High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #99 | Shadowsong Pinnacle (Part 1)

Episode Date: January 25, 2021

This uniquely successful stealth mission carries on in the Shadowsong Pinnacle! Get 20% off ALL merch on FreshMerch right now by becoming an email subscriber here: http://bit.ly/FreshMerchJanuarySale Follow our twitter to see updated character art throughout the week leading up to episode 100: @highrollersdnd 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. Need a great reason to get up in the morning? Well, what about two? Right now, get a small, organic fair trade coffee and a tasty bacon and egg or breakfast sandwich for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario. Hello, welcome back to Erois. Before we jump into the episode, I wanted to let you know that you can get 20% off all High Rollers merch on Fresh Merch right now if you become an email subscriber. We have some new things coming out for episode 100, so if you want to be updated on those the moment they're released and get 20% off, then check out the link in the episode description. Also, speaking of episode 100, throughout the week leading up to the big 1-0-0, we're going to be

releasing brand new character art of the player characters on our Twitter. Check out the awesome high-level characters including the Pidgey-to-Pidgey-ot style glow-up that Quill has gotten by following us on Twitter at HyrollersDND. Anyway, back to episode 99 where we continue

our uniquely successful stealth mission in Shadowsong Pinnacle. Welcome back to arois last time the storm chases after pursuing a number of personal uh endeavors on gust haven uh catching up with captain thalia whisperwind as well as making plans with the mysterious moon star aka nedea el anasto The party have begun to infiltrate a mysterious weapons facility. Quill, using the power of the Eye of the Storm, had learned the teleportation routes

necessary to travel to this mysterious place, and pursued Democles Magrona, who seems to be involved with the Cloud Barons and the Valkyrian Empire. Setting themselves up, getting themselves geared up and ready, the party traveled to this place and discovered a very strange dock. An airship dock with a number of guards patrolling it and automated construct defenses.

The party have begun a stealth mission, successfully managing to avoid any detection thus far. Making their way into a loading elevator, they have made their way up into a snowy courtyard of some mysterious floating castle in the northern mountains. And that, my friends, is where we begin today. So, to recap the actual kind of scene of where you are, the wooden loading dock lift has kind of taken you up

from this airship dock that seemed to be carved into some sort of cliff face or somewhere like that. You've taken this up into a large open courtyard. You can see that there are large thick stone keep walls around this kind of very large open courtyard. You can see that there are large thick stone keep walls

around this very large open space. The keep, if you were to call it that, is made up of a few buildings. You can see in the very hazy snowy wind terrain, you can see a large

tower directly ahead of you across the courtyard. There appears to be a large tower directly ahead of you uh across the courtyard there appears to be a large building on your uh left hand side uh to the west which flanks the kind of uh western wall and then a smaller building on the eastern side of this keep and you are in a kind of small sheltered um alcove as such on the southern side you can see frost snow topped mountains all around you you know even on the from behind these tall keep walls you can see these mountains seem to kind of reach up around you if you're nestled somewhere high high up in some sort of mountainous region the visibility is very limited when you guys

emerge up the freezing wind kind of bites through those of you who aren't dressed particularly well or thickly um and this flurry of snow is really limiting your visibility to uh only shapes of these buildings and and crates that surround this courtyard um there are all sorts of supply crates and barrels scattered around this lift area where you begin. And that is where we kick things off. Having successfully managed to infiltrate your way this far. I'm still invisible, I believe. Only a few of us are still invisible.

Some are visible, Sentry's visible. Yeah, Nova and Lucius are the only ones who are still invisible. Everybody else is now visible. Sentry cast a spell. Aayla attacked to grab a guard. Quill wasn't included. And all was Moonstar.

How long do you think the elevator ride is from? it's not long it's it's you know it's you know it goes from those docks all the way up until this courtyard and it's a fair distance you know you're probably sat in it for a few minutes um you know two three minutes should we okay kind of retroactively before the doors open have a conversation about the doors on this one so as the as the lift reaches it comes up almost um you can see that there are these wooden walls and this kind of slatted wooden ceiling above you but there's no doors it just opens up into this snow-filled courtyard that's stretching out before you.

Lucius would say something like, those that are visible, you should probably find some sort of cover as soon as we get anywhere near the second floor. Just stay out of sight. I've still got the arcane eye floating around, so I can send that forward to see what is up there. Okay.

What's ahead of us. I mean, for now, you guys could pressure yourself up. arcane eye floating around so i can send that forward to see what is up there okay yeah what's ahead of us i mean for now you guys can press yourself up yeah you guys could press yourself up against these kind of wooden walls on either side of this loading lift um and you can see there are these thick uh you know coiled chain pulleys um four of them uh one on each corner of the lift that hook up into kind of like an arch lever system and then seem to drop down into holes um you're not quite sure what's powering the lift uh it just seemed to when you stepped on it and activated it it just kind of turned uh and the chains pulled you up um yeah pressing yourselves against the side for now it's really difficult to see any more

anything more than the shapes of buildings and the kind of faint outlines of crates around you. Can I send Arcane Eye forward and just identify all of the things in this alcove and communicate it to everyone through Messenger Ring and then maybe just carry on and just

I almost want to just explore this place with Arcane Eye and then... The Arcane Eye counts as invisible right counts as an invisible creature yeah so i think anything with true sight will be able to see it um but yeah sure whilst quill is doing that because that's going to take some time if you want it to basically scout out this whole courtyard um it's going to take time for it to move and fly around and stuff uh what's everyone else doing um i'm hiding behind something but kind of leaving the closer ones to people that are visible so i'll probably move further out because i know i'm invisible um okay and yeah the debris closest to the elevator i'll leave for visible people yeah there's not um this

looking around there's a couple of crates uh and they're quite large you know these would house horses or you know some sort of large creature um made of metal um maybe parts of it would uh metal crates yeah uh and they are kind of scattered around. The closest collection of them is maybe 10, 15 feet away. You see the shape of maybe a large statue, like a large stone statue looming in the snow, maybe sort of like 20, 25 feet out of where this little loading lift comes. There appears to be another kind of section of wooden wall

where some more crates and barrels have been hidden in the corner of the keep. The whole thing, by the way, you can see that there are walls. You are in the courtyard of a castle, almost. But there doesn't seem to be much beyond those walls except mountains. It's just keep walls and then mountaintops. You don't see any other buildings or anything like that around you. Okay. I'll see what everyone else is doing first.

Sure. All right. Given that Nova identified that this was in northern Alcereth in the last episode, and kind of realizing that it's a courtyard and a castle, are there any famous castles in Alcereth? You can make a history check. You can make a history check. Okay.

