High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #34 - Stranger of the Storm (Part 2)

Episode Date: May 16, 2019

After a dangerous Goblin attack the party continue their journey with a new ally! 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. Add your team to your Uber account today. Shop Best Buy's ultimate smartphone sale today. Get a Best Buy gift card of up to $200 on select phone activations with major carriers. Visit your nearest Best Buy store today. Terms and conditions apply. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois, run by Dungeon Master Mark Scholloch-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Piri Adara, the Fire Ganassi monk. I am Chris Trott, I am playing Lucius Viren, Elowen 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 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 also joined by a Yogscast regular and good friend of ours, Ravs. He'll be playing Johan, the mysterious storm sorcerer.

Thanks to our regular sponsors D&D Beyond, the official Dungeons & Dragons toolset, and Displate. Use the code HYROLLERS15 to get 15% off your order and check out both sponsors with the links in the episode description. There won't be an episode next week, but you can catch us live when we head to LA for D&D Live. On Sunday the 19th of May at 11am PT or 7pm BST, we're going to be live on twitch.tv slash dndlive1 for the prologue of our next miniseries, an adventure that will take us back to our previous campaign, Lightfall.

Anyway, on to the episode. Following a rabid goblin attack, the team continue their journey with a brand new ally. Welcome back to High Rollers. Hello. As you can tell, if you missed it, if you're just joining in, we have Ravs. He's guesting. Hi, everybody. It's me, Rav. Rav's first time playing D&D at a table. You're with Roll20, right?

Yeah, we're on Roll20, so all these strange dice and shapes. I don't understand it. Shapes! Using a tablet? What's going on? Speaking of tablets... This is the only tablet I know, Miss Tilly's. That's not a sponsorship, anyone.

It's just really good. Katie would love it if we can get a Miss Tilly's sponsorship. Oh my god, can we get a Miss Tilly's sponsorship? Miss Tilly's is the best tablet. They don't need to sponsor us now. Just before the break, the party had encountered a mysterious human man on the road which turned out to be a fisherman called Johann who had a mysterious connection to storms it seems and had had dreams of a one-eyed hawk being pursued by a storm. As they were

conversing a group of goblins crazed insane gobl, descended from the hills and pursued the wagon in a chase. Having fought them off, the party now stands surrounded by goblin bodies, along with their wagon and their clackscorb. What would you all like to do next? I would like to loot, please. Okay, so Araya starts picking her way through the bodies. Are you starting anywhere in particular, or are you just as you go? Yeah, as I go. Okay, sure.

What is everyone else up to whilst Oriah does that? I'm just going to look around at everyone and be like, so did you guys all get your powers from some weird storm too? It's like, you guys seem to know what you're doing. This isn't your first rodeo that's very kind of you i'm i'm more in the habit of getting people killed because i'm rubbish at this this distant voice from the back of the wagon calls out i don't think you've even met novia just been in the wagon okay um araya while you're searching the bodies, so amongst the goblins themselves, they don't have much on their person.

But you gather several of them have these very beautiful, now grimy, encrusted with blood and with refuse, these beautiful weapons. hand axes, hammers, daggers, beautifully crafted with dwarvish runes, with symbols of anvils wreathed in flowers. Well beyond anything a goblin should be carrying around on them, especially these kind of savage-like goblins. The shaman, if you make your way up to the hills and go to the one that you killed with the bow shot, you find kind of tucked into its leather jerkin a piece of animal hide rolled up like a scroll and sealed with like a piece of leather string. And it appears to have some sort of writing. It's in goblin, which you don't speak,

so it's this kind of scrawled mess of letters. Can I have a look at the tools and try and figure out where they're from? Sure, yeah. Make a history check for me. Cool beans. That's eight. Eight.

You know they're old. You couldn't place whereabouts time-wise they're from. In terms of location, you're not really sure. The only thing you recognize is the symbol of the laner, the goddess of craft and life. That is the anvil with the flower wreath. That's her symbol, which you've seen before. Yeah. That's the only thing you recognize.

Interesting. What about the rest of you? I think... Hey, Perry, are you okay? No. Actually, no. It kind of jumped on me and stabbed me a lot. It's bleeding. I don't suppose any of you guys can heal. Oh, yes, I can heal you, Ganassi friend.

Oh, thank you. Just come to me. Oh, man, what about anyone else? Anyone else healing? Do you need immediate healing, or can we take a moment and we bandage your wounds, that sort of thing? If the coast's clear, we should just take a rest.

Take a moment? I mean, it looks like the orc ones are kind of picking up all the stuff anyway, so we'll give her some time. I'm going to grab my little secret dart before you loot it and put it back on my neck. Okay. So you walk up and take your dart back?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so you guys want to take your dart back? Yep. Okay. Yeah, so you guys want to take a short rest so you can spend hit dice if you've taken any damage. Hey, Oriah, that thing looks really interesting. I'm pointing to the animal hide. You're nowhere near, Oriah. Oh, okay.

Oriah's off in the mountains gathering loots. Find anything interesting? Unless you want to leave the wagon and go over? No? I'm quite safe here. Are we taking a short rest? Yes, taking a short rest so you can spend hit nice we were good to add your con modifier yeah you are congenial just been pedantic yeah but I think at this

point like yeah if you're calling out like Johan will see inside the wagon because you're drawing attention to the blanket yeah it's bank over quill he's still gonna see centuries body maybe I'll put a blanket over that well you didn't we have blankets you had a blanket over that. Well, you didn't though. We have blankets? I don't know. You had a blanket for yourself. Do I need to hit that? Recover. Cool, 26 HP recovered.

Bam! We're taking a short rest. Yeah, so I just hit short rest. And then did you spend any hit dice? Yeah, did you spend any hit dice to get your HP back? No, I've not done that yet. Okay, so roll some dice of two. So you're all d6s6s I think for sorcerer? Yes.

And then add your con modifier for each one. Four plus three. So seven. Seven. Seven. Oh. Another seven so 14. So 14.

That's. That'll do. Yeah that's all right. So you heal 14. So add 14. Yeah. Nice. Cool.

Everyone else, are you taking a short rest Ayla? Uh huh. Yeah you done it? Short rest. I'm almost. You else, are you taking a short rest, Ayla? Uh-huh. Yeah, you done it? Short rest. I'm almost. You're doing it. Short rest. You done it?

And then take off two dice. Done it? Yep. Oh, that's why. Oh, yeah. No, but I need to get some heals back from last time. No, these are your other hit dice, the markers for your dice. Oh, right.

Okay, okay. So, yeah, so you've done two. Yeah, okay. Take shortness. See, look at this. I'm so proud. Kim's teaching other people how to do it. It's just taken, like, what, four years, three years? Thank you. We've only been using D&D Beyond for a year, so.

Hey, Oriah, that looks interesting. I'll hand it over to you. So you guys all meet back up. Oriah hands over. You see Oriah's collected several of these weapons, as well as this parchment. You meet up around the wagon. Johan, for for the first time you get to see inside the wagon you can see that there is one body covered with a blanket mm-hmm try to think how well a blanket would cover quill pretty well I think so

there's a there's a body covered in a blanket which you don't recognize but next to it is a guardian which I don't recognize, but next to it is a guardian, which I don't know. It's up to you how much Johan would know of them, but guardians are a race of sentient constructs, so robots. Well, I've lived in a small fashion village, and fashion was just my job out in the sea, so I don't think so. So again, you would have heard of them because they were famous. They served in the war against the Court of Shadows.

You know of them them but this is probably your first time seeing one and it is a construct um she is feminine in form with a kind of green kind of clusking purple gemstones on her chest and eyes um wearing armor but clearly dead clearly non-functional and then there's another dead body next to it but you don't know what that dead body is got to say it's kind of weird having two bodies in your car you guys aren't grave robbers or anything are you hey that's these guys i'm outie this seems a bit weird scaldi looks over his leg i'm a priestess of color i can assure you we're not grave robbers i would never stand for any such thing holy man but as for the as for uh well she's a she's a she oops yeah because i hadn't described scaldi she's a dwarven woman with like okay like kind of like nordic pale

blonde hair okay black leather bands tying it up. She has like black lines, like a black makeup over her eyes. And she wears like all black with like bones and skulls and stuff. And she just looks over and says, as to why we're traveling with it, that's their business. It's not my place to say. I'm not going to pry any further. I'm just going to step off of the cart and not look. Okay.

So you say a storm gave you your powers? Well, I can assume so. I mean, to me, I simply survived a boat sinking. And you didn't have these powers before the sinking of the boat? No. No, I didn't. Never once could I do anything that you just saw.

Interesting. Did you have a similar experience? No. Hmm. Hmm. Two suspicious Scottish people. Araya, did you pass the parchment over to Nova?

