High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #82 | The Shifting Straits (Part 2)

Episode Date: August 13, 2020

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Plus resources for artists and athletes. Learn more at rbc.com slash support youth. currently the twin star lombo this astral ship that you are using to reach home is traveling through a section called the shifting straits which you have now come to realize is a massive field of giant ice asteroids glaciers shapes that all drift and move about in random patterns entering it first of all it is difficult to navigate but also this area seems to be having an unusual effect on the ship and the magitek that keeps the ship working quill has also just noticed that there is something here and in fact as we see the ship kind of beginning to dart and move between behind these glaciers and try and get itself back on the right path quillick with your such impressive passive you notice that the shadow of something enormous something colossal moves past one of these giant behind one of these giant ice shapes and then seems to just completely vanish

as you saw the uh the brief crashed ship that vanished along with it. Um, Nova, as you reach the back, the rest of you now begin sort of like struggling to take a breath. Uh, Nova, you reach and you can see, yes, the Magitek, the engines are not,

uh, functioning, um, the oxygen system correctly. What do you do? Fix it. Maybe. How are you going to do that?

Um, so I was thinking, I don't know that I have any specific spells that can really do anything so what what is is it like i guess like a valve has come out or like is it just not convert like what um well i think maybe that's the first step maybe make an investigation check to determine what exactly has gone wrong so that you can fix it. Because right now you're just like, okay, it's flashing and saying that this system has failed, but you don't know what is what. 18.

18, okay. So you notice that in that maneuver where Lucius created this kind of ice cone to kind of deflect the ship, a piece of the ship on the outside, a small, like a large crystal was cracked, and that

crystal is basically conjuring magical air to fill the ship with. That is now leaking air out into astral space, but it's on the outside of the ship. Oh, goody. I've got to go do a space walk. Cool. Um...

Okay. Okay. Okay. I got this. Okay. Well, Ayla and Rethbro are with you as well. So you have those two. Meanwhile, up in the cockpit area, you can see the shifting straights. You've made it through this like large ice kind of corridor, but now you can see that there are many more splintered tiny pieces hanging in the air and as the ship draws close to them they begin to vibrate with

the displaced air and energy of the the ship itself and as you draw closer to them they shatter you kind of draw drift close to one and it explodes, raining down chunks of ice onto the hull. You can hear some of them embedding into the methylene-crystalline hull of the ship. What do you guys do? Thalia is trying to drift away from them, but trying to keep out of the way of these larger pieces means that she might have to drift closer to some of these

remaining montuals. Man, there's mines out here. Ice mines now. Pretty much. No. I don't think I can create a spell outside the cockpit

that would now target and attack these things before we got to them. You could try and lean out of the ship. You could open up the doors and lean out, but you'd have to hold your breath and you'd be taking some damage. These look pretty damaging, though, to the whole ship, so...

I can just... Is there a quick way to dial it out so I can cast spells and attack these she just jams her thumb back to the main lounge where the sort of like hatchway that opens into the main doorway uh how long do I get out there

Thalia's like I don't know Lucius it depends on how physically fit I mean maybe a few seconds a minute. I don't know. I don't know. But if you're going to do something, do it now. And she kind of twists as the ship has to lurch to one side

as one of these things explodes just behind the ship. I'm going. I'll come with you. I'll come with you. Okay. Right. Century and Lucius go down. Aayla and Lucius.

Sorry, Lucius and not Aayla and Nova. You guys want to do the same thing. Are you going to head out to the main entrance a bit to get to the sea you might be able to get through the ship but you might have to like access point inside yeah is there no hatch like in engineering that goes to the outside or sure sure let's say that there is okay um okay yeah can I I have some rope in my pack can I tie a rope around Nova please

around her waist before she goes anywhere and hold on to the other end wrap it around something like some metal or something and hold it as well. But still, just to double. Yeah.

Sure. Okay. Goggles down. So we get Nova climbing up this hatchway to the top of the ship from the engineering section, from the infernal engines. Meanwhile, on the side of the twin star, kind of around the main body, are these little uh like fold down uh ramps that open up as well um and the two of them open up and we see century and lucius um immediately uh if you guys basically

hold your breath uh you can hold your breath for one minute plus your constitution modifier um so whatever your con mod is um you can hold it for one minute one minute plus that so two minutes for lucius century i don't believe you need to breathe um and know that you have the special agonassi thing where you can just hold your breath indefinitely right as long as you don't get it like knocked out of you so technically i can cast 10 chromatic orbs uh in theory you can can you do are they do they have verbal components no okay you're fine just because if you cast a spell and you have to say magic words that's obviously expelling air that you're trying to hold on to so um it's the same rules as underwater the other one is um immediately as you guys all kind of open the doors and step outside and it's not enough that it fills the ship but the air basically goes out so every so quillick

and ayla you guys are going to have to hold your breath as well so make a note of how long you guys get as the air is all sucked out into astral space um it's not like vacuum space you're not all sucked out like kind of blown out of the thing but it is all the air goes rushing out basically uh as you are inside um and uh those of you who are outside you take five cold damage at the start of your turn so note down five cold damage um but what do you guys do i'll go start make my way towards the the crystal that needs fixing okay that is going to require either an acrobatics or an athletics check to try and keep a grip as you are climbing your way towards it it's gonna be an acrobatics that is yeah let's see does that do a thing 18 from Kim Nova

okay so you basically begin gently kind of like crawling balancing you wait for Thalia to drift the ship and you kind of lean into it so that you don't go flying off using these little hand holds as you begin making your way and you can

see this large it's been exposed like it looks like it's normally protected by a metal paneling or like some sort of armored plating that's been ripped free and there's this long gouging scar down this uh glowing blue crystal um and you can almost see the oxygen and the air kind of filtering out of it um as you make your way towards it. Century and Lucius, what are you guys doing? Are you just basically trying to cast spells? How are you going to try and take care of these floating ice particles? So the way I'm going to try and conserve as much air as possible is to use my Font of Magic to twin each one.

