High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Curse of Strahd #36 | Darkness Descends

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

Strahd decides it's up to him to take down the party! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Thanks to @jackgtmusic for the Aerois/Curse of Strahd mash-up intro! Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. Add your team to your Uber account today. Travel better with Air Canada. You can enjoy free beer, wine, and premium snacks in economy class. Now extended to flights within Canada and the U.S. Cheers to taking off this summer. More details at aircanada.com. Returning to Krezik, a strange power and vibration is felt spreading out from Castle Ravenloft, leaving the party with intense foreboding. However, the party come before the mysterious abbot and present Vasilika to him.

In gratitude, he uses his divine power to restore Jesper to life, using a few of his treasured possessions as an anchor for his soul. After Jesper's resurrection, Dog's Body and Irena travel to the pond in Krezik, and Dog's Body undergoes his own transformation. As the magic of the pool cleanses the lycanthropy curse, it also returns some of Dog's Body's previous memories and life, and on swearing an oath, Dog's Body awakens as a new man. But before the party can fully celebrate their successes, a raging storm descends over Krezik and in the storm clouds, dozens of black and red devils

cry out and swoop down to attack the abbey and town and commanding them stands a fully armoured and battle-ready Strahd von Zarovich. And that is where we're starting. Little bits of quick notes. Jesper obviously is now back, leveled up. We have Jesper back in, and Dog's Body has indeed changed class

to become a paladin and now has some different gear. You've ended up equipping some heavy armor armor splint mail i think right and uh yeah nice so for those of you mathematicians and people that like to call them in maxing and stat stuff just be aware that yeah there's been a couple of little changes and swaps around and stuff like that um in terms of and katie wasn't here last week we've caught her up as best as possible but katie if there's any questions just just be like wait did that happen and then we'll just fill you in um seems pretty standard you know if we're strad if we're honest no surprises in strad it was like a couple of nice things and then oh no a really bad thing so perfectly in line oh no imminent death cool

curse of strad um you currently have with you is mark and irena um esmeralda was up at the abbey uh working with the abbot to coordinate and the original plan before this this sudden storm and these demons and things had come in, the previous plan was to take the abbot's kind of makeshift army that he's really created, this kind of religious zealot army of the townspeople of Cretic who have sworn absolute loyalty to the abbot, and as well as these angel creatures that he seemingly has created or summoned, you're not quite sure. seemingly has created or summoned you're not quite sure um and the idea was to take all of them and to march on um the lackey and then on to castle ravenloft and use that army as some sort of distraction whilst you guys entered castle ravenloft to try and either kill strad or stop whatever he's up to because there is definitely something afoot something unnatural is happening

um i mentioned it in the recap but you felt this strange pulse kind of echo through the land of Barovia. And I believe it was the Maya and maybe Dog's body could sense that there was almost like a ticking, like the turning of cogwheels in the earth itself. As well as Jesper, who was currently his soul while he was trapped in the mists became aware that something was kind of not sure maybe feeding on or stealing or taking the souls of the people of Barovia from the mists and that was something that Jesper saw just before he was he was returned to life and that's kind of all led up to this moment and then yeah this storm has rolled in um there is torrential rain heavy winds blowing everywhere thick storm clouds kind

of coat the sky lightning flashing in the distance um and yeah this just uh swarms of these devils have just descended from the sky like beasts um and you can hear uh the sounds of the the villagers of krezik like calling to arms to arms kind of shouting to each other and things like that um you have seen strud up in the air you don't know if strud has seen you you don't know you know is he just attacking or or if he's coming for you um but you are currently in just a small cottage uh there's not really this is not going to hold up if it comes to any sort of attack it is quite a quite a flimsy little um cottage really so comparatively how big is the army that we're with versus the army in the sky well there's probably you you probably there are probably

more like zealots and and um militia let's call them in krezic the difference is is they can't fly and they're not demons or devils or whatever they are so even though there's maybe you know maybe there's like you know two dozen maybe a dozen or two dozen demons flying can literally swoop down, attack, grab these people and then fly away again. And there's like some crossbows and you can see like hunting bows and things like that. But the arrows just don't seem to have as much of an effect against the demons. You guys have encountered this. I think all of you as adventurers or spiritual beings of the swamp would know that things like demons and devils, normal weapons are

almost half as effective against them so um even against massed fire these guys are gonna potentially struggle but at the same time you guys are way too outnumbered you know to take on this many devils and things like that that is not probably going to be an easy battle okay um irena and ismark will both kind of look in horror. Irina also being the kind of shared consciousness of Tatiana, who's semi-awakened. They look around, look up into the sky,

and Ismark just goes, We cannot stay here. We should try and get to the Abbey. That Abbot was powerful enough to return Jesper to life. He would be... If we have to fight the devil, I would rather have the abbot nearby. And that Esmerelda woman,

she seemed to know a thing or two about fighting vampires as well. I think that we should make for the abbey. If we stay here, if those things swarm us, or if he finds us here, we'll be trapped. My children can help buy us some cover, and I'll cast Pass Without Trace and give us some cover and i'll cast pass without trace and give us some

cool some hiding spots so do we see like all the bugs around the village like all these like little cottages and things like that we begin to see all these like bot flies and mosquitoes and all these insects just create like a blanket films have been talking a lot about it it was on my mind you know You've got to spend like a blanket. I bought flies. At films I've been talking a lot about it. It was on my mind. You know, flamethrower. Jesper will nod at Ismark and not really look at the bugs,

but he will say to everybody else, I agree. We must steel ourselves. It's not going to be easy to get to the Abbey. And I will cast or perform Counter Charm. So what this does, I gain the ability to use musical notes or words of power to disrupt mind-influencing effects. As an action, I can start a performance that lasts until the end of your next turn.

During that time, any friendly creatures within 30 feet have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed. Wow. So, like, Jesper is just giving, like, this constant sort of, like, stealing everybody with words or, like, reminders to be aware and be vigilant. And that's just the magic of the bard is kind of ensorceling your mind and helping protect it from these external charms and things like that. Cool.

Anything else you guys would like to do or prep or do you just want to try and make your way towards the Abbey? Yeah, let's go. Let's rock and roll. Let's go. All right, let's go, gamers. Well, if you guys are going to try and go kind of basically sneak to the Abbey while this fighting is all going on,

I definitely think that a round of stealth checks from everybody, please. Unless there is another skill. If there is another skill that you think could help in this scenario, you are always welcome to use that instead. But yeah, this is going to be a group check. So I need at least half the group, including the NPCs, to succeed. I'm a clunky paladin boy. You all have plus 10

from Pass Without a Trace. Oh, alright. Okay. Well, I have 28. Cool. I'm gone. 26. 28.

33. 26. 33. Irina is 30. 28, 33. 26. 33. 16. Irina is 30. 16. Is that with the plus 10 dog's body? Yes.

I'm a big chunky paladin boy now. You're actually not the loudest. Ismark with a whopping 15 is definitely the loudest. Even dog's body with the new armor, you're kind of still adjusting to it and things like that. Ismark with half of his face still covered by this mask, his depth perception is a little bit out, is stumbling and struggling as he makes his way.

However, pretty much with everybody else, because I think, Rhi, what was it you got? Did you get 20 something? 26, yeah. Everybody else you are kind of covering for each other. So even though Dog's Body and Ismark are kind of stumbling or making noise, with the advantage of the buzzing insects and being able to kind of use moments like maybe Rose sneaks up ahead

and signals when it's clear for Ismark and Dog's Body to make their way so that they don't alert everybody. The Myers vines kind of stretching out and holding everybody back as you see a demon kind of sweep down and fly into a building and start tearing off the windows before it flees off with somebody in its arms,

just kind of flies away, and then you kind of sneak around the sides of the buildings. They won't be in Curse of Strahd 2. Moving around, you can hear the sounds of battle um as soon as you kind of leave the cottage you can begin to hear shouts and orders for the abbot for the abbot we die in his name die for the abbot you can kind of hear these zealots trying to rally each other and they are holding these creatures off but it is a losing battle over time you can hear the sort of creatures uh being fended off but then they regroup and come at different angles um in the sky you see several of these angelic beings um that the abbot seems to have as allies

they're actually flying in and having mid-air battles with some of these demons angelic wings um as they clash with steel and weapons and wrestle in mid-air trying to with some of these demons angelic wings um as they clash with steel and weapons and wrestle in mid-air trying to drag some of these larger creatures to the ground um in these kind of mid-air confrontations but there's not enough of these angels and quite often you see at least two of them are ganged up by two or three of the demons or the devils and they're just pulled apart the demons run up grabbing like their long claws ripping into their flesh and skin and you can almost see on these angelic beings where they're kind of ripped apart they come apart a little bit too easily and you can see that they're they're torn in almost these perfect geometrical

lines um you know parts of their arm almost comes completely free and loose um as if a cut or as if some sort of uh you know incision had already been made there and the wings themselves are pulled and ripped off um with a surprising ease as they do so they won't be in curses that's all tom has time for he's gonna have to leave now that's all tom has time for he's gonna have to leave now bye the whole time that this is going on by the way you are all now completely drenched with rain like the the the whole place is under this torrential storm that seemed to have almost come out of nowhere and the howling wind and all of this is aiding you in kind of staying undetected by these demons that are flying around because the wind is so fierce, the rain is so heavy, there's peals of thunder and it's kind of helping mask all your movement. this northern wintery brute like wind through you um and so yeah it feels very oppressive almost like this sudden just despair has been unloaded onto krezik however you do eventually

make it up the hill kind of pausing and this takes you a good bit of time this maybe takes you sort of five or ten minutes having to hold and wait for demon patrols to kind of pass or like you know sneak up and make your way around the the terrible weather kind of slowing you as you go but eventually you make your way to the top of the hill and you can see that coming out of the forest that you had previously left um where the werewolf den was being, coming from the other side of town, there are 50, 100 large wolves, all howling, their eyes blood red, and they're almost using the dead bodies of their own fallen pack as a ramp to try and get up the walls of the abbey. Just howling and screaming.

