High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Curse of Strahd #17 | Beacon of Radiance

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

The team find their way to the highest point in Argynvostholt to try to reclaim the Sword of Sunlight! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Thanks to @jackgtmusic for the Aerois/Curse of Strahd mash-up intro! Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You can afford to hoard because IKEA is priced for student life. Shop everything you need for back to school at IKEA today. Last time on Curse of Strahd. As our party ascend the tower of Argon Vostholt, their journey here may be at an end. Having searched everywhere else in the ruined mansion, the only magical weapon they have found so far is in the undead hands of a powerful revenant with a hatred of Strahd so intense

he wishes to see the vampire suffer for an eternity rather than be destroyed. In Argenvost's chambers, the party have seen visions and received messages from the dragon's spirit urging them to return their skull to the mausoleum with tension still high but temporary peace between the party members the dark of night enshrouds the top of argen vostholt's tower above its chapel and that is where we find our players today having just fended off a couple of spectral warriors. You now stand in a quite tall, narrow tower.

It's only about 15 feet diameter, kind of all the way around. It's very, very narrow. There is a wooden staircase with a wooden sort of platforms and banisters leading up with Jesper in the lead. And that is where we pick things up today. I believe that everybody is in position uh so take it away what would you guys like to do so the the combat has ended in this spiral at least yes and i've just run back upstairs

uh maybe i'll start making my way back upstairs so Jesper's currently at the top of like the next level up and you can see that there are these wooden platforms and banisters that rise up through the tower and you can see that the next floor up is where the tower reaches its apex

is that all of them? come on up here. I'll wait for you. Because I don't want to be alone. Okay. Nice. Sure. Yeah.

I'll just wait for the group to catch up. Yeah. So I think Zeros and Rose will be the closest ones behind Jesper. I'm just going to move everybody over to this section of the map. So yeah, you see the same thing. It's just another kind of staircase. This one does have two small, narrow wooden doors that seem to lead into the towers

where the spectral archers were firing at you from. But with them no longer a threat, the tower simply continues up cool this has to be it surely searched everywhere we keep going yeah sure um yes but are you leading the group hell no I'm like let's go okay fine

I just need an order who's going up the tower Xeros leading the way I'm going to go behind Xeros he's going first okay well Xeros when you step I'm just going to shuffle you a little bit when you step about here'm just going to shuffle you a little bit.

When you step about here, as you kind of begin crossing the main section of the wooden platform that you're going over, you here would creak and snap, and I would like you to make a dexterity saving throw, please. Ah, crap. So I'm going to fall minus one on my dexterity. Can I try and reach out for it? 15

is just enough. So Rose, as you start reaching towards Zeros, Zeros, the wood collapses beneath you. The whole section breaks away, but you manage to kind of spin round, and as Zeke goes to grab you as well, you grab a hand on the edge of the

banister and pull yourselfiki goes to grab you as well the grab a hand on the edge of the banister and pull yourself free uh next to your sister uh as you emerge leaving a probably about a 20 foot drop down to the floor you were just on uh from the staircase up and it looks like this wasn't a malicious trap more that the wood itself has become rotten and worn over time, being eaten at by weevils and bugs and all sorts of nasty creatures. And now it leaves a big 10-foot-wide... Hole. Gap. Hole. Hole.

Hole is the word you're looking for there. Right. I guess it's jumpable, right? That you're looking for there. Right. I guess it's jumpable, right? That's not a mega jump. For some of you, it will definitely be quite easily jumpable. The difficulty here is there's not a lot of room to get a running jump. So... You can run along the outer wall in like a spiral like Naruto.

Naruto does that, right? No, I don't know anything about Naruto. Naruto. I'll offer to help anyone by a little boost, a little throw or maybe a whip. Like, you know,

momentum style. Sure, yeah, you could do that i think like with dog's body doing that anybody with a strength score of let's say i'd say like strength sore of like 12 would be able to clear the jump without any difficulties mine is 13 13 so rose you could easily like with dog's body kind of giving you a swing. You can kind of use whatever distance there is to get a little run up. And then, yeah, with Dog's Body's help, he kind of throws you some of the distance

and you manage to land on the other side easily enough. I cannot jump the distance. You'll have to toss me. Yeah. So Rose, yeah, you make it, and you can kind of begin making your way up the next level of stairs up to the very top of the tower as you see fit. Can I get to the opposite side in an attempt to grab people

if they do manage to fall? Yeah, you've got, like, a strength of 18. You've got, like, strength 18, right? Yeah, 19. Yeah, 19. You don't really need much help from Dog's Body, but, strength 18, right? Yeah, 19. Yeah, 19. You don't really need much help from Dog's Body, but, yeah, with a good leap, you clear the space, and you can put yourself in a position.

Not quite, but, yeah, sure. Yeah, you're in a position where if anybody does fall, they'll at least have advantage on the saving throw where you'll be able to kind of catch them. Nice. Anybody else going to call? That's useful. Well well i've got an acrobatics of plus seven even though my strength is 11 so right acrobatics is really good well acrobatics is really good for things like balancing and uh you know pivoting on a narrow beam acrorobatics is not about jumping. Jumping is strength. Jumping is athletics. Doing cool somersaults as you fall to your death.

Yeah, you could definitely... Acrobatics would help you land more safely, but it's not going to help you get across this tenfold gap. What if he swings off my arm? There's a little sweet swing. I'll do a roll for it then. That's why the strength is there. It'd be athletics. It's athletics check if you want to try and clear the jump if you don't have a little sweet swing. Yeah, I'll do a roll for it then. That's why the strength is there.

It'd be athletics. It's athletics check if you want to try and clear the jump if you don't have a strength of 12. Yeah. So as you try and jump, just the distance is a bit too great. And even with Dog's Body Swing, you're going to need to make a deck saving throw.

You do have advantage thanks to Xeros. First roll is 26. Second roll is 26 second roll is that one so I'm glad Zeros grabs you as you jump like Zeros grabs you by the hand and it's holding you as you are 20 feet above what if he does

can we just have like a brief moment where it's like long live the king I think that there is definitely if this were does Can we just have like a brief moment where it's like Long live the king I think that there is definitely If this were a movie we would have like a pause as Zeros looks down at Jesper and Jesper is looking up at Zeros who has him kind of dangling 20 feet. Before I pull him up

You're welcome Jesper is awkwardly silent brushes himself off nods at xeros and then continues thank you this way uh irena looks over and it's like is mark and i will we'll wait we shall wait here. Rather than risking any of us to jump across. Just in case any creatures try to come up behind you. I think it best if perhaps we wait here. I didn't drop him.

He fell on his own. Scrawny. Scrawny bugger. That wasn't me. If you're doubting my ability to help you. Not at all, no. I just think it perhaps makes more sense for Ismak and I to guard behind

whilst you go up to the top. Sure. Zeke, dog's body. I have a strength score of 10. And acrobatics is 0. You will need an athletics check to make your way across. Zerus is dead, so I've got our arm outstretched for you. You got this.

In the arms of... You don't got this. Saving through with advantage, please, Ziki. Rhiannon is the most cursed D&D player I think I've ever known. Hey. Hey, there we go. So again, very similar. Ziki, you go to jump, but you don't have the strength to clear the distance,

but Zeros reaches out, one big muscular dragon arm wraps around your wrist and pulls you up onto the ledge beside him. Thank you, Zeros. Zeros. Tell that to Jesper. Thank you, Jesper.

Teach him some manners. What about you, dog's body? Are you going to jump across or are you going to stay behind? Nah. Don't really catch me, dragon boy! I know. You've got... I've already turned around and I'm walking.

16. 16? You don't need... You don't need to jump either. You can just... You can just leap across easily enough. Ta-da! So you're kind of crowding around the stairs.

Dog's body with a big sort of like bounding leap with a short run-up manages to clear it as well. And yeah, you guys have a staircase leading up. Jesper, do you lead them upstairs or are you letting somebody else get in? Why do you keep asking me? Go ahead. Because you're the front.

All right. Yes, this time I will lead the pack. What's your passive perception? To get away from Xeros. It is 13. 13. Rose, are you going up beside Jesper? Sure.

Mine is 15. 15. Oh, that's good to know. Good to know. When you emerge at the top, Jesasper there is a sudden noise as the fluttering of many many birds erupts through the top of this tower um black feathers kind of surround you for a moment as you see a swarm of ravens just beginning to fly away from their roosting perch here at the top of the tower. The wooden stairs climb to the tower's peak, which is a stone floor and a 30-foot high pitched roof.