So I'm throwing two chromatic orbs out at a time. Two each time. Using up my 12 points which I have at level 3 I can do just do it once I'm not going to make you spend all of your sorcery points so what level are you casting it at

and then you're sorcery pointing it right I'm going to cast it at level 3 which is 5 sorcery points to twin it and it's a chromatic orb of acid which I am sending out to two different ones. Yeah, so and you're kind of choosing the ones as

Thalia is drifting close to them. You're kind of taking care of that one. Yeah, whichever is closest in our line of flying. And also my dichromancy will come off. So depending if the initial chromatic orb destroys each one or not the dichromancy will come off. So depending if the initial chromatic orb destroys each one or not, the dichromancy could target a third.

I'm not going to make you roll damage, but yeah, basically with this combination of magic, you are taking care of these icicle particles as you go. You've spent the spell slot. I'm not going to make you roll damage, but yeah, you're helping clear a path. Cintra, what are you doing? I'll be standing by Lucius,

just saying like, focus on the ones coming towards the ship i'll focus on the ones that are coming towards us and i'll use my shield and axe just try and deflect any that are coming towards us okay so you're going to try and just like any that come close try and shove them away or try and knock them away with the axe yeah sure make a uh what would this be this is more about it's less about accuracy because these things are pretty big to hit it's physically like the ability to shove them away like quickly enough that before they sort of detonate you've got to kind of like almost knock them away before they reach you so Yoki, plus eight. 17 plus eight. Just 25.

So, this combination of the two of you, any that come near, like Sentry, or kind of like, you know, leaping out and sort of knocking away with a shield and then stepping back in onto the little gangway that leads into the ship. Meanwhile, Lucius, holding his breath, is sending out these acidic

orbs as the orbs do hit the icicle particles they do shatter um and you can hear these kind of like these dull implosions of like as the ice scatters all over the place um and then centuries centuries hitting them they're being sent flying um by the the sound of uh by the force of this, they're also flying out and exploding off in the distance. Quillik, that sort of noise, that shape you saw in the background moving amongst all of these giant ice shapes, there's a moment where, as you're trying to still, you're still kind of plotting a path

and guiding Thalia where to go, you see, peering at you through a perfectly spherical, almost moon-like piece of ice, you see one giant, almost looks like a nebula, like a giant orb that looks like

a swirling piece of space, like a glowing nebula, and then it blinks. And then it vanishes. It was enormous. I can't talk, but we do have messenger rings, so I'll say the moment you've got the thing repaired, the oxygen thing,

and you've stopped deflecting things, you need to get back in as soon as you can. We're not alone. Okay. Nova, how are you going to fix this gem? Unfortunately unfortunately i don't think i have any spells i don't have anything that can like mending or anything like that that can do it so i guess it's like a arcana check um uh this would be this requires more of a delicate hand because you're trying to seal this gap so i'm gonna probably say this is going to be something

more like slight of hand because this is more about like keeping like a steady hand as you try and fill the gap with like magic gel or something like that rather than using a spell. Would a mage hand help with that at all? Not really. Let you do it at a distance. An extra hand to like. No.

Okay. Maybe. Like just help with speed or something. I'll give you an extra D4 extra speed i'll give an extra d4 you can throw an extra d4 sure okay sleight of hand that's a 19 on the sleight of hand plus two so 21 sure yeah so with the combination of the mage hand kind of helping steady what you're doing and kind of keeping everything compact, you spend some time filling this gem with this thick gel

that you've pulled from the engineering kit and it seems to seal and then eventually that hissing, that kind of psst stops and then you see the glow kind of pulse a few times and then you're like, okay, it's few times and you're like okay it's fixed can you make an acrobatics check to climb back to where ayla has you um okay meanwhile that's another five points of damage for century lucius and nova um i rolled a natural one with a three is can i

can i try and help her at all? Like, bring her back in? So she doesn't fly off. So normally what would be happening, as Nova is crawling her way back, Thalia has to dip the ship, and you are just not ready for it, Nova, and you come flying out, and it's only by this rope. There is not really, there's not gravity, as I say, so you do kind of float and fly,

but there is still enough of a force where, like, like oh you kind of begin spiraling out of control but ayla you've got the rope there and tied on you're just going to need to pull her back in which is going to be a strength check but you are not raging anymore so this is just a straight up strength mm-hmm 24 okay and then let's see okay so you begin pulling

Nova in but you can see that as you're doing so the rope that is attaching the two of you has become covered in rime and frost and the hemp rope is beginning to break away as you're pulling it in. What do you guys do? Both you and Nova. There's maybe like another 30 feet between the two of you.

But if you're not quick, this rope is going to snap. Do you know what? I am going to un-cast far step and teleport back in. I am going to unacast Farstep and teleport back in

So pulling Tiangong free you cut a hole in space and throw your plan of light with that last bit of force from Ayla's pull of the rope you throw yourself into the dimensional rift and appear next to Ayla who can slam the the hatch shut above you.

Perfect. Okay. Sweet. The rest of you all manage to make your way back inside. No more cold damage. The door shuts. You can finally breathe. Everybody's kind of huffing and breathing as they do. And as you all kind of like regroup together outside the cockpit,

you can see that the large, this labyrinth of ice and glaciers, you see a graveyard. You see dozens of broken smashed ships. Half of them, you know, most of them are barely more than just a few scraps of metal and crystalline tubes. You see a few bodies kind of floating through. And you can just see this place is just littered. Most of them are Valkyrian Empire ships. You can tell the black crystal, the painted star and twin swords of the Empire. But you also see a lot of other vessels, all different shapes and sizes,

scattered around this place. But you also see a lot of other vessels, all different shapes and sizes, scattered around this place. And you notice that the ice has almost formed like a ring around this graveyard. And Thalia is kind of drifting the ships in amongst it all. What do you guys do?

