High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #3 - The Midnight Raid (Part 2)

Episode Date: July 19, 2018

Plans are in place for the midnight raid! It's time to get back what was stolen from us! Huge thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond and Brilliant. D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Use the code HIGHROLLING on D&D Beyond (http://bit.ly/dndbeyondhighrollers) to get 25% off all digital items (excluding the Legendary Bundle)! Brilliant.org helps you master concepts through fun, guided problem solving. D&D has a rich history of puzzles and problems, so boost your brain power with Brilliant! The first 200 users to follow our link (http://bit.ly/highrollersarebrilliant) will get 20% off an annual subscription! Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. Rogers. TD and your small business go together like... TD's small business account managers have in-depth business banking expertise, so they can give you the advice and resources you need to make your day-to-day easier. So if you're ready to meet your small business match, we're ready for you. Visit td.com slash small business match to book an appointment with one of our advisors. Hello and welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Arois, run by Dungeon Master Mark Sherlock-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Kelek Ad-Kalar, the bard slash cleric. And I'm Kim, I'm playing Nova, who is an air ganassi, and she is a hexblade warlock.

I am Chris Trott, I'm playing Lucius Viren Eloyn Elinastio, and I am a high elf sorcerer. Unfortunately, Katie and Rhiannon couldn't make it to today's session. That means Aayla and Sentry will be played by Mark throughout the duration of this episode. A big thanks to our sponsors, D&D Beyond and Brilliant.org. Stick around for the end to hear more about those. But the show must go on. Let's see if this midnight raid goes as well as we'd planned. During the night, Lucius, you were just, you struggled to stay awake. Like, it's not necessarily sleep, but you're so exhausted you fall back into your trance.

And the last thing you heard, like, there was a faint rustling as you drifted off. When you awake in the morning, you have all completed a long rest. Yay! And you find that some sort of small animal must have come through the camp. It's probably nicked some of the remains of the food. And it's just rushed off.

It's run off into the woods. Like half a dead rabbit or something. Like breakfast. It's stolen your breakfast. I'm asleep, so I can't. Is it cute? It's not there anymore. Just do the tracks look cute.

It's probably like some sort of fox or something like that that's run off and grabbed that all. It is so difficult to trance without my bed. What do you mean? So she's like, you said that you would be watching. Oh, I did. Are we dead? No.

I see. Thank you, Century. I like Century a lot. Thank you. Isn't she just so nice? We could have been attacked. Yes, what do you mean? You were sleeping. I was scouting. Normally I would appreciate this conversation, but please, can we go?

Yes, let's get a move on. It is dark. We should move. Yusef, go. Sorry, did I sense anything in the long rest? Yeah, so when you take the long rest, you struggle to sleep. So instead you kind of focus on meditation. You struggle to sleep, so instead you kind of focus on meditation.

And you focus on just trying to feel for that bond that you've created with Tiangong. This kind of presence that sometimes feels cold, like you're looking up at the stars. And you sense there are flashes in this kind of fever dream-like state. You almost feel like they're memories, but they're not fully formed in that way. You have sensations of being out amongst the stars, like in a cold sea surrounded by lights. Then a sensation of being trapped and being taken somewhere but this was long ago before this event this was long long long ago you feel yourself becoming weakened and the power being drained away from you slowly and you know it's being used for a purpose that you don't like. But you have no way of stopping it.

After these flashes, these kind of almost near memories, you can sense almost like a faint, fragile string is tied around your heart. And it tugs you towards the north. You can almost feel like faint, gentle pulls, but you have to have moments of absolute quiet and still to feel them. You think that it might help you in locating him. And you wake up and you have that sensation of, if you take these moments, you might be able to give you a vague,

just directional origin. Yeah. Quill, while you were sleeping something happens with you as well oh you have strange dreams okay you imagine yourself on a coast on a cliff looking out at the sea and you can see that there is a great storm out on the oceans you can see black clouds and swirling winds and you watch as flocks of birds fly across the ocean and some of them fly into the storm itself whilst others land on the sand below and they actually you watch them as the birds who land their wings fall off and they begin to cocoon themselves like their bodies almost like moths they begin to wrap themselves in these cocoon like shells that then sink into the sand you watch you watch this happen

and those that you're almost certain that the birds that fly into the storm you don't know what's happened to them but you can feel the sense that it's painful and you feel hands on your shoulders and you see glowing human skin like a human man's hands that glows and you hear the rustling of feathers but you you can't turn around. And just a voice just says, what do you wish to do? And you can see that it's asking you a choice. Would you fly into the storm or would you cocoon yourself like the other birds? I would join the others in the storm. You basically feel the arms kind of underneath both of your wings, like you can feel that your other arm is there, and you feel it pick

you up and begin to fly off into the storm, and it says, you hear this voice kind of just muttering, it says like, freedom always has a cost. And then as you hit the storm there is the racking sensation of pain, your arm being ripped away again, and then you're awake. Oh. Uh, yep. Nope, still there. Are you all right, Quill? Century looks at you. Yes, very, very fine. Very good. Very good, Century. Thank you. Is everyone okay? Is everyone alive? Is everyone good?

Yes. You're speaking very quickly I panicked just remember to breathe Quill yes enunciate

yes sorry sorry what time where when pitch black it's like

it's night time we're gonna make sure you get some water and food and then we're gonna move out we have to do something quite reckless to get our possessions back.

Right, Sister Yusuf is like, what do you, Corrin will remain here with Arful. Do you wish me to come with you? We could use a healer. I can come with you if you wish, yes. I'm not a great fighter, but I'm happy to help. Stay behind Sentry. She's a good protector.

Very well. She looks at good protector. Very well. She looks at Vala. Vala, you will remain here. She's like, no, I promised I'd help Nova. I'm going to help steal the sword back. Sister Yusuf is like, you absolutely will not do that. I have been charged to look after you. We are not going into some elven camp where you will be at risk. That is not...

