High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #185 | Operation Fenrir (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

The Stormchasers prepare their greatest allies for a three-pronged assault against the massive dreadnaught, the Giant controlled Fenrir! 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) and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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for info on Kraken's undertaking to Erois. Last time our champions have ascended into astral space where they have journeyed out to the far edges of the known universe to the broken veil a war front between the forces of callous valkyrian and hadar here they engaged in an epic astral space battle where they had to rendezvous with their allies in the valkyrian fleet fending off several ships and monsters and hadar spawn that descended upon the storm chaser sadly the losses to our champions and their allies have already begun with a near death for kamara an np ally who's been a member of the storm chaser crew for some time looking after the the general sailors and the wolf pack but was brought back by sentry

using revivify but sadly lancean one of the other npc crew members, passed and was not able to be rescued, along with several of the Wolfpack themselves. Nigel, Pascar, and Bob. There you go. Wrap in peace. Wrap in peace. You have been summoned to Kallus' ship, the Tassadar, to discuss the sort of next stage

in your assault on the world of Entropis, where you know the prison of Hadar is not necessarily contained or located, but its breach point, its planar kind of crossing anchor can be found. However, to reach Entropis, you will need to fight through a blockade of Hadar spawn and corrupted ships and many other forces that are defending Atropis including a giant warship a Ragnarok class astral ship called the Fenrir a power that has been perhaps brought back or resurrected by Hadar's magic and that was the last thing we discussed with you making plans on exactly how you were going to be able to disable this Fenrir and then make your assault onto Entropis.

Yeah. Operation Fenrir is a three-pronged attack. It is, yeah. It's a meat fork attack. No, a trident. Meat fork's good. Meat fork. But why don't you, Tom Hazel, describe what this Meat Fork plan is?

Well, prong number one of the Meat Fork, which in a row is three pronged. I think it's technically Trident. No, in a row Meat Forks have three. Yeah. And Tridents have two. It's weird. Part one is assisting Thalia, our elite master pilot, in delivering us the bomb into the Fenrir down one of the

chutes Star Wars style well into the Fenrir itself like this is a more kind of Death Star 2 situation of flying into the Fenrir with the twin star destroying you know a system or the power core or something that's going to disable the Fenrir's weapons or perhaps the whole ship itself. Like Star Fox. Yes. Against Andross at the end.

Yes, there is certainly an element of Star Fox and Andross in this. And Thalia has to trust her instincts. Okay, nice. Just like, oh God. What's prong two? Prong two is, well, prong number one can prong two? Prong two is... Well, prong number one can't proceed until prong number two is complete

in which the infiltration of the Fenrir takes place. Prong two! Where we send in a group of rowdy rousers. No, quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet. Well, some quiet, quiet... Sneaky boys. Sneaky... Sneaky snicks. Sneaky suckers. Backed up by some rowdy rousers. No, quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet. Well, some quiet, quiet. Sneaky boys. Sneaky. Sneaky snicks.

Sneaky suckers. Backed up by some rowdy rousers. Always really, really loud. To muss up some boys and steal the plans and turn down the shields. Turn them down. Just dim them. Find the dimmer switch. Yeah.

And just turn off those shields so that Thalia can get in. Yep. Meanwhile. Prong one. Prong three, I think, is to defend the storm chaser during this entire adventure with a team of people who can pilot and defend the storm chaser in their own different ways. Great. Thank you very much.

Yeah, so we had a discussion off screen or in the tactical room with Starbane. In the captain's quarters. In Discord. In Discord. And we've come up with some vague outlines of team division of labor. Well, perhaps not as vague as you thought

because the DM has been acting on those being the final decisions. Well, there's one question I have. Bring your opt-in! There's one question I have. Okay. But for the benefit of our viewers, and we've named these teams what we think are- Imagine like an Avengers montage.

You remember when you see Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruff, I totally forgot the characters' names. Iron Man and the Hulk. I remember the four of them. I Man and the Hulk. I remember the Hulk. I know. It's a lot more complex. They're like deliberating and you see them fading in and out of like, hmm, yeah, what, hmm.

We've been doing that, deliberating. We looked as cool as well. Lying on the floor. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely been, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you guys have been making plans. Not just on your own as well, the NPCs have been there, like, finding their insights and advantages and things like that as well.

Go on, Kim. So the Death Star Infiltration Team is consisting of Ayla and Nova, Hope, Scout and Nanny Norfear. We should probably stop calling her Nanny Norfear. Norfear is fine. Yeah. She's really only Lucius's nanny. The rest of you would just call her

Norfyr she's gonna drop the nanny well I don't think she's your nanny anymore fuck off do you need bedtime stories yes do you need a little

nappy change I mean this is Lucius I mean the first one yes let's not go into the second one that's an area of the internet none of us want to visit and now it's there

I've planted that seed please continue the rebellion storm chaser team consists of Century and Lucius, Protector, Maximilian, Danica, and this remaining Stormchaser crew. And finally, the Starfighter Twin Star Squadron will have Thalia and Quillyboy on the Twin Star. And here's the question, because we're like,

do we want Araya and Tassadar to also help out in little fire, like plane, jet squad fleet? Yeah. I've been mentioning this, so keeping in mind, there's a couple of things to keep in mind. If Araya is not on the storm chaser,

Lucius is the only one who can fly the storm chaser and it requires your full action to pilot the storm chaser lucius is the only one who can fly the storm chaser and it requires your full action to pilot the storm chaser basically so he would not it would mean that lucius would not be able to use any of his cool spells um tassadar is absolutely capable of flying a ship tassadar is um being an eterna um being very magically orientated like kind of think of tassadar's specialty in being a sort of magical utility kind of wizard, but they're also an all-rounder. They're capable of taking lots of different roles. They kind of can shift and do things.

Tassadar is more than capable and willing to pilot a ship and to back up Thalia if need be. What ships would they be piloting? These would be like generic Valkyrian starfighters, basically. Are they comparative to the Twin Star?

Are they like better? This is quite literally Return of the Jedi. You've got the Millennium Falcon and then a bunch of X-Wings. That is what we're talking about. Now, keep in mind that Wedge Antilles was in one of those X-Wings and he's the best starfighter in the galaxy, so he's fine. Don't diminish the X-Wing when it's the best starfighter in the galaxy so he's fine okay well don't diminish the x-wing in terms of my piloted by my position on uh on uh what was it the the prong three the

thalia prong what did you call that the starfighter uh the starfighter twin star squadron starfighter twin star squadron i'm not gonna be on the twin star i'm gonna be on the battle star uh i'll be saltine okay so where where does quill want to be on the astoria or on the storm chaser uh on probably on the astoria because i want to be a distant thalia uh r2d2 right except i'm q k now k l question for this why do you want... So you don't have to be on the Astoria to do that. The Astoria, to keep in mind, the Astoria is being withheld, along with the Tastar and some of the more powerful ships,

because they are afraid that this Fenrir is going to be able to destroy them quite easily. So if you are on the Astoria, you would not really be able to assist Thalia that much until the Astoria is present. Okay, fair enough. But if you're on the Stormchaser, you can still do all of that. You can still be Thalia's guy until the Astoria is present okay fair enough but if you're a storm chaser you can still do

all of that you can still be Thalia's guy in the chair but you would need to be on the storm chaser okay yeah you can still do that I just don't want to be

on the twin star you know that's a suicide mission oh my god that's my girlfriend you're talking about you could be on the storm chaser I mean you're acting

like the storm chaser isn't also a suicide mission yeah I know but I'm going to be below Dex oh I see and that's where you're going to be safe when the whole thing You could be on the storm chaser. You're acting like the storm chaser isn't also a suicide mission. But I'm going to be below decks. Oh, I see. And that's where you're going to be safe when the whole thing blows up. Everything blows up apart from the little bugger.

Just a stash of crumble that he's just shoving in his little bird face. Yeah, I'm going to block up all the doors with crumble. You could either be on storm chaser or infiltration, I guess. I just want to be in that squadron, not split across two missions, I guess, is the way I'm thinking about it.

Yeah, focused on one. Focused on one. But not on the twin star. Keep it in mind, the other thing I'll mention is Thalia and the Starfighter squadron, they won't be able to do anything. They're going to be assisting the Stormchaser until these barriers are taken down.

So at least for the first half, you probably won't need to assist Thalia that much. But once the barriers are down, that is perhaps more when, if you wanted to assist Thalia, you would have to devote yourself to that task. But you could certainly help the Stormchaser for that initial section.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, that works. Because I still need to wait for the infiltration to get like all the information okay bar could do you have the range to help from the storm chaser to the big boy fenrir so uh to help the infiltration team no to help thalia because she's gonna we're gonna kind of abstract a couple of things okay so like like the idea i had for Quill is that he might be able to, like, basically kind of set up, like, a special arcane eye.

