High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #183 | The Infinite Staircase (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

The team prepare for the impending war against Hadar with some interesting questions from Quill's Storm Eye! 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

Pickaxe. Welcome to Arois. Our champions have been on a long and arduous journey. After crashing on the continent of Suvona in an airship, meeting a young girl, escorting her across the wilds, losing her to a strange portal and her absentee father, Calus Valkyrian. They have lost allies, they have completed quests, they have become the champions of Eros.

Having defeated various titans and restoring power to the goddess Siasca, having faced against many villainous foes, both personal and those who serve an even greater evil, it has now come to the point where the final battle awaits. Hadar, the star of entropy, the all-consuming red light. Now aware of the awakened goddess Tiasca's presence, hungering, starving for it. There is only a matter of time until they come to Eros. And so with your new ally, Calus Valkyrian, his fleet, the allies that you have gained along the way, you have set forth into astral space

to travel to the far reaches of the Far Realm, the border of the astral void, and a world world that serves as the breach point to Hadar's prison. When last we left our heroes, you had boarded your ship the Stormchaser, as well as the enormous Solvyn battleship the Astoria, with the various dragon ships. You have ascended into Auroas' sky and out into the astral space beyond. And that is where we pick up for this, our final arc. No pressure. No pressure. We just have to solve this.

Yeah, yep, yep, yep. Just Hadar. You can solve it by smashing your face against it enough times, right? Smash your face into Hadar? Mm. I think he'll like it. Probably. Just head-bomb.

Mm-hmm. I don't want to get my head close to him. He's a biter. Oh, true. I don't want to get nibbed. Nibbed? Nibbled. If there's no specific prompt right now Lucius will be doing taxes

falling into captain routine and checking on everybody checking on first mates and make sure a rise all right in space yeah I mean this is the first time the storm chaser having been outfitted with various magic tech enhancements and even magical enhancements this is the first time that the storm chaser having been outfitted with various magitek enhancements and even magical enhancements this is the first time that the storm chaser itself with no cradle no protective barrier around eros the ships are able to simply fly up and out into the astral sea into the astral space beyond araya seems comfortable at the helm. Probably would make references, like, it's not so different to the ocean, really.

It feels... The controls feel the same. It feels no different to flying it in Arois' airspace. It seems to be getting on with it fine. The crew, the Wolfpack, Lansian, Penny, Kamara, many of the others, Grey Lano, Lookout, Howard, are kind of all gawking. Like, there is lots of kind of, like, they're at the edges of the others, Grey Lano, Lookout, Howard, are kind of all gawking.

Like there is lots of kind of like they're at the edges of the ship. And the Storm Chaser being like an airship, a sailing ship, it is protected by an invisible kind of magical field that keeps the atmosphere in. This is something that Azaria Perel, an enchantress on Horizon, built for you. Is that, you know, there's oxygen, there's gravity, there's air, there's, you know, the cold temperature of astral space doesn't filter in so it is almost uh if you have seen if you remember the film treasure planet um it's very much like that where it is like a galleon out in space but you can go right up to the edges and perhaps like maybe a couple of the wolf pack like

kind of try to push their hands through and find that there is kind of this magical barrier it doesn't stop them, but it offers resistance that you have to physically will your hand to go through. And a couple that try it quickly find that their hand goes freezing cold and they have to pull it back in. There's a couple that maybe get sent down to the medical ward in Grey Lano's cabin. They stuck their head out.

Yeah, and they go blue. They're like... And they get pulled back in. But, yeah, they are... You know, people are in awe of the world and what they are doing. But in terms of actual managing the ship, it really doesn't feel any different to the crew

than being sort of in the atmosphere of Arois. Yeah, it's kind of... It's almost... These are astral winds, almost. It's like... It's called the Astral Sea for a reason. It feels kind of it's almost uh these are astral winds almost you know it's like it is called the astral sea for a reason it feels kind of similar um you see uh the tassadar callus is kind of one of callus's main battleships his flagship uh alongside various other valkyrian ships uh the dragon uh

soul ships as well that flew up from arois with you and then the immense Astoria which kind of dwarfs many of the others even bigger than the Tassadar itself this enormous chunk of a city that has been retrofitted in the same way as the storm chaser itself with these kind of like atmospheric fields but almost is like a chunk of city that's been lifted up of the air with engines strapped to it, cathedrals reshaped into command bridges, and turrets and watchtowers turned into weapons platforms and things like that. And that is flying alongside you as you go as well, as you ascend into astral space.

It will be some time before you reach the the edges uh of of where you need to go um callus would have probably sent a communication to you that uh they basically give you a sort of pass code or like a kind of like a crystalline signal like a kind of musical tone that if you broadcast it will allow you to access um the sort of sub planar space called the infinite staircase which is almost like uh you I believe, used the River Styx last time you were in Astral Space to do this, but it's almost like warp speed. It's like warp travel, basically.

The Infinite Staircase links all of the planes together in a sub-plane, and it allows you to quickly get to different places. And what is the tune? The tone? Do, do, do, do. But it's like a series of musical tones um that is when played in a certain sequence uh it's like a pass passcode it's like sending a digital signal but we're just waiting to enter yeah well i mean yeah and it's it's like even once you go into that space it

will probably still take a couple of days of you just traveling through the infinite staircase to get to the very outreaches and you know that you're heading to a place called the broken veil which is uh effectively like a war front um it is a section of astral space where valkyrians armies and forces have been battling against hadar and it's it's kind of been this slow push back like the valkyrian forces have constantly been pushed back over the millennia and they've lost ground and lost ground but they kind of try and hold out as long as they can as this just wave

of Hadar just slowly pushes them out of where they're trying to go. And that is called the Broken Veil. The Warfront is called the Broken Veil. And that's where you're heading to. Okay. Well everybody we've been given the code by callus strapped in i don't know how it works do we need to be strapped in i don't know nova i've checked

everyone three times do you do you not remember the last time we were no you don't need to be strapped we were in thalers very nicely enclosed spaceship. Yeah, I can see everything out there. It's beautiful, isn't it? I definitely trust Zarya. It's close. The infinite of space. You're so close. Much closer.

I could stare at this all day. Just a quickie about the infinite staircase. Are we gonna feel every step or is it just gonna be? There may be some turbulence. If you have to walk up it, that'll take. We didn't have any sort of legs. It's... no. It's not an actual... I know, I'm joking. I'm deflecting from the reality of us facing Hadar.

How about that? Well, also Zahkira. And also... I forgot about her! All her minions that she's enlisted. She will definitely not have forgotten about us. Nah. Last time she threw an asteroid at us. Yeah.

No, no, last time was when we picked up Vala. Oh yeah. And when she kidnapped you and sucked your brain out. Vala called her a bitch. Yeah, she did. We did kick her ass last time. Yeah, we did you and sucked your brain out. Val called her a bitch. Yeah, yeah she did. We did kick her ass last time, so. Yeah we did. We can do it again.

She is probably more powered this time though, with her alliance with Hadar. So are we. So are we. So are we, with our alliance to Siaska. Yeah, and we've got- And also Starbane somehow. Starbs.

Yeah. Which he doesn't like to be called. You went up and called him that. Yeah. You called him Star that yeah it's weird though because for a while there I thought it wasn't canonical but then it somehow

became canonical it really was I did call him star we all saw that I don't know why he saw that he heard that I think in a moment of panic

it just kind of happened he looked at you he did real funny yeah yeah yeah yeah

you really diffused the tension though asking Garadar to teach... That was the plan. That's why I did it. Really helped. Awesome crumble for the journey. Great.

