High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #97 | Attack on Gusthaven (Part 1)

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

Quill plans to use his eye on Damocles to discover his secret base! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. June 2024. Find out what makes Mazda different at Mazda.ca. Introducing TD Insurance for Business, with customized coverage options for your business. Because at TD Insurance, we understand that your business is unique, so your business insurance should be too. Contact a licensed TD Insurance advisor to learn more. Hello and welcome back to High Rollers D&D. Last time, after the successes in the Temple of Hesper and freeing the Tempest Dragon Johantrius, the party were ambushed by Zarkira, commander of the Valkyrian Empire, and their airship, the Stormchaser, was nearly destroyed. The party have since returned to the sky city of Gusthaven, home of Lucius, and where they have facilities and allies to lean upon in their time of need. Having spent some time

trading in various magical relics and meeting with various allies, the party have been made aware by Lucius's sister and a member of the Magrona noble family that the Cloud Barons, a network of nationalists and criminals who are responsible for the deaths of Lucius's family, may be working with the Valkyrian Empire and helping to develop new weapons. There are several days before an all-important meeting in the Sky City of Horizon take place, and the party have various matters that they wish to attend to. And that is where we join us. If you are brand new to High Rollers, welcome.

We can see that there's quite a few folks watching probably from the front page of Twitch. Well, welcome to you. We are playing 5th edition D&D. We've been playing for about five years nearly now. And we have a lot of fun. It's very chaotic and it's a big mess. And you're going to love it. And you can go and check out previous episodes on our YouTube channel

or you can listen to us every week on our podcast and you can listen to all the previous episodes as well on our podcast that's it from me the Dungeon Master, I'm going to throw this over to what? nothing, please continue you good? I will

well I am going to basically kick things off, it is a fresh new day as you guys are taking a long rest in the Sky City. There are rooms that have been set aside for you, but you also have access to the Storm Chaser if you wish to rest there, or in Lucius's hidden

base that is located beneath one of the Noble Family's estates. The cold, hard, concrete floor of the noble family's estates. I can love the cold, hard, concrete floor of the empty base. The empty base. I mean, you could do that. I'm assuming you are not.

But yeah. I believe the last thing that had taken place was Nova had used the dream spell to contact her mum and had had a very wholesome conversation as well as a very foreboding warning to take information to one of her professors. But

none of the rest of you know about that. And instead you wake up to a fresh new day in the sky city of Gusthaven. What would you like to do? I'd probably wake up and then try and organize an officer's meeting

in the captain's quarters so that we could get our plans underway. So basically taking everyone to the storm chaser and arranging a meeting in the ship as it's being repaired. I'll wake up early for once, and

I'll be knocking on everybody's doors. Come on! Up time, everybody! We have so much to do! I'll see you in the captain's quarters, okay? Perfect. I'll get tea. You maybe get, like, a growl from

Ayla's room. An angry growl. An angry growl. An angry growl. But it's at least a recognition that someone is alive in there. That's something. Sentry just opened the door straight away. Just there, immediately. Hello, Sentry. Yes, we just...

Hello. Okay, I didn't need to knock, did I? How did you sleep? Are you feeling rested? I think so. Probably a bit broken. But we need to do things. We must think of the day ahead.

We've got a lot to do. Short space of time. You know all that. Do you want to sort the teas or coffees? Or shall I do it this time? I can do it. I can help Howard. Just don't drink coffee before, if you remember.

Yes. The tray and the shaking. I will keep the consumption on the low scale this time perfect i'll see you there see you down the end of the corridor like i'm walking out of my room like you don't need to knock for me i heard you talking to century i'll be upstairs bye okay my wicked perception sees through the wall your epic stupidly epic perception so you guys have been staying on the storm chaser

is that the idea that you guys have been resting on the storm chaser so for Nova and Ayla who are the more late risers it is not long after Lucius' knock that hammering soaring the shouts and cries of labor workers is undergoing

as the storm is being repaired as it is in dock. So as you are trying to rest, soon there is like, bam, bam, bam, soaring, shouting. You can hear Sprocket of Lillian Sprocket, the two gnomish shipbuilders, like, Yes, yes, this way, bring it in, we need to, we're rebuilding the mast, I need four workers on this district.

Like, kind of shouting orders and things, just like that. This way, just pay top, top, go, come on, let's move on. Glare out the window, and you just see, like, red hair just, just, like, it's, like it's it's it's like all out of its braids and everything just glare at whoever is the closest worker out the window yeah you you see bridges have been set up to bring on like lumber and um planks and things like that to begin repairing the hull um and you see quite a few very nervous-looking humans and elves bringing things on as they're looking at this very angry face

surrounded by a mane of red hair. But they are nonetheless continuing their work. Just a little... And then I'll just walk up to meet Lucius and Quill. Sure. The Captain's Quarters is one of the rare locations on the ship that wasn't as badly

damaged as the rest of the hull. So whilst there is still repairs going on and it's still noisy, you can still all gather in the Captain's Quarters in the War Room, which is adjacent to it on the main deck of the Stormchaser itself. In terms of, if you've called an officers meeting

lucius gray lano your medic ariah uh and would both be there as well to represent their positions on the ship um but the rest of the crew people like howard kamara um are all out no kamara would also be there uh kamara who's the head of kind of like your general crew uh is also there this kind of woman um with wolf ears like a big shaggy gray mane of hair but with wolf ears and a wolf tail um kind of looking uh kind of very kind of hairy forearms um very bestial in nature um is stood there arms folded waiting along with everyone else the air and the kind of the weather around Gusthaven is kept perpetually calm and peaceful by the magic

of the Sky City itself. So it's just blue skies that you can see outside, warm, pleasant air and weather. And yeah, it is a very pleasant day otherwise. It's no behavior. I guess like as if Lucius was to ask that

as he asks that the door slowly opens and Nova's kind of just hanging off of the door handle half dressed like her arms like half out of her jacket and on and her shirts untucked of her pants and her hair like her hair so she's an Ergonassi,

so her hair is kind of quite wispy and cloud-like anyway, but it would probably almost look like a storm. Like, it's just frazzled and everywhere. And, yeah. Morning. Morning. Oh, Nova. Bad night?

Sleep? I don't know why you insist on having early morning meetings. I am not an early morning person. First in a long while. It's only because we have, you know, a crisis that could potentially end a row. It's not a big deal. Can we stop the hammering for a second?

I don't think they're going to stop. I glared at them pretty hard earlier and they're just... They were not phased and it angered me more, if I'm honest. You did put in a request to have the ship repaired, Captain. We could probably ask them to stop, but yes. Let's go to the...

Let's go to the local inn and maybe have a chat there with a bit of breakfast. That probably would be advisable. We were supposed to... Were we not supposed to go somewhere specific for breakfast so that people could... So that I could use my eye...

Let's go there. We could go there. We need to go to the breakfast place to do the thing. I need to do a task, actually. I need to go to a shop, so I'm going to do that. Okay, how about you guys know the drill, right? You know the plan. We can discuss it further at the place we're going to.

I'll inform Oriah and Grey Lana and co. of the current situation and catch you up. Sure, yeah, okay. Okay. just so that we're not wasting time i'm really conscious of time time is a construct let's go yes very early for you so one dress me i think i put my foot in my jacket i don't know what is up. You have. I need help. Send her just handing over a coffee really quickly. It'll make you feel better. She tries to reach it, but the trousers are over her hand, and it's just disaster. I'll pull her jacket on for her.

Just come on, look, come on. It's not so bad. Thanks, Mo. So my understanding is, so Lucius, you're going to bring Graylano, Kamara, and Oriah up to speed on the things you discovered yesterday about the Aetherium manufacturing and stuff like that?

Is that the plan? Yes, and our motive to try and find the source of it, get some information from this guy we're about to snoop in on, see if we can find the location of it, get some information from this guy we're about to snoop in on, see if we can find the location of it, and potentially find evidence, or at least maybe try and stop a threat, or see if there is a threat.

That sort of thing. Alright, cool. I'll be open with it as well. Be open with the three offices. Okay, great. That's good to know, actually. So while you're doing that, meanwhile, Quill and Aayla, you're going to head into the Trade District, which is where

Belenor Magrona had said that he would try and bring his brother Democles, who is this person that he suspects and Lucius' sister Edea suspects is connected to the Cloud Barons and the Valkyrian Empire. And there's a little cafe that you can find there.

