High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #81 | Breaking the Chains (Part 2)

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

The Displeased Prince is getting ever closer as the team struggle to board the Twinstar! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond! D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Create your FREE account now and start digitising your campaigns here: www.dndbeyond.com/ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. June 2024. Find out what makes Mazda different at Mazda.ca. Your teen requested a ride, but this time, not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account. It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your teen to your Uber account today. let's carry back on as the echoing screams and rage of grats uh echoes through the shipyard you have only a few more enemies standing in your way with the last ditch rush towards the ship you will be able to flee as a grat um so lu, Lucius, we start at the top of the round with you. Yeah. The mood darkened. I will bring it back up for the sake of

viewability. I have a darkened sky. I like that. Right. I will dash, unsurprisingly, towards the ship. So, 5. Can I do that? 10. I'm doing that. 15. dash unsurprisingly towards the ship so 5 10 I'm doing that

15 20 I'm going to drop this sure I'll do that just move on to it we know it's not there 25 wait what was I on

5 10 15 25 30 because I'm going with the chain it's the difficult terrain yeah you're gonna kind of scratch actually where it's broken now so no you don't it's snapped so it's not rain anymore well mistakes okay i just realized i just realized it was broken so it it would be fine. So I'll just make a century an extra 5 feet. 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60. Bam. That's mostly my turn. I don't have any sorcery points, but I could use my font of magic

to use up a spell slot to get sorcery points back, which I might do. Well, you can decide that while I go to Ayla's turn as the Vrok is still flying away that's 104 hit points that won't ever see the battlefield thanks to that turn oh my god that's awesome

yeah Vroks are pretty scary yeah so can I go here and grab Rathra yes uh i mean when you say grab what do you mean he's not grappled he's just been hit a bunch of times and looks very bloody and pissed off like drag him quicker towards the ship it won't be any quick no it won't be any quicker because when you pick somebody up you then move at half movement.

I mean, you could. You'd get him a bit further along, but you'd be moving at half movement. Also, he doesn't look like the type that's just going to let you pick him up. You know, he's, you know, even though he's not unconscious, he's going to not be very...

Wouldn't like the idea of being carried around. In which case, I will just hit the giant that's next to me. Sure. Twice. That's a natural one. That's a four. So, 13.

Just, yeah, no, unfortunately. Four, eight, wait, wait, wait, wait. Nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. 13, not enough sadly bounces off of the thick armor plating as the hammer smashes into his shin guard but doesn't seem to carry enough weight deck safe yeah uh that's a two so full damage so he takes five lightning damage five points of lightning damage better than nothing um you see the blast of lightning echoes up through his body, even though the attacks didn't make it through. The lightning still does scorch him.

Sentry. I'd like to move 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 up to there. And then I would like to cast command on the giant. I'd like to tell him to flee. Please. Okay. What is the saving throw, DC? 15? Ooh.

Now, this is very much going to depend on his bonus now. 15 wisdom saving throw, did you say? Yeah. 13. Minus one to the saving throw. So he fails. So I think that on command, if you read it out, it's on his next turn he has to follow the command uh follow the command on its next turn yeah

yeah okay so he still has this turn to up until his go but then on his turn he has to flee okay um anything else since that's your move your action uh if not it at the bonus actions that will help right now no I'm good to go yeah that's fine okay cool on my turn I want to use a bonus action to explode sentry's sword not explode the sword but make it

glow with impossible radiant energy so everything within 30 feet or every enemy has to make a con save the cron save the giant is a 15 perfect the knight is a natural 20 and then the periton is a well it was i hate to say was it saving throw? The Periton is also a 15. Cool, so the two that failed

are not the 20. Takes 48. That's 23 damage from that, and they are blinded for one minute. Why? And blinded? And blinded for a whole minute. But it ends the holy weapon on Century's weapon.

I believe so. Oh, actually, failed saves take half as well. Oh, okay. So that would go to 11 points on the knight. Yeah. They can make constitution saves to unblind as well.

Okay, so you watch as this Her Majesty's Rose, just the glow around it gets brighter and brighter and brighter until eventually it just explodes in this blast of radiance. The creatures will throw up their hands. You see the giant covering this

helmeted visor. The periton is shrieking, flapping around in the air. The knight barely able to keep it under control as this energy washes over them. Anything else, Kulik, on your turn? Since that wasn't really a spell,

that was using a bonus action just to do the thing of the spell, I guess. You can cast a spell. I'll also do a bonus action heal on You can't bonus action. you've already bonus actioned oh shit he needs to get closer

like your wounds is an action yeah if he comes to me then I'll action heal him I'll call him towards me oh breath threat okay breath threat yeah and that'll be a fourth level cure wounds I'll do on him when he gets to me.

Damn. Okay, cool. And with the knowledge that we now have from chat, as the creatures are blinded, the only one that can take an opportunity attack is the knight on the back of the periton. As Rethra, yeah, just basically runs towards the gangway. He is yelling like,

are we running or fighting? Why are you still standing here? Healing. or fighting why why are you still standing here um healing the knight does get one good hit off on rethra um that's gonna be nine and then half so two so 11 more points um you can see now that yeah these these wounds are very very quickly beginning to get severe on rethra as he's now covered in cuts and bruises. The flame doesn't seem to be affecting him too much, as the flame itself seems to be absorbed by his tattoos.

Cool. And the cure wounds for him is 28. 28? Yeah, okay. 28. Nice. Back in action. As you are all kind of stood around, he probably would get to... He'd probably stay where he is because he's kind of blocking the two casters.