No, I'm sorry. You know what, Yusuf? You're right. Vala, I've had some thinking about this. I is not... No, I'm sorry. You know what, Yousef? You're right. Vala, I've had some thinking about this. I've meditated, I've tranced. And I really hope we don't see you at this camp. She, like, looks at you. Wink.

She's like, all right, okay, I'll stay here. She's like, alright, okay, I'll stay here. By the way, the plan is that after we hit the camp, we would head east anyway to the river. So we are all kind of headed that direction anyway. Arthur's like, I mean, I can make my way, but I can't go anywhere near this camp without with my leg. They'll hear me coming No, we can stop short of there obviously, but once we go into the camp, we'll come back We'll head off. All right. Hey, let's like yeah, we can probably find somewhere nearby good, okay and

Also in terms of healing I can also Heal as well. So we've got that then you keep safe quill well more safe than use that gunny well i can try i've never fired it before and i might yeah don't try and fire that thing early like don't fire it now that thing's going to be really loud i know i last love and like that is not a stealth that is a that is a things have gone terribly wrong. You know what? It's going to go on this side of my body, away from my arm, so there's no way I'm going to fire it. Okay. Good shout.

Good idea. All right. Perfect. I mean, do what you want. Ayla just looks at you. So, those of you who are adept, Ayla, for example, how do you stop the overwhelming feeling of an absolute meltdown? Because I don't like being here at all. Don't be a wuss.

That doesn't help. But thank you for the attempt. Deep breaths. In four, out four. Do you know how to count to four? Absolutely. Who do you think I am? We just need to fly into the

storm, as it were. But afterwards, we'll come out free. Please, please, can we go? Please. Quite the poet, Quill. Right, so you have this conversation while you are making your way through, because it does take you some time. From where you

camped to where Quill saw the kind of, like, the fires when you were first coming down these kind of like wood buildings. It takes you probably yeah like a few hours to like trek through the woods in the night so when you arrive it's near midnight. The moon is pretty bright but it is kind of every so often like thick clouds are like trailing over it which just plunge the woods into like near blackness um there is always like this kind of ever-present multi-colored light and you can see now at night um the sky of eros is littered with stars is is uh just covered in in like diamond dust of stars just across it and in a ring around the planet is this kind of multi-colored almost like the

aurora borealis like permanently around the planet um and you would all know that century wouldn't and rianne's not here but century doesn't know but that is what's called the cradle and it was the last divine essence of siaska that she used to push out callus and the other kind of demigods and immortals and then it sealed off the planet from things like ships and planar magic and things like that. And it basically protects Eros. You can see that. And that kind of casts down some light. But the stars provide it mainly, and the clouds do cover them up every now and then.

I'm going to retcon. There is no moon. That was defaulting to Earth logic. There is no moon on Eros. It's's just starlight but the stars are very bright so at night time there is like a permanent light so with no moon is it super super dark yeah well the stars so the stars are bright enough that they provide starlight okay but when they're covered up by clouds it's the same thing right like you can't say the cradle provides a little yes ambience yes but it's very hard to see anybody who has dark vision basically you're you're effectively blind um or like you can't barely see yeah there is no moon there is no there is no so you make your way and you you leave the others you leave uh corin arvor and vala uh to the side with vala kind of

like winking back at Lucius and you begin heading off towards where you spotted these buildings. I'm assuming you're all approaching stealthily. That is gonna be stealth checks all around. No exhaustion anymore. Okay. Cool. Yep. 14. 11. 11. 11. 15. 11. You and Ayla both had the lowest with 11. I did actually well for Yusuf. Yusuf is actually the lowest.

You can see her robes get tugged on things and she can't see because she's human. But she's like, she probably conjures light on her holy symbol but angles it. So she kind of uses her robe to kind of point it at the ground so she she can see where she's going that means she's quite slow and she's like stepping on things and getting caught on stuff i assume i can't really see much color right now uh if you if there is light yeah but otherwise no your dark vision is black and white only but if they have like a campfire or something like that you'd probably be able to see um so you make your way and you can see that basically, you can see what appears to be maybe three or four wooden kind of ramshackle buildings,

two of which are built up into the trees and then two of which are built on the ground. And they're quite large. They look like they've been hastily put together log cabins, built from sort of like either lumber or some of it looks like reclaimed wood like maybe from other settlements or ships and you can see that they have got are there's like bedrolls with thick wolf furs and bear skins kind of like on the ground you can see that there are rope ladders leading up to the buildings up in the trees and you can see that there's quite a lot of

these wild elves around two of them appear to be sleeping outside they're just tucked into these thick bedrolls two of them appear to be around a campfire, just kind of sat on like crude wooden like carved chairs and they're just kind of poking at it but you can see they're kind of like, one of them looks like

he's trancing, one of them is kind of like lazily just like kicking at it, staring into the fire. But they have three which look to be sentries. And you can see those from here, Quill. You see them even with your low-light vision. You can see that they have three sentries, one by each of the ground buildings and then one in the sort of rear tree line.

And you can see that they're armed with short bows and they have like a bone whistle around necks, like on a leather cord. It looks like a kind of long flute, and it looks to be some sort of whistle. And yeah, that's what you see. You can see that there are barrels and supplies all stacked up in a pile. And I would probably say, in fact, actually, the shaman that you guys saw before is probably going to be one of these guys.

He's probably the one staring into the fire. Just thinking about things. the shaman that you guys saw before is probably going to be one of these guys. He's probably the one staring into the fire. Just thinking about things. Yeah, he's just kind of staring into it. And you can see that he doesn't appear to have Tiangong on him. It's not on his person. Do I have enough time to focus and see if I can... You think it's in this area, but it's not. You can't pinpoint it.

