High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #32 - Whispers of the Void (Part 2)

Episode Date: April 25, 2019

After a shocking setback the team have some serious choices to make... 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

Pickaxe. Therapy is the ultimate self-care, and BetterHelp makes it easy to get started with affordable online sessions you can do from anywhere. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. That's BetterHelp.com. Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered,

but you can get chicken parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. See app for details. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois, run by Dungeon Master Mark Schollek-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Kilak Adkalar, the bard slash cleric.

I am Chris Trott. I am playing Lucius Viren, Elowin Elanastro. 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, the official Dungeons & Dragons tool set for character sheets, compendiums and much, much more.

Head to the link in the description to make your free account today and start digitising your campaign. We're also sponsored by Displate. We've created a kick-ass collection to inspire your choices, and you'll get 15% off your orders when you use the code HYROLLERS15 on checkout. Oh, and super quick, next week Mark and Trot are away wearing costumes and fighting other people in costumes in a forest somewhere, so there won't be an episode. Sorry that things are so sporadic right now. Anyway, on to the episode. After a shocking setback, the team have some serious choices to make. Welcome back to High Rollers.

It's a dark, dark day. Your cruel Dungeon Master Mark Humes returns. Killing his players again. I'm going to sit here for an hour and a half. Yeah, well, first things first. You can haunt us. There is a moment of real quill. You remember being in this temple of darkness,

a red bladed light raised above you, and then nothing. And when you open your eyes next, there is light. And blue nothing. And when you open your eyes next, there is light. And blue skies. You look up. And you know you're somewhere. You don't know where.

You're very high. Higher than you ever flew. And it's then you realize you're flying again. With both wings. God damn it. And as you look down, you can see ever so faintly the ruined watchtower that you'd entered with you and your friends. Mm-hmm. And there is a pause

when things begin to dawn and you begin to realise certain things and you just hear a very familiar voice I'm sorry Quill I couldn't even see you in that place whatever darkness I couldn't see past it and you see the winged humanoid form of your god Hesper

clutching the staff in one hand the book in the other his form is transparent but detailed he just looks at you very sadly I'm afraid we don't have much time Clara will be here shortly very sadly. I'm afraid we don't have much time.

Clara will be here shortly. Can I respond? Yeah, yeah, of course, yeah. Um... I did everything I could, Hespo. I know you did. And I could not be more proud to have chosen you. You did everything you could. And just, this is fate sometimes.

This is my path. For now. You have very good friends who have a very difficult choice to make. But, and he raises the staff and from your heart, a silver thread begins spinning and twisting down towards the land below you. And then you feel it connect with something. You know that that's your body that it's connected to. This is your life. This is your thread. It will remain for some time. And should your allies find a way to bring you back,

this will lead you past the cradle, back to Eros. And if they don't? Then you will enjoy the afterlife of peace that my mother created. That Siaska created for all of Eros' souls. It is a blissful land

of peace and prosperity and goodwill. You'll be happy there, I know. But there's still so much more I wanted to do. Well, let's not count out your allies just yet. But if nothing else, there'll be other ways. Perhaps you can help me.

Well, that's an option at least. And then you hear this kind of rustle of leaves and flowers. And as you look around you, you can see a path formed of beautiful blooming flowers that very quickly decay and fall, but then more bloom and appear as she takes each step. A woman of pure white skin, not pale, but white alabaster in black breastplate with a wreath of flowers around her neck and a long billowing cloak. And she holds a lantern in one hand and a great sword in the other.

And as she comes down, she looks. Brother, is this the one? Yes, sister. This is my chosen. And you see this beautiful feminine feature. Older, perhaps you would have put her in about 50s or 40s. She looks down. The greatsword just seems to clip to her back.

She offers a hand. Come, Chosen. I need to lead you past the cradle. Then I'll spend the rest of whatever time with you, I suppose. It won't take us long. But yes, you may ask me questions if you wish. But this thread will connect to your body. If your allies can find the power that your brother has told me that they have, we can use it to guide you back.

But they do not have long. One of my priestesses is with them, and I will instruct her to keep your body as safe as she can. But fear not. Peace awaits you now. She takes your hand, and you begin flying up into the sky, higher beyond the clouds, beyond even you ever imagined of flying. The world changes from blue to darkness. And you see the multicolored lights of the cradle beginning to form in front of you.

Kalara raises her lantern in a small passageway. An arch begins to open, and she leads you out past it. And as you move up into the darkness, you can now see the thousands of lights of other worlds. And then they begin to fade into white light as she takes you to the beyond. And Quill's spirit passes into the afterlife. The rest of you, down on Erois,

see as what I described before, the room is now of purest alabaster white and gold. It is clearly a shrine to Siaska, the Star Mother. There is an altar. And it is laden with treasures. It is piled high with what you can see to be silver bars. There is a platinum statue of Siaska. There is a shield with Siaska's holy symbol emblazoned onto it, leaning up against the altar itself.

up against the altar itself. And on the altar is a necklace with a brilliant crystal star that sits amidst it all. Eloquus separates from Lucius. I am so terribly sorry for your companion.

I tried to save him, but I could not. My time is limited here. Now that the presence that was corrupting this place fades, I feel Kalara calling to me to leave this place. But I wish to thank you for everything. Especially him. He nods towards Quar's body. For everything. Especially him. He nods towards Quill's body.

For everything. These gifts, and he gestures towards the altar, they will do no good here. Take them. Use them. They are for you. And his form begins to fade. Until it's nothing. I'll probably walk over to Quill

and just break apart as Lucius would. You just watch as Lucius just collapses to his knees, I guess, and just... He has no real need for the treasures or anything. So he just buries his face into Quill's feathers. I might take a feather.

If there's one loose, I'm going to add that to's feathers. I might take a feather. If there's one loose, I'm going to add that to my pantry. I think there would be. Scaldi watches quietly for a moment. She seems to be swaying the lantern and muttering something under her breath. I think Arash is going to put a hand on Lucia's shoulder try and be a little source of comfort

Ael's going to hit the wall a few times and be just really fucking mad yeah the power the blows resonate through the hall each one bigger and wider cracks begin to appear we did our best so I can say I'm sorry. I think Nova would start to turn away almost as if she can't deal with this.

But given what's happened in the last few days and, you know, the almost return, she would turn back and walk over and... Look at this, you know, not try and turn away from it, but... Yeah. Take it in. Take it in. I understand it. And probably wrap an arm around Lucius on the other side for a Mariah.

And just probably put a hand on Quill. Like, just... Ayla's going to march up to the altar. Take everything that's there. Just put it in her bag and then go over and pick up Quill's body. Okay. Probably have to sling the shield onto the pack itself. Or just hand the shield to somebody else and just

pick up quill's body just say let's go over here wait we fought so hard to be here please just give me a few minutes to just look around just see if i can learn what that woman was doing here, who she was following, it might stop this happening again. Take the time you need. I'll be here when you need to go. And I'll just quill down gently again, but just stand by him. Yeah. Just stand by him. Yeah.