Yeah. Okay. So yeah, she hands you this kind of rolled up animal skin. Badly tanned, but clearly used as some sort of parchment. And when you open it up, it is written in goblin, which, because of your eyes of the whatever you can read. Runekeeper. Eyes of the Runekeeper.

You watch as the letters shape and twist and reform, and you feel the power from Tiangong flow into your mind. And it begins to rearrange the letters into something you can understand. And on it, it reads... I've got to bloody find my thing. Why does it say that? You're a funny guy.

Hey. There we go. It reads, Gleck, do not forget. The midday shadow of the raised claw points the way. Go until the rock turns to golden glitters. Search the crystal forest for the anvil and follow its route. Interesting.

It says, blah, blah, blah, blah, route. What does that mean? Sounds like a treasure map. Whoa, excellent. Hey, what's Gleck? I don't know. Must be some goblin. Huh. And yeah, and the other thing, Excellent! Hey what's Glec? I dunno, must be some goblin. Oh.

And yeah, the other thing is that Oriah obviously has these weapons but I don't know if... Can I roll... You like any of these? Can I have a look at those as well? Yeah, it's history check. Anyone can make it if you're sharing this stuff. I don't know where these came from very well so if you guys want to look at them... Ten.

Ten? You get the same thing. Old, you recognize Valena's holy symbol. That's it. Old, dwarfy Valena. Yeah, not necessarily dwarfy. They have, like, dwarvish runes, but they're not... Can I read the runes?

The runes aren't necessarily, like, they don't say words. They're more, like, to help imbue it with power. But these aren't magical perhaps they That's a good point. I think like you would know that these runes I think Nova would understand that these runes are used to enchant weapons But these weapons don't appear to be enchanted Which I think for Nova would indicate that either they had been enchanted and have lost their strength

Or they were meant to be enchanted and have lost their strength, or they were meant to be enchanted but never got to be. So we could maybe even enchant them. I will relay that to Oriah. Yeah, I think you have two hand axes, a dagger, and a... What did the other thing I say? Short sword. Hammer. Oh, sword a hammer sorry yeah a hammer so two axes two hand axes one hammer and a dagger

nice is there anyone at the cart right now I'm probably like Nova is currently looking at a piece of thing yeah it depends where or how far how deep into your note are you I'm very suspicious of you so I'm just

watching you I'm kind of standing at the side of the cart don't want to get too close to the clack but I'm kind of like trying to keep see if anyone's not looking I mean if you want to just make a perception check and A to just make a perception check

and Ayla make a stealth check, I guess. Oh, God. See if you know you're being watched. Don't say yeah. Perception. Yeah. Oh, God. That's a seven.

Seven? 22. 22. So you think that nobody's currently watching you. I just, like, look up at Nova, see that she's reading a note. I'm going to see if I can quickly look in the curtain. You want to peek under the blanket? I want to peek.

I would say that you reach in, peel back the blanket, and you see the foot, like a bird's foot, like an aracocra's foot. And then at that point, Aayla, you're like I dropped my fish in the cart. Rats.

Of all the things you can say. Distinct lack of fish. Yes. Did you find it? No. No. No. Convenient. Isn't it? Please don't touch the cart. Hands off.

No, I was just curious if you had, you know, two of the, whatever that is. A guardian? She. She. Sorry. Very rude of me. Hands off. I dropped my fish. That's the story you're really going to go with?

Yes. That's all I've got. These are our friends. You got it. Don't touch them. You got it. Okay, loud and clear. Loud and clear. A bird's foot, huh? Hmm. Mm-hmm. Again. Yep. These are our friends. Got it. Got it. A little bit of lightning crackling down the arms, just. You got it. I'm going to go see how that clacks doing

Turn away see the clock immediately Scott turns around so is everyone ready? We should probably keep going. Oh, yeah walk I'm walking on stage. I'm feeling way better now. Yeah All right. Well somebody will need to take over navigation from Ayla So who wants to you be on watch this time? I can do it. Okay, what's your perception modifier? Perception modifier. Which one is that? I can't remember.

Is that just skill? Perception. Perception. Oh, yeah. Plus five. Okay. Pretty good. Pretty good.

Pretty good. Pretty good. The road becomes far less treacherous. As you begin to winding through, it grows further and further away from the edges of the steep decline along the valley, and it dips down into much more of its own nestled kind of rolling hills.

Fir trees on either side. The dark storm clouds begin gathering overhead as a storm begins rolling in towards you. Heavy rain begins to pour, heavy winds. But it seems that where you are in the valley with these large trees, it buffets most of it away. You travel for another four or five hours. The sun dips down beneath, past the mountains. Night falls. The forest fills with strange chirps and murmurs of creatures out at the night.

You can hear the babbling, rushing waters of the Langstrom River. Still far away, but loud enough for you to hear it. How much do you want to press on in the night do you want to take camp now and start early in the morning or press her on into the evening the storm is howling around you traveling in a storm is is difficult and it means you travel at half speed should we take a rest until the storm passes I think we're in a good place we're quite sheltered out here might be okay hey can't you get just get rest until the storm passes. I think we're in a good place. We're quite sheltered out here. Might be okay. Hey, can't you just get rid of the storm?

I mean, it doesn't quite work. Well, you actually look at Johann, and despite all these howling winds blowing around you, his robes barely seem to move, and he's damp but not soaked through. I wish I could explain this, but I really can't. It just kind of pays me no mind. Well, you're dealing with this better than I am. could explain this, but I really can't. It just kind of pays me no mind. Well, you're dealing with this better than I am.

I hate this. Yeah, like the flame is like... Is it like this? It's like spitting. It's lower. It's definitely not as bright as it was. Does that hurt? I'm freezing right now. Anyone else really cold?

I meant the whole fire thing. Is that normal? No, it's my hair. Oh. It's just, it's my hair. Oh, it's just It's what I am. Like how do you sleep in a bed? I mean, I don't use fabric Doesn't actually burn stuff No, it doesn't it's just light. It does it provides a very soft warm glow around you but not enough to burn

No where I'm from we say touch wood for luck, but I guess that doesn't really apply to you. It's probably bad luck for you. Is that the entire place on fire? Yeah. Yeah. See, no one ever asks

an Aragonassi this. Can you fly? I can levitate. That's pretty cool. So my hair is like kind of just... That's pretty cool. Yeah.

Yeah, my hair is kind of like similar to his, but it's like cloudy like almost like clouds i guess yours doesn't move as much but it's not as like most people like at a distance would just see you have like white curly hair but on closer inspection it's like cloud stuff like it's literally like puffy clouds so cute um so he begins settling down um scaldi knows how to get with the wagon. You see that the wagon, there are chains that she begins hammering into the ground.

You can make any preparations to help make the storm easier. So if you'd like to do anything that you can think of that will make it easier for the evening. Can I just make sure that, yeah, the wagon is secure. I guess try and get Skorb away

from the wagon and to shelter as well. Scorb, as soon as the wagon stops, Scorb, it seems to sense the weather around it. His eye stalks into his head. His whole body kind of scrunches up, and he now looks like a rock embedded into the earth. He's just dug down and gripped onto the ground, and his armored carapace just locks up,

and he looks like a big rock. Scorb's good, guys. Good Scorb. Scorb's fine. Scaldi, do you think the wagon is going to be safe having sentry and quill, or should we move them? I don't know. I mean, the wagon has sides,

but they're not particularly high. And if anything does happen, if the wagon, worst case scenario, is struck by lightning, it might be better. But you'll need to secure them from the winds, I guess. Sentry's probably fine. I doubt she'll move much, or Quill.

If I were to be in the car, I could guarantee it wouldn't be struck by lightning. Oh wait, you can stop things from striking certain places? Storm does seem to be not affecting him as much as others. I could redirect it should it come. Where? Not the cart. Perfect.

I just want to make sure I didn't redirect it to me or you. But I get that I would be close to your friends, so... As long as you're respectful and don't touch them. I can agree to that. I made that mistake last time. Oh. Yeah. You're still alive, though.

Uh-huh. But we met him a few hours ago, though, so he made these early dates. Oh, okay. I'm not going to go anywhere near him. Okay. Me either. You begin to hear, like, a faint jingling.

Hello, friends! And Lucius begins, like, you see him, like, walking out of the woods, and he's a bit bedraggled, but he's carrying armfuls of berries. I've been useful useful and I've found these delicious berries and his eyes his pupils well he doesn't have pupils

his eyes are just very wide oh no what have you been doing? I've found these delicious berries don't don't eat them

I'm not gonna eat the berries Lucius and I think you should stop I can stop any time I want okay stop okay can I make. Okay, stop. Okay. Can I make a next check and just see

what they are? Yeah. Absolutely. Is it dark where we are right now? Yeah, it's getting dark. Piri is giving off a small amount of light and Scaldi has a lantern. I'm going to cast Dancing Lights to have a couple of small

lightning balls. Yeah, little blue lightning balls kind of yeah little blue lightning balls just to kind of eliminate the area nice ew how wonderful

I love blue he begins like the berries he's eaten are probably quite poisonous okay but in a

not in a super harmful way right you're not sure if Lucius will be very conscious tomorrow can I just like take them off him like just would you like not in a super harmful way. Right. You're not sure if Lucius will be very conscious tomorrow. Can I just like,

take them off him? Would you like some Mariah? I'd love some Lucius. Yes. Very much. It's reminding me of daddy's foot pie. Okay, Lucius.

