High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #31 - Hall of the Gods (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 8, 2019

Another floor to the Night Eye brings further puzzles and traps for the adventurers to overcome! Thanks to our one-time sponsor (and good friend) Brian McClellan! Grab his newest book - Uncanny Collateral - here: http://bit.ly/uncannycollateralhighrollerspodcast. Use the code HRDND for 10% off the Hardcover or HRDNDE for 25% off the e-book. That's just $3! Thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond and Displate! Displate offer durable, steel, high quality canvases with a huge choice of artwork from a wide selection of artists! The High Rollers have a collection that you can view here: http://bit.ly/displatehighrollers D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Create your FREE account now and start digitising your campaigns here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois, run by Dungeon Master Mark Sherlock-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Kilokad Kalad, Bard slash Cleric. I am Chris Trott. I'm playing Lucius Vue in Elowin Elinastio. And I am a high elf sorcerer. I am Rhiannon.

I am playing Oriah, the rogue ranger orc. Hi, I'm Katie. I'm playing Ayla, a wild elf barbarian. And I'm Kim. I'm playing Nova, who is an air ganassi, and she is a hexblade warlock. We're sponsored by D&D Beyond and Displate. Use the code HIGHROLLERS15 on Displate

to get 15% off your order and check out both sponsors with the links in the episode description. We also have a one-time sponsor with our good friend Brian McClellan, the author of the fantastic Powder Mage trilogy, which you should definitely check out. But first, why not start a brand new series with his brand new book, Uncanny Collateral? Head to the link in the episode description

and use the code HRDND for 10% off the hardback or get the ebook with the code HRDNDE for 25% off. That means you'll get the ebook for just $3. So immerse yourself in an urban fantasy world and grab Uncanny Collateral by Brian McClellan today. While I'm here, it's worth mentioning that next week's episode will be the TwitchCon live show so the main Aroas series will be on hold for a week.

But don't miss the one shot, also set in Aroas, it'll be a whole lot of fun, and if you're at TwitchCon, why not come and see us? Anyway, on to the episode. Another floor to the Night Eye Ruins brings further puzzles and traps for the party to solve. Welcome back to Erois, a little recap on what happened in the previous episode. The party, having made their way to the ruin called the Night Eye, have descended into its depths to search for the source that is disturbing the undead spirits in the local area, and also look for a shard of Tiangong that Nova has sensed deep below. Upon entering the flooded chambers, the party sent Nova out as a scout to make her way and to try and find pockets of air and see what was going on. Nova discovered that there are a few lingering spirits still wandering around, as well as some

arcane defenses. The party have eventually followed suit, discovering a few little clues and little hints along the way. However, upon entering one room, a disaster almost struck, as half the party were locked inside a room with an arcane turret that rained down fire on them from below and behind a portcullis. However, the party managed to sync up, escape, and then have destroyed it. And that is pretty much where we left things off. I think it was mainly it was a lot of exploration last time in this classic dungeon crawl. So we have taken a short rest just before we started the game. So we've taken a short rest uh just before we started the game so we've taken a short

rest you are all currently stood on a platform that rises about 10 feet up out of this water with this narrow stairway that would have once led out of this room obviously where it wouldn't have been flooded before this strikes you as some sort of security checkpoint or perhaps a defensible position where people couldn't get further into these chambers without having to face off against the turret and you know other soldiers in this narrow stairwell there is a large pair of stone like gold inlaid stone doors behind you that lead further into the complex but there are several chambers which you hadn't fully explored or that you'd had hints of there being something, a ghostly quartermaster or some sort of ghostly apparition, as well as a narrow caved tunnel,

like cave tunnel that seemed to lead further in. The remnants of the turret above you, still kind of half broken, shattered, some of it has fallen onto the ground. But other than that, what would you like to do? Well, that was something. So we'll have to make sure we don't get split apart again. I mean, we spent a long time talking about favorite colors and stuff. I didn't realize you guys were dealing with whatever this is. I don't think we realized either.

Oblivious. Yeah, I feel really bad. We were talking about just utter shit instead of helping you. I felt like it was a valuable conversation. Yeah, what were you talking about? Favorite colors. Oh, okay. Mine's blue. I was talking about the fact that I was a bit hungry. I'm always

hungry. Anyway. That sounds very nice, but clearly, with these kinds of defenses, we should definitely be more careful moving forward. They are still active. I don't know how. I've never heard of people coming this far into the ruins. Normally the spirits scare them off, so I'm afraid we're walking a little blind here. I mean, it's probably my bad, but that scroll that we picked up in the other room did say something about magical defences in front of a shrine. I just thought it meant something like a wall of

fire. To be fair, we didn't know where the shrine was and I feel like we found it. Is this the shrine? Well I guess we'll find out. Doesn't look very shriny to me. It looks like a door. It might be magical. It might be all spooky. Fine, give me ten minutes. And I will ritual cast detect magic, I guess. Okay. So what's everyone else doing for ten minutes? Can I try and scrape some of the gold off the door? Yeah, so it's gold inlaid in that it like, it's like a weird, um, the stone itself is very unusual. It's this kind of white stone with gold, like, veins or flecks in it.

And it almost has, like, a translucent quality as well. It's almost like a crystalline quartz kind of thing. But you kind of scrape away. And the rapier just really struggles to dent these walls. Like, even the, actually, it's a magical rapier right yeah so actually the magical rapier yeah you kind of you scrape it away as the gold well as the gold comes out it just flex into like nothing like almost like sand it doesn't look like it's actual gold gold it just has a similar look fools gold disappointing

it's more like a fool's gold, yeah, like a pyrite. I admire you for trying. Trying to get every little bit I can get my hands on. I've got plenty of that if you want some. Just come visit Gusthaven sometime. Oh, I'd love to. It sounds perfect. It's almost dull how much there is, honestly, surrounding us.

Yes, we drink from it. We have cutlery. That is it. Don't tell me this. It's not true. Well, I drink from it. We have cutlery. That is it. Don't tell me this. It's not true. Well, I never lie. I fully believe it, actually. We must go.

Why are we here? Have you seen his jacket? That is very true. But Ethereum, now that is a quality resource. I mean, you might be able to find some worth out of this thing. That's what I'm hoping for, yes. It would be nice. The thing? out of this thing. That's what I'm hoping for, yes. It would be nice. The thing?

Oh, this thing? We can try. Didn't you whack it down last time? Yep. Yeah, like a large chunk of it has kind of fallen in. Some of it's in the water. The base and like many of its gears and clockwork cogs are still sticking out. Yeah, if you guys want to examine it, I guess it'd be an investigation check.

I might have caused just a smidge of damage. The only thing is it's a bit. You either, yeah, so half of it's in the water and half of it's ten feet up. So. Twelve. Twelve? Thirteen. Thirteen. Yeah, you begin examining it. Neither of you really have any idea how, this is Nova and Orion, neither

of you really have any idea how the machine fully works. Yes, it has clockwork parts which you you vaguely guess allow it to move and rotate but there is also very much magical components here that you don't understand um nothing very obvious nothing necessarily of immense worth i mean it's mainly things like wood um the metal is salvageable i, but it's not particularly worth anything. Nova, the only thing which strikes you as interesting is up on the base

of it, whilst examining it, you spot something, a symbol imprinted onto the base that you've seen once before. It's the same symbol printed onto Sentry's shield. Whoa! It's the emblem of Solvin.

What, the three lines? Mm-hmm, with the shield and the talon. Yeah. And it looks to be like a maker's seal. Like, it was constructed in Solvin and maybe sent here. I love that Rhiannon's freaking out. But Oriah is just like...

