High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Curse of Strahd #22 | Riders in the Night

Episode Date: October 6, 2020

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as the party explore the ruined Tower of Kazan, they meet with Esmerelda, the student of a famed vampire hunter. As she rests after barely escaping Castle Ravenloft, Xeros offers Jesper a chance to speak with Madame Ava in the Hell Plane of Avernus. In doing so, Jesper gains the power to draw the next Taroka card and aid them in defeating Strahd. However, Strahd assaults the party. Manifesting as a powerful water spirit in the nearby lake,

he destroys the tower, nearly crushing several members of the party amongst the as a powerful water spirit in the nearby lake he destroys the tower nearly crushing several members of the party amongst the rubble before they make a desperate escape on esmeralda's wagon away from a tidal wave of water that nearly results in xeros's death and that is where we're going to be in today with xeros awaking to Irena or Tatiana and Rose stood over him. Irena having just healed him. And yeah, everybody is conscious. But my first initial question to you all is, what do you do? Does Irena still have her blade pointed towards me?

No, she's holding it. She's got her weapon out but she's not pointing it at you okay okay i mean that changes things sure uh so the wagon like it's safe like it's not i mean it is you can see that parts of the wagon esmeralda's wagon uh the some of the walls have buckled some of the wood panes have broken. It looks like some of her supplies have been ruined by the water, but it is still functional. The wagon is still standing. It's taken some damage.

She is currently on the front of it. She has not moved. She's not getting up to help anybody. Irina and Rose are with Zeros. I believe Zeki had also run over to xeros right re i think you'd run over to him whereas dog's body is mark uh were with yesper who they had found um i've just kind of come to you've just come to as well same as xeros uh and yeah you can see that before you you're kind of on a kind of stretch of road surrounded by

trees and the the causeway this kind of stone causeway that led out to the island kind of stretches out down into the lake behind you the collapsed pile of rubble that was once the tower now dominating the center of the island all sorts of trees and branches and mud has been washed up by the giant tidal wave that was conjured by Strahd holy shit so any immediate things any of you would like to do straight away one I think once Xeros is awake, Rose will probably head back over to Jesper and make sure he's okay. And probably say, we need to move. He knows we're here. He might have thought that that would take us out. It obviously didn't, but it doesn't mean he's going to go away. Drew. Are you okay yes uh where's

everybody else thank you uh the way is mark kind of pulls you up yes but he kind of like pulls you to your feet uh maybe like hooks an arm under you so he can help you if you're still injured um thank you yeah you hear esmeralda kind of calling out like, come on, this way. She's gesturing towards the wagon itself. I'll just call out, is everybody safe? No one injured? Injured, but fine. I think Zeke had been rushing over to Xeros to try and pull him up and get him back to the wagon.

Yeah, he's conscious, but you can help him to his feet unsteadily uh you can see yeah sorts of wounds uh very very injured uh as is evident by low hit points but yeah um well yeah yeah and i think uh yeah irena calls out to you yes but like i'm fine is mark is with you dog's body you can see is stood over you dog's body is still in wolf form though right kim so he's still in hybrid form so you see and i guess for yes i don't know if you would i think you saw the transformation but yeah dog's body is this bipedal very muscular powerful wolf man what i'm probably um yeah uh you probably see dog's body run up on all fours like run

around and it's like I'll get my sword out where's Rose where's Rose don't look at me Rose I think Rose would probably knowing what happened i think she probably did see you change as well um and she's probably trying not to look in dog's body's direction she's probably more looking back at the wagon and trying to sort of pull jasper along and get back to the wagon to get out of there uh two people ziki ever since you died and came back with this power of the mists and the land you do have this kind of sense especially for undeath

this kind of connection you can tell that there is there are undead things nearby you don't know where you don't know how far you can't see them but you get this sense that somewhere nearby there is undeath. There is some sort of undead creature lurking nearby.

Dog's body, you can smell something in the air has shifted. It smells like magic. You can't see anything, but it's almost, it's like smelling a ghost. You can almost smell the absence of something, something that should be there but isn't, as if space itself has been warped. I have Hunter's Bane, so I have advantage on wisdom, survival checks,

track, fey, fiends, or undead. So having sniffed that... as Bane, so I have an advantage on wisdom survival checks to track fave fiends or undead. So can I, having sniffed that... Sure, I mean, you can make a check. Yeah, you can't see them. It's normally a perception, but you can make a survival if you like. 14 and a 13. Minus one for reasons.

So, yeah, 13. 13. They're not here it's like you can smell something that should be here but isn't here you look around there's no tracks you can't hear anything at least not at first and then as you are kind of sniffing the air and looking around and everyone's slowly making their way to the wagon you all begin to hear echoing as if coming from another world. You can hear galloping hoof steps as if something is traversing an unseen stone road around you. And this unearthly wail begins to build up along the wind. This kind of...

But it sounds distant and echoey as if it's not quite of this world i think ziki would then just shout out that something's coming i don't know i can i can i can feel it something undead something weird we need to go esmeralda's just like come come on. Yep. Moving towards the wagon. Quickest possible. Yep. Everybody jumps aboard. So the wagon, if you guys log into Roll20, I do have a little map just to show you a thing. The wagon is quite large on the inside. There is room for a lot of you uh maybe not everybody especially with dog's body in hybrid form does um do you know kim does it change your size when you shift

or is it just um it doesn't seem to mention that it says heightened senses uh hybrid transformation i get so you're still a medium creature okay But yeah, I'm still a medium bod. Still a medium-sized creature. Yeah, so even with dog's body at the Alana Shrides, you probably could all fit inside this wagon. But it is enclosed on all sides. The windows aren't big enough to really look through. The door on the back is kind of hanging off of its hinges.

So it's probably the only viable kind of point that you can look out of can we see the uh explosives that she had set up on this thing no because she disabled them but looking inside the wagon you can see uh and rose and irena saw this before there are rows of weapons some of which have been damaged, some of which have been ruined. But yeah, there are like a heavy crossbow with silvered bolts, weapons on racks along the wall, axes, daggers, wooden stakes. There are vials of a kind of semi-glowing white liquid. There are sealed containers of what appears to be alchemist's fire. There's all sorts of vampire slaying equipment.

This is like blades basement where you know it's kind of like a wagon where all of the kind of things rotate and turn around and it's all laden with vampire hunting monster hunting tools um on either side there are hunting traps manacle sets um it looks like there's one chest which is full of outfits and disguises um just yeah all sorts of stuff inside the wagon uh as you guys are all climbing aboard and like i said inside the only viable entry point in and out is the back where the door is um you see in the distance maybe sort of 60 60 70 feet away, emerging almost as if appearing from, like ghosts appearing from thin air.

You see the form of the two riders with their flaming steeds, their black, long, dark hoods, and their elongated mouths are beginning to manifest and pull themselves into the material plane. And that is going to basically be, you hear Esmeralda kind of like, and she kind of cracks the whip and the two horses take off at speed.

But you can see that these creatures are moving faster than the wagon will go. And we are going to roll initiative. Oh, holy shit. So we can figure out what weapons in here actually work against these things. The only other thing I will say is that Esmeralda before as she kind of like hits the thing

she will pull out a small leather vial where you can see two red potions inside and she will throw that towards Jesper and kind of say like for you and the dragonborn and she kind of throws them to you. These two stoppered vialed potions yes but

thank you i'll try and grab them or do you want me to roll yeah no no no you don't need to roll for them yeah you guys uh she's she can easily pass this to you uh okay let's get some initiatives going everyone yeah yeah got him ziki total. Seven is the total. Nice. Jesper? Eighteen. Eighteen. Rose? Ten. Sorry. Ten. It's okay. Ten. Zeros? Sixteen.

Sixteen. Irina. Ooh, Irina does very well. Twenty for Irirena dog's body 14 14 um so before we kick off yeah if you guys want to reposition yourselves in any way um inside the wagon um as these things are barreling their way towards you uh do let me know i'm going to go back to that corner. I'm going to stay far away from Rose. I don't want to

scare her. Yeah, I'm a little bit worried about my HP. I think you should be. Same. Okay, Esmeralda, she passes the potions back to you, I think. Yeah, you should be. Yep. Okay. Esmeralda, yeah, she passes the potions back to you, Jesper.

That's going to be her action is basically palming off these potions to you. And then she kind of intently focuses on driving and tries to get these conjured horses. And the horses on her wagon aren't natural horses. They appear to be made of like shimmering blue magic, but they move as swiftly as any horse you've seen and they pull the wagon at great speed the the wheels kind of bounce and trundle as it hits wooden uh kind of dirt roads as she desperately flees out she calls out behind you like we won't reach krezik for minutes. 15, 10, 15 minutes.

You need to deal with them somehow. We need to get them off of our trail. And she calls out behind you. And then she will... That was her action. She doesn't really have a bonus action. So she will just focus on riding. She will call out, Use any of the equipment in the wagon that you need.

There's holy water, alchemist fire, silvered bolts, magic arrows, anything you need. Take it. Irina. Keep those bolts away from me. Yeah, good point. You could absolutely use them on Irina if you wanted to. Do not use them on the dog.

