High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #56 | Hearts of Glass (Part 1)

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

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Pickaxe. your teen requested a ride but this time not from you it's through their uber teen account it's an uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers add your team to your uber account today hello everyone welcome back to high rollers ageons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois, run by Dungeon Master Mark Sherlock-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Kelek 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 Ewan, Elowen Elanastro, 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. Last time on High Rollers. The party have arrived on the continent of Gisela in search of the City of Glass, a flavourful name given to the ruins of Kamina City. glass, a flavorful name given to the ruins of Kamina City. En route, the rest of the party become suspicious of Nova and Quill

following their revelations to each other and tensions are high. Quill is visited by Hesper in his dreams and discusses the true nature of the gods and their history. Hesper seems older, wearier and reveals he is trying to figure something out and fears the other children of Siasco

will not agree to his plan. Just as the ship begins to land on the outskirts of Kamina City, the party finally learn the truth about Nova, the illusory leadership system, and her contact with Calus Starbane. After a long conversation, the decision is made to destroy the ILS. Lucius remains on the main deck of the ship to keep the pseudodragon Vis occupied, whilst the others go to Nova's room and telepathically confirm their decision.

However, as Aayla's hammer breaks against the surface of the crystal device, it explodes in a powerful magical detonation that renders Sentry unconscious and blows a huge hole in the ship's hull. That is where we begin today's episode.

Yeah. Sentry having sustained major injuries to her face and one of her eyes. But I also need someone to roll a d10 twice. Oh, can it be me? Do it. Kill the past. Awesome. My favourite thing.

Very out loud statement to results. Can you use portents on D10? Not on this roll. No. Oh, that's a point, actually. A lot of people saying, wow, Quill forgot portent. You only had negative. I had three and a five.

Like, I wasn't going to use that on allies. Right. Percentile. Nope, not percentile. Two D10s or a D10 twice. Okay. Or just read them as two D10s. Okay, yeah, I've got an eight and a six.

An eight and a six. Oh, jeez. Okay. I don't know if higher's better or... I think it's going to be... I mean, what's the kill count? Fourteen people have died. It's going to be the amount of damage to the ship, isn't it?

Uh... No, that was very clear. So, I mean, the explosion... Eight and six, you said? Yeah. Okay. The explosion did 100 damage, so I guess it did that to the ship, right?

I don't know. Oh, okay. But where indeed? I like these noises. Frantic typing. Okay. Panicked looks. So, set the scene.

Frantic typing. Okay. Panic blooks. So, set the scene. As the storm chaser still continues its descent down into the open clearing before Kamina City, we see the smouldering side of the airship. Lucius, I have given you, Captain Lucius, I've given you a map of the storm chaser.us, I have given you Captain Lucius, I have given you a map of the

storm chaser. You don't need to worry about that one right now because I'm going to give you this one. Oh no. Which indicates the damage. Look at the trees Mark. I just... Oh, there have been holes in that map.

It's better than I thought. The explosion has ripped through the storm chaser. From Nova's ripped through the storm chaser. From Nova's quarters at the back of the ship, significant portions of the ship have been damaged. However, through a small amount of fortune, no critical systems have been hit. Okay.

There is, however, two things. On your stats, 100 hit points have come off the hull. I'm like, I've got a pencil. I've got, I can do it. I've also got the notes as well. So 100 hit points have come off the hull. Yeah. You have also suffered a major hull breach.

A major hull breach's effects include reducing its damage threshold by 10. Damage threshold. Oh, I've got it here. Which means that it can basically, smaller damage will now cause damage to the ship. Right, okay. Also, the AC is reduced by two for the hull. Oh, wow. There was also a number of crew have been injured.

A number? Oh, not just that one wolf pack outside the door. No. Kenny. Kenny. No. There are cries. They echo throughout the ship.

People calling out. You can hear the wolf pack howling, crying out for somebody to come and help. You hear Grey Lano, the orc doctor that you've hired, dragging people to the med bay to begin dealing with their injuries. The rest of you, I think, two of you are gently falling to the ground, Quill and Nova. I cast Fly. You cast Fly, Nova levitated,

so you're actually fine. No, no, Nova is levitating. I levitate. I have Feather Fall into the floor. Yeah, but you're Feather Fall into the floor. the floor so nova for the moment you are unaware of everything else going on the ship century unconscious no you potioned so you're up but you now have the damage to your eye quill you land as you land in this gaping hole and you can see it didn't just hit nova's room it has ruptured into the lower deck the hold

and above onto the main deck as well much the entire like back you can see that it has narrowly missed the helm narrowly by by meters it avoided affecting the actual drive system the hold is where the wolf pack live and rest. Oh. You can see it is now open. There is cargo spilling out of the bottom of the ship. Crates, foodstuffs that have been scattered. Nova's obviously room is also destroyed. Yeah. Is it on fire?

The ship is not on fire. It was a magical explosion of force. The ready room where you've been conducting your meetings is also all but annihilated. A half of a smouldering table is resting against one side. That was already broken anyway. It was. It was.

Lucius, you rush down and see the state. You basically stand in the hole, in the main initial hole, looking into where the officer's quarters are, and there is just a gaping hole where Nova's room was. You see everybody else panicked. The dragon around your shoulders is desperately trying to

see what's happened. It's trying to peer in to see whatever it can. And I can see Sentry on the floor. You can see Sentry on the floor with Aayla and Quill next to her. Yeah. You can see that there are cries coming from below deck and being dragged up the stairs behind you. Grey Lano and Lookout are carrying an injured Wolfpack member.

It's one of the men that you have met before his name is uh pasca i know she her name is pasca um they're carrying her up and they take her into the med bay and you can see that her body is covered in cuts and splinters was caught by the explosion but maybe it looked like managed to kind of turn at the last second and it's all embedded into her arm and her side and stuff like that but just managed to survive um oraya stumbles down and you can see oraya is like there are huge chunks of like wood splinters in her neck and in her arms like blood's pouring down her face and she's kind of stumbling down like is everything all right what what happened and she can see that she's like can't really hear in one ear she She's shouting.

She's, you know, being blindsided by this explosion. She was up on the helm when the explosion took place. So it's fortunate she didn't go flying off the side as well. And then more and more begins to happen. All of the crew basically come out like, what's happened? Howard is like panicking. He's like

running around trying to grab stuff lancean is desperately trying to like you know hold people back as they're trying to claw in to see what's happened the ship is still functioning um it just slowly begins drifting down um but yeah i think for a minute it feels very cinematic you probably have the same in your head but it seems like one of those moments where things are somewhat uh ringing of the ears everything's muffled all of you have like blood and adrenaline pumping into you right like you've kind of got that fishbowl effect on your hearing i'm just looking around at like a raya walking past and the wolf person being like brought upstairs and then century on the floor i'm just like looking around this panoramic of hell and you can and lucius this is the floor. I'm just looking around at this panoramic of hell.

And Lucius, this is the first time you see Sentry and one part of her faceplate has been blown off and one of her crystalline eyes is just shattered. It's just broken. So I'll be indecisive. I'll be like, there's so much going on. I don't know what to go to first. I'm thinking emotions are overtaking Captain right now.

Okay. So as soon as I see Sentry, I will make that my priority and rush over and just ask are you okay what's happened we destroyed the ILS and it just exploded quill I have to ask you a very important question okay how are you communicating because you just said we destroyed the ILS and I have to ask you a very important question. Okay. How are you communicating? Because you just said, we destroyed the ILS. And I need to know if that was out loud. Out loud. Because it sounded like it was out loud.