History. I have plus seven on history. Roll them up to 20. I rolled an 11. So 11 plus seven is 18. Something like this. I would say that with an 18, there are probably numerous castles in that region,

most of which would be ruins. Looking around, this is probably pre-Sundering. This castle is probably a very old castle that's been obviously rebuilt or refurbished. Given its current location, how high up you must be, one thing that rings in your bell is the name Shadowsong Pnacle um this was a old

fortification uh that had a number of temples to the gods of aroas uh built within it um and it was when hespa lifted up many of the sky cities uh this castle kind of like, um, like errant magic nearby. Um, sometimes the occasional like nearby, you know, buildings or for example, with Gusthaven a lake was lifted up alongside the Sky City. Uh, Shadowsong Pinnacle was such a place that was lifted up alongside the Sky City of Kassotaurus. However, it didn't, um, it wasn't bound to the same city. So it was kind of just left in place. It was just like floated up and then it just remained up in the air um and it's kind of a bit of a you know historical maybe a bit of an archaeological site where people have gone and examined it um but it's

also very hard to get to because it is in like the northern wastes uh the northern like you know kind of snowy mountains of Al-Saraf. It's quite difficult to travel here by airship. It's, yeah, it's not a place that is frequented. Very nice, hidden, abandoned corner of the world for people

to get up to things. Yeah, exactly. Whilst you guys, whilst Nova is thinking about all of that, Edea will kind of whisper to a bunch of you with the kind of modified... I've got to remember which one I used now. Don't make it the wrong one.

I think it was this one, yeah. Edea will turn around and say, we need to find where they're storing these weapons we need to destroy as much as we can and locate these schematics find out who's responsible once we've done that then we can begin examining but we should identify where they're storing

these weapons I'll whisper to her I believe Quill is already sending out a scouting thingy. I'm not quite sure what that is. I'll be honest. It's magic. Anyway, I'm thinking, perhaps,

looking around, is this the top? Is this just the entrance? And have we just gone to the surface and is all the good stuff below? Quill, as you send the eye scouting around, the the eyes visibility is kind of limited by the snow as well but you can make a couple of things out clear um not too far from here to the northeast in the kind of center of the courtyard um there is a kind of dirt path that forms like a square

that seems to connect several key elements of this courtyard together inside the interior walls in the middle of this path in the very center of the courtyard is very strange it's a stone platform that's lifted off the ground slightly there's a stair gangway like a metal gangway that connects uh to the ground um it looks like you know you might be able to crawl under it um there's enough space for a kind of medium-sized creature to kind of uh you know, crouch and crawl underneath it. Around the outside of this platform, if you want to think of it like that, like this kind of like stone platform, there is all sorts of metal working tools.

There's some magitek-looking style devices. Most of it has seemingly been abandoned or left here. You can still see a few kind of like faintly glowing crystals that maybe once were kind of like power, maybe used for some sort of powering or something like that, some sort of energy source now dimmed. And this platform is quite large. It's sort of like 40 feet by 40 feet and it dominates the center of the courtyard itself. You don't really see anybody working on it or anything like that there are there is at

least one guard who is patrolling on top of it um similar to these uh cloud barons um this one's bundled up in like thick furs and warm clothing it seems to like be blowing into their hands as they kind of walk around uh just keeping watch it seems um the eye floats past you see dozens more of these like large metal crates wooden crates barrels sacks all sorts of supplies um just stocked up there's a pair of metal wagons um on four wheels um that look like they don't attach to horses they just have sort of levers and and pulleys attached to the front of them um loaded up with crates as well uh these are kind of like positioned one to the northwest one to the southeast um there are two guards each patrolling each half of the courtyard and they just basically seem to

rotate around and then they'll pass each other rotate around occasionally they seem to stop for a quick break to warm themselves up by small campfires that they keep going but that's about it there are three buildings one to the east one to the north and one to the west the one to the east is a quite small stone structure there doesn't appear to be a guard at the door but their door the door is shut um there are no windows it appears almost to be like a little square box uh with a door on it that's it um right the arcane eye yeah that's all the arcane eye would see um there is a dead tree in the southeast corner uh next to this little square squat stone building to the north there is a hexagonal shaped tower the tower goes up quite high um you suspect sort of maybe three or

four floors um and then it has a roof as well uh with parapets uh like a kind of uh fort of like you know a fortified tower um there is a main door to that where there is a guard stood out the very front of it who does not move um there are also pairs of uh shuttered um barred windows on either side of the the octagon sides or the hexagon which one's six that one um hexagon on the on the the diagonal sides there's two barred windows and then it seems to be built into the wall itself so you can only really see half of the the tower from inside the courtyard and then as i said it seems to go up um on the western side is a l-shaped building uh with another pair of double doors with another guard outside that as well this one also has shuttered

barred windows um to the southern side of this L-shaped building, there are tons of crates, some of which are stacked up. And this building is at least two floors. It's like a ground floor and then an upper floor. The crates are stacked up to the second floor. Oh shit, okay. And that is basically everything in the courtyard,

looking around. So sorry, how many guards are there? There's one on the tower, one on the L-shaped building. Yep, and then there are two patrolling the courtyard. So two kind of going in a circle around the courtyard, and then one who walks on the top of the platform in the middle. Okay, so five total. Sadly, for people who are watching on the stream, my roll 20 is not working

otherwise i would have had a physical map for the guys but never mind that's cool they're in the mind um they're in the mind exactly is there snow on the floor yes uh there's there is a kind of dirt path that looks like um it's been worn down by maybe people constantly coming and going um that connects pretty much all of these buildings but everywhere else like everywhere that isn't frequently stood on there is snow but there is also constantly falling snow as well like

there is a not quite a blizzard but a thick snow flurry and those of you who are not particularly well suited to cold environments do find yourselves kind of shivering and like getting cold as you stand there waiting for Quill's reconnaissance to finish

are you done Quill? it's getting a bit nippy I'm done yeah five guards some rotating I'm not sure if they're going to come past the elevator though so we might need to be wary of that um shall I go to that small building over there and go inside and stay there

and warm up and recon You can make it there sure but we've got no idea what's inside I think the tower is the best bet of where we need to go Then again all of the cargo is outside that building to the west So

what are we trying to find exactly Schematics or... We could open a crate. Or crates. Try and get to the other side. Schematics, weapons themselves, whatever we can, whatever we can destroy. Is that on that other side, the west side, that L-shaped building? Yeah, loads of cargo hanging out over there. That might be where they're stocking up and transporting it somewhere.

Okay. And sorry, Mark. So the middle platform, were you saying that underneath that middle platform, like there's loads of machinery to construct stuff as well? Not underneath it, kind of to either side of it. Underneath there's like a crawl space. It looks like you could crouch underneath it, and there are like grills set into the stone platform.

So it looks like somebody could get underneath it and then look up. Like one person wide crawl space? No, because it's like a big flat 40 foot by 40 foot like 40 foot platform. It has stairways that go up onto it and then

underneath is like hollow. With like four legs basically. Yeah, like stood on like four legs kind of thing, yeah. I think that getting under there might be the best way to avoid the guards. It'll also give us a lot of opportunity to quickly jump across the courtyard to the next

building. It's right across the middle of the quill. Someone on the wall is going to see. Watch your footprints. If you're leaving footprints in the snow, they're going to spot it. We should stick to their paths if we can. I can fly under there, but...

