High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Lunar New Year Special | The Jade Emperor's Invitation (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 18, 2021

Gong xi fa cai! The adventurers turned party planners continue to assist in any way they can to celebrate Lunar New Year! Want to play this for yourself? Support Kim on her patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/nanosounds Support the un-homed and elderly with #kindredpacket that lasts the duration of Lunar New Year until the 26th of February 2021 here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/kindredpacket Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. Add your team to your Uber account today. Go back to school with Rogers and get Canada's fastest and most reliable internet. Perfect for streaming lectures all day or binging TV shows all night. Save up to $20 per month on Rogers Internet. Visit rogers.com for details. We got you, Rogers. To set the scene, you have arrived at the Jade Emperor's palace and you find it in a state of disarray as the reunion feast has been pretty much destroyed by these Zodiac Guardians who have kind of lost the run of themselves. There is an air of inauspiciousness in this courtyard.

in this courtyard. And so far, Mara has instructed sheep, monkey and rooster to go and find rat and cat and help them with whatever they need help with. Yeah, stop mucking around. Lollipop and Asius have helped Dog put the decorations back together and they've done quite a good job of it. The decorations in the courtyard are looking uh good amazing great job um amazing vibrant red uh colors and red is very important um uh in these celebrations um as they help drive evil spirits away uh our little kobold friend meepo um speaking

of evil spirits uh gotten the help of has gotten the help of Ox. And I think we come back in as Oboe headed off to help Tiger, who is sleeping in the pavilion of heavenly tranquility. And so, yeah, that's where we'll jump back in. So, Oboe, as you walk up the stairs to the platform where the Jade Emperor was speaking to you from, you can see this beautiful pavilion in front of you. And it's open-sided and you can see in front of you this huge throne in the middle of the pavilion. It is beautifully carved, absolutely gorgeous. You can see great Chinese dragons carved into the wood

of the throne. And in front of it is a small table of offerings, candles, incense, flowers. And lying in front of that on a little bamboo mat is Tiger. So a large tiger dressed in these court robes, black and blue robes, with a little hat on her head. And she appears to be sleeping, but she's lying on her side, and you can tell she's a little bit, her breathing is a little bit labored. She's clearly in a little bit of distress. You can just hear this kind of like,

as you approach. She won't respond to you unless you walk up to her. Okay. So Oboe would, I guess, quietly sort of creep in and almost be sort of taken aback by the beauty of the room that she's in

and the decorations. And she'd quietly approach Tiger. Have a little look at her and just whisper, Hello? Hello? A little eye flicks open. This golden eye rolls around and looks at you. What do you want?

The Jade Emperor, His Excellency himself, informed me that you were feeling unwell. Can I help in any way? Blame those stupid door guardians. This is their fault. They keep feeding me evil spirits, Okay, let's see what I can do. Okay. Maybe this will help. And I guess she'll sit down next to her and sort of think about a song and think about a melody

and she'll slowly play like a really deep, almost sort of monotone drone note from her trunk like a bro but it's quite soothing and she'll try and use song of rest um to help tiger regain some hit points what does that do tell me tell me about song of Rest. I've heard of that before. If you are any friendly creatures who can hear your performance regain hit points at the end of a short rest by... Hang on. If you are any friendly creatures who can hear your performance regain hit points at the end of a short rest by spending one or more hit dice... How far away is your screen? She's walked to the other side of the house.

Yeah. Got a telescope. So this would work after Tiger has arrived. Yeah, like if you take a short rest, you get an extra D6 of hit dice whenever you spend a hit dice. So if they were resting, it would be a a way of yeah some hit points yeah okay um so as you play this note tiger starts yowling again like oh i'm sorry did i hurt you are you okay no this made my stomach gurgle.

Oh, something's moving in there. And I would say, given the nature of the spell, I would say that if you stay with her for an hour, it will have an effect. But it's whether or not... And just because we have a time pressure, do you want to stay with her for an hour? You could go and come back.

You could come get one of us if you need some help or something. She's in so much pain and so much discomfort. I think she'd feel bad for leaving her alone. So I think she'd hunker down next to her, maybe hold her paw and just sit there with her quietly and just try and comfort her, maybe stroke her a little bit or like pat her head. Oh, you are nice.

I don't suppose you have a cold, wet flannel, do you? I'm burning up. Stupid little guardians. I'll see what I've got. I'll see if I've got anything on me that might help. Let's see. I've got a water skin, here we go, and she'll like, pour some like, she'll like tear off a little bit of her robe and pour some water on it and dab her head. It's okay, it's okay, I'm here if you need anything. Oh tell me about yourself elephant friend you look kind and just to just so

we can move on so just so you understand yet this if you stay with her for the earth for a short rest this will count as a short rest we'll return to it and so if you want you can leave and maybe get involved in some of the other tasks or if you want you can stay here with her um but i would say that you probably won't be able to help with any of the other tasks okay um yeah she'd feel bad for leaving her she'd feel bad yeah i'll probably i'm probably gonna be coming in and checking in on oboe anyway once we've got the other guys sorted okay yeah um so I saw it. Okay. Yeah. So I'm just going to jump to Meepo, who is currently riding around on Ox. Ox has taken Meepo over to Pig, who is lying in the center of this pile of food in the middle of the courtyard. And I would say, actually, Ox, after a little bit of harrying and bullying,

will wake Pig up, and you guys will head over to the kitchen, which is actually in the north... West? east northeast um of the courtyard so you go through um this gateway that's in the corner of the courtyard and you enter into um what appears to be a very busy uh kitchen uh oh it's a lot going on in here there and there is a lot going on um so you enter this huge room built from stone and wood and it has enormous tables carved from marble uh which is good for kneading dough um and utensils of every kind are hanging from the walls. Huge fire-burning stoves with curved dips built into them are currently firing up large

walks. Bamboo steamers are stacked up on a counter and large metal pots are boiling away. This room is boiling hot from all the fires and things being cooked. And it smells of hot oil, garlic, ginger and spices.

There are actually human staff here, and they are frantically moving from station to station, and there's a lot of chaos going on in here. And you can hear these shouts of like, pigs eating all the food! There's no food! We need to get the food! Quick! Quick! Get the cake underway! Where are the dumplings? Have you got the dumplings? You can also see there's a circular doorway opposite you

that leads to a garden outside. And you can see through the circular arch. The garden is full of crops and fruit trees, branches hanging heavy with oranges and pomelos. And there's a man-made stream that flows through it. And every now and again, you can just see the flash of light on a scale as you're sure that it's full of fish um as you walk into the kitchen pig here we are um i i don't know if the staff will want to talk to me um i after my actions but i i i know i know i i i couldn't help myself it was delicious

yeah yeah exactly well yeah that's meepo food yet much better what's meepo food like well it's the best all the kobolds of the world have come and tasted me post food and they say meepo best meepo cuisine meepo Ramsey I don't know who that is some sort of person afar off land but total top rated every time sounds like the kind of name you'd call a donkey but it's meepo is meepo food is it is it because this is the reunion feast for the spring festival we have to have certain delicacies um because yeah the food at the feast signifies this specific thing we need fish prosperity dumplings for wealth spring rolls uh glutinous rice cake do you know how to make this fortune fruit yeah uh and then gal do you have rice cake yeah yeah yeah that's that's one of the things we need

you got those yeah yes we need those yes tangoan yes yeah all this spring rolls you got those on the go yet well i ate them i i ate four of them they were very delicious then well i could make some more rustle up i saw some fish over there we should prosperity well you know exactly how do you know all these things are strange about a creature oh my god i'm very cultured i. Well, I can see why the Jade Emperor invited you then. Yeah. Licks his eyeball again. How can we...

Interesting. How can you help? You seem to be more in control than I am. And this is pig talking. Ox is there as well. Ox is kind of waiting for someone to tell him what to do. You seem to know what you're doing, Meepo. So tell us what to do.