Scaldi takes a deep breath, and you can see she, there is hesitation. She is kind of almost keeping herself back from everyone else. She places the lantern down on the ground. I, I, and then she kind of looks down. I'm so sorry. I did not know that this kind of woman was responsible. This was a threat bigger than I thought. I'm sorry.

She just doesn't look. She's looking down at the floor. It's okay, none of us knew what was at the end of this. I think that's the problem, isn't it, with us, is we always throw ourselves into things that we can't handle. How many more are we going to do? that we can't handle. How many more are we going to do? Quill would have still done it for Sentry. Whatever I can do. My bill, the things I offered for your other friend, I'll make the same

for Quill. If you wish to speak with him, I can perform that. I'll keep his body safe as long as I can. If you still wish to go to Katavag, I'll accompany with you. Cast the ritual whenever I can. If I alternate between the two of them, I can keep both of their bodies preserved. We need a power source. We need another star, another artifact, something. I'm afraid I don't know anything like that. Perhaps the Shepard may, but such things are very rare.

If you still wish to look around Nova, now would be the time. I guess I'll start with the altar. I just want to see if there's any trace of this woman and what she was trying to do. So I will tell you now, physically, there's no trace. The light has burned it away. Not even the mask. You watched, you almost replay the memory in your head. It was like her entire form was sucked into a pinprick of darkness and then it just vanished.

Like Sauron. And then vanished. Footly stream. But Nova, there is a presence in your mind. Okay. Tiangong was there. He knew and you get this sense of, I know, but he can't communicate it to you.

There's not enough sentience there, but there is enough to kind of, you feel this sense of like, he knows. He knows what she was doing, what she was serving, but he can't verbalize it, or they can't verbalize it to you. Can I ask for a name? Just a name? Yeah, if you want to spend some time inwardly focusing. How long?

Make an arcana check for me. It's a moment, but you're trying to meditate on the magical kind of energy. Eight. Eight. It's going to take you some time. Maybe next time you take a rest, you can focus on this more. Okay. But you think that they might be able to give you something. Can I have a quick look at the coffin where they were?

Yeah, so you can look at the back room, and you can now see this colossal steel chest plate. I mean, this thing is probably the size of a small cottage. Like, it's massive. This must be the chest of the war titan the giant mech that you saw outside um this must be its chest cavity and in the middle of it is this coffin shaped crystal like in like compartment and you see many of the same cables and lines of runes that you recognized in the shuttle where you found the first Tiangong.

You see the same technology, basically. Tiangong, there's a place, like a tri-bladed segment that was built to house the dagger, the throwing dagger that you saw, that's now merged

with your own Tiangong. Nothing else, just pretty much? It's ruined mainly. You get the sense that it's been here for a long time, 500 years, about the time since the Sundering, and it's been running very slowly, running low on power. Just this shard giving what little it can. Okay.

You took all the... I just put them all in my bag and didn't even look at them. Cool. Yeah, I've got a list, so when you go through it... Just bleed this place dry. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. There were other areas on the way out that we can check as well

that we didn't know that there's nobody around. I believe that all the undead spirits have now passed on. The cleansing of whatever that woman was doing here. Their spirits are at rest and this place is... Whatever was fueling their undead nature is gone. I guess if... If we can gather funds, they're going to help Quill. Yeah, well, yeah, we need money for both of them.

So that's right. There was one room we didn't, well, there was the chasm going right, and then there was the first room where that spirit talked to me. Those are the only rooms we haven't checked. There's also the dormitories, which was another cowardice as well. So do you want to just visit those rooms? Because there is now no danger. Yeah, that's what I figured.

There's no danger. The magical defenses are disabled. There are no spirits. So you guys can literally just go through the dungeon effectively. So if you begin making your way back, Ayla, at this point, I don't think you can carry anything more because you've got all of the stuff and Quill's body. You make your way back through the Hall of the stuff and and quill's body um you make your way

back through the hall of the faith with the tiled god symbols um seemingly deactivated it so you just make your way past that um and instead of going straight on you turn to your left make your way down a corridor and you open up a stone doorway that leads into what would have once been an old dormitory the place reeks of death you can see that there are bones and armor some of them still in bed some of them collapsed on the ground most of them appear to be ancient there are two creatures now remained they're Luchas now remain dead or undead. Dead. You know what I mean? Dead undead.

Dead undead. Lying in the center of the room. Two of them are dressed very similar to the warriors you saw aboard the ship beneath the Rosewater Lake. They were dressed all in black. They have this skin-tight armor um that doesn't seem to have any buckles or fastenings it it just doesn't seem to be any clear way of of how it sizes or fits but they have these suits of leather they also appear to have these um they have these braces which have these strange kind of advanced technology fittings.

And you can see that there appears to be some sort of piton with a sort of chamber. And you can see blue vials which kind of crackle with lightning a little bit. Doink. Yeah. One of them appears to be broken. The other one appears to be in good condition. You can take both. What would you call it?

Let's call it a lightning cable. Lightning cable. One of them broken. That could have gone to the one-winged person. He could have had the working one. I mean, these are like braces. These are like, it looks like it's something you clip onto your wrist and then you fire it. It was destiny Mark it was destiny

yeah and then their leather armour everything else about them seems to be rusted and faded or old and bloated they look a little bit better preserved than the rest of the bodies here but you can salvage stuff off of them if you wish. Is there any

coins and things as well? On those bodies, no. But there... Do you want to take the braces? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can just take the braces, yeah. So as you make your way back you would have spotted any coins in your

previous rooms. Making your way back, you wind your way back towards the flooded chamber where the turret was placed, now destroyed. Aayla, you have to swim with Quill's body as you take it through. I mean, you're strong enough that you can do that. Do you wish to explore the chasm? There was like a narrow chasm that seemed to lead into a natural cavern. Mm-hmm, yeah. Okay. It's a tight squeeze,

so I think Aayla is... You probably can't go through it with Quill's body. You can either go through it and leave it with somebody else. Scaldi will happily remain outside and basically carry the body to the entrance. Um, Scaldi, just... Sure. If you wish to explore this place,

let me take Will outside. I'll begin preparing the ritual to preserve his body. She takes the bird in her arms. And you can see that she takes it with incredible reverence. She kind of takes it gently, takes a deep breath and then in the water and she swims towards the entrance, leaving the rest of you free to explore. Or go with her if you wish like lucius if you just want to stay i think i'll stay with quill okay so you just go with them so nova ayla and uh aria um making your way through this

narrow twisting like collapsed cave it's almost like a a natural passageway that's collapsed in you emerge into a underwater chamber you can see a huge metallic hand from the war Titan bursting through the ceiling its palm is open and embedded into it like a thorn is a javelin and the javelin appears to be marked with lightning bolt symbols like carved into it and it's just embedded into its palm. There is also at the bottom of the cavern, you can see that there are piles and piles of bones of all sorts of creatures and races, some of which don't look human,

but there's just piles of bones and bodies and rusted bits of armor. And then there's just this giant hand with this javelin sticking out the middle like a thorn. Can I get the javelin out? Yeah, make an athletics check for me. Oh, God.