Out loud. Like, I just got blasted out of the ship and flew back. You're okay. Century, your face. You can feel the damage. You know that something's happened. I'm okay. It's fine. Everything's fine. We just need to figure out what's going on. You don't the damage. You know that something's happened. I'm okay. It's fine. Everything's fine. We just need to figure out what's going on.

You don't see Nova. Neither of you two see Nova around. Let me try and do something. Okay, okay. I'm going to cast Mending on her face. It's not enough to heal the damage to the eye. You can't repair shattered crystal, but you can begin to heal the parts that have broken. You kind of find a piece of the faceplate and hold it up.

You can kind of weld it back on, but this eye is missing. It's just blown into it. While I'm doing this, I'm like, where's Nova? Nova's light points over the deck of the ship. She's overboard? But she's floating down.

She has a feather fall token, same as me. She's going to floating down the feather fall token same as me uh she's gonna be down there but she exploded out of it is she okay feather fall is one thing but this is life and you see ayla like as she's kind of like on the ground next to century the lightning is crackling but there's something else um the the explosion you can see that she's not quite there she's like you've seen it before when she goes into like she has these memories where it's just she just doesn't seem to be with you for the moment she's still conscious but she's like she's somewhere else at the same time is the lightning like out of control or out of control but like arcing up and

down her body like it's and that's just you've seen that where it's when she gets emotional emotional and angry um there is a a deep kind of voice that kind of materializes behind lucius as the glowing form of helios what has happened what is the ils what did you destroy he lost with all due respect i have captain's's duties. And I'm going to push past him. Okay, make an intimidate check for me. 14. It's enough where he doesn't challenge you for now. He kind of is like, he takes a step back. You don't think that he's never going to bring this up again,

but right now he recognizes there's a crisis, and he just steps back. I'll turn around and say, if any of you feel like you're seriously injured, go to Medbay now. That's what I intend to do, to heal the injured. And anyone that's able, please come with me. I'm coming to help. Okay.

So I want to try and rush down to Grey Larno and... Yeah. Yeah. You have a lay out of the ship now. The Medbay is actually on the same floor You have a layout of the ship now. The Medbay is actually on the same floor, I think, as the cruise quarters. I have labeled who's where on the original.

So if you go to the original one, it will have the name places of where everything is. Okay. Sweet. So we're currently on the lower deck, right? So you are currently in the cruise quarters, so where Nova's was. Yeah. So actually're currently on the lower deck, right? So you are currently in the cruise quarters, so where Novus was. So actually it's one up.

So the Medbay is actually a deck up from you. Okay. So you can begin making your way up there as you follow in the injured. Where are Lucius and Sentry going? I'm going to check. Looking at the explosion and the greatest amount of damage surrounding area, I'll probably go down the deck and check the hold. Yeah, so down to track up to medby immediately you are confronted by the twin ethereum engines of the airship and there is a sigh of relief as everybody realizes they've not been damaged they are intact nothing no damage whatsoever the explosion doesn't seem to have

reached this point but you can already see there is a crowd at the door leading into the hold. You can see the wolf pack. Kamara is like howling. You can see her just like crying into the wind as they're gathered around what looks to be a dead body. You can see that it's been partly ripped apart by the explosion. As you begin making your way forward, they kind of push through. The wolf pack are all in mourning at the moment, so they don't react

really to you as you kind of like, step aside, push away. And you can see the member of the wolf pack who is dead, you recognise it is not Faeth. It is a young male wolf pack member called Metz um he was he was lively he was quite young quite um aggressive and competitive you remember drinking with him

you're probably the only one who actually knew his name out of the rest of the crew i don't and maybe century actually because you were morale like i think he was a very minor part of the wolf pack but they are just they're just in mourning they're horrified that this has happened kamara manages to pull herself together enough to kind of kind of grip you by the shoulder and just be like are we under attack what happened no there there is no attack um what happened was it it can't have been the engines was what i'll report to you soon let's just care for our people for now there's a moment where it looks like she's going to snap back to you. And then it's like, yes, OK.

Would they have taken Paska up to the med bay? She's injured, but she's alive. We'll deal with this. And she kind of like starts organizing it. I mean, there's really nothing you can do about the damage right now. A quick assessment reveals that there is no urgent threat now to the airship. The damage has been done. There's a huge hole in it.

The hole has lost structural integrity, but you're still there. I think what's important is for us to land as soon as possible and allow everyone to step off ship for some fresh air and take the time to do the proper rites. She nods. Make a persuasion check for me. Oh, that's a three. Plus eight.

Eleven. Eleven. It's not going to be enough. On the back sheet of the ship information, not on the back sheet, but on one of the sheets, you will find a crew loyalty. I guess blowing them up is not good, right? ship information. Oh, not on the back sheet, but on one of the sheets. You will find a crew loyalty. Oof. I guess blowing them up is not good, right?

I need you, specifically for the wolf pack, I need you to take their loyalty down by four. What are they currently on? What's the limit? We don't know. Their loyalty is currently twelve. Twelve. I wonder if it's like eight.

Let's have it take down to four. Yeah. So twelve minus four, eight 8 anything below 10 is bad who knows so yeah you rush up to the medbay and you can see Grey Lano is desperately trying to pull a Rhyarin who is like no I need to get us landed

the boy doesn't know how to do it and Grey Lano is like no for goodness sakes you know sit down you don't you know you can barely hear you can barely see out of this eye let me take a look at you um could i i mean do i know enough medically to know that if i was to use a healing spell that would repair oh yeah like yeah yeah yeah absolutely healing spell would not only give like it kind like, clears up minor injuries, like cuts, bruising, but it would also help with things like concussion

and, you know, minor kind of dizziness and stuff like that. It also gives, like, energy back. You can see that those are the people that have been injured, including yourself, you've had, like, the air knocked out of you. You're, like, heavy, deep breaths. Like, you feel like you've just gone ten rounds with a Minotaur or something.

Yeah. Fucking hell. It feels like you've had the crap beaten out of you. You feel sore. You feel stiff. Those of you who have lost significant hit points, you feel miserable. Okay. Orion, we do need to land the ship quickly,

but at least before you go, and I'll cure wounds here. At level two. Cool. Roll it. I don't know i don't know if that's good or bad but uh eight eight hit points um it's enough where like um and gray lano is like oh hang on and then she's desperately trying to pull out bits of wood so that it doesn't heal around them as you're like oh and she magic. And she's like, and she pulls the majority of the ones out and then the smaller ones just kind of get pushed out as the magic heals over

the wound. And Araya kind of like shakes her head and she's like, okay, I'm fine. Deal with them, Grelano. Quillock, thank you. I'm going to go deal with the ship. And then she heads back upstairs. Yeah. Grelano turns to you and is like, don't worry about using the rest of it save save

your energy in case there's anything more serious is there anyone critically injured at all anyone she gestures and you can see laying on the bed is this wolf member of the wolf pack pasca um her clothing's all been shredded she's got like multiple lacerations over her she barely looks like she's breathing but raylan's like like, I've stabilised her condition, she's going to recover, but it's going to take some time for her to heal up. But I think that it is better she rests naturally than magical healing right now. Right, OK, OK. Where do I go now?

So far, I think, whatever happened, I don't... Are we under attack? What happened? Not quite, no, I just... I'm trying to... I don't... Are we under attack? What happened? Not quite, no. I just... I'm trying to... I'm trying to fix everything. Well, right now, there are no more injuries. Just Miss Oriah, Paska, and unfortunately, one person is already deceased.