All right. So, all of you, everybody. And he's going to get out his boomerang. And he's going to create an infusion on it. And infuse it with an orb of gonging so basically an artificer can mark you can probably better explain what this does than than i can considering well yeah so artificers make magic items they can like make like magic items out of mundane things or other things like on in an instant or like quickly um and meepo knows how to make certain items that i picked for him this one in particular

he's infusing the magical energies of an orb of gonging into his boomerang and he's going to hit it against the wall and it's going to sound like a gong uh to get everybody's attention. And you can set it like an 8. Everyone turns to you. Everyone stops what they're doing. And for a moment, it is quiet in here as everyone turns to little Meepo. Meepo, very, very disappointed in the chaos going on right now. The Jade Emperor, he's got a meal coming up in how long?

How long? 40 minutes. 40 minutes. And you're all wasting your time. You let Pig come in and eat all the food. Unbelievable. Anyway, we're not talking about all the mistakes you made. Meepo come to fix.

So, seven lucky foods we all got the seven we got the seven who's doing the fish who's doing the fish uh and um ox kind of uh perks up says i suppose i could do the fish i could catch some fish brilliant wonderful ox fish dumplings who's doing dumplings for wealth why don't you help with the dumplings a little boy calls out the back me what are you doing uh i can i could got little needy hands i could do that on a marble table yeah no worries uh spring No worries. Yeah. Uh, spring rolls. Might as well do them too, if you've got needy little hands. I suppose, I suppose. Uh, sweet rice balls.

Penguin. Uh, pig. Uh, well, they're actually my favourite. I could make them. I know how to make them. I'll do that. What do they mean, though? They mean family togetherness.

Exactly. Yeah, so think of that in every single ball, okay? You infuse that with that energy. I will. I'll need some sugar and ginger as well to make the broth. Meepo watching. Meepo, I'm sorry. Meepo, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry I ate all the food. Have we got enough fruit? Good fortune fruit. Someone else calls out, we're going to have to gather it. We can do that. And a group of people go to move outside to gather it from the trees outside. I have my boy.

And his little homunculus servant will step up and open his lid. Put it in there. Put it in there. Collect them up. Okay. They look at this very strange little clockwork thing that clanks towards them. But, yeah, go ahead.

Young girl! We need young girl! We've run out of staff! Sir, are we calling you sir? Alright, once I've done dumpling, spring rolls, I'll finish off with the Nangau rice cake. Okay. But you've already got a wok going so the noodles are fine. Right.

If not I can get some of my other... We may need some assistance. Alright, I'll get some of the others. They can do that. We're going to need some assistance. All right. Meepo, out. And he's going to jump onto the marble table and start using his entire body to start rolling out dumplings and spring rolls into little circles

and then putting the little bits in and just working like a machine uh he's also going to infuse another object uh nearby with a thermal cube properties so that allows him to heat up meats and things like that on the go just on the side as he's uh shifting all this like a conveyor belt okay okay, okay. So when you're making the dumplings, is there anything that you, like, any special skills or anything like that? Or you just, like, is it, you know, kind of similar to Katie and Tom, is it just a straight up kind of Dexy, you just roll in it? He is just working as fast as he can, not particularly clean.

He's just doing it quickly, I'd say. No particular skills of Mepo's will help, other than his little gadgets and stuff that he can assist with. He can grease the floor, which is probably very bad for health and safety. Well, I imagine

if you use your grease, if you use oil instead, to maybe oil down the marble counters so the pastry doesn't stick, the pastry cases doesn't stick, I think. I will use grease for that purpose. She pours a vial of grease all over the surface. I can also cast heat metal, so if any of the utensils start losing heat,

I can top it up with heat metal from a distance. It's like, I walk, walk in cold, make poker see. And he'll hear with heat metal from a distance. It's like, I walk! Walk in cold! Meepo can see! And he'll hear with heat metal. Okay, yeah. I can hear a ram as well. Meepo Ramsey. Right. Could you roll me...

I'm going to say... Yeah, just roll me a d20. Straight up d20. Alright. And I have some things in my little matrix behind the scenes oh it's a six oh six okay uh i think as i go uh me post samples every bit of the dumplings uh and spring rolls as they come through. It's like, oh, yeah, that's good, actually. Oh, me per like. And he tucks in a bit too much as well.

So maybe a few dumplings go missing. Yeah, yeah, maybe they go a little bit missing. So you assigned Ox to help with the fish, some of the staff to help with the fruit. What was Pig doing? Oh, Pig was doing the tangy okay so and yeah you're generally helping out as well okay so after some time of being screamed and shouted out by meepo who I imagine almost like was

it the Wizards apprentice by by fantasia by disney like kind of like commanding presence in the middle of this kitchen and the emails from a distance yeah yeah zapping spells all over the place rolling the dumpings he talks the talk but his physical actions are just like cramming stuff together slapping it it's mostly the other staff that are doing a better job but he's managing to rile them into action and action yeah so after some time the dishes start to come together and uh the fish while not abundant there is just about enough you think to cover um all of the banquet tables um and they have been uh they been cooked. They've been steamed in soy sauce, in ginger, garlic and spring onion. They smell very fragrant, although they probably, if you look at them too carefully, they're falling apart a little bit off the bone,

like they've maybe been cooked a little bit too much or roughly thrown onto the plate. So some of the skin has torn. But you can hide that with a little bit of spring onion. You know, it's fine. But you can hide that with a little bit of spring onion. You know, it's fine. The dumplings are very nicely rolled, although some of them are perhaps a little bit underfilled where Meepo has indulged a little bit. But again, there is enough of them to go around. The spring rolls, similarly, they're filled just right.

And they are rolled nicely. A couple of them explode when you deep fry them in the wok. So a few of them, perhaps there's not as much as there could have been when it comes to the final banquet. However, the rice cake, oh, the niang gao, oh, it is delicious. It is sugary and sweet. And it's actually fried in a little bit of egg as well when it's served. And it looks really good. And there's more than enough to go around for the dessert.

The tang gao that we gave the pig to deal with, again, they are rolled perfectly. The broth that goes with them is sweet and fragrant. And there's more than enough to cover the banquet again the noodles the noodles are long they're great in texture they're perfectly cooked um and but the real star of the show is the fruit your little homunculus really helped out and i rolled a natural 20. um oh yeah the the plates the plates fruit, they are bulging with all the oranges and pomelos and they smell citrusy and fragrant and yeah, the plates are overflowing with fruit. All in all, you've put together a fairly decent feast. Yeah, and it's more than good enough.

It's not average, it's over average. It's not quite perfect, but it's definitely good enough. It's not average. It's over average. It's not quite perfect, but it's definitely good enough for what's going to come. Good enough. High rollers meta, motto. Good enough. Yeah, good enough. Right, so that's that.

Let's head back to Mara. So what has Mara gone to do while this is all going on? So after getting the three to go sort out the fireworks with Rat and Cat, getting the other three Zodiacs to do it, I will go and I'm going to do a bit of checking in with everybody. So I will go and find Asius and Lollipop and see how they're getting on. And if they're done with their decorations, I would probably say... The next thing we need to do,

I spoke with some of the other Guardian Zodiacs. Snake and Horse are apparently... They might be dealing with something called a Sway Demon in the theater. I don't know if we need to kill it, if we need to trap it, or something like that, but perhaps the two of you could go and deal with that. Mara, Mara, Mara. Hey, real quick, let me just talk about these decorations that we did, huh? You've done a fantastic job.

Yes, marvelous. Absolutely brilliant. Fantastic. We are on a time limit, Ascius. Put that fine ass of yours into gear. We've got a lot to do. Well, all right. I can do that.