Where are we approaching from? Anywhere you want. At this point, but you can't pinpoint it. Where are we approaching from? Anywhere you want. At this point, they're not aware of you. I'd say that you guys can pretty much approach from... We arrived from the south. So you can see that you can basically... You see the scene as described before you, right? You can see these sentries.

You can see the trees. You can see the wooden buildings. What would you guys like to do? Ayla kind of crouches down and looks at you lot. Never. But she's not going to take actions until you guys come to do? Aayla kind of like crouches down and like looks at you lot. Nova. But she's not going to take actions until you guys come up with a plan. I don't want to be deciding what happens. Whispering.

Yes. Nova, can you sense your swordy? It's here, but I can't pinpoint where. Okay. But it's definitely here. Okay. So looking ahead, so I've got the eyes for it, do you see? Elf. Okay. So, looking ahead. So I've got the eyes for it, you see? Elf.

Brilliant. There's a supply cache up ahead, and there's two buildings. Now, do we want to risk causing a distraction by setting one of them on fire? That way they all flop to it, and then we look at the other one. And then it's a 50-50, you know? Our belongings could be in one of those buildings. They could be in either of the buildings, and you could destroy one of the things we're looking for.

Good thinking. This is why we're having this discussion. Setting fire to a building might not be the best idea. Setting fire to a tree, maybe. Quite. Or a building on the way out. Quite. Quite. Well, there's three sentries.

Not your sentry. I am aware. It looks like they have whistles of some kind, so I assume we need to dispatch them or take them out immediately. I ever so slightly move some of these guys because obviously I set it up for a different sort of set-up. If they blow their whistles, it a different sort of set up. If they blow their whistles, it's going to wake everybody up.

But if one sees the other go down, they're going to blow their whistle. Sounds like we need to either take out the sentries quietly... Or go in guns blazing. Yeah, or do something. What's the name of the guns in this? Thunderstone. Go in Thunderstones blazing and Thunderstone's blazing. Thunderstone's rumbling.

Retcon three times. Century points. The shaman is there and she points at the shaman at the table. We know that he is potentially a high risk if we do need to engage them in combat. How do you wish to proceed? I am happy to provide protection if things come to the worst, but I am not quiet. She kind of, like, gestures to her metal body and armour. I think we should, uh, yes, come in if things go south. However, there's a deltiest of us to try and... I don't know. We should take the sentries out first.

Maybe we should... Yes. Go to one of the buildings, take out the sentry there, behind this tree perhaps, up on our right-hand side, and then take out the sentry there, and then whoever's being stealthy,

we'll check that, see if our staff's in there. Agreed. So you're going after the sentry nearest to the camp campfire has touched just behind the building yes okay okay then who wants to try and do that I'm not particularly stealthy I roll the garbage yeah I guess I don't have anything of range or to kill him we've been them speaking some inspirational stuff. Do you want to provide whoever's going with a little pep talk?

A little pep talk. Well, who is going? Ayla, what about you? How stealthy are you? She's got a big hammer. You do have a bow. I know the hammer, but, well, to be fair. I don't really use my bow. I mean, I can try and be quiet.

I wouldn't say I'm skilled at it, but I've tracked game and I've stalked through woods and stuff before. I mean, I'm probably the only one that's strong enough to try and knock him out anyway. Player question. Eldritch invocations, do they still require... They don't require a knock and focus. I'd say that, yeah, as long as you're

near Tiangong, you can still use your invocations. So I could use silent image. Yep. But it is a silent image. But yeah, and we've got a shaman who probably knows what magic is. Yeah, Aayla's like, do you want me to go? I can try. Who's D death here?

I didn't know that you seemed smaller and more adept at this. I'm clumsy. If you're not trained in it, I'll say that Aayla's very dexterous,

but she's not trained in sneaking about. plus three dirks. Same. So, yeah. That's either of us. Aayla, you know these lands. Sure.

And she can defend herself with this big hammer if things go south Also, I can set one of the trees on the opposite side on fire if you are Caught and causes right? Okay a bit of confusion literally is about to go. We have a lot of fail-safes in place Whatever you do it will be your pet fine This is your pep talk? Yeah, sure. She's going to spend it instantly. She's going to make a stealth check. Oh dear.

It's a natural one. Oh dear. Yep, it's literally a straight out natural one. The d6 was a one. Okay. So that's a total of five. Brilliant. So Ayla begins begins moving she uses the

trees as cover and then as she kind of reaches this point um she puts her hand up on this tree and she's got the huge hammer in the other hand and then she just the obviously just mistimes her strength a little bit and like snaps the branch the sentry looks up and sees her and then she just runs in and tries to wail him before he has a chance to do anything but he sees her coming um so this is all going to come down to if she can take him out with this one attack cool oh no so you watch as ayla runs in. I rolled a four, I should point out. Even with a plus six, Aayla runs in with a hammer, swings wide, but the wild elf just kind of like ducks and it slams into the tree and then he just scrambles with a whistle at his throat

and is like literally ready to go. At this point, I think it probably makes sense to roll. We are the worst. That was really bad. I hate you guys making me fucking roll for players that aren't here, by the way. I was going to say, I was going to do it. Well. Oh, well.

That's the way it goes. That's just the way it is. Way the cookie crumbles. Might be a fire bear situation. It's a bit late for trickery. You can trick the others. They don't know about him just yet. He hasn't blown the whistle. The other guys don't know about him just yet. He hasn't blown the whistle.

The other guys don't know about us yet. Firebear. Firebear. It worked so well last time. There were walls. Wild elves are scared of firebears. He died. He technically...

Well, he didn't die. He got knocked down. He got knocked down. Okay. Then he got up again. Oh, now I roll an 18 for initiative for Ayla. Quill? Oh, I got 16. 16. Nova?