Your fluttering might make a noise. Maybe. Either way, we need to get across the courtyard somehow, and those guards on rotation, maybe either way we need to get across the courtyard somehow and those guards on rotation they're the ones that are going to spot us I think

or at least if anything has changed well maybe you can give the cue for people to go with your arcane eye

when they're not looking yeah I can do that yeah sure so the only problem is Moonstar obviously can't hear

any messenger ring communication, but if you just gesture with gestures, she'll know when to move and follow. Using Quill's Arcane Eye, could you just concentrate on that Quill? Has it got a time limit? It has a timer of an hour. Okay. You still have some time with it, basically, with the

navigating downstairs in the docks and then coming up here using the arcane eye you can avoid these guards like i'm not gonna make you really guys roll for stealth checks unless you uh get close enough um quill can simply wait for them not to be near and then yeah point you in the direction you guys quickly and quietly move your way uh across as best you can stealth checks only really necessary when there's a chance that you can be spotted. And if Quill is using the arcane eye to basically be like, right, okay, it's clear, go. You don't need to make a stealth check.

So is the goal here, where are you headed at this point? Where do you want to go to? I think we'll aim for the western building since there's no guard there, other than the ones patrolling. Like, that seems like... The eastern building has no guard. Small...

Whichever one is the small square one. Yeah, the small square one has no guard, yeah. Okay, so waiting for a brief moment of time, we kind of usher everybody over. Following along a kind of dirt path, you slip in between a set of metal crates and eventually you come across one of these metal wagons with levers and gears and some sort of uh you know apparatus to to drive itself um it's laden up with sacks and

bundles of you can see um maybe what appears to be uh elements of um thunder thunderstone rifles but they look different they look like they've been designed differently um and they seem to be kind of wrapped up and stored in crates uh long long wooden crates packed with uh straw and things like that um hiding next to this uh you will have one problem here one of the guards as they patrol this is kind of the area that they walk past. So waiting for Quill's notice, you wait until it's clear, and then who's going to go over to this building first?

Who's the first one to go over? I'm happy to go as someone invisible first. I could go another vantage point to kind of beckon people into the crawlspace. How long does it take to see me? Who cast it? Nova yeah invisibility's an hour okay so same as the okay night so yeah

lucius um you go in the direction you can see the vague outline of this building now um invisibly you make your way over um do you stick to the kind of trodden path or do you want to cross across the snow um no i try and stick to the path being trodden path or do you want to cross across the snow? No, I try and stick to the path. Being invisible, I've got a bit of an advantage to do that. Sure. I feel like the whole way, I'd be that guy that accidentally leaves the walkie-talkie on and you just hear him going,

Oh, no, here we go. Just scuttling along, not being seen. It's very much the essence of the messenger rings as well um yeah sure uh you make your way over um and when you reach this you know squat little stone pillbox of a building um the doors are shut um and you can see that um something that the arcane wouldn't have really been able to see too well, is very, very small, kind of carved above the handles of the door. The handles don't even look natural. They're really just kind of like stone circles pressed against the door.

There's nothing to really grab or hold onto. And above the door, there is just a little stone sigil. What languages does lucius speak he speaks common elvish gnomish halfling okay um so looking at this uh in why would it be elvish speak there i've never looked at that before it would be elvish um the elvish the elvish rune for like I guess the most applicable

kind of translated word would be rank or like level and it just says rank 1 and it's like etched into a small stone thing set into the door we need a keycard yeah we need to get higher tiered keycards as time goes on. Level two.

Oh, sweet. Look at his face. Access granted. Amazing. Okay. I'll relay that back to the team. I noticed it's a sigil. It says rank something, level, perhaps some sort of

clearance. I don't know. To get into that strange wagon. Maybe the guards have this key card. What's a key card? Yeah. What rank

does it need? One. So maybe just one person at a time? I don't know. Come to the crawlspace. It's so nippy. So Lucius, you're going to move over to this crawlspace. Yeah?

Yeah, I'm going to get in. In the center? Okay, so yeah, you pass by all this kind of like blacksmithing magitek looking equipment uh there is a guard patrolling around on the top um you can kind of hear him just sort of muttering just like no why do i have to be out here yeah i'm trying to take note of individuals noting that i'm invisible i'm taking an extra cursory glance at where people are to reach the crawlspace you will need to cross at least a small patch of the snow.

Can I do a little hop? Yeah, you can try, sure. Athletics? Yeah. Sounds good. 19. Okay. Yeah, you kind of hop over, being careful to leave as few tracks as possible.

And then at the end, you kind of scurry underneath this stone platform. You can see the metal gangways lead up onto the top. I mean, you can hear this guard moving around, his boots kind of clattering against these metal grates that are occasionally spaced sporadically across the platform as you duck underneath it. And the rest of you are left at this wagon this metal wagon just kind of waiting the wagon does have like a canvas covering uh on the back and you can see inside like these kind of weapon crates and things like that you could also technically

get underneath it the wheels like it's lifted up off the ground by these big wagon wheels ah i am hungry um okay I'm here I'm in the space and the next person I think I'll wait for you know the guards to kind of turn away and then go now and watch out for the snow

it's down the path yeah also I'll be directing with the arcane eye as well seeing different things I'll also relay the fact arcane eye as well seeing different things I'll also relay the fact that you could potentially if you need to go under the wagon en route if needs be

if you think the guards are turning around sure so who's going? anyone who is not anyone who is not invisible will need to make a stealth check. Yup. Oh no, sentry.

Oh no. As a reminder, there is quite a thick flurry of snow and wind howling through this courtyard which will give disadvantage to anybody trying to perceive you. I rolled a 14 plus 5 yep 90 ayla you do kind of occasionally uh you try your best not to leave tracks but obviously passing through any amount of snow you will leave some um but yeah you managed to kind of make your way over and squeeze under for ayla it's a bit more of a tighter fit i imagine um you kind of

really have to crouch and kind of scurry underneath it you're kind of bent over way over and squeeze under. For Aayla, it's a bit more of a tighter fit, I imagine. You kind of really have to crouch and kind of scurry underneath it. You're kind of bent over forwards as you kind of like crouch your way underneath it. You can't see Lucius, he's invisible, but you do hear this guard kind of moving around up above you. All right, who else? I'm going gonna go last so Okay

Insta will go if you want You don't even turn you don't know where she's gone like you turn around and moon stars just like yes And then you see a ducking under into the same platform. We start going I'll go. You want to start? She's gone. I literally, yeah, natural 20 on the self, so she's just amazing.

Nova, sentry? Yeah, I'll go. I'll go after the sentry. As I'm going, can I try and keep an eye out on the guards and see, like, using her, like, military expertise, I guess, like, see if there's any, like, visual... Try to protect their patrols? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want, see if there's any visual... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that what you're asking?

Oh, there it is. I do believe you technically have disadvantage, so I do need you to roll twice and take the lower. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's a two. What happens is you begin you begin passing over um the snow from this kind of metal wagon uh you kind of step out and you begin making your way

over um just to the very on the very corner of this stone platform where the stairs begin going up to lead it up and you basically you, you know, you crunching the snow, stepping through your big, large form. You crouch down, but you do hear, and those of you who are under the stone platform hear a guard go, what was that? Is somebody there? And is making their way over towards the corner of the thing,

like trying to peer through the thick snow, just like. Is the wagon nearby to duck under? That's where you've just left. So you were all at the wagon. You've left that. For you, there's basically... This guy is going to see you. Unless you or somebody else does something,

this guy will see you. So I'm going to give you all an action. What do you do? Where was the voice that said that? That's the one who's directly above you guys. So if you guys are all crouched under in this

crawl space, you might be able to... There are grates, but they are barred grates. You won't be able to attack through them. You can see the guy, but you can't attack through them. Can I throw something, like a gold coin

or just something to make him look in a different direction? I will tell you that from your, based on military advantage, something like a gold coin is not going to be enough. You're going to need something bigger and heavier to kind of match the sound and shape of yourself.