I can definitely do that. Now, well, the other thing, so I don't know if you two want to go deal with that or if one of you wants to go help Oboe. I don't know where Oboe is. She went to help Tiger and we haven't seen her since. I can go do that or I can come with you to the Sway Demon. What do you want to do? Well, if there's a demon, then surely that might be useful to have you and your spells there.

We don't know what we're dealing with. Well, danger is I feel that you two are clearly, I mean, Ascius, look at this fine sculpted physique, such a brave, handsome, strong warrior. And look at you and your little armor and your weapons. You're just such an adorable little fighter. I think the two of you are so much better suited to going and dealing with a demon than me.

Oh, absolutely. So off to the theater with you. Off to the theater. Well, I think it would be just quicker with more people. It would be quicker. Should we not find Oboe and we could go as a team? Teamwork! Let's do that. Let's all go check not find Oboe and we could go as a team teamwork let's do that

let's all go check in with Oboe and then we'll go and deal with the sway demon and we have to hope that Meepo is doing the food I really hope that that cobble comes through I do not trust him one bit neither do I I will take the other two and we'll go

find Oboe and then maybe we'll try and go find the theatre and horse and snake afterwards. So a couple of things. So I imagine you're having this conversation where Asius, Lollipop and Dog were making the decorations. As you walk back onto the pathway to go to the pavilion and you pass this smaller building in the east, you hear the sounds

of the band from earlier but they're a little bit more in tune but you can hear this kind of like drum and clanging of a cymbal going and you can hear a little bit of noise there you can hear coming from what you presume is the kitchen you can hear the sounds of meepo cursing and shouting and ordering people around bossing people around and the occasional wink from pig and the moo from ox. And the loud clatter of things happening. And you can also see in the west, coming from where sheep pointed out with the gardens, you can see this plume of smoke starting to rise. That seems so urgent.

I think. Should one of us go and deal with that? I'm just telling you what's going on in the courtyard around you. You can choose to do what you want to do. We still do have a lot to do.

Diversion! Let's go and deal with the fire and then we'll come back. Alright, let's go do that. Deal with the demon. Let's go deal with the fire. In the interest of time, we just stick together. I don't think that's what the DM was hinting.

You can do what you want, Tom Hazel. You can do what you want. I would say maybe check in with Oboe. Maybe, I don't know. Just, yeah. I don't want to read his sale. Well, I'll tell you what. How about this?

So Mara will say, Lollipop, Asius, you go check in with the gardens. I'll go check in with Oboe. We'll meet back here in a few minutes to go deal, to go to the theater with this sway demon, right?

You guys go deal with the fire. I'll go check in with Oboe, and we'll meet back here in let's give it five minutes. Five minutes. Okay. Okay. And then I'll go check on Oboe and send those two off towards the gardens and the fire.

Okay. So, Asius and Olipop head off to the west to go to the gardens, but first Mara heads into the pavilion and is greeted by the sight of obo this wonderful creature this wonderful elephant um who is currently patting uh patting this big uh tiger who's lying on his side and moaning and whinging um uh and and yeah dabbing dabbing her head with a flannel. Oba, what are you doing?

We've got to hurry. Tiger's not well. She's really not well. Yes, I know. That's why you've been sent to fix her. Why is she not fixed? I'm fixing her. It's just going to take a little time.

It's going to take about an hour or so. No, we don't have an hour. There's a demon we've got to go deal with and me posing the kitchen and we don't know what he's doing. Tiger, what's the matter? What's the matter with you, Tiger? What is it? I've eaten a little

demon and I think it's still writhing around in my stomach. The elephant, the kind elephant. Hey, Mar Mara look at her let's try and fix it okay give me a second let me think let me think let me think okay and then I'm gonna my ears pop up

and being a borafolk they have a natural kind of awareness of magic I'm gonna cast detect magic and see if I can like see there's a glow in tiger's belly moving around or like see if there there's something causing trouble inside her stomach or something like that. Yeah, so you can definitely see that.

You can see a kind of a dark shh where Tiger's fuzzy little belly is. And you can see maybe a little shape kind of press against her a little bit, writhe around her, like a little foot, maybe a little head. And you can also see the shimmer of the magic that Oboe cast. And you can see that it is kind of like it's settled on her fur, like a golden glow. And, yeah, I would say that, you know, you got the impression, you know,

knowing magic and knowing, you know, probably asking Oboe whatoe what the spell does like if you did leave tiger for it would it would probably help um it does seem to be gathering to near where this darkness is that's going to take some time do i think looking at this because obviously like eating demons and spirits like there has to be some sort of magical element to these zodiacs, right? This isn't probably just normal digestion. They're all, yeah, they are all magical creatures. You open your mouth, just open your mouth big and wide for me, please,

darling. And she opens her giant jaw, these big yellow teeth. Can I see in? Can I, like, see in? You just see a throat You just see a throat. You see a throat. Okay.

I'm going to try something weird. It smells a bit funky. All right. This might be a little uncomfortable. Oboe, keep playing your music. Keep her calm and gentle and make it nice. Okay. I'm going to summon a mage hand and try and, like, reach in and see if I can grab this,

like, demon and pull it out. Like, because if they're magical creatures, I might be able to try and like reach in and see if I can grab this like demon and pull it out. Like because if they're magical creatures I might be able to like reach in and pull something out is what I'm thinking. I just because mage hand though doesn't have it has a limit to it doesn't it of how strong it is? Yeah it's up to 10 pounds so I'm hoping it's

like if it's only if I've seen just this little little demon or something like a little imp or something I'm hoping that like the the Mage Hand's enough to pull it free. I'm trying to think how much this little thing would weigh. I know what it is, but it does have low strength. It's the equivalent of, like, a 10-pound bag of sugar, you know? It's quite heavy. Or, like, 10 pounds of, like...

Or a baby. Baby! It's like the size of a baby. Okay yeah no that that works that works i can do that okay yeah pull out this thing it's a 10 pound bag of sugar and i like to imagine that there's this giant like there's this giant mouth open and you just see this like this little kind of like wiggly purple bodysuit butt with a little bunny table like sticking out of the giant mouth and like Mara's in there like trying to reach In with the mage hand like I'm trying to pull it free Tiger is in distress Tiger is about to clamp her mouth

Can I can I can I cast calm emotions on tiger Yeah, yeah, And what does that look like for Oboe? Again, I think it would come out of her trunk as another musical note and swirl around this golden ribbon around Tiger's neck

and her head. Yeah. Okay, so I would say, yeah. As this hand is rammed down tiger's throat uh oboe starts playing this music and tiger does seem to kind of oh relax i imagine it's kind of like a conscious sedation you know when you go to the dentist and they sedate you so you don't chomp on them so she starts to relax starts breathing deeply maybe a little throaty purr reverberating in Mara's ears the hand to grab onto something it's wriggly it's slimy it doesn't like

that you're touching it and you can you pull and pop you tumble backwards and as you sit up you realise that in your arms is this small baby or ten pound sugar side. In the mage hand. I'm not touching it. Okay, in the mage hand. I imagine you have tumbled backwards a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

She definitely tumbles back. There's this slimy, writhing purple tentacled little creature with long tentacles coming from its face, big, bulbous, black eyes, like a dole's eyes. And it's shrieking and writhing around. And it's like...

Gross! Barbara, what is that? Just panic. gross just panic yeah there's like I am panicking we're all panicking roll initiative for me here we go baby

pretty good though I rolled one a natural one well I'm at 20 so i got 18 nice okay oh so uh mara and then uh so mara what do you do uh in a in a desperate panic so my mage hand is like flung it like 10 20 feet away from me or something like that in an absolute panic. I'm going to cast like, I'm just screaming at Oboe like, I don't do offensive spells!

Do something! And then I'm going to cast sleep at second level on it. So, uh... I'm going to try and put this thing to sleep if I can. So this is 5d8 plus an additional 2d8 because I'm casting it at second level. If it exceeds the creature's hit points, it basically falls asleep.