Metz, a member of the pack. Right, OK. And everyone else seems fine. I heard that Century was injured. Does she need medical care, or...? Yes, I... Yes. I will go there instead, okay. And everyone else seems fine. I heard that Century was injured. Does she need medical care? Yes, I will go there instead. Well, Quillik, do not feel you need to use your magic. If we're not under attack, come here.

I can accelerate natural healing, but they need to come here and rest. Okay, thank you. She kind of dismisses you as you go. Nova, you're just floating, like slowly descending about. It takes you like a minute, two minutes. And then you just touch down on soft grass. You can see trees all around you. And it's weird, right?

You can see the ship, but all that noise, the explosion, your ears are still ringing a little bit, but there is just tranquility down below. But you just look up and you see this huge hole um and just no smoke i think that'll be it i'll just be stood there in shock silence like watching it fly and i think around you there is debris like where cargo's been blown out holes been shattered around you sort of because you would have landed after it so you're just kind of stood in this debris, just looking up at the ship as it begins descending down again. How high up is it? It's going to take maybe like, yeah, probably the same as you did, about 20, about two minutes to properly land and descend.

Okay. But it's coming. But so I can see it. And when I say it doesn't do it, does it look like a controlled descent or does it look like it looks controlled? I would say that from you looking at it, if there was a problem with the engines, the Ethereum engines, you'd see it like it'd be noticeable, but

there doesn't appear to be. It seems to be fully powered, fully in control, controlled descent. The other thing is, what's your passive perception on Nova? Not very good. No. Nine. So okay, you just, yeah, you're transfixed on the ship. You don't, you just can't pull your eyes away. So in the interest of time,

is there anything specific you guys want to do? Or are we just, should we just jump to when the ship finally lands? Yeah. And the panic is... All I'll say is I'll respect the, whatever they're doing with Mets, and join in where I can, and obviously not overstate too much.

Roll an insight for me. Yes. 18. 18. You get the sense that right now the best thing you can do is not be involved at all. You need to be a captain right now. They don't need somebody who's going to be sympathetic.

They need somebody who's going to take charge of this. They don't need your sympathy. They need your affirmative action. Okay. You kind of feel like this is them. You're not part of this yet. You need to be the captain. Okay.

In which case I'll verbally, quite audibly, speak to Kamara and say i'm going to top deck and you'll receive orders soon hi captain and you kind of hear like a muttered kind of like hi captain um and then i think just as you go kamara turns around and whispers like you'll tell me what happened after absolutely she nods and goes back come Come on! Come on, let's prepare his body. Let's get this all cleared out. Get your things. We're going to have to move up to the top deck until this is repaired.

She begins commanding the rest of the pack into taking action. Link's walking away from that. Lucius' captain shit's going to drop. And the realization of everything that's just happened is going to just break him. Yeah. Okay. But he'll stumble his way to top deck. I think there's, like, there's almost a moment where as you begin moving away

and you see, like, the wolf pack are all crowded in this tiny, like, doorway looking into the damaged thing. Probably Feath probably just reaches out and, like, touches your arm as you kind of brush past as you make your way up. And, yeah, you find the rest of them, basically. Like, Sentry, I'm assuming you're just kind of following around at this point. Yeah, I probably spend, like, 20 points from my lay on hands pool just like seeing if anybody's got any like everybody else nobody else it's almost a miracle right like it looks to be that the areas

that were hit the ready room none of you were in the helm hit ariah slightly yeah um the nova's room you were all in and then it just seems to be that the this back hold where the the the wolf pack were two of them were resting the rest were all on duty right they were in the engine room they were on the deck they were attending the sales they were all doing their jobs yeah nobody else has been injured by this explosion it's somewhat of a miracle really in a way that it didn't hit anybody else i'm probably like as i'm walking around i'm having like massive like solving flashbacks so i'll be like finding links like people running like the ringing in your ear is like you almost have like a flashback to like a bombardment from like a cruiser or something like that and stone kind of

being shattered all over you and like raising the shield up to protect civilians like and that kind of dizzy kind of feeling as you're making your way through i'm trying to find order but i'm also just like freaking out a little bit okay that's cool are you walking around with like your weapons drawn oh maybe maybe a hand on my axe just hand on your axe and your shield like ready kind of moving around i think you eventually make your way up to the top deck and you kind of look around and it kind of snaps you back because you see sky and you realize like i'm on to the top deck and you kind of look around and it kind of snaps you back. You see sky and you realize like I'm on I'm on the ship. You kind of kind of come back to reality.

And as the ship is lowering, you see in the distance over the tree line, you see this ruined city, Kamina City, and this glass scar in the middle of it. Right. This kind of like section of the city that's been transformed into glass. in the middle of it, right? This kind of like section of the city that's been transformed into glass. And as you're looking you see a golden guardian flying with wings of light and you've seen it before when you've

had these memories. You see it raising a hand out and a voice in your mind speaks to you. It's moving, it's not standing. It's like flying up in the air like hovering above the city um and it you know it's distant but you can see it clearly like a very feminine guardian with these wings of light staff in one hand and it's holding its hand out to you and she says

in your mind you hear this um you hear the path to your destiny awaits. And then it just goes. Like somebody calls your name and you're like, and then you look back and she's gone. Oh man. I think I'm just going to sit on the floor. This slump just on the floor. Two minutes go past.

Raya lands the ship. It's in a bad way. But the ship has landed. Injuries have been dealt with as best they can. Nova, you look up. The gangplanks are lowered so that you can come back on board. Is it near me? It lands pretty much where it was.

I would have definitely communicated via messaging ring to Nova to check in and say, are you okay? I think in the moments that I land and I see it coming down, I'd probably hold Tiangong and say, what have I done? What have I done? There is a feeling you get back.

Maybe not a word, but a feeling of sympathy. But also... It's hard to describe. You feel sympathy, but it's like you get a sensation of when your father would be sympathetic but disappointed in you. You get that kind of sensation. It's the ship.

The gangplank is lowered. We all got messenger rings back now. All of you currently have messenger rings because he was attuned to one as well. Yeah, I think I took one from Orion. Orion doesn't have the messenger ring at the moment. Everyone, I need to report this to the crew. I will handle the diplomatic side of it.

Okay. If that's okay. Is that over the messenger ring? Yeah. So you hear this as well. I will state that Starbane was involved. Transparency, I think think is crucial for us to maintain a good relationship

with our crew if we were to be putting them in Starbane's way. Do you need us there with you? Absolutely, yes. Okay. Okay. So you gather the crew? I'll the arayas and the kamaras to report to them

so specifically so yeah like okay i'm interested so do you gather like every like every named npc or are you just araya yeah i'll gather like people that can then relay that to every department. Okay. All right. So probably Howard, Greilano, Kamara, Uriah. Anyone that's on top deck as well will be able to hear it. I think those are the most senior. Like, Lansian, Lookout, and Penny don't need to be there because Howard or Greilano will probably tell them.

But Greilano and Howard actually have roles on the ship. They're the cook and the doctor. So they'd probably be the most important people to have there. And then Kamara and Uriah, obviously about helios yeah okay bring helios as well can i he'll be there anyway right on hearing that yeah can i go invisible when i'm outside of the ship and make my way back on yeah how long does it last an hour that's a good point actually i think it lasts an hour hour

so if you've got two spell slots you can keep up for two hours if you want you become invisible and you make your way back onto the ship

just out of interest roll a stealth check for me you have advantage because you're invisible I do this for a certain birdman's knowledge

because even an invisible creature thirteen thirteen okay no it was thirteen oh okay even with your bonus Birdman's knowledge. Because even an invisible creature... Thirteen. Thirteen, okay. No, it was thirteen. Oh, okay. Even with your bonus?

