High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #174 | The Great Hunt Begins! (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

The Stormchasers, alongside an army of allies, set off on their great hunt for Stonemaw, the Titan of the Land! 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

Hello and welcome back to Erois. Last time, the champions found themselves in the borough folk town of Starwatch Rise during a festival, the Festival of New Stars, as they wait for their allies to prepare for the great hunt over the beasts of Atelicus. The party enjoyed the festival. They helped clean up some rooms and clear out some dark spirits. They helped to collect some vegetables and preserve them from the dash hogs that were chasing after them.

They met with some old allies, such as the wild elves and various barra folk. They participated in a sort of ongoing festival of scaring away an evil wolf spirit. Lucia scared some children. It was your general typical Champions of Erois shenanigans. And it all

culminated in a lovely festival sending off these floating paper lanterns up to the Astral Sea to celebrate the past and the deceased and that's where we ended last session but now but now we fuck up some beast right after you you probably spend about two days here in starwatch rise um with the festival winding down everything kind of goes back to normalcy. You know, farmers go out and farm, people kind of go about their daily chores,

and you are left to sort of just relax and wait. During this time, if there's anything you desperately are keen to do that you can do in the small town, you absolutely can do so. Otherwise, we will basically move ahead to the point where your allies arrive and the hunts will begin. Does anyone sell any potions here? No. It is a very small rural town. There isn't really going to be anybody that can sell things like potions or anything like that.

Is there anyone here that can make a magic friend? What school of magic would that be, Tom? I'm still set on necromancy. I like it being necromancy. It just doesn't sound... Preserve dead is... I see his point. I do see your point,

but I think it just sounds very ominous. Vegetables and stuff still have life in it, though. A lot of people say... Healing magic is evocation it's it's very evocation yeah yeah anyway anyway i have not had a chance to update the hammer that's something i forgot to do but i do know what i want it to do uh which is when you score a critical hit tell me and then i will tell you what it does. I really hope I do now. Yeah. My sleeves are too long. Yeah.

But that's, I haven't added it to the item, but it is basically when you get a crit, a damage, many damages. A damage. A damage happen. More brains explode. But yeah, anything in the interim. You have a couple of days, so if there's preparations you want to do,

if there's questions, if you want to talk to Morgaine or Varnir about what is specifically going to be involved in the hunt, because a lot of the information up to this point has been not necessarily vague, but they haven't really gone into too much detail yet. Yes. I will discuss with Morgaine, Varnir, and Rethra. Varnir.

He's worth it. He's worth it. He's worth it, yeah. Yeah, what would you like to discuss with them? You can definitely go and find them. They are kind of gathering. That sounds the price. There is a group of about 30 other wild elves and burrow folks kind of mixed together, so sort of like 15 of each,

but kind of maybe not exactly precise, even split. There are 30 burrow folk and wildelf hunters who will be coming with you, and then Vania, Morgaine, Rethra, and Sanara are kind of like the named NPCs that are going with them as well. But then you also have like a small squadron of other hunters and stuff as well. But yeah, you can definitely go and find them and approach them. What do you want to ask? What do you want to talk about? Hello.

Hello. Hello. We've got a big fight coming up, and I think it's quite important. We discussed the whole... the tactics, pulling off the armor plates and whatnot. Ah, yeah. Blasting them. Absolutely, yeah. Maybe we should have a word or a call-out for when you should...

we should blast. We sort of leave that to you, champions. We're sort of coming along to provide effort. I think mainly we'll help you reach the beast, we'll help ambush the beast, and we'll be on hand to help fight it, but who calls the shots is, we're sort of handing that over to you.

You're supposed to be these champions, these saviors who have fought great beasts and evils. You're supposed to be these champions, these saviors who have fought great beasts and evils. You're supposed to be good. Work it out. I sounded quite loaded there. I don't believe what I'm told, only what I've seen. Well, all right. In which case...

We can tell you a little bit about Stone Moor, how it fights. Yes, things you've observed recently, any resistances that seem to be building that we should maybe avoid. We've got a lot of different damage types between us. So what's the thing that's been attacked the least and the most in terms of elements? Varnia will kind of step forward.

And you never see Varnia without these snow goggles and like this thick hood so you don't be all you've really seen is like this big thick kind of padded hood these white thin sort of like snow goggles and then just a big l like beard like a kind of viking beard so i don't really know what this guy looks like but uh he kind of is like well we know that um we know that the beast can't be hurt by acid, by fire, by poison. We know those things don't work. That's what the dragons all used. Goddamn.

So we know that those are things that no longer work against the creature. While its armor plating is intact, we know that slashing, piercing weapons have almost no effect. We know that... What about bludgeoning? We think that that's one of the ways that you can break the armor off. The armor itself, there's different ways how we want to go about it,

how you want to go about it. It's really up to you. We think that using a big cracking weapon, like a bludgeoning weapon, like a hammer or something like that can actually break the armor if you strike them in the armor plating. I couldn't possibly think of any sort of device or weapon that could exist. I don't know why you're being sarcastic, but okay. The other thing we know is that similar,

any kind of similar energy, force, thunder, those sorts of things, that can damage the armor. We don't think they have as much effect on the creature's body, but the armor, it definitely does affect. We know that the armor as well seems to protect it from lots of other types of magic. Exactly what we don't know, but we know that it's protected. It's always safe to assume that with its armor on, any type of magic, even if it does affect it, it will probably be somewhat resilient against,

as far as we can tell. We don't, we're not particularly magical as hunters. We don't have lots of mages and priests and things like that, so we can't say exactly what will and won't work, but we know that the thing has resisted spells from spirits and things like that. So hit it with bludgeoning force, thunder, unless it's got its armor off, and then we can blast.

Well, you can also rip the armor off. We've seen the dragons have had some moderate success in being able to pull parts of the armor off. Aren't you going to be doing that with some of your squad, like zipping up there with some devices or whatnot? Yeah, we can certainly try to do that. Yeah, that's the plan. That's what our plan was before you came along,

was to basically get on the beast. The Borafolk have these fireworks. We think if we can wedge those under, it might be able to blow some of the armor off. We've kind of taken the explosive powder they use, we've concentrated it, and we've made these charges that we think can blow the armor away, once we can, if we can get it in the right places.

But I mean, Stunmoor's a powerful creature. Even just getting to it is gonna be challenging. Have you seen a piece of plating being taken off before? Aye, yeah, pieces of it. How quickly does it regrow? Within seconds. Which is why I think it's crucial that we have the timing down

to ripping off the plate, dealing the damage. So if any of your team do so. Well, we'll be under you. As far as I'm concerned, you're calling the shots. You tell us when you want us to act. Okay. That's the easiest way for this to work. How about we have armor plate rippers uh which is most likely smashes most the armor plate rippers is most likely going to be ayla and century yeah ripping specifically

for century but bashing and ripping for ayla yes so maybe under their tutelage and guidance the rest of the team will follow their lead. Whatever you tell us to do. That'd be good. And then we'll be the blasters of the flesh. Yes. The armour when it's been ripped off before, the regrown armour, is it tougher than before?

Hard to say. Okay. I imagine that there is some, it gets tougher every time, but I couldn't give you any specifics about that. Okay, so we might need to relocate around. It's also worth noting that the armor plating kind of covers three major parts of Stonewall. Its tail, its body, and its head. Each of those are sort of independent locations.

You won't be able to just pull the armor off the whole creature in one. You'll have to pick which areas you want to strike, which areas you want to focus on. Okay. Have you noticed the creature performing any abilities with certain parts of its body? I mean, it's got a giant mouth, it bites things. It's tail can smash. Yes, exactly. Do you think ripping off- It does seem to have developed some affinity for fire and acid. You notice that smoke comes out of its mouth at occasion.

Its body seems to become very hot and warm. It seems to have some affinity to both acid and fire. It's developed. And how is it against aerial targets? I mean, it is a beast. It doesn't have a bow. And how is it against aerial targets? I mean, it is a beast. It doesn't have a bow. It doesn't have any magic spells. Okay.

What would you say was its largest reach that you've seen? The tail and the neck. I mean, it's a big creature. I mean, it's about 15, 20 feet tall as is, but it can probably strike foes up to about 15 feet away, I'd say. Right. You might want to be cautious that it has a breath weapon. Yeah.

It has fought off the dragons, and they're very skilled aerial fighters, so even if it can't necessarily strike them, it knows how to defend itself against aerial strikes. It might try and seek cover. I mean, we're gonna be fighting it in thick woods and jungles, so it might seek cover. It may be able to throw rocks, for all we know.

It may be able to hit them with its tail, launch them up into the air or something. Does it have grippies? It has smaller arms, yeah, two sets, four arms in total, but they're small. Only a creature that it was able to grab in its mouth would it really be able to attack with its claws. I'll go against an ocean.

Okay, okay. We've seen it live, we've seen it grab, you know, big beasts, horses, larger creatures with its mouth, lifts them up, and then it can savage them. Good to know. Grabby. Write that down. They got a bit grabby at the front.

Yeah, grabby at the front. And is it particularly agile? For such a large creature? It's more agile than you'd think for a big beast like a Tyrannosaurus, but it's not particularly quick, no, I would say. Okay. Wait, is it literally a Tyrannosaurus?

But like a super mutant. Tyrannosaurus, yeah. Another set of arms, that's how you know it's batter. So it's got four of these. Four like really tiny arms? Yeah. Yeah, it's based on a T-Rex. It's basic form is that of a T-Rex.