Okay, Lucius. I'm just going to sit him down and like, yeah, okay, you have a rest now, Lucius. Okay. He just falls unconscious. Fantastic. We've got a third body. Okay. No? Okay. Do you guys want to take a long rest? you have a rest now Lucius okay he just falls unconscious fantastic

we've got a third body now um okay do you guys want to take a long rest yes but I want to make sure

is there any so we're sheltered by some big trees you're in like a in a forested kind of valley um

and there are large fir trees like these big dense trees with thick branches and pine needles kind of thing. Not pine needles, fir leaves. Okay.

I just want to make sure that the cart is as secure as possible. You're as sheltered as you're going to be, yeah. I know that Scaldy's already done it, but just check. Yeah, you can check those, yeah. Anything else you guys want to take over us? So my next question will be, who's taking watch? I'm going to sit in the car with... I've figured.

So you're going to take four hours in the car and then you'll have to transfer four hours. That's fair. I mean you need sleep as well. So unless you're going to try and stay awake. I'll take like the first watch then I'll go for a little sleep. Okay. Okay.

Right. So first watch, second watch. Or are you going to stay awake? Are you going to take first watch as well? It would be a shame if you didn't get a long rest. You sleep first.

I'll take first watch. Fair. Okay. Second watch. Second watch, first watch. Nova? Huh? Do you want to take some extra watch. Second watch, first ones. Nova. Huh? Do you want to take some extra watch?

I could, but I, it's just black. It's black, and there's black, and there's Lucius who's blacked out. I, I, I drew my best, but I don't really know. Right. Like, I wouldn't put your life in my hands. Just sleep. It's fine. It's fine. You have to understand that we've been through a lot.

Mm-hmm. And we've just met you and you. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to ask you a thing. I'm really tired. You have proven that you can fight. Mm-hmm. Well you have proven that you can fight. You've also told us something about dreams that you've been having and it's a little bit strange. Every night since the storm.

How long ago? It's about a year, I'd say. Fuck, that's a long time. That's like 300 plus dreams. The bird is a recent development. The hawk. Before it was just a place. It was just a mountain and a storm.

But. Probably about a month ago. A month ago. It's a lot clearer now. Interesting. I hate this. The one character who's like Do you guys have any good dreams? Any good dream stories?

I dream of the day I get my ship back Every night Me too, I want to go on a ship again Oh brilliant, me too I kind of do fishing though, I get the vibe that you don't really like fishing Fishing is good if you want to eat. I get the vibe that you don't really like fishing. Fishing is good if you want to eat, but I like the adventure. I like getting out, you know, finding new places, bringing home new treasures, you know.

The good life. I dream of the stars. And if I'm honest, I'd love to have a ship to go and sail the stars. A ship to sail the stars? Don't be ridiculous. No, you can't sail the stars Crazy dreams Any any fun dreams? I want to dream. I woke up walked into the Academy without like any clothes and They saw everything are you? Fiery down there too

personal somewhat of a very important question I feel is it important well I I'm curious now that this Johan has mentioned it is it sorry it's just like for all of your hair or does it burn when you pee? I mean, yeah. Doesn't it do that for everyone? No. No? See a herbalist. Okay. See, again, it's always the fire ganassi that get asked this stuff.

I mean... Do you want to weigh in on the conversation? A little bit more striking than you are, Nova. I mean that in no offense, just having a head of fire is... Yours can... I thought yours was normal hair at the start, but this one, hard to miss. Yeah, but if you touch your hair,

it doesn't look like it's going to hurt you. If you touch his hair, it looks like it's going to hurt you. There's also the water can I see as well? I've never met one. Might get wet. Never met one. Scalding, like, stifles a moth. Like, when? Never met one. Scalding like stifles a laugh. Like when you say that, she's like. I'm gonna try tap his head.

I wanna see if it hurts. Yeah, it just. Look, it doesn't hurt at all, look. It's pleasantly warm. Yeah. And as you, you can run your hair over it and it does follow the shape of the hand. Like you're sculpting the flame.

Weird. Ah, see. Okay, interesting. sculpting the flame. Weird. See? Okay. Interesting. Anyway. Have you never met a fire ganassi before? No. Really? No. Or an air ganassi. I don't see many elves.

Nor half orcs. They're just orcs. Okay. Or orcs. Or fairy princesses. Orc full of... They're just orcs in a row. Okay, okay, okay. Or orcs. It's just... Or fairy princesses. Yes, or fairy princess pills. Ha-na-na-na-na-na-na.

Ha-na-na-na-na-na-na. Daddy. That's how he snorts. How is it that he's still annoying when he's unconscious? I don't understand. It's a special skill that I think only Lucius could possibly have. Yeah. That's crazy.

I think it's kind of sweet. Well, you said you'd get to that. I'm still kind of curious of your guys' intentions here. You ask me a lot of questions. You're untrusting of me, but you strange folk from a faraway land, I suppose, suddenly here walking up to the forge. Come on, tell him. I like it.

With two bodies in a cart. I know you don't trust me, but I to the forge. Come on, tell him. I like it. We have two bodies in a cart. I know you don't trust me, but I like the guy. I mean, we're taking our friends' bodies to the forge to see what we can do. To see if we can bring them back. I've heard the stories about bringing people back. It will be tricky. I know that the forge is somewhere in the storm wall,

but, I mean, nobody knows exactly where. We're going to have to search for it when we get there. I know that it's past the Bridge of a Thousand Hammers, and after that we get into the mountains, but after that we'll need to try and track it down. You're going to the forge do you know where it is? I've only had dreams of it mostly I've spent my life in the village. It's never really occurred to me to act upon these dreams

until the hawk appeared and then... I think for Johan in the dreams the hawk lands on a piece of stone that rises up like a claw. It looks like a clawed hand, like this piece of stone. And the hawk perches on the finger and then it... Okay. Hmm? I see a stone pillar, almost like a hand, somewhere. To me, it would be the the forge but I'm not certain

until I get there I'll know it when I see it a clawed stone hand? Oriah what was that goblin thing again? you want to read it do you? perhaps you should write it down well I would but I was going to ask if you could pass it to me no because it's on my bigger notes

the goblin reads, the midday shadow of the raised claw points the way. Go until the rock turns to gold and glitters. The midday shadow of the... Raised claw. Raised claw. Points the way.

Claw points the way. Gold and glitters the go until the rock turns to golden glitters go until the also Piri's really cool. The crystal forest. The crystal forest. For the anvil. For the anvil. And follow its root. And follow,

how are we spelling root? R-O-O-T. It's root. and what were the names around it it just said gleck and then it's like comma the midday shadow i mean goblins wouldn't really use grammar so there is no comma but your eyes of the roomkeeper interpret that this is a name i would like to think that nova's pedantic approach to grammar. Tiangong is very logical as well. Tiangong is like, no, this is what the goblin means. I will put the appropriate grammar in place.

Let's put proper grammar in here. But in the writing, it's just like, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, end. Claw, gold, tree, root. Yeah. It probably has very few, root. Yeah. It probably has very few connecting words. Nah. But Mark

can't write that way very well. Yeah. But hey, yeah. It must be the same thing then. The midday shadow of the raised claw. So we need to look for some rock that looks like a claw. That's what's in my dreams. Dreams are dreams. that could all it may

not even exist but this valley exists I keep seeing it the one I talk with one wing I don't understand how that could fly but it's what I see now the wing appears scorched scorched yes team huddle sure okay not you what what's up Scorched. Like, burnt. Yes. Team Huddle! Sure. Okay. Not you! What? What's up? Come sit with me, Perry.

Okay. You too, Johann. We'll get some food going. I've stuck the little cap fire. Yeah. So, you got any more fish? So, Orion, Aayla, and the sleeper, Meechus. I found my fish!

I feel like we should tell him. I feel like it might be. I feel like he probably knows, but also it's kind of a sign, right? That we're going in the right direction with Quill and Sentry. I mean, we found him worshipping at a shrine to Hesper. And how many one-eyed, one-armed birds do we know? Yeah, especially ones that have fallen out of a storm. I think...

