City of the dead: Part 1

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

[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. Howdy everyone! Welcome to episode 23 of Dungeons & Randomness. Um, couple quick announcements. One, we are really, really, really trying to break into other listings and stuff on iTunes. So anybody who listens to this show and enjoys it, and hasn't given us a rating yet on iTunes, it would be greatly appreciated if you could swing by, take a couple seconds, and rate us.

It helps us out tremendously, and it helps us kind of expose ourselves to new people. Um, two, the website should be done by the next time an episode is posted. So keep your eyes peeled on the fan page by going to facebook.com/dungeonsandrandomness Look for us there, and we post all the Twitter feeds, all that kind of stuff. All the characters pretty much have their own character-based Twitter feeds, so they tweet in character all the time. It's actually really damn funny. It takes place a lot during sessions and stuff, too. One more thing. It looks like the next Group 1 session, which will probably be a couple weeks from now, will be broadcast live on Twitch TV on Bandana Rob's channel.

So, again, keep following us on Facebook, and we'll announce a time, and we'll hype the hell out of it. We'll give everybody ample notice. So, again, rate us on iTunes, tell a friend about us, share it on Facebook, all that good stuff. And we hope you enjoy today's session. This is Dave Strand from Beer and Battle, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast, and you are listening to Dungeons & Randomness. So, how are you guys feeling about today? How are we all doing? A little gassy. [laughter] A little terrified, but we'll be okay. I think we'll make it. Group 1 is pulling apart at the seams, so this is going to be the weekend that Group 2 binds together and overcomes.

Unless the DM is just being a dick. Again, with this accusing the DM of... Yeah, right after he posts on Facebook, "Wow, I'm really starting to feel sorry for Group 2." I had a conversation with Alana a little while back that technically I'm the villain. And I've never thought... I started thinking about it. This is the first time, though, I'm putting a session together, it's like, "Man, I just feel like a dick." This is so... this is villainous. That's when you just back away slowly and go, "Maybe I am putting too many barricades in front of them." Maybe you should just back off and let them have an easy way out of this.

Because then... I didn't think it was even intentional. I feel like we're like one tiny spaceship in a video game and there's 5,000 bullets on the screen. And we have one quarter left. What is that game called? 80s Arcade. Yeah, but... Every 80s Arcade game ever. It's called Before You Were Born. It's called Space Massey. It had like... Look, I can picture it in my head. It had green type for its title and... I don't like Space Massey. Space Massey? I think someone needs to make a Flash game of Space Massey. It's where the game just cheats. Oh, so it will be true to life.

Awwww. Let me make a note. I'm sorry, we're DMs. No, you will be. The game always cheats for the DM. That's not... what? It cheats just enough so the DM can do monster-sized amount of damage and then just... Like when we're about to die, it gives you crap. Just so we can just scrape through living. Jason, but it doesn't do that in 3.5, so... Megan, don't pull the land of milk and honey. Only if Arly gets his Cthulhu die. He has a set of Cthulhu die and if he uses that, we know we're boned. Here's the thing. He always rolls crits on those. Here's the thing. I need to clear up a misconception.

You're not a dick? No, I'm not gonna even try. No, he totally is. Um, so okay. Diseases in 4.0. I started talking about this on the fan page and stuff. I tagged you guys in the basement. Um, they're weak sauce. They're really weak and you guys are better than this. No, we're not. No, you are. You deserve a challenge and that's... No, no, no. We all got vaccinated in school. Jason, you remember the other night... You remember the other night where I told you I love you? I take that back. Okay. That's fair. Um, I just... So the way diseases work in 4.0 are... Most of them have anywhere from 3 to 4 stages.

Stage 0 is you're cured, right? And then you got 1, 2, and 3. Now most diseases aren't... Uh, aren't so much lethal as they are just kind of an inconvenience. And... If you're just looking at the storytelling aspect of the game, diseases can cure themselves. That doesn't make any sense, right? If you get, like, I don't know... Chlamydia, let's say. And, you know, that doesn't go away until you get it treated. Now, I'm not even talking about just from a, uh... Just from a priest or cleric or something like that. It's, uh, whenever you take an extended rest, you get to make a Constitution check.

And based on your Constitution check, you can will the virus away. That's how I got rid of my chlamydia. Can we will away zombie chlamydia? Not in my D&D campaign, no. Not in my D&D. D&D. No, that's weak sauce. First of all, three stages isn't enough. So mine has... It's six. Six, if you get to six, you're dead. You're dead and you're a reanimated corpse. And that's... then the party's got to deal with you. But to get to six, that's... Yeah. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, though. I don't want to spook you guys. But we should be okay because to get zombie chlamydia, like, the zombies don't bite you, they actually have to do the other thing to you.

Yes. And yeah, that's a lot of standing still. Baranath needs to keep her chastity belt on so she doesn't get, like, zombie stabies. Sorry, I'll be back in a second. Go make a dip. Sorry, that's a me and Jason joke. Yeah, that's... Yeah, well, you know, the one thing that scares me the most about Jason DMing group two is that it's not the "I'm going to put a lot of zombies, I'm going to challenge you guys, it's going to be a good session." It's the... he doesn't have any, like, extra story plans or fan fiction or, like, you know, books to write about group two.

It's more like, you know, when you hear him talk about group one, there's always lots more plans coming into it. But you never see him post on Facebook, like, "Hey, you know, I've got this really interesting stuff I wrote for group two." It's just more like, "I'm going to fucking kill them." I didn't... I've never said that. And you know what? Here's the thing. As soon as I started posting that stuff for group one, people get angry. Like, a lot of people are, you know, a lot of people are excited or whatever, and then there's always that one dude who speaks up, "Well, I guess then they can't travel back in time because that spoils the rest of the story." And I have to tell him, it's like, "No, because there would have to be a history for them to go back and change to begin with." These things happened anyway.

It's like Back to the Future, like, that's the, you know, but it's always weird to try and explain... Like, I'm just going to come off like a crazy person posting this huge block of text. "Well, actually, space-time continuum, blah, blah, blah, Doctor Who." What was I talking about? Okay. So, before we get started, just before we do... Well, we should do the intros and everything, just because we haven't done this in a while. I'm Jason. I'm the DM. And going down the line, let's start with Danielle. My name is Danielle. I play Trixie, the Drow assassin. And again, congrats on the new baby!

Thank you! And Tyson. And skipping Tyson, we're going to go... Megan! I'm Megan. I play Tella, the Razorclaw shifter. And Alana! Sorry, I was tweeting something evil about the DM, so I had to put all my concentration into that. Lashing out at me isn't making your situation any better, guys. I didn't put you in this position. This is like the entire group, like when Dan fell, like when Duncan fell into the pit. This is like the entire group swearing at you as we all die. It's just going to happen over two hours. Alana! Hi, I'm Baranath. I'm an elf cleric. And Brian?

Hi, I'm Rickus. I'm a mule-ruined pe- *fart noise* Mole-ruined- You thought I should be offended by. I remember this now. I'm a mule-ruined penis. I'm a mule penis, and uh... I cast magical spells. And... Oh, magical spells. And Tyson, coming back around to you, sir. Hey, I'm Tyson. I play Galford, the Fapac Gnome Warlock, and follow me on Twitter before I die. So, let me talk about this. Your journey has been interesting. You're technically, your group has only been together about three weeks. In-game. So, in three weeks, a hell of a lot has happened to you guys.

You've kind of journeyed together, you've cleaned up some bandits, you've gotten into a little political intrigue, so to speak, in Brightport. You've been arrested and enslaved, and you fought in the arena, made friends, and killed those friends, and now you're being attacked by zombies. So... Isn't it been a magical and wonderful journey, everyone? Yes, how's your day? You guys can't be a dozen anywhere. Coming soon to a Disney movie. Three weeks. That's a lot of stuff to get into in three weeks. You guys are right on the verge of leveling up again. I'm gonna let you guys know that.

So, at some point in today's little sit-down, we're probably gonna take a break and everyone will get a chance to level up. If we survive. That's when we save the game. So if anything goes wrong, we can just reload there. Yeah, they tried that on group one this last week. That didn't work out either. Quick, what's the save code? So, last time, if you remember, the zombies are beating down the door from behind. And that was Thalen, Katie, Sill, and Valis. And a horde of other nameless zombies. And despite Rikuus' strength, Talos was holding down the door. Shh! [Laughter] Rikuus and Talos were holding the door back, so they would be right over here.

And the rest of the party was picking the lock to the arena. What you guys want to do now is completely up to you. I don't know whether you want to head into the arena, because last time... We have the door picked, finally. You do have the door picked, it's open to you. Trixie used a little stealth to crack open the door. And there are many zombies out there. Now, the cool thing about the arena, at least, is that it's a wide open space, and you don't necessarily... There's a lot more room to maneuver. Right, you don't have to fight everything. We stay in here, we do.

Well, there are less zombies to fight staying here, but it's a much more narrow space. So, it's completely up to you guys. What would you like to do? We just went through all the heartache of opening the door. Yeah, but that other door is coming apart anyway, you guys. We're not avoiding them. It's either now or later. The one thing is, since Trixie managed the stealth and could actually get in there and see the countless amount of zombies in the arena... My only thought is, if we stay in here, will we create enough noise that the zombies out in the arena are gonna go, "Yeah, what's that?" And like...

And they would do it exactly that way. It's a much heavier door, too. Like, we were able to pick the first one pretty quickly, but I mean, the other door is a much heavier door. Well, if we locked this one... Well, if we locked the door to the arena on our way out, then I feel like the other group of zombies would have a much harder time getting to us. If we... Would buy us time to get rid of the ones outside, and then even if the ones in here broke in to the first door, they still have the second door, which, again, is a time-saver. If we sort of sneak out into the arena where we, you know, open the door quietly, 'cause Trixie sort of stealthily peeked out there...

If I... I unfortunately revealed this to Jason in a call earlier, so it might have screwed us, but... Could I press the digitization to make us reek like rotting zombies? 'Cause I can make a strong odor, you know, within a small area. And then we kind of pull the Rick Grimes and walk out there. I also have, um... What's it called? Shade Twin. It's a daily, but I can make myself appear like a zombie, or any other character I want to. So, I could appear as a zombie, make us all stink like zombies, and then we just walk out there like a small little group and try and just shimmy along the outside of the arena until we can get away from the horde and see if they let us walk by while we stink and shamble.

More than we usually do. So your suggestion is the arena? My suggestion was the arena. If we could conceal ourselves as other zombies, so hopefully they don't all turn around, they just think we're more zombies walking away. I mean, the Rick Grimes theory of "cover yourself with guts and walk by and they won't know you're a zombie." Okay. One problem with that, and I don't mean to be the guy who plots against you, but I am. But I'm against you. Your press the digitization says that it affects one cubic foot. One cubic foot. That's for changing the color of items.

That is also for creating a harmless sensory effect such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint music, or a strong odor. But it doesn't say one cubic foot in there. It says "cleaner soil items in one cubic foot." Okay, my... it's... hmm, the way it's formatted is kind of... cleaner soil... okay, I can see where you... okay. You can make a case for either one. Okay. And I think with an odor too it would waft outwards. Well, yeah, but there would have to be a source of it, but yeah, okay. I'd probably have to make myself the stinking party and then we would all...

