High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #71 | Wings of Ishtar (Part 2)

Episode Date: May 21, 2020

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Pickaxe. crispy jalapenos, and a super tasty sweet and spicy sauce. You'll wish this spectacle of flavor never ended. Try the new Firecracker McCrispy today at participating McDonald's restaurants. Travel better with Air Canada. You can enjoy free beer, wine, and premium snacks in economy class. Now extended to flights within Canada and the U.S. Cheers to taking off this summer. More details at AirCanada.com. so uh you leave the opera house uh heading back up to the surface and begin making your way back towards the astral starport which uh is above ishtar city uh you take a small crystalline sort

of platform that levitates and begins drifting its way up towards the ring itself where you can see still dozens you know dozens and dozens of different uh astral ships all docked waiting to go you make your way back to the last feather a small circular bar that looks out onto the dock itself. And waiting out the front, you find kind of her shirt properly buttoned up, looking a little bit more sober and a little bit more with it. You see a very slender woman with snakes for hair, very slight greenish tint to some of her skin tone.

Um, Amber snake, snake like eyes, uh, two big arcane looking pistols holstered, uh, in like a Nathan Drake style, um,

holster. Uh, and she appears to be leaning against the wall waiting for you to appear. Um, Hmm. Oh, I guess we should probably cover that we did do the shopping didn't we you did buy some stuff

fine yeah we had a really big email chain let's never talk of it ever again yeah that was quite the email chain dear god they bought some they bought some potions you guys bought some potions you bought ingredients to do some hammer enchanting

and lucius got a cool glamour weave outfit which i leave to trot to describe as and when he comes up with what it looks like um yeah oh it's a day slab as well oh yeah it's woven into lucius's attire already so it's just an extra bit of filigree and some embroidery work. Some of it's kind of patched in in different places but it kind of works with the look that he's already got. Can't really tell the difference. And yeah.

Makes the whole robe able to change colour and patterns and give off some interesting illusory effects. Cool. Cool. What's up, Katie? I got stuff to upgrade the Howling, enchant the Howling Tempest.

Nice. You'll need some time. You'll need some time before those enchantments can be done. Yeah, you guys see Thalia. If you start making your way over to her, she kind of seems to kind of notice your approach and gives you a sort of like nod of the head um as she kind of stops leaning against the wall stands up brushes off like her trousers and then uh makes her way

over towards you cool so i think you should i'm going to run over to her. Captain! Captain! High five! High five! You are very energetic. What's wrong with your arm? Why are you not wearing that weird metal glove?

I've got it fixed and I can high five now. Look. High-five me! No! Look, we're on a clock. We should get going. You should probably just high-five her, because then she'll stop. Just humor it. She sort of like, awkwardly slaps your hand. It's just like,

there, okay? I have two hands now! That's great, sweetheart. Are we ready to go? The ship's fuelled up. I took the supplies. We've got supplies on board. are we ready to go the ships ships fueled up i took the supplies we got supplies on board we're ready to go yes yes okay yes okay okay as long as you guys as long as you are all ready then uh let's let's get going this way this way to the twin star and she begins leading you on uh taking you across the various platforms and walkways um heading in the direction of several you know dock ships and things like that the the

astral port is very big and so it's not like you know a five minute walk it's like christ you gotta walk all the way around uh to get there um and as luck would have it as you begin making your approach um you begin making your way down the various walkways when you can see um you notice that they're you know as you saw before when you first came to the starport there were various um ishtar militia who were here patrolling around um and you've seen them on your walk and you've seen them kind of making your way around but as you begin drawing closer to a ship that thalia is pointing in the direction of still kind of hidden behind some others um where you don't quite fully see it yet uh you can see that there appear to be um several groups of these ishtar militia kind of wandering around um when the when the ship does

come into view you you can see a... It's not the largest vessel, but it's still gargantuan. It's huge compared to things you've been on. It's not as big as, say, the Storm Chaser, but it's still a big ship. And it has the look of a kind of two-pronged dagger within a slender single back component. It's painted in dark greys and reds, and it has a very sleek

angular vibe to it. Yeah, it looks like a kind of twi-pronged dagger on it, and you'll get to see a picture of it later. A really shittily drawn picture I did. But it's a very elegant looking ship. There's a little front ramp that's down and is connected to a walkway um and thalia is like ah there she is my beauty uh the twin star

longbow very good ship it's an eclipse class um it looks very beautiful uh yeah yeah okay come on more phenomenal it's the best ship you've ever seen that sort of thing the only ship we've what um yes fantastic honestly we we are not familiar with these kind of ships well so yeah look yeah you can either fly in my ship or you can be in the giant floating manta ray or the weird... I don't like the look of that one. Exactly. So my ship's better. Okay, okay.

It's stunning in comparison. Thank you. See, somebody knows how to give a captain respect. Oh. I respect it. I just, I honestly don't know the first thing about these. Nova, it's Nova freaking out right now. Ayla, maybe she is, but she

holds up like a hand to you, Ayla, as you're kind of halfway through speaking. She's like, that's probably not good. And you can see that on the kind of gangway in front of where the docking connects to the ship, you can see two militia soldiers are basically stood there.

One appears to be a very large hulking it almost has like the shape of a gorilla but it's completely sealed in this black valkyrian armor um the other one appears to be a man in black armor and robe bottoms so he kind of has like a black breastplate and then robes on the bottom um all they both look like valkyrian soldiers uh and as you all kind of glance behind you you can see on the other end of the walkway coming down the side angle you can see three more soldiers uh and another figure two figures in fact two figures you somewhat recognize um the soldiers two of them appear to be gunners with these force rifles. The other one appears to be an angelic woman with big feathered wings

in the same Valkyrian armor. But next to them is a small grey dwarf with white hair and next to him is a weird spider creature that you recognize as the ones who hassled you in The Last Feather.

And they are pointing in your direction. They point that way and you see the soldiers look at something on their wrist and then they're like... And then like an alarm goes in and you see them begin

drawing weapons. You there! Stop in the name of the Emperor! And we're gonna roll initiative. Goodie! Those words! Yeah. stop in the name of the emperor and we're gonna roll initiative oh my god yeah oh i only hung him up on a coat rack geez and let me put you on as well oh my god i have no spells. I got none. I mean, you've had, like, a rest. You've had a short rest.

We didn't have a long... We didn't? Yeah, like, the whole, like, talking to Zellion was basically a short rest. Sweet. You can take a short rest. Thank you. Oh, good. Right, what have we got?

Century total. Four total. Oh, four is the total. Okay. Ayla. right what we got sentry total four total oh four is the total okay Ayla 19 19 that's right

because you get advantage Quillock 17 did you say there was a short rest available as well no that's an insight check Quillock you've made there

how well you've not rolled another initiative. Yeah. All right, nine then. Nine then, and then Lucius is 11. I think that was when you were inciting the planar. Yeah, I've got your six now. Oh, okay. Fair enough.