Even with my bonus. Okay. So most people, even if other people's passive perception, they'd probably hear something but wouldn't necessarily know it's you. Quill, this is what Quill does, and I think he's going to know that you're there invisibly. But only Quill is going to know. So yeah there invisibly, but only Quillet's going to know. So yeah,

you gather everybody up. What do you do? So there's a couple of things. So I think Aayla basically is like, I need to sit down for a minute. My head's being funny. I'm remembering weird stuff. I need like 10 minutes. Go to Medbay. Yeah, alright. And she kind of like stumbles off. What do you do with the Pseudodragon?

The Pseudodragon I will allow to be near me. Okay. Interesting. Mark is living. All right, I'm going to have to write some notes. I'm not able to take off. Where are you going to have this meeting? On the deck?

Because the ready room is gone. Top deck. Okay, so on the top deck, on the top of the ship. Great. So you assemble everybody there. They're all... You can see that there's that nervous energy, right? People are like, they don't know what's happened.

You're not under attack, but something just exploded and killed a member of the crew, and everybody's feeling pretty freaked out about it. Helios has just got his arms folded, and he's just waiting to hear the explanation. Everybody else is like, what's going on? Whispering to each other. Oriah is quiet and you get the sense that she at least has an understanding of what's happened. She doesn't know the details, but when you traveled with Oriah, you did tell her somewhat about Starbane, but she didn't know about the ILS.

So she knows that this is probably a Starbane thing. What color was the explosion? Purple, of course. Okay. what other color would it be just wondering if anyone saw that maybe they did maybe they certainly the people that were blown nearly blown up by the last thing they saw was purple so you gather everybody up and yeah and i think that when you step out, there is, the first person to speak is Helios. Captain Lucius, what happened? Crew, we're all rattled. Something terrible happened.

There was an explosion. And first of all, I wish to report that a member of our crew has unfortunately passed on. Metz of the Wolfpack. Oh, and there's like from Grey Lano and Howard, there is like a visible like, oh, like Howard, like just looks really sad. And you see Kamara just like lower her head

and her ears kind of droop down. And you've rarely seen Kamara sad. She's always got this aggressive motherly attitude towards her. And she looks like a grieving mom. You know, she just lowers her head. She kind of sniffles a few times and like her claws and her hands are just bunched like in fury at her side. This is a time for us all to stand together. Because we can be compromised like we were today.

I wish to report that we are not under attack. However, in some ways are not under attack. However, in some ways it was an attack. Starbane technology has appeared in our ship and thus has compromised the ship. What? What technology? How did it get here? We have obviously, as a group, been quite close to Starbane, technology itself, pursuing, going through portals, and it has ended up on the ship. And unfortunately, it has compromised our ship. we all need to be more alert and aware of anything that is unidentifiable or foreign in any way and needs to be reported to any of the officers. I would like you, you have not lied.

You have told the truth, but you've excluded details. And I think that this isn't a deception, but you're saying the way you're speaking is almost like trying to cover it up with this like we need to be aware blah blah blah so make a persuasion check for me and this is less lying and it's more like how well do you convince people to just that's the issue and to leave it alone right

19 19 okay so I'm going to roll a couple of insights for the key characters okay okay that's Howard, Grey Lano, Helios I'm going to roll a couple of insights for the key characters. Okay. Okay. So that's Howard, Grey Larno, Helios. It's a good thing Nova's invisible.

Kamara. Shaken left and right. That's it. That's it. So I will tell you, who has a passive insight-wise, who has above a 15? Me. Just Quill? 17.

17. Quill, as Lucius is speaking, you see even helios like is like they take it quite seriously they don't seem to pick up on that he's glossed over some things but kamara you can see that she is not accepting that as an explanation and doesn't quite buy it doesn't quite buy it right um't quite buy it. Right. What that means, you don't know. But sure, that's what you know. So they kind of nod and Howard is like, Starbane technology on the ship?

Oh my goodness. I didn't know that we'd be going up against a remnant. The truth of the matter is, we are all at the forefront of essentially a war. It has happened under our noses, and Starbane forces are infiltrating Eros as we speak. What? No, it can't be. Whisper, whisper, whisper.

This is why we are on this journey, to do what we can. And we must all band together. Forgive me, Captain Grey Lama, but what can we do? We're just one ship with a few specialists. We have already done a lot. And thanks to you, we've achieved a great thing that we couldn't have done it without this airship and without this crew. We've closed a portal. Very well.

I did try and warn you, Captain Lucius, and Miss Nova. This technology cannot be trusted. It may seem valuable. Century Guardian knows this. Their weapons, their technology, it will be attractive to all of you. But it cannot be trusted. It is dangerous, powerful, unstable. Listen to the Captain. Come to me if you need to I have some experience with this technology as does the sentry guardian and Miss Nova

if you are uncertain of what it is consult with us thank you Helios he nods I can't believe you've skimmed fucking Helios finding out Starbane technology is banned from the Storm Chaser.

Helios is very pleased with that. So Sentry. Nova just invisibly listening to all of this. I hope you all stick together and stick with us as we try and do the right thing there is a general nod there isn't it's not a celebratory thing this isn't a victory speech but there is a fun yes we will be returning to a port town as soon as we can to make repairs anyone who no longer wishes to be part of the crew will happily be dismissed with payment

and without any repercussions. Okay, noted. Araya gestures, while we have most of the officers here, we'll need to check in with Engineer Nova when she's back, but the ship can fly, but this hull damage is quite severe. If we are under attack,

this will hinder us quite badly. This area is not overrun with piracy, but it can happen. There are also creatures. My advice is if we intend to stay in this area for a while captain perhaps the crew and some others can go and try and fetch some local timber there is a forest here we may be able to patch it up a little bit by ourselves whilst you conduct whatever business you have absolutely i will put that in your care all right very well

um on top of that treat this place as your home. It is your home and has been for weeks now. Protect it from any outside forces. I put that in the wolf pack's care. Kamara looks up and there is a... Because you didn't notice what Quill did. When you say, like, this place is your home, treat it as, you know, protect it.

She looks and she meets dead eyes with you, these yellow wolf's eyes. Oh, I guarantee it, Captain. I'll protect it. I'll come and speak with you later. Just nods her head. A little bit rattled by that, but I try and stiff up a lip it.

Sure. Thank you. So, we as a group must leave and explore this city we will report anything back as soon as we can but stay alert and take care of each other they nod yeah and i think that that the only person who walks away as everybody kind of dissipates even helios seems very happy with that explanation. You think he's probably going to come and ask you more details, but he seems okay for now.

It's just a moment where, like, just before she's about to head back down into the Lodex, Kamara looks at all of you that she can see and just, like, looks one last time and then goes back downstairs. It's an ominous stop, turn, and then down. I think Lucius will dismiss that. Well, not dismiss it, but assume.

It's a future problem. No, assume it's because she's mourning. Okay, sure. And get the wrong impression. Okay, cool. What now, then? Do we go elsewhere to figure out this entire mess? Nova, where are you?