If it's immune to being charmed, it isn't affected by this spell. So stop me wasting my time. No, roll it. Okay. All right. 8, 10, 14, 20, 28. it okay all right eight ten fourteen twenty twenty eight and then two additional oh i've rolled a lot of eights uh that's 36 uh 43 hit points of total so if it's got less than 43 hit points it falls asleep this little baby-sized writhing mass of tentacles just writes itself up

um starts staggering towards you and then just and just falls asleep on the floor just like collapses in on itself and then i will use my movement to run and hide behind oboe just like just comes on itself. And then I will use my movement to run and hide behind Oboe. Just like... Just comes running, screaming behind the big elephant lady. Oboe. Kill it, kill it, squish it, step on it, step on it. I don't know any offensive spells either. What am I going to do?

I think Oboe's just going to grab a spear that she has, but hold it backwards the wrong way and just start... Wake it up! Don't wake it up! Wake it up! Make an attack roll. Make an attack roll. 17.

You probably have advantage, right? because it's unconscious on the ground probably 25 I think it's a crit because it's incapacitated it's a crit because it's unconscious as this thing falls unconscious Oboe Mara runs away

and Oboe steps up, screams, holding this spear the wrong way and just... and skewers the thing into the floor and it just and this black ink just spreads out from it. Mara, that's the first thing I've ever killed!

That's the first thing I've ever killed! That's the first thing I've ever killed. That was horrible. Well, it's fine. It's, you know, it's some sort of, it's like a demon, right? They're not real. They'll just go back to whatever plane of existence they're from. It's not actually dead, dead. You didn't actually, you banished it sort of thing, right?

And I'm looking around like, that's what I learned in Planar 101. Is that true? I don't know. But that's what i learned in planar 101 is that true i don't know but that's what i'm telling oboe and as mara says that the demon this slimy skin dries and cracks and as it cracks a breeze kind of catches it and this dust just flies off see and it does just come back to its own realm it It's fine. You didn't actually kill it. It's fine. You did great. Great. Okay. Okay. Thank you for your help. Tiger rights

herself. She rolls onto her front. Stretches that big long stretch like a big cat can. Gives a big yawn. Rolls her shoulders. Oh, I feel so much better.

Oh, good. Thank you, you two. You're welcome. I don't have a word with those door guardians. I need to be more picky about what they feed me. Yes, yes, certainly, and more than happy to provide our assistance, aren't we, Oboe?

Yes, yes, of course, of course, of course. Oboe will just bow down again, of course. I forgot to ask in my infirmity, who are you two? And, well, I owe you a debt of gratitude. and, well, I owe you a debt of gratitude. Oh, well, I am Mario Moonshimmer, illusionist, invited by the Emperor, as is my dear entertainer friend, Oboe.

Oboe, introduce yourself. Hello, yes, I'm Oboe Trunksong, yes. I am a musician, songwriter, song player. Yes, at your service. A fabulous team, can't you tell? And then I'll use minor allusion to make notes and sparkles and lights and stuff all around me and Oboe. We're professionals.

Like back to back. We did that. What a delightful pair you are i can definitely see why the jade emperor invited you ox mentioned something about special guests well shall we see where the feast has gotten to it must nearly be time is there anything i can assist you with oh yes i think that well there's a few things we have some companions who are trying to uh locate i think uh dragon who there was something of a fire in the gardens that we were looking into i dispatched sheep monkey and rooster to try and find rat and cat who had gone missing.

We did leave our companion a small kobold dealing with the cooking. I hope that that's going well. And then some other companions. Oboe, we must go and help them. They're trying to locate

snake and horse. Do you know anything? What is a sway demon, Tiger? Do you know? What is that? Ah, I do know about sway demons. I've eaten some in my time. Yes, I imagine. They

are particularly cunning little demons. They appear at night and feast on the dreams of small children. However, they have a weakness. And their weakness

is in the red envelopes. You see, they are afraid, not of the red envelope itself, but of the money inside it. As the legend goes, Afraid of the red envelope itself but of the money inside it as the legend goes as the legend goes some parents protected their child by placing eight coins inside a red envelope to protect it from the sway demon and when the child slumbered and the demon approached the coins burst into life and scared the demon away.

Well that's fantastic we should go and tell our companions in case they encounter it. Perhaps you could simply help locate rat and cat and make sure these fireworks are going to be appropriate. Of course, if necessary, I can provide magical fireworks, if necessary, and music from Oboe later on, if necessary. But perhaps you could help with that. But we should go and help the others, Oboe.

Yes, of course. Go, help your companions. I will do the task that you have left me with. Thank you, friends. You're welcome. She will start walking out of the pavilion and disappear. Yeah.

Cool. Right. In the meantime, scooching over to the Imperial Gardens. Oh, very cool. Ignore all the tokens on there obviously not all of you there yet so just ignore all the tokens but I will say that that probably didn't take too much time so I will say that that yeah and me Poe as well I would say that you're probably done with your task in the kitchen. So if Meepo is looking for new stuff to do,

he can probably hear... If he passes through the courtyard, some of the other guardians, like Ox... Not Ox. Dog will rough at you and point you towards the gardens as to where everyone's gone.

But yes, as you go to the garden... Yeah, I think Meepo would say bye to all the staff. Good job! Nice work! Everybody! Meepo did the best he possibly could!

If it's bad, it's on you! Bye! And then he'll stand on his... What a gracious leader. He'll stand on his little homunculus and ride out. Fudgie, darling! As you do... Gong, gong, see, gong, gong, see, gong, see.

My camera's gone out of focus. That's how confused the staff are. They blur slightly. Gong, gong, see, they blur slightly uh they kind of say questioning okay sure what happened um and as you ride out you do hear this music coming from this hallway in the east this kind of uh kind of deep drum beat and these symbols um and you can hear a little voice going that's it that's it but you still haven't, not quite there. But yeah, so are you going to carry on towards the gardens? Maypo, quiet the musician.

Maypo, fix this. And he'll redirect towards the sound of the drums. Music. Okay. So I'll jump back to you in a second. In the meantime, why did I base an adventure about splitting the pie? Anyway, in the Imperial Gardens, Asius and Lollipop walk in and they come into a beautiful hexagonal pavilion sits on a raised platform in the center of the garden surrounded by lush green topiary gravel paths lead to serene ponds filled with healthy koi carp and towering pines go grow from neat little allotments there's various gnarled

rock structures dotted about the grounds and pink peonies fill the air with a fragrant perfume. However, this is a bit lost on you. As you can see, in the southwest of the garden, a building is on fire. And in front of it, a large green Chinese dragon. So no wings. It looks like a huge serpent with great big jaws and I guess almost tendrils forming from its ears and its neck and it's floating in the midair and it's looking very panicked standing before this building that's on fire what would you like to do

oh boy I probably really messed up this. How the hell are we gonna fix this? Well, this wasn't us. We didn't mess up. It wasn't us. We can... Well, we said yes to doing it, and now we gotta do it. Well, it's okay. I'm sure that they will come and help us too, so... We should start, though. We should start. I think that the dragon looks a little bit upset. So first of all, we just need to make sure that the dragon is okay. Make friends with the dragon. Step one.

All right. Yes? Okay. Yeah. Okay. I can do that. And I will make my way across. And as you rush over and get closer to this dragon,

you can hear them, and they're a gorgeous divine being and the light of the fire reflects off of their green scales and you can hear them, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, just over and over and over. Um, um, hello? Hi? Uh, hi? going to be incredibly angry and I know nothing I know nothing but fire. I know nothing but fire. I have nothing. I am a fire dragon I'm a fire dragon. I know nothing but fire Do you know anything but fire? Do you know anything but fire? Fire. I know quite a lot of magic stuff

that I think is going to be kind of useless I can give it a go You should try, yeah What did your ox friend say? I don't understand I don't want magic stuff. I can give it a go. You said you could give it a go, but it might be useless.