And then it's like mutated and adapted over time with all this armor plating. I need to know. These like four arms. Are the arms in a horizontal line, or are they two and two vertically? I mean, you'll see it when you find out. You don't know. If you're asking Varni. I'm asking Varni.

It's two on either side. Two smaller pairs on each side. Two vertical columns of arms. Yes, I suppose that's how you'd describe it, right? That was important to me. Fan artists. Forearms. Forearms vertical.

I think I found a new mount. Tiny. We haven't been able to track the beast as much since its last fight with the dragons, so it may have some tricks and things that we've not seen just yet. Have you been sent the sending stones yet, where we coordinate with the other beasts? No, they're arriving.

I think they're arriving tomorrow. I assume those will be given to us. Right. It's probably best that Quill has one, right? I don't think, can anyone use them? There's a, so yeah, I mean, when they arrive, you'll have more details, but yeah, you know that you're being sent two items.

One which is a way to kind of track a creature's vitality. It's a health bar the other one is yeah like an improved sending stone called a messenger stone which is it basically it's like a linked it's kind of like the messenger rings you guys had but it's linked to a longer distance and like it's linked to these specific steps so is it uh like an action to use is it less it's a bonus action to use both of those items, yeah. But we won't have to attune to it, I suppose. You won't have to attune to it, no. But yeah, Vanya will say,

I'd recommend that one of you takes one, and somebody else takes another, but you should definitely have control of that. At this point, like Morgaine, Rethra, and Sanne will kind of say, Sanne probably says, in terms of the fight, we'll obviously do everything we can to support you and assist you. We'll be there to try and help. But also, you know, again, like V probably says, in terms of the fight, we'll obviously do everything we can to support you and assist you. We'll be there to try and help.

But also, you know, again, like Vanya says, tell us when you need us. If you need us to help you, you know, do something, most of what we do is we're not going to be able to achieve the same levels of combat efficiency as you guys. But, I mean, I can still, if I'm set up right, if I'm kind of given the support, I'm pretty sure i can land a pretty big blow on its armor or on its body if if you give me if you can work with me um morgaine and

rethra say yes and the same applies to us as well whilst we are talented fighters our efficiency will be not as effective as perhaps yourselves but we can enhance your attacks we can help you and support you in what you're doing you just need to tell us when you want us to act. For out-of-game reference, you are basically going to have teamwork attacks where you can call in when you take certain actions. You can call in one of these guys to come and assist you, pull off a combo attack,

and then that goes on to a recharge where they've got to get their energy back before they can do it again. Per person? Basically, yeah. Kind of like a fastball special kind of teamwork kind of move where it takes them, they've got to get their energy back before they can do it again. Per person. Basically, yeah. Okay. Kind of like a fastball special kind of teamwork kind of move where you'll call them in, tales of arise.

Yep, yep, yep. You get the feeling. So when I put my hand out for a Chromatic Orb, someone's hand supports it like that. Well, I mean, you could do the Gohan Kamehameha, but no, it'd be more like as you're about to, I don't know, cast Chromatic Orb, right? You could say like, Morgaine now!

And then she would jump in, do her move, which might either give you an increased damage or weaken the target or make it easier to hit or do something like that. Keep it distractive. Strike team move. They are also, all of the NPCs, so that I don't bog the combat down,

they are going to have a movement on their turn. If you don't tell them where to move, I'm just going to move them based on where I think they would go. Yeah, yeah. They're not going to make attack rolls. They'll do a small amount of damage as long as they're within attack range of the creature. But generally, they're mainly going to be there to support you guys.

If they, the four main NPCs, if they get hit, they have not necessarily hit points, like check boxes if they lose too many check boxes they go down right and if you heal them you need to heal them like by a certain amount and that maybe restores a checkpoint right but it's not going to be like i'm not going to be sitting here calculating their hit points it's like if i feel like you've healed them enough they get back up if you heal them for like six hit points i'm like nope they're still down like or whatever um they're still injured um the 30 other hunters you're taking with you are like friendly minions right so they if they get hit once they're down they're gone they're dead but one of the abilities you'll have varnia's uh team action is basically however many of those hunters you've got

left they all basically take shots at the creature and how many of them there are determines how much damage they do and how difficult it is for it to how easy it is for them to strike so that's like varnia's kind of um special move that he can do is it called the fructus no um the last um aid that you can call upon so you'll have basically morgaine, Sana, Rethra, and Varnia are like your kind of four teamwork guys. And then the last thing you can do is you can call in the dragons. There's gonna be a blue dragon and a silver dragon

that are kind of like air support, and you can call them in to come in and unleash your breath weapon attack. But they know that at this point, they know their claws and stuff are useless against the beast. So the only thing they've got left is their breath weapon. But that they know that at this point, they know their claws and stuff are useless against the beast. So the only thing they've got left is their breath weapon.

But that's the last resort. Otherwise, it's resistant. Well, basically the way it will work is when this creature takes enough of a certain type of damage, it then becomes resistant to that type of damage for the rest of the fight. So whether that's through Aayla

just getting a fucking mega lightning crit off or Lucius doing like a massive cone of cold and rolling loads and max damage. Regardless of the source, once they hit a certain threshold of damage, they become resistant to that damage for the rest of the fight. So if you want to, you know, but the dragons are a good way. I'll tell you now, it's like a 15 D8 breath weapon. That's nice. I like it. Yeah.

You guys are like level 19. Like this isn't fuck around town anymore. We don't fuck around in this town. Where's that located? In Get Fuckedville.

Wow. I don't ever want to visit that place. That place sounds nasty. Fuck around town. Fuck around. Quite next to Find Out.

Find Out. Yeah. That's what Find Out. Find Out. That's what they say. So we've got the Wild Elves as a combo, Santa as a combo, Dragon Breath Attack. Morgaine and Rethra also you can combo with. I call them Wild Elves. I group them all together. Wow.

You bitch. And the Breath Attack of this thing is, was it Acid or Poison, sorry? It is of the creature of Stonewall. They didn't say, they just said that they have seen They're all the same. Breath attack of this thing is... Was it acid or poison? Sorry. It is of the creature of Stonewall. They didn't say. They just said that they have seen smoke coming out of its mouth. They've seen that it has an affinity for fire and acid.

But they've said it's been a while since they've really seen it fight anything because the dragons have been taking care of it. It might have developed new tricks. It's been doing a learn. And they've only noticed a resistance to acid, not necessarily fire. No, no, no.

They've said it's immune to acid, fire, and poison. Write it down. Yeah. It's outright immune to those. Not resistant, immune. And as long as its armor plating is on, it's also completely invulnerable to slashing, piercing, and maybe other damage types as well.

Good God. And technically, the main body can't be hurt by bludgeoning until the armor's broken, but the armor can be damaged by it. So bludgeoning, force, thunder can damage the armor, and then lightning and cold it's still vulnerable to at the moment. Not necessarily vulnerable, but it's not resistant to yet. There might be other forms of damage as well,

but the wild elves don't know what those might be. What do you got, bud? None. You got force? You got force, yeah. Yeah, I got Eldritch Blast. Yeah, of course.

Little tiny... It's force. Force is force. Eldritch Blast is the most powerful spell in the game. I've got acid. Because it's like three. Don't do that one.

Please. Does anyone have any extra magical items they don't need to use one? I have one, yes. Do you want a wand of magic missiles? You're not using that? I have a ring of free action. Wow. That sounds cute.

Which difficult terrain doesn't cost you extra movement. Magic can't reduce your speed and you can't be paralyzed or restrained. That sounds cute. Which, difficult terrain doesn't cost you extra movement, magic can't reduce your speed, and you can't be paralyzed or restrained. That sounds cute. You want that? Pretty good for something with grabby hands. I don't want to get grappled. Yeah.

I have braces of defense. Ooh, what do they do? They defend. They won't stack with your armor. They won't stack with my armor. Plus two points. You want the Ring of Reaction? I have those in Lightfall, actually.

What about Amulet of Proof against Detection? No. Um, what do we need? What about a Coral Song proof against detection? No. What about a coral sun trident that will summon dolphins? I do like dolphins. We're going to the forest. It's still on my back. Forest dolphins.

Magic forest dolphins. Just flopping around on the floor there. Did something happen to Lady Duskwillow's ring? That bandore I found that turned into a ring from ages ago. Something happened to it. Yeah. Witsy team will know. It's still in my inventory and I was just concerned that it vanished. Because it has a lot of spells on it.

Yeah, you can have a ring of free action. I'll get a wing of free action. Look for that. I will say no to that until I research it. Thank you can have a ring of free action look look for that i will say no to that until i research it thank you thank you i got a ring of free action me too because no no trot no no no no someone asked on our reddit whether this is a kids show like it's suitable for kids no

the overwhelming answer was no yeah gotta fuck around town fuck around town why now the last thing is Vanya will probably

stay don't forget all the tactics against Stoneonemaure is somewhat, will become moot if the beasts aren't taken down at the same time. If we defeat Stonemaure too quickly, or if the others do the same, then the creatures enter a sort of protected cocoon

of intense magic, one that we've not been able to break through. And they quickly regenerate, very, very rapidly, even from death. Oh, good. Cool. All right, we've got to be careful that we don't... On it. ...spath our wad too quickly.

