High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Curse of Strahd #7 | House of the Living Dead

Episode Date: May 26, 2020

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Uber Reserve. See Uber app for details. Welcome friends to High Rollers Presents The Curse of Strahd. A gothic horror adventure of chills, thrills, and many blood spills. I am your Dungeon Master, Mark Humes, and the players joining me are as follows. Chris Trott as Jesper the Vistani Bard, Kim Richards as Shadows Beyond the Veil, a Tabaxi cleric, Katie Morrison as Rose Vanandi, the Human Ranger, Tom Hazel as Xeros Mistan, the Dragonborn Fighter, and Rhiannon Gower as Ziki Mistan, the Dragonborn sorcerer having reached the town of the lucky and met its new Burgomaster, Lady Fiona Wachter,

our uncertain heroes seek refuge from the dangers of the misshrouded lands of Barovia and its dark overlord Strahd von Zarovich. Having found refuge at the abandoned Blue Water Inn, the party met with Father Lucian and the animated bones of St. Andral, a holy figure who stood against the vampire lord himself long ago. The one who had brought them to Barovia, Madame Ava, was killed, and now the party seek to act on what little information they have. Two cards drawn from her mysterious reading.

Having learned that Fiona Wachter has led much of the town to the newly named Church of the Ruby Rod, the party, along with their companions, Irena and Ismark, make their way to the old Burgomaster's mansion in hopes of finding one of the clues that Madam Ava's cards led them to. And I believe that is where we begin today's episode. With a slight adjustment, the stats in the middle will not reflect that you guys

leveled up. You are now level four. We've had some ability score improvements, new spells, and all that kind of good stuff. And we will update the bit in the middle ASAP. But it's a level behind. And that's my fault because I forgot to tell the guys they leveled up last week.

So... He told us like an hour ago. I did, yeah. I was looking at the catch sheets and I was like, well, add those quick. Because you have seen the very large the the best way to describe it is a sort of religious procession through the through the town making its way to the church uh the church of the ruby rod as it is now called um and yeah you see that most of the streets appear to be empty and i believe that the plan was to

head to the old burger master's mansion it is night time as you are doing this it is perhaps midnight or 1 a.m ish kind of time uh so it is dark out there are no street lights um it seems that most of the houses either have candles in the windows or people carry torches or lanterns. So it will be dark. Those of you who don't have any dark vision, which is all of you except Shadow beyond the veil. Yeah, you're going to be limited in how much you can see. So when you step outside, you're going to be somewhat limited in your visions. But luckily, there's not too far to go.

If you're an elf, you never have this problem. This is just saying. Welcome to the world of being a normal human yeah it's weird that dragon people don't have it either but never mind um luckily you don't have too far to go you uh father lucian has pointed you in the direction of the burgomasters mansion and it is only a couple of streets to the south uh from your current position in the the walled city in the walled town it's not a couple of streets to the south uh from your current position in the the walled city in the walled town it's not really a city uh in the walled town of balaki uh so what's the plan i hand it over to you guys um so there's no lighting at all in the city it's just basically i mean there wouldn't be that i mean there's no electricity so you're not going

to get street lights or anything like that. In terms of oil lanterns in the city, there are some oil lanterns on the streets, but none of them have been lit. They all look empty or dark. Okay. And you saw that when the procession went past, they were carrying flaming torches as their light source.

How busy is the... not the entire city is in that procession right like the town um i mean there was a lot of people in it there was a lot of people in there um you know there was like hundreds of people that went past um you don't think that that's the full population of the town no there was definitely going to be people still in their houses or you know potentially elsewhere but yeah i'm just wondering if it's worthwhile just lighting a torch and just dealing with it like i don't know how many people are going to be around to that's i mean the process that's a great question right uh maybe maybe maybe maybe i mean do you want to do you want to do like a check. Maybe. Do you want to do a check or something?

Or do you want to... It's gone past. If you want to try and remember what you saw, did you see any armed guards and things like that, you can ask that question. Or if anybody else wants to. Yeah, I'll see what someone else wants to do first. In case they have something special.

That sounds nice. No no I don't really spells which I will role play as and when necessary which can help when we get there but right now I'm just kind of in the dark and well it was your plan yes but to go to the burgomaster's mansion so you kind of taking the lead on this are just kind of in the dark. Well, it was your plan, yes, but to go to the Burgomaster's Mansion. So you kind of taking the lead on this? Are you kind of like getting everyone together to go to the Burgomaster's Mansion? Or what's the plan? I'm gathering everybody. We went out, I think, the rear. Actually, it's the same door, isn't it?

There is no rear. Yeah, there's just the one entrance into the blue water. And the other one seems to have been long boarded up. Downwards, right? Downwards. Yeah, you're heading south. So there's basically, you have like a crossroads immediately outside of the inn.

You take the southern road, then it splits into two and Father Lucian's giving you the directions to head down the, what would be the left-hand path or the right-hand path from your character's perspective to reach the Burgomaster's Mansion at inn three3 which is where the burger master's mansion is i think i'll literally lead us outside and get to a point oh it's it's much darker than i thought has anyone got light sources or something yeah the uh overhead as you kind of step outside fully, there is... The cloud cover is so thick that there's no moon or stars.

It's very, very, very dark out here. I can bring light to a dark place. Will it bring a lot of light? Because we're trying to be stealthy. Well, I don't know how stealthy it is to light a candle in the darkness. You are going to draw attention to yourself, yes. Candles are okay, but will it give us enough? Maybe. So, out of character, I can cast light, the cantrip light,

which is one object that is no larger than 10 feet, and then the object sheds a bright light 20 foot in a radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet. Yeah, it's pretty bright. It's like having a very, very bright lantern on you. The thing is, as well as shadow, you know darkness. Like, yeah, Jesper doesn't, I don't know if Jesper's caught on to the idea, but any sort of light in the darkness is gonna draw attention.

Like, you will stand out with light sources. How, you know, but that, you know, in a town, that's not necessarily a conspicuous thing. It's just that, yeah, like, if you walk around with a light source, then you won't be able to hide as well if you want to try and move stealthily. If you just want to move down the street normally, you don't need to worry about it as much. I do also have candles. Yeah. Right.

Candles, something like 10 foot of dim light or 20 foot of dim light or something like that. I think so long as maybe someone that's got the best vision takes the lead and everyone else listens intently to the person in front of them for their footsteps and just keeps in a line. Okay?

Stay together. We'll be okay. Candles, like, tiny amount of light. Five foot, yeah. Yeah, it's like five foot and then five foot dim. Nice and quiet, dragon friends. Nice and quiet. I'll try.

I'll try my best. Yeah. Well, if Jesper is trying to lead everyone stealthily along, that is going to call for a group stealth check. So everybody make a stealth check. And we're basically aiming for at least half the group

to succeed. Or half or more. More than half, sorry. So you have you guys, but you also have Ismark and you have disadvantage. Don but you also have Ismark, and you have disadvantage. Don't forget, Thomas, you are wearing heavy armor, so Chainmail will give you disadvantage, I believe.

I will check that just in case I'm wrong. Natural 20 plus 6, 26. Oh, dang it. I rolled a 13. Well, that's good for you guys. You also have two companions with you You have Irena and Ismark Now Ismark very much like Xeros His armour is a little bit heavier

And therefore kind of weighs him down a little bit That's not very good But Ismark And then Irena As stealthily as Rose does, Rose and Irina both crouch and merge into the shadows as they begin making their way

up. So, let's go through and have a look at what everybody gets. So, Shadow, what was your total? Thirteen. Thirteen. Jesper, what was your total? Sixteen. Sixteen. 13 Jesper what was your total 16

16 so I'm just checking for what the DC that you have to beat is so Shadow that's a failure Jesper that's a success Rose you got like 26 didn't you

yeah I was waiting for a confirmation but it's okay Rose, you got like 26, didn't you? Yeah. Yes. I was waiting for a confirmation, but it's okay. So we've got two successes, one failure. Ziki, what was your total? 15 total. 15, that's a success.

So one, two, three versus one. Zeros was a failure. So that's two failures, three successes. Ismark failed, so that's three failures to three successes. Irena succeeded, fought against three, and then what did Jesper get? Sixteen. Sixteen? Oh yeah, you got the sixteen.

That's right. So yeah, you guys just barely working together, making your way through the shadows um you managed to move without drawing attention to yourself which is good because you see that whilst the procession that made its way through velaki made of the townsfolk the barovians all dressed in their kind of dark colors and dreary garb, um, have made their way. The town is still occupied. As you see, passing down onto the other path,

away from the Burgomaster's mansion, you just managed to kind of, you know, Rose and Irena, um, and Ziki and Jesper all managed to kind of pull the others into an alleyway, um, and kind of mask the armor of xeros and um ismark before a squadron of four of these clockwork soldiers these um kind of in the shapes of men but they have no really discernible gender they're just these kind of like

sculpted humanoids of brass cogs and gears and straw and wood you know all kind of different materials merged together these a squadron of four of these soldiers being led by a human a male human in chain mail um begin going down the other path and you see that the human kind of stops he looks around peers into the darkness for a moment and then seems to just kind of shrug and then carry on with the rest of the patrol as they begin making uh their way down the opposite path away from you very very close almost noticed but not quite Almost noticed, but not quite. Carrying on, pushing on through the dark.