There has to be a target is what I'm saying. It can't just be the aura around... one of you would have to stink. That would be the big problem is that while you would smell... one of you at least would smell like them, the others wouldn't. And that doesn't create the illusion of you guys looking like them. So what you're saying is I can escape alone and the rest get eaten? I am saying that. Bitch! Okay, the other option is if we decide to take out Valis and the rest of the dudes, we could go back into the compound and check out the room where Trixie and I spoke to the Darkspane people.

Because maybe there's more to that room, we actually haven't explored it or more to the complex if we can do some type of a check. And then if all else fails, we go back out to the arena. At least we can postpone our death in the arena. I have a feeling we're going to be fighting fewer enemies if we take on Valis and Syl and Katie. So you're suggesting we take care of them just in case we go out into the arena and they just bust out there anyways? Yeah. Like I don't know, I get this feeling that we're not going to avoid it either way. I get this feeling I'm extremely nervous with whatever we decide.

Yeah, I'm going to side with you on that one. I think everyone feels that way. There's got to be another way out. It would not make sense. Like the arena is designed to keep people in and fighting. It would not make sense that there's not another way out the way we came. Well I think the rationale we had in the first place for wanting to go out into the arena is because theoretically the pits that dropped into the lower level was not closed up. So we could spend a lot of time just pushing the zombies into said pits. So we wouldn't actually have to fight most of them.

But if we can't get out of the arena and we have to go backwards, then we're fighting them all over again. And if there's 30 zombies out there, no matter what they roll for initiative, we're still getting pounded and bitten. And then also getting diseased and rotting away slowly. Well, even if we drop them into the pits, didn't they already break through the door from the pits to get upstairs? So would it really matter? Yeah, the Benny Hill music would play and they would just come running down the back of the hallway. Well, I mean, they're still susceptible to broken limbs and falling damage and all that stuff.

They're not invincible, obviously, they're just dead. Those two seem to go together well. Well, I mean... They're not invincible, they're dead! How are they attacking us if they're dead? That does sound silly, but if you crush their skull or you break their leg, they're still susceptible to... well, if you crush their skull, they're dead. If you break their leg, they're... I mean, you're taking an already slow thing and making it slower, or they'll just crawl or whatever. But you get the point. Do any of the zombies have parachutes? Um... not that you know of.

Do I have any spells that make zombies not zombies anymore? That would be really convenient! And can I get an infinite amount of uses of that spell? At level 8 you do. In 3.5 you get the Turn Undead. You can use it as many times per... Are we seriously having this discussion again? I'm adding a super zombie to the board every time you mention the initial 3.5. I am adding a super zombie to the board somewhere. In a random room. I agree. Or like a negative 2 penalty to attack rolls every time she says 3.5. Mega Ninja Jetpack Zombie is his name, and I'm adding one every time.

Are you getting this, honey? I can't slap her from this far away, so I'll try to start throwing stuff. Max will do it. Yeah, I'll just throw up on her. That'll be good. That'll happen tomorrow. So are we gonna play for time and try and kill the people in the hallway here? Just shut the other door to the arena quietly? Kill... hopefully kill Valus and Tholoman and Cady and Sil? And then explore the complex a bit more before we just run out and present our brains for the munching? We can chum for zombies. We can go into the pits and grab some brains and throw them out there.

Try and distract them because they're like pigeons. Crickets chirping. Pigeons? You guys seem so indecisive. Our most clever teamwork is falling at the... I know I haven't said anything this far, but if there is a wide open chance in the arena, it seems like we could run away faster. But I'm all for going down the hallway because at least there's less to fight and we might be able to find a way out like Brenna said. Yeah, because the thing is also the fact that we're in the arena, and I imagine the walls around it are pretty high, and I doubt they have a ladder or anything that we can climb up.

Well, this is true. The majority of the zombies came from the stands, basically, or just the surroundings. So they've fallen in. So some of them have taken damage already, some of them are in worse shape than the other ones. There is a door on the opposite side, but it's a large door. Just letting you know what you'd be facing if you ran in there. Can I ask you a question about our quarters here? Theoretically, if we cleared out the zombies in this hallway, in this area, we went and cleared out any in the pits or whatever, barricaded any of the other entrances, like hopefully none of them fall down the pits again.

And we did this and popped off dailies and used encounter powers and done that. Could we then go back to our cell, sleep it off, and regain everything, heal, and then try and get out there? I can't give you that information. Gah! That's meta. I will say that that's on paper. That should work. But I can't promise you anything. So sort of like fight, clear out barricade, and then... You guys, can we make a decision? Alright. Okay, everyone who wants to go in the hallway, say yes. Because I know I do. Why don't I just roll a percentile like high as we go out and stay here?

Because it's not that hard of a decision! It's not that hard of a decision, so I might as well just roll a percentile. We're going to get the decisions what we do first. We're going to go hallway. I think we've decided hallway. Okay. Majority wants hallway. Alright then. Okay, first Trixie, shut that door quietly to the arena. And... So now we don't have them pouring in from both ends. So now Rika and Tal have to jump away from the door. Now, how would you like to... You're basically just letting them come at this point then. Might as well. Is there anything we can pop through the door at them?

I mean, your weapons. You can take little stabs at them, but I mean, it's completely inaccurate. You're basically just... Yeah, it's the inevitable. That door is coming apart. It doesn't matter. So what we'll do here is we'll back you guys up a few steps. Yay! Right there. Let's back you up about 20-25 feet. Somewhere in there. And we're going to go ahead and add some friends of yours. Raaaaaaain. Shaaaaaaain. So through the door comes Zombie Katie and Zombie Sil. There's Zombie Tholoman right there and Zombie Phallus. Bringing up the rear. So, you guys go ahead and roll initiative.

I'd like to not roll initiative. Oh wow, I forgot the other guys. Hold on a second. What? What? You didn't forget anyone? No, no, there were other zombies. They're in the back, let's say. They're bringing up. There we go. I like my initiative roll. Is Phallus slowed at all from taking that big fall? He was prone when he went down. He is, yes. But they're... Zombies are naturally slower than you guys are going to be. Well, everyone except Galford, because Galford's got a 4-speed right now, remember. Oh fuck, I just rolled a 5. Oh! Ow! I rolled a 9, don't feel too bad.

I rolled a 24! Shut up! I rolled an 18, I don't even have any bonus on that. That's going to come in handy. Trixie got a 9. You don't have to say it out loud, God. I'm letting everybody know at home. It's for the listener. 24 for Tala. Let's see, Tyson got a 15, and... ...Byraneth got a 5. Alright, now, let's add everyone else to the initiative tracker. Zombies 1 and 2 in the back. They rolled an 18 and a 10 respectively. Then Katie, Sil, Thalom, and Thallus. And sorting it. Okay. We got Tala and Rika's first, then Zombies. So, Tala, what would you like to do? Okay, let's...

So, you've taken a step back, and pretty much just as you do, they start beating their way through the door. And it's only a matter of seconds before they rend it enough to start coming in. The same way they did through the door to the pits down the hallway. Ken? Hey, Rikas, what do you have for buffers? I don't think I have any. I'd have to double check, but I'm pretty sure... Oh, wait. Wow, that was a stupid thing. I got a couple of them. Okay, it's probably a good idea if you guys kinda get back and we... We buff up? Yeah. I have a couple of them with the issues.

The fact that in order to use them I have to more or less be attacking something. Oh, like your Word of Exchange, that type of thing? Yeah, like any sort of buffers I have, I have to be hitting something and it buffs up people around me. Your Word of Exchange, though, you can attack creatures, but also give them a decrease to all defenses until the end of your next turn. So at least if you were gonna attack something, you can decrease them and then back up. Like your move action could happen after your attack. I can slide over, I imagine. It's versus AC, just a friendly reminder.

Yeah. Okay, go ahead, Talon. Sorry. I'd like to use my shiny new Call Lightning, or at least I'm gonna try. On who? Tholoman. Okay. The only reason I use it is because it's an area burst, so I think everybody gets in the burst if I do that. Yep. Awesome. Yeah, actually that would work great. Come on. So now it's burst reflex. Right. For this. 26, nat 20, I crit! Okay. Let's see here. Area burst for each creature in the burst. Okay. I don't... That's fantastic that you did crit Tholoman, but you have to make an attack roll against everybody individually. You absolutely, so you're gonna do max damage to Tholoman.

Let's run right down the line. I'm gonna click the private button. Yes. I did it this time, I swear. So, Katie. Okay. Katie, you have eight. Eight, that's gonna miss. Wait, what? I have to roll attack rolls against each of them? Yes. Oh, okay. Sil, that'll hit Sil. Go to Valis. I've been rolling D8s for... Oh, you are. Why are you rolling D8s? Yeah. Yeah, attack rolls. Okay. Back to the A check. God, get your stuff together, Megan. Well, 'cause I thought he meant the damage. I'm like, okay, I'll roll the damage for all of them, that's fine. So, you're gonna hit Katie, go down to Sil.

And that'll hit Sil, Valis. That'll hit Valis and zombie one. That'll hit zombie one and zombie two. Alright, fantastic. Now, go ahead and roll damage and the damage that you're gonna roll is going to apply to everyone except for Tholoman who's gonna get max damage. Okay. And any enemy that leaves the zone takes five thunder damage too. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, only roll once. You roll once, so... Oh, I roll once and everyone gets that. Just the fives. Yeah, so everyone else gets five damage. No, I think we should go with the twelve. I like the twelve.

Damn it. So, Tholoman's gonna get twelve damage and everyone else is gonna get five. That was still a pretty good turn. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nothing to be ashamed of there. Yeah, within the zone they take a minus two penalty to attack rolls and then if they leave the zone they take five thunder damage. That's pretty sweet. Until the end of my next turn. Yeah. And I'm at the top of the order, people, so everyone gets to attack first. The two zombies in the back just crumble. Oh, they're done. Good. Yeah, so they just go down. And next, are you gonna move or would you like to stay in there?

Um, I'll... I would probably move. Yeah, I'll take a few steps back, I suppose. Okay. Gullford, one sign of sight, so maybe... Okay, I'll move over there. There we go. Cool. And, Rikus, your turn. I think I might just move back and... yeah. Yeah, they'll all take five thunder damage if they come towards you. That rune of the undeniable whatever would also give us a plus two power bonus to all defenses while in the zone. Like, if we all had to cluster together, that'd be a nice buffer for all of us. Mm-hmm. So I'll move back. Is that... yeah, I'm pretty sure everybody really has the rune.

I'm not in the way of anybody. So, uh, that's it. I'm done. Alrighty. ZombieSill. She is going to shuffle forward here and immediately take five damage. One, two, three, four. So she's going to go ahead and take five damage real quick while I have it up. And she is going to reach her arms out and try and grab Tala. So, let's see here. That is a D20+8. Okay. 26. That's versus... It's a crit. No. Oh, so there's 18. It's an 18, yeah. Almost a crit. Almost a crit. So, Tala is grabbed, but nothing else has happened yet. Uh, Galford, your turn. Alright, um... It's getting kind of cliche at this point, but Shadow Claw is on Sill.

