayla. So, OK, cool. I think that's good for me.

Everyone else? It all sounds so delightful. Good, good. Well, I believe that the young woman, Long Ears, the Long Ears, she's around somewhere along with several wild elves who they were anticipating you as well. But there are also many other people in the village that you may bump into and wish to say hello. But we are very grateful to have you here and we hope that you make yourself comfortable and and i would be delighted if you enjoyed our festivities the the festival of new stars is very important to us well we wish you very happy celebrations uh and um yeah i think

it makes sense for us to meet up with some others and uh do what we can around here that star watch is yours to enjoy have Have a wonderful time. And she kind of like pulls out like, you've got like nuts and she starts munching on them and things like that. She's like, yeah. Just sort of like,

doesn't go to move. Just like, yeah, if you're done, I'm going to sit here. I'm old. Okay. Should we meet up with Santa or the wild elves or?

We can go find Santa. We haven't seen her for so long. Or should we just be around the festival? I wouldn't mind helping with the dust spirit problem. I could probably use a little bit of practice on some easier targets. Sure. True. Yeah.

We can help with that. Let's go do that then. Okay. Sure. True. Yeah. We can help with that. Let's go do that then. Okay. Sure. All right. Yeah, I mean, when you step out into the village, it probably wouldn't take very long. Like, you draw a lot of attention as you're walking around.

You can easily find Santa on your wild elves, so you can come back to that. But if you want to jump straight into something like an activity, it probably wouldn't take long before a kind of nervous-looking... well, actually, no, she's kind of... no, because I'll use this character instead. A very sort of curvaceous, full-bodied borough folk woman, kind of like this long, kind of spilling blonde hair, kind of hair sees you and is like, Excuse me, darlings. Are you the adventurers that have come from the outside world? Yeah. I wonder if you would perhaps help me with something.

I'm trying to clean up my home, and I'm not one for scuffling, and I fear that I may have attracted a few mischievous spirits. Would you be interested in perhaps helping me? and I fear that I may have attracted a few mischievous spirits. Would you be interested in perhaps helping me? That is exactly what you want. Yes, I would like to help. Fantastic. My mother and father, they're quite old, and I'm a confectioner. I never lifted anything more heavy than a rolling pin,

so I was a bit worried that these spirits might get the best of us. I was going to ask Big Jack and some of the others, but it seems that they're off doing other important things, so I was hoping that perhaps you or the Wild Elf Hunters might be able to help. My name is Talia, by the way. I'm happy to meet you. Sorry, what? Talia. Okay, yeah.

That's... Talia Brightay. A little confusing, but... Did I tell Tha... Never mind. I just realised as well, confusing, but... Did I tell... Never mind. I just realised as well, yeah, Thalia Tuck. But yeah, she kind of, like, will sort of say, if you don't mind, are you available now?

Yes, I am ready to assist you in this. Marvellous, thank you so much. My parents would be so grateful. And she'll lead you to, like, a small little house that's kind of like nestled into the mountains sort of hillside. Very Hobbit-holy kind of like cozy vibes. But the door opens and you immediately see, oh yeah, this is very cluttered. Like it's kind of like grandma and grandpa's house

where they've just kept everything. And like, they're like, oh yeah, we'll sort that out one day. And then it just got put in a box or a shelf somewhere. Oh, okay. And it doesn't look like it's, I mean, it's not dirty, but there's like, you can see cobwebs sort that out one day. And then it just got put in a box or a shelf somewhere. Oh, okay. And it doesn't look like it's... I mean, it's not dirty, but there's, like, you can see cobwebs and dust is kind of, like, everywhere.

It's not really being touched. And Talia introduces you to her parents, a very elderly Borough folk couple. They're probably, like, in their... You know, they'd be equivalent of, like, 80s, mid-80s kind of thing. So they're kind of like, oh, thank you so much for helping us. I try to move, but my Benny's, like, kind of hunched over and like the old leaves i just can't reach us you know they've definitely you know gone past the point and you don't get the impression that talia is like the

one to be cleaning walking around and cleaning the house and things like that she seems a bit too sort of like la dee da for it um but uh lucius yeah and like you can see that like she's got like uh you know she's wearing like a kind of like you know tight-fitting dress she's kind of. You can see that she's wearing a tight-fitting dress. She's got that debonair, femme fatale vibe going on to her, weirdly. But the elderly Borafolk will turn around and say, If we may, though, please, try not to cause a mess or damage if the sprites are causing trouble. This is our home. We've had it for so many years.