Natural 20. Yeah. You just pull it free and you hear this crackle um along its shaft um have you written it down i will i think we'll just go through things afterwards we can just make a quick note just so you know you've got it um any cool looking teeth you want to go through the bones make an investigation check if you want to search i love you a little bit of light-heartedness any cool looking teeth i'm gonna make a necklace where is your fingers

on it oh yeah of course it is how much 18 18 with an 18 you find loads of cool teeth like tusks you find some like razor sharp thin needle like teeth in the skull of some creature you've never seen before. But you also find some shiny treasure treasure. You find on one of the bony fingers there is a gold ring inlaid with bloodstones. Very cool. And one of them wears a bronze circlet with an opal in its center. Yes, please. So both appear to be worth about 250 gold each.

Each? Mm-hmm. Damn. So the ring is 250 gold and the circlet is worth 250 gold. Why are you laughing? Nothing. I'll tell you later. Okay.

And then do you want to check what was the last room? The quartermaster? The one where that guy shouted at me. Okay. Yeah, so you make your way in there. Happy times. And you can see it's all flooded, but the three of you can hold your breath the longest you're in debt indefinite and you two can hold it for ages so i'm not even going to check that stuff um there is

the room is split um it's this long corridor you can see floating bodies there are more bones armor but in the middle of the room there is bars, like, separating the two halves of the room. There is a door, it appears very rusted, but there appears to be some sort of door that would have once been used, and you can see on the other side of the bars, when you swim closer, there are several boxes, all stacked up or floating up against the ceiling um some of them appear to be in better condition than others um what's your passive perception what's your passive perception what's your passive perception 14 15 14 perception nine nine so orio and ayla you guys notice that there is one out of all the chests a lot of them seem to be waterlogged and ruined

nova you have no clue you're too busy looking at everything else um i'm distracted by the death the two of you uh notice that there is one which appears to be a decorated wooden chest with silver latches and the emblem of siaska one appears to be made from metal and has bronze fastenings and then the final chest is a thin carved wooden box with golden silver etchings in the shape of an hourglass. And out of all the boxes, you can see those seem to be the most intact. They're about 30 feet behind the bars underwater.

So you're gonna need a way of getting to them. Can I rip open the door? You can make an athletics check, yeah, sure. Try to. 19. 19. 19. You begin making some headway. You're like pulling it.

You feel it coming loose. The others can help you if they want. I'll help. Yeah, athletics check. Yeah, can I just blast them? 18. 18. By the time you start raising your hand to blast,

Ariya swims over and the two muscly women are just like, I'm just going to casually are just like, brr! I'm just going to casually just be like, just like, through the water. You're kind of swimming, right? You're like, blub blub blub, treading water. Totally meant this. And you hear this like,

and the bars just hit the bottom of the room kind of under the water. And yeah, you can just swim in. Do you want to grab all three? Yeah. Okay, yeah. So you have three boxes. Can we just, like, pull them out towards and just go to the... Because we're pretty close to the entrance. Yeah, you can just drag them to the entrance from here.

Yeah, for sure. And there's nothing else that we can see around? No, looking through the boxes, most of it would have once... It looks like it was, like... I mean, there's things, like, waterlogged. Like, most of the rations would have broken apart over centuries. But maybe there's things like wooden spoons that have, like, become, you know, really waterlogged, like most of the rations would have broken apart over centuries, but then maybe there's things like wooden spoons that have like become,

you know, really waterlogged and swollen. There's like nails that have become rusted, just like piles of rusted, like all fused together. It looks like this was some sort of supply area. Used to house stuff. There's no dude anymore.

I guess the dude's... Spirit. The poltergeist is gone. You never know his story. Nope. I guess the dude's spirit. The poltergeist is gone. Never know his story. And then you emerge outside. And it is dawn. It is a new day outside. And in fact, it is a new month.

You guys don't know this in character, but it is actually a full month. Each month in Aurois is 32 days. You have been adventuring for 32 days. All this has happened in 32 days. Yep. How long since... Worst days ever.

Not, I think it's been three days. Three days. Since Sentry died. Add another one to the list. Yeah. In such a short span of time. Yeah, and you can see Sentry has laid Quill's body out on the dry stone. Scaldi. Scaldi.

Scaldi has raised, sorry. Scaldi has got Quill's body. She has laid some sort of blanket over it out of her kit, like a sleeping blanket, and she is casting a ritual. She's casting Gentle Repose

on Quill. Can I take the gold ring that I found and just put it on one of Quill's talons? Scaldi won't stop you. I don't know if Lucius or anybody else would. I think at this point it's down to you guys.

There's no immediate threats. You have cleansed the night eye. You have prevented some great source of evil from gaining strength here. And it is peace and quiet. I did it. But there is a dead companion. Yeah, thanks. Got through all the traps.

Fought off many monsters. Survived many battles. I mean, at least it wasn't a death by the spinny blade things. Yeah. That would have been, yeah. At least it's by weird black hole face. I mean, I guess the natural reaction is, ha-ha, you now have to carry me.

Oh. I can't carry you all, goddammit. Stop it. You have two dead bodies to carry around. So, what's the plan? I'll walk up next to Scaldi and just say, Thank you, Scaldi. We appreciate the respect you're giving our friends. This is my job, Lucius. This is my purpose.

You don't have to say that. I'm sure you're doing out of the... I am. I am. But what I mean to say is, please, do not thank me. It's my fault that you were here and this is the least I can do. This is what my goddess would want me to do. We said we would and fate has dealt its hand. You have kept to your oath and I will keep to mine. I will accompany you until your friends are back, if they can be. Me too. I can at least accompany you to Kattewag, at least.

But if you need to go anywhere else, if there are other powers you wish to seek, then so be it. Well, I don't want to speak for all of us, but I think our priority is getting these two back on their feet. Of course. I mean, such magic is rare and powerful.

And I'm not sure you will find another crystal like the one that you had before. That's okay. That one's just a power up sentry. I'm sure we can get something else for Bertie. I hope so. I truly do. I mean, you remember what we had to go through to get this force sentry. Yes, but that's a guardian, right? Birdie's a lot more simple. He's fleshy. We need a power source. a super magical source of energy. Can I do an Arcana check about Revivify and stuff like that? Yeah, sure.

Based on high elf education. Yeah, absolutely. It's also legend. There's a train right there. I hate how you roll on the smallest space. You could even at least move your iPad back a bit. 20. So I think that it would be more...