She's within 10 and... Actually, Rikuus, do you want me to move up at all if we're going to try and get some buffer zones? Like, are we going to move... It's up to you. I... I'm probably... I'm going to assume that they're going to start moving up closer to us. So maybe we back up, yeah. Or while they're all eating Tala, we back up. Okay, you know what? Shadow Claw is on Sill. D20+7. 20 against Fortitude. Uh, 20 against Fortitude, and that's against Sill? Uh, yeah, that'll hit. Nice. Okay, so that's D10+6 damage. And if the target moves during its next turn, it takes cold damage.

Equal to +2 my Dexterity modifier, Intelligence modifier. I believe that's 4. Okay, so 11 damage. Okay, 11 damage. Nice. Bam. Uh, Bloodied. Yes. Zombie Sill is Bloodied. Uh, it's Zombie Valis' turn. Uh, Zombie Valis is just going to shuffle forward four spaces and end his turn. Did he take the five damage? Yes, yes, I'm... Okay. Yes. I did not forget. He's like, "Give him the damn damage." Brian's got a whiteboard right now and he's writing down everything on it. All the buffers, all the damage. Um, Chrixie, your turn. I'm really far away, so I might as well move up first.

So my speed is 6. Can I do two moves in one? Uh, you can, but you won't be able to attack that. I'll just move one... I'll just move here and end my turn, so at least I'm closer. Alright. And, Zombie Thalaman. Um, let's see here. He is going to shuffle forward one, two, three, four. Uh, right towards Rikuus. And then Zombie Katie's turn. One, two, three, four. Uh, right up in Rikuus' face. And, uh, then, uh... Five thunder damage? For both? Yes. Both of them are going to take five thunder damage. And then Zombie Katie is going to reach out and try and grab Rikuus.

Uh, 17 versus reflex. No dice? Oh, it does hit. Yeah. Oh, yeah, wow, that hits big time. Okay, so, uh, both Tala and... Yeah, both Tala and Rikuus are grabbed. Uh, Baranith, your turn. Alright, um, so... Why am I grabbed? Uh, because, uh... Sil grabbed you. And you're now grabbed by a bloody zombie. I didn't get the reflex? No. You did not. Oh, I don't get to save. I got it. Well, no, you get to save on... On your turn. Yeah, on your turn. Oh, help us Baranith1. Kenobi, you're our only help. Because you didn't save on his turn. He still got the save, though. Well... Wait, what?

No. Rikuus just got grabbed. Yeah. He didn't make a save. We haven't gone through everybody's turn yet. Oh, okay, good. She walked away to get water and she got a brain wipe. It's okay. Killin' me today, Megan. You're killin' me. Are you sure she hasn't been bitten yet? She's already turning to do it. Damn it. Uh, yes, Baranith, your turn. Hi, alright, um... I'm gonna, uh, I'm gonna figure out how to use RPG Table Online. I'm gonna move, um... Here... Uh, as a minor action, I'm going to pop my Shield of Faith. Alrighty. Remind everybody at home what that does. Minor action, close burst five, targets.

You and each ally in the burst affect each target gains a plus two power bonus to ATC until the end of the encounter. Okay. I will also remind everybody that you have a second wind. Do you need to... Second wind is you get to pop a Healing Surge, you get one a day, you pop a Healing Surge, and all of your defenses go up by two until the end of your next turn. Uh, I'm gonna save that puppy for later, but I do have a standard action left, so I'm going to use, uh, Sunburst. Um, Sunburst is D20 plus 10. It is... Oh, uh, no, no, that's not what I want to use, sorry.

Lied. Um... Astral Seal is what I would like to use. Standard action ranged five. Um, Wisdom plus two versus Reflex. Uh, until the end of your next turn, the target takes a minus two penalty to all defenses. Nice. Alright, so let's roll that puppy. 20. Uh, who's the target? Oh, uh, hey guys, who do you want me to target? [laughter] Does it matter? Um... I mean, Zombie Sil's already bloody. Okay, let's do Sil. Alrighty. Uh, that'll definitely hit. That's, uh, that's 20. Yeah, that'll definitely hit. Okay, good. Um, and I'm going to, uh, shift back one. And I'm done.

Alrighty. Uh, let's see here... What was... I'm sorry, what was... Oh, you can't, oh, you moved up, you can't shift back. You can't shift back. Yeah. Well, I was also thinking, she did that, was there no damage attached to that? No, it's just, uh... It's not a damage thing, it's essentially, this is my protection manipulation type spell. Okay. I hit a brain fart there and I was like, I don't know, I'm so confused. Okay. It's great for Nat Will. I have some good attacks that do damage with melee, but there is no way I'm getting into melee until absolutely necessary right now.

Okay, good. Alright, Tali, your turn. Now, you are grabbed. Um, so what you're going to want to do is, uh, you're going to make an Acrobatics versus Reflex. So, it's an Acrobatics. Thanks, Jesus. It's your Acrobatics check versus their Reflex. So it should be fairly easy. Or you can do Athletics versus their Fortitude. And you get to shift, uh, when you, when you succeed. I'll, I'll stick with my Acrobatics. Because my Athletics is beyond suck. Okay. And it's still beyond suck. Uh, let me see, that's eight versus their Reflex. Oh, wow, you're still grabbed. Yeah, right.

Um, so that's a problem. What, like I can't attack? Uh, well, you're, you're immobilized. So, you can attack, but you can't move. There's still, like, she still, think of it as, like, um... Oh, that's fine, I wasn't planning on moving anyway. Okay. Okay, then that's fine. You can Elbow Sill of the Fate. Yes, you can totally, you can totally hit her. Uh, I'll Savage Rend her then. Okay. Ah, crap, that's versus Reflex, nope. That's a crit miss. I, I am sorry, yeah, that's a crit miss, so, uh, I, are you done? Do you want to... Pop an action point, or say a prayer, or anything like that?

Take some antibiotics. Shh! I hear Phalanx works. That's gonna be funny to three people. I don't know if I want to use an action point on this, so I'm gonna go with I'm done. Okay. Uh, Rikus, your turn. Do I, since, um, what's your name? Uh, oh, okay, Katie has me, do I still get the choice of using either Acrobatics or Athletics? You sure do. 'Cause she's with me. You sure do, yeah. I, I want to use Athletics, 'cause I got plus eleven, and I'm really happy about that. Okay. Uh, so that's D20. Rikus is totally a jock. Yeah. Uh, sixteen versus... Yeah, yeah, that, so you, you've broken, you've broken the hold, and you have the option of Shifting, if you like.

Oh, I don't know, 'cause either way, if I shift, I don't know, I'll probably shift. And then, uh, I'm gonna use my basic melee attack. Okay. Rikus, I, can I, can I make a suggestion? Oh, yeah, go ahead. Uh, I mean, it's an encounter power, but you also have Flames of Purity, which is a close blast three, so you could blast Katie and Thalamen. Sure could. That is true. Yeah, and it's also fire, it's also fire damage, man, and there's zombies. Yeah, that is true. No, hey, that was, I, I'm, I appreciate the suggestion. Um... Go team. Yeah, go team. Um, but I don't think anybody can really gain any benefits from my Ruino Destruction or protection from that, anyway.

But no, that's probably not a bad idea. Um, so, uh, I'm gonna do Flames of Purity. Alrighty. And, uh, that's the 20 plus 9, 19, against... Okay, so that hits, that hits Katie, and now make, uh, make the same attack roll for Thalamen. With the same bonus and everything else? Same, everything, same stuff. 21. But when it says, when it says each enemy in the blast, doesn't that, doesn't that hit both, or do you have to roll for both? You have to roll every time there's a blast or a burst, you have to roll for everything in that. Okay. I didn't know if that was different for blasts.

No, it's the same thing, it's just your ability to, it's your reach, basically, your ability to hit stuff. Right, yeah. Uh, so you hit both of them. Uh, wait, that is a ver, versus AC. Yep, you hit both of them, so go ahead and roll, roll damage. 1D, 10 plus 8, 15. 15? And fire damage. Uh, well that makes no difference. Oh, it doesn't? Okay, I thought maybe zombies would be more susceptible. Um, well they're just walking around on fire, basically, that's... They are susceptible to a type of damage though, I'll give you a hint. It's a type of damage. That's...

Show me radiance! Uh, zombie sill. Because Tala is still grabbed, zombie sill is going to lean in. And bite me. And, uh, she's gonna bite at you. Uh, that is a D20 plus 8. Uh, 10. That's gonna be versus AC, and that's gonna miss, so... Woo! You've been given a brief reprieve. Uh, Galford, your turn. Alright, um... I have a move of 4 now because of my cane and my limp. Uh, but let me move up. It's a gangster limp. Yeah, I've got a real pimp cane now. 1, 2, 3, 4. And I have Fascinating Shadows, close blast 5. Which should hit, sill and Valis if this pays off. D20 plus 7, 26, oh, almost a crit.

Uh, okay, wait, so that hit sill, now hit Valis. Valis, you bastard who sent me down the pit. 21, that'll hit both of them. That's against Will on both of them. Yes, that'll hit both of them. Okay, psychic damage, 1d8 plus 6. Alright, 8 damage to both. Oh, and you pull the target up to 2 squares. Why on earth would you want to do that? [Laughter] Yeah, I think I'll pass on that portion of my... Wait a second, 1 or 2 creatures in the blast, yes, so that's both of them. And yeah, you pull the target up to 2 squares. So let's use the 0 option, I guess. I agree, what a kind and merciful DM.

Well, that's just common sense. Let me pull this mobile set of jaws towards me. Uh, Valis is going to take his turn and shift... God, he's going to shift up 1 and he is going to lean in and try to take a bite of Tawa. Uh, and that's d20 plus 8. Holy shit. What the crap? Noooooo! Uh, so he leans in and just takes just a clean, just like an apple, like a fresh apple, just a bite of her shoulder. What is it with my shoulder all the time? Uh, I don't know. Stop showing it off. It's biteable. Apparently. Uh, so the good news is that the bite itself doesn't do a tremendous amount of damage.

It's a 2d6 plus 3, 8 damage. That's the good news. Of course that's the good news, because the bad news is it's the afterthought of the bite. Uh, it's Trixie's turn, but I think I heard a cry in the background? That was my cat. Oh! Oh, okay. I thought that was a baby. So Trixie, your turn. Okay, I'm going against my better judgment. I am going to move up next to Tawa, and I'm going to use my melee basic attack against the one in front of me. Still. The one in front of me. I keep forgetting their names. Um, so that would be a d20 plus 5, 16. Versus AC? Yes. Uh, that'll hit.

Woo! Okay, and then I do d10 plus 1, 4. 4 damage. Nothing to scoff at. Alright, you want to do anything else? Um, no. Okay. Alright, so, so far, uh, we have, uh, Syl, Thalomund, and Katie all bloodied. Uh, all of you guys are in pretty good standing. Tala has been bitten. Uh, and then, uh, Zombie Thalus is unscathed, except for... Well, no, he's not unscathed. He's been hit. Okay. Uh, Zombie Thalomund's turn. He is going to march up to Baranath, uh, and make a grab at her. He's going to get all handsy. Ooh. Of course. That seems like a Thalomund thing to do, is to just walk up to a woman and grab her.