Meh. Yeah. It's just metal. You're just carving into it. You can maybe salvage, like... Maybe it has, like, a couple of... Like, the bowlers. Like, the kind of weighted bowlers it sent out. They're very heavy and cumbersome,

but you could gather those. I'd say it counts as a net. So you can use it as a net. Nice. A pair of weighted bowlers. Can we gather up the rope that, like, we sort of use to anchor? So you want to swim back in and pick up all the rope and stuff? Do we still want the rope?

Might be useful. We'll get on the way back. Oh, well, to be honest, we were kind of using it as a guide. This is how we get back to the entrance. Okay. So are you leaving it for now? Go with the group. What do you want to do?

We can leave it. There's probably more, like... It's going to be all wet. I mean, you've still got a couple minutes while I'm... We're all wet. I'll just go get it. Okay. I'll just swim back to where it's closest and start.

Give me a perception check. As you near the kind of narrow cavern, this kind of like really tight cave-in area. Thank you, Thomas. That'll be a one. A one?

Wow. You just swim past. You start making your way up and gathering. Not all that way. Okay, so you just get to the rope but the knot isn't tied up until right near the end.

It's a piece, isn't it? Yeah. I'm not going to go all the way back on my own. Okay. So you swim get to the rope, but the knot isn't tied up until right near the end. It's a piece, isn't it? Yeah. I'm not going to go all the way back on my own. Okay. So you swim back? Yeah. Okay. I don't think I would even bother actually thinking, remembering that it's all the way back.

Yeah, because you tied the rope up right by the end. Yeah. So you just come out of the water dripping wet, sploosh, as you emerge from the stairs. I was going to get the rope but I forgot it was tied and I think if there's one lesson we can learn from this

a gesture at the robot gun probably shouldn't split the party we can be a rope everyone just grab onto the back of somebody else

his jacket has long tassels I guess yeah I think at this point Quill by way, your detect magic is now active. Thing. I can click my fingers. And what's the range? The range on detect magic is, and I'm saying this slowly to pass time while I find it, is 30 feet.

30 feet. Within, yeah. There is the echo of a faint magical aura around the turret um some sort of conjuration aura that you imagine was helping the turret have power to fire its magical energy and that's now dissipating now that it's been destroyed i can't see through oh it can penetrate most barriers but it's blocked by one foot of stone yeah an inch of metal so the door itself is not magical. I believe the spell is active for ten minutes as long as you concentrate on it. We should probably go

quickly. The door is safe enough, but I can't see through there, so if we want to see any more magical stuff, defences, turrets, that thing again, then we should probably go now. Is there anything else magical we want to check out in this area before we go through? That was magical, not now. Well, other than the thing that smashed pieces.

I think the only thing you found is that you found the table with the etched in map. Nova saw the room with the bars and some sort of spirit. And then there was the collapsed cave that you never went into. So those are the only areas you haven't explored fully. I feel like that was enough security, though, there. They can't possibly be any more. They did the slippery stairs. They had the big crossbow.

And the door. Yes, they're definitely hiding something or want to keep something safe. Yeah, so it's all done. I reckon it'll be safe. We can carry on. Let's just see if we see anything. I'm going to dip my head into the darkness. The door is locked. I think it's a shut stone door. So you'd have to open the stone door.

I'm going to stand back while the strong people do the door opening. And not touch any spheres of annihilation? I mean, you detected magic, you didn't search for traps. It's lucky there aren't any. Just a reminder that detect magic doesn't reveal mundane traps. So if you guys can help me, the books are going to need to go back into position. Oh, we're flipping the map, are we? Flippity bup.

The only thing is this one slightly revealed. Do you want to reveal that? Oh, it's a whole new map. Which one are we revealing? Or are we just at the base here? You are basically at this base here, yeah. Wow. You want your player's handbook back?

Yeah, pop it on the corner. Does it need to be on the corner? Yeah, it's not super flush, unfortunately. You can probably put it in an angle, though. Cool. So, a whole new map. And we've... God, this place is huge! Awesome! I mean, it is a keep.

Yeah, but... why'd it keep getting bigger? Yeah, it definitely seems like this is... Don't, home. Get out. Actually, so you enter through the doors, and it leads into a short corridor with stairs that lead down and curve around. And you suspect that you are probably reaching an area, this would have all once been underground underground, whereas these rooms probably would have been above

and then the rest of the keep would have been on top of them. This would have actually probably been once underground because as you're making your way down this curved staircase that leads further down you can see chunks of rock have collapsed in huge parts of earth have almost broken through and you have to squeeze past into this kind of narrow curving stairwell um what light sources do you guys currently have scaldi has her light lantern would I still have the light spell she can cast that on you again as a cantrip, so she can provide that.

So you just have the scarf and you've got conjuring dancing lamp. You're going to light a torch? Yeah. Okay, so you've got a lot of bright light around you at this stage. I'm going to, at this point, put dancing lights. They're all going to be bold, different colours. So you've got red, green, yellow,

blue. Uriah. Yes? they're all gonna be bold different colors so you got red green yellow blue Raya yes what's your favorite color out of these it's very important I'd like good like yellow like a golden hue that says a lot it's very pretty and I'm not gonna say why but it is it sums you up perfectly. Yellow. Nine minutes left. Huh? Nine minutes on this, I can only see, shall I just carry on? Absolutely, yes.

Okay, can I have the red? Hmm? Is there a red? No, red is awful. Awful for light sources, but it's a great color. Is it your favorite? Well, I mean, I'm wearing most of it. Can I have that sort of color?

This one. This sort of orangey-red? You wanna change the yellow one to a red and then drift it towards? It really I mean, I'm wearing most of it. Can I have that sort of color? This one? This sort of orangey-red? You want to change the yellow one to a red and then drift it towards... It really doesn't... You're right, it's a bad... Okay, we need to go. Make sure you don't step on anything. It's another 30 seconds. Okay. Is anyone in there?

Are we all underwater? No, this is now... This is all dry air now. It's... There's a moisture and dampness to it, but it is dry. Cool. Yeah, you just continue? Mm-hmm. Okay. You eventually, the stairway leads into an open antechamber.

Your light spreads down, and as it begins to illuminate the room, a large chamber is revealed. You have to balance it. Just put your thing on top of it. Yeah. You have to balance it. Just put your thing on top of it. As you reach it down, the light is reflected off the signs of a highly polished stone corridor inlaid with the murals depicting all of the different gods of Eros,

all of the entire Starborn pantheon. At the far end of the chamber, you can just about see the edge of this kind of light, which is bouncing off these mirrored kind of polished walls. You can see a statue of Siaska with her arms outstretched. And as you step in, this beautiful music begins to fill your ears in an alien language, almost like a chorus, like a choir singing, but in a language,

I don't know, maybe some of you understand. We'll ask what languages you know in a minute. And it seems to repeat. It just has like a very faint kind of verse that repeats. The floor and this long corridor extends, I think, 90 feet. The floor is divided into tiles, each one about 5 feet across, and there's about a row of 7, and then it just goes down about 90 feet. Each of the...

Each part of the floor has symbols built into it. I don't trust it. Oh my god. No! Puzzle time. There is also, to the left and right of you, there are two stone doorways

built into it. Kim, this is your jam. So to the left and right of you, there are stone doorways that appear to, you assume, lead into corridors. Yeah.

You are free to move these, Kim. If you need to move them, feel free to pick them up and move these, but I just printed them out so it'd be easier for you to see them. So what is this, like a... I start to walk out in amazement. Stop!

This is beautiful. No! Stop! Stop! Stop! Now, this is elegant architecture. Lucius! So, Lucius and Nova are right at the front where Nova's run and grabbed him and stopped him. Also, I call it more burnt orange than red, your clothing.