11. Lucius? 20. Essentially got a 9. Sister Yusuf gets a 12. And then the Elvesh. What about our sneaky friend in the shadows? Maybe. I'll roll for her in a minute. She's not there yet.

And then there's a Shaman. Man, I should have printed out some more stuff. The old Darman. Oof. Just make them all have 1 HP. We have all got spells. Yep. So. Well. But there's got spells. Yeah. Well... But there's a lot of them. Would I be able to do all of mine though? I don't know.

Yeah, you were close enough. So Ayla goes first and seeing this guy like but she's just like and she'd probably do this recklessly, I guess. Because it's desperate. She's not raging at this point. She's just going to recklessly just swing it to try and grab like hit him as best as she can. Which does hit. She's not raging at this point. She's just going to recklessly swing it to try and hit him as best as she can,

which does hit. She hits him on a 20. In the head. And he's dead. He'll smash the whistle into dust. Or into his throat. Let's see. I mean, Tom's nodding, and I'm nodding.

Two to one. I'm nodding. Three to one. Are we allowed to overthrow the DM? Okay, so with that one uh yeah for this guy you watch as she swings the hammer in this time like recklessly the first one hit so she just goes and swings it in a wide arc it catches the guy knocks the whistle from his hand and you can see it nearly downs him in one. Like, he watches it, throws him into the ground, and he kind of scrambles around,

and you probably see, like, blood pooling from his mouth. It looks like some of his teeth might have come loose, and he's just, like, completely dazed looking around. So the alarm doesn't get fully blown yet. Lucius. You can see that Aayla is, like, down this guy, but he's still lucius swear he's actually in these scenarios yeah um i'm just like running

all right so you just move up full speed okay and i'm gonna get the water canteen and use that as a component for ice knife. Okay, is that what it requires? Just like a bit of water? Nice. A drop of water or a piece of ice. Oh, perfect. And it's somatic as well. Okay, yeah, that's fine. So somatic, so you basically are like...

Elven... Alarunu! Or something like that. I've been playing a lot of Warcraft. And yeah, you throw the ice knife out. So Knife is a ranged spell attack, I believe? Correct. It's a nice bolt. It's a bolt, nice. 16 plus 5.

Bolt, nice. Okay, plus 5, 21. Yeah, this is absolutely going to hit the guy on the ground. And read me what Ice Knife does. 1d10. Yep. And then it explodes. So Piercing, roll the d10 for me.

Explodes? Yeah. I mean... It's a 1. So he takes 1. Oh, wait, sorry. Yeah, 1 d10 for me. Explodes? Yeah. I mean... It's a 1. So he takes 1. Oh wait, sorry, yeah, 1d10, yeah. And it's 2d6 cold. I've got an iron switch. 2d6 cold, 2... how many creatures does the cold hit? It's a 5 feet radius. Hmm, so Ayla's gonna make the save then, isn't she?

Yes, she is. Okay, great. And it's a dex save on this one, isn't it? Yes, it is. So he took 1 piercing damage, which doesn't quite kill him. It's... yeah. Basically I'm not gonna explain why. I don't have to. Ayla dexterity saving throw is a 11 and then the guy's dexterity saving throw is a 12. 13. 13 so both fail. So they're going to take full damage. Well, nine. I like to think, right? So how much, sorry?

Nine. Nine. So I'm just, I'm working out ailers. So... John, me to like do stats for ailers? It's tricky because I've got their sheets on D&D Beyond here. So like I've got their, because I'm the DM, I can edit their sheets. But otherwise it's going to be tricky.

So ailers takes it and then nine, you said. I'm hoping it was I can edit their sheets, but otherwise it's going to be tricky. So Aayla takes it, and then nine, you said. I'm hoping it was a silent knife throw. So yeah, it's a spell. You hear you kind of mutter some arcane words, you throw out this, there's this probably faint hiss of cold air passing through. It stabs into the guy's leg, just kind of grazes it,

but then as it hits the ground, it explodes into shards of ice. Aayla throws her hand up, and it's like, it explodes into shards of ice Ayla throws her hand up and it's like as she gets sprayed with these ice the guy they just lot like most of it kind of goes into his side but three large chunks just gouge his throat open and just frost it over and he just dies instantly do you wanna knock they that century lovely and he says, however, the sound of you running up and casting the spell,

you can see that the shaman and some of the others are beginning to look around now at this point. But yeah, you easily take down that guy very, very quickly. He watches two of these elves run up. They do have shortbows. One of them is going to take a shot at Aelion.

One of them is going to take a shot at Lucius as they and one of them is going to take a shot at Lucius, as they see you two, like, they haven't seen the rest of them. They're just like, ah! One of them, they don't appear to be blowing their whistles, because the shaman is, like, becoming aware, and the others are, like, they kind of kick the others as they run past. But they bring these bows up to take a shot each. Bam, bam, bam, ba-bam, bam.

Bam, bam, bam. So against Aayla, it's a hit, unfortunately. And against Lucius is a 22, which I'm guessing is also a hit. You could have done... You cast a cold spell, Lucius, with your Bikraman, so you could have dealt some damage to a nearby creature. Would you have liked to have done that? What's the range on it? 60 feet, I think.

