Uu'Nastal

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

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I'm Jason. I'm the Dungeon Master. Going around the table, starting with Lisa. Hey, I'm Lisa and I'm going to be playing Elorath Beestinger, the halfling barbarian. And Karen. Hi, I'm Karen. I play Evelyn Haywood, a human ranger. And Laron. Hi, I'm Laron and I play Cole Dulphang, a long-toothed shifter druid. And Sarah Beth. Hi, I'm Sarah Beth and I play Aaron Blue-Collar, a human bard. And Valerie. Hi, I'm Valerie and I play Sor Greywing, the halfling ranger. And Kira. I'm Kira. I play Ingrid Pike, a gnome sorcerer. Okay. Last time on the show, you guys got to the town of Balbrey and you started to get settled in.

You didn't really get any sleep. You were, you know, a little bit of rest. And the town was attacked by vampires. Sor kind of ran out into the night to shoot down a couple of the vampires that were fighting this red-headed paladin. And Evelyn accompanied her. You guys had a chat about that right afterwards. And then you decided to try and help this lady out as she chased down two villagers that were taken into the night. So two townspeople that were kidnapped. You managed to track down one of them in this network of caves. You ended up facing wave after wave of vampires.

Not exactly something you were shooting for, but that did happen. So how about we pick things up right after that? The fight is over. You guys are, you're done. What would you like to do? What are we coming here for again? This isn't character. I'm pretty sure that there's a person over there. Oh, shit. Right. You're right. Where is she? She would be in the middle of this ring of corpses, really. Just sort of lying there at the very least unconscious. Do me a favor, roll a perception check. Okay. Nat 20! Come here, lady. I will see everything about you. Hey! So everyone's going to pick this up as you approach her.

She is very much alive. She is still breathing. Elarath is going to notice a lot of scrapes and cuts, but no bite marks. So they did not get a chance to feed on this woman. Oh, thank God. So you did manage to save her life. Is she conscious? She is unconscious right now. She is going to live. She only lost a little bit of blood, and that was mostly due to scrapes. Probably going to get a few bruises out of this, and we'll probably be sore for a little bit. But yeah, she will most certainly live, thanks to you guys. Should we wake her up? How do you do that? Do you just roll a heal check or something?

Like, splash some water on her? Slap her face? Yeah, I mean, you have to- I was going to say punch her in the face. Punch her. Pick her. Poke her with a stick. Let's not punch her in the face. Oh my gosh. I think she's been through enough already. Okay, Eren's going to go down and kneel next to her and give her a gentle shake on the shoulder because I'm horrified at these suggestions. And so I'm going to shake her on the shoulder and say, "Ma'am, are you okay? Are you okay?" And I'll roll a heal check on her, if that's needed. She has come back, she is healed, she can walk and run and she can leap over tall buildings.

She will fly us back to Aubrey on wings of majestic evil. Damn. I rolled a crit, so there we go. She is healed. My god. She's going to come to and she is going to start to panic immediately and start to scramble. She's sort of crab-walking backwards, just trying to scoot away from you. And as she does, she is going to sort of tumble backwards over the body of the elder vampire that you guys killed and start to roll over. And she's just freaking out, just trying to get away from everybody that's sort of around her. I'm going to kind of put my hands up in a very non-threatening gesture and say, "Hey, you're okay now.

You're safe. The vampires are gone and we came to help you." And you might not want to sit on that. It's going to take her a couple of seconds. And she's going to get through to her that you don't mean her any harm, you're not here to hurt her. And you don't look like the vampires that kidnapped her. And she is going to start to move toward you and get away from that body. And she's going to reach her hand up just to try and get some help standing. I will reach my hand out to grab her hand to kind of pull her up. As I do that, though, Hunter is going to run down my arm towards my hand to just kind of check her out.

Right, that's not helping the situation. That is not. So she's going to stand up and Hunter's going to run down your arm and she's going to jerk her hand back reflexively because it's a rat. And that's not the most welcome sight for somebody. Rude. She's been through a lot. She's going to get a hold of herself because I'm guessing Hunter didn't leap at her or anything. No, no, no. He's like on my wrist. He just throws a hand on my hand and he wanted to sniff it. Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm not even going to realize why she jerked back so suddenly for a second. Like because he's such a part of me that I'm not really going to it's not going to register.

So I feel like what the hell is your problem? Oh, OK. I get it. Yeah, sure. Whatever. Rude. She's going to look around at all of you, just sort of take you in. And it's all kind of illuminated by dim torchlight. Who are you? My name is Erin and these are my my friends. And I'm going to gesture to you guys and I'm going to say that we we came into Aubrey to meet up with somebody and saw you guys got carried off by vampires. And so my friend Sora here took care of the vampires and Aubrey. And we followed a woman to this cave to see if we could help get you back.

