High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #187 | The Entropis Warfront (Part 1)

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

The Stormchasers and their allies are scattered across the Entropis warfront... can they gather everyone together safely before the final assault begins? Entropis Map + NPC Stats available for FREE on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/posts/84108265 Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes and more on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers 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

Pickaxe. Visit CoorsLight.ca to learn more. Celebrate responsibly. Must be legal drinking age. Welcome back to Erois. The champions have journeyed into astral space. Along with their allies, they make the final push towards their greatest foe, the God Eater, the Ever Hungerer, the Red Star, Hadar. Arriving in the Broken Veil, the millennia-old warfront for the battle between Hadar and Kallus Valkyrian's empire, the party and the Valkyrian fleet fought off an attack before regrouping to assault the plain of Entropis, an ancient world that sits at the very edge of the astral void, an expanse of nothingness that surrounds the known universe.

Before reaching Entropis, however, the champions had to deal with a massive astral ship called the Fenrir, a giant warship from a bygone age now corrupted by Hadar and powerful enough to endanger the champion's key vessels and weapons. A multi-part plan was enacted, with the storm chasers sending in a team to disable the Fenrir's arcane wards, whilst also defending against the Fenrir's bodyguards, a powerful astral kraken and an astral dreadnought.

They were not alone, however, as Quill used the Spear of Oracles to summon forth the spirit of Euhandrius, a tempest dragon that the champions had aided long ago. What? I can't... Oh, you're still laughing about the fuck-up I did earlier, I see. what I couldn't I couldn't see

oh you're still laughing about the the fuck up I did earlier I thought you'd gotten over it yeah yeah yeah I thought you'd gotten over it I thought you actually were pretty chill

ever since then there's been a couple of like sly looks across the table like what was it what was that I tried to say you said it

you tried to say part plan it's so dumb it's so dumb no but it's just multi part plan that's what I tried to say multi-part plan. It's so dumb. It's so dumb. No, but it's just because you tried not to laugh. It's fine. I was just staring at the broccoli. Yeah. Remember this for later on?

Just remember I was not part of this, please. You know what? It wasn't anything except Trot's face just immediately went, don't laugh. That's what got me and Tom! We all held it, Trot failed. Trot failed! Can I continue? This is a multi-part intro. You know he has the power to wipe the party away.

I know, I know. Don't be dyslexic, everyone at home. Like, all your friends will just mock you for it. No, I'm dyslexic as well, and I never mock you, Mark. No, thanks, Kim. I appreciate that. Also, what a suck-up. What a little frail dog.

Yeah, you are, actually. That was just horrible. It's just because I know that I'm going to be rolling that once today, and I just want a little bit of leeway in there. Right. Okay. That backfired. With Yohandrius' help, the odds against the Stormchaser improved,

but only slightly. Inside, the infiltration team came across many discoveries within the Fenrir, but in achieving their mission, there were losses. With the Fenrir vulnerable, the combined might of the Tassadar, Astoria, and the goddess Siaska herself, they were able to bring it down. With the storm chasers at the tip of the spear and the aid of Yohandris' spirit creating

one final storm, they carved a path towards the planet of Entropis. So. Yeah. The storm chaser. Get it out now. Because I want to get it out now because...

What do I do? That's fine. I didn't do shit. I'm just, I'm giving you the opportunity. That's going to be on your grave. Get the chuckles out now. I didn't do shit. Because I'm going to need you in top condition.

You can't just demand chuckles. The chuckles happen when the chuckles happen. Yeah, there you go. Clearly. Turning the broccoli. Turn the broccoli around. I know you just demand chuckles. The chuckles happen when the chuckles happen. Yeah, there you go. Clearly. Turning the rock away. Turn the broccoli around. And now you just see it. For podcast listeners,

there is a broccoli with the rock's face on it. You messed up. The storm chaser at the tip of the spear hurtles towards the plane of Entropos. Though the planet of the spear, hurtles towards the plain of Entropis. Though the planet, the plain, is as you believe it to be uninhabited and long ancient ruin, there is still an atmosphere of a kind of dull red haze. And as the Storm chaser plows towards it, the last remnants of the spirit of Yohandris begin to disperse and you see that the battle is very quickly and swiftly resuming behind you. The Tassadar, the Corsari and several other ships are traveling with you whilst the Astoria and most

of the Valkyrian fleet are going to try and hold off the forces to prevent them overwhelming you on the plane itself. As you journey through the atmosphere of Entropis, with the storm chaser at the tip of the spear, I believe that Quill is at the front with several of the rest all sort of nearby, you begin to see great blasts of magical fire coming from the plane's surface up into the sky. And you begin to see some of

those strikes hitting the allied ships around you one of them as they as you begin playing down hits the corsari and it veers swiftly off course you begin to see several of the other valkyrian ships taking hits as you get lower into the atmosphere you begin to see the sort of outline of mountains and canyons and ruins, great vast ruins that would be cities, hundreds of, like, massive cities that would have covered, you know, huge chunks of the plane's surface. The storm chaser, Oriah, is like, Captain, we have a problem. As you begin to see the Magitek and the devices on the storm chaser begin to spark and malfunction. Something in the atmosphere and Nova in the engine,

you can see that the elemental engines, the Magitek that makes the Storm Chaser work is beginning to break down, break apart, rust, corrode, just kind of fail in numerous ways. And the Storm Chaser very quickly begins to dip down, pulling away from the rest of the forces that you can also see all struggling with the same problems Nova to your horror you see the twin star one of its wings ripped free by one of these planetary weapons firing up and it spirals and crashes somewhere down below

you I need everybody to make a Dexterity saving throw as you are aboard the Storm Chaser. And then after you make these saving throws, I'm gonna need Aria, Lucius, Nova, Quill to make skill checks for the crew and the operating Storm Chaser. I wanna know how your Dexterity saves goes. Dexterity saves.

I would say everybody can benefit from, well, it's your auras to saving throws no matter what, right? It's not just spells. That's the resistance to damage, isn't it? Yeah. So yeah, everybody gets the plus three for this. 23 then. 23?

Okay. 23. 23, 23. 10. 10. 21. 21 from Lucius. 10.

10 from Sentry. Sentry and Nova, you are gonna take some damage as you are kind of thrown around the ship. You are both gonna take, that is gonna be 14 points of bludgeoning damage. As you are kind of thrown around, maybe some of the wolf pack are kind of thrown into you as the ship tussles and turns,

not threatening to break apart, but it's so unstable, and Oriah is desperately trying to keep hold of this. I now need Oriah, so Rhea, if you can roll, this will be a piloting check, so she has a plus 10 bonus. Lucius, I need you to basically take command of the crew. So this is gonna be a charisma, just d20 plus charisma. Quill, if you can make a navigation roll using survival for me, please.

And then Nova, an Arcana check from Nova to manage the ship itself. Oh, the bug, give me strength, that is. Okay, all right, well, let's start with the good news first, Quill. Natural 20, 32. 32. Jesus Christ. Nova. 24.

24 on the Arcana check. Lucius, how did you earn your charisma? I got a seven. Total? Total. Oh. 24. 24 on the Arcana check. Lucius, how did you earn your charisma? I got a seven. Total? Total. Oh, damn. Sentry. Lucius is a bit panicked. Total 16. 16. Aria is desperately managing to maintain a semblance of a course.

It is only through Quill, your quick thinking, scanning the environment. You know at this point there is nothing you can do to stop the storm chaser from impacting on the ground. But with Quill's navigation, with Nova diverting all the power you can to the sort of environmental controls,

the engines and the shielding to try and soften this impact. You're basically trying to minimize as much damage as you can. Unfortunately, though yourselves are quite in the moment and capable, Lucius, you are unable to kind of instill any sort of semblance of control amongst the crew, the wolf pack, how like any of the other surviving NPCs are just kind of in a blind panic and just trying to protect themselves

or, you know, trying to do their jobs, but are just so afraid or what's going on or unsure that you are just unable to form any sort of control down. This is just basically going to, it's not going to cause any damage, but it is going to cause some problems for the ship. Between your group efforts, the storm chaser impacts and you can see this wide and the whole plane as you're hurtling down towards Entropis, it is this unpleasant grey. Everything, the mountains, the earth, the ruins of the buildings just has this dull, lifeless grey quality to it. And then the sky is marred by this red glow

and you can see that that comes from the red star hanging in the sky above. The Storm Chaser impacts against a heavy set of mountains and cliffs, these jagged, sharp, razor-sharp mountains. But thanks to the shielding, energy being diverted and Quill's navigation, it avoids the most dangerous parts of it, scraping the whole, maybe damaging parts of its armor, but manages to keep

itself aloft no damage to the engines it then begins to go down further it impacts into the top of the canyon but as it skids and slides and slides it eventually falls over into the canyon into a deeper ravine but with enough power and thanks to quill's navigation controls you manage to find a place within this canyon to come to a safe stop arrest at the edge of an immense ruined city that stretches out before you in a few moments there is some it takes a few minutes like the impact is enough maybe not to knock you guys out but a lot of the crew are maybe knocked unconscious or dazed for temporarily um there is this huge plume of dust creating a thick smoke like uh fog that kind of just surrounds the ship and it takes a long time to dissipate like maybe five ten minutes as the dust

almost seems to linger in the air as it's being kicked up you can see yeah stretching out before you this immense ruined city mountains on either side like you're in a deep part of a valley. You can see that there are huge cracks and ravines further down into the city as if some great calamity happened here long ago. And far to the end of the valley, you can begin to now see the Tassadar making a very similar emergency landing near to what appears to be an enormous red storm of swirling magic and energy surrounding a part of this city, the very edge of it. And you can see that looking out, the horizon past that storm is just flat, as if nothing was built there long ago.