I have a dagger. Can I throw a dagger? Just boop. Sure. Okay. So you're going to throw a dagger. Give me a... Excuse me. So is the plan that you distract them and then you're going to try and hide, like get underneath

this thing, like so they look that way? Yeah, so that's going to probably be a... Let me... I guess I'll make a perception check to see if this guy notices. He does have disadvantage. Okay, so the dagger kind of throws

through the air, you kind of throw it to the side and it clangs against one of these metal crates and the guy does like turn like, who's there and he's now looking the other way so that gives you enough time to get under the platform but this guy is now alert like he is looking around

for something he's like who's here this better not be one of you playing a trick on me and he's like looking around and you can see that he's on the edge of like do I call for help or do I is this like just like something's blowing blowing around in the wind like he's on that so he's to set the thing there's a bunch of you on like a dirt path hidden behind a metal wagon, right? Sort of to the northwest,

probably a good sort of like 30, 40 feet away is this big stone platform that's lifted about sort of like three feet off the ground with little metal stairs that go up to it. Lucius, Aayla, and Moonstar, and now Sentry are all basically crouched underneath this platform. And the guard is on top of the platform looking in the vague area that Sentry has just come from.

And looking at where this crate is and where the metal noise came from. Is there any way to get to him from the inside of this? You would need to go out and then up the stairs to get to him from the inside of this you would need to go out and then up the stairs to get to him yeah which if you if you rushed him you might be able to get an

attack off before he can shout out an alarm but that's going to be an initiative basically that comes down to initiative at that point is anyone else alerted by him making a you can tell i mean i mean in the vague in the small area that you're in you can't tell that anybody else has become alert to it i'm going to tackle him and

bring him down here hold on wait wait bring him to the edge of the ledge just okay bring him closer than i can grab him i'm probably with, so it'll look like you tripped. Just drag him under, okay? Can I time this with Lucius to work and try and, like, similar to what I did with the guards inside? I need to understand what Lucius' plan here is. So, Lucius, what do you do? Get out of the crawlspace, go up the steps of the platform,

and literally shove him off the platform to where we are underneath the... Okay, so you wait for him to come back closest to where Ayla and that are, and then you're going to try and push him off into the snow where they can grab him. I'm going to make it look like he's tripped. So I'll put my foot out and then shove him.

So it's like... You wait for him to double back. He begins making his way back to where Ayla and those guys are yes Thomas if anyone else if any of the other guards spot him falling and then go to death

how would you know that? I see them take an intake of breath ready to right now you can't see the other guards from where you are there is like thick snow that is limiting visibility like you sent the arcane eye

out and that's why you know where they are but right now you can't see any of the other guards you can see the metal wagon and the faint outline of this platform and this guard moving around that's all you can see I'll let them do their plan but yeah I've got an idea if more people spot. That's cool.

Okay. All right. So Lucius, this is going to be... You're going to make athletics check contested by their athletics or acrobatics. 15. I've got to get up one of these guys' stats. Do I get advantage being invisible?

You would have advantage if it was an attack roll, but this is like a special shove. Yeah, this is more of a shove. It's more like would he keep his own footing and things like that. Like you hit him, you are shoving him. There's no chance that you're going to miss shoving him, but it's just, yeah, he might be able to regain his balance or you might not just be strong enough like you might just be able to like you know be bulky enough that he doesn't get shot you didn't just fell over a lucius shaped

snow angel in the snow well no you're lucky because that's a natural one uh so yeah lucius you trip him um kind of shove him and it does look like he just stumbles off the corner of this platform. And then you basically, Ayla, Sentry, and Moonstar see him kind of go into the snow. And there is like a second where he's trying to, like, he looks like he's been like, you know, thrown off by him

falling. What do you do? Can I, so I have pretty quick reactions. Can I do the same thing that i did before and uh cover his mouth and so basically grapple him yeah basically grapple him uh yeah so let's check from you and then contested by me as well yep yep. That is an 18 plus 12. Holy shit. It is an 8. It's nothing for that.

So you, like, when you jump on him, you can basically, yeah, like, shove his face down into the ground, slip your hand under, like, literally, like, cover his mouth and then just hold it in place, and then with the other arm, basically begin dragging him underneath this platform if you wanted to yeah and can i just uh can i try and cover the track of the drag after well can i ask someone else to do that can i ask can i messenger ring and ask someone to do that well the only person who can hear you who's nearby is Sentry. Sentry's the only one who can hear that and is nearby enough to do it.

Yeah. I will help. Or whisper to Moonstar. You could physically whisper to Moonstar, yes, but she doesn't have a messenger ring. Who would you like to help? Do you want Sentry to do it, or do you want Moonstar to do it? I want Moonstar to do it. Sorry, Sentry!

Understandable. You're too loud understandable you're too loud you're too loud i love you uh moon star um raises up um like a like a glove like a glove which you can see there are different gemstones embedded into the palm of it a there's like a little puff of air and just like a little gust kind of scatters all the snow, kind of concealing most of the tracks as you drag this guy backwards. Make a roller D4 plus your strength mod, Ayla. That is an eight total. Eight total.

This guy, you can feel him like he's beginning to lose consciousness, but he is going to try and break free. Can you make an athletics check for me? Eleven plus twelve. He's just like... The next one, you hear him just get knocked out, basically.

You manage to hold him unconscious until he passes out. He's sleeping now. You drag him under. He's got thick furred clothing. He carries you can see a short sword and a hand crossbow kind of wedged into a holster. Can I crawl back under the crawl space?

Does he have a keycard on him? Lucius, however, you are no longer invisible, Lucius the shove would have counted as an attack so i shove him i see my arms i'm like oh and kind of dark underneath sure yeah there's no nobody around um you search him ayla no sign of any sort of like keys or don't you don't know what a key card is but there's's no keys. There's no... He carries his weapons. He carries some ammunition for the hand crossbow. He's maybe got some jerky

in a little bag that he's been eating from. A little hip flask with something. A little hip flask with some booze maybe in there. Who does he most closely resemble out of this party? He is a...

He would be a high elf, so probably Lucius, as in, like, size and shape. Lucius or Aayla. Can I... Eye up the coat. Sure, you can leave this man without a coat, unconscious in the freezing cold, sure. Weighing up my morality at the moment.

It would be beneficial if we could, you know, become a god. Can you not do that anyway with your illusion-y things? My glamour weave? No. I can just do pretty

patterns. And some illusionary, wispy stuff. No total transformations, no. I can just do pretty patterns. And some illusionary, wispy stuff. But no total transformations, no. Maybe you'll have to swap for now. You'll be fine. Give him your coat and you take his. And then he won't be freezing cold. I

could, but... You could? I don't know about that. No. We could always come back and switch it back. But he'll stink it up. If we... I'm not going to lie to you.

We're not coming back for him. So, uh... He looks rugged. So, Nova and the coat. Sure, okay. You take the coat off the guy. You leave him in a kind of white pirate shirt and some leather trousers and some boots.