OK. Are you OK? Again, she's looking herself over and just seeing all the scrapes and the first thing she's doing is checking yourself out. Was I bitten? Like that's the first thing she's checking her neck. She's she's. It's OK. You haven't been bitten. It's OK. Even if you were bitten, I got a nat 20. You're good. Not quite how it works. I'm pretty sure that's how it works, Jason. Pretty sure. She's so after she gets done, she's she's checking herself out. And she is going to wrap her arms around around Aaron. And almost start to sob like this is a huge relief.

That's usually a death sentence to this has happened before in Aubrey. And that's that's usually a death sentence, especially if they get you back to a place where they're I mean, that's where they congregate. That's where they that's where they live. That's that's yeah. She would have been torn apart. OK. Yeah. Moment of moment of startlement. And I'm going to look over at the group and as I kind of like pat her back and I'm sure look at the group and be like, ah. Cole's just going to just lightly chuckle with his arms folded. She's going to let go after after after a bit.

Just sort of wipe its ear away from her eye. I'm Jessica. Thank you. Thank you all so much. You saved my life. Well, if you want to keep it, we should probably get the fuck out of this cave. Yeah, nice, Cole. You're so comforting. Oh, God, I'm just real. I'm just saying, can we get out of here? Yeah. And you say that the realization that you're still standing in the cave surrounded by dead bodies is it's like, yeah, let's let's get she's going to start making making for the entrance. So is going to pipe up and say we still haven't met up with the one we ran after.

Where do we think she might be? Did she go the other direction? I swear if she went into the other cave. We have to go find her. Yeah. Is there anything else in this cave? Would you like to explore it? Like, I mean, would you? Well, it seems like we should probably take a look. Do me a favor. Roll perception just to just to check out the rest of the cave. See if you can pick up the trail. Just Ingrid or everybody? Anybody. I would say I was going to say the one person with no modifier to the perception. Oh, yeah. 17. Let's see. Sora and Ellorath are going to notice that the trail you guys were following stops dead right where this woman was laying and common sense would dictate that if the woman you are following isn't here, she must have went the other direction where the path deviated earlier.

OK, we need to get her back into town, though. And I don't know how well we'd be able to handle another fight in this condition. Especially if we split up. Yeah. Are you talking about this in front of her? Yes, I am. Sora is not going to go back to town without finding this other person. So I'm staying with with Sora because I don't think that we should we should leave her alone and I don't think that we should split up. So I think that Jessica should if she wants to stay with us and Jessica is going to have to come along for for another few minutes to figure out what's going on in the other cave.

That's not going to fly with her. It doesn't make much sense to, you know, save her life just to throw her into a cave of vampires again. Well, she would honestly run the town. Yeah. After hearing you guys talk about it, she would just she would just suggest that she runs back to town. That's that she can she can make it. OK. Yeah. I mean, that was my next suggestion. I just wasn't sure if she was OK with being by herself. So, OK. Yeah. Let's I think we should go for the other cave. We should say that she thinks this is a terrible idea. Like, I know that was the purpose of coming out here, but we just got swarmed by how many vampires.

And there's potentially an entire cave full of them that we haven't found yet. Is this really what we want to do? Yes. Did you see what almost happened to Ella Raff and what happened and what almost happened to Evelyn? I'm all for saving as many lives as possible. We can't save people if we're dead. And Cole's just going to like throw both of his arms, hands toward Ingrid as if to say what she said. I also promised to help her. But we did. We got her gesturing at the figure running away. Did you see how many fuckers we actually killed? Well, I should say that Ingrid actually killed.

But did you see how many fuckers that we actually killed? We did a good job. To the Batcave. So I want to ask the party. I want to ask the party because it sounds like we're divided on this. Is that what you want to go do? Do you want to follow this other path and see where it leads? Because you don't know exactly where it leads and you don't know what you're going to find at the end of it. Exactly. And from what we found out when we first decided between this route or the other, this one had the better chance of our damsel, for lack of better words, to still be alive.

We don't necessarily know if the other one that was taken was because from what whoever made the check, they were unconscious from what we found out. There wasn't that much of a struggle. So I don't know. And from all the time we spent here, who knows what would have happened during that time that has passed? If we take a vote, if the vote comes out that most everyone wants to go back to town, are Sora and Eren going to go anyways? I'm going to go no matter what. Which means that Eren will go. I don't like- out of character, Sarah Beth does not want to go.