And you can see there's a few defenders in their tattered uh tabards these homemade tabards imprinted with the symbol of the abbey itself um with crossbows and pitchforks trying to fend them off as these walls just trying to desperately get on top of of the gates however that's all from a side um coming from the side of the hill opposite to you so you can see this in the distance but it's still too far away to be a threat to you but also too far away for you to really be of any aid there is a small gatehouse with a large kind of iron portcullis and when you arrive you can actually see on top of the tower esmeralda is there she has a she has like a crossbow out and you can see that she has some flasks of

something like on a bandolier over her chest um and she's fending off several of these demons kind of firing bolts up into the air um and is manning this tower you can see a few dead zealots around her um in the tabards and she seems to be pretty injured herself um but she is she is there nonetheless um but she hasn't seen you when you when you approach i'm guessing we would get her attention um yeah the portcullis is currently down so uh unless you want to try and force your way through it um it would require some sort of uh yeah climbing some kind well you need to climb up over the towers they're sort of like you know 15 20 feet tall towers uh slicks with rain now i'm climbing them we'd be

yeah yeah basically um difficult to climb not impossible but difficult um or the other one is to yeah i mean call out to her and see if see if she can open from the top of the tower. Is there some kind of, like, lever or something on the other side? Yeah, you can see that there's, like, a big sort of, like, pull wheel that opens the portcullis. Sure, I'll gaseous form and just right through. Yeah, perfect. And then stop pulling the portcullis down.

So I guess when the mire becomes gaseous form, is it like a full gas, or do you just become like a crawling mass of vines or something? It's like a Thanos snap, but my dust and spores stick around and just, yeah, it just floats through the air. Don't breathe me. You will die. And I'll go through the portcullis and start pulling it down.

You'll need to reform because you won't be able to interact with the wheel in a gaseous form. Okay, yeah. So you end the gaseous form and then you see the mire. It's built so that using a system of pulleys and winches, one person can pull it up, but it just takes some time. Esmeralda, in a sort of panic when she hears the gate being lifted, immediately, like, throws herself almost to the side so she's

leaning over the wall, points a crossbow down, and you just see, like, for a moment, like, she nearly pulls the trigger and she's just like, Maya? Maya, is that you? Kind of speaks to you. Maya? Oh. Wait, me, Maya?

Yeah. You're the one pulling the lever. I'm going to be honest. For some reason, when you were saying Maya, I was like, M-A-Y-A. We don't know anyone like that. It's Maya. Sorry, I didn't put the four.

You have one thing. The. Yeah, when you don't say the, it's someone else entirely. Oh, my God. We need to get to safety. We need need to get in i'm opening the gate quickly yes and then she turns up one of these demons swoops in and she pulls one of these flasks throws it up and it splashes um water just looks like water to you but as soon as it covers the demon it screeches like it's been burnt by acid and flies off in a spiraling direction away, trying to claw at its face and wipe this painful liquid from it.

But yeah, you manage to pull open the portcullis. You rush all through Esmeralda. It's like, quickly, quickly. I didn't see you down there. Come on. We need to make our way inside. I'll run in and also man the lever as well and as soon as the last person is through just help push it and slam that portcullis behind it.

Sure. Yeah, because you will need to lower it as well. Ismark, I think like, yes, but Ismark, Dog's body and the mire, like the four of you together can easily throw this open as Rose irena and re-mire all kind of make their way through as you're lower in the portcullis esmeralda look like starts sliding down a ladder towards you um there is a loud peel of thunder and the wind seems to intensify for a moment like a howling shrieking wind screaming in your ears and then un unnoticed seen by the rain by the wind a shape begins to descend in the the courtyard the abbey itself. Floating down.

When you've seen Strahd von Zarovich before, you've always seen him in the attire of a gentleman, a well-tailored coat and shirt, never like as a warrior, but more as a sort of nobleman. Never like as a warrior, but more as a sort of nobleman. This is not the Strahd you see before you. Decked in black plate armor, sculpted with the face of a screaming bat with giant wings calling up the collarbone and a big, long, crimson-red cape hanging behind him. In a scabbard at his side is a longsword,

a bejeweled black thing of eloquent beauty. His hair still flowing long and dark, but in the wind, it doesn't even move an inch. It's unnaturally calm and straight, as if the wind is not even there for him. He descends slowly from the air, and his red eyes look down I expected that you would

come here his eyes glance over the group where is my beloved Tatiana he locks eyes onto Irina Irina looks up i am not your beloved nor have i ever been you are a beast a fiend a monster who killed his own brother for his pathetic dark desires. Do not speak to me in such a way creature. She strawed slip kind of curls and snarls. I see that you have allied yourself with this vermin that has been crawling around my lands, disrupting my great works. I will not offer you another chance, Tatian.

You rebuked me once for that fool, Sergei, but you do not understand what you refuse now. Come with me, join me as my bride, or you will be lost you will be consumed like the rest of the pathetic souls in this place i offer you one last chance of freedom irena just looks around at the group jesper says you need to understand when no means no and he's gonna open his sun sword and flash it and Jesper

dance the light seems to just radiate and you see Stravaka holds up a hand to this blinding light he's also gonna use that as a counter charm and keep everyone yeah well we'll assume because counter charm and keep everyone um yeah well we'll assume because counter charm you have to do as an action right so it's an action so yeah

until you do something else as an action just if i go to charm just remember that you've used it but obviously if you do an attack or cast a spell that's your action you won't be able to counter charm that that term start kind of hisses the sunlight kind of you I thought Baba Yadda saga had consumed your pathetic life no matter whatever weapons or relics you think you have you have no idea the power that I have now mastered. So be it vermin. I have grown tired of your games, of your wretched interference, of your disturbances. I forgave you once. I allowed you to live before when I took that cat from you. But now this time, playtime is over.

And we're going to roll initiative. Okey dokey. Whee! Here it comes. I'm just going to put old Stragy on the token layer. Look out, boy. It's Stragy. He, as a point, he is still floating about,

yeah, maybe sort of 30 feet up in the air. He's just hovering up there like a badass. With his cape. Sort of just gently wafting behind him. Like Omni-Man in Invincible. Just stood there looking scary. Initiatives. Jesper.

21. 21. Rose. Six. stood there looking scary uh initiatives yes but 21 21 rose six six uh irena i have not rolled i will roll now oh that's lovely that's super handy that is a seven dog's body 13 Thirteen. Thirteen. The mire. Which mire? Sorry, re-mire. Thirteen. Thirteen. Comm mire.

Fourteen. Roughly. And then Lord Strahd von Zorovich. Wait, what was our boy? What was achievement boy? Ismark. Oh fuck, I'm fricking, I'm fricking, hang on. He is in this fight, if he, because I mean he's probably going to die right now. Are we going to lose that achievement? Give me a second. How dare you.

If we lose that achievement, can we all just, can we all just lie on the ground and just give up? No! I refuse to play until he's back. Resurrect him immediately. We can just count that as a TPK. We can just be like, yeah, he's dead now. Reset the save. Roll back the save. that as a tpk you know we can just be like yeah no he's dead now um reset the safe rollback campaign ends with everyone just laying down playing dead protest radiohead video no cool well it is yes we're up first um and then we have dog's body going after him so oh god Take us away. Jesper. Jesper will stand at the front, Sunsword equipped,

and he's going to hold his action that if Stard comes into Molo range, then he will attack. Okay. All right. Molo range. Holding your action means using your action.

So it means counter charm will le finitos. Yeah. Okay, cool. Alright, so you stand at the ready, holding up the sun sword. If he comes within melee range, you are going to attack him. Very good. Do we see Jesper take on a stance?

Is he kind of raising up his weapons in a readying stance? Yeah, I would say so uh he's not exactly adept at the sun sword but he's used rapiers and things like finesse weapons in the past and that's the thing is the sun sword is incredibly light so even though it's kind of more it looks like more like a long sword um it feels just like your rapier or your short sword it doesn't you know you feel like you could fight with it in the same manner. I think he's been careful with it because it is a sword made out of the sun.