Oh, we've also got supplies for many more crumbles. I've made sure Howard is well stocked. Excellent. I actually did my job. Yeah, and you pretty much have the whole crew. Everybody is basically going about the business trying to attend to their duties and things like that um you have uh the sort of the you know the old sort of airship wheel has been replaced by a command console sort of at the um

the aft for and aft yeah the aft of the ship um there's no more sort of like big giant sailing wheel there is now a very sort of like big giant sailing wheel. There is now a very sort of like Star Wars-y, Star Trek kind of like crystalline console with different sections preparing things. Do you have to stand in it and sort of, you know? No. Great for podcast listeners, by the way.

You're just doing this motion. For podcast listeners, I'm Pacific Rimming. Yes. Pacific Rimming. It doesn't sound great, does it? No, no, no, no, no. It's more like a kind of round, I guess like a large metal and crystal table

with various different sort of sections built into it. And a riot has like a command, like, you know, has like almost like pilot controls. There's a section for Quill's navigation tools and arrays. Oh, God, yeah. Then there is a general sort of like, you know, stations for monitoring everything else. Nova, you still have the… at the moment you don't need to be in it.

Right now it's kind of the ships just like operating in kind of low power mode. But you will need to, if you want to have fully access to the engineering suite, very much like last time, the sort of pod that is built into the etheric engines. Azaria has powered them with elementals, but they are not the most powerful elementals. I was going to ask about this, but there was like a million and one other things that we had Daddy Storbs about. Surely he has

vast quantities of celestials and fiends. He does, they're in the Empire, they're citizens of the Empire. Could we just ask him for a couple from his ship? How about Garador? Are you seriously asking, can you send over a couple from his ship? How about Garador? Are you seriously asking, can you send over a couple of people to be enslaved into our engines?

Well, he's done it to everyone else. Oh, he hasn't. It's all voluntary. Yeah, no, it felt a bit weird. The moment is just two minor, it'd probably be elementals that Azaria has bound to. That's not doing much. You can certainly, if you seriously ask,

Calus would be, well, are you seriously asking? Do you wanna seriously ask? What's it gonna, how's it gonna power up the engines? Is that gonna help? It would make the storm chaser more powerful. If you can even do it now that you are out of space. Yeah, but we are mid, yeah. We're mid-astral sea.

Are they voluntarily doing it, or is it just a full-on, they are submitting their body? Get in there, get in there. You make an arcana check for me, Lucius. From the fact that we had to trap two in a Pokeball, No. I feel like. I mean, you have no idea, but it doesn't sound fun being stuck in an engine.

It's okay. Look, we don't... I rolled a two. We don't need it. We can have Hadar and Siaska in the engines. Can you imagine? Oh, the places will go. Man, we'll see the future, the past, and the present at the same time.

We just got her back. Perhaps I have not made it clear that the process that you were originally kind of like instructed by Azaria was to take a magic sphere, forcibly capture a magical being,

and then she would bind it to the engine. So they're too high level, then we're going to need like a master sphere. Sure. If that's what you want to take from this, I'm going to have to romhack to get

two Master Spheres. My good aligned champions are Arois. Absolutely. Okay, let's not. We didn't ask for that title. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

Says the lady who wanted to free Eterna from all of this. That's Eterna. Don't care about fiends. It's the same thing, yeah. They don't count, they don't count.

Ooh, right. I'm going to veto that idea. Yeah, it doesn't count. Just so you don't think about it too much, and we'll head on our way through the infinite staircase. How about that? Sure. Do, do, do, do, do, do.

This is a little fiddle. Oh no, that sounded way too much like something else. It's just that Luci is a little fiddle. That sounded way too much. She's playing a fiddle. I don't know the melody. What's the one from Close Encounters? Do-do-do-do-do. Baa! Get another sci-fi reference in there.

It's the Close Encounters one. Do-do-do-do-do. But no, the message is passed along. You would receive a communication. This would probably come through Quill's console on the Stormchaser. It would be a little illusory projection. It would be

almost like a hail, but it's like a little 3D illusory projection. And it would probably be of, I believe you put rain in command of the Astoria in the end. I think so, yeah. I believe so. At least part of the command team. The command team, yeah.

It'll be Rain just saying, Clear Sky Stormchaser, this is the Astoria. We've received clearance and communication from the rest of the fleet. We are proceeding into the Infinite Corridor now. Excellent. Clear, yep. Excellent. Clear? Yep.

Okay. I don't know military... Are you all right? Rose! Thanks. I don't know military... Sentry, get up here. Hello?

Everything's fine here. Everything's fine here. How are you? I don't know military... Affirmative? Affirmative works. Affirmative, okay. Just confirm, you know.

Acknowledge. That's what I did. I said yes. You said hesitantly. Come on, you're a hero. Okay, okay. Confidence. We can do this.

Yes. Exactly. You start to see probably the Valkyrian ships first. But from... I don't think you guys would have seen this because the last time you engaged in this, you were inside Thalia's ship, the Twin Star Longbow. You watch as in front of all of the Valkyrian ships, and you hear this tone sort of echoed through space almost to you.

You almost hear like reverberate, not the sound, but almost the vibration kind of like hits you feel it more than you hear it but you watch as they all emit some sort of like energy pulse and like glowing spheres almost like wormholes appear in front of each ship and then they pass into them physically and then the doors shut behind them like when they teleported Project Vanguard. Yeah, similar to, yeah. And then you watch as each of the different ships

kind of do this, and then they pass through, and you watch as the Dragon Soul ships do the same thing, and even the Astoria itself kind of emits this pulse. It's almost like space itself reacts to the sound and opens up this kind of gateway, this portal, and then the ship passes through. And Araya is just like, permission to go ahead with this uh this whatever it is acknowledged all right captain like taps a few

crystals on the console and uh nova you would probably get like a request coming through into the sort of engineering of like to divert power and project this magical pulse um and yeah you guys see the same thing before you initially appears almost just like pure white uh this like one more you don't actually see into it um and the ship begins to pass through um any of you who are at the four of the ship at the front um which i believe penny is normally stationed there as that's where some of the armor weapons are as well as lookout uh any of the rest of you who would want to be up at the front you would see first as the ship itself passes through this this disc of light you emerge

into it it's hard for your brain to comprehend because it feels like you are in a rectangular kind of corridor that seems to stretch out in front of you, but it is constantly twisting and rotating, but within it there are multiple other corridors and cubes that are doing the same thing, creating a stair-like pattern, but that extends in front of you as if you were flying up a massive coiling staircase,

like a cube. And you can see that there are kind of sections of it that almost seem to break away like windows and perhaps they lead to other planes or different locations you're not sure but it is you're it's like looking at a magic eye for too long like if you stare ahead of you for too long your eyes almost start to hurt and like you have to kind of like look away or you start to feel yourself losing balance and almost feeling like you're losing your place of where you are so you kind of have to like look down at the deck or look at somebody next to you or something like that to refocus yourself and eventually that whole all of you on

the ship as the ship passes through you hear like a like a couple of wolf pups like, oh, what the whole pile of cards is going on in my eyes? It's just like, it's like I'm going up the stairs, but I'm not. And like, you know, they're just calling out nonsense, as they do. Kamara just kind of shouts out to them,

enough, come on, get back to your duties. No time for slacking off. You know, and just kind of calls out to them, and they're like, yes, ma'am, and they kind of get back to it. But they're definitely

kind of like taken in by everything. You see like Howard and Lantian kind of stood next to each other on the like, yes, ma'am, and they kind of get back to it. But they're definitely kind of taken in by everything. You see Howard and Lantian kind of stood next to each other on the deck, and Lantian just kind of runs his hand through his hair, and Howard's just next to him, and they both are just like... They just kind of let out a noise of like, oh, man, what the hell are we doing? It's very real now.