So he'll give it his best shot, but it's okay. We're friends of the emperor and we're here to help. Oh, good. Oh, good. Oh, good. Because I'm not going to be friends with the emperor after this if he finds out that I set fire to his gardens. Help! not gonna be friends with the Emperor after this if he finds out I set fire to his gardens help at this point I would like you to roll me initiative please oh

we're fighting fire with fire you want um Kim do on the rest of us to roll initiative as well like for when we turn up yeah yeah so anyone who's coming this way roll me some initiative not as Oh no, I only got seven. I got sixteen. Eleven. Nine for Mara. Mark, what? Sorry, Katie, what did you roll?

Seven. Seven. Seven, okay. Okay, well, Tom, What did you roll? Seven. Seven. Okay. Katie. Okay. Well, Tom, at the top of a round,

you can see this fire that has taken over this building. And, yeah, you can tell that it's starting to spread. It's starting to catch on some of the trees nearby. What would you like to do? Okay. Just a heads up. This is either going to go amazingly or absolutely terribly, but here we go! Okay.

And I'll start raging! Because when I rage, I'm a wild magic barbarian, and I'm gonna roll on the magic surge table to see how I solve this problem. I roll a d8 and I see what happens. Here we go.

Six. What effect is that? Oh, it's the water one. Oh wait, no it's not. I am surrounded by multicolored protective lights and I've gained plus one to AC. And anyone who gains

the same thing... Yeah! Sorry, I just missed that. What was the effect? I just missed that. Everyone around me gets plus one AC. Cool. Problem solved.

Cool, cool. I'll write that down. Plus one AC. Cool story. Still fire. That was my bonus action. Okay, sorry. soul cool cool i'll write that down plus one a c cool story still fire yeah so uh okay since that didn't work i will instead cast fog cloud cover it up not a problem no one can see it just makes a No one can see it. Not a problem. No one can see it.

Fire gone. You're welcome, everybody. Let's go. This fog cloud, I guess, fills a 20 space radius. Yeah. So this fog cloud just covers up the fire. But I hate to tell you this Tom fire still there you can still feel the heat you can still hear the noise of the burning wood the

crackling and dragon looks moment dragon momentarily is like wait no that's done nothing that's done nothing I can hear it see you later dragon this is no help Rhi can you move up however much your movement is and also if you want to dash and all that move up that amount

Katie what would you like to do um I think can I look around is there anything like any kind of a bucket or anything in the garden or like a pot like that has a plant in it that I could dump out? I would say this. I would say because this is quite a traditional thing in Chinese gardens. There is a pot, but it's more like a porcelain basin, like a round basin. And it's quite decorative.

It's blue and white with some decorative scenes painted on it. It's full of water, but it also has a lily pad, a lotus, and a couple of goldfish swimming around it. And that's nearby. Can I? and that's nearby can I run pick it up run over to the pond pour the contents into the pond

and then try and scoop up water that doesn't contain anything living in it like sorry sorry no I don't want to throw you on the fire I'm so sorry no no, no, go away fish, go away. Yeah, I would say you'd have to make a strength check though, because it's quite a large

pot and you are a little halfling. So I will say a little bit of strength will be needed. I rolled a nat 1, but luckily I have the lucky feet so I can roll again you re-rolled net one which is

still not great ten plus two just a strength or a strength yeah just strength I'd say straight up strength so you run over, you stumble a little bit some of the water splooshes goldfish all with

but yeah you manage to run back So you run over, you stumble a little bit, some of the water splooshes, goldfish all over. But yeah, you manage to run back and sploosh this water onto the fire. I would say you probably, it's quite hot and the pots, it's not huge, it's not a huge pot. And I would say in the kind of like trying to wrangle this large pot and trying, in the fuss of trying to empty it and refill it and run back over, you manage to put out maybe like five foot of the fire. I see that as a total win. I see that as a complete win

because no fish have been killed in the process. So Lollipop is like, it's going well. Just a few more pots of water. We're all good. We got this. We got this, Asci few more pots of water. We're all good. We got this. We got this, Ascius. We got it. We're doing it.

We're doing it. It's dragon's go next. And I say dragon actually inspired by what you've done, Lollipop. So dragon's kind of like, what should you do this? And it's like, oh, yes, container, container. And dragon will go and grab. And actually nearby is one of these large incense burners. So they're quite, they're huge. They're kind of these large, rounded incense burners on a stand.

And they tip the incense burner over spilling sand and burnt incense sticks out everywhere, all over the uh beautiful marble uh floor and they then go and scoop up water from the pond fly back and dump it on the fire as well and i would say that they probably put out 10 more foot 10 more feet of the fire um so at this point there's probably about 20 foot of fire left like so it is putting this um it is stop at least containing the fire and stopping it from spreading to the plants uh from the surrounding trees as it was uh just before you guys started throwing fish water on it um mark can you uh it's your go what would you Yeah, so Mara steps in and is just will look at it and be like oh oh oh dear hmm, and I will move my way forward so 5 10 15 20 25 30 and

Kind of just look at this giant fire and sort of well not much I can do Just kind of at this giant fire and sort of, well, not much I can do. Just kind of... I'll summon an unseen servant. So I will gesture, kind of pull up my hands and say, Attendant, apprentices, and clap my hands. And then this kind of spectral form, kind of like a fake ghost will appear uh and i'll command it to uh basically like maybe get some of the sand that's been spilled out and throw that onto the fire to try and put it out but yeah

that's all i can do is just send this invisible force because it can't be harmed or anything so it can like walk into the fire and sort of like just dump sand and things like that um yeah that's it um re i made a mistake with the round i thought uh obo and um mara were further back um so uh i'd like you to if you want to do anything like say that because i kind of spoke for you and said just move, because I miscalculated. I thought you were in the courtyard. So if you want to take a go now. Yeah, no worries.

I made a mistake, yeah. I don't know if you can do anything within that range, but yeah, if you want to just do that. And trot as well, just because I've mistimed things. I'm just going to retcon and say that Meepo also gets involved as well, because I don't want you to just be sitting around. So if you want to go after me as well.

I seize the smoke, and Meepo does... Well, this is just in between. He just tarts and is like, Meepo, do everything! And just runs in that direction. Okay. Okay.

Nice. Cool. Yeah, what would you like to do? Yeah, I think Oboe will move up. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. So she'll be behind Asius. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. And she'll cast Speak with Plants and just try and get all the trees

and the flowers and the grass just to move their stems and their branches just get all the trees and the flowers and the grass just to move their stems and their branches just away from the fire to try and stop. Yeah, just bend away a little bit. Like, oh, the beautiful poor flowers, the trees. Please, please move out of the way. I'd say as you do that, you definitely do see a little swaying movement. And this is a magical garden.

You know, it's a magical place. So you can almost hear like a little like, as they sway. What? What? As they sway and they pull back. But I will say that does have an effect in that like it makes it hard of, the fire's going to have to get a lot bigger to kind of start to catch them on fire again.

But yeah, Trot, what would you, what would Meepo like to do? makes it hard of the fire is going to have to get a lot bigger to kind of start to catch them on fire again. Um, but yeah, trot, what would you, what would meepo like to do? And then you'll be the fires go. He's going to, uh,

firstly be aghast at the situation. Um, and he's going to be like getting his little homunculus running over to the nearest pond scooping him in like a bucket and then throwing it on the fire if possible, if he can reach. If not, he'll...

How much movement? I'm just going to say it's a feral distance. It's 30 feet, so he can probably just get to the first pond and scoop it up and be ready to move towards the fire with his little servant filled with water.