Sarah Beth wants to go back to Aubrey, but Eren will go with Sora. So, sorry. Elorath's probably going to go over there by Sora and just like look at everybody else and be like, I'll go with them. Well, Evelyn's not going to let you guys go off by yourself. So if you're determined to go, she'll go with you. But she is not- extremely not happy. Ingrid, I feel like us being the odd people out are going to be a thing. It seems like it, but we- I don't want to let them go on their own. I just don't think this is a very good idea. We're not prepared for this at all, guys.

Have you taken that into consideration? We'll be less prepared if you don't go with us. Oh fuck, I knew you were going to say that. Alright. Ingrid? Let's go. Okay. If we go, guys, and it's too much, we have to make a decision to stay or to go. We can't stay there so long that we're going to get ourselves killed. Like we need- if we're going to get in, we're going to get in and assess the situation. And if something we can't handle, I think we need to leave. No matter what. I completely agree. That's the only way I'm willing to go along with this. We have to- it's all well and good to want to save people, but we aren't going to save anyone if we're dead.

I'm going to- We need to at least use some amount of sense. I'll agree with that and I'll look at Sora and I'll say, some of us can't stay as far back as you do and stay as far out of hitting range. So I think that it's best that if things look to be out of control, please, please agree to turn back with us. I can't promise anything, but as of right now, I will agree to that. Aaron will agree. We'll turn to the party and shrug and say that I am- I'm going with Sora so that she is not going alone. But if it is more than we can handle, then I will abandon ship with you guys.

So you guys are backtracking and going the- you're going to where the trail split off. I guess. Reluctantly. Yeah, I was about to say, you guys sound excited. Do me a favor, everyone, roll a perception check. Again, as mentioned before, there are networks of these caves kind of sprinkled throughout this portion of Theria. This one is much more noticeable than the last one you went through. Coming up on it, you can see where the trail definitely leads in here and you will see a very distinctive set of boot prints that you're guessing were left behind by the redheaded woman.

Because the other set seems to be locked- lockstep with the person they were dragging. Specifically, Cole and Aaron are going to hear a man screaming coming from this- coming from this cavern. You're also going to hear- you're also going to hear a woman shouting at something in the darkness. But this sounds much more assertive, like she's fighting something, not- not out of fear. The man's voice is definitely out of fear. Can we make out what they're saying? What it sounds like- and again, this is very echoey, you're outside and it's tough to hear. But what it sounds like is this woman shouting unhand him.

Okay. I look at everybody. I think the paladin is still alive. Can I like sneak in and try and see what's happening? You can definitely try, yeah. Okay, do you want me to roll a stealth check then? Please do, yes. No, stop, come back. Okay, that's a 16. Running into this cave, everyone roll a perception check for me please. Ah, almost a crit. 26. I am powering behind Cole's knees. Evelyn, Cole, and Sora. Evelyn, Cole, and Sora, everyone is going to be- well everyone except Ingrid is going to notice the figure standing at the far end of this cave. And it is a lone half-orc.

And there are a few bodies that have been cut down around him. They appear to be vampires. The half-orc himself is a bit more pale than a lot of vampires you've seen before. And he is holding a blonde man by the throat. The paladin standing in front of him, the red-haired woman, is shouting at him to let him go, to put him down. There's a lot of authority in her voice. She is not afraid of this thing at all. And after a moment, the entire time, this vampire half-orc is just staring down. Staring down the barrel here at this red-headed woman. And he is a considerable size.

Half-orcs normally have a really good build to them. But he appears to be at least 6'5". And after a moment, he is going to break the neck of this gentleman and then plunge his fangs into the side of his neck. Incredibly aggressively. There's nothing- it doesn't even appear as though he's trying to get the most blood out of it. He is just sinking his fangs and then he is going to rip back and there is going to be a gaping wound. And then he is going to toss the body down just in time for this paladin to run in and start to slash. What would you guys like to do?

Oh my god. Sora's frozen. Okay, so have either of them seen us yet? Do we have any sort of element of surprise? If he has seen you, he has not given any indication. Okay. I'm mortified right now by that imagery. I was like, "Nope. Nope. What the fuck?" That's a lot of nope. So, we're leaving? Yeah. We're leaving. I don't- I don't- Were we all close enough to see that or was it only Sora who had stung up there? Yeah, I didn't know that so- You would all see that. The sound of his neck snapping is a bit- that's a bit more- Okay. That's the higher perception. That'd be Evelyn, Cole, and Eren.