Nova, it looks clear. Pop him on the ground. Your turn. Stealthy, quiet, sneaky. Yes, okay, I'm stealthy, quiet, sneaky. I'm the only one who's invisible, so I think i think i'll be all right i think i'll be yeah yeah kim kim is giggling at the idea of like who does he most

look like and we've got a party with a big off guardian a bird man and a blue alien ganassi a tiny yeah little short blue represented with the perfect's well represented. With a perfect design. He could be in any of those races. He's not. He's an elf. Yeah, Nova, you make your way over without any issues. At this point, there's definitely sign that some people have passed and have moved through this area, but Moonstar has

brushed away some of the tracks. It will be hard to spot that anybody's passed through here. It is disturbed at this point. Cool. And, yeah, after Nova, I'll fly across. Okay. So all of you now are kind of, like, crouched, uncomfortably kind of bending your backs

to kind of get underneath this space. Yeah, really about sort of, like, three foot high, so you're really kind of, you know, Sentry's probably crawling like this underneath it to kind of manage to get her way through. But yeah, you are now all underneath this stone platform. Okay, so now we're here. We can't get into that building over there.

We probably won't be able to get into these other buildings. And this guard doesn't even have access. So how do we get access to these buildings we're just gonna have to try someone else we could lure all the guards over one by one until we get the right one yes that's a good i could also just knock on a door with this coat we could all at the same time, there's six bars and four of them. Yes.

I could turn into a gas bar. True, but we don't know how they... Look at that strange wagon out there. They might have messenger rings like we do to alert more guards. That's why we all have to take them all out at the same time. Quickly. Stealthily.

Quietly. No footprints. We each pick one then. Okay, well, Aayla and Sentry can take a guard on their own. Moonstar can probably take a guard on their own. So that's three of them. Three of us take the last guard. Either you or Moonstar, I believe, could quickly scale the wall and take out that one up there.

One of us can take out the ground. Is there one on the wall? There's no one on the walls, no. Okay. Okay, I could banish the fourth guard, and then after you take out your guys, you just come back to the same spot he disappeared from, and then we just take him out.

Right. Okay. Okay. That good? same spot he disappeared from and then we just take him out right okay okay good so you tell me what you guys doing what's the plan tell me what you want to do ayla's gonna take out a guard century's gonna take out a guard moon star which guard are you taking out so the remaining guards there is one who is stood by the doorway that leads into the large tower. There is a guard stood by the door that leads into the western building. And then there are two which are moving around the courtyard, like they're patrolling around. Occasionally they pass

the other two, occasionally they move through like all the different areas. Who's taking what? If I go to one of the patrolling guards, I feel like I could be enough of a distraction to literally walk up to him, behind him or her, and just be like, hey, and there's enough of a turnaround

and a what the hell, and then boom, knock him out. Elbow drop. Suplex. The idea is that you are disguised because you are wearing one of their coats. So I'm hoping, yes, and I'm hoping that in this windy obscurity where you couldn't see the walls, that the other guard will just see the back of my coat and just think, oh, it's another guard going to see the other guard. Sure.

And then at that point, Ayla or someone's going to take out that guy. Is there any point in which the rotating guards are close to another guard? Yeah. Cool. I have a better idea. I could do calm emotions on

those two and if that sticks, then for like a minute, they're just going to be like, oh, man, it's cold out here, but I don't care. Who's those guys sneaking around? Don't care. I'm just so chill right now. I mean, it makes them indifferent to you, I believe.

Yeah, but that's still like... They're not going to be like, what are you guys doing here? It doesn't stop them attacking you. Yeah. Yeah. If they're indifferent to us... They're not going to be like, what are you guys doing here? It doesn't stop them attacking you. Yeah. It wouldn't stop them alerting others that you're here, potentially. So I'm going to read it now. Alternatively, you can make a target

indifferent about creatures of your choice that it is hostile towards. So, yeah, they just would... I guess the closest is they would just basically be like, oh, yeah, they wouldn't attack you, but that doesn't mean that they won't be like, oh, yeah, there just would... I guess, like, the closest is they would just basically be like, oh, yeah, they wouldn't attack you, but they might. That doesn't mean that they won't be like, oh, yeah, there's a bunch of guys here.

Do we know them? Like, you know, they just won't attack you on sight. Oh, okay. There's a bird here. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. There's a bird man here. Yeah, it's not like Marijuana spell. Like, they're like, hey, man, it's cool. We don't care.

They just make them different to you they'd still like and indifferent means that they can still be like who are you guys why are you here like huh i don't remember you being on like a list of people that we're meant to let into the place are you sure you're meant to be here you should leave they're getting banished. God damn it. Sure. Hopefully they're getting back. Yeah. Tell me when you're making it happen and what you're making happen. When we're making it happen. When everyone's at the correct spacing in the

underside of this platform, I guess. Ready to dash out. I'm still invisible as well, so is there a way I could help by you know, maybe kind of say to Lucius, pushing one of them down, so Lucius down below can

mop them up. None of them are really going to come close enough to the platform. Yeah, none of them are above now. None of them are close enough where you'll be able to push them off the platform. Nova can come with me, though. Push them down um and i'll be like the distraction and i'll say to nova like let's see how far i can get with uh pretending to be a guard and then when it all goes sour you knock them out boom suplex pile driver um i know i know that the contact sport is very aspirational,

but I'm not really doing much with these muscles. Oh, you can't see them because I'm invisible, but also if I see them, you probably still couldn't see them. Flex. Just trip and I'll help. Not to, you know yes doubt you guys but um yeah i have a worry about the strength aspect because you got to be quick you got to give them no chance to scream you know if they squirm free that's it we've learnt from seeing you

mercilessly take down many many people of course that was merciless for the life for nice it's snowy out here you're probably going to die

I think I learnt in first aid very young that being unconscious for any longer than a minute is really bad for anybody. Oh, devastating. Yeah, it's very bad. My time should be over.

Anyway, that aside, let's do it. Let's just give the call on the messenger ring and we all scurry and boom. Okay. Everyone in position? I can take one of them.

Perfect. Alright. Alright, so Aayla, Sentry, Moonstar, and then Quill, Lucius, and Nova are taking the fourth one? Yep. Okay.

We're just going to smother him with our bodies. The fourth one is an experiment because I want to see how far I can get away with this guard get up and then Quill and Nova are ready to pounce as soon as the jig is up. Tell me who is going for what. One guard on the western building. One guard on the northern building. Two guards patrolling around the courtyard. Who is going for what, right? One guard on the western building. One guard on the northern building.

Two guards patrolling around the courtyard. Who is going where? I'm going for one patrolling. Okay. Ayla goes for one of the ones patrolling. I think Sanji should probably do the same because it's not as far to go. Okay.

Because from noise factor, just purely thinking of noise the least the least distance center has to go the bear okay that leads to uh moonstar will point at the one to the north that leads into the tower fair enough we'll take the western one then okay and so lucius you are going to try and deceive them first, right? Your plan is to basically move up and try and distract them so that... I'm going to have a conversation with them. Just see how far the guard's outfit gets.

