High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #49 | Aegis V (Part 2)

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

The derelict Aegis V holds a few surprises for the party! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond! D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Create your FREE account now and start digitising your campaigns here: www.dndbeyond.com/ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. with uber reserve you can book your uber ride in advance 90 days in advance perfect for all you forward thinkers and planning gurus reserve your uber ride up to 90 days in advance uber reserve see uber app for details hello everyone welcome back to high rollers a dungeons and dragons podcast in the world of eros run, run by Dungeon Master Mark Sherlock-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Keelak Ad-Khalad, Cleric Wizard. Hi, I'm Rhiannon, I'm playing Sentry, I am a Guardian Paladin. I am Chris Trott, I'm playing Lucius Viren, Eloin Elinastro, and I am a High Elf Sorcerer. 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. Thanks to our regular sponsor, D&D Beyond, the official Dungeons & Dragons toolset. Create your free account and speed up your campaigns today. Can I just say, I can't believe that Praxis Vard thing worked. You can say what you want. Just because I'm so conditioned to you as well, just being like, wait, no, it doesn't. Like, just, like, messing with our emotions.

Yeah, it just worked. You did what I wrote in my notes to make the door open. I don't like it when we do stuff right. I do. It feels weird. Don't worry, because now we're back. You have a chance to do lots of things wrong. So, you are currently in

what appears to be some sort of officer's quarters on Aegis V. An astral citadel in astral space above Eros. Astral space.ros. Astral space. Ass. Astral. Can I please cast Comprehend Languages on myself and stare at this computer screen?

Yes. You stare at the screen. Very similar to the slate, it appears to be made from the same kind of crystal. And with your previous Arcana check and the Comprehend Languages, you can tell that it is it uses a system of the spell illusory script to write code and store

messages on some sort of network of magic and then you can call up those messages you can send them to other people email iMail because it's ill, because it's illusory. It's illusory.

Oh, very nice. Oh! There are three messages on this terminal that anyone can access. There are also two messages that cannot be accessed by yourself currently. It needs some sort of authorization. Praxis 5. Doesn't work. Can I look at the three general messages?

Yeah. I'm not going to read them out fully because I didn't write them, but I can tell you that one is basically information regarding an upcoming deployment to Erois, an attack on a place called Goldenfields, a food source location, a food source location in the southern central part of the continent, and it's just generally be prepared. Like, you know, 0800 will assemble in the docking bays. I thought it was a phone number.

No. That kind of thing. The second note is a notice regarding punishments for stealing rations. And from the sounds of it, the punishments are quite severe. And there is a notice about the only thing keeping us, you know, order and law is what keeps us civilized. Was that message sent by Starbane himself? No.

Like, guys, come on. Stop stealing food. We're trying to take over Erois. No, it was not sent by Starbane himself. It was a general message, citadel-wide. It's like going into Fallout terminals and seeing some lore. That's basically what it is. I love that. The last one is probably

the one of most interest. It appears to be something almost like a circulated, not quite newspaper, but bulletin. It appears to be news from the front. It just says news from the front. You don't know what the front is.

The 27th fleet has succeeded in stemming the Hadassborn tide and evacuating Gildlin and Landor. The Eladrin courts have sworn fealty to Emperor Kallus and joined the Starbane Empire. Can you repeat the name? Gildlin? Gildlin and Landor. Landor. The Eladrin courts have sworn fealty to Emperor Kallus

and joined the Starbane Empire. Is there a date on this? No. These messages? Nope. Imagine even if there was, it would be a different date structure to Eros. XY5-92.

Stargate. 42. Captain's log. Captain's log. I just made 42 captain's log um captain's log I just made a captain's log um Lucius

can you so if I just tap the messages the like the two um nothing

yeah and then no message comes up saying okay. You can't access them. Lucius, do you want to press your crystal or hold the crystal and touch or something or just boop the crystal on the screen? The gauntlet? No, the

necklace you're wearing. Oh. Yes. I can do. You try. Nothing doesn't work. Whatever authorization it appears to still not be met There's two messages on here that clearly need a higher authorization I don't know what I tried whispering praxis to it, didn't work Well, there's other rooms

We might be able to find more stuff like these clothings I feel like this room is an officer room, right? But not like top members. Top men! Like elite. Well, officers are pretty elite, aren't they? They're up there. Yeah. Ayla, out of curiosity, do you recognize any of these names?

Guildland, Landor, Elarin? Nope. Yeah. no. Doesn't ring any bells. Not like the name of this place. The name of this place, it was a faint memory, but like a weird half-remembered thing.

I don't know. I don't even know where I've heard it before. Well, this space station's been here since the Sundering, so it's before your time. It's not a space station. It's an astral citadel. It's an astral citadel. Citadel.

I said it the first time, though. I did. I said station, and I was like, fuck, I should have said citadel. Ayla, could you whisper Praxis Vard to this screen for me? Praxis Vard. Doesn't work. This is how you torment Kim, by the way. You put something and then don't let her know what it is and it will bother her forever.

Ayla, could you touch this screen for me? Touch. Nothing. I mean, I could find out what the gem that Lucius has is, I suppose. Ten minutes. Cast Identify. Wow. Yeah, you cast Identify on it.

It's not per se a magic item. It has a very minor enchantment, which is basically it just registers the person wearing it as having access to certain things. It's like a key. It functions in a similar manner to a key that would allow access to certain things. It's like a key. It functions in a similar manner to a key that would allow access to certain regions, certain doors or areas on the Astral Citadel.

If I put it on and then touch the thing, does anything happen? No, no change. If Ayla puts it on... If Ayla puts it on, touches it, nothing changes. Okay, well, it's not that. Does anyone want this saber? anyone need a saber?

it would go with the look yeah you can take it I know how to use one it could be useful backup for when I run out of spellies

sure yeah sure in this circumstance... It's just a longsword for the time being. I will write up some fancy stuff for it. Do I have a scabbard? Yeah, yeah.

It's like a... You hang it round your neck and then it clips on as a belt as well. So it's like a military officer's saber. It's like a cavalry saber. Very fancy. It actually is kind of... Suits Lucius in a weird way.

Like his form and his posture. This kind of elegant cavalry saber kind of Suits Lucius in a weird way Like his form and his posture This kind of elegant cavalry saber kind of suits him And I go out and stand on the dining table And do some practices Okay Just do some practice swipes It's been a long time Like fencing

Yeah I think like This probably would have gone back to when you were training for sky jousting And things like that Like you would have had some lessons in swordsmanship That Dandy probably would have paid for And you weren't awful at them You just It wasn't your kind of thing and things like that. Like, you would have had some lessons in swordsmanship that Daddy probably would have paid for. And you weren't awful at them. You just, it wasn't your kind of thing.

Yeah, I stabbed myself. Help! I did it wrong! How much of air breathing time do we have left? Or water breathing, sorry. So you used eight hours, so you have about ten hours left. Ten hours left, cool. Don't worry, though, I've got water breathing. Yeah.

Nova can live here forever. What does it count as, a longsword or a short sword? Longsword. Okay. Sick. So it's a strength-based weapon, unfortunately. Yeah, I can cast water breathing. Actually, your strength's not bad.

You've got plus one. Cool. All right, so what's the plan? So the corridor continues the curving round in a ring. Okay. You also notice, by the way? So the corridor continues the curving round in a ring. You also notice, by the way, that when you pass the previous hall and if you leave this room, there are connection corridors on all four axes. So leading into the central chamber, there are four corridors.

Oh, there's another in there. Yeah, from the side, yeah, exactly, and then one from the bottom. I guess, yeah, should we carry on going down the corridor? Yeah, let's go to the same. You pretty much go all the way round, because the officer's quarters is pretty much at the southern end. It's almost opposite the portal room. Yeah.

