High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Curse of Strahd #28 | Defender of the Sunsword

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

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for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario. Welcome back to Curse of Strahd. Our party, having rested at the Wizard of Wines under the protection of the Were-Ravens, faces a decision. Do they seek out Babalasaga and try to recover the next relic that has been prophesied to help them? Or do they travel to Krezik to gain the aid of others? Initially, fearing Babalasaga's powers, they decide to head to Krezik, but ridden with guilt at abandoning the were-raven's captured children,

they decide to seek out the witch herself instead, and at least free her captives first. Exploring the ruined village of Berez, the party find it a fetid swamp with only ramshackle buildings and waterlogged farms. They encounter the spirit of the Burgomaster of Beres, but Tatiana uses her magic to help put his spirit to ease. Avoiding Babalasaga's attention so far, the party find the were-raven children trapped within a fenced pen topped with human skulls. It seems to be warded against shape-changers. The mire shifts into a spider form and flies over the fence with the aid of an insect swarm.

As Jesper cuts into the fence with the sun sword to free the children, the skulls atop it emit a horrendous screech that echoes across the ruined village. Many shapes begin to stir in the fog and mist. And that, my dear friends, is where we begin today. I am going to bring up... No, thank you. No, no. See ya.

So, if I remember correctly... We could just leave. So, we have the mire. Both of the mires are inside the pen, having either climbed over it as a giant spider or flown in, carried by their insect swarm. And they are inside the pen with the were-raven children, who are still bound by ropes.

They're still tied to, like, a fence post embedded in the earth um rose and yes but on the outside of the fence yes but has like cut a chunk of this wooden fence post off with the sun sword rose was trying to ease the children um whereas dog's body uh the two were raven parents adrian uh and stefania uh along with irena and ismark are all also outside just to kind of give you guys a rundown of everything um and then in horrid manner uh yeah so uh we are gonna pretty much go straight into rolling initiative here as you'd already begun to see several of these scarecrows that had been set out in the, the farms and the waterlogged, uh,

village have pulled themselves free from their kind of poles and are now menacingly coming towards you with these long curved claw like hands with these kind of hideous straw faces with these stitched grins well shit so Jesper is that a 25

for initiative yeah it is oh you noticed very well done oh god I can't tell on my... Right, which Maya has the creepy scarecrow icon face? Um... I don't know. With your character avatar, what one did you pick?

You picked him. I don't know. I'll be creepy scarecrow skeleton face right okay and then so the other one is the kind of bulb head with loads of eyes on it oh i was looking at the wrong one they're both as disgusting as each other mark which one are you i'll be the i'll be the undead looking one i'm talking about your dnd beyond character sheets not the roll 20 icons you're the one with a million eyes thank you i'm the baghead dude your bank okay

that's what i need to know so riannon's at 20 tom's at 16 uh rose what's your initiative uh 21 21 dog's body Rose, what's your initiative? 21 21, dog's body 19 and then I've got to roll for Irina 16 she's on the slowest at 16, god damn yeah, 16, Irina

and Tom Meyer are the the lowest um oh interesting uh so yes but you are the first to react you can begin to see you know at different points some of them are quite far away because i think that on the map at the moment it's actually yeah quite a big distance um there's probably three of these scarecrows that you can see within any any sort of short distance but you do see ones much further out uh that are you know gaining distance basically gaining distance perfect um uh yeah coming closer reducing distance yeah um do i notice how quickly they are moving towards the party like are they they will be they no they are fast moving these are not like zombies these move with a kind of uh unnatural gait uh very very rapidly i'm suddenly aware of how close they are because they're now on the screen well these squares these aren't five foot squares

these the maps the map that you're looking at the moment is like a wider map of the village there's no battle map for this um at the moment they're approximately sort of like 70 feet away these first three are about 70 feet on the edges of your peripheral vision. There are other shapes like more than like, you know, maybe 100, 200 feet out in the mists, but it's hard to see exactly how far and where they are. You remember passing several of these scarecrows in the past. my instinct is uh um when i'm cutting through this and hearing that horrific sound is to just be like no no not again and uh i think yes was going to try and look up at the barricade and see if there's any way for him to climb it himself. Is it slick?

Is it possible? It's made from wood. It's definitely possible to climb over. Yeah, just be an athletics check. We can protect ourselves, maybe inside for now, until we think of a better plan. And I'm going to try and climb

in. Okay. Athletics check then, please. That's an 18. Easily enough. There's gaps in between the posts that you can kind of dig your fingers into. You kind of call up your hands, get covered in kind of rough, small cuts and splinters. But in the kind of panic and adrenaline

you clamber up and swing over onto the inside of the pen uh dropping down uh next to the giant spider and uh insect covered maya uh who had climbed over previously is that my movement mark humes generous that would be yeah no it is your movement so your movement speed is what uh 40 okay so it's about half that to climb up um so you move at like a half speed when you're climbing so it's maybe about sort of like 10 feet up uh this fence post maybe a little bit more um it's up to you do you want to jump down or do you climb down on the other side? I'm going to jump down. All right. Okay.

You make an acrobatics check for me if you wish to try and reduce any damage that you would take. Sure. That's a 22 there. Yeah, you don't take any damage. You quite happily 10 foot jump down, tuck and roll and land without any major injury. You have 10 feet of movement left. So can I get to the children in the middle? Yep.

Perfect. The one that's closest to me, did you say there were three? How many were there? There were three children, two boys, maybe about four and five, and then a much, much, like a three-year-old girl, and they're all tied up. I'm going to, if I have the time to do this, if they gagged or anything, I'm going to remove that and try and speak to them very briefly.

Yeah, you've got enough time to, like, remove one of their gags, like one of the boys' or the young girl's gag. Probably not all three of them, but one of them. The eldest I'll speak to. Listen to me. You haven't got a lot of time. I'm going to bestow upon you the ability to move fast. You need to help guide the other two out, okay?

Stay with us. Yes, I can't get free. We are tied down. I'm going to cast Freedom of Movement on this one. Okay. For the duration, the target's movement is unaffected by difficult terrain and spells and other magical effects can neither reduce the target speed

nor cause the target to be paralyzed or restrained. Okay, so when you cast the spell, it's almost like the ropes that bind this one just seem to come free. They just slip off of his body as if they were too loosely tied. And he's like, Ah! Yes! his body as if, you know, they were too loosely tied.

And he's like, ah, yes, I am free. Thank you. But you must you must hurry. She will be she will be trying to get to you. And then he can see him like trying to tug at his like brother's ropes. He's not strong enough to pull them free, but he definitely is like tugging at them. They're all they're all tied up individually. So you're going to have to untie all three of them.

I'll just tell him to get ready to climb and we'll help okay get remove remove the restraints yes i can get them uh and the hole that you cut before with the sun sword is probably big enough because it was you know it was only one strike but it's probably big enough for these kids to squeeze through even if the adults and you guys can't um the kids probably will be able to squeeze through it that's my next they can leave there is a kind of worried thing like as you're looking like if the if the were ravens couldn't get in can these kids get out you don't know right okay cool excellent turn nice all right rose i am going to... Rather than get inside, there's already three people inside,

so I think I'm going to... It's pretty tight in there. ...take a couple of shots at whatever scarecrow is closest to us. Sure, yep. To try and thin down the numbers. For the sake of ease, because there is no full battle map, I'll say that there's three of them which are all about equidistance and will likely get to you this turn like they're gonna run in and they're gonna try and engage you this combat you can see shapes in the mist

coming towards you but there's at least three viable targets all of which you can take shots at if you wish like are any of them grouped together? No. They're actually annoyingly all separated. They're like, you know, there's like a... Like they've come from different parts of the swamp. Like the different parts of the village. They've been drawn here. So I'm going to cast Slayer's Prey on whatever one is closest to me.

I rolled a two, so that might not hit. That is a... A... 11 to hit. That is a... 11 to hit. Let's say you've marked A for now. That's only an 11 to hit. 11

will still hit, actually. These things seem quite nimble, but there's no armor. There's nothing to protect them. The arrow just kind of thuds through. But these are non-magical arrows, right? Yeah. I have a shitty, shitty weapon. I know.

The arrows, unfortunately, do not. That's Curse of Strahd, unfortunately. The arrows don't seem to have as much impact as you would hope, even though they're quite easy to hit. Full damage on that one. So that's 12 damage on the first arrow half to six as they are resistant um and slayer's prey damage uh is i rolled three and that's just normal damage it's not like force damage or anything is it yeah i think it's just normal just normal

damage yes unfortunately that is also reduced so the arrow kind of thuds into one of their bodies and it just keeps coming as if nothing's touched it. And I'll shoot again. Sure. Oh, that'll hit. That's 15 plus 9. So that'll be fine. Eight damage total, so four. Four points of damage.

Rubbish. Two arrows thud into it. But it's almost it strikes the kind of wooden skeleton beneath its kind of hay body and under these burlap sacks you just see these arrows now sticking out of its shoulders doesn't show any sign of slowing down or stopping uh anything else on your turn rose you do have like the ruins of the mansion um like very close to you you could try and run into those for things like cover and things like that i think i will try and get cover within those ruins for now and just try and keep my distance

and support from as much as i can with fire even though it's just realized i had a bunch of tokens on the map layer as well which means i wouldn't be able to move them um so yeah and for the sake of again because this isn't a full battle map that we're using on roll 20 this is like an abstract map uh what i'm gonna put a like a raven symbol there I'll delete some of these and we'll use like Jesper's icon will be like the group

inside the barrier and then Rose will use your icon as like a people that are kind of remaining in the the mansion area which also includes Irina and some of the others as well at the moment cool uh right so rose irena is mark um all kind of moving uh in the mansion like and it's it's a ruin right there's no sturdy thick walls like they're all like broken crumbling down half walls but there's and there's windows that you can shoot bows out of and you can see these oncoming There's no sturdy, thick walls. They're all broken, crumbling down half walls.

But there's windows that you can shoot bows out of, and you can see these oncoming creatures heading towards you. Meanwhile, Dog's Body, you're still outside the pen. Jesper and the two mice are currently inside of it. The scarecrows, the first three scarecrows, come running in. They're going to go for the creatures. they seem to ignore the pen for the moment um two of them are gonna rush dog's body and then the last one is gonna come towards the the mansion building as if to kind of like clamber through the windows and start striking rose um none of them are gonna be able to attack this turn they have to spend all

of their movement to basically dash uh but they are now engaging you so rose you have one it's like climbed up into a window and it's kind of hunched there the kind of pale light of of barovia framing behind it there's this kind of big grinned burlap sack as these razor sharp claws grip the stone wall uh dog's body you're on the outside of this fence when two of them basically engulf you flanking you on either side keeping you engaged um and they just show no fear um that is an action for them to do their terrifying glare uh so yeah that's it that's all they can really do uh for this round uh riannon maya yo um so can can i cast thaumaturgy like but try and emanate the sound of like children laughing behind the scarecrows to try and make them think that the children have already run away

yeah absolutely yeah you can definitely try and do that. So you're going to create the sound of children laughing, you said? Yeah. Okay. You kind of hear, all of you hear this kind of ethereal, ghostly noise. And for those of you that know what the mire is, it'd probably be like insects kind of chirping and making the noises, right? Because that's how a lot of your spells manifest so it's almost like cicadas but they vibrate at such a frequency that it sounds like children's laughter um and it like leads off in a trail uh the

scarecrows don't seem to react to it they don't seem to be interested in the children whatsoever as you try and lure them away uh That is... You get the sense that they have been given very specific orders that do not involve the children. Ah, cool. Okay. Is there anything else you would like to do?