So he's holding it away from himself like two hands. So we have Dog's Body, then Reemire, and then Tommire. So have a think about what you guys want to do. Dog's Body. He's 30 foot up, right? he's currently 30 feet up in the air yes okay cool and i'm sorry i'm looking on the map in uh vmix um how far away from him am i so these squares are all 10 feet squares so right now he is about you can use the ruler tool by the way I can't see the map and so I'm looking at it and oh hang on

when he visions and when you should be able to you might if you just give it a refresh when you get a chance Kim it should be working now but you're about 20 feet I had to scroll down a lot to see it. Basically, I want to activate the holy symbol of Ravenkind. Sure, what's it do? So if I could move 20... Can I move to the head of the flank? So in front of Jesper and Irina.

And then I will hold up my wonderful symbol. Actually, let me just check I can do something as a bonus action as well because I might as well just do that. I will cast a shield of faith

on Jesper as I walk past. I almost see it as like I kind of walk past. I almost see it as like I kind of walk past. Yeah, I place a hand on him. You've got this, friend. And then walk past and then hold,

walk up to Strahd and hold out the symbol and it will shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet, and the light is sunlight and lasts for 10 minutes or until I end the effect.

Okay. Two, three, four, five. Okay. That is what I want. So this radiant light just blares. So with the sun sword and the symbol of Ravenloft illuminated in this kind of dark, grey, miserable storm where the rain is just coming down,

there is just this globe, this bubble of bright sunlight that engulfs the area. What's the... Can you just tell me what was the range of that again for Dog's Body? I'm just going to put an aura on you so I know where it is. 30-foot radius. Well, it's 30-foot bright light and 30-foot dim light.

Right. And then what does it say about the sunlight? Is the sunlight only in the bright light, or does it just say it's all sunlight? It just says the light is sunlight, so I presume all light. Yeah. I'll do it. I think I'm going to kind of count it as 30 feet radius because the dim light i think strad's like an elite vampire so i think it's the bright sunlight

would be the thing that affects him the most um and then what's it on the sun sword trot does it say there what the aura is on the sun sword i'm actually just going to give myself a visual representation of the the ranges of the sunlight here everything the light touches everything like touches simba he's reading the sun sword is all um lore dump on the so we need to find the original not the okay well i'll come back to that then it's fine um we see this kind of powerful globe of sunlight and yet strad is just holding up his hand you can see the the light is causing like his skin to burn and he's kind of holding his hand up gritting his teeth but it's not it's not like in movies where he's instantly killed by the sunlight right like it's

burning him but he's not he's gonna about to explode into dust from this. Like, he's clearly pained by it, but not fully, you know, destroyed or anything like that. 15 feet. 15 foot radius. Perfect. Damn. Got a lot of sunlight. Yes.

Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun. Is that it, dog's body? Full turn? Yes. So. Remyer, then Tommyer. comes the sun is that it dog's body full turn uh yes so uh re-mire then tom mire okie dokie i'm gonna drop my uh part of alt trace and then i'm gonna cast a fairy fire in let's see if this works at least 10 foot squares these are all 10 foot squares yes so i'm gonna do a 20 foot cube um starting from the square that strads in then the one behind him one below him and then the one diagonally from him he's got it on the map perfect magic amazing

um and that's a saving throw for me, yes? Yeah. Dex save. Dex saving throw. I've got a very big stat block, so please do bear with me. Is that up in the air around him as well? Oh, natural one for a total of 11. He fails a dex save. So you see this swarm of fireflies. I think we've done fairy fires before, isn't it?

It's like glow bugs and fireflies kind of outlining Strahd, helping to guide attacks and prevent him from trying to hide invisibly. I'm not going to use any of his legendary resistances against that. That's fine. You guys can have that one. It's just, yeah, the sunlight is bothering him. He does not seem to care about the bugs. He's just sort of like at the sunlight. Okay.

Anything else, Remai? Do you want to move? You've kind of got this big open air abbey. You can see that there's a graveyard to the south. There's the gates. The portcullis is shut because you guys did say you shut the portcullis. So going out the way you just came is not an option um the towers uh kind of rise up above you and then there's the stone wall

and you can hear the sounds of fighting and things like that um all coming from from nearby yeah i'll probably move down here so i'm just by by rose and yeah moving towards the graveyard which is to the south yeah cool and then you move towards Tatiana and Rose. Perfect. Amazing. All right, Tommaya. In fact, actually, no. At the end of Rimaia's go, Strahd's going to use a legendary action.

Okay. And who doesn't? Who wins? Sunlight's bothering him. Sunlight is bothering him. Really? Yeah. He is going to...

back up temporarily. So he flies, and I'm going to check the range on that, but I believe that he is... Yep. So he flies. He kind of like zooms backwards where the brightest of the sunlight,

he gets just onto the edge of it. And you can see that there's still dim sunlight there that is bothering him. You can see it kind of like burning his skin, but it's nowhere near as intense anymore. And he kind of just rushes backwards at the end of Reemire's turn. Tom Meyer.

Oh, that's frustrating. Okay. So there's sunlight coming from Dog's body 30 feet right now. Um, I would like to cast Grasping Vine, and I'll place it somewhere amongst the group, and anything within 30 feet I can grab and pull into the vine. Okay. So I want to pull him back into the sunlight,

if possible. Mark, where do you want to place the grasping vine? Where do you want to emerge from the ground, erupting from it? So I guess within 30 feet of him. It needs to be in front of Dog's body. Anywhere in front of Dog's body is 30 feet. Okay, I'll go for the one just slightly to the right of dog's body.

We'll just draw a little green circle or something on there for me. Something gross. Sure. And yeah, I'll pull that one out and try and grab him and pull him in. He needs to make a dex save. Dex saving throw. Yeah. It's 29.

I'm using the D&D Beyond dice roller, by the way, if you guys want to see my rolls. But also, I want to use my world shape to gain 32 temporary HP and harden my entire ass body with vines and spikes and stuff. Nice. Harden my entire ass.

My symbiotic anti-tie. And yeah, I'll move forward to be like amongst the front line infantry couldn't pull him down all right uh so yeah you see this grasping vine emerges it kind of rips up from the ground it whips out towards strad and he parries it with the blade he kind of in a lightning flash action he draws the long sword and it cuts the vine. He kind of, in a lightning flash action, he draws the longsword and it cuts the vine, cuts the tip of it off before it reaches him in just like a quick, fluid, flicking motion as it just kind of flaps to the ground.

He sneers for a moment. That is the end of your turn, is it not, Tom Meyer? That's the lot. Okay, yeah. here's go i didn't didn't use up any of his legendary actions i thought i'd give it a little bit of a wait uh on his turn he is going to cast a spell i'm gonna cast a lovely spell um now do i want to i think i want to do this to begin with um because i think he could do i think he needs a bit of help i think strad i think strad needs a pal um so he is going to uh he kind of reaches up he says that light will only protect you so much and he brings up a hand you

can see flame begins to kind of coil around it and he almost cuts through the air with his hand and it forms like a rip in the world. And from it crawls this red-skinned devil-looking creature with these long, dark horns

and a kind of pointed sort of trident as it just kind of... It's going to use the spell Summon Fiend to conjure a fiendish spirit that emerges. It shows your initiative count. It takes your turn immediately after yours. Perfect. Yeah, it's just going to summon a little devil friend,

which I've got here. It's Can I summon it You could fall the Swedish for the range area In an unoccupied space not marvelous. So he will conjure that next to dog's body and the Maya And you see this thing kind of pull itself free and the Maya. And you see this thing kind of pull itself free. And it is going to make, the Fiend makes a number of attacks equal to half the spell's level.

And this is a sixth level spell. So it's going to make three attacks. These I'm going to have to do manually. So the first one we'll have against, well, we'll have it go against Tom Meyer. Oh, you saw the roll first. I didn't. I was looking at the D20 thing and then I glanced over to where the roll was.

That's a natural question. Oh my God. I would like to sort that out. I'm not having that. I would like to use my reaction uh it's not as good as um as as it sounds but hold on i'm just panicking going through my tubs interception uh when a creature you see hits a target other than you within five foot of an attack you can use your reaction to reduce the damage taken by the target by a roll uh it's a d10 plus three

It's a d10 plus 3. So I'm going to intercept. I rolled 8, 9, 10, 11. So it's not parrying, it's a deception. Yeah, it's a separate ability. I actually think it's really good interception. I actually rate it more than the disadvantage because in most chances, interception is causing the character to take less damage

because the disadvantage is still a chance that it can hit so yeah uh this is going to be um so we're using the crit rules this is going to be 15 21 plus another d12 so 21 uh 31 minus 11 20 points of damage to the mire as this thing kind of... And Dog's Body tries to deflect it and tries to divert it. Instead of going into your throat, he kind of just impales your shoulder with this trident. Dog's Body, then another attack is going to come your way.