Then absolutely. If anyone's rearing their head... Yeah, the shaman, you saw him turning around, so you could easily drift over some of the cold magic. The eye's going to pulse. I'm going to pull some blue. And I believe it's... Check on your class features

whether it's... how much it is. I think it's under dichromancy. It's my... Level plus charisma mod, I think. Level plus charisma mod. Perfect. That would be plus three so five so five on the shaman yeah you watch so you kind of

pull off this shard like you can see with the firelight you can just barely make out the blue on like your outfit and you manage to just draw a tiny sliver of cold energy and fling it over towards the shaman like a like a sharp needle of ice and it kind of just splashes against his arm um as it hits him

and yeah and you can see the shaman seems particularly injured by that like he he's like and you can see like ice kind of frosting his arm, turning some of the skin black. So they both hit you with shortbows, so Aayla is going to take five points of damage. You're going to take four points of damage, Lucius. So you see Aayla's just like... You can see this arrow kind of sticking out of her arm a little bit. After those two go, Quill. I'm going to turn to no vote and say would you say

that now is an emergency for the just blast them okay I'm gonna pull the gun and aim it at the Charmin okay so wince pull the trigger okay so you're gonna make an attack roll you don't enter proficiency just add Dex modifier Oh tell me if you get a natural one eight eight so you aim add dex modifier. Oh. Tell me if you get a natural one. Eight. Eight. So you aim this thing, you close your eyes, and you pull the trigger.

A thunderous boom, like a bolt of lightning hitting the ground, erupts throughout the wood. And it blows your hand, like your hand goes shooting backwards, as the bullet just flies off into the air. The kickback on this thing was nuts. And it blows your hand, like your hand goes shooting backwards. Oh, man. As the bullet just flies off into the air. The kickback on this thing was nuts. You weren't expecting it whatsoever.

And this incredibly loud noise erupts all over the place. And you can begin to hear somebody in one of the buildings stirring, like noise coming from inside. That was your action? That was my action. I have some bonus actions I could do. You do? There's no point.

I'll just leave it at that. You can see Ayla is injured. How? Oh, I mean... 60 feet. That's quite a way. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. A range.

Okay, in that case, I will cast Healing Word on... D4 plus Wisdom modifier. D4. I'm just going to remove this tree so that you can see. Plus two. That's three HP healed with the Healing Word. Okay, so you kind of let out a small prayer, HP healed with the healing. Okay, so you kind of let out a small prayer, and you watch Ayla get some renewed vigor into...

She kind of feels a little bit thing. Sister Yusuf will step forward a little bit until she's 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. Yeah, from the shaman range. And then she brings out a small sacred flame. I'm just going to throw that out. To which the shaman range and then she brings out a uh a small that sacred flame i'm just gonna throw that out uh to which the shaman fails excellent takes another three points burning um and you can see like as he's kind of like lost with this white hot flame he's like ah nova Nova.

Shaman's looking pretty injured, isn't he? Yeah, he does, actually. You can see his tattoos are pulsating with power, but one of his arms is scorched black with frost, and then this kind of holy light is like... You can see he's blinded by it slightly, and he's wincing in pain. Okay, can I... He's... What by it slightly and he's wincing in pain. Okay, can I... What range is he?

Wait, what's the range on Hexblade Cursed? That was the thing. I never found it out. I am going to blast him with... What's the range? Eldritch Blast? Eldritch Blast, 120. Oh, shit, you can do it there if you want so you just kind of like poke your head out from the tree line point your finger

14 so in fact i have to make a quick concentration check on the shaman to see if this works the first time it did second time jesus that was two natural 20s in a row that was really weird so you can see that as you blast him there's like a thick bark like texture across his across his skin and it just the blast hits that

and just bounces straight off of him sadly yeah and he kind of like looks up you as he calls out

as he can now recognize you all uh oh us uh hi sentry will you can now recognize you all. Uh-oh. Hi. Sentry will... Running forward.

Pass the supplies towards Ayla. She literally... Sentry moves up as close as she can because she doesn't want to dash necessarily. I'm just going to check what... Spiels. And just to check, I was allowed to do Eldritch Blast without Tiangong being... Yeah, if it doesn't require a material component, yeah, sure. Nope.

Zenate to Warlocks. There you go. It's insurable and somatic. Yeah, Sentry just moves up and just kind of readies herself and seems to be readying for somebody to move up to Aayla. She seems to just get ready, ready to kind of like countercharge. 30 feet. Sorry, Hexblade Curse was 30 feet.

Okay. Okay. Thanks, D&D Beyond. Thanks, D&D Beyond. Thank you. The Shaman. The Shaman is going to move around to where this tree was seeing Aayla just kind of

decking his friend he like looks over sees Lucius he's like I warned you and he's going to hold out his arm and he watches the tattoos ripple and this kind of whip of thorns launches out towards you no so it launches

out and you're like no you kind of dive to the side as this thorn whip kind of just smashes into the ground sending up this kind of cloud of leaves and pine needles and doesn't quite grip onto you he just kind of sneers a little bit and then he

will probably do nothing because he can't do anything with his bonus action from that range. Ayla, on her turn. Ah! Next person to die. She's going to rage because she's pretty injured. So you watch as the lightning begins to crack up and down her arms.

She won't attack recklessly. She's just going to attack normally. The first one that she can see, unfortunately this one she just swings wide and smashes into the campfire kind of sending up smoke and embers everywhere but it doesn't quite connect but she kind of just like grits and like stares into the face of this

kind of like sentry who is like this wild elf who's like blinking awake and is like pulling out like a long knife ready to fight her down Lucius? I'm going to panic and cast blade ward on myself awake and is like, ugh! And is like pulling out like a long knife ready to fight her down. Lucius. I'm going to panic and cast Blade Ward on myself. Okay. Which is, I'm just going to hunker down

and instinctively all these thorns coming at me. It's a cantrip, so that just requires verbal and schematic. Okay. And it basically prevents You have resistance and stuff. Bloodshed and piercing slashing. For one turn. Yes. Cool. Okay. So. I slashing. For one turn. Yes. Cool.

Okay. So I might scramble towards sentry. Okay. So the elves on their turn. These two finally manage to fully wake up. They begin drawing weapons, but that's all they can do. This one is already having someone in his face, so he's going to fight as this one steps around to the side.

He's trying to get Aayla. This one... 10, 15, 20, 25. Oh, there's the man with the big shouty gun. And they're going to try and fight you guys. So I'll do the two scouts first because they've got slightly better attacks. So against Ayla, that's a hit. And against Quill, does a 13 hit you, Quill?