What? Sorry, Lucius. What does that mean? You're not acting very like yourself today, Lucius. I'm not acting like a Russian before. That's what I'm saying's been a while, mate. He is right, though. We've got to be careful that we don't...

Fuck it up. ...specify one too early. Fuck it up. No, to quick, like, blow our load too fast. What does this mean? I did, like, all our powerful things at once. Our stone wall goes down, the other two are still being defeated,

and it goes into its cocoon state and regenerates. He's right, we don't want to piss it up the wall. That's what I was trying to say. How are you pissing, hmm. He's a bird, I don't know how it works. I can fly, I can do a lot of things. Do you do toilet when you're flying? I really don't want this question.

A lot of people have asked, and I don't know enough about birds. We'll just answer it. You won't need to answer it again. I projectile shit, then. Could you do it on Stonewall? Yeah. Blindness. Yeah, I could try and poop into its eyes.

Do you... Have you... You did the messenger thing for a little bit, did you? The messenger thing? You know. No. No, we didn't even pass that. No.

I was blown out of the sky by lightning, remember? Oh, yeah. Is that the first time you flew, or...? No. OK. So, in the previous times before, you know... How long have you known me? Half your life.

Three quarters. Three quarters was all I know. In that brief glimpse of your life before... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before Lucius. Wingate. Fresh from the womb. It wouldn't be the womb, would it?

When you flew around. Bird womb. It'd be an egg. Egg. Yeah, the bird womb is an egg. How long have you known me? Most of your life. To be fair though, a very tiny portion of our life,

so it's very easy to forget these things. I'm an elf. A speck. Thank you for reminding me. Speck, tiny bab. I'm gonna forget that you existed in like 50 years. Anyway, I didn't say that, that's not canon. Take that out of the wiki. I'm hoping none of this is canon. Take that out of the wiki.

Okay. So pre- pre-wing, when you were flying around pooping, do you target people? Because I feel like birds target people. Have you been targeted by a lot of bird soup? On Gusthaven, thankfully, we have measures against such

devastating attacks. Attacks, yeah. We have our own environment. I'll never tell. He's so glad that you made the most of me doing some note-taking there and really drilled into the intense role-playing back. If this little character arc here doesn't come around at the end in a satisfying conclusion, that's on you.

That's on me I'm gonna shit on Hadar okay right in the eye alright that's his that's his weakness yeah

alright he's got many weaknesses that's why nobody's nobody's defeated him before nobody's shitting his eye it's I don't know I haven't tried it yet

does he have eyes? just one oh yeah he's one big eye he's a big eye which means I need one big boop. Mm, okay. Get you more.

You have to save up for a bit. I'm gonna have an entire hero's feast to myself. I saw a video the other day of Hen I don't wanna know. giving birth to a giant egg. Like, it had to be assisted. Like a human-sized egg. It was, it might as well have been.

And I just thought, wow, that Hen must feel so good afterwards. Oh, yeah. Anyway. Tore his butt open. It's a kids-friendly stream. Well, that's educational. Do eggs come out of the butt?

It's educational. I mean, technically it's a cloaca, so it does... There you go. It functions different things. There you go. Educational. The answer for the question of the stream

do eggs do butt no they don't the more you know star it's a one hole type situation one hole does all go on Mark

back to you Mark I'm waiting to be told what your characters would like to do I am I made that quite clear, Mark. I'm asking Quill about his pre-wing. Absolutely, yep.

What's the... Deal. The deal. What's the deal? What's the vibe in the Camp Now post-festival? It doesn't seem any really any different. The borough folk here are just sort of like, yep, it's part of life.

What, multiple beasts attacking their lands? I mean, from, you know, looking around the area around this town, I mean, this is only a small little place. This isn't like a big city

or anything like that. It's like a very, Al-Saraf is a huge continent. This is like a small town. Right. There's no sign of like the beasts have attacked here. They have dash hogs to deal with.

They are used to violence, sir. Yeah. You just get the impression that Stonewall or the other beasts just haven't attacked here yet. These guys are aware of it, but... Is this the Shire? Yeah, kind of, yeah. Yeah, this is the Shire.

And Nazgul have not yet arrived. Saruman hasn't bought his armies to plunder the Shire, which wasn't actually in the movie, but it is in the books. Okay. The more you know, the answer for the question of the stream. So anyway, yeah. I mean, so everyone here is just going about their day-to-day life. Like, there's no sort of, like, fleeing in terror.

Nobody's, like, packing their stuff up ready to leave. Nobody's afraid. The hunters, the wild elves are definitely more stoic and more like, tough hunt ahead. You kind of get that impression of like, yep, got to get in the mindset. Like this is going to be a tough one. The bar folk who are coming along are like,

bro, you got enough carrots to go with your jab? I've got enough carrots, don't worry about me. And he's got like, you know, they're just very kind of happy-go-lucky, easygoing. They're all sweet, special cinnamon rolls. You can see that like over the last couple of days, various borough folk, kind of like weavers and tailors and some of the wild elves have been busy making

what appeared to be almost like outfits and cloaks. And it's kind of all dyed in like browns and greens and the colors of the forest. They've like sewn like actual living vines and things onto these cloaks and capes to create like camouflage hoods, right? So, you know, they're basically making you hunting equipment and outfits to go along. Oh, yeah.

Lucius's new outfit. Brown. Yeah. And green. A little bit green. But yeah, apart from that, just fairly normal. I mean, it's pretty much the same as what everybody's been made. Yeah. And green. A little bit green. But yeah, apart from that, just fairly normal. Nice. I mean, it's pretty much the same as what everybody's been made.

It's like a kind of poncho with like a kind of hood to like flip up over it. And then something that goes over your trousers and boots to like disguise your lower half, basically. No. I wear the poncho, but I'm not wearing the trousers. Why is that the line? Just curious. Half of me needs to be visible. I can't be seen in the full garb.

If half of you is visible... We can't endanger the rest of this hunting party. Half of you is visible, all of us die. Yeah, you're putting everyone... I mean, not just Stonewall, but you'll attract other predators. This is really selfish, Lucius. Everyone's going to die. We can't force you to do anything, champion.

But, I mean, keep in mind that, like, Lucius's trance is like deep purple, right? And you've got glittering jewels and gold trimming and stuff like that. Vanya will say that, like, I could see you from probably 400 or 500 feet away. Thank you. A beast will be able to see you twice as far. They'll be able to smell it as well.

Are his boots really, really polished and shiny? And also, Lucius, you soap and clean yourself pretty thoroughly, right? Lucius is very careful with his appearance. Does he wear perfume or cologne or anything? Of course. All right. Of the season. Yeah, the Borafolk are like,

I mean, not just see him, I can smell him from miles away. It's only for a few days. It'll be fine. If we kill this beast, well, all three of them, and we succeed, we'll get you a really fancy bath. Hmm.

A spa day. Maybe a new outfit. Hmm. All right. We'll get him a new outfit. And then, you know, they've clearly, like, you know, it looks like that they were probably, like, all the wild elves and the barfolk are actually wearing, like, outfits.

Like, not just, like, the ponchos and these, like, gaiters that go over their legs. They're actually wearing, like, you know, outfits and stuff like that. They do look like they've made the special accommodation for you guys where it's a poncho to go over your existing gear and then basically, like, gaiters that go over your legs so that you can still wear the clothes that you're used to and stuff like that. So you could also quickly take them off if you needed to. I'll get them in before they kill.

Sure. Just so you know what I look like. Yeah, Vani is just like, the reason that when fighting Stonewall just isn't the only problem, it's also tracking it down, finding it. Its territory is days away from here. I mean, we're going to be hiking through the woods

for a few days before we can even find it. Then we'll need to track it, locate it, and the plan is that we will lure it into an ambush where we'll have the upper hand. If we are sloppy, or if we give ourselves away, there's a chance that Stormwall will ambush us. That puts us in the defensive position. Okay. Stonewall will ambush us. That puts us in the defensive position. Okay. But yeah, there may also be other threats. There may be other threats in the woods.

Like what? Beasts, spirits, creatures that live here in Al-Saraf. I mean, they're probably, many of them have been driven out of their territory, out of their lairs by Stonewall. That's made them hungry. It's made them scared, made them aggressive. So the deeper we get to its territory, the greater it is. But also, there's dark magic.

There's dark magic that clings to Stonewall. It's affecting the spirits, it corrupts them. Okay. Oh, so we can't rely on them to warn us, necessarily. I mean, when we get to a place where the forest becomes quiet with other beasts and spirits, then we'll know Stonewall is close. But there.

The other thing I would say is if you have any powerful magic, you shouldn't cast it. Once we begin the hunt, until we find Stonewall, avoid using powerful magic. Is there anything we need to do before we leave then? Anything you want to do? Well, if it's going to be a few days, it's not very worthwhile using them now.

Can I have a long rest so I don't have a level of exhaustion anymore? Yeah, you can all have long rests, yeah. It's going to be like two days before you depart. I am exhausted from picking those veggies. I mean, one level of exhaustion is no big deal. No big deal. It's devastating.