Sure. You continue making your way round. There is one more door on the, I would say, southwest, so kind of diagonal, that when you pass it, it's open. The door, again, has been opened. This one looks like the door has been removed from its frame. The crystal walls. The door, but methodically.

Not pulled out, methodically removed. Okay. And you begin to hear the first noise that you've heard on the station. Not much, but the occasional clang of metal and then a kind of faint hissing sound, like a high pressured

as you begin getting closer and closer. Maybe you hear like a Those are the noises you hear. It's pretty detailed. I'm waiting for just a... Ow! Ow! Wilhelm.

No, there's no sounds of human speech or conversation or noises or reactions. All right. Maybe a robot. Have we noticed a pattern to it, or is it just different kinds of sounds? Very similar sounds, but in a regular pattern. Like moving around, doing different things, but all very similar noises.

There could be something down there. Something's, you know, the senses are tingling. Good. It's weird that there's nothing else here. I don't like it. I mean I can cast invisibility and go in if you want to take or you could send echo in you send echo in yeah yeah yeah this is little a scout form is a little ghost

form and this little ball of metal brambles with a little purple crystal. There was a comment about Echo being destroyed. But Century has the ability to repair it and it costs like ten gold. That was me filling that gap. It was destroyed in the bomb in Nanny No Fears Thing but I figured

we had enough time because you had a lot of down time. You had a lot of down time and it costs like ten gold to repair Echo. It doesn't take a lot to downtime. You had a lot of downtime, and it costs like 10 gold to repair Echo. He doesn't take a lot to repair. But the comment. I don't care. It's just been proven wrong. Sensory, you focus, and you send Echo in,

his little form kind of bobbing through the station. And as he peers in, Echo sees this room has been ransacked, but methodically so. Parts of it have been pulled out. Sections have been cut away, and you can see a few tools have been left lying around. There is a kind of puddle of blue goo, or like liquid glowing.

Okie dokie. But in the middle of it all, there is a small, blocky, squared figure, a little construct, and he has like a little arm with a kind of high powered like little torch almost like a lit piece of

hot metal and then his other arm is like a big clamp and he's just and he's just cutting pieces of the room apart there's like a metal structure that was once in there and it just appears to be disassembling it and just throwing it on the ground oh okay I will send Echo back in there and it just appears to be disassembling it and just throwing it on the ground. Oh.

Okay, I will send Echo back. And it sees Echo, it kind of turns and looks, because Echo wasn't stealthing, it just is like and goes back to what it was doing. It just seems to be working. So there's a structure in the middle that he's disassembling. Most of it's gone. It's now like a frame of something that used to be

there and he's now just this little robot, this little construct is cutting apart the frame itself. Just throwing it on the ground. Okay. As if that's not its job. Its job isn't to clean it, it's just to dismantle it.

Cool. I'll bring him back and I'll just let the guys know. There's a little construct down there. He's just methodically just tearing the place apart, just bit by bit. And clearly, and to make it clear, whatever was in that room would have been quite detailed and expansive. It's not there. All that's left in the room are like pieces of broken metal, some tools,

everything else has clearly been taken away somewhere. Whatever was in there is long gone. Your past eye is gone, isn't it? Yeah, I mean... Seven days. It's seven days from last use, isn't it? Seven days from

when you spend the last charge. Yeah. So seven days from the end, which you did the other day, which you did eight hours ago. I think this thing is harmless, right? It didn't react aggressively to Echo. It's got a job and it's doing it. Yeah. I mean, it wouldn't react aggressively to anyone else?

I'll go down in this outfit. How about that? Sure. Okay. Okay. Yep. So Lucius, you just walk into the room. You see the same thing um the robot does kind of turn and then just goes back to what it was doing uh construct

doesn't seem to respond uh hello doesn't doesn't react starving i'm gonna walk in front of it so it can see me. Okay. It kind of looks at you. Hello. And then it sees whatever it was working on is behind you, so it moves to the side, moves to the side, moves around you, and then awkwardly tries to get to what it was doing before. Is it moving like an awkward robot?

It's moving like a very rigid construct. It's not an organic movement like a guardian or anything like that, or a golem even. This thing is like, step, step, step. Okay.

New orders. Cease your current work. Starbane. Doesn't, doesn't, doesn't react. Go Starbane. Okay, I, I, okay, I guess we've all... You can hear Lucius calling this from the other room.

If you all stick your head in, this thing doesn't seem to attack you. The thing it's deconstructing, there's nothing there now, but how fast it's working and how much crap is on the floor, how long has it been here? Is there any way of telling? Make an intelligence check for me. Okay. Just d20 plus intelligence.

Plus intelligence. 16? 16. Not bad. You can't, like, rebuild the scene of what was there before. I'm just trying to figure out how to do it. But you're kind of looking at, like, the speed of what it's working, looking around.

It's maybe been doing this for like a couple of um maybe like a week or like a week and a bit um and you get the sense that it probably didn't work alone that there you can kind of see tracks around with your perception you can see that there are other kind of like footprints drag marks um it just seems to be the only one left it just seems to be the only one left. It just seems to be... And even the frame itself, what it's taking apart is pointless. It's taking scaffolding apart. Whatever important stuff was in here is long gone,

and it just seems to be stuck like, I must take this apart. And it's just working on orders as if it's stuck on its last order or something. Yeah. Are there any like bits of paper or slate that is literally just like... White clean. Yeah, looks like everything of value was taken out of the room.

Well, back up. I guess so. We might be able to use this little guy if there's something blocking the way. It might just deconstruct it for us. Do you want to try and pull him with us? No, but... He might just go back to this room.

Probably, yeah. We can try. Well, I mean, we'll leave it here for now. Okay. You want to finish off the ring, go around, complete the circuit? Yeah, so I guess we're now at the portal room. Well, there's one more room actually so from the um from this junk or the the robot room we'll call it if you carry on around the curve around the outside there is one more closed door um but you do

probably recognize that there is a no you don't think you guys would recognize it there's like there's a strange symbol on the wall on the door kind of painted on the door itself but i think that you're all smart enough or like certainly nova and quill and probably century you get the sense that it's like a medical symbol like maybe it implies like a doctor or an alchemist or an apostrophe or something like that a triage center maybe um but the door is closed. But if you send Ayla or Lucius, it will probably open. Oh, Lucius is opening doors now as well.

Yeah, with the crystal, doors will respond. If you look, do you open it? Or just going to carry on? Yeah. Yeah. Shall we? Yeah.

There could be some supplies. Yeah. Well, okay. You open it up. It leads into an octagonal room. Clean white walls. Four glass chambers are built into the four opposing walls to the entryway. The door is locked, but it's been opened.

There is an instant smell as you step inside, and your eyes are immediately drawn to what appears to be a slaughtered Zohargen. The throat has been completely and neatly cut directly along the throat. It appears to be one of the priestesses and she appeared to have been

looking towards these four glass tanks that are built into the walls. Tanks? Yes. And as you look at the tanks you can see that in three of them there are sahogun in different stages of growth um so you can see in one it's like a like a small hatchling sahogun the next it appears to be maybe an adolescent and then in the last in the third one and then the last one is empty the the last one it appears to be maybe an adolescent, and then in the last, in the third one, and then the last one is empty, the last one, it appears to be a grown, powerful,

muscular-looking Sahagin. There are blinking lights and kind of little flashes of symbols on some of these devices, and then there's the dead priestess lying on the floor, blood pooled. Does she look like her name might be Shantani? You don't know.

That looks like a Shantani. No idea. are there any tracks or trails around the fourth empty tube no in fact it doesn't look open a la goes very quiet when she sees these these glass tanks the the third one the really muscular one Does it look more powerful than the ones we saw? You think it might be similar to the ones that used the rifle and stuff like that before Like these more advanced elite warriors But not abnormal? No, not like the marrow or the necromantic one, no

Okay Can I gently search the body of the Sir Hogan? You don't actually find anything on her. She appears to be like all the other Sir Hogan. No items or anything like that. Loot the room. Can I see if there's...