Like, you know, set it into the twin star system or something. And he's going to be, like... Not to keep making Star Wars references. You are the targeting computer. You are going to be the, like, Thalia, turn off the targeting computer. Use the Quill. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Like, I've got it. And you're going to be the like thalia turn off the targeting computer use the quill and it's like i've got it and you're going to be doing that i'm just gonna be i'll be it's like a remotely

kind of like jarvis hacking into the system kind of thing we're gonna we're gonna abstract a bunch of stuff here we're also going to be abstracting rounds and time a little bit um you know we're gonna do if there is like a combat round it won't be the traditional kind of six seconds combat round. It might be like several minutes, but you're just going to take one turn kind of thing. We're just going to abstract a couple of little bits. Abstracting time? Yes.

That is my power. God, this is madness. I know. To clarify, so it sounds like you've got everything pretty locked down. The only question I have is if Nova is going over in the infiltration team on the Storm Chaser, who amongst the crew

or the player characters would you have stationed in the engine room? Because you do need to have an engineer. Sounds like Quill will be around as a navigator at least for some of it. Once Quill devotes himself to Thalia though, you will also need somebody to take over navigation. Maybe Danica or Penny?

One of the Stormchaser crew? I would say out of the Stormchaser crew. Howard currently has no set role. Penny is currently on the main gun. Howard doesn't have a role. Howard is capable. He is not going to be the best, but he is capable of at least doing it.

Would Protector be better? I think Protector... i'd rather protect to be off the fight protector and max and danica are they are very much specialized in certain roles maybe penny would be better possibly um about the same basically you don't have any other specialists beyond nova for the engine room so anybody anybody is gonna basically be the same, unless one of you, the only other person I'd say is I think Quill, do you have a decent Arcana, or Lucius, if you have a decent Arcana?

Yeah, anybody with a decent Arcana check is probably gonna be good at doing it. Mine's plus nine. Plus six. Yeah, so Lucius actually would be, probably would know more, like and that's gonna be your innate magic and stuff. Yeah, well, it depends.

If you have a Raya of Planeting, maybe you can jump down. Is there Raya on us? That's my understanding. Yeah, better than this. So it's Thalia and Tassadar then. With backup from Quill. And there'll probably be a couple of, I will probably say that at least two unnamed Valkyrian pilots will be flying with them as well.

Nice. And if you'd like to come up with a cool squadron name, such as Gold or Red or something like that, that would be great. Green. Green. Green. Green squadron.

There you go. So Twin Star, Valley will be Green 1. Standing by. Green. Green Leader. Green Leader and then Green 1, 2 and 3. Okay. Super Green standing by. Super Green. will be green by green leader green leader and then green one two and three okay super green big green standing by green giants

um yeah all right so green groceries green groceries standing. It's great that we're laughing about this now because she's absolutely dying. No, no, no, no. She's got the arcane eyes back up. Green party standing by. That was a good one. Tom, we're going to count it as like special magic. This is DM magic at this point. So if there's special DM magic,

so Nova has an ability with the echo that she can transfer consciousness to the echo and the distance can be up to the echo. Yeah. And the distance can be up to 1,000 feet. Yeah. So if Nova's safe, like, and off the ship, could she do that? I would say you could leave the echo in the engine pod, the special sarcophagus, the tomb, the engine tomb. You can leave the echo in there,

and yes, I would allow you to transfer your consciousness to make checks, but that means that in your infiltration mission, Nova is completely vulnerable and unable to act. No, I mean to thally it to the twin star, like when it gets to that. I would say not the twin star, because the pod would basically keep the echoes form in place because normally you can only have 15 feet. You can only go a certain range, right?

So you summon it up to 30 feet. No, up to 15 feet. It can move up to 30 when we're both thinking and then I can transfer my consciousness and it goes up to 1,000. And you can move up to 1,000. But I think because of those periods where you're not controlling the echo,

the distance would be too great, the twin stars moving around, whereas the pod kind of locks the echo in place, is what I would say. Yeah, so, I mean, if I did that, it would leave me deaf and blind. Yeah, and it means you would not be able to act in infiltration.

I don't think that's going to be good for infiltration. I'm just wondering if we have enough people on the infiltration team. I think we do. Five? One, two, three, four, five, yeah. Is that enough? That's a party.

I will happily say that that is certainly no more or less than what I was expecting. Okay. That's a party. Keep in mind you don't want to have it too big because the more people you have, the bigger the chance of being noticed and stuff like that. Do you have a reasonable way out? No. I have a dimension door and arcane gate.

Arcane gate is up to 500. This raises an interesting point. This is something that Rain and Callus and that would probably bring up. The Storm Chaser, to actually get in the Fenrir, the Storm Chaser will need to fly close enough to find a point in the Fenrir ship that you can basically teleport over to,

which means somewhere that you can see. So it means finding an open hangar bay or something like that. Arcane Gate, I believe, is your only spell that you can take multiple people with. Dimension Door, you can only take one person. So I was going to ask Will if he

would like to lend me... The spell storing ring. Oh yeah, I was going to say the Wayfinder's Guide. I'm not taking that in with you. Well, I was thinking, if I could maybe prepare a teleportation circle. Wait, what level is it?

Fifth, yeah. I can put it on the ring, give you the ring, you attune to the ring, and then I presume there's teleportation circles on this ship. The Astoria, the Tassadar,

both have teleportation circles. So that could be a thing. It takes a minute to cast, though. Yeah, that's quite a long time. It's not an instant escape. The alarms go off. I would happily tell you that both Tassadar and Azaria, being powerful mages,

Azaria can basically, with time, she can't do this in combat, but as a ritual, she can almost cast almost any wizard spell. So she could put another Arcane Gate in there. Okay. Is Arcane Gate fifth or sixth level? Sixth. Ah, then it can't.

Yeah. Then she can't do it. If I take a minute to cast a spell on the ring, do you then still have to spend a minute to... Oh, damn. Okay. You are casting the spell out of the ring. Yeah, okay. But not material components and stuff.

The other option is you can try a manual escape, which is you get to a point on the Fenrir and you jump across to the Storm Chaser, which means you have to survive astral space for at least a round. But it is possible. We pilot the Storm Chaser. To go pick them up. Scoop us up.

This is the normal game. Oh, they were back there. Swooping down. Jump over. Up in the butt and then go in the butt. Did we get any kind of like space helmet type constructions there is uh i mean for emergencies the wolf pack have suits that basically they can it allows them to temporarily yes when the valkyrian empire have space stuff i would say they would but you would

have to ditch basically any armor you currently have. Well, I need to ditch mine already because it's clanky. So when you say ditch, I'm not wearing armor. Then in theory, yes. We could take them as an emergency. Yeah, it would count as it would count as armor though for Aayla.

So you would lose your unarmored... Actually, no, I think you get that up to a certain type of armor. It basically counts as leather armor I mean with these these they're like astral suits these astral suits

I mean just put it in the backpack you know like if we are in need of a it does take it takes time to put them on

it takes like two minutes to put them on it's not you can't put a space suit on in six seconds yeah and one

doesn't fit a unicorn is there a unicorn shaped one it's not, you can't put a spacesuit on in six seconds. Yeah, and one doesn't fit a unicorn. Yeah, is there a unicorn shaped one? There's not a unicorn shaped one. I've left it behind once before. Is there any trees on the Fenrir? Probably not. There's one in your room! There's one in your room!

We can get hope to... Imagine that. The whole thing's a tree! Jolted spade out of Yggdrasil! Do we want to refill Lesser Restoration into my spell storing ring as well? Yeah, I was gonna say basically you have about two hours until you arrive at the point you need to be. There is a couple of things I was gonna have happen whilst these two hours take place. This is also a chance for you to take a short rest if you'd like,

to do things like unattune or deattune to magic items, and generally catch up with NPCs or talk to people or make plans. I had two questions on my front. One, I definitely need to do something about my armor because my current armor is clanky. You can easily have a suit of studded leather armor provided to you. Would that be one of the Valkyrian suits? Yeah, that's leather armor. Leather armor. It's slightly less AC

but it basically has a built-in, I think it's called like an amulet of adaptability or something. Basically it means that you can breathe in space. You do still take some cold damage.