It's the worst I've ever felt. Yeah. I'm good, yeah. I'm satisfied to wait. The beast does seem to have some sort of sense for magic. Powerful magic is used, it seems to be aware. Oh, what about our equipment then? If you have magical equipment

that's extremely powerful, you may want to consider concealing it in some way. Same as before, have a sack? Have a sack. Oh, but then we need to attune to them again. No. No? No, it's just like putting them to action

to put them on. It's an action to get them out of the sack. Oh, I... You don't have to read. Oh, we wouldn't have to unattune, yeah, of course. Yeah, you don't have to unattune to them. Well, we can have a sack, out of the sack. Oh, I... You don't have to read. Oh, we wouldn't have to on a tune. Yeah, of course. You don't have to on a tune. Well, we can have a sack. Some of our most magical stuff,

same as we did in Fort Nassau. What if I am the magical equipment? Put me in the sack. Yeah. Put me in the sack. I want to go in the sack. One, no, you'll die. And two, no, I'm not carrying you in a bag.

We need you to be, you know, present. Also, sadly, the sack is not a bag of holding. Century will not fit. It has a limited... We need a body half a sack. Yeah. It would help our stealth rolls, though, if you were in a sack.

It would. It really would. You are clanky now. Everyone's clanky. Aw, crap. We were already terrible. I'm a big old clanker. Double clanks.

Double clank crew. Yep. Cool. So we should hide our magic items in the best we can. Including this body-sized spear that I have. We don't know exactly how this sense of stone was. We just know that when some of our people that can cast spells have cast spells,

it seems to sense them, seems to know. It's almost like it can smell magic. Like we can smell strong sense. I can smell you. I mean, maybe we could use that to lure it to the ambush point. True, yeah. It's certainly possible. Although, if it can sense magic,

we don't want to tempt it with magic, then it knows that there are people. It seems to be more aware that it's a threat, rather than it being drawn to it like food. You're in the opposite direction then. I mean, we can certainly try and use that. Speaking of herding it, the other beasts, are they being engaged with far from where we would be fighting Stonewall?

I believe so. So there's... Yeah, one's way, way, way, way, way high. Well, sure, one's in the ocean, one's in the air. I'm just wary of interference, I suppose. I don't imagine that there'll be any interference. That's partly why we need these devices to communicate. Great. Okay.

Is there any other way that we can make people quieter? I wouldn't worry too much about that. When we get into the deep forest, we'll split into three groups. Is there any other way that we can make people quieter? I wouldn't worry too much about that. When we get into the Deep Forest, we'll split into three groups. There'll be a scouting group, they'll be the ones who need to be the quietest. Oh, good. But that doesn't have to include you, champions.

It's probably best it doesn't, purely because I think... It won't, Sean, involve us. Well, the scouting group's responsibility will be to look at the path ahead, find the safest routes, avoid any potential dangers. Another group will be the rearguard. They'll need to be somewhat quiet. They'll be their job to be vigilant of any threats,

sneaking up, predators, that sort of thing. And then the core group will be in the middle. You won't have to worry too much. We'll keep everything away from you, or we'll let you know if there's anything that you need to be hiding from in the first place. If we get to that point, then it's probably a bigger, something more to concern ourselves with.

Okay. Sounds good. Leave like the field work, the field craft to us. That's what we're here for. You're here to fight the big monster. Thank you. And thanks to all your information, I am very confident that this is gonna go just wonderfully and smoothly.

Stop it! Good. All right, well then in that case, we'll get some rest. We'll see you in a day or so. It's over. Game over. Quill's so dead. All right.

They'll head off. All the barfolk in the waddle will go and get ready. I'm going to turn to everyone. We're doomed. Nice. Yeah, no, I'm happy to just chill here. Yeah. All right. A couple of, you know happy to just chill here. Cool. Yeah. All right.

A couple of, you know, two days go past. By the time it finishes, Rain arrives on a small airship docking near the Stormchaser and comes bearing two gifts, two items, as well as information concerning the plan. Rain presents you with one item that almost looks like a monocle, but kind of like mounted into like a brass cylinder and a fitting.

Almost like a fantasy version of the Dragon Ball Z Scouter. Like it kind of clips onto like the side of the head and it has like a kind of like ocular kind of like lens that can be flicked down over it kind of thing. And the other one is, it almost resembles a sending stone that you guys have seen before it kind of thing um and the other one is it almost resembles a sending stone that you guys have seen before kind of like a smooth stone but this one has been

carved out of um crystal um and it's more intricate with more dedicated runes um and three primary runes on the sort of main stone itself um rain will tell you that this is the messenger stone which functions exactly like a setting stone. The two of the runes are pre-programmed to connect to the other members, the other bearers of the messenger stone, and the other one is to transmit yourself, basically. It's like pick who you want to contact,

press a button, speak into it, do the same thing. It's a bonus action to activate the messenger stone, and that is to contact one other group. So you have to pick whether you're going to contact And it's either Danica or Baroness Coralsong So Erin Coralsong, the Triton that you once met a long time ago You choose who of them you want to contact And you can use the bonus action to basically ring them up and be like What's going on?

Yeah, how's it looking? Yeah, and they can do the same thing to you So they might also just message you to give you updates on where they are. But if you want to know exactly what, you know, where they're at in their battle. And it's a free response, right? It's a free response, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other item which Rain introduces as the Vitoculus.

Vitoculus, okay. It's not an item in D&D Beyond, so you don't need to search for it. I don't have time to make it, but it's basically the same thing. It's one person can equip it. It doesn't require attunement, but it does require 10 minutes to basically fit and adjust and sort of... Mount. No, like adjust to your own personal vision,

so it kind of factors in. Calibrate. That's the right word, calibrate and uh how does one look uh and two yeah exactly it's like an optician right like one and with and without with without clearer all right we'll try the next one it's kind of it is it is like that um but yeah this is a uh device created by uh zaria perel called the vitoculus and it basically you can use it as a bonus action to choose one creature um that has to be within visual range of you um and it will provide you with a estimate of its vitality and this is measured in 10 increments so you will know if a creature is 100 vitality andity and then 10% increments going down.

I love that shit. I thought you would. Rain will present these and say, I don't know if you know who you want to have these, but these are what we'll be using. Both Danica and the Baroness are positioned, but they will be able to reach their targets a lot quicker. We have an estimate of where they are.

They are currently in search for them, but we think your group are going to take the longest to actually locate your target. So you're going to be the signal to attack. Once you've engaged the creature, or once you have found the creature's lair, or you are waiting for the creature, let the others know what you're doing.

They will then go to pursue. Then let them know once you've engaged. They will then go to pursue. Then let them know once you've engaged. You will be our starting point. But we do think that you will take the longest time because the others have ships. They have the airships to help them move through. You're going to be moving through rugged terrain from what

I understand. I'm just trying to think who could have the vitocular. Can you see normally through it? I'm just trying to think who could have the vitocular. Can you see normally through it? Mm-hmm, yep. I can take it. Yeah, I'm wondering if Sentry takes it,

because you're also less likely to be damned. Yeah. Which is, yeah. Yeah, I mean, in terms of visual range, as long as you can see the creature, you don't have to be next to it. You just have to be able to see it, and then you can use it.

But it is a bonus action, so... What do you use your... You can say bonus action. You don't have to say in-game. You can have an out-of-character conversation and be like, well, do you use your bonus action a lot? In the midst of combat. Yeah.

When one swings with all their force. Sometimes there's no point trying to do an immersive conversation, like an icy conversation because some of this stuff is purposely abstracted. Right? There is no real way to be like, what is a bonus action? Will you have time every six seconds

or so to push a button? To use the Vitocula? We're gonna try i imagine so like out of character i only use bonus actions for no ignore them just say it right there's only there's only three actions that i use bonus actions for it's a misty step star breaker and uh regaining spell slots oh star breakers out star breaker once Starbreaker would be out. Once you've got it out, you don't need the bonus yet. Okay, so bonus action to activate Starbreaker.

And we don't need to take the bonus action. Whereas I can do damage on my bonus action every round. Yeah. So I would take it, but it sounds like it's more useful for me to do my damage. Then, Century, you can have the...

Yeah, I mean, I probably use bonus actions the least, but I... Do you want to take the messenger? I could take the, well, sending stone also. I'm wary of being knocked out immediately, and then that's one of the... You can fly, though.

I can fly, but he's got grabby hands, and I like to get... A tiny at the front. Yeah, but I'm going to, at some point, fly right up into its face just so I can... Why? Poop its eyes. Oh, okay. Maybe Nova?

Yeah, I mean, I do a lot of stuff with bonus action but also i could i also have already there's not a great deal of stuff i can do really because i've just got eligible blast maybe well i mean once once the armor's off then you'll be able to attack it but i imagine imagine around that. I can take it if you want. It just means I want people to keep playing Quest. Also, if you have creative ideas, remember it doesn't always have to be what your character says. You know what I mean, Mark?

I always have creative ideas. You took that away from me with the oscillating. I did. I did not play that one. That wasn't really a creative solution. That was like, me cast anti-gravity. Oscillate, lol.

That was not really a creative solution. What about the one where I negated your entire tower in the Feywild because I just went, I'm going to gravitate myself. No, it was purposely done. So it was like, there is ways that you can go about it. Yeah, but you had to come all the way back down. I was dead, though. Like, including that giant mimic on the ground floor.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, I can take it if you want. Yeah. I don't mind. Do you want me to take it? Yeah. Right.

So Aayla's going to take the messenger stone, and Sentry's going to have the vitoculus. Because Sentry and I have the most hit points. I mean... 286, baby. I could also have it, because I don't have many bonus actions. I can quicken a spell to a bonus action. Okay, well, that makes sense.