And he's kind of stood next to Aayla and he's got his weapons and he's just going to ready himself if he needs to do something. Actually, no, he could attack the giant while he's got advantage, which is what he'll do. So he attacks the giant twice.

First attack hits for that's going to be 12 points of damage, which strikes. He kind of stabs into the knee joint of the giant as this dark, thick blood begins pouring out. His second attack is also a hit for another

five points of damage. Leaving this giant stumbling now, blood pouring from various wounds, blinded, it can't really see, and Rethro heavily, heavily weakens it. The knight on his go will attempt to keep the Periton

under control, which he does, but he can't make it move. Well, he could, but he can still move it because it's blinded. So he'll move it and he's flying about five feet above you all. And then he will try and strike down towards Lucius.

For an 18. Oh, protection. Yep. That is going to be a 15, Lucius. So, I can't remember if my barrier ring just lost a turn or not a minute you did when you were grappled yeah it's still up it lasts a minute how does it okay so 14 plus protection which is three right uh two so it's 16 is my acs 18 your acs 18 yeah oh no yeah oh wait my barrier was at four sorry it's 16 16 okay um so yeah it still misses because of 15 um so the lance kind of

just barely scrapes past the barrier rings shield um i I was going to say, 18, you've never had an AC that high. Just a little AC creep. Yeah. The lance just barely, narrowly misses you as the barrier ring's energy protects you from the strike. He does strike twice.

That's only a 14, so both strikes deflected away thanks you were fighting nice Nova I feel like I'm probably do you know what I'm gonna pop back shoot the giant disappear into the ether. Sure. Makes sense. So, three Eldritch Blast. One. Twelve. Nope. Twenty-five. Right. Thirteen.

I'm going to give you some advice. Yeah, the twelve and the thirteen are going to miss. Generally, when you have a lot of injured targets, roll the beam, then see how much damage you do, because if you kill it, you might then want to be like, well, then I'll put the second beam on this creature, and I'll do the third beam on that creature. Because this giant is so weak that if you'd hit the first one,

you would have killed it. So just as a heads up, don't... But I'm referring to the two sandwich ones missed anyway. Yeah, they missed anyway. So you hit with one, so 1d10 damage. You get advantage like Rathra did, because he's blinded. Yeah, you would have advantage on each one as well, actually, because it's blinded.

So, yeah. Can I start rolling again? Yeah, roll. Or if it's a 12 and a 25, so 25 is my first beam. Sure, let's do that as the first beam. The next two rolls would be the second beam, and then you'd have two more rolls for the third beam. So let's roll the first beam and see how much damage you do.

I rolled the first beam. I rolled an eight. One D10. Eight damage. That's eight damage on the giant. Kills it. Oh, he's dead. The beam knocks it back,

and it just pierces through its chest, killing it dead. So now the second beam, let's say you aim that at the knight, that miss. The third beam, you can now choose which target. You have this large bird-like mount, or the knight, that miss. The third beam, you can now choose which target. You have this large bird-like mount or the knight atop it. I will go for the bird. Why not? Sure.

15. Do I get advantage on the bird because he's blinded as well? No. No, yeah, he is blinded. Yes, you do. Yes. Sorry, I keep forgetting it's the knight that's not. So it's a 15.

That is a hit. Yes, so you do. Yes. Sorry, I keep forgetting it's the knight. It's not. So it's a 15. That is a hit. Five points damage. And then I'm going to backflip the ship. So you kind of pop out. One blast pierces through the giant's chest, causing it to stumble to the ground. The next one, you streak, pulling several sort of like these bright-colored feathers

away in this gouging scar down the periton side. And then you back into the interior of the twin star, which is now kind of fully powered up, ready to leave. Thalia is shouting, get them on the ship. We need to leave now, Nova, now. She's calling back through towards you. The blinded bird will just lash out at whatever it can see. So it's got three targets.

I'll roll randomly. One, two for Rethra, three, four for Lucius, five, six for Century. So this will go against Rethra. The Barad has disadvantage on its attacks. It will miss on the first one. And then on the second one one it will still hit for another 8 points of damage to Rethra as it's kind of just

scrabbling around clawing doing whatever it can to try and strike at any opponent it can reach basically in a flurry of claws and beak it strikes through. Two giants are dead and at the end of his turn it does a con save as well.

That's true. Thank you. That is going to be 15, I think. Which is a failure, I believe. Yeah. Still blind bird boy. I'm the real bird boy around here.

So you can see flying down at the top So you can see flying down at the top of the round, flying down from these various flying creatures. Kairi has been blasting them away kind of in the background, keeping many of them off your back or preventing them from landing. But at the sort of far end where

they're more condensed, one creature breaks free, a red skin humanoid with black bat-like wings. you can see it's got like a long spear in one hand its other hand is clutching fire uh ready to launch it some sort of spell uh in your direction but lucius we begin with you right i'm going to use so i can only uh take a spell slot and convert it into sorcery points, one spell slot a turn.