And Aayla, you said you wanted to go do some shopping, and I know what you're going to go get as well. Okay. And then Sentry and Nova, I'm assuming Sentry helps Nova get dressed, and then you'll follow Quill and Aayla? Yeah. Okay, nice. Have we lost Kim? kim yeah we have it's just not moving so i'll leave it all right so a couple of things go down um while you're making all of this

ayla uh it's it's not hard to find a tailor um that will be able to do what you want uh if that's what we discussed last time. It won't cost you that much money. It will be a replica obviously. It will just be their best approximation of a kind of sewn pattern rather than a proper one. And it will probably take them at least a day

to make it fully. But it would run you probably sort of like for a little kind of like little like sashes almost. Maybe sort of like 10 a little kind of like little like sashes almost maybe sort of like 10 gold for all of it it won't be that much with what they've got available cool yeah um so i will i will do that can i see if there's a way that i don't have to leave my piece there yes can i be like can i just stay until you get they you find um they would probably be a high elf tailor um who is very perplexed when this uh wild elf walks in um but

when you explain the job and you show them the thing that you'd like them to make um they do seem to be somewhat interested and they take notes and diagrams and they sketch it. So you have to wait there while they're kind of sketching the pattern. And then they're like, yes, I think that I have enough of what I need. You don't need to leave it here with us if it's that important to you. But yes, come back tomorrow and I should have this done by then. Thanks. Thank you.

I appreciate that. I don't really want to leave it behind. No, yes. Please do make sure you just wipe your feet just before you come back in the next time. I'm going to be honest. I might not remember, but I'll try my very best. Thank you. That would be appreciated.

Thanks. And then you see him just kind of wave over a younger a young boy and he's like sweep all that sort of stuff and the young boy's like yeah okay and start sweeping it all up behind you as you leave um cool all right uh so ayla kind of like drifts off from the party as you do that century when you are leaving the storm chaser and the docks, I think that a mixture of Quill and Helios would make you aware of this. You notice a group of six guardians who look like they're laborers or maybe guards for the docks watching you.

They are watching you quite intently as you come off the ship and you begin making your way with your friends towards the trade districts. They stop what they're doing and they're turning and looking at you as you make your way across. I'll wave at them. Just friendly like, hello! A few of them

seem surprised. Two of them snap military salutes to you. A couple of them just look a bit perplexed and a bit confused one of them folds their arms looking at them they look to be almost all of them you would recognize probably as being soldiers of some sort um uh you can see that two of them carry weapons uh one of them appears to be more of a laborer, but they were all designed in kind of combat style, similar to how you were like built as a soldier and other guardians have been built

for being like laborers or protectors, you know, foot soldiers. These six guardians, and there's kind of a mixture of like body types and sizes, but they all appear to at least be combat, like military guardians um in some way um and they kind of snap salutes back or wave back and they just continue watching you when you you head off with your friends um but definitely take a notice of you yeah i'll i'll i'll just mention to quill i think i think I need to go and speak to those at some point

it's odd I haven't seen a group of large guardians like that since Kelly's rest I don't think I mean all of them immediately see what you are Century I think it's a surprise to see the Prime A

moving around and B waving hello jovially at them in Gusthaven yeah that's true sometimes I forget you know, sometimes I don't I don't realise what I am

I'm still learning I think maybe this is an opportunity for me to perhaps show them what I am, and it's... I'm still learning. I think maybe this is an opportunity for me to perhaps show them what I am, and maybe they could be useful. Yeah, ground yourself in their eyes, but also a good way to, I guess, remember the power that you have over the Guardians, the people of your kind,

they'll follow you no matter what. Well, I hope so. We don't know about Breeze, necessarily, but... True. I mean, they know who you are. They know you're the Prime, and it's a sign of respect. I've spent so long being the follower,

you know, following orders. It's odd that one day I may have to be the one giving them as if you do meet those four treat that as an exercise of leadership I'll be there with you to help you out okay

I'll give it a try cool everybody at some point, going about your business, Lucius, you quickly catch up to the rest of the party, having brought the others in. Kamara, before you leave, Lucius, Kamara,

Captain, if I can give this to you, I was going to give it to Quartermaster Quill, but as he seems to have rushed off into town before I had the chance, I've put together a list of equipment and costs for the wolf pack and i uh better armor better weapons that sort of thing right oh let's have a look a little scrap of paper um her handwriting is not the neatest uh it is quite scratchy similar to

ayla's handwriting uh big bold strokes uh but basically it lists um sets of armor two two different sets of armor um with different prices for the whole wolf pack and different weapon um outsets as well um if you go with a more expensive armor which is like a mixture of metal breastplates and sort of like leather um like shoulders and greaves and things like that, it'll probably come to you for the whole wolf pack is about 4,000 gold, but it will give them an AC of 17. Or you can go for the cheaper set, which is 2,000 gold,

gives them an AC of 16. So it's, you know, a cheaper equivalent. And then for the weapons, it would be 600 gold for the whole wolf pack, but that would be equipping them with heavy crossbows, pikes, so they have reach. So if anybody is trying to board the ship, they've got, like, reach.

And then short swords as a backup weapon because right now they all just have, like, kind of basic spears is all they've really got. Is this all you've suggested? I mean, our whole party have enchanted weapons and magical things. Well, I wasn't going to go that far. I'm not really, I don't really know anything about that sort of thing, Captain, honestly. I mean, if we could get those, the ones that were with the sorceress, the rifles that fire magic,

if we could get ten of them, obviously we'd want that. This is what I know a city like Gusthaven will sell. But the better stuff you can get us, the better. We've got so much money. I know Nova has stored thousands. Well, that's the other thing, Captain. If you have more money, improving the hull of the ship. I mean, when we fought that meteor that she summoned,

that could have destroyed it i think if we can better armor the storm chaser we'll as long as we can get below decks we we stand a good chance of being able to survive something like that again um or maybe some way to make it resistant to flames maybe that would be my other suggestion I'll speak with the shipmakers and see if they can do more for us. Good, good. And I'll put the entire bill on Nova. She'll know what to do with it. Perfect, thank you.

Thank you. And yeah, that is for us in terms of equipment. That's kind of the things I can think of. But if you find other enchanted weapons or relics, think of people like Penny and Lookout. They're specialists. They could probably benefit from that stuff. But for the wolf pack, I think mundane equipment would be okay.

Anything extra you can get would be better. What about like a second enchanted knife or something that all of you could have just in case the first enchanted pike fails? I mean, certainly. I'm not going to say no, Captain. I'm not going to say no at all. Maybe something that could...

Another thing which I didn't think to add, maybe something that would enable us to fly. I know that that sounds probably expensive, but if any of the crew were to fall off the ship, having something that could save them, even just temporarily. Yes, some sort of emergency thing. Yes, we know of featherfall tokens. Gusthaven have them all the time.

It would be good to stock up on those, actually. I think we've run out. So thank you for the reminder. All right, well, thank you, Captain. Maybe Nova has managed to repair Quill's wing. Maybe there's someone that could take her blueprints and manufacture all of your wings.

I'll think about it. That sounds incredible. Yes, something like that would be very useful. Yes, alright, I'll see what I can do. I'm sure we can stretch the finances for it all very well thank you captain i'll salute salutes back uh and yeah and then uh with that encounter um everybody meets up uh there is a small cafe uh which is called the swans grace and it's like a little swans confirmed canon okay well but what is this

one you don't know what swan is could be a verb it's a it's a flying boss one uh no so it's like a very fancy cafe that sits in the tech district of Gusthaven. It looks out on the main street that leads down to the Aethagora, this huge kind of marketplace of magic items and scrolls and spellbooks and things like that. Just in front of a very delicate little fountain

which has statues of the founding elves of the city of Gusthaven. And yeah, this is the place that Belenor Malgrona said to set yourselves up and wait. But no sign of him so far. And so Lucius and Aayla

are probably the last ones to join Quill, Sentry and Nova as you guys all meet up. I got you all breakfast in advance. Oh, lovely. I just guessed what you liked I'm going to be honest we haven't seen each other eating much so

what's cool Tom tell us what have you bought for everyone what's on the menu uh no I was going to say it would be I got you all noodles.

