High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #86 | Very Froggy Rituals (Part 1)

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

The Stormchaser takes off to find another shard of Tiangong! 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

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Like riding roller coasters. Learning to water ski. Applying sunscreen to your dad's back. Yep, definitely the best summer ever. Squeeze more summer out of summer with Skip. Did somebody say Skip? Hello, welcome back to High Rollers, the Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois. We're sponsored by D&D Beyond, the ultimate digital Dungeons & Dragons toolkit that takes all the

confusing rules of D&D and compresses it into an awesome online package. Perfect for D&D newcomers and veterans. Use the link in the podcast description to try out D&D Beyond for free. Hello and welcome back to Erois. Whilst trying to seal a planar rift containing the power of Hadar, our heroes were sent hurtling across the multiverse. They explored new worlds and planets, meeting new allies and making new enemies. They learned more about the Valkyrian Empire, its influence spread across many of the known worlds. After weeks of travel, the party found their home plane of Erois, and thanks to the help of a Medusa pilot, Thalia, and the aid of the

god Palador, they bypassed the magical barrier protecting their world and returned home. The party spent time catching up with the crew of their airship, the Storm Chaser, and sat down to make plans on what they must do next to stop Calus Valkyrian's conquest of Arois, as well as the more looming threat of Hadar. They've decided to stock up on supplies and then head out to track down a shard of Tiangong, Nova's sentient hexblade weapon, which they believe to be nearby. However, as they rest on the Stormchaser for the first time in weeks, Nova Vija begins to dream. That is where we pick up today's episode. Nova, the dream begins to take shape, and i think that knowing the spell yourself you become

instantly aware that you are under the effect of the spell dream the world conjured around you takes on a familiar but still different appearance you appear to be in a city city that is very close to your home of vortensar but different it is grander to a larger scale it is a city where the four elements have been brought and blended together canals of water run through beautifully carved stone buildings air currents lift up entire districts high above and rings of flame cast down heat and light and great factories in the distance roar with the

power of elemental fire standing before you a man in a suit of black full armor enhanced with magitek long flowing black hair and a very

worn and weary expression on his face ah nova vega and he just stands and waits for a moment to see your reaction just silence

okay I will not keep you long but I am to understand well I thought perhaps I should show you your home world now that you know of it. This is one of the largest cities on Ganaz. He kind of waves his hand and the imagery, the landscape around you begins to shift. You begin kind of pulling away to get almost a bird's eye view.

And you can see a world where the four elements have been brought together into harmony working with each other the landscape sculpted to allow these four elemental planets and beings to exist perfectly not quite an epic metropolis as you saw of gideon prime but a world of culture of prosperity that has developed very very well i thought perhaps i should show you your world now that you are aware of it see how it has flourished within my empire. So at this point, Nova is looking wild-eyed out at these sites and just drinking it in and almost kind of is forgetting who she's in the presence of and why she's here

because she's so enraptured by seeing what she's wanted to see you know seeing ganassi yeah she's almost kind of she's just lost in it um yeah you can see that there are almost whole not quite whole cities but whole districts suspended in the air that seem designed for air ganassi specifically to live the houses are carved almost to resemble clouds and kind of wispy spires that rise up. And with a wave of a hand, you begin to see kind of almost translucent images of people, various different Ganassi just going about their normal lives. And you see Air Ganassi kind of levitating up to these high districts going down. You see Water Ganassi swimming through the canals.

Fire Ganassi walking barefoot, leaving slightly flaming footprints along these hot coals and magma beds as they make their way. So this could have been my home. This could have been where I lived. If Jasavir and Vortensar had not switched places this is indeed where you would have grown

no doubt you would have been a bright mind there's a number of academies and foundries workshops here on Gannes your people have always had a very intense curiosity to the world especially the world of elements

and magic. I suspect you would have been a star pupil. I am showing this to you because this is the last time that we will communicate in this manner. You got more busier things on your mind?

Things to do? Stuff ramping up? Hmm. You are much braver than the first time we spoke, you will. Fear trembling in my presence. I am busy, yes. But, it has become clear

to me that whilst you may understand my true goal, we will never see eye to eye on my methods. Before we go into that, why did you

imprison the Jasavir elves? Why did you send them away? Why did you hide them? I think you already know the answer to that, Nova. You are a smart woman. I want you to say it. They knew the truth of Eroas. Eroas is...

was... my empire's first real defeat. It would cause many unseen problems. A blow whose fractures would spread and crack. Not just to weaken my military strength, it would cause a lot of death. Riots, people would rise up, people would lose faith in the structures and the systems, panic. They are not ill-treated. None of my prisoners are.

They are not ill-treated. None of my prisoners are. I'm not some despot who is doing this for some sick need of conquest or satisfaction. I do not see the Jasavir elves as my enemy, but they represent a threat to what I have built, so they must be contained. That's the problem. I understand. I really do. I understand why you're doing this, and you say I'm not frightened of you because I am far more

frightened of Hadar. And frankly, I don't have a lot of emotional energy left over from that. But I just wish that you would, instead of conquest, instead of enslavement, instead of incarceration, instead of all of this, instead of brainwashing and lies, you would just for once talk. Meet with the leaders and talk and explain why you want to do this. But you want to go your own way. You want to do things your way.

You don't want to listen to anyone anymore. And that's why you're going down the wrong path. But I think you're too closed-minded and closed-hearted to see that. Are you done? I want to fight alongside you, Starbane.

I really do. But I want to fight alongside you against Hadar, not Erois. Call me Kallus. Starbane is a name that Erois and people who see me as nothing more than a conqueror, but I think you know I'm more than that. I cannot say if we will fight on the same side I am not fighting for Erois

Erois has something I need You know this Something I need to defeat Hadar In terms of your earlier point I have lived for thousands of years, Nova Vigia Do you honestly think that I have not tried your way? That I was not once young and idolistic and naive as you are now? Do you know why that I speak to you in this manner, Nova Vija? It is because I see so much of me in you. But I also know that weakness,

those naive, idealistic thoughts. They are very noble, and I admire them immensely. But it is not the reality of how the multiverse works. I have tried speaking. I have tried talking, negotiating, trading, imagining and establishing alliances. It failed., it failed. It always failed. Because people, not all,

but enough people are swayed by greed or selfishness or jealousy or power that they cannot be trusted. There is only one consistent thing that keeps people in line. I truly hope that when next we meet,

it is as allies. Because if we meet as enemies, Nova Vigia, I will have to kill you. And he just steps back and the dream collapses around you. Almost breaking as if a great mirror shattering and falling away as he just fades. And that's it. That's the dream. You all wake up. Have a long rest. What a great night's sleep on the airship in so long.