Do not. There you go. if you wanted to do not use them on the dog do not uh irena will cast mage oh no i'm looking at a completely different character whoops um sorry i should have set myself up with irena before irena will delay her turn because right now i'm not ready to go and And I want somebody else more. Oh, fuck, it's Ismark next. Fuck's sake. It's just NPCs. Nothing but NPCs all day.

Right, Irina. I've got her here now. You've got a popular crew rolling out. Yeah. Yeah, there's as many NPCs as players at this point. Irina will, seeing Jesper and Zeros are heavily injured, Irena will cast a second-level healing word on Jesper. So she sings out this long, choir, angelic bar of song.

That's really good. That's a 12 hit points back, Jesper. That's pretty good. Nice. She calls out and she kind of begins softly singing. She will move herself into the kind of back corner and draw her rapier. And she can't, so she'll ready her action if anything comes inside or attacks. She comes within reach, she will attack it uh is mark will pull the heavy crossbow off the wall and the

silvered bolts and start loading one in and then he will take a shot towards um he'll probably aim for what is not no he'll aim for one of the riders uh with his heavy crossbow uh for a 16 to hit which does indeed hit but the bolt does not seem to have as much power as he would hope so that's going to be three points of damage so you see the bolt even though it's silvered uh digs into this black hooded rider with the elongated face um and it almost seems to partially phase through it it seems to almost shrug off the blow as it just kind of lets out a howl. Okay.

Jesper, you are next. I think, considering my situation, I'm going to use my action to drink one of the potions. Yep, so bonus action if you drink a potion yourself. We've always done it as... drink one of the potions. Yep, so bonus action if you drink a potion yourself. In which case, I'll ready my actual action by preparing the sun sword and, like Irina, anything that comes

close to the wagon, I'll kind of move. Another 14 hit points from that potion. That'll do it for me. Very nice. I'll just ready a swing of the sun sword if anything comes to the edge of that wagon at the end Okay. Well if it comes to the edge, you wouldn't be in range to attack it from your current position You'd have to be at the door basically like where dogs body in his mark are or in front of Xeros

But if something came inside, you could attack it. I'm going to instead cast... You could also move out onto the top of the wagon, so just as a point of reference for everyone, you could climb out onto the top of the wagon, hang on the side of the wagon, climb up by

Esmeralda, so you're kind of on the rider's seat. I'll cast Heroism on Zeros in front of me. Oh. Oh. Which will allow you to be immune to being frightened.

And you get plus five hit points, temporary hit points. Nice. Whilst I concentrate. Amazing. Well, Zeros, it's your turn. So that second potion, is that

being held out, or... I've just drank one, and the other one's kind of in my hand, I guess. I haven't had a chance to put it away. I don't know if I'm snatching it or something. He said it was for us.

If he's not resisting, you could basically use your action to grab it and drink it, I would say. Yeah, if he's not resisting, I want to snatch it. They said it was for me. So, yeah, I want to do that. And then I'll bonus action shield of faith myself okay so you take the potion off yes but i'm going to assume you don't resist yes but no i don't have it

six didn't say the magic word nine twelve sixteen hit points back for Zeros wonderful and then bonus action shield of faith do you want to move? yeah with that I will move in between dog's body and Ismark at the edge of the wagon at the back wonderful

the two dark riders and their mouse go next and they do not move up to the back The two dark riders and their mouse go next. And they do not move up to the back. The horses, the nightmares they're riding on, are faster than the wagon itself. Even though the wagon is going at full speed, these nightmares just gallop through the air as any thoroughbred stallion can race across the ground,

and they actually manage to make their way on either side of the back of the wagon. The two creatures, they can't really see in, but they will attempt to basically, as they draw closer to you, you can feel those of you on the edges of the wagon, this dark aura kind of pulling at your life, almost trying to feed off your very life energy as they pull up on either side of the wagon. And then they will, with their kind of pulling at your life almost trying to feed off your very life energy um as they pull up

on either side of the wagon um and then they will with their kind of large one has like a large scythe the other one has like a lance they're going to try and push them through the sides of the wagon to those of you inside itself. So, Ziki, would a, what's this going to be, a 13 hit? 13 on the dot. 13 on the dot, and then Rose,

that is a 6 to hit you. No. No. Oh, Ziki, these are undead. What's the thing that undead has to make a saving throw to attack you? Oh. Oh. Let me see.

You're packed. They die instantly, I think. If undead targets you directly with an attack or spell, that creature must make a whiz saving throw dc 14 okay it did succeed on this one target okay so it did succeed on this one um so six nine ten 12 points of damage um do you have any resistance to necrotic damage i don't believe i do i think it's just okay yeah so the uh the scythe kind of pierces through the wood and kind of pricks you as you

as it moves up the past um and the wood begins splintering and shattering as it kind of uh tries to attack you rose you feel the same. A large spiked lance pierces through near your head, but you managed to throw yourself to the side before it fully targets you. Um, uh, and yeah, uh, those two right up next to it. The two nightmares that they are riding on try to attack the wagon itself. You feel these kind of huge flaming bodies kind of body slam into the sides of the wagon, uh, trying to send it spiraling. The first one, um, just mistimes. It kind of body slam into the sides of the wagon uh trying to send it spiraling the first one um just mistimes it kind of bounces off the side of the wagon not quite enough force to cause any damage to it um the next one however does manage to fully slam its weight

into the side of the wagon uh's a lot of damage mark here's 21 21 points of damage uh the wagon you hear one of the kind of this whole side um closest to rose and ismark kind of buckles um parts of the the wood completely cave one of the chests kind of breaks open as this flaming hoof smashes through and you can see the wagon is now beginning to burn and is on fire um as it smashes through from this creature dog's body um are any of the are any of them in reach of my great acts like could i attack my great axe so well first of all it's at the end of your turn so very much like them right now there's a wall between the two of you so imagine that you're on the you're inside the wagon and they've moved up to on either side they've been attacking you through you could

try and like attack them back through the wagon uh first of all that would do damage to the wagon but second of all you'd be at disadvantage because you can't actually see them right now you're kind of making your best guess as to where they are um you could very easily climb out on top of the wagon or hold on to the back of the wagon and then swipe at them without penalty um can i i'll hold on to the back of the wagon then um can i activate my um so imbue my axe with uh 1d6 of cold damage i realize the cold damage will probably not damage them because they're undead but it makes the axe magical um and then yeah i'm just gonna go to funky town which one are you attacking? Are you attacking the horse or the rider? So? the Probably the rider say, okay

18 to hit 18 more here Nine points of damage and then do you want me to roll the cold damage or are they separately yes please uh they are not immune but they are resistant so some of the ice the rhyme and frost is pulled away six points of damage so three points of damage as it is half but yeah the axe does manage to strike them and you can see it kind of whips its head around um uh can oh you didn't start your turn there that's fine i'm just wondering if so crimson right was a bonus action but i also have extra attack yeah extra attack is just you make two attacks again you can the other thing

i need to do is after you make this attack i need you to make a constitution saving throw as you look at this creature and it kind of turns its head back to look at you as you meet its gaze you feel it trying to pull your body from you it's like trying to pull your soul out of your body as you look at this thing. I don't like that. 19 plus 3 is 20. 19 will hit. Definitely hits. No, sorry, that was my saving throw. Sorry.

Oh, that was your saving throw. Okay. Yeah. Sorry, 19, 20, 21, 22 is my complete saving throw. Okay, so you managed to kind of hold on like a Dementor trying to pull out your soul. You kind of grit your teeth and pull back using every ounce of your own will to kind of keep it together.

Yeah, you don't take any damage. And then my great axe again is 16 to hit. That will hit the rider, yep. And then I rolled a 10 on damage plus four is 14 and then two on the uh hold so one on the cold so yeah with those two blows you can see that the rider does kind of buckle um in its seat and it hisses loudly this kind of abnormal otherworldly hiss uh like some spirit from great beyond um as the end of your turn i snarl as it's hissing you do start back you automatically take five necrotic damage for ending

uh within this range of this creature you can feel it just yeah this very aura it's it's exuding a presence of of uh evil i have resistance to necrotic so is that so you take two or three points no it'd be two right end of your turn rose you okay oh well um so can I, could I, this is a question. Sure, I love questions. If he swiped through with the scythe and a spear and stuff on both sides of the wagon, could I in theory target an arrow through that slit like Aragorn and Legolas in Lord of the Rings with the Mines of Moria thing. It will give them significant amounts of cover, though, because it is trying to fire through a tiny hole at a target.

The other question to you is, again, which target are you going for, the rider or the horse? Or the nightmare, I should say. I'd like to hit the horse, please. Actually, I don't know why. This thing's going to get like three quarters cover from this attack. But yeah, definitely try and shoot. Yeah, it's going to get a lot of cover because it's like, you know, it is a wedge of a hole, but it's still a tiny hole that we're trying to shoot through.