Let's band together for a second. Oh, my friend Rhodey had a good idea, by the way. Whenever you do telepathic communication, you could do this and be like... Oh, hold the tea. Telepathy. Obviously, it doesn't work for the podcast, but it's like telepathy. Yeah. I'm trying to think of a... or we all knock up our voices a pitch

or do radio outs or just the universal this is what i always do i'm like hold it yeah professor exit morse code yeah let's all. Morse code. Yeah. Let's all learn Morse code. Yeah. Sure. Right.

Let's get back into it. Stop trying to avoid it, Kim. If I crack a joke, I'll delay having to have this conversation. Did that go well? Was that... It went very well, Lucius. You managed to convince most of them. Most? Kamara, I don't believe, was convinced wholly with the reasoning.

That's not good. I think it should be... If she does come to speak to you later, we should all be there as officers of the Stormchaser, not as... What would we say? What would we say? We could just tell her the truth, tell her everything. I mean, if we tell her that Nova smuggled Starbane technology

and then we blew it up in our own ship. Maybe not to that extent, but... What do we say? Elaborate a little more, perhaps. I don't know. I think if we... You told the truth, but not all of it. I think if you elaborate further, that will only anger her

that you hid some more from the rest of the crew. I think she just needs to be convinced that we're all on the same side, even though what happened, happened. We had some disagreements about whose side whose people are on. Imagine someone from the outside assessing this. I think this is all in the messenger rings anyway, isn't it? Yep. Just making sure.

Nova, I really appreciate your input on this. Are you okay? You're looking at me, aren't you? I'm looking at you, but I don't know where you are staring at a wall Nova Nova you need to know this wasn't your fault this happened sure but

this is one outcome of thousands this could have gone a million different ways we should have all known better that starving technology is not to be trusted and to just hammer it and it will go away of course it's going to have fail safes and security I think on Quill saying that

Nova will come out of invisibility I mean Quill you knew she was there I imagine you were probably talking I was looking in that area. Yeah, that would have encouraged Nova. So you're in the middle of the street, and for the rest of you,

it just looks like Quill looks into an empty corner. Nova, you have to know this isn't your fault, and then... I think, given the stress we were under, you obviously overlooked it. Were you aware that it could have done this? I knew it was powerful, but I didn't think. I was too emotional.

If we'd had time, I would have remembered. I would have stopped Ayla, but I forgot. I forgot. I forgot. That's fair. I think we just want to get rid of it as quickly as possible, right? We just want to... Absolutely. I'm struggling to look at Sentry because of the eye loss.

I'm looking dead at Sentry. Because she used to be this stoic, nothing's going to go wrong kind of character. And now it's like a weld line down her face, like a scar. There's like a blown out crystal eye. It's like occasionally neck twitch and yeah i'm staring dead at century i can't yeah while you have this conversation a voice calls out look out like captain we have a small military force approaching from the forest okay um now we sink back up to the point that we had retconned earlier.

With Mr. Fuck-Off. As you all step outside and look out off the ship, you see emerging from the forest line towards the city, you see a force of about 15 soldiers. Quill, you can see that their clothing and their armor is a bit tattered, a bit raggedy, a bit worn. But they're carrying thunderstorm rifles, like muskets oh um and you can see that they're even wheeling what appears to be a small cannon on a set of wheels and they're literally like wheeling it and you can see them

setting it up um two figures at the head of the column at the head of the military column one a half-elf man with dark skin and a very fabulous hat and armour. And then the other is a very muscular-looking Goliath woman. Yeah. Are you the one with high insight, Quill? I've got insight, yeah. I've got 17 passive insight, apparently. I don't know where I got that from.

I guess... High wisdom. Is he... I guess it's too far away. It's too far to use insight, yeah. At this point, it looks like... And the Quill sees them. They get into position. They see the airship.

There's some sort of conversation between them. The man in the fancy hat points. They aim the cannon at it, and then they get rifles locked, but they don't take action. They line up, like, that they could attack at a moment's notice, and then they just wait.

Cool. And you can see the man, he's got his hand up, like, with a fist of, like, you know, like, ready to be, like, open fire. Like, he's just pointing at it. You'll have to get closer if you want to speak to him. Right. With your insight, you'll notice that Lucius, very briefly, you can notice a complete, like, shit.

I'm very close to burnout. But I kind of, like, breathe in. It's like, next problem. Here we go. And I'm going to walk to the edge and do the same gesture back at him. Okay. They're like, he's like, you can see, Quill sees panic from the man's eyes. Like, fuck, do they have wet, like, and Quill, he's like, shit, is he's like you can see panicked on the man's eyes like fuck do they have wet like and quill you he's like shit is he like is this a stale action he

thinks that basically because he's like right hold fire on my command you've gone up and you're doing the same thing and he's like look you can see him looking at the ship he sees the ballista on the bottom but it's not pointed in his direction so he's like you know it looks and he just looks confused i'm gonna lay on hands 20 points to myself i'm at seven right now that's not the symbol not the one that's not a welcome that's that's you're holding weapons against him that's not the one oh i'll put it into a wave he like looks and he's like to his goliath companion she looks down like shrugs and he's like man it's a good thing opening the hand isn't fire weapon he like waves back and he's waiting to see what you do

i'm gonna point likes i'm gonna come down okay he I'm going to come down. Okay, he turns to his men and he's like, he shouts an order, and they all kind of... They keep their muskets ready, but they stop pointing them. The cannon is still pointed at the airship, though. He points to three of the men, points at Goliath,

and then he begins walking towards the airship. I'll call out... He's holding up his hands like this. He's just like... I'll call out to... He's holding up his hands like this. He's just like... I'll call out to Araya to say, get people ready just in case. She nods. Hey.

Penny, like, looks. Araya, like, nods at Penny, and Penny, this human woman, just grins, slides down the stairs, and then you hear the... as the ballista begins turning on. Oh, God. Get old, Penny.

The man, like, stops. His hands are open as this ballista's like... And he's like... Do you wish to come with me? Yes. Yeah, we'll come with you. Definitely. Oh, okay.

Let's go. Oh, we'll walk down the deck. So you walk down the gangplank and you meet in this blasted... The kind of clearing you're in was this large open forest clearing. There's this big thick forest between you and the city ruins that you're meant to go to. And then there is just this pile of debris from the explosion behind you. And you make your way and you see the same man that I described before. You see a half-elf man, probably in his 40s.

He has a very nice but worn-looking breastplate. A cape, like a Lando Calrissian style cape. A big fabulous hat. He has a rapier at one side, a dagger at the other, and a pistol tucked into his belt. Very musketeer-esque

but with a breastplate. And he gestures his like, You scared me for a moment there my friend i thought that we were perhaps going to be firing upon each other uh who are you why is your ship blown up and why are you here we are here on matters to seek the city of glass ah urgently unfortunately we've had to land here because our hull was compromised as you saw so we thoroughly

apologise for abruptly landing in your domain Well, okay Apology accepted Thank you There is going to be some difficulty By all means, I have no problem with you landing here This area is under the

Sanzarian Commonwealth, but it is my privilege to announce that I am Kalten Ramavorthir of the Sanzarian Disaster Response Force and I am on no means going to cause any trouble to this

unfortunate circumstance that you have arrived yourself at, If you require time to have repairs, by all means, you are welcome to them. There is going to be some difficulty, my good and handsome friend, and that is that I am afraid I cannot allow you access to the City of Glass. It is prohibited by my government.

