Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 17 - Wildheart - Think Heavy Thoughts
1 Playsin 10 hours
Rok meets up with the group after the commotion at the Glowmoss Market. They head towards the Tidecaller Tower to speak with Alara about the Surge and it's changes. Morning comes and it is the day of the Surgedive. Will the group return with gold aplenty? Can Falco persuade a giant wave? What exactly does Garrick mean by 'think heavy thoughts'? Will Rok's desire for the Tidalsurge end in infamy or something much more morbid?
Become part of the community: www.fellowshipofthetabletop.co.uk
Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Wild Heart and the Tide Surge Gambit
00:00:12
Speaker
Heartland where legends grow Tidal surges rise and flow Golden treasures deep below Time to get moist, here we go
00:00:30
Speaker
Gold on emerald shores Glories felt in ancient lore Bartonis aims to heal his scars To call her chosen stone and stars In wild hearts land where legends grow Tidal surges rise and flow Golden treasures deep below Time to get moist, here we go
00:00:57
Speaker
Welcome to Wild Heart, the Tide Surge Gambit.
Community Resources and Additional Content
00:01:01
Speaker
Want to explore more? Head to fellowshipofthetabletop.co.uk for maps, lore and our latest blog. Check out the Interregnums dropping every other Tuesday and Bellum Draconis, our sister podcast releasing every Friday.
00:01:14
Speaker
Now, let's dive in.
Rock's Journey Begins at Glowmos Market
00:01:16
Speaker
The sun finishes sinking down below the mountains of Stormspire. As Rock, you leave through a wooden door where you have filled in a note and sent off to your family up at High Haven.
00:01:31
Speaker
And you slowly make your way across the towards the Stormspire Market, also known as the Glowmos Market. And it's at this moment that you realize why it's called the Glowmos Market. And as the others have already experienced, you see...
Market Commotion and Mysterious Creature
00:01:45
Speaker
this market alight with this bioluminescent glow moss which seems to adorn the place like matt lanterns what's odd though this time is that as you approach there's quite a commotion going on the last time you were here it was during the day ah but even at night where the markets are still alive with hustle and bustle There's a strange commotion and people are pointing down into the ravine. And as you turn the corner and approach the bridge, crossing crossing over the bridge towards ah the main part of the market, the the market you notice the ah short, stocky form of Falco, the large, broad form of Riffer, and the gleaming chainmail armor of Falco.
Discussion on Recent Beast Encounter
00:02:31
Speaker
Garrick as they stand looking behind you actually as you cross the bridge what would you like do just do a really big awkward wave over them hey guys I'm back sorry I was um just sending a letter uh back home uh what's what have I missed what's going on what um but is there something behind me you just turn around have look
00:02:59
Speaker
ah You'll see a tower that has been there ever since the beginning, the Tidewatch Tower, tower of the Tidecallers. Uh, do you guys need to send a letter to?
00:03:16
Speaker
Send a letter? it where we just We just fought a deadly beast and pushed it off the edge of the cliff.
Tidewatch Tower Significance
00:03:24
Speaker
What? Yeah, it was like one of those eels you were trying to eat.
00:03:29
Speaker
You threw my eel off the cliff? Yeah, think so, but it had legs, and it was like a snake, and it was all over the place. Rock will just have a good gander down. It was a ah sea strike eel.
00:03:45
Speaker
Have you heard of one of those before? ah Yeah, no, I, uh, I had my squire carrying one for me. I i bought it for quite a lot of gold, you know, earlier. ah You threw it off a cliff?
00:03:57
Speaker
ah don't I don't think you've quite understood.
00:04:02
Speaker
Probably not. Um, oh well. the the It's the, um... Well, I've never seen one before. They're in a lot of, i guess, children's stories, but there was one here It has, think, 12 legs? Um...
00:04:21
Speaker
No, eels, they don't have any legs. They're just kind of little, like Falco said, like fish. ah Well, this one did. Had many legs.
00:04:33
Speaker
It was a beast of a thing.
00:04:36
Speaker
Many legs. Okay. Quite a number of legs. Twelve legs. More than twelve. Or thirteen? No. At least
Garak's Family Concerns
00:04:47
Speaker
eleven.
00:04:50
Speaker
That does sound like a lot of legs. They're a omen for change.
00:04:59
Speaker
How much change? Like... Eleven times. Eleven? At least.
00:05:08
Speaker
Right. So, is is the surge coming or or or what? ah Are we ready to go? What's going on? what You guys are all kind of standing there just just looking.
00:05:22
Speaker
I don't know if it's a good time to go. i mean... Well, there's a big commotion here. Look at all these people just standing around staring at us.
00:05:32
Speaker
ah Maybe we should it that keep moving.
00:05:37
Speaker
Sure, you I'm going to follow. You guys seem to know what you're doing.
Alara and the Tidecallers' Plight
00:05:41
Speaker
Where where have you been? you yeah you're the big You're the big muscular dude, and we've just been fighting for you. Okay, but I also heard that, ah you know, the storm callers had been, or the surge callers had been ah talking about how they weren't getting it right all the time, and um my dad, well, he's not really my dad, Elias, what was that?
00:06:01
Speaker
kind and He's not my dad, ah but he he's also one of the s search callers and i would wanted to just send a message back and say, hey dad, people are kind of getting it wrong all the time and hope you're okay and are are your predictions still okay and all those kind of things. and um And it took me a long time to find someone to send the letter. So um that's me, but I haven't fought anything with at least 11 legs.
00:06:27
Speaker
So I'm a little bit gutted, I suppose. Ha. So was it. By the end. I get it. That's a good one.
00:06:41
Speaker
So... Where to?
00:06:46
Speaker
Well, we were going to the... The Tidecaller Tower to speak to Alara. Oh, to see if she can call the tides again. Oh. ah Well, kind of. Just to, um...
00:07:01
Speaker
Oh, well, I guess you weren't there. um I think my father may have something to do with all this, but I'm not entirely sure.
00:07:14
Speaker
So we're just going to have a chat with her, see if anything's changed recently. Well, let's go. Falco.
00:07:24
Speaker
Falco. Yeah, I mean, Garak, has your father got anything to do with this? I was gonna ask you the question. Same question. Seems to be alive. No, my my father's, he's not around.
00:07:36
Speaker
But nothing do with this. Okay. I'm sorry for your loss. um but Well, thank you. um but that's that's not when But let's not get into that right now. There's all these people staring at
Surge Unpredictability and Records Plan
00:07:51
Speaker
us. Let's just move away slowly.
00:07:57
Speaker
Garak moves one foot away. Thank you, Garak. Thank you. There's a start right now. You two, let's get moving. Let's get moving. Where's this Allura's place? At the big tower.
00:08:09
Speaker
Ah, that thing. Yeah. Okay. Right. Well, at least we know where we're going. Have we got to go across one of those wooden bridges? I assume so. Ah, shit! and Do you not like heights?
00:08:21
Speaker
No, fine with heights. I just don't like bridges that break and swing back and forth. um Maybe someone could give me a lift. Maybe Garak could hold your hand. Oh, ha ha, but because I'm a coward.
00:08:35
Speaker
No, I'm just not very dexterous.
00:08:39
Speaker
Go on then, after you, let's see you cross this bridge, expert. She just walks across like normal. All right. Could you just give me a dexterity?
00:08:50
Speaker
ah Give me athletics check, please. nady what I've got to set these up now. It's canon that you cross a bridge, you've got to do a dexterity check. Athletics. Yes, please. x Athletics. Or acrobatics, whichever you prefer. Definitely athletics. 16. Yeah, absolutely fine. You managed to walk across the bridge.
00:09:08
Speaker
It's a slight sway with the breeze, but nothing. Every step is absolutely fine. You make it to the other side without without a problem.
00:09:17
Speaker
Seems quite easy enough, Falco. Do you want me to lift you? Um... This is so embarrassing. Not at all. It'll be but my honour.
00:09:32
Speaker
Um... You can close your eyes. How would you lift me? Would you cradle me? Or would I get some kind of piggyback? How would you rather? This is my first time...
00:09:47
Speaker
if I think piggyback because then you can hold on to the ropes and it's going to give us a bit of extra stability. Crouch down there. I'll climb up. Certainly. Garak will get down on one knee, clanking of the armor as he goes down.
00:10:01
Speaker
I will mount him. Very good. I'll be talking like Kitty around the neck, holding on around the neck. Yep. Piggyback style. Okay. And Garak, are you crossing the the bridge?
00:10:13
Speaker
Yes. um Hold on tight, Falco. So the DC slow but this is slightly higher for you only because you've got a Falco on your back. So could you give me athletics or acrobatics, please, Garak?
00:10:27
Speaker
ah ha how is a solid 25 with a crit on that one oh shit absolutely you've burned through a crit early uh good yeah that's absolutely fine yeah this is faultless it actually almost feels easier having him on your back than it was the last time when you crossed and uh it was more effort so i don't know i have to say falco you really weigh nothing That was incredible. I don't know how you did that. I feel like you're always meant to be a part of me there. That was... Yeah.
00:11:00
Speaker
Good holding on. Are we going to have like a ah Luke Skywalker Yoda situation going on here? is that what's going to happen? Yeah, maybe. Were they in love? Well, some school... Something was poking me in the back the entire time.
00:11:17
Speaker
It just felt so right. And Rock, are you following suit? Yeah, is Drift is drift with the group? Or is he nowhere to be seen? No, I believe he stayed at the at the tavern, curled up in a ball in front of the fire, sleeping like ah like a cat.
00:11:35
Speaker
Cool, cool. He knew people there. yeah Yeah, Rock will see this and go, all right, okay, so and a knight is meant to carry their squire over the bridge. Okay, okay. And he'll just follow on afterwards.
00:11:47
Speaker
Alright, athletics or acrobatics please then, Mum. Oh, definitely. Definitely acrobatics. and Because otherwise... Actually, to be fair, they're not too bad. Come on.
00:11:59
Speaker
Come on, slow D&D beyond. in natural 20. Oh man, we are burning through them. Wow. Good luck for the rest of the episode. Yeah, absolutely fine. Again, but it's it's less impressive for you because no one's watching. And also it's it's almost normal for you at this rate. and Yeah, you crossed the bridge. Absolutely fine. And approaching the other side of the tower, the the the town is a bit darker this side.
00:12:20
Speaker
There's the Oglo Mos lantern around, ah but there's there's a couple of torches as well, lighting some of the major paths towards the... the not garrison, what word am I thinking of? the Stockade, which was the entrance from which you came through in the first place.
00:12:35
Speaker
ah Garrick, you would start to recognize this place as well, because the man who approached you and tried to pickpocket you was actually sat outside the Tide Watch Tower, not Tide Watch Tower, sorry, the the Tide Caller's Tower, um if you remember all the way back to episode one.
00:12:49
Speaker
where he tried to pickpocket you were praying outside it and he was also outside it as well was just you have to kind of almost leave Stormspire to get into the tower these towers as many of you will know are designed for tidecallers for them to move from base camp to base camp around Wild Heart in order to pass on wisdom, predict from the stars and the arcanic energy when the the next title search will arrive.
Prayers and Tidal Surge Strategy
00:13:13
Speaker
um And it's their kind of base operations that they use. And as you round the corner towards this, ah something feels odd. You see how a number of people coming down from the tower carrying boxes, carrying packs, carrying belongings um and moving towards a number of large carts being pulled by horses, by cows, by other animals, and ah kind of stacking in and lining them all up. You see a number of the the tide callers who wear the the the their kind of infamous long dark robes
00:13:46
Speaker
ah getting on the back of these and you notice one person in particular stood with her arms crossed overseeing the fulfillment of what looks like an exodus of the tide callers you see Alara stood quite close she's got her back to you at the moment but her kind of luminescently green hair um is a bit of a giveaway and she's the only one with her hood down at this point really There's a number of other people are around. There's some kind of regular townsfolk helping. you can like you see boxes of paperwork, of of kind of bedding and clothing, of food, supplies, sustenance, and all moving towards these three carts that are lined up being filled with goods.
00:14:30
Speaker
What would you like to do?
00:14:39
Speaker
Didn't you guys want to... And he'll point to Ilara.
00:14:45
Speaker
ah Yes, I guess we'll go speak to her then. um And Rifa is just going to walk up to her and kind of just tap her on the shoulder.
00:14:57
Speaker
ah She turns quite abruptly at this and to to see you and squints her eyes slightly before she makes out you who who you are, Reefer. ah Takes you in and then quickly looks around, down, looks down until finds ah she finds Falco and her eyes narrow at Falco, remembering the comment yeah he made earlier today and then nods towards Garak.
00:15:26
Speaker
Well met.
00:15:29
Speaker
I'm glad to see you are doing well. You are still alive.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yep, I am.
00:15:39
Speaker
Why are you all packing up? We're leaving. All of us. Why?
00:15:47
Speaker
We're not wanted it here. You heard what happened at Dewdrop Falls. We're not going to have that happen here. What happened at Dewdrop Falls? I killed him.
00:16:01
Speaker
All of them. Blaming them for the changes. missing Missing crucial times of the tidal surge.
00:16:10
Speaker
They killed them. They rounded them up and they murdered them. All of us.
00:16:16
Speaker
All the tide callers there are dead. But surely the storm wardens were there to protect you? Or to protect them? no They were gone as well.
00:16:28
Speaker
The whole town raced against them.
00:16:33
Speaker
even Even the guards the Tide-sworn vanguard couldn't stop them.
00:16:38
Speaker
Sorry. Flayed their bodies. Who's them?
00:16:43
Speaker
the Us. People like us. Tidecallers. Who killed the Tidecallers? The people of the town. Of Dewdrop Falls in the south.
00:16:55
Speaker
Killed them all. Anger or resentment or something. drove them mad with rage or with anger or something. It's a farming community.
00:17:07
Speaker
there's no There's no military might in that part of the kingdom.
00:17:14
Speaker
We're not going to stand for it here. We're going back to Highridge. At least there, we've got strength in numbers. It's families there. It's us. It's our families. It's not going to happen there.
00:17:25
Speaker
And if people want our predictions and our protection, they can come to us. We're not putting our necks out anymore. Do you think that the Tidecaller will be safe in Highridge Haven?
00:17:38
Speaker
I don't know. It must be safer than here.
00:17:44
Speaker
Uh... If you encounter a few of your kind, a few of the other Tidecallers, Elias Stormweaver... Yeah, I know him.
00:18:00
Speaker
You know him? He's my dad. wow He's not my dad. He took you in. He took me in. He did. He talked?
00:18:12
Speaker
but About me? No, few of them do that. Especially up in Highridge. It's safe there. For it.
00:18:21
Speaker
Look, I feel like I've disappointed you by telling you this. Sorry to bring gloom on your evening. ah Was there something you needed from me?
00:18:35
Speaker
Well...
00:18:38
Speaker
If you don't mind talking about it, I guess if it must be quite a sensitive subject. But it was just what changes, if any, you'd seen the signs or what was happening.
00:18:56
Speaker
She pauses at this and kind of takes in the question and feels like it's the first time she's properly tried to encapsulate this to someone who doesn't already know at least some of it.
00:19:09
Speaker
Everything just feels off. She kind of squints, trying to like place it together.
00:19:18
Speaker
There was just timings. We are good. We can predict to the hour. And then all of a sudden we're out by three hours or four by five.
00:19:35
Speaker
And then there's the ash. And then, yeah, then there's a Laris as well. The star is not lining. There's just things don't feel.
00:19:49
Speaker
It's like a puzzle and the piece fits, but the picture's wrong. That's what we're feeling. Something's not good. Something feels, something feels off.
00:20:04
Speaker
Forgive me for interrupting. and And your kind was killed because the information was not correct.
00:20:16
Speaker
Yeah. See, a lot of the farmers in the south, they they rely heavily on that time that comes post surge, post tidal surge, spores release.
00:20:27
Speaker
I'm not really sure exactly what they call it, but it's it's powered by the surge and and a lot of the plants they have in the and the and the ravine, especially in the south where there's more flatlands and marshlands, lower themselves and it's something with crops and stuff like that. And so they're getting there' in there getting their their stuff out.
00:20:44
Speaker
But if we get it wrong, they lose out on money and they lost out on a lot of money. But i don't understand. And they were angry. What do they hope to gain from this needless slaughter?
00:21:01
Speaker
That's a question for some people in Dewdrop Falls to answer. Which people in Dewdrop Falls Falls Falls? Okay. Sounded like you were having a stroke there.
00:21:14
Speaker
I think so. Falco, is my face okay?
00:21:20
Speaker
I don't know. I can't see from your back. I feel like it's dropping on one side. Maybe if I just hold it up, it's okay if I hold half my face up with my hand. I don't know what people at G-Drop Falls it was, but from what I was told and what I've heard, it was the town itself, the people, everyone, the citizens, all of them.
00:21:44
Speaker
They were angry. I don't know how that many people could be that angry at once. There must be a... There must be a group that led it. We got good men down there.
00:21:57
Speaker
But they're gone now. And we aren't going to take the same risk.
00:22:03
Speaker
So you want us to go to this place and kill all these people? Yes, I think that sounds like a good idea. Nope. No, I didn't say that at all. sounds like you're after revenge. Not at all.
00:22:14
Speaker
In the name of Fertinas, of course. They feel like they've done right. They've got their vengeance. We just disagree. Everyone has their opinions. I get it.
00:22:25
Speaker
It doesn't feel right having these group of people like us who can who who have this power over everyone. We can predict this massive thing that's going to happen weekly. It's not fair.
00:22:36
Speaker
And we're held to account for it. And rightly so. If we get it wrong, we should pay consequences. But... I can't... They can't risk it. I disagree, but they're leaving.
00:22:48
Speaker
They're leaving.
00:22:51
Speaker
And I'm staying.
Preparations for Tidal Surge
00:22:53
Speaker
How long ago did it start happening? The kind of getting the timings wrong?
00:23:01
Speaker
It's never precise science, but noticeably the last couple of months. Worse more recently. And hence my display in the, in the, in the in the tavern earlier.
00:23:16
Speaker
So ah it's getting worse? Yeah. But you say, you say the signs are, they look correct and then it is wrong last minute.
00:23:32
Speaker
We measure off celestial bodies of the stars themselves.
00:23:38
Speaker
The stars are changing.
00:23:43
Speaker
Alaris is moved. We got reports of it from Tidewatch not long ago now. A star has moved. How do you measure that? How how does that happen?