I think then, yeah, because the mind knows the children are precious, they'll stay by the children. Just like kind of form like a defensive, like, you know, barrier or something like that. Okay, sure. It's a good effort. Unfortunately, you know, you didn't have the knowledge of what these things are after. So, but yeah, the children kind of, the children definitely are a little bit nervous around the Maya

and they're focusing on Jesper right now, who's speaking to them. But you've definitely placed yourself ready to defend them if anything tries to attack them. Dog's body. Hello. Hello. I guess in response to what Jesper said climbing into the pen, I'm just going to look up and shout like,

You can't get in there, you silly twat! It's got the magic, the bad magic. Noticing that Rose has dipped out, I am going to take a nervous look around and do a big yawn and transform into a glorious werebeast. So you hear like the

cracking of bones, the stretching of sinew, pieces of leather kind of crack and break as Dog's body's form shifts, becoming this kind of hunched back hybrid woven form. Big jaw and claws. kind of crack and break as dog's body's form shifts, becoming this kind of hunched back, hybrid wolven form. It's a big jaw and claws.

Muscles expand as you shift. Is that an action to do or is that a bonus action? It's a bonus action. I'm just trying to decide whether or not to do Radiant Consumption, but... Nah, for now, what I'm going to do is I will attack the one nearest to me with my great axe.

You've got two on either side. Do you want to go for B or C? C. Sure, why not? Okay. Uh, C. Sure, why not? I rolled a 9 plus 6 is 15. That hits.

One hit. Yeah, the axe comes sweeping down. So that's a d12. I rolled a 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 points of Dimagios. You are not using Crimson Rite right now at the moment, are you? So it's not magical damage. I haven't activated it no yeah so it's so again like rose's arrow the axe digs in but it has less of an effect like whatever's magic has created these things is protecting it from some of the the blades axe

uh the axe's blade uh i rolled a nine again uh so same to attack. Hit. Oh, actually, as well, I get more as well from that. I get plus one as well from my... I will add one to the last attack, and then, yep. Yep. Oh, sorry, as well, I also get plus one to the damage, so can you add one more damage from that first attack? I did, yeah. And then I rolled a three on the damage on this one.

So three, seven, eight points of damage on this one. Then halved to four. So yeah, and you swing these two swipes of the axe and they dig into the scarecrows. But yeah, it kind of cuts through like a burlap sack and straw fills out, you know, maggots and worms kind of come tumbling out of these sacks that it's using as a chest.

Seemingly doesn't seem to be... It shows no sign of pain or hesitation from the blows. Just preparing themselves for a counterattack. I should have mentioned as well, just before the Myers go, those shapes in the mist get closer.

I need to move those guys as well. Yay! Nice! You love to see it. get closer. I need to move those guys as well. 100 for you. Yay! Nice! You love to see it. You love to see it. You love to see it. After dog's body, unless there's anything else you would like to do? I can't

move, so yeah, I'll stick where I am. Okay. Irina kind of taking defensive position inside the mansion with Rose and Ismark will... I've got to bring up the actual campaign here. Irina. She will...

She will sing a dull note. And as a bonus action, she will give a bardic inspiration to Rose. So this kind of sweet singing tone echoes through the kind of mist and the fog and the haunted ruins. She will give a bardic inspiration to Rose. And then for her action, she will... We're going to do those. She's on rest as well. She will... Nobody's been hurt yet.

She will basically take the dodge action and kind of prepare herself for being engaged and try and keep herself defensive so that she can heal at a later date. So that's what she will do. After Irina, Ismark will go and Ismark being Ismark the lesser will come charging at your side rows

and will try and take two swipes at this skeleton. One with his flail. That's a hit. That's like 19 plus five. Four points of damage. Half to 2. 2 more points of damage. And then you will swing again

with his hand axe, which is also a hit. That is 8 points of damage. Half to 4. So this kind of big spinning silver flail cracks the scarecrow on the head and then his axe bites into its into its wooden form but again very similar to the arrows doesn't seem to be having as much in an effect um as as other weapons uh spider meyer spider meyer watch out

it's spider meyer um as aid, this is a druid question, I've never played a druid before, how many of my features stick around for when I am a spider? You can't cast spells, you can't speak. Yeah, what features do you mean in particular? I mean, like my halo of spores, or my feet, the poisoner feet. I'm just wondering how many of these actually...

I don't think they do. I think when you're in wild shape, you get what's on your wild shape, like what the spider does. Yeah, I think that there's a couple of specific things that when you transform, like I know moon druids can still, like they can spend spell slots to heal themselves,

but normal druids can't do that. I think you are basically a giant spider stat block as long as you are in that form. The only difference is you get to keep your intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores as opposed to when other creatures are normally polymorphed. Fine. It doesn't really matter for this turn.

I was just asking for the future. In that case, I want to creepily crawl, creepy crawl up behind one of the uh tied up children and try to uh bite uh one of the ropes that's tying him onto the post most certainly um so this is uh if you're trying to like physically attack it with like an attack which you are it's an attack roll um the rope has like an ac and hit points like a creature does. Ten? Ten will just barely hit. It's kind of

fiddly to try and get your mandibles around this thin rope and not injure the child. The way Raven Child is screaming as this giant spider is like it looks like you're about to like bite the child and it's just like help me!

It's not too dangerous. It's not like there's poison. But he's also scared, so he's like, don't worry about that. In that case, that's 1d6, and does a rope have to make a saving throw against its poison? It is immune to poison because it is a rope. See, now that's where I was asking about the features. The poisoner thing means I ignore poison resistance.

Well, it's immune, so it doesn't matter anyway. Oh, okay. It's not resistant to poison, it's immune. It's a rope, Tom. It's immune to poison. You cannot poison a rope. I've got like acid goo coming out of my teeth. No, then it would be acid damage, wouldn't it?

It wouldn't be poison damage, it'd be acid damage. If I put poison on a rope, I'd expect it to break. And if it doesn't, then good luck with that. It'll take a while. Yeah, after like a few hundred years, maybe. It will eat the organic matter.

Well, we might be here for a few hundred years. Well, the thing is, five points of damage is still enough that you manage to bite through and snap the rope holding the creature. Oh, then you can't wipe it. I don't care about the rope. Snap and bite down,

and it does kind of split enough of the rope where the child can kind of wriggle their hands free and begin freeing themselves. Nice. And I will then start waltzing over to the other one as well like your next kid nice set them a spider so i just click and clack at him you know uh yeah uh you all here coming from somewhere at the very center of Berez, hidden in the fog, something besides the giant tree that's been pointed out to you as Baba Lasaga's hut.

You see something that, in the distance, none of you can really see what it is, but something flies up into the air. A large, round shape just flies up into the air and begins moving in your direction yes Kim this dog has dark vision

yeah it's less the dark it's more there's this thick mist and fog that's kind of surrounding the whole village makes it very hard to see pretty much anything that's not in your immediate area you also hear the sound of heavy wooden creaking. The tree in the middle of the village appears to be moving oh

you best friend should we just leave hey Maya you're my friend friend tree friend yeah I'm going to tell

the three year old that I've already untied. You untied the eldest. You've untied the two eldest now. The young girl is the last one. Sorry, I thought three was the oldest. Five is the oldest. Okay, sure.

I'm going to untie one of the other ones while saying this. You see that hole over there? There are people on the outside that are willing to help you. What I need you to do is squeeze through and follow them, okay? They will guide you away. If you can get out. See if you can.

My sister is still tied. We won't leave her. Yeah, I'll try and untie her whilst saying this stuff. Are you trying to cut the rope or are you trying to physically untie her? So I've. Are you trying to cut the rope, or are you trying to physically untie her? So I've got a lightsaber, right? So I can just...

You have a sun sword, which does radiant damage, yes? Do I feel like... It is not a lightsaber? No, I mean... Just to make that point. Well, do I feel like the width of this sun sword is going to cause any damage to this child's hand? No, no, no.

You're skilled enough with a blade that you can use the sun sword to attack the rope. And it's not like you're going, it's, you know, you're like aiming it and sort of like cutting down. I might do a somersault attack on it. Right, okay, sure. Roll an attack roll with disadvantage

and let me know if you get a natural one. No, I don't. roll an attack roll with disadvantage and let me know if you get a natural one i know i know uh in fact i might just use my dagger because they're really thin and uh small still attack roll cool yep it's rolling that is 25 that hits the rope roll damage Roll damage. Okay. Here it comes. Can you poison damage? Seven. Can I poison it? You can't. So here's the thing with a dagger. A dagger deals piercing damage. So you're trying to like kind of cut the rope

with a weapon that's meant to kind of stab and thrust. It doesn't have enough, like you're one point off because it's half damage. It's three damage. The rope is, like, barely able to... It's just being held together. Yes, Tom? I have a second attack, so...

A bite is piercing damage as well, so I don't think... Oh, it's not slashing damage? Nope. Oh, dear. How much damage did you do? I only did five, so... Then your rope is also up through, Ben. Thank you.

Well done. Thank you for reminding me. That's all right. Just how do you slash with teeth, Mark? Come on, think about it. You know, like you're kind of like... I could see it like, you know, like a... You know, like a...

Serrated teeth. I don't want to see you eat a burger. No, shredding teeth, like a dog. All right. I get extra attack. you eat a burger. No shredding teeth like a dog. Alright. I get extra attack. This is not my second hand attack. I get an extra attack. No, this is your extra attack. So this one is like I throw the dagger

into my sheath and I will attack with the sun sword. That's a nat 1 10 next turn so the problem is is that on anything that's not an attack roll

a natural 1 can still succeed but on an attack roll I'm pretty sure it still misses no matter what the bonus is I'm gonna check I engage the sun sword and it comes out the bottom instead of the top we can't if the d20 roll for if the d20 roll for an attack is a one the attack misses regardless of any modifiers to the target's ac so you kind of like ah dagger you kind of slide

it in you engage the sun sword but as you're about to cut, like that's when these, you know, the scarecrows rush up to Dog's body. You hear like this giant creaking in the center of the village and it causes you just to slip enough that the sun sword kind of carves into the ground rather than the rope itself. I had no idea this encounter was going to be so terrifying

that even the ropes are overpowered. They're not overpowered. He rolled a one. They can't even be poisoned. It's got rope. It's got four hit points, and it's only resistant to, like, two types of damage. God damn, babbling cargo rope.

OP rope. Robe. O.P. Robe. Anything else, Jesper? He's going to spend the rest of his time cursing things that shouldn't be heard by children. Okay, yeah. In Vistani. They can't cover their ears because they're tied up by the rope. The impossible rope.

Rose. I will shoot the scarecrow that is in at the building window okay it is right in your face you would need to step away if you want to which will be an opportunity attack just i will stab the scarecrow that's at the window you don't want to risk an opportunity okay because we're all gonna die at some point stab stab um it's 13 plus seven to hit that hits yep nine damage half to four the short sword stabs in you can see that parts of it are starting to break now parts of its like body have collapsed the ground

it does look fairly beaten up fourteen to hit on the next one that hits seven damage and three six damage half to three on thingy Seven damage and... So three. Six damage, half to three on thingy.

Slayer's Prey. Slayer's Prey. Nice. So these two stabs, you kind of thrusted it with a short sword. The blows, you know, kind of dragging and scouring marks along its wooden frame. It is still standing, but you can see, see like parts of it beginning to bend and snap uh it's burlap sack is beginning to lose some of the magic which is keeping it in this kind of terrifying grin but it is still standing unfortunately um anything else on your turn rose cry okay you it's a free action to cry, so easily done.

