High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #69 | Portal Through Space and Time (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 27, 2020

The team are face to face with a tear in reality... and a voice is calling them in! 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 & World Anvil! Build a world, manage your campaign and create a massive campaign with ease on World Anvil! http://bit.ly/worldanvilhighrollers 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. rogers now at joe fresh get 20 off children's activewear only until wednesday august 14th shop smart with one cart and check everything off your back to school list all in one place now that's some smart shopping conditions apply see in store or joefresh.com for details hello everyone welcome back to high rollers a dungeons and dragons podcast in the world of eroes run by dungeon master mark shollock humes with me, Tom, playing Kelek Adkalad, Cleric Wizard. I am Chris Trott. I'm playing Lucius Viren, Elowin Elanastio, and I am a High Elf Sorcerer. Hi, I'm Rhiannon. I'm playing Sentry. I am a Guardian Paladin. 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 who is an air ganassi and she is a hexblade warlock thanks to our regular sponsor dnd beyond the official dungeons and dragons tool set create your free account and speed up your campaigns today Welcome back to Erois. Last time, our party continued their assault against a pack of gnolls being led by Baraz the Awoken, a creature infused with the power of Hadar, the Crimson Star. Whilst Aayla and Sentry fought a desperate battle outside with the bulk of the Gnoll Warriors, Lucius, Nova and Quill snuck in to the winery and launched a magical ambush on Baraz and his mage companion. Whilst Baraz and the mage were taken down swiftly, though not before inflicting some terrible damage on the spellcasters,

once Baraz was defeated, his form began to mutate and convulse with eldritch power, and he transformed into a writhing brute of tentacles and darkness. Finally, once they managed to come together, the party overcame Baraz and won the battle, rescuing one of the nuns who had gone missing from the Vintare Solarense. won the battle, rescuing one of the nuns who had gone missing from the Vintare Solarense. She revealed that the other missing girl had been taken to a cave by a pair of gnoll mages. Pushed to their limits, our heroes paused to rest and recover some of their strength, before setting off to rescue the girls several hours later. On arriving at the gnoll's cave, they discovered an ancient shrine with blood murals and a black stone altar,

and only the remains of the nun and the two gnoll mages, along with a thin crack in reality from within a voice called out to them. Hello. What is this? And that is where we begin this week. So as i described it before this shrine is quite small um it's partially collapsed and hidden within a series of caves um that have clearly fallen away to reveal the the entranceway the walls are covered in in blood paintings that depict creatures with distended jaws, all turned and worshipping a small red dot on a great black background. There are broken stones and what appear to be the remnants of clothes

and at best some dust of three creatures that had been here previously. at best some dust of three creatures that had been here previously, and a single red crack in reality itself, a kind of pulsating seam of magic that has opened up, and you can see this kind of undulating red light from within. And we just heard that voice come from it. You do hear that voice come from it and you all hear it is it there's an element to where the voice is both telepathic but also you can almost feel the presence in the room like it has a physicality to it um the inch the crack itself is maybe only a couple of inches or like 3-4 inches wide

and it's not particularly tall maybe sort of a foot tall but it is very clear and distinct and glowing in the middle of this, on top of this altar We just wanted to have a nice little rest before we went on our way

and then we get this, Mark. What the heck? It's almost like destiny has something in store for you all, isn't it? It's almost like no. No time off. Ever. I want a refund. Can I have a phone management, please?

Doll up, daddy. You guys can keep making jokes to stall from dealing with the current situation Yeah, that's what I would do Yeah, we just don't know Lucius puts his head through the tear Lucius puts his, okay, you put your head through the tear

I'm assuming that was a joke Yes, it was So who's up? That's the joke hand. Looking at the tear, you said it's like a tear in spell and magical power and things like that. Is there any way I can look at it and understand either what's creating it or how to close it?

Yeah, you absolutely can do that. Now, do you want to cast a spell as that or do you just want to make an Arcana check? Do you want to try and cast Identify or detect magic as well? Or is this just a straight Arcana check? Like using your magical knowledge of what you understand of magic. I was just going to do an Arcana check for now because it identifies like 10 minutes. And in 10 minutes, he's going to be in the room.

Well, you could cast it as an action. You could spend a spell slot I was just going to do an Arcana check for now because it identifies like 10 minutes. And in 10 minutes he's going to be in the room. You could cast it as an action. You could spend a spell slot and it just spends a slot to cast it instantaneously. You can ritual cast it and it takes 10 minutes. Oh, I can, can't I? Oh, in that case, yeah, let's cast Identify. Sure, make an Arcana check as well

but make it with advantage. Okay, that's 15 and 23. 23, right. Quillek, you are both a servant of the god of magic. You have begun training in the arcane arts as a wizard. You have a good understanding of what this thing is and both how to close it and the effects it may have um this is a rift in the planes this is a rift in magic um it has elements of both time and gravity and the fabric of the planes themselves.

You believe that this rift is directly connected to a place called the far realm, the place that Hadar was sealed. It does not appear to lead into any other sort of astral space or any other plane of existence. It leads to directly to Hadar's realm, the far realm. It is possible to close this rift. This is not on such a galactic. This is not big enough that it, you know, you feel that you and your companions can absolutely seal this.

To do so will require expending magical energy to effectively sew it back together by connecting eight ley line points and drawing them together. You can seal the rift itself and prevent anything from either, you know, any kind of transference of anything. You also don't believe that it's possible that a creature can either come out of it or go through this rift at the size it is. But energy likely can go between them. And it's likely that you can tell that it's drawn in the life energy of the sacrifices and that's widened it. So drawing in life energy will make it wider.

If you get too close to it, it will start drawing life energy from you. So if you get within a certain range of this thing, it will start to suck away your own life energy to power itself. Fuck you, sis. It will suck no um you also i will tell you now um with the 23 this is why i had you roll as well um you don't have a feeling that whatever voice just spoke to you can actually see you as

individuals um this is probably it can probably sense you but it probably can't see you at this point um and then finally once you attempt to start sealing the rift you either need to you either need to succeed or this thing is going to turn very unstable and you don't know what will happen um uh okay i'm going to communicate all of that. About the ley lines, can I actually see the eight ley lines? No, they just need to be eight points in space. It doesn't matter for positional purposes or anything like. You just know that you're going to need to anchor the tethering. The kind of sealing magic needs to be anchored to eight points of the material realm.