00:23:55
Speaker
But it has. And because of that, it's thrown off our entire a ability to measure, to plan, to chart. So we're at stage one again. We're back a hundred years, guessing.
00:24:13
Speaker
That's why we're going to Highridge back to the Haven to to dig up those old archives, those old records. See if it's happened before. See if we can figure out, figure out what's happening. It must be bigger than us, but I don't know.
00:24:27
Speaker
I say us, they are, I'm staying. Like i said, you need someone here. Can't abandon the place. Why don't you jump with us into the title search? Oh, cause not a fucking idiot. That's why.
00:24:41
Speaker
but Sorry, sorry, that was harsh I've heard it a lot I don't know why But Wait, you're diving Yes, but it might give you the answers needed never do that a tidecaller Jumping into the tide And Garak will have tight he's He's holding one hand out saying Tidecaller Jumping into the tide with his other hand Then he brings both hands together.
00:25:14
Speaker
You'll be one. That's not how it works, sir. And I... But then you'd be able to tell directly when the search was happening. It's more like knowing the weather... kind More of your kind won't die because you can be, hey, the search is happening right now.
00:25:31
Speaker
And they can all look down and go, she's right. That's like looking up at the sky and seeing it raining and saying it's raining. I like you. I see where your mind's at.
00:25:42
Speaker
I understand that. idea But that's still correct. is correct. If you look up at the sky when it's raining and you say it's raining, no one can say that you're wrong.
00:25:54
Speaker
ah We used to have a ah rock outside um where we lived. And we had this saying where if you saw out the rock moving, you could say that it was windy outside. And if the rock was wet, you could kind of predict the weather was was raining as well. Something like that, I think.
00:26:10
Speaker
I think you don't understand the word predict. think that's where we're tripping up here s slightly, lads, is that predict is a mean ahead time. If it's happening now, you're not predicting it, you're just telling it.
00:26:20
Speaker
And she's she's smiling. She's smiling at this. Look, i I don't think me jumping into a deadly 200-foot wall of water will help me tell the fact that there's a 200-foot wall of water there at the time.
00:26:33
Speaker
How do you know if you've never done it? Because I'm still alive. Maybe this is why your predictions are wrong. The act of doing.
00:26:44
Speaker
She shakes her head about is, is, is smiling at the, at the, the earnestness and honesty of Garak's very simplistic yet endearing, um, request to jump headfirst into a wave and therefore put herself together with the, with the wave.
00:27:01
Speaker
Um, I'll, uh, not going to do that at all. Um, I'm, I'll come, I'll come and watch and pray for your souls. I guess you do know what you're doing there. Yeah.
00:27:18
Speaker
No. Okay. Do you know why? you know why they dive when they do? Why not wait half an hour? Why not wait till the next day?
00:27:31
Speaker
Oh, I've heard because the kind of best chance ah getting your hands on riches and wealth and things like that, ah that happens straight after the surge. um That's our intention, I think, to, you know, gain riches and fame um and use it to help the people of Wildheart.
00:27:50
Speaker
I've been told the surge favors the bold. What's more bold than diving headfirst into it? Shaving your hair off.
00:28:01
Speaker
I don't have hair the Tidecaller. So I'm already one step ahead. The Tidecaller, with a flourish, reaches down into her pouch and removes ah a small a coin purse, but within the coin purse is sand.
00:28:17
Speaker
She pours a little bit into her hand. This is taken from the bed of the ravine and she's got a full skull of mode at the moment. When the, when the surge has passed, when the tidal surge has passed, this becomes like water itself and items and treasures kind of push themselves up. They become infused themselves and they push through the ground and they are on the surface for a short period of time.
00:28:43
Speaker
And then literally a manner of seconds later, when the, when the infusion has passed, These items are dragged back down under and that the surface returns to rock, solid, solid obsidian rock underneath.
00:28:56
Speaker
And that's why it's right then. it's Because i think otherwise you just go next week, you go the following day, wouldn't you? You just hang around and wait for it happen. But it's there's matter of seconds to get it.
00:29:09
Speaker
So you've got to get there at the right time. Don't dive too early. Listen to your scalers as well. Okay. They're, they're good at their jobs. They're good people. You're all looking at me funny. Like you don't know that they, they lower you on the ropes.
00:29:24
Speaker
You have a Christ alive. You got a rope tied to your waist and they lower you down. Scalers, Skystring. Anyway, they're going to lower you down and then you got to be their friends. Cause otherwise they're not going to want to pull you back up or pull up your corpse when you're, you know, dead.
00:29:42
Speaker
So I'll come along, but I can't make any promises. And you'll jump. tell you. No, I'm not going to jump, but you know what, Sir Knight? What I'll do is when I see the wave coming, I'll say, look, I predicted the wave is coming.
00:29:56
Speaker
And you won't die because you predicted it correctly. and i I like this plan. Success on that one. She looks around. Can Colors do that? Exactly. Rock, thankfully. I'm so glad you're here. You understand me.
00:30:11
Speaker
Oh no, we're on the same page. Makes sense. I really liked your story about the rock. Outside your house. Yeah, no, it's probably still there. i going to do the same thing when I get home.
00:30:24
Speaker
If you ah notice a shadow on the floor, it means that it's sunny outside as well. I could learn a great deal from you. I'm sure you could.
00:30:36
Speaker
ah with the Alara looks for her ah her kind of backpack she's got with all her belongings in it. ah yeah I'm in here tonight, but I'll meet you tomorrow.
00:30:48
Speaker
The predictions are it's in the morning, but who knows these days. I think they're all preparing in the morning anyway. You with Tashlin? is that Is that the dive? at The more... I need to pray. And Garak gets out his morning stuff.
00:31:05
Speaker
And he'll kneel down on the floor and he'll carve
00:31:12
Speaker
the symbol of Fatinas. and then as you start doing that ill ah ah um alana it's alana what we call her a lot alara alara thank you is going to just kind of awkwardly ah ah like like like you're just like having a wee or something like it's just oh maybe i shouldn't look and she's just going to mumble and just go into the the tidewatch at the the other tide call the tower um herself and leave you to it sorry um garrick you were you were praying Yes, so he's he's drawn drawn the symbol of Vatinas in the dirt with his morning star, which is a triangle and a 11-sided star? 20.
00:31:52
Speaker
20. 20. That was a two and zero. Because stupidly, in my notes, I've i've actually put the star in with 20, and it's too much to count on the fly out the corner my eye.
00:32:03
Speaker
I should have just put... written it down anyway too that's a lot of numbers seven eleven more than 12 he's going to put his morning star in the center of the in the star close his eyes and he wants to pray to vitinas and ask when does the tidal surge begin all right give me a religion check let's do this
00:32:29
Speaker
that's 14 you ah You feel the connection with your deity. You feel a connection with your God. And
00:32:39
Speaker
he doesn't necessarily speak to you in clear sentences. Hello there, I'm God. um But you get these senses, these urges, these feelings that that kind of link to thoughts and ideas. and and And your mind in this meditative state while you're praying is naturally drawn to the next day.
00:32:59
Speaker
And that's as much as it gives you.
Shopping for Diving Equipment
00:33:01
Speaker
So your mind is normally present, you're in the prayer, you're in the moment, that connection with your god, and then he, or she, it, has pressed, pushed your thinking towards the next day.
00:33:12
Speaker
With that, Garak will get up, sling the morning star on his hip. The tidal surge is happening tomorrow.
00:33:25
Speaker
You have Tidecaller blood in you. I have faith in me.
00:33:41
Speaker
can i get down gary's just staring straight in the face no expression very stoic just locked you dead in the eyes reefer and waiting for you to make the next move on that one um she looks around a bit awkwardly and then kind of looks at her morning star and then kneels as well.
00:34:07
Speaker
And she just keep she keeps looking around to see like if anybody else is the right thing to be doing. And then just kind of puts it down on the floor and
00:34:22
Speaker
just looks confusingly at Garak. Call out to Fatinas. Hello? Hello?
00:34:33
Speaker
As she closes her eyes and then... And rest your morning star inside this 20-sided star that I drew.
00:34:44
Speaker
um Keeping her eyes closed, she kind of starts pushing the morning star...
00:34:53
Speaker
in the general direction, but she doesn't actually know where it is. that's right. Now try and imagine the very essence of you traveling down through your arm into the morning star and alighting the symbol in the ground and then ask your question.
00:35:12
Speaker
I ah don't have a question right now. Oh.
00:35:18
Speaker
That is unfortunate.
00:35:23
Speaker
I could also ask when the surge is coming.
00:35:29
Speaker
Well, we know it's tomorrow. I just asked. No, I know, but I thought you you were asking because we wanted a more specific time.
00:35:40
Speaker
That's pretty specific of you. ah Well, to tomorrow it's tomorrow. is twenty four hour days that's but it's tomorrow Yes, you are.
00:35:52
Speaker
you wanted a time. Correct. I have a question now. Okay, so feel your essence down through your arm, through your morning star, through the symbol and ask your question.
00:36:09
Speaker
Um, so she closes her eyes. um just kind of sense all that confusion she's currently feeling about what earth she's doing and literally says out loud what on earth am i doing right now uh roll the relationship with this advantage oh shit okay uh on Rifa as she's doing this. I'm going put an arm, a hand on her shoulder and cast Bless.
00:36:37
Speaker
Okay, okay. um So you get my hand crests the Fatina's symbol on my armor. lovely So you need ah if you're going to roll a religion check at disadvantage because you have no real connection to a yeah deity here but with a d4 for each of those rolls along with that which is what the bless will give you
00:37:04
Speaker
ah That was a crit fail That's a shame. So so it's going to whatever that just gonna be yeah less than five anyway. Okay. ah You hear nothing coming through ah from anything. you just You don't really know what to expect.
00:37:21
Speaker
and So no idea, really. No idea. Nothing at all.
00:37:32
Speaker
Is Falco still on my back? No. I don't think you've come down. you have yeah
00:37:39
Speaker
Yeah, view's real nice from up here, but my arms are aching a bit. Do
00:37:45
Speaker
you want to get down or are you happy? happy Yes, just it's quite a long drop to the floor. but Would you mind? Yes. ah ah I thought he was kneeling, no? i want yeah Then I got up and now I need to kneel again.
00:38:00
Speaker
So if someone's got a blanket, I could wrap it around like ah I've seen people do it with children before, like young babies. Hey, I'm not a child. I'm a full grown man. Ah, oh, like a man.
00:38:14
Speaker
man And Rock is going to look at the humans near him that are probably like a foot and a half shorter than he is. And then look down at Falco, who's what?
00:38:27
Speaker
Two for fuck all. Yeah, yeah, I'm a grown-up. well How old are you? How old am I?
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, well, I mean, as my people go, I'm relatively young, but I don't really kind of keep track of the years and celebrate kind of days of birth or anything like that. So.
00:38:54
Speaker
Oh, okay. ah fit About about ah maybe a fifth of the way through, maybe ah kind of a sixth of the way through. A fifth of the way, what, what your lifespan? I'm pretty sure, yeah how many How many summers have you seen?
00:39:10
Speaker
Oh, well, I mean, in the summer, there's quite a few days. So pretty much every every day in the summer. um Okay. see So, yeah all right. So how many, okay.
00:39:21
Speaker
How many times has it got hot and then got cold over the span of multiple days in your lifetime? yeah but Yeah, well, I'm just asking how old you are. I'm just trying to get to the bottom. i trying to translate your culture into the the proper culture.
00:39:39
Speaker
Right, okay. ah Wait, okay. I don't quite understand. he'll just smile. Okay, all right. He's too much of a nice guy.
00:39:51
Speaker
Do you want a model? like do you Do you want a blanket to try to tie it around? Look, you know what? I'm sure in our future, there's going to be a day where it gets real cold, going to take you up on that offer. But for now, I'm fine.
00:40:03
Speaker
Okay. My people come from cold climates, so if you want to climb on my back, you're more than welcome to. um Yeah, sure. Well, my load will be shared around between all of you.
00:40:17
Speaker
Please don't climb on my back. Ever. I thought you were the strongest.
00:40:27
Speaker
and Maybe so, I think maybe we should have a ah rule that you maybe stay a certain distance away from me. Yeah, i've I've had women say that before.
00:40:40
Speaker
God. You can stay as close to me as you want, Falco. Thanks, buddy.
00:40:47
Speaker
Faltinas doesn't speak to this one, anyone. Or Faltinas. Or Faltinas. Well, I know why. have no have no idea.
00:41:01
Speaker
Val, Val, Val, Val villaininess. I'm still striking out.
00:41:08
Speaker
Garak's just kind of lot trying to keep his face together between his palms.
00:41:15
Speaker
Is, uh, out of interest, is Alara just watching all of this? Is she still there? She's gone in the minute that The minute that the symbol started getting edged into the ground, she was like, oh, I'm off, and had gone back up into the Tidekeeper Tower. And yeah, she's gone, yeah.
00:41:30
Speaker
So unless there's any other awkward praying anyone wants to do, we'll call that conversation ah hit for now. and So we're going to fast fast kind of travel through some time a little bit. I'm going to take a couple of assumptions just to move us on to the next day.
00:41:45
Speaker
i That their market is still open. so items can be purchased and everybody had discussion off camera off mic whatever off podcast about this as well so we'll go through just quickly what you purchased um we're gonna have a long rest and then we're going to be at uh the following day at the moor which is a stone's throw away from storm spire to the north um where you are going to be jumping to your do uh to catch treasure and to have a great time in the process so um It
Arrival at the Moor and Surge Dive Prep
00:42:17
Speaker
is the evening. um We're not going to do the shopping, but I know you've already picked some stuff you want to shop with.
00:42:22
Speaker
We'll kind of go around and a quick update. don't have to give specifics, but just go, I've got some of this, got some this, got some of this. and We don't need to know super specifics. I know there's a couple of surge imbued items that I gave you options of kind of low grade magical items that might help in a dive that this the Sukai, the Sky String Arena at Cell where the Scalers set up.
00:42:43
Speaker
So if we just go around and just explain what you've um what you kind of purchased roughly and hopefully you've taken the right amount of money off for you guys as well, that would be great to save us going through that. um We'll start with who's looking the least prepared. Let's start with now let's start with that with Rock. um Is there anything you need to pick up in the way?
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah, buddy. He's already got a few things with him that he's had with him since the beginning of this adventure, pretty much, within his pack. But he has bought some more rope. um He has, as he's kind of gone around shopping, he's seen a grappling hook and he's like, yeah, that's that looks awesome. I'll get that.
00:43:18
Speaker
ah He's also purchased a net. ah His pack's looking kind of quite full at this point. And kind of, as he's coming towards the end, he he sees some iron spikes as well. and he's like, that looks like a good idea for a little bit of climbing.
00:43:31
Speaker
um And then I imagine he'll have overheard and people kind of talking about these surge infused items and he's got money left over and he probably would have been ah very easily sold on a couple of these items. So he's got this this kind of surge infused thread and this kind of surge infused chalk as well that he's been told of various properties of. So that's rock.
00:43:53
Speaker
Lovely. Thank you very much. and Moving on to Falco. anything you wanted to purchase or you all good to go? Yeah, there was just a couple of bits. I've got 50 foot of hemp rope and two bags of ball bearings.
00:44:09
Speaker
Lovely. a nice for Nice. I'm not going to ask what you're going to do with we'll find out or not. Absolutely. um Riff, anything that you wanted to pick up?
00:44:21
Speaker
Yeah, so she um picked up some iron spikes, some waterproof leggings, and some uh surge infused wax and also four small water skins did you want to do something with the lids of them or just have these water skins um are they we kind of imagine they're like one set which like flick up you know like you're quite easy to do yeah yeah then no Again, I'm fascinated.
00:44:53
Speaker
As long as they're airtight, we're good. I've no idea what you're planning with this, but I... Oh, airtight? Okay, right, interesting. haven't actually told me we're going to do with any of this stuff. And then finally, Garrick, was there anything that you wanted to pick up this evening before the long rest?
00:45:07
Speaker
Yeah, so Garrick picked up, after the conversation with Rock about the rock, he picked up an echo stone.
00:45:17
Speaker
And also... He got upsold on a flash flood marble while doing so. Very good. Okay. Does he know anything about them or did he just literally buy them? Okay, cool. Yes. You just picked them from the list nice and quickly just now, haven't Yes, I did. You're going to hold the rock outside. looked at how much I had, how much gold I had, and what was the quickest way to spend it all.
00:45:41
Speaker
What's nice is every time you play a character, Ian, it's a little bit of Ian in each character. and a lot that this is the I don't know if that's a compliment or not. ah The common theme of obliviousness.
00:45:55
Speaker
no Ah, cool. That's all good. That's very true. You have spaces and rooms at the Guild of Anchor you were given um for your help in rescuing what remained of the Apprentice and... ah like Maybe you feel you kind of owe them, given that you tried to light the place on fire and throw a carpet at someone.
00:46:16
Speaker
um You have rooms there and you return to them and it's four rooms down the corridor um that you use. Drift is there and he he's more than happy to stay in the bar area.
00:46:28
Speaker
Raelic half-sworn, I'm not really what the relationship is there, but they're very close, almost like uncle-nephew kind of relationship there. um And he's happy the fires are on. He's just going to chill there for the night.
00:46:42
Speaker
So um feel free to update any stats and consider that your long rest. there something you wanted to do before? Just super quickly, as he's kind of settling himself down um for the rest as well, because he's proficient with weaver's tools, he's going to start creating a sling for baby Falco to go on the back So he's going to put an hour or two's work into that.
00:47:05
Speaker
um It won't be complete, but yeah, just his hands up. How much time will you need for that? Or is that... um ah ah You can do it in downtime. I mean, to specifically ah create that.
00:47:16
Speaker
I'm just having super quick look on the Weaver's Tools thing. It's okay. It's not tonight. So, I mean, have a look at some point and we'll we'll i look just do some key tabs on how long before you can make it because it sounds fantastic.
00:47:27
Speaker
Proper Cath Kidston style. Love it. um The... Yeah. I mean, we're going to do any rolls for it because it's a safe place. You're in a town. Everything is absolutely fine here. and yeah you have a fulfilling night's sleep so if you've lost any spell slots or any health or anything of that everything is reset back to your full ready for the day's exploits in the morning so it's the next day and we are at the moor the four of you at this location and this moor this thing that's been referred to for the last day or two now you finally see it
00:48:05
Speaker
It stretches out before you, a jagged scar carved deep into the earth, with the walls of the ravine lined with kind of cruel, blackened rocks that jut out like teeth of a massive predator.
