Legends of Avantris - Stardust Rhapsody: Anthem | Ep. 29 | Man in the Mirror: Part: 2

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

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You find yourselves back in the room, surrounded by mirrors, nothing else but the visage of the Dathuco standing there. A very similar mace. However, this is almost the color of rust or bronze. It's pierced into the ground as she just stands there. The spikes, not the crackling electricity of that classic. spike that comes out, but almost this curved black, kite-ness, bug-like spike

that curves out of the club. The clapping antennae that sit atop the head, the only sound that lightly taps as you make your way out of this room. Once more, the door opens before you. As in front of you, you see

simply the staircase case to ascend. Once more, you go up the flight of stairs. The heartbeat, the landing, with no other way but the door forward.

You see it, once more, black metal in front of you. You move towards it. All right. If we also face our demons, I just, honestly, just like a band-aid. It hurts, but, you know, just real quick.

All right. You walk in. Sorry, I lost my cool, thanks. It's okay. I forgive you. You know I always will. Maybe you should hold me accountable anyway. I don't want to.

How hard is about that? You enter what looks like a planetary treasury. Hundreds of thousands worth of physical notes. Bricks of rare metals and other treasures. fill this glittering space. At the center of the room is a smashed and cracked church bell. Once more,

you're surrounded by a room of mirrors. Another sob story. I look to see who's reflected in the mirrors. Looking back, you see a black pit. Is it in the position where pixel would be standing? Yes, it is.

Is it larger than the last? two rooms? No. Is there any hope in my heart? The hope is dwindling rapidly. You did say to kill your hope. Oh yeah, that's right. Kill your hope.

Kill your hope, kill it dead. What do you think all this is? What do you think that bell is over there? I don't know what he's trying to say. He's made a monument to himself, to hell. What the hell? Fucking arrogant. He makes the Don look broke.

Good God. I'm just gonna slowly wander towards the bell. You move towards the bell. You begin to examine it. It appears to you like a cracked wedding bell. And around it would look like petals, floral petals of a wedding ceremony. I'll reach down and pick up a handful of the petals.

you do so the dark pit reflected in the mirrors now grows larger and fills the scene once more now harkon is a young adult his envy has turned to determination and he swore to become rich and powerful himself move to vassan rise through the ranks of the empire he becomes an expert in economics and finance, moving to Vassan, swearing he will be different than the lordling that ordered the death of Dauntless. He meets a young woman whom he fell deeply in love with and married, believing she cared about him, not for the money and power that he began to amass, wealth and become, that he began to amass wealth and become a critical economic commissioner on Sterlock.

invaluable to the viceroy of the planet, even having him for dinner while courting the highest financial position in the planetary government. Then, a few months go by, his wife leaves him for the old viceroy, the only person in Vassan, now wealthier and more powerful than Arkhan Mervyn. That's excellent. Now alone, the pit inside him swells immensely. and the pit is consuming.

He changes his focus to a, he changes to a singular focus. Revenge. The only thing that can fill the hole inside him. That's rough, buddy. Okay. Boo-hoo. Didn't you put yourself there?

Didn't you choose to be there? Didn't you move to Vasson? No one chooses heartbreak, though. Got mixed up in all of it. He ran to the city. He was looking for bigger things. He could have stayed home with his community, with his family. He could have stayed.

And he went off for bigger and brighter things. He wasn't going to stay home with his family. His family was the worst. What are you talking about? The people in the community, the neighbors. It's not just your blood, your family? He's trying to make it something of himself. He's trying to...

He's trying to fill the whole inside of him. keeps getting bigger every time he loses more and more. I know why he's doing this. Doesn't seem like it's working. No matter what he does. I don't get it. I don't get why he's doing this. Why would he keep this?

Why wouldn't he spend it? This is not about the money. She left because he wasn't the most powerful. So he gets more powerful in the hopes that she comes back as someone picks him for the first time in his life he's picked. I guess There's nothing left There's nothing left to do

It's not about the fame I mean the money It's about it's about what What that would get you It's about how It's about how it feels To walk through your life without anyone Seeing you truly seeing you

Or wanting you Or picking you Why does anyone care about any of that Who cares about being picked By anybody Slow Minis is hard. I need you to make a charisma saving throw. Oh, geez.

Well, I have good charisma. That's your thing, as well. 16. Okay. It's good. It's good. Is they doing anything? You notice no change in pixel.

Once more, though she seems to be the epicenter of this room of mirrors, evoking the tail, the image, the image, prophecy, memory, history of Harcon Morvane, the emotions do not seem to overcome her. But the pit grows deeper. You're nothing like him, all right? I'm talking about him. I just, this guy had a shit life.

Yeah. Right, and I just. And he ran away from his shit life in the hopes of something better. And it was met with more shit. Look, if we had no idea, if we had no idea what he'd become, what he is now? What do you mean shit life? He tried to get away.

He tried to make something of himself. And yeah, he fell on bad times. But something else is happening here. Look at that hole. If we're lucky, maybe we get to witness the moment that truly changed him. Maybe that gives us some sort of insight into how to undo all of this. Maybe his undoing. That's right.

We've all had hard things happen. to us. Oh, a weakness. Yeah. Yeah, well, sometimes it's just shit luck.

And there's nothing else to say. Sometimes you're barely 18 and you join up because you want to fight for something.

And make some money, learn some things, and make some friends. You get three square meals a day and you know, what? Random mortar goes off 20 yards away and you get a piece of

shrapnel on the leg. If it was only centimeter to the left, you might have lived. But it nicks an artery and you're fucking dead. That's just bad luck. I think that's what this is.

Jesus, friend. What the fuck? Yeah, that was a little dark even for you. He just feels pity for himself. Right? And sometimes shit just happens. What else can you do besides just... You don't fucking dwell on it.

You move on. You keep moving. Yeah, I don't know why he didn't do that. You smash it in the face. You don't build a monument to it. You tear it down. You tear down the fucking monuments. Okay.

Boo-hoo. Goodbye. Let's go. We lead the way. You swing wide the day. the door once more you step back out onto the landing and for another time no stairs stretch downwards only upwards one way to go two heartbeats one landing and the next door upwards you climb hand on door you swing the next room open the empty room

is filled with the sound of grime grinding gears and machinery as you enter reflecting the scene of a factory with countless intricate machines building infinite rows of automaton and now you see not one but two reflections in the mirrors around you Rhett and Pike I don't understand shouldn't this be Ziggy again he loves those video games Why, why, what do you mean me? I already had mine. I draw a new cigarette from the pack.

Why is it both of you? Put it to my lips. I suppose the time is now. Guess you couldn't avoid it, huh? You two, Pai. I don't understand. I feel like I don't feel this sort of thing. It doesn't make sense.

Well, let's get this over with. This is not better than bugs. What the hell? Why don't I get cool robots? It sucks. Suddenly, something occurs that hasn't happened before. Oh, fuck. Each side of the room splits into different scenes.

To the right side of the room, Rett's reflection turns younger and covered in bandages and medical foam as he lies in the medical wing of a grim near company space station. station. The doctor arrives, telling him his arm and I are simply not salvageable, but his actions in battle were heroic and admirable. Cold comfort. Despite the words they rang hollow as a company sergeant arrives next, telling them that despite

his actions, he is no longer capable of serving in the Indigo company and perform at the same level of combat promise that their clients expect and demand. He would not lose his job, but he was being recommissioned and restationed. He is shipped across the galaxy, discarded by his old company, including all of the brothers and sisters in arms that he fought for and would have died for. He almost did die for them. He lost his arm and I, for, for. He lost his arm and I, for them. And now he is demoted to mechanic duty on the fringes of the galaxy after being pumped full of chemicals to manage the pain. And the pain was beyond physical. And Rhett knows how to deal with it. He builds scaffolding around it, justifies it, intellectualizes it, and refuses to let it

help him. He allows it to fuel his work. He's good at it. And that feels good. He becomes detached from the pain. He becomes colder and colder. And the machinery on Rett spreads across his entire body until he is nothing more than a machine on the left side of the room. Pike becomes youthful and optimistic as he turns into a teenager before your eyes. He is studying with an older Solari who has introduced him to the faith of Alara. He teaches him the tenets of truth, love, beauty, and freedom. And he finds a community as he becomes a disciple of a philosophy that spreads like radiant wildfire. Through an oppressively corporate city that knows

nothing beyond the pursuit of wealth. Pike feels like he is found where he belongs in this group of optimistic idealists and his mentor gives him a shimmering gold gauntlet with a glinting pink gem. Not long after, Pike is holding his mentor's lifeless body in the middle of a panicked crowd after a single shot had rung out and the philosopher who changed his life lost the life. light from his eyes because the corporate authorities did not like what he had to say. And with that single death, the movement dispersed, the community dispersed, and Pike was alone. As he wanders the streets in the rain, he philosophizes his pain. He justifies it as part of his process.

A lesson to learn how to let go. to detach, to care less about people, places, and things. He becomes detached and indifferent to the pain, and the metal spreads from his gauntlet until he is a mechanical man with a face that is surprisingly skeletal, and to you, Pike, far too familiar. Both Rhett and Pike have each become a dismal. squirred in creature of the instinct cacophony, a terminus.

The two of you are overcome with cold indifference. I don't understand this. What was that? Pointless. Why do you look like that? I guess this is our term. I don't know why it matters. Look, none of this matters, okay?

To feel anything. like this. It's fucking weakness. You never told me about him, Pite. What was there to say? It was the inevitability. Gallus had to die. Did you mean incite or progress, Mace? Does it instinct? I meant progress.

A progress. Discordant creature of progress. Of the progress cacophony, a Terminox. There's no point in resisting. Everyone will eventually just fall in line. Uh, guys, I think Rhett and Pike might be Under the influence of the mirrors, you know, you know, you know, how, uh, uh, what do you mean? They're always like this.

No, Coe got all, all super angry when she saw herself. I turned into a fucking clown. Look at them. He's right. We're gonna kill this guy, right? I mean, frankly, that's progress there. I mean, imagine if I could make machines like that. Imagine what I could accomplish. I mean, nothing else matters.

So much matters. Wait, what about Hank? Oh, I imagine what Hank could become. What? He's weak right now. I mean, he's, he can do a lot, sure, but just imagine if I could only push him further. This time I'll walk up. and I will be like, hey, snap out of it.

Blank. I'm gonna try to snap right out of it by slapping him, following what I think Pike or Coe should do in this situation. Can I terminator style, almost like not blinking my robot arm and like catches his arm, his hand? Only because that's so badass. That's exactly what happens. I was saying you catch his hand without even

looking away from as you look off into the not even seeing the room around you as you look off to your plans for the future for your plans to how to progress the items you're working on how to improve how to make them better how to make them more than what they are how to make the machine your your body just reaches out and grabs Ziggy's arm uh almost begins you're not tracking the amount of force you've put on his wrist as he begins to almost yelp in pain he's hurting me Guys, he's making fun of Hank. Let him go. Hank's not good enough? What are you talking about?

I'm gonna try to lunge forward and pry Rett's hand open. Ziggy, this is what you get. When you try to fight back, when you try to resist it, you just get ground down. You progress into what you have to. Stop fighting it, Ziggy. Your parents were looking out for you. Getting rid of that vermin.

You're distracted. Nice. Fucking real nice. I'm fucking with my other hand. And I meet him in the crotch. And three other robot arms stop me. I guess. I'm following the props.

That you're pretty cool, Rich. I know that really. I know that very much. Brett's right. Gosh, you can take it. You could have just gotten the job. You could have just grown up. You could have become.

I'm an adult. Stop! It's okay, Picks. They don't mean it. They don't mean it. They're machine guys. They're not them. It's them.

It's the guys. I wasn't a bug. I wasn't a bug. Pai can I'll handle it. I felt threatened. I need the two of you to make charisma a saving threat. Please, thank you. This is not good.

This is not good. You've just kept going to dread them. It just kept me in Kino's hell. This is so not good. You could dread me. Nice. fail has anybody failed this yet no no I fail to do I have no I have no I got a 15 but if you want to use one of your dread song I would

cast power word death on rent I'll dread you oh cause Lisha I rolled two that means that boogles show up too right boogles with the one uh what did you get a two so total of a four gentlemen I did. I tried. Well, it just doesn't matter, now does it? I guess not. Pike. Yeah. You, oddly, feel the cold indifference fade from you. But fundamentally, you understand that this room has claimed something from you.

Oh. Rhett. You? No way. No way. Do not feel the cold the difference fade. In fact, is it a trick of the mirror or does it feel as if your mechanical improvements, as you would say, on yourself, are growing physically around your person, not in the mirror,

but you? May I ask a question before we snap back into RP? If I come back to myself, normally, do I see? Do I still see the reflection of what I have become in this vision? And it's still very familiar to me. Yes. The moment that I regain a sense of self, myself, I'm going to lock eyes with this visage that's in the mirror and immediately.

No! No! No! Hageo! Pike, it's not real! And I'm like level the gauntlet at the mirror and attempt to take a shot. As I'm like on the ground, like backing up. I can only assume that it uses foxes.

reflex, reflect action. Pike presses down B. I love that down. You fire a shot into the mirror, rolled the image. It can't be back, no! That's pretty high. 10 points of radiant damage. Your radiant shot strikes the mirror,

and it ricochets off and it bounces around the room. And it doesn't stop until it strikes co. Though, strangely, seems almost like it scratched the mirror at first hit. I'm so freaking out. You take five more points of radion damage. After you get hit with the, I'm pale. I'm pale, I'm a little sweaty for how cold it is in here. I'm like, I've broken out into a cold sweat.

Game Master. Dany Master. Uh-oh. I believe that because I hit in, be mentioned that stopped me after two blows that I had done. I just took the 10 damage, presuming that that's what happened each time I hit it, because I hit it twice, the mere twice. If I didn't dictate that you were taking damage, you wouldn't have taken damage from that.

Okay. I announced the damage I expected you to take in the room where you were a Dotho. An instinct Dotho versus the progress terminox that we now find. I am trying to rip Rett's grip open as, and then, let you go on. I will take it just straight to the chest. No, glass of radiance and stumble back. All it goes is go! Oh, fuck.

No, no, no. Wow, is that what that feels like? I'll go to Pike and hold him. Is that a God, blue? You have to breathe. Take a minute, it's all right. We're here with you. Pike, are you not with me on this?

No, no, no. Oh, God, I heard cold. I heard cold. I was worried you were weaker than I was. Redsville talking about. Why wouldn't I? I'm the only competent one in this fucking room. That's madness.

That's crazy. Listen to yourself. You love everyone. You're talking about Hank not being good enough. You're talking about us not being good enough? As you look at him, Ziggy, you're frustrated. You're shouting at him. You can't believe that he said that about Dash.

I'm about to use some fucking refills. I've got function patch. You can't help but wonder, did the mechanism in his eye always extend beyond his orbital bone? You thought that it ended there. Did it go beyond it? And you continue.

Guys, look at it, look at his eye. It looks different. I don't know what you mean. I'll look in the mirror. Do I notice the changes? When you look in the mirror, you see a full-formed terminus. Yeah.

Oh, right. I guess, yeah, they're all terminox. You know, it might be an improvement, frankly. I look strong. What? How are we gonna snap him out of this? Okay. Red.