I know we probably don't need to tell you to be careful, but I just felt I should say something. We'll do what we can not to make a mess. They are troublesome. Well, the sprites and the spirits, they themselves might try and cause trouble. You might need to figure out a way of dealing with them. Of course. We'll treat your home with the utmost care. mess well this the sprites and the spirits they themselves might try and cause trouble you might need to figure out a way of dealing with them of course we'll treat your home with the other sorry that it's such a mess we haven't really looked after it very well so no problem there

might be a few of them um okay we will do everything we can to help all right very good uh we'll say that maybe like lucius has got caught up doing something else with somebody else he simply doesn't want to get involved yeah he's like a like, Dirt? No, I'm not doing that. I'm going to go and see Jack. I don't know, something like that. He runs off and does something. But yeah, if you want to do this, then basically the elderly couple start helping you,

being like, If you can get that box and bring all these books down. You are helping them clean their house. Yeah, but we can't make a mess. Don't make a mess cleaning the house. Yeah, but we can't make a mess. Yeah, don't make a mess cleaning this house. Yeah, it's like you're tidying the house, but I think that they were looking at your weapons and like, please don't destroy our stuff.

Smell your stuff. And as you start clearing it out, and you maybe spend like an hour kind of helping them pack stuff up and wiping the sides with dust and things like that, and as you start disturbing the clutter and the dirt and the dust and the grime you begin to see little things moving at first it's really weird because you think you're like what what's that you see like a maybe like a collection of like wooden clothes pegs um that were on the floor in a pile and and then you saw maybe something in a kitchen, like an old couple of little tiny pots.

And then you look, and it looks like the pegs and the urns have formed into a ball and are rolling around. Like a Katamari. Yeah, I was going to say like Katamari Demisey. And then Quill, you look up and you think, oh, that's like a big dirt smudge on the wall. And then two little red eyes blink at you from in it and it kind of whips around and goes to, like, another corner

and wraps itself up in a cobweb. And about eight of the four of these, like, little balls of junk and four of these little black soot... They're called dust spirits and clutter spirits appear. And we're going to roll initiative. Oh, my God. Someone dies in this. Oh.

Oh, hello. Oh. Same. Really? You are like, ready to clean. It's go. Cleaning time. My time to shine.

Clutter spirits. I do. I apparently don't want to fight these clutter spirits. What did you get? I got two on the dice. So, Ayla. 25. 25. Quill.

Five. Five. Nova. Eight. Which is a lucky number. Eight. And Sentry. 25. So 25. We'll have Ayla go first first i think ayla's got the high box um all right so ayla uh the room it's basically like kind of four conjoined rooms um your movement will basically take you from a room to a room or outside uh so you can go from

like the main central hallway to outside or you can go from the main hallway into any of the three sort of bedrooms and living rooms and stuff like that there are eight of these total sprites four clutter sprites which are the little balls of random junk and four dust sprites uh at the moment i'd say there's probably uh if i said that i said there was what four rooms so it makes sense that there'd be two per room so we got like one of each in each room okay um and you can and you can see that they kind of see you cleaning everything up and they've become agitated that you're meddling with their things, like their mess and their clutter.

And they are like, you see like the little ball, it kind of rolls. And you almost see like a little tiny, like a man, like a little tiny little spirit man and he's rolling it. And he like looks and he's like picks up one of these wooden pegs and it looks like he's going to throw it at you. And then one of these little dust sprites almost is like pulling like a dust, a ball of dust, like it's going to shoot it at you and then one of these little dust sprites almost is like pulling like a dust a ball of dust like it's gonna shoot it at you now the little man's gonna roll up to you sorry he

doesn't have a range attack he's gonna like slam his little ball into you okay so they're like small they're like tiny like really little um are they close together uh the the dust sprite is like flying up on sort of like the corner of the room. The little guy is under a chair on the ground. The dust sprites can fly. The clutter spirits can't. They're on the ground. I'm assuming that the borough folk house is not that tall ceiling-wise for Aayla.

Aayla and Sentry are probably hunched over. Hunched over. Can I just go up to the one in the corner, the dust, and just, can I just grab it? You can try and grab it, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Yep, you absolutely can try and do that. So first you need to try and hit it basically with an arm strike. So if you make an arm strike to try and grab it. Okay. It's AC. It does look pretty nippy.