And that could just be eight points in space in this room it doesn't really matter which eight points they are um okay they just need to be tethered to another plane of existence it's like um it's like sewing up a hole in like a pair of trousers or something like that right you need to have the individual points to draw the planes together and then one to kind of seal everything you know to kind of bind it all together and stop the tear from getting any larger um uh yeah uh and as you as you guys are as you are you saying are you saying this out loud like when you're telling everybody like the information that you sure like it matters. He could probably read our brains.

Maybe. Surely we need to close this quill immediately. Who knows what could happen if we left it like this? What influences it could have on other people nearby. I assume that's what... Wait, can he... Can he hurt us? Oh.

Offer? I don't like it when walls talk to me, guys. Guys, guys, guys, the wall's talking. Information. I can provide information. You have a hunger for knowledge. Knowledge can enlighten. You must learn everything you can

before the inevitable. Before death. Nova, you feel a kind of... There's definitely a connection kind of trying to form between you and this rift at this point if you want more then you'll probably need

to get closer I'm going to stay where I am but I'm going to follow up with what do you want assist service assistance service and like all things good service

should be rewarded clarify what do you want assistance for Clarify What do you want assistance for? The only thing That matters The inevitable The inevitable Look at Mark's smug little face Look at his smug little face

look at his smug little face even his little voice changer being all creepy and stuff yeah scaring five people at one time look how cool he is so you want assistance in bringing about the complete and total destruction of the universe and this planet as part of that. All things must eventually die.

I am in no rush. Seems like you're speeding the process up, though. Or someone is. There's no response to that. Don't think he likes me. I think we need to be careful with these queries. I do't know. I do not dislike.

I have no issue. All things are equal in the end. Even you? I am the end.

Surely if all things are equal at the end, that must mean everything dies, including you. There's no response. Otherwise you'd reign supreme, right? And that can't be equality. It's just left. Those words echo in the shrine, bouncing around the stones, the rift kind of twists and pulses,

but their words just ring hollow in the space. What specifically do you want if we were to assist you? There's no response. Nova, remember. Messenger ring. Stop talking to the wall. Stop talking to the wall.

Stop talking to the wall. Messenger to the wall Stop talking to the wall Messenger Ring But if we know what he wants We can do the inverse Come on This is our perfect opportunity To get knowledge guys Come on

Messenger Ring You don't have to ask him remember You can ask me Meta Messenger Ring What's with kim's characters being succumbed to major villain creature entities

messenger ring kim to trot is i'm not succumbing i'm trying to find out more about what they want so we can like not god messenger messenger ring if he just if he just told us, it would...

That would be it, right? We'd know what to do. So on that note... He is not going to tell us what not to do. He's not going to tell us. No, clearly, because he's a metaphorical bugger. I want what I have stated.

The inevitable. The end of all things. The death of everything. The corruption. All that. The fun stuff. Everything we know and love. Inevitable.

Inevitable. Inevitable. Well, I'd ideally like it to not happen soon. So let's just close this rift now, shall we? Honestly, you're more annoying than Starbane. Quill, uh, you're... I... Here we go. Kim, no!

No! At the mention of the word, if you say Starbane out loud, there is a kind of reverberation in the room, a kind of shudder. We do not speak that name. And there is a sudden pressure in the room that wasn't really there before like a weight on your shoulders and legs dragging you down and this is interesting it has feeling and emotion beyond just i want the inevitable death of blah blah blah oh it hates that hates

the s-word the person that means it could actually be a threat messenger I assumed that everything is messenger ring unless we say I talked to the war Oh starving wasn't yeah I knew that that wasn't. See, this is what I mean. Finding out more so we know how to deal with it. I wish you guys wouldn't just think I'm a dumbass all the time. We don't think you're a dumbass. I think you're too clever.

And I think that knowledge can also be very destructive. Yeah, we just need to be really careful when walls and rifts in space and time open up and talk to us. Because, you know, that's weird! How is Sentry feeling about all this? I'm more weird than a space elf. Yeah, she's fuming inside. She's trying to keep a cool head, but inside she's like, this is like, we need to sort this out.

We need to leave. trying to keep a cool head, but inside she's like, this is like, we need to sort this out. We need to leave. I think for Sentry as well, there's this growing kind of sense in the Prime Matrix. You can feel the kind of rage and the

frustrations of eons of Guardians. They're spirits who probably died fighting this thing. They can tell that you're kind of at least in it somewhat it's presence and they're lending you strength but also you can feel that rage kind of trickling up

in you like these little voices you can't quite hear but you know are there and they're all just you know yeah you can just feel this frustration of legions of guardians who died fighting this thing yep we need to close this and we need to leave now of legions of guardians who died fighting this thing. Hmm. Yep. We need to close this

and we need to leave. Now. Right. Let's get to it, Quill. Alright. Would you like to know the details? Well, so the way we're going to do this because I don't want Ayla to feel left out as well. So, this would be...

I'm not going to fully announce all the details but this is going to be fine i don't mind sitting back while we close a rift in time well i mean you'll still get you'll get to just choose what you want to do so uh the way this is going to work is everyone's going to roll initiative just so that we have a clear order um but it's not going to be like a kind of you know combat encounter initiative necessarily um it's just that we have a a kind of combat encounter initiative necessarily. It's just that we have a track of who goes when and in what order. So let me just write these down. So Nova is 23.

And then Nat 20, no less. Is 16. Lucius is 16. Will is a 7. Sentry is a 14. And Aayla is a 24.

