Mortal Coil

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[clink] [clink] Pickaxe. Coming to Apple TV+ on August 9th. You're the Marine? Yeah, you're the ex-con. Yeah, I did time, but you don't gotta cast aspersions at me. From the director of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity comes a new film. It's your first job? I know what I'm doing. It's a little late for a crit change. Starring Matt Damon. Everybody in New England is after us. And Casey Affleck. Go, go, go, go, go! What are you doing? Taking notes. Taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. The Instigators, rated R. Streaming August 9th on Apple TV+. This summer, during the biggest sporting event of the year, Peacock turns to two broadcasting legends for the Olympics coverage you can't find anywhere else.

Um, I think they mean us. Oh, s***. Um... [clears throat] With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold. Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on Peacock. Oh, man. Okay, everybody tighten your buttholes. So, you guys know the drill. Let's go around the room. Make sure our bodies are ready. Possibly for the last time, now that, I mean, you never know. So, put some, put some effort into it. And introduce yourselves. Let's start with Danielle this time. My name is Danielle. I play Trixie the Drow Assassin.

And Megan. Um, I'm Tella. I'm the Razorclaw Shifter and I'd like to not die today. And Brian. I'm Brian. I'm the Molar Mule, uh, Ruin Priest. And I also would not like to die today. And Alana. [laughter] She already died. Don't say my name. They can't kill me. Don't tell them I'm here. If I'm not here, I can't die. [laughter] Okay, Tyson, I guess you'll go. You're muted. Oh, sorry. Don't I have like some Elven invisibility? Kind of. [laughter] I'm too cute to die. No one is too cute to die. Shane proved that. [laughter] Did you want to start that from the top? No.

Um, he did. It wasn't with Malice. It was self-defense. She was...she died too. If it's like... Uh, Tyson? Hey, I'm Tyson. I play Galford, the Gnome Warlock. And I'm cute, but I might die. Tyson may be too cute to die. I don't know. Well, we'll have to see. Alana, you want to try it one more time? Do I want...oh, okay. Hi. Hi. I'm Vraneth. And I'm an elf, and I don't want to die today. Well, Danielle's the only one who said she didn't want to die, so... Yeah, I'm the only one going into this with the level head that I'm not going to die. I won't let it happen. I was going to say, don't be so defeatist.

I'm going to run around like a puff of smoke and just start throwing, you know, things at him. I like that plan. I like that plan. Do that. Well, I had this grand scheme, because, you know, my husband wakes me up at 3 o'clock in the morning to fill his water, and I can't go back to sleep. And I was thinking about how we're going to take this guy down, and then all my ideas got slashed this morning when I realized that I have a cloud that would put us in a... It covers a close burst 10, but everyone's blind till the end of the encounter. I thought it would only blind him, but I thought it would give us enough time to heal.

And then my other one is a close burst 1, or 5, and I'd have to get really close, and either way it's not going to work. So, I'll figure out something. Yeah, you'll figure it out. It'll be fine. So, maybe I should explain why everyone is so on edge, because... Let's go over what happened last time. So, the last time we sat down, which was weeks ago... I may post these. Let me stagger them out a little bit. The last time we sat down, you guys were visited by House Darksbane, or some representatives from House Darksbane, who informed you that you will die here.

They were pretty adamant about it, actually. And it looks like they may be right, because the very next time, a few hours later, that you were scheduled to fight in the arena, they had you go up against Katie and Syl, and Shane died. As a result. You also had to murder the two closest things that you guys have had up until now as friends. Like, that was the closest. You've known them for almost two weeks, and you've gotten to know them. And then directly after that fight, the gates reopen and Valus comes stomping out. So, you guys are hurt, and Tala is very, very hurt.

She is currently hovering around two hit points, and her leg is coated in arrows. So, everyone roll initiative. Nineteen. I don't wanna... Eighteen. Nineteen and eighteen so far. I got a twenty-one. Nineteen! Yes! Oh, shit, Valus rolled a nineteen. Valus hasn't rolled yet. Tala has yet to roll. Tala has nineteen. And... let's see here. Baranath rolled eleven. Eleven. And Tracy rolled a twenty-one. And Valus rolls seventeen. Alright. Oh, jeez. Yeah. He's like... He's next to last. Yeah, he's next to last. Baranath, you know. Very good. Trixie! We need to knock it off as badly as we thought.

Alright, um... Can I pop a healing surge and run away? You sure can, if that's your opening gambit, yes. Okay, I do wanna pop a healing surge to get my health up in case he decides to hit me. Alright, that'll be your standard action. And then... I can run six squares. So... Actually, you know what, I'm just gonna... I won't run away. I'll stay here. I think I'm okay for now. Okay. And I'll just make my healing surge my first move and that's it. Alright. Galford, that brings us to you. Okay, I am... I'm at full hit points and I can hit him from there with Shadow Claws.

We'll see if that works. I'm kind of hoping he's susceptible to colds. We'll see what happens there. I mean, if he turns around and nails me... At least I can fade away and maybe be invisible for a turn. So I think I'm gonna try and take a shot at him with Shadow Claws. Okay. So... I love you all. Goodbye. D20+7. 16 against Fortitude. No. Okay. Afraid not, sir. That's a miss. Would you like to move? I would now like to... I would assume his Fortitude's pretty high. So, Rekes, are we going in together or what are we gonna do? Should I back up towards you against the wall?

I'd like to be away from a pit. I don't want to be pulled into a pit. Yeah, because the only thing I was thinking about is if Ranith was gonna use whatever the thing was to add to our AC, if we probably want to convene near her in the beginning. And then, I mean, we can obviously... We'll have to have Tala move. She needs to move, like, yesterday. And just so she can pop a Healing Surge and, like, four more. It's up to you. Okay, and Ranith is last for initiative. I'm gonna assume Ranith... I may be making a wrong assumption, but I'm gonna assume she's probably gonna use the AC bump for us.

I'm... We gotta heal... We gotta heal Tala. We gotta heal Tala first. Like, we gotta prioritize that. Yeah. And I'm also... Well, Brandon, you need to heal too, because if you're gonna end up healing us later, you're still... You're almost at your halfway point. Yeah, like, I'm near-bloodied right now, so my plan for my next turn... My speed is six, so I'm gonna be moving somewhere around here because I do not want to be anywhere near a pit. Use your finger. Use your finger. Sorry, do... I have... I'm using it. Do we not... Oh, there it is. Yeah. Yeah, you click in and it'll show you.

There it is. My little blue hand. So I'm gonna be moving over here and popping a Surge, so, I mean, on my next turn, I can work my magic, but that's gonna be my priority, is moving over in this direction, because I don't want to be near a pit. Okay, that's fine. I can very quickly get over there. Yeah, I was gonna say, I'll move over there and just be a meat shield. Okay, I'm gonna move outside if I still have enough time. Okay. So I'm gonna move outside. If I stay where I'm at, does that mean I'm gonna be outside of your burst or no? Um... I think you're gonna be outside.

Yeah, 'cause I've got something that's a five. Yeah, I think most of your stuff is close burst like that. Yeah, I've got... Okay, so what... I've got close blast five if it hits, um, I can knock him prone, but I don't want to get that close, but I can give you resist five to damage until the end of my next turn. Let's all head towards Rikas and, uh, just maybe see what he does with his first turn, 'cause you're the only one that's gonna be moving after him, right, Elana? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Alright, so, Galford moved, so that will bring it up to Tala. Um, let's set the stage for people who can't see this board at home, just to kind of, you know...

So, right now you guys are still in the arena. This arena is this huge battle scape. In the arena, what they've done before this particular fight is come out and remove all the plates that would be covering these large holes. These things are huge, too, by the way. If you remember, they link up with the pits beneath, and it's pretty much just holes that lead to this kind of sewer-esque place, and falling in them means almost certain death. You guys are kind of fanned out. Valus is stationed by the gate, he had just walked in, and you guys are kind of fanned out just to the left of the board here.

So, Tala, go ahead. Um, I'm confused. Are we convening towards that corner Baranath was talking about, or are we convening towards Rikas now? Um, I think we're moving towards me, just to see... This direction. Okay. We were just going to see what Valus does on that first turn. So, there's my seven move, and I believe I can still pop a heal and surge? Yes, you absolutely can. I will do that then. Well, then that's probably a good idea. Popping a healing surge, you are up to eleven hit points, and you have seven surges remaining. All right, Rikas, your turn. Okay, so I'm going to move, like, just two spots, just a square away from Galford, and then let me read really quick.

This really wouldn't help Galford, but how many healing surges do I actually have left? Do I still, do I have nine? Let's see, status, you have nine, yes. You didn't use any in the last fight. Yeah, because I wasn't touched. So, if I use Shield of Sacrifice, and sacrifice one of my healing surges to give Tala, its target loses a healing surge, one or two allies, and Galford's at full health. But one or two allies within five squares of the target regain hit points as if they had spent a healing surge, the target, and each ally who regained hit points gain a +5 power bonus to AC until the end of their next turn.

What would, I've never actually been able to go ahead. That means you're spending a healing surge, you're spending a healing surge, and then Tala would regain nine hit points as if she spent one. She would also get a +5 bonus to her AC until the end of your next turn. We would both get the target and each ally who regained hit points gain a +5 power bonus. Yeah, but you're not regaining any hit points because you're at full health. Oh, yeah, I was doing this more for Tala. Ricus, if you move a couple squares closer, I can get that too. Yeah, good point.

Probably a good idea to keep that healer alive. Yep. Yeah. No, why would we want to do that? So stupid. We don't want to live. I didn't even think about that. So I'm going to move those final two spots that I had available and then use the shield of sacrifice. Alright, let me check that off. So, Tala's going to regain nine hit points here, but it doesn't take out of her... It takes out of my healing surges. Yep, so I'm adjusting that now. My big meat of a man doesn't need that many healing surges, I hope. I could be counting my chickens before they hatch, though.

And your healing surges are worth eight, so you regain eight hit points. And remember, you both have +5 to your AC until the end of... Excellent. That's end of the encounter, end of Riku's next turn. End of Riku's next turn. End of encounter would be ridiculous, yeah. Let's go with that. So that'll give Baraneth a 23 AC and Tala... also a 23 AC. Oh, I'm going to be a happy camper until the end of his next turn. Well, that's good, because I'm right, as it is right now, I'm almost the closest to him. You're also standing next to a pith. Yeah. Yep, you may want to mine the pits.