That would be a difficult one to have. It would be a difficult one to have because there's not as much wheat on the Sky Cities. It would probably be things like fish from the Sky Lake. So they have fish eggs and fruits would probably be a common thing

in Gustaven. I'll get Lucius some fruit. I'll get Ayla a load of fish. I'll get Nova some more fish. More eggs. And the sentry just gets a warm plate. Yeah, do you have a plate? Will does not have eggs.

Wow, yeah. Just a bowl of seeds. Just pecking at the bowl of seeds. Some fish? We'd go for some fish. Yeah, okay. Some cuttlefish. Dried cuttlefish. Yeah. Raw and slippery or cooked? Don't even cook them. Give them to me alive.

Like a pelican. Chuck it in there. Just chuck it in there. How much in there how much would that be actually shit lucius comes up to the table and he hands quill a scribbled on note on top of the notes already put there um a few like extra little like drawings and stuff of like a pike with like lightning and stuff coming out of it um a little wolf with like mechanical wings sprouting out times 150 and then price equals three question marks a smiley face a little lucious smiley face do you mind sorting this out for me uh quill and nova I'm sure you have the finances under control, but quartermaster Quill,

this is more your thing, right? We need to deck out everybody with the most defenses we can possibly get. And they want to fly. And you were thinking a hundred lightning spears? You want me to recreate this? My spear? No, no, that would be silly.

Everyone should have enchanted pikes. How much do you think enchanting a pike would cost? A few hundred... Two... Gold. No, more. Much, much... Three.

I'll look at Gamara's list and then we'll consider the extras. Very nice drawings, though. Thank you. I had to do them en route. They're a bit anatomically incorrect and I'm not entirely sure that you've really considered mass times

weight and physically if you really were to give them these kind of wings the wolves would plummet out of the sky. They need bigger wings. Heavy bones. Quills got little light hollow bones. A lot of fur. Why can the wolf pack fly and I can't?

Come on, none of us can fly. We've got one person flying and you're talking about making 150 wolves fly. First of all, we don't have 150 wolves. Second of all, why can the wolves fly and not me? If you want it, I have Lady Dusk Willow's Ring. I can't use it anymore.

You can cast fly with that. Neither can I. Too many things. Ayla wouldn't be able to use it. It needs to be attuned by a spellcaster. I can cast fly on you. I can cast fly on you, Ayla. If you really want to fly, I can make you fly. It's more about the wingsuit

sets. The point is, why do the wolves fly and not us? I'm going to use my fish tank. The wolves are not flying. If these diagrams are anything to go by, the schematics are very poor. The wolves are not flying with this, frankly. The wolves are falling. And falling

faster, because they've got heavy metal attached to their heavy bodies. Meanwhile, a high elven waiter is just kind of stood behind all of you. Would anyone care for any more water? Oh, yes. How much was for the food, by the way?

It would come to something like two gold for the food. Okay, back up! And I put the replica chest on the floor and then expand it. Sir, please, no conjuration in the premises.

Oh, no, this is my wallet. And I open it up. There's 24,000 gold in there. About one little coin. There you go. Yes, thank you, sir. And then I'll secret chest it back again into a small thing.

I've wanted to do that for so long. It's simple, right? We have an airship that has a crew of... I don't know how... I didn't take count. How many of the Wolfgang do we have well

There is Approximately if or take mark quick 100 around about mark 120 If he doesn't give me a number I'm gonna say there's 500 and then that becomes cannon me a number i'm going to say there's 500 and then that becomes canon because no will master would know that's not how it works 10 10 10. wait that's it we can totally stretch that um there's 10 10. 10. i thought that was hundreds so i'm not hundreds no that was at least like 30 i thought but not no it's just no it was 10. and then you've got like howard and lance yeah exactly yeah but camaro's just talking about the wolf pack she's just outfitting the wolf pack i just see like groups of two wolf gang like going around and then coming back around like there's another two

groups of two wolf gang like going around and then coming back around like there's another hello you partied with them yeah you socialized with them you got married to one of them this is a chris trot era not a lucius era uh while this well as you are as this debate is going on, Quill, you would see Belenor Malgrona and his brother Democles. Belenor is a very tall, very athletic, very muscular high elf. A famous sky jouster in the city. You can see that he draws a lot of attention when he moves past. Next to him um his brother would look unassuming um he is average height um doesn't particularly stand out as handsome um very plain kind of dark hair kept short um eyes you know like all high elves are just a single

color but just of a pale blue um dressed very nondescript, looking more like an accountant than anybody else. And is kind of in hushed conversation next to Belenor, seems to be scribbling in some sort of journal as they are walking along. They seem to just be making a very quick pass through the trade district. And Belenor seems to be pointing at a nearby store and talking about some sort of business deal

about maybe purchasing the store or something like that. I was hoping we'd have some time to talk about what the question I was going to ask was, but I spent so much time fucking embiggening this chest and then re-smallifying it. God damn it In that case I will use

The eye of the storm To ask I mean you have like I would say you have like a couple of minutes Before they leave the check Oh okay You've got like a couple of minutes I'm pretty sure that's Democles

I mean I could message him to confirm it, just so I don't waste magical... Lucius would know that that's Democles. Lucius would recognize it as Democles. That's him. That's definitely him. Okay, so we're trying to find his entrance into... his teleportation circle into his secret weapons facility. Do you need to do it right now?

I mean, you've seen him, right? He needs to be present when he uses the okay go go go what's the question what's the question what is that little up to nailed it no because that could be anything that might just show me him drawing in his little bookie. What is Democles the little shit up to? Fixed it. How do... Oh my god.

How do we get access to your secret weapons facility? That work? Yes! Could work. Could work. Could work. So... We don't know if he has a secret weapons facility though, do we secret What's Democles' project?

What is he working on? He might be into knitting He could be into knitting Oh god, that sounds delightful He sounds like a lovely guy, I'm sure In this headcanon that we created for this guy He makes weapons It's weaponry we can assume

that it's ethereum fueled so we could uh bring it down to that nuance if you you're the aetherium project okay okay weapon project where is the teleportation circle and what's the coordinates for it i'm going to look at it teleportation it's going to be out of line of sight momentarily okay i'll look at democles and ask how do we get access no wait yes how do we get access to your secret ethereum weapon facility okay quill the your vision turns cloudy once again you see the flash of lightning and in the white of the light your vision seems to race it races through the streets of gust haven winding its way through the packed in tight but very clean streets of the sky city winding its way towards the noble district finding a large well-defended walled estate patrolled by guards in the mcgroner family outfit you make your way through the door passing through it as if it was nothing. The vision twists and turns down several corridors, making its way deep down into a basement cellar.

There is a secret door set into the flooring of plain, unfurnished stone. It passes through the floor into a corridor that leads down into a large study. corridor that leads down into a large study set into the study is a circle of runes arranged in a certain uh configuration um the runes glow in a certain sequence um that flashes in your mind um you see eight symbols flashing up from amidst the the ring of different arcane scripts. Eight different runes light up. There is a flash of light, and then you appear in another place, into

another room that seems similar to the first, almost like a study, and then the vision fades as that reveals exactly what you asked for. So I see the runes being entered, right? Like, that's pretty much what I needed. You see the eight runes lighting up, yes.

Now, do teleportation circles need a particular order for the... Do I see the order of the coordinates? Or is it just eight runes? Okay, good. It's like putting in a telephone number. It's like 07349... Carry on. The question is, as the vision ends,

as the flash of lightning returns and your vision snaps back to the present, what does Quill do? What do I do? I mean, in the same way, I know it happens in an instant, but I'll, yeah, really rapidly say, I've got the coordinates, it's in the

Magruder Strait, I'm going to fly up and see if I can really quickly trace the route. Okay. So as you fly up, you yeah begin you can definitely follow the path um you can see the house easily make an intelligence check for me intelligence because this is going to take you if you fly towards the

mcgroner estate following the route it will take you know a few minutes of your time the route, it will take a few minutes of your time. As he flaps out, like, goes towards the door, can I cast invisibility on him, like, with that? Sure.

Yeah, because I think feeling that the Magronas are nearby, it would cause quite a fuss to see a very distinct-looking Arakokra in the sky so I'll just A messenger clad Aarakocra I'll touch him on the boot as he goes past

I would say you just you just managed to touch him as Quill vanishes from sight as he flies up into the air a few feathers just kind of fluffing to the ground you do see Belenor and Democles kind of turn around at the noise of the

chair being scraped back and some sort of commotion, but they just kind of look around. I keep my head down. Reactively. Make a stealth check for me, actually. Alright. I want to. This is where it all falls apart.