Oh. You're probably still going to grab it. 20. 20, yep. I mean, yeah, you grab it, but it doesn't look pretty nippy oh uh you're probably still gonna grab it 20 20. yeah i mean yeah you grab it but it was like you were like that's quick and you grab it and your hand is just like coated in like black dust and it's like grimy but you've got it and it's like writhing and squirming you've currently got it grappled so you have a grapple on it. How do you... How do you... Put it outside or something. Do I put them outside? Can I ask the elderly?

How do you dispose of them? I haven't seen any since I was a boy, but my father would hit it with a broom. Sometimes you could dunk it in water. That weakens it. But my father normally just beat it. Can I just crush it in my hand? So you just do unarmed damage, basically.

Yeah, I'd say just whatever your unarmed damage is, eight points of damage. Eight points of damage to dust A. I'll do dust B. Do I get two attacks? Well, your first attack was to grab it. Okay. So that would be the first one.

All right. You crush this thing So that would be the first one. All right. You crush this thing in your hand, and there's resistance. Like, you don't destroy it immediately. It's like you crush it, and it's like... And it's like... You've got, like, grip, and you're like, wow, okay, this thing's actually pretty tough. Like, it's substantial.

It's like squeezing a sponge full of, like, grime, and it's like now your arm is all coated in dust, like you've just run your hand over a really dirty surface. Ayla does not care. I know Ayla doesn't care. It's just like, it's trying to squirm out of your grip, but yeah. So that was move, action, action.

So I don't know if you want a bonus action rage. I don't feel like I'm going to. Nice. I feel like she's not that angry at all. She's got a ball of dust in her hand. I'm a rage cleaner. Yeah. In that case, we go to Sentry.

So if we say that there's the corridor and then these two bedrooms, you're in a living room, basically. Sure. You're in one of the side rooms. I'll do a little mind map for myself. Mind palace. So Sentry, what would you like to do? Um, I was thinking, can I, um, well do I, do I, do I, so I see these sprites?

Yeah, everyone sees them, yeah. Okay, so I've got Ayla in the living room currently, um, and then would you like to be in the bedroom, the kitchen, or the hallway? I'll go in the kitchen. All right, Century's in the kitchen, makes sense, plates. Yeah. So there's a clutter spirit, and then there's a dust spirit in here. Okay, can I... I've got a potion of psychic resistance.

Can I drink the potion, but then trap one in the empty bowl? Okay, so which one do you want to try and trap? I'll do the little guy. You want to try and get... So the ball of stuff, but you're going to try and grab the little tiny glowing man that's part of it. Okay. Yeah, I mean, so it would be the little guy. You want to try and get the ball of stuff, but you're going to try and grab the little tiny glowing man

that's part of it. OK. Yeah, I mean, so it would be the same thing. You want to try and basically, so it'd be bonus action to drink the potion, which I guess you're now psychic resistance. Because she needs a bottle. She needs the bottle.

I need a bottle. She needs a kitchen. And then. But I don't want to get, I want to then like, Oh, I don't want to damage their stuff. So you drink this potion. You've got a little vial. And then it would be the same thing. You make an unarmed strike to try and grab this little guy. They are quick. They're nippy little buggers.

Little guy! And if you grab him with the first attack, you can use your second attack to try and shove him in the bottle. Alright. 24 for the first one? 24, grab him, yeah. So you, like, grab him. He tries to get away. He's like, hello. And it's weird.

You grab the little man, and you've got him, and as you pick him up, that ball of junk comes with him. It's like it's part of him. And it's kind of, like, floating next to your hand, and it's just kind of, like,

almost telekinetically held there. That's really weird. Yeah. So cute. Try and get him in. Nat 20 toetically held there. That's so weird. Yeah. So cute. Try and get him in. Nat 20 to get him in. Oh, my God. I can roll a Nat 20 on a dex.

I don't think that's... Nope. So you're like... What the hell? You just basically, you're like, you got him in your hand. You're like, this is weird. And then you kind of like hold your thumb like off the stop a bit. And you're like, get in there.

And he's like... And you get him in in you cork it and then that ball of junk which is like maybe like some older kids building blocks mixed in with like a like a greater like it's just junk like it's just hovering next to this like potion bottle now and he's like it's just like making little faces at you and so he doesn't have, he's got these two little black dots for eyes. He's like, almost looks like a little dung beetle, but a little man, like a little dung beetle man.

Oh. My stuff. Yeah, he's like, hello. And you've got that one, you've got him trapped in a little glass jar. I'm a man in a jar. All right. Why?

So that is, I would say move to go up to him, grab him, put him in the jar. Any bone sections you would like to do? No, I don't need to make my lats bigger or anything. Don't embiggen. Starbreaker. All right. The dust brights.