I also have sending anyway, so worst case. Yeah, sending would also work. You could totally use it. Obviously, that's action to cast. It's a good backup if needed. I can also communicate with anyone. Yes, it's true. Okay, Lucius, take it then.

So Lucius is going gonna have the Messenger Stone, and then the Sentry has the Vitoculus. If we have the Messenger Stone, do you have to spend time with that, or is it just whoever grabs it can use it? No, I'd say the Messenger Stone probably, it doesn't require attunement, but it does, again, you've gotta spend time with it, I would say.

Like, I wouldn't necessarily say it's, like, you can't just pick it up and use it, basically. Yeah. Okay. Actually, no, I'd say. Like, I wouldn't necessarily say it's handy. Like, you can't just pick it up and use it, basically. Yeah. Okay. Actually, no. I'd say the Messenger Stone, you can do that. The Vitoculus actually needs calibration,

so you can't just... Like, Sentry is now the only one who is currently calibrated to use the Vitoculus. Okay. The Messenger Stone, I would say anybody can use. But, like...

You could just pick it up. You could just pick it up. But, like, you would have to either, like, drop it or throw it or, like like pass the object between you and stuff like that

yeah I'd say that that actually I'm okay with you guys just picking up a news and like a like a walkie talkie like a oh fuck

get the fuck out of here he's down he's down Lucius is dead you know that's fine I'm dead okay

so I'll take it then yeah there's no item for it, but just note down in your inventory of the messenger stone. We'll just remember. No, there is a sending stone. There is a sending stone. How often would you like information about the HP? Or the vitality?

I guess every time it drops 10%. It's vitality. I mean, I guess we'll see. If we massively decrease hours to like by a crazy amount, then we can be like, OK, we're at this point. How are you getting on? OK. But then again, we also don't want to be late.

Nova, can you do like quick maths if we work out roughly how many percentages we take it down in a certain amount of time, how long it's going to take and stuff like that, because I can't do that shit. Now you're talking my language. I thought so. Yes, we could tentatively figure out with our first bit of damage, how much was that? Was that a bit of your device?

Bearing in mind the last bit of damage might take a while if it becomes resistant to us. And more armored. But we can just, yeah, if you keep us updated on where it's at. Once every... Kind of work out? 18 seconds.

12 seconds? Okay. Maybe 12 seconds? Also, I've seen many, many different futures, and in one of them, someone is getting a critical hit. I rolled a 20 on portent. Oh! That's pretty big.

I quit. I just have a really, really one. Yeah. Yeah. So... Tharf for quits. Not that it matters too much, but do we know which of the teams is fighting which monster?

Like what's Danica's team? Danica is with a bunch of airships, the Gusthaven Gryphon Knights, I think it's Duke Sovrano's airship-like team, and Danica, and then the Gustaven Griffin Knights, and then a collection of others. There'd probably be some of the Seekers have probably joined up. There's probably mages from Horizon and things like that. They're all going to fight Stormwing, the flying rock.

Do they have a couple of dragons as well? Every team has two dragons, basically. And then the team going after Surge Scale is led by Baroness Curlsong. The Tritons has loads of Tritons, has the Orc fleet captains with cannon ships and stuff like that, as well as various water-based teams, including a team of specialized Warforged

who have basically become like sort of marine commandos because they're just like we don't need to breathe we can walk along the bottom of the sea like they're just like whatever so they've been training to like fight underwater and they've probably like got themselves like little magical jetpacks that like little water jetpacks that fly around underwater little propellers like built like little propellers into their arms like I don't this is I imagine you guys are a bit too young but there was this show a cartoon called

The Centurions Power Extreme and there was a guy called Max Ray and he was like a guy with a suit and he would get like little like

propellers and like missiles like attached to him and then he would I had those toys but only from a car boot yeah literally I got

mine from a car boot as well I had Jake Rockwell I had the rock guy yeah he was like i had jake rockwell i had the rock guy yeah he was like he had like a bike and he had like a big turret yeah yeah yeah man in my stream power extreme so good so good all right anyway that's what they're like um but yeah nice okay what was it it was like jakewell, Max Ray, and Ace McCloud. And guess which one was the Sky Guy?

Rockwell. Yes. But yeah, so those are the two teams going after them. My name. So they all have pretty powerful... The ones going after the other teams, they've got airships and sea ships with cannons and big ballistae

and stuff like that. So they've got that to kind of counteract the fact that you guys are helping the land team. Like the land team don't have... We're the equivalent of cannons and ballista? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, baby. Like a fleet of airships is probably equal

to you guys in just pure... Power level. Like power level. That's awesome. Oh, yeah. We are fleet Avengers. Yeah, I mean, you guys are the Avengers of Eros. Did you see what Nova did to that one-air ship that time?

Yeah. I don't need anyone. I wish I didn't. Like, honestly, you guys are the Avengers. Like, you see them in, like, the Battle of New York or against, like, Ultron. It's like, yeah, that's what you guys are. Like, you guys have basically had equivalent fights because you had the... True, yeah. You had the... In the City of New York or against Ultron, it's like, yeah, that's what you guys are. You guys have basically had equivalent fights

because you had the... True, yeah. In the City of Glass, you were basically fighting Ultron and all of his Ultron minions. I do think we keep forgetting this every now and again. Yeah. We are level 90.

It's easy to forget, though, when dumb things happen. And you're also very human in, like, mentality. Oh. Okay. I mean, like, mortal and, like, you know, regular. Literally none of us is human, motherfucker. Yeah.

Sorry. Wow. Anyway. But yeah, so everything is set up, and rain kind of gives you the final kind of, like, well, good luck. Keep everyone updated. We don't need luck. We're level 19.

We can do this all day. That was too much. Don't know what that means. But all right, well. We've got this. You do. And Varnir, Morgaine, and the others all basically gather you up. They present you with your camouflaged clothing.

Lucius, you are basically forced to go take a cold wash, get rid of any kind of scent or perfume before you get changed. Sort of your... Roll on the ground for a while. I mean, no joke of a lie, they probably do come in and take your hands and rub dirt and stuff into them.

No, no. I mean, they do. Get get off i'll do it myself oh i'm like patting the ground can i put them on the ground i'm just like so dirty sausage rolling i mean it looks like he's like lying in the ground you can like put your hands over his and forces into the the dirt. No! And just rub them off. My hands! This is the dirtiest I've ever been. Yeah, and it's more trying to get rid of the smell, like any kind of perfume scent. And they'll do that for everybody.

They probably would also be like, Quill, get in the dirt. Like, rub it, roll it. Yeah! Yeah, that's great. Yeah, we're having a great time. I'm just having a mud fight with Sentry. Like, we're just throwing mud at each other.

Yeah, Ayla would do it herself. Yeah, it's basically just to kind of get rid of any unnatural scents. And then after that, they lead you onto a hike. It takes... We don't really need to play out the journey because for the first two days, there's not really any kind of threat to you guys. Like, you're being led by skilled trackers

who know exactly where they're going they know this land they avoid sort of any minor encounters with beasts or spirits that could even you know hamper the the journey so it's more it's just like two days of solid hiking through this this very rugged very primal ancient terrain you know this is like going into the deep of the redwoods, kind of like the trees here are ancient and massive. The undergrowth is at points so thick that like the elves are literally carving paths through the woodlands because there aren't any trails or paths for you to go through. And it's hard going, but uneventful going.

That sort of changes on the morning of like the third day all of you get a sense that something's changed but i think ayla and quill are the ones who really notice the details of it um for the two of you ayla and quill you notice very, very few animals. You begin to see signs of abandoned nests and lairs or like old trails that haven't been, you know, disturbed in a long time. There is also just, for the more magical of you, there is a sort of magical sense that this place has been, is quiet.

That it is, there is a tension in the air um as if the very land itself is nervous about being uh disturbed um so there's butterflies around no the land has got butterflies. That's fun. Good. That's a joke. Varnia, who's... Morgaine seems like, you know, she's the leader of the Wild Elves, but in this instance, like, Varnia is definitely the one who's leading all of this. Probably with Big Jack. Varnia and Big Jack are the two who are like... And, like, Big Jack kind of, like, puts a hand up.

And he's probably the one who, like, speaks with you guys more than Varnia, because Varnia's a bit of a grumpy get to the business. And Big Jackson's like, we're in the territory now. We're in its territory. It's a big

territory, so don't worry too much. It's not like we have to be super quiet. Just be aware. We're going to be moving a bit quiet. We're going to split into the three groups now. So we're gonna split into a scouting team, a rear guard team, and a core team. The scouting team are gonna go ahead.

They're gonna be looking for signs of stone more, but also to try and give us advanced warning of any difficulties or any, you know, there might still be creatures here, but if there are, they're not gonna be friendly. They're gonna be panicked. They're gonna be aggressive. If there are spirits here, they're probably corrupted. Again, something we need to be cautious of. You tell me where you want to

go. Marnie and some of the White Elves are going to lead the scout team. They're going to go up ahead. I'm going to go into the main core team and look after whoever's in that. Then we're going to have a dedicated team for the rearguard as well. So you just tell me where you want to go and we'll make that work. How far apart will the groups be? Far enough apart that if, say, the scouting team finds something, they'll probably be able to come back and let the core team know what's happening. But that rearguard team is going to take a minute to catch up and get involved if something is going down.

Vice versa, if the rearguard team become aware of something, they'll probably be able to get to the core team and warn them, but the scouting team will be out of reach for at least a few moments. Yeah. Stealthing aside, I am happy to join the scouting team. Maybe I could fly up and then that would be less loud. Could be. So I could join the scouting team and then regroup if I see anything.