It gives you resistance but you still take some cold damage. How many items are you attuned to right now? All of them but I can take the I have a ring of free action that I can take off it's the least important because i've got braces of defense if

you want them they add plus two to ac but only if you're not wearing if you're not wearing a shield i have a shield plus you should you should probably keep that it would just be so it's just a standard suit of leather armor for one of these valkyrian astral suits like environment suits basically but it gives you the benefit of you can breathe um it basically can provide you with breathable air which isn't as big a deal for nova but and it gives you resistance to cold damage from astral space only from astral sprays cold damage if it's like a frost breath or something like that it doesn't i will think upon this in a second my second question was do are we gonna have a way to communicate with each other like Messenger Stones or Valkyrian Tech or something?

That's another achievement. Messenger Wrong. It's an achievement. Azaria can provide you with a spell telepathic bond. It lasts eight hours. Wow. I might have to do. I might do it.

It would basically be the five of you plus, I think I can do up to eight. Let me check, I think I can do up to eight. Let me check. I think she can do up to eight people. I think Thalia would be a good shout because she's so crucial to her bit. Would it count as three actions to talk to each other? Yes. Maybe a rye if we have a spare.

I'm wondering because Thalia was saying that she wants to... Up to eight creatures of your choice for the duration. And it just lasts until the spell ends. It's not concentration, but things like the spell magic would remove it. There is the potential that if you go into an anti-magic field or you are the target of a spell magic, it might remove the effect. But just from that one person, not the entire... From that one person, yes.

You can communicate telepathically through the bond. Whether or not you have a common language, the communication is possible over any distance, though it can't extend to other planes of existence. Thalia was saying that she didn't want Kairi on there because she needs to concentrate. Would she then want to be part of this group chat? Kairi?

Well, no, that's because she's worried about Kairi, not that she doesn't want anything. So Azaria can telepathic bond the five of you, No, that's because she's worried about Kairi, not that she doesn't want anything. So Azaria can telepathic bond the five of you, Thalia, six, and then there's two more spaces. Araya, yep. In case, yeah. Howard and Engineering?

Or no? You could just shout that. Or you could have Kallus or Rain. Because Rain will also be commanding the Astoria as well. Yeah, let's have... Actually, maybe instead of Ariya, we could have Rain and Calus, and then we've got... Everyone.

A good... Yeah. Calus will probably... You maybe suggest this to him, and he's like, unfortunately, I'm already going to be dealing with many other communications, but I can have one of the Lord Admirals

act on my behalf. He's going to be dealing with his fleet. He's going to be basically... He's going to be dealing with his fleet. He's going to be like six group chats. I can't handle another one. But he will probably put you with... He muted us. He will probably suggest that you, maybe even Valor.

He would probably suggest that you instead have Valor, who can then relay on his behalf. All right, Valor and Rain. Rain, yeah. Does Calus and the Astoria... on his behalf. Right, Valor and Rain. Rain, yep. Do, um, does Kallus and the Astoria, um, I mean,

they don't want to go close because this thing will obliterate them. Could they, if things get dire and we're like, we need some kind of guns here or... So Kallus,

like, when you're having this discussion, imagine this is all happening as one big meeting. Loads of people are coming and going and going in. Kallus will say, if things are looking dire, we will

have no choice but to have the Astoria and the Tassadar and the many other ships that we are trying to preserve engage in the battle. That is given. If there reaches a point where we feel that you are not able to complete this mission, we will move in and take our own actions. This will likely

result in the destruction of at least one of our ships the astoria or the tassadar our most powerful ships they will basically have to take on the the fenrir itself if you are unable to do this sure it will still enable you to it will enable us to reach in tropis and perform the greater mission. This is unfortunately one of the difficulties of war on this scale, is that sometimes these consequences are unavoidable. We won't let that happen. I hope not. We will be successful on our mission. Right, team?

Right. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Morale Officer Sentry says so. We will do it. There you go. Now she says it. And you will not be alert. Morale Officer Sentry says so. We go do it. There you go, now she says it. And you will not be lost. We are submitting at least half of the fleet will be accompanying with you to try and buy you as much

time as possible. You will be under the full weight of the forces out there. The storm chaser being so close to the Fenrir may be protected from its weapons but keep in mind that there are creatures aberrant abominations, Valkyrian corrupted ships, who knows what else, that will attack you in trying to defend the Fenrir. I hope that Hadar and the Fenrir will not anticipate this plan, as it is, quite honestly, rather drastic.

It would seem foolish for any living creatures to attempt this. That is perhaps where we have a benefit. Hadar underestimates what we are willing to do to win. They wouldn't be dumb enough to do that. We are! That's us. Woohoo! You will also have one other powerful ally on your side. And he kind of looks over and Siaska enters.

I will be doing what I can to fend off the most powerful, but keep in mind my power is diminished. I am not as strong as I once was. You're strong enough for us. I will do my best. Even I could not take on the Fenrir completely alone, but I can at least keep some of the smaller vessels, hopefully destroy a few if I can.

Well, let's do Siaska proud. Before you go, Keelik. Yeah? If I can, a moment. Yes, yes. Okay, yeah. Hi, Siaska. She looks your eye. Uh, yeah.

You haven't had much time to discuss what happened or to deal with the injury. Mm. Kind of wish it didn't happen, you know? I'm sorry that it did. I don't even understand how it happened. I asked a question and did she do it from the past, the future? It doesn't make any sense.

From what I understand, Zarkira learned of the eye when she captured you. And a few other things, yeah. Then it is likely that she has been preparing for this moment. She's a very clever woman, and with access to more powerful magic than any other mage alive knows, this power of Hadar coursing through her, it is perhaps likely that she carved an echo of herself, stored it in the past or the future, ready for your question. I mean, she's got multiple versions of herself.

It's not surprising. It may not be so easy for her to replicate it so quickly, but it is something, unfortunately, that was a gift given by Hesper. And it is not one I can replicate. Not anymore. But I can heal the eye. Okay. Um, I mean, if she's going to go through all that effort to tear out my eye,

I'll take it as a compliment. It shows that she fears you. A painful compliment. I would have appreciated just a well done, or like a clap or something, but no, she tore out an eye. Sorry, I'm rambling. Callous will, she is not one to allow a threat to go unanswered. She laid that trap because she feared what you would learn about her. That means there is a weakness to be exploited.

Even if you do not know it now, I'm sure you will figure it out in time. See, Askel would just sort of say, come, come here. Okay. And she's tall. Like, she's nearly, she's taller than Sentry, I think. She's like nearly nine, she's massive.

Maybe, maybe as tall as Sentry. Maybe not taller. She's like nearly nine she's massive um maybe maybe as tall as century maybe not taller she'll like eight feet in a central prime um and she's lithe but like this kind of the nebulous hair flowing around to the flowing ribs it almost looks like she's always just ever so slightly hovering off the ground like she's tall and quite imposing but there is as soon as you get within you know close to her there is this comforting motherly like aura and you just feel your body kind of relax almost and like the pain of the eye the kind of dull throbbing whatever would have been there dissipates and she places her hand over the socket and you watch as starlight begins to coalesce around her hands and feel the space that was within the eye.

And you watch as an eye regenerates and reforms, but it has... LAUGHTER But it is not quite an organic eye. It has a kind of metallic, star-metal-like consistency to it, and it glows golden, similar to how the storm i would look when the the vision would take place have that kind of cloudy golden aura to it um and it just leaves that in place kind of this softly shimmering replacement eye and it functions completely as an organic eye for you you suddenly feel your depth of field increase and you see everything kind of merge back.

Good, I've walked into so many things. It's depth perception. Yeah. Sorry, I can't go. Deep, deep perception. I lost my depth perception. I mean, I'll turn to the others. How does it look?

Does it look... You have a star eye. It's starry now. Siaska, you made it starry? It's more similar to the cloudiness of when you would use the storm. It's a cloudy... Cloudy eye.

Siaska, you made it cloudy? Don't describe it. Where are we right now? You're in the Tassadar. Yeah. Can we dim the lights, Tassadar? You hear a sort of voice from around you because talking to Tassadar.

Tassadar's not in the room, but there is just... Tassadar is the room. Yeah, you just hear this, like, I can. Just for a moment. Tassadar, dim the lights. And you do feel the lights kind of dim ever so slightly. There's like a golden glow to it. Very cool.

It's not bright enough to really illuminate the room. It's kind of similar to the Matrix. It gives off a soft, dull, golden glow. But it's not bright enough to really illuminate the room. It's kind of similar to the Matrix. It gives off a soft, dull golden glow. It's not like I'm going to. If it was pitch black, you could just see one gold. It's really good at stealth. I think that there's an element where you can control how brightly it glows.