Uh, uh, but, okay, why is that? The city is extremely dangerous. There are, and then his eyes meet sentries. Like, oh, no, this one is not feral, is that? The city is extremely dangerous. There are... And then his eyes meet Sentry's. Like, oh, no! This one is not feral, is she? Absolutely not. Okay.

And you can see the men are, like, terrified of Sentry. They're like, fuck. Why? Are you okay? Why so scared? The city is infested with feral guardians. Many of them roam... Hundreds, dozens, perhaps thousands of them, roam around the cities.

The city is also full of undead spirits. It is not a nice place to go. The glass city itself is completely off limits to even my men. I am not permitted to send my men inside. And we would be breaking the law by entering the city of glass, or is it just a caution well he kind of takes his hat off and you can see that he probably wears the hat because he's got like a bit of a bald patch coming and but he has like this like nice black hair and then it's like this

really like aging bald spot he takes it off and like wipes his wipes his hair, and then he, like, puts it back on. Well, it is difficult. My orders are to prevent anyone from entering the city for their own protection. We are at somewhat of an impasse. Perhaps we should converse at my camp, or perhaps I can come aboard. No, I think your ship has enough problems. Perhaps we should speak at my camp. As I mentioned, I am Kaltain Ramavothi. This is my Solare.

I've got to look at their current names. Jamalia Stonesworn. Kaltain, I am Captain Lucius Viren Eluinella Nathetur. And these are my officers. A pleasure. They'll introduce themselves, I'm sure. I'm Sentry. He nods.

You can see he's really cautious, though. There's not necessarily a mean-spiritedness, but these people are genuinely really scared of you. And you can see that he nods. He nods very politely, but it's tense. I understand your concern, don't worry. It sits well, it's well earned, I'm sure.

Why, before we go further, before other introductions, are you trying to get into the ruins for your sake, Century Guardian? Yes. Have you been called to these ruins? I have. You are close to your limit, Sentry Guardian. Yes. Have you been called to these ruins? I have. You are close to your limit, aren't you?

You are not feral yet, but you are close. Truthfully, yes, I am. Just like all of the others. But we have matters to attend to, and we need to continue our mission in order to do so, and I was called here, and it seems like the only place that can help. He thinks carefully, and then he looks towards the others. My apologies for interrupting your introductions.

Quill, Messenger Guild. I'm familiar with the Messenger Guild. One of the officers on the ship, Quartermaster quartermaster the sergeant the big Goliath woman she's quite a deep masculine voice actually and you hear a kind of like like laughing as you didn't know your own title I did I just said officer of the ship first kind of looked at Lucius and this is like quartermaster and she kind of laughs for a moment and then turns back to the captain. He's like, well, a pleasure to meet you, Quill of the Messaging Guild. You too.

And this quiet one. I'm just kind of still shell-shocked. You just look over. I've got a million-yard stare. Young lady, and you are? I'm the... The name? The Nun of the Viger.

He, like, looks at you. You'll appreciate we just faced an explosion. Yes, what happened to your ship? You weren't, I mean, you weren't fired upon or anything, were you? No, unfortunately, there were some defects in our ship. Oh, my apologies to hear that. Well, perhaps, he thinks for a moment, Captain, perhaps there are ways we could help each other.

I have some men at my disposal that can perform labour. We're quite used to patching things up around here. We've built a little camp for ourselves from the local flora. I could lend you some hands to help repair your ship. Perhaps we can talk about your business in the city and some things that perhaps you can help me with. We very much appreciate your help.

I think some of the crew are also on high alert right now, understandably, fearing any compromise to our hull. Of course, but we are the Sansarian Disaster Response Force. You have nothing to fear from us. This is very much our job.

Kaltan, it's destiny that we met. I think so. We currently face a disaster. Well, come back to my camp, and then if we have an agreement, I will send some men to help your crew. How about that? Very kind of you. Come, come.

He gestures, come on, princess, and the Goliath woman kind of rolls her eyes and then follows along after him. And the men are like, okay. I think that the occasional, as you get closer to the big column, he kind of gestures to these two, I think there's a dwarf and a human who have been placing the cannon. And he's like, sorry, boys, back to the camp. And they're like no

they're like and they lift it up and they're like dragging it away and they're like as they begin dragging it and I think the Goliath woman kind of like, it's like for fuck's sake she goes over and grabs it and begins dragging

it back for them and yeah, you make your way back. The whole company, however, is very wary of Sentry as you make your way back through. On a Kim note, we had a wand that we picked up from the Dragonborn, right? It's meant to help with Sentry. When she goes feral, yeah.

Who has that? It was Quill. If it's in your inventory. Did you fucking inventory did you um if it was given to me i definitely wrote it down well is it in your dnd beyond catch sheet who has it do you have it no maybe ayla has it i don't think ayla i don't think ayla will was given it i feel like it was something that was meant to be made and wasn't. That's true. That is true, actually. All right, fine. That's on me.

Got him. So it's not been made. I've not made the custom item in D&D Beyond yet. Okay. But I think the concept of it was more to help when she shuts down or if she loses control of herself. Right. It won't help with any physical stuff or anything like that. Yeah.

I'm pretty sure it went to me as well, yeah. I just feel like we might need it. Maybe. Maybe. That's what we are. I'm going to be very cool, like, really aware of, like... This fear that's around you. Yeah, they're all scared of me, and I know that I've been doing shit.

Okay. So I'm going to be, like... So, like, hands off your weapons and stuff like that, like... Yeah, and also just, like, being aware of, like, myself. So, like... Trying to keep focused. Yeah, exactly. Stay focused, like, focus on everything on everything okay you focus on everything and you begin the kaltan um leaves you kaltan

seems to be his title by the way his name is ramavorthir but kaltane um i think no i don't think lucius you know nova would nova's a scholar um hey! Kaltain is captain in the local dialect. Oh, sweet. What was his second name? Well, his name is Ramavorthir, but Kaltain is basically captain. So he's Captain Ramavorthir. Awesome. And then the Goliath woman he called his Solari, which is sergeant.

And her name was Jamalia Stoneswan. But they also called her princess. Princess? And, sorry, what language was that? It's not really a language. It's more like a local dialect. So it would be Gisellan, basically. It's like a local deviation on common.

Cool. Nobility amongst the disaster. You asked this? Okay. Yeah. There is a very loud laugh like all of the soldiers like like stifle a laugh and even uh rammer is like my apologies captain we do not mean to laugh it is something of an insider joke amongst my company um and the goliath woman kind of smiles

and like like like playfully kind of like shoves you a little bit. And she's just like, yeah, they're just they're teasing me. And you're you're OK with that? It's quite sweet, really. They they think that I look like the princess of the Sanzarian Commonwealth. Oh, and and she kind of smiles and you can see there's like a bit of a blush. Like she's actually she finds the nickname quite, you know, endearing um and the men all kind of like yeah she's our princess she's way better than the other one like like the other ones are stuck up bitch we way prefer ours like they all kind of like jostle with her basically and like yeah well maybe at some point you could do

a bait and switch uh they're like everyone's like laughing but there's a look on the caltane's face where he's got this like smile which says don't think i haven't thought like he kind of looks at you with this like how does um how does she respond when they said the other ones are stuck up bitch uh she laughs like yeah she smiles and laughs um not the same person i think quill i think i think quill and lucius might pick up on this a little bit more cool because you're so perceptive and lucius because you've lived in elven society um you're almost certain that that jamalia probably wasn't born female like there's there's traits about her where there's definitely her genders changed um through magic specifically

like elves very often do this right where you can use polymorph magic and potions and stuff to alter your appearance um and you get that sense like there's just the way that her like body mannerisms are and stuff like that and you don't you're not sure if it's it doesn't probably it's not been a very long change like it's probably within like a couple of years or something okay so but yeah no it's just something that you pick up on um and yeah you make your way through um and the drf as they're called the disaster response force lead you to a wooden camp and you can see it's probably been constructed over like 12 months they've been out here for a long time and they've basically built themselves a little village and it's all like wooden little wooden lodges um there's like a little defensive palisade wall um there's even

you think like a little tavern that they've built that's only for like four or five people at a time but you get the sense walking around that these guys are probably really bored and have nothing to do all day so and there's like a little firing range. They've got like a little wrestling pit that's been dug out and built for them. And judging by the state of their equipment, they don't get their equipment renewed.

