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C2 Ep. 153 Mirrored Past Chapter Five
856 Plays1 year ago
Don't fall in the vortex....it's nasty.
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Darrin Katzska, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrell DeLaney, Charles Compton, Deviouspoptart, Nastasia Raulerson, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Rebekah Gowman, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, Jerry Theuns, Mark Stanley, and Shelby Johnson.
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Transcript
Welcome and Introductions
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by Darren Kaczka, Deavius Poptart, Elizabeth Clark, Irene Villarito, Laura Pickron, Nathan Stuller, Charles Compton, Natasha Rallerson, David Scrams, Edvarth Arnoff, Jerry Thunes, Mark Stanley, Rebecca Gellman, and Shelby Johnson, as well as all of the fans. D20 Radio, your game is roll.
00:00:33
Speaker
you
Campaign Setup and Objectives
00:01:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to our new Natural Play podcast set in the over-end campaign setting. I'm your game master, Eric. I am Philip. I'm Trevor. I'm Randy. Still Jeff. Welcome to another episode. Gentlemen, what happened last time? We tracked this mysterious warlord to his lair. Yep. And what a lair it be. Yeah, it's, dude, he's belonged. Yeah, it's way underground and it's like a big
00:01:27
Speaker
cavernous chamber. Oh, you're talking about that part. Yeah. Where are we into this? It's a purple vortex that he has control that has intermittently flickering bridges that bounce around between platforms. And did I get the sense that he was putting on a show for me as I dropped down there of power?
Into the Warlord's Lair
00:01:48
Speaker
Or is he in the middle of something else?
00:01:52
Speaker
You all made a pretty big effort to try to not be detected, so I don't want to take that. You did trigger a trap as soon as you hopped down. I triggered a trap, Milo triggered a trap, we triggered blood hunters, blood suckers, shadow hunters. He's not entire, like this magic is fueling his forge. He's not entirely controlled the rotating platforms. He's got a source of power that he is using for his forge. Correct. Yeah. But yeah, you...
00:02:16
Speaker
We triggered his ACME tracks. We've established that Hobb does not do arcane stuff. So Hobb doesn't have a sense of anything when it comes to this vortex. Sure. So, but once the others get a look at it, they might get a sense for the nature of this vortex. But I need initiative from everyone. Whatever you're rolling, sir. Vigilance. Oh, that's my bad one. Oh, you're still up there. Here, I know what's going on. One and one. One success.
00:02:45
Speaker
to success. What advantage? Three and one. We're going too fast for you. Yep. Jeff's 12. Yeah. Somebody want to roll for Jeff, roll for Kath, roll for Sana, Philip, roll for Olive. That's four yellow. What are we rolling? Yeah, what is Kath? Kath. He grip.
00:03:08
Speaker
I think it just goes with me. Yeah. What about ours? Stalker. That thing is, it went down the hole ahead of us. It's not a combat thing. It's no longer relevant. Yeah. Cath is two yellow, one green. Sana is one yellow, one green. Olive is two green. Sana, one success, one advantage. Same for Cath, one advantage.
00:03:34
Speaker
I feel like somebody's gonna die. Hopefully just one guy. Yup. That's the hope. There's no bottom, right? There's no bottom. It's just a big giant vortex of nothing below us. You see nothing, but yes. That's what Hob sees, but he doesn't know that's what he sees.
00:03:58
Speaker
I know I don't see a bottom, I have to assume, but I don't know what that means by any means. It means don't fall. Yeah, that one I put together. You know what? If I could see a bottom through it, I'd probably be like, don't fall. Because I don't know what that stuff is. That's true. It could rid my flesh and my fats from my bones. It's true. It's true. If we could, we'd ask there's success one advantage. No. Maybe it'll make me really strong. Do you want to go ahead and roll 2D 100? OK, so we have got a PC slot, then an NPC slot.
00:04:28
Speaker
Two PC, one in PC, two PC, one in PC, two PC. So PC slot up first. Hob, there are shadow stalkers. There are currently four shadow stalkers about. One of them is within short range.
00:04:46
Speaker
Have we got to see how fast these bad boys move? I mean, they're like a one-range ban per maneuver kind of thing. Okay. I just want to make sure they work super fast, like they could close in on a single turn. Super freaky fast. I guess I'll just go... Try to kick one of the vortex. Sure. Yeah, it's going to come after you if you don't go after it. I'm going to go try to... That is a question. Should I try to kick it or do I want to try to grapple it and throw it in? I don't know. Would that be two turns to pick one up and toss it in?
00:05:12
Speaker
To grapple it would be an action. To throw it would be an action. So. Then I think I'm just going to try to run up and give it a good kick. Okay. Into the thing, which feels like a... Is that brawl? To grapple it? I just want to run and try to... Is it near enough to the edge that I have a sense that I could kick it? Yeah, you
Vortex and Combat Tactics
00:05:28
Speaker
could try to kick it and then it would be just like the... If you rolled some advantage you would be able to move it a range band kind of thing is how that works, yeah.
00:05:35
Speaker
You have. I can punch a pair of gauntlets that allow me to send someone a range band for two advantage I think. Okay. So yeah, let's do this then. Brawl. What's my difficulty on one of these boys? It has, sorry, one. So one red, one blue. And is this considered one on one? So like I can use my refighter and stuff? And the vortex is noisy. Like you get a sense of this like figure
00:06:02
Speaker
Bullorgoth isn't being silent, but even if they were to shout at you and be able to hear them. I forgot we knew his name. OK. Bullorgoth. Bullorgoth. So he might be like, no, don't hurt my dog. But I don't hear him. Yeah. OK. I'm going to hurt his dog. I want to talk things over. Your man tried to kill me. I'm just seeking vengeance against my potential murderers. Please, leave me alone. See, don't say that part, because that's how I feel about it. That's not what we were hired for.