Oh, really, really, really peaceful sleep. Nothing happened to me. Very nice sleep. I feel like myself again. Good. Yeah, it is a fresh... I think you guys are kind of bordering into early spring now um it's a fresh fresh morning on eros just giving kim a bit of a minute just to

kind of uh compose herself fucking weeks three fucking weeks for this mark you had your little speech and he had his little speech and then he's like, no, I'm done. I've said, I've got the last point. I want him to be my friend. Oh, you know how to do that.

Yeah, you know how to do that. You just need to stop opposing him. He's just said he's blocked me now. He's deleted my number. He's deleted my number. He's Facebook blocked me. Anyway, what do you guys want to do i know that you we've been talking um off screen about purchasing some things

we don't necessarily need to role play all that out we can just literally go through a list of what people want to buy if there's anything you guys want to do in the city of porta sovrano which is one of the major port cities in the Hawk's Dawn Archipelago. Yeah. I mean, I bought basically just spell components. Enough for three uses of Greater Restoration and for one use of Raise Dead.

He's finally done it. I've finally done it. So I read the Raise Dead spell and it turns out I can use it for as long as 10 days after someone's death so i i thought it was like as long as i have it prepared all the time and i have to use it in the moment but no i'm um you're thinking of um revivify is that revivify is you basically have to cast it within a minute of them dying so uh yeah i've got the uh components for that uh okay and i will read those slowly okay nice

i uh i got some holy water and some powdered silver or iron for some spell stuff and some diamonds for revivify so essentially he was like i will i will be the defibrillator if if i will um yeah it sounds good and then you also wanted to you bought some jewelry right or you I will be the defibrillator. If Quillen will not, I will. Yeah, sounds good. And then you also wanted to... You bought some jewelry, right? Or you wanted to just get some gemstones? What was that for, Reed?

Tell us. I was commissioning... I wanted to commission a little brooch for Sentry. So I've kind of sketched out a little design. There we go. I love it. It looks like the shield from Hades. That's it, yeah.

Me and Tom might have Hades on the brain. I love it. Is that like a little kind of cloak brooch, like a cloak cast to keep the cloak together? Is it like a medal? Okay, so it's like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's lovely.

I love that. What a sweet little badge. Yeah, and the components to like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's lovely. I love that. What a sweet little badge. Yeah, and like the components to make that. I mean, how much, like, is this made from gemstones or is this like, you know, the best platinum you can get hold of? Like, is this meant to be like a really, you know, fancy piece of jewelry or? Sentry's got 116 gold on her.

I think it's more of like a, as like a motivational kind of piece for her something to remind her of how far they've come and remind her that she is capable she can she can do what she needs to do she's sentinel brine um yeah something like that i think would cost you about 25 gold for like a or maybe 50 gold actually because it has gemstones and stuff in it. Yeah, 50 gold. And yeah, it's very, very beautiful. It's a nice little statement piece. Perfect, yeah, now you've got some spell stuff.

Okay, anybody else? I did a few things. I have finally spent the gold and taken the time to learn heal greater injury using my ritual casting eldritch invocation thingy book of shadows I've also bought the components needed for that so I can cast it

once I also bought two greater healing potions, sold a bunch of crap like mundane armor and stuff I wasn't using and I also bought the scroll of summon elemental so if we want we can summon an air elemental

beat the crap out of that, glue it onto the wing, glue that onto quill and quill can fly yep so yeah, that's the dream that's the dream do you guys want to, so you've bought a lot of like kind of off the stuff is there anything else like any

other big purchases Lucius or Ayla anything that you guys want to do before you head out before you ship out my brain is blanking there's probably some cool things that I literally have spent this time thinking about and cannot think of them I just stocked up on a couple of potions

really for Ayla. Okay, sure. Lucius would have seen everyone take proactive action to go and finally clear out the cobwebs in their backpacks and stuff like that. So he's like, okay, let's do this.

He spills out everything on the floor and organizes it around. He's like, well, okay, so no, I will need that one just in case the dagger maybe you never know i probably should keep you never know eggy keeps everything okay so he gets rid of nothing buys nothing is just spends the day going through his stuff and just kind of merry-condoing it, but not actually getting rid of anything. Love it. Pretty much.

He's still penniless. I think the only other thing I was wondering is if we should get a bag of holding, but I think it's probably a group discussion of if we should. There is a place in Porta Sovrano which you can go to and buy that sort of thing this is definitely the place where you can get hold of uh maybe not like they're not mega magic items but you could definitely buy something like a bag of holding like that is something that is likely to

be here um like five episodes we don't need one. Well, I mean, I've got ten platinum bars that are very heavy. They are very heavy. I'm just wondering if overall if we should do that. Yeah, I know, but we keep getting separated from the ship. I'm up for it. Yeah, me too. I think we could. Wait, no, I've got one better. how about instead of a bag of holding which is what

5 000 gold did you say hold of bagging about 4 000 4 000 how about 5 000 we get liam and secret chest which directly teleports everything from the ship back to me with a tiny little chest i've got that spell. That is another thing. What if the ship's destroyed? Then we lose everything. I think Thomas would very much like his cool chest spell, which would allow you

to carry around lots of things. Do you have to cast that spell every time you want to get it? Every time you want to get stuff in and out of it, he has to have that spell every time you want to get it every time you want to get stuff in and out of it he has to cast the spell yes then again that seems like a bit of a pain in the butt we've got platinum bars you could do both you could do both yeah you certainly could what if we put the secret chest in a holding. Yeah. Can that work? Maybe.

Why, though? That's how her tail was formed. Why? I don't know. We've got ten platinum bars, so I'm just saying we should get something. Get both. Both.