He doesn't care if there's fish or whatever in there. He's just scooping frantically. It's fine. So I've rolled for the fire, and the fire seems... It has died down a little bit from the actions of everybody in this round, but it does start to flicker and burst again, and it kind of comes out by...

It starts engulfing the pavilion again. It's still contained to the pavilion, so there's probably about, I'd say, 30, 40 foot of fire at this moment. Top of the round, Tom, what would you like to do? While I'm raging, can I run over with as many buckets as I can carry, being a giant minotaur, and just start, instead of ferrying stuff back and forth, I want to throw water from the pond

directly onto the fire. I am a ranger who is amazing at throwing shit, apparently. Thrown weapon fighting. Okay. So maybe that helps. Also, I'm raging. Also a minotaur. He like spins around and shot puts like buckets

in the direction of the fire. Yeah. Like a javelin throw, but it's buckets and buckets of water. It's about 70 foot between the pond and the fire. Oh, that one, yeah. I would say... Oh, wait, sorry. Yeah, there is that one.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. There is a 40 foot pond nearby. Sorry. I would say you are big enough that you can use the incense burners like Dragon has, so you can use this large container to do it. I would say roll me, hmm, I want to say maybe Athletics to see if you can angle it and throw it, or maybe roll me like it was a ranged weapon maybe.

Mark, I'm going to defer to you and your DM expertise. What do you think? No, no, no. I mean, if you think that that's the right call, you make that call. It's your game, mate. I say... And it doesn't have to be base rules either.

You just go with what you think. Yeah, if you think athletics fits, then it's athletics. Nice. Eight. Eight. Eight. You rolled an eight. So you're raging, right? You're raging.

That's true. You have advantage on strength checks. Come on. Barbarian. Come on. What a barbarian noob, Katie. Nice. Ten.

Ten. Nice! Ten! Ten So you begin you begin dowsing these incense burners in the pond and throwing it You succeed mostly in getting your friends wet and the path is very wet

and now a little bit slippery Now everybody just run into it It'll be fine I'm so glad that I'm so far back I will say you've maybe soaked some of the plants around the pavilion fine. I'm so glad that I'm stood far back. I will say you've maybe soaked some of the plants around the pavilion so that it would be harder for them to crash fire. So you've contributed something.

I don't know what exactly that is. She's done. I'm fine. You're fine, aren't you? You're wet now. Re-get that trunk. I want to see you suck up that juice and spray it all over the fire.

Oh my god. What? That's what elephants do! Elephants can suck up water and then they squirt it out. You just don't say it like that. Suck up that juice. Oh my god. Oh no, Rhiannon's broken into two we're never gonna get

oh I'm gonna try tick tock tick tock suck the juice I will suck the juice do you have does a loxodon have like a suck ability the juice. Do you have, do you have, does a loxodon have like,

uh, it doesn't have that ability to do that. Okay. It can move. It can move stuff. Oh, wait, no,

you can use the trunk of the snorkel or grasping things, lifting up to a number of pounds equal to five times your strength. 85 pounds. Bloody hell! What the hell? That's a strong trunk. That's a big old boy. You should have gone into the tiger.

I... Just reached and drank. Anyway. Yeah, I guess seeing... Seeing what Asius is doing, she's's gonna do the same with her trunk just lifting up the tag burners i'd probably say athletics as well because it's going to be because it's a strength-based task

right so i feel like it's going to be that kind of like how strong can you yeet the water not this is riannon we're talking advantage i'm going to give you advantage for your loxodon ways because you're a loxodon so you should i feel like a lock's on with nine. It doesn't help. It doesn't help. Yeah. Turns out Asius is a bad influence and you've been just throwing water in the same way as his hands. And yeah, the path just gets wetter. Yeah, not a lot happens.

Katie, what would Lollipop like to do? So she will look at Oboe and Asius and be like, stop trying to drown me! Drown the fire! And she'll probably do the same thing, get the pot and just fill up as much as possible and come back and throw it on. Because there's not much else she can think of to do right now

I think yeah roll me another strength check because again like these pots are quite unwieldy for lollipop 18 plus 2, 20 oh excellent so yeah lollipop fueled on by

desperation and trying to do a good job. I'd say you managed to put out about 10 foot of the fire, so it reduces down to about a 20 foot radius. Yeah, you managed to give it a good dousing. I'd say along with what you did in the previous round um yeah you managed to to stop it from spreading um uh quite so fast um dragon again will uh copy you and do actually no dragon dragon is going to uh pick up oboe and uh like basically dragon dragon is going to grab obo dragon is very strong and um lift obo over the lake instruct obo to suck up all the water and then hold their action so that if obo does that um they're gonna fly back over to the fire almost like you know like a helicopter

nice um so that's that's what's gonna happen in fact i think we'll just do that in one turn because screw it let's let's just throw all the rules out and i will say that that that combined with everyone else's efforts that So imagine this great Chinese dragon holding this giant elephant, like, loxodon elephant, humanoid elephant. They manage to coordinate each other as Oboe sucks up all this water in the pond. A fish probably does go up your snout.

And they fly over the fire. Goldfish up the nose. Drop! You douse this fire, and it eventually goes out. And then, yeah, the dragon gently puts you on the ground. Oh, my heart. My heart. My heart.

Oh, this pavilion. Oh, it's okay, though. It's okay. The fire stopped. My friends, you help me. The fire stopped. We haven't destroyed the pavilion. This is it's okay, though. It's okay. The fire stopped. My friends, you help me. The fire stopped. We haven't destroyed the pavilion. This is good. This is good. The emperor won't be

furious at me. I can hide this. I can hide this. Um, Asius, uh, sorry, Oxfriend, are you able to keep this fog cloud up so that we can just hide this for a while? Oh, yeah, sure, yeah, no problem. I can, I can help with that as well, and, uh, I can say, like, the fog cloud is, you know, yeah, no problem. I can help with that as well, and I can

say, like, the fog cloud is, you know, to an extent, but I can make it look as good as new. I can make the pavilion look as if it did before. Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know what I would have done without you. Who are you?

You five, you're not any of the guardians. You look like you could be guardians. You look like descended from rabbit, ox, and, well, yeah. I suppose this one could be a small you, in a way, and I'll point at Meepo, like, there's something of a dragon in a kobold.

Meepo is pouring out his servants like the water from its head because he just did nothing. What happened, Meepo is pouring out his servants like the water from its head because he just did nothing what happened not a demon well no I wasn't going to say you look like a demon

you do indeed look as though you could be a descendant of mine great great great great great great descendant of mine. Great, great, great, great, great, great descendant. Oh, yes. Far, far removed, of course. The dragon line really messed up. Maybe one of my cousins, yes. King!

As dragon says this, maybe not, you hear a gong. Gong! Gong! Gong! Sound out from the central courtyard and dragon. Oh! We... Oh, the summons!

The summons! The Jade Emperor has summoned us! What is the time? What is the time? Is it time for the feast? Is it time for the feast? Oh, yes, it's about time for the feast, yes. Oh, no, no, nobody will come in here.

Maybe no one will come in here. It's fine. It's fine. I think we should go, friends. Why don't we deal with the fire? Because the fire would have spread, Asius, I think. It would have eventually got to the other area.

Yes. I'll have my unseen servant just do all the tidying up, so like sweeping up all the incense that's been dumped out, and I'll be like, yes, you deal with that while we go deal with the other thing, and then I'll just kind of leave that like sweeping up all like the incense that's been dumped out and I'll be like yes, you deal with that while we go deal with the other thing and then I'll just kind of leave that here sweeping up.

Thank you, yeah. Dragon's very thankful. I was going to stay behind actually and do that, but yes, let's go together then if your servant can deal with it. Thank you. Mara, is it? Yes. Well done, Lollipop and Asius, well done

dealing with it as quickly as you did. That was all us. Right, and you head back to the courtyard. Very good. And when you head back in, it is in a distinctly different state to when you first arrived here. The decorations were put up and they look lovely. And the food has been laid out and it is abundant and it smells delicious.