00:06:32
Speaker
That's Raynard. That's Raynard. That's Raynard, he's brought to you. The devil. I'm just saying, you want 10 million episodes, I'll make a YouTube channel. Yeah, let me just do this. Okay, I'm just gonna do it. Yes, they all want that. I don't know anything about these guys. Never mind. There's a triumph. A lot of success. Yeah, you did it. Uh-oh. You've got exactly enough advantage to throw them into the thing.
00:06:59
Speaker
Cause there's two advantage. There's one, two, three, four, five success, six success. That cancels. Cool. Yeah. Four success, two advantage, including a triumph. Yeah. Hob runs up to the closest one. How big are they? I haven't even asked that yet. They're like, with their legs totally out about this big, their body's about the size of a large dinner plate. So Hob crouches, he's coming in upper cuts. He can just give it a punch to him. He punches it and he uses these two advantage to
00:07:27
Speaker
Three advantage. We still have the advantage to send it into the vortex. What does he see when it happens? How much damage does that deal to the thing? Yeah, that would also be important, right? So that's one, two, three, four, success, plus six is ten. Fifteen. Fifteen. Okay. Fifteen damage and... Oh, no, because I have, and I have Pierce.
00:07:50
Speaker
What's the Cessna now? Pierce two. Let me double check. Okay. So yeah, you hit this thing, make severe contact with it. Feel like a crunch of the metal kind of break away as it goes flying into the vortex. And it disappears as it makes contact with the purplish energy swirling about, but then you see it reappear.
00:08:14
Speaker
and you hear a sinking crunch, and you get the sense that going through the vortex caused some damage as well, and it's fully torn apart as it lands on the platform. So it is rigged? Yes. So the vortex, you don't fall to your death, but there is some pain involved in whatever's going on.
00:08:31
Speaker
Down here. Smash Brothers. You're going to fall down from the top again. And now, I have a triumph to resolve. I had another advantage. I suppose with the advantage, I'll just pass a boost to whoever goes next on our side. With the triumph, I... I don't know what we don't know yet, so I'm not sure what to... The one thing I know now is that if you fall into the vortex, you're going to take some serious fall damage on the way down. Right. And be hurt in the vortex. Right.
00:09:02
Speaker
What can we mitigate with that with a triumph? I don't know what we can mitigate there. What I think we should try to do, or someone should try to do, maybe all it should try to do, is figure out if there's a way to get control of the erraticness of the bridges. They have to get... Olive has to get down here first. Sure. See how erratic the bridges are? I have a triumph. You do have a triumph. Oh, good enough.
00:09:25
Speaker
Do I just see shadow hunters down here? Or do I see other constructs that I just don't recognize? You currently don't see any constructs that you don't recognize. You only see the shadow stalkers.
00:09:41
Speaker
How can I say this? Because this is stupid, but mechanically it's good. I want for the shadow stockers to be confused and have a setback against a tax on Olive because of her rig. They would hopefully buy her or avoid her to buy her some time. That's hilarious. To do the bridge thing. Yeah, that's fine. These shadow stockers have seen a bigger spider than they are. Yeah. And don't know what to do about it so they're not like clearing a path for her.
00:10:11
Speaker
But they're leaving her alone. Yeah. At least for a while, obviously. Yeah, she can't be. Yeah, around or two. Sure. Yeah. I like it. I like it. Stump robots. She's not one of you. Stupid monkey. Can I, is there anything identifying about the shadow of stock, the shadow enter that you? No. So there's no way of knowing which ones. I may have just punched ours into the.
00:10:41
Speaker
There's a hurt your dog. We win here. We win here. I can get another one. Yeah.
Warlord's Counterattack
00:10:45
Speaker
Okay. Now it is the warlord's turn. So the warlord is going to scene hob.
00:10:52
Speaker
emerge and start mucking about with things. Just some dude just dropped down and punched a shadow stalker into the vortex. So probably needs to deal with this situation. Yeah, with his friend, the golem also. So the figure hob, you see them reach down behind like the apparatus that's in front of them and bring a device up and is going to try and attack you long range. So
00:11:19
Speaker
Range defense three. And you know what, let's make a range defense date. My arts, my crafts. Range defense three? Yeah. Oh, I didn't... You didn't what? I just realized I didn't roll for a mutation. Can we do it at the end of the round, maybe? Sure. You'd be like, oh boy, things got wild. Okay. Four yellow, one green, three, one blue, three purple, three black. Dang. Would you like to flip a story point? Wanna give him a red? It's okay with me. Yeah, let's do one. Did you flip one for that?
00:11:49
Speaker
Take it again to the yellow. I just want to do my strain if you did. I didn't notice. No. I grabbed the wrong magic. OK. There's a triumph. Boy. I don't see any X's. Got a whole lot of threat. Wow. Oh, gosh. Yeah, no, it's not good. Oh, actually, no threat. No. One threat. Four success, one threat, and a triumph. What's the device? It's a pretty long ways away from how I'm going to be able to tell what it is. It's your Fletcher. I just had this crazy feeling. That's funny.