That means that we've got... I'm happy to be in separate rooms as well. Yeah, so we can have like Nova, which one would you want to be in, bedroom or hallway? Bedroom. Bedroom, and then Quill is in the hallway. Yep. And then basically you have one of each in each room. Ayla, the one that you've currently got grabbed, is going to just try and get out,

is just going to try and break free. They're going to use their dex to try and wriggle out. So this is just going to be their dex versus your athletics. Okay. out um so this is just gonna be dex their decks uh versus your athletics okay so that's a 19 plus 13 he's like kind of almost like a like an ooze he's like his little tendrils are like going between the gaps in your fingers like almost like trying to reach out yeah no he no no way he's going nowhere um century the one that's in your room sees you like holding up the little thing and it's going to move over to a corner of

the room where there's loads and loads of cobwebs and it starts wrapping itself up in them and it looks like you see that as it's sitting there in amongst all the dirt and the grime it's like it's getting bigger um and it's going to throw a ball of soot at you. So it's kind of like... Rude. It kind of pits a little thing. 21. Yeah, it hits. All right, that's going to be six points of bludgeoning damage.

And also, yeah, it covers you in dust. Like, you're like... It's gross. And then Quill and Nova, they're going to do the exact same thing in your rooms as well. They move over to an area which is all dirty and grimy, and they start rolling around in it and, like, sucking it up into

themselves, and they all get... Well, no, not yet. They have to start their turn in it. Cool. That's going to be a 13. No. Nova is going to be a 13. No. So you kind of manage to dodge out the side. You do see where it hits. It kind of creates a splodge of dirt and muck.

It's doing a good deed for you. It does pass. I does pass, yeah. I enjoy it, actually. Then we'll go with Nova. Then Clutters, then Quill. I guess I'm just going to try and stab whatever's in my room. Yeah, well, you got one of the dust ones and you got one of the clutter ones. Yeah, I guess I'm just going to try and almost skewer it.

Which one? So it is going to get damaged, but, you know. Which one? The clutter one. Okay. The little Katamari man. Yeah, the little Katamari man. Katamari dung beetle man.

That is a... Nine! Plus 13. That's still enough. 22. Yeah, they're quick, but you can stab the sword down, the new sword. And so do I do damage? Yeah, absolutely.

Seven plus seven, 14. 14 points of damage. You do manage to stab through it, and you break apart some of his junk, and he kind of goes, looks at you annoyed, because you just knocked away some of his things, and he's like,

and he starts gathering it back up again, and you can see that his form almost flickers. You've hit him, but it doesn't look like you've hurt him. It's like you're almost dissipating his energy or something. And he's just. I'll go again. All right. Oh God, that is a two 15.

15 is not enough. This time he kind of sees you come in and he's like, and he rolls his ball out of the way. Stay still. I just like to think as well, I know it's just still a bit disjointed. Yeah, it makes sense. How do I get this guy? Oh, God, same again. Exact same roll again.

Yeah, so you're like, and he's just like. Just swing and smash a vase. If you roll a one, that's probably what will happen, by the way. I don't like doing critical fumbles, but in this kind of encounter, it's basically like you knock something over and do something else, right? I'm not going to do anything else. Not going to do anything else? All right, the Cluck Spirits go.

The one that's already engaged with you, Nova, is just it can't really get away from you, so it's just going to attack you. It's going to try and slam its little Katamari ball into you uh whoops yeah it basically goes for your shins uh that is only going to be a 13 again i roll the exact same as well um but the other ones in all of the other rooms because i don't think the rest of you engage the clutter ones yeah um they roll their little ball around and they start gathering up loads of little items and they like pick up like you know fallen over And they pick up fallen over nails and pencils and quill tips.

And they're just gathering up garbage. And as they get enough, they all grow to a medium size. They get bigger. Not a medium size. Kind of like a small dog size. In terms of game stats, it's like... I've got something that can beat the beasts. Okay.

Just let these things roll around for a couple hours. I guess they can hook them up. Eventually, they will suck up a row. So when they

grow in size, I'll tell you the game mechanics, their strength goes up and they also gain more hit points. Like, they increase their hit points, basically.

Oh, God. We die here. Well, they are attacking you, but it's not... Yeah. You can tell that these attacks won't kill you. Even if they manage to get you to zero hit points, these are all non-lethal attacks. So they're very sour-shin.

Yeah, you will be sore and bruised, basically. But yeah, that's what the Clot Spirits are going to spend their turn getting big. Okay. And then we come to Gwil. Yeah, it's difficult because they've got so many destructive spells. So I'm going to be subtle here and use Thunder Wave. No, I'm not. What was subtle of spells?