Maybe turn off the engines. Let us drift for a bit. Whatever's out there might be able to see the thrusters or something. Okay. What do you mean, whatever's out there? I'm on the guns, just ready. Okay. You begin scanning around Aayla.

And like Quill, you just see a shadow. Drift between the ice and then it vanishes. It's there for a split second as you look for it. And then it goes, it vanishes. But there is a presence you can feel. Nova, you also feel a presence. You feel that power swelling in Tiangong, that familiarity that tells you that somewhere there is a shard.

Oh, no. It's in this big thing. And I... Why? this big thing and I oh why as the ship turns as Thalia disconnects the engines and you just become a piece another ship floating amidst skeletons you finally

see the creature that has been following you it is enormous it dwarfs the twin star it dwarfs the valkyrian battleships that you've seen it is a creature like nothing you have seen before its body is made of frost frost and starlight with swirling nebulas in its eyes its rhyme covered serpentine form is dotted with the wreckage of valkyrian and pirate ships half frozen in the icy armor across its body one particularly large warship has clearly been rammed into its side, causing a great gouging long scar along its twisting body. Barely visible, you can see constellations inside its body like motes of

light and pulsing runes that swirl within it. The constellations and the runes are ones you all mostly know. You've seen them in temples to Siaska on Erois. However, spreading out from the crashed warship that left the Deep Scar, you can also see lines of red and black that pulse and twist

like tendrils, turning some of those constellations and lights into an ominous dark red. Oh. It wasn't bad enough. Like, the giant astral serpent thing,

the entire Shifting Streets is a big old serpent thing, and it's Hadar Touch, too. Awesome! But it has constellations that we recognise though. Yeah, you've seen the one that painted on the roof. When you've gone into a temple of Siaska on the roof,

they paint the night sky full of stars and the constellations in those temples, the runes of Siaska are in this, like they're floating and swirling amongst this creature's body. It is a Siaskan defence, but still Hadar-touched. Or maybe, wait, is this like...

Wait, wait, this is the thing! But what if this is the thing? It's Siasca's protector or guardian that needs its mind cleansed. Oh! Because it's Hadar-touched. Oh, but it's really big. It's so big, though.

The creature itself, there's no red in its eyes, but this ship, you can see like a wound, like a festering wound, this ship that's crashed. The black and red is spreading out from that, and Nova, the Shard of Tiangong, is spreading out from that. And Nova, the shard of Tiangong is in that crashed ship. Right. Okay.

We need to get that crashed ship out. Is it... Is it looking at us now that we're... The creature is drifting around this graveyard watching it. It doesn't look like it knows where you are,

but it is waiting. It's stalking this area. Okay. How the hell do we get to the ship? And then get onto it ourselves while it's a giant serpent thing. We don't know if there's air on the ship. I could fly you close enough.

I mean, those Valkyrian ships, they're pretty sturdy. As long as it's structurally sound, you should have air and gravity. But I can fly you close enough to it, but then I can't stay. I can fly you close enough to it, but then I can't stay. I can't linger. You'll have to jump off or teleport or something and deal with this, whatever you call it, Hadar-touched. If you could stay within a 500-foot radius, I could always cast Arcane Gate and we can get back onto you.

I can get within 500 feet of the crashed ship, yes, but staying there, I mean, that's going to be tough. It's going to be hard enough just trying to avoid that thing. It's massive. And if that thing hits the twin star, I mean, I don't know how long I'll last. Okay, I mean, we...

You don't need to stay close the whole time. No, and then you need to... I might have to leave, yes. I can hide amongst this debris here, I mean... You don't need to stay close the whole time. No, and then you need to... I might have to leave, yes. I can hide amongst this debris here, I think, but you'll need to send word to me when you want me to come and get you, if you're successful. Or you have those rings,

the ones you communicate with. You could give me one of those, and then I can stay in contact with you. I can update you on anything. The other thing is is nova i remember when we were leaving the the spaceport uh the starport you need to be able to see where you create that gate yes that means you'll probably have to come on you'll probably have to gate onto the creature's body and then make your way into the ship if it's closed off I was thinking it's better if I use it to get back to you

instead if I cast it from there onto you I can fly the ship close enough for you to jump I can't promise it will be an easy landing but I can get you close enough here take my ring i think constant communication will be vital rather than

single messages all right um i'll take this and she puts it in and she begins the process of attuning to it right contact us when it works keep contacting contacting us. I must admit, I have never seen anything like this creature. This is beyond me, I'm afraid. I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to give you much advice. Let's not dwell on it much, because I'm about to

implode. Let's just focus on the task at hand and get the job done. Right. Okay. Rethra looks at you, Ayla. Should I go with you? Should I stay here?

I mean, I'm happy to jump on that thing and fight something if you need to fight something, but... Sounds good. I don't think... I don't know what we're doing counts as fighting. I think it's... We just need to get that ship out of there. We've seen Hadass' stuff before. There's probably something in there.

I think we need to tie a ship out. She might need help. She might need engineering support. Something. A hand. Sure, I can stay. Like I said, I'm not... I just don't think i'm gonna be if i freak out down there i'm gonna be more of a hindrance than anything else stay here and help us get back again sure okay done uh thalia's like

yes my dear there's a big turret point it at something that you need to kill and push the button I think I can handle that I know what an arcane lance is captain and he's like goes up into the turret cool yeah alright well I guess gather up

by the gangway and let's try and make this work I guess, gather up by the gangway and let's try and make this work, I guess. I mean, I'll guidance her for piloting maneuvers. Okay, yeah, sure, that would be good. D4, sure. Let's get a D4. In case she does need to make a check. She does need to make a check, a piloting check.