00:12:20
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't know what it is. Tube! There's a tube! It's a tube, or it's a bowl, or it's a... So, for success, that is going to be 11 damage. Before? Before so. Any pierce? No pierce. How much damage does that deal you? One. Okay. He is going to go ahead and... Hold on, I need to check a roll real quick.
00:12:48
Speaker
But he hates egric. He probably wants to attack egric. And he's probably so mad at egric. I don't want to ask. I know that somebody at this table knows the rule, but I don't want to ask in case it's not applicable. I do have a question. Yes. Would I be able to tell, or is it there's so many different styles of magic and artifice,
00:13:08
Speaker
whether or not he was needing to use spells to fire this thing, or if it's Erisus Fletcher where he's just going at it. Would I have any idea of how to be able to tell that? Not from this far away for sure. And I can't see his mouth because I'm asking. I still have that stunning blow thing. I keep trying to take a magic user out by just straightening him down.
00:13:25
Speaker
I would guess that his magical skill is Artifice, just based on all of the stalkers and whatnot. That seems to be the theme here. I just didn't know if it was one of those spell dump Artificers. See, the gun is cool, but the gun, when I whisper to it first, is even cooler. Oh, what?
00:13:42
Speaker
We lost some story points. Oh, sorry, we gained some story points. Yes. For some two story points. He has a heroic ability. And he does not need to roll. That's what? This is active. So you gain the bleeding out critical injury. Holy what? Wait, what? You're not good. He gets to choose what he wants? No, he doesn't get to choose. It's a set like when he crits. Oh, this is what happens. Fine.
00:14:10
Speaker
Blaming out, until this critical injury is healed, every round the target suffers one wound and one strain at the beginning of their turn. For every five wounds they suffer beyond their wound threshold, so down the road, they suffer one additional critical injury. Wait, every wound I suffer beyond my threshold, I will get another crit? Every five wounds you suffer behind your threshold. But yeah, until this is healed, every round you're suffering one wound, one strain, and that is...
00:14:34
Speaker
Soak has no effect on that. So, Hob, you feel like in a moment, there's like a flash of light and then you feel a sharp pain in your gut as you realize that like you're bleeding.
00:14:52
Speaker
And it's not stopping. And there's something like lodged in your gut. Like you can't see it, like it's inside of you, but it's keeping the wound open. And then the figure, whatever they used to do that to you, they set it back down behind the thing. And then, Hob, you see the shadows, there's swirling vortex, but there's stuff. And so the Arcane Forge is right behind them, casting them in shadow. And you see them melt into the shadow. So by the time other people drop down here, he's not visible.
00:15:23
Speaker
That's so bad. That was his action, maneuver, and an incidental, so I think that's everything. PC slot. I'm not going to make you all keep track of who's in what order for the sake of who can get down next. Eris will come down. Okay. Oh, now we're not featured. So the... You see Hob? I see Hob is badly hurt. I see lots of shadow stalkers. Yep. You don't see anything else. Yep.
00:15:47
Speaker
You see the Arcane Forge, you see a workstation up on this center platform. All the craziness that I described to Hobb is a new site for Eris. I'm gonna say he was just right there and point to where he was. Okay, Eris would start looking for a path towards the Forge. Okay. What am I looking at for that? It's a long distance away as the crow flies. So you're basically going to have to either like
00:16:16
Speaker
Right now, the initial platform, if you would just take off running, is going to require a jump up to the platform. There's no bridge connecting the closest platform. You can use a maneuver to go this way, and then a second maneuver to use a bridge to get up on the initial platform. And there's also shadow starters. What's that jump you described look like exactly? It would be a... It'd be a...
00:16:41
Speaker
normally just an average check because the platforms are moving that gives it an upgrade so one red one purple that's to jump up on the platform also you all get this story point back so sorry he had an upgrade from a previous triumph on the first attack against you so you didn't need to spend that for to turn one of his rights that's right or one of his purpose to so you all have all the story points all right cool what do we get for five story points my belly
00:17:07
Speaker
So that difficulty was to jump up on the platform, one of the platforms? The closest platform. And that's athletics. On this initial platform, are there more shadow stalkers or are they all out and about? They're not close to the back platform. OK, I guess I will add a shadow stalker. Is there one in our vicinity? There's one medium range away. OK, I will take a shot of the shadow stalker for a start.
00:17:35
Speaker
They have an adversary one rating, so one red, one purple. Do they have defense? I forgot to check that. No ranged defense. No advantage, but five success on the shadow stalker. So that is going to be 14 damage, Pierce two.
00:18:02
Speaker
Yeah, you blow this thing away. Okay, so Eris just lands, sees a shadow stalker, and yeah, Eris will try to get on with this thing. And I will spend a strain to upgrade. Want to spend a store only? We have all of them. Yeah, okay. Two success. Okay, you manage to easily hop up onto the platform and then immediately start moving because they're moving around the center platform.
00:18:31
Speaker
Wow, the ways in which I didn't realize that. I missed that, too. That's why I had the upgrade, is because it's mobile. OK. That's why I had it written. Cool. All right, Eris is on this platform and not entirely sure she doesn't regret that decision. Coming next. What do you want to do? Olive, can you get? Can you see if you can get control of the platforms? I don't know where the controls are. And that's, I guess, all of the things I can do on my turn, because I maneuvered and I actioned and so forth.