Gust doesn't have damage. No. But if I use it on a Dust Spirit, is that going to have an effect beyond just knocking them down? Gust is the cantrip, right? Yes, yeah. I'd say it would have an effect. Because I kind of want to just gust the dust thing and just disperse it. Are you trying to disperse it or are you trying to gust it out of the room?

Because you're currently in the hallway. You're the only one who can see the front door like it's at the end of the hallway. I think if it bursts the dust spirit so that dust is not in one confined area and just airflow is the best thing against dust. So you want to dissipate it? I'm trying to dissipate the dust boy with a gust. What is your spell save, TC? My spell save is 22.

22. I would say- It would normally make a strength save. It would normally make a strength save. That's perfect. It's very bad at those. So yeah, the gust of wind kind of pins this thing to the wall and is like almost forcing this thing apart, right? Because of the nature of this thing, it's not going to instant destroy. Roll what's like an average cantrip, like d6? Um...

Yeah. Do I get my cleric bonus? Is it a cleric cantrip like d6 um yeah do i get my cleric bonus it's a is it a cleric cantrip for you yeah then it would um and it would be it's like four it's normally like four dice for a your level level yeah my lowest cantrip is 4d6 there you go i'd say just do 4d6 plus your uh Potent spellcasting. Six, that's ten, I'm 13, 19. 19 points of damage total. Yeah. All but a tiny speck of this little dust spirit. Like the tiniest little part of it still remains, but the rest of it just goes...

And just... And it is dust, but like it mostly disperses, yeah. And it works in the same... Basically, it becomes... Gust becomes a damage spell against these guys. That's what I was thinking, like, yeah. It works in the same... Basically, Gust becomes a damage spell against these guys. That's what I was thinking. I think it works. Um...

And that is my action. Like, I don't know. Can I try to just pick up some of the small bits of just crap around the hallway? I'd say as a bonus action, you can grab a couple... But you have to put them in your pocket. Yeah, I'm holding forks underneath my arm and grabbing against my body. You see, like, oh, God, there's a big load of forks there. If he gets those, we're doomed.

Yeah, you can absolutely grab those. Nice. In that case, we come back up to the top with Aayla. Okay, I'm going to smoosh the gun. Yeah, you just want what just wanna between your hands yeah same thing just do unarmed strike damage to this thing i guess another eight points of damage again just the tiniest like speck of this thing is still in your hands but it's so weak and feeble now and it's just like this tiny little thing yeah. So, with its one HP left, however, when this thing,

when its hit points are reduced to zero, it has a messy exit. Any creatures within 10 feet of the spirit must make a DC 12 dexterity saving throw. Dexterity saving throw, please, Ayla. Danger sense does technically apply. I rolled trash, though. 13. That's just enough yeah 12 DC 12 so you managed to kind of like you you see this thing and it like puffs up and you managed to close your

eyes and like block your face you avoid being blinded by this thing but you and the 10-foot area around you are covered in soot and dust and grime. And it makes this enormous mess around you, and you're covered head to toe in it as well. Wow. You made a mess. That was all you. Killed it.

Yeah. You've got a move action, anything? There is the little cl Clot Spirit in here. I can't, I've used my action, so. So if you wanted to like move to a different room or like just go and engage the little Clot Spirit in here. No, I'll hold off for now. Next time I'll go and get the little shit.

I think that, I'm not going to put them in initiative, but I think the old man and old woman and Talia are trying to help, and the old man's got a broom and the little clots, but he's trying to get it out of the hallway, but it's big enough now that he's trying to get the broom off of him. It's flying to him, and he's like, no, go out. He's trying to brush it out the room. Everyone around the house is bashing the floor with slippers trying to hit these things. Talia's mother has probably got a slipper or one of those things that you clap to get dust out

or you bash it and she's trying to get one of these dust brights. Talia's just half-heartedly waving a cup at it. Standing just outside the front door. I could bonus action rage and give him a little zap, the other one. You could. Go near it and just give it a zap. You could. Would you like to do that?

Yeah, I'm going to do that. Okay. Because that's not going to do anything. 18 lightning damage. 18 lightning damage. 18 lightning damage. I do get a save, right? Dex. Yeah, that's going to be 17.