Ravens were roosted on crisscrossing rafters going through small holes in the roof. A 10-foot high, 5-foot wide arched windows are evenly spaced around the walls each window consists of lead lattice work filled with small panes of glass you can see that the top here whilst night um the view if this were day you would be able to see for miles probably for most of the valley of barovia as you are high not in the hills, but also now at the top of the tower. with dragons curling up its base holding up a large stone basin that perhaps would have once been filled with firewood

and pitch but now stands empty the rest of you, do you guys follow? up behind Rose and Jesper yeah sure yeah, and that is what you find up here so far

without further investigating it Yeah, and that is what you find up here so far. Without further investigating it. I was so sure something would be here. There must be something. What do you mean? You could look. Yeah, I'll go start snooping around the basin, seeing if there's any hidden switches or buttons or levers. Give me an investigation check.

What is everyone else doing whilst Trot is rolling that? So you can see over all the barovia, you say? Yeah, so you can see, look, basically you could look north, south, east, west. There are windows spaced all around this tower, so you can look in almost any direction. Lead,

you know, glass panes. The window sills are incredibly dusty and you can look in almost any direction um lead you know glass panes the the windowsills are incredibly dusty and you can see that thick cobwebs and uh piles of refuse from the ravens bits of nest have been collected uh along the windowsills damn i, last time we saw a ton of ravens, they gave us gifts. Well, I think Rose probably would notice that there are a few things glittering along the windowsills amongst the nests and the cobwebs and things like that. What did you get on your investigate, Jesper? 17. 17. You begin examining the base and you don't find switches or anything which would indicate a secret

compartment or anything like that. But there is something odd. There are runes, draconic runes, inscribed along the basin. There is almost a mystical element to this basin. Something magical and draconic here. I am sure two of us can read it.

I cannot read. I'll leave it to you. I can't. Sure. Suzuki goes over to read the draconic runes. Okay. Rose, Dog's Body, anything in particular Zeros, anything you guys want to do

can I look at the uh the things that I see in the nest or the windowsill pick a direction do you want to look in the north windowsill or the western windowsill north okay north sure Pick a direction. Do you want to look in the north windowsill or the western windowsill? North?

Okay, north. Sure. Dog's body? Xeros? I'll go proceed in the direction I believe to be west. Okay. Xeros, sure. Whatever's in there. I've been looking over the actual view can i see

ravenloft um well it's night time so no uh there is you can see for a few you know not not very far outside as the night sky thick with clouds um not much moonlight shining through uh does not give you a particularly good vision of the surrounding area. But at daytime, if you come up here at daybreak, you would be able to see for miles. You'd definitely be able to see pretty much most of Barovia. Ziki, when you read the Draconic Runes,

the Draconic Runes, they are more magical in nature, but the interpretation that you get is that when a condition is met this this beacon it will be lit but not in a traditional sense with fire and oil that a magical effect will be conjured here and it seems to be pretty good in alignment you know looking at the runes being used is that of protection of of goodness, holy power would resonate from this place if a certain condition is met. Is it to do with the dragon skull? I mean, you can definitely make that assumption.

The symbols seem to, the wording does um the power of the morning lord um you know there's there's a holy connection here maybe not to a god that ziki knows um but it definitely does seem to connect with some of the imagery that you saw in argenvost's chambers that of this tower being lit up with a holy light and spreading its light over Barovia. That did seem to match up to perhaps the effect it's describing here. Rose, when you examine the northern

windowsill, you discover there's kind of a scattering of silver rings and bronze bracelets and several coins. There's about 32 gold coins worth of currency

as well as a bright polished silver ring worth 50 gold and a set of brass armlets worth 25 gold. Quite a bit of gold. And then dog's body sorry how much did you say in coin worth

50 gp silver rings and 25 gp bronze bracelets I literally can't remember what I just said let's say 32 gold coins worth of money okay it literally just went from my head and it's

not a written down note i have so um yeah 32 gold coin worth of monies um dog's body when you approach the western uh windowsill you have to brush away some cobwebs that have stretched across the lead lattice work the crumbling stone of the tower has left pieces of debris and you can see that a raven's nest has been constructed here but it's been constructed around something and when you look down there is the hilt of a longsword. Oh! Just the hilt. A grip with a flat, very polished, well-made guard, made from a bright silver. But that is

what you find. I guess there's no runes or writing or fun stuff on it? I don't believe so doesn't have the word axle written on it uh no is that platinum hilt so it has a platinum hilt and guard um the bottom pommel is almost like an empty loop um but it's engraved it's very very beautiful it's very very well made um looks like

that the blade was removed from it it has the kind of gap in the cross guard where the blade would have been set um yeah i guess i'll reach out and take it and hey look what what I found. No sword though. I guess I could stab someone with it hard enough. Might work. When you hold it, dog's body, the hilt feels incredibly light. It doesn't have the same heft or

weight that you would expect from a long sword weapon. And as you hold it, you definitely get a sense of you feel these emotions kind of wash over you relief a little bit of worry a little bit of suspicion but all mired in a greater sense of relief oh that feels nice man all my worries

washed away is this what meditation does I feel great guys imagine what I feel like if we found the rest of this sword but it's useless now yeah I mean Ziki you don't necessarily need to spend

an arcana check if you just spend some time you know examining this blade I mean dog's body would you let Ziki hold it or are you just going to keep tight grip I'm probably kind of swishing it around pretending you need to hold it to examine it Ziki you need to physically examine it I'm probably kind of swishing it around. Aha! Pretending to... I'm just being annoying.

You need to hold it to examine it, Zeke. You need to physically examine it. Take away Dog's Body's new toy. I get it. Here you go. Can I just quickly take a look? I just wanted to take a look. Just see what's going on with it. Might be cursed.

So, Zeke, as you hold hold it you get this same sense of relief washing through you and you feel it coming from the weapon itself there is a sense of curiosity building and emotion

sort of concern but mixed with that curiosity of you know the unknown um examining it if you spend some time examining it maybe sort of like a few minutes this is mad i mean this is this is definitely magical you you would need it to be you need to identify it properly to know what functions it has you know how to activate whatever magic it has but this is definitely magical from from the way that you can sense the the there's a sentience to this thing there is a there is an intelligence to this thing um and it is imbued

with a powerful magic okay for sure i'll just give, I'll give it back to dog's body. Um, thank you. It's, it's very strange, very strange emotive response. It's giving off. It doesn't seem

dangerous. I feel it too. Yeah. What if we, uh, what if we put it in that basin of yours over there?

Oh, well, the basins, they, they say something about meeting a condition I think it's maybe to do with the skull perhaps it's blood

it gives off this protective everything in this country is blood let's bleed in it let's see what happens if you bleed in it it's probably blood so we came all this way to look for another relic to help us. And it has guided us

towards a sword without a blade. Fantastic. Well, you know, there is one other sword that you found that looked magical. Son of a bitch. Yeah, we did we did we did

yeah what's everyone doing at this point as Zeke and Dogspot are examining the sword what's everyone else up to I mean the Basin wants good holy energy or a roundabout way of saying radiant energy, and I'm like evil.

So... I am the living embodiment of evil. So I don't know. Why don't you try putting the sword in the basin? Yeah, go on then. You said you felt good. You said you felt like your worries had gone.

That's nice. Ten years off me. Do I look younger? I feel younger. Sure. Maybe. I don't know if it's the skull we can't we can't get that back

but it seems like something else would power it Argonvost must have been able to power it before he died so it seems like that maybe wouldn't be the cause of that beacon it's worth a try

I'm thinking logically stroll nonchalantly but confidently over to the basin tentatively place the pommel in it, stand back as you begin sort of lowering the sword towards it there is a sense of

trepidation, of hesitation that you feel coming from the blade. A sense of frustration as well. An emotion of frustration. But you kind of touch the pommel to the basin. You hear the platinum tap against stone.

Nothing. Right. Well, Radiance, right? Do we think Radiant magic might work? Work with what? What are you trying to accomplish here? Zeke, he was saying that the runes, the dragon writing, says something about holy

protection conditions being met. You got a sense of, I don't know, like, lighting this beacon. Is it maybe not just a magical beacon? Nothing more? Could well be, but we've come this far may as well try something true

Rose you do begin to hear like a flapping noise coming from the night sky can I coming from the night sky. Goddamn ravens. Can I have a look at the windows? See if I can spot it.