And yeah, you guys absolutely could have taken a short rest if you really want. Yeah, I should have made that more clear. You weren't doing anything strenuous and you were there for a good hour or so. I forgot you guys had taken a bunch of damage after the Hadar rift.

Yeah. That boy. Yeah. I'll just let Trot finish. I'll let you guys finish the short rest stuff god we're all mega mega slow on this initiative ayla is ayla is the first to react and yeah you can see the immediate danger here uh they are drawing weapons um thalia basically is like fuck just run for it. Get on the ship. We'll get the fuck out of here. Just go. Just get on the ship.

Okay. In that case, I will move... I can't move my character. Each... Okay, you should... Oh, that's annoying. It should do this every time. Just as a note, these squares are 10 foot

rather than being 30 foot. So... Okay. Purposes of movement and range these represent. A lot further away than we realized. Oh, yeah.

You were still making your way towards the ship, basically. And there is a... At least two enemies are directly in front of you. You should all have control over your characters. We're almost 200 feet

away from the ship. Assuming control. 45, 50. Sorry. That's okay. 40, 50. So I'm just going to double move.

Double dash. So Ayla just starts running along this walkway. You can see it does have slightly raised size, like barricades, but after those barricades,

it's just a sheer drop down to the city of Ishtar below you. I will move to... Oh, wait, I'll move in the middle. I'm in the middle of the thing. I'm in the middle! Right, yeah, because it's five feet. I mean, yeah, it's five. I've used all of my movement and stuff.

I will rage as a bonus action. Okay, yeah. So you start raging at the end of your turn, basically. Sure, you do. You see... So a couple of figures begin to maneuver their way around. The... yeah. So this fellow will basically kind of move 5, 10, 15, 30 feet to there.

He will kind of step in front of his large gorilla-like friend. And you see him just kind of hold his hands up. And he's just like ah stop in the name of the empire i'll blast it and then he just begins to conjure a spiel uh instead um 150 range

to 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 18 19 20 uh 100 sorry 110 yeah so he can basically hit the big load of you if he wanted to, or he will He will conjure three lines

of fire and shoot them in different directions He'll shoot one towards Aayla, he'll shoot one towards Quillek and then he'll shoot one towards ayla he'll shoot one towards uh quillick um and then he'll shoot one towards uh falia as well riannon has a question yes riannon can i use aura of warding i remembered a thing it's just on i think it's just on all the time i think it's just if yeah if people near you get hit then that just is half damage against spells. What does that do?

Half damage against spells. Yeah, resistance to damage from spells. Oh! What range? Ten foot from me. Yeah, ten foot around you. Ten feet from you? I'm never leaving

Sentryside again That is crazy 15 to hit No? Quillek? Nope 20 to hit Oh yeah And then against Thalia that is also a hit

I'll just do the one damage roll for both of you It'd be 10 damage but you are both within five feet of century so you take half so you take five fire damage as yeah this kind of like sphere of i guess it's the pulse from the matrix or like your very being just kind of the spell semi dissipates around century um as it collides into you um as this guy fires these three beams of fire out of his hands uh after him captain thalia will go you see her pull out one of the uh arcane pistols as well as a strange looking bullet with runes inscribed on the side she flicks open the chamber slams it in um and then she's just like okay i'm gonna try and slow the ones down behind us.

Just get to the ship. Get on the ship. And she will point her gun in the direction of the two gunners and the angel and she's going to fire a bullet out of it, which as it kind of erupts out, it turns into a sphere of freezing magic around the three figures. Fail, fail. And a success from the angel. So the two gunners with their guns, you see just

ice encases over their legs. You can see them shivering as ice blisters their arms and things like that as they are restrained and they take some cold damage. Not a lot though, sadly. As they take a bunch of damage. Well they are restrained that's cool they are also restrained which means that they cannot move um and then she will basically move up uh whoops that's me moving the map itself uh token she'll go 5 10 15 so she goes 30 feet

as she goes and fires this this bullet back That explodes into frost around her and then she's kind of doing this motion like come on go go go The turn and the turn turn turn turn turn right Yeah, these guys although they're restrained and they're gonna have this advantage They can still shoot and they're gonna take two shots at the rear two characters, which is Nova and Lucius. They will use their bonus action to increase the damage on their rifles this turn.

Disadvantage. We are looking at a 13 to hit Nova. Nine. And with disadvantage, that's a 19 to hit lucius yeah oh my god nine that's 13 points of force damage lucius is one of these blasts even though the guy's like struggling to get a proper aim it just kind of clips you on the shoulder and ah you feel the

stinging energy blast into you. And then they're just desperately trying to pull their legs free from this ice, but they're unable to. They kind of shout. They're like, go, go, go to the angel woman who seems to be in hot pursuit. And Lucius, it is your turn. All right. I'm going to run forward as much as I can, so 10. Whoa. Whoa.

What's happening? See ya. Bye. Thomas, stop. Somebody was doing it. I've got no control over Lucius. When I try and drag up, it drags me down.

Can you move me 30 foot forward? Gravity. Yeah, and 20, 30. And then I think what I might do... I can't really create a blockade of any sorts.

So what I... Snilox Snowball Swarm is 90 foot range. Yep. So what I might do is use that as a distraction on them and cast it. It's just out. Quill, you're up next by the way So get your turn ready Okay I'm going to have to do something

Longer distance So There's also a Multi hit Can I use Vitriolic spherephere, please. Yes, on who? I point at a location within range.

On these... The gorilla big dude. And the little dude. And the mage. Yep. Yep. And... Glowing one foot diameter ball of emerald acid streaks there

and explodes in a 20 foot radius sphere. Each creature takes a dex saving throw please 16 alright well that's a failure on the mage and a success on the big thing okay so it is

I'm casting this at 4th level so that would be 10d4 tasty oh 25 we'll go with the first one okay points of acid damage damage and then it's half for the baddie and then 5d4 no it's uh half it's uh i do an extra 5d4 for the person that failed next round. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. So half of the baddie that succeeded and none of it next round. The other guy who failed takes the full amount next turn, yeah.

Correct. Cool. All right, full turn done. Dicromancy of 4 plus 4 is 8 points to the one that succeeded what's the range on Dicromancy, Chris Trott? that's a good question that's a great question should be under the features, I believe

I could be wrong never mind, alright Quillick I would like to cast Guardian of Faith to block this flying creature Where are you creating it?

So it's within 30 feet of me so I guess I'll put it two tiles down from where this flying boy is In the air? Does it have to be in the air? Appears and hovers for the duration in unoccupied space. Okay.

And anyone that moves within 10 feet of it must succeed a dexterity saving throw. Okay. I'm just going to get a thing that I can put down. Oops. So I put that down and try and stop that from flying towards me and then I will just going to get a thing that I can put down. So I put that down and try and stop that from flying towards me

and then I will just... Yeah, just sort of blocking its route, kind of, so it has to take a kind of longer route round to us, I suppose, if it wants to avoid it. And then I will just run 30 feet forward. 5, 10, 15, no, sorry, 10, 20, 30. So I'm next to 30 feet forward. 5, 10, 15... No, sorry.