And it's just this plain, flat openness. But there is an atmosphere. Like, it's breathable it is breathable just it's probably thin like you find you have to kind of really take big lungs you know deep lungfuls of air but it is there um the shields of the environmental shields are still holding on storm chaser as well like as long as you're on the storm chaser itself you're more comfortable yeah but you know quill you kind of look at the Magitek readouts and you're like, yeah, okay, like that is a breathable atmosphere out there.

There is gravity. It will function like a planet basically, like a plane, I should say. There was also, I would say, Quill, with the Storm Chaser itself, some of the systems are working. The environmental shields are working. The sensors are badly damaged,

like the magical sensors that kind of give you a readout of the area. They're damaged, but you did manage to get a pretty good survey with a natural 20 as well, Quill. You got a really solid survey of the environment around you and kind of in this area, basically. Okay. To that point, because you're a natural,

I'm gonna give this to you early. Oh, I love an early map. I love it. It's just empty. It's just grey. Oh, no, there's a lot on that map. Oh, damn. So if you need to pass this around, but we can put it there for Sam to show off as well.

But yeah, pass it around. Feel free to have a look. And I can kind of run you through it a little bit as well. You can see these large areas are like deep ravines and canyons. I'm going to give Sam a second, see if he can can bring i will also uh put this publicly on patreon for podcast listeners as well perfect so anyone can access this on the patreon so we have like these are like canyons ravine like deep deep ravines uh all of this is mountains kind of around the edges and there's even like a larger looser mountain here and then all along you can see there are key points we'll

go into more of those in more detail later. For now, you can kind of just see the landscape of this kind of ruined city. And although it might look plain, like I've only drawn in some buildings, imagine that there are like remnants, there are ruins of buildings everywhere. But some of it is just more open

or like maybe it was once like a park or something, but that's anything. Anything living is long gone. This place is stone and dust. That is it. You see nothing, no sign of vegetation, no sign of life. Perhaps just briefly Quill caught sight that there are things moving around down there.

The last thing you did see, as I mentioned, you saw the Tassadar, which is just down here, which I've put on the map. Right by that storm, yeah. It is right by the storm, but it did seem to make a controlled landing, kind of similar to the Storm Chaser. Like, not a full crash, but it did control its descent.

And you can see that it is already, the weapons on it are firing fighting off something that is attacking things that are attacking the Tassadar. So its weapons are functional. Seems to be but no flight. And very quickly Nova you will find that the Storm Chaser is in a similar place. You have power

you have systems. There is no reason you can think of that the Storm Chaser shouldn't be able to fly but the pat the engines just will not work well isn't weren't we told before the anti-magic uh not anti-magic magitek struggles here magitek struggles with hadar's influence yeah uh the the nature of entropy magitek can decay and and break down quicker um but this it's weird because things like your weapons sure they are beginning to

corrode quicker than they would but not as quickly as like this it's like something has locked the ship down um and it won't fly um and you can see kamara i will make a point as well because it wasn't 100 clear from last time howard is fine he recovered central is able to save him that delay um no howard is alive um kamara any of the npcs that were injured have been healed um by gray lano um uh you guys have not had enough time for any sort of rest though yeah um the npcs are a little special they get to have like a kind of free healing and get some of their powers back because they're not as cool as you guys um this is a phenomenal map thank you it was a real quick uh i'm not i'm not a cartographer i'm not a great map drawer but no i love it threw this

together for you guys so you had a nice clear visual i have interest for what to do to the very if you want to like take it like you can absolutely kind of take a closer look at this you won't understand what some of it means yet i'm just a little concerned of to the very very north and to the side here those are showing up on my radar, right? You would have seen them. So if Quill, you kind of imagine that that map is almost like a... A dark cannon. Imagine that map is like a readout.

Quill has managed to create a very brief map. That could basically be a map that Quill has sketched out based on your last readings, right? So those cannons that you could see on the map, Quill, they were these giant, almost kind of like that cannons that you could see on the map quill they were these giant almost like kind of like that ship that you fought like these biological forms that have created these planetary cannons and they are still firing up into astral space even now those are just two in this area across the plane there are hundreds of these things firing up so these are firing i

guess now because the majority of the planetary assault force they're now down right so they're now ones that were coming with you so that's another interesting point you came here with several other ships there are none around the storm chaser and you have only seen the tacitar now on that map you can see as well yeah you i would say again with that excellent natural 20 i'm just going to give you everything on there i was going to say like i know on the map you can see it but you guys don't know about it yet but with that you were able to pinpoint the location of the where the twin star went down roughly okay uh you also know the corsardi basically crashed into a very deep ravine, which is the dragon ship, one of the dragon soul ships.

And then anything on the map which is marked as a lost signal is another one of your allies or allied ships. But you don't know which ones, and you don't know where they went. Cool. Okay, yeah, there's three. So you guys have maybe a couple of minutes in character. As you land, feel free to take a minute here.

You don't have any immediate threats around the Storm Chaser. It seems that the Tassadar is any kind of Hadar forces in the area are being drawn to the Tassadar. So far, the Storm Chaser has been left alone. You don't know if the other ships and the other vessels are suffering the same fate, but the Storm Chaser is safe. So you guys have a few moments to chat amongst yourselves and do whatever you guys want to do.

The green lines on this map as well, is that just... Don't worry about those for now, but they will come into it when you guys want to start moving around. Yeah, I didn't know if they were just walkable routes or whatever. No, no. I've put those down there more as a player aid and a mechanics thing. Most of them would form old roads. They would probably be based around like old pathways and clear routes.

Like I said, although the map might have empty spaces, imagine that that's filled with more broken ruins. Those lines represent clear pathways, easy pathways. Cool. Okay. Yeah, I mean, if everyone is gathered around the screen. At this point, imagine that you've got all of you guys, you have your full complement of NPC allies, including maybe some of the ones that weren't with you, we'll say that they transferred over just

before you began the attack. So you basically have currently you have Maximilian, Protector the Guardian, Scout, Danica, Hope, Azaria Perel, Rethra, and as far as you know, Thalia and Tassadar are down somewhere in this valley, in this city. You also had your war assets came with you. That would include the Guardian Army, the Eterna Army, the Wild Elves, the Heartspire Knights, and the Dragons. The healers that you brought with you were stationed on the Tassadar. They are not a war asset that is necessarily going to be relevant to this right now. And the priests were there. Yes, but none of those assets are currently with you. But they could be useful.

What's the range on a heal? So it's Hope, Scout, Danica, Max, Protector, Rethra? Yeah, Rethra, Azaria. Oh, Rethra's here. What about... We'll say that Azaria and Rethra basically would have transferred over just before you made the assault.

In fact, I'm gonna put the minis. Oh! Nice! Yes! Hell yeah! Look at Azaria! Oh! Okay, I'm also going to take a picture of these. These are very limited painted. Well,

you can take pictures, but I want to stay here. These are very rushed. I have not had a lot of time to do them, so they are very, very basic. Okay, I mean, I'm also going to put on there, though they are not with you, Tastar and Thalia. Oh! Oh, my God. There it is.

Tastar just full blue. So there's the interview. Thank you for sharing these off, Sam. But yeah, they are very basic. I have literally just real basic colored them for the time. What's Ganondorf doing there? I am going to make them nicer for when the campaign's finished. We can have them as a nice little thing here in the studio.

Oh, Max was always Ganondorf-y though, wasn't he? Yeah, he was, yeah. So yeah, I'll put those down there. So that's a good visual reminder of who you have with you. Oh, I love that. Cool. That's rad. Yeah. Good shit.