Not real red. Will, you getting anything magic-y? Well, there's this chorus, can I... So with the detect magic, the floor glows. The entire floor. Yeah, and with evocation magic. The whole floor, all. Yeah. And with evocation magic. The whole floor, all of these tiles glow with evocation magic. So Lucius, don't go any further.

The floor, every part of the floor. And the music you can hear is this kind of like, For all these on our body. And it's this kind of weird alien language you don't quite understand. This is beautiful. This is elven music. This is creepy as shit. It's not elven. It's not elvish. This is elven music. This is creepy as shit. It's not elven.

It's not elvish. Elven music. You are wrong. Is it? I don't think it is. I can't understand it. Only it's... Dwarvish. It's not dwarvish. Oran. It is not oran. Common. Elvish. Arakokra.

None of those. Draconic. Elvish. Primordial. None of those. Common. Elvish, Arakokra. None of those. Okay. Kim? Draconic, Elvish, Primordial. None of those. It's going to be an artwork. Common, Elvish, Gnomish, Halfling. None of those. It's Elvish. Just Elvish.

No? None of you guys can understand what the music is. Oh, yeah, and Common. Imagine this entire time she hasn't spoken our language. If it's written down, I can read it. Yeah, it's almost like the DM knew that you could read all written languages, but you can't understand spoken ones. Unless you use the spell comprehend languages.

What if I write it down, like, phonetically? You could try that. Yeah, I'd let you try that 100%. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah. So I think make an intelligence check, and this is going to take you, like, 10 minutes. Okay. You're going to have to sit here, like here like listening and you're trying to write it out phonetically

Intelligence, don't let me down I feel like we had... Bad! Six Six? I will give you six words Oh, that's cool Actually, no, maybe less, I don't know Oh

Five and a half And then Babelfish babel fish you just are able to see yeah but i've probably written it down very well oh right you know like some languages have you need to put an apostrophe in yeah or an umlaut yeah or like what's the french one that looks like a little g look a little hook oh right when you write it down this is nova 10 minutes by the way so you guys think about what What's the French one that looks like a little G, like a little hook? Ohhhh. Right. When you write it down, this is Nova- ten minutes by the way, so you guys think about what you were doing in those ten minutes. Um. Do I know anything about evocation?

Generally, it is offensive magic. It is blasts of fire, lightning, elemental in nature. It's used by, you know, sorcerers and wizards to kill. To do damage. It's always in nature. It's used by sorcerers and wizards to kill. To do damage. It's always surrounded around power. Like the harnessing of power. Anybody else have anything they do for the ten minutes? I'm thinking about everyone's favourite colour.

I want to check out the doors. Yeah? Not go, like, but I want to say to Quill, is there anything that you sense on the doors? Not about the doors. If you're going, then I'll follow. No, just move yourself. I mean, as far as I can see, this is a nightmare. This is burning my vision.

I imagine how much magic is in there. Each tile is very strong. It has strong senses of evocation. Everything's a trap. So Ayla moves up to that door. Are you opening it or are you just kind of like Indiana Jones-ing it? Yeah. Okay, that's an investigation check. Indiana Jones-ing it. what are you doing all right

um i'm up to be looking at the walls trying to see if there's a work maybe like scurry across yeah sure make a perception check for me then cool what you do right well nova before you do that okay i will tell you so you write it down and either some of these words are not written how they're phonetically sounded and obviously some are there's only a few of the words change You get the following words starry guide youth Youth youth bright right lead

lead mothers In that order you write it down and phonetically somewhere in the song in that order you write it down and phonetically somewhere in the song in that it's not all of it though right

no no much of it is still indescribable you know in unintelligible can I now see the

bottom panel yes absolutely so just in case it was missed on podcast the floor tiles are just a

jumbled mess of god symbols. Yes. So you've obviously recognized because you would recognize Hesper's symbol. Yes. We saw a lot of them in that town. You saw a lot of them in the town. So they are each of these. Each of these tiles appear to be split into three sections. You can see that the first one goes up to about 30 feet. Then there's one between 30 and 60 feet and then one from 60 to 90 feet.

And each of them appear to be a jumble of the different holy symbols of the gods of Erebus. Excluding Siascas. Yeah, there's no Siasca here. Yeah, there's Calaras on there. Yeah, Scaldi's like, well, I recognise... It's Valina, Paladora, Atalicus, Calara, Hesperus, Sayana and Zephyr. She's got the big ones here.

I don't know which one. Is this a lyre? Yes. I mean, I guess Quill doesn't know which god that belongs to. Which one? The lyre. The lyre is Sayana. Have we heard about Sayana before? I don't know. I don't think you have. I don't remember.

We've never looked into it very far, I guess. Yes. The mural, what is it showing, a timeline? No. Or is it just all the gods? It's the gods in different poses along the sides. And then, like, in each 30-foot segment, it then changes ever so slightly.

What are the order of them from left to right? From us to that way, north? Well, they're split into two groups, one on each side. So in the first 30 feet, you have... There's seven, so it will be Hesper, Sayana, Zephyr, Atelicus, Kalara, Valena... Trying to remember my other god names. The Lyle one.

Sayana. Yeah, like that. And then it changes. Yeah. That's the order you see. And then it changes and it swaps them around. What did you get on your perception check? Ten.

Three. Ten? I mean, looking at it, the reliefs themselves appear to be carved in. You would have to be an exceptional climber to use the murals because it's like these tiny little finger gaps to kind of crawl your way along. And the ceiling is completely smooth. I think this might be some sort of trap.

Definitely. Almost definitely. Evocation magic all over the place. And then what did you get on your investigation check? Only 10. As far as you can tell, this door is, is you can open it it's not trapped in any way there might be some answers can i hear anything beyond these other corridors same thing and so far that uh if you're trying to listen to the door it's either too thick or you can't hear

anything beyond it well should we all go into one room at a time so we don't split up? I think that's a solid idea. Nova's got her notes out and she's... Nova! Given... I don't know if I'm at a game list, and I also can't remember, even though I literally read it recently. Would Nova know who the youngest in a pantheon of gods is? If you don't know, as which sounds oh no that's fine make a religion check for me i think i know but it's one of those i don't know well i think if

you think you know then we'll go with what you think you know rather than making a check for it so we'll go with what you think you know 11. so what do you think i want to say hesper do you think I want to say Hesper but I also want to say because palador is not Clara is not yeah Clara's all the shit sayana or is that yeah I'm gonna have to leave this one like other if you guys want to make religion checks you guys can I can't remember. I literally read this recently. Fuck! I don't know.

Raya, the gods, again, like, you know the orcs, Reverend Zephir, but... I know nothing. You don't really know that much. I got nothing. Same with you. Like, the only gods you've really had any experience with is Zephir and Atelicus. A lot of wild elves worship Atelicus. Well, I know that Zephir friggin' almost smoked me. Yeah.

What was at the end? Statue of Siasco with her arms, like, welcoming. It looks like a shrine, right? There is, it's hard to see beyond that. You think there might be a slight antechamber and then another door, but you're not sure how big that area is. You can just see this corridor

and then this statue like this. Oh, it's still pretty dark down here. I mean, your light is bouncing off these polished walls, but yeah, I did it so you can just see this corridor and then this statue like this oh it's still pretty dark down here yeah i mean your light is bouncing off these polished walls but yeah i i did it so you can see the room but you need to step further down what i'm interested by is the design of this place is it just a trap room because it's so decadent and beautiful why wouldn't people use it normally is there a way to just disable the floor being bad

for people to use it in the day? Can I record the ceiling or anything, like on the walls or any of the... Investigation check, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You guys can make these checks whenever you want. 18. 18.