Close your eye, man. Close your eye. You can basically like, yeah. It's quilted in your eyes. RGB mode. Ooh. Yeah. Is it water cold? Is it warm? The lights kind of come back up. You can basically like, yeah. In your eyes. RGB mode. Ooh. Yeah.

Is it water-cooled? Is it water-cooled? The lights kind of come back up. Your brain is. Self-built. After a few moments. Pre-built. Well, your wing is self-built. That's true.

Okay. I mean, I'm happy to have another design eye. Yeah, that's true. So many different stages of this campaign. What does this eye look like? That's why I'm saying that it looks quite like what you have. Right. Can you imagine all the people who have just ripped that eye out of their plushies?

Oh, yeah. Because they're trying to modify it. You can't even see. Look, it's just a soft blue glow. Yeah, yeah. Just like in these wonderful art forms. Now you've got to put that eye back on your plushies. Illustration is still canonical.

Yeah. Nice. With that, like I said, said you guys if there is anything you would like to do or any kind of like last moment things or plans double check like so how are we teleporting initially from the storm chaser to the Fenrir that's a great question I'd love to know the answer to that can mummy Perel give us some help with that I'm wait she can prepare something for you but you got to tell like, what's that going to look like. Wait, what was this teleport from?

She can give you a scroll of, like, something. She could probably make you a scroll. A scroll of Arcane Gate? Sixth level is pretty tricky. Let me... I would say yes. There's a chance it might... She's going to have to quick make this scroll,

which means there is a chance that there would be unstable elements of it. So, Azarist. Five level one jumps. Yeah, I mean, like, you want, like, you want a physical, like, jump across. A space jump, a halo jump, yeah. Yeah, but absolutely, you can do that. Absolutely. I would love to see how a unicorn manages this.

I can jump pretty far. I'm very good at jumping. Oh, she's here. I know, I know. this. I can jump pretty far. I'm very good at jumping. Oh, she's here. I know, I was gonna say crates. No, but like in horse jumpies. I can jump pretty high, right? Yeah. Pretty far.

You are the spirit of jump. But again, this is, the storm chaser will need to basically make a piloting check to get you close enough, and then make that jump across. Have a vision of us jumping inside of it. And then arcane gate you can use to basically get back. What about a teleportation squirm? A full teleport, I believe, is sixth level.

So again, it's going to have the same problem as arcane gate. Do you do that with multiple people as well? Teleport? Yeah, that's up to eight. Well, wait, you can teleport up. It's a shame you don't have a helmet of teleportation anymore. Yeah, I died and it disintegrated. Thank you, Mark.

Teleport circle is a lower level. It costs a minute to cast. But I was thinking if we did that on the way in, if you could guess. It would need to be stationary for a minute, the storm chaser. Oh. Also, you need to know the circle. Teleport circle can only go to certain places.

And even with Teleport, you'd be trying to teleport to a place that you've never been, never seen. There is a high risk that you go flying off somewhere that you don't intend to. Arcane Gate would be the safest way, but you need to be able to see where you're going. But that's possible. What about three Dimension Doors?

What about 20 Misty Steps? Dimension Door? Yeah, I mean, like, Azaria can make you a scroll of Dimension Door. Fast step. But, like, different, like, we'd need one, two, three scrolls. You also need people that can use scrolls. Right now, only you and Hope can use those scrolls. I'm done. Hope's the only other spellcaster.

Hi. Scout and Norfair are not spellcasters. Scout could deploy a sort of zipline. They have an ability where they can sort of create like a, they've got like a grapple gun.

Cool. Awesome. So you could do, so basically the choice is if you want a magical way to get over there easily, you have an arcane gate with Nova,

but it's only one. Yeah, I probably need it. Which means there easily you have an arcane gate with nova but it's only one uh yeah which means that then you have two choices i'm gonna say azaria can make you a scroll but there is going to it's going to be an unstable scroll because she's having to make a sixth level spell very rapidly which means that there is cons there might be a chance that something goes wrong there might be a chance that something goes wrong. Spicy. The other option is you try a manual. We are going to literally jump across and try and get into like an open airlock thing

and basically break our way in from the outside. I think that what I would say is like, the Fenrir has these like arcane barrier shields, which are there to deflect like enemy ships and like laser blasts and magical spells and things like that. Five small, medium, five creatures could pass through that barrier, but you would then be on the outside of the ship. You'd have to make that choice.

I'm feeling spicy consequences with teleport. Okay. It's down to you and Ayla at this point, because I think the NPCs will just do what you tell them to. Teleport or I'll King King. Or whichever one, yeah. Magical spicy consequences over physical halo drop. How do we not have another one way to get across?

I mean, you do. I did, but I disintegrated. No, no, no. Scout will make a little... I feel like all of our allies, we must have something. I can just see Nova jumping across and then just... It's just how long it takes us to get in when we get across, you know? Flying would allow you to move through Astral Space, yeah, if you have a fly speed.

I do have a fly spell. I'm just wondering if we can instead of teleport... Yeah, but we would be taking damage the whole time we go. If we protect from that damage, is there protection from elements? Yeah, it certainly helps reduce it. Reduces it significantly. Basically, if you have cold resistance, it helps massively.

I can do protection from energy. Is that what I'm thinking of? It gives you resistance to an element. Acid, fire, lightning, or thunder. So I can give everybody cold resistance. Is that to one person, or is that to a group? I think if you cast it at a high level, you can do more people. So I think you'd have to do it at fifth level,

and that would be three people. I want to see a space jump. If we did that and maybe used Passwall. What, just break through one of the walls? Passwall would, so if you can get to the physical hull, you could Passwall your way in, absolutely. Go underneath it, passwall, ascend through the floor, climb up, do a little swimming animation.

Press the button to go up. It only goes through one. The council one with the spit out the other side. The dream. I just built a weird contraption. Yeah, I think protection from cold for the duration of the jump would be... I mean, I don't know if it would be the same, but it was like 25 damage. Hope can cast it on two people. Okay, so we could do three.

I could do Fly, but only on two of us. Maybe... could Lucius do Fly on everyone? I can do Fly. Oh, in terms of... So it's third level and then plus one person for every level above that. Lesser Restoration, by the way, I can't put it into the ring because I don't have it prepared. Yeah, I figured. I've kept it crossed out. I've still got Bacon though. Yeah, cool.

Still got the Bakes. Right. Still got bacon though. Yeah. Cool. Still got the bakes. All right. Maybe just chuck in some level one jumps into your, it's like a fail safe, you know? Worst case scenario, you cast jump on people that are falling short. They will be mid air. Yes. You'd have to cast jump on before they make the jump.

Yeah. That can be your parachute. You do the jump with jump and then you fly the rest of the way. Being a first level spell, I think that I could certainly have... You could definitely have something, like a potion of jump or something. So we have protect from elements. We jump. Well, I believe currently only three of you can be protection from elements.

Yeah. Well, I'll wear the suit, like the... Okay. The Starling suit. You don't need it. You've got 300 hit points. Um... So we jump, we...

No. We jump and fly? Or just jump and splat? And then pass wall? Fly would be useful, because if we... Certainly. Certainly would help. Jump, fly, pass, wall.

Do you have pass... who has pass, wall? No one. Azaria. Ah, fuck. Azaria, do you know the spell Tenser's Floating Disk? Yes. Everyone gets a floating disk. Well, I can only create one if it's concentration. Wait, it can't be a disk that moves, does it?

No, it follows behind someone. I don't believe you can just mentally control it. Maybe you can. There's a lot of weird spells. You just throw in all your spell slots out. It's going to add up to 500 pounds.

Passwall is a fifth level spell. Sorry, I can make you a scroll of Passwall. I also... I don't know where I should allocate this. I have a Death Ward scroll that first time a target would drop to zero as a result of taking damage, they drop to one instead.

So it's basically just a stay alive thing. I don't know that I can cast that, but Hope probably could. Because that's the thing, I'm also a warlock, so it has to... Yeah, how much healing do we have, actually, with us? Hope. I can give you. How much healing does Hope have? She has an ability called Healing Light that she can use three times a day.

It heals 3d8 plus 5 HP and will give you a temporary boost to your AC and saving throws. She also has a once per day heal spell. Does she have slabs? Nope. Have you got potions? She stopped dealing slabs. Have you got one? She's dealing slabs. She stopped dealing slabs.

Slabs. One. Do you want a Cure Wounds scroll? Second level Cure Wounds? Hope can use it. I don't know if I can use it, but Hope can use it. I have five. Oh wow. What?