Okay, 25 on her piloting check. So, she waits thalia waits for the head of this serpent with its big nebula eyes to just turn away from the center of the graveyard and then she slams forward on the large levers that control the engines, and they erupt into infernal fire as the twin star rockets forward. You don't hear, but you feel this thing roar. This powerful reverberation just rockets through the entire vessel, and you feel this immense, immense magical divine presence just kind of blast through you but thalia just bombs it towards this long deep scar that you can see um the the ship gets closer and closer and you can see the armor plates on this thing rise up

like mountains and thalia is dipping and weaving between them and as she gets closer and closer the doors the gangways open up and this rush of wind and force kind of flies through you hold on get ready to jump now and then she dips the ship in a sort of like diving motion uh just as the long scar stretches on before you. And I need all of you to make acrobatics checks as you jump out. Okay, well, who's the least acrobatic? I'm going to rage first.

I'm going to rage. I think this is very suitable for rage. Do you have to port them before, or can you pick? For the roll, yeah. I'll pick Nova to Portent. Okay. Well, he's done it now, so... Who's the one that can't Acrobatic so much?

Yeah. I can... Yeah. For some reason... Oh, Athletics. I was thinking of Athletics. My bad. I'm Acrobatic, yeah.

If you want to change it, because if you got the wrong skill, I'm happy for you to change it. Change it. Yeah, I was thinking of athletics. My bad. I'm acrobat, yeah. If you want to change it, because if you got the wrong skill, I'm happy for you to change it. I was thinking that Sentry is good at athletics, so I'll do Sentry instead. I got mixed up on athletics. So what are you portenting on Sentry? 14 for Sentry. 14?

14, cool. All right. So what's your total, Sentry? Okay. Extra D4 Okay So that is 7 plus Oh, you don't need to roll, you get a 14 Tom's using his portent on you

So your roll is a 14 plus your acrobatics That's just a 14 Alright, plus d4 Plus d4, which was 15 Kim, is that a new acrobatics one or is that an old one no that's not I was just going to ask

is this oh wait no it's 1 minute I thought it was 10 minutes it's not how far was far step 60 feet I'd say that like you're going to hit the tail end of 10 minutes when this is all happening on.

So if you want to just far step the last 60 feet to the ground. No, it's concentration up to one minute. I thought it was 10 minutes. Oh, right. Okay, I got you now. Yeah. I'd roll a 13 then. So total 13 for Nova.

Total 15 for Quilek, total 14 for Lucius, total 17 for Sentry because you've got portent 14 plus 3 from Driven to Purpose. Ayla? 17. 17. Classic. The two big melee bruisers come slamming down exactly where they need to. You can see that the entrance to the Starbane warship is maybe like, I don't know,

let's say sort of maybe 60 feet ahead of you. And you can already feel like there's not any oxygen, the freezing cold. On this thing, it's freezing cold. You land, chunks of ice come up, superhero-style landing, as all these icicle shards fly up around you. But you can tell that you're going to start taking cold damage.

For Lucius, Quill, and Nova, however, you land about 60 feet behind Sentry and Aayla, where you've fallen out a little bit of a way, and you are going to take some damage as you land as well. Shit. So that is going to be 19 bludgeoning damage as you slam into the ground, spinning, rolling, as you jump out of the moving astral ship.

And you're about 120 feet to the warship's entrance. As you land, you can feel the power rumbling through this creature's body. You can see the motes of light giving you enough visibility to see by, but the biting cold swoops all over you. You can also see that as you land and you begin to kind of gather yourselves up to run for this warship these little kind of forms of ice are beginning to kind of get up on little arms and legs uh stretching up pulling themselves free from its body and there's like 20 25 of them They're all pulling themselves free and they're going to start running towards all of you.

We're going to roll initiative. Holy shit. We're in the vacuum. On a supernatural godlike dragon nebula creature. That's our touch. Ice nebula dragon. Ice nebula dragon. It's not an astral dreadnought.

There's ice creatures on it as well. Right. Just because I'm getting confused by some people because there's a couple of misclicks here. Total initiative. Nova 13. 15. That was your acrobatics. That was acrobatics, yeah.

That's what I'm getting confused by. Century, what was your total? 16 total. Aayla? 24. 24. Lucius? Nice. 17. I get advantage, Tom.

It's on initiative, that's why. Well, Aayla, you are the first to react. Yeah, you've got about 60 feet before the entrance to this warship, and you can see it's partially embedded. It's got these got these big black crystalline bulkheads but you can see like systems that you've seen on like the um agus 5 like the same sort of like magitek systems that have worked for you before you recognize them as they will open the doors but you also notice that three of your companions are about 60 feet behind you, and there's about 25 of these creatures

all about to swarm on top of you. Um... Um... Guess I'm going back to the squishies. Um... Sure. Run... It will take my whole turn probably to get back there.

You've got 45 feet of movement, so you can move 45 feet closer to them. And they're 15 feet away at that point. You also, sorry, at the beginning of your turn, take five cold damage. Is... You said there's about 25 of these things right they're only little they're like they look like small little imp like creatures but made of ice and they're kind of pulling themselves free

um they're almost like antibodies like they're you're like they're defending the body against an intruder cool if i was to throw the hammer, how many of the little ships would I hit? Let's see. If I said... It's a line, right? But it's only like... How long is it?

60 feet, I think. 60 feet? So I'd say you can get six of them. No, 12 of them. Okay. Because you can just target a line of them and just every five feet you can hit one of these things. I will throw J'hammer.

Okay. So 12 of these things. 15? 15 will hit the one at the end. Let me do the dex saving throws for all the other ones. What's the DC? 16 16 right

fail pass so I've got 3 failures 1 pass so far that's another pass that's a failure that's a failure pretty good that is a failure. That's a failure.

Pretty good. That is a failure. Nice. That is a failure. That's nine so far. That's a pass. He's looking at pictures of us. That is a failure.

Seven fail, five pass. Okay. Okay. And then the last one, technically one of them, yeah, you hit him with your normal attack. The dude at the end will take nine points of damage from the hammer. Wait.