You know, the shadows of this town, each of the buildings casts in what little light there is. There are these long creeping shadows that just sort of reach out and stretch like a dark sea beneath your feet. Without any cloud, without the moon or the stars to guide by you really just have a few meters around you at any point with the exception of shadow who if the world turns a kind of shades of black and white as you begin to pick out the details of the corners of buildings and an iron fence that surrounds a large

estate um as you're kind of leading everybody as you go um the rest of you uh you feel like the brush of cold hands against your clothing or against your side as a companion sort of reaches out to affirm that you're there in the darkness. But yeah, Shadow, you lead the party and you emerge outside a large estate, effectively. You'll want to scroll down a little bit there, Chris Trott. But in the darkness, you guys really can't see anything. Okay. Shadow's just really good at describing it

right so uh yeah you can describe what shadow sees the rest of you yeah without a light source you can see the vague shape of a building in front of you um as uh you can see sort of like iron gates but you really can't make out any details of the building itself um it's it's abandoned right it's this is the abandoned burger masters it looks to me yeah this is the old burger masters mansion and shadow when you look at it yeah you can see that um there's a you know one window at the front which has been boarded over but very shoddily so um not like the inn which looked like it had been secured from the inside this just looks like it's been abandoned and you can see that there are there's refuse there's rotten vegetables that have been thrown

at the doors um yeah it looks to be uh you can even probably still see there is a very dark dried stain that leads down the steps and onto the dirt path and out back towards the rest of the town. You can see that the windows have been broken. There's the scorch marks of fire kind of scattered around the building against the stones and things like that. You get a sense as you linger here, a deep sense of tragedy of a lot of death that took place here. This is not a fun place.

There has been a great deal of death here. A mob, it seems, has dragged the occupants out. Probably related to our new Burgermaster. Maybe. This is recent? You can see it on the stains?

I mean, they're dried. Looks fairly recent to me. In the last month, at least, maybe. I don't know. I deal with bodies, not vegetables. Can you tell if it's occupied or not? Can you hear anything? Not by anything. Living, probably. Shall I knock? probably. Shall I knock?

No, no, no. No knocking. I think we're past niceties. I can probably test for traps or undead. I can go invisible. Oh.

The rest of you just look up at this dark, looming shadow of a building, like not even able to pick out details or, you know, can't hear anything. There's just this oppressive darkness that clings around you like a crowd moving with you. moving with you. I can't see anything. So I will be walking invisible into literal darkness of a very spooky

house. Should we check around? Should we check the entire house from the outside just to make sure it's safe? It's probably a safe bet. Yes. That sounds good, yes.

Perhaps now that we are here... Maybe if we went around the back, then there would be an easier place to put a light up that we can be away from the main street. That's a good idea, yes. Let's go around the back. Stealthily, again.

Okay. Yeah, so obviously with only a small amount of vision you can only see a small amount in around you but shadow can lead the way but for now you are just in cloaked in darkness shadow off into the night shadow oh yes follow the delight this is why I wanted to do because yes when it's night without any sort of dark vision you guys are kind of screwed bones everyone stay nice you can see better than all of us let's not go so you all kind of make your way up to the edge of a building And you can begin to see the outer wall now of a very... Watch out, there's a wall there.

Oh. That's a wall. This building would have been quite impressive once. Like, you can see it's well-made. It seems expansive. It's similar to the Burgermaster's house back in Barovia, where you first met Irina and Ismark. But this has definitely been defiled.

You can see that there are scorch marks, there are rotten vegetables, all the stuff I described before, you begin to see and smell this kind of very putrid, rotting stench just emanates from the building any way it can as you begin creeping your way around. That's okay.

Where did the dragon friends go? Oh, they've gone off around the corner. No, we haven't. We're right in front of Shadow. Oh, there you are. So you're literally like, Jesper's like, I can see them as they're literally a few steps ahead. There. There.

I see a tail. Is Mark and Irina just kind of falling behind you as they follow cautiously? Watch out, there's a holder. We're moving up. Alright, so this is the side wall. One more wall, one more turn, and then we'll be at the rear. This is just so like, right, we're not lighting any lights. Just keep going.

Extra safe. So, like, right, we're not lighting any lights. Just keep going. Extra safe. Just creeping along. Directly behind her. Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to pop into you there. My bad. It's okay.

Shadow, keep moving. There's a window over here. Shadow, you can see that, yeah. And whilst it has a few thin boards, like planked boards, most of the room you can still peer into. You can see the glass has been broken. It looks ransacked. You can see that there's, you know, a very torn up rug. You can see broken chairs.

It appears to be some sort of like lounge or study, perhaps, as you peer in. We could enter the house here. The room seems empty. The window is not big enough. The window is not big enough for a medium creature to pull through. It's not big enough, is it? Sorry, I forgot that I'm not actually a shadow. My name is Shadow, but I'm not actually a shadow. My name is Shadow, but I'm not actually a shadow.

So let's carry on. The window's probably about a foot tall. It's very narrow. You'd struggle very hard to fit through it. Is everybody doing okay up there? No trips, no falls? Everybody okay? All good.

Everyone present? I've lost my bearings entirely. Are we still on the side? Yes, it's a very long side of this house. I've never seen houses like this before Come on just to check you guys are all saying this is all in character talking. So just just to check. Yeah, he yes, right Xeros What's your passive perception?

Currently out front Wow 15 As you are currently out front. 12? 15. 12? You think that coming from the left on the map, somewhere in there, you can hear the sound of scraping

and scrabbling, like dirt being torn up and churned away by something so a hit like ahead of us in the direction we're going right cool yeah you hear like a See ya. Where is the dragon? I'll stop Shadow and... I don't want to say anything. Can I give like a... Like a symbol? Or like...

Point at my ears and then point in that direction. Okay. You point at your ears and then you point in that direction. Okay. You point at yours and then you point in that direction. Yes. Yes. Oh. You want me to... What did you roll on your stealth check again?

Me? Four. Nice. Why? No reason. That was a while back though right yeah it was but you know you're still moving just as quietly as you did earlier

you haven't gotten more stealthy by arriving here yeah the sound stops Zeros you hear like the scrabbling and then it just stops. Can Shadow hear it now? Like, if I told her to listen to it? Or listen for it?

Yeah, my passive is 15. Well, you can make an active perception check if you're being told to listen out for something. You can make an active one. That will be... Oh oh that will be a nine you hear plus five to perception what the hell you hear heavy heavy steps or claws on earth creeping up towards you towards that corner of the building tonight can I whisper oh it's coming it's coming this way okay

why have we stopped I'll draw my sword in the breath. I guess, yeah, I'll be like, do you want a light? This will draw it closer. Can I... Even though we're out of combat, can I prepare a thing? The moment I see it in the light,

I then just dive for it and just on a dive you know well you can't you can only you can't charge so you can't move and attack it in the same turn you could say like if it comes towards me I'll attack it or I'll move up to it if I see something okay yeah sure I'll okay so you begin slowly drawing your sword, and as you see Shadow and Rose having this conversation about the light, a figure emerges on the corner, just out of everyone but Shadow's sort of range. The rest of you just see a pair of glowing red eyes as a jaw of some sort of four-legged beast opens and a golden rolling flame begins to emerge out.

I need, let's see, 15-foot cone. One, two, three, four, five, ten, fifteen. It will pretty much step right next to Zeros to do this. As this figure comes bounding out of the darkness, having heard Xeros and breathes a cone of fire. That's my thing. So everybody but Irena and Jesper. It appears to be a devil demon dog thing

with glowing red eyes, black matted bloody fur and a big flaming mouth drooling with embers. And yeah, everybody but Irena and Jesper, dexterity saving throw. And then we're gonna roll some initiative! Drooling with embers is the coolest

thing I've heard ever. Drooling embers. That's an 8. Drooling embers.bers falling out of its mouth I'm rolling like gar Borgia yeah all right well you need to be a 12 so you tell me if there would be a 7 mark that's 7 for me so, no for Rose, no for Shadow. Ziki, that's a no. Was that a no? That's a hard no. Even with your bonus?