Just using them as toilet paper. Oh wait, Christ. I'm not going to say anything. I've been doing bigger heals without this. The Cure Wounds second level is garb open. I have two potions. 2d8, 2d8 plus, you know, plus six. Do you wanna give me one so that in case you go down

I can shove it in your face? Whoever uses the scroll, I modify. Because I have none. But I hope that's still plus five. I can't remember why I got those. I'm purely trying to make sure that we both have a way of going, you, boop.

Okay, so now I have this one and you have a greater. Okay. I've got a supreme, but I feel like we're gonna be fighting point one, storm chief. I'm just making sure we divvy up what's between us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and we got Hope. She's a unicorn. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know, but they've got Billy Boy, Healing Master. Mr. 700 HP. Hope's healing light ability affects two people when she uses it so she can actually heal two people each time she uses it

and it's 3d8 plus 5 and it gives you a temporary boost and like I said she has a once per day heal spell she can also cast greater restoration

once per day and she has a bunch of other more utility based spells that she can use as well she is not a damage dealer she is low low AC

low she's low AC. She's low AC, decent hit points because she is pretty tough, but she's mainly utility and support focused. Can she do pass without trace? She can cast pass without trace, yes.

That would be useful. That's why we wanted her. Yep, and I can tell you Norfear and Scout are both specialists. Norfear is high AC, low HP,

high damage with lots of skills. Yeah, because she's agile. She's very dexterous. Oh, okay. Scout are both specialists. Norfura is high AC, low HP, high damage, with lots of skills. Yeah, because she's agile. She's very dexterous. She has lots of skills. She's very good at infiltration, is her thing. She's an assassin. She can do a lot of damage if an enemy is sort of like

incapacitated or distracted or is unaware of her. So if she's hidden, she gets a damage boost. And then she also has things like cunning action and evasion and stuff like that. She's very roguey. Scout is less a damage dealer. He's not like a rogue,

but he's very good at moving around difficult terrain. So overcoming things like hazards. He has a climb speed. He can literally walk on vertical and horizontal surfaces. He can walk on walls and stuff like that. He's also compact frame. So he's's small he can squeeze through small gaps um and he has a special ability called scout's toolkit which he can basically create like common items like he can't make magic items but he could be like i need a grapple gun and he makes like a zipline or he can make like a ladder or he can do things like that. He can create mundane solutions.

That's awesome. He also has the Driven to Purpose Guardian ability, so he can basically add a D6 to a fail check. I think for this, I wanted to basically give you guys the stat blocks and have you guys run these NPCs. I think I'm going to change it, because the way I'm going to do it, and I didn't have time to print them all out, I'm going to play them. But if you guys have something you specifically want them to do, tell them. Otherwise, I'll just play them as best as I know the NPC.

Yeah, that makes sense. And I think I know how I'm gonna handle the split mission thing. We're basically gonna do one round on one mission, then immediately we're gonna do another round with the, because it's gonna be very simultaneous. Nice. We've done that before. So we jump, we fly, we pass wall.

I feel like that's the thing, right? That's what we're gonna do. Jump, fly, we pass wall. I feel like that's the thing, right? That's what we do. Jump, we fly, we pass wall. How many can you cast fly on? It depends on the level I do it at. There's five in our team. What do we want to spam on you guys? There's five in the team.

Five. So at third level, I can do me. Fourth level, I can do me and one other. Fifth level, I can do me and two others. Oh, so you have to do enough for six people. So I can do Fly. It needs to be a seventh level spell to get five people. I can do Fly and me.

It's a third level for me, so that's just me, isn't it? Yes. Northeer and Scout are pretty good at things like that. Ayla's good at jumping. If the Storm Chaser can get close enough it won't be that difficult. I have an emergency charge. You'll need something. To jump, but not to fly.

You don't need to fly. Flying will just mean that there's no check. You just are like flying over. If it goes bad for me, I have my hammer. I can use a charge to fly. But I will try a jump first. So jump and pass wall I think will get us in maybe okay sounds good I retract my fly

what about storm yes hope and sentry will cast that but there's only three people so I think like Aayla and Nova are probably gonna be the ones that don't get that yes hope would cast it on nor fear and Scout and then it's up to sentry who she casts it on so I've taken off my Adamantine armor and I've put on leather armor. Just standard leather armor. Standard leather armor. We'll just count the astral bit.

And I've got astral stuff, yeah. Cool. Basically, you'll take half damage from the cold, basically. It counts as cold resistance. All right, what about Stormchaser? Is there any changes you guys want to make?

Howard's going to be positioned down in Engineering? Nice. Or do you want Howard on a gun? I think... Or do you want peeps? Howard being there, I think for the majority of the time, I think I could sit there for a while for the first half

until I'm required elsewhere. You'll be needed as a navigator as well, don't forget. Oh, that's... Yeah, okay, I'll get in that. Remember, on the storm chaser, you have the pilot, the navigator, the engineer. Those are like three mandatory positions. Howard May. Then you have two weapons.

You have the main cannon and you have your rotary arcane cannon. Penny. So penny on one. You've got another one spare. Howard. You basically, Kamara can go on like a gun or something like that if need be as well. You also only have three Wolfpack members on the deck. Okay.

You can draw them from elsewhere, but that means you have less bonuses on other checks. Okay. So it means that you have like three random Wolfpack members who are free to do stuff. I guess if Kamara starts in that gun, because she can come back on deck. On the rotary gun. If she's, is she fully come back on deck. On the rotary gun. Is she fully recovered? Yeah, with Grey Lano, because you currently have Grey Lano as your medic,

basically an NPC who's downed, but you save, they are basically healed to full. They do have a slight penalty to things because they're injured, but they are. I think Danica would be great off a weapon. Just ready to blast. Oriah, Pilot, we've got Max. Would you like to know roughly what Danica and Max and Protector can do?

Yeah. Okay, so Danica is basically a blaster. Her whole thing is that she has fiery magical attacks. So she has a fiery blast, which hits one target, does a ton of damage and can set them on fire. She has Fireball. She can cast Fireball at a heightened level that does AoE damage and is basically a standard Fireball,

but it's like 10d6. She can protect herself with a Flame Shield, which means that it's like the shield spell, so she can increase her AC and stuff. She also has a more sort of creative flavor ability, which is that she can basically conjure flame. So she can do things conjure flame so she can do things like uh just create waves of heat to like melt something or to like you know you know

uh do something like that um it's more of a creative ability you can generate huge amounts of fire and heat work from a body but the every time she does it she gets more exhausted might be a good repair thing that's certainly a use that you will do human welding torch yeah basically yes that is like a way that she could use. A human welding torch. Yeah, basically, yes. That is like a way that she could do it. Or like if you were like, we need to cut a hole in the Fenrir to get these guys out because they can't use magic, she could in theory like melt a hole in the side of it or something.

Max is a protector. He's a tank. He basically provides half cover to anybody near him. So if anybody's near him and has a lower AC than 19, you basically get cover from him. He also can enable three times a day, he can choose a creature to be his ward. A warded creature, basically,

he can make attacks target him instead, as long as they're within range of each other. So he can basically choose somebody and be like, I am protecting this person, and any attacks against them, he can take. Protector is very similar, but slightly different. Protector is another similar tank. Does the same thing, provides cover to anybody that's around them.

They have an ability where when they attack with their Guardian Blade, they can mark a creature. That creature then has disadvantage on any attacks other than Protector. So it basically draws their attacks onto them. And then they have a reaction where they can move to somebody and basically force an attack to be re-rolled. They can basically shoulder slam into somebody

and make them re-roll their attack against the target or something like that. That's cool. It has to be within a certain range. But they're both basically the same. They're both very tanky Protector types. Okay, awesome. Yeah, well, I guess, yeah,

Kamara maybe on the guns to begin with, the rotary gun, Annie on the main gun, Araya on the piloting the storm chaser, I guess Howard in engineering? Yeah, just in case. Yeah, just in case. I feel like if something goes horribly wrong, we can probably jump down,

or other people can jump down to assist. Yeah. I'm navigating. Nice. And then everyone else? Yeah. And Lucius has his captain ability. He can basically give somebody advantage to their role

if he's near them. So if he's up near Uriah and you, he can give either you or Uriah advantage. Once per turn? Basically, yeah, once per turn it's like a bonus action is it a bonus action not a reaction no you'd have to do it but on your turn you say i'm gonna help blah blah blah and give them every time i do it it's just a salute and that salute is like a big morale boost yeah yeah it makes me feel it's like the help action but Help action, but as a bonus action instead. Okay. Nice. And team Green Squad.

Mm-hmm. Team Sneak. Is, no, Green Squad, Green Squadron. Big green. Thalia, assisted by... Tassadar. And you. Can I have, what's the range on Elder Quill?