It doesn't. 13, okay. Quill, does a 13 hit you, Quill? It doesn't. 13, okay. And then the other one is the savage, who is going to miss Ayla as well. So just one.

So the one against fighting Ayla, you watch as he seems he shoves a blade into her, but it's halved because she's raging. But she just kind of like turns to the side as this blade kind of like spurts like a little blood out onto the ground, but Aayla doesn't seem to be that bothered by it. The other two at the far end do pull out bows, and you can see them getting themselves

ready, basically. Ready to attack on full quill. Oh, okay. So, this guy in my face, I don't like him. I don't like him. I don't like him. I don't like him. I don't like him.

I am going to use Gust, which is a strength 13 saving throw. 17. Right. So you bring up the wing. You try and launch this blast of wind, and he's kind of taken aback, and he holds his hand up, but you can see he's fighting against it, and he grips onto the tree,

and he's not blown away. Okay. In that case, I'm going to just try and move away from him. Well, you've used your action, so this will be a normal movement. This will be a normal movement, so he gets an attack of opportunity on me. I'm guessing that a 19 will hit you. That will, yeah. That'll do it.

So that's going to be seven points of damage. Oh, that's a lot of damage, Mark. That hurt. Okay. Oh, my God. This is going so well. I missed you. And I'm just going to back up to the very, very back lines of the entire combat now.

Okay, so you just run past, but as you do, he pulls out this long knife and just whips you with this sort of long, serrated hunting knife as you try and run past. Was it seven damage? Seven points of damage, yeah. I mean, it's a d6 plus two. I rolled a five. That's a lot.

I mean, it's not that much. It's a d6 plus two. Like, I rolled a five. That's a lot. I mean, it's not that much. It's a lot. After Quill's go, it is Sister Yusuf's. I also have to roll another initiative here. Wasted. Two, okay, so she's going to go to the very end. Man. So, Sister Yusuf, seeing that you've just taken that hit,

will kind of step behind you, place her hands on you, and heal you for eight points of damage. Thank you. Is that Hespa? You hear her just like, Siaska, please, cool down the stars. And as you do, you feel this starlight fall over you as it begins to heal your wounds. Nova.

How much falls are you? Eight. Eight. Oh. Can I move to cover? So you want to go this way That way Would that cover me from these guys? You can go one more

No I mean more like here Because I want to attack this guy This sentry as well The one that attacked Quill This one? Yeah you can move there And you'll have cover from those guys with their bows

yeah for sure and can I attack him with Eldritch Blast? sure blast him 16 16 hits nice

7, 8 sorry what do I add? just tap it is it just 7? for Eldritch Blast yeah it's just Eldritch Blast is just it is what it is

no modifier so 7 points of damage. Seven points. So you watch as this blast kind of takes, you know, you blast him in the chest, he kind of takes it, stumbles back, and you can see that you've blasted away some of the fur and leather armour, and there's obviously some sort of sore wound, but he's still up, and he just pulls the knife, he's like,

I'll kill you, outlander! Just kind of looks at you and snarls as he does so. Racist. Sentry is now going to step up into the shaman's face and just be like, cease this. Bring the hammer down. Excellent. That's going to hit.

Yeah, the axe, sorry. So with sentry, that's a 22 to hit. Yes, she ate for damage plus three. It's 11 points. She brings the battle axe, swings it round, and the blade connects, and you can see the tattoo's pulse to try and sort of, you know, provide some sort of barrier, but the axe just smashes through it

and she just gouges a huge chunk down into his chest, pulls it through and then boots the body to the floor, turning around, like, looking around who else is left as the shaman just topples down. She killed him. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, the shaman, like, just didn't seem to be, like,

he took, like, the cold damage and then some of the blast. So was that perfect damage again? It was an 8 plus 3. I didn't do a Divine Smite or anything. I mean, was that a D8? Yeah, it was a plus 8, yeah. She's done very well. So he's dead.

Emerging from another building is a woman. Uh-oh. You see this woman. Oh, no. another building is a woman oh you see this woman and you can see that she's dressed in um almost like a robe but it's like made from like like white cloth painted or like cloth painted with like white symbols um you can see that there's like a fur mantle she has like a headdress made from like stag antlers um and she has like a gnarled wooden staff and she looks quite young she's a wild elf but you can see that there is like a deep

her face is like lined with like deep lines and wrinkles already but she can't be that old and as she emerges she also has a spear tip on what looks to be like a leather necklace and it appears to be like made of a black iron with runes carved into it that pulse with a slight power and she kind of steps out what is going on here she looks around like ah and she kind of like glances around for a moment sees ayla kind of fighting the others um and then she'll hold out an arm. And you watch as Aayla just seizes up. Oh. And then this woman just looks at the rest of you. And the other guys, are they fighting still?

So Aayla currently freezes in place. And then she just is like, I'll deal with that. That one is dealt with. Deal with the others. And then the two facing Aayla will basically whoop. Leave her alone. And then this one will step up to Sentry.

Lucius. That's a 24 to hit. And against Sentry that's a critical hit. That's a quick injury check for Sentry. What? Critical hit. So that's a thing

for Sentry. So for damage wise Lucius, that's a thing for Sentry. So for damage-wise, Lucius, that's going to be four points. And then against Sentry, that's going to be two doubled to four plus two, six. Oh, man. I forgot to long rest her as well. Actually fair with the injury. I'm just about to do that oh i regret asking too many things i hate having players away forgotten i hate having players away i have too many things to manage okay so you watch as um as this guy steps up, Sentry has just finished the shaman, this kind of savage looking warrior, you can see he's got a long, serrated knife.