I vote both. What? I vote both. Right, we've got. I vote both. I vote both. Right, we've got two votes for both. Both is good. Both. Three votes for both. That's a majority.

Okay. Yeah, I mean... Why are you unhappy now, Tom? You're getting what you want. What I wanted was not a 40 minute shopping episode well it's not going longer the dale geld trading company vishtan of the dale geld trading company has a bag of holding um and can help organize because it's going to take Nova 10 hours

to learn Heal Greater Injury anyway. In that time, a chest can be commissioned, and through a little bit of use of creation magic, a 5,000 GP chest can be constructed for Quill. Okay, turns out it doesn't, the chest, the actual chest, is not on this airship, or somewhere I put it, like an ender chest or something.

It's on the ethereal plane. Yeah, you store it on the ethereal plane and carry it with you. Yeah. Okay. So that is going to be 4,000 gold for a bag of holding. You can also, Vishtan will also offer you, rather than the bag of holding, you could also buy Heward's Handy Havasak, which is a backpack which has, it can carry less than a bag of holding, you could also buy Huard's Handy Havasack, which is a backpack which has...

It can carry less than a bag of holding, but it is less expensive, and it's just like a backpack that you wear, and it's got little pockets. It's got little tiny bags of holding built as little pockets and pouches on the havasack. That's pretty cool. Like cargo pants. We could get the tiny bag of holding and the secret chest. The secret chest will be good for big things. Like, oh, we've just found a giant gold statue

that we can't carry. Put it in the chest. Let's get the little haversack then. That's fine. The Huwetani haversack is 2,000 gold. So mark off 7,000. 5,000 GP for the chest. How much is a platinum bar?

I think I said that they were worth 1,000 platinum each and you had 10 of them. So you had 10,000. 5,000 GP for the chest. How much is a platinum bar? I think I said that they were worth 1,000 platinum each, and you had 10 of them. So you had 10,000. But you spent one platinum bar? No, that was the crystals. No, we didn't. Yeah, so it was the crystals that you spent one of for the motorbike. For the Magitek bike, I should say. So you've got the 10 bars. Yeah, they're worth

1,000 gold each bar, basically. You have 10,000 gold in those bars. So we have three bars left. Yes. Okay. And a very expensive scroll. I need to have a spell of Screstra. Vishtan is very happy to buy that off you.

No, he offered me less. He doesn't have my custom. This is beyond shopping if we're done with that. Okay. Are we done with that? I got one more thing. Just as a point of admin, and this is more for the audience. I do remember that we have the Pylon Golem's Gatling Gun. We are storing that on the ship, and we'll get that fitted to the ship,

but we need a special craftsperson to do that. You need an airship ship right to do that yes yeah so that will anybody's like what is that thing i'll i'll add the haversack what's the haversack called uh hewitt's handy haversack hewitt yeah h-e-w-a-r-d i'm sure if you put haversack in it will probably come find it there you go okay and then Add. Okay, it's in my inventory. And then, Quill, you need to write in your inventory that you have a 5,000 GP Leomund secret chest. Yeah, I'm trying to find it.

I'll put chest until I can find a proper one. Well, you just need to add it. It needs to be added as a custom item. There's not going to be a set item in D&D Beyond called 5,000 GP chest. Yeah. So you'll need to just manual need to just write it in the equipment but hey we have stuff to hold things now go team oh and i'm assuming are you gone sorry uh quill for some reason i still have your note i think we had some fucking around with scroll cases and I've ended up with your note

that was in your scroll case or something. So have it back. I do remember that. There you go. You've got it back. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

So Katie is Ayla wearing... Nova has not looked at it. Okay. Ayla is going to wear the backpack. Yeah, I'll wear the backpack. That's fine. Okay. So basically any larger

or if you've got lots of money, Katie should now keep that inventory. So I know Kim's been keeping a lot of stuff. Anything that goes in the haversack, Katie is keeping a note of. All right. That's on you now. Yeah.

Okay. So with that done, yeah, I'm not going to role play all of that out. You guys buy all the stuff that you need. And a day passes. The time it takes to get the chest commissioned, the time it takes for Nova to learn, heal greater injury by the time you've all done your shopping for various spell components we will say a day has passed i'm assuming i got a tiny replica as well right with that if i was commissioning literally that cool perfect great

was there a do you want me to put it in the bag I can put it in the bag in the bag yeah every time progress to speak sorry it's alright it was funny was there a time dilation thingy was there a time dilation thingy when we arrived back

there was I forget that you weren't here for the episode that came back. Yes. So you guys had spent about 14 days in astral space and about 10 days passed on Eros. So it was very minor, but there was definitely some... A 10 day?

Wobbly... Yeah. A 10 day. Timey-wimey. Yeah, but there was definitely some... Wibbly-w wobbly timey wimey okay cool good to know I think Lucius because he's not shopping he's going to spend the whole day really just excited

do we have the storm chaser nearby yeah yeah it's in Porto Savannah yeah you've been sleeping on it and stuff like that so he's going to spend the whole day speaking to every crew member hey it's so good to see you again how's how's everything how's everything to everyone yeah we kind of did this when you weren't here but yeah lucia spends the day chatting talking with everyone catching up um everybody is incredibly relieved that you are all back um ariah and you kind of learn what everyone's been doing ariah and kamara have been earning money in the fighting uh like entertainment

and the devil's dance in that you stayed at once they've been doing that um earning a little bit of money howard has been doing like cooking jobs and everybody's kind of just been earning enough money to live you know whilst you guys were away um as well as pay for the ship's docking fees um yeah everybody is doing very well faith is obviously very excited to see you when you you return um and just checks in with you and make sure that you are all right and everything else um but yeah you you don't get the impression that anybody is mad at any of you they're almost are relieved that you're okay it sounds like ariah has been kind of keeping them appraised from whatever she could figure out what was going on um i'll ask ariah again this is probably all happened already but whether the crew has been informed of what happened to us

so i think that when we last spoke we were waiting for you to come back where the party had said we will tell you everything but like we need to kind of get settled in and everything else so i think that that is maybe something that yeah we could do um as a group and we'll play through lucius actually kind of addressing everybody for that i'll say everyone out is very excited to be back on a row it's just doing normal things so we'll give it a day. And then perhaps in the morning tomorrow, we'll gather the crew together and do a debrief of where we've been.