Looking around this area, this kind of front bit, before you step out into this corridor, you don't find... Like, the only thing you can see is that there are these two stone doors. You can clearly tell that these are... these tiles, you know, they will, when you stand on them, there is a, it will probably know, either through a pressure plate or maybe magical means, but you're pretty sure that each individual tile stepping on it may have an effect. You do not find a way to disable it from this end. You suspect there probably would be

another way at the other end based on what nova learned about there being magical defenses if this has been activated this is a bottleneck and this is where you would activate some sort of defense to you know so normal travelers if you just welcoming pilgrims if this is a shrine you just have it disabled and they'd come and go and it'd be this beautiful kind of like you're now entering the shrine uh whereas when there is when you need to defend it you activate the defenses and this is clearly some sort of magical protection dodgy lever just like all their followers dead um should we try and go around the side? We should at least see, there might be some arms. Lucius was right. Yeah.

Where do you want to go? Just slow. So could I have a real quick perception to see if I can spot any more magic just around the room, bar the floor? There is none. Okay. Yeah, with detect magic I would just tell you. Unless it's past like that what foot of stone

Yeah yeah sure Which yeah obviously if you look up If there's magic somehow hidden in the ceiling Like beyond a foot but how that would affect you You don't know Is there any magic in the statue at the end He doesn't have the range If this is a trap to stop people

Going to the shrine we need to understand What the shrine is for And what the enemies of that shrine would be. This music is just repeating. I mean, the spirits above, they were still trapped in the wall. It might just be a fail safe. The last thing you do when the keep is lost

is everyone retreats behind the shrine, turns on the fail safe. So what would be the thing that allows you to navigate through as a follower be the thing that allows you to navigate through as a follower of the person that works here? The correct tiles? But who are these people? Who are?

I mean, you saw the spirits, they were soldiers of Eros. They were the good, the alliance of the Starborn, like the people of Eros. Who are they specifically? And what did they align themselves with? Is it just Siaska or all the gods or just one? I mean, we saw Siaskan symbols on the soldiers. There's no Siaskan symbols here.

But that's what I mean. We can't stand on any Siaskan tiles because there aren't any. But I mean, you guys know that the other gods are Siaska's children. Yeah. Like, people might, if you were a Siasca worshipper back in the day, you still worshipped all of the other gods. You worshipped the pantheon. You just would go to,

oh, I want to know more about magic. I will speak to Hesper. But you still worshipped all of them together. Nowadays, since the Sundering, things have become a bit more splintered and you have, like, churches dedicated to one thing or churches dedicated to another thing. But back before the Sundering, all of the gods were worshipped

because they were real. They were walking amongst people. You could go and speak with Hesper and have meetings with him, whereas that isn't the case anymore. I'm not sure it will. So it was like a unified religion. Yeah. A pantheon, yeah.

Yeah, it was a pantheon. It was like the Greek gods, right? Like, yes, you might be a follower of Apollo or Zeus, but you knew all the gods existed and you gave them all tribute for the right things, and that was how it was for Aroas as well. Can anyone remember who the youngest god in the pantheon is? Anyone?

I thought that would be something you'd know. Yeah, well... I skipped a lot of history lessons. I guess I'd only know about Hesper, so could I do a religion check on just Hesper? Sure. I threw my religion book out. Dumb.

16 plus religion. 17. Yeah. So you know about Hesper. Hesper is one of the middle children. He is not the oldest. And I would say, actually, you would know about Hesper. Hesper is one of the middle children. He is not the oldest. And I would say actually you would know some information actually. So you would know from Worship of Hesper, Hesper is the middle child.

Attilicus is the older brother. Yeah. Okay. So those are facts that you know having learnt the ways of Hesper and being a cleric of Hesper. The older brother but the oldest sibling. So what's your thinking? The music I think I think the music is saying something about there's six words I can pick out six words maybe I don't know starry guide youth bright lead mother and my thinking is maybe youth will that if we pick the tiles that are the youngest God it would lead them to the star mother I

aka siesta who's at the end there okay but I'm looking at all these tiles as well and there's no see there's a route. And there's no one tile next to each other, if you see what I mean. There's no one god that has a solid path. So either we jump around or even the song is saying an order. Like you have to hit the tiles in a specific order. Older to youngest? Well, like Kalara is known as a spirit guide

so maybe the word guide is meant to be I don't know what's the harp one she's in the top left corner of all these three sections I feel like sayana could be the youngest she she is the song heart she is song and life and trickery and happiness and joy. And to me, that... She's on the first row on the right. That screams young to me. Delicious. I hate puzzles.

What if... Well, you know what? The best thing, Ayla, is this is one option. I might go through the door. There's a door. There's a big old smashy whacking door right there i guess i've got like on whichever god you personally worship and then it lets you through i don't worship anyone in particular but if i stand on hesper i can't go any further there's no route

yep i'm in the same boat it's fine that was just a thought i'm gonna open this door now i will follow ala we might find some more yeah should all go. I need to think a bit more. Okay. You gonna open the door? Just a chance. So, you begin opening the door. Very dramatic opening of a door. Just slide that down to about there. So, you see the corridor curves around to the right.

And you just see it seems to lead down. It is a plain looking stone corridor. Ayla, you step in. Just move yourself down just so I know where you are. Can I look in the floor first? Yeah, do you want to make a perception check? Yeah, you can make a perception check.

I want to check. Yeah, sure. I'll wait for Mark. Stop. Nine. Nine. Looking around, it just seems to be stone corridor.

There's no tiles. You don't spot anything of note. Okay. Don't worry, I got my passive. Just in point, is anybody directly following Aayla, like, behind her? I'm pretty much next to her with my Detect Magic. And then, Oriah, you're going as well? So basically, is everybody heading in?

Yes. I'll probably be at the back, like, looking longingly at the... Yeah, you and Scaldi are at the back. I'll stay with Nova and Scaldi. Okay. So, it is Quill and Oriah. I would say you guys probably actually stop Ayla as you get to about here, because you see something. Nothing activates, but you see something.

You can see that there are a series of grooves and very old bloodstains along the walls and the floor throughout this corridor. The grooves appear quite thick, but they're disguised. They're coloured on the inside and shaded to match the stone

because they appear to be like lighting sconces as if, you know, planning for somebody bringing a torch through. And they're actually painted kind of like Indiana Jones where they have the hidden bridgeway. so they blend in seamlessly with the floor yeah but you spot these hidden grooves and then there's this old crusted dried very faint blood that splatters across the ground

uh there's there's blood in here and also along these walls, is it like just middle height? It's floors and then walls. Oh, across the entire place there's grooves. I don't know if they open? I don't know. I guess on all four. You've just seen them. It's like along the floor and then kind of low on the walls, kind of like near the floor. Can I like try and step forward a little

bit and throw like my water skin like yeah i mean where do you want to go just like just where quill and ayla are between the two uh there's not really enough space so you could go in front of them like here go like there yeah just yeah my water skin ahead just a little bit to see if it does something the water just splashes out. And then you can now easily see it trickling down into these grooves. Okay. I mean... This doesn't look very good.

No, you just threw your water skin. I have, but now you can see the problem. Yes, your water skin's on the floor. Yes, but there's plenty of water around. There's another trap in here. Not magical this time, because I can't see it, but something has done some damage to some people. Hasn't left their bones behind, no boots.

Could you just stand back a little bit? And then, sure. If I conjure Mage Hand, can I use Mage Hand to, like, pat around? So you will have Ayla and these guys step back? Yeah, and then just use my Mage Hand to, like, pat around. What's the range of Mage Hand to like pat around? So you will have Ayla and these guys step back? Yeah, and then just use my Mage Hand to like pat around. What's the range of Mage Hand? 2,000 feet.