But I'd say Nova, with your knowledge of magic and being a bit more of the magitek expert, you think that these tanks they have power, but whatever systems were supporting life, you think that these tanks, like they have power, but whatever systems were supporting life, you think the three Sahogun in the tanks are dead. Like you think that like their support has been shut off. There's no air.

You don't see them breathing. Quill with your perception like that. They're not moving. They're not breathing. They're dead. Whatever is in those tanks. But you just see like Aayla kind of moves towards the empty one and kind of like runs her hand along like the Like inside of it where there's like a fine very faint kind of patterning.

Oh it is open? Yeah. Not smashed open just open just opened. Ayla are you okay? Yeah, yeah Weird right? This is weird. Yeah, it is strange. She looks at the top of the tube and looks down at the bottom. Seems very perturbed. Kind of kicks it. And then kind of backs off a little bit.

And then just turns to the rest of you like Yeah this place is weird What are we doing again? I mean I haven't seen anything like this Yeah I mean Do you recognise

This? I haven't seen anything like this Have you? Have you? Perchance? She's like I don't know my head hurts I keep getting these like weird flashes Of stuff What was the flash's like, I don't know, my head hurts. I keep getting these weird flashes of stuff.

What was the flash this time? I don't know, this pattern. She points at this white patterning on the inside of the tube. It's like I've seen it before. It's like I've been inside one of these things. I like glass and somebody looking at me from where I am now. It's weird. But I know I've not been...

I don't know anything about this stuff. There's no way I've been here. Okay. Were you experimented on? No. I grew up in Eros, in the woods. In the forests. How far back do you remember that?

Yeah, what age? Like, since I was a little kid, I don't know, like, little kid. What's your youngest memory? I don't know, what's your youngest memory? Stealing out of bed at night to read my sister's books. Like, mine was probably, like, I don't know, wanting beer, and I was tiny, and they wouldn't give it to me. Beer?

Yeah. That's pretty wild out for you. Yeah. I could be a youngest man. I could be, like, one. It probably was something like that, yeah. Or, like, I don't know, little. I was really little.

I've never been somewhere like this. It's weird. But also, it's not like, I don't know. It's like I was an adult when I was... The memory of me being in here, it was like I was big... I don't know. It's like I was in there now. That's... There is corruption here.

It could be just affecting you. I think it is. It must be... portent. I forgot to do that. Oh yeah, sure. Four and a seventeen. They're usable. Okay. A forgot to do that. Oh, yeah sure 417 okay, they usable okay. That's good in the bed. Hmm Look, don't worry about it. Let's just move on like I don't like all this stuff I just want to get out of here now. Let's go find stuff to break and then get out And I guess nothing by way of supplies

Um there are I mean, you don't see anything, which is strange because if this is some sort of medical centre, you don't see any surgical tools, you don't see any bandages.

The walls do look like they're panelled, but you don't see any immediate containers or anything like that. How recently? Could you tell how recently the Sir Hogan's been killed?

If you make a medicine check, yeah. Dice. That's how you play the game. That'll be a two. No idea. You kind of get down and it's kind of smelly and there's a lot of blood and you're just like...

I guess the blood's dry. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, blood is dry. Okay, well, I mean, we've done an entire cycle of this. I suppose it's just the darkened chamber in the middle, and then either up or down. Yeah.

Or left, right. Which direction is that one? Because, I mean, I know the direction if we were down there on Arois. Yeah. Anyway, we'll go that one. Yeah. The one that's... I guess.

But that's a dark chamber, I guess, towards the music. In the dark, spooky chamber of mystery. Okay. With a door that's been forced open. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That one.

That one. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Okay. I guess we'll head back to... Sure. Can we go...

You can go sideways, yeah. Can we go down, like, a different corridor and just see... It leads to the exact same place. The exact same place, but... The doors are pried open as well. Actually, on this side, they're not. No, the doors are only pried open on the one facing the portal, but the doors on this one open as soon as Ada or Lucius approach them.

Okay. When they do open, you see, moving to the edge, you see that this is an impossible, like, not impossibly long. Maybe you think about 400 foot deep cylinder, like a black cylinder, like you're peering down a black chasm that just, and then at the bottom, it just breaks away and leads out into the debris field and the stars and the endless astral space. You can see floating that whatever lower part of this astral citadel was there is now free floating in the same orbit, but it's separated. It's completely broken off.

Up. Down. What's up? uh up you look up um there's maybe a little bit of um open space you think maybe there's another door up but it's closed and there also doesn't appear to be a way to access it whereas where you are currently someone or something has made very crude stairs that cycle this cylinder like a spiral going down. They're very crude at parts. It looks it's very narrow as if somebody's just literally wedged like sheets of metal into the wall and then secured it in place. The door we just opened, was that opened by Lucius or Ava? Whichever you prefer.

So it doesn't matter? Doesn't matter. Okay. There is buttons. There's like crystal buttons. You press them, nothing happens. There are like rivets along the side of the cylinder, almost like grooves where something maybe would once have like slid up and down,

but there doesn't appear to be anything there now. Just a crude staircase leading down. And you can see, as you look down, there are other doors. As you look down, there are doors built into the sides of the cylinder that would appear to lead into other rooms. Which is what the staircase is for, I assume. But the lower ring... The stairs definitely doesn't match the rest of the way this place has been built.

It looks like metal has been salvaged, and then, yeah, literally used to build a jury-rigged staircase. The rest of this citadel is immaculate and incredibly well built. It looks hastily built as well. Probably whoever owns the construct or is working with the construct. Or the Sahagin. Maybe like salvagers or something like this. Could be. You don't know?

But yeah, you see that it's... The main thing you note, and this would be Tiangon and Helios would be able to communicate this. The Dark Eterna is coming from a room about 200 feet down. It's not all the way down. It's about halfway down this cylinder.

There is a room, and you can see Quill, probably the only one you can, peering down because it's pitch black. There is a room, and you can see Quill, probably the only one you can, peering down because it's pitch black. There is an opening, and there is a soft light coming from a doorway about 200 feet down. There's also one other door that's open on the way down. Is there...

Where the staircase stops, is it basically that room? Yes. Okay. Looks like it's been built from here to that room there's a door up isn't there yeah closed and there doesn't appear to be any easy way to access it there's no stairs or anything like that what if someone was to levitate you could definitely go up to it but it is closed i think we've come this far and that's pretty far and we can just go back this is the furthest i think yeah i think we think we've done pretty well, and that's pretty far, and we can just go back. It's the furthest, I think.

Yeah, I think we've done pretty well. We'll ever be able to go. That's a record, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's pretty good. Good job. Well done. And, um...

See ya. I want to go up there. Point up. Sure. Uh, I mean, okay, it's the opposite way to... yeah, sure. What do you think's up there?

Well, Helios and Tiangong say that the Eterna is down, but I want to see what is up. Yeah, sure, I'm fine, thank you. What's up, dog? I didn't say dog! I didn't say dog! Don't say dog don't push it okay I mean yeah sure if the door opens you could just use crystal

put it on cast levitate and then what like push yourself off the wall and then float up to that bit yeah you do notice as soon as you step out the gravity is a little bit lighter in this cylinder whatever the gravity is a little bit lighter in this cylinder. Whatever artificial gravity is in the rings is not as strong in this main cylinder. So even without the levitation, you kind of not float, but your movements have a bit more

sort of like you can jump a bit further, you can push yourself a bit further, you feel a bit lighter on your feet. You float up and the door it opens but it struggles too when you get to that top door it kind of struggles and you kind of have to kind of tug on it a few times to help like maneuver into place but when it does open it seems to lead out onto a curved at best you could describe it not like workshop you see banks of rows of desk with these kind of crystal slates embedded into them. And rather than being metal shutters, there appears to be a great translucent glass window

that just covers this curved front of this whole room. And it stares out onto the debris field onto Erois itself. A few of the little crystal tablets blink and flash with lights, and at the very center there appears to be a large chair that kind of faces onto the main thing itself, onto the large window.