After he rose, it is the Scarecrow's turn. The ones out in the mist, several of them will move closer and some of them begin to become more visible as they do so. Oh God, no. My Roll20 is all messed up. I'll move that around in a minute. You see at least two more uh beginning to draw closer still about 100 feet away but they are running full pelt uh towards you and there are still more shapes behind them um further away uh rose uh the one

in front of you will uh attempt to use its terrifying glare. I need you and Ismark to make wisdom saving throws, please. I rolled a nat 20. Nice. So you feel this thing kind of lets out this kind of laugh, and you feel like this tightness in your chest like a wave hit you but knowing the danger you're in knowing the things that you've already faced in barova you steal your heart and both you and ismark sturdy yourselves against it and you you succeed i couldn't see it properly because i was crying my eyes were crying that's exactly it yeah uh dog's

body they're not going to attempt to frighten you. The two scarecrows next to you simply try and slash at you. They simply try and with a flurry of claws. Slash. So they get two attacks each. First one against you is 19 to hit. Hit. Second one is an 18 to hit. Hit.

Okay. So, I need you to make two separate wisdom saving throws and take some damage for me. I'm resistant to slashing damage. Ah, are you raging? Oh, because you're in your hybrid form, right? So you get the resistance from that.

I keep thinking you're a barbarian for some reason. So it would normally be five slashing damage you half it to two um so two points of slashing damage from the first attack what was the first wisdom save 18 at 19 19 that's fine the second slashing attack is uh six eight uh eight slashing damage half to four um and the second wisdom saving throw was 13 13 you still managed to kind of as these things are tearing you can feel like rivulets of your blood being spilt by these razor sharp claws you feel that same kind of tightening in your chest like a fear effect trying to take hold but you steal yourself against it um all of the other scarecrows move a little bit closer oh i'm really fire

wait maya does i have alchemist fire so do I one two three four five that is the other one I'm missing one where's one of my scaredy boys he's left got better things to do if you run clearly does you can't legally play them on the board, so they don't ever spawn. Actually, I can. Through the rules, I have money. You haven't played Monopoly before?

No. No more hotels. There's no more Scarecrows. You can't place any more. The Maya. Rhiannon Maya. Hello. So you can see all of this. You can see these two things jump on Dog's body just outside the fence,

kind of slashing at him with all these claws. You see Dog's body shift into this hybrid form. The giant spider is trying to free one of the children. Jesper is trying to free one of the children, but they're both still kind of tied up and struggling. Meanwhile, like one of these scarecrows is left inside the building. You can hear the sounds of fighting with your friends. What do you do?

I will wriggle and pulsate over towards Tom, Maya and Jesper. And I'll help them try and get these kids free. Pulsate and wriggle, you know. It's all the bugs keeping her moving, like all these insects inside her corpse.

Wow. Just Maya things. How do you want to try and free the kids? It's all the bugs keeping her moving, like all these insects inside her corpse. Ah. Just my things. Just my things. How do you want to try and free the kids? You've got two kids bound by ropes. I want to use my short sword and try and cut the ropes. Why the air quotes there, Rhi?

Why air quotes? Oh, because I imagine the sword being more like just a sharp piece of tree bark she just has on her arm or something. Oh, okay. It was better than I thought it was going to be. I thought you were just going to say a sharp piece of bone or something. So we're clear, Rhiannon.

A short sword deals piercing damage. Does it? Yep. So you strike at the rope. Go make an attack roll for me. I will try and pierce this rope. Oh! That's an 11.

An 11 hits. 11 hits. Still enough. Okay. Just a damage roll, I suppose? Just give me a damage roll. Ooh. Can I use my flies as well? You tell me.

Sure, if that's a thing you can do, tell me how it works and what you do. So I can cause my swarm of flies to assist me in the following ways. The target can take an extra d6 of piercing damage from the swarm or the attack must succeed in a strength saving throw or be moved by the swarm

or I can be moved by the swarm up to 5 feet in any direction. What would you like to do? I'd like to use the swarm to deal some extra d6 piercing damage please. Roll the extra damage and tell me the total with a modifier as well on the top. So that 9 11 damage 11 damage that is enough to whatever rope was still remaining from uh your the spider bite you you split it in half and it shreds uh as the the

biting insects and flies and bugs kind of tear the rope apart as uh you know they they burrow through it um the the boy the other the four year old boy is like oh i'm free creature like kind of like backs away from him in a panic and his brother like grabs his hand he's just like no do not panic we once our sister is free we must run um they're kind of looking around scared uh but you know knowing freedom is nearby we will remember this day as a day that re one shot a rope can i use my expert bonus action would that work technically i mean if you've if you have a bonus action and you fulfill the kind of because it's like when you make an attack with a weapon you get to make a hand crossbow attack right that's how it works you take the attack action yeah with a one-handed weapon you can use a bonus action you have taken the attack crossbow attack, right? That's how it works. You take the attack action, yeah, with a one-hand weapon. You can use a bonus

action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding. So can I try and use my crossbow? You're a ranger, right? You have another attack with your main weapon as well. You have two attacks with your main weapon. Can I try the other rope? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yep. Nice.

That's enough. Well, that was a d6 you rolled. That was a d6. That wasn't an attack roll. Oh, that's enough well that was a d6 you rolled that was a d6 that wasn't an attack roll oh that's okay then i'll just be a nut one okay that's you step up to the and this is the young girl that yes was trying to free with the sun sword you step up and your arm bark sword kind of strikes down and connects with it again so roll damage nice and can I use that fly thing more than once a turn don't think you can

okay but it only had one hit point left though didn't it because we'll find out yeah it's just the one okay so that's three five damage five points of damage half to two is enough to split the one point of health left on the rope so you can come down and puncture the rest of it and yeah it splits the rope and it was like barely like you know it was

only because she's such a young girl she couldn't break it herself um because it was like all these like thin strands but you kind of managed to shred the rest of it and she kind of and she like looks up uh and this you know she's she looks human like she doesn't look like the other rare ravens she just looks like a normal human girl um dark hair but you know pale skin uh the two boys grab her um and the eldest one kind of like half picks her up. He's not quite big enough to fully pick her up, but they basically both grab her, and with Jesper's warning, without even really saying anything, they scramble for the hole,

and they shove their sister through, and they begin kind of crawling their way through to try and escape as best they can. He's got that freedom of movement, so he can basically... He does, yeah, so he's helping them pull through. Teleport and fly away? Something like that?

No, that's not how freedom of movement works however you do notice that the the circle that was blocking out dog's body in the adult were ravens isn't stopping the kids leaving it like okay it seems to have been it seems to have the circle was stopping creatures getting in not creatures getting out um so it was designed as a lure, almost, to get the sense that this thing was built to lure the were-ravens and trap them. So yeah, they scrabble out, and they look up,

seeing these two terrifying scarecrows tearing into Dog's body, who is now also a werewolf. There is this moment where it looks like they may panic. I'm going to roll some stats, roll some saves for these tiny children. I'm a lovable woofer, though. You are.

It looks like one of the boys freezes in fear, but the older boy that you had spoken to and even the little girl are like, come, we must run, and they're kind of tugging at their sleeve and they begin running towards the mansion to try and get away dog's body unless there's anything you want to do else uh rianne and maya

oh oh yeah um can i bonus action cast uh zephyr strike please yes you absolutely can what does zephyr strike do uh so um once before spell ends, you can give yourself advantage on one weapon attack roll on your turn. The attack deals an extra 1d8 of force damage on a hit. That's next time I hit with a melee weapon. Cool. Great. All right. Yeah, you kind of load that up on yourself as you're stood inside the pen. Cool. Dog's body.

Sweet. Can I... I would like to bite my hand and activate my crimson right ritual um of lightning so i take three points of damage um do that um but i want to apply the blood that comes from my hand onto the blood spear. Not my great axe. So I want the blood spear to be magical. Crimson right. And then I'm going to attack the scarecrow that I was attacking before. You're going to switch to the blood spear now?

Okay. Switching to that. So as you grip the spear, what was the attack roll? And then I'll finish my bit. 16 plus 9, so 25. That's going to hit. Roll damage while you're doing that.

As you grip the spear, you do hear, less of a hearing it, but you feel that familiar sensation. This kind of spirit, it seems to kind of instill you with this air of command and this air of kind of royalty as you bring, and also a hunger and a thirst as you stab into it. There is this kind of unpleasant sensation. This creature that you're fighting doesn't have blood and the spear is not very pleased by that.

It doesn't like that it cannot drink. It cannot feed as the spear plunges into its chest. Would it react to my own blood coating it? Oh, it loves that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, delicious. Sweet. to my own blood coating it oh it loves that oh yeah yeah delicious sweet great i love that i end up with these weapons um i actually rolled really well in damage i rolled um seven on my d8 uh plus seven points of damage so that's a 14 um spear damage 14 points of damage to the same scarecrow you were attacking

before it's magical magical yeah so this time the spear strikes through it like hot iron just carves through it and it's you can see it riding it takes the full

damage and then 5 points of lightning damage to it as well five points of lightning damage yeah this time that lightning arcs through its body all along its metal rake like claws i have one more attack uh so i will repeat uh i rolled i rolled a five plus nine, so 14 to a hit. Just hits, yep. Well, not just, but it hits. Six on my spear, so 13 points of piercing damage

and six points of lightning damage. You rolled six damage. I'm just making sure that you're not doubling up on bonuses here. Yeah, six on the d8, plus seven. Plus seven. Oh, because you've got the werewolf thing, and it's a plus one weapon. Because I've got werewolf power, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just making sure you weren't doubling up on the magic bonus and stuff. Yeah, that even without the lightning the spear breaks this scarecrow in half it just kind of leaves it this splintered remains on the ground um the other one shows no sign of remorse or panic um but yeah one of them is now broken at your feet um but the spear is unhappy uh it definitely gets the sensation that it is unpleased with the lightning damage, because I'm not really

I'm not like Ayla, I'm just wondering if the lightning damage would jump onto another scarecrow not from the crimson, right it doesn't, no so it does say on the spear when you hit with melee attack using this magic spear and reduce the target to 0 hit points you gain 2d6 temporary hit points.

It doesn't specify that it's a creature without blood. It doesn't, but I'm going to say that the nature of the spear's history and the kind of story behind the spear, it has to be something that conceivably either has or had blood. This is a construct. There's nothing for the spear to feed off. Even if you struck like a vampire, I would still say you would get that

benefit because there's still something to feed off. There is no essence to really feed off this thing. So I'm going to say unfortunately, against the scarecrows, you don't get that benefit. Same way, like if you struck a ghost, I'd be like, no, sorry. No special bloods for you.

I know, but it's in keeping with the theme of the item. Oh, well. Cool. Well, that's still one destroyed. Anything else, Dog's Body? That is all my stuff. I'm done. Okay.

Irina will look over and see the kind of kids scrambling towards her towards the mansion. She'll call out to try and find Adrian and Stefania who have been sort of like flying around trying to kind of keep an eye on things. She kind of calls out like, the children! They are free!

Come and get them! Get out of here! Run! Whilst we try and hold these things at bay! And then she will take her rapier and she will try to assist Rose and Ismark against the remaining one. That is a hit. And B8 plus one.