My bonus is zero. Zeros. That's a yes from me, God. That's yours. That is a yes from you. You're going to take half damage. And then Ismark also takes half damage on this as he throws. He probably kind of like, yeah, tries to make sure like shoves irena back

but also steps out of the the breath of this creature oh this is no he does not do he does not throw his sister in front of him to protect um this is actually a lot more nasty than i thought As a gout of flame erupts over you all. What the mother... 30 damage. That's a pretty good damage roll. Yeah, look at that damage roll. Five, five, five, six, six, and a three. That's exactly lethal, Mark. So this is going to be a TPK.

That's unfortunate. That's gonna be a TPK! That's exactly what I'm saying. That is probably the best 66 damage roll I've ever rolled in my life. I don't think I've ever rolled a damage roll so good. That's pretty nuts. Right, well, Zeke falls unconscious as these waves of flame wash over you. You want some initiative? And then we're going to roll some initiative, yeah.

So don't forget to take the damage. So half damage for Xeros and Ismark. Everyone else takes 30 points of damage. I said I was going to rush towards it the moment I see it, right? I didn't say I was going to attack it the moment I see it. No, because it kind of like... You would have run up to meet it like we'll basically you i'll let you have an attack in a second uh okay on my phrasing was wrong

nah you it was very clear what you wanted to do like you were basically readying yourself to fight something that came at you so ambush thing yeah yeah shadow what was your initiative 16 that the total yes you don't have a dex bonus at all no I'm not very fast cats and then I rena is also 16 luckily yes per and I rena were right in the back so they didn't get into this unfortunate situation need to do some damage to Ismark, Jesper

so you see this just wave of flame erupt over your friends and yeah you can see it right in front of Zeros you see Zeki kind of collapse to the ground like parts of her clothing still burning everybody else like has like pieces of her clothing still burning.

Everybody else has pieces of cloaks on fire as that. This devilish creature is right in front of you. Oh. Cure wounds at level two on Zeke. Oh, look at that. Eight plus two. Oh, I was going to do my full heal. 13 healing.

Too bad. Thank you very much. You can still do that. Jesper. That's my action. Are you out as well? Oh, no, you're on two, aren't you? I'm on two hit points.

Yeah, no, so Shadow has the thing where she can do full healing on anyone on zero, so... Yeah. I'm not going to move right now because I'm kind of wedged in with everybody. I'd be going back into darkness if I went backwards, so... But you can go forwards. You can move through friend spaces. Okay, I'll start making my way downtown. Moving fast. Over here. Okay, I'll start making my way downtown. Moving fast.

Over here. Okay, all right. So you kind of push past Ismark and begin making your way forward. What's happening? As you do so. What caused this? I mean, you can see the creature. Like, you can see the creature.

Like, I said that. You can see the creature in front of Xeros, this devil dog with its mouth open, gushing flame on all of you. High five, Radius. It lit up the area around you. Everything's on fire. Everything's on fire. I don't know if I saw it. You definitely see the red

beady eyes. And I look so cool. Ismark will kind of do the same thing. He'll draw his weapon and then sort of push past the heavily injured Rose that you can see. He'll probably turn back and just be like, Miss Rose, get behind me.

And he begins drawing his weapon and his knife out. And he will make some attacks as he steps up next to Zeros. And he'll take a couple of swings with his longsword. The first one will hit. The second one will hit. You see 15 will miss. So his first one hits. The longsword smashes into the creature's abdomen.

And he deals seven points of damage. You can see as xeros kind of strikes um Yeah, it doesn't have any resistance the blade kind of cuts and where it does these ashes and embers begin falling out of the creature's Side as opposed to blood they kind of get picked up in the wind, but it just snaps these glowing red eyes and snarls just snaps these glowing red eyes and snarls. He kind of like, like pulls back in alarm,

like by, by the morning Lord, what is this? As he kind of brings his blade up. Irina will just step up to towards you Rose and kind of just put an arm on your shoulder and she's going to take the help action. So she'll give you advantage on whatever action you take next. That's new. Okay.

That's not new. That's the help action. Anybody can do the help action. Yeah. Shadow me on the veil. She's just kind of defending Rhodes. She has a weapon out ready to like you know um support her if she chooses to attack or if she does like something else can i move

like my full range of movement given i'm kind of boxed in a little bit at the moment um you can move through you can move through allies without any problem okay In which case, I will reach out and heal Rose using second level cure wounds. Yep. Thank you.

Second level cure wounds. Ten points of healing for you. Oh my giddy aunt! I rolled a one on one of those. What is with these rolls tonight? But anyway, you get 10 points. Enjoy that. And then can I just stumble back? Can I almost stumble as

I do it and then just stumble backwards as far away as I can, just muttering bad doggy. Bad doggy. And then... Yeah, you can just hear it kind of growl behind you as you stumble your way past Zeke, fleeing into the night. He's gonna throw up in a bush. Throw up in a bush.

Zeke missed an... Injury check! You are on the ground, so you are currently prone. Oh yeah, injury check. Oh, that is true. Can you roll a constitution saving throw for me please yeah DC is 15 that's a failure okie dokie let's see what's my con I was doing these oh yeah no DC was 15 for this that

was a 30 points of damage you took oh dear. Oh, I'm ready. Roll a d20 for me, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 15. 15. 15's not too bad. So as you fell backwards, like as the flames overcame you and you stumbled back, you land kind of awkwardly on your wrist,

and you have a terrible sprain kind of awkwardly on your wrist and you have a terrible sprain uh that goes all up along your arm uh you have disadvantage on any attacks or ability checks using this arm until you take a short rest if that arm is carrying a shield uh it reduces your ac uh roll a d4 let's find out which arm it's affected is it your left or your right okie dokie odd is left so odd your left hand is sprained will that affect like spell casting as well i'm not going to fix spell casting there you go uh no it won't affect spell casting because you can still move your fingers it's just like doing things like holding a weapon or like putting pressure on it would be painful um so it's not too bad for you like a sprained wrist um cool now it's your turn i am but half the group are left-handed me and trot are all left-handed weirdos yeah buddy it's cool yeah yeah lefties I used my feet

yeah cool I'm going to cast prayer of healing on everyone that I can see I believe prayer of healing is a 10 minute cast time oh yeah it is

it's an out of combat healing oh okay I was literally just looking at that cast type. Oh yeah, it is! New spell. It's an out of combat healing. Oh, okay. I was literally just looking at that. Ah! No problem. Then I will cast... That's right. Playing a new class. It's because of her sorcerer origin. Ah, that's cool.

I will cast Maximilian's Earthen Grasp on the doggo then see what do I need to do what do I need so you need to do a strength saving throw for me please one thing certain coming up you see 13 where they roll I rolled a natural 20 So you need to take 2d6 hard bludgeoning damage. Right, so I take half damage. So that's three damage. Three points. So the claw of earth and soil comes reaching up, but the dog manages to kind of break free as the soil kind of falls apart around it.

But you are restrained for the spells duration is that on a success as well on a on a fail on a success and a fail I think on a failed say the target takes 2d6 bludgeon damage and is restrained for the spells duration to break out you have to make a strength check against a spell save. So that says on a failure. On a failure, yeah. So yeah, if it succeeded on saving throw then it's not restrained. I will check.

Learning new classes, learning new spells. Yeah, usually it's... It probably will be. is learning new spells yes yeah usually it takes 2d6 and is restrained for the spells duration yeah so in fact actually it doesn't even take damage with it saves if it succeeds on the save nothing happens basically right oh I see. However, it's a duration, so... You can keep this going, and then as an action on your turn, you can have it try and grab a target again. So, like, on your next turn, you can try and have the hand grip it again,

and it makes the same saving throw. So you can keep trying each turn, but if it doesn't... If it succeeds on the save, nothing happens to it. Okay, okay. Three hit points back thank you yep okay so you can do it on your next turn but yeah nothing happens on this turn with it uh would you like to move um no i'll stay where i am okay rose ankle Okay, Rose. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, wow. I will move back to where Jasper is, and I would like to take a little shoot at this thing. I'm going to remind you, before you do, you will have disadvantage,

because although it lit up the area briefly, it's still mostly dim. It's the darkness mainly around you. Yeah, you can still shoot, it's just disadvantage. But then Irena is helping you, so you have advantage, so it just becomes a straight roll. Okay, so bonus action slayers pray and then I should oh my fucking oh my god oh wow I quit I

quit bad the arrow just sails into the darkness. I'm out. And hits nothing. For podcast listeners. We'll just move swiftly on. That was a natural one. It was a natural one. We'll move swiftly on.

Zeros. I quit. I want to cycle around it. So I'm around the back of it and also away from the rest of the group a little bit and with my new strength since I made my new Skelebro friend

I want to get whacking hard you are a strong boy well let's hope you don't roll a natural 1 we'll see if I hit I'm also going to do a goading attack as well. Ah, nice. Well, you can do that if you hit. If I hit. Which I do with a natural 20.