Nope. Okay. So what was that, 18? Yes. 18 points of lightning damage. The little Katamari, who's kind of, you know, fairly grown in size, gets blasted. And you see, like, a couple of its things go flying,

and it does that same thing, and it kind of puts its little hands does that same thing and it kind of puts its little hands on its hips and it kind of ah ah what are you going to do now it starts trying

it goes over and it's like get my things back and starts rolling around that's it Sentry can I use nature's wrath

to try and restrain the little dude in the corner yeah it's channel divinity right yeah they're spectral vines. Do they...

I would say that with this, because it's your Chandra Da Vinci and you're the Oath of the Ancients, like you are connected, you actually can almost feel like a connection to these spirits. Like you're like, wow, okay, I actually... There's something about them where you're like,

you kind of understand them in a way. Like they're not, they're just, they are what they are, right? Like you were trying to get rid of their dust they're not they're just they are what they are right like you were trying to get rid of their dust and clutter and that's what they are and you kind of realize that actually by dispersing them you're kind of helping them become something else like you're like okay become a new spirit now like you're gonna go out and become an air spirit or water spirit whatever um and i would say that your spectral vines just work like they don't get a saving throw because it's all connected to that primal power so like the little guy he's like got a bit bigger and he's trying to grab all these

things and then yeah it's like spectral vines right so like out of the woods you know not breaking the floorboards or breaking the walls all these vines and he's like looks around like he's looking a little cage he's like trapped in like a little bird cage and he's like looking around and he's like he's like almost like it's a real thing around him. He's like, you need to behave. Make a intimidate check. Seven plus nine. 16. 16.

Looks pretty scared. He's like, he like takes one of his, like... I don't know, what's, like, an object he might have? Like a spoon? And he, like, puts it through the bars of the cage. Like, he's giving it back. He, like, pushes it back. Like...

Aww. Can I, like... Is there, like, a window nearby? Uh, which room are you in? I'm in the kitchen. In the kitchen. Yeah, let's say there's, like, a little tiny, like, little window. Yeah.

Can I, like, open the window and be like, you need to I'm in the kitchen. In the kitchen. Yeah, they'd say there's like a little tiny little window, yeah. Can I open the window and be like, you need to leave these lovely people alone. They're just trying to keep their house clean. Go, shoo, go outside. Go somewhere else. On your next turn, make a persuasion check. But we'll do it on your next turn because that's quite a lot in one turn.

So we'll do that on your next turn. All right. The little dust bright in your bottle. Can't do anything. Bonk. Can't do anything. Bonk. Can't do anything. Ava's one is dead. The two with Quill and Nova,

the one that you nearly destroyed, in its last effort, it's going to roll over. It moves. You see it kind of almost shimmer. It kind of gets more powerful as it wraps itself up in all these like in the cobwebs it was around um actually no you blew them away so i'd say i can't do that it's all the dirt is dispersed um so it's just gonna with its last energy critical hit 20 not a natural 20 but it does hit yeah six points of blood i've got damage. I've got dust allergies. Yeah.

And then Nova is going to do the same thing to you, but you didn't disperse the dust in your one, because you went after the Cluck one. So you watch as it kind of almost grows like thicker in its grime. And it's like... And that is going to be a 17. All right, so you can... Like the splashes on the armor or whatever,

doesn't quite have enough force to cause you any harm. But that's it. And we go to Nova Vija. I'm just going to keep attacking. Sure. I was wondering if I'm allowed to get Eldritch Blast on the go, but I think you'd probably make me have a disadvantage. So, just, you know, I'll start a natural 20.

You wait, you, like, go, huh? And the little guy's like, I'm going to go the other way. I'd say with a natural 20, because these guys are a little thing, you immediately, like, poof, and you disperse him. You exercise the spirit. As you do, because when they hit zero, they also have a messy exit. You need to make a dexterity saving throw, as his ball of stuff explodes outwards. It goes like a shrapnel.

Yeah, like a shrapnel grenade. 13. 13 is enough. You're gonna take half damage. So you take three points of bludgeoning damage, but the area around you, all of his stuff, becomes difficult to reign in that 10-foot space. And it's just like covered.

And it's like little things, like little tacks and nails. Lego. It's like Legos, yeah, exactly. just kind of disperse all around you um but that guy is gonzo uh i have two more attacks you do i'm gonna go for this a little dust bright you move up and like almost using the the sword the new sword is like a feather duster like yeah yeah um. 17, just barely. Just barely. 10 points of damage. 10 points, yeah.

And then third attack. 16 plus 13. It's a hit. Nine. So this one also pops. Again, you need to make another dex save as it covers this room in dirt and grime. 19. 19, you take heart. There's no even as it covers this room in dirt and grime. 19.