Can it, it disappears after a certain point, right? Okay. Has to save you. I'll just have an arcane eye there then. Yeah, and like, it's kind of like a, not like an actual arcane eye. It's like you kind of hack into the system and connect them to the storm chaser.

I want a tiny little Cortana-like hologram. I mean, that's how I'm imagining it in my head. Honestly, I'm imagining in my head like there is this floating orb sat next to Tharn. No, I meant like it's Elder Quill. Oh, like a little... It's a tiny little hologram. Chief, you need to go over there, Chief.

There's two of us in here, remember? That was level one. Fuck. All right. Christ. Okay. And also Tassadar. Tassadar?

Yeah, Tassadar in his own little ship. Their own little ship. And then some Valkyrian. Some Valkyrian vessels, yeah. I think Tassadida does you you could say he for tessida he does generally appear in a masculine kind of form so um all right works yeah okay in that case the operation begins um any rp stuff can i have a little quiet word with my girlfriend yeah you find uh you would have to kind of temporarily shuttle over to the astoria um where thalia is

refueling the twin star and also basically clearing out looks like she's got a few of the um uh crystal maidens of elena and they're basically taking out a lot of like things from the twin star like parcel effects or like any weight and like things like the snacks and stuff like that as well but it's almost like... I think Nova would quickly realise she's trying to make it so that the twin star is as light as possible, make sure that it doesn't have any uneven weight and bounce and things like that.

And she's in the process of, like, you know, fixing it up and refuelling it. And I kind of see you kind of coming and just kind of smile and sort of, like, lean back up against it. Don't make this awkward. My very nature is awkward. Yeah, I know that. That's why I'm warning you now.

Okay. I'm trying not to be awkward. This is me trying not to be awkward. Purple. Thalia will kind of just lean down, kind of hug, like take you into like an embrace and kind of hold you close. Listen.

We had this talk before all of this one year yeah i know that we both know what kind of mission this is we both know what's at stake here i'm the only one that can do this i know that's why i put you up for it i'm glad that i've got some backup. That turn is a bit weird, but I'm glad that there'll be somebody there that at least knows who you are. Not just some random nobodies, but... And Quill said that he'd try and help me as best as he can. I will if I can.

You've got your own mission to focus on. Without you, I can't do a damn thing. You've got to do this, Nova. But once I've done it, if I can join you in any way... No, you get out. They need you on the storm chaser. Remember, this isn't done. If we take down the ship, that's just one part of all this.

And she'll point out to Entropis, like, in the direction of the red star, there's still one more thing you've got to do. That's nothing to do with me. If it comes to it, you get out, you get back to that ship, you kick that stupid red glowy bastard's face in. Hey, if, um,

worst comes to the worst, how many years do I have to mourn? Yo, I... Listen, if anyone's dying, I'm going to die first. I owe you one anyway. You've already died once. You know you need to come back, right? I did a lot to get your record expunged. Listen, I'm not going to throw away my life carelessly.

I just know what can happen. But I'm going to try to. I don't going to throw away my life carelessly. I just know what can happen. But I'm going to try to. I don't want to die. I'm not seeing this as a suicide mission. I'm going to live if I can. I just know what might come. But you decide how long you need to mourn, if that's what you want to do.

You know, it's going to be the rest of my short mortal life. So weird. Gross. What's that, like 20 years? 10? I think so, yeah. Ugh. She'll just like lean down, sort of like, look into your eyes, give you a kiss.

We've got this. I'm scared, but I will do my very best by you. Same. See you on the other side? See you on the other side? She'll just climb back up, go into the steps, look down at you one last time, wink, and then... I'll just wait and watch it take off.

Yeah, you pull to the side. You watch as the twin star lifts off. You just glance up, and from one of the gantries looking down, you see Kairi just scrunched up, peering down, big cat next to her. I know.

I know, guys. Yep. Meanwhile, Sentry. You are approached by Kamara. I, um, I didn't get to say thanks for what you did. Oh, no, that's fine. Don't worry. It was, um, kind of weird. It was part of me that...

I've never really felt at peace before. But I heard you... I heard your voice. And I saw this golden river. I felt like I should come back. Like I said, we still need you. The Wolfpack still need you. Yeah, yeah. We need to try and make sure a few more of them make it out of this than the others. Of course, yeah. We will.

It's a shame you couldn't help the kid. Yeah, I know. It's only going to get harder. Yeah, yeah. Just wanted to say thanks while I could. You've been a great asset to the team. Please. We're not like you and the others, but we'll do what we can. Well, it makes it more special, the fact that you're, you know, still here with us, still fighting with us. You know, we have these gifts and, you know, I understand that we are stronger, but that makes you all stronger than we are,

stronger than we could ever be. I think it's more... It's either we come out here and die fighting or we, what, kick back on Arois for a few years and hope that you are able to do what you need to do? I'd rather at least be here fighting and dying and making sure that you do it, rather than just, God, sitting there and waiting and kill me. Like, worse.

Yeah. You know what I mean. Yeah. I'd rather be here doing this then we'll do our best to see it through together

thanks Andrew she just sort of like paw like hand she doesn't have a paw she has a hand but she like pats you on the shoulder

just sort of like nods little ears twitch and she's just sort of like very gruff like she's Kamara's not an emotional person but kind of like

like kind of nods and grunts and then goes back to what she was doing before goes back to work but did want to approach and say thank you for what you did knowing that it was not a uh it was you know that there is a cost to it and things like that can i um see gray long quickly as well you go down you find her attending just to a couple more like minor injuries and things like that um i think by this point after a few hours uh it is likely that lancian's body has been fully covered up like lucius you know kind of wanted to wait for a moment but gregorano is kind of like

in the process of finding some way to like maybe like preparing like a uh gentle repose spell or something to keep him preserved but like you know it's not like they've got any way to put him, so she's kind of tending to that. I just kind of see, oh, Sentry, hello. Hi, how are you holding up? Are you okay? Being kept busy. That's the thing with battles is,

I mean, even when we're not in a fight, people are getting injured here and there, but I'm trying to keep myself busy tending to this one. And she just sort of like looks towards Lansin's body. I am a little concerned. I'm good at medical care and physical aid, but Howard's taking things tough. Yeah, he's a gentle soul. He was close to Lentian. I think that I saw him as a bit of a foster son. Yeah. Okay. I've seen it all, believe me, on the fleets, on Erois, and in the clinics that I used to work.

I've dealt with some pretty nasty stuff, so it doesn't get any easier, but I I used to work. I mean, I've dealt with some pretty nasty stuff, so it doesn't get any easier, but I'm used to it. It doesn't affect me in the same way. Thank you for checking. How are you? How are the champions? Okay, I think, yeah, it's just a lot. A lot to plan, a lot to do. But we'll get through it.

I think the crew, I know that the captain and Quill and Dover and the others all have their roles here on the ship, but I think having your presence on the deck during these fights really matters. Oh, thank you. I'll do what I can to keep this ship safe for what's coming next. We've got something quite big, I think, on the horizon. We've heard. Yeah. But I will do my damn best to make sure none of that gets down to you guys.

We appreciate it. But let me know if you need anything. I'm always here to help. Fine for supplies and everything, so just doing what I can. It's just a case of triage. You deal with the worst things first and everything else comes later. You helped train me, so... Hopefully it comes in help. Hopefully.

Yeah. She'll just sort of like nod and sort of smile. Kind of a little tusk poking out, but yeah. Just, yeah, again, kind of like Kamara. She's older, like graylano and kamara are older than a lot of the other crew and they've got that kind of weight of years behind them like just yeah you kind of get the sense that like this is definitely maybe not as uh bombastic as where you are now flying around in astral space fighting

gods and monsters but graylano's definitely dealt with some tough times. Yeah. Nice. All right. I guess I'll check in with Howard as well. Let's do the rounds, see how everybody's feeling. Yeah. You probably find Howard on the top deck, just looking out at Astral Space. You see he's just playing with his wedding ring.

And actually, no, he's not playing with his wedding ring. He has Lantian's banner. Hi, Howard. Oh, oh, hello, hello, sentry. And he just sort of gets a handkerchief out. He's like, oh, I think I've got, like, space allergies or something. No, it's okay. You don't have to hide, Howard. It's fine.

No, no, no, not hiding at all. No, no, just, you know, it's sometimes a bit easier for others, isn't it, when you say it's, like, allergies or something. People sometimes get a bit awkward around people when they're crying or when they're upset but uh no we're just uh reminiscing yeah lance was a good kid brave kid are you okay no no i'll give him a big hug it'll be okay how Yeah, he just, you know, little form.