Uh, 22 against your reflex, so you are grabbed. I'm grabbed. Uh, Zombie Katie's turn. Come on, Katie. She is going to grab at, uh, Rikas. Uh, 12 reflex versus reflex. My reflex is 12. Uh, so yes, you are grabbed. So, let's see here. Let's mark this. Adjust conditions. Grabbed Baranath and grabbed Rikas. Uh, Baranath, your turn. Okay, so I'm going to use, uh, Sunburst against Thalomund, I guess. It's a standard action melee. Wisdom versus AC. Um... Does she...? Technically, you're supposed to make the save at the end of your turn. Okay. I was wondering, I was like, "Does she get a chance?" Okay.

That makes sense. Go ahead. Sorry, just continuing that, um, because I have 26, I'm pretty confident it hits his AC. It absolutely hits his AC. Thank you. Uh, you and each ally within five squares of you gain five temporary hit points and can make a saving throw. Does anybody need a saving throw? Rikas. Both you and Rikas. You're going to get one anyway, so... Thank you, Baranath. Do I need to make some kind of saving throw, or no? Oh yeah, you're grabbed too. Yeah. Totally forgot. You are grabbed. Okay, first enemy damage. And I got hit, so don't I need to make a saving throw for that?

No, not yet. Oh, not yet. We'll get to that later. Don't worry about that. But wait, there's more. Never you mind. Um, okay, so who's getting the saving throw, Baranath? Um, each ally with five squares. Oh, each ally! Oh wow! Everyone gets five temporary hit points, so that's everyone. So let me go ahead and add everyone's five temp hit points. Oh hell yeah! I knew there was a reason that we ran you over and brought you with us. Shh! Remind us when we get out of here to buy you those eggs that you were actually shopping for that day. Wasn't out for eggs, I was out for sticky buns. [Laughter] I was out for dip.

Carrot. [Laughter] I love jokes that are funny to like three people in the world. I like jokes too. Um... I like sticky buns. I almost gave Thalomund ten pit points, we don't want to do that. So, uh... I rolled ten damage on him. Okay, so ten damage to Thalomund, guess what? Thalomund's dead again. And Thalomund is the first one to die again. [Laughter] The legacy lives on. [Laughter] Um... Let's see, Tala and Rikas, go ahead and make saving throws. Are we... Is it just normal? Just your regular... Well for this it's your... Saving throws against this it's gonna be your...

I guess you're using... Athletics or Acrobatics, I forget. I use Athletics. We use our Respectives, I use my Acrobatics. Okay. Oh, okay, everyone's right. So, let's see here. Rikas, you are no longer grabbed. I assume I still am. And, let's see here, that's versus... Reflex. Yeah, Tala's no longer grabbed as well. Oh, cool. Yeah, they're pretty easy to outmaneuver. And, Baraneth, it is the end of your turn so you get to make a saving throw too. Against what? Against what? I killed him. That's right. I guess he can't grab you if it... His hands remain though, that's the... [Laughter] And in true...

True Thalaman style, he went right for the girls. Yeah, like, his hands are severed at the wrist but they're still on your boobs and you just have to cut them off. I love how sassy she got with that too. She was like, "Against what? He's dead." Dumb shit. [Laughter] Uh, Tali, your turn. Okay, um... I will use my Savage Rend then on Miss Sil over here. And see what that does. Oh god. Ten versus Reflex. Not much. No, it absolutely hits her. Okay. So then, let's get my damage. D8 plus fall. Woo, max damage, yay. She is dead. Yeah, buddy. D-d-d-dead. Would you like to do anything?

Um, can I shift a square? You sh- yeah, you certainly can. You're no longer grabbed. Yeah, shift back a square. Let's do that. Uh, Rikus, your turn. Okay, uh, I'm gonna hopefully try to make it three for three and use my basic melee attack on 80. Oh, already? 17. 17 will hit. Woo! Uh, let me go... 1d+8. Come on, big crit. 13. Uh, awesome. Okay, 13 damage. Very good. Anything else, sir? Uh, nah. I have a feeling she's gonna try to grab me again, but I'm good. Uh, Gjalford, your turn. Alright, uh, I will move four. One, two, three, four. And good ol' Shadow Claws on Valus.

Alrighty. Eh, 13 against fortitude. Uh, that'll hit him. Really? Sweet, okay. Got out. See, we're all so worried about this and it's going so well, but this is where the DM just lulls us into a false sense of security. Man, I am damned if I do, damned if I don't. If I don't murder you in the first scene, I'm an asshole. If I do, then I'm- Asteroids fall from the sky and everyone dies. Huge asshole. Uh, 13 damage, and if he moves, he gets four cool damage. Okay. Cool beans. So, uh, 13 damage. Let's take that away. Uh, he is bloodied. Woo! Uh, Zombie Valus's turn. Uh, he's gonna lurch forward, uh, and in his incredibly single-mindedness- Uh, first of all, how much damage does he take?

Four. Four, alright. So he's gonna take four damage, uh, and he's going to just kind of pick his arms up cumbersomely and then just kind of bring them down at Tala. Uh, so he's just gonna kind of slam his arms into her. That's a huge- That's- Okay. Rude. Double axe handle. Yeah, it's- Yeah, nothing- nothing really, uh, nothing interesting or tactical about it. Uh, 20 versus your AC. Uh, jeez. Yeah, that's- Wait, don't I- Wait, don't I get temporary AC from Granith? Yeah, you get plus two. Yeah, that'll bring you up to 20. Oh, it dies, which means it still hits.

Dang it. Uh, 2d6 plus two, uh, 11 damage. That is 11 damage, guys. Um, that will end his turn and Trixie. Alright, I'm gonna use my Shadow Storm. It's a Dexterity versus AC. Dexterity modifier damage plus one damage for each creature adjacent to the target. And it's a d20 plus 10. 15. Uh, 15 will hit. Okay, so then d10 plus six. Seven. Seven damage and Valus is dead. Yes. Awesome. He won't beat you up anymore, Tala. I took care of it. Yay. As she rots away from her shoulder. Alright, so, uh, the only one left is Zombie Katie and it's her turn and she's gonna do pretty much the same thing Valus did with her arms.

Just kind of, ugh, and just kind of- That's gonna be cute. Just kind of, uh, toss her arms. That's adorable. Atcha. Uh, 19 versus your AC. And even with the temp one, it would still miss, so. Yeah, okay. So, yeah, that's just gonna bounce off your chest ineffectually. And Baraneth, your turn. Alright, um, I will use my Singing Strike. G20 plus 10. Have you gotten enough courage to start singing a song for it? I don't need to, because 24 hits, baby. Yeah! 24 will hit. And... Damage is 1d8 plus 6. Uh, 11 damage will kill her. That's it. Yay! Bam. [singing] So do we level up?

No. Damn it! So do we level? Uh, not quite yet. Um... Can we close that door? Can we barricade that door? Uh, well, the door is- Oh, wait, you wanna go through there? Yeah, I was about to say, the door is just smashed. It's torn to cunders. Uh... Tala. Yes? Let's discuss you for a minute. You were bitten during combat. Yep. So, uh, we kinda talked about it at the top of the show, but we're not really operating on the exact same rules that Fori has for diseases. So what I want you to do- actually, I'll roll it, because it's kind of a DM thing against you. So what I'm gonna do is roll a check.

And it's an attack roll. So if this attack roll beats your constitution... Let me see here. Oh, which means my fort save, which is my first one. Yeah, so if it beats that, then you're gonna be infected. Sound good? It sounds like I'm infected, but go ahead. Well, we don't know that yet. It doesn't sound good. Well, I mean, does it sound fair? Does it sound good? Nope. Nope, it doesn't. You're a douchebag. So this is a D20+8. Oh, so you only have to roll a 5 to hit me. Great. Pray for a 1 or 4. 1 through 4. Here we go. That's definitely not a 1 through 4. Thank you.

God damn. Um, okay. Hot tamales. Not only has she infected, her arm fell off. Your parents are infected. Um, okay, so, 27, yeah. You are absolutely infected. So, as of right now, you're not feeling very well. After the adrenaline of combat starts to wear off, you just start to notice, you feel like hot. Just kind of fevered. As a result, right now, you're gonna lose 2 healing surges. Yays? So, let me go ahead and... What am I supposed to say? Yay? No, no, no, I'm just letting you know. So, let me take those away from you and we're gonna go ahead and move on. What would you guys like to do?

Can I do a heal check on Tala? Sure. Okay. Da da da da da. Okay. 21. So, you're just rolling to heal her. Yeah. Okay. So, you can definitely heal her wounds, but it does nothing against the disease itself. Sorry, honey, I tried. You didn't think it was gonna be that easy. I knew. I knew that wasn't gonna work. We opened the show talking about chlamydia, so we know it's not gonna go away. That's easy. Electric gonorrhea, the noisy one. So, what would you guys... How do you guys want to proceed? I'm assuming you're going back into the hallway. towards your old self.

Galphin's gonna walk over to Valis' corpse and poke it with his walking stick and just say that he was a monster in death, just like he was in life. And Baraneth is gonna walk up to Galford and smack him upside the head so hard. Wow. Uh, Galford's gonna stand back up and poke Baraneth in the stomach with his walking stick and just say, "Don't touch me again, elf." And I don't take your walking stick, 'cause I am in no mood, and hit you with it. So much for that sticking together, then. The party just fell apart. So, Baraneth is just gonna walk over and pick up Galford and put him in one corner and pick up the girls and put them in another corner and tell the kids to stop fighting or I'm gonna turn this whole zombie apocalypse around.

Please, please do that. Snap. 'Cause this means there's no zombies. You know, we've just... We've had to murder innocent people, and now we've had to kill them again, like, diseased or not. Like, can we just please move on? You're the one that's killing everyone. You've killed more people than we are, so, you know, get off your high and mighty elf horse and stop, you know, trying to preach down to us when basically you are an allegiance to everything you said you wouldn't be by becoming a killer. So, get off your high horse, elf. What choice do I have? Let's please...

Like, we don't have to... We don't have to be this way now that they're dead. It's done. Let's move on. So meanwhile, you lay a hand on me after I've fought again to try and defend the party, and you've still killed them in death after they died in life, and you take it out on me when, once again, I fought to try and help protect the party. And I'm the villain again. And once again, it's open your mouth to be an asshole. R-Rekis is just gonna step up. You're infected. Stay away from me. R-Rekis is just gonna step up and just clamor very loudly and tell the group to be quiet, and-and he's gonna start talking, and you know what?

Uh, he's gonna let the group know that regardless of the fact that we may not like this situation, we do not enjoy the situation that we're in. We're in a very heated situation where we have a bunch of zombies out in the arena, and we don't even know what could be behind down this hallway now. We haven't been down there in a while. But we need to stay focused, because whether or not... It's not helping for us to fight right now. It really isn't. So we need to make sure that we stay focused. Galford, I know you have your issues with Baranath, obviously, right now.