00:19:01
Speaker
Now that you're down here, Eris, you having a stronger sense of magic than Hobb does, you get the sense that this vortex and the stones floating around and stuff is... The Lord didn't create this place. This was a natural occurrence that this entity is taking advantage of. This is a font of power. Yes.
00:19:23
Speaker
Because of the platforms floating in the way that they are and how the floor around is manufactured, you get a sense that there was, at some point, something here and something went very wrong that created this area. How come the weird state is sad to find it? How come some cool guy and he was like, I bet I could use this to feed people. Then you find the source of crazy power. Ever on Tesla. You got it. Yes. You said to provide free energy to everyone. Jonas Salk. Yeah. To everyone. Instead of the.
00:19:56
Speaker
Okay. That was PC or yeah, PC slot. So another PC slot. Next. Raynard, go help Hob. He appears to be bleeding in and stood about. Let me use my verse. Okay. So Raynard's hopping down. I'm going to use verse to... I see how it's hopping down. You need to touch me. Only way you can do it.
00:20:17
Speaker
OK, so you're running up to the table. Redard, touch me! I'd land on your shoulders. OK, so you're trying to heal a critical. I like that. And can I aid? OK. Not with a magical healing check. So there's going to be three purple difficulty. Horde. And yeah, that's it. OK, well, I've got four yellow, one green against three purple. That feels pretty good. One red, two purple. Of course. You buff that back on a five yellow. How do you like that apple? So bad. Yeah, contact me.
00:20:46
Speaker
Not even looking at the dashboard right now. Just not the right one. Just not the right one. Two triumphs! Why did you succeed? This is important. Two triumphs? Yes. Yeah, I just have some threat. It's three success, two of which are triumphs with some threat. Three threat. Three threat. Four threat. Four threat. Four threat. There's a lot of threat. It really is. Four threat. But it's also two triumphs, which I feel is part of it. Eh, that's not important. Woo-hoo! So, is it heal? Heal. The bleeding stops. What? And you're Superman now. Yeah, it is pulled out of hot.
00:21:17
Speaker
a barbed metal spike. I'm keeping it. You came out of me, I get to keep it. That's the rule. Now you say, I'm going to get that back.
Healing and Magical Risks
00:21:32
Speaker
No, I don't want it. That was a great line when you did it. So I'm going to give that back. Yeah. There you go. That's right. Two triumphs.
00:21:44
Speaker
We went. I guess I'm doing that. Something about getting control of the platforms. Yeah, definitely. Is that two traps or just one? I guess if that's even possible. It's got to be either the platforms. See, here's the thing. The platforms aren't being controlled by anything. What about the gravity is not affecting them any longer and they are flowing with the current of the magical vortex is what's happening. What about the bridges? It's like the magical energy causing random teleportation. All of this is the product of the giant vortex. Let me finish.
00:22:12
Speaker
What about the bridges? Obviously it looks random, but with a triumph, can we notice a pattern that makes it easier for us to traverse them? Will it always being a genius, is this something she can try to solve with science?
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you could certainly, you can try to do anything. Like the intention of the bridges is like, it's a function of like threat and despair. If you're crossing a bridge or roll some trail. Oh no, the bridge goes away kind of thing. But you all can, if you want to use the triumphs to mitigate that environmental hazard to where the bridges are a permanent fixture that you all can rely on to cross to get closer to this mysterious figure.
00:22:55
Speaker
That's great. I was just trying to buy access to rolling to try and cause that to happen. But it's two triumphs. They're not my triumphs. Yeah. That's. Here's the thing. I love the bridges. Me too. I don't love what they might do to us. And two triumphs feels like a good way to mitigate that some. Yeah. Especially seeing what happened to the thing that fell through the vortex already. Precisely. How high, how high was it when it reappeared and dropped? Was it shorter range? Oh, no, six, seven feet. Oh, okay. Okay. No, the fall of damage isn't one. Got it. It was the.
00:23:25
Speaker
Unstable magic teleporting it through space. I feel bad just McGuffeting it because I would like there to be some sort of narrative cause. I would like something to achieve it instead of just suddenly it stops working. I'm fine with, we notice some of the bridges last longer and we have, maybe it would take a significantly more threat to, two threat the thing drops, six threat, that's too many. You know what I mean?
00:23:48
Speaker
you all can begin to notice that there's a tell when the bridges are about to teleport away. Fizzle and pop. Yeah. Like a fire swamp, yeah. I was thinking the Avatar. Oh, yeah. So yeah, I can say that, yeah, effectively you all notice the tells when the bridges are about to disappear to where you all can mitigate the danger of them. The three threats, Reynard, as you cast magic into Hob, the magical vortex,
00:24:16
Speaker
Seems to sense that and like an arc of purplish energy. Oh, no whips out and hits you Oh, you suffer three damage ignoring silk NPC slot from out of the shadows Once again still behind the workbench the warlord reappears taking their second initiative slot Legendary act multiple initiative slots and
00:24:42
Speaker
Reynard, Hob, and Eris, the three of you can give me a perception check real quick. Average difficulty, just too purple. Can I use my allies or? He's not a construct. He's lonely. That would be a great twist though. Is that too purple? It's a robot the whole time! One success. Two success and four advantage. No, I just fail at one advantage. Okay.
00:25:10
Speaker
Oh, okay, so you two noted. Reynard, you just got whipped by magic and you're really annoyed by the bridge situation. Looking for the manager, really? The figure looks very clearly to Jarl's eyes, feel like did a double take at Aeris and then pulls the thing back up and aims at Hob. And is going to attack again. Oh!