Forever. 30 feet. Infinity. The hand just kind of pats the ground gently, pat around on the sides, nothing happens. Do the bloodstains, are they isolated on the floor or do they go to the walls? They are

kind of patchy. There's like splashes of blood all across the floor and then up the walls in some places. How close are they? It's very random. The front row. How many feet is the first blood splatter? Oh, blood goes almost all through this entire corridor.

Cool. Yeah, kind of. A little bit. Okay. It's more central. It's more in the middle. In the middle. More in the middle.

But blood is everywhere. I don't like this. But it's old. It's like really old and dried. Very faint. You can only barely see it because Quill and Oriah point it out. What would Grooth do to hurt somebody? I mean, something could come out of them.

How big are they? They're thick. And how deep are they? I can't tell. Pretty deep. Deep! Are they painted? Yeah, so the insides of them are painted to match the floor,

but also the shadows themselves. It's painted in a weird way. Like a light colour. Yeah, it's kind of, like, done in a weird way that it kind of... It's an optical illusion of, like, making it look like it's a seamless floor. Yeah. I guess we could just stand in the gaps where the grooves aren't, but... Yeah. Yeah, they're big enough.

It's not like the whole thing is like a grate. It's like two big grooves running down the floor and then two grooves along the side. You could kind of stand really centrally or you could stand up against the walls and try and stand... But then there's the grooves on the walls. But then there's the grooves on the walls, yeah.

Could you get... If you were to crawl along the floor, would you be underneath the groove in the wall? Yes. Yeah, sure. If you get down low enough. You'd have to be properly crawling on your belly. You want me to try it?

I mean, if something's coming out vertically and horizontally from these things, it will be avoided if we crawl and slide as much as we can along the outside edge. Or inside edge. But the water's going to do it. I mean, it's going to be pretty tricky to have more than one person do that. You want me to try it? You've got a big hammer.

Yep. I can try it. I don't mind. I mean, I think she's a lot more dexterous. No insult to you, obviously. I'm too muscular and great. I know. That's what I was going to say.

I know what you're saying. Yeah. Oriah, please. So what, you want to just make your way along? Like crawling along here? I mean, the rest of you are going to move out the room? Are you going to stay in? What do you guys want to do?

Yeah. Where, I mean, are the rest of you going to move out the room? Are you going to stay in? What do you guys want to do? I'll let you in when the coast is clear, and then we can all go one at a time. I can't fit in the room at the moment. Yeah, at the moment, like, at the moment, with you guys all kind of pressed up against this back door,

Lucius and Scaldi are currently still outside. If it's clear, you can all follow me through. But we'll only know if it's clear if you trigger one of the traps. What if I don't trigger a trap trap then I guess that route is safe Yeah, we all crawl along me across if you want to or you can stay here and I'll have a look around myself. I Mean that happened last time when you didn't go very well last time. No, but Yeah, I don't feel good about it. So so right now. So at the moment You've got you three here And

Araya is Crawling along the side Last chance Are you doing anything? Araya come Back I'll constantly have a message on you We're going to leave the room

What if Do you Araya do you just stop I'll stop once Of course I stop Okay Stop Have you Has she gone yet? Take three steps to the left Not yet What if Why don't you just stop on course S? I'll stop once course S stops. Okay. Stop!

Is she gone yet? Take three steps to the left. Not yet. What if... It's like digital maze. It's about halfway through. What if... Instead of something coming out of the grooves, the space of wall and floor between the grooves moves?

Oh, the entire thing lifts up. Yes. Oh, then there's lifts up. Yes. Oh, then there's no place. Is there blood on the ceiling? Yeah, some. Not a lot, but some. There's blood on the ceiling, guys. As you look up, you're like, oh yeah. I wonder if it takes

a certain amount of weight, which is why the water skin didn't work. You see? Is there something we can do to Ayla? I love dungeons does major image have weight to it i don't think so yeah you can it would look as if somebody had weight like you it's almost like if you were creating a major image like out on the grass yeah i would say that with the concentration you're actually creating the image of as it steps down you're creating illusory grass around its footsteps to make it look like it is.

It's CG. Yeah. But not- Yeah, it's basically major images using green screen. DCG. Yeah. Lucius makes a very good point. We don't actually know where this trap could come from. Did I, Quill?

You're very good. Oh, thank you! It's actually a great idea. A terrifying one, but a great idea nonetheless. I'm gonna go stand on some tiles. No, don't stand on those- I'm joking! So, Uriah is currently- Okay, Uriah-

Like, solid snake, like solid snake unlike the ground pressed up into the corner like has stopped crawling all right i don't think that's a good idea if lucius is right go over to this door yeah and check and see if there's anything with levitate you can only go up and down right i can't levitate after a long rest because i levitated ailer and we only had a show well you don't seem to find any traps on the other door out of interest if you had someone levitate and we can have a rope around them and we kind of push them forward or you could use the wall to like move you across you see a very similar but shorter corridor do i see any of the same grooves. Oh, and is there blood? I guess, Naila's looking for it.

Yeah, there's blood. It looks slightly different. So I think make a medicine check actually for me. It's green. It's poisonous. Okay. Oh, six. I mean, it looks the same.

Blood's blood. This card is shorter, but it's got the same kind of thing. Great. Is there blood on same kind of thing. Great. Is there blood on the ceiling? No. No? Oh. But there's blood on the floor and the walls and stuff,

so, you know, still gross. Same grooves. Same grooves. Good. Good. So am I turning around and heading back? Head back, Oriah. Okie dokie.

I think... Scalling me. We need to figure out how to trigger this, and then we can find out what it is, and then we can find out how to get through it, which is a very Nova situation, if you ask me. You want me to just run through it and see what happens? Absolutely not. We're arguing about this. Yeah, sure. The mural's on the sides of the walls.

So you come back out into the main room. There are any kind of like age... So Raya and Quill are the ones in here. Ayla's in here. Scaldi and Lucius are out here.

And then Nova is now looking down this big corridor. And yeah, do they look... Like, does anyone look young? Perception check for me. Perception. Freaking perception.

I should be perception. That's nice. How big's the gaps between the first grooves you mean so like horizontally yeah well it's about a 10 foot wide corridor so I'd say it's probably like 3 foot like from the wall

it's like 3 foot groove 4 foot groove 3 foot wall it's like 3 4 3 so you hop over the first two grooves. But it's not like, they're not horizontal, it's like, it's like. Right along the corridor.

Like, if I, I'll draw them on there. I'll draw them on there. It goes straight along the corridor. It's kind of like. Along the length of it. Yeah, like, wee, like that. And then wee, wee, wee. Oh, like a bowling ball.

Like that. Like a, yeah. Blood channels. A bowling alley. Wee, like that. And then wee, like that. Blood channels. A bowling alley. Like that. And then... Like that. Blood channels. Got a ball.

What I'm thinking... You still had a question. You got a three. I mean, it's hard to tell because they're not detailed representations, right? They're kind of like these side profile things. Syanna is small, but she could be a halfling. Atelicus is tall and has stags and is very well built. Could be another race.

You know, it's hard to tell. They just look like different races to you. I don't think it's Hesper, Atelicus or Calara because they were involved in Siasca's... the end of Siasca, basically. Hesper lifted up the world. Artelicus split the world, Calara became the goddess of death. So to me, that's like-

I mean, I would've told you about Artelicus and Hesper. Responsible stuff. Yeah. So I don't think they're the oldest. I think it's Syanna. That's racist, she's just a halfling. She's depicted several several different things actually. So what's everyone doing?