If he fires off special beam cannon or something, you'll just go straight backwards. Special beam cannon! But I mean, I have +5 to that AC, so fingers crossed. Valus would totally have Galick Gun. Come on. Yes. Nerd references. Riku, are you done? Yeah. Okay, it's Valus's turn. Valus... let me make sure that this is... hold on one second. Valus chokes on a mint and dies. Yes! His special pregame mint that he always... Ceremonial, yeah. Yeah. Okay, Valus is going to burst into flame and vanish. Cool, we won! Oh... And then reappear in another burst of flame. Right in front of Baranath.

Damn, these powers. And do you remember in the last session at the end, I was telling you about this large chain weapon he has. Yes. He kind of pulls this up and starts swinging it around his head again in these big, like these almost show-offy swings. At the end of this thing is... the closest thing I can tell you is it's basically a bear trap. Yes, it's like a bear trap. And you can guess what this is for. Oh jeez. He's going to whip this around and around and he's going to get ready and swing at Trixie. Dude! I don't think if this was real life that would be your reaction.

I think it would be more in the avenue of son of a bitch. Oh, there'd be a lot more words. My vocabulary is very big for how I could be... The vocabulary may be. Crit miss! Yay! You're an idiot! Take that, you flaming... He can still hear you. Baranath, your turn. In way of my shadow darts, so... Oh, okay. Um... He's going to move, he's going to move. One, two, three... If you want to even get behind me, that's fine because if he does hit me, I can still use Fade Away, at least I'm invisible until the next... As a free action I can do it every time, so I'm hoping if he does keep pounding on me, it's only once every second turn basically.

Um, okay, so there's that and uh... I should probably pop a Surge. Hello? You do want to... Okay, I'm just making sure that you said probably, I don't want to do it. Sorry, yes, yes. Alright, so you are using up a Surge and you are at full health, 32 hit points. Um... If you got something to heal Tala now too, because the healing Surge is a minor action. Yeah, Tala, what are you at? I'm at 20. I'm going to use my Healing Word. Okay, that's one, you get two of those for encounter. So, Healing Word, I'm going to use four Talas, so it's minor action, close verse five.

You are one ally in the burst, if I target spend a Healing Surge and regain one D6 additional hit points. Do I have to roll that D6? Yes. Okay, there it is. Three. Three, six, roll a D6. One, two, three, you are going to regain 12 hit points, Tala, and go up to 32. Woo! See who says we need to rest, goodness gracious. You are all done, Baranath, that's pretty much everything you can do. Yeah, yeah. Trixie, it's on you again. Alright, I'm going to go ahead and use my Shadow Darts since he is close enough. Okay. It's a D20 plus seven. Okay. I hope that the dice don't hate me.

Eighteen. What's that again? Dexterity versus Reflex. That will hit his Reflex. Nice. Yes. Okay, so it says I need to make three attack rolls. Yes. If any of them hit, resolve them as a single hit. So, make two more attack rolls. Twenty-six will hit, twenty will hit, all three hit. Nice. Yay! Woo! What are we hitting? Valis. No, no, what is... Smarty pants. Trixie has decided to side with Valis in an attempt to not die. No, like are we hitting... Reflex. Reflex, thank you. And then it says I need to do... Hit one D8 cold damage if one of the attacks rolls, hit two D8 cold damage if two...

All three of them hit, so I just do three? Three D8? Yep. Nice job Trixie. Thank you. Do I do it, is it a D8 plus one for each die or just three D8 plus one? I think it's three D8 plus one. Okay. Because it doesn't mention the plus gets higher. Nine. Wow, okay. One, two, and five. Well, you did nine, that's... Sad day. Damn it. So you riddle his side with just these nasty darts up the side, just instantly, you bitch, like he's kind of pissed about that, like not happy. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. Considering he swung at you and missed and you swung at him and hit him three times technically, that's...

Do you wanna move? He's flat. Come around the back of the pit? Yeah, I'm gonna run away. I'm going to... Nope, you know, maybe come into us and if we can burst off some stuff, maybe we need to get you closer, because he can teleport anyways, right? Like he teleported what, like five squares or six squares? So he could come right at you across the pit. It might even be better to be closer to us if there's other buffers we can add to each other. I say we do go with the Mighty Ducks philosophy and we just build a blind peek. Should I be here or should I be up one?

Um, maybe be up one, I'd be away from the pit. I mean, I think he can probably pull you into a pit with the bear trap, not push you into the pit with it. Okay, so I'm standing in front of Rikus. Alrighty, Galford, your turn. Okay, um, and he is how far away from me? He is six. I can't hit him with fascinating shadows. Um, now, with my lure of loyalty, uh, it's, uh, it's ranged five, so he's still too far. Damn it, okay. I was gonna say I was maybe gonna try and pull him into a pit. Um, you know what, I murder people quite consistently with shadow claws. I'm gonna keep it up here.

Um, I might want to move to do it though. Hang on. So, and this is a ranged ten, so let's go right there. Everybody's all quiet. Waiting to see. We're waiting. I'm praying. I'm planning out my next move. Okay, so Galford's eyes sort of glow white and he tees up the shadow claws. Twenty-five. Twenty-five will hit. Four to two. Damn. Okay, and, uh, if he moves during his next turn, it takes, uh, plus, he takes plus four damage. Gold damage. Okay, and one d10 plus six damage. Eight. All right. Eight damage. Uh, Tali, your turn. Eight damage against his five hundred hit points.

That's, five hundred's a bit of an exaggeration, come on. Like four ninety-nine. Just a bit. Uh, Tali, your turn. Uh, remember, some of you have second wind. In fact, all of you, I think, have second wind. Yeah, I was just like. What's second wind? Have I never explained second wind? You've never explained second wind. I was reading about it, but you've never explained second wind. Well, let me tell you about second wind. Second wind is, uh, a minor action in combat. You get to instantly spend a healing surge. You get one of these. It's like your action point.

Um, you instantly pop a surge, and your AC goes up by two until the end of your next turn. Cool. Does Shayne want to slap you for him not telling him that last time? That would not have helped him last time. I don't think, yeah, that would not have helped him. We were never told about this. That arrow through the left ventricle kind of took care of that. Um, it is my turn though. It is your turn. So what I'm doing is I'm moving some over here. I'm going to use Call Lightning. Okay. So let me get my d20c head. Call my jumps into the pit and... Let's see how this works out. 18 versus reflex.

That'll hit. Yes. This is good news, good news. I like this very much. Um, that's four. I'm going to get the d8 there. What do I roll for damage? Another nine damage. Okay. And that does an aura too I believe, right? AOE I believe. Yeah, burst 10. And he gets it when in the zone any enemy takes negative two penalty to attack rolls and any enemy that leaves the zone takes five thunder damage. Wait, wait, wait, wait. That cannot be a burst 10. Burst one with ten squares. No, burst one with ten squares. Okay, that makes sense. So where would you like to put it? Which square?

Um, put it... Well, it's just him pretty much I guess. Yeah, just put it like right on top of him. Move it back one. Yeah, back one. Might as well back one here. So if he leaves the zone he takes what, five thunder damage? He'll take five thunder damage. Okay, if he moves he takes four cold damage. Let's remember that. If he moves he takes nine damage. Okay. And call lightning has been used. And Rickus, you're up. Uh, okay. So I've been reading up on some of my attacks that I haven't ever used outside of the fact that I've been addicted to that basic melee attack.

And because I'm not the smartest cookie in the jar, let me just make sure, one, two, three, four, five. I'm going to move up right in front of his face and use Executioner's Call. Okay. Which, you may have to help me out on this just because I haven't ever used this one and I want to make sure I'm not going to completely screw it up. We were talking before we started recording, do I have Ruin of Destruction or Ruin of Protection? I believe it's something you just get to pick based on the attack. Just you get to pick. Oh, nice. That is nice. So, I don't know which one.

Both of them would be really nice. I think probably it's going to be the Ruin of Protection, which, uh, well, let me do the D20 plus nine first. Okay. Eighteen. That's his AC. That will miss. I knew that was going to miss. [explosion] Okay. [laughter] Well, that didn't go as hot as I thought it would. But, I mean, you're right next to him for the next turn. That's, I mean, that's the, that's what you got to look at. Yeah! Sure! Are you done, Ricus? Uh, sure, yeah. Valus's turn. Ow. I was going to say the one thing, Brian, is we kind of wanted him to move, because if he moved out of that zone, he would have taken nine damage.

So by moving up to him now, you're locked in with him, he might just take a swing straight at your face and not move and not take any damage from the other two effects. Oh, I know he'll take a swing at my face. I didn't take this through. I assumed I was actually going to, because the last couple of rolls I've had have been favorable, so I assumed I was going to hit him in the face, and apparently I missed his entire body. Did you have anything that pushes him back? Like, if you hit someone, you push them back a certain number of squares? Because if you do eventually get to swing in his face and knock him out of this zone, that might help us.

Yeah, I'll look at it. Go ahead, Jason. Okay, sorry, guys. No, no problem. Just talking strategy. He is going to use the Blade of Avanis. So for a moment, he just unsheathes his sword, and he's going to take a roll at Cooks here. 25! So that'll hit, and that is a 2d10 plus 4. 11 damage. Could be worse. I could be dead, so could be worse. I was fully expecting, like, 75 damage, and you've been dead for 12 years now. You didn't even know. Your headstone will just say, "You suck." He's also going to burst into flame, so Rika's going to take another 5 damage. Oh, yummy.

Dick. And he's going to appear here, and that means Valus takes... 9 damage. 9 damage, yes. Ah! Do it, Yuri! Jackass! It worked out perfectly. So Rika's took his damage. Valus reappears on the other side, and that means Baranath is going to take 5 damage because of the burst of flame that appears in the spot, and they're both adjacent to it. And Trixie's also going to take 5 damage. Prick. And Baranath, your turn. Okay, so I'm going to... Okay, so I want to use my... No, I'm going to move. I'm going to use my Shield of Faith. Thank you. That is a close burst. 5 unique ally in the burst.

I'm going to use my +2 power bonus to AC until the end of the encounter. That's all of us. I'm also going to... Now, do you guys want me to use an attack roll to try to get damage? Because I have a power called Astral Seal. It's Wisdom versus Reflex. If I hit, he would take a -2 penalty to all defenses until the end of my next turn. The next ally who hits him before the end of my next turn regains hit points equal to 2 plus my Charisma modifier. And his Reflex, he was hit by 18 for Reflex when someone hit him. So do you guys think I should do that, or should I go for damage?