Begin scanning around the windows and you can see with the night clouds around them and as the clouds drift across the night sky the moon kind of breaks through for just a moment illuminating some of the area around Argenvostolt and flying towards the tower perhaps sort of 60 feet or so away at this point

outside of the main top tower you can see three women flying through the air dressed in beautiful fine robes their trails of these dresses these thin silk dresses trailing through the air like ribbons, floating, moving as if they were swimming through the sea. Their beautiful faces, their pale skin and blood-red lips, as their hair flows behind them as well. And you just hear, Rose, one screech. There! As one of them begins pointing a finger towards you

and you see that they bear fangs let's roll initiative damn it it's a good thing we didn't light that beacon shit I was about to oh I rolled a zero on initiative

wow I guess you won't be fighting wow Shit. I was about to. Oh, I rolled a zero on initiative? Wow. I guess you won't be fighting. Wow. I've never seen that before. Right, I'm going to do a roll on initiative. You have to have a minimum of a one. Do I roll again? No, I think you just get a minimum of a one.

You have minus two, so you just do your little drink... I'm back. I'm gone. See you. Bye. What's the total? That's a 19. That's the total, yeah. Yeah.

21 for Jesper. Yeah. What have we got for Dog's Body? What's the total on Dog's Body? Eight. Eight. Rose? 13. 13. on dog's body eight eight uh rose 13 13 uh and then irena i forgot to add isma to the encounter as well oh boy my my boy i'll just i'll manually roll him he's not your boy I'll just get his stats up he's boy he's just boy

you hear a kind of call from below like is everything alright what was that um Jesper you hear the screech echo around and you see Rose looking out the window in the direction of these three women

flying towards the tower. There's three figures flying towards us. We need help. I'm going to cast Heroism on Dog's body. Hello. Okay. So you gain two temp HP. You're immune to being frightened.

And the start of each your turn, you gain hit points two per turn. Temporary hit points. They don't stack. But you will regain it if you lose it. And it

lasts for a minute under concentration. Basically, at the start of your turn, you'll gain two temporary hit points, but they don't stack. So if you didn't lose them the previous turn, you don't get four. So they just replenish if I... You have two temporary hit points

every turn until the spell goes away. I'll draw my swords, but then also back away because I feel like I'm going to be relatively with my mundane weapons, so to speak. We'll see. But I'm preparing myself.

Maybe. I'm just going to get some creatures on the field. Do you want to move anywhere? I mean, feel free to move yourself, Jesper. You are currently up in the tower. Approaching from which direction this direction uh yeah north east sorry i'm just trying to move stuff yeah they'd be coming from the northeast uh basically

they're about 60 feet away at this point so i'll just back up to the opposite side. Okay. So that if they were to smash through the windows, I wouldn't get shards of glass embedded into me. Cool. Zeke, you are next. I will back away from the window and move back. You can move down the stairs, or do you want to move more up into the current up into the turret is yeah yeah

these guys anything else you just moving any actions I just I just say say, move back from the windows Okay Okay So, flying at 60 feet The first one does appear at the window You see that she's a pale elven woman You can see these long ears stretching up behind her Her hair is like that of wheat, golden wheat, kind of splaying out all around her.

And with one clawed, very kind of almost delicate petite hand, she just completely breaks and shatters the window. Xeros, you're almost kind of covered in glass as it sprays down. And then she pulls herself inside. kind of covered in glass as it sprays down. And then she pulls herself inside. And she looks around. Our master said that you would be here searching for something. He has unfinished business with all of you.

But that is her turn. It took all of you. But that is her turn. It took all of her movement to get here. Rose. I can't load anything so you're going to have to move me. Yeah, that's fine. I can move you and stuff. So you've basically kind of got one directly, almost directly in front of you

that's just smashed through the window is one of these uh so if i move away is is she close enough to get no no not not not close enough to get a swipe no you can still move currently without provoking any opportunity attacks um you could either stay up section below i will move down but not but still have so that i have a shot on her so kind of you can if you move down a bit yeah if you go down probably no more than sort of five feet uh if you go 10 feet down you won't be able to see her, but if you take a five foot step back down the stairs, you can still see the top half of her body to take two shots. I will

cast Slayer's Prey and take two shots at her. 18 plus 9 to hit. Yes, that will hit. 18 plus 9 to hit. Yes, that will hit 18 plus 9 for sure. Uh, 12 plus 9.

12 plus 9 is also a hit. So, five damage on the first shot. I rolled two ones on my damage, so five damage on the next shot I rolled two ones on my damage so five damage on the next shot very much like very much like the vampiric spawn you fought before the arrow does not quite have as much impact and five damage from is it that was the first attack that was everything I rolled two ones so it's ten damage plus the five

from saying I rolled like shit I missed the first five I'm sorry two arrows into the her but you can see very much like before she just kind of snaps them, pulls them free and the little arrowheads are pushed out as she

begins to regenerate. There is a second sound of smashing and this one would probably come from the other side. She will dash and Jesper you see the same thing as Xeros zeros did kind of the window smashes

um and this second figure an auburn haired uh halfling woman in fact so smaller in stature you can see these long trailing robes flowing down around her legs um as she pulls herself free. My, my! What do we have here? A Vistana? Mmm. Excellent. But that was her action to dash Dog's body. Um, so, how many of us are still in this?

Yeah, so I, uh... Pretty much everybody but Rose is still in the very top of the tower. Okay, there's still two... You and Ziki are beside the basin in the middle of the room. You've got one vampiric lady on your left, one sort of to the northeast, and Jesper just behind you. Okay, so it's quite close quarters.

So I think I still have my Crimson Rite damage up because I activated it up because it says because I activated it when you fought the spectres. Yeah, until you complete a short or long rest. So I haven't done that. So I still have Crimson Rite. So I'm just gonna

straight up attack the one that is nearest to me. So in the west. It's the little halfling vampiric ass I'm rolling some digi dice because yeah so 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

to hit 23 hits yep absolutely and then so a d2 oh it's on the floor fuck's sake it's been a long time since we've had that five six seven eight um eight points of regular damage and three points of cold damage okay on my first yeah so this one the axe comes biting down and you see this little halfling it's kind of round face, rosy-cheeked, but now very, very pale, frizzy, auburn head

just bears these vicious fangs. I can smell it on you, creature. How dare you strike me? Smell what? I haven't washed in a while, I know that. Sorry.

I smell the beast's scent while, I know that. Sorry. Puddles are very hard to... I smell the beast scent on you, filthy creature. Anything else, dog's body? I don't know what you're talking about. I've got an extra attack. 16 plus 6 is 22. It's... That is a 6, 7, 8, 9, ten regular damage and one cold damage.

Cold. You actually kind of shriek, kind of call him back, and you see the other vampiric woman hiss in your direction as well. As you do so. Anything else? Do you know what? I'm going to try a cheeky little blood curse of binding.

It's probably not going to work, but let little blood curse of binding. It's probably not going to work, but let's go. By all means. So you attempt to bind a creature you can see within 30 feet of you that is no more than a size larger than you. The target must succeed. Oh my god, what is my reading

today? Succeed on a strength saving throw, DC 12. 22. Yeah, no, that's not going to work, is it? Carry on. You reach out with this blood curse to try and bind her, locking her in place and you just get this kind of

mean look as her eyes turn crimson red. Your little magics won't work on me, creature. From the other side, the final woman bursts in in front of you, Rose, at the top of the stairs, smashing through. My, my. This one appears to be human woman, dark, dark raven black hair.

And she definitely is the most pale of all of them. Pulls herself through, hair tied up in a kind of tight ponytail, long red dress. And as she pulls through, she's just like, so you are the ones who brought our new little kitty cat to the castle, are you? I look forward to seeing what the master does with that one. Hmm.

But there's a full action to dash and break through the window. So we go to Zeros. Oh, my God, I'm moving. Yeah, as a point of housekeeping, because I activated the curse, I took a D6 of damage, I rolled a one, but then with Jesper's healing healing heroism, I'm back. Takes off the temporary hit points. Did nothing.

Nice! Okay, I want to do, because I'm quite low on HP, I want to do a second Hwind, so I get 1d10 plus 3. 8. 8 healing to myself. Which wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

And then I want to whack this one right next to me with my sword. I can't flame it just yet because it's a bonus action for thingy. It is. But... It's still magical. Oh, my Christ. 14 to hit. You bring this giant sword down

and this, you know, elven woman with blonde hair just catches it in her hands. Just like catches the blade dead stop. Smiles, throws it to the side. You're like, that's new. That's different.

Try again. Anything else, Zeros? That's all she wrote. All she wrote. You hear another voice kind of calling up like, we can't get to you. Can you get that? We can't help the gap.