So I did that while you moved to someone else's. I did a second level and I got two points equivalent. I'm going to use those to quicken a spell to make it a bonus action. I'll do hypnotic pattern on these boys. Yep, the two creatures in front of you. I'll do hypnotic pattern on these boys so that would be my glamour weave sends out a ridiculously complex pattern baffling them

in that area 30 foot cube so it'll be like the top right corner of the cube it's a wisdom saving throw of 16 please okay the knight passes seemingly adept at uh keeping its mind focus but the bird even though it can't see the pattern uh fails so the sounds or the light kind of

flashing in its eyes uh take effect right so speed is zero incapacitated, charmed. It's screwed. It does nothing. It just kind of flies in place, doing nothing. And the mount's trying to get it to move, but it won't. Yep. My action is to disengage and run into the ship. Vanished. Everyone follow me! Easy.

Vrok is still flying away because of the turn. Ayla, then Sentry. I'm going to get in the ship, please. Will you just rush up? Sure. Can I drag Vrakra with me, actually? Because I've got enough movement to do it. You would have to pick him up,

and then you would move at half speed. You'd have to literally grapple him to drag him. No, he's a sentient person. It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. Yeet him. You can pick him up if you want to, but

you'd literally have to grapple him to do it because he's not very willing. Sentry. I'm going to disengage from this guy and run into the ship, please. Okay, so that's your action. And then you run in. Just before Quill can make his move,

the man, the red-skinned man, is just desperately flying towards you all. He will move 60 feet. So he can easily get within range. And then what's the range on his fire ray? Oh, he doesn't even need to get any closer. He will instead just fly sort of perpendicular. And then, yeah, with this kind of flaming hand,

he points his finger towards Quill and two long rays of fire will come shooting out of it. Roll to hit. 14. Oh, no. No, I missed. and two long rays of fire will come shooting out of it. That doesn't sound... 14. Oh, no. Oh. No, I missed. And then 18 on the second one.

So the first one kind of... This flaming lance streaks past. I may as well shield. Okay. So you conjure a magical shield and that kind of... The flames lick all around the magical barrier as you kind of hold your one hand up

and it pulls around you it bounces back at him it doesn't but it's a cool effect it bounces back towards him but he flies out the way so it kind of like back drops towards him and he starts out of the way and you can see him

he kind of frowns and he seems to of the way um and you can see him he kind of frowns and he seems to be talking to something but you can't hear what he's saying you can just see his lips moving um as if i have i have observant i can see what he's saying oh you can read lips can't you so in that case you do try to out rp that one yeah, no, you do see what he says, and he is saying my prince, they are about to get on their ship. They're about to get away. Our forces can't reach them. You need to get here now.

No, he doesn't say that. Send the garistro. Send it now. Not the barista. I don't like a latte. You guys can make all the jokes you like about the garistro, but you won't be making jokes when it shows up.

Okay. Illa, you better get on that turret. I don't know if I need to disengage here, but if I do, I will, and then I'll get onto the ship as well. It does leave Rathra out there on his own. Yeah, so you just basically dash, flee onto the ship as well. It does leave Rath right there on his own. Yeah. So you just basically dash, flee into the ship. Sorry, my Chrome window's done the same thing again.

Eat you that eyebrow. I see you, boo. Just leave him. Just leave the NPC that's really important to Ayla. I gave him a big, big heal. He should be fine. See all those other NPCs that we've had to leave behind for Ayla? Yeah, just leave this one too.

Let's just leave her story. Luckily, Ayla, Reth, Reth, also does the majors and rushes onto the ship. There he is. If he does so, the door... By the way.

Yeah, you absolutely can. So you begin making your way up into the turrets. What is everyone else doing? Once you're actually on the ship, where do you go? Engines. So you go back into your position as the engineer? Yeah, I'll go co-pilot. Okay, so you kind of just reaffirm into your positions that you've been in

previously. Sentry? Can I go into the main quarters of the ship and cast magic circle on the center of the ship okay well in the lounge area where you guys have like basically yeah because it's like 10 foot circle isn't it it's like a 10 foot yeah radius 10 foot okay cool yeah so it takes a while doesn't it takes like yeah it takes a minute to cast okay yeah right so that's what you're doing though like while this goes on okay so as the ship as the doors begin closing on the astral ship and it is very sci-fi it's like this crystalline ship with these long

sleek back wings this central kind of area and then these two magical turrets built into the wings um you the ship begins pulling away and you begin to see that these hordes of demons, Aayla and Kairi, are kind of blasting holes in these swarms of demons and creatures that are trying to slow you down. You see smashing

through the gates of the port. This is what would have appeared at the top of the round. You see a giant, gargantuan, ape-like creature, a huge creature, kind of smashed through with these ram horns, the one that you had seen outside

the Theatre of Steel. And it looks up. It begins shaking the ground as it reaches up to try and grab onto the wing. But Thalia kind of spins it um kind of pulling the wing out of its reach before jetting off towards uh into the atmosphere up and towards the sky as your ship is tailing you begin to see various um red-skinned uh human pilots and and demon pilots getting into the pursuit ships in the astral port below. Um, and they,

you see their astral engines and infernal engines beginning to power up. Um, and as you fly up into the, up into the atmosphere, you begin to see the purple blue haze of astral space above you getting closer. Uh, you watch as the ships begin pulling away, um,

and chasing after you when suddenly this force net of glowing blue lines and they all kind of smash into it. Several of them like bursting apart, metal fragments raining down on the port below. The others managing to pull back just in time as this whole net covers

the space down below. You think, you breathe for a moment, you know, this sense of relief, and then you kind of see this dark shadow fall over the view pit of the ship itself as kind of swarming upwards, this huge, like at the size of a mountain, black shape extending past this net is this giant, kind of the upper half of Gratz.