That's tough, because I actually like... I think we need to be trying to target everything besides AC. I can't target anything but AC. But going after those ones that we know are his weak, I think his Reflexes are probably slower than a sleeping grandfather. We can reduce all defenses. I could reduce him -2 to all defenses until the end of my next turn. And I can give someone some hit points. Which that would also help all of our attacks. Yeah, I can give... Well, sorry, the ally who hits him before the end of my next turn. I don't know if that only happens once or every time.

It's only until the end of your next turn, and that's assuming that the ally that attacks him actually hits him, has to land on him. No, but I'm saying that if everyone gets a turn before him, because he goes right before me, so there's the rest of you who have an opportunity to hit him, so I don't know if all four of you hit him before my next turn, if each of you regain hit points with that hit. Yeah, it's the next ally, yeah. The next ally hits him from the air next turn. Oh wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh no, it's only one. Yeah, it is one. Okay. Okay. So let's go ahead and I'll roll my Astral Seal, and that is d20 plus 9, and that's 25.

That'll hit his Reflex, eh? Yes it will. Darn right it will. We hit him twice on Reflex with 18s, so his Reflex is 18 or less. Yeah. And can I move? Didn't you move to go there? I did, I just won. Yeah, that's a move. Come on, you move a little more. Don't use pouty voice, that's not gonna work. Yeah, so yeah, you've already kind of moved a little. And if you moved again, then he would get an opportunity attack anyway, so. Okay, let's not provoke the beast. You don't want to do that. So Astral Seal, let me read that just to make sure that everyone understands at home.

Until the end of your next turn, the target takes a negative two penalty to all defenses. The next ally who hits it before the end of your next turn regains hit points equal to two plus your Charisma modifier. And your Charisma is? My modifier is two. Yeah, so four. Four hit points is four hit points. Might save your life. So right now all of Alice's defenses have been cut by two until the end of your next turn. And Trixie, your turn. Alright, I'm going to just use my Shadow Storm. You can flank him with Baranath if you move shift one, right? Okay, yeah, I will do that.

I will move down here so we're flanking and I'll still use my Shadow Storm. It's a D20 plus 10 Dexterity versus AC. Okay. 18. Versus AC. Yeah. And then a plus. That'll hit. What is it? He. That'll hit because his stuff's been reduced by two. Okay, so then that would be one D10 plus six. Seven. Okay, he takes seven damage. You get four health. Yay! Alright. You guys are doing very well so far. You were so defeatist before we started this. I was not. I can do this. I was. Galford, your turn. Okay. Sorry, I was just talking some strategy here with my boy, Rikas. You know, I know it seems kind of cliche but I've got such good range on the Shadow Claws and then if he moves again he takes more damage.

So that makes more sense instead of me trying to get in really close and hit him with a blast two or blast five. So sadly it's Shadow Claws again. Eight. That would suck. That's a crit miss. Would you like to move? Rikas, your blast that you're considering using is a burst three? Yeah. So I would have to get one, two, three. I would have to go there. I was going to say and then I, yeah. Go ahead. Okay. If you're going to use something and there's an advantage I might as well try and get in there because he can teleport anyways. So I don't have to be worried about staying outside of a certain range of him.

I'd rather still have line of sight and get any type of buffer you can hit me with. Alright, I'm good. Tali, your turn. Okay. In this case I'm going to use Flame Seed. And that's against reflex seventeen. Seventeen will hit. Fantastic. D6 plus one and that area now becomes a fiery zone. Damn, only two damage. Sad fakes, but oh well. Alright, so this fiery zone. Let's find out a little more about that. Any enemy that enters the zone or starts its turn there takes fired damage equal to my Wiz modifier. And the zone is a burst one I'm guessing? I'm assuming yes. Oh that one.

Since it says adjacent. Yeah, I'm thinking that one square is. Yeah. So, nope, that's not what I wanted. I totally misclicked. There we go. There. So, remember that. And it is Riku's turn. Okay. I'm good. Yeah. I'm just strategizing. Riku is going to move up. That's one two. God, I hope I'm not screwing this up. Uhh. And then, should I move back? Nope. Umm, so. You're trying to use a blast three, right? Yeah. You don't need to be adjacent to him to use a blast, you know. Okay. Just letting you know. Is he resistant to... I would assume he's resistant to fire. Okay. Umm, in that case.

Oh crap. I'm just gonna, sorry I keep bouncing back and forth, I'm just gonna move up right next to him, right behind him. And uh, uh, since it's an encounter I'm gonna give the executioner's call again a shot. Umm. Well. That's an encounter. Oh shoot. You used it. Yeah, nevermind. I was gonna say, you just gave me a reason not to have you use that. Yeah. Umm, I had this whole strategy in my head. So I'll just use, uh. We're gonna use flames of purity, eh? Mmhmm. I can, yeah we'll give that a shot. I know I had a full strategy in my head and now it's lost. But we'll use, uh, flames of purity, um, with, well, I'll just roll first.

Okay. 22 against base 8. Is that gonna hit us? 22 will hit. Are they in the blast to get the buffer? Like are we in the blast to get the... Well, I would... Close range 3. It's each enemy in the blast and then, uh... No. They would not be in the blast. Because it's coming out from a corner of you. You know what I'm saying? So like you're picking a corner and like that, like, okay. Uh, let me give you an option. So like if you were firing it back here, uh, you, you're picking a corner. You, you're picking a corner and it goes out from that corner. So, like that.

Like it's coming out from you like that. Like if you were shooting it out of your right ear, it would go like that. Right. Sorry, Bran, I was trying to figure out exactly how you were gonna hit that before you rolled. Uh, no, that's no problem. You still hit him. Yeah, that's, I mean, ultimately... And you're still, like, you can hit... Baranith or Trixie. Yes. You can blast into this square here, um, and then that would give Baranith three hit points and... Yeah, 'cause you saw what I, what rune I was gonna use. So, um, I'll do the, the, uh, 1d10 plus eight.

So this is fire damage. 15. Okay. He's gonna resist 10 of that, so he's gonna take five damage. Yeah. And the Baranith, uh, that rune of protection. Uh, rune of protection. Each ally in the blast gains three hit points, so Baranith's gonna get three whole hit points. Are you done, sir? Yes, sir. Thank you. It is, it is Valus's turn. Okay, uh, he is going to... He's gonna take his Blade of Avernus and spin around and make three separate attacks here. No. Uh, so what's gonna happen is that, that is d20 plus nine. I'm gonna start with Trixie. 11, that's gonna miss.

Rikas. Yay! 12, that's gonna miss. Baranith, 26. Oh, god. Hey, I gave you the, I gave you the three hit points for a reason. And I might, I might lose them all right now. That's 16 damage. So, he's gonna whip around and miss Trixie, Rikas, and he's gonna get to Baranith and hesitate. Instead of bringing his sword down to just clip her, he's gonna hesitate. And then he seems to catch himself. I'm gonna pop an action point for Valus and use something called Brutal Kick. Uh, and he seems to just, he catches himself, takes a deep breath, and is just angry that he didn't hit you.

And he's gonna turn around and kick at Trixie. What? You're pissed off 'cause you love Baranith so you kick me, you asshole. Down into the pit. 11. Crit miss! Oh, thank god. Crit miss, though. Oh, you guys, let's get away from that pit. Baranith, your turn. Oh my gosh. Hey, let's get away from the fucking pit. Yes, let's do that. Um, oh my gosh. So, he lunges forward at Trixie and just misses and his foot kinda hovers over this pit for a second and he brings it back. So you guys are dangling precariously, well, Trixie's dangling precariously next to this huge pit.

And I wasn't smart enough to just kind of like push him over anyways. I think it's a heat of the moment thing, it's like, oh, I almost fell in this pit. Like, you just, you know. Now, and he still has minus two to his, uh, to everything, right? Until the end of Baranith's turn? Until the end of her turn right now. Okay. Um, oh god, okay. If you sing him a nice song, and maybe he'll just be like, oh, that's so lovely, and he'll get lost and fall into the pit. Oh god, oh god. Um, uh, yeah, I'm like, I'm in position for melee, so it'd be foolish of me not to use melee.

Um, okay, so I'll use my Singing Strike. Um, and, uh, the offer always stands for Singing Strike. If you actually sing something, I'll give you a plus two to that roll. Oh my god. Always and forever. I'm just throwing it out there, always and forever. Oh my gosh. Cause that's just awesome. Um, he just likes watching or listening to everyone else just hold themselves. That's not true. I'm thinking of the listener, and you guys. Hey, Baranith. Hey. If you really don't want to, like, hurt him, hurt him, you could use Moment of Glory and push him back through these squares.

That's what I was thinking, yeah. And then he goes into the pit. Oh. Does he take me with him if he scoots back? Yeah, I was gonna say, is it tricky in the way of that? She sure is, but, uh. Don't push into the pit, I don't wanna, uh, I don't wanna. Well, technically you should get a reflex save for that sort of thing. Yes, you have an opportunity to save, yes. If, and if I don't. Yeah, I know, like, if she doesn't, like. That guy just knocked Trixie off, he'll die at some point. Oh. Um, I'm gonna stick with Singing Strike. Your reflex is pretty high though. Oh my god.

Yeah, but the dice hate me. I'll try, I mean, if you wanna do it by all means, I'll try. Okay, okay. We got some pretty bump in that. I'm reading this correctly, like, if I hit, if I push him back, it's my target, I push my target back three squares. If she's in the way, is she gonna go down? Uh, in this case, this big hulking guy, like, he's gonna get, like, you're shoving him, and she's right in the way of that, so they'll both make a reflex check against the pit. He's gonna, he's gonna be pushed either way, but they're both gonna get an opportunity to grab onto the ledge at the last second, and, you know.

We also have to look at the fact that even if he gets pushed down there, like, he may not die, he'll get severely hurt more than likely, assuming he gets pushed down there. He may not die, and we'll probably still have to deal with somebody for us with the fact that we're not following the rules of the arena. But also, Valus isn't one of those people that we actually want to fight. They put us in here to kill each other. The pits are there for a reason. I realize that, but they wouldn't leave the pits open unless it was supposed to be an option we could push people into the pit.

Yeah, it's supposed to be, like, a tension moment, you know. They're totally there to, yeah. Totally up to you, it's a big decision. And Braneth, there's some pretty bumpin' songs in the chat here, too. I know, right now I'm thinking, Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself for Loving You." Um... [laughs] Your position right now is that you have an opportunity to drastically reduce the chances someone else gets hurt in this fight by cutting it short right now. The problem is, you may end up sacrificing a teammate to do that. I just, and I don't, I don't wanna do that.