I can't jump it. Ismark, go. And then you hear like a couple of grunts as Ismark leaps the gap to try and get up the stairs to assist um but does he you hear him turn around like i can't leave your sister not entirely i don't want you to lose lose my sight uh leave my sight uh yes but Jesper I'm going to try and cast

Tash's hideous laughter on it the halfling fighting dog's body so that's a save of 13 what do you say wisdom So that's a save of 13. What do you say?

Wisdom. That's a good question. They just start perceiving everything as funny, right? I mean, you don't have to say anything. Yeah, it was just if you had something you wanted to say more than anything. I feel like Jesper's still grumpy about Xeros, so he doesn't have anything to give that would be funny just the spell itself it could even just be part of like your um you know the the vistana eye you kind of just look at this creature and you just see is this rosy pale-skinned halfling just begins sort of like

and she just begins cackling spinning in the air she actually lands so she stood on the wall and she's just bent over cackling to herself that does drop the heroism off of dog's body and also i will say leave this one alone if we engage with it it will break this curse i've put upon it. Let it laugh what you do with the others. Anything else, Jesper? Would you like to move? Bonus actions. I'm going to look over the balcony to my right and see the progress

of Ismark. You don't see him appear. Yeah, you don't see him appear. I'll jump over. Okay. So Jesper, with a kind of leap, you kind of throw yourself over the banister. With Dexter, I'm not going to make you roll.

It's just easy enough for Jesper to do, being super acrobatic. You just kind of hoist yourself over, and you land delicately on the stone steps, weapons drawn, ready. You can see, looking down, you can see that is Mark is on the other side of the gap but he is looking back to I rena and his is kind of torn

between leaving her side and coming up to fight can I with my moving get to the gap and throw down my arms to like as an assist if they try and jump it okay yeah so you're offering your hand for Irina to jump across? Yes. Okay, sure. Right. Zeros, the blonde elven woman, looks to you. She looks over at the

cackling halfling and just rolls her eyes. And then she just turns her attention to you. Go on, Ziki. Oh, sorry, Ziki, it was your turn. Sorry. No, it was me. I said Ziki and then yes, we've done the go and then it threw me off.

Your go. No worries. Can I cast Sacred Flame at the one in front of Zeros? Yeah, absolutely, you can. So that's a dex. Yeah, dex 13. Dex 13 as a 16, unfortunately. Oh, okay.

No worries. She seems supernaturally agile. She kind of seems to almost distort the air as she moves. As the flame sort of moves like between those two and Rose. So get behind the one facing Rose. Okay. Yeah. Perfect.

The one fighting Xeros will point and say, Sister, deal with that draconic creature. She will be a problem if she hits us with her magic. And then she turns to Xeros, but you, my warrior, I can deal with you.

And she will reach out and with one claw scratches across your face. That's a 25 to hit. Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. 8 points of slashing damage and then she does it again.

For a 24 to hit. Ah. For another 8 points of slashing damage you know sharp nails just rip through your scales as you do so um and then she kind of hunches back into a defensive stance. She actually walks backwards, not getting out of your reach, but she kind of begins walking up the side of the wall as if it was the floor, as if gravity just becomes the floor for her. And she's now hunched up on this top of the wall

looking down towards you. Goddamn MC Escher ass motherfucker. Rose, you are next. MC Escher. Vampires spawn in front of you. Can I cast protection from

evil and good on myself? You can indeed, yeah. It's action, right, to cast that? Yeah. And that's disadvantage to any undead. Disadvantage to any undead that attack me. Nice. Very cool. Very cool.

The creature laughing, does that get a saving throw, Trot? Anything else, by the way, Rose, like movement or intersection at the end of the turn? Not right now no okay uh yeah so trot at the end of its turn it gets the same through she gets the same through wait what yeah he forgot about this when he it was uh dc is a fail. That's a nine. So the little halfling woman just keeps cackling

and she now starts almost like a child but sat on the wall as if it was the floor. She just begins kind of like stomping her hands and her feet and you can see not tears, but like blood beginning to form in her eyes where tears would be. And she's just like... She's trying to wipe at it and it's just blood

smearing across her face dog's body that's the one in front of you if she wanted to take damage it's not an instant removal it's just an advantage ah okay so she gets the same throw with advantage yeah okay dog's body

nah man I'm going by what the man told me I'm a good you're a good dog you're a good boy can I run over to the one that Zeros is fighting yep next to Zigi and Zeros

have a whack on that so great axe smack I'm fucking rolling it off my table I hate my life. Sorry. Roll digitally. It's way better. I can't. 12 plus 6 is an 18. That's a hit. Yep, that's a hit.

That is an 8 plus 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 plus 1 point of cold damage. Alright, I just forgot the regeneration. So how much damage much damage was that sorry just repeat it again for me i was doing their healing oh eight plus eight normal and then four no eight plus sure four eight nine ten eleven twelve plus one cold damage so 12 slashy one coldy uh so the blow comes down it cuts into her arm you can see that as it cuts through her flesh it's already beginning to knit itself back together again like you've seen with other vampire spawn in the past second attack plus six, so that's a 23. Definitely hits. Plus seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven

regular damage and three cold damage. Yep. And a huge blow comes swinging down. She raises her arm, it cuts through it partially, and you can see bone and sinew, not much blood, but it begins, again, knitting itself back together as you do so anything else dog's body on your turn

um no okay um the one in between ziki and rose kind of on either side of you can see she's now looking at both of you turning her head as if it's difficult to look at both of you um like she's hissing and growling you have something they've done something sister something to protect themselves i can feel it um and she begins crawling up the wall

until she stood on the ceiling um you both get an attack opportunity against her actually as she basically scurries up to the top of the ceiling um Would need to be a melee attack, I think, Rose. Pull up. Sorry, dear. 17.

17 will hit. Oh, I rolled full damage. 6 plus 4, so 10 damage. Not that it's magical. It is non-magical. uh oh i rolled full damage six plus four so ten damage and damage is not magical yeah but five damage still um cool yeah so you swipe at a cutting a piece of uh flesh as she runs up ziki um i've got my daggers i can pull out daggers and go for a swipe i've got two weapon fighting so can i attack her twice uh yeah you can it's your bonus action so you can't on an opportunity attack but on your turn you can attack twice with a bonus action awesome so you attack with a normal

action then bonus that's nine yeah you just whip through the air you're a spellcaster you're not meant to attack so yeah it's okay so yeah the the knife just goes through the air she scurries up to the top um and she kind of looks around because she can kind of sense that something's wrong with you. She looks over to the laughing halfling. Snap out of it! What are you doing wasting time? Our master gave us an order!

Where has the other one gone? Where is the Vistana? And she will drop down onto the stairs directly next to Ismark and Jesper. So she lands. Jesper, you hear this impact as this woman lands

on the stone. Bringing her claws up beside you and Ismark. Zeros. Oh, holy shit. Okay, I want to do a good solid whacking once again. Um. Okay.

This time, Flame on. Flameo, my hot man. He who grins ignites in flame. Hello, physical dice, my old friend. Let's see. Oh, 24 to hit this one. I will definitely hit this one. And I want to try something special

with this little boy. I want to use a Divine Smite, please, Mark. What level of Divine Smite are you using, Tom? First level? Is that what you got? I only have first level, Mark. Well, these are undead, so you get a bonus d8 on top of your normal Divine Smite.

So what is it? 2D8 normally? Yeah, so it's 3D8 of Dimagios. With the extra one. Of Divine Smite. Out of interest, Tom, because a Divine Smite, normally there has to be some sort of effect or you say something or there's some sort of mental element.

What is it for xeros do we see anything do we see anything change i mean it's it's like if the uh the flames on the sword like almost they they stopped flaring outwards and just completely went inside the sword so it's now like red hot it's inside that thin gap. Yeah, it goes. The blades become superheated along their edges. Those of you who look at Xero, his eyes, the ruby eyes that he came back with, are blazing with the same fire.

You can see there's flame inside the ruby, like it was trapped inside a gemstone. Yes, he does not see that, because yes, it's on the floor below. Cool, so I'll do the damage for He Who Grins, which is 22. That's the attack roll. Yeah, 22 damage. And now 3d8 is 14 demagios

uh yep and that's and that's that i think uh how she how she feel about that one well when you bring the blade down you feel the searing radiance channeled through this this infernal pact that you have made um the the end end the fire becomes more than just flame it becomes the manifestation of as modius's will and as it plunges into the creature you see that pale flesh actually begin to turn black and disintegrate around the wound and this unholy scream echoes not only through this watchtower, but out into the night of Barovia. Just this...

kind of erupts through. And when she does, the other two, even the one who's laughing, through the laughter, there is this simultaneous scream from the two of them at the same time, as you do so. Is that your turn? Is she still alive? She is indeed.