It would be a mixture of education in things like history and magic. Also maybe a little bit of nanny stories. Very rarely have people been brought back from the dead. Very rarely. Only people who are very sacred who nations have invested resources into bringing back um legendary heroes there is the tale of dana bloodfire which is very famous especially amongst the sky cities she was a human woman who was killed and brought back through flame. Her body

just erupted in flames and she was reborn as a child. She was reborn as a baby. And this cycle continues repeating. Huh? But this cycle keeps repeating and now she's this figure. She leads the Sky City of Horizon. She's known as

Dana the Phoenix. That's her moniker. Sky City of Horizon. She's known as Dana the Phoenix. That's her moniker. Sky City of Horizon. Yes. But that seems to be like her own, like some sort of power she has that she can revive herself. But she has to grow up. She literally is like a phoenix where she dies, comes back as a baby

and then grows up again. There are other stories. Generally, all of the stories about people coming back from the dead, it requires... Normally, it will require something of incredible purity, of incredible sacredness or holiness or magical power. Diamonds, the purest diamonds that can ever be found worth thousands of gold, can be used.

Is there any in the El Anastos household? The El Anastos would have the money to buy one, and the people to get it. They're very far away, though. Well, not as far away as you might think. All of the major cities in Erois places like katu vag and gold throne they have airships but they also have teleportation circles oh dang son they cost money but they generally go between the sky cities and the lowland big capitals so you could pay to just teleport the party to from casa casalanca. You would need to check

if they have a teleportation circle for Gusthaven, which is where the El Anasto estate is. I thought of all that in a split second. It's memories coming back to you. Did you go slightly cross-eyed? A little bit.

I have... high hopes. What a lightning storm be enough magical energy? A natural storm? Well, the storms that are going around here are magical, right? They are, yeah. It's 1.31 gigawatts. Okay, you're trying to screw me over.

You're trying to make me think of stuff on the fly. Here's something for you. No. You're trying to screw me over, you're trying to make me think of stuff on the fly. Here's something for you. No. You're gonna have death! No. So I think- A lightning bolt. So this is Nova's calculating mind, right? This is Nova's high intelligence. God, that was threatening.

You suddenly realise the storms here are magical. Mm-hmm. That's what you've learned. Mm-hmm. The ones you've encountered wouldn't have enough strength. Mm-hmm. the ones you've encountered wouldn't have enough strength. That's because their magic and their power has likely faded as they've traveled from their source.

But the source of the storms would certainly be powerful enough. And Quill told us beforehand that he knew that they were magical and that there was a source to them. He said that the source was the Valley of the Storms, I believe. That Hesper had told him to go there.

Secret source. The special source. Special source. How would you like to become a lightning rod? You're dead. I think that is within Nova's scientific process that she would kind of go, that is something that could work.

I think probably... But you would still need someone who can cost. Yeah Yeah How much is it ghosting if I speak by the way? Pretty ghosty. Okay. I I I feel bad that you can't engage. No, no, it's cool For once I'm a viewer. Yes is great. Turns out well, I mean good. Scaldi can cast Speak with Dead once per day. Should we just keep talking to her? Hi, how you doing?

Since yesterday. She normally has to charge, but considering she was the one that brought you here and got cool killed, she will wave those feet. What's your favourite colour? No. It's once per day and it's five questions. Honestly, Ayla wouldn't care.

She wouldn't. What's your favorite color? We could probably bring her back through storms. It's not so much the value of the item, it's the magical, the magic. Purity. Purity, magical essence, yes. But he said to us before, didn't he, that the storms here are magical and there's a source in the Valley of Storms. So if we could harness that magic, that might be enough.

It might be the equivalent of the star fragment. It's not enough to have the source. We also need someone that's able to transfer that into. Yes, we do. But what I'm saying is there's a deep lack of other sources right now than this, other than you want to give this to Quill and then what to Sentry. I don't know. I don't know.

I was hoping... Your friend mentioned that Hesper spoke to him in dreams. Mm-hmm. There are ways that you can speak to the gods. There are spells, rituals. If you can find the cleric of Hesper... As long as it doesn't involve getting hit by lightning again and knocked out, because that wasn't a very fun way to speak to a god.

I'm afraid that's not how my god works, but perhaps Hesper could give you more information. This place we're going to, is it likely there's clerics of that kind? Um, we keep talking about going to Kattevarg with the Shepherd. We need to get Sentry. But here's the thing, I said this before, the Shepherd, he sounds like a druid? Yes. The spell he would use is it would bring sentry back

but not as sentry. Well, maybe, but there's a risk that she would change race. Yes. The power of reincarnation. I imagine that such a spell would not bring your guardian friend back as a guardian.

Guardians are not born. They are not part of the natural cycle. Such a spell, if it even works, would likely return her as an elf or a human or an Aarakocra or something similar. My intention wasn't to speak to this shepherd at all. It was merely to get to a town so that we could utilize potentially say a teleportation circle or passage through an airship back to my homeland where I have

a lot of wealth that can buy such things that can bring people back from the dead what's sorry Mark what's the spell to so you have reincarnate you also have raise dead is the other spell or resurrection so raised dead has a 10 day limit the person has to have died within 10 days gentle repose will

kind of make that null and void um resurrection can be used on somebody who's been dead for like a year or something like that okay but resurrection is like a seventh level spell raised dead is about fifth level okay um for general information this is something all of you would know spell casters of that level are very rare they tend to be if not the leaders of small city states then high advisors or people like high priests of a church or something like that you would would need to, you know, not everybody can just, fifth level spells. That's what I thought! But it's what makes you guys special as well, right?

You have the potential to become these figures. If you were just like, let's go to the local town. Ah, an 11th level wizard. Hello, sir. Would you bring our friend back? It kind of means that you guys aren't as cool. Um... So sir, would you bring our friend back? It kind of means that you guys aren't as cool.

I mean, there was the midwife, that was mentioned. Scaldi? The midwife's forage is an old legend, yes. I'm afraid that Velenor is not my god, but not my goddess, but I mean, there's always been stories about her essence being there and she's a goddess of life and creation. Somebody like that, I'm sure, would have. Didn't she create the Guardians?

I mean the. Did I dream that? I've certainly never heard that, but I'm not very well read on such subjects, I couldn't say. If we go to the Elinastu estate, that is a great hub to get anywhere. Regardless of choice we make, I could refund. I can use all the contacts that I have with my family to find the best solution. Scully, is there a teleportation circle at Ketovarg?

I've not been there in a long time, but I certainly remember traders mentioning such things. It's normally out of, most folk couldn't afford it, so we get passage on airships or travel there or wait for the Sky Cities to come past normally, but if you're in a rush, I believe that you can pay for it. It's operated by a number of wizards, folks from Sky Cities like Master Lucish here. They provide the service.

How long would it take to travel from there to Gusthaven via airship? Depends where Gusthaven is. That's the problem, is the sky cities move. Gusthaven, it would be closer to... It'd be closer to Goldthrone than here, because it would have left from here. So it'd be quite far. You'd be maybe like a month

or like a couple of weeks. So it's teleportation or nothing. Or find a source here in Voxar to bring both Sensory and Quill back. Well... We should go back to Stenhill. Take your friends.