That's eight points of damage to the one you've been fighting. Half to four. So Irena kind of sidesteps next to you, Rose, and like the three of you, you, Ismark, and Irena now all striking this one scarecrow. She pierces it and you can see a part of it breaks. Still standing. So Irena kind of sidesteps next to you, Rose, and the three of you, you, Ismark, and Irena now, all striking this one scarecrow. She pierces it, and you can see part of it breaks.

Still standing, but very badly injured. Tom Meyer. Don't forget you've got that bardic inspiration as well, Katie, as well, that she gave you. As a spider, I have a climbing speed of 40 feet, so I just want to just yeet myself over this wall and head to the nearest scarecrow, which I guess is the one on Rose?

It's the one on Dog's Body. It's the closest one to you. There's one on Dog's Body still. I'll go over and bite into that scarecrow, which is... 9 to hit what that is not enough no the scarecrow kind of nimbly leaps back as you lunge forward in this giant spider form i mean it just kind of leaps backwards

well it was shit and also piss um so i i was was nerd ruling a little bit earlier and it says here that I retain the benefit of any features from my class, race, or any other source while I'm wild. Okay. In that case, yeah, you do keep the poisoner feat then. Can I use a bonus action to apply poison to dog's body's weapon then?

So this is interesting is that from the poison is that from the poisoner feat to apply poison so i can apply poison for a bonus action rather than an action right but that that is when you're in a human form and have like a vial of poison on you you don't just make free poison with the poisoner feat you have to have a vial of poison to do it with as you are a spider i'm assuming that you would like to try and like apply your natural venom well apply is one word secrete is another i'd like to secrete please because it says here you can apply poison to a weapon or piece of ammunition as a bonus action instead of an action. You still have to have poison on you. Um... Can I make a secrete roll?

No, I'm not going to say you roll for it. I'll say as a giant spider, you can do this, but there will be some limitations. Because how much damage does the spider's poison normally do the spider's poison does 2d6 of damage same as a regular poison vial so yeah okay we'll keep it at that then yeah because um the poison the damage is actually a little bit higher um but we'll keep it at 2d6 and what's the saving throw on it what's the dc con save uh 14 oh sorry we'll keep that 2d8 so yeah we'll call it 2d6 yeah we'll call it 2d6 we'll keep it at the first but so yeah as a bonus action you kind of secrete your kind of giant

mandibles pause for a second as like uh dog's body like pulls back the spear and just drip this kind of glistening goo onto the end of it. Oh, you are welcome. I like you. Anything else, Maya? No, I've missed an attack. I've juiced all over the place. I think I'm done. Okay.

You see that skull like object that had risen you see that skull-like object that had risen up from the tree is dangerously close. Where's my icons? Here we go. It doesn't need to, though. What if it didn't flying overhead um because yeah there's going to be

some people go before uh but yeah you see the skull quickly approaching the tree in the very center moves and is heading towards you even through the mist you can see these giant legs like chicken's legs have sprouted out from the tree. And a small shack has ripped itself free from the tree itself. And the whole thing is now... Moving towards you. Jesper. Jesper.

Uh, Jesper. Upon seeing slash hearing these things from within the den that I'm still in, I'm going to, um... I can't fit through that hole, can I? That the kids escape from. The children just about squeezed through it. I'd say that unless you make it bigger, it's going to be difficult for you to get through.

I'm going to get out the same way I got in, which is climb over. Yeah. Athletics check. Athletics. Okay. That's 19. Easily enough, yeah.

So you can do the same thing. Do you want to jump down the last 10 feet or do you want to kind of safely climb down? All right, acrobatics check to see if you take any damage. That's 25. Easy. Yeah, you kind of leap down land superhero landing no problem yeah seeing it now uh this thing in the mist and that skull um anyone around me uh i will

shout this is a fight we do not need to take on we just need to leave let Let's run. And I'm going to start running away from it. Yeah. So, well, to do so, you have a couple of directions. So right now you are in the kind of ruins of this giant mansion and its gardens, right? The Irina, Ismark and Rose are all inside the ruined mansion itself. And that's like a big space. Like it's, you know, like sort of like 90 feet through. You're going to have to move into there,

then move out into the swamp, which is all difficult terrain, and then try and move your way through that. You could run south and into the mansion's gardens, and then there is a river bank just further beyond that. You could try and get to there and cross the river. Or you can run to the east, river uh bank just further beyond that you could try and get to there and cross the river or you can run to the um uh the east uh which is an again a kind of like swamp mist filled bog which is difficult terrain and then there is a much wider river uh to try and cross there as well um which

way do you want to try and run i think i'll call for everyone to head south towards the gardens um just because that is literally the opposite direction of where this tree is coming from i think cutting east and stuff like that they'd be able to catch us so that's yes but sinking he's gonna light the sun sword as like a beacon so that everyone else can follow it um i know they know where we are anyway so it's all about outpacing them so i'm just gonna go and uh okay can i also make a quick look at where the children are right now in respects to the were ravens yeah so the children uh that was i forgot to do those at the end of the very round so the children kind of get outside the fence and they begin running towards the mansion as irena called out they're kind of in this gap between where the pen was and the walls of the mansion um and as they're running across

the two adult rare ravens sweep down they gather the kids up in their arms and they have just enough movement to basically take off um up into the air they don't manage to really get away but they've got them up they're in their arms and it looks like they're about to just try and fly away. Adrian will call out, like, we will go in a different direction, see if we can split up, whether she chases you or us. Good luck. And then they're going to basically try and fly off in a different direction to try and basically make it

so that Barbala Saga can't follow all of you at once. Yeah, she's going to have to choose who she chases. In which case, Jesper. You sprint off into the gardens, Jesper. Yes, and you're calling for everyone to follow you okay when you start making your way through these are heavily overgrown thick uh gardens with statues and stone benches as you are making your way through four giant poisonous snakes emerge out of the shrubs and the stones and kind of try to grab onto it. Listen, man, it's in the module. I can't.

What do you want from me? They're like rope ropes. It's worse. Oh, no! Our greatest enemy. Sentient rope. No! No!

sentient rope no I think Jesper seeing the children and the Adrian call out this sun sword being lit in the air is almost like he wants to attract the attention of Babalazaga to make sure they get away

I'm totally factoring that in you are this bright the sunlight because sunlight's such a rare thing in barovia it is very obvious to everything around you the misting burns away as well yeah yeah it burns it away like the fog hates the sunlight and it just becomes you know this clear bright daylight uh i just have to add some stats for these snakes. Manual initiative thing. 1 AC, 1 HP. Poisons. Just trying to make it easy for you, Mark.

Listen, he doesn't know that. This is the thing. So yeah, these things will basically get a surprise round because you just rush through like you had no way of knowing that they were hidden there without checking yeah yeah and so they basically make a bite attack against you yes but as you run through you're basically provoking opportunity attacks and say the first one the first one is a

23 that beats it yeah that's that's gonna be six points of piercing damage and can you make a constitution saving throw please poison perfect this is how you do it tom you're not a rope you don't know that seven living rope seven oh no that's 10 points of poison damage the first one bites into your leg uh the second one is only a 14 to hit. Okay, that doesn't hit. The next one is, oh my God, a 19 to hit. Can you make another con save for me, please,

and take another five points of piercing damage? 19. 19, you take five points of poison damage from a successful save. Five, so 10 points of damage total. And then the last one misses you as well the last one kind of snaps behind you um but you see these four snakes these kind of like they're they're large you know they're not like large the dnd size but they're big snakes and they come slithering out

of the bushes out of the behind under stone benches and they have trained on you as a prey and they are it's like everything has the same motive right now yeah yeah uh rose van endy god's sake um do i see any of that happen to jesper i think from your position you definitely hear like jesper crying out in like pain and stuff like that or like surprise you probably wouldn't see the snakes until you move out of where you currently are so you're currently in like this ruined mansion interior once you move out into the gardens which is probably going to take like a turn then you'll be able to see the snakes, but, yeah. Okay, can I... I've still got a scarecrow in front of me, so...

Very badly injured scarecrow, but it is still there, yes. I'll try and hit the scarecrow again before I go. 13 to hit. 13 hits, yeah. This thing is not super hard to hit 13 hits yeah this this thing is not super hard to hit and the second one will be 12 to hit that hits both hits so seven damage on the first one after three seven damage with that second blow even though it's been resistant to your steel you manage to kind of

plunge the short sword in multiple times stabbing it stabbing it again stabbing it again and eventually it just breaks this great crack forming down its central body and it just splinters into pieces and straw around you um it is defeated

I will move towards where yes burn has indicated that we move but I guess I won't get too far yeah absolutely I don't know where I put you so you're just you put the ghost token instead of me nice excellent perfect exactly what i want to do too there's too much shit there's too much shit going on okay good duck hang on here we go uh so you move out and yeah rose unfortunately you see yes but like running he's about 30 feet ahead of you as he's been running through these gardens

and about 30 feet behind him are these four snakes that have like slithered out and sensing more prey. They kind of are just trying to decide which one they want to go for as you see these snakes all around him. Cool. Is that it? You done? Yeah.

I mean in your turn. I know you're done with the game overall. I understand that. That's fine. No, I can't do anything else. I'm done. I've moved. Right. Dog's body is Mark and Irina. Two more of the scarecrows come out of the mist. They have to spend all their movement,

so that's the end of their turn. But one of them jumps up through the window that Rose has just vacated and is now stood next to Irina and Ismark. Dog's body, another one comes rushing up to replace the one you've just destroyed. Just kind of comes screaming out of the mists. And then there are two more.

I'm just going to reveal them on the map now about three more oh three more okay that was seven in total but they're still a fair ways out for the moment uh dog's body one is still able to attack you though so it will try and strike you twice. That's a 17 to hit. I'm also in range of that in case that changes anything. I don't think it would go for the spider just yet. This one is... Because this is the one that started fighting Dog's Body initially. It's, like, focused on Dog's Body.

So 17 hits, yeah? fighting dog's body initially it's like focused on dog's body so 17 hits yeah uh four five points of slashing damage for half to two and can you make a wisdom saving throw please and then the second attack is also gonna hit uh 19 20 uh 30 20 okay yep you succeed the next one is another five points half to two and another wisdom saving throw. This thing is just ravaging you with claws. Ten. Ten on the wisdom saving throw. So being surrounded by all these enemies, seeing this giant floating skull,

the sound of this tree moving, Jesper, your allies all around you screaming, you are frightened. Like this thing has just caused enough wounds that this primal instinct of being surrounded and and trapped uh sets in and you are frightened until the end of its next turn um so you have to you can't willingly move closer and you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks whilst this thing is within your vision range all right uh that is it for the scarecrows and then she arrives uh round two initiative 20 through the mists descending down comes this giant skull that's just like you can it's like grimaced into like a scream and inside of it

hollowed out like a cauldron like a chariot is and you would have expected her to be this wretched old woman this you know the the stories that you've heard about her and everything else you expect her to be this wretched old woman but But instead you look up and it's like looking at an older female Strahd. Long, dark black hair like trailing behind her. These kind of ragged, tattered robes. But she has these like perfect cheekbones, this long, elegant features, these dark eyes. And she just looks down upon you with intense pleasure like a hunter who has found their prize yes yes my son will be so pleased that i have found you um and she looks

down and she will uh she will take in stock of everything that is going on. I thought to kill the ravens first, but I shall settle for all of you. And sensing the biggest cluster, which would be spider, mire, mire inside the fence, and dog's body, there will be the first thing she will cast is a fireball um and let's make this a fourth level fireball so deck saves please oh i got plus five on dex 19 That's not bad. 19. Spider boy. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Look at your resistances.