Just straight intelligence? Stealth. Stealth check for you. Of course. That was the wrong one. I get plus two. So here we go. Ten.

Ten. Perfect. Okay. Yeah, you try and kind of like keep your head down or like hide behind sentry and stuff like that the Magronas both look around Democles kind of looks around

almost a little bit more panicked than you would have expected and Belenor seems to say something to him and then the two of them just continue on their way Quill by the time you return, having traced the route, like, I mean, yeah, it's not really a route, necessary route.

Finding the Magrona's estate in the Noble District is not difficult. Like, it's visually distinct. You can easily see it. Do you come back to the party? Do you fly back to the party after you found it? I mean, I'm invisible now? I'm kind of thinking

like, do I want to carry on through? Like, you mentioned there was a door that I could go through as if it was nothing, and I'm kind of like, wait, does that mean it's locked? Does that mean it's... I mean, in the vision, you seem to just pass through the door as if it wasn't there, yeah.

Ah. The main door. This is the main door to the estate. Imagine, like, a noble's mansion in the city. Sure, let me just real quick check what my rolls would have been for my thing. You know, the thing. Hortant. Nine and a twelve.

Nine and a twelve. Nice and in the middle. Yeah, great. I kind of just want to scout the place out Are there a load of guards? I'll stay flying for now while invisible Cool As soon as you enter the air above the Magrona estate, the invisibility drops

as if dispelled Guards begin shouting at you like Messenger! Get out! This is Magrona's estate you're not allowed over here and they begin shouting at you to leave sorry I only just passed my bad get out and like we won't warn you again

and they're bringing up like thunderstorm rifles and things like that they are not looking around I'll go buy some of those yeah you can buy thunderstorm weapons Oh jeez, okay. They are not looking around. I'll go buy some of those. Yeah, you should buy thumbstone weapons. Yeah, when we accidentally kill them. So I take it that you divert,

or are you still trying to sneak around? I'm going back here. When you sit back down, you're pretty sure you can remember that rune sequence from the vision. Yeah, you remember it. It remember that rune sequence from the vision. Yeah. Yeah, you remember it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was that rune and then that rune and that rune, right?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're pretty sure you remember it. Do you want to write it down? Yeah. Do you want to write it down or? I mean, I'll write it down now, yeah. Oh, okay. Nice. I thought it was like logged in. No. that's the dream spell where

you remember it dream is where you remember it yeah the vision you fit you have to remember what you see in the visions that's just down to your natural memory no magical assistance on visions all right you're pretty sure though you're pretty got it. I'm a clever guy. Yeah. 17. I mean, it's not a 20, though, is it? It's not like a 20, but it's pretty good. No, it's pretty good, though. It's up there. Yeah, it's up there, right, Kim?

I mean, just, you know, I'm sure if Nova had made it, what would Nova have gone? Probably would have remembered it, though. Yeah. I don't want to go to space again quills no can you imagine holy i mean how certain am i like i said you're pretty no yeah you definitely got it right yeah 99 99 if we're super desperate, Nova could scry on that bad boy.

Scrying is only in the moment, though. You can't do the same thing with the eye. The eye is showing things that scrying wouldn't necessarily reveal. If you scryed on him whilst he was casting his spell, then you would be able to get it, yes. That's true.

If we're super desperate, then I'll just use the eye again when we're there. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. You're pretty sure. Okay. Okay. Yeah, so anti-magic, by the way.

I'm not invisible anymore. Thanks, Nova, for that, by the way. So the moment I got near the place, I'm not invisible anymore. Thanks, Nova, for that, by the way. So the moment I got near the place, I was not invisible anymore. I know the route. Well, it's the McGroner Estate, but there are guards there. The McGroner Estate. I could have told. I live here.

It's over there. You didn't have to make such a drama of it all. I was hoping that I'd be able to... Look, there's a pamphlet with a map over there. It was fresh in my mind. It was fresh in my mind, and I wanted to see how much of the route I could do. We were just talking to his brother,

who could have also told us where it was. You know, just adding to the pile of things that... I wanted to go all the way, not just to the doorway of the place. You can't go alone, and we're trying to remain inconspicuous, Quill. We have to keep on the low down.

Exactly, I'm a messenger. Flying into the air from a seated cafe? Probably not the best idea. It's a good thing Nova touched you. People expect it from an Arakokra messenger. What, from a cafe? I picked up a delivery from the cafe! Okay, this will take a minute minute Maybe we should reconvene somewhere

And enact a plan You know where it is, right? No idea To the McGonagall's I know where that is Why don't you direct me, Lucius? This is something misty Isn't it? This is something misty!

Yeah, I know exactly where it is. Exactly where it is. 100%. Good. Is there any sort of security? Was it just hidden? What, the teleport circle itself? Yes. Yeah. Well, there's guards at the doors of the Magronas, for starters. Right. And also some sort of field that blocked out my invisibility. It looked like it dispelled it. It looked like when you got within a certain range of the house,

it was like something dispelled any spells on you. Yeah, so there's that. We need to infiltrate the Magrona estate. there's that we need to infiltrate the mcgrona estate is what we need to do how well are these guards oh uh oh rifles we needed some of those rifles okay i'll take two off this list that lucius handed me uh he got the drawing just handed me. He got the drawing. We could beat the shit out of the guards

and take their rifles. Save some money, you know? Actually, we're back to the weapons system. We are going to beat them up, right? Because how are we going to get past them? We need to remember our morals here. These guards are just employees. We're not going in there beating everybody up.

The Magronas, maybe the heads of the estate, are baddies and naughties, but everyone else is an innocent bystander just doing their job. I mean, if they shoot us, they're not innocent bystanders. We are infiltrating their estate illegally. Yeah. If they shoot at us, it's self-defense. I didn't say kill them. We are infiltrating their estate illegally. Yeah. For good cause.

They shoot at us, it's self-defense. I didn't say kill them. Just, you know, a little pow-pow. It's the pummeling. It's a small pummeling. As Sentry says, give them the old one-two smackaroo. One-two smackaroo works every time. Most of the time.

Sentry! Sentry! Sentinel Prime! Most of the time. Cedri! Cedri! Moral! CITNL PRIME! Just give him the old 1-2 smack root! When she makes it sound cute like that, it seems like it's the right thing, you see? It seems it's okay, yeah. It gives you a free pass.

I could send in your canine and trail the I could send in the arcane eye and trail the route that way maybe we could distract the guards away from the entrance so that we could then enter something like that

I could I could make a portal portal that you know if I look through a window I'm not sure if I could make a portal that, you know, if I look through a window from somewhere. I'm not sure if the dispel field will

screw it up. I need to consider the ramifications. But I don't know. As you are all enjoying this fine conversation, there is almost like a pulse are all enjoying this fine conversation. There is

almost like a pulse of pressure and air as a great ship that you all recognize bursts from the clouds beneath

Gusthaven and buzzes across the Sky City itself. You can hear what sounds like magical blasts coming from the outer walls of the Sky City as the Twinstar Longbow, the astral

ship that Thalia had used to help you get back to Erois launches over the Sky City of Gusthaven itself Thalia had used to help you get back to Erois, launches over the sky city of Gusthaven itself. Attached to the twin star longbow by a long coiling chain is a smaller airship, like a skiff. Smaller than the storm chaser, but bigger than sort of like a normal patrol like a a patrol vessel like a small boat um

is a is a airship uh upon which are some uh mysteriously clad figures followed by another ship with similar figures uh you can see blasts of magic seem to radiate up from the walls of the city in their direction and the three ships are engaged in some sort of maneuvers. One of them has attached itself to the twin star with this long chain-like device. What do you guys want to do?

Nova immediately stands up, sits down, stands up, sits down, bangs her knees on the table. Thalia is here, sits down, stands up, tries to run sits down bangs her knees on the table thalia is here sits down stands up tries to run out the door falls over okay lovely and i'm gonna leave her there uh should we maybe go and see if we can help the way lucius is there anything we can use to fly right now quill send a message to thalia to thai i was going to send a message to Sky Prince to cancel the attack. Or the defenses.