Diving Instructions and Teamwork Emphasis
00:48:19
Speaker
The ravine narrows at this moment, and its edges are twisted by centuries of this relentless water, this tidal surge, making it a natural trap for treasures that might get swept along from the north or, indeed, have stored there over time.
00:48:36
Speaker
The air here feels heavier, damp with the tang of salt and the musk of decaying moss. Below, unlike Storm Spire, the water churns and rushes violently, frothing white as it crashes against the boulders. Imagine like white water rafting, kind of churn of the water here.
00:49:00
Speaker
that kind of churn of the water here But it's not just water. You can see even from this height of 150-200 feet on a rickety old wooden platform, you can see glints of something beneath the surface, be it creatures, be it gold, be it anything.
00:49:16
Speaker
Shards of pottery, silver coins, even the bleached skeleton of a long dead diver wedged precariously between two rocks. Crows circle above head, their calls drowned out by the roar below, and the roar around you.
00:49:34
Speaker
as Stormspire empties and approaches the moor to watch you, the Surge Divers, take their fall.
00:49:45
Speaker
You turn on your platform And you can see on the other side of the platform other side of the ravine, above and below you, are a number of these rickety wooden, held by rope, hemp rope platforms that seem to have been put up, wedged into the side of the rocks.
00:50:02
Speaker
They do not look permanent. You they kind of yeah cling precariously to the ravine's edges, lashed together by these fraying ropes and lined with eager surge divers.
00:50:14
Speaker
Their faces alight with heart adrenaline, greed, terror... It's not a ravine, this place. sort of place It feels alive.
00:50:26
Speaker
You turn on your platform, taking in your surroundings, and the crowd, the other divers, the clear blue sky above. Each team you notice, and they're all teams of four, seem to have smartly given themselves a colour scheme.
00:50:40
Speaker
Given the chaos that will ensue, to find your friend from Foe seems to be a good thing to do. They've handily coloured themselves red, blue, green, yellow and black. Your nearest group to you are a team wearing black of four humans that look warily at one another.
00:51:03
Speaker
They all ah have these individuals stood behind them who are rolling rope between their hands, affixing gloves, applying chalk and talking sternly and pointing to each other.
00:51:15
Speaker
For all four divers there are four scalars. the people that lower them down. You notice other teams attaching ropes around their waist, checking knots, tying them double. All except one team, the blue team, where their scalars throw their hands up in the air and walk off.
00:51:34
Speaker
You turn around, you, all of you, from your dive point, and see your team of scalars. Four rather wizened-looking dwarves. strong, sturdy, stocky individuals, one as his arms crossed with his long grey beard resting on his arms, looking up at you.
00:51:58
Speaker
I suppose this is your first. We're your Scala team. We lower you down. Tie this around your waist and we'll get you down sharpish.
00:52:10
Speaker
He hands the ropes to you and his other companions hand the other ropes to the other three of you as well. We also get the pleasure of hulking your corpse up at the end too.
00:52:21
Speaker
A word of advice, and he looks shifting me one side to the other. Don't trust the other divers. You do right by us and we'll do right by you. Go slow at first.
00:52:34
Speaker
and then two tugs on the rope and we go fast. If you make it to the bottom, remember, you've got mere seconds to collect before the bed hardens and all is lost. Don't be greedy. Take what you can and then drop some.
00:52:47
Speaker
You'll need to be ready to climb out with it all there's no telling what the others will do to your ropes on the way up.
00:52:54
Speaker
You all look a bit stunned. If I'm being honest, you look a bit unprepared. Do you have any questions for me?
Tidal Surge Arrival and Chaos
00:53:00
Speaker
Tashin's going to call it in a couple of minutes, but I can assuage any fears before you jump if you want.
00:53:07
Speaker
Um, what's the signal for you to pull us up afterwards? Normally we just look and we can half pull you up, but if you gather enough gear, you're going to have to climb with it.
00:53:20
Speaker
Ah, okay. We're only dwarves here, you know, you look massive. And he looks to Ruck. And you with your armor, that's going to... Good luck, he says to his mate, who who who's a slightly weedy looking dwarf who looks up at Garruk with all his armor on and is just and slowly shaking his head.
00:53:41
Speaker
So it really depends, we can up-guide you a little bit, but it's limiting. You go down with a rope on, round your waist, and you can't move as far, or as fast, and you might get tangled with others. So it's really a game of, you know, do you keep it on, do you not, you know, support rope, all that jazz.
00:53:56
Speaker
What's jazz? So basically, that's the answer I'm going to give you, and that's that's that's that.
00:54:04
Speaker
Yeah. You look ready. Do you need a pep talk? I can't wait. I don't need a pep talk. I've been waiting this for a very long time.
00:54:14
Speaker
ah And I'll turn to the others. so This is it, guys. We are going to come away famous. We're going come away rich. We're going to come away with all of the stuff. Don't worry about those guys.
00:54:28
Speaker
a light Like our friends here say, um stick together. do Do we need like a a team saying or something like that? I've seen people put hands in the middle of something before and raise them up.
00:54:39
Speaker
um Or if not, I guess we don't have to. ah Do people usually have sayings? He'll say as he turns back to the dwarves. um Normally they just pray to a god.
00:54:51
Speaker
um Some do, some don't. Many of the times the teams change a lot because of death. So, you know, they don't really have a lot of time to become best buds.
00:55:01
Speaker
You lot look pretty close. You close? Family? No, not family. You're tiny. And he looks towards Falco in points, and then he looks to his scaler, he's got a big grin on his face.
00:55:16
Speaker
um Yeah, well, ah I'm agile. I move through the water pretty easy. um ah is So the rope that we're attaching to ourselves is long enough to get down the bottom of the ravine and then explore around in the water so before get pulled back. you You get a sense of that, yeah. But what you notice, i didn't mention this. Good, thank you. um What you notice is just behind you, offset on the rock, is a large, sturdy, four large, sturdy kind of platforms.
00:55:44
Speaker
And on those are like large, you know, the large wheels for for weaving or bell ringing. Fuck me, I've got some niche likes here. Anyway, the the large wheel for that has a rope, a huge rope tied around it. And that is where they are kind of controlling the back end from.
00:56:00
Speaker
ah we kind of feeding it into this, which then goes around it. That's where the rope is stacked. And it's like a massive hose pipe almost most of rope. And it's but each one is really, really rather large. And it's high quality stuff.
00:56:11
Speaker
um You know, you'd heard of the Skystream arenas, you know these scalars, they do the late dives later on when there's no there's no risk involved. So they're they're just like less crazy versions of you lot, basically.
00:56:24
Speaker
So they know their shit, and but they know that this brings the tourists and dah, dah, dah, dah. So it's high quality stuff. And it's, yeah, all kind of set up, ready to... ready to go there, and they're making the final preparations. They look old, but they kind of also look like they know what they're doing as well. like They're quite deft and and and dexterous in their in the movements that they do.
00:56:42
Speaker
um ah One of them, Valko, does approach you, um your scala, and approaches you and goes, All right. Do want me to tie the knot for you, child?
00:56:53
Speaker
Excuse me? you want me to tie the knot for you as your mum taught you how to tie knots? And looks to Riffa.
00:57:01
Speaker
Uh...
00:57:03
Speaker
Yes, yeah, I do need you to tie the knot. okay i'll make sure that I'll make sure that I take off. ah so Stripping down to just undershirt, jerking, kick my boots off. um Definitely put my hat down.
00:57:15
Speaker
And I'll say to the guy, I presume it's a guy, him, look, you bring me back up, you do the best job you can, there's 10% in it for you.
00:57:31
Speaker
His eyebrows go up and he looks to the to the chap who's been talking to you and the guy rolls his eyes and nods his head. Yeah, yeah, all right, sounds good. Ten percent, yeah? Yeah, yeah, ten percent of my haul.
00:57:44
Speaker
He looks, he becomes a bit deflated at that. All right, yeah, fine, it makes sense. Yeah, all right, yeah. And he goes down and ties this knot. And again, it's it's rapid, the speed of it. It's, it's you know, the the speed and ability of a sailor kind of tying these s knots. And it looks simple, but as he pulls in it, you realize quite how how strong it is. So much so that he kind of pulls you up a little bit by the rope just to prove its ah it's strength.
00:58:08
Speaker
The main scaler is standing there still with his arms crossed. we tie you on then? We're getting you all tied on. Or do you want to do it yourself? Um... Rufa's kind of drawing that has been starting to try not but then looking at kind of how simple hers is in comparison to that she'll say oh i yes please a hand would be great thank you Yep, what you've done there is a ah brilliant slipknot that will cut you in two if you if we try to yank you up. So um maybe not that one. and He rejigs the knot and loops it round and shows an example. So here it doesn't get bigger, but it also doesn't get smaller. You've got a good... it stays the same size. That's that's what we want there.
00:58:48
Speaker
We want you to come back up in one piece and not two separate. pieces yeah and then the other two approach rock um and your your weedy one approaches you garrick and he's just muttering to himself always get the big one no one did you here and he ties it ties the um rope around and they all do the same knot it's almost a you know specialist knot that they have for this and you're all kind of prepared ready and then that's when you hear it distant rumble begins almost as a low growl. You might think it's the back of your throat, or maybe someone's making the noise at first, but slowly it grows to a deafening roar that starts to shake the very bones of the ravine.
00:59:29
Speaker
From the vantage point high on the platform of the moor, the sight to the north is awe-inspiring and terrifying. a wall of water, impossibly high, churning with debris, barrels down the ravine's winding course.
00:59:49
Speaker
The air is thick with anticipation. Around you, other surge diving teams exchange grim nods, whispered prayers. Above it all, you see, high on the platform, her own separate platform Tashlin barks out her final warning. you're not ready to risk everything, step aside now.
01:00:07
Speaker
The wave doesn't wait for second chances. Her frivolous demeanor replaced with morbid concern. The water draws closer.
01:00:19
Speaker
The deafening roar grows. Your breath catches in your throat and your heart quickens. The tidal surge is here.
Dive Begins Amidst Chaos
01:00:32
Speaker
With the waves leading edge crashing down into the ravine below, Tashlin Violetta signals to the divers. Scalers release safety ropes and wheels of rope spin as divers throw themselves over the rest of the deadly wave, sorry, the crest of the deadly wave.
01:00:47
Speaker
Below, the tumultuous waters swirl. You feel this... incredible energy pass over you as the wave passes not 10-15 feet away from you at the height that you are on top of the ravine.
01:01:00
Speaker
The only way I can kind of imagine this in my mind is if you opened the door to a hurricane. That's the kind of the incredible power that we're we're dealing with here.
01:01:11
Speaker
you see other teams jump. Your goal, your first skill challenge, is to leap from the platform before missing your chance. The idea is that you hit just as the wave passes. So the way this is going to work is a series of skill challenges followed by combat. Every round will come one after the other.
01:01:28
Speaker
In the skill challenges, you can use any skill you want. You do not have to just be proficient in it, but proficient skills, you're going to be better at them and better suited for your character. I'm happy to take everything in in this here.
01:01:39
Speaker
For the skill challenges, we lower ourselves down. We can only the skill once. So if you use athletics once, you're not going to use it the next time or the next time. um I like to reward ingenuity and creativity as well. So think outside the box, you know, just punching, punch, punch isn't always going to be effective.
01:01:56
Speaker
Like I said, between each round of these these skill challenges, other divers, other diving teams might try to influence you in some way by cutting ropes or whatever. I don't know what they're going to do. and so that'll be your chance to save them off, attack them back, e etc. They haven't got loads of weapons with them. So you imagine it's going to be rocks or punches or grabbing or scaling. i Sorry, i grappling or those kind of things as well.
01:02:21
Speaker
So before we jump into that, I'm going to need an initiative order for the four of you. So could you just please, everyone, roll initiatives. Oh, shit, it's happening. Here we go. Here we go.
01:02:32
Speaker
Mark, would you allow me to have applied that chalk to my hands like in the closing moments? The surge infused chalk that I've got. Yeah. Yeah. I'm assuming you can apply it first and then.
01:02:44
Speaker
Absolutely, yeah. if any of you have those items, I've assumed that in that moment with the ropes you've applied any of the wax with her or had any of those items you've purchased put on you for that purpose as well.
01:02:56
Speaker
Sorry, I made that assumption. Yeah, chalk tans, whatever you've got, I'm assuming it's already been applied, yeah. Unless you want to... Oh no, sorry, go on. No, unless you want to hold back and use it at a later date, that is, that's right. No, she's going to... Yeah, Rifa will have put the wax over her arms.
01:03:13
Speaker
She's not wearing her big coat anymore. um She's barefooted as well. You see that she's got these water skins. She's got two tied to the end of her tail and two um around her arm.
01:03:30
Speaker
and And then... just before we kind of get into that jumping in she's just going to give Rock a gentle headbutt.
01:03:42
Speaker
yeah Yeah, oh yeah, he reciprocates. Probably a little bit too enthusiastically though. the All right, very nice, thank you for that. So um with you all in position now, can I truly just have your initiative order? So did anyone actually, well, Garrick, what did you get?
01:03:59
Speaker
So during this whole set up, Garak's kind of mouth has gotten dry as the enormity of the situation has befallen upon him.
01:04:10
Speaker
And he hurriedly unfurls just a slip of paper that was given to him by the shopkeeper that oversold him the items that he's bought yesterday, hoping that he can retain the information during the dive. ah But while he's shuffling around with bits of paper,
01:04:28
Speaker
He got an 18 on initiative. Okay, nice, thank you. Rok? Same for me, 18. But you've got a higher dex, haven't you, Rok? I assume so. I got a minus one.
01:04:39
Speaker
Then I definitely do.
01:04:42
Speaker
Garak hasn't taken his armor off. like Good. Ritha? 14. Nice. And Valko? Four. Okay.
01:04:53
Speaker
Four.
01:04:57
Speaker
I mean, it's just ah just an order, isn't it? Don't worry if you... good to Good to roll low on this and then roll high later on. So every other team, red, blue, green, yellow, black, the ones nearest to you all dive in. You notice one thing in particular, the blue team, there's no scalars attached to them. um All four of them wild shape into what look like ravens or birds and become this this huge intense dive down towards the bottom. They are head and shoulders and straight directly down.
01:05:28
Speaker
um So they're heading straight away. Ruck, where you're stood out at the edge of the platform Skill challenge. What do you want to do? How do you want to get off? ah Swan dive. ah Swan dive. seeing Seeing the ravens diving down, he's like, oh yeah, swan dive. Good idea.
01:05:45
Speaker
That's what he's going to do. I'm going to go ahead and use really fucking stupidly ah my acrobatics roll, like my best roll. I'm going to use it first. and Absolutely. what happened but Start as you mean to go on.
01:05:58
Speaker
ah That is an 18 again. Absolutely. Swan dive. oh Off you go. And it's beautiful. It's a thing. And you even hear just a few seconds of applause and almost a wow from the crowd around you. But suddenly you hear none of that anymore. And all you hear is the roar of water, like water, like water falls, but on crack in terms of the volume and intensity of the situation you find yourself under.
01:06:21
Speaker
ah Garrick rocks just swan diving off the edge. Okay. Garak looks wide-eyed at Rock during that and is so impressed.
01:06:32
Speaker
He's going to almost feeling that the ah feeling of nervousness take him. He's going to just grasp the Fatinus symbol on his chest plate, close his eyes and just mutter a prayer.
01:06:51
Speaker
And Rifa, Falco and... i to heart Is Rock still in range? yeah yeah Yeah, you can. yeah he's told you it's happened. just This all happened simultaneously, really. That's cool. Yeah, bless. Wow, nice. So it's a d4 to rolls. Fucking great shite there.
01:07:12
Speaker
ah That does put you disadvantage because you're doing that as opposed to jumping. So that's going to slow you down slightly, Garrick. And just as an FYI. But that is technically a pass. I'll take that as a pass for that because you have successfully...
01:07:24
Speaker
Cast it. Just a pass. Sure, I'll give you that. Riffa, you're just stood just to the right of rock, I imagine. All four of you are lined up at on this platform's edge um and he's already mid-jump.
01:07:38
Speaker
Yeah. um
01:07:44
Speaker
So...
01:07:47
Speaker
Kind of watching the point that the um other groups... jump in at she's going to kind of use their timer for when that the wave gets to their mooring point um to jump in at the same time so I don't know ah perception perception yeah I'm going to go perception for that if you're trying to time it off what the other divers are doing yeah maybe perception 8 do I get a plus with the blessing yeah roll a d4 with that as well
01:08:27
Speaker
So, ten.
01:08:30
Speaker
ah Okay. You, through the spray around you, you can't quite make out and you actually jump slightly too early um as you step off.
01:08:43
Speaker
That's as far as we'll go for that so far. So that's a fail for that at the moment. Falco, don't worry, one failure doesn't mean instant death. Or does it? ah Over to you, Falco. what do it So the black-coloured team is closest to us, right?
01:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, they're just off to your right. And then is it flu blue and red that are on the opposite side of the ravine closest to us? Correct. Blue and red on the opposite. Green, yellow, black, and you are on this side. It's the more populous side, easier to access.
01:09:11
Speaker
Cool. um Would I, and I know it happens simultaneously, but would was i would I get any hint that maybe Reef has jumped the gun slightly? You'll note, I mean, if it's happening all at once, she's almost... Because I suppose she would have gone up.
01:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, Rock's gone up and dived. ah She's just kind of, I imagine, just kind of dropped off quickly, aiming down. And it's just been a second or two too early. And you see there's a big difference in the trajectory.
01:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, you would have noticed that, yeah. Okay, cool. So I will... like a penting up a bit of courage. I will rush towards the edge at the last second bottle it, I've already gone too far and Falco starts to fall rather than jump.
01:09:53
Speaker
Nice. as As I do, um i will pick the long blue feather out of my hat and like rip it out of the fabric and run towards the edge. And i want to cast Feather Fall on Reefer and all the black team.
01:10:23
Speaker
So what's what's your what's what what's your thinking here, Charlie? What's your thinking? I want i want them like running in midair or trying to towards the waterbickers.
Navigating Descent and Survival Instincts
01:10:35
Speaker
ah So they're forward slow to 60 feet per round, so 10 feet per second, whereas we're moving it Not Terminoplasty, but we're heading straight down. Dirty tactics, I love it.
01:10:48
Speaker
ah so With the hope that also it will slow Reefer enough to get past the wave, but hopefully... Oh no. Yeah, so it's going to kind of delay them hitting hitting the water. So delaying them and Reefer. Do you have control to switch it off for certain people?