You need rest as well. You all need time to process this. Death is... Death is not just for the person who has died, but also for those who remain behind. They're not dead. She just smiles. There's always a hope. Come. And she's strong.

She'll pick up Quill's body. I can take it. I think I'd like to insist that I take it. Okay. If you insist, then she's strong. She'll pick up Quill's body. I can take it. I think I'd like to insist that I take it. Okay. If you insist, then she's like, if that's what you wish. At least let me carry something. I'll give her some of the other stuff.

She'll take the bag and the shield. I just want to let you know that I'll be here to guide you. No matter where you need me, I will stay by you. Don't worry about paying me for anything, okay? You guys... Are you sure you want to join this band? We're dropping like flies over here. I'm happy to assist you in any way that I can.

You guys have a lot to deal with, and I want to make sure that you get everything done you need to get done. Your friends are clearly very important to you. It would be a shame if I were to leave now and let you struggle alone. It's not right. So as long as you're here, I'm here with you. It would be a shame if I were to leave now and let you struggle alone. It's not right. So as long as you're here, I'm here with you. Thank you, Raya. That means a lot. And I think Bertie, he took a liking to you as well. I took a liking to him. He's a good friend. And you can keep that circlist that that I saw Maybe she's already wearing it

It's very fetching So Begin your travel back to Sten Hill It is a day's travel away So Where's my dice? Oh no Storm time

I need to check for storms and then I also need to check for encounters. You alright, Tom? Yeah. Yeah, I'm just listening. It's great. Just listening. Is it like the VIP experience? It's a little bit, yeah. Should we pay for a seat? It's incredible. If you want to sit on the table with us, there's a new

donation. Yeah, maybe if I don't see the character in time. Highest donator, right here. Sit right here. Just sat here. Like a child. Okay, okay. The storms seem to be coming in the evening. So you make the best use of the day that you can,

gaining as much ground, traveling as much as your legs will allow. You stop only for a brief meal of whatever you can quickly gather, what rations you have on you. As you are sitting down for a meal, can everyone make perception checks, please? Cool.

Hey, man, I can't stop the random encounters because somebody died. 22. 22. Hey man I can't stop the random encounters because somebody died. 22. 22. Fucked. 17. 13? 17.

17. My voice is just going 7. Just 14. Just slowly going and it came back for a little bit. Ayla and Lucius

you guys are the first to spot them as you're eating. Damn. You see two shapes emerging from the kind of forested wetlands of Myrskir. The path that you're on is kind of like a road that's nestled in a valley, trying to protect it from the elements and from the magical storms that ravage the area.

And up on the sides of the hills all the trees have kind of grown in to kind of hug as close to the hills as they can to protect their branches. You hear like the snapping of branches and you see a scaled hand grip the branch. As a long lizard-like snout emerges. A ring of bones connected by vines draped like a crown around this elderly, weathered-looking lizard man. A staff kind of plants in the ground as this lizard man dressed in hides and bones emerges. Behind him, there appears to be another of their species this lizard person you think might be female it's kind of hard to tell she wears hide armor and a huge axe made from splintered almost like giant scales

black dragon scales you think adorn the blade handle. As she begins making her way down, kind of scouring around. As she spots you, she kind of puts a hand on the other lizard man's... ... and begins just traveling down.

Alert the rest of the group to it. Yeah. Do you understand what they're saying, Draconic? Yes, you do. You didn't hear the perception. Okay. So you see them kind of warily casting their eye as they begin heading along the road,

coming back the way that you've come from. It looks like their journey has taken them past, but you can see the woman has got the axe in her hand, and she's glaring at all of you suspiciously. As they draw closer, the elderly lizard man... Excuse me. I would ask fellow travelers a question. Fear not, me or my grand...

daughter. And he, like, looks. I could just say in draconic like is it easier if we speak like this what eyes you and you see the woman's eyes it's kind of it's hard to tell the genders but you can vaguely see the differences and you're kind of assuming uh she looks over and she kind of hisses like, this one speaks our tongue, Grandfather. Very clever, I see, but no, it is good for me to practice the common tongue, to learn your words. to learn your words.

Is the road safe? Many knights, spirits from the underworld patrol this road. They've been dealt with. Good, good. And he just seems to nod. Come. And then they begin traveling on their way. Safe travels. I said splash, no. Turns around. And

to you as well. Safe travels. If you would take the advice of an old lizard, stay clear of the witch moors. The witch of Blackfyre is not to be trusted. Noted. Did you guys enjoy your Skyrim random encounter? Yes. Because I did.

I like it. And literally, unless you guys are going to engage with him, him and his granddaughter just seem to hit it off. Unless they get too close. No, no, they seem to be as wary of you as you are of them. That's fine with me. But, yeah, it just carries on. A lot of people in the chat were saying, like,

and Tom, do you want to introduce your character? And I was just like, oh, shit, where is it now? No, I'm not going to do that to poor Tom. Unless Tom made a Lizardman character in, like, three minutes. Or a Lizardlady. Or a Lizardlady, yeah, could be. If you want to be a lizard man though, Tom, let me know. Right now?

You have to talk like that, though. Oh, by the way, can I come with you? Pretty much nailed it. Nailed it. By the way, are you eating that? Yeah. Fuck, no, that's exactly what they would have asked fuck they're gone now he absolutely would have asked that they eat people uh he's gone now he's not a

person he's a bird even better yeah uh but no they leave that would have been interesting um yeah and do you guys continue uh as you are about to camp, the storms hit. So my question is, what preparations do you make to prepare for the storms? Is there any what's around us? You are in like low valleys. You've kind of got this road. The river is some distance away. But if it, you know, it could spill over. So you don't want to get too close to that.

There are these kind of very narrow hills with these trees that kind of cling to the sides you can make a nature check if you want to try and find something like a cave or something like that big rocks so that we can yeah nature check natural i think a bit too bit too caught up i think a rye would make a nature check as well she's from this area yes you have advantage because this is your favorite terrain as well oh no your favorite terrain is well. Oh no, your favourite terrain is coast, so you don't have

advantage. Sorry, that's my fault. Well, I got 21 on my first try. Oh, there it is. Easy. So yeah, I think, Oriah, you managed to

find a pretty safe looking space. It's not a cave, but it's like an indentation in the hills with a bit of an overhang. And if you managed to

crowd everybody in there, you'll be safer than you would be elsewhere. Anything else from anyone else? I will, Scaldi will attempt to do some stuff as well. She'll make a survival check for 21. So Scaldi begins erecting.

You can see that she's kind of carried with her like an extendable lightning rod. She makes her way out up into the top of the hills and begins planting it in the ground. Can you not stick that in Quill? Do you want to? No. Are you looking for fried chicken here? No, I'm just like

Dr. Frankenstein. Rise! My monster, rise! If Nova wants to try and create some undead monstrosities, I'm all for it. Not right now. Okay. Maybe later. Later. Maybe. If you can't get,

if you can't bring them back from the dead normally, that's what Animate Dead's for. Pretty much, yeah. Right. Rank and Quill. I'm going to make sure that Quill is like

towards the back of the indentation, I guess. Nova? Anything you want to do? You've got him like nicely tucked up in a blanket and a little pillow. Give up your bedroll.