This is going to be the second attack. And then the last one. Who's that? Who have I got there? Is that Is mark or is that uh where i'm sure here i've got a thing that's his mark okay i've got like an annoying ping top left uh that's his mark top left it's arena like yeah yeah okay arena's in the middle arena's in the middle who's this who's oh god i can't this is the problem with roll 20 is i can't see where like all of the tokens are that's um

it's yes but okay so it's yes was next to dog's body uh so first one's going to be against dog's body and then the second one's going to be against yeah the third one's going to be against yes but um god i'm really out of it today i'm sorry guys so dog's body that's going to be against yeah the third one's going to be against yes but um god i'm really out of it today i'm sorry guys so dog's body that's going to be a uh spell attack modifier to hit fuck me uh plus 11 so 18 oh exactly oh 18 was my ac 18 hits and then yes but i'll just see if this hits you as well so that's going to be 19 to hit yeah so dog's body this is going to be

plus 9 so that's 13 to dog's body and ooh 23 to Jesper as this devil is like swinging this trident around in a desperate attempt you long rested Jesper you took a long rest Now swinging this trying around yes, we're desperate HP

You look yes, but you took a long rest Wait, did we all know because I definitely have a long rest on me. Okay. Take a long rest. Yeah. Yeah, take a long rest Sorry 23 Okay Twenty three Okay No 19, sorry not 23 19 so Fix that um, right. I'm I'm sorry. I'm really out of it today. I'm trying to keep on top of everything He used his action

The last thing he's going to do This is Strahd by the way. No, in fact, he's not gonna do uh this is strahd by the way no in fact he's not gonna do that i'm gonna save that for a cool moment um irena this is what i said yeah no it's fine um irena is going to use her mantle of inspiration uh which is one of her uses of bardic inspiration she begins to sing out this beautiful barovian ballad that kind of instills you all she can grant four creatures so dog's body maya jesper and rose uh you guys get five temporary hit points and you can each move you can use your reaction so dog's, you can't do this because you've already used your reaction.

Everybody else, you can move up to your speed without provoking opportunity attacks. Ah, yes. Can I do that now? So, you can get away from the devil that's just appeared. Hmm. What do I want to do with that let's see i'm keeping that sun sword on strad yeah sure so i'm just you rush up rush up towards him yeah absolutely i i am gonna do um i'm gonna

do a little bit of damage to stride because he was in the dim light the dim sunlight so what i'm gonna do is normally i'll reveal the mechanic if he's in direct sunlight strad takes 20 radiant damage at the start of his turn in the dim light i'm gonna say he takes 10 points of radiant damage and i think that that's like a really good way of like bright and bright and dim right like it's not as powerful so i have him take 10 points of radiant damage in the dim light but then the bright light of the sun sword is now kind of up in his face he's still up in the air by the way uh, but he's still 30 feet up in the air. Pointing it up.

Pointing it up as high as you can. High as you can muster. Irina will also, she will move back towards Esmeralda and her brother. And that's probably going to be it for her turn. She wants to wait until more people need things like heals and stuff um before she gets cast in spells rose um and then two more npcs brilliant i love it i love it when i basically play by myself to take two shots at the devil plus demon thing.

That one. Sounds good to me. 18 to hit. 18. Do you know what? An 18 just misses. 18. 12. Do you know what? An 18 just misses this thing. The thick armor plates on its body, the arrow kind of just bounces off,

but it nearly pierced through it. You could see that it was so close to penetrating the carapace of this thing, and then it just glanced off. 26 to hit. That will hit. Rose. Rose damage, not Aayla damage. Okay, that is the... seven points of damage. Seven points of damage. Okie dokie. I'll track this on this guy can i put my um slayer's prey on to straddy boy plus yeah absolutely as long as it

all fulfills the normal requirements being in range and stuff which i believe you would know so yeah uh yeah you plant the the mark on Strahd. Anything else, Rose, on your turn? Let's see whether, yeah, it fits. No, I just moved recently, so I am good. Okay. At the end of your turn, Rose, Strahd is going to use the legendary action to swoop down towards Jasper.

I just realized my reaction was when he was in range. I guess he's not in range, is he? Well, he is. He's going to be now, though. Yeah, so technically you've not, you've, no, here's the thing. To trigger a held action takes your reaction. You used your reaction to move closer to him. So unfortunately the held action doesn't

pop off it was it was a cool idea so the thing is is holding the action it's holding the action he did in his turn but to use the held action he has to use jesper has to use his reaction he used his reaction when irena let him move it gave me i thought that the movement was free and not that he no it costs his reaction to use the movement yeah so he unfortunately can't trigger the held action um unfortunately um but this isn't a move and attack thing strad just literally swoops down raising a fist ready to basically punch you in the face um or maybe grab you you don't know yeah winding it up um and in doing so he also stops himself from being up on his own which was what esmeralda was hoping to do um because it means that things

like lightning bolt now are going to be a bit harder to pull off um she will i mean she could Yeah, maybe. She will... She would have if it was dog's body. Probably. No, you're not a guy anymore. She's going to be defensive. She's going to cast Mirror Image on herself and then she's going to basically begin moving up with her weapons and get in position to help with this devil for the time being. But you see her form kind of split into four Esmeraldas

kind of encircling herself to kind of protect herself. Ismark the Lesser is going to charge towards this demon. Seeing that this demon has already caused great harm to some of his friends already, Ismark rushes forth screaming. Silver flail in one hand. Here we go. And his hand acts in the other one uh silver flail here we go d20 natural one uh first attack with a silver flail is a miss is mark second attack with a silver flail is a miss with the hand axe

oh my god the Come on, Ismark! Oh my god. The demon's therapist. Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping! You know, he's screaming, he's got all the passion, all the energy, but none of the power. It's like a bad extra in a fight scene. Basically.

At the end of Ismark's turn, Strahd is going to use a legendary action to attack Jesper. He is going to make an unarmed strike against Jesper. It's unarmed. Jeez. Ooh, only an 11, however. So you kind of bring the sun sword up to parry the blows,

if you would, you know, still treating it like a normal weapon. And that causes Strahd at the last minute to kind of like, ah, kind of pull himself backwards, you know, missing with the attack as you bring up the Sun Sword in defense. Jesper, your turn. He's going to attack.

Finally, get his chance. Sun Sword, here we go. First one is a 24 to hit. That will hit. The Blade of Light cuts through Strahd's armor as if it was not there. You do have advantage as well, I think, with Faerie Fire. You do. You do.

Anybody attacking Strahd has advantage because of the Faerie Fire. I'm doing it two-handed, by the way, because I specified 21 damage. 21 points of damage to Strahd. And that's all Radiant's damage. 21 damage. 21 points of damage to Strahd. And that's all radiant damage. Yeah, that's all radiant damage. So the sword cuts through and Strahd just lets out this primal scream

when you do. Second attack then, rolling twice. With advantage. 23 again. And a 20... 223. they were literally 223s you did like a roll beforehand but yeah 23 still hits yeah the custom role was to see if the previous one had created ah gotcha gotcha gotcha gotcha yeah so yeah but the the second on the backswing again kind of um unable to almost unable to defend himself from this this some sort the weapon just carves through you will die this damage devil

weapon will not kill me nor will you you are nothing you are garbage you are less than the worms in the earth that Tiana feels the same way of you end of your turn yes but what the fuck uh he's going to make another unarmed strike against uh yes but i need to remember he is disadvantaged because he's in bright light so that's a 14 no boom okay so again the the bright light of the sun sword is literally fending stride off like he can't bring himself to deliver these blows because the blinding power this radiant energy of the sun sword is just keeping him at bay um as he desperately tries to strike um dog's body um just for those keeping note i uh rolled my concentration check for shield of faith on yesper and i rolled an 11 um because i got attacked by the fiend um i'm going to do something probably very silly and disengage uh not disengage i'm going to move away from the fiend without disengaging so they have an oh, no I have a reaction now

So yeah, you regained your reaction. Yeah, it's a new turn. So you regain your reaction In which case? It's strapped within 30 foot of me. Sorry. I still can't access the map. It's doesn't load it up. Yes Okay, I'm gonna move up next to Jesper and Waelon Strahd basically. Well, your reaction doesn't stop. This thing will still get to attack you

because your reaction, it's an action to disengage. This thing will still get a swipe. No, what was the thing that Irena cast on me? That was a one-only deal. That was a one-time-only thing, yeah. Okay, that's fine then. Keep going then. Get an attack against you.

That's going to be a... Yeah, quite high. I think that's plus... 25. Yeah, that'll hit. 18 points of damage. Okay. This demon rakes your back with a giant claw um fine um i will go over to jesper and i'm going to attack uh strad um and yeah i'm gonna divine smite him

as well as attacking him and obviously you, all of this sunlight in his face is probably not going to be very nice. He's probably going to be very mad at me. But let's go. First attack is 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 to hit. 21 will hit. 5, 6, 7. 21 more here.