Leaky eyes, guys. Remember, leaky eyes. It's not actually, it's just the empathy of it. Yeah, he just, like, leans into it. No, I'm all right. He leans into it and just lets out, like, lets it all out. Yeah. You know, just has been bottling a lot of it up.

Yeah. And it just comes out. As soon as you ask that, like, are you okay? It just hits. And it's just a lot of loss in his life. A lot of loss. Not a warrior, not a soldier. And when you guys were off doing your adventures

and things like that, the crew were like a family. He's lost one, feels like he's losing another. It's just hard. But, takes the time, lets it out, and then just lets out a big sigh. We needed that I'm always here for you Howard if you need anything I know, I know

same I think that the captain I think because Miss Nova is not going to be here the captain's asked me to look after the engines and I don't really know what I'm doing but she showed me a few things but I've got the wolf pack down there and they'll help me but just do our bit whatever we can exactly and we'll do our bit too yeah I know you will I know

if you need anything just shout oh I'll come running I know thank you thank you Cydria thank you you've you've always looked after me You've looked after everybody here as well. You're only just paying back the hard work you put in here. Just a bit of crumble and a bit of a silly old diamond. Not much. It does more than I think you realise, Howard. Glad. Anyway, right, I should get down to it.

Oh, excuse me. There's his nose. Give him a big pat on the shoulder. Pat your arm. I mean, also keep in mind that you're like eight foot tall. If your hand is like most of his back, it's like a pat on the shoulder is like... But yeah, he just sort of like pats it back and trots off.

Let me get back to Erois. We'll... Big party. Big party. Yeah. Put something together for Lansian. Yeah. Sounds good.

Yeah. As he walks past, just before he goes down on the ship, where the stairs lead up to the command console, just puts the banner in that middle bit. Just begins immediately, takes the solar winds, just begins to fly. Sentry will just look at it and, yeah, snarl at it, give a salute to the banner.

Yep. Nice. Leaky eyes, baby. Medical condition I can't look at you Because it's going to set me off Howard Did you expect Howard To be this

No Little thing I gave him a stupid Bristolian accent And just like Samwise Gamgee He's killed Killed my soul

Rate my love The soul was the ones That do it though Yeah I mean that's what got me Ted Like he put on his Little Bristolian accent

And I was like Oh my heart. We can't carry it for you, Mr. Frodo, but I can carry you. It's that shit. Fucking gets me every time. He's good, eh? Married to us.

So, anything else? Other than preparation and just general, like, morale boosting. Have you all taken short rest? Those of you who were down on hit points. I got my four sorcery points back. Thanks, level 20 sorcerer. Yeah, baby. Hey, hey.

You didn't have those before. Such a good milestone. I used up all of my hit dice to recover, and I still have two HP. So you have no hit dice remaining. No hit dice remaining. He was really bad. I was down to like two, I think you have no hit dice remaining. No hit dice remaining. He was really bad.

I was down to like two, I think, at the end of that. Yeah, because we forgot about the 70 from your ice age. Yeah, I forgot about that to begin with as well. Yep. But yeah, I'm now back to full levels in Spell of Sloth. Okay. But yeah, I guess gathering the crew that's going to be the Infiltration will be heading towards the Storm Chaser as well, right? this is everyone here the infiltration team will start on the storm

chaser yeah you don't have to separate so yeah everyone is here basically uh maybe the last thing you see is uh those of you when you're like leaving the tacitar to like go back to the storm chaser um you see tacitar this kind of blue merlin, kind of gaunt and thin, but with a little wizardy goatee, and kind of bald head. He's completely bald. He has ears as well. Doesn't he have pointy ears like Vulcan? He has like an elf and like kind of like ears and stuff like that.

Sorry, elf, not Vulcan. He has elf and ears. And he wears like almost like a scholar's kind of like robe and almost looks like he's like wearing like slippers and stuff, but like it's all just this kind of spectrally blue form. He is like stood in front of one of these Valkyrian fighters, and you just hear, like, no, no, this won't do, no. And he's making change.

He's adding and doing magical shit to it, and the engineering team are like, sir, you can't just change. Like, what are you doing? And he's just like, no, this won't. You can tell the arcane fluctuations are off by 0.6 millimeters. It won't do, it won't do. It needs to be perfectly aligned.

You see like beginning, the ship kind of covered in blue runes begins to glow as he's making changes to it. And he'll just kind of like turn and tactilely sort of like nod, like, dumb faces. Testa, are you prepared for your? I will be once the correct alignments are in place. like bomb chasers. Testa, are you prepared for your? I will be once the correct alignments are in place.

Okay, now reminder that we don't have a huge amount of time here, so can you cope with a slight misalignment? I am performing over seven billion calculations currently. I do not forget I am also managing this warship. I am more than capable. Okay, okay, great. Why doesn't he give you infiltration, honestly?

I don't know why everyone's looking at me. My skill is in logistics. Elf of Alpine. My skill is in logistics. I am not some sneak thief. Can you just make sure my girlfriend comes home? That is the one called Thalia Whisperwind, yes? Yes.

I do not understand these mortal, intimate relationships of yours. They seem pointless and distractions to me, but I will ensure that the mission is successful. I feel a lot better knowing that you're on it. As you should. I forgot how much he loved himself. It would be tactically beneficial for Thalia to return to Nova. Why are you explaining this to me as if I do not understand?

Okay, I'm just trying to... He's a lot older than all of us. I know, I know. He's doing like... Imagine if for how long, you call them babies, a baby came up to you and was like, do you know what would be a good idea

if you did, I don't know, you swung your sword this way or something, whatever you adventurers do. He's only three. How old is this baby? Three. He's three, yeah. You have existed for three cycles.

Yes, yeah, yeah. How many cycles have you existed, Tessadar? Countless. I have been here, the Triumvirate have been in existence for millennia, thousands, hundreds of thousands. That's a few life cycles more than a little bit. I remember when this one was a different one. I see the matrix that you carry.

Yes. The Genesis relic. I remember then when it belonged to several others. I've seen it pass through the hands of five guardians. Who was before Root? Before Root, Prime. Yes. It would have been...

DM face. Garador. Garador the wise screw fix that's a great guardian name don't say Optimus it's just like Optimus

Optimus Optimus Ultra Magnus and I'm like no I can see it in your eyes it would have been I'm trying to think of

some Iptpo which is Optimus backwards no because guardians have set names you have to give me a second

it would have been Scoop, Mark and Dizzy Square Saber Saber Prime oh damn that's cool okay

oh and who was before that it would have been a name Saber Prime that is canonical yes and thematic Oh, and who was before that? It would have been... A name. That is canonical. Yes, yeah. And thematic.

Wow, I didn't know there was a Jenny Prime. That's a good name. Xenohort. Xenohort. Xenohort. Anyway, then Ansem. But yes, Tastar will return and prepare themselves. Morbius.

It's morbid time. Feeling ready? Ready to save? Yes, no, yes, yes. We need hyper-focused laser precision. Yes. I am so hyper-focused right now. We have to sneak around a giant ship. Yes. I am so hyper-focused right now. We have to sneak around a giant's ship.

Yes. Oh yeah, yeah. Which, you know, in reality, you are but tiny little ants among people, really. So the benefit and the... That's not reassuring. You're small. You can fit in the things that... That's not reassuring.

Well, I mean, no, he does have a point. Jump into astral space. You're more sneaky, because they're smaller. It's a giant's ship. It's a ship for giants. Ragnarok, Ragnarok level vessel. Yeah, but he makes a point. A ship, a giant sized ship.

You wanna go on the ship? No. What if we can't reach the door handles? You go under the door. Yeah. Pass what? You said we had that thing. You have one.

I can't cast it multiple times. I can cast it to get us in. Yeah, we'll find a way out. You did want the scroll, one scroll. I mean doors as in if we're trying to get through, and the door, and the handles all the way up there. I can jump. Chris Rock.

What sort of technology, is it very like, are we talking Viking boat? Visually. As in like, what does Starbane know? I know there's very little out there. There's very little out there. You basically kind of know what Quill knew, and there is some information,

because there are still some giants that survive, like, generations after. But the Fenrir was an old ship, even, like, when Calus was around. Like, it was destroyed before Calus really began his empire, and that was thousands of years ago. It is... There is technology. It's kind of more like... Magical. destroyed before chaos really began his empire and that was thousands of years ago um it is it is there is technology it's kind of more like um magical uh aroasis it's more magical than

technological and stuff yeah it's more crystals it resembles an enormous like warship but completely sealed um almost has you can imagine like these like giant sort of like shield like designs on the side they're not shields but it has those designs it has like the curved triconic kind of head at the front like a long but on a huge scale and then instead of like oars it has ports for like guns and things like that like turrets like you know we're tipped with crystals and things like that and covered in runes i think the only thing they know is that giants use a lot of rune magic which is very different to the magic spells that we know and the magitek of the Valkyrie Empire.