Yeah. Aw, look at that. I was joking. No, she would. Yeah. Lie down. Cry. Okay, cool.

Try not to cry. Cry anyway. Cry, yeah. Cry a lot. Lucius? The little dent that Oriah went into, is that full up now? I mean, you can all kind of sit in there. It'll give you some protection.

Lucius will try really hard to look at nature which is really difficult and see how nature has grown to react to the storms is there anything that's like sure make a nature check

like the trees clinging onto the hill you've witnessed a lot of this stuff travelling 19 plus 4, 0. Zero, 19. So basically, it seems to be that life clings to the base of the hills where the leeway side, so the side that the wind can't get to, it clings to that. A lot of it buries itself into the ground to protect itself from lightning and wind and rain as well. You've seen quite a few of the plants actually kind of suck down into the ground when they

sense a storm coming and then they emerge when there isn't one. A lot of the creatures that you've seen, like the clacks, have armoured shells and they have like grips to grip onto the ground for strong winds. That's how everything's kind of evolved around here. Can I light a fire?

You don't need to roll or anything for lighting a fire. You can easily light a fire. You're a ranger, you know what you're doing. Nice. Nice. Ranger. Does Lucius want to do anything with that information, or is he just like, no, I know? Noted. Noted.

Excellent. Okay. Could I just maybe, like, cry as a bonus action, but as an action, could I look at the storms and I guess see if I could track where they come from? Like, if their lightning lightning comes I don't know you can try, make a perception check yeah, best sense it's very hard though

so I rolled a 1 and I have minus 1 perception so I have a 0 that's 0 on perception I think I think it's probably crying from my eyes. It's looking up and then it rains and it's just more water in your eye.

It's just water everywhere. It's like the end of Blade Runner. I'm just trying. Mascara is just like. I don't wear mascara. Tears in the rain. Tears in the rain. Yeah.

No, I think that, yeah, it's too. And also you remember Quill saying that or somebody saying that they're quite random. Yeah. The storms randomly spread out. Because they're magical. I imagine it was just maybe Nova's self-preservation instinct was try and science stuff. Science things.

Try and think about stuff and not think about the thing there. Is there any debris or any fallen trees or anything? You could carve some trees if you want some tree branches. To try and cover the indentation that we're in. Yeah, I'd say you can try and do that. I'd say that's what you spend your time doing. So with all of these preparations,

when the storm hits late at night, I mean, this is your first time really being outside in one of these storms. And they are furious. The wind howls and tears the the branches that you've tried to create a barrier are just ripped out of the ground and like pulled away um the you hear the crash of thunder and the explosive sound as lightning hits skull these rod up on the hills nearby. It almost sounds like war around you. You desperately cling to each other, to the walls, to rocks,

anything you can to stop yourself from being blown away. I need everybody to make a constitution saving throw. I'm not going to use this. You have advantage on these because of your preparations. Okay. I see you there. You said everybody. 20!

Everybody who is alive. This has just these ones and 20s yeah there's been so many 23 23 15 15 for lucius 22 22 for ariah 17 17 everybody weathers the storm pretty well um despite the conditions you with your preparations you managed to weather through the night. You managed to get a little bit of sleep, enough for a long rest. The storm does abate midway through the evening, but none of you become exhausted. You would have gained a level

of exhaustion if you'd failed that saving throw. Whilst you take a long rest, it's time to reveal some magic items because when you spend a long rest, you learn some stuff we will do that in a second let's do this first because this is exciting do you want to go through the normal treasure or just the magic items real talk magic items first magic items first so your javelin is a javelin of lightning. Oh, that hurt. I do not believe that requires attunement.

Right. What's that do? You can add it in D&D Beyond. Yeah. Okay. Give Quill the look. Put it on him. Tribute.

I've got stuff on me. The necklace of a crystal star that you gain from the altar. So it's a fine silver chain that ends in a very delicate looking crystal star, which faintly glows. It is a stone of good luck, which I believe is plus one to all saving throws. A stone of good luck?

Mm-hmm. It's called a stone of good luck. Is it, Mark? Is it? I can't help that. All right. Plus one? Plus one. Too soon.

I mean, you had a minus one anyway. Man. Would not have helped you. Could have used that way longer ago. Well, maybe you should have looted the altar. Instead of trying to fight the big bad. The shield is a unique shield. It's a plus one shield, and it's called Starlight's Bulwark.

The shield, once you're attuned to it, will let you cast the light cantrip and the following spells once per day each. Guiding Bolt at first level and Sanctuary at first level. Oh, my God. Oh, boy. That would be a nice show for Cor. You are kidding me. I'm not.

You've already got my fault. There's also that one bracer that sprays out lightning and the other one is damaged. It's like a little lightning grapple hook actually. It's like a little lightning grappling hook, is it? Yeah. So that's called a lightning cable launcher. It is in D&D Beyond as well. I added it as a custom item.

It allows you to shoot out like a little, it's like a lightning lure, but like built into technology. So it's like a 15 foot, it grabs on something and then you can pull it to you. Or if you affix it to something that weighs more than you,

you pull yourself towards it. That's cool. It's only 15 feet, so it's not a huge range. Is there a magical item that grants flight? No. Because that would complete the set. But if anybody wishes to spend time

with the musical instrument that Quill had, you will learn that that is called a Foculan Bandor, which is an instrument of the bard and allows you to cast spells, including fly. Like fly? Oh, my God. I would have been so powerful. That's like all the quills equipped.

I mean, I don't have the exact stats for the Foculan Bandor, but it does things like you can cast Protection from Energy, you can cast a bunch of other cool spells, Fairy Fire Entangle, loads of cool stuff. It's like a dust loop, but different. It's a dust loop, but with different spells, basically. Yeah. I don't believe you guys picked up any other. Yeah. Aww. That's pretty cool.

I don't believe you guys picked up any other magic items. I think that was pretty much it. Also in Ayla's bag of the stuff that you took. Three boxes. Oh, the three boxes. Oh, yeah. Forgot about those. In the three boxes, you crack them all open.

Spiders. So, right. There's a bunch of normal treasure as well. So, in the wooden chest with silver latches is about 3,000 silver Starfall coins. So these are old coins from before the Sundering. The whole amount is worth about 1,200 gold. Can I roll for spiders? Sure.

1,200 gold. Current gold, yeah. So it's 3,000 coins that are worth about 1,200 gold. I got six. No spiders. Whoa. Sure. 1,200 gold. Current gold, yeah. So it's 3,000 coins that are worth about 1,200 gold. That's a lot of gold. No spiders. How did we drag that here? I'll take the gold.