5, 6, 7. So, sorry, 8 points of axe damage. It's not a magical axe, though, is it? It's not a magical axe at this moment in time, no, it isn't. So halved. But the Divine Smite, where the hell has Divine Smite just gone? So it's 2d8 when you use a first level spell, plus another d8 for every spell slot above second level and higher,

and then another d8 because he's undead. So here we go. There's 3d8, and then more if you're casting it at a higher level. I rolled two eights! I rolled two eights. So 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 points of radiant damage. 25, and was that a second level spell slot, yeah? That was a second level spell slot that I'm going to pour into that. So yeah, the axe comes sweeping down,

and fuelled by that oath that you swore to your friends um the axe blade begins to shine with light and whilst the axe itself doesn't seem to do much to strads strads flesh the burning light does hideously burn and you can see it kind of cuts through his undead flesh um without much resistance. Cute. When it comes to weapons, can you change your weapon? Because I've got an extra attack. Or is that too late?

So I would say you can swap the weapon, but it means you'd have to drop the axe. So the axe you won't be able to use again. It'd be like dropping the axe and then pulling out the spear i'm going to keep going with my axe then okay so i'll go in for an extra attack uh our old 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 to hit uh four five six seven seven points of axe damage so three points of axe damage. I'm going to go in again. Yeah, I'm going to go in again with the same second level spell slot and then Divine Smite.

8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 points of radiant damage. Radiant damage. Two heavy blows and you can see the power of the sun sword, the light coming off of the icon in Dog's Body's hand. Strahd is struggling against this power, seemingly overwhelmed,

like even trying to defend himself against these heavy blows, trying to parry them aside. The battle is, yeah, you guys find yourselves really not struggling. Strahd, your blows strike him and you can see them hacking away

his undead flesh. He screams and howls in pain. Enraged, you can see this defiance from you. Rimae. Okay. Okay. I'm going to use my crossbow um from you uh reemire okay okay i'm gonna um use my crossbow and take two shots at strad plizz okay uh

which i've got advantage so i'll do that again oh 15 brilliant no uh 15 will not hit. So kind of like similar to before the tentacle, Strahd uses this sword, which he didn't, he's not used against Jesper. Like he's used the sword to like swipe the things out of the air. But then when it came to Jesper, he just like punched him and like grabbed him and stuff like that. Whereas this time it kind of knocks the crossbow bolt out of the air with the sword. I'm going gonna try again 11

with the advantage however so uh the second strike you actually aim you purposely almost miss and where stride goes to parry where he thinks the blow is going to be the shot coming in disguised by these glow plugs that were blinding strides catches him right in the neck sweet awesome okay so uh 1d6 i'm going to use my uh my gathered swarm so give myself 2d6. Damage. It's a crit as well, so you max those as well. So 12 plus 2, 13, 14 plus 6, 20. So 20 total?

Yeah, 20 total. 20 total. Well, that's all non-magical damage, right? That's all just weapon damage. Yeah, half of that. The bolt kind of sticks in a little way and then Strud kind of just grunts and it pops out of his neck and you can see that the wound is not quite as deep as you would have liked it to be.

I'm going to move up next to Rose up there and that'll be my turn. Thank you. Dog's body's up here as well. Sure. Oh yeah, I will move Dog's body up there as well. Perfect. Tom Meyer. move sure oh yeah i will move dog's body up there as well uh perfect tom mayer um reed does that give you 2d6 like adds 2d6 to your roll because i think that's all you did for your attack roll i did 2d6 i did 1d6 for my standard damage and then another d6

cool i thought it was more um well i'm gonna try to try my... As a bonus action, I'll try my Grasping Vine again. Why not? I'll try and pull him just further into the sunlight. Sure. As a point, Force Movement won't provoke Opportunity Attacks if you're hoping to get Jesper and Dog's Body free Opportunity. If anything, I just kind of want him in the middle of everyone rather than flying above or whatever he's doing. So yeah, I'll try that again. It's up, so I may as well. So he makes a dex save.

17. Oh, it's closer, but not quite. Also, he disrespected the worms in the earth. So I'm going to send the worms in the earth after him. With giant insect, I'm making three giant spiders. I knew you would hate that one. Add them to the initiative. Three giant spiders who basically come after me.

I think they come after me or do they have to roll separately on the initiative? You tell me, Mark, up to you. I'm going to have them just go after you. So do you remember what your initiative was? I think it's 12. I'm just going to put it here. Can you just look up what hit points they have, please? They have

26 each. 26 each. I've got to write fucking three entries for these things. Okay. I've got to do fucking three entries for these things. I've got to do these as like custom entries 26. Do you want to know what they're going to do? I can tell you what they're going to do.

What's their AC? Oh, like 25. 14. 14. I knew you were going to hate this. The thing is, the other option... I this. Thing is the other option was- I hate summoned things. I'm using them so- The other option was 10 giant centipedes.

That was the alternate option. Oh, thank you for using spiders. Yeah, okay. So three giant spiders, these little tiny spiders hanging off your body, you kind of throw them out and they just enlarge. I've got to fucking find giant spiders. I was wondering when fucking find giant spiders. I was wondering when that was going to click.

Markers on the thing as well. You said less than the ones in the end. Oh, they're massive! They're huge, yeah. And they are all because that would be pretty much the end of my turn they're all going to ranged weapon attack ranged weapon attack they're going to web

strad three times and hopefully so he has to make a DC 12 check do they get advantage? it's not if it's a saving throw then advantage won't affect that. It is a ranged weapon attack and then I guess after that they make a strength check if I hit. So I guess they would have.

Well, the first one gets, oh my god, 19 twice. The second one gets 13. Misses. And the second one gets 13. Misses. And the third one gets 23. So two of them hit with their webs. It makes two strength checks. Strength saving throws. Seven for the first one.

Wow. And he's restrained. Yeah. Twice. He's restrained twice. These three spiders and these just strands of webs shoot up, kind of sticking him to the ground. I guess he's maybe not on the ground.

He's hovering like five feet, like a couple of feet off the ground. Close enough for him to melee attack the others. But yeah, these webs kind of like latch onto him and kind of like bring one of his arms down and grab his legs so he can't move around as easily. Yeah, and restrains him. Wow. And it also says recharge 5, 6.

So is that at the start of their turn? So yeah, on their turn, you have to roll a d6 for each one. And if you get a 5 or a 6, that ability recharges. Nice. Hey, you're not the only one playing D&D combat on your own. It's me now, baby. Strahd surrounded by these webs webs surrounded by this bright light i'm gonna have him take 20 points of radiant damage at the start of his turn um you can see that he's not regenerating any of this damage as well all of these wounds none of it's healing because it's all radiant damage so

he's just burning away um and you can see just this seething rage is beginning to build in him, and he just grits his teeth. I'm just going to read here. 150-foot range. 60-foot radius sphere. 60-foot radius sphere. That's quite a lot, isn't it? That's pretty big.

What would that hit? Everything. That basically hits everyone, doesn't it? Oh, no. He just bellows, No! And waves of black discs kind of just spread out from him

in all directions. I need every single thing, including the spiders, to make a constitution saving throw as he casts circle of death con saving throws

what's the number out of interest because that will speed this up yeah the dc is 19 so if you get a 19 or higher on a con save you are going to take half damage. Otherwise you're taking full damage. God damn. Guess we're gonna die!

It's time to go. Yep, we're gonna die. Yeah, no one has passed so far. Wait, what's the- I got 19. So 19, so okay, so dog's body's taking half. I'm just trying to see though, because I might have something that Jesper can have. I got 19. So 19. Okay, so Dog's Body is taking half. I'm just trying to see, though, because I might have something that Jesper can have.

I'm just trying to... He should get your charisma bonus. He should get your charisma bonus. It's not going to help a seven. Yes. It's not going to... Oh. Irena. No.

Let me roll for Irena. Irena fails. Ismark fails. Esmeralda fails. It's not as much damage as perhaps you are you are all afraid it is um but it is it is still some damage to everybody uh which is nice it's nice that is 29 necrotic damage to everybody but dog's body uh dog's body that would be 14 um and i believe if you are resistant to necrotic that's seven yeah spiders instantly gone instantly dead are they is stride still restrained though um that's it i think it would be the webs aren't mad like it's not like

a concentration spell the webs are still there he has to make a check to break free of them um the the discs and necrotic damage i'm not gonna have them maybe like some of the webs rot away but i'm gonna keep him restrained for now um but yeah these blackness just emerge everywhere i've got to do i just put these fucking spiders on my ah i played myself i played myself if you want i do have the ac and the hp of like the webs uh perfect yeah the one no i'm not gonna do damage to the webs like it's fucking project damage i'm not gonna do that uh dog's body rolled a 16 on my concentration check. You're not gonna completely destroy my fourth level spell.

Good point, I've got to do one for mine. Ten for mine. So I think that would be a fail then? What are you concentrating on, Rhi? Fairy fire. Is that a concentration spell? Yeah. I dunno. If it's got the c next to it

that was just an instant that's a concentration if he says it is i trust reed um so the fairy fire will also dissipate um i think it is anyway let me see well if it's not it's fine it's on it says duration concentration then yeah then it's concentration okay yeah yeah chat is also saying it is so i'm gonna i'm gonna take them right and the fact that you've read it if it says duration concentration it's a concentration spell i've been faq'd katie like from when we used to play it might have been updated um to be like maybe it was an error or something it wasn't concentration before um cool so we watch is sorry in response can I cast hellish rebuke on strut if you have a reaction and you have taken damage I believe that yes you

may cast hellish rebuke I would like to do that please the deck save throw from stride please but you know what he's restrained which means he has disadvantage on decks at very I believe. So the first one is a 22. The second one is a 25. Okay. So it's half damage. He still takes damage, but it's half damage. 3d10, fire damage.