00:25:39
Speaker
Who got radical eyes? For advantage, I declare some setback into that. Whatever number of setback I can... Great. I'll give you these for advantage for two more setbacks. I'm sure you don't want to use the for advantage for something else? Does he have five black? I don't have anything else I want to use the for advantage. I'd like him to not... Critically injure... How big a boy is this? Normal? Just like... averagely five, six, and six, or something? Radar-dish, height thick.
00:26:08
Speaker
Okay, I'm gonna scream. It's not. I know. No, I know. I don't think Harris does yet. What? Oh, I think he missed. Hey! That's a lot of... That's a lot of X's.
00:26:21
Speaker
Distract how many threat is it a threat that he hit a shadow hunter? So three guys giant fist of the dice And of those giant fistfuls of dice you see a Barb spike come flying you hobbit like bury into the stone Right by you so I saw him shoot this time. Yeah, it's a Fletcher. It's a Fletcher
00:26:39
Speaker
If Hobb is strong enough to incidentally grab that and rip it out of the wall beside him, he does it just for the heck of it, but I'm not going to whip it. That's Barb, so that means... Hobb's very strong. I'm saying, like, grabbing it, like, you're just going to... Spike's very... I'm sorry, when I hear Barb, I think, like, if I should, just at the end. Sorry. It's all over. Yeah, it's meant to tear through. It's firing me. Catch it, catch it, catch it, catch it. Yeah. And then with a maneuver,
00:27:05
Speaker
He is going to, with his other hand, like a gauntlet with runes on it as he squeezes his fist and the arcane forge behind him. And one of the platforms near like where Hob and Rainard are, previously unseen, arcane circle glows as some new looking constructs, like a little swarm emerges.
00:27:30
Speaker
out and begin to like hop over towards Reynard and Hob. Like a genuine swarm. A bunch of little guys. Yeah. And Reynard. He's taking his turn. Yeah. How many things does he get to do on his turn? A lot. He's one person against a whole bunch of he's got friends.
00:27:53
Speaker
And then... Yeah, his friends are trying to... His friends are doing the thing. Okay, so this is... Oh, he was supposed to have a blue on his. Okay. He had an advantage, so he'll pass a boost. Okay. Do you have defense? Do you need to let him know about ranged defense? It's melee. Oh, sorry, they're hopping over. Do you have melee? Oh, this is one, right. Sorry. I don't think I do. It's worth looking, 40 rolls. Nice. Oh, they got melee one. Mediate some of those blues.
00:28:24
Speaker
Offset I didn't mitigate too often Sorry, it's okay. It's become a real scandal. It's a mitigate gate. Oh, I do have one. Okay, one block. Okay, do it. Do it. That is. Or ideally don't. That's a lot. Actually don't. I'm dead. For success, three adventure. So as these things hop over they seem to be like miniaturized versions of the Shadow Stalkers except they're like
00:28:51
Speaker
Burnished gold. Are they flying? No, they're just hopping. They're just very light, so they're able to hop. But as they crawl onto you, Reynard, whereas on the underside of them, they all have a single needle, and they begin to, like, into your flesh. And you feel, like, the blood getting sucked out of you. Don't like that.
00:29:14
Speaker
Man, I should have kept drinking. I don't think I'd be real messed up. It is still better that you quit drinking. So you suffer 10 wounds before soak. Before soak? Yeah. That's why you add soak to it. I think I only have three soaked though. Seven. And they had three advantage. So they'll crit. Why not? Do you have 100 Phillips? Do you have one?
00:29:41
Speaker
Not looking good, guys. 72. That's a lot. Hamstrung. Oh, that's unfortunate. Target lives as their free maneuver until the critical injury is healed. That's fair. So anytime you want to move, Reynard, you either have to not take an action or suffer two-string. As they're like on your legs, like tearing. Can I include aiming? Yes, aiming is a maneuver. And that is going to be his turn. Cool.
00:30:11
Speaker
It is now a PC slot. Me. Milo wants to turn in a visible. You tabled a real radar. Let's see how it plays out.
00:30:24
Speaker
or summon a mind flayer yeah okay but maybe many purple tooth this time i bet not i just bet that if you summon a mind flayer whatever it is we always do you are a friend now or so that being mass the server time we hung out yeah that's what it's called hold up we summon something that goes what did you do to my house and it's on yourself or purple
00:30:46
Speaker
Hello. Why are you looking at me like that? Four purple, I don't recall it. It's the same thing. Four purple, I don't feel like... How does it go, Trevor? I don't feel... It doesn't justify it. You keep talking and it's not gonna turn into a red. God, wait. That's better. That's better. No red filly. There's no red filly. So look, if that makes you feel any better. Well, that's good. Holy crap, he's invisible. Yeah. Good job. Yeah. You did it. I think with no... There's only one of those knocks out one of these, and then one of these goes.
00:31:17
Speaker
and then those knock out those advantages. So it's three success, one advantage. No, you don't have no advantage. Yeah. So three success. Three success. Okay. Eye is invisible. You are invisible.
00:31:32
Speaker
All right. Anything else you would like to do? Yes. As an incidental, I'm going to do some heroic recovery. And that would have cost me two strain. I'm going to get four back. So I'm just going to take two back. He's awake now. So he's got something to.
00:31:55
Speaker
He knows Miley was awake when he was there. He knows someone else named Kylie, who happens not to have any relationship to him, is awake on another universe. And he's going to drop down. They have something.