Pure jet black skin, six fingered hands, huge wings and sweeping horns. And you just see the face twisted in rage as a hand is reaching up, chasing just behind the twin star. What are you guys doing as you see this? Turbo charge engine? Blast it? Make engine fast go. Nova, punch it! Nova!

If you go in the handouts section, all the handouts for the ship stuff is still there. Oh, that's where it is, yeah. Nice. Okay. So you can do a boost if you wanted to, Ayla. I'll do a boost.

Sure. So I need to... Are we still doing initiative, or...? You can do... I will let you guys just take these actions as you wish. Ayla, I'm assuming you are shooting, so feel free to make an attack roll. Oh, attack rolls. Well lucius um with the with the um with the guns so check out the weapon attacks lucius is flailing around in a panic what do i do how do i help

sure you could open the door and like lean out if you wanted to you're not quite in actual space 18 and like um i rolled a three for the other one sure roll damage roll the roll the damage doesn't matter he's he's a demon prince like i just you know 3d 10 of damage against like 400 odd hit points it's like yeah i mean i'll i'll make a note of it but i'm not worried hey it Hey, it could be 10% or less. Well, less. It'll be less. How was that boost, Nova? How was that boost check? 60 damage.

Oh, if you're doing a boost check, you rolled a 19. Okay, I rolled a 19. There you go. Okay, important. So you feel this kind of surge as the arcane cannons from both Aayla and Kairi slam into this figure and the hand,

the bolts, kind of the radiant beams pierce through its skin, but it doesn't show any sign of slowing down. The twin star just gets this final kind of lurch of power as the fingers of the hand begin touching astral space. You watch as they begin freezing, as they begin touching astral space you watch as they begin freezing as they touch the astral space itself the hand begins freezing in the fingers as it desperately tries

to grab the ship but as its fingers begin closing in around the nose it just breaks free and several of the fingers shatter to pieces as the ship launches up into the astral sea. And you just hear, even through the planar space, through the planar magic that allows you to travel between these worlds, you hear this roar, this... Oh, my God. Are you watching the red planet of azergrat with the ring uh

there was no there was no rings on the giant hand there were no rings imagine though you watch as the red planet of azergrat this dusky blacky red planet begins fading away the last thing that

you hear is Quillik you have a message in your head as if somebody was using the sending spell. Yeah. I know who you are. I will not forget

what you have done and I will chase you until the very ends of the multiverse to make sure you suffer for your defiance. Well, let's hope he doesn't know where Aroas is. Is that your message back to him? No, God no. We're going for Aroas, the coordinates are this, this and this. Come get us, bitch. No're going for a row. The coordinates are this, this, and this. Come get us, bitch.

No, I don't reply. You're just like, I do not take the opportunity to reply. I will not reply. Just leave him on read. Leave him on read. He can ghost him. If it was like a TV show

and it was one of those flip phones, you just smash the flip phone, just stamp on it. It's like snap it, throw it into a lake yeah oh god I hate that oh no we've made such a powerful

enemy why can we not make any friends you have made friends it was either that or Lucius and Quill and Thalia were going to be prisoners forever so 200 years each. Amazing.

We didn't get the wish, but it was a hell of an adventure. A hell of a heist as well. We did it. That's the first time we've ever successfully pulled off a plan. Can we talk about how none of us were close to death?

There was no staircase. We didn't fall down the staircase we didn't like you know almost get blasted oh that's why there was no corridor corridor we didn't fail i will say this is um this is a learning experience for me because high level encounters in dnd they are difficult to balance um i was using the challenge rating you know calculator and it was like oh this is a this is a hard to deadly encounter i was like okay and as you guys smashed it so easily i now know not to trust that whatsoever and to go with my gut which is to make enemies a lot harder you did really well did, but the enemies themselves... Only because we rolled decent. No, because not only did you roll really well, but things like your general average damage output is a lot higher than I thought it was.

Your average AC and hit points are a lot higher than I thought they were. So the enemies I was throwing you against, I was like, actually, these will burn way too quickly. I need to make enemies that are a lot tougher. I'm seeing too many of the cogs behind the machine. I't want to hear that's fine i'm talking about the cogs because uh it's fine behind the screen if grats the i mean i'm not gonna tell about that the one thing i will say the wall of acid i think is definitely that and the banishment on the rock were extremely

clever plays you guys did very very well on both of those counts. And the reason I bring all this up is because as you have escaped from Azaghrat, you may not have got your wishes. You may not have got any kind of cool loot, but you do get a level up because that was a pretty incredible...

I mean, you guys had a lot of encounters. You did a lot of cool stuff. So you will gain a level up. I know normally we do an XP system, but while we're in lockdown, we've been doing more of a milestone thing. And that seems like a pretty good place to level up. We'll handle that after the episode.

Instead, we're not going to do it now. The first few hours after your escape from Azaghrat are tense. They are filled with apprehension. Thalia constantly checks the ship's arcane systems to make sure that nobody is following you. She doubles back. She often

takes, like, she'll find asteroids to hide in for a moment, make sure that no one's following, and then take a different route away. Rather than just heading towards the nearest planet, she flies into open space, hoping that they'll be expecting you to go somewhere else um adding a few extra maybe like half a day to your journey but she assures you that this is for the best to make sure that nobody can find you um once you hit stick space um there is a calming down of energy as the tents escape

slowly its effects fade away as that adrenaline and the tension eases up in the atmosphere around you and yeah you guys are now free to continue your journey back home

towards Erois. Could I do a sending to the wings of Ishtar? Because they're on like a totally different planet. I almost want to see if I can get them to run like a communications mess and just be like talking to people and spreading rumors that we're in this planet or in this planet or wherever, but not nearly anywhere near Eros or where Eros is. Sure.