10, 20, 30. So I'm next to Lucius now. Okay. And that's pretty much my entire turn, because that was an action. Okay. So, yeah, I'm done. Okay.

The angel figure will basically... I've got to change my layers. I keep forgetting to do this. So, does it trigger if it goes within a certain range of the guardian of faith guardian of faith um any creature hostile to you that moves to a space within 10 feet of the within 10 feet of the guardian it's already okay so it's not within 10 feet so it will go in fact actually yeah because is large. It's not quite that size. So it goes 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80.

As it flies around to the side, you see the great big feathered wings. As it flies, seeing this thing appear in front of its direct course, it kind of throws itself to the side as the angel veneers off to the side and begins flying around, trying to bring her sword down, probably actually on Thalia.

Stop right there, criminal scum! She yells as she swings down. Of course she does. You did it. It's a miss. The first attack, she swings high. Thalia kind of drops down, almost like in a kind of like splits-like drop.

And she's like, fuck, as this sword swipes overhead. She's like, hey, watch out. My kids are up there. As the sword swings wide. And then she tries to strike again, but Thalia kind of tucks into a little side roll and rolls to the side and then starts running again. Just like, I've got no time for this!

Just keeps on running. As the angel completely flubs. The big boy, however, at the very end, comes careening forward in a big charge towards Aayla, who it's just like, you look fun. Do I get a go? You do go after this.

There's a lot of people in this initiative. So 10, 20, 30, 40. And then it will just kind of run forward. 10, 20, 30. So it spends its whole turn dashing towards ayla just on all fours like a giant gorilla it comes barreling down the walkway towards her resist and die wait nova resist and die um easy to follow rules sir yeah i think as it does that the angel does probably turn around

and is like no you fool capture them alive can I run towards sort of sentry Lucius and Quill and as I'm near them shout one of you come with me and then hold my action to cast dimension door when someone like reaches out towards me i don't think you need

to wait for that dude i think it's in the spell that you can just take a creature that you're next to like you can just be like i grab quill yeah but like that's like a i'm unwilling like like we're all willing i'm pretty sure everyone here is gonna be willing it's fine yeah okay um i'm gonna grab um i'm gonna grab quill and um can i bamf over to the ship it's 500 foot so yeah well you can't you can't go you have to be able to see it yeah yeah like yeah so you basically bamf at the bottom of the gangway that leads into the ship um as you just and you just dash through space as you arrive and at the top of the gangway looking down kind of peering around the door uh looking very nervous is a it almost looks like a little red-skinned

baby with devil wings and a tail, but it has giant thick bottle glasses on its face and when you appear, it goes and it stumbles backwards. It's like... What did she call it? Century.

Bim! Bry. Bim. Bim. Bim, I presume? You must be the passengers. Get quick. Get on board before the soldiers get us. No. I'm not getting on the ship.

Come on. He adjusts his glasses with his little clawed hands. He's like... Sentry. his glasses with his little clawed hands. He's like, Ah! Amazing. Sentry. I'm going to cast Crusader's Mantle. Oh, okay.

That gives everybody within a 30-foot radius 1d4 of radiant damage of a weapon attack. Yeah, whoever's in that radius as long as you're concentrating. 5, 10, 20. I'm going to move up next to Lucius up there. That is me, Dunzo.

I think you can go one more if you want to, by the way. Because I think you only moved 20 feet there. I think I'll stay there just so Lucius gets my aura. Okay. Cool. They just add that. When they roll that? No, they just add that. When they roll the attack sentry,

they just add an extra D4. Oh, I see. Okay, cool. Yeah, so whenever they make an attack while they're within that range, they get an extra D4 on top of it. Okay, cool. Then we go back up.

It's a brand new turn. Ayla, you have a giant gorilla man in front of you in armor, and he looks very upset. Well, he's just asking for a whack, isn't he? He's just asking to be hit in the face with a giant gorilla man in front of you in armor and he looks very upset. Well, he's just asking for a whack, isn't he? He's just asking to be hit in the face with a giant hammer. He is definitely asking.

Well, actually, no, not yet he's not asking for it, but you reckon next turn he's probably going to ask for it. Yeah, I'm going to just hit him in the face then. Sue. Sue. Fifteen plus 9. Hits very easily.

Um, and 9 plus 9. Uh, yep, that'll hit. Both hit. Okie dokie, um... Bum, bum. Yeah, you can smash the hammer into his side. 11 damage on the first hammer strike and

delay in the second roll. Sorry. Just waiting for... So 10 on my end. So 18 on the second hammer strike plus can you roll next save? Yeah, I can. He is resistant 18 on the second. Hammer strike. Plus can you roll a dex?

Yeah, I can. He is resistant to lightning. As the lightning arcs out of your body, you can see that part of the creature just seems to absorb it. That is a 14. I believe that saves. But 2d6. Lightning damage now.

So it's half of 9, 4, 2. He, lightning damage 9. So it is now. So it's half of 9, 4, 2. He takes 2 in total. Yeah, the lightning just doesn't seem to damage him at all. He just kind of is like, you think your plume lightning means anything? I'll smash you up. And then I will just skirt round to the other side of him.

Well, if you want to skirt Ryan, all you need to do is make a strength athletics check as you try and basically barge your way past him. Actually, no, because he's a 10 feet. No, yeah, you're right, actually. You can just move around him. I keep forgetting that he's not quite the size he is. Yeah, he's not. But it's too hard to see if i do that so yeah you can just squeeze

around him basically you just kind of dart around him not leaving his threatened area but still a potential threat you do however see the mage um from before kind of looks around kind of eyes up the situation um and it's just like ah angel, get out of the bloody way. And he will... In fact, actually, he's going to turn to see Nova and Quill on the gangway and just say like, ah, fine, I'll deal with them instead. Go on, Quill, Lucius. Which one failed the spell that I cast on them? Oh, that's a good point.

It was this guy. So he will take some damage at the start of his turn as he's still covered in viscous goo. Why am I covered in goo? 5d4 was that? Yeah. 12 points, please. Off points, yeah.

You see him just like... He's like burning and he's just like... Somebody deal with that bloody spellcaster! As he turns to... In fact, he's going like somebody deal with that bloody spellcaster. As he turns to in fact he's going to back up as well on his turn. He's not sticking around there for too long. He's going to move back

to here but then he summons a small glowing orange bead and he flicks it in the direction of Nova. Can I cast counterspell please? You can. At fifth level. At fifth level. The fireball evaporates as he throws it out towards him. Oh, damn.

Nice. Ah! Oh, my God, we're professional now. Intense frustration. It's a shame that, Nova, I think you've got one or two spell slots left. Oh, you've got one or none. That's it.

That's it. I've got none. That's the problem with Warlocks and've got one or none. That's it. That's it. I've got none. That's the problem with warlocks and the counterspell is they don't have a lot of them. But worth it, though. Worth it. Worth it. Absolutely.