00:32:14
Speaker
And is the drop down, that's it? You just drop down, can he begin to move to a platform? He wants to go mess with this dude's world. Okay, are you gonna, it was part of Eris' maneuver to hop onto the platform, would you like to try to hop onto a platform?
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah, if I'm close enough. Are you about? Are you OK? I can take if I eat too. OK. Yeah, I can. No, he's not OK. Just for the record. Athletic. His character sheet. He's not OK. Not even a word. Coordination. It's real bad. One red, one purple. He was disconnecting. Digging. Athletics or coordination. I will definitely die. That's a maneuver.
Stealth and Strategy
00:32:59
Speaker
He said what? One red, one purple? I want a boost.
00:33:03
Speaker
It's a flip a story point to get a boost upgrade Give him a reason you should get one because I'm invisible the platform can't see me To advantage with my advantage I'm on a platform. Okay platform and none of us know it I've run by home the shadow stalker. That's on the platform. You just jumped on two knots Thank you hop screams
00:33:34
Speaker
I guess I'll pass boost with the advantage. Pass 2 boost. Okay. Which one? Which one of our crew's next? Olive, Cat, Sonic. Did Egret go when you went? Egret. I need to use a maneuver to order Egret. Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
00:33:51
Speaker
Probably Olive. Olive can come down. I'm not sure what Olive's going to do here. Olive hops down. Yeah, basically, what do you all want the NPCs to be working on? Obviously, Cath and Son are there as muscles, so they'll try to take care of Shadowstalkers or Bloodseeker's heads. Yeah, see, they know I went invisible. Is there anything else that you want Olive to be dealing with, or do you want her to just try to deal with minion adds? Do we want Olive to start moving towards the Forge?
00:34:18
Speaker
That's where Milo's headed for sure. And I don't know if anything good will happen from all of getting through the Forge. Forge is not actually our objective. I saw the little nanobites on me.
00:34:29
Speaker
That's true. Can Olive go over and try to, like, knock nanobots off of Raynard? So Olive drops down, has the bottom arms extend, and just lower her down enough, and she begins to clamor over towards Raynard and is going to attack the Bloodseeker Swarm to try and get them off of Raynard. So... Why does she reprogram? It might take more time. I must ask if she controls it like a mech. What is that? Who's...
00:34:57
Speaker
Olaf's not a puncture. No, that's all I meant. Who are you rolling for? The Autobots or Olaf? Olaf. I'm rolling for the Olaf to attack the Autobots. Yeah. So. Unless you all want to spend a story point to upgrade her check. That's cocked. It is. Okay. That's a failure because she rolled literally the maximum amount of failures that she could. Awesome. So two failure, two advantage. Oh, wait. Two boost. Oh yeah. It could be a wash.
00:35:25
Speaker
Nothing on the boost. Oh no. Wow. So Olive rushes over, still has not used the arms in offensive capacity yet. So her and Cinder try to coordinate, but the arms just pick up Reynard and try to shake them off of him. And it is not effective. It's like looking the way they're using you to kill the bots. To advantage though.
00:35:50
Speaker
Two advantage, I'll continue the love and pass two more boosts. There it is. Okay, NPC slot, Shadow Stalkers. So one Shadow Stalker is going to use a maneuver to hop from one platform to the other to get to Eris and is going to attack Eris. Do you have melee defense, Eris? I have melee defense, where? One. One? Okay. That is a failure with two advantage.
00:36:16
Speaker
They will pass two boosts to the next shadow stalker that is going to use two maneuvers, spend two strain to get to Hob and attack Hob. Hob, you have melee defense. Yeah, I don't like it at all. Okay, that is... It's because I walked in and sent one of their friends to the mood. One success, two threats. So they'll suffer two strain and one success that's only
00:36:45
Speaker
8 damage. Hob goes, no! Oh, you know what I meant to ask? Did I take a wound yet? You took one from the critical. I don't think I marked the one. Because I marked the one he gave me from the Fletcher.
00:37:02
Speaker
okay and those are the only two because hob knocked one in the vortex air shot the other one so that is it for the shadows oh blood seekers because they get to act when they're summoned and then they act on the turn of others so
00:37:21
Speaker
Are these a thing to make these critters up? Yeah. Are these the ones on me or the other ones? The ones on you. Oh. And now nuts. Two more! Blue, blue, blue! I think I pissed. That's a bummer. Maybe not. Nope, yeah. That's a lot of success. Welcome to combat, Reynard.
00:37:43
Speaker
All because I tried to help you. Five success, one threat. So that is 12 wins. Yeah, super dead. Right. I'm dead. You're knocked out. Lost a lot of blood. Oh, what a crash.
00:38:04
Speaker
So yeah, Hob, Raynard go pale and anemic as he falls over. Wait, do I need to take 12 like past my threshold? As Raynard falls over, unconscious. And because the blood seekers reduced somebody to zero wounds on their turn, they're gonna hop to Hob.
00:38:26
Speaker
make an immediate attempt. Does my melee three still count? Yep. Okay. That is two success. So nine damage in one third. It's not enough. Not enough. Cause I don't have peers.
00:38:42
Speaker
Which is weird, because I got like a needle. Yeah. You think? That's how they do it. The cat and Sana hop down, they're gonna rush over seeing... Sana's gonna rush over seeing Reynard on the ground and grab the healing potion off of his belt and feed it to Reynard. So you heal five loons, so you're a five... Glug.