What else have you done? You see in the center of the courtyard tiger ox tiger ox dog, pig, monkey rooster, sheep

and dragon and rat actually, rat as well because you did send people to help rat well sorry, guardians to help rat uh well sorry guardians to help rat have gathered in the center um and the jade emperor is stood once again on the balcony um the jade emperor looks around ah it looks as though we can begin the preparation the celebrations the villagers and the monks are outside and awaiting. Ox, have them come in momentarily.

I will say, where are the lions? Rabbit was dealing with the lions. Has anyone seen any mention of them? She had no... We were just about to go and

find them, your imperialness, but there have been so many different problems, but we were just about to go and investigate what was happening with them in the theatre. Unfortunate. It would have been good to have the celebrations

with the lions. Maybe we can assist Rabbit in the meantime. Has anyone seen Horse and Snake and the red envelopes? Oh no, maybe that was that. That was the thing that we were going to do. I retract my statement. I got confused.

What more is there? Anyone? That was the one that we were going to go and deal with. The red envelopes, they were the ones that we were just about to go and assist, but never got the chance to, Your Majesty. I'm sorry. Okay.

Okay, so we have no red envelopes, and we have no lions for the lion dance. This is fine, though. I can see we have fireworks, and you see... Oh, the decorations are lovely. Wait, did you help with the decorations, Asius? Oh, yeah. And this little candy floss thing here.

The food smells absolutely wonderful and delicious. Really? Food does smell, actually, quite delicious and looks wonderful. I look at Meepo with surprise. Meepo flicks a little tea towel over his shoulder and just claps his little tiny claw hands together. Brushes himself off of some flour that's on his

shoulder. Meh! Well, thank you, little Meepo. You have been quite the star today. At least we have the food, and we have the decorations. And I can see there a rat has sorted out the fireworks. And you can see in the corner all the animals that you sent to help rat.

They're sat around these crates of fireworks and they've all been arranged. And the firecrackers have been put out on stands ready to go. Yeah, and it's ready. The Jade Emperor takes a deep breath. Ox, I believe it is time to begin. And he's about to say his next word. There is a deep, bestial roar that shakes the courtyard, causing a rain of petals to shower down.

Crockery rattles on the tables, and decorations slide down from the walls. Another roar reverberates deep in everybody's body and followed by a loud crack as the branches of the peach tree above you bend and droop unnaturally as if a tremendous weight

is pulling down on it. And you can see this huge monster begin to pull itself up over the side of the courtyard behind the pavilion. That's a big boy.

It is a gargantuan beast. A big boy. The biggest of boys. Burnished bronze skin. A tough scaled hide that looks like huge plates of armor covering its bullish body. Great black horns twist from its forehead and a curled lion's mane streams off like green flame. Burning golden eyes radiate with anger. A heavy jeweled harness is locked around its neck and its front and it stinks.

This wave of sharp, acrid scent of salt water and seaweed rolls across the courtyard. rolls across the courtyard. As it looks around at all of you, it catches sight of the food that lays in front of everyone and it roars and starts to descend. I would like everybody to roll me

some initiative! Yeah! How long is this going to last? Maybe one turn? It's huge. Natural 20. Natural 20? Now we're getting there.

What a good boy. What a good boy. 19 for me, Poe. How much health it has? 50,000. Yeah, lots of health. All the health. It is a healthy, hungry boy.

50,000? Yeah, lots of health. All the health. It is a healthy, hungry boy. As this monster roars and starts to climb down the walls, shaking the courtyard, the guardians begin to gather. The Jade Emperor turns and points and speaks in an unknown language,

and all the guardians... Now, when you saw the guardians before, the gathered guardians in the courtyard, they were a bit clownish, they were a bit unsure of themselves, but they snap into action, and you can see them glow with this unnatural light, and they all take fighting stances, and immediately, as one, the gathered guardians

swarm to the base of where this monster is and begin to assault it. And the Jade Emperor says a word and this flash of light shoots out from his hand and sparks this giant barrier, almost trying to hold the Nyan back. Asius, what would you like to do? You all have

one round of actions. I'd like to shit my pants. The guardian, the Jade Emperor will shout the fireworks! Light the fireworks! Oh, you got it. I'll do that.

Alright, I'll do that. Alright, I'll do that. So I guess you head over to the fireworks? Yeah. You would probably need fire. Yeah, you would need fire. Or some means of making fire. I've got means of making fire. I will rage and use my wild surge. Calling a D8.

It gives me, oh my God, magic infuses one weapon of my choice I'm holding. It changes its weapon type to force. Yeah. Very cool, if we were in another type of game. Hit it against a piece of flint. It a spark it lights a firework i throw the fireworks go straight into the lion's mouth kills it instantly game over i win that's exactly what happens yes um no um basically so yeah you i would say that yeah, your use of force would strike against a flint. There are rocks nearby, and it does light the fireworks, and they go off.

I'm guessing you're going to angle them towards the Nyan? Or just have them go off randomly? Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll test one on Meepo, but, yeah, I think the rest of them will go towards the Nyan. Yeah, okay. Okay. So these fireworks light up and shoot, screaming towards this great beast

and they burst into light and colour around it. Pop, pop, pop, crack, crack, crack. And this Nyan roars, this beast roars and it definitely reels back. It seems uncertain. It doesn't like it. Next up, Oboe, what would you like to do? and it doesn't like it.

Next up, Oboe, what would you like to do? Could I cast Plant Growth on the kumquat trees and try and cause them to overgrow and try and protect the emperor, create a natural barrier around the palace? Nice, I would like to do that for you. So I would say that you could even... Because you're in a peach tree, right? So you could even talk to the tree itself.

And the tree responds and starts to, like, new branches blossom out, shoot out. These purple petals explode out. And you can see, yeah, these huge branches unfurl upwards, knocking the Nyan off. these huge branches unfurl upwards, knocking the Nyan off. It has to stumble and try to re-grab onto the side of the trunk as it's climbing over. So I'd definitely say you'd impede it and you'd hold it back.

Nice. Cool. I think... Oh, wait, no. I think I read the wrong initiative. Whoops. Oh, well. Trot, you're next.

Meepo works next Meepo works Meepo works He casts pyrotechnics at The creature He has his own fireworks Of magic So create an air of non-magical flame That you can see and fits within a 5 foot cube

So I'm going to point that at him Because it's 60 foot range The target explodes With a dazzling display of colors. And each creature within 10 feet of the target must succeed on a con saving throw or become blinded. So it's con 14 to beat. I'm going to tell you now, it's going to pass. So it's not going to be blinded. However, as these fireworks, as these pyrotechnics explode outwards again,

Mepo works, sorry. I'm so sorry. Are they, what, what, so what do they sound like when they go off? They sound like tiny kobolds screeching in unison of varying pitches. Ah! Ah! Very loud and annoying, that, yeah. screeching in unison of varying pitches

very loud annoying that yeah yeah so as these piercingly loud Kim loud fireworks explode in front of this beast again similar to an assius set of the fireworks it roars and recoils it doesn't like them it almost seems afraid if it seems scared of it it kind of throws up a great paw trying to protect its eyes um and does in fact protect it from any kind of blindness um and it and it reels backwards um mark what would mara like to do so mara remembering um kind of hoping that she's she's remembered her kind of uh things that she's remembered her things that she's learned about the Jade Emperor and the culture of this the Immortal Palace, the Peach Palace

and remembering him talking about the lions she's going to properly stand back, flick her cape out so it kind of flows behind her tip her little wizard hat down and then bring her fingers up and I am going to create a major image uh with my third level spell slot um and this i can create a 20 foot cube illusion of pretty much

anything i want an object creature or a visible phenomenon and i'm going to base it on some of the lion statues and things i've seen around the palace and on the emperor's uh outfit and create the image of like this grand golden radiant light lion that's huge because it's a 20 foot cube so it's this huge creature and i'm gonna have it rise up and i'm almost just like you don't stand a chance we have the great guardian and then i'm gonna like throw my hands up and then this thing kind of rises up out of me pose fireworks and all the fireworks that asia set off and i'm gonna, like, rise up into the air, kind of threatening this thing.