01:11:03
Speaker
not Not for certain people, no. It's a big group concentration. Okay. So Riff is now kind of mid-air, just kind of just floating there. Yeah, I feel like I prefer that than her hitting it early.
01:11:16
Speaker
Okay. All right. and there's no consent in this, is it? You just you just do it, and isn't it? No, it's just five fallen creatures, which is called great wording. That is really good wording. Wow, that's perfect. Perfect for this.
01:11:30
Speaker
Amazing. That was brutal. Thank you for that. um Yes, yes, it's cast and you managed to do that. Thank you very much. and So all the other teams also, I've just rolled for them, um all will all have a skill challenge element as well.
01:11:43
Speaker
And their failures are a little bit more brutal. um The red team ah dive and they have their ropes tied on. They dive the exact right moment. These guys are professionals. The blue team, the wild shapers, hit down. But you notice one of the ravens catching a gust of wind and is absolutely garrotted onto the side of the ravine. And...
01:12:01
Speaker
ah morphs back into a halfling form as this as um a jagged piece of rock sticks out the chest of one of these um druids. ah One of their members has died. The green team on your side, a dwarf, ah jumps, the rope catches, the machine behind gets thrown off along with it. He gets thrown directly under himself and splats into the ravine wall himself.
01:12:24
Speaker
He is also an ex-Dwarf. And finally, the black team, the team that are in mid-air, this route they rolled really badly. It was a really generous skill, ah but they all rolled really bad. The black team, despite being in the air, and one of the managers, as they're running towards it, the rope gets whipped up. And even though they're feather-folding, this rope is like tied around their neck somehow.
01:12:44
Speaker
And they're just in the air, choking, pulling at the rope, trying to... and and and I had no other way to kill them. But basically, yeah, I'd rolled these just before you'd done that, but they're dead.
01:12:56
Speaker
So the first roll of combat now, um I'm going to switch it up. They're going to get the first and first hit on you. They're going to go first in the initiative order.
01:13:07
Speaker
You notice below you the red team are swiping at the blue team, trying to try to throw rocks, e etc. at it None of them are successful. The blue team don't respond in any way. ah The yellow team and the green team seem to be... Oh, no, sorry. The green team and the black team ah see eye to eye, and you see one of the green team members fire an arrow up from their falling position up towards the black team.
01:13:31
Speaker
And do they make contact? Yes they do. um so Slamming into the throat of another one of these feather falling figures that are perfectly lined in the sky for him to just catch him and killing off another member of the black team with a single arrow to the throat.
01:13:48
Speaker
ah The yellow team ah don't kind of ah seem to be ah have anyone against them really at the moment so nothing happens from their perspective. um Running through the order, Roc, anything you want to do combat wise?
01:14:02
Speaker
Is anyone engaged us or looking dangerous towards... I know it seems like a stupid question, but directly towards us or any of our members? There's nothing from... No, nothing so far.
01:14:14
Speaker
Cool. In which case, ah simply what Rock will do is take the dodge action ah and continue to freefall swan dive, trying to get down as close as you can to the floor. Okay, thank you very much. Garruk, anything from yourself?
01:14:33
Speaker
Garak's just going to, after watching everyone jump, and then to the right of him watching someone get garrotted by a rope, and then directly in front of him watching someone get impaled by a rock.
01:14:44
Speaker
He's just going to walk over to the edge and peer down. What do I see? Is there water below? is it just a sea of mist? Or is there, after the surge, is is the shoreline starting to come up from the vacuum that's being pulled up?
01:15:01
Speaker
So little bit of a little bit of column a bit of column B. There's natural, like a waterfall, where there's there's some mist and spray up from this tidal surge afterwards anyway. But yeah, literally drags all water with it.
01:15:13
Speaker
Almost like I imagine if the moon was really close to Earth and you just quickly moved it around the planet, the water just kind of follows. It's that kind of just natural velocity that moving it. It's all the water. And what you do notice is this riverbed, this rivered's ravine bed does reveal itself below,
01:15:27
Speaker
um areas of sand, areas of jutting rocks, fucking dangerous as shit here. But you know, you can also see a and plethora of things and stuff around as well. But you do see these, these ropes hanging down, these people diving down below you as well.
01:15:43
Speaker
And yeah, you do see this kind of this cacophony of, of deaths take place around you as well. lot of, that's a soundscape and, uh, reefer and Falco.
01:15:54
Speaker
I know that rock jumped, um, quite well. Looking at those guys, their trajectory is clear. They're not heading towards any cliff sides or rocks or anything like that.
01:16:05
Speaker
i mean We're all just kind of midair, about to start the kind of the drive down, really. So, yeah, everything everything kind of looks dandy. Everyone's in the air. Only one thing to do.
01:16:18
Speaker
a this armor better pay for itself and garrick's going to take a run up and he's going to cannonball it so he's going to bring his knees up to his chest and then his wrap his hands around his knees in the hopes that if if the weedy guy that's holding on to garrick has to just I don't know if it causes the rope to tension and he has to go swinging into the rock. He's hoping that his armor can take the brunt and he won't lose a limb or a leg.
01:16:48
Speaker
All right. um So let's go with my minus one acrobatics for my jump. for that because Because we're in the kind of combat part of it. I'll just let you jump just to get you going in for that if you want. there we go.
01:17:01
Speaker
So we'll go go with that for now that you've just hoofed yourself off for now because it's part of the combat. But like said, it's awkward because no one's attacking you yeah yet. Rifa, you're mid-air. ah You also noticed the black team mid-air. Two of them are dead mid-air and you're in the air. They're in the air. everyone Everyone's looking confused.
01:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, seeing him what happened to the two and members of the black team and kind of feeling myself, I guess, slow down. It's going to be like a bit of like a internal panic so ah she is she close enough to kind of the edge of the ravine that she could almost imagine if she's she's being gently lowered she could almost rotate her body so that she's upside down and then she can grab the side of the ravine and to try and start like pulling herself down to counteract
01:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, you've, in your kind of drop-off-the-edge jump, you were about 5, 10, 15 feet down anyway before the spell kind of took effect anyway, I imagine. So, um i mean, that's more, of I think, a question for for Charlie for Falco, that can that be counteracted in that way? i know you're moving anyway.
01:18:15
Speaker
Yeah, you like you are moving you're moving 10 feet per second, which is still, it's not slow, but it's a lot slower than it would be if you were in Freefall. Sure. But as soon as I i see that the way that Reefer is safe, I would i would drop it.
01:18:32
Speaker
Okay. thought that'll happen after turn. Yeah, yeah. So the my I just wanted to make sure that the wave was past her before she hit it. Gotcha. Are you able to drop it?
01:18:45
Speaker
Is it a spell that can be... Well, it's concentration-based, so... Okay. Is it? Have they changed, though? Oh.
01:18:52
Speaker
It might be in the new 2024. Oh, it's not. Oh, sorry. Rules like a million. Oh, Charlie should read the rules.
01:19:03
Speaker
I'll just float gently down to the bottom. I genuinely don't think there's anything you can do to stop it once it starts, but unless the time runs out. How long is it on for? Oh, sorry.
01:19:14
Speaker
ah didn I it. I thought I could just drop it. How long is it on for? A full minute. oh Okay, okay, okay, okay. But you still do fall. It's not like, yeah. ah Great. It's not anti-gravity. You're falling just slower and safely. You're still moving at, you know, 10 feet per second.
01:19:34
Speaker
and Yeah. Which is slower, but, you know, still bonkers. It was still her and there's still possibility. Anyway, we'll get you that. Don't worry. All right. So as you continue to, some of you, hurtle down towards the base, we're going to split this into three quarters of the descent down, despite moving at such pace, this is how big the ravine is.
01:19:55
Speaker
ah The first part of it is as this water drains out, you are in free fall, some of you. You're falling, you're all falling. i'm And what's... what happens is as you get lower down the ravine gets narrower and narrower and this first section it starts to kind of narrow down slightly and you do start to notice the rock formation start to change and again this is our kind of chance for anything mid-flight that you want to do to influence your options influence how you fall influence any of that really to make your ah experience in our surge dive a more pleasant one ah so starting off with rock anything you want to do
01:20:34
Speaker
So we're not at the bottom yet. About a quarter of the way down. or on the way Only a quarter. of Balls. Okay. And are any of the other teams again nearby? Like, is it narrowing or is it... Yeah, the...
01:20:50
Speaker
It would be the black team, but the next nearest team is the yellow team. which are the only Them and the reds are the only other two full strength teams aside from yourselves now. kind of want to save perception for when I get to the bottom, because I think that makes a lot of sense.
01:21:04
Speaker
So I'm going to use, if you'll allow me to, a survival check. um which allows me to track, forage, or find trail or avoid natural hazards, it reads. And you mentioned Jiggity Jaggedy Rocks, so that might make sense as ah as a means of, as he's kind of free falling, going, right, do I need to twist? do I need to turn?
01:21:23
Speaker
yeah Absolutely. yeah Give a roll for that. Remember your bless. Yeah, I'm going to roll that bless. Come on, it's a 12 with the bless. Okay, yep, yep. you You notice a couple of ah jagged parts of rock start to come up towards you and you manage to turn your body or just kind of place a hand out to push yourself away from it, kick back from the wall of the ravine, maybe to push yourself out a little bit against the rope in order to um to avoid some of those sharper sections, saving yourself a hefty bit of damage. Thank you very much for that, Ruck.
01:21:55
Speaker
ah Garrick, over
Mid-air Combat and Strategy
01:21:56
Speaker
to you. You're falling. Cannonballing down. Anything you want do to influence your journey down?
01:22:05
Speaker
Think heavy thoughts? Like the opposite of Tinkerbell? Okay.
01:22:12
Speaker
um
01:22:17
Speaker
That is what Garrick's going to do. He's thinking heavy thoughts. Okay. to himself think every think every thoughts you've got this garrick i mean in the effort of weighing himself down okay okay yeah it's nice i like that other things you might want to think about you can you can use your morning star and his big rocks or uh spy or jutting out things approach you could twat him to to avoid no no no he's he's he's curled up into a ball
01:22:50
Speaker
And he's thinking heavy thoughts for now. Okay. That thing's got one singular goal and he's just holding on. He's holding on to his, his, his knees.
01:23:00
Speaker
You're trying to hold up tight insight. He's an insight. Is that religion? Faith? range Strength? Hold on.
01:23:10
Speaker
Ah, uh, Fuck it. on the Deception against myself. it's good as That would be if it's about someone else. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to put it down as a fail. Performance. You're putting it down as a straight fail.
01:23:24
Speaker
Riff. That works. That works. That works. Riffa, over to you. Like I said, we could think about you could be looking at where from your position above, what other teams are doing, insight for what they're going to do, acrobatics to kind of move your slow moving body away from the edges, stealth in terms of trying to move quietly down the rock side, given that you're moving slower like Spider-Man or... i i'm Yeah. Can I just clarify, are we now free falling in air or through water?
01:23:56
Speaker
Air, air, air, this is all air, there is no water anymore, the wave has passed Ah, okay
01:24:05
Speaker
Yeah, so she's, um I guess, got slightly more time then then the others Because she grew um
01:24:18
Speaker
because
01:24:21
Speaker
she grew up by a ravine Clifestone Keep. I'm assuming kind of the rock formation and how the ravine goes is very similar kind of all the way along the thing. So she'll have some nature knowledge of it.
01:24:38
Speaker
So she's just going to kind of be aware that there's going to be this narrowing happening and kind of use that knowledge from growing up um as to when to be a bit more aware of it.
01:24:50
Speaker
yeahp ah you you could i mean that That could be history as well if you wanted it to be history. um but um yeah using Using nature would be fine as well. yeah the the natural The natural positioning of the of the ravine and how that will impact your fall. Yeah, absolutely. Either or.
01:25:05
Speaker
um
01:25:08
Speaker
Let's go history. Okay, yeah. I don't think she remembers anything, to be honest with you.
01:25:18
Speaker
ah four. four. ah Your mind is too and and engrossed in what's currently happening. and You're blessed. You're blessed. Oh, yeah. That's with my bless. who You're not blessed.
01:25:31
Speaker
yeah You don't you don't um remember. Your mind is blank. you just You're just like it mid... ah yeah There's no thought. There's just total brain fart going on here. There's another fail there for this round.
01:25:43
Speaker
Falco, down to you.
01:25:47
Speaker
i will... I feel like I'm i'm the ah hostile one of the group. I'm going to, turning from the black team, there are already two people down.
01:26:00
Speaker
um I will look at the yellow team and think, those Gage are doing a bit too well as I'm in Freefall. And I will cast Bane on all of them. Sick.
01:26:11
Speaker
ah So it's a 1d4 against their rolls. Yes. Yeah. Hoping that Lady Luck will be on my side. You bastard. Very nice. Okay.
01:26:23
Speaker
Lovely. Thank you i'll give you I'll give you that as well. All right. and It's their their kind of version of it as well. The red team continue to fall with panache down through it.
01:26:34
Speaker
ah The ravens of the blue team continue to the three of them remain and continue to move down. ah The green team, which seem closest to you, at the loss of their first compatriot, ah he smashes down underneath the dwarf.
01:26:46
Speaker
One of the elves look back up towards him and it slips. slips out of the rope that's holding her and is in total free fall down for all intents and purposes will smash into the ground soon. The yellow team looked to be doing, as you rightly said, very well until you cast Bane and almost instantaneously, the minute you cast Bane, they're kind of like, um they're They're not tied, the guillotine aren't tied on properly, they're like abseiling down the side.
01:27:15
Speaker
The minute you cast Bane, one of them, that you see this like little black aura around their hands, it suddenly that one of their hands just slips out and again it's just tumbling down into the ravine.
01:27:26
Speaker
ah They're down a member now as well. What you say like but you do notice, though Falco, is that two of them, two it's a team of four elves, the yellow team, ah two of the four, well now three elves, instantly shoot a look over in your direction.
01:27:41
Speaker
And ah it goes into the combat round, and as a result of that, three of all three of them kick off from the walls in this, and then are moving directly over towards your location.
01:27:52
Speaker
And it's going to be Garrick, Riffa, and Falco that they're going to come into contact with first. um This is awkward because they're just goingnna basically they're not looking to grab you, they're looking to tangle.
01:28:05
Speaker
um and So they're going to make sure they kind of hit your locations and that your rope and their rope kind of get enmeshed around one another's. So the first one, Garruk with yours, it manages and you are now entangled round with this um yellow sashed um elf woman.
01:28:21
Speaker
that's kind of grabbing onto your armor and trying to kind of push trying to grab the knot around your waist to undo that to make you drop basically she's not that's her aim at the moment she's just tangled her rope with yours uh rifa the one with yours fails she sails past you and it's gonna have to kind of swing back but she's kind of on the other side of the wall and falco the one for you also fucking hell also fails um and slips down a little bit faster and is again in very close range to you.
01:28:49
Speaker
You can see Falco, the one with you, has a dagger. She has a dagger in her off hand that she's holding a sheet as she, as she abseils down this rope. Garrick, you're in tangled with one. the other two got away in rock.
01:29:00
Speaker
There would have been a fourth, but Falco done killed him. that's that one. The red team and the red team continue to descend. The blue team have fucked off, so there's nothing for them to do. The green team are too busy ah counting their losses.
01:29:14
Speaker
ah The black team is still just kind of slowly floating down. and They weren't even kind of over the ravine yet, so they're really, really um far behind here. and That's the state of affairs at the moment. The yellow team are obvious aggressors at this point as we go into our second combat round. Starting at top, Rok, anything you want do?
01:29:33
Speaker
Am I aware of what's going on? I'm assuming I'm a little bit little bit below them. and Yeah, they they were ahead in the free fall order. Yeah, they the yellow team are slightly below you.
01:29:45
Speaker
ah But right i'm I'm assuming the three of you are kind of level kind of level pegging here. refer for it Okay, so I've seen them. Yeah. yeah yeah If they're within range, if one of them and you said one of them was kind of grappling.
01:29:57
Speaker
With Garak, yeah. Yeah, okay. ah As soon as I notice that there's ah there's a ah grapple on ah someone within my team, ah Rock will kind of spin around and flick out a like a spinning kick at the grappler and to to try and dislodge them.
01:30:15
Speaker
Yep, roll to hit. That's the intent anyway. So it's obviously an unarmed strike, and I'll do this as a bonus action to start with. It's a 20 to hit. Yep, it hits... Okay, that's six points of non-lethal bludgeoning damage and as part of my tavern brawler feat I can push him five feet away, breaking the grapple.
01:30:33
Speaker
Yes, you break the grapple. It also breaks her connection to the rope she falls. like Oh, sorry, i'm sorry. ah so um and Yeah, non-lethal hit, but, you know, the ground doesn't pull its punches.
01:30:49
Speaker
Well, it hits the side of the ravine first. Garrick, you've still got two ropes kind of tied up around you. Can make a grab for her? ah You can use your burn your reaction for it if you want, yeah. I'll burn my reaction. as soon as Rock and he feels that ah that person being kind of yeeted off him, yeah um he'll he'll instinctually, because he was still kind of... He was happy. He was he was like the proverbial cannonball.
01:31:15
Speaker
As soon as he... Thinking heavy thoughts and then more weight came. That's the thing. So he's like, this is an act of Patinas right here. So he's going to immediately, as that though the weight kind of lightens, he's going to make a grab.
01:31:30
Speaker
Okay, give me an athletics check. Let's fucking go.
01:31:35
Speaker
How's a crit for 25? ah Literally, as she moves off, grab and then, youre oh are you pulling her back in? are you doing? Yeah, pulling her back in. So now she's enveloped in my crushing cannonball.
01:31:48
Speaker
um Think heavy thoughts. Oh, God, I'm thinking Austin Powers. Heavy thoughts. Heavy thoughts.
01:31:59
Speaker
breaking My arm are magnetic. Can you guys throw some metal down? Let's just go.
Descent Control and Safe Landing
01:32:03
Speaker
Out of all the the three of you that could have happened to, i love that it just happened to. You wanting more weight, and that's incredible. yeah Is anyone else within a grapple?
01:32:12
Speaker
with No, but you did see, i mean, I'm assuming you could all see this. You did see one go for Falco and one of the slightly slower yellows did go for Rufa as well. Okay, perceiving Falco to be the weakest, he'll kind of adjust his... Drive-by.