00:39:01
Speaker
And Kath's gonna run over and try to punch. I appreciate it, son. It's the part where she always seems to end up doing that stuff. It's like, no, do a flip and kick somebody in the face. You're great at that. She just happened to be hoping somebody needed to heal if she's not gonna not do it. Oh. Hey. She's not gonna succeed, though. Is it PC? Is it Kath? This is Kath. One success, two advantage, one try.
00:39:25
Speaker
as she attacks the blood seekers. Nice. What do you all want to use the triumph for, gang? She annihilates the blood seekers. She gets the head one, and all of them are done. You don't like playing this game, do you? I do see that she's wearing the... I asked for a lot, so we get a little. That she's wearing the gloves, so she runs up and slashes at these blood seekers. What? What can we do? They look fabulous. Yes.
00:39:49
Speaker
Did our guy, he popped the right back up with his forge. Like he's not moving about the room when he comes back. Correct. Okay, so that's not an issue. Probably. I'm sure it will be, but I don't know that it is yet. What can we use that triumph for? She can crit and do a whole bunch more damage to the Bloodseekers.
00:40:11
Speaker
They're fragile that swarm is dead and the shadow hunters that she's Monkish can she spin that the way Hobb spins Advantage to get like flurry of blows and whack that blood the shadow Hunter thing that ran up and attacked. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sure. Great. Let's do that So she just deals the same day. That's the way my for those works. So if we're just transferring over then yeah
00:40:36
Speaker
So it's not quite enough to take out this Shadowstalker, but she does a fair amount of damage to it. Okay. Top of the second round. May I mutate? Yes. Let's see what happens. 77. Well, it'd be something like invulnerable, but only to jagged Fletcher projectiles. It'd be great if I got, oh, what do they call it in?
00:41:05
Speaker
What is it in the anywhere you can catch projectiles? Oh, yeah. Yeah, deflect arrows. That's such a good, that's like the best monk thing. Can you imagine doing that to a barbed projectile? Oh, it caught! It stopped, for sure. I think this is part of me now. Catch it and go to throw it back and it just stays in your hand. Okay.
00:41:23
Speaker
You can either have very potent pheromones. Have Tony had that one? I don't even know if I need to read the other one. You absolutely need to read them both. But how potent? Cross this room to this guy, potent? What do you want to do with this guy? I'd love to see what you look at with that mask. Let me see those eyes. You've had that before, haven't you? I don't think I re-employed it if I did. No, you had stinky before. We said was like the pheromones of another species. That's right. Which was elves, because Rainark thought you were hot. I was like, at some point, I thought you were hot. That's sneaky.
00:41:53
Speaker
You make a little no noise when you move. You add two boost to stealth checks that you make. And I'm not needing that. What does a pheromone do? Honestly? It's social checks. You add a boost to track or locate members of another species. I'll let you dictate what species that is. This was a bummer. It's going to happen occasionally. Randomly mutating. And you got one that's not super useful. Imagine that. Yeah, it's going to happen. I know that.
00:42:22
Speaker
I mean, I can't say it's a bummer. I guess I'll do, I don't see myself being stealthy, but if I have to be, I'd rather do that than know where things are. Was it too boost to stealth? Too boost to stealth. As your footsteps stop making noise. The elemental vortex, like at the top of the second round, all of a sudden the platforms also start moving up and down in space as it goes around. So any actions while standing on a platform has a setback die added to it. Awesome. So, now.
00:42:52
Speaker
It is a PC slot. I'm going to use a maneuver to call Tasha over to me in egric. So can she try to jump to my platform? Yeah.
00:43:04
Speaker
athletics one red one she's not strong enough to carry as is she yes absolutely but not probably while also jumping successfully even as the bird obviously she is as tall as the boat oh no she's carrying she's in egric right now oh that's right in eager yes very much
00:43:23
Speaker
So much success. Oh yeah. So you're an ERIC to be on this or Tasha to be on the same platform as Eris. Okay. So as Eris comes back around. Yeah. I want you to land on this stalker. Okay. So I get to use it. I knew where to allow Tasha to take a full term is basically how. Yeah.
00:43:40
Speaker
She jumps over and then goes to smash melee. What's the two purple? Oh, one red, one purple. Oh, that's very, both very successful and very disappointing. So Tasha has succeeded. She's hit the creature to six and one advantage. So the creature takes 11 damage. Okay. Pierce one. Oh wait, no, this is his fist. Cause she, cause this, this golem doesn't have swords. Sorry. Nine damage. Nine damage. Okay.
00:44:13
Speaker
and Tasha roll to despair. Okay. Oh, Tasha. Come on. We don't do that in this house. Yeah, specifically calls out the character that rolls it. So it's going to be Tasha slash egric. I need a daunting athletics or coordination check with a setback because you're now on the platform.
00:44:40
Speaker
What's... Remind me what Dawn needs. Four. That's a lot of dice. Alright. We have a lot of story points too. Sure. Spin one story point. Let's do it. You have a reclaimed one yet. We haven't needed two of it. Yeah, I have already. Oh you did? Okay, sorry. I think... That's okay. Yeah. One. Two success. Yeah. Two success, one advantage. Okay.
00:45:04
Speaker
You learned to rig those so quickly for it. I'm good at negating things. So Eris, as Tasha lands on the platform, smashes down on the Shadowstalker, not quite breaking it fully, but definitely dealing some damage. The elemental energy of the vortex whips up and wraps around Tasha and tries to pull Igaric's body into the vortex, but Igaric is able to use their center of gravity to brace themselves against this. But definitely, the vortex just tried to pull Tasha into it.