Aayla's still going first, even without a natural 20. And the way this works... Yeah. The way this works, I'll give you the basics. Quill can kind of... Quill is explaining this read you can quill is explaining this to you in an in character way to seal the rift you basically need to expend magical energy which will come in the form of a spell slot uh and then you need to make a check

and that check is just a d20 plus your spell casting modifier so not like an arcana check not like a thingy so for lucius it would be d20 plus his charisma mod for nova it would be d20 plus charisma mod for quill it would be depending on whether you want to spend a wizard or a cleric spell slot it would be either intelligence or wisdom century i think your spells are charisma as well so it'll be charisma mod for you right cool those are the checks that go on higher spell slots mean greater chance of success you will get a bonus to the check you will get a bonus to the check equal to the level of the spell slot you spend so if you spend a fifth level spell slot you'll get another plus five on top of your ability mod as well right um

to seal it you need to get eight successful checks of these and you're going to go in turn from initiative down if you don't want to spend a spell slot or if in ala's case you can't spend a spell slot that's not to say that you can't help you can come if you can think of a creative way that you are helping your allies you can do do that. You can be like, I'm going to try this. I'm going to try and do this. It's kind of like, it's up to you to use creatively any skills you can think of, right?

Or any kind of ability or equipment that you have or anything like that. What do failures do? Do we know? You will not know until one happens. You can also spend your turn saying like, okay, Quill,

like Tom could say like, I'm not going to spend my turn saying like okay quill like tom could say like i'm not going to spend my turn trying to seal the rift this turn i'm going to cast bless i'm going to cast guidance on you know nova or whatever right you guys can spend your turns completely normally or as an action you can try and seal one of the eight points on the rift um does that make sense does everyone kind of understand how that goes yeah yes i'm guessing we also this isn't like time sensitive unless we spend like a year doing this you don't know okay again or if it blows up on the other side you don't know what kind of effects once you start this you don't know like are you gonna have like a minute to do it

are you gonna have an hour are you gonna have you know 30 seconds you don't know, like, are you going to have, like, a minute to do it? Are you going to have an hour? Are you going to have, you know, 30 seconds? You don't know. You'll find out when you start. Okay. And you can delay turns. Like, Ayla can just say, like, yeah, I don't know what to do yet, so I'm going to take my turn at the end of the round or something like that.

That's fine. I don't mind you doing that. Can I already do that? Because I can't really, until I know what people are doing, know how to assist. Would you like to just basically... Would you like to just default to going at the end of each round?

Like, from now on? Or do you want to just do this round? Okay. Alright, I'll move you down. I'm happy to do that. And I'll just sort of try and support as and when I can. Yeah, and this thing is magical in nature. You don't

know what kind of effects that any of your equipment or any of your abilities may have. It's like, whilst you are used to punching stuff, you don't think you can punch this, but there might be other ways that you can affect it. And if anybody else has any ideas, feel free to say, like, Ayla, why don't you try doing this? Ayla, why don't you try doing that?

Or Century, try doing this, etc. You guys can communicate normally, right? Go on, Trot. Can I speak to Quill before we kick off? Yeah, absolutely, yeah. This is just me explaining how it's gonna work when we do it. Quill, your eye, is it worth us

utilizing it to best how to know how to best proceed with the situation? Or knowing the results? Something like that. Knowing what we're up against. I could find out what happens if we don't succeed. Is that the best use? It's very negative. I mean, it would guide whether or not we proceed, wouldn't it?

Like, if it's catastrophic, then we can evaluate even better. Yes, and add a lot more pressure to the situation. Can't wait. It would, but... We need to understand the gravitas of the situation. Alternatively, he's right there his realm is there like you said his realm

I don't think we can quash a realm but I can see him yeah don't stop looking at him okay that's how he gets in close your eyes I can't quite see him i think i described it last i think i described last time that you could see like a figure in it i'm gonna slightly retcon that you can't see you all you can see is like this undulating red light

that's all you can see in there at this point it's a slight retcon it's a slight retcon for me i mean it's the thing is is it's still connected to hadar right like if you want to try and use your eye to like learn something about hadar this is definitely a time to do that um this is the closest you can probably be without one of his minions trying to kill you i mean so what do you want to do quill this is this is on you you've got to make a decision uh okay i will use the eye to uh i can find out about the near future right so yes i will ask a specific question okay um what will happen to this rift if we do not succeed to close it okay so that implies that you would try it and that by that question you are implying that you are trying to trying to seal it and then you fail trying to seal it yeah as

opposed to just leaving it as it is yes so the events directly following what we were about to do i suppose so for the first time so your eye you the it swirls to gray you see the mist and you almost immediately have to cancel this connection you have you have to to dismiss the power of the eye because you are suddenly assaulted by such a myriad of potential futures that you cannot possibly have one single answer from this. Time around this space is so uncertain and chaotic, the eye

cannot provide you with an accurate answer. Shit. I guess they still use a charge, right, because it gave me an answer, just too many. Exactly that, right? It gave you too many answers for your brain to be able to comprehend um 14 million answers yeah it's very doctor strange yeah which one do we win one just one okay um you also i would say the last thing I'll give you on that,

because the eye is technically kind of connected to time magic itself, there is an element of timer magic. This is temporal magic is infused into this rift and this realm. And temporal magic is something that you have never heard of on Erois before, but somehow you know it exists. Okay. So there's... I guess if I don't know anything about it,

I guess there's no potential to ask questions about it, right? I mean, maybe. Somehow you know what it's called and you know it exists. You've never heard it mentioned by wizards or scholars. You certainly have never heard any spells of it. But somehow it's like, yeah, you just know that this is a type of magic.

Right. Okay. Time isn't right. Time ain't right with this rift. That's what you got from your vision. I got everything, but also at the same time nothing. It could fail in 100,000 different ways. But it could succeed in 200,000, maybe. I don't know.

Well, we can't leave it, surely. You are trying to see something. I can feel it. Glimpsing what is beyond you. Okay, maybe maybe we don't try and connect with it anymore. Maybe I don't ask any more questions.

Maybe we just close this thing down. I'm in agreement. If it can feed on thoughts and I can spring up from anything. It could even be this that's feeding its power. You know? Just a line with its thoughts.