You do with a crit. You do indeed. Wow. So you do 12 damage plus you rolled nine so that's base oh no uh this doesn't account for our crit rules that we do so take the nine which is your normal damage roll plus 2d6 which is 12 no that and then what's your and then your strength mods five so 12 9 this is a 21 24 25 25 points of damage 26 points of damage um from that grip yep um add a roll 20 add a d8 for the goading attack as well you may double as well well not double yes no it would be so that's nine because yep yep that's nine points of damage god and yeah also it needs to make a wisdom saving throw okay yep sure uh let's say 12

it fails so it has disadvantage on all attack rolls against anything that's not me until the end of it okay until the end of my next turn that's pretty good um because this thing you i mean like is this what is this like a downward swing do you just kind of like bring the greats or down in like a stabbing motion what is what is this i think as i'm cycling around it i'm kind of like it's it's probably like clawing at me to try and grasp think as I'm cycling around it, I'm kind of like... It's probably clawing at me to try and grasp me as I'm swinging around it. Yeah, it's kind of like... And I'm parrying and parrying and parrying and doing light little jabs throughout

to try and spin its attention towards me. So it's away from the rest of the group. And then I end up doing this. Right, these aren't little jabs. These cuts you make are cleaving huge gouges of its shadowy body and leaving this trail of embers and ash as they score through its its form um spraying it up into the air and as you turn and face it the thing is basically falling apart but it stares at you with these glowing red eyes it shows no pain it shows no fear but it has focused its attention a hundred percent on you now at this point

like a tornado uh i mean i could action surge but i won't i'll leave it okay uh and just all right stay on that well in that case tell me can you roll a d6 for me let's just see if it's flame breath recharges 3 ok it does not so it launches into you with a it tries to bite you as best as it can even though it's body is now in these tattered

shreds it comes lunging for your throat with a 16 to hit no there you go lunging for your throat with a 16 to hit. No. There you go. It leaps up and you bring the huge sword into its jaws and kind of shove it away as it lands.

These glowing red eyes. Jesper, we jump to the top of the round. I will hop up next to Zeros, seeing that you're doing such a grand job. Yes, my friend, you can do this.

Be strong. I'll cast Heroism on him. Oh. Okay. So 10 HP, isn't it? Which gives you temporary hit points. You're immune to being frightened. I'll do a level one because, I mean, you know.

So it's two temp hit points, but you're also immune to being frightened. Cool. That's that, because I know you're going to be attacked. And as a bonus action, that will also be my bardic inspiration to you as well. What is that, a d6? That will also be my Bardic Inspiration 2 as well. What is that, D6? Nice. Extra D6 to an attack or a saving throw or a skill check, I believe. Oh, attack as well.

Is it damage or damage? Just attack roll, I think. Yeah, just the attack roll. Cool. Attack roll or saving throw or ability check is a Bardic Inspiration. Okay. Nice. Ismark will basically kind of do what similar to Jesper's doing he's gonna

give you advantage so he's gonna take the help action and he's basically kind of like taking swings at this thing to keep it off its balance so that Zeros can kind of deliver the final blow so you'll have advantage on your next attack roll Zeros if you make one god everyone's really it's like

everyone is like looking at me like i don't want mp i don't want npcs to come and steal the kill so uh the npcs are perhaps being perhaps more defensive um irena will step in front of rose and ready in action that if uh this thing for Rose, she will take a swing at it. Shadowbe on the veil. I hate dogs. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25. Can I cast... I'm kind of like, do I heal myself hit point or do I cast told the dead on

it no I'm not gonna risk I'm gonna cost kill wings on myself at level one oh sure with the eight plus three seven points of healing I'll heal myself in a second and I can't cost account trip is a second. And I can't cast a cantrip as a bonus, can I? No. No, I don't think there's anything else. You can, but the only one you can do is spare the dying anyway, so as a bonus action. Yeah. And apparently

I can... No, actually, no. Shut up. Okay. Carry on. I'm just gonna roll around on the ground feeling sorry for myself. Yeah, you're licking your wounds literally licking wounds like a cat cursing about dogs yeah uh ziki uh ziki's gonna try and be really brave and be like come on i can do this i can do this i'm gonna try and cross um cast macmillan's earthen grasp again and try and crush it again yeah you don't cast it so you don't need

to spend spell slot it's already active so you don't cast it, so you don't need to spend the spell slot. It's already active. So you just, I make the saving throw and then if I succeed, or if not... Jesus, sorry. That's like 21 on the saving throw. So again, you try and grab it with the claw, but this thing,

whatever supernatural strength, it manages to kind of shoulder barge its way out of the dearth before you can get a strong grip on it. And yeah, it just kind of falls away. Would you like to move? I'll probably move that way a little bit. Just get behind this mark.

Yeah. Sounds good. Rose. Hello. Um... I'll try and shoot it again. With disadvantage. Who knows? This time with disadvantage.

Sadly. Um... Oh, that was nice. There we go. Oh! Oh! What?! What?! The dice today, what is going on there's no point even rolling damage by the way it had three hit points left as the arrow and it just whatever kind of like remnants of its neck were left the arrow passes through and you just see this

gout of embers and ash spray over the walls of the building its head falls off and then the whole body begins to crumble and dissolve into like ashes cremation ashes in a slow smoldering ember

as it disappears from this realm. From this realm. Ismark looks his eyes wide. That was nuts. That was nuts. The fact that Katie rolled two natural 20s on a disadvantage is bananas odds. I think

that roll 20 is broken. You are so against it. This whole combat, I hate rolling digital dice. But today especially, the amount of ones. It's normally highs or lows, it's normally 20s or ones and nothing in between. That's it. That's high rollers for you, baby. So yeah, you see this creature just fall apart against the the

buildings thing and then it doesn't remain as a body it just turns to these ashes and begins dissolving away into nothing uh ismark is looking down at it with wide eyes irena is kind of not quite sure and is looking around looking a bit sort of like lost um not quite

sure what happened it all was over so quickly. She doesn't really seem to recognize what's gone on. I was so prepped to kill this thing and then an arrow just came out of the darkness. Zeros is like, he's buffed up by

all these spells and he's got all the advantage in the world. I've got so many numbers above my head right now. So many icons of all these buffs. And then... At the darkness. Disadvantage arrow. Yeah, the best shot in the world.

What was that infernal creature? Where did it come from? I don't know. I have no idea. I'm guessing your dogs are not normally demonic in nature. Absolutely not. No, no.

That was... Yes, I don't know what that was. I mean, Shadow, you can probably make a religion check to kind of determine. You're going to know some stuff about this thing. I don't know if Rose would. I don't know if Rose would. I don't know with this one. Yeah, it's a bit too far out.

This is more planar rather than monsters. Oh, wonderful. I rolled a six plus two is an eight. Garbage. I mean, definitely some sort of fiend. You don't know what kind, but some sort of fiend, which is why it's disappearing. It's returning to its plane. I would say that because it's disappearing right now, that is definitely something from the Abyss. Maybe something to do with the pact with Asmodeus that this town clearly has.

I've never seen anything like this. They can come to this place. Is there some sort of doorway? Or are they being ritualistically brought here? It might be part of Fiona's guard.

If she has vampires patrolling the clockwork men, this might just be part of her security. And maybe they'll be alerted if it's been killed. I don't know. Oh no. I hope not.

I think we should move quickly. We have no idea what to expect now this is beyond me keep your wits about you some of you are quite hurt do you want to take a moment to heal yourselves you were quite badly burned

Siki especially I can help yeah we're a bit we're a bit bruised from that one thing so I think before we go to the house

I'm wondering if we should do a short rest because three of us are quite down we don't need to take a short rest you could you could use like

prayer of healing which is only ten minutes for example yeah true okay prayer of healing take ten minutes I'll uh so Zeke are you best one prayer of healing take 10 minutes

so Zeke are you going to cast prayer of healing yeah I shall do that a tight circle everyone looking outward just in case anything comes out of the distance the fog yeah you can see

as well those of you who kind of in fact actually you guys can't see that much yeah because at the moment it's just like darkness it's just a super dark night out there um and those of you without dark vision are really struggling to see anything um so 2d8 um um so that's 12 plus my spellcasting mod Which is 3 So it's 11 HP So 15 HP 15

12 plus 3 So how many targets? 15 for y'all So that's up to 6 Oh wow okay That's exactly That's all y'all Thank you

Well are you healing yourself Zeke because there's currently 7 people That's exactly all y'all. Thank you. Well, are you healing yourself, Ziki? Because there's currently seven people. So one person doesn't get healing. Irina is unharmed. I don't need the magic. I am unharmed. Okay. Then I will do that on myself then.