I'm going to call down. It seems to be some kind of command center, a bridge or something. Command center's probably the most likely likely there's nothing here i guess that's actually no i'd probably i'd do it in the message yeah i guess that's the sort of place we'd want to look through the music coming from down below cuts off like whatever song was previously playing and this really happy joyful really upbeat melody like it's kind of got like

a bit of a bit of a dance to it and it's kind of like playing yeah and it and it begins echoing up um and it sounds happy uh there's no lyrics for this song it's just kind of like this kind of just happy beat um that's like coming all the way as. As soon as Nova goes into that room. When she comes out and begins speaking with you, then it happens. No. Did you talk to her? I speak using the messenger. Just making sure.

Is there anything up there worth looking at or taking? There's the usual tablet. You've not stepped into the room much further. I haven't gone in fully. There seems to be the usual crystal slates. There's the usual tablet. You've not stepped into the room much further. I haven't gone in fully. There seems to be the usual crystal slates. There's a big chair here and a window. Stepping out onto the staircase,

you said the gravity was lighter. Can I do a test jump? Yeah, you can jump. Not much. You jump and maybe it gives you an like half a foot or something like that. You're like, you just feel that you feel lighter here. Like you can kind of feel that it has less of a grip on you. Yeah.

Okay. So not like half. You still think that if you fall. Yeah. And you'll just go out the bottom of this cylinder. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. No want. Cool, cool, cool. No wanty. Cool, cool, cool. Are you content up there? Can I have a quick look at the nearest...

Oh, he's giving me that look. Yeah. Nearest what? The nearest screen, like crystal tablet slate. Yeah, they're flickering. They don't seem to be reading out much. I think that, strangely, you can almost see, like, maybe there's, like, maps, kind of like maps,

almost like ASCII maps, right? They're made out of, like, symbols and code, but they're still, you know, so they can be shared amongst these tablets, these crystal devices. There's almost, like, an ASCII map of a continent, which historically is what Erois is represented as, and you can see that there are a couple of locations marked and things like that. Scanning the rest of the console, you can see that there are a few kind of like elevated crystals with writing underneath them that seem to indicate different

things. They're actually written probably in common, actually, the, the labelings, um, one reads, um, like shielding, one reads, uh, docking bay. There is also one called ILS. Um, but yeah, right now they are glowing. You think that you could probably depress them and it would do something. Um, what? I'm just like, I don't want to press the button. and it would do something. What? I'm just like, I wanna press the button. Which button do I wanna press?

Sure. How much are you telling us about all this, by the way? I would probably have a running comment in my brain. Okay. I'll just say, be careful, Nova. If there's anything, remember, just come straight back down. Yes, any of those buttons could stop this whole thing from working. I mean, Lucius says that, but clearly one is shielding docking bay and an ILS.

You don't think any of them represent power systems or anything like that? It did say something about the docking bay earlier. Can I press the crystal for the docking bay? Yeah, you press it. You do hear like a faint hum. Nothing happens there. I think that's probably where my courage is going to run out and I'll come back.

Okay, yeah. Do we head down to Old Crest? Well, there is one door on the way down. You can see that there are closed doors, which you can open if you want as you make your way down. But there is one open door between you and the Eterna room. How many? In terms of doorways,

so if you imagine like a central spire, so you're on the upper ring i will confirm now so going down there is one two three four five doors there's five doors between you and the power core which is the eternal room um and the one in the very middle so like the the third room is open the others are all closed okay and the stairs do connect them. The stairs only really connect that third room and the Eterna room. The others are, like, on opposite sides of where the stairs are and stuff like that.

It doesn't look like they've been opened. Right, okay. So, three and five. Yeah. The other ones don't connect. Yeah. Yeah. And your levitate lasts for, like, a minute, right, Nova?

Ten. Ten minutes. Okay, so you can still just go up and down as you need to. So you're pretty safe from falling. Is it worth you checking out that open room while you still have this ability? The open one is the one we can get to, isn't it? On the way down, on the stairs? If you guys want to start making your way down.

Because it's going to take you some time. Like, walking down, it'll take you like, you know, a couple of minutes or whatever it is. If you're moving at 30 feet around, like 200 feet. I'll be careful. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the stairs are there and you're not under any threat around like 200 feet be careful yeah yeah i mean the stairs are there and you're not under any threat so i'm not gonna have you guys make any athletics checks um even if some of times you kind of have to do a little bit of a jump between them but

whilst you're not under any kind of like combat threat like you can help each other and sentry can kind of hold our hands out and grab you and nova can levitate people up and down so i'm not gonna make you do any checks the main thing is when you come to the middle room, the one that's open, you can see it leads into a very dark room that seems to be mostly empty. You can see there are these huge metal coils that go from ceiling to floor, and in the middle there appears to be this like flat metal disc, and there appears to be kind of crystals embedded into the ceiling. But that's all you can see from here. If anybody steps in further,

you might be able to see more details because it kind of, the room spreads out and you can only see what's directly in front of the doorway. Do you want me to send Echo through? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you send Echo in.

Echo's good for, right? Yeah. That's exactly what he's there for. You have Echo scouts through and you can see that the rest of the room seems to be occupied by at best you would describe them as you saw them in the rosewater lake ship they're almost like um they seem to be storing some sort of violet energy they they almost seem to glow with power and they seem to be connected to the central disc um you do notice that written on the side of uh uh the the room at the back um there is just the letters i l s in big uh writing

and that's the top door the first door the the middle the middle door so right okay i thought you were checking out the open door yeah Yeah. ILS. ILS. Nice. And there is, I'd say that there's probably some sort of like, no, no, there wouldn't be any sort of like console or anything in here, actually. Cool. Okie dokie. I'll let the guys know. Any idea what an ILS is?

Incredibly lovely scenery. It just projects lovely scenery that's incredible. I guess we better press that button. I, uh, interstellar light speed? I saw a button for it up in the command room.

Is it to open and close that door? Is it because you pressed the button? I didn't press that button. I pressed the docking bay button. Right. Well, pushing buttons, does it does it i mean you're all just stood outside the room at this point right yeah yeah so you can push do you want to keep going what you want to go inside what you want to do or you're just going to stand outside i mean we don't know what an ils is no like life unless someone stays here and then you go back up and press a button.

But then, what if it explodes? What if it doesn't explode? What if it's loot? Interstellar loot system. Incredible loot system. You press it and just coloured guns

spill out of space. Oh, I got a gold! It's that hair clip thing again. Wow. I mean, if we find a docking bay and see what happened, because I pressed that, but the docking bay might be blown up because of that message. Could be the whole bottom ring, yes. Life support?

Oh, in that case, yeah, let's not touch that. I don't know what the eye would stand for, though. I don't know. Incredible life support. Impossible? Integral? Integral. Is it life support or is it integral? It's important. It's important. It's impartial life support.

I would say, Kim, you would know, Nova would know, it didn't seem to be active. When you looked at the console at the top, because I didn't expect you guys up there, when you looked at it, it wasn't... Looking at the button, you didn't get any sense it was active. It looks like it was pressed to activate, whatever the ILS is. The same with the docking bay, probably was some sort of open cargo bay doors kind of vibe. Same with the shielding,

you don't sense that there's any shielding active. Look, I mean, we're alive now. Yeah. So let's go down to the music, Same with the shielding, you don't sense that there's any shielding active. Look, I mean, we're alive now. Yeah. So let's go down to the music, where the Eterna is, and then maybe after that we can start tinkering with things. I'm gonna hold you to that, I promise. I mean, assuming, you know, it's not the worst down there. Well, it probably is. I'm assuming the worst.