Okay, um, I'm gonna use my Singing Strike. Okay. D20 plus 10. Oh my god, I'm sorry. 28 will hit. Yes it will. Oh my goodness. Um, just gonna roll damage, which is D8 plus 6. 13 damage. So, uh, he's facing Trixie right now. And you crack the, you crack the blunt end of your staff on the back of his noggin here. And he just can, "Ugh!" Like he just reflexively, like you see his head go down into kind of his shoulders. Do you wanna move at all? Yeah, yeah I do. Um... [laughs] Or remember, you only get to shift. Okay. Okay. He also takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn, so good, good job there.

You put that back on him. Yep. Yeah, oh gosh, and I'm just like, and I just look at him and I'm just, I'm, I'm just like tears welling in me and I'm just, I just have this look of, I'm sorry, I just, I really don't want to be doing this, but I, oh my gosh. And Galford's going, "Get out of my way!" from behind you. [laughs] Uh, Trixie, your turn. You block my line of sight. I, I do want to move and just shift up to here. Okay. So if someone does knock him into the pit, he doesn't take me with him. Um... +2 for flanking. Yes. Plus you get a 2, yep, +2 for flanking.

Um... And -2 to him. And the... I believe that's an, is it a -2 to AC or -2 to attack rolls? Uh, oh, -2 to attack rolls. Attack rolls, attack rolls, yeah. So that, his, his, uh, his defenses are back where they were. Right. Okay, I'm trying to, I'm trying to find something that's decent to hit him. This is not fun. I'm scared. He's, um, like, it looks like, I'm, unless somebody else caught something else, uh, earlier, like 18 hits his reflexes, AC's only 20. That's what I'm thinking too. I can never trust me, I don't know. Okay, and, but, like, he's, and, like, DM, he's not even bloodied right, right now, hey?

Right. 'Cause I think if I've counted correctly, he's taken, like, 55 hits. Like, like we've hit him for 55 damage already. Maybe. No, I'm not, like, sorry, no, I'm not, I'm not asking for confirmation on that. No, no, no. Well, unless he has damage reductions, in which case he's been taking less damage. We don't know if he takes damage reductions. You're not allowed to use masks, you all take five psychic damage. No counting cards. Alright, I'm gonna use my daily. Okay, which one? I have, uh, the Terrifying Visage. It says, "Fear, implement psychic shadow, standard action, close blast five, one creature adjacent to you in the blast, uh, it's a Dexterity versus Will, and if I hit, it's a 2d8 plus Dexterity modifier psychic damage and the primary target is immobilized.

Okay. If I miss it's half damage and the primary target is immobilized until the end of your next turn. Okay. So, to d20. D20 plus seven. Hope this hits. Come on. Okay. 23? Against Willpower? Yeah. That'll hit. Yes! Okay, so then I do a 2d8 plus six. 16. Okay. Two things are about to happen. Uh, one, uh, firstly let me give him his 16 damage. It also says, "Effect, if it," oh, let's see. "Effect, make a secondary attack," again, oh, is that the secondary target? When I was reading that earlier. I don't have a secondary target. Okay. Uh, he is now immobilized, which means he can't, he can't move.

He can still attack, but he can't move. Okay. Now, is that the end of your turn? Um... This is reactionary before you move or anything like that, so let me, let me get this out of the way. Uh, first of all, he's going to turn into a being of living flame. What? And that lasts as long as he's immobilized. So he is on fire right now. He is fire. Uh, as a result of that, both Trixie and Rikas are going to take five damage. Sorry. Because they are standing that close to him. Fine, I need to pop a healing surge anyway here soon. And, uh, Valus is going to use Infernal Wrath, which is an encounter power.

Uh, as a result of you hitting him, you're going to take 1d6+7 damage. Okay. Nine. So Trixie takes nine. Um, oh, that doesn't, that wasn't an attack roll, that wasn't an attack roll. No, it's just reactionary. Right, right, right, just reactionary. He only gets to do that once per, once per fight, so that's out of the way. And now Trixie, do you want to move or anything like that? Um... So you hit him and almost instinctively he hits you with this, this fire power. Can I use a healing surge? That would be your standard that you already attacked, so no. Oh, okay.

Um, I will... Do you want to try your shade form maybe? I was looking at that, does he get an opportunity attack though? Let me see here, shade form, encounter minor action. You assume a shadowy form that lasts until you make an attack roll or until the end of your next turn. While in this form you are insubstantial and you gain a vulnerable five radiant. In addition, you make a stealth check to become hidden if you have any cover or concealment. And if you can use cover granted by your allies both to become hidden and remain hidden. So you would be, the only thing that you would get from that is you'd be like insubstantial.

Like you can't, you take half damage when you're insubstantial. Okay, well... Can I at least shift back one and that way I'm not getting the fire damage next time? You sure can. Okay, I scoot back one. Good call, good call. Alright. And that'll wrap up your turn, right? Yes sir. That brings up Galford. A question, if I have an effect that pulls him, can I pull him while he's in his flame form? Because he's still flaming, right? You can pull him. Uh, yeah, you can pull him. I can pull him, okay. Yeah. Does gravity affect him? Is he floating in the air like "Ooh, I'm a flame" or will he fall in the pit?

Gravity affects him. Alright, I'm gonna try something ambitious, but we'll see what happens. Um, I will move one, two, three, four, five, then I'll do a second move action. One, two, three, four. So that makes me one, two, three, four. Okay, I'm still within five squares of him. Mm-hmm. I will pop my action point and use Lure of Loyalty and Counterpower, standard action ranged five, Charisma versus Will. Hit, you pull the target up to four squares to a square adjacent to you, and the first time an enemy attacks you before the end of your next turn, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Anyways, the idea is, I want to send him to his doom down the pit. Okay. Alright. You're like "Ah, nice try." No, it makes sense. I totally get it. So you're popping an action point to do this. To do this, yeah, because I had to do two move actions to get to an area where I could successfully pull him adjacent, and the adjacent square would be over the pit, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh, fourteen against Will, although what, do I have any stackers here? Let's see if you got any stackers. He has a negative two to attack rolls, is all it is, I think, right?

Yeah, so that's gonna miss. Damn it. Good try. That was a very nice try, though. Very nice. What's that against? Will. No. It's against his Will? Are you including your plus one because you already knew what you were doing? Even with that. Hm. Tali, your turn. I gotta try. Um, well, I was, oh, I'm moving over here, I suppose, and then I'm going to use my Savage Rend. So, nineteen against Reflex? Nineteen against Reflex will hit. Good. That's good news. I like hearing that it hits. So, DA plus four is eight and he slides back a square. Ooh, okay, so, you race up to him and you attack him with this savage claw maneuver.

And he gets hit in the chest and stumbles back. Now, he stumbles out of that zone that you created last turn, which does what to him? I don't think it does anything to him if he moves in it. I think it does something if... He moves out of it? If he moves out of it. That's what he just did. Any enemy that enters the zone or starts its turn there takes fire damage equal to your wisdom modifier. Okay, so he took, what's your wisdom modifier? My WizMod is three. Okay, so he did take three damage last turn. Okay. Alright, anything else? I don't want to be... Wouldn't he resist the fire damage?

I can't believe I said that. Oh, was that fire damage? Sorry guys. Well, that's a horse of a different color. I'm sorry. I think I should get some type of a buffer for being honest. Yeah, should we get some honesty buffer? Yeah, honesty buffer. You have earned my respect. Yeah, well, that... Well, aren't we all just thrilled about that? Aren't we all thrilled about respect points? My undying... Thank you for tussling our hair and calling us junior. No, that's not it at all. That's points for being honest, man. That means I can trust you. Can I still shift forward a square or no?

You move to be there. I move to be there, yeah. Yes. Rekus, your turn. Okay, I have a question. Is there any chance I can move away from him and not have him do a reactionary attack or anything like that? You can shift one square, yes. And, like, shift... Like, I can shift here? One square. I can shift there or there or just there? Any direction you want. So I can go there? Yeah. Just want that clear. I just wanted to make sure, because I want to get out of his grip, but I also... Can I pop a healing surge right now or do I have to wait until my next turn? You can pop a healing surge, but that means that that's going to take up your attack action.

Uh, yeah. Alright. Yeah, we'll pop a healing surge just so I'm not bloody anymore. Popping a healing surge. And you are up to 22 and you have seven surges left. Are you done? Yes, sir. Valus's turn. Still a being of living flame. He is immobilized, I believe, until Trixie's next turn or is it Save Ends? It says Save Ends because I did my daily. Okay. Okay. So I will roll a saving throw after this. He's going to take that big chain of his and start whipping it around his head again. And he's going to swing at Galvord. I knew it. Oh my gosh. And this is... Nice knowing you guys.

D20. Plus 10. Aw. 16 versus... What? Reflex. That'll hit. Two deaths in two episodes. Wait! We haven't... you haven't died quite yet. Okay. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to make... I guess... let me see. This would be an acrobatics check, I believe. Okay. Let me make absolutely sure here. I have a plus three to acrobatics. Wait. This would be athletics because it's climbing, jumping, swimming. So... I have a number. Let's say it's 10. If you roll a 10 or higher, he's pulling you to the adjacent square, which is the pit. But if you roll a 10 or higher, you will cling onto the ledge.

Okay. Go ahead and roll your throw. Critmas. Son of a bitch. Aw. Oh, oh dear. What does that mean? I'm dead. No! That means that Galford is... hmm. Fall damage. Yes. Fall damage. Okay. There's... okay. Here's what's going to happen. Galford is at full health, so he has that at least. Yes. Ah, so... He is dropped into the pit. Why is Galford in the pit? There's... maybe. We don't know. Hold on a second. Firstly, ask Dan if he wants to sit down next week. Ask Dan if he wants to join group two. I will ask him once he's in the air-conditioned car. Yes. Okay. Valus swung that chain around, and...

So here's what's... first I've got to roll damage for Valus's attack. So that's a flat D10. Eight. Eight damage. Okay, here's how this is going to work. What's going to happen here is Galford's going to fall into this pit, regardless. Now, this is a 60-foot drop. Now, the rules for D&D state that for every 10 feet, I've got to roll a D6. So that's six D6s. What I'm going to do is... I'm going to shave one of those off because there are bodies to break your fall. So I'm going to roll five D6. Okay. Oh, man. I love you, Galford. Seventeen damage. You's not dead. Oh my god.