But it doesn't look like she'll be regenerating much. I mean, I don't like that she also grabbed my sword and slashed me twice. So I'm going to use a, you know, one of those fighter things that they do. Action surge and do it again, but not with the Divine Smite this time. And this is...

22 damage. 22 to hit, sorry. And then... Oh my god. Only 18 damage. Only 18 points. Only. Dents of damage. The flaming blade, as you bring it in for a second strike,

cuts through, and you can now see her chest is almost partially open and this blackened heart kind of beating within. The flames lick her body. Still standing, though. Just back. Damn it. Okay. My go? Technically, it's is mark's go um and is mark no no no uh is mark rushes forward for this this newfound threat um and whipping out his long

sword in his axe he will make three attacks i'm going to check his base attack bonus and stuff. View page, please. It's plus five, so that is a hit on his first longsword. That is a miss on his second longsword, and then on his handaxe is a natural 20. Oh, what a boy! Half damage from the first one,

so five damage from the first attack. The next one is six plus three is nine for another ten so another five points of damage so even though he strikes like the first blow is a long sword it cuts through the woman's blouse um into her shoulder the next is an axe strike into her head um he kind of embeds the hatchet and has to like yank it back but this deep cut that runs through her skull just is, like, already knitting back together again. And she kind of cocks her head and is just like, well, that wasn't very nice, was it?

Irina will attempt to jump the gap to join the battle with Jesper holding his hand out. She has advantage on her deck-saving throw that she has to make as she fumbles the jump, but Jesper, you catch Irena slash Tatiana and pull her up onto the side. She looks at these creatures, the woman fighting, and she's like, they are Strahd's brides, former lovers that he has taken.

They have been sent by him. Jesper, your turn. I can't fight them. Ismar can't either. We need something more. Did you find a weapon? Did you find it? A useless hilt.

A hilt? She just seems confused. You're right there,ot trot knows things trot knows things that none of the rest of you know it's very frustrating for him let's play him a card I'm going to give

it's Mark you can do this fight strong I'm going to give him a bardic inspiration as a bonus action. And I'm going to just come in swinging as well. Sean's going to move up next to you. At the bottom of the stairs,

you and Ismark holding the bottom of the stairs. Right. Here comes the rapier. 21 to hit, 9 piercing. Here comes the rapier 21 to hit nine piercing rapier definitely hits and my second attack is a 22 dagger with seven piercing uh so it's going to be four damage from the first one as they are non-magical and then another three damage for the dagger so with the rapier and then stab him with a knife but very much like is mark both of these wounds are already beginning to heal as you strike um anything else i think that's your whole turn

isn't it pretty much so we go to ziki um let's see so that one's on her last legs yeah the one fighting your brother the one fighting xeros and dog's body i mean yeah looks a mess. She looks like she's about to fall apart any second now. All right. They don't need my help. I'm going to run down the stairs. Come and help the guys down there.

Great. Yeah, you emerge. Do you want to go directly up next to the vampire, or do you want to kind of keep some distance? I'll keep some distance from her.'m gonna try to try sacred flame again okay I think Tom's not okay he's on the single digit hit points well yeah 15 points 15 saving throw, Ziki. Okay, yeah, you succeeded. So yeah, you kind of throw the sacred flame out,

but even though you think you're catching her from behind, that she's unaware of you, but like the first one, she almost seems to shimmer in place, displacing herself as she moves so quickly. The sacred flame splashes against the stone wall of the tower. She just turns around. I will deal with you later. Anything else, Ikki?

That's me good, I think. Yeah. Club cantrip over here. Xeros, the one that you're fighting tries to claw you or grab you. But that is a natural one for a seven. Yes. Okay.

Hey, wait. First, before you carry on, I want to use a rip. Yes. Okay. Hey, wait. First, before you carry on, I want to use a riposte. If it misses me, I can do a melee attack. Sure. Yeah, you can make a melee attack. I cannot have this thing hit me.

I'm dead. So I use my reaction to do it. I expend one super. I die. Yes. Yes. Tom. You are still three fighter, aren't you?

So you've still got battle master. Yes. Okay, cool. Son of an actual bitch. She goes to grab you by the neck with one of her claws. You almost kind of manage to spin, bring the He Who Grins almost into a stabbing motion behind you. But before you know it, she kind of leaps up,

puts her feet onto the wall as if stood on solid ground, avoiding the attack, and then she comes in for a second claw. Five, three, nine to hit. You lucky boy the two of you just kind of you've kind of got her arms gripped in yours you're kind of wrestling for control and she does not regenerate because she was hit

by a radiant damage spell last turn so you can see this is there's nothing left of the woman from before by the way this is now a feral creature that is fighting to feed. Like, it's just trying to drink your blood. This thing is not even a person anymore.

It's just going for blood. Rose Vanandi. You can see two fights, one going on above you, one going on behind you. One looks really cool. I'm going to shoot the one that Zeros is fighting because it has my slow spray on it. So I'm going to take a one that Zeros is fighting because it has my slow spray on it.

So I'm going to take a couple of shots at her. Yeah. 16 plus 9. Stealing the kill from the vampire spawn on Zeros. Do not worry about damage. 17 plus... Okay, yeah. Okay, first one hit.

One hit point. She had one hit point left. One! The arrow..., first one hit. One hit point. She had one hit point left. One! The arrow. Yeah, one hit point left. Yep. Nice. It goes through the heart that's been exposed by the wound.

The arrow shaft pierces through the heart, and the woman just turns to dust, turns to black dust. Good. The two remaining vampires howl in fury and rage just again these echoing screams uh i want to turn to xeros and go it's thank you and then turn and shoot the one that's down the stairs sorry i couldn't help it i was gonna say it would be cool if like we were having our fight and she was getting the upper hand on me i was getting the upper hand on her and then i like turn her towards you as you shoot her but no no you turn into like a little sass moment

well anyway rose second attack i won't do it i won't do it in like i'm not gonna do it in like a... I'm not going to do it in like a really mean way. I'm going to just be like... It's more of like a little subtle kind of... You're welcome. You're welcome. But then I'm going to shoot the one that's downstairs for my second shot. Yes?

Sure. For my second arrow. You can turn around easily, yeah. Definitely within range and sight. I can take one each thing slight expect me to thank you I'm joking it was too good to not say it come on 17 plus 9 to hit

so 9 points of damage with the bow. And can I move my Slayer's Prey onto this one? Because the other one died. I believe you can do that. Oh, six points of damage on Slayer's Prey.

Please. Thank you. Another three. Never get that when I roll for Aayla's Lightning. Arrow thuds in. Only arrows. The arrow thuds into her shoulder and she kind of staggers for a moment now, sort of being surrounded

the halfling makes a saving throw against the laughing effect that's an eight you can just hear like like there's quine, the blood is just streaming down her face and you just manage to hear like a choking

word like a name but it's lost amongst the laughter and the choking sobs um dog's body interesting um if i i'm just because this corridor is quite messy if i move 30 feet go on yeah no i was gonna say the only thing is is as as you are fighting these things, kind of coming from... Because I'm guessing you put the hilt sword into a bag or your belt or something like that. You stored it away as you got your weapons out. From that hilt, you just feel hatred.

You just feel intense hate and rage stemming from this weapon. Yeah. Hey, me too. Anyway, you wanted to move? Do I always end up with the sentient weapons? Just give it to somebody else. You could just be like, I don't want it. There you go. You have it.

This thing creeps me out. No, Dog's Body likes it. It makes him feel safe um if i move 30 feet am i within whacking range of vampire down the stairs uh 5 10 15 20 yeah easy yep yeah all right then let's uh everyone's surrounding her whale on this monster um I was really hoping the halfling would save. That's annoying. I don't know whether or not to actually attack the halfling and start whacking on that one.

Nah, I made a decision. Stick with it. Indecisive Kim being indecisive, as always. I'm going to great axe smack. That's a four. A ten nothing so you go to bring it down and kind of similar to xeros she pirouettes and spins and slaps the great axe blade almost embedding it into the stone wall causing you to miss with the first attack but he comes back with a 15 plus 6 is a 21.

That hits. That is 6. 10 points of regular damage and 4 points of cold. Points of regular, 4 points of cold. You hear a grunt for the first time as the actual semblance of pain seems to echo through her body as the axe pierces down into her body. Anything else, dog's body? That is all from me. You see some of her wounds begin to heal as she takes stock of the situation.