He just broke his neck. Let's get the fuck out of here. Cole's just running a commentary on the whole thing. I'm sorry, I just- Lisa moved her character backwards a step and I really loved that. I'm gonna look at Sora and I'm gonna say, "Now can we go?" In a very soft voice. Very soft voice. "How can we go?" Sora won't say anything back. She's just staring at the man with his neck broken. Okay, so Eren's gonna look back at the rest of the group and say, "Time to go." And grab Sora. Well, across the cave here, you're going to watch this paladin furiously swipe at this vampire with her sword.

This vampire is going to beat her to the punch every single time and raise his gauntlet just in time. He's just standing there waiting for her to swing and each time he's going to raise his gauntlet and block her sword strike every single time. She's going to swing again and again and you're going to hear this clang, this god-awful merciless clanging over and over again, echoing in the cave. Bye. I hate to sound like a pussy, but I don't want to be here. I don't either, but we're here, so Ingrid is going to try and help. I'm moving forward the five spaces so that I'm in range and I'm going to attack him with lightning strike.

Okay. That is gonna hit. Okay, so not that it matters because I did no damage. Six damage. Okay. Everyone do me a favor and roll initiative. My fucking god, we were trying to avoid this. Yeah, well, lightning strike. I can't just stand there and watch somebody get slaughtered. We weren't going to watch. We were going to leave. We weren't going to watch. We were going to leave. Almost a crit. Fuck. I just wanted to take a minute to appreciate that I got a nat one on that when I didn't want to be here. I should roll some initiative. This vampire lord is going to at first he's it almost looks as though he is playing with this this paladin.

And she is going to continue again. There does not this does not seem to be any quit or tire in her. And she is going to continue to thrust and swing and spin. And each time he blocks every third or fourth strike, he'll almost playfully take a swing at her. But there is so much speed and grace in his movement that it's it would be terrifying to someone who doesn't face off against these things on a daily basis. And she will she will spin and dodge each time until she finally catches him right above the rib area. And that is that is just after Ingrid strikes him with with lightning.

It calls the momentary distraction that this woman needed to sink her blade into him. And he is going to wince. And now he is going to start to really attack. Twenty nine to her AC. This is going to this is going to strike her. So this vampire is going to lash out with his claws. He's got the he's got this. He's ridiculously armored for for a vampire. And he is going to reach out and rake her right across the face. And she is going to stumble back one space as a result. That'll bring up Aaron. I am just going to do a ranged basic attack after I target him.

A nope. That is going to miss. All right. That'll end my turn. All right. So your turn. Okay. Sora is going to target the vampire. That is going to miss. I'm going to action point. Okay. And use careful attack on the vampire. So twice, Sora is going to fire an arrow very carefully, take a measured take measured aim and release arrows. And each time the vampire seemingly paying almost no attention to the party is going to block each one of these with his gauntlet. Very flippantly, almost like he is giving this no thought whatsoever. Elorath, your turn. Okay. Elorath is going to take a second and just be like, are we doing this?

Like nobody says no. She's going to move. She's going to activate defender aura first off, actually. She's going to double move right up here next to the vampire lord. Okay. Cole, your turn. I am using. Yeah, I am using wild shape turning into my wolf form and I'm moving eight spaces this way. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Right behind the boulder. And that will end my turn. For those of you who can't see at home, Cole is running away. It looks as though he is so far. That's what it looks like. Too soon to tell. I have my map minimized so I can fit it on my screen with the my character sheet.

So he just completely left my map. He's about as far away from the vampire lord as he could possibly be while remaining in cave. Nice. All right. I am going to target the vampire lord. I am going to actually use an encounter power, so I'm going to use whirlwind. Now, whirlwind is actually a burst area. Burst one within 10 squares. And I can choose not to target a creature in the origin square of the burst. So the burst is going to start from Elrath. And I missed. That is going to miss the vampire lord. Okay. And that is the end of my turn. All right. Evelyn, your turn.

Okay. Evelyn is going to look over to Cole like, what the fuck are you doing? And then she's going to move down here to and then I will target the vampire lord and do a basic ranged missed. Cool. Heroic effort. Heroic effort will hit. Okay. Awesome. I guess that's it for me. Vampire lord's turn. He is going to hold out his hand in an outstretched motion. And this close Elrath can see that his eyes are this penetrating red. It's not like any half-orc she's ever seen. Or vampire for that matter. And he's going to hold his hand outstretched toward the paladin. There's going to be a spike that jettisons from his gauntlet attached to a chain and it's going to fire out at her.