This is up to you guys. It's literally... I'll tell you now, the scouting team, they prioritize things like survival, nature, and stealth. And they need to be stealthy. Nope. The rearguard team will prioritize perception and just general vigilance, like being aware of any potential threats.

They need to be a little bit stealthy. And then the core team, you don't have to make any checks. I'm going to be core team. I have minus one perception. Do we need to be evenly split? No, you can go wherever you want. Can we also just not be in one of the groups? You have to be in at least one.

No, I mean, can the team not have one of us in it? Yeah, absolutely. That obviously means that you are then just relying on my dice roll. I will roll for that team. They have a set bonus. But it means that if they need to get a certain number, if one of you goes along with it, let's say Ayla goes in the scouting team and lends her assistance in the survival skills

and stuff like that, she will get to add a bonus to more eye roll, right? Yeah. But will also then be required to make a stealth check. If Quill is in the rearguard team with his burgeoning perception, that will help them keep an eye out for danger, but he's also going to have to make a stealth check

to be involved in that. How stealthy are you, Ayla? Me? I have advantage on stealth. Oh, okay. I mean, you've got a decent-ish bonus, right? Plus seven, I think? Plus seven-ish. Yeah, better than mine.

In that case... Because my survival's actually quite high, but I can join... But also keep in mind that if something does happen, you might not like if ayla's in the front team and quill spots like a danger and something kicks off ayla might not be able to join you for like maybe a round or two rounds or something yeah i mean i do have plus nine nature but i'm a clanker so i was gonna go up because i've got plus seven survival plus five

stealth and i've got advantage on stealth so I'll probably go with the scouting team. Yeah, I feel like you two scout team. Well, rear guard. Rear guard. Yeah. Perception gang. Core team. Okay, so you're the sandwich bread,

and we're the fill-in. Yeah. Could we... How many sending stones are there? One. In this group? In this entire platoon? One.

Right, okay. So there's three in total. How does this work again? In that case, I will probably cast Sending on you to get you back. If we're on opposite ends of the thing. Yeah, I mean, you won't need to worry about casting Sending. The scouts will have runners.

They'll send a while. They'll have to be like, go tell Varnir and the others that we've got trouble. They'll just send a runner to do it. It's not going to make it. I don't want you to waste a resource just because your groups have been split up by my mechanics. That's all right. I mean, yeah, you're right, actually.

That sucks. But yeah, as you kind of begin to split off, Varnia will kind of look at you, look you up and down and be like, he approves, like, yeah, okay, you can be here. And Big Jack, I think in the rear guard, would probably be more gain than Rethra. And they'll be like, oh, good, thanks for joining us. Rethra's like, thank you for joining us, Quill.

I lend my eyes. Yeah, you first, Reth was like, thank you for joining us, Quill. I lend my eyes. Yeah, you first. From what I remember, you have, yeah. You are very skilled. Don't get cocky about it, because then you're wrong. I can't fail. Oh, my God. Well, you can.

And, yeah, the group now begins to move through. In this place, in this territory, the Wild Elves and Big Jack kind of coordinate and they're like, while we're here, we need to, this is where we need to begin looking for signs of Stonewall's passing. We need to understand its territory, its habits,

so we can find the right place to lay an ambush where we can hide and everything else like that. We need you guys to help with this as well. And it kind of like presses upon you that like yeah they're going to be taking actions to try and sort of like track down stone more and also find a suit ambush point right um so this is going to kind of work like a skill challenge where i'm going to throw it over to you guys you guys can tell me what your characters are going to do to accomplish this um but before we do that before we do a round of each of that, basically Ayla and Quill need you both to make stealth checks

and then you'll make a survival and a perception check as well. Team, loud as fuck. Wow, I rolled trash on both of them. Yes! Natural 20. I rolled a three and a two. So I've got eight.

That's so bad. So eight on the stealth and and the survival would be... Oh, survival, I haven't rolled. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Survival, I have got... That was on one. A 19. So gloat.

Okay. And then, Quill, what did you get on the stealth? 23. 23. And perception is 27. 27 on perception. Can't believe I rolled a three and a two. Virginian perception.

Yeah, that's not... And then what did you get on the survival, Ayla? Me? Oh, 19. 19. Okay, great. Okay. So, as you guys are all moving forward, Ay i think for you this is probably the the low stealth is probably more from you have learned how to track and to you know move through woods and things like that it's something you learned in your childhood but you haven't had a lot until recently with you

know some of the events with the in in the campaign you haven't had a lot of chances to really put those skills to use you quickly pick up on it's not so much that you're doing a bad job it's that everybody around you is significantly better at this like they are that you can tell that they do this every day and that they are experts at doing this moving silently making their way through the terrain there are a couple of times when you're just like things in the way and you have to like physically break it down and you know you make more noise than perhaps you would like um it's not that you're doing anything clumsy or wrong it's just that you know you're just not adapted to this kind of work or terrain at the moment um quill keeping a clear eye like even with the shadows and everything moving around like from you know

vantage points you move from place to, making sure you have a big sweeping look over everything around you, keeping that close eye. As for, you know, what do you guys want to do as part of, like, to help track down Snowmoor? What kind of, how would you participate in all of this? Ayla's probably using more of the survival tracking type stuff to see if she can determine maybe which direction other animals left the area to maybe indicate the direction that Stone Maw is in.

Great, that's perfect survival check. Let's see what you get. I rolled a four. Seven, plus seven. Plus seven, so 11. You spend some time looking around, but it's hard to distinguish between old tracks and new tracks here. This place is very, very ancient,

and the primordial nature of it, you perhaps maybe even see spirits. You see in the distance a green little spirit almost creating a cloud of mud and debris, and it actually just sweeps an area, and you're like, that probably had a bunch of tracks in it, but these spirits are interfering with it, and it actually just sweeps an area, and you're like, that probably had like a bunch of tracks in it, but these spirits are kind of interfering with it, and it's kind of messing with the survival.

Anybody else got any ideas for anything you would want to do? Yeah, Trot, go ahead. Lucius would literally be looking out for poops. Okay. The drier the poop, the older it is. Sure. The fresher, the stinkier the poop. All right.

I will let you choose whether this is a perception or or in nature i was gonna say looking for poop okay yeah sniffing smelling looking his refined nose perhaps helping him identify the stinkier smells 25 25 okay. Ghastly. Disgusting. I'll be sniffing my pits, but standing next to an elf-sized dung.

Is it me, or is it...? Oh, it's the big poop. You do find stool droppings of different animals and you can tell, you know, like, maybe you bring attention to Jack's attention. He helps you kind of identify like, oh yeah, this is from this creature or that creature and things like that. That's typically the stuff that we've seen this Stonewall praying on. Vaniverous. Yeah, and it's kind of like, yeah, looks through it and Jack kind of, like, smells like, yeah, and finds some clues helping of, like, begin to plot out where Stonewall might be

sort of coming from. They might have a feeding ground or something. Exactly that. Exactly that. All right, so that's Lucius Nailer done. Any other ideas from anyone else? Nova. So Nova will take out a book

that she recovered from her bedroom on the Stormchaser, because she needs a book at all times. Yep. And it is about the fauna and flora on El Seraph. Okay. And she's going to be nerding up on that and making a nature check.

Sure, go for it. Sounds perfect. Remember, it doesn't have to be a skill as well. Like, if you've got a spell, spells can sometimes be automatic successes. If you just have a creative idea, or like a piece of equipment, it doesn't have to be a skill. 22. 22, great.

Yeah, using that book, you actually, and this is the kind of stuff that maybe the wild elves and Jack and the barrow folk didn't really know about. This is like some scholar, a plumber came by and wrote about all these different kind of like herbs and things like that. And you identify a number of plants that haven't been touched and, you know, it's like a poisonous thing. So like it kind of almost marks out an area that you know stonewall probably isn't because like this the creatures that would feed on this would probably become sick and so there

wouldn't be much prey so that helps you mark out well i don't think he's to the southeast because that area's got this particular plant you know quite quite numerously um so you kind of mark that area out but yeah that's a point of progress. Books! Yeah, what? Books? Oh, I thought you said box. Quill or Slytherin.

And if you don't have any ideas, don't worry about it. There's no pressure if you don't feel like you've got anything to add. I was thinking of doing a commune of nature. That sounds perfect. Trying to find out about...

It says find out about prevalent plants, minerals, minerals animals or peoples okay stone more isn't really a is it prevalent animal well i'd say this for the purposes of this you know the communion with nature will give you information regardless right whether or not stone more is an actual natural animal or not the commune with the spirits of this place will definitely if you might if you spend that resource of that spell it will 100 give you assistance in doing this 100 yeah so do that she'll crouch on the ground and channel her yeah well i also think that like because this is communing with spirits and al-saraf has this primal nature and it has these

nature spirits like every rock every tree every River you know almost every like patch of Earth has a spirit connected to it here and briar actually kind of comes out of like your hair and as you're kind of sat down he like clambers down your like arm and leg and he wanders over and he starts picking up like a little ball of dirt and twigs and things as he goes just seems to almost be subconscious to to them as he's going along um you see like from a tree stump a little brown almost look like a big long uh what's that pokemon sudowoo like that kind of looks a bit like that like a big long sticky kind of like spirit kind of like emerges out of this tree stump and seems to have they don't speak to each other or make noise but they move as if they're in a conversation.