I know the group seems to have issues with you, but I still remember the fact that you helped us. And don't-don't take into consideration the fact that I-I-I respect you for what you've done for this group. But I still-you need to make sure that you don't take advantage of that respect. Uh, as for the rest of the group, we need to understand that Galford is gonna have his own agenda. He's gonna have his own mindset, but we need to stay focused and make sure that we can get out of here. Once we get out of here, once we're sippin' beers and sittin' at bars, we can bicker all we want.

But we need to stay focused and get out of this arena before it's too late. So Galford stands up, dusts himself off, walks over to Rheekus, and just says, "Alright, let's move on." Let's go, you guys. I'll pop a healing surge for myself first. I mean, I know I'm slowly running out of them. I might as well use them. Use 'em while you got 'em. Um, anybody else wanna use, uh, healing surges? Anybody else take damage? Yeah. Aye! Nope. No, actually, it was just Tala. Huh. Yeah, everyone else, yeah, I took away your, uh, 10 pit points, everyone just to let you know.

Um, so let's clear the initiative, and you guys are headin' back down to, let's see here, back down the hallway. You're back in the hallway. Uh, what would you guys like to do? Uh, to refresh your memory, back down the hallway, there is the door leading back to your cell, uh, the door leading to, uh, the cell on the opposite side of the hallway where you guys were, uh, you were taken to meet with the guys from House Darksbane, uh, and then on, on the far end of the hallway, there's the door that you know leads to the pits. Um, somebody wanna roll Perception, like, we gotta, we gotta scour every inch of this place and find a way out.

I have a zero plus zero, so I probably would not be the best bet. Remember, we're in an arena, I'm very well aware of that. I have a nine. Give it a shot! Twelve. Okay. Um. I blame it on the fever. We're in a hallway! That you gave me. Uh, the only places that you haven't been to are the, uh, the other holding cell that you guys weren't being kept in, and then the door that leads to the pits. Now, while that door on the far end of the hallway does lead to the pit, uh, there are, uh, it's, there's an alcove in there with another door in it that you remember.

I say we go that way. That way. Alright, so, uh, you travel to the opposite end of the hallway there, uh, the door is shattered. So, uh, there's no need to pick that lock or anything like that. So, here's what we're gonna do. Wait, we're going to the pits? We're not checking out the other room first? No, we went to the door, 'cause we're gonna check out the alcove, but it's, um, it's just past the door to the pits. Yeah. Hold on, let me, let me... Wait, I thought the pits were at the end of the hallway. They are. Uh, so, here's the, the, this door right here, uh, is, is shattered, as is...

Let me make that a little, let me make that visible, too. As is this door. Uh, this door leads to the pits, and the zombies just streamed up the stairs from there and just beat their way back into the hallway. So, this door you have not explored yet. Ah, see, I knew there was another way. Can we do, can we do another perception check once we're in the room to see if there's more zombies down in the pit? Uh, yeah, you can take a listen. Totally, totally fine. Um, uh, let's just go ahead and do that now. There's no need to roleplay you guys, like, taking your turns walking down the hallway.

That would be silly. So, you approach... So, are you listening to see if there's more zombies coming from the pits, or just, in general, in the hallway? I would think to see if there's more in the pits, like, do we have to do a separate one for each one? No. Like, just kind of get an idea, because we want to see if we're going to be surprised by anything else down in the pits, but also, we want to know what's behind that door, if there's any zombies behind the door. Right. Um, this is just basically you kind of doing the Hulk Hogan ear thing, and just, just, just leaning in, seeing if you hear anything.

And we all know it's Rika's doing that. Rollin' around. [laughs] So, someone go ahead and roll a perception check. Do you want to go again, Tala? I, I guess. I don't know what my fevered state's going to do for that, but okay. I noticed something! You're on fire. Literally. [laughs] 21. So, you, you take a listen, and what it sounds like is, anything that was in the pits was in that hallway. It doesn't sound as though there's anything moving. You definitely don't hear anything. Okay. Do we hear anything opposite the door that we have yet to explore? Right now, you hear nothing.

You don't hear any movement at all. Okay, so, Trixie, what do you think you want to, or I guess we could check the door and see if it's locked. Okay. Uh, checking the door, it, it, it is locked. Okay, Trixie, do you want to work your magic? It should be a little bit easier this time that we don't have to be holding another door and preventing zombies from coming in. Yeah, you don't really have to worry about the stealthy aspect of it so much. What, I was gonna say, what skill do we need to pick the lock? Is it thievery? Thievery, yeah. You've got to beat it down.

It's, it's up to you guys. Okay, I have a plus three for thievery. I think Trixie is our lock picker, though. I think she has a plus nine, something like that. I was about to say, as the, uh... Uh, thievery plus six. Sorry, I have a plus six for thievery, so... Yeah. But I'll try. Oh! Try again? She just rattles the doorknob and goes "Nope." It's locked, guys. Um, uh... This is a door. Trixie, Trixie sets to work and quickly breaks the lock. Hey, me! Uh, she, she, she, she just is having an off day or something, so she, she goes to unlock it and, snap, just, just breaks the locking mechanism.

Sorry, guys. Uh, we can beat it down, I guess. Um... Ricus? Now, what about, I do have Mage Hand. Hey! Can I unlock the door with my Mage Hand, or do I need to see if I just need the door to do that? Well, the Mage Hand doesn't have any, like, magical properties, other than being, like, you can apply pressure to something or pick something up. It's not, it doesn't magically unlock anything. Can you pick up a set of keys on the other side of the door? That you'd have to see to be able to, to direct it. Yeah, the hand moves up to five squares in any direction, carrying the object it holds.

Okay, so I could pick up stuff, but not necessarily, like, you know, turn the lock or lift the, lift the board that's holding the door. Right. I think maybe we just need to beat this sucker down. Yep. And that brings up Ricus. Um, just to make sure that's, uh, my athletics, correct? Uh, there's a couple of different, you could just make an attack roll against it, too. That's totally awesome. Yeah, that's totally up to you. Or you can just make an athletics check and just, like, run through the door if you want to try and juggernaut it. Let's juggernaut it!

That sounds like fun. That's awesome. Just puts on a football helmet and runs head first at the door. Thirty. Alright. Oh, buddy. Talk about getting a splintered door here. Uh, you Kool-Aid man through this thing. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah. And on the other side is, uh, a set of stairs, a spiral staircase leading upward. Ooh. The stairs go... Finally, Ricus got to have his big strong moment. That was awesome. Yeah, too bad it was me smashing a door and not smashing a zombie's head in. That may come later. Shut up. I'm saying, I'm saying you... I'm saying you may get the chance to smash a zombie's head.

I'm on your side here, man. What do I gotta say? Uh, so, I'm gonna assume that we don't need to debate about this, but we probably are gonna go up the stairs. Yeah. Up the stairs. Up it to stairs. We wanna roll a perception check to make sure these are stairs. Yes. They are most certainly stairs. I can totally take care of that. They're stairs, you guys. Um... They're stairs. You... I didn't see a check rolled. Is it private? Um, you guys head up these stairs and down... Hey, they're more than stairs. They're really well-crafted looking stairs. Attention to detail is amazing, guys.

Uh, you head up these stairs and it leads to a separate hallway, which is completely deserted. There are no doors except for the opposite end. Um, and it seems to lead... It seems to be a way to get across the arena without actually being in the arena. It looks like some sort of backstage stuff, maybe a way to herd prisoners back and forth. You're guessing that this is probably how they got Katie and Sil to the other side of the arena without walking them through the arena? Oh, fuck. We just found another way into the arena. Well, no. You've bypassed the arena.

Oh, okay. You are on the opposite side of the arena. And you emerge on the other side of it. And remember how I said that you guys... They look at you guys as kind of the elite slaves. You're the guys people come to see beat up, you know, all the fodder, all the people who are in for DVD pirating and credit card theft, stuff like that. The white collar guys who aren't really fighters. Did we just walk into third class quarters? You basically did, yes. The thing about that is that there are a lot more of them. Everyone go ahead. Here's what we're going to do.

Everyone go ahead and put your character somewhere in there. For those of you who can't see at home, I've just illuminated a little space on the map for everyone to plot their characters down. Does it matter which side? Doesn't matter. You're walking through the doors. It's... Yeah. Doesn't matter. I didn't know which side was the back of the door. Oh, right. No, I got you. I got you. I just didn't know if I was going to be on the other side of the door. Oh, yeah. They're opening in. It's not a trap. I'm just... Okay. And then the bomb goes off. Let me mark down here that Tala has been infected.

And we'll go back to that later. I just don't want to forget. So... Oh, God forbid we forget that. You guys walk into this holding pen, basically. These guys are jammed in here like cattle. And... Oh, wow. Hold on. The table's lagging. I was going to say yes. Oh, God. Hamada hamada hamada hamada hamada here. The zombies broke Java. That's how many zombies there are. Jesus! Clearly you made too many zombies, Jason. For the people at home, I'm seeing 43. 48. There's number 45. 48. 48 is what I saw. I'll give you guys a second to... Get over the near shock? Well... 49 I found.

Oh, you found 49? Oh, this is like a connect the dots puzzle. 49's on the right side. It's big. However, those look like cells. There's 49 total. In defense, remember when we killed the last one and it only took 5 damage? This might not be as bad as we're making it out to be. Those look like cells, though. They're all in cells. You guys, look. They're all in cells. They're all in cells. Unless the cells are open, they're not coming for us. Just don't get grabbed when you walk down the hallway. Okay. So... Let me paint a picture for those at home. You guys have walked into this...

It looks like almost a cell block. Think of prison. So... There's a very large hallway. And on either side of it is almost a parting of the Red Sea of zombies. Now, all of these zombies are in cells. So, as soon as they see you, they do march for their... They march straight into the bars. But they're not seeing where... They're not trying to get out so much as just reach for you. So, you don't really have too much to worry about right there. On either side... On the opposite side of this hallway, you see another large set of double doors. On the right and left, towards the end of the hallway, there are tiny little narrow passageways with stairs.

It looks like... It just leads about half a floor up. They just kind of empty into rooms. On the right side, you see a sign marked "Clinic". Oh. The left side is unmarked. It's not a very useful clinic right now. It might be. We have Tala as Zombie Chlamydia, so it might be. You never know. Have we rolled an Arcana, actually, to find out exactly what is eating away at Tala? Well, it wouldn't be magic. Okay, so it's organic. This would be the product damage. It'd be an affliction. So, like, necrotizing fasciitis. Yeah, it's flesh eating disease, basically. Now, going up to the left is nothing.

Going up to the right is the clinic. Going up to the right is the clinic. The left doesn't necessarily lead to nothing, but it does... It could be guards quarters or whatever. We don't know yet. Right. You don't know. Now, here's the twist. You guys can go right or left, and it's a very narrow passageway. And the problem with this, it's really a poor design on the Onakol Slave Masters part. These zombies can reach through and just get their fingertips, unless you're very, very careful. So, what I would ask you guys to do is... It's basically an acrobatics check, something like that.