Oh is she? Just a thought. If this corridor is designed to hurt people who walk through it and there's a big old path down the middle of it, seems like you shouldn't walk on the middle part. But what about the grooves on the wall? Well yeah but that's to catch the people who go around the sideways. So neither of those saves. But I feel like the middle bit, if you were just a normal person strolling down a corridor, you'd go in the middle, right? I also feel like the door might lock after you.

Really? There's nothing magical about it. I don't know, we're in a dungeon in my experience. Everything's a trap. Shall we figure out if it's a weighted trap at the very least? What can we put on it? So spiritual weapon, it inflicts damage. So is it enough to be able to push down on stuff if I was to summon it and move it? I got a lot of hate for this after Nova used force

to try and make vibrations in the ground. And everyone was like, it deals force damage, Mark. Surely that means it must create some sort of vibration. Right. So I will say that force damage, if that's what spiritual weapon does, force damage can create impact. Force damage is like hitting it with a blunt force,

like a hammer. It does. Then yes, I will say it can create pressure. Okay. I could conjure another version of Aayla's hammer, because I liked that last time, that looked really cool. Had feathers all around it, got a mini of it too. I could create that, press down certain areas and just figure out how to trigger this trap. Because it's not going to hurt us out here if the trap's in there, right? Right? Right? Right?

Yes. We have to figure out some way. I think at this point your detect magic fails. Okay. That room is actually quite dark, it turns out. Okay. Aayla's Hammer. You cast Spiritual Weapon. Yep.

Mark off the spell slot. You now have a Spiritual Weapon. Awesome. Do you have one there? I don't have mine because I didn't think to get it. That nice mini. I know. You can have a spiritual weapon awesome. Do you have one there? I I don't have mine. I didn't think to get it that nice mini I know you don't have I mean I bought them as well, but yeah, no I need to go back together Sorry, I'm done. Sorry, so you come over this way You do you know no yeah, I'll do it that side. Sorry. Yeah, I'm on that side

So I'll bring it down side.'s seen on the side. We'll step out of the room. I'm going to stay looking at the tiles. I'm going to look at Nova looking at the tiles. So we'll press against the wall, press against the floor, press against everything I have. How far can you send it out from you? 60 feet. Up to 60 feet around from you. Do you need to see where you're sending it?

This is within range. Normally it has line of sight then for spells so I'd say it has to be within line of sight. Stary guy. Yeah, it doesn't say. Okay. Yeah, I'd say it has to be in line of sight. So you can only, you can send the hammer to where you can see. Yeah. Yeah, okay. So you send it about

just, I would send it about there and you start knocking on the floors and ceilings. It just hits everything. Dust, a little bit of dust comes up. Shall we carry on and I'll get stuff around the corner? Sure, let's just take it one step at a time. Okay. Okay, move yourself. Anyone coming with me?

What are you doing? What if the trap here doesn't work? Wouldn't that be funny? What if this whole thing was like mundane trap, but only the magical ones still work? Why are you double bluffing us? Yeah, so you keep... So Orion moves with you? Yep.

Okay, so you donk, donk, donk. Nothing seems to happen. This is Mark living his life. You're going to have to move up to see around there. Yeah, moving forward. So you stay on this side, because you're going to have to move to about there to see there. Sure.

Maybe you should stand near the door. And when you come around the corner quill, haha It seems you see there is another doorway Yeah And as you kind of you come around the corner and you're with the spiritual weapon you're tapping and nothing No weight seems to change but it's almost as if you kind of round the corner and as soon as you see the door You hear you kind of round the corner and as soon as you see the door you hear this kind of I need everybody to roll well Raya and Quill currently roll initiative initiative and the rest of us roll it and we'll we'll see what happens

trap cute oh should I just we never learn our lesson I'll just put both arms around my back now 40

quill 10 nova 9 lucius 9 oraya 22

oh that's gonna be the only roll that is high scaldi is... It makes sense that your character goes fast, though. I think. I guess. Yeah, high dex.

What's your dex, Quill? No, in fact, this thing doesn't have a dex, so you'll be... What thing? You'll have priority over it. So! This thing. Oriah.

Hello. You hear a and then you begin to hear this high-pitched whine. Oh god. What do you do? Um... Should we run? Back, back, back. Okay, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, quill, try and move back. Try and return.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, this is, so you hear the whine. Before you take your turn, if you're going to move, you can change what you want to do. Yeah. But basically, you hear these blades, these spinning saw blades, come up out of the ceiling and out of the walls.

But they're on both ends, and they begin doing this. So this whole corridor is now difficult terrain. So you move at half speed. So what do you want to do? You get like... So they're vertical and horizontal. They're basically like doing this. No, they're all on the floor, but they're very large.

They're these kind of like very tall, spinning kind of grinder blades. But there's also, they're set into the walls as well. Okay. It looks like they're going to pass you, so you can try and dodge out of the way. They're going to make attack rolls against you, basically. I'm going to dodge. I'm going to dodge so hard.

Okay, so you want to just take the dodge action so they have disadvantage against you? Yes. Then do you want to try and move still? And try and move. So you can move half speed? Yep. Okay, so what's that, 15?

Try it, yeah. You're going backwards. 5, 10, 15. Yep. The grooves go all the way to the door, by the way. And then you take the dodge action as your action. Yeah. Okay. David Copperfield shit. Can't be any other way. I position myself at the door to grab anyone and pull them out. Yeah, sure. But that's not your turn. I know, but. Bad times. So, initiative roll twenty. A series of wearing blades appears and pass along

the corridor okay they attack anybody in the corridor so they're gonna attack Quill and Oriah so they have disadvantage to hit right because of the dodge action oh they go before me so I don't even have a chance to dodge that's why you rolled initiative 14 no hit okay hit. Okay, so you dodge out of the way. Quill, 21. Yeah. That's kind of the noise they make, actually. My ancestors.

You're gonna take eight points of slashing damage. So Quill takes eight points of slashing damage. As they pass you, the blades seem to get faster. Oh! Chogani Ice Tea! So when they pass you, the ones on your side are getting faster.

Quill, they don't seem to get that faster on your side. Almost like missing means that they go faster on one side. One thing I forgot, by the way, is when you ended your turn, they also make an attack against you as well. Oh, god damn. 14, so it misses you again. Cutwheel.

So after the blades, that's an initiative 20, so we go to Ayla. So you wanted to move up and be ready to... I can't reach her, can I? If you step in, these spinning blades will get an attack against you, basically. So the hall has attack of opportunity on you. It's basically like these blades are

constantly just going... They're coming at different directions. By the way, when they hit Quill, this gash of blood splatters the wall and the ceiling. So it's like... Oh, that's brutal. Blood sprays.

Can I put a foot in and grab her and then pull out? Yeah, that's fine. Okay. So what you're doing is you're stepping in. Grabbing her out. And then you're trying to... So make a strength check for me.

And it's a 19 to hit you, which I think hits you. Oh, no. 11. So 11. I'd say that's probably still enough. And then you spend the rest of your movement basically dragging Uriah back. You take 15 points of slashing damage. As you step in, you kind of wrap your arms around Uriah,

and you throw her to the side. But that allows one of these blades to, like, catch your shoulder blades, causing a deep gash. But you managed to throw a Raya in yourself. Mother of God! Which god? Any of them on the symbols. Oh, it's the Oscar, isn't it?