And make sure I kind of rotate so that he's not facing any of the other takedowns. Okay. So that's going to be the first thing then before anything else, before you trigger any of the other attacks. I'm going to assume you move up. So you begin making your way out of the snow, Lucius. You kind of crawl out from under this crawl space, wrapped up in a coat,

and you begin making your way over to the western building. You see a couple of the guards are patrolling. You see them kind of walking away from a different direction. When this guy gets closer, give me a will this be deception or performance? I guess this is deception really, because it is a you're trying to deceive them.

17. Okay, 17. This should be a normal insight. Okay, so you begin making your way over and there's no immediate reaction um as you begin kind of moving over through the kind of flurry of snow um the visibility uh the guard at the door appears to be a young woman um doesn't seem to react to anything uh when you arrive there she you can see she's kind of got like scars down like her cheeks across her forehead uh very cut short hair, very similar outfit to the rest,

but still wrapped up in thick furs and leathers. When you get over, though, there's no amount of deception where she definitely is looking at you strangely. And as soon as you get within visual range, she's going to recognize you by your long blonde hair and your different colored eyes that you are not one of the guards. I won't get too close. I'll be like, hey, my thing won't work for the wagon.

Can't get in. Have you got one? How do I get in? It's locked. Yep. Hello, fellow god. Yep. I mean, do you want me to roll?

Because I don't think I need to roll. Like, you know, you're staying at a distance enough that, like, you can't quite see her, she can't quite see you, and you're trying to call out over the wind, like, hey, my thing doesn't work. Come and help me. Yeah.

Okay, make a deception check. While this is happening, can I be sneaking up behind this guard? Yeah, you're invisible. She's not going to see you. My invisibility. Yeah. Sure, make a stealth check just because there is like

Okay It's not working The usual doesn't work Calling out that she definitely seems to be like why I can't eat. What are you talking about? You idiot, you don't carry one that you don't carry any the keystones, but ash and she you lure her away from the door I'm look close enough. But as soon as you if you don't keep moving away As soon as she can see you that is the games over the deceptions over as soon as she can see you I'm gonna

Scream in the message of ring pineapple Okay I'm going to scream in the messenger ring, pineapple. Okay. You hear pineapple. Pineapple! What does everyone do? Pineapple! What does pineapple mean? Tackle!

Does it mean go? Does it mean go now? Are we going? She walks over and is like, I'm going to charge you. Who the hell are you? Okay. Tackle.

I'll tackle. Same. Nova, you also can make athletics, Wait a minute, who the hell are you? Okay, make a athletics check, Lucius. Same, Nova, you also can make athletics, specifically athletics, Nova, so enjoy that lovely minus two. Seven. Sixteen minus two, fourteen. Wow.

Okay, the two of you combined, it's less, Lucius would have, like, you can see her basically ready to throw Lucius to the side, like in some sort of you combined, it's less Lucius would have, like, you can see her basically ready to throw Lucius to the side, like in some sort of, like, counter move. What she doesn't expect is this, even a small amount of weight from little Nova, she's not expecting it from behind,

and the two of you managed to drive her prone to the ground. At this point, yeah, like, Century and Aayla, are you guys going to try and rush out and grab guards? You've just heard some sort of you know, like some sort of tussle. Sure. I'd scream pineapple in the messenger ring as well. Yeah, let's go. A lot of pineapple is being screamed.

Okay, so Sentry and Aayla both make athletics checks. You basically rush out, grab the nearest guard you can. There's no stealth at this point. 15 plus 12? If you need to get there quickly. 15 plus 12. Oh, sentry!

That's the 20. Natural 20. Oh, there it is. Natural 20. So long. Even with a 19, they're still going to fail. Right, so the two of you both managed to rush out and grab the two patrolling guards.

Like, Century One, big metal hand clamps over Aayla. You get, like, round their throat and, like, cut off their airway. And, like, you've basically got them both grappled. You hear there's, like, a crackle of lightning in the direction of the northern towers. You just see the blur of Moonstar. That's a hit. She's here to kill.

No. She's got her own method. Flay. I mean, they are the bad guys. You see a kind of blast of lightning and then you see a body slump onto the ground, basically. A shocking grasp. like a kind of blast of lightning and then you see like a body slump into like you know onto the ground basically as like a shocking grasp like non-lethal kind of like kind of punch very

electro gauntlet thing um so aileron century you both can do unarmed damage to these two ones that you have if you want to like knock them out like unconscious uh lee what are Nova, Quill, and Lucius doing? This guard is only prone and I'd say at this point, the three of you should roll initiative because they're not grappled. You've just knocked them down. They're pulling weapons free.

Oh! Natural 20. Was that a d4? I rolled one too. d4 for strength mod, but I4? Yeah. I rolled one too. d4 for strength mod for unarmed damage. I rolled four, so it was not amazing. 11. All right, you knock yours out in one go.

Ayla literally runs up, grabs them round, and in one throw, they're unconscious. Just throws them to the ground due to the fall. Century, how much damage did you do unarmed? I got a seven. Seven total? Okay. So your one is like Struggling and fighting But first we'll deal with the mess that is Lucius

Nova and Quill Three of us Oh Christ Am I prepared to help them? I guess not Well, let's say you can have a Surprise round, the other two don't Nova? to help them? I guess not. Quill, let's say you can have a surprise round. The other two don't.

Nova? I've got a 23 on initiative. Quill? Just so I know. I've got 22. Quill, you have a surprise round because you were basically watching all of this happen, so I'd say that you can definitely react almost immediately as they knock her to the ground.

I was the one that didn't want a surprise round, but fuck it, I will spare no expense and I will banish. Okay. What do I have to do? You have to make a charisma save. You have to beat 21. 21. I don't think this is possible.

I will roll anyway. I don't think this is possible. I will roll anyway. Is this a charm effect? I don't think it is, is it? No. Okay, so Lucius and Nova, you kind of dogpile on this guard, this woman, and you can see her like,

and she begins drawing a blade out, and then with a kind of dogpile on this guard, this woman, and you can see her like, and she begins drawing a blade out, and then with a kind of pop noise, they just vanish. They just pop from in distance. Someone, they teleported, and I think they've gone for the guard. They'll be back in a minute. They'll be back in one minute.

Century, make another athletics check for me. Ayla! Okay, okay. 12 plus 9. Oh, yeah. You've got this guy gripped. The second round, you managed to just knock them out, basically. Knock them unconscious.

Nice. Can I start... Can I start trudging my way over to where Quill's gone? Ayla! Ayla! I'll just start trudging over like... And just wait for her to come. I'm like trying to count down, like...

57, 56, 55, 54. I'm waiting for the moment when they're going to pop back. She's gone to other guards or something. No, no, I banished. They'll be back soon. Banished. Banished. They're away from here. They'll be back. Oh. In the same spot? Yes.

Exactly the same spot, actually. I start backing up. Look for where the head imprint is on the snow. Just get ready to punch that when it comes back. So, you wait a minute. By that time, Moonstars probably dragged the guard that was

by the northern tower dragged them underneath the stone platform Century you've got your unconscious one and then Ayla what do you do just wait and as soon as they come back what do you want to do like attack or are you going to try and grab them again or I'm going to grab them again and try and keep her quiet

I'm not going to have you normal like you're waiting for them as soon as they come in you're just there. Grab hands around their throat and you just knock them unconscious. I mean, that's a mercy. I just read the end of the spell. Go and drag the other one as well.