00:45:30
Speaker
Eris will use her action to fire at the figure. And what's my distance to them now? You are medium distance, so too red. Great. Oh, and they have range defense too. Oh, good. Good.
00:45:54
Speaker
Let's see whether before we get to that. Why are you glaring at me? I'm not glaring at you. I'm just waiting for you to hear it. I'm actually pretty sure I have succeeded. Yes, I have succeeded. I have.
00:46:08
Speaker
Yes, that cancels that. I have three success and an advantage, actually two advantage, because Fletcher always generates an advantage. So, for starters, the good news, which is that there is 12 damage pierced to, and I should like to crit. I have a despair. That's right. As I rolled two despairs on that turn. 12 damage.
00:46:38
Speaker
appears to crit and roll d100. 44. Bold over. The target is knocked prone and suffers one string. I really want to hit him in the face, like hitting him in the mask. Yeah. The bolt hits it. Yeah. We've done that before. Yeah. We took that ram's face for a ride.
00:47:03
Speaker
God. Shut up. I realize that. Say bye. Raymond, I had a great time. I miss him. You guys don't understand. You don't always really... That's why my magic brought him back. Boy. And I know what it normally is, but there's no one near him.
00:47:22
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, you hit him in the face. Pwn knocked prone. His turn is immediately after Aeris's, so narratively I'm just going to flow from Aeris's turn into the next one with the Despair as he uses his maneuver to stand up.
Emotional Revelations and Setbacks
00:47:34
Speaker
And the Mirror Mask part of it is shattered. And Aeris, I'm going to need a fear check, a hard fear check as you see half of the Doshor's face underneath the mask as he rises up and says,
00:47:46
Speaker
Damn it, girl. Hard is what you said. And that's discipline. Guess we all do. Bad discipline. Don't know if you've picked that up in Aerys' character. I've been trying to subtly use subtext to role play that Aerys doesn't have points in discipline. He was getting to the point where I was going to ask. I was like, maybe? I have rolled one advantage. OK.
00:48:12
Speaker
didn't roll a bunch of threat which is I did actually roll a bunch of threat I just also wrote a lot of it in what language did he say that Oh goblin
00:48:21
Speaker
Whoa, so what did I hear? I definitely heard girl. Damn it, girl. I probably heard dammit, you definitely taught her to. Oh, yes. You definitely taught Hobdant. I'll just... Hob can swear fluently, you know. That's true. Milo would be clueless about all of that. Sure. I don't know if Milo would be entirely clueless, unless Milo is deeply, innately. No, I mean about what was said. I almost said the one that put the tattoo on her, but that's actually true. That is actually true. Oh, it is? Okay. This one, she has several, the one that is still there on her face.
00:48:52
Speaker
And what Milo suspects is about to be confirmed. It's an amount of time that it's taking Eric to figure out what just happened. No, I mean, the fear rules don't just, like, they have all these things for if you roll a threat or despair, but it doesn't say just if they fail. It says you and the player should determine the specifics concerning the character's trauma based on the encounter that created, like, duh duh duh duh, it's for what, the fail, the fails unit. So, like, what do you think the fail state would be for Eris in this scenario? You have an advantage.
00:49:19
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I don't know exactly. I have been as a player sort of suspecting we were getting to here and I'm not. I've been trying to decide to what degree Eris is afraid we're getting to here after the description of what we're dealing with.
00:49:37
Speaker
I think she has been, I think there has been a fear at the back of her mind as she's, especially as she's looked at. I've deliberately not asked because I didn't want to. I was literally not asked if there's anything familiar about the artifice she's looking at, but.
00:49:54
Speaker
I think that fear has been growing in her that this is where it's going to end up. Yeah. And so seeing that confirmed would shake her pretty badly as Eris's emotional feelings about this person are not uniform. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:15
Speaker
So I don't know what, I don't know how to interpret this into mechanics other than strain or something like that, but I don't know how to, I don't know how to translate this into mechanics. It would obviously mess Aeros up. I would say like a conflicted nature about a setback seems to represent that like hesitancy and like confusions. Just basically like
00:50:39
Speaker
As long as she's in the presence of this person, probably have a setback die to the checks that Eris makes. I think that's reasonable. Okay. So Eris failed the fear check. So you're going to have a setback die for any checks while in the presence of this familiar figure. And we're going to call the episode there.
Conclusion and Community Engagement
00:51:00
Speaker
So, uh, there's not the ideal place to end the session, but it is 10 o'clock on a school night.
00:51:09
Speaker
No, the longer we can do it. Thank you all so much for listening. If you want to be part of the discussion surrounding this super chill episode, you can head on over to our Discord, the link to it. You can find it on all of our socials, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. We also have a YouTube channel, youtube.com, slash ski pantheon. You can find all the videos I do over there about tabletop role-playing games. We have another actual play on YouTube.
00:51:28
Speaker
on the Laughing Tree channel called Kyber Shard set in the city of Stormreach using the D&D 5th edition, plus a Patreon, patreon.com, slash the e-pantheon, if you want to financially support the frozen anyway that you can, or you can buy some merch over at the e-pantheon.com, which you should do. And I've been your Game Master Eric. I'm Philip. I'm Trevor. I'm Randy. I'm fine. See you next time.