I have a vengeful guardian opportunity action. But I don't think it interrupts. So I think it'll just be afterwards. Sorry. Okay. So let's see if this hits her first. 22. That is going to miss her. So this is going to fire out at this paladin and she is going to block it with her sword at the very last second. It just says the trigger is that the person makes an attack. So I get to make a melee basic attack against him as a free action. Go right ahead. Sweet. Okay. Oh my god. That is going to miss. Guys, I just missed with a 25. Fuck. Aaron, your turn. I'm going to try and range basic attack him again.

Yeah. That is a 12. That is going to miss. I'm going to turn to the person closest people closest to me. Evelyn Ingrid. And I'm going to look and I'm going to say, guys, I think we are seriously, seriously outgunned in this fight. I don't think that we can help. I say that we go. Ingrid's going to look at her and say, I really agree. None of us can hit this guy. OK. All right. So I am going to am I allowed to action point and move twice? Sure. So one, two, three, four, five. And if I action point, that will take me completely out of this cave. Yes, it will. So, Sora, your turn.

I am going to use careful attack against the vampire lord. OK, that will hit damage and underscore damage. OK, anything else? No. Elarath, your turn. I would like to try something. OK, I have this thing called Stonebreaker. And I would like to try it because we had talked about it. It says you get a plus five bonus to strike checks against to break objects. And we had discussed it being a neck. Oh, OK. I'd like to try. You want to try and reach up and break this guy's neck? I don't think it'll work, but I want to try. No, I that's that's totally fine. Yeah. She wants to.

Yeah. She's like, OK, so Elarath is horrified right now, but like she can't let this lady be in here by herself. So she's going to try and break this dude's neck. So I'm going to mark that off. OK. And then it's a plus five to strength checks. So do I roll? You're going to roll the strength check from your character sheet. So you go to your main and then. OK, so strength. And then so that would be twenty six. Twenty six. Elarath is going to sort of jump up and grab this guy's head and then wrench it. And you are going to hear an ungodly snap. And his head is going to go limp for just a moment.

Oh, no. And then he is going to reach his hand. Oh, that's around Elarath's throat, and he's going to give his head a shake and you're going to hear a second snap. And he is going to start to stretch his neck out as he regains control of his head. And his eyes are going to level with Elarath's. And that dark, deep red stare is going to feel like it's penetrating you. Oh, Cole, your turn. I'm out of this fucking cave. All right. Cole has been removed from combat. Ingrid, your turn. All right. I am going to try one attack before I use my move action to get as far away as possible.

I am going to target the vampire lord with stormwalk. That is a crit. OK. And so that should do max damage. So eight plus my charisma modifier. OK. And then I am going to move back my entire five, but stormwalk, since it hit, I don't think it has any additional thing it does. The effect before or after the attack, you shift one square. So I get an extra. Yeah. So you're right near the entrance of the cave. All right. And that is the end of my turn. Evelyn, your turn. I'm so torn. I'm going to make a basic ranged. It's going to miss. I'm going to move towards the entrance back to where I was.

And then. So end of the round here. The paladin is going to regain her footing and she is going to use sacrificial lunge. That is a crit one. She is going to step forward and try to plunge her sword into this vampire's chest, and he is going to deflect it with his gauntlet. Vampire lord's turn. Still holding Ellorath. He is going to try and rake his claws one more time against against the paladin to try and shake her off. That is 30 versus her AC. That will most definitely hit. And that is 29 damage. Since he attacked somebody else, even though I'm held, does that mean I get to use my vengeful guardian thing?

You do, actually. Even though you're held, you can still swing. All right. Let's try it. Melee basic attack. That's a 14. That's going to miss. I was really hoping for a crit. I was like. That would have been great. So you're just trying to swing over the top and hit him in the head. Ellorath, do me a favor. Roll a perception check, please. OK. Go! There's my crit! Fuck! My fucking god, are you serious? Super serial. Ugh. From the back of this cave. Oh, god damn it. There is going to be a white blast. A sort of concentrated glow that is going to rocket from the back, and it's going to strike this vampire dead.

Dead in the sternum. This vampire is going to drop Ellorath to the ground, fly back, and strike the wall behind him. Sora, your turn. Um, she was ready to fire another arrow. And then the white light came. And now she's just looking around, trying to figure out what just happened. Oh my god. Is that Bree? Um, that would be Bree, yeah. Telling you guys a secret, that was the exact round she was going to come in at. Like, you survived. Ellorath probably would have died. Oh my god, that was perfect. So Sora would see this frail figure kind of blast at that vampire just before it happened.