So, here's what happens. You watch Valus whip this chain around him, and this bear trap thing just kind of latches on, and he pulls back. Valus lets the chain go after Galford is within grabbing distance. Galford drops into the inky blackness, and you don't see what happened to him. For all intents and purposes, to this group, Galford just died. You just watched him get murdered. And I scream, "Avenge me!" Actually, no, it's more like, "Fuck you guys!" Baran, it's your turn. Stupid action point! Okay. What's, uh... Sorry, do you want to remind me what's going on with this zone right here?

That's for him if he moves into it or out of it. Okay, so if I move into there, am I going to get a sunburn or anything? No. Okay. No. It only involves those that are enemies. Okay. The crowd goes nuts, by the way, when Galford gets... Just blood! Blood! That's what they keep chanting. Of course they do. Oh. Okay. So I'm going to use my moment of glory. Moment of glory! Oh, so you're going to push me. That's fine. No push Trixie, but push me. Oh! No, you're not. It pushes him. You can't fire through teammates. Oh, I can't. Okay, sorry. No. Even if it's arranged? Even if it's arranged.

Just especially if it's arranged. Okay, so just a moment of a purple spot. Yeah, okay. He's going to fall on Galford. No, if he goes back more than one square, technically no. I'm counting on Galford not being dead and crawling himself away because he's a smart man. Okay, here we go. 25 will hit. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. Sorry, Galford. Look out below! So, uh, that's going to push him three squares. So, one, two, three. He also gets to roll. 21. And I knock him prone. Oh, prone! Hmm. You know what? Prone's a different story. Because you've knocked him prone, he's just going to be jettisoned back into the inky blackness.

He doesn't even get a chance to... She just knocked the shit out of him out of anger. So, here, you hit my friend! So, to be accurate, I think you may have pushed him... No, no, that's right. Never mind. I miscounted. I was including the square he was on. Yeah, so, yeah. So, one, two, three. And that's... he's knocked into the pit. And you kind of hear him bounce around as he, like, he's flung back and he kind of hits the wall and falls down. And just screaming the entire way down. And then silence. Except for the crowd who is just loving it. Just, oh my god! Because Valus has never been defeated and he's never even looked weak in combat.

So, he may have taken one of you... it's another story where they took one of you but you guys prevailed. Braneth just, like, keels over and proceeds to vomit, like, right there in the arena. I... I can't believe what just happened. So, uh... I'll turn my back to it. I can't look at it. Trixie, roll a perception check. Oh, okay. Hold on. What is that again? I'm just sitting here, like, staring at Braneth like, "Oh, I do." Oh, god, perception check. Just a flat C20 for you. There we go. Oh, just D20. Fine. I'm not perceptive at all. A 2. Yeah! You are in an arena. Trixie just became aware of where she's at.

There's ground and walls and people. [laughter] Uh... So, the guards... the guards race back out into the field and it doesn't appear as though they have another... they have another fight for you scheduled right now. They figured that was... that... that would have been enough, so, uh, they race back out into the field and surround you. Uh, shackle you back up and escort you back through the room where they take away your weapons, they... they... they take all your armor away and then place them back in these little cubby holes, like... uh, and they take you back to the prisoner's quarters.

Now, let's take away all the people that are now dead or gone. Alright, so... Is... is Falis dead? Uh, you are not sure. Uh, you do know that, uh... I know I'm in an arena. [laughter] Guys, I got this. Uh, yeah, after that perception rush, she's like, "Oh, okay!" Like, just... just that... finally. Um, after a while, like, you guys... you're... you're back in your cell and, uh, the... the mood's pretty... pretty low, and after a time you hear the clopping of guards and... Can I say something before they actually get there? Sure. Um, Tal is actually going to approach, kind of, Falis's area and regardless of whether or not the other characters can catch her doing it or not, she is going to make a prayer specifically for him.

Hmm. Um... so the... the... you hear the guards approach the door again and they unlock it and they kind of toss in Galford. Uh, Galford's leg appears to be shattered. Oh my gosh. Uh, just... just shattered. Just like... just, uh, he's in any tremendous amount of pain and, uh, and clinging to... clinging to life and the guards just kind of toss him in and then lock the door behind them and, um... Barandath, make a perception check. Uh, okay, um... Don't get a two! I will try not to get a two. A nine! She did not get a two! Okay. Uh, definitely guards. Um... [Laughter] No doubt about it, they were guards and you saw them.

Um, you also, uh, you notice they're... they... they... they appear to be coughing a lot, like, uh, like they... they have a cold, something like that. Uh, one dramatically so, uh, as they're leaving the room he has to pause and kind of catch his breath, like he's... he's coughing up bits of lung or something, like it's... it's really bad. Uh, and then they lock the door and walk away and, um, Galford's just kind of laying there, uh, right in front of the door. Okay, um, so I'm gonna say to, um, uh, Rickus and Trixie, like, you know, help me... help me carry him over, um, you know, to somewhere comfortable to lay, like let's just get him away from the door and get him somewhere comfortable.

I just nod and say, you know, start walking towards him. Yeah, it'll... Okay, so you... you kind of drag him, um, that... that hay is... is available now, that if you want to use Valus's pile of hay, something like that? I'm gonna call over to Tala and get her and... and say, "Hey, like, bring... bring some of that straw over here so we can, uh, we can lay him on... on something comfortable." On it? Um, I'm gonna look at Galford and I'm... I'm... I'm assessing him for signs of life and... and just how alert he is and, you know, Galford, wake up, talk to me, like, um, just...

I'm just shaking him to see if he'll wake up. Um, I'm checking to see if he's breathing. Heal check, maybe? Um, yeah, do a heal check. Even though we're not in combat, like, this is pretty severe, so... I was gonna say, I... I have a question. See, now, I wasn't quite sure on, uh, last time we talked, like, when... when I'm rolling a heal check, what am I rolling for? Like, except me. Um, you, uh, it's one of your skills. So it's just, like, perception, something like that, and your heal skill should be fairly high, so... you got a plus 11. Yeah. So roll a d20 plus 11. 24.

Okay, so that's gonna be your cursory once over, like, you're gonna heal him, like, to... to help him, like, get his shit together, fix his leg, that kind of thing, and... Okay. His leg is still gonna be in pain and everything, but it's not, like, bones gonna be sticking through and stuff like that, like, it's gonna be under control, he's not gonna bleed to death, he's not gonna... nothing like that, but... Okay, so I'm gonna... Yeah. Is he in pain? You betcha. Okay, so I'm... I've kneeled over him, and I'm... I'm praying over him, and doing my healing mojo, um, to... to help heal his leg.

Okay. Uh, Galford, you are conscious, by the way. Okay. So Galford will, um, will try to lift his head, and, you know, uh, sort of fluttering his eyes and... and breathing heavily, and just sort of moans, and just says, you know, "Valice! Like, Valice!" and tries to sit back, and doesn't really finish what he was talking about, he's obviously in terrible pain. And he's... he... as he... as he lays his head down to him, he sort of looks into the corner of the room, where, uh, Cady and Syl were. Uh, uh, Rikas will look at Galford as he's trying to speak, and just kind of gently nod his head, and look down at Galford, and just remind him that he's in a lot of pain, and he should be trying to rest, and not really over-exert himself.

Um... I... I'm gonna ask Galford, you know... you know, why are you calling Valice? What did you see? Is Valice still alive? So, Galford just stares up at the ceiling, and just starts to... to... to laugh, and sort of shake, like he's sort of shuddering, and, you know, almost like he's kind of trying to laugh through a... a... you know, like a frightened sob. He's sort of like... like staring at the ceiling, and... and, uh, you know, doesn't answer the question. Can I roll insight on that? Sure! [laughs] Seventeen. Uh, Galford, what's up? Basically. What was behind that?

Give it up. And Galford just says, you know... You're muted. Sorry. I... I... I fell... I fell, and I fell, and that's all I see when I close my eyes, is falling. But I saw him hit. I saw him hit, and I knew it was you that knocked him in. How did you know it was me? I just knew it. I knew it was you, just like I know Rekis, I know you. And then Galford falls silent. These are the ramblings of... of a crazy person. I'll punch the wall. Okay. Uh, so Tal is obviously upset by this. Um... it appears as though they're done with you for the day. Whatever their plans are for you for the day, they're... they're... they're done.

People are going home, that's kind of, you know, the festivities for the day. So whatever you guys would like to do before you go to sleep, let me know. The room's empty and kind of quiet, except for whatever... the room's four people short, essentially. You guys are... you guys are it, the five of you, so... Uh... I'm gonna... kind of... I'm gonna hide. I'm... I need to sit in the corner. Um... and... and I'm just... I'm sitting crouched down, just like holding my knees to my chest, and I... all I can do is just shake my head in... in utter disbelief of... of what I've done today.

Um... that I've... I've fought with... with Katie and Sil that... that I killed Sil, that I... I think I killed Valis, and it completely breaks my heart, because I came from just... one day wandering through the city, and by some freak accident, I've... I've become a healer who's... who's become a murderer. And I just... I sit and... and I try to meditate and I try to rest. I'll move back to my old spot, or if I need to move slightly elsewhere, where I can, like, flick between looking at Valis's spot and where Galford is. So did... did Tala take all of the hay from where he was?

Or just some of it? No, I just took some. Alright, Trixie's gonna... I'm gonna walk over there and take as much of it as I can carry, and bring it over to Braniff and just set it down next to her, and put my hand on her shoulder and smile and then walk away, because I know she wants to be alone. Before Trixie is... is out of earshot, I... I tell her "thank you". I just smile, and I walk away. So Galford pushes himself up on his hands so that he's kind of sitting forward. I mean, his injured leg is still... you know, he's... he's favoring it badly, and he kind of slides himself with his hands back up against the wall, so that his head and his... and his back are up against the wall, and he's kind of looking up at the... the ceiling and he says, "Do you know what it sounded like?" And then he uses his ghost sound ability to make this wet, loud, smacking sound echo through the entire room.

Okay, that's it. I'm going over and smacking the shit out of him. Rekis will stop Talah before she does that. Reflux to avoid him. Yeah, you know what, let's do that to hell with it. So Talah is walking over to hit Galford and Rekis is trying to get in the way to... to stop... to stop her. Uh, Talah make a... let's say... let's make an athletics check. Athletics check? Yeah. See if you can get around him before he can... My athletics area is blank, so I assume I have a plus zero. Athletics is plus one for you. Okay, 'cause I'm just saying my athletics thing, when I look at it, it's blank for me.