And then all of the rest of them give me the lightning damage. And the lightning damage will be wait no he takes sorry my damage has gone up one so he takes 10 damage because my mod increased uh the damage for the lightning oh my god i rolled a five and a six first of all oh my god i rolled a five and a six first of all 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 damage on lightning so the failures take half of that you swing the howling tempest and with one mighty blow it transforms into a lightning bolt and arcs down the entire side of this this scar that you're currently about to traverse down as you turn around and hurl it down one length of this entire corridor, and every single little mote that it's hit explodes into a 10-foot sphere of ice shards

that just erupt as they just pop, each one being hit by the bolt of lightning, until eventually it turns into a hammer, smashes the last one that explodes into pieces, and then flies back into your hand, an entire line of these things decimated. Oh my God. That felt good. I know they're a little,

but they can overpower you if there's 25 of them. Yeah, and you notice that when they died, they exploded in quite a big radius. Like, if they had been closer to you and you'd hit them, that explosion of ice would have hit all of you. But they haven't moved yet, so they're currently about 30 feet away. Lucius, Varian, and Elanasa blow each other up.

Well, they all died to the same attack anyway, so it's just like... Right. Are we all taking cold damage at the start of our turns, or is it... Five cold damage. Five cold damage, please. Start your turn. Okay. And what's the distance between me and these little buggers?

So, the first one of them is about 30 feet. Again, this is theater of the mind, so imagine that they're all going to be able to swarm you in about a turn of movement. You have got 120 feet before you arrive at the warship's doors. Aayla is about 15 feet in front of you. Come on, everybody, let's move forward. I'm going to start charging towards them,

towards where we need to go, and ahead of me, I'm going to cast a vitriolic sphere, which is a 20-foot sphere, on them as much as I can. Cluster, 120 feet, 150-foot range, so I can basically pick where I want that to be. Yeah, so you can catch, because they're kind of all clustered together, I'd say you can catch about nine of them all in one vitriolic sphere. If you target it further down the line, you can catch about nine of them all in one vitriolic sphere if you target it

further down the line you can catch about nine of them because it's not a line but you're catching them like the ones that are in a in a spherical area but you can catch nine of them so saving throws i'm guessing uh so it's a 17 uh dc 16 it's a deck save how much damage does it do like uh normally uh 10d4 acid and another 5d4 the start is next they physically they physically even if they pass the save it's enough to kill all nine of them so you watch as this giant sphere of orange ice just appears and melts nine of these things into puddles that just you know just cover the entire uh area of this creature's back as lucius is just running forward in this frost icy cold winds created by this creature's back um as you rush forward anything else i have a reaction right yes as well uh when i next take cold damage i'm going

to cast uh absorb, which will absorb... Sure, well, you can just do that as a reaction. You can tell me when you do that. You don't have to say ahead of time. You can just say when I take cold damage, I'm going to use this. I basically get resistance to it. And if I did a melee attack, it would add a D6 to it. Cool. Sentry.

But I'm basically mitigating damage. Yeah, so you can see that they're about 60 feet behind you. 60 feet. Can I move 30 feet closer and then cast a moonbeam between the spellcasters and the little blah, blah, blah guys? Yeah.

Sure. I mean, at the moment, thanks to Lucius and Ayla, there's about four of these creatures left. They are still running towards you, but you can easily catch all four of them in the moonbeam. Cool. Nice. Sure.

All righty. We'll do that. So, they take 3d10. 3d10. Okay. And then saving throw. Con 15. Con 15. Fail. Fail. Nice. 3d10 okay and then saving through con 15 con 15 fail fail nice fail pass damage for me so 3d10 so that's 24 and then half as much for the one that succeeded

this beam just descends from the sky and just you watch again as these three these all these creatures just pop just all of them just erupt in these explosions of ice damage as you destroy them um but yeah there are no more creatures between you and the doors um giving everyone a currently a clear path and you said you wanted to move 30 feet closer to your teammates yeah so you're currently 90 feet away from the door so you've moved back 30 feet with 90 feet towards the door no nova vija uh 120 feet to the door no enemies gonna run just gonna run yeah 60 feet in it so if i remember we have ayla moved feet back. So there's 15 feet from these guys. So

something. I'll figure that out. Math. Centuries 90 feet back, 30 feet back. Okay. So Nova is, I think, currently the one in the lead because you dash, so you're about 60 feet ahead of everyone else, which means you have 60

feet to go before you reach the doors. You don't see any enemies and you're just going to dash. Quillek, add Kalar. Yeah, I'll do a double dash as well. Don't forget your cold damage, Quilly. Five cold damage, five cold damage, five cold damage to Sentry as well. And so Nova

and Quill are now 60 feet away from the door. Aayla was 60 feet and then moved 45, so Aayla is 105 feet away. Lucius moved 30 feet closer, making him 90 feet away. So is Sentry. So, Lucius, Sentry. What would have been the monsters go?

There are obviously no monsters, but you begin to see that on the sides of this creature's serpentine body another 25 of these things begin pulling themselves free begin raving themselves but that's their whole turn is to do that so we go to Ayla but no more

charges on the hammer running 90 feet so you just basically you're like 15 feet from the door. You're like, just running towards it. Lucius. I also will dash

as fast as I can. And I get resistance on this damage. Yes, so again, five cold damage to Aayla. So you are now 30 feet from the door, Lucius, and you gain resistance, so you only took half of that. You're rounding down or up? You round down, so it's two damage,

because it's half of five, so it'd be two. Okay, so Lucius is about 30 feet from the door. Aayla is 15 feet from the door. But these creatures are beginning to swarm, no longer being attacked in mass numbers. Many of them are beginning to scramble towards you. Sentry? Is Quill within distance of me if I run 30 feet?

How far is Quill? So you are 90 feet away. So Quill is 30 feet ahead of you right now okay can i move next to him yeah and cast protection from energy and choose cold damage sure yeah perfect so you get resistance to cold damage we'll take your five cold damage sensory yep got it uh any bonus actions uh no that's me good No, that's me good, thank you. That's you good. Nova?