You're not here. The ghost of Quill is just like... You know zero. Yeah, I think this is a good sign, right? It's a sign. We know that Quill had dreams that were visions from Hesper. If this is anything like that from any god, then... We could always bop him on the head if he gets it.

Sure, that's true. Sounds very true. I could do that. Yeah. Also, I'm talking about dreams and gods, and this is freaking weird, guys. What's happening? Have you had any dreams about gods recently?

No, not recently. Just since I got knocked out and Zephir, like, zap, lightning. Yeah, no. What about you, all right? Any dreams about gods? No, not as far as I know. I probably see Asgore, and she fares me good

seas. Well, she did. Well, shall we tell him? Should we just show him? But let's be, like, a little bit, you know, Brookstoned. Honestly, I could just leave him in the head, though. Okay. Plan. Yeah.

So how do you feel about portals? Portals? Nobody feels good about portals, Perry. Nobody feels good about it. This is during your conversation. This is just another favourite. He just turns around and yells that as he hears you. I can't say I've ever seen one.

Okay. I will walk up to the cart and take the blanket off of Quill's body. Mm-hmm. Make some fish. Johan? Mm-hmm. Can you keep an eye on that? I don't know what I'm doing with it.

I will look afterwards, Johan. Thank you, thank you. I'll approach the cart timidly, cautiously. Is this what you've seen in your dream? I'm going to lean into the cart. So you see in and you see a brown, red-feathered Arakokra birdman, which you know of. They're very common in Merskia.

They live in the Stormwall. And they're, you know, they're crazy birdmen. I don't want to trust a crazy birdman, but you know what they are. And this one, you can see that one of his wings is bound as if it's missing. Like you can see part of his body is bound. He has an eye patch, a leather eye patch over one eye and a holy symbol of Hesper. I see the holy symbol. I think so.

Yeah, he had a holy symbol of Hesper, didn't he? I think it was on his staff. He's got a compass around his neck. Compass, that's what it is. But he had like a wooden staff. Yeah, so he had a wooden staff with the symbol of Hesper on the staff he's got a compass around his neck he had like a wooden staff with the symbol of Hespera on the top of it is this pretty similar to what I've been seeing or has the dream dramatised it a bit?

it's a one eyed one armed bird man how much you interpret that that's down to you hawk like he is very hawk like I mean it's certainly very similar to what I saw, I saw a scorched wing He was struck

by lightning and fell out of a storm Oh Well In my dream I saw the shrine where I happened upon you and I see the forge I saw the shrine where I happened upon you, and I see the forge. I saw the bird.

It must be. It must be what I saw. I saw him land on the statue, though. He fell in battle very recently. Okay, so... How long has it been since Quill? Like, two days? One day? Something like three days.

Three. Two, three days. Are you a worshipper of Hesper? Yes. Does Hesper speak to you? Through dreams. Has Hesper ever called you his champion? No.

Hmm. Hesper spoke to Quill. Directly. Through dreams and visions, but... And how recent... was he slain? Three days. Have I had any dreams that are any different in the past three days? You've not had a dream in three days. You can't remember your dreams.

It's as if they stopped for a while. The dreams stopped three days ago. Oh. That's kind of why I set off on this journey to get to the source of it all. Podcast listener Tom is making a very upset-looking face. Oh, man. He wants to be involved so bad.

I need it. Carry on. This seems to be the... Seems to be what I saw in my dream. But I... If he died three days ago and my dreams have stopped, then we have to bring him back.

That's what we're trying to do. This is why we're trying to go to the forge because we think that we were already heading there for Sentry. I didn't see her in a dream. Is that recent? How long has century been? It's been like a week or so? It was about three days before Quill. But Scaldi has gentle reposed us. What a week!

Yep. She's been gone for about a week. Quill was the one who found her. She's been gone for about a week. Quill was the one who found her. And so now we have to try and work out what to do that's best for both of them. Well, if the dreams are a message from Hesper, then surely it must be destiny or their calling.

What I'm seeing. I don't know what kind of dreams he had but this is all I know if you speak to Hesper anytime soon could you kind of ask him if he could help or

let me try Hesper please can you help me? Can you help these people please? They might hit me over the head. I definitely didn't tell Ayla to do that. You were a little loud. Honestly it's not a secret I would 10 out of 10 do that. I get that vibe. Yes and, Kim, yes and. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for you to hear that. That's okay. I understand.

The vocal stories, I'm used to it by now. People often fear me. I'm just trying this whole thing where I'm just not trusting people at face value. I get that. I went through that in my teens. It's kind of really screwed us over in the last month. Yeah, because Johan's like in his 50s, right? He's like an old fella.

Yeah, he's an old fella. Nova is very young. Nova, you're like, this is a young person. I'm an idiot. Yeah. Alright, so what's the plan? You guys want to chat more or you want to go to bed? We should probably go to bed. Yeah. Probably sleep.

Take the long rest. So, first watch, second watch with second watch. So, perception check from you. Oh, a natural one. Two perception checks from both of you, please. From Johan and Arai. 13.

18. Okay. The first watch, Ayla, passes quietly. The storm abates over your watch. There's that strange lingering presence of the storm in your blood as it passes overhead. You feel that exhilaration as the lightning strikes around you. You kind of get that sense of this is power, this is me. And as it washes away, you sort of grow tired.

You wake the other two up. Johan and Mariah take over. Johan, while you were sleeping... Oh, God. You dream for the first time in a few days. Oh, God. You dream for the first time in a few days. You see the same storm wall chasing over the landscape,

but it's not following the hawk anymore. It's following you, and you're running through the mountains, and you cross a bridge with dozens of broken hammers littering its pathway. You run into the mountains. The storm wall is just close behind you, but you know you have to run from it. You have to keep ahead of it somehow. And then as you're running through the mountains, you become lost and come across a stone pillar,

the raised claw, and at its foot is the dead hawk. You can see that it's now lifeless. And instead, perched on the clawed spire is a very faint, ghostly

outline of a man with wings and a staff. Lucius. No staff. Lucius. No, not Lucius. A human man with wings and a book in one hand and a staff in the other. And he looks at you, and you can't hear him speak, but you know that this is Hesper. And he reaches down, and he picks the bird up takes in his hands

and then he points deeper into the mountains you hear in your mind travel with them to this point but then come to the valley. Your destiny will meet this one. So he opens up his hands to the bird. But not yet. And then the dream ends. I'm gonna immediately

Tom is like Oh! So good! I'm going to immediately wake up Nova. Yeah, so you and Raya wake and Ayla wakes you up. I'm very difficult to wake up by the way, I'm very heavy. Okay, I'm just like shaking. What? Who? Ow!

Well, I mean your request worked. Hesper spoke to me, I dreamed. Tell me everything! Yeah, you're awake, everyone except Piri's awake. Piri's... This time it was not a hawk being chased by the storm, it was me. And when I came upon the pillar, I saw your friend laying bare below it dead and Hesper spoke to me and said I have to go with you to the forge but at that point I've got to go deeper into the valley. I don't know, dreams are weird. You know, I don't make much sense of it but I get the feeling

that we're going in the right way. Wow. But you need to go to the valley? Yeah. I mean, fitting, right? Valley of storms. It might be something to do with the source of the storms. Quill was working on

something. He mentioned that these storms are magical and we might be able to stop them. He mentioned that these storms are magical and we might be able to stop them so maybe that's your quest. They're definitely not natural storms. They said my fate will cross again with your friend, but not now. Well surely that means we're doing the right thing for Quill then must be okay

well at least that kind of gives some comfort I guess I don't know this week sucks it was pretty cool asking for them to speak to me and immediately when I went to sleep they spoke to me that was pretty cool that was amazing it was just good timing that you when I went to sleep they spoke to me that was pretty cool that was amazing

yeah that's just good timing that you asked him I wasn't expecting you to do that yeah I knew he was going to get the dream didn't know you'd be like please Esper

speak to me anyway um yeah well if you unless you want to do anything else the rest of the night passes and you long rest

you complete a long rest and your journey begins again fantastic yes you continue traveling the rest of the day but it's not long until the valley that you've been passing through once again reaches the edges of this kind of cliff face that leads down towards the langstrom river but up ahead you see an incredible sight a stone bridge that must span 700 800 feet across risen high up from the river itself with great arches that lift it up above the waters and across over its side must be hundreds, perhaps a thousand chains and dangling from each a broken hammer

along this bridge. The bridge itself seems to have been partially destroyed in sections and then parts of it have been rebuilt with wood. But the stone looks old and ancient. Scaldi points to it.

This is the Bridge of a Thousand Hammers. You know, I did see that in my dream. Lots of hammers. You seem to bring up a lot of things very after we find them. Oh, this was in my dream. Oh, that was in my dream. I was kind of getting to the point, you know, the bit, you know. I mean, what's a bunch of hammers mean, you know? What do the hammers mean, Scaldi, on that point?