Very real. But the rest of you see is the infinite staircase. And you see, you don't actually see the other ships, but you almost think that where you can see these micro cubes, almost like these other corridors next to you, must be where other ships are, because it's like there are hundreds of them scattered in front of you as well.

It's very perplexing to the mind. But yeah, you imagine that that's where the other ships are located. And it doesn't seem to interfere with your communications. You are still able to send messages and stuff like that, as long as you're all in the infinite staircase at the same time. I think Nova will definitely come up from the engine room

to watch this, like, you know, almost pressing her face against the resistance. Just, whoa! Well, remember, if you're in the pod, you don't need to. almost pressing her face against the resistance. Whoa! Well, remember, if you're in the pod, you don't need to. You can see from anywhere on the ship. You go almost bound into the magic of the ship. So you're experiencing this in a way that none of the others are, Nova. Like in VR.

You are almost—you can feel... Oh. ...the infinite energy that's almost surrounding you. Maybe not infinite, but just vast amounts of energy and being both nowhere and somewhere at the same time is this very strange kind of feeling as the ship is ascending. It's almost like you feel like the ship's rising, but it's going forwards.

Yeah, we're staying in the same place, but we're moving. It's that very strange kind of sense of motion. And just immense amounts of power washing through you as the ship itself is charting its course along the infinite staircase. I think it will just blow her tiny mind just to be able to experience this. Very cool. I love space. And you get a message saying that you'll probably be here for about two days, like

of real space time. Wow, I've already thrown up three times. Because it is the far end of the known astral space where you're going. All right, time to settle in, I guess. Yep. This is our surroundings for a couple days. I'm trying not to look at it. Make sure to take lots of breaks.

Maybe go below deck if it's getting too much. Give your eyes a rest. Yeah, stretch your little birdie legs. Yeah, okay. I did distribute a pamphlet on health and safety measures for this portion of the trip. Did you not read it? Yeah. When did you have time to make that, Nova?

I stayed up all night. I couldn't sleep. I was too excited. I might have used mine as ammunition and thrown it as a test to one of the wolf pack again. They're getting pretty good. See, I didn't have any rocks, so I thought that, you know, think fast.

No, pamphlet. When you say the words think fast, a couple of the wolf pack hit the deck. They're getting good. They spring back up again. See? We're getting really good. We're testing. Yeah. I sneezed earlier and I used something.

I think it might have been the pamphlet. It's good to know that my efforts and concerns about your physical and mental well-being. I needed to wipe my beak. Famously mucusy. Just imagine a bird sneezing though. Wouldn't it be so cute? Would it though if it's giant?

I mean a quill sneeze is super like... This is going to be my reminder for spellcasters who can swap their spells. Sneeze is super light. This is going to be my reminder for spellcasters who can swap their spells. This is going to be a time if you want to change and prepare different spells, now is that time to do so. That reminds me, I ended up picking, much like Lucius, a ring of spell storing with my spare achievement slot,

now that the wing is not needed. Remember, if you want it, you've got to choose what spell's going to go into that, and it's like the fifth level. Yeah, I've got just a Masqueal Wounds in there. Um, so, yeah, that's my Attuned item. Okay. Yeah, I'll swap out all my spells, get rid of all the,

I think Calm Emotions is a good one to keep here. That'll make the difference. Yeah, sure. Reminders of the Stormchaser itself. There are a couple of roles that need to be filled out. Captain is Lucius, there is no changing that. Lucius is indeed the captain. I'm assuming you would like Arya to stay as the pilot for the Storm Chaser.

She's most adept at Astral Sea, as in ocean. Yeah, yeah. I think Lucius has been trained in how to fly the Storm Chaser, as has Lansian. No, Will, but you know the commands. You know how to do it on the old Crystal Magitek console. So we can do it in a blind panic. You can still do it. It all works. And Lansian can as well.

But again, it's like, Oriah's the best, Lucius is probably the next best, and then Lansian is like the last choice before the rest of you who have minuses to do it. I feel like Aayla's the definite last choice. Yeah.

Whoa! Aayla has good natural reflexes. I imagine that probably actually Sentry might be the worst because like, you don't have like, your dex is kind of quite low, right? And you're in heavy armor, so yeah.

Yeah, you'd be like Tokyo Drifting it. Should just be a bit. You would be not as bad as the others, but definitely not the best. I mean, power steering. If power steering's off, you need someone strong to grab that wheel and shove. There's no wheel, though.

Just buttons. That's interesting, that one. Grab those buttons and shove. Hit Pacific Rimming. Nobody should do that. I don't get the problem. There's also the Navigator. I'm assuming you would, like,

quill to stay in the Navigator's role. Mm-hmm. Nova as the Engineer. Thought I'd be a cook, maybe. Try it. A cook is not a... is a ship's role, but it's not the kind of role

we need to worry about. Uh, yeah, I'll be. Sure. Make Howard the pilot, that would really shit him up. Really, yeah. Make him the captain. Sure, you can do whatever you like. Can you imagine?

Hmm? Yeah? Can you put a mass cure wounds of highest level into this? Uh, yeah. Is there nothing else you want in there? You've seen it before, you know what it looks like. Why are you bracing? Do it. Just be quick. Okay, fine. I cast it. It makes no light. No light?

Yes, yeah, it's in there. So you both have Massacule Wounds. Are you actually able to cast it if it's... Anyone can cast it once it's cast into the ring. Yeah. It's in the ring, okay. Juta was doing that at the end of... Yeah. Allura would put Massacure Wounds in and then Juta had it.

I blitzed it. As like a backup. I can think of anything more strategic as probably the best option. Calm Emotions, multiple times. Create Bonfire. Against Insane. Counterspell.

Travel via Plum. Zarkira. That doesn't exist, unfortunately.ing... Counter spell. Travel via plant. Zarkira. That doesn't exist, unfortunately. I'll ask around. Azaria might know a spell. Actually, there is a plant. It's in Quill's room. I put it there. Spoiler! If there's a plant on Entropos, we can somehow

get back to the Stormchaser. Don't ask how it works. No one really knows. It's good to know. I've heard tree in this room. For reference, all of the other NPCs that you wanted to have travel with you either are on the Tassadar or they are currently on the Astoria. Cool. You only have yourselves and the Stormchaser crew on the Stormchaser current.

The other things to mention is the Stormchaser has two weapons. Well, three weapons, but only two of them need to be manned. The third one's Aayla. Yeah, Aayla's the... Sorry, four weapons then, in our case. There is what is being referred to as the Perel Energy Cannon, which is the new magical cannon that Azaria Perel built for the ship. Currently, Penny, who's one of of your marksmen is currently on that.

There is also a rotary turret or like an arcane turret on the bottom which can face any arc. So the main cannon can only fire forwards. The rotary turret can fire in any direction around. There is also the Perel Magical Missiles which you had installed

previously which can be activated by the navigator, the captain or the pilot. the pilot okay but they are limited they are only three uses and you get 1d three charges every 24 hours okay and yeah the the Perel arcane cannon on the front is that the one that was installed in like the opening more of the front of the ship it kind, and it is a massive magical energy cannon. It's very powerful. Not as powerful as it could have been because of you guys not going out

and choosing not to go and chase after the elementals or whatever and the magical beings. Yeah, you were busy, and that's fine. Sometimes you can't complete every side quest. We used an elemental to make a fridge. You used an elemental to make a fridge. I just realised. Well, also, Lucius did throw away the capture sphere as well. He threw the poke to make a fridge. I just realized. That was the perfect thing to do.