01:32:31
Speaker
ah he'll adjust his um He'll adjust his arm somewhat to kind of... Like wingsuiters do, if you like, ah to try and get himself closer towards Falco.
01:32:42
Speaker
And then, because he used his bonus action to an arm strike, he'll hold an action to... ah If someone gets close looking like they're trying to grab Falco, I'll grapple them instead.
01:32:56
Speaker
Okay. That's the intention. So holding my action to to grapple if they come close to Falco. Okay, lovely. Thank you very much for that. Garrick, anything for you? You're currently holding this elf who who who's now holding you back, actually. and Neither is grappling anyone, but I think you're both just kind of cuddling.
01:33:10
Speaker
Yeah. Garrick just says to this elf,
01:33:17
Speaker
Through the power of Fatenus, we will make it through this. We are as one now. And it's going to hold that grapple. And in response, you just hear... Yes, that's right. Think heavy thoughts.
01:33:33
Speaker
Riffa, over to you You've heard... You've felt this aggression... even though you're quite calmly enjoying your descent down, ah someone is kind abseiling down beside you and try to kind of reach out and and and have a swing at you, missed, and it's kind of swung past you. It's still probably within 10, 15 feet. Anything you want to do?
01:33:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm going to hold my action so that when they swing back, I want to essentially like use my tail to smack them so that their trajectory change so that they like smack into the wall of the ravine.
01:34:13
Speaker
Okay. Okay. nice We'll bear that in mind. Hold that action. And Falco, anything for yourself?
01:34:21
Speaker
um So there's one. that that's just One's just gone for me and missed and is now like feet on the wall. ah The other side of you, yeah. yeah As you're falling down, they've kind of swung through trying to get you missed, kind of ah kicking along the side of the wall to get to you, missed the grab for you, and have have kind of their trajectories carried them past you, and they'll... Ah, they tried to crouch and target me. Okay. bed oh I will reach something on my belt, and I will say out loud...
01:34:52
Speaker
I was saving this for tonight. Fuck you. And I want to pop the the um the cap on. I have ah an oil flask. And i was I'll throw it at person that tried to get me. Okay.
01:35:07
Speaker
In the hopes that it'll either make her slip up or I think it was her. Make her slip or drench her in oil. And then all it takes is a spark. Okay. Alright, I'm throwing throwing the object here. is What we got for that is...
01:35:27
Speaker
Denethor. What would it be, disturb just to do 20? ah
01:35:36
Speaker
We're talking modifiers?
01:35:40
Speaker
so now the oil flask uh i think if you're attached to it do you have proficiency that's like a nice now it's meant to be the target needs to succeed on the deck saving throw all right um which should be eight plus two plus your debt don't worry it's what that they're all the three so they failed
01:36:04
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, just hoping that she'll slip, or her feet on the rock, or hands on the rope, or just, yeah, we'll see. Okay, nice. um we'll We'll see how that transpires in a second. So um we continue our descent. i'm just going to speed this up slightly because I've realized also the pace at which you're falling um is quicker than i had anticipated. So we'll do one more before we reach the bottom. So this is the kind of final quarter of our way down. The ravine has started to really kind of pitch down towards maybe a 30, 40 foot wide ah ravine base here, as opposed to the 100, 200 foot. It was at kind of the the top. It's really kind of tapered down here.
01:36:42
Speaker
It's all about sticking your landing. um We've got lots of sharp, spiky, kind of teeth-like ah rock edges to hear sticking out, but the base is relatively sandy and free from any of this, strangely.
01:36:56
Speaker
um So your goal really here is to think about how you're going to stick your landing. how you're going to how you going to How do you go about landing, basically? We're going start with rock. rock You see the the seabed floor, well, the ravine bed floor rushing up towards you. You know you're getting close.
01:37:12
Speaker
What do you want to do? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh, yeah. So. Uh, it's difficult. I am going to ah if it's is the like when we When we hit the floor, or when we get to the floor, is there a chance to kind of reuse any of the skills we're using at the moment? or is it and is it I know this is like a massively meta question.
01:37:36
Speaker
I'm just trying to work out, because obviously i need to save some things for for grabbing stuff on the floor. I can't possibly know that, can I? No. No, cool. Excellent. Good job, me. You dickhead.
01:37:48
Speaker
ah In which case... I could tell you, but yeah then I might as well tell you all of it. and that's the No, exactly, but but why do that? I will instead ah use... So I can see that there are other divers here. I'm assuming that some of the other divers are...
01:38:06
Speaker
perhaps even their second dive. Like some of them seem pretty confident at the beginning. didn' they Red team especially. Okay. In which case, can go taking a glance over to red team, I would like to use my insight skill to see if I can work out where they're aiming specifically for the floor.
01:38:23
Speaker
And I'll try to emulate that. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. That's good. Insight check for that. i Yeah. Awesome. That is, thank you. Bless, please. 10.
01:38:35
Speaker
and You're pretty sure you've got a good ah rough estimation of where they're going. It does count as ah as a fail, though, unfortunately. Yep, no worries.
01:38:47
Speaker
Garrick, over to you. You're currently hugging a member of the yellow team as you plummet down towards the bottom. The rope's starting to get a bit more taut. You can feel ah it kind of it gets taut, then it suddenly drops a few feet, and then it gets a little bit more taut, and then drops a little bit as well, as maybe your scaler has underestimated your weight.
01:39:04
Speaker
slightly here with a yellow on it so yati member on board as well here. and You're faltering down as you get closer and closer towards the bottom here. You've large jutting out rocks sticking out as you clank your way down. Anything you want to do to stick your landing?
01:39:20
Speaker
It appears our time is coming to an end. Thank you for providing the extra weight. If you should carry on holding me, I have a plan. And Garak's going to throw down the flash flood marble as he reaches the bottom.
01:39:36
Speaker
and that flash flood marble is a tiny sphere of condensed surge energy when thrown it expands into a brief jet of water pushing anything within five feet and five feet in any direction so i'm gonna throw it down to the sand and have the water come up and hit me and as we as we as we then compress down so perfect it will push us up just enough.
01:40:01
Speaker
like The theory of jumping in an elevator. That's what Garrick's thinking of right now. The scientific physics of jumping at the precise moment an an elevator hits the bottom of the shaft. In reality, it's the ultimate enema.
01:40:14
Speaker
yeah ah No, I like it. I like it. And um yeah, okay. i I'm just going to give you that. to give you that as a pass because I think that's a really interesting way of using that. So yeah, absolutely works. and Slows your descent.
01:40:27
Speaker
You land quite calmly on the base of the ravine and this elfin ah person looks up at you just like in awe, amazed at how kind of effortless that looked. um Refer to yourself.
01:40:39
Speaker
You are one turn behind, so you'll have one more turn of falling given your pacing at the moment. Sorry. that's ah That's okay. and So you're not thinking about sticking your landing, you're approaching ah more kind of jagged area of rocks. You've got more of these things sticking out. You've got perhaps a falling rock from above ah hurtling down. Anything you want to do?
01:41:10
Speaker
Oh, um sorry, I'm still keeping an eye. on that yellow person and coming back and I guess because she is falling slightly slower she does have the time to kind of look around and um seeing this falling rock she'll push off against the side of the ravine to avoid
01:41:42
Speaker
it kind of swing itself out more towards the center point. Okay. What kind of skill do you want to use for that Acrobatics with my minus two. Yep. Good luck.
01:41:57
Speaker
oh with my blessing. Oh, yeah. 16. 16.
01:42:04
Speaker
sixteen Very nice, absolutely. And there's a little guidance as you push your feet down to push yourself away from the edge to avoid some of this. you The position your foot was going to go in just feels like it's just nudged slightly by an unseen force and just just to a ah better point of contact as you push away from the wall.
01:42:21
Speaker
Maybe unnoticeable maybe you didn't even fucking think about it at the time, but... Maybe days from now you'll think back to this and think, hmm, that was ah strange, that. My foot just moved slightly. Anyway, so yeah, absolutely, you managed to push yourself up. That counts as ah as a pass as well. The other teams go, and you'd be pleased to know there's an absolute clusterfuck of a turn for every single team.
01:42:38
Speaker
um The red team continue their dive and the red team are looking like absolute fucking pros at this point. They're slowing their descent towards the bottom, all but one who doesn't slow its descent and just slams directly into the base next to them, followed by a loose rope that just coils itself down beneath their feet. um The blue team, another of these ravens, um doesn't quite pull up in time.
01:42:58
Speaker
and catches its wing on one of the walls and then skids and smashes into another one of these spires killing it instantly one of the two humans left on this poor green team um loses his footing on one of the rocks and uh stabs his foot through one of the sharp jutting out rocks and then falls into some more of them uh piercing through his body ah the yellow team the one that was who we got one on falco one on riffer let's decide one to ten it's falco two yes it is falco that one's the one that you were facing for oh worked because um she's got greasy hands now isn't she um she's just absolutely slipped she's abs trying abseil down slips out and it literally hits the next set of spikes below and impales herself upon it dead and the black team despite their slow fall again
01:43:48
Speaker
One of them manages to hurt themselves and um maybe it's tetanus and it's a slow death really. It takes at least 15 to 16 seconds for that to kick in for it. So that was every single team had a death at that at that rate, which is um horrific really so far.
01:44:05
Speaker
um Into the combat, so
Treasure Hunt on Ravine Bed
01:44:06
Speaker
the one that's now remaining of the yellow team against you, Riffa, is going to come back over and it's just going to swipe at your rope. Just going to go for the rope to cut the rope above your head. Fuck me, rolls a four.
01:44:17
Speaker
um So fails again, goes past you, but you did you have something that you had prepared? Yeah, I held my action so that if she went past me, i was just going to use my tail to smack her into the wall.
01:44:30
Speaker
Okay, do you want to roll to hit? Is unarmed strike?
01:44:36
Speaker
Yeah, probably unarmed. 24 to hit. Okay, that does hit. Here we can... Without being like the shove, is the idea really you want cause them damage or do you want to push them into the The idea is that she goes into the wall with some force so that she gets knocked unconscious and is just hanging in a rope. Ideally. Ideally.
01:45:04
Speaker
Okay, so we can shove prone. So I guess that's the same concept really, isn't it? Yeah, if it's a shove, it's a saving throw on her part. Yeah, so it's eight attacker strength plus your modifier.
01:45:15
Speaker
Is that right? So should be ten plus whatever Reefa's strength modifier is. Which is like twenty, isn't it? Five? Four? Four. Is it a plus four? Plus four. Three, plus four. Fourteen. It's a fourteen.
01:45:31
Speaker
Seven. fails so you're shoving him in shiving her into the wall yeah yeah and at this trajectory and speed she's impaled violently against the wall by these obsidian black rocks um and that's the entire yellow team KO'd at this point nice Well done, Falco.
01:45:51
Speaker
You shit-stairer, you. The other teams, you do notice that the ah red team's already at the bottom here. The blue team, so you've got one member of the black team that's as slow as Riffa, no offense.
01:46:03
Speaker
One member of the green team, two of the blue who are wild shaping out, perhaps sorry, removing themselves from their raven-esque Wildshapen are back into the half and the forms that they are and three of the red team, one gnome, two orcs that are on that team just to give you a sense.
01:46:19
Speaker
and None of the others are going to use any combat really against you at that point. um I'll just kind of ask you as a group is there any combat in general you want to use this turn given our current location?
01:46:32
Speaker
It's not... um
01:46:36
Speaker
well um Seeing that the red team have already got onto the floor, i want to kind of slow them down slightly, so I'm just... Okay. but like that
01:46:49
Speaker
so maturgy okay um to make the ground it just ah harmless tre trembles of the ground for one minute i just want to you know if they've done this before they're gonna that's hopefully unusual to them so just give them a moment hold them back yeah yeah um do you need to roll anything for thomas it just happens doesn't it Yep. Just happens. Whether or not it's effective or not, we won't know just yet, but that's okay. I see you're thinking there. Okay, brilliant. Yeah, thank you very much for that I'll let that happen. That's absolutely fine.
01:47:19
Speaker
Cool. And so all bar refer, we're going to hit the ground at this point. Now, because of the scrapes and bumps we've had on the way down for some of us, given some of the failures, etc., all bar Falco takes six points of damage. That could be bludgeoning. It might be, unless you have a difference, so one needs to know the difference.
01:47:39
Speaker
This could be scrapes, bumps, bruises. This is just your general... The fall that has taken place and the failures that have taken place along way. So six points of damage for all of you apart from Falco who had a clean slate across his options there as well.
01:47:59
Speaker
The waters have passed, thinning now almost to a deceptively tranquil stream on which the three, soon to be four of you, stand. All around in this... You know it you know the kind of um kinetic sand? It's like that, that's the ground's like it. It moves with a slow movement, a pace, and it's odd. It's part dragging in, pushing out, it's odd.
01:48:24
Speaker
But all around now these treasures glint among the rocks and the debris and the spikes and the screams and the corpses here. The promise of fortune.
01:48:35
Speaker
The ravine bed swells slightly and moves almost like the rip of a bed itself is is still a river underneath, pulsing with the energy of the tidal surge. The ground is alive.
01:48:47
Speaker
You know you've got limited time to collect these maybe century old treasures before they recede under the obsidian hard stone. You have three turns to grab what you can.
01:48:58
Speaker
And in answer to your previous question, Will, yes, it does kind of reset here because what I'm asking here for is specifically... i'm At the moment, it's going to be based primarily around your capacity capacity for perception.
01:49:13
Speaker
To start off with, I've got list of 30 items and whatever you roll your perception on, this is the item that you happen to be near or nearish at the time. I'm not going to tell you much about it except what the item is called and whether or not it's a one or two person carry, because some of these are too big to be carried by a single person. So that's your choice then to weigh out what you do.
01:49:34
Speaker
So your turn will involve... you could just do three perceptions and look at three items you could do one perception grab it go you could do two perceptions pick your favorite because you get three kind of goes at this in in its entirety to to make your choice here okay so we'll stick to the order in at the moment um rock you're on the bed uh riffy you will get three turns at this as well i'll just yours will just come in slightly later so to speak okay um what would you i guess it's going to get perception to start with I mean, yes, I've also, i can every turn use a bonus action to dash as well to get myself around quicker if that helps in any way. I don't imagine or don't know if it would, um but just so you're aware. And there's also something else quite cool I can do. Do I get to add Bless to these or not?
01:50:22
Speaker
Yeah, that continues. Yeah. 20 non-natural. Excellent. These are all going to be high, aren't they? ah You notice this odd miniature stone pillar that seems to be throbbing with energy. It's a two-person lift.
01:50:37
Speaker
Or for you, it might be a slowed. So what I might say then, for you specifically, I might say that if you want this, it's going to eat your bonus action.
01:50:50
Speaker
move You know, your dash move bonus action. It'll eat that as as a payment for it, but then you could move with normal pace. Does make sense? As a Goliath as well, a powerful build is one of the features. It says you count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity. Which is too So I know that that's, yeah. yeah yep Okay, so yeah, you could carry this. It would be heavy.
01:51:11
Speaker
You'll know it's heavy, but you can manage you can manage this actually. given i Ignore that, you keep the the dash thing. um Miniature stone pillar, you notice a number of very, very ornate, old, old, ancient carvings on the side of it.
01:51:23
Speaker
and They seem to be throbbing slightly with this illuminescent blue light of the of the tidal surge, and it seems to throb brighter and hold that kind of surge light longer than some of the other items around you as well. So that's the first item you see there.
01:51:38
Speaker
um Garrick, perception check, please. and That's if you do want to grab an item. Can I use my Echo Stone, ah which yeah when tapped, it releases a low frequency pulse, revealing the general shape of surfaces within 30 feet.
01:51:55
Speaker
It says to its advantage to check hazards, ledges, and unstable surfaces, but I don't know if you'd get a shadow of anything around, of anything large under the sand. Give go.
01:52:09
Speaker
Give it a go. I say give it go. I'm the one who decides. Do I get an advantage then? Yes, yes. That's what meant to say. meant to say, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, use it as advantage. Yeah, because it is aiding your perception because it will ping against items that are obviously surge infused here.
01:52:23
Speaker
All right, cool. Perception. Or will ping against like anomalies. That's really what it's doing here. Anomalies are gaps. And these items are coming up through gaps in the bed. What have you got? 19. 19.
01:52:37
Speaker
nineteen you come across a this quite small really small actually but it glints that's why when it sends out this burst of light across the space this thing pings back light back to you almost like ah like like uh something metal in the sun that kind of brightness it's a um and you're not at it yet but you can grab it next round um a cracked crystal lens, probably about the size of like a CD. If Garrett knew what the hell a CD was, or if any of our listeners know what a fucking CD is for that matter, Jesus Christ.
01:53:06
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's there, but it again, it has this again, ornate capacity as there's all night field to it of ancient technology, ancient time. Um, fuck it. What am I saying? You got a way to turn to pick it up. You've picked it up. So rock, you picked up this thing.
01:53:20
Speaker
Um, and, uh, Garrett, you've picked up this item as well. And Garak's just going to turn to the elf who traveled in tandem with Garak and just turn to them.
01:53:36
Speaker
Your rope. I still have mine. If you need to get out of here, you can hop on board again.
01:53:46
Speaker
ah She's going to look to you and and give a little smile. ah Yeah, that'd be alright, actually. Thank you.
01:53:58
Speaker
Thank Fatinas. Yeah, thank Fatinas. that your name? No, no. Garak Bladeheart.
01:54:07
Speaker
ah go I was here on a... I could grab some stuff. and She's going to head off to grab some things. um Thank you for that, Rufa. and You're still in in full form slightly here, so we're going to be one turn behind, unfortunately, but we'll come to you soon. Falco.
Treasure Gathering and Golem Formation
01:54:27
Speaker
Um... Can I check, ko so can we see the other teams from where we are, the are the ones that still are alive? Yeah, all all all in ah like a maybe 50 foot kind of radius around your location. yeah Okay, all right. And there's two, is that right, there's two blue left, two blue halflings?
01:54:44
Speaker
Two blue, three red, one green, one black, who will land at the same time Riffa does next round. Okay, um I wouldn't be able to cast a spell and make a perception check, would I?
01:54:56
Speaker
No. but I'm kind of giving you perception that you you do it and you can you kind of have this item. Cool. Okay. it's running Yeah, I'll make a perception check. I will bonus action, give myself Bardic Inspiration. Because I want to roll high. And this is what he's been waiting for his whole life, is just to have loads of money in front of him. so yeah Totally makes sense.