I'll keep running to... I'm guessing it's another 60 feet from me, right? Another 60 feet, yeah. All right, so Nova is at the door. Is the door open? The door is not open, but you can see that there are the same Magitek systems that were on Aegis V, like these panels. You can see them. as you approach you can see

the kind of sputtering of arcane magic coming from it and you can hear a very warped sort of please present your identity Oh man, that's cool. That was a good one. Prox is called

Well, your action to dash so that's the end of was a good one. Prox is gold! Well, your action to dash, so that's the end of your turn. Quillik, add Kalar. Five halfed, so two cold damage, five cold damage for Nova. Two for me. Awesome. So yeah, I'm thirty from the door. Or sixty from the door?

You are currently sixty feet from the door. You and Sentry are the furthest back now. Okay. And how far are the furthest back now. Okay. And how far are the actual horde from us? About 30 feet. So they'll catch up to Sentry. Okay. I mean, can I use some magic missiles? I want to do four magic missiles

to hit the ones that are in clusters so that if they explode, they explode and set off chain reactions among the horde. Nice. Sure. Yeah. You do... So, yeah, roll the damage.

Are you targeting four? Are you going to send each missile at an individual creature? Are you going to send each missile an individual creature are you going to be like one two until it blows up one two till it blows up three four till it blows up yeah so um uh i'll send out i'll send out five but yeah hit hit hit until it blows up and then move to a different target um okay so roll the damage for me let's see how many you actually managed to destroy so four then two then four then three then three so the first three destroy one and then the next two damage one but don't quite destroy it

oh plus one to all of those individually uh so five eight same same thing unfortunately still applies um it's just that the second one looks very badly injured. When it explodes, it's the one that you pop with the first three missiles, like these bolts kind of slam into it. As it explodes, the ice shards don't even affect the ones around it. The ice shards just wash over them.

They are immune to cold. That makes sense. Damn it. Right. On their go, the remaining 24 of them uh swarm and rather than doing 24 individual attacks they basically make one attack against each of you because they can reach all of you they're all kind of spread out in a line along this corridor they just swarm towards all of you um and start surrounding you basically uh they're gonna

make an attack against each of you with advantage and if it hits it will do damage basically um and then now if any of them are destroyed they have the risk of potentially harming you as well so we'll just go around in order so sentry whoops uh that is a 19 to hit no you managed to bring the shield down as they start swarming around you, trying to scrape and claw at you with these icy cold fingers and claws. Quillek. Can I protect Quill?

You can, so that would be the first roll, so that would be a 13 to hit Quill. No, it doesn't. Okay, so Century manages to interpose herself between you and all of these creatures trying to swarm around you as well. Ayla, that is a 11 to hit you.

So you're kind of knocking them to the side, big sweeps of the hammer sending these things flying around you. Lucius, that is a 19 to hit you nah it doesn't do it nah i think it does you're a liar uh 17 20 points of cold damage as all of these things swarm around you and are like grasping at you their icy cold hands clawing around you. So absorb elements, right? Last until... Oh wait, that's just when I take the damage.

Storing for next mana. I have resistance to the triggering damage type until the start of my next turn. When did you activate it? Last turn. As a reaction when I took my cold damage. Which is at the start of your turn so you would have got it to... End of your next turn. Yeah, so you still have it. You still have cold.

So you still have cold resin. So you take 10 cold damage instead. Nice. As this shield of energy is kind of absorbing some of their impacts, protecting you from it. Nova against you. Ooh, that's a natural 20, I'm afraid. Matey

for a 24. Yep. They swarm for a 24. Yep. They swarm around to the doorway. Whoops. That's gonna be... That's gonna be... 12, 24... 30...

32... 37 points of cold damage as just like 8, 9 of these creatures just swarm on top of you pulling at your arms, pulling at your feet, this icy cold touch just completely sending chills

down into your bones as you try and pull yourself free but it is Aayla's go Can I run up to the door with my 15 feet? Does it open like it did with me on Aegis V? It does. When you run up, you just hear a,

Welcome, Bray. And whatever name it was going to call you is lost to this warping effect, but the door opens. It kind of judders, and you can see it opens about halfway, creating a crawl space, and then it seems to be frozen in place from ice and frost that's built up on its side.

But you can duck under and crawl under it if you want to. These creatures don't get attack opportunity, by the way, as you run away from them. They're so single-minded, they don't make reactions. They just kind of jump on you and then you can kind of throw them off you and dash.

Okay. What do you like to do? I will roll under J'adore. Can I have a look in before I roll? You glance in and the very brief glance that you look into is pitch black, apart from there is a very faint

pulsing red light coming down the sides of the corridor I will duck inside and have a look I guess I don't know what I can do in here for life you start looking around

you start looking around and then you notice that the door, the weak energy of the door, it's beginning to slowly fall. Where it's only reached about halfway, it's trying to close again. Hold it up. Strength check. Athletics. Athletics? Oh my god, I rolled a 19, so that's 19 plus 9. You just grip it and your muscles kind of bulging and bursting,

your tattoos flaring to life with lightning. You hold up this heavy crystalline door, keeping it in place for the others to run under it as you are rushing. You still take five cold damage just because you started your turn outside. Sure. Cool. Lucius? I am running in. Okay, so yeah, you kind of do the same Sure. Cool. Lucius. I am running in. Okay, so yeah, you kind of do the same thing.

Sausage roll. You kind of throw these things off, roll in underneath. You take five cold damage at the start of your turn. You can easily make it inside before these things get a chance to follow you. Anything else? What I might do is when I sausage roll in oh wait, does it take a dash for me to reach there?

sausage roll? you can reach the doorway in 30 feet so anyone that is struggling with these creatures, I will throw a chromatic orb of acid Nova is definitely struggling in which case I'll twin it and make sure I hit two of them

sure make your tackles uh very well acid ding dong 12 for the first one that is not enough it seems to kind of like the orb bounces off the icy carapace around this thing as it flies off to the side but the second one she did twin it 26 that one nails it um as the orb of acid strikes the creature uh it completely envelops the creature which then explodes into a of ice uh and shards uh nova can you make a dexterity saving throw for me, please? Mm-hmm. So this will be a plus three. I do.