I mean, I'm assuming you're going to add this all to party fund. I'm adding the gold. In the metal chest with bronze fastenings, there are a pair of ruby statues

of the goddess of Elena worth 150 gold each what's that face? so much money it's a lot of money oh I've not even got to the rest of it yet hang on keep on writing Kim I'm writing furiously

the final chest with a thin carved wooden box with a gold and silver etching in the shape of an hourglass contains a potion of longevity. Also, Ayla picked up the following in the altar room. Ten pressed silver bars worth 100 gold each. And a platinum

statue of Siaska worth 1000 gold. What the? Jeffrey, that's so much money! That was 2000 gold. The DM taketh away, the DM giveth back. Worth it!

Guys, let's go to the Erois equivalent of Las Vegas and just live it up! Yeah! Now that was Goldthrone and you can't go back there. Yeah, we fucked that place up. It literally was the Erois equivalent of Las Vegas though. So 10 times 100 gold bars.

So 10 pressed silver bars worth 100 gold each. Okay. And a platinum statue of Siaska worth 1,000 gold. Sweet mama. How much is that in total? So I think that that should be 1,000, 1,000, 3,200, 3,500

if you sell all the statues and stuff, not including the jewelry you found. We can fix like 10 broken legs. Plus all the magic items. Shall I just put it in as gold or shall I put it in individually? Probably. As an individual thing. You should put it in as an individual thing.

Yeah. Because you can't just be like, hello, Mr. Merchant. Would you accept two ruby statues? You know, there's the gold bar. But it also means that you might be able to get more money. Like if you sell the ruby statues of Valena to a temple of Valena, they might be like, oh, fuck, yeah, we you sell the ruby statues of Valena to a temple of Valena, they might be like,

oh, fuck, yeah, we want these. We'll pay a bit more for them. Top tips. Top tips from DM. I'll take all the money. I'll roll in thunder. I've literally killed Rihanna with how much money there is. High rollers are high rollers.

No, they're not. They fucking suck at rolling. No, it's true. You're rolling high in coin. Stop rolling the dice. There are consequences. The Raynard golden snitch dice has failed.

I've been in this one for so long. Why is it not... That magnet is not working. Finally. I also need to go through and work out all your experience, but I won't do that now because I need to work it out What items does everyone want out of the magic-y ones? What makes sense?

It's the best bit What makes sense? Diving it up So we've got a lightning A javelin of lightning That's you Bracer thing Well, so the other thing I will say now

Is you If you don't want the specific items You can take them to exceptional artisans and they can reforge them into things that you might want very for you and how I want to which do you think the javelin would be the most relevant for that it certainly seems to be the most connected in terms of magic you can mean you can do with anything right you could take this the crystal star.

From what I've read on this, it seems like this would be a really relevant thing for everyone. Yeah, I mean, if you, again, the artisan will give you the details, but they can reforge things or they can add properties from one thing to another thing. It's harder to do with certain items. Certain items are very unique.

Things like the crystal star could be quite tricky to add to something else, but it could be done. The lightning cable launchers, that looks more like technology, probably can't be added to something else. Yeah. What?

I was just trying to stick the javelin into me and just shock me back to life. We've discussed this. Kebab. Who says kebab. Kebab. Who says kebab? Kebab. What a conversation.

Cool, so we've got the shield, the braces and the necklace. And the javelin. I'm happy with javelin. I can carry shields but I'm not proficient. Same with Lucius, I believe.

Well, no, I'm proficient, but I can't carry the name of certain fees with my spellcasting. Yes. Well, because you don't have two hands yet. You need more caster. Well, I can take it. Depends if we level up or not. We'll find out.

I don't think you'll get a feat no matter what. Level eight for a feat, baby. Would it make... Can I take it? It's not up to me. Can a non-spellcaster... Oh you have spells don't you yeah ranges are different yeah okay range spells different could she could she use the spells from the shield oh yeah anybody can use the spells it's like the dust you it's like yeah it's you attune to the

shield and then once per day you can cast each spell and it regains those spells at dawn and it appears to be it was once the shield of a warrior of siaska during the war once per day you can cast each spell. And it regains those spells at dawn. And it appears to be it was once the shield of a warrior of Siaska during the war. That's cool. Nanotakers? It's far too ghastly. Too ghastly? Doesn't suit me.

I can't spell cast if I carry it. I need both hands. I mean, again, you can carry it for now and then somebody else's that arises there's that luck thing stone of good luck

well the the pendant of Siasco but it's for D&D Beyond Purpose it's called stone of good luck I'd have to try it on first I don't know if it would work

it will make you better though I'll try it on remember when you tried to hit that altar and you just... It's not focused on the very very current events. I mean I didn't I just chipped a bit off like gravel so... I'll try it on if you wouldn't mind. Sure. It feels outdated. I think it looks fine with your outfit. It's very pretty. It's a beautiful jewel.

It is quite sparkly. It matches all the other jewels in your coat. Well, some of them, yes. Okay, I'll keep it for now. If I'm caught in Gustaven with it it though, I will be outed for

fashion reasons. Lucius, your outfit is quite worn at this point. We've been through a lot. I don't think that the necklace is going to be the focus. I think it's in good condition. It was recently, actually no, it has been butchered. Let's just focus on staying alive, and that necklace might help us a little bit to stay alive. What does it do? I don't...

If you are wearing it and you wish to... I don't know if it needs to be attuned. I'm just checking that. Requires attunement. So you would need to spend an hour with it, which you can do as part of a long rest. And if you wish to wear it, it gives you a plus one bonus to ability checks and saving throws.

So ability checks being things like skill checks, or, oh, I'll make a charisma check to do this, or blah, blah, blah. And all saving throws. And it should apply the bonus automatically once you equip it and attune it on the end of the round. Stone of good luck. Luck stone.

Is the field just... It should be under there as the starlight's bulwark. Do you want the bracers? If you manage to eventually... That would be nice. I'll just stand here.

I mean, the bracers are like a technology. They're not magic. It appears to be like Starbane-era technology. Like, you can see that these vials channel some sort of magical energy, but a lot of it's also pistons and, you know, like cables and stuff like that. You use it to grapple people? Can I engineer them to do other stuff? Sure, if you want to take it and start playing with it.

There's one broken one and one working. Yes. Sure. I guess I'll equip the one that's... Two of them, you're Spider-Man. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Lightning Spider-Man. So does that do damage to the person when you hit them?

It will if you hit a creature, so I can explain to you what they do, specifically. I could levitate. Um... Yeah, can I like experiment on them? Yeah, sure! That's something you can do during your downtime. Like next time you have some time in the town or something like that. I'll need to find out where my stats for them are.

But if you search for lightning cable launcher, they should be on there. That's cool. Have you got it, Rhi? Yeah, I got it. If you want to equip it, you'll need to unequip your short sword. Nice. And then you can have the shield. So you can have your rapier and then shield.