So the crew of the Storm Chaser, your allies, all gather round. Maybe a couple of them still nursing cuts and bruises, like stumbling out of the medbay with Grey Lano, sort of like having patched them up from the crash landing. Well, the semi-crash landing, not quite a crash landing. A controlled descent, thanks to Quill and Nova and Araya's quick thinking. But the ship is not destroyed it's just it's badly damaged it's not destroyed but it won't fly yeah okay um okay i guess it's just what's nearby we've got

like a lost signal right next to us i'm guessing we've already checked in with everyone everyone's okay yeah can no like try and do comms with the Twinstar? Using the ship systems, yeah, you can try. Doesn't work. Not for the Twinstar. What if we try to contact the Tassadar, like Calus? You kind of, so are you gonna do that, Aayla, or are you gonna get Quill to punch it up? Oh, I can't do it.

Oh, sure. I'm gonna be like, see Valor, Valor. Valor, Valor? Yep, you kind of go into the system, you activate the various runes and enchantments, and you get a very scrambled illusory projection of... It wouldn't necessarily be Valor, it would probably be Kallus responding to it. And you get this flickering image, and then it fixes for a moment.

Storm Chasers, this is Kallus Valkyrian. Are you in condition? What has happened? What's your status? The Stormchaser ship has been very damaged in the landing, but we have managed to come to a complete stop, separated from all of our allies. Tassadar, somewhere to the south of us. Twinstar, very far off to the east.

We have to travel, I think, on foot from here on, but we can see some of the cannons. The storm tracer is not... Your flight is also disabled? Completely disabled. It's the same with the TAS star. We have power, but we are unable to fly in this atmosphere, it seems. It seems to be disrupting the Magitek in some way,

completely eating away at it. So don't get too close. Can you, from where you are, there is a massive red storm. The Tastar is not too far off from that. We are aware of the storm, yes. Hang on, let me bring Vala in. She's been analysing it with some of my other mages. And there's kind of a brief moment and you see a little kind of illusory image of Valar joins Calus. Calus is like, Valar, I will leave you to explain to your friends. I must go and see to the defenses.

Storm chasers, I will return briefly. We are setting up a forward operating post around the Tassadar to use its defensive cannons to fend off the larger creatures. When you can, make your way here. I will return shortly to brief you on some more details, but speak with Valar about the storm. And then Calus seems to disappear,

and Valar's like, is everyone okay? I think so. Everybody okay? We're okay, yes? I think everyone is. We're not missing anyone. Howard? He was down in the... He's good? Howard's good. Everyone's good? Wait, what happened to Howard? Well, he was... Yeah, Sentry would have taken him to sickbay. He's probably still in there because he was the most injured,

but he's okay. You know he's alive. How was the mission? I mean, I was still here. Nice. Good job. All right, so... let's try and get the crew together, and let's... head towards Star Bay.

There's a few things you need to know. This storm, it's surrounding the breach point. It's completely surrounded the area. I need to go to access this Terminus Keep, the place where Hadar is. It's ruthless. Whoever goes near it, it just shreds them apart and we can't teleport through it.

It seems to be immune to a lot of magic. Is it moving? No, it's protecting the breach point. I think the other mages and I, we can sense that there are a few magical disturbances out in the ruins, but it's hard to determine what exactly is powering this. I'll be honest, Lucius, I think it's Akira.

I don't know if it's her specifically or it's just a spell of her working, but she's the one who definitely created this. It's complex. Not in the storm and not in the city, but it's like a piece of art that you can recognize the artist for. I can see her...

A signature? Yes, something like that. A magical kind of presence within the spell itself. I think that there must be something in the city that's powering it or channeling it or anchoring it in place, but it's hard to find. I think we've identified a couple of places where we can sense magical energy,

but I can't do any better than that. Hang on, I think Father's coming back. He had a few things he wanted to brief you on as well. And you see kind of callous return. Storm Champions, there are a few other matters that we should make you aware of. There are two large cannons, planetary weapons that are firing up into our forces above.

While with those cannons currently still enabled, we won't be able to get reinforcements from any of our other forces. This will make our final assault on the breach point very difficult. If you have any opportunity to go and disable those cannons or sending your own forces to do so, I would recommend it. There are also, we've detected large amounts of a massive force of enemy sort of low, lesser Hadar spawn. They probably won't pose much of a threat to you, but to my soldiers and many of our other reinforcements that are less seasoned warriors,

they will be a challenge. Again, if you have ways of dealing with this massed horde, that would be appreciated. There is also the matter of that several of our allies have gone down somewhere in the city. We have a few pings of their lost signals, and we've detected one ship ejected Valkyrian escape pods

somewhere closer to your location as well. Any allies that you can rescue and bring here will make our final assault easier. Do whatever you can, but hurry. We cannot hold this forward operating base for too long. We must make our final assault relatively soon. We will wait for you, storm chasers. But the longer you take, the greater at risk things will be.

We'll be as fast as we can. Communicate with me if you need me. I believe that you still have telepathic communication with Vala. Contact her if you need us. Until then, I must go. Me and Siaska must lead the assault on defending the area. Okay, good luck. Good luck.

And you just see Calus kind of flicker away as the communication ends. Mechanically. Okay. just see Calus kind of flicker away as the communication ends. Mechanically. Okay. Let me explain a couple of things. Yeah. So, you will, from the Tassadar,

be able to launch the final assault. Each of you will contribute to the final assault. The more allies, the more assets that you can bring along, the better. Cool. Yeah. There are also several complications. If you do not resolve those complications,

you will lose points towards the final assault. That will determine how successful your final assault is. It will also determine the survival rating of your NPC allies. Some of these complications are time limited. Moving between waypoints. You can see on the map that there are the green lines with little dots. Each of those dots represents a waypoint. Moving to a waypoint costs a team one time unit you can split up your forces however you like you can send multiple teams in different ways and each team's time units are counted separately so in order to get from storm chaser to tassadar if we just beeline it to the tassadar right it

costs you one two three four four there'll be one, three, four. That'd be one, two, three, four. So the first dot won't count. Yeah, the dot you move to is the one we count. So when you move to a dot, it counts as a time unit. Or time units. Okay. To beeline it. If you beeline it.

Now, there are multiple routes. There might be disruption on the way. There could be. There could be. There will be skill checks. Each team will decide how they wish to move. You can move quickly, you can move quietly, or you can move cautiously can move quietly or you can move

cautiously there is also the fact of each team will need to choose a team leader the team leader will be able to give a bonus to an ability check equal to their charisma modifier so each team will need to have a team leader your npc allies are here to fill up your spots you can have all of the npcs go as one team if you like and have the five of you travel as one team. You can split yourselves up if you wish to. You may get into combat. You may have to deal with skill challenges.

You do not know what awaits you. Like I said, I will remind you, some of these complications are time limited. If you do not complete them before your team has used a certain amount of time units, there will be consequences. Oh, boy. I can go over these rules at any point. Just say what you need me to do.

Sure. So on the map, there's the target icons, which I presume are just literally enemies. Could be. I put so there are there are some red target icons and red exclamation marks. These are kind of... you're not 100% sure they're unreliable but they are indicating areas where there might be enemies present or there might be environmental dangers. This might affect if you have to make skill challenges there. It might indicate that you have to have a combat encounter there.

You don't know. Okay. If the combat encounter is not particularly challenging, it's like a bunch of low-level enemies, we're just going to make a roll. We're not going to do a full combat. I'm just going to basically have you guys make skill checks effectively just to speed things up a little bit.

If you do decide to split up, I have stats of all the NPCs. You guys will be controlling them, so we can have you guys, if you do split up, it means that people aren't just sat there doing nothing. It means I don't have to worry about doing as much. Just remembering all the NPCs I've controlled.

And the PCs. And the player character. Well, I mean, yeah, when I controlled Katie, she killed an NPC as well. A lot of NPCs die on my watch. Yep. So I'd like to be team captain for just the NPCs, please. That makes sense to me.

I think that's how I want this to go. Should charisma bonuses grow? I don't have any charisma bonuses. Out of interest, I presume this is the case, there are certain avenues that are that there's blocked off by ravines and stuff if we use things like fly could we create our own routes to potentially other places okay depends on if you can fly the whole team if the whole team can't cross it then no okay the so the whole team has to be able to traverse it now that could be that like it might mean skill checks it might mean like, well actually somebody like Scout, who has a climbing speed,

isn't affected by certain types of terrain. Might be able to help other people get across it. There's gonna be some creativity here. There's gonna be some like allowances for you guys to like, be like, hell, we're gonna use this. Okay. You know, stuff like that. Cool.

And my final question, the escape pods that are not too far away, they shot out from the- One of the Valkyrian ships, yeah not too far away, they shot out from the... One of the Valkyrian ships, yeah. Not from the Tassadar, it wasn't from the Tassadar. They were Valkyrian, yes. So it could be Tassadar, though, because he was on a Valkyrian ship. Tassadar was with Thalia.

On the Twin Star? Yeah, well, he was in a smaller ship with the Twin Star. They blew up the Fenrir. Right, so they're counted as being in the same area. And the Twin Star, yes. That's what I was wondering. Tassadar and Thalia are in the same area. All right.