Now, obviously, it's an illusion, but it has to use its action to physically examine the illusion to determine that's what it is, and I'm going to keep it so it's, like, threatening him but not actually going against the creature, like, not trying to attack him or anything. Yeah. And I imagine, as well well it will be moving in the

way that chinese lions do that kind of like yes i can move it blinking it's like i'm kind of doing that like yeah doing that dance kind of waving yeah yeah because i can't attack it so it's using those movements like if this thing tries to like attack it it like dips and weaves and dances to the side um but threatens like you know kind of kind of like another creature. Yeah, so it's like this giant golden form. Perfect. Lollipop. You're next. What would you like to do?

She hasn't really got anything other than a sword, so she's gonna get in there. She's a brave little thing. She's gonna brave little thing. She's going to go for an attack. If that's okay.

I would say if you're trying to do a physical attack, it would be impossible because currently it is above the courtyard. It is huge. It is absolutely huge and especially with oboes um making the branches grow it has been pushed back so it would be out of your reach if you're trying to do a physical attack uh attack i imagine for a halfling uh was it can i throw um hand axes at it I've got some hand axes.

Yeah. What's the range on the hand axe? 20 to 60 feet. Not very much. I would say it's probably still just out of your reach. Okay, well, I don't really... I've got nothing. Unless there's more fireworks that I can set off.

I've... I've got nothing. There there's more fireworks that I can set off. I got nothing. There's a lot of them. What colour is Lollipop again? She's pink, isn't she? Her hair is bubblegum pink. Candy floss pink.

Okay. Close to red, right? It's close to red. I like it. Okay. Close to red, right? It's close to red. I like it. Let's say yes. I would say... Yeah?

I'd say yes. Okay. I'm going to say, and this is going to be a little bit metagaming just because I do want to wrap up, but I will say that Lollipop, I imagine, would just let out, would just be quite threatening, right? Just shouting and bashing her hand axe against each other. And I think if the beast looks down at her, it can just see this tiny, pink-red, loud, noisy little thing.

And again, it kind of reels back like, Oh, no, absolutely no. And you recall from earlier, know dog saying that red is important because it chases evil spirits away um and that's the case can i grab one of the banners that's fallen down and like wave that around yeah like basically yeah just use yeah use as much of the fabric banners as possible to just and move move, just run about as much as possible with it. Yeah, and I would say that definitely, you know, that definitely has an effect on this beast.

It looks down at you in another roar, and it reels back again. It's trying to shake its head and get away from you. After all of this, after the fireworks, the noise, the branches pushing it back this giant lion golden lion sizing up um to attack it you can see this monster this huge strange beast becomes visibly scared it gives one last earth trembling roar and turns and jumps down from the peach tree, causing another earth-shaking tremble.

You can hear a moment's silence, and then his footsteps retreating. Poo, poo, poo, poo. A cheer goes up from the assembled Zodiac Guardians, and the Jade Emperor beams and showers his praises upon you. Well done. That was wonderful. That was absolutely magnificent. The beast, the beast is called the Nyan. The Nyan. It must have been why everyone was acting so strangely. It was coming. It was attacking. It does this sometimes.

It appears at the time of the reunion feast and it gorges itself on everything until its hunger has been sated. But thank you. Thanks to your actions, the fireworks, the noise, the color. You scared it away. You can see now that villagers and monks begin to file into the courtyard excitedly filled with chatter and excitement. Did you see that? Did you see that? Now the villagers and monks begin to file into the courtyard,

excitedly filled with chatter and excitement. Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see what they did? And you are seated at the tables. You are seated at the head table with the Jade Emperor sat in front of you. Everyone sits themselves down at the various tables and the great reunion feast begins. The courtyard rings out with excited chatter, the sound of spoons on bowls, punctuations of guests exclaiming out will wishes and blessings. Nyan nyan, yo yo, gong si fa chai, as people exchange ang baos.

More firecrackers are brought out and set off at various intervals and a band plays happy music. When the food is eaten, Rabbit comes out and there are two little lions with her in that kind of traditional Chinese lion way and they begin dancing. The lions move with vibrancy and they tease members of the audience, delighting children and presenting lucky scrolls to each of you. Each of you is gifted a lucky scroll from these lions as the festivities wind on through

the night the Jade Emperor also rewards each of you with a red with a red envelope handing it to you with two hands and accept giving it to you and thanks you for your role in putting together such a wonderful event. Eventually, the sky darkens and fireworks fill it with color and light. And the Spring Festival has been a success and great luck will bless all for the year to come. Nice.

Great job, Kim. Sorry for overrunning. Sorry for overrunning. We did it. One shots are the hardest thing in the world to time uh with stuff like this because and you want to put so much cool stuff in and you want people to have a chance to explore it so trying to keep it to three hours is very very difficult but amazing stuff amazing adventure wonderful i will say you guys achieved the best ending i didn't think you were but there was one

thing that tipped it so i've been tracking so i've i've ended it depending on the amount of guardians that you manage to help and gather um the amount of challenges you manage to complete and to what quality that you do it and also uh the tactics you use against the nyan and i did lead you a little bit at the end there but hey who you know we want a good story so there was every chance that you would have had a bad ending um and a sort of middling ending where it's fine but it's not great um but i read envelopes have loads of gold in it right yeah um so well yeah so i've i've arranged it so if you were playing this as part of your campaign uh you open the ang bao and you reveal 88 gold um each uh so paper currency worth 88 gold um yeah and i suggested as well at the dm's discretion if you have this in your uh campaign uh that each player can be awarded

an inspiration as a result of good luck blessings from the festival um but obviously oh hey kim how could people play this for themselves yeah like you say that but like what they're gonna remember the whole stream tom it's not like this what about all the stuff that didn't happen yeah yeah if only it was published somewhere with cool artwork. You know what? I wish it was published on Patreon myself. Really? I love supporting Kim's Patreon.

Nano Kim's Patreon. It's my favorite. Where could it be? I'm writing that down. How do you spell that? What is it? K-I-N-O Kim. Nano sounds? Patreon?

If you would like... I don't actually know the address of the page. Nightjazz is probably spamming it right now. If you would like to run this as part of your own campaign, I have written it in a way that you can... Oh, fuck, fuck. You can put it in your own campaign. But yes, it is available on my Patreon now,

patreon.com forward slash nanosounds. I've worked very hard on this many sleepless nights. I've already spotted a few mistakes that I do need to amend, so I will update the document as soon as I can. And there's maps in there. There's little tokens in there. I made a whole bunch of tokens as well if you want tokens for your virtual tabletop. I literally just signed up and I'm downloading it now.

I've literally signed up. It's that easy. I did it while Kim was talking. What's stopping you? Brilliant. Nothing. That's what. You guys are the best.

Are you guys the best? I don't know. I will say I'm really proud of this. It's been a labor of love because I've wanted to share my, well, this is my tradition, right? Lunar New Year is a very big thing for me and I'm kind of sad I couldn't celebrate this year. So I've tried to put in things that I celebrate

and the way I celebrate things with the decorations and the food and things like that. Very impressed with Meepo knowing all the different meanings behind the food already. Meepo's smart. But yeah, so I just... If you do download, if you are interested in the adventure,

I have explained certain traditions and things like that. Fantastic. Kim, again, well done. Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone, for watching. Thank you. We'll see you next time. See you next time.

Bye, everybody. Bye.