OK, I'm going to take magic arrows from Lestache. Yeah, you see that there's a quiver, a very ornate quiver with silver banding, and it's the only quiver of arrows in the whole thing, so you assume it's the magic arrows that she was talking about. They are 20 plus one... 15, sorry, plus one arrows. Okay.

So plus one to hit and damage damage i'm gonna bonus action no i'm not gonna do that bonus action slayers pray okay um we'll see uh 15 16 18 19 20 24 to hit 24 will indeed hit the horse even with the small amount of cover like Aragorn and Legolas as you described, you see the arrow fly through and thuds into the creature's flank and it was a plus 1 so yes, plus 1

damage I rolled a 1 on my damage, that was great well done me so 6 6 damage on the arrow and two first layers pray for the first one and then my second shot we hit deep growling Winnie 22 to hit that still hits yeah through this tiny hole um seven damage on the arrow seven points of damage bam so yeah these two arrows thud in and you can see that this is clearly no normal horse obviously being on fire and flying through the air but its

hide is especially thick and resilient as well um seemingly unaffected well not unaffected but withstanding these two arrows uh that have struck into it um seems to be unaffected anything else rose on your turn no i might just move back slightly into the middle just away from the sides uh but other than that, I'm good. I still will need you to take five necrotic damage for me, please. As the aura of these creatures is overwhelming. It almost washes through the wagon. This waves of despair and death and annihilation.

Okay. Ziki. What would you like to do? I would like to cast Cure Wounds on myself at level 1, see if we'll play it. Okay, go for it. So that's 9 healing for myself. 9 hit points. And then I would like to level 2 Armor of Agathys

as a bonus action. So you won't be able to, because again, it's the same problem if you cast a regular spell you can't cast another spell unless it's a cantrip so if you cast even like a cure wounds you can't then cast another bonus action spell unless it's a cantrip that's like the yeah tom tom knows this frustratingly well. I curse too well, yeah. One spell slot a turn, dang it. Yeah.

I will font of magic and convert some sorcery points to an extra spell slot. That sounds smart. Can I move to the back of the wagon? Sure. And then can I like crouch down and stay low? Yes. So you kind of like get on the floor basically you can just basically yeah get prone if you like sure um you still take five necrotic damage at the end of your turn as this kind of aura from these creatures is wafting through but

you will i'll basically give you cover if they try and strike through the walls because you'll lower down um as they try and do that okay perfect um at the top of the round i would like let's go with let's go around in a clock let's uh start with tom hazel can you roll a d6 for me tom hazel oh my favorite part of the game rolling for you a six six okay so um as esmeralda is hurtling this wagon down these roads, the road is open and clear. There are no obstacles. There are no anything in the pathway as you are making your way down.

Because at the moment, it's not just a static thing. Like these horses are racing alongside of you. The wagon is hurtling down these roads, and Esmeralda is doing her best to guide these spectral horses along it. But there are no obstacles this turn. Oh, I did it. Nice. You're welcome.

You're welcome. You're welcome. Let's see here. Irina will crawl out onto the rider's seat, crawl out onto the rider's seat and she will attempt to cast Thunderwave. I think she can just about reach. She will cast Thunderwave on the right-hand-sided foes. So this is a con save, which is a pass and a fail. So this is 2d8 of thunder damage.

Oh, very good. So you can see she kind of speaks and as she does this blast of thunder erupts, which is actually going to potentially knock those guys back. So that that 14 damage there and then seven points of damage there um and you see that the rider on top of the the horse in front of you dog's body the rider is almost knocked out of its uh barding but it holds its grip these long elongated black fingers curl around the reins and kind of write itself um as it pulls and you see as irena meets its gaze the same thing that happened to you where you almost felt like your your very essence being pulled free she kind of gasps um and she manages to kind of shield her eyes away and pull herself in and with ragged breaths she's like don't look at them it's just something's happening and she kind of calls out

to the rest of you don't meet its gaze um she does so uh and she's gonna take some damage um is mark will look confused uh and kind of frustrated uh he will try to do the same thing you did rose and try and fire through the tiny hole um but his shot just thuds into the wall uh next to the wagon you just hit his clunk click as this bolt just wedges itself inside the wagon uh not finding an accurate shot yes but uh i think i'm gonna get as close to the uh left hand side horse rider as possible so that might involve going on top maybe yeah so you've got two choices you can either go out at the front onto the seat where esmeralda is and then climb on top of the wagon or you could go

to the back and hang off the back like dog's body's doing so like one hand on the back of the wagon and then swing around i think i'll go for the dog's body approach and kind of swing out and use the pivot of my arm just to kind of do a big long sun sword swing. Yeah, sounds super cool. Love it. I'm going to do that. Are you going for the rider or the mount? I'm going for the rider.

The sun sword right at the face, if possible. I wonder if I should do a flourish. Yeah, I'll do a slashing flourish. So I'll use a bardic inspiration to add that on. After you make this attack, I need you to make a con save as well. Very well. Here we go. Oh, wait. That's damage.

Wait, what the hell was that? What was that? Maybe just roll on. Maybe just use D&D beyond to roll. Don't worry too much about doing it in roll 20. I trust you. 15. 15 against the rider just barely hits the sun sword its radiant energy blade passes through it okay 12 points of sun sword radiant light 12 points of damage damage it takes uh it doesn't take any

extra but yeah you can see the sunlight burns it as it kind of strikes through almost phasing through its cloak and armor and it kind of shies away but then as it does you meet its gaze and you stare into this gaping black void of a mouth. Can you make a con save for me, please? Sure. There we go. Six. If this creature, if the saving throw fails by five or more, you are hanging on the back.

Jesper? You are immediately reduced to zero hit points as this thing pulls out your life and you collapse to the ground and fall back as the wagon hurtles forward so you swing out you strike a blow and as you meet this thing's gaze you just feel your very life essence sucked out uh and this creature almost seems thing's gaze, you just feel your very life essence sucked out. And this creature almost seems to consume it. And you just into the mud and you just, the wagon flies past.

Holy shit. My temp HP, no. I'm slightly more scared now. I mean, Zeros, every time you've seen Dog's body and Jesper now, and from what Irina gathered, yeah, if you look at these things, it has this kind of like death gaze effect where if

you look at them, so you can still attack them, but you have to avert your eyes, which means attacking with disadvantage. What would you like to do? It's your turn. Before that, hitting the ground after being taken to zero would that be a death save i'm not i actually it would be a normal death save because it's the end of your turn you make the death save um but it's not any extra damage i'm not gonna make you do an automatic one okay so i'll just do a regular just do a regular death save

yeah that's a nine that's a fail That's a failure. Do you swing round? Can I... Sure. Focus... I want to ignite my blade and almost kind of put it to the fire that they started on the side of the wagon as well. Can I hold the sun... Not the sun sword.

The he who grins up. He-Man style. I want to create a flaming aspect of Asmodeus on the top of the wagon. And it's essentially a channel divinity, a dreadful aspect to make a creature in 30 feet fearful of me. They need to make a wisdom saving throw. Okay. the two riders

do not seem to be affected but the mounts will have to make the saving throw the two nightmares these are fiends by the way these nightmares one natural 20 the second one is a 2

so the second one you hear as this, you know, flaming form of Asmodeus is conjured at the top of the wagon. One of the nightmares kind of rears back and the rider is struggling to keep control of it as it desperately wrestles with the nightmare as it looks like it's about to buckle and run away. So they are now frightened of me for one minute, and if it moves more than 30 feet from me,

it can attempt another saving throw. Okay. Perfect. Anything else? That's all I have. Whichever one didn't get feared from me, I want to go to that side of the wagon as well. You are on the correct side then.

Sure. Perfect. Okay. The creature that was on top of the horse that is being frightened, it can sense that this creature is going to run and that you have conjured some sort of infernal thing to create fear.

It leaps off and on top of the wagon. So it kind of like ghostly kind of floats through the air and then brings its giant spear down um as it lands on top as the nightmare looks like it's gonna buck and run um the other creature however will pull back and it's gonna swipe at you dog's body so it kind of reaches back with this giant scythe uh to try and grab um yeah at the moment jesper is going to be about sort of 40 feet the wagon is traveling at so jesper is about 40 feet back um but this creature will strike at you dog's body um for a that is a 22 to hit is a 22 to hit.

Hmm. Yes. I mean, I don't, I'm not asking. I know it hits you. 14 points of damage, which, to be fair, that would be 10 of which was necrotic.

So five, so nine points of damage total what was the other damage? it was just magical damage like weapon damage but magical okay I'm resistant to bludgeoning

necrotic, piercing, radiant and slashing at the moment is it all forms of that or only if it's from a non-magical source? Does it just say you have resistance to it? So, Necrotic and Radiant is from being an Arsimar.

So no, with normal Lycanthrope, if it's a magic weapon, it still damages. Okay, so, Resilient, Hide. Do you have resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing damage from non-magical attacks. Yeah. So this counts as a magical attack, unfortunately. So it was five from the necrotic.