Do you know who you contacted in the Wings of Ishtar? Who did you send a message to? Uh, Zelotar? That's the name of the planet you were just front on. Zelion. That's the name of the city. Zelion. Him saying it

for you. Zelion. Zelion. I've said it five times, Tom! Say it to him. You know, Kim, you understand now. I know, yeah. So, what do you say? You've got 25 words. What do you say? Bad escape from Azaghrat

made powerful enemy Bad escape from Azaghrat. Made powerful enemy. Bad escape from Azaghrat. Made powerful enemy. Need you to confuse our location. Spread rumours that we are elsewhere.

Elsewhere is one word. You've got six words please all right so you don't use the last five um you there is there is a significant wait for a reply um when you get the reply it is difficult currently on mission for Tassadar. Okay. We'll do what we can. Azaghrat was

a dangerous idea. Be more careful. Demons not to be underestimated we'll try yeah yeah yeah cool

that makes sense cool if it helps it helps if it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't yeah is there anything you guys want to talk to each other about i will tell you now that there are still at least a couple of days before you

are even close to eros in terms of astral travel so um can you sign off your messages can you can you say sign off your messages xoxo gossip burb from now on. It's clear skies. We've been over this. That's the code. Clear skies. Everything is good. Maybe XOXO Clear Sky. I was just going to ask, is there like hot chocolate on the ship or anything?

I'm thinking around hot chocolates for everyone. I mean, I don't think Thalia would carry hot chocolate. She's more of a liquor and yeah, she's more of a whiskey. Any booze that she can find. Most of the food is kind of freeze-dried protein mix that she kind of has with whiskey. Nice. And eats that.

Yeah. Yeah, there's not really a lot of culinary goods i mean she did buy supplies but i don't think they would have probably included hot chocolate or perhaps if it was you've probably burnt through it um but you can definitely make something for the the team century's already hot chocolate for everybody every day every single day she brings everyone that that's a very sentry thing to do probably yeah mine has marshmallows uh rethra looks you can see that now that things have settled down he kind of paces around the ship for a while grunting kind of nervously looking in all the corridors uh there is a moment when kairi descends from her turret these long taloned

legs with these big feathery wings that Rethro immediately has his weapons out. As soon as he senses he's like, what's that? And seems to be very much on edge. Big Cat as well kind of lumbers out of a hiding spot. Rethro turns on that and kind of

gets back himself into a corner looking quite agitated. It's okay. Everyone on this ship is a friend. There is a giant cat, there is Kairi, and there is Thalia, and then the others you've already met.

But we're all good. No other threats right now. Big cat's fine, but don't piss it off. He looks down at you and he's like, I've thought similar things to this. Stay away from me, cat. And he kind of looks at it and frowns.

I'll pet the cat. Pet big cat. He looks at you, petting it, and just sort of like shakes his head and frowns. Is there somewhere I can sleep or something like that? Preferably somewhere

quiet, dark. Is there anywhere he can sleep? I don't really know if there's anywhere on the ship. You guys have got your own quarters, but that's pretty much full. We can ask that yeah i i can go and i can set up in the engine room like i don't mind i can take a bed roll and a pillow i'm used to kind of sleeping it's kind of comforting hearing it is it quiet in there is it dark i don't really want to be in a room with other people preferably i want to be on my own.

I guess it can be. You might hear me, like, you know, pottering around a bit, if you don't mind that. That's fine. That's fine. Well, good to have you on board. Everybody's safe. That's all that matters. And we just have another arch nemesis that wants us all in the future. But we're going home.

That's all that matters, right? Where are you going? You've not said where you're going. Ayla will tell you, I'm sure. Why can't you tell me? I think it's more appropriate. You likeayla more than me

it's not really got anything to do with it I want to know where we're going just turn a head off that's all I can tell that why are you being so suspicious Elf he looks back at Aayla we're going Erois

yes Erois huh this is why we haven't mentioned it out loud yet We're going? Erois. Yes. Erois. Huh. This is why we haven't mentioned it out loud yet. It's obviously a delicate matter, given that everything that's going on in the universe, I guess. But, yeah, that's where we're from. Makes sense.

Makes sense that's where you're from if you're not friends of the Empire. Fine. No, definitely not. It's me. Quite the opposite. Hmm. Well, if things are still... It's been a few

decades, but if things are still the way they were before I left the Empire, that's gonna be difficult. First of all, I'm assuming you know how to find it. Otherwise, what are you doing here? But the second one is that you know that Calus has

fleets of ships positioned around it. You're going to have to get past them as well. This ship, it's not going to be enough. There are some challenges along the way, but we're gonna get there well I'd rather die fighting

than be trapped up in that arena again so fine I need some time this is all a bit much it's been fighting instinct up until now. But there's a lot I need to think about.

There's a lot of stuff I don't think I've let myself accept yet. So I'm gonna go somewhere quiet and then I'll come find you all when I'm ready to talk a bit more. Sound good? Sure. I'm not actually asking. That's a rhetorical question.

And then he leaves. Luckily to have him on board. Yeah. He's as much as a delight as Zalo was. Is. And always shall be. I've grown as a person.