He comes up and he plunges the knife into Sentry's faceplate and just drags it down and it rips part of the metal plating, creating this horrible scar-like tear in the metal and wood that completely just carves up part of her face. Cool. Oh. Dear Rhiannon, I hope you had a great holiday. By the way. By the way. Rip. Oh, sorry, right, okay. Lucius, you technically should have got a go before these guys.

So would Quill. I just defaulted because Aayla is paralyzed. Before they moved? Yeah. But we're just going to retcon it and they've moved but you can take an action. You can still attack them I won't give you a disadvantage or anything. Well the thing is

they were grouped up and I was going to do an acid splash on them. Yeah, do that. That's fine. We'll have it so that you did that as they run up. I'm not going to re-roll their attacks is what I mean.

And I don't think you can kill them with an acid splash. Aayla is still paralysed by the way. Okay. Dexter don't think you can kill them with an acid splash. Aayla is still paralyzed by the way. Okay. Dexterity saving throw on one of them. One of them? And then it deals damage

around them, doesn't it? Yes. That is going to be a 12 versus a 13. So it fails. Awesome. So that is 1d6 acid

and it hits the other one as well. Perfect. Okay. Five for both. Five to them Perfect. Okay. Five for both. Five to them both. Okay. You brutes! Leave her alone! So you see them both kind of shudder for a minute.

One of them, the more primal-looking guy that hit Sentry, does seem like it kind of really tears him up, like this acid's burning through his cloth. He's like, ah! And that's when he strikes sentry with such power that he just rips apart this faceplate, basically. Quill, what would you like to do? Would you want to move away, or are you just going to stay

as this guy runs up to you? Because you could have basically backed off. Could I have run away as he was running at me? So you can back off up to there. So you're backing, peddling, and he's running towards you. And now I see my blade ward. That goes at the start of your next turn. Oh, okay.

So you would have half that damage I dealt you then. Quill. I would like to cast Magic Missile. Okay. And I would like to direct each of them, because I can do them to individual targets. So you get three missiles. You can either put them all at one target, or you can split the targets out.

So you can do one missile per person, or you can do all three at one person. Okay, so I will do two on the one that's currently right in sentry's face, and one on the one that chased after Lucius. Okay, so 2d4 plus 2, yep, you just roll straight damage. So against the one where a guaranteed hit, isn't it? 2d4 plus 2. Yep. It just rolls straight damage. So against the one where you're doing two missiles, it's 2d4 plus 2. Okay. So that's a 4 and a 2. So 6 plus 2 is 8 damage. This guy.

Nice. Blown away. And the final one is a 3 plus 1, so that's 4. 4 points to that guy. So he is still alive um so has he chased after um because the way it works i'm gonna not give century that injury because you would have killed him before he got to attack her ah okay she had a flash of her face being torn up but yes it didn't happen that was my fault i like literally was like oh Ayla misses her go jump to everyone else misses yeah like a special entry or

anything will then stay where I am but I'll cast shield of faith no I won't conks you cost you your action was magic missile it's a bonus action shield of faith but I won't do it I'm sure you can't. You can't do a second spell as a bonus action. I'm going to change that from the last campaign. That was me being extremely generous last campaign. Oh, okay, so it's one spell per turn, I didn't realise. Well, it's one action spell, and then one

cantrip as a bonus action, if you can cast it as a bonus action. Yeah, no, I can't. Okay, that's fair enough. That makes sense. In that case, that's my turn. I'm done. Okay. Cool. Oh, sorry. You can cast Shield of Faith, which is a bonus action, and then you can cast a Cantrip afterwards, which is a full action, but you can't do two full-level spells.

Yeah, yeah. I can't explain that badly. Yes. Cool, so you move up to there. So after Quill, then it would be the Elves' Go. So he would move up. He can technically probably just get to there and then use a short bow which is what would have dealt damage to you previously that guy's dead that guy's dead that guy's dead these guys however are just gonna move up to basically here and then they're

just gonna pepper you guys with longbows sentry they're gonna shoot at sentry that's going to be a hit just. And then the other one would probably shoot at Lucius. Because again, like the other ones, you guys are pretty far away. That's going to be an 18 to hit Lucius. So that's going to be four points. That isn't resisted though, because it's after your turn. Shit.

Back down I go. What are you? Now at two. Remember how you said you can heal stuff? Yeah. Yusuf's gonna run over. One on the healing. Three hit points for Lucius. Like, it's Lucius!

She rushes over and raises her hands like, we should run! This is too bad! Um, maybe. After her go, it is Nova. I'm going to shout at her, return our belongings and we will leave! And then I'm going to

Eldritch Blast the guy in front of me. Okay, Eldritch Blast. Nice. 21. 21 hits five five points to that guy that you hit in front of you um he's just barely on his feet like you blast him and again like the second blast kind of like stuns him he should have made attack against you on his turn which i'm going to do now uh which was only a 15 to hit that's exactly okay so you take uh five points as he does jab this kind of long blade into you but then you blast him you kind of like as he stabs you you blast him with the other hand he kind of gets thrown backwards

and you can see he's like woozy on his feet but he's like gripping it like the blade tightly uh the woman at this point is just like she you see her look over the one, two, three of her dead and just looks up. You have killed my family. I am not letting you leave here alive. Can I reply? Maybe, on your next turn. So after Nova, it is centuries ago. So after Nova, it is Sentry's go.

Sentry seeing that you're sort of like injured, rushes up to Axeblade, goes wide, clungs into the tree next to her. She has to pull it back as she desperately looks outside. The tree collapses on him, right? Yes. No, it doesn't. You see the woman continuing her she does appear to be she's holding her hand and you can see whatever spell has got ayla like there's you guess that she's concentrating on it right like she's having to concentrate as she basically moves up um and she like looks around i'm trying to think what she would do here. Give us a stuff back? No.