Everyone else. Does anyone need a bit more? I could... Does anyone still need some help? No, I'm fine. Oh no, perfect. In every way. I'll cast level 1

and cure wounds on shadow. Okay. Oh, this is rather unusual. You reach out and your natural magics that you've learned, you watch as Shadow's wounds begin to close up. Ismark kind of whispers to everybody, like, I know that we are trying to be careful,

but perhaps now is the time that we have some sort of torch or light source. If there are any more things like that lurking out in the night, I'd rather not be taken by surprise again. That is right. Shadow, can you cast that light that you said you could do? Shadow's just looking at Ruth. How long have you known how to do that?

I've just... I've always healing you. Turns out you could heal me. Not well, though, in comparison. We'll talk about this later. turns out you could heal me. Not well, though, in comparison. We'll talk about this later. We're talking about this later.

Light. Can I pick up a stick and cast light on it? Yeah, you could do that. You could pick someone's weapon. Is Mark happy for you to cast it on his sword or he gestures at Xeros his weapons or something like that. It's pretty well trippy if he stabs someone with it though. It's true. You can put it on their armour. You can put it on a coin or an amulet.

You can put it on a stick if you really want a stick. Put it on a stick? Alright, sure. Who's taking the stick? Who wants this? I don't mind. Irina will offer a hand.

I mean, yes, but you fight with two weapons, yes? I'm happy to carry it. I just need the one. I learned a little. Well, I imagine the light is not... The light will be all around us, yes? It's not like a lantern. It's quite bright, yes.

Let me carry it. I feel like I'm not doing enough to help you and your companions. My brother can fight, but I'm a little inexperienced. That's fine. You can hold the light. Okay. So she will take the lantern and light uh-huh and you

can begin to see as the this as Irina takes the stick in one hand with its tip now glowing what kind of light is it look like shadow is it like got any kind of light is it like flames or is it just like you know glowing golden light I would imagine so? Is it like flames or is it just like, you know, glowing golden light? I would imagine. So the way she'd do it is probably just run her paw up the length of the stick. And as it she kind of as her paw passes over, it lights up in this golden. But there's a tinge to darkness at the edges of the golden light. And if you look very carefully at the top of the stick where the kind of the epicenter of the light is you could

just about make a golden scarab beetle I just cool glittering yeah so I rena kind of holds that up and you can see she's got her rapier in one hand she's holding up the the light source in the other and you can now begin to see the edges of a small garden um you can just see like the edges of like a little flower patch some vegetable rows and things like that it looks overgrown now uh discarded tools have been set aside there is a there's a shovel half embedded in the ground, the head of which is splattered with dried blood. Huh. Something awful happened here, like you say, a mob. Let's hope there's no...

Arena will kind of step up and step around. Yeah, you can begin to see there is a patch of ground that looks like it has recently been dug up and uncovered and perhaps things have been buried there and you can see that the creature that you had just fought there are huge claw marks in the ground you can see a severed arm um kind of the blood long turned into a black ichor has kind of sprayed everywhere it looks like it was being eaten no no no

no no this will not do this will not do at all desecrating the graves of the dead disgusting dog and then I'm just gonna start shoveling the dirt back over the yeah yeah yeah it doesn't take you long to like put the arm back in and begin

the arm as you pick up the hand shadow you notice it's wearing well actually no it wouldn't be wearing it but there's a very clear indentation of where a large signet ring should be like the kind of area around the skin is discoloured you know how when you wear a ring for a long time it kind of gets sunken and discolored um you notice that as

you kind of pick up the hand and um the nails have got like blood and dirt underneath them um the the tattered edge of like a very fine sleeve is all that remains of any clothing um and yeah you put it back in the grave and then pile the dirt back up on top the shadow's kind of like over here Irena kind of steps up with you you can hear something Xeros and as the rest of you move up something in the building next to you

you hear it scutter and scurry as the light passes along the back of the building and you see that there's a small window with like boards on it as the light of the stick passes in you hear like a table being knocked over and then scrabbling like kind of as if something has just been startled inside. Like two legs or four legs? Hard to tell. Could have been both.

As if something began... As if something began running on two legs and then quickly fell and started running on all four. Right. You heard plates shatter. Things get knocked over. Am I next to a window then? Or is this a door? Yeah, you can be.

Irina will kind of pull herself up and you can maybe just about see and you'd need to move up a little bit, yeah, like here-ish. Okay. And there is a small window but it is quite well boarded. I think you should be able to just about see inside, where you can see stacks of food,

or like a table that would have once been covered with prep food being prepared. It has long since turned into rotten refuse. The smell of rot and decay is incredibly pungent at this window it's actually quite unpleasant to be near as the sickening smell of rotting food um just wafts through you can see a few barrels stacked up against the wall um knives uh forks sort of kitchen utensils. Can I see anything that's fallen over? Oh yeah, the table has been

knocked over. There's a small table that's been knocked over. There's broken plates. There's smeared food. And you can see that something has quickly scurried. You can't quite see it with the angle of the window, but there is a door

that is now ajar just kind of opposite the window a mimic maybe door is now ajar anyone else want to do anything please interrupt me have we found an entrance yet a rear

door or something I think that there's one just past then she's pointing further down Please interrupt me. Have we found an entrance yet? A rear door or something? I think that there's one just past there. She's pointing further down, just past an outlet. You can kind of just about see it here. It looks to be like a few steps leading up to a doorway. Okay. Are we all together?

Ready to go inside? Is Mark here? He was lagging behind. Is Mark there? Yeah, I was going to say, is Mark behind you? Is Mark there, but Mark was doing other things. Yeah, and you can see more of the garden now. You can see what appears to be maybe like a small fireplace just

sticking out the back of the building. And if Irina kind of like cautiously steps forward, she generally won't move unless you guys are moving up first but we're looking for the doorway she steps up and she points and it's like yes there's a there's a back door here it doesn't appear to be barred or anything um and she kind of points um so you guys can see it be careful i'd rather not open it but I can if you want me to I'll open it sister

don't worry if our companions are keeping watch I would rather be the one that opens it and his mark will basically move up to the door okay hold on let's make sure you got some backup yes stay with me my friends

I'll throw my swords and just be behind him ready yeah I'll have an arrow knocked ready as well yeah he goes up he kind of looks behind you at Rose and he's just like I'm glad that you're keeping a watch over my shoulder and

he slowly twists the handle testing to see if it's locked you hear a latch click and then he pulls it and the rod is slightly warped so it sticks the first time he's like and then he kind of like you see him try and brace and like lift his like try and lift the door so it doesn't make a noise i'm gonna make a check for him but as he does you hear this like as he has to force the door through the stone the door that was the door like the door like

scrapes across the wood and like yeah it breaks um and uh i'll just pop arena in and then we'll move ismark in you're gonna have to move inside unfortunately because this is an annoying bit to try and oh actually I can do this maybe there we go see now so you enter into what is very clearly a kitchen um long since ruined um like i said the the stench of the rot and the decay here is overwhelming if you linger here too long you're gonna you know potentially wretch um the strong the smell is so strong all the food has just been left to spoil there's definitely some sort of like putrid slime that's kind of could congealed and coalesced as well well at least we know no one living it's still here I fear the worst, though. Yeah. Maybe on there. There is, um,

Irina points, um, there's a staircase leading up over here. Uh, yes, but there's a door in front of you that seems to lead into another room, and then Shadow and Zeke, you can see two more doors at the far end, um, which appear to lead elsewhere. Okay, so...

Irina will probably, like, move more into the middle so that there's more general light. Did I hear... I wish I knew more of this object. Where the thing went? Did it go upstairs? Yes, it went through the door closest to shadow

leading to the east. And you can see it's ever so slightly ajar, the door itself. Okay, I'll point at that door and there's something in there. Let us remind ourselves what we're looking for here. Maybe we don't go into that room right now. We're looking for something to do with the Nine of Swords, the Torturer. And that it's to do with

knowledge. Knowledge and wisdom. Rose, as Jesper is speaking, and you move up to the door that's slightly ajar, you see a shadowy shape runs across the... You think there's a hallway

just beyond that door, like a hallway that leads down, and you see something scrabble, almost on all fours, but kind of walking like a human, but kind of scrabbling and it bursts into the room on the other side. Just super quick.

How big did it look? Did it look like human size? Bigger? Yeah. It looked like about person sized, maybe like a young man or woman. You could see like tattered cloth and robes all over it. Long stringy hair. I don't like it mark this campaign you can make a check yeah can I see if I anything else yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I will point down the hallway and point to my ears and see if anyone else beckon for someone to come

and see it I mean I see that and I know what point it is and then point in a direction means shadow. So I'm going to head down that way and join Rose to see if I can assist in that

endeavor. By the time you move over there, you can't see anything down this hallway. The door is ajar like i'm assuming if you guys want to open the door fully i can reveal i can like open the door basically if you want to but at the moment it's just like slightly ajar and rose is like peering into the dark shadow all the way all right okay so you push it open. Don't make no noise.