Yeah. Araya is just like, I think that that sounds, that's a great idea, Captain. We definitely, it would be good to know what's going on. Kamara just nods. He's like, yes, it would be, it'd be good to know what happened. Obviously you disappearing for several days we weren't really sure what to do arise been keeping things together but it'd be good to understand exactly what's happened believe me i struggle to understand what has happened but we have smarter people than me that also disappeared so yay

right I'm talking everyone but me okay well let's get in the air do we know do we know where we're heading next what our next what are we doing next captain gathering more shards for Tiangong

I believe we need all the power we can get in order to face what's coming. Alright. And you know where to go for this? We have a destination in mind? We have a destination of sorts, yes. But again, we'll let you know. Alright.

Well, I'll start getting everyone back on the ship and aligned. We'll drop notices off for those people who have found employment. We'll let them know that we won't be returning. And yeah, in a day then, we'll set sail in a day. And Oriah just kind of nods. And over the day, the crew will slowly be pulled back. And the most elaborate salute.

Having not done it for weeks and months just over the top really over the top it's good to see you all again it's truly an honour to be your captain I think Howard is like tearing up you see Howardard just like

so good to have you back captain i'm so glad he's what a motivational man you are and he's just like i'm blessed i've been honored and he just you can see that howard takes it all very seriously um and yeah faith kind of like lingers around and just sort of like kind of gives you that that comforting kind of look of like, yes I'm glad that you're back and everything else. I think the only people that seem a little bit still out of sorts is Lantian, the young Asmar

who is travelling with you. He's been out of sorts for a while now, especially after you had a big battle and he seemed a bit out of sorts. And Lookout's always a difficult one to read. Being a Guardian Lookout is more is less lively than a lot of the other guardians you've met lookout is very stoic uh doesn't really convey emotions very well um so it's hard to get a read on how he feels but everybody else very glad that you're back and is happy to be looking forward to something i think

i just uh once century gets back from shopping just take her aside and inform her that maybe now that you've got this big glowy everybody in you that maybe Lookout could do with some checking in on maybe okay sounds good honestly I have no idea what he's thinking or doing. Ever. No, I mean, he seems to do his job, and he's very good at it. Absolutely, yes. Well, so long as he keeps that up, I suppose. Anyway, I've informed the whole crew that we're having a meeting tomorrow

about everything that happened. Okay. All right. Well, unless there is anything else, yeah, we can just skip ahead to tomorrow. that happened. Okay. Alright. Well, unless there is anything else, we can just skip ahead to tomorrow. Do you guys want to set sail? What's the plan? You guys tell me. What's the plan here?

The only thing is how quickly people want to do this air elemental thing. If we want to do it before we go or what we'd like to do. I guess that's really down to Tom and Quill. Like, how keen are you for a wing? We're about to go

underwater. Oh! It might... That was something I forgot. I no longer have water breathing, so we might need to get someone to cast that

on us crap yeah I no longer that was the one thing there was something in the back of my mind tickling my mind Nova no longer has breathing great gift of the depths so can't cast water breathing

oh that's okay I hope you can hold your breath for a long time great gift of the depths, so can't cast water breathing. Oh. Okay. Well, I hope you can hold your breath for a long time. What if I jump into... I'm fine. I can breathe underwater for some reason. I can hold my breath.

It's because you're still bobbing. I know, it's because of my path. Me and Quill will jump in Learman's tiny chest and you can just yeah go away yeah it'll work it'll work like an airlock i mean buying i will tell you i will tell you buying something like a scroll of water breathing isn't particularly hard um and quill because it is a cleric spell, Quill can, in theory, cast it from a scroll. Is it? Yep. I can't find it. Water breathing.

Should be. I might be wrong. Oh, I'm wrong. Yeah, because I was just going to prepare it the day before and just say, yep, we got it. But, no, I ain't got it. Druid, ranger, sorcerer, wizard.

Oh, yeah. And the artifice is sorcerer. Oh, it's a wizard spell. So you are a multi-class wizard. Are you not, Quillik Adkalar? I am. Then you will be able to cast it. You will need to make a check because it's a higher level.

Actually, no, because you have access to third-level spells. So, yeah, it's a wizard spell. So you'd be able to cast it from a scroll. One of the benefits of being a cleric wizard multi-class is with spell scrolls, as long as it appears on your class's spell list, you can cast a spell as long as you have a spell slot of the same level.

I mean, it works as sorcerer too. Sorcerer can cast it, yeah. So sorcerer could cast it from a scroll. Yep. Or I could learn it in a scroll. Yep. So we can cast her. Or I could learn it in my book. We retroactively... It is not a ritual spell,

so you would not be able to... I cannot learn it in my book. I do. I cannot. Maybe four. I think it would be fine to buy a scroll. Yeah. They are 300 gold for a scroll of water breathing.

Okay, maybe... My apologies. 200 gold. Are they laminated? I've got it. No. What's the point? You put them in waterproof scroll cases and then hope you can find

somewhere where you can cast it. Quick! Right, I spent 200 gold. Done. find somewhere where you can cast it. Quick! We're underwater. Right, I've spent 200 gold. Done. Nova, write down you have a scroll of water breathing. You need two. Nope, it casts up to eight, ten creatures. Loads of people.

Buy five then. Yeah, crazy, Birb. I've spent all the platinum bars. Going back, now that you have purchased said scroll, burb I've spent all the platinum bars okay so going back now that you have purchased said scroll you wanted to talk about this elemental summoning this elemental yeah

so yeah it's down to you Quinn it's down to how fast you want to wing let's do it let's do it let's pick this other other arrow and then I can keep experimenting. Like I said before, your eyes went very wide and we went back in time for a second. We're about to go underwater. I don't think an extra wing will help me there. I could make it.

Yeah, let's crack on with the plan and then we can... But we've got loads of time between when we're traveling from Picking up Tiangong to going to the Valley of Storms. So we've got loads of time on that journey So maybe we should do Tiangong then that then Dragon I'll be proposing to I'll be proposing to release an air elemental on our air vessel

as we head towards a destination seems reckless to me yeah that was a concern of mine I think it would be quite fun potentially ruin Lucius' ship I knew we could set it down somewhere and take a break midway

fight fight get back on the ship, then just... We'll see if there's any islands en route. However, I think we should focus on the Shard as captain. Captain's orders.