Jesper, she attempts to claw you, only an 11 to hit. Oh, no. And then she will attack Dog's body. That is an 18 to hit Dog's body. 18 is a hit. I have 8

points of slashing damage as her long claw-like nails rake across your chest. Like their naked your chest. Like their naked, hairy chest. Just want to point that detail out. She move. Very hairy.

Nah, she'll get plenty of attacks on Virginia, I think. She'll do it next turn. Zeros. Cool. I don't really want to face down this little halfling that's laughing away on my own

so I'll just head downstairs and just have a little peek at what's going on, oh my god there's so much happening down here there's also, yeah you can just about get into range of the vampire spawn fighting everyone uh sure, let's have a little wacky

on that one move Rose to it as well sure um and i will use a physical dice again oh i love you 24 that's a hit to hit with that and then boom 25 damage. No Divine Smite. Jesus. No Divine Smite. I only have two spell slots. So coming running down the stairs, this flaming greatsword, Zeros, plunges the weapon into her back as she's fending off Dog's body and Jesper and everybody else. And you just hear this kind of howling shriek as she does so.

Zeros, anything after your turn? I think that will be all. Okay. Yeah, all my stuff is actions, so pretty much. Kim, where is Dog's Body keeping the sword hilt? Where has he put it? It's tucked into my high belt That I got on the artwork It's tucked into me

It's visible to anybody who is looking at dog's body Yeah It's tucking out the top where my snail trail is Okay Well first of all, it's marked the lesser We'll make his three attacks First, longsword is a hit Second, longsword is a miss

He does, he will use it on his second attack It's a d8 It's a d8 is it for Jesper Oh shit Yeah Nice That is going to turn it into a hit And then his handaxe is also a hit

So all three hit thanks to Jesper's bardic inspiration And you just see him kind of wailing this fury of strikes onto the creature Sadly not all of them seem particularly effective. First one is two damage. The second one is better, is nine, so three, so five damage total. The next one is also nine, so another three, sorry, four, so it'd be ten, and then another four, so 14 points of damage total. Nice.

And you can see him, like, he focuses his attacks on where everybody else has been striking, trying to widen the wounds, make it so that they can't heal as well. You can see him, like, wedging his axe and his sword in at the same time and yanking to try and split open some of these, you know, gaping strikes that have been caused.

Irena, on her turn, as she's looking over the fight and about to kind of, like, join it, you can see her pulling a rapier and beginning to chant some spells. Then her eyes fall on Dog's body. Sergei's sword. That is Sergei's sword.

It was given to him. That was my beloved's. And she just completely seems to be taken back. Her vision, she just seems fixated on the weapon and completely loses herself in the moment. Took me a little while to remember who Sergei was there. That's fine. It's important.

Jasper. Rudy. That is the sword we've been looking for. It's broken. I'm going to keep attacking the vampire. She's like blinking to herself for a moment. Okay. I'm going to keep attacking She's like blinking to herself for a moment

Okay So I will do a Just regular 1, 2 Rapier, natural 20 though Oh wow You're going to need to roll this manually I think

Because it kind of screws up I think So it's a 1d8. So that would be 8. So 8 plus 4. What is it? Plus 3, sorry. 1d8 plus 4. So I'll add that on top.

So it'd be 12 max, then roll a d8 and add that. Put an extra 4 on that. So 16 halved to 8. So the rapier kind of juts through her throat up into her skull. An extra four on that. So 16, half to eight. And... So the rapier kind of juts through her throat up into her skull. And you pull it free. And the dagger is a 15 to hit.

Eight piercing. With the dagger, you manage to plunge it dead into the center of the chest and you feel it pierce through into the black heart, and her body just crumbles into the same black dust that was there before. Begone, spawn. Anything else, Jasper?

He will shed a single metagame tear and stand back. Okay. ZP, so far, down on this floor, there doesn't appear to be any threats. You can still hear pained, crying laughter coming from above. There's still one left,

and I'll just start making my way up. Okay. You emerge upstairs. You've got enough moon you can pretty much carry on if you want to or you can stay in the center of the room by the basin i think um i'll stay there can i like can i ready in action so yeah say if she come if she comes out of her spell, I'll cast Sacred Flame on her again. Okay. Perfect. That one is dead. Rose?

I will move up as well into the top and position myself to have a good shot at Cackling Lady. Re-put my Slayer's Prey onto her. And I want to say to Jesper, Jesper, if we're all ready, can you drop it and we hit her at once?

And I will ready an action to shoot her only when Jesper tells me, when I sense that that's dropped or Jesper and everyone else attacks. So we all attack. I will ready two shots. Okay. Okay. After that, so you ready the action. She does. What am I doing?

Waiting for what? I've just said to you, we will hit her all at once. Oh, okay. Gotcha. All right. Welcome to my world, Katie.

So I just read the spell. She is technically prone, but she can still move. She can't take any actions or reactions, but she can still move. And in her current position, she's still crying with this laughter, this hideous, like, choking laughter.

But she crawls to the window and manages, she has enough movement to basically crawl to the outside of the turret, which technically doesn't trigger any provoking attacks, and then she will save. What's the DC on your save, Jesper? That's a third, that's a, is it a wisdom save? Yeah, it is of 13, I believe.

16, so 13 plus 3. So you finally hear the laughing stop, and then just one last primal scream echoes out. Dog's body. So she's technically out.

Yeah. Can I... dog's body so she's technically uh yeah can i um can i just like yeah i think can i can i look at the hill like take the hill out and sort of waggle it and can i do like an arcana check or anything like that to be like or i mean no you would need significant time like an arcana check is not like that? To be like... I mean, no, you would need significant time. Like, an arcana check is not going to reveal how to use this weapon. You're going to need to sit down and figure it out.

You need to attune to it. I'll just be like, it's broken, love! It's broken! And then start... It's not broken. It was... Straad had it destroyed we thought it was destroyed it's not broken but that's what she meant on her head i played can i start going back up the stairs and i guess i probably can't see vampire lady to do you give

it to irena are you just kind of like talking to her? Because she can see her like she's sort of like looking at it. She's the other side of the gap. No, she isn't, is she? No, no, she came over. Yeah, she's just behind Jesper. Oh! I think that...

Yeah, I'll give it to her. Okay. She kind of give it to her. Okay. She kind of holds it in her hand. She clutches it to her chest. And you can just see that there are just tears pouring down her face. And she holds it close. My Sergei. My Sergei.

I'll do a very awkward pat on the shoulder. There, there, love. Gotta go. I'll go upstairs to... But I probably can't. I'm not within range to do anything. But before I go upstairs, can I take... Can I take a very tattered and stained handkerchief out of my pocket

and just sort of stuff it into Irena's other hand? Yeah, you can give it along with the sword if you like. Yeah, it's really gross. But just, yeah, there, there. Have a good blow, love. Get it all out. And I'm just going to go vampire. I'm really uncomfortable.

And just go up the stairs. I'm guessing there's probably nothing I can do to Vampire Lady, though. You are literally like 10 feet away from her, and she's on the outside of the building. But you're just out of range. Is there a window, like, lock-in stuff? Yeah, there's a window like yeah she's she's gone around the side so she's um just you know she's yeah sort of on the edge of the window basically anyone next to the window nope nobody's next to the window like in which case can i shoot the

window with my crossbow please and smash it out uh this is already smashed out window this is the one that she came in oh okay okay in that case i'm just gonna uh have i spent an action doing any of my beautiful rp if i haven't um no i'd probably say a bonus action to like give the the hilt to irena and then move. So you still have an action? I will hold my action to attack with my greataxe when she comes into range. Okay, Zeros. Cool.

Do I have movement to get to the window? I can't see roll 20 at the moment, sorry. Yeah, no worries. So, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Yeah, you do because dog's body was just a little bit further down than you um okay you were a bit further up um and she's just outside the window right can i just um like try and grab her and pull her back in sure you can make a strength check you make an opposed strength check awesome uh 23 23 really holy shit so fucking close so you feel this immense strength this tiny little halfling woman nearly fucking

resists you like you can feel her like you have to strain all of your muscles like dig your claws into the stone and pull back with all of your strength. But you do have a grappled and you can move half speed with a grappled creature. So you can pull her back in. What's your action? Cool, yeah. If I've got the movement to sort of spin around and...

Drag her in. Yeah, and like hold her towards the other guys. No! dagger in yeah and like hold her towards the other guys no yeah does that trigger actions from it wouldn't technically trigger ziki's because ziki's i mean look this is the thing where like if i was going to be an asshole dm i'd be like no because the wording of your actions was that when she came out of the spell but the point is that all of you were basically readying yourselves for when you had a moment to attack together I would say that

this is it so Zeke and Rose yeah and Dog's Body all three of you can make your attacks basically yeah I said within range yeah yeah yeah she will have she's grappled so actually she fails the Sacred Flame automatically. Oh, nice.