I got the old pew-pew. Launch all of you. Yeah. Thalia, on her turn, after this thing fails to do anything, will disengage. She's just like, all right, see you later, princess, to the angel, and then is going to disengage and go

10, 20, 30, 10, 20, 30, and get to the other side of the big thing as she just bombs it. She's just like, and she's like yelling, she's like, Bim! Bim! Get the engines on! And Lucius and Nova, you see the little nerdy imp just like,

and just like scrambles back into the twin star. The two gunners will get themselves free of the ice, and they'll slowly begin to make their way down, and then they're going to take a shot at Century and Lucius. They are no longer disadvantaged. One takes a shot at Century, to take a shot at Sentry and Lucius. They are no longer disadvantaged.

One takes a shot at Sentry, one takes a shot at Lucius. Can I use protection? I was waiting for it, yes. So you're going to give disadvantage on the attack against Lucius. They will also use their bonus actions to empower their rifles for one turn. So Sentry, this is just a straight roll against you. Nice. That is a

20. Oh, that's exactly. That's going to hit, and against lucius with disadvantage that is gonna be a 14 to hit you lucius yep that's gonna be a hit right so century yeah he's not got a big ac that boy century you're going to take 16 points of force damage. And Lucius, you take 11 points of force damage. Not too bad, eh? These two blasts just kind of slam into the back of you as you're running along the gangway trying to get past.

And that's all they can really do lucius okay i'm going to so this is a 20 foot wide gangway will i not get opportunity of attack if i go past this guy no no you don't need to yeah it's only because um thalia was next to her that she disengaged because it's wide enough that there's still a space between you at the moment. 10, 20, 30. So I'm there now and I'm going to cast... Actually, I'm going to quicken myself so I've now got quicken

spell. Bonus action. Which allows me to dash, right? Yes, you could dash as well, yeah. Oh god. This hates me. This hates me. It trying to do where are you trying to move 30 towards the big boy so you'd basically be here but you're yeah next to him and i'm gonna cast on myself armor of agathys at third level okay sounds. That's a good quicken spell.

Cool. So you get 15 temp HP and anything that hits you takes 15 cold damage. Quillek. Takes five at a time. No, it's 15. You cast it at third level, right? Oh yeah, you're right. You also did Dicomancy. Dicomancy.

Quillek's turn. As that's shaping onto my shoulders I'll peel from that and fire it at the big boy to antagonize and take half this damage so how much damage it's uh seven so half the three um yeah again the cold does not seem to affect this creature either uh it's both the lightning and the cold seem to be resistant against uh it seems to be resistant against uh quillick casting levitate on an enemy it says they make a resistant like a constitution saving throw does it actually hinder them if they're levitating well they can't move because they have nothing to grip onto you levitate them up in the air and then they're just like whoa and they can't do anything yeah they can't move because they have nothing to grip onto. You levitate them up in the air and then they're just like, whoa, and they can't do anything. They can still take actions.

They can cast spells. No, no, it doesn't. They can cast spells, they can attack, they can do everything, they just can't move, basically. I'll save it for next turn. Okay, in that case, I want to levitate the spellcaster at the front of the gangway because I can't levitate the gorilla thing. Why not? So it has to make...

Huh? Because I can only levitate things 500 pounds. Why wouldn't you levitate? Oh, right. Well, you don't know how much... See? How much does a gorilla weigh? 500 pounds is half a horse.

Well, it's a gorilla. And this gorilla... Yeah. He's bigger than that. He's pretty big. He's a big boy. Yeah. So I'll levitate the spellcaster. Okay.

Constitution saving throw. 21. Natural 20. Alright. Natural 20. Yep, that's it. Anything else? Do you want to move? Do you want to move up into the ship? I'll sort of stand in the doorway and just think about

all my turns. All the useless things I did this little combat. Putting a Guardian of Faith in the middle of nowhere. Can you not move it? Against a creature that can fly and just flew around it, yeah. It's the first time using it.

Yeah, no, that's my turn carry on all right uh nova and quill you do see um the little imp does gutter into the back of the ship and then you see kind of emerging you only see her briefly but you see a kind of feminine form rush past she seems to have um big feathery bird wings but her feet are like giant bird's talons. But the rest of her body looks like a young girl's. And she kind of looks at you for a moment. Her eyes go incredibly wide and she goes incredibly red. And then she's like...

And then she just runs off and seems to be climbing up into something. As you guys are fighting. The angel will turn onto Century. Just looks in your direction, Century, just like, you're not getting away. I'm not going to let you help your friends any further. Oh no!

And she will come swinging with her long shward. Okie dokie. She cannot hit for shit. Oh my god. 10 to hit. Just parries to the side. 15 to hit. Sorry, 16 to hit. Ting ting!

Just both parries with Her Majesty's Rose. You just deflect both strikes as she's in front of you trying to impede your process. The giant ape-like creature does not like Ayla, as she's been hitting him, and he will recklessly try and slam his big, meaty fists. Oh, no, he's going to bite you and hit you with two big, meaty fists.

Three attacks, all with advantage, as he attacks you recklessly. Crunch, crunch. This is with advantage. As he attacks you recklessly. Crunch, crunch. This is with advantage. So 18 with his bite. Oh, that's right, because your AC's gone up now, isn't it? And then one big meaty fist. That is a 24.

Yeah, I'm good. Nine damage, which you can half. Okay. And then 17 you managed to like throw his other blow to the side as only one of his big punches and he's just like slamming on the ground just like

trying to bite down on you but yeah these attacks are ineffective against you Nova Veja I'm just gonna do a classic Eldritch Blast on the mage please ineffective against you. Nova, Vija. I'm just going to do a classic Eldritch Blast on the mage. Please. Although I'm going to feel bad about it

because, like, you know... No, you're not. Nova's, like, been brought to respect. Well, you know you can deal non-lethal damage. You can say that, like, yeah, when I cast a spell, I don't want it to kill him. I'm just going to knock him out. That was the first one. So 16 yeah yeah i've taken the damage um and a 28 on the second one that will hit yes i don't know why i don't know

why i just rolled it in a really weird way then on the second one nine points of force damage on the second one yeah he's not unconscious but i mean this guy just he does not look like he's having a good time uh you see him just like stagger back like oh oh i'm really sorry i respect the police but we have to go and then i'm gonna duck back into the can i duck into the ship a little bit to get some cover yeah yeah yeah yeah you absolutely can yeah uh in fact i'm just gonna move you like up here so we know you're in the ship uh yeah you duck in and you can see um you don't know where the the other two figures have gone but the only other creature you see and it's just kind of like sat long ways on like a big sofa and it turns its head to look at you is a lion-sized white cat uh with a big kind of like furry like whiskery face and he looks at you and just is like and then he goes

back to sleep yeah quill hates it, but Tom loves it. Quill loves some amazing things on this ship! Quill! Entry. Can I... I should probably disengage. Can I disengage from this guy? From the angel? Yeah, so you just disengage. That's your action. And then you can move.