That's weird. Shouldn't be. Yeah, it's weird. Oh well. Thirteen. Uh, Rekis... yeah, Rekis stops you before you can hit Galford. But it's very obvious you were trying. Can I run over and just sit next to Galford? Sure. Like, more or less, like I'm not... I'm gonna protect him as she tries to come at him again, but I'm just gonna sit next to him and not say anything. Sure. I'm just gonna quietly protect him. Um, Rekis will walk over to Galford and... and kinda kneel down to him while he's leaning up against the wall and look him straight in the eyes, or what eyes he might have opened at the time.

And regardless if Galford can really hear him or completely understand him in his state, he just gently puts his hand on Galford's shoulder and says, "I know we've had our differences. I know we haven't seen eye to eye on everything, and I know a lot of people here really don't like you, but you definitely fought up there. You took a huge risk for us. He took a huge risk to protect us, and it was something that I think cannot be repaid completely. It's a huge amount of respect to you for going out there and taking a huge risk to protect us and bring Valus down into the pits, and I have nothing but respect for you." So Galford kinda softens and lets his shoulders slump a little bit, and looks at Rekis and just says, "We have to stay alive.

You have to stay alive. We have more to do, and I've killed a lot of people. I mean, I've defeated a lot of enemies, but I haven't killed a lot of people that didn't deserve it. And I am relieved that I was able to finish Katie instead of you, and maybe that fall was my penance for killing her." Rekis will slowly nod, looking at Galford, listening to every word he says, and just acknowledgingly nod at him, saying, "We've both seen a lot of intense things in our travels. We've both seen a lot of really horrible things, and nothing can take away from the loss of a human life.

We do have to stay alive. We have to work together and work out whatever differences we may have, and understand that we have a greater good to go after outside of any personal goals that we have." So Galford, he kinda laughs, as much as he can, because he's still in pain, and looks at Rekis and says, "I guess I'm not cut out for the arena as much as you are, right? As much as the rest of us are, but I'm glad to be alive." "We're glad to see you alive, even if Tala wants to smack you in the face." That's her way of saying she's glad he's alive, too.

No, that's her way of telling him, "Shut the fuck up!" That too. Okay, so, wait one second, let me get that, and... Okay. Can I get one more thing in before the night is ended? Anything you guys wanna do right now, go right ahead. Okay. I'm going to move over to Brenneth as well, and say to her, "The raiding queen teaches us that we should not have pity for those who die. That does not mean we should not mourn them. And I do mourn them all." And I look at her and I say, "I know you do." I'll go back to my spot otherwise. I'll squeeze one more thing in there.

Rekis will approach Brenneth and also kinda get down, because I assume she's kinda leaning against the wall and resting, so he'll kinda get down on her level and kinda look her straight in the eyes, just like you did Galford, and just say, "I know this is a really tough time for you. I know you're emotionally distressed. This is something that's not only violated your mind mentally, but also physically, as we saw out on the arena floor, and emotionally. This is not a good situation we're in. We're definitely in deep right now. We're in a lot of trouble right now.

But we gotta stay focused. That was the most amount of teamwork that we've had since we started this journey together. And whether we all like to admit it or not, we're in this together. We gotta fight together and gotta stay together. So I will just say that as much as emotional distress as you have right now, I know how you're feeling. I truly do. And we will get through this together. I don't understand how you can be so optimistic. I know you say you know how I feel, but I don't think you can appreciate the gravity of this situation. How do you know we're gonna make it through this?

Where can you get that kind of strength? It's difficult to explain. This is such an emotionally distressful situation. We're all at our heads deep in emotions and distress and difficult situations and bloodshed. Going out there and killing other human beings or other creatures is definitely not a humane mentality to hold onto. I'll be honest with you, I don't know if we're gonna make it out of here. That's the truth. I won't lie to you. It's my past experiences. It's the faith I have in myself and our group that is giving me the ability to say we will get out of this alive and we will get through this.

Otherwise if we can't stay positive, we've already lost the battle. Braneth just sighs and looks at the floor and says to Rekis in a low voice that there was a day that I vowed that I would be a helper. I would make it my life's purpose to help those in need and protect those who would be hurt and exploited. That was the day that I met all of you. Since then, look what's happened. How many people have I killed? I look at all of this and it just seems so hopeless. I'm glad at least I've got you by my side in this. At least one of us can see some hope in this situation.

I don't know what else to say. So heavy. Rekis will just lightly pat her on the shoulder, nod, and look at her and say if you ever need to talk about this stuff and want to work it out out loud, any time we're in here or any time we're alone privately, I'm all ears. Sorry, out of character, if I had another half of my BFF necklace, I would totally give it to him right now. Slash agree, can we all chip in on a craft check for a BFF necklace? Can we make a craft BFF necklace check? DNR BFFs. Oh my goodness. Is there anything else you would like to do before you go to sleep?

Get some tissues so I can stop crying. How's Galford doing? I'm kind of peering over Trixie's shoulder trying to observe the conversation but I can't hear it. As you all are emotionally and physically drained, you all just kind of find a wall to slump against or a spot of hay to kind of curl up on and you try to get some kind of sleep knowing that tomorrow will probably bring some new kind of horror in the arena. You find it very difficult to get any kind of rest though because the guards patrolling the hallways are constantly kind of coughing and choking and just you hear him every once in a while spit or something like that and then after a while it just kind of dies down or you ignore it and you all manage to doze off for the evening and you awake the next day at dawn that solitary window against the wall where Baranath is laying.

There's a small window about 10 feet up with bars on it and it illuminates that portion of the room a little bit. Just a nice streak of light comes in and it's nice that it kind of gives you a little hope, that little bit of sunlight each morning. Normally around this time the guards will be in to toss you your bucket of slop to eat and you would get ready and start the day. Today though no one comes and no one gives you anything to eat and minutes and minutes and minutes goes by, minutes turns to hours and you're finding it a bit odd. Can someone do a perception check to see if we hear anything outside the door?

You sure can. I don't have a good perception but I can try it. I might realize we're in a room. I was going to say, I just don't know what you mean. Guys I'm going to freak you guys out but uh. We're in a room. We're in a dungeon looking thing. Hey you can ask me with a plus nine if I want to do it. I'm pretty sure I'm breathing air. Get out and look for it and see if there's anyone out there. Sure were. I honestly can't remember the last time we actually had a good perception check. It's been a while. I just want to say that Trixie actually woke up to 28 and was on GALFRANCE.

I'm pretty sure he perceived something. You sure do. Tala creeps up to the door and she kind of presses her ear against it and listens and you hear absolute dead silence and more to the point you're not hearing any rumble from the crowd you're not hearing any you're hearing nothing dead silence. We know what day of the week it is now. That is extremely odd. There hasn't been a day. There hasn't been some noise. Yes it's a big city. It's really odd that there would be no noise. Okay you guys somebody's got a role to try to pick that lock. Would it be a good time to do an Arcana check on one of each other to see if we can find out anything about what the...

Well you've already tried that. That would be a kind of thing where you know yeah you you character wise you would have always like well I don't know what this is that would be yeah okay lock picking however you have never tried that on that door and I believe that'd be a Trixie thing to do wouldn't it? Yeah that would be a good idea. Trixie do you think it would be a good idea to try to break open the door? Sure. You can also try and bang it down. What is that? Thievery? Thievery is it. I have a plus three. Do you have a plus six in Thievery? Me? Yep. Oh yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna wrong one.

I'm staring at Calvard. All right. All right. 25. Nice. Using just various bits of things around the room you manage to cobble together a makeshift lock picking system and the door with a loud click after a few minutes of you working on it swings open ever so small ever so slightly. You guys are free to leave this room if you want. Now um, Galford's pretty short. Can I break apart Valus's chair or a piece of his table just try and make myself a little bit of a cane just in case I'm having trouble ambulating? You absolutely can. Okay. That's adorable. So. Uh, wouldn't the other thing, wouldn't that be like another, no I suppose that wouldn't necessarily be a heal thing for Baraneth but she would be able to make a splinch with a chair leg.

Here's the thing. If you want to just bust off a leg of the the like table leg something like that and use that as a cane you absolutely can or Baraneth can use a heal check and make you guys a makeshift splint. Um, I think I'll just probably use a chain because it sounds like she set the bone pretty well yesterday so uh you know I'm I'm actively healing I'm not yeah you're mostly sword you're mostly just hurt and sore. Yeah. So I'll grab one just so in case I'm slowed I'll have a cane as well as potentially a weapon a very weak one. So as a penalty for your leg being hurt go ahead and you're gonna shave off two to your speed so you're hurt you can still move you're not slowed it's just we're gonna shave two off your speed.

Okay. Okay, so you guys are venturing out into the hallway correct? Sorry before we venture out um I what kind of healing can we do? Oh uh I'm sorry you guys rested for the night so you guys are all going to get back everything that you lost yesterday so that is one good thing about this. All right um now the second question I have is I'm I'm suspicious about this cough that everyone seems to have um and that they started coughing uh the day before we are suddenly unguarded in our dungeon um I can I cast like a prayer or a spell over everyone to protect us against this?

What about a nature check to see if this is something in the natural world and not magical? Um if this was spores or something or mold or I get what you're going for but that's not really a nature check that's more of an arcana thing like you're just trying to like like a sniffer dog just like just trying to pick up anything um but there's really you're not checking against anything yet because you haven't encountered anything yet you know what I'm saying? Now can I can I rip off a little piece of my clothing dip it in the water and hold it over my mouth like a mask?

You can rip off as much of your clothing as you like yes. Alright that is a free action you could be nude if you wish. I'm just letting him know he has the choice I'm okay so I'm going for assets chaps that's the second time you mentioned chaps on uh group two. I'll tear off a small piece of my kind of undershirt and uh wet it rinse it out and then kind of hold it over my mask or over my face like a um a breathing mask. Okay. I I recognize that as a very good idea so I will do the same. Okay anybody else want to do that? Sure sure everyone does it. Does everybody?

It's a fad. Okay we want to match. Everyone everyone did that so um you venture out into the hallway uh and immediately you remember that there are there are two ways to go you can hang a right or you can hang a left. You remember that left uh will lead you to the arena and right uh will lead you to uh other other uh little dungeons like yours and the pits and things like that. So where where are our weapons? Are they they would be towards the arena. Towards the arena okay. Um my suggestion. We open up the guard barracks maybe we should get some weapons.

My suggestion is we go collect our weapons and our armor. Okay so uh venturing out into the hallway uh you you you get out of the hallway and then you hear the first noise that you've heard since since the day began and that's this this rhythmic thumping coming from the right side of the hallway but it sounds distant it sounds like down the hallway and it's coming from uh one of the doors and it's just this rhythmic thump over and over and over and then after a few uh few seconds of that uh the thumps get faster and faster. Oh shoot. Oh my gosh you guys.