Okay, good. Me too. See so you can make your way down yeah music gets louder and louder it's this joyful energetic beat like it sounds strange to you guys like having never heard music before there's there's synthetic sounds there's beeps and whistles and and all sorts of strange noise never Never heard music like this, you mean? Yeah. Coloured light seems to be kind of coming from the doorways at the bottom. Oh, it's dubstep. And then it kind of softly stops just before you reach it.

And that kind of beautiful choir music begins playing up again. And you see that the stairs eventually reach to a little platform and then it goes directly into the room itself. Did it seem like it was directly tied to where we were? Like, if we started going back up again? It didn't seem to be, but maybe. Okay. Right.

Room. Music. Are we prepared for this? No. What do we even do? I don't know. I mean, we haven't seen anything, or any people at least. Well, just one very dead Sorhogan.

Helios, what's the best way to stop the pain of this corrupted Eterna? Destroy it. In what fashion? You will need magic. Weapons would probably not be effective against another Eterna. You will need magical energy, ideally non-elemental in nature, if possible. But elemental damage can still harm my kind.

Let's all prepare that then. Make sure we have elemental abilities, spells, attuned weapons. Yeah, okay. Sure. Okay. Okay. Sure. Okay. Okay. I mean...

Are we making our way down? Do we want to send an ask out? I'll cast a Shield of Faith on Lucius before we go in. So you've got plus two AC. Grats. Thank you. Nice. For ten minutes. So hopefully it doesn't take us longer than ten minutes to get in there.

Here we go. He's got a map out. I've got a map out, we might need to adjust it as I do. Sure. There we go. Should I send Echo ahead again? Um, ooh, your miniatures are all in the cupboard, hang on, I'm going to go grab them. Okey dokey.

Is there any other prep we can do? You've got spells or potions that you want to take. Take them now. Send a message to Oriah? I mean, again, like a 5% chance of it working. No, it's a 5% chance it fails, I think. Yeah. Oh.

Other way around. Do I have sending prepared oh my god I don't Sid has just sent a message to us going start crying oh yeah I am already

yeah inside I've always been crying I've been crying this whole session I'm just going to pop you guys here and then you can decide where you are okie dokie

can I yes can I retroact as it seems that platform is kind of broken. It looks quite rickety. Oh, lordy. There we go.

Can I retroactively prepare sending as if I did it during my long rest? Sure. I was meant to. Yeah, sure. Yeah, you said you wanted to do that, so... Cool. So there is a...

Oh, yeah, only 5% chance it doesn't arrive. But I mean, I've rolled pretty good with percentile dice before. Still worth a shot. Century, where do you want to be? Don't worry about actually placing yourself on the stairs they're more there just to indicate that that's where the entrance is. And then, yeah, what's the plan?

So Echo's going in, isn't it? Echo's going in. I might cast... I might give... Oh, what's that?? So Echo's going in, isn't it? Echo's going in. I might cast... I might give... Oh, what's that? Where did that come from? Plus 2 AC with Heroism. Okay, well, I think Shield of Faith is AC. Oh, Shield of Faith is AC.

Oh, yeah. Heroism is temporary hit points. Oh, yeah. Nova, you can have plus 2 AC if you want. Oh, thank you. We're all tanky. Concentration spell, concentration spell. Remember, you've got

concentration. Actually, is it worth casting on Quill or something? Because I've got 17 AC. No, I've got shield and stuff. Okay. So I've got a decent chunk. Right.

Actually, you've got the barrier ring. Why'd I cast on you? Damn it. So you send, so you're all kind of stacked up on the stairs leaning down

and you're going to send Echo in, yes? Yeah. Okay. Echo sees a large square pretty empty of any features room the only thing still remaining in this room that echo immediately sees is at the far end there is a kind of sectioned off chamber with a large um containment unit with a with a starbane Tech base glass canister around it, inside of which is a silvery axe crackling with black energy.

In front of this chamber, kneeling, well, not kneeling, but kind of coiled up on a serpentine tail, is a beautiful, piscine-like woman with these long tentacle like hair strands um holding her hands up and singing almost like in prayer like a hymn um and she's singing to it you notice that around her there are these dried out husks of sahogun uh just collapsed on the ground they look like they've been been partially turned to ash and just melted away and they're just lying on the floor around her and she's just singing.

And you can tell that she's the music is louder and her voice is being amplified but she's the one that's creating this music and the music is blaring out of nothing. Just out of thin air basically, and the music is blaring out of nothing, just out of thin air, basically. And the music is this melodic, happy ballad. Okay.

Then what was the pop music? That's a good question. It's my birthday. It's my birthday. Does she have any weaponry on her that Echo can see? Anything? No No She's just

she's just chilling Not that Echo can see Not that Echo can see she's just chilling having a good time singing a song Okay I will send Echo back

Just before Echo comes back there's this moment where the singing like the beat continues her singing kind of stops and you see this kind of pie scene this very humanoid Just before Echo comes back, there's this moment where the singing, like, the beat continues. Her singing kind of stops. And you see this kind of pie scene, this very humanoid face.

She turns. No! Looks directly at Echo. No! Smiles. And just goes back to singing. Oh, no. Okay.

Sid is here to fix the camera. Yeah. Whipping Echo back immediately. Yeah, Echo comes sailing back and she just turns back. It's kind of like melodic singing continues. There was a priestess in there singing to the Eterna.

She's like a snake woman. Okay. She saw Echo, but she didn't saw echo but she didn't care. Again, she didn't care. She was just singing. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is this Sarkira? I don't know.

What snake woman? She's a snake woman. This is definitely it. She was a snake woman. Her emblem is a snake. She was a snake. Um, should we leave? I mean, I think we should leave her symbol is a snake coiled around

a spear okay fight did you see a spear I couldn't see a spear we can't do this this is this is crazy it is crazy. This is like a basically... I mean... It's like a god, right? Second in command. Second in command. Whatever lights were coming from the upper ring upstairs, go out. Helios, Helios,

what do we do? Helios? There is only one thing you can do. This is an opportunity. I think of all the ones that, if this is her, I doubt it is. do. This is an opportunity. I think of all the ones that if this is her, I doubt it is, but even if it is a servant of Zarkira,

they killed my people. Your people. Yeah. We have to avenge them, Cedric. We do. Both of us. What if I go in and talk to her as a distraction? Nova, no, I can't.

But I can distract... I have her tablet. Nova, no, don't. What's that going to do? She's also singing to a corrupted attorney. I could pretend to be on her side. Nova. And Helia and Century.

As you're kind of standing there having this debate, you feel this presence, this like alien presence, that connection you have with your own Eterna. It's like something latches onto it and you just hear this like, hunger, feed, must feed.

It's not a female. What void? No. It sounds otherworldly, but it latches onto that bond you have with your own Eterna. I think it's the Eterna. The corrupted one. E-M-O-R-E-D. We have to end this, right? The corrupted one.

We have to end this, right? She's on her own. She has the Eterna, the corrupted one. You know what Nightfrost was capable of. Yes. But we're capable of... We've got Helios. We've got Helios. He can protect us, at least.

Right? Helios? We either do what must be done, or we die here as heroes. We're not getting out, so I guess we're going in. Right? I guess so.

In, then? Sure. Who's first? Aayla Aayla takes the first step I'll go first I think we should all go Okay

Let's all go together Yep As one Okay So we'll move Echo over So who You guys can arrange yourselves Where you want to go

I'm behind Sentry As always Forever Forever behind Sentry If I'm. Forever. Forever behind Sentry. If I'm next to Sentry, to the right? This way? I'll go behind. Yeah.