And then what was the rest? Sorry. Four. So nine total. Nine total. So slices you once. Yeah, it slices you once with its weapon. The other one basically spends its action to jump on top of the wagon,

and then you can see it basically crawling along the top, this big tattered robe kind of flowing behind it as it looks like it's trying to kind of worm its way to the front where Irina and Esmeralda are, as it does so. One of the nightmares flees. it just flies off to the side uh trying to get away from terrible scary asmodee daddy uh the other one will try and body slam into the wagon once more uh which will be a failure to hit i think 12 yeah so it kind of slams into the side of the wagon again and dog's body you kind

of feel the whole wagon shake but it doesn't manage to do enough damage to cause the wagon any any harm the wagon however will take d6 of fire damage as it is on fire uh that's just as you can see you can see that that fire is now spreading and you can hear the wood the wheels on that side of the wagon beginning to crack and splinter from the flames continuing to build up as they do so. Dog's body.

Okay, so here's a fun thing. I need to make a wisdom saving throw because my health has gone below 29 hit points. And I'm a wolf! and I really hope you attack Xerox oh shit DC 8 DC 8 so okay I rolled a 10 minus 1 is a 9 Just managed to succeed. Does that DC go up every round? No. Is it always DC 8?

It's DC 8. It's called Bloodlust. At the start of every turn? As long as Dog's body is under a certain amount of health. I can end my lycanthropy. Why would you though? Why would you?

So I think everyone would see my claws get longer and my jaw just distend and the wood underneath my paw just crunches and I'm just going to look around and go, get to the village and jump off the wagon because I am going to go after yes Okay, cool. So yeah Yeah, I think cuz you didn't fall off like you're kind of jumping off make an acrobatics check just to see if you land prone you're not really gonna take any damage from this but Natural 20 there it is. Okay. Yeah, so you land on your feet, kind of skidding in the mud. All this mud sprays up behind you as your big lupine legs kind of splash mud everywhere.

And yeah, the wagon and the rider continues just going forward. They just, it's not peeling away. What do you do? You can easily run back to him, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I think with the distance you jumped and the speed as well. When I get to him,

I'm going to put a big muddy paw on his face and cast Healing Hands, which only restores six hit points, but you're up to. Thanks. thanks so yeah you'll just see this golden light um shoot out through dog's body's floor that was so badass yeah i think your eyes

probably like the eyes would briefly have a golden glow to them um as this power this angelic power the celestial power channels through your your form and into yesper yeah great perfect yesper's eyes open i just want to grow you need to heal me or get away from me fast oh shit because now it's like you've healed him for six but if he if he doesn't heal you enough uh yeah rose we get to back on the wagon as uh dog's body and yesper's body are becoming tiny dots now as the wagon is hurtling through these wooden roads uh these uh forest trails um yeah you can still feel the presence of one of these riders on its nightmare mount to the side but you also hear the scraping of dark metal armor and a spear from above

and you begin to hear Irina like kind of calling out as it's making her way towards her oh jeez okay I think I'm going to do the same thing again of hitting on the other side.

Hitting out and aiming for the rider on that side. Sure. Okay. Go for it. Actually, should I hit the horse? No, I'll hit the rider. Which one do you want to go for? I'll try and hit the rider. That's not going to hit. That's 13.

13 does not. The arrow, because you're firing through this tiny hole, it makes you shoot, but the rider kind of pulls away at the last second. That one will, though. That's 19 plus 9. That will hit yes proper legolas sharpshoot through the tiny hole

um this is not your slayers bray no but it's uh eight damage from the arrow yeah that's still you hit the thing just howling and i'm gonna get because you you're shooting through this tiny hole, you're not quite, you're not meeting its gaze. You're kind of firing from a position where you're only taking these like really tiny shots where you can't really see its eyes. But yeah, you hear this thing scream.

She would know that from previously because also she's, but when they came to the tower and originally she suffered from that. So she would know not to not to look at his eyes yeah but yeah cool okay um cool anything else uh not for now i don't i think maybe she would try and so is there a way to get on the top at the front of the so where up where arena is at the moment from where uh to get to the top at the front of the... So where Upward Arena is at the moment?

From where... To get to there, yes. There's just enough space where you'd push past Ziki and you could get out onto the rider's seat. You can see it seats about three humans. The other option would be to go out the back door and climb up onto the roof where this thing is. I was just wondering if I could potentially

pull Arena back in away from her. I would say that because you've used your action to attack, you won't be able to pull her in this turn, but you could definitely move up to here and be reaching out for her. Yeah, I'll do that. Sure. I'll do that. I'll call for her to come back in.

Sure. Okay. Yeah, Ziki, your turn. So if I cast a spell, can I use my breath weapon in the same turn? So is your breath weapon an action? It's a... Bonus action. Where is it?

It's an action. Let's see. It's an action. It is an action. So yeah, you could cast a bonus action spell, like a quicken spell or a spell that's a bonus action and then use your breath weapon, yes. Because your breath weapon isn't a spell. Your breath weapon is like a natural like...

Awesome. So I would like to bonus action armor of Agathys. Give myself the 10 hit points. You're using quicken spell, yeah? Yeah. Have I got quicken spell? Just check. Because i think it's an action to cast arm of agathys it's a bonus action i think oh is it oh yeah let me have a look

learn something new every day oh wait no it is an action ah what was a bonus action that i was gonna do i don't know never mind ah this is funny because sorcerers you can you can take a thing called quicken spell which is you can make any spell or bonus action so i didn't know if that's what you were doing um i was gonna try and um oh damn it okay uh i'll just yeah i'll just do armor of agathys and then i will move uh next to Xeros up here. Okay, so you kind of go back to the rear of the wagon. Okay, cool, perfect. At the top of the round, moving on,

Katie, can you roll a D6 for me, please? Two. Two. So you see, I think the only ones who would really see this coming would be uh rose you just happened to look past irena and esmerelda onto the road ahead the rest of them can't see it but you can see that um the trees over on either side of the road the canopy becomes much thicker and wilder and all of these branches and dense trees are going to be in range of anybody who is around or on top of the wagon basically um which doesn't affect any of you guys right now um it

would have affected dog's body and uh yes but if they had still been on the outside but uh the two riders will need to make uh dexterity checks of which one passes and the other one is on top and the other one passes so they managed to kind one passes. So they manage to kind of flatten themselves or knock them out of the way and they are seemingly unaffected as all of these trees kind of scrape along against the side of the wagon. You see that on the side where the fire

is continuing to build and grow, it leaves this flaming streak of parts of trees and branches lit aflame as it passes. The fire on that side is mark is gonna have to move because it is becoming an inferno on that side of the wagon um uh esmeralda will call out somebody put that fire out if it hits the alchemist's fire we're done for get that fire out now um and then she kind of returns to to drawing and she senses

the thing above her um and she will raise one hand and she will cast magic missile on the creature on the top of the roof three two four nine ten points of damage to the thing on top you see these kind of like bolts fly out of her hand and smash into it. Irena will take your advice, Rose, and she will let you kind of pull her inside and behind you, just as this long hand kind of reaches out

to grab her and hisses as you kind of snatch her away, and you pull her inside. And then she will look. Zeros, are you still heavily injured? Less than half less than half she will cast healing word on you again for five hit points there's only a first level unfortunately um she kind of just continues singing this melodious tune as she does so uh is mark will grab what something out of the costume box like a large

ball gown and he's trying to desperately kind of like uh smother the flames with it as he's like stamping on it and desperately trying to put it out he manages to put the flames out before they continue to do any more damage but that's his whole action is to do that well that's good uh yes but it is your turn uh you the wagon is now about probably 160 feet away. It's like in the distance. Remind me what you just said. Heal me or run away. Was that right?

Heal me or run away. You better heal me or get away from me. That's it. I will very, you know, know terrified cure wounds at level 3 dog's body sure so that's a 3d 8 plus 2 do that and then you sell to 11 or nothing that's really bad roll it's a really bad roll. That's a pretty bad roll. Is it enough? Is it? Ah, damn it.

I would have really liked it if it wasn't enough. I was on 24. 29 is the HP and I'm on 35 now. Couple of quick things. Rose, did you take 5 necrotic damage at the end of your turn? Ziki, did you take 5 necrotic damage at the end of your turn? Ike, did you take five necrotic damage at the end of your turn?

I think I forgot to mention it to you both. Didn't mention. Now I have five. Yep. Yes, Xeros, you as well. I forgot about this. So five necrotic damage to everybody. Because Jesper and Dog's body are now off the wagon.

They're not subjected to it, so it threw me off. So Esmeralda, Irina, and is Mark all take the same five amount as well. Okay. Uh, I'll say to dog's body, we need to go back to the wagon. Can you get us there faster? I'm going to start running.

Okay. So you just start trying to chase after it, just running along the road, mud and kind of puddles splashing around you start trying to chase after it just running along the road mud and kind of puddles splashing around you as you desperately chase after the speeding wagon uh zeros uh so the the canopy has that passed now like the the rough canopy yes well yeah not quite but enough that you're not going to be in danger of it. Okay. Imagine it's like a brief moment of like, slap, slap, slap, slap, slap, slap, slap, and then open road again.