Nice. I read the end of the spell. If the space is occupied, they just don't return. You could do that if you wanted, Gwil. You could just basically occupy the space with something no i mean i don't want i don't want to incapacitate it in another dimension what if i was standing just slightly wrong just like why isn't she coming back where is she i thought you said here i want no no quill uh okay because they're native to the plane of existence

uh you send them to a harmless demiplane when the spell ends they appear in the space it left or the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied otherwise the target doesn't return okay I see right it's a different one if it's like a demon

or an elemental or something like that it's different but they are an elf from Eros, so they just come back here. And then, yeah, when they pop back in, Aayla just grab, knock out, drag away. We're doing it. We're doing it. Good job, everybody.

You probably didn't hear with all the wind and everything, but I did some recon, and I've managed to eke out information from that guard just before you banished them. Keystones are what we're looking for. I heard that. What? You heard it? I heard the voice you used. It was, um, wow. But, um, keystone.

Do any of these five guards have keystones? Any of these get searching? You go through, same sort of thing. She said we don't have them as in like it's normal for us to not have them guards i'm sorry i'm really in my character now uh we don't have them so they must be somewhere else well do any of these other doors i guess now the area is clear like i feel like it's fairly clear as long as you're not making like loud noises

that the people inside these buildings, if there are people in them, would be able to hear. If you're just kind of being cautious, not being reckless, I would say that there's no risk of you guys being discovered unless somebody comes to the area dramatically. Yeah, you guys can move around. So checking the doors,

the door to the northern tower has the same thing that the smaller building had. There's no door handles, just these kind of flat stone circles and then a little plaque, a little stone plaque. But this one is marked as... It says rank three on it. On the northern one? Mm-hmm.

Oof. Right. And as a point for Quill's memory, just in case Tom Hazel doesn't remember, you do remember that there was, like, that very strange looking Durgar down in the docks below. There was, like, an office he seemed to be working in on Skynetics. Oh, of course, yeah.

Yeah. Where you came from before. With a whirlwind-y elemental... Yes. With some sort of air elemental device. The building to the west... The building to the west doesn't have any strange stone emblems or locks. It does have just a normal handle.

Weird. Interesting. What one is that? The bigger building building that's a large l-shaped building the tower is the biggest building yeah the tower is the biggest building out of the three but this one is the meat is medium sized and it's like an l-shaped building someone also check it out i'll help uh moon star to cover tracks with gust and stuff like that as well of the guards you kind of brush up as much as you can

I mean there's definitely something disturbing like the impact where you guys tackled the guards and stuff, it's going to be difficult to cover up but yeah, you do your best to hide the tracks they look like guards in silhouette nice I'll return the coat to the uh

unconscious person. Let's try the door that we can access first. Right? Make sense? That seems like the most interesting place outside of the tower. It's where all the cargo is. We should probably check all the boxes outside as well.

Maybe low-ranked people have access to the storage because that's their job down here I don't know to move stuff Anyway, who wants to go? Stealthy I'll go Things like arcane iron invisibility

by the way is probably not going to last too much longer you've probably got like arcane iron is gone and over is now visible I think with me... Oh, that's how you tackle, yes. So invisibility's down. But, I do

have a feature, an Eldritch invocation called One with Shadows. If I'm in an area of dim light or darkness, you can use your action to become visible until you move or take an action or reaction. So I can like move and go still and be like... As long as there's shadow. As long as there's shadow to hide it. Dim light. or take an action or reaction. So I can move and go still. As long as there's shadow.

Yeah, as long as there's shadow to hide it. Dim light or darkness. Go for it, Nova. You've got this. Can I pop a quick bless? Okay. Okay, so you're going to cast a bless entry. Yeah, before Nova goes in, I'll go outside too. Like the boxes outside.

Yeah. You move over. The metal crates are very, they're sealed up. Like you're going to have to break these open to look inside. There's no easy way to access them. They all look like they've been metal bands have been wrapped around them to seal them. They're metal crates. I don't see them then.

That's true. There are some wooden crates though. There are some wooden crates. I don't see them, then. That's true. There are some wooden crates, though. There are some wooden crates. I just look at Ayla and look at the boxes. Oh! You want me to smash the crap out of it? I mean, I can do that. Well, be careful

because there could be who knows what's in there. Can I go around to the side of the boxes that they're not exposed to the courtyard and yeah you can kind of like yourself to the southern end of the building basically yeah i basically i want to open a corner of it where it's not going to be like if someone passes by like go into the middle of the of the stack open one totally in the middle the the difficulty here is as you're looking at like i said these are all kind of like you know metal like almost like sheets of metal bound by thick bar like bands of of of like rivets and metal and stuff to open up one of these crates is a you

probably may be strong enough to do it. It's going to be very difficult, but also will probably make a lot of noise. You're going to have to, like, bash, like, one enough that you can bend it and kind of, like, rip it apart to look inside. This is going to be very loud if you do this. Maybe not now, then.

Well, is there not wooden ones as well? You said there's wooden ones. There are wooden ones, yeah. You can check's wooden ones. There are wooden ones, yeah. You can check the wooden ones. They look different. Opening up those is fairly easy. You can just use the hammer to kind of pry open the wooden tops. Inside are things like rope and wood and metal ingots

that just looks like normal steel and iron and stuff like that. It all looks like fairly mundane materials. Guilty! I could potentially assist and melt the metal with acid. Should we use this rope to tie up the guards we just

knocked out? Good idea. Very smart. This all looks like this all looks like looking in the wooden crates it's a lot of things like airship supplies either stuff that's been plundered or stuff that's meant to supply or equip another airship um you do find things like ballista bolts as well um you know maybe some mundane weapons like short swords and crossbows um but it's all fairly mundane equipment in the wooden crates.

The metal ones definitely look like they house something more impressive. They'd be much more securely stored. The rope is easy enough. You bind up the guards and things like that. No problem. Perfect. Cool.

Nice. Just wait for Nova to go into the door then or we could try the acid thing on the metal crate you can try the acid thing if you want to cantrip it it will take a long time

to cantrip the acid I will chromatic orb then okay at let me just check and see

chromatic orb throw out a it's a four inch diameter sphere of energy at mid-check and see chromatic orb. Throw a... It's a four-inch diameter sphere of energy. It is. It's also, there's verbal components to it as well, so you'll have to, like, chant spellcasting, and then...

But yeah, you can cast it. You will need to roll to hit to hit the crate, because it's quite thick, sturdy acid. You need to try and hit it in the right spot. Metal, sorry. 22. 22, yeah, that strikes, and then roll damage.

14. So this kind of orb splatters against the corner of one of these crates, and the thick, orangey acid begins to melt and pit away. You can see pits of the metal dripping like oil. I'll send in my um one blank dichromancy as well

of an extra five. That manages to open up a big enough hole, maybe the size of a football you know like a football or something like that um it's kind of melted through um the the metal is very thick uh you can see that it's it's just barely managed to make its way through that you can kind of peer inside um but really you wouldn't be able to get more than sort of like a hand in really to kind of like reach around um inside uh tied down uh to kind of like wooden pallets

inside the crates um you can see uh rows of some of it looks quite strange um parts of it look like they might be gigantic metal arms um huge you know sort of like 10 feet, 12 feet long kind of arms. Some of them appear to be more of the rifles, the kind of modified Thunderstone rifles that you saw earlier, but in greater numbers. You can see round, small spheres kind of tucked into bandoliers and containers. All of it kind of secured into various crates and storage units, all various components. Do the arms

look like the same as that Duagat had downstairs? No, they're much bigger. Much, much, much bigger. Like, elf-sized bigger? Or like... No, no, no. As in like 15 feet. Like, the arm is like 10 feet long kind of bigger, yeah.