Okay. Echo hovers over to the side. And you just wait. And as you make your way down, you see this havent priestess. She just finishes the last moment of her song. And then falls quiet. And then her body turns to face you. So, welcome. I must admit, I was quite curious what you might do when you entered the station, the Citadel. Ah, forgive me. I forgot that I'm still wearing this ridiculous disguise.

Yep. And her body transforms, revealing something unexpected. The serpentine-like features, the sahogun body peels away and is replaced by orange and red and golden light as a beautiful woman in rich reds and orange fabrics like silk draping off her body. Delicate little shoes and a beautiful headdress kind of rest around her. And you see that she is elven with these bright, just pure gold eyes. Her eyes are pure gold. Her skin is like caramel.

And these kind of beautiful silks all reign around her. And she's just like, I am so happy to see you. You have no idea how boring these Sahogun have been. I thought I was going to be stationed here forever. Oh. Hi. Message in the ring. Maybe we should fan out.

Yeah, okay. Yeah. Basically, take an action at a time if you want. So if you want to move, move to 30 feet. So which one are you then? Which one am I? That's funny. Which one of who?

Well, of Starbanes, of anything. She's like, you know that it's all one big empire, right? You Erosians are so funny. You don't know anything. You must have freaked out when you came across the Citadel, right? Have you seen where you are? You know you're in space, right? Oh, yeah

Still coming to terms with that, yes They must have freaked you guys out, right? What do you think? I mean, personally If I may I don't speak for the group I've always wanted to be in space That's so cool Personally, if I may, I don't speak for the group. I've always wanted to be in space.

That's so cool. Oh, man, I'm so glad you got to see it. Oh, that's really... You've always wanted to see it? Man, it must be so difficult being trapped down on that boring planet of yours. God, you can't go and see anything. You're trapped. It's really sad. You're singing to a corrupted Eterna. I wasn't singing to it, I was practicing.

For? Well, for my performances, my concerts. Uh, are these your audience? No, that's funny. Do you think I'm like some kind of crazy, you know, sorceress or like, oh, not like one of those Hadar touched, I hope. Hadar touched? Yeah. Unfortunately, sometimes, well, mortals, especially people from backwards planets like you guys tend to, they get a bit culty with Hadar and they start embracing his dark magic, and it causes some weird stuff.

But, yeah, not like those, no. No, these were... And she gestures like, a necessary sacrifice, sadly. I needed to power up Silver Edge here. And she gestures behind her to the containment unit. To fight Hadar?

No, technically, I was a different mission. Not that I'm going to tell you technically, I was a different mission. Not that I'm going to tell you guys what I was here to do. Parrying the Sahagin to attack Eros. I was part of it, sure. Kind of a nice bonus, really. A bonus? Yeah.

Bonus from who? What, who do you think? Guardian? Kallus, the Emperor! Okay, okay. Can I ask your name, please? Oh, that's really sweet. Sure you can, sweetie. I'm Shansara.

Diplomatic core, technically. And she kind of gives you a fake salute and smiles. And you were dressing up as Zarkira? Yeah, you know, these Zahogans, they were pretty stupid before we came along. So, well, me and the Diplomatic Corps thought it might be better if, you know, we kind of played up the whole, ooh, mysterious priestess brings word from Zarkira angle. Okay. I won't lie, you kind of convinced me.

I thought that's who we were here to meet. You're going to have to forgive me. I forgot one thing. ILS, shut the blast doors. The doors behind you. Oh. Intelligent life system or intelligent system? What does that stand for, by the way?

Illusory leadership system. Oh, hang on. Give me a second. ILS, manifest here, please. The air shimmers in front of her. And a form appears. Dark black armor laced with purple.

Long black dark hair. A powerful masculine form. Greetings. Why do you bring me here, Sansara? You do not require my services any longer. They wanted to know what ILS meant. So I had to show them. He's not real, right?

I mean... What is real? Who are you? Oh. He isn't real. Travelers? We're just... You are unauthorized to be aboard this citadel.

I wish you had not disposed of all of our security forces. We don't need them. I'm going to deal with them. Don't worry. Well, deal with us? How? Oh, yeah, you guys have to die. I'm really sorry. Well, maybe you don't have to die. If you want to join the Empire, maybe I can, you know, we can figure something out that

way. But you would probably need to come with me as prisoners to start with How would you even possibly get us there? This place is ruined Don't worry about that, I've got my secrets Your mission makes no sense to me No, of course it doesn't, you're a stupid Erosian Of course it wouldn't make sense It really doesn't make any sense to you? If Starbane is trying to amass

This is really fun by the way It's so great to talk to people that aren't Sahagin If Starbane is trying to amass forces to fight the threat And use Erois to fight the threat Why is he killing countless civilians? He's not though, Lucius He's turning the Triton into monsters for his army.

Yes, and also many civilians have died as a result. They're attacking villages. Not yet. Some civilians have died, but probably, yes, a lot of civilians are going to have to die. Yeah, that's true. Die as in a sacrifice, or?

Well, just because you Erosians are so stubborn, you just won't give in. Like, you're going to fight Starbane because Siaska told you to, and you're not going to listen to reason. What if Starbane was actually to tell people about Hadar? Would you think that the PBD hasn't tried that before? Well, nobody seems to know about Hadar. I've been telling people about Hadar.

Everyone looks at me like I'm crazy. Yeah, let me tell you something. Here's the problem with Eros, right? See, Asuka instilled her beliefs in your world and her titans. What do you call them? Your gods. They continue the message, even though they're kind of weak now. And your people just don't want to accept stuff like that.

You're kind of stupid. You know, until you see Hadar, nobody really believes in it. Um, but I believe... Well, then you should join the Empire. And somebody like you, if you're smart, like, if you can figure things out, there's a place for you, for sure. I mean, we might need to i don't know kill a lot of people that you know and take over your planet to do it but yeah you should join what if we could convince the people of arois to fight hadar that the threat isn't starving

listen i'll pass it up the chain but i don't think it's gonna work out callus would have already tried that if he was gonna do it. He sent me and many others to the planet for a purpose. So... And also, I can't really let you leave now. So... But who says... You already said that nobody's gonna listen to Starbane, right? Because he's got a bad reputation.

Not just that. But what... It's, you know, the beliefs of your planet in general. But sure, go on. Carry on. Well, what about people like us? Who are you, by the beliefs of your planet in general. But sure, go on, carry on. What about people like us? Who are you, by the way? Are you anybody important? Well, we have a guardian.

Cool. Lucius is a highborn. I think, I don't want to say it, but Kallus has killed a lot of guardians. I don't think they're very important. Just tighten the grip around my axe handle. She's like, oh, sweetie, please try. Please try. I mean, it's going to happen anyway,

so if you want to try for the first hit, be my guest. I can't listen to the word you speak. Where are you from? Me? Yes. I'm from a little planet far away from here. Were you invaded by Starbane, and were your civilians killed and turned into forces to fight Hadar? Of course my people tried to fight back.

They thought he was some sort of invader. But luckily, thankfully for some of my people, eventually after he conquered the first couple of continents, people started listening. Also, a lot of people like me were kind of sick of the whole Hadar thing, so we basically revolted against our own leaders and joined Kaz's side. How long did it take for you and your world to give up? Oh, a good couple of hundred years. I'm going to messenger ring. It has to be everybody, right? Or can I do individuals?

No, it has to be everyone. Can we kill her now? Before? While she's still talking? Yeah. Can centuries start it? I mean, while she's still talking? Yeah, um... And can sentries start it? I mean, you must have been stupid as well, right? Took you a hundred years to give up. Yeah, my people were really stupid. I signed up straight away.