19. There's no even damage on this. You're not blinded. But yeah, this room is messier than when you first came in because it's now got stuff everywhere. And that soot demon just went, or the soot spirit, sorry, just covered this place in dirt and grime.

And you are also like, ugh. It's all like you've just walked up a chimney, basically. So you're covered in it's all like, you know, like you've just walked up a chimney, basically. So you're like covered in it. I just got these clothes. So I think there's only the one that's just barely alive with Quill and then the one in Century's Bottle. I've got a clutter one. Yeah, there's a clutter one.

Yeah. Both mine are still alive. Yeah, you've got the clutter one as well. I've got a clutter one. All right. Well, in that case, the remaining clutter ones, which is Aayla and Quill's, because Sentry's one is trapped, are basically going to try and slam you with their Katamari ball.

Just a little ankle biter. 18 to hit Quill. Yep. All right, five points of bludgeoning damage. Just whacks into your knee. Ow! And then Aayla is only a 12, so you're like, get back off. It's not quite the end of the round, but I think the old lady's going to look into Nova's room and be like, oh no! We've got to start

all over again. At least the sprites aren't here. Yes, I suppose. Maybe we could get them outside before you destroy them. You tell us this now! I didn't know. I didn't know that they exploded into dust. But yeah, so that's your kind of point there.

And then we go to Quill. Quilly Quilly Bee. I mean, next door to me, I just heard Ayla shout in rage. Don't worry about her, she's really passionate about painting. The old man is looking towards Ayla's room like, She's not known for smashing stuff. I haven't done a thing! I want to,

can I, from the door of the room, lightning the clutter spirit out of the building? You want to yeet it out of the building? Yeah, I want it to be yanted. Strength? Strength save. Nailed! Cool. 4d...

Roll the damage because it might get blown up. 1, 2, 3. Blown up. As you are yeeting. The damage only happens when it gets within five feet of me. So I mean like, it might be- You're by the door, right?

Yeah, so that's eight, 10, 11 plus six, 17. 17 points of damage. Nice. That one isn't quite destroyed, so you yeet it over to you, and you see the little guy go, and then he lands and all of his stuff spreads out, and then he very quickly is like, and he's looking like he's going to, he's like, I'm pissed now. Is he still in the building?

He's still in the building, but you're like five feet at the door, basically. Okay. That was an action. Don't really have much bonus actions. I kind of want to try and close the door with him on the other side of it. Yeah. But I don't think I can. You have to use an action to try and shove him or something.

Yeah. So I'll just keep trying to pick up all the sharp objects. Yeah, you can grab some more objects. Why can't I hold all these forks? Right, Ayla. Stick them in your feathers. Can I? Is there a window in the living room?

I would say yes. Yeah? But it's like a little tiny like a porthole window. You might be able to get this going in there unless he gets any bigger. If he gets any bigger, he absolutely won't. Okay, see what I want to try and do is pick him up, take him to the window, and use my hammer and just yeet at distance. Yep.

Baseball bat. Yeah, baseball bat. Yep, absolutely. So it's going to be the same thing. You're going to make an unarmed strike to try and grab him with the grapple. Okay. Just using your unarmed strike bonus. Is plus the turn.

20. 20 hit, yeah. You grab him, pick him up. You can move over to the window. It's not that far. It's probably like 10, 15 feet. You've got enough movement even at half speed. Open the window.

Make an attack roll. He might be able to wriggle out of it if you roll really bad if you roll a one he might like reckless attack maybe sure two ones maybe it's not too it's a 19 yeah plus 15. it was reckless you hit the the hammer. The guy absolutely goes, I'm not even gonna, he's gone. He's out of the combat. He's out of the situation. But you notice that like,

oh, you kind of hit it a bit hard and there's like a big crack down the window. Yeah, you're reckless, reckless. And it's like, and you maybe like, like pull the curtain to like hide this crack or something. But it's like a pretty noticeable crack

down the window frame. Great. Oh, um uh great yeah that guy is done and he is out century did he fly into the distance before he did his messy exit or whatever it's called well in fact it's a good point though when he gets out once it's out of the room it the sprite kind of just like looks and like oh i'm not in there and then just disappears because he's no longer he's not clutter he's not dirty yeah he's been he's been he's been cleaned out of the house so like as soon as it looks like once they get out of the threshold of the house these spirits just can't exist anymore they just they don't become they're no longer what they were so they vanish um all right century you want to make a persuasion check

i believe you're trying to yeah you're like naughty boy get out hands on hips yeah wiggling finger not 20 what's happening with you wait till next week i swear we're gonna see stonewall and it's gonna be like one one one three not 20 i think that baby is having an influence on her dice rolls lucky baby lucky baby lucky baby century yeah would you like this little sprite to be your Three nat 20s. I think that baby is having an influence on her dice rolls. Lucky baby. Lucky baby! Lucky baby! Century, would you like this little sprite to be your forever friend? Yes! The little sprite looks up at you.