That sort of thing. Let's do what Sentry says. Let's close it. Immediately. Okay. Well, if that's what you want to do, Nova,

as everyone springs into action, you will have the first choice. How big is the cave we're in? It's about 20 feet by 25 feet. This shrine, the cave itself is quite, and it's maybe about 20 foot ceiling. It's not particularly big. So Wall of Light would light would like blind us potentially um yeah it's 60 foot and uh wait no yeah 60 foot and then 120 feet of light so let's not do that one shall we i mean when when i say expend like you don't need to cast a spell you

will spend the spell slot and focus your that energy into an attempt to seal the rift unless there's something specifically you want to cast a spell to do it was more i was thinking of using wall of light because it has multiple charges as you like no so that wouldn't work so you basically spend the spell slot so you use that magic energy that you would have conjured the spell with to create like a point to anchor the the rift to i'm just kind of wondering it's a unique way of using spell slots yeah yeah i get you now i'm just wondering if necrotic energy would work like if i channel it through my dead hand um because hadar is all about feeding off of life right so i don't know if necrotic energy i will let you you can try whatever you'd like to do

okay i will try and channel i guess yeah nova would try wouldn't she she'd experiment knowing everything she knows about how her dart feeds off of life um she's going to try and channel her her magical energy out of her necrotic hand um so it was a, what is it, D20 plus 5, right? No, because if, well, are you spending a spell slot to do this, or are you just trying to use the hand's natural power? Okay, but you're going to try and channel it through your undead hand. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you mark off a spell slot,

and then you will be making your D20 plus your charisma mod plus the level of the spell. Okay, plus 5, so plus the level of the spell okay plus five so plus ten then okay damn it's level spell 24 so you concentrate and you feel the power go through the metal gauntlet and down the kind of withered skeletal arm that you have now developed since ages five the energy that comes sparking out you create almost like a black crackling star of energy in the space around the rift the energy does seem to be fed upon the magic itself doesn't seem to have any additional effects because it's necrotic. You don't get the sense that it has any additional

effects, but you do create this anchor point and you can sense that it is somehow bound itself to the rift fully now. The voice, however, as soon as you begin creating this point, the rift and the room begins to

shudder. What are you doing? Do not do this. After Nova, Lucius. I'm going to do a third level spell. So charisma mod plus three. So 22 plus three and 25. Nice.

Yep. So how are you doing this? Describe how Lucius is using this magic to do this. I'm trying to think positively, trying to remember the life that's around me that's teeming with life. I'm thinking of the very recent events of everyone enjoying themselves at the local town and having some time off and the uh recent uh pub we were in just sprawling with life focusing on that energy and pulling out the most colorful energy from my uh clothing and

attire to fill the kind of vibrance a swirling blue and orange like star probably would kind of form next to the black crackling one of nova's and you can see that these two points almost like space is pinching towards them and you can see the top part of the rift kind of being drawn tight and thin as these two points form around it. The room doesn't shake. It's not like an earthquake, but you feel like pulses of force

just kind of pressing down and you can feel like your shoulders becoming heavy. Your hair kind of sticks to the top of your head. The ground almost cracks around you as you can feel this immense pressure. You should not be doing this, little

mortals. You do not want to make me angry. Sentry. What would Sentry like to try and do? I'm going to cast a level 3 spell and just draw on the power of the matrix, try and channel Um, I'm gonna cast a level 3 spell. Um, and

uh, just like, draw on the power of the matrix, try and channel yeah, try and seal it. Drawing on that feeling of like, hope within the matrix. Trying to bring that energy outwards. Okay, fantastic. So, d20 plus your charisma

modifier plus 3. So, d20 plus 6. Fuck plus 3. So d20 plus 6. Fuck! So the matrix is still so new to you. You try and summon this additional energy. You kind of pull on this anger and the frustration of the guardians.

You reach out and magic is still... You can cast it, but it's not something you're practiced and specialized in. And as you try and pull out and you try and copy what Nova and Lucius have done and form this anchor, the anchor breaks away kind of in midair, and you see the fabric of reality tear slightly more,

and the whole rift begins to crackle and pulse with power. Can you roll a d6 for me, please, Rihanna? Uh-oh. Oh, fuck. Okay, roll another d6 for me, please. For podcast listeners, Rhiannon rolled a 2 on her first roll, a 1 on her second roll, and a 2 on her third roll. Okay, so I'm just going to mark here two successes, one failure.

And okay, and then you rolled that. Okay, so to the rest of you, Sentry seems to wink out of existence. Sentry, Sentry, you arrive six seconds into the future. For you, it's like no time passes, but to everybody else, century vanishes. For the next turn, century, you can't contribute to the skill challenge, as you are effectively thrown forward in the time stream.

Oh, God. Whoa, okay. You are, like, yanked forwards in time by the errant magic of this thing, and to you, it's like no time has passed, but suddenly things are differently so you can't act for the next turn um so i'm gonna make a mark that you are you are out of time for the next one um ala shit oh sorry quill quill quill um if i put or if we gathered, all of the magical items that we have

and put them in the eight spots, could we focus on them and sort of gather the magic energy from all of these things as like a magic item web that we've just created? Could we do something like that? You could spend your turn basically arranging eight magic items.

I don't think you'd be able to do that in just one turn. It could help you. It would certainly give you another source of magic to draw upon. There would be a risk that if any complications happen, you might permanently drain those magic items of power. But it would certainly give you more power to draw from, and it would give you an

anchor point to focus on. Solid god, dude. I can't do it. I mean, we've got five messenger rings, right? They're great. However, we've got five of them. Well, you've got to make a decision now. You can shout this idea to the rest of the party and then you could start gathering up everyone's messenger rings and placing them. Well, you've got to make a decision now. You can shout this idea to the rest of the party,

and then you could start gathering up everyone's messenger rings and placing them. I'd say to put eight things down would probably take you... You'd have to go and... People would need to throw you those items. So it'd probably be like this round, and then next round you could complete it. But you've also just seen Sentry just vanish. Yeah, sure. That's true. I have just seen Sentry vanish. I'll throw the idea out there and then I'll...

Just shouting that while I go to the point where Sentry was and try and focus on the point that she was working on. So I'll do just a regular... There's a point you guys are probably all sort of like surrounded at this point So you're going to move over to where Sentry was so we can kind of take Sentry off for now

Yeah, so I've done a third level spell so I've got a plus seven Twenty Is that twenty total? Twenty three Okay 20. Is that 20 total? 23. 23. 23. Okay.