01:55:23
Speaker
Twelve. Oh, no, sorry, hang on. So I didn't do my body inspiration. ah fourteen 14. You're blessed. You're blessed. And you're blessed. Keeps picking up. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
01:55:38
Speaker
18. 18. We've got that. We'll call you that 20, 19, 18 so far. and You find this a bronze war mask molded to the likeness of this almost kind of roaring beast, an ancient beast again. It doesn't kind of looks part pig, part fish. It's odd. It's just, it's all or nothing all at the same time. um No idea really what it's for, but it looks like it would sell for a decent pop.
01:56:02
Speaker
do i get to pick that up yeah yeah yeah for these for these you've got got those items in your hands yeah and we can go back through rock riffa going to land in this set as well and we'll do another again perception check if you want if there's anything remember gonna have to escape with this stuff as well just bear that in mind as we go um rock do you want to do another perception check or Yeah, is the implication that we have a maximum of three rounds, but if we choose to wait until the third round, like, is it is it like ah you can you can risk it and stay on? Is it like...
01:56:37
Speaker
No, no, no. It's a basically three rounds of why i wouldn't go for sure yeah three rounds and then the ground hardens. That's as much time as you've got. You've got 18, 19, what's like 30 seconds worth of time post yeah surge before it all hardens again. This is time to kind of scrabble around, grab stuff.
01:56:52
Speaker
I guess afterwards you could decide what you keep and what you don't keep. You can always, yeah you know, there's no time left after that. He's going to wrench this pillar from the floor, whack it over one shoulder, scan his eyes around.
01:57:03
Speaker
He rolled a 12 for the second time. Nice. Really close to you, you find this small glinting sapphire. Not really a full sapphire, like one of the big, big ones you've seen in books, but still a decent you know that would sell for quite a decent pop, actually, and which is light as anything. You could just pop that your satchel, not a problem.
01:57:22
Speaker
And he does so. Lovely. ah Garrick.
01:57:28
Speaker
Is there alive who is down near me? Everyone that is down is dead. Like beyond redemption. Beyond saving.
01:57:41
Speaker
And they're all kind of, apart from the guy in red who did splat the surface, and but you know, they're all, there's no one kind of, as in, sorry, I mean, other party members. Just anyone who dived and... ah Like, I didn't know if they were crying out for help or they smashed against the rocks. Obviously, if they're obliterated, but if they're just kind of, like, low-key injured...
01:58:08
Speaker
Not performing CPR on a limbless torso. You can do a perception check if you want. on on So you don't want search for treasure, want to search for people to help. Garak's got his treasure.
01:58:20
Speaker
It's the frenzy made along the way. give me a perception for what you can hear and see around other injuries. Six. It's failing. You get the real sense that everyone's absolutely fine.
01:58:34
Speaker
Everyone, everyone, it was a really good dive. Everyone did really well. oh Excellent work. Like everyone's in really good tick top shake. You know, this is going to be the the rarest dive where everyone comes back.
01:58:46
Speaker
Sorry. No treasure for you. Rufa, you hit the ground. You see your team, um you see the team taking place at this, this and you've as you've descended quite slowly, you've had a chance to scan over. so I'm going to give you this first um first check, this first observation check? Well, forgot, a perception check with advantage because you're slow. You've been able to scan around and almost kind of aim yourself roughly where you want to go based on what you can see. So you can roll this first one with advantage if you want. Great.
01:59:12
Speaker
Thank you. You're very welcome. Make up for being slow forward by Falco.
01:59:19
Speaker
And we need it because that first one was a total of eight. Excellent. ah Low rolls doesn't mean awful. there's There's something for every roll.
01:59:30
Speaker
Or a natural 20. So it's just a Yes. Okay, I'm not going to use that because we've already had a 2A, but we're going this one instead.
01:59:41
Speaker
um You find a rapier. Quite a long rapier here, again glowing faintly in the in the surge aftermath as well.
01:59:53
Speaker
um Apart from that, you don't know anything else about it. Very much easy to pick up, one person job, you've got that item. Great, she just um kind of automatically just attaches it to her belt.
02:00:07
Speaker
um She left her so short sword behind, so it just goes in that slot. this Nice. Perfect, thank you very much. Falco, over to you, my man. I'm going to do some... Let's go straight up for a perception check. Yep, absolutely. Go ahead.
02:00:24
Speaker
Oh, my bliss. Eight. Eight. No problem. What have we got for eight? Oh yeah, please make a note of these because I'm not writing down what you're collecting. So please just make sure you pop them down so I can tell what they are afterwards. Uh, you find this next to the bronze, um, mask, you find this idol, this copper idol that seems to be two people either mid dance or mid fight. You're not really sure which, there's no features on the faces.
02:00:51
Speaker
Um, uh, it's, it's, it's big though. Um, it's a, it's a two person job. Um, there like a river etched into the base of the statue as well, but it's it's it's taller than you and it's quite ah quite a hefty little statue here. and Yeah, manageable if you had some help.
02:01:10
Speaker
So that maybe isn't a... it can't be picked up yet, but you might be able to do something with it in the following round. ah Rock, over to yourself. Last round. Last round, a 16
Combat with Stone-Bound Guardian
02:01:21
Speaker
on the perception.
02:01:23
Speaker
Lovely. I've been very all in order this time. Okay, nice. You find this cloak that seems to have been tied itself around one of the um as jutting out pieces of rock. It looks like like an ancient, not ancient, but like a maybe from the last century or so, travelling cloak, ah but kind of spun with gold, so it kind of does to have this sheen which made it quite noticeable, actually. um Yeah, it does have a couple of frayed edges and a few holes in it, but nothing a good seems person... person?
02:01:55
Speaker
see miss person Seamstress or a seam... Seema. I suppose it's... A seema might be able to fix it.
02:02:03
Speaker
Don't do that to it. Anyway, you got that cloak. Right, ah that's your final round. Garrick... Sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, if I can get that, can I... give the the old rope a double tug and get ready to, with obviously still bonus action dashing, cloak around the waist, thing on the shoulder, getting to the wall, and now trying to work out how the fuck do I climb with this?
02:02:27
Speaker
But he's getting himself there. Yeah, have a think about how going to climb because that's... ah That sounds like a rock problem. All right, Garak, over to yourself. One more round. So Garak's going to fill the need. I need to pray.
02:02:40
Speaker
And he's going to kneel down on the sand, having checked that everyone around him is as alive as can be. ah He's going to take his morning star out and he's going to jut it into the sand and he's going to draw out the triangle and the 20 sided star inside.
02:02:56
Speaker
And then he's going to put his hand down in the middle of the star and we'll do a religion check. to check him with for Tina's and just bless this tidal surge and try and help the tide callers understand when it's coming next that's that's Gary give me a religion check then please Gary let's go
02:03:26
Speaker
ah that's a six
02:03:30
Speaker
It's strangely quiet at this moment in the in the ravine. The voice from Batinus doesn't call to you, doesn't send you to any thoughts. You're just present in your current location, unfortunately. Soz, dude. Rifa, you're down. You've got yourself an item. um You've seen rock start moving over towards the side to start figuring out the best way of climbing, ah but you've got a little bit more time before you get there. Do you want to do another perception check, or is there anything else you want to do?
02:03:56
Speaker
Um... Yeah, she'll do a perception um check, but also at the same time, she'll just have a quick glance at what the other team are doing.
02:04:07
Speaker
Okay. Is the perception check for them or for the treasure? Perception for the treasure, but it's more like just keeping an eye, making sure they're not getting too close. Yeah, i think I got you. I got you. All right. Yeah. Give me a roll for that, please. 24.
02:04:26
Speaker
twenty four okay yep you find a small what looks like gold-plated compass a wavemaster's compass uh you you open it up and it points south um just looking at it and it seems to wiggle slightly south and and that's that's what you find that's what you find for that falco last round I'd like to... I'm going to make a ah perception check of sorts, but I'd like to... He hasn't done for a long time, but I'd like to... This is a little bit cheesy. I'd like to try and sing out into the ravine.
02:05:12
Speaker
oh He's a good singer, but he hasn't done it a while for reasons. But ah I think he's looking for something that might respond to his talents rather than something potentially financially beneficial.
02:05:28
Speaker
um So he'd just like to sing out one long, almost like whale-like note and see if anything responds to it. Okay, so this is it like a performance or is that what you're going for? Yeah, if I can. Yeah, absolutely.
02:05:40
Speaker
And I will ahll give myself Bardic Inspiration because I'm selfish. Oh yeah.
02:05:49
Speaker
Okay, this doesn't start bad. Let's see what happens next.
02:05:56
Speaker
It's getting better.
02:06:00
Speaker
We've got so many buffs. 24. nice. and o nice This note echoes down, you're at the bottom of the round, works perfectly with this.
02:06:13
Speaker
No, echoes, this towards the south or towards the north? where the Where the wave came from, from the north. So from the north, okay. And as you sing out this note that wails and you can hear it echo up the ravine, it's kind of almost quite mournful, almost, I i imagine, in my mind, do correct me if I'm wrong here.
02:06:31
Speaker
ah You notice a few things. Firstly, you notice that the red team have just been stood, they haven't collected anything. They've just been stood looking at the floor, muttering and looking to the north this whole time as the ground continues to shake and rumble at their feet, confused as they kind of look around and start looking to retie ropes and scrabble up away.
02:06:55
Speaker
The blue team, the two halflings have collected meager belongings really and have very quickly wild-formed back out and have started to flutter themselves up. And the only member of the green team just looks forlorn as he sits on his knees and just kind of puts his hand through the sand at the base of the ravine and just kind of looks quite quite pointless now in terms of he's got no real purpose here.
02:07:26
Speaker
as this note rings out, You notice that the red team's confusion wasn't just around this thaumaturgic device that had been used by Rufa.
02:07:38
Speaker
It was that a series of rocks near them had started to crack.
02:07:44
Speaker
Something stirs.
02:07:48
Speaker
from the rock almost it looks like it's in reverse like if a large rock statue fell apart this is it kind of reforming back up again and you notice it's kind of tied by these weavings of blue lights of of arcanic energy as this morphing creature kind of just clicks itself into position and a half formed kind of golem is almost awakened maybe involuntarily by the same time as you Falco singing that one note let's not put the blame totally on you here but it rises from this kind of silk covered relics that engulf the floor below it's it's it's a um uh it's a large creature that sits here now and it's near the red team that's where their main fear comes from
02:08:37
Speaker
As the first thing it does, it slams this long ah arm-like thing against the wall, pinning all the ropes on the south side of the of the west side of the ravine, which is your side, pinning all those ropes to the wall, and its kind of form starts to kind of shift and roll almost forward towards you.
02:08:56
Speaker
This is a stone-bound guardian. We're going to keep our initiative order, if you'd be so kind, but we are now in combat. Its first move at the top of the round, it has a 24, I think it got for it. Yeah, 24 for the initiative is that it's going to swing down. It's got two attacks here. The first one is going to be towards the red team. A member of the red team misses horrifically.
02:09:17
Speaker
The second one is going to throw out an arm in the direction of where you four find yourselves in. It's going to hit the fourth quadrant. One, two, three, four. Riffa, that's coming towards you. Sorry, i had a quick way of organizing that.
02:09:29
Speaker
ah That is a
02:09:33
Speaker
Why can't I see my stats anymore? There they are. 12 against your AC.
02:09:42
Speaker
That... hits. Okay. You're going to take seven points of bludgeoning damage.
02:09:53
Speaker
Rolled quite well. ah That is its turn. You notice the blue team, so this is all kind of happening cinematic at the same time. They are flying up and at the last minute, one of them turns around and starts heading back down. The other one continues to fly off. The red team ah start grabbing spears, sticks, anything they can find, and they are looking aggressive towards it as well.
02:10:14
Speaker
Remember, the green team continues to sit on the floor and wail. ah Rock, top of the round. This creature has appeared in front of you. What do you want to do? Okay, and just first as a mechanical question, because we're jumping back into initiative. There's something that I can do at the start of an initiative which will be helpful for me.
02:10:33
Speaker
um I can use ah an ability called Uncanny Metabolism, which basically lets me, when I roll initiative, um regain hit points and some expended focus points. I don't need any focus points, but I've taken a bit of a beating on the way down.
02:10:47
Speaker
ah So if possible, yeah yeah can I miss that? Absolutely. yeah Amazing. in which case it gives me seven points of healing which took six points of damage so yeah back up to full uh so he'll kind of as that as this thing's uh appearing he's got this this this pillar on his shoulder and he's trying to looking ready to kind of get back up here the first thing he'll probably notice is the the um the rope being pinned to the wall and he'll see that and he'll turn around see this massive thing there and be like crap basically and what he will do is he'll drop the pillar off his shoulder yep everything else that he's kind of got is tied around him and he's going charging in towards this thing okay whatever it is
02:11:34
Speaker
um I have got 45 feet of movement speed. Would that let me close the distance? Absolutely. ye you um mean they're only The red team are about 35 feet away from you anyway, um and this thing is kind of formed between you and them.
02:11:48
Speaker
and Yes, you can absolutely reach with about 20-30 feet twenty thirty feet of movement. Not let's say. Amazing. there yeah Amazing. So mid kind of charge, what he's going to do is he's going to raise up a knee super, super high and just bring it down with like a kick towards one of these things, kind of feet, maybe ankle or foot basically um for an unarmed strike. 22 to hit.
02:12:10
Speaker
Yeah, that hits. Awesome. Max damage, nine points of bludgeoning damage. um for an And I want to use my...
02:12:22
Speaker
giant feature is it you said it was large yeah yeah when i hit a larger smaller creature within sacral i can make it prone Nice, okay, okay. So I'm going to twat it, this is my bonus action, go in, twat it and knock it basically with this almighty kick and and try and drop it to the floor. Okay, nice. A few things happen and sorry yeah few things happens when you do that. um The kind of arm bit that's sticking out and app pinning the ropes falls down to the groundt ah kind of gets retracted and falls down to the ground a little bit. as it I can't really be prone, but the concept is good anyway.
02:12:56
Speaker
and You also notice that the rock at the base of it snaps. um like the the the base part of the rock attaching it almost to the ground, like the base of a tree almost snaps off. That has become brittle, that part of it as well.
02:13:09
Speaker
and Sorry, did you have someone else to do? Yeah, I've got my action, ah which I will, kind of noticing that kind of something happening there, ah he will see that he'll bring like a hand back and just go for a palm strike towards that with another unarmed strike, specifically towards that area that you were mentioning.
02:13:27
Speaker
It's another good roll without my bless. Needed. Is there 22? ah Yep, that hits. Cool. And it's another max damage for nine points. Wow. Nine points of bludgeoning damage. Very good. Very nice. Thank you.
02:13:40
Speaker
And...
02:13:43
Speaker
Do I use a focus point to whack it again? it! You're rolling like a god. It's time. No. I am going to use a focus point to... ah disengage and dodge at the same time so these two attacks have kind of come in whack whack uh he's going to take he's going to move back from it by sort of five ten feet and just hold a position like a martial martial artist if you like ready to parry or dodge or block the the blow that's coming in okay um probably won't even say anything he'll just get in his face ready for that
02:14:23
Speaker
Fair enough. Thank you very much for that great start, Rock. um So many things you can do with a level two monk. credit Crazy. Everyone else is like, I hit and I'm done. You're like, I got a thousand things. Right. Garak, show how it's done.
02:14:35
Speaker
Morningstar, let's do this. ah Where is Falco and where is Rifa compared to Garak? They are both behind you. You are closer to the creature than them.
02:14:47
Speaker
You are stood 15 feet away from it.
02:14:51
Speaker
They are a bit further back. Nice. um So taking the best protection in this case is to kill it.
02:15:01
Speaker
Garrick is going to run forwards following Rock's superb efforts. Swinging his Morningstar. Shield in one hand, Morningstar in the other. Let's smack the bitch up.
02:15:13
Speaker
Let's go. with roll the hat With a 17 to hit as he runs in and jumps into it to hit it in the face. That hits. a garrick special i just remembered with it if it's mechanically prone technically it's with advantage as well not that you necessarily need it but let's go for it you never know yeah no so we're going for the that whatever the role was before because that was a three yeah 17 i think you said seven points of piercing damage uh and it has disadvantage on its next attack roll from my morning star sap
02:15:49
Speaker
Okay, very nice. Before the start of my next turn. Thank you very much for that. Rifa, over to you. This thing is about 25, 27 feet away from you and it's it's stopping you from leaving.
02:16:02
Speaker
What do you to do? Seeing
02:16:10
Speaker
rock hitting that base stone and Rufus going to run forward pulling her Morningstar out and she's going to um kind of whip it around in this big loop and then as it comes around, grasp it with both hands and go straight into that rock.
02:16:36
Speaker
Okay, right. Nice. Thank you very much. Give us a roll.
02:16:40
Speaker
It is...
Golem Defeated and Team Reflections
02:16:47
Speaker
Six. That misses, unfortunately, tripping on this. Advantage because it's prone. Oh, yes, advantage because it's prone. And you got your blessing. That was his blessing. oh Oh, my. Fucking hell.
02:17:00
Speaker
The team does not like you. Valtinus might, though. Valtinus, Vatinus. Oh, Venus. You're going to start up like, it's the god of our Venus. We've got WWE in this. Jesus. That's a 15. That's...
02:17:18
Speaker
ah that meets it beats
02:17:23
Speaker
you go so roll the damage for that um i thought a so i put 15 ac for level two i thought that'd be pretty high but you guys have all perfect hitting so far come on falco i need some um that's full damage 12. fucking hell 12 points of damage how do you want to do this nope nope nope it's got more than that don't you worry there's four of you and i've learned my i'll i've learned my lessons from the one shots right uh falco over to yourself um I will tug on my rope and scream up to the top of the ravine, up, up, pull me up!
02:17:56
Speaker
ah And I will, you will hear a gunshot from behind Garrick as he pulls out his bullwhip. um And just getting close enough to to the creature without getting too too close in its range, i'll um I'll make a whip attack against it.
02:18:12
Speaker
Okay. Whoop-a! Whoop-a!
02:18:21
Speaker
so 13 to to hit without bless that's gonna miss so with bless 16 hit yeah baby thank valtenus thank you so much for tim it takes three points of slashing damage very nice but it is slowed for its next turn i mean yeah next time not to have next turn at this right? Flipping heck. Right, no it does, it has its turn now. um You notice the red team are ineffectually trying to like corral it as it falls over.