Who are they? Can you do the both? Is it the defenses or is that pirates? That's the pirates! You see the twin star kind of caves around and loops down beneath Gusthaven itself. And these two pursuing ships seem to keep pace, one of them attached. And yeah, you do hear like more... Okay sky prince yes do do that okay i'll you sending on him tell him to not attack the twin star sleek black ship cool looking don't shoot Shoot the other ones. Wind barons, maybe? Cloud barons, perhaps.

Okay. Within a moment, you do get back a response of... I don't know what... I was going to have one of my mages message you. Is this ship with you? The ones pursuing it are cloud barons. They appear to be trying to capture it

sure I'll cast sending again uh new ship is with us it's an ally uh don't shoot that one shoot the wind barons uh the city defenses are attempting to take it down but we're having

problems with our own ships none of them seem to be flying there's not much yes fences are attempting to take it down, but we're having problems with our own ships. None of them seem to be flying. Sabotaged. There's not much... Yes. He just says, like, if this is a friend of yours, they're trying to capture them. We need to send word to Uriah. Maybe we can get

Penny on the weapons and an assist or something. Well, at this point, my friends, yeah, I'm going gonna ask you to roll initiative oh my god damn just the five of us on the ground watching a cool ass fight going on out there Just like, I need to do something and I can't do anything! Yikes. Once I've got initiative, I'll give you the next kind of scene as things kick off.

Lucian, initiative please. 19. 19. Kelek. 4. 4. Ayla. 18.

18. Sentry. 5. 5. 4. 4. four four ayla 18 18 century five five 18 18 okay so to set the scene a little bit more um these two ships these two smaller patrol uh airships one of them is attached to the Twin Star, and you can see the Twin Star is trying to shake it loose. The cannons that you know that the Twin Star has, these kind of set gunner positions, are not firing for whatever reason.

They do not appear to be firing back. Instead, it's using very aggressive maneuvers to try and shake this chain loose, but seemingly to no avail you can see on the ship that's attached to the twin star there are a group of humanoid figures in these head to toe like uh leather suits with like built in like um breathing masks almost, almost like old 1940s pilots where they had the big masks attached to their flight suits kind of thing. You can see that they have these bandoliers covered with metal orbs,

similar to the explosives they used to attack you the last time you were here on Gusthaven. And several of them are now trying to crawl up this chain to get to the Twin Star itself as it's being brought in. The other ship has kind of twisted away from the chase and is now trying to take down Gustaven's own air defenses, these kind of magical ballistae to defend the town. Almost like bombing runs.

They're kind of trying to take out these towers, cause as much destruction and chaos, and then veer off. Those of you, I'd say that probably Sentry, Aayla, maybe Nova, you would probably recognize this more as a diversionary tactic. They're trying to take the attention away from the ones trying to get on the Twin Star.

So one ship is trying to keep the city's defenses busy, whilst the other one focuses on trying to capture the attention away from the ones trying to get on the twin star. So one ship is trying to keep the city's defenses busy whilst the other one focuses on trying to capture the twin star. Lucius, you are reacting first. The ship is moving around so much that on your turns, it will basically make sweeping passes over the city that you'll still be able to, like, do stuff towards the ship itself if you want to. Imagine that it's constantly flying and moving

past and things like that. Okay. So, if I know that it's going to come within the vicinity of a spell, is it likely to do that? Yeah, that's like my what I mean is that you could ready an action and say next

time it buzzes past i want to cast a spell or do something like that i mean it's going to be long range like you're probably talking about like 300 feet um or something like that but it's it's i've only got a 90 foot range on some of these things so 100 if you got up to like a roof if you got up to like a roof of some of the buildings around Gusthaven, you might be able to get within 90 feet. Okay. I will look for the closest building with an external staircase that I could run up

and try and assist. I'll probably take a full turn of you running up that and then trying to begin slowly making your way upstairs. Shout to Quill to I'm sorry, but you might need to send another message to the storm chaser to get them to arm themselves and help out.

I'll try and get in range and try and knock them off. And that's what I'm doing as I'm scaling. Preparing a chromatic orb of lightning, just in case it is conducted through the metal

and trying to aim for that chain. Okay. The chain that's connecting it to the twin star itself. To shock them off. So Lucius begins running up this outward stair. You can see that the buildings in Gusthaven are stacked quite tall, and a lot of them have like stairways on the outside in

Case of like they need, you know fires and emergencies you begin trying to make your way up to the top of one of those Meanwhile, you can see that the two ships these figures the crew on one of the ships that's trying to distract the towns The the city itself the city defenses are leaning over the sides You can see that most of them are equipped with itself, the city defenses, are leaning over the sides. You can see that most of them are equipped with what appear to be short bows or crossbows and they're firing down at the city

defenders and things like that. One of the ships is beginning to turn and is going to make a strafing run on the trade district itself. So where you guys currently are. It has ballistas and everything else. On the ship that is trying to pursue the twin star, three of these figures are going to try and climb out and it has like ballistas and everything else. On the ship that is trying to pursue the Twin Star,

three of these figures are going to try and climb out onto the train to reach the Twin Star itself. One of them immediately, the Twin Star jerks suddenly and one of these Cloud Barrens is thrown off and just sails over the side of the city, basically. The other one following behind him does manage to get a good grip and is shimmying along the chain um about halfway the next one also goes flying off so as they're kind of making their way down these erratic sharp turns by thalia are causing the uh the guys to lose their grip and

go flying off but one of them at least has made it almost halfway uh towards the twin star uh ayla um so i will probably say to them i can get that chain off if i can get up there if any of you guys can make me fly that'd be awesome then i'm gonna for the moment rage and i'd like to to take a couple of shots if I can, if it gets within range at the people on the chain with my longbow. So you pull out the longbow and you

wait for the twin star to kind of bank and it's drawing in closer to the tech trade district and you can just see, and it's going to be at disadvantage because this is going to be at long range, Ayla. But you can see this one figure who's like halfway across the chain. You can see one of these Ethereum spheres in his hand. Yeah, you can try and take two shots.

Disadvantage though. Okay. Nine is my lowest, so 19 to hit. 19. Even at the long range and with the kind of difficulties of hitting the target, the one, yeah, the arrow does strike the figure. You kind of like

the arrow spins through the air and just manages to glance them. It's not as much damage, obviously. Five, six, seven... Twelve damage altogether. Twelve damage. The arrow flies through and impales through one of these leather-clad, you know, I guess, pirates.

Just sinks into their side, nearly causing them to let go of the chain. But you can see it heavily injures them. I guess, pirates, just sinks into their side, nearly causing them to let go of the chain. But you can see, heavily injures them as they're trying to crawl along. Not quite dead, though. I'll take another shot. Probably won't hit, though, because I rolled a 2. So 12 to hit, so...

That's not going to... Just sails past, unfortunately. But the first one, you can see, as the banking does get close enough, if you squint, you can see that they're heavily injured as they're still shimmying along. Cool. All right, Nova.

Does Twin Star ever get within 500 foot of where we could you could hold an action like yeah it will come within 500 feet of you at some point yeah um it looks like thalia is trying to keep the ship above the city itself like getting as close as she can and then only banking away when she needs to okay um i'll just shout at everyone i'm going up there on the ship she needs us if anyone i if one person wants to come with me grab my hand and then i will hold my action to uh cast dimension door so that i can dimension door myself and one whoever touches my hand first up onto the twin star. Okay, sure, we'll make it on that. Once we're in a range, yeah.

Okay. So two things happen while you're holding that action. So Nova, keep in mind you're concentrating because when you hold the spell, you're concentrating on the spell. As you guys do this, I'm just going to get my notes up on what the spells I swapped out for. You see on the two different ships,

one of them is chasing after the Twin Star and the other one is basically attacking Gustaven. That ship is being attacked by these kind of turrets, like ballistas on the top of the city walls. It's shooting at that one and things like that. You do, however, see that on the deck, there appears to be one of these figures in one of these kind of like leather flight suits.

You can see bands of metal around their wrists and they begin conjuring a spell. They begin casting magic spells. One of them will do... One of them grabs one of their companions and they vanish and you would

recognize the spell Nova as Dimension Door and they appear on the top of the twin star, like holding onto it. And you can see them beginning to, you know, plant something on the ship itself as they do so. The one on the ship that's attacking the trade district, as it's passing by, it will see the group of you.