So you're just trying to wiggle through real quick, so that they don't grab you. If you fail the check, they get a piece of you and grab you and try to pull you at them. Can we not kill them through the bars first? With ranged attacks, yes. You can actually take some swings at them, yeah. This may sound like a dumb question, but if we go to kill the ones that are right against the bars that can try to grab us, I assume others will probably move up in their place? Yes. And again, they can't bite you, really. All they can do is try and pull and tug at you.

The bars prevent them from getting their... unless they pull you in. If they pull an arm in, then yeah, you're screwed then. Can we assist our allies? If somebody gets grabbed, can you turn around quickly and do an acrobatics or athletics check to try and turn around and grab someone from being pulled against the bar? Yeah, you can assist each other. Yeah, you can totally assist each other. And again, that's if you want to go in those rooms. You could just proceed right down the middle and be fine and go out that door. Well, what do you guys think? I think the clinic might be worth checking out.

At the very least, there might be some supplies in there. Maybe some bandages? We could stuff in the hole in Tala's arm. We might find some health potions too. Yeah. I would opt to go to the clinic. Do we all? My only thing is, if we go in the clinic and there are zombies not restricted in there, we'll probably need everybody in there to help them. But my only thing is, I have a plus one for acrobatics. So I'm like a giant elephant trying to get past these zombies, more or less. Could you do a strength check to pull away? I mean, you're so strong, you could probably take their arm off when you pull away.

It's the same check for if you're grabbed or not. Yeah, because what's... Oh, it's the same check if you're grabbed. Oh, so... Yeah, Rekis, you got athletics out the... So I can use athletics. To break the grab? Yeah. It's the same thing as if you were grabbed in combat. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't putting at least myself in a position where I was gonna risk bitten or anything like that. It's a risk reward. If the group's okay with it, I say we can probably go check out the clinic and then I hear this giant set of doors at the end of the hallways calling our name.

Sorry, what was that? I like the word reward. Let's go look at the clinic. Yeah. Sorry, Rekis, was that a decision or... Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't gonna be putting myself in danger with the zombies reaching out given the fact that my acrobatics are so low. Okay, we're agreed. We're going to the clinic then? Yeah. My acrobatics and athletics are crappy, so I'm at risk more than you guys, but I still want to check out the clinic. Yeah. Cool. Alright. So you continue to the end of the hallway and to the right is the passage to the clinic.

Now, who would like to try and make their way through first? Let's pick the person who's infected already, I guess. What's gonna happen to me? I'm gonna get infected again? Well, I mean, there's just plain damage. It's... Well, I was gonna say, is any of her, like, stats or anything affected by that? Like, is she... since she's infected, is her, like, acrobatics or anything? Not yet. Oh, that's good. Um... That was sarcasm, too. Go ahead, if you want to go first. Okay. So, do me a favor and make an acrobatics check. Yeah. Woo! Good job. Where was that acrobatics check before, sis?

So, Talos sprints through and it looks like someone running out of the tunnel at the beginning of a Super Bowl, just like, hands and like, "Yay!" And just, like, just darting through and Talos has made it to the other side unscathed. Um, when... Okay, so, two things. Let me move Talos over here. So, you are on the other side. Peeking into this room... Now's the moment of truth. Boom. Peeking into that room, you see no zombie activity and you see a cabinet against the wall along with some miscellaneous crates and barrels and such. You also see a couple of beds.

It looks like a place where if someone really got banged up, they can... they let them rest for a while, something like that. Um, now, does anybody else want to risk it and go in there or is Talos basically... I can try. I have a very high acrobatics... I have a plus eleven for acrobatics. Okay, I'm just... Even though I already rolled it, but I'll roll it again. Right. I'm just saying there's no... you're not... there's no need necessarily for anyone else to risk it because Talos can be your canary. And Tala has high perception too, so she can even do a perception check on the room and, you know, if there's a zombie hiding under the bed, she might perceive it.

So, is anybody else going in there? Uh, I can't... I don't know. I can't. I don't mind going in there. Do you want me to come in there, Tal? Um, I don't particularly care one way or another because... why don't you do a perception check and then that'll determine if we need to come running in there anyways. Yeah. Go ahead. Alright, let's see. It's a clinic, guys! It is a room. So, just taking a cursory glance around the room. So you're kind of poking and prodding, like looking around. Again, you don't see any zombies. You're sure you're not rigging the dye somehow because I'm infected?

It is virtual. That doesn't mean you can't... I couldn't if I wanted to. That doesn't mean you can't fix the dye. Virtually rigged. Um, in the cabinet... Uh, now, actually, let me describe your situation. All of your goods are gone. Your money is gone. So, you have no potions. You have no money. You have nothing but your weapons and armor. Um, so in this cabinet, you are thrilled to see two healing potions. Yeesh! Uh, this smaller green vial that's unmarked. And you've never seen it before. Uh, and a Scroll of Resurrection. Sweet! Very nice. Which is a massive score.

That's the holy grail of clinic finds. That's amazing. So I'm assuming you're jamming all that in your pockets. Yep. Okay, awesome. In your infected pockets. Hey, I'm gonna give the "On March 1" to Varens just because I don't know what it is. It's a better chance of figuring it out than me. Um, so, go ahead and make another Acrobatics check to make it past the Zombers again. Zombers? The Zombers. Uh, 15? Yep. Uh, that will do it. So you are back on the other side. Um, so that room paid off for you guys. That's an excellent score. Uh, do you wanna risk trying to do the other side, or do you wanna just go through the double doors?

Now, the last time we had this discussion, I heard the word "reward." And then I heard the word "risk." Mm-hmm. I think the risk was lost in front of the zombies. Well... I know Jason well enough. No, um, it's up to you. I think if we go into that room, since we really don't know what it is, we'll probably need more than just one person going in there. Can I do, like, a stealthy Acrobatics check? Well, they already see you, so stealthing past them is kind of out of the question. Well, no, I mean, like, I can not necessarily stealth past them, but stealth into the room?

So hopefully whatever's in there, if anything, won't notice me? The zombies just go, "That was fast!" So... what... okay. That would be an Acrobatics check followed by a stealth check. So, I get what you're trying to say. Like, you're trying to run, but be really... Like, yeah, I'll run past them, but then as soon as I get to the door, I, like, step in very quietly. Right. But, you gotta think of it this way. All these zombies are making noise. Once they see you, it's like, "Ugh!" Like, imagine a room full of about 50 zombies making that noise. You're not stealthing anywhere.

You didn't find any Advil in that clinic, did you? Rekis, could you, uh... My boot's in the green bottle! Could you put me on your shoulders, and you have really good athletics, and we get bound across that gap, and then both of us go to the room? Can I hand the unmarked bottle to Baranath and see if she can, like, do a heal check or, like, knowledge check to see if she knows what it is? Um... yes, you sure can. So, which check would that be? Um, that would be... let's see here. This would kind of fall under healing, really, so it's not really an... well, you do an Arcana check against it.

Oh, well, it's silly for her to do that, though. Well, yeah, that's more of a... oh, well, that's a zero. Zero. Uh, so yeah, that's more of a Galford thing. I have a plus nine, I could kind of eyeball it if Baranath will let me have a look at it. Yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, so I'll walk over to Baranath and just sort of extend my hand and raise one of my eyebrows to see if she'll let me have a look at it. I, uh... Don't throw it out. I nod and step back and say absolutely, by all means. 22. Uh... 22. You recognize that as a potion that bolsters confidence.

Bye, Agra. It's been labeled... Give it to Rikus, give it to Rikus, give it to Rikus. Rikus! Go ahead. Hang on, I want to hear what this is. Uh, it's been nicknamed Potion of the Foolhardy, or... it gives you a... it gives you a sense of... Everything's gonna be okay, guys, and as a result, it gives you plus ten temporary hit points. Cool. Oh my. Does it have to be consumed during combat, or does it have to be consumed out of combat first? Oh, you could take it just like a potion, it's a miner. Nice, okay. Okay, good to know. Neat. I generally am a ranged attacker, so I try and stay out of the fray.

The people that eat damage more are the Trixies, Talas, and Rikuses. Who would like to hang on to this? Um... You know what, since Rikus has basically supported me a little bit more since the arena fights, I'm gonna give it to Rikus. I'll gladly accept it. Um... So, what would you guys like to do? Would you like to... you said you want to try to go in the other room? I would, yeah. I mean, I want to know what's over there. Alright, so... That could be the payoff, but that's... I mean, that's just me. Well, go ahead and make an Acrobatics check. Try and run past these, uh...

Okay. Zombies! 24. Gorgeous. So, you sprint and bound into this room, and they don't lay a finger on you. Woohoo! And in that room, that looks like more of a guards quarters/storage area. In the room, there's a couple of large chests. I'm guessing you're gonna want to take a look at them. Yes. Okay. In the one chest, you find a pair of boots. These are boots of stealth. Woohoo! The wearer gets a +2 to all stealth checks. Okay. In the second chest, there is a large, one-handed war hammer. This hammer actually has a nickname. There's stories going around the complex.

You've heard of this. You're guessing that this is the hammer, but uppity slaves who refuse to step in line, some of the guards say, "Sing 'em a lullaby," and that's the hammer's nickname, the lullaby, in which they club a slave over the head until he stops making noise. Oh my. Riekas, I have a present for you. You can't see it right now? I'm smiling so much right now. For all the best reasons. Wait, you might not know I have this yet, so I'm just gonna, whenever I do carry it back, I'm gonna have it behind my back and I'm just gonna surprise you with it.

Like, I got you a present while I was in the gift shop. Do you like music? I'm feeling sleepy. So this thing is basic, just a big weighty hammer. I mean, it's not pretty, it's just, it functions in one thing. Now, here's a really cool story about this hammer. Besides giving away +1 to attack and damage rolls, if you charge someone and make a melee basic attack with it, you get to swing an extra weapon damage at someone. Nice. And that's the lullaby. What about those four squares at the top, they just have junk in them? Yeah, just miscellaneous empty crates, things like that.

A rogue's half-eaten sandwich, something like that. Nothing huge. It looks like there was a game of cards going on. So, make an acrobatics check to get back out of the room. 28, gorgeous. So, again, none of these things are laying a hand on you. I'm jiggling as I jump past them. And I'm gonna give you guys a bump to XP for passing those checks and for finding all the treasure in this area. And guess what, guys? That's gonna level you up. Yay! Did I give Ricus his hammer? Was he very happy? I need to hand him his hammer. Go ahead. Oh, Ricus? Ricus starts jumping up and down and waving his hands really loosely, like, "Oh my gosh, it's just what I wanted!" Yeah, this thing is coated, like the end of it is coated in spots of blood.

It's scene use, definitely. So, here's what we're gonna do, guys. We're gonna take a break. And we're gonna go ahead and everyone get a drink, everyone gotta do what they're gonna do, and then I'm gonna go down the line, level everybody up, reintegrate your characters into the system here, and we'll be ready to continue. Who else are we waiting for? Danielle. I've been back the whole time. Oh my god, speak up! We've all been back! I can't see you! You can? Nope. Oh, that's weird. She talked earlier, and you did her character. Everyone talked earlier. She did her character, why did you think she was gone?