Okay. What would it take to jump up onto the roof with this? Nothing. Like, yeah, you can just pull yourself up onto the roof. Okay. I want to kind of scooch past Ziki and then flip onto the roof. So I'm right in front of this guy. I also want to kind of move away from this guy so he doesn't hit me.

My question to you are you looking at him? No. I imagine the dreadful aspect starts to dissipate and through the flame Zeros appears. Absolutely.

And I want to make sure that I use an action surge on this nerd and could i on the double hit uh divine smite both of them when if you hit yes if i hit you don't spend the divine you don't spend the divine smite until you hit once you hit you can then say i'm gonna divine smite okay the first one oh my god is a 17 to hit still will hit yes i would disadvantage if you're not looking at him though 16 still hits yeah uh and the damage will So that, it's on fire as well. It takes half damage from the fire. Okay, and Divine Smite is like 7d6, right? So let me see here.

So it's going to be 14 damage with the fire resistance. And then Divine Smite, are you doing level 1 Divine Smite? Yeah, level 1. So it's 2d8 normally. And 3d8 because they're undead yes 3d8 more radiant damage nice another eight yeah as this flaming burning blade that sears with light not just flames um you hear this thing just as you blindly swing in its direction, cleaving it on top of the wagon itself. Nice.

And the next one is a... Oh, like a million to hit. Disadvantage, because you're not looking at him. Yeah, the lowest was 13. Oh, right. I see, yeah. You rolled 2d20, so you can settle. Yeah, okay.

In that case, yeah, that hits as well. Which is 13. So 17 damage because of the half from the fire. And another 11 from Divine Smite. So with this, you just plunge He Who Grins down. It actually pierces through the top of the wagon. Rose and Irina kind of push yourselves back as this burning blade of twin points breaks through and you just see this creature like

kind of writhe as its cloak erupts in flames and it just burns away to nothing it just becomes embers and ashes around the blade and completely vanishes, and I've still got a bonus action to use. You do? Oh, second wind myself. 1d10 plus 3. Healing. Sure. 9 extra healing. There you go.

Nice. Boom! Can you take 5 necrotic damage at the end of your turn no as you do this the second rider it's nightmare is gonna try and slam into the wagon again you did you say the dreadful aspect is still going but the other nightmare gets a save at the end of each turn right yes if it's 30 feet away it gets to save you yeah yeah so the the yes if it's 30 feet away it gets a save yeah yeah yeah it would have been 30 feet away so the the second rider um it's nightmare tries to slam into the um side of the wagon once again and it looks like the wagon's probably not going to survive this hit i'm going

to tell you now uh because you can't stop it um the creature on top however will look in your direction and you try and avert your gaze but you feel this uh like almost like a grip of ice around you can you make a con save please xeros con save 10. oh buddy ouch oh dear Oh dear. That's 30 necrotic damage, please, as its withering gaze tries to pull away your shoal. Unconscious?

Yeah. You are on top of the wagon. Roll a d20 for me. Just roll a d20, no modifier. see which way i fall yeah yeah 13 so you you fall but you're still on top of the wagon like the the sword kind of is like embedded enough in the the roof that your body kind of your arm hooks around it and it you're just basically barely holding on as the wagon is like bumping all over the place of the wagon you're being yeah but yeah

this thing you feel this necrotic grip around your chest and your neck just kind of draining the life out of you um and then the nightmare oh my god it's so lucky that this thing keeps missing the nightmare tries to body slam into the wagon again but esmeralda lurches it to the side and it doesn't quite have the impact as the two of them are now kind of jostling for position on this road, trying to throw the wagon into the tree line and smash it to pieces.

But that is it. The other nightmare does succeed its saving throw and will begin making its way back towards, but that's going to be its whole turn, I'm going to say, as it comes trundling before you. Dog's body um quick question i've got a light crossbow and it says the range on it is 80 foot slash 320 foot does that mean it goes up to 320 foot it does you you make it with disadvantage it's the long range oh okay so it's like you can see down this road, like, becoming tiny specks.

You're, like, aiming up, and you're going to try and volley shot into this thing. Swifty. Maybe, maybe not. The other thing is, I've looked all over my character sheet, and I cannot see anything that means a lycanthrope can move faster, which to me is bonkers, right? Because I'm a fucking werewolf. Yeah, but you're not a full

werewolf. Remember this. Hmm. You have lycanthrope blood manifested. Even, like, a wolf is like, what, 50 feet around? It is. But that's a full wolf. Does the blood hunter order of the lycan give you an increased movement speed?

I would like to appeal to the court of the DM. KM to DM. How cool is the idea of this flaming wagon, Xeros, unconscious, and out of the darkness comes Jesper with his sun sword lit on the back of a giant werewolf?

I would buy that shit. That sounds really cool. Yeah, I would too. But do you have an increased movement speed? Three wolf Jesper. What is your movement speed? 30 feet? That's your movement speed.

30 feet. Yep. But I can dash. So that's 60. You can dash. That's 60. You and Jesper both running after this thing. Can I have him on my back?

He started moving before you. Can he be on my back? He's moving before you. Can he be on my back? Also, you're only a medium creature. You're strong. You can pick him up, but you're not a bigger creature. You're bulky, but you're not that big. That's what I'm just saying. You're like a baby werewolf.

You're like a babby werewolf. You can't have the full werewolf because you're in control uh anyway rose hey i haven't given my turn yet that's i'm not spending my whole turn i was asking you if it was doable and i was appealing to you and you said no so what i'm gonna do is I'm going to move 30 feet and I'm going to shoot the fucking thing. That's what I'm going to do. Sure, disadvantage. Okay.

Well, if I move up, it's still within 80 feet, right? No, this thing's like 160 feet away. It's like a wagon going at full speed after you've fallen off the back of it. It's fucking miles away. 12 was my lowest roll. So 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 1d8.

7 points, 8 points of damage. What are you aiming at? I don't know if you want... I don't know. The Nazgul. Me. Zeroes. I'll shoot zeroes. So the rider on the Nightmare the nightmare yes and you did how much damage uh eight points of damage and then um do you want me to roll my uh frozen although no because that's

on your axe actually no the frozen is on my axe yep yeah okay and you're going for the rider yeah and it's on my axe, yep. Hurry on. Yep, okay. And you're going for the rider, yeah? So, this incredible long-range shot, Dog's body in a giant wolf form manages to pull out a crossbow, load it,

aim it up in the air, and... You just hear this crossbow whistling. The only people who probably see this is Rose out of the side of the broken wagon. This crossbow bolt wings this thing in the shoulder and it nearly is rose out of the side of the broken wagon this crossbow bolt wings this thing in the shoulder and it nearly throws him out of the the the nightmare's harness as this tiny ball just uh and it just kind of stumbles for a moment doesn't kill it but it does

hit it and deal damage nice nice rose your turn rose your turn okay i will do i'll do the same again because i can't really risk meeting this thing's gaze um sure since we're down three five members when you've got when you've got a plus nine to hit yeah something having total cover isn't the worst thing in the world. Okay, so I will again shoot for the rider, I think. Okay. 17 plus 9? Plus 10, actually, because of the arrows being magical. That will hit through this tiny hole. So that will be...

11 damage so the second rider the arrow pierces through its chest and as the arrow hits it you almost feel the creature almost is pulled inwards like sucked into itself as it just evaporates into nothing it just becomes an absence of life an absence of space as it just as it just evaporates into nothing. It just becomes an absence of life, an absence of space, as it just... as it is destroyed. The nightmares, however, still remain. Oh, son of a...

I will shoot the pony. Shoot the pony. Yep. Wait. That's not the only part of it, is it? Little pony. What if it hits? 17.

17 will hit? Uh, no. Actually, yes. No, it doesn't. With the full cover, you needed an 18. So the arrow just... Damn it, one away. The horse pulls away. One away. Anything else, Rose? No.

No. Oh, shit. Oh, no. It's not for now. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Okay. I'm going to climb on top of the lion. You just see a black dragon scaled arm just dangling off the back of the wagon. Flopping around.

My bro. I'm climbing up. I'm climbing up for my bro. You climb up on top? Yep. Yep. You see him unconscious there. Oh Christ. And I'm gonna

give him a cure wounds-y. Give him a level 1 cure wounds. 1d8 plus 3. For my boy. So that'll be for you my friend I don't know how I do it that was your action any Any bonus actions? That's my action. That's everything?

I will convert my final spell slot point and give myself the last two. Sure. And then... And you know what? At the top of a new round, Kim, how do you feel? Would it be okay if I ask Rhiannon to roll a d6?

I was going to go to you, Nyx, but I feel after that display, I kind of want to throw it to Rhiannon. Would younon to roll a d6 i was going to go to unix but i feel after that display i kind of want to throw it to riannon would you like to roll the d6 i give it to you kim yeah riannon roll actually riannon riannon's rolls are cursed riannon's rolls are cursed though do you want to roll in pretty cursed it's up to you i'd feel better if you know me better than me okay roll the d6 for me, Kim. Okay, okay. Watch me roll the worst thing. I love you, Rhiannon. I rolled a three, so that's in the middle.