Who's the youngest? Who's the youngest god? Have you had any insight? I don't know what Scaldi can really do. She's so low on her spell slots now. She will... Get ready to pull me out. I like how you took no damage from that,

but I've just taken 50. Orion's like leaping to the sides, like you're watching it. It's like, ah, bah, bah. Scaldi will... Howard Moon. Leaping to the sides like you're watching it. It's like, ah, blah, blah. Scaldi will... Howard Moon. Yeah, I mean, her cantrip, she can't really do anything either. She'll just basically, yeah, move to the front and do what Ayla did

and basically ready to try and pull somebody out of the room. Okay. So she'll really in action. Quill. Right, I'm going to cast Blade Ward on myself. Okay. Because holy shit. Action.

I'm going to... Oh, it's an action. Because holy shit. Action. I'm going to... Oh, it's an action, isn't it? Is it... Oh, I can't remember if my shield... It's a bonus action, so I'll shield bonus action. How many times have you used the shield ring since a long rest? You've used it once. It's got two uses per day.

We had a long rest before we came into it, and I don't think he's used it since we've been in the underwater thing. I thought you used it against the turret. could be i may have used against the turret okay okay so this is your second use of it so this is my second use okay um so yeah i'll uh have the shield blade ward myself that's action bonus action and then you move at half speed how long does the barrier ring actually last for one minute oh yeah Oh yeah, it does say that. Almost like I know what I'm doing. And I'm going to, I guess, half movement. Yep.

Five, ten, fifteen, try and get back. Okay, when you end your turn, that is a fourteen to hit. Doesn't hit. Thank you, barrier ring. Okay, as they miss you, they get faster. At initiative ten, they go again. That is now with 16 to hit. Just hit but I've got resistance to the damage.

That's a good thing because that's 12 points of damage, slashing damage. So six? Yeah, half to six. Crikey. That was good. And then you see them begin to reset on their speed. That's good. That was a good blade ward you see them begin to reset on their speed. That's good. Oh, that was a good blade ward. Lucius and Nova at the same time.

Help! Yeah. You can see these blades. They're made from metal. They do appear a little bit worn. Raya and Quill, you do probably notice that they have, like, gashes in them. Like, it almost looks like they've been struck. Like, people have tried to fight the blades. How fast are they going up and down fast like this?

I mean there's multiple of them. I think that there is to do Ideas When it's your turn, it'll be your idea. I'm just like... There's seven blades, basically, but they're all at random times. They kind of come up the ground and then they cut down and then... Can I see in the door from where I am? I mean, there's a lot of people there.

There's a lot of crowded people looking out. It's supposed to do a spell over through them. I mean you can try for sure. I'll give cover if you're gonna try and attack the blades for sure. I was more going to try and acid splash the groove to try and melt it so it kind of blocks the blade. Uh huh. You can try.

Yeah. Sure. I'm gonna do it just past Quill. Sure. But if there's a blade to hit on that groove, it might get blocked. Cool. Yeah, so is it attack roll for Acid Splash?

Oui, oui, bonjour. Okay, make an attack roll. No, it's a deck saving throw. A deck saving throw? A deck saving throw? Does the groove have a deck saving throw? It can't move. It can't move.

So I think, yeah, I think you just do damage to it. Yeah, I think you just do damage to it yeah I think you just do damage six so you weaken the groove and you block parts of it up but the mechanism just kind of pushes through but you've dealt damage to one of these blades at least it looks like some of the acid went in the groove and it's messed up one of the blade components, but the others are still going. It's a cantrip. It is a cantrip, you're right. So, yeah.

Yeah, so you did six hit points to one. Of, like, six? Of, yeah, seven, basically. There's seven different blades. Goddamn. Okay, and you're not in the room, so you're not taking any time to do that. Nova.

This whole gaggle of people is, crowded around this door as you can hear. And then you've got the nice tile puzzle before you. Ah. Go on, give the tile puzzle. I'm trying to concentrate. I might give the tile puzzle a go. Yeah, go on. While this is going.

Let me just activate this, shall we? Yeah, go, go, keep it down. I suppose I probably can't get a clear shot. You can try. They'll just get covered, I'd say. Because it's such a tightly packed group of allies. Just use your thing on me so that when I die, you get healed. I've already used that Hexblade. No, actually, I've got it back on a short rest.

Hexblade cursed me. Oh, Hexblade Chris Quill. I may as well heal someone. No. It's not a good way of doing it, but... Does heat metal recharge on a long rest or short rest? From the hammer? Long rest. Poops. Oh, so that might damage.

Yeah. It would damage the blades, I would add fire damage. Yeah, yeah. 100%. It's a hot burning blade. It's worse, it's worse. That's the noise it makes. But then it would cauterize it.

Yeah, yeah. It would. It would. It bleach. It's worse! It's worse! That's the noise it makes. But then it would cauterize it as well. Yeah, it would. It's powerful. Great. There's no infection though. Doesn't that have a mending? Yeah.

I should probably make you make constitution saves for tetanus and stuff, shouldn't I? Rabies. There's other blood. Gangrene. Like dice! I'd roll off my knee Gangrene. Oh, it rusted. Like dice! It rolled off my knee that way. All right, what are you doing? Can I try and cast Eldritch Blast?

On a blade. Yeah, I don't know whether or not to go for the groove and try and like... For the purposes of attacking the groove or the blades, it's the same thing. Like you're going to damage the mechanism and make it... But thematically, Mark. Yeah, thematically you're targeting the groove. Okay, do I get disadvantage or anything? I'm going to give it cover. So I'm going to give it a higher AC.

Okay, so I'll just build some blades. No, I'm not. Wow, that's awful. Wow, that's really bad. One's a two, one's a four, plus seven on each. Eleven and a nine. Blades are moving so fast and there's so many people and you're worried about hitting Quill

that your blasts just go wide and they don't strike the blades themselves. You shouldn't hit Quill. Shoot at me while I'm trying to dodge blades. Scald it. No, Scald it. Orion. Come on, Quill. You can see Quill like...

The one thing you notice is that whilst the blades appear random there probably is an element of timing that you could try and figure Out but it's all it's gonna. Do is help you dodge the blades I'd be I think it's intelligence. Yeah, it's an investigation check. Okay. I've got a passive of 19 You have to actively try and like okay this one then this one then this one like you're working out the timing of it You know the scene in the Rock where he times like the Yeah, yeah.

It's like, no! And he rolls it. Prince of Persia. Yeah, same thing. I got the net from the bowlers. Yeah, can I try and throw the net and try and tangle them up so they stop moving? You can make an attack with it, yeah. That's a good idea.

Clog it. Just blend your bolas. So make this as a race. I'd say, so you kind of and you throw these weighted bolas. You kind of spin them around your head. You just happen to catch as two of these blades are passing, like their little arms that they're on, you catch the two

arms, locks them together, and then as they kind of are pulling against each other, and it's currently holding two of the blades in place which means I'll give it minus four on its next attack roll basically to anyone in the area oh they're still attacking yeah there's loads of these blades there's like more I see my so and yeah like by throwing the bolus she's like stuck two of them together for now I guess stopping those two hasn't stopped the rest of them oh they're independent that was phenomenal thank you for their great job that was

your action would you like to try and do anything else um I don't know if you can no I think I can really do it right well quill this is with a minus four to their attack roll mm-hmm that is a 17 I rolled a theme plus one I do have played would still yeah do you yes it's the end of your turn okay so that would normally be Do you still have blade wards? I rolled a 16 plus 1. I do have blade wards still, yeah. Do you? Yes, it's the end of my next turn. End of your turn, okay. So that would normally be 4, so it goes down to 2 slashing damage.

Ah, shit. Don't say that! Try harder next time, blades. Bleeding from my... I don't know how to remember. Aayla. What do you want to do? Can I...

Put your hammer on the ground. The blades will hit that and then stop instantly, right? Heavy hammer. Strong. I mean, can I try and time it and hit one of the blades when they come near the door? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely you can. I'll do that.