You focus on where Century was, and whilst her magic has dissipated, what kind of, like, what magic are you trying to use, or, like, how does this look for Quill? So just out of his hand, it's a combo of, like, lightning and just yellow, purpley magical energy. Kind of like when he heals.

So you haven't seen it before. So you summon this, it kind of forms another kind of like shape in the air and you can see the rift is pulled thin at that point, but it doesn't quite have another anchor point yet. And you can see the rift is kind of pulsating and undulating as it does so. Ayla. can see the rift is kind of pulsating and undulating um as it does so uh ayla so i'm not sure how this would work or if it would work but perfect stuff to ask me could i if i was to throw my hammer and use my ability on my hammer to hit above the rift could i channel the all the

lightning from that if i expend a rage and channel as much lightning into that as possible um and like recklessly throw the hammer do you think that that magic would yeah i think channeling lightning energy into the rift itself, if nothing else, it may basically help the next person to... It would almost act like it would feed on your lightning rather than trying to destabilize their ceiling attempt. You can definitely try that, for sure.

Okay, I will try that. So make a... Just make a strength check. Don't make an attack or anything like that. Okay. Just do a strength test for me. Should I spend a rage? Yeah, spend a rage.

Because I want to, like, reckless as much as possible. So would that give me advantage? Sure, like, give yourself advantage, but just make this as a pure strength check so d20 plus your strength okay uh 15 15 so you don't gain a success towards the check but what you do is you swing the hammer with all your rage you You kind of summon all the lightning in your body as it arcs through your skin, down your arms, and you let it fly out as the hammer transforms into a lightning bolt.

The hammer passes through the rift, or kind of above it, and the lightning arcs in. But as the lightning stretches between the hammer and the rift itself, you can see the rift is feeding on that lightning energy, drawing the magical energy in. The next person, which would technically be Nova, the hammer and the rift itself you can see the rift is feeding on that lightning energy drawing the magical energy in uh the next person which would technically be nova will have advantage on their ceiling attempt um as you're basically pulling the rift's disruptive energy away from her spell from her own magical energy through the power of the hammer um however the problem is is

as you try and force that you try and summon the hammer back to your hand, the hammer is currently stuck in the ceiling and won't return to your hand. You still have the lightning from your rage in your body, but the hammer is almost like it's being pulled up into the ceiling. It's falling the wrong way, and it won't come back. Gravity. Right. Okay. Okay.

At the very end of the round, you see that from the rift uh a number of tendrils come flying out towards everybody who made uh these are kind of like almost like red lightning sparks or like chains they come flying out to everybody who successfully managed to seal one of the rifts so quill lucius and ay and Aayla. Sorry, not Aayla, Nova. So Nova will do you first. This is against your ACs. This is an attack against your AC. Roll 20 is a bit slow at the moment. I apologize.

It's struggling with all the people playing D&D. So that's going to be a 15 to hit you, Nova. Does not hit me. Okay, you managed to throw yourself to the side as this tendril of line, this tendril comes flying out. Lucius would be next. That's going to be a 12 to hit you, Lucius.

Guess what it hits. Oh! You take three necrotic damage, Lucius, and you lose a second-level spell slot. As this tendril latches onto you, you feel it drawing the magical energy out from you. Okay. Cool.

And then Quill. That's a 28 to hit. That's a natural 20 is what it is. It's a natural 20. Technically, it can crit, so. Technically, it can crit. So technically, it can crit. So that's nine necrotic damage. And you lose a third level spell slot as it latches on.

And you can feel it drawing the magical energy out of you as this chain is now connected. Once it hits you and zaps the energy, the tendrils kind of fly back into the rift and the voice calls out, I can feel you. Elf. Color magic. Inherent strong.

Delicious. Servant of a false god. One of her children. Foresight. Give me more. At the top of the round is Nova. At the top of the round is Nova. What would choosing a cantrip do?

You have advantage on spell slot. You have advantage. A cantrip does not have the magical strength to help seal one of these portals. Okay, we're going to do what I did last time and go for a fifthth level spell slot? I think you only have 5th levels as a Warlock. Yeah, that's all I got! But I've only got 2! That's the payoff. That is the payoff. You're gonna have to support the others.

Oh! Wait, hold on, no, I've rolled it wrong. Ignore that. I was like, is that the same to roll 2? It's 21. 21 is the highest you got. So the first roll is a 16 and then the second roll is a 28 i'll take that right you feel as you're summoning another one of these anchor points the rift almost hits the the magic that you're summoning um and it feels just like century it's going to rip it apart but then the lightning kind of arcs down from ala's hammer

and connects with the rifts kind of uh tendrils and pulls the tendrils away from your own magic giving you just enough time to form another one of these anchor points and you watch as the rift is pulled thin between yours and quills um and now there are four uh four anchor points in totality that have been bound together. Lucius, you're next. Firstly, I'm going to say, Where is Sentry? Where did she go? How did we get her back? And then I'm going to say,

Quill! Knowing that I just saw that those tendrils almost attacked and made Nova's attempt fail. I'm going to prepare myself, delay my action to give Quill advantage on his. How are you going to give him advantage?

So what I'm going to do is prepare my arcane ability to be willing to sacrifice a level 3 spell slot to focus all my energy to kind 3 spell slot to focus all my energy to kind of enhance his and put all my energy into that. Okay. You don't need to spend a spell

slot necessarily, but make a arcana check for me. So rather than spending a spell slot, you're going to try and instead focus your energy and kind of lend it to Quill's aid. You don't spend the spell slot, but you don't... You're struggling to create a flow of magic between you and Quill

that's going to support his. This isn't how your magic is normally used. It's not like healing magic. Binding it to another person in that way is kind of unusual for you, and you just don't quite have the concentration to do it as you try. But you don't spend the spell slot. While I'm doing that, can I also say... Sure, you can say stuff, yeah.