Okay. Sora's gonna put her bow down and kind of look bewildered and just say, "Brianna?" She is going to turn back to the party. Get everyone out now. Okay. Ingrid is going to take that as her cue to leave. I'm gonna leave. Okay. Sora has been removed from combat as she leaves the entrance of this cave. Ellorath, your turn. Okay, she's gonna like drop down and like look around and I presume that she would have heard, like get everyone out and... Yeah. Okay, then she's gonna try and make a run for it and grab the paladin on her way out. Then that's... okay, yeah, she will...

Like just grab her by the arm and like spin her around and sprint out of the cave. Right. She will not want to go, but she's going to assess the situation and see that this is not winnable. This is not gonna go the way that she'd like it to. She is going to go with Ellorath and leave. I'm assuming that's what everyone else is gonna want to do too? Yeah. Yep. So the end of round, everybody else has left the entrance of the cave here. Brie is going to hightail it back with you and then tell everybody to stand back as she stands at the base, the entrance of this cave.

From the other side, you are going to see this vampire rise up and start to slowly stomp his way toward where the group is standing. Brie's hands are gonna start to glow, her eyes gone, and the ground is gonna shake beneath her as she places her hands firmly on the ground. Making sure that there is a wide berth between her and everyone else, she is going to let loose a torrent of energy. The cave entrance is going to start to seal up as huge pieces of rock and debris are gonna start to fall. Everyone do me a favor and roll perception for me, please.

Everyone is gonna hear this tremendous noise as the cave starts to fall on around itself. Evelyn is gonna see one last thing. The vampire is going to start to pick up the pace until he realizes that he is not going to beat this cave entrance falling in on itself. But she will see his red eyes gazing at the party and it's just darkness before the last few rocks seal up this cave entrance and you are effectively blocked off. After the last few rocks tumble in, Brie is going to fall backwards and her eyes are going to return to normal, her hands are going to stop glowing.

She is going to be panting heavily and just on her back at the entrance of this cave. LRS is gonna help her up and just say thank you. She is gonna start to catch her breath and take your hand and stand up. Trying not to put too much weight on you because you've just been through a lot yourself and you are one of the rare people who are actually smaller than her. And she's gonna catch her breath and then turn to everyone. Is everyone okay? Yeah. I'm gonna nod. I'm trying to look up from scratching at Cole's little wolf ears and say, "Huh? What? Yes. Fine. We're good." Is the paladin okay?

She looks more pissed than anything. But not at you or Brie. It's just the situation. Right. And after a moment, she is going to give this small salute to Brie and the rest of you and kneel down to the party. Thank you for your assistance. I only regret that we couldn't save the young man in there. I wish we could have been more help. At that, I'm going to transform back into my usual original self and go, "We did fucking help. The woman that we saved would be dead if we didn't intervene." And thanks to us, she's probably back in the lobby right now, laying in her fucking bed, dreaming about whatever the fuck she usually dreams about.

And then Cole's just going to stop himself and he's going to look at the paladin and go, "I'm going to need you to be better. Because if you couldn't even handle that guy, and we couldn't even handle that guy, then what the fuck is this even?" And he just points in the direction of Aubrey with one hand and where we are right now. She is going to stand up and square off with Cole. I am one of the only people standing between that town and complete annihilation. I have fought hundreds of vampires. That, and she's going to point toward the entrance of this cave that has completely sailed off, was nothing that I have ever faced before.

And Ingrid is actually going to interrupt and just step in front of Cole, kind of pop a hand on him and try and soothe the situation. It's like, I'm very sorry for my friend's reaction. You were amazing, but that beast in there is unbelievable and we're still in a bit of shock after what we've already seen. She's going to look up at the paladin and make these big eyes, "Please forgive us. Don't hurt my friend." I'm silent, but I'm still looking at her like I'm pissed the fuck off because I am. She's going to stand down, but she is glaring at Cole. Bree's going to step in and just start to try and usher people, not push Cole, but just start to, "Alright, we should get back to town and get away from here." It's the best fucking idea I heard all night.

Soar's just going to turn around and start going towards Aubrey. Ingrid's going to do what she can to try and calm Cole down, just pat him on the hand since I assume she can reach that, and just say, "We're done. We're done for the day. Just let it go." Yeah, you're right. Elorath's probably going to stand next to the paladin and just say, "I'm glad you're okay, and I'm glad we made it out of there." You can tell she's a bit shaken. She is used to being much more reliable in combat, and she was throwing everything that she could at this thing, and it was just kind of swatting her away.

I know how you feel right now. I couldn't hit him either, and that sucks. Really bad. There's going to be a momentary pause where she looks up. It's by the grace of a monitor that we escaped, and I can only assume it's because he wants us to get better and try again. Sure. And she's going to clamp her hand over Elorath's shoulder and just kind of like a reassuring, "Yeah, we'll fuck him up next time," type of thing. Yeah, we will. She'll do the brofist thing again. She's like, "Yeah, come on." Just really glad we're alive, but I'm trying to be really tough right now because we both almost died.