02:18:54
Speaker
um It's not going to try and stand itself up because it's just going to reform itself round. couple of things are going to happen. I know disadvantage on its next, is it its next attack or its next turn of attacks? time has disvan its next attack roll yeah so the first one is going to be a sweeping strike any all creatures within 5 feet must make a dex saving throw or take 1d4 bludgeoning damage so could all 4 of you please as this as this kind of jut of rock swings out and whips through you all as all that within that range and could you all make a dexterity saving throw please don't forget your don't forget your bless
02:19:34
Speaker
I didn't bless myself. Oh, you didn't bless yourself. Let's start with it. Garrick, what'd you get? 18. Very good. Rock, what'd you get? 28. Fucking hell. A natural 20 plus three on the bless.
02:19:50
Speaker
Very nice. Rufa, what'd you get? 12. Your take. ah wait, what did I say? Where is it? Where is it? Yep. ah Four points of bludgeoning damage. That's max correct for that. And Falco? 24.
02:20:02
Speaker
ah twenty four Fuck me. Yes, you're very... ah Coming from the ban, he said he's not dexterous. Fucking hell. Very good. and And Riffy, you're knocked prone as well, so you need half your movement to stand up next round as well.
02:20:15
Speaker
The second here, it's going to um use its ah other kind of army bits to slam against the wall again, and it's going to slam and then drag the arm...
02:20:26
Speaker
Wait, that attack wasn't with disadvantage. It wasn't a straight attack. Absolutely, yeah. um So this is going to swing its arm out and then it's going to drag along the ropes here. And this one will be with disadvantage.
02:20:38
Speaker
Oh man, I rolled two nineteen so and well the So how many ropes have got there? One, two, three, four, three of you.
02:20:49
Speaker
Four of you, sorry. Four of you. One, two, one, two, two. Oh, there's only two of them. One, two, three, four, six ropes. Okay.
02:20:58
Speaker
fuck okay and the idea being is this creature is trying to stop you from leaving and manages to all bar the the dude who sat on the floor crying in the green team uh the guy with the black team and all four of your ropes are not only tugged away from you but then also ripped through they fall slack down by your side the scalers will not help you here And finally, it's going to then swing down with its hit towards the nearest person who's done, the Rock, towards Rock, given the the the pummeling of damage you've done to it as well.
02:21:36
Speaker
ah That is going to be a 14 to hit. Yeah, it's with disadvantage anyway, but 14 doesn't hit because I'm dodging with math. yeah so but Yeah, it's going to pass. it's gonna You're going to knock it out by that anyway. Yeah, sorry. Yeah. So it misses that.
02:21:50
Speaker
um You do notice Rock and Garrick and...
02:21:55
Speaker
No, Rock and Riffa would notice this, that the the brittleness, because you're both focusing on that other the base, has started to move up the creature. So it started down low and it started to move up the creature.
02:22:07
Speaker
um As we hit the top of the round again, Rock, your turn. Riffa has is down, the ropes are now ineffectual. What do you want to do? Cool. Okay. I like to imagine, just because he's a monk and it sounds cool, that he would have backflipped over the sweep attack and then kind of ducked low under the next one and ah wrong bring himself back in within five feet of this bad boy. And once again, ah bonus action first.
02:22:34
Speaker
Going to go for another unarmed attack. It's no longer prone. 18 plus bless to hit. Yeah, that hits. Yeah. uh it's a seven points of bludgeoning damage as the first strike comes in um and this like heat that that's not going to be focused specifically on the brittle area um but his next attack very much will be um
02:23:03
Speaker
I'm just trying to look at my feature, my tavern brawler feature. It doesn't... I don't think it one says anything about size of a creature. a Which is weird, because you'd think, how can you push something that is absolutely massive?
02:23:20
Speaker
So I'll double check that another time. yeah But... No, it literally doesn't say anything about size. that's all and I'll go for my action ah to to do a similar thing. Go for another 23 plus bless to hit, as this one is going to be specifically into the brittle area ah for five points of bludgeoning.
02:23:43
Speaker
Nice. Again, you slam your fist into this, ah causing pieces of the rock it to kind of burst off away from the creature as you kind of continue to just damage its core. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Garak, over to you.
02:23:56
Speaker
So Garak would have heard Reefer cry out as she got hit and made prone. So is she within 30 feet of me? Yeah, absolutely. She's about 10 feet to your left.
02:24:09
Speaker
So Garak will just kind of... um ah walk over to the left shield out and will kneel down trying to protect with the shield and then with his other hand just kind of tap you for cure wounds on you very nice very nice nice thank you ah seven nine points of healing very nice And then we'll um just ready stance again, shield Morningstar out, but and like five foot in front of Rifa to try and aid in being a wall of metal.
02:24:45
Speaker
Pure metaltle very pure head every thought t metal. thoughting Brilliant. Rifa, you feel a bit more alive, a bit more yourself, a bit more Rifa. You're prone, so half your movement to stand up if you wish, and then the turn is yours.
02:25:01
Speaker
Yes, so um she's going to stand up and um as a bonus action she'll use second win to gain 1d10 plus 2 hit points.
02:25:14
Speaker
Very good. Very nice little bonus. Which adds 4 to that. Are you back at full health then? No. Oh shit.
02:25:26
Speaker
Yikes. And then
02:25:32
Speaker
with the morning star she's going to have i'm close enough to hit yeah yeah yeah you're right up yeah i think yeah all right she's gonna actually kind of steps through she'll put her hand on garic's shoulder so that he knows she's coming through and she kind of um whips the morning star around again um kind of in like a whirlwind motion and kind of spins with it to gain momentum to hit straight into that middle of that brittle section yep no problem roll to hit see
02:26:18
Speaker
if i can kill myself uh unnatural 20.
02:26:26
Speaker
yeah level two's rolling like this for the fuck yep um and it will have disadvantage on its next go because used the morning star yeah uh it doesn't have a next go because as you slam into this creature ah you see a large crack b split this in half and for a split second you think You think there's something within this golem creature that started to form early doors out of the the base of this ravine.
02:27:00
Speaker
But in fact, it's just more of this surge infused light or water that was holding this form together. um There's a moment where it cracks in, it it lays dormant and still from in it as this this continued brittleness continues to move up its body. You now start to link it that everything that's brittle also doesn't have any of that light quality as the arcanic energy leaves it it becomes rock again.
02:27:24
Speaker
And as it is only about maybe a five foot kind of amount of stoneness left, ah this energy is almost like bottled up at the very last and it just, it fires off and it's this cracking core effect.
02:27:36
Speaker
And could I make, could I ask that everyone, basically it's almost like the equivalent of a shatter spell going off around you. Maybe not quite as strong though as that. ah Could you all make a dexterity saving throw, please?
02:27:51
Speaker
Yeah. ten
02:27:54
Speaker
Okay. Thanks, Riffa. 11. 11. eleven Thanks, Garrick. Do we get blessed on that? Yeah. It's 25.
02:28:06
Speaker
25. Very nice, Rock. I got right up in his face ah and kind of dropped kick to the brittle part. I got a natural one. Oh,
02:28:18
Speaker
Mr. Dextra's boy, Dextra's this bitch. Okay, um, Rock. ah Don't enjoy it that much. You've been rolling like Nihil 30s at level fucking two.
02:28:30
Speaker
ah Garrick, Rock, and Riffer, you each take seven points of and ah thunder damage as this just hurtling force of energy and arcanic power just hate hits you.
02:28:44
Speaker
And as you stumble back, The creature sets as hard as stone, what remains of it. The ground around you recedes, dragging all remaining items back below. And there's a stillness.
02:28:59
Speaker
That's the first time you hear and you remember what's above you. You hear a cheer far above you from the crowds above. You hear a slight sigh of relief from the remaining red team and the one blue team member that had returned back down to fight this creature with you. The member of the green party continues to weep for his fallen comrades.
02:29:26
Speaker
The others are already looking for handholds or routes to climb but many of them are holding the ends of their ropes and and throwing their hands up, unsure about what to do next. And for the first time you properly take in your surroundings.
02:29:38
Speaker
you see a strange landscape before you. Long, jutting teeth like rocks, straight man-made towers jutting from the ravine floor. The ravine walls themselves are etched and broken with the constant attack of the wave.
02:29:52
Speaker
Long cracks like the marks of a rock being kind of dragged down with incredible force scar the sides. It's a jagged and unforgiving landscape, now fed by the bodies of those fallen in the most recent surge dive.
02:30:08
Speaker
There's a moment of, there's no skill, there's no nothing here. it's just a moment of you. What do you want to do?
02:30:16
Speaker
You didn't mention, i don't think, any damage towards rock then. I'm assuming it's double what they got. Sorry, did not say you? I don't think so. You said seven to them. um does Does that mean 14 to... Yeah.
02:30:29
Speaker
Sorry. Yeah, totally. I thought I'd say a little bit. No, I was like, oh, fuck, do you see the lifeless corpse of Rock? What the fuck? No, sorry. i In my head, I think i said I'd said it in my head and not out my mouth, which is really useful for a podcast or just you know general communication. So apologies. Yeah, ah with a natural one, yeah, we'll double that to 14. But yeah, I did say Garrick and Rifa, though. Falco was doing one the only one that passed. He did,
02:30:51
Speaker
okay yeah so we're out of initiative we're out anything there's no immediate threats around you but you're at the base of this ravine and thinking recollecting what do you want what do you want to do
02:31:05
Speaker
i mean rock will stand up blood kind of spitting out of his massive toothy grin as he's looking at the rest of the group kind of heaving that was awesome he's just kind of like panting quite heavily is is that it is it over i
02:31:30
Speaker
i don't know i've not done one of those before But I found some quite cool things. um Looking over where Rock was, where he had that pillar and kind of set it down again, has that fallen back into the ground? No.
02:31:50
Speaker
No, it's kind of connected somehow. It's connection to the the ravine floor had been severed and therefore ah it sat it sat kind of on top. It might take you a hoof to get it off out of the ground, but yeah it's like if yeah like there's a little bit of almost ah like a little bit of concrete just set around it, you can you can wiggle that and snap it out, and no problem.
02:32:08
Speaker
Cool. Well, that's what Rock's going to do. He's going to kind of limp over to it and try and yank it out the floor and put it back over his shoulder. And he's just like a kid in a candy store, just with a glowing sapphire with cool cloak kind of tucked into his belt at the side and with a massive pillar on his shoulder.
02:32:26
Speaker
ah Like I said, still just kind of blood trickling down his face. um He's going to bring himself back to the group with that. nice and What are the other teams doing?
02:32:39
Speaker
like yeah The red team look to... Sorry to interrupt. The red red team are looking for handholds. They're just communicating. They're doing the same kind of thing as you. Kind of just regrouping quite a bit away from you.
02:32:51
Speaker
ah the the The halfling that wild-shaped down to aid you has has taken off again and has moved away. ah the Remember the green team is just still there sobbing. and The...
02:33:03
Speaker
black team member who now finally kind of touches down very late on what after watching this take place he's just kind of looking around really confused and bit forlorn given that he's he's missed he's missed it and kind of just throwing his hands up and looking towards again a way out basically yeah okay i just wanted to make sure that there was no one kind of eyeing up what we'd or we'd picked up but if they're all kind of... Okay, give me a perception check, all the same. if you roll well, maybe you'll see more than... 16.
02:33:44
Speaker
sixteen Okay, but it's slightly better than your passive. Yeah, and you do see the red team as they do discuss. One or two of them kind of look over their shoulder towards where you are.
02:33:58
Speaker
Whether that is implicit about them wanting to steal from you or not, you might read into it differently, but they are looking in your direction. It might also be the fact that you survived, but you know you know who who knows? Yeah, okay, she's just going to kind of keep an eye on them um in case they decide to kind of come towards us. Okay. Anything from Falco or Garrick, are we just gathering our stuff?
02:34:29
Speaker
um I would like it dumbfounded. very shell-shocked. I'd walk out to... so the the The floor of the ravine is now solid and safe.
02:34:45
Speaker
I'd walk out on there and I would take my little silver horn and blow it as hard as I could, just hoping for a massive echo um and like as like a sign of victory.
02:35:02
Speaker
Very good. And probably the annoyance to some people. Yeah, and it does. You get this incredible echo up through the ravine, and as it kind of cascades up towards the top, you do hear a cheer echo back down from from those above.
02:35:16
Speaker
They might not know who it's from, but a horn's a horn, and it sounds it sounds you know like victory to them. I'll turn to Garak and say, Garak, you hear that?
02:35:27
Speaker
You hear them cheering? Yes. Yes. I'm not surprised. That was, uh... Something.
02:35:41
Speaker
But, uh... How does it make you feel hearing and that that's for you?
02:35:47
Speaker
For... The title? so I did not think it's for me. Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah, they they they saw what you or what we did, but also what you did.
02:36:02
Speaker
And they're applauding you for it. i mean, how does that make you feel? i And Garak's going to hold up a his Morningstar and look up.
02:36:15
Speaker
They're too far away to see it, and but the roar, the kind of the cheer continues from from way above. um whether or not you perceive that to be for you or not, you know, that's that's for you just to make that decision.
02:36:29
Speaker
It feels fucking great.
02:36:34
Speaker
Yeah, well, there's more where that came from, buddy.
02:36:39
Speaker
click that umm And with that, you're kind of looking around and um taking in this event you' just you've just kind of survived through and completed and and managed to come out the other side.
02:36:52
Speaker
ah you know You look up towards the sky and yeah you see the crows cawing loudly in circles, almost waiting for you ought to leave so they can pick at the corpses. um But aside from that rather morbid reminder of those that you lost, it's been...
02:37:08
Speaker
Well, nor quite ah quite a successful day for the party. and Then the the crows dart south. All of them. And then below Garruk you look down and the strike the symbol of Vatinus you've etched into the ground which had become solid.
02:37:27
Speaker
starts to blur again. Oh. Shifting slowly like sand, yet seconds earlier had hardened not to relinquish its grasp until the next tidal surge. In a week's time.
02:37:40
Speaker
In a week.
Unexpected Second Tidal Surge
02:37:42
Speaker
A deep, ominous rumble reverberates through the ravine. You see a change in the other divers. A confusion. Looks of shared uncertainty and horror. Yes.
02:37:56
Speaker
Definitely horror, wide-eyed, slack-jawed, some shake their heads, drop down to the prey to the north where the tidal surge came and went, has been has gone. Yes, gone.
02:38:11
Speaker
wasn't due for another seven days.
02:38:15
Speaker
Something unprecedented is happening.
02:38:18
Speaker
A second tidal surge.
02:38:22
Speaker
The ground vibrates. The water that had started to return recedes yet again. You feel the floor buzz with arcanic energy. ah You feel power rush through your body, up your arms and tingle around your eyes.
02:38:36
Speaker
You are temporarily surge-infused. You have advantage on perception checks and you have an additional 10 feet of movement.
02:38:46
Speaker
But unless you change the course of your actions soon if the water hits you and i will go back over this close to the time if the water hits you directly there is no saving throw there is no riff riverfi that this is total inescapable death your ropes are cut you are in the ravine there is a second tidal surge approaching as the first tremors shake the ruins we're going to run three mini
02:39:22
Speaker
kind of preparation, and then the wave will hit. Ish. No. Okay. I'm changing it slightly. We'll do one. Okay. As the first tremors shake the ruins, the sand and stone beneath your feet begin to collapse. The riverbed is cracking open, creating deep pits of shifting silt. Water's beginning to bubble up almost from below the ground, bringing up these treasured items again.
02:39:46
Speaker
You have only seconds to react before you can sink or lose your footing. For this, and rolling into the final section, I'm going to need a new initiative order to consult. All four of you, please roll initiative. Did I get you with my nice little comedians thinking everything's going to end mostly?
02:40:00
Speaker
Yep. You did. I thought it the end of the episode. Thought that was it. We've got our riches. Jobs are good. Suck a dick. We're going back. Bless is gone, by the way. All Did anyone get higher than 20? Good. Did anyone get 15 to 20? 17. 17. Garrick.
02:40:13
Speaker
Valtinas is definitely with you today. 10 to 15? seventeen seventeen garrick v valtinz is definitely with you today ah ten to fifteen
02:40:26
Speaker
Oh shit, guys! 5 to 10? Doesn't really matter, just in order. 5 to 10? 5 from rock. 8 for Falco.
02:40:36
Speaker
And then it's going to be... riff again, it doesn't really matter. It's just to order you really, because there's no direct combat in this situation, because it's the fight for your life that matters more than anything. So we've got collapsing ground, sections of the floor are giving way, opening up sinkholes, deep pits. The floor's becoming treacherous. The water's kind of surging up from below. It's only an ankle level.
02:40:56
Speaker
Nothing really to worry about here. But the main problem here is to get your footing, to to regain your footing and not fall in anywhere. I'm thinking... jumping across gaps all the skill challenges are reset jumping across gaps predict what's going to be safe using magic to stabilize your footing something along those lines to just to stabilize yourself at the moment you're not necessarily running you're just maintaining at the moment okay so uh garrick starting with yourself what would you like to do to stop yourself from being kind of sucked in or dragged into these uh into these pits that are opening up
02:41:32
Speaker
Take time. You've got your time, buddy. It's all good.
02:41:37
Speaker
Garrick is...
Panic and Escape Strategies
02:41:38
Speaker
ah At the end of that, I was close to Falco as he was blowing his horn, right?
02:41:52
Speaker
Ah...
02:41:57
Speaker
Get on my shoulders. And Garryk's going to hold a hand out to Falco and ah
02:42:07
Speaker
he's going to... He's going to hold the right hand out to Falco. At the same time, he's going to sheave his shield. So he's defenseless there. I need to drop that for my armor.
02:42:20
Speaker
um And he's going to, with but his Morningstar... hit the ground as hard as possible to get it embedded in. And that's how we end Garic's turn there. So he's got his left hand gripped on the Morningstar, which is embedded into the ground. and He's braced himself at the knees and he said to Falco, get on my shoulders. And at that, he's he's reached his right hand out. Let's treat that as an athletics check, if that's okay.
02:42:47
Speaker
Just so I've got to check because it's very physical. 12. Thank you.
02:42:58
Speaker
um You manage to just about hold yourself in position there, holding yourself and and positioning yourself in such a way that Falco can climb on your back. It's up to Falco whether or not he does or not in his turn, which is now. Falco, you see Garak strike a pose, strike a stance.
02:43:11
Speaker
Strike a pose. He's holding, almost sinking the Morningstar into the ground, has tethered him, anchored him down to the ground slide. So as the ground starts to shift and mold and these gaps open up around him, he's got a strong vantage point. It's just cool for you to go onto his shoulders. What would you like do?