19. You are tieflings. Resistant to Maya. Right. What was the totals? 19 for me. 19. 14. Okay, the totals? 19 for me. 19. 14.

Okay, the two 19 succeed. Rhi, is that not a 19? That's a 14, but I am resisted to fire. You are resisted to fire. So, dog's body, you're going to take half. Rhi and Mai are going to take half. Tom Mai are going to take a quarter of this damage because you saved and you're resistant.

Oh, baby. That's a very high roll for my first set of numbers though 17 how much i have neat okay 27 30 31 so 15 to those of you taking half and seven points of fire damage to uh the regular maya I'm still a spider as the fireball erupts the scarecrow by the way next to you dog's body is incinerated she just she incinerates it in fact actually no they were because I'll make screaming throws for them because they might survive it nope that one doesn't that one doesn't they're both incinerated because they take double damage so from fire no more frightened

no more frightened Baba Lasaga does not seem to be at all concerned with her puppets as this fireball erupts around you she just kind of smiles it's just like I'll kill some of you but yes

yes the Vistani boy and the woman. I'll take you back to my son. He'll reward me. Wait, son? Who is the son? Mama Lasaga. Mama Lasaga. Yeah, that's what she does to us.

Rhiannon Meyer. Hello. Okienon Meyer. Hello. Okie dokie. Okie diddly dokie. Crikey. Well, things have certainly changed. I'm going to use my little fly nimbus cloud and hop up over the fence.

And then using my zephyr strike, I get an extra 30 feet of movement this turn. As a point, Barbala Saga is in her giant skull, flying about 40 feet above you all.

She's in the air. Is it a skull skull or is it made out of trees? It's a giant skull. No, it's a giant skull? Is it like made out of tree? It's a giant skull. No, it's a giant, like, it looks like some sort of deformed cyclopean creature. It's like a cyclops's skull and she's hollowed it out and is riding in it like a chariot.

Like eye socket. No, she's like in the top of it. Like she's hollowed out the roof of the skull like a chariot. So you've got like this skull art, like this open eye socket and jaw at the front and then she's in the top of it like c chariot. So you've got this skull art, this open eye socket and jaw at the front and then she's in the top of it cackling. Like Bowser?

Yeah. There's a little bit of Bowser's little copter. There is an element of baby Bowser or Bowser. Don't make me picture that. Life goals. Super Mario World Bowser in his little copter car.

That's amazing. What are you doing, Rhi? I will shuffle over to where the sun sword is. Follow the sun sword. Can I get to Jesper in that movement?

You can. You would be walking past. I mean, the snakes haven't gone yet so they don't have another opportunity attack so you could run through opportunity attacks for this uh this turn oh because it's definitely strike okay yeah you could easily just like yeah weave your way through these snakes and and get uh close to yes but with that extra 30 feet of movement, yeah, for sure. Yes, please. I'd like to do that then, please. And then can I cast Barkskin on Jesper?

You can certainly try, for sure. Can you do that on other people? I don't know if you can cast it on other people. Cool. It says you touch your willing creature. I think you can, yeah. There you go. Bam. So you touch touch your willing creature. I think you can, yeah. Oh, there you go.

Bam. So you touch Jesper. What does the spell effect do? So the target's skin has a rough texture. Target AC can't be less than 16 regardless of what kind of armor it's wearing. Okay. What's your AC normally, Jesper?

17. Okay. So it means that if anything would lower your AC, it can't go below 16, but underneath your le normally, Jesper? 17. Okay, so it means that if anything would lower your AC, it can't go below 16, but underneath your leathers, your skin takes on this bark, wooden texture. All these bugs seem to crawl over you.

Is he good? I think Jesper would instinctively react to like, No, I'm not ready to be part of you. Protect the sword. Protect the sword. Protect the sunlight. Anything else on your turn, the mire? I'm good.

I'm good. Thank you. Creep out Jesper more. Creep out Jesper. Jeez. Dog's body um what what is i'm just a i'm losing track of how many scarecrows are trying to murder me um do i still have one right now none because they were incinerated by fire but you can see that there are more out in coming in this direction. Yeah.

Are there any... Did the one, like, near Irena and Ismark, did that get incinerated as well? No, that did not. No. Okay. So they're still at risk. Yeah, they're inside the mansion. They're fighting that thing inside the actual mansion itself.

Yeah, Irena is in danger. Yeah. And the ravens have flown off, like all the children. They're about to, yeah. At the end of this round, they will basically fly off with their kids. But Babalasaga does not seem interested in them anymore.

She's got a greater prize to chase. I want to run. I desperately want to run, because I quite like Dog's body, and I'd like him to even survive just in the woods somewhere, just eating bugs. But given that he's got this little ring on his finger, he

is going to saunter casually over to Can he get to Irena and his mark? Yep, you can get to Irena and his mark. It's about 30 feet away. And I will attack this scarecrow that is giving them some problems. So that is a 10 plus 9, so 19 to hit. That hits. I rolled a 7, so 14 piercing damage, 2 lightning damage, and then poison? What do we do with the poison? Poison has no effect on the scarecrows. They are immune to poison.

I didn't think so. The spider venom splashes all over its body and these wooden made of straw constructs do not seem to be affected by the poison but the lightning and the magic of the spear causes this grievous wound inside its chest and it does

stumble back for a second um second attack tom's looking at me like he was giving riannon shit for the bark skin thing and all this time i'm like i can't wait till that poison play comes into the bark skin no you made a face you made a face no it was something that Rhiannon wouldn't have known, like that, yes, his AC was higher than the bark skin would give. I was just kind of like, oh, for fuck's sake. And you wouldn't have known that scarecrows ruin me into poison. So it all plays out.

I mean, there was that little bit where Mark was like, yeah, you don't get 2d6 because this thing is a construct and isn't living kim it's fine um anyway doesn't matter anyway we're gonna die in the next round uh i rolled a 12 uh plus nine is that um i rolled a five uh plus seven seven eight nine ten eleven twelve um spear damage and four lightning damage and then can i also just uh is mark irena get away go run yep yep you call out to them um and they they definitely will uh try and do that uh they they unfold uh irena so is mark uh will he's going to try and do something because right now the scarecrow is still threatening him and irena if they try and run they'll get it will get an opportunity attack so is mark will basically try and shoulder barge it away from irena he's going to try and make a shove action so that she can get away versus its strength.

And he does. He kind of shoulder barges this thing into the wall of the ruined mansion. So you and Ismark are now between it and Irina. And he just, he turns and he's like, Irina, go to Rose and Jesper. We can hold this thing off. And then Ismark is just like, I'm not

leaving you here, dog's body. And he spins his flare around and he's gonna make one one more attack it's a miss uh but he still like tries uh you know it smashes into the stone the flail kind of like knocking out loose wall stones and things like that uh irina will listen uh she's not stupid she understands what's going on she will uh rush out into the gardens following rose and yesper um and seeing that yesper is heavily poisoned she will uh rush out into the gardens following rose and yesper um and seeing that yesper is heavily poisoned she will cast healing word uh on yes but at second level but not for a lot of hit points i'm afraid that was awful uh 2d4 plus what is it four that's six hit points yes but oh two ones i know why we keep irena around

but as a bonus action she will also bardic inspiration she just kind of lets out this operatic aria uh which uh magically instills yes for you with a bardic inspiration die which is a d6 all right cool uh but that But that's it. And she's just behind Rose. So she's currently like in the order of fleeing. Ismark and Dog's body are inside the mansion with one of these scarecrows. Irina is then just about leaving the mansion. Rose is outside just behind Jesper in the gardens.

Jesper is in the garden surrounded by snakes. Giant Spider is still outside the pen um and uh maya riannon is out in the gardens next to yesper as well just to give you a kind of rundown of where everybody is currently um spider maya um so i was next to dog's body before uh dog's body ran away so i don't think there's any scarecrows next to Dog's Body before Dog's Body ran away, so I don't think there's any Scarecrows next to me. There are not. So I'm going to try and flee. Once I telepathically hear the mire say,

protect the Sun Sword, I want to head towards the Sun Sword. Sure. So would I, with 40 feet of movement, get close to a snake, I guess? No, you'll be able to get to next to, just behind Rose with 40 feet. Other one had, other Maya had 60 feet of movement that turn.

In that case, I'll just hold an action to bite something that comes near. Okay. And I will put two legs in the air and sort of flick them like a little spider mating dance. Like, hey, attack this. Sure. The four snakes that Jesper disturbed

are going to focus on their prey, which is currently Jesper. Like, they've already bitten him several times. They're going to, unfortunately, keep trying to do that. I need to get those stats up. Here they are. So Jesper, 18 to get those stats up. Here they are. So, yes, Burr. 18 to hit.

All right. That's eight piercing damage and another con save for me, please. It was out of the three directions. This was the worst one to flee. Nine. That's ten more poison damage, I'm afraid. That's 22 to hit that's another eight piercing damage and another con save i'm down yep um yes for down now that's interesting so the bite damage took you down yes yes not the poison you still need to make a con save nine you take an automatic death saving throw as you take poison damage from the bite

okay you see like this snake just bite onto the jasper's thigh he goes pale white and just falls to the ground and is convulsing foam and spittle at the corner of his mouth. I'm like a birch tree now. Yeah. Sensing that this foe is dealt with, the other two snakes will turn to Rose and they're going to go for Rose now.

So you get a held action, Tom, as the spider. Yeah. That was just a bite, i will bite uh with my bite when i bite i do bite damage wow biting 12 to hit 12 to hit um is not enough the the snake kind of whips itself to the side what is going going on? These ropes, damn it. These danger ropes. Rose, that's 21 to hit you, I'm afraid. Yep.

Seven piercing damage, and I need you to make a con save. 16 on the con save. Okay, you take five poison damage because it's a successful save. And the second snake. I roll better with these snakes than i have with some of my bad guys in a rowis um the second snake does miss however it's only a 10 to hit so the second snake kind of leaps forward to try and bite you and you manage to

kind of jump back as it does so um those of you uh dog's body still in the mansion you can see that giant walking cabin is slowly making its way towards you um it isn't going particularly fast but it is coming um kind of it's not the top of my uh problems list my priority list right now mark if i'm honest no i understand uh yes but i need you to make a death saving throw for me please as it as it is your round. It's all right. Nat 20. Is. Oh, my God.

It really is as well. It really is. It's a Nat 20, baby. Holy crap. There's something. Your hand is still gripped around the hilt of the sun sword and you can feel yourself in unconsciousness and it's almost a welcome piece right there was pain so much pain and then there's just blessed like nothing and then you can just feel that warm kiss of sunlight on your skin you know when it's a sunny day and you just feel that kind

of warm tingle against your skin and it spreads through sunny day and you just feel that kind of warm tingle against your skin and it spreads through your fingertips and you can hear that voice of madam ava not yet and you kind of grip the sword and your eyes snap open and you kind of sense you can feel the snake still around you but coming to consciousness um i believe that's at the start of your turn. So that brings me to consciousness? One hit point. It's what you are on one hit point. All right. And the snakes seem to have moved on to...

Two of them are still next to you. Two of them have moved on to Rose because they didn't have a chance to move after they bit you. All right. I'm going to attack one of them, like kind of swiping on the floor with my sun sword. Yeah. So like...

Yeah. I would say you have advantage on this attack because they think you are dead. Oh, it's a nat 20. 29. Two in a row! Two in a row, baby! What?