I'm more delightful to you guys now. Not really anyone else. Now you're actually a delight and not a sarcastic delight. Yes, definitely no sarcasm. Never. What do we do? It's not wrong.

We still need to get payment for Thalia, by the way. Thalia overhears this and she leans back and she's like no you don't no you don't need to pay me anything now I'll get you home oh okay I mean

we did have an agreement and we didn't honor it you did everything that I could ever have expected anyone to do Qu Quillik. The fact that you were even just willing to try is payment enough. And you see her kind of look very, very sadly at all of you, and then she kind of smiles and is like,

Well, I need to... We've got a few days before we reach the Shifting Straits. That's what Bim called them I'm going to need to do some serious thinking about how we get through it and you all need to still think how we're going to let your sunship know that we're not to be blasted

so I suggest you get on that yep okay I'll figure it out I'm more worried about the fleets of Starbane potentially encircling Eros. That's true, we need to think about that as well.

That's one way we need to get through both of them. Are we also meant to be infiltrating the Tassadar? That sounds like very much a your group problem. I think that's a later when we get home problem we can teleportation circle into it from anywhere

I could do that I can do that as well we could do that we can do that yeah that's pretty good. That's what we can put on the ship. But I want to get our ship back.

Oh, that's a point. Shall I contact Oriah? It's been way beyond their time staying in that place. Yeah. Oriah, Hesper, the lot. The works. What about Valar? I have sounded desperate. Is it worth catching up with Valala and telling her that we have

plans and asking her to hold on? I don't want her to give up hope um I don't know how interseptible say that we are thinking of her and that we are thinking of her and that we are working on things

we can make it as vague as possible maybe I could do it in a dream I don't think a dream can be intercepted that might work yes give it a go Calus has messed with your thoughts before, Nova.

We should really be careful. He used a weird machine, though. I don't think he can actually cast it. I think someone else casts it through him. But they might... I just worry that he knows that we want Valor back. And that who knows if she's connected to all of this. If that's the case, then pull out of the dream.

Don't give anything away. If he's on Erois and she's on the Tassadar, are they even talking right now? Like, maybe he's too busy with everything else. She managed to get to us. I don't know that anyone could interfere with this. We need to remember that Starbane is very smart and is probably a few steps ahead of what we're even thinking.

Who knows what's happened at the time that we've been transported to an entirely different planet and flying our way back. We don't know what the state of Eros is in. I just... I think we should check in on Vala. If I was her, I'd be losing hope. Let's do that. Do it in a dream. How long has it been

since we actually heard from Vala last? Because she sent us a message last time. Do we know roughly how long ago that was? That was by your account a couple of weeks, three weeks maybe. It's not a while.

Yeah. Try the dream. I'm for it. Yeah, I think she'll appreciate it. Okay. Yeah. I'll give it a go sure sorry I'm just double checking all the text of the dream spell other people is there anything other people want to do while nover is reading up on that

we just jump straight to that two days days from the Shifting Straits, was that? And then how... Two days till the Shifting Straits. Yeah. Well, if you're asking Thalia, she's like, well, it's difficult. Bim was literally making estimates, guesses. You've got to remember, Aurobis doesn't show up on any planetary maps on navigation.

It's all worked out from Bim's collection of obscure lore and accounts from old ghost stories maps on navigation it's all worked out from bim's collection of obscure lore and accounts from old ghost stories and tales that smugglers tell each other uh the shifting straits we believe surround the region of space a region of astral space uh pretty close to arois but a distance enough that people can't see through it and people can't interact with the sunship. From the sounds of it, Kallus has sent forces here before, but people don't really track what the

Empire is doing. Trying to stay away from it, generally. I imagine it won't be more than an astral day away. I mean, it can't be that far from the Shifting Straits, but... So, about three days. About that, yes, I imagine. Okay. In that case,

I'll do a sending to Oriah and confirm we're three days away from where we believe Aroas is. So... Okay. I mean, we'll have to let her know where we land as well we could be 25 words 25 words you tell me what you're saying

clear skies we're three days away from where we believe eros is we're finally finally coming back try to get everyone ready. Three words left, I think. XOXO. XOXO. XO. Well, you get XOX and then it goes away. We'll go with OXO.

I'm more of a hugger than a kisser. OXO. OXO cubes. OXO. OXO cubes. You get a kisser. Oxo. Oxo cubes. Oxo. Oxo cubes. You get a message back. The message back you receive is

clear skies. We will. Not sure how long you think you've been gone. Been a few days now. Managed to cover payments for ship. See you soon.

Been a few days? Hang on. Do you keep forgetting that every time we message her she keeps on talking about weird time stuff? Yeah, it's literally just a couple of days for them. I think this time they've actually said, the last couple of times,

it was just like, not sure how long you think you've been gone, and then continuing the message. This time around, it's like, it's only been a couple of days. Damn. We haven't wasted any time. Barely. No, Eros is fine as it turns out.

Or extremely slow. That explains why we're so ancient compared to all the other planets. Oh, timey-wimey. We'll see. We'll see what's happening in two days. Probably a lot. And it's going to be a few more. Wait.

Is it slowly going to get back to normal as we get close to Aroas? Is there a relative amount? Or is it just suddenly we're through the bubble of that time dilation into this one? Oh, so if we're fighting a war on one side, they're going extremely quickly and we're just going really slow

to them. Time bubble. Ah, whatever. I don't know. i don't know how time works hello we finally arrived in 74 years it also could be that the time effect might not be when you're actually on planets like astral planets but it could be the stick space you've been you the way that you've been traveling between planes is through this kind of demi plane called stick the sticks which is what you've been using to travel faster so it could be that time spent there is faster than it is outside of that space i have a headache anything else century lucius Anything else? Sentry, Aayla, Lucius?