Okay, 2d8. Nice. I have 18 plus 9 on one of mine. The other one is... You only get one attack, Katie. On a reactionary attack, you only get one. So even if you have extra attack on held actions, you only get one attack.

Okay, well... The first one hits. Yeah, there you go. you only get one attack. Okay, well, one hits. Yeah, there you go. And the other one was a four, so I doubt. Yeah, doesn't matter anyway. No, it doesn't hit. Right, so you hit on your attack, Katie, so roll damage for that.

Dog's body, what did you get to attack? I rolled a 24 to a 10. That'll hit. I'm going to take my head off. I rolled 14 regular damage and two cold damage. And then Ziki, what was the radiant damage? Let's do that one.

11. 11 radiant damage. And then Katie, what was your damage? 11 including Sire's Brace, so whatever. Half to five. So yeah, these three strikes, as Xeros basically drags her in, holding her arms back.

She's no longer laughing, but you can see the fangs are bared and she is just howling in your faces. I'll kill you. I'll eat you all. I'll make you suffer. Just all of these attacks land. You can see the sacred radiant energy burns away some of the pallid flesh. The arrows stick into a body and don't heal up. The big cut from the great axe

carves a section down her tiny form, but still alive. However, badly, badly wounded. Ismark will make the slow progression up the stairs, but he's going to probably not make it the full way up to attack. Irena will... Yes, but you're still by Irena, right? Yeah, I just moved my character so that we could see upstairs.

So I think you see Irena on her turn. She kind of stops holding this weapon. This hilt. She looks at you. It's not broken, Jesper. Just changed. When we have some time,

I'll show you how it can work. But I can't. It needs someone to wield this weapon. But I can't it needs someone to wield this weapon but I can't and she just nods to you and there is a kind of resolute look in her eyes it wasn't for nothing trust me you've got the best weapon against Rod here now okay I Now. Okay. I believe you. The best weapon is currently grappling a vampire, thank you. I think she probably would also look at you, Jesper.

But this won't work just for anyone. This weapon won't work for Zeros. I'm not sure it will work for Zeke or Dog's Body either. It will need to be you or Rose that wields this. Oh. There's a thing about you, Dog's Body, that nobody else knows yet that I know why this wouldn't work for you. It's a racist sword.

Really racist sword. Racist. It's a racist sword. Really racist sword. Racist sword. I'm just not working with you. Sorry. Okay. So that's her go, is it? Yeah, she doesn't.

She's still sort of in a holy shit, it's my beloved husband who was murdered sword and i'm very emotional right that makes sense what do you do i will uh acknowledge uh what she's going through right now uh but also and then there's a vampire spawn upstairs, so I will run upstairs. What's she doing with a hanky, though? Yeah, you can get just enraged. What's she doing with a hanky? It's probably on the floor.

It's probably on the floor. Oh, for fuck! Shit on Kim Day. I'm going to just run in throwing myself at this vampire spawn so that's a 15 this is something I forgot for the reactionary attack you have advantage technically because she is grappled

I forgot this it's still 15 still 15 that hits so 11 damage 11 yeah you can do it alright 15 for the dagger as well so that's five piercing five down to two after two so you just come in wailing with your weapons on this pinned creature holding her arms back um just you can just hear the fury as she's scrabbling to get free but unable to.

Just her screams drowning out any other noise around you. Zeke. Can I cast Toll the Dead on her? Sibu play? Yeah, what do I have to do? Saving throw? That's a wisdom saving throw. Wisdom saving throw? Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry, Rhi. That is a 21. I just keep rolling really high on saves against you. That's fine. Really high. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean, 18 plus 3, so 21. Nice. Rhi. She's having doubts. She's having doubts,

alright? It's fine. I don't know. I don't think it's Zeke. I think it's just the fury of this woman. Her other kind of like spawn being killed whatever power you're channeling against her is just bouncing off of her like droplets against uh stone like they're just not impacting um it's not having any effect as she screams and howls uh rose um rose because you are a kind of monster-y slayer type person you don't know much about

vampires but you know that the old stake through the heart is normally a good thing but normally it's quite hard because vampires fight you back this could be a good stake-y time ooh, is there anything that I could use

as said stake an arrow would do that that if you took the tip off an arrow if you just an arrow shaft yeah i mean it needs to be a piercing weapon made of wood so i would say a piercing weapon like uh an arrow is probably enough i'll do that i'll try and do that yeah yeah i mean she's grappled that she hasn't she's you know can't really resist so yeah you just yeah i did do a um thingy sensey thing to find out what they were weak to last time we fought what's his face yeah and you've done you've done some checks do you know that they're like harmed by running water and sunlight and stuff like that as well so uh yeah you come up and just and you just see her whole body but you just go rigid um as if paralyzed in time just this twisted

bestial face frozen in time thank you uh is zero still like super duper hurt Thank you. Is Xero still, like, super-duper hurt? Oh, I'm not looking great, no. I might just, like, pat him on the back and give him a level one cure wound. Like, just a very quick, quick healing hurts me I'm dead it's not true how much do I get back you get six

five six you get six. Thank you. Thank you. So she didn't turn to dust. She's just frozen. Is she dead? She's completely paralyzed. She's completely paralyzed. So the next person to technically who would have gone would be Dog's Body.

I mean, just like Rose. Do you want to do anything you and you dog's body and xeros basically could finish her off like between the two of you she's can't literally can't you'd make crits against her automatically like this would be brutal if the two of you decide to just go to town this is going to be i mean i going to cut her head off. Okay, yeah. And then Xeros probably plunges the blade in and the body just is turned to ash

by your two attacks. If the head doesn't come off, I'll stomp on it, sure. Yeah, so I mean, between the two of you, I'm not going to roll any more dice. I was just cutting her head off. Jesus! Jesus!

Boot it out the window, see if I can get it back to raven loft you can throw it out the window jesus from its modius L-Y-B-B Yeah Without too much to do You finish her off Awesome There's a moment of silence After the last blow is done

And then the sky Around the tower Turns red Red clouds A red moon. Orange glow. And you see the fiery visage of Strahd's face

formed amongst the clouds. His eyes like smouldering coals. He just lingers there for a moment. I will not forget this. And then the tower begins to shake. The ground beneath Argenvost begins to churn and move

and writhe. Stone begins What do you guys do? Quick, we must leave. Start running. Start running. You run down the stairs.

There is a 10-foot gap as you are running down the stairs from the top of the tower. I want to do the opposite of what we did last time. I leap over it and start grabbing people to come over. Okay. I believe everybody

Jasper and Ziki and Irina need to make athletics checks as you run to escape this tower. Made even more difficult, by the way, this jump as the whole thing is shifting and turning. You're having to keep your balance as you do so. What? Okay, Jesper and Irina,

you both managed to just barely clear it as you're running, and the rest of you begin making your way down the rest of the tunnel. But Ziki, you... As the tower shakes violently once, it lurches to the side, causing you to slip. Give me a dex save with advantage, please. Oh, my God. that's two tens my dex is zero but there's tens that's tens as they are

so ziki you take uh 13 points of bludgeoning damage aziris you watch ziki's body just flies through through this hole, slams into the wooden platform below that the rest of the team are running towards. Zeke, can you make... She is ahead of you. Zeke, can you make another dexterity saving throw for me, please? Yeah. This time without a car.

Oh, no. Break the other staircase. Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Stop using it! Roll real dice! Roll real dice! You are literally the most cursed D&D player

in the world. I'm gonna delete roll 20 from your browser. I'm gonna block you from roll 20. Can someone else roll for her? As Zeke hits the wooden platform below the one that you first entered this tower

set from, the wood as the tower is shifting and churning as the ground, as this tremor disrupts Argenvostolt, the beams break and splinter and a section of that platform breaks and Zeke, you try, and a section of that platform breaks, and Ziki, you try to grab a section of it,

but you fall, and you now fall into the large open roof of the chapel, much, much higher drop as you fall all the way through, crash landing in the chapel where you first entered into Argonvostol. Jesus! You take 21 bludgeoning

damage. I'm down. That's it. I'm out. Okay. So, you're at zero currently. Everybody else, you will, so we'll say if you continued, if you were dashing, you'd get to the platform that Zeke broke

through basically with 30 feet of movement so you can now see that there is a hole that looks down and it's about a sort of 50 foot drop down into the chapel where lying amongst broken pews and broken stone, Ziki

is out cold on the ground, blood kind of pooling around her and stuff like that What do you guys do? You can rush out into the roof. Can I... Can I... Heal me! No, can I give Xeros a piece of rope?