Maybe sequester is an option. Just trap it. Stop looking at chat. I did look at chat for that. Unless that was in chat. I'm sure somebody posted it. Okay, so yeah, you struggle to concentrate. You spend like a few seconds trying to concentrate on the sport coil,

but unfortunately it has no effect. Sentry, at the end of your turn, this is where you're like, and then Sentry reappears to everybody, kind of at the end of her initiative, basically. As you come back into the correct, the now caught up timeline to where you are. You don't know what happened to you yet,

but the others also don't know. So then Quill would go. And then she's just like really confused and like overwhelmed with all this weird, like, she's like, what's happened? Like, she just feels all this weird confusion, this anger, just everything. You can see like Aayla's hammers now in the ceiling

with lightning coming off of it. That wasn't there a second ago. And you're can see Aayla's hammer's now in the ceiling with lightning coming off of it. That wasn't there a second ago, and you're pretty sure Aayla still hadn't moved before you had. Yeah, there's all sorts of stuff that's happened. Quill? So I guess I know that this portal isn't an object as such, right? It is not an object. Okay, we can't sequester it away.

It is neither an object nor a creature. You can use the energy. Seventh level spell. You could try. I guess. But it's also worth 8,000. Ta-da! Taking over Eros.

8,000 gold, potentially. Are you going to be able to spend that? I guess you could buy yourself a fancy coffin maybe that's sure what are you doing Quill I am going to find another point

and this time cast a 4th level spell so I've got a plus 8 big boy just before you roll that Tom I forgot that Trot used a magical ability To try and support you and failed Can you roll a d6 for me Trot No

Oh I mean it's not a request It's a very rhetorical request Okay can you make a deck saving throw For me please Here it comes five oh god okay so as you as you were trying to support quill with your magic you kind of concentrated for a moment some of that errant magic interfered uh kind of flowed into the rift itself and almost like um like a telekinetic force flips you and throws you up.

It kind of gravity throws you into the ceiling. You're going to take some bludgeoning damage. You take 11 bludgeoning damage as you kind of slammed into the ceiling and then fall back down as you're kind of thrown to the side as your errant magic kind of interferes. That's what I get for sacrificing my go to help Quill.

Never again. It's never again. Right, sorry Tom. That was my mistake. I forgot that there was a magical ability that failed. Yeah, fair enough. So, uh, plus four on top of this, so, oh, fifteen. Fifteen. I need you to roll

a d6 for me, please. Shit, okay. Fifteen's a fail, guys. BT dubs. Oh my god. Two. Same thing. Can you make an exclamation point for me? 16. 16. You just, you're kind of seeing what just happened to Lucius

and feeling the same thing. As you try and conjure the magic to create one of these anchor points, the same sort of energy comes flying out, this dark, twisted, almost like a hand or a claw. You throw yourself backwards as it scoops up, and all the rocks and stones that you were standing on get flung up into the ceiling, and it comes smashing down again,

but you manage to kind of leap your way backwards. Unfortunately, yeah, you see that the rift now is pulsing. It's growing wider and then going suddenly thin, and then it suddenly gets really wide, and you can see this red pulsing energy, and then it shrinks back down. It's growing more erratic and more unstable. Century, that was...

Sorry, that was it. Ayla, your turn. I don't really know what to do to help, to be honest. Well, you saw before, I will say, you saw before that these tendrils kind of lashed out to be honest. Well, you saw before, I will say you saw before that these tendrils kind of lashed out to attack them. You could always try and help provide cover, you could try and defend them.

Yeah, I think that's probably my best bet. Can I try and protect Lucius? Yep, so you kind of move up next to Lucius. I'll try and protect Lucius. Yeah, so you kind of move up next to Lucius and you're going to basically give him cover against the next attack as you kind of try and protect Lucius. Yeah, so you kind of move up next to Lucius and you're going to basically give him cover

against the next attack as you kind of try and block the tendril as it comes after him. And as you do start moving your way up, you see the same tendrils kind of flying out. This time, though, I think the only one who successfully manages to seal a rift was Nova. 16 plus 8 24 Nova that's gonna hit me just a little bit it's gonna hit you does seven necrotic damage do you have any spell slots left

so when it hits you um you feel it draining trying to drain any kind of magical energy in you because you kind of summon the energy from Tiangong, instead you just feel this kind of crippling pain through your body. You're going to be stunned for the next round, unfortunately, my dude. So you are out for the next round. Aaron, have you got three? Dude, no. You currently have four successes and two failures.

So Nova, yeah, you're kind of hit by this tendril, like, you kind of let out a cry of pain. Your back arches as your muscles spasm as Lucius. It is your turn. You can see the rift beginning to stretch and grow and pulse. Getting redder up in here, right? It is getting very red. There is a dull red glow cast through the entire room.

Oh, look at that. So Lucius, knowing that he has some form of physical protection from Aayla, will put a lot of energy into this one. So he's going to sacrifice a level four spell. But he's also going to dip into his font of magic and twin it to try and create two points at once. That's interesting.

How many points, how many points, sorcery points does it cost to do that? So if I were to do another level four... Well, no, how much, like, so how much would it cost? If you were casting a fourth level spell slot, how many sorcery points does it cost to twin it? Six.

So, okay, and it's this fourth level spell slot? Yeah. Right. You can add plus ten for this because that's the spell level and the six sorcery points you just spent. Yeah.

I won't be able to do this again. Fourth level at least. Yeah, so you get... This is... And then your charisma mod on top. So what's that for, for your charisma mod? I'll do my charisma throw first and then we can add plus 10 on top.

And then you add 10. Sure. It's a big roll. 15. It's a natural 1 for god's sakes that is so unfortunate it's unreal

we suck at rolling Lucius you pour almost all of the energy you have like all of this inherent magic that you have in your body Quill Tom I can see you look in there i i mean i can't i can't do anything about it

ah it's it's a rule of call it was a really cool thing that's that's why i'm gonna let you portency if you want yeah okay sure i mean what do you have like plus 14 i'll use my six on that you use the six i mean 20 must be a success right lucius you summon all of this energy but now that the rift has grown more stable the anchor point is just ripped apart even with the strength of your magic, the anchor point, the unstable rift has gotten more chaotic and even with the 20, it just rips the anchor point apart, unfortunately.