I tried slapping him, but he hurt my wrist. I know you're technically my employer, but we don't have an HR department. Come here, you fuck, as I'm gonna say, don't hurt Ziggy! Is I'm gonna get back up. Picep is up. out of it. Why can't you? Are you gonna let this stay in, Pike?

I am in shell shots. Like, I don't, I, I, I, I, I have never been this shaken ever. And I can't move. You may re-roll your charisma safe. You want to roll for attack? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Are you hitting me? I'm not making an firearm strike. Odson. I am an enforcer. Yeah, go for it. Roll damage. It's pretty good. It's pretty good, too. I mean, it's pretty dirty good. It's a 19?

Is that? To hit? Would I think to waste valuable resources of this one? I don't think I would. I think I'm gonna let, I will choose to let it go through. Roll your damage. As you hit, when you hit the side of my face,

it feels like hard and cold. I'm gonna like turn my head just like really robotically. And like, but feel the pain. And on my Christmas saving throw, I get a 19. Oh my god, you did 78 points of bludgeoning damage. Your skull dense in. I, um, I do 11 points of bludgeoning damage you're not technically knocked back 10 feet.

Oh, my God. You're like sent of sailing across the moon. You're in the 14. The force of the snap, your head shifts to the side, and you crash back against the mirrors. And as you write yourself and you turn back and you look at your party, Ziggi, you'll see. It must have been a trick of the light. Must have been a trick of the room, the mirrors, something in the air. But what you had felt was growing beyond or not what you had expected.

It seems to be back to what you did expect, to normal. Rett physically appears normal. You have a similar sensation that though you are currently regaining your faculties, you feel as though this room has claimed to something. Oh my God, I only have one kid in you. Whoa, sorry, Redd. Wow. I didn't mean to do all that. Sorry, are you okay? You still a dick!

Wow! You really pissed me off. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to punch you that hard. No. I love my grid boy. Red boy. Ret, you all right? Don't apologize. Fuck. I'm sorry. Damn it. Why did I say that shit?

I knew it. I didn't mean it. Look, and I'm gonna just get up. And presumably we still see us as Terminox in the mirrors. The reflections in the mirrors are still of your fully corrupted forms fall into progress as Terminux in the mirrors. Clearly, I'd say now at this point, You clearly understand that in particular, the visage appearing to Pike is causing him great distress.

Look, let's get out of this room, all right? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Look, I didn't meet it. You okay? You said a lot of fucked up shit, Red. Red, it's him. That's what Daddy always said. I look like him. And you know exactly who I'm talking about. I'm gonna look at the reflection again. Does it look like Terma Pike or something else? I'm trying to put together what Pike is saying.

As Ziggy. Roll a perception check at disadvantage. That's what he was. The Terminox. That's what you're saying, the man. We gotta get the fuck out of this room. 13? We have to go.

I would say the 13 of all. all the other shapes and all the other rooms and all the other mirrors for all the other people. You had to walk into mine. When they... I was a little played. When they had changed and shifted, Ziggy looked like Ziggy but a clown. Yeah. Co looked like co-butt a giant crazy bug.

Redd. A bugman. Red looks like Redd, but an even more machine demand. The figure's staring back shadowing Pike's movements looks like Pike, but in an eerily different way. That doesn't make sense. Even for a hell robot.

Damn. We have to go now. Yeah, I'm with you. Are you okay? Come on. Daddy said, what are you talking about, Pix? Are you okay? You with me? miss my mom.

It's okay, Pix. It's okay, Picks. You can miss your mom. It's all gonna be okay. We'll get you back to your mom. Pixel. If you fall, I will catch you. If you fall, I will catch you.

Well, I'll catch you, Pix, no, it's okay. Is you here? Are you with us? Come on, Picks. And I'm gonna grab Pixel. Yeah, pick her up. Go on. Is it him?

Is it the Viceroy? Is it more vain? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You don't have to apologize for anything. The door is open. I'm gonna rath over to where

the door, like even before it starts to, I'm presuming they're opening in predictable places. So I race over to where the seam should emerge and be putting my fingers against the seam as it opened. I'm going to pull it open and Ziggy is going to try its hardest to put his full weight against it and push it open to let everyone out and through to get out of this terrible space. The door at the end of the room is still this large black singular door that's letting you in and out of the rooms. The only thing that seems strange about it is when you come to the top of a landing, there is but one way forward.

There's not another set of stairs that runs up and off. You can only move into the room. When you go into the room and you get back to that door and you open it to leave, the thing that's odd is that there is now only one more flight of stairs and these only ascend. Oh, shit. This is like a never-ending staircase situation.

I turn around. Mario's triple jump and I hold Z as I use the speed running technique to go up the infinite staircase I was that sound like and then I make it all the way without you just clip you the I got to say I said when I was a painting at the top when I asked you that my opinions were high totally shattered no it was a hundred percent of that's because I can do that yeah with saltball I genuinely didn't know he could do that oh my gosh so that was Fier TV fucking perfect Thank you, my blizzard.

Oh, my shit, that's good. Got to give it out. None of that happens. I'm horrified to learn this information as we exit the room. The moment that the door's open, I stumble through it with a lack of grace that is shocking to anybody who's watching me.

In the wake of Ziggy wave-dashing across the floor to get to the door, you do stumble forward towards the door. Anybody who's around you knows you would discern at this point that you're certainly shaken. And yet, well, you open the door, once again, the stairs ascend. The heartbeat, the landing, the doorway. Sorry, I was thinking about shorts that might be made in the future.

I will be the last out of the room. I'm going to just make sure that if Coe's picking a pixel, that they're okay, that Ophelia makes it out of the room. I would take bike by the arm and try to study him a little bit. I'm trying to regain my breath. You guys all right? I'll be the last one out, and I'll sort of, before I leave, I'll stop and sort of just look at myself in the mirror

for, like, longer than I should, and just stare, like, in, stare myself in the eyes and just take it in, and then I will leave it. It's pretty fucking blood it. Pretty fucking cute. Everyone, everyone take a second, all right? We have to breathe. I have, I have good news and I have bad news.

What do you want first? It's all bad news. Tell me the good news first. The good news is that I have snacks. What's the bad news? The bad news is, look at where we are! And I'm going to gesture out the balcony. And I'm going to indicate and sort of point

and be like, look, this staircase doesn't make any sense. It's like we're not progressing at all. Look. It's like a geometrical anomaly that... Are you looking down? Yeah. You won't have to roll for it. As you look down, it's almost as if the tower beneath you

disappears into darkness. As if being consumed by... As if being consumed. We're in some sort of strange magical space Everything's different Look I don't know how to solve this problem Zee

So are you saying that we're not making any progress I think I think we're we're moving up And we have to just keep pushing forward But uh but All we can do now Is just keep going We gotta drive forward go up We've just got to progress

That's right We can't go back, we can't go down, so we go forward. Look, if everyone, if everyone's feeling, okay, fine, we can keep going. But I'm serious when I say, I summon some of these snacks from the hypergrid. If you need a little boost, have a snack bar, have some chips, have a soda. What do they do? Mechanically, they give you a plus one HP each. Why don't you hold on to those until we really need them?

Are you sure you're all right? I'm fine. Are y'all all right? Uh, it's feel terrible. You know, it could just be coincidence. There's probably lots of those things in the world. You know that? You know how many Terminocs there are? And lots of them can be different, right? Some are probably worse than others.

Just like Chuckles wasn't nearly as bad as the Motley and Ziggy. I'm starting to think that coincidences don't exist. He knows me. fucking doing. And I hate to fucking say it, but it's working. I hate this asshole. I hate that I feel weak. I hate that I feel helpless. I can't even help Picks. I can't help myself. I can't help you. We're gonna fix this, all right? We're gonna solve it. If we could solve all problems like I helped you, like punching you dead feedback, that would be a beautiful fucking world. Coe, I don't know if we're gonna solve it, but we're gonna fight it.

I'm gonna stand right next to you And if we fucking fall Then we're gonna fucking fall together And I'm gonna be right here with you guys Alright Alright We're gonna do it right, Pix, are you okay? Yeah, no

It's not much longer We're gonna get to the top We're still alive He thought we were gonna all turn into demons And we haven't turned into demons yet He probably has no idea What's fucking coming to him What happened in that room?

That was hell Yeah We don't need to turn into demons Because we already are demons saying that kind of shit to the people we love the ones we love the most hurt us the most

Rick didn't mean it right I don't know I didn't look I didn't need it But he came from somewhere He couldn't have said it if it didn't It came from the same place that made me laugh like a maniac Nothing nothing It's just hell bullshit influence

Horship Maybe we should have listened to him Maybe we should have just finished it At the bottom No, no We can't give up Alright That wasn't me in there

That wasn't Pike in there Just like Whatever Morvane's doing to you That's not you, that's him That wasn't daddy last night either Let's go You okay, Pix?

Yeah, I'm fine, let's go Okay I'll turn and start I'm gonna be the action I'm gonna grab her hand, okay? You got it? I'm with you. Sorry for losing my cool. Sorry. I feel I hate to say this, but by process of elimination, I don't know where we're gonna find in the next room. Are you all right? You feeling... I'm fine. Nothing can get to me. I know it's not real.

Alright. If we have to slap you, we're all very sorry. Why? We're not going to slap you, unless we have to. I'd prefer that none of you slap me. Okay. I'll be fine. Just give me an excuse. Let's just go.

I'm right next to Red. Only this time, Red's in the lead, and I'm following close behind him. I get Pike a wink as soon as I say that. I'm like, I feel really good about myself. Mike, can you illuminate a little bit? Yeah, yeah, sorry. I don't even realize I've let it. drop. And I hold my gauntlet up in the air and again just a little flicker as I cast light again

to just give us a something to combat this awful crimson. And this new magenta light melds with the cacophonous crimson light shed by the blood of the viceroy pumping through the tower above you. You ascend the staircase once more. You face yourselves against the next doorway and maybe now reluctantly push inwards as there is no other path but forward. The room you enter is something you don't expect. It's a tomb. You see a crypt before you, a sarcophagus with the effigy of an old man that seems to be familiar. It appears to look like the old viceroy of Sturlock from the previous mirror image of Morvane's life. It's that fucking home wrecker guy.

You look around the room to see once more who is in the mirrors. You look expecting to see Ophelia. You were once more met with a dark hit. It spreads in the mirrors around you. And you see Chief Minister of Economy, Harcon Morvane, who sits on the inner council of the Viceroy of Sturlock. Having claimed that his divorce and the Viceroy's beautiful new young wife was not personal and there were no hard feelings. But this was not the case.

The politics and bureaucracy of the Empire and the realities of Vassin have crushed whatever good intentions he once had. He manipulates the Viceroy to getting the world into immense debt. And he is shamefully stripped of his title by the Empress. but it wasn't enough. The hole inside him was still not filled. And he heard whispers from that darkness called him. And Morvin answered. He called upon his inner demons

and they gave him the power to do what he was certain would fill his void. With this power, he achieved the murder of the old viceroy, his ex-wife, as well as all of their household staff and guard, knowing he would be appointed as the next viceroy. With their blood covering him in red, the human Harcon Morvane transforms before your eyes. A pallid creature that you saw on the screen at the entrance hall of this castle. And despite that transformation, despite achieving all his goals, the pit is not filled. It has only grown larger, darker, and hungrier.

It seems to be a lesson here, folks. And that's brush your teeth. There it is. There is. Look at that. I told you. Sob story, okay, you showed who you truly are. You are a fucking monster. You fell to it. I don't care about any of that. I don't care about your parents.

I don't care about your horse. I don't care about your wife. I especially don't give a shit about this old fuck. You're going to die all the same. And you're going to deserve it. And I'm going to enjoy it. And Pixle's especially going to enjoy it. Right, Pix?

Yeah. You hear that? We're coming, asshole. Yep, we're coming. But I'm going actively, anyone would know. I'm actually, it'll be like, a little shaky. I'm a little scared. This is it.

This is very clearly a false bravado that I have. Co? Do you think... Yeah, Picks? Do you think someone that hurts like he did? Do you think everyone that hurts like he did ends up like that? Is it just something? Are you kidding me?

Picks, everybody hurts. We just saw it in the mirrors. Look at that. We all heard. None of us have turned into monsters. I haven't turned into a bug yet. No robot guys, no hell robots. No clown?

Presumably we would have to do something terrible to truly transform, truly. Like when he killed his wife? Yeah, something like that. It's kind of like when I killed Mr. W. No, no, no, are you kidding me? He's not remotely the same. He like murdered a whole household. He was tired in blood.

He was all red. You're, this guy was, he was, he sold you out to get killed by the guy we're going to kill. He was going to bury you in the desert. They bugged you without asking permission to bug you. That was kind of rude. Well, at the time I thought I was being a cool bounty hunter. If I had a mirror like he did and like everyone else did, I think that's what you guys would see was the betrayal of you bug in my Digi diary. Look, we're sorry about all of that, hen.

Look at what we've done since we've all come together. What you did to Weedelvox, you were fighting for your freedom. You didn't murder anybody. I wouldn't even say you fucking killed that guy. He got what was coming to him. Exactly fucking right? But I liked it, Brett. I enjoyed it.

I've been doing it. And then when it was all over, I feel any guilt for a while. It was like it just, there was nothing there. And then I missed him. And I realized what I'd done. I can't explain what it felt like to be in that place where I was reveling and watching him suffer. It's never been like that.

There's a difference between killing someone because they need to die and it's justice and we're saving someone. But to find pleasure in it, Red, it was, it's awful. It's not me. Oh, I didn't think it was. Do you know why? You liked it.

Why you felt pleasure in it? I've thought about it a lot. I don't know. Pixel. It feels good to break free. It feels good to break out of a life that you were trapped in, and you didn't even know you were trapped. I know.

It feels good to finally be you for the first time in your life I know how that feels to thine own self be true and so don't feel bad about it because when I broke free of that life I had nothing

I had no fucking future and it felt good you did what you had to and you did the right thing so come here and I want to I'll walk up and give a little hug and just like launch myself into I'm sorry

I'm sorry, bad. I'm sorry about what I say. It's okay, you didn't mean it. You aren't you. As you embrace, roll a charisma saving throw. Oh no. Oh, God. Charisma of 14?

It's not bad. They're getting worse. I don't like when you look at me like that in silence space. It's gonna be okay, Picks. Even Pike was afraid. It's okay to be afraid. He saw him, he never cracks. I'm afraid.

I'd probably crack more than I care to admit. I like to think that I don't crack, but I think all of us are afraid. I don't know, I'm still feeling out Ophelia. I don't know how, I can't read her. She's a breakable look at her. And I don't just mean his eyes. I mean her, her spirit, her indomitable spirit.

Yeah. Speaking of that, I think I need to use That gift from old Belvedere. Yeah. That guy's... That guy fucks. I think... I think I do too. And I'm saying...

What? Oh, you need it. Sorry, I thought... Yeah. What? No, I didn't... I didn't sleep with the butler. Okay, I wasn't sure what you meant. No, no, no, no. I hope not.

What? He's practically like a grandfather to me. Yeah, so? Oh, I mean, yeah. No, for sure. I didn't do it. If we're gonna, if we're gonna do this, we need a little bit of joy in our lives.

We can't just be living in this state of hell. So I'm gonna, and I'm gonna, do we eat it? Do we shoot up with it? I don't know. You should injector. Okay, fantastic. Punched into wherever you would choose to do so, a thigh and more of like.