I'll hit... Try and smash it, yeah, for sure. I'll do a couple of hits at the blades. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So you take two swings. That's going to miss. Well, you never know. It at the blades. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So you take two swings. That's going to miss. Well, you never know.

It was a two. Oh, yeah. It's going to miss. 20. Yeah, hits. Yeah, you smack. You catch one of the blades as it's passing by. Bam.

So six damage. Six damage to that one. Yeah. Doesn't quite break it. Doesn't quite break it, but heavily dents it. It's the one that the acid kind of melted and you kind of bent it slightly, but it's still now going.

It's nearly destroyed, though. Now it's bent to the bit where I was standing safe. Don't have that help, Sark will! You can do it! Yeah, Scaldi doesn't really want to risk, like, reaching out because she's pretty weak. She's pretty damaged. And she knows that you need her to rescue your friend, so she's not going to put herself too much at risk.

She's just going to, again, just kind of hold out an arm like, Come on! Come on, Quill! I've got you! And reaches out her hand. Quill. Okay, yeah. Technically it's you and the blades, but I'll let you go first because you're a player. Blade blades. I probably have higher dex anyway.

They're basically blade blades. Are basically blake I'm moving I'm I believe the correct term is let it rip I'm yelling get out of the way yeah I mean yeah you just you just throw yourself like the war arms holding well there's been hammers there's's been spells yeah like scully like grabs your hand as you're running towards and she pulls you through um yeah and you ah the blades continue for a while so lucky okay can we keep taking pot shots at the blades yeah sure yeah yeah can we try they seem to stay active you don't know how we try they seem to stay active? You don't know how long they're gonna stay active force If you want to just keep waiting on them, you can make it a whale on the answer splash

So so we'll do it as a round. So basically each of you whoever's making attacks you make an attack. In fact, actually We won't do that because that's gonna be a lot of dice rolling when really in reality What you can do is stand by the door and then just take turns. Like, right, Aayla, smash, smash, step back. Nova, quill, you know, like, Oriah comes in, smash, smash. Acid, Eldritch Blast. Do you think we can do enough damage in the time it takes for them to dissipate? Yes, I think you can. Because these things don't have a lot of hit points.

There is a lot of them. But also you can set your guys up. Like, Scaldi can sit there and be like, okay it now she can give you advantage i think you guys can take this out um the main obviously the trap was you're in the middle of the corridor and oh god if all of you had been in there you're all having to get out and it gets to go twice it would have done a lot of it's trying to pass each other as well so i would say that over time you smash the blades to pieces um yeah it's just mechanisms going up and down yeah and basically and after a while they as well. So I would say that over time you smash the blades to pieces. Yeah.

It's just mechanisms going up and down. Yeah, and basically after a while they stop and it just ends. Do you reckon it's safe to enter now? I mean, we know how it's activated now. We'll say it's safe to enter now. There's going to be no illusions about that. You have defeated the trap. You took some damage, but you've beaten the trap.

I imagine it's exactly like that on the other side. Yep. The moment we cross the corner, and I guess look at it, or whatever it was that activated it, that's when the... I'm going to tell you, because it was so close to happening. So because it's curved, you didn't have line

of sight to the magical sensor on the door that you would have seen with detect magic. There's a person there. So the moment i see it would detect magic it would have happened anyway yeah but it's just that that's why you couldn't see that's like you were testing the pressure and it wasn't that it was a magical like life form detected activate the trap yeah but i think i figured it was like a mundane trap anyway that's why I was doing the weighted Yeah, the blades were the blades were mundane I imagine it's like that on the other side. So let's not do that again because that was horrible

There was no blood on the ceiling on the other side there and now there's lots of blood on the ceiling. Sorry. Well, that's mine. Yeah a Couple of feathers attached that I'd like those back. Do you need to take a little shorter moment? No, I think... I don't have much magical energy, I'm sorry. I have a healing potion if you'd like one. I think I've got one as well. One of us is Novus, isn't it? Yeah.

Never gave you one. I did abandon her for death, so I think she can have that. That's fair. Payment for... Moral guilt. You come back into this beautiful room, this kind of beautiful polished stone. This kind of choir music.

Is that driving anyone else crazy? No, it's beautiful. No, it's driving me crazy too. It's definitely old Elvish. It's just repeating. Just creepy. Am I allowed to try again with transcribing the music, like the words? I think that that's the best you're gonna get. From the words you've got? Because otherwise you could just be like, Mark I might spend eight hours here transcribing.

Well if I spent eight hours I'd levitate across. Remember levitate you can't go that way. We can drop you. You can push, you can, yeah. We can throw her. Ayla can punt me. No. Just, push. Cannibal.

Cannibal. Cannibal. Can I see this statue of Scasta? Yep, yep. And is she just like being full bra? Yeah, she's a very like offering offering embrace like she's offering a hug. Oh come over for a hug! And are there any tiles where she is?

Like so where her statue is? No, her statue is at the end of room in some similar to this where you have like a little bit of space. There's a statue to see Asuka at the end. But you just can't see the full details of that room yet. I mean the other option is I could Thunderstep all the way to the statue. It's 90 feet, so you could go 60 feet. I'm 120 feet on Thunderstep. It can go 120?

Yeah. The Misty Step is 30. Oh, okay. I thought Thunderstep was only 60. Or we could go through the door where we just smashed... No, it's 90 on the right. You're right. It's 90?

Yeah. So you could still get to the end then. Okay. But, well, you'd be on the last row of tiles. I'd be on the last like, So you would pick one tile and you would go to that one tile at the very end. Cute. Let's not split again. I mean, we've got this room available now, the corridor's not gonna kill us. Let's have a look. Quill almost died for this room,

so I feel like we should give it a shot. Yeah, so I'd like to use it, please. Almost a gallon of blood. Probably not a gallon. So you wanna go and follow the corridor into this next room? Yeah. Yeah. Why? I want to go up to the door.

Just be careful. Don't like that face. And metal bitty. So you step in. Is everyone stepping in? Mm-hmm. Okay. Just move your...

Okay, cool. I'll go last. Oriah, go first, just in case. Why Oriah go first? She's very dexterous. She is very dexterous actually. Okay. So you're making your way through this corridor.

I'm pre-dexterous. You can have that back. Wow. I just punched that off the table. You literally... Ow. What the hell? It's just a cup holder.

It's not attached to anything. But how was it attached? I don't know. Whatever it was is how I punched it off. That way. How far? Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. It's just a cup holder. It's not attached. How was it attached? I don't know Whatever it was is how I punched it off How far? What it's a plug hole

As you open the door Ayla, oh as you open the door you can see a Large open room with a large stone and bronze water basin at its center in front of the basin bound by each wrist and their neck in spectral chain trains is a ghostly androgynous figure in long flowing robes and ragged hair the walls of the chamber are painted in dark colours and multiple gems embedded into the wall cast a dim glow. And you can just see the spectral apparition, chain

bound to each wrist and one at their neck. But the chains just float up into the air and then vanish. But they're just held there by these spectral floating chains. And that is where we're going to take a break. Break time! Break time everyone! See you in five, don't go anywhere!

We'll be back, I promise. Don't drop off, come back to the stream. Come back! Come back! Go get the e-book. Where are you going? Hey everyone, thanks for listening to this episode. Remember to check out both D&D Beyond and Displate with the links in the episode description

and grab Uncanny Collateral by Brian McClellan using the code HRDND for the hardback or HRDND-E for the ebook. That's just three dollars for the ebook of an incredible story from the author of the Power to Mage trilogy, which is another series you should absolutely check out. We'll see you on Thursday for part two of this episode where we try to discover the intent of this chain spectre. We'll see you then!