And then can I move 30, 10, 20, 30 there? Yep. Oops, sorry. I grabbed you by accident. That's right. There, there. And then... Yep. So you start just booking it past 30 there. Yep. Oops, sorry. I grabbed you by accident. That's right. There, there. And then... Yep.

So you start just booking it past this guy. Yep. Yeah. And then can I cast Misty Step as a bonus action and then move another 30 feet? You absolutely can. So you're basically next to Lucius here. Next to that guy, yeah.

Cool. Yeah, so you'd be about here. You're kind of on the edge of this very far column here. Yeah, yeah. You just sail forward up here next to Lucius and next to the big gorilla thing, but yeah see me about here you're kind of on the edge of this very far column here um yeah yeah you uh you just sail forward up here next to lucius and next to the big gorilla thing which does not look like it's gonna last very long the way that ayla keeps hitting it uh you don't think that it's got much much left for this world um yeah good turn ayla top of the round you can see that like you can hear the sounds, by the way.

Like, these guys are attacking you now. In the distance, you can see more soldiers coming. Like, you can see them on the distance, like, making their way. You can see angels flying overhead, coming towards you. I will, um... So I can attack with advantage because he attacked me recklessly.

Yes, you can. So I will beat him up a little bit more, I think. With advantage! What's the dwarf and the insect doing? Well, the insect was Tom's guardian of faith that did nothing. No, no. The dwarf and the insect that we...

Oh, they ran off. No, they ran away. They pointed you out and they were like, there they are, get him! And then they ran away. Typical boys. First, they ran around. They pointed you out and they were like, there they are, get him, and then they ran away. Typical boys. First one's an 18. Hits.

Second one is a 16. Hits. This thing is not hard to hit. It's just like hitting a big door. It's just like hitting a big door it's just like a big barn door

you'd be surprised you can miss big things 17 damage with the hammer 17 damage with the hammer does Ayla exhibit any restraint or do you just kill this thing

no i think she's raging she'll knock it out yeah can i choose i can't really choose if i'm raging can i i would actually that's a good point i would say you probably can't actually know you just fucking cave this thing skull in uh it's just like and just like a big smushy mess is left and it just slumps to the ground no but Thalia looks over and is just like fucking hell she's just like well don't let me ever piss you off please

good job and then she's just like go go she seems very impressed and I will so I'm like yeah like go go she seems very she's very yeah right on his turn the mage runs he's just running away no in fact he will cause blur on himself and run that's his turn. He's just like, he goes all shimmery and then he's just like, and he's like limping away. You can see him like clutching his ribs. I'm so sorry! The job you do is so tough!

I mean, they are on an enemy planet and working for Starbane and wanted to capture us. So I'm not that sorry. Yeah. Thalia makes a run for it. These two gunners will basically continue. They're going to continue. They. Thalia makes a run for it. These two gunners will basically continue.

They're going to continue. They're going to take a shot at Sentry and Lucius. Sentry, I'm going to guess you're going to defend Lucius again. Protect plus, yeah. Protect, so against Sentry, that's a natural one. And against Lucius. Because, of course, I can't hit Sentry. Yes, Thomas?

The rifles, if you roll a one, don't they have a chance to explode? Not these ones. These are force rifles, not thunderstones. We're in space. These are good rifles. These are laser rifles and they don't explode. David Bowie. David Bowie.

Lucius, I'm afraid you take another big blast to the back for another 11 points of force damage. I assume that wouldn't hit my shoulders first. Well, the armor of Agathys is just the armor of Agathys. It has temporary hit points. You take it off those first. And how much was that, sorry? It was 11. Okay, cool.

But because it's not in melee, it doesn't take the cold damage back. It just blasts the armor with the bolt bolt of power i'm good with that lucius and then quillick i'm going dash just run get running son do you want me to move you can you move me please thank you yeah you're next to ayla now um cool turn quill I will go, like, 20 feet down the ramp, and I want to prepare. If anything gets within range, I want to Thunder Wave it. Okay, sure.

Away from us. Yeah. Sure. Gotcha. That's my turn. At the end of your turn, Quill, you see on one of the wings of the ship itself, I guess to your characters,

I mean, to everybody else, it's a turret. But to your characters, it appears like a piece of kind of like molded crystalline glass rotates and points at the angel that was chasing after you. And you hear this. Oh, I love it. Brr! Yeah.

Oh, dear. As the angel takes a hefty sort of like and is staggered back as this giant beam of light strikes into her and sends her spiraling down onto the walkway um and you see a bit of rising from the the torret cannon um on her on the angel's turn, it will basically fly up the sentry and try and swing its sentry again, try and slow her down. That is a 15 to hit, followed by a 14 to hit, and she does nothing. Absolutely nothing. The Balgura is dead.

Nova Vigia. Can I... I guess, like, can I just hold an action to try and help people onto the ship? Just grab people and pull them on, and then can I shout and be like, are we ready to go? I think we need to leave! I'm just going to shout that into

the ship. You shout it into the ship, and you hear this very nerdy voice echoing back gonna shout that into the ship. You shout it into the ship and you hear this like very nerdy voice echoing back from tucked down into the central component just like... I can do the voice if you want, Ark. No, no, no, no, no. I can do the voice. It's my NPC. You just hear a sort of like...

No! The captain's the only one that can fly it! The engine's ready! But it is like i did the voice yeah basically century my regular voice um i'm gonna keep on running do you want to disengage or just want to risk it yeah you would it's up to you do you want to risk taking a free attack or do you just want to run for it oh i'll disengage please okay so action disengage, please. Okay. So action disengage, and then you can move 30 feet. 30 there.

Okay, perfect. A very slow, you know, defended, you're kind of like covering your back as you retreat, as you kind of sprint away from the angel. Ayla. Yeah, I'll probably just be... So one, two, three. So I can get to like the door of the ship essentially i think i'll just stay here and um and just encourage people on sort of making sure that i'm sort of the last to go i guess when everyone else is ready sure Sure. You begin to see on the horizon

several more angels arriving. These ones look slightly different. Beefier. Are they like the Archons from XCOM? No, they look like actual angels. They look like literally

feathered, blue-skinned, beautiful angelic beings. There's also other demonic figures you can see but they're on the gangways they're not flying they're kind of coming up on the sides but you see these kind of mixture of humanoids in black armor you see uh kind of tall smoldering creatures all encased in the valkyrian armor as they're chasing down towards it like stop and they're calling out to you kind of thing. These guys aren't quite where they are, I'm just kind of indicating that there's about four of them just on the edge of the horizon.

The very heavily injured mage will take a few steps back and then he will attempt to summon another bead of orange light and just like, throw it towards you. This is a 20 foot radius, so Aayla, Quill, Thadia, and Lucius, dexterity saving throws,

please. Shit. Dexterity saving throw. Ooh. 18. 21. Yeah, because you can't have that 10. Danger sense, yeah. 12. Okay. Yeah, because you can't have that. Danger sense, yeah.