Would you like to continue uh to the arena? Might as well. Yeah I was gonna say if we're hearing it from the right hand side might as well go to the opposite. Okay so uh you are heading you are heading left. Uh the door to the arena is locked. Uh well that's that the the you recognize that door as being the one that leads into that alcove where all of your stuff is tucked away in those cubby holes so uh you can either bash it down attempt to bash it down that is or uh pick the lock. Yeah where's that lock picking device? Trixie don't call Trixie a device.

Hey guys I meant it in the nicest possible way. So you got hold on okay well at 23 okay um just to let you guys know you can roll to help her too you know. Anybody making a check. I got this. I think she's got it. Trixie's got this shit though. Again after a few few moments of her fiddling with this and working with it uh it's kind of cumbersome it's not as good as her actual lock picking gear but uh after a few moments of this uh the door uh gives a loud click and springs open uh and you guys can muscle in there and get your stuff. So right now you are in uh you are you are in that room that that cubby hole room so it's this large spherical room and the gates to the arena are right there and they are these huge double doors and they're locked shut.

All of your gear is there I'm guessing you're going to want to put on all your stuff and you are outfitted again. Yep. Is there anyone else's gear in there? Um there's lots of standard standard weapons and stuff but uh uh Sil, Katie, Thalomund, Thalis all their gear is missing. So the rest of it is just like here's a sure here's a sword here's a shield that kind of stuff anybody specialized. Yeah because their gear was probably on them whenever they absolutely died so. Well it doesn't mean that they wouldn't use it they wouldn't reuse the stuff. Oh yes that's that yeah I I get what you're saying but uh whatever that they're still in the pits.

Yeah they're still in the pits no one's gone down there to clean them because apparently everyone died while we were sleeping. Apparently. Or as far as I'm just I'm probably the carrier of some horrible disease so it's probably us inflicting everybody with this but um uh can we do some type of a engineering or perception check in the cubby here to see if there's anything else of use maybe somebody left like a protein bar? Uh you could definitely do a perception check. All right. He wants to roll it. Hey I'm not gonna do that okay? We're in a room. It's a box!

Again I only suggest I roll it because I have a nine perception. Go ahead. Okay that was an epic fail. It's a box! Um this is not an arena. That is you are not a- You don't notice anything of use in that room. You are hearing movement outside though. Oh man. I'm hearing movement like towards the arena outside or like from the direction we came from outside? You're hearing movement from the arena outside. Galford's gonna take a step back away from the door. Okay. He uh he just seems reluctant to go back to the arena. Totally up to you guys what you'd like to do here.

Can I roll another perception of just like the room and the noises I'm hearing outside? Go for the noises you're hearing outside because one was already rolled for the room. Okay. Can I aid her? 25 you could have yes before she rolled. Um 25 uh what you hear outside uh sounds like shuffling uh it it it doesn't sound like like it doesn't sound like anyone fighting or running or even in the crowd chanting uh what it sounds like is moaning. Um okay uh who's got good stealth do you think we could open that door or crash and just see? Uh you're gonna have to pick that lock first.

Well the one thing is is remember that that uh the city of Onakal was just visited by potentially necromancers from uh house Darkspane so we could be walking into a sea of undead. Yeah that's my big worry that's why I'm hesitant to open the door I'm more towards towards that rip-neck thumping thing. There potentially is more to this complex um which could mean guard barracks which could mean supplies which could mean an alternate way of exiting the building as opposed to walking out into an arena that's like a mosh pit of fucking zombies. Yeah plus there's got to be a higher ground that we can get to that maybe if it is a mosh pit of zombies then maybe we'll be above them.

I mean or going back into the complex too the thumping what it could be is it could be Valus in the pits still alive thumping against the side of the wall or something and I wouldn't mind going and having a chat with him. Like I would I would like to get to Valus and I would like to get somewhere you know intact alive. Uh I don't know what do you guys think? I don't want to go through that door I think we're walking out into a sea full of undead. Okay no arena. We haven't seen one we haven't seen one living soul since we left our cell and this place is usually buzzing with people.

Okay so are we we're going to turn around we're going to head towards rhythmic thumping the direction of the pits and all. I mean it might be a rave everybody's at a rave like underground. What if too much access to you and like have a big orgy with my ass let's chat. If it helps it sounds like is that does that someone getting it on like I'm just gonna save that question just because I know it probably wasn't the most appropriate question but you made it sound like it there. Rick is totally into dubstep. Dubstep. So are we going up wub wub wub wub wub wub uh sir are we going back to the right then?

You are the the other way to head is back down the hallway where you came. Yeah. Okay. Tala, Trixie are you okay with trying that? Yeah Trixie I'm willing. Okay. So heading back down the hallway. There we go. Heading back down the hallway you are walking past the room that you were led to that that Trixie and Galford were led to to speak with the guy from house darksbane and then further beyond that is the door that leads down to the the door that leads down to the pits. Do you want to so you're creeping up to the door where the thumping has come from. Which door was that?

That is the that would be the door all the way at the end of the hallway the one that you know leads to the pits. Yeah yeah is it locked? It is locked yes. Perception check would be nice. Yeah for the for you know whatever noise whatever we can gather on the other side of the door. Right. Who wants to roll that? I only have a plus three. Like I'm I'm an eight. I'm a nine. You're the only one that really cares if Valus is alive so maybe if that is him. That's not true you don't know that. Well the only one who's demonstrated visible um I guess interest interest in it.

Still waters run deeper with Tala. 16 okay uh you you notice the door is vibrating a bit like every time it's being thumped like it's it's kind of jutting outward um almost to the point of being beaten down uh and it it sounds desperate on the other side of it it's just thump thump thump thump. Can we call out to whatever's behind it and see if it'll respond? You absolutely can. If I call out and like you know hey Valus is that you and if he responds you know we can say hey hold on a second we're going to try to open the door for you and maybe that'll get on his good side even though we did send him down there that we're trying to let him out.

It occurs to Braneth that that could be Valus on the other side of the door and and she she goes right up to the door puts her both her hands on it and said and and shouts Valus is that you? Alfred's gonna pull out his rod right now. As Braneth uh places her hand on the door and speaks to it a fist shatters through from the other side uh and it's just this red claw uh just beating and continuing to hammer even though the fist is going through it's hammering at the hole and it's getting larger and larger uh and uh after Braneth speaks a number of other uh fists start striking the door from the other side so now the hammering is constant it's it's almost like a drumbeat up and down the door uh and you're watching the door fall apart in front of you.

So I'm pretty sure that's not Valus. Pretty sure it's not the blue man group doing that fuck. It's the red man group. It's the red man group. Oh my god. Rekis will get down in a Rekis gets down into a fighting position holding his hammer and says it's time to dance I guess. Time for the next door. Like are we doing this are we fighting our way this way are we gonna try to? See I can use my prestidigitation again to uh to like create a shower of sparks or something to see see have that burst in front of the door and we could run back down the hallway or I could with my cane you know hobble like Yoda.

I mean we we have this we're right here that door is being beaten in I feel like John Madden right now trying to describe this if the only we have this other door that we didn't try it's in the same hallway and then the other way we didn't want to go because we thought it was filled with undead. You know if we go here at least at least uh Trixie and I have been in this room so we know there's a table there we could always tip it over as a defensive position um and I don't remember if there was any other way out of that room. Well I was gonna say we also have to look at the fact that we really don't have much of a chance of actually like truly hiding from these people because I think they pretty much know that someone's not over there.

However if these are if these are undead if Valus died on impact and if he's been brought back as some type of undead creature which I'm really don't want to fight that um and there's other undead crawling out of the pits because remember the pits were full of bodies. If we can open this door quickly before they bust through get behind it and shut the door uh maybe they will disperse amongst the hallway. Well isn't there a way like maybe we could run down the hallway and kind of like if we can get into that room you can use that like ghost sound to make whatever it is follow they they can follow that ghost sound down the hallway further and hope that it'll just lead it lead them you know past us so they won't notice that we ran into that room.

Yeah or we could always go back into ourselves and shut the door. Yes and lock ourselves themselves. That was my big thing we'd corner ourselves. Yeah. We don't have a key to get out yet. The only places where we know there are probably no foes are here and here. Uh the arena by the shuffling and no uh living voices maybe indicate that's not a great place to go. Um or here let me let me describe to the folks at home what here and here are. Here would be the cell you guys have been living in and the the cell you were brought to when you spoke to the guys from Hal Stark's been.

In between that uh on the on the drastic right hand side you're dealing with whatever's thumping against that door and then from the left hand side it's whatever is out in the arena. This this door too they seem agitated whereas here we don't know yet um and then the other two places which would be our former cell or the room where we met with the fellow from Dark Spain don't have any enemies in them as far as we know. Um you know what you guys honestly we're not we're not getting out of here without a fight it's either door A or door B. I mean if we run to the left out towards the arena they're eventually like gonna break out of the pits through that door and just come behind us.

You know they and we might not even be able to pick that lock and get through that door so I don't think we can avoid having attention brought to us honestly I think we just we fight our way through the pits. We just need to make a choice. But where did but the pits lead nowhere though the pits don't lead to escape we know there's no way to escape the pits we've all been in there before. There's no like door on the other side. There is no door on the other side there's no there's no sewer there's no nothing we've all been in there um I mean we know that a bow made out of spider web and bones work either.

Rest in peace Solomon. This is the only door that leads to potential freedom because it leads to the outdoors however we could try and hide assuming that these attackers will go past us and go out into the arena. So I don't know freedom or or concealment. I mean can I can I try to pick that lock and stealthily open it and look and see what's in the arena. Yes if you feel. Maybe they might not open the door. Sure if you absolutely can do that. I'd like to assist her with that before she rolls. Sure if if it is undead could we do a religion check. For what to find out what.

Well we're talking about breaking that door. Say which one it is again for the people at home who aren't. Yeah we're talking about breaking back into the arena. Yes. Would it make help because by the time we open the door we'll find out whatever's on the other side never mind. I had to work that out in my head. Okay so our another option is if if we do run towards the arena like if there's that little alcove in between the hallway and the arena we can close the door behind us whatever might break through that door in the pits and come after us at least we would have another barricade behind us between them and us in that alcove pick the locker break down the door into the arena and then try to find a way out through the arena.