02:43:27
Speaker
So is Garak's physicality that like he's bracing himself against the wave, or he's just he's trying to steady himself against the shifting ground? Give me a perception check.
02:43:40
Speaker
but You're going to need a 26 to figure that because even I don't fucking know. Yeah, that's an 11. Yeah, no idea. No idea. Unsure? Okay. ah the the The ropes that are ropes that were cut, ah the how high...
02:43:55
Speaker
roughly are they cut? They're cut at about the 15 foot mark. Still hanging down. Then I will climb onto Garak's shoulders and using my whip, I'd like, can I try and whip the bottom of one of the ropes?
02:44:12
Speaker
Oh yeah, we can try, absolutely. So, uh, well, we're going to hit it, aren't you? That's the way you, yeah, roll to hit a rope.
02:44:27
Speaker
uh whip it's a nat 20. fuck me oh shit okay you managed to hit it and now's the time and the rope and the end of it does coil around now it's not going to hold forever because it naturally will uncoil but you'll have a certain amount of time with it kind of connected if that makes sense okay and i'll put tension on that just take a photo um i i'll um i'll put tension on that and
02:44:57
Speaker
ah I suppose suppose I'll start climbing. i Just for the skill challenge, I think I'll just have that. Oh, sorry, the skill challenge. Apologies for that. yeah but but Yeah, absolutely. That's great. Ruck, over to you. Bloodied, battered, bruised.
02:45:13
Speaker
Yes. but this is feeling on my shoulder yeah and But this feeling of speed and arcanic energy kind of course up from your feet up into your body, almost giving you like a second, not a second wind, but the feeling of a second wind for our people. I am speed. It's purely about me trying to find my footing.
02:45:33
Speaker
um then ah it's got to be perception, I guess. It's got to be making sure I can find somewhere where I'm going to be able to make purchase. He knows that he's going to have to get out of here swiftly. He's feeling swift.
02:45:48
Speaker
um Full Tay-Tay. So, perception check. can't believe I said that one. ah It's a 12 on the perception. fuck me Yep. ah yep you get that um you just managed to notice these sinkholes appear and you have to drag your feet back at the last minute to make sure that you avoid those sections uh rifa finally down to you um ah she is um
02:46:20
Speaker
going to have a look at the ground where all these kind of cracks are forming um see if there's kind of a pattern that she can see in them to kind of get herself in the center of one of these
02:46:39
Speaker
ah bases that are being created a perception is that what you're going yeah yeah 15.
02:46:50
Speaker
fifteen Very nice. Yeah, absolutely. You can find these more stable sections that keep your footing. and No one's being dragged in at this moment, at least anyway. ah Falco, you've got yourself kind of tethered up to the rope above you and on Garak's back. Garak's got himself braced.
02:47:05
Speaker
rock and riffer you're watching a footing in order to avoid that but you're not alone down here you're not the only ones in this death trap other divers desperate ruthless and pushing and scrambling to escape some are so terrified that they don't care who they trample on the way the red team uh is just running towards in your direction and you can just see they're running past and through you the second part of this um primary part of the skill challenge is avoiding them hitting you basically. The the goal is to not get hit. They're going to run, they're running away, they're running south past you to try and run away from the wave. It won't work, but they're trying anyway. Terror has taken them and they're running past and through you.
02:47:43
Speaker
ah So for this skill challenge, we're looking at things that might help you dodge them, weave them, shove them back, hit them um to stop them from kind of running through you and and knocking you maybe backwards and turn into these sinkholes that are forming behind you. Garret, you've got your Morningstar down, you've got Falco on your back, and this guy from the red team is just barreling down towards you, just running to wait running directly towards you, fear, panic, terror in his eyes. He's going to try and run through you.
02:48:19
Speaker
oh Sorry, I'm just trying to imagine the situation without unsettling in the rope. Garak will step forwards and dodge.
02:48:34
Speaker
Okay. Do you want to do... What kind of check do and do you want to do for that? Aquatics? No, I've done athletics. Yeah, could be aquatics. I have to be, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah Okay, go for that.
02:48:49
Speaker
ah So unfortunately, um in in that situation, Gag would have to let go of the Morningstar and walk forwards. He got a 10. Okay, it's it's unsuccessful.
02:49:04
Speaker
Yeah. um You're going to be knocked prone for the next section. So it's going to take you... It means that your skill for the next the first skill you do next or thing you do next will be at disadvantage.
02:49:16
Speaker
Okay. So whatever it is next, disadvantage. Okay. and Falco, you've been dragged away from your current place um with your hands still attached this rope by him. And then he falls prone.
02:49:31
Speaker
and You can either let go of the whip or hold onto the whip and before your skill challenge, what which of those do you want to do? Because you're going to kind of swing. I'll hold on and swing sure. Hold on and swing. Okay. Could you give me a dexterity saving throw, please, to make sure there's nothing on the wall that you slam into and impale yourself on? 21.
02:49:50
Speaker
twenty one ah Okay. Oh, my God. Yes. The dex. Very good. dexter Dexterously get yourself in between there. Right. and Your skill. You're now hanging, holding onto this thing um about five or six feet above the ravine floor now.
02:50:02
Speaker
um Garak's just been knock prone. um They're all running away. You're hanging onto this thing for dear life. What do you want to do? So what I'd like to do is i will, if you'll let me, start climbing a bit on the whip.
02:50:17
Speaker
Yeah, this a skill challenge. Do you want to use athletics or some kind of physicality to pull yourself up? Yeah, I was going to use a skill challenge to, high am I?
02:50:29
Speaker
I'm about five foot off the ground swinging and yeah on the whip. as As they're running towards me, then what I'll do is my skill challenge to try and make them not hit me. and ah Actually, that's going to make them run the other way.
02:50:41
Speaker
I guess that's what Falco would do. Fucking idiot. So he will, as he's swinging on the on the whip with his feet dangling five foot off the ground, um he'll say, no, don't run this way. The wave's coming back.
02:50:57
Speaker
And I'd like to make a deception or a performance check, depending on what you're doing. Go with go deception. Go with deception. Eight.
02:51:10
Speaker
They don't even listen. they They just continue to run straight past you. um And the you feel the the top end of the whip just uncoil one one coil round, pretty much, and for that as well. Okay.
02:51:26
Speaker
And... Wait, fuck it. Rifa. No, Rifa, sorry. Rok, apologies. Apologies. Cool. So Rok's pretty confident that he's not going to be getting this pillar out of here.
02:51:39
Speaker
So what he's going to do is he's going to upend it vertically near the wall, run to the wall, kind of full, timber toss it to the floor, jump up onto the top of that and leap himself up and try and do mini wall run to jump off and grab the rope ah Basically I'm um making a flouncy attempt at trying to get away with an acrobatics check. okay yeah got Hopefully getting the end of the rope.
02:52:04
Speaker
Let's acrobatics down here. Awesome. twenty four 24. Yep. I was going to say that hits. Yeah, you managed to do that and grab grab hold of this um of this rope. um And you're now kind of above that, avoiding the the slam of the red individuals below who aren't running at you, just running away.
02:52:20
Speaker
And Riffa, finally down to you. um You see two of your compatriots going for the ropes above you, but this person is barrelling down towards you. What check want to your strength to put your shoulder down and buff them out of you um She's going to start start um spinning the Morning Star really fast and kind of create a wall so almost ah wall. I don't think he's going to run into that.
02:52:48
Speaker
I assume he will avoid it. Okay, intimidation, yeah. Can you roll intimidation, please? I like that thing. like that one.
02:52:58
Speaker
It's good. 13. 13 meets. It beats. Okay, just about. You managed to pass that one. ah does He does the last minute kind of sidestep round to the side and continues to run down.
02:53:12
Speaker
The world calms, almost mute. The wave rounds the corner of the ravine. It rises high into the sky.
Facing the Massive Wave
02:53:25
Speaker
Insurmountable, surely.
02:53:29
Speaker
Once I say begin, we're gonna stick to our current initiative order. And to escape the second wave, we're gonna run a slightly different final skill challenge.
02:53:40
Speaker
This is 100% on you guys, not on me. If you're caught in this wave, as I've said, in any obvious way, you die. There's no ifs, no buts, no C-strike guts. you have seven You're going to have seven podcast minutes to try and gain as many passes as you can.
02:53:56
Speaker
Those are in any skill you want, ah but you cannot reuse a skill. So you can reuse anything you've currently used but up to this point. You can use any items you've got. It's literally do or die. Know that the DC will rise with the timer.
02:54:10
Speaker
The closer you get to the final seventh minute, the harder it becomes. You need to gather a number of passes against a number of failures. Either way, if the timer runs out, that's no problem, but seven minutes is all you're going to get.
02:54:27
Speaker
It's going mimic the impending wave and the terror. You need commit a certain number of passes before you accumulate a certain number of failures or before the timer runs out. But if the timer runs out, it's not the end the world. ah If you reach any of those thresholds, the timer will stop, though.
02:54:40
Speaker
so if you run out of time, the timer will stop. If you reach the number of passes, the timer will stop. If reach number of failures, the timer will stop. The more you panic and flap around, the harder it becomes to focus and get shit done.
02:54:52
Speaker
There will be degrees of overall failure, depending on how the group performs and how individuals perform.
02:55:00
Speaker
By Vatinus, Salido and Akiva himself, I recommend having all your roles hovering ready to drop once you've explained your choices and once I've okayed them. So in a nutshell, this is what we've just done, but on heroin, let's just say.
02:55:15
Speaker
And it's it's rapid. Here we're thinking, ah the ropes still an option? Can we get everyone out? This is a 150 foot wave and you're 15 feet off the ground at the moment.
02:55:29
Speaker
Are there other options? Are there other ways, other things you might think about? Ways to get around this, things to have a go at, okay? So just to clarify again, seven podcast minutes, when I say go, that's where it'll start.
02:55:43
Speaker
We'll start with Garrick, then Falco, then Rock, then Riffer. That's the order we'll go, the same initiative we've had prior to that. Think outside the box. Think of other ways you might be able to survive this if the ropes are not an option for you.
02:55:58
Speaker
The DC will get harder every two minutes that pass, the DC goes up and up and up and up until the final minute, the seventh minute.
02:56:09
Speaker
haven't got any questions. Yeah. How tall is the wave again? 150. Yeah. It's as high as you were when you were on the ravine. You saw it about 20 feet away when you were at the very top.
02:56:24
Speaker
Okay.
02:56:28
Speaker
Think about your geography. Think about your surroundings. um Where I can, I'll hold the timer, but I'm not sure how clear that really is on on your screen for yourselves, but I'll show you when we drop two minutes, okay?
02:56:38
Speaker
I don't know how long I'll actually stay here. Well, I mean, also, there's a timer at the top. Oh, yeah. Okay, okay, good point. So let's go, when it reaches the next minute mark, we'll go off that, which is the set for our recording timer. That's the seven. That's where we're going to go off, starting with Garrick. Number of passes, number of failures.
02:56:56
Speaker
We'll take the seven minutes. five seconds ago what's the order uh it goes garrick falco rock riffer here we go three two one go is there a rope uh nearest to me yes there is it's about 10 feet away from you okay i want to position myself underneath that grab my shield hold my shield out hold an action of a shove strength check as i call out to reefer jump on my shield Okay, thank you very much.
02:57:24
Speaker
That's neither there. um That goes to Falco. Athletics to climb the whip. Yep, go for it. 20. Yep, thank you very much. um Rock. Okay, I'm dropping the grappling hook from my ah pack, so it's dangling down. I still want it attached from me. Athletics check, start climbing the rope.
02:57:41
Speaker
Bonus action dashing. Action dashing ah gives me 165 feet of movement speed if needs be. Grappling with a blow. Athletics check, 17.
02:57:52
Speaker
Yeah, passes. Thank you very much. going to tweet that as double pass. and Thank you very much for that. Rock. Yeah, as that was it that was you. Riffo. and Running and and and she's going to jump off the shield. Athletics check and grab the closest rope.
02:58:09
Speaker
Yep, you can go for that. and As she runs towards Garrick, she's going to pull out the iron spike. So she wants to grab the rope with one hand and the iron spike slam it into the wall with the other one. 15. 15.
02:58:19
Speaker
ah fifteen Yep, thank you very much. um DC's gone up. No, no, wait we'll go up in a minute. i mean i Sorry, top of the line. Garrick. Garrick's just going to start climbing the wall.
02:58:33
Speaker
Okay, what check are you doing for that? ah Strength to find a ah perception to find footholds. Okay, thank you. Go ahead. That is a 19. Yep, thank you very much. ah Falco. Falco.
02:58:48
Speaker
Same thing again, still climbing, athletics. Okay. I mean, you already used athletics. Oh, do I need to change it? Acrobatics? can't use them twice, can't use them twice. DC's gone up. Acrobatics, 17. Acrobatics, yeah, no problem. Thank you very much.
02:58:59
Speaker
ah Rock. Okay, using acrobatics whilst climbing, ah i get advantage with the hand chalk thing just to avoid footholds and footfalls and things like that, and but I only rolled a 7, even with advantage.
02:59:14
Speaker
Thank you very much. Riffa. um using her stealth to stealthily get herself up the rope. um As she does it, she is going to ah ah Basically, as she gets farther, she's goingnna she got ten spikes. She wants to put them in the wall so that Garak can use them as an extra handhold as she goes up.
02:59:35
Speaker
so because he's climbing right now rather than using the rope yeah you could do one or the other you could do the stealth check or you can do the aid because i treat it as an aid the aid would not give you a pass or a fail the stealth would give you a pass or a fail but the aid could benefit Garrick but not yourself if that makes sense yeah I'll leave the spike in Spikes are in. Okay, that doesn't make doesn't change the order, but gives Garrick advantage on your next choice when it comes to you, which it does now.
02:59:59
Speaker
You've got advantage on whatever you do next. Acrobatics to reach the hold, the spikes, which is a nine. Okay, thank you very much. and Falco.
03:00:10
Speaker
I will shout out everyone as we're climbing up. Come on, guys, I'm way too young and good looking to die here, and I'll make a persuasion check if that's okay. Absolutely, yep, go for it, yep.
03:00:21
Speaker
16 and then with that I'll give Garak Bardic Inspiration so he gets a 1d6 on a roll. Thank you very much for that. Rock? Okay, Rock's probably still leading the way, trying to make his way up. Perception check, natural 20 for 24.
03:00:32
Speaker
ah Trying to find the best route up. Dash, bonus action dash, gunning it. Okay, thank you very much for that. Rufa? Using survival, she's going to find footholds within the wall to get better grip on her feet as she uses the rope on her hands.
03:00:47
Speaker
Okay, roll to hit. i'm Not roll to hit, roll. 16. thank you very much we have just popped up to the next dc back to garrick you've got all kinds of buffs on you at the moment he's using slight hand to get rid of his armor and chopping it so he can move faster okay uh yeah yeah slight of flipping out uh i need that six i need that six i need that six
03:01:13
Speaker
all right it's 11. in total thank you very much um gary falco your time um i'll copy exactly gary's doing i will start just stripping off on my clothes uh sleight hand yep thank you very much rock I want to use the Tidecaller's Thread to launch it above me and make it hard woof and use that as like a climbing aid if possible but I've already used skills specifically related to that so can I use sleight of hand technically for it?
03:01:47
Speaker
Yep. Get out my pack throw it 19 let's go. Let's go baby. ah Thank you very much. The water's getting closer and closer as you continue to climb higher and higher and higher. Riffa. um As she is moving up she closes her eyes and tries to find a connection with the Surge so she can see feel how much time she's got. So, Arcana? Yeah, i'll give you that.
03:02:10
Speaker
Thirteen. Thank you. Garrick? I'm pray to Fatinas that we all make it through. but enough gu yeah to ah Seven. Thank you very much. Falco? I'll say, come on guys, we're nearly there. Even though we're probably quite far away with deception.
03:02:30
Speaker
Okay. ah Twelve. Thank you very much. ah Rock? Without looking over my shoulder, see if they're doing well behind me. Insight check into Falco's voice. seven Thank you very much.
03:02:44
Speaker
Oh, God. Rufa? Looking at how the ravine starts to slope outwards ah so we get a bit more better footholds with nature.
03:02:55
Speaker
ah Yeah, okay. So the natural formations of rocks. give you that.
03:03:00
Speaker
Four. Thank you very much. Last minute. Ian. Not Ian. Garak. Jesus. ah Survival check to hold on and keep going even though the pain is making me wince.
03:03:13
Speaker
And that's a fucking nine. Garak's fucked. Thank you, fucked. Falco? I'll turn to Garak as we're climbing. I'll say, don't you fucking give up on me. Intimidation.
03:03:24
Speaker
Okay, yeah. Fifteen. Thank you very much. ah Rock? Seeing how close the title surge is. Natural one. Survival. Let's go. Yeah, baby. Riffa. and Just saying to them all, we've got this, guys. We've got this.
03:03:40
Speaker
Persuasion. Okay.
03:03:44
Speaker
Natural 20. Thank you very much. Garrick, he's going to do a history check to see if the army training taught him how to climb. 11. 7 minutes is up.
03:03:58
Speaker
but keep so minutes is um
03:04:03
Speaker
And we're all dead. think we're doing right. I think we're doing okay. Let's see. Oh, no. So.
03:04:14
Speaker
I'm afraid we're going have to wait until next time to find out if we can't stop. No! No! And that's a wrap on this episode of Wild Heart.
03:04:29
Speaker
But the adventure doesn't stop here. Dive deeper into the world of Wild Heart over at fellowshipofthetabletop.co.uk.
03:04:41
Speaker
There, you'll find expanded lore, detailed maps of Erith, and a brand new blog covering both Wild Heart and Bellum Draconis.
03:04:54
Speaker
Got theories, questions, well, predictions? We'd love to hear them. Drop us a message on fellowshipofthetabletop at gmail.com. Chuck a theory on our the blog or join the conversation on our socials.
03:05:08
Speaker
Your input might just shape what happens next. And if you're craving even more stories from Wild Heart, don't forget to check out The Interregnums, our short fiction podcast bringing the hidden corners of the world to life.
03:05:21
Speaker
This drops every other Tuesday. Until next time, subscribe to keep up to date, stay curious, and as always, watch the time.
03:05:44
Speaker
In wild heartland where legends grow Tidal surges rise and flow Golden treasures deep below Time to get moist, here we go