And in fact, as you do that, there is a telepathic message. I was going to say, as soon as Calus said telepathic. You all hear, those of you who are on the telepathic communication that Azaria set up, you hear Thalia. Storm chasers, Nova, anyone, hello? Thalia, I'm here. We've gone down somewhere in this ruined city. I'm pretty hurt. I can't walk.

Tassadar's with me, but he's weakened. There's things out there, and they're coming. I'm going to try and hold them off as long as I can, but I don't know how long I can hold them off. I need you to get here and help me. The Twin Star's broke. She's not flying. We're grounded as well, but we can move. I twin star's broke. She's not flying. We're grounded as well, but we can move. I'm coming to you.

Okay, I'll hold them off as long as I can. Tassadar! And then the telepathic bond with Thalia ends. As if perhaps anti-magic. I have to go. I can't leave It's okay. I can't leave her. We need to think about this because the Twin Star is unfortunately very close to this huge mass of enemies that we, admittedly, we need to take out anyway. But... Remember, you do not have to do every complication. No.

In fact, you will struggle to do everything. It's more thinking about... We should look out what the priorities are. Every member splits up. One... struggle to do everything. It's more thinking about... We should look out for the priorities. One... I tell you what, if you all went individually and maybe took one or two NPCs, you could certainly, you would probably

be able to do everything. It will be hard. But not impossible, not impossible. We could take, what is this, two NPCs each with someone getting just one. So... Actually, no, sorry, two of them. We haven't even got to yet. Two of them already there, yeah. two NPCs each with someone getting just one so actually no sorry two of them we haven't even got to

two of them already there yeah sorry these two are I'm going to take these away I just want to shove them in these but I'm going to take them away because they are not there

okay so we should work out the priority we need to work out a plan I mean the lost signal off to the west and this is not going to take up any time

just to assure especially for Kim sitting here and having a chat and figuring things out this is not going to take up any time, just to assure, especially for Kim, sitting here and having a chat and figuring things out, not going to cost you any time. Okay. Right. But obviously don't take this. Well, the cannons...

This thing is a cannon, one-time unit away. We can take that one out in the top right. Could we send damage dealers to take that out? I feel like that's not our priority. I feel like that's maybe a Max and Rethra kind of a thing, potentially. They're good hitters, yeah. There's a potential.

But do we need Max as like a leader for an army to take out a massed enemy of Hadar forces? If you'd like to know any of their stats, things like charisma, I can tell you their stats and stuff like that. Is it all charisma based? Team leader. The team leader can give their charisma bonus as a bonus to a role,

so it's good to have somebody with high charisma as a team leader. Remember, every team has to have a leader. Where's Max at on the charisma scale? Max is plus three, I believe. Okay, so he's not bad. He's not bad. Yeah. Compared to people like Nova and Lucius, he's not as good, but yeah, he's not bad.

Who's the strongest? Max and Protector are both physically strong. Protector should be on the cannons. Protector actually is a good shout for the cannons. So the cannon is off to the east. In order to get from, say, the cannon to the mass enemies, is one, two, three, four, five different time units to get around that route, unless from the cannons

we have someone cast Fly on as many people we can to get them like how much of a distance like we're going to abstract it so like i would say that like one like especially a spell that lasts an hour i'd say you can maybe jump like you know you can do something like that you can maybe fight but again has to affect the whole team sure um the other thing i would the other thing i'm gonna say, just to throw a spanner in the works, the team leader can move up to two waypoints for a time unit by making everybody basically hurry. That will give everyone exhaustion in that team. That team will suffer a point of exhaustion.

Okay. But if you were like, we desperately need to make like, get to this one, you can push to the right. That might be worthwhile for like, lost signals or somewhere where there's no a fight at the end, where we just need to get people. And just as a thing, you have to be at the Tassadar to launch the final assault.

All of you, the storm chasers. If your NPCs aren't there... How many time units? If you would like to try and figure out how much time you have, I'll allow you to make a skill check, but I'm not going to tell you straight up. Skill check me, Bob. figure out how much time you have. I'll allow you to make a skill check, but I'm not going to tell you straight up. Skill check me, bud. So I think that this would just be, because you're trying to base it on like, I guess

just trying to estimate like how much time you have. Taking like Nova's knowledge of technology, the Tassadar, how long that's got enough power to hold back the forces. Yeah, it's kind of a mixture of the power, yeah. And then I'd say a bit of military power as well, of like, you know, you are surrounded, there are no reinforcements, like, you don't have long. So I'd say this would be an intelligence check. And if you have proficiency in history,

I would allow a history check. Ooh, I got history proficiency. I do have that. I also have proficiency in history. You guys can roll. So do I! Like, do you? No. No, cannot. So do I. Do you? No.

Okay. I'd let everyone roll. If you want to roll, you can roll. Oh, yeah, sure. Why not? Fine. Yeah, sure. Oh, no!

Felucious. Nice. Do you have proficiency in history? Yeah. 26. So we got 26 Felucious. 14. 14 for Nova.

14's not going to be enough. 27. 18? 27. I would say. I got 97. 26 so we got 26 for Lucius 14 14 for Nova 14's not gonna be enough 27 18 27 I would say I got 19

I got a plus 8 I would say Sentry, Quill and Lucius working together Nova you're just too distracted too distressed yeah too distressed

I think is what I'm saying but I think Quill Sentry and Lucius working together I'll tell you this this is what I'm gonna tell you the task star can hold out as long as you need it to working together. I'll tell you this. This is what I'm going to tell you. The TASDAR can hold out as long as you need it to.

Every unit over 10 time units that you spend is going to make your chances worse. So if you have 10 time units free and then every unit after 10 is a penalty. You know what? It's more than I thought. I was expecting like you have six total. But that can go so quick. Well, again, keeping in mind, it takes you, and keep in mind, you all have to be at the Tassadar

to launch the final assault. And it's minimum five just to beeline it. Yeah, you're right. Minimum four, but yes. Four, yeah, sorry. And that is just to beeline it. And keep in mind, like, say, for example, you know, you go to, like, this magical anomaly here.

There's no other routes, so getting back is another time unit. Yeah. So I would, if, and not to tell you what to do, I would suggest planning the idea that, like, you are going to do as much as you can en route to the Tassadar. Yes, yeah.

And there's no, like, going back and forth. It's just all en route to the Tassadar. So that's kind of the forth, it's just all on route to the Tassadar. That's kind of the crux of my plan at the moment for at least one of the units or one of the teams is that the Hadar cannon is a big... There are two Hadar cannons. There's two of them but it's not going to require arcane knowledge to disable it or anything, it's like a flesh thing, right? Brute force and weaponry. Yeahry yeah so smashing it is a good thing take one over or take them over and hit the forces but they can't shoot anything on the ground they are planetary weapons they defend a flank so you could turn them on you could try and turn them against the hadar enemies above you sure

that would require more expertise it's also going to be literally mind control, right? These are kind of like biological slash kind of corrupted undead kind of things. Sure. But I'd say if you can find a way to do it, you could maybe turn that

to your advantage. It would be a lot easier to destroy them, but then you don't gain, you know, you're just basically preventing a problem rather than giving yourself

an advantage. Yeah, potentially. But if we had a relatively mighty force, strong force to go to the Huttar cannon, someone magical to go with them to cast fly on as many as we can, fly them over to the mast enemies, rather than going all the way around,

basically this would be the force that is trying to get to the twin star as fast as possible. Yeah, because the way I'm looking at it is like, I'd go south to east to the twin star, and then down to the Corsadi. Whereas... Down again, maybe to the right to the Magical Anomaly, but depending on time, left to the Tassadar.

Whereas if they went to the... We'd get there at night if we went to the anomaly as well. Which is tight. And that's if we succeed at everything. Do the events that we face in the locations also take time as well? Or is it just being in that place? That's going to come down to skill rolls there. If you fail the events, whether it's that you all roll really bad skill checks

or maybe the combat encounter goes really bad, it might cost you time units, it might cause you damage, it might cost you exhaustion levels. Unfortunately, you will not know until you attempt it. Yeah, okay. That makes sense. But there will, yes, there are... So it's not just travel that's taking time.

No, there's consequences as well. Okay. It is, I mean, time will always be that thing of like, I will probably give you a choice. I will either say, you can either spend an additional time unit or this is going to happen. So I will try and make time always a choice

so that you're never screwed over by random, like, you know, chance, basically. So it might be that like, you might like, I might say like, let's say you try and go to this cannon and you fail the skill rolls. I might say you can try again and it will cost you another time unit or you can just flee and abandon that objective.

Right? And then that doesn't cost you any more time. It's just the time that you spent already. I feel like we could... Are allies. Yes, yes, they are. I feel like they're... I mean...