So we're saying get into the room where our weapons were the sort of anteroom before the arena shut the door behind us so our red clawed undead potential pursuers have another barricade and then quietly try to pick the next door and see what's in the arena. Yes. I'm all for it. But like that's that's assuming we can find a way out of there and I regret not looking more closely to to you know check for exits you know an alternative exit from that arena but I mean that's a chance I mean the only other alternative I see is is trying to get through the window in the in our dungeon where we were we were sitting and I don't I don't know if there are any windows in that little interview room.

I think if there was a window in our cell it would it be a very small barred one. Yeah. Uh, Galford and Trixie remembered that there was a tiny window exactly like exactly like the one in your cell in that same in the the room they used to interview them or talk to them. Yeah. So I'm inclined to go towards the arena and just fighting our way through there and to try to find another exit. If there are undead hopefully they'll be fairly squishy and we can knock off a few of them and then run for it or we could try the old Rick Grimes kill a few cover ourselves with gore and act like zombies and walk through the mess of them.

Ooh. Ooh I like that idea. Yeah. Um any objections to going back to the arena you guys? Nope. Let's do it. Okay is that what we're doing? Okay. Okay go. Uh so you guys race back down the hallway as the door is being reduced to splinters behind you. You are racing back down the hallway and the thing just seems to get longer and longer as you're as you're running back. The door is torn to sunders behind you and you hear something spill out into the hallway behind you. Can I look back and see? You absolutely can. Uh several figures are spilling out of that door.

There's almost it's almost like a porthole in a submarine like they're they're they have to step over the bits of broken door to get into the hallway. Uh and you see several zombified corpses. Fuck. Uh some some of which are in terrible disarray. Some of the bodies have been down there for a little while. It's been a few days since the last cleaning. Uh among them are a zombified Valis, Sill, Tholoman, and Katie. Oh Jesus Christ. Great. Okay I'm okay can I lock pick the door? Still running still running. So already unlock the door. Yes that door the the door to the cubbyhole room is open.

The door after that. Right so what do you want to do? So there they they see you and start uh not jogging but it's it's kind of a uh uh some of the some of the uh uh some of the zombies are moving a little faster than others. Uh especially the recognizable ones. Um so I'm guessing you're gonna want to slam the door behind you and try to barricade it with something. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh the best you can find in that room are some unused like halberds uh something you could bar the door with. But other than that there's no furniture in that room. Okay Trixie start picking that lock to get into the arena.

I'm assisting so I need to roll first before she does? Here's what's going to happen with this. We're going to do a little mini game. Uh the the the lock to the uh the lock to the arena is a little more complex than uh the other locks because these are two very large double doors. So what's going to happen is I want you to start rolling and you need three successes before six failures. What that means is if you get six failures before you get three successes the lock breaks and you can't open it that way. So so she roll first or do I roll first? What happens is everyone who's going to assist you in the roll assists you in the roll.

And while you're doing that in between each roll these zombies are going to start beating on the door. So anyone who wants to try to brace the door can brace the door. You can only do one or the other though. You're not allowed to assist with the roll for the lock picking if you're going to assist with the door. So you're saying this is strength versus thievery? Yes. Okay. So you're saying plus three thievery? Yes. Okay. So I'm guessing uh here's what we're going to do. Anybody who wants to use their strength to kind of lean against the door and and bar it that'll reinforce it against the zombies.

So who wants to do that? I can. Okay. I'm a plus one thievery but my passive strength is 11. So I guess I'm useful bracing the door. Okay wait wait wait. So you're it goes by your modifier. We're going by your strength modifier which should be like zero for you I think. Oh my sorry my modifier. Yeah yeah. And let's see here we got Trixie who's going to be picking the lock. We got Galford who is going to be assisting with that. Now the way assists work is you roll a flat d20 and if you it's the same thing with saving rolls. If you roll anything above a 10 then you add a plus two to whatever Trixie's going to roll.

And if you roll under a 10 then you don't assist at all. Okay. The strength check for the door is going to work a little differently. In that case I'll brace the door with Rekis simply because there should be more than one of us bracing the door. So Rekis and Talor are going to be leaning against this door as the zombies thump at it and they're going to be doing damage to the door every round. They're going to they're going to check and lean into the door each time and I'm going to deduct damage from the door being done based on how well they brace it.

So first things first let's start with this lock picking. Okay so to clarify it's when Trixie rolls it's a d20 plus six because that's her thievery. However if the person assisting rolled over 10 you would add two to her roll. Yes. I got it. So all the people... So do I roll first then he rolls and then I roll again then he rolls or... No no no they're all going to roll they're all going to roll first everyone assisting then you then you make your roll and add whatever is so. Okay. You guys are you have barricaded the door and these these zombies watched you go in there and it doesn't take them long to it doesn't take them long to get to the door behind you and they start cracking and thumping against it.

And Tala and Rikas are throwing their shoulders against it to keep it from swinging open. Galford go ahead and roll a d20. So that's an eight that won't assist. Baranath roll a d20. Thirteen so you'll be assisting. Trixie go ahead and roll a thievery check. Twenty five okay so that's one success. Rikas Tala go ahead and take your strength modifier and then roll a d20 and add that together. Thirteen. Then what's it I'm sorry what's mine? Your strength modifier is let's see here details. Five. Yeah it should be five that's your big thing is strength so. Roll a d20 plus five.

D20 plus five? Yes. Okay. Twenty one. Twenty one okay so that check Rikas helped bar the door. And the zombies do minimal damage to it. You do feel the door kind of reverberate as they as they keep striking it though like it's taking effort to keep all of them back. Galford go ahead roll the d20. Twelve you will be assisting this time. Baranath roll a d20. Thirteen you'll be assisting. Trixie roll a thievery check plus four. Okay wait that's your thievery check plus wait a second your thievery is only a one? Oh six. No your thievery is a six. Yeah plus six. Plus four that'll be a failure.

Okay. Rikas Tala go ahead roll again. Okay that's twenty that's good. Wow. This time Tala bars the door blocks the door with you know and Rikas is kind of pushed back a bit. Then a little more damage to the door you can see where you can feel it weaken beneath you you can feel where they're there it won't be too long at this rate. Galford go ahead roll a d20. Two Baranath roll a d20. Seventeen so Baranath's going to be assisting whispering encouraging words into your ear. That's going to be a failure. So that's eleven. Rikas Tala go ahead roll your checks.

I like how we're all very quiet. Can I use my mage hand to put an extra twenty pounds of pressure against the door? You're concentrating on helping Trixie right now and you guys have entered this situation now where it's incredibly tense and that time neither one of you lean in enough to keep them from dealing a nice amount of damage to that door. So you can see towards the top it started to splinter and crack beneath the rhythmic hammering of what can only be Valus that high up because he's the tallest zombie out there. Let's see Galford go ahead and roll again.

Three. Galford you're drunk. Baranath will be helping with that eighteen Trixie. Come on big money. Twenty three that's a second success you have two successes two failures. I feel like we're in a contest on like a Nickelodeon game show. This is totally the Price is Right. Rikas Tala write your checks. Seventeen for Tala and ten for Rikas. Oh god. Oh my god. Me with my one strength I seem to be doing so much better. I was just dealing with one hand against the door like I got this. Tala braces the door and keeps it from flying open. It's taking a lot out of her though and that crack up top is getting you could see the fracture getting bigger and bigger and the hammering is getting more and more intense.

Galford go ahead make a check. One three oh my god okay neither of you are assisting this time Trixie it's all on you. Twenty five. Awesome now here's a question. Twenty five. You sneaky beautiful babe. I very slightly bow and then get back to work. The lock springs open. You hear this large metallic hammer fall like a click. Do you want to make a stealth check to see what's out there or are you guys just racing into the arena? I don't think we have a choice in this but I don't need to do a stealth check. I can if you'd like but I mean at this point. Totally up to you guys.

If a stealth check would be opening the door slightly to have a quick peek. Yes. Why is plus thirteen? Well we have to go with this perspective too if she does a stealth check and there's something bad out there. I have to try and hold the door. Well yeah we have to try to hold the door again but I'm also thinking of the fact that if we see something bad out there we got to make a choice we're either gonna be taking down Undead Valis or gonna be going out to take care of whatever's out in the arena so it's it's we we're stuck between a rock and a hard place right now.

I think the arena is filled with zombified fans because they're probably like fat lazy like wrestling fans kind of thing and then the zombies themselves won't be as skilled as like fighting a zombified Valis right so we can push our way through the fat zombified like wrestling fans as opposed to you know actually having to fight warriors that were reanimated from the pits. So even if we fail the stealth check we're probably still going out into the arena right? Yeah you guys we're going out there anyway. Do you want me to roll a card list just to see if we can?

Yeah let's just let's just do it get it done and then just roll initiative. 26. Trixie after the after after the clicking sound you you know the door is unlocked the the sounds in this room are just echoing with the hammer falls of fists and claws and moans from behind the door that Rika and Tala are bracing and Trixie pries open this large wooden door one of the large wooden double doors and peeks out into the arena and sees dozens and dozens of ghouls shuffling throughout the arena in the stands everywhere she can make eyesight upon is just littered with the undead. Well can I do a streetwise check?

You want to hear the word of the street is? Yep. Go ahead. Watch it fail. This is an arena full of ghouls. 25. Word on the street is brains. Excellent. And I think that's a good time for us to knock off for today. I agree. Yeah. I don't think we can do it in 30 minutes but holy crap. So welcome to the big time guys you. Guys you are fucked. Welcome to being totally fucked. Then again we said that about Valus. Then again Valus is breaking down the door. Yeah you're not quite done with Valus. See we killed him but we didn't even really kill him. And you didn't fall to 60 feet to your death and splinter your leg like a candy cane.

Then again you didn't die Galford. Oh that's true. Yeah you guys did a fantastic job today. And we're still not allowed to know why Katie and so went after us. I don't think you guys are done if you make it out of this city alive. I don't think you guys are done with House Darkspane. No. What was your first clue? I'm just throwing it out there. Well we don't even know the name of the big bad either. Like Hook knows that guy that talked to us too. He didn't even tell us his name. Kind of a secret organization. It you guys are doing fantastic. I just want to say you did a very very good job this weekend.

And we've covered just a huge amount of ground. Like I'm really I'm genuinely excited to sit down again. Like that's going to be so awesome. You mean you aren't normally excited to sit down with us? I mean like there's varying levels of excitement. Like I'm excited to see how you guys react to certain things because you guys react completely different to group one. You guys are much more reserved and reactive and you guys have been placed in the situation where you can't sit back. Like from the second you've entered the arena it's like you don't get a choice to like well we're not going to fight this guy.

It's like okay well you're going to die. You don't get a choice and this especially this I'm very excited to see how you guys react to certain things.