Even 20's not enough? It's almost like it got harder when you got halfway through. Yep. So, that was Lucius's turn. Quill, Century, sorry. I forgot that was Lucius's turn. Quill, you, uh, Century, sorry. I forgot that Century's actually up here.

Um, so did I start my turn? Do I start my turn back here? You get your full turn. Yeah, you get your turn now, basically. Yeah. You're caught up with the rest of them in the time stream. Awesome. So I'll move, I'll move forward,

and then I will cast, uh... Hang on. Let's have a look. I'll cast Bless on let's have a look I'll cast bless at level 2 and give everybody an extra d4 on all their checks cool so this will count towards the check as well so yeah everybody gets a d4

on top of any checks they make while this is in effect 3, 1, 2, 3 yeah that's the right number. Cool. Quill. Okay, I'm going to cast a level mega plus ultra spell slot.

Plus ultra. Go for it, old mate. I'll do a level five. All right. So it's five on top of this roll. 16, Mark. Yep. You sure? I don't know if we can beat this.

We don't have high enough modifiers. Even if I do, you're just rolling really bad. I mean, that was a 7 for Quill. So, 16, that was a 7 for Quill. So 60. That's 20 again. Did that include your Bless? He just rolled the Bless.

That was the 4 to get it to 20. I got best on the Bless, but... Best Bless. Okay. Is that it? Can I funnel a bonus action spell slot in there? No. I defined the rules. I know, I'm trying to break them though.

It's more, do you want to spend your last portent on it, what i'm asking i mean it's a failure anyway right so yeah i'll turn that into an 18 plus plus four plus four plus so it's yeah it's high it's high you see that if you don't you can see two futures ahead of you there is one where you fail and the rift explodes in unstable magic. The other is where you succeed. You follow the path of the success and you manage to create a fifth anchor point

and draw the rift to a closing point. So do I see the path there? If we failed that one. If you had failed that one check, if you had gotten the fourth failure the rift would have exploded in chaotic magic okay you only got one chance one more you call that i have no spells nova stunned i you could help do you want what you want to do?

Is there anything you can think of that you can do to help the team? Does anyone have lightning stuff or anything that I can help channel my lightning into? Yes. Sure. Absolutely. I'll expend a rage to do it and

try and give all I've got. Make a roll D20 plus constitution for me. DC 10. Just DC 10. No. Just plus constitution.

Oh, you get the D4 from Bless as well. So D20 plus con plus D4. 13 So d20 plus con plus d4. 13 plus 4 is constitution without even using the bless. Kind of standing next to Lucius, you just grit your teeth, like clench your fists and just channel all the rage and anger you can.

And you see Ayla becomes this swirling dynamo of lightning energy that begins pulsing up magic, almost flowing off her skin itself, as she just kind of screams and yells as this mana begins pouring away from her, all this lightning energy. And Lucius, you feel that you can draw that energy out, or Nova, either one of the two of you can draw that energy out and use it to enhance your spells,

and you'll have advantage on the next uh sealing attempt for you to do uh nova you are uh out of your stun so it's your turn i am not okay so sorry at the bottom of the round at the bottom of the round there would be a tendril that goes for quill uh as he successfully sealed a rift. That's 21 to hit you, Quill. You can. You are next to Quill. That becomes a 12 to hit you, Quill. Century flies in with a shield,

bats the tendril away as it flies off to the side. Perfect. Nova. Wonderful. So with Eldritch invocations as a warlock thing, things like... Yes? Gift of the Depths says things like,

once for a long rest, you can cast Water Breathing without expending a spell slot. Could that technically become magical? Yeah, what level would Water Breathing normally be? Third. Oh, you can use that. If you use that ability, you're still summoning magical energy. It's just not in a spell slot.

But it's a third-level spell, so I'll give you... I'll treat it as if you're spending a third-level spell slot for sure, if you expend that ability. Okay. And I get advantage with Aayla? If you are channeling Aayla's magic, her storm magic, it kind of makes sense that you summon up water and elemental water and energy to kind of fuel this spell.

So you have advantage and it's a third level slot plus your charisma bonus. I guess I'll do that then and I'll summon, yeah, I'll combine with Aayla's lightning to fuel hopefully the perfect storm. I rolled an 11 and a 24. Plus a d4 for bless. Oh, plus a d4 for Bless. Does that count for one or both? It counts for the... You just roll the d4

and then it adds to the success, basically. Plus three. So 24, 26, 27. With Aayla's lightning, you kind of draw it away and you can see storm clouds gathering around. You kind of draw it out and using that internal magic of Tiangongongs that allows you to kind of seal yourself in a protective layer of

magic um and breathe underwater you channel that and form another one of these anchor points six of them now surrounding the rift drawing it closed there is still this thin red line down the middle that you can just feel the power echoing from. Um... No, no, no, no. This is but one lift of many. Do not think you will accomplish anything. I will remember you. I will come

for you. Uh, Lucius? Uh, so has Aayla's enhancement been expended? That's been expended, yes. That advantage is now gone. Right. So has Aayla's enhancement been expended? That's been expended, yes. That advantage is now gone. Right. So I will cast all my energy

into a 5th level spell. That sounds wise. Orb of acid. I mean, the spell doesn't matter, it's just the slot, the magical energy required to cast the spell. So I'll be using that.

And I will meet the anger of Aayla, because I'm pissed that this thing is getting away with what it's done so far. And who knows how far it's already gone. So I'll slam that into the ground. Here we go in it. Prisma coming up plus five uh what is up with my rolls

13 plus four that was a natural that was a four he rolled a four it does not matter i'll roll it for funsies three roll it for funsies. Three. Roll it for funsies. That becomes a total of 16. I guess. I feel fine. I'm not demoralized in the slightest. Lucius, with all that rage and that anger, your hair kind of begins floating around you as you build the manor around your body.

You throw it out to try and grab one of these last few points that you need to seal this thing away completely. And as you do, the magic instead of forming into an anchor point, the tendrils, one of these red tendrils, grabs the magic and pulls it into the rift

itself. And as it does you watch as the six anchor points you've made just pop one by one. The rift opens, stretches, closes. You feel like this heavy weight fall upon all of your shoulders, and then the rift

just breaks the space around you. The rift vanishes, and a rush of magic surrounds everybody. I need all of you to each individually roll a d8. Can I have barrier ringed? Do I have advantage

on this because of a dex? This is not a saving throw. This is not a saving throw. It's just everybody roll one d8. Oh god. Interesting. Oh! Oh!