God, you idiot. Okay. I love you, Jason, I'm sorry. No, no, that's fine. I just thought you were taking a nap, I was just gonna let you go for a minute. I'm gonna be on a twelve, five hour energy shot by the time we get some. Um, okay. You are all dead. No, um. I'm gonna wait here quickly, see ya! Please make sure that ends up in the podcast, don't edit that out. That's the intro. And we're back! Meanwhile, the party's dead! You can interpret that two different ways. Rickus practices with his new hammer, accidentally kills everyone. So you guys are in this large scale holding pen, where all of these previously alive... all these previously alive slaves were just kind of kept in there.

You have explored the two rooms to either side, you've gotten everything that you feel can be gotten and salvaged here. So I'm guessing you're continuing to the other side of the room and opening that door. Yes. Alright. So, um, the door itself strangely is unlocked. And normally this section would be kept kind of closely guarded under wraps, like no one in or out. But since maybe someone forgot, maybe someone just figured, "Oh, they're in there, they're holding pens anyway, they're not getting out." So this particular door is unlocked. How would you like to handle going through it?

You wanna just walk through, you wanna take a peek at the outside, how do you wanna do it? Sneaky self. Bleh, bleh, bleh. Sneaky stuff. Sneaky schnell. What's that candy and beer thing again? Are you sure you're not the one that's hung over? I'm so confused now. I'm not hung over, I'm just drunk. I think all of us are drunk today, all of us are a little drunk. I agree on the sneaky stealth. Sneaky peaky. So that is a tricksy thing. Yep, okay. So the d20+14... 30. Wow, okay. I felt the shit out of it. The door doesn't even know you're there. Nope. Taking a look on the outside, in the immediate surroundings, you don't see any ghouls.

What you do see is, within running distance of this door on the outside, firstly, it looks like this door leads to the rest of the city. This is... you're seeing the city now. You're out of the complex if you walk through this door. Beyond this, within running distance of this door, you see what looks to be a lookout tower. And beyond that, it just looks like it leads further into maybe a marketplace, something like that, but you can't tell from here. So you guys kind of got a decision to make when you walk out of here. Where would you like to trot? If we go to the lookout tower and climb it, we'd get a pretty good view of the city.

I was going to say, that's probably not a bad idea. We also need supplies. Marketplace, yeah, we need supplies too. I can... I assume there's nothing around, but I probably, my big butt, probably doesn't need to be climbing up to the top of the outpost, so it doesn't matter who goes. What's the zombie situation? In the immediate, like right outside the door, you don't see anything. You hear moans, but you don't see anything. It looks as though the tower itself is a pretty large structure. It's not just a vertical column, it looks like a building. So it would be safe to assume that there would be stairs.

How far away is it? It's within running distance. You're talking about 100 feet, somewhere in there. Is the tower considered part of the arena, or is this a structure out... Like, is the tower considered part of the complex here, or is it in the city? It's outside. Yes. So, I mean, that could be something to spot, like escaping slaves. It looks like it can see over the walls, too, of the city itself. We need to get the lay of the land, let's go for the tower. Even if we get inside the tower and we have to fight some ghouls in there, we're in pretty good shape, we haven't lost health, we can fight.

I'm for it. Anyone opposed? Nope. Let's go for the tower. Look out, tower. This is what the structure looks like. It's its own little thing. Walking in, you don't see any zombies around. Save for one. And it looks like this poor guy reanimated sometime during the night. And he must have been on lookout duty, because it looks like he eventually stumbled over the side and just broke his neck at the base of the tower. Oh my. So the guy clearly took a tumble. Beyond that, though, there's nothing going on. So I assume you're just going to climb it and take a look.

Should we do a perception check first? Oh, that's up to you. It can't hurt. I'll give it a shot, I just have a plus one, but it was 12. 12. You don't see anything wrong with this situation. Alright, let's climb. Let's do it! Climbing to the top of the tower, for the very first time you get to see the city for what it is. Well, sadly, right now it's littered with ghouls. They appear to be in all the nooks and crannies, it's like a bug infestation from where you're sitting. Go ahead, actually, I'm going to pick someone. Let's see here. Ricus, make a perception roll.

I don't wanna. It's a plus four, d20 plus four... 21. 21. You notice several things. In the middle of town, looks to be kind of a marketplace district, there's a bar, it's kind of where... It's bustling now, but it used to be bustling with live people going about their daily stuff. In the midst of all the zombies running around, you see two people in robes who appear to be running themselves. They don't appear to be zombies and they're wearing the same robes that the guys from House Darkspane were. And they're running. Which way are they running? They are in the center of town, it looks to be that they've run into a local tavern.

And they kind of threw the door shut behind them, so it looks like they're in a spot of trouble too. You only see two of them. Also, over the wall, in the far off distance, it appears as though someone with a cart is traveling towards the city gates. But they're off aways. But it looks to you, like you give it a stare for a few seconds, and it looks like they're heading towards the city, not away from it. We need to stop them. Because they're gonna let these people out, or these ghouls out. Well, then again, we're in the middle of a desert, so, I mean, it will obviously...

They're already dead. They can keep going. We need to meet them at the gate and say, "Hey!" Can we throw them your car? Yeah. We need to ride. See, my only thing is my suspecting side doesn't know if this is a good person or a bad person. Well, why don't we let the zombies eat them and take their cart? Does it really matter at this point? We're kinda stuck. Good or bad, we don't really have a choice, and they have a cart. Okay, so we can narrow it down to we're either going towards the person with the cart, or we're going towards the tap. However, we have no supplies.

Even if we get a cart, we're traveling across a desert. We need some food and supplies. You know, even... And remember, the trip from when we got brought down here was a long trip. So even with the cart, we probably need some supplies. And we could have a conversation with these dudes from House Darkspane too, to maybe find a little bit more about the affliction that was... Or whatever has been put on us when they touched our shoulders and gave us some type of magical Uncle Touchy to kind of find out. I was gonna say, it's obvious that... I'm just thinking out loud here, but now that I think about it, we are the only ones we assume that have been touched, and everybody else is a zombie or ghoul.

But they're not. Yeah, so there's something that either they're immune to it, they might know a little bit more about what happened to the city. If they're in a bad space, bad spot, we may be able to strike some type of a deal with them. Also, it would be really nice to intimidate one of those fuckers. Well, if there was a way to undo all this, wouldn't you wanna... I think we need to save our own skin before we try and save the slave city of Anakal. The only thing I need... The only question I have is... Undoing this might save us. Undoing this could save me.

Oh, I forgot Tala's running away. The guys from House Darkspane might be able to heal Tala individually. Is the gate closer to us, or the tavern? It looks as though you're gonna have to go through town, like the actual city, to get to the main gate. Now, whether you stop on the way is up to you, 'cause stopping and exploring or making a beeline for that gate, it's up to you. Well, we're gonna run into something regardless, so it's really... We gotta think about the lesser of two evils at this point. Do we wanna go check out the House of the Darkspane people?

And chat with him, or do we... Go ahead. I would be okay with that. Yeah, and if we're traveling across the desert with infected Tala, how long before she turns into a zombie and we just push her out the back of the cart? If we wanna do something for the good of the group, maybe we can try and shake these guys down and figure out a way to help her. I like how you just casually just push her out the back of the cart. It's a Galford thing. Remember who you're talking to. It's a Galford thing. I have no words. The only reason I haven't retorted, I really don't have words for this.

So, I'm gonna assume we're gonna go towards the tavern? Yeah. Um... May I interject? Yes. Absolutely. DM, interject? Why? How dare you. Tala, all of your running around and exertion... Has not been good. Well, it's not good for the newfound disease you have. I want you to roll an endurance check, please. Now, here's the way this is gonna work before you roll. Now, normally when you roll an endurance check, it's at an extended rest, something like that. That's not how this is gonna work. Just at points during the story when I think you've exerted yourself enough to get to the next stage, if you fail this check.

Normally, you would have a chance to get better. But that would mean the disease could cure itself, which is just dumb. That's not how diseases work. So, you can either stay normal, and by normal I mean you're at stage one right now. You're either gonna stay at stage one or advance to the next stage if you fail this check. So, go ahead and roll an endurance check. So, no pressure. None at all. None! Okay. All this exertion, you're feeling much more fevered, weak. It's really taking a total at you. So, what's gonna happen is you're gonna advance to stage two.

And I'm gonna take away a total of four healing surges, and you're gonna get a negative one to all your attack rolls. So, let me go ahead and take away four healing surges from you. Total. Alright, you are down to four. You guys, we need to make it to that tavern and like loot an apothecary upon the way. Not a bad idea. We need to shake down those guys from Darkspane too, and even if they can't do anything about Tala, find out who can. Even if it's that hook-nosed jerk, we gotta find him. So, you're making your way back down to the tower, and I guess you're heading into town.

Yep. Alright, so, let's do this. So, right in town here. Where do you wanna go first? Do you wanna try to loot something, or do you wanna just... So, I assume you're kind of sneaking around the best you can. I think we need to get Tala, we need to try our best to get her healed. Maybe those guys at the tavern are willing to help us if we help them out of whatever predicament they're in, or something we don't want our party member to turn into a zombie. So, you wanna head right to the tavern? Yeah. Alright. We also don't know the layout of the city, and we may be able to ask them what are some of these other buildings.

It would be interesting to see how they respond to having us appear at the tavern, though. Okay, so, you have... So, you make your way down from the tower, and you do your best to avoid these zombies. And for the most part, you're doing pretty well. You get to the tavern, and you approach the front door. The front door is the only place that isn't besieged by these things. They're just kind of shuffling around, and they have definitely noticed that those guys had ran... They ran into the back door of the bar. So, they're trying to beat down the door at the back.

So, you're approaching it from the front door here. How would you like to approach this? Do you wanna try and bark with them, reason with them, or just kind of beat down the door and go in? Hmm... So, those two guys are preoccupied. They're kind of barricading the door. You can kind of look in and see, like, they're not paying you any mind. They're not worried about the front door. They're worried about the back. Can we sneak in the front? You sure can, if you wanna give it a shot. What do you think, guys? Do we wanna try? Yeah. Okay, let's go. I think I feel sick. [laughs] So, go ahead... let's see here.

Ricus, make a stealth roll. I don't wanna. Now, the last time I checked it, it paid off, so... 20. 20! Atta boy, Ricus. Wow, that... In some circles, they call you "Sneakus." [laughs] Sorry, that was terrible. Um... so, Ricus is the first one to the door, and he stealths and tiptoes as quietly as he can. And the two guys in the cloaks, they don't appear to notice. So, let's do this. Everyone place your characters right in this front door region. Right in here. So, should I put mine inside? Yes. Alright, so. Uh... walking in... So, that is what the bar looks like.

And let me go ahead and place these two dudes on the map for you. Uh, so these two guys are... Uh, that would be the back door. And these two guys are just... they're just, like, frantically trying to barricade the thing. Uh, but it doesn't look like... the door actually looks pretty sturdy. It doesn't appear to be in danger of breaking at the moment. Uh, how would you guys like to... what do you wanna do? I'm already inside. [laughs] Do you wanna attack them? Do you wanna, you know, talk to them? Reason with them? How do you wanna... how do you wanna do this?