She's holding the spell and she's just like... Looks around. Tries to weigh up the scenario. There are more of my scouts out in the woods. They will be returning by daybreak, even if you manage to kill all of us, which I highly doubt. They will track you down and find you and kill you. Whatever you hoped to accomplish here, you have failed. All you have done is enrage me.

And then you see her kind of like, she closes her hand, she closes her eyes, and you watch as her form begins to... What do you mean? Fur begins to grow as she transforms into a large bear. Oh no.

There are bears here. Druid bears Ayla at the end of her turn Is she still able to do that? Surely yeah if it's concentration You keep concentration in wild shape She's still got her bear paw

Held up to her She just needs to maintain concentration Which you can do in wild shape Ayla fails her next saving throw She's still paralysed by her person Lucius needs to maintain concentration, which you can do in Wildshire. Okay. Ayla fails her next saving throw. She's still paralyzed by Hell Person. Lucius. Oh my!

CS, come on. This is awful, we should leave. I'm going to try and throw a firebolt at him. Okay. Right. Yeah, just make an attack roll with firebolt. 14 plus 5. That's a hit.

D10. 7. 7. Boosh. This guy is engulfed as you hit the fur and leather of his outfit, and it just erupts into flames. And just, yeah, just kind of engulfs him. He's like, ah, ah, ah!

And he collapses to the ground. Come on, Oso, let's go. One, two, three, four, five. Right behind me, brilliant. Okay, so you guys are back off and running. Okay. After Lucius, okay, I've got the proper initiative down there. I messed that up really badly last turn.

It is these guys going, but it's only this guy left. Um, the one in front of Sentry. Yeah, and he's basically going to turn around to Sentry and try and fend her off, um, but doesn't get, like, this time, like, just bounces off the armour. Uh, Quill. Okay, uh, seeing the bear thing there, I'm going to cast Guiding Bolt. Okay. At the bear?

At the bear, so I have to make an attack. Okay, cough, splutter. Ooh, that's a 22 to hit. Oh, that's a hit, yeah, for sure. Hit and a half. That's 4d6 radiant damage. Oh! Do you need 2d6?

I'm just going to reroll. I'll just reroll. Really good. Pretty good. 16. Okay. Is that plus anything? No, it's just 46. 16 damage.

16 radiant damage, no less. So you hold out your hand, and you just utter that you're like, please, Hesper. And you feel this kind of like, you see that golden humanoid, that hand, and then as you launch out, this blinding ray of golden light just flies out of your hand. Impacts into the bear. It singes and burns huge portions of its torso. But it just is like...

But I do have to make a concentration check. Oh, I made it angry. Which I pass. Oh, no. Oh, I made it angry. Which I pass. Uh... Oh no. Oh dear. Sister Yousef will run up. Group up into one place. Are you still really hurt? I want five. Less than half, yes. She can't get to you, she can only really kill Lucius. No, not me. No, you hurt. I'm fine. Yeah, ten hit points.

She's like, this is the last of my energies. Thank you. Oh, by the way, the last of my energies was used on the bear. Yes, cough splatter. Six seconds. Nova. God, I need my blade. Well, yeah, I mean, like, at this point, like, you're arcane focused.

You don't know where it is. It could be on the shaman's body. I need it. You don't know where it is. It could be on the Charmander's body. I need it. You don't know where it is. I need it. And there's this very angry woman who has transformed herself into a bear. Cool. I don't know who to hit. I don't know who to go for. Well, Pip, you've got six seconds. Come on. Right now. Decision.

I'm going to go for the man right in front of me. Okay. Eldritch Blast. Yeah. Nice. 12 plus 5 is... Pits. 17. 4. That. 4. That's enough.

Oh, he's gone to. So you watch, it's like this last, you've been pummeling this guy with these bolts, and as he turns around to face Sentry, you see your opening, you just lance out, it hits him in the back, throws him forward, and then Sentry just cuts him down as he kind of stumbles past, as he just collapses to the ground, and now you can see this kind of field of bodies in front of you my mother always said that if you steal you will face the consequences be punished he's dead um no i'm shouting at her century will turn around like

what are we doing ayla is still in danger protect her very well Aayla is still in danger. Protect her. Very well. Walk over their corpses. Sentry literally, like, runs, like, right in front of Aayla and then stands at the ready in front of this bear and probably casts Shield of Faith on Aayla, I would imagine. After Sentry's go, it is...

He's dead dead the bears go bear bear bear bear bear bear charges Ayla and sentry she looks at Ayla doesn't seem to be a threat so she's going to look down at sentry just roars and then will

attempt to bite and claw sentry both of which hit just roars and then will attempt to bite and claw Sentry, both of which hit. Uh-oh. Even with her high AC, these still go through. She's got, like, a million AC. What are you talking about? How'd she roll a million? Oh, my God.

You watch as this bear woman just, boosh, one claw, just rips the shield out of Sentry's hands and throws her down, and then she just bites down, and you hear the sound of metal and wood snapping. What? And Sentry goes down. Sentry! Literally, that was... Hang on, let me just make sure I've got that 100% right, because that was 8 plus 1.

Yeah, that was 22. That's literally her full HP it was exactly lethal yep god so you watch essentially just like boom and then collapses Jesus

Christ uh okay um Aayla still fails the saving throw as this whole person

is like really done her over um fuck me Lucius and she needs to take damage to break they're both going to die what do we do

we kill the bear we kill the bear well I think that this is the top of the round we're probably going to have to see this next time what

we're going to have to finish this next week sorry guys oh no hey everyone Thanks for listening to this episode of High Rollers, the Dungeons & Dragons podcast. Just before we carry on, I want to say a big thank

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at HighRollersDND, or anywhere else you can find. And there we go. That was episode 3. We will see you on Monday for episode 4 to see how we get out of this encounter. If we do make it out alive, I don't know. Possibly? We'll see. I'll see you next time. Oh no.