That will be a five. Okay. You take four more points of cold damage. Does this thing explode, showering you in ice? You always do this to me, Lucius. I'm trying to help. It's Ventry.cy no i'll hit one that's further away that could impose a threat to anyone running towards the door yeah easily destroyed and no threat to anybody else with the ice shards sentry can I use my flame lance

and try and clear a path for me and Quill yeah yeah yeah is it a saving throw for me or it is 13 deck save yeah and what's the range is it 30 foot line 30 foot by 5 yeah yeah so 30 foot so

six of them basically uh first one is a fail second one is a fail third one is a fail fourth one is a pass fifth one is a pass sixth one is a fail so four fail to succeed uh so roll up that damage for me don't's five points of cold damage six of them destroyed so you just clear a path um ahead of you um make a no actually nova and lucius and ala were the only ones in threat of being hit by explosions and they're inside now so you annihilate six in your way and there is nothing now threatening you um from getting into the the ship um do you want to do you move or are you just going to stay where you are because you're 60 feet uh can i yeah can i start moving say like message your room let's get moving alice just holding the door open like jesus christ

i'll assist while I'm there. Yeah, sure, yes. Lucius actually does help as well. You are somewhat strong and the two of you are holding this door up. So Sentry is now 30 feet away from the entrance. Nova. You can just roll inside. Rappled?

No, no, no. Narratively, they swarmed on top of you, but you can throw them off. A sausage roll inside, please. A sausage roll inside. A kind of roll inside. You can see these things are going to make a rush for everyone at the door, but yeah, you can get inside. Could I

create a little bonfire by the entrance? It's five foot, so Nova, not Nova, I'm Nova, Quill and Sentry should still be able to run through without getting damaged. But you can basically block off a part of the

doorway so that if anything runs on top of it they take fire damage. Yeah, perfect. So I'm going to create bonfire. The fire, by the way, when you conjure it, and the same with the flame lance, all of these things they don't really have faces. They're just like blocks of ice with arms and legs, and they're just like...

And they scatter away from it, throwing their arms up wildly, terrified of the fire that you've created. Quillen. I know I'm leaving the door, but I'll dash to the door. Dash. Five gold damage, please. Oh, yes. Am I still got the resistance? I'll dash to the door. Dash.

Five cool damage, please. Oh, yes. Have I still got the resistance? Yeah, I believe so. Protection. Yeah, I believe so. Perfect. And yeah, I'll double dash through the door and maybe sausage roll if I've got the time.

Okay. So Sentry, you are going to bear the brunt. So Sentry and then Lucius and Aayla, you are the ones who are going to bear the brunt so century and then lucius and ayla you are the ones who are gonna bear the brunt of the next wave of attacks so six seven eight nine so there is a good 14 of them left um so seven of them basically swarm around century and seven of them swarm towards ayla and lucius um so i'm gonna make an attack against each of you individually just one but i'll up the damage and they'll have advantage on the attack roll so Sentry

it will yes it will destroy some of them but they will get their attacks first Kim so they will basically wipe them out but they'll get a small amount of attacks 18 to hit Sentry which I believe is a fail because your AC is 20 so again they're just like grabbing onto your arms and legs as you're kind of like

moving through them and they're just like grabbing onto your arms and legs as you're kind of like moving through them and they're just like... Just rambling, unable to do anything. Ayla, that is going to be a 22 to hit you. Yep. There's not as many of them as a lot of them have been taken out by the fire. So that's going to be eight points of cold damage

as they kind of scrabble and claw at you from underneath the door, kind of going for your legs. And then Lucius, that is a 20 to hit you. And that is nine points of cold damage. As they're scrabbling to get past you and attack the thing that they believe is threatening them. I'll cast another Absorb Elements.

Okay, so you can half that to four. I need that. cast another absorb elements. Okay, so you can half that to four. I need that. And then Aayla So it's Aayla and Lucius and then Century I'm going to guess is going to make the final movement to get under the door. So Aayla and Lucius, what do you guys want to do? Do you want to do anything? I can't really do anything while the door is

I can't do anything. So I have to just wait. Okay. Lucius? you can't i can't do anything so i have to just wait i have to just wait okay lucius uh yeah i'll just support the door until everyone's inside and then drop the door okay smart so century you're the last one you come running in do you do like do you slide under it do you do like a roll like you've got all these creatures in front of you but you're strong enough that you can just barrel through them if you want i could do a little indiana jones slide just like under the door slide yeah the slippery ice gives you the perfect uh kind of moment you slide through and then ayla and lucius as soon as

you're clear you drop the door and it crushes leaving behind a few twitching hand ice hands uh that come slamming down and are broken off. Once you are inside the corridor, that unnatural chill of outside fades. Your breath, you can kind of feel oxygen fill your lungs. It's not warm. It's still freezing cold, but not so much that it's damaging your skin and your extremities. But it is completely black.

Those of you who do not have dark vision it is completely dark inside apart from this very very very faint red light that just along the sides of the walls uh dancing lights all right so hang on let's go around Lucius cast dancing lights Sentry did you have a thing yeah can I summon Echo and send him ahead to have a look around yeah so you

it's not been a while but you create this and I can't remember did we decide that Echo looks differently now that you've upgraded to Sentinel Prime or is he still he's not so like Barbie and like disheveled he's got like little armor plates around him now still like little bits of branches sticking out but he looks more rugged more solid more armored yeah more solid create this little uh metal sphere

with a glowing golden eye i guess now because your matrix is now golden so um he kind of floats up looks around bobs up and down and then begins drifting uh nova did you have something um it says that um tiangong has dark vision up to 60 feet so how would that work like i guess yeah well they can see they sorry yeah they but the problem is is they can only say yes and no. So you can say, Tiangong, can you see? Yes. Tiangong, is there danger ahead? No.