Well, the bridge was built by the worshippers of the Lena. While she was constructing the midwife's forge, her followers built the bridge to allow people to cross, to reach it. But this was before the Sundering. And every time a hammer broke, they would hang it by a chain to show the hard work that went into building the bridge. That's where it's got its name. But during the Sundering, a lot of the bridge was destroyed. It was partially split in the middle. You can see there, and she points to where a section of

it's kind of collapsed, but wood has been built to replace it. Well, after the Sundering and the Shepherds, a few hundred years after when the Shepherds began rebuilding Myrskir and Voxar, well, they had it commissioned to be repaired so that people could cross the landstorm from here.

I'm just amazed, just taken aback by the spectacle of it yeah it's a real beautiful breathtaking sight this beautiful valley this Nordic valley with a river running through it and then this huge stone bridge with all of these hammers

kind of by chains kind of over the sides and it creates this beautiful kind of rippling sparkling as the sun hits all the chains um it's breathtaking so cool that's awesome so you saw bridge hammers from there did you get any directions did you see anything a little map uh what where did i I... You were lost in the mountains. You just...

You couldn't... You didn't know where you were running. Funny thing about that dream, I was running from the storm, so I didn't have a lot of time to take in a lot of surroundings. I was a bit lost, really. Convenient. I mean...

As you approach the bridge, Oriah, with your passive perception, you notice that in the you approach the bridge, Uriah, with your passive perception, you notice that in the middle of the bridge where this wood has been built to kind of replace it, part of the wood has collapsed, and you can see three creatures. Large eagles, thunder eagles. They're common to this area,

and they're a creature you've fought before. You think they've probably got a nest in this bridge. Crossing the bridge means you'll have to try and deal with the thunder eagles. There is another path that winds down towards the river. I'm going to let you try and cross for the river, and then work your way back up into the mountains, but it will add more time, and crossing the river itself will pose challenges. Scorb can swim but the wagon itself will need to be... You don't want to let him get in water. Their clacks are terrifying when they're in the water. You've said this a few times

honestly I've never seen one in water and I'm kind of intrigued now. They've sunk many ships. Have they? Yes. Really? They'll rip a ship apart faster than you even know what's happening. Is that true, Ryan? Yeah. You'd know that, like, clacks and stuff, like, well, for a big ship like yours, they're not much of a problem. For a fishing ship, because they'll come after the fish, they'll feed on the fish that the fishermen are going for, and they'll, like, accidentally get hooked, and then they'll pull parts of the ship off as they try and get away they might attack the ship thinking it's like a predator and with their claws they can just tear chunks off of it but only small

ships big ships it won't really bother that much i'm not going to lie my friend uh it's quite funny to watch fishing boats get ripped apart by by cl. We make bets sometimes on who's going to survive. It's quite a good laugh. You gamble on people's lives. Chaotic neutral, everybody! I'm sure they fish them out of the water. Yeah!

Sure! I've won quite a bit of money actually betting on the clacks, so they're good friends of mine. Oh. Well, that's horrifying, knowing that the people meant to be protecting us are betting on our downfall. I haven't done it for a while, don't worry. I've been on land for ages. Soon as she gets back on a boat, though, let's bet her on. Straight on.

I don't know if I want to ever be on the same boat as you. Oh, don't worry. I'll take you on. We'll have a great time. Don't worry. And if a quack shows up? Ah, well, no trouble. No trouble. We'll let them on. Oh, Scorpio's a good friend. We can make a cabin for him. Oh, no, I'm good. Come on, mate.

Let's make a cabin for him. That'd be great. I don't want to be anywhere near one of them. I'm sorry. So, bridge so River Bridge River Bridge I can go invisible and make one other person invisible me Lucius can go invisible. Lucius is unconscious. So he can't do anything. And he's in the wagon with Sentry and Quill. Also, you cannot make the wagon invisible.

Camouflage. You could try and camouflage the wagon as it goes across a stone bridge. Thanks, Mark. I can hear it. I can hear it. I can hear it. Storm eagles are fearsome creatures. I'd be careful of them,

especially if they've got a nest. Extremely territorial. How fast are they? How fast are storm eagles? Pretty fast, I imagine. They can fly about 80 feet. No. In one turn?

Well, that's their movement speed. So they can dash as well. Oh, so 160? 160 feet. Yikes. Okay, that's their movement speed. Yeah. So they can dash as well. Oh, so 160? 160 feet. Yikes. Okay, that's that plan gone. You should try and outrun them. Not going to do that.

Yeah. Remember the Griffins we fought as well not too long ago? They were bastards. Truly bastards. So you think river? I feel like it's not going to be the easiest option. The wagon's not going to be easy to get across. No. What if we distracted them and drew them away from the bridge?

Distractions could work. I can cast fog clouds around them. I can make sure they can't see us. It was just maybe if, I don't know, myself and someone else, we try and draw them away, like get them to come to us, I make us invisible, but then when they leave the bridge, everyone else,

or at least the wagon, can cross. Is it quite a fall from the bridge? Yeah, okay. It's about 500 feet. Ah, no. Down to the river. 300 feet oh okay

oh survivable then yeah still max fall damage I mean I I can levitate yeah we could levitate

the wagon so it makes no noise we could levitate the wagon over the river yes good idea can you do that check the spell probably We could levitate the wagon so it makes no noise. We could levitate the wagon over the river. That's a good idea. Can you do that? Check the spell up?

Probably not. You can. It's ten minutes, so... What's the target? The target? One creature or loose object of your choice that you can see within range raises up vertically up to 20 feet and remains suspended there. The spell can levitate a target that weighs up to 500 pounds. That's a lot, actually.

Yeah, I like that. One loose object. It's not bolted to the ground. It's not. You know what? I think that would work. How wide is the river, though? Because it's 10 minutes.

Oh, yeah, you can cross it in 10 minutes. It's narrow. Yeah, yeah. You could absolutely cast that on the wagon. But I'd say with the weight of all three bodies, Lucius, Nova, no, Lucius, Quill, and Sentry, nobody else can go in the wagon. Otherwise, it'll make it too heavy.

We'd have to... The wagon itself is like 300 pounds. Sentry probably weighs like 200 pounds on her own and then Quill and Lucius are pretty light so I'm going to give you the benefit that the three of them can go in it and then the wagon and that's it. Can we not slap Lucius until he wakes up? You can do, yeah,

if you want to try. So I googled how heavy is a wagon. Right. He's been an asshole. Go on, tell me. What does it say a wagon weighs? A typical prairie schooner, which is basically what it is, weighed about 1,300 pounds. Was that loaded up with cargo?

When empty. Oh, wow. It's heavy. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, Tom. You're a delight. I mean, I didn't want... Hey, Tom.

You can have inspiration. Yeah! But in that yeah, because I'm literally going off like a very... But did the Wessons make this? Like no knowledge information. I'll go that, yeah, it weighs too much. Okay. You're an asshole sometimes.

A 300 pounds is not that heavy for a wagon. Like that's a it's also got a clack attached to it as well. Yeah, but the clack can take him off. Oh, yeah. So he's like a little kite. That's what I was thinking. Like, the wagon would be levitated and he'd be pulling it.

Because the wagon can't move horizontally while it's levitating. Well, that's not happening there. Yeah, sorry. You can thank me for that. Thanks for nerfing my quote. Make sure you mark that inspiration. It's on there. I'm going to use it.

Good boy. For Piri. Looks like it's a combat situation. Oh, you can do it. The wagon can still cross the river. You'll just have to, like, make checks. If we levitate it, it could at least help a little bit? Yeah, sure. I'd say that it will have a benefit

from being levitated, because it will make it way less. So we have the thingy it's not the loot the banjo thing. Who had that? Who had that? The bandore? Yeah.

Who wrote it down on their inventory? Lucius? I don't know. Did Quill have it? It's probably strapped to Quill I think. Yeah, I mean it's not in Quill's inventory, because he, you know, he died, so I didn't have time to write it down. Oh, yeah, literally, yeah.

He definitely had it. Add it to Quill's inventory. Okay, good. I didn't want you to then turn around and say, like, it's not in his inventory, so... I remember you picking it up as Quill. No, we still would have it. Yeah, yeah.

I don't know why you didn't just write it down. That has spells. I don't think it existed when I first tried to add it. Doesn't it have, it has like... Somebody needs to attune to it, though. Yeah, what spells did it have? Well, nobody knows, because none of you have attuned to it or identified it. Oh.

Because the person you could cast identify is dead. I got a pearl on me, though, so you can use that. On Quill. Except I can't, because I don't have the spell, because I toyed out my spell book. Oh, yeah. It's a traumatic memory there, Ghost Quill. Except I can't because I don't have the spell because I toyed out my spell book. Oh yeah. Traumatic memory there Ghost Quill. Yep. But Lucius can cast fly

if we just slap him awake. Okay yeah you slap Lucius awake. I'm so sorry for this. He throws up on you. Nanny I don't feel very well. I'll hold his hair out.anny, I don't feel very well. I'll hold his hair out. There, there.