Well, also, Lucius did throw away the capture sphere as well. He threw the Pokeball at my head when I was disintegrating. Exactly. Yeah. It was really helpful. Panicked. Yep.

But then the cannon and the weaponry, does the cannon at the front, does that take time to charge, or is it like an instant fire thing? Because it's not the upgraded version it is just a more powerful ship weapon it is just a powerful cannon that fires forwards okay just yeah yeah um and that's where it's and it's manned like penny is literally like sat into it and can control it but it can only fire forwards um there is the road she doesn't have a lot of controls

huh she has a red button kind of like aim around's like, you know, you can aim a little bit, but it can't, like, face the sides or backwards. It's the main thing. Okay. There is also the fact that you also have the crew as well. The wolf pack, right now it's assumed there are 12 members of the wolf pack of crew in total. It is assumed that six of them are basically below decks

helping with the engines, doing, like, other ship tasks, and then you have six on the deck them are basically below decks, helping with the engines, doing other ship tasks. And then you have six on the deck who are basically attending to the sky sails or attending to things that need doing. They are all equipped with force rifles. You did spend some time in training to get them equipped. So they have Magitek guns. So they are equipped for combat as well. And then, yeah, you have Penny, Lansian, Howard, and Kamara on the crew as

well. Grey Lano and Lookout are non-combatants so they don't fight if a fight occurs. They are just there to perform ship duties. Sure. So, yeah. Any other things you want to do over the next couple of days whilst you are travelling?

Any conversations or prep or things you would like to do stallion like on the twin star on the astoria or yeah it's docked into one of their ships yeah you can send communications you just can't um you can't teleport whilst technically in the infinite staircase like at the moment it is you can send messages but you can't really do much more than that is the message sending a closed channel i mean it's uh well the sending spell so closed channel if you go through me not closed channel that's not what we'll tell everyone i won't tell everyone you tell most people lucius yeah and century and orio and howard and lancey and

everyone probably look out everyone okay i'll know about it i'll probably send a message to kairi as well just big cat starving. Starbate. Starbate. I'll drunk sending Starbate. Oh my god, can you imagine? Probably call him Starbs again. Hey, Zarkira, you won't believe who's coming and what she just said. Us. And some nasty shit.

If you get it on a party line. You know, so it's like three, yeah. Yeah, I'm wondering if, I'm trying to think of some like potential Iron Storm questions, if we wanna know anything. I was thinking that. But, um. Are we all gonna die? It's such an open question.

It will show, the thing is, that would probably show me, not just Hadar, which is insanity inducing as it is, but a million different ways to die against Hadar. I'd probably shake violently and then burst. Explode. Yeah. Are we safe here for the next two days?

Whether the infinite staircase is a safe... Oh, we're fine. Something we need to be on edge for? Infinite... Astral... All the infinite things that could attack us. I'll ask that. We were in this before.

You were in the River Styx before, which is the other type of subway. That was more dangerous. That is more dangerous, yes, because this one was the infinite staircase has been sort of locked down by the Valkyrian fleet. When you get to the Broken Veil, you will probably have to leave it because it probably will no longer be safe there. And like Stubbs would have told you that,

Starbeam would have said. You just called out Stubbs! I can because I am the DM and this is a non-in-universe entity who's speaking. But yeah, like Calus probably would have said that basically that you will be forced out of the infinite staircase when you draw near the broken veil because if there will be

Hadar creatures inside that who are like fighting you know there'll be there'll be forces inside it as well so um it kind of like arrival then like how safe is our what we'll see when we when we arrive at the broken veil maybe like what is sarkira up to like where is she right something around s around Zahkira would be good. Finding a location would be useful. Or what kind of powers she's gained since... We need specifics. We need like a... Something specific.

A thing that we can see. So if it's just Zahkira and the feet around her then... I mean if we... If I ask what powers has Zarkira gained from Hadar, that I might get a decent answer. I might just see Zarkira right now, but that still might be something. What about what building is Zarkira residing in right now? Is there a building?

Yeah. I don't know. What structure? I don't know. What? A structure? I don't think there's... We won't be there for another couple of days. Maybe it's closer to exiting. Starbane told us previously that Zarkira will either ambush us in the Broken Veil or lay in wait on Enchopis.

Yep. based on what remember that's what yeah based on their intelligence yeah well that's what valkyrian thinks like i mean intelligence they don't really have any intelligence on zarkira that is his character assumption you know remember just because i say it doesn't mean it's true like i am playing the npc i did precede it with Starbent. I just want to make that clear. Sometimes I will say stuff that an NPC thinks. It doesn't mean it's true. It's just what that NPC thinks.

Maybe you'll get a better result now that Siaska's around. With asking things. Maybe. Maybe just, is Zarkira awaiting us at the Broken Veil? Will she be waiting? The Broken Veil is the entire quadrant, so that's quite large. It's whether she's on Entropos or whether she is going to be in the Broken Veil. Is she at the Tremors Keep?

Is she on Entropos or is she not going to be on Entropos? The other man who has to ask these questions. Quill. We could do where will Zarkiro be in two days, perhaps? Because that's when we leave here, right? Yeah. Yeah, that maybe works. Maybe.

You've got your three charges. She could be on the toilet for two days. I really don't want to see that. The charges take a while to recharge, so you probably won't get to use the Eye of the Storm again until this is done. Yeah. Another question could be,

why has Hadar not destroyed Entropis? Because there's something about Entropis. He's kept it intact. He's destroyed everything else. Yeah. But there's something about Entropis. So is there something that we could use to our advantage? Is he tethered there permanently?

Would destroying it free him? Can he not destroy it? Why? Why has he left this one planet untouched when everything else is ruined? Sounded like he did that by choice, not that he couldn't destroy it. But it would be good...

It would be good to know why. Because maybe it could be something we could turn to our advantage. But we have to punch through that to get to where he is, so he's not on Entropis. Terminus Keep is on Entropis. Terminus Keep is where Entropis Terminus Keep

Is where he is Right Is he beyond that Did you say Terminus Keep Is not On Entropis It is a

Place that is In the far realm They created it But the Point to reach Terminus Keep Is on it Is on it

Yeah So that's where we Punch through To where he actually is To Terminus You will break through On Entropis Into Terminus Keep. Yeah.

Terminus Keep is kind of like a subplane or like a demiplane that borders the Far Realm and Astral Space, and to reach it, you go via Entropis. It's like the portal to it would be on Entropis if there was a portal to it. Yeah. It's like when you fought Killarion, you had to go to the keep where

she had bound herself to. It's a similar process. A physical place that you have to break through. There you go. So it could be as simple as he needs Entropos to enter this world. I mean, it's still, amongst everything else

that he's devoured and destroyed, there is still that one point that he keeps. It might just be his way in or out. But, yeah. I would like to ask, with maybe just the one charge for now, because I want to keep the rest. Yeah, that question,

why hasn't Hadar destroyed Entropos? That's the question you'd like to ask? Yes. Okay your vision turns cloudy. Similar to before when this was a gift from Hesper there There is no... The vision is clear and bright. There is no uncertainty there. Okay. Almost as if that connection, that power, has been restored in some way. Like a divine intervention.

Okay. You see... You see a broken world. A world that parts of it have been broken and shattered and are now almost separating away from itself. It is without any life. It is plain. There are structures, buildings, ruins mainly.