I think it's 2. Let me double check. No, it's definitely 3 because we have this with Juto. You actually cast it at second level as a tiefling. So it's 3d10. Do you want to do it as well, other Maia? Both Maias are tweeting at the same time. Why not? Let's go big.

Let's just explode real quick. Yeah. 16 is the lowest. Oh, great. Okay. Wait, what is it to pass this? A 10 okay so he's gonna take half so nine points of damage from tom meyer and then oh what was that 24 from reemire you guys watch as you these flames these like black flames because it's fire damage from you guys um representing the kind of fury of the earth maybe kind of erupting from the ground when the fire

strikes strad it is not as effective as it should be and in fact some of the fire seems to almost be sucked into these open wounds that he has kind of gets sucked in uh so that's going to be 33 half of 33 um is 16 16 half of that is eight points of fire damage um yeah you just watch as these black discs erupt those of you who are near irena irena collapses to her knees and she's barely standing you can see she's like like you can see like this black kind of uh ill black kind of ill sickness kind of almost spreading through her chest. She is very hurt from that spell. And in fact, it's Irena's turn next.

She is going to... Does anybody else look super hurt? Irena is the type to heal others before herself. I'm okay. I had around a 10 HP. Okay. Nickelodeon. Yeah, in that case,

she'll cast a second level healing word on herself. There's a bonus action. Seven hit points. You go, Irena. What's your HP? seven hit points you go Irena what's your HP why in the question of

does anyone else super hurt I was reading my spells I didn't hear I put my hand up when he was looking away why would you put a hand up we have microphones just say me I'm dying heal me in that case seven points of healing to

jasper irena would heal others before she heals herself so you get seven points of healing uh jasper um and she just kind of stumbles back and kind of braces herself against the uh against the stone um that's fine yeah i i think that she can't really do that much else her cantrips are all like faces herself against the stone. That's fine. Yeah. I think that she can't really do that much else. Her cantrips are all like illusions and stuff like that. So she's just going to kind of try and ready herself.

Rose, we go to you next. Hello. Can I plus take a couple of shots at Strahd with a couple of magic arrows, please. Mm-hmm. Flinch, Schmitt, being the way right. Rolling. What? Yeah.

I don't know. 23 to hit. 23 hits. 23 to hit. 23 hits. That will be... What was it saying? 7 damage for my arrow, plus... Ooh, 6 for a Slayer's Prey.

So 13. Half would be 6. That's magic arrows. Oh. Oh. So another 6. Plus 1 arrow. Another 1. And... Oh, oh So another six plus one there one and

this arrow the You see it digs into stride fully now 20 to hit that hits Eight damage eight points of damage huh so as rose's arrow pierces into strad's flesh you can see multiple wounds from the radiant the burning flames strad looks more injured than you've ever seen him as this arrow strikes him piercing into his chest not into his heart but near enough you just see the air beginning to heat around strad immensely there is this distant rumbling that seems to spread through the ground no, you will not end me here.

Not until I have escaped this prison. Not until I have had my revenge. No, no, no. He explodes in flame. Every ounce of fury and rage, and you hear the wailing of hundreds of souls around him, and he bursts with fire. Dog's Body and Jesper, I need you both

to make dexterity saving throws as he is going to activate his mythic trait, Symphony of the Night. Oh, that's so cool. Oh, cool. Is it just those two? You get plus three. So, actually, it's 30 feet radius from him.

So, oh, no, it's not. Oh, damn it. Maya, Esmeralda, Rose, and Remaya as well. I need you guys to make deck saving throws. The only people that don't is Ismog and Irena. Oh no! Oh no! I got 19 exact. Half damage. Trot, you get plus 3.

21. Half damage. Half damage. You get plus 3. 21, yeah. I will roll for Esmeralda. Esmeralda's in my files. I technically... Oh, actually, no. Is he immune to fire? Yes, he is. He's the only one that survives at the end. He will be at this rate. Probably. So, Jesper, with Dog's Body's thing... Dog's Body, your bonus is going to make Jesper a success, right?

Because he's going to get to over 18. Plus three, yeah. Yep. Okay. So basically, Rose and Jesper, you both managed to kind of throw yourselves to the side. You're still going to take half damage from this as these waves of flames just erupt. I used a fire damage. Oh, you do?

Yeah, cool. Me too. Dog's Body. Do I i does my interception thing still go off for yesper uh what's the exact wording because it's normally under a weapon attack when a creature you see hits a target other than you other than you it's a target of you you can use your reaction to reduce the damage so So I'd like to see it as I just throw myself in front of him. No, no, no, Kim. So it doesn't work, unfortunately,

because when it's hit by an attack, this is a saving throw ability. So it would work if this was a melee attack or even a ranged spell like a Disintegrate or a Ray of Frost or something like that because it's on hit. When a creature is hit by an attack, this is a spell effect.

So unfortunately, Interception won't work. But you still throw yourself in front of him like and that's the the aura saving throw right like you're kind of throwing yourself in front of yes but he's ducking behind you to try and reduce the damage he's taking um but this just flame just rubs out uh as a note strad heals to full uh when this happens you see all of his wounds close up you see every wound and the sunlight Does not seem to be as effective anymore

Smiling this whole time Yeah, I don't know what you want I'm still gonna roll the damage actually I forgot about I mean, yeah. I don't know what you want. So, in terms of damage, I've still got to roll the damage, actually. I forgot about that. So, half damage to Rose, Jesper, and the Maya, because you have fire resistance. I got 19. Oh, did you?

I got 19. Okay, in that case, and then to Dog's body as well. So, the only person taking full damage in this, I believe, is Esmeralda. Everybody else is taking half. That's not too bad. Okay. So it's six points of fire damage.

13 to Esmeralda. Thank God she healed me and not herself. Just being on the very cusp of it. And that all happens as Rose's arrow impacts into him, and you just see him kind of erupt in these flames. Rose, anything else? I think that Rose would probably run across to Irina because she sees that she's really badly hurt. So she'll just... that's my movement.

But I've taken all of my other action. Okay. At the end of your turn, Strahd is going to use one of his new legendary actions. As he activates his mythic trait, new legendary actions become available. He's evolved! He has literally evolved. You see him now standing. All that rage has gone,

and he becomes the cold, calculated vampire lord that you've seen before. All that rage. His eyes, however however glow like red flames he looks up and he just gestures with his fingers and the sword in its scabbard flies out on its own sends it towards the Maya he does action he's He does. This is a legendary action. He's going to command his dancing sword as the dancing sword flies directly for the Maia.

And now he has a shield, also he's turned into a wolf. 19 to hit. Me, Maia. Yep, Tom Maia. Yeah, that hits me, Maia. You're going to take 11 points of slashing damage, plus 11 points of necrotic damage for 22 total.

Oh my god, necrotic? As this thing slices you across the body, leaving this black trail as the sword slashes across your form. Damn. Damn. That's smart. As the welder. damn that's smart esmeralda esmeralda is going to use as much of her movement as she can to yep she can just about do it esmeralda's gonna throw herself to the side of the pathway

kind of sprinting holding aside she sprints the side and then leaps through the air, channels lightning down one hand, and is going to shoot a lightning bolt out at Strahd as her third level spell. Cute. Strahd stat block. It's so long I have to scroll. However, yeah, he dodges to the side,

and most of it kind of passes him. He's going to take half damage from this. Okay. Still lightning bolt, though. Lightning bolt for 29, so half is going to be 14. And the lightning does seem to affect him. You can see that the lightning kind of glances along his side, but there's not a twist of rage or hint of anger,

just annoyance as he looks down and then looks over in Esmeralda's direction. Ah, you. Van Richten's child. I shall enjoy making you suffer as I did your master. That's Esmeralda's turn. Is Mark the L lesser still fighting this demon who I forgot about on Strahd's turn?

Um, uh, it's okay. I'll have him go after Ismark. I'll just have the demon go after Ismark. Um, Ismark is gonna fight this demon. Let's go. Silver flail is a miss. It's gonna attack. It's a miss.

Catch it. It's a miss. Oh, my God. Oh, my. It's still strong. It's a miss. It's not enough. Where's the demon?

The demon's gonna turn around on him. But would it have taken the damage from the circle of death or whatever? Fire? No, nothing. Doesn't take any of it. Nope. Almost like Strahd, use spells that won't affect his minion. The demon is going to attack Ismark three times. It just turns on Ismark like this annoyance. Um, and he's just going to... I'll just perform some last couple combats.

I don't care about this achievement anymore. It's not worth it. What is it, like, 10 games? The first attack is a miss. The demon... Oh, no, 17 just hits, in fact, actually. So the first attack is going to hit Ismark. The second attack misses.