And Briar's kind of like talking to them or whatever. And then that little guy comes up and he sits in front of you. And then Briar goes over to like another area where there's like a rock and like this big kind of like round, gray, grumpy looking spirit kind of is like, they have like a little conversation.

And then he brings them all over and you've kind of built up like a little collection of like 20 of these different little earth spirits and nature spirits and then you begin to hear in your head like who are you what do you want to know like how can we help you and like you hear their voices um yeah you ask their questions like do you have any specific questions or um um is i don't know i'll just i don't want to just ask is stone more like nearby because it feels you can absolutely do that i can yeah absolutely yeah if it says like you can just like because i don't know the exact wording of the spell but if i remember it's like you can ask a certain number of questions right you're going you can ask um you gain

knowledge of up to three facts of your choice about any of the following subjects within three miles of you um okay so three facts terrain and bodies of water prevalent plants minerals animals or peoples powerful celestials fae fiends elementals or undead influence from other planes of existence or buildings all right i will tell you now the influence from other planes of existence or slash powerful celestials fae fiends on elementals etc they can stone walk is maybe not necessarily a beast or an elemental or a celestial but it has heavy elemental in and celestial influences enough that the spirits are like you are talking about the child of atelicus oh it is not here but it is not far and they they can basically be like oh it is in that direction they don't know exactly where stone war is but they know where he isn't um and they are you can tell that the spirits here

are very scared of the child of italicus they call it like italicus's child and they're like oh yes very scary very powerful so savage so brutal we avoid we avoid, we avoid. But that way, that way. And the little stick is pointing with his long, sort of sticky finger-like way. And then they kind of give you advice about maybe some other local animals that Stonewall might prey on and things like that. And yeah, absolutely, that's going to count as... I'll give you two points of progress for that

because that's a resource, that's like an actual... That's what, like a fifth level spell? Yeah. I'll give you two points of progress for that because that's a resource that's like an actual that's what like a fifth level spell yeah yeah i'll give you two points of progress for that because that's a big one so like yeah like and you watch like jack and the wild elves are just like in awe when century does this and like they're like sat there and they all see the little spirits they're just like like you know you're talking to them and like conversing with them nobody else hears their voices except century and then when they finish like they all go back to their little parts and then they just disappear. And Briar kind of comes back up into it. He's got like a little ball of stuff and that seems to just vanish when he goes in your

hair. And then yeah, he just settles back in. But Big Jack's just like, wow, I had no idea that you could speak with the spirits like that. That's amazing. I have a deep connection with all natural things. When we come back with all natural things you have to when we come back to the vid you have to speak with mama and tell us all about it we want to know more and more about it the spirits here are lovely very friendly these ones are and you see it gets a bit nervous like looking around but yeah um but yeah that's going to be some amazing progress all right and then quill um do we currently have our magic items with us? Or do they have a sect? You can pull them out if you'd like to.

I'm going to assume that you put away any sort of really powerful magic items because you did say you were going to do that. But if you want to pull them out, you absolutely can. But you don't know what kind of effect that might have. Yeah, I was wondering if I could just use Locate Creature just on the Wayfinder's Guide, but that is a wondrous item. I mean, Commune with Nature is technically a spell, so Sentry's already cast one spell, by the way.

Yeah. I mean, I feel like I would be high up in the trees, just looking out for... Because if this is a big creature, how dense of a woodland is this? Very dense. In that case, looking out for just large swathes of trees just clumping around and moving about in the distance um or even just listening out for any creatures that straight up perception check yeah

yeah i didn't sounds good for it yeah you don't feel like you have to do something crazy and different and creative absolutely i'm trying to think of something that's not perception but i mean when you get 36 it's hard to argue with it. It's very hard to argue with. Looking in the distance, imperceptibly so to anybody else. Not even the borough folk hear this with their big, tall bunny ears. You just hear, hello, I'm over here. It's like that moment in Jurassic Park, right? You hear the...

But it's like in the distance. I've got a glass of water. Honestly, one of the best moments. It's just her face in that scene. It's just like It's so funny to me. But yeah, in the far distance, you're like

that way. It aligns with what Century was saying. You can maybe see ever so slight movement in the trees distance, you're like that way. And it lines with what Century was saying, and you can maybe see ever so slight movement in the trees and things like that. But it's far off yet, far, far off yet. It's going to probably take several hours to reach that kind of environment. All right. Yeah. So how this is going to work is you guys have accumulated a number of points.

Prizes? I'm not going to tell you. Yeah, points are probably prizes. What I'm going to say is to basically finish this skill challenge, one of you has to make a survival check to basically finish the task, right? Like basically complete the endeavor, which is to track down Snowmore. The more of these skill challenge points you earn, the easier that task is. But you choose when you want to do it.

Now, the longer it takes, there is more risk that you might be attacked by something or Stonewall might become aware of you and stuff like that. So it's that risk of like, how much longer do you want to spend trying to track it down? Or do you want to try and just finish it here and now? The penalty is if you fail that survival check, you are guaranteed to encounter something.

So our progress is basically the threshold of the survival roll. Kind of, yeah. I have minus one to survival, so I will make the roll. It makes sense. But it's your choice. Plus seven. I'm rolling absolute garbo. You want more survival?

Yeah. You trained in it. I thought you were proficient in it. Yeah, but it's wisdom-based. Yep. I'm dumb. You're not dumb. You've got decent wisdom, but... Yeah, you're not minus one wisdom.

Yeah, it's up to you. It's up to you. I mean, I feel like we can push on a bit more since we basically know the exact location of it currently. All right. If that's not the consensus. We don't know the exact location of it currently. I mean, even then, yeah. You won't know the exact location until somebody makes that survival roll.

But you feel like you've made good progress. I feel like we've made good progress. And you know what? I will tell you, you currently have six progress points, but that means nothing to you because you don't know what your test record is. 60. I want to wait six days.

I'm sure that's what it means. Yeah. So, yeah, the choice is do you want to try and finish this job now or do you want to spend more time trying to track down Stonewall? I mean, I feel like we had five, four successes. Yeah. We got six points. Yeah.

But yeah, I think at least for now, we can delay a bit to see if something happens, I suppose. All right. Is that the group consensus? It's hard to tell. It is. You don't know. If it's one round of successes enough.

We haven't been attacked yet. The whole point of this is that risk versus reward thing of right like do you try and finish it right now and potentially not have to risk any other encounters or do you push it a bit more and be like well maybe we can do a little bit more and we'll try and get some more successes and then we'll try and do it even easier right or do you risk it because there might you might fail it and guarantee an encounter? That's the idea of it. Wait a little bit more. He might take off his armor plate to have a shower.

That's true. A little scrubby. Yeah, that's true. Let me get him all fleshy. Final consensus. Are you making a check now, or do you want to carry on a little bit in the skill challenge? I'll carry on a little bit.

All right, okay. In that case, I will roll to see if a random encounter happens, but it is currently modified. Okay. The rear guard does not spot any dangers. The scouts do not find any immediate signs of any potential threats. Nice. All right.

So just before we wrap on a break, let's do one quick round of skill checks. I'm going to basically do the same again, to be honest. Okay. It becomes harder every time you do the same thing. If you do the same thing twice in a row, it becomes harder and harder. With a burgeoning perception that perhaps is no concern of yours. But, just kidding.

It worked once before. Sure. I have an idea with... I've been thinking about smells a lot recently. I don't know why. Sorry, Troy, I just want to interrupt you because I believe Tom just rolled his perception check.

Oh, what was that then, Tom? Oh! Did it happen again? I've got a plus 18. My roll is 19. Not good enough. Not good enough. Like I just said,

the DC goes up if you try the same thing twice in a row. I use my port at 20. You have to use that before your rolls. So, Troll, please continue. And hopefully it's a success. Can you see this, Tom? That's a backwards L for me.

I can see that. I'm going to think about smells and think back to when Nanny Norfield was telling me about her hunting escapades and things like that, and that smells were very important and that animals can detect smells, especially when wind is pushing it in a certain direction. So I'm going to try and see,

knowing that the direction of the beast is in this direction, I'm going to look for another path so that our smell is not going towards it okay maybe find a arcing round okay so you want to find it sort of on alternative path to approach the area that would probably be a survival check well it's not the same check or before. Or I would say a nature check. I'll do survival. Okay. Plus one or plus zero. Oh, you're right.

It's all right. I got a 20 portent. 17, 18. All right. It's not bad. Plus one progress point. So, yeah, Lucius is kind of like, yeah, no. I remember Nanny Norfolk telling me about like, yeah, do this and the other hunters are so focused like now that it's been pointed out

western warriors they're all looking in that direction but you happen to spot that there's maybe like a small brook like a river and it means that like it's quite clear around it would actually be an easier path for you guys to travel around and maybe start coming around to the side heading in that direction you kind of like maybe tug on it and point to it. You say, oh, great spot, Mr. Lucius. Yeah, that's a great way to go. And he gathers everyone up, they send word to the scouts, and you begin sort of diverting around to that side. Yeah, it's going to be a point of progress.

Half of my reasoning for going that way was so I could wash my hands in the Babbling Brook. Okay. I'm like, oh yes, it's because of the alternative room. Oh, actually, sorry, I forgot. I need to have Ayla and Quill make stealth checks. Oh. Oh, for God's sake.