So I've got a 50-foot rope in my inventory. Oh, she's going to leap. Tie this to something. I can get her. Let me... If you can lower me down quickly, I can get her. Let me, if you can lower me down quickly, I will get her. Sure.

Yeah, I'll find the most secure piece of banister that's not going to break. So one of you, so dog's body or Xeros, make an athletics check with advantage. Whoever's got the highest. I believe it will be Xeros. I've got plus three.

With advantage. So yeah, plus four. With advantage. So 16 16 16 is enough to carry rose's weight as rose you kind of loop the you know zeros tugs on the rope wraps it around himself and a piece of the stone and you basically need to sail down what are the rest of you doing as this tower is still shaking um and you can see parts of stone are beginning to break free another section of the roof above you snaps and breaks as Irina and Ismark rush down behind you.

Just doing my best to run. Zeros, you are locked in place this turn until Rose gets to the bottom. So are you going to run out onto the roof? Yes, because there's no way down to the chapel from this part of the tower. So if I was to put it in, you kind of go... Yeah, there's another hole in the middle yeah there is a hole but it's a 50 foot drop

yeah that's what ziki fell down basically yeah okay so i know you meant the hole in the roof like the one that was caved in yeah there's a big hole in the roof you can rush out onto the roof and jump down that no it would go down to the floor below you it wouldn't be the same height where the revenant is I think oh that could be really bad

it is where the revenant is you're right Tom I don't want that yeah I'm gonna bust out onto the roof and get as far as I can It is where the Revenant is. You're right, Tom. I don't want that. I don't want that. Yeah, I'm going to bust out onto the roof and get as far as I can into one of these little towers. Like turrets. Turrets, yeah. Turrets.

Dog's Body, you're not holding the rope anymore, so do you want to do the same after you've helped Zeros? Well, I would like to say that before we ran down here, I picked up my handkerchief very delicately, stuffed it back in my belt. Noted. You're five feet behind everyone else. Xeros doesn't look like he's

struggling or anything. No, no, no. Now that Rose is down, he just has to hold the weight. It's like I'm fishing. Okay, cool. I'm gonna carry on. Yeah, follow Jesper. Okay.

Who's there? That's a vampire spawn I forgot to delete. Oh my god. Alright, Rose, you will get down to Zeke. Zeke, make one death save for me. It will take one death save before Rose can descend the rope. Roll actual dice. Roll 20 again. i've already rolled in that one how much worse can it get right

that's when you get even better because as you're lying there, Ziki, you feel the mists, the darkness, beginning to cloud around you. And although you know your eyes are shut, you see Argen Vostholt around you. You see Rose in slow motion descending down this rope towards you.

Your brother holding her by this rope as the rest escape. And on the very edges of your peripheral vision you see familiar black shapes giant spider slug-like being a thin tall skeletal man his hold is weakening you lie on the border of death this is where you are strongest where he once held power you can stop this

save this mansion you must simply indulge in this pool of death. Awaken to your power. Embrace our pact.

It's like a boss hole save it it is not for us to save it is for you and you feel i want to save it they raise their hands and these tendrils of darkness flow into your body uh and ziki you you your eyes open rose you see ziki's eyes open and for a moment they're just pools of night where xeros are ruby gems ziki's are just pure black for a for a flash uh and Ziki, you feel this connection with the land. Not just as in magic, but the area around Argenvost Halt is a part of you. And you can feel

like somebody is shaking it, somebody's attacking it. And if you just reach out with that darkness, if you just spread that darkness out from you, you can hold it, you can stop them shaking it, and as you feel that power stretch out, it feels good, it makes you feel strong,

it makes you feel powerful, and you can feel Strahd's grip as he shakes the ground around Argen Vostholt, and a word escapes your lips a word that Rose you are the only one that you hear it you hear Zeke just say no and the shaking stops what

what cool holy shit and you see her eyes open Cool. Holy shit. And you see her eyes open. They stop being black. They come back to Ziki's eyes and she gasps and she gets her one hit point from rolling a natural 20.

Yay! Backstreet's back. All right. Welcome back, Rhi. Epic evil. all right limbo state comes back to backstreet boys yeah the best can i can i just say to rose um i can't fall here. There's more to do. My work isn't done. You can.

And you do. You dragonborns really have a way of falling and then coming back and I still don't understand it. And I want to feel like that was a coincidence that that shaking just stopped, but I know it wasn't. Thank you for your help. I didn't do anything.

You came back. That means a lot. You were brought back once. I'd hate for that pact to be for nothing thank you let's get moving you like dangling from the rope Rose like descends and

scurries up to Ezekiel I imagine cool yeah there's no shaking what does everyone do do you try and meet up and scurries up to Zeke, I imagine. Cool. But yeah, there's no shaking. What does everyone do? Do you try and meet up? Do you try and sort of like make your way back through down to the chapel?

Is that where you're all going to kind of like come together? As far as Jesper's aware, Zeke fell through the chapel and I'm running there, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You notice none of you except Rose um know what happened with ziki and even ziki rose doesn't know the full extent but yeah i think it would be sensible for rose to she's a smart lady there is definitely no way that was a coincidence like ziki saying no and then the shaking stopped immediately um but yeah the rest of you all meet up down in the chapel um and things

seem normal uh i think actually the only thing is those of you who head um through the top level uh as you are making your way back stood at the edge of the room where you encountered the revenant with the great swordword. You see Vladimir stood there, just looking in your direction. What did you do? What did you do? Some vampire ladies. Very bitey. You hanged Strahd.

He was coming to kill us. What were we supposed to do? Curious. You did well to anger Strahd to make him strike at Argenvostolt.

Even I have not managed such a feat. You have done well. And he just turns to leave. Cool. He doesn't hear us now. That guy really creeps me out, that guy. I don't know who creeps me out more. That guy or the dragon.

Or which dragon. Both dragons. In fact, both dragons and that guy creep me out. Have any of you two, anyone else got curses that I need to know about here? Anyone? Not that I know of. I can curse you if you want. As is the Stani tradition.

I don't need more. Let's go. I've got me yankee let's go uh as you stand in the chapel where once there was this red light at the top of the tower there is now a golden light. You begin to see the very first touches of dawn rising through the stained glass window. Just beginning to lift. Still perhaps a few hours

away, but just those first few soft yellow golden rays begin to drift over Barovia. I mean, as much as we get here in Barovia, but at least we know that Strahd

can't send any more creatures like that after us, for a while at least. I have never seen sunlight in Barovia. As a point, it's still that kind of grey cast. It's not actual sunlight. It's just the, you know, it's the sun.

And I never will. There is still light in Barovia. It's not necessarily sunlight, but you still have dawn and dusk. It's not just permanently nighttime. There is like a transition between the day. and dusk it's not just permanently night time there is like a transition between the day our search through Argon Vostholt

was not for nothing I was quick to assume Irina sorry Tatiana this hilt is still it still retains its power

this was a weapon. It was my Sergei's. A powerful weapon. Forged for him by a wizard long, long ago. It was made in... It was perfect for Sergei. It was filled with his light,

his joy, his happiness. The things that I loved about him. And Strahd hated it. It was a symbol of Sergei's strength, of everything that was good about him and terrible about Strahd. strad but it seems that that whoever he sent to destroy it did not finish the job

she holds the hilt up she closes her eyes she places it against her palm the hilt and as she brings her hand across a brilliant blade of pure sunlight emerges nice that is where we will end today's episode oh we got it oh we got it who's gonna use it i know amazing i think it should be the archer. I know. What a surprise.

A sword of sunlight. That's so weird, right? What a surprise for you. I'm glad we got it. I'm glad we got it. Yeah. Nice. Hell yeah.

Good episode. And I've got some even better news for you. Recovering one of your major artifacts means you get a level up yeah one step closer back to multi-attack uh re and on hello i would like to formally request that your level up is in warlock please given that last final moment i was gonna ask i would very much like it to be a warlock. It's up to you. It's your choice.

But I think it would be very thematic you increase warlock power. Nice, nice, nice, nice. Oh, if I do one more in this thing, I get to pick my thing, you know? My thing. Yeah. I'll need to...

I'll go over that and we'll make some changes, but it's pretty much going to be the same, just some very minor changes for you, Tommy Boy. Nice, nice, nice, nice. Cool. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Have a good evening.

We'll see you soon. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye, everybody. Bye. Thank you.