Ismark manages to defend him off with a hand axe. And then the first attack is gonna hit is Mark the second attack misses is Mark manages to defend him off for the hand axe and then the third attack is gonna hit so first attack against is Mark t12 plus nine that's gonna be 17 points of damage followed by 16 points of damage which is gonna be 20 30 33 points of damage total um is mark goes down uh these these two attacks new enough to like like the the thing shoves its trident i mean he just kind of ah oh i'm sorry my friends i failed you oh he just collapses to the ground um gotta gotta make it kind of bad uh and yeah he just falls to the ground. Anyway, brand new turn, Jesper.

The webs, by the way, were burnt away as Strahd exploded with fire. Patting down the embers of fire on his clothing, looking back, is Mark just novelty swinging and then going down? No. No, we can't lose. Is Mark just novelty swinging and then going down? No No, we can't lose and he will swing with his big old Sun sword two-handed

Huh 26 I'll roll again just in case 15 so the top one is 17 radiant please 17 points of radiant damage my bardic flourished this one actually as well with an extra d8 so an extra 7

points of damage on that yes interesting what damage would that be would that be more radiant damage or would that just be like... Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, all right, sure. I'll take that.

In fact, it's probably double, right? Seven points of more damage. Triple. It's not double. It's definitely not double. The sunblade kind of, again, swipes and it leaves like this crimson mark along Strahd's cheek and he just kind of...

...blances around it. With extra attack, do I get to do another bardic inspiration or is it only the original attack? It says... It's... Yeah. Oh, it's as a bonus action, so never mind.

There you go. Uh, okay. So just another straight attack then. Oh, no advantage, by the way, Trot. You don't have advantage against him anymore. Don't forget. No fair fight. I took the top one anyway.

Uh, 23 to hit and 14 radiance yeah these these are big strad the fact that jasper hasn't missed an attack against strad is doing big damage to this guy charred he is um he's just swinging with every ounce that he's got left like big arcing like tired swings very kylo ren after injured fight in Force Awakens. Yeah. Absolute. Just thinking about that.

He's punching his side. Sorry, how much damage? 2 million. 14. 14 points. 2 million. 14. 14 points. 2 million and 14. Damn. At the end of your turn, Jesper,

Strahd is going to use another legendary action. There's quite a few more. It's going to be a good one. He's tanking. Yeah, he, with his one,, he's using almost like one hand to control the sword that's flown out from him. With the other one, a single orange bead lights up and he just drops it on, on you and, you and dog's body, basically.

Cool. Um, he's gonna just, as a fireball goes off, I need you both to make dex saving throws, please. Oh my god. I need you both to make deck saving throws, please. Oh, my God. 11. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. All right, you're both taking full damage from this one, unfortunately. Can you roll under a nine?

Oh, shit. Five points of fire damage. That is a big fireball. You're on two. Jesper's down. Very down. Dog's body's on two hit points, is that? Seven concentration, so

Shield of Faith goes as well. Not that it was much use against a fireball. Yeah. Technically, it would still be on your body because it's not your spell, so it would have still been active on your unconscious form. On my charred body. Yeah, just shh as it dissipates.

That was the end of Jesper's turn. I'm still standing. Better than I ever did dog's body. It's your turn. I am going to let's see. Eenie, meenie, miney. I am

going to kneel down, place a hand on Jesper. Not yet, brother. And lay on hands for 30 points. Okay. Thank you. All you have done is buy him time.

I've done what is right. Anything else, TalkSpotty? Tatyana. I believe that's your action. Oh, he doesn't care about Tatyana anymore. I mean, she's the heel. Oh, he doesn't care about Tatiana anymore. I mean, she's a heal. Oh, right, yeah. Tell me about it! Surprisingly good, yeah.

A second level healing word? Not so much. I don't think I have any bonus healing, so that's it for me. I'm gonna go die now. Rimaia, followed by Tommaya. Okie dokie. I'm going to go die now. Rimaia followed by Tommaya. Okey-dokey. I am going to do Zephyr Strike.

I'm going to cast Zephyr Strike on myself, and I'm going to go full speed mode. I'm going to run up to Strahd, pull out my sword, and make two melee attacks against Strahd, please. Okay. It's 13 18 for the first one uh 18 is just barely gonna hit him yeah oh incredible okay nice so i'm gonna do oh my god i didn't expect this was going to happen.

So that's the weapon damage, seven, yes, seven damage, and then the Zephyr strike force damage, 1d8 of force damage on that one. Six. So, seven plus six. Seven plus six is thirteen.

So, and then halved because it's not magic. Six points of damage. For the forces, right? Yeah, force damage would be. So I'll just do... Yeah, I'll do the full six and then I'll do half the normal damage. There you go.

Cool beans. So the Zephyr Strike, you plunge the sword in and it kind of like gets through the armor, but trying to like dig it in, he moves so lightning quick that you kind of scrape the blade and it doesn't quite have the purchase that you want it to second attack again oh not quite as good this one he he just like grabs your arm and throws you to the

side kind of like oh and you stumble to like grab your footing i'm gonna skedaddle another I'm gonna skedaddle another up here. Out of the way. Stab, stab. Gotta go fast. As you come spiraling around. Amazing. Tom Meyer.

I love that fist strike. I want to... I mean, I'm gonna use my Graspi Vine thing on the sword. I want it'm gonna use my graspy vine thing on the sword I want it just out of my way I know he can fly it again but whatever

so I'll just yank that sword alright give me a second I've got to look up the stats I want my vine to wield it how cool would that be I want to use

the sword in my Graspi Vine. Please. Sir. Mark? Yeah, I'm trying to work out how this works because the dancing sword... Okay, I mean, so what is it normally? A deck saving throw? Uh, yep.

Cool. Okay, I mean, so what is it normally? A deck saving throw? Yeah. Cool. I'm going to use Strahd's stat because he's the one controlling the blade and the Dancing Sword itself doesn't have a stat. So I'm going to use Strahd's deck save on this, basically. Sure. Well, it's 15, so he's probably going to get... 15.

20 million. I got 15. Okay, cool. Great. So the sword very nimbly whips out to the side. I got 15. 20 million. I got 15. Okay, cool. Great. So the sword kind of very nimbly whips out to the side. Either way, he was probably just going to move it back and attack me with it next turn anyway.

I then want to do a hold person on Straht. He'll probably pass it. Sure. Wisdom 15. Wisdom 15. So I rolled a natural one, plus eight is nine. Chris Trott, I'm going to use one of Strahd's legendary resistances to automatically succeed.

Oh, yeah. That's a particular point of contention for poor Chris Trott, but, yeah, you try and grip with the magic around him trying to freeze Strahd in place and he just looks at you with these flaming eyes. No. Oh. I've also totally forgot about my halo of spores,

so I'm just going to do 1d6 to the fiend. Five damage for that thing. Five, okay. I could have been doing that this entire time, BT dubs. Sure. to do 1d6 to the fiend. 5 damage for that thing. 5? Okay. I could have been doing that this entire time, BT dubs. Sure. Well, you know, let's... How about Tom? I'll just do 10 damage to him. We'll just call it that.

How about that? I'll take it. What do I think? I don't care about the... I care about Strahd. I don't care about the fucking demon that he summoned. That was literally there to try and just do extra damage. Maybe I rolled really well. Maybe it's not, but sure.

Is that the end of your turn? That's it. That's me. Cool. Strahd looks down at these two warriors before him, one of which is clutching this hateful symbol. The other one is clutching this weapon, but is, you know, knocked down to the ground and injured.

And yeah, he is going to swoop down. Well, I'll use his bonus action first to attack the mire with the dancing sword. So I'll use that first as he gestures with a hand and the sword swipes at the Maier. That's a 29 to hit the Maier. Oh, yeah. Oh, Maier, this is... For... Oh, only six points of slashing, but 14 points of necrotic for 20 damage total.

What the hell? Okay, I'm down. All right, the Maier's down. What the hell? Okay, I'm down. Alright, the mine's down. I didn't expect you to hit that hard. Dog's body, he looks down and he is going to make an unarmed strike against Dog's body. I

have rolled so badly on his unarmed strikes to grab stuff. So he reaches down to like grab you by the throat dog's body and just with the last of your strength you manage to kind of like fend him off i'm gonna use his second attack to try and do it again okay of course i roll a fucking natural 21 i'm gonna grapple um ah so he grabs you he grabs you. He grabs you by the throat. You are grappled by him. And he just lifts you up.

That is the end of his turn, technically, this round. He does have a legendary action coming up. The demon is going to turn on... Oh, everything around him is dead. So it's going to go for Remire, the biggest threat that it can see. Remire, three attacks at you. This is plus 11. First one, 29. Yep.

Second one, 30. Oh my god. Last one, 17. Yeah. Yeah? Yeah? First, this is the first damage roll. That's going to be 11 damage. Alrighty.

Yep, cool. Second damage roll is 20 damage. Rad. Awesome. Cool, I'm down. Third one is another 12. Oh, you're down? Okay.