It's still dark. Do you want to motion Irina over to bring the light source so you can see further down? I can't see anything move up. Yeah, that's right, because Jesper can't see because he's on a different thing. Okay. I can't see because he's on a different thing. Okay.

I can't see shit through this door, by the way. Oh, why is that? I think I need to hang up. I can. I think it's because of my angle. Okay. Yeah, I think that's why Jesper can't see anything at the moment as well. So, yeah, Irena kind of looks up and she kind of holds the light up

and it appears to lead into a long corridor. It would have once been quite a welcoming entrance hall. You can see that there's a still fairly well-kept rug, a little soiled. You can see dirt has been tracked along it. You can see some of the smeared food from this kitchen like spoiled food leads in and kind of makes a small trail almost like footprints like human footprints and handprints lead along in like this kind of gross rotten food residue um there also appears to be dozens of bundled up piles of wicker and straw

that have been just left in this hallway. I don't see anything. Irina kind of looks around, like holding up the light, trying to peer through. I step back so you can pop up and have a look, Zeros. Wicker and straw. Yeah. Yeah.

Quite flammable, no? Uh... Jesper, like, you currently have a door in front of you. Ziki, do you want to do anything? Ismark is kind of keeping an eye on the back door, like you can see almost like taking rear guard, like he's watching it and he's got his weapons drawn

in case anything kind of sneaks around through that way. He's also trying to keep an eye on, there's a staircase that leads up over back here. Okay. Zeki will probably move up and then keep an eye out on this door over here, the far end

do you want to make a perception check yeah let's do it sure perception plus three thirteen total thirteen you strain your ears for a moment you kind of listen at the door it's shut

there doesn't appear to be any light source coming from within. You don't hear anything. It sounds completely empty or dead, at least. You can hear nothing in there. It does not appear to be locked. There's no keyhole on it. It's just a wooden door that you just push and pull open.

Okay. There are so many doors in this room. I thought they were jars. Zero. At the door you're at, you see another quick figure move. So you see it just for a brief moment as it kind of flashes in the light of Irina's light and then it

dashes towards the door and then disappears around a corner. So it dashes towards us and then it... No, it dashes away from you. It kind of steps out the doorway and then dashes further away and then round a corner. You see

this one had shorter hair but you could see almost like blood smeared across its neck. You can see the same sort of Barovian clothing, and it kind of has its arms up as it kind of ran away from the light source. You saw it only for a brief few moments. Go on, Shadow. I think I know where the vampire spawned. are there um in the corridor that we're kind of looking down are the other doors open like the other doors open so there appear to be two doors closer closer to you that are closed so they're about 15 foot down the corridor they They're closed. But the ones that the figures Rose and Zero saw come out of,

they're now slightly ajar. And yeah, they're further down the corridor. They're about 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 feet down the corridor. And they're now sort of like ever so slightly ajar. I think... This is exactly what I wanted from Encounters, where it's just like, the fuck are these things, Mark?

Where are they? What are they doing? Can I slink up to the open doorway and then wait for movement, and then when it happens, can I activate my Eyes of the Grave? It basically reveals undead but it's now 60 feet.

It's not 30 feet anymore, it's 60 feet. How long do you wait? As long as As long as you need to. You just kind of like lurk in the corner. Do you like actually step out of the door or are you still in the room with everyone else or do you kind of step out into the hallway? Can I like just

lurk underneath Zeros' arm? Just like a classic cat. Just stick my head through the arm and just be like staring out in the corner. What's everyone else doing? While Shadow does this, what does everyone else do? Irina's just kind of behind you both with the light

source kind of appearing over Zeros' shoulder. Sure. There we are. What's happening? What you're looking at? That's basically what I'm doing at the back. Mark is like doing the same thing.

He's just like, what's going on? I'm stuck back here. I can't do anything. Are we going that way? What are you doing, Rose? I can choose a creature that I can see within 60 feet and I learn

what it is, basically. You immediately learn whether the creature has any damage, immunities, resistances, vulnerabilities and what they are. If the creature has any damage, immunities, resistances, vulnerabilities, and what they are. If the creature is not hidden from divination magic hunter sense, I'll use that. Okay. Well, if you see a creature, sure. Right now, you see a lot of bundled up sticks and an empty hallway and two slightly open doorways.

And then two closed doorways a little bit closer to you. You just hear your own heartbeats. This building is eerily quiet and every footstep, you can occasionally hear like the creak of wood, but not always when you move

or when you shift your weight. There's an oppressive air. You start almost beginning to imagine that the building itself is kind of expanding and contracting with your breaths. So I guess I still see nothing. Nothing's scaring. A couple of minutes go past.

Nobody else. Everybody's just lurking and waiting you see nothing just why are we waiting i was trying to see what that thing was oh maybe what is it? Something with blood on its face. Oh and Running about something that no way to definitely knows we're here Right we can try going upstairs potentially as well like the torch upstairs. As you guys are having this conversation,

Rose and Shadow and Zeros, you see just a very faint in the far distance, you see a kind of humanoid face peers around at the far end of the hallway. The dim light of Irena's torch torch 5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20

that you can it you can't make anything out but you know something is at the very far end of this hallway but you can't see it because it's still in darkness shadow you got 60 foot dark vision right yeah Yeah. Shadow is the only thing, only one that can see it. And you see this kind of tattered cloth humanoid kind of peer around the corner. Its long fingernails grip the edge of the wood as it brings its sunken face as it begins staring down. And you can see the kind of disheveled face of a woman with these white eyes, super wide, stringy hair. It just

looks towards you and then it rushes towards you. You may activate your sight of the grave. It is indeed undead. Yeah, it's undead. 100%. It's undead. Let's roll this. Do I get a reaction? Do I know what it is?

You are not surprised. Let me put it this way, Shadow. No, you guys can't see it. Your human vision ends about 20 feet too short to see this thing. So you can see there is a vague shape in the darkness, but Shadow can see it.

Shit. Fucking hell. And it's rushing towards us yeah and it's and you hear well you hear and then something running towards you so yeah shadow shadow and the creatures will have a normal round uh the rest of you are technically surprised as you could not see well no you're not surprised. You knew something was there, actually. Nah, you guys aren't surprised. You knew it was there. I'm not going to make you. You weren't completely taken by surprise.

Right, so Rose, what's that total? Wait, what? What was the initiative total? I haven't rolled it. Didn't you already roll it? No. Shadow did. I rolled. I rolled a nine.

Alright, okay. Shadow was a nine. Nine for Rose. Jasper? 24. 24. Ziki? That is a... eight.

Eight. Zeros? 13. 13. Lucky number. Irina. Irina is at a 9 as well. There's three of you at a 9. Right.

Jesper, you hear something scream in the darkness of this house. Coming from the hallway that the rest of this house. Coming from the hallway that the rest of your companions are looking down, you hear a scream. Oh my god.

I'm just going to instinctively walk to the closest person to the mad sound and cast heroism on Shadow. Oh goody. To Tem to temp HP you're welcome I know we're so immune to fear I believe you're immune to being frightened it could frighten you so now you can't be okay that your turn yes ma

yes so from the other side of the room where is Mark is the you hear the sound of a door being slammed open and then another door being slammed open as another one of these creatures bursts through the door that yes but was just stood at it just kind of bursts through and you can see a young man um skinny um no older than 18 but you can see his skin has turned pallid white his clothing is all tattered and his jaw is distended, hanging down, like hanging from his jaw and is filled with razor sharp teeth. He like looks around and just lunges towards Ismark as he does, swinging his claws. And he tries to bite, sorry claw him he goes to rake ismark but ismark manages to kind of bring his sword up just in time to deflect the attack uh as it kind of slashes against his uh against his blade um

the down the corridor the doorway that you had previously seen one skirt across to um shadow another one of these creatures this time an older looking gentleman, bursts out as well. Its eyes kind of whip around and then it too begins to run down the corridor towards you. Yeah. 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Actually, 4. There was another one we saw in the shadows. Oh, it's here. It's here.

In fact, actually, do you know what? This one is going to go... No, it will just rush towards the closest thing. And then Shadow, it's gonna try and rape you with its claws as well. So we were on the same tile. I don't know if I'm actually on Shadow's tile. Oh, that's true. You're in front of it actually, because Shadow's technically sort of... Yeah, I was peeking. Shadow's technically like here and then peeking around. Well, in that case, it will go for Xeros then, and it's a 23 to hit. You're welcome. Oh, wow.