It will see Quill, Sentry, and Aayla. And as it passes, the group of you it will see Quill, Sentry and Aayla and as it passes a bolt of lightning passes down in a line can the three of you make dex saving throws please are they within 10 feet of me? they are within 10 feet of you and 10 feet of Sentry's aura as well

so you take half damage from the lightning from me and I get advantage on this save because it's a dex. You get plus three for every save of the century, right? Plus three, yeah. Unbreakable. Yeah, you guys are very strong.

Nineteen. Nineteen. Miracle. Lucius? I got 20 20, Sentry 15 you all take half damage

because of lightning resistance and then I believe half damage again because of Sentry's aura which is half damage against spells, yes? and half damage against lightning from me yep so that's going to be 10 did any of us actually pass the save? Yeah, you all did.

Oh, wow. Okay. It's like half, half, half. That's a 16th of damage. It's fine. 29. 38 damage normally. So half of 38 is 19.

Half of 19 is 9.5. 19. Half of 19 is... 9 and a half. 9. Half of 9 is 4 and a half. You all take 4 points of lightning damage. It's kind of like a combination, right? So as the ship is passing over the head of you, this lightning bolt

kind of... And it sends like chairs and tables flying from the restaurant. But the lightning bolt passes over. Ayla just holds the hammer out. Most of the lightning is absorbed into the hammer through Ayla's body and dissipates. Meanwhile, Century raises the shield and all the rest of the lightning

is just kind of encapsulated and blasted around you by this anti like magic aura from the matrix. and it just has almost no effect as it passes over you. A giant lightning bolt, and we all just, oh, meh. Oh!

Oh! Sadly, the next thing that happens is not as fun for the rest of you. So, the two that teleported to the top of the twin star, one of the twin star one of them slams one of these metal spheres and you see this kind of explosion of magic just from the twin stars hull um you just see like this erupt um the other ship which is currently uh attacking the

trade district the ballista on the ship turns and it will point in your direction, almost as if knowing that the group of you are here and the ballista will fire at into your direction. There's three of you, so I will roll a d6 to determine who we hit. One, two, three, four, five, six. Ayla, this is at you. When the bomb goes off on the ship, you'll just hear

Nova just scream, NO! Yep. Ayla, this is going to be a 26 to hit. Yeah, that might just... You're going to hit. That's going to be 15 points of damage, but halved because you're

raging, so... 7 points. At what point is this in range of Lucius's 90-foot chromatic orb? Well, the thing is, if you wanted to get up to the building, you would have had to have dashed. I didn't know if you wanted to just move as much as possible. Yeah, I would probably have to, right? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that you were just saying that you were going to prepare it for, like, the next turn, not holding an action. Certainly the yeah, yeah. Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that you were just saying that you were going to prepare it for, like, the next turn, not holding an action. Starting the distance, yeah. Yeah, and that's the thing. So the ballista bolt kind of flies through the air. Aayla, you kind of half sidestep.

It still catches you a little bit, maybe scraping away at some of your skin, leaving, like, a big red line. But as it impacts the ground, the cafe's floor just kind of explodes into debris around you. And all this like dust and smoke is clouded up. But you're just stood next to this giant ballista bolt,

like the orc in Lord of the Rings, just kind of impacts next to you. Sentry. So can I use Misty Step impact next to you. Sentry. So, can I use Misty Step and try and get 30 feet up? And like Lucius, try and get in range of one of the

ship that's going through the trade district. 30 feet? Yeah, the one that's going through the trade district. 30 feet won't get you close enough to really grab onto the ship. The ship's probably about 100 feet up in the air as it's passing through the district um you could try and get up to one of the tops of the buildings and then maybe try and attack from there the other thing is you can see nova like holding out her hand like

ready to teleport somebody um i think you've made that quite clear that you were gonna dimension door pretty much right right, Nova? Yeah. Yeah. So the first person to grab Nova will get dimension doored. Okay. I said I am going up there. Yeah.

So it's up to you. You can either teleport up to one of the roofs and then try and make a preparation to get up onto one of the ships next time. Or maybe attack it from a long range if you've got a long range weapon. Yeah, I think I'll try and get onto one of the roofs but then as i'm going can i just like shout down to all the like citizens can hear just like shout to them all just like to get in cover just hide yeah try and keep safe in america yeah sure like they're already scattering they're like several of them are running but those that were too scared to do anything as you're kind of calling out to them um do begin picking themselves up.

And you see the waiter that was serving you where it's like, come, we have a basement. Come on, come on. Like trying to get everybody out of the cafe and down as the ship is causing destruction. You can hear the sound of approaching military forces as well, but it still sounds that they're quite distant away. And you've not seen any other ships launch into the air either. Okay.

Cool. So with that, you misty step step you appear on the top of the cafe um and yeah there's probably about a good sort of 60 feet now between you and the the airship yes can i can i then like use my dash movement and try and get all the way so you want to try and like because it's basically imagine you're on like the roof right and the ship's passing. So you could try and, like, jump up onto the ship and, like, grab onto the hull, but you would be, like, literally trying to climb up the bottom of the hull at that point. Do you want to try that? Okay, maybe I'll try that next step. Oh, let's...

You can try this then. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, because it's only a bonus step. Cool. Yeah, go on. Give me a athletics check, because it's going to be exceeding your normal jump. Plus nine. Well, I've got a plus nine, so that's 14.

14. Okay, so you take, like, a big running jump. You teleport up to the roof, and then you leap, and I'd say that you just managed to grab the very bottom of the hull of the ship. So you're going to have to climb up it next turn. The ship is going to be over the Sky City. It's going to go up higher once it's finished its pass run,

so it's going to start taking you up with you on the very bottom of it, trying to hold on for dear life. Okay? Yep. All right. Keelak, how's it going? Okay, I will cast Sending

to Uriah to say, man the guns, don't shoot. Call black ship, ally of ours. Airships are a groaner. The message you get back is like,

we can set sail, but the repairs aren't anywhere close to being done Quill we're going to be operating it a very damaged hull if we head out there now but we can do it I've just been manned the guns and just shoot from the pit well I mean they can try that yeah but

if that's more the intention they can try that but it's But if that's more the intention, they can try that, but it's going to be not very effective. That's all right. I can't do sending again this turn or much else, so I think I'll just try a 50 feet up flight. So you start flying. Okay, yeah. So you begin flying your way with your mechanical wing,

flying up into the air. Okay, yeah. So you begin flying your way with your mechanical wing. Flying up into the air. Okay, amazing. In that case, we go back up to the top with Lucius. You eventually, if you continue your movement for this turn, you get to the roof of the building. You can now see these ships begin to patrol. Okay. Waiting for the prime moment.

Reassessing what I should be focusing on this time. I see the two on Dia's ship right yep um the bomb has been planted and it exploded yeah there was an explosion yeah there was it looked like like it was almost like a grenade like they threw something and it exploded where are they now are they still on they're still on top no they haven't gone in yet they're still on top of the, they haven't gone in yet. They're still on top of the ship itself. Okay. I'm going to try and sling a spell at them once they are within 90 feet, if possible. Okay, sure.

Yeah. We'll give you that opportunity. Sure. It'll be at the very maximum range. You're kind of hoping that they're not just going to be just outside of it, but you wait for Thalia to bank, and you can see that the explosion has created a probably just about big enough for somebody

to squeeze through hole in the ship's exterior. And it banks, it begins pulling round, the ship attached by the train follows round, and they just come, you're hoping, within range. Can I change that to a 120 foot hypnotic cube, hoping that if they are on a ship and they need to stay kind of engaged

that if I make them confused, they're just going to fall off the ship. Oh, yeah, you can try that. Okay, so that's 120 foot, so I might be able to do it a bit earlier as well. This is a charm effect, yes? Yes. Okay, they have advanced to the saving throw.

Because they are elves. Oh, that's great. That's good for them. All right, cool. So DC is, and it's a wisdom saving throw. Yes. 17. Okay. There's that one.

There's that one. So we watch as you kind of focus for a moment, and then this swirl of blue and orange magic just appears over Thalia's ship, this giant kind of cube of swirling lights and patterns. And you see these two figures just kind of, their eyes seem to drift up into the air, and then the ship twists and banks,

and they just do not keep their, they just fall. As soon as like they're completely incapacitated, and then it's like the world just drops out from it. And as soon as they're falling, the spell breaks, and they're just like... As they just slam into the ground. Nice.