Pat him on the back. And it's glittery puke because of the crown as well. There, there. There, there. If you could just stop puking on me, that would be wonderful. Do you want some fish? All right, Nanny. Hmm?

It stinks. It's smelly. Um, okay. What do you... You can cast fly Can you not Lucius? No You were flying yesterday

My wings Yes They let me fly Can I Can I Attune to the The boop The boop

Bangalore So you pick up the bandaw And you sit there And you try and attune And play it yes Here we go Take 8 psychic damage Bangalore. So you pick up the bandore, and you sit there and you try and attune and play it, yes? Here we go. Take eight psychic damage.

What? What have I just seen? As you begin to sit down with it and you pluck, you feel this resonating pain. As I'm attuning to it. Only a bard can attune to it. It is an instrument of the bard, and any other class that tries to attune to it takes 2d6 psychic damage.

That face. Great. Tom's smug face. The thing is, it's one of those ones where I roll a random magic item and I was like, oh this is great, Quill will get lots of amazing. Eep, bap, wap, wap, wawee. Bum bum bum, doodle doodle do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da That's the second magical item you guys used that you didn't know about by the way first was a crown And that turned him into a fairy man I'm a pretty pretty princess

He falls asleep. Yeah, I'm gonna leave that There one more lightning hey plan If if if or I you can do the smoke cloud thing, maybe I can like, wave the birds over, we use the bridge. Mm-hmm. How fast can they be, really? Really fast. Fast.

Pretty fast. But I mean, if, if they're in a smoke cloud, they'll get distracted, we sneak out, zip across the bridge. They look fairly clever. They're birds. You skipped biology, didn't you? Like I said, I probably wasn't in the academy at that point.

What are you doing? Make a decision. You've got to get across this river or this bridge. I mean, I think even... What you want to do? Even though it's quite heavy, I could levitate the wagon and we could go for the river method. We'd have to do other stuff to secure the bodies and like help it over i don't know or i say we distract and go across the bridge aroo i can go

invisible i can make one other person go invisible i can levitate i can make someone else levitate invisible, I can levitate, I can make someone else levitate, I don't know. Wait, how many people can you make invisible? Two. What if you and Aria, what if you load them over, smoke cloud, go invisible, get out of the smoke, get across the river? The bridge. Bridge. Bridge.

It's more the wagon I'm worried about. Where's the wagon going? We can't hide that. What's the... I believe the fog cloud, you can actually affix it to a point so it moves? Or is it static? Ooh, put it to their claws. I centre it on a point. Yeah. Um... Oh, not on an object. Not on an object, no. Okay, so it's just a point.

So if it goes on the eagles, it's there for 20 feet. Yeah. 20-foot radius. Yeah. This is about 40 feet in diameter. And hey, leave some fish in the cloud as well. Or river. Well, I just mean, if you put some fish in the smoke cloud, they'll stay in the smoke cloud for longer. I've seen people do this before.

Perhaps you should just, you know, vote river, bridge, and then make up a plan. Because it sounds like some of you want to do the river, bridge, and then make up a plan. Because it sounds like some of you want to do the river and some of you want to do the bridge. I don't know if Johan gets a vote or if I get a vote. Everyone gets a vote. All right. Do I get a vote?

Yes. Okay, sure. Awesome. Raise your hands. Bridge plan. Me. Me. Scaldi puts her hand up.

Okay, and river plan. And Johan has four. Okay. Oh, sorry.i puts her hand up. Okay, and River plan. And Johanna's four, okay. Oh, sorry, I'm voting for River. What? You can't change your vote. No, I got confused. Ariah's accent confused me. So now we, what, three for three? Wait, Nova, what are you doing?

I don't know. I can't decide. Nova abstains. So it sounds like Bridge. That's three to two. All right. Perfect. We're going to two. All right, perfect. We're gonna die.

All right, so, well, I'll pull the wagon up to as close as I think we can get before the eagles notice us, but. Are we gonna be able to get this properly over the bridge? Okay, the cart. I mean, it's wide enough, but you don't know. Scorb, if I make Scorb run, But you don't know.

Scorb, if I make Scorb run, we can try and dash as quickly across as we think we can. I think distraction, invisible. Sure. We can get, so someone can sit on the front of the wagon and two people can sit inside the wagon. And then you can do your invisible on the other two so we should be a five six and then two bodies inside the wagon so you have to have yet so you can have two four in the wagon

and then two outside yeah so Scaldi Scaldi has to drive in yep and then three other people can go the way in And then the two that are left would be Nova. Lucius is also in the wagon. So you've got two in the wagon by default. Lucius and Scaldi. Freaking Lucius. I can run. You can fly!

He's unconscious. I can... He woke up. Nah, he went back to sleep. Woke up, threw up, back to sleep. I can run. You can wake him up again. Wake him up?

Yeah. You go home and you start. You can do it. I'm not doing it. Watch out for your feet. I'm sleeping. Can you fly over the bridge? I can try.

I feel very poorly, Ayla. I feel very sickly. What do you want me to do? I was thinking, can he fly across? He has the portal thing. What portal thing? The thing that was Hunger of Hedar, but we re-skinned it to Lucius's Luscious. He wanted me to cast my spell here. He had the big light orb that did acid and cold damage.

Yes. That sounds like a good distraction to me. What are we fighting? How far can you make that happen? I don't know. Okay? I don't know. Okay. I don't know. I don't have the spell on.

I don't have D&D Beyond. I've lent my iPad to Ravs. Thank you. Lucius's luscious light. 150 foot. So you can put it within a point within 150 feet. It's a 20 foot radius sphere. It's just whether or not the eagles will fly to it.

I don't think anything would willingly fly into it unless it's a mothie. Unless we attracted them to that point and had Lucius drop the spell. But wait, it hurts them. So would we not want to try and keep them in that place for longer? Rather than... Yes, you remember with the griffins, they just flew out of it again. How many fish have you got? Like four.

Four fish! That'll keep them in there for, like, what, four seconds? They just go in there, gulp one, second later gulp another? I don't know. You can run really fast, can't you? Yeah, I can run. I'll run alongside the wagon. I'm just saying, how do we keep them in the smoke cloud for as long as possible fish perfect it's destiny like he said oh phil and um my bag of fish okay sure so nova invisible who else are you making invisible whoever else is listening

i'll be invisible you can run alongside we'll go in the wagon I'm going in the wagon you're also in the wagon you were the third person in the wagon Scaldi is the fourth it's been really pathetic so we get the things over here fish all over the place. You're invisible, Ariah. Yep. Smoke cloud. Yep.

And then we run. And everyone runs. Yep. Plan? Plan. Plan. Plan. Plan.

Plan. Plan. Okay. So you set off. So, right. Run me through this. So the wagon stays where it is. Right now.

How do you get the eagles to come to you? That was my point. Like, how are we getting them to come to the fish? Just get a rider, headshot one of them, insta-kill. Jeez. Okay. So if you want to sneak up on the eagles, it'll be a stealth check.

In a cart. In a cart. Well, the cart is waiting where it is. The wagon's waiting at one end of the bridge. And the bridge is about 600 feet across. And where are the eagles? Middle of it. 600 feet? This is a terrible idea! This is bad!

We said at the very beginning it's about 600 feet across. I'm starting to think that the bridge is a bad idea. Let's go to the river. Oh, no. Democracy. We voted. I said river. No, the nice thing about democracies is you can always change your mind. Who votes river? It's not been four years.

Who votes... I vote river now, I think. River, we changed our minds. All right, let's try the river. All right. Okay, so if I levitate the wagon, that's only going to do a little bit. So how are we going to... Tom's echoing my feelings.

So you go down. So you take the wagon down a winding path, which is very narrow, and it takes Scully a long time to get it down. It takes several hours to get the wagon down to the river level. I've changed my mind. Let's go back to the bridge. Hey, if we keep doing this, eagles might die.

Scully gets the wagon to the edge of the water and you can see Scorb starts getting very excited as he starts getting the water. I'm scared. He's like, Good Scorb. Yes Scorb, yes, this is water. Don't pet them, don't pet them when they're excited. Okay, my levitation can only last for ten minutes.

So you're going to cast it on the wagon, even though it won't levitate it to try and make it... Once we figure out what the hell we're doing. Yeah, sure, what are you doing? Hey, can I go on the wagon if we're doing this? No. What? I can't swim that well. So the water, I will tell you, is around five to seven feet deep.