You don't know who, but they are someone. It could be the Wild Elves, it could be the Guardians, it might be the Wild Elves, it could be the Guardians, it might be the Eterna, it could be the Fainites. You don't know. So I feel like, I haven't calculated the time, but splitting into two groups might actually cover like 90% of this. If we had...

So one group goes off to the west for one time unit to go to the Hadar Cannon, try and take that down as quick as they can. Using Fly or Expeditious Retreat or whatever to try and get to the Masked Enemy as fast as possible, bypassing that canyon is going to be a huge time save. And then going down to the Twin Star, it does mean there's two things before actually reaching the Twin Star and we don't know how long the twin star has enemy we don't know how long

that could cost time a lot of time could do but i mean the only reasonable way to get to the mast enemy right now anyway is still one two three four time units anyway so if anything we've got some time to take down a darkar cannon and fly over maybe. Meanwhile, another group could potentially go to the lost signal to the west, down to the escape pods, and then whoever, what force is in the escape pods would then assist to take down the Hadar cannon even further south. Right.

That is if they're in a good standing. If they're in a good standing. If they're not, we don't go to the Hadar cannon. We keep going south right through the Lost Signal down to the Tassadar. Are we leaving the Corsadi then? That's the dragons. I think the Corsadi is...

If we go to the Twin Star, I have to go through the Corsadi to get back to the Tassadar. It does mean we miss... Or I double back. There is a potential that we would miss the Magical Anomaly in the middle and maybe the Magical Anomaly onto the side,

depending on how well we're doing. Shut down the storm. Potentially. Potentially. Well, I will say this. The storm is being controlled by a magical force somewhere in this area. The magical anomalies are basically places

of high intensity magic. There's also another magical anomaly just here as well. Oh, but which we would skip in flying across the canyon. Can we fly potentially from Hadar Cannon to Masked Enemy? Yes. If you have the right spells or you come up with a cool creative solution. Yeah.

Anything is possible. We can go off-road. Yeah, of course you can. Yeah, absolutely. This is more just to give you the easy, don't have to think, don't have to do anything fancy kind of path to it. But of course, as always, this is TTRPG. You can do whatever you like.

These mechanics are just my way of processing all of that and making it into a game element. Hey, no, just to clarify, this is fucking rad. I know you would like it. Also, another clarification. This is Tom rad. I know you would like it. Also, another clarification. This is Tom speaking, not Quill. Quill is not the strategic mastermind that I am. You're flipping to your Tom voice then.

He's the grandmaster at this. There it is. Hey, it's me, Quill. Oh, thank you. Nice. So, yeah, again, if there's any other plans... I think Quill could, like, kind of convey a lot of the same stuff you're saying in a Quill way. Like, we can...

This can be a sort of semi-IC discussion. We're just not role-playing it out. So, everything I just said, but imagine I'm also laying an egg. Yeah. And going... Yeah. And also eating worms and...

And breaking your leg. And not healing vital NPCs. Yeah. Or healing unnecessary NPCs. Also, my eye is infected. Actually, no, Siaska fixed it. Oh, no, she did, yeah. I've got a fixed eye, but it's a regular eye.

A regular bird eye. The regular eye has got guns. Sorry. Hmm. Thoughts? Nova would like to take at least two NPCs and maybe one PC. And she is definitely going to go to the Twin Star straight away. This sounds pretty solid.

So Nova, are you going to be the team leader? I will be team leader because I have plus five charisma. All right, team A, we have Nova. So the first thing I'm doing is I'm going to the Twin Star. Well, I need to know who else you're taking with you. I would like to take nobody else is making a decision

so I'm happy to take this as like Nova is just literally picking people up and like we'll uh we'll put it on the cork board for now

I'd like to take Hope okay Danica I mentioned just the strongest ones he said Max and Protector for that. I said they were the physically strongest.

These are magical titans. Okay, Hope, Danica, Nova. DPS healer, nice. Are you a tank? No. Support? Would you like a tank? If Sentry wants to come.

I can, but then, yeah, I can come tank. Yeah. I mean, you could also take Max or Protector. Remember, Max then, yeah, I can come tank. Yeah. I mean, you could also take Max or Protector. Remember, Max and Protector are both kind of tanky types. They are strong, but they are not damage dealers. They are protectors. It might be good to take another piece of it. I don't want to say much more, because it's up to you guys if you want to come.

I don't want to say completely. Well, you can take Aayla or Sentry, probably. I think... I am under half health, though. I think if Sentry, Ala, team up with whoever to go for the Hadar Cannon, and then go to the masked enemy and then meet up with Nova at the Twin Star. If the team wants to use a timed segment to take a short rest, I'm happy for you to allow that as well.

I'm actually out of hit dice. It will cost you a timed segment. I'm out of hit dice. Nine of these two have fly. No, oh, so... So, can Hope cast fly? Nope. Can anyone cast fly?

At any end. Danica has a natural flying, but only on herself. She can naturally fly. So it means that maybe... Hope, I'm going to restore there. You're going to restore, right, okay. So Hope can basically...

She has like a three times a day heal. She can cast Enhance Ability, she has like a three times a day heal. She can cast enhance ability, pass without tracing Grasping Vine, and then once a day she can cast heal, greater restoration on Wall of Thorns as well. Okay, so what fly capabilities have we got for this potential plan that I've come up with? I'm out of spell slots, so I'm done.

I can fly. Well, you know what, get those spell slots back, though. 12 seconds. I have a girlfriend to save. For a time segment. Oh, would you like to take a long rest? Eight time segments. I think I might take a long rest.

The longest rest. Eight segments. Yeah. Oh, no, I'll do you a deal. Six time segments. That's nice. Lucius is going to take six time segments on the Storm Chaser. Okay.

In his Captain's Quarters. If you beeline to the Tastar, then take a long rest. Yeah, why don't you long wear a siren? I'll do that, Lucius. So if you were to do... I'm not doing that. Okay. If you were, for example, the person casting Fly on a team of people, how many could you do?

So my highest spell slot is 8th. I have two 7ths. I have two sevenths i have two sixths if i cast fly at sixth level i can do three uh including yourself plus three so it'd be four total plus well one being loose and he spells what highland fourth i can target one additional creature so it's not gonna fly So Danica's got natural flying. Yeah, but still, it's one less person to... If you went, maybe, at the lowest level of casting flight, if you went with Sentry, Aayla, and Max to take down the cannon, you could then do the fly to the masked enemy. But this is a team of four going against a cannon. That's all the tanks going.

And the masked enemy. Yeah, we don't want all the tanks in one place. Oh, no. Wait. Protector? No. Protector is more defensive. Protector and Max are quite defensive.

Danica and Azaria are quite damage dealers. Hope is kind of support. Scout is kind of a specialist. Scout's very good at moving through terrain and he's got a crossbow and stuff. But Rethra is kind of fighty. So maybe Rethra, maybe, yeah, it doesn't have to be Max, I'm just spitballing. But if there was a team of

the three NPCs, Lucius, Sentry, Aayla, for example, and Can you pass on the NPC things? one NPC, then you can fly over from the Hadar cannon. If that's a plan, I don't know. Lucius can make three other people fly. Oh. So three other people and himself, yeah. A team of four.

Is a team of four enough to go for a Hadar cannon? I was just thinking it would help if we just visually block it all out. I think so. And then a massed enemy after that. Yeah. So. Rathra is basically slightly less tanky Aayla.

If you put Nova somewhere, like team leader-y, and then put Hope and Danica with her, just this can change, I'm just blocking this out now. Yeah, it's good to visualize it. Put Lucius with his fly spell with sentry and Aayla and Max, I guess? Obviously you guys, you don't have to go with this plan. Max will protect her, one of the two. Okay, and then we've got Quill doing... Well, I'm thinking...

Quill is not a great leader. How fucking dare you? He doesn't have a high charisma bonus, is what I'm saying. I don't have, I'm not a good leader either. That's fine, it looks like you're going with Lucius. Maybe my charisma... Who I'm assuming would be the team leader. Maybe my charisma isn't that high

if my first response was how fucking dare you. Sentry's is pretty good. So Scout is yours to clutch your aim. He's a good one for moving big distances. I think I wouldn't mind being the team that goes to the west side for the Lost Signal. Escape pods. Escape pods. Hopefully they're in a decent state.

If not, I can heal them and go to the Dark Cannon. Yeah, that's good. And then to the dark cannon um and then down to the lost signal and then down to the tassadar so it does mean the east side is that max is that that's only one two three four five that's only six time units you'd have four time units that you've not not you could back other people up at crossing over waypoints if we i'm lying i'm also trolling i'm also like trying to tempt you guys. I feel like my team needs a little bit more if this is what this is.