That is in the middle. Oh, very, very interesting. Interesting. So, Zeke and now Zeros, who is conscious, and Rose, who you can see at the front, you can see that up ahead where it has been raining, the stretch of road in between these trees becomes slick with mud.

A big stretch of deep, thick mud. And Esmeralda desperately kind of is like, tries to like yank the horses to try and keep it under control. So this is down to me now so d20 she does have plus seven to this uh to main to control the vehicle she manages to keep enough of uh a grip on it that the wagon does slide and mud sprays up on either side um but the wagon does not tip or lose control as it springs to a halt

i was really hoping that i'd get the one where you have to make acrobatics checks or fall off the wagon um yeah because it's funny and it's uh cool uh okay so sensing that these uh the beasts are the only things left. Esmeralda, the only thing she can really do is just fire off a firebolt this turn. Actually, that's pointless. She would know that that would have no effect. She is just like, I can't do anything while I'm driving.

Either somebody come and take these reins or you have to deal with those things. The wagon is going to collapse any second. That's the only thing she can really do unless somebody else takes over from her uh irena what would irena do um who's inside the wagon this guy's dead rose is inside the wagon is marked inside the wagon um she will try and do what Rose did and throw a dagger through the hole at the nightmare. Fails.

Natural one. Eh. She just does nothing. Ismark, though, Ismark will do what Ismark does, and he will attempt to do what Jesper did, which is grab the back of the wagon swing round and try and strike at the creature now that you can fight properly first attack is a miss second attack is a hit third attack is a hit so he hits twice one-handed four points of damage four points of damage wow good job is mark the lesser well done so you just hear him kind of like striking the creatures uh

striking the nightmares as best he can um but not much else yes but what would you like to do we keep running i don't know what else to do. Yeah, you're kind of out of the fight at this point. Zeros, you are conscious. I'm conscious? Oh boy, I mean, I guess I'll have a little, I'll sort of roll over and kind of swing down the side of the wagon. Which one? This one? over and kind of swing down the side of the wagon at the uh one of the horses which one this one uh or this one yeah the one on the uh the one on the right hand side so the top of the map um

24 to hit 15 so 20 damage because of the fire oh well guess what being made a night being a nightmare they don't take any damage from fire so uh it's just 15 damage it's still 15 slashing damage yeah the big great sword kind of swings down slams into the creature um no divine smite on that one uh no i'm i'm basically out of spell oh no i'm totally out of spell, yeah? That's me, that's me. Okay. One of the Nightmares will kind of pull back to strike at Ismark. The other one is going to try and slam into the wagon one more time. The one striking Ismark will try to hit him with his Flaming Hooves, which he does so.

2d8 plus 2d6 6 11 15 24 points of damage poor ismark oh my god 24. it's not pretty tough but with like this thing brings up its flaming hooves and slams them into Ismark's back. Ismark's tunic goes up in flames. As he calls out, he's like gripping onto the back of the wagon, swinging out with his sword. He's desperately trying to hit it. He dived out for a second and he's on fire. Oh, some bad news bears, though.

The final, the one that you hit uh jasper uh sorry xeros it pulls itself away and then this thing comes smashing into the side of the wagon which is enough to destroy the wagon and jackknife it i would like everybody who is in the wagon or on the wagon to make a i gotta find my notes here um dexterity saving throw oh that's the one i'm really good at oh okay oh my god i think you only roll eights i yeah my dice are broken. I need every single dice. Do you know where your actual dice are? I rolled a 19 plus 7. Irina succeeds. Ismark fails. Esmerelda succeeds.

So who is on, right, who's inside the wagon? It's Irina and Rose, yes? What did you get on your saving throws? 26. 26. So Rose, you and Irina both managed to, like, brace each other, like, brace yourselves as the wagon tips over and kind of jackknifes and cartwheels through. You are not knocked prone, and you don't take any damage.

You managed to kind of soften it by either bracing yourselves or by the way you happened to fall, but you don't take any damage. Who on the outside? Esmeralda passed. What did you get, Ziki? Eight total. Eight total. Oh, you are there with Ismark,

who got a seven. Xeros, what did you get? A 17? A 17, yeah. Okay. So, right. Okay. Can you roll a d4 for me, please, Rhiannon?

This is going to determine how far away you are thrown. Oh, my God. for me please Rhiannon this is going to determine how far away you are thrown never anything else my ten fifteen twenty twenty five days about 40 feet. You are thrown 40 feet into the tree line as it's like, you are just thrown through the air. You take 18 points of bludgeoning damage as you are just like, slammed against the floor in a tree. If it wasn't for my armor of agri-fist,

I would be down. Yeah, I think so. It's a good job. The ice kind of explodes around you zero so you take five points of bludgeoning damage okay oh my god basically you only got thrown ten feet and you weren't going to be knocked prone, but you just hit the ground with a loud thud. Ismark is

thrown 30 feet and takes 15 points of damage. 5, 10, 15, 20, 21, 30. He's in the tree line. Hanging from a tree. Everyone just explodes in all directions. Wait, you down? Tom, are you down? Yeah.

Again. Fucking hell. So the dragons are down. He had a four injury check. The thing is, Rhiannon healed him for four hit points, and then he took five damage from being thrown off the wagon. It's amazing. Esmeralda is also thrown about five, ten feet and then rose and irena you

are basically inside the kind of broken wagon which is now upside down um the two spectral horses vanish um but the nightmares still remain um that is the end of their turn dog's body at this point these guys would have been 160 plus another 80, 240 feet. You moved 30 feet. Yeah, these guys are 210 feet away from you down the road. Might go down the chippy. Sure, do we want? No, I will dash. Or do you want to shoot bow?

I will double dash. So 60 feet, basically. I'm going to keep running up. Can I just shout, Jesper? I'm really sorry. I shouted at you. I kind of just lost myself a bit. It's okay.

Now's not the time. Okay. Jesper, you are 120 feet away from the crash. Dog's body is 90 feet. He's just 30 feet behind you so you you you can get there in two turns but it's gonna you have to just keep running basically but if you've got any range spells they might be in range uh if you get a bit closer not until 60 feet so i'm just yeah so rose your turn now. Jesus Christ. I mean, I could have rolled to see if the alchemist's fire went off,

but I thought that was a bit much. It's a bit much. We're down a lot of people right now. Yeah, you should do it. Can I go out and... No, because if the fire had kept going, I would have. Can I go out and shoot the horses, please? Yeah.

You kind of crawl out of the wreckage, pull your bow up as you see them flying in the air, kind of about to pull themselves round and down. Okay. I'll shoot. Natural 20. Oh, my God. Oh, very good.

Very good. So max damage and then roll The horsey with slayers prey does the slayers prey also done you well you put slayers play on the rider But then that rider died and can no no Section I was it. Okay. Yes. So if you shoot this one. Oh, yeah, it was yeah. No, you're right I put an icon on it. You're right. So yeah, you can know so the slayers prey would be affected It's the same sneak attack. Yes, so it was like praying you roll it again So I've got eight

Huh? 13 40 50 19 Damage and then rolling these as a base. So 19 is maxed yep and then oh i rolled an eight um so this is a very well timed what did i say 19 uh yeah i've already added the 19 so just tell me the damage from these two days oh my god i rolled an eight and a six on my d8 and my d6 so another 14 yeah it doesn't... The arrow pierces through the nightmare's neck

and leaves this giant, gaping, bleeding wound. This kind of orangey, fiery-like blood pours out of the wound as it just... as it brings itself down, obviously in pain. Still standing, but heavily injured. Still standing?

Yeah, yeah, these are tough are tough yeah nightmares are tough okay 18 plus 10 yes for the magic arrows only five six damage on that one oh so again the the final arrow still it strikes true but this thing now kind of almost limping you can see the nightmare is so badly injured it's struggling to kind of move but it is still and it is coming for you um without a doubt uh ziki are you conscious i am just about five hp okay well it's your turn you've been thrown about 40 feet away from the wagon you are currently in the bushes and the trees um what would you like to do um can i oh sorry for the end of my turn can i duck back inside sure thanks i mean yeah five ten yeah you were doing five ten fifteen yeah so you can get to about yeah there rey okay can okay i'd like to cast a guiding bolt at level one on the

horse that i can see by the wagon um so i will do that and i also will use my uh font of not fond of my favored by the gods ability just in case i miss because i know what i'm doing okay so 13 plus six which one which one are you going for the one that one one closest to the wagon on the one closest to me on my side of the wagon so the one that rose has been attacking the heavily injured one yeah okay so that is a 13 plus 6 19 that will hit yes nice i will roll it i did say i was going to do it so i'll roll them there we go okay so you get another three on top of that as well yeah easily hits yeah I see nice. So that is a 46 damage here. 14. The searing light of Lillira burns the nightmarish fiend to nothingness as the golden light washing over where Rose had already heavily injured it. The bolt just blows it away into ash and dust, evaporating it from this world.