Yeah. And that's basically all I can do, really, on my turn. I might start... No, I'm going to stay up. I'm going to stay up on the roof and see if I can continue to assist from up here. Okay. The one that Ayla shot on the chain

is going to continue his climb as three more begin to follow after them. The one who was on the chain heavily injured manages to crawl along the chain, gets to the hole, and just kind of pulls themselves in, getting inside the ship. As three more get crawl along the chain, gets to the hole and just kind of pulls themselves in, getting inside the ship. As three more get out onto the chain and begin making

their way, one gets halfway. The next one gets halfway. The last one falls off with another kind of sudden twist in the trajectory. Just goes flying, but two more are now kind of going along the train to try and get inside. Meanwhile, on the other ship the others

continue raining down you can see that a squadron of royal knights of gust haven um mounted on pegasi have flown out and are attacking the ship that was attracting the trade districts essentially you look around and suddenly there's all these flying horses kind of rising up you can hear the sounds of battle around you as they're fighting the borders almost on top of the ship as you're climbing up. That's so cool. I don't think any of them would have spotted you to help you.

They've just focused on getting to the top of the ship to prevent them attacking on the city again. But yeah, you see that happening. Ayla? I'm going to grab Nova's hand. And then Dimension Door Nova on inside the ship?

Inside. Yeah. Okay. Inside. I need to check with Dimension Door, unless you've already looked at this. It says you can teleport yourself from a current location to any other spot within range. You arrive exactly at the spot desired. It can be a place you see, one you can visualize, and one you can describe. One you can visualize and describe? Yeah, that would count. Because you arrive exactly at the spot desired it can be a place you see one you can visualize and one you can describe when you can visualize and describe yeah that would count yes

you've been inside the the twin star before yeah i lived in there so you just feel ayla uh nova's used to this but ayla you feel like space folds around you and in one minute it's kind of like the world turns glassy and mirror-like the world world seems to fold in, and then you breathe, and you are inside the twin star itself. There is almost like a kind of shocking sight. There is a large hole in the hull where you can see clouds and blue sky. There is a heavily injured Cloud Baron pirate inside with a weapon, a pistol drawn,

holding his side. It's the one that you shot with the arrow. But there is also signs of more fighting that has happened already. You can see Big Cat, the big white alpine lion-like creature, is unconscious, bleeding quite heavily on the floor. Kairi as well. Kairi is conscious, but is very weakly collapsed at the bottom of her gunner's turret

and is kind of like holding her wounds closed. There is also several dead Valkyrian troops and what appear to be other Cloud Barons inside the ship. And you hear a lot of swearing coming from the cockpit itself, including a couple of blasts, what looks like to be like a couple of magical,

like from the turret in your direction, like, I've had enough of you. Get out of here. And just like kind of cursing coming from that way. Okay. I'm going to appear and go, hey, Talia. And then I'm going to turn to the one that I've already shot and go,

oh, buddy, this doesn't end well for you, and just hit him with my hammer. Oh, go for it. Yeah, he's trying to bring up his, like, pistol, like... As you're, like, running at him with a hammer. 22 to hit for the first one. Yeah, he's on one hit point you hit him he flies

out of the hole he came in from and you just hear you need that as a sample I do need a Wilhelm scream you just clobber him once and he just goes flying out you can't there's nobody else to attack

but if you look out the hole, you can see two more of them along the chain about to make their way in. Cool. Can I go out onto the top and out the hole? Where's the chain? Is it pretty

close to the... Pretty close to this hole. You can see this giant ballista bolt with these kind of, like, hooked edges has embedded into the crystalline hull of the twin star. Can I just try and yank the chain out? Yeah, you can

do that instead of your second attack if you want. Yeah, I'll let you do that. Can I do that? Yeah, sure. Give me a strength check. You'd have advantage because you're raging. Uh... Yeah, sure. Give me a strength check. You'd have advantage because you're raging. Strength check. 18 plus 7. 25.

So you kind of almost pull yourself so you're half out of this hole. The wind is whipping your red hair around you as the kind of protections of Gusthaven's atmosphere, you know, as it flies outside of the city's boundaries. The twin star whipping to the side. With one hand on your hammer,

you kind of reach the other free hand out, hook onto this huge metal hook, and just your muscles stretch and strain as fire kind of burns through them. As you just pull it free, crystals kind of breaking free free and then eventually just and the big chained bolt just goes

flying through the air. The two that were holding onto it are also sent flying. Bye! And then middle fingers as they fly into nothing. As you middle finger them you see the ship that had the chain.

There's only a couple members of the crew left. They just seem to see what's happening. You see them hard turn the wheel and they begin flying away from Gustaven. Like completely just like, right, we're done. We're getting out now. As they begin making their way. Okay, I'll drop back into the the hole that's the term nova um can i

immediately run over to big cat and cast spare the dying on him um and um what i'm not gonna let big cat die i love it i love it uh npc dying absolutely not fire those like ah they get a couple of deaths it's a big cat yeah you run over like you feel uh just the very faintest of heartbeats beneath the thick white fur uh and as the spell kind of like seals shut any bleeding wounds um there's just a a kind of faint purry rumble from a kind of asleep but alive big cat. I'd also

like to point out that Milo, the smaller cat, is sat to my left here and I feel like if I didn't do something he'd know. You'd know. But yeah, so... And then can I just shout, Thalia! um but yeah so um and then uh can i just shout thalia

thalia we're here what can we do um and uh well it seems it seems like alice already dealt with the largest problem which was that pursuing ship um uh i think as long as we can

get rid of that other one, we should be all right. Did you tell the city not to shoot at me anymore? Yes, yes, they shouldn't be attacking you. Are you hurt? Are you hurt? Do you need medicine? I could certainly do it a little bit, yes. And as you kind of look into the cockpit, you can see she's clearly been shot

through the back of her uh like pilot's chair um and there's blood all over the floor oh geez um immediately potion of healing i probably it's a bonus action though or is it no it's an action it's an action um yeah can i hold it out to just give to her like you start You start moving towards her with it, and that's where you'll turn her. Meanwhile, the ship that is currently being attacked and attacking the sky city of Gusthaven, several of the Pegasi sentry,

you notice one of these Pegasi knights is just gripped by some sort of invisible force and thrown down into the city like hurled with telekinetic force um it crashes into a building and you hear it kind of winnie and nay you begin to hear thunderstorm pistols and rifles like all over and several of the knights have to back off um as they're being forced away the ship begins turning as if to leave Gusthaven. And it is your turn. Oh, okie dokie. So as I'm gripping on,

can I cast Find Greater Steed, please? Ho, ho, ho. Ho, ho. And what form shall this take? I was trying to decide between a Peyton or a Pegasus because they're both kind of cool. You can do different forms there. I think it might be a Peyton.

A Periton. A Periton, that's the one, yeah. Periton, they're like a griffin but with a stag's head. Nice. You're a classy lady, Rhi. Obviously, it could be different for Sentry because they're normally like evil creatures. So this isn't a periton.

This is more like a construct which is like in the form... It has a similar form, right? Big stag horns like Elko. So it's kind of got Elko's face with a single purple gemstone. These giant antler horns. but then the rest of its body becomes like this metallic bird uh that kind of stretches out behind it um and you watch as from the golden matrix this energy emits and forms beneath you into this huge

like winged beast that you just land on as, you know, you mount it effectively. And I would take it you want to command your mount to fly up onto the main, up onto the ship itself, or what do you want to do? Yes, please. Yeah. So, yeah, Elko, I don't know. You can come up with a name for this version of Echo. Yeah, you watch as this sweep up uh and there's a

lot of kind of shocked faces uh the knights of gust haven let out a kind of cheer as this reinforcement uh arrives um and you can see at least one of the figures on board is some sort of mage there's one on the helm who seems to be controlling the helm and has a pistol out and then the rest all appear to be like crew crossbows and swords and things like that out. Anything else you want to do? Because I think that's your action and move to get your mount up. Yeah, I think I'll just survey the deck, see who's about, before I make a move. Yeah, cool.

Kelek? How far away am I from the ship? The ship has now moved because it had a turn, so it would be like 200 feet up in the air, and it's moving away from Gustaven now. Oh, fuck. You can see sentry now on this giant antlered bird

just like... Shit, can I see, like... Oh, no, I don't think there's anything I could do. I'll cast Expeditious Retreat on myself. Yeah. But you're already 50 feet up, so I guess you're about 150 feet away.