Okay. It looks. The sides of the wagon, the water will come inside the wagon but it will touch the bottom and then Scorb can swim. The current looks fairly strong

but not like rapids. Okay. How wide is the river? Well, the river isn't as wide as the valley, which is what the bridge stretches across. I'd say the river is probably something like 80 feet wide. Okay. I can teleport myself and two creatures across the river. I can help push the cart with the wind.

With wind? Yes. Interesting. I'm quite happy to swim. Always been good at swimming. I'll need to control score, so. One creature, sorry. That'll be me.

Thank you. All right, well. So if you levitate the wagon, would it go a little bit further? I'm going to fly across. Okay. Oh, you to fly across. Okay. Oh, you can fly now? It's a miracle. Lucius flies to the other side.

If you levitate it, does it rise it a little bit above so that the water doesn't go into the wagon? It just makes it lighter, so it's easier for, like, Scorb to... It's more that it will make it so that it's lighter for Scorb to pull. Right. Because he's pulling it through the water. Whereas, because the levitate isn't strong enough to make it lift off the ground.

All it's doing is making the wagon itself lighter. Okay. What about sentry and quill? Yeah, what do you want to do about it? I can try and carry one of them. I can carry another one. Okay, so the two of you are going to carry the bodies. Who's carrying who?

I'll carry Sentry again. Wait, am I stronger than you or are you stronger than me? What is your strength? 18. No, I'm at 16. So I'll take Sentry because she's heavier. All right, I'll take Quill. All right.

So you two are swimming. You're being teleported with, sorry, Ayla and Araya are swimming for the podcast listeners. Perry is being teleported with Nova. Yeah. Lucius is already flying over this side. Well, is that what you're doing? Yeah.

Okay. And Johan, are you going to swim? Can you do two creatures? Yeah, but I want to use a spell. Yourself and one. Once Levitate happens. Okay. Oh, once levitate happens. Yeah.

Okay. So you levitate the wagon. Sorry, what is it Johan's doing? I'm going to... When you levitate it, I'm going to cast this. Okay. If us three could wait on the side of the river while everything else... Okay, so you wait while everyone goes across.

I cast levitate. Okay. So people swimming, athletics checks, disadvantage, because you are carrying something. You're going to take a slight penalty for Ayla because of Sentry's weight. I rolled the same thing twice. What was it? Sorry? Athletics. Yeah, athletics and then minus two penalty.

22 even with that. Even with that, yeah. Wow, nice. Who's the wagon? 12. Okay. So the wagon starts making its way across. Scorb, and you cast levitate on it, yeah?

So you levitate the wagon, and Scorb seems to have a much easier time of pulling it with a lot of the weight lifted off his back. And because he's a strong swimmer, like his armoured carapace kind of floats out on these long legs. And the water starts churning and he starts rocking around, getting all excited. I'm going to cast Gust of Wind to help push the cart faster. What does Gust of Wind do? Gust of Wind, a line of strong wind, 60 feet long and 10 feet feet wide blasts from you in a direction you choose for the spell's duration.

Each creature that starts to turn in the line must succeed in a strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet away from you in the direction following the line. Any creature in the line must spend 2 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves when moving closer to you. So it's just a second, so you're saying it will double its movement going the other direction? That's what my thinking is it will double its movement going the other direction that's what my thinking is the only thing I'm going to do is I'm going to make a saving throw for Scorb to make sure he doesn't lose control with the win, because he doesn't understand what you're doing, he can't prepare for it

Scaldi's trying to guide him but I'm just going to give him a saving throw here probably a strength saving throw what's your DC? this is for? 14. 14. Skorg just about manages to, because I know what his strength is, he just about manages to keep control and the wind is pushing him along at a much faster rate and he's going to basically clear this river in one solid, like you watch as the force of the wind creates

this line that just pushes it. You're also helping fight the current, so he's not fighting against the sideways current. Yeah, because he can change the direction of it. And as you're doing this, Ayla, sentry over one shoulder with one arm, you're swimming against the current, and you realise this is a stronger current than you realised, and you manage to pull yourself along. You reach about halfway through, you're about 30, what's your movement speed? 45. So 45, but half would be like 22ish or something.

So with your full action you go about 45, you're about halfway across the river. Oriah, you get 20 feet in and you can't fight this and you start being dragged along and Quill's body is being wrenched from your hands. Can I change the direction of my gust of wind to try and help her along? Well you've got it in a line going across the river. They are now being dragged down river, basically. So what are you going to try and do? Try

pull it up. As in, like, move and then, can you move where it's originating from? Yeah, it says, as a bonus action, each of your turns before the spell ends, you can change the direction in which the wave in which the wave So, keep in mind, it's a long line. And if you change the direction,

all you can do is point it by the origin point. Wouldn't help a riot. Cause she's already being dragged downstream. So you, you try and change it, but it's not enough. Scorb and the wagon are on the other side. Um,

Nova and, uh, Perry. So you watch as a rider is is struggling and Quill is now out of, she's got one hand on him but he's being pulled out of her reach as she's desperately trying to swim against the current. My watch

casts what it casts. That doesn't take other people with it, does it? No, just you. But, if you want to try it, because you don't know how well this thing's going to work. Like, you've never used it before. We've discussed what it should do. That doesn't mean that's always what it's going to do.

And she's, like, really struggling. I mean, you can see Oriah is not winning against the current. Like, potentially in the next six seconds, she might lose grip of Quill and herself like she'll be cast down river along with him

okay this is it you gotta turn what you doing hey Nova teleport Johanna cross and I'm gonna rush in

as much and get as can I get to athletics check if you're swimming in the water okay athletics yep you don't have this if you're swimming in the water. Okay.

Athletics. Yep. You don't have this advantage. You're not carrying anything. 13. 13. You're just about keeping control. What's your movement speed?

40. So you go 20 feet with your... No, sorry. Hang on. I've just done this. 40 feet. So you half it because you're swimming. So it's 20 feet normal movement. So she's about 10 feet in front of you

where she's being pulled along by the current but you can dash if you want to spend a key point so if i action dash yeah if you can action dash yeah and could i still use the yeah you can try yeah okay i'll action dash to get into that then and do i need to do another athletics in that case nope it's all part of the same athletics check okay you get to ari. I get to she's holding quill could I Cline I guess I know she's from the sea. I'll grab quill mm-hmm and then hit my watch okay roll a d20 for me 12 oh You hit the watch you take quills body. Yeah. You like nod to Oriah, you hit your watch, you feel yourself pulled 30 feet to the other side but Quill's body-

Ah, son of a- Ah! Uh oh. Too middle of the road, it just works as normal. Oh! It just does what it does. Um, yeah, and you watch as like, you're like, he like goes and then of course body is now being thrown down, thrown down the river. Can I just swim after it down the river?

Well, so, we go to Ayla, you're halfway through. You need to finish swimming across this thing, make an athletic check and get some voltage for me. How far across is the wagon? Is the wagon finished? Wagon is basically finished, yeah, wagon is across. Okay, so I can stop levitating it. Yes, Sid. I know, is it time to finish? The mic just killed itself. My mic killed itself.

Oh. Oh, good. Oh, that's fine, I accidentally pulled the thing out. So I was set. I got a 17 with disadvantage. Does that? Hello, am I back? Hello.

Yes, you're on your person's back. Thanks, I accidentally sat on my cable. 17. 17, that's enough. With Century's body, your muscles burning. No threat of constitution exhaustion right now. You throw Century's body onto the other thing and turn around to see Kaur's body being loose

and Araya also kind of swimming out of control. Araya, you need to give me an athletics check. You are no longer carrying Kaur, so it's just a normal athletic check for you you're also going to take some damage at the start of your turn can i am i out of the river now one point of bludgeoning damage as you're bashed against rocks um and like fallen trees yeah you you're still like the current's too strong you're like being pulled under you can hold your breath but this current's too strong like this isn't like the sea you're the current's pulling you along you're trying to get to quill's body but you're just out of control you can't grab it okay am i out of the river now yes the

other side but that's your whole turn because it would have been a dash to get across um johan is there anything you'd like to do uh how far is quill's body away from me, from Nova? I mean, would have been 20 feet out, and then about 20 feet, 10 feet for the extra movement of the current. So 30 feet, but now it would be like 60 feet away. Okay, can I say to Johan? Also, just for the point, just Tom,

can you keep an eye on Quill's maximum HP? Can you tell me what his max HP is? His max? Yeah. I don't actually... 34. 34. So half of that would be 17. Yeah. Because you watch his body's being slammed against rocks like...

Sorry, Johan! Change of plan! Can I run? Yeah. Because you watch his body's like being slammed against rocks, like... Sorry, Johan, change of plan. Can I run and... So you run 30 feet. Into the river. Athletic check. And then... Oh, this is going to be bad. I suppose my not breathing would help.