Very little of it remains fully intact but there are many ruins. No trees, no oceans, nothing, not even dirt or soil. It is dust mostly, grey stone. The ruins themselves, things like features have mostly been worn away but you see signs of humanoid statues and shapes cloaked and hooded bearing weapons and you see eroded technology not like the valkyrians or Crystal Magitek. This is technology. Circuits, cogs, things that Quill might not... You know, cogs you would understand, but like complex gear systems, machinery, electronics,

but you wouldn't have really an idea of how it works. But it is all eroded but not rusted. It's gone black, seized up, no longer functional but not rusty. Silent. It's strange, most of your visions are accompanied by sounds and smells. You can hear and feel as if you are in a real place. This is deathly silent. place, this is deathly silent. You begin to see the world almost in fast motion. The planet spins rapidly. You see ships, sometimes Valkyrian ships, sometimes Nautiloids, the Mind Flayer ships, Githyanki ships. You see creatures come to this world as if being called. When they arrive, they look very different to how they leave.

They become corrupted, influenced. You see the mark of Hadar on each of these vessels that leaves. Mouths where there shouldn't be mouths. Tentacles where there shouldn't be tentacles. Red light instead of purple magitek. You feel a presence. Come. Yes. Join. Be gifted before the end. Help me and enjoy bliss before it all becomes nothing. before it all becomes nothing.

Your vision begins to zoom away from Entropis. Quill, you see hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of creatures, ships, just forming this flotilla, this armada of an immense, immeasurable scale, waiting. Entropis is being used to call a place for living creatures that swear themselves to Hadar as a sort of pilgrimage. It is where Hadar's influence is strongest. What was your answer? Okay. I mean, I'm communicating this as I see it rapidly to everyone, but...

So yeah, you all know that. But like, the millions of ships I see, it's just forming this shield around Entropis. Like an armada, yeah, like around it, but like at a great distance. Not like a shell, but like a ring and sort of like easily could defend it, like a defensive force. But you probably would see that some of it gets sent off from time to time. But it's never been fully mobilized, if you get the impression. It is, the answer to your question is, yeah,

Entropis is, Hadar is keeping Entropis. The reason that Hadar hasn't destroyed it is because he's using it as this kind of pilgrimage, a place to call people to. It's Hadar's prime, just calling people in. So that's why. To corrupt and influence anyone that dares enter Entropis territory. But I saw more ships than I've ever seen before surrounding this place. So when we leave, that may well be what we're up against. We can't be detected.

If one of them sees us, they're all going to descend upon us. Maybe connected, yes. So that's what we had to break through. But that is why. It's a beacon and a location for people to arrive at. It would be best to share this with Starbane and Siaska. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you'd like to, you can contact them via the main ship's console, the communication system.

A flickering image of Calus would appear. Storm Chasers, you wish to speak with me about some intelligence? Yes, I just used the Eye of the Storm to glimpse Entropis, and we tried to determine why Hadar has felt it necessary to keep that place standing while everything else is devoured. I know you're not the biggest fan of my visions, but... I'd say that I've come to have greater faith in them

now that I've understood more about them. Well, I saw ships from every race, every nation, every planet, plane, trying to reach Entropos, and the influence spreading into them and joining Hadar's army, and the force that he has available to him, I've never seen anything like it. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of ships surrounding Entropos. This confirms what Siasco and I believe.

I'm sorry that if you had contacted me, I could have given you perhaps some of this information. Well, we wanted to determine why Entropis specifically was still standing, but... That is not something I knew specifically, but we have been aware that Hadar calls people, creatures, to it. Indoctrinates them perhaps perhaps or convinces them to act as its servants, much like Zarkira has done. They become traitors to their people and perhaps the belief that they will receive power or serenity before the end is brought about by its master. Well we were hoping to find a weakness in there, maybe. Something that we could use against

him, but unfortunately it seems like it is just that. Yes, and I fear that the fleet, the force, the military power that you saw around Entropis, it unfortunately confirms a fear that I have long held, that we have been fighting portions of Hadar's strength. Hadar has never fully sent its full power out into the universe, because it did not need to. It knew it was winning slowly, but surely it just had to be patient. I fear that now it has sensed Siaska's awakening, its patience will run out.

From the vision, all the millions of ships I saw, are they all just small, like, storm-chasing ships? Some are small. Some are, like, you know, some aren't even ships. Some of them are, like, weird creatures. Not Bim. But they're, like, bio-ships, like bio-vessels. They look like giant creatures that have been turned into living weapons or they're just writhing masses of tentacles and eyes and mouths. Like the thing at the end of Sonic Adventure 2.

I don't know what that is, but maybe. Prototype. But they all range in size. Some of them were small. Some of them were smaller than the storm chaser. Like, they would have been very small, like creatures, you know, kind of maybe like a dragon-sized thing, like a huge or large, you know, gargantuan creature.

Okay. But any... Some of them... Big boys. Yes. Okay. There was one in particular, Quill, you would have seen. Enormous.

I mean, bigger than the No. Enormous. I mean, bigger than the Astoria. Enormous. Bigger than a city. Yeah. It was... A mega city. Immense. Do you describe it to Calus?

Do you describe it? I mean, yeah. I think seeing all the ships, I'd like to try and pass on as many strategic... Yeah, you kind of start going through it, and Calus seems to be aware of the Nautiloids, the Mind Flayer ships. They're aware of those. Beholder ships

that almost look like giant beholders themselves. These giant sort of floating idols made of rock and things like that. There are many Valkyrian ships, and Calus will confirm, yep, those are like missing fleets that he sent to fight Hadar and have obviously

become corrupted or betrayed them and stuff like that. Many of them are Zarkira ships, the ones that you see as well. Some of them tend to be Zarkira's fleet. Are they like, in a specific, are they all grouped together, Zarkira? They're all spread out. They're all just, yeah.

Seems to be. Random. Yeah, and that's true for all of the ships. Like, they're all just kind of, there's no coherency to them. They're just just... Seems to be. Random. Yeah. And that's true for all of the ships. Like, they're all just kind of... There's no coherency to them. They're just all spread out. Some of them are kind of almost like raider ships. They look cobbled together. Some of them are like...

Almost like flying stone buildings. Like, they look very bizarre and ancient. And then you describe this massive ship, which I would almost describe like imagine an enormous kind of slightly more technologically advanced and magically enchanted like with runes and magical sigils and almost like an enormous like long ship like a vikings kind of like long ship um but on a colossal scale like a like a like a battle fleet carrier kind of like a long ship, but on a colossal scale, like a battle fleet carrier kind of thing. And when you describe it, Calus, kind of his eyes widen slightly,

and he looks off the projection, kind of looks to the side. He speaks to somebody. It can't be. That is worrying news. That is a Fenrir-class ship. A Valkyrian ship? No, no. It's from a world we lost millennia ago, just when I was beginning my empire, when I did not still have the strength to fully stand against Tidarr. He consumed the world of the giants. They had many ships amongst them. The Fenrir

class was one of their... it was one of two of their largest. The Fenrir and the Jormungandr. They were immense ships, sun eaters. Of course they were. Sun eaters. Capable of destroying stars. Okay. And, okay, well... What's our plan again? So that one is fully under...

What of the other one? Leave it to be destroyed. Okay. Oh, things keep getting better and better. How big was the Palidore ship in comparison to all of these? Small, it was a storm chaser. Bigger than the storm chaser, but not by, yeah,

not like, nowhere near as big. Yeah. Are they slow ships? Yes, yes, they are slow but powerful. Normally used to... I mean, the giants, when they would wage war, I mean, they were a dominant power in the multiverse for a long time. It was only because of Hadar that they eventually were consumed. They were destroyed.