Yeah, I mean, you've got these guys who are currently on. If you were, for example, beelining from Stormchaser to Twinstar, hopefully by the time Hadar Cannon team and Massed Enemy team, the same team, have dealt with that, you can then meet up and continue south as a big unit.

I'm happy for teams to join up. But it looks like I've got to deal with a fight situation on point... Three. Two or three, yeah. Maybe. Two. Again, those symbols are like, you're not sure. It's something.

Well, maybe not. It's like enemies might have been detected there, you're not sure. Potentially might be worth, so Nova's got at the moment, Danica who is blasty blasty damage, Hope who is healing, Me. And you.

So you ideally need someone who can fight. So, Protector. Protector maybe. Potentially. Yeah. Protector over to this team. That's quite a good lineup, probably. So, team of four? Either that, or if you wanted another PC, because I am aware that you are solo PC, you

could take Sentry or Aayla instead of Protector. I'm thinking, yeah. I think Sentry, well, so who would be the team leader of team? Team Hadar Cannon. His team is Lucius, currently Lucius, Sentry, Aayla, and Max. Lucius is pretty high. I got highest charisma, so in terms of- He's captain.

He's captain. I wonder, I feel like- You could move Sentry to a different team. I feel like Sentry- You could move Sentry to with Nova, potentially, because then- Well, if anything, I want Sentry. Oh. Well, I'm just saying that- century oh well where would century want to go

at the moment century's happy to do whatever i'm just saying that at the moment so it's just him with them you haven't got a tank on your team so i could be your tank for your team then so rether is quite fighty azaria is magical damage scout is kind of uh specialist he does he's got like a ranged weapon but he's more kind of like specialist. And then Quill and Sentry have got their PC abilities. Yeah, I wonder if either Azaria or Rethra could potentially shift over to the Dark Cannon team. It doesn't necessarily need specifically physical strength, that side. We could probably do with more Healy Boys on that side.

There are no Healy Boys. There's no Healy Boys. I'm guessing Azaria's. Azaria does have a heal, but it's only a once a day. Open Quill, that's all we got. And Sentry, Lay in the Hands. Sentry's got a heal. Yeah, Azaria has much, but...

So how much? Quill gets Sentry. I think I've got all my... I haven't used any other heal. You haven't used any other heal. So that's a good chunk of healing. Who else do you have? If you know what, use it on... If she's got it now, it's because she's got it.

So Azaria with Quill. Right, these guys are unassigned currently because I don't, again, I'm firmly locked in that Quill's going to be on another team. I think we need to put a healer on cannon team on the left. Yeah, but that means either me, Sentry, or Hope. Well, Hope's staying with Nova. Unless you give me a PC, Hope's staying with me.

I'll swap Hope out for a PC, but... That's what I was thinking. You could potentially put Sentry in, who would be good for a fight and healing with Lay on Hands. Especially if they're going past this amassed enemy. Also keep in mind if you guys want to ask the NPCs like their opinions, I'm happy to do that, but I'm currently just like, you guys decide stuff. Yeah, hmm. So, yeah.

I'm kind of digging this, to be honest. Like maybe Scout should go Team Cannon because he might be able to disable stuff. Yeah, he might be disruptive. Or, because if Lucius' team and Nova's team are trying to join up, then maybe Scout should go with Quill team because we'll have a mega team. Like a small unit to do this and then try and jump and meet up and meet up with the army yeah yeah yeah bigger unit yeah it's possible is that like lucius alan max join up with thalia squad yeah yes right yeah you you that's the

thing right so you'll be that team of three just gonna do canada flying over you will have to hit mast enemy though that's what I mean. It might be worth putting Azaria, even though it's just a small amount of healing, she can still do damage. Putting her on cannon team? I'm just wondering. I think that's a good idea.

I just feel like we haven't got healies at all. So we need someone who can do something. Even if it's a small thing, it will be a nice boost between, so. So you've got... I hope. You're going will be a nice boost between. So you've got... I hope. You'll have a nice team of eight when you meet. So currently we've split into three teams of four.

How convenient. We've got Lucius, Aayla, Max and Azaria. They're going to head east to the Hadar cannon and try and take that down. Can we ask Azaria what... Actually, like... Hey. Hello.

How do you feel about destroying a cannon? Azaria, what... Actually, like, hey. Yes, hello. How do you feel about destroying a cannon? I certainly relish the thought of a challenge, yes. A challenge. It is magical in nature. If it is living, my necromancy should affect it. And you're OK going into the sky? Well, I have no flight capabilities of my own. Oh, I'll be providing that for you.

Yes, of course, I do not mind flying. And we'll be descending potentially into a mass of Hadar forces. Yes, I mean, I am here to do what must be done, Captain Lucius. Don't worry, we have Max. My clone is safely stored on the Astoria. I have no worries about my Aesir. Sorry? Nothing.

Okey-doke. Can you get that out and use it? Would it be worthwhile to deal with the magical anomaly that is nearby as well, if we are having to wait for Thalia's nervous team? That's true. We could go there and then fly. Yeah, that's true. One, two, three, yes. I'm quite curious what these magical anomalies are.

It would make sense taking his area there, though. I'll just stand there like... The magical anomaly might be a big magic monster, and then you'll have to fight the monster. And you can whack. And then you can whack. Or it might be a big arcane engine that's powering horrible things. And then you have to whack.

See how the Hadaa Kanan mission goes. Apparently Max has more hit points than me, so Max is a... No, that's all right. You've got Azaria to burst heal. She's only got one heal. It's not even... She's got a mask kill. It's a pure wound. It's a mask kill. That's pretty got one heal. It's not even, it's a pure wound. It's a mask, that's pretty big.

Yeah, but it's not, it's her everyone. Ooh, actually, yeah, go on, sorry. Quill, what is your plan? So, my plan is, well, I say my plan, Century will be the team leader in this operation. Okay, well, tell me what we're doing. My intent, to go to the east towards the Lost signal. That will take two time to get there. Heading south. Sorry, south then west.

To this lost signal. To the lost signal. Try and determine who that is. Then south to the escape pod. Can you do that? Yes, there is a green line there, yep. Whoever is there, they may need healing, and hopefully we can recover a strong enough force to take down a Hadar Cannon ourselves. So you're going south from there? South from there. From the escape ports.

Then either, depending on how well we're doing with time, we will head- So we can communicate at this point, that's fine. Yeah, Zari still has the telepathic bond. Yeah, so we can keep in touch and stay lined up. And then either, depending on how time goes, we either head south, if we're short on time, we're gonna head south to another lost signal,

presuming they are still safe and fine, and then south to the Tassadar, or from the Hadar Cannon, we will go east to the Magical Anomaly, try and determine what that is. And then Tassadar. And then back down to the Tassadar. At the same time as this, Nova has a team with Hope, Danica, and Protector to basically straight line it to the Twin Star

and then join up with the Masked Force. It's gonna be tough for us to get to the Tassadar within time, I will say that now. Within the ten hours. You can get there in nine. It's nine, but that's if things go really well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, like I said, extra time will always be a cost.

So if you're like, nope, we've just got to go, you can always abandon the objective. We can always abandon stuff, yeah. I was going to see if we could... I'll move you around. We'll describe it as you go. I was going to decide as we could... I'll move you around. We'll describe it as you go. I was going to decide as we got there. Yeah.

You don't have to have the whole journey planned out. You can change your mind. The main thing is to get the teams locked in, and then from here... That's the symbol. That's what we should get tattooed. Hold it up to share the group. That is the path lines.

He's been drawing... It's just made big R. Oh, you've been drawing roots. Big R. Yeah. You want me to get a big R tattooed, you've been drawing roots. Yeah. Sure. You want me to get a big R tattooed on me? I guess that's Lucius' path as well.

The only potential negative of this plan is that the east side contingent will be eventually a team of eight people plus the twin star, so another two people, plus Corsardi. If they're in a state to fight. If they're in a state to fight, but there is gonna be a mass force on the east side that will just sweep the nation. We can, for example, Team Lucius, go from mass enemy there and then split off from those guys and go back to the center.

To rejoin you. To rejoin you. Or we could go straight to the Cors- Actually, no, it doesn't matter. Let's achieve our first objectives and then check in on each other. Because basically we can split up as we... In that case, so I would like...

That is the most efficient planning we've ever done. Is it? This is... Basically, I would like you guys to just pick an NPC that when it comes to it, if you need to control them, you're going to control the NPC. Zarya.

Give me Zarya. Protector, Hope. She seems fun. Can you pass me Hope? Oh, and Danica as well. Let's gooch this one this way. I've got Max. You might have to double up.

Do you want me to? I'll do Max. That's alright. You do Zarya. Right. Okay. Right. You've got Rathra.

I've got Scout. Remember, Rhi can't bend over that well. You've got to pass her. So we're convening and we're talking with team leaders and stuff. We haven't factored in Norfya. That could easily be on the team. Can I have a word with you in private, please? Sure. We haven't got long, though.