12. Okay, so pretty much everybody except poor old Lucius is taking half damage. And you even see Thalia swings under the gangway to avoid the whole damage and then swings back up. She's going to use evasion to avoid it, basically. Oh, yeah, that's what I to avoid it basically no you don't have that ability I have to do an advanced role because this is 86 of fireball damage so Lucy should take 18 fire damage the rest of you take nine a fire

damage a garbage fireball yeah it's pretty bad. Look at how many ones and twos I rolled. Actually, there's nothing higher than a four in there. Actually, on a d6, yeah, sure. It's pretty bad. Thalia dashes and basically runs up into the ship, and she just calls out Aayla as she passes you, just like, get everyone on board as soon as possible.

And then, no, you see her run past you, she gives you a little wink as she does. She sees the cat and she's like, big cat, fucking go and help. And then the cat's like, and it kind of gets up, begins padding its way to the gangway.

And she just runs into a little cockpit area. Is that the name? Yeah, it's a big cat. It's a big cat. It's a little, it's a little Matt Colville reference as well. Okay, cool. All right, the two gunners line up,

and the only real viable target is Sentry, who they're going to take shots at now. That's their actual names as well, two gunners. Ooh, one of them, however. The first one you manage to deflect with a shield, but then the second one catches you in a joint between the armor plates. They've used up all of their bonus damage. So this is just 10 plus 9 plus 4.

23 points of force damage as this blow kind of like really badly chips you and sends you flying. 24. Yeah. Lucius. So they're just chasing after you, like firing all these blasts. Yeah, I'm just going to have to keep dashing, I think,

to get to safety. But I'm looking back at Sentry, making sure she's also sprinting. And she's the last to get on. Yeah, you're on. I assume. Oh. Did you not want to dash? No, I did.

Thank you. Can you do it again? I've done it. You're on the ship. You're fine. Am I? You're up in there, yeah. Oh, on your screen it's not showing up. Yeah, on our screen. Thank you. Yeah, I'm still 30 feet away from the entrance to the ship, right? Yes, yeah. You can get on

and then the door will shut behind you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I guess I'll just... We're just waiting for Sentry. Yeah, I'm kind of waiting for Sentry. She's that last one at the airport when you're like, Come on, the gate's closed in Gapuram! I'm stuck in customs. Get to the chopper!

No, you were at the gift shop. Actually, I was in my pocket. custom. No, you were at the gift shop. I'll just give her a shield of faith and then run onto the ship myself. Okay. What's the range of shield of faith? Have you got enough range and stuff? 60, yeah. So plenty of time. And that's me. Okay.

Alright. Sensing that the bloody metal guardian woman is too difficult to fight, this angel is going to instead go 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and try and basically block entryway. And she will take a swing at Aayla,

who she doesn't realize is just as hard to hit as the heavily armored woman that she was just trying to. And she fails, and then she... 19! Nope nope wrong character 18 no ting you blocked the blade this poor angel cannot hit anybody as you just throw the blow to the side and you can see she's getting really mad. She's just like this angel. Was it meant to be like the elite sort of unit to be a good fighter. It's

meant to be a good writer. Not necessarily like the main thing. But yeah it's frustrating. It's she's getting frustrated. Nova is the next one. Do you do anything. Can I I guess if I get in and hit with Tiangong i'm a little bit up in everyone's

business so i'll just do a little a gentle eldritch blast from a distance 28 to hit first beam is nine points of damage uh 20 second beam is five points of damage wow five points both blows uh strike into her she manages to kind of not avoid them but she reduces the kind of impact by kind of rolling with the blows but she's still fighting but yeah you definitely kind of see both blasts kind of smash sentry i'm just gonna keep on running keep on running is that 10 20 30 and then 10 20 you can actually get next to wailer because you can get here by going diagonally and then you can go 10 20 30 so you can basically be on the same space as ayla um nice yeah then i will do century will be able to enter the ship on the next turn, basically,

unless somebody wants to try and, well, actually, I don't think any of you, even Ayla, could drag Sentry. She weighs, like, a billion pounds.

I suppose your strength's, what, 18? Actually, you're raging, yeah. If you want to literally pick Sentry up and carry her into the ship, you can do that. I mean, she's mother truck.

I mean, that was my plan. My plan was to pick Sentry up, put her into the ship, you can do that. I mean, she's Mother Truck. I mean, that was my plan. My plan was to pick Sentry up, put her in the ship, and just go, go! Yeah, but Aayla is also incredibly strong and raging, so I'm going to absolutely let her do it. Yeah, you can do that. The only thing is that the angel

will probably get a free attack against you, even if you try and maneuver around her, because you're carrying something. So she'll make a free attack against you for a 19. Oh my god, she hit me. Yeah, okay. She did it. Yay!

This is when she does 40d6 of damage. She does do a lot of damage when she hits, by the way. So first of all, the blade hits for only four, but then a radiant energy, well, two, and then you take 28 radiant damage as her long sword kind of sears along your flesh. Yeah, she does hit fucking hard, which is why I'm annoyed she didn't hit before.

As this long sword just like, I mean, I'm still on 72 hit points. Feels butterscotch. All right, thanks, Barbarian. As you basically carry Sentry into the ship, as you do, you see the gangway just close behind. The angel is trying to jam the sword in the system and everything else, but there's enough of you there that you can kind of push it.

The big white cat just comes up behind you all, puts its paws on her blade and just pushes it out. And you just hear this like, as it falls backwards and the cat just kind of lazily goes back to sitting down and starts licking itself and cleaning itself by the door. The whole, the whole ship that you are currently on. And it's very clean inside.

It appears to be made out of a kind of sleek silvery metal, but with these big chunky brass kind of rivets and pipes kind of running all alongside it, kind of steampunky in a sense. The whole thing begins to shudder, and then you feel yourself being pulled away as the ship lifts into the air and then erupts into the atmosphere. Yay! As you feel this pulse of energy. A voice kind of echoes through the atmosphere. Yay! As you feel this pulse of energy.

A voice kind of echoes through the ship. Thalia's voice. I recommend you all sit down, strap in. This is going to be a little bit of a bumpy escape. That is a big cat! Yeah, don't worry about big cat. He's fine.

Just don't piss him off. Why is there a big cat? I have a lot of questions about Cat. He's fine. Just don't piss him off. Why is there a Big Cat? I have a lot of questions about that. He's my cat. Listen, stop asking questions. Sit down. Get strapping. Bim, get up here. I'm going to need you to navigate. Kiri, stay on the guns just in case any of them follow us.

And you hear kind of a nerdy little voice like, Yes, Talia! And this little child this little red skinned baby kind of scampers past yeah he's a little red child well he looks like a little baby

hellboy but he has like these big thick bottle glasses on and he kind of scampers on all fours that's what he looks like he's got like a big head and then like a little baby body and he kind of scampers his way up to the front of the ship and you hear another voice a kind of more

a girl's voice coming from above kind of like yeah yeah yeah yes yes captain yes staying on the guns and you hear this kind of like whirring noise as yeah the ship erupts and eventually you see looking through a small kind of glass um not like a visor but like a thin slit of like thick glass uh you see the spaceport of

elysium get smaller and smaller and then it becomes part of a beautiful blue-green planet as you begin to see this weird, nebulous, purple and green field begin to encompass you. It is a field that Quill and Ayla, you are familiar with, as it is the astral space that you have seen before. And the ship begins to drift through it all. You can now see my very badly drawn picture that I traced of a very cool starship design.