Yeah. I love it. Amazing. I did some coding and now it's always nat 20. It works. Right, well, I mean, you you're gonna hit the snake so give me that sweet sweet damage roll all right so that is it's doubled right the max damage yeah we do the crit rule so it's max damage plus six so uh 14 plus whatever you just rolled seven so 21 points of damage

you chop one of the snakes in half you just and it just splits like you cut the nope rope firmly in twain and it dies danger noodles my half actually no I would get my secondary attack Straight after this is aware of you now this snake is now where there's no advantage. This is my like offhand attack of No, this is your second attack with a sun sword you get two attacks with a sun sword and then a bonus action with your dagger Because you have extra attack, right? Well, that's the dagger for after um okay yeah yeah we'll keep that roll but we'll do 15 for the sun sword that hits yep the second you kind of lean over you roll one way strike that one lean over the other way and strike the next one next

to you 14 with the sun sword you chop that one in half. It just cleaves through it, kind of sending this radiant mist up into the air. Right. And I stand up for half my movement at this point. So you're 20 feet back. What is... Is Spider Druid-y Boy being attacked by another snake? Is that right?

Rose is being attacked by two snakes, but they're 30 feet away from you. I will use 20 feet of movement to get as close as I can and prepare myself to do more. You could throw your dagger if you wanted to but then you'd obviously use the dagger. I'll throw the dagger. So you keep that 17

so you hit. Alright. Sweet. And that is six points of piercing damage. Okay, it doesn't quite kill the snake but it kind of thuds into its tail and almost pins it to the ground for a moment and you can see the snake writhe in pain.

Okay, cool. That's me. Alright, Rose, you're up. Is there a way that I can skirt the snake and get next to yesper or no well the two of them are on you right now no so they're the two of them next to you they're attacking okay well i'll hit i'll hit the one that yes bruce got pinned with the dagger i'll hit it with my sword can I transfer my slayer's prey onto it yes I believe you can do that

and that is 14 plus 9 wait no 14 plus 7 sorry and it hits 7 damage on the first strike with that you pierce it through it's the top of its head bringing the short sword down um you just finish it off whatever pain and injury it sustained from

the dagger throw you finish it off can i move my prey onto the other one you can as long as that's a free action to do i think it automatically moves if something's dead. Sure, check it in between your next turn. Oh, no, wait, it's a bonus action. Okay, so you've done it once. The first time you turn, it just says the benefit lasts until you finish a short or long rest, or if you designate a different creature. So the bonus action will spend at the very start.

Oh, okay, in that case yeah I think it sounds like it's a free action to just move it I think yeah so the next one is 15 plus 7 to hit that hits not very hard to hit unless you're a spider 8 damage with the sword

and then ooh 6 with slayer's prey so 14 damage total you skin it like you split it in half you just kind of like drive the short sword down and then like with a flick of the wrist it just cuts the snake in half um leaving it like a dissected corpse on the ground all the snakes are dead okay and i will use my movement just to go and i guess stand next to yes for now you move up next to yes but sure okay yep easily done uh you move ahead uh anything i think that's pretty much everything you can do right yes i have done everything two three four um scarecrows still running in from the mist uh they're basically just spending all their turn to run a full pelt as quickly as they can uh the one inside the mansion will uh make um

hmm or no it would probably use its its fear gaze now yeah uh is mark and dog's body i need you to make wisdom saving throws please is mark fails oh no 13 13 you succeed dog's body but you see is mark like he glances back to his sister and then when he turns this burlap stitched mask is right in his face and you just see uh what i because he's got one of his eyes covered up is mark goes white with fear and his body freezes in place he's paralyzed cool the other scarecrows spend all their movement babalasaga's go uh she flies overhead um at a rapid speed uh and will look down at everybody ah perhaps she kind of looks in in yes this direction that sword that sword cannot be allowed to exist no I feel

it's so bad but I'm just like he's alive and he's got the sun sword and this is like the worst fucking thing but I think this is what you would do when you attack me thing I need you to make a constitution saving throw Jesper she raises a single finger

and a beam of black light streaks out towards you oh fuck uh you're holding the sun sword like she knows what this means uh okay i i don't even really want to roll the damage because it doesn't matter um i going to roll it just because I want to see and chat will freak out I've got 1 HP Mark I know well I guess we still need to see

the max I have oh right yeah no it doesn't matter 14 45 is my max wait isn't this the one that when you get to 0 with it it just insta kills you regardless

oh that's angry isn't it I mean it was going to be 59 necrotic damage however if you're killed by this spell this is finger of death it rises as a zombie immediately basically

so you watch as this black beam strikes Jesper in the chest and yes but everything just goes black you just feel everything go black you feel your body almost kind of distend from you as you see this scene unfold as your spirit joins the mists of barovia you feel your very essence being pulled into the mists. You see dozens of other Vistani almost waiting for you in open arms. And there's a sense of relief as you're kind of welcomed in by family. And they know what's happened to you. There is a sense of grief and remorse.

But as you're kind of enveloped, you watch as your own body clutching the sun sword stands up and begins making its way towards the others bearing the sun sword. Yeah! I'm glad he's telling us. He's actually celebrating it. It's awful. It's evil. It's under

Babalasaga's control. It specifically states in the spell. It's not the Maya, right maya's not under babalosaga's control um i just i basically want to end up with a party of monsters i know you do i know you do i love it i'm done in in a story way, this is amazing because if Jesper can kill the pie... Yes! I'll be happy as a player. Jesper! Yeah, that's pretty much Babalasaga's ghost.

So Rhiannon, Maya... Maya, you see Jesper go down. You see his body just turn pale and white. And then a few moments later his eyes pure black he just kind of like gets up and starts lurching towards you and Rose would Maya know

what a zombie is would they have any understanding of what's just happened i think considering you're so connected and your whole thing is you you guys don't like undead because it's not part of the maya this that is not a natural body that is not a body that the maya can consume or that the maya is going to be returned to the land that is coming towards you hmm okay interesting okay so upon seeing

that I think Maya would see it as like Jesper defying them in a way like it's not natural you know like he's defied the natural order of things.

So... And he wields the Sun Sword. He's got the Sun Sword. He's got the Sun Sword. Wouldn't that be really tasty for the Maya? I'm gonna cast darkness around us okay

so in like a 15 foot sphere surrounding like starting at me and Jesper and then Rose and then yeah so just to give a positioning you and Rose are stood next to each other Jesper's about 10 feet away from you and then the others are all actually uh no and then spider guy is with you yeah so no oh yeah you moved up to him didn't you you moved up next to him god i'm right next to yes so rose and yes for next to each other you're sort of like 10 feet away from them. And then Spider-Boy is 30 feet from them as well.

So about 20 feet behind you. So if you move up to Rose and Jesper, you can cast darkness around all three of you. If you move 10 feet up to them, you could surround yourself with that darkness. Yeah, I'll do that. Okay. All right.

So you move up. Okay. So you move up next to them and you conjure this darkness. Now, there's one thing I need to check on darkness. And can you read the sun sword trot? It's... Does it say anything about dispelling magical darkness? Um... Oh, this is all lore.

Alright, hang on. I'll see if I can get it. Because I think it's a sun blade. I think it's based on. Come on, Windows. Stop messing with me here. Sun blade, isn't it? I think it's based on. Yeah. It just tells me about this braid emits bright light in a 15 foot radius and dim light the light is sunlight

okay all right so it doesn't say it specifically counters darkness okay so what we see is uh the maya this this swarm of insects just spreads out from the maya and almost creating like a dome of buzzing black shelled beetles and flies it tries to blot out uh the very light around it and creates this fear of darkness around it rose you're you are blinded you immediately cannot see anything you just see the mayire move up to you, and then there is just darkness. Even the light of the sun sword cannot be seen. It's just completely gone.

That's your action, Rhi. Is there anything else you would like to do? That is my turn. All done. Thank you. Okay. Dog's body. Okay. Dog's body. Okay.

I'm not entirely sure how I would action this, but can I, seeing Esma go rigid, I guess, can I grab him and try and carry like start running away with him like if I kind of sling him over my shoulder you'll provoke an opportunity attack and I'd probably say it's harder to defend yourself so I'll give him advantage on the opportunity attack

but it would just be the one opportunity attack um okay and would this be an action because I'm just wondering if I can get a cheeky little healing hands in there on myself I'm going to say to grab a fully grown man and carry him and move out probably going to be closer

to an action here I'm not going to make you roll for it because you're strong enough but like I don't think you're going to have time to like conjure the magic to heal yourself and grab Ismark and pull him away and make a run for it but once you've moved away next turn yeah yeah i don't know if it helps but i have like feral strength and um feral might and yeah

i'm not gonna make you roll like i'm not gonna make you do an athletics check to carry him because his mark's like got his armor his gear like you're probably carrying close to like 200 and something pounds like 300 pounds or something. But rather than make you roll for it, I'm just going to say it's your full action to grab him, turn your back to the scarecrow and just run for it and let this thing kind of try and rake you across the back. I'll do that then. Okay.

It does hit, but you are resistant to slashing in your current form. That's seven, half to three. You take three points of slashing damage as you grab his mark and kind of thing now i probably say that even with all your strength carrying him for a long time is going to quickly be tiring like if you try and dash yeah um you know the more you try and dash if you just move 30 feet no no problem if you try and dash with him too many times it's probably probably going to be constitution saving throws. You can move your full movement.

I can move 40 feet being a werewolf. While I'm grabbing him, I'll just be shouting at him like, come on, wake up, buddy. Wake up. Come on, let's go. Sure. And then you basically want to dash outside as well. so as far as

my movement take although i guess i need to be near irena don't i so can i still be you can stop next to irena yeah you could you could like stop next to irena she's 30 feet away from the scare scarecrow so pretty lady a heel might be nice i can feel the voices calling uh she looks around and you can see her just staring at what's happened and you don't you've not seen what happened to yes but yet dog's body she's just staring into this sphere of darkness and then as you kind of get next to her and you're calling out, like, pretty lady, I need him, she, like, blinks. And then she turns and she's like, yes, yes, you need to be healed. She's going to use a second-level healing word for eight hit points. Yay!

Dog's body. All right, just got to keep away from that blood frenzy. You need to make sure that you look after Rose and his mark and after she heals you as a bonus action she is gonna start moving out of side the mansion in the direction of Babalasaga

wait what the Maya Marina Marina so we're on the same page The Maya. Marina. Marina! Spider-Maya. So we're on the same page, Maya. When you say this new Jesper is unnatural, are we talking, like, bad guy unnatural?

Or, like, you know, kill on sight kind of bad? I just want to be on the same page, Maya. Yeah, he's defied the natural course of things, Spider-Maya. He came back from the dead. He's now depriving us of food, the Maya. Got you, Fly-Maya. Got you, Fly-Maya.

In that case, I will run... Fly-Maya-Maya. I will run into the darkness, and as a spider, I have blind vision, or blind sight, for ten feet, and I will

shower down on Jesper so you don't suffer the penalties of being blind you can make an attack roll as normal nice oh for the love of fuck five

like an unnaturally strong like he does seem to retain some of that kind of grace um and he kind of dodges to the side as this giant spider more kind of bites beside him um all right uh yeah and that's me once with this goddamn spider maybe don't be a spider uh zombie yes but trot i would like you to roll a d20 for me please hell yeah will uh this is 19 okay now who's the most likely target? Well, it's under Babalasaga's command. She knows that Rose is there.

It's probably going to be against Rose. Would a 19 hit Rose? Yeah. Of course it would. What damage do you normally do with a sun sword to drop? What's your damage? Plus six. Wait, isn't everyone in darkness right now?