Yeah. Walking back to Aubrey, Bree's going to address the party. I was supposed to meet you in town. I'm really sorry that you had to go deal with that, but at the same time, I was pleased to see that you actually decided to step up and help out. Sorra's just kind of, when Bree says that, Sorra's going to kind of scoff under her breath. Ingrid's actually going to look a little bit sheepish since she had argued so heavily against going to the second cave. Cole's expression hasn't changed. Aaron wants to run a perception check. On what specifically? The scoff.

I'm getting the impression that Sorra gave was like, "Oh, well, we went because I went," and it's more about the rest of the party had the intelligence to know that this was probably a suicide mission, and Sorra did not. So Aaron's going to cut a little bit of side-eye towards Sorra, and I just want it to be known that that little thought took seed in there. This is not lost on Bree either. That little noise. She wouldn't know exactly the context, but she is already picking up some friction in the group. Alright, look. Let's get back to town, and I owe you all some explanations for things.

I promise I'll fill you all in and answer any questions you have, but I think everyone's deserved a bit of rest. And Ingrid's going to look at her and say, "You have no idea. All I want is to sleep right now." Did we already assign rooms? Unless it's super important for your character? If you just went to sleep, who cares? Only because if there's a roleplay reason, go right ahead. I feel like Cole would need some time to himself right now. So he will probably request that he gets his own room, and if anybody would try to say otherwise, he would just reply with, "Just give me my own room." So I don't have to shout my fucking lungs out right now.

You guys are going to wake up the next day. Bree is going to be staying in the same inn that you all are. And after she sees that the party has sort of assembled itself, and it looks like you have recouped as much as you're going to. She is going to address you all. Alright. I promised you I'd answer any of your questions, and I want to know what you've been through. So let's start with last night. What happened when you got to Aubrey? We got here, and you weren't. And then we heard a bell, and found out that vampires are a thing. Here, specifically. And then some of us decided to play fucking hero.

Saved a woman, reconvened at that cave, realized that we got in over our fucking head. The news showed up. Bree's actually going to take a seat here in this dining room area. And she's going to invite everyone to take a seat with her. The place is devoid of people except for the group and her. Ela is probably going to sit right next to her. Could Aaron retell that story a little bit? What, your perspective on it? Yeah, could I just like, because Cole's was a little abrupt. Aaron's going to kind of sigh, not like exasperated, just kind of sigh. That's the way Cole tells stories.

That's Cole. And so I'm going to tell Bree that we came into town last night, and we were getting checked into the hotel, and the alarm went off last night. And as the innkeeper was barring the door, Sora ran out to see what was going on, and Evelyn followed her. And Sora saw that the vampires were coming into town and taking villagers, and that didn't sit right with her, that we should sit by and not do anything. And so Sora decided that she was going to go and help, and saw the paladin. You know, the paladin was going to help as well. And so Sora told us what she saw, and so we went back and decided to go with her because we did not want Sora to go alone.

So we went with her to the cave and managed to take out some of the vampires and rescue one of the villagers, and when we got into the other cave, well, you saw how that went. I checked on her this morning. She's doing a lot better. Her pride, mostly, is hurt. Her name's Alexandra, by the way. Well, I'm glad that we were able to help the one villager, and I'm glad that we didn't let Sora go alone. However, I'm really, really glad that you showed up when you did. Well, I'm sorry I'm late to begin with. I should have met you here in town, but I had to deal with something, and it couldn't be helped, and it's nothing I could have put off.

I can't be everywhere at once, and that's one of the reasons that we established these groups. You know that you're actually the fourth one we've put together. Where are the other three? We've actually lost contact with the other three groups. Cole's just going to give an exasperated sigh and do that little frustrated turnaround because he's not sitting down. This was something you were going to let us know when you got to town, correct? It's one of the things I came to talk to you about, yeah. Look, when you signed up for this, we told you in the courtyard that we wouldn't blame you if you walked away after you heard what we wanted you to do.

That's not what I'm frustrated about. I understand what was going on when I decided to join this group. I understand what was going on when I decided to join the White Ravens. I understand the limits. I understand necessities. What I didn't understand is how everything else was factoring into this when it came to certain tasks. Are you aware of what we had to face on our way to Durn Hollow? Laren told me about the dragons, if that's what you're talking about. Yeah. And there's no way we could have predicted that would have happened. We've never seen dragons this far south.