Well, you. Teach though. Just spread your toes and like. She doesn't know any better. She's just, what the fuck? Oh, way. You enjoy the bad. of a short rest.

And anyone else who injects? What is the, do we have a sense of the speed with which we can administer this to ourselves? Action versus bonus action. Oh. Versus minutes in combat. Because I ain't using mine now. Yeah, we need to know.

I would know. I got too many tricks on my sleeve. I'm saving mine. I would say. Unless I feel like I can't use it in the heat of battle. That you would be able to use it in the heat of battle, though it would eat your turn. Okay.

Say less, fam. I'm saving mine. That's good to know. But so I will use mine and then I will, um... Yeah, but I've been working on a song. We fit the mood, but you know, I just, I've been working on it from the next pop show whenever we get a chance to, I don't, maybe go back,

not the glitz room, but maybe a medium mall, like it gave like a show at the media mall, you know, and perform. And then, you know, maybe someone will see me, they'll discover me, and I can have an album. So I figured I'd play it for ya, and we could, just, would that be okay? Of course, Picks.

All right. I think we can all use a nice little tune, right? And I pull out my keytard, and I begin to play a little bit. At first, it sounds a bit discordant, but I figure it out as I clear the fog from my head. And I begin to play a song. Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me. I think they're okay. If they don't give me lots of notes, then I just walk away.

They can't beg and they can. can plead, but they can't see the hue. Cause the man with the glam of stashes missed it. Because we are living in an ethereal world, and I am an ethereal girl. An ethereal world. And I am an ethereal girl. And you guys are all going to benefit from my short rest.

It's really good. Awesome. You could be my roadie. We don't have to wait, by the way, for some sort of venue. I could always have silica shoot you and we could make like a music video or something. Oh my gosh, could she go?

Yeah, we can put it all out. I wasn't going to. I'm feeling a little bit nervous about taking kind of, you know, organization administered, uh, stimulants and drugs. But I will inject myself feeling inspired by pixels. What does this mechanically do? So it's called bolstering performance. Oh, oh, sorry.

After short or long rest, I give a performance. When I do up to six allies, which can include myself, within 30 feet of me, gain temporary HP equal to my character level, plus the modifier of the ability I increased with this feat. So nine temp, HP? Yeah. Derek is doing it.

But you only get it if you take the short rest, correct? Yes. Which is why I use my stuff. Oh, I use, it's something I can do after a short rest. So I'm using my short rest and do it. I'll say because the uniqueness of the situation, because you took your, you took a short rest and performed this, everyone will gain the benefits

that you're intending to share with them. That is very generous. Thank you. Just nine, 10p. Yeah, nine. I'll fucking take it. We love temporary hit points in this house. And then, let's go.

With that, I was hoping. Don't worry, Derek, I plan to take it back. I was hoping you would be a very generous GM and let me combine it with encouraging song. Which is after I finish a shorter long rest and I play a song on a musical instrument, which was my guitar, which I have proficiency on, I can give heroic inspiration to up to two allies.

two allies. Oh shit. I suppose you did let me fully heal Torbuck. Yes. All out. And boy, was it good. And so I would like to give heroic inspiration to co and a red.

Oh. You may do so. Yes. What is that? A.D.S. That's an actual just inspiration. Oh, oh my God. Heroic inspiration, yeah.

Yeah. What's what they renamed it in 2020. As you were performing this, as your melody, you're very voice rings out into the tower. All other sounds, that heartbeat for just a moment, fades away. And the cold that's been pushing in on you from outside,

especially the cold pushing out of you from within. All of that seems to be banished for the moment while you play that song. But it slowly, slowly begins to creep back as you finish. And Dan clarifies it's re-rolling any single die, not just a D-20. Whoa! Yes, cute.

Very often for that. If you roll a D-100, you can re-roll one of the D-10s. Oh, that's right now. They're pretty powerful. We're level four. We're level four. Oh, okay. I probably don't want.

We're doing the first cheer play. Says the guy who was piloting a fucking Gundam last session and almost ripped Ziggy and I in two. I think you're gonna be okay, May. Where can we get? That was fun. I'll look at the rules for encouraging song. Where's that?

It's a feat. What? Encourning song? It just gives real inspiration to two people. Oh, just two people, yeah. And that was for Cohen. That was Co- and Reck. Correct. I missed that.

That's why I was checking. Thank you. I feel a little less scared. What about you? I'm feeling good. You know, as good as one can here. But I suddenly, I was getting psyched out a bit. Pike getting freaked out and Rhett saying some cold

shit really kind of shook me and you you were losing it I'm I felt like I failed being able to protect you Bix and you've made me give you the biggest hug co yeah Bix being in my life you're never gonna fail me I hope not at least just don't go don't leave I ain't go no place no reason I'll always forgive you thanks Bix that was a good one I like the ethereal lyric in there. Yeah, that was because of you. I thought about you. Yeah, I know.

I liked it. I'm not an etheron, but I can be an ethereal girl. I think you make a great ethereal girl. I just got to figure out what I'm going to call it. Yeah, we'll think about it. I was thinking some boys kiss me, but it might be too long. No, we don't like that's terrible. Maybe cuss the man with the glimistache, but that could mean like mustache.

That's even worse actually shocking way. Yeah, so I don't know what to call it. We continue workshopping the name. You workshop the name as you ascend the next flight of stairs. Once more, a singular path illuminates forward. You climb the stairs, you hear the heartbeat, the thrum of demonic blood courses now all around you. As you'll start to notice that the walls of,

of the tower seem to be almost pulling together towards a point. As you ascend this flight of stairs towards one more landing, one more door. And you open it. We do. You enter a room filled with mirrors, and this time it becomes absolutely frigid. The mirrors refrigued. The mirrors reflect what looks like an endless cemetery, filled with countless graves that all stir. In the mirrors, again, you see two reflections.

Ophelia, and this time, Pixel. Here we go. It's going to be okay, Pigs for Emma. We're okay, and we had this. It's going to be okay. Ophelia, you're going to be okay. We're going to get through it no matter what happens. We're here for you. Just don't forget that when you're in it.

That's right. We're all here together. Keep your song with you, Pixel. You'll be fine. Once more, the visions split across the room. On the right, Ophelia shrinks into a young girl, holding a rifle that is almost as big as she is. She's at the firing range, biting her lower lip and narrowing her eyes as she takes the shot at the target.

A miss. Her mother stands over her and coldly commands again. Another miss. Again. The disappointment and frustration is palpable. An older Ophelia is in an advanced training room, attempting to master her combat skills. and use of gadgets. As she fails to dodge each blow,

pain racks her entire body, finally letting out a Yelp. Her mother turns off the training protocol and shakes her head. Disappointing, I thought you would have had the callos talent. Oh. As the lights are shut off, Ophelia is alone in the dark training room, and a tiny pit inside her grows.

On the left side of the room, Pixel becomes tiny, heading home to a small town in the dusty canyons on Cherries, hundreds of miles from the nearest city, and even further from the glittering metropolis of Paradise City. She pedals hard riding her bright pink hover bike, finally arriving at her front door. She opens it, and her father is expectedly passed out, drunk, in his reclining chair. Her mother screamed at her for arriving back after sundown. Pixel ignores her and goes to her room, turning on loud poppy music and thumbing through a flashy magazine celebrating celebrities of Cherix in the galaxy.

She dreams of being a star and takes down song ideas in her Digi Di-Diary. This happens nightly, except for the times when her mother would have brief moments of lucidity and would come into Pixels Room to comfort her and sing her a lullaby. But she knows neglect and cruelty too well and too regularly, and the pit inside her forms. On the day she leaves her small town, all that's left behind is a note that says to that thine own self be true. She arrives in Cherokee's with big eyes and even bigger dreams, but they are swiftly crushed. Soon she's staring at herself in the mirror after a shift dancing at a club.

She wipes her makeup off and the emptiness in her is larger than ever. The powder didn't fill it. The pills didn't fill it. The attention, the notes. none of it filled the abyss inside her. Then a shadow crosses the doorway to the dressing room. In a luxury suit and covered in jewelry, Grobulous J. Weidelvox came into Pixel's life.

And both Ophelia and Pixel fail to fill the voids inside them. And they change. Their skin turns pallid and gray, their ears and noses turn bat-like, and their eyes go dark. Ophelia grows bat-like wings and looks as a fallen angel turned to hell. Pixel has a huge, tight hive of hair looking like a regal countess. Each of them transform into a discordant creature of entropy. The same creature that Harcum is.

Morvane is a varg both of you are consumed by melancholy emptiness and an appetite to fill it fix are you okay it's okay fixed yeah it will be yeah I'm taking this pretty well it'll be worth it when I'm in the middle of the stage and the flashing lights and the adoration the applause once they've got the applause I thought that you didn't really need that anymore, right, Bix? We're bounty hunters now, right? Yeah, what's a bounty hunter? Okay.

What's a bounty hunter to a star? Okay, you're just going through it. It's okay. We're here. Hey, Pike, check on your girl. I feel you, all right? Hey, I had no idea. I'm fine.

Look, it's okay to tell us the truth. It's okay to not be fine. I'll just keep working. I'll be enough. I'll get better. And then it'll all be fine. You're the best shot I've ever met. Not good enough. Not yet. I've just lost focus. I think we all got to hug it out, Bill.

Fumbling, so hard. Cut enough. What the, do something. What are you talking? You have a prime opportunity. We gotta hug it out. I take a step closer to a film. I don't just a man for the job. You are fucking, bro. All I get, oh my God, the sad boys. I'll get a little bit closer to Ophelia and just like put my hand like on your shoulder just to like.

It's just trying to distract me again. I'm never going to be enough if I can't focus on what I need to do. Ophelia, it's not like that at all. Come on. Look at me. Look at me. She's she's consumed by, uh, Like a nothingness.

Like she doesn't care. She cares more than anyone. I know. She's made pretend. But this isn't her at all, is it? Come on. I know you. You are focused. You always get the job done.

Always. You've never failed. I just... I don't know if I have what it takes anymore. We all have what it takes. We're all gonna fucking kill this. Yeah, nice poetry asshole. I get it. I may be stupid, but I ain't dumb. I get it. We still not sorry for you and we're gonna kill you and they are not gonna turn into what you are. Come on, just push through it. And then we're gonna kill you. Come on. Write it out. We all did it. We all made it through. Come on. Come back to us. Focus. Picks, don't... Don't touch me. What? Don't you know who I am. You have to you

Do you have any idea what the magazines would say about me if I let the likes of you touch me? What? It's just nothing but muscle. Nothing else. Oh. Do you need something? What, Picks? Come on. If I'm gonna be a star, I can't waste my time on the likes of you.

Man, I know it's the demon stuff. If it would help, you have what I gave you, right, Pixel? I'm sorry, who were you? D. I'm dying. Just dash all over again. You know who I am. I know you two.

And I know you don't mean it. Oh, yeah. The head of Rhapsody Records. What a joke. Oh, yeah. You don't even own your ship anymore, do you? You're not going to have to apologize for this later. I deserve this.

I deserve this. Look. Just because the bank owns the Rhapsody now, Oh, why are you talking? It's just so loud. You're giving me a headache. I've got songs to write. You just played a really nice song and it was good, but I don't think this pixel wouldn't write that same song. No, it needs to be better. I have to outsell that no good, worthless What's His Face. That posters all over my room about that guy. What a joke.

He's got nothing on Pixel Pop. Nobody's got nothing on Pixel Pop. Picks? Co. Can I tell you something? Do I have a choice? No, you don't have a fucking choice. You can sit down and listen. All right. Years are big enough to listen, huh? Sorry, that was me.

Yeah, they're quite cute, aren't they? I, um, only Pike knows this, and that's because I owed him one. You know, I had a, I had a sister once. and my mom died when we were real young and my dad really tried but it wasn't enough for her it was enough for me

but I was the oldest one and she was the youngest and she needed more I don't know what was wrong with her we couldn't figure it out we just couldn't understand her she wasn't simple we were simple

and she had a pit inside of her that she tried to fill she tried it with drugs with alcohol cigarettes, boys, money, crime. The more that she did, the bigger that whole got. The more that she tried to fill it, the bigger it got. And I couldn't understand her. And I never figured it out. I know I don't, not perfect. I don't deal with my shit the right way. I

want to smash it and dare it down, but I don't know how you deal with it. I don't know what you do about that pit. I wish I could have told my sis before she was too far gone, but now she is. And I know that you are better than her, and you are going to be able to do much better things than she did. And just don't try to fill and consume and have an appetite for that pit, because it's only going to make it bigger picks. Oh, cool. Blah, blah, blah, blah. You may now roll a Christmas Ava. Disadvantage. Come on.

This is where you're a vacuum. Not today. An eight. With an eight, you feel the melancholy fade from you, but you have this sense that the room has claimed something from you. But what? What's it made? What are we all loose?

Down! That's bad. I don't like it. Okay, Pix. You're right. No, co, go, go, go. No, I'm sorry. It wasn't me.

me. No, I know. No, no, Co. I'm sorry. It's okay. No, I'm sorry. No. No, no. No, I told you. You don't have to apologize. You don't have to apologize. You're back. You're back. It's okay, Pix. Hey, I don't know what came up at me. I don't want to be with muscle. You have everything to me. You're family. You mean that, Pix? I do. Look, that was. I know. Just like I wasn't the bug. I hope I don't fully have to catch me. That'd be very, very grievous wounds for you. Very, very heavy. Serious injuries. I would do it. If you fall, I would catch you. I know, Pix.

You're more of my family than my sister ever was. She didn't mean that either. I think you know that. I hope she did too. I don't know. God, I hate this place. I'm sorry for giving you shit about what you said to Ziggy. Wow, that's fucking awful.

Said, don't apologize. I know, please. It's okay. We all know it's not us. This place is distorting everything. Difference. Could those people really live inside of us? Pix, you showed me that people can be different and changed when you left Weedelvox and you killed them.

That's what I couldn't get through to my sis. That's it. We're all different. You're different especially. I think Pixel's right. I do think that those people could live inside of it. inside us, but we're better than that. We overcome it. We choose, just like Coe always says, we have the choice to be who we want to be. What if who you want to be just isn't in the cards?

If it's not part of you, if it's not in you, you can't put it into you. You can't make it be from nothing. Then throw the deck away and get a new one. Ophelia, I think I know what you're going through more than anyone. I know what it feels like to have a demanding parent just constantly dragging you through it. You have to listen. You can't compare yourself to some perfect version of yourself in your head. You can't compare yourself to that. You can be okay with yourself.

You can be satisfied. That's what you have to learn. You make up their own rules. Throw the deck away. I don't want to just be okay. No, but you want to be satisfied, right? That's the whole point. It's that once you get there, then it's good enough.

You choose what the goal is. You pick it. You're for yourself. Listen to me, Ophelia. Take it from me, the guy who didn't show. I never truly apologize for what happened that day. So look me in the eye and understand how truly sorry I am. We can all change.

We can all choose who we want to be. Trust me. I'm sorry. Would you have shown up if I were different? If I were better. I should have shown up. A hundred out of a hundred times I should have shown up. We'll never know now.

You be a roll crazy, though. I like how Mace waits for them to say some cool, bloody shit. You are an absolute monster. Mace Stalin knew. We're in a conversation after this. The guy kicking away of it. It's just too good. It's just too peasy.