Well, we're all seeing different results I think yeah you are well to an extent to an extent right certain things are going to happen in a certain order here did anybody roll a two yes Katie did can you roll a d10 for me please Katie

three three okay yes Katie did can you roll a d10 for me please Katie 3 3 okay Lucius and Quill I'm going to roll something now what's that d10 why what's that for 28

what did Nova roll a 7 7 that's interesting no no don't say that 28. What did Nova roll? A 7. That's interesting. Oh, no, don't say that. And Century rolled the 1. Team 1! So. Jeez.

So. Ayla, you are hit. These kind of ribbons of magic come flying off the exploded rift. These coalescence of shimmering patterns and effects and space and fabric of reality seems to bend around it. Ayla, you are just washed in one of them. You try and dodge, but it almost locks onto you and washes over your body.

Lucius and Quill, the crushing weight around you becomes so intense you are slammed into the ground. You both take 28 force damage as you are slammed into the ground. You can feel your muscles and bones creaking under intense gravitonic pressure. You can feel your muscles and bones creaking under intense gravitonic pressure. Nova, you are bombarded with this swirling violet magic that kind of bonds to your skin and soaks into your body itself.

And you seem to kind of almost split into three people, then become one again. You seem to kind of glimpse the stones around you seems to suddenly dissolve but then come back together time seems to warp and change around you um ayla you feel your body kind of not massively change but you can see a few lines of age begin to kind of wear on like your skin not much um but your body seems to age in an accelerated manner and century is at the middle of all of this as you're all kind of around it century's kind of caught in the middle as a maelstrom of energy is surrounding her and you see astral space kind of open up all around her and you see all these dozens of strange planets and places that you've never been.

What do you guys do as Sentry is caught in the middle of all of this? What can we do? Yeah, if I'm splitting apart, like... You can still act. You guys can still move and act. Okay, okay. Even Lucius and quill you've got like a route like you've got like an action and a move huh she's in the middle of you so she's kind of like she's like five ten feet like can i move at all am i just like you you're

stuck there unfortunately century yeah okay you can you're like being surrounded by space and places and you can feel your body kind of being just locked in place. I know what you think, but we'll do it. Can I lightning lure Century? Oh.

Is that what you were going to say? That's what Quill's doing. What about everyone else? Because you're all kind of doing this at the same time. Is she in the... Is she... Is, like, the magic she's within, is that centred on a spot rather than her?

No, it's on her. It's on her. It's around her, like an egg around her, like an egg of magic around her that you can all see. Okay, I thought, like, it was something I could pull her out of, right? Well, you did think that, yes. You did absolutely think that.

Oh. I was calling out, how do we save her? Well, I mean, you call that out, but then you stay where you are. Lucius, do you try and grab her? Do you try and move away? You see Quill kind of throwing lightning so lucius also from the same side like pulls a throws out a lure of lightning around century's body nova i was thinking if i cast levitate on

her would that make her easier would that give the boys advantage because you don't know it's her easier to like you can try you don't know i guess yeah i easier to like... You can try. You don't know. I guess, yeah, I'll try that then. I'll cast Levitate on her and hope that it'll help the boys. So you reach out with your innate magic and you feel this kind of connection between you and sensory form, Ayla. Can I literally just throw her an actual rope and help but stand where the guys are so I can pull in the same direction as them but lend my strength to it yeah absolutely you throw the rope out and as you kind of all do this

kind of simultaneously kind of shouting to each other as you see century caught there the rope wraps around her wrist the lightning lure around the leg the lightning lure one of the other lightning loads around her forearm the nova yours is more of a magical connection as you kind of connect the spell to your own innate magic and at the point that you all connect to century is the moment that all five of you are sucked through space and appear somewhere else century roll a d20 okay yay shit we're in Voxar again! This is why we never get our freaking reward money! You've got that on you! You picked that up!

You got the reward money this time. We would've gotten more! Okay. I might need some time to figure out some stuff on this one. Oh no! Okay, I might need some time to figure out some stuff on this one. Oh yeah, great. Literally we have done the worst that we could have possibly done there. Whatever you want, Mark. You had some bad rolls. You could describe the movement and then we can go on a break if you want. Sure, that sounds really good.

Because what happens is as you are pulled through, there is a similar... Quill and Ayla would feel a similar sensation to this, but the rest of you, this would be an unusual effect. You feel yourself pulled not just through space, but across dimensions, across planes, as you are all plane shifted. And you arrive into what appears to be a large field of strange flowers and grasses

that you have never seen before, standing on a large open plane, looking in the direction of a beautiful, idyllic white city made of curved metal, floating spheres of magic and glass. And you can see airships, but they don't look like any airships you've ever seen. They're sleek metal devices

that come and go from this incredibly huge city ahead of you. And around its borders, you can see a very familiar emblem in a black and purple livery as you see the emblem of the Valkyrian Empire all around on this city's base. And yeah, you see a strange city

and a strange world that you have never seen before. And that's where we'll take a break. Oh no! we followed century like that's the best case scenario yeah other than pulling her out yes she could have just gone on her own yeah that is very much a possibility tom hazel yes do i have my hammer because that's the only thing that i do have you do have your hammer. I'm not going to be a dick. You do absolutely have your hammer. Holy crap.

Let's say that in the moment that the rift broke, the hammer fell to the ground and then snapped back into your hand. How about that? Fuck it up. You pulled it through the portal. Also as a note, it's not a huge change.

Ayla is three years older than she was. She's aged by three years. So nothing to affect your stats, but it's only three. You're fine. How old was she before? She's an elf. Huh? Yeah, that's an interesting thing to Nova. I'll add that in the break.

Nova A, B, and C. You have to control three people at once now. Oh my god. and C. You have to control three people at once now. And they'll share intelligence. Oh my god. Holy crap. Alright. We're not in a row anymore, kid. ... ...

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