They fought and even they were also brought down. Slowly, over time, they were a powerful resistance against Hadar for a long period. They were one of the original races who fought against them alongside Siaska and the Guardians. But, I mean, the Fenrir was... they would send it to destroy stars, which would wipe out planar systems. It is likely that Hadar may not be able to fully unleash its power and potential unless it still has living giants to pilot it and use it, but unlikely, knowing Hadar's nature. But it is still a massive threat, one that we won't be able to ignore.

In terms of our plan, it doesn't change. I told you that when we set out on this, this is not a fight we can win through conventional means. We cannot defeat these fleets. We cannot defeat these ships. We must get what forces we can through, down to Entropis, make our way as quickly as possible to Terminus Keep,

and take out Hadar themselves. That is the only way that we can hope to achieve victory. Okay. Even against something like the Fenrir, that will cause great problems, but now we know what to expect, we can prepare. We need to make sure that our fleets are spread out, that it cannot destroy too many of us at once. There will be deaths. We will lose many lives

in this act, but that is what we must do. We'll position a number of fleets and ships above Entropis to provide as much support to buy us time that we need to get down to the surface, to bring your guardians, to bring the Eterna, to bring my elite forces. We land, we take Terminus Keep, we take down the Hedda. Okay. I have intelligence on Terminus Keep as well. It's where Reap Prime serves as a guard. Ah, that may be useful if you have memories that can help us with its layout. It's full of moving corridors, according to Reap Prime.

It's been trapped heavily. It may be difficult to get through. Well, good to know. Thank you, Sentry. I believe that once we land on Entropis, we may need to do various tasks and missions before we can secure Terminus Keep itself, but that will be our ultimate objective. I will dedicate most of my forces to establishing a forward base. We will take the area that we believe the breach point to be in and secure it before we bring Siaska and Valor in to open up the way. Then the two of them, myself, and you champions, we will step through and take on

Terminus Keep itself. Okay. Good luck. We'll be reaching the end of the infinite corridor soon, so we'll speak again shortly. Thank you, Keeluk Edk'alaa. Thank you. Vital intelligence. I think outside of this, I might ask for, if Hadar is preserving and reanimating or whatever ancient civilizations, if there might be any notable, not necessarily the individual ships that we might be up against, but notable creatures that we might face ourselves. Yeah.

If he knows of any. Yeah. I mean, I think that... So one thing you would know is Hadar doesn't preserve these cultures. Hadar is probably keeping these weapons around, but for the purpose of destroying and consuming more things in the future. The planet of the giants, most of the giant race are probably long gone. Hadar has clearly kept this ship because it sees it as being useful.

And that seems to be a common thing. Like in everything you guys have seen and talking with Kallus, Hadar seems to kind of break its own rule and lets things that it considers to be useful stick around to then consume and destroy more, but ultimately does promise to destroy everything at the end. Like even these tools it will eventually destroy, but only once it has kind of taken out any threats that it perceives. Which implies that there is a fear, there is a kind of intelligence there of like, it is not so committed to its goal of entropy that it is not willing to break its own rule

for survival and power and things like that. The hoarder. Yeah. Yeah, it kind of keeps things that, it just keeps things that is like, yeah, this is going to be, this is going to make me stronger. Eat everything unless he finds a fork, which makes eating easier. And then when he's done with that, he eats the fork too. Yeah. Perfect analogy. Perfect analogy. which makes eating easier. And then when he's done with that, he eats the fork too.

Perfect analogy. Perfect analogy. So that ship is just a spork. It's a big spork. Wow. In terms of other creatures, I mean, you've had this kind of discussion, but yeah, Beholders, Mind Flayers, Giants it seems like, maybe Valkyrian forces,

which means that there will be angels and devils as well, as the Valkyrian army includes those, fey creatures, beasts, animals. But also, when you've seen this, Hadar has this kind of corrupting influence and it changes and mutates things as well. So it might be that you fight amalgamations of those kinds of things together. Sort of smushed together. Undead seem to be connected to Hadar in some way as well. Especially undead that consume and drink and absorb power or destroy things. Vampires. Well, not vampires, because vampires drink, but they use life force to continue living.

They are almost an antithesis to Hadar. They want to keep existing. Undead like Bodaks, which are all about just entropy and destroying, those are aligned with Hadar. Ghouls are aligned with Hadar because they just want to eat and consume. What about energy vampires? They're the worst. They're the worst, yeah.

Colin. Yeah, Colin Robinson. Yes, if energy vampires were a thing in D&D, they would probably be on the side of the dark. Sweet. Nice. Okay. Cool. Any other questions or intelligence-related matters? I think so. Is our hero in full?

Yeah, I guess. Is it worth asking Starbane why we have him on the line? You want Zarkira info? Yeah, I guess. Is it worth asking Starbane why we have him on the line? I mean, I'll tell you now happily, he has no intelligence about Zarkira's whereabouts or anything like that. He can tell you what he thinks of her as like a person, as somebody who knew her and knows her, what he thinks quite well.

But, I mean, he didn't see her betrayal coming, so... So it's maybe best to use a charge to find... If we can find out any more information on Zarkira... Yeah, I mean, I've got two more charges with another certain date. Because she's quite a big threat. Use it as we're just leaving. Yeah. As we know we're leaving into the Broken Veil.

So she won't move. Yeah. I mean, we leaving into the broken veil. So she won't move. Yeah. I mean, we can just jump to that now though. Yeah. Because unless there's anything, unless there's anything anybody else wants to do

in these like short, short days. Can I work out so hard, I get strength 20. Yeah. Okay. You can get yourself like nice and prepped

and make sure you're flexible. Lucius will be doing everything like practicing spells. Just trying to keep himself sharp. Doing some reflection and some meditation. Trancing a lot. Okay. Reflecting on everything.

Just keeping calm. All that kind of stuff. Sure. Make a... Roll two things for me. Roll constitution. Just d20 plus your con. And then roll a d20 plus wisdom for me.

14. 14. For con. And then for whizzy. I don't think I'm super wise. I keep forgetting. 13. I'll roll again.

Yeah. Please roll again yeah please roll again 16 16 you don't over exert yourself you kind of keep yourself in good physical condition you feel flexible and agile

not probably to give to give you any sort of benefit but you also don't over exert yourself like you keep yourself well paced but those moments of trapped in nerve

moments of reflection the moments of preparing your mind. Out of maybe the whole team, Lucius, you're probably the one who's struggled the most with some of the themes of what Hadar has offered. And there have been times when you yourself have considered is what Hadar is offering is better. And I think that these moments, and I'll leave this up to you, Chris Trott, to decide how Lucius reflects on it, but there is a strength that you gain.

There is a sort of focused will that you gain from these quiet moments. And I will say that I will give you advantage or like inspiration, basically, on the first kind of wisdom-based check you have to make in threat of Hadar. Ooh, I'll take that. But yeah, the way Lucius...

Nice little bit of RP. The way Lucius arrives at that is thinking back on those moments facing Hadar, like with Sentry, and we're literally there, and the more recent interaction on the back of the Titan. But then what pierces through that are the words of wisdom from his friends, of why it's worth it, from Sky Prince Aradan, having purpose, having drive, motivation, Siaska returning, and that kind of envelops the bad. The light shines through the darkness.

Maybe sort of like almost while you're doing this, can see the the mask of moon star as well yeah yeah and he puts that in front of him as he meditates corn it i like that nice very nice so quill question or anything else from anyone no i i mean i'm gonna say that i am gonna basically have us jump to the very end of this journey. So we're going to be jumping out. So once you hit the broken valve, who knows what's going to happen. Yeah, I think Nova's going to spend her time just working on the engines. There's always things to do, right? All those calibrations to make.