Alright. Sounds like a plan. So, if there's nothing else that you guys want to do or discuss, you go. Herald question. Or Herald inquiry. Quilt.

Oh, me. Would you be able to cast message for me? So I can send a message to Herald. I can cast sending. Sending would be good, yeah. I've had a sleep. Senku's had a sleep on it. 25 words?

Yeah. Okay. They are... Gather guardians in City of Glass. Locate Rook. Keep him safe. I will join you soon. We don't have much time.

Sentinel Prime. Kiss, kiss, kiss. XOXOXO. Close, guys. Close, guys. Sentinel Prime. Your god. Yeah, I will cast that one of the knights

of the journey, I suppose. Okay, one more thing for me okay i mean sometimes yes you guys to kill everything i just either want to catch up with thalia or send thalia a message as well because what what was her plan mark just from refresh my memory what was thalia didn't really tell you her plan she said that she was going to try and find a way to undo her curse that That was all she said. Okay. And to make the twin star work in a row as well.

Yeah. Apparently she can't really. She can fly it, but it doesn't fly as well. It's not particularly quick. I guess we don't have to RP it, but I don't know if there's time for me to have a conversation with her about how we're going to go and find the Shudder. You'd have to travel all the way to the vineyard and have a conversation with her.

Yeah. So, I mean, you can do that, but it's going to delay your trip. Or you can ask Quill to send the sending. You can have Quill do a sending. That's probably the easiest and fastest way. Just before we do that, message back from Herald, because I'm just thinking about it now. The message you get back, Quill,

when you send the message to Herald is, understood Sentinel Prime, have found some guardians already, will take them to City of Glass. Be safe. Oh, yay. Okay. to City of Glass. Be safe. Oh! Yay!

Okay. And then sending a message to Thalia. Or I could dream it. I could have a little dream with her. You could do that as well. What would you like to do? Now, we'll send a message to her. Okay. Cool. Message. Sending. Message. Message. Call time.

Dear Thalia, going to her um okay uh cool uh message sending message message call time um uh dear thalia going to find tiangong shard do you want to come we've left i'm sure i thought she was still on the island. That's the thing. We don't know what she's doing. We just left her on the vineyard, and she was just going to... We're like a day out, and you're like,

you want to come with? Fuck you. Do you want to come? Coordinates as follows. Fuck, I don't know. Where's guys? You made me lose count. You made me lose count you made me lose count there is some of that message goes through some of it includes made me lose count damn it we've left lots of arms as well lots of arms and the message you get back quill

very sweet of arms. The message you get back, Quill. Very sweet. Looking into my own affairs. Heard of a place called Horizon. Meet you there. Oh, what she said.

Yeah, that's what Thalia is sending back to you. That's it. You don't get another reply. You don't get another reply. You don't get another reply. Unless Quill is sending another, casting another third level spell for you, which looking at Tom's face,

I don't think he is. If we don't leave soon, I think Tom's actually going to implode. I am assuming that as Tom rightly pointed out, that you had already left and this is on the first day of travelling out of Port Savano. Now it can be, yes. Yes, I'm assuming so. Knowing there is a response.

Yeah. As you guys are making your way out and travelling, the airship lifts up into the skies and begins the slow journey. And you are going after the Tiangong Shard, which I believe you had pinpointed as being somewhere between the continent of Giselle and Voxar. And there is a sea in between the two. And the Tiangong Shard was somewhere,

supposed to be underwater somewhere in there. It's going to take you at least a couple of days to reach that. So the first day quill is doing all of these sendings and then lucius you wanted to gather the crew together so do you want to do that yes okay and i'll obviously inform this lot that i am doing that so gather your thoughts as to what happened and be prepared to speak sure okay uh well yeah crew assemble yeah i mean yeah i mean just assume that yeah like you don't need to say that it's you you gather them up uh the the party obviously some of the crew are left maintaining the ship um but yeah ariah gray lano all of your all of

your main care all of your main crew are there. Kamara and some of the Wolfpack, including Fez, are all there. The others are all working on the ship, doing their jobs. Hello, everybody. You've already seen us returned, I'm sure. Yes? Yeah, those murmurings. The Wolfpack are all like, what's going on? Don't know. Captain wants to talk to us. I'm sure yes murmurings like the wolf pack are like

what's going on don't know captain wants to talk to us I'm not sure if Kamara has informed you but our departure from our point of view was far longer than 10 days due to some strange time

rifts and timey weirdness, we've been gone on our end for months. A lot has happened from our perspective, and we've gone on quite the journey. So here to dictate with thorough notes and detail, Nova Vija. I step back and push Nova forward.

What? So Nova was writing back and push Nova forward. What? So Nova was writing something and you said that and she's just dropped it all and she's like, what? What was I doing? What am I doing? The wolf pack, the kind of main crew members of the wolf pack look very confused. Like, Lucius telling them

that you've been gone longer than ten, like, they don't really seem to understand it gray lano and the others seem to kind of have an understanding of it but yeah a lot of this is kind of flowing over the crew's head at this point but nova you step forward having been shoved by your captain what the hell what do you want me to tell them lucius i wasn't paying attention the whole thing where we've been since we got teleported. With all the details about Ixnay on the star... Surface. Surface.

Surface stuff. Surface. But don't lie. Okay. Don't lie. Don't lie, surface. Okay. We went to space,

and Starbane's fleets were there, and we saw Demon King, and he was kind of gnarly um we got away from him there was an alien who had a tiangong shard and he was an asshole he lied a lot thank you no but there's a few things missing from that bit so uh crew you you remember that we went to the vineyard uh to try and rescue uh the the town? Yes, there was a strange weirdness going on. It turns out that there was a remnant of Hadar.

Bad. Really bad. Thing that's going to consume everything if we don't check in and make sure it's quelled. There was a rift there. Oh, quelled. Murmuring. Quelled.

Not quill. Oh, quell. Quelled. Not quill. Unfortunately, whilst trying to stop these forces of Hadar that are corrupting that land, there was something that teleported us to an entirely different planet.