Sentry? Want to check in on anyone? Anything? I guess Sentry will just start thinking of a plan. Start trying to think of how we're going to get through the next few days and the next stage of this crazy journey. Sure.

Okay. Kairi comes down and seems very happy to see all of you. The shy Harpy kind of gently sort of gives everyone like a, not quite a hug, but like a little pat and then flusters away like, I'm glad you're back. And then scurries away to find the next person. But yeah, until the evening, nothing really major happens until nova i'm guessing you would like to cast dream can i have one ask one small question you can ask as many

questions as you like that's my job so you know we have a book chronically chronicling the lineage of a minor noble family from lunaria. Didn't Thalia mention that she was from Lunaria? Maybe that's up to your notes. If that's what you remember, that could be the case. If I was to read this book in great detail, would I discover this? Is it something

any... I mean, are you reading the book or are you casting Dream? Well, I've got to cast the Dream in it. I'm going to pin that and come back to that later. Sure. But can I also have a quick conversation with Quilek and Kalar? Oh.

Can I literally just, like, I don't know, I just imagine it like he just walks past engineering and I just literally leap out of the darkness and grab him and pull him in. Quil! Oh, God, no, they're here oh god okay what but keep your voice down i don't want talia to hear this but um do you have in your big bird brain of yours do you have any sort of spell that can like remove the the the thing that a curse or something like that? Because she really wanted that wish, right? And I'm guessing it's kind of to remove this Medusa curse on her.

Do you have anything that could do that? Raider restoration. Yeah, we used it on Rethra and it got rid of his, whatever was affecting him. If it works, I could could try I could try I think I mean I'll ask Talia if that's what I'm guessing I'm kind of just guessing you know how really bad I am at like you know subtext reading people and yeah that um kind of why I probably grabbed you and pulled you in here i probably should ask you yeah don't do that um okay sorry um sorry um but yeah maybe we should go and ask her if that's a thing that she would like and because she seems really sad about it if if if that's what she's sad about

i'm apparently good at reading people and i haven't picked up on that. So, yeah, we could try. Well, I've read that drinking a lot of alcohol is a way to mask problems. And she seemed genuinely quite sad about, you know, not being able to have that. She kind of sometimes mentions her family. And she does drink a lot. When I first met her, she talked about being ugly and pretty girls. And I think that's kind of what I remember. I was mostly looking at the blouse. But okay.

I'll do this thing with Bala. But maybe we can go and talk to her and see what she wants. Because I think that would be nice, right? She seems really sad and I want her to be happy. That can be our payment to her. I know she doesn't want it, but she deserves it. If that's what she wants.

Yeah. Cool. I'm going to go get ready for the dream thing now. Oh, hey. And then, yeah, can I do the dream? Yeah. Let's get Dream up. Go read it out, actually.

There's a lot to read out. Words. Dyslexia is best friend. I can read it out. I've got it up here. This spell shapes a creature's dreams. Choose a creature you know is the target of this spell. They must be on the same plane of existence as you.

So that's what I'm kind of concerned about um creatures that don't sleep such as elves cannot be contacted by this spell you are a willing uh so you know that you enter a trance state acting as a messenger while in the trance the messenger is aware of her surroundings but can't take actions or move and then i can shape the dream and talk to them basically and i can do spooky stuff too you can if you want okay yeah i mean yeah do you cast a spell yeah if she's on the same plane of existence and sleeping so yolo let's try it yeah well if she's not sleeping you're basically you can stay in the trance until she falls asleep and then you'll appear okay so you cast the spell, you focus

your energy, you feel the presence of Tiangong, this weapon pulsing through your body, you feel its mind melding with yours and stretching out into the vastness of the purple, swirling mists of the Astral Sea.

You drift for some time, not finding the anchor that you're looking for time becomes irrelevant you're not quite sure how long you've been in this state but eventually you do feel it's like a line that you've cast out tethers to something in astral space you follow the line and you pass through until you see you don't see her surroundings but you see vala laying down asleep dressed in a kind of long black night shift um she looks much as she did when you first met this young girl um you know dark hair which has grown longer now i think would be the most common change her hair is a lot longer than it was um but still looks exactly as she does and then you enter the dream uh what do you make it look like what do you shape it to be um i'm just trying to remember exactly like i want it to be i think the village where we kind of first uh maybe made friends with her

like a nice rose yeah so like a really i want it to be nice and friendly and warm and familiar and kind of reflective you can make it the um you can make it like uh the inn where you guys all stayed and met there with the warm plates and the harvest decorations and things like that um yeah sure so you conjure this image of this warm comforting inn uh full of like decorations and rustic furniture and you see uh vala her body kind of wakes up dressed in the clothes that she was when she was with you um it's kind of like light-fitting purple tunic and trousers and her eyes kind of open and she looks around and sort of smiles

like a fond memory has happened. And then she becomes aware of you. She kind of looks in your direction. Nova? Is this... This is the spell, isn't it? I can tell. This isn't a real dream.

You've created this. Yeah. Hey, how are you? Hey. Yeah, I'm okay. I wasn't sure if... I mean, I contacted Quill a while ago now and I was hoping that...