They had their own kind of system that they used, their own power. So the shield is more of a ward than anything. Yeah, it's a barrier. It's like a warded barrier. Yeah, it's not like a sci-fi shield. It's like an actual magical barrier, like a warded, created by these various runes. And very little as it is known. Like's all it's old magic runic magic um when you return to the storm chaser as well by

the way your team is assembled um as you have some of the members still on the astoria you still have some like members spread around but stood on the deck uh you see danica wearing her sort of red and orange robes she has this almost like gold shoulder armor and like a kind of crown like halo um and she is just wreathed in like almost like this semi-permeable layer of flame around her next to her you see maximilian uh he's dressed in valkyrian armor um and he has new weapons and armor. Remember that he lost a lot of his stuff. It got a lot of it was destroyed. He's kind of replenished himself. He has a Magitek shield, his full plate armor, and he has like a long hafted axe, like a Magitek axe now. And he's wearing that, his flaming hair, very Ganondorf-y, looking like a badass. Next to him

is Protector, who has now been repaired from your last encounter into the the jungle and they're so tall kind of like leaf-like vine pauldrons kind of sculpted over their thick stone and metal body they have like a big dark hood that covers up most of their head because you can still see that their face has still got some damage that was broken away by the the knights that you fought um they have a blade and a shield next to them you see norfyr uh dressed in their tight kind of like leather cat suit black widow-esque outfit uh loads of like pouches and belts and straps all over her she's a big thick cloak as well with a big heavy hood um hand crossbow and sort of like dagger like blade very metal gear cqc kind of like used together um sort of like nods in your direction you see

little scout who you haven't seen in a while um he's like a little he's a small guardian he's probably only about three feet high um and he has like these big almost like a pair of night vision goggles but are that is his face um and so he has like one eye is like longer than the other one and one's kind of like short and he has all these different like lenses that flop in um and he's got a big crossbow you can see he has like this kind of like fold out guardian crossbow that he can sling on his back and he's got loads of pouches and gear and things like that as well you also notice that like his legs and hands he almost has like spikes built into his forearms and legs that he can use to like climb on stuff and things like that as well. You also notice that like his legs and hands, he almost has like spikes built into his forearms and legs

that he can use to like climb on stuff and things like that as well. And then finally you see Hope, blonde hair, currently probably hugging or talking to a bunch of the wolf pack and talking about how cute they are. Blonde hair, flower crown. She is wielding, you see for the first time,

she's got like a pink dress like over her human body um but she also has like a belt which is a very ornate feywild belt and sheathed in it is a rapier which you sort of recognize because it belonged to the little dandelion knight armadale but it's now been like increased in size so that Hope can wield it and she wields the blade of Armador. Sir, fuck's sake! Yep. So Fae. Yeah. Where's he? He's not here.

He's there. Armador is with your Faewell. You do have Faewell forces, it's just not one of these individual agents. So he's in Astral Space. Yeah, he's on the Astoria with all the other forces. Yay!

I just like that he came for the battle. Yeah. Some of them, I think that most of your war assets are split between the Astoria, the Dragon Ship, and maybe some of the Valkyrian transports to kinda make sure that all your eggs aren't in one basket. Here's our war asset.

Yeah. He's a dandelion. With the Valkyries. All right, team. We've got team infiltration. Hands up. Hands up, team infiltration. Norf. Hands up, Team Infiltration. Norfair is like,

Scout's like, Scout? Norfair just puts her hand up like just me and hopes that, oh, that's me! I'm the... Yes, you're in Infiltration Team. Yes, I am! I'm very good at sneaking! We've got the Starfighter Green Squadron.

They're not here. They're already in. Green squadron. Oh, yes, that's right. They're in the ship. Yeah, at the twin star. Well, they're already way ahead of us, and then we've got... Well, they're probably telepathically bonded.

Azaria, yeah. Azaria would probably cast that just before you arrive. Okay. Are you hearing us? Thalia? Yes, I'm here. What do you want? Hello!

Hello. Oh, this is a very clear line? Yes, I'm here. What do you want? Hello! Hello. Oh, this is a very clear line. Yes. This is lovely. You're not going to be talking all the time, are you? He's probably gonna be talking all the time. Please don't. I'll make it very important and very brief.

Okay. And then we've got the storm chaser crew. Am I right? Yeah! Yes! Yes, yeah. We will protect this ship. We will protect the infiltration team, cause a distraction. Yes. Yes. Yeah. We will protect this ship. We will protect the infiltration team,

cause a distraction. Yes, please. And pave the way. The infiltration team will pave the way for Green Squadron. Whoop, whoop. I do whoop, whoop over telepathic bond. Whoop, whoop.

That's right. Don't worry, Thalia. For the most part, you'll only be hearing from me. I will assist you as much as I can. Whoop, whoop. Yep, whoop, whoop, whoop. You hear Rain's voice.

Please do not keep doing that whoop, whoop noise. I'm trying to manage lots of different communications right now. You're doing great! Thank you. Yes, we will provide you updates as soon as the Astoria is ready to move. Let us know and we will move into position as soon as we can. I believe that Lady Valor is also on this line. Yes, hi, I'm here.

I'm sort of coordinating things with my father, so if you need anything from the Valkyrian forces, let me know and I will relay the message. Much appreciated, Vala. Now, we all know our assignments. We know our missions. Between all of us and the individual teams, we have the smarts, the strength,

and the ability to break through whatever comes at us, right? Right? Yes. Damn straight. That's right. That's so good, Quill. Yay! Thank you. Inside voice. the ability to break through whatever comes at us, right? Right? Yes. Damn straight. That's right, that's so good, Quill, yay! Thank you, inside voice. Stealth.

Side voices! So. Very stealthy, infiltration team. The quietest you've ever been. Shh. But if that fails, You know how good we are at this, right? Remember, you have the strength to break through it.

Yes. You've got the hammer, you have what you need. If you need to fight, fight, like hell. I don't wanna fight, Giant, I don't wanna fight. Oh no. If stealth falls through, it's speed. For once in my life, I don't wanna fight. I wanna get in, get back out again,

and then go and kill Hadar, please. The element of surprise, quickness, getting Thalia in as soon as the shields are down. What, you've dimmed those shields? Norfiel would just say and point at Nova and be like, that's all on you, Vija. You're the one that we need in this, out of everyone. Big brain.

We need your brain. And also figuring out where to go when we get inside. I haven't heard you guys talk about this yet, but we don't know where this barrier system is, right? I was just thinking that. Where exactly are we going on that big ship? We'll have to figure out once we get inside. We can't know everything.

Well, whatever you can find, feed it back to me, and I'll try and guide whoever I can to the right places. Scout's like, I can try and assist with that as well. I'm not very good with magic, but if you can give me at least a map, I can generally figure out sort of key locations and things like that. That's kind of what I'm good for. That's what I'm here for. That's my purpose.

Maybe they'll be really nice and just as soon as we go in, there'll be a you are here map. Oh, that could help. You know, like when we were on, what was that Valkyrian planet? I guess, I don't know. Gideon Prime? Gideon Prime. That one.

You know, they had all that shit everywhere. You know, just, you are here. Here's where you're going to get to this thing. Let's just assume that that absolutely doesn't exist and we have to work with what we've got. So what do we do if the map absolutely doesn't exist, which it definitely doesn't? Arcane Eye?

Provide some directions. They'll have to have some sort of system for navigating a ship like that. I'm sure there must be something. You'll be able to find your way around. The Arcane Eye is currently on Thalia's ship, so I can't assist in that regard. But I can try and help as best I can to guide you if needed.

It might also be that the Storm Chaser, you might be able to use the Storm Chaser's Magitek sensors to kind of figure out, be like, oh, I've got like a power signal here. You can investigate that maybe and stuff like that. We'll find the right place to break in and that should hopefully be close enough for you to find out exactly where you need to go.

We'll find out. With that, we're going to take a break. Clisk guys. When we come back to it. Clisk guys. Clisk guys, everyone. When we come back. Who's that guy?

That was all of the NPCs. All the the mbc's i just do a generic voice all of them at once a crowd of heroes uh but that's it that's gonna be it for part one thank you so much we'll be back in part two very shortly operation fenrir begins. Oh, nice. Thanks, guys.