Do you understand what I'm saying you went somewhere outside of the great I see you died no no it's not way it's that's different and they're being shoved and like how you idiot stop and then gray Lana is like I'd man I am most of us I think understand captain understand, Captain. Please continue. Don't worry. We can explain it to them later. And yes, now, Nova. We were teleported into space. Turns out there's a whole

solar system up there. Most of it under the control of Starbane. And we almost got captured. Lucius and Kul almost died several times. We had to escape from Starbane

and... Did you know Ganas has a whole planet out there? Oh my gosh, I know the exact coordinates. I totally want to go back there. I can't hear you. It's fine, I can see. Don't hit me. I wouldn't. I don't hit me um and then i wouldn't basically

have been joining i don't know if anyone met thalia you raised your hand in a very threatening way i'm very nervous right now um lady and and she transported us back across astral space in her astral spaceship she was an astral captain, and we had many adventures on the way back here. A lot of them were horrible, and we're back here, and Starbane's ship is right there, and I point at its current coordinate, and we need

to do things to stop this. Kamara just kind of holds her hand up. It's just like, I don't know what this question is. Why are you telling us all of this? What's the purpose of this? I don't really know, but thank you for coming to my Nova talk.

We appreciate it. You got transported somewhere. Go on, Ava. We were transported across space. We got on a spaceship. We made our way back. Starbane is out there. So it was a bit tricky,

but we're here now. The end. And thanks to our outside perspective beyond the cradle, we know how big the looming threat of Starbane truly is. And thus, we have extra

motive to become powerful and stop it while we still can. We know a way to do so. Is this going to be putting us in more danger? Absolutely. Are you going to pay us more?

Every bit that we can afford will be dealt equally to the crew because you all deserve it. Kamara looks around. Are you happy with that? Pack? The wolves and the beastmen are all like,

yeah, are we getting paid? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dangerous? How dangerous? Do we have to fight stuff? We probably will, yes. That's all right. I like fighting stuff. I know.

They're fine with it, Captain Lucius. The main thing is, have you brought anything that's going to endanger this crew? Is there anything we need to be worried about that's on this ship now? I don't believe so. If anything, we've brought strange new technologies that could actually aid us.

That are going to blow up? They're not Starbane. Okay, that's good. They are technologies of vehicles and spaceflight. Sure. Well, that's all a bit beyond us. We'll leave that in Engineer Nova's hands. As long as we're not in any immediate danger

and we know what you're up against we you've told us before that you are fighting against this starbane and that it's a real threat as long as we're being paid and you're not putting us in any unnecessary danger that's fine well i i have no contract for you all. Again, like I said before, anytime we go and do a new challenge like this, there is no... What's the word I'm looking for? I'm snapping at Quill with my fingers. Quill.

Mandatory. Pressure. There is no shame in leaving. Oh. Noted. Oh. Well, our next step is to go find this shard of Nova's weapon, yes? Yes.

Then I think we're all fine with that. And then when you decide what you're doing after that, tell us what that is and we'll make our decision then. Right. Thank you. And that is, and we'll make our decision then. Right. Thank you. And that is all. Dismissed! Kamara whistles, and the wolfpack begins scattering.

Grey Lano makes her way over. The officers are a little bit different. The wolfpack is the general crew. There's, you know, 10, 15 of them, so they kind of dominate the main crew that run the airship. Grey Lano, the half-orc doctor comes up she just kind of nods whatever is happening i want to help i want to be of whatever use i can uh and then she'll just nod and go downstairs uh lancean and howard kind of make

the way up together uh lancean just looks a bit confused he's like i don't really understand everything that you were just talking about it sounds like we're going to be doing a bit more fighting. I might need to think about if I want to stay on off. I need to think about it. But thanks for telling us, Captain. Howard's just like, well, I'm not going anywhere, Captain. I'm still going to be here. Not much of a fighter, but I'll be making food like always.

Hey! And then he just kind of makes his way downstairs. Penny, your kind of marksman and gunner, just kind of makes his way downstairs. Penny, your kind of marksman and gunner, just kind of nods in your direction, says like, as long as I get to shoot stuff, and then just makes her way downstairs. Doesn't seem to be that bothered. Lookout just looks in your direction,

looks towards you, Sentry. Lookout is just staring at you. Sentinel Prime, will you be engaging in this endeavor? I hope so, yes. That's the intention. And you believe it is important for the Guardian species to be involved? Extremely.

Starbane is a real threat. And for us all to survive, we need to survive too. Then I will not be leaving. I will remain by Sentinel Prime's side. Thank you. be leaving i will remain by sentinel prime side thank you and he just almost like robotically turns around moves to the mast and then scales up to the crow's nest and just like uh just makes his way uh yeah the whole crew just obligation that's the word thank you you. Thank you, Quill. I put that in my brain box.

I'll remember that for the next speech. Thank you, Quatermaster Quill. Century. Now that you have all of them in your belly, do you have a sense of when people are nearing the end of their, you know, time.

Would Sentry know that? It's not something you've experienced yet, but then again, you've not really been around other Guardians since you became Sentinel Prime. It's only really been Lookout. You've never had a sensation from Lookout that you think that look out Might not might be nearing their lifespan end

I don't necessarily mean look at but if we're on the journey and we come across more of your kind when you know when to help them or to help them pass and Be reborn You don't know okay and I walks away yeah it's just you haven't you haven't experienced that yet yeah yes real quickly let's just get? Yes. He spins back around. We are all alone now on the deck. I mean, you can go into the captain's quarters and then you'll be private.

Yeah, you'll be alone. Can we have a quick captain's quarters meeting? I need to tell you all about something that may or may not have happened and I don't want people to get all excited and throw me into the ocean. Please. And then... Yes.

Right. Yeah. Let's gather everybody in. I'll see you there now. Questionable captain's orders. Yes. I suppose we can. Yes. I mean, yeah, the five of you gathering Lucius's quarters.

Just in the interest of openness and, you know, just, you know, so we don't repeat another explosive situation. Had a little message from the big S, the big KS. E, E, K. Oh, KS. There you go. There you go. I don't think Ayla would know who KS is either.