No, actually, Shadow's there. No, yeah? How do you want to run it? Which one? Who's there? It hits me. All right, you take nine points of slashing damage, and I need you to make a constitution saving throw as this thing rakes across your scales this searing cold

spreads through your body You managed to shake off you can feel your arm the arm that it claws begins going numb And you feel that numbness trying to spread through the rest of your body You kind of punch your arm and like kind of shake it best you can, and you fend off whatever effect this claw is going to have on you. Cut that arm off. Yeah, basically. Ismark will take a swing at the creature

he is fighting. That is going to be 13, which is just about a hit on this thing. And it will take seven points of damage. This one. Seven points of damage,

and then he'll take a second swing at it as well as he gets two attacks. This one just barely misses. The longsword, like, it's so close to him, he doesn't quite get a second follow-up swing and just doesn't quite manage to connect xeros your turn oh um so there's just this one in front of me right that you can see and there is one fighting is mark behind you as well yeah if i do a shove do i shove it or do

i go with it no you shove you shove it. Can I do that and then attempt to close the door? You can attempt to, yes. Absolutely. So a shove is you make opposed strength. It's strength versus strength or strength versus dex, I believe. So it will use

its dexterity. So you should make a pure strength. It's not going to beat be oh it's an exact even 20 and 20 18 plus 2 versus a straight out 20 so it means no nothing changes basically you go to shove the creature and it just manages to you know just narrowly avoid the shove kind of staying up in your face as it kind of leaps to the side is that an action to do then

it replaces your attack yeah shove okay and it's like right in your face like scrabbling to claw at your jaw and your body with its claws that's how he rolls on both of us I know that was crazy

like yeah I thought for sure you had that uh the last one at the end of the corridor will also now come screaming down but it's not going to get to make an attack roll it just kind of barrels down towards the corridor um and will take place beside its companion desperately clawing to get in their clawed hands like reaching around the wooden frame, trying to scratch past Zeros. As they're just scrabbling to try and rend flesh. Crikey. Irina is going to leap to the defense of her brother.

She's going to run up and take a swing. Getting a 20 to hit. D8 plus 5. 6 points of damage against the same ghoul. She pierces it with her rapier and then draws it back like

Ismark and she kind of lunges towards him to try and aid him and that's her turn. Rose. Hello. and she kind of like lunges towards him to try and aid him and that's her turn rose hello um i would like to wait where did oh xeros and the uh i can't yeah xeros is kind of in your way um xeros is right next to me he's just south of you. It's not on my screen. There is a creature on the other side of him. There is another creature on the other side of him. Can I move back then towards past Ziki and round to here? Mm-hmm. And take a shot at the one that is clawing at Zeros.

Is Mark? Oh, the one that's clawing at Zeros. To shoot the oh the one that's going to xeros to shoot the one at xeros because he's kind of in a doorway and xeros is there he's going to get some cover from the shot because he's like there's the doorway yeah that one's going to be an easier shot because it's already in the room all right sure i will yep i'll bonus action Slayer's Prey, and I'll take a shot. Okay. 14 plus 8.

That's going to hit. 100%. Okay. Four, five, six, seven, eight points of damage with the bow, and then six points of damage. Say it as pray. Why does Aelin ever roll this for lightning?

Ever. The arrow strikes through, and it just catches the creature square in the chest. It actually pins it against the kind of staircase leading up. The arrow just kind of thuds into it from such a short range and it slumps and you just see its body go limp against the wooden wall. Completely

dead. It dead. Oh, it's dead? Yeah, the arrow just kind of pins it to the back wall as it does so. Anything else, Rose? If not Shadow, then Zeke. I'm good. Alright, Shadow. Can I so anything else rose if not shadow then ziki i'm good all right shadow can i cast turn undead please read it out what does it do that's what it does so

i present my holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring the undead. Each undead that can see or hear within 30 feet of me must make a wisdom saving throw. DC 13. Okay, that was interesting because if it was C, only one of them can really see you at the moment, but if it's or here, then both of them can. So I will make saving throws for both of them. Wisdom, DC 13, did you say?

13. Watch him roll a natural 20! Fail. Second one passes. so the one right in front of xeros you see it like hold up its eyes and kind of as this golden light emanates from your holy symbol um the black disc and it just it begins to turn away from you and i believe that means it has to basically move away from you on its turns. So it's going to spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can. It can't willingly move within 30 feet of me.

It can't take reactions. And it can only use the dash action or try to escape. Okay, perfect. Anything else from Shadow? Move or anything? I guess I'll help. i can't do it can i but can i assist zeros and shutting the door maybe like no you spent your action doing turn on dead sadly and there is a thing the thing's gonna move but right now it's still in the door frame it's like yeah um all

right i'm just gonna carry on standing here looking cool. All right. That is pretty cool, Ziki. I'm going to move behind Zeros. Then can I cast Bless at level one? So that'll be a D4 for Zeros, Shadow, and for Jesper. Okay, yep. So you guys will get a D4.

Bam. There you go. Perfect. There it is. Great turn. Jesper. Okay. So, Zeros is trying to close the door, is that right? That's what he was trying to do last turn. Well, shove the creature and then slam the door.

I can't close the door. Are you still trying to... Are you holding the door right now? Are you giving up on that? I mean, I guess if I fail a shove, I can't really then go into a grapple, can I? I guess I shoved a barge and it didn't work.

You shove or grapple. You shove or grapple. Is it likely that I can get between Shadow and Zeros and attack or not? I'm going to say no. Technically you can move through an ally space but you can't end in the same space.

And because the creatures are directly on the other side, I'd say you can attack him but he's going to have pretty good cover against the attack because you're trying to fight around Zeros and Shadow. I don't think I'd say you can attack him, but he's going to have pretty good cover against the attack because you're trying to fight kind of around Zeros and Shadow. I don't think I'd risk it. So instead, what I'm going to do... I mean, there's the door that the other ghoul came from is now open,

so I'll remove it off the dynamic light. Okay. In which case... This door has now been kind of opened. I'll look at that door. That one, too. This one. That's to the right and i'm gonna conjure a mage hand and close the door uh-huh okay sure i just deleted the thing

but okay all right hang on all right the mage hand the mage hand can close the door the mage hand has no strength to hold it closed It's it's literally can all it can do is just move the door closed and then Like anything could open that door, but it is closed now Okay All right Ghoul a is dead All right Ghoul a is dead

Ghoul B is the one that has to run away zero so you get an attack of opportunity is this thing fucking runs My turn 20 25 30. Yes Oh, of course, yeah Yes yes uh yeah you get some opportunity attack you go like it takes you by surprise you're not expecting it to just turn and run so quickly and by the time you draw your blade like the swing just kind of like uh goes wide even with the blasts unfortunately um you just clutch uh you just clunk the blade into the wooden door frame um unable to fully get a standing blow against it as it flees. Broadsword in its

face. Yeah, it's not wise. You do have a cool dagger that you're attuned to now, though. Oh, yeah. I do. He just wiggled his eyebrows. Don't ever use it. Don't do it, Tom. Do it.

Tom and I have a hot theory about that dagger. Oh, yeah, we do. Yeah, we text each other about it. Ismark will move up, and seeing Jesper trying to hold the door, Ismark will now go up and brace the door. He'll hold it closed in case there's any more. He's like, it's okay, Jesper. I've got it.

I've got the door. Okay. Be careful. Zeros. Zeros. Oh, me again. this anymore he's like it's okay yes but i've got it i've got the door um okay careful zeros oh me again um oh oh she's too far away in that hallway can you use a torch as a weapon problem you can uh a flaming torch yeah you could you could if you got a torch out and lit it that'd be an action but then you could use it as a improvised weapon for sure and there's a lot of fun like it'd be like a club there is there's a lot of flammable things in that corridor there's all sorts of wicker and dry straw and yep that your dm lovingly described yeah i can't see anything. You don't miss a trick, do you, Kim? No, I did remember that.

But I was also thinking, it's gaming, right? Undead, they're weak to fire. But I will ready an action. Xeros might think that. I'll stab through the door if something comes in. It's a ready to action just to attack anything that gets within my range. Okay, so you're going to ready an action if something tries to attack you. Yes. It's a ready to action just to attack anything that gets within my range. Okay, so you're going to ready an action if something tries to attack you.

Okay. How smart would this thing be? It's not very smart. Yeah, you get a ready to action as the one that was, like, had spent the turn running down and hadn't taken an action. It just springs into the place that its companion did and tries to claw your face. So you get a swing. Oh, is this a new one?

This was the one that moved up a while ago, but it just didn you get a swing. This was the one that moved up a while ago, but it just didn't have a turn. 13 points of damage. Holy shit. As it runs into your sword. Is the other one within 5 feet of it? Or no? No.

The other one's run. The other one is long gone. The other one is just disappeared into the darkness um okay does a leave it 16 16 uh no so is it like no it's it my sword is all the way through its chest and it's still yeah it's literally like it's impaled itself on your sword and it's trying to claw at your face and you're holding the sword to kind of keep it away from you and it's just like... I have to get another... Trying to reach your

face. Irina can't really do anything. She'll just move up to try and give a bit more light, but she can't really do anything from back here, unfortunately. Just the angle and the range of her weapon is not really going to allow her to do anything. Uh, Rose.