We've got mechs. Mech arms. Yeah, does it look like it can be assembled? I would certainly say, if you wish something to base it on in reality, a mech's arm is a suitable comparison. Jeez. Are we talking like Battletech or are we talking like Metal Gear? I mean, these crates aren't big.

These arms are just about fitting in these 10-15 foot 10 feet long crates. They're more kind of I would say I'm trying to think of I would say like Titanfall size. If you were to base it

on a person and then it's base it on like so a person and then it's like a big frame around a person kind of thing so enough to storm like the size of like a frost giant in D&D right like a huge creature this might be

tough to teleport back but it would be good evidence would it not we need to find something smaller, perhaps. Quill, can you put this in your tiny chest? Well, also, you won't be, like, again, you're going to have to, like, rip open this crate to get inside it. This is like a hole. So, like, peering through it, like,

oh, okay. We just need the schematics. We need the schematics. We need the schematics. We have an idea of what they're building now. Rifles, giant mech arms. Okay, so we know what we're up against. We should also find the ones who are responsible for this. Whoever can build this could build more if we leave them here.

True. Yeah. Also, as a reminder, everyone, because I haven't forgotten, there's a Dwargar downstairs that probably has a keystone. Anyway. Let's find out what's in this room with Nova first oh the one you said to leave because it wasn't important i didn't think they were gonna have keystone doors all right so is nova going in this building you're gonna go in okay well there are no give me a stealth check. Give me a stealth check. Okay. Yes, boss. I do that. I roll now. I have a plus three to stealth.

I rolled a two! Oh, good. Oh, I have bless as well. I can't remember what plus is, but... Add a d4. Add a d4. So there's five. It went on the floor.

It's a three, though. Okay. Eight. Nova, though. Okay. So five, six, seven, eight. Nova, you sneak in. You kind of push the door open and slip your way in. When you step inside, the main area of this room, you're in the kind of, like, big, wide top of the room, and then you can see it turns and heads south,

back towards the crates where your companions were currently arguing. The main section of this room is split into two floors. There's this floor and then there is a kind of another gangway that goes all around the floor above where there seem to be more rooms. That gangway looks down into this room. In this room, it appears to be some sort of like recreational lounge. There are sofas, there are tables where you can see a couple of plates of unfinished food, a couple of decks of cards, some dice games, all kind of scattered around. There is one guard asleep on one of the sofas,

who is beginning to stir as they hear the door kind of opening and closing. Looking around, the corridor to the south appears to lead to a set of stairs. One set goes up, one set goes down. There also appears to be a side room attached to this one. Two side rooms, my apologies. Any dark

little corners I can scurry into? I would say that there is enough. Dim light? You could probably get under the table where there is like a little bit of dim light. There are glowing orbs set into the wall, which is giving the room quite a lot of bright light. The other option would be to nip under to go down the stairs

where the light seems to go darker. You've got a split second to decide here, by the way. Down the stairs where the light goes darker. Okay, so as you reach the bottom of the stairs you hear this guard like what was that is that one of you lot like and you hear him get up and he begins like getting all of his gear and stuff together and he's calling out like what are you in here and then you hear from one of the side rooms just like yeah we're in here what have you just come in? And then he kind of begins like looking around

and resuming his guard patrol. When you reach the stairs, you kind of tiptoe your way down. The bottom of the stairs immediately comes to a kind of basement level. And in front of you, there is another set of doors. These ones are very strange. You've never seen doors like this before. They look like they've only recently been installed. Like the hinges, the sides where they've been attached. They look like they've only recently been installed. Like the hinges, the sides where

they've been attached, it looks like they've recently been put in. They appear almost to be like thick glass, but there is another one of these stone plaques and these stone circles set into them. And that reads level one

on it as well. Okay. Okay. Can I messenger ring? One guard inside, getting up. I heard voices of several more. I think they're moving. I've gone down some stairs. I'm safe for now. Should we

try and lure them outside and take them down? Good. Yes. Makes sense. I don't think we're going to get what we need in this building. I think we Good. Yes. Makes sense. Give that a go. I don't think we're going to get what we need in this building. I think we need to go to level 3. I think we're not going to get anything in these

places that are just guards. One of the guards must have a key. So... So... But you heard them say that they didn't. Oh, but... Ah! How do we get through these doors? but you heard them say that they didn't oh but ah

how do we get through these doors um there's another set of doors down here by the way right it seems to be some sort of communal recce or something like that where they're where they're using that to

people working here eat and what not not useful to us i say we go and um encourage the durga to give up i'd say no what you can see because these doors are made of glass by the way um beyond these kind of sealed magically sealed doors and you know maybe you can force them open you don't know you've just seen that this key card thing or like this keystone thing um but looking through the kind of thick glass um it does appear um you can faintly hear what sounds like um blacksmith hammering like a kind of like a ring ring ring like maybe like the roar of a forge or something coming from beyond it but there also appear to be, there's a side room with another one of these glass kind of sealed,

magically sealed doors and kind of peering through kind of angling yourself. That appears to hold racks of weaponry and armor. And in there you can see more of these rifles. You can see suits of armor, this kind of like skin tight leather suits that you've seen valkyrian soldiers wear um as well as like various uh thunderstorm rifles and ethereum rifles and stuff like that all being kind of housed in like an armory it looks like it's kind of like stacked up along the wall as if it was like an armory um and yeah you can hear the faint sounds of a blacksmith's

from deeper below uh from further within okay um i'll relay that all to everybody on the messenger ring. I know you want to move on, but I think the more guards we can subdue, the better chances we have of getting through this facility. It's clear that we found some sort of the manufacturer. If we can do something, this would be a great blow to to starbane he's clearly using this as a weapons manufacturer to gear up for war if we can cause an issue with his supply this could be a big win well i will let you all ponder on that because we

do need to take a break you guys can have a think about how you want to proceed. Okay. Yeah, I think it's just finding these keystones. Oh, man. We're going to have to go take down a wind elemental dwerg, our boy, aren't we? Maybe. I did say this a while ago. Maybe.

I feel like they might have keystones in the Wrecky area, though. I feel like they might have keystones in the recce area though. I feel like they might have keystones in the recce area. I don't know. Oh, right. Let's just go in there. I don't know if that's hopeful thinking from Kim or like a subtle suggestion to Mark. Like you should put one in this place and see if I can find it.

I don't know. Why would I ever think that that would work? I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons for five years. Why do I think that that would work i've been playing dungeons dragons five years why do i think that that would work that come on now all we need to do is have century enlarge and then she just kool-aid man through the through the door oh yeah yeah oh yeah i will make a point oh yeah none of you like you haven't tried to open them it's just you've looked at these plaques and gone, we can't get through them.