Anything else on your turn? Would you like to move? Guiding Bolt seems more satisfying than casting Heal, doesn't it? Admit it. Admit it. Oh, don't. Oh, my gosh. Admit it, Rhi.

I'm not going to move up to the wagon here. 30 feet up that way. Sure. Never heal again. All right. Okay. At the top of the round, there's no chase events

because you are no longer moving. Esmeralda will pick herself up and will move to engage the nightmare as it is making its way down to the ground. She'll strike at it with her rapier, which is a hit for 1d8 plus 5 for another 11 points of damage to the ground. She'll strike at it with her rapier, which is a hit for 1d8 plus 5 for another 11 points of damage to this one. And then with her offhand,

she pulls out a kind of carved hand axe and swipes with that, which is a 20 to hit for 6 points of damage. And you can just hear her like, kind of striking at these creatures, desperately trying to weaken them. Irina will pull herself to within sight line of Zeros, and again, will just kind of in hushed tones,

sing a small tune for a whopping seven hit points back. Oh, man. She's getting chain healed by everyone at this point. Well, you are dying and she does not wish to see you die despite anything else. And then she will use the rest of her movement to try and get on the other side and then will ready her action if the horse comes around that she will attack it is my

heart oh is mark where are you you're down here kind of like a grunt and a groan he pulls himself out of the woods he's lost his sword it's into the woods so he is just gonna run up uh with a giant kind of piece of wood like a giant club um 5 10 15 20 25 30 but he can't even make it to the nightmare um but he just pulls himself up and he's just looking around wildly like where is it blood just pouring down one side of his handsome face. Jesper, I assume you dash. Yes.

Yes, I do dash. Okay. Yeah, okay. Zeros. Can I... I still have a broadsword. Can I, like, pull that out and toss it towards thingy as I stumble towards this fucking hole? You can slide it across the

ground, yeah, you can kind of like kick your sword along the ground to him, yeah. Just a broadsword, not he who grins. I want to make that very clear, that's mine. And then I'll... You did have three swords at one point. I think you went down to two because you gave one to the bones of St. Andral. I think this is my last

one. This is my last broadsword I'm going to toss at one. This is my last greatsword. And now I'm going to limp over to this horse and just hit it as hard as I can with He Who Grins. I'm fucking sick of this horse. I hope you roll a one. Fifteen.

Hits. It does indeed connect. Thirteen points of damage. You strike, carving a huge chunk through its flank but it is still standing um as you carve into it desperate to try and finish this thing off it's go uh it will basically kick its back legs at you zero It's go. It will basically kick its back legs at you, Xerox. Oh, don't! It's not a sentient creature. It's not going to run away. It's a fiend. It's just going to butt-kick him in the chest. 18 to hit.

Oh, no! Exactly! Fuck's sake! Nine points of bludgeoning damage and nine points of fire damage which I believe you're resistant to so only four so thirteen thirteen damage just goes down again

dog's body do you dash up yeah how far away am i so you were like 120 plus another you were 150 feet away at the start of your turn

okay i was just wondering if i move yeah that's not enough yeah i'll just dash. Okay, so you just dash as close as you can. I was going to cross the road again, but... I mean, you will be in range, but you'd just be at disadvantage again. Disadvantage, yeah.

I think I want to... It's the payoff between getting there and... Yeah, sure. You know, maybe missing the shot. Doing something. Rose. Yeah. I'm going to shoot the horse again.

So you kind of, again, pop 19 19 will hit yes yep can I move my slayersy onto this one because the other one died? Sure. Danka. Bonus action. Yeah, you just use your bonus action for this turn. That is... Five, six, seven, eight, nine damage altogether for that one. Nine damage. And... Arrow into its back.

Oh no! Fifteen? Just? Still hits. Still hits. Oh no. 15? Just? Still hits. Still hits. Oh, fucking hell, I rolled a 1.

6. The arrow thuds into the creature's back of its flank and you can see it kind of buckles to its knees with just enough fighting strength left to stay on its feet. I hate everything. I'm assuming you duck back inside, Rose. Ziki.

I'm going to move 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 up to there. And I'm going to use my final spell slot. I'm going to do another Guiding Bolt on this guy. For the love of God, kill the horse. Kill the goddamn pony. I'm not going to hit. I know I'm not. Just remembering Xeroth's whole fucking combat scenario. 15.

15 hits. Rhi, don't worry about rolling damage, Rhi. This thing had one hit point left. Oh, my God, it had one! Yes! When you said six damage and I'm looking at seven hit points left and I'm like, yep, okay.

The radiant energy of Lillira pulses out of Ziki and destroys this thing, sending it to dust. But we can't jump out of initiative just yet oh yeah three times we rolled exactly it's ac by the way any lower and it would have been not a hit damn it god that was clutch jesus christ so esmeralda can't heal but irena who goes next can and she will again healing healing word, Xeros, to keep

him on his feet. That's good. Eight hit points. Oh, best one yet. Best one yet. And yeah, you are left with a broken, collapsed wagon as Dog's body and Jesper are a little bit out of breath.

Come running up behind. Can we help? I'm just going to lie on the floor at this point. In the mud? I'm just going to lie on the floor. Yeah. And just not talk to anybody right now. Yeah, Ismark slumps against the wagon,

slides down and just sits in a pile of mud, like the broadsword in his hands, kind of just leaning on it. Man. Is Rose hurt? She needs healing! She needs healing! I'm fine. I'm just freaking tired. There's a lot of people falling down, people leaving, people falling down again. I don't have a lot of energy left to heal. I've got a few spells, but we may need them if any more of these things, or if there are any enemies out here.

We're still in the woods of Barovia. I'm afraid that something might attack us soon. We need to move. Does anybody need healing or anything? I've got a few spells in me. Your dragonborn friend, I think everyone is in pretty bad shape, honestly. Jasper, was it?

Both of the dragonborns are heavily injured. Your friend Rose is injured. Whatever those things were, the crash of the wagon. I'm fine. I seem fine. Ismark, you can see Ismark is pretty fucked up, but he's not saying anything.

He's got blood pouring down his face. I'm both my I'm seem fine is mark you can see his mark is pretty fucked up, but he's not saying anything He's got like blood pouring down his face. It's like Scratch well, I've got three level two cure wounds and two level one cure wins So I'll send a little how to spend there off this way Okay ding-dong 11 Send who else is really bad Ding dong. Eleven. I'll send... Who else is really bad? Zeke and Ismark, right?

Yeah, Zeke's really bad. You get a nine. Ismark's like, I'll be alright. I think I can take a few more hits. Regardless of his insistence, six points. Yeah, no, level one's fine. I think he doesn't protest

that too much. But yeah, we can see how it's valued. Esmeralda kind of pushes past Irina and Rose. She kind of pulls herself into the wagon. She kind of like... You can see she is so both furious

and upset at the wagon's destruction. but she kind of lets out a breath pulls a knapsack off the wall and starts putting whatever she can manage into whatever she can think she can carry um she starts loading up some of the vials of holy water some steaks um a mirrored shield like a round silver shield but it's polished to a mirrored reflection um she gets a silvered flail off the wall um she starts pulling out a few bits and bobs i'll probably do the same i'll try and put as much of her stuff into my bags as possible and just let her know that i can give her it back as soon as we have a safe place but just try and carry as much as we can oh i don't care about

getting this stuff back but but this is all... There's a lot of useful material here. She kind of starts pointing your direction. Why don't you take... You take... There's a few... She points to a small chest. There should be some anti-toxins

and some more healing potions in that drawer. The alchemist fires, grab those. There's a healer's kit and a climber's kit in this chest she starts pointing out there's like a ton of stuff in this wagon um so it depends on how much you want to take um same with everybody like you could you guys could like pillage this wagon and take everything if you wanted i honestly think yeah we should um yeah we should split the load all right okay so i'm going to just read you out this full list. This is Esmeralda is carrying some of this, but this is like everything that you can salvage from the wagon. The heavy crossbow with 10 silver bolts,

a battle axe, a morning star, but, and then a silvered flail, the morning star and the battle axe are just mundane. So they're just normal weapons, but a silvered flail, three hand axes,

two daggers, one silver dagger, the three vials of holy water. Rose has already got the magic arrows. There is also a suit of studded leather armor fitted for a woman, a mirrored shield, four wooden stakes, five alchemist's fires, two anti-toxins, two healing potions a climber's kit a healer's kit and a poisoner's kit there is a selection of different clothes and outfits including a selection of wigs and masks and cosmetics there are three sets of manacles two hunting traps and a bag of caltrops there is a 50 foot of rope a t tinderbox, a spyglass, and two spell scrolls. One of major image and one of remove curse. Oh, shit.