Yep. If you're calibrating, get down in the gun deck like Garrus. And just making them kind of tip top and ready for bad stuff. In fact, I'm actually going to put you, if you're in your pod. Oh. That is, you're technically in the lower deck, but I'm going to put you in like that. Technically, if you keep RPing, right?

This will never end. This doesn't, it's the infinite. Oh no, I can just interrupt it and basically be like, you're here now. Meteor swarm. Also, two days worth of episodes later, we actually reached the time in which we would do it. We're going to do it second by second,

but our three-hour sessions is a second. Okay. You do know this badge that we've released says 2023 on it. I'm going to start rolling D20s. No, it says 2023 on it, so we have to finish this by this year. We've got six months. Anybody doing, what people?

Oh, you're just rolling dice? But yeah, working on the engines, sending messages to Thalia. Sure. Getting ready. Warning everyone that we're probably gonna be, from what Quill is saying about the corruption and all that on Entropis, the minute we step foot on Entropis,

we are probably gonna get corrupted, or that attempt. Oh, but remember, just stick by me, stay by the beacon of hope, that will give you strength and wisdom. As Nova is working on the engines. Sentry had something. That's fine, yeah, I'm joking, I'm joking.

It's all good. I was literally doing rolls and I was like, when I get a 20, I'm going to step in. So yeah, go on, Cintrini, just saying you won. I just want to go around with the crew, make sure they're all rested, see how, just to get a gauge of how they're feeling, try and boost some confidence if they're feeling

a little bit like, sure. Roll a persuasion check for me. No, just charisma, just d20 plus charisma, because I just did stats for Lucia, so I'll just do just raw stats for these kind of things. All righty. And I'll give you a rough overall. seven there's two things um the wolf pack the general crew you kind of feel you realize you don't need to worry about them they're not the sharpest tools in the shed um

and so they're just sort of they're kind of aware of what's going on and you do get the sense that they understand how important this is. But the scope of everything is just a bit bigger than they can really handle. They're like, I've got orders to follow. That's what I'm going to do. And so they're pretty happy. They've got food. They've got drink.

They're enjoying what they can while they can. And they're pretty happy. Kamara is kind of keeping an eye on them. But you can definitely see that she's a bit smarter, she's a bit wiser, and she's worried about her family, basically. You also notice that Howard and Lansian, they are not ready for this.

They are weighing out of their depth. Penny and Oriah, totally fine. Like those two are like pretty seasoned. Like Penny is, you've not really spent a lot of time talking to Penny like in general as one of the NPCs on the ship, but you kind of understand very quickly that she has probably led a very tough life and this is more than she could ever sort of want. Like she's happy to be doing something epic.

So she's like totally fine with it and ariah is just like this is the greatest adventure ariah could probably hope for right you know ariah better than i do she's probably happy as a larry yeah yeah um but you definitely get the sense that howell and lancey and uh and kamara definitely starting to feel a bit worried and try and kind of encourage them and give them those words of support and offering but i think coming from this big armored powerful figure you don't know if you've kind of gotten across the the message that you would as as much as you would like to with the role of a seven unfortunately they're not level 20 either so they're not level 20 mega warriors so they're a bit sort of like divine skill i don't think we're gonna make it, buddy. I got a frying pan.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so they're a little bit shaken, but unfortunately not much can be done. I think Aayla will just be checking, she'll be taking it upon herself to check and all the weapons are up to scratch and everything's organized and ready for the fight and stuff like that.

So she'll occupy her time doing that. All righty, nice. Maybe throw in some more stuff at the Wolfpack to make sure. They're ready. They're ready. Stay on your toes. Yeah, and the weapons are all in good condition.

Like I said, when it comes to it, if the ship does get into a combat, you basically can, you as a team, can decide where people go. You know, if you don't give them orders, they will go to where they're used to going to, what they're most comfortable with. Yeah. All right.

I think my only thing, I kind of wanted to speak to Century about the Brute Prime thing, being on the choppers, because that's... Yeah, that's actually a good choice. Yeah, by all means. Yeah, you mentioned to Starbane, by the way, on the chat we just had about Root Prime, he served on Entropos?

Yes. Have you been communing with him then, recently? I communed before we left. Okay. To get intelligence. Was that written down? Was that shared? I can't remember. Rhi did not specifically say she shared it, so I didn't write anything down.

Good, so I'm not being dumb here. Okay, so as in that was a guardian city before, or there were guardians there? No, it was during the first time they encountered Hadar. And he was the first to encounter... Okay. But do you have some kind of... Like when you were pulled to the Prime before, do you have anything that's kind of pulling you towards Entropis then? No. See, my connection with Entropis...

I don't have a connection with Entropis outside of Root Prime, so it would be Root's connection, I suppose. Okay. I mean, just to refresh, because I don't know how much you wrote down Rhiannon, like yeah, Root served on Terminus Keep before Hadar became a problem. Like remember, Root is like, you know, Root was there before. They fought in the First War against Hadar, but Entropis existed before Hadar. Entropis was a dead world before any of this even happened.

That was where they trapped Hadar on it. But before they used Ent tropis as a place to kind of trap hadar it was uh it it rests on the very edge of the astral void and it looks out into the astral void um and they built watch they built terminus keep as a watchtower originally physically there to watch over the astral void and then when hadar became hadar and consumed the other gods they used terminus Keep to basically trap him and then put Terminus Keep into the Far Realm, basically. So, yeah, he was actually there before it was even touched by Hadar,

is where he was, just for the details. OK. I'll tell you that. Thank you. OK, so, OK. So, are you able to still communicate with Root when we are in there to be able to navigate us through that? Or have you seen it already?

I don't know how to get through it, but I know that it's just a mass of moving corridors and it's just, it's not a good place. It sounds like even if you did know a way, it might just change suddenly. Well, maybe. Again, the moving corridors, I think they're Hadar's doing. I don't think that was the Guardians that made that.

Yes. So we may need some way of tracking through the corridors. Well, that's what I was wondering. If maybe with Root's influence, there might be some help there, but I can use the Wayfinder's Guide when we're there, maybe. Possibly, if it works in there. There could also be cultists, Hadar cultists, weapons. Anything in there.

Okay, so not to take a wrong turn in a place that is constantly shifting and going the wrong way. And trapped. That sound good? Sounds awful. Sure. As Starbane said, we can't get through this by normal means, right? Whether that's getting to Entropis or getting through Terminus Keep, there's bound to be something, some way of getting through it that we can't just brute force our way through, right?

No, OK. We can't predict anything by the sounds of it. No. The prep, we can do as much prep as we can in terms of what we might be facing, like Sarkira, like finding out about all of those ships. That's good prep, but when we get there, it's kind of... whatever Hadar says goes. Yeah, yeah.

Um, okay, well, either way, when we get there, I'm gonna be right next to you, Sentry, as always. Maybe behind, probably behind. Slightly to the left and behind. Slightly behind the shield, as I always have been. And always will be. So... Look forward to that.

Don't let me get eaten. Is that okay? I don't want to get eaten. I don't think any of us want to get eaten. No, can we just make that a general thing? Don't let anyone get eaten. How about that? Yeah. Nobody gets eaten, please. Come on, I can't close that. general thing? Don't let anyone get eaten. Yeah, nobody gets eaten, please. Kamara kind of calls out for me. I thought that was the guy.

That was the guy, the wolf. The wolf. He's around the corner going one person. He's always there. He's picking his teeth. He doesn't speak. Just looks at Quill and licks his lips. I just thought, my ring of story,

could you put Beacon of Hope into it? Um, yes, it's a spell of the third circle. A third level spell. And I think with the Ring of Storing, I think you can do up to five spells. Five levels. So you can do a level three and a level two. Yeah. So yeah, I could put a beacon in there. What level mass cure wounds did you put in here? Fifth, it's only on fifth.