Oh, wait. He is. Zombie is. What's your damage? 1d8 plus 6. Wait, isn't everyone in darkness right now, though? Oh, wait, advantage. Yeah, okay. He is. Yeah, zombie is. What's your strength score, Jesper? What's your normal attack? You use dex for the sun sword, don't you?

Yes. So what's your dex score? 9 plus 9 is the attack. So 19 is my dex. When do you have zombie stats next? Yeah, that's what I'm looking at. So the sun sword is... Sorry, hang on. I've got to figure this out because he's using the sun sword

but he has a zombie stats. Zombie dex is 6. Minus 2. Oh, but he can use strength as well. I've got the zombie stats up here, Tom. Don't you be worrying about me, my boy. Don't you be worrying. I've just loaded up a zombie for my own benefit. Yeah, no, he's using strength as a zombie,

which is 13, which is plus one. So your proficiency bonus... I guess you would still use the basic attack of this, but the sun sword... Does it have, like, any inherent bonuses? Like, magic bonuses that's what i was trying to see so your proficiency bonus is plus three and then you're adding yeah plus four it looks like it's a plus two weapon actually um so that's going to be 19 plus 5 is 24 so that's going to

hit rose and then it's um the weapon is a d8 plus uh three so d8 plus three please drop all right that's five so five points of radiant damage rose as you feel this kind of burning light kind of rake across you um as the undead yesper strikes at you from inside the darkness uh it is now already it's well it's your turn and you are currently in a big just bugs and dark and wow what's going on? I was standing right next to Jesper, so can I make an attempt to, knowing that he's a zombie now, can I make an attempt to hit him? Yeah, yeah, you still have disadvantage.

Yeah, but in Rose's mind, she's thinking of when Shadow got turned into a vampire and said, kill me, don't let me be this, and she's going to do the same for Jesper. Sure, yeah, no, you can absolutely, you still have disadvantage because you are technically blind yeah but you know exactly where he is so if you hit you'll definitely hit um it is a disadvantage 18 18 hits yep oh is it now zombie stat ac is zombie okay eight damage can i move over my slayer's prey do you have to be able to see the creature to move over your slayers prey is the question

says if you designate it to a different creature it doesn't say anything about oh well it's when you start it's a creature you can see but i don't know if i know about it i would say that like switching over probably i'd say yes you can you can do it for now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just do the Slayers' Bray. Three damage. And then how much damage from the first attack? Sorry? Eight.

Eight plus three, so 11 points. There's a lot going on. I'm just trying to keep track of it all. So you definitely feel your short sword impact into something. into something. You feel, like, flesh kind of... Can I hit again? Yep, disadvantage. I'm probably not going to hit this time. 15.

You still hit. It's the zombie. It's not moving very quick. Six damage. Seven, eight, nine, ten. Sorry, ten damage. You don't get Slayer's prayer second time no i rolled i rolled a six on my dice plus four yeah okay yeah so 10 points of damage uh so yeah you hear like something again you impact against something whatever you're striking

you're definitely doing damage to it i'm not sure whether it's dead or not um yeah anything else and she'll probably get out of the darkness i think she'll probably say to the mire drop this we need to get the weapon that's it okay uh scarecrows they begin making their way in the one that's already inside will chase after dog's body and is mark um kind of chasing after you dog's body and it will make two attacks against you uh that is gonna be a 16 to hit yeah Yeah. 16 hits. 3, 4. 4 points of slashing damage. Half to 2. Natural 20, but you are

resistant, so I'm pretty sure this is going to be fine. 14. 14 damage, half to 7 slashing damage. It rakes down your back as you're carrying Ismark, desperately trying to get him free. Pulling him along beside you, but this thing is just jumping on your back, trying to bring you to the ground as it does so.

The other Scarecrows will just move in. Okay. Babalasaga on her turn. So who's outside the dome currently? So Irene is just in front of her, but inside the darkness,

it's both Myers, Rose, and Jesper, correct? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And then Dog's Body and Ismark are outside. She's not too worried about you two just yet. That's good. outside she's not too worried about you two just yet um that's good she will dispel the darkness because she doesn't know what you're planning

in fact actually no rose called out to drop the darkness um no she does this instead um you feel those of you who are in the dark sphere, the ground around you seems to become soft and earthen and you begin to feel things rising up out of it. She chants this kind of like, this kind of ancient deep speech. And yeah, you feel things beginning to kind of rise out of the darkness. The area around you in a 40 foot

sphere, so kind of a 20 foot sphere around you is now difficult terrain. If you start your turn there, something will happen to you. I know. So that's what she'll do. You know. The Maya, you start your turn

there. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw, please. Okay, okay. Maybe I don't know. That's a three, so eight total. Eight total. You take nine points of bludgeoning damage as some dark shape crashes against you

and wraps around your legs. You are now restrained. Oh. Okie dokie. But it is your turn. You are restrained, but... Yeah. You can try and use your action to break free, if you wish,

or you can make attacks. Restrained means you have disadvantage on attack rolls whilst you are restrained. And attack rolls against you have advantage. Oh, man. Oh, God. Just trying to see what I've got. Oh, yeah.

Can you make a concentration check for the darkness, actually? Thank you, Chair. There we go. It's gone. The darkness fades. The darkness vanishes. So as the the darkness all these swarms of insects burst away you see that the area around you is become this like the swamp has turned this inky black color and there are all these writhing tentacles in this area around you one of them has wrapped itself around one of the mires

as it is around you. The earth is trying to pull me back. No! I'm going to try and break free. Okay, yep, so it's your action

and you can use an athletics or an acrobatics check. Nah, nah, just no, it's a three. You just can't pull yourself three. And this isn't, this is like, this is magic. This isn't the earth trying to reclaim you. This is some dark witch magic trying to crush you as you feel it.

Oh my god. Yeah. Any bonus actions? I... I'll bonus action cast Halo Thorns on myself. Okay. I'll do that.

Sure. Dog's body. Did Ismark get any kind of saving throw to snap out of it? He will this turn. He will this turn. So he's still paralyzed by fear.

Still messed up. And Irina has wandered off to go stand in front of the witch. Okay, cool. She has, yep. Oh, I don't know what to do. And there's a bad thing behind me. There's lots of bad going on.

In terms of the ring, how much would that influence Dogbody because irena gave him a direct order right like go like you're not under mind control you just feel comfortable around her you feel you know loved and safe around her so i leave it to you how much it affects xeros well xeros doesn't have a heart her chest in half yeah yeah xeros doesn't have a heart i cut her chest in half yeah yeah xeros doesn't have a heart exactly whereas dog's body loves everyone

um i'm gonna i think with ismark's probably the more immediate problem like still being a rigid little boy um so i think i will continue moving um faye you can get to the edge of this inky dark shape but if you go

any further you're going to be like moving into this you know this pit of dark tentacles that dominate the gardens like yeah i don't yeah i don't think dog's body's dim enough to just drop his mark no that's what i'm saying you would stop at like yeah um if you try and go around it it will slow your movement so you won't get as far if you try and go around the sides of it uh is there another way i can run as well like if i was to go say uh you can go to the side but it's going to slow you down you're not going to get much further because this is a 40 foot radius so the the distance to catch up to where the rest of the party were is like 20 feet then you're going to get like 20 feet around the side basically now you can dash and keep trying to get around um if you want to yeah so with my 40 foot movement i want to move and dash and just get get ismark to safety like You get to the other side of the pit,

this conjured black inky darkness. You get to the other side of it, which is basically the far end of the gardens. So you guys are basically like over here now. You kind of get to the other side of the gardens away from the rest of the group with this great sort of gulf of inky darkness between you. And would I see Jesper?

Yeah, the darkness went down. You actually see Rose and the Myers all trying to kill Jesper, who's kind of staggering. It looks like he's like staggering around, not speaking, just kind of swinging his sword wildly what the happened there um i i rena because that's your action yeah move action pretty much everything safe irena will call up to the witch. Lasaga! I am Tatiana.

Take me to Strahd. Leave them alone. Take me to him. You know that he will reward you greatly for this. You see the witch's eyes kind of turn down. Oh, wretched thing, you stole my boy's heart.

But he does greatly desire you. But... She looks up. Give me the sword and come with me, and I shall leave these wretches to die in Barovia. wretches to die in Barovia. Irina just turns around. This is the only way that you can survive.

Give her the sword. I will go with her. Find a way to stop him. The mire. Spider mire. How far away is this Pabla Saga lady? She is about

60 feet, I would say. But it's like up. Like, you can't melee her. She's like 40 feet up in the air, but she's 60 feet away. Okay. Okay. Okay. I mean, I don't want her to get the Sun Sword. Sure.

Maya, you agree with her? I don't want to get the Sun Sword, no. Don't give it to her. Alright. Well, what are you doing, Spider-Maya? Hit me. Hit me. I'll let them do their thing. I think I'm more distracted by evil. You're not what you're meant to be, Jesper.

So I will come out of spider form, finally, for the love of God. Is that a bonus action or is that a free action? That is a bonus action to come out of wild shape. Then I'll use my wild shape again to cast Symbiotic Entity, which infuses me with 28 temporary HP and makes me do more damage with my Circle of Spores, which I haven't been doing any of yet. And that is basically my full turn,

but when Jesper starts his turn, I'm going to use a reaction to Halo of Spores him. Okay. Well, it is Jesper's turn now. So how does the thing work? Okay. So you make a con saving throw. Is this poison damage?

It is necrotic damage. Okay, in that case, can you roll a d20 for me, Chris Trott, and add three? Sixteen. Son of a bitch. You know what? I'm just not going to roll any attacks ever again yeah it doesn't do damage alright

that's that Jesper please attack Rose so it's a d20 plus 5 is the total attack bonus of course he loves it he loves it 21 Plus five is the total attack bonus. Of course. He loves it. Fucking he loves it.

21. I'm assuming that hits Rose. In fact, the zombie Jesper would use the sun sword two-handed. So a D10 plus five, please. Brings it in like a two-handed strike like Darth Vader. 11 points. Carves into Rose.

Rose Vanandi. Oh, in fact, actually, at the start of your turn, Evard's black tentacles. Can you make a deck save for me, please? Yes, but... Me? Actually, no. No, it would still? Actually, no.

Yeah, it would still affect you, yeah. It's any creature in the area. All right. Yeah, I'll do it. XA. Oh, I'll do the same. 15. Although my deck... Ah, well, this is...

What's the roll? I rolled a... What did I roll? Eight. What did I say? Eight. All right. The math. What does that say? Eight. All right. The math.

Eight minus two is a fail. So you would take eight points of damage. Can you roll a d20 and add three to it for me, please, Chris Drop? D20 plus three? Mm-hmm. Nine. Okay, so Rose, don't worry about that damage. Heal yourself 11 points of damage

as the tentacles grip yesper's zombified corpse and crush it until it collapses into a pile of guts and gore and the sun sword just clatters down uh on your turn maybe you can try um uh maya uh you failed on that deck save as well didn't you yeah so that would have ripped me out of my 11 bludgeoning and you're restrained yeah okay oh yeah you would have happened to the spider form you drop the spider form so ignore pretty much all of that um damage because the damage would have gone to your spy's form and now it goes through it as well oh okay right yes Jesper as some flavor

as Jesper's like guts are just spilled out everywhere torn apart by tentacles can like a slow motion shot of the tarot cards just spill out into the muddy floor I think even better than that they get caught on a breeze and they just just spill out into the muddy floor. I think even better than that,

they get caught on a breeze and they just... Whisk away. Blown away. Wait, so did Jesper die? As in the zombie died? Jesper's zombified body is ripped apart into pieces. Ah, because if a beast or humanoid that is small or medium dies within 10 feet of me,

I can reanimate it. It's not a humanoid. It's undead. I wanted to turn Jesper onto my side. Nope, you can't, unfortunately. It's Nospur now, not Jesper. Yeah. So the big thing that's going to affect whether you can grab the sword, Rose, is I need you to make a dex saving throw.