Natural 20 again. Are you kidding? When it counts. So I've rolled a 20, a 1, and a 20. Okay, that's very good. And a 20 on my portem as well. 24. 24, okay.

You have mail to cram for that. The stealth checks, by the way, are modifying the chance for a random encounter and also applying a penalty to the overall survival. Sure. Thick mechanics. Yes, thick mechanics. Great, but yeah, you two moving perfectly fine.

The rest of the wild elves and stuff are doing great as well. Okay. On their own. So we've had Quill and Lucius. Any other ideas from Nova, Sentry, or Aayla on how to help this kind of approaching stone moor, tracking it down, making sure you avoid its attention? The hunt period, shall we say.

Knowing it's a creature of magic, because it's created by a telekis, is there a way I could kind of track it using, well, basically my plus nine Arcana? You want to use Arcana to do it? Yeah, I mean, I would say that you would, yeah, you can make the roll with Arcana. What I would say is you can't really track it with magic. That's what a spell is for, right?

What I would say you could do with this is rather than giving a progress point, but if you make a good check, you'll help somebody else. You'll provide advantage to somebody else's roll, right? So that would be what you wouldn't get a progress point you could like but if you make a good check you'll help somebody else you'll provide advantage to somebody else's role right so that would be what you wouldn't get a progress point yourself but you'll give somebody else you can either give ayla or century um an advantage to their role because you're going to be basically using your knowledge of magic to help filter what information or what efforts they're making but you still have to make the role okay if that works for you. Six plus nine. Six plus nine, 15.

I'd say that's enough, just enough to aid somebody else. Again, no progress, but you're like, kind of going to be their advisor on terms of magic and knowledge and using like the understanding that Valor's been teaching you about the different kind of primal connections and divine connections that these creatures have, these Titans have. All right. So Aay ala or century any ideas we just did some like cleaning can i like make like a little broom and like sweep any twigs and like anything that might make noise out of I would say

I would say I make guardians so here's the thing that's how Sentry thinks of it as Sentry sweeping what Sentry's probably

actually doing is like helping the team by like clearing out like big heavy logs that might make sound and like clearing out

like big thick bushes because you don't feel pain. You can just kind of move into a big thorn bush and clear it all up and make way for everyone else. And that's going to make it easier for everyone to progress. So I would say, yes, you can do athletics, but you won't get advantage from Nova. The knowledge of magic isn't going to help you.

Not that. I wasn't going to clean. I wasn't going to clean. I was going to use my athletics to help clear the path. Can you use it in a way that's magical? Also, we're on the move. I am magical. We're on the move as well. I'm just telling her that.

Okay. I think that the idea of cleaning, but a path ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like cleaning that out. I'm gonna use my driven to purpose and give myself a D four. Driven to purpose, cleaning.

This is real mama senses mama, mama century. Natural 20, my guy. Oh my God. What is happening? It's the belly. Natural 20. It's the belly.

Mama century is just like, right, and then like clears up and like clears out all the way. It's like she's here. You think that like, she thinks she's sweeping, but it's actually like

one gust and like all of these big twigs just, like, launch to the side. Does anyone notice how beautiful this forest is now? It's amazing. But, yeah. Not one twig out of place. Clear helps clear the path,

making it easier for everyone to traverse. Matt's one in cleaning. Cleaning the forest. Yep. Why not? We have spaffed, in Lucius's words, so many twins.

Yeah, yeah. Ava, last one to make a roll. Yeah, I was literally going to try and clear a path for people. Sure, yep. You can do the same thing. Magic, help that.

Unless there's a way that you can get magic to assist it. I think like, no, it will carry over. So yeah, that. Unless there's a way that you can get magic to assist it. I think, like, no, it will carry over. So, yeah, that will just linger over now until somebody else's roll. Okay. So, athletics, then? Yeah, if you'd like to make the same roll, yeah.

Or is it just, it's not a strength check, it's a skill, isn't it? It'd be athletics, yeah. Which uses your strength. I know, but if I use my strength check, if I do a strength check and I get below my strength score, I can use use my strength check, if I do a strength check and I get below my strength score, I can use my strength score.

Well, this is a strength check. Athletics is a strength check. So that still counts as a strength check? I would say so, yeah. I got a 19, so that's okay. Plus 13.

Yeah, that's going to be more than enough. But I could have just been like, it's a 27. Yeah, I mean, that would still happen. Yeah, with ailer and century especially with ailer being in the scouting party it takes my strength score as a minimum

anything that ailer misses century is like clearing up and so you're creating this like really clean efficient way through the forest making sure you don't have anything that's going to trip sounds um making sure that like any kind of foliage that might hamper your progress is removed um and in doing so helps the others kind of like spot clues and things like that as they they make their way as well um so the last thing before we go to break is would one of you like to attempt to try and finish this task by making a survival check you want to carry on no i don't want to do the role i don't oh right i mean i'm happy to do the roll, but it's just... You've got the best bonus out of everyone. Yeah. But do we want to do it now?

Or do we continue trying to track? So what does the delay do? So every time you guys continue on, I'm going to roll a d20, and on a certain number, you're going to get a random encounter. Yeah. Right? That number gets lower the longer you take to complete the task.

Yeah. But also, every failure you have gives that a bonus chance, right? To, like, trigger a random encounter. Every success benefits. The final roll to try and complete the task. It's a mechanic I took from Iron Sworn where when you want to complete a quest,

you have to literally make a role to complete the task, basically. And it works really well because you have this risk versus reward gamble of like, well, do I keep pushing and lowering my resources and risking danger or do I wait until I'm guaranteed to succeed at this role and I'm going to 100% succeed?

Is there a way we can kind of find out how successful we could be? No, because I think that takes away the gamble element. Because then you would know, like, oh, yeah, this is pretty safe. Like, we can do it. I mean, I guess maybe, like, I could tell you, but... No, don't tell us, but in terms of, like, is there a way we could roll for it? I think we've made really good progress.

I will tell you, you've made nine progress. So if we fail, we're going to increase our encounter chance, basically. If you fail, you're guaranteed a new encounter. Guaranteed. Yeah. But there's also a chance that, like, if you carry on, I might just roll a random encounter anyway. Yeah.

I think we've made great progress for us I'm pretty impressed I will say nine points progress great progress and also I don't want to alarm you guys

but I'm currently in its mouth it's got it's here it's in the little arms yeah the wolf pack member gets really sad

I wish that were me he looks over to the woods yeah he steps out you've seen Puss in Boots now, haven't you? I have. So you know that Wolfpack member? Oh no.

He's Lobo and he just is on the edge of like every scene, every moment that Quill has. When you look in the tree line, he's just there in a cloak. When Quill's jaw was blown off, he was there to pick up the jaw.

He has it in a drawer. If you've not seen Puss in Boots The Last Witch, it's not sponsored. Go and watch it. It's a genuinely good movie. All right, I'm happy to make the roll now.

All right, do it. It's a roll. It's my roll. If everyone else is okay. Do it. So I got... This is on you. At the very least,

a plus 12. I'll be furious if you fail. I'll work this out quickly. I'll take the fall. I'm okay to be hated. All right. 19 plus 12. Woo'm okay to be hated. All right. 19 plus 12. Woo!

So you succeed. So with the progress that you've all made... Can't hate me now! You have to love me. Quill kind of takes the lead. Having all of your assistants and the wild elves and the borough folk all helping, Quill is like, right, I think I know exactly where to go and I think I know exactly how we're going to get there.

And he takes the lead and begins leading you into a point where you can now lay this ambush. To explain, the DC of the whole of that survival check was originally 26. Every point of progress you got reduced it by one. Oh, cool. So in the end, that DC was 15. So you have plus 12.

I got 19 plus 12. So if you'd rolled a two or a three, you would have failed it. But apart from that, you would have succeeded. So that was two turns of prep that we made. And very successful. To be fair, that was for us. Also, that was the first roll I made to see if you got a random encounter.

I said that for 16 or higher, you get a random encounter. I rolled a 14 plus 1 because of the failed stealth check, so you were one away from getting a random encounter. Oh, shit. Okay. So it was kind of like, yeah, that's an idea I'm playing around with for some other stuff. I like that idea, yeah. It took us four and a half years-ish

to succeed at a skill challenge. But we succeeded at a skill challenge. You didn't succeed at skill challenges. We also, technically, not often, three out of four successful stealth rolls. Yep. Admittedly, two of them in that 20s, but...

Yeah, I've rolled absolute garbage for the first three of my rolls today. I rolled a two, three, and a four. It's better you get those rolls out of the way now because just before we go to break, Quill helps lead you to a clearing in this dense woodland, and Vanya and Jack are like,

this is it. This is where we're going to set this up the wild elves begin taking position sort of in the tree line to kind of keep themselves somewhat protected um the rest of you using the kind of poncho cloaks they basically kind of almost carve out like little duggits uh for you guys to kind of like hold in um and then they begin preparing a bait they have like uh you know they begin preparing like meats and things like that and trying to lure this kind of like you know smell um the hunters go into the woods they actually find you know takes them a couple of hours but they maybe find like a deer or like a an animal that they kill and then they bring it back and lay it out as like a

you know a tantalizing like oh some free fresh fresh carcass to come and num-num on. Yeah. But yeah, they take some time. You prepare this ambush, and when we come back, that's where we're going to pick things up. I wonder what will happen. We'll see you after the break. See you.