They've kind of just been abandoned. How many are there? In total, as you make your way through the camp, you notice that not only are there more soldiers, but there are also labourers here. There's probably about 30 to 40 individuals, including the laborers. So it's a small force of infantry. All of them seem to carry Thunderstone rifles, cavalry saber or like cutlasses and stuff like that. Hatchets, basic like weapons and armor and stuff like that.

Breast plates, chain mail, that sort of thing. Tabards. They have two cannons, one of which is now mounted into this little fortress that they've made on a little rotating platform, and the other has got a little wagon that they've built for it that means they can move it about, basically. They also seem to have... One of the buildings is the only one with a locked door,

and it seems to have a big heavy padlock, and there is just a chipped into it armory. Right, okay. You certainly seem to have made a home for yourselves here. Well, we have a lot of time. He kind of gestures. He's like, we've been stationed out here for nearly a year now. We're somewhat of the outcasts of the Sanseian army.

Either we've pissed somebody off, upset our officers, criminals, or our parents didn't like us very much. Right, right. I was going to ask, the disaster relief force, what disasters are you relieving? Exactly. You're very wise, Mr. Quillick. We were sent here simply because

it is very common for people to try and loot the City of Glass, or to try and make their way into it, try and retake it to try and loot the City of Glass or to try and make their way into it, try and retake it, try and live there, and they're just going to get themselves killed. And as it's so isolated and we can't cause trouble in the capital, people like me are sent here to look after it. Just stopping people from going in?

Well, stopping people from getting themselves killed. I see. How I interpret my orders. Do you ever have things leaving the City of Glass? No, we don't, actually. That's why we've been able to build this little place for ourselves. I learnt when I first arrived here, we tried to patrol the Outer City, the city still made of stone and overgrown before

it becomes glass. We call that the outer city. I used to send my men in. We thought perhaps we could clear it out. We claim it. Be heroes to the Sunzerian Commonwealth. A very unwise decision from a young man, I'm afraid. The Guardians are

numerous, and they are dangerous. I lost a few men in those first few patrols, and being a sensible, pragmatic sort, I thought, well, we'll just set up a defensive perimeter. We'll stop them coming out, and they never did. In six months, not a single guardian or ghost has tried to leave the ruins. So I set up this little defensive position here.

It's the only way to access the city, as the rest of it is on high cliffs leave the ruins. So, I set up this little defensive position here. It's the only way to access the city as the rest of it is on high cliffs against the sea. Stops anybody from coming in. I do my job. We get a little peace and quiet. No problem. I do find it odd that my

team and my force are specifically ordered not to go into the inner city, what we call the Glass Scar, the section of the city that was transformed to glass. I always found it quite curious that my superiors were very, very specific about that. Hiding something from you. Well, not just from me, but from our people, I imagine.

Do you know what the city used to be? Not just from me, but from our people, I imagine. Do you know what the city used to be? Yes, Kamina City, an old city of the Sorvin domain, I believe. Not originally part of what was the Commonwealth's domain, so this has always been something aboot it and outside. But you know what? I've heard stories. Obviously, people talk, especially in prisons where I used to work.

They say that Kamina City was home to great warriors of the old empire, the old world. They developed guardians here. They developed weapons, armor, machines to fight against Starbane's forces. Supposedly dozens of research facilities, laboratories, forges, foundries

hidden beneath the city. Somewhere deep in there. But they're difficult to find. If you don't have knowledge of the old world, then you can barely find them. Plus, all of these crazed killer guardians, no offence, my dear, have made it

almost impossible for anyone to get inside. But I'm sure there's still a few treasures to be found. You sound curious. I'm very curious. Something I wanted to discuss with you. And he leads you up to basically there's like, they've kind of sculpted a small hill and he's built himself

like a little lodge cabin. Like a really nice log cabin. There's like a little table outside. There's what appears to be some sort of like smoker where like thick roasted meat is currently being smoked and cooked inside. Um, they've got like a little vegetable garden around the back that they've been cultivating. Um, and he gestures, he's like, sit, sit. Uh, I'll have some, we'll get some wine or I think I might have some, might even have some old provision whiskey from our last supply run.

That was three months ago, so it should be fine. And he kind of goes in, and he takes off his hat, he takes off his cape, takes off his armor. He doesn't seem to be threatened by you guys anymore. The other soldiers all kind of filter out. But Jamalia stays here. She kind of takes a seat. And you can see she's got an enormous carved stone chair that is obviously hers,

and she just kind of sits in it. And you can see that it's kind of sits in it and you can see that it's kind of been decorated with like painted to make it look like a throne and she kind of sits in it quite happily um very royal of you princess thank you thank you and she kind of nods and um she begins taking her own armor off and stuff like that and uh you can see that underneath the armor she has like a very pretty pretty dress that's been sewn. That is gorgeous. Thank you. I made it myself.

I absolutely love the colors. Thank you. The embroidery is so intricate. I quite like sewing, actually. It was something I took up as a child. You did this? Yes, yes, I did, yeah. Incredible.

Well, we don't really have any seamstresses or tailors around here. You rival those of Gusthaven. No. And they are considered the best tailors of all the Sky Cities. She blushes a little bit and she's just like, I know you're kind, Mr. Elf. You're too much of a flatterer, but thank you. Thank you. No, I'm being truly honest. I just

face an explosion. I think all my flattery's been taken out of my entire body. She's doing that thing where she just doesn't, she thinks you're being way too nice. Like, she just doesn't believe you. She's just like, no, you're being really nice. But Rama returns. He returns with, like, a handful of glasses, a very aged-looking bottle of whiskey, you know, that's, like, it looks like half of it's been drunk.

Kind of puts it down, lays the glasses down, brings in some, like, you know, chopped up and fried slices of potato, puts them down. He's like, come, Sid, Sid, there's no need to be so formal. It's not like you're enemies of the Commonwealth. That's very obvious. So I am under no worries or threats from you, Sid. You mentioned being curious. Yes, you mentioned treasures, you mentioned the dangerous guardians. You speak like you want to be there yourself.

I'm a curious man, Mr. Quillock. I've always been a soldier, but my superior officers would always say I was too curious. I wanted answers to things. Why? Why do we follow? Why follow this order? Why follow that order? Why do we have to protect this? Why is this person guilty?

Normal things. The fact that I've been told specifically not to go there, and I know how dangerous it is, it just makes me all the curiouser. I see. A premise. I lend some aid to repairing your ship. Now, my orders are specifically

to not let anybody enter and put themselves in danger. But you all seem very capable. I'm sure you've survived some sort of airship crash. The Guardian is well equipped with armor and weapons. Survived an airship crash? I think yes. You seem capable enough. So it could be argued that letting you into the City of Glass

is not strict going against my orders. Until you get to the inner city, of course. But I don't know your final destination, do I? No, well, you also advised us. You did your job. I would very much like to find out what's going inside.