But you were so intelligent to join. Huh? You were so smart to join. Yeah. And why'd you have to kill us? Because you've come here and... I mean, maybe you're not as stupid as I'm saying. Maybe you figured a couple of things out, and I just don't want to take that risk.

I was kind of wrapping up all the loose ends here, and I kind of wasn't expecting any... You know, I guess you're from the surface. I was just expecting to deal with those tritons and the sahoggans, so I just can't really risk any word getting out of what I was doing. Sorry. What race are your people? Jeez, 20 questions.

But sure, I guess I can answer them. I'm an Eladrin. A summer Eladrin, to be specific. I haven't really got any more questions. Oh. Yeah. Sorry. She waves her hand and the callus just seems to vanish from

sight. Sorry, just putting two and two together. You guys swore fail to eat Starbane in that report well one of one of the planets did some of the other planets fell long before that like i said some of us were kind of on the up and up and pretty okay with emperor callus i mean honestly i don't know if you've met him but wow like you listen to him speak about defeating Hadar. And Zakir is just so into the whole galactic tyranny thing. It's amazing. They're so incredible.

Got a question about the big K. The emperor, yeah. Have you met his daughter? His daughter? He doesn't have a daughter. Are you sure? Yeah, pretty sure. Pretty sure that would have been mentioned in diplomatic training.

Well, that's interesting. It's interesting that it doesn't come back down to you. Hey, do you know that you have a daughter and I've got a hostage? Yeah, we can make up lies too, by the way. Have you got a communication with him? No, why would I have a communication to him directly now? He's busy. He's busy about to take over your plant. Wait, when was the last time you communication with him? No, why would I have a communication to him directly now? He's busy. He's busy about to take over your plant.

Wait, when was the last time you spoke to him? Recently enough. Last month, last three weeks. Does it matter? Well, have you noticed Sentry's matrix and what it's made out of? No. It was given to us by Callus. Yeah, he gave me a wedding ring too.

Yeah, sure. Oh man, you guys will try anything not to get killed. While she's talking, can I cast Misty Step? Yeah. Can I teleport in front of her? Yeah.

And smash her real hard? Yeah, you absolutely can. Look at the fucking matrix. Oh my gosh. You teleport. You swipe. Goes through it like an illusion. Oh my gosh. You swipe, goes through it like an illusion. Oh, fuck.

You hear a kind of like, nice try. And her form reappears in the corner. This is the point we're going to roll initiative. Yeah, I mean. Yeah, that's fair. Oh, okay. Damn it. I'm sad that we don't have music.

What a bitch. We do, we just can't hear it. Yeah. I think she's interesting. She's, um, interesting. I got above 10, Tom. On what initiative? Yeah. It doesn't count, but I got above 10 this time.

Wait, you're not going last? No, I'm not going last. No, there's something wrong. I might not be going last. It depends. No, that doesn't sound right at all. Are you working for Starbane? No, that's Aayla.

I think if there's one person working for Starbane here, it's me. Fair. Insurgent. Novi, you should join forces with her. You'd get on really well. I was going to talk to her, but these guys are chat boxes. I mean, I've been dropping hints this entire time. I thought Aegis V was Visage.

Kilokad Kalar, that's an anagram. You know what for? Well, Aelis is a Sarhagan, right? Over as a traitor. I super love Starbane. Yeah. I am Hadar. Kilokad Kalar.

I am Hadar. Very good, nice. All the letters are there. Oh, my God. I wonder if he hates you. Wait a minute. Hadar. Very good. Nice. All the letters are there. Oh, my God. I'm wondering who he is. Wait a minute. Hadar is in the next. Century.

Anagram. 16. Lots of 16s. Quill. Sorry, I think I'm Hadar. 13. 13. Nova.

18. Lucius. 21. 21. Big boy. Lucius is, in fact fact the first to go. You would see when she appeared, by the way, from after being attacked because she had the ready to action,

two drones that seem to hover also appear next to her. And wee bows. Wee bows? From a flubber. Sure. But they seem to be made of Starbane tech and they kind of hover around her. One appears to have some sort

of ranged weapon underneath it. The other one seems to have some sort of strange magical device. Lucius. I'm going to cast Elemental Bane on her. Okay. Con save, save please of 14 And if you could fail that, that would be great

Cheers Dan She has magic resistance so she has advantage Con save you said, yes So that is going to be an 11 and with the advantage that's a 10, that's a fail So I'm going to choose cold and the first time each turn,

the affected target takes damage of that chosen type. The target takes an extra 2d6 damage of that type. Perfect. And she loses all resistance to that damage type until the spell ends. Perfect. Because if anyone does cold to her, she can't resist it and is an extra 2d6.

Super effective. Perfect. So for all our attacks? Anyone that does cold damage. I don't think I have any. Anything else, Lucius? You will die. You will die now.

That's it, yeah. Okay. Let's see. At the end of your turn, Lucius, she's going to look at you, and you just... She kind of, like, hums or, like, gently sings a soft aria. Can you make a wisdom saving throw? Oh, she a barb.

13. 13. You take some psychic damage. As her song kind of gets into your brain and you feel it kind of plucking away at your thoughts, you're going to take eight points of psychic damage. Okay. Damn.

Duh. It's at the end of your turn. Duh. After Lucius, Nova, what's your dex? Plus three. Okay. She is going to go next. On her turn. She will do the following Seeing the very angry looking Guardian

Fuming. How much does she want to deal with you? Literally fuming? Literally there's like steam vents with you. Literally fuming? Literally. There's like smoke. Steam vents. Steam vents coming out. She begins to kind of just dance. Like she begins swaying her arms and kind of stepping to the side and begins singing. And this kind of tune definitely begins emanating

out. I need you, Sentry, to make a um... No. In fact, A, you don't make a saving throw. Oh. You A, you don't make a saving throw You just You can't help your body beginning to kind of sway and dance with this beat

that she's creating Yeah, she can't Otto's irresistible dance Right, yeah A dancing creature must use its movement to dance without leaving its space and has disadvantage on dexterity saving throws and attack rolls while the target is affected by the spell other creatures have advantage on attack rolls against

it as an action you can attempt the wisdom saving throw to regain control of yourself right does it have a element attached to it is it a type of spell what do you mean what type of spell is it it is like a spell just in China okay yeah and yeah you just can't help, and she continues singing this song, and you can't make your feet go where you want them to go. You're just kind of dancing in place. Uh-oh, she's doing the robo boogie.

And then she will simply just probably stay where she is, actually. She'll just kind of tuck herself in the corner. And that's her turn Nova so centuries banjaxed right now isn't she she is currently jamming away to this this idols song something that some 41 yeah sort of been like Norwich. That's such a weird reference. They're good. They're a lot of fun, like. Yeah.

Do you know what? I'm going to try to cast Slow on everyone in the corner there. Okay, does it affect multiple creatures? You can alter time around up to six creatures of your choice in a 40-foot cube within range. Range is 120 foot. Sure. Each target must succeed on a wisdom saving throw or be affected by this spell for the duration. 15.

She has magic resistance, so she has advantage. That is 15. She saves, but the little... Little bots. Is it a charmed effect? I can't remember. I don't think it is. No. Okay.

Both drones, I'm pretty sure, are going to fail this. Yeah, they fail completely. So their speed is halved. They have minus two AC and minus two to deck saving throws, and they can't use reactions. You can only use an action or a bonus action, not both. Oh. You cannot make more than one melee or ranged attack during its turn.

Very interesting. Yeah, very cool. Okay. And there's stuff if you cast a spell as well. That's ridiculous. What level spell is that? Yeah, they don't cast spells, but yeah. Slow.

Third. Fourth. Oh, fourth. Oh, you cast it as fourth. It's normally third. Yes, so it's actually a warlock, hexblade warlock. Oh, cool.