Because you're already 50 feet up. You flew up last time. Oh, shit. Can I see where I am? Like, the helm of the ship? Or, like, any way of getting an engine or something? The engine, you can't see. That would be below decks if it's like the storm chaser.

But the helm you can see, the sails you can see, and the hull you can see. Okay. I'm just trying to think of a way to slow it down. I guess hitting the sails will be a thing. Yeah. That's how you'd slow down the storm chaser. All the helm would stop it from being able to turn. That's another way that you could

disable it. Well, the thing is, it's currently leaving, so it doesn't need to turn anymore. So, yeah, I don't need Expeditious Retreat anymore, because I'll go 50 feet towards it, and then with 120 feet of range, I'll Guiding Bolt at level 4 on the sails.

I mean, why not just go all in? What's the highest level you've got? You're right. Sentry's on that thing. I'll do it at 7th level. You're right, Mark. So the sails have an AC of 14. Do they? Because I have a plus 13 on Guiding Bolt. You literally can't lose, apart from a 1. A 1 would still miss.

You do hit with 25. Now let's do some maths here. Second, no wait, that's a first level spell. So 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, D6. Yum, yum, yum, 7, 8, 9, 10, D6. Yum. Yum, yum. Yum, yum. 10, D6.

48. You fly up. You don't get a pluses, I don't think. I know. Yeah. You fly up 50 feet. As the ship is just beginning to get out of range, you, you know, what is this?

Like you lift the spear and point the spear in its direction or is this like an outstretched wing? I'll use the spear to start channeling shit. Absolutely. So like you point the spear at it and then what do we see? Like, is this like hundreds of thousands of feathers come like launching forward or is this? All of the feathers, even though they don't do lightning

damage they're almost infused with lightning as they launch forward even faster than before even bigger than before like golden lightning yeah and so yeah basically instead of that feathery windy glow that's now lightning golden lightning

yeah it's like lines blurred lines of lightning and it just shreds the sails. Shredding the sky sails of this patrol skiff, reducing them to zero, by the way. The ship just comes to a stall. It just lists through the air. Christ. At this point, with Sentinel Prime there,

the knights and more reinforcements on the way will drop out of initiative as there is no further danger. Unless you want to try and stop the one that's getting away. There is one ship which is, you know, that was chasing the twin star and is getting away. Maybe. Maybe.

I can't do anything more with a bonus action. We'll jump we'll jump up to lucius and see what lucius wants to do um uh lucius whips around to see the the ship escaping sees a huge uh bird thing that sentry's now riding that seems to be in control let's see the the airship just sails just explode with a flow of golden lightning i'm like i turn 180 and i'm looking at thalia's ship and i'm gonna messenger ring and say what's going on in there is there any way i can help shall i make a landing strip out of ice i don't know what to do I just respond and say

the other ship's gone away I detached the chain and it's getting away I don't know if you want to go after it I look at the dot of a ship from my range I don't think there's anything I can do apart from call reinforcements and hope that Gustaven's defences pursue it.

But for now, let's get that ship landed. Bring it to wherever you can. I'll try and clear an area for you. And I'm going to head back down the building, I guess, and try and clear a crowd that's in a big open area where there's no buildings,

like a courtyard or something. The problem with Gustaven is that Gustavenav is quite tightly packed the only real space for the twin stocks the twin star is quite big you know when you were out in astral space it didn't seem big but here on a row it's like the wingspan of the twin star is actually massive um the only real place that it could probably land is the docks, like the Cloud Harbor docks where the Stormchaser is. But you could definitely start making your way towards there and coordinating that if you wanted to, Lucius.

I wonder if Quill can pick me up. He's too far away. Sentry could, with that steed. I'm going to start running anyway and just say, I'm heading to the docks. Try and get Thalia to land the ship there if possible. Perfect.

And I'm going to dash. Just start running basically. Cool. Ayla and Nova, what do you guys want to do? You remember that the twin star has guns. It has turrets. Yeah.

I was going to suggest like Nova, Nova's going to be, like, panicking. Like, seeing the blood in the cockpit, Nova's going to be panicking and freaking out about Thalia. Thalia will look at you, Nova, and she sees the potion, and she's just like, Nova, my dear, get in a turret and shoot the ever-loving shit out of those bastards that took on my ship, please. You're not going to die, though.

You're not going to die. I promise you're not going to die. You're not going to die. With pleasure. If I come back down here and you're dead, I'm going to be very upset! And then I'll go home. Ayla's already on her way to the turret before Thalia even said anything. Ayla, do you want to take two shots with the turret? It's a plus six to hit. It's like, yep, on it. You want to take two shots with the turret.

It's a plus six to hit. Yes, please. And, yeah, because it's a set bonus to hit. Could I actually... Could I do that thing where before, like, you know, I would go in the engines and charge the turret so they had more... Oh, you can do that?

Yeah, you can do that. Power. Yeah, they do more damage. Yeah. I'll do the more damage thing. Sure. Well, you do need to do an Arcana check then, Nova. And then Aayla, shoot.

I got 14 on the first one, which I'm not sure if it would. What are you targeting on the ship? That's my next question. Are you just going to try and shoot the hull? Do you want to try and shoot the helm? Do you want to try and shoot the sails? Nova, where's the best place to shoot on a ship to make it

explode? I rolled 23. The biggest part! That'd be the hull. I shoot at the hull. It will hit. The 14 hits the hull. What'd you get, Nova?

23. Roll 5d get, Nova? 23. Okay, roll 5d10, Ayla, for the damage. Oh, okay. Hello. That's a lot of damage. Yeah. They normally do 3d10, but boosted. It will, and that's what I need to roll on.

14 damage. No, another one. 14. 20 damage. Nope, another one. 14... 20 damage! That's lucky because that's the threshold for a mishap. Airship stats. Sorry about this. I gotta roll on these.

No way. Oh god. Is it good or is it bad? Hang on. I gotta roll D3... No way. Oh, God. Is it good or is it bad? Hang on. I've got to roll D3. That left. So you watch as Aayla... You know, it's been a while since you were in the Twin Star out in Astral Spade, but you're like, oh, yeah, I remember how this works.

Pull this, pull this, aim this thing. I guess I'll shoot there. You kind of pull on these, like, you tap these crystals on the top of the controls and you just feel this kind of surge of arcane power arches out. You think that you're just hitting it a bit you know just on the big round bit at the bottom of the ship. The blast

goes through and then there is a fireball explosion as you hit the engine. The engine the ship just begins to... Oh my god. That'll do it.

You see bodies go flying off of the ship itself, and there's just a kind of stunned silence for a moment. Would you like to shoot again? One more for luck! Yeah. So I rolled a 19 plus 6 on the second one. I hit 5d10. Does the Ocarina still take over for this?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's 5d10. Carry on, Aelith. Oh god, I've rolled two 10s already. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 45, 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 34 jesus so the hull is basically a mess um the hull is is nearly destroyed but more importantly the blow this time it kind of uh it's a staggering blow so it causes everyone on the ship to lose balance so the ship suddenly lurches.

I have only passed one deck saving throw for the entire crew. Oh, my God. They all just go, ah! They all begin falling off. At this point, the ship is basically disabled as everything comes to a rapid close. I'm going to call back. Good enough? Is everyone okay if I stop?

Or I could go again. I think we can leave it there. I just fired this huge guiding bolt, and I was like, ah, yeah, that was cool. And then either side of me... Boom, boom. You, with everything else, Thalia manages to bring the twin star around and begins

lowering it down into the cloud district um you see more and more reinforcements like more pegasi knights um several folks begin flying up to kind of begin arresting those that were on the ships um none of the ship this the ships like the the royal kind of like guard ships ever get airborne what you do see when you get to the docks is that there seems to have been several signs of fighting um it looks like a bunch of people had suddenly started attacking ship crew members there had been some like ships had been sabotaged people are being arrested lucius as you arrive um and yeah the uh the ship itself uh it seems that nothing was really mobilized um as everything's brought in we are going to take a break there um and then when we come back

we will uh patch up with everything that's holy crap intense damn girl i didn't go through my spell list when we long rested because i thought this was going to be a nice chill episode go look at this dude no epic space uh ship yeah airship sky airship sky battle yeah i could i guess that's testament to your descriptions they're pretty i wasn't expecting find greater steed that was i was like i've never heard of a peritone before but i now want well it looks they are gorgeous they are pretty cool