If you think we're going to let you get away with it, our campaigns, Mace. You can't get getting away with this. There will be retribution. I've always said the trick of GMing Star Dust is to stay out of the way. I hold to that very deep way. Mace, I just want you to know it might be three years from now. It might be 10 years from now,

but someday I'm going to be in that chair. You're going to be sitting here. I he's gonna claim something from you. Say like I can't speak for Derek, but I'm gonna echo Derek's words that he said many, many times, he will take something from you. And when you think you have nothing left,

Mace, I will take something from you. Oh gosh, I don't know. You only have two kidneys, Mace is bad. Always after the kidneys, we never wanna. They're valuable. I'm not gonna settle for an appendix. They're good eats. A little bit of liver.

Ew. They're good. Jesus. You feel the melancholy fade away as you regain your senses. Hey, are you there? Come on. Are you all right? I'm sorry.

You have nothing to apologize for. Listen to me. Nothing. That's not me. I'm not weak like that. You're not weak like anything. You're not weak. I know that you.

You had your reasons for leaving, and I shouldn't have said that about you. I'm sorry. I deserved every word of it more. Let's just forget it. We got a Fy Story to kill? Yes, we do. We got a demon to kill? Yeah.

None of us became demons? Yeah. Not yet. We can always talk about this later. We need to make sure that our heads are ready. I feel like we're getting to the top. Does it feel like if there were levels of cold on a scale, then it could get much colder than it is now.

You believe the answer to that is no, but you have yet to find out. What cold really is. Oh, boy. We're going. All right. Before we go. do this. We have no

way to know that we all make it out of this a lot. So I just want you all to know. I will never forget any of you. You are the family that I choose. From this day until

my end of days. I love you guys. Likewise. Yeah. I love you guys. Well said. Yeah. And look. Redcon, to it. I've said it once, I've said it dozens of times. If we won every time, it wouldn't be fun. Yeah.

You're predictable. And I love you all too. Let's do it! Alright! Bring it in. Yeah! This is just like the series finale of Mecca Maiden's Love Protocol Overrides. Did they all survive? Let's go. Let's go. And we proceed.

The door swings open once again. You see one more staircase ascending in front of you. You take steps. The thumping heartbeat grows ever louder. This staircase, as it comes to its end, spreads out briefly. As a wider ascension leads to large black double doors. and what now you believe is the top of the tower. Look at Pike.

I don't know who's in the lead right now. Probably you and me. I would turn to you. Yeah, I would pick some of it. I will say, look, whatever happens. If anything happens to me, gotta take care of them. Understand?

And Hank. And even if you lose the Rhapsody, you all will find a way. a promise. Just give I ain't an extra scratch for me, all right? Oh, come on, Rhett. You're getting all wistful and melancholy

like you do whenever you listen to that song about the freighters that ran the Tarkinite ore. You don't need to get so saffy about it. It's a tragic song, though. Yeah, okay, whatever. The gales, the ether gales, all right? Yeah, I don't know. You keep talking about it.

Don't get all saffy on a snap. After this outburst, I'm like, you know, there's a weird, like, a little bit of uplifting, like, moment. Yeah, yeah. It's a goofy energy. I still turn to Rett and I say, uh, token Sappy. You know that there's no way in hell I'm leaving here without you. But if for some miraculous reason I walk out of here and you don't, sure, you've got my word. All right. And just remember, this guy stands for everything that she stands against.

And so, if I could ask you for one more thing, bring the light. Oh, I'll bring the light. And I'm, I'm going to pray too. I don't know if I'll be heard, but I'm going to pray. You know what? I don't care how powerfully. is. Once you shoot him with your God bullet, everybody I think is weak and has a plan until they get smashed in the face.

That's right. Let's go. Rabbi, here we go. And I will step forward with a prayer on my lips and attempt to open this door and pass to the threshold. Because I'm instantly incinerated apparently

as you guys guys. You stretch your hand forward, you push against the metal of this door. You take five points of cold damage. Oh, yeah. That makes that. The, as you get this searing sensation, as if you've just been burned, not by fire, but by ice, as you push your way into this room. I try not to flinch. I try not to recoil, and I just push forward as I take the damage. You finally arrive at the top of the castle, and you enter the highest

chamber of the highest tower. Before you is a room of mirrors and closed doors to the balcony outside. Sitting on the metal throne is Viceroy Harcon, which is attached to by 12 tubes that pump his blood into the castle. His coat is open. The black pit within is now enormous, consuming almost his entire torso, the protective shadow clinging to him like a shroud. As you enter, he barely moves. But you can tell he is watching intently. He slowly reaches up and takes off his sunglasses. His dark eyes look tired as he slowly stands and steps forward pulling all of the tubes free

with a sickening and sloppy pop. Blood gushes across the floor. It gets even colder and you feel like the blood might instantly freeze. He draws a laser sword by his side. Okay. And ignites it.

Nope. It crackles to life with chaotic, discordant, and bloody energy. Then he finally speaks. So you have gone through hell, and you believe you are out of it. You have only just entered it. Walked through the door, kill your hope carved into its frame. I know your secrets. all of them, every miserable little secret.

If you will not accept the demons within you, then you shall feed the ones within me. Your screams shall be the death knell that heralds the long night. and I need everyone to roll for initiative. Let's go! For initiative. Wow, natural 20.

I get a 22. And I unfortunately be with a 23. Let's go. Let's go. Well done, though. Oh, God. Good rule. I'm glad. I don't want to go first.

Pike is the man through the door. Pike. Ziggy. 15 to 20. I got a 15. Uh-oh. That's not me. Oh, no, it's not me. Oh no.

10 to 15? I mean, 5 to 10? 8. Six. So pigs are enough last. And you two just decided I take it? Yes, yes, Co's going first. I think that just feels right to me.

Yeah. Co's itching. Yeah, it was just a bugman. Itching for a bitching. Itching for a bugman. Bugman's Brewers. Thank you for just going with the Pixel Kills Coe spiders. I think that's great.

That's really fun. I love that very much. I know. All the way of to town. Gate bugs. Harkon rises from the throne, the tubes detaching from him as his blade falls to his side igniting with cacophonous red energy

as he walks forward into the room. Pike, it's to you. There's a moment where you watch as my feet kind of slide apart as I kind of get lower into a stance and I brace myself. And even in this cripplingly cold room, my hair and my jacket begin to billow just a little bit as if there's a bit of solar wind

whipping around me. And you can hear me finishing up a prayer as I say, love and beauty and Phoenix rising. And I activate my uncanny metabolism to heal 1D6 plus four, but also all of my focus points. As a special ability that happens when I roll initiative.

There is. Let's go. And then with this bit of radiant energy, magenta light that is kind of pouring off me fighting back against the cold, I bum rush this fucking loser. I'm going to get everything I've got. As I attempt to make two attacks. It's pouring off of you as you invigorate yourself.

You dash forward, never more sure of your path as your blows fly forward towards the viceroy. Okay, that's not bad. I rolled an 11 and a 12, which will be a 18 and a 19 to hit. Both will hit. Sick. Then I'll just do 1D2D6 plus 10 over two attacks.

14 total points of radiant damage. Sorry, bludgeoning damage as I attempt to basically land like a one-two combo and just get right in this guy's face. You race up that radiant light pouring from you as you pull your fist back and you begin to throw it at Harcon, you're close to him now. His gray, sallow skin pulled taut around his body.

A cloak of black shadow falls about his shoulders. And as your blows fall in to crash upon him, instantaneously, the dark shadow form seems to wrap itself around him, forming almost a form of jagged black armor that doesn't take any physical shape but works to obscure him. Your blows land and you feel as though you are hitting heavy.

He barely notices as he turns down and looks at you. Fangs menacingly. Blood still dripping from his shoulders. The sunglasses off of his face. The crackling, discordant, red energy for a moment as you lock eyes with him, your blood runs cold.

your weapons will die with you. Oh shit, this is Rockley versus Gara. What? Let's go! Except I wish I had done damage. And you feel very much, not that your blows did half damage or he was resistant. You feel almost as though they've done nothing at all.

Of course, classic. Okay, well, that's my whole turn. But I am, I'm gonna heal. So I'll just add that to my hip. You made your heel? Oh, sweet. That's a full. I've seen Pike and his prowess in combat over and over and over.

As I watch him go up and deal these blows and him barely notice, do I get a sense that it's because of this trout? Oh, shit. Well, a... Let's say roll a perception check with a low DC. Uh, Nike. I'd say it's fair to say that from everything you've seen so far, site Omicron, the tapes, the shadow that ensorcells him.

You believe this to be either a relic or a remnant of a cauconous realm and then its power protects him. And he is enjoying some kind of defense. I am thinking and hoping that this, I don't feel like I should run my scripts until this changes. Either he loses the shield or we find some way to penetrate it. I'm going to, how does moving through Allied work? Do you just do it?

It's free now. I believe you need to do it. It's free now. It's free now. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go one and a half, three, four, five, six. I'm gonna run over here and I'm gonna ready my action. I'm going to basically just have my finger hovering over the execute button as I prepare

for if his shield shadow drops, I will cast witch bolt immediately at level one. So I'm casting the spell. I'm using my reaction and I'm just going to wait for the trigger. You haven't used your reaction yet. Yes. Then you can choose to use your reaction. I'm sorry.

I can choose to use my reaction at the point of the trigger, but I'm just going to hold on that. Which is nice because you can still shield if you needed to. Right. And I will run out into the room and, um, um, he's protected somehow. And I'm panicking, but I'm doing my best. And that'll be my whole turn.

Okay. You move to a different section of the room. You take position and you ready. In fact, actually, now that I recall, you just know that the shadow is offering him defense. You know that because that is why you went to Ophelia. That is why you recovered the ammunition. You know that the purpose is for her

to attempt to banish his armor of the night. I'm just hoping against hope. I've got tethered protocol, my version of Witch Bolt, ready to go. Oh. Brattling child. I will enjoy consuming your essence first. To consume this essence.

As the rapier dances around you, Pike. Yeah, bring it on. The slashes full about you, crackling with red energy and yet it strikes like cold with a 19 to hit. That meets, that meets. Oh. Okay, 19 and the 22.

Both hit? Oh, geez, Louise. It's not, oh. Yeah. Oh. Okay, that was bad. Tell me what the, like, individually what the hits are. So the first hit, you will take two points of piercing damage.

Okay. Plus eight points of cold damage. Okay, I will take that. I will take that. Okay. You will then take four points of piercing damage and nine points of cold damage.

I'm glad I waited. As the first one kind of grazes me and like bites into my flesh, but I regained my composure and I use my reaction to try to deflect the second attack, reducing it by 1D10 plus nine. Okay. And it's 14 points, you said, or 13 points?

I think it was 4 plus 9. Max. I reduce it by 19. Okay. So the first slash of the rapier cuts through you. And then he lunges forward with a strike, but you're able to move, gaining, recovering yourself as you push the tip away from you

and it shoots just past you, touching the blade, it's cold as ice even more so. That is my reaction, so I took my 10 and that's it. Ophelia. All right. How did you work in this game? We just re-roll. Is that roll, but it's a max of one.

I will, with my sniper rifle out, I will kind of strafe, is that the word? Yeah. Straitful on the back of the room here to get a clear shot at him. So I will go down on one knee and load my rifle with one of the ecliptic rounds that we had stolen. Oh, shit. Moment of truth. Here we go. What if it doesn't work? I'll steady my aim out at him down on one knee. focused in, and you'll see my guns start to,

my rifles start to glow sort of a light white and pinpricks of light, almost like stars, will start to form above it. And you'll start to hear, and then it will all suck back in, almost like a black hole, like taking all the starlight with it and fire out a purple, dark blue bolt. That's fun.

Definitely an anime swing. Right before she found her. Did you roll it hit? I didn't. I didn't. That's just got D. Better fucking hit them. Yeah.

You just let's put on a lot of all that. All that's away. After that description, I think she just doesn't have to. Yeah. Yeah. She's auto-hift.

I think of. Cool. I know. I just, I just have to win. Natural Trey. That's pretty good. 18 plus seven to hit.

Oh my God. I thought you were. So 26. I thought she got the crits in. 26. 26 to hit. 26 needed to hit. And I would ask, you roll damage,

you also have specific damage for the Ecliptic rounds. Yes, I'm gonna read the Ecliptic ground if that's cool with you since it has been a while. So Ecliptic rounds, this magic bullet captures the predicted paths of Agathos's stars and focuses that destined order to a single point. If a fiend takes damage from the bullet, it takes an extra 2D12 force damage,

And until the start of your next turn, the target can't benefit from any effect that reduces or ignores damage. Once it hits a target, the bullet is no longer magical. Amazing. So you're extra, 2D12 in addition to your normal damage. Which includes sneak attack. So it's 2D6 for my normal, 2D6 for sneak attack damage

since you're within five feet. And then 2D12 for- Oh my God. That's correct. Fuck them all! Ocelain is fucking them up. Oh man. Holy shit. Okay.

It's a lot of it. I love my DPS girlfriend. My friend. Yeah. That's so funny. And my tank husband. 27 damage. 27 damage.

Do you need to know between like force and piercing? Or does that matter? That's fine. Okay. His eyes move about the room as this battle unfurls. Having slashed Pike, he's still. Like he still slowly, weakly, seems to be tracking you around the room. Not you specifically everybody.

He even catches the glimpse of you beginning to chamber around. Fools, what you have brought, bails before the long night. There is nothing that can save you now. banish your demons but mine will feast and then you pull the trigger and

constellations form around the barrel of your gun as starlight erupts in points and then almost like tracing the linework of a constellation these beams of energy pool back towards the end of the barrel as all this stars crashed together

and the beam rings out It soars through the air, instantaneously drawing a line between the barrel and Harkon. It flies right over Pike as it connects with him, and it squarely hits him in the chest, blasting open the black shadow that has formed this almost armor around him. as Oh shit Disciple of the stars Holy shit

Whoa As you have banished his protections For one round And he recoils As he falls back to one leg As the shadow banishes And it starts to fade And open around him

As he falls back hugely weakened By the blast Connections. I would like to use my reaction to cast Witchbolt. You may use. Oh! I click on... Yes! I click on Execute. And it goes... I'm so excited. And I roll.

Ooh, that's going to be a 15 to hit. I don't know. I don't know. That's right in line. Limitedpower.exe. 15 will just barely mess. Twist it. Twist it. Twist it. Can we figure out how many we have? Eight, someone said in chat. Well, we got eight on the second one.

So that's seven plus eight. I was to say it's got to be at least 15. 15. Oh, okay. This is our first twist, right? 14. We're 14. I need a nine or high.

Yeah, come on. Yes. Well, so that's gonna be a 19 to hit. That's gonna be a 19 to hit. 19 hits. We're like a well-oiled machine here, folks. Look at us at the bounty hunting team. We've come together.

That's right. That's going to be 10 points of lightning damage as this arc of green lightning jolt out from my gridboy. The moment that this shadow disappears and connects with his chest and almost like a reverse force lightning from Return of the Jedi, I am now tethered to him. And it's...

Power, unlimited power! Exactly, right. That's my line, hey. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. My pen. Forgive me. My bad, Bigsy.

Bigsy. Is there anything else you want to do with your turn, Ophelia? I mean, you have a bonus action? No. Do it? No. I don't do it. That crackling, as soon as the shadow disperses, you were primed and ready. That crackling lightning dances through the air, slithering towards him, also in an instant the second the opportunity presents itself, you find the opening and you take advantage.

Now, what is it? What is this? Ah! You're going down! Could he say that Ophelia uses her bonus action to hide and use her cloaking, like, whatever? I'm gonna- That's up to you.

I mean, can I do that? Yeah. As a rogue, cutting action, if you care to. No, you had, you were just on it. I don't know what kind of cool stuff you got too. Bonus. So cutting action, your turn, you can take up the following actions, bonus action,

dash disengage or hide. I didn't think there was anything in here to hide, but okay. Well, well, it's dark. I'm like a cloaking kind of, you're a secret agent. I'll give you, I'd say as long as you can be, is co directly between you and him right now currently? No, but if I move a couple more steps Ziggy can be.

I said you even just like dash behind somebody, you can use it to, like if you can break line of sight. The dude's riding. I'll use Ziggy as body armory and hide behind him. And you can go invisible or you can hide, whatever. I will hide. I will hide. into the night. Oh, sorry.

I'm sorry. That's go. Okay. I'm gonna look at Ophelia and say, I'm gonna give her a wink and say, nice shot. As I am going to say, okay, Picks, no matter what, I'm gonna catch you if you fall, okay? I'll be right behind you, co. Okay, you, I don't care about your song story. I don't care about whatever poetry you were trying to tell us. You say you got demons, well, you got one fucking more, as I'm just gonna scream and start running

towards him now that He's covered in light. I am going to use my, as my skin, my tattoos begin to glow, as just kind of thumping with this heartbeat of this chamber and within myself, as the thunder, this boom, starts to go out as the electricity starts to lift off my skin. As I use my Channel Divinity to use Rage of the Streets, and then I am just going to swing in with,

my club that should be an 18 to hit 18 definitely it 18 to hit I am going to you know what fucking as I channel my my energy surges into my club as these laser like spikes out of it as I'm swinging in I'm just going to divine smite this I'm just you know I'm sick of this guy you shields are down he's vulnerable he's vulnerable I don't know how to give him the business I got started. I don't get a free one, right? This is a hard-in-

business. Be cool, wait a bit. No, I thought, I don't think the- Do you get the free one? Oh, I do. We've talked about this like eight times and keep forgetting it. You can't without expending the spell

to like once per long rest. There you go. Let's go. I said, because that definitely wasn't a 2014 thing. No, no, no, no. I don't think so. Marius can tell you that. Okay, so I am going to do 1D10

plus... Sorry. One D-10. One D-10. plus God's smite is 2d8. Oh, 3D8 if it's a feed. Is it a 3D8? Oh, I forgot I'm entirely out of D8s.

I literally have zero D8s. Oh, here. Here. Yeah. He is in fact a finit. Any more? Actually, I got it. I got it.

Oh, thank you. I'll use this. This is nicer. 3D8 plus 1D10. Got it. Hell yes. Good job, Mindy. Hell yes.

I too. I roll seven. Oh, I thought that was a one. Well done. And I helped. For a, I helped. I deal. Believe it. Believe it.

I can't. 13 points of bludgeoning damage. And then ideal 14, 18 points of radiant damage. And then I believe as part of that, I can then make a free melee attack. And I'm gonna knock him back. Well, I knock him down into his throne. If I can, I can.

I can knock him back, 10 feet. I'm trying to knock him down, and then I'm just gonna just get my foot up and just stomp him as I make it on arm strike. You know what I'm totally expecting? What? I'm expecting some, like, de Nafrious mirror shit, like, like, blood, mirror shit.

I'm totally expecting some gas-bladder. 13 will miss. That's my turn. Um, I'm up in his face. He does have a sword after. You're right up in his face, 13 will miss. Um, you think that you can stand against the, cold inevitability of entropy. You are nothing.

As his jaw will, Pike and Co. You'll see this, you're staying directly in front of him. His jaw begins to almost unhinge and drop down as his mouth opens unearly large as you start to feel this vacuum on you. Everyone in the room will need to make a Constitution saving throw. And it is here, Co. Ophelia, and Ziggy, you will discover that the ether poisoning is taking it. Whatever your current Constitution saving throw bonus is, it is minus two. Oh, okay. Thanks, all. Hmm. Okay, I'm gonna... So like if it's normally plus two, I'm now at a flat roll.

You're at zero. Oh, that's not. Uh-oh. Not ideal. Not great. Does this feature happen to relate to the exhaustion or prone condition? Oh, that's bad. No. Nice try. Tank husband. No. Does it relate to poison?

Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Oh! It does. Then I'm advantaged. I'm now down to a plus zero. And what did we say? It's no one poison?

Yes one poison? Can I be poisoned? It's not. It's not poison, unfortunately. Come on, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it's not, this one is a different, it's not, it's not, well, it's still on points. But it's not, uh, exhaustion.

I roll a natural 20, whatever, I, I, I, I'm good. Hopefully, natural 20. Okay. I hope it's ladies, uh, do I have anything that help me here? I'm gonna be right on the cost. I don't, we're all four, ma'am. If it's not exhaustion, yeah, I got a 12. It's not exhaustion, so I was reading the wrong section. Totally fine.

Maintaining game state. I will just, just for ease, the DC of this is 14. Oh, let's go. I got a 17. So close. If you beat it. I did. Wait.

If you failed, you will take 16 points of cold damage. Oh, fuck? And you are slowed as if hit by the slow spell. Oh, I hate that. Uh-oh. Thank God for the temp health. Everyone in the room need to make a concept. What happens do we pass?

I fail terrible. If you pass, you take half the damage and you're not afflicted by this. What did you say slow? The slow spell, yeah. Which is what? No, it's not gonna be in condition. You have to look up.

16 damage? 16. I'll, thank you for that temporary. I think half of that. Thank you so much. Eight. It was like 80. 15 cold.

Yep. Thank God for that temp H-P. Temp H-P. I still got one, I'm sorry. Yep, same. Who failed? Just so I know. I failed.

You three. I got four. The slow spell. Yeah, let's read that all. Look at these jumps. An affected target, so you three, Your speed is halved. You have a minus two penalty to your AC

and deck saving throws. You may not use reactions. On your turn, you can use either an action or a bonus action, not both. That sucks. Yikes. Regardless of the creature's abilities or items, it cannot make more than one melee

or range attack during its turn. Wow. That would have really been bad for me. It feels extremely targeted. I'm glad that I... If the creature attempts to cast a spell with a cast the time of an action, I will roll a D20.

On an 11 or higher, the spell does not take effect. Until the creature next turn. It takes two turns, yeah. And you may, I think that's it. You may make a wisdom save against this again at the end of each of your turns, those of you who are affected. You took the damage, if you succeeded,

you'll take half damage only. Three people failed. As you see this biting, it feels like the draw, this biting, but once again, it's not the cold that touches the outside of your skin, it's the cold that touches the spirit within. And as he consumes this, you'll see tiny small slivers of green that will move from yourselves to him. And you'll see, he's taking massive hits from all of you coming out of the gate. you will see that as he drinks upon your life essence, you will see the wounds dealt to him. Damn, right.

Uh-oh. I'm like, oh. Start of your next turn. Okay, great. I'm basically a no-name side character from Final Fantasy spirits within. One of those ghosts passed on horrifically. And as I just wither and nearly die, as I just feel cold and slow and I've lost a piece of my heart.

How many, presumably, if I could, for free, I don't know if I can because I'm slow, I want to look back at Pixel to see if there's any special effect now that she's in the room with him in full form with the tubes and everything. How's she doing? Pixel's dead. Oh, my guess. I see you look at Pixel for free. I would say that it's extremely hard to determine the state of pixel currently until it moves, well, with the information you have at hand. A lot's going on. I'm feeling slow and cold. I am going to just sort of stumble back one, two and a half. That's all I can do with my half speed. I am going to take my grab gun, and it's gonna try to spin,

and it's slow, and the ether is running through the tubes like sludge as I, like, kind of bang on it, and I'm trying to pull the trigger, it's just not working. Finally, a single shot will erupt from the gun, and I'm gonna use my action to shoot him just once. And 16 to hit. Yep. Oh, sorry, 16 does hit.

16 is the AC. 15 points of force damage. 15 points of force damage. This shot, as you as you describe, the sludge moves forward. It's the type of cold chilling you to the bones as the shot blasts out and lands full blast against him

just after having healed. And you may now roll a wisdom save, I believe. Is that apply out of the feet? Because that's for the slow spell, but it might have a different feat If it's like a monster ability, I don't know if it's a different way to get rid of that.

Oh, just, you repeat the same at the end of each of your turns. Okay. So it's the same, it's still a concept. Okay, it's a concept. Cool. So I want to make sure, because DC 14, DC 14,

DC 14. My counts better. That's enough. 15. That's enough. You shatter the, you're able to shatter past the effect of this blast.

You tap into your battle heart in nature and you regain yourself moving through this. Pixel. That's my turn. It is, Your turn. How do I feel?

Do I feel like I have full control over myself? Good question. You don't smile. Just stop being happy and answer questions. Roll a... Bastard. You feel like you have full control over yourself right now. Okay.

I don't like the way you smiled when you said that, but I'm going to believe you because we are best friends and you would never lie to me. And I am going to... I'm in a look between... all of my friends and then I'm going to, I am going to look to Coe and smile. And I'm gonna use dazzling inspiration to give Co. Barthic inspiration.

And that's also gonna cast the minor illusion cantrip as I narrow my eyes on Harcon, Lord Harcon Warvain. I can't remember, I think it's, I don't know, whatever. of Bard's level fours. It says D6. Yeah, D6. Sorry.

And the minor illusion is gonna pop up next to him, and it's gonna be an illusion of his wife. Oh, that's cold. Oh, God. That's cold. She's going to say, no one deserves what I did to you. And he is going to have a negative 1D4

to his next D20 test. Damn. Go kill him with God. I was gonna say, you could have done a lot of this. This spell just adds a negative 1D4? To his next D20 test, yeah. I would say that... I can choose someone within five feet of the person

who was inspired to either gain from it or detract from it. For a moment, this strikes extreme pause in Harcon. Actually, several things are about to happen right now. You're ready. Several, several things. Several, several things. That's a lot of several. Describe to me.

what you're doing as you cast your spell? I pull my key tar around at the front of me and I begin to play just the melody of the lullaby. The one that I know, that he knows. And I'm just gently playing that. As I look to co and I say under my breath, if I fall, you will catch me. And if you fall, I will catch me.

And if you fall, I will catch you. And then I look to him as I'm saying the second part, and I create the form of his wife. And I just keep eye contact with him as I just slowly play this melody. You go to strike your guitar for the first time. And before your fingers hit the instrument, this flash strikes you. You see everything from the hills where you grew up. your family, your father, your mother's dismissals.

You see your hover bike as you ride across the plains hoping for better days. You see Cherokeex. You see wheedalvox. You see the speakers of red. You see the sigils of cacophie. You see the terrible red eyes of the Varg who now stands fully formed in front of you. And for a moment as your hand comes down, you pause as the sickening cold creeps through your body a hold that has existed for years

until you find within yourself a perseverance to hit the note and it's as you play the first note and you begin to summon this specter of his wife that one other thing happens as you draw upon the Rhapsody as you play to the music of the thing that connects us all. Harkon, knocked back, having sucked the souls, green moats from your friends, you'll notice that as you begin to play the tunes, that you begin to tap into the rhapsody, the harmony, the energies that he is absorbed, not just from your friends, but from the town of Sherlock, you see slowly these green wisps begin to expel from his form. As he'll reach out and attempt, his hands will start to flail out in directions as he

attempts to hold onto them like catching water. It's at that point that his wife appears next to him. And there's almost a complete stunned pause for a moment. as for one second, for the flash of a second, it's almost as if he doesn't seem like a monster. For the flash of a single second. Wow. Wow. Was that your turn?

That was my bonus action. Is that it? That's the bonus action. That was my bonus action. You ain't slowed. That's right. And it's not concentration. So let's see.

I am going to. to, I don't know if it's gonna work, but I'm, she, pixel's gonna try it. We'll reach out and as he's distracted, you'll see the spotlights appear above him, like has happened many times before and they're all going to just one after another trail onto him as he's illuminated in this dazzling, glimmering light.

And I'm gonna attempt to cast fairy fire on him so that he can't do any sneaky bids. And they're gonna be put towards the back so they only hit him. And so he has to make a dexterity saving throw. But he will be at a negative 1d4 for it. Negative 1d4. No, that's right.

Negative 1 D1. Negative one D4. Negative one B four. So your bonus section was like a subclass feature, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool as the- It's enhancement. Well, is a dex save?

Yes. 14. That does miss his. Sorry, I'm really excited. Yeah! My D-Z was 15. So that just missed. That just misses by a little bit.

So you will, you are outlined in a glimmering light and you cannot benefit from the invisible condition. And attack rolls against you are at advantage. Yeah! Don't lose concentration. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And I will, yeah, I'll just keep staring at him

and continue to play this song. I'm not focused on anything else, but looking between my friends, making sure they're okay, and trying to concentrate on this melody that I'm playing. So sorry, Mason, so sorry. I love you, please won't hurt me.

The Viceroy will act. Yeah, no, no, that makes sense. Ah, damn it! And he doesn't have a one D4 anymore, and penalty, so. You seek to use ancient shadows against me. You believe me to be Arconne. What stands before you?

before you is simply appetite. As he gestures back, the spotlights above him turn crimson red before the spotlights burst and crackle with energy fade away. In almost a sweeping, in a gesture of his hand, almost like a sweeping crimson scythe, he brings down this sunset of energy he strikes at the image of his wife,

which will disperse that as well. I will say for the briefest, splitest second, it seems as though he pauses. But the movement is completely fluid, but there's almost like a stutter as he strikes the image of his wife and disperses it. Okay. That's fair, that's very fair.

You don't have it, right? Damn it. I'm watching. No, I think he used a legendary action to do it. No, that was a legendary resist. Oh, I'll say that was a legendary resist. I'm watching this happen. He looks distracted.

We got to burn through him. I'll say those of you who know the new rules, he isn't going to wear, so. Yeah. I am shoulder to shoulder with Coe, and we are just like UGE and Toto, like beating his ass, right? That's what's happening. I'm getting in the flow.

I'm gonna definitely see what happens when that first attack, probably use a floor here. of blows, but I'm gonna, at the moment I think that he looks distracted, I'm gonna say, hey, eyes back here, jackass! And attempt to make an attack on him here. That's gonna be a 21 to hit. Oh, 21 hits. Then I will flurry of blows, and the cool thing is,

I can use my divine residence, divine resonance that is once I hit a, once for a turn, once I hit a creature with an arm-strike, the next attack roll made against the target before the end of my turn gets an additional 1D4. So I'm just gonna roll the remaining two attacks to see what happens here. 1D4 to the attack roll off the damage roll, correct?

Yeah. To the total. And start as 1D4 to the total. Okay, the next attack roll. Yeah. Which is good because I will add it to this one, which is over here. So that's still only gonna be a 14 to hit the second attack,

which probably misses. 14 roll mess. But then you hit with the first one? Then the last one will be in 18. So I'll land two of my. The first one hit? First one hit. It was hit, miss hip.

Then I missed. Then you missed. And then I checked to hit again for 18. Okay. What is the damage of the first? Why is it grinning like that? I know. The damage of the first one is?

Cool stuff going on in here. Seven points of bludgeoning damage. Seven points of bludgeoning damage. You start firing in these blows. The first punch lands, catches him squarely, squarely in the body. As you land seven points of damage again. Then I try to deliver a spinning roundhouse kick, but I am a little high and it goes over his head. Uh, no. In fact, you don't. You deliver a spinning roundhouse kick and it catches him directly in the neck.

You feel as though you hear a crack. Uh, and then your leg moves through his neck. Well, that's terrible. ...through the head. As he disperses in the shadow with a grin, I need... What? What do you... Rett. What? I need you make a dexter. Excerity savings.

Oh, shit. I'm not slow it anymore, so I don't have minus two to that. You don't have minus two to that? Oh my god. But still, that's my worst one. Uh-oh. 18? That's pretty fucking good.

It's pretty good. With an 18, he disappears as your second attack lands against his neck. Okay. The mirrors surrounding the room shift and warble. Between dark black pit. between entropic, vampiric forms, between thrill-Motlian forms, until eventually the visage of the Terminocs ret fills every mirror in the room,

until the Terminux mirror ret lunges at the glass. I deserve this. Piercing through it, not the Terminux Red, but Viceroy Lord Harcon Morvane, erupts from the mirror above you. And clashing down upon you, you having just shattered off the slow spell, are able to dodge a piece of it.

But the crackling cacophonous rapier will tear into you and you will take... Fuck, that's cool. This is the coolest thing has ever happened, Mace! You'll take six points of piercing damage, I'm sorry. As he crashes down from above you, For just a sl- the specter of a second, you see the flash of his blade as you look up and you see yourself careening towards you until you see the blade and it catches you briefly, but you're able to, at the very briefest glance.

And that was, that was half. So you take the six, it's Pearson, if that's relevant. Several questions. Where does he end up? Do you want him behind Rhett in front of Rett? You go through him to eat. If the mirrors on the edge of the room, you'd be right there, right? The mirrors are all around there. I mean, it's almost like a turtle shell of mirrors. Like, it's on the ceiling. It's a row. So where would you like? That's my thing.

Okay. It's totally fine. Second question. I am, I still have my third attack. I'm happy to re-roll it if you'd like. Because I have my movement. I can still get to him. I can do everything.

However, you want me to handle it. I'm happy to do that. I would say, I'm happy to re-roll it. What was it? It was an 18. I'm happy to rerull it. As long as you move over to him and you can go.

Oh, yeah. No, I have my full movement. I've got everything I can do. I'm definitely as, as my leg hits him in the neck and he does this whole fucking thing. Like, now that you know the ability, just... Yes, I will absolutely break it up. If you miss, I'll absolutely break it up.

To clarify, he did six damage, but I take half of the six and I take three. No, six was half. Got it, of what you're gonna. We're good then. After he does this crazy fucking thing, I'm like, I have a moment of like, oh shit, like, I'm startled, I'm taking it back.

I see him up here behind Rett and I dash over as fast as I can. Not actually dashing because I don't need to. I just have a bazillion movement. And I try to land my mind last hit to punch him in the face. You'll end. I had a look of almost nine acceptance. Nine points of bludgeon. As I saw my cellar core, nine points. Yeah, as I tried to like, yeah, I punch him in the ribs. Brett, look out. It's Phantom Gannon from the Forest Temple. That's very funny.

What? That's my whole turn. Sorry, I could. Also, in Norwich his first battle in the villages. I had it out of my sister. You got it. I was going to say. Real ones will not. We'll-hoku. Haku action. Haku and the village, him in the mist. Haku and Zabaza. Um.

Ziggi Pop. Ziggy. Guys, look out. Guys, look out. Turn, moving very, very, very slowly. I am still under the affect of this thing. Let me ask you this. When he moved from one face to the other, part of the...

I'm sorry. I don't even know much of cool stuff. He's gonna act. Yeah, he's gonna fight. You're gonna do a little, lo-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-b. You're doing a bunch of cool stuff. He's still yell back. He can still yell that.

I just thought this would be cool. Who is... I can make this big for you. No, no, no, no. Right here. This is why I bring my glasses for this. Move him, you can shift. Like, move him just to like direct,

like closer to you, one square and over. So he's just on the other side of it. Yeah, exactly right. Bring yourself in. Right there. Is that good? Yep, perfect. Cool.

Now you're all dead. You will. Join me. Mm-hmm. Uh, Pixel. I need you make a Constitution saving throw. Uh-oh. And keep in mind, you have a might,

No, I'm sorry, you're straight. Not you. Yeah, yeah, no, no, please don't do that to me. It won't matter anyway. Do well, he's casting inside out lungs. Well, um, I'm sure that in eight passes. Right? It couldn't be higher than an age. He stretches out a bony finger towards you.

As he says this through the room, you'll all see closest to him that though you're not near him, his shadow stretches across the floor. Oh shit. As it moves through the room, it climbs up your body. You move your head up as if to get away, and it grips your throat. No, me, shadows the servants of the light. The shadow pulls you back into his terribly clawed grasp as you will move to his other side.

You are grappled and you take over here. Like over here? Yeah. The shadow is strangling. Pitch the look out! It's a shadow binder of a shy! I don't say any of that. You'll take seven points of necrotic damage.

I do, yeah. Oh. I don't like that. What the hell, Mace? And as the shadow grips your throat, and he brings you back, the shadow delivers you to his outstretched hand, mirroring the grip of the shadow itself

until your form actually ends in his grasp. He will drink of your life essence. No. Oh, shit. Lovely. Zicki, I'm sorry, now you may go. Guys, watch out. So my spell that I used, the Tether Protocol, if the...

It's a sustained arc of lightning between me and the target. When he disappeared and smashed the mirror, did that break my spell? I maintain concentration, but I think it's extremely reasonable to say he wasn't there and then he was over here and that the lightning would disconnect, which sucks for me. I just have to be like, did you assign homework teacher right now?

I would say that understanding, what you know of what Rhett pointed out about the mirrors, it is safe to assume that he is effectively moved into a separate dimension and then blasted out of it to strike that. And if, I don't know this well, but if that no, that would reason to shatter it. If he moved out of range, he's done.

And so he definitely moved out of range by bursting through some alternate dimension. I hate to say it, but he's based because he's cheating. He does have to hell to mention. And grinding is crows. Cheating is based, you simply cry. Grinned.

We're the grinding heroes and he's the beast too. And I don't have a, I only have an action or a bonus action. My con saving throw and my deck saving throw are negative two. And the lack of reactions means I can't use my wonderful grid runner ability just to shape my spells. And so I'm in trouble, I'm in deep shit. I will just quickly run a few commands through my grid boy. The fingers feel heavy, though, yeah. It folds out.

I pull it, and you can see panels of screens in front of me open up as I access different information. They're screaming with code flowing from top to bottom. and I swipe a few away and grab the multi-thread script, scorching ray. I'm going to make three attacks against Mr. Man, Vice Roy. Well, make a roll. Oh, for what?

You're slow, aren't you? It might take you to... It might take you to his turns against a spell. Oh my god. That would be very cool. Stinky. Oh, no, it does. just, it'll go off.

I think it has been casting it, for me, the code is moving like this, but for you, it's like you can see each one of the glowing characters as it pops in to space. And then from the grid boy, you can see these green beams

arc forward in begging as if they're calling out barking to be released from the grid to enter the gas. galaxy and strike out at Harcon and yet everything is cool in this camera. Do I make a saving throw at the end of my turn?

Yes. And if it undoes, does that mean that they hit? No. No, it still takes you an extra excess. It's on the stack. It's like, yeah. You're like actively cast it. It's at the end of your own stack. In response, I catch you a magic. To blue.

All right. He essentially casted remand. Do we know what the DC is? Romain. 80. 14, 14. No, 14. Because I got a 15 for this.

For this ability you knew was 14. Yeah. Constitution saving throw? Yes. I need a 12 or higher. I get a 19. Nice. So I will break free and I return to normal speed, but everything that I've triggered continues to slow in space as the hypergrid activate.

And you'll regain the ability to use your reaction, however that happened in your end step, so your turn is over. At the end of my turn. It would be your turn, except it's the bad guy's turn. Oh, now it's shadow's back. You would think. Oh, yes. But I did my reaction. Thank you for reminding me.

That's important. As the viceroy in this moment, as gripping pixel, brandishing his saber, a light with that red cacophonous energy, you see the shadow crawl back across his chest. As for a moment, he smiles once again

and then disappears. With me and his arms? With you. What stops? Do you? Oh my God. Well, that's not good. Pike.

What? You need to roll a dexterity saving throw. Okay, so they're not on the map right now? They're not on the map right now. They're just gone. Okay. A shloop. How are we gonna, hmm.

17. Do you... Not the met again. Me? No. I'm just saying me. Me? Oh.

You can always hold your action. I got a 17. 17. Yeah, for my deck save. I have an RP question, too. Ooh. At some point, what is appropriate. Ideal.

What does that mean? Around the room, the mirrors dance. Terminox Rett banishes. Taking its place is what everyone believes

to be Terminox Pike. As the specter that stands there raises a weapon and points it directly at you, draws on you. As a blast forms at the tip. At the same level of this mirror, ground level mirror, the blast will come. You are heightened. The shot rings out as if it's gonna pierce the glass

glass, and for a second, this almost looks like it does, until the flash of the saber erupts from behind it. And with Pixel still in his grip, he charges in a line from where you are through Rhett and Ziggy. Oh my God. I've seen his ability. You may also make dexterity saving throws. Oh my god. What is this? The Council of Blood? Um, so by the rules... Is it hitting me with it too? Because it says I may, I can can choose not to, so I won't do it's not hitting you. It's not hitting you. This is a miracle. In 18 again. Nice. Okay. Is it a deck save? That's going to be a... Can I ask... Sorry. What was that? 13. Can I ask a question? If I would have seen the mirror

given if it was just this and this, would I have thought, oh, that's Terminox Pike doing in his thing? Or did it look different to me too? If I can ask that. If you... I probably wasn't looking at it, but I just... I mean, the image... So what happens when this attack occurs

is that every mirror in the room lights with the visage. Oh, I definitely saw it. All weapons in every mirror droll on the person targeted. And then he comes out at the same time, and then he comes out of one. That's so cool! Okay, got it. You definitely know it's not me.

Well, I think. But the thing is, did I see something different than you saw? It's my question. I think there's a reality where what you witnessed. Cheshay. That's a fair question. That's a fair question.

I think you would have seen what Pike sees. That's it. Thank you. All right. Everyone who passed takes five points of piercing damage. If you failed, it takes 11. Uh-oh, I'm taking five. I don't know, you got really pretty beat up.

Great. No, is the line, it was Pike, yeah. Resloose through all this. I meant like from our previous things. Oh, no, no, no. I'm gonna deflect it. I'm gonna use my reaction, deflect it. If I can.

Is it considered an attack? No. No, it's a consumer to save against it, so it's not him like attacking you. Is that a rule though anymore? Oh, I don't know. Say a look. Yeah, well, yeah. They might have got rid of that, I feel like.

If it's just in any. I think it just says when you take damage, if it contains piercings, slashing, or bludgeoning. Let me find her a quick. Sorry, I have a million things to scroll through here. Does it used to be an attack? No, it says when an attack roll. Oh, got it.

Ophelia. Don't mess. Yeah, this round would get real bad. Oh, and Ophelia is also slow. I am slowed. But also cloaked? So? She is cloaked. She is cloaked. Unseen attacker.

So maybe. Well, it depends if you can see from there. Well, hold on. So I don't think that I need to be hidden to get advantage. You don't. for sneak attack, as long as I have someone within five feet of him. No, that's your sneak attack damage.

We want you to have advantage so you don't miss. Oh, I see. And you can fish for a crap. If you weren't slowed, you could use your bony act, Boney. Boney action. Can you steady aim and then get advanced that way? Yeah.

But in this case, it would use your bony action. You know, at least based on how I understand the hide rule, if she's unseen, that's fine, but I think you can make a stealth, I think you make a stealth check against past a perception. Against passive perception. Or there might be a DC now. I would say, I mean, you tell me what to do. You, we say, actually, you have an invisibility cloak.

Yeah, that's just cool. You can go invisible. Which I think is totally fine. That's the scoundrel. You broke line of sight by ducking behind Ziggy. You went invisible. I would say that he just does not see if you're invisible. Love that.

It's your advantage. So then you'll attack with advantage. Okay. Yes, so I will not moving because I I am slowed and I feel that kind of like weight on my body. I will stay hidden and stay in position. I will load another ecliptick round into my rifle. Even though he's pretty close by,

I'm just hoping to blow his face off. I hope that too. That off is so important. So that is a 14 and- Football is give you natural 20. No. That's okay. Still good.

So 21 to hit. Huge. Why don't you want to hits? Okay. And so this is... Massive damage! Yeah, regular sneak and... What out of this happened?

The oeptic. All that time at the range is pan off right now, Phelia. Yeah, I'm gonna say, so I'll aim at him and he'll say, you might have slowed me, but I'll never stop. Not fire my round on. Yeah. It's cool that shit to say to one, mother-f! Nice!

That's good. Boom. Headshund. Yeah. One shot, one kill. 32. I left the fuzzy cuffs at home. I left the cussie cups at home.

They don't say that. 32. 32 damages. The blast from a completely unseen corner of the room. For a moment, the eerie red glow that's illuminated this section, brightens with the star The starlight of Agathos, as this shot goes off.

The room turns almost white before it fades back to red, but the shot hits him and another, as once more light has pierced this. This guy ever gets all of you, you're in trouble. I know, I know. That's a good point. And the shadow armor once more splits and moves open from him, though it dances around his extremities.

I'm just gonna take a little... Stroll. I mean... You're half, so you can still do three squares. One, two, three to the, yeah, towards the other part. Here, here? Yep. That's just fine.

Okay, and then I'll re-roll. What was the, for the, um... 14. Ather. Okay. 14. That's bad. Still slow. No, okay, I'm slow.

No, okay, I'm slow. Yeah, twist. Oh, yeah, twist. It's worth trying it. Okay, yes. We need them. So on our second twist. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

And we've been good with the God bullets. We have. So like, you know, hot damn. Not meant to be. Not meant to be. Yeah, absolutely. It's worth a shot. I'm slow. I'm slow. That's fine.

It's fine. Oh, man. I get better than anybody else. So that was pretty daggone good. He's still holding picks though, right? I know. Oh yeah. Co's ready.

Go get him, killer. Where is Ophelia? I'm hiding behind Ziggy. Where are? Where am I? Who knows? I would say he is uniformly focused on you now. Oh, no.

He will move around Ziggy to stand not directly next to you, but he will move, and Pixel... Towards the law or towards Co. Towards Co. Yep, exactly right. He moves the Pixel? He'll move, yes. He's grasping Pixel in his shadow cloud.

He's choking me. Move back to Ziggy just one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, perfect. Dancing towards you, the flash of steel, the flash of red, as this laser rapier strikes out at you. As you can see this seeping maroon, almost an acre that pours from his wound as you've blasted him open. You, oh, 25 to hit. That certainly hits, yes. Nice.

Nikki, I just want you to know it lives rent-free in my head when you as Portobella asked Quivoli if you wanted to go fuck. No, he asked him. He asked the other way around. Okay, well, in my mind, I've rewritten it that you were asking him. It lives in my head rent-free. I just want you to know when I can't sleep at night, it's like Q9 version too.

Mushroom fucking is all you can think. Yeah, it just pops in my head. I love that. That makes me really happy. And I'm glad that it just came to you right now for no reason. I'm gonna be 104 and then on my deathbed, it's gonna be one of my final thoughts. My family's gonna be like, what the fuck is wrong?

You're gonna take nine points of piercing damage and 10 points of cold damage. Yikes. Entropy will consume even the stars. As he stabs at you, you take that. I will double over and cough and a bit of blood will come out. Uh-oh. I thought you're going down.

I just swing charge forward right up here as I am swinging in. And this, if you want to go to this space, my guess is she's on his space. Yeah, she's like, oh, I'm going to knock him this way. Oh, okay, that's right. I mean, that's my good. I want to put it out there. Mechanically. I mean, that's the right play, because you'll at least save Ophelia.

I'm going to use a twist. Well, don't forget, you have Bartic inspiration. Hold on. Right. And, and, and, and heroic. And heroic. And you have a heroic. We know his AC.

His AC is like a re-roll on any die. Oh. I gotta get four. Bardick is plus a steady. You have a D6. It's like old inspiration. Use a twist. Oh, you just use a twist.

I just use a twist. I'm using the blue dye. This graveyard dice appear now. I know, order now at gregorily. Okay, that's gonna be 21 to hit. 21 hits. I once again, I'm not fucking around. Knights as I am screaming,

as once again, this boom of thunder radiates out as my club crackles as I am going to... A rumble of thunder. A rumble of thunder. And he's suddenly under... The sound of thunder. May I steal your N. 8? Who's like the man. Oh, boy.

Does bludgeoning versus radiant matter? No. Okay. That is... 13. Oh, man. I'm scared to take a million attacks. 26 points of damage.

Holy check. Why? Because you need to decide when you use your bonus. And he's knocked back. I'm attempting to use your action. My weapon mastery is so I knock it back 10 feet. And I'm hoping that this will unhand pixel. I don't know if it does.

I will allow a athletics contest. contest between you and I. Let's fucking go. I don't know how athletic this guy is. Say athletic. It's got like, bones for arms. Do you think I'm athletic?

Yes, stop asking that. We all think you are. 17. Don't forget you have. Oh, good. She could kick my ass. And so I'm gonna try to not to basically smash him off a pixel. You hit him.

him in the, you collide with him, in the body. The club strikes him with such force, he shuffles back across the floor. He can't help but release his grasp on Pigsaw with the shadowed claw that was holding. I got you, Picks, as I will continue on with the same movement and I'm just setting my shoulder out. And I'm just like, I'm just still charging.

I got my arms around Coe's neck I'm holding on for dear life. I'll catch you Picks. Do that. Man, hold on, hold on. 15. You need a 16, but you have the murder. I'm just the mark. Use the barred.

It's guaranteed, bro. 15, I get an 18. 18. I am going to just put my shoulder into this motherfucker. That is going to be eight points of bludgeoning damage as I will then also knock him back

into the wall or I guess into a mirror actually. I don't care though. I'm not thinking about it. I'm gonna smash him back with my shoulder, and I'm still just yelling. Don't you fucking touch her! He collides against the glass. You hear the sickening thud of bone.

Do you go with him or do you just knock him back? I'm going with him. Bouncing against the reverberation of glass behind him. He is starting to look a little rough. That's another one of my spells lots. Muleing pussycat. You could Then save your sister.

Oh, wow. And you won't save. Uh, and he will strike at you with the rapier. Bring it on. Bring it on, buddy. I don't have any reactions. Like, any cool reactions of a little. 17 to hit.

Oh, that'll do it just barely. Six points of piercing damage. Okay. 16 points of cold damage. That's a lot. Uh-oh. So, uh, my God. Six plus 16 is...

22. As I, uh, it looks like I'm back to respond. I get really, I get like visibly upset and right when I'm going to respond, I just fucking take the laser sword and I spit up blood. Uh, as it, I'm just completely, uh, run through the hammer. Jesus. Are you down? No? Oh.

He pulls the blade out and slashes again. Oh! Nobody ever expects the second. The second laser ripier. The 19th, it'll hit? Yikes. This is it. This might get me down.

11 points of piercing damage. Uh-oh. I didn't have my be it, folks. It's gotta be 11. Eight points of cold damage. So you, you got a few hit points of spare? Yeah. Can you still up?

Okay. What are you gonna do? Suck me to hell? Fuck you, as I spit blood into his face. face. He loves that. He's not... He's not...

He works in a max. I look very rough. Resses. Oh, God. This is bad. Ophelia looks fucked up, right? Yeah. I'm not...

And Coe looks fucked up. Ophes is way more important than I am. Oh, God. Seeing what's happening and knowing that Ophelia has to live. She has to keep fighting. I will put my gun away.

I'll pass it back to the arms on my back, and I'll say, hold still from behind you as you'll turn and you'll see me there. And you're still slowed, right? So I see you like weak from this. You would even feel a chill coming off of her body as if a radiating, like reverse body heat as you move towards her.

I will pull one of the arms down and around that has a needle come out of it as it'll stick in the side of your arm and you'll hear the tanks of ether kind of whir as I administer some medicine casting cure wounds at a first level and I will heal you. I'm not a DH2. What the fuck? Hold on. How did this happen? There are no D8 in his box either. I got a few of you want something. I've got a Coke. That got two out there. Actually, I don't know if I got mine back from Michael. This is a Marius D8 and a... Not that one. Oh, sorry.

Yeah, there it's, thank you. You're giving me. Oh. Oh. Just... I rolled one in a two, but... I have a feat. A.O.

That might help me here. Ooh. That's very funny. I wouldn't say Mary. Or at all. Oh my god. Okay, good. Because I have the Hewer feet,

and I'm a battle medic. I have healing re-rolls. Whenever I roll a die, and determine number of HP, I restore with a spell or with this feat's battle medic benefit. I can re-roll the die if it rolls of one. And I must use the new rolls.

Unfortunately, the other one was a two. You also have that inspiration, too, that I gave you, if you need it. I do. Coral inspiration. That's unfortunate, man. It's still in one. That sucks.

It's still eight points of healing. Better than nothing. Just a lot. I'm lucky, it happens. But with her healed, I will step back. Oh God, can I even like, shoot you without hurting you? Uh, one second action. Thank you, Redd.

I'll allow you to re-roll the slow scene. Cause that, you know. Oh, that's awesome. You're very generous. Please, the Goat. Game Master. Okay, let me heal that. Just a normal, just a normal re-roll.

Con save, DC-14. Uh. Bonus action. Unfortunate. I take it you beat it. No. No. That's not even close.

That's not even close. Even though I could use my secondary fire, there's just too many people in the way. I don't want to endanger my team. I am going to, I'm going to start, so I did five, one, two and a half, four. I'm going to basically get an angle on them. Oh, I got, no, I'm going to do it.

Fuck it. I'm gonna go around the room, and so once I know that she's good, she looks a little more vital. I'm gonna run up and with my cannon, I am going to use the Disintegrator beam. Hell yeah. It'll roar again and that ether's finally flowing, it's firing and the sort of, what do you call it? The aperture at the front of my cannon will sort of narrow as it focuses the energy from the singularity into a beam. 30 feet, 10 feet wide. I'm just gonna try to totally miss Coe if I can.

For sure. You have control over this. It's just to justify it, yeah. Deck save DC 15. And then maybe you bring some of these mirrors. Ooh, these D8s were like shit. I didn't find my mind. Get rid of those.

DC 15. Throw them away. Cool to 15. Okay, you take. Guess what I'm getting at packs. You take half of four damage. Oh my God, I would say 40. I was like, come on.

Two points. Take those D's and just eat them. Just toss them away. Never use them again. Just get them over there. Nikki, don't step on those. I pass my first. At least they're not de force.

Andy told me to do it. Well, if Andy told you to jump off a bridge, would you? Yeah. Yeah, I might. Hell yeah, that's good for shopping. How far is it? Yeah, why is it? A 21-10.

Bring it on, big guy. What? I have thoughts. Few, six. damage and 12 cold damage. As he does it, stabs me again with this, I'll say, catch me picks. I'm just going to collapse backward.

Oh, shit. I have been grips. He grips your shirt as he pierces the blade into your abdomen. He stares into your eyes. The crackling red energy of discord, stares into your eyes as the lights fade from yours. He brings your face very close to his maw, almost as if to lick the blood off of yours

before he removes the rapier and casts you to the side. I'm out. Not dead. If you can move Coe to my right once in a way. Pixel's hanging on to Coe's neck, so I'm assuming Pixel goes with. Oh. Okay, I would say, if I may, that when Coe flatters to the ground,

Coe's form falls to the ground. Because I'm gonna try to catch her. Okay, absolutely. Oh, how heavy is Coe? Jesus, hundreds of pounds. Pretty big. Probably 300 pounds. 300 pounds at least, yeah.

Okay. I mean, you're like, what's saying? It just describes me catching. Catching is a half, right, seven? I would say if you see this happening, you can have the deafness to make it to the ground first. Describe to me catching Coe. Basically what Pixel wants to do,

because her turn is next, is she hears what Co says, and she hears the conversations that they've been having, and she will not let her fall. So I would like to use my action to keep my arms around Coe, as I use my last second level spell and channel a cure wounds into her as I place a kiss on her cheek and I say,

if you fall, I will catch you. And then as we're landing, I want to just use all of the strength that I have to keep myself up as I push that healing into her and then push her up into a standing position and use my full turn to do that. That's very sweet. If you fall, I will catch you, Coe. You fall with Co. You whisper or you shout or you sing these words. It's a big pink lipstick stain on her cheek. You kiss the side of Coe's face and you pour with all your might,

your harmonic energies into Coe as both of you clattered to the ground. Coe does not yet stir to consciousness. The Viceroy approaches him. He walks up to where you are. He does not strike at you. He kneels. He kneels down to the floor, squatting deeply.

His bony, elongating form collapsing so unearly that he can get his face almost next to yours on the ground. Weedle Vox's songbird, but you never is, you have always been my. Join me now and take what you have always wanted. Close to me. Do I, am I able to heal her? Yes.

So Coe will get 35 points of you. Wow! I rolled 3-8 and 1-6. Your Root Club. And then as I'm channeling all of this love, all of this love into this, because I still have a bonus action. I'm gonna look into his eyes

and I'm gonna say, no, I belong to no one but myself and did thine own self be true? And then I'm gonna use my bonus action to give Cobartic inspiration and then next to him, the mirror image of Dauntless. And Dauntless will look up at him with all the love in the world

as if to say that he doesn't have a voice, My life was better for having you in it. Oh. I'm gonna cry. Dude, you're just breaking this guy down. Oh, shit. Man, and here I thought you was gonna say horse to make your... And that's my turn.

Damn. Oh my god. He will, as you begin to play once more or sing, as you draw upon these energies, the room once more alights in this beautiful, warming, green light. as once more he takes two steps back from you, two full squares, extremely paid. Aries of a life, no luck.

As he banishes, as he banishes in an arcing motion in a way that Severus' Ed once more. As the specter of Dauntless disperses into red discordant energy. Oh, weird. As this song rings out and he moves out, and he moves. back and he, Ha, nah. Even more now, you see these souls of Sterlok

climbing, clattering at the edges of his lips as they beg to be free, as they begin to try and crawl out of him as five, six, seven start pooling out. Now, what is happening? As he consumes them back towards himself, as he's begging to keep them. within fueling the energies of this tower. Does he also have the pit in his stomach?

Oh, swirling. Oh my. Holsink, swarming the dark void that draws within him. I still think about the, like, rep free. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's watch for that one. I have two questions for knowledge that I should have.

How many people use their Stimpacks? Raise your hand if you used your Stimpact. Okay. How's everybody looks? looking. I'm so unconscious though, even though I'm healed, right? Or no? It's up to the GM if I can tell you. No, you're healed. Oh, well, just like, how are you looking? Like, I mean, like, if, you know, I'm looking at everybody. You're just, you're just about to if you're too. If I were the Doom guy in the original Doom, there's blood running from my nose.

Okay. You're banged up. Ophelia's banged up. I'm shivering and I'm okay. I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. I'm sad. I'm scared, but I'm okay. But Coe is what I was worried about, but Coe looks better now. Oh, but I'm 24 cure wounds is at the biggest wound on Co is a giant pink kiss mark on her cheek I okay okay I have 50 feet of movement what I am going to do is I'm watching all this unfold in front of me yeah I know I'm fast as fuck boy yeah I'm fast as fuck what I'm going to do is see all this unfolding I see that Co looks to be okay I'm I'm like rapidly changing what I'm thinking about doing as I'm watching these things unfold.

I reach into my vest and I take off. And I run along the outside of the room here, 5, 10, 15, 20. And as I pass Ophelia, I slide and I jam her in the thigh with my stem pack as my action. Ouch. And without even missing a beat. Because I'm familiar with this Polaris sanctioned equipment. Absolutely, you are. and I keep moving.

What did I say? I say five, ten. So that's the action? That's my action. That's your action. 2530, 35, 40, 4550, and I slide around co. I feel like you're really long. Yeah, and almost like bound off one of the mirrors with the staff.

And I think they change this because as Flurry of blows, I can just use a focus point to make two on our strike as a bonus action. I think you used to have to attack first. I believe that's correct. It doesn't say it anymore. It just says you can expend a focus point to make two attacks as an on. two attacks. All out. I love it. I bound off. I bound off the mirror, spending another focus point. Also a nice show. Hoping that he, this guy is distracted as fuck and attempt to make two attacks. So I'll make them one after the other. It's Junkle out there. It's Junkle out there.

It's like Randy Newman impression. First one's gonna miss. Thank you. So do your Morlock bullshit. Uh, twist it. You, twist it. We could twist it. Twist it. Twist it. One twist. Just give you. You're protecting your woman. Twisted. I'll throw you a twist. No quarter, man.

Oh, much better. That's gonna be a 24 to hit at the first attack. I love that. Second attack. We're tracking. I have twists. We need four. Second one misses.

Second one misses. Fucking twist. If you hit, don't you? It's not gonna be even remotely close, unfortunately. Oh. Yeah, not even close. Okay. But yes, good call. Sorry, I was trying to let you.

No, no, I appreciate it. So the only damage I'll do is seven points of bludgeoning damage, and then the second attack will, quote-unquote, miss. Quote-unquote. Yeah, because I don't know if I, you know, connect with them or then he does his fucking bullshit again. You race around the room.

You jam the stim pack into Ophelia's leg. You roll it off to slow yourself almost as you change direction. You move across the mirrors. You put one foot up. You use the pressure to launch off, and you crack cleanly. the jaw with a mighty punch. You land on the opposite side of him.

You swing around and you look for one more. He grabs your fist as it comes in. He's fighting, is the experience almost right now of fighting a rabid animal? As he grabs your fist and he rips you in and he sinks his teeth into your neck. Shit. Well, maybe you know, maybe you can't believe I did that to you.

You. It hurts. It gets me. He gets me. Okay. I'll do it. Fuck. 12 points of piercing damage.

Four points of cold damage. As you feel your... Actually, no. I'll just say this. He is... You don't feel your harmonic resonance pulled upon. He's not trying to drink of your soul. He's fighting almost as a rabid animal.

You're just trying to tear your throat out. As you feel the teeth sink around your neck, and you feel him bite in, and it takes it takes everything you have to put your hands around his jaws to keep him from, his maw, to keep him from pulling tighter and harder against you. Uh, a couple things are gonna happen. Oh, God. Uh, I go limp in his jaws. Oh.

You fucking murder. And he just spits you out and you fall to the ground. Yeah, I'm unconscious. So, shit. So actually one thing's gonna happen. That's it. They'll just one thing. That'll do it.

Ziggy. Your spell goes off. Oh, yeah. I actually understand if we're going to play Rules as written that Slow doesn't mean it just delayed the spell, that the spell is just fucking canceled. No, no.

I don't believe that's against. It literally says the action instead of taking one turn, takes two turns. Takes two. I think. That's how I'm reading it. I'm reading it as though your spell goes off. Let me make sure I'm reading the correct version.

Well, unless it was changed. If it casts a spell, if the creature casts, what? Dan says it delays. It just delays me? Yeah, because you're just slow. If it cast a spell with a semantic component, there is a 25% chance the spell fails as a result of the target making a spell's gesture too slow. I thought that was what the, I thought that was the 25% that you were doing. Your spell goes off. No, okay. No, no, no, no. She just makes a check to determine whether or not your action takes two actions. Are you on D&D Wiki? No, I'm looking at D&D beyond slow. Ziggie. Your spell goes off.

I have declared. I have spoken. I'll take three attacks on it right now. I've been thinking this entire round that I wasn't going to get. Also, how much should I heal? Oh, right, Ophelia, sorry. I'll roll. You must use your action on this turn

to complete the spell, but it does go off. Okay, okay. The first one's going to, it's going to be plus 7.14. That misses. Misses. The next one is definitely going to hit. And then the next one is definitely going to hit. So I'm going to get 46 fire damage.

That's gonna be nine, and then that's going to be, do to do, do, wow, good roll. Nine close 11, 20 fire damage. That's a fuckload of damage. How are you gonna do this? Pike drop, and I've been in slow mode this entire time, and all of a sudden the code on the screens that are in front of me start flying faster and faster

and faster, everything speeds up. and these rockets of literal zeros and ones crash into him and what would normally be a explosion of blood and viscera is like a deletion almost. As this quality from just explodes out of him in a number of particles. I will yell out, yeah, you go, you do. take that and he'll go down presumably.

That's the best I got. I'm just still shocked that I got that off. This attack rains out as these missiles of code fire from you, slowed initially by his draw as the cold had consumed every aspect of your musculature. You couldn't move fast, but you could move with purpose. Setting this out, it now takes its turn. trap was laid and it launches. These missiles rain out crashing into Harcon,

splitting his form pieces, deleting off of him as he staggers back. As he casts wildly, blood sprays in all directions. I would say everyone at this point is covered in his blood, splashes of it at the least. Viceroy, Harcon. Morvane is impossibly gaunt as his face is overwhelmed with exhaustion and suddenly it looks like he's gonna be ill as he covers his mouth.

Then suddenly an eruption of glimmering green mist and moats birthed forth from him as he can no longer hold on to the souls that are responding to Pixels so long. They fill the room with with a beautiful shimmering light as Morvane hunches forward. The abyss within his chest pulsates erratically as his physical form begins to be pulled inward, sucking towards this hollow vapid void at his center, his eyes hollow as he crumples and his voice rasps out his last words.

Feel! In an instant, the room is filled with the cacophony of sickening bone cracks as Viceroy Harkon Morvane is pulled into the black pit at his core until there is absolutely nothing left. With a horrid crunch and pop, the pit blinks out of existence and a small flurry of snow drifts down onto the black metal floor. The door to the balcony flies open, and the crackling discordant beam flickers and fades with the dying gasp of the viceroy. And now a quiet falls over the room. Finally, a quiet that is not unsettling,

and you even start to hear what sounds like a soft hum and chime of the twinkling soul moats around you. You got me, Vicks. I look down. I told you I wouldn't let you fall. I told me you catch me and you caught me. You always will. I will sprint seeing Pipe go down.

and I will rush out and my injecting him with my med... Actually, no, you know what, fuck it. I got spell slots left. I am going to use the best stuff. No! I am going to cast cure wounds as I take an injection and I injected it in the side of, like maybe in the side of his torso between the waves.

between the waves. Yeah. To really just get that medicine as deep as I can, as I will heal him for 2D8 plus five. You punch the injector into the side of his body where his ribs are and you feel it pierce in and it flops the bone to the side, having cracked and separated from his musculature

on the inside. Son of a bad. Are you with me? Yeah, I'm here. Oh, you guys got him. Okay. Nice. My finger is still on the console.

Did I get him? I looked to Aphelia. Did we get him? Is he gone? You got him, Six. Siggie, I told you you were a fucking killer. You killed the fucking demon. You were incredible.

You did him. We all did it. Are you all right? Yeah, I'm all right. You beautiful, idiot. Don't do that again. Is everybody okay? Who needs to get patched up?

All live? No, I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm a little banged up. I still got my stint back, though. Ugh. Ah. I can't believe it. It's finally fucking over. Here, let me look at you.

Yeah. I'll check, look at your vitals, and I'm looking at your, you know, and your pupils. He, he bit me. He just fucking bit me. You lost a lot of blood, but I think you'll be okay. I just wasn't ready for it. Good catch.

Thanks. You, all of you, everybody, it was amazing. Your, your aim is incredible, Ophelia. Even though all that stress. God, bullets. That's what I've trained for. Laura. Oh my God, you just, holy crap, you're the best I've ever seen.

It feels so good to be back on a team. Wow. All of us working together. That's what it's about. You should stick around. I think I will. Well, the room's still available, so if that's your choice? It's the slime room, but it's yours.

Sounds good. I don't know what the slime room is anymore. What about the fucking beam to Sterlock? Is it still going? Is it done? Wasn't his blood power in it or something? Oh yeah. What are the, like, all the tubes in the, yeah, what's going on?

I mean, like, but even the tubes that we saw, are they still like, are they empty? When he unplugged himself from the throne, there were massive tubes pumping blood throughout the entire structure. And has he, you would have seen that sickening bloodfall moving through the tombs. You would have seen it slow until it stopped at this level. Okay. The doors that it swung open upon his death, you look out and you can see that giant fiendish, of massive fiendish black gun firing that red beam to Sterlock, connecting to his headquarters, to his home quarters on the planet. That light has gone out.

Well, that seemed to do it, I guess. That was really hard. Let me just take a look around, see if I can make sense of any of this fucking machinery. I just want to kind of go around the room and just make sure that everything is off. I don't hear anything whirring or clunking. If there's any kind of mechanics, I probably don't even know the engineering. This is probably like hell engineering.

But the best I can, I just want to make sure everything is powered down and turn off. Roll technology check. Oh. That's... I missed opportunity for a tech check. Will tech check. Take me that thing.

Don't tech check. 15 plus 9 is 24. Huge. 24. With a 24. you don't understand this technology. This is absolutely fiendish in origin. You couldn't recreate it.

You don't know exactly how it works. But you understand what something is on and when something is off. And you can look around this room and you are convinced to the point of almost relaxed that this place seems to be entirely powered down. We're good.

We're good. Cool. Thank the fucking Lightbringer. Picks you okay. He's gone. He's out of your head. How do you feel? I mean, yeah, I feel good right now.

But get over here. I know how much you hate pink. Let me get that thing off of your face. What? Yeah, I got my lipstick all over your face, dumb, though. I'm wearing a pink vest. Yeah, I know. I'm getting used to it.

You want me to leave it? No, we'll leave it. It looks kind of like a tattoo. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Looks cool. It looks good on you.

I look cool? Yeah. Fuck yeah. I think we all look cool. You know, pink and blue really go well together. It's another rated color color. Like electric blue and neon pink? Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool. I can't wait to tell Silica about this. We're going to add to my kill count. Where is your big kitty, tarotidactal girlfriend? It's a dilaphas. I can't pronounce it. Delophosaurus. Thank you very much.

And it is, she's on the ship. I don't have her with her. I wouldn't want to risk her. Ziggy, do I look like I know what a dilaphasaurus is? No, you do not. Dilapidactyl? I will make a presentation, and I will teach you about all of various dinosaur varieties and sorin varieties and what have you. And maybe about the little furry critters, too, from where you're from.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy I happily share. I haven't talked about that in so long, but I'd love to. to show you some old photos that I still have. I'm really proud of us. We did it. Yeah, now what do we do about all this? I don't know.

Are you guys still, like, hello? Oh, because I wave at the moon. Yeah, but listen to them. They don't sound discordant anymore, right? No, they don't sound described. Listen to them, Carl, they sound beautiful. Yeah, like chimes. I hear it.

And we all made it out alive. Barely. Pike, Co. He got me good, I'll hear. He's good with that. That's, yeah, okay. Yeah, I wasn't ready for it. I called him a bitch, but man, that was, okay.

Well, who was the bitch in the end? He did almost suck me to hell, but if you were for you, Picks, you caught me. You said you were gonna catch me and you caught me. Always. I'd love to walk over and examine the Blazer sword. Oh, shit. Can I pick it up and not look down the barrel and, and, and,

a barrel and I'm sure myself horribly? When you say a laser sword, look down the barrel, do you mean on the balcony? Do you mean the sword that he wielded in combat? The sword that he wielded in combat. Presumably he must have dropped it somewhere. Upon his demise,

it was flung from his hand. It now sits in the dead center of the room embedded into the cold gray stone. Oh, is it still on? Still on. Always pointing like down and like...

It's pointing down. It's totally sinking of the nose offslown. No. It is embedded into the center of the sun. They should make these things to turn off as soon as you let go of them. That seems like that would be the smarter move. Let me...

I'm going to grab it if I can. You can try. I'm going to try. Touch a sword. Oh God. He did. That's coolest. She said I'm going to try.

Siggie, you earn that sword. You're doing, Nicky. You killed him! I pick up the sword. Rollin athletics contest. A more elegant weapon. Yeah, this is revenge. I'm calling you a cockroach grinding virgin.

What? When was that said? I was a longer than I thought. I said that exactly. Cheatings-based cockroach grinding virgins are cringe. What variety of things? A lot of cheese. Contest.

I won't there. Test? I get a three. You... I got this. You grab the hilt of this sword. The first thing that happens is you take three points of cold damage.

As the hilt burns you, not with flame, but with ice. You attempt to wrestle it from the ground where it's lodged. You can't hold on long enough to move it even a millimeter. It doesn't budge. Guys, I can't take the cool laser sword.

Just leave it there. It's burning with the powers of hell. What are you doing? Let's stop messing with things we don't understand. No. Kill them to another kill count. It's like a trophy. The trophy will be with a memory.

But I still wanted the cool laser sword. I thought I could. Look, I burned my palms. It hurts. Well, maybe we can come back for it later. You did good. You did good. Sorry for not believing in you and thinking that you were going to betray us or fail us in the end the whole time.

Oh. Sorry. I think we kind of crossed that bridge already. Yeah, I mean, well, like verbally, but I still got to work through a lot of stuff. Call it like the whole grudges. Well, I'm trying to work on it. I normally like, I normally hold grudges. But I thought you enjoyed holding grudges.

Well, I used to, but I'm trying to grow as a person. Oh, I love that for you. You know, I'm trying to do better. I understand. Yeah, it's okay. It's all right. Thank you for understanding. You know what's better than holding grudges?

What? High fives, give her a high five. That's not really my... Yeah, come on. Come on up here. Like, yeah, do it with your whole heart. Look at the elbow. Look at the elbow.

It'll be really awesome. You look at the elbow. How's the sound? Is it like a crazy clap? Roll performance check. Roll a dual performance check. That goes off the mirrors. 17.

You have Bartik inspiration. Oh my God, I'm using it. I mean, it only lasts like 10 minutes. That's the line. That's fair. Oh, what? I'm a paladin. Actually, it's pretty good.

15. 19. Oh, yeah, that is. You clapped together. It sounds like a thunder crash. It is clean, as Pike said. It does bounce. and reverberate off of the glass of the mirror.

The only, it turns strange as the sound meets the only opening currently in this room. The doors opened wide to the balcony outside. See, that was fucking punk rock. I would have, I would have, that was pretty fucking punk rock. Yeah! See,

while this is happening, I would seem that everybody is healthy, they're alive, he's not fucking with a sword. I would start walking to the balcony and like a middle-aged dad that just spent $500 on a telescope, I want to look up at it. Y'all got to get a load of this view. As I look up, and I want to sort of look at,

presumably if it's still a line like this. We actually went down, technically. I want to look up and see if I can kind of see Vasson and Sturlock as a whole and see what I can see. It'd be something that, like, I've never seen before. Yeah, absolutely. on the balcony for sure. You both.

Make your way to the balcony. Yeah. And as you put one foot in the in front of the other, you start to hear a strange sound, a crackling of static. Beepy boop. Beepy boop. Ophelia.

Once more, you see blazing across your visor, incoming transmission. I'm getting something in. Mr. Ophelia. Mr. Sophia? Belvedere is that you? It is. What happens? Are you okay?

We're all right. Everything's fine. We've defeated him. He's gone. In your whole life, since you were a little girl, you have watched Belvedere, witness missions take place, see unthinkable acts.

You've never once heard his voice with a modicum of fear. Oh, oh. This is the first time it's ever shown through. What's wrong? Are you all right? You must, you must listen. What, what happened? Are you okay? Yes. It was tough, but we used the rounds and he's gone.

He's gone. You encountered the, you encountered the discordant, the Vag. Yes. You must listen. You banished him in the galaxy. I fear, I fear, that does not kill him. We might not have much time. You have to understand. He can only be killed in his own plane. I fear that it's not over. You have to stay on your guard.

He could be. Belvederee? As you move towards the doors, they slam shut. There's a quake in the room with you. As the floor trembles and shakes, as the sword moves back and forth in the center of the room. Shaking the ground until it erupts out of it.

It flips, hilt down, and it stands at the ready. Every single mirror in the room shatters. Oh, shatters. Bloody crimson glass fills the room and it feels like the space flash freezes. You all feel a horrible emptiness inside you as ash and snow swirls around you. Where there were once mirrors, you now see a sprawling, mountainous region covered in millions. of gravestones, hearing the howling and gnashing of creatures of the night.

It looks familiar and you have a horrible realization as a horrid feeling washes over you. These are portals to cacophony, torn open. Then a shadow darkens the far gateway and a creature steps into the room. It is hulking but appears refined. refined with flowing ghastly white hair

monstrous and grotesque bat-like features on a humanoid form with four leathery wings a thick split tail slithers behind him each end with a gnashing toothy maw at the center of this creature's torso is a

yawning circular abyss but the center is a horrid red pupil as an enormous eye peers out from its core, it looks around at you. Despite this abominable form, it is unmistakable that Viceroy Harkon Morvane has returned

and he has brought hell with him. And that's where we'll end the session. Oh my God. Oh, my God. Gotta give it up. We might be in a little bit trouble. Oh, my gosh. Got to give it up.

Oh, my gosh. Okay.