I will copy and paste this into our WhatsApp. And then you can copy it to your character sheets as you wish. Yeah. No worries. But yeah, it's basically, there's a lot of stuff in this wagon and it's worth taking as much of it as you can um you just said i'm gonna send that to whatsapp and i still checked my phone when i got a notification even though you said it was you it's just the default um the night uh the moon you can you can see that dim gray light overhead through the overcast sky the forest around you is silent uh you just hear the kind of creaking of the wooden

wagon um as people pick their way through it uh one of the wheels is still very slowly spinning as if still caught in a brief moment of uh motion the sound of wet boots slapping against mud as you move about but you are on the road um yeah in the middle of barovia esmeralda was attempting to take you towards krezic which puts you on the road we will move back to the larger map and i will move you guys but what would you like to do at this at this juncture how much distance do we actually make not a lot that was actually over quite quickly um you're currently at crossroads the the road you're there is a stone bridge which crosses the river just up ahead but the road also splits south um uh yes but you would know that to the south is a vineyard the Wizard of

wines is to the south but if you carry on along the east north east south wet Western Road you will come to Kresik Kresik is maybe a couple of hours on foot from this point as is the the vineyard, the Wizard of Wines. Well, friends, we have two options. The ones that Mark just stated. Thoughts? Do we continue to push forward to Krezic as intended?

Esmeralda would just say I would personally say we go for whatever is the most defensible I know the vineyard, there's good people there, people that we can trust my mentor spoke to me of them, they are strange but I'm pretty sure we can trust them

Krezik is more fortified, it's a town with walls and a following that opposes Strahd. If more of those things or worse comes after us, I would feel safer within Krezik's walls, but I don't know how much, how trustworthy the people there will be. They may be enemies of Strahd, but that doesn't mean that they're our friends. Perhaps we could utilize the hospitality of the vineyard.

It will get us back to full health. Do you know where we need to go for your reading? Jesper, you did conduct the reading, yes? You have an idea of where you must go? Yes. Do you think that we need... Is that on our path it was yeah um i forget what that is on the map uh you would know that it's annoyingly south of argenvost halt you were there you were so close oh my god that's not too far away then so uh it's several hours like this it would it will take you you know most of a day to get there on foot

whereas no not quite it's not put us further away where it would put you further away yes further a little southwest. Yeah, and in fact, you could even cut through the woods and try and cut through the Talenka Pass to get to Beres and Argenblas Hall. I'd lay that out for

everybody and say that's our options. And see what everyone else thinks. It would be nice to have somewhere that we know we can trust people. That hasn't happened so far. If what Esmeralda says is true, then nothing has happened. That's true. That is true.

Well, and also, if you can trust me. I'm assuming you do, considering that we're all just in that mess together. But yes, as long as nothing has changed, as long as the people I think are still running the vineyard, we should be safe. I should warn you, they are shape changers, but they are good

folk. They are not... They are were-ravens. It is a secret not known to many. I would suggest you don't let them know that you know. It shouldn't be public knowledge, but they are good people. They are not like other lycanthropes. They maintain their sense of morality. If anything, it's enhanced by their transformation.

They're very protective of people and others. Speaking of transformations. Yes, I don't trust the werewolf as a point but it did risk its life to save jesper and uh yeah oh yeah she calls you it yeah she i'm not that's not a misspeak esmeralda very purposely says i don't i don't try but it did it did save one of your own so i'm assuming it has some semblance of control but i've killed too many of their kind to know that it's one step away from murdering us. And she's looking at Dog's body. No, I was going to say, at this point, everyone's looking around. Dog's body's actually not anywhere visible.

Okay. Like, he's disappeared. Like, I've disappeared. Sure. And probably at that point you would just hear from somewhere behind something or just off in the darkness, you would hear a

piece of bugger. And he kind of walks back, just sort of rubbing his chest. Yeah, and it's like his clothes are all like any cloth clothes would have been torn and sort of ripped. That's why I'm topless. But yeah, so he's back in his human form and kind of just like his body language is really he's kind of hunched and looking

Around sheepish and he looks a little bit in pain like shamed it hurt like to kind of change back and Like he kind of shoots a look at Rose and he's like, Why is everyone looking at me? I said, don't look at me. Unfortunately, what happened to you is hard not to miss. Regardless, you saved me. regardless you saved me and I didn't

I didn't really want to do it but I needed to get Zeki on the wagon and then you have control I had to get you some yeah at least I think if we are to continue there needs to be

some sort of conversation with Esmeralda she says that she's killed many of your kind oh yes Rose excuse me it's not my kind

I did not ask to be this. It doesn't matter. Once the curse is there, the curse is there. You are a werewolf. You are a lycan, a lycanthrope. Some lycanthropes can be trusted. Wolves are not of that kind.

For now, at least, he did throw himself from a wagon I agree to save someone it is the very reason that I am not trying to plunge my silvered blades and kill it, kill you

now you seem to have some sort of control I didn't want to turn into that and I kind of glance at Rose control. I didn't want to turn into that. And I kind of glance at Rose. I only did it because I wanted to guarantee that Ziki

would be safe. Very honourable. But I know, and do tell me if I'm incorrect, but I know that especially when you are harmed, it is not so easy to control is it dog's body just kind of looks down and if anyone can see you can see that there are just tears

forming in his eyes and he's trying really hard not to like just just keep it in. And he just, he looks around and he sees that people have been gathering supplies and he'll pick up, well, actually no, he won't even, he'll just nod and he'll go, Rose, look, pick those up and pick that up.

And he gestures at the manacles and one of the silvered weapons. You know what to do. And then he's just going to go and just turn around and walk away. Dog's body saved Zeke's life. If you harm him, I will take you down myself. Bold claim from a near-dead man right now. But I have no intention of harming your companion now. It is, as I mentioned, very clear that Dog's body has control for now.

But, and this is perhaps a warning to all of you, I do not think I need to warn Miss Rose, but to the rest of you, for all of his good intentions, for all of his noble soul, there is a powerful and deadly, savage, brutal, murderous spirit inside him. And if he loses control, it will turn on you. I have seen it happen hundreds of times dozens so as as she's saying this rose is gonna walk away in the other direction like she's had enough of discussing the entire thing thing she doesn't want to she's just seen that the dog's body saved jasper which she's said and they've had their talk and she's just like i'm gonna go away now and it's after that fight as well she's just pretty done with yeah

everyone i think yeah just everyone i think that that makes sense yeah uh esmeralda just watches you go and says that is all you should be careful zeke you would say there's also a deadly cursed spirit in castle ravenloft and there is he's unleashing his power upon everyone any help we can get right now is valuable no matter where it comes from miss do not mistake me as i said very much appreciate that we need allies we need strength i am merely telling you be cautious and given the reaction that dog's body is having i think dog's body would perhaps agree with me that there is an element of danger we are now aware let's move forward yes to the south then

yeah i'll start moving yeah and with that i think that's where we're going to wrap up today's episode with sort of kind of a somber and dark note a powerful ally but Esmeralda has her problems she's not a perfect individual and she's not entirely lying either, she's not entirely lying

so that's the difference save Zeke save Zeke, save Jesper you know, it's the difference save ziki save ziki so i don't care save ziki save jesper you know it's the classic thing of the uh it's the classic story of the monster right it's uh frankenstein's monster of um yeah yeah so there we go just one friends but you won't like him when he's angry. I almost wanted to take my great sword back off thingy. Just like, thanks for helping me in the tower. Yeah, thanks for helping me in the tower.

I'll have that. That's mine. Well, I think Ismark is probably, Ismark will probably actually like give you the sword back. He's going to pick up the silvered flail and the silvered knife and he's going to dual wield those. silvered flail and the uh silvered knife and he's gonna dual wield those um never fear is mark the lesser is here just swinging a flail around like whoa completely fucked up bruised bloodied face oh my god yeah yeah he's pretty fucked up man that was a a lot that was a good sort of like solid combat but also

I have some good news for you though oh it's your favourite news it's the best news it's level up time yay awesome and I believe chat was yelling

at you earlier Kim at level seven you do get increased movement speed as a werewolf you just had to level up there you go there you go i'm just a baby boy i'm just a baby boy nobody loves me i really love that was uh that was a very fun combat to run just like a very cinematic cinematic encounter Jesus Christ it was one of those things where two people off the back of the wagon then Xeros goes down, Zeke's hanging on

on the edge and I was like don't miss a shot don't miss a shot well it was the Bodaks have an ability which is if you fail their saving throw by five or more on that attack where if you look at them it's just like reduced hit points to zero if you fail by five or more so if you fail it but only by a couple you just take damage whereas if you fail it by more than five like you are just out because it's like literally a death death gaze um and so when that

happened i was like but very cool though cinematic cinematic as hell like the flaming wagon going down the roads with the nightmares galloping alongside it yeah I was basically playing the taunt tank just constantly getting up just like yeah hit me

I'm getting knocked down but I get up again you were basically all might from my hero academy for a little bit there. It's just like, if you were, if you were designed to take me on at a hundred percent of my power, I guess I'll have to fight you from beyond that.

So cool. Uh, I love it, man. That was awesome. I love it. I love it a lot. That was great.

Cool. All right. Well, thanks everybody. We'll see you next time bye bye bye everybody bye nerds Thank you.