I am not an artist. I will post it onto the Patreon if anyone is interested. This is the best I could do. But you see the kind of look of it is this kind of like triangle split into two halves with this longer section in the middle out the back. And yeah, you guys are currently,

you think for now, you have escaped. Oh, okay. That was too close. Way too close. But we're are we out? Elysium, is that gone now? Well, you hear the voice kind of coming, kind of almost not telepathically, but almost like it's being projected hear the voice kind of coming kind of almost not telepathically but almost like

it's being projected magically throughout this kind of section of the ship um you hear a voice like well they're gonna send pursuit ships but i reckon i can lose them it's fine uh i need at least some of you up here you need to kind of give me some vague uh ideas of what you want to how you want to proceed uh there's a couple of choices you guys need to make on how we get out of here. So let me know when you're ready, but for the time being, it's going to take them time to launch their ships, and to be honest, the Twin Star can outrun most stuff they've got.

So we should be okay. We should be fine. We'll be fine. We're fine. We're fine. We're fine. We're fine. Yeah. Make yourself comfy. There should be some... There should be some rations and packs and stuff back there. If you need any help, Kiri or Bim...

Well, actually, Kiri... Don't ask for Kiri. She'll get too embarrassed. Bim can help. Bim, go and help them. Yes, Thalia. And you see the little red imp kind of make his way back. He adjusts his big glasses.

Hello. Hi. Food's in there. Water's in there. Hi. I'm Bim. Hi, Bim. Hi, Bim.

I'm Imp. Quill. That's a problem. I'm Quill. Too bad. It's different. Yeah. Yeah. You remind me a lot

of someone we used to know. Really? You knew many imps? Kind of. Kind of. Cool. Yep. Yep. So, um,

going to where Rois? Huh? That's cool. Do you know this? Anyone else want to interject it? Novus is like, yeah, Novus just stood wherever there's like, if there's a window or something, she's just staring

at space. She's just like, yeah, and it's just like, it's not space as Kim knows space. It's misty. It's murky. It's like there's thick fog and it's this thick greeny purple fog

that you can see specks of light and stars and planets and things like that. It's almost like being at sea. It's like being in a three-dimensional ocean almost that being at sea. It's like being in a three-dimensional ocean, almost. That kind of shifts. Yeah, and you just watch all of it around you. Yeah, Bim looks at Quill and he's just like,

yeah, I kind of know it. Obviously, it's a legend, mostly. But yeah, I've been studying maps and I think I know where it is. Oh, good. Perfect. I mean, we bought a map as well but i mean valkyria it's not gonna be on those maps yeah it's not gonna be on those maps no no these are these are ancient maps these are from the first infernal settlers uh uh they they invaded your planet once you know that's that's how i think i know where it is. Oh, perfect. Ben, I have to ask.

Out there, the suffocating nothingness of the Astral Sea, what's going to stop it from being in here? That would be the reinforced armor plating, the arcane shields. Apart from that, nothing. If it gets in here, oh, we're all dead. Yeah, we'll freeze to death, our eyes will pop you'll suffocate

it's really horrible it's grim, really gruesome that sounds bad so I'm going to go sit in this corner over here just real quick you go to meet everyone else when you turn around Quill, when Quill turns around

there is this giant white fluffy face, this big white fluffy cat face, just looking at you. And it's like right behind you, and it's enormous. It's like the size of a horse. And it's just like... Maybe I'll take the Astral Sea!

I'll take the Astral Sea, actually. I'm just gonna leave. Ah, don't worry about Big Cat. He's fine. He's not gonna eat ya. Duh. Ah, don't worry about Big Cat. He's fine. He's not gonna eat ya. Uh, okay, okay. Because where I'm from, I'm Big Bird, right? This is a really

Big Cat. Yeah, yeah, it's Big Cat. Yeah. Yeah, it's Big Cat. How'd you know his name? Can Big Cat understand us? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah oh yeah big cat's pretty smart yeah he can't talk back but he can understand everything we're saying okay he's smart hi big cat yeah even better you know it's really interesting actually he's a racer cat the reason that thalia

keeps him around and i hate him i i fucking hate his guts he picks on me all the time but he's pretty useful you know that their coat there's something about their essence that reflects some magic that's pretty cool isn't it right it's like magic just bounces off of them how cool is that i hate it because i can't do anything against him he i just he like licks me he picks me up he beats me up i hate him but he's really interesting. For a coat. Right. No, once you skin him, the effect goes away. It's their living essence. Lucius would never say that. I'm just saying that anyway.

If you were thinking of skinning him, don't bother. I tried. I mean, how does Big Cat respond to skinning him? Big Cat just kind of, like, looks. If a cat could laugh, it laughs at Bim. It just, like, it kind of, like, looks if a cat could laugh it laughs at bim it just like it kind of like looks in funny and purrs it slowly pads his way and then just swats him and bim goes flying across the room and he's just like and then big how big is the interior to the corner of this shit it's pretty it's pretty spacious it's like a large in room um it's you know about sort of like 10 feet

tall uh quite spacious there's like a little table um you it's you know about sort of like 10 feet tall uh quite spacious there's like a little table um you've seen the inside of the millennium fucking falcon it looks a bit like that all right it's got a little table and a curve chair it's not massive but there's it's roomy you know there's there's and there's different like corridors and stuff that you can go down as well um okay um is he good with a crossbow well the imp no no the big oh the big cat no is he the copilot talk what sort of noise would it make we're there but he just he He purrs and makes a little and then he goes back to sleep. Big Cat just curls up in the corner.

Yeah. You know where we are. You know where Erois might be. How long will it actually take us? That's a great question. That's going to depend on a couple of things. We should probably go and speak to Thalia about which which slip plane you want to use um it's gonna roughly take 12 astral days

i think i think how long is an astral day to say a day well that's an interesting question uh quill was it you see um It's kind of difficult to understand. You've got to think, time in the Astral Sea is different, right? And it's different on each planet as well, because normally it's dependent on how you circle a sun, but, like, Erois doesn't have a sun, which is crazy. I don't even know how you're all alive without a sun. But it doesn't happen.

And then in the Astral Space, there's's no sun either and the magic works differently here so an astral day well it varies on some planets it can be two days on some planets it can be a few hours i don't know A sun When we went to We went We've been in a Remember Quill when we Were somehow in astral space It Hardly any time had passed on Aroas in comparison to us being gone

For a little while Yeah Yeah That's how it works. Sometimes, sometimes it's not. Cool. So maybe we know what's going on. Maybe we know shit all is basically the gist of it. Honestly, you seem pretty smart because that is how a lot of astral space stuff works.