Like, with her intelligence of nine, it's like, what? I'm going to need you to be more specific. Calus Darbane. Oh! Oh, the big shithead. Yeah. The big S-H. Him.

Yeah, the big P-O-S. He visited me in a dream again, uh, last night. How invasive. What did he want? Well, on the plus side, he said it was gonna be the last time that he was gonna talk to me this way, and if he

ever saw me again in person, he was probably gonna kill me. Um, I mean, I could have told us that, but... Yeah. What does this mean? He tried... He looked tired.

He looked really and sounded really tired. And I don't know if upset is the right word, but, I mean, he showed me Ganas. He showed me what my home world looked like he tried to appeal to me again i think and i think he's confirmed that things are happening i think he's gonna whatever plans he's got, this is it. He's putting them into motion. He sounded sad. Poor guy.

So, just out of interest, did he give you any directions? Did he give you any orders, like last time? No. He sounded like he pretty much decided that I was a lost cause to him and he said that I reminded him of a young him. Oh, well, I mean

that's some sort of good news. I'm so sorry. Useless to starving? The thing is, why are you so... Not to be offensive or anything. Why is he continually seeking you out? Is it because of Tiangong? Does he want that?

All the pieces? Why is that so prudent to his invasion when he's got masses of forces at his beck and call? Why does he need you on top of everything else? Because I know things. I have Tiangong. I know where the leaders meeting is going to be. I am corruptible. I have the to be. I am corruptible. I have the ILS. He's taking time. I'm. A leader of planet, planes, everything.

Using his dreams to get to you. I wanted to, but when he said he saw something in me, maybe, I don't know, maybe he thought I could be the next... No, it's not that. I don't know. I don't know. And he said that he doesn't want to talk to me anymore. So he's not going to talk to me anymore. I can obviously talk to him. I tried to appeal to him again.

I tried to ask him to meet and talk. And I tried to appeal to him again. I tried to ask him to meet and talk. And I tried to appeal to him about fighting Hadar together. But I think he's pretty set on his path. If I talk to him again, I know that I can talk. I can probably talk to him again at least once. Probably mostly once. And shoot my shot. But I need to have something big to convince him.

Something huge. Maybe valour. I think from what we saw outside the cradle, I think his intentions are very clear. I very much doubt he's going to waver on that. I think he's ready. Whatever you offer him, he's not going to care. And even if he does, and he talks to us, and he pretends to be on our side, he's not gonna he's not gonna care and even if he does and he talks to

us and he pretends to be on our side he's not on our side he blows up planets he kills people he doesn't care he's not gonna side with us unless something is specific yeah sure but he doesn't care about anything else in this world and that includes includes all of us. So he is... If Vala is here on Arois, will he blow it up? Will he turn it into the world engine? Will he turn it into this giant weapon that he wants to use against Hadar?

I mean, honestly, I wouldn't put it past him. Because he's just that kind of dude. Exactly. No, he didn't. There's anything to stop him from his... She sacrificed herself. She sacrificed herself to create the cradle. He did hurt her.

But he didn't kill her. This is a man that's driven. He's got his goal set. Hadar must be vanquished at all costs. I don't think anything's going to stop him doing that. Sacrifices be damned. Either way, we need to be stronger and we need to stop it ourselves. We don't need to bargain with him.

We need to protect ourselves and protect Eros. He's already come here. So I think we should be... We should probably be asking the leader of the biggest offensive army that we have against him. Sentry, how do you feel about Starbane? You know how I feel. My feelings are very clear. Like I just said, he's already come here.

And the first time he came here, he destroyed. Without thought, it was endless. He's only going to come back stronger. Luckily, he didn't get to us the first time. But now he's going to come back harder, stronger. It's going to be difficult. There were people back then that would have been bargaining and begging with him to stop. And they didn't want to do it.

If he didn't stop then, he won't stop this time. He's been planning this for Lord knows how long. Anyway. Well. I just thought... Yeah. I just thought you should know about the conversation. Oh, absolutely.

You begin to kind of feel Tiangong's sentience awakening almost it's like feeling somebody drifting awake Shard you okay there Tiangong? Shard nearby

can you pinpoint exactly where you can only speak in they can only speak in one word phrases so i'm trying to think of like how they would answer that question in a one word phrase like a heading? Like a north, south, east or west? Yeah, I think they would say Is this in the meeting room that Tiangong starts? Yeah, everyone can hear it as well. Yeah, it's in the meeting room. No, it's in the meeting room. Everybody can hear when Tiangong speaks as well.

Can you give a clear... I could send a map out of the area. Yeah, I mean, if Quill wants to bring a map out and things like that, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just puts his finger along until... Slowly glides. Cold, cold, cold. If you did that, yeah.

Cold, cold, cold. If Quill was literally holding a talon over the map and slowly drawing a line um then yeah then uh tiangong wouldn't say it wouldn't be like no no no no no but as you start moving your gap uh tiangong says there nearby okay that's the place and it's it's it's not it's actually different to where you saw it the first time quill it looks like it has traveled

maybe half a day east still in the ocean but it's moved half a day east so you'll be there in a few hours what's got it sorry Nova can't get it lost board We'll be there in a few hours. What's got it? What's got it? It's in a shark. Sorry, Nova. Can't get it.

It's gone. What's gone? Cthulhu's got it now. We're not fighting a Tiangong shark. Could just be the currents taking it. I'm sure it's fine. Oh, yeah, you're right. Which we're thinking.

Sure. Well, you'll be there Which we're thinking. Sure. Well, you'll be there in a few hours if you continue at the current pace. Sure. Any preparations we should make? Well, casting the water breathing would be a start. But I have a quick question. Tiangong, in your experience,

can Starbane be bargained with? Affirmative. Uh-huh. It would have to be something huge. After a long pause, you just hear, Eterna. As in the Eterna could bargain with him or... Negative

History Eterna Bargain So in history did Eterna bargain with him? Affirmative And you made a deal with him affirmative that's why this ships powered by him affirmative and I think that's not Lucius then he doesn't obviously say that I assume often when you guys say things it's characters

saying it yeah that's why the ships are powered by affirmative yeah that's a good point quill so what what did you bargain why what did you what did a turner get survival so we can bargain with him for survival but we'd have to give up it's impossible he wants the world engine and the world engine is the planet survival. At most, at most, he might agree to saving Erosians and relocating them. He's done that for other planets.