Oh, 17 plus 7. You succeed. I believe you don't even take half damage in that case. Yeah, you don't take any half damage. So you managed to just leap out of the way as one of these tentacles spurts out the ground trying to grab you. You've managed to just about dodge it. What would you like to do on your turn?

Grab the Sun Sword, please. You pick that up off the ground. Is there anything else left of Jesper? There's his equipment. The Tarot Roker deck is blown away by the wind but his dagger his satchel nope an intestine um i'll pick up his dagger as well okay so yeah i'd say that that's pretty much like your turn is to grab that stuff can i move i like move yeah tentacle ground, please? You can, yes.

You basically have to dart to the side, but you can get out of the tentacle gross ground, for sure. Just barely managing to cross the threshold. Oh, actually, what's your movement? 30 feet. It's difficult terrain. Do you ignore difficult terrain? I can't remember if you ignore any difficult terrain

I Don't I don't think you do so your fight because it's your movement So you you're like five feet out like near the edge of this blackness, but you're like trying It's like trying to move through a swamp. It's like it's like trying to slow you down like molasses as you get through it. I've also just realized the time, by the way. Do you want to just finish one more round? And then, yeah. Should we finish one more round and see where we are?

Yeah. Yeah. I can go on forever, Mark. One more episode. I'm an ethereal force. You are indeed. You are indeed. Dog's body. Your scarecrow friend comes chasing after you.

It can't attack you, but it just spends its whole turn running after you, keeping behind you. The other scarecrows all begin to close in. It looks like one's going to try and move to try and maybe cut off Rose if she's moving to the side, but they're not quite there yet. They're still about 200 feet away as they all basically make a rush for it.

Yeah, but this Scarecrow gets right next to you. So again, you're going to have to either disengage or do something to get away from it. And then it's Babalasaga's go. There's Mark up too. Oh, yeah Okay, he does come out of it this time so the the perilous wears off and he kind of like what is happening Alina what are you doing? And he's like reaching out to her and he's like don't you get off of me? He's like kind of like throwing himself off you but he is out of it

And it will be his turn actually coming up uh but it's babalosagus go first you heard your pretty little friend give me the sword i will take her i will spare your lives it's not like you have much time left here in Barovia anyway. Still, I didn't promise I wouldn't hurt them until I have the sword. And she's going to bring up her hand. Now, let's see. That is a concentration spell. What is not a concentration spell?

You see another orange bead flicks up in her hand, and she's going to lob a fireball down to Myers. No, because actually she won't do that, because she's seen that you're resistant to it. She will instead launch a bolt of lightning to strike the... No, she'll use blight. One, two, three. I'll roll a d6.

Rhiannon, one, two. Tom, three, four. Rose, five, six. Can you make a constitution saving throw, please? Katie. Kill me. Kill me. Kill me.

Shit, I failed it. Five. Oh, God, no. 35 necrotic damage to you, Rose Vanandi. Oh, I'm on one hit point. You feel just life being pulled out of you as you watch all of this happen. And she just cackles gleefully.

Yes. Yes. The mire at the start of your turn, you're already restrained, Rhiannon. You take... That's going to be 12 points of bludgeoning damage at the start of your turn, and you are still restrained.

I need to get out. I imagine, like, this is probably the most animated, I guess, you'd seen the mire so far, after, like, Jesper dropping the sword and then Rose having it and then knowing Baba Lasaga wants it like almost like like a rabid animal

yeah I love it I'd like to try and escape as desperately as I can please I think I might I think I might yeah 20 okay you managed to you are no longer restrained um that's

your action you still have your movement but it is difficult terrain so it's 20 feet to get out of this blackness that's around you um and you move at half speed yeah can i use my fly nimbus and can i try and hover out of it how far can you move on that is it like just your full movement uh it's a flying speed of 10 feet okay so as long as you stay aloft you can 10 feet it's not going to be enough to get you out but you can be out of the the ground basically um this thing still might be able to like grab you but you can definitely start moving out of it as as much as you can 10 feet would be quite enough it's how far would 30 feet get me you wouldn't get me out out would it it would get it would be the same as rose because it's halved because it's difficult to rain you'd be five feet from the edge of this radius like you'd be like like so close to the edge yeah yeah okay i think i think i'll claw

my way out and can i go towards rose just like yeah yeah so you and rose are next to each other like trying to pull yourself free like just so close to the edge of this this mire that she's created um okay great dog's body it's a mire in the mire how far away am i from uh rose you went to the other side of this like darkness so you would have been 20 feet from the center so going around the outside would probably be about 30 feet uh around the side and then she's five feet in so so can i get to her in one you could but you'd be stepping inside the inky blackness Um I have to can I get outside and give her my spear to like five feet you could try but there's no guarantee There's not an automatic thing like, you know

She you won't be touching her. You won't be next to her You'd be just about five, ten feet away. Can I shout at Ismark and just try and restrain him, slap him on the chest and be like, She told us to go.

You can't save her if you're dead. Come on, Ismark. Help me. Get away. We can regroup. We can get her back. She's not coming with us. Without the sword, we have nothing. We can't defeat the devil without it.

Then you go for that. I'm going for Rose. And then I'll go for Rose. And I will... Do you know what? Fuck it. I will grab in to grab Rose and as I touch her, can I

cast healing hands healing hands, lay on hands magic hands, seven hit points first thing you need to do is a dexterity saving throw, as soon as you step into this black mire the tentacles try and grab you

twelve plus six uh 18 six for your deck save yeah i've got plus five on my decks and i've got plus one um from wolf you have plus five on decks oh because you is it one of your proficient saving throws? Nice. Yeah, and so the total was... What was it? On the saving throw? 16? 16.

Yeah. 16. That's not enough. DC 17. Not enough! Not enough. So that's three, six, eight. Eight points of bludgeoning damage

and you are restrained. Now I'd say that because you are right next to Rose, you can still try and heal her, but you are like locked in place by these tentacles. Apparently it was 18. It was 18. Chat is yelling it was 18. So you are not restrained.

You don't take the damage. Okay. And then, yeah, can I grab a... I don't know how much of this I can do. Grab a pull her out, heal. So you use five feet of movement in, you heal her, and then, yes, you can basically just about get her onto the outskirts

of this effect, this spell effect. Yes. Okay. That's the turn. Enjoy that! It's the RP. Just think of it as the RP. This big dog.

Big loving dog. Thanks, buddy. Hello. Hello, love. Pulling free. Get you out of there, shall we? Irena will point her rapier at her throat. You take me, leave the sword with them,

or I kill myself here. And then you explain to to strad what has what has occurred and she just is holding the the blade at her throat um abalasaga looks she would not you wouldn't dare she seems to be unnerved by that harm them again i will kill myself and then you can explain to your son what has happened spider meyer at the start of your turn uh are you already restrained spider meyer uh i am succeed you take i'm restrained seven points of bludgeoning damage. You are restrained. Oof. Owie. My bones. Can I... I want to cast, with the bonus action,

I want to cast Grasping Vine towards as far as I can go towards anyone that's inside the marsh, Maya TM. anyone that's inside the marsh, Maya TM. And I want to use it to pull people out of the marsh, including myself.

But you are in the marsh. So you'd be pulling into here. No, no, no. I can cast it 30 feet away from me and then anything within 20 feet of it. So I'll cast it 20 feet away from me and then use it to pull me out of the marsh right interesting okay was it called grasping vine grasping vine concentration up to a minute bonus action to cast conjure a vine that sprouts from the ground in an unoccupied space of my

choice and when i cast it i can direct the vine to lash out and lash out at a creature within 20 feet and it pulls at 20 feet. Cool. And you can just voluntarily fail the saving throw. So yeah, you could pull yourself free. Yeah. So you want to do that to yourself first? I think I'm the furthest in this marsh, right?

Yeah, you were all kind of in the middle. She centered it on you guys. So you guys are all in the middle. It's 20 feet from the middle to the edge. Unless in using this, would this pull Rose out of the marsh? Rose is already out of the marsh. I've already got her out.

Okay, fine. Okay, then I'll do it to myself. Yeah, I'll do it to myself. So you conjure this vine. It sprouts out from the ground. It grabs around you and pulls you out, basically, freeing you. And I'd say, yeah, like... The only thing is you're being held by her spell.

This thing's trying to pull you out. You're voluntarily failing the saving throw against this thing, but you're still restrained. Roll a d20 and add your spellcasting mod, so add your wisdom modifier. See whose spell is stronger uh does it matter that mine's fourth level and hers is probably like 10th level no i'm not gonna say for this i'll say you're just trying to beat her spell dc

20 you then the divine you manage to break hold of the black tentacles around you and you pull yourself free. And you emerge onto the bench. Got my own rope! You've got your own rope. Perfect. Anything else? I'll use... Is there a skeleton within 120 feet that I can see?

Not a skeleton, a scarecrow. Yeah, there is actually sure i'll just chill touch it 18 to hit well wasn't it your action to grasp gasping vine oh no it's a bonus action bonus action yeah pretty nice uh 18 hits hits hits

scarecrow uh five damage necrotic damage that is enough that is enough to kill it the one that was chasing after dog's body the chill touch just breaks whatever magic's holding it apart and it splinters and falls down to the ground I love that 120 foot range

chill touch yeah and with that I think that because we have gone on a half an hour we'll have to end it here with a very tense standoff Irina kind of threatening herself Barbala Saga kind of thinking half an hour, we'll have to end it here. With a very tense standoff. Irina kind of threatening herself.

Barbara Saga kind of thinking over what she's going to do. I'm imagining Rose is on, what, eight hit points? Dog's body? How many you got left? Yeah. 35. Ask me. Yeah, Myers, what hit points are you guys on?

I'm above max at the moment you're on 10. like are you on 10. yeah yeah i've got a question for you hello you want to want to deal some damage to babalasaga yeah maybe i don't know man you know you and you don't listen to Tom go your own Maya I'm saying no she's not her own Maya that's not how this works that started off I was like

okay maybe they'll be alright and then it got bad and then it got worse and then it got okay again and then it got worse and now it's kind of okay again and we'll see what's gonna happen

honestly I've just recent events I think it's and now it's kind of okay again and we'll see what's going to happen. Honestly of just recent events I think it's better than it's ever been. Just kidding I love Jesper Things are better than ever I don't think anything bad happened. It was one of those ones where like Jesper holding the

sun sword up like look at me I've got the sun sword that she knows is like something that strad hates and you running away i was like she would absolutely fucking do this to like just kill you and just oh yeah so it was it was too good a moment dropped what am i what am i what am i i would like to not have a third maya I would prefer not to have a third Maya. I think that that takes away from... I think it takes away from the cool thing that Tom and Rhi have done.

I think that Trot knows the module well and he can come up with a cool character. I don't know, man. I don't know. I think more people playing the Maya only adds to it. No, no. It cannot get worse. I'm going to say no. I'm going to put a firm no on that.

We'll find out how this whole debacle plays out next week. Maybe next week's the last episode. Maybe it's just the beginning. We'll find out next week. Until then, take care. We love you. We'll see you Sunday. Bye.

Bye. See you. Bye. Bye. See you. Bye.