We've got to save. We've made our plan. We've got the lines. I'll come with Nova. Okay, everyone knows the plan. Everyone knows the teams. We know our locations. Reconvene here in 10 minutes, and then I'll take Lucius to the captain's quarters. No longer than that.

I was gonna suggest, I was gonna pull Nova aside. I was actually gonna say before we leave. Yeah. Before we went. So we're gonna reconvene here in 10 minutes. We'll take Lucius to the captain's quarters. I'll come with you. Lucius, I have something really difficult to tell you,

and I really wish I wasn't telling you this. There was a very difficult situation on the Fenrir. Norfyr didn't make it. She didn't make it. She didn't make it? No. But she's... What happened? We were trapped.

There was two tunnels. One was filled with fire, one was filled with ice. We had to traverse the tunnels to disable locks, to open doors. Unfortunately, somewhere in the ice, she must have gotten lost. Lost? Not fair. She doesn't get lost.

It was a very long corridor filled with ice. It was... There was no other way. And Lucius can probably see that Ayla is, like, burned from being in the fire corridor for as long as she was badly burned but very badly burned did she say anything she said it was I didn't want her to go and she said she would she said I needed to get to the engine room. And I tried to say no.

And she said she would go. And she knew what the cost was. I'm sorry, Lucius. I tried to get her out. It's okay. I understand. Everyone puts everything on the line and I knew she... That's exactly what she would have done. She knew as well. She knew.

I just can't believe it. I'm really sorry, Lucius. She did brilliantly. She's the reason that we succeeded. She's the reason that we didn't lose the Astoria and the Testa. It was her. She raised me, you know.

I know. It was mostly her. I connected the most. That's why I'm out adventuring. Well, let's do this for her. Okay. I'm sorry, Lucius. I'm really sorry. Let's do this for her. Okay. I'm sorry, Lucius. I'm really sorry.

It's okay. It's not your fault. I don't want you to hold this over your heads. We all knew the risks coming here. If I could have... gone into the ice and the fire tunnel, I would have. Yes, and you probably would have, I don't know, beat it up or something. But... I wish I could just beat up the corridor, Lucius.

I really do. Norfair doesn't make decisions lightly, and she makes great decisions. So... I trust she made the best one for us. and she makes great decisions, so... I trust she made the best one for us. So let's make the most of it, all right? Let's not carry this weight. Let's succeed for Eros and everyone. We didn't want you to go out

not knowing what had happened. I appreciate being told now. Thank you. Well, all right. Salute, salute. Let's get going, shall we? And Lucius walks out. I'm just going to turn to Aayla and be like, he's not okay. No, but none of us are. We're on Entropis at the end of the world, and the end of the universe, about to fight something that we can't even comprehend.

And there was another almost airship crash, which, you know, I don't like. Nothing's okay, but it's fuel. We're going to use this and we're going to do it for her. For everyone that we've lost, we have to do this. There's no choice. Because if we don't do this, then her death is in vain. And everyone that we've lost, it's not an option not to do it. And I'll keep an eye on him. I'll make sure he's okay.

Because that's where we have the edge on Hadar, is we have each other. And we look out for each other. I'll make sure Lucius doesn't do anything dumb. Well, more dumb than usual. I think Nova will just give Aayla a big hug. I'll allow it. Does Lucius go anywhere particularly,

or are you just going straight out, straight back into? Straight back into where everybody else is. I feel like me and Sentry have pieced together, where's Norfyr? We need to talk to her alone. I think Hope and Scout would have thought. Yeah, Hope was there. Having seen Aayla and Nova taking Lucius aside, Hope would probably be the one to be like,

I should probably tell you, and then she kind of gags herself and tells you. So if I was to look at Lucius coming back in, are you just masking? Is it? Roll a perception. Or insight? Insight. I mean, and deception if Lucius is just trying to keep a,

or performance I guess I would allow as well, as this is almost like playing a role, but I'd say deception. Same. Yeah. 18? 23. Son of a bitch.

He looks cold, you know, quiet and confident. Cold. Not cold, but like... You just can't read past it. Yeah, just like stoic. Like, I guess you're just like, yep. And so Max and Azari are probably waiting for you, like, you know, as soon as you come out, they're like, we've got ourselves prepared.

Because they don't know what's going on. They're just like, yep, we've got our team, we're good to go. They've got themselves ready. I'm not seeing any sort of, of like break there or anything like that so i'm it just sort of if anything instills me with even more confidence that that team is going to be safe and fine and stable on that side of the uh the the battlefield heavily burned i was just like uh you see see the sort of... I imagine that... I don't think she'd have like a...

She has like all scars, like most of the fur on her arm is like being sort of like, you know, burnt away and stuff like that. But Kamara leads what is left of the wolf pack, along with Oriah, Howard, Penny, Lookout and the others. And they are basically setting up their like... They turn around and Oriah's like, We are going to do everything we can to get the storm chaser up in the air. We're going to defend it, if anything attacks, we're going to remain here to defend it, but our hope is that maybe we can try and figure out

what's wrong with it and get it up in the air. Even if we can't go fast or go far, maybe we can come by and at least help later on, but we're going to focus on that for now. Okay. Okay, so halfway through our mission you're going to receive communications from us all right it will either be a you need to break and head straight to the tassadar on foot all right the good news is you tell us that the

storm chase is on its way all right okay well we'll work on it as long as we can. That's five units time. But priority, if anything is out there coming towards the storm chaser, just survive. Well, we've got the turret. The bottom turret is still working and it faces out towards the valley and the shields are working, so hopefully we can use that to protect ourselves. But we'll do what we can. The best thing you can do is delay your departure so that we can use that to protect ourselves. But we'll do what we can. The best thing you can do is delay your departure

so that we can clear a path for you. Yeah. Yeah, right. It's just like, yeah, I mean, we won't. We'll just go straight to the Stasadar if we need to. But yeah, otherwise we're going to try and we're going to do what we can. But given that we don't really know what's going on, I'm not confident we'll get the Shomtay something.

Yeah, this may be her last voyage. Okay. Right. Well, be her last voyage. Okay. Right. Well, we're going to head west, so I suppose. Right. So, teams, I'm going to move you to your first locations, team leaders. So I believe, Nova, you're going straight down, yes? Yeah.

As is Lucius. Sorry, Lucius is going straight to the cannon. And then Sentry is the team leader, is also coming down this way. Oh, wait. Yes, we are, yeah. Those of you on the southernmost point. Do you guys say goodbye to each other, but then go in the same direction? Yeah. We're going towards the south, but oh, wait. The only route is this way, actually, so...

I'll just go on my own, sorry. Oh, wait. The only route's this way, actually, so... I'll just go on my own then. Okay. Well, Lucius is going off to the Dark Cannon, so bye, Lucius. Bye, Lucius. Bye, Lucius. Bye. Be safe. I'm going too. Bye. Oh, bye, Ayla. Sorry, Ayla. I forgot you're on that team. Max is here too.

Bye, Max. Be safe. I'm also here. I'm also here. If we're all here, all the NPCs are here. But that is one time unit for everybody. So I need team leaders, team leaders only, to determine, no, you just need to tell me, are you moving quickly, quietly, or cautiously? Quickly.

Quickly. Oh, you are? Okay. Cautiously. Cautiously. It's Sentry's decision. Sentry Nova. Cautiously for Team Sentry. Before we go, can I swap my armor out? Because I was in the thing, so I'll back into my honky armor.

Thank you for saying before you go, because that puts time backwards. What have you got in your spell storing ring? He can store a level seven spell. Seven? No, he can't. You tinkered with the ring. Wait, what? The four.

Yeah, we had the ring tinkered with so you can store a level seven. I went back and checked it. Again, the best I can give you, if you have any space for it, I was thinking, Quill to cast it. Yeah, it costs.

I was thinking of giving you another Mask of Your Wounds if you've got the space for it. It costs Quill to cast it. Yeah, it costs a lot. I was thinking of giving you another Mask Cure Wounds if you've got the space for it. Kili stuff is handy. But that's a fifth level. I can't do any higher than that. At least I'm still better than that. You can, well, you can up, well, yeah, it would cost you a level two

if you wanted Healing Word or something. Or a less aggressive restoration. You could give him a level two something. Maybe just the one. Yeah, I'm just going to give you that one. But you could put a first level cure wounds, a second level normal cure wounds in there just to get something back up.

I'm trying to preserve. Look, I know you look at me and you think that guy is emanating spell slots. You're just brimming. I'm just back to back slots. Slots, slots, slots, slots, slots. You've got it written on your pen, your Apple pen.