I gave him some information. Did he get that did did he know about the the circle and everything he he did um i just first of all uh is this i've never really used this before is this safe there's no way for people to spy if you mean i i don't know the truth is is that i mean he's he's not here and I know that he has to use magitek to be able to do it himself. Often he just leaves it to his priests or to

people that follow him, some of his subcommanders. It's used for communications. They have a machine that lets them do it across planes, which I don't think normally you can do. I don't know if he has a way of listening in on this type of spell. He certainly can't.

You can't read his thoughts. You can't contact him with this stuff. I tried it once. He has something that prevents us from being able to read his mind or tell his intentions. But I don't think he can listen in on stuff like this i mean he certainly has never mentioned me talking to quill that's never come up i guess yeah that would be the big giveaway wouldn't it um but are you safe are you well i'm guessing you're still on the tassadar right

yes yes of course yeah he he doesn't. I'm not allowed to leave the ship. I mean, I'm fine. I mean, I said this to Quill, but he's not cruel. He's quite kind. And it's hard to explain. I know that he's I know what he is and what he can do and what he's done. But at the same time, I keep getting taken back by how smart he is the things he talks about do sometimes kind of make sense he's told me a lot about hadar and what's going on and why he he's doing what he's doing and i don't agree with everything but i can kind of see where he's coming from sometimes you know but

no I am fine you know Maximilian looks after me I think maybe there's some people I don't think they work for my father I think they work for somebody else but they follow me sometimes they keep a close eye on me but Maximilian said that he's aware and he's he's watching them as well so look i'm the similar i'm similar to you in that when i first started talking to callus it made sense to me too right how are we supposed to fight this divine monster that even he can't hold back? And I thought about it. I thought, what if we sided with him or at least helped in some way?

But, you know, I don't know if Cole mentioned where we are. We've been traveling. We got sent through astral space to... You're here in astral space? Yeah, I'm in space! And I thought it was going to be amazing, and mostly it is. But we've seen his empire. We've seen planets taken over by his rule and his forces.

And they're not happy, Vala and they're not happy Vala they're not happy I know but that's the thing Nova it's not just about understanding him Hadar and everything else but the way that he's shown me

some of the worst parts of Gideon Prime I know about the poverty I know about the way that the rich are left to kind of live their lives and other people are sent to work in mines and be soldiers and all. I know, but I've also seen the cost of what it's taking to hold Hadar back.

The ships it requires, the weapons, the magic, the pure numbers of people just to hold hadar in place to stop him gaining any ground and like i said i i don't condone all of it but some of it does make sense yeah happiness is a great thing and i i want people to have it but it is a luxury it's not one that everyone can afford my father tries to do what he can to make sure that people have chances but it's not always up to him it's not just his it's his empire but there's lots of bureaucrats there's a lot of it's hard to explain and I don't want to sound like I'm defending him I'm not I just don't know what else could be done well do you still want to join us

I want to go home I want to go to a rowis I'm a prisoner here like no matter how kindly he treats me no matter how much he lets me practice magic or learn about the world I'm still a prisoner here. Like no matter how kindly he treats me, no matter how much he lets me practice magic or learn about the world, I'm still a prisoner. I don't want to be. I want to be home. I also want to learn, I want to learn more about Siaska.

The way that he talks about her, he was a different person when they were together. He was different to now. And I think that maybe, maybe that if we learn more about her if we can learn more about siaska maybe there's a chance that there's something we can say to him or convince him to change because it was different when she was around i think you're right and i think there's some things that we've learned that I could share with you that I Think you're on the right lines, and I think there are things happening

that Maybe maybe we can even bring siesta back But look we don't have we can do that If there's a way to do that do that we don't you're right we don't but if you can bring siesta back That's the key Nova i i really think so not just for him but for me she'd be able to teach me about these powers this divinity uh the others the titans they don't know but there's something different something ancient something really powerful and i think it's part of the key to beating hadar a spark of divinity it's something needed and she kind of begins to glance around i think maybe i think maybe their list something's

changing there's some change in the magic nova we don't have much time i think maybe they're they're detecting that something's going on they've they've they can tell me i'm being contacted don't worry about it i just want you to know we are thinking of you and we are coming for you but it's just taking time we we got we got waylaid but we're doing our best we're doing we're not giving up soon okay we will yeah give her a quick hug and then yeah she uh she hugs back and then you begin to feel the the kind of fabric of the dream fade away as the spell begins to come to its end um and you just she looks at you one last time uh and you just you don't hear it as the spell's already faded but you see her mouth the words of please save me um kiddo as it as it all fades away uh and yeah you find yourself back

on the twin star the dull hum of the infernal engines around you I think I'd sit up and I'd probably just start crying to be honest not like a big sob but just

like the emotion of it all just like of everything that's happened just start crying, to be honest. Not like a big sob, but just like the emotion of it all. Just like of everything that's happened. Just start crying. Yeah. And yeah. Whereas we've only got 10 minutes, so I don't think it's really time to get into anything big. I think that that is my second reward to you

all is not a scary, stressful cliffhanger this week. Presby. Second treat. a little treat for all of you we'll end on that little conversation with Valor and some of the revelations and some of the potential I could see Rhiannon sort of like mmm

mmm converted girl you better not You better not Me and your dad have got some shit to sort out You really do You really do Got a bone to pick for you Starbane

Thank you very much everybody We gotta shoot We're gonna level up our screen Bye See you Thursday Bye level up off screen. Bye. Goodbye. Bye. See you Thursday. Bye. Love you. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye.