The Glass Cannon Podcast - Giantslayer Episode 298 - Man, It's So Cloud in Here

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

The heroes get the jump on a trio of cloud giants, but a fog cloud and cunning tactics may stymie the team. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com. To become an official member of the Naish, subscribe today at http://www.jointhenaish.com. Want to be a part of Glass Cannon Nation? Follow us at twitter.com/glasscannonpod instagram.com/theglasscannon facebook.com/glasscannonnetwork tiktok.com/@glasscannonnetwork Get the best apparel and gaming accessories in the biz at https://glasscannonnetwork.com/store If you enjoyed this, we have several other series featuring Call of Cthulhu - Time For Chaos Delta Green - Get in the Trunk Pathfinder 2E - Glass Cannon Live! Strange Aeons Pathfinder 1E - Legacy of the Ancients Traveller - Voyagers of the Jump and so much more! Join us every Thursday night for Campaign Two of The Glass Cannon Podcast – a playthrough of the Pathfinder 2E Gatewalkers Adventure Path! Videos premiere on YouTube Thursday nights at 8PM ET with a companion podcast available at midnight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week on the Glass Cannon Podcast Leave them wanting more, as they say Who says that? My old dad The hero staged an attack against enemies lying in wait You look down this long rectangular room And you see three cloud giants Those dudes are big

And though they were able to dodge their mighty blows. Miss. Yes! The bulwark against evil. You shall break against me. And I shall stand like waves against rocks.

The giants had other tricks up their sleeves. Here's the thing. A couple things are going to happen. Oh, no. And now they have the upper hand. But then all of a sudden, fog begins to fill up the hallway. Ugh.

And Sir Will disappears. Oh, God. The adventure continues now. No. Our office is a mess it is a true disgusting place to be and there's really no end in sight a lamp sort of fell like two months ago and it's still there it's just kind of leaning yeah like there was an earthquake our tv that uh i think has been there's some video games have been played on it it's just covered with a tarp because the air conditioner occasionally leaks all over the wiring.

And rather than get that fixed, we just covered the TV with a tarp. We should be clear. By occasionally leaks, you mean every time we turn it on? Every time we turn it on. Yes. Yeah. And you know what? That's not a tarp.

That is a painter's cloth. Painter's cloth, yeah. Which, you know what it doesn't stop a tarp. That is a painter's cloth. Painter's cloth, yeah. Which, you know what it doesn't stop? Water. Water. No. Not in the least. No.

The sound boards that we, rather than hiring professionals to hang, hung ourselves, occasionally just fall and could actually kill someone or maim them. With no warning. Sometimes we'll just be sitting here and one will just fall to the ground. Boom! And so now there's just a pile of them all over the place. We're like, ah. It's fine.

There's also some, you know, just some plywood stacked up against the wall. Wood and pipes everywhere and sawdust from taking the set apart. It looks like the building itself is either under construction or about to be torn down. Yeah. Chain link fence over there

from the set just... It really looks like a war zone. Yeah. You'll all like it, I promise you. Yeah. It seems small, too, because it's so messy.

Yeah. Small and gross, too, because it's so messy. Yeah. Small and gross. Reminds me when Ray is very excited to be showing the rest of the Ghostbusters the firehouse he just purchased. And they turn to Egon and he says, I think this building should be condemned. We should stay here tonight. You know, try it out. I'm going to go get my stuff. you know try it out i'm gonna go get my stuff the loft where we recorded a couple episodes of glass cannon and androids and aliens i think i mean it's you can't even walk up there

lurk died up there which time it's rare uh the last skid almost murdered you troy yeah it's true that was an a and a uh the little closet that i still bought my head on every% of the time. That'll be, that's cause of death. Like head trauma from walking into the closet. That'll be me. This place was going to be so cool. Now it's just messy.

We had a nice beer tap system there and COVID hit and we just let the beer get stale. It's just a mess. She had a half full keg of beer in there for nine months. Bud Light just got stale. Really starting this one off sad, LaValle. Well, I want them to know what it looks like, because by the time Glass Cannon 2.0 comes around, this place is going to look great.

It's going to look fancy and nice and clean matthew yeah don't don't in your efforts this is what happens though here we go in your efforts to clean you sometimes i find that you guys clean up the stuff that's legitimately needs to be cleaned and then you just get on a kick and just start throwing out people's stuff my favorite thing in the world to just don't touch any of my dice well you, you better. Or this beautiful, you know, replica of the Cthulian monster, Groth, that actually is a dice holder. Oh! That a listener, Shaw Shaw, made and gave us in Indianapolis. Well, here's what I'm going to do.

The day before we do the big cleaning, you're going to get a warning. Come and take the stuff that you don't want thrown out and put it in your cubby that sounds like it's not in the cubby it's getting thrown out matthew normally you don't bother to extend that courtesy i'm just coming i'm like what happened to like half my dice and they're like oh were they over at your station and i'll be like yeah they're gone when i was uh when i was in college the ra because we were there our dorm looks kind of the same as this office strangely enough but at certain points and the ra came by she left us a note and she says like be sure to clean out clean out your cubby holes or else such and such but she spelled cubbyholes with an H, so it was chubby holes.

So I was like, everybody clean out your chubby holes. And to this day, I can't hear a cubbyhole without laughing. Oh, that's great. Unfortunate mistake. Did she do it on purpose to insult you? No, no. No, she did not. No, she was very embarrassed by her error. I like this idea of the cubby, though.

Yeah. Can we get like a rainbow sort of poster thing? Oh, lockers. A row of lockers. Lockers would be fun. This really is turning into the Ghostbusters firehouse. It is. We need a pole to get down from the upper level.

Yes. That'd be awesome. At least we have curtains now. That's fun. It's true um expensive lights that we don't use obscure our amazing view of the manhattan skyline now oh well pretty yeah yeah it's so sad sad used to be so much hope here there will be again yeah there will be again one day

one day the hope shall return hey let's revisit it i think every once in a while we should talk about covid yeah i think it's been a while since we've had sort of predictions uh how long until it's completely over matthew i think we're just living with it at this point for the rest of time you really think that i mean not the rest of time do you think like five years i i 10 years it is every i i i get uh you know sporadic bursts of hope where i'm like oh you know maybe you know we'll all come together and do what's right and I'll get vaccinated and act communally.

No. That would be silly. Listen to the words that are coming out of your mouth. And then I get sad again. See, damn it, Troy, now I'm sad. It's nerve-wracking, man. It's just a horrible, horrible time to be alive.

Well, I just want to get to a point where I don't have to worry about getting infected while already being vaccinated. Yeah. That's what's scary. Because at least we could have a bunch of people in here to work on projects if they were all vaccinated. Right. You know what I mean? Whether you're vaccinated or not, it's like if you're vaccinated, you don't want to get it, but you're still getting it. Remember those couple months before Delta, like between that period of time when we got vaccinated in Delta and we were like, things are looking up.

I went to the Ozarks, jumped in a lake, a bunch of people. I went to the supermarket without a mask. Really? Crazy talk. Yeah. I went a couple times, like I always do, mask on. And then I noticed that people stopped wearing masks. And then CDC said, don't worry about it. They're it they're like hey try like they were talking to you personally

went in there it was great it felt normal again yeah i got a haircut without a mask and then two months later i was putting toupee tape on the inside of my mask to ensure that i could stay on my face the entire time as i got my haircut it was a big uh sea change there for me oh well this no this is this is it's really at the office heart i mean it's just yeah it's awful it's awful in here i don't even want to come no you don't it's gross i enjoy spending time with you all yeah no i like spending time with you guys i like i mean but just think like how much it would buoy our spirits if we were to get this place like cleaned up and like looking respectable. It would just be such so just be really uplifting to come into that instead of what it is right now. And I still like coming here because it's like I get to see you guys and play this game and everything but it's like and i like being on these microphones yeah not having to record myself yes oh my god deal with all our individual tech idiosyncrasies and problems yep

yeah well this i mean that's the best part of it that's why we keep we keep doing it but uh yeah it would be nice i said to grant right before we started recording i was like i wish we could just had the money to get a design firm to come in here and be like make this place look like uh google yeah make this look like a google mini kitchen right but here's the source of your problem you instead of just cleaning up think this is so dirty it really needs to get cleaned up it really should look a lot better it should be really slick there should be a fucking slide in here and it should have really sweet shit all over.

Like Google, we just don't have the money to pay somebody to do that. And so you don't clean in the first place. Right. You know what I mean? Like you just don't do the thing you can easily do to like make it fine. Not great, but fine.

You're like hard pass. I flush the toilet. That's the extent of the cleaning. And I thank you for doing that. Sometimes I don't want to. I still flush. Occasionally I put a glass in the dishwasher. You've never done that?

I said occasionally. I'll usually, when I get here first, which is, that's what usually happens, is I will clean up some stuff, like just get cut up boxes and yeah kind of tidy a little bit but there's just so much that needs doing that well we usually come in because we haven't been in a while and we get a lot of great uh gifts from listeners who are amazing one of which uh we've had for a while and i haven't uh shouted out i wanted to say thank you

to jay knight for the box of jerky if you remember oh yes the great box of jerky yeah uh thank you jay it's delicious it's good the first thing grant did was took his entire share and hid it in a bag it was like i'm out of here he counted every individual piece of jerky of which there was over 100 divided it by five no by four because matthew doesn't eat jerky i was gonna say i never i never saw this yeah i'm not i'm not sending your family members that eat meat still any of this jerky matthew this is only for the people in this room but no yeah he ran off like a raccoon stealing cat food why do you have 32 pieces of jerky because i came in and that's the first thing i saw and it really looked like grant went out and bought 30 sticks of jerky for

this episode because it was just like laying next to his computer it lasted a long time too he was like no we gotta yeah it was awesome we've had some long long days and just having a jerky to lean back on when you're hungry it's a great thing jerky oh my god do you remember i'm looking at just shit that's laying around me i've got this tiny little i don't even know if it's a bookcase i'm using it as a bookcase it's got my old binder from when this i used to run giant slayer out of a binder with paper definitely book one skirkotless tomb i mean i have the it's this is all book four is in here i mean book four on paper what i don't know i think i just i definitely did one two and three you used to ask me to print the whole things at my office right it's your office and you'd be like don't read any you're like all

right man no problem seer cotless tomb map uh right there and then uh some individual maps from the uh you know the area around scare cotless camp and then of course the uh welcome to skier guard map but this is the overhead view just a bunch of stuff in here and the only page that's you know, the area around Scarecrow's camp. And then of course the welcome to Scareguard map, but this is the overhead view, just a bunch of stuff in here. And the only page that's not from book four that I kept is the page from book one that lists all of the people on the council of true now. Oh,

nice. So I could remember what their names were. Wow. Yeah, man. That is one thing I'm looking forward to is when we finish this, I'm going to read giant slayer. Yes. Yeah. Oh, I can't wait to crack book one and read. wow uh yeah man that is one thing i'm looking forward to is when we finish this i'm gonna read giant slayer yes yeah oh i can't wait to crack book one and read the adventure summer yeah the

summer i want to see what they say when volsus got started we should have a book club the four of us you've read it already yeah dude we could we could record it we could release we could yeah that would actually sit on the patreon that would be a great i think there are five million dollar ideas there are like five different podcasts by former cast members of the office breaking down every episode of the office so we could do that with a book club to giant slayer true that's true yeah because you know you'll learn a lot obviously by the end but the stuff you'll never learn unless folksstice is like, hold on, let me tell you about what happened when I was a teen. And at that point, you won't be able to stop us. We can do whatever we want.

Yeah, no, please. I want you to. Do you think we'll find anything in there and be like, wait a second, the way Troy handled this was total baloney. And we'll be furious at you as we read it. Oh, there'll be some, if we go back and listen to old episodes and commentary on it, there will be cringe- rule stuff like that is so obvious to us now we're like how did we not know that i'm excited to read the stat blocks of the creatures in the vault of thorns

oh yeah yeah hey talk to larry wilhelm not me oh that would actually that would be phenomenal if we had the stat block in front of us while troy's like that's a mess with a 23 and you see a 22 ac like you're lying son of a bitch i i think i could go back one day like when archer is a little bit older and just run the vault of thorns for him as a mini dungeon uh so he you know so that he can't sleep at night and so that no disappointment and sadness i mean it's a great mini dungeon in and of itself would probably take yeah if you replaced a few of the things like the entire concept of a wig i like she would kind of just need to be a little bit nicer uh and yeah because if you ran it the way it is you could

be like and that son is why you never trust anyone uh no but like the lily pads leave a note but like the lily pads and the giant plant that eats you. There's a lot of stuff in there that could be like fairytale-ized. Oh, sure. I mean, even having the fake out of a Wigga. You can have her pretend to be the leader of the vault. Come with me. I'll show you the way.

It's been so long. I don't remember. And then you get to the end. You have that fight with the plants and the bramble blight. And then have W wigga turn on them and she's the real boss be fun but that would be fun it's a neat you know be pretty easy to run i'm realizing the vault of thorns kind of runs uh structurally similarly to a demented willy wonka's chocolate factory charlie and the chocolate factory like a wigga's is uh willy

wonka and we're all the hapless children that won the awards and we see this awful place room by room. Who are our parents? Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. The friends we made

along the way? Hmm. I don't know. No. Yeah. Oh, well, despite how dirty

our office is, today's episode is the forecast calls for fog! What was that? Oh my God. That is what you call an expert segue. We call a segue from someone who's been doing this show for six straight years. Six straight years.

I just, I didn't want to talk about this anymore because I am determined to have this combat end this episode. Oh, you can do it, but I really am not interested in a two hour and 40 minute episode. It's not going to be a two hour and 40 minute episode. There was one easy way to do that. Never cast fog clouds.

That's all they could do. They're cloud giants. They use clouds. That's their thing, man. It's a cloud tactic. Just blow clouds at you. Stop being so judgy, Matthew, just because they don't play like you. Right, not everybody has maze.

Not everybody has fucking pit of, what is it? Hungry pit. Yawning pit, yeah. Hungry pit. Yawning pit. Just so tired of it. Which you already know doesn't work on these guys. So cut the shit with your pit.

on these guys. So cut the shit with your pit. Let me tell you, Matthew, of all people, you're going to be in for a lot of rude surprises by the end of this book with your fucking

one-note tactics. Jesus. He has more notes than that. We definitely have at least two. It's a whole unchained melody Oh my It's round something And it's Berenstain

Look at my new cloud I put in a temporary cloud last week But I had some time And so I put in a new cloud Very cool Wait, was it centered on Sir Will Or was it centered behind Sir Will? It's where it is

it's also way too small it's 20 feet it's 20 feet in radius it needs to be double this size oh you're right and that's why it's why it's gonna last who wins the combat so wait uh oh yeah oh is that i think that's still not big enough i I have 10, 15, more. More? It's supposed to be a circle. Yeah, it is supposed to be a circle. That's why, you know, the old stone with the aura thing works really well. Oh, that thing, eh? Yeah. Well, that's good because that way the cloud giant isn't in it, just Sir Will.

Well, that's a... The cloud giant is in it. He is most certainly in it. He takes up all nine of those squares. Right. Well, the good thing is Sir Will is five feet away from him. Ten feet away. cloud giant is in it he is most certainly in it he takes up all nine of those squares right well the good thing is sir will is five feet away from him no he's five no he's directly adjacent to the giant melee with it for him um well let's see what you guys do is weird mood we ate a lot of sushi before we started baron sees sir will disappear into this cloud and feels a sense of hopelessness again as if

he was watching sir will go down the road to go on his own personal journey when he ordered him away. But this time, it might be the last time you ever saw him. Yeah. And he just knows his capabilities, knows that he has nothing to deal with this right now. And he looks over his shoulder at Metra and says, any ideas, Metra? And holds. Holds for Metra and says, any ideas, Metra? And holds. Holds for Metra. Love it.

Metra will look at her character sheet and see if she has any ideas. Nestor, still invisible, has not broken the invisibility, but now sees a big old cloud. And Sir Will get enveloped by it what do you do mister he curses under his breath because this is the one thing like obscuring his vision is just it really pisses him off yeah because it's the one thing that he uh can't really deal with so uh he says he just kind of like creeps up and like puts his forearm into. Oh, no, you can see invisibility, right? I can see.

Yeah. So he's like kind of waving. He's got his like long sight goggles on. And he says, yeah, any old days, love. And he holds also. And he also holds. Already then, a lot of holding going on. When in doubt, hold.

It is Metra's turn. Metra will hold. Metra will hold as well. Baron looked to Metra for advice. She held. She delays. She'll give advice, but for the moment she needs to delay. What advice do you give? I'm delaying.

Ah. I can't break the delay. Let's see what Sir Will does. Sir Will, you are in this cloud. Wait, I'm sorry. You're delaying as well? Yes. Okay. What are you thinking, Willie? Oh, shoot. It's my turn again in this cloud.

All right, so this mist comes up around him. He is definitely a little freaked out by this. Knowing his companions cannot see them, he's going to try to draw them in and see if they'll come. Okay, let's see. You've got a 20% missed chance if you did try to attack the giant because you're still within striking range of it.

Yeah. Would I know if they're evil as a cloud giant in general? I can't remember. Well, there's in general, and then there's these guys, so it's hard to tell. I would say if you roll a knowledge local, I can tell you. I don't have it. All right, I am going to say... Not here, not now.

And he's going to turn and move out of the fog cloud to where he can see his companions, which will provoke. All right, so I will attempt to hit you with my gargantuan Morningstar. Wait a minute. Wait just a damn minute. It's been a week. But you did not give him a cover bonus, correct? Correct.

When I charged him. You decided to not give him the cover bonus? Yes. You sure you remember that correctly? Yes, yes, I do. You rolled a natural one anyway, but I said, you know what? Don't worry about it. It's Joe rolling.

Okay. But can I take that AOO where you have concealment? Yes, but you couldn't if I had two points of cover. That's the difference. So I thought maybe I could sneak out of there without it but now i do i think i remember you saying like now you know what go ahead you have it you have full sight on him so with your boosted ac he misses oh already in that attack yeah oh great natural two nice oh okay uh all right so you pull right out of the fog to the upper northern edge, to the upper northern edge. And then you know what? I'm going to detect evil.

Oh, really? So I will turn Lexington back around. And I mean, he's looking at this embankment of fog. He can't see through. This thing could come through at any minute, swinging at him. And he's just like, huh? He's just sort of like staring

through, but he's just like, let me just see if these creatures have been fully Taken over to the dark side And I'll cast detect evil It's a 60 foot radius Reach out with your feelings Yes which at this point would just give me the presence Or absence of evil

Oh you detect evil Alrighty Now we're cooking with evil Okay The cloud giant steps into the fog All righty. Now we're cooking with evil. Okay. The cloud giant steps into the fog. Oh! And staying 10 feet away from you, but still within its reach.

Let me just see if its reach is even longer than that. It should be 15. It is, so I'm going to stay even further away. Be a 20% missed chance, but I still had to move more than five feet. So wait, maybe not, maybe not because his site isn't 15 feet magically. His reach is 15, but yeah,

concealment is five. It has to be adjacent. I think you're right. I think you're right. Well, that's fine then. I think, yeah,

I think Sir Will was 20 feet away of where you put him before, but it's hard to tell without the square shot. I just went to the edge of the fog. So he walks up to the edge of the fog, and now Sir Will would be like, he's here! Like, turning right around. The entire wall in front of me! Because basically he's taking up the whole corridor. So they could just fire into that shit if they wanted.

They could. It'll get a bonus to its AC, though, and it's a 50% miss chance because they're farther than 20 feet away. 100%. But, you know, it's better than nothing. It's not shooting in the blank. Right. All right. He's got one shot against you here.

I'll roll my D100 with the Morningstar attack. Another natural two. Well, now it says 12. I think it's because I banked. And then a 54 on the concealment. So that would have been a real sweet fucking hit if I had rolled anything besides a two. All right, it's the other bloke's turn. He, he's happy right where he is.

Comes back to Baron. Baron, Sir Will yells out, Metro Act. Oh, Metro Act. Metro. Metro will say, I do have an idea. Hang on. And she'll reach out,

grab them both, and dimension Doris into right next to the body of the pig. Oh. Right next to the body of the pig. Oh! Back in the orc room. And then I'll take a five foot step, which I'm allowed to do,

and open the door. Well, here's the thing. You don't have to open the door, because right when you dimension door there... Oh, shit. The other cloud giant had moved to that door and opened it on his turn. You told us that. And he's standing there right now. Oh, God! So you dimension door directly next to him.

Oh, dear God. I didn't move him on the map because I didn't want you to know! Yeah, and it's so funny because I did tell you last week that that was his plan, and that was what he was doing. So he was going to come around, and now Baron is directly next to it. However, that's what he did this round, so it comes back to Baron's turn. However, Baron is right next to this guy.

Hold on, a quick update for the listeners. Sir Will is one-on-one with a cloud giant. Baron is fighting a cloud giant 125 feet away, two rooms away. They've now jumped with Nestor and Metro right behind them. And then there's a giant in the middle of all of this just standing there. This is actually crazy, and I'm not trying to pull any funny business on you. That's exactly what he did.

He went to that door, and with his second move action, he opened it, and you dimension door exactly right next to him. So this is crazy. With the body of the Yipotriel right next to Nestor. Stinking carcass. Stinking carcass. Flies buzzing about. Baron, it's your turn, and you're right next to this thing that has 15 feet of range. Actually, I'm going to take my turn first.

So Nestor's like, there you are, my beauty. Actually, I'm going to take my turn first. Oh. Oh. That's okay. So Nessar's going to do that. There you are, my beauty. And he takes a five-foot step back, which should put him out of his range there. Okay. And he's going to unleash a full hasted attack. With sneak attack. With the sneak attack on the first. Multi-shot.

Multi-shot on the first multi-shot. First attack, Natty 17. You're done, kid. Natty 17. And that first shot is 75 points of damage. With the sneak attack damage? With the sneak. Okay.

75 on the first. Okay. I also, I should, I would get a move action. I would take a, if I'm seeing him there, I would take a five foot step back as well. Okay. 75 on the first. Okay. I also, I should, I would get a move action. If I'm seeing him there, I would take a five foot step back as well. Okay. Tap Baron on the back and say, good luck. Good luck. We're all counting on you. We're all counting on you. Okay. And boom!

McMaster appears. The invisibility is dissipated. Second attack is a 34. Oh yeah, that's it. Okay, yeah. That's a hit. 23 points of damage. Okay. Third attack is a 39.

39 is a hit as well. 31 more points of damage. 31 more points of damage. Okay. All right. Fourth attack is 33. That is a hit as well. 27 more points of damage. Oh, my God.

Okay. Final attack. Finish him. Oh, Natty, 18. Oh, my God. Okay. And 32 more points of damage. At 28 hit points.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!. At 28 hit points. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Tracy Boosa, that would have, you know, just depleted some resources. But Nestor, five foot step back and hits on every single arrow. Full on Legolas. This guy thinks he was being all strategic. He goes around the other way. All of a sudden, three demigods appear on the other side of the door. And he gets shot with 15 arrows. But now the party has been split and there's another room at play. And it's Baron's turn. Baron, I'll show you a little bit more of this room.

It looks similar to that room that you got a little peek into. You see the hall stretches the same width as the room that you just came from, but there's a set of double doors in the back of the room. Unlike the previous room that had iconography and images of sunrises everywhere, this one is covered in images of sunsets. Sunrise! Sunset.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again for feeding that. Don't encourage him. Beren takes in the sunset, but he'd also like to take in a closer look around the room for anything in hiding or traps or just perils that he might run into as he is about to enter said room. So he will roll a 31. 31. You don't see anything from that vantage point. Okay, Baron will...

Does he hear anything from that vantage point? You don't hear anything from that vantage point either. The only parts of the room that you can't see are those to the east. All right. All right. are those to the east. Alright.

Theron moves down the hallway and sees one of the giants still in the other room. 80 feet away from him, which is one range increment outside of his first with long shot applied. He will spend a point of grit to still resolve against Touch AC.

And as you enter the room, you see the room stretches. There's a little L-shape, stretches to the east and ends in a huge set of double doors. But there are no other visible enemies in this room, just images of sunsets. Gotcha. So try to do another

perception. Sunsets fall apart. Try to do another perception now that I can see that part of it. See if anything unusual is there. Sure. Okay, that will be a natural 20. Wasted it! Wasted the attack for a 44. You look around the room real quick for any enemies.

You don't see any enemies, but however, you do see in the middle of the wall to the north the outline of what looks like a secret door. Oh, nice! Yes! I love how you take that in during this intense combat. the outline of what looks like a secret duel. Yes! Oh, nice! Yes! Nice! I love how you take that in during this intense combat. I was like, I'll deal with that later. Noted.

Add it to the list! Then fire starts firing. Metro, tell my secretary! Yeah, so 75 feet away, you've got a perfect shot against this one that has yet to do anything. So this is an application of uh dead eye uh spending a grip point and will still be a minus two to this shot but we'll still be resolving against touch ac you know the worst thing that could happen is a misfire but let's hope that doesn't here comes yes let's hope misfire oh no three oh no oh no that's amazing you spent too much time staring at that secret door all right so

i'm going to uh as we've established as well it's my only shot i already used my move action so i can't do anything this turn i moved up here so that's my turn oh yeah ouch welp uh it would have been that cloud giant's turn that you just killed, and he could have unleashed a nice, sweet, triple attack at you. But instead, it is Sir Will's turn. Sir Will wants to get past this giant, and he sees no way past. He's taking up the whole hallway. It's surrounded by fog. It looks like there's no way through.

It's got to be so ominous, like it's just a cloud and you see this the silhouette of a shadow of a yeah and a shadow of a gargantuan morning star just like coming out of it um so yeah he's just like lexington a little more distance would serve us well and uh he's going to once again he turns him and he strikes uh lexington forward uh not to give lexington pain but in their their knowing and loving way and uh he moves away from the giant so it's away he's going to move yeah uh uh yeah not the full complement of his movement but well yeah he'll move the full complement of his movement But, well Yeah, he'll move the full complement of his movement, why not He moves 70 feet back into the room As I remember your haste

As is Lexington He runs all the way To the other room Yeah, Sir Will is going To Yes Yeah, he'll turn the corner so back into the room with the orcs

he goes around the corner and looks and he sees Nestor just like unleashing arrows and Baron is like seems to have gone deeper in and he just sort of halts there question does that provoke because you pulled away okay

see alright good, good roll Good roll That is a 43 to hit Oh, that hits Sadly, it's a 42 on the concealed Yeah! Oh, wait, yeah

It's 25% You're right next to me That's right, so that is a hit Here we go. Oh, that's really good. Actually, did you full withdraw?

It matters. Sure. Because if he full withdraw, the first square is free. He does not provoke in that square. Yeah, but the other... Oh, he wouldn't be able to see me. Yeah, so I full withdraw. I didn't take an action. He took... He did a... I didn't take an action. He took... I didn't take an action. I just didn't say it because I knew he could hit me at multiple ranges.

But with the concealment, he actually can. Yeah, yeah. It's gross. You should all feel very gross about that gamesmanship. But yeah. We didn't put the fog there. Now that I've revealed that I'm over there. All right.

All right. Gross. But it's not like I took an action that I took back. No that I've revealed that I wrote it. All right. All right. Gross. But it's not like I took an action that I took back. No, I know. I know. I know. It's fine. He is going to go, and he...

Hmm. So this is interesting. If I were to charge right now, you're not... You would be at the end of my striking distance at a charge, but it's... I'm still moving in a straight line. Do you know what I mean? But you're attacking to the right angle. But I'm attacking at a right angle. Like, is that... I don't see...

It's up to you. I don't mind. Well, the first one is going to charge at Baron and do that. He is 75 feet away. These things move 50 feet, so he can move up to 100 feet on this charge to take one shot on Baron. You know what? The other one's going to do the same exact thing.

Just rush up to the edge of the door and take a shot. How far can they move in a charge? 100 feet. Wow. Yeah, these guys are fleet of foot. But both of them take a minus two to their AC. This is true. Remember that. This is true. So unless Baron

misfires again, he'll still hit on a natural two. Well, yeah, but in Nester, you know, you never know. I'll resolve against Baron first. One attack. Bonus to hit. But yeah, the AC does go down, and I'll put on power attack for both of these attacks. One against Sir Will.

One against Barone. First one against Baron. Oh, I don't need that concealment die anymore. Come on, baby! Oh, alright. This is gonna be a real picklebuster. 33 to hit. Miss. Oh-ho-ho! That's a power attack for you.

Oh, and that was with the charging bonus? That's with the charging bonus, yeah. I got greedy and didn't roll well. Next one is on Sir Will. I'm gonna keep power attack on. Yeah, I got greedy and didn't roll well. Next one is on Sir Will. I'm going to keep Power Attack on. I think I got Sir Will with a 50-something. Yes. All right, so this is with Power Attack. So this might do a little bit of damage, which, if you're following along at home,

would be the only damage the heroes have taken in this combat thus far. Ten, eleven, fifteen. Fifty-one points of damage. Yeah, dude. And they hit hard. Damn. Oh! Hit hard.

And they crit on a 19 to 20, which with power attack would be quite a lot of dice. 18 to 20? 19 to 20. Oh, 19. With power attack, that would be 8d6 plus 72

on a crit that's a lot of damage alright so one is up in Sir Will's face one is directly next to Baron and one is dead it is Metra's turn thanks to Nesta okay

well you got a straight shot right now. I do, yeah. Okay, so Metro is going to reach over and cast Invisibility on Nestor. Oh, beautiful. Invisibility, that might be all it takes. Unless Nestor's due for that natural one. It's true.

Let's find out it is Nestor's turn. You have been teasing around that natty one. I'll take a five foot step back to stand next to Nestor. Yes. This cloud giant obviously didn't know that you had enemies right there because it couldn't see Nestor light that guy up. So it heedlessly ran towards the gunslinger and now left himself wide open. Now it sees the arrow-peppered body of his companion lying dead next to the doorway.

What have I done? Where could that have come from? There's no telling. But Nestor takes a five foot diagonal step to get in front of Metric get a little bit clearer shot at this guy and unleashes another full hasted attack on this dude.

First attack. Multi shots. Mini shots. With the sneak. Uh Oh. That is a 32. 32. And don't forget, he has an AC penalty from the charge. But that is still a hit. Okay, 72 points of damage.

On the first attack. It's got to be a nat 1. It's got to be a nat 1. Second is also a hit for 28 points of damage. Okay. Third attack is a hit. 33 more damage. Ooh, Larry Bird.

Fourth attack. Ooh, 28. 28 hits. Oh, yes. Oh, my goodness. 30 damage. Okay. Final attack. Ooh, yes! Oh, my goodness! 30 damage. Okay, final attack.

Oh, 22. 22 is a miss. But he, just like his friend, lit up with arrows. However, he stands, and now it is Baron's turn, standing directly next to this behemoth.

Baron smiles at this cloud giant, looking up, craning his neck as hard as he can looking at the arrows dive into his skin and says you've made an awful mistake friend swift action burst of speed with haste can move 70 feet backwards into the room backing up sir well no attacks of opportunity that is a single move plus a swift and after he is done he will use a standard action to clear the misfire broken condition from his gun wow so now that doesn't is that a full withdraw nope it is a swift action spell called burst of speed and it doesn't provoke burst of speed gives you a 20 foot bonus to speed 10 feet in my case

which brings you up to 70 with haste your movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity and you can move through the space of creatures that are larger than you are there it is spell however would so you have to roll the cast defense no it's a swift action swift spells don't provoke no interesting you sure about that yes grant looked up before. He was pretty adamant about it. They do not provoke. Swift spells don't provoke. That sounds like an actor's vocal warm-up. Swift spells don't provoke.

Don't provoke. Casting a spell with the cast time of one swift action doesn't provoke an attack. Oh! Boom! Second LeBally! Bam! I'm stuck in the belly! Bam! That does drive! You bad!

You bad! Where did you get that? Got it on the Paizo boards, but they linked to a site, linked to a... They linked to the D&D 5th edition core rulebook. Yes, because lots of D&D 5th edition players habitually stalk the Paizo boards for info.

Oh, look. His source is a page not found. His source is a page not found. Troy's removed the evidence. No, no. That quickly. Troy's deleting the internet. Damn, I'm fast.

Here you go. Pathfinder core rulebook page 188. Casting a spell as a swift action does not incur an attack of opportunity. Boom. Done. There it is. See, it's good when you have a core rulebook around it. The verbiage to back it up and not just the confidence of the speech.

Grant. It'll say, well, I've looked this up and gone through it many, many times, and I remembered it not happening, and I can't help it. Also, just from a rational standpoint, what on earth is the point of that spell? There's no point. If the action of the spell promotes. Right, yeah. That's very true.

You can cast defensively, and most casters can cast defensively pretty easily. Okay, Matt. Well, also, instead, you can move through a creature's space. So if you could cast it and run through it to the other side, then it's cool. But yeah. I could have done that, but Sir Will was already on the back end. I may have gone inside the room back where he was if he hadn't moved,

but I heard him charge away on Sir Will, or on Lexington. I put an S on the board to denote where that secret door is. Yes, thank you. It is Sir Will's turn. Sir Will, you are right next to this guy, and you are hasted. No more fog to obscure you.

Yeah, this is a very interesting situation. Very interesting situation. Yeah, he sees Baron come back into the room. Yeah, okay. So once again, he will draw this creature deeper in. Not quite yet, Sir Giant. We'll fight this creature deeper in. Not quite yet, so giant. We'll fight in here. And he is going to race into the room a little bit.

About 45, 50 feet. 45, 50 feet. And turn around and just sort of face this dude down. That'll provoke again, yeah? This is what you did last round. Correct. And that will provoke again Yes

I think that's a big old miss With a third Yeah because I still have power attack on So he missed Beautiful 27 to hit Nice Terrific

Do you want to do anything else? Can you do anything else? Yeah I still have a standard But like I just My plan is for next round. Do your worst. Okay, it is just going to do the same exact thing. I'm going to leave power attack on, see if I can do anything with it.

I got one hit here. Come on, I'm due for that critical threat. Natural three. Yeah! Rushes right at him and nothing. Now it is the other remaining clouds giants turn. I'm going to zoom in here. Who's up front? Oh, it's Nestor.

Alright, so he is going to rush right up and take one shot on Nestor. I'll leave power attack on. Here we go. Okay. That is a 38 to hit. Yeah, it's a hit. Alright. It's gonna deal

some significant damage here. 6, 10, 11, 47 points of damage on that one hit. That's no good. That's no good.

The good news is, now it's Metra's turn, who's standing directly next to this giant. It's true. Metra's going to roll to cast defensively. I automatically get it, but let's just see what happens. I get it. And she's going to point her finger and just kind of lob a tiny, pebble-sized, orangey orb over his head.

And it will explode in the other room. And that's a fireball. Please roll a reflex save. So you threw it over his head? For flavor's sake. For flavor's sake. Okay. Can you do that?

Can you throw it through that space? Because he's using every bit of that space. His head's on the ceiling? His head's on the ceiling? His head's on the ceiling. All right. Well. I've never seen it used this way. I don't know.

Does it say in the spell description that it has an arc? That you can shoot it like a basketball? It would never say that. Yes, that's the joke. You can't arc it, but you could shoot it at an angle up towards over the giant's head and into the room. Point your finger, determine the range, distance, and height at which the fireball is to burst. All right. I mean, if it hits a solid object, it does detonate.

So you're saying this giant takes up every bit. You're saying this giant is the equivalent of me on a regional aircraft? Trying to stand up over my wagon? No, I think you're fine. I just want to see. If his head does touch the ceiling, then it would detonate on him, but then you wouldn't throw it. How tall are they again? Let's

refresh our memory. 17 feet? I kind of made that up, but no. No, I think they're taller than that. I think they're taller. 20-something feet. If you're going to allow it, then I just need a reflexion. 18 feet tall, weighing around 5,000 pounds. Jesus Christ.

Some are up to 21 feet tall. Wow. God. We fight giants so often, I don't know if we think enough about that. No, we don't appreciate how huge they are. I mean, technically, I can't arc it. So I was going to shoot above his head and detonate at this level of the ceiling in the other room.

But if you're saying I can't do that, I can cast a different spell. Yeah, no, I'm just checking for posterity's sake. Even if it hits my area, I think I'd be fine with my evasion if you wanted to. Oh, you do have evasion. I don't have evasion. The height of the ceiling is 15 feet. Easily are covered.

15 feet? What? Oh, 50. Yeah, just send this poor giant load up over his head. Roll a reflex if you will. The other question I have for these giants, they have reach with their weapon, right? Yes. So can they not attack immediately five feet in front of them? Should that giant technically be five feet away from Nestor?

No. They can attack immediately in front of them. It is not a reach weapon. Got it. Yeah, a reach weapon is different. It's just a mace. Got it. But it's oversized, right?

It's just a giant mace. Gargantuan, yeah. Yes, but it's not a reach weapon, so they can hit right in front of them. Got it. It's because their natural reach is 15. That's why. Yeah, they can attack 5, 10, or 15. If they had a spear, it would be 20 feet away, and they couldn't hit right in front of them.

Got it. 25 feet, maybe. Natural 20 on the reflex save. There it is. I knew it was coming. I've been using this old, our original set of glass cannon dice, because that's the only dice I have here now. I brought everything else on the road with us.

It was due. It was due. Finally, a nat 20. Okay, so you take 19 points of fire damage. 19 points of fire damage, and he is in very, very rough shape. Wish he had failed that. Yeah. He'd probably be dead. Probably would be.

Okay, I will move then. I'll take a 5 foot step take a 5 foot step so as not to provoke it is Nestor's turn Nestor can probably kill this thing but at least that first shot is going to provoke what are you thinking just took 47 points

yeah this could really I could finish it off but it might also if you provoke and I crit, that could be 100 points of damage on a normal roll. That could kill me. So I almost... Yeah, I just wish I had better melee options.

I would just drop the bow and stab him. I mean, if you have a dagger, it still might be enough to kill him. It might, but I just don't get any of my bonuses. Well, except for the studied target. Yeah. You see Sir Will battling one. And his shield up.

Top part of the room just... Yeah, actually, this sucks because I can't even full withdraw. No. Because I would still incur, so I might as well just shoot. But hold on. But each shot provokes. But I'll finish him on the first one. If he has combat reflexes. I'll finish him on the first one.

That is correct. If you survive the first shot and don't roll a natural one. I think by my calculations, he's definitely under 20 points, maybe even under 15. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Unless I roll natural one, I will finish him on his first shot. Are you too?

Okay. You're not taking any kind of penalty to hit for multi-shot, right? It's not like a... No. Okay. No. I mean, what are the odds I roll another natural 20 here on the attack of opportunity? I just rolled one.

You're the worst. Probably not going to roll another. Critical threat on Natty 19, though. Natural one. Natty 17. Oh, my. Wow. All right. And a natural one on the confirmed.

Oh, my God. Oh, no. That's the worst possible result. I can't believe, Torell, you said you'd kill someone. Another 47 points of damage. Okay. That's, uh, all told, 94 points of damage in the last six seconds. But a natural one.

If it's, like, broken weapon, I mean, go. Permanently lose weapon. And then you don't know, does he have combat reflexes? Is he going to take another one? I can't wait to hear what this fumble is. I'm sure he's never fumbled. I wonder who's responsible. I wonder who the author is.

Oh, God, I'm so sorry. So sorry. I'm so sorry, David. Hi, David. From Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Saskatoon, home of my beloved Saskatchewan Rough Riders. Let's go, Rough Riders. I'm sorry, David.

This one is called The Last Stand of Leonidas. Oh, no. It's ranged, right? In your desperation to strike down your foe You overextend yourself and only manage to graze them Uh Oh That's not so bad

You only manage to graze them Target takes one damage One damage One damage and loses all facial jewelry And you are flat footfooted for 1d4 rounds. I mean, they were going to hit him anyway. Flat-footed for 4 rounds.

If the fight lasts that long. There is one more combatant, though, up there, which would... Who hasn't been touched. Not been touched, yes. What do you want to do, Nestor? You've taken one attack um i'll try again and i should say that baron is five feet away out of range he would normally take his target

of opportunity to take a free shot if nester would hit but he's just five feet out of the range just five feet out of range uh that is a 40 to hit it's a 40 to hit and he does not have combat reflex man that was a huge gamble i know you know it's either just stop and like let him you know you know the funniest thing before that fumble he had two hit points left so the fumble the fumble brought him down to one amazing and then you absolutely obliterate him that, I can't believe it's at one hit point of damage. When do you ever see that? I know, that's so crazy. To myself, I'm trying to play.

Could you imagine if he had been at one hit point and raised and killed him? Yeah. Put that other guy back. Amazing. All right, Nestor, you still have some attacks left, and there is an enemy there. Yeah. In the distance. That was my second attack.

Okay, so, yeah, I have enough room. You are 105, or 100 feet away. Perfect. All right. I'll just bring this up. I'm going to, it's like, foom to attack, like, foom, foom. Turns around.

It's just like, you're not off the hook either. Don't think I've forgotten. 38. 38's a hit. All right. 28 damage. 28 damage. Okay.

All right. Fourth attack. Natural 19. Jeepers. Natural 19. 28 more damage. Okay. Final attack. Miss. Final attack. Miss. 28 more damage final attack miss

final attack miss good round for Nestor what could have been a real bad situation goes back to the top of new rounds Baron's turn Baron is going to do a quick little fist pump seeing that giant fall and Nestor survive.

He's happy seeing Nestor survive, which is kind of a new emotion for him. He's feeling kind of empathy for him. And Baron moves underneath the giant table where all the orcs were situated, eating and enjoying a merry old time before Metra fried them all to death. I don't want to bust your nut, but you can't go under the table. You can use an acrobatics check to jump over it, thereby slowing down your speed. Sure, I have 60 feet of speed, so I'll do the acrobatics check. Baron will...

Even at four feet tall, I can't walk under a giant table? It's not a giant table, it's the one the orcs were... It's like a tent. Okay. That is a 33 acrobatics. Boom. You backflip over it and land. And drop your gun. Oh, damn it.

Is that a 33? 34 you hold onto your gun. Wow. Is that on the back of your GM screen? It is. Amazing. I added it, but it's there. I added it, but it's there. Throw some hatchets at him is that the is that the magic is that the magic marker scroll that looks like it's written by a total psychopath

you know oddly enough it is you want to throw that dwarven war axe that's been on your back it's true now all of the e's are backwards it's actually just newspaper clippings of each letter that is a 24 to hit a ransom note 24, no. 24 against regular or touch? Regular AC. Touch AC, I'm sorry. Okay, against touch, that is a hit. Excellent. Nice. 5-5-7.

That is going to be 37 points of damage. 37 points of damage from the bear bear. I'm sorry, 39 points of damage. 39 points of damage from the bear bear i'm sorry 39 points of damage 39 points of damage from the bear bear sir will it's your turn you saw you hear the the familiar sound of gunshots ring out the gunshots are hitting him arrows are hitting him lexington is kind of like rearing up a little bit at the sound of the gunshots as usual. Calm, but excited to know that we now have our backup here.

He raises his lance up in the air as Lexington comes up onto his hind legs and just looks up into the reaches of this giant some 18 feet in the air. It's just like, do you see, giant? Do you see what evil has brought you? Only death!

Surrender now! And perhaps we let you live! you see what evil has brought you only death surrender now and perhaps we let you live and he's going and he gets his shield up in front of his face and we'll do total defense total defense nice nice tanking it right it is the

giant's turn and the giant will is the giant's turn. And the giant will take a five foot step back and toss Obscuring Mist between Sir

Will and Baron. Actually, let me see here. Is this the one that used Obscuring Mist? no it was the one that died so this is not Obscuring Mist it's a Fog Cloud that he'll put right between actually he'll put right on Baron

that does make a difference that it's Obscuring Mist versus Fog Cloud sure does he puts it on he couldn't even do that with Obscuring. Making a bit of a wall here so that neither Nestor or Baron will be able to fire ranged. It's just a big

bank of clouds in there. And that's what he's going to do for his turn. Meaning it's now Metra's turn. Okay. Metra is going to take a five-foot step, grab Nestor's arm,

and dimension Doris onto the table to give Nestor some... BAMF! We're just standing at the table like the dead scorched orcs are laying

down in their plates right in front of us. And we disappear right there. We appear in their desserts, dessert course. Standing in their consummates. It's very rude. You have the higher ground. Alright, so you dimension door to the top of the table. Does he have a direct line from there?

He sure does. Let me see where that fog is. Yeah, it's perfect for nestor just excellent just out of the range uh great well it is nestor's turn yeah it's a little mildly disoriented by the journey but he's getting used to it and he just like boom pulls two arrows out of his quiver his his many-arrowed quiver, his magic quiver. First attack. That is a 34 to hit. Oh, yeah.

Oh, 45 damage. Okay. All right. Second attack. That is a 32 to hit. Oh, yeah. Okay. 28 damage. Okay. 28 damage.

Okay. Third attack. Oh, come on. That is a 29 to hit. 29 hits. Oh, yes. Another 28 damage. Dead.

Yes! Yes! I told you it was the last one. You were right. You were right. You were right. I was wrong. It was actually a pretty interesting combat. Yeah, you made us work for that, LaValle.

I did make you work for it. You saw how dangerous it could get a lot of times. And I said this, was that last week or earlier this week? It's like, just make it go two rounds and bad shit can happen. And that one went, I think, four rounds, or we're in the fourth. I mean, that was a crit away, and you still weren't sure about its combat reflex situation.

Yeah. Oh, dude. That could get real hairy. If he had combat reflexes, that is scary. Yeah. It's game. That's game. I could have gotten a way worse fumble.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thank you, David. Go Rough Riders. Yeah. yeah i mean there are fumbles in there is like take whatever damage you just took if you provoked attack right exactly it's like yeah do many shot to yourself to your own eyeballs really interesting though too that it went back into a previous room and also like opened up a new room that could have easily had another enemy

in there i mean mean, really cool. And Baron was able to find a secret door throughout this. So now, backing out, you've got some options here. Obviously, there's that staircase you uncovered last week when you left the room with the orcs, but right now you're trying to focus on one level at a time, wiping out each threat on each level. So standing where you are now, the double door is leading out to the main entrance and then back to the battlements that Metru only spent time on the ethereal plane looking at. Now, you know that there's probably no enemies out there. At least there weren't when you walked on the ethereal plane.

But there might be information. There might be hidden stuff that she didn't see. Might be worth taking a peek. And also, Metro, you would know that in that area just outside of the barred door, there is a set of double doors to the south from there as well. So that's just something to think about. Then back in the original room where the fog cloud was issued, there's a door leading to the south. There was also a door leading to the east, which you now know leads to this Hall of Sunset, as opposed to the Hall of Sunrise. That room has a set of double doors leading to the south, and then a set of double doors leading to the east. So you've got one, two, three, four sets of doors leading places you don't know.

And then one set of double doors leading back to the main entrance in the battlements. And a secret door. And a secret door. What a good secret door. I feel compelled to mention now as we decide our next course of action, because I didn't want to say it in the moment because it was such a cool image of Sir Will hearing the gunshot and feeling the backup behind him. Those were silent gunshots.

I knew it when I said it, but it was a lot cooler. It was much cooler, but I just want to say in case now you're like, oh, someone heard the gunshots. So if they heard the fireball or something else, that's fine. He could still hear the snap of the bullet going by his ear. That crack. Or like the pop as it breaks through the skin of this giant going by his ear. That's the crack. Or like the pop as it breaks through the skin of this giant. It's just like, that makes a sound.

Yeah, I knew it right after I said it, but then I thought maybe Sir Will could just sense it. Very cool. Sense the sound. Can we see what's on these giants? Do they have anything cool? Yeah, so there's three of them. Obviously, they're huge, so their plus three chain shirts won't do you any good unless you want to take a few days to resize them

they each have potions of cure serious wounds oh sweet excellent so now we had four between that and the last company yeah let's all take one they each have these things known as boulder bags on them they're basically at any point

as a swift action a large or larger creature wearing the boulder bag can reach into the bag and pull out a rock, two size categories smaller than itself, that you can then use to throw. So it's kind of like a limitless bag of rocks to throw. And then they're all wearing, well, they have, like I said, gargantuan morning stars. And then they're all wearing, well, they have, like I said, gargantuan morning stars. They all are wearing these caps, which I will have you roll on. All right. Spellcraft.

I'm going to roll my new set of Norse foundry dice that I got in Indianapolis. Can I roll to aid you? Sure. What's your bonus to Spellcraft? Only plus 10. I wonder if they're capo de casas. I aid you. Well, we'll find out with Spellcraft.

Let's find out. 90, 15, so 27. They're called Cap of the Freethinker. This soft cap helps the wearer free herself from outside influences once per day when the wearer fails a saving throw against a mind affecting effect she can re-roll to save and take the second result oh that's great so and they're wondrous items so they will resize if you were to wear them i don't know if anybody has head slots i've got a headband on it's cool headband what do they do one more time uh you can re-roll a failed save against a mind-affecting effect once per day Ah

One thing I was thinking about The headslot Well, then eye slot That should be separate, though You should, like, because I'm wearing glasses doesn't mean I can't wear a hat A hair slot? No, it's an eye slot Oh, okay

Yeah, goggles are an eye slot Oh, yeah, I do have a headband on. Oh, then I'll take it. Okay, great. That might come in handy. The last thing you want is Nestor to get dominated. Does it look cool? It looks like a yarmulke.

Great, perfect. Well, yeah, Nestor has no hair, so. Nestor converts. It's a yarmulke with a Yankees insignia on it. Oh, no. We're in it. with a Yankees insignia on it. Oh, no.

We're in it. One thing I was thinking about, this is totally unrelated, but last week when you guys came to the door and you had just done it seconds earlier and I just was like, I'm not going to worry about it. But Sir Will had rolled a perception check,

I think, and failed it. And then you were like, why don't you check it? We really shouldn't do that. I never said that. Not you didn't say that, but you were like, somebody said, why don't you check? I didn't. Yeah, but then somebody else said it the time before. We really shouldn't do that, because Sir Will checked and failed. So it's like, you should

either aid on that check and see what you get, or play the fiction of like, sounds clear to me. But perception is passive a lot of the time, right? Yeah. Like, if you walk down the window that's like oh i i can't hear anything because i didn't roll perception i'm delegating all my senses to my friend for the moment he rolled first i agree with that on like chest like skill-based roles and things like that but not on perception yeah it's it's tricky because it's like

you wouldn't you should just do it instead of waiting to see if he fails because you don't know if he fails. He listened. You're like, oh, his ear wasn't close enough to the door. Let me try. How many battles have you said were only these people get to act in a surprise round because only they pass their perception checks? There are other instances where everyone, no one just takes the worst. They all rolled them, though. They didn't wait to say, hey, Johnny, did you pass your perception check?

Let me roll mine to here. We should just always just all do our own perception checks. That's the thing. It's like everybody should always roll your own this would be like this would be like a burning wheel thing where it's just like one of your habits is like always roll you know perceives yeah and board of the ember die had what they called door procedures and it was decided on with the gm ahead of time and it was a series of roles that specific characters did in a specific order and it was always assumed to be done and everybody just did their roles like that so it was never like oh you didn't check that time and it was trapped you know what i mean it's like they always assume that like this person checks and

this person checks every time and this person opens every time you know i love their practices yeah we gotta get them in here well that's it's it's what you get when you don't stop you know since you're like 11 years old yeah and and you all you do is pre-written that's it's it's what you get when you don't stop you know since you're like 11 years old yeah and and you all you do is pre-written modules so it's just like they're like this is how it works best to run with pre-written systems like dnd and pathfinder yeah they're true experts at tactics yeah absolutely and like door tactics everybody can agree are so the weight of of how important they are to like the livelihood of the party versus how onerous they can be to go through and do is like you need to have a system in place so everybody thinks it's fair and sometimes you can fail but like you don't get screwed by a

technicality well that's why it's important to play with other uh gms it's something we don't do a lot i play we play with i would love to get right but you've booked us up for all our possible gameplay no but like we don't like playing with strangers i don't want to speak for it's like i know it's not my favorite thing and some of ours but like you learn like being around stream well there's a pandemic yeah it was definitely the pandemic that changed that that's that's why he was never like that before the pandemic no i've talked about like i i played a lot before i met you guys but i never really enjoyed it as much as i did until i started playing with you guys i know i know i feel the

same way um it is nice though to see other people's styles because you're like wow i never thought of doing perception checks like that or i never never thought of revealing information in that way. So if you're out there, I highly suggest you play with lots of different groups. In the meantime, what does this group want to do? I'll show you, Baron, if you go to explore that secret door here, that it basically, there's a hallway behind it that leads all the way to a steel ladder and this is leading into the same area as the fire pit ladder so they really kind of put a lot of secret crap in this one little shaft at this castle shut your mouth um sorry real quick only talking about just talking about the chef sorry before we get into

it real quick uh healing yeah um i also have a wand now you're fine charge your head i'm gonna i'm gonna fire off one uh channel positive just to since it can heal all of us and that's for 35 thank you so a quick 35 but then i'm still down enough that i would love some wand hits i also need to rest i'm like my spell would love some wand hits. I also need to rest. My spell situation is getting perilously low. If you need to rest, we don't need to use any wand slots. I can heal everybody up. I think I would appreciate a rest.

If you want to push forward just to check it, I can do the ethereal cloak and go up the ladder and see what's going on up there. Let's do that. Aren't you already spent on that? No, that was just a couple of minutes. I think. 10 minutes a day. No, he haven't used it today. So if you want to on that no that's only like oh that's minutes i think 10 minutes a day right no you haven't used it today yeah um so if you want to do that but then i'm like i'm really down on especially like my why don't we just rest because there's no need for you to like get caught

in some there were ethereal creatures in this castle there's no need for you to get caught in a really bad situation well if we do it now i i won't i can have the ethereal cloak for tomorrow right i know but if you get caught in a weird situation, someone that can see ethereal or someone that... And you don't have spells to fight. That's up to you. I have a couple spells, but I've gone up to go into another one of those combats. Enough to escape. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's let

Maitreya... I'll be in the bathroom. Let me know how it all works out. Alright, I will cast Fly on myself and use my ethereal cloak and i'll fly up the ladder joe do you think that's a good idea joe your thoughts on joe light joe okay he just turned around the door of the bathroom and gave us a double thumbs up big ass ladder just like the last one it would be a climb checks if you were going to climb it, but instead you are flying on the ethereal plane up.

Look at me, way up high. Look at this, I'm getting all kinds of musical theater references in this episode. God damn it. Question. Yes, it is from Peter Pan. When you're on the ethereal plane. Yes, I'll perform it at your child's birthday party yes if you pay for the flying by four i will get in the harness and do all the original choreography when you're on the

ethereal plane do you have to cast fly can't you just move in any direction there's no gravity in the ethereal plane right is there no gravity in the field couldn't you just move in any direction? There's no gravity in the ethereal plane, right? Is there no gravity in the ethereal plane? Couldn't you just go in the ethereal plane and just be like... I don't know, actually. I don't know if you can, like, propel yourself. Unless... Yeah, I don't know how that works. Ethereal plane, Nethis.

The seat of emotional forces mistrouted home of haunts and horrors. The ever-present doorway between the worlds of the inner sphere. Skip to the end. I know. You're going to read the whole explanation of the ethereal plane, even if we don't know it has the answer? A quick control F shows nothing about gravity. It's a traveler in the ethereal plane experiences the real world

as if the world were an insubstantial ghost that can move through solid objects without being seen in the real world. So it doesn't say anything about flying, but I still have to walk. So if I can fly, I can go through all kinds of ceilings. You fly up there. You get to the top and you see a hallway

that looks just like the hallway that led to the bottom of the shaft. You continue out. Yeah. You continue out. Yeah. You walk out. And you enter. How far up was it? Like, based on...

Because we've been to a bunch of these floors. Yeah, same distance between the floor with the orcs and the floor with the fire giants. Okay. Okay. So you walk out. And as you get to the end of the hallway, the space that you walk into suddenly appears like there are no walls or ceiling.

And even when you look back, there's no wall there. and even when you look back, there's no wall there. You just see the hole in the open sky leading to where the secret door is. And you look all around you, up, down, to the left, to the right, and it's just wide open space of sky. In the middle of this huge area, you see two cloud-shaped lanterns hanging in the middle of the space, casting light. Of course, all this is black and white. It's black and white clouds.

It's black and white light coming out of these. Looks like in the distance, there is a break in this with stairs leading further up. It's very, very strange because you feel like it's a room, but everywhere you look, open sky on five sides. And there is a stone beneath your feet. Oh, so stone beneath my feet. You're not floating, free floating. Got it. I'll keep

flying on the ethereal plane and go up the stairs. To the next level? Yeah. I mean, I'm flying. I can move pretty fast. Okay. Look at me, way up high. Flying! Flying! So you're moving across.

How much time do you have? 10 minutes, 10 minutes. All right. So you're taking all this in and you keep going up. Yeah. It's going on. I wonder if this was like the,

is this like the cloud engineers, uh, like Vader's regeneration chamber. Yeah. Yeah. It's where they came to just like sit and process and meditate you keep going up and it is a long long staircase so you realize when you get to the top you're not gonna have much time you're gonna turn around get back down unless you want to come off of

the ethereal plane at any point okay so you keep going up and eventually at the top of the staircase it opens on to a sentry turret. And you look out, and you see that this turret rises high above the castle's roof. And you look below, and it looks like there's a hanging garden or something over the edge.

And inside of the turret is a giant-sized stool and a silver bell hanging from a hook in the ceiling. There's a single arrow loop that looks out on the sky. Arrow loop? Arrow. What is a loop? Arrow loop.

So it's a slit you can fire an arrow from, from a castle, right? Yeah. Looks out on the sky below and through the arrow loop you see a hanging garden below. Hmm. And then a long walkway west.

I'm going down the walkway. I go down the walkway. You're running out of time. Okay. You go down the walkway and there's a set of steps that goes up and starts to turn. Okay.

I keep going. Keep going. Yeah. Okay. You keep walking and you realize if you go any further, you will come off the ethereal plane on your way back. Okay. Okay.

So you keep walking and eventually uh another long walkway you know what i'm just gonna take you to the map oh yeah because i'm having a hard time putting this together in my head the bell is really interesting to me yeah yeah is it a warning bell is it like a magical chime do you have detect magic can you just detect magic on the bell i don't know if i can detect it from the ethereal plane, though. You should, right? Magic exists in every plane, bro. Stop being weird.

Can I take six seconds? Could I have taken six seconds to detect magic on the bell? Sure. On the way, I detect magic on the bell. Okay. Joe insists that magic exists on the ethereal plane. Bro. All right, I'm going to walk you through this here.

I didn't think you just gave exploring, but I want to show you what you see. So, first, the room with sky surrounding. You see? Obviously, I can't change this to black and white, but you see it's a huge room with those two lanterns, cloud lanterns floating, and sky surrounding it everywhere except on the far end of the room

with a staircase leading up. What I didn't mention is that when you get to the staircase and you look back, there's another hallway that goes and ends at a door leading north. That seems to be the only two exits from this room, with the exception of the ladder. So you walk up the stairs. Let's go to another map. I fly. You fly up the stairs.

And when you do, you arrive where I'm pinging here in this small little sentry turret okay that's the bell that is the bell and that overlooks a enormous courtyard below which you know this is kind of fun i wasn't going to do this but i think it'll be fun for you it will reveal uh sort of the bird's eye view of the hanging gardens of the hanging gardens i'm excited for the hanging gardens i've really been looking forward to the hell oh my god beautiful trees that cool that is very cool so you can get a quick glimpse of it and actually from this angle it looks like you're in an ethereal haze yeah it's like uh yeah man this is like dark souls like when you get to the higher tiers you look down at the places you were they put like that fade effect on it you know so like it's through like a almost like a cloudy haze that's right yeah that's sort of like atmospheric

haze yeah yeah to show the distance yeah yeah I love that. This map is a beast. And detect magic on the bell. Ah, yes. Detect magic on the bell in the sentry turret. Yeah. Maybe you just go like ping. And inside it's like. Whomp.

Whomp. Klaxons. Yeah. The klaxons. He's going to be like, it's not magical. Sorry. Waste of time. It's the bell room.

Oh, this is where we keep our mundane bell with no special attributes. We have someone standing here with the mundane bell and watching over the hanging gardens. And when the trees begin to flower, we ring the bell. It's not magical. Really? Wow. Damn it. You walk along.

It's the tree flower bell. You keep walking along here and you go up this little circular staircase that leads to another long walkway that ends in another, you know, sort of century station that looks like it's been turned into a stable. There's an enormous archway at the end of the arc, uh, the hallway that leads into this, uh, circular room that is completely open to the sky on the Southwestern portion.

And the floor is almost completely occupied by two huge bird nests, tree trunks and, and twisted interwoven branches. What? All right, I've seen enough. I go back. Yeah, man. There are so many imposters in this place. Weird.

Like, they have got to get their house in order. I know. There's also, you see, half of the ceiling overhead is open to a mezzanine above, and there's two steel poles extending upward to an overhanging ledge above. Oh. Well, for one last thing, I'll just fly straight up to take a peek. Oh, this guy and his peeps. Dude, you are getting really far away. Pushing it.

It's another 60 feet. That's six seconds. feet that's one that's six seconds uh you go uh up again and you see a small ledge um and it's like a half floor because the rest of it is opening up to look down on the uh the nest below uh and there are four hooks up on this ledge with gigantic saddles. Attack. Oh, dragon riding the fucking saddles. Yeah. Amazing.

Or some sort of giant bird. Or giant bird. All right. Metro will now make her way back down. And when she gets to the point at which she knows that she's about to enter the material plane once more, she will dimension door herself

back to the ladder. Okay. And so you get back. Dear friends. What was it like? I tell them all about it. What did you see? The hanging gardens were quite beautiful. Hanging gardens. It's been so long since I've seen them. And they have a bell.

I wasn't quite able to ascertain what the purpose of the bell was, but I think you ring it when the trees begin to flower and will soon bear fruit. No. What would you think? I don't know. Just someone who likes bells.

It was a single bell. It's not like the hand bells. Maybe they just started liking bells. And they're building a collection. You've got to start somewhere. You're absolutely right. It could have been the first of a collection. That's what it is.

Nailed it. Did you ring the bell? Of course not. Oh. I never ring another person's bell. Bells do not ring on the ethereal plane, Sheriff. Oh. I have ring another person's bell. You must not ring on the ethereal plane, Sheriff. Oh. I have much to learn.

Great, so are we going to rest? Yeah. Immediately rest. Immediately rest. Where do you go? Back down. Back to God's room? Yeah.

Were we sleeping in the spider's nest that we blocked off with the building wire or no? I think we did once, but we're sleeping in Back to God's room? Yeah. Were we sleeping in the spider's nest that we blocked off with the building wire, or no? I think we did once, but we're sleeping in the... God's room? God's room. God's plan. All right, so you go all the way back down to the first floor. Through the fireplace. Through the fireplace.

Take the shortcut, and you get back down there, and you rest. You wake up eight hours later or maybe longer because you need to take turns watching out for each other. Make sure nobody comes in. I'm assuming we heal up and do all this. Yeah, healing up won't be an issue.

Do all that stuff. And what do you want to do? You've got a lot of different options. There's one door off of the sunrise room leading unknown. A set of double doors off of the sunrise room leading unknown, a set of double doors off of the sunrise room leading back out to the entrance and the battlements, and then a set of double doors leading out of the sunset room to the south and to the east.

Single. Single sunrise south. That sounds like my hotel accommodations. Single in the sunrise south, please. Two nights. These saddles you saw, Mitra, are they easily reachable by us? Or were you required to fly to reach them? It's a fair distance away, but

I can't encounter a single creature in my path. Well, on the ethereal plane. Well, I see the creatures that are on the material plane. Not in Troy's world. Oh yeah, not the ethereal plane creatures. I didn't see any ethereal

plane creatures. I just wonder if it may not throw a wrench into their plans to simply throw the saddles overboard. It's not a bad idea. If there's no saddle to ride and you're not properly trained, your mount will not be such a smooth ride. Yes, it may at least make their ride more difficult and onerous. But you're a trained rider. How would you fare on top of Lexington? Are you wearing a saddle on top of Lexington?

Always, man. Not so well, Sheriff. I think you'd be surprised at how difficult it is without proper training. Also, there are a great deal, there are a great many magical saddles in the world that help you far beyond what I have here. They also might be...

You did detect magic on the saddles. Of course I did. And? Don't worry about it. Well, if we're postulating that these saddles might be used on flying creatures, they might be even more necessary for the rider in case it were to go upside down or have any other type of aerial maneuver. They might even fall off. It might be impossible to do what they want to do on those mounts.

That's a smart idea, Will. If there is some sort of way to do this tactically without being seen or without putting yourself in too much danger, or I could do it if you'd cast fly on fly on me i don't know it's it's interesting i don't know why don't we do sunrise single south yeah do that because i just don't feel like sabotaging saddles is maybe a priority but i'm not the tactical genius that you lot are so i also don't believe it's more than a few-minute enterprise. It would take a lot.

It would take us past that bell, all kinds of things that I don't know it is. Why don't we do it before we go to bed tonight? Yeah, let's do that later in the day. I'll hold you to that, Metro. Yeah. I'll lend you my cloak, and I'll cast Fly on you,

and for a nightcap, you can go to bed. Yeah, or like after tea, but before supper. I hate to say this, and I'll cast fly on you and for a nightcap you can go yeah like throw the saddles or like after tea but before like supper I hate to say this but this saddle mission feels like the botanical gardens

on the last vacation I went on we kept on putting it off and putting it on and then it never happens never happened never happened exactly

we'll never see the hanging gardens if we don't commit to doing it we always do the saddle sabotage next trip isn't that always the way? You live in the flying castle your entire life, and you never see...

The hangar. Unless someone comes to visit, and then... Let's just go through the single door. Yep. All right. Baron will do the perception check at the door this time. As will I, Nestor. As will I, Metor. As will I,

Metra. I will not. I don't stand for such things. Baron concentrating on things happening on the other side of the door. Maybe Nestor's more focusing on his trapsy-wapsies. Yes, I will listen through the door and not look for traps and I rolled a 40. I I roll a 40 I rolled a 40 I rolled a 40 against traps

what wow no traps and you hear nothing and it looks unlocked well I had fun because we all rolled a 40 that was a fun moment a real high point in the history of the show it's never happened before I don't think no I'm sure it hasn't three people rolling 40s at

the exact same time it's happened ever yeah but numbers don't mean anything matthew let's just open the door yep you open the door and you see a room oh small room little door leading to the west another one of those that's the east excuse me the east thank you small room, little door leading to the west. Another one of those. That's the east. Excuse me, the east, thank you. Another one of those triangular alcoves looking out, perhaps on the hanging gardens. Is it?

Perhaps. Perhaps. Which makes you think now that the double set of doors off of the main entrance that only you, Metra, saw on the ethereal plane probably lead to the Hanging Gardens. We could visit. But now we know that people have good lines of sight on us in that garden from up high. It's true. In this room, however, it's a little bit different. The walls of the room are lined with decorative wooden panels that you would think would enhance the acoustics of this room, perhaps used for meetings back in the day when this was Zephyr Hall.

There's a large round table surrounded by eight padded, high-backed chairs. And this is like Jack and the Beanstalk size. If you wanted to get to the table you'd have to climb on the chairs to get up to the top of the table and you might want to do that because atop the table you see a faintly luminous

glass globe and we'll see we will definitely see you next week oh my god oh that's so cool throw a cover over it

oh my goodness so cool globe love you The Glass Cannon Podcast is a Glass Cannon Network production and is an officially licensed partner of Paizo Incorporated. Giant Slayer is copyright 2015. Giant Slayer and the Pathfinder Adventure Path are trademarks of Paizo. All Pathfinder images are property of Paizo and are used with permission.