I do actually. It says spell slots on it. We've got it written on your pen, your Apple pen. I do, actually. It says spell slots on it. We've got a lot of stuff to do. I'm going to give you that. Before we leave the Storm Chaser, just because Oriah said it might be her last voyage, Aayla's just going to pick up a splinter, maybe if a splinter's come off the hull or something.

A decent chunk-sized chunk of it. It's like a decent-sized chunk of it. Scavenger. All right. I'm being sentimental! of it. Yeah, that's true. Scavenger. All right, team leader. I'm being sentimental. So we have quickly, cautiously. Cautiously and cautiously for Sentry and Nova's team.

In that case. We're doing cautiously as well, sorry. Okay, sure. Is that like in between? It's like a mix of both. It's not as slow as quiet. It's, I'll tell you this, moving cautiously means that you are going to be more alert to dangers

around you moving quickly means you move faster moving quietly means there is less of a risk of enemies finding you we have the

one of the shorter paths so path size doesn't matter well so but so quickly is just faster than the other two

potentially race you to the Tassadar it doesn't affect the time units, but you're more likely to cost more time units if you fail cautiously and quietly. I see, okay. But if you move quickly, then your problem will be

you find something that is going to be a problem. It seems like a good middle. Cautiously? Cautiously. All right. In that case, I need you all to roll a d20. Don't worry about adding modifiers. Just the captains? Or leaders. roll a d20. Don't worry about adding modifiers. Just the captains?

Just the captains. Okay, don't worry about modifiers. This side of the table can't be trusted to be captains. No. Don't want that. I mean, this represents the whole team, not just Lucius. I rolled above a 10. It's a 15. Nice.

Just a straight roll. First time in a year. I know. Not good. Eight. Eight a 15. Nice. Just a straight roll. First time in a year. I know. Not good. Eight. Eight, 15. Three. Three. Sentry team.

Wait, what have you done? What? Three? Yeah. Why are you- I like how you said, we can't be trusted. There was a charisma potential here, but no.

As Nova and Sentry, your team's currently still moving together you make your way south as you begin to enter the sort of more built-up ruins and imagine very post-apocalyptic kind of these are tall buildings these are imagine almost a modern day city but just completely made of stone and it's all crumbling and falling apart you know maybe there are some like metal structures but they're heavily eroded and it's almost like the steel has gone gray but rusted like it's kind of got like a gray black rust all over it um but imagine like the tall buildings some of them are collapsed some of them are just turned to rubble and dust and debris

as you're making your way nova you and your team uh manage to kind of move away and are kind of keeping away but you begin to sort of move off to the side as you begin making your way to the next part of your journey um as century you and your team begin to head off you become aware that there are these kind of floating eyeballs kind of beholderish but without all the tentacles and the eye stalks almost just like these kind of and they have like mouths but all over their the back of their eyeball like these smaller mouths and the bigger mouths they have like hooked barbs and they are patrolling as if they are searching um you are going to encounter that team what are you and your team going to do so any any pcs in your team so i believe that's you and Quill. You guys can make plans and stuff like that.

You can also tell the NPCs to do things based on what they are doing. I am happy to role play the NPCs, but I need to know what you guys are gonna do as you have encountered a danger, a threat. You can try and hide, I'd say, like obvious ones I'm gonna just give you. You can try and hide, it will take you time.

You can try and fight them and destroy them quickly before they can give off any warnings or anything like that uh you can try and uh just avoid them uh sorry i guess that would still be the same as self um you can sort of trick them like uh distract them so this is this is both uh team century and team novas. No, just team sentry. Imagine that, like, although you were moving together, like, novas already started to peel away and you guys as well. Individual teams have individual... So, I mean, Scout himself can ignore difficult terrain,

but that doesn't really benefit the rest of us. If we were to try and... I mean, you'd have to tell me how he's going to use that to get around these things. Yeah, I mean, if he was to really off-road it and go completely elsewhere, away from these things, maybe we just go ham on these mothers? Just try and dispatch them quickly? Yeah, could do.

Did I sound cool when I said that? Yeah, you sounded cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was thinking, because you and Scout are pretty stealthy. You're quite quick. Because you and Scout are pretty stealth. You're quite quick. Yeah, I mean, if I, I guess flying is no benefit. It could kick up a dust storm. Yeah, because I was thinking like you and Scout

could try and get past and then me and Rethra could chain whip me because I'm terrible at stealth. You don't have to, don't think, you don't have to use abilities. You can use the abilities if you want to as well. But think of this more as just a general, how are you going to deal with this problem? So it sounds like you and Rethra would try and just get past them.

Yeah. You just want to kind of almost use acrobatics and speed to just get past them quickly rather than trying to do it stealthily. Yeah. That's certainly an option. Just from a time standpoint. Based on the dust storm that kicked up from, I mean, obviously this was from the storm chaser crashing into the ground.

If I used gust consistently as a cantrip and just try and whirl up this mist, essentially, it would mean you're essentially, well, not necessarily attacking through, but stealthing still. It would give you assistance to your stealth. You'll still be clanking. Well, because mine's a disadvantage. Oh, you're a disadvantage, so probably like... I mean, dust in eyeballs is pretty annoying. That is, yeah.

You get the blinkies. Yeah, do they have eyelids? No eyelids. Oh, so they just get barraged by the dust. You can't clear it. Yeah, could be. I say nothing. One of the males like licks it. Licks the eyeball at it. Could we? I say nothing. One of the males licks it. Licks the eyeball at it.

Like a lizard. It probably will. Guys, we need to take a break. I like comedy as much as everyone, but I'm watching the timer and I'm like, we gotta motor. Dust Storm? Team Dust Storm until it goes wrong and then we just go, as I said,

ham on these mothers. In that case, I would say that this would be, I'd have Quill make an arcana check, like to use his magic to create a Dust Storm and then Sentry, I'll have you roll a stealth but no disadvantage or advantage

because the Dust Storm's going to age you. All righty. That's with advantage, right? No, not for you, you son of a bitch. I got a 12. 12 total. With a plus eight. Nice.

I got 19 on my stealth. Okay. Oh, shit. Oh, my God. I know. It's unheard of. I'm going to give you a choice. Either you have to fight, you have to end up these things things are gonna find you and you're gonna have to fight them.

Like you basically get to the point where the dust storm seems to be like obscuring it, and Sentry are moving quietly, but that dust, it seems that when you use your magic to kick it up, it's like the dust has a mind of its own and it doesn't linger in the air as much as you were hoping it to, and it begins to fade before Sentry and Rethra and that are out of vision, you have a choice. I will either allow you to, you've gained enough of a distance from these eyes that you could try and outrun them if they are, or like try and like just try and book it away from them

before any other creatures can arrive, in which case you may tie yourselves out. Or you can spend extra time segment to basically duck into cover and find somewhere to properly hide, try again and basically use the dust to really give yourselves a full advantage. But it's not as easy as you first thought. One of those two.

What do you want to go for? Kill? Kill. I mean, yeah, you could also, yeah, if you just want to try and fight these guys, yeah. Clears a path for those. So Skarriot does have ranged. fight these guys, yeah. Clear the path for the storm chasers. I mean, so Skarret does have ranged. Skarret does have ranged. Don't worry about that, I'm not going to do a full combat, I'm going to do a quick thing for this.

Yeah, Skarret has ranged. Rethra, I imagine, doesn't have a huge amount of ranged. The axe goes a little bit. So we might be able to... He's got a 15-foot reach on his chain axe. Are you guys fighting? We're fighting. Alright, in that case, I need all of those involved in the team

are going to take 12 points of damage. Okay. And you guys evaporate these things. Like you guys have a short engagement, short skirmish.

They do call some allies, some of the kind of like red skin humanoid, like the Hadar minions. They end up calling some of those from the ruins. You have to fight them off. But you do do so,

but you're all going to take some damage in doing so. He said do do. Right. Because I want to do this before we go on break, the other two teams. So Nova, you are just making your way. However, Lucius' team. You guys arrive, and you see before you,

built into a mountain, and it looks like it might have taken over what is an old observatory. You can see this organic like growth, like a giant like fungus, but it's covered in barbs and mouths and tentacles, black and red musculature kind of woven together and you can see these giant kind of venom sacks uh almost pulsating with magic and this giant cannon just pointing up into the air very tyrannids if you're familiar with what i'm a 40k and just firing these blasts of magic and the whole place is swarming with those lesser hada spawn these like little minions not quite as powerful as the death manglers and things like that that you were fighting but you know creatures ofar, you can see a few cultists. You know, they're wearing dark robes, but it looks like some of them have their arms replaced by a black tentacle. Some of them don't have faces, they just have giant mouths.

Some of them have, like, pieces of their body missing in a black light, very similar to other NPCs that you've fought before. And they're all basically operating this planetary cannon. And when we come back from the break, we're going to see how you guys deal with it, but we are going to take a break here. All right. See you in five minutes, everybody. Hell yeah.

See ya.