You can see this creature trying to claw at Zerus's face, and it's, like, half in the doorway, half out. Yeah. So, um, where Zeki is, I noticed that there was actually a table there. Like, a little table. In that square. So, is Zeki beside that? Can I climb on the table and shoot over Zerus' head? Sure.

Yes. You can do that. Okay. I'll do that. Absolutely, you can do that. Yeah. So you hop up onto the table. It's not much.

The only thing I'd say is make an acrobatics check for me, because this table is covered in, like, filthy, slimy food. 15, 16, 18? Yeah, it's enough. Like, even though it's slick with this rotten, spoiled food, you manage to keep your footing as you hop up on top of it. However, the action of jumping on top sends the arrow... I wasted my turn doing that. the arrow thuds up into the ceiling as you steady yourself. Ready for the next shot. Climbing the table.

Could have been that one on the... Exactly. That would have been far more embarrassing. Everyone would have laughed at you. Shadow beyond the veil. Too many ones today. I thought you said shadow beyond the veil. Shadow beyond the veil. Veil. Wow. any ones today shadow be on the fail fail Wow probably in a second can I cast sacred flame on the ghoul in front of me and

then get out of the way yes save deck save please 13 just get we'll get a plus 2 bonus for its cover which is not enough that is a 10 fail so it's 1d 8 and then do I get less on this no you don't add bless damage only to attack rolls okay seven points of radiant damage please yes the the radiant energy scorches this thing And where it hits it As the flame touches its flesh You watch as the flesh just burns And crumbles away And most of its face has been taken off By this sacred flame

It barely is holding on But with whatever strength it has left It's trying to claw towards Zeros And bite and scratch and eat And do whatever it can at this point. And then can I back up away? Sure. Sure.

Ziki? So I'm just going to go to the middle of the room. Just move yourself wherever you need to. Yeah. I'm still concentrating on the blessed, so I'm going to just move up again next to this door just to keep it covered. You can cast a spell that's not a concentration spell.

So things like cantrips you can generally cast even if you're concentrating. Oh, I see. It's only concentration spells that you'll lose if you cast another concentration spell, you'll lose that. Ooh, interesting. In that case, can I cast Mold Earth on where the zombo is standing in front of Zeros?

And try and just shift the terrain and make it difficult for it to move around? Technically, it's standing on wooden floorboards because you're in the house now. So it's like all hardwood floors and stone walls. It's not stone. Okay. Yeah, it's like all hardwood floors and stone walls it's not so okay yeah it's it's like wooden floors there's stone walls but no they're not stone floors but i'd say that you could probably use the cantrip on the walls and that causes like stuff to spill out like you can kind of shape and mold some of like the walls to kind of become obstacles in that regard, if that's what you want to do. Yeah, you can do that.

Nice, sounds good. Yeah, you sculpt some of the stone wall into slight minor obstacles that will slow it down. So that square it's in will count as difficult terrain. Jesper? I will head over to Ismark

and kind of pin the door with him and can I prepare an action to attack anything that comes through the door if it looks undead yes cool that's what I'm doing yeah you and Ismark he's like holding it and I guess maybe you're like

wedging something so that like maybe grabbing a chair or a box or something to press against it a little box there I guess maybe you're like wedging something so that like maybe grabbing a chair or a box or something like to yeah Press against it a little box there. Yeah It's great. What we're getting draw sword Sounds good. Um the turning effect shadow. Does that just how long does that last? I was good about say it's one minute until they take damage Fucking Jesus, right? This thing is basically. Yeah, you don't know where the other one that went missing

Has gone You don't know where it's gone Ismark Ismark and Jesper continue holding the door Zeros you currently have a ghoul on the end of your blade It does not look like it's Going anywhere anytime soon You can and then make a swing if you wish

No I want to Just kind of lift the sword a bit and then make a swing if you wish no i want to i want to just kind of lift the sword a bit and then push down as hard as i can sure yeah yeah go for it absolutely um let's see 19 15 damage you this is the young man you split him from stomach stomach down as just putrescent greenish intestines spill out of the bottom half of its now kind of ripped open groin, I guess,

as its stomach and guts just spill out onto the ground and its body just flops in a mess onto the floor. I think next turn I might wipe that sword and then replace it with a slightly cleaner one.

Sure. You guys, with the turn on dead effect, you have a minute while you are not really in combat or any danger. What would you like to do? Is there any left?

As far as you can tell do there's no there's definitely one at least but it ran away right that that one will be coming back soon I can't make them afraid of me forever a minute but I guess I? Uh, a minute, but I guess half a minute less than this sentence? I don't know! Get ready! Mark, you want to go upstairs quickly while we have the advantage? Yes, I can, yes, sure.

He kind of begins making his way up. I'll need a light. I'll just and he kind of like rummages in his pack and he's gonna pull out a torch because he can't see. I'm going to see if the object's upstairs. Okay? We'll shout if there's anything bad.

Scream. Alright, so Jesper and Ismok, you guys are going upstairs. You're going up with him, Jesper? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, okay. So... Should we close this door

and all head upstairs? Well, that's a good question. We'll hear it coming anyway. We'll hear it coming. Yeah, should we start piling things in front of this door? Yeah, let's start. You guys are

all strong enough that that is not difficult. There's enough barrels and tables and crates. You do get quite filthy putrid smelling food on some of your hands, but yeah, you can barricade the door and you can barricade the one that Jesper and Ismark

are in front of. But as you guys are doing that, Ismark and Jesper, you begin making your way upstairs. Do you take the lead, Jesper, or are you letting Ismark take the lead? Oh, I'll let Ismark do it. Okay. So Ismark reaches the top of the stairs

and you follow behind him and you stop because as for a moment, you look and you can see that you're now up on a second floor. There appear to be various corridors leading into different rooms. And as you step up and the light of the torch, this flickering flame illuminates a long corridor. You see several things at once. On one hand, on one side, a shuffling set of bones with glowing eyes begins making their way towards you from one corridor. Another set of shambling bones begins making its way towards you from the other corridor.

And you hear a door open from somewhere else in the upstairs, and you just hear this gravelly, very draconic-sounding voice. Who is interrupting the work of my master? And that's where we'll end today's episode! Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Two Skellybots, one zombie. Is there any zombies? You'll be lucky if it's a zombie

It's not a zombie I mean the things The things that attacked you earlier Yeah they're ghoulies And something else And something else in this house Apparently Yeah

It sounded quite similar to Xeros for sure. We did it very similar to Xero. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. It sounded like a dragonborn. Yeah. It sounded like a dragonborn.

And it had the same. Have you been listening to descriptions today? Tom's like, what? I don't know why I bother. When you said sounds similar to me, I like, I knew it was draconic. I meant, did it literally sound like, what? He's so draconic. I don't understand why I bother. When you said sounds similar to me, I knew it was draconic. I meant, did it literally sound like Zeros

or did it sound like a Dragonborn? It sounded similar to Zeros. No, it sounded in a similar kind of gravelly, gruff, gravelly Dragonborn. Shadow Zeros. As long as it's not actually me. Yes, sort of. Well, maybe it is.

We'll find out next week. As yeah, this of. Well, maybe it is. We'll find out next week. As yeah, this is turning into a lovely chaotic mess of combat, which is my favourite kind of lots of nonsense. That hellhound, the surprise

hellhound went far better than I ever could have anticipated. 30. Sorry. Yeah, that went better than I ever could have anticipated. 30 points. Better. Sorry. Yeah, that went better than I could have hoped. I was thinking this thing won't probably even get in the fight. This thing will probably just be ignored.

You guys won't even find it. But man, it just got to come out and 30 points of damage. Love it. Yeah, but then we double crit it. No, triple crit it. Dude, you fucking annihilated it. In one turn, it was dead. It was just like... Because it was uh you fucking annihilated it in one turn it was dead it was just like because it was only on its own it wasn't meant to be like a scary thing it was only because i got lucky on the damage roll that it was more anything more than an inconvenience but yeah

oh man so cool sometimes that's what happens so different in curse of stride to like any other campaign we've done because like even though we're capable like we're not going down a lot or like losing health a lot but also it's just spooky right like you just turn a corner and there's four skeletons like oh okay yeah maybe not that's just even like the idea of like it's also why i know the dynamic lighting can be a bit annoying but it adds to the tension of like you don't know where you're going. And it's like, anything could be in this room. Like we can't see it. We don't know where it is.

Like, you know, it just makes it like a lot more kind of spookums, I think, to not know what you're going to see. And it's already built into the module. I paid money for this module. I want to get the most out of it.

So I want to use it. Anyway, go, go home. Let's we're done. We're done. Go home. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. You should already be at home. Anyway, go home. We're done. We're done. Go home. Bye, bye, bye. Bye. You should already be at home, right? Go home. I think I'm at home. Thank you.