Feat. Yeah. Trait. Sick. Cool. Trait. Sick. Cool. So you cast slow. Would you like to do anything else? I'm going to stay where I am.

Okay. But yeah. You can make wisdom saving throws on the end of your turns. Yeah. Okay. Aayla. Aayla will attempt to do what Sentry did. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35.

Wait, but she's running forwards. What a chump move. You want a misty step back? Or make a grapple attempt, yeah? Whoa. That's uncalled for. Oh, what are you feeling? I was playing two characters at once

I will do a reckless Oh my I'm playing four actually Reckless attack For a 20 to hit her Which I believe will Nice God I'm switching between a lot of things right now So yeah

Not by much You see Samsara this elad, try and dodge out the way, but the Howling Tempest kind of sweeps in and catches her anyway. She is going to take damage, equal to 1d8 plus 5. Oh, and I should have had Aayla did Rage as a bonus action.

I'll have a Rage. Sure. Is it K-H-O-L-A-R for Kolar? K-H, yes. 11 points. K-H-O-L-L-A-R for Kolar? K-H, yes. 11 points. K-H-O-L-L-A-R. Are people trying to figure out? I'm trying to figure out an anagram for it.

I guess take out Hadar. However, just as a reminder, she is not affected by the slow spell, so she still has a reaction. When she takes damage, she uses her reaction to teleport 30 feet, so the second attack will miss. But also, did the trot spell do anything to her?

Yeah, elemental bane, it doesn't stop her doing this. Oak Hill Lake. A doll. Harold. As she watches, she kind of waves her hand, and this arch of fire surrounds her, which she steps through, appears 30 feet away and Aayla is blasted by a bunch of fire, which she fails and she takes 10 points of fire damage.

Oh, she's now in the middle of the room. Okay. Herald is in your name. But that uses some letters from Hadar, though. Do you want me to remove the Hadar? Hello, hello. I appreciate you guys doing a thing. Remove Hadar, then we can figure out what the rest is.

Right, so I can make a whiz save to get out there. Oh, we do. We'll get through this top round. Cool, cool, cool. Okay, so I'm going to do a whiz save then and try and get out this thing. Yeah, so your action, you make a wisdom saving throw. Stop that dance.

Six. Elec. Six plus... Eight. Six plus eight. Oh, yeah. So 15. 15. He's also a bird!

I love you, but shut up. Sentry tries to resist this song, which is just going to hit. I will make a concentration check for her because she is technically concentrating on the spell which she actually fails so the this the the effect would have gone the the artist is already gone cool a la's hit would have done enough damage I rolled a natural one oh wow righty righty let's see what do every importance as well oh yeah affected what bonus action spells I can do. Oh, yeah. Could the snow have affected Silver Axe? Silver...

I don't know. Doesn't seem to. He's not. What's he up to? Just is in this containment unit, just crackling away with power. Bonus action. Kill.

For a bonus action, I'm going to cast Branding Smite on my axe. Okay. And then that'll be me. Well, you have your action because you're no longer affected by the spell. It would have gone on her turn once you got hit. Okay, cool. Then instead of that, then, because you're no longer a first-bunter. It would have gone on her turn once you got hit.

Okay, cool. Then instead of that, then, I'm going to cast Moonbeam on the axe. Okay. Sure. I want to free him. Well, he'd fail. He can't move. So how about just roll damage for me?

Okay, so that'll be 2d10. Interesting. Interesting. One, three. It's radiant damage. Yeah. Uh-oh. Interesting. One, three. And it's radiant damage. Yeah. Uh-oh. Interesting.

Oh, my God. Nine. I said you just won the battle in one turn. So you watch as you summon this column of energy down on the Eterna's Chamber. The whole station reverberates and you begin to see the containment glass cracking as this dark power begins.

You see the Eladrin kind of glance at it. Oh, sweetie, I wouldn't do that if I were you. That's going to be bad. That's going to be really bad. After Century, we go to one of the drones doors are kind of shut here boom oh yeah down there um quill uh oh uh i'm going to car no it's shooting at you that's what i'm i'm saying uh it's gonna fire that move at half speed uh it did it only moved my feet, Kim. Give me a break. Only an 11 to hit you.

Nothing. Okay. The blast kind of like, it fires this beam of radiant light. Even though it passes you though, you see like there's this little red dot that's been painted onto your chest. It's kind of aiming this little red beam on you. The next attack against you has advantage. It doesn't.

It can only... Yes, this is part of one attack. It can't make more than one melee or ranged attack during attack. It made one ranged attack. Okay. I know. What type of damage is that? It didn't deal damage.

It missed him and has put a little red dot on his chest. Oh, it's just marked it, right? Okay. Okay. What element is that dot? Quill, what is your dexterity modifier? It is plus two. Plus two.

Okay. The other drone will also now move. The one with the weird magic? Yes. And it will. Weird science. It will turn on Ayla, and it will attempt to blast Ayla with a sonic pulse

for a 23, which is actually going to hit Aayla for a change. Can they do an element? Are these doing an element? This is force damage. Yes. I'm going to use my reaction to absorb that into my gauntlet. We changed it.

It can only do cold acid. I did change it. I changed it a while ago because I thought it might be a bit too powerful if I did otherwise. Is that being updated in this? Maybe. I did tell you, but... Wait, can you absorb force? No. He can absorb cold or acid, his dichromancy abilities. Right.

But if it was all elements, it would be a bit too strong, so I had to change it. Is that a spell? Was that a spell? No. It was an action. Cool. Carry on. It's technically using Magitek.

It's not actually doing anything. And also, it can only do one action at a time. And there's a whole bunch of stuff. Aayla takes seven points of damage and has to make a strength saving throw, which she has advantage on for not very high, actually. Strength plus seven is 13, which is still enough. Yeah the Sonic Pulse threatens to push Ayla back, but she kind of holds her hand up and is kind of resisted. Quill, your

turn. Okay, I'm going to cast at third level a spiritual weapon. Sid, I totally know we have to end soon, but I just want to try and get through to the top round of the next one. Yeah, so a weapon on Shantara? That's her name, isn't it? Shansara. Shansara? Mm-hmm.

Okay. Sounds like Shantani. And I want to whack with that. It does. So the spiritual weapon is another, like, howling gale, but with feathers. I'm going to hit with that. Nine plus seven is 16. sixteen doesn't hit her she throws herself under the strike goes over the

top of her head and as a cantrip I'll do a sacred flame on the boy that is got a laser on me okay sure so he has to make a dex save. Yes. Dex saving throw, nine. Fails. Cool. 2d8 damage. Five and a six. Eleven damage. Eleven. Radiant, yeah? Yes. I think it's normally... What's a force? No, I think it's...

Right. At the top of the round... And this is where we're going to end today. Oh, you did Sacred Flame, sorry. At the top of the round, Shansara calls out, ILS, a little help here, please. And you watch as from the ceiling

four beams, columns of red light descend down and drag themselves across the room. Oh my god. So let's see who this hits, shall we? So lasers. We're in Mission Impossible

now. Yes. So Ayla is technically actually out of the way. Oh, that's... Yep. So... So, wait, do they sweep across the room in one go? It does. Yes. So I'm just going to have to do this over, I think. Yeah.

So Sentry was not there. Sentry was there. So it passes over, so it will hit Sentry. Does it hit the droid? No, it doesn't affect the droids or Samsara. It temporarily pauses over them. Quill, miss. So only Sentry

this first one as it hits. But we'll resolve that next time as we do have to. How much damage does Sentry take? You'll find out next week. That's cool. There's the lasers. Coalesce overhead.

We see Sentry look up as this beam of red light begins to phase over her. You're getting torn in half. And with that, that ends today's episode. I have an idea about something, but I probably should say it for next week. Maybe.

Me too. Oh, God. Thank you.