Not so fun, is it? Probably wanna attack... or, uh, talk to them. Why did I say attack? Talk to them. But does anybody else wanna try to come inside? I'm inside with you. I'm inside. Okay, I didn't know if, like, we needed to have them do rolls or anything like that. I'll say to them openly, this isn't very fun now, is it? Uh, so, they hear you and, uh, they kind of spin around and notice you for the first time. Um... And they... [laughs] So, first of all, they're shocked as hell that you're here. And you can see by the predicament that they're in that this wasn't planned.

Uh, they obviously weren't planning on being here. Um, uh, and, uh, one of them, uh, the one on the right to you guys, uh, speaks up and says, "Stand back!" Very panicky, very, very... and, uh, he holds up his hand in kind of a threatening manner. Uh, both these guys look to be some sort of spellcaster. Um, Rikus will look at both of them as they frantically step back and just look at them and remind them that, "Hey, uh, we're not those guys. We're not the people beaten down the door. "Uh, right now, at least, we're on the same side. "We just... we came to seek shelter from the zombies, but we're also looking for answers to what's happening right now." Uh... [laughs] The guy who spoke up and said, "Stand back," uh...

He says, "The master said that you should die. That's exactly what's going to happen. "I'm not afraid to die for the calls." Um, his body, uh, as soon as he says that, his body kind of looks at him like, "Uh..." "I'm not with him." [laughs] Kind of... kind of... not necessarily, "I'm not with him," but this was the first time... He was... you could tell that that wasn't on the table for him. Like, "You don't speak for me." So, Galifordo will walk in with his little cane and, uh, just look over at them and just say, "You know, you may want to kill us eventually, but right now the, uh...

"the, uh... the enemy of my enemy is my ally, so... "why don't we not kill each other for a few minutes?" Um, the one who kind of looked like he wasn't ready to die, uh, he starts to... He starts to... he starts to advance toward you. And, uh, he... he says, "Look, I... I just want to get out of here alive, okay?" "I... I... I... look, I..." And he's so panic-stricken he can't seem to get his words out. Uh, and his friend runs up behind him and sinks a small blade into the back of his neck. [gasps] Oh my! Uh, and, uh... "Well, isn't that just a peach cupcake?" Uh, he falls down dead.

And... so he is gone, done, removed. Uh... [laughs] Uh, the first guy says, "Mastas says that you should die!" "Everyone go ahead and roll initiative." "Oh, this is gonna be fun." "So I get negative one to everything?" You get a negative one to attack rolls. "Attack rolls." "Okay, got it." Alright, let me add these. 21 for Trixie. 21 for... "That was 24 for me, honey." Oh, sorry. "He's the only one that's Tyson." So sorry. [laughs] Um, a 6 for Veraneth. "Like... whatever." It's one better than last time! "Eh, it's just not my day." If we're keeping... yeah, I hear you on that one.

"I'm in the back of the line today." 19 for Talaricus gets a 9. And this dude's gonna get an 8. Uh, so... "He's dead." Oh wow. Um... "Seriously? Are we doing this?" "Is this to the death, or can we subdue this guy?" Um, you can... at a certain point, you can try and threaten him. Uh, sometimes after an enemy has been beaten up a bit, or... If you feel like you can break him, it's like a police interrogation. You can kind of, uh... you can, uh... Instead of attacking him, you can kind of make a, uh... What's it called? Not a bluff check, but a... "Intimidate." Intimidate, yes.

An Intimidate check, and you can see if you'll surrender. "I have +7 to Intimidate, so do we want to beat him a little bit, and then, uh, I can creepily threaten him?" "See if he'll stop?" Yeah, we just have to make sure that we bite... beat him up a little bit, we don't actually, like, you know, kill him. "I snapped his neck. Intimidate him!" "Tell me everything you know!" Um... Trixie's turn. I don't know, uh, what the plan is for you guys, but... Um... I don't know. Okay, so I guess... I will just go, um... Let me scoot forward one. And I'm gonna use my melee basic attack.

Okay. Nine! That worked well. That's gonna miss. Yeah, I figured. I tried. Uh, Galford, your turn. Uh, alright. I am going to... I think I'd like to try and beat this guy down a bit and then see if we can Intimidate him into... I mean, he's gonna be a blind cult follower a little bit, but he seems like he likes to yell stuff out, so... And here, just revealed the name of their leader to us, just by yelling in our faces. Did anything break that down? Oh, don't worry. So if he's gonna be spouting... if he's gonna be spouting Darksbane propaganda in our face, we may still be able to glean things off of that with an insight check.

So, let's smash him up a bit and yell at him. Um, so, I will hit him with Shadowclaws. I love me some Shadowclaws. Twenty. Uh, twenty versus AC, I believe? Uh, four to two. Four to two. That'll hit. One to ten plus six. Uh, awesome. Twelve damage. Alright, and Talos turn. Okay. I will use... I'll use my lovely Cull the Herd thing here. Excuse me. Uh, twenty-three versus Will. Uh, twenty-three versus Will. That'll hit. Fantastic. Give myself my 2 DH. I'm really... I'm hoping we don't kill this guy, because I know he's gonna be able to spit stuff out. Nine. Uh, nine damage.

Very nice. Okay. Uh, do you want to do anything else? Move? Anything like that? Mm, nope. I'm good. Alright. Riek, it's your turn. Okay. Um, I am... Pull your punches just in case. What was that, Riek? Yeah, that's the only issue is the fact that, like, I'm deathly afraid that if I use anything other than Word of Binding, I'm going to, like, smash his head in. Well, we've hit him for, like, twenty-one damage so far, and he's not bloodied yet. Yeah, so I'm gonna move up and, uh, use... 'Cause I have a feeling he's probably really close to being bloodied, um, just because that's a decent...

Riekus, would you be able to move here, Riekus? Uh, what I was thinking is I have my Lure of Loyalty, so when we get him bloodied, I could use Lure of Loyalty to pull him directly in front of me and then intimidate him right after he lands. So it'd be like, grab him, pull him right up, and then we yell in his face. [Laughter] Ahh! Okay, no, that'll work. Um, and, ooh, uh, yeah, 'cause if this hits, uh, the target is immobilized until the end of your next turn, or until you aren't adjacent to it. Um, and then, so I'm gonna do... Ooh! God, I really actually do like this attack.

It's 1d20+10. Oh, Chris. [Laughter] And Riekus splatters him. [Laughter] Where was that earlier? Oh, my lord. Okay, um, let's start adding this up. Uh, what attack was that against, sir? That was... [Laughter] Word of Binding? Mm. Word of Broken Neck. Uh, standard. God, that, oh, man, this is gonna, I hope I don't kill him. That's gonna be the only time you'll ever hear me say that. Um, since you rolled a crit, you gotta go ahead and roll, uh, uh, another 1d10. 'Cause it's five damage, regardless. Yeah, so, roll, uh... 5d10. No! 1d10! Oh, I thought you said 5d10. 1d10.

Okay. No! Jesus. That would have been killed, that would have killed him. Uh, 2. Alright, so... That's broken. Yeah, that's yenward damage right there. Uh, right? And then, should I have specified beforehand which rune I'm gonna use? Or does it matter? Uh, no, you can tell me now. Um, we'll go with, anybody have a preference? Both of these, uh, it's rune of destruction, uh, the next attack against the target from one of your allies deals extra damage to the target equal to your wisdom modifier or rune of protection, one ally adjacent to you, or the target gains a power bonus to AC equal to your wisdom modifier until the end of your next turn.

Does anybody have a preference? Gotta go for protection. Not really, 'cause he's already bloodied. Mm-hm. Um, well, yeah, so, do, I just won't use either of those. Oh, I just noticed something. What? Go ahead and do what you're gonna do, then I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do. Oh, okay. Hit 'em hard, honey. I'll do, as a backup plan, uh, I'll do rune of destruction before the end of your next turn, the next attack against the target from one of your allies deals extra damage to the target equal to your wisdom modifier. And that is, where is that? Two. Alright, sounds good to me.

Just remember that, whoever attacks him next or does anything damage-wise to him next, remember that. And also gets two temp hit points too. Not that we... Yeah. Um, so, uh, you've also knocked him prone. Mm-hm. Uh, so he's gonna just flop against this door and then fall to the ground. Uh, and it is his turn. Uh, he's gonna just try to get his bearings and stand up, so he's just leaning full bore against this door. Uh, and I wanna do something here. I don't want you to. 'Cause I, the minute I heard the door, I got really worried. Alright, so, uh, the... So the zombies on the other side are attacking the door.

Uh, and... I guess that's what he's gonna do now. A hand just breaks through to the other side and grabs him by the neck. Uh, and he just, he's just wide-eyed frantic and he's shaking. Uh, he's just kind of shaking like a, like a, like a fish caught on a hook. Just kind of frantically shaking. Um, and he is going to make an attack against the door in his panic. And let's see. Oh, honey boo boo child. Uh, D20+11 against the door. 25! He's going to hit the door. Uh, a nice-sized hole. A nice-sized hole is gonna get blasted through this door. Uh, and more hands kind of erupt in and they're grabbing him by the chest and they're trying to pull him through it.

And it's, uh, it's the effect of like watching a board, like it's not gonna fit through the door unless he folds backwards. So he's being jerked and pulled and he's just boom, boom, slamming into this door and he's screaming out, "Ugh, ahh!" He's just making god-awful noises. Can we attempt to grab him? You sure can. Vranath, it's your turn. Alright, um... Vranath is calmly chilling outside the door. I'm gonna invite myself in and say, "Buddy, it's them or us. You're better off with us." And I'm gonna grab his arm and pull on him to pull him away from the door.

Okay, so, what we're gonna do here is, um... Let's make that an athletics check. Alright, which is plus one. So, I'll tell you what, before you roll. If you get a fifteen or higher, you're gonna pull him away. So, good luck. Eighteen! Whoo hoo! Alright. So, you pull this guy from the brick and he's just incredibly visibly shaken. Just, "Ugh, ugh, ugh!" And there's still a decent-sized hole, enough for several zombie arms to be just flailing. So, it's this... Um... Good. Yeah, sorry, Trixie and Galford, do you wanna go grab that table and can we put it up against that door?

You can. Um, you are officially out of combat. This guy has no more fight in him. Uh, so, you're taking the table and you're bracing the door with it. Uh, you guys are effectively sealed off from the undead for now. And I think that's a pretty good time to stop for the day. Does that sound good to everyone? Good? *sigh* I got a few questions for this guy. I figured. That was a good save right there. Ugh, oh man. Except, you know, this session I couldn't make any of my saves for anything. You'll do better next time. I mean, you got an apple-sized piece of flesh bitten out of your shoulder.

Well, it's not an apple-sized, it's- I liken it akin to like biting into a nice crispy apple. Like, just, hunch, that awesome snap. *laughter* I pictured the apple-style bite as well as the bite also being apple-sized. That means that she was right. His tieflings have a pretty big jaw, so. *laughter* He munched. It had to be Valis, but yeah, that big lantern-jawed fuck. That had to be Valis that took a bite. So yeah, I think this next sit-down- I think we got a lot of the groundwork laid and I think this next sit-down you guys are gonna have a lot to talk about.