Up to a maximum of five. Yeah, I could put Beacon of Hope on there for if I ever lose it. Or I provide another area for it. It's a beacon of hope. It's once it's cast, everyone is in the area, even if they leave it, have that effect. It triggers like when you cast it, but it hits anybody around in that area.

But it would mean that Lucius could concentrate it and you wouldn't have to concentrate. Yeah, that's true. This is other things that Lucius. That's the other things that Lucius... Also, the other thing I will say is you can put something like Greater Restoration in it, spend the components now, and then when it's used, it has the components paid for when you cast the spell. Yeah, that's true actually, because even when we were against just the seed

and it took over the mines, did restoration actually work for that? It did. Greater restoration, it did work on that, didn't it? Even with Hadar creatures, it might not cure them, but it might give you an advantage in some way or it might buy you some time or confuse it. If it has this brief moment of sanity, it might be stunned for a round

or something like that but it's also greater restoration is very good for like if you guys get afflicted with you know things like that and stuff as well uh lesser inspiration as well i think lesser restoration is two and it like cures like blindness and disease and stuff like that so you could have bacon and lesser yeah lesser doesn't do as much stuff, but same thing. If I put the spell into the ring, does Lucius casting it trigger spellbreaker? No. Because then he's casting it technically. No, he's casting it.

He casts it. Yeah, it's, I would say, it's when you cast the spell, the target does it, and you're casting the spell but putting it in the ring. So I would say no. Okay. Yeah, I could rotate that around and make it... Was it lesser restoration? Well, they have different effects.

Greater restoration covers more things. It can remove things like madness. It can do temporary ability damage. It gets rid of all levels of exhaustion. Lesser Restoration is like blindness, disease, paralyzed, lots of stuff like that. So it isn't as good, but like, yeah. Okay. Paralyzed.

Your choice. What's in there now? Mask your wounds at level five. Oh yeah, I just put it in there, didn't I? Okay. This was double ringed, I don't know if you've seen the picture. I've got, yeah, I just put it in there, didn't I? Okay. This was a double ring. I don't know if you've seen the picture. I've got the same one. It's really cool. It's also flat on the end.

So if we like... bump it, it fits together. What's this? They're combining. Into a magical artifact. Wait, we're one now. We're attached by Prophist. Oh no No

Just take the ring off Oh yeah Just take the ring off No we are Entwined We can't We're entangled for life We can't possibly

Open that Yeah Just take it off Yeah Anyway This is us now Forever Just cut your hand off

So either you give me A lesser restoration And a level three I think Or you give me the lesser restoration and a level three, or you give me the greater. Because with bacon, if I'm holding bacon, and you do mask your wounds, then everyone will get healed for max,

which is pretty strong. Yeah, that's true. You've also got two concentration slots. Yeah. Because you can concentrate on some pretty nasty boys, right? You guys have a think about that in the break. Sure. And I'll let you retroact before we do that.

Is there anything you want to do? Because before we go on break, I want to do a thing. Just assume that if we're going to store a spell, it's going to be before we arrive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Are you going to ask a question about Zarkira as well? Because that's another big thing. If you're going to do that, then I need to know that now yeah I'm sure I will ask what powers has Zarkira gained from Hadar okay your vision turns white and cloudy I don't like that you wanted this vision turns cloudy with great clarity as it always has. Your vision returns to Entropis. You see, standing on a cliff precipice, looking out over this broken ruin of a city, you see

a woman. A familiar one. Long black hair, sort of silver ornaments and almost like blades woven into the hair itself. Red dress, tall black leather boots studded with armoured plates. Sort of almost like golden wings of metal, sort of in an ornament on her back. sort of in an ornament on her back. And you see this figure turn and look directly at you. Oh.

And her eyes are no longer the humanoid eyes they once were. They are more like a serpent's. I've been waiting I knew you would use your little gift On me one day, Kelek Adkola And I've been waiting You cannot move You are frozen still, unable to turn away

What did you ask, I wonder? Was it what powers I might have gained from Hadar? Was it where will Zahkira be on Entrop? And she walks up to you and you feel something grab your face like as she reaches out with her hand. Well, this time

there are no answers and there never will be. And she jabs her clawed hand into your eye. The rest of you see Quill's storm eye turn black and blood begins to pour down on Quill's face and Quill is paralyzed there.

What do you guys do? Snap him out of it. Someone shake him out of it. Shake him. Shake him. Shake him. Doesn't seem to have any effect. Did we put greater restoration into my thing?

It was lesser, was it? Yeah. I'm going to try it on him. You try the lesser restoration. Quill, you're no longer paralyzed, but you feel this immense pain as Quill's eye begins to turn black and shrivel away.

Your eye, Quill! I'm still in this vision, right? You are saying, like, you feel like her pulling your eye out, just like... Heal him! I've got potions. I'll put a potion in his beak.

Sure. I mean, I'm going to say Quill, take 40 points of necrotic damage from me. Am I still paralyzed in the vision? No, you're not paralyzed in the vision. So you feel like there is a presence to you, but it's almost like an astral self, like a no physical presence. Okay. What guys do so you're gonna start pouring a

potion down quills for a la kind of touch my protection from evil and good sure so you watch the century was that look like when you cast that she puts her hand on quills face and just tries to like cast golden energy like in like From the matrix in From the matrix in through her hand into your face The last thing you see Quill is and you feel like as she pulls out your eyes Quill's eyes gone Like it is dissolved being disintegrated and now her clawed hand is like reaching into your eyes Trying to get to your brain, but it hits a barrier.

As you watch this golden shield form over and push her hand out, no, that wretched god, and then the vision ends. I believe you prevent possession. Yeah. Yep. The protection from good and evil shuts Zarkira out.

Oh, good frickin' play there. Holy guacamole. However, Quill, I'm afraid to say that your Eye of the Storm is gone. Oh, my God. She has been anticipating this for a very long time. God damn! It set up a very specific magical trap.

Good thing we didn't ask that first. Well, yeah, still pretty bad. I still had a charge left. Goddamn. Holy shit. What a bitch. Oh, she tried to get your brain. Again?

With her hand. That's the second time she's tried to do that. The first time, Ram, she joined Hadar. What was she doing? The whole siesta. If I am correct, you guys wanted to ask that just before you arrived in the Broken Veil. Oh! A call comes through the messaging system as you're all dealing with this,

and Raya is like, um, yes, Stormchaser? And it's, uh, we're pulling out of the Broken Veil now, exiting the Infinite Staircase. Oh god, there's a... And then it goes dead as the Infinite Staircase, it breaks away as the Stormchaser erupts into an active war zone. You watch as Valkyrian ships and the dragon ships are flying past you, being chased by corrupted Valkyrian ships. You see a Nautiloid, one of these Mind Flayer ships,

like a giant almost mollusk with black-red tentacles trying to reach out. And it is like shrieking over you. You can see a flaming planet down below you as there is just this active galactic astral battle happening around you araya is just like hold on as the storm chaser ducks and weaves as a flaming valkyrian ship that's just been descended upon by these aberrated monsters of just eyes and mouths just swarming all over it, go shrieking past you, you can almost hear the crew like, and Raya has to like steer the storm chaser as it ducks down. And that's where we're going to take a break. Oh my god!

See you in five minutes. See you in five minutes. See you in part two. See you in five minutes. See you in five minutes. See you in part two. See you in part two.