Nice. And you'll need to att shield. So you can have your rapier and then shield. Nice. And you need to attune to it as well. Cool beans. Two. Did you add the javelin of lightning for Ada? I don't believe that requires attunement. That's awesome.

Cool. Oh, poor Tommy. Loot being distributed and he's just sat there. Yeah. It's like when I was playing Reynard in Lightfall

and everyone got a load of magic loot and they were like, yeah, but we're the main characters, so we'll take them. Should I take that shield ring off your hands? Now that we've looted the dungeon, let's do Quill. Well, there's also the musical instrument. There is the musical instrument too. I could tell you all the stuff I've got.

I wouldn't do that. But you want to. Chris Trott really wants to. I'm fighting Lucius right now. Lucius is like, plus two AC could be handy. But you might need to fight. Birdie's not going to make much use of it. Too soon.

It's too soon. You need to fight for him, though. It's too soon. Okay. You're not going to be much use of it. You're dead. You guys take a long rest, and you can reach Sten Hill and easily enough there's not gonna be an encounter you have the time what

lizard men any visions oh yes you want to do that so you focus during the evening as the storms raging crashes of thunder echoing around you. You turn your attention inward, trying to focus on this pulsating energy within that you know is Tiangong's energy source, it's bound to you. The two of you are connected now. You feel the form of a weapon changing in your mind from the long sword that you first found to this new bladed dagger this try dagger as it does there are glimpses of memories faint like a faded picture you see the woman the darkness spreading throughout the room darkness

and a hunger a tiny point of red light amidst an ocean of stars Hadar. Hungers. And in Tiangong, this eternal being, there is fear. Oh... Okay.

Good! That's it. That's what you get from T&O. Unfortunately, they are not able to communicate much more. I imagine, given that the connection at the moment works on emotion and vision, I would probably just wake up screaming. Like, if that's what Tiangong is feeling, is fear. And a deep fear. Like, you've sensed Tiangong's fear and hesitation before when it comes to Starbane.

This is stronger. This is a deep fear. Yeah, yeah i'm probably gonna wake up screaming like a real primal like just yeah i'm not gonna do it i know just imagine just a real everyone else can imagine like yeah yeah it wakes you wakes you up terrifying it wakes everyone up like yeah it was just instinctively skull these like yeah like, yeah, like reaching for weapons. What is it? Did you see something? I'm just shaking and I'm just,

I'm just screaming. Nova, is there something there? My eyes are white. Like, they've almost rolled back in my head. Nova. Nova, like, Scaldi comes up

and is shaking you. I'm going to look around like where we are. Reception check. Collectronic holder, like, 20. 20. Shapes.

No, just, just shadows, shadows of in the lightning. Nothing, no living creatures nearby. Scaldi like a riot kind of wraps her arms around you. Scaldi kind of like shakes you a little bit. She seems to call some sort of spell. There's nothing, position, and like eventually your eyes kind of come back and the vision fades.

And I'm just sobbing like into Aria, just heaving sobs into you. It's like holding her like, it's okay, it's okay. That woman, that woman, Hadar, she, the Tiangong, she had the power of Hedar. Tiangong's afraid. Can make a check and see if I know what that is? Yeah, you can make a check, yeah.

What is that? Natural 20. Now that we get the natural 20s. So, this is an old, old memory for Hela. Perhaps one that you even consciously weren't aware of until that name was spoken. Flashes. You were a child. Barely a toddler at this point. You see the tartan of the clan, the red tartan, vividly in your mind as warriors prepare for battle. But you're not on Erois.

You're somewhere else. You're on a world with a different sky, with three moons in the sky. And you see Starbane ships. And your warriors are being led onto them. You with them. And you hear this voice. A deep, reson resonating masculine voice you don't make out the rest of it to defeat Hadar and then just people noise and then blackness

I love it all that for a natural 20. You're a space elf, Harry! A self! It's fuzzy. It's a fuzzy memory. Holy shit. What is happening? So yeah, probably while you're having your vision, like, no vision's battling, like, it's bad! It's worse than Starbane!

Worse than Starbane! Do you even know her? I've never heard of this thing before. You're talking crazy. That's what she was! You saw when she took her mask off! That pinpoint of red and darkness! But she was clearly some sort of servant of Star...

or some necromancer. Wizardry. That's all it was no you're wrong this is worse this is worse than anything tiangong i never even got this feeling from tiangong about starbane and starbane enslaved tiangong this is bad if if she's here and using Hadar's power. This is bad! Whatever this Hadar is, she's gone. Okay? She's gone. Calm down. We defeated her. We stopped her. But you heard what she said! But whatever she was trying to do, we've stopped.

We've stopped. Whoever this Hadar is, they're not here now. They're gone. Like, we stopped them. But if that was her, then who's not... Say there's not more! Maybe there are, but they're not here., we stopped them. But if there was her, then who's not... Say there's not more! Maybe there are, but they're not here. And the cradle's there.

Nothing... Like, it can't... If it's not Starbane, if it's not here on Erois, it can't get us. But what if Starbane is trying to get rid of the cradle? Well, then, he's tried that for 500 years, Nova. We've all heard the stories that God stopped it. The gods would have told us about it if there was something worse out there. This is wrong. This is wrong.

This is worse than starving. You've just lost a friend. Your, whatever this weapon is that you have, it's shown you something scary. We understand. It saw horrors in there. Whatever that woman was doing, it was terrifying. We know that.

We were all there. It was scary. It's okay. But it's gone. We stopped her. You're just upset. Nova's just going to keep crying and just, like, got nothing. Yeah.

Nothing left to say. Yeah. I mean, Skald is kindness, but it's... Yeah, it calms Nova but Nova knows that like... It's something deep in her chest that... It's real what she felt. Yeah. Aayla's just disconnected herself from the group and is just sitting, just staring out at the storm. She's not talking to any of them.

Nice. Okay. Yeah. So in the morning, I guess you guys pack up in quiet silence, morose. You make your way back to Stenhill.

Nothing has changed. The stone village is still up on its stilts. The water level has dropped a little, perhaps. People go about their business. You return to the temple of Killara. Sentry's body is still upon the altar. Humble reminder of what you came here for, to do. And Aayla places Quill next to her.

We see the two of them lying side by side on the altar. Oh! And that's where we're gonna end this week's episode. That really stings, that hurts. Yeah, that's a stinger. That's a visual stinger right there. Yeah. Hey guys, thanks for playing this cool game with me. Thank you so much for watching everybody. Like I said, there is no High Rollers next week. We're gonna take a week off because Trot and I are away. And we've been doing a lot lately so we're going to take next week off

but we'll be back after that to continue this very epic story. I hope you enjoyed the episode. Hope you're not too mad at me and we'll see you next time. Don't be mad at Mark. We all agreed on it. We all agreed on the scenario. It was more of a pithy throwaway line but it's fine. See you next time.

See you in two weeks. Bye. 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 we'll see you

in two weeks because Mark and Trot are LARPing when we return to Arois and figure out a brand new path we'll see you then Thank you.