I guess I don't really have much I can do, but I'll look towards Quill and just be like... Well, the dancing lights fill the area now and it's all, you know, lighting. But yeah, you can see Nova has got chill blains and frostburn all over her. Isn't Lucius, like, barely alive? Yeah, I think both of them.

We're shivering in a corner. Okay, I'll do two fourth level cure wounds on both. Which is quite a lot of healing. It should be anyway two fourth level. What would that be? Cure wounds. That's a 14 plus 5 for both of you. So

Bonova 24. Volucious 20. 21. 22. Yeah. Oh 22. So it's plus 5 isn't it? So 24 and 22. 22. 21. Yeah. Oh, 22. So it's plus five, isn't it?

So 24 and 22. 22. There you go. And also I want to do an arcane eye, which does have dark vision. Okay. So with echo and arcane eye. But Lucius, did Lucius not just cast dancing lights? Yeah, but we can send echo and arcane eye forwards.

All right. Ohcha gotcha gotcha uh and so far it looks like it is just one long corridor that seems to extend for a little bit um both echo and the arcane eye which i'm assuming you send forward down the corridor they notice that there are many points where the corridors would turn off but they have long since been collapsed or they lead into empty barracks that have long been destroyed and abandoned there are parts where there are flickering lights you come across a section a t-junction of a corridor where a single purple light is blinking like just casting the whole area in like brief moments of purple huge colour there are vents

that are steaming you can see grates the floor itself appears to be like a thick metal grate and each step that you take as individuals leaves this heavy sort of like clunk clunk as you make your way down any lockers?

yeah no lockers so far you do see Echo and RK and I as they pass one of the barracks looking inside. There appear to be foot lockers, like little chests and trunks, things like that. Most of them open. You don't see any bodies or blood. Just empty. Tiangong, Nova, you can feel itself pulling you towards the shard um somewhere deeper uh

closer to the the front of the ship uh what you assume is the front anyway tiangong the ultimate brookstone yeah all this time the long con yeah the just for my benefit are you guys just kind of like slowly following sending the arcane eyes out to scout and then moving along as you find places to go I feel like at least Lucius would be

mega tentative and wait for any intel from sentry or quill before moving forward I might also keep messaging seeing if thalia responds sure so thalia gives you a report the first couple of times or you get back oh wait i can't you can't but somebody else can whoever does messenger you just get this occasional sort of like give me a second uh and then after a while you eventually get right yes we've managed to um we

managed to get away and we've we've hidden ourselves in the in the debris field for now um but this thing i mean i saw it shatter one of those larger glaciers with just a with a swine i wonder how farlier is everyone you say that out loud yeah whilst i wonder how farlier is farlier is it just echoes down these like empty corridors bouncing off the You say that out loud? Yeah, whilst they're trying to listen. I wonder how far Lear is. Far Lear is. Far Lear is. Far Lear is. It just echoes down these empty corridors bouncing off the cliff. Shh.

Oh, sorry. Shh. Shh. Shh. Muted, Katie. That was really loud, Kim. That shush was really loud. Sosipops.

Can I have everybody make a stealth check? Stealth check. And then I'll describe what the Arcane Eye and Echo see. Big fucking alien. Stealth. A paladin's best friend. No, 20! I am the quietest person

ever. You roll a 15. Okay, thank you. You've reduced the roll. What did you already roll? Well, no, she rolls with disadvantage. Oh, yeah, a 9. Good. I don't know how that did it.

Rolled a 9 too, and Lucius rolled a 12. And then the core got a 13. I got a 25. Guys, you're dragging me down here. I was too busy shushing Lucius. Slowly making your way down this corridor, your footsteps leaving these echoing clangs as they step across metal grates.

Vents blast steam, white energy or gas kind of venting out into the corridors you occasionally step through. But up ahead, the invisible arcane eye and the little metal sphere form of Echo make their

way through, and eventually the corridors lead out into a large, open space. Gangways line the sides, and you can see that it appears to be maybe some sort of hangar bay for

small vehicles some of them look to be almost like little wagons with large round metal tires or wheels sorry some of them appear to be two wheeled vehicles like bicycles but powered by

magitek all long since degraded and corrupted no longer really functional but many of them still lay in there which i mean you never know but one thing is clear and that that is in the center there is a single round disc that has been laid out and is projecting a blue and purple field up to the ceiling. Hovering in the middle of this field you can see what appears to be a

an axe, like a two-headed axe, made of the same blue and black material as Tiangong. And it is, the field pulses, as you can see red and black tendrils of energy testing it trying to reach inside

growing from these tears these small red tears on either side of the room but the last thing that Echo sees before there is a flash of light is from the darkness

it sees what appears to be nine red lights one, two, three, four, five six, seven, eight, nine and then one of them blinks and Echo is disintegrated One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And then one of them blinks and Echo is disintegrated.

And that's where we're going to end today's episode. What? No, it's been Echo's disintegration. Nine lights. Yeah, but that means it's going to be a beholder. Farazdun! Which could legit TP chaos. Oh my god. That's crazy.

If you roll half as good as you did today, we're good. Well, obviously not then. Challenge ratings are challenge ratings, and if I didn't think that you were able to fight whatever monster could be in here, you are assuming it is a beholder. There are many things that can disintegrate enemies.

But I would never put you against something I don't think you can beat. That was really easy. I should really up the difficulty. He literally said that to us. That was really easy for you guys. I really misjudged that. I should really make it more difficult.

Well, anyway, that is the end of today's episode. Did you guys enjoy that episode? Was that a fun episode? No. Yeah, that was so good. No. That was really good.

No. Did you like the big frost snake? No. Yeah. I didn't learn. It's a good one. Thank you.