Ingrid's actually going to look at her and she's, again, going to try and kind of smooth things over and say, you know, of course, nobody could have predicted that. It shouldn't have happened, but it feels like maybe we're woefully underprepared for the task that's in front of us. And I have to admit, I'm a bit concerned when I hear that the other groups that you've sent out have lost contact. I understand if you didn't prepare for this. I completely understand from all the shit that you just had to go through to take Overwatch. I completely understand.

I guess my problem is that there was something that we needed to do in order for us to continue on with this crusade. Even though there is a sense of communication, we only get it once. The same fucking bird that landed on Eren's wrists that told us to meet you here could have landed on her wrists when we got here and said, hey, running a little bit late. See you in a few minutes. We're just going to stand up again. I was out of contact. There was no way I could have got a message to you. And if I could have, I would have. But if you're waiting for the world to cut you a break while you're doing this, you have no idea how woefully wrong you are.

That is not going to happen. How close is she to me? There's about a four or five foot gap. Perception check to get a good look at her. Go ahead. Twenty three. So she is right around the five one five two height. Really small. Very pale. Honestly sickly looking. There are dark circles under her eyes. She does not look well. Okay. Doesn't look like the world's cutting you any slap either, sweetheart. She's going to take a step forward. Okay. You're new. I'm going to give you that one. Don't call me sweetheart again. And her eyes are just leveled at Kohl's. And again, Kohl's towers over her.

Kohl's silent, but his facial expression hasn't changed. And she's going to give it a second and then turn back toward the group. You did save someone last night. And that is exactly why you were put together. And I'm not going to lie to you. The other groups that were sent out, they were more prepared to you. They were more experienced than you. They had better armor. They had better gear. They had better weapons. And we've lost contact with every single one of them. And it's probably going to be a while before we can convince more people to sign up for this.

Until we can show them concrete proof. Clear evidence. That what you're doing is making a difference. And that woman you saved last night is going to tell other people about you. And those stories are going to start to spread. Have you heard of the expression "unistal"? It's "elven". Yeah. I would assume that Ingrid would have since she speaks elven. Yeah, same for Evelyn. She's going to pan around to the group and for those of you who there's no facial recognition when she's saying that. It means the unkindness. That's exactly what you're going to be. To every creature.

To every person. To every monster out there. Who wants to do harm to people who are just trying to live their lives in towns just like this. All across the area. You're going to be an unkindness to them. And we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that you have everything you need to get that done. And then she's going to look back to Cole. But if you want to back out now, I'm giving you one last chance to do so. I've come this far. And I don't leave my friends behind. She's going to reach her hand out and try to shake Cole's. I will do my best because of that last perception roll to shake her hand as carefully as possible.

She's going to give yours quite a squeeze, actually, for someone so small. She's obviously not holding back. Maybe to show off a little bit because you're larger than her. Maybe just maybe that's just how she shakes hands. She's going to reach around to each one of the group members and do the same thing and just offer a handshake. Erin would hold out her fist for a fist bump instead of a handshake. She would totally bump fists. And after she's went around to each member of the party. All right. Let's see about getting you guys some better gear. And I think that's probably a good time for us to stop for the night.

Oh, my God. You could have said she was actually going to go apeshit on Cole. You could have said the same bird and could have just said, I'm just going to be a few minutes late. I'll be there in a few minutes. I'm very interesting. I'll be there in a few minutes. But no traffic. I predicted the traffic. The same fucking bird. I'm running late. I'll be there in a minute. Oh, my God. The fact that Cole did not just get smacked down is impressive restraint on Bree's part. Oh, man. Sora was about to walk out so many times in that conversation. Yeah, I was going to say I didn't want to interrupt the thing, but Ingrid would have totally been giving him a side eye.

Because I wanted to see where he was going. Because I lost it in sweetheart. Oh, I was like, oh, oh, man. I actually shuttered like physically like, oh, oh, dude, dude. Oh, don't do it. I thought I thought we're going to have another Ironhide situation. I thought you were going to talk yourself into almost getting launched like I thought. But that was good. I really liked that whole thing. That was really, really good. Yeah, I was really hoping that she was going to like come to the rescue at some point. But I was just like, oh, I am not. I totally didn't expect that at all.

See, now I was I was I was surprised. I was hoping for it, but like the fuck if I was going to count on it. Yeah, but I was already planning. I was like shift action point move. That is why I told you that is why I told you before the session. Like I knew what you were getting ready to face. It's like, OK, just let you know that you can die. Like there's no there's no kid gloves. There's no safety net. I'm not going to hold back.