Well, did you go down on the second attack, Maya? Yes, I did. That's two death saving throws, because if you were down on the second attack, Maya? Yes, I did. That's two death saving throws, because if you were down on the second one, he hits you with the third attack. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you go down, and then the trident comes down as a final kind of blow.

Whoa! Amazing. I love it. Oh, fuck. Amazing. I love it. Fuck, who would... Who would Irena save here? Probably her brother over the two girls. The thing is, it's like... So, like, Tom and Rhi, like, is that... Because I want, obviously, you guys are playing characters, right?

I want you guys to have fun. Irena probably would save Isma gross she would save her brother yeah as long as you're okay with that as long as you're okay she would save us so she calls out is mark and like is mark mark at the end of irena's turn irena is also um she's just going to kind of position herself as behind rose as best she can pulling out her rapier but she's there's really just not much she can do here she's not really much of a fighter um she's just like desperately trying to heal up um using using her these minor healing spells um at the end of irena's turn dog's body strad's gonna use his legendary actions to okay crunch crunch uh one incapacitated creature um here's advantage jesus christ kim's feeding let's see if he gets through your armor. That was a fucking natural one on my first attack against Dog's body.

Yeah. He does have advantage. Oh. That one. Yeah. 25. Oh. Yeah, that will hit.

Yes, Mark, I can confirm that will hit me. That one can confirm. Uh, so that's gonna be six points of damage plus, uh, 12 points of damage. That's necrotic damage you are unconscious the target's hit point maximum i have resistance necrotic so i don't know if that helps okay so that's six points of necrotic um it's not matter because you're down anyway um strad heals your hit point maximum is reduced by six so your actual hit point maximum is reduced by six. So your actual hit point maximum is reduced by six. This doesn't kill you.

It doesn't, it doesn't know. It doesn't kill him because it's the hit point maximum has to be reduced to zero. But Strahd does heal a little bit. Also, it's a nice bit of flavor. Like he would like pick you up. Like blood just kind of drips down his chin as he throws dog's body, dog's body's body to the side.

Yeah. I'm quite sweet. Whereabouts? Blood just kind of drips down his chin as he throws dogs body dogs bodies body to the side Yeah Whereabouts I don't know like he had him grappled so away from you ever he throws him behind he throws him behind him Shouldn't have said anything. In fact, he's 10 feet now you've said that he like throws dogs bodies Rose I was at the end of Irene's turn rice. That's my game Going to cast you You're up! You've got hit points.

Me? No, I'm telling you. I'm yelling at you. Oh, don't worry. I'm going to cast Zephyr Strike. And then... Hang on. I'm messing up on roll 20.

So fast! 15, 15, 20. I'm going to cast a level one cure wounds on Rhi Meyer. Okay. Thank you. And then that was 20. 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60. Freaking off down here please thank you how many hit points to read um that will be actually no i'll do level two for you oh yeah uh three four this is eight yeah eight points all right

yes that was great but it's something you can tell me about it um does the sunlight move with my body so yes the the the thing is still um the icon is still i will say that like you were gripping that with every ounce of strength so even though you're unconscious like your body's still gripping it i'm not gonna have like you know anything yeah that'd be like so the sunlight needs to move with my bod you're not healing no it doesn't heal you he's healing in this sunlight he healed no he's not healing but he's also that burning damage isn't happening anymore he's not taking damage from the sunlight but he's not regenerating. No, no, no. He healed from drinking my blood.

He healed when he drank Dog's Body's blood, yeah. My blood's that sweet, yo. A tiny, tiny amount. Right. The sunlight's stopping him from regenerating as well. Like, the radiant damage and sunlight's stopping him from regenerating. You can see that, however, this fire, this red fire in his eyes, and it's almost like there's heat emissions all over his skin

that's almost like protecting him from the sunlight. It's like a defensive barrier around him. He made a poop. He made a deal. Rose, everything done? Yeah, so Zephyr strikes a bonus action and then Cure Wounds is an action and then I moved. Technically you wouldn't have been able to do that because it's not a cantrip. If you cast a spell as a bonus action, you can't cast a spell as an action.

We'll forget about it this turn, but next just remember that you can't bonus action and action cast a spell unless one's a cantrip. You can't double cast in the same turn. That's all right, it's fine. So that was Rose's turn. Esmeralda will rush towards Strahd, and you can see that she has her kind of glittering hand axe and then this kind of silvered short sword. She's actually going to drop the silvered short sword

and pulls a wooden stake out from her hand, and she's going to wield that as like a secondary weapon. She's just like, die, monster! And she's going to try and rush towards him. Someone use me as a stake. So with her hand axe, the first attack is going to be a hit. The second attack, however, is going to be a miss um the stake i'll do a little bit differently um so the hand axe is going to do oh five points of damage to strad ho ho um and then she kind of thrust the stake forward i'm

not gonna have a roll because strad's stronger than she is um she goes to like thrust it into his chest um and he just catches her arm and he just like holds esmeralda's hand at bay he grips it until the point where she's like ah she like shrieks in pain the steak falls from her hand and drops down to the ground next to you jesper um and you guys can all see this kind of like wooden stake with like a silver tip i mean he just kind of knocks esmeralda back he's just kind of just like enough of your games child Esmeralda back. He's just kind of like, enough of your games, child.

I'm nearly done here. So he did two legendary actions to the bite. He will make an attack against Esmeralda, actually. He will just backhand her with his legendary action. It's going to be a hit. 4-10.

Plus another 8. 18 points of damage to her. So he just like actually rushes up and he just grabs her, throws the stick around her hand and he just backhands her, sending her reeling. Is Mark...

Let's go! Let go is Mark. He's gonna dash around the side. Let go. Yeah. So he was here. Look at him go. He's gonna dash around the side. He was here. Look at him go. He can't heal. He's too fast, though.

Where's he going? Can't predict him. He, like, combat rolls to the side. He charges forward, and he's seen Esmeralda drop this stake, so he's gonna, like, he drops his, like, normal hand axe, and he's gonna grab that stake in his final hand, and he's now gonna try and use this as a weapon but first two flail attacks here we go ismark against rod monster

first attack is a miss let's go ismark let's go A second attack is a hit! Yay! Let's go, Ismark. Let's go. Four. That's not bad as well. That's ten points of damage. Can the entire battle stop just to go, yes, Ismark! Yes, Ismark!

Ten applause. I'm going to have Ismark make a strength test versus Strahd as he tries to plunge this stake into his chest. Now, Rose would know that a stake won't kill a vampire like Strahd, but it might paralyze him or force him to retreat, basically. So Ismark, 15 plus 3, 18. Strahd. Not bad. Plus 5, 20.

He gets it. It's like an inch. It's like a centimeter away from Strahd's heart. And Strahd just grabs Ismark by the throat and just lifts him up. What do you think you are going to accomplish here, boy? What world do you think that you could ever do anything to me? He just squeezes and you just watch Ismark. No, no, no. That's where we're going to end today's session. anything to me. He just squeezes and you just watch his hand. No! No! No!

That's where we're going to end today's session. The achievement! So in Castlevania when I'm dying. He just says he missed. So this isn't my actual Castlevania RPG. What? I want to play an actual castlevania rpg and you got the line wrong so oh did i sure yeah okay

sorry i don't know what you want from me um i've got a i've got a hefty job uh of converting all the initiatives and hit points and stuff like that so I've got it for next week but yeah we'll try and finish things off yeah so where are we currently at so we have Tom Meyer is still down Dog's body's down

and thrown away Jesper is up but on about 30 hit points Remyer is up but on about 30 hit points uh re-mire is up but on low hit points irena's on low hit points is marks on low hit points esmeralda's pretty low now as well strad you can see that after this transformation he is injured like you can still see like you've like the the blows he's taken since that explosion of fire they haven't healed like these are fresh wounds and there's significant damage but all of

that sort of like rage and fury is gone and he's almost like not responding to the wounds um i don't know i don't know where things stand uh well pretty close to a tpk from the looks of things pretty close you know how it's gonna go as you wait may eyes coming back gonna spend the spell spot and lose it in turn one someone if it helps Tom I was very annoyed I went to all the effort of adding spiders to initiative sorry in chat someone someone had an idea in chat that the fiend that he summoned was um uh xeros it's a cool idea xeros is like a little tiny minion of nothing yeah he's a little no no no no no he's not no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no quite a bit of work for him I deserve it I didn't do any you dragged me into your mess

exactly that's why you're a gross little woman thing I was dragged into your mess as well I dragged everybody into my mess there was a lot of mess

Trump is in his mythic form what sorry somehow you can't just you can't just throw that form in there, you son of a gun. Hello. And Sylvia of the Night.

Yeah. Well, as you well know, Chris Trott, the base standard Strahd isn't actually very scary. He's actually quite defeatable, especially if you have the icons and the sun sword and stuff like that. And a bag full of twig lights. And a bag. Well, even then, you don't even need that, honestly.

The sun sword and the symbol of Ravenloft completely just wipe him out. So I had to give him a little something. I was expecting something else to happen, which might still happen. But we'll see. Maybe. Maybe. you