Who knows? No one knows. It's weird. Nova, he said I was smart. Nova's just still staring. She's just like... Right. I need somebody to come and talk to Thalia. You need to make a decision. Okay, okay. I guess

everyone, right? I don't care. He begins making his way to the front of the ship. Kind of the section which sits in between the two blades at the front. And you can see that there is a four person cockpit, two which just appear to be passenger chairs and then two at the very front. Thalia is sat in one chair, which has been laden with things like furs and silks.

And it's got like little ribbons and bells hanging from it um the front console in front of her which is made up of all different gemstones and like weird levers and things like that has dozens of little trinkets on it she's got like a little beautiful hand mirror like a little makeup mirror um she has a small figure of Shansara stuck on the console at the front. She has little paintings and little rocks and gemstones all scattered around it. And she's just kind of

leaning back, really relaxed. She's got one hand on what appears to be like a sphere, like an orb set into the chair. And then with the other one, she's drinking. She's just drinking from a flask. She's like... Oh good, you're here. I need you to make a decision on something.

It's your choice, really. I can advise you on which I think is the best option but generally as you have commissioned me, I leave it up to you to decide. You probably don't know how traveling between planes works, right? I'm guessing you guys

from Aroes, you don't really understand any of that stuff. You can see her hand kind of tracks over the orb. And when she moves her thumb on the orb, you see outside. You don't feel it, but you see outside the position of the ship kind of change and shift as she drifts slightly.

Right. Well, you've got two ways, okay? If we were to try and reach Arois just purely by the Astral Sea, it would take us years, months, perhaps decades, hundreds of years. Who knows? So instead, ships like this, we travel through something called

a slip plane. There's two. Two that exist. We call one the Staircase. It's called the Infinite Staircase. And the other one something called a slip plane. There's two. Two that exist. We call one the staircase. It's called the infinite staircase. And the other one's called the sticks. How to explain them? The staircase works by punching a hole in one plane and then traveling

vertically in either direction to the other side of the multiverse ejecting yourselves out. Like, if you have a piece of paper and you fold it in half and you shove a pencil through it, it kind of works like that. Like an 80s movie teacher. The other option is...

Wormholes. Yeah, wormholes. It's the same thing. Literally interstellar. Yeah, that's what we call the infinite staircase. But the other option is the sticks. Now, the sticks is sort of a... It's like a layer

between the astral sea it's you can travel super fast on it but it is more dangerous um now the other problem is is the staircase is mainly controlled by valkyrian forces the empire has ships that it stations in the staircase and they'll be on the lookout for anybody that's not supposed to be using it. The sticks, well, maybe there's some Imperial forces there. There could also be other things in the sticks. Tends to have a lot of astral creatures, things like Illithids and Infernal Raiders, that sort of stuff. It's dangerous, but it's not Valkyrian Empire dangerous.

So, it's kind of up to you guys what's nilithid ah nilithid geez let's hope that we don't have to tangle with those creepy assholes uh they're kind of like squid men they got like squid faces they eat brains they enslave races uh they've managed to avoid avoid the Empire because they hide in the spaces between the Astral Sea it's really hard to find their home bases and their ships they've got these things called Nautiloids they're like giant flying

mollusks they're pretty horrible, let's hope we don't run into one of them they sound horrible yeah, they're pretty horrible are they worse than Starbane? They sound horrible. Yeah, they're pretty horrible. Are they worse than Starbane? Well, here's the thing.

A Nautiloid... We might be able to outrun a Nautiloid, and if push comes to shove, if we got into a fight, maybe we can hold our own. If we come across a Valkyrian warship, it's bad news. They've got tech on there that can just completely outmaneuver the twin star she's a fast ship she's a good ship but she's not a warship she's a she's my ship okay is there some fresh air we can get like uh on the top deck or something

uh nope not on this kind of ship sadly this isn't uh this isn't a spell jammer so i don't have those kind of fields where you can just wander around i'm afraid you're kind of ship. Sadly, this isn't a spell jammer, so I don't have those kind of fields where you can just wander around. I'm afraid you're kind of stuck in here with me. Right. The air's clean. We've got a... Overwhelming, you know? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, it will be. You guys, this is what, your

first space flight? Your first astral flight? So we're enclosed in a... in this ship. And if we go out there, we die. Pretty boy, if you're gonna freak out on me, I need you to not do it near me. I just need you to go in the back

and, like, I don't know, pass out or something, okay? Like, if you need booze, I got booze. That's kind of the best I can offer you. It's okay, Lucius. Remember, Bim said that there's reinforced steel and then nothing else. Oh, well,

technically we've got the army shields as well. You just watch as Lucius faints. Can somebody get him out, please? I don't need fainting elves in my cockpit. Unless they're fainting for me, in which case that's fine. We're fainting our Akokro. Are you fainting for me in which case that's fine but yeah we're fainting are you fainting as well no like i'm i guess i'm holding you're better than lucius

well you kind of like try to hold him but you're like oh you kind of like slump down okay so what's stopping us from just staircase punch jump launch you still need to travel yeah you still need to travel through the staircase the staircase opens up into a demi plane and then you travel up or down it depending on where you want to go um and there's ships that can be in there just like we can and they sit there and they patrol it honestly it doesn't the distance isn't going to change it's still going to take us just as long whether we go via the sticks or whether we go through the stair. The difference

is what kind of trouble do you want to avoid the most? Do you want to avoid the Empire and judging by our escape from Ishtar, that might be a good idea. Or do you want to risk the sticks, which is a little bit more unpredictable. The other problem with the sticks is if there is any

sort of rupture, it can have a funny effect on people. Is there any, I guess, ruins of Valkyrian spaceships or abandoned space stations or anything? Yeah, there will be. Yeah, for sure.

I mean, Valkyrian tends to recover most of his ships if they get destroyed, but often not quick enough before scavengers can get hold of them. There's normally a bunch of those derelicts

from the old wars, or sometimes smugglers will ambush a lone frigate or a transport and try and ransack it. Generally doesn't tend to be too much left after, but if there's something

you're looking for in particular, maybe. I mean, I think... Oh, I guess... Yeah, we're looking for, you know, stuff, right? Well, I mean, that's not what you paid me for, but I'm not adverse to it. If there's some loot for me to be getting, I'm not adverse to it if there's some loot for me to be getting. I'm not adverse to the idea of a little

joint venture, if that's what you're implying. I mean, we can split what we find. It's just as long as we get what we need from it. I mean, I guess we can tell her about, like, the requirements, right? Can you? I mean, I can't, because i don't write notes for shit nova can it's it's a little suspect our stuff so we got like insignias for the tacit our ship

and outfits and schematics well i will let you guys decide what you want to do over the next week because that's where we're going to end today's episode so we can read some donos and stuff like that space! yeah there you go and we'll see you next week when we're in space! yeah I've got some plans I've got some fun plans for space

so yeah we'll see you next time take care everybody we love you. Stay safe. Wash your hands and wash your butts. Bye, everybody. Have a great day.