I think that's it. That's... Yeah. Yeah. Weren't they also harvesting guardians at one point? I mean, what hasn't this empire

done, Quill? I'm not saying we bargain. I'm just trying... I was trying to think of an angle, but none of these are doable. Unless Erosians want to go off-planet. Well.

Anyway. I was going to say, if you guys want to continue this conversation, you can do. But if not, we can just skip ahead a few hours. Yeah. Okay. Lookout is the one who calls out for the first. You hear lookout call from the top of the crow's nest.

Island incoming, nearby. You hear them kind of climbing down from the crow's nest, reports the captain. Captain, I have seen that several miles from here, a small island is in the middle of the ocean. It does not appear to be on any of Master Quillock's maps. I have studied them rigorously, and this island is uncharted. Thank you, lookout. I'll notify everybody else. It was difficult. Once we get closer, I can get a closer view, but there did appear to be some buildings, perhaps, on it. Quite a lush jungle, tropical in nature. Uriah?

Yes, Captain, yes. I think we should get to about this top deck ready people on the gun positions just in case as a defensive we do not strike first only to protect the airship itself we've got yes we can have the crew armed with crossbows and that sort of thing penny can mount the underside ballista if you are expecting any danger. Drawing the airship, I mean, we can't really sneak up on the island with the airship,

so I'm assuming you want to go in there fully armed and loaded as if we're expecting trouble, I'm assuming? Expect the worst, hope for the best, you know the drill. All right. We'll begin making those preparations. All right, crew. And she begins calling out orders and getting everybody to get their armor on,

get weapons ready, and prep the sails. But she slows the ship. And yeah, you can, over the next few minutes, you begin to see this island. It's not the largest island. It doesn't, it's not the largest island it doesn't it's it's big but it probably only would have a small settlement on it um covered in thick tropical almost swamp-like forests um you can see that water spills up onto it and has formed stagnant

pools and there appear to be several stone structures you are far enough away that likely anything on the island will have seen the ship, but you could still get off the airship and approach the island stealthily as long as the airship remained up in the air. Or you can bring the airship down and just be like,

Yo, what's up? We're here. Don't mind. Hey, what's up? Friendly? I'll consult my party. Obviously, if they are not friendly, the airship may come under attack. Hey, what up? We'll be hostile. Do we want to keep the airship at a distance

and for us to approach the island ourselves, or do we need the airship as a defense? What do you think? Depends how armed they are. If it's an uncharted island, it could be ruins, it could be... Well, it might not be anybody there.

We could go scout, right? It's a small island. It's not like an army's going to be on there. Yeah, let's keep the crew and ship safe. Right. Okay, let's get ready then, with those scrolls quill yes wait is this island near the actual shard or is this uh i mean nova do you want to do ask tian gong like yeah i would i would

probably be while we're having these conversations i'd be checking in with tian gong to ask yeah i mean well you've done the kind of sensing a shard before and you can tell that uh and i think that you would notice that as tiangong sentience has increased your ability to find and detect other shards is becoming sharper and sharper um and that the shard is down on that island in one of the stone buildings oh cool oh that doesn't mean we need to... We don't need to swim! Yeah! Could've got a wing! Don't we? Don't you?

We'll see! We still might. We'll see. Cool. Go on. I'd ask Araya to get us low enough so that we can safely jump into the ocean. Yeah, well, it's also, being an airship,

they have long ropes that you can basically abseil down to the sea, so they don't need to bring you all the way down to sea level. They can hover you about 100 feet off and then kind of rise back up after dropping you into the sea. There is even a small boat. There's like a small rowing boat that you can use as well. The rowing boat actually, it can't fly on its own, but it has an almost permanent feather fall, which allows it to kind of drift down. So it's almost like a landing vessel.

It's clumsy to drive, but you could like a hang glider. You can almost kind of float it in. So you could probably land on the island in your little rowing vessel. Aww. Float. We'll call it a float ship. Call it a float ship. Amazing.

That's adorable. Drop ship. Drop ships are perfect. So, yeah, you could get in the dropship and then probably Quill, because he has experience with vehicles, could navigate it. Just has a basic tiller. And it doesn't need strength. This is all about just pure

reflexes and ability to perceive wind currents, which makes Quill perfect for it. So he could just glide the dropship down onto the island. Cool. Okay. uh well we will have you guys do that um so i'm gonna give you a choice and this settlement there appear to be as you get closer and closer in the dropship um you can see that yeah there are these kind of like swamp-like pools and ponds

scattered all over this large uh kind of thick domed island the stone structures there's three of them the main one seems to be kind of raised up over the rest um it almost has like a temple look to it built from loose cobbled stones um maybe salvaged from shores or from underwater you can land i mean the island isn't that big you basically can land do you want to land north of this main building do you want to land south of it or to the east or to the west i mean without knowing it's difficult to see yeah it's you can't really see there's a thick yeah you can d4 if you want could you ask ask the most... Wait, oh. It's Tom's guiding the ship.

What direction are we coming from and what can I see from the current landing point? You are coming from the islands east, so you can see from where you are. There is a very large, stagnant-looking pond with what appears to be

some wooden bridges over it. Thick, kind of muddy-looking Maya, like, land. There is some grass, but it almost looks to be more like a bog down there. There are some trees. You're beginning to see, like, faint shapes of tents and these three stone buildings. The largest one is at the very centre

and is raised up almost as if it's on a giant mound, like a giant kind of curved mound. Sounds like the moment we land there, it's going to be hard to get the damn boat out again. Well, this thing can't fly on its own. This boat is for dropping you off not not getting back up to the airship you'll need the airship to come and pick you up um if you want that yeah that seems inhabited uh and landing dead center of that sounds like a bad idea okay so what's the cool

do you want to go on to like the far side? You're approaching from the east, so you could scoop the dropship around in a wide arc and come from the west. And... South? Yeah, just sort of go round the south and then sort of circle round as I'm heading towards the west, so I can sort of see both those points as well.

Okay. Alright, well, with that, before you guys land, as the dropship ship comes in we're going to take a break uh and then when we come back you guys will land on this strange island mine i hope you are not!