No, because this is about fighting the current. This isn't about breathing at this point. No, because I want to go... I want to be dragged as fast as I can down to Quill's body. So you're voluntarily... So can I voluntarily use the current to get to Quill's body? I mean, you know, if you don't make the athletics check, you can use the current, that's fine. Yeah.

The problem is the athletics check is for you to stay in control of your movements. My thought process is I want to get to Quill's body as fast as possible, so I'm not fighting the current, and then I'm going to cast Thunder Step. So would you have... And could I use my wind? It's still got concentration for a minute to try to push her along.

Yeah, you can swing that angle to push her along now. Yeah. Okay, you're still going to need to make the Athletics check because you have to stay in control so you can get to his body. 16. 16 16 okay um with the the force of johan's wind blowing behind you you you kind of you dive underneath um and you're pushing against rocks and just angling yourself and you're just letting the current take you you're not trying to fight it but you're instead using your strength and your ability to swim to make sure you're angled so you're kind of like pushing

yourself off rocks making sure that like you're fighting against the current to keep in direction and you kind of land around his body and then you're gonna cast Thunder step and that's technically in the river you do have thing yeah okay yeah so 90 feet you to the other side But I believe a riot is still in the area for the effect of the thunder step. Five foot? Ten foot. Ten feet, yeah. A riot would be there.

Yeah, but she's out of control, so you can't control her swim. It's probably amplified by the water. Because she was holding his body. But I thought she let go because... Yeah, but they'd still be flowing down the river at the same speed. Could I wait until there's more distance? Like, if I hold Quill... I mean, there won't be any distance because you're both being the river at the same speed. Could I wait until there's more distance? Like, if I hold quill... I mean, there won't be any distance

because you're both being pulled around at the same current. Oh, I don't know if I'd risk that. What is the effect? 3d10 thunder damage. Probably amplified by the water as well. Oh, no, thunder damage. On a constitution save. It's your choice.

You're in the water now. Do it. Get quill, Thunder Damage. On a constitution save. It's your choice. You're in the water now. Do it. Get Quill, get Quill. I've already killed you almost once. Like, with Oriah. I left you in that. You're going to make the call.

Are you doing it or not? I think, yeah, because Nova would panic, right? She panics seeing Quill's body being dragged away. So she's going to... Thunder Step. So constitution save from Mariah. Blesses your spell, CC. That's pretty good.

What's your save? 20. Yeah, your save. So half damage. 3d10. 3. 3 ones. Roll bad. 5, 5 and an 8.een, so half a nine. Nine thunder damage. So you hear this kind of

explosion as water erupts out of the river and you see Nova and Quill's body appear on the far shore. Lucius is like making his way over, but you can see he's sick, so he's like half speed disadvantage on stuff. But he's st making his way over but you can see he's sick so he's like half speed disadvantage on stuff but he's stumbling his way over and Oriah's

just left in this kind of cacophony of sound as you're being pulled along use your spell for that Piri

you still got but you're about you're in the water still by the way because you went 30 feet oh you can go back to the same shore

so you're on the side you started on I got to quill and then tried to... Reach the other side? Reach the other side, yeah. That would have been enough. You would have only been 50 feet across by that point, so you're in the water.

Athletics check, please. Okie dokie. Seven plus athletics. Eleven. You're being dragged along. Oh, man. You take four points of bludgeoning damage as you're smashed against rocks and boulders and that sort of thing. This is the risk of the river.

As you're pulled along. Ayla, is there anything you want to do? I want to continue going round in a circle. How far down the river is Araya and Piri from me? So Araya is about 20 feet from her original starting point, but she's about 60 feet down the river at this point. Piri is 50 feet across the river,

so there's only 30 feet between him and the far shore, and he's about 60 feet down as well. God damn. I don't really... Cool. Thanks, Sid. I just want to wrap this little... I don't really know what else I can do What equipment do I have?

If you electrify the water it gives us power Yeah, that would be great I guess can I just sprint down the side of the river and try and keep up with them. Your movement speed's 40 feet, right?

It's 45. So if you dash, you can go 90 feet. You can get ahead of them. Yeah, I just, I don't think I have enough this turn to get into the river to get them. So what you do is, Ayla ends up running down the far bank and you get about 30 feet ahead of them.

So by the time they catch up to you, you'll have a turn to jump in and try and swim. To get in and try and get them. Okay, so, Oriah, you need to make an athletics check for me, please. Cool. And you're gonna take a bit more bludgeoning damage. You're gonna take four more bludgeoning damage.

11. 11, no, you're still, God, you are getting the worst athletics rolls for a sailor. I'm such a good swimmer! As you're just being smashed against rocks. Another four bludgeoning them. That's why I'm on a boat, not in the sea. Johan, anything?

Oh, I don't think I've got anything that can help. Do I know if this is gonna... It's so funny because there was a spell choice that me and Ravs were talking about, and it's just like, oh, it would've been so good now. Yeah, and I decided to swap it for something else, and I'm regretting that decision. Have you used the other one? Do I know if this water is going to

no he's picked his spells Tom did you use the one you swapped it into out of curiosity what was the spell lightning bolt, thunder step sorry oh okay do I know if this rapids is going to go off a cliff or anything like that

it's a pretty long meandering river it's going to drag them downstream the worst thing is if they it's if they stay in the current they're just going to keep getting bashed around and i mean eventually the river will slow down right rivers speed up and slow down depending on the slope and the width um the hope is that they eventually get to a point where it's calm enough that they'll be able to swim to like a shore um but they're going to probably get bashed around as they do that i don't really haven't with feather fall help no no i can't i can't see a way that unless you can tell me a way that you can make feather fall work like because it really only affects like falling distance hmm i guess it makes them lightweight but that almost makes it worse like yeah yeah i'm just gonna like move towards them and try and help them with the wind Hmm. I guess it makes them lightweight, but that almost makes it worse. It might make it worse. Yeah.

I'm just going to move towards them and try to help them with the wind to change the direction again. So you can cast the spell again if you've got the spells. Oh, I've got concentration on it for a minute. Well, I'm just thinking if you cast it again, you can choose a new origin point. So you could have the wind blowing them upstream. Hold them. That's a good idea. Yes, I'll cast it again then.

So you can move 30 feet down, and then who do you want to cast in front of perry or oraya oraya seems to be having a bit of a rough time of it so you cast in front of a raya and you're going to blow the wind in the opposite direction so with that it's strong enough that the current it you're kind of like being blown back at this point like you're still like you can kind of get a moment you come up for air and you can feel the strong wind is blowing you back kind of almost holding you in place okay um for the time being cool so for your next turn you won't move further down nice period you go an extra 30 feet by the way when you're swimming down so you're in line with ayla uh nova you're in line with me you're on the shore how how far away is everyone?

Piri's about 30 feet down river from you. And 30 feet into the width of the river. 30 feet into, because I was looking at the cable launcher I have. It's 15 feet. It's 15 feet, and you'd get damage. Zap! If it pulls them out of the river. Damage is better than dead.

But it's 15 feet, and I think if I got in the river, I'd... You got pretty lucky with that athletics. I was very lucky. Because you are not strong. And I have another thunder step, but I don't know how much my luck would hold out. What are you doing? Oh, panicking. So, Tom, just for the sake of speed, roll three athletics checks for me.

Yeah. Can I... My next turn, I would be helping him. So, you're going to swim out to Piri, yeah? Lowest is 11. Lowest is... What's behind you? So, 11, and then 17, and then 22.

Right, okay. So you make an athletic check for me. Ayla, this is? 14. 14. So with a, like, Ayla is strong enough and fast enough with the barbarian unarmed movement. She dives in, swims over to Piri,

gets an arm around you, and then with your swimming swimming she manages to pull you up onto the shore nice before you take any extra damage cool and then ariya you're currently being held in place give me an athletics check no disadvantage just straight athletics 19 20 21 22 so with that you can swim back to the shore you started on so you're on separate shores now like you and and Johan are on one side, everybody else is on the other, but none of you are in the water at this point. And with that, I think we will have to end things there. We'll talk about how Johan makes an exit next week. No problem.

It's a bit late. That was fun though guys, thanks for having us. Thank you very much! And yeah, I think me and Ravs talked about this, but because this's a bit late that was fun though guys thanks for having me thank you very much and yeah and I think me and Ravs talked about this but because this was

a bit of a last minute thing I think the plan is is that at a certain point your hand will make a return and we'll have you down for a couple of episodes because we're obviously

there's some connection to Quill there yeah some connection some connection to Quill that we want to want to get through so hopefully we'll have

like proper artwork and stuff for you next time but thank you so much for jumping in last minute yeah no worries guys it was a blast thank you very much thank you everybody

for playing we'll see you next time take care goodbye bye 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 either next week for the beginning of our Lightfall miniseries at D&D Live, or in two weeks for the return of Erois.

We'll see you then.