If you find anything, perhaps we can come up to a share. 50-50. What if it's not a thing we can share? If it's not a thing you share, you keep it. But I'm talking technology, weapons, gold. 50-50, and you told us not to go in there. It seems a little unfair.

Strange. I've not met many businessmen birds I'm just thinking about who's doing the effort here well of course I'd be willing to potentially come with you right I can leave Jamalia here in charge for now I must admit that I am very curious to see inside

messenger ring yep messenger ring also if he's not there to witness what treasures we get, he doesn't know what 5050 is. Messenger Ring, he was ordered not to let us into the place, and he's coming with us. That directly goes against his orders. That is also true. But we also want him to repair our ship. Yes. We want his crew to repair our ship at the very least. And not rob us.

No. I mean... You're all being very quiet. We're not here for treasure, we're here for century. Yes, yes. Quill, are you going to say something? You are being very quiet, young lady. Very quiet indeed.

Lots of talking. Huh? You're being very quiet. Do you need medical attention? Are you all right? Shit blew up. Yes, it did, yes. Do you...

Is she all right? Does she need medical attention? Can I have a doctor? She was close to the explosion, but I don't think you were hurt by any debris, right? Just a big shock. Have a drink. And he, like, pulls you like a whiskey.

I've never had alcohol before. Then trust me, now is the right time to start. Maybe hit some snackies first. Okay. I'll just grab the drink and just yeah i guess because she doesn't know she'll just take a big old yeah and it's like it burns like it tastes nasty it burns but after that initial kind of like gagging feeling there is this like nice warm like in your belly it's like a nice warm feeling inside um and it's almost like after a few moments

it's just like you do feel you do feel quite better like you're like oh but you kind of have to get out that gagging bitter

taste initially trying to figure out what to do have some more no you've had enough have these have these

and he gestures the little fried potato snacks. Eat them. Just quietly munch on those. They're salted crisps. Thick cut salted crisps. Nice. Our intentions for the city aren't for treasure, just so you're aware.

You're going to help your guardian. Yes, that is the priority. I am curious to know why they come. They come in sometimes one or two at a time, months, days apart, weeks sometimes. Has any ever left? No. Me and the crew believe that...

I think that they come here to die, to turn feral. They're drawn here by something. Sometimes we hear them muttering about a message, coming to find the Herald. I've seen her, the Herald. You have? It's not good. I would recommend that any expeditions you make into the city

don't linger at night. What does the Hald look like? Terrible. I've seen her once, back when we first came here and we would patrol the inner city, the outer city. From this far out,

you can't really see her that well, but you can hear her. We were patrolling through these ruins and night fell. We were beginning to make our way back when we heard it. Red light filled the glass. Red light all around in the city of glass itself. Then we saw her fly up, silhouetted against the cradle.

Black wings. Howling scream. Frightens me. Not much does. Interesting. Was it a guardian you saw? Yes. Oh yes, very much so.

I just remember that single eye with a red light. I see. So what? Red light? Yeah, a drink. No, this is not.

Tasty. Messenger ring. Messenger ring. It's golden. The Herald's golden. What Herald? Do you mean the Prime? I'm going to distract Rammer.

Rammer Vorthir from this weird silence when they're looking at each other. Yeah, he just turns to you and is like, these snacks are lovely. Thank you. What do you think to my deal? I think we have a deal. Good.

Okay, well, that's going on. What if he takes the herald as a treasure? He captures the herald? Yeah. Hang on, the herald as treasure? He captures the herald? Yeah. Hang on, what herald? You've mentioned the prime before, but no herald. Well, he said it's a guardian with wings, right? Maybe he's seeing the prime differently.

Maybe he's seeing Hadar. Hadar. Red-Eye Hadar Hadar red eye Hadar is she ringing right now that's the T T

T T T telepathy Zdar red guardians Hadar

agent whatever he saw was Hadarian Hadardian right yeah she had to

this is all very confusing. This is out of the ring. Mm-hmm. Did any of the travelers to the City of Glass, did they mention anything of a prime? The Guardians?

Mm. Hmm. So there, did they mention a... That rings a bell to me for some reason. And Jamal is like, yes, I think they did, Kaltain.

I remember there was one in particular, an ex-soldier, I think. Not too different to this one, but different enough. Male, though. And I remember him, he just kept saying it, but he would stutter. Like, prime. Prime. And some of the boys were laughing about it. I remember him, he just kept saying it, but he would stutter, like, p-p-p-prime, p-p-p-prime. And some of the boys were laughing about it, they kept copying him for a couple of days afterwards, that's why I remember it. Yeah, I remember he just walked in, muttering that over and over again. Right.

And he never came out? No, they never do, they never do. How long ago was this? Oh, this, I mean, Jemima. She's like, oh, this would have been months, a year ago maybe, like when we first came here. This particular guardian, did you recognize any

insignia, any symbols? Seize the one on your shield. Yes, that one. Okay. Just like that. Had a shield, just like this one. Oh. You know that's a royal guard shield.

Yeah. Oh, okay. I probably know them. Maybe. So what's the deal? So before, because we're going to go to a break, my next question is, are you going to go in to see who laughs?

I mean it sounds like it I think it's rest time so do you want to take a it's like middle of the morning it's like 11, 30, 12

8 hour you can take a short rest though you can spend hit dice a rest would be nice I think I've got 6 out of 56 this is a lot of hit dice. Yeah, I suppose. You get those back when you have a long rest.

So go in, take a sleep in the City of Glass, get some hit points. Get attacked by ghosts. No! I mean, could we not just double long rest until the next morning

and just a day no it's actually in the rules you can't so there is there's like a limit on how much of a long how many long rests you can take you have to have a certain number of like short rests

also that's bullshit metagaming and I'm not gonna let you do it where you're just like we're gonna spend 16 hours doing nothing no I'm just thinking we need to make the time it's not metagaming it's like the time to rest

and also we don't want to go into the sea in like, 6pm. Sure, fine. It's up to you. No, it's fine. If you want to do that, it'd be boring. We, I mean, we don't know. If you guys, well, I don't think

that you would rest here, I think you would go back to the ship and rest. Sure. Just like, trying to power rest, just eyes wide open. Sleep through the day and rest. Sure. Just, like, trying to power rest. Just eyes wide open. Yeah. Sleep through the day! And that's the thing, right? It's like, well,

a long rest isn't necessarily you sleeping. Oh, just, like, doing loads. A long rest is eight hours of not doing anything. Yeah, crying. That's just short rest, though. Have I gotten to you? I've gotten to you,

but it's not you, boring. Man, there was, like, I was looking at you. I wasn't seeing your face. I was seeing YouTube comments. Well, here's the thing. I think that... Don't let it affect the game.

Well, here's the thing. If you guys had just had a battle and you were like, oh, let's have a long way to get our hit points back. We do sound like that. Then I'd perhaps be a bit more like, no, just have a fucking short rest. You guys did just have the airship blown up. You were knocked unconscious. You were nearly dead.

Nova was nearly dead. Lucius could have died. Didn't. I don't know. I'll leave it to you guys. I personally am big in favor. Keep in mind, century is A on a clock. Yeah, that's true.

Right? That's it. Yeah, that's enough. Fine. Good point it, yeah. Yeah, that's enough. Fine, good point. All right, yeah, we'll short rest then.