He looks at his things. And you get the impression that it understands you. Even though it's this little sprite, you don't think it's a living creature, but it connects with you in some way. And it looks up at you, and he hangs his head in shame. And he goes over and he slowly puts all of his items out of the cage.

And then he looks at you and he gestures at the cage, like, well, I can't leave, you've got me trapped. But I'll go. I'll drop the cage. And he kind of like, he climbs up the little cupboards and he goes to the window and he looks at you and he waves goodbye.

But he like lingers on for a moment. And you're like, if you were like. Would you like a friend? If you say that and he's like. Come with us, come on. And he like moves over and he's too small. He's like, he's like... Come with us, come on. And he moves over and he's too small. He's literally a couple of inches big, so he's on a little tabletop.

And he looks up and is looking up at you as if, pick me up or something. Yeah, I'll reach my hands down. He like clambers, he like pulls himself into your palm and he like walks up your arm and he like gets into your like leaf hair and he just sits in there. And he's your friend now. I wanted a spirit before we left here to make friends with me,

and Sentry's just already done it. It's the best day. I've only got a natural 20 on a persuasion show. I mean, I don't normally like to do that, because I'm like, natural 20s aren't all this. It's not a mind control. But this little spirit is like, you connect your primordial things. He's like, yep, all right, mum.

Mummy. I mean, not to say that Century is a junk mum, but she literally has a tumbleweed echo. Like, that's just a perfect fit. Now you have a little kind of like, a little dung beetle man. Does he have a name? No, he doesn't. Names aren't concepts to the little spirit.

Doesn't need names. And he's like luminous. He's like a little luminous. He's not like a detailed figure. It's like he's made of like little light. He's made of like green names. And he's like luminous. He's like a little luminous. He's not like a detailed figure. It's like he's made of like little light. He's made of like green light. And he's just like lives in your hair now. Can you name him like Brian or something?

I'll have to think of a name. Think of a name for him. Yeah. Update the artwork. Century has a little drunk baby. I got a little drunk baby. At this point, I'm just going to make the comment. There's no point.

I'm going to gust. You guys are going to gust him. Gust him out of the room. It was mainly just to kind of fill this up. But yeah, like, we got to wrap up. I do want to, you know, we'll probably catch up a little bit more on this next week just to kind of wrap this up.

Sure. But that's going to be today's episode. I want to terrify a kid. Yeah. I think that like, yeah. Traumatized. Do that. Don't pretend to be scared.

Talia's parents are like, oh, thank you so much, thank you so much. They look at like the mess Nova has made and like the mess in Central, like where Ayia's parents are like, oh, thank you so much, thank you so much. They look at the mess Nova has made and the mess in Central, where Ayla's kind of thing. And they're like, we could take care of this from now on. The hall is looking, have you seen the kitchen? Yes, wonderful, yes, you did. And Talia's like, you did such a wonderful job, my darling.

Thank you for your assistance. Oh yes, of course, I will help. But you know, I, delicate hands. But the help. You know, I... Delicate hands. But the old man is just like, you did very well. You tried your best. Thank you. They're out of the house.

I call that a win. Yes, it is. Got resurrected for this. They start scrubbing. Like, can you see the old lady on her hands and knees trying to wipe the pool? Oh, I can't leave with this nonsense. Come on. Nova's like, okay. You know the pool. Oh, I can't leave with this nonsense, come on.

Nova's like, okay. You know for a fact that Nova's cleaning up. Come on, don't just dig that in a little bit more. Takes a bit of time, but you help them all kind of clean up the rest of the house. And they're very grateful, and you guys make your way out. And we'll pick this up next week. Nice.

Finish up this little bit of in this little village. Man. Can I call my guy Briar? Briar? It's kind of like Brian, but it's like Briar is like... Yeah. It fits with you. You, Sentry,

they have no concept of a name. They don't know what a name is. They can't speak to you. You can do whatever you want. Briar! All right. Hey, thanks for joining us for this episode of High Rollers D&D.

It's good to be back enjoyed it